#So I think a lot of it is isolation and just not knowing who you are because you never see yourself react to anything in real life

[respectthepetty]

Little crumps on Joong/Est drama. Today there was SkyNani concert and Est starred as a guest while Joong, William, and Dunk came to watch. Joong and William sat next to each other and William seems to be telling Joong about the glasses Est gave to him. Btw William and Joong were never on bad terms with each other. Then Dunk posted a pic with Est and other two on twitter. Dunk went extra careful mode this time though and also posted a pic of Joong together in the same post so Joong's fans wouldn't come attacking him as if he killed their parents like the last time. This got people talking if this will be one step towards Est and Joong reconciling. As far as I searched there was no direct interaction with Joong and Est though.

Have you heard of this? What do you think?

I once wondered if Joong and Est got into a fight because they worked together on ThamePo set, but since it involved Daou who's not in the series and other ThamePo cast are okay with Joong, it must've been a personal issue between Joong and Est and somehow Daou in the middle.

Also Joong & Dunk seem to have patched things up recently unless it's an act. But they looked sort of okay now imho.

I love this! I am eating popcorn with a cotton candy ICEE while enjoying this chisme, but I see your shade, which makes me love it even more!

Dunk went extra careful mode this time though and also posted a pic of Joong together in the same post so Joong's fans wouldn't come attacking him as if he killed their parents like the last time.

I don't know much about the Sky x Nani fancon, but national government agencies need to hire the people in charge of Twitter and Instagram fan accounts because I got a lot of information in less than a minute when I went to look up what you wrote.

I agree Dunk is being careful about his social media because not only did he post a picture with Est, he made sure this was in his story to show off Sky and Nani's mascots — it's Joong's unzipped pants.

Which kind of makes sense since Joong was at the merch booth during the con selling products like the mascot keychains.

But as you wrote, he was seated right next to William during the show, so if this was arranged seating, I love the shady ass bitch at GMMTV who made that chart.

I also know Hong debuted his pink hair (and that Mark Pakin looked hot in his plaid skirt which I don't have pictures of)

But to focus on your statement about Joong and Est's fight happening during the filming of ThamePo since everyone else seems cool with Joong, I think it happened at the beginning of it or BEFORE filming ThamePo because they were still friends in July, filming for the series happened July/August-November, and Joong and Est apparently blocked each other in September and weren't interacting at the ATEEZ concert, so me being the nosy bitch that I am thinks the filming of this scene happened AFTER their fight, so no one else was involved.

So what I'm understanding is the beef is just isolated to them.

And I'm still getting Dare You To Death.

I appreciate Sky x Nani having an event, so the Jaidee fans could focus on what matters most to us: Joong, Dunk, and chisme.

Bless.

[likeadevils]

I've been thinking about loml since i saw the swiftologist analysis on it and something he said stucked with me: according to his interpretation, she chose joe because he was a safe place and matty was her real love. Based on ttpd it seems like she felt a glow with him that she never experienced before and this made me question her relationship with joe quite a bit. Do you think joe was the temporary move on drug until matty was ready?. And based on ttpd did you feel he was ''the one''?

i think ttpd, while being shockingly truthful in many ways, is also story told by a deeply unreliable narrator-- or, rather, it's taylor intentionally embracing her status as an unreliable narrator. she called ttpd "An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time." she also said about fortnight:

"Fortnight is a song that I think really exhibits a lot of the common themes that run throughout this album. One of which being – fatalism. Longing, pining away, lost dreams. You know, I think that it’s a very fatalistic album in that there are lots of very dramatic lines about life or death and “I love you, it’s ruining my life” like these are very hyperbolic, dramatic things to say. But, it’s that kind of album."

while i do think taylor's feelings for matty were real, to a certain degree, i think they were spurned on by a lot of other issues that were coming to a head towards the end of her and joe's relationship.

