#I’m not even saying he’s a poorly written or shallow character

[therese-lokidottir]

Fucking pissed off at all the retconning of Loki’s backstory and his pain in the series. And how it rendered people virtually blameless according to some fans. The more I read, the more annoyed I get.

It’s not Thor, The Warriors 3, and Odin’s fault anymore they were so awful, it wasn’t that Loki was outcasted for being different- It’s the TVA making them that way because Loki should be a villain. Loki was born to be a villain. Also Odin “loves” Loki and Loki should have appreciated that.

Rightful king of Jotunheim? Wrong! Loki was just born to be a buttmonkey villain. It’s not his birthright. Infact, let’s not touch Loki’s self hatred over his heritage to the point people don’t even know he’s a frost giant if they haven’t seen any of the previous films.

It’s not Thanos who sent Loki- It’s the TVA who made him that way because Loki should be a villain and is naturally evil. Also he was mad at his Brother and Father and had a tantrum.

And Dark World and Hell, even Ragnarok where Loki does fucking GOOD deeds? Ignored. Loki should be a villain. He’s never done any good deeds ever and was always a villain cuz he has the TVA pulling his strings. (Let’s face it, the MCU dislikes Thor 1 and Dark World.)

All of his trauma seems to be retconned and all the people who hurt him are now considered blameless because they were puppets too, basically. Loki is supposed to be an evil punching bag and nothing more. It sucks his relativity away. It sucks his moral grayness away. It sucks his trauma away as “Not actually real, really. No one hurt him- or at least no one to blame hurt him. He’s just the evil punching bag of the MCU, but like it’s not the TVA’s fault either cuz they saved him and are just doing their job, and were brainwashed, or some shit. 🤷🤷” Fuck this series, fuck Waldron. This series has such a terrible understanding of nihilism and an anti-Free will message to boot, it’s not as smart as it thinks it is. No one writing on this liked Loki or knew anything about him, and it’s clear. And now the writers have the absolute nerve to say that “Asgard was Toxic to Loki and he finally has people who care about him”? Now???? When the people who “cared” were probably just as bad if not worse than Asgard???? I’m sorry for ranting- I’m just so annoyed. This is why nothing in the series will ever be canon to me and what they’re saying now is annoying. Not even the series Variant of Loki is canon to me. :( Fuck the TVA plot. (I’m beginning to wonder if the writers see people who were outcasted and othered as “pathetic”……)

Yeah, I get it I've made my rants as well

Really, the entire premise of the series and the TVA have an implication no one seem to realize and that they don't actually want to explore. It's frustrating because really what it is that no one is any certain way, it just that anyone who goes off the path is murdered.

The Loki of the void fighting of the example of how both shallow the writing is and how it contradicts and doesn't even explore its own concepts. They say Lokis who try to fix themselves end up in the void, but then it just goes with the idea that Loki is evil and selfish. So, why even have that line at all?

It's such a poorly written show that because of its need to make loki to be terrible any interesting end up going down the drain. Also, because it's so unclear what the actual rules are. There are no implications of what is actually true vs what the characters are claiming so you have to take what the characters say at face value and that is frustrating and often contradictory to what was established early in canon.

[natequarter]

I haven’t seen Ghosts season 5 Christmas episode. Should I avoid it altogether? Because that’s the vibe I’m getting from other fans... 😬

i'd recommend watching it to form your own opinion, because it seems to be quite divisive, but i'll be blunt: i hated it. ignoring the actual content of the episode, i personally found it shoddily structured and poorly written - it wastes two thirds of the last ever episode on a pointless plot with mike's mum which comes to nothing; none of the jokes truly land in the same way that they do in every other episode of ghosts; and, worst of all, the characters revert to shallow copies of their former selves. thomas is whiny and obsessive, kitty is jealous and needy, fanny literally repeats a line from series one word for word - and robin is suddenly invested in christmas even though, despite coming round to christmas, i wouldn't say he truly loves it by the end of series four. as for the ending, i also didn't like that - i felt it to be quite empty, in comparison to what i had hoped for - an open-ended finale where alison keeps the ghosts. not to mention, it contradicts the very ending of the last series, and i don't love the implications of "baby = abandoning found family." if you're looking for a conclusive ending to ghosts that fits with the tone of the previous series, i personally wouldn't recommend it at all - but if you want to know for yourself, then it may be worth watching.

[watermelonsloth]

Sakura’s Character Motivations

I want to talk about the obsession/crush/love Sakura has towards Sasuke, specifically why I think it garners as much hate as it does in comparison to the other characters. Yes, other characters, and not just female ones. There are plenty of characters motivated by men in the Naruto series(though not women, but that’s a-whole-nother post). Naruto wants to bring Sasuke back, Sasuke wants to kill Itachi, Hinata wants to be like Naruto, Gaara wants to be like Naruto, all of team Taka is motivated by Sasuke in some way, Shikamaru wanted to kill Hidan then to carry on Asuma’s legacy, Deidara wants to fight Orochimaru and Itachi, etc. The Naruto series is about the bonds between people, so, go figure, a lot of characters are motivated by the relationships they have/had. However, people within the fandom almost exclusively talk about how Sakura is motivated by Sasuke. I’m gonna try answering why.

Sexism

To be clear, I’m not actually accusing anyone of anything here. I see a lot of people (on Tumblr) accuse the people who hate Sakura/Hinata as simply being sexist. I don’t know these people’s experiences nor do I know what part of the internet they’re on, but my experience with the male side of the Naruto fandom is them being really into power-scaling. Yes, I’ve come across the occasional objectifying joke, but those are more of the exception than the rule some of these posts may lead you to believe. Of course women can be sexist too, even towards their own gender, but those cases are also the exception. That’s all to say that people’s sexism may be a factor, but it seems to be greatly magnified by certain parts of the fandom.

Now that I’ve checked off my tangent for this post, let’s get to my point.

I think people, primarily women, hate Sakura’s love for Sasuke as a response to past experiences with sexism and poorly written female characters. A lot of women already enter male-directed series with extremely low expectations for the female cast and it trains them to be on the lookout for red flags in the female character writing. So, when the heroine we’re supposed to root for is introduced with her position in the love triangle, followed by her being a vain brat(even if she promises herself to be better), and then it’s revealed she’s motivated by her crush on a boy, a lot of women roll their eyes and pull back. Yes, being motivated by your crush at twelve is realistic. Yes, a lot of male characters in this series are also motivated by men. But the issue is over saturation. When a male character is motivated by a man, it’s just another of the many motivations a male character can have. When a female character is motivated by a man, it is a rehash of a motivation already done to death that is associated with damsel in distress heroines.

Of course many female fans don’t care about Sakura’s subplot with Sasuke, they’re sick of female characters having the men in their lives be the most important part of their character.

Lack of Depth

Something else that makes Sakura’s relationship to Sasuke stand out as easy to hate is it’s noticeable shallowness. Let’s compare it to Sasuke and Naruto’s motivations for a second:

Sasuke’s brother killed their entire clan for seemingly no reason. Because of this, he swears to avenge and restore his clan. So, for the entire series Sasuke is either motivated by killing Itachi or carrying Itachi’s legacy with him(literally represented by Amaterasu). Throughout the series his motivation is given more depth, it changes with Sasuke, it carries him through twists and turns, it asks questions about humanity and society.

Naruto grew up in social isolation that caused him to resent his home village while also craving its attention. Multiple characters are relevant to this part of his character, but Sasuke is the most important. Sasuke was one of the first people to openly acknowledge Naruto and that made him incredibly important to him. Because he’s so important, Naruto doesn’t want to see him get hurt or spiral, so Naruto does his best to prevent both. Throughout the series, this motivation stays mostly stagnant but it stays interesting because Naruto has to change his methods to both fit Sasuke’s changes in motivations and to juggle the other responsibilities he tries to take on. This relationship also asks most of the most thematically relevant questions of the series.

So, how does Sakura’s motivations hold up? What makes Sasuke so important to her? How do her motivations or methods change throughout the story? Uhhhhhh… To put it mildly, they don’t hold up(or at least for the most part, but I’ll get to that). We never get a canon reason for Sakura to “love” Sasuke. No, attraction is not love and it doesn’t explain away the lengths she goes for someone who clearly doesn’t reciprocate her feelings. No, Sasuke being a decent teammate isn’t a reason either. You don’t “fall in love” with every peer that’s decent towards you(are you trying to marry whoever pulls their weight in a group project???).

I’ve heard arguments that her lack of explicit reason is to symbolize “unconditional/pure love.” I’ve also heard that it’s following a Japanese cultural belief that love without reason is pure love. I don’t wanna shit on a whole culture but I also don’t trust SasuSaku fans that say that because 1. SasuSaku fans have lied about Japanese culture in the past to make their ship look better and 2. I have found this idea nowhere else. So I’m just gonna ignore that in this post, but feel free to site a source or explain this to me if I’m wrong.

Not giving reason behind Sakura’s “love” is just plain bad writing. It shoots her motivation in the foot before she goes to run a marathon. By not giving her motivation reason behind it, it limits the amount of people that will get invested in her character, it limits what can be done with her character, and it characterizes her as a shallow person motivated by shallow things. And I can’t imagine that Kishimoto was trying to make her a shallow character because that part of her character is never addressed in the story.

But maybe this isn’t a Sakura thing, maybe it’s a female character thing. After all, Naruto is one chapter away from being known for the bad writing of its female characters. Except the other female characters do have more complex motivations. Hinata wants to be like Naruto because she wants to overcome her inferiority complex caused by years of abuse by her family. Tsunade carries the legacy of her dead loved ones because of the expectations placed on her by the village and years of grief. Konan wants to achieve Yahiko’s dream of world peace because she grew up in an active war zone and watched him die and Nagato lose his mind trying to save her.

Sakura has no reason to have this simple of a relationship with Sasuke, especially when she’s supposed to marry him at the end.

Lack of Other Things Going On

Sakura is a main character, but she doesn’t have anything going on outside of her male teammates(at least in regards to motivations). Naruto wants to become Hokage, Sasuke wants to restore his clan, Sai is trying to understand his identity and others, Yamato is trying to build a life of his own. Sakura wants to become strong enough to not be a liability for her male teammates(a goal that is also debatable in how well it was achieved). Sure, Kakashi also doesn’t have much of anything going on outside of his teams(he wants to help Naruto achieve his goals and to move on from the tragedy of Team Minato). Except, both of his goals have depth while Sakura’s goal related to Sasuke doesn’t and her goal related to strength isn’t given enough time or attention to grow(ha ha, get it). If both, or even one with how low the bar is, did get the depth they deserve, I’m sure she’d be treated much more similarly to Kakashi by the fandom.

Failed Potential

If there was one way to describe Sakura’s character writing, it would be with “failed potential.” There’s a lot of things set up for Sakura’s character(genjutsu, Inner Sakura, her rivalry with Ino, getting bullied in the past, parallels to Kakashi’s teammate that killed herself and the Fifth Hokage who’s motivated by her grief, etc.), but most of it doesn’t get any proper pay off. Her motivations could be interesting, but they’re never given the chance to. Case and point: the Five Kage Summit arc.

Although I have a past of loathing the Five Kage Summit arc, I now find it to be one of the most interesting arcs of the Naruto series. In this arc Sakura is forced to face the fact that both Naruto and Sasuke are spirally and, despite her want to help, she hasn’t been able to do much of anything for them, just like she feared. On top of that, Sasuke now officially has a kill order on him, meaning that she now has to choose between her feelings for him and her loyalty to her village. And what makes it more interesting: she chooses the village! Since the bell test, the series has been building up the idea of prioritizing friends over orders and Kakashi was trying to ingrain that in his students and Sakura subverts that expectation! And it’s not because she’s insensitive, it’s because she’s empathetic. She asks the question that should’ve been asked a long time ago: “What right does she and Naruto have to prioritize Sasuke over everyone else?” She realizes that Sasuke has moved on to hurting people other than herself and Naruto and those people didn’t choose to take on that pain like them. In the Five Kage Summit arc almost all of team 7 fuck up in some major way, but it’s Naruto who’s being the selfish one in this regard. He’s choosing Sasuke’s life over justice for his victims and he’s making that decision without treating it with the nuance it deserves(yes he’s trying to stop the cycle of pain but he isn’t taking the need for justice into account). But Sakura is taking the needs of the victims into account and she’s trying to prevent Sasuke from hurting himself and others any more.

