#LOW CONFLICT ROMCOMS WHERE ARE YOU

[lowkeyfalleninlove]

I love romcoms, i do. But what stresses me tf out is when the mc is growing this romance with the love interest while the lies keep piling up over and over and over until the third act comes along and i might as well have watched a thriller bc the suspense was choking me in my own home and i thought this was a ROMCOM????

[lurkingshan]

Cooking Crush is the Ultimate Romcom

I have been singing this show's praises and lamenting it being so underrated for weeks, and I am simply never going to stop because it just keeps getting better. This week was episode 10, a spot where many Thai shows stumble as they set up their final arcs, but this show sailed right on through on the strength of its writing and incredible character and relationship development. This show believes that relationships should make us better, and it shows us how each of the pairs do this for each other rather than telling us.

Ten is probably one of the best romance leads we have ever gotten in bl. He is just so kind and genuine, and his commitment to honest communication is what drives the story. He's a great match for Prem, who is more naturally cynical and struggles with self-esteem issues. We see over and over again how Ten's steady support and affection buoys Prem through hard times, how Prem never waivers on his feelings for Ten even when he is feeling low, and that even in tough moments they give each other so much joy. Every time something happens that would set up a major conflict in other shows, it is dismantled by Ten and Prem talking to each other about their feelings and getting on the same page. They make each other happy and they want to be together; it is as simple and natural as that.

Similarly, we are seeing clearly how good Fire and Dy's relationship is for both of them. Fire is basically a whole new man now that he has accepted his sexuality and his feelings for Dynamite, and he is growing in his confidence, even starting to be affectionate with Dy in front of their friends. And now that he's gotten out of his own way, Fire can see Dynamite for who he is and offer him the kind of love and support that has been sorely lacking in his life. Dynamite is a character who seems carefree and confident on the surface, but who is actually hiding a well of pain that is closely tied to rejection because of his sexuality and the way he presents in the world. They see and understand these struggles in each other and they are happier when they're together.

And let's not forget Metha and Samsee, who are not in a romance (yet?? please show I will love you forever) but whose relationship is also about forming a bond through which kindness, affection, and support can flourish. Metha is always here to support Samsee when he's struggling with his friends, and Samsee relies on him even as he maintains some defensive posturing to avoid getting hurt. But I trust Metha not to hurt him. I love the way Metha moves through this story giving people the pushes they need and generally just being an excellent dude.

And this show doesn't only care about romance! This is one of the more serious treatments of queer friend group dynamics we have ever had in the bl genre. The friendships in this show are not here as joke fodder or secondary to the romances; they are treated as just as important to the narrative as the romantic beats. Samsee's hurt over being excluded and the changing dynamics of his friendships was taken seriously, and all the other characters gave him space and grace to work out his feelings. I similarly expect that as the show wraps up, we'll return to Ten's family dynamics and come to some solid resolutions there.

I don't know how else to say it: this show is excellent, the writing is much stronger than anyone expected, and the characters are all-timers. Let some joy into your lives and watch Cooking Crush.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #35 – To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis

This was my second shot on reading something of Willis’, and I found it far more enjoyable than the first. Which is something of a feat, honestly – it’s a rare book that you can more-or-less accurately describe s a ‘cozy romcom’ that doesn’t make me recoil. But it was charming! And dated, but mostly only charmingly as well.

The story is the second in a series, which no one ever told me when recommending it because it does not matter in the slightest (at least, I had no issues at all following along with the story) – though it does mean that it hits the ground running and requires you to pick up quite a bit from context for the first while. It follows Ned Henry, a historian at the University of Oxford in the mid-21st century – a field that has been changed dramatically by the invention of time travel. For example, it’s suddenly in desperate need of particle-accelerator money, which is why and the entire rest of the department have been conscripted by an incredibly generous donor to help her reconstruct Coventry Cathedral exactly as it was before being destroyed in the Blitz. Exactly. ‘God is in the details’, and Henry has spent subjective weeks running himself ragged attending wartime rummage sales and sifting through bombed out ruins to try and verify the fate of a glorified flower pot mainly notable for being overdone and ugly even by Victorian standards.

After going through so many rapid-fire temporal shifts that the jump sickness leaves him waxing rhapsodic about the highway and falling in love with every woman he sees, he’s sent to Victorian Oxford to lay low and recuperate, and deliver a vitally important package to a contact already in situ. Unfourtunately that jump sickness means that he’s pretty unclear on the particular what and who. Really it’s remarkable that things don’t spin even more wildly out of control than they do (and there’s a period where he might have accidentally made the nazis win WW2).

So yeah, not what you’d call a serious novel. Most of the plot is sneaking around trying to make sure various members of the Victorian gentry fall in love in the right pattern to make sure someone’s grandson can fly in the RAF down the line and someone else elopes off to America on schedule (with drastically limited details and new information from back home changing things ever so often). Also sneaking a pampered rare-fish-hunting pet cat and slothful bulldog around before they arouse the wrath of their hosts. The apocalyptic threat that’s theoretically hanging over everyone never really feels real, and it’s all just pleasently absurd and enjoyable to read.

The comedy reminds me of early Prachett, in a way? Which like, a light comedy from the ‘90s in large part poking fun at English academia, of course there are similarities, but still. Not that that’s n insult. There’s plenty of absurd situations caused by miscommunication or desperately trying to work around absurd social conventions or personal foibles. Almost the entire Victorian cast (and a decent number of the present-day characters as well) are objectively ridiculous people, and the book has a lot of fun making do the literary equivalent of chewing scenery for the camera.

I call this a romcom, but I’m not ever sure that fits, honestly. It is a comedy with romance, between the two lead characters, whose dynamic with each other is the main throughline of the book. But it’s never really a source of drama? Or a motor of the plot. They are coworkers who end up working in close confines and get alone fine, who both awkwardly admit they find each other very attractive and start flirting and at the end they kiss and adopt a cat together. Least miscommunication- or conflict-ridden central romance in fiction you’ve ever seen. I don’t know enough about the genre constraints to determine whether it counts or not.

Part of the appeal of this was honestly the odd ways it came across as a bit dated? Not at all in a bad way but just, like – the fixation on the Blitz as the sine qua non of English history feels very 20th century? The references to the Charge of the Light Brigade and Schrodinger’s Box and Three Men in a Boat, combined with the felt obligation to step back from the narrative and explain what they were in case the reader wasn’t aware – just the idea that someone reading a time travel story won’t already be familiar with the concept of temporal paradoxes, really. It all added up to a reading experience that felt a bit off-kilter in a pleasing way.

This is obviously a story very fascinated by Victoriana – both the time period and the popular memory. Its perspective on the period is – I guess ‘affectionate contempt’ might be the best way to put it? It clearly doesn’t think much of the Oxfordshire gentry, the women shallow as a puddle and obsessed with marriage gossip and spiritualism, the men with their heads stuffed with some academic fixation and utterly divorced from all practical affairs, both obsessed with petty one-up-man-ship of their peers and casually abusive and callous towards the servants who run and organize their lives for them. But it all feels rather good-natured; not a trace of righteous fury or real class hatred is on display, the fact of the empire and the source of their fortunes is I think not even mentioned. One more way it feels a bit dated, I suppose, or maybe just a way my usual reading’s much more explicitly political about these things.

I’m also not sure if this is a matter of tastes or popular memory changing or just my impression of what the received common wisdom is being parochial or inaccurate, but – given the association of ‘Victorian’ with imperial grandeur, aesthetic superiority, eye-wateringly expensive historical real estate, etc, it is quite funny how the book takes for granted that to be ‘victorian’ means to be horrifically gaudy and over-designed, devoid of elegance or restraint, and to have probably ruined some real medieval beauty in its creation.

Anyway yes, you absolutely could dig into this book and write some meaty essays out of it, but I simply was not reading it closely enough to do so. It’s probably overlong and definitely meandering and unhurried, but I did find it a really enjoyable read.

[performativezippers]

Could you share your thoughts about beats in writing, please?

OKAY HERE WE GOOOOO this is going to be long but honestly it could have been so much longer so oops!

tl;dr: Beats are when things in the story happen.

So in a mystery novel, for example, when does the crime occur? when do they think they've solved it, but they're wrong? when do they realize they were wrong? when is their life in danger? when do they know who did it? when does the reader know who did it? when is the b-plot introduced and when it is resolved?

These typically happen in a similar place in each mystery novel, because of course it wouldn't make sense if it went: (1) you think you know who did it, and then (2) the crime is committed. Right? or if the very first person they suspected did it and they catch them immediately! that's never what happens because then what's the other 200 pages of the book?

so there is relative order, and you know it even as a passive reader, so then the question is how spaced out are those things throughout the fic or manuscript?

in a romance, it's the same. typically we see:

meet cute/first meeting/first canon meeting (the pilot) e.g. alex meets maggie at the airport and they fight over jurisdiction, or jane and maura work a case together as usual but it's the first one where jane is scared, aka a new start to their existing relationship

why aren't they together off the bat? (aka why is this a romance novel and not a romance sentence?) e.g. alex thinks she's straight and they're good friends, or maura dates elon musk types and jane is, you know, not that

complication e.g. alex comes out and then asks maggie to be her gf but maggie says no because alex is fresh off the boat, or maura starts dating jane's dumbass brother

false high (if there is a third act breakup, this is the happy time before that) e.g. alex and maggie get together and are very happy kissing the girls they want to kiss, or maura dumps tommy because her life with jane is more important to her

low point (this is often the 3rd act breakup, but doesn't have to be) e.g. alex freaks out when family conflicts with romance and dumps maggie, or jane kills maura's dad

KISS KISS KISS (aka the happily ever after) e.g. alex apologizes and sanvers stays together forever because the show was cancelled, or jane performs surgery on maura in the woods and then they kiss forever because the show was cancelled

SO, all of those things have to happen, and beats are when. you can of course put your plot points whenever you want them. it's your life and your art and your hobby!! have fun! but if you want to learn "craft" or whatever, or get traditionally published, you need to know when the conventional beats for your genre are, so that you can show you know what you're doing.

