#I wish I knew how to handle a gun tbh. For. Reasons.

[psilactis]

For anyone who cares:

There was a politically and hatred motivated assassination here in Brasil yesterday.

Long story short, there will be presidential elections this year, and the political scenario is... Heated, to say the least. The dispute is between the current president Bolsonaro, who is basically our Trump, only dumber and more violent, and ex-president Lula, who is a leftist.

So yesterday, a man, Marcelo, was celebrating his 50th birthday and the party was themed Lula, full of red balloon and images of the man. A dude then went by the party, screaming at Marcelo, his family and his guests, threatening them with death, and screaming against Lula and in favor of Bolsonaro, his wife eventually convinced him to leave. Marcelo felt he should get his gun in case that man came back, which he did. He shot Marcelo point blank three times, but thanks to a woman who drop kicked his assailant, Marcelo was able to shoot back and prevent the man from attacking anyone else in the party. Both men are dead now.

[millers-planet]

Handled - Boba Fett x GN!Reader

Storyline/ Prompt: The damsel in distress can handler herself. (themed in S2 finale but instead in this, Boba stuck with them to fight.)

Notes: i’ve been really out of it lately, so I’m writing shorter fics until I get back into it. so if you send a request that I really like I might have it on hold until I get myself back together.

Warnings: None but language, not really angst or fluff tbh. Cliche enemies to lovers trope.

Pairing: Boba Fett x Mandalorian!GN!Reader

POV: Reader

This entire godforsaken rescue mission I have been treated like a helpless princess, I say princess because that is what Boba has been calling me since we crossed paths. Bo Katan wants to help them so we can get the chid back but mainly get the dark saber. Quite frankly, I couldn’t care what happens, just whatever gets me away from Boba Fett the fastest.

I was relieved that he was essentially dropping us off on the Empires ship until I recognized the landing noises. He decided to show up and help out after all. I wish he didn’t because his “helping” is stepping in front of me to take the guys shooting at me. 

There were stormtroopers down the hall, so I put myself against the corner to give me some protection. I took out a few by myself before he grabbed my shoulder and forced me out of the way, “let the adults handle this.”

When the coast was clear, I stood up and pushed his shoulder several times, making him bounce back a little. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” I looked him up and down, keeping my steps firm as the rockets on his back hit the wall. “Did you want me to shoot you back there? Because I swear to the Maker, I was this close to doing it!” My fingers were mere millimeters apart.

Before I could pull away, Boba grabbed my wrist and put me in his position, our helmets just inches apart. “Talk to me like that again and I will show you who I am.” His voice was deep, no hesitation in his words. Bo and Koska came around the corner just as I pushed him off me.

“I won’t have to talk to you like that again if you don’t pull that shit again.”

His helmet turned to me as we continued down the hall, “maybe try and take them out quicker and I won’t have to step in, Princess.”

Under the shadows of the helmet on me, I rolled my eyes. However, the way he hesitated on his next step and lingered a stare made me wonder if he knew that did that. “Stop calling me princess.”

Bo stepped in front of us, pushing herself in between Boba and I. “Get to the side!” Groups of stormtroopers came from all side of the intersection up ahead in the hall. She shot a few down and got in cover, Boba pushed me into a doorway and he was, once again, inches from me. I hated this. I could handle myself.

Pushing him out of the way, I mumbled a “move.” I threw a grenade that knocked a majority of the troopers off of their feet. “How’s that for taking them out quicker?” I walked out of the cover and shot a few troopers as I moved across the hall, away from Boba. I felt his gaze linger on me as I moved.

Koska took out the last one, making Bo get up and lead the way to the command deck of the ship. Or wherever she thought Moff Gideon was. 

Only when I moved out of cover did Boba move as well, making me stare at him. I was tired of his antics and about to jam the butt of my gun against his stupid metal head unless he didn’t stop. “In case you haven’t noticed, I can handle myself, I really don’t need you protecting me like I’m a puppy. Or, no, a princess. That’s it.”

“Watch the attitude, kitten.”

“Thanks for the response, it’s a very fulfilling answer. I’d prefer Din’s quietness over your snarky-ness any day.” 

“And I prefer his humility over your cockiness any day, as well.”

Bo and Koska were a few feet ahead, so they didn’t hear his comment that made me stop dead in my tracks. “Me? The cocky one? You’re the asshat who can’t help but think I’m some damsel in distress that can’t pull her own weight.” I walked up to him and pulled my helmet off. “Well, guess what, you’re not such a knight in shining armor yourself.”

Boba turned his full body and faced me, stepping forward, expecting me to walk backwards, only I kept my ground. “You’re asking for yourself to be shot everytime you leave cover in a battle, which is all the time. You act like you can take down a full army of those stormtroopers, but truth is, you can barely pull your own weight without my help.”

“Your help? I’ve kept myself alive this far and I only just met you. I need no one’s help but yours.”

“The only reason why you are still alive is because your teammates have had to babysit you.”

By this point I was fuming. He really is one to talk. I am not helpless, I can do anything without his help. I know my limits, unlike how he doesn’t know boundaries. “If you-” I turned my head and saw another large group of troopers storm to us. Bo Katan and Koska were already farther ahead so it was just Boba and I.

“Why are you just standing there? Go!” He pushed me against some crates and I put my back to it as he shot at them, placing my helmet back where it belonged. “Now we’re outnumbered because you wanted to argue. Do you have any more of those grenades?” I shook my head and he sighed. 

I stood up and began firing at the white-armored enemies. It took out a handful before it jammed, making a few of them push forward. As they approached, I slammed the butt of my gun against their helmets and took their blasters, until I saw one of them had a timed bomb. I grabbed it and handed it to Boba. “What would you do without me?” There was a smile underneath my helmet as he armed it and threw it towards them, grabbing my hand and pulling me down, more gentle than earlier.

Boba was essentially on top of me when the bomb finally went off. When it did, I jumped at the sudden noise, making him laugh. I pushed him off of me and stood up, rolling my eyes as I walked towards Bo and Koska. 

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Princess.”

“How did-”

part two

tags: @gabile18 @evabellasworld @blondekel77 @mysticdeerpolice​

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[staliasjeronica]

Riverdale S5 Ep11 Thoughts *Spoilers*

thoughts under cut to keep tag from being cluttered :)

- Oh yeah I forgot that Chad was blackmailing Veronica about the dirty dealings in her company even though it’s not her at all (unless it’s just been so long and I’ve forgotten but she’s my baby and I feel like I would’ve remembered but-

- Hiram and this dumb prison is one of the worst things for this show it’s a constant plot of people escaping and it’s so annoying like sure Hiram owns it and he was in the jail but no one has, like, taken him back to jail…??? Hiram is a fucking disease smh

- “back to remote learning” why didn’t you just stay that way though… like even right now in covid schools are opening back up and kids are complaining because it’s still not safe so like… just… go back to it??? I’m so not built for this world fasdhfkahf

- Veronica and Smithers 🥺🥺💞💞

- the way Veronica hugs Archie is so cute bc she’s so tiny but like she always gives her all and Archie is just 😐 never giving anything ahjfsdfsh it’s quite sad you can tell how done KJ is with Varchie lol

- “I really hate that I’m dragging you through this.” … what about constantly pulling him into your mob boss father mess that the writers refuse to allow you to escape from?

- “until you and Chad are officially done, I think we should keep our distance.” Varchie bones!!! you just KNOW that Archie has been looking forward to this because that man is whole heartedly in love with Betty and has been since forever and that while Chad prolongs the divorce papers, Archie will not be waiting for Veronica considering he doesn’t want her. Varchie = bones we love to see it!

- now who tf would join Penelope Blossom’s ministry… no one, realistically.

- can Cheryl stop being given the craziest and usually most boring plots ever please...

- Not someone holding a gun to Tabitha literally don’t hurt Riverdale’s best girl weirdo

- these bitches really haven’t aged huh…. poor Veronica though being robbed but like they stole some watches or something and the opal like that’s all you take..?? okay-

- Fangs 💞💞💞💞💞 also rip to him having to work with his ex tho

- STOP HAVING ARCHIE GO TO HIRAM WE’RE TIRED

- You know considering the whole reason why Hiram is still here as the villain and ruining Veronica’s life/growth to keep her in his plots al because Mark is a big soap opera celeb and apparently brings in money, you’d assume they would give him GOOD shit instead of everything he’s gotten. If they hadn’t of hired Mark can you imagine how much better off the show would be if they didn’t have to keep him around bc of his status????? God why-

- Reggie’s always there for Veronica muah…. oh fuck me I guess fjasjkdf

- “I work for one Lodge and it’s not you.” lmao okay??? you acting like that’s a flex, and that you’re working for the better Lodge who literally left you to die after the Serpents thought you shot Fangs so-

- MARTY BEING WHY REGGIE IS WORKING FOR HIRAM…….. YOUR DAD IS ABUSIVE LET HIM HANDLE HIS OWN DEBT??? God both Veronica and Reggie are always fucked over when it comes to their parents huh

- don’t you just love when they make characters act ooc for a plot ahhhhhh it’s totally fun to watch and totally not frustratingly annoying

- “FOR OLD TIMES SAKE.” 💞💞💞 we love Veggie even though they made Veronica act ooc and hurt him back then and they weren’t given an actual chance.

- “don’t be such a Betty” now why is Betty so surprised she only ever had fun when she was with Archie, when she’s with Jughead all she did was do what she wanted and order him around so likeefjhakdfh

- “he shouldn’t really be my problem anymore.” BUGHEAD BONES YASSSSS

- I know it was just a sound they used but like that squish sound when Darla kicked Tom’s face… did she like smash his face in damn what is this The Walking Dead?

- see the problem with them randomly bringing characters/parents in when they need them is that they’re never around so like no one really cares… like they could have utilized the parents so much (and Skeet and Marisol never would have left) and it would have been so much better than random appearances that make them look incompetent and awful parents because they’re never there during all the other times their kids need them. but we have to see the two toxic parents that won’t go away constantly??? literally what the fuck

- Betty calling Jughead’s writing cringey wbk she’s never liked his writing she was just stroking his ego bc she was his gf and had to be supportive lmaoo

- why are these 60+ year old men beating up Jughead like for why???

- so they just forgot that Tom was checking in on the convict huh gotta love dumbing down characters for plot!

- Fangs with his switchblade muah

- jealous Tabitha muahhh over a password

- “wait THE BETTY?"

- Cheryl looks so good

- Find meaning in his death… girl didn’t you not care that your husband killed your son over the illegal maple stuff I forgot the plot but it was something illegal and dumb

- “drain the vein” …...

- Reggie helping muah

- Why is Archie acting like an ass? like sure he doesn’t know that Chad is abusive and toxic but c’mon fucker you cheated on her and never apologized and you don’t even wanna be with her in the first place so why are you acting like you’re personally hurt sit down

- God Archie really hates Veronica huh… I don’t even blame him considering the shit she’s brought him into time and time again.

- Jughead was kicked like maybe five times yet he was fine falling out of a two story window and the serpent imitation but now he needs antibiotics..? plot convenience!

- literally don’t remember anything about Doc tbh or him talking to Donna and Bret like—

- ever since Negan people are obsessed with bats with barbed wire.

- also! yes please kill Hiram <3 I know they end up saving him bc of the opal but c'mon

- they searched basically nothing for five seconds wow such great detective work you guys!

- we know you just want his manuscript Jessica

- Cheryl with her rainbow skirt how cute!

- “daddykins” girl you’re like 25

- Veronica acting like she cares about Hiram fjsadhkfhas these guys thinking that they’d kill Hiram even though they need him lol

- bad bitch Ronnie we love her even though she’s gonna have to save her father to save others and get her opal </3

- not Veronica calling Archie first and not Kevin considering Kevin’s dad is there…. this is the pandering va fan service bs we have bc it makes no sense and it’s so forced

- Fangs knowing Archie rides with tools in his truck mmhm that’s a little sus idk how but archiefangs agenda coming through!

- no one would actually believe that Jessica ashkjdfsj and they take this bait…??? you gotta be joking lmao

- Jug got to help doc this time 🥺😭

- …. tell me why when he said boyfriend I immediately thought of Reggie I hate myself for wishing fahsdjkfsafj

- okay as cheesy and corny and awful the fight scene is since they posted a clip of it, them working together is so refreshing and nice we love leader!Veronica bc she’s so good at it. but the show only cares for Betty which is funny since she’s an awful detective fbahsdjfj

- my god enough with Jason’s body!!!!!!!!! you burned his body please let him stay dead let his body rest

- okay but the back and forth from Betty and Jessica is so good like I wish we could get that kind of rivalry drama type stuff all the time. too bad they refuse to let Veronica act like a normal person and get angry at being cheated on and such :/ when will Veronica slap the fuck out of Betty

- he’s not a blameless victim but Betty take responsibility for how awful a person you are PLEASE

- THE VOICEMAILLLLLLL Jughead only speaks the truth! it’s weird that he only realized what we all knew about Betty after but whatever, finally he gets upset like damn. also jeronica crumb he’s the only one to ever include Veronica smh ALSO Cole acted the fuck outta this voice mail muah

- the way Betty just sits there uncaring… she really is a freak huh god when will someone punch her in the face and take her ego down a million notches she’s so annoying

- “that’s darkness.” …?? what?

- the way bh’s relationship parallels jughead’s with Jessica though. the unhealthy habits, the bad energy, etc. except Jessica left it and Betty didn’t and it turned Betty into whatever the fuck this is. I miss s1 Betty :/

- so when will they sue Jessica for drugging them? mmhm probably never

- poor Tabitha being the only one who cares about jughead tho

- oh no I forgot there was a random musical number…

- you’re gonna have Betty and Tabitha act like THAT and not put them together so rude

- when will Cheryl be free from her mom. is was like turned on by abuse or something sigh why do the toxic (and most boring!) parents get plots and screen time and everyone else doesn’t...