Then, when she tries to go through with it, she chokes. People shit on her for this, but it’s realistic. Since the Land of Waves arc, the series has been trying to say that shinobi aren’t tools, they’re human beings. And human beings can’t just shut off their feelings for others even when they think it’s the right thing to do.

Sakura is acting more in character than ever before and she hasn’t been this interesting since the Chunin Exams! This is the Sakura we could’ve have gotten! This is the Sakura Kishimoto is capable of writing!

This is why I and at least a few others have such mixed feelings towards Sakura. We like what we see when we get glimpses of what she could’ve been, but we know that’s not what she is.

[eowynstwin]

Wait can I ask why you dislike König? That’s not me trying to start shit— I’m not really well-versed in any of the lore stuff so I’m genuinely curious. I know there’s been issues with people replacing Gaz with him (which is fucked up to the max wth) so is that the reason or is it something else? Like, some people dislike Rudy because we see virtually none of him (heard someone say he’s got the personality of a microwaved paper plate lol).

MICROWAVED PAPER PLATE??? I’ll get to König in a minute but GODDAMN. Did they not take the time to go through the campaign?? Rudy’s personality is so clear to me I could list five traits of his right now. He’s my BOY. But you didn’t ask about him so I digress.

Anyway, the reason I dislike König is indeed due to the fandom’s obsession with him. König is one very tiny part of Modern Warfare and yet he’s one of the most popular characters in this fandom.

I genuinely think, on the part of most fans, that it comes from somewhere very shallow. König wears a mask, is tall, and is good at fighting. But we have no sense of who he is as a person (other than warzone voice lines), no background, no hint of a character arc. The only thing we know about his personality is that he’s got social anxiety, and I’m not even sure that’s canon.

There’s some appeal, of course, that I can understand—a blank slate offers greater creative freedom within the realm of transformative work. It’s just that, excluding a few noteworthy exceptions, I don’t think anyone does anything interesting with König. Most of this fandom is poorly written porn, wildly ooc domestic fantasy, or bad, juvenile kink. Using a blank slate like him in that kind of work is very demonstrative of what is valued most about him, and it isn’t the richness of his character; it’s the fact that he has so little character that people can project whatever they want onto him.

So, lol, that’s why I don’t like König. I think he has far too little substance to get excited about, but fandom, due to its inherent bias toward milquetoast white men, gets excited anyway.

[gammagoop]

my recent fixation has been the wings of fire book series since ive been rereading it, which i feel is not very related to any of my other interests and so i havent posted much about it. but i literally have “post whatever i want” in my bio so i’m not going to let the whims of an audience stop me any longer

all that to say heres some of my series opinions in the form of tierlists

(not including 3rd arc bc i havent gotten there on my reread and i dont remember it very well)

character tierlist! (added the legends: darkstalker characters manually since they weren’t in the tiermaker version)

notes:

mightyclaws is my background character fave. category 10 glup shitto event

i need to do a long post on how much i love whiteout. another day

i realy like clay in the first book and if he retained the same level of depth throughout the series he would be in the top tier-- its just that his writing makes him so shallow in the rest of the books it makes me so sad :[ i was listening (audiobook) to hidden kingdom and like. 90% of his lines/actions were about food and the other 10% were about protecting the other dragonets..... i related so much to his anxiety in the first book and his empathy and his ability to see both sides of things... gah. sad.

jambu is also one of my glup shittos. i love his whimsical ass

foeslayer is a hard one for me because she never did anything wrong she's just..... not as present as i wish she was. she's treated as a very vital character with how many large plot points hinge on her, but she doesnt have much agency herself. its stated a lot that she's extremely important to darkstalker but in the legends book we dont see much of them interacting? idk. i like her but she always feels so uninvolved

the 'beat you to death (funny)' tier is just for characters who i like on some level but are also pathetic and worms. out of that tier i like deathbringer the best and mastermind the worst

tier after that are for characters who i have a positive opinion on but not really a strong one. anemone and sora are more complicated, but i do generally like them. i really just feel bad for them if anything. i think i like clearsight more than the other characters in this tier, but she's not in the 'wonderful :D' tier because i dont think she has a very strong personality

the 'conflicting feelings' tier is kind of a trainwreck because it means a lot of things

obviously riptide is the outlier since he hasnt done anything nearly to the degrees of coral, glacier, and albatross-- but i do have conflicting feelings on him. riptide is completely inoffensive, hasn't done anything wrong, i just dont like him because he has no real reason to be in the story. like you could write him out very easily. his only purpose is to be a love interest for tsunami which is like...... gh. dude. she doesnt need one. if she's gonna have a romance it should come naturally. not "wow this seawing is handsome and also he's the first one ive properly met as well as a guy do im in love with him now" like girl do better

coral and glacier both have done bad things and obviously have bad intentions but also.... theyre not the worst. bad but not the worst.

albatross is a victim of emotional abuse and even though that doesnt justify his actions it does explain how they could have been negated

next 3 tiers are self-explanatory. i forgot to put her on there but queen vigilance goes in 'the grime beneath my shoe'

actually no i wanna talk about scarlet and battlewinner: i think the thing that i like about them is their theatrics. they bot have such a huge presence, like a disney villain. whenever i read scarlet dialogue it almost feels poorly written with how over-the-top she is but. no other character talks like that. its just how scarlet is. and i think thats so good. whereas battlewinner's situation conceptually is just cool as hell. i love how she struggles to speak because of the ice in her throat, her rage, the way she's hinted at but her reveal is completely unexpected...... very very good

no one likes morrowseer

when im in an emotional abuse and classism competition and my opponent is queen lagoon 😧

ship tierlist! (made on ms paint since i couldnt find any good ones on tiermaker. turned out to be nice since i can mess with the placement more)

notes:

top tier is /j i just dont really like how tui writes romance

i was kind of against glorybringer at first for the same reason i dont like tsunami/riptide but honestly it grew on me. their dynamic is so fun

anemome/tamarin is good i just think tamarin could do better if she wanted to. but i understand the "i can fix her" mentality and i do genuinely think tamarin could help anemone

sunny/fatespeaker is kind of a funny concept but also i can totally see it

i genuinely forgot turtlejou was a thing in canon ... it does not make sense to me. who came up with this. in the words of my friend "forced heterosexual on both parts tbh"

i love turtle and peril as friends so so so much if i saw someone romantically shipping them i feel like i could get mad

smolder/thorn is like if glorybringer was bad. mostly just because thorn can do way better than him. smolder and vermilion should kiss each other and bond over being wimp princes who havent actually done anything wrong themselves but bow to tyrant relatives to avoid getting killed

i dont know if this will be an unpopular take but clay and peril is such an awful ship. i like them as friends, i think theyre great as friends, but a romantic relationship between them would be so deeply unhealthy considering their situation. peril would be even more dependent and attached to him than she already is, and clay is not the kind of dragon who has an easy time saying 'no' to things. it would not be a malicious relationship in any way, but it would not be good for them. peril needs to learn how to live for herself, not for the approval of anyone else

okay thats all for today friends. thank you if you read all of my mismatched thoughts if you did ^_^ i love talking

[dulcewrites]

What do you think of Alys? There are lots of rumours surrounding her, but I think we both know how men used to write about women who refused to play the victim in patriarchal society and actually achieved something. She was Queen of Harrenhall after all. But what is more disturbing to me is that some people say that she used Aemond for her own goal which was to climb on social ladder and give birth to royal child. I just can't help but think yep, she was supposed to be happy that she will spend her entire life as bastard serving her family which contained father who surely treated her poorly (since when bastards are treated well to begin with? Apart from Jon and Sand Snakes obviously) and his wife who surely wasn't happy about having to see the living proof of her husband's cheating and half brothers Harwin and Larys who most likely didn't care about her at all. Look how men who really work hard to better their position within Westeros society even though they weren't much influential from the beginning of their life, managed to climb really high due to their intelligence, wit and dedication - Varys and Littlefinger. And yet they are called masterminds, their morals are questionable but still their ability to achieve things because they were smart is impressive. They serve first and foremost their own interest, but when men does it, it's alright but when women they are condemned to hell. When a woman called Alys Rivers has ambitions, most likely doesn't want to spend the rest of her life as servant since she did it for like 30 years and has every right to have enough of it, aims for something better, doesn't play damsel in distress even for a second - she is evil, seductress, femme fatale who will help Aemond descent into darkness in order to gain something from it lol the level of misogyny is so high I just am shocked people still think like this where this mentality should be gone long ago

I think the conflicting way people speak about alys comes from 1) the extremely weird way she was written in the book (f&b in general is not good but that’s another discussion for another day) and 2) the very binary camps people put women, and through that, female characters into.

If she is a victim of her circumstances, she must be the right kind of the victim. If she “rises above” (which in of itself titers into misogyny bc why is it either she was ‘strong enough’ to pull herself up by her bootstraps or she was too ‘weak’ not to), it must be in a way the audience finds palatable and of their liking. People are extremely uncomfortable and frankly very nasty when women do not show responses to trauma in the way they like. Hence why people are fucking awful when it comes to Alicent.

If people want to see alys as some seductress that’s their prerogative. I think that is a very shallow and weird way to look at a woman who probably went through sexual trauma in her life. Same with people thinking Aemond is going to assault her. Once again, very odd to theorize that someone who in show canon was assaulted himself is a r*pist. I personally find the she got pregnant then sent him to his death on purpose argument not only weird but also.. lacking any sense. If she was trying to secure the bag, why on earth would she want to essentially kill the one person who could confirm they were together and the baby is his???Now I’m of the belief that Aemond was going to fight Daemon regardless but the notion alys put it in his head bc she knew he would die is frankly nonsensical to me.

I think alys is indicative of her time. It’s why I think her story, along with nettles and maybe even Sara if they include her, are important. The surface level way she gets talked about and sometimes erased in this fandom is a literal representative of how bastardy for women plays out. The fact that people want these three women wiped from the show is so wild to me. Another convo we will eventually have is how gross it is how this fandom treats the people that actually represent them. You are not a targaryen.. you are the smallfolk

Idk if this answered your question. I feel like I’ve answered this before in different ask and I always regurgitate the same stuff. I may not be making sense lol. I like Alys. I’m excited for alys. Here’s a shameless plug of how i truly see her

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Honestly I totally agree with everything you said about the overblot boys. Personally Riddle is my favourite from them, but that's because you can see how hard he tries to change at times. Like actually makes a notable effort. The others, while I do love them, don't. And on that note I hated Riddle when reading/playing the first book. Man did his tyranny piss me off.

But yeah. I totally agree with your assessment. No boy is 100% innocent, and they all have their flaws.

[Referencing this post!]

Riddle is definitely trying! We see him openly dial down on his enforcement of the rules (at the end of episode 1, during the unbirthday party; he also apologizes by making the tart for the celebration). Then, in episode 2 and throughout the rest of the main story, we see Riddle repress his rage and try to hold back from immediately lashing out when something irritates him. He’s really growing, bit by bit, and even I (someone who doesn’t particularly care for most of the dorm leaders) can admire Riddle for that.

Vil also makes a commendable effort to atone for what he’s done. He was one of the few boys who realized he was Overblotting and became self aware of how awful (“ugly”) his actions were, then apologizes multiple times to the VDC team afterwards for inconveniencing them (both at the end of episode 5 and at the start of episode 6).

I think Idia could also count…? He does come over to play video games (socializing, ew), which is something Idia would never normally do. He also comes to terms with his grief and allows Ortho to finally “be free”. This can be interpreted as Idia’s “apology”, both to Ortho, and for his past sins—and an apology to even himself for letting the past weigh him down and prevent him from moving forward.

