#One of my favourite female leads in recent years and one of my favourite dramas in recent years

[dramaheroine]

Kdrama Women’s Week: Female President

Cho Yi Hyun in The Matchmakers (2023)

[natailiatulls07]

You’re mine and only mine

Max Verstappen x female!driver!reader

Summary - Y/n and Max have been dating privately and now Y/n wants to share their relationship to the world

Warning - arguing, alcohol, love bites, idk

Reader drives for Ferrari

-

End of the season, this meant that everyone was celebrating. Either celebrating the world champion title or constructors cup or even just a break. So that meant that everyone was invited to one of the notorious nightclubs in Abu Dhabi.

Everyone dressed in their finest attire, ready to drink the night away with their friends, colleagues and rivals.

Y/n stood in front of the body length mirror, admiring herself in her black satin dress. Behind her on the hotel bed was Max Verstappen, this years world champion.

Despite being on different teams, Max with Redbull and Y/n with Ferrari, they had this growing romantic tension. Which lead them to have many quickies and hidden flings throughout the year.

“Remind me, when will I be able to show you off as mine to the world?” Y/n’s annoyed voice rang through Max ears.

“Just until the time is right.” Max responds. He had this gut feeling every time Y/n brought it up, Max wanted to show her off as his girlfriend but it didn’t feel right just yet.

Slipping into her louboutin heels, Y/n felt this underlying sense of shame. All she wanted was to tell the world that Max was her boyfriend but he always stopped her.

“Then when?! Or why not now?…Are you ashamed of me?” Her voice growing more somber. What if he was just ashamed of her?

“Schat, I’m not ashamed of you. Please I just don’t know how to deal with our relationship being so public” Max never wanted her to feel like that because it wasn’t true, far far from it.

“Are you sure now? Because I feel like you’re lying to me!” By now Y/n had moved from the front of the mirror, collecting her stuff before making her way to the hotel door. “I think I’m going to go…”

Before Max could speak through to her, Y/n had walked out of the hotel room. This leaving Max upset and annoyed at himself for not having any confidence. He was world champion but he felt like he had lost every race of the season.

-

Despite their fight earlier, both had to attend the party of the year. Putting on a brave face, making themselves look like nothing happened. The bright lights and music were wild, the party had definitely started by now.

Making her way to the bar, Y/n ordered herself a drink before going to find her team and teammate, Charles.

Walking into the club, Max’s eyes immediately started to search for her. He wanted to apologise to her, he wanted to kiss her forever in front of everyone.

“Hey! My favourite world champion, Max Verstappen!” Daniel’s voice shouted in excitement when he saw his former RedBull teammate.

“Hey Danny, have you seen Y/n yet?” Max’s comment caught Daniel off guard, they were rivals. Why would Max want to see her?

“No..anyways why do you want to see her? I mean she’s your rival, you hate her” Sighing in defeat, Max nodded his head. He made a mental note to keep and eye out for her.

“Oh nothing don’t worry…I need a drink” With the mention of Max’s need they made to the bar.

Meanwhile Y/n was over at the Ferrari table, talking to Charles about the season and families. “Don’t look now but Verstappen has just walked in” Charles announced to his teammate, this prompting Y/n to turn her head in the RedBull drivers direction.

Once she saw him stood there talking to Daniel, Y/n rolled her eyes still annoyed at him. “You know what mate, I just want a night without a drama so I plan on ignoring him for the rest of the evening” Y/n says to her Monégasque counterpart who, despite not knowing of their recent argument, agreed.

“Well here’s to ending the season, no dramas and having the party of our lives!” Charles raised his glass as to which Y/n soon joined his.

So that’s what they did, they had the best time. Y/n in particular as she felt Max’s sharp eyes on her the entire time. She danced to her heart content, but much to Max’s dismay Y/n had another trick up her sleeve. Of course it was petty but it was fun in her eyes.

“Hey Charles! Let’s dance!” Charles’ eye lit up, he had his own crush on his teammate. There was no surprise that he gladly accepted, taking her into his arms.

That was breaking point for Max, his girlfriend snuggling up to his long time rival since karting days on the dance floor. “Hold my drink.” He stood up, passing his beverage to Daniel who was confused as ever.

Max pushed past people, not caring. It wasn’t long until he arrived at the two Ferrari drivers. He push Charles off of Y/n before grabbing her bicep and walking her to the nearest toilet. Everyone was silent, confused and bewildered by his outburst.

Once they arrive to the toilet, Max pushed her up to the wall. “You’re mine and only mine” His lips were vicious on her neck, creating deep love bites.

Grasping from surprise, Y/n managed to push him off of her neck. “Then why are you still insisting that we keep it a secret? Because I can’t do both Max…please” Looking up at Max with pleading eyes.

It wasn’t long until he grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the toilet back towards the crowded club. When they got back to the large nightclub, everyone was staring at the two, mainly in shock.

“Um hi everyone I just want to let you all know that this beautiful girl right here” Max gestured towards Y/n who stood awkwardly at his side “Is my girlfriend and I love her so much even though she drives for Ferrari. And if you have a problem with that, please take it up with my manager” After announcing his relationship with Y/n, they both had proud smiles on their faces whilst Max dragged them out of the nightclub.

That night, Y/n and Max felt that massive anxiety being lifted off their shoulders. They could love each other freely and openly now.

-

F1 News

At the end of season, we thought that the surprises were done that was until Max Verstappen, RedBull driver, and Y/n L/n, Ferrari driver, pull off a Romeo and Juliet love story.

yourusername

I love you, Romeo 🤍

Liked by danielricciardo and 4,476,259 others

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maxverstappen1

Love you more, Juliet 🤍

Liked by landonorris and 3,589,975 others

Comments disabled

-

[mirambles]

Welcome to SamdalRi - Disappointing is a mild word!

Let me say it up front - I adore Ji Chang Wook. He is so handsome, so gorgeous and an extremely talented actor. He is good at everything - action, comedy and emotions but no one serves angst like he does! I end up watching all his dramas and sadly have liked none since Suspicious Partner. That is my all time favourite - that was also Peak JCW - chemistry and acting everything!

Needless to say despite me not liking the FL of SamdalRi much , I was looking forward to this drama and quite enjoyed the beach town , light hearted feel of the trailer. The first 4 episodes were decent and even if the drama was tropey and predictable I would have enjoyed watching it if the execution was right. But the drama went downhill sooner than I expected.

The show starts with FL being wrongly accused and prosecution by media & public alike without any proof of the accusation. On spot reflection of Korean public towards celebs. I expected this plot to play out and FL to fight hard to prove her accuser wrong, but that plot had no consistency and emerged in the series on and off.

People will hate me for saying this, but all that SamDalRi became was a poor copy of Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Reply 1988.

Reply 1988: Families as neighbours/best friends. Gang of 5 friends 4 guys and girl - love triangle.

Hometown Cha Cha Cha:

1. Career oriented FL comes back to her small town after this setback

2. Genius ML opts to stay in small town sacrificing big town opportunities (Are plaid shirts a thing for small town men in Korea?)

3. Halmeoni gang of villages

4. Trauma for ML (death of loved one)

5. Apply ointment on wound of ML scene

6. Drunk sleepover

7. Beach town setting

8. Mid-late 30year olds behaving like teenagers after confessing their love

Now many will say these are common tropes in Kdrama land, but given that HomeTown Cha Cha is recent - the comparisons are most likely.

The lazy writing in SamDalRi made me appreciate HomeCha even more, especially the female characters in that show - small or big were exceptionally written. I couldn’t even empathise or feel for the FL of SamDalRi, forget the sisters or the mom. You take an actress like Kim Mi Kyung and give her a role where she is only staring at everyone barring one breakdown scene.

And what’s with all the adults hitting each other all the time, yelling at each other and the sisters being constantly drunk!

The Haenyeo gang was the most irritating in this show. My biggest gripe though was the age group of the leads and their friends! Who behaves in such a childish manner at 38 , which man is hanging onto his childhood crush till 38 despite knowing his best friend and her are dating or doesn’t express his feelings when those two split up and take his chance, then wants to express his feelings when the couple is back together! I have no idea if the writer understands the sensitivity around these things.

What’s the Korean drama obsession with showing 38 year old couple who has dated before behaving like they are in their 20s or teens when they get back together again! FFS there was a scene where the dad finds them sleeping in her bed and is mad at them and they are behaving like they got caught for first time!

SamDalRi tried to do everything - friends to lovers to exes to lovers, love triangle, childhood friendships, friends more than family, small town found families, giving up on dreams, scandal, capitalism, life of haenyeos, grief after loss of loved one, a healing drama. It failed at everything, because it couldn’t focus and decide what was the main theme and the sub-plots.

The writing was lazy, there was no character progression or growth, and the audience couldn’t connect to any characters. The acting was quite average barring JCW who excelled in every scene. I know SHS fans liked her performance, but she didn’t move me or make me want to watch more of her dramas (this is the 3rd drama of hers I have watched and the only one I didn’t drop cause of JCW).

I wanted to tweet first, but I started to type and realised it would be too long a thread and so a post was better to rant about this show! I ended up skipping most of the scenes post E8 and only ended up watching scenes that featured JCW, even though he excelled and looked great - this was another ordeal of a drama to finish!

Come on JCW choose better scripts. Do justice to that awesome potential and come back in a mature, slow burn romance with Nam Ji Hyun, because no one else has 🔥 chemistry with you like she does and no one else matches you in all aspects like she does!

[blood-and-poetry]

Hot take I'm seeing quite a few posts confused over why Deadloch isn't trending or much more popular on tumblr because "tumblr is so gay and so feminist". And I am sorry to say this but tumblr isn't the "lesbian website" or the "feminist website". Tumblr loves men just as much as the rest of society does, its user base just loves them in a very online way which makes it look a bit different at times. It has always been this way, starting with shipping every two white dudes in close proximity to each other, over worshipping old male Hollywood actors to downright MRA and anti-feminist talking points in the recent past in "progressive leftist" spaces on here. All done in very uwu political correct tumblr speak of course.

And it's really that simple. Media with two (often times white) guys standing close to each other will always be more popular on here than anything women- or lesbian centric, no matter how many theoretical tumblr approval boxes said media ticks. There is a reason why lesbian shows get canceled left and right. Even if lesbian shows are trending for one or two days there is just no genuine interest from a majority of people (on tumblr and anywhere else). Men overall are rarely interested if it isn't made with the male gaze in mind or focusses on men, straight women aren't interested, even many bi women (don't come at me I am bi) aren't interested because they don't see other women (and often times themselves) as complete and potentially interesting people/characters (how often I've seen women on here saying something along the lines of "my favourite characters are all men but it's just because these characters are so good! Pure coincidence. I would definitely love a female character but I just have never found one I am that obsessed with. Not my fault, they are all written in a bad/boring way").

Doesn't matter how often the word "queer" is thrown around here, all of this has always been the same and it won't change. Which is.. fine? I have never expected it to be something else. A website that isn't specifically designed for lesbians but only attracts lesbians would be magical. But a website thats designed for nerdy people and especially women of that kind will attract.. nerdy people/women. Consisting of the same groups of people that exist in real life, including lots of women attracted to men. I have my little bubble here in which I mainly see lesbian content but the things on my dashboard rarely reflect what's trending or the content of popular posts.