isolation: throughout the album, taylor ties her love of matty to escaping isolation or boredom, two feelings caused by the way her relationship with joe was ending. like, she just says this, multiple times ("I felt more when we played pretend/ Than with all the Kens/ 'Cause he took me out of my box", "I dream of cracking locks/ Throwing my life to the wolves, or the ocean rocks/ Crashing into him tonight, he's a paradox", "Locked me up in towers/ But I'd visit in your dreams", "I look in people's windows/ Transfixed by rose golden glows/ They have their friends over to drink nice wine/ I look in people's windows/ In case you're at their table"). throughout the album matty also feeds into the isolation, not by physically locking her up, but by playing into her insecurities and then telling her he's the only one who can fix them. most notably: "You said normal girls were boring" (with the implication taylor is more difficult to love), and "You said I needed a bravе man/ Then proceeded to play him/ Until I believed it too" (again saying loving taylor takes a lot of effort and painting his ability to love her as unique).

a complicated relationship with aging: taylor also ties her love of matty to youth. there's the obvious refrences to them dating when they were younger ("At the park where we used to sit on children's swings", "Stitching, 'We were just kids, babe'", "Preserved from when we were just kids") but there's also plenty of times throughout the album that she combines yearning for matty with yearning for a previous version of herself (As the decade would play us for fools/ And you saw my bones out with somebody new [...] I changed into goddesses, villains, and fools/ Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules/ All to outrun my desertion of you", ("Does it feel alright to not know me?/ I'm addicted to the "if only"). outside of either relationship, being afraid of aging is all over the album ("My friends all smell like weed or little babies", "You see I was a debutante in another life, but/ Now I seem to be scared to go outside"), but i think the most notable line is from So Long, London: "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free"

longing for a soulmate: tied to the fear of aging, taylor was clearly afraid of being alone for the rest of her life. we see how it comes from joe ("I died on the altar waitin' for the proof", "I'm so afraid I sealed my fate/ No sign of soulmates), and then matty wanting to marry her is just. the main redeeming quality in every song about him. a really convenient narrative when you're trying to paint someone as your soulmate is that you've actually been in love with them the whole time you've known them. your brain also likes to trick you into thinking the way you're feeling now is the way you've always felt and will always feel. but that narrative is also undercut all over ttpd. there's references to her feelings being something that she'd lost over time (“I’m running back home to you”, “Falling back into the hedge maze”, “We embroidered the memories of the time I was away”), and other references to him actively winning her back (“You blew in with the winds of fate and told me I reformed you”, "A conman sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme", “Something old, someone hallowed, who told me he could be brand new”).

conflating lingering guilt with pining: chloe or sam and peter both talk about yearning for matty, but it's deeply intwined with worrying about his wellbeing. in chloe or sam, she says "You needed me, but you needed drugs more/ And I couldn't watch it happen" and then beats herself up for deserting him (which, to be clear, not wanting to be complicit in someone else's addiction is not deserting a person). she specifically laments that she was "too impaired by my youth to know what to do". again, we don't here anything about matty as a person that's drawing her back to him, just her guilt over abandoning him in the first place. in peter, she says "I hoped you'd return/ With your feet on the ground, tell me all that you'd learned/ 'Cause love's never lost when perspective is earned" which is explicitly saying that she wanted to know he was doing okay more than she wanted to get back together with him. the bolter comes towards the end of the tracklist for a reason-- part of moving on from him means not only forgiving, but celebrating the part of her that knows when to get the fuck out of a bad situation.

we don’t hear a lot of independently good qualities about matty, just ways he’s an escape from joe— her life with matty is chaotic in comparison to her life with joe being isolated and boring, he’s willing to marry her in comparison to joe dragging his feet, he's tied to an earlier version of herself that she liked more instead of a dull, predictable future that joe represents.

so, no. i think matty was a perfect representation of all her festering insecurities. she fell for him hard because when he forgave them she felt forgiven, but when he left, she lost a big chunk of her self worth along with him.

[oioopo]

I was just thinking about Jason deciding to go to college alongside vigilantism, or, frankly, having any kind of civil life and it's just..