- Veronica would be able to do Moree than pepper spray but whatever only Betty is allowed be “badass"

- fangs being fangs ugh so sexy my babyyyyy

- Trevor Stines is so attractive it’s a shame they only bring him back for five seconds to traumatize Cheryl over and over again though </3

- wow varchie in a pop’s booth what season is this again??

- god it’s so upsetting how amazing varchie would have been as just friends…

- the way he smiled at Veronica was so contradicting to the blank, “please don’t” expression when she was telling him she was gonna get divorced as fast as possible. why can’t he just admit he doesn’t want to be with her!!!!!! my god they’ve put off barchie long enough just let them be together so their characters can finally act in character and stop being so awful and annoying

- “this cause” what cause you fucking weirdo

- not Hiram threatening the mayor he could literally be your downfall if we had good writers fjasdkjfasf

- jughead how would you have killed him with a small wooden basket

- I like doc so much but I know we’ll never see him again until we randomly need him seasons from noow

- Betty wasn’t hit by the drugs until after the message though… how would she not remember? it didn’t seem to be doing anything to Betty until the bunker

- hopefully since they’re friends now Tabitha can make Betty act like a decent human being <3

- the way Tabitha looked at Betty please stop doing this to me...

- maybe we can finish that dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jabitha rising bughead dying we love to see it!

wow that episode felt like it was two hours long but thankfully I finally finished it… don’t have many actual thoughts but anyways hope you enjoyed my live blog of my thoughts!

[dazais-guardian-angel]

I finished Curious Village again the other day, so here are some random thoughts. This is my first time replaying the main series since my... mid-to-late teen years? (though I guess it was later than I thought, if AL didn’t come out till 2014... I’m 25 now) so my memory of the fine details of them is a little hazy.

Flora really is wasted in the next two games, isn’t she... She’s introduced as part of the crew by the end of the game, especially with the additional epilogue cutscene in the hd version, but she literally gets the Kairi treatment, being left behind or used as a damsel for no discernable reason, when she could easily be just as capable as Luke... I mean she’s older than him, there’s no reason she couldn’t handle herself on their adventures if he can. -___- And like Kairi, I want to be more invested in her, but she barely has any focus and development, and it’s just ugh. I kind of like that it makes sense why Hershel would be so distant with her/not know how to parent properly, but I wish that was actually explored, and it’s not, so everyone ignoring her is just annoying and unnecessary-feeling instead. Tbh I’d rather her have just stayed behind altogether in the next two games instead of showing up just to be kidnapped or impersonated, if she wasn’t going to be made a main party member permanently.

People have said this before, but the main trilogy is honestly made so much better with knowledge of the prequels, in both emotional and absolutely buckwild ways, and it’s the funniest with CV - going from Azran Legacy straight into the mundane Curious Village is absolutely fucking HILARIOUS, as completely unintentional as it was by Level-5 lmaoooo

Hershel, after the shitshow that was Azran Legacy: “oh thank god, just an inheritance dispute.” Luke, who is easily impressed and apparently gets selective amnesia after every game: “THIS IS THE BIGGEST MYSTERY WE’LL EVER SOLVE-” Hershel, this close to murdering Luke a second time:

Can we make some connection between Bruno’s robot-making abilities and the Azran technology. And does the whole robot thing seriously trigger the boys as soon as it’s revealed because DEAR GOD NO NOT THIS AGAIN-

And related to that, I’m sure that was why Hershel could easily guess the robot thing early on; like seriously, nothing should faze this man anymore after what he’s been through (and yet, hilariously, the most ridiculous has yet to come, depending on how you look at it)

But he doesn’t have the faintest idea why Don Paolo would want revenge on him, which, like, even if he can’t think of anything specific... my dude, your family history is fucked up a;lsdlf;fd, there’s PLENTY OF OPTIONS (even if the actual reason is much less severe lol)

I’m sure we also all headcanon Descole to be slinking around in the background of the three main games somehow just because it’s more fun that way, so now that he’s no longer the rival, he’s the rival-turned-secret helper who makes sure everything goes right for Hershel (but he doesn’t do everything obviously cause he knows he can handle things himself), and probably bitchfights with Don Paolo some because that mental image is hilarious to me lmao

Post-UF scenario where Desmond helps Bruno with the robots with his technical prowess

and while we’re on that idea, Uncle Randall nerds out over everything robot in St. Mystere because let’s be real he would (Azran 2.0: Electric Boogaloo, But Without The Danger Or Trauma)

That scene when the tower is collapsing and Flora almost falls and Hershel catches her. Level-5 how could you completely accidentally and unintentionally create something so utterly painful out of such a small moment; I lie awake at night thinking about this!! :)))

Also Hershel yelling to Luke in that scene “I HAVE AN IDEYAHHH!” with his accent going off the rails on “idea” is an underrated iconic moment

Am I the only one who got the quiz question about Chelmey’s favorite food wrong because the answer was cakes something, and whatever the newspaper said it was was definitely not what I’d consider a cake

I love the implication that Pavel(?) is the only person in St Mystere besides Hershel, Luke, Don Paolo, Flora and Bruno who’s not a robot, and he just somehow ended up there by unknown means while trying to get to America??? and then somehow ends up on a high floor of the LOCKED tower, and still has no idea where tf he is. what a madlad

I never liked Luke’s squeaky UK voice, but I’m realizing his US one isn’t much better... and Flora’s voice in the new epilogue cutscene with the same voice actress years later is oof. why do the PL games just. reuse the same vas constantly for different characters. It’s obviously a thing in anime and games, but it’s especially noticeable in this series imo

fuck those puzzles with troll-y answers. also fuck that one with the chocolate bar and the coded letters with the bite marks

Matthew is probably one of my favorite npcs now; he’s just adorable <333 his little arms waggin’

Gordon needs to get a life

Pauly why are you the way that you are

“I’m not a detective”, Hershel continually says, as he unveils ridiculous plots that no one could have thought up in their wildest dreams, while gathering everyone together and pointing out the culprits dramatically, Agatha Christie style

I was tapping around for the exact pixel on painting Flora’s neck because it was ridiculously precise on the mobile version, and I never knew that if you tap her chest area, Hershel scolds Luke for not being a gentleman I-

Luke’s chubby head in the anime cutscenes sure is something... so glad it didn’t last. along with the front-facing Hershel sprite.

The ferris wheel attack is so great, I never really appreciated it before. The music, and the rain at the end with the rainbow 👌

We needed more of Hershel constructing things from random objects he finds lying around; iirc the only other time he does it is in Eternal Diva, though I guess the slot machine gun in UF counts too

I solved every slider puzzle in this game without a walkthrough, even the bonus ones. I do not expect this to last in the next games.

Overall I like Curious Village, though it remains one of my least favorites; there’s nothing wrong with it, and it was the very first so I’m not surprised it’s not very complex, with the mechanics and style still not fleshed out yet, but it doesn’t really hit me with The Feels™ as the best ones do, so it’s just okay. it started this wild ride of complete emotional devastation off, so I can appreciate it for that at least.

[notasiren21]

My Romance Kdrama Rankings and rec.:

*warning: possibly a lot of spoilers but tbh mostly just a redone synopsis of the shows*

Also a bit lengthy as hell

#12. Melting Me Softly

This show didn’t do that well as much as it was expected to, considering it even had Ji Chang-Wook as the male lead and the adorable Choi Bo-min who was introduced and quite possibly helped quick start the recognition for his kpop group Golden Child. I’ll admit I expected more of this and I don’t hold anything against the script writer who I heard did Strong Woman, but I kept in mind that the whole premise itself was also very complex to work with. Besides the fact it had two very cute and good looking male leads to draw me in, what really did it was the said premise. This is coming from a girl who is in love with Fallout 4 where the playable character was cryogenically frozen and then thawed out two centuries later, that shit slaps with me for some reason and I was excited to see it play out in this.

The romance is okay I guess, still “aww” worthy and has an intense kiss scene that’ll go down in Ji Chang-Wook’s kissing portfolio no doubt, as well as a hot kiss with his former and now aged flame that is only dreamt of. What drives the romance is the male lead with his puppy dog eyes and loving gaze, only a few have COMPLETELY mastered this in the kdrama buisness. Choi Bo-min was a complete adorable cutie who seemed to have fallen in love for the first time and I couldn’t help but fall in love with him (we’re also the same age but that’s besides the point and I’m completely in love with Rocky from Astro so like, I gotta keep this professional).

Time and time again I have issues with female leads in dramas and feel like the men pick up the slack when it comes to acting, this was one of those times. She was funny and quirky but seemed very out of focus on serval aspects. I think her most redeeming trait besides being made for the media and entertainment business in the show was her completely devotion to her brother.

#11. Suits

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Park Hyungsik is my favorite korean actor hands down.

I’ve seen bits of the American version, the original version, and it didn’t interest me in the slightest. I took a chance on this because I saw this cutie wearing a suit and converse and maybe that’s my kink, who knows, but I was fucking HERE for it. Now I’m a huge slave to romance and the shows, romcoms, that shit. I need to ship, I need to see the love, possibly write a fanfic of it, save gifs of the couple being cute or someone pining. But this show didn’t focus on the love story brewing on the side, it focused on its original intent and purpose which was Park Hyungsik and Jang Don-Gun’s partnership as mentor and mentee, the practice of law, and Park Hyungsik’s storyline as someone who got mixed up in the wrong crowd and fauxed having the license to practice law. The love story you get is the reason it’s on this list and why it’s ranked lower, but all in all this was a good show and one of the few exceptions to a non romance focused show.

#10. Suspicious Partner

The only reason this doesn’t have a pic is because I can only use ten and I gotta figure which would need one and which wouldn’t.

To start off, this show is fucking hilarious with the cast dynamic. It was like what, 40 episodes? I didn’t realize I needed a prolonged show until this came along. At times, it seemed like the main plot was dragging and I was reminded of why I prefer typical kdrama fashion of a one season within 12-32 episode limit, but it made up for it.

Yes, yes, Ji Chang-Wook, the god of kissing, stars in this. My first introduction to him was actually Melting Me Softly and because of how he did in acting with what he could, the emotions he portrayed, I sought out another show of his pre-military duty. God, he fucking serves in glasses and a suit. His character’s jealousy regarding Nam Ji Hyun (his romantic interest) and Choi Tae Joon (Ex best friend, slow burn, exes to friends to platonic lovers that’s one sided while the other can’t stand him, 35k words) instilled the notion that he is fucking funny as hell when needed and such a mood. You want to see the (not even romantic rival bc Choi and Nam are best friends) spraying with a water hose on your lead’s rival? Want to see a hot guy like Ji Chang-Wook panic and try shoving him out of the house when the girl catches them working out? It’s gold.

The feud with the moms -granted they didn’t realize the knew they were the mom’s of the leads-, the slow burn of enemies to friends with the girls, the redemption of a broken friendship, the crackhead and large old baby played by Lee Deok Hwa and the poor father figure who is tired of everyone’s shit portrayed by Jang Hyeok-jin. It’s everything you need for at least a week. It’s possibly a great starter show to ease one into the fact that most dramas don’t hold to that many episodes.

The romance is great, the fucking pining on Ji Chang-Wook’s side is great, the kissing scenes are fucking one for the history books, and you’re guaranteed to be giggling to yourself in several scenes.

Oh and there’s like, a serial killer but yeah, romance!

#9. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?

The reason why it’s not so high on my list despite being popular is quite possibly some of the side cast.

While Park Seo Joon and Park Min Young severed as a fucking power couple and their tandem dynamic was strong as hell, there were characters who made the show’s story seen to drag out despite it being 16 episodes (see what I mean by usual number??). For one, we learn that a brown haired Lee Tae Hwan is not gonna make for a silent crush in this show. No, brown haired Lee Tae Hwan just gets on your nerves and despite it being purely because his character is mentally blocked in this twisted memory, he forces the main character into staying isolated within his own pain and nightmares from what really occurred when they were children. He lies to his family, keeps it hidden from those who are close to him and love him, suffers alone. It’s what keeps him away from chasing after Secretary Kim besides his egotistical personality -which I never thought could be so great but it is. The main character’s brother in his endless pursuit to chase at Secretary Kim himself starts to gnaw on your chill as you watch him subconsciously force this notions that they’re tethered to one another, deserve each other, etc. While you can’t entirely fault him for how he is given the psychological trauma he endured, you can get annoyed with him very easily for the other accounts and purposes.

The side story of the roof top guy with the one suit -I’m sorry, he’s great in 2PM but I can’t stand him in about every drama he’s in- and the seemly rookie girl become more of an obstacle when you just want to watch the main focus. The driver of the main character is hilarious but his romantic interest is over the top at times. Sometimes it just takes away from the show.

#8. Hotel Del Luna

Ah, I wish I could’ve put a pic.

To kick this off, can we like get a spin off with Kim Soo Hyun? Thanks.

FINALLY, A FUCKING FEMALE LEAD I STAN COMPLETELY AND WOULD WATCH EVEN WITHOUT YEO JIN GOO THERE FOR A ROMANTIC INTEREST.

This bitch, IU, fucking slays in her role as a hotel owner for the dead before the leave for the after life. Everything she does is iconic -yes, the fucking cocking of the rifle, the child like smile seeing diamonds, blessing the poor boy with the ability to see the dead then let him get chased per her own amusement before business. I really would’ve watched the show even if there was no romance. Whether it’s modern times or her orignal lifetime before being condemned to a life of immortality hell and aimlessly running a hotel, she makes for a strong lead. Her reasons for wanted to avoid love seemed so valid compared to other female leads who completely brush guys off. She doesn’t want love, and yet she doesn’t want anyone else touching Chan Sung (Yeo Jin Goo) because she’s not dumb enough to let go of something that makes her feel alive. While her character is legitimately described as cold and greedy, her intentions for holding onto him reveal an insecure part of her that’s been tucked away for centuries. His dedication to the hotel and her, to helping the ghosts move on and such, it’s great and makes for a binge full night.