I am not bitter about this because it has never been different (here or anywhere else) but I am surprised that people are still thinking that this website would worship a lesbian-lead and female-centric show when it would be entirely out of character for tumblr as a whole to do so. I mean maybe this is all about the show being australian. Maybe people don't like Australia. I also get that crime shows aren't THAT popular either but I guarantee you, if Dulcie and Eddie were dudes this show would be trending so hard.

Deadloch is a fantastic show. It looks amazing, has fantastic humor, the drama is great, the plot is great, there is a good message behind everything and the show also sprinkles in some of tumblrs top ten greatest political correct catch phrases. The main two characters are played by lesbians, another actress from the main cast is bisexual. One of the main characters is a lesbian and there are several other lesbian characters in the show. The other main character is a woman of color (who SHOULD be same sex attracted but sadly seemingly is not which makes me cry). Almost all important characters are women. Amazingly written by the way. There are plenty of women of color, indigenous women especially, playing important roles. All female characters are complex and nuanced people and their suffering isn't used for shock value or to push forward the plot. The two main female characters are both over 40 years old! What the show doesn't have is the same two decent looking men standing in close proximity to each other. And there really isn't any arguing against my little rant here because the only thing I accept as proving me wrong is a lot of people watching Deadloch or overall more women centric and lesbian centric stuff :) Thank you :)

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 22 July 1954

Well, we've gone from Petula Clark's first hit to Frank Sinatra's - yet another legendary figure. And a bit like Petula's first hit, this isn't Frank's best known song. It's not completely unknown; I think I'd heard it before. But there are definitely more iconic hits. I think it's from a film?

Three Coins in the Fountain - Frank Sinatra (peaked at No. 1)

Man, this is slow, with a plodding guitar backing that really doesn't help. It's definitely from a film score, with all the lush instrumentation that that entails, but all of it just very slow and soupy.

As far as I can gather, it's about throwing coins into a fountain in Rome to make a wish, except Frank's one of three lovers whose metaphorical hats have been thrown into the ring? Let's see...

Ooh, this song won an Oscar for best original song! I guess it's a quite technically proficient song, and Frank's performance is as smooth and gentle as you expect a Sinatra performance to be, so I can kind of see the appeal, if you ignore just how slow it is.

It comes from a film called (surprise, surprise) Three Coins in the Fountain that is indeed about people holidaying in Rome and throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain to win over their respective loves. It's based on a 1952 novel, and it's apparently quite melodramatic? It looks like it focusses primarily on some female American characters who work (how modern!) as secretaries abroad and their various entanglements with local Italian men. Frank Sinatra wasn't in the film, and wasn't actually credited for his song, which seems a bit sketchy to me.

It's described as part of the "Hollywood on the Tiber" period, apparently, which was a spell of time in the 1950s and 1960s where Hollywood studios were looking to Italy as a place to set and film various blockbusters. It seems like it was mostly done for financial reasons, plus they could make use of Mussolini's planned Cinecittà complex.

It makes me wonder if this could be one reason for the Italian craze we've been seeing for the past year or so of the charts, with Italian artists and Italian-themed songs making the top fairly regularly. Or perhaps Italy's cultural cachet was what was driving Hollywood to move out there? I'm sure people have written in more depth about this, honestly.

All this is considerably more interesting than the song itself, which is just Frank wishing that his love would pick him and not any of the other two men who are interested. There's a slightly melancholy to some lines, and as I've said, Frank's performance is lovely, he really sells the "just one wish will be granted" line with an appropriate level of almost-regret. Except he doesn't regret it, he just wants to beg fate (the fountain? God?) to "make it mine!" which leads into a suitably dramatic ending.

There's a touch of the Big Old Ending to it, but again, as some recent artists have been doing, there's a degree of restraint. A lot of the volume and drama at the end comes from the instrumentation, as we get an orchestral outro that ends the song pretty gently.

Not a terrible song, but not my favourite thing ever. Uninspiring, you might even say - but it's a start for Frank, who I already know will return multiple times, with various songs that I already know that I like. So I'm pretty well-disposed towards him.

Favourite song of the really-very-Roman bunch: Three Coins in the Fountain

[cafeleningrad]

Ok no, this movie is emblematic for a larger trend in recent cinema on which I am chewing on regularly:

Projecting stoy of woman or feminist themes on a female monarch in European history. (...and why I think this approach fails the historical figure and theme at the same time.)

Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy and like period dramas, and I think that biopics can be well done. (But only if the director is a aware that simply filming scene for scene history book paragraphs doesn't equal a good movie. Even documentaries have narratives. And dramatic retellings are in need of a thematic throughline because movies are a story telling medium. That's why Love and Mercy is beating every other music biopic. Not just because Paul Dano stars in. it's focusing it's narrative on Brian Wilson's specific struggle with schizophrenia and how he got out of a severely abusive situation.)

For one, from a marketing perspective I understand why contemporary discussions get projected on famous historical women. For one, IPs can attract audiences automatically. (I've the impression that the niche "Queen Victoria meets a POC from British colonies" genre exist solely for 55+ years audiences, but I might get polemic....) And otherwise it would be hard to sell a bigger story about women within patriarchal structures. Or at least advertising a movie so overtly about feminist themes. Please note, that I'm talking about a contemporary trend. Some historical ladies perfectly offer themselves to feminist topics, like being the only heir to a powerful position and receiving repression from every side just for being a woman. Or Empress Sisi with her full-on-eating disorder to talk about beauty ideals. (I've my thoughts on linking this specific historical figure with that topic yet this choice although I would disgress.)

However, I also think that period dramas can work perfectly on their own as Robert Egger's success of intense historical research, using often regular country folk in historical settings demonstrates. Heck, the Woman King was a resounding success in a setting usually avoided by Hollywood an explicitly about warrior women, forwarded to an audience who, I dare assume, is for most parts unfamiliar with the history of the African Western coast. If we actually would like to talk about feminists where is the effort in a bigger Olympe de Gouges movie? Were is the cinematic effort for Rosa Luxemburg or Käthe Kollwitz? If we really wanted to talk about structural patriarchal violence in historical settings, where's the effort for an Anna Göldin movie? the last witch trail of Switzerland was so spectacular in it's violence, emblematic for scapegoating a lower class women, it blew through Swiss society that freedom of press got installed, and lead to the abolishment of the death sentence. For politically powerful women leading armies, let's take my personal favourite Kutulunn, or Zenobia. This isn't meant as an what-aboutism. What I want to demonstrate is: a) it doesn't need a female monarch to garner interest in period dramas b) history is ripe, bursting actually with women who's name we know who either fought prominent for social change that still preoccupies us in out life time, or were topic of conflicts that move us in our time as well. (Although that would mean that the script and director understand their movie as thematically driven story, not as the 3D-version of a history text book... which is unfortunately a big sin in contemporary period drama making....)

But these movies fail - for me - for a very specific reason: The body of historical female monarchs was never their own body but a political body. I don't mean this in a Louise of Prussia way as in "get pregnant, look gorgeous, then die tragically young and smoking hot". I mean that for all the basic objections there rightfully exist to the institution monarchy, the historical reality was that this institutions existed, still exist, and had to make decisions of grand scale for the sake of many. Of course there was an entire apparatus of ministers, advisors etc. part of it all. An irresponsible, impulsive, selfish monarch, is one wasting away a lot of political power. In a sense of yes "noblesse oblige" yet I'm no under no illusion that there ever was a magically perfect monarch under which the kingdom ever always greened. And still, the responsibility towards matters of state could lead to the benefit of citizens, begin or end wars, and install reforms. (Sejong the Great leading to mass literacy which a massive over all benefit to the Korean Kingdom.) So it does annoy me to watch stories saying that because women were so closed in they'd to act out, and simply around, be fun, twirl around in pretty dresses, and ride one horsebacks because freedom. I guess it can convey some lovely feelings, and yes maybe a good feminist story. But it clashes so hard with the lived reality of the depicted monarchs.

It's obvious, but the kicker is that none of these famous female monarchs could ever possibly be a hashtag relatable or remotely approximating screen for topics of feminist discussions. These were women who were not part of the lived reality for the majority of women when it comes to access of options, autonomy (relative term in this context), wealth, and education. And yes, politics.

But also: Their bodies were never theirs. Monarchic bodies were bodies which were supposed to fulfill a function. The monarchic body was, and in some countries still is, a central cog of the state apparatus. Power abuse, exploitation, and arbitrary demands definitely still happened but the monarch did not belong to themselves and their personal indulgences. In that sense, female monarchs/nobles were definitely subjugated to all the sexist cruelties of demanded reproduction, representation of values and state etc. (Medieval women definitely read novels of forbidden love and other romantic taboos as escapism from a sexually rough reality they'd to live through.) However whenever I read or see lines of "I wanted to marry for love", or "it is my choice, my will for me" I feel irritated. Our contemporary understanding of physical autonomy can not be translated in that time nor class in that time because these nobles were functions, and also understood themselves as such. Yes, of course they were subject of many cruelties but they couldn't do the feminist thing of just letting it out, cut the hair short, throw their expensive as corset/stay away etc.

I think it's doing a massive disservice to history, and the power these women held: Marie-Antoinette definitely was under pressure to birth a male heir, and forced to do so as teenager. Which is certainly traumatic. But focusing only on this aspect of her life, the slices of feminist discourse which can be dramatized, pointing out how she never ordered anyone to eat cake in instead of bread, what misogynistic propaganda - it's ignoring how her own mother tried very hard to steer her daughter towards state responsibility, or Marie Antoinette's active planning against reforms and military intervention against the French Revolution. Sissi was also married was too young, and always upheld as beauty ideal even though she was hot tempered, and feeling squished by the demands to be representative, attend ceremonies, and yes that would drive anyone crazy. Yet was raised in this position, way too absorbed in her own needs, whereas Franz really functioned like a monarchists wet dream of "noblesse oblige". For my mind, I can't fathom why we need yet another Anne Boleyn installment. Especially since so many of these stories are more interested in a cinematic form of Love Island à la "hat woman could make a man defy all conventions and politics", instead of the significant character flaws of Henry VIII which lead to political rifts. We would need to talk about a man fucking up (literally) - can't have that. The Girl King falls extremely flat to me because it does erase how Kristina actually did work herself in physical exhaustion for state affairs. Willful as she was, she was not an irresponsible monarch, or driven into madness because girls are stupid for being in love. (Personal nitpick but the Peace of Westphalia is such a significant marker in European, and international legal history that I'm appalled at the lack of interest in Swedish, for that matter European politics of this time.) In general, these movies often claim to be about these historical characters still they strip away the historical figure form their grander context. Kristina isn't a young woman who became a major player in 30 year chaos, and burned herself out of Swedish state affairs - nope she's a lesbian who thinks she wants to reform politics but rather likes to read for her own sake, and becomes dysfunctional the moment she can't scissor her consort. Marie Antoinette just wants to connect to girlhood, everyone is so misogynist for attributing a false quote. Austrian-Hungarian army, whomst? That doesn't mean that Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" is vapid. What I mean, is the reduction of these historical figures happens ever so often in their intimate, private sphere, as insight on a feminist themed projection screen. However the moment real history interjects, the wish for a fictionalized version collides with the reality of the powerful impact these women could and did have on politics. It then becomes a weird boomerang of introspecting of a "female experience" detaches her from her actual significance. If not from their historical reality.

That's all to say: The very sexist structural violence, demands, and struggles existed along and in correspondence to their political standing, wealth, and prominence. But that clashes with the intentions wanting to tell a modern understanding of emancipation. These women could never just focus on their feelings - and if they did it would come with severe political consequences. Not just as personal repression but as failure to have not kept up with urgent matters of state. (Sissi was a wandering/horse back riding desaster for diplomacy by example.)