You've noticed beats even if you haven't thought about them. Sometimes a fanfic feels like it's going on too long or ending too abruptly, which is because they didn't place their beats carefully. Maybe it's taking forever to get past the set-up, and then the ending feels rushed. Maybe they got to the end of the plot but kept writing little one-shots or vignettes that don't have any tension in them. Almost all pacing problems can be solved by beats!

There are two main beat sheets I use for writing romcoms, Save the Cat and Romancing the Beat. There are book and workshops for both. My spreadsheet I use for every book uses Save the Cat beats, which was originally developed for screenplays. Here's a screenshot of that from the spreadsheet i use religiously:

I try to focus on

inciting incident at 0 or 10% (catalyst)

fun and games 25-50%

mid point high right around 50%

Things get bad from 50-75 until dark night of the soul from 75-80%

Redemption 80-90%, climax around 90%, final snippet less than 1,000 after end of climax

I do the math on my word count and ideal final word count to reverse outline where i am. in my book that's going to be published, i was really struggling with how to fill the 50-75% chunk; it was perfectly paced up until the shattering of the false high at 50%, and I knew what would happen after the dark night of the soul at 75%, but my project was to figure out how i could keep the plot driving forward and interesting while the MC's mood and situation tanked for a full 25% of the book. It turns out in the most recent draft, that stuff is 52-86%, and is stuff i really love. i was able to work in other plot points earlier that had time to breathe and got the space they needed in that portion, as well as find the balance between 20k of boring moping and maintaining tension while the romance was tanked.

it's very very hard to use beats in a fic you're posting as you're writing it (which is most of the fics i post), but even having it in the back of my mind helps. For the Ultimatum fic i'm writing and posting now, i knew before i started posting what the midpoint false high would be, plus the dark night of the soul, plus the endgame. it's important to make sure any b-plots, or in the case other couples, get their shit resolved around the same times as Kacy does, so that we don't need too much wrap up/exposition after the kacy climax.

what other questions or thoughts do you have about beats and plot pacing? send them to me!

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: Under the Mistletoe Collection

4/5. Releeases 11/12/24.

The Vibes:

—Christmas anthology

—Holiday romcom

—Everything from brother's best friend to "dressed like Santa"

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

A set of five romantic Christmas stories!

The Review:

All by My Elf by Olivia Dade is the tale of two coworkers who end up in stuck in a snowed-in traffic situation, in a food truck sort of deal—oh, and she has a massive crush on him and believes he's hooking up with her best friend. Is he? I mean....

I'm 90% sure this "the roads have stopped because snow" deal was in part inspired by the travails of Virginia senator Tim Kaine, and if so, I am SO happy about that. I will tell everyone about how Tim Kaine survived on an orange and optimism in his car anytime. But in this case, it's two people versus one Tim Kaine, and also, the hero has sexy glasses. It's breezy and light and honestly may be my favorite Olivia Dade thing I've read, with a sexy game of "never have I ever" and a hero who made me go "Oh, WOULD". Also, there's a lot of cuddling with "is that....? In his pocket...?" content.

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey tells the tale of a thrift store employee/single mom who decides, after farmer rips a pair of jeans because he's Too Big, to make him jeans herself! Also, there is Christmas.

Um... I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It was funny. It was kind of sexy at points. I... wish he hadn't been a farmer. I feel like him ripping his jeans would've been 90% funnier had he been more "angry embarrassed" versus "shy aw shucks" embarrassed. Luke seemed nice, but I wasn't sure about where he was on January 6. I did appreciate him liking her "sturdy hips" though. This just may have "Boy is Too Big"ed too close to the sun for me.

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood puts a somewhat depressed doctor at crosshairs with her best friend's brother—who was also her close friend, until.... the Incident. With the power off, the two decide to play Truth or Drink, which brings up some uncomfortable memories (and new confrontations).

This is the strongest of the bunch, and it really got me. Hazelwood manages to inject just the right amount of angst into a short story. It's not over the top, it feels super realistic, and if you're a fan of long-term pining... This is it. I also really loved that this is a best friend's brother story with a twist—not a huge one, but I don't think I've read any other stories with a heroine who's older than the hero. It added to the sweetness of it all.

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur focuses on an accident-prone woman who keeps getting the same firefighter at her beck and call whenever she's in trouble. She's not in town forever; he wants to make the most of the time they have. What's a girl to do when she doesn't do hookups?

This was fine; although I really liked The Fiancee Farce, I haven't found anything else by Bellefleur that super works for me. But I get why she works for other people. This is pure sugar. There isn't much conflict, really, aside from "I don't do casual". It's all very straightforward. The sex is hot. I honestly didn't know how Everleigh like... survived, though. So many hijinks!

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria has a comic book illustrator who's, yes, a bit of a shut-in recovering from loss, decide to seize the day at a Santa-themed holiday party by hooking up with the neighbor she's long had a crush on. And yes, they are both dressed like Santa.

So much fun! So hot! So Santa! I love Alexis Daria's voice, and she manages to take a pretty low-stakes story and punch it up with character and heart. And again. It's really hot. I loved the chemistry between our leads here, and you totally felt the vibe that they'd been longing for each other for quite a while. It's to the point, and it did what it needed to do.

The Sex:

Varies! Every story has explicit sex, however. The highest heat story is probably Bailey's Merry Ever After, though Bellefleur's Merriment and Mayhem comes (haha) in second and Only Santas in the Building is quite steamy. But to me, the heat level for each story suited the tone of the story itself, if that makes sense.

While there were standouts and "could've been better"s, this is ultimately a really fun, enjoyable Christmas anthology. And honestly, few things say "Christmas" to me like Christmas anthologies.

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[dramalets]

2024 Watch List pt1

Here we go again!

To sir, with love - This is a lakorn so it's appropriately dramatic. The mothers are absolutely foul and do an awful lot of scheming and yelling. Jam/Film are intensely watchable and make wet fish kisses look terribly romantic. Tongtong Kitsakorn as Yang was a revelation. I'm sad he's pm just a lakorn actor/pop star because he is so watchable. I loved that, though they were evil and insane, the mothers all felt fleshed out and realised. You understood why they were yikes. 3½/5 (2/1/23)

A Boss & a Babe - I quit this at episode 2 and then decided to go back to it. I don’t regret doing so. This isn’t top tier but it’s also not shit tier. Cher, the very dictionary definition of toxic positivity, and Gun, an autism coded cat man, enter into an extremely quick romance (like seriously, it’s taken hard worn lesbians longer to say I love you) the catch being they’re intern and company boss. Honestly in another drama that would have been the the huge hiccup of the series, keeping them apart, but it’s consistently shown to be more of an issue for others that it is for them. This is very low conflict, mostly romcom fluff with two weirdly intense, barely explored side stories for support characters. I didn’t loath Force in this and would actually like him to be given more roles where he’s just a soft simp and not a boring sarcastic one. Book does some good comedy work here. 3/5 (4/1/23)

The day I loved you - I know this won’t work for everyone. It’s a bittersweet ten episode love story between a boy with ASL and the ‘rebel’ exchange student at his school. Pinoy BL, for me, either really hits or really misses and this hit. It does use a questionable model of disability, namely the inspiration model, but I cant nit pick too much when this is only ten 15/20 minute episodes. I enjoyed it a lot, you may also if you’re okay with a bittersweet ending vs an out and out happy one. 3½/5 (12/1/24)

VIP Only - Well this was adorable. Slow as molasses and just as sweet. This probably won’t be for everyone, very slow and not much happens other than character growth and a love story, but it worked for me. The edit is horrendous in places and I do wish Taiwan did longer episodes, but those are my only gripes. 3½/5 (19/1/24)

I cannot reach you - I don’t really watch Jbl. There are just styles and tropes that I don’t enjoy watching that Japan uses a lot of. It’s a taste thing more than it is anything else. So keep that in mind. This is full of a lot of the things I don’t like; over action, randomly running everywhere, sudden non-con. But it’s also endearingly sweet and very well acted, so I did find myself enjoying it. I don’t think this’ll awaken a desire to watch lots of Jbl but it has made me consider some others. 3/5 (20/1/24)

Last Twilight - I had a lot of fun with this. The dialogue and acting were all top notch and, as ever with Aof productions, it was stunning to look at. It weaves the story of two broken people healing one another very well with Jimmy & Sea doing beautiful work as Mhok & Day. I think this came a little unstuck at points in the end. I liked most of the romance movie style ending but I remain a little unsure about Day’s ending. Still, this is a show that I enjoyed every week and will have no issues rewatching. 4/5 (26/1/24)

Old Fashion Cupcake - I’m working on trying out more JBL to get a feel for what I do and don’t like. This? This I like. We don’t have enough stories about older people anyway and this does it well. Togawa’s slow courting of Nozue through shared experiences and casual intimacy is delicious to watch. 4/5 (4/2/24)

Pit Babe - I love when I show wholly knows what it is and doesn’t try and be anything but that. This knew it was a big ol’ fanfic and leaned wholeheartedly into that. Whether it was the breeding program subplot or the consistently dumb toothpaste and sausage ppl it handled them both with equal aplomb. It’s also worth noting that was largely really well acted too! Pavel, Nut & Sailub particularly impressed me but there was nobody bad. 4/5 (9/2/24)