It’s only ranked lower because the ending sadden me when I realized it was him picturing how they would meet one another again. And because they teased us with Kim Soo Hyun, like that’s cruel.

#7. Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (aka Goblin)

Tbh, this show would be lower if it weren’t for the Reaper and Sunny, as well as Deok Hwa.

I’ll probably get a lot of hate for this, but I couldn’t stand Kim Go Eun in this. I’ve watched her in Cheese in the Trap and thought she was good and stuff, but this I found myself growing annoyed and glaring at the television while my mom preached upon her behalf. The goblin was funny, his dynamic and weird polar friendship with the Reaper is quite possibly what really made the show, but I failed to see the spark between them until the time skip. Then, THEN, I could tolerate her a bit better.

Maybe it’s because she was protraying someone around my age in high school, but she went from this independent and driving girl to someone who became too needy and clingy. She acted like a little girl in front of a crush when she could’ve handled it more marturely with the said maturity she showed before meeting him. Granted, I know she had a very difficult home life after her mom died and she saw ghosts everywhere, and her living with the Reaper and Goblin was like this warm family she felt safe in, but I just couldn’t. Her endless pursuing of the Goblin got on my nerves and she would get upset, but then again did she ever act like an adult and do the most natural thing? Aka sit down and discuss the whole situation.

“If you’re comfortable, can you tell me why you think I’m your bride?/Why is there a sword in you?/What happens if I pull it out?/ What do you want me to do?/etc”

No, instead it was a constant “I’m the goblin’s bride”, “I’m your bride”, there was this bratty entitlement laying underneath the cutest exterior that was so apparent for someone my age, and I got pissed when she admitted to have seeing the sword the first time around. Like this man has been in total agony for fucking forever and you strung him along hoping for the possibility that you may be the key to him finally getting the ending he thinks he’ll get. It was selfish, she didn’t even know him but insisted on seeing how to be his bride. She should’ve stepped back and thought the situation out carefully. It wasn’t until that blessed time skip that I started to like her better. She wasn’t a kid then and became mature like she needed to be. There’s the need to flaw a character, but her’s was always biting at me.

Oh yeah, Sunny and the Reaper are the true couple in this story and their love that’s star crossed in two lives really hits you. There was more chemistry than the main couple, there was confusion in flirtatious banter, there was stupidity for first time romance against a tired experience woman, there was the hidden history that they both remembered after the time skip. The angst, the pure acceptance, the guilt and remorse. They made the fucking show alongside the Goblin and Reaper’s bromance and Deok Hwa’s “I just want a credit card and to be irresponsible but these two dumb fucks keep almost revealing their true selves to the world and I’m fucking done with these children”, on top of God taking his body as a vessel and becoming 10x cooler with that hairstyle while drinking with Fate (such a badass who loves her children I can’t, I stan the side character too).

#6. My ID is Gangnam Beauty

Oh my god, my introduction to Astro. Cha Eun Woo (aka Lee Dongmin). My god, if it weren’t for my mom, sister and I officially ruling Cha Eun Woo as god tier in terms of looks and making him this untouchable bias we can’t have, I would have never let this adorably hot as hell dancer and rapper distract me. Really, I kept wanting to be distracted by Rocky but I felt like I couldn’t miss the visual god in the front. Blessed I finally was able to divert my attention to the one I wanted to watch so very much and became my bias wrecker. Mom loves Moonbin like he’s her own son and we’re not her children, sister loves MJ’s psychotic idiocy.

ANYWAYS, the female lead, Kang Mi Rae, was stiff as hell when watching it a second time around and at times, knowing their age gap can be bothersome, but it was a cute slow burn of her and Cha Eun Woo’s character, Do Kyung Suk (sounds badass too, doesn’t it). While he appeared stiff as well, probably could’ve played a robot if he wanted to, I felt like he did well portraying his character who grew up in a dysfunctional house where their political father’s position took presidence over family. He was taught it was unmanly you cry, he never smiled (idk how Cha Eun Woo did it, this cutie never stops smiling or laughing), he never spoke up, etc. He appears socially handicapped until Mi Rae appears back in his life and he slowly let’s go of this anger as the story progresses. She learns she doesn’t have to be so self conscious about her plastic surgery or who she used to be because he loves both.

The villian of this story was well thought out (only kdrama where my dad actively participates in the discussions because he hated her so much and says her name with such spite while bragging he knows at least one Astro member so that’s his “idfk what a bias is but I’ll go with the Gangnam kid”). She brought the tension and there was the window to pity her and realize something was most definitely wrong in a tragic way. She sought after Kyung Suk like a prized trophy when he didn’t express interest, stepped inbetween blooming relationships, set boys off a progressive course away from her, and turned one kid psychotic. That was just with her obsession to have the boys fawn after her; completely disregarding her endless efforts to knock Mi Rae down a peg or two in meticulously planned schemes. She was incredibly smart and cunning, it can’t be denied and she drove them closer together in spite of her tries to wedge between them.

Really, this made me wish that the Webtoon True Beauty that’s supposed to get a drama adaption will cast him as the main male lead Suho. It’s almost similar but Suho seems more dimensional and expressive and I feel like he would truly shine there.

Stan Astro.

#5. Extra-Ordinary You

Ah, this one hurts me. @macaknight, just watch it.

This is a young love one and one of the few that’s not absolute cringe worthy. Set in high school where yea, there’s drama and it’s in Asia so there’s that weird “all mighty and supreme group that conquers the school” called the A3, a girl (Kim Hye Yoon) with a heart condition learns she’s a character in a manga -doesn’t realize she’s not the main one tho and that’s hilarious alone. She finds a focus with this unnamed student who stays in the background and shadows (portrayed by SF9’s Rowoon). The girl, Eun Dan Oh, is someone to worship and cherish, especially since she’s so young and very promising. I thoroughly enjoyed her character and how her efforts to derail the natural progression of the story with the catalyst of student number 13, later on Haru. There’s so many fucking twist and turns, characters to let your heartbreak for as you wish to adopt them and protect them from the world, it all hurts so much but in a masochistic against yourself kind of way you can’t let go of.

Those who are aware they’re in a comic book, they all struggle to break their “character’s” roles and expectations. The second male lead of both the drama and the drama’s manga is sick and tired of playing the violin and being this unrequited love interest that’ll lose in the end, forever the friend. Dan Oh is livid she’s expected to die from her heart disease and is forced to endlessly pine for her childhood fiancé Baek Kyung who is a complete asshole to her while in character. Number 13/Haru is tired of being an unnamed background character who continuously suffers and gets toyed with by the author. Dried Squid Fairy lunch maker is sick of how he must remember shit that’s kept a secret as he tries in vain to keep the story on track to avoid repeated mistakes and consequential devastating punishments to those who don’t follow the storyline. Yeo Ju Da (the main character of the manga) wants to experience the love story she wants without the drama. Baek Kyung want to prove himself and that he genuinely cares for Dan Oh but is forced to be an asshole because that’s how he’s written.

It’s a fucking mess and it’s fucking fantastic. The friendship of A3 (Lee Do Hwa the vionlist, Oh Namju and Baek Kyung), Lee Do Hwa and Dan Oh’s powerful best friendship after being self aware and confiding in each other (honestly I want a drama with just two of them, they’re so cute and funny together), the A3 that happened outside for those self aware between Dan Oh, Number 13/Haru, and Do Hwa where they all genuinely care for one another, Dan Oh’s acceptance that her manga best friend is a bitch but nice to her and the male lackey of their group is funny, etc.

I didn’t think another self aware comic book character show could happen without ripping off W-Two Worlds, but it did. They did it.

#4. Angel’s Last Mission: Love

That song that goes “It’s alright, it’s alright” in a sad melodic way? Yeah, they play it when it’s not alright.

This show has heartbreak galore, even in the first episode for numerous reasons. They don’t want you to be alright for the most part and yet our sadistic selves can’t help but suffer through it. L’s portrayal of being an angel is such a gift, I didn’t know I needed it. I was dead set on living my life until I saw this and felt myself crumble to bits.

You want sacrifice? You got it. Tears of cute boy and a girl who can’t catch a break? Check. Plot twists? Lmao, it’s a kdrama. Yea. Angst and hurt? Fuck yep.

While you’re at it, listen to the song too so you can suffer some more.

#3. Descendants of the Sun

THIS WOULD BE AT THE TOP IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE FACT I AM COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH THE FIRST ONE AND THESE TWO GOT DIVORCED IN REAL LIFE. I still wish the best for them and their child. I still hurt but love them.

So much fucking chemistry and angst, so much hurt and wounds (it’s legit a show with a military background and characters), so much cool fight scenes and surgeries. Their soundtrack slaps, the backstory of characters really set the tone to their current stories, shit overlaps somehow, the female rivalry is hilarious, the cat and dog friendship of the male leads warms my heart. They have such iconic stills and scenes.

The main leads connected so fucking well they got married in real life (we don’t talk about the end result, I’m still crying but I get it.) This kdrama is probably one of the staples to korean dramas in general.

Another female lead I really liked as well as the second, I just struggled at times with Song’s character at times because of the pain she put them both through.

#2. W-Two Worlds

This is my go to for recommending korean dramas to someone for the first time -I got an ex hooked on it that he cried several times throughout it/life 1/4 of the varsity boy’s soccer team has seen this because of me.

This is the comic self awareness show that I didn’t think could be redone, but kudos to you Extraordinary You, you created an orignal that breaks my heart.

This show hurts so much as well, I don’t watch them if they don’t hurt in one way or another.

Lee Jong Suk stars as the main character (Kang Chul) who is also the main character of his own comic book he stars in. The issue is that he’s self aware and that there’s something wrong with his world and life. His webtoon/manga creator is trying to kill him because having his creation alive is driving him to insanity and was the only comfort when he pushed his family away for his career and alcoholism. The creator’s daughter is alerted that her father went missing while cooped up in his room while drawing Kang Chul’s death and end to the manga without a resolution to his storyline (Think of a korean Batman without the suit and brooding personality). Plot twist that’s in the synopsis, she gets pulled in by Kang Chul inside the comic and can come and go if it pertains to him because he controls it without realizing.

You have a main character who is written as this playboy orphan and sole survivor of his mass family’s murder that questions his existence and purpose BEYOND how we do. He meets this girl who speaks almost cryptically to him without realizing and knows more about him than needed or given, and now he’s experiencing oddities besides the notion of love that he can’t understand because it’s not how he is written and the glitches in his world.

This show is twisted in a psychological sense that messes with a comic character who is now alive and real, fucks up the mentality of the creator, puts the daughter in an immense amount of stress when she was just trying to be a fucking surgeon, yes, black haired Lee Tae Hwan is crush worthy in this unlike brown haired Lee Tae Hwan in Secretary Kim. (It’s the hair, you change the hair on a character and everything is different).

The exploration of what love is that works alongside the devoting dark plot of the culprit murderer really drives this show as well as the couple’s endless efforts to save/protect one another in any means necessary, even if they both suffer from it.

These two truly can’t live without one another and it shows with all they do for each other. There’s nothing they wouldn’t risk to keep one another in their arms.

And Lee Jong Suk delivers his share of being one of the King of Korean Drama Kisses as well, gif saving worthy and iconic ones as well.

#1. Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon

Park Hyungsik. Park Hyungsik. Park Hyungsik. Park Hyungsik.

Need I say more?

We stan Park Hyungsik’s character, Ahn Minhyuk, in this blog. We basically stan Do Bong Soon as well for how happy she makes him.

This is possibly totally bias but this is one of my two white noise korean drama shows that I continuously find myself rewatching time and time again. And that’s saying something since I only have one white noise show that’s in English. Three shows total.

People had issues with the script and what the actors had to say, but for the most part I thought the love story and the rival one was pretty well written, then again I kept watching different translations on different sites. So I wasn’t bothered at all. People also didn’t like the side characters and stories regarding the sketchy well dressed gang she hospitalizes in the first episode that stuck around until the last but I felt it was important to have them to prove how having Bong Soon in their lives can change a person and how she has this affect on people overall.

My god, the love story. Bong Soon has this massive crush on police officer and high school friend she was sweet on, Guk Doo, who doesn’t seem to acknowledge her feelings and is all about protecting the law and stuff (I can respect, I’m a LEO kid). He isn’t aware of her abilities of being incredibly strong and nearly indestructible. Nah, instead, CEO of AIN Software, Ahn Minhyuk, accidentally finds out and is like super chill but excited and curious about it and her??

He hires her as his bodyguard in the mist of receiving threats regarding his family company and they find an odd balance with each other while Minhyuk falls in love with her so hard, he literally tries to protect HER from danger. He’s so wonderfully extra that it’s no wonder Park Hyungsik and Park Seo Joon are best friends in real life, they both have the ability to play someone so over the top in a cute and funny way that you appreciate it about them. A cutie with a button nose and weird ears decked out in monochrome color scheme and dark sunglasses, whistling as he rides a hoverboard around? Die for 100%. Someone who gets crazy jealous and presents it in a healthily humorous way by dramatically posing to securitygates of his company that open automatically for him? Stan. Wants Bong Soon’s attention while she’s in a room away from him so her opera sings her name loudly and dramatically? Worship.

While it’s hard to watch the slow progression on her end yet the obvious budding of it, it’s understandable since she’s been in love with Guk Doo ever since high school and has assumably never had a boyfriend in hopes that he would reciprocate her feelings. So the second time watching it and stepping back to analyze, I could forgive her.