Yeah, I’m just 🥲 personally bothered by the OBs receiving such different treatment from the fandom. It’s okay to play favorites, but it really feels like the general consensus is that some boys “deserve” more sympathy than others… and that rubs me the wrong way, because that’s not holding the boys responsible and it dumbs down their trauma into something easily resolved by shoving blame onto a third party. It defeats the point of TWST having the nuanced characters that it does 💦

I’ve heard the point being made that “the story holds some boys more accountable than others, so the fans feel less guilty for forgiving certain boys over the others”, and while I can see where people are coming from with this, I don’t really agree with it?? Sure, the case can be made that Riddle was held accountable by Heartslabyul and he then actively tries to be better, but I don’t think this can be said of Azul. He gets off with a slap on the wrist for all the cross-dormitory damage he did. (I guess here you can say the fandom forgives Azul because the story itself lets him off the hook so easily?? But I don’t think we should just blindly go along with whatever the story primes us to do.) Leona was held accountable in that he was still forced to play the other dorms; however, this doesn’t really prominently play into people’s forgiveness of him, as the chapter is so poorly written that Leona wasn’t truly “redeemed” in the eyes of the fandom. Jamil’s issue isn’t small scale enough to be comfortably dealt with. How are you supposed to hold a society and tradition responsible for his feelings? The same goes for Idia, who has to deal with the concept of death itself. There’s Vil, who arguably took the most personal accountability for his Overblot, yet people generally seem to hold disdain for Vil and believe that his motivations were shallow. Vil gets little sympathy despite being the most mature about the situation and accepting full responsibility for it.

Interestingly, this lack of sympathy for Vil seems to be something that’s more predominant in the international fandom; he is pretty beloved in the J-fandom 🤔 which I think speaks to the different demographics of TWST. JP is mostly adult fans, whereas international/EN seems to lean more to the juvenile side (teenagers, young adults). It kind of makes sense if we generalize the groups: younger fans relate to Riddle and Azul, as they can identify with the “I was controlled by an authority figure instead of being allowed to do what I want”/“I was bullied” aspects of their backstories. I would also argue that Leona’s backstory (“I’m never good enough for others”) also plays into this appeal to younger fans, who make seek comfort in media to cope with their own realities. Meanwhile, older fans have enough life experience to be able to relate to and appreciate the more esoteric conflicts of Jamil, Vil, and Idia—topics like societal expectations and norms, public opinion, dealing with death, etc. Of course, this isn’t an absolute, but just a general trend in the groups that I’ve noticed.

[itsatoyboat]

i finished true colors and i’m having a lot of thoughts that i NEED to talk about.

(if this is gonna be long idk, i apologize for your eyeballs)

1. i honestly didn’t like alex at all when i saw the trailer, i was thinking “hmm idk about this one” but as soon as i started to play the game i fell so in love with her, she is so freaking smart and funny, she genuinely cares about the people around her and her story it’s very different from the other characters from LIS anthology. i truly enjoyed seeing alex’s development throughout the game especially her realizing that her powers can actually help the people around her and not harm anyone, the way she controls it after her conversation with gabe was such an awesome upgrade from the alex who was so ashamed of her power to alex superwoman. i liked how the game explored her emotions and her mind about the past, the mine part where alex was struggling to feel everything she felt in those days and then embracing everything was one of my favorite parts. it shows a lot of growth.

2. this game has AMAZING CHARACTERS, every single one of the characters was well written, they had life, they had problems, they had their own emotions with private stuff that was going on in their lives and you could actually talk to them and meet their “layers”. mac for an example was an asshole but i couldn’t pretend i didn’t felt his concern and fear around typhon, the way he was terrified about everyone hating him, he was scared for his life and being very paranoid, i was concerned about him and the game giving you the choice to speak to him or leaving him was a tricking decision cause you could leave him alone suffering or try to help him out, maybe saving his life and this is a lot but he’s alive. the game makes him real and that’s what makes me INSANE about the characters. i know, i’m talking about a game where you’re supposed to feel the characters’ feelings but that could possibly go wrong as well if the characters were shallow and poorly explored and that’s not the case with true colors. they had purpose.

3. alex’s power it’s probably my favorite power. the choices in this game was way harder than the first two games, the craziest thing is you can choose if you want to take someone else’s feeling so they can stop feeling that way, saving them from themselves making alex suffer instead and that's selfish. don’t get me wrong, i’m not calling alex a selfish person but taking someone else’s feeling doesn’t make anything better, you’re taking their right to heal, to be alive and that is so fucking awesome. you have this power to help someone, to “take their pain away” and you will learn that people need to feel what they are supposed to feel so they can move forward cause if we don’t, we are never going to learn. we see that charlotte is pretty angry about gabe’s death, she blames everyone but mostly ethan, she is miserable. alex can choose between taking charlotte’s anger or leave her. if alex takes charlotte’s anger, charlotte is left completely empty, she doesn’t feel anything and when i say anything it’s anything. she is left emotionless and bitter, she doesn’t pass through her way of mourning for gabe and she doesn’t have alex’s back when alex confronts jed. if alex leave charlotte to her anger we have a nice moment between them on the festival, talking about what happened and charlotte gets alex’s back on the black lantern and that’s what i mean from being selfish, if we take someone else’s feelings we are being unfair to them, we are choosing for them and people are supposed to feel, heal in their own time or overcome. by taking charlotte’s anger we deprived her from healing, we are not helping her, we are just making an natural process even more difficult and slower. alex being able to hear what someone is thinking and enter that person’s world from what they are feeling at that moment it’s the best detail for me, everything changes, we get to see the world through that person’s eyes, we can understand them but we decide what to do with that, we can be selfish or actually help. of course, we can take pike’s situation for an example also, if we take his fear we can help him overcome typhon and we get to expose jed but pike’s fear was necessary to take and charlotte was not necessary, pike at least had the pendrive with the recorded calls on it so we had a chance for things to get better.

4. chapter 5 was an amazing ending. finding out the truth about typhon, jed was never a hero, alex confronting her past, the confrontation and seeing who was going to be on your side, alex’s final conversation with gabe and the end, it was better than i thought it could be. i truly loved seeing alex’s past, even with everything that went down she turned to be a good person who wanted to be loved (her passion for music being the thing that helped her connected to me in a lot of levels, that creep cover though i screamed so hard when she started to sing). the mine part was absolutely insane not just alex surviving that fall discovering that gabe was looking for his dad for so long, jed knowing it and all of this time his dad actually died because of jed, alex finding the truth by taking her mom’s necklace back from what was left of that accident it’s so heartbreaking, the confrontation was crazy, i thought no one was going to believe alex because jed was so loved by everyone there it would be so easy to doubt alex and just be on jed’s side which was what ryan did but it’s understandable, jed was his dad, his hero. alex’s speech on jed exposing him after everything was one of the best monologues on that game and man this game had AMAZING dialogues and monologues, everything felt so real and beautiful, the best part of it it’s to forgive jed that’s where alex break him, he regrets everything even more cause when we find out the truth. we find out why jed never enjoyed talking about being the hero of haven springs. at the end jed wasn’t entirely a bad person cause when we forgive him he gives back alex her dad’s jacket talking about how he wanted to give it to gabe but couldn’t, that’s something that made me love even more the characters even jed that was the “villain”, which i don’t think he is. what he did was terrible and he knew that, he tried to pretend nothing happened when alex started to talk but at the end he broke, that always haunted him and that’s the difference between him and jefferson who was actually the villain in life is strange he wasn’t forced to do those things, he killed rachel, he killed chloe, he manipulated nathan, he was going to kill max and if max didn't stopped him on the arcadia bay ending he would kill even more students at blackwell.

5. alex and steph relationship was the purest thing on this game, it was smooth, it was organic, it wasn’t something out of the blue, steph liked alex since the beginning. the plan to pick someone to flirt with diane and get her pendrive i chose ryan and afterwards steph started to feel something, she was so upset that alex used to think ryan was “hotter than her” (i only chose ryan cause i didn’t want to see steph flirting with diane but i saw the scene where we pick steph and omg i should’ve chosen steph cause that scene it’s hilarious), steph was happier around alex, every time she had an opportunity to flirt with alex she took it. seeing their love grow through the chapters was beautiful, i know we can choose ryan over steph but i don’t believe ryan liked alex the way steph did, you can literally see that no matter what alex did steph was going to support her and look at her with so much love and respect and that’s why i think alex and steph’s relationship it’s so pure and right. also they looked so good playing together it’s so cute that they have the same passion for music and THAT LARP SCENE FOR GOD’S SAKE MY HEART MELTED!

6. this part is exclusively to talk about LARP and the fight scenes, it reminded me so much of final fantasy it was so COOL, well thought and so fun. it was awesome to see everyone taking care of ethan and doing their best to make him happy.

7. talking about ethan, this game opened a conversation in my head about charlotte and ethan, i started to think a lot about what charlotte said about ethan how she felt happier when gabe was around and now she was stuck with only ethan again, it made me think that maybe charlotte didn’t want to have a child or if she didn’t had ethan she could have gabe again. that could open a conversation about women who didn’t want to become a mom but it doesn’t mean that charlotte would hurt ethan which makes total sense to decide to leave her alone and not take her anger, she would never hurt ethan. it was again another tricking decision cause we get concerned about ethan when charlotte starts to talk but we know deep down she cares so much about her son, she does everything for him.

life is strange true colors became my favorite life is strange, the story it’s different and great, it’s literally finding the truth about everything, when we understand people’s feelings we discover the truth about them and situations, we understand everything. this game actually made me cry harder and think so much even more than the first one and boy i love the first one so badly. it talks a lot about empathy and how we react to people’s emotions, your choices in this game are way harder than messing with time or moving things with your mind, it’s choices about things that could happen in real life eventually and that is what makes this game so important to me, it’s real.

and also it's the first life is strange to have happy endings like.. ok big steps for my non depression finally

[saturdaysky]

Time-traveling Caleb meets Essek as a child please.

(from the ask me about my WIP meme)

This WIP was one of the first things I wrote when I decided I wanted to learn to write late last year!

It began as a snippet I was writing for a prompt in the big Essek discord, something along the lines of “kid Essek proposes marriage to Caleb” -- pretty fluffy, lighthearted, and cute. Naturally this meant I plotted something bittersweet about love and the grief for selves who never were and whom we no longer have a chance to be.

The premise: Sometime in the future, Essek and Caleb are together and have developed a spell that allows temporary travel to a decayed or decaying timeline. Caleb uses it and accidentally winds up much further back in time than intended, where he meets Essek as a child. Young Essek is lonely and hides Caleb on the Thelyss estates for a week or so while Caleb rides out the spell. From there, it’s a character study as Caleb gets to know Essek in his early life.

I don’t know if I’ll finish this one. Reading through it, if I returned to it I’d want to rewrite most of it since I understand writing and these characters a little better now. So who knows! Have part of 2 scenes. :)

Scene: One hour before the spell ends and the timeline decays for good

At the sound of Caleb’s footsteps in the courtyard, Essek turns slowly to face him, posture exactingly correct in a way that speaks of both practice and nerves. He inclines his head and folds his hands in formal greeting, the grace of the gesture falling a little awkwardly on his small frame.

“Master Widogast,” he begins, and then stops. Takes a shallow breath. “I know you are to depart today. I- I wished to speak with you before you are gone.”

His tone reaches for the chilly gravitas of his mother, but a muddled panic lurks around the edges of his words. Caleb returns the formal greeting, but lets his lips curve into a friendly smile. “I am here to listen. What would you ask of me?”

The lines of Essek’s shoulders ease a fraction. He drifts over, ignoring the whorls of the tiled labyrinth below in favor of making a line straight to Caleb. He stops a foot and a half away, as close as etiquette allows, and fidgets, one hand twisting the edge of a sleeve.

“I...there is a parting gift I wished to give you.” Essek’s small fingers shake a little as he draws the line to open his wristpocket. The spell takes and he lets out a satisfied hum as a small black codex tumbles into his hands.

“I made this,” he says, pride suffusing his voice. His courteous smile brightens into unguarded excitement, before fading into something small and hesitant. “It is for you. I know you are going far away somewhere, so...so in case you need to study the floating spell I taught you, I thought you might wish for reference.”

He thrusts the book up at Caleb. “Do not show anyone. Ah, Verin said I should not have told you things at all and I could get in trouble, so maybe keep it secret.”