There's, at the very least, an 80% chance he would end up in a toxic/abusive relationship. Like, outside the books, he doesn't really have any idea about how romance would work, or what is considered normal in the relationship. And also his understanding of love is just.. fucked to put it lightly. He can easily end up dating anyone who promises to love him, and, as long as they don't send him to the ER, he would be absolutely okay with anything else they might do.

A few things could also be said about sexual intimacy and overall consent as well, I think, but it's not something I know a lot about, so..

And the thing is, if he ever started questioning it, would anyone even believe him? With the way society talks about male victims overall, do you think anyone would believe that someone might be abusing him? Him, who is very obviously strong and knows how to fight, who has shit ton of scars and is effortlessly intimidating? Who on earth could do something to this guy, what are you talking about 🙄

(And also, in my head Jason cut off all contact with his family (or at least definitely Bruce) after the batarang incident, so who would he even talk to if, say, his partner isolated him from any acquaintances he might've had in college?)

[coldsaturn]

I finished my reread of TFC (in its Italian translation, for a change) in preparation for TGR, and I have thoughts

Neil and Aaron's interactions are hilarious

Completely forgot they had training at 6AM every morning for my fic, fuck

Completely forgot there's a campus band? Orange Notes? Who are these guys. And who are the football players living on the other floor of Fox Tower, getting the premium spot of Saturday matches. The more time passes the more I find myself drawn to these NPCs just minding their own business, completely unaware of the gay mafia opera unraveling mere feet from them.

I still think S1/S2 Mickey Milkovich channels 100% of Andrew's energy in the first two books. It should be studied for a live action.

Twice Aaron is mentioned in relation to Kevin (once where he'd taken Andrew's place in keeping an eye on Kevin, and another time where Renee says that they - speaking of Andrew, Aaron, Nicky - were upset that they couldn't protect Kevin at Kathy's show. And I can totally buy Andrew and Nicky, but Aaron is a surprise) and while I thoroughly enjoy kevaaron as a crackship, canon is delivering where I didn't think it would. And there's also Neil's comment about how hard Nicky and Aaron were taking Seth's death. My boy wants to isolate himself so bad but his doki-doki heart won't hear reason.

I wanted to shame myself for thinking kevin/neil were supposed to be the endgame couple the first time I read TFC a decade ago, but now that I've finished reading Kathy's chapter again while trying to see things from a new reader's eyes I can only say: if it wasn't hinting at kevin/neil, it was pushing toward a kandreil throuple. The tension those three have in that chapter is ??????

Andrew really touches Neil a lot starting from Kathy's show and onward.

The translation is...interesting. I understand how it came to be from the point of view of the translator, and it is solid work that could have only gained from an added revision done by a fan of the series. As of now there isn't much that was lost from the original (although the narrative tone could have been drier and more abrasive, instead of neutral), and my biggest issue is the choice of translating the "please" Andrew hates as "per favore" rather than "ti prego" and I genuinely think that completely changes the connotation behind that trigger. For non-Italians, "per favore" is the "please" you use to ask for something in a polite way, whereas "ti prego" is the "please" you use to beg for something. The first has pretty much only positive and polite connotations, while the second can go from polite all the way to hopeless desperation. I don't know if it will be changed once we get to the third book, but "per favore" is a bold take I'm not sure I agree with.

[freedelusionshere]

Carmy absolutely does do things that are shitty all the time. All the stuff about ditching the restaurant to hang out with Claire in S2, for example. Which is letting Syd and his entire team down. Carmy can sleep with or date whoever he wants, that’s not the problem for me and doesn’t really need any excuse. Syd is not actively pursuing Carmy romantically at all.

Claire isn’t responsible for him ditching, either, but she doesn’t give a shit and actually tries to distract him from building his new restaurant. She plays on his confusion and brings up his abusive mother and the cannolis, which he tells Syd he hates and is an obvious trigger for him.

“No one’s ever made dinner for me.”

Carmy is easily guilted and unsure of what he wants because he’s been manipulated by his family which she also knows about. She knows he’s confused about her, too, she just doesn’t care. She’s definitely taking advantage of his mental state.