All the while, Minhyuk making Heart Eyes ™️ at Bong Soon for literally everything she does makes you feel. The way he holds her and treats her like she’s this precious porcelain doll that could break it handled the wrong way speaks volumes considering he knows of her Herculean strength. He openly loves her when he comes to realize what she means to him -which is a lot sooner than you’d think but welcomed-, and looks at no one else but her. The love story probably would’ve also happened faster if everyone didn’t think Minhyuk was gay (that’s a solid fact, I’m not joking), only those close to her and see how he acts/looks at her realize “lmao, he ain’t gay Hunni”. Minhyuk is this cute hottie that girls wish were straight (it’s fucking hilarious) who acts like a complete lovesick dork with Bong Soon. He freaks and spazzes out when she calls him a nickname or acts cheeky with dropping honorifics, speaks aloud to himself of his thoughts regarding her, literally can’t contain himself when she acts cute to get on his good side and distract his anger.

Oh and there’s like this serial kidnapper too so there’s badass scenes of the two working together, power couple def.

Their soundtrack slaps too and you somehow end up vibing with it. The song You’re My Garden on it, I learned to sing it because it’s one of my top favs.

They’re just the cutest with their hamster and puppy dog relationship. It’s my go to show and I won’t stop watching this. It’s so obvious how Park Hyungsik grew to fall in love Park Bo Young (that’s a legitimate fact) when filming and their bts cuts are too cute, I wish they were dating in real life.

(Also, we have another King of kiss scenes -to those who watched this drama already, you know the scene, iconic 🔥🎼)

[princess-of-the-corner]

Lady Luck AU: The Queen’s Battle Trilogy + Miraculer

In the show, these episodes deal heavily with Chloé’s plot of getting the Bee Miraculous. However, in Lady Luck, she’s had the Ladybug Miraculous since day one. So of course these episodes are going to change. A lot!

So let’s discuss that! Uh, slight trigger warning for Audrey’s shitty parenting.

Style Queen:

When Audrey shows up, Chloé is conflicted.

She still wants her mother’s love and attention, but Chloé has made actual progress toward not being a jerk.

She doesn’t want to agree with her mother’s comments, but when she tries to be nice she gets told off.

After they bump into Marinette, Chloé sticks by her instead of her mother.

They talk a little, mostly a ‘oh god no wonder you were terrible if that’s what you grew up with.’.

Mari also reassures her that she doesn’t have to be like that.

The events of Audrey getting Akumatized are the same, and Style Queen turns Adrien into a glitter statue.

Realizing that not only are they down one teammate, but that Chloé will not be at her best fighting her mother, she decides to go to Master Fu for a new Hero.

First she tells Marinette to stay and try to find Style Queen’s weaknesses. But prioritize herself over the mission.

Marinette Transforms into Fennette and both head off.

After getting the Bee Miraculous, Chloé heads to Sabrina’s house.

Their talk is a little rushed because, you know, Akuma to fight.

But Chloé is basically like “I know we haven’t been hanging out as much and sometimes I disappear at random, but I promise I have a good reason and you’ll find out after you open this box!’.

Sabrina takes the comb and minorly freaks out when Pollen appears.

Chloé explains that this is the Bee Miraculous, and Pollen is a Kwami who will help Sabrina become a Hero.

Sabrina then has a bigger freak out over ‘holy shit you’re Lady Luck!’.

Chloé cuts her off with a ‘we can discuss this later. Right now we need to go fight my mom.’

Lady Luck and Abielle go meet up with Fennette, who has done a decent job studying Style Queen while staying in the shadows

The three battle Style Queen, and it goes easier than in Canon, with Fennette making an Illusion of Gabriel to bait her, and Abielle using Venom to give them a few minutes of peace to deal with the Akumatized Object.

Plagg probably still destroys something though.

Queen Wasp

The fashion show goes off as normal, though with Chloé and Sabrina hanging with Marinette (much to the confusion of Mari’s parents and Alya)

Gabriel shows up to check on Adrien. He also low-key checks on Chloé and Marinette because fuck you that’s why.

Legit though, I do write Gabriel caring about both of them.

With Chloé, it’s because she was Adrien’s friend since they were little, so he knows her fairly well and does think of her as part of the family.

With Marinette, it’s more like ‘Hello future daughter-in-law!’. 

Audrey still offers to take Marinette to New York

Marinette herself is a hell of a lot more hesitant, having seen how Audrey treats her own daughter.

Chloé is still fucking pissed. Because she’s wanted her mother’s love and attention for so long, but instead Audrey is giving that to some random girl she just met instead of her own daughter.

Then Audrey drops the ‘the only thing exceptional about you, is your mother!’ line. And hoo boy.

For Chloé, this is one of those ‘five seconds feels like five years’ type situations.

She wants to do something. To prove herself. Part of her does think about transforming into Lady Luck, and being all “I’m a superhero! Isn’t that exceptional?!”, but she realizes that it won’t be enough for Audrey, because nothing’s ever enough

And everything just kinda… clicks into place with that. The realization that nothing she does will be something Audrey considers ‘exceptional’, because the goal is always pushed further and further back.

And the realization that she doesn’t need Audrey to think anything of her.

Chloé snaps, getting this manic look that makes everyone back up a few feet. She tells Audrey that she’s going to get through to her in the only way that matters. Ruining her precious reputation.

She then heads over to the news reporters and says ‘Hey, Nadja! Wanna hear the one thing Audrey Bourgeois isn’t ‘exceptional’ at? Being a good mother!’.

Chloé goes tf off on her mother, shouting everything she’s ever felt at her. How much she’s hated everything, especially herself. How miserable she was being a jerk to everyone. How much happier she is when she’s not trying to gain the love and attention she’ll never be ‘worthy of’. How she’s stuck in this place of depression over ‘I’ll never be enough for you’ and rage over ‘why the hell aren’t I enough!?”

Audrey is trying to do bare-minimum damage control. Just telling Chloé to stop because she’s ‘making a scene’. Every time uses some variation of her name, it only fuels Chloé’s anger, and she brings it up. “Chloé! My name is Chloé! What kind of mother can’t even bother to remember her daughter’s name!

Chloé eventually brings out the ‘big guns’, AKA: Emilie Agreste. Because Emilie and Audrey were supposedly friends. She accuses Audrey of not caring about her either. After all, she didn’t even come back to Paris after hearing that Emilie was missing!

She even goes as far to ask ‘did you even pause and worry for five seconds when they told you she was gone? Probably not. Just shrugged and went back to firing your tenth assistant of the week!’.

Eventually she says something that makes Audrey angry enough to actually slap her. And while everyone else had been frozen at the fight, they start handling the situation.

First people to move are Marinette’s parents, with Tom shielding Chloé from her mother while Sabine cusses out Audrey in rapidfire Chinese

Adrien, Marinette, and Sabrina all physically pull Chloé out of the situation. Taking her somewhere safe. Maybe back to the hotel?

While Gabriel doesn’t get into the situation, he does catch Chloé’s eye and give an approving nod to her actions. (Because while Gabe is a fuck sometimes, he does care about Adrien and his friends, and tbh while he respects Audrey’s talent, he’s wanted to knock her down a peg for a long ass time.)

Chloé’s dad, however, is still frozen in shock. But we’ll get to him later.

Her friends take her somewhere safe to ride out the rest of the breakdown.

She goes through a ‘manic’ phase first. She feels great, but also full of rage. She’s grinning but wants do do something destructive. She kinda half-hopes for an Akuma so she has something to direct that at.

She apologizes to Adrien for bringing up his mom too.

Eventually she hits the full breakdown point and starts crying. This time though, she has her friends to comfort her.

‘Queen Wasp’ doesn’t really happen. Gabriel kinda decided to give her a break on this, so no butterflies come for her.

Malediktator

This picks up from the end of ‘Queen Wasp’, with Adrien, Marinette and Sabrina comforting Chloé.

At some point, Chloé’s dad shows up, already Akumatized into Maediktator.

He insists on taking Chloé with him, and the Heroes decide that it’d be better to play along for now so that they can escape and transform later.

Chloé herself is more in shock, and feels guilty over her dad’s Akumatization, knowing it probably had something to do with what happened.

Malediktator’s actions are entirely to try and make Chloé happy.

He commands Audrey to be an actual caring mother(for once), and all of a sudden she’s showering Chloé with love and affection. Telling her how wonderful and very exceptional she is.

He uses his power to make several teens(mostly the classmates) adore Chloé and wish to be her friend.

At some point the others sneaked away to transform, and when they show back up Malediktator demands that they give Chloé one of the Miraculous, as is wonderful and deserves such an honor!

At first, Chloé is still in breakdown mode. Just kind of going along with everything.

But after a while, everything just hurts more and more. Because this version of her mother that loves her? The classmates who adore her? They only exist because of a magic spell.

And while she still feels guilty about her dad getting Akumatized, it does make her feel better to know he’s just trying to help her.  

Malediktator begs Chloé to tell him what will make her happy. She tells him that she just wants him back to normal.

Obvs there’s the conflict there, as Akumas don’t usually want to give up their power, but doing that would make her happy.

This distracts him long enough for Abielle to use Venom and freeze him in place.

Chloé sneaks off to transform, drop in long enough to purify the Butterfly and change things back to normal.

After all this, Chloé and her dad talk for a while.

He apologizes for everything. Like, he knew Audrey was… high maintenance. And kind of a bitch. But he never realized how bad things were for Chloé.

Like, it seemed like he’d always been able to cheer her up. Telling her she’s great anyway, buying gifts, everything. He also didn’t hear how bad Chloé had been to her classmates, because the school staff was always too scared to report her.

She understands that he tried, and reassures him that he did help. She’d probably be worse without him. Hell, she might even be the kind of person Audrey would like, which isn’t the person she wants to be anymore.

Eventually, he asks her if she’s at all happy being around her mother, if she would rather try and fix things or let Audrey go back to New York. Chloé answers honestly. She doesn’t really care where her mother goes. She doesn’t need her. She’s happy without her.

After that, he’s like ‘well in that case, time for a divorce!’.

Chloé starts to go ‘wait, no!’ at that.

But he assures her that this was a long time coming. The relationship honesty hasn’t been right in a long time. Audrey had always been…. High maintenance… but she’s gotten worse and worse and she’s never even in the same country anymore!

The only reason he kept trying to make it work was because Chloé had ‘adored’ her mother before. But considering everything that just happened? That’s it. He was highly debating divorce anyway after the fight(and especially the slap), but he wanted to ask Chloé first.

She ends up seeking comfort at Marinette’s place.

Mari’s parents kind of assume the worst at first. Like, the ‘she needs somewhere to stay now’ worst. But Chloé explains that’s not the case.

There’s a bit of venting, and Mari and her family are like ‘okay look if you need somewhere to stay, even if it’s just to get away for a while, you can stay here’.

She’s going to take up that offer a lot.

Miraculer

So, Lila has nothing to do with this plot. Because 1. Chloé knows she’s a trick ass bitch 2. there’s no issue over the Bee Miraculous.

Anyway, after the events of the Queen’s Battle Tirlogy, Chloé spends a lot of time at Marinette’s house. Because out of her close circle of friends, it’s the one she finds the most comforting.

She cares about Sabrina, but Roger kinda hates her so she feels unwelcome in her home

Adrien’s place reminds her too much of Emilie, so it hurts to be there(something Adrien agrees with).

All other friends she’s made so far are nice, but their families aren’t as ready to welcome her in all the time.

Meanwhile, Tom and Sabine saw what happened with Audrey and went ‘Where’s the adoption papers?!’.

Episode starts with Chloé at Mari’s place. Along with some of the rest of the group at that point. At least Adrien and Sabrina probably. They get a text from another friend telling them to check out the news channel.

Turning on the tv, they see an interview with Audrey discussing the divorce. Specifically, which parent gets custody of Chloé.

Audrey is playing it up in the interview, talking about how this whole ordeal has ‘made her realize how distant she’d been the past few years’. Obviously Chloé just wanted to spend more time with her mother! And full custody would help give them the time they needed!

She’s very obviously trying to control the situation. Make herself look like a misunderstood victim. And potentially, get control over Chloé again to make her more obedient and horrible.

Audrey says she’ll definitely get custody, even after the ‘incident’, because she’ll be taking Chloé to New York with her. Somewhere far away from all the dangerous Akumas.

Naturally Chloé is very distressed by that.

Not only is she finally starting to feel happy with a handful of people who genuinely care about her, but she’s Lady Luck. Lady Luck can’t just leave!

The whole thing sends her into a panic attack.

Chloé is very nearly Akumatized over it, but her friends manage to help her pull together. They’re not going to let Audrey take her away.

While she’s safe, the Butterfly heads to someone who is less ‘distressed’ and more ‘filled with righteous fury’

Sabine Cheng gets Akumatized.

I’m debating on her Akuma name. The canonical ‘Verity Queen’ fits, but I was also thinking about ‘Godmother’. Like, a ‘fairy godmother’ theme.

Sabine’s anger is half ‘How dare someone treat their child like this’, and half ‘My daughter now!’.

Godmother, naturally, goes after Audrey.

It’s a tough fight. Partly because Chloé is very tempted to let Godmother kick Audrey’s ass, and partly because Marinette is hesitant to fight her mom.

And also because even though they’re trying to fight her, Godmother is more like ‘You’re all children! How dare this responsibility be handed to you!? You’re my kids now too.”

Eventually they do defeat her, and they end up in front of cameras, with Nadja trying to get answers about Sabine’s Akumatization and Audrey trying to get Lady Luck to agree with her about how ‘dangerous’ this city is.

While Lady Luck remains somewhat calm, as she can distance herself from the situation by talking in third person, she goes tf off on Audrey again.