Caleb turns the object over in his hands. It’s a small booklet of notes on dunamancy, written in a child’s scrawl. Essek has written out the directions for the cantrip that lets him float, each step of the spell thoroughly but ineptly diagrammed. Here and there in the margins are poorly-drawn creatures it takes Caleb a moment to realize are cats.

No, Caleb realizes, not cats: cat. All of them are Frumpkin, and all of them have been drawn with the earnest appreciation of a young boy who has seen exactly one cat in his entire life and is making up for lost time. 

Caleb traces a finger over the drawings, despair catching at his throat. He wants nothing more than to gather this desperately lonely child into his arms and shield him from the future that will turn him jaded and cruel, that will rip out this tender heart and replace it with callous intent.

But he can’t. He can’t save this Essek. This young echo will be gone forever in an hour. Caleb swallows the lump in his throat.

“You are very kind, Master Thelyss,” he says a little hoarsely. “It was an honor to be your student.”

Scene: Caleb returns from the spell

“Welcome back.” Essek’s silhouette is bent over the desk in front of him as he scratches out notes on a large piece of vellum, but he straightens and glances in Caleb’s direction. His sleeves are rolled up and there is a bit of ink smudged on his nose Caleb is sure he doesn’t know is there.

“Hallo,” Caleb says, meeting Essek’s eyes. They are worried and lovely, and a little tired. 

Essek scans Caleb’s body, as if checking to make sure he has all the same appendages he left with. Satisfied, he lets a lopsided smile curl over his face.

“Hallo,” he replies. “That was longer than expected. Did you find the information you were looking for?”

“I did, eventually.”

Essek's eyes narrow, gaze assessing. He sets the pen down on the desk, and turns to fully face Caleb. “But…?”

There is no point in hiding it. “The spell took me back further than intended. I also met you there. As a child.” Shock briefly paints itself on Essek’s face.

“Ah. Unexpected, I-  Well,” he says, slim, dark fingers twisting over themselves once before falling still, “I’m sure that was an enlightening experience.” Essek’s voice is light and carefully neutral. By degrees, his smile evens out, grows soft and pleasant. Opaque. Untouchable.

It is the last thing Caleb wants to see right now. 

He crosses the floor and Essek looks up at him, eyes shuttered. Caleb cups his face and guides him into a kiss, soft at first, merely comforting himself with Essek’s presence. Essek leans into it. Comfort for the two of them, maybe.

Caleb is good at kissing, and over the last decade, he’s made a dedicated effort to be good at kissing Essek, specifically. He nips at a lower lip and deepens the kiss, drawing a decidedly unchaste noise from Essek. It soothes something in Caleb to hear it, this spark of passion beneath the mask. After a moment, fingers curl into Caleb’s shirt.

Caleb pulls back and whispers into Essek’s ear, pleased to feel him shiver in response. “You were quite the, ah, charmer. You offered your hand in marriage. Scandalous.”

Essek lets out an undignified little snort that charms Caleb to his bones. “I should think I have made my desire for you quite clear in the present. Do not try to play me against my child self, Widogast.” As if to emphasize the point, his fingers slide from Caleb’s chest, over his sides, and onto his back with deliberate slowness. Caleb doesn’t even try to repress his own shiver, and he can feel the resulting smugness radiating from Essek.

“You also taught me to float. You were a very enthusiastic teacher.”

“Did I?” Amusement drips from Essek’s voice. “It is handy for you that you figured that one out yourself years ago.”  Over Essek’s shoulder, Caleb can see the notes and diagrams he’s working on. All letters and lines are crisp and precise; not a single wasted mark. There is no hint of embellishment here, Caleb sees. There are no more earnest drawings.

He buries his face in the crook where Essek’s neck meets his shoulder, taking in the comforting, familiar scent of him. Essek shifts to allow him better access, and Caleb breathes him in, letting grief settle in his chest.

After a moment, Essek’s fingers begin to trace lightly across his back, drawing comforting and repetitive patterns. Spell runes, Caleb realizes, and closes his eyes.

You were an earnest child, he does not say, and so achingly desperate for connection that you hid a strange mage in your house and taught him your favorite spell. He does not say, you were kind and you still had hope when you were young. You still talked to your brother. You loved magic like a friend, and no blood stained your hands for it.

Essek knows. Essek does not welcome pity, and Caleb cannot blame him for it. Caleb does not welcome it either.

[jayoctodot]

The Silent Patient vs The Maidens

I will start by saying that I understand the appeal of these novels as page-turners. They are easy to read and if you want a twisty reveal at the end, you will probably be entertained and satisfied. That being said, I am SO CONFUSED by the near-universal adoration of The Silent Patient and the reasonably positive reception of The Maidens. The weaknesses of the two are strikingly similar, as well, which doesn’t give me much hope of seeing improvement from this guy, though I am intrigued to see whether he keeps repeating the same (apparently successful!!) patterns. These books were at least super fun to hate.

(For context, I read The Maidens for a bookclub I'm in, because several of the members had read and loved The Silent Patient, and one of them gave me a copy of the latter to read on my own time. I loathed The Maidens and then read The SP for comparative purposes. And because I'm a masochist, apparently.)

SPOILER WARNING! Do not read on unless you've finished both books (or unless you care not for spoilers). Sorry if it gets a bit shouty.

Here are the similar weaknesses I noticed in both:

PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY

-> Weirdly similar “group therapy” scenes early on where a cartoonishly unstable patient arrives late, disrupts the meeting by throwing something into the middle of the circle, and is asked to join the group after the therapist(s) speechify on the importance of boundaries (HA! None of these therapists would know an appropriate boundary if it kicked them in the ass) and debate whether to “allow” the patient to join. Both scenes are so transparent in their design to establish the credibility/legitimacy of the narrators as therapists, but instead both Theo and Mariana come off as super patronizing. The protagonists are less and less believable as therapists at the stories progress (though at least Theo’s incompetence is explained away by the “twist” at the end; Mariana, on the other hand, is confronted in the opening pages of the novel by a patient who has self-harmed PRETTY extensively, and rather than ensure he get proper medical attention, she essentially throws him a first aid kit and tosses him out the door so she can pour herself a glass of wine and call her niece... and it devolves from there).

-> Ongoing insistence throughout the narrative that one’s childhood trauma entirely explains the warped/dysfunctional way a character behaves or views the world, which is why the books go out of their way to give EVERY potentially violent character a traumatic childhood; when Theo insists that no one ever became an abuser who hadn’t been abused themselves, I wanted to throw the book across the room. (That is a MYTH, SIR. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ARMCHAIR PSYCHOLOGY.)

-> Female murderers whose pathology boils down to “history of depression” and “traumatized by a male loved one/family member.” Because, as we all know, depression + abuse = murderer!

-> The “therapy” depicted in both books is laughable and so so unrealistic, mostly because neither narrators function as therapists so much as incompetent detectives, obsessively pursuing a case they have no place pursuing (or skill to pursue - both just happen across every clue mostly by way of clunky conversation with all the people who can provide precisely the snippet of info to send them along to the next person, and the next… until all is revealed in a tired, cliched “twist”). Their constant Psych 101 asides were so tiresome and weirdly dated (also, the constant harping on countertransference got so ridiculous that at one point during "therapy" Theo literally attributes his headache and a particular emotion he feels to Alicia, as though the contents of her head are being broadcast directly into his mind... and I'm PRETTY SURE that's not how it works???)

CHARACTERS

-> Psychotherapist narrators with abusive fathers and pretensions of being Sherlock Holmes, which results in both characters crossing ALL KINDS of ethical lines as they invade the personal lives of everyone even tangentially connected to their cases (and, in Theo's case, violate all kinds of patient confidentiality. Yeah, yeah, by the end, that's the least of his offenses, but before you get there, it's baffling that NO ONE is calling him out on this).

-> All female characters are either elderly with hilariously bad advice, monstrous hulking brutes, or beautiful bitches (except for ~MARIANA~, who is Bella Swan-esque in her unawareness of her own attractiveness, despite multiple men trying to get with her almost immediately after meeting her. I'm so tired of beautiful female characters being oblivious to their own hotness. Are we meant to believe all mirrors and male attention have escaped their notice? If it’s to make them “relatable,” this tactic really fails with me).

-> All characters of color are shallow, cartoonish side characters, and most of them are depicted as unsympathetic minor antagonists (the Sikh Chief Inspector in The Maidens continuously drinks tea from an ever-present thermos, and his only other notable characteristic is his instant dislike of Mariana, whom he VERY RIGHTLY warns to stay out of the investigation that she is VERY MUCH compromising… the Caribbean manager of the Grove is universally disliked by her staff for enforcing stricter safety regulations at the bafflingly poorly run mental institution, because HOW DARE SHE. There's a very clear vibe that we're supposed to dislike these characters and share the protagonists' indignation, but honestly Sangha/Stephanie were completely in the right for trying to shut down their wildly inappropriate investigations).

-> "Working class" characters (or basically anyone excluded from the comfortably upper-crust, educated main cadre of characters) are few and far between in both stories, but when they show up, he depicts them as such caricatures. We got Elsie the pathologically lying housekeeper in the Maidens, who is enticed to share her bullshit with cake, and then a TOOTHLESS LEPRECHAUN DEALING DRUGS UNDER A BRIDGE in the SP. I kid you not, a man described as having the body of a child, the face of Father Time, and no front teeth, emerges from beneath a bridge and offers to sell Theo some "grass." I was dyinggg.

-> There are no characters to root for. Anywhere. Partly because they’re all so thinly drawn — and because we’re clearly supposed to view almost ALL of them as potential suspects, so they’re ALL weird, creepy, or incompetent in some way.

-> The flimsiest of flimsy motives, both for the narrators and the murderers. Theo fully would have gotten away with his involvement in the murder if he hadn't gone out of his way to work at the Grove and "treat" Alicia and his justification for doing so is pretty weak; his rapid descent into stalking and murder fantasy and his random ass decision to "expose" Alicia's husband as a cheater with a spur-of-the-moment home invasion and staged attempted homicide is ONLY justified if the reader hand waves it away as WELP, HE'S CRAZY, I GUESS (after all, he DID have an abusive father and a history of mental illness, and in Michaelides novels, that's ALL YOU NEED to become a violent psycho). I guess we're lucky Mariana didn't also start dropping bodies (because the logic of his fictional universe says she should definitely be a murderer by now... maybe that'll be his Maidens sequel?). But she especially had NO reason to randomly turn detective - and she kept trying to justify it by saying she needed to re-enter the world or that Sebastian would want her to (??), even though she had no background in criminal psychology... or even a particular fondness for mysteries (really, I would've accepted ANYTHING to explain her dogged obsession with the case. WHY were Sebastian and Zoe so certain she would insert herself into the investigation just because one of Zoe's friends was the first victim? WHY?). As for Zoe and Alicia, their motives are mere suggestions: they were both abused and manipulated, and voila! Slippery slope to murder.

WRITING STYLE

-> Incessant allusions to Greek tragedy and myth, apparently to provide a sophisticated gloss over the bare-bones writing style, which opts more for telling than showing and frequently indulges in hilariously bizarre analogies. Credit where credit is due — the references to Greek myth are less clunky in the SP, and I liked learning about the Alcestis play/myth, which I hadn’t heard of before - but OMG the entire characterization of Fosca, who we are meant to believe is a professor of Greek tragedy at one of the most respected universities on the planet, is just absurd. His "lecture" on the liminal in Greek tragedy is essentially the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries capped off with some Hallmark-card carpe diem crap. The lecture hall responds with raucous applause, clearly never having heard such vague genius bullshit before.

-> Super clunky and amateurish narrative device of interludes written by another character; Sebastian’s letter reads like a mashup of Dexter monologues and Clarice’s memory of the screaming sheep, but by FAR the worse offender is Alicia’s diary, where we’re supposed to believe she painstakingly recorded ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS, BEAT-BY-BEAT DIALOGUE, even when she’s just been DRUGGED TO THE GILLS with morphine and has mere moments of consciousness left… and even before that, she literally takes the time to write “He's trying the windows and doors! ...Someone’s inside! Someone’s inside the house! ETC ETC” when she thinks her stalker has broken in downstairs. WHO DOES THAT?)