She keeps asking about the phone number in order to get the answer she wants. Threatening to have Faks beat him up. Telling him he’s being weird/difficult for not dropping everything to help her move her mom. She’s been kind of stalking him via Neil (also Neil directly influences Carmy as well). It’s implied Nat sees it as a positive and Richie encourages it. Leaving the “I love you” on a VM on Friends & Family?

And she kind of gets what she gives, right? He flip flops on her because she makes him uneasy because she’s subtly manipulative (instead of direct like his mom) and she didn’t expect him to drop her until she was done having her thrills. Or choose something (or someone) else over her.

I really feel if Carmy were a female character people wouldn’t act like she owed someone like Claire all of this. People would see the gaslighting and isolating from family (co-workers), and having her good time at their expense. People would be talking about how manipulative Claire is. Instead I feel like because Claire’s aggression is hidden behind softness it gets a pass.

Claire is also just as messed up as Carmy. But she’s figured out how to hide how messed up she with her facade and by watching other’s pain which the show repeatedly shows her talking about and doing over and over again. She is aware of what she’s doing.

Does Carmy know what he’s doing? No, he doesn’t. He tried dating Claire because he wanted to see if he could have a life outside the restaurant. She did make it easy. He was not even trying to think about them having a future, Syd is the one who brought that up. He was just trying to enjoy himself.

I mean, I believe Carmy is in love with Syd, but he made her off limits in his mind, I think, until the end of S3. Richie calls him out on sublimating his feelings, it’s not even subtle. He wanted to have a life outside of work (Syd is at work) and it completely failed because of who he is and the kind of person Claire is.

Carmy is ultimately responsible for his choices but so is Claire. People that have been abused can fall into patterns and not be able to easily escape from them which is what a lot of his journey is about. He is lying but it is to himself. Carmy did used to have a crush on Claire and he did like her in high school “so much”.

Anyway, thank you for responding!

People can easily use each other in all kinds of relationships, that’s why I think it’s so important to have relationships established on knowing and caring for people and not seeing them as disposable.

Hook-up culture is not that. I really don’t think it’s accurate to say Carmy used Claire and not that they used each other, but also one person has experience with hook-up culture and it’s not Carmy, and they make sure to show this is what Claire and her friend group typically do.

They reverse the gender tropes a lot on this show and definitely did around this relationship, and Carmy wasn’t even going to tell Claire what he said in the walk-in. She was in a place she wasn’t supposed to be and accidentally overheard it.

She walked away. She didn’t try to work it out or talk about it. And it was about him not her. He never blamed it on her at any point. Which she lies about later to Tiff. It wouldn’t feel good to hear that for anyone, but he didn’t know she was there and he wasn’t saying it to hurt her.

There’s also no indication he ever felt safe enough with Claire to have that deep of a convo, all their convos are depicted as vapid and talking around their real feelings for a reason. Claire was using Carmy as well. She knew he had anxiety, she noticed his heart racing. She is a medical professional.

Just because you have sex with someone or call them a “girlfriend” or whatever, doesn’t equal intimacy or a bond of any kind. Which, Carmy thinks that word sounds awful, but it doesn’t come up very often that maybe he doesn’t care for the gendered dynamics of that?

He doesn’t say it outright, but the whole thing with him dating Claire is that it’s what Mikey and his family thought was good for him, and Mikey (and Richie and Fake’s) opinions of Claire are extremely sexist. Notice how Carmy gets grossed out by Richie calling Syd “sweetheart” or Nat pretending to be a helpless little girl to manipulate Cicero. He literally calls it “gross”.

Anyway, just me ranting about this for the millionth time but Carmy can apologize to Claire for using her because he didn’t know what he actually wanted when she was just hooking up with him for fun and thrills (she tells us that’s what she’s into) and then it didn’t go the way she wanted and got too inconvenient so she walked.

Carmy wants intimacy and emotional safety, and the show has gone to great pains to show he gets that from Syd, in contrast to anyone associated with his past. What Syd is getting in return needs to be answered now from her POV, but that contrast is the reason Carmy and Claire don’t work. Not because he made the mistake of calling her his girlfriend in order to not be seen as a jerk by Syd and not because they had sex (big deal TBH), and not he had a meltdown and admitted his real feelings to Tina.

