#Tbh there were parts of the bloopers I liked better

[sadrockandwaltzes]

ASP comic (CW check tags)

In case anyone is interested, these are the bloopers: so named because the paper sucked

[bbjobo]

Hello hi it’s me, your resident entertainment PR enthusiast. I simply need to talk about the sequel announcement. This is all speculation, but I work in entertainment-adjacent communications and once convinced a household name celebrity to stay at my event to do select press interviews when his wife was going to go into labor at literally any minute, so I like to think I've got a pretty good sense of all of this.

So buckle in, because I'm about how actually fantastic this rollout was, because I’d wager they’ve been planning this since the premiere. 

RWRB came out truly smack-dab in the middle of the actors' strike. We all know just how much press we must have missed out on, because the strike started before promo would have kicked off in earnest. And when it was finally over in November, the actors are potentially out of contract for promotion, and that’s not even taking into consideration that the holidays are coming up and the six weeks from American Thanksgiving to New Year’s is truly a black hole of press. So this little movie has to rely almost entirely on fan reaction and word of mouth to hit because they’re so limited in what they can do for promo. And it IS a hit! Records are broken! Comments for an extended version (which, ok Matthew we get it, does not exist) and a sequel start almost immediately.

The marketing team makes the most of what they’ve got: they’re keeping up the official character accounts, they’re dropping deleted scenes and BTS. We get cornettos! The fireside scene! Bloopers! Notably absent? Brownstone Thanksgiving. We’ve seen BTS photos of it, we know it exists. Thanksgiving 2023 would have been a great time to drop it, but they don’t. This is the approximate point at which my own personal sequel speculation began. After the strike ends, the posting pace slows considerably but it’s still consistent. It’s just enough to keep it in your mind but not enough to be like “why are you still posting this much about it?” And this continues into 2024.

On the contracting side, conversations were likely actively happening at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised if negotiations picked up literally as soon as the strike ended. The producers would have had that time to get Matthew and Casey back on board and be fully prepped and ready to move on to contracting actors the minute they could. It’d be a shot in the dark to try to guess when these were finalized, but at some point between November 9 and May 9, yeah, they’re in.

But whew, Nicholas is booked and BUSY. Mary & George drops internationally March 5, The Idea of You closes SXSW on March 17, two weeks later M&G starts airing in the US and Canada, and a month after that, TIOY is available for streaming (and limited theatrical release, which is another whole post), and in between all those premieres, he’s everywhere. He’s criss-crossing the country (and tbh the Atlantic Ocean) for all of these appearances, truly going non-stop. The pacing of the premieres makes it nearly impossible to squeeze in another project announcement, and if they had, it would have been a bigger part of every interview he did after, which is something his own team would be working to balance. Plus between TIOY and RWRB, Prime would have been pitching stories against themselves. Better to let him finish out his other promotional appearances and then switch over.

At the same time, we’ve got awards and red carpet season starting. At nearly every red carpet appearance not for their own projects, both Taylor and Nick are asked about a sequel. If an interviewer is given enough time, they ask about a sequel. Sure, fans comment about a sequel on every vaguely rwrb social post from an official account, but the press asking about a sequel felt like a lot to me. Everyone always gave the same vague answer, that they’d be up for it if the story is right, that they don’t know but would be happy to. (Except one time, Nick does slip up and give an answer that feels a little more definitive here where he says “conversations are being had” all the way back in late February/early March). Press are asking the question so consistently that it felt like if it wasn’t happening, PR teams would have put the sequel on the do not ask list.

Then Prime starts actually ramping up on a FYC campaign for the movie. I'm gonna be honest, I was so surprised. It's a rom com, the odds of a rom com getting any sort of awards recognition is so slim, but I thought, "ok, sure, use FYC as a way to get the promo boost they need for an announcement of whatever's coming next." And then I looked up and Variety has picked it as the winner in the best television movie category, which is blowing my mind. The other categories they're submitting in are stacked and I think a nomination beyond television movie will be a long shot, but again, it's big for it to even be considered. And if they're being talked about, that means Prime's gotta put out a great showing for their FYC campaign.

Which brings us to this week. We start off on Monday with Nick at the Met Gala referring to Uma as his mother-in-law. Incredible. Love it. Wednesday and Thursday are a one-two punch of a FYC event and fan event, and the gang’s all here. At the FYC, we get the industry side of things: new portraits and interviews with Deadline, process talk, etc. Because this little rom com is actually doing pretty well and beating the odds? Knowing what we know now, the PR teams spent this week pre-briefing the press on the sequel announcement. Notable (at least to my knowledge) the sequel question doesn't get asked at the FYC event. Because the press already knows it's coming.

Now, on to yesterday. They do a fan screening and Q&A, and they literally roll out the red carpet. Nine months after the premiere and exactly six months after the strike ended, they get the gang back together with fans of the movie, who they relied on so heavily during the strike to help make the movie a success. The tagline on the screen’s giant promo image has been updated to specifically thank fans for “making history with us.” The moderator for the Q&A is the same person who interviewed Taylor and Nick at the beginning of FYC campaign season, their first joint interview since GQ (right? pretty sure. it's all a blur tbh). And at the end of the Q&A, minutes before 12 AM ET, when the embargo on the press release would have lifted, they make the announcement not to press, but to the fans. The fans who loved the book, who watched it over and over, who spread the word about the movie to help make it one of Prime’s top three rom coms OF ALL TIME.

It’s just… an absolute masterclass in how to execute a major announcement that embraces the fans in a time where fandom and interaction between creators and fans can be an absolute minefield. Prime saw the opportunity to lean into the fannishness of it all and they took it and it was a slam dunk.

So where do we go from here? IDK but here’s some unconnected thoughts in list form like Alex would want.

The book’s 5th anniversary is next Wednesday, the 14th.

Casey’s been posting about working on [redacted] for months at this point, which is almost certainly the screