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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Midnight”

Happy Saturday, everyone! I’d like to extend a formal congratulations to every Cinder fan in the community. Criticisms of the writing aside, you all struck gold with twelve whole minutes devoted to your fave and I’m absolutely thrilled for you.

We again start with a dark screen and some audio, in this case Cinder’s scrubbing. This technique—along with closeups on eyes—is a real favorite of RWBY’s this volume, to the point where I think they’re a little too enamored with it. But at least this is just a preference, not something that actively harms the storytelling in any way, so it’s welcome to stay. This time, unlike our premiere, we stay on Cinder as her life is summed up with three events intercut with one another: scrubbing floors, getting taunted by boys, and the sound of heels making their way towards her. It’s clear that Cinder leads a poor, miserable life, if her dirty clothes and stronger guys throwing her around is any indication, but all that changes when the rich woman says “I’ll take her” and Cinder is transported to a better life in a wealthy hotel.

At least supposedly.

Here’s my problem with the worldbuilding. This moment has Witcher vibes and Witcher, in turn, built itself off of a trope seen a hundred times before: A young woman is treated terribly by her family, is whisked away by a wealthy/powerful caretaker, and though her life has arguably improved, she quickly learns that the new world she’s entered is just as dangerous and harsh as the one she left. In Witcher’s case, Yennefer is a disabled woman abused by her family, bought by Tissaia, and taken to Aretuza where the other girls hate her and the curriculum is potentially deadly. Cinder is a poor woman arguably abused by her family (scrubbing)/the locals (fights), is taken by an unnamed woman, and whisked away to the swanky hotel where the daughters hate her and the work is potentially deadly due to shock collars. The difference between these two setups is that Tissaia bought Yennefer because of her magical potential. Why does our hotel lady take Cinder?

I mean yeah, obviously she wants a slave, but it’s a little weird isn’t it? Usually when a young woman falls headfirst into a new and questionable life, there’s a solid reason for her entry. This woman—whose lack of a name also says something about the worldbuilding—could have hired anyone she pleased to abuse. As we saw in regards to Atlas and Mantle in the past, every city has its poor and downtrodden. So what made her go out to some random farm and snatch Cinder up? It just, as always, feels a little too convenient. Cinder didn’t enter this life because something about her characterization or origin justified it, the plot simply ensured that she, out of everyone possible, and with very little reason, was the one chosen to follow The Plot™ .

It also messes with the Cinderella parallels. Originally (or “originally,” going off of Disney here which is likely what RWBY is using as a template too) it’s her step-family that abuses her and yes, we recreate that via the hiring (“hiring”—I doubt she was paid), but Cinder was already scrubbing floors back home. Her status as the servant already existed. So why change locations? Why not just keep Cinder as an abused farm girl, or have her a part of the hotel family right from the start? Part of the reason why Cinderella resonates is because of the contrast between the happy life with her father and the new, horrific life she falls into once he dies. Which is then further contrasted by the rest of the outside world. Fairy Godmother, Prince, and party-goers alike are all presented as kind, decent people. They represent the “real” world that Cinderella can escape to. By making Cinder’s original life horrible, her new life worse, and everyone connected with that life cruel and/or indifferent (with the exception of this one, special huntsmen)… you paint a very different picture of the world as a whole. Which is something RWBY has been vocal about trying to accomplish—it’s not a fairy tale—the only problem is with how these moments are undermined the second the story wants Ruby to ~Believe in People~. Cinderella is a story about enduring and eventually overcoming temporary hardship. Cinder’s story is about endless hardship that creates villains. A dark and fascinating story… but how does that fit into last week’s episode where Ruby told the whole world about Salem, expecting them to band together in peace and harmony? This is how Remnant’s world treats people when there’s not a global crisis, and Cinder isn’t even a faunus.

Which, I want to make clear going into the rest of this recap, does not excuse Cinder for her actions. At all. I think there are some complicated acknowledgements to be made in terms of her abuse and the Huntsmen’s responsibility in it continuing, but that does not give Cinder a blanket pass for all the horrific shit she has pulled over the years. Cinder didn’t just defend herself from abusers, she became one. More on that in a minute.

First though… is the Huntsmen’s name Rhodes? Did we hear that in the episode? If we did, I totally missed it because I have a note here about the one important character not getting a name. So yeah, idk. If we got this from more supplemental info, bad RWBY. If I missed it, bad Clyde. Either way, I’ll use that name going forward.

Back to the plot at hand. The hotel is, as said, populated by indifferent and shallow people and there’s no desert nearby, so I presume we’re supposed to be in Atlas? (Why did this woman buy a girl from another Kingdom?) There are customers getting drunk, flirting, and generally just enjoying their wealth, which harkens back to Weiss’ comment in Volume 4 about all their problems being superficial. We’re introduced to the owner’s two daughters who are, as expected, quintessential Mean Girls.

They love ordering Cinder around, not just with hotel chores, but personal ones as well like, “rub my feet”… despite the fact that this place is massive and must have an equally massive staff to stay in business. Why aren’t the girls terrorizing anyone else? Again, it makes sense for Cinder(ella) to be the focus of their abuse when she’s in a single household, but transplanting that to a hotel raises a lot of questions that RWBY hasn’t bothered to examine. You can’t move a story like that and not think about what further changes that would evoke.

See, RWBY could have done something interesting here by considering some of those other changes. Like having one or both step-sisters be the one to help free Cinder from her abuse, playing the villain before becoming the fairy godmother. Up until she turns villain instead of hero, this is just Cinderella’s story copy and pasted into RWBY. It’s moments like this that should make us wary of using fairy tale allusions as evidence for our readings and theories. Whether RWBY is deconstructing or upholding a story varies wildly, and we never know what we’ll get until we actually see it on screen. Even then we can’t count on a choice remaining consistent, as we saw with Ironwood’s deconstruction being tossed out the window in Volume 7.

Cinder is originally just as meek as her fairy tale counterpart too. We don’t hear her speak until the owner is about to leave when she simply goes, “Food?” The sisters laugh at her and a roll is thrown to the floor with the comment that she should get busy because it “looks filthy.” I quite like that moment. Your job is to ensure the floors are clean enough to eat off of—literally.

We see a montage of Cinder doing just that, lots of chores, with a new song listing all the tasks she’s now responsible for. During this, Rhodes is seen in the background and witnesses when Cinder (presumably) first uses her semblance by heating up the brush and chucking it at the sisters, creating a massive cloud of steam.

It’s that moment which “earns” her a shock session with her necklace and I’m staring at the screen, a little open-mouthed. I mean, that’s the second child torture we’ve seen this volume (with Cinder being ten here). Again, I’m not making a specific accusation, just going, “Really?”

Also, note the anti-faunus sign. Nothing like continually showing us racist establishments rather than actually writing a story that deals with the racism needless put into the story world. I’d like to remind everyone of my previous comments this Volume about how the story works hard to paint Mantle as sympathetic, but refuses to show anything that does the same for Atlas citizens, people who are in just as much danger with Salem as an equalizer. A whole city is not actually made up of shallow racists, the show is just showing us only those people to create a simplistic “They’re all bad” reading that encourages us to reject Atlas and, by extension, Ironwood. Weiss is walking proof that Atlas citizens are both complex individuals and capable of bettering themselves. If we can come to adore the Schnee heiress, we should be questioning why nearly every other citizen is painted as an abuser, too wealthy to care, or has conveniently left the story (Rhodes dead, Klein gone, Whitley rejected, etc.).

As Cinder is being tortured, we see that she’s forced to say, “Without you, I am nothing.” Now see, this is excellent... in theory. This is the kind of line we needed to hear with some consistency over the last seven years (if RWBY still insisted on waiting that long for a backstory), setting up that this line is clearly engrained in Cinder and she repeats it on instinct. Instead—to my recollection, anyway—we only get it this Volume, in two episodes. If it appeared before then it wasn’t notable enough to remember. I commented on this before, but it wasn’t a, “Ah, this line must be important” reaction, it was a “Lol why is RWBY using the same line twice? That’s weird.” By only giving it to us twice before the backstory and in such a short timeframe, the impact of this reveal is lost. We’re only now realizing that the line is important, rather than coming to realize why.

Our writers know just enough to recognize what techniques work, but not enough to have figured out what makes them tick. They get that providing a RWBY-vised version of Cinderella is cool, but not how to adapt that 100% successfully. They know that repeated lines have power, but not how to create good setup for the reveal. They know the camera should use closeups, but not what moments are important enough to warrant that. RWBY, eight years on, still feels like a newbie writer copying what the great stories are doing without yet understanding why those aspects work and, thus, how to recreate them.

I mean, Cinder’s backstory appearing now attests to that most obviously. I waved at the Cinder fans before, but the reality is that most viewers don’t care, either because Cinder herself is so bland, and/or because the story waited too long to make her a little more interesting. This entire flashback was handled badly simply by virtue of it arriving over seven years past the character’s introduction.

So after this torture session Cinder steals Rhode’s sword. We hear some dialogue in the background of him getting pissed that it’s missing and the sisters promising to find it, implying that Cinder will have this tool at her disposal for a while. Instead, seconds later he’s found her hideout and confronts her. I don’t know if I’m impressed with Rhode’s skills, or rolling my eyes at how contrived this all is. Chuck in the question of whether Cinder was talented enough to steal the sword out from under him, or if Rhodes was stupid enough to leave it lying around, and I’m edging towards the eye rolling.

He dodges Cinder’s attack, rolls her more weapons to prove he’s not here to hurt her, and acknowledges that she’s not getting “the most fair treatment.” Okay, here’s where things start to get complicated. Rhodes tells Cinder she shouldn’t run away because then she’ll be running her whole life (don’t really agree with that). He likewise (rightly imo) tells her not to straight up murder them because look, no matter how much of a shit stain someone is, I can’t condone slamming a sword through their chest on an individual’s say-so (especially when two of those people are also kids growing up under an abuser, like Whitely). So what’s left? Rhodes says Cinder can train to become a huntress. At ten years old, she has seven years to prepare for the exam.

But she has to stay with her abusive family until then.

My problem is far less with the claim that this “has” to happen and far more with the writing’s failure to tell us why. Cinder could have begged to come with Rhodes and he says she can’t because… idk. Make up a reason. He doesn’t make enough to feed the both of them. It would be too dangerous out on missions without training and he doesn’t have a permanent place to stay (hence using the hotel all the time). He could even go the “They’re your legal guardians” route with more explanation because it’s arguable that Rhodes had no idea about the collar. Doesn’t mean Cinder’s treatment isn’t “that bad” in his eyes, just that he might not have known the extent and thus thought it was preferable for Cinder to put up with “just” being insulted and overworked until she’s 17. That this life that he only has a partial picture of is preferable to the life she’d have at his side. Something to explain the stakes here, the risks, and why he took this stance.

And/or give us a reason why Cinder doesn’t try to run, a suggestion I make very cautiously because it’s not my intention to put the responsibility solely on her. This isn’t meant to be a “Just save yourself! It’s easy!” claim. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that young, barely trained kids go out into the world all the time in this show—Ruby, Oscar—and it’s an acknowledgement that Cinder tugged off her collar easy-peasy. The point is, practically speaking, Cinder could have left and braved the streets like Emerald did… so give us a reason why she decided to stay. Maybe she’s scared of living on the streets, acknowledging that a little food and a place to sleep is better than nothing. Maybe she’s scared that if she doesn’t have a direct connection to the hotel (convenience), Rhodes won’t train her anymore. Maybe, as an abuse victim, she can’t articulate why she won’t leave, she just can’t. Something to acknowledge these gaps because, right now, we just have the fandom going, “See? This is why the huntsmen are all evil cops. Rhodes took the lawful route and look where it got Cinder! He’s the responsible adult in this situation, so it’s all his fault.” Problem is, this take ignores:

The fact that our heroes are also huntsmen and were pretending to be huntsmen before they had those lawful licenses. So what does that make them? We can’t continually criticize these professional roles without criticizing our heroes’ use of them as well. Ruby just ensured the world would take her message seriously by introducing herself as a huntress. We can’t condemn these laws and privileges while likewise letting Ruby continue to use them however she please. It’s okay if she’s a part of the system, because Ruby is inherently good! That’s not how this works. I’ve just described every American cop show that tumblr is currently turning against: The system is corrupt and needs to be overhauled, but our protagonists are different.

The story fails to tell us why Rhodes won’t do more outside of a single line about Cinder being of legal age. That just acknowledges that age has some bearing on his decision, not whether it outweighs other considerations (can Cinder survive if she leaves?), or whether Rhodes even has a full picture of what’s happening to her (the collar). The takeaway is that we don’t know what his though process was because RWBY didn’t show it to us, not that his thought process is automatically awful.

Rhodes, as a literal stranger entering her life, is not 100% responsible for what happens to Cinder. I know people don’t want to acknowledge that because leaving a child in that situation is absolutely horrific, but if RWBY wants to be ~realistic~ (and it does) then we need to acknowledge that reality too. If you saw a child employee getting yelled at in a hotel and then found her with your sword, would you rip the collar off her neck and be like, “Congratulations, you’re my child now”? Nice as that trope is, probably not! Or hell, maybe a lot of you would upend your life and risk legal action to whisk them away, but a lot of other people wouldn’t... and they're not the devil for doing what they can within the bounds of the law. The idea that because Rhodes unexpectedly had one (1) encounter with Cinder means he’s now responsible for her life and outcome is, well, crazy. “But, Clyde, you can’t just see that kind of horror and not do something about it.” You’re right. You know what you do? Tell the authorities. But does Remnant have the equivalent of social workers? We don’t know! Which means we can’t assume that Rhodes didn’t call them just because he’s a bad person. Or maybe they exist and the fandom considers them too corrupt to be useful, like so many other authorities in this show. So… what else is there for him to do? There doesn’t seem to be anyone above Rhodes that he can turn to, he doesn’t (for whatever reason) want to essentially kidnap Cinder and start a new life with her, so what’s left? Try to give Cinder a healthy relationship and a way to escape in the long run, which is precisely what Rhodes did.

Honestly, I’m kind of salty that this guy went out of his way to help her, he saw what everyone else saw and was the only one who would help her, but because he didn’t do more—because he didn’t entirely upend his life and/or risk arrest to take her away to this hypothetically better situation—the fandom is acting like it’s his fault Cinder killed her abusers. It’s not. Cinder made that choice.