[souenkun]

Takashi living the warm, full-of-love life that reiko couldn't have (as far as we know in the current canon) feels very much like the grief that dawns for children when they finally realized how much sacrifice their parents didn't always tell them just to give birth and raise them.

Like, technically speaking, reiko only gave takashi a world of problems by passing down the sight and the book of friends decades after her death, but takashi also grasped the wholesome and the awful parts of interacting with both humans and youkai from the memories she had left behind, scattered among all these eternal monsters she had defeated, leaving in them unintentional, but important life lessons for him to find later on in the future. If it weren't for all those societal rejections that reiko received from humans and the hardships from youkai that led her to start the book of friends, takashi wouldn't be able to avoid repeating her mistakes (and, consequently, could be just as comfortable with isolation like reiko was), let alone make the precious balance we now see him have in the present time, where he can make genuine connections with humans and youkai while also maintaining a balance to them. Do you get what I'm saying 💔

[toddtakefive]

thinking about todd and his resolve toward… not quite isolation, but being alone in a room full of people again. he goes along to the study room to sit on his own and do his homework, he sits at the poets table and follows along with what’s being said while keeping quiet, he goes to the meetings at all but doesn’t necessarily contribute (in fact, if you watch him when cameron is telling the story ‘from camp in sixth grade’, you can see that he recognizes it before any of the other poets but doesn’t voice it until they all have). he’s not alone, necessarily, if you want to get technical about it, he’s just lonely, and he’s generally okay with that. he doesn’t have friends and that’s fine, he doesn’t participate in class and that’s fine, he doesn’t have a relationship with his family and that’s fine—he could live without any real connection and he’d have been, more or less, fine.

the thing about when he says “i can take care of myself just fine!” is that he isn’t really wrong, you can infer that he’s been doing it his entire life anyway, it’s that ‘taking care of yourself’ isn’t the same thing as really living or being happy. todd’s an introvert, certainly, and even as he gets closer to the group he defaults to sitting quietly in the background, but he’s also denying himself community out of fear not introversion. todd isn’t friendless because he’s an introvert, although that definitely plays a part, he’s friendless because he pushes anyone that might want his company away. if anyone has every wanted for his attention in the first place. (neil’s unwavering interest in him is unique (even when it comes to the rest of the poets, who are fine with todd coming along and joining the group, but aren’t really hellbent on him being there in the beginning) and his refusal to accept it is a direct result of being so lonely growing up.)

there’s obviously something to be said about the implications of his parents neglect, and the more than likely fact that he grew up friendless, and how those both play a part in in him being so skilled at dodging social interaction/being so avoidant of it, but by the time we see him in the movie he’s all but accepted his fate as being alone his entire life. he’s already accepted being the family disappointment, and he’s already accepted he’ll never amount to anything, and he obviously doesn’t like it, but he’d have managed living with that knowledge without the confirmation that it was all wrong. would he have been miserable? almost certainly. but he’d have managed. he’d done it for that long already, anyhow.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

As another Magneto player honestly if I'm up against a Wolverine and I think he's gonna get me I try and hold my ult to solo ult him when he's trying to jump me. Might not kill him but it gives me a headstart.

solo ulting a wolverine is crazy but honestly depending on the situation fair enough 😭

[spotaus]

Thinking about Orchid and her connection to my take on Gender (because this was meant to be about her and the Crew but it just devolved into a character analysis kinda??? More trauma-dumping maybe???) This is very much an oc/personal rant so feel free to ignore it 🫡

So, Orchid started off as a character I didn't really think much of (hear me out this is going to be relevant) because I wanted to add a 'girl' character but didn't know what to *do* with her, y'know? She was always going to be the strongest one there, she had the odds stacked in her favor with her parents. She was always going to be the gloomy side-character to match Reset's energy. But I think she's gone through every stage of Generic Woman I could possibly find.