-> Speaking of dialogue, the dialogue is so bad. Based on his bio, Michaelides got a degree in screenwriting, which makes his terrible dialogue even more baffling.

-> HILARIOUSLY rendered voyeur scenes where the narrators spy on couples having sex. Such unintentionally awkward descriptions. First we had Kathy’s climax sounds through the trees and then the bowler hat carefully placed on a tombstone before the gatekeeper plows a student. Again, I died.

PLOT/"TWIST"

-> The CONSTANT red herrings make for such an exhausting read. Michaelides drops anvils with almost every character that are so obviously meant to designate them as suspects in our minds. There is absolutely no subtlety in his misdirections.

-> The “crossover” scene between the SP and The Maidens makes no sense - when in the timeline does Mariana’s story overlap with Theo’s? They confer just before Theo starts working at the Grove, obviously (though Mariana appears to be the one who alerts Theo to the job opening there? Whereas in the SP, Theo has been obsessively tracking Alicia since the murder and had already planned to apply to work there?), but then are we supposed to believe that while Theo has been psychotically pursuing his warped quest to “help” Alicia, he’s also been diligently treating Zoe, so invested in her case that he repeatedly reaches out to Mariana to get her to visit Zoe and even writes Mariana a lengthy letter to convince her to do so??? And then a couple days after The Maidens ends, Theo is arrested???

-> But the thing I really did hate the most is how Michaelides treats his female murderers (who are both also victims themselves) as mere means to deploy a “twist”; there’s no moment spared to encourage our sympathy for Zoe, who was groomed and manipulated by the only trusted father figure in her life, and even after spending a decent amount of time getting to know Alicia via her ridiculous diary, where it’s so apparent that she’s been demeaned, objectified, manipulated, gaslit, and/or used by EVERY man in her life, she’s sent packing to spend the rest of her days in a coma… HOW much more satisfying would it have been for her to succeed in exposing Theo and reclaiming her voice? But no, she basically rolls over when he comes to finish her off (SPEAKING OF — ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE????), writes one last diary entry, and drifts off forever. And then a couple pages of nothing later, the story is over. GOODNIGHT, ALICIA!

Both books kept me rolling throughout (by which I mean eye-rolling but also rotfl). Maybe I will check out his next effort — I’m morbidly curious what he’ll turn out. It does leave me wondering whether I should give up on thriller novels entirely, though. Are many of the weaknesses of these novels just characteristic of the genre? Maybe I'm just holding these books to unfair standards? I'm mostly only familiar with thriller films — many of which I think are amazing — but maybe you can get away with more in a film than you can in a novel.

...I really only intended to write a handful of bullet points, but more and more kept coming to mind as I wrote, to the point where subheadings became necessary. Whoopsie.

[chryzure-archive]

HI MEM!! here’s a pass to go on a book rant (because i love when you’re a hater hehe… esp if we’re hating together >:)) AND AS FOR TRYSI ASKS… gimme some songs for them pre-breakup and post-breakup 😳😳 i expect ANGST!!

THANK YOU FOR THE RANT PASS, WE ALL KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO RANT ABOUT THIS TIME… I’M SORRY, I HAVE OTHER BOOKS I COULD RANT ABOUT, BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT THE DISGRACE OF A SPIN-OFF SERIES THAT DID MY PRETTYBOY SOO DIRTY

re: evangeline being a shitty character. hoh boy. yikes. like, she was pumped straight out of “generic ya protagonist” factory with all the default settings and stephanie went “yes, this is good character building”. …. i’d be more interested in a shallow character. i said it in my previous tags, but there could at least be a somewhat interesting dynamic there. maybe it would be hilarious to stick jacks with a character boring as bricks!!!! ((this is why simeon and jacks make a very funny friendship dynamic)). maybe it would be cool to explore a character that’s shallow developing depth??? maybe we could have a character with, like, a legit backstory? but a) evangeline’s boring, and b) she’s just a poorly-written reader-insert, since stephanie wanted to appease the fangirls in love with this bitchy fate. sorry, but jacks wants a bitch <3 he needs a spitfire girl to keep him in his place <333 evangeline needs to go to her pre-calc class, she’s failing rn.

((related: still thinking of that one post i saw where somebody was like “stop saying evangeline is stupid and make bad decisions! she’s just feminine! say you hate women next time!” …… so naturally feminine women make bad decisions??? they’re stupid?????? is that what you’re saying??? also, like??? the original protagonists were highly feminine characters??? i’m so confused with how femininity MUST mean trad-wife, LIKE WHAT??? ? anyway, evangeline is a bad character, but not bc she’s feminine. it’s because she’s poorly written.)

OH YEAH, WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU A) ADMIT TO NOT KNOWING HOW YOU WANT TO END THE SERIES, AND B) ADMIT THAT YOU PLOTTED THE SECOND NOVEL FROM JACKS’S POV AND DECIDED TO LEAVE EVANGELINE WAITING AROUND FOR HIM TO COME BACK WITH PLOT-RELAVENT DETAILS???shitty, boring writing, couldn’t figure out what to do, so we leave the protagonist in her perfect little cage because she’s a boring doll for jacks to toss around when he’s around. no, sorry—because even if evangeline were a doll, she would be a more interesting character. i mean it.

((side note: you can have a traditionally feminine character with pink hair actually do shit btw…. like luna rune is right there, getting shit done, and then she’s happy to settle down with simeon and have three kids. like, it makes sense for her character arc to be badass and travel through time, and then end up with a happy life at the end of it all…… it’s possible to write something where that’s fulfilling. god, it’s like stephanie wrote a random character and decided to slap jacks’s name on him so he could be attractive as a “villain”. he’s a sopping wet cat with the remains of his failed schemes scattered around him. ALSO, HE’S NOT MUSCULAR, HE CAN’T FIGHT, THERE’S NO WAY HE CAN SHOOT A FUCKING BOW AND ARROW.))

i’m DONE.

———

anyway.. trysi pre-breakup:

every little thing she does is magic by the police ((…PEAK HIGH SCHOOL TRYSI, I CRY))

only the good die young by billy joel ((i like thinking of chrysi pulling tris from his shell to this song… tris’s mom does NOT like chrysi, because chrysi gets him in a lot of trouble, so that’s what this song makes me think of :)) that said, tris’s dad LOVES chrysi for that exact reason LMAO))

kiss me you animal by burn the ballroom ((he sings this and then goes on a date with chrysi and is like “;;;;;;;;;;; hi…… can we… what if we… uhhh kiss?” “……..you remember those cleaning closets. why are you acting like this?” UMM…))

trysi post-breakup:

superstar by carpenters ….. IT’S FINE, THIS SONG DOESN’T KILL ME EVERY TIME.

always something there to remind me by naked eyes ((lyrically… it’s a bit upbeat for their breakup, but the lyrics are soooo tris going around and being reminded of their relationship. he loved her so much…))

more than a feeling by boston (again, lyrically, it fits?? but it’s a bit more upbeat than i think tris would listen to. THAT SAID, I LOVE THIS SONG TOO MUCH. YOU’RE STUCK WITH IT.)

i hope ur doing well (feat. colliding with mars) by savage ga$p, colliding with mars ((juno and i love to say that tris would make songs abt chrysi like this allll the time if his bandmates didn’t stop him. it’s so whiny <33 i think it’s hilarious))

i wanna know by tea ((OKAY, LIKE, I’M ACTUALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS ONE. I LOVE THE LYRICS AND THE VIBE. IT’S TRIS AND CHRYSI ABOUT EACH OTHER))

the killing kind by marianas trench ((particularly the way it sounds, but lyrics fit somewhat??? i loooove this song though hehe))

unrelated songs that make me think of tris:

night life by hello atlantic ((tris accidentally turned into a murderous vampire on one of his concert nights??? oh???? and chrysi now has to help him??? what a shame!))

sad (clap your hands) by young rising sons ((he’s my pathetic little babygirl, you must understand…))

coward by those who dream ((PEAK TRIS SONG, HE’S GOT SOOOO MUCH UNRESOLVED ANXIETY. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT))

rot by dbmk ((idk, it makes me think of him… the idea that he’s rotten to the core appeals to me, like—i think he views himself that way!!! esp when he can’t control his magic and he hurts ppl because he gets easily distressed—but also, that he wants so much more, and it makes him feel like he’s rotten??? AAUGH.))

dream on by aerosmith ((mostly, i think he’d like this song in general. and he’d sound soooo pretty while singing it <33))

[spacedikut]

spooky scary skeletons ; spencer reid

pairing: spencer reid x gn!reader

summary: spencer has the prettiest face you’ve ever painted on. 1626 words

a/n: a poorly edited, poorly written and late halloween thing! inspired by idmakeitbehave (go read everything theyve ever written ever) because they have the BEST meet cutes and every time i think of them i :-)

masterlist

The haunted mansion of the fair, overflowing with screams, the sound of chainsaws and the evil cackle your friend has been rehearsing in the mirror all month, stands tall behind you like the looming presence it is. It’s brought great entertainment for you, watching and hearing the reactions of those that dare enter.

You’re set up not far from the exit of the house with your array of face paint around you, paintbrush in hand. Most of your customers are children – this year’s most popular request is pumpkin, last year was skeleton – and as much as you love spookiness and gore and everything in between, the rush of pride you feel when a little girl gasps and thanks you with the sweetest voice when you show her your finished work is unmatched.

You’re not the least surprised that your clientele is mainly children. There’s the odd parent here and there that is persuaded to get a black cat on their cheek, or some fake blood coming from their eyes and mouths, but they never venture beyond the small request.

Until him.

He’s marched up to you by his friend who, wearing a dress covered in fake spiders and cobwebs, pushes him by the shoulders right up to the foldable chair that’s placed opposite you. You’re drying off a wet paintbrush, glancing up when you hear the crunch of leaves beneath their feet.

“My friend would like his face painted.” She tells you.

“Of course,” You gesture for him to take the seat in front of you, the compliment slipping out after giving them both a once-over. “I like your outfits.”

“Oh!” The girl grins. “Thank you. I’ve been waiting all year to wear it. And he,” She points to the still-silent customer who hasn’t taken his eyes off you once, “Is more obsessed with Halloween than anyone I know.”

Looking at the bright orange pumpkin-covered sweater he’s wearing, you’re overcome by the urge to touch it – and his hair, with the way it’s all squiggles and curls and seems so soft. “What can I do for you?”

The first time he speaks, it’s after he takes a deep breath and rubs his palms on his trousers. “A skeleton, please.”

You’re already arranging the colours you’ll need, missing how the girl slips away, too busy asking the usual questions, “How big?”

“My entire face.”

That’s a new one. For an adult, at least. Usually all they want is an easy to clean, easy to hide image on their cheek.

It’s only then you really take in his appearance. In the dark, dusty light of the fair, he looks like a real life Tim Burton character – shallow eyes, sharp cheekbones, a general gauntness that you’ve only seen in fiction. He’s the perfect skeleton, if that isn’t weird to think.

“All over?” Your hand moves to gesture over your face, as if miming to him what all over really means.

“Yeah,” He nods, “I’m not that good of an artist, and my mask makes it kind of hard to see. So a skeleton is spooky enough but not a lot of work, right?”

“Right.” You smile at him. “Right, okay, let’s do it.”

The second the cold bristles dip into the paint before you, you’re absorbed in ensuring you do a good job. You’re used to working on children, so you naturally take hold of his chin to move his face this way and that way to apply a firm coat and get your lines right.

“I’m Spencer, by the way,” He mumbles.

You huff a laugh. He feels your breath on his lips. “Hi, Spencer, I’m Y/N.”

The customer – Spencer – wiggles his lips in a way that tells you he’s holding back a smile. You’re not sure what it is about him, but you like him. You like how still he sits, patiently letting you do your work, you like how much he seems to like Halloween (you refer to the sweater and the fact he’s about to cover his entire face in paint to look like a skeleton), and you like how his eyes on you make you feel. Because it doesn’t feel gross, or weird, like it normally does; it’s like his gaze is complimenting you silently, the intensity of it making you bite the inside of your cheek.

Small-talk comes naturally after hours of doing this job. “You mentioned a mask? What was it a mask of?”