Our Dining Table - My journey into JBL continues and this was the best one yet. Soft pining between two sad boy leads with a gorgeous found family story woven in. The treacle slow courting between these two won’t be for everyone but it was wholly for me. 5/5 (17/2/24)

Cooking Crush - The edit on this was criminally bad at points, sometimes I truly felt I’d skipped a part and I hadn’t at all, but it still served up a good little story. If you’re visiting this for the romance it’s not really that, the story is in the friends and their lives more than it is in Ten & Prem’s romance. I loved the comedy in this, it hit those notes well and was never over the top. (Lots of puns that I expect are super good if you speak Thai.) Nobody is bad in this, everyone delivers, but OffGun are as watchable as they always are and the few kisses they do have are perfect. 3/5 (18/2/24)

The Novelist - When I say I don’t love JBL it’s usually because the tropes are just too tropey for my tastes. Apparently I’m a lying liar who lies because this is extremely Japanese and I loved every moody second of it. Kijima is a sad, lonely, messed up man who doesn’t think he’s deserving of anything good and it’s wildly compelling to watch. 4/5 (18/2/24)

Mood Indigo - Fucked up 4 Fucked up. Two broken, sad, lonely men mess up repeatedly, and erotically, that’s it that’s the show and I ate it up with a spoon. Deeply flawed assholes being toxic together, when it’s well written and well acted, is so disgustingly watchable to me and this certainly was. 5/5 (18/2/24)

The Novelist: Playback - Continues where The Novelist ends. I watched the clean version of this, it was what was available to me, and was still deeply entertained. So if you think people watch this series for the heat then you’re incorrect. This is another instalment of Kijima Rio being a horribly broken fuck up of a man. I loved it. 4/5 (21/2/24)

Tokyo in April is… - I love a good destined to be together trope when it’s done well and this is done beautifully. Kazuma and Ren fall in love as teenagers and are separated before finding one another again as adults. The pacing on this is a little rough, I get what they were doing with the sub-plot but it felt mildly unneeded and time would have been better given to exploring our leads generally or even Ren’s painful family issues. This is still a lovely drama that I wholly recommend. 4/5 (21/2/24)

[youareinacomawakeup]

Film Rec: Bandits (2001) AKA: Be Polyamorous, Do Crimes

So there’s this movie I fucking love. It’s just a romcom, let’s be upfront about that, but here’s the appeal: It’s the only movie I know of that resolves a love triangle with polyamory. Because fuck it, Kate Wheeler has two hands.

So the film introduces us first to Joe Blake (Bruce Willis), a flirty tough guy with anger issues who fancies himself a philosopher and has terrible habits with money.

The film also introduces us to Terry Collins (Billy Bob Thornton), hypochondriac nerd who likes to cook and tends to think of himself as smarter than everybody in the room.

Incredibly flawed characters. Get used to it.

The first thirty minutes of the film or so follows the two of them, friends, as they break out of prison together and set up their first major goal, which is to rob enough banks to raise money to open a resort in Mexico. Flee the country and live out the rest of their lives in peace.

They build up this system of robbing a bank, splitting the money between the two of them and their getaway driver, going their separate ways for a couple of weeks to wait for the law to cool down (since the cops will be looking for two men), and meeting back up to do it all again.

Unfortunately, while Terry’s on the way to meet Joe, the needle on the gas gauge gets stuck and, not realizing he’s low, he runs out of gas. So he tries to jack a car. And, because this is a romcom, we’ve gotta pull out the classic meet cute of hitting the future love of your life with your car.

Enter Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett).

They don’t get along well at first--understandable, given the circumstances--but she and Joe hit it off right away.

She stays with him for one of those two-week separations, their relationship deepens...

Then, due to circumstances I won’t spoil, she’s forced to spend the next two weeks with Terry. In the same hotel room because there-was-only-one-bed trope. Three guesses what happens.

Joe knows what happened the second he sees them next, and he confronts Terry about it, but Kate’s having none of it.

All their problems don’t go away immediately. It takes Joe and Terry a while to stop being jealous of each other, to figure the whole polyamory thing out, because this is a movie and there needs to be drama, but the thing is...

Okay, so we’re definitely getting into spoiler territory, so go leave and watch the movie if you don’t want to be spoiled on how it ends. But this is for the people for whom whether they live happily ever after or not will make or break the whole movie. If you want to know how it ends, I’ll happily let you know, just to put your heart at ease. But let everyone else file out first. Okay?

Seriously. There’s a plot twist, and it’s good. I don’t want to ruin it for you unless it’ll be the deciding factor for whether you watch this movie or not.

Okay, is everyone gone?

Last call to click out.

Okay.

So the movie opens up on what looks like a hopeless situation, right? They’re in a bank, there’s an army of cops outside, it looks like our heroes are totally cornered, and they’re talking about how Kate betrayed them.

But we aren’t the intended audience for that scene.

The hostages are.

It’s all an act.

The scene the film opens up on is Joe and Terry setting the stage to fake their deaths. Which they’re doing with Kate’s help. Why?

Because they’re going to live happily ever after in Mexico, just like they planned.

See, there’s a character I’ve barely mentioned named Harvey, who is not part of the polycule. He’s Joe’s cousin, the getaway driver. And he wants to be a stuntman, and as such, he’s super interested in practical effects. He’s introduced with a scene of him trying to figure out how to fake gunshots.

This? This is a Chekov’s gun. Or, rather, it’s a Chekov’s...absence of gun?

The film ends with Joe and Terry staging this huge conflict where they both pretend to get shot in front of as big of an audience as possible.

With Harvey’s help.

Kate “turned them in” to not only increase the size of the audience with an army of cops, but to take any suspicion off her, as well as to snag an extra million in bounty.

She breaks up with them, briefly, because of all the fighting, but that’s the last shove Joe and Terry needed to realize they have to pull their shit together and figure out the whole polyamory thing because the jealousy was never worth both of them losing her.

They all live happily ever after in Mexico, with Kate proving that she does in fact have two hands by using them to hold the hands of both of her men.

Everything’s okay. For one goddamn time in the history of cinema, all the bank robbers live happily ever after in the end, and it’s in the movie with the polyamory.

So go fucking watch the movie. Do it. It’s on Tubi right now (meaning it’s free to watch, so you have no excuse if it’s your kind of film) and it’s just fluffy feel-good schmaltz about bank robbers falling in love. No divine retribution for daring to break the laws of love or any shit like that, just...love conquering all.

[damazcuz]

people should't have to read and write darkfic about bad things happening just for you to see them as "real fans" so who are you to decide that i dont actually love something just because i love it different from you? you seriously sound like a freak with that post, so just guessing you justify reading rape/pedo fic too.

You feel victimized by the suggestion that you don't actually enjoy something that you pick apart to bones and smash to dust and glue back together and call the same. You think you have to defend your right to do so against me, (you don't; please learn to do things that others dislike with grace and in peace) and you were hurt when you read my post and deliberately misinterpreted it, and the easiest thing to do in that state is to lash out with accusations that will make me stop talking and walk back what I said and reinstate you in the right. Saying "actually people shouldn't have to read dark fiction and you must be a pedophile" isn't the most logical leap but it's the most likely to make the other side (me) upset and hurt, and either I'll shut up and go away or I'll flounder to defend myself and look foolish in the process; either way you can feel vindicated in knowing that you shut down some miserable little jester who said that coffeeshop au writers don't hold the same love for fiction as writers of traumaporn fic, or whatever my post was.

I really don't care if you enjoy and create and consume lighthearted romcom soulmates no-conflict AU derivative fiction and art. It doesn't hurt me when you make that. I can say "ugh I don't want to look at this" and scroll past it. You are free to make things that I don't like, and I am free to make things that you don't like, and we'll both be happier if we make those things. And we can both look away from each other's things that make us unhappy. This is healthy and normal.

The thing is, I'm not talking about "darkfic" or whatever. I also wasn't talking about fan works that take a lighthearted low stakes no conflict romcom and turn it into something scary. (Not that I think there's anything wrong with this, either.) Reread my post; I'm talking about original works where canon has conflict and issues and yes even dark plot points sometimes, and people enter the space of that work and say they love it and want to participate in its fandom and want to play and have fun, but then turn their nose up at every piece that makes up the story. It's shallow. It feels disrespectful.

What do you like about the original work? What about it is actually good in your eyes? Do you only listen to that podcast because there's a gay relationship? Do you only read books to blorbofy the scrunkliest meow meow? Do you only watch film so that you can look at gifsets? Do you only consume bitter in hopes of spitting out sweetness? Do you only partake in the act of creation out of some misguided desire to like the things that others like? Do you participate just to say "I participated, unfortunately?" That sounds incredibly joyless to me. I can't imagine engaging with works that I don't like and that don't interest me and forcing myself to be involved in them and peeling them layer by layer until I find what I can scavenge, and then building the world's tiniest, least recognizable monument to nothing. That's so miserable.

Strongly advise that you engage in something that makes you happy instead of whatever this is. Feel better.

[lunar-years]

stranger things for the fandom ask game?

the character i least understand: I guess Henry, lol. Man gave that whole dramatic ass speech in s4 about how much human existence sucks and everything is terrible and I was just like okay so you're doing all this for the dumbest reasons possible when you could have just gone to therapy. nice!

interactions i enjoyed the most: Will & Jonathan s4 hug, Robin coming out to Steve, Jancy s3 goodbye (she wants to hide him in her basement I'm literally still crying), Jancy's romcom first kiss, The s1 scene where El saves Mike on the cliff and the kids hug. generally sooo much of season one honestly, like there are so many iconic moments. My favorite scene of the show is still the Heroes montage in s1 where Jonathan&Joyce and Mike&Karen hug.

the character who scares me the most: Brenner. So glad he's gone he was terrifying.

the character who is mostly like me: I think I'm a fun mixture of Nancy & Jonathan :)

hottest looks character: Nancy <3 queen!

one thing i dislike about my fave character: Ok going with Nance. One thing I dislike is that she can be impulsive to the detriment of the people around her and sort of blind to other people's POV because she does tend to think she's right about everything. And usually she is! But not always. This was a big part of the s3 jonathan/nancy conflict. But I also think impulsion can be one of Nancy's best traits! So it's complicated.

one thing i like about my hated character: my hated character is Billy and I honestly like nothing about him, lol. but like. I guess I like that he fought to retain his humanity in the end and sacrificed himself for max and the others.

a quote or scene that haunts me: MAX AND LUCAS WHEN MAX WAS DYING. Jonathan throwing up after seeing Will's body in s1, Hopper cutting open the fake body

a death that left me indifferent: Eddie, lmao. But also like, Brenner obviously.

a character i wish died but didn’t: Henry Creel <3

my ship that never sailed: I ship byler in an extremely low-key non-committed way so I do hope they sail in s5 :) Other than that all my ships are currently canon lol.

thank youuuu!!

[hislittleraincloud]

If you scroll far back enough to October 2023, you can see her reposts and where she stands.

I know you’re not a Percy fan, but this circles back to him and how people tore apart his alt account (that didn’t even have his actual name attached to it). Where are those people for this person? Since they love holding people accountable for their actions and words. The hypocrisy is insane.

Don't need to scroll back that far to be able to tell that she's a Zionist. One of those mealy-mouthed ones who say (and repost, like she did) stuff like this: "As an Israeli and a Jew, I want innocent Palestinians to have every freedom and dignity possible. But I will never accept anyone telling me Palestinian rights should or can be grabbed through mass murdering Jews." as if Israel hasn't been continuously fucking the Palestinians for decades since its inception (and is fucking it now, with 42,000 Palestinian casualties vs. 1,700 Israeli casualties).

I was far too old when I dove into the history of the region, but I did, after Rachel Corrie's death. While I studied some International Relations, Middle East/Gaza conflict escaped my modules, so I caught up after she was bulldozed by the IDF.

The war did not start on October 7, 2023, but people like to pretend that it did. It's never too late to learn about the atrocities, not just towards Palestinians. My Jewish friend/neighbor had no clue that Israeli officials admitted to giving birth control to Jewish Ethiopian (read: Black) migrants without their consent until I informed her of said fucked up fact this past spring. There's a lot of shitty things that state has done, and criticizing it should not be equated with anti-Semitism.

But back to Alpert herself. What exactly can those vicious little Wenclairs do? You know they're gonna watch W2 regardless (as will I...just to see how shitty it turns out to be, since it's really Millar & Gough's show and they don't know how to tighten up their stories). Alpert probably stayed on the team as both writer and EP; can't say that for certain, but given the nominations the show received (the bar really is very low*), I'd want to stay on as well.

*The bar is very, very low given their win for this:

when the special effects makeup for Wednesday and Thornhill/Gates at the end of the episode was utterly fucked and incongruous.

What will people do? They don't really give a fuck what their creators think or do, so long as there's an opportunity to virtue signal on an issue that makes them believe themselves to be free of moral blemishes, and it's created an atmosphere of vigilante discourse, where everyone's afraid to say any goddamn thing in fear of being canceled.

As for White, I don't think I said I wasn't a fan, I said I'm not a stan. I don't think I've even had the opportunity to become a White fan because I've only seen his work in Wednesday. Really want to see that craptastic romcom he made with Ortega, and My Old Ass.

To address the other shit, I simply cannot say anything either way, since one of the main defense articles I was sent was full of broken links to the accusers' accounts/deleted tweets (and the spam that Isis bombarded me with was irrelevant and nonsensical shit, save for her insistence on sending me the nudes and not comprehending what in fuck I was trying to tell her in her own native fucking language; escrevo um português muito básico, mas ela estava a responder como alguém gravemente subdesenvolvido neurologico 💀).

He was accused of some heinous shit, and as of today, October 8, 2024, there hasn't been a whisper or word that any cases are going forward with prosecution, or that these accusers are even standing their ground. Trump's accusers have always stood their ground. Weinstein's, Epstein's. Not a tweet or article rescinded or deleted. Hynes White isn't and has never been some kind of power player (despite being a nepo baby) in the industry and those girls have little to fear by standing their ground, especially when fucking Danny Masterson had the whole of $cientology and half of Hollywood supporting his shitty ass and he still got 30 to life because his accusers stood their ground.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable for asking for the truth of the accusations; not just whether or not he did anything that they said he did, but also whether or not they were just plain false. False allegations are always fucking bullshit, no matter who makes them and for whatever reasons. Firing someone because of false allegations is also bullshit (we saw that happen with Depp), and if they were indeed false, then the whole of Netflix and the Wednesday crew would owe White a huge apology...not that that would ever happen (the WB & Disney have yet to apologize to Depp, and the recast of Grindelwald was terrible).

Anyway. I feel like this kid was cast due in part to his type-similarity to White

(same height as White, lanky, pale, same weird, recessed eyes/slightly sunken in look) because you know that the non-chronically online people are going to be tuning in expecting to see Percy as Xavier but then they'll see this guy and be all, "Wait...is that supposed to be the kid from the last season? Why's he look different (and more attractive)..." and then when they realize that he's a whole different character they might wonder what happened (and Google for answers). This has been a thing in lots of shows, lots of soap operas in particular, and I feel like this is happening with W2. Shake up the cast, distract with whole ass non-continuity, et voilà...the audience is dumb and won't notice, right.

Honestly, I wish that it had just been a straight-on recast, because if Painter was the new Xavier, I'd go strong for Wavier again. He's much more attractive than White and Doohan.

Damn, that was a ramble. I did mention that it's hot in here and I can hardly think.

[moistglutealcleft]

it's so scary to be vulnerable, anon, i totally feel you! i actually went to group therapy that focused on forming interpersonal relationships and dealing with conflict in those relationships. it really helped to have a third party there to like, help us fumble our way through social interaction. group therapy isn't accessible or appropriate for everyone, so I'm not going ot suggest you start there. what i will tell you is that vulnerability is where connection happens. that's how deep bonds form, being vulnerable back and forth, and holding space for each other's hard stuff, stuff that romcoms and other Western media glosses over or straight-up demonizes. i think reminding yourself that everyone is a little fucked up is a good place to start. we are all carrying pain and old wounds. i guarantee, whatever your deal is, whatever trauma or situation has made vulnerability so scary, someone else in the world has experienced that, too. you may feel alone with your experiences, but there are billions of people in the world. and like, you only need to form deep connections with a few people to feel fulfilled in that way! i think being okay sitting with the discomfort of being embarrassed is a good place to start. you could practice talking to some of your online mutuals. i'm sure some folks would even be open to you being like, "hey, i want to practice being vulnerable and opening up about my interests. will you ask me some lightly probing questions so i can practice answering them in a safe space?" you could even practice making posts on your tumblr blog, just putting your thoughts out into the ether without expectation of anyone interacting with the post. i still struggle to be vulnerable, but i've cultivated some long friendships where I've sloooowly been letting more of my emotions and experiences out into the light. Every time i put myself out in that way, my friends respond so positively. i have a lot of friends I openly say "I love you" to now! It's so good!!! feel free to DM me if you want to practice with a stranger - the stakes are pretty low there. Wishing you luck and love, anon!

i’m realizing that i’m a very private person. i already knew this about myself but i think i’m realizing the extent i am hiding myself. i am private about my interests, i don’t really share what i’m into, i don’t have many friends/don’t make friends based on my interests. i avoid making my self vulnerable, don’t share too much with other people. idk. i just saw a lot of myself in Corrine from ‘Karen from HR’ and kinda putting on a performance for others? not exactly sharing myself with others? so my question is, how do i submit myself to the mortifying ordeal of being know? i assume i just need to get over the fear of being embarrassed 😆

i am probably the worst person to ask about this but maybe someone else will read this and have good advice

[wisteria-lodge]

LOOK at this gorgeous gorgeous illustration @rhysfiona did for my Eddie/Venom fic!!!!!!!!!!! @niche-pastiche , you need to see this.

Venom is just this film where like... every creative choice was a little bit strange? and the result was that instead of being a gritty, anti-hero thing it ended up as like ... a romcom? It’s is a romcom. It’s structured like a romcom. 

This piece captures this so perfectly. A pretty romantic scene, and a black goo alien is also there! (And Venom looks so annoyed! Eddie looks like he just woke up! The body language!)

I loved writing for this pairing. They’re fluffy, funny, sweet, and so low conflict? And really functional? considering Eddie Brock is a disaster human and Venom is a tentacle monster that likes to eat people heads.

[mermaidsirennikita]

How do you feel about third act breakups? And do you have any favorites books with them to recommend?

When done well, I love 'em. Personally, I don't read a romance because I want to read about people just falling in love and fuckin' around without any conflict. I want to read about people having to fight for their love. Sometimes, that means splitting for a minute.

I think the reason why people don't love third act breakups right now, if I'm being super blunt, is that a lot of people have a very limited reading range wherein they only read a narrow selection of books. And a lot of those books? Don't do it well. I do think it's more challenging for low stakes books, which a lot of contemporary romcoms inherently are, to pull off the third-act breakup. Doesn't mean it's impossible! But it can be difficult, because I think that we often identify more with the characters in those settings and can go "... really?"

