#Romance buildup

[horrorcrawl]

Two on a Guillotine (1965) 🪄

Director: William Conrad (William Conrad Productions)

Genres: Mystery, Horror

Notes: Spooky Mansion, 1960s costuming and fashion, Magician, Stage Magic, Beautiful Interiors and Great Set Design, Romance buildup, Dream Sequence, Madness, Black/White Film 🤍🖤

Review: This is a great film with a compelling and great story about the daughter of a magician who moves into his trap filled manor and haunted by her estranged parents. It's a bit exposition especially in the beginning but the visuals of the manor, dream sequence along with the romantic buildup of the two love interests was a very enjoyable combo with the horror. I love the cute audio gag with the magic rabbit as well, keep your ears open for that one!

Overall I give Two on a Guillotine(1965): Must Watch 🐇

-Warnings for Folks-

Mental Health: Character in the film goes mad from grief

[findmeinthefallair]

"You're family now."

"You mean a lot to me too."

Can a legal-guardian-to-be please give him a sacred forehead kiss in Watching and Dreaming and send him bawling

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

To say that Kate needed saving from Tyler shows a deep misunderstanding of the Kate character and the movie of Twisters in general. Kate was the one who thought up the idea to choke (is that the word?) the tornado, she was the one who took Tyler's truck and released the solution stuff (I'm too lazy to look up the technical words for these things lol) into the tornado thus saving everyone. What did Tyler do in Twisters except chase after Kate? It dawned on me halfway through that Tyler is barely chasing after tornados anymore he's just chasing after Kate like a lovesick puppy. This all may sound like a diss to Tyler but believe me it is not. I love that character and I love when a guy is pathetically in love with a girl. Also as smart as Tyler is, it is conveyed that Kate is even smarter. If you don't like the movie then fine but stop unnecessarily dissing female characters to try and act like your better than other people just cause you don't like a movie.

[milkbreadtoast]

I binged this webtoon today and yesterday and it's rly good i like it sm... "your wings and mine"

I didnt know what to expect going in(i keep my hopes low tbh) but I kept getting impressed w the writing... it's rly funny but also surprisingly emotional, it has me laughing out loud 1 moment and then crying the next and then laughing my ass off again... there's a lot of silliness but the serious moments don't feel out of place or cheesy at all bc they did such a good job of building the charas up to that point... and the genuine and heartfelt exchanges btwn the charas are simple but surprisingly feel fresh? like the writer was lowkey galaxy braining writing these kcdnfj And they actually did such a good job w the slow burn romance, it's so sweet and cute and fun to watch grow... 😭 i'm caught up now and im sad i need more

[suckitphaneuf]

♡ Lucien kiss scene ♡

[detectiveneve]

hello! i can't remember if you answered this in your wonderful astarion romance meta [THAT I CANNOT FIND AGAIN FOR SOME REASON...], but when he propositions us for a second time -- with the series of pick-up lines that we can cheekily call him out on -- do you think he's still in the 'i'm just trying to keep you on my side' stage, or is there maybe some interest in us beyond that?

Hello!! Ahh thank you, you might mean this one? I have another one where I broke down a separate scene so if it’s that one, I can dig for it! But!!!!

I’m currently phone-bound so I can’t grab my usual quotes screencaps BUT I DO have thoughts on that scene, so let me ramble—

for the scene you’re referencing in particular, I really do think there’s a degree of projection from the player (ie what you think this scene means for astarion and your tav is up to you) and personal interpretation for the pacing in here—so if someone else sees it differently or sees it paced differently for their tav, I can definitely get that. however, for me, this scene sort of represents this very interesting shift in the relationship, but not because astarion is developing interest, but because of how he’s acting around tav now that he knows he has tav’s interest secured.