“Michael Myers.”

“Oh,” You shiver, “I hate that guy.”

“The iconic mask is actually a William Shatner mask that’s painted white and changed to blur the resemblance to Shatner. Specifically, it’s a Captain Kirk death mask created for Star Trek.” Spencer tells you, giving a tight lipped smile when you pause for a second to take in the information.

“How does William Shatner feel about that?”

“Not great, probably. But, can you imagine being considered one of the stars of the Halloween franchise?” He’s giddy, almost wiggling in excitement. “I’d love to see people wearing my face every Halloween.”

You laugh at that.

A few more facts are spewed out while you mix black with a little bit of white to make grey, some you already know and some you don’t, but he’s still chattering on when you turn back to face him, ready to paint again.

The words die in his throat, however, when your hand finds home on the back of his neck, thumb hooking around to lift his jaw up. “Still, please.”

Even if he wanted to give an unnecessary apology, he wouldn’t be able to, as if his throat is full of sand.

It’s silent for a while, Spencer’s eyes trained on the twinkling night sky that sits calmly compared to the thundering of his heart, the scramble of thoughts in his head. When your hand moves away a few minutes later, his disappointed eyes fall back to your face, where he finds himself thinking, please do that again.

“Do you want the black on your eyelids, too, or just around your eye?” You ask over your shoulder, oblivious to the new slump in Spencer’s back.

“Eyelids, too, please.”

You smile to yourself at how polite he is. Spencer might be the sweetest person you’ve ever met and you’ve known him for twenty minutes.

By the time you’re done, you’ve decided Spencer is the best customer you’ve ever had and you’d give anything to replay this interaction again and again. He’s polite, listens when you ask him to turn a certain way or sit up (a surprising amount of adults simply do not listen), and brings the most interesting conversation.

Did you know the use of OMG can be traced back to 1917? Cause Spencer does, and he bestowed you with the same knowledge.

You’re impressed with yourself and Spencer’s brain when you finally lean back, checking for any spots you missed or parts you can fix.

Before you even reach for the mirror, Spencer’s interrupting you.

“Um… do I-do I look spooky?”

You face him, a pretty smirk on your lips, “Terrifying.”

When you hold the mirror up to his face, he barely spares himself glance (but it’s enough of a glance for him to think holy crap, you’re talented) and there’s a look in his eye – he’s hesitant. About what, you’re not sure.

You wonder if he can tell you don’t want him to go. You enjoy his company, you enjoy him, and you’ve never wanted to wipe your work off someone’s face so quickly just for an excuse to do it again until now.

“How much do I owe you?” He asks, reaching for his wallet but not leaving the chair.

Your eyes narrow for a split second as you weight your option. Then you think fuck it, and say, “Nothing. It’s on the house.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“You can, and you will.” You stand. “Consider it thanks for all the cool facts you gave me.”

He lights up when you say cool facts, and opens his mouth to again offer to pay when he’s cut off by a group of laughing teenagers flying out of the haunted house, the exit door slamming against the wood with a startling bang.

Spencer gets an idea.

Seeing you look at the house, he asks, “Have you been in yet?”

You shake your head. “No. Not yet. If I have time later, maybe-“

“Come in with me.”

His grip on his wallet is tight, channelling all worry into his fingers so he doesn’t stumble or say something stupid.

“It’s the least I can do, and it’ll be too scary on my own.”

He’s lying – the idea of going through a haunted house by himself sounds exhilarating, but he’s found an opportunity to not leave you just yet and he’s going to take it.

You consider him for a moment. It’s late, you’ve been painting faces all day, and the sweetest, most attractive person you’ve ever seen is asking you to join them in a haunted house on Halloween. What kind of person would say no?

“Okay,” You happily concede, “But don’t blame me if I end up clinging to you.”

The two of you join the line into the house, giggling when someone dramatically falls through the exit and gasps for air like he’s barely made it out alive. And when the next people to leave the house are a couple who hold eachother close and tight, hands intertwined and one with their head buried in the neck of the other, Spencer steps a little closer to you, hoping you get the memo that having you cling to him doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

+++

tags: @pinkdiamond1016 @bluerose512 @andreasworlsboring101 @roses-and-grasses @fandommonium3267 @ta-ka-shi-ma @ogmilkis @chiffonchronicles @rexorangecouny @unmistakablyunknown @goofygubler14 @jasongideonapologist @gublertoon @bitchyreids

[life-rewritten]

THE GIANTS OF THAI BL 2020 AKA SHOWS STEALING MY HEART IN NOVEMBER

UPDATE AND UPCOMING ANALYSIS NOVEMBER 2020

It's the moment I've been waiting for since the excruciating silence of Thai BLS during the lockdown. It's November, the month of thanksgivings, the month of pre-Christmas jitters, nanowrimo and the month that has finally made me realise we are so close to ending this godforsaken year. Still, most of all, November means that we are getting buttloads of shows that are about to take my breath away. This year has been such an exciting year for BLS because of the increasingly amount of companies and directors willing to produce and release different types of BLS. In this list, we have awaited sequels, delicious plotlines and shocking comebacks. But most of all we have lots and lots of romance and men. Which of these have you been waiting for? Let me know. Let's squeal about it. November is going to be so great!

Ratings: From 1 to 5 (1 being least excited to watch, 5 being most,) how excited am I to delve into these shows?

Shows already airing

1.I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU/ INTERPRET, MY LOVE, WITH YOUR HEART

Genre/Themes: Romance, Melodrama, Coming of Age, Angst, Drama, Childhood friendship

Country: Thailand

Verdict: So finally I rise from the memories of poorly produced bls, and pains of bad acting, and toxic writings, and traumas of stiff actors and homophobic agendas to finally say that without a doubt. Nadao has produced another masterpiece after my other favourite (Non) BL; Greater Man academy. Nadao stuns me, and for a very long time, I couldn't understand that this was how everyone was feeling, one because I wasn't fully educated or in the know about the company, I only saw tv shows in Thailand that were produced by GMMTV and to be honest I didn't think there was anything else above that standard in shows apart from Lakorns and Movies. (I know Sacrebleu) Getting to know and watch Nadao shows has been an experience, and for BL, I am hooked and ready for what else they have to offer. The only qualms that prevent me from gushing about the show are how international fans are treated. It took me a very long time to forgive ITSAY for its subbing platform (and price range), and that's why I refused to watch it with positive feelings. After episode 2 though, I'd be a fool to hold on to resentment when there is no doubt that this BL (despite not knowing if it's a sad ending. I'd hate if it is but it wouldn't change anything) is the best BL of this year. With ridiculous, incredible production, outstanding breathtaking cinematography, beautiful and talented actors and writing so good it blows me away. Episode 2 left my heart in pieces, but in a good way, I haven't recovered from the angst.

Ratings: 4.5/5 Would have been a 5/5 if the pricing made sense but also I'm terrified about a sad ending which I won't be too happy about.

2. FRIEND FOREVER/ OUR LOVE IS SICK

Genre/Themes: Romance, Music, Coming of Age, Angst, Drama, Childhood friendship, Rich vs poor,  Bullying 

Country: Thailand

Verdict: It's a pity this show is not available for international fans. Because I think people would actually love this show the way I do. It's so precious, reminds me so much of my first ever BL Lovesick (made by the same production team so makes sense) but better. What can I say about this show, really adorable cast, actually so good on the screen, great chemistry, and good storylines that keep me hooked. I am so in love with surprisingly one of my favourite couples this year Tin and Sea. I have such a great time watching this show, and I enjoy also analysing and just piecing together some of the mysteries in the show. It's been so good so far, and I can't wait for more. The first episodes are a little slow-paced, but it gets better as you keep watching it. I'd advise you to watch the director's cut because that has all of the storylines in the episode instead of the tv version which is more censored and has a lot of deleted scenes that mess with the flow of the storyline. Still, one of my favourite Thai shows right now. 

Ratings: 4/5  I think 4/5 is a fair score just because of some confusion when trying to watch it internationally and getting the right version and I do think the story feels like a whiplash between the different styles of writing of the main two couples. Go watch this though if you haven't, dm me and I'll show you how. 

NON-THAI

3. GAYA SA PELIKULA

Genre/Themes: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Angst, LGBTQ+ Education, Contract relationship, Haters to lovers

Country: Philippines 

Verdict: Normally with verdicts, I have so much to say about a show, also when I analyse I can write essays and essays of information. When it comes to this show, I'm speechless. I'm in awe; I'm crying just even trying to explain how great this show is. How great Fridays are because of this show. How upsetting and damaged I am when the end of the episode occurs, I literally mourn waiting for the next episode the next week because it's too long. This show pulls you in, and it never lets you go. I'm mindblown by the writing of this show, mindblown by the acting, by the production, music, but most of all I have become a mess because of this meta in this show. I have cried so much because of how much I care about this show, the characters are all fleshed out, are so powerfully written, and emotionally tugs at your heartstrings whilst still educating and representing LGBTQ community fantastically. I don't know what we did to deserve a show like this. Maybe its because after years of waiting for something to finally show up and just be unproblematic and be so great with no questions, no confusions, no struggle, this show is just that. And I will be forever thankful to the whole team that brought this to us

Ratings: 5/5 I would give this more than 5 if I could. That's how much this show means to me. 

4. CHERRY MAGIC 

Genre/Themes: Romance, Comedy, Supernatural, Office drama, Slice of Life

Country: Japan

Verdict: Kurosawa and Adachi. That's it. That's the reason for the 5/5 stars when it comes to watching this show. First of all, I like Japanese romantic comedy shows, and anime, and manga. So seeing cherry magic come to life as this amazing form of that makes me so happy. Typically with Japanese BL, everything feels so serious sometimes, and then sometimes it feels too crazy and over the top. But Cherry Magic just feels like a warm hug when you watch it; you can't help your self but to smile and giggle at Adachi's adventures realising that he can read minds because he's a virgin at 30 years old. To add to that, he is given Kurosowa this incredible, amazing, wonderful non-toxic man who absolutely adores him and unconditionally is there for him. I just like what? Where do I get my own Kurosawa? Like it just feels so unfair haha. But really cherry magic is full of great acting, fantastic plot and unique as well. Every character is also written well, and all have interesting dynamics. We also have another side couple who is so funny and ridiculous but also just cute and heartwarming. I have a great time watching this show and the fact that it's ending on Christmas day? Already tells you what this show is, a gift and its a great one. 

Ratings: 5/5 I want my own Kurosawa. That's it. That's all I want Universe.

Shows Upcoming

5. THARNTYPE 7 YEARS OF LOVE

Genre/Themes: Romance, Drama, Comedy,  Mature, LGBTQ+ Representation, Internalised homophobia, Sequel

Country: Thailand

Verdict: This is a complicated show to gush about. First of all TharnType, the series in 2019 was one of my favourite shows that brought me back to this BL thing. I absolutely adore all the actors, and I also loved the storyline like I said before there's something about Mame's writing that I appreciate, I think most of her strengths is found in TharnType. Because of this, this sequel is one of my most anticipated show this year. However, I feel conflicted because I hate sequels. I hate couples having to go through the weird-ass, shallow, conflicts that just end up ruining the meaning of their previous show and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth about the couple I once loved (Looking at you Together with me the next chapter still traumatised honestly). Enough of the negatives, Tharn and Type from the trailer looks like it's going to be a wild ride, I can even see the great chemistry that made me fall for MewGulf, and I'm so excited to see the new couples and characters. I also am so excited to see TECHNO again and laugh with him every Friday. We also know that the awaited wedding between our couple is also going to be in this show. And that's going to make me bawl like a baby. Let's hope we don't have too many toxic or troublesome storylines, let's hope we don't have too many breakups and fights (because that hurts so much seeing Mew cry) and let's hope we finally have a sequel that is better than its predecessor. 

Ratings: 4.5/5  This is how I feel about it, I don't think I can rate it as 5/5 because of all the worry and anxiety at what the storyline entails—still a great show to look forward to. 