I also think that there are authors who do them just to do them, and you do need a good REASON for the characters to break up. I don't think it always needs to be because of the internal failings of the characters. I think it can be for external reasons, too. But I personally find a good third-act breakup super satisfying, because I love the angst and I love the reunion.

Some books that have done third-act breakups I love:

Give Me More by Sara Cate. This is MMF, so it's really one party breaking up with the other two while they stay together. And I felt like this made sense, because the one who did the breaking up knew he had a lot of work to do. The other two didn't want him to leave, but he NEEDED to, and I feel like...if they hadn't broken up, it would've felt kind of ludicrous for them to just move on. I also like the third act breakup in Praise. Tbh, Sara Cate can be hit or miss for me and I do think that some third act breakups she'd done are meh, but those really worked for me.

New Camelot by Sierra Simone. Another MMF, and this breakup is one where the throuple get together at the end of book 1, breaks up at the end of book 2, and really spends a lot of time with one part of the trio very separate. And again, I think this was necessary. These three had such an angsty relationship, and the party that splits off was SO full of self-loathing and resentment, and it truly served the overarching plot of the story. If he had not left, it would've been like... okay, so he has ZERO sense of will, ZERO independence, and a SUPERHUMAN level of tolerance for some really negative emotions. Also, it was consistent with his history.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe. I loooove this one. She was being consistent with her emotional issues she'd had since the start of the book; he wasn't being a doormat. It worked for both of them, and it worked for the plot. The Bride Goes Rogue also has an excellent third act breakup, because it's like--if she had not dumped his ass, she would've had zero self respect. He needed to be dumped.

Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips has one of my favorite variations, which is "she just fucks off and doesn't tell him where she's going and he freaks the fuck out". And again, HE NEEDED TO BE DUMPED. IT WAS A THING THAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN. HE FUCKED UP.

Priest by Sierra Simone. A lot of people hate this third act breakup. I ask "literally how the fuck do you expect a book about a truly devout Catholic priest who struggles with his spirituality and his place in life and the Church falling in love with a woman and breaking his vows to NOT have a third act breakup", it made sense to me that she needed something that she wasn't getting from him and he frankly needed a minute to figure himself out.

Lothaire by Kresley Cole. One of the greatest TABs of all time. She literally almost kills him and then he spends several weeks bitching and moaning all by himself and smelling her panties and trying to kiss other women and not even being able to stomach it because SHE HAS RUINED HIM.

Hyacinth by S.M. LaViolette. I loved this one, because it made sense that Hyacinth, a neurodivergent character whose abuse has convinced her that she's incapable of love, would struggle to communicate her intentions to her hero, and he would get mad at that, and she wouldn't be able to deal and would fuck off. And then it means he can go find her again and grovel and learn how to make her comfortable by talking to people who love her!

The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath. Literally necessary to the plot that they break up for a minute! And the angst is DELICIOUS.

Mafia Madman by Mila Finelli. He needed to be broken up with, she needed to be away from him to affirm that she actually wanted to be with him. Also? Another one where he gets to sit there and be MISERABLE for a min.

A LOT of my favorite books have TABs, and I think that they can be deeply necessary to ensure that the book isn't just... boring.

[constellaj]

just ran into your art today and. would you like to elaborate on your gay lucky in love rewrite 👀

boy would i

as always shoutouts to @crystalfloe for pitching + workshopping w me on this, ESPECIALLY on this one since it was mostly her idea!

we open up with a shot of shadow circling through amity park, looking in the windows of various citizens. danny is face-down, fast asleep; valerie is repairing some gear; tucker is being a gamer; sam is watching a horror movie; paulina is also watching a horror movie. shadow passes by all these houses and gets more and more annoyed, until he peeks the window of a large, elaborate house:

dash has drawn the curtains, turned the lights off, turned a fan up. this is his deep dark secret. he’s sitting on his bed, face lit by the dim rose glow of his laptop. the volume is turned down so low but the viewer still sees and hears him whisper along to the movie: “but we could never be together, jessica...” “but... I love you...” he’s watching a HORRIBLY cheesy hallmark romcom.

but of course nobody can KNOW he’s into chickflicks and romcoms! he’s a tough football man and it would trash his rep if anyone knew he secretly craved those deep but silly romantic stories... the tenderness, the love...

shadow has specifically been looking for a romantic.

shadow slips in and ‘possesses’ dash. possesses in quotes, because, well, even though dash is dumb and therefore easy to possess, shadow is ultimately a glorified dog, and not a fully sentient ghost; he doesn’t have any total agency in dash, and the most he can do is mess around with his emotional and hormonal balance. shadow is DISMAYED, upon entering, that dash’s deep romanticism is so repressed, and so immediately gets to work digging it out of the recesses of his brain, putting it in the forefront.

(see, what danny and the audience will learn later is, shadow is a ghost that subsists off of love. romantic love especially. he first found a ‘host’ in johnny (before he died!) because johnny and kitty were madly, ridiculously in love, and johnny especially admired kitty beyond words. they still do love each other, of course! but like all healthy relationships, they’ve learned to take breaks, and they have a ‘break week’ once every few months.)

(this, naturally, drives shadow up a WALL; after a certain level, displays of romance become like dog treats, and shadow has been downright spoiled by the overabundance of love between the two. when they take a BREAK WEEK and aren’t constantly showering each other (and therefore him!) with affection, he needs to go find another host, because clearly they do not love him and have forsaken him. they kick miette.)

since shadow’s prime host for so long has been johnny, his understanding of a few... norms... are bleeding over. dash shows up to school with a leather jacket and a motorcycle (his family’s rich, of course he��s had one). his hair is slicked back and the cologne is overpowering. while danny and others think it’s just another asshole stage of dash, kwan (as well as the popular kids, but kwan especially) notices something’s wrong. it’s not quite... dash. 

yeah, he’s happy-- well, he’s also strangely flirty with everyone (shadow is testing the waters, trying to find out who is the best match). and kwan LOVES that he’s happy. but he’s a little too daydreamy, he laughs a little too long. he is having horrible luck all day, but he just keeps taking it in stride. dash is concerned with appearances, but this is the first time he’s put in effort like it was for other people to see. he’s a little too suave. his eyes reflect just a little too much light.

and then-- luck of luck-- shadow finds the big name repressed crush.

fenton! of course!

danny did NOT want to deal with dash towering over him and slamming him into the wall, but he didn’t KNOW how to deal with dash leaning over him and telling him he looked cute. danny’s flustered! of course he is! well, yeah, dash is an asshole, he knows that, yeah he’s a stuck up rich kid, YES SAM, he knows this (sam is not fooled by a little hair gel and some high heeled leather boots), but you can’t deny he’s, well, built. and he’s weirdly suave? and nice. he’s actually being really nice. what no of course DANNY hasn’t had a crush on DASH this whole time or anything. shut up.

the fact that dash asks him to meet him in the woods at lunch (because sam, jazz, and even tucker are increasingly concerned with dash just making moves on danny, afraid it’s some new form of abuse; and lancer keeps perceiving it as bullying since that’s their dynamic and breaking it up) and he GOES is just. well. that’s unrelated isn’t it.

they kiss and danny is starting to maybe think dash just had a homophobic middle school experience like everyone else when- his GHOST SENSE GOES OFF. RIGHT HERE? RIGHT NOW??? (gee what could be causing it?) dash cracks a joke about him using too many breath mints and danny panics, bullshits an excuse, and runs off to transform and find the ghost.

dash thinks he’s been rejected and almost shakes out shadow’s possession from the sheer dismay, but shadow doubles down. no, no, we can find another crush. somewhere.

...oh hey! the ghost boy!

time to double down on the ghost aesthetics.

danny’s just finished fighting kitty (”where’s your boyfriend” “that’s none of your BUSINESS!”) when there’s a motorcycle rev underneath him. there’s... dash, again, but.... something feels very, very wrong.

danny lands, cautious. “hey phantom... you into biker dudes?” “don’t you have... a boyfriend...” “heee sorta dumped me in the woods”. and then danny gets close enough for his ghost sense to go off. and it clicks.

“dash, you’re possessed”

this is the ONE THING that shadow can’t have. this could be the perfect romance, and THIS GHOSTCHILD thinks he knows more about ROMANCE than SHADOW??? PSH. cue fight scene! dash of course is grappling with both not wanting to hurt phantom, but wanting this ghost out of his system, because of COURSE he’s possessed geez why else would he want to kiss FENTON of all people-- but shadow REFUSES to leave, slowly building more and more monstrous elements onto dash, darker eyes and claws, erasing his legs until it’s not dash as much as it is a large shadow monstrosity with dash at the center.

danny eventually realizes he needs a new strategy and runs for it. after a decent amount of bickering with sam/tuck, they realize that the only ones who would know how to tame shadow are.... kitty and johnny.

turns out, when shadow went missing, kitty NOTICED. (johnny didn’t! he was having a fun alone time working on his bike with loud music.) this is bad. why? well, johnny is NOT a very powerful ghost. in fact, he’s sort of the opposite. he and shadow have a symbiotic relationship of sorts; it’s shadow’s residence in him that gives him any powers at all, like the basic healing factor a ghost has, or phasing, or flying. without shadow he’s essentially a zombie, who can still be hurt in the ghost zone. NATURALLY, kitty decided to run off and retrieve shadow (because this isn’t the first time he’s run away on break week, always throwing a tantrum) before anything horrible could happen to Johnny; this is what she was doing in Amity in the first place

this is the part of the story where i reveal that the ending isnt fully fleshed out yet. in the rough conversation right it ended up with kitty and johnny trying to FORCE shadow back into johnny, and they’re getting annoyed by it, and kitty goes “well this wouldn’t be a problem if YOU weren’t so LOVING AND SENSITIVE” and johnny goes “well i wouldn’t LOVE YOU so much if you weren’t BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL” and they have a whole argument like that. its very funny. and shadow ends up still running away and possessing dash again.