At first she was angry and abrasive (think Fell!Sans) where every other word was a curse and she was likely to throw the first punch then laugh as she kicks her enemy while they're down. This was when Reset was a cartoonishly self-centered villain whose goal was simply to prove others wrong. Then Orchid became a sort of sisterly figure. This was short-lived, but she was the one comforting people who Reset would torment, but would ultimately follow his orders, because at this point he was actually a danger and sadistic. And then there was the phase where the story mellowed out and she became the token Goth Girl who, yes she was strong, but was heavy on the 'whatever' energy. Then there was her Era of deep self-loathing and anxiety about her worth that held her back and made her a much more timid and meek character who would only lash out on occasion.

Now, Orchid is the best of those iterations I've written yet. She's calm, level-headed, and a natural leader. Her father raised those traits into her. But she's very reactive, and can be silly, and when she's comfortable it's likely that air of importance transforms into something more comfortable and familiar. She laughs loudly and grins wide, she likes loud video-games but loves to read in the quiet. She's extremely disciplined, and normally no one can get through her tough exterior besides her best friend, Reset. She does what she does for her own enjoyment, sure, but she's thought of every angle and makes her choice to help Reset and control the others with her whole chest. She still worries she won't live up to her invisible expectations, and that and her loyalty are her two driving forces.

I know that Orchid is important to me because she's the longest-running female oc I've had. I have a rough relationship with womanhood/girlhood and I know looking back that Orchid recieved every ounce of my distaste for being a woman that I could shovel into her. That never made her less of a character, she was actually always one of my favorites, and rarely was she a 'punching bag oc'. I just... projected onto her a lot. And she's a good sign of how I've learned who I am. I've decided that my own femininity is something I could live without. I'd rather not associate myself with it, and I'd like to leave it in my past, focusing on a future where I'm not tied down with any gender roles or expectations. That won't happen, but I've come to terms with it myself. Orchid though? I figured out through her that I don't have to hate women characters. My own distaste for my circumstances doesn't mean I have to push it onto my characters (on God I've never expressed anything rude to actual people, that'd be rude as hell and uncalled for, but I have a bad habit of disliking fictional women in media). So, Orchid is a well-roubded character finally. She has motivations abd goals and a *lot* more depth than I ever expected her to. She's happy with being a woman, she's content. She's not treated differently for it in unfair ways by those she cares about, so she doesn't mind it. She likes to wear pretty outfits and lets Reset add bows to her ribbons. She doesn't let being a woman hold her back in the slightest.

So, yeah. Orchid is one of my babies. If I ever leave this Fandom behind for good, she's one that's coming with (Ichor, Orchid, and Pretender all have human designs I can use elsewhere lol-) but in the meantime I'll just rotate her around in my brain for a while longer.

If I'm right, she's been with me for nearly 5-6 years and I went through a *lot* with her as an outlet. So, she's kinda just like an old stuffed animal. A lil ripped, matted fur, maybe a stain or two, but there's a story there and that makes it important beyond belief.

[puppppppppy]

Atla live action 😐

[kizzington]

Not aiming this at anyone specifically, but I’m genuinely so disappointed & annoyed at the fact no one in my real life circles bothered to reach out to me to check up on me regarding the recent Liam Payne/One Direction news.

[crabussy]

tired n probably not cohertent but why are you so cool dude. not fair leave some fro tha rest of us bloggers >:/

MINE ALL MINE!!!!!!!!!! once I am finished SUCKING UP THE COOLNESS of EVERY BLOG ON PLANET EARTH with my HIGH TECH MOSQUITO PROBOSCIS I will put it all in my patented "COOL GUN" and then I will. yeah okay I have no plan past that. go on laugh.... whatever....... suddenly I feel ashamed. I will return all the stolen coolness to their respective blogs ... sorry planet earth

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about fallout 4 against my will

[mychemikuromance]

...

[stinkbeck]

my cottagecore toxic yuri cousins who claimed to have good taste totally ruined me for a second there lmfao

[girlivealwaysbean]

sometimes my bestfriend is like an angel in disguise istg