6. MANNER OF DEATH

Genre/Themes: Romance, Crime, Mature, Angst, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Haters to Lovers

Country: Thailand

Verdict: Think about it. Why wouldn't this be number one on everyone's list of upcoming BLS? We have the return of one of the best actors in this genre MaxTul the actual godfathers of Thai BL; we have an incredible team here with a director that has won multiple awards, with a storyline that is unique to Thai BL, we're getting crime, detective, mystery BL with mature characters who are not in university? As if that's not enough, we also have a really incredible plotline about this forensic doctor who falls in love with someone who we are not sure if we should trust because he could be a murderer! Like oooh yes please, the drama, the angst, the thrill?? I'm ready for this; I am so prepared to give my whole heart and attention on this show. I want it to be so good, to defeat the shows of 2019 that came and took our hearts away, to be the best BL ever. It's so difficult not to raise my expectations when it comes to this show when I know we have a great cast, great chemistry, non-stiff acting, and just a really non-toxic author as well. I look forward to this so much. Only issue/question? Where is the trailer? Hello WETV, where is our teaser? Why don't we know the date for when this is coming out? I want it out now. But I'll try and be patient okay? 

Ratings: 5/5 I can't think of how this show won't be good. And that's really worrying. But for now, I'll keep my expectations high and wait.

7. TONHON CHONTALEE 

Genre/Themes: Romance, Coming of Age, Angst, Comedy, Childhood friendship, GMMTV

Country: Thailand

Verdict: Podd and KHAOTHUNG, (my sun, my heart, my favourite person ever) Sorry just gushing over my two faves. GMMTV has shocked me this year with the announcement of this show. First of all, Khao gets to have a show where he's the main lead. I've been waiting for this, and I'm so proud and excited for him. Not only that obviously, but TonTonChontalee looks really good with a vibe of a  comedic spin to one of my favourite shows Theory of love. I am ready to see Podd act so stupid as Ton and at the same time sob when he finally realises that Chon is the one. I'm so ready to see Khao act his socks off, and the show looks so funny, so fun and just like the chemistry between two is definitely a winner. I cannot wait for this next Friday. And it also has Mike and Toptap! What's not to love? Seriously though I'm praying this is successful, and it helps both Podd and Khao to dominate GMMTV. Let's find out next Friday.

Ratings: 5/5 For Podd and Khaothung. Just worth the rating.

8. GEN Y THE SERIES

Genre/Themes: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Angst, 2moons Fanfiction, Haters to Lovers

Country: Thailand

Verdict: First of all 2 MOONS Reunion! What?? Very shocked to see this show tbh one because it's like a direct copy of 2moons the series; the same cast, the weird alternations to the same name, the same kind of plot as well. Channel 3 has finally decided to invest in BLs,  one of the biggest companies in Thailand, so the budget is high, the actors are known and famous, the production is good. This is so exciting to see. Also, 2moons was one of my favourite past BLs the whole time it was airing, and I had a massive affinity for Kimmon and Copter, so it's great to see them play their characters again but with a better budget and now glow up and grown. Their acting seems to have improved, Kit and Ming's storyline being the main focus is also really lovely to see. I also love seeing Bas and the other actors from other Bl series (The Moment actors) and I'm excited to know more about the new cast as well. So yeh this show has a great potential to win my heart as well, and the competition is not easy at all. But with a great company behind them and an exciting premise, this can also be a winner. 

Ratings: 4/5 I'm intrigued by this show, and I look forward to seeing what it brings.

November is such an exciting month for someone like me who just loves watching tv and analysing and just seeing romance bloom. These couples, stories and actors have a great potential to be the best things of 2020 so far, each of these shows holds evidence that they're worth paying attention to and honestly I've missed seeing Thai BLs that make me so excited so much. I've missed these actors, I've loved each and every one of them, and I can't wait to see them this month on my screen. What about you, guys? What do you look forward to? Who are your favourites? What are you worried about when it comes to these comebacks. Let's discuss.

[septiembrre]

I'm a little late but I just saw your post from a year ago about latinx rep in good girls and its sad reflecting back on it and how the show could've done better. Rio was just another stereotype, I hate how he was ambitiously latino and there was just no connection to his culture. Was he first, 2nd, or 3rd Gen? If he was 1st Gen it didn't make sense to have the family speak English. One thing that always annoyed me is how OOC he was at times and how the writers purposely made him out to be like some brown aggressive misogynistic man. They didn't bother making him complex. In a way I'm glad the show got canceled. As a Mexican woman the way Rio was written was racist.

Wah, I’ve been sitting on answering your ask. I wanted to tease your ask apart and respond to it sentence by sentence. But... my brain kept rechazandolo, so now I have feelings dump instead.

Since Good Girls ended, I have been parsing through how I feel about S4 and GG overall — sometimes more positively, sometimes more negatively. Then, I flip to reminding myself it’s not that serious (it's just tv! this is supposed to be my leisure activity!). Then, I waffle back to reflecting.

So, no textual analysis just feels and whining under the cut. I know folks are still mourning the end of the show and I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. Tagging with #ggnegativity.

My short answer is that Good Girls is my beloved, sometimes joyful, sometimes hurtful, complicated little show. Even now that we’re no longer getting new episodes I’m wary of sifting through the information we have about Rio because it’s a mess and it seems like a lot of his character was poorly thought out (ahem, all those dumb messages from Bill Krebs confirming multiple instances of lack of intentionality or care!).

I say this because I was tempted to start responding to you by riffing off of your comment with, “y'know, now that you say that, I think he’s third or fourth gen…”, pero who cares? And the point was never specifically about what gen he is, or even more specifically about... lol, I was going to say it doesn't matter what nationality he was, they just needed to pick one. Ugh, but the wording of that is too glib. The lack of intentionality behind these details feels sanitized to me, it feels very white gaze, it feels lazy.

However, I could have forgiven a lot of this weak character construction if his baseline, plot-related characterization on-screen was more consistent. But, Rio was often used as a plot device in a way that often fell flat for me, a weekly recurring bogeyman whether his antagonism made sense or not. On one hand, I feel for the creative team, because I think they were in a hard place, trying to avoid romanticizing Rio, and trying to seemingly backtrack the sexualization of him in Season 2, but... Idk, it's complicated.

Retrospectively, it’s sitting with me how much Good Girls is rooted in whiteness. While it's something I discerned before (lol, most obviously with 2x13 and in S3 with Lucy's disposability), you know how some shows get to their third or fourth season and finally start investing in their marginalized characters? It’s a crappy thing to hold out hope for, they're crumbs! But, I was. And we did get some Rio worldbuilding. But, ultimately, it felt weak to me -- under-conceptualized or under-worked.

For example, I liked Nick as a Bigger Bad who drove Rio and Beth together. I also thought that Nick's non-existent moral code was a lovely foil to Rio's, and that this contrast humanized Rio in a way that he needed. It also cast a new light on Rio's behavior of the earlier seasons, outside of Beth's perception in a way that I thought was healthy and needed. Great, meaty stuff! However, Nick and Rio's relationship came across as shallow to me. There really did not seem to be a lived-in quality to their scenes. The show really struggled with that element overall -- even with the three lead protagonists (their decades-long history with each other and interactions between their families being largely absent). I wonder why they made that choice.

It's strange because on the flip side we got a hefty amount of contextualization for MLM guy Vance and Annie's bf Kevin... Even that cop who Mick killed! All white men, too.

Me da pena.

Or maybe the thing that bothers me is that those scenes between Nick and Rio didn't center Rio's perspective effectively? Despite the one-on-one scenes being outside of Beth's framing (Rio being a secondary character typically tethered to Beth's story arc), there still was a lot of distance between Rio and the viewer? Like I think of Vance in his kitchen with his wife and child, and the way we as viewers were brought into that to empathize with him, and I think of the distance of Nick+Rio boxing scene or the scenes at the bar. Argh! It's hard to pinpoint without the textual analysis I feel too grumpy to do. It was such a narrative choice to keep Rio aloof and I side-eye it.

Anyway --

Overall, the writing room/show creators/decision-makers didn't seem to consider Latine/x/a/o viewers throughout the crafting of Good Girls and that sucks. It really feels like I'm being told to conform to the white gaze in watching the show, and after 2x13 that makes me feel prickly and defensive. A part of me yearns to do a rewatch to map Rio’s character (and inconsistencies) but I still yield joy from Good Girls — it’s been my main comfort story during the pandemic. I also rendered joy from Season 4 specifically — some of those scenes between the leads at the end were phenom!!

I am leaning into what's bringing me joy right now, so I feel hesitant to stew in critique, even while I also feel some sort of need to make sense of the hurtful racializations. I have a compulsion to write them all down on the same post or list -- somewhere where I can see them all at once and understand. But, at the moment, it’s not a use of my time and energy that feels good. Opting into fics and writing is bringing me a lot of joy during hard times.

I have to close with one final whine, that I am SO fatigued with television options right now. I find myself desperately wishing for more TV out there whose priority audience isn't only white folks. Good Girls isn't alone in its treatment of Latinx characters, or alone in mishandling characters of color or gay characters, or prioritization of empathy for white het male characters, but certainly, creating something more thoughtful shouldn't be so hard.

[theloneliestshipper]

Book of Boba, Ep. 7 Review

Below is my review of The Book of Boba Fett, Episode 7: In the Name of Honor. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

When they first announced that Robert Rodriguez was directing The Book of Boba Fett, I was pretty happy about it. I’m not in his key audience demographic (presumably children and horror fans) but I’ve seen a few of his movies and I kind of loved Sin City, something that I should definitely be canceled for.

Also I'm the weensiest bit biased because the episode he directed of The Mandalorian is Extremely Special to me. Robert Rodriguez delivered on something I've wanted to see since 1998: a full-on fight scene where Boba demonstrates exactly why he's such a force to be reckoned with.

I would put watching that episode in my top 5 fandom experiences, maybe even top 3.

The finale of The Book of Boba Fett was pretty much everything I would expect a Star Wars television series directed by Robert Rodriguez to be. Predictable and trope-laden, but also full of action and fun. Seven episodes of what we saw in the final chapter would have been a perfectly acceptable addition to the Star Wars universe.

It’s a shame we didn’t get that.

I have a theory, which I’ll save for another day, but I think what can be said at the end of this long, strange seven weeks is that while the show put out some great content, it was lazily written, badly paced, poorly marketed under Disney’s usual Veil of Secrecy, and miscast. Sorry. Temuera Morrison gave a great performance as always but he looks even less like 40 without the scars.

So, let’s have a summary, shall we?

The show doesn’t open with Cobb Vanth.

Brilliant. Bold. Unexpected. Love it.

Nor does it open with Din Djarin. It opens with Boba and Fennec taking in the burned out remains of Garsa Fwip’s Cantina. While we don’t see Garsa’s body, she was standing pretty close to a bomb last time we saw her and unlike some characters she's not a shallow cowboy stereotype played by a man beloved for playing shallow cowboy stereotypes, so she’s probably like, dead dead.

Din joins them and they decide to make their stand here in a burned-out cantina because this episode is directed by Robert Rodriguez. There’s a nice bit of dialogue that really could have been in a previous episode defining Boba’s current motives. It’s not about the money or power, he feels a responsibility to the people of Mos Espa.

Cad Bane checks in with the Pyke leader and the Mayor, who are hiding in Mos Eisley. While we’re there we drop in on Peli, who is having a minor panic attack over the appearance of an X-Wing. X-Wings are apparently police cars now, which is a minus 4 on the coolness scale.

Now I have no problem believing that R2-D2 can fly an X-Wing solo. I have very much skepticism that Grogu made it the whole trip without pushing enough buttons to crash them into an asteroid. There must be some hefty child-locks in that cockpit.

Cad Bane goes to make one last pitch to Boba, which includes rubbing the murder of his Tusken clan in his face. Dick move, classic Cad Bane. I guess. I don’t actually know anything about this character other than there was some creepy arc in The Clone Wars with him and Ahsoka where he took a piece of her headdress and smelled it or something.

Meanwhile in the streets of Mos Espa, all of the guys from the dinner scene have turned on Boba (oh no, if only someone could have predicted that) and are shooting at his allies. The Gamorreans are sacrificed for tension. Booooo.