Apart form the general messiness trying to threat the thick threat of a time with drastically different mentalities and social orders through the thin loop of a movie run time, not every prominent female monarch is a good projection screen for poignant feminist discussions. For one, it would require a focused writing which wants to talk about only one aspect of that person's life. Yes, Sissi's eating disorder could make her an ideal projection body to talk about beauty ideal - if it wasn't for the fact that her thinness, and fear of fatness ran absolutely contrary to the plump beauty ideal of her time. Elisabeth I or Kristina of Sweden aren't the girls trying to break through the glass ceiling at work, they were positioned, planned, and supported in their place. Certainly not against severe odds still not in the way we conceptualized a woman on top of a powerful institution in out days.

To rest my case: Real female monarchs, or at least the ever often so brought up, or rotated 105th iteration of their biopic can only fail as "feminist movie" because it tries to locate a cause on them that simply doesn't translate to their actions as well as resources feminist causes try to make accessible in the first place.

Honourable mention of a movie which got a female monarch story right: A royal affair not only stars Mads "he could read the phonebook and he would be groundbreaking" Mikkelsen, it has it's lengths but it's well told because it knows when to fictionalize and when to keep the fabric of history intact. It's not a feminist project yet capable to be deeply sympathetic to Caroline Matilde because her end of the deal isn't met by Christian IV's metal dissability. The story of her disappointment and pain does not ignore her political action and significance. Her life story of a Herculean reformation effort isn't just a background act out of defiance against THE MAN but part of her own personal ambition. Her affair with Strunsee is lead by their shared ideals, living vicariously through Christian VI - who also becomes sympathetic as his dissability gets abused by multiple players. To say, the movie is capable of understanding how Caroline's personal life was directly interacting with her political action without sensationalizing it - as it was in actual history.

[Polemic side commentary: Well ok, even among female monarchs, I think we had plenty of Queen Victoria's, Elisabeth's I, or Empress Sissi's. If we really want female monarchs, we definitely can expand our horizons And yet Elisabeth of Thuringa as noble lady who cares for the lower classes could be there - instead of another "Queen Victoria was the nicest colonizer possible" installment, or Catherine the Great as gal of the people (featuring Hollywood casting, and erasing ethnic diversity and ethnic conflicts that actually existed and still exists in Russia - god the Great and Shadow and Bone piss me off so much for that very specific reason....) Talking about mental illness? Joana of Castile! (I mean, if we have to keep on capitalizing on the Sissi craze, why not talk about Sophia of Bavaria about a monarch who got abused in the medical system and by her husband?) Way too early sexualisation and topic discussion of reproductive rights (or lack thereof)? Margaret Beaufort. Yet I highly doubt I ever want to see any new attempt on Elisabeth Báthory, even with a Laszlo Nagi's take on her...]

Soooo... since I'm on my 30 year war fascination streak I watched the Girl King (2015, dir. Mika Karusmäki)... My guys Descartes and Oxenstierna were there, so yay. Otherwise Malin Buska's energy and acting were wasted for movie with no good thematic cohesion, and editing that makes regular German movie production look like cinematic masterpieces...

The lesbian scenes would be hot Sarah Gordon could act. or the script would have any idea how to write romance. Or women who have interests... or interest in the psychology of a historical figure...

[behindthescenes-if]

*Notice: This is an extremely early idea, I wasn't planning on posting the intro post so early into the development, but I have decided to just mainly to see if anyone would be interested in this idea before I actually start getting into it and also I got a bit too excited. It is a very early idea, so I cannot guarantee that I will be with it to the very end, but I will try my best. I am also extremely new to both coding and writing, so it will probably take me even longer to do this. I am still figuring out how to use twine, so the game will probably be on there unless stated otherwise in the future. As for the demo, I am a full time university student and have a very busy schedule, so I don't know when it will come out, it might take a few months, it might take a year, I don't know. Just wanted to put this notice beforehand.

Introduction

Hi, I go by the pen name Ms. Protagonist and Behind the Scenes is a very recent project that I've just started working on inspired by the Thai drama Lovely Writer and other webtoons/manga that delve into acting and the entertainment industry, such as Act-Age amongst others. Although I am fluent in English and have been speaking it for many years, it is not my first language and this is my first time writing a story fully in English, so please keep that in mind and please do bear with me, I will try to make it the very best I can. I've always wanted to write my own interactive fiction story, so hopefully this sticks.

Behind the Scenes

*Behind the Scenes will be rated 16+ for language and potential content not suitable for those who are younger readers.

You're an upcoming actor trying to make it big in the city of Orlia.

After taking minor roles for the majority of your career your manager stumbles upon one  potential role that could be the stepping stone for your career.

An author going by the pen name  Lera Blue, usually known for her fantasy novels  has published a  mystery romance called "Dagger in the Heart"  that will be getting a TV series adaptation. They have put out a casting call for auditions and you seem to fit the criteria for one of the lead roles, and as such you end up auditioning.

Unfortunately , Orlia's entertainment industry is not all glitz and glamour. Navigating your new found fame you might find yourself in potential controversies, rumours and shifts in public opinion that could make or break your reputation.

Will you have the big break you've always dreamed of or will you fall from grace?

Features

●Customise your MC's appearance, personality, gender and sexuality amongst other things.

●Public opinion could potentially make or break your career. Influence the public's opinion of you through your actions.

●Romance or befriend the 6 ROs (3 gender selectable, 2 gender-locked non binary and 1 gender-locked female)

●Bond with the rest of the cast and the crew or don't; it's up to you at the end of the day.

Romance Options under the cut

ROs

Ezra Wei (Female) [Bisexual] <Ethnicity: Hui Chinese and Zulu South African | Nationality: Singaporean> "Dagger in the Heart" 's  author that goes by the pen name Lera Blue. Ezra is not a woman of many words, tending to keep people at arm' s length. She is often described by those who know her as an enigma: hard to decipher; no one really knows what she's truly thinking. Despite coming across as harsh at times, Ezra truly cares about her craft and wants the best adaptation possible of her work.

Kylo Shrestha (Male/Female) [Panromantic Demisexual] <Ethnicity: Newar Nepali | Nationality: British> Your manager and best friend. They have been your biggest  supporter ever since middle school where you would act out some of your favourite scenes from Naruto's English dub in the living room. Kylo is an easygoing person with a sarcastic sense of humour and infectious laughter. They are incredibly loyal and reliable and has always been there for you when you've needed them most.

Maisah Aissaoui (Male/Female) [Biromantic Greysexual] <Ethnicity: Berber Morroccan and Afro-Algerian | Nationality: Spanish, raised in Orlia> Part of the main cast and one of your co-stars in the TV adaptation of "Daggers in the Heart". Maisah is one of the country's most popular actors, having been part of the entertainment industry from a very young age. When the cameras are off, Maisah is an aloof and blunt individual that keeps their friends close and their enemies closer.

Asher Akedele  (Non Binary) [Pansexual]  <Ethnicity: Yoruba Nigerian | Nationality: Born and raised in Orlia> The director of "Dagger in the Heart". Asher is outgoing yet direct in nature, as you would expect from someone of xyr profession. Known for xyr charismatic disposition and commanding presence, xe is well respected  within the entertainment industry and by media critics. Earning xyr respect is much easier said than done, loosing it on the other hand is far less complicated.

Harlow Gibson (Non Binary)  [Panromantic Asexual] <Ethnicty: Irish and Italian | Nationality: Australian, raised in Orlia> A journalist working for FameGame Magazine, who appears to have taken an interest in "Dagger in the Heart" 's adaptation. Harlow is a cunning and persuasive individual who will do whatever it takes to get what they want. Their articles have been known to make or break many celebrities' careers; whether they will make or break yours is an entirely different matter altogether.

Logan Van der Westhuysen (Male/ Female)  [Bisexual] <Ethnicity: Belgian | Nationality: Born and raised in Orlia> Part of the main cast and one of your co-stars in the TV adaptation of "Daggers in the Heart".  Logan's reputation as a flirt and the nation's heart breaker precedes them. With mixed public opinions due to their seemingly shallow personality and dating scandals, Logan has been a topic of controversy for as long as they can remember. Whether there is more to them than meets the eye is up to you.

* I've seen some transphobic/aphobic comments that authors have been getting about their characters and some of the things that these anons have said are absolutely disgusting. So let me make it clear now, Ezra is a trans woman and both Asher and Harlow are Non-Binary. Kylo, Harlow and Maisah fall within the ace spectrum and as such any transphobic/aphobic comments or asks regarding my characters will not be tolerated. You will be blocked immediately and your ask will be deleted.

Other links (more will be added)

Skintone chart for the ROs

RO Appearances

RO Birthdays

[diziaddict]

i just started watching turkish dramas a few months ago and the first one I fell in love with and watched all the way through (well the first season) was vatanim sensin....ive started a few others but often got annoyed at the characters a few episodes in especially when it's been a light hearted rom com like erkenci kus. The next one i completed was siyah beyaz ask and honestly it's one of the best shows I've ever watched...the chemistry between the two leads was so breath-taking and now I'm just worried that my standards are too high bc I've been comparing every drama i watch to it 😭 ...please can you recommend your top 5 (preferably romance/drama/historical)?

It's been a while since I've posted but med school has genuinely been a rollercoaster ride this year so sorry for the long hiatus. I recently watched Vatanim Sensin and absolutely loved it too (will definitely consider writing a review soon!) but as you all know, Siyah Beyaz Ask has my whole heart. As such, I completely agree with you when I say that it is the sole reason I have so many partially finished dizis. That dizi raised my standards so much so that I'd often get frustrated and stop watching dizis half-way through.

With regards to watching light-hearted romcom dizis, often the biggest problem is that the viewers have to be in the right mood for them. It's quite difficult to enjoy a more comic-heavy romcom dizi when you're craving some mystery or drama. As toxic as it may sound, I do enjoy a little mafia action here and there to spice up the dizi. Anyway, here are the top 5 dizis (in order of preference) that I genuinely continue rewatching to this day:

Hercai – This is one of my absolute favourite shows and one that almost managed to satisfy my post-Siya-Beyaz-Ask depression. It's the perfect mix of drama, mystery, romance and comedy. The two actors have explosive chemistry on screen and are both honestly just so pretty. It helps that every shot is beautifully planned and aesthetically pleasing. However, do keep in mind that this is a very intense dizi mainly based around 'family drama' and involves a lot of violence so the comedy is kept to a bare minimum. Now while it isn't a historical dizi, the locations and general attitudes are very conservative and traditional so there is a somewhat 'period drama' feel.

Son Yaz – This mafia drama is honestly one of the most wholesome dizis I've seen in a while. While the dizi is mainly a romantic drama, there is a light-hearted comedy aspect within every episode and the two actors have electric chemistry. However, in my opinion, what makes this show is the heartwarming father-son bond between Selim and Akgun. What I love most about this dizi is that it's very mature and doesn't conform to the common trope of 'there's no me without you'. It addresses the toxic aspects of love and isn't afraid of separating the main couple in order for Akgun and Yagmur to work on themselves before focusing on their relationship.