She explains to Nadja that the Butterfly was originally after Chloé, who was having a panic attack over the idea of Audrey taking her away from her friends and ‘real family’. That Chloé was able to avoid being Akumatized, but the Butterfly went after Sabine who wanted to protect a girl she cared for like a daughter now.

When Audrey plays the ‘it’s so dangerous here because of the Akumas’ card, Lady Luck asks ‘are you implying that we can’t do our job?’. She also points out that Heroes and Villains and Magic exist everywhere, even in New York.

Most importantly, she says “I think Chloé is far safer with the woman who got Akumatized over wanting to protect someone she cares about, than she is with the woman who got Akumatized over ‘being put in the second row’, don’t you think?’.

Oh? You’re probably wondering about Mayura. Well…. I might stretch this out into a two-parter since the Akuma took up so much.

Chloé heads back to her hotel, thankfully walking through the lobby and up the elevator instead of swinging in as Lady Luck, because Mayura is in the room waiting for her.

Chloé is hella on guard, wondering if Mayura figured out her secret identity. She doesn’t transform just yet though.

Mayura is here to offer a deal of sorts.

She explains how the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous have such amazing power. That they can do so much, give her anything she wants.

Anything, including the mother that loves her.

Chloé scoffs at that, saying she doesn’t want some magic spell version of Audrey to love her, so Mayura can take her offer and shove it.

Mayura clarifies that she wasn’t referring to Chloé’s biological mother, but the mother figure who recently disappeared.

Yeah. Basically the offer is Gabriel and Nathalie banking on the idea that Chloé wants Emilie back just as much as they do.

The plan involves first testing the waters, seeing if she’d join them for the reward of saving Emilie. If she does, then they’ll let her in on identities.

From there, they’d use her to make Akumas. Either Akumatizing her directly over and over, or having her be a jerk and cause negative emotions.

If she steals the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, then great. If she steals one of the others, then she can use that instead.

If she steals two of the others, they might let Adrien in on the plan.

Side note: the reason they’re using Chloé instead of Adrien for this is because Adrien is a bit softer, less likely to fight(as far as they know), and even more unlikely to fight on the ‘dark side’.

What they didn’t expect was Chloé judo flipping Mayura, pinning her to the floor, and interrogating her.

Mayura might be stronger than Chloé when not transformed, but Chloé had the element of surprise.

Chloé also taps into her Aura Vision stuff and finds out that the Peacock is broken.

Basically Chloé interpreted the offer as more of a ‘we know where she is and if you help us we’ll help you’ thing.

She’s turning the threat around. ‘Tell me everything you know about what happened to Emilie or I will fight you without magic’.

Mayura manages to keep her cool and clarifies that she meant it literally, the Miraculous could help bring Emilie back, no matter where she is.

Once Chloé gives a definitive answer of ‘I’m not going to become a supervillain and hurt everyone else just to bring her back to me!’, Mayura breaks out of her hold and runs off.

After making sure she’s left, Chloé texts the team, and Master Fu, to meet right the hell now.

I already mentioned the ‘Titan’s Tower’ System

Everyone shows up and she tells them what just happened with Mayura

She assures them that her identity isn’t in danger because Mayura didn’t even look at her earrings, much less try to take them.

She also asks Master Fu about the broken Peacock, what it’s effects are, and how to deal with it

Chloé also brings up the ‘Gabriel might be Hawkmoth’ thing

I mean, she never really dropped it after The Collector, but still. This is a time to bring it up. Because Mauyra specifically brought up Emilie.  

Adrien reminds her that Gabriel was Akumatized, and she points out that he has Mayura, who could’ve Akumatized him.

They also come to the conclusion that if Gabriel is Hawmoth, than Mayura is Nathalie.

The team debates back and forth on this

Ultimately, they decide that while Gabriel and Nathalie are good suspects, they’re the only good suspects that they know about. There’s a decent chance that Hawkmoth and Mayura are some random people that they’ve never met and have no connection to.

They do decide to keep an eye on them though.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 2: The VR Zone Has a Hell Ton of Trees

Alright guys I am regretting the hell out of this teriyaki ramen bowl I just ate, so it’s a better time than ever to go back into this VR arc. Now that the Big 5 have made their speech, all of them quite fat and one with a cane although he doesn’t even have a body anymore, they are ready to send everyone down a series of...plot-shaped holes.

Like they were JUST in some sort of tropic zone, to go back to here and then go somewhere else and so like--this is still VR I think? Like I’m assuming they went VR the moment they entered this room but it is quite vague at what point they were officially in VR. Was it when their vision went fwisssh and everyone split into RGB layers or was it that they got knocked out with gas quite a long time ago and were just unaware that it happened? Probably a bunch of these things.

With this announcement we find out that everyone--and I mean everyone--has to play cards now, although I’m pretty sure half of them have duel disks and the other’s are like...not equipped? I mean it’s VR, so hypothetically no one at all needs a duel disk anymore but you gotta sell toys, so no matter what, Yugi’s going to be lugging this heavy sharp thing on his wrist, even when he knows he will soon be shot down a wacky hole.

The title of last episode, ps was “VR Nightmare,” but like, it’s actually fairly pleasant, compared to the blimp hell we were dealing with just a few episodes back. I mean I guess people are actively trying to kill us here but when are they not?

The audacity of this show. Every state in the US has huge ass fake castles in it leftover from the Rockefeller era. Where else are our Moms supposed to drag us on Day Trips so we can get our history credit for Girl Scouts?

Americans are hella good at creating fake historical sites--all you need is a 50+ year old house and some turret work possibly made by a reasonably well known architect and it’s like “yeah that’s a good enough castle for me! Can we say it’s haunted, too? It’s hella haunted! Come to my castle B+B!”

(read more under the cut)

Tea landed in some concept art that kind of looks like the underside of a mushroom. I dunno how I’d classify this rock structure.

And then Kaiba landed in his worst nightmare which was being in a normal park with one single straight road but somehow still completely lost. At least Mokuba managed to fall into the same hole as his brother to ensure that Seto wouldn't be lost for like the rest of this arc. Which was actually kind of an unintentionally hilarious animation.

*rare shot of the Kaibas actually taking a break*

Man, this is the closest they’ve gotten to a real hug in kind of a while. Like when was the last time these bros hugged? Pegasus’ castle?

Meanwhile, Noah is admiring his work from this throne room and it would be a whole lot more intimidating if he wasn’t in calf-high black socks.

His outfit is like a white school uniform so what gives with the black socks? Like of all the things to complain about on Yugioh (especially since I see Yugi’s hair looking right at me in the next cap) those socks though. Those are pretty inappropriate with this outfit, Noah. Especially matched with this God Throne you’ve got going on. Did not see socks like that matched with a chair like this.

Meanwhile Yugi is all by himself but that doesn’t matter at all because he is 2 (3) people. This strategy to isolate everyone only really worked on Serenity and Joey, TBH, since Tea is also accompanied by slightlylessevil!Marik (who hasn’t really said anything since the VR started).

I knew Bakura would be out for a while, but I didn’t realize it meant everyone else wasn’t even going to once acknowledge it, it is baffling. I mean I get they’re super distracted right now but your friend is DEAD.

Honestly I would not mind if the big 5 succeeded and we had to see some old men try and work with Yugi’s hair and alt rock clothing, deal with Pharaoh sassing them from a brain labyrinth, go to Yugi’s school where people get savagely beat up like every other day, deal with Bakura and Marik trying to body snatch and other magic assholery during class breaks, and through all that watching the Big 5 attempt to take over the world with their megacorp that no longer sells guns but actually sells like...children’s entertainment supplies which include the dueling roombas from S1. How on Earth do they actually think that getting a body would help them at this point? They would be Yugi Muto and that is the last face anyone would ever take seriously.

Pharaoh pops up and is like “I guess we’re doing this right now? Really wish we weren’t doing this right now.”

Anyway, because they don’t physically exist in this digital world, neither do God Cards, or any other card in their deck. So, now they have to make new decks out of a pool. Very convenient for the writing team, bad news for Kaiba’s intense and vaguely romantic relationship with his Blue Eyes. Really glad we spent a full season talking about how much these cards meant to all these people, from the magicians, to Joey’s Red Eyes, and then that one card that was Mako Tsunami’s Dad or something--really glad we learned all of that to just completely erase it this arc.

I sounded sarcastic just now, I actually wasn’t for once, I am so glad to just purge my mind of all those card memories for a little while. Just allow myself to forget. Ah. My mind is already so much clearer. It feels so good. I am very much ok with this soft reset, I kinda needed it.

Since Yugi is supposed to choose a Deck Master from his set of cards for this particular type of duel monsters duel, he goes right for the dark magician--since that’s his MO, but for some reason Kuriboh chose himself? Like this greasy thing just hopped out of the card and played himself.

Anyway Kuriboh is now their new Pikachu and well...this show has done worse cute-character-that-does-literally-nothing-else type things to me, speaking of, lets see what Serenity is up to.

This is a digital hellscape, Serenity.

Serenity, you are going to die here.

Serenity.

So because I just realized just now in Season 3 that Duke’s necklace is a hot, over designed disaster (much like Duke himself) I figured I should like...see what this necklace is supposed to look like. So I typed into Google “duke devlin necklace” and guys, turns out there is a LOT of Yugioh jewelry--and I don’t mean like fanart (which there is also a lot), I mean like officially, a lot of people in this show wear a lot of jewelry and so it was sort of hard to find a good pic of a Duke Devlin specific necklace--especially since it feels like most people just go for the dice earring because that’s way easier.

But what’s interesting about the Duke Devlin necklace, at least from my quick search, is that when we bring it to the real world, it gets a little lost, like a game of telephone.

Cuz I assumed that was a clown on his necklace--and there’s quite a few clown necklaces, but I’m also seeing skulls, I’m seeing gothic crosses, I’m seeing spikes and knives instead of crosses. Bro thought it was a flower for some reason--I kinda blew his mind just now when I pointed out it was a clown. Some people think it’s made of silver, other people think it’s sort of painted? (I assumed the cross was entirely blinged out with rhinestones--my honest assumption) No one can actually agree. Especially since Duke apparently changed his necklace for the movie. I know that because it looks a lot like the Legend of Zelda emblem, and some people had the actual Legend of Zelda emblem mis-tagged as Duke Devlin. Which sucks a whole lot for their SEO, and sucked a whole lot for me in my search to find a real actual Duke Devlin necklace.

Like, feel free to attach a link to a reply -- is there an official physical Duke Devlin necklace that Yugioh inc sells? Like I just want to know--officially--what the hell I’m looking at.

Anyway, back to the show, much like everyone else, these two are hopelessly lost.

Kaiba seems to keep forgetting that his Dad is clearly behind all this and would obviously have his old tech but like...Kaiba forgets so much I can forgive him this.

So, faced with roads that lead no where, Tristan decides to do his tried and true method of solving all of his problems.

And at the other end of the VR zone Tea is getting kidnapped after...being kidnapped by Noah while she was already kidnapped by Marik. This is three levels of kidnap, yes?

OH SHOOT IS THAT A ONCE DOOR. DID SOMEONE DO WHAT I HOPE THEY DID? OH SHOOT.

I will read their fanfiction start to end I swear to you I will do it if it exists and I will report back to you who dates Captain Hook and who is related to Henry Mills.

OMG It didn’t exist.

You have got to be kidding me.

I am beside myself, this is the only property known to man that has not been turned into a OUAT fanfiction.

Incredible.

That or I’m just really bad at searching for fanfics since I haven’t actually read any since my LiveJournal days. Like, when you’re basically immune to shipping, as I am, you just really lose the desire to read about 90% of fanfiction.

Anyway, the closest we have to a OUAT Yugioh fanfiction, to my knowledge, is that cap I made just now right there. Your welcome, Once community.

This is absolutely made of load-bearing drywall. Why do none of the sets of windows line up with each other and how many stories is this? Like 2.5? And you can stand on the roof I guess because it has handrails? It’s super weird.

Anyway, I just made a OUAT joke and maybe it’s because I knew shortly after we were gonna get--that’s right--an orphanage flashback. OUAT was basically 6 seasons of effed up orphan flashbacks so I feel pretty well prepared. Like bro was worried how I’d handle this filler but y’all, I watched the Lily arc in OUAT. I can do anything.

*slaps hands together*

Totes ready for these boys to have been given up for adoption via a magical tree and a memory curse, only to find out their real parents are 3 years younger than them because of a time loop. Make it weird, Yugioh!

Anyway, as always, if you want a link to read these from the beginning in Chrono order and without any comments and all that jazz here’s a link

[mrscitty]

Anxiety Attack; Connor x Reader

You could see this as a continuation of my Connor Drabble but I’m not sure tbh! Have fun reading?

“I don't want to die!” The Deviant screamed, his gun pulled up, staring right in your eyes. His LED glowing a bright red. Everything happened so fast that you weren't exactly sure what happened. All you know is that you got separated from Connor and Hank.

You gulped, you didn't know what you were supposed to do. You weren't as long in the force as Hank nor where you a good negotiator like Connor. You also didn't have the reactions to pull your gun and shoot the Android before he shoots you.

“I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to talk.” you slowly begun. You saw Connor trying to negotiate a few times and now you tried your best to remember how he used to do it. What you noticed from him is that in the most situation the best approach is to calm the Deviant down as much as you can. They are under immense stress and don't know how to handle it. Something you could sympathize with sometimes if you were completely honest.

The Deviant let his arm fall for a second only to reinforce it back up, aiming back at you.

“I don't trust you! I have no reason to trust humans!”

“I know! But we can still talk, right? You can then decide if you want to trust me or not! I just want to help!” you yelled over at him. You just needed enough time so Connor and Hank reconvened back with you. Though you ran quite through a maze of building and just hoped that they'll find you sooner rather than later.