Boba learns this and is resigned, but Din is ride-or-die, so there’s that. Genuinely a great scene between the two of them. And then the mayor’s majordomo offers to surrender on Boba’s behalf and Boba’s all “oh yeah I’ll surrender…SIKE.” And also it was a distraction so he and Din could sneak out the back door and jetpack into the middle of the fight and I have nothing to say about anything of this because it’s just one of those “shut up and watch the pretty armored boys twirl” moments.

But of course they’re vastly outnumbered and all hope is lost. Then the citizens of Freetown show up, in your FACE, Cad Bane.

Because we've had our rallying moment it’s time for things to get really real, so a bunch of scary-ass shielded droids show up, and not even the darksaber can touch them. Boba has a thought and jets off to fetch his rancor, which I swear had a growth spurt between this episode and its introduction. Was there a decade-long cold war on Tatooine between Boba and the Pykes that we missed while we were off with Din and CGI!Luke?

Boba rides the rancor into the fight and describing fight scenes is really boring so Peli shows up with Grogu and Cad Bane returns for his final showdown with Boba. “I’m still faster than you,” Cad says and Boba replies “That may be, but I have armor” and Cad says “Let’s find out,” which I have to mention because it's just such terrible dialogue. You can see he has armor, dude. He’s standing right in front of you. Classic Cad Bane...I guess?

Anyway, if you were paying attention when Boba fell off of the rancor and you noticed what weapon he brought back from the palace, you know exactly how this fight ends well before it does.

The rancor, meanwhile, is loose and experiencing a lot of Separation Anxiety. They manage to work in a King Kong reference before Grogu puts him down for nappies. We return to the Pyke hideout. Remember that Fennec left in the beginning of the episode to go find the leaders? Because I sure forgot!

Great job, guys. You sure took care of those nefarious villains who were barely in a handful of episodes.

The episode ends with Boba and Fennec walking the streets of Mos Espa and everyone is happy to see them and Boba finally admits that maybe he’s not cut out for this. Fennec tells him he’s committed and he can’t quit this the way he quit swimming lessons and piano.

So I guess he’s there to stay.

Things I Loved:

Boba’s fake out with the mayor’s assistant is exactly like the scene where Din disarms for the TSA droid. It’s a well-used trope but somehow remains funny when properly executed. I also appreciated the flowery and alliterative language, which seems very in step with Tem’s version of Boba.

The rancor going full “you’re not my dad!” and nomming on Din. XD

Speaking of Din, I think we can all agree that Din chasing after the retreating Pykes while clutching a baby to his chest is peak Mandalorian Parent energy.

Drash had a nice moment with the Freetown girl and I ship it.

I really did appreciate that the Freetown people came in the end not because Cobb Vanth told them to go be canon fodder, but because they made a decision to fight for something better. It’s going to be all love until Boba comes out in support of giving the Tuskens their land back.

I said at the beginning of this series that I got a real Daenerys Targaryen vibe from Boba’s arc and while that vibe was certainly intense in this episode it was in a good way.

Peli is right. Grogu is a terrible name.

Things I Didn’t Love:

Fennec being absent for most of the big fight was…strange. It felt like she was pushed out to make room for Din and I definitely didn’t love that.

I really wish we had seen more build up to this fight. The characters have been talking about war but we haven’t seen much actual conflict and so this didn’t actually feel like a war so much as it felt like a single battle fought by a handful of people in one city.

You know where that conversation between Din and Boba would have fit in really well? The previous episode, where Boba had like seven seconds of screen time and no dialogue. Yes, I’m still bitter about that.

You know what also would have been cool? If Fennec had an actual arc or space to explore her career change from Master Assassin to Hand of the Daimyo. Maybe something to do with her skepticism of Boba hiring every troublemaker in town and maybe it could have built up over a few episodes and then that moment where she tells the Mod Squad they did well would have had emotional resonance.

You know what ALSO would have been…no, screw this. I’m saving it for another post.

Monster of the Week: The rancor, who got tired and overstimulated and started lashing out. Whomst among us.

Final Thoughts: I know you’re all wondering, “did you see the post-credits scene, Grace?” and I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. I watched an episode. I saw some pretty concept art. I don’t know anything about a post-credits scene. It’s like you’re obsessed with the idea of a post-credits scene. It’s like you’re in love with it. Did I see a post-credits scene? I don’t understand the question. Get a warrant.

[angelicmichael]

Oohh, could you do number 10 from the physical affection prompts? "Lifting someone up out of excitement"? Maybe a pregnancy announcement or love confession with whichever Cody guy you feel most inspired by?

A/N: sooo I decided to use duncan for this prompt since I've never written for him before!! Also, I like a challenge so.. I made this both a pregnancy announcement and love confession 👉🏻👈🏻 hope you dont mind!! I hope you enjoy this dear anon 💖. This is a bit long and plot heavy hehe

~

Waking up to extreme nausea was not how you had originally planned to spend last weekend. What was supposed to be a fun weekend with your friends.. and fuck buddy.. only ended in you becoming best friends with the toilet with one too many plans cancelled.

You hated being sick; but feeling sick and miserable and guilty at the same time was beyond overwhelming. Most of your friends forgave you and understood why you had to reschedule plans. However... your fuck buddy which went by the name 'Duncan' wasnt going to be so forgiving.

Not at first anyway; you knew he would come around eventually.. give or take a few days.

Although, Duncans opinion of you was not the only thing you were stressed out about lately. You also wanted to know why the fuck you got so sick so fast.

It wasnt flu season, you had no reason to be sick, it certainly was not food poisoning... There was only 'one' thing it could still be..

You could be fucking pregnant.

Being pregnant in itself was not something you dreaded; being a mother was something you always knew you wanted to be, and would be one day.

The problem of being pregnant here had to do with 'who' the father would be. And that would be none other than Duncan fucking Shepard.

You knew it was him; you hadn't had sex with anyone in months besides him. Plus.. you two weren't exactly the most careful either when it came to using protection. You knew deep down if you were really pregnant at all; it would have to be with his baby.

Although, things still werent as simple as they seem.

Again, you really had no doubt that Duncan would make a good father, it was just the circumstances you two were in currently that complicated things.

He didnt know you loved him. You two weren't official, you two just happened to be really good friends who, you know.. had sex.

You were nearly certain he didnt love you back, not in the way that you meant anyway. You knew instinctively that when he said 'I love you' to you that he meant it in a way that he would say to his friend or family.. That's probably all he saw you as anyway, just as a friend or family.

That thought made you sick if you started to think that's how you can duncan could end up forever unless you or him made a move. It was a thought that frequently plagued you and even gave you insomnia most nights.

Those thoughts of you and Duncans 'relationship' are what caused you to get a pregnancy test. You needed to know why the fuck you were sick, and if those thoughts about you and Duncan were rational or simply your anxiety attempting to manifest. And of course to your fucking demise, it was a positive test.

You first sat in shock; and then you did the most stupid thing you could think of - you called Duncan.

Of course you didnt outright tell him, you only told him that you needed to see him ASAP and that he needed to come over to see you.

That was about 20 minutes ago.

You awaited for him anxiously in your apartment; you sat on your bed - fully clothed with a bit of makeup splashed on your face in a attempt to look put together. You were absolutely terrified to even think about what the fuck was about to happen.

Your thoughts were racing as you sat in the dark. You didnt even bother turning on the lights; the blinds were drawn as well. Sitting in the dark was kind of comforting - it made everything feel less real.. As if you were dreaming. Although, the anxiety you still felt reminded you that you were in fact, still awake. You truly had no clue what kind of conversation you were about to have.

You didnt even jump when you heard the front door loudly pop open, you had given him one of the keys to your apartment. You listened diligently to his loud footsteps echoing in the living room, as he gradually grew closer and closer to your room. Then, the door opened as you inhaled.

Duncan looked distraught as he entered the room. His hair was slightly disheveled, his outfit looked slightly wrinkled as well. Overall, he looked put together but the longer you stared at him - the more apparent it was that he wasnt okay. He wasted no time in getting to you once he opened the door, it almost threw you off guard at how calm he looked.. something you weren't expecting. You nearly laughed at how out of character this was for Duncan.

"Hey, are you okay"? Duncan asked, speaking rather quickly.

You watched as Duncan hurriedly but cautiously approached you; sitting next to you on your bed.

"I- I mean, yeah I'm okay. I just wanted to see you". You (semi) smoothly lied, thinly smiling in a attempt to try to sell your poorly told lie.

He rolled his eyes and gave you a look as if he automatically knew you were giving him bullshit.

"(Y/n), I know your sick, baby. Just tell me the truth". He said.

Your heart leapt into your throat once you heard him call you the petname. Duncan definetly called you pet names before but it was a rare, once in a long time type of thing. However, it felt like to you that the fact he called you 'baby' only solidified what you knew you had to do.

You had to tell him.

He deserved to know; and you deserved to move on with your life or to attempt too.

"Duncan.. I.. I cant keep doing this anymore". You started, speaking slowly. Your words tumbled fast out of your mouth, knowing that Duncan was about to interrupt you any minute.

"I need you to decide whether you want to be fully committed to me, or to not be in my life at all. I dont really know how to say this but, I'm in a stage of my life where I cant 'fake' be with you, Duncan. I cant only be with you behind closed doors. That's just.. not going to work anymore". You said confidently.

Even though you sounded confident, you really felt quite the opposite. You had no idea what to expect of how he would react. What if he just left?? What if he didnt want to be with you, at all??

You held your breath as he continued to sit next to you; the silence almost deafening.

You looked over at Duncan, he studied his hands which were clasped together over his knees. He looked as if he wanted to speak but he couldnt get the words out... until he finally did break the silence.

"So, what are you suggesting? What are you trying to get at here, exactly"? He prompted. His voice was still slow and calm but he sounded slightly irritated and on edge. You couldnt blame him.

Your mouth grew dry as you shifted uncomfortably. You were thankful he responded but yet.. you now were the one at a loss for words.

"I'm suggesting that.. we should start dating. I cant keep doing this-" You started but Duncan made you ate your words as he interrupted you with a rough kiss.

You felt the world stop and almost turn into slow motion as you really started to melt into the kiss. You let your previous anxiety inducing thoughts melt away the longer you two kissed, as you focused on being present in the moment.

After Duncan slowly and begrudgingly pulled away from you, you two sat in silence for a couple seconds.

"So that's why your acting like this"? Duncan asked with a sly smirk.

You swore it was as if he already knew the answer, yet chose to ask you anyway just to be a smartass.

"So.. you actually want to date me?? Your know what your agreeing too, right"? You said, partially teasing and.. actually being serious.

"(Y/n), do you really think I would be talking to you this long if I had no interest in you? Of course I want to date you, what kind of question is that"?! Duncan retorted playfully with a quiet chuckle.

You grinned, letting out a shallow laugh with the realization that the biggest news still remained untold; a deep pit felt like it resided in your stomach.

You weren't quite out of the woods yet.

In order to help relieve your anxiety, you suddenly stood up off your bed. You paced around your room, running a hand shakily through your hair.

"I still have to tell you something". You admitted, your back turned to him.

There was no way you could even fathom making eye contact with him now. To your horror, you could hear your bed gently squeak as you could only guess as he stood up.

By the time you felt his hand on your shoulder, it was too late to even hear his footsteps. You jumped and turned around with a sharp inhale - to your surprise, nearly chest to chest with the main himself.

Duncan.

"What are you trying to hide for, hm"? He said teasingly.

He moved his face closer to yours; his lips *so* close to yours. The corner of your mouth upturned in a small closed mouth smile.

You uttered a quick, "I'm not". As you stole a quick kiss.

You anxiously took a few paces back. Taking a deep breath before whipping around and making eye contact on a sudden spurt of courage you felt.

"I'm pregnant, Duncan". You spoke.

You felt almost as if you were dreaming when you saw his reaction, he was fucking smiling. Was he actually fucking happy?!

You stood there frozen as he quickly approached you and gently held your waist. Before you could even comprehend or really even complain of what was happening - you felt him gently lift you up and give you a quick spin before landing you back down safely on your feet.

Duncans smile was infectious; before you knew it you were grinning and laughing along with him.

Any doubt you previously had immeadietly disintigrated and was replaced with hope and joy. You knew Duncan was going to make the best father, and that you two only had your lives ahead of you.

~

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