ah, in typing this out, i have figured out an ending!

the above fight and run away happens, and there’s two endings: one where shadow possesses dash, and one where shadow possesses danny. in both, of course, the other party realizes the only way to get shadow out is through making shadow feel safe enough to leave, aka... flooding the room with romance. if dash is possessed, danny and co. realize that danny’s the prime candidate to... be the suave lil boy. if DANNY is possessed, sam and tucker begrudgingly explain that, uh, yeah, phantom might have a crush on you, he’s just really controlling of his emotions. (also kwan! kwan definitely plays a part if dash is possessed, maybe even in saying “uh... he has a bigger crush on Fenton. can you guys get him instead?” and danny. explodes)

blahlbahblah luring shadow out by being gay happens and shadow gets scooped back up by the 13s. as much as the previous argument is funny it might also be very funny if johnny literally noticed none of this, and kitty shows up like ‘you lost this’ and johnny is like. ‘...shadow? when did you leave’. anywho.

that’s the concept! the MAIN difference is that johnny and kitty actually have a very healthy and sweet relationship, and the conflict, ironically, comes from the fact that they love each other TOO much. i do love ‘dash finds out’ reveals but as far as an episodic romp goes, this might not be the best ep for him to discover the secret in. however in a oneshot or something of course you could slot that in there excellently i believe.

[loveisneurotic]

Kaguya-sama Blind Reaction/Analysis: S1E1

Hello everyone, this is my blog which I am currently using to react to and analyze Kaguya-sama: Love Is War much more seriously than I should analyze any romcom.

I have only seen the first episode of the anime, which this post shall explore using far too many words. If I'm feeling particularly motivated, I may read the manga as well.

My analysis will contain spoilers. If you're thinking of watching this show and haven't seen it yet, I recommend you at least go check out the first episode yourself before reading any further. I don't know what the rest of the show is like, but what I've seen so far has been both entertaining and thought-provoking.

I'm going in mostly blind, but not entirely blind. There are a few images of the anime and manga that I have been exposed to, although without the attached context. Due to cultural osmosis and the sheer popularity of this work, perhaps that was almost inevitable.

Figure 1.1.1: Why did this guy write an essay about a single episode of an ongoing romcom?

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

Season 1 Episode 1

I Will Make You Invite Me to a Movie / Kaguya Wants to Be Stopped / Kaguya Wants It

Power dynamics in relationships

Figure 1.1.2: Immediately, the mangaka's tastes become clear.

I heard a saying once that really stuck with me: "The partner who cares the least has all of the power."

In the world of dating, I often sincerely believed this saying. You may yearn for someone's affection, but the other person need not give it to you until they are willing and ready. No matter how much you want it, you can't make someone more interested in you, unless you resort to being roundabout, such as adding some mystery and intrigue to your courtship. But is that excessive?

I once felt a potential lover slipping through my grasp, and before I knew it, I found myself chasing after them. As I was yearning for their attention, I felt as if I'd lost my dignity. It was humiliating. Painful. Was it just that they weren't the right person for me? Or was I not funny enough? Not charismatic enough? Not interesting enough? Too clingy? Too talkative? Should I have been more distant and given them more space? Did I seem too weak? Too eager? How should I have maximized my desirability? Regardless, I had surely lost. Perhaps they wanted the satisfaction and validation of conquering me. Playing me for a fool and asserting their superiority by being so distant. Isn't that right? Or is that just insecurity speaking? At what point is it ideal to cut one's losses and walk away?

If someone desperately wants the object of their affection to desire them, does that make them pathetic? Does it make them a loser? If you show more vulnerability and desire than the other person, does that truly make you the weak one in a relationship?

These questions plague our two protagonists and seem to be a driving force behind the main conflict. Since I have also grappled with how much to reveal my own feelings of desire, I find Kaguya-sama: Love Is War to be a particularly fascinating show.

Desire without action

Figure 1.1.3: Our protagonists are gifted with impressively high academic intelligence paired with impressively low emotional intelligence.

The show wastes no time in introducing us to our two main protagonists. Kaguya was born into a family of high stature (and says "ara ara" frequently enough to power a small country of weebs), whereas Shirogane is a "commoner" (Kaguya's word, not mine) who worked hard to reach the pinnacle of the student body. Like timid schoolchildren, they're crushing on each other, and yet they refuse to admit it due to their pride. Instead, they focus on getting their "opponent" to confess their love first.

What stuck out to me immediately is how they both have different ideas of what their relationship would be like. Shirogane envisions Kaguya as blushing, shy, and conventionally cute, whereas Kaguya (thankfully) envisions herself taking absolute dominance over Shirogane (which plenty of people should see coming as a character trait after the anime's very first scene). The bad news about this is that their two fantasies are at odds. The good news about this is that the mangaka has fantastic taste -- you can learn a lot about a storyteller based on the characterization of a love interest or lead character of the author's preferred gender.

In the event that the two of them become an actual couple, I wonder how on Earth they'll reach a compromise as to how they'll treat each other. Perhaps they will have to figure that out before they can even get that intimate.

I appreciate that we get to see both of their perspectives. It hammers home how everyone has a different truth in regards to what they desire and what they experience, and the show does not hold back when it comes to showing just how different these truths can be -- such as a certain lunch-themed sequence that I will talk about later. This works to great dramatic and comedic effect.

That said, when you spend your time fantasizing about what could happen instead of actually taking action, time is not so friendly to you.

Half a year passes.

Figure 1.1.4: Two geniuses dedicate their pride to wasting their life and energy.

Immediately, I got the impression that whoever wrote this segment of the story knows what they're doing. This is too real. And by "too real", I mean I very much appreciate the realism. How many of us have waited for ages (or for eternity) to confess our feelings to a specific someone?

This is the curse of having a crush and being incapable of acting on it. It's also why I hate having crushes.

Manufacturing affection in others, AKA the extraction of vulnerability

Figure 1.1.5: A plan is devised to weaponize jealousy in the name of affection.

To express your truest feelings means being vulnerable. That implies taking a risk and feeling responsible for any potential consequences of rejection, as well as putting our dignity on the line. It would be so much easier for the object of our affection to make themselves vulnerable instead. So instead of being direct and honest, we act indirect. We drop hints. We act suggestively, but not explicitly. We may even place them in situations where we think they are more likely to confess. If they don't pick up on it, we can pretend we didn't mean anything by it. That way, we don't have to risk our dignity. We can just wait for them to make the move.

It sucks.

Incidentally, it sucks even more when both you and your love interest are thinking that way.

It sucks infinitely more when both you and your love interest are COMMITTED to thinking that way.

Someone has to break the deadlock, whether that's immediately or eventually.

If this show isn't one of those romcoms where the status quo never changes ever (judging by the quality of writing, I have faith that it isn't), then at some point, either Shirogane or Kaguya is going to have to be explicit about how they really feel. And it's going to feel scarier to them than anything else they've ever done.

It's gonna be great.

If we could all grow up and live in environments where it's safe and encouraged for all of us to be honest about how we feel and what we want, surely love would be much less painful for so many people.

Chaos theory

Figure 1.1.6: If your prospective lover won't protect you, then your friend definitely will.

Chika is the ideal wild card and agent of chaos in this arena of love.

From a writing perspective, Chika is immensely useful. The mangaka probably could have gotten by without a third character in the mix, but she serves as a catalyst and an unknown element, able to create unpredictability and subversion of expectations. For a comedy-oriented story, this is invaluable.

Blissfully unaware of the mental turmoil that plagues our two lovesick dorks, she is able to unintentionally invalidate whatever schemes that Kaguya or Shirogane spent so much mental energy on, which adds extra comedy and tension for the audience. She is also an effective vehicle for Kaguya's jealousy and projection, as seen in the lunchbox scene which I have so graciously foreshadowed.

Figure 1.1.7: We have confirmed visual on an unidentified fourth person. Chekhov would love this. From their posture, I wonder if they'll be a gloomy character?

Misunderstandings and assumptions

I've heard that most interpersonal conflicts in life emerge from misunderstandings. In the absence of communication, assumptions are born and give rise to misunderstandings.

You may know where I'm going with this. Let's talk about the lunchbox sequence.

Figure 1.1.8 (not pictured because tumblr wishes to deny me of my image spam): Kaguya is too prideful to admit she thinks that a couple is doing something cute.

Figure 1.1.9: Pride is considered a sin for a reason.

From a writing perspective, I was impressed by the lack of romantic intentions in Shirogane in this whole sequence. Not once did he try to get Kaguya to show vulnerability to him. Instead, Kaguya is the only one spinning the situation in a romantic way, while Shirogane's driving force is the misunderstanding that Kaguya is looking down on him for what he eats. Because of this misunderstanding, Shirogane doubles down and makes his food even better, making the situation even more complicated and more stressful for Kaguya. This was definitely my favorite comedy sequence from the first episode.

I appreciate that the show has demonstrated the ability to create these scenarios where one of the characters doesn't even have love on their mind, but there are still romantic thoughts coming from the other character which drives the drama. It gives me a lot of faith in the variety this show will have to offer, and makes me excited to watch more.

When it comes to comedy rooted in misunderstandings, it is important to have miscommunication or lack of communication. In order to resolve a misunderstanding, you need to talk about it. For a pairing as dysfunctional as Kaguya and Shirogane, expecting healthy communication sounds highly unreasonable, which makes them prime material for a whole world of misunderstandings.