“Bullshit! Why would a human want to help, us? I am a Deviant and a Killing Machine just in your eyes!” the Android gritted his teeth.

“From the evidence we found it looked like you only tried to defend yourself! “ you took slowly a step forward, “Come with us and tell us what happened and help us understand you!” You desperately tried to gain his trust.

But the Deviant just looked at you with hurt and disdain. His former Master really was able to make this Android hate humans.

That's when everything happened really fast. You remembered hearing a shot, a scream, something hitting your side, you collapsing to the ground and blue blood splashing onto your face.

You looked down and saw Connor scrambling up from the ground trying to catch the Deviant who was now sprinting away. But instead of immediately running after it, he just looked around the corner the Deviant ran along and rather decided to turn back to you.

That's when it hit you. Connor pushed you away and got shot himself. It was his blood on your face. If he hadn't pushed you away, you would have been dead. You saw the bullet wound on his shoulder.

The world turned blurry. It was as suddenly the gravity of the earth pulled you down even stronger than usual making it difficult to breath. You knew you were still in some alleyway and yet you felt so distant from the world and the place.

Ringing for air you looked around. You saw Connor slowly approaching your shaking form. As sort of a reality check you looked at your hands which where shaking.

“(Y/N)?” Connor asked calmy as he knelt down next to you.

You shook your head. You wanted to say something but you were hyperventilating now. All you got out was “I....almost...” before you completely broke down in tears. It felt like your heart was pounding out of your chest.

There were so many instances where someone pulled a gun on you and yet here you were having an Anxiety Attack and this confusion as to why it happened now.

Connor gently put his hand on your cheek and wiped away the blue fluid from your face. He then proceeded to hold your head up so you had no choice but to look at him.

Connor looked worried for you. In a normal situation you would have smiled at that.

“Everything is alright.” He softly said. It surprised you. You never saw Connor like that. Being so gentle. He always insisted that he is just a machine and yet he acted so human on so many occasions.

Connor's LED turned from his blue light to yellow “Everything is good. You are safe and I'm making sure it will stay that way.” He then proceeded to wipe your tears away too.

Seeing Connor like that you just couldn't stop yourself from throwing yourself against him, hugging him while still crying. You didn't expect Connor to react in any particular way so it surprised you when you felt his arms around your back.

Grabbing onto him your breathing finally calmed down a bit. You took the chance to consciously trying to calm yourself down.

“I'm sorry.” you whispered finally when you were able to talk again. But Connor didn't say anything but he didn't let go as well. In fact he secured his arms more around your back. Pressing himself more against you.

You stayed like that for a few moments until you both heard someone cough.

Finally letting go of Connor you looked up to Hank, who had a shit eating grin on his face. Oh god. You wished you could say anything, anything that could wipe this god awful grin off his face but your eyes probably still looked puffy which would make anything you say redundant.

Connor looked at Hank and calmly said “(Y/N) here experienced an Anxiety Attack, so I tried to help her.”

Hank looked at Connor with content, nodded and turned back around “I'm gonna go back to the precinct and start with the paper work. Take the time off today, (Y/N). I'll deal with Jeffrey.” And with that he walked out of the alley.

You half expected Connor to follow him but instead he stayed with you.

“Hey, Connor? Thank you. I don't know why this just happened but I'm grateful that you helped me. You even let the Deviant get away.” you said as you turned towards him.

Connor nodded slowly with a smile “It just... It just seemed more important. I want you to be safe.”

[msbeccieboo]

Arrow 7x06 character brain dump

Wherein I attempt to collate my thoughts on the characters, in approximate order of the number of fucks I give about them at this point haha!

Felicity

Where to start?  Our Queen is KILLING it (almost literally for a minute there...phew!) this season and this episode continues to impress, damn she is taking everything down this year and I am living for it!  She is still managing to straddle being the light-emitting cupcake with bad bitch burning the world to the ground in that perfect Felicity way she has about her.  I was so impressed with her approach to the Anatoly situation; he is a wanted criminal and Bratva Pakhan...he can look out for himself just fine DIGGLE *through gritted teeth*!  She got the job done, Anatoly came out relatively unscathed (after she had already rescued him btw), and she still took the time to check up on him.  She is taking on the world to protect William and free Oliver and will do whatever it takes to do so and I love that.  I am still surprisingly really enjoying her working with BS, cos let’s face it, her other ‘friends’ are shit this year.  Felicity is arguably the most forgiving person in this show due to her enormous heart and capacity for empathy that few seem to share at the minute, so if BS stands any chance of ‘redemption’, Felicity will be leading the charge.  Would she have pulled the trigger on Diaz?  Not sure.  Do I wish she had?  Oooooh it would have been interesting!!  And her face when she hears Oliver is being released???  The relief, the happiness, the tear...uggghh Emily is so so good this year!!  I could go on and on about how awesome Felicity was this episode, but I won’t cos wow this is gonna be a long one haha!  

Bonus mention for Future Felicity...the fern!!...Oliver’s (tennis)balls!!...sending Will to Lian Yu to get Roy to shoot Oliver’s (tennis)balls??....Slight overkill for a dead woman.  100% sure she is still alive in the future timeline!  Oh and NOT EVIL...duh, it’s Felicity!!

Oliver

I LOVED Oliver’s conversations with BS in this episode (who knew that would ever be a thing I'd enjoy?!).  Much as I am enjoying BS this year, it’s still hilarious to see the shade (finally) directed at Fake Laurel.  Oliver tells her she’s not E1 Laurel, she’s not a real lawyer, she’s responsible to Diaz being loose...STAY AWAY FROM MY WIFE!!  Much as we all know Felicity can take care of herself, especially this year, I will never tire of Protective!Oliver, he loves her soooo much!  I think he’s in for a shock when he’s released (released in more ways than one hopefully 😉😉), as to the new dynamics outside, and the fierce new wife he now has!  I am super interested to see Oliver’s take on criminals and the justice system once he is out...he has developed a real empathy for the inmates over the last few episodes, and he looked so pleased, and dare I add grateful, at the investigation into the facility that BS arranged and how it would benefit the people still in Slabside.

In other news, this week Detective Queen investigates a murder and rats out the wrong inmate...oh STAN!!  We been knew!

Flash Forward Oliver...where is he??  Is he ‘dead’ too?  I think they could be trying to let us think this too, as no-one is asking about him AT ALL, and Felicity supposedly went dark?  Maybe they’re up teaching together in the big vigilante school in the sky....suuuure!

Black Siren

I think Boss Beth has achieved the unthinkable this year and made me care about, and actually be interested in Black Siren!  I don’t want to hate characters for the sake of hating them, but Laurel (and BS) was truly unlikeable and horribly written under MG’s watch.  She will never be my favourite, but look at her in third place as to characters I wanted to write about after this episode (Diggle who?)!  I wasn’t really on board with the redemption arc they seem to be crafting for her; I thought previously that she played far better as a campy villain-type....however, they are handling her so well this season that I find myself rooting for her more often than I am shouting at the TV at her!  She had the best breakthrough near the end of the episode when she told Oliver that she isn’t their LL, and isn’t trying to be E1 LL anymore, she is doing this for herself, but I guess that doesn’t mean her motives are entirely self-serving or not for the greater good.  She wants to try and be a ‘hero’, but keeps reverting back to old ways...so let her be the new Malcolm, I’m cool with that!

I think the biggest reason I’m enjoying BS is her relationship with Felicity...write a strong connection to Felicity and people will pay attention; she’s the heart of the show for most of us.  Is BS best mates with Felicity now?  No, but she is the only one who has been there for her consistently this whole season because they have a common goal of taking down the Lizard; Felicity to protect her family and save the city, and BS as revenge for last season and to avenge Quentin...and that puts her on my good list.  Once Lizard Boy is out of the picture (clearly it isn’t over, we saw the trailer for next week), who knows what their relationship will be like, but I’m betting Felicity won’t just forget about people who are ultimately trying to do good, despite their past (Oliver anyone?!)

Now I need to stop gushing about BS cos it goes against everything I once believed in....

Diggle

Diggle doesn’t get a gif; he doesn’t deserve one.  I’m getting to a point whereby I will stop caring at all about him; I’m sure (I hope) that the writers are intentionally writing him this way as part of his story arc or some crap but seriously, it’s not working...STOP IT!  Dig, it seems, struggles with keeping women in boxes (not like Anatoly was this episode)...Felicity and Lyla are pure and good and heaven forbid they should ever cross the line he has drawn for them.  Enough, this is the man who killed his own brother to keep his family safe, who followed and encouraged Oliver in nearly all of his less than brilliant decisions over the years, but Felicity asks for some not-entirely-squeaky-clean help and it’s game over??...fuck off!  He actually had the audacity in this episode to say that Felicity cut him out?  He is not of sound mind, or of this Earth, for sure lol!

I love John Diggle, I want him back please.

Anatoly

Oh Uncle Anatoly!  I think we’ve seen the last of him for the foreseeable future now haven’t we?  His parting gift of (rather happily) likening Felicity to Bratva!Oliver, and handing her a gun to kill Diaz with was....sweet??...in his own special way!

Future people 

I loved Roy and Dinah lamenting over how old they were haha!  Future Will continues to be Felicity’s biggest fan, even though she ‘abandoned’ him.  Thea is totally dead isn’t she?

NTA

Rene didn’t feature too much this week...I don’t mind that, I like him this year in small doses, and he continues (ish) to be one of the few people there for Felicity this year.  He has a total hard-on for the new GA still which is cute.

Dinah seems to have softened a bit with regards to Felicity and BS, and I awwwed at her stopping BS from killing the judge and kind of calling her a hero (even though she killed Vince..still a bit odd tbh).

I could literally list every extra rando inmate in with Oliver, thugs that beat up Anatoly, the box Anatoly was locked in, Lizard, Lizard’s socks...before I get to the lack of shits given about Curtis.  They missed his bday....bitch please!!  And then he tries to take credit for everyone working together at the end....errr no, that was what Felicity was trying to do since 7x01, only you all bailed on her, dickhead!

Sorry to end on a rant, but I really did enjoy this episode....really really!!

[katzirra]

You know, not that any of my followers care but rewatching V*tron has been a ride lmao. And honestly now that I'm ignoring how angry the fandom made me especially over season 7, I can actually appreciate what they did with Adam??

Throws this under a cut but for real I'm mad I didn't catch it better the first time?

Adam is introduced in season 7, episode 1 as Shiro's boyfriend/ fiancé. He dies in a flashback in episode 8 because the head of the Garrison is psycho, doesn't listen to Commander Holt, and literally orders Iverson to start lobbing cadets at the Galra.

Holy shit. No surprise, they all die. Adam, whom we know is top notch like Shiro, is the last of the first wave to die. As in, the best of the best is thrown to fight, and they ALL fail...

Fans lost their shit because they introduced this character - a gay character - and then killed him. People screamed how this show is shit, how it's the bury your gays trope...like... That trope refers to a main character, or denying a main character happiness by taking shit away. Shiro has time, dudes.

Shiro and Adam had a talk in episode 1 that showed them more or less breaking up - not viciously or anything.

It was understandable too! Shiro valued his dreams and ambitions more than his relationship, acting as if Adam would always be there when he got back. Which isn't fair to Adam. So he broached the subject. You can't have your cake and eat it too sort of thing. It was a very realistic... Break up.

Like I really appreciated it honestly and it's real. Fans made it seem abusive btw which was concerning... Then again, people also call the canonly gay character a predator pretty much so there's that too. I cringe at the things people who don't watch this show spread around...

But... Okay. The thing that sank in though, that scene is very...realistic. ADAM THOUGH!! Adam is a teacher. He's a pilot. He loves Shiro, but he can't handle how he is made to feel and we can't blame him at all for it. We're given a character that to some huge degree we wanna side with, but are also like???? BUT SHIRO!! It kinda was refreshing to see more of the times Shiro is selfish tbh. I have no doubt he was upset with splitting, but he's married to his goals and aspirations. That's... How some people are.

I like glimmers of real shit.

But I realized, Adam is there to be an emotional tether for the events in episode 8. He's introduced and given ENOUGH information, that they pretty much go 'okay, put a pin in that, we'll be back'

It sucks he's gay and his death is an issue I feel to a degree, but I don't think in this context it fits as a negative how people flipped shit? Like, were he to be killed by himself or targeted you know, absolutely, but from a storytelling perspective I'm really like OH....!! DANG!! He's the familiar face.

Episode 8 is essentially DEVOID of our main cast. We are hanging out with Commander Holt and hearing what happened on earth and the Galra attack. We see Sanda lose her shit, ignore Holt, we see Iverson demanded to lob cadets until we win, and there, then - we see Adam as a pilot talking on the run way as he goes to fly off to fight. It's a familiar face. We understand what's going on, and we have a sense of dread. We know what's going to happen and it SUCKS... The gravity of the situation is there as we see one by one the pilots are taken out. Adam is the last to be gunned down on purpose for us the viewer.

He's there to tether us and give emotional weight to the scene. We know WHO he is, where he fits in the universe... and we know that these events won't pan out okay.

From a storytelling perspective? That was a good move and I appreciate it the second time around, had I not been so irritated by people shitting all over it, I bet it'd hit better the first time?

The show isn't perfect, it's got flaws I'm sure, I don't go looking for reasons to bitch about any of the kids shows I like tbh. I can critique media but tumblr has...lost their fucking minds these days.

Storytelling-wise, I like how V does things. And if Adam weren't gay, had he just been Shiro's friend or room mate, I don't think anyone would have cared as much, but I still think the scene would have been just as good because he's a familiar face. We knew who he was, and recognized the trap he was going into, and how much that sucked. Narrative wise, I liked it. I'm sad for the loss of a character we could have grown to know or like, but... The show...shows gravity of war at times.