Sen Cal Kapimi – This is probably the most light-hearted dizi out of all these recommended dizis but the actors genuinely had amazing chemistry and looked fantastic together. Personally, Eda Yildiz is one of my favourite female leads out of all the dizis I've watched since she has the courage and confidence to stand tall independently and is never ashamed of her social/financial status. One of my least favourite characteristics is a lead that despises/is embarrassed of being 'poor' or 'uncool' but this dizi completely avoids falling into that pattern. While it does follow the 'memory loss' and 'impending death' tropes, they are never too dragged out so the dizi doesn't lose it's magic. I am a strong supporter of couples that improve one another and that is exactly what this couple does. Both Eda and Serkan, while individually seem content and (for lack of a better word) 'perfect', the audience get to peek beneath the surface to understand the deeper wounds each individual has. We get to watch them each grow and overcome their past traumas to become better versions of themselves. This dizi does involve some family drama but it's never really an integral part of the storyline.

Fazilet Hanim Ve Kizlari – This is, once again, a romantic drama centred around family drama and secrets. It is, however, honestly one of the most well-written dizis as it manages to handle creating two main love interests that somehow both seem equally likely to end up with the lead female so keeps the viewers guessing. My only qualm with dizis that involve family secrets is the numerous frustrating 'near-reveals' the writers love to include as it made certain aspects of the dizi feel overly exaggerated. In my opinion, while both Yagiz and Sinan had plenty of chemistry with Hazan, it wasn't as instantaneous or obvious as the other couples in any of the recommended dizis so it may take some time to warm up to them. However, I'm a sucker for tortured star-crossed lover storylines that end in happily ever afters so this dizi was right up my alley.

Elimi Birakma – This is a slightly more light-hearted romcom drama and centres around the topic of family inheritance. While I don't particularly like the 'miscommunication' or 'misinterpreted situation' tropes, this dizi manages to pull it off in a tasteful way. Cenk never truly steps out of line or does anything completely irreversible when he misunderstands Azra but still follows the standard sequence of patterns: distancing, arguing and being unwillingly in love. Unlike most dizis, this one highlighted the respect the couple had for each other. They were willing to respect one another's wishes and diverged from the common scenario where individuals make decisions for the couple as a whole. As a side note, one of my pet peeves is the dizi 'villains' getting away with everything until the very end (which this dizi happens to do) but that's just a personal preference.

I hope this helps you. Good luck finding the perfect fit!

[joshuas]

facts

♫ pairing: hwang hyunjin x female reader

♫ genre: fluff, crack (seriously, do not question how i came up with this), domestic au, established relationship au

♫ warnings: mentions spiders, and mentions use of alcohol?

♫ word count: 1.5k

♫ prompt: “are you drunk?” “not nearly enough” from this prompt list !

♫ a/n: this was actually a request from @starteez and dedicated to her as a very very belated birthday present <33 hope you like it :)))

♫ summary: hyunjin gets super drunk and has a Crisis, meanwhile you just wanted to watch the latest episode of your favourite drama.

♫ tagging: @jadezircon @mostlikelynotmelissa and @potato2earth - let me know if you would like to be part of the tag list !

You sighed, settling into the couch, tub of ice cream, and tv remote in hand.

It was Friday night. Otherwise known as you and Hyunjin’s drama night, in which you’d watch the latest episode of the most recent drama the two of you were hooked on. However, today, Hyunjin had decided to go out for drinks with Felix, ditching you and your drama night. Initially, you were annoyed (not that he was hanging out with his friends but more so that he messed with your tradition), but you realised that you could just watch it without him. I mean... he was going out and having fun, who’s to say that you can’t do the same by chilling with your favourite characters and finding out about whatever dark secrets they had been just about to reveal in the previous episode. Okay... the latter of that was your main motivation for it. You’re not that lonely or sad.

Nodding resolutely, you scooped your ice cream, settling into the couch as the drama played, your attention fixated on the screen.

The sharp buzz of your phone startled you out of your immense concentration, the caller ID flashing to reveal your boyfriend, Hyunjin.

Your eyes widened in panic, your hands knocking the ice cream off of your lap as you reached around for the TV remote. The phone buzzed continuously, ringing as you fumbled around for the off button, leaving you breathless as you picked up the phone on the final ring,

“He—“

“Y/NNNN~” Hyunjin whined into the phone, his breathing heavy.

“Hyunjin? What’s wrong? Are you crying? ...Are you drunk?” You closed your eyes, only to open them again in confusion as you heard sniffling on the other end of the phone.

“Not nearly e-enough! I-I don’t w-want to be e-eaten.” He sobbed into the phone.

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion,

“What?” Your tone coming out sharper than expected, eliciting more sobs from Hyunjin.

“F-felix w-was telling me about how f-female s-spiders e-eat their m-mates, and now I’m scared and I’m n-never coming h-home because y-you’re going to e-eat me.” Hyunjin breathed, between sobs.

...What?

“Excuse me? Why would I eat you. Felix was talking about spiders.” You said, slightly offended by his drunk comparisons.

He breathed deeply,

“Y-you know how the other day we were watching a Marvel movie and y-you k-know what you s-said? You said that the c-character you r-relate with t-the m-most with is Black Widow!” He exclaimed, almost hysterical.

You pinched the bridge of your nose, as he spoke incoherently at the phone, sobs heaving out of him as if he had just witnessed something deeply distressing. Well... what his drunk mind was picturing was slightly distressing, so it made sense.

“Well yes, because she’s a strong, independent female lead. Anyway, you’re too drunk to understand any of that. Hyunjin. Where are you?”

“I’m not telling you! Y-you can’t come to Felix’s house!” Hyunjin attempted to ward you off before realising his mistake a second later. “FELIX! Y/N’s COMING! She’s going to eat us—“

You hung up on him, grabbing your keys and heading out the door... ignoring the melting ice cream on the floor.

As soon as you reached Felix’s apartment you flung the door wide open, apologising profusely as a wincing Felix came out from behind, guiding you to your extremely drunk boyfriend.

Not noticing your entrance, Hyunjin had positioned himself quite... oddly, so that his head was on the rug on the floor but his legs were on the couch, a hand flung dramatically on his forehead, and another hand on the floor, not too dissimilar to someone doing a one-handed snow angel.

He looks like a four-year-old...

You cleared your throat behind him, approaching him tentatively. Whipping around, his eyes widened when they landed on you, panic flashing through them as he scrambled to sit upright.

“What are you doing here?” His words, although slightly slurred, still portrayed fear that was not well-founded at all. How his drunken state got to thinking you were a spider was beyond you, but then again, he was drinking with Felix, so who knows what went down there.

“I came to pick you up since you’re um. Drunk.” You raised your eyebrows, stating the obvious.

“No! You’re not allowed to take me back to your web.” He stumbled forward, couch cushion in hand in an attempt to ward you off.

Web? Oh my god...

“Can you— ugh. I’m not a spider! I’m not going to eat you! You’re my boyfriend, for God’s sake, and I love you, and I’m not a cannibal. Besides, you wouldn’t be very delicious, you’re mostly just muscle.” You sighed, raising your arms in frustration and defeat.

Hyunjin’s eyes widened in offence, placing a hand on his chest and stepping back, tears started to well in his eyes.

“I— oh no. What? Why are you crying again?” You panicked, settling him on the couch, rubbing his back soothingly as you mentally cursed his current over sensitive state.

“Y-you really t-think I w-wouldn’t be d-delicious?” He sobbed louder into your shoulder, as you rubbed soothing patterns on his back.

You rolled your eyes,

He’s so drunk.

“This conversation is so concerning, and one that I want to discontinue at all costs. I'm not a spider, and I'm not going to eat you. I don't want to comment on... that.” You deadpanned.

“How did you guys even get this drunk?” You glanced between Hyunjin and Felix who had emerged from the kitchen, ice pack on his slightly bruised face.

“It was all him. I asked him if he wanted to come over and watch the latest episode of this drama we’re both really into. He started drinking as soon as we started watching because he didn’t want to remember any of it so that when he watches it with you his reactions are genuine. Eventually, he got too drunk to even sit still, so we turned it off and started talking about stuff.” Felix shrugged.

“...and you somehow got to talking about spiders?” You asked, unimpressed.

“We were baking because he wanted to make you cookies, since he felt guilty...for basically watching nothing. I guess he still felt guilty for the action. Anyway, he freaked out after seeing a spider. Hyunjin, plus being drunk and his usual dramatic self is not fun. Especially when spiders are involved. I told him that fact because it was at the top of my head and he gave up on the cookies and started freaking out about you. Speaking of the cookies, I should probably check on them. You need to take this home before the rest of the guys come here if you want to have any of it.” He headed to the kitchen, leaving you and Hyunjin alone in the living room.

“Hyunjin, why didn’t you just stay home if you were just going to watch the drama? You know that today is drama night.” You crossed your arms, directing your attention once again to your sniffling boyfriend.

“I didn’t want to cry in front of youuu,” he sobbed. “I didn’t know what was going to happen next and I thought they might break up and I just...” he trailed off.

“You know that makes no sense right? You’re literally sobbing in front of me now. Also, you’re my boyfriend, I’m supposed to be there for you, tears and all. Besides, we’ll probably both be sobbing if the main characters broke up. We’ve shipped them too much for that to not be devastating.“ You said resolutely, your gaze softening as you looked at him, snuggling closer to you.

“I knowww.”

“Come on, let’s go home. There’s a tub of ice cream waiting for the both of us.”

Your drama night was postponed to Saturday seeing as soon as the two of you arrived at your apartment, Hyunjin collapsed and fell into a deep sleep on the couch... and your ice cream was on the floor, melted and no longer edible.

Leading you to Saturday night, where you and Hyunjin were snuggled together on the couch, wrapped in a blanket burrito, eating the cookies he baked yesterday, alongside a new tub of ice cream, whilst bawling your eyes out.

“I told you,” he sniffed “I knew this would happen.”

Your tear-filled eyes blurred your vision as you tried to focus on the crying characters on the screen, reaching for another tissue,

“I know, but it’s not as bad when we’re watching it together, and besides, these cookies are incredible with ice cream.” You snuggled into him and gave him a watery smile.

“Hey, as long as you’re not a spider and about to eat me, I’m all for our drama nights and cuddles,” Hyunjin smirked.

You pushed him lightly,

“Oh my god... how do you even remember any of the stuff you said? You were ridiculous.”

“I don’t know but the fact still holds.”

“It’s not even a fact! I'm human!”

💫 masterlist !

[variousqueerthings]

Favourite Horror Tv Shows (Unranked)

The Haunting Of Hill House 

You want trauma in your ghosts? You want plottwists and time shenanigans? You want excruciatingly beautifully shot episodes? You want m o n o l o g u e s ! Family drama! Shirley Jackson with a twist?

I’m someone who generally loves Mike Flanagan’s work, because he’s not particularly pretentious about it. He clearly just loves horror as a metaphor for grief and trauma in particular, and also his wife Kate Siegel, and I think that’s sexy of him. 

This is definitely my favourite out of everything he’s made though, movies included. 

The Exorcist

Underrated! Wonderful! Queer! It’s unfortunate that this show was so misjudged that it didn’t reach the audience that it would have thrived under. I imagine a bunch of angry edgy fanboys wouldn’t be too happy with queer priests (amongst others) and feminist horror. 

Geena Davies in season 1. John Cho and Brianna Hildebrand in season 2. And the leads (Marcus and Tomas) are the version of partners-in-crime (sometimes literally crime) who pine for each other that for once isn’t grounded in no homo. 

The tenderness of affixing someone’s priest collar 🥺

(they get this close the first time they meet. this is their first meeting).