At the end of the day, blaming Rhodes reveals the expectation that it’s his responsibility to solve this massive problem purely because he had the bad luck to be the one Cinder stole from. That’s like telling a teacher who learns about abuse from a paper that following the lawful channels and going out of his way to assist the child in other ways is responsible when the kid murders their family one day. “Why didn’t you just barge into the house and take the kid?!” Because there are a hundred reasons why that would go incredibly badly? Rhodes can’t help Cinder if he’s in jail. Rhodes can’t help Cinder if she ends up dead on a mission while following him. Rhodes can’t help Cinder if their attempt at escape fails and she bears the punishment.

The only thing I think Rhodes did absolutely wrong was giving Cinder the sword while she was still under the owner’s thumb. Stupid, but not cruel. And again, stupid does not equal blanket responsibility. I’m likewise seeing, “Rhodes gave her the sword and thus it’s his fault that Cinder got in trouble. It’s his fault they died. What was Cinder supposed to do, not defend herself?” Are people forgetting that Cinder stole the sword herself in the beginning and then readily accepted it again? She had agency in obtaining weaponry and what she wanted it for. Are people forgetting that, in accepting it, she likewise accepted the risk of keeping it hidden in the hotel? Are people forgetting that the time skip shows this happening years later and that Rhodes clearly thought Cinder was past her murderous streak? Are people forgetting that Cinder killed the owner by snapping her neck and resisting the shock collar, no sword required? She could have killed them any time she pleased based on the crime scene, whether Rhodes had given her a weapon or not. The weapon was just the catalyst that, truthfully, could have been caused by anything else. Cinder snaps when they find the sword and she’s tortured. Cinder snaps when she drops another tray and she’s tortured. She had planned to kill her abusers and never completely let go of that.

Honestly, I’m just annoyed that we have another good hearted, takes action, does his best and makes some mistakes character getting blamed for everything another character chose to do, erasing their agency in the process. Rhodes did not abuse Cinder. Rhodes did not force her to kill her actual abusers. And Rhodes is certainly not responsible for what Cinder later becomes. Could Rhodes have done more? Of course, but every character could always do more.

The tl;dr is that this complex situation needed far better setup in the show and the fandom needs to stop using that lack of setup as “proof” that characters are horrible people when they fail to magically fix said complicated, badly explained problems. Cinder chose to murder three people. Whether that was justified in the face of her abuse is up to you to decide, but it was still her choice. Please stop blaming the adult male characters for the choices the teenage girls in this show make. RWBY is too convoluted and attempting to tackle too many complex issues to reduce that to, “Every man here is the evil, responsible party and ever girl is a #queen. Even when they go on to murder Pyrrha ^_^” As a woman who would very much like to be rooting for the mostly-woman cast more than I now do, this isn’t the feminist take people want it to be.

But I’ve jumped waaaay ahead. Let’s backtrack a bit.

That first interaction between Rhodes and Cinder is super weird because the camera keeps covering Rhodes’ face and I don’t know why.

We segue into that montage of him training her for presumably years (Cinder’s hair changes) until we see him giving her the sword in what’s meant to be a moment of pride and trust. Soon after, Rhodes (randomly) comes back to the hotel when everyone else is asleep and hears noises in the back. Moving to check them out, he discovers that Cinder has murdered the two sisters and is in the process of murdering the owner, throwing back the line, “Without you, I am nothing, but because of you, I am everything.” Again, much more impactful if this had been a line we’ve associated with Cinder for years now, not a couple of episodes.

After she breaks the owner’s neck (damn, strong hand!) she tells Rhodes she doesn’t have to run anymore. Cinder clearly expects him to be happy for her and is shocked when he takes out his weapons.

I’m sorry, this is not a “betrayal.” Could Rhodes have just let Cinder go? Sure. Should he have? Given what she becomes, that’s very debatable! Rhodes clearly thought he’d helped her grow into someone who was not inclined towards murder (giving her the sword) and thus is probably going to be a little rattled when he walks in to find her killing three people. Again, there are obvious differences given the level of abuse Cinder seems to have suffered in comparison, but imagine that Glynda, after teaching Weiss for years, walked in on her killing Jacques and Whitley in revenge. Is she supposed to just ignore that? Shrug her shoulders and wish her well? I know a lot of people consider that the “fair” outcome given the inclusion of abuse, but that’s because we’ve had an omniscient view of Cinder’s history and insight into her emotional state. Rhodes doesn’t have that. All he has is his oath as a huntsmen to prevent things like, you know, murder sprees. I’m not going to delve into the overall ethics of a judicial system, either in RWBY or the real world, and thus I’m not going to make any naive claims about it being fair—it’s fucking not—but I don’t think the answer to these systematic problems is, “Why wouldn’t you just let the teenager murder three bad people and then go on her way? She totally deserved it!” Rhodes is not in a position to decide that, which is the entire point of having a judicial system in the first place.

So Rhodes wants to bring Cinder in. Kind of like how Clover wanted to bring Qrow in once he had an arrest warrant. I can’t emphasize enough that wanting to start a legal process rather than letting clearly guilty/potentially guilty people go because they WANT to is not a “betrayal.” Regardless of what teen dramas may have taught us, you don’t have to potentially throw your own freedom and your morals away because you found out a friend is wanted by the authorities. Or you walk in on them currently snapping someone’s neck. There are options other than, “Believe your friend is right without question and help them hide the bodies” (looking at you, Maria, Pietro). Whitely is not insane for going, “Hey, can you not make me an accomplice to a crime by forcing your way in here with a bunch of fugitives?” I’m constantly surprised by the number of fans who can, in one breath, condemn characters for not throwing a middle finger up at the law and in the next praise Jacques’ arrest. Do we want to benefit from this system or not? If yes, that means you have to weigh which laws can be broken (such as in a protest), which should be obeyed (bring murderers and wanted men in), all while working to change the laws that are prejudice and aren’t working.

Anyway, they fight. It’s short and sweet, backdropped by the large clock striking midnight, hence our title. I’m incredibly suspicious of Cinder breaking Rhode’s aura first, given that she’s still the student in training, but here we can more persuasively say he wasn’t fighting seriously, given that he then stupidly rushes towards her without a weapon. Still, that would be the second time now that RWBY has relied on elite fighters “holding back” to explain how the kids in training beat them, the first instance, of course, being with the Ace Ops.

Rhodes does rush Cinder though when she hits the wall and breaks her own aura, clearly concerned. She uses the moment to stab him with both swords. He uses his last breaths to put a hand on her head, conveying that he doesn’t blame her for how this all turned out.

Then Cinder pulls off her collar with a single snap and looks up at the broken moon, crying her single tear.

I’m dragging the flashback for multiple reasons, but I want to emphasize that I think this episode is leagues better from what we got last week. Absolute night and day. It’s just that, as always, improvements are incredibly comparative in RWBY. It’s not really good for numerous reasons… it’s just better than what we’ve gotten before. It’s “great” provided you go in with standards buried in the ground.

We then return to the present as Cinder wakes up in Salem’s whale. This scene gives us a great shot of her grimm arm, so cosplayers take note!

Emerald arrives soon after and immediately rushes to her side, expressing how worried she was. She grabs Cinder’s grimm hand without hesitation. Honestly, I don’t care much about either character… but this single frame activated some sort of ship button in my brain.

Not fully because I’m personally not drawn to toxic relationships in fiction (which, as I’m about to explain, would absolutely be the case here), but just the tinniest bit. Because I’m a sucker for monstrous people being loved despite their monstrous nature, so having Emerald take that hand over the other is like a ship speed run for me.

I’m predictable, folks.

But we need to talk about less happy things for a moment. I mentioned above Cinder becoming an abuser herself. I hope I don’t need to lay out the laundry list of murders, attempted murders, sabotage, and general taking-over-the-world-ness she’s engaged in since Episode One. Don’t let a sad backstory erase all that. Hell, for all we know the hotel owner had a horrific backstory too! Doesn’t justify how she treated Cinder. The point though is beyond her clear status as a villain, we now know that Cinder treats Emerald just like the owner once treated her.

Cinder was “rescued” from her life on the farm by the owner. Emerald is “rescued” from her life on the streets by Cinder.

Both realize over time that the situation they’re now in is actually worse.

Both reiterate that they “owe” the other “everything,” with Cinder having that shocked into her and Emerald seeming to willingly believe it.

The owner treats Cinder as a slave. Cinder treats Emerald as a slave. “Both of you, get out. I’ll let you know when you’re needed.” The only difference is that Cinder’s orders were things like “Scrub floors” and Emerald’s are “Convince an audience this girl attacked our ally.”

Both use threats to keep the other in line: the owner with her shock collar and Cinder with her Maiden powers. Cinder doesn’t need to resort to violence (yet) because Emerald adores her, but the threat is always there.

There are even visual similarities this episode, such as kneeling and gem necklaces, though I acknowledge fully that those are just interesting details as opposed to anything like persuasive proof.

The point is that Cinder became exactly what she hated, she just turned the dial up to eleven by going after the whole world instead of a single child. “But Cinder never had a chance to be anything else.” Sure she did. Blake and Weiss are proof of that. Even if we believe that Cinder was doomed to be a villain due to the extent of her abuse, what does that say about the hotel’s owner? We don’t know anything about her history, so what if she was abused too? Does that mean she was always “doomed” to treat Cinder that way? Does that excuse everything she did to her because she supposedly never stood a chance of becoming anything else? Of course not.

Though very iffily done, this is a commentary on the cycle of abuse. Each case is horrific, but it doesn’t excuse what comes later. Every abuser was once an innocent child and every innocent child has the capability of becoming the next abuser. Cinder’s life up until now was beyond awful and yes, she lacked a lot of privileges that others had to help them head down a better path, like Weiss’ wealth. On the other hand, she lacks other difficulties that would make that path harder for others, like Blake’s status as a faunus. Everyone has a choice to make: Will you treat others the way you were treated because that’s “fair,” or will you decide to treat others better than what you were dealt? There are lots of aspects that factor into the likelihood of someone choosing the latter—which is why I really like Rhode’s hand on Cinder’s head, acknowledging his understanding that she’s an abused kid taking the only path she thinks is available to her—but individual agency is by no means removed from the equation. Cinder escaped her situation and decided she’d never be powerless again. What does that mean to her, perhaps becoming a community member who works to prevent abuse like the kind she suffered? No, it means grinding the entire world under her heel until she’s the only one with power left.

This GIF continues to be the only one I need.

(No, the fact that it comes from a cop show and I’m using it for such an anti-law, anti-establishment story/fandom isn’t lost on me.)

(Also, if anyone is curious, this is why I love Ozpin. Out of everyone in this cast, HE has suffered the most, tenfold, and yet he still chooses to be kinder to those than they’ve been to him.)

Anyway, I should really stick to the plot lol. Cinder realizes that her waking up means that they’ve lost, which I still think is BS. Cinder needed a win to come across as a formidable villain again and the likes of Neo, Emerald, and a Maiden with years of practice under her belt should have wiped the floor with a scientist, retirement grandma, and a girl who got the powers an hour ago. But I again digress.

Mercury reveals that he will no longer be following Cinder’s orders because Salem has a special job for him. They’ve all been told to meet on the bridge.

Then we cut to Ozpin and Oscar.

My poor boy is a mess and Ozpin is in the process of begging Oscar to take a “break.” “I would like to express again that this is my burden to bear, not yours.” Take note, fandom. In a few moments Hazel will accuse Ozpin of being a “coward” because “All this time, it could have been you, but you let him suffer.” I just know a bunch of people will be going, “Yeah! Ozpin just let a kid get tortured instead of him. WTF??” Okay 1. We should always be suspicious of agreeing with the takes villains have and 2. Oscar just refused to let Ozpin do that. It is—again—his choice because he thinks that Hazel is “holding back” with him. Oscar is being a brave and logical dude trying to make the best of this situation for both of them. Don’t take that away from him just to make Ozpin look bad. What would we even want him to do? Take control back? The fandom has been yelling at Ozpin for that since Volume 5.

So they’re going back and forth when Oscar suddenly announces that they “can’t leave yet. This is our chance.”

Ozpin even says he thinks Oscar must have taken one too many hits because… yeah. What? Long story short, Oscar recognizes that they’ll never be this close to Salem’s subordinates again and that they should try to undermine her from the inside out, just like she’s done with the world since she knows she can’t take on everyone at once. I love Oscar taking charge here, I love them speaking in unison, I even love the hope of achieving something epic while in captivity despite my own belief that Oscar should break and reveal the Lamp’s password. What I don’t love is:

Another messy, unexpected belief that Salem made her choices because she “knows” she can’t win any other way. Except that—like Ruby’s line in the recording—Salem’s current attack blows that idea out of the water. She IS taking on the whole world. Granted, Ozpin and Oscar presumably don’t know that the whole world literally knows of her existence now, or that Salem was smiling about it, but they do know that she’s attacking Atlas head on. What else is that except a declaration of war with all of Remnant?

The idea of undermining Salem from the inside via Hazel. For anyone who reads my other metas, I just said that this idea wouldn’t work because Emerald isn’t the one torturing him, the one character who has consistently demonstrated hesitation (or, now, Neo). Hazel despises Ozpin so much that he would never listen to him. He despises him so much he doesn’t even see Oscar as his own person… at least he didn’t before. That’s been retconned now with Hazel going “easy” Oscar and having an actual conversation with Ozpin. Whereas before, he was slamming Oscar into walls and screaming about how he’s going to kill the “murderer” of his sister. They basically softened his character to make this plan possible.

The fact that this scene came about without Oscar and Ozpin ever getting to reconcile their problems. Last we saw them, Oscar was saying how he hated that Ozpin came back and refusing to acknowledge their merge. Now, they’re working together like they’ve always been solid allies. I get that the danger they’re in helps to put it all into perspective, but why can’t we get a few lines of them hashing this out? Or at least putting things aside until they’re out of Salem’s clutches? If you don’t need to re-write Hazel’s character with “he’s going easy on me” lines, you can use that space to deal with the conflict we’ve already established. Especially given the strange choice to have Oscar refuse to give up control and be the one coming up with this plan... but then Ozpin does take control and (maybe, see below) enacts it? I feel like we’ve missed huge chunks of this story. As it is, I wonder if RWBY will bother coming back to this. The questions of if/how Oscar will accept Ozpin and if/how he’ll reveal this secret to the group feels like they’re being swept under the rug and it will likely go unnoticed by a lot of viewers simply due to how intense the kidnapping plot is.