Misunderstandings are rooted in assumptions about what the other person meant when they said something or made a certain gesture or expression. When Kaguya glared at Shirogane and his food, he didn't even think to ask "What's the matter?" He just made an assumption about how she felt. I wonder if trying to understand Kaguya's feelings would be considered a sign of weakness by Shirogane?

A prerequisite to initiating an emotional conversation is the desire to understand or be understood by the other person -- assuming that your assumptions haven't already built a narrative for you. It is far easier to make assumptions than it is to attempt any sort of understanding.

In the end, Shirogane fled, unwilling to confront or attempt to understand the intense and passive-aggressive Kaguya. Kaguya feels that she cannot directly ask to try his lunch, so perhaps this is the closest she can get to initiating such a conversation with him at this time. Despite their mind games where they imagine the reactions of their opponent, they still have a lot of difficulty understanding each other.

I am curious to see if this prospective couple's communication skills and emotional intelligence will improve over the course of the story.

The burden of potential romance

Figure 1.1.10: Even the infallible genius Kaguya succumbs to superficial jealousy. It's "mind over matter" versus "matter over mind". That's how the saying goes, right?

Chika is a free spirit, able to ask Shirogane for whatever she wants without being neurotic. That is the power of not being bounded by a crush. Kaguya, who lacks that degree of freedom, briefly loathes her for experiencing something that Kaguya cannot ask for. It's amazing how much someone's feelings for a friend can change without a single word being spoken between them. All it takes is an action, unintentional or not, combined with the raw strength of insecurity. Just as quickly, the status quo can return back to normal too, with the act of properly making up.

To Chika, asking for food from someone doesn't mean anything at all, whereas with Kaguya, it is an admission of defeat. In that sense, a relationship that will only ever be platonic brings peace of mind, whereas a relationship that can be potentially romantic brings leagues upon leagues of anxiety if the outcome is of great concern.

Love is neurotic.

Is love worth the pain? For some people, it is not. For others, the reward is immense -- but only if you can make sure your relationship with this person doesn't end up being a nightmare for your emotional health.

Love and self-identity

The final scene of the episode surprised me in a good way. It's a brief departure from the comedy, and reveals a more heartfelt side of the show.

Kaguya's servant asks her an insightful question. It is substantially more insightful than I would expect from any romcom: "If you fell in love some day, would you wait for that person to confess their love, like now? Or would you confess your love?" I found myself immediately curious to hear Kaguya's answer, since I knew it would be highly informative about her character.

"If that time comes, I would consider the risk of someone stealing him first and come to the one rational conclusion." Even in the realm of love, Kaguya seems precise and calculating. It's as if she hesitates to give a straight answer, but then she confirms: "Of course I would go."

Figure 1.1.11: "Please understand."

It is not embarrassment or rejection that Kaguya fears; it is the absolute destruction of her identity and sense of self. Kaguya is the daughter of a family that practically runs the country. In her mind, everyone yearns for her and wishes to serve her. Turning that around and reaching out to another person to express her own desire would be a direct contradiction of that. It is probably a similar situation for Shirogane, where the infallible self-image he has built up is being put at risk during his romantic duels against Kaguya.

Kaguya clearly feels trapped. She and Shirogane see each other as threats to be conquered, but in reality, they both share a mutual enemy that is much more imposing and insidious: their own simultaneous disgust at the idea of vulnerability.

Their freedom is dominated by their insecurities, and so, even despite their impressive stature, they are still very human. Their upbringing that has lead them to become so accomplished may be more of a curse than a blessing, due to the resulting pride and self-image they likely feel pressured to uphold.

It is hard to cast aside a lie that you have bought into for your whole life.

If our two protagonists wish to have a chance of establishing a healthy romantic relationship, they have a lot of their own demons to overcome first. If they cannot set aside their pride and reach mutual understanding, they have no hope.

Until then, they will both remain trapped in a hell of their own design, however tragically comedic it may be.

My hopes for this story's future

I can tell that the mangaka, unlike far too many writers all over the world, actually seems to have a solid understanding of romance and the conflict that arises within. I've watched too many anime that place huge focus on the "will they or won't they" crap which never runs any deeper than one or both of the characters being too embarrassed to just say what they're thinking, without any sort of convincing mental blocker. In that case, it's clearly just manufactured drama which is designed to pad out the story and waste your time rather than pose interesting questions and themes. In the case of Kaguya and Shirogane, the two of them have substantial communication issues which are depicted in a comedic yet mature way, which I have found engaging.

I very much hope that the show will more deeply explore the themes and questions surrounding the ideas of vulnerability, emotional intelligence, and superiority within relationships. Kaguya and Shirogane have been set up to be great vehicles for such exploration, and I hope the mangaka can capitalize on that, especially if our protagonists can confront these issues directly.

My impression is that the ending will make or break this story. If the mangaka can pull it off well, I can already believe the payoff will be hugely satisfying.

Of course, in order to get to that point, we'll have to see a certain something. It has to do with the most sacred word amongst romcom enthusiasts: "progress". Indeed, after spending chapters upon chapters watching two characters bumble around amidst the same exact status quo, those little signs of advancements in a relationship are highly rewarding.

Underneath all of their aggression, if we can see Kaguya and Shirogane slowly open up to each other and realize the benefits of vulnerability, I think we could witness something really beautiful and really emotionally cathartic.

I've still only seen one episode, but I believe the mangaka has laid a fantastic groundwork for a series and can do a great job developing upon what I've seen so far. On that note, I will surpass our prideful protagonists by opening my heart to this story and entrusting it with my vulnerability, believing it can deliver satisfying development and resolution. You can do it!

Closing thoughts

I did not expect to write so much about a single episode of an ANIME of all things, but here we are. If only I could conjure this kind of power back when I actually needed it in high school English class!

The first episode alone is already so rich with characterization and themes that I managed to find quite a lot to talk about. Given how much I found myself relating to the characters and some of their situations, it's clear to me how this show became so popular. Not only are the animation, direction, and writing excellent, but also many people can probably relate to love feeling like a battlefield.

I do not want to believe in the idea of winners and losers in relationships. That idea creeps into my head whenever I'm having trouble keeping the interest of a new date, and I find myself wondering where those thoughts even come from. Lately, I have been reflecting on the way I relate to other people. Perhaps I've started experiencing this show at a time in my life when I most needed it, and that's why I felt driven to write such a large analysis.

This show poses some very interesting questions about romance that I do not actually know the answer to at the time of writing. I do not know yet how much the show is actually going to explore these themes. Regardless, I appreciate how this show is helping me reflect, and I am curious to see if and how the mangaka will answer some of the questions brought about by the story's themes.

This is a show that I'll most likely have to pace myself with. There was so much to process in this first episode alone. If I went any faster, I'm not sure if I'd even catch all of the details and character moments. I'm excited to move onto the second episode soon.

A highly subjective footnote about my cultured tastes

I'm glad that Kaguya is a sadistic dom with a gentle and vulnerable side, solely on the basis of that being my favorite personality type in a love interest. It also helps that it makes Kaguya's fantasies that much funnier with Shirogane acting so out of character. I feel like this show was made for me.

What was I writing about again? Oh yeah, writing a gigantic wall of text about an anime romcom. Somehow, I spent an entire day on this essay. Hopefully someone got a kick out of it.

[seyaryminamoto]

I recently saw a video where GRRM talked about how he saw two different kinds of writers. He mentioned the gardener(planting the seed of an idea and letting it grow) and the architect(who plans out and organizes everything ahead of time). Obviously, every writer is a little bit of both but I was wondering which you relate to more and if you’d be willing to share some more about your own writing approaches and processes :)

I think I've answered similar questions in the past, but it'd be near impossible to dig it out in this ridiculously big, chaotic archive of my blog xD so I guess I'll answer it again, and if we come across the previous answers I've given, it'd even be fun to compare if there's anything different in the answer these days (?)

Personally, I think the best way to go about this is to have a mix of both things, but for me, it's in a very specific manner.

While I absolutely see the value in letting a story spiral and grow into whatever it wants to be, I have to say I don't think my best work comes from that. The lack of structure is similarly liberating and dangerous, because if your story's purpose isn't something you, as an author, have really made up your mind about, it's 100% possible that the story will end up going in very strange directions that MIGHT not make much sense, when you look at where you started out.

I've told this story a few times, but it bears repeating xD my first "serious" attempt at writing (by which I mean, I took it seriously, not that the content itself was super serious, since it was a trainwreck more often than not xD) started off as a perfectly happy romcom high school story! And tbh, to this day I love it as it is... but I know, I KNOW, that I totally warped the initial purpose and process of the story when, upon fulfilling the first bit of conflict in the story and leaving some massive loose ends I had to wrap up, I found myself at a loss because I had no idea how to continue. I was seriously, genuinely, at a loss for ideas and storylines to keep going. What, then, did I come up with?

... my happy romcom characters ended up embroiled in an organized crime catastrophe that has ZERO build-up in the first part of the story xD

(To the eagle-eyed who might have picked up something here... yes. That is 100% what I was poking fun at through Yang in Gladiator during the Fire Lord's Shadow arc. Yes. I mock myself. More accurately, I make Azula and Sokka mock my most questionable writing choices :'D)

Now, then, I had a very weird mess in my hands and I admit, it wasn't a great place to be at xD you see me now with my very, very small likelihood of falling into writer's block? Well, back then, I spent more time blocked than writing, for sure :'D and one of the reasons why that happened is because, while I had some ideas for what I wanted to write in the future? I didn't really have a set direction beyond "I want these and these characters as endgame relationships!", which is pretty much the most basic level of "plotting" you can pretend to do, as a writer xD And ironically, even then I was far more malleable and willing to experiment with whatever character combinations came up later, which even resulted in me discovering, well into writing a story, that some characters I absolutely did NOT conceive in a relationship were actually pretty good together! :'D

But that I had very little direction when I started writing that story was still a problem. I actually found more direction and built some more structure as I reached the last part of the story, and I will say, it's the strongest bit of it, by far xD (as evidence of what I'm saying, it was the first time I ever wrote an OUTLINE DOC! XD) but I have no doubts that, if I'd had the foresight to actually know where I was going, the story as a whole would be much much better, no matter how much I love it for what it is.