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Classic! Created so many tropes! And, despite J*ss Wh*d*n being a dick, full of women who are played by wonderful, talented actresses, and who get (for the most part) interesting, harrowing, fulfilling, varied narratives. 

I really didn’t see a genre show with this many female leads again until... I wanna throw out a year like 2015-2016. And even then, this one breaks the mold in terms of sheer accessibility and fun and inventiveness!

Sarah Michelle Gellar is an icon. This is her show!

Santa Clarita Diet

You know that post that’s like: My favourite “het” couples in film are actually bisexual. You know when a woman is unhinged and her husband is simply there to assist her in that goal? You love domestic serial killers? Zombies with-a-twist? Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant being married? 

Literally what’s not to love? Sometimes your spouse becomes a zombie and because you love her, you’re going to help find the right victims (usually nazis) and hide the bodies. I don’t even like the idea of marriage, but if this is what it’s about, I finally get it!

Twin Peaks

I feel like I’m due a rewatch of this. The tragedy of it wasn’t lost on me when I was younger, but I was definitely very caught up in the eerie dreaminess and idiosyncrasies of the characters. 

Also, I still haven’t seen Fire Walk With Me, which I feel would help to recenter the whole narrative where it rightfully belongs: With Laura Palmer.

It’s aesthetically so right though. It draws you in, it unsettles you, it embodies the idea of a place being alive. 

Not to mention we love Dale Cooper in this household! 

The Addams Family

Okay before there were any other married couples, there was Morticia and Gomez Addams. 

This show is so funny - so many of the gags you see in the later movies that are also still hilarious are directly from the original show. 

I’ve got no ability to say how this was appreciated in the 60s, but considering it only had two seasons I feel like Not Enough. 

Somethingsomething ahead of its time, very subversive, Gomez Addams is Sean Astin’s stepfather, which feels important to me.

The Twilight Zone 

Speaking of ahead-of-its-time right? 

This show is everything! It has everything! It’s fantastic writing! It’s gorgeous set-up-and-pay-off! It’s political! It’s spooky! It’s anthology! It’s classic! It’s wild to me that its first season was in 1959, but it was a time of change and this fits perfectly into that push against all kinds of sensibilities and norms, both within Hollywood and America beyond.

Rod Sterling was a masterclass writer and anyone interested in the strange and unusual, but also just in good stories put to screen ought to watch this. 

Seriously: The Classic!

Hannibal

The joke I was going to make was “haha look I chose a gif for this show that’s less about Cannibalism and more about how gay these two are,” but honestly a large proportion of the gifs are about how gay these two are, and isn’t the show really a gay dramedy when you get down to it? 

The inverse Pushing Daisies, the continuation of Bryan Fuller’s perfect career of making beloved - and then cancelled - shows (Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, Hannibal... what next?) and my personal favourite of the bunch, because I love gothic gay idiots.

Chucky

I’ve seen the first 4 episodes. I love the film franchise (me, having watched the Child’s Play Verse films in the last two months, clutching them to my chest and hissing like a cat). 

It is more enjoyable if you watch the movies first, since it situates itself in an already-established verse and narrative, but it’s a fascinatingly built world that - because of its continued story through the last 30 years - feels very congruent to its own internal wacky laws. 

It also has queerness baked into its bones and I’m fascinated by how it’ll delve further into that legacy now that it’s become more possible to be direct about it. 

[kateknowsdramas]

Your all-time favourite kdramas?

Hi @danidanisara!

Good ask! I recently had a 'what's your top 5 dramas' ask which I answered here.

But since you said 'all-time' I'll add a few more on there because 5 is just not enough! You can also check out my My Drama List page to see what other ones I loved (and hated). Also, here is a set I did on my top mid year dramas for 2021.

All Time Favorites

Be Melodramatic

This show really does have everything. Great humor. Found family. Romance. Meta. It's so much fun. And it’s all about the women. 

Flower of Evil

Everything you think about the male lead is wrong. Just know that going in. It's awesomely suspenseful, romantic and has a fantastic bad-ass female lead.

Beyond Evil

This is it. This is the show.

Come and Hug Me

Traumatized babies in love. Peak romance. But with a hefty dose of murder.

My Country

Epic Bromance of a very-not-straight kind. Fantastic cast, amazing story and tragic end.

One Spring Night

Slow slice of life with amazing otp and sisters who are absolutely the best.

Prison Playbook

Like Hospital Playlist, this is all about found family, character journeys and fantastic storytelling. You’ll laugh out loud and you’ll cry out loud. 

Thirty but Seventeen

The premise seems weird, but it's 100% not. Sweetest romance, found family and an all around wonderful show.

What's Wrong With Secretary Kim

Flipping tropes on their head, incredible make-outs, OTP perfection and a hilarious supporting cast. Adore it.

I think that's a decent list! Hopefully, you'll find something here you love. Thanks for the ask!

[polikszena]

I was tagged by the amazing @here-there-everyfuckenwhere to do this ask meme for Ted Lasso (Thank you for tagging me! :) ): 

My favorite female character: I love Keeley as well, but I choose Rebecca. I really like her story arc that she starts like a Disney villain but then, influenced by an overly optimistic American football coach and a model/PR-person, she rediscovers herself and becomes a boss ass bitch with an amazing wardrobe.

My favorite male character: Okay, this one is easy to answer, Trent Crimm, The Independent. He wasn’t my favourite from the beginning, but I always liked him, and then came the end of season 2 when he turned his back not only to his current workplace, but to his whole profession, a part of his identity, because he had to reveal some confidential information about someone he cared for. And I thought, now that’s interesting, and this is how it all started.

My favorite season: While I loved the tour to the dark forest in Season 2, I have to go with Season 1, mostly because of its feelgood atmosphere (Season 2 still has this, but there’s a lot more drama, too) and because it could show that kindness does go a long way, but without being too didactic.

My favorite episode: Definitely 1x03, the Trent episode, and 2x10, the funeral one, because that one made me laugh really hard, and two minutes later cry, and then in ten minutes it made me laugh and cry at the same time.

My favorite cast member: Tough question, because I love the dynamics of the whole cast, but I have to go with Jason Sudeikis from the main, because I think he is a very nice person and did an amazing job in SNL (honestly, I wouldn’t have started watching SNL sketches if it weren’t for him, and now I’m reading a 600-page long book on the history of SNL). And I have to add James Lance from the recurring cast as well, on one hand because I had no idea who he was before Ted Lasso and thanks to him now I know a fair amount of British comedy shows that had never got past the English Channel, and on the other hand because based on his interviews he seems to be a very cool person and I really like his views on comedy, acting and life in general.

My favorite ship: This might be surprising, but my favourite ships in this fandom are not the romantic ones. I like Roy and Keeley a lot (and also, the Higginses), but the ship I’m the most invested in here is platonic (at least to me). And yes, that’s Ted&Trent. I love their dynamics through the whole show, especially in 1x03 when we can see Ted winning him over by being genuinely open towards him and from “Is this a fucking joke?” we get to “I won’t gloat when it happens” and from then Trent still keeps asking uncomfortable questions, but their vibe is totally different, now there is mutual respect that only grows with time. Even so that it leads to Trent getting himself fired from The Independent, although I think the whole thing was way more complex than just that. And I totally understand why people ship them romantically, but I just don’t see them that way. I definitely think there is a huge potential for them to develop a deep and meaningful relationship, but to me it’s platonic. (Partially due to the reason that I can’t see Trent in a committed romantic/sexual relationship with anyone of any gender) I have similar feelings towards Ted and Rebecca as well, to be honest: they are on the edge of an OTP and a BROTP, but recently I tend more and more toward the latter.

A character I’d die defending: I’d go with Sassy here, because I don’t think she did anything wrong when she slept with Ted, and I absolutely love that she instantly clicked with Keeley and now they are like they were best friends for years.

A character I just can’t sympathize with: Rupert Bloody Mannion. And Jane. I don’t like her at all.

A character I grew to love: I’d say Higgins. In the first few episodes I rather felt sorry for him for being a Disney villain’s sidekick, but then it turned out that he’s one of the most down-to-earth people on Nelson Road, he’s kind and generous and he’s not afraid to be silly around his people and I think that’s great.

My anti otp: Coach Beard/Jane. A few days ago I read a very interesting meta about Beard and his relationship with Jane, and it made me understand them a little bit more, but it still makes me sad to see him in a relationship like this.

Tagging: Anyone who wants to do this either for Ted Lasso or for any other fandom (Or you can also reblog the meme from here)

[joshjacksons]

Joshua Jackson interview with Refinery29

Against my better judgement, and at the risk of losing any semblance of journalistic objectivity, I start my conversation with Joshua Jackson by effusively telling him what a dream come true it is to be talking to him. See, like many millennial women who grew up watching the late ‘90s and early 2000s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, Jackson’s Pacey Witter means a lot to me. Pacey is one of the rare fictional teen boys of my youth whose adolescent charisma, romantic appeal, and general boyfriend aptitude hold up all these years later (unlike The O.C’s Seth Cohen or Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass) and that is due in large part to the wit, vulnerability, and care Jackson brought to the character.

It’s the same intention he’s afforded all of his famous roles — Peter Bishop in Fringe, Cole Lockhart in The Affair, and even as a 14-year-old in his first acting gig as sweet-faced heartthrob Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks. Now, Jackson, 43, has matured into a solid supporting actor (with memorable turns in Little Fires Everywhere and When They See Us) and as a leading man who can draw you into a story with just his voice (Jackson’s latest project is narrating the psychological thriller and Canadian Audible original, Oracle, one of the over 12,000 titles available today on Audible.ca’s the Plus Catalogue) or find humanity in the most sinister men (he’s currently playing a sociopath with a god complex in Dr. Death). His magnetic pull is as evident as it was when he was the guy you rooted for in a show named after another guy’s creek. Jackson has never seemed to mind the fact that so many people still bring up Pacey decades later, and that’s part of why as an adult, he’s one of the few childhood crushes I still have on a pedestal. I tell him just a tiny slice of this, and Jackson graciously sits up straighter and promises to bring his A-game to our Zoom exchange. Jackson is in what appears to be an office, flanked by mess, like a true work-from-home Dad. He and his wife, fellow actor Jodie Turner-Smith, welcomed a daughter in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, and he tells me that fatherhood and marriage are the best decisions he has ever made. Jackson and Turner-Smith are a rare Hollywood couple who choose to let us in on their love, but not obnoxiously — just through flirty Instagram comments and cheeky tweets. Their pairing is part of Jackson’s enduring appeal. It’s nice to think that Pacey Witter grew up to be a doting dad and adoring husband, even if his wife’s name is Jodie, not Joey.

Jackson is an animated conversationalist, leaning into the camera to emphasize his points — especially when the topic of diversity comes up. White celebs don’t get asked about racism in Hollywood the way their counterparts of colour do, and when they do, they’re usually hesitant at best, and unequipped at worst, to tackle these conversations. Jackson is neither. He’s open, willing, and eager to discuss systemic inequality in the industry he’s grown up in. It’s the bare minimum a straight white man in Hollywood can do, and Jackson seems to know this. When he ventures briefly into trying to explain to me, a Black woman, the perils of being Black, female, and online, he catches himself and jokes that of course, I don’t need him to tell me the racism that happens in the comment section of his wife’s Instagram. The self-deprecating delivery is one I’m familiar with from watching Jackson onscreen for most of my life, and seeing it in person (virtually) renders me almost unable to form sentences. Jackson’s charm is disarming, but his relaxed Canadian energy is so relatable, I manage to maintain my professionalism long enough to get through our conversation. Refinery29: Your voice has been in my head for a few days because I've been listening to Canadian Audible Original, Oracle. What drew you to this project and especially the medium of audio storytelling?