So things are a little messy, but otherwise enjoyable, and they’re about to get downright confusing. For me, anyway. See, Hazel reveals that he follows Salem because she can’t be beaten (cue my continued worry about Ruby telling the whole WORLD). She “can’t be stopped. She’s a force of nature,” and Ozpin is fighting a “cause with no victory, no end.” He yells back that “Someone has to try!”—bless this man—and then looks down at the ground going, “Salem can be fought. Unless… she brings the Relics together, if that happens…” and mentions summoning the Gods.

So here’s my confusion. The scene makes it feel like Ozpin is planting some sort of seed in Hazel’s head. He and Oscar JUST got done agreeing to try and undermine her from the inside out, then we get this line that feels like him “accidentally” dropping a secret that will turn Hazel against her. Except… Ozpin doesn’t lie here? The line isn’t useful to them as far as I can tell. They are screwed if Salem gets the Relics. …Right? Because if not, why the hell have the heroes been working so hard to keep them out of her hands? So I can’t decide if:

A) This scene is just written badly and none of this is part of the plan to undermine Salem.

B) Ozpin is going, “NO. Don’t collect the RELICS. That would be the WORST THING EVER /s” in an attempt to trick Hazel into doing it anyway and this is somehow supposed to hurt Salem, despite being presented since Volume 5 as the worst outcome for our heroes?

C) Ozpin specifically wants Salem to make the mistake of summoning the Gods because he thinks he’s completed his task? Or something? But what in the world would make him think that—especially without seeing Ruby’s message (not to mention the lack of unity that mess should cause)—or what makes him think the Gods would just destroy Salem regardless of what he’s achieved? If summoning the Gods was ever a defeat Salem option, why hasn’t he done it before?

I’m leaning towards A just because it makes the most sense by far, but that would also mean we had Ozpin and Oscar decide on this plan, have a chance to start this plan… and then didn’t actually do anything. Yelling at Hazel for following Salem isn’t a new strategy, they were doing that before, so what’s new? Or has the new strategy not been revealed yet? Idk, as happy as I am to see them being BAMF together, I’m slightly unsure about how it all hangs together. I’d much rather have an internally consistent and clear outcome that’s predictable (Oscar breaks or just holds out until rescue) rather than what appears like a super cool, badass, unexpected plot on the surface… but crumbles once you poke at the foundation a bit.

So whether Oscar and Ozpin started this plan or not, they’re dragged into the throne room where they’re forced to kneel before Salem. Yikes. She sits on her throne with the Hound, who I’m only now realizing could be read as a messed up Toto

We learn that Tyrian heard from Watts about his incarceration and hacking Penny. What? Okay, I took the time to go back through “Amity” just to find this screenshot.

That’s not a working Scroll! Idk what I thought Watts might do with it at the end of last week, but it wasn’t send a full, uninterrupted message to Salem that updates her on everything that’s gone down in Atlas. This thing is toast! Moments like this make me question how much communication there really is between the writers and the animators, despite last Volume’s disaster with Oscar telegraphing his punch like whoa. Are we still getting that level of miscommunication?

Salem then punishes Cinder for disobeying her by hurting her grimm arm. See, this here (for me, anyway) is the mark of a newbie writer. When the moment first started I went, “Oh nice. Just like the shock collar!” Then the scene made that abundantly clear by cutting to flashbacks of Cinder in her collar. That’s too heavy-handed. We already got the parallel, but then the show went, “Do you get it??” It shows that the writers are too scared that the viewers won’t get it, that their nuance will be lost, so they scramble to make it as obvious as possible, rather than trusting in their own writing.

And if you’re like, “So you want RWBY to be more clear and also… less clear?” the answer is, sadly, yes lol. The things that are already confusing due to retconning and inconsistent themes need to be made explicit, whereas the details that are already strong don’t need an in-your-face, “Okay, but did you really get the parallel here? We’re just making sure.” It’s like launching into explaining why a joke is funny when it’s already landed vs. telling a nonsensical joke and then waiting for the laugh that will never come. RWBY struggles in both areas.

Salem delves into this speech about how this is actually all her fault and she should let Cinder spread her wings or something. AKA, go free Watts and track down Penny. Then you can have your precious Maiden powers.

There’s a massive earthquake across Mantle and we watch a + medical symbol go out. Again, heavy-handed. We don’t need that in order to understand that the whole city shaking while the grimm look happily up to the sky is a bad thing.

We cut to Winter listening to the Ace Ops complain about Penny. She tells them to act like the elite they are, likely because she hates how they refer to Penny as “junk.” Still being set up to betray Ironwood, I bet. During this scene we learn that they have “confirmed visual of her leaving Amity. She appeared to be malfunctioning.” So Penny is alive? Also, they have eyes on Amity Tower and were able to see Penny leaving, but didn’t see any of our trio coming to launch it in the first place? Did Ironwood want it to launch? Did they see Cinder? I just don’t know.

Before they can get there though a message from Jaune comes through. Serious kudos to Team JNY for asking that “anyone” respond/taking the personal risk of calling for help in the first place. They’re finally putting—as Harriet says—they’re own selfishness aside in favor of the greater good. Yang obviously hates that it’s “you guys” they ended up with, but she’s not outright attacking the Ace Ops or anything. I’m like,

Excellent job, Yang.

Jaune is a little harsh in his panic. He said in his message that a “large mass of grimm” is heading towards Mantle and then when Harriet leads with asking about Penny, wants to know what’s wrong with her. Why are you asking about Penny when lives are in danger and “it’s” (the grimm) are “right there”? Except he, uh… points at nothing. There’s the chasm with (I presume) the weird grimm goo down it? Not sure based on the shot, but the Ace Ops expected a “mass of grimm” and then land to see no grimm anywhere nearby. So yeah, they’re more focused on the missing Maiden than the seemingly imaginary enemy Jaune is freaking out about.

They only get on board when the river launches itself at Atlas.

So the goo is, like, sentient before it becomes individual grimm? Or Salem is controlling it from her whale? Either way it’s BAD.

I want to briefly gripe about how the hell everyone is watching this. What, is there a camera conveniently trained on this one random part of Atlas’ underside and everyone’s scrolls tuned into that the second the attack started? It seems far-fetched, to put it mildly. In RWBY’s favor though, I want to acknowledge that we finally have appropriate expressions for the situation! This is good!!

I’m going to level with you all. My notifications have known no peace since I made the mistake of criticizing the adored trio that is Ruby, Weiss, and Blake. I thought supporting Ironwood would get me heat. Nope. Not supporting the main girls is what did it and honestly? I shouldn’t have been surprised. Last week I pointed out that having them smile and, in Ruby’s case, coo during a moment of horror is not good animation and implies some pretty uncomfortable things about their overall sympathy level. The image in question:

It doesn’t set a good tone, especially when we add in what we’ve gotten for Ruby’s group across the rest of this volume. The counters of, “They need and deserve a break. Why won’t you let them be happy?” fall flat when we ignore that this group has been animated as consistently goofing off post-premiere. Sneaking into the guarded military base of a former friend? Tube shenanigans! Need to find your way around? Funny Penny moment! Semblance reveal? Cutesy chibi explanation! Need to do more sneaking? Silly coffee plan! Nora gets electrocuted? Joke about how awesome that was! Even Wiess telling Whitley to go to his room reads as funny to the audience.

Ruby in particular has been a problem, given that she’s our main character and the others’ leader. We take our emotional cues primarily from her. Alongside being a part of all these fun and games, her animation during more serious moments has been less than stellar. This is Penny when Nora goes down.

This is Ruby, Weiss, and Blake. No worry, just focused on the fight.

This is Penny when the fight is over.

This is Ruby, Weiss, and Blake. No worry, just chatting about suspicious activity.

This is Penny in the airship, worrying about Nora and the situation they’re in. This is also Ruby in the airship, apparently not worried at all.

This is Ruby when she learns her uncle is in jail. Is there shock? Fear? Horror that he might be in serious trouble? No, she just maintains the same emotion she had before: fury at Harriet.

So when we reach them watching the recording and they look like this:

No, I’m not convinced that this trio is taking the situation seriously, or that they really care about the people involved. I know they’re supposed to care, they all obviously care from a meta perspective, but the “obviousness” of that only exists in our personal understanding of the characters if we don’t see it on screen. I completely believe that Penny is worried about Nora because she’s animated expressing that worry. I completely believe that JRY are in the middle of a warzone because they’re (mostly) animated as fearful and angry. The rest of Ruby’s team has a scared line from Blake and Weiss holding Nora’s hand, whereas the majority of the emotion across this adventure has been indifference or playfulness. That’s a problem given how horrible the events of this Volume have been, most of which the group is aware of.

All of which is an incredibly long-winded way of saying that this

finally feels appropriate. Well done, RWBY.

Alright, this recap is already over 7k long so I want to return to our plot with the summarized: IRONWOOD WAS RIGHT. He said they couldn’t withstand a head on attack by Salem and he was right. It literally took seconds for her grimm to burrow into Atlas, knock out a tower, and disable the shield. Everyone still claiming that leaving is useless because it’s oh so obvious Salem’s grimm could fly however high it wants (when did we learn that?) are ignoring that leaving was at least a plan with some kind of hope attached to it. And, given her focus on the Staff, may have saved Mantle by drawing Salem’s attention away from the city. The point is we don’t know. All we do know is that Ironwood tried to do something in the face of hopeless odds, Ruby’s team stopped him, and now look, everything is awful. No one could have possibly seen that coming.

Salem: “It’s time.”

I’m very pleased that Salem is finally using the tools at her disposal. Upon reflection, I still don’t buy why she had to wait. “Well, she was waiting for the grimm goo.” She couldn’t have used flying grimm to take out the tower? Take a burrowing grimm and give it wings? She couldn’t have used the goo that was apparently inside her whale the whole time?

It’s all very convenient. In the sense that we’re drawing out the volume by having the villain inexplicably hang back, despite not having a good reason to. In the sense that—unless Ruby’s message comes back to bite her—the villain’s passivity also conveniently let the heroes accomplish the one goal they were desperate to achieve. All of that’s still not good, but at least the Volume seems to be moving out of the “not good” category and into the “slightly better” territory.

Although, as I just acknowledged to a friend, RWBY seems to alternate for me. Every time I have an episode where I think, “Okay, there are still massive problems here, but I can see a glimmer of hope” the next episode is inevitably the pits.

Still, grabbing onto that hope with both hands: Atlas should be decimated, folks! Grimm are swarming, our idiot heroes herded everyone directly under the city, the world should be panicking, and the cold should still be killing people if the story remembers that it exists. At this point my only question is wtf our heroes are supposed to do next, but regardless of what the plot gives us, it’s going to be wild. You all know what’s coming. Next week is our final episode before a two month hiatus, which means we’re going to witness all kinds of awful and then end on a six week cliffhanger. It’s inevitable, so best to emotionally prep for that now lol.

I don’t believe we have any Bingo updates, with the exception of edging towards a few: “Winter betrays Ironwood,” “Army of grimm conveniently doesn’t kill any civilians,” “Atlas somehow survives,” and “Ironwood dies” being the most notable. We’ll have to see what, if anything, gets checked off next Saturday.

As always, thank you so much for reading (I feel like I don’t say that enough :D) and I’ll see you next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby recaps #rwby midnight #mymetas

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delicatebluebirdruins · 4 years ago

Text

Shadow and Bone

This will contain spoilers (duh) some names being forgotten and its going to get long and some context less chaos

I hope i got the image ids right

Episode one (23rd April)

- ahh so the Fold= Dark Island form VoDT but with less summoning of monsters?

ID: Ben Barnes holding onto the wheel of a boat

- Many smol beans

Brief interlude with Nausicaa Valley of the Wind

Episode 1 cont. up to midway episode 7 (24th)

- magical brown trouser time my good sir

- buddies!!

- they’re not going to leave Alina alone to her existential crisis are they?

That tent looks like a circus tent to me and I have no idea why

- hmm hello completely innocent fallen branch

me: turns to sis and asks if we can we take brief intermission for this headbanger (which we did)

Turns out our brief intermission for the song was useless because after pressing play again it started buffering

we were talking about it and Dad misheard it as shaggy bone

Imagine the darkling but in pastels and black lace

- how the flipping heck can you fake bleeding light

- do you want to get lost Alina?

On Ben Barnes beard: 50% hot damn and 50% fight me (the way he tilts his head in this makes us want to hit him in the jugular)

Episode 3

- ooh look at the stag

- i love the bathroom

- damn Nina

- I wish Alina had time to get some magic tips but oh well

- replays Ben Barnes saying Moya Tsarieta twice

- how?! (Look I told you there was going to be bits where the context is tricky to pin point)

- i love the goat

- oh Jesper

- blue and gold is a great colour combination

- about the dinner scene: if this were me it would be the very rare time I stand up for myself

+ I want to add a small thing about the food taster... one is dream job/ i like him/ and imagine a taster eating something and it goes down the wrong way

- yes Jesper hug the goat- and

ID: a man with his thumb up gif from The Hunger Games; with him saying “nice shooting sweetheart” but I couldn’t find a gif of him saying it

- true north? I am never going to be free of bellarke am I?

- oh that hurts

Episode 4

- “our saint has arrived to late” 🤧

- ohh the stag is so pretty

- horses!!!

- time for a heist- i love this goat

- aww wishing fountain bonding

- the darking is growing on me

- i love Mikhail and Dubrov

- I love what we get to see of Nadia and Marie and Kaz and Inej and Jesper and basically everyone

- i love a heist (this isnwhat the hobbit should of been but you know with more dragons

- Mal is baby

- poor Nina

- ah ha a vicious cycle against the Grisha and Fjerdan

- I thought Arkens reaction was a bit odd

- oh Alina sweet heart- flashback time

- the map room is a aesthetic- using Aleksanders own words against him

That shot of the two of them is great

- poor Alina

- yas queen

- oh the stag!

- oh the machine gun; Mal poor buddy and of course flashback time

- i knew she was going to get the scar removed

Episode 5

- poor Mal

- Nadia is me

- Genya is amazing

- hi David and great minds think alike Alina (i had the same expression on my face when they were flirting)

- oh the creepy masks had a purpose

- “you’re not Ivan” you don’t say

- aand height difference... this first kiss is kind of weird to me

- oh Jesper you flirt

- I’m sorry firey people you’re going to be outshined

- Inej is so beautiful

- Dima?!?!

ID: two people from a scene in the Anastasia Musical the song My Petersburg

- what is the librarians dudes problem?

- Genya you badass... poor Marie (does Alina learn about this?? It would probably be forgotten just like her causing the death of her fellow mapmakers)

- I love the costumes

- Tofin (Idk his name) we don’t know you sorry you’re dead

- oh the kissing

ID: a gif showing two people kissing

- and him giving her the flowers is kind of cute but where did they come from?

- *pinched nose* I hate cryptic messages Baghra... holy shit... i mean I kinda knew he was immortal but still holy shit

- oh Kaz... Inej! Collect your bloody knives

- *snorting* The crows being sent to kidnap Alina and Jesper just watching her climb into the getaway carriage will always be hysterical (i personally would be laughing and thats why anything involving stealth is off the cards for me)

Episode 6

- rest in pieces Arken

- Alina broke Inej

- I love Ivan (remember the thing i said about forgetting names/ getting them mixed up? This is it.. I love Feydor a lot more than Ivan but they are both so cute together)

- my heart will go on starts playing?

- i like that horse statue in the background

- i love the beach... look at those waves... the wet look is great

- you done mess up Alina but also cool

- Mal is burly squid

- “burly squid” wheezing nosies

- now hug

- Kaz I love the cane

- “I see you now” aww

- I knew they were going to snuggle... those cute laughs

- the alarm clock though... i knew Inej should have taken the knife... i love Jesper... poor Inej... clever boy Kaz

- does it hurt? Mal? Does it hurt?

I have a habit at picking at things that hurt and well fictional characters aren’t safe from me wanting to poke something painful

- ride OR die bitches

- aand more height differences... getting very close there guys... Matthias please don’t let her fall.... they are kind of cute

- David through a book... 😂 they carriage jacked the Darkling

- David raising his hand is me... but damn it

- Alina is amazing... please remember you’re wearing the ring... Mal is best boy

- “adorable” snorting noises

Episode 7

- horsey!!!

- ahh the return of the VoDT hair (see first gif)

- Luda is familiar...

- yikes

- poor Aleksander being turned into a pincushion is not a great time

- poor Luda

- holy shit

- rock and hard place

- fuck off Baghra

- he wanted to help 😔

- ah so its like the hollow from Charmed

Image ID: gif from the og Charmed with text saying “ohhh she’s a demon!”

- this shot is beautiful... ah so I guess this could have been what happened if Caspian resurrected the White Witch... i guess

- hi stag.... oh okay 😔 poor Stag poor Mal

Flashbacks to Cinderella and Snow White (the one with Krisien Sterwart) natually it follows along with Snow White

- *squishie noises* poor Jesper... we love you Jesper but please stop talking to Inej just in case she sews her finger to the wound

- i love the crows and i love the chat about the crows

Buffers

The next day (25th) episode continued

- David looks so sad

- personally I would downsize the fold just as reminder of it

- that looks like that hurt

- I love Milo and Jesper 💖

- don’t look at it Alina... Genya is right that colour is horrible... tell her off Alina... poor Genya

- I think Jesper had fun playing a guard

- I knew the Darkling read the letters

Sister: why does he look like Tom Ellis right now?

- oh Mal

- blow dart... lol Kaz

- Milo!?! Oh the bullet you clever boy Mal

- i like the tent... he’s not wrong... we want to play with that dangly bit... oh the angst

- I thought you looked older (idk context)

- I love the outfit but couldn’t the necklace be anywhere else?

- “no mourners no funerals”

- I love the music

Episode 8

- I don’t trust that opening

- me too Crows, me to... how could you not know who Milo is

- I love Nina and Matthias so much... they are so pretty... I am not a fan of taxidermy... oh his name is Feydor sorry we kept getting you mixed up

- God damnit Kirigan.. a not so sneaky Mal... the honorary Crow... pick a side already darkling... Sun Queen?... did anybody notice her being tied down?... Good Mal and good Inej

- Jesper is amazing... so much death... bad bitch Zoya... I love Inej kissing the knife and nailing the Darkling with it... head shot... hello buddy??... this music though... badass Alina... fucking Ivan... holy shit and of course music is amazing

+ brave Kaz

- Inej and Alina bonding time... hugs? No hugs ☹️

- he offered her his hand 😞... Inej wants to hug... finally some hugs... Zoya has grown on me... i love Kanej (is that the ship name)

- Matthias oh no buddy... hill house flashbacks

- i love Jesper so much... Nina going “someone say heartrender??”

Image ID: someone turning around and raising eyebrows at camera

- Kaz saying “she’s a saint” made my heart happy

- I doubt the Darkling is dead...... i was right

- well shit/ coolness of making shadow monsters follow you (please let there be a flashback for this)

Bonus

+ imagine of Matthias and Nina decide to sleep rather than get food and were caught cuddling by the Grisha... I thought of this as I was getting into bed that night and i got up ran to my sister told her my thought she found the idea funny then went back to bed

+ people who own trains are evil?? Looks at snowpiercer

Bonus: the soundtrack is on spotify and itunes

Image id: someone bobbing along with headphones on

#shadow and bone netflix #ellie watches #spoilers #long post

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fanfic-corner · 4 years ago

Text

Under 10,000 Words

16/12/20 - I can never figure out what my favourite length of fic is, but I think it depends on my mood. Sometimes I want a huge, 200,000 word journey, and sometimes I just want a quick drabble. Anyway, here are some fics which are all between 2,000 and 10,000 words, organised by the word count.

Sleep Deprivation by Honey_Honey on AO3. (2,313 words).

Tags: Cute, First Kiss.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: The one where killing monsters leaves Dean without a week of sleep, and Cas has to deal with the consequences.

Notes: This was so fluffy and cute and I can totally imagine Dean overthinking everything while Sam just finds the whole situation hilarious.

That One Time Sam Winchester Googled Something Weird and It Had Pretty Awesome Results by quitepossiblyjanuary on AO3. (2,587 words).

Tags: Romantic Fluff, First Kiss, Stars, Humor, Courtship, Short & Sweet.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: In which Sam Googles something and his curiosity doesn’t kill the cat. Or him. Or anyone. It’s a pretty awesome feeling.

Notes: This was so adorable! Gabe was so sweet, and his mind reading skills made me laugh.

What Can’t Be Seen by destieldrabblesdaily on AO3. (2,639 words).

Tags: Soulmate AU, author!Cas, Strangers to Lovers, First Kiss.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Written for this prompt: Soulmate AU where you first see color after eye contact: Cas is a famous best selling author and he’s promoting his book, so he’s talking to a crowd of people and suddenly his world is in color, and a lot of his fans pretend to be his soulmate. A Cinderella type situation ensues.

Notes: This was really cute and such a sweet and funny idea.

The Tea is Decaf by mnwood on AO3. (3,673 words).

Tags: POV Castiel, Fluff, Sign Language, Castiel in the Bunker, Canon Compliant, Sharing Clothes, Asexual Castiel, Gentle Dean, Non-Explicit Sex, Domestic, Established Relationship.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Based on this text post from thebloggerbloggerfun: “Listen, imagine Eileen sneaking out of Sam’s room at night to go to the bathroom or something and steps out into the hallway in one of Sam’s shirts only to see Cas trying to quietly leave Dean’s room while wearing one of Dean’s shirts and they both just stare at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before trying to muffle quiet laughter and now they have a late night club where they talk about life and gossip about the Winchesters in sign language"And this anon I received: "what if Eileen and Cas discover there are some things Sam and Dean both do in bed because Dean jokingly gave Sam pointers when they were younger and Sam took the advice”.

Notes: This has to be one of my favourite fics of all time, even though the first time I read it I hadn’t even met Eileen yet! I’m still so pissed off that she wasn’t in the finale (unless we’re counting Blurry Wife?).

surely heaven wants for you by cenotaphy on AO3. (3,782 words).

Tags: Episode: s15e20 Carry On, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Heaven, Coda, Post-Finale, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Dean, Outdoor Sex.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: Cas doesn't come to him. Dean can't really argue with that, given the circumstances. In all the history of balls in courts, he thinks there might never have been a ball as thoroughly in a court as this one is in his. He drives for what feels like a long time but might just be a single sunny afternoon, or maybe years (time's funny here, Bobby had said), just enjoying the music, the shifting landscape outside his window, the hum and creak of the engine. Finally the forest opens up and the road narrows down in a way that he's fairly certain wouldn't typically happen on any kind of earthly interstate, and he glides the car to a halt at the edge of a lake.

Notes: This was so beautiful and such a interesting exploration of Dean’s feelings!

a quick salt and burn by xylodemon on AO3. (4,609 words).

Tags: Episode Related, Cemeteries, Case Fic.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: "Fuck," Dean mutters, wincing as pain throbs in his shoulder and neck. After the ghost chucked him into the hedge, he hit the ground like ton of bricks and clipped an exposed tree root so old it was practically petrified. "So much for a quick salt and burn."

Notes: This is adorable and hilarious, so a double win.

Funny Bone by PallasPerilous on AO3. (4,933 words).

Tags: Fluff and Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Skeletons, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Alternate Universe - No Angels, Canon Divergence, Mild Gore.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: It wasn’t even a particularly creepy skeleton; it was in kind of a “just chillin’” pose on the floor. One ankle was still locked up in a heavy iron cuff, at the end of a short chain leading back to the wall. Snoresville, as dead stuff goes; Dean’s seen worse at Disneyland. It was the skeleton’s comment about Dean’s ass that really livened things up.

Notes: This has to have been one of the funniest fics I have ever read, but oh boy did I feel bad for poor Cas.

Grace by july_19th_club on AO3. (5,164 words).

Tags: Fix-It, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Resurrection, Reciprocated Confession.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: A man dies. What happens next will shock you. [script]

Notes: This was written beautifully, and now I really want to see this filmed! So much better than the ending we got.

(un)conventional by imogenbynight on AO3. (6,100 words).

Tags: Alternate Universe, mechanic!Dean, Writer!Castiel, Conventions, Fluff.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Spec Lit Con--Speckly Con, to it’s regular attendees--is an annual weekend-long event held in Chicago, dedicated to science fiction, fantasy and otherwise speculative literature. This year Dean's favorite author, C.J. Novak, is appearing as a panelist. Naturally, he shells out the cash for an all access pass.

Notes: This was so adorable that I nearly screamed in the corridor outside my computer science lesson. Plus, the writing was absolutely gorgeous! I miss conventions :(

La Vie A Plus by K_K_TiBal on AO3. (6,260 words)

Tags: Punk Castiel, Asexual Castiel, College/Uni AU, Roommates, oh my god they were roommates, College Student Dean, College Student Castiel, Pining, First Kiss, Misunderstandings, Art Student Castiel, Love Confessions, Gabriel is a Little Shit, Tattooed Castiel.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Dean Winchester is hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with his best friend and roommate, Castiel. Castiel - with his blue hair, and his tattoos, and his artwork, and his perfect everything. Dean never stood a chance, really. It only sucks because, as far as Dean can tell, Castiel is definitely not interested. But love, much like art, has a way of being unpredictable. Even if you think you know where you’re going with it.

Notes: The angst is strong in this one! Again, I feel like many aces have had this conversation or that fear that people (allos, especially) may not want to be with them.

Event Horizon by Winglesss on AO3. (6,442 words).

Tags: Suicidal Thoughts, Suicidal Dean, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Past Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Texting, Sharing a Bed, Happy Ending, Veteran Dean, Doctor Dean, Writer Castiel, Strangers.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: Castiel couldn't have helped his sister. That's why being offered a chance to help somebody else dealing with suicidal thoughts he took it without hesitation. When he gets the first text from someone who needs his help, nothing goes as he expected.

Notes: I don’t know if that kind of suicide prevention scheme exists, but this fic is very sweet.

I Think That’s Mine by palominopup on AO3. (6,804 words).

Tags: Fluff, AU, Reporter!Dean, Writer!Cas.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: A mix up at the Atlanta Airport places Dean Winchester's laptop in someone else's possession. A series of calls and texts bring two men together.

Notes: This was so cute, Cas was so sweet, and Dean was an icon.

Nothing Equals the Splendor by RurouniHime on AO3. (7,865 words).

Tags: Fix-It, Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On, Angst with a Happy Ending, Grief, Explicit Sexual Content, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Declarations of Love, Canon Compliant, Minor Injuries.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Maybe it’s the cynic in him. The hunter, always under the surface of any quietude he ever found. Or maybe it’s just that he has always had trouble with blind faith. But after a while (a blink? A decade? A century?), Dean raises his eyebrows, looks around, and says—

“Uh. No.”

It’s so close. Just so slightly imperfect. And maybe, he analyzes, maybe that’s the final knell of this bell called contentment. Dean’s experience with happiness has always been that last rise in the road, right before it turns. Right before fate comes barreling around the corner head on. He turns in his spot on the bridge, and suddenly Sam is like a cellophane film through which he can see the light streaming, and the taste of cheap beer on his tongue is much, much older a memory than it should be.

“Oh, you’re good,” he says, and means it.

Notes: What a great idea, and written so well! I always thought the show could have done so much more with djinns, but never mind.

In the House of the Rising Bun by imissmaeberry on AO3. (9,046 words).

Tags: Bakery and Coffee Shop, Baker Dean, Barista Sam, College Campus, Poet Castiel, Mutual Pining, Daddy Issues, Background Sam/Jess, Past Balthazar/Castiel.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Dean Winchester only has three rules concerning the cafe he and his brother Sam own, “House of the Rising Bun”.

1. Any and all opportunities to make a pun will be taken. 2. Free regular coffee with your student ID (If you want some of that fancy nonsense you gotta pay, sorry kids). 3. Anyone and everyone is always welcome.

Between Dean running the shop full-time and Sam helping out whenever he isn’t in class, there really isn’t a whole lot of time for romance for either of them. But that all changes when they gain a new regular - some writer from London - who may or may not have the bluest eyes Dean’s ever seen.

Notes: First of all, the puns were amazing and I am willing to fight people on that. Secondly, that was so sweet and funny I am afraid I might have to disappear under mysterious circumstances and open my own cafe…

I hope you enjoy these! I haven’t read any new fics for this list and even then there were way too many to put on one list, so expect a sequel at some point in the future!

#fic recs #destiel #sabriel #saileen #fanfics #supernatural #spn #spnfamily #10000 words #2000-10000

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intothewickedwood · 5 years ago

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Once Upon A Time Rewatch: 2x08 Into the Deep

Oh my God this scene with wet!Hook is so hott. Have I mentioned I kinda ship Captain of Hearts romantically? Not like in a serious relationship but ya know, they totally did the do ;).

I have no idea if Hook is lying to Cora about his intentions being to bring the bean to her.

I love dark scenes. I just love the dark, okay?

Hook, I’m pretty sure Cora could kill you in seconds if she wanted to. She took down a whole bunch of people in the safe haven!

“We can discuss this,” he says giving her the sexy eye. I just know these two did more than just plot revenge!

Wow that’s some powerful magic! She’s holding only one heart and yet she is controlling all of them at once. I forgot just how powerful Cora was. And holy cow, is she bringing the dead “back to life”? That would mean what Whale did could be accomplished by magic alone with the right sorcerer.

I wonder if MM and Emma ever thought they would be stuck in the EF forever.

Holy sugar, I’m so glad I no longer believe in hell because that room scared the sugar out of me before! How awful would it be to be trapped their for an extended length of time? How awful would it be to return their in your nightmares?

Bless David and Regina, watching over Henry as he sleeps to make sure he’s okay. That’s me when my doggy, Happi has nightmares.

Look I’m a vegetarian, but I gotta admit, replace the meet with some veggie burgers and those burgers and huge ass chips look yummy!

I wonder what happened with Granny and Rumple for her to have a complicated relationship with him.

Ketchup is definitely some powerful magic. Rumples voice: “It can make any food, nasty or otherwise, taste delicious.”

Have I mentioned I love Aurora’s outfit and I love that she has a purple dress ‘cause they mixed pink and blue!

Lol. Aurora is me in a forest getting caught on thinks. Actually never mind a forest, the amount of door handles I’ve been attacked by would frighten you.

You go Aurora! It’s so kind of her to do whatever she can to help MM and Emma.

Mr. Gold: “Once upon a time, Snow White and Prince Charming needed to stun a very powerful magician, long enough to lock him up in a dark dungeon.” Henry: “That was you. They used Cinderella to trap you with a magic quill.” Season one feels! I’m enjoying season two but my god, season one is just so special to me!

Once upon a time having giant squids is so taken from Harry Potter. I recently found out that giant squids aren’t mythical. They actually exist!

Mulan stroking Aurora’s forehead!! My sleeping Warrior heart!! Mulan deserved to be with Aurora. And now she’s tucking her in! Oh my god, help!!!!

The way Aurora spins up from the fire is so scary!

Oh snap! Cora’s minion’s! Seriously how did she do that??! They’re like inferi or something they are invincible. That must have been a really powerful spell!

Mulan crying for Aurora will be the death of me!

Ow! Poor Henry! As someone who got burnt on the foot by scolding hot water as a child, trust me that freaking hurts! I was in and out of hospital for months though. Henry sure healed quick! Oh yeah, magic!

Aurora’s being so brave! I freaking love her development!

Yes Aurora! You step on Cora’s foot with all your might!

“I’m not as stupid as you think, nor are my loyalties so easily bought.” What a gal!

Hey! Don’t hurt Aurora!

Tehe. How does one learn to speak bird. Does MM teach that at the school. Oh my God, imagine school in Storybrooke. Imagine if they teach magic there! Forget Hogwarts! I wanna go to Storybrooke high! So many fan fiction possibilities!

I think Cora is partly based on Maleficent with her black bird.

“I climbed a beanstalk for this, you go get your own!” Emma and Mulan being grown-ass adults.

Oh yeah, Gold healed Henry’s arm super quick! That makes sense.

David knows MM so well. Excuse me while I cry in snowing feels.

Sleeping hook! I shipped this for a while but I prefer Warrior Royals and Sleeping Warrior. I’m still working out my otp for original Hook.

Hook is playing a clever game here. I remember he took Aurora’s heart.

Is Hook being genuine with his message to Emma? I think he was trying to leave his options open.

I love when MM says things like, “if there’s one thing your father’s taught me it’s not to give up.” It reminds me of the family Emma has finally gained after all those years alone.

So that’s how you create a sleeping curse. Why couldn’t Regina have made that instead of stealing it from Maleficent and using that apple.

The EF definitely needed a school for magic. It could have saved Regina from seeking out Rumple.

Aww. Grandpa Charming hug!

It’s true, faith does run in their family.

Wait, I know time runs differently in the EF but is it really a good idea to send MM to sleep in the day?

David in the dark, what more could I ask for? I love the look of this place with the mirrors and the torch, It would be so creepy to be there alone.

Is he really holding that torch?!

Do not put that flame so near to your face!!

David is a clever boy figuring that out. I’d be stuck in that dark room forever. To be honest, the dark room is much more appealing than the fiery one.

Damn! Is the funky necklace broken?! He needed that.

MM angry

David always giving Snow hope <3 I love them so much!

Poor David’s all alone in that fiery room for God knows how long.

Mulan!!

The women are so powerful in this show, which I freaking love! You go Cora!

Cora revealing Hook’s chest with his Hook xD!!

O-oh! Cora’s got control of Aurora!

#ouat 2x08 #2x08 into the deep #ouat #once upon a time #princess aurora #ouat rewatch #ouat rewatch 2019

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ilovemygaydad · 6 years ago

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Friends in Dark Places [ch 6]

pairing: eventual moxiety, eventual logince, background eventual remile, background eventual remy/emile/deceit

WARNINGS: food mentions, eating, nightmares, crying, swearing, a poor excuse for the “sharing a bed” trope, anxiety, depression, possibly something else but it really is mostly fluff this chapter

tag list: @hufflepuffgirl01 @cocobearthe4th @cas-is-a-hunter@band-be-boss-blog @theunoriginaldaisy

a/n: so i have to repost all of these in a different format! yay fucking me!!!! please consider reblogging these if you’re a fan of this series because it’s all fucked up now

first - previous - next - companions

consider buying me a coffee (please)

When he’d agreed to stay with Patton’s family, Virgil really hadn’t thought about the fact that they would have dinner together every night, but here he was, sitting in their kitchen with a heaping plate of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans as they talked about anything and everything. He absently ate his food, not really listening to their conversation. It felt like he was intruding, even though they’d offered to take him in.

“So, Virgil. We hear you go to school with Patton. Do you have any classes with him?” Mrs. Shea asked. Virgil nearly choked on his food with the shock of being addressed so casually.

“Um, no. I don’t,” he responded quickly. He might’ve had some in the past, but high school was just one big blur to him. No use in keeping memories if there aren’t any to save.

“I see.” Mr. Shea hummed thoughtfully. “Do you have any fun classes this semester? Pat’s taking child guidance and he really enjoys it!”

“I have Graphics III and a Theatre independent study where I basically make sure everything's running smoothly for the shows.” Virgil pushed the remaining food around on his plate, determined to not make an ass of himself in front of people he barely knew.

“You do theatre? Pat, isn’t Roman trying out for ‘Cinderella?’” Mr. Shea seemed to be determined, too; however, his determination lied in a need to ask as many questions possible.

“Of course he is! He’d never pass up an opportunity to be on stage, especially if he can be a prince,” Patton said with a touch of platonic love in his voice. Virgil was shocked that Roman was trying out for the show. It wasn’t like the kid gave off a constant aura of drama or anything.

“I don’t act, just to be clear. I’m set designer and head of sound, so I deal with all of the sound effects and mics.” He’d never try out for a show. First, he had no interest to put himself on stage in a dumb costume in front of all of his peers, and second, he really, really didn’t want to have to spend more time with the snobby actors than he had to.

“Well, that’s fun!” Mrs. Shea said with a large smile. Virgil just nodded and took another bite of his mashed potatoes. The conversation luckily turned back to Patton’s other friends, and he was able to enjoy his dinner in the comfort of the defocused static of voices.

---

Somehow Virgil did manage to finish all of his homework the next day and also help Patton finish his. The happy-go-lucky teenager seemed to have some trouble with the more technical subjects like physics but had absolutely no issue with the more creative ones like comm arts. That made sense to Virgil, however, since Patton was much more emotional than logical. It was as if he channeled his emotions into whatever he did without really thinking it through as a step-by-step process.

Sunday night, Virgil went to sleep completely exhausted from the mentally-taxing work that he’d done that day. At around midnight, however, he woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his door. Virgil grabbed his phone and turned on the flashlight, leaving it on his nightstand face down so it would partially illuminate his bedroom, and walked to the door. Unsurprisingly, Patton was on the other side with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Surprisingly, wet tear tracks were staining his cheeks.

“Woah, Pat. Are you okay?” Virgil asked.

“I had a nightmare,” Patton softly cried. “It was really vivid, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Hey. It’s okay. I’m all good, see?” Virgil patted himself on the cheeks as some sort of weird assurance. “Do you want to sleep in here? I’ll sleep on the floor, and you can take my bed.”

The crying boy shook his head. “I don’t want you to have to give up your bed for me. I’ll sleep on the floor.” Patton made a move to go lay his blanket down, but Virgil grabbed his shoulder, easily stopping his movements.

“Okay, since you obviously aren’t going to make this easy for me, how about we just share the bed? There’s plenty of room for two people.” Virgil hesitated on that last part, still not completely comfortable with sharing a bed with someone he’d only met a week ago, but... he knew that Patton wasn’t going to let him be uncomfortable. Pat just nodded and waddled to the side of the bed where the sheets weren’t disrupted and sat down. Virgil followed, but flopped himself down on his own side.

“G’night, Pat. Sleep well.” He turned off his phone’s flashlight and pulled the covers over his head.

“Good night.”

---

When Virgil’s alarm woke him up at 6:30, he found himself with an arm on his waist and his legs tangled with someone else’s. He yelped and accidentally threw himself off of the bed; idly, he realized that his legs still partially hung on the mattress. It took him a few seconds to realize who was in the bed and why they were there, but that still didn’t explain why he’d ended up entangled with Patton.

He sighed and did a backwards somersault to right himself and stood. It probably would be appropriate to wake Patton up so he wouldn’t end up late to school. He sleepily traversed to the other side of the bed and began gently shaking his friend.

“Pat,” Virgil whispered. “Patton, it’s time to get up.” The still-asleep Patton groaned but rolled over, shielding his eyes from the sun filtering through the blinds. It took a little more shaking to actually get him out of the bed, but it was eventually done.

“I’m gonna go take a shower and get changed, so I suppose you should do the same,” Virgil said as he went to gather some clothes from his suitcase and walked into his own personal en-suite bathroom. Still pretty fancy.

Virgil took a short shower, spending just long enough under the water to thoroughly wash his hair and body, and got changed, smudging some dark eyeshadow under his eyes. He pulled on a pair of socks and laced up his favorite black high tops, being careful not to get any of his skinny jeans stuck inside. That was an uncomfortable mistake he’d learned to avoid after one fateful day.

He left his room at the same time Patton did, who was wearing another light-blue t-shirt with a grey cardigan tied around his waist. Any signs of his nightmare had been completely washed away.

“Hey, kiddo! Your outfit looks awesome!” Pat had a giant smile on his face.

“Uh, thanks… Your… shoes… look good?” Virgil didn’t know if he was supposed to return the compliment, so he tried. It didn’t work too well.

“Thanks! Let’s head downstairs and get some breakfast.” The duo made their way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Mrs. Shea was waiting with scrambled eggs and toast.

“If either of you need more food, I put the extras in the fridge in the red Tupperware container.” Mrs. Shea walked out of the kitchen, but Virgil had no idea where she had gone. He still hadn’t been in any of the rooms besides his and Pat’s bedrooms, and the whole layout of the house was a bit of a mystery. The adults obviously had a bedroom, but it didn’t seem like it was upstairs.

Each of the boys took a plate of food and sat down at the kitchen table. Virgil began to munch on his plain toast, idly messing around on his phone. For a few minutes, the only sounds in the kitchen were crunching toast and silverware on ceramic.

“How did you sleep, Virge?” Patton asked before shoving a giant forkful of eggs into his mouth. Virgil could see how Roman described Pat as a “food vacuum” while they were in the hospital.

“Pretty good. How about you--after your nightmare, of course?” Virgil took the final bite of his toast and began on his own eggs.

“I slept great!” Patton replied, but his voice became slightly more sheepish. “Thanks for letting me stay in your room.”

“Don’t worry about it, Pat,” the other reassured. It truly wasn’t a bother to Virgil; he’d slept better than he had in a long time. He switched off his phone to retain his full attention on his friend.

“Well, still. Thanks.” Patton glanced down at his watch. “We should probably finish up eating soon. Logan and Roman should be here soon to pick us up.”

Virgil nodded and scooped some more eggs into his mouth. It only took him another minute to finish and hand his plate to Patton, who had already began to rinse the dishes and load them into the dishwasher. Virgil ran upstairs to grabbed his backpack, making absolute certain that all of his homework and supplies were packed before bringing the whole thing down. Patton did the same, and they walked outside to sit on the porch together. Just a few minutes later, Logan’s beat-up Intrepid pulled into the driveway blasting “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” Virgil couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the sight of Roman dramatically singing along and Logan’s “I am so fucking done with your shit” expression.

It was going to be a really great day.

#sanders sides fic #moxiety #logince #m writes things #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders

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sunflowerinc · 5 years ago

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Looney Tunes Album Release Party

Part Four: Signing/Meet & Greet

-I was bopping along to the new songs playing through the speakers of the record store as I waited in line

-every so often, I would glance over at the boys while they were meeting the other fans. I saw Kellin air drumming/doing a little dance several times & it was Adorable; he also pretended to punch Justin in the face at one point aiskgjhafkhsj

There was another moment where Jack + Justin were headbanging together & I was like,,,They’re Groovin;;;;;;Go Crazy aaaaa Go Stupid aaaaa

-When I got closer to the front, Kellin spotted me through the rows of CDs; we made eye contact & then he gave me a sweet smile + a little wave!!!!! IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER, MY HEART MELTED

-Once it was my turn for the m&g, the boys celebrated my arrival. Kellin did a funky little jig as I walked up to them, he’s toO PRECIOUS AGH

-Nick + Kellin each gave me a hug & said it was good to see me again :D

-Then, I prepared to surprise my Boy: earlier in the day, I had taken a walk through Party City to pass the time before getting on line for the show. I originally intended to refrain from gifts on this occasion, but I was curious to see if I could find Haribo gummy bears (yknow, just for the heck of it. Totally not about to get my favorite person his favorite candy) Sure enough, they were in the candy section......along with something even better: Haribo gummy dinosaurs. The most ambitious crossover in history & the perfect combination of the two things I had given him @ Disrupt. I Knew this was an opportunity that I simply could not pass up.......

-I excitedly held up the bag of candy & told Kellin “I got you a combination of the gifts I brought last time!” He FLIPPED OUT & exclaimed “No Way!!!!!” while looking completely shocked & full of joy!! He said “Thank you so much, I don’t even know if I can eat these, I just wanna save them forever!!” & gave me another hug 🥰

-Nick said “honestly, at this point we should just take you with us on tour! then you can always be there to give us gummy bears & smiles wherever we go!” to which of course I replied “!!!!!!!!! I would LOVE that” (my dude, my guy, just save me a spot on the bus, I’m already There,,,,, I have no life to get back to, nothing to lose......I’m all yours, take me with u 🥺)

**Also, I just Love how I’ve had “Serotonin Machine For SWS” written at the top of my blog for a while now as a joke, but!! You heard it here first folks!!!! The Boys have confirmed it to be true, this is my official title. Can’t believe I actually have my dream job

-Kellin asked me how I was doing, so I told him what I had said to Nick earlier (“Everything has been very rough lately, which is exactly why I came here, because seeing you guys makes me happy”) He told me “I’m so happy that you’re here, seeing you always brightens my day!” & Nick agreed, so I said meeting them is what I live for :’) I lost count of how many times each of them said “I love you” + gave me a hug, which I think is just beautiful ❤️💙

-As the night went on, I had grown increasingly determined to shower Kellin with affection bc he Must be reminded of how amazing he is! So the first chance I got, I took a moment to say “I’m so proud of you for making it through everything & pouring your heart out into this record, you all did such an amazing job, it’s so beautiful & I love it!!!” My ted talk was full of Loving Crackhead energy & the words came tumbling out before I could even think of what to say next, but he appreciated it a whole lot :’)

**A kind of random little note: I love how I’m so comfortable around the boys that I forget about my social difficulties/anxiety. I’m not afraid to look/sound like a mess or be my autistic weird self bc I know they won’t mind & love me just the way I am 🥰

-Justin & Jack were also happy to see me 8) they each gave me a hug & asked how I was doing

-I took my picture with the boys, but then they beckoned my dad to step in for a photo. He laughed & said “Nah, I don’t think Angel would want me in the picture with them”, which is very true. However, if it means I get to spend more time around my Boys & take another photo with them, then Cheers I’ll Drink To That Bro. (Also, Justin trying to plead with me by saying “Just one! It won’t hurt” was too cute for me to say no😝)

**I’m honestly planning to superimpose Gabe on top of my dad in the picture with him bc my dad has no rights & Gabe will always be a part of the family. Also I find the concept to be quite amusing**

-After the photos were taken, I got more hugs from all the boys. They said “We’ll see you again soon!” so I told them I would be at the Tampa show in October, which made them v excited. Jack said something to me right before we had to part ways, but in that very moment, I felt like some kind of autistic cinderella with the clock striking midnight as my social impairments returned & I lost the ability to cover them up. Auditory processing issues smacked me in the face without warning & I couldn’t understand any of the words he just spoke, so I froze there with a smile on my face & I’m positive they could hear the windows startup noise go off in my head. I felt awful about it, but like I said before: I know they’ll always love me even with my poor communication skills + awkwardness 🤣

#sleeping with sirens #my show #story time #i say stuff #text

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ollyarchive · 6 years ago

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Years & Years’ Olly Alexander: ‘There’s entrenched homophobia at all levels of the music industry’

The frontman speaks to Brian O’Flynn about the importance of queer voices, the decline of pop music and how he keeps his mental health struggles in check

The past couple of years have seen queer pop acts climb their way up the cultural ladder. Artists such as Christine and the Queens, Hayley Kiyoko, Janelle Monae, Troye Sivan and Sam Smith are all pouring their sexuality into their music – by and large to critical acclaim. One of the most prominent members of this new queer cohort is Olly Alexander, frontman of British synthpop band Years & Years. But for him, there’s still a long way to go.

“There’s entrenched homophobia behind the scenes at all levels of the music industry,” says the 28-year-old. “It’s got so much better, but I think it’s gonna take a radical shift before these men who are in control of the funds and the labels and the radio stations are gonna be OK with overt queerness. They see it as turning off part of the audience.”

Years & Years, who play London’s O2 Arena today, came out in a big way in 2015. After being named BBC Sound of 2015 in January, the three-piece secured their first number one single a couple of months later, before topping the album charts that July with their debut record, Communion. Musically, they skilfully tapped into the then-zeitgeist for soulful pop-house.

By this point, Alexander was already a fairly familiar face, having appeared as an actor in the Channel 4 drama Skins, as well as Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void and Laura Wade’s The Riot Club. He was always out, but his lyricism at the time was more cloaked than it is these days, his hair a demure brown and his body wrapped in unassuming boy-next-door T-shirts. Three years later, you’d scarcely recognise him touring second album Palo Santo. His hair now a fiery red inspired by Rihanna – whom he recently met on The Graham Norton Show – Alexander bounces out on stages in glittery bodysuits and high-fashion ensembles while singing about BDSM and breaking up with boyfriends.

“There were a lot of people who were uncomfortable with how overtly sexual this album was,” says Alexander. “When we did our show for the first time we had a few comments that it wasn’t family friendly. I reject that completely.”

Though their recent single “If You’re Over Me” climbed to number six, Years & Years’ second, more unambiguously gay record hasn’t quite matched the chart-topping success of Communion, where the lyrics and visuals were more neutral. Christine and the Queens, too, has experienced a drop-off in mainstream chart success with her second album, itself more gender non-conforming in its aesthetic. Given what Alexander says about the music industry, is it possible that the wider public is still less comfortable with explicit queerness than we’d like to believe, for all the recent renaissance of the LGBT+ pop scene?

“The music industry has changed so much,” he argues, “and audiences have changed the way they listen to music, so across the board many artists haven’t been able to replicate the success they had a few years ago. Pop music is very trend-driven as well, and it’s very focused on hip hop now – look at Drake in the US. So, ‘pop pop’ music is definitely on the wane.”

“Pop pop music” is undoubtedly what Years & Years represent. Their synth-heavy, swooping sound feels like it belongs in a queer cathedral, like layered gay organ music, their lyrics riffing off this religious association in songs such as “Worship” and “Sanctify”. If there’s a church Alexander is genuflecting at it’s that of Britney Spears, and Nineties pop-R&B courses, quite clearly, through his blood.

The nervous, handwringing ebullience Alexander exudes when talking about Britney or Rihanna never fully leaves him. He’s restless and fastidiously polite, saying “aw, thank you” to any remotely positive comment and constantly apologising for himself (“Oh no, I’ve explained that so badly,” he often says). A lot of discussion around him is excitable and feverish, too, given what he represents for so many young gay people.

Just as Alexander has elevated the queerness in his work, so too he’s become a leading spokesperson for the wider LGBTQ+ community. He has used his TV appearances to protest homophobic laws in Poland, and patiently guided just about every interviewer and presenter in the global media through gay politics and identity. He also presented a BBC documentary on gay mental health, after a good deal of dark firsthand experience.

He says he still needs to be “militant” about his own daily routines to keep himself together. “I know it sounds so obvious, but I didn’t eat three meals a day for a very long period of my life so I have to make sure I do it now,” he says with a laugh. He’s mostly happy these days, though still struggles from time to time: “I had two weeks earlier this month where I just felt really low and it really freaked me out, actually. Whenever I start to feel a bit low, I think I overreact because I’m scared I’m going to retreat into this hellish black hole I used to be in as a teenager.”

We needn’t worry, though – he has routines in place now to keep him balanced: “I sing in the mornings and count my blessings like Cinderella!” Though Alexander projects this kind of warm, smiley enthusiasm, my main impression of him is one of measured realism. He coolly and carefully unpicks the state of queerness, queer pop, and his place in it all.

“I think the reason I’ve been so committed to advocacy is because I see so many people in pain,” he says. “We’re seeing a lot of infiltration of mainstream spaces which is super exciting and positive but... I don’t know if I’d call it a tipping point.

“I just don’t know if the perception of that ‘successful’ queer pop narrative is reflected in the realities of people’s lives,” he continues. “A lot of the fans who message me are really suffering. I really do worry there isn’t enough being done to help – enough provision in place.”

In the rush to celebrate the sense of joy and freedom that’s come along with figures such as Alexander, Troye Sivan and Sam Smith, we perhaps overlook how much work is still left to be done. This burden never seems to be far from Alexander’s mind: even as he works to project his own queerness, he worries about who he’s talking over. “There’s a glaring similarity between us,” he says of fellow stars Sivan and Smith. “It would be outrageous to say we haven’t benefited from whiteness. I always go around in my head like, ‘Am I just continuing to enable that system, am I just creating more problematic shit by taking up space as a gay man?’”

“It’s upsetting to see how poor the representation of such a diverse community is,” he continues. “It’s still the same people being asked to speak on things. Sometimes I’m like, ‘Can’t we have someone else’? But then at the same time, I’m like, ‘Well, if they’re asking me to speak I’d better say something!’”

Alexander isn’t content to just throw his hands up in the air, though. It seems he’s found a way to kill two birds with one stone; to make more provision for young gay people, and hand some of his speaking time over to those who are less represented. His next big project is his plan to create a queer festival called Rendez-Vous.

“It came from wanting to create an inspirational network for queer people,” he says. Their shows in London will be a trial run of sorts, a precursor to something bigger in the future. Trans icon Munroe Bergdorf will compere, there will be sexual health information stands and gender neutral bathrooms. “Hopefully it will eventually become a festival,” he says. “It’s basically about giving the stage over to amazing talent. I haven’t really experienced that anywhere yet.”

The London show will feature fast-rising pansexual popstar Rina Sawayama, and he reels off a list of acts he wants to see there in the future. Primarily, he wants to empower marginalised voices and share his platform, to leverage some of his accumulated influence on to those less heard. “We have a unique opportunity to introduce Years & Years audiences, who aren’t all queer, to some acts they wouldn’t come across in their usual Spotify playlists. And I want there to be queer thinkers giving speeches, and a place where you can get tested, have it be community focused. Giving back to the community is something that I care about,” he concludes. “Oh god, I’ve explained it really badly,“ he apologises yet again, though he hasn’t at all.

As LGBT and female acts tend to be sidelined in mainstream festivals, and straight men still dominate the industry, this is an exciting and novel prospect. You can’t be pushed out if you own the space, right?

In the meantime, Alexander’s off to make sure he gets some food before his show tonight, when he’ll get a different kind of nourishment. “You know when you’re playing a video game and Mario needs to eat mushrooms to get big and stay alive? Playing shows to queer people, it kind of feels like that,” he says. “It restores my energy.”

Years & Years are currently touring the UK

#olly alexander #years & years #yearsandyears #articles #interviews #the independent #palo santo #lgbtq

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megareviews · 6 years ago

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Spring 2019 First Impressions

The Spring list is late as usual (is it usual if it’s only the second instance?), but at least I’m closer to the beginning than last year. I’ve reached 50% completion on the doing this for an entire year consistently, so nice.

Aikatsu Friends!: Kagayaki no Jewel (Aikatsu Friends!: Jewel of Radiance): Aikatsu is relatively low on my priority list of magical girl megaseries.

Bakugan Battle Planet: This show actually premiered last semester, but in English, and this season is when the Japanese dub started. Either way it’s somewhere deep in the Bakugan series, which is based off of what are probably my least played children’s toys.

BAKUMATSU Crisis: Second season of an otome game adaption that looked okay when I started it, but I still haven’t watched past the first episode.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Bokuben / We Never Learn): The main show that I know the source material of, and it is just about meeting my expectations. An average guy who has to study rigorously to maintain his average grades is put in charge of tutoring the two smartest people in his school. This might not make sense until it’s explained that he has to tutor them in their worst subjects, because those subjects are the ones they want to major in for college. It’s a nice theme of working hard for what you enjoy situated in a rom-com with some haremy aspects and an unusually high density of goofy faces, so watch it if you like those aspects.

Bungou Stray Dogs 3: I still need to see what they did with HP Lovecraft in season 2

Carole & Tuesday: What happens when a runaway rich girl and a poor orphan girl meet up on Mars? They form a band of course. A tale of two lonely souls finding each other and become a little less lonely in a big world, making music together. It looks great and it sounds amazing, so this is definitely a priority watch.

Chou Kadou Girl 1/6 (Amazing Stranger): Imagine Buzz Lightyear from the original Toy Story except in a 20 -something guy’s house and then failing the don’t move when humans are around rule almost immediately. That’s what this show is.

Cinderella Girls Gekijou CLIMAX SEASON (Cinderella Girls Theater CLIMAX SEASON): For somebody who doesn’t watch idol shows, the theater shorts are pretty fun, though I’m not nearly caught up in this one to say how this season is going.

Diamond no Ace Act II: Oh boy there’s so much baseball this season and a lot of it is sequels.

Fairy Gone: There’s a lot of things going on in this show but I think I can simplify it to military use of fairies to give soldiers super powers. The protagonist has been taking jobs as a mercenary to find her sister who was split from her after their village was burnt down. Then at an auction that she works as a guard, things start going wrong and the thief who appears is none other than that sister. The first episode ends with the end of a three way fight between security and the girls, so I’m not sure where the show’s going at all. Maybe if the show didn’t flash back to the protagonist’s village burning down three times, there would be a little more time to give direction.

Fruits Basket (2019): I never know how to deal with reboots for shows that I can remember, but haven’t seen the original. I know there’s people who turn into animals and a “do the carpets match the drapes” joke, and that’s about it from the 2001 anime.

Gunjou no Magmel (Magmel of the Blue Sea): After a new continent appears in the world, explorers flock to it, not always as prepared as they should be for venturing into the unknown. The main character works at a company to rescue explorers from mishaps along with a few others. The worldbuilding is interesting and the main character’s black lightning is pretty cool looking, but his attitude and decision making abilities kinda put me off for now. That and the comprehensibility of the subtitles I was watching fell off a cliff halfway through the episode.

Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine (Cinderella Nine in August): So far it looks like a pretty standard club building show based around women’s baseball. It looks nice and we have 4 club members as of the first episode, so they should make it to at least full team of nine pretty quickly. It looks nice outside of an odd montage near the end of the episode when the club plays a game with some local kids, and the character designs are a bit more memorable than the usual baseball cast. I appreciate the fact that they’re playing hardball, but I’m not the type of person to watch anything sports ever.

Hangyaku-sei Million Arthur 2 (Operation Han-Gyaku-Sei Million Arthur): All I know about this show is that there’s a bunch of characters named Arthur and that it’s a sequel.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu (Hitori Bocchi's ○○ Lifestyle): When one of the most socially anxious kids in elementary school gets separated by her only friend when they go to different middle schools, her friend gives her a quest: to become friends with everybody in her new class. She’s got a real go-getter attitude, but from feeling physical pain from trying to talk to a stranger to fainting when somebody actually responds to her, she’s got a rough path ahead of her. It’s a really fun show that gets you rooting for the main character in her attempts of communicating with others in a normal manner.

Isekai Quartet: Four of the biggest isekai series in one short mash-up is a recipe for confusion. Especially since they’re all put together in a school setting where no fighting is allowed, even if there are holy gods and undead abominations in the same class. Anything can happen with all these people taken from their original normal lives, tossed into various fantasy worlds, and then slam dunked back into a relatively normal setting.

Jimoto ga Japan (I’m From Japan): I cannot find a trace of the anime anywhere online and I am glad of this having read the manga. It is just a really dumb comedy about Japanese prefectures that I struggled to read a few chapters of before giving up.

Joushikausei: A silent anime, as in there’s no spoken words, about a few high school girls. It’s an interesting concept, but I found it a bit uncomfortable to watch, mostly due to the whimpering and other nonverbal noises the girls were making.

Kedama no Gonjirou (Gonjiro the Yarn Ball): A children’s show that hasn’t been licensed and no group is fansubbing it, how unusual… It actually looks interesting though so I might search for the raws to check it out.

Kenja no Mago (The Magi’s Grandson): A child raised by a powerful wizard in the country reaches an age where he can move out to the city and attend a magical high school. Unfortunately for him, his parental figures only taught him combat and magic, so he doesn’t really know how to sustain himself in the reals world. It is a decent concept but there’s a 50/50 chance of any scene looking nice or looking awful, and the scene transitions all look like they were made in Powerpoint.

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slaying Blade): A happy family of coal sellers is destroyed in a night when a demon strikes. The eldest son was out due to a combination of work and a blizzard, and when he returns he finds all but one of his family members completely cold and covered in blood. This last member is rushed down the mountainside for medical aid, only to turn into a demon on the way down. A meeting with a demon slayer turns tricky as he tries to protect his demonized sister who’s fighting between killing instincts and her love of her brother. The opening promises some beautiful animations and the overall show isn’t slacking either, so overall it’s a very promising show.

KING OF PRISM -Shiny Seven Stars-: It’s the TV version of a boy band movie tetralogy which is also a sequel I think?

Kiratto Pri☆chan Season 2: A sequel to a idol anime that I reviewed last year. I think this is one of the first times a sequel has shown up that I also reviewed the first season of, though unfortunately it was for a show that I didn’t watch fully.

Kono Oto Tomare! (Stop this Sound!): One more club building show for this season, this one about a Japanese instrument called a koto. After all the upperclassmen of the club graduated in the previous year, only the main character is left in the club, and needs more members before the club gets closed, the usual. The first new member is a seemingly delinquent 1st year who is surprisingly diligent. There wasn’t too much interesting or unique other than the topic of the club, so music fans might find this more watchable than I.

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO (YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World): The first episode for this kind of front-loaded introducing characters and pulled out its premise of parallel dimensions and a device to navigate them towards the end, which means I’d probably have to watch another episode to figure out how I feel about it. It’s nice to not have a giant exposition dump take up the first episode of a show, especially since it will have two cours to tell a story, but I didn’t feel any particular gravitation towards the characters by this point, so I won’t be prioritizing any follow-up on it.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin (Midnight Occult Civil Servants): With a job at a place called the Nocturnal Community Relations Division, the first thought of the type of people dealt with is most likely not going to be fairies. Our main character is taken from a world of the ordinary to being able to see and talk to the supernatural creatures that live locally, called Anothers. His co-workers are equipped with magically enchanted police tape and other trinkets to help solve issues that occasionally arise between Anothers. I like the modern fantasy setting, and the fairly low level fights with the supernatural so far, so there’s promise in where the show goes.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Ao Can’t Study): While the name Ao is usually blue, or sometimes even moth, in this case, it stands for Adult Only, the 18+ rating in Japan. This is due to her father’s profession, an erotic writer, and surprisingly, the main character hates her father for naming her that and spends her entire life studying to get into a college far enough away from him. This is thwarted by a guy confessing to her and filling her mind with romance and lewder thoughts, with the help of her father. I hate this as a concept and don’t watch this.

Mix: A semi-sequel baseball anime. I say semi, because from what I’ve gathered it is recommended but not necessary to watch the original first.

Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? (Why is my Teacher Here!?): It’s about a male student and his teacher, ending up in awkward situations together, like being trapped together in a men’s bathroom stall. A show of pure fanservice through and through, so there’s not much else to say.

Namu Amida Butsu!: Rendai Utena: What started out as an action about cleansing impurities from the world gives us a quick bait ‘n switch to a slice of life about gods bumbling about in the human world attempting to be competent humans. I found it irritating to watch, and it was very clearly based off of a gacha game, which do not have a good track record of making good shows.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma (Nobunaga’s Young Bride): A modern age middle school teacher way down the ancestral tree of Oda Nobunaga meets the bride of the man himself, who traveled to the present from the day of the original Nobunaga’s death. She’s no older than when she left her original time, which leaves her at 14 years old, with no knowledge of modern day Japan so she’s stuck with the main character’s family and decides to be the new Nobunaga’s bride anyways, which… is weird.

One Punch Man 2: A big sequel of the season, and one where people have been waiting with wary anticipation due to the change in animation studio and director. It definitely looks a lot stiffer than the first season, for action and non-fight scenes, but the story is a bit more interesting in my opinion, as the show starts working on fleshing out other heroes and why they fight.

RobiHachi: the first episode of this really is a springboard for setting up what the plot and cast will be, just about starting right at the very end. We’ve got an ultra gullible man in debt, a genius teen with no sense of purpose, a robot rabbit helper, and their spaceship that blares its own theme song when it transforms into a mech. They set off to find a legendary planet that grants happiness after a couple of hijinks on their starting planet. It’s a very busy show, both visually and plot wise, but still an enjoyable experience if you can keep up.

Sarazanmai: 50% connecting with other people through oversharing with them, 50% kappas stealing souls from other people’s butts. It’s hard to describe the show but I’m having a good time, and the art is gorgeous, and special care is taken with little details in the show. I’d say watch the first episode definitely, and then decide whether or not to follow up on the rest of the show.

Senryuu Shoujo (Senryuu Girl): The focus of the show is on the Japanese poetry type of Senryuu, mostly because the main character can only communicate with others through writing these poems. Thankfully, she’s got some good friends and is in her school’s Literature Club, so she has plenty of practice and is around people who appreciate her work.

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san (Meddlesome Fox Senko): The fox gods of the world have a duty to protect humans, and are becoming more proactive in seeking out humans with negative emotions before those emotions go out of control. In comes the male lead of the show, an overworked businessman who has basically just been going through the motions of life by this point. One of the fox gods appears in his house, doing the cooking, cleaning, and other tasks to help relieve the main guy’s stress. It’s comfy and there’s some funny moments, but I feel like the show would be better off as a more episodic show featuring various humans rather than just the one that it looks like the show will focus on. I’m also worried about the romance genre tag that the show has.

Shingeki no Kyojin 3 Part 2 (Attack on Titan 3 Part 2): I’m still on episode 5 of the original series, with no particular motivation to make it any further. More people die in bloody explosions probably.

Shoumetsu Toshi (Lost City): As the title of the show would imply there is a city that has been lost to humanity, as in, it just disappeared one day. The main female character is the only one who survived the city disappearing, and is targeted by a mysterious group due to that, and she tries to return to where the lost city used to be due to a message by her father who went missing with the city. In addition there was a monk with super powers who was standing on a motorcycle’s handlebars facing off against the main girl who could summon her Lost bodyguard with a bunch of guns but that was kinda just thrown in at the end.

Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu! (Strike Witches 501st Join Fighter Wing Takes Off!): Oh god it’s been so long since I’ve consumed Strike Witches content. This is a slice of life spin off of the original series, so the context is recommended, but not necessary. The animation is also very much on the rough side for a ten minute long short.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki (Yatogame’s Observation Diary): After briefly being disappointed in the lack of heavy Nagoya dialects encountered in Nagoya, the main character runs into a classmate who happens to have one. In addition, all of her favorite foods and animals are popular or famous in Nagoya, so he sticks around with her for meeting his ideals of what a Nagoyan should be. They then travel the city as part of the photography club to see all the sights of the city.

Youkai Watch!: Despite what it looks like from the title, this is pretty deep in a line of sequels of Youkai Watch.

#Megareviews #first episodes #anime review #Spring 2019

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theyweresoulmates · 7 years ago

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kdramas that everyone should watch

Playful Kiss

:) this drama has a special place in my heart

i found playful kiss because i had just finished the anime adaptation(which is really good, pls check it out its called itazura na kiss)

basically female lead is dumb as rocks but she has a crush on cold male lead who is really hot and extremely smart

her house collapses in an earthquake and male leads family are friends with her dad, so they move into male leads house aaaaand you can assume what happens

very sweet and lighthearted although sometimes you wish female lead would give up on male lead cause he’s super rude and shes THAT stubborn

Boys Over Flowers

idk why you wouldnt know about this one

kinda overrated but really good overall

girl starts going to rich kid school and cold male rich lead falls in love with her

this drama is why i love Lee Min Ho

some parts might make you angry cause male lead can be infuriatingly selfish

took me forever to finish

Heartstrings

my girl park shin hye is in this and shes cute as hell

male lead is cold and hot (i love cold guys)

basically playful kiss except girl isnt dumb and theres music

solid OST

Pretty Man

this drama invented melodrama lol

like its SUCH a soap opera sometimes

but also its cute

it took me a couple tries to get through it

IU is in it and shes basically the heart of this show

male lead is unbelievably hot as the title insinuates

IU loves male lead but he could really care less

then his mom dies and shit hits the fan quick

basically he has to seduce women and build a business to get this passcode thing his mom left behind

spoilers

male lead is actually in love with IU’s character Bo Tong the whole show but it takes him forever to realize it

i love IU

Shining Inheritance

SUCH AN UNDERRATED DRAMA

basically the same idea as Boys Over Flowers but they’re graduated

kind of melodramatic

male lead is typical cold guy (lol)

female lead becomes poor after her dad ‘dies’ and then her autistic brother goes missing and this poor girl omg i feel for her she goes through SO MUCH

somewhere in the drama she becomes an heir to another families fortune and male lead is PISSED (as is the rest of his family)

side characters are really annoying ngl

i watched this drama really fast

its so good

The Heirs

this drama is BASICALLY Shining Inheritance and Boys Over Flowers combined

but minus all the stupid parts and drawn out storylines

park shin hye AND lee min ho are in it

they’re the leads

i lowkey got second male lead syndrome but got over it cause <3 <3 <3 Lee Min Ho

male lead isnt as cold as the previous male leads mentioned but he isnt super nice either

Strong Woman Bo Dong Soon

if i could rewatch this drama a hundred times i would

if this show doesnt make you melt and giggle like a child you arent human

male lead is unbelievably cute

and female lead is so so so cute too

the love triangle is actually tolerable unlike the dramas previously listed

i love the male lead in this one tho so much

bo dong soon (our female lead) is super strong and male lead is a CEO so he hires bo dong to be his bodyguard

EVEN THOUGH HE HAS HIRED HER AS A BODYGUARD HE STILL TRIES TO PROTECT HER DESPITE HER BEING UNBELIEVABLY STRONG

its also SO FUNNY ive never laughed so hard watching a drama

the chemistry between the leads are tangible i swear to god i cant

mamamoo sings a song for the ost ;)

Cinderella and The Four Knights

the second drama to actually make me cry

overall a really cute show

i dont understand the ads for this show tho cause dramafever advertised it as like a sequel to Boys Over Flowers but ITS NOTHING like Boys Over Flowers

she lives with her stepmom and stepsister who suck

and then her dad kicks her out after a wicked plot twist

so this ceo guy is like “move in with my grandsons they are awful people you can help them but dont date them”

so you KNOW from the get-go she’s gonna have to date one of them!

so theres three male leads

one cold rebellious guy (ha)

the rich spoiled brat

and the nice one whose a singer

also theres the butler dude but he isnt really romantically linked to female lead, hes just a chill dude who has his own storyline (WHICH MAKES YOU WANNA SCREAM)

cannot stand the side romance in this between two characters i wont name

second female lead gets on my nerves

however, the main romance, i eat that shit up

it takes a while for them to get together but totally worth and hella cute

i adore this ost???? so much????

on the lowest of keys i had second male lead syndrome

Scarlet Heart: Ryeo

this drama destroyed my will to live

its SO SAD

i’d explain the plot but its complicated and very convoluted

i dont really like historical dramas but i LOVED this one

also

IU is in it :)

OST is the greatest ever

WE NEED A SEASON 2

spoiler: ending will make you wanna die

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo

idk why this did bad in Korea

but im happy its gained a lot of popularity recently

its so so so cute

the relationship is so loving

both leads have such GOOD chemistry together

the plot seems simple: she’s a weightlifter and he swims and they were childhood friends uh kind of

then they hit you with that heavy shit

you just have to watch

#kdramas #playful kiss #scarlet heart:ryeo #cinderella and the four knights #weightlifting fairy kim bok joo #strong woman bo dong soon #pretty man #the heirs #boys over flowers #heartstrings #kdrama #korean drama #2017

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ariainstars · 3 years ago

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@soloscavenger353

Thank you for the reblog and your thoughts. See my answers below.

1. I did not suggest that „children read fanfiction”. I am not aware from which part of my meta you interpreted that. I assume most readers are young girls and women.

2. If these silly fanfictions were only a few and in between, I wouldn’t mind, but my impression is that they have become a real pest ever since TLJ came out.

3. Ever wondered why nowadays so many women come out confessing that they were the victim of some scam artist? A guy whom they e.g. matched on Tinder, who made them believe he was rich and showered them with gifts and attention for a while, only to want money from them due to “some business having gone badly” later on, and after having got said money left them never to be seen or heard of again? I’m sure the popularity of stuff like FSOG and its derivates has nothing to do with it. (Sorry not sorry about the sarcasm.)

4. Our today’s society is decadent enough. We need no more encouragement from stories who pick up where glam magazines and Instagram influencers leave us, making us believe that a person can only be happy by living “The Life”, i.e. being so wealthy that they can spend the rest of their lives shopping useless stuff (which they forget the next moment), driving luxury cars, travelling by private jets, and having lots of sex in the meantime before they get bored to death.

5. Applied to Reylo, since Rich Bad Boy and Tough Poor Girl stories thrive like the plague, this does not show a fandom that consumes certain stories “responsibly”. On the contrary, they are obviously read and passed on fawning over them, together with the conviction that they describe True Love, and forming the ideas of many young girls and women about what love is supposed to look like. (Cinderella’s prince may have been boring as hell, but at least he wasn’t a killer.)

I wrote over and over that I am not a fan of TRoS. I dislike it because it’s badly made, because it wrapped up the saga in a disappointing way, and because it didn’t even hint at a comeback for Ben although he is the hero of the sequels. I dislike that movie wholeheartedly.

But, sometimes I tend to be a little sarcastic. And stumbling about these disgusting fanfictions over and over, after a while I considered that since everything has a positive side, maybe Ben’s death will at least discourage the toxic and silly side of the fandom to stop using him as an excuse for the revolting Reylo stories which are written and consumed with the excuse “Oh, but we all know it’s only fiction”.

Humanity is in the middle of a terrible crisis, our economy no longer providing a living despite hard work for millions of people, climate crashing all around us, and new warzones in Europe. No one needs more of this superficial, selfish mentality “Oh, if only I was rich and could have sex all day!” I hate that I have to come across so many stories which enhance these silly dreams over and over, females sighing about how wonderful it must become a useless person, and how they would forgive a Bad Boy any crime as long as he’s both sexy and rich, because you know, that’s what True Love looks like.

We are supposed to envy billionaires and influencers and to struggle to be like them. Star Wars, a story that used to be about redemption, family legacy and forgiveness, come the second instalment of the sequels was reduced in the minds of many fans to a “love story but without any responsibility” trope.

Despite modern females allegedly all being “free and equal”, very many contemporary “love” stories glorify sick power dynamics, with the guy allegedly controlling the girl through his physical prowess and his money, while in truth she is controlling him because she knows how to manipulate his feelings. This distorted idea of “love” is spreading like wildfire through many fandoms, including Star Wars and, with it, Reylo. It’s not the fault of the studios. They did not come up with the idea and they did not encourage it. I find it highly disturbing that so many female fans believe they have found an ideal playground for their sick fantasies.

As I said over and over, everybody can have and keep their own opinion. But right now, I’m fed up and disgusted by what the Star Wars sequel fandom has become. Which is why, yes, maybe it’s good the studios ended the saga in a way that doesn’t encourage any more of this distorted mentality. Yes, it’s true that some fans will write on and on no matter what, but I still remember how the fandom practically exploded after TLJ. It was after this movie came out that the fandom gradually and partly became toxic and FSOG / Twilight-style stories started popping up like mushrooms, pulling out all the stops and hardly leaving room for morals or legitimate concerns any longer. TRoS, as bad as it is, at least leaves little to no room for these alleged “romantic” interpretations.

Hopefully, there still is room for a better future.

Ben Solo? Sorry. Maybe He’s Better Off Dead.

I have read it more times than I can count: Ben Solo shouldn’t have died, that’s what one side of the fandom says. The other side argues “Reylo’s have destroyed Star Wars.”

Both are right. And both are wrong in a way.

Yes, I was disappointed when Ben Solo died at the end of the sequel trilogy. He was by far my favorite character, the most intriguing of the movies and one of the most interesting of the entire saga.

My husband argued for years that they couldn’t let a patricide and multiple killer live, let alone give him a happy ending. And I myself was skeptical when it came to the popular Reylo interpretation that “their love” would save the day. Apart from the fact that it would have fitted a romance but not an action movie; important as personal developments and relationships always are in the saga, it would have been sappy.

However, since this is the Skywalker saga, I figured that they couldn’t kill the last of their blood; and since the Force wants Balance and this was heavily foreshadowed in The Last Jedi, I imagined Ben, alone or with Rey’s help, would somehow find the key to this balance and pass it on. Had that happened, at least his death would have had some meaning. The Rise of Skywalker was an unsatisfying ending because it brought the saga back to zero, with a Palpatine in charge and no hero in sight. I still don’t like it. But as for Ben Solo, I sometimes think that maybe this was the best ending for him after all.

One great mistake I made was to spend too much time on social media after having seen The Last Jedi, a movie that I was and still am enthusiastic about. I quickly learned to keep away from the toxic parts of the fandom and found myself mostly among Ben Solo and Adam Driver fans, romantic souls who obviously expected some Disney-style happy ending. It was nice to exchange thoughts and dive deeper into the saga’s theme together with these fans. The downside was that we all set our hopes high and fed off each other’s energies expecting with too much certainty that Ben would get his happy ending.

And that’s not the worst part.

The most annoying part of the fandom, for me, has become the realm of Reylo fanfiction.

While I have read some that are very good, by now I am fed up with the probably most common Reylo trope: “poor, tough girl and rich bad boy”. Yes, I know that we read and write fanfiction only for entertainment, but isn’t it going a little too far when in every second Reylo fanfiction you stumble on the Fifty Shades of Grey narrative?

The morals of such stories are more than dubious, you can call me narrow-minded and old fashioned all you want. Poor girl meets guy who is tall, dark and fascinating, finds that sex with him is lots of fun, and the fact that he’s a billionaire doesn’t hurt either. (A millionaire is no longer enough: nowadays to give a girl everything she wants, billions are necessary. I wonder what she could possibly need.) Of course the hero has some dark, distant past, like having killed and tortured people, but that only adds to his fascination. The fact that he wears Armani and drives a Maserati only adds to his charm. Poor girl, not having had a family growing up and no education, has a low inhibition threshold, so she enjoys kinky sex with the bad guy, can’t get away from him because “his tormented soul needs her”, and because the wicked things he did or still does add spice to their sexual relation; besides, he can offer her silk dresses, a brand-new luxury apartment and jewels the size of rocks. Either she’s so poor that she is dazed by all the magnificence, or she’s doing well enough but she will take what she can, even if he did not earn all his money but inherited it or got it the criminal way. Besides, rich boy and his girlfriend don’t have to worry about old socks lying around, empty pantries and overcooked meals, since he can afford plenty of servants for such boring, mundane tasks. Of course she will forgive him and love him - who would let such a magnificent fish slip through her fingers?

Strangely, these stories are seen as highly romantic and interpreted as “love can conquer everything”. In the end, rich boy turns good again, they will be together courtesy or her forgiveness, and they can spend the rest of their lives having much more money than any person could reasonably spend in an entire lifetime. Oh well, maybe a few of their friends will get underpaid jobs. The big chunk of the cake is carried away by poor but smart girl who knows how to wrap rich bad boy around her little finger.

These are not only a few bad apples. I have stumbled on this cliché (and stopped reading these fanfictions when I realized where they were going) dozens of times. It doesn’t get better although the sequel trilogy is concluded by now. I don’t even know where the idea came from in the first place, maybe due to Ben being a princess’ son; but we never saw any hint at Ben’s youth and whether he lived in abundance or not. And I’m fed up.

No, wealth should not make a guy attractive. No, the fact that he’s capable of killing and torturing also shouldn’t make him attractive. No, if a man you hardly know gives you expensive stuff it’s not a proof of “true love”. No, it ought not to be fun to have sex with a ruthless guy who just so happens to have a soft spot for you. No, love is not a magic power that makes everyone better, and most of all, richer.

Those of you who also read fanfiction: have you ever wondered why so many Reylo fanfiction are set in modern times? Right - because it makes it easier to turn Kylo Ren / Ben Solo into a thinly veiled Christian Grey. Or maybe Edward Cullen. In any case, for mysterious reasons average girl meets dream prince not where he’s hiding away in a castle but at Starbucks or McDonald’s, like a billionaire would ever go there, “love” takes over, and you can imagine the rest without having to read it.

And please don’t tell me that this is only fiction and that we can consume kinky stuff responsibly. The stories you read or watch, in particular growing up, have an influence on your mind, no matter how aware you are that they’re not reality. Pornography is no more realistic than a Disney movie. Poor tough girl finding love and happiness with rich bad guy is extremely unlikely to happen. But such stories are consumed over and over and countless girls and women sigh about them, fooling themselves that their minds are too superior to get contaminated. Believe me, they’re not. I have been married a while now and looking back I often shake my head at the stories I used to read and how far detached they were from reality. And yet they made me unhappy, because for many years I subconsciously believed that “love” is only real when it happens a certain way.

I’m sorry for Ben Solo, not only because he’s dead but mostly for what many Reylo’s have made of him. I’m beginning to think that maybe he’s better off dead than bestowing diamonds and designer shoes to girls who apparently have no quality except for the fact that they are not afraid of him.

I’m glad the Disney studios have retained enough morals not to have paved the road for more of this mentality. This is not Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, where the peasant girl marries the prince and they live happily ever after. Ben Solo has a terrible past and that needs to be approached. That he’s dark and brooding and allegedly rich should not make everything he did forgivable. Even if he had no other way to go, he gave in to his frustration by killing and believing this would make him stronger. “Love” is not a sponge that wipes away the past. A man was still formed by the life he led before he met the girl, he’s not born again through their love because she has decided to project all of her expectations onto him. This is a toxic and highly unrealistic expectation on the female side, and I wouldn’t want to know how many girls and woman have been made unhappy because they believe it.

A main mistake Reylo’s who expected a happy ending made was not to consider that most fans only watch the movies, where we learn little to nothing about Ben Solo’s past. That Palpatine whispered in his head is only hinted at in the third movie; he says his father disappointed him but not why; we never see him talk to his mother; his uncle failed him but that was obviously only the last straw for him. Only reading the novels and comics and interpreting them from Ben’s point of view a fan realizes the tragedy of his situation. Technically, he’s the villain. Yes, it’s of course good that he redeems himself, but it’s not Rey who saves him through her love, there are many factors pushing him back to the Light. His redemption was heavily foreshadowed and he more than earned it. Did he deserve a happy ending with Rey? No. They were very different and they hardly knew one another. She was repeatedly unnecessarily aggressive towards him, and he was the main villain. She did not “deserve him” and he did not “deserve her.”

For very many Reylo’s, all of that seems to make little difference. They are both sexy, that’s enough. Of course bad boy from blue blood he must get married to good but poor girl and have plenty of hot sex with her. It doesn’t matter if they fit together, and how their past can fit the picture: they must get their happy ending because the cliché expects it. Rich sexy guy can’t die, even if he was a ruthless killer who slaughtered innocent and disarmed people for years. Poor tough girl can’t remain alone because she deserves a guy who will do anything for her, even change sides and his whole character, and the fact that he can shower her with jewels doesn’t hurt either.

I can only speak for myself. But I find these expectations both trite and immoral. There is nothing “romantic” about them and I’m glad nothing came of that in the saga. As long as I only met these tropes in fan stories from time to time I just shrugged them off, but they have become unbearable. What ideas do some fanfiction authors have of love? How sick and distorted is it to assume that money and sex are what keeps a couple together? Do two people really need nothing more in common? Can differences in upbringing, attitude and past experiences simply be swept away by passion and diamonds? In a so-called bodice-ripper perhaps. One of the reasons why I like Star Wars is that for all of its mysticism and symbolism, it’s psychologically very realistic.

I would be happy for Ben Solo to get a second chance, and after all, Anakin in a sense had two lives too. It only seems fair. Maybe he could meet Rey again some day and they could give it a new start.

But rich sexy bad guy and poor sexy tough girl riding into the sunset, where kinky sex and wealth are waiting for them?

This is not romantic in the least. This is capitalism at absurdum - not only having More Money Than You Could Ever Spend and Never Having to Lift a Finger Unless for Pleasure, but also Having Done Nothing to Earn It, except feeling entitled to it for obscure reasons.

No. I’m sorry, Reylo’s, but in my opinion both Ben and Rey deserve something more meaningful than that. Ben is better off dead than reduced to a sex fiend with an unlimited credit card; and Rey is better off alone than wearing designer clothes over lace underwear and handcuffs. These ideas are a slap in the face of their dignity and neither romantic nor erotic. They wouldn’t have fitted the Star Wars saga either, and they wouldn’t have been in line with Disney’s moral standards. Maybe the studios had other plans at first, but honestly: if these disgusting tropes don’t get any more fodder than the first two movies already gave them, it’s for the better. I believe young people, in particular young women who read fanfiction, need something different than sex, violence and riches to form their ideas of what love and partnership should look like.

The Jedi didn’t deserve to be wiped out; their mindset deserved it. Ben didn’t deserve to die; what he has become a stand-in for in the eyes of countless female fans can’t die too quickly.

Give Ben Solo another chance? Any time. But please, not like this. And please leave Adam Driver alone, his sexiness is no excuse to morph him into a f*** toy.

Please be respectful in your comments, these are only my personal points of view and no one asks you to agree. Thank you.

#sw #star wars #reblog #star wars sequels #ben solo #kylo ren #bendemption #the rise of skywalker #the last jedi #the force awakens #fanfiction #fsog #reylo #dlf

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