So! This particular writing experience of mine taught me countless things, among them, to actually ponder direction and purpose in stories instead of diving in blindlly. It's not really about having foreshadowing hints every ten minutes, which is what some people take as a sign of quality (I'll dare be quite controversial and say that not because you know what you'll write ten years down the line does it mean your story automatically makes sense... xD), it's about actually having a purpose in what you're building, a real direction, character arcs and plotlines that, to put it simply, work.

Therefore... I know for a fact that I can't be a full-blown plantser (or gardener) because I've tried it, and while I absolutely see the merits, the drawbacks are pretty sizable for me, and it just really doesn't work with my approach to storytelling.

Thus... If I MUST choose a category out of them both, I'd say I'm an architect, but the truth is I'm not an architect in the most strict sense of the word, either :'D

If you want a super strong building, you obviously need the best foundations for it. But you don't stop there, of course: erecting a building takes a lot of different efforts and processes if you really want your building to not only stand tall but to be a proper, decent place to live in. And while in real life, the reasonable thing would be to have a plan for each of those little details you have to build in, from filling the walls, to the type of flooring, down to even the decor... in writing, THIS is where I take the gardener approach! :'D

I don't know if I've said it in the past, but while sometimes I don't know how to start a story (which, despite my carelessness with the matter in the past, I've come to realize is a VERY delicate choice to make, one that can actually destroy my immersion in a story if it's a choice made carelessly), usually, I try to make myself think about where it's going, first of all. Currently, I have a few potential original projects rolling around in my head... and I don't know where they start :'D but I DO know where I'll take them, what the actual, ultimate climax of those stories would be. This, then, is the most basic foundation for a story, for me. I choose a destination, kinda, and then build the journey there :D

This is, loosely speaking, how I've built up Gladiator. And yet Gladiator, being the ridiculously big mess that it is, required a very unique plotting approach that I suppose might be at odds with a lot of what I've said so far xD yet it also remains true to a lot of what I've said here :'D

When I first started to ponder this story, the first plot point was obvious and instinctive: Sokka's capture. When Chaosconetic (the one who first gave me the idea for this story) suggested it, he didn't quite put forward the idea of having Azula being the one who captured Sokka personally. I thought of making Azula and Sokka first come face to face in this way because... honestly? Because I just wanted them to interact as soon as possible x'DDDD it complicated matters, of course, but that was absolutely something I could work with.

Yet... where was I going with this story? It was a rewrite of ATLA as a whole, so what exactly was the direction for the story? Clearly, Azula and Sokka would wind up falling in love, and how exactly would that come about? And beyond that, wouldn't it be a seeerious mess for this to happen in a setting where Ozai is STILL in power? Why, of course it would be! :'D It added a new layer of complications to the generally already complicated Sokkla relationship, and instead of it being kept secret or being a forbidden romance for the reasons canon-based stories typically make it so, it's BEYOND forbidden here because Ozai is still a very much active factor in this story, and he makes everything worse :D soooooo...

With these particular factors in mind, I had several things to think about. With Sokka fighting as a gladiator being the core of the story, I had to figure out who would be his rivals, and in doing so, figure out what his power curve as a warrior would look like :'D in doing so, I settled very quickly on Toph for his main serious rival, but Sokka wasn't the only one whose story I'd be telling: obviously, Azula's arc would be important too, as I'd have to work with developing her FAR MORE than I ever had before, and while Sokka's personal opponents would be important, Azula is the one who chooses Sokka as her personal warrior, therefore, she had to have a purpose in doing so. Said purpose then materialized when I decided to make use of Zhao's character for Azula's main goal and foil, and so, I needed Zhao to have THE best gladiator of all... and I didn't need to think about it too much before I settled on Combustion Man for the role :'D

Thus, those were small, isolated yet pivotal elements that I had to articulate into a structure that made sense :D they were small things I settled on pretty quickly, from the very first few days of plotting. I can say for certain that, by the third day, I already had settled on the climax (... can't decide whether that's a fortunate or unfortunate wording choice, tbh xD) scene of Part 1, when Azula and Sokka have their fateful fight in chapter 96, then finally succumb to their attraction and act on their feelings without holding back, in chapter 97 :'D I knew I wanted this to happen after Sokka hit a low point upon failing to defeat Toph, either for the second time or after losing against her far too many times that he just was too discouraged to keep going, hence, I knew what the lead-up to this would be from literally day THREE.

But beyond this? At like... day one or two of plotting, once I settled on Combustion Man as the ultimate man to defeat? I also settled on how Part 2 would end :> back then, I honestly had no idea how much time there would be between the events from chapter 97 and the upcoming culmination of Part 2, I wasn't anywhere near advanced enough with plotting to even KNOW I'd split the story into parts because it would get too big to handle xD But what I did know was that I needed these two situations to happen, situations deeply entwined with Sokka's role as a gladiator. Everything in between was variable, and it was stuff I could figure out slowly, along the way.

The ultimate direction of the story, though? That did take me a long time to settle on xD In fact, I think it took me well over a year after I got started to really figure out where I was going with all of this. A close friend helped me figure out things by offering many ideas for Zuko and Suki's storyline, basically tossing them at me in hopes that I'd make sense out of some of them... and I don't really know if she even knows how much that helped me xD I really spent a long time unsure of what I wanted to do, what I COULD do... until at long last, I settled on one slightly ambitious direction that eventually turned into what you'll all know as Part 3 :'DDDDD

So... yeah, that's why I say I'm being contradictory as heck xD Yes, I worked out some core details of the story since the very beginning, but it wasn't ALL the core details, let alone the ultimate direction of the story, BUT... in building up Azula's character arc, that direction slowly became clearer to the point where, when this particular possibility stared me in the face, I knew it was where we had to go, I realized that what I'd written over that year was leading up perfectly to that outcome.

Ergo, Gladiator is 100% a work of gardening and architecture, woven together to a point where I have a hard time remembering what, exactly, was the result of each thing. There's some things that I settled on early on, like I said, structure things... and then there are some parts where the characters just went wild and did things I did NOT expect them to do xD There's one scene coming up, right before the climax of Part 2, where Azula actually does something that I honestly WASN'T sure of doing... and yet I couldn't resist the urge to go forward with it, once the idea came to mind, and so I did it. And now I regret nothing xD was it necessary? Possibly not. Will some people find it weird and out of place? Maybe. But was it CATHARTIC AS HECK!? Aaaabsolutely friggin' yes XD pardon me for being so self-indulgent, but that's part of what being a gardener is about (?)

So, I really think the best stories benefit from a careful approach to mixing the principles of both ideas. I know that some gardeners think that a structure can stifle creativity (not necessarily true, if you sense a lack of creativity in anything you're doing, it IS up to you to turn it around, switch it up and make it interesting, right...?), I also suspect architects might think gardeners would be utterly unable to tell a good story altogether in virtue of letting the story run away with them (also not necessarily true, as the quality of a story isn't quantifiable as easily as that, gardeners might just make masterpieces without as much need of direction as I personally require: Philip Pullman apparently had no set direction in the His Dark Materials trilogy and I could swear that's some of the best storytelling I have EVER seen).

Ultimately, each person gets to choose their ideal approach and what exactly they're trying to do with their work, as well as how they want to do it... but if you ask me, if your characters never seem to pull you in unexpected directions, you might just need to rework them or approach them differently to give them more life. If they DO pull you in those unexpected directions, but you're not sure if you can follow them just because you need to follow structure, it's really up to you as the author to choose whether to sacrifice the life/creativity within your own work and stick to structure, or sacrifice structure and potentially cause your story's course to crumble :'D

It may sound like I'm advocating for gardening so much more, despite I've labeled myself an architect, buuuuut... ironically, a very complicated but VERY rewarding scene in Gladiator Part 3 damn near WRECKED my structure when I was writing it a few weeks ago :'D I literally had to take a day off from actually writing so I could make a list of ALL the elements that would be impacted by this change if I went forward with it. If I chose against it, I would have to rewrite the complicated scene in a different way, and it might have been waaay too weird to make it work. If I chose to keep it, I had to tread VERY carefully or end up potentially making a mess of the ultimate direction of Gladiator's story, even threatening the themes and nuance that I have been counting on since I settled on this direction. Thus, sometimes gardening can be dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

I THINK I found a fair enough compromise that allows me to keep the best of both worlds... but I hope I've made it clear that both ways of working have their pros and cons, and why even mixing both things can have pros and cons xD but this is also why I, personally, think that a writer benefits the most from figuring out at least a loose outline, the broad strokes of what they want to achieve in a story, and then figuring out the many ways in which they could fill in those foundations, in whatever way they're most comfortable.

And so, I have rambled plenty xD I hope that was thorough enough, my position in this particular subject is honestly to oscillate in the middle of both things, where part of your job as the writer is to determine which situation benefits more from either approach :D Like I said before, I've found structure isn't something I can sacrifice easily, but more often than not, letting the story flow, letting the characters make their own choices, can enrich your story rather than hinder it. So... I lay the foundations, the structure, so that seeds can grow inside it, if that makes sense xD