Joshua Jackson: The book itself is such a page turner. I also love the idea of those old radio plays. It's like a hybrid between the beauty of reading a book on the page where your imagination does all of it. We craft a little bit of the world, but because this is a noir thriller married with this metaphysical world, there's a lot of dark and creepy places that your imagination gets to fill in for yourself.

I'm noticing a trend in some of the roles you've been taking on lately, with this and Dr. Death, these stories are very dark and creepy. But so many people still think of you as Pacey Witter, or as Charlie Conway, the prototypical good guys of our youth. Are you deliberately trying to kill Pacey and Charlie?

JJ: I'm not trying to kill anybody — except on screen [laughs]. It's funny, I didn't really think of these two things as companion pieces, but I won't deny that there may be something subconscious in this anxiety, stress-filled year that we've all just had. That may be what I was trying to work out was some of that stress, because that's the beauty of my job. Instead of therapy, I just get someone to pay me to say somebody else's words. So, yeah, that could be a thing [but] the thought process that went into them both was very different. Even though this is a dark story, [lead character, police psychic] Nate Russo is still the hero. [Dr. Death’s] Christopher Duntsch very much is not at all. I can't pretend to know my own mind well enough to be able to tell you exactly how [these two roles] happened, but it happened.

That might be something that you should work through with an actual therapist. JJ: Exactly. Yeah, maybe real therapy is on the docket for me [laughs].

So I was listening to Oracle and you're doing these various creepy voices — I’m sorry the word “creepy” keeps coming up.

JJ: Are you trying to tell me something? You know what? I wanted to skip straight to the creepy old man phase of my career. So, it sounds like I'm doing a good job.

You're doing amazing, sweetie [laughs]. So, I was thinking you must be really good at bedtime stories with your daughter doing all these voices. Or is she still too young for that?

JJ: No! She's all the way into books. Story time is my favourite part of the day because it gives me the opportunity to have that time with her just one-on-one. Her favorite book right now is a book called Bedtime Bonnet. Every night I bring out three books, and she gets to pick one. The other two shift a little bit, but Bedtime Bonnet is every single night.

I love that. Since you're married to a Black woman, you know a thing or two about bonnets. JJ: ​​Yeah, well I'm getting my bonnet education. And I'm getting my silk sheet education. I'm behind the curve, but I'm figuring it out [laughs].

You said in an interview recently that you are now at the age where the best roles for men are. And I wonder if you can expand on that and whether you think of the fact that the same cannot be said for the majority of women actors in their 40s?

JJ: What's great about the age that I'm at now as a man is that, generally speaking, the characters — even if they're not the central character of this show — are well fleshed out. They're being written from a personal perspective, usually from a writer who has enough lived experience and wants to tell the story of a whole character. Whereas when you're younger — and obviously I was very lucky with some of the characters that I was able to play  – you're the son or the boyfriend, or you're a very two-dimensional character. It's gotten better, but still a lot like you're either the precocious child or you're the brooding one. I will say that while I would agree with you to a certain point for women, I think that this is probably the best era to be a not 25-year-old-woman in certainly the entirety of my career. And it is also the best time to be a Black woman inside of the industry. There's still more opportunity for a 40-year-old white man than there is for a 40-year-old white woman, but it is better now than it has ever been. The roles that women are able to inhabit and occupy and the opportunities that are out there have multiplied. If I started my career in playing two-dimensional roles to get the three-dimensional roles, most women started their career in three-dimensional roles and end up at “wife” or “mom.” And that's just not the case anymore. There's just a lot of broadly diverse stories being told that centre women. So you're right, but in the last five years, six years I would say, there has really been a pretty significant shift.

And I think that shift is happening because who's behind the camera is also changing. JJ: Right? Who holds the purse strings. That's big. Who gets to green light the show to begin with? You have to have a variety of different faces inside of that room. And then, who's behind the camera. What is the actual perspective that we're telling the story from? The male gaze thing is very real. Dr. Death had three female directors. The central character of Dr. Death is an outrageously toxic male figure. Who knows more about toxic male BS than women? Particularly women who are in a predominantly male work environment. So these directors had a very specific take and came at it with a clarity that potentially a man wouldn't see, because we have blind spots about ourselves. We're in a space where there's a recognition that we've told a very narrow band of what's available in stories. There's so many stories to be told and it's okay for us to broaden out from another white cop.

I hope that momentum continues. Okay, I have to tell you something: I’m a little obsessed with your wife, Jodie Turner-Smith. JJ: Me too. As you should be! I love how loudly and publicly you both love on each other. But I need you to set the scene for me. When you are leaving flirty Instagram comments, and she's tweeting thirsty things about you, are you in the same room? Do you know that the other one is tweeting? What's happening?

JJ: We're rarely in the same room [writing] the thirsty comments because that usually just gets said to each other. But, look, if either of us misses a comment, you better believe at night, there's a, "Hey, did you see what I wrote?" One, she's very easy to love out loud and two, she's phenomenal. And I have to say, the love and support that is coming my direction has been a revelation in my life. I've said this often, and it just is the truth: If you ever needed to test whether or not you had chosen the right partner in life, just have a baby at the beginning of a pandemic and then spend a year and a half together. And then you know. And then you absolutely know. I didn't get married until fairly late in the game. I didn't have a baby till very late in the game and they're the two best choices I've ever made in my life.

I'm just going to embarrass you now by reading one of Jodie's thirsty comments to you. She tweeted, “Objectifying my husband on the internet is my kink. I thought you guys knew this by now,” with a gif that said "No shame." JJ: [laughs] That sounds about right.

She's not the only one though. There's this whole thirst for Joshua Jackson corner of the internet. And it feels like there's been a bit of a heartthrob resurgence for you now at your big age. How do you feel about that?

JJ: I hadn't really put too much thought into it, but I am happy that my wife is thirsty for me. What about the rest of us? JJ: That's great for y'all, but it's most important that my wife is thirsty for me. Good answer. You're good at this husband thing. You recently revealed that Jodie proposed to you. Then it became this big story, and people were so surprised by it. How did you feel about the response? JJ: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to give context to this story. So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn't give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist. So yes, we were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic. And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn't say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I'm still old school enough that I said, "This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to do it too]." She has a biological father and a stepdad, who's the man who raised her. [I said], ‘You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage.’ And then, ‘I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old fashioned way down on bended knee.’ So, that's actually how the story ended up.

So, there were two proposals. I do feel like that is important context. JJ: Yes, two proposals. And also for anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the fuck up. Good God, you cannot believe the things people were leaving my wife on Instagram. She did it. I said ‘yes.’ We're happy. That's it. That's all you need to know. That has been a real education for me as a white man, truly. The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking. And it has been a necessary, but an unpleasant education in just the way people relate to Black bodies in general, but Black female bodies in specific. It is not okay. We have a long way to go. Jodie is such an inspiration because it seems like she handles it in stride. She handles it all with humour and with grace. JJ: She does. And look, I think it's like a golden cage, the concept of the strong Black woman. I would wish for my wife that she would not have to rise above with such amazing strength and grace, above the ugliness that people throw at her on a day to day. I am impressed with her that she does it, but I would wish that that would not be the armour that she has to put on every morning to just navigate being alive. That's a word. That's a word, Joshua Jackson.

The 13-year-old in me needs to ask this. We are in the era of reboots. If they touched Dawson's Creek — which is a masterpiece that should not be touched — but if they did, what would you want it to look like? JJ: I think it should look a lot like it looked the first time. To me, what was great about that story was it was set in a not cool place. It wasn't New York, it wasn't LA, it wasn't London. It wasn't like these were kids who were on the cutting edge of culture, but they were kids just dealing with each other and they were also very smart and capable of expressing themselves. It's something that I loved at that age performing it. And I think that is the reason it has lived on.  We have these very reductive ideas of what you're capable of at 16, 17, 18. And my experience of myself at that point was not as a two-dimensional jock or nerd or pretty girl. You are living potentially an even more full life at that point because everything's just so heightened. [Dawson’s Creek] never talked down to the people that it was portraying. That's one of the things that I loved about it as a book nerd growing up. The vocabulary of Dawson's Creek was always above my level and that was refreshing. To go back to the “diversity” conversation, you can't really make a show with six white leads anymore and that’s a good thing. But I also don't know how I feel about taking a thing, rebooting it, and just throwing Black characters in there. 

JJ: I hear that. And there's certain contexts in which it doesn't work unless you're making it a thing about race, right? If you watch Bridgerton, obviously you're living inside of a fantasy world, and so you're bringing Black characters into this traditionally white space and what would historically be a white space. And now you are able to have a conversation about myth-making and inclusion and who gets to say what and who gets to act how. So that's interesting, but I don’t think you’re just throwing in a Black character if you changed Joey to a Black woman [or] Pacey to a Black man. What you're doing is you're enriching the character. Let's say one of those characters is white and one of those characters is Black. Now, there's a whole rich conversation to be had between these two kids, the political times that we live in, the cultural flow that is going through all of us right now. I think that makes a better story. All these conversations around comic books in particular like, "Well, that's a white character." It's like, Man, shut up. What are you talking about? It is a comic book character! Joey and Pacey don't have to be white. Dawson and Jen don't have to be white. And this is what we were talking about a little bit earlier. We get better the broader our perspective is, both as humans, but also in the entertainment industry. So if you went back to a story like [Dawson’s Creek], what was important in that show was class not race, which I think is true for a lot of small Northeastern towns. They are very white. But if you brought race into that as well, you don't diminish the amount of the stories that you can tell. You enrich the tapestry of that show. So I think that would be a great idea.

Make Pacey Witter a Black man in 2021 is what I just heard from you. JJ: Hashtag ‘Make Pacey Witter A Black Man’. There we go!

[letsbeoutoftouch]

Back in December 2016, during a sleepover, my friends and I decided to watch EXO's Chanyeol's most recent movie, "So I Married an Anti-Fan". It effortlessly became one of my favourite movies, so much so that I rewatch it —at least— once a year.

Therefore, when it was first announced that South Korea was going to produce a drama based on the same story, I was thrilled. The feeling only increased when I found out that the male lead was Choi Tae-Joon, whom I loved because of Suspicious Partner. Later (to be more precise, this year), I discovered that the other lead was the one and only Sooyoung from SNSD!

The drama was filmed back in 2018, and it was supposed to air a loooot sooner, but it had a few problems and it finally came out this year. Since I don't like waiting for episodes to come out each week, I waited until it finished airing to watch it... And, today, I finished it!

So, here's my review, fresh out the oven!

· · ·

So I Married an Anti-Fan is a 2021 South Korean drama, featuring Choi Tae-Joon, Choi Sooyoung, Hwang Chansung and Han Ji-Ahn. It's based on the novel "그래서 나는 안티팬과 결혼했다" (So I Married an Anti-Fan), written by Kim Eun Jun and published in 2010.

· · ·

♡ PLOT:

The story revolves around Hoo Joon (Tae-Joon), a well-known idol, and Geun Young (Sooyoung), a magazine reporter. They meet during an event, where a series of misunderstandings leads them to have a bad impression of each other.

For this reason, when Geun Young loses her job, she's under the impression that it was Hoo Joon's doing and is therefore keen on "reveal" Joon's real character. However, her retaliation backfires, and she attracts a lot of attention as his "anti-fan".

Later, a TV producer approaches them both to star in a reality show. Geun Young and Hoo Joon accept and think to give each other a hard time on set. But, as time goes by, they get to know each other better and better.

· · ·

♡ EPISODES:

It's made up of 16 episodes, running for an hour each (i.e., your typical k-drama).

· · ·

♡ CHARACTERS:

-Geun Young (FL): She's the best character, hands down (I swear I'm not being biased because I love Sooyoung).

For some reason, I've seen a lot of bad comments about this character. I don't truly understand why some people said that she didn't stand up for herself or that she was so-so, when she dealt really well with everything that had happened to her. I'd like to see all those people in her shoes—I bet they'd have cracked up quickly.

Also, she's like the least toxic character I've ever come across in a drama. She waits patiently for Joon to deal with his problems and doesn't jump to conclusions regarding his relationship with In Hyeong and Jae Joon. She lets him do his thing, is an independent woman, and tries to be as little of a burden as she can to the people she cares about. So, props to her!

▫ ▫ ▫

-Hoo Joon (ML): Although I overall liked his character, I admit that if I hadn't previously watched the movie, I'd probably be wary of him at the beginning. But, don't worry: as the story progresses, you get to know him better. He's patient and thinks of other people's feelings and well-being a lot (sometimes, a little too much for his own good, but he's a good boy).

I felt the need to include that there was this one scene where he acts... In a way that I didn't find appealing. Fortunately, he isn't like that all throughout the drama. Also, he isn't toxic like a lot of the male leads in drama-land. If you're wondering which scene I'm referring to, here's a spoiler: *SPOILER ALERT* When he and Geun Young start dating, they are requested to film an advertisement together. In the filming, he acts all "jealous" because the dress she was wearing was too short for his liking. I'm sorry, but she's the only one who has a say on how short a dress she's wearing is—not you, not even if you're her partner *END OF SPOILER ALERT*.

▫ ▫ ▫

-JJ/Jae Joon (SML): Jae Joon is the second male lead, and he was portrayed by 2PM's Chansung.

I'm sorry, but I never could come to terms with this character, not even during the last episodes. If the writers' intention was for me to hate him, they (and Chansung's acting) totally achieved that purpose.

He is incredibly selfish and keeps this attitude up to episode 13/14. Towards the ending, the story tries that the audience feels some sympathy towards him—it is shown why he acted the way he did. Nevertheless, in my opinion, while his past may explain his actions, it doesn't justify any of them. That's why I couldn't bring myself to feel sympathetic or empathetic towards him. *SPOILER ALERT* In fact, I think Hoo Joon was too nice to be there for him in the last two or three episodes. *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

He's also outright abusive. *SPOILER ALERT* I mean, he slapped In Hyeong and broke her laptop ¿?... Even though I didn't like her that much, nothing justifies that kind of violent behaviour. *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

▫ ▫ ▫

-In Hyeong (SFL): She's the second female lead, portrayed by actress Han Ji-Ahn.

Oh, man. I had a hard time trying to wrap my head around this character. I was just going to say that I couldn't stand her because she was always purposely putting a spanner in the works, making everyone's life difficult.

However, as I was drafting this review, I began reflecting on the character and felt sympathy for her. She was in a vulnerable place—leaving aside that she felt abandoned by her first love, she had trouble trying to make her career take off, and she was in a really abusive relationship. It could be argued that JJ and In Hyeon were both toxic to each other, but it was clear that he was the one with the upper hand (he was the CEO of her new agency, which brings a real disbalance of power).

Moreover, it was hinted several times that all she went through took a toll on her mental health (*SPOILER ALERT* she was always taking pills to calm down, and she freaking tried to kill herself!!!!!!! *END OF SPOILER ALERT*). I believe she needed professional help to put herself back together, so she could let go of her past and finally leave that abusive relationship.

· · ·

♡ COUPLES:

Since this drama mostly gravitates towards romantic relationships, I'm including this section.

▫ ▫ ▫

-Geun Young x Hoo Joon: They are your typical enemies to lovers.

In the beginning, their relationship was tainted by a lot of misunderstandings, which led them to hate each other's guts (but, where's the charm in a k-drama that isn't filled with misunderstandings, am I right?). Once they started to spend more time together, they began understanding each other better. In time, they were able to leave their pride aside and got rid of their prejudices (yes, the story gives Jane Austen-ish vibes, so much so that "Pride and Prejudice" is mentioned a few times).

Their chemistry was alright. I would have changed some parts of the script that made a lot of scenes to be super cringey—especially, before some of their kisses (like, what a way to ruin such an awaited moment!).

The thing I liked the most about them was that neither of them was toxic, and they knew how and when to give the other person space. They were sweet, but not unbearable sweet—just the exact amount.

▫ ▫ ▫

-In Hyeong x Jae Joon: I don't know if they can be considered a true couple, but I'm adding them here just to repeat that I HATED THEM TOGETHER.

· · ·

♡ SOME PERSONAL INTERPRETATIONS AND THOUGHTS:

For me, the story tries to show the two sides of the same coin: things that may seem completely different, but are essentially the same. You can see it with Hoo Joon/Geun Young, their friends, and even with Hoo Joon/Jae Joon. Of course, this could be argued—it is just my personal impression.

Also, while the drama condemns some of the toxic fan behaviour, it sometimes romanticises it. *SPOILER ALERT* one fan freaking kidnapped him, and everything was suddenly alright ¿¿ Nuh-uh *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

· · ·

♡ DRAMA VS. MOVIE:

As I mentioned above, there's a prior Chinese movie from 2016 that was based on this novel. It features EXO's Chanyeol, Yuan Shan Shan, SNSD's Seohyun, and Jian Chao.

For obvious reasons, the story is shrunk down in the movie. There are a lot of things that weren't included in the movie, other things were overly simplified, and some stuff was missing and/or changed.

If you want to have a good laugh, then I recommend you to watch the movie. It's filled with non-sensical comedy that, in my opinion, China excels at. However, if you are more inclined towards drama, then the South Korean version is the one for you (you'll laugh, too, don't worry).

· · ·

♡ SUMMARY:

This is, basically, a sweet enemies-to-lovers, famous-person-and-normal-person story. If you like any of those troupes, then you're in for a treat.

It's a really lighthearted story that will make you laugh. Don't expect a complicated plot because there won't be one. It's ideal to have a break from all those dramas where you can't miss a single detail because you'll get lost, or from those dramas which plots are so heavy they end up tiring your mind out.

I loved the cast, and their acting was great (especially Chansung's, because he made me hate his character with a passion, lmao).

ALSO, if you like Sung Hoon (My Secret Romance, Oh My Venus) like me, then WATCH THIS DRAMA, lol. He has a guest role in some episodes!

· · ·

So I Married an Anti-Fan is available on VIKI!

· · ·

If you read the whole review, thank you very much! I hope you liked it.

[gruviafan-forever]

A/N: Hello everyone, Happy Gruvia Week to you. I didn't expect that I would be writing contents for this year's event too. But I'm really happy to be writing stories about my favourite anime couples.

   Hopefully, everyone likes it. This year the prompts were very similar to previous years. It had me in fix how to write content without making it a repetitive fashion.

   Finally got an idea and tried to merge all those 7 prompts into a storyline. Hopefully, it convinces you all.

   Thank you for reading and spending your time here.

----------------------------------------------

Main Pairing: GRUVIA

Summary:- Celebrity Gray x General Public Juvia, Modern AU

Words:- 2K

Currently, Fairy Tail Agency has arranged for a press meet to officially declare the facts of the new movie in which two of their most famous actors are going to be a part.

Gray Fullbuster, 25 years, tv artist turned actor and Lucy Heartfilia, 24 years, model turned actress, has signed up for this movie which is under the production of Straussl Inc.

As the reporters who out various questions regarding the details of this upcoming venture and some related to their personal life.

"So, Mr Fullbuster, tell us about how you feel knowing that you have been nominated for 3 categories of awards this year?" 

One of the reporters asked and was ready to note Gray's response.

"I'm sure that I will receive the awards for best actor and handsome face. Also, my last movie 'Icy Days' has been nominated for the best movie of the year. But not sure about the 'Gem of the decade' award." 

Gray confidently answered and smiled which made the female reporters squeal.

Lucy interrupted, "Not to ruin Gray's fantasy but my movie 'Starry Night At Stella' was a blockbuster hit. Myself and my co-actor Natsu Dragneel were praised by critics for our performance. So, Gray, don't forget that even we are on the race too." Lucy smiled which made everyone chuckle after hearing her opinions.

"Sure Lucy... All the best to you and Natsu" Gray told and looked at his manager, Erza Scarlet, who also happens to be Natsu's manager, to know when this press meet is going to end.

"Another 10 minutes" Erza gestured by hand signals. 

Suddenly, one of the reporters from Magnolia Times shot down a question that took Gray off guard.

"Recently, there was a photo of Mr Fullbuster with a child in his arms. Who does that child happen to be? And is it true that you are having an illicit affair with someone, Mr Fullbuster?" That reporter smirked. 

Gray remained indifferent and calmly answered him while his team members and staff panicked.

"Everyone in Fiore knows that it was a piece of fake news. In today's era of modern technology, it is easy to photoshop one's picture with anything and anyone, Mr Invel.

    Even my agency owner, Mr Makarov Dreyer and my manager, Ms Scarlet have clarified about it. So, don't go digging the old hoax rumours." 

Gray stood up and thanked everyone for their time and presence before dashing off to the exit where Lucy followed him back.

It was Erza and the production team who bid a farewell to the reporters before joining the actors in their cabin.

Once Erza reached Gray's cabin, she saw him tossing his coat and tie around the room while Lucy stood silently.

"Gray, I think you should disclose your relationship before it gets exposed in a bad way," Erza said calmly and patted his back.

"That's what I was thinking, Erza. I can't continue to hide this big news about my life for a long time from my fans. I will reveal this during the awards function." Gray looked determined and hoped that his fans would take it on a positive note.

"They will surely accept your relationship status just like how they received mine and Natsu's." Lucy encouraged him and patted his arms which seemed to make him calm down.

"Gray, tomorrow you have your day off then, on Wednesday, we will be going to Phoenix Mall for a fan meet up event where other actors of our agency will join us." Erza informed him and handed the invitation.

From the invitation, it was clear that this mall was quite near to his apartment complex. Moreover, it was arranged by Mr Makarov himself so there was no way of turning it down.

"Fine, I will get ready for this. Just send the car near the children's park no need to come in front of the complex." He informed Erza and thanked them both for their words of motive before he left them.

After half an hour, Gray reached the children's park and put on his disguise, cooling glass, mask and a cap to conceal his identity while he was dressed up in a simple t-shirt and jeans.

"Max, tomorrow's your day off. Pick me up here at 9 am on Wednesday. Bye."

"Yes, Mr Fullbuster. Bye, and Good night" The driver left him while Gray made his way towards his home.

The apartment complex in which he lived was one of the expensive housing in Magnolia. The higher the floor level, the higher is the cost and the higher is the security.

Till the 11th floor, the general public who did high order jobs lived while the next 10 floors were occupied by celebrities of various fields.

One of the perks of this housing agency was that their identity remains secret, not even their neighbours know about them until and unless the involved party discloses it.

Once Gray reached the 17th floor, which had two apartments where one was still vacant.

As he hit the doorbell of his apartment, Gray could hear voices coming from inside which brought a smile on his face.

The door opened and his eyes met the gorgeous lady who welcomed him with a beautiful smile that captivated him.

"Welcome home, Gray-sama"

"I'm home, Juvia," Gray said and got inside.

Soon, he removed the disguise and leaned forward to kiss her lips which she reciprocated back.

Once they broke off the kiss, Juvia hugged him and whispered, "I missed you, Gray-sama."

"Even, I missed you, Juvia. It's been a week since I last saw you and…." Before he could finish, both of them felt someone hugging their legs.

And it was none their 3-year-old daughter, Yuki Fullbuster, who resembled her mother but had father's hair and eye colour and his sharp nose.

"Papa"

Seeing his daughter's smile was enough for him to get distracted from his wife, then, have his undivided attention on his little munchkin.

Gray raised Yuki in his arms and kissed her cheeks and forehead who did the same to her papa.

"Yuki missed you, papa."

"Even, papa missed you, darling. Were you a good girl during papa's absence?" Gray asked her as they moved towards the living room.

Gray let her down who ran up to a table and tried to fetch her drawing notebook.

Juvia made her husband sit down and inquired him about his work as he looked tired and kinda depressed.

Gray convinced her everything was fine and told her about the press meet excluding the details of the rumours.

#

It had been 4 years since Gray started his acting career starting as an ad shoot model to tv artists then to movie star.

Gray, Natsu and Erza were childhood friends who did their schooling from the same institution till college.

It was during the 3rd year, Gray and Natsu got scouted to act as models for a tv commercial which they accepted readily as of then they needed some kind of part-time jobs to meet their ends.

Even, Erza thought that it was a good opportunity for them to succeed as the agency, Fairy Tail, was well known throughout Fiore and persuaded them to take up the offer.

Once, their commercials began to reach people mainly because of their handsome features and physique especially Gray got popular among the female fans.

It was during this time that Gray and Natsu had to move out of the college dorm so that they could work freely without time restrictions.

That's when Gray meets Juvia for the first time in his life. She was his neighbour whom he thought lived her boyfriend but it turned out to be her best friend, Gajeel Redfox, vocalist of Phantom Bands, an upcoming band.

Gray rarely started any kind of conversation with anyone. It was with the help of Natsu that they befriended Juvia and to date, Gray was thankful to his friend.

Until the moment he met Juvia, Gray was never keen on love or relationships. 

But to him, Juvia was way different from the girls he had met in his college. She was modest and shy but a kind person with a large helping tendency.

Gray knew her personality and beauty had beguiled his attention and wanting to know more about her made him fall for her head over heels.

Of course, they would exchange greetings whenever they met while leaving the house together. Slowly they deepened their connection and exchanged numbers.

Due to her friendly nature, Juvia would invite Gray and Natsu over to her place for small weekend parties which she would arrange for Gajeel to relieve his stress.

At first, he was reluctant to invade a party meant for Gajeel but the latter happily welcomed them.

That way, they got acquainted exchanged their work details and stress with each other.

It was after a few months of that weekend party that Gray had offered Juvia a dinner date which she accepted after a week of thinking.

By this time, Gray gained quite a lot of recognition. The reason he called her out on a dinner date was to reveal that he has signed up as the main lead for a tv drama which was produced by a well-known production house.

Juvia was elated and congratulated and wished him luck. It was during that time Gray confessed his love for her and waited for her answer.

To his surprise, Juvia readily accepted him. He still remembers her words from that time,

"Gray-sama, even I feel the same for you. I was afraid to convey my feelings to you as each day our world was getting apart. I was determined to tell you today after dinner.

     But to my surprise, I never expected even you would feel the same. I love you, Gray-sama."

After hearing her say those golden words, Gray got hold of her hand and kissed it lightly and asked Juvia to be his girlfriend which she agreed.

Once they reached their respective place, Gray kissed her lips and shared a hug before calling off that night.

The next day, both of them informed their friends about their relationship. Erza and Natsu were supportive.

But Gajeel was reluctant he wanted to tell Juvia how difficult it would be for her to date a celebrity.

She has to remain under the shadows. Moreover, if words go out then obsessive fans might harm her and she would be constantly under paparazzi's scrutiny if Gray's facing bad times.

But Juvia was ready to face any difficulties and wanted to support her boyfriend in his career.

#

Once the family had their dinner together, Gray tugged his daughter in her bed before planting a kiss on her forehead and wished her good night.

Juvia was washing the dishes when Gray snaked his arms around her waist and kissed her neck which made Juvia squeak.

Gray turned off the tap and turned his wife so that she could face him.

"Juvia, tomorrow's my day off. Even the night is still young. Moreover, I missed my wife…" He leaned forward and kissed her lips which made her moan against his lips.

"Gray-sama…."

"Juvia…." Both of their eyes were clouded with lust and decided to continue their passionate night inside their bedroom.

After an hour, both was them were under the blankets, Gray had his arm around his wife and hummed in her ears as she talked about her day with Yuki.

Juvia could sense her husband's hold around her waist getting tight. He did only when he felt insecure or paranoid.

Juvia turned around to face him who kept looking at her. She cupped his face with both of her hands which startled him.

"Gray-sama, what's on your mind? Spill it out. Don't go huddling up those stressful thoughts within you. Share it with your wife. I will help you lessen those burdens." Juvia conveyed her thoughts and smiled at him.

"This is what I'm beguiled about you, Juvia. You can easily find out my conflicting thoughts just by sensing my actions. I'm really lucky to have you as my soulmate, dear." Gray said earnestly and kissed her forehead which made Juvia feel special.

Then slowly Gray disclosed his fears about how the world will perceive his relationship and worried that this shouldn't cause any harm to either Juvia and Yuki especially.

After hearing his fears, Juvia cradled her husband and patted his back just like how she does it for her daughter whenever she has nightmares.

Gray seemed to relax from this action. Juvia assured him that nothing terrible is going to happen and just hope everything turns out well.

Suddenly Gray raised his head and questioned her, "What if things repeat? And this time to our Yuki."

Juvia's eyes grew wide, but she can't show her fear, at least, not in front of her husband for now, who himself was feeling paranoid.

"I'm sure nothing will happen. Let's have faith in ourselves and your fans, Gray-sama.

       I'm just worried that your fan number might get reduced once you reveal your married status." Juvia voiced her concern.

This time it was Gray's turn to convince her, "Nah! Just like you said let's hope for the best. I love you and Yuki. Remember that, okay"

Gray smiled and kissed her lips, "Juvia, you are still warm. Wanna continue from where we left?" He teased her.

It seemed her Gray-sama was back to normal for now.

A/N: Sorry for posting it bit late. Hope I will be able to update for the rest of the event.

[icarusdiesatdawn]

(bad buddy schedule anon from earlier) excellent thank you for the info :) I feel like I'm gonna get invested so I want to wait until it's all out haha! as an aside--I really like your drama posts and it seems like you have good taste, do you have any recommendations other than the shows you've been watching recently? I kind of don't trust the wider internet lol

Hi again! Thank you so much, that's so sweet!!! 💖 I'm happy you asked! I watched a lot of dramas and while with bl especially it's often a hit and miss, I definitely have a few recs.

I not sure which ones count as recent because I've binge watched so much stuff lately and time has no meaning, but I think - bad buddy aside - I've been mainly posting about kieta hatsukoi, utsukushii kare and not me, so I won't mention those. (Except that I did. Just now.)

I made a list! It turned out longer than I anticipated even though I tried to keep it short ;_; so I'm just gonna add a cut here

Thai bl

3 will be free

A tale of thousand stars

I watched a lot more thai dramas that were okay and mostly enjoyable, but these are my favourites!! They have genuine interesting plot besides the gay love story ('Not me' has that too btw!!!!!). 3WBF has a poly throuple of sorts and they are on the run from the mafia, really thrilling, badass female characters. And ATOTS is also directed by P'Aof, who does bad buddy. I should also mention 'He's coming to me', also by p'aof and with ohm pawat (pat from bad buddy) in the lead role. It's a cute ghost love story!

Korean bl

Color rush

To my star

where your eyes linger

I also watched 'Light on me' and I did like it, but for some reason I didn't finish it. I'm also not the biggest fan of love triangles, that was a little annoying imo. Still recommendable though I guess

Some other good kdramas, not BL

Beyond evil

The devil judge

Strangers from hell

These three belong to the 'merciless evil devil from hell' mega fandom, alongside with 'the merciless' but I haven't watched that one yet. I love this fandom mashup though! They all have a similar vibe that I like to call "morally gay" lol. I mean, you sure they aren't bl????

Zombie detective

Coffee prince

These two are plain fun! Zombie detective is what it says on the tin - he's a zombie and a detective! It's silly and endearing with a very subtle romance, I hope they make a season two. Coffee prince is just a really sweet romance drama from 2007

Taiwanese bl

We best love: no. 1 for you

We best love: fighting mr second

Your name engraved herein

We best love is my favourite thing!!! I love it so much. The sequel is not as good as the first one, but I still liked it. I have a weird aesthetic crush on zhao shi yi. Honestly don't remember much of YNEH but it was good and very emo I think.

Jdrama

Cherry magic

Cherry magic is so popular do I even need to say something? I hated the author guy, at some point started skipping his scenes. Otherwise 10/10 love the aroace rep.

Nobuta wo produce

Dele

Smoking

Okay okay okay, nobuta wo produce, dele and smoking are imo criminally underrated dramas!!! At least on tumblr, I know nobuta was really popular in japan back then. I suspect dele might be more well known there too? I hope so because it's really really good and I love it!! I wish they would've made more seasons, the concept of this story is so clever and unique and the two leads have wonderful dynamic. I really recommend it, it's a gem. Smoking is a little brutal but my goodness, it has the most beautiful found family bonds.

Alice in borderland

Giri/haji

Alice in borderland, so so good. Very popular since it's a big production, I'm sure I don't need to explain it. I'm so stoked for season two. Giri/haji is actually british japanese, it takes place in london and tokyo, they switch between talking english and japanese a lot. It's a crime drama involving mafia and there are cool swords and lgbtq+ storylines

Cdrama

I mean. Do I have to say it. The Untamed. The untamed!! It's been almost two years since I first watched it but wangxian still hold me captive, what can I say.

Go ahead

Guardian

Detective L

Go ahead is a comfort watch, definitely. Really sweet and funny unusual family constellation and a slow burn romance. Guardian kinda gave me Torchwood vibes, I don't know why. I'm a bit disappointed with how they handled the story in the end, it felt a bit rushed and idk I would've made a few different choices in the story telling but aside from that, really fun modern fantasy, really gay.

Detective L, now this one I love so much!!!! Featuring the actor from guardian as detective Luo Fei, early 1930s in shanghai. It's very obviously inspired by sherlock holmes, but he's actually a likable character. His assistant is policewoman Xiaman, the first female detective at this station and she is badass!!!! Their romance is subtle and really adorable and sweet, but foremost they have a wonderful friendship dynamic. It's funny and silly and they bicker and tease eachother a lot. The crime cases are so well written and the costumes/settings/visuals are just 10/10 . I don't think many people have seen Detective L so I need to give it a bit of a boost :)

Ah I probably forgot some dramas, but those are the ones I could think of. If you wanna know more about any of these hmu ! Or send me an ask, or anything. I do appreciate it <3