in short: I do think this scene happens still mostly in “I’m manipulating you to keep myself safe,” territory BUT. What’s interesting is that astarion isn’t making any attempts to disguise that anymore. prior to this scene, his two potential propositions (both the one he initiates pre-goblin camp and the one that happens during the goblin party), while not necessarily “natural,” and most certainly not rooted in the first bloomings of a crush, or whatever, there’s a conscious effort to disguise his routine and, in essence, genuine seduction through appealing to Tav, trying to incite desire, etc. — he’s lying and when you know he’s lying it’s obvious, but there’s wiggle room for Tav to genuinely think, hey, this guy is interested in me. but the scene you’re referencing—“here’s my little treat with their cheeks all flushed…” “three little words. everyone’s favorite. I love you. (that would be a lie.) but a very sweet lie,” or whatever he says at the end there—descends very quickly into teasing (almost taunting) that is VERY heavy handed and very gleeful in how he almost …. dangles the falsehood of it in front of you.

there’s multiple ways you can interpret that. is he getting more egregious in his flirting because he feels like he doesn’t have to try as hard, but still TRIES? is he revealing the truth behind the facade because he’s starting, on some level, to feel comfortable enough to reveal THAT if nothing else? I’m less convinced by the second, more convinced by the first, but myyyy personal interpretation of that scene is one that kind of….. is within the romance but removed from it in terms of. I don’t think it’s about tav here, really. I think it’s about astarion.

to elaborate, I think that there’s a kind of thrill in this moment — astarion has been an object for sex and desire for 200 years, and he’s still doing that, still playing that role, but now he’s doing it without the overarching crushing influence of cazador behind him; his safety within the group is relatively secured now; there is less..... external (or perceived external) pressure to keep up the act, but he still does it. which I think results in him almost……. outright telling you that it’s false? like a kind of release, to say that the I love you is a lie, and you know that, and I know that, and I don’t have to FULLY pretend so, in his own way, he doesn't--he tugs and pulls at emotion, and kind of .... invites Tav into the lie, in a sense (thank god there's no option to say "I love you too," here, I worry that fans would take it and mean it sincerely. like. AUCK). maybe there's almost a vindictive thrill to getting to basically display his exaggeration. or maybe he's pushing at the boundaries of what tav & he have here, seeing how far he's sunk in. playing the role still, but at the end, you know it's at least partially an act. either way, poking and prodding like that, to me, isn't motivated by blooming squishy feelings. rather, it's something less sweet, less romance-y to boot, but more interesting for the character as a whole. or maybe that's just my own bias--I tend to find the Soft Squishy Romance to be the least interesting aspect OF the romantic dynamic. also, to be clear, I'm not trying to soften it up with elaboration here. taking away the context of astarion's history and past, what he's doing here is really just mean. it's a kind of cruel thing to so starkly display that you dont really give a fuck about the feelings of the person in front of you--enough to throw flirting and emotional barbs of "I love you," at them just for the laugh of it. it's a bitch move, but it's an interesting one, and I rarely see the conjunction of His Meanness discussed with how it manifests due to his history-- it makes complete sense and it's FASCINATING.

there is ONE thing I'll say, and that in the dialogue branch where you say, "Are you having fun?" or something along those lines, he says, "I am! It's hard not to, with you." and that, I do believe to be sincere, in its own way. I do think Astarion is having fun with Tav out on the road, being with them, being with the group, enjoying the show so to speak, and exploring his newfound freedom--all of which is wrapped up in proximity to Tav. there's arguments to be made that there's pacing issues here, but I actually interpreted the fact that we don't really have another romance-specific scene before the "you're wonderful"/drow confession to be intentional. to me, the trust bond with astarion isn't developed in moments where he's putting up the act or where you're expressing interest or attraction to him (he already knows, he's already removed from that, there's no trust to grow in these moments because sex/attraction is the last thing associated with trust to him), but rather, trust is reinforced over time on the road, through shows of support out and about during crucial, but NON-ROMANTIC moments (such as killing yurgir for him--a nonromantic act, but one that solidifies that he can trust you.)