It's weird. But idk. It's not perfect, and I'm sure someone can argue it's not that deep, that's not what the writers were doing omfggg, but like....writers literally...fucking are paid to do this kinda shit?? They're paid to create CATCHES of interest lmao, which is what a familiar face in a bad situation always is!!

Tumblr is wild, man. I wish I felt comfortable talking about some of the writing things like that with any media anymore. Tumblr is uncomfortable anymore. I use to LOVE talking about writing in scenes and intentions vs perceptions and 'lenses' jfc.

Big robot smash feelings, augh.

[talesfromacrip]

d r e a m s:

———

———

(( I’m sick and tired of having nightmares that involve me getting lost, losing someone I deeply care about, or something just, really fucking terrible in general that seems like a good thing, but makes me incredibly sad ))

-

oneI was camping with some people I know. I was walking around and then I got lost. I ended up in a giant field

I was in the middle and called out, nothing came out. I was mute and then I could hear everyone and I ran back and somehow slipped down into a building of some kind? the dream transitioning

I was near a staircase of sorts and then I feel someone grab my back. They then push me backwards into it. I wake up

Nature is scary to me and I don’t like getting lost, but falling down the stairs to my death?? That was an actual thing I wanted to do.. it’s, horrifying to see it happen in a way and feel as well

-

A reoccurring one I have where I’m sittting in an office of sorts waiting to see a doctor. Everyone I knew was coming in and out at leisure once done with appointments and would look at me with a sort of plastic face after. Once it was my turn, I was inside instantly and met with a high backed chair. A woman’s voice spoke to me, asking me all sorts of questions I don’t remember but remember being asked. Felt like forever  In the end they turn around and it was me.. am I like, my own therapist and one for others in some ways? I don’t really know, but it was pretty strange 

-

Had one where I was at another mall/concert venue and this time it was to see some show. There were people running suddenly because someone had a fucking gun. I saw blurred out faces and could only stand there. Didn’t do anything, didn’t move as people ran past me

I then hear it pop somewhere near my ear, waking me up frantically after 

Reason I had this, and i know damn sure is bc there was a fucking shooting not even 15 mins from my house.. How lovely to know 

Like, wtf... I want to take people there when they visit, but now I don’t want to go near it and dreaming of it makes it worse bc I don’t want to even go out

...

I’ll probably just the other dreams up or maybe not, idk. depends

———

———

(( I don’t wanna wake up from them. I have a leave the server mood, which, is pretty awful.

I haven’t thought about that much. Occasionally I will, bu t not this bad.. sigh Internalized ableism is a bitch and so are other things, but shit

I’m glad I’m over something’s in my life,but some stuff just gets brought up again or happens.it overwhelms me so much..so fucking much ))

I hate having dreams of me in places I’ve never been too and never will for reasons that can’t be helped. Obvious ones 

Seeing people I know minding their own business or doing extraordinary things that I’m involved in which I know some will never happen or happen as I’d like

Dreams where I’m running from someone or maybe something? calling out into a dark and empty void. Falling, being alone in the action. Ughh

Dreams where I can’t go outside anymore bc there’s a wall. Kinda like in a video game to mark the end of a map boundary..

it’s like I’m in that black mirror episode of that woman trapped in her mind who can see outside while her body is on this, odd autopilot mode. I wake up feeling so empty bc of these dreams, upset, the whole pie essentially or less

My dreams feel so alive and it’s nice to feel that, but waking up and then having to deal with reality. sinks in pretty fast and hits you with a fatal heart bullet

sometimes I’m dying of heat from them or shortness of breath like I was startled or crying heavily, sometimes I wake up and try not to cry if it’s too much. I’ll occasionally go back to sleep but I’ll just end up in the same cycle essentially. I don’t want that

I start having mood swings from them and feel ashamed when I shouldn’t.it’s not fun to explain what happened in your tiny little head sometimes during the night hours. I act sort of, distant and bitchy in the process and i don’t mean to. I just,don’t like bringing up the same things and sometimes not

especially if someone I know is in them constantly and it’s, personal. Makes things awkward when talking with them 

———

———

I hate having dreams where I’m married to someone who I know doesn’t see me that way and it hurts my heart so much. At least it’s someone who actually cares about me 

I can’t do anything for them though and never will. hurts

idk why my brain thinks I c a n.. it’s a pretty sick joke tbh. Maybe I can do somethings, but not as I’d like. I want to do so much for them, but can’t at all..

I know they probably care about someone else anyway like that who’s just, wayyyy better than me in every way:l

Probably closer, can move easily better than me, nicer than me, more upfront. Not struggling with stupid parents and a stupid crippled lifestyle. Probably makes them extremely happy and not a sad ass mess. Probably  does better art than me, cooks better

Hell, I bet they even look better than me as well.. but who fucking knows?

I can’t even talk to them properly anymore it seems, probably think I hate them or don’t want to do anything with them when I want to so badly, but I just don’t say anything. I don’t want to hurt myself more, but I already am

I resort to small talk and whenever I don’t, I talk about some dumb shit instead of actually saying how I’m truly feeling and all that and it pisses me off..can’t even get married anyway :)) Like, thank brain and heart

I hate having these fluffy dreams of having this life with this person..a comfy one that’s so perfect it could melt your eyes from the sap it produces. It’s so warm, but oh so far away and out of my reach.. physical, mentally..

Obviously I don’t hate it, I just hate how my brain tortures me like this

Sometimes I’ll have dreams where they don’t see me, hear me.. just, ignore me completely. They talk about me like I never existed, say horrendous things.. I know they are not true but it just seems like it

———

———

I wish I didn’t have the ability to dream tbh. Sure it may be nice and everyone’s or somes, "favorite activity", but I just don’t really like it much anymore

My dreams hurt worse than reality and it makes my heartache so badly every time I wake up.. I have to put on my face though and just, go with flow as they say.. to just lay there though, every morning and not being able to do what you like, but can in another state, is so weird and confusing on the mind and body. Mine to be exact. Sure it may as well be the coolest thing ever and may help with your problems and such but it’s just heart aching in general. For me that is, sigh

-

I hate waking up feeling horny because I cannot do anything about it or touch myself as I’d like.. just, sad what more can I say on that?

I do feel happy occasionally from some dreams at times, but then reality hits me like an isekai truck right after and I’m kinda left in this weird empty state in the process when I wake up. -

I cope with them by being a silly ass or what seems to be like a rude bitch, but it’s difficult to just downright say what’s going on. don’t want to ruin anyone’s day with my problems and with everything going on, but I must and I never do? I try?? ughh.. If only I could be a bit better with handling things.

I’ll get there, eventually? We’ll see

———

———

I love and "hate" having dreams about living on my own without a care in the world. it’s as if I never had any problems to begin with; sun shining on my face as I realize over time it’s all just a facade and I’ll wake up soon bc it’s just, too perfect..

something is just, off completely? Like I’d ever have a place with stairs and inaccessible hallways and whatnot.. pshh, I’ve never really dreamt about living in an accessible place or anything like that much anyway  bc of the immense ableism put on me growing up

It’s hard to explain that to people as well and makes you feel, alien in some ways

I thought it was something silly I noticed, but over time it just made so sad bc I will never be able to live on my own and never will, but in my dreams I can. which makes it worse on me bc it’s just, not gonna happen champo

-

cooking foods I like and would like to, relaxing at my own pace with no yelling or screaming, opening the door to warm familiar faces.. hurts

I don’t have many scary anxiety induced dreams like I did last year and before. now they’re just, idk very abled and it’s weird and I don’t like em much  

Idk why i never noticed till the end I guess, but it’s better than dreaming of people who used to hurt you and made you feel like shit about your life and your friends as well so that’s a plus in its own ways

ughh, self torture is a bitch and she’s out to get me ughh

[disneymoviethoughts]

Thoughts I had while watching Beauty and the Beast

1.I'm sure everything I'm going to say has already been said but yolo. 2. The Beast's castle is definitely one of my favorites. 3. Stained glass goals. 4. If Adam had until his twenty first birthday to fall in love, and this was ten years ago, then Adam was eleven when he was cursed. 5. Kids are bratty, but not they-deserve-to-be-cursed bratty. 6. And don't tell me they were frozen in time because then how would his twenty first birthday arrive? 7. I think "Belle" might be my favorite song on the soundtrack. Don't @ me. 8. These people are all singing about how strange she is in front of her face. 9. I would've told everyone off by now. 10. That's a lot of books and a large bookstore for a town where no one except Belle reads. 11. As an avid reader myself, I would not be offended by people telling me I always had my nose stuck in a book. 

12. I was super upset that they took this scene with the sheep out of the live action version. It's so cute. 13. They just showed Gaston shooting a duck. I did not need to see that tbh. 14. I still can't believe that NO ONE in town can't or doesn't read. 15. "How can you read this, there's no pictures" lol and you want Belle to marry you, Gaston? 16. Honestly, I like this version of Maurice way better than his character in the live action. He's adorable. 17. I want Maurice to invent me something. 18. "Where have you taken us, Philippe" says Maurice who wanted to go down the dark and spooky path instead of the bright, lit path that Phillippe tried to drag him down. 19. Why are these wolves always hanging around outside the castle? Don't they have better places to find food than a place that no one comes out of? 20. I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't be mad if my furniture talked. Especially if I had a cup like Chip, the cutest character in the movie. 21. Cogsworth has always been amusing but who put him in charge? 22. Not letting a stranger in the house is what got you into this mess in the first place. Try being a little nicer, eh, Adam? 23. You can't just set up a wedding and expect Belle to say yes just because it's there. 24. If someone put their muddy feet on one of my books you best believe they wouldn't still be sitting there, let alone still talking. 25. Belle is handling this much better than I would. 26. Gaston is the worst kind of man. 27. Belle says she wants more than her provincial life and that she wants adventure but then marries Adam and stays in the castle. 

28. Belle leaves the castle gate open so that the wolves can get in later. 29. This is how all horror movies start, Belle. Stop exploring the abandoned castle. 30. The Beast hesitates to let Belle stay even though she's a girl and can break the curse, as opposed to Maurice who is an old man and...cannot. 31. I don't believe that after all these years of built up anger, the Beast would even feel slightly bad about keeping Belle when he could've let her go. 32. "Gaston" is a very catchy song and I enjoy it. 33. Does he own this tavern? Or does the bar just let him decorate the place with his portrait and antlers cause they think he's awesome? 34. I know no one believes Maurice that Belle is locked away, but don't they think it's suspicious that she's missing? 35. Is it a coincidence that Mrs. Potts is named Potts or do you think she was turned into a teapot BECAUSE her name was Potts? 36. And I wonder what injury Chip had to relate to being chipped. Or if he was chipped as a cup what it would translate to when he's human. 37. And similarly to Mrs. Potts, was his name Chip before or was it a result of his cup being chipped? 38. This movie has the biggest plot holes of all the Disney movies. 39. "She's so beautiful and I'm...look at me." Well isn't that the point of the curse, Beast? That she doesn't care what you look like? 40. Sometimes the Beast runs on all fours and sometimes he walks like a person. This annoys me. 41. Belle started the revolution for independent bad ass Disney princesses. 42. I know the whole point was that Adam was arrogant and selfish but I'm sure he still remembers how to treat a lady. He's still a prince. 43. Even if he was only ten, he would've had etiquette lessons. 44. I want a talking wardrobe. It would stop me from looking like a twelve year old when I left the house. 45. Why are all of the enchanted objects the only French people in this entire French town? 46. I'm not gonna lie, if I were Belle, I'd let everyone stay enchanted. I mean, who wouldn't want dishes that move on their own or a stove that cooks for you? It's a lazy person's dream come true. 47. "Be Our Guest" is a fun song too and I like the dance sequence. Thank you, Alan Menken, for all you have done for Disney music. 48. Does anyone else think this song would make a great club banger if it were remixed? I'd dance to it. 

49. After all of that, she didn't even eat. I would never let that food go to waste. 50. "If it's not baroque, don't fix it" all of these classic lines are cut from the live action and I didn't know I missed them until now. 51. Honestly, I'm a curious person too, and I'd definitely go up to the West Wing to explore. 52. The promise of a library would distract me more than my need to find out what was in the West Wing. 53. I still don't know why Belle would take the glass off. It's protected for a reason! 54. On the other hand, it IS enchanted, so nothing probably would've happened. 55. Look how easy it is for her to leave. 56. Was Philippe out there the whole time in this blizzard? That is not safe. 57. There really are a LOT of wolves in this forest. 58. The wolves waited until the Beast showed up to attack his gigantic self, instead of attacking a tiny girl when they had the chance. 59. Belle yelling at the Beast as he yells at her is so me. 60. She's not my favorite princess, but she is certainly the one I identify with the most. 61. Sorry, Gaston, but throwing Maurice in an insane asylum won't make her want to marry you more. 62. I want a puppy slash foot rest. It's the best of both worlds. 63. "I've never felt this way about anyone" says the Beast, who has we know was ten when cursed. And in that time, he has been a beast. So when would you have had time to fall in love? 64. Honestly a library would get me. Especially that one. It's freaking gorgeous. What I could do with a library like that. 

65. Men, if you have a library, I'm available. 66. I wonder how long it's been. Has she been gone for a day? A week? I need answers. 67. I know he's been an animal for ten years but I'm sure he remembers how to use a spoon. 68. "Something There" is actually an adorable song. 69. Cogsworth says they have twelve hours to create the most romantic setting before the last petal falls, but there's no way the rest of the movie takes place in only twelve hours. 70. Why do only some of the objects in the castle have faces and can talk? 71. I have the extended edition with the bonus song "Human Again" and I highly recommend listening if you haven't heard it. 72. Does anyone else think it's a recipe for disaster that a candle is in love with a feather duster? The Enchantress is a troll.  73. There's like five petals left on the rose. I just feel like I should point that out. 74. "Beauty and the Beast" is yet another iconic song by Menken and the animation in this scene is absolutely gorgeous. 

75. I wish I could pull off that kind of yellow without looking like a pasty child. 76. If I had a mirror that showed me what I wished to see, I would use to spy on Zac Efron. 77. Belle leaving doesn't necessarily mean she was never coming back, she just needs to go save her father real quick. 78. Also we already knew she loved him at this point so the curse should technically be broken. Maybe she has to say it. 79. The owner of the asylum is the creepiest man ever. 80. Maurice sees all these people mocking him yet still chooses to rant about the Beast. 81. I think it's cool that the only reason Gaston wants to go after the Beast is because Belle would rather fall in love with someone who looked like an animal than someone who was handsome. 82. This scene with all the furniture attacking the villagers is the best. 83. Chip saves the day and cements his place as my favorite character in this movie. 84. Gaston has a bow and arrow instead of the guns he talked about having which is great for us watching but not efficient for Gaston's plan. 85. This fight between Gaston and the Beast is seriously intense. 86. Fun fact: you can see skulls in Gaston's eyes as he falls off the tower. 

87. Belle saying "it IS you!" is the dumbest freaking line in any Disney movie. HE CHANGED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. 88. God that part always annoyed me, especially because she knew he was cursed, saw his portrait as a human so she knows what he looks like, and, once again, changed right in front of her. She's not stupid and I'm not sure why the animators made her say that.                                                                             89. Sorry, I have a lot of feelings about this.  90. I wonder if Belle still would've chosen to kiss him if he was still covered in fur. 91. 10/10 would watch a movie of just Lumiere and Cogsworth. 92. I would ship Mrs. Potts and Maurice, not gonna lie.

[manoharis]

A Year in Review: Telugu Movies!

You can’t pay me to watch these (aka watch me roast them in 10 words or less)

Dictator - a Bala Krishna movie without animals in the title!

Krishnashtami - wyd Sunil.

Terror - the title aptly describes my feelings about this movie.

Guntur Talkies - lets just not. more like gun-to-ur head after watching this.

Attack - this wins for having a director and actor that Idc about!

Edo Raakam Ado Raakam - edho raakamaina torture.

Thikka - ee cinema choosaka vacchedi adhe

Jaguar -  just when you’ve thought twood’s exhausted the possible feline comparisions

I really really dont care:  Savitri, Raja Cheyyi Vesthe, Abbayitho Ammayi, Killing Veerappan, Express Raja, Naruda Donoruda, Hyper, Speedunodu, Garam, Nayaki

Nenu Sailaja -I had a lot of expectations for this movie because it was said to be “fresh” but there was really nothing new here. I loved Ram’s look, some of the comedy and most of the songs. Worth a watch but nothing ground-breaking. 

Nannaku Prematho -  A for effort? I just couldn’t connect to the film because I felt like the emotion was kind of artificial and didn’t really pull me in. I couldn’t get behind a lot of the “logic” in this film. Also there disruptive bgm in every scene which made it really hard to focus on the film. 

Soggade Chinni Nayana - I feel like this movie was targeted towards middle aged aunties lol. I love Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna but there were one too many scenes where I was hiding my face from embarrassment. On the plus side, all the sarees in the movie were gorgeous !

Lacchimdeviki O Lekkundi - messy because of all the back and forth plot twists. Horror comedy is literally my least favorite genre so I didn’t like this.

Seethamma Andalu Ramaya Sutralu - below average; I don’t have much to say about this. If I hadn’t watched it, this would belong in the ‘I really don’t care’ list.

Krishnagadi Veera Prema Gaadha - I think I was drowsy when watching this (not because of the movie) so I honestly don’t remember anything but the beginning portion which was really funny. I need to rewatch this.

Malupu - I always love a good thriller but it could’ve been better. Aadhi Pinnisetty’s voice tho !!

Kshanam - FAVE !!! This was so good! again always down for a good thriller. Super gripping and just the right pace. I loved how in this the love story was relevant to the script. It was very well written, acted, and taken as well in terms of technicalities. I can definitely see it getting awards next year.

Kalyana Vaibhogame - The first half was loud and messy which made me almost stop watching it. With a premise like this, the story is extremely predictable, as in you knew the lead pair would fall in love eventually, it was just a matter of when. I thought the second half was pretty cute though.

Shourya – I know this is biased of me but I can’t remember the last movie of the Manchu brothers that I’ve seen because the kind of movies they make are just so not my type. However, when this movie came out I did hear some positive talk for it on twitter. But then it wasn’t talked about at all after like a week? So I’m not exactly sure how successful it was. I may watch it eventually but I’m not dying to see it lol

Run- This was the remake of Neram by Sundeep Kishan (side note: I really like Sundeep, so I was annoyed that he was doing a remake). I didn’t hear much about this either after the first week so I don’t think it did that well. However, I do want to watch it because I’ve been trying to watch Neram since forever but I could never find it with subtitles so I guess this is my chance to watch it, but a lesser version ofc. Although one of the main reasons I wanted to watch was for Nivin and Nazriya so this doesn’t really do much more me lmao

Oopiri – I haven’t seen the original so I really liked this! S/o to Nagarjuna for realizing fairly quickly that its time for him to more age appropriate roles (take notes @ chiranjeevi). This is why the Akkineni’s are my fave! (my bias is showing so much in this post but do I really care). anyways, I loved the chemistry between Karthi and Nagarjuna cause lbr their bromance was the real love story in this. Shriya’s appearance made the childhood shipper in me super happy. Overall, an enjoyable film with some great performances. 

Sardaar Gabbar Singh – The amount of hype this movie had, jfc. Tbh I don’t have anything major against Pawan Kalyan. He’s just not one of my favorites, and ngl I liked him in the early 2000s phase (i.e. before Gabbar Singh which is when his fans went to piccha peaks). His fan base is literally one of the worst. I just think they’re super extra and very disrespectful, esp at audio launches. So yes, I was happy that it flopped because one it put the pk fans in their place who were hyping this to no end. Also he wrote the story and screenplay for this and reading some reviews about that gave me life lmao. If you want to hear something good about this movie, Kajal looks stunning in all her princess-y clothes and a few of the songs are pretty good. 

Sarrainodu – I actually haven’t seen this yet but I do want to. Here I go being biased again lol. If this starred anyone I didn’t care for, I would have no interest in this movie but because it’s the fave, Allu Arjun, I have to watch it. I like a lot of the video songs and the music actually grew on me when I was forced to listen to it A LOT in India over the summer. Also he looks hella good, I’m sold, bye. 

Supreme – Ok this movie was huge in India over the summer. Everyone loved it and ngl I used the phrase “its amazing zing zing” about a thousand times among my cousins without even having seen it. I tried watching it once I got back and it was just too much loud comedy for me to handle and I never finished it. 

Brahmotsavam – oh lord. TOO SOON. Jk, I’m over it. Easily the biggest disappointment of 2016 in terms of what was promised and what was delivered. I literally followed this movie since it was even rumored to be happening because Mahesh and Sreekanth Addala. Then Mickey J Meyer was brought on and then Samantha and I was just so hyped. I think the fact that I was dying to watch this in theaters and then I didn’t even want to watch it once it was online, says a lot. I was just really shocked that everyone, fans and non-fans alike panned it especially when it involved sooo many people. The second hand embarrassment is too real. But I did eventually watch it and what the actual hell. There was literally no story, no coherence, and way too many irrelevant characters. Mahesh has a pattern of delivering blockbusters after massive flops so here’s hoping the best for his next!

A…Aa: I have so many feelings about this movie. Trivikram is one of my most favorite directors/writers and has been for a long time. With Attarintiki Daredi, I was pretty disappointed that he went full on commercial and I thought he lost some of his touch. That changed a bit with Son of Satyamurthy (but I feel like a majority of the reason that I liked that movie is bc of Allu Arjun lol). But yeah anyway, A…Aa is still a very commercial movie, its not in any way niche. However, I think Trivikram finally struck the balance of substance and commerciality which made it an entertaining movie while also leaving you with something to think about. The story was actually very simple and something that’s definitely been done before, but the screenplay had Trivikram’s name all over it. It was apparent in every single dialogue. He also pulled out some spectacular performances that were subdued but well done. I remember Samantha saying in an interview that because this is Trivikram’s third movie with her, he knows when she’s reusing an expression which forced her to improve her performance. When the movie was announced, I was kind of disappointed that Nithiin was in it because he’s never been a favorite of mine but I fell in love with him after this. I think in a lot of his movies he tries to do the typical commercial hero act and its obvious that he borrows heavily from Pawan Kalyan’s style. But in this his characterization was very subdued and painted him as  a common guy which made him a lot more likable. It was also easier to ship the lead pair because the star aura tends to overshadow the chemistry but here I was really able to see the characters instead of the actors behind them. I just wished the story was more unique but otherwise a really good movie!

Okka Ammayi Thappa - Sundeep really needs to promote his movies more because they always seem to go under the radar. I was actually really excited for this because Sundeep & Nithya as the lead pair. I’m pretty sure its one of those movies that takes place in the span of a single day which I love bc if you can stretch a day into a full film, its gotta be one hell of a day. Not sure if this was a hit or not but I definitely want to check it out once its online.

Gentleman – (Spoiler Free). This was pretty good! A nice balance of romance and suspense. The story was intriguing and the performances were well done. I didn’t like the comedy though. The situational humor was fine but I hated the comedy track and I felt like it made the movie so much slower than it needed to be.

Oka Manasu - I was so hyped for this cause I love Naga Shourya and Niharika but apparently this was very slow and boring. I hope this doesn’t discourage Niharika from doing more movies because tollywood really needs some actual telugu actresses. (Side Note: Allu Arjun’s speech at this movie’s audio launch !! He basically called out the PK fans in a long 10 mins lecture and it gave me lifeee)

Pelli Choopulu - FAVE!!! Truly a new age rom com. I watched this in a theater in India and I loved it! The story was fresh, engaging, and hilarious. I loved how the characters were very realistic and reflective of actual youth and not hero-like at all. Also s/o for the strong female characterization !! You go Chitra! I think it did an amazing job of combining comedy, romance, social issues, and emotion into a very believable and enjoyable film. And not to forget the music which is so so good. Also, I’m gonna quote this movie in my grave. 

Manamantha - I looove movies that have multiple inter-related stories. The four characters and their respective stories were written well with each character tackling a unique situation. Overall, I liked it, but it definitely could have been better.

Srirasthu Subhamastu - I watched this in India and it was nice to see it on the big screen because the best part of this movie was the grandeur of production. Starring in a movie produced by your father clearly has its perks. I don’t really care about Allu Sirish but he’s still pretty new so to be fair he was pretty good in this. The story is very very routine and predictable but I remember liking the dialogues

Babu Bangaram - I don’t think this was a hit? But fiiinally, Venky in a movie that’s not a remake, which ofc didn’t last long cause his next is a remake smh. 

Janatha Garage - This movie was apparently the biggest hit of 2016 in terms of box office and imo its not deserving. The trailer for this movie made it seem really good but it was a disappointment in the end. The thing with Koratala Siva’s movies is that he always has a good social message but then commercializes it way too much. I understand what he’s trying to do but I wish he’d cut down on the violence and focus on the actual issue. This couldve been a really amazing movie about environmentalism but it turned into something really routine. Im also annoyed that a stellar cast of NTR, Mohanlal, Samantha, and Nithya was wasted on such a mediocre movie.

Jo Achyutananda - This was pretty good. As per the director’s style, it was very simple with life-like characters. The story was very interesting but I thought it was pretty anti-climactic and definitely could have been taken to another level. S/o for Nani’s cameo towards the end which sadly was the only male eye candy (sorrynotsorry).

Majnu -  Even though this is Nani’s movie and I usually have high expectations for his movies, I didn’t expect much from this. The movie didn’t offer anything spectacular. The plot started off pretty interesting but then went the routine rom- com path. It gets a fair share of laughs and the music is fabulous but otherwise underwhelming.

Abhinetri - I haven’t seen this yet and I don’t really care tbh but I’ll probably watch it eventually.

Mana Oori Ramayanam - This seems really interesting from the trailer. Definitely a niche film and I don’t think it did well commercially but I want to see it.

Premam - What do I say about this that won’t get me hate lmao. I haven’t seen this yet but it received pretty good reviews as well as commercial success. I don’t support remakes ofc but I know I’ll end up watching this eventually. I’m glad that Naga Chaitanya is back on track again ?

Saahasam Swasaga Saagipo - I really want to watch this because romance + thriller is my faaave. I don’t think this was that big of a hit but Im still excited to see it. The album is amazing and I assume the bgm will be as well. Also s/o for Naga Chaitanya’s look in this movie which is his best yet imo. Is it just me or has he become so much more attractive now that he’s unavaible lol.

Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada - I haven’t seen this yet, but heard that it was really good! Seems like another Karthikeya-type movie? Who would’ve guessed that Nikhil would be most successful actor from the Happy Days gang (besides tamanna ofc).

Jayammbu Nishchayambu Raa - same as above ^, haven’t seen, heard it was good.Other than that, I’m glad a small film got acclaim.

Dhruva - How much credit can you give to a remake ? I haven’t seen this or the original but I know I’ll probably like it. 

Overall I think 2016 was a pretty good year for movies with many of the successes coming from small budget films which seems to be an increasing trend in Tollywood. The fact that Sardaar Gabbar Singh and Brahmotsavam were total box office disasters even though they starred arguably the two biggest stars in TFI shows that the majority of audiences crave content over star power which I’m all here for!