all in all, after such longwindedness... I guess my answer is that. while I dont think he LOVES tav at all, and maybe he isn't even romantically there yet with them, I do think he likes Tav by this point, and enjoys their company and their presence. what that means to YOU is up to you! as I said, I think it's a scene where the pacing and emotional weight is partially up for interpretation. you can just as easily imagine that he's got unaddressed growing feelings there as you can not--especially since if you turn him down here, what he'll say is "I've gotten on my back more times than I can count [...] most of them I don't even remember. but you, I'll remember." <- possibly implying that there was the start of a potential something here, ultimately ended, which he isn't really sad about because it removes the overall pressure of putting up a show, but at the same time implies a fondness for tav the person; again, not necessarily romantically oriented, but positive emotion regardless.

[taylorswiftstylequestions]

Ok but romance books aren’t just about the smut scenes?? They’re about the buildup and yearning and miscommunication and shit. If you want more smut scenes, then you need to read erotica.

And if I said Happy Place didn't have that either???????

[meownotgood]

stupid ass wizard.......... I totally fucking lied about this being under 20k btw

[mermaidsirennikita]

Throne of the Fallen has blown a lot of the recent romances I’ve read out if the water. Finished it and want to reread it ASAP I fear.

Envy and Camilla have IT and frankly the moment when they finally break and have sex for like two chapters straight is one of the BEST. SEX SCENES. I HAVE EVER READ.

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

i love the voice acting for both hunter and willow in the willow park depression arc. she’s having a panic attack and hunter delivers his lines like “i feel the exact way, but i know what youre saying about yourself isn’t true, and im only now realizing how this kind of thinking hurts.” nice to see how hunter is getting more used to showing his emotions and crying after spending time in the human realm. and its nice to show him passing that to willow.

[painacony]

there's a whole thing to unpack about people assuming that because a story doesn't have explicitly romantic scenes (kissing or sex) then there's no romance happening

[greenerteacups]

falling in love with writing all over again when you write a scene that makes you giggle and kick your heels like you're five years old and learning that you can make your barbie dolls kiss

[cloudycasey]

Sooo I was rummaging through old sketchbook pages and stuff in my room and I found a entire sketchbook page with a entire passage, written in maroon color pencil, of me rambling about girls and my attraction to them while I was still a egg (for those of you not in the know, a egg is a slang term for a closeted trans person). And this made me cackle quite loudly:

“Why do girls have to be so pretty? I mean seriously, why? I don’t see a lot of men ramble about this, it’s always been the women because we all virtually know just how much work us girls put into ourselves. Therefore, that makes us feel looooaaads prettier. Especially if, even worse, you fall for girls too. When gays fall for their own sex it makes looking at them ten times harder. I know I for one become a complete disaster when I fall for a girl. I get stuck on the way her hair falls around her face, her cute little nose and how her eyes are framed with or without makeup. How her skin glows or softens based on where the fabric of her clothes fall around her body. How her voice sounds when she laughs, or how she sounds when she’s whispering a secret in your ear. Needless to say, it’s little details like that that will make a gay fall harder for you then a supermodel wearing platform heels falling down fifty flights of stairs.

What, where you expecting me to ramble about girls like a guy would? Sorry, let me collect myself. Damn girl, nice ass.”

All of that buildup, only for me to end it with “Damn girl, nice ass.” What a legend

[cherrymoonvol6]

.

[mike----wazowski]

its kinda interesting to me how little i write romance. like ive written ships in fic but only one of those fics had any intimacy in it and it was like. One Kiss lmao. the others are just Vibes and Buildup Pre-Relationship

dont expect any raging smut from me soon is what im saying 💀💀

[juniperhillpatient]

ooh I’m about to be done with the first draft of chapter 6 of scream au & I am very excited about this one it really serves I think 🫶🫶🫶 u guys won’t get to see it for a long time but. I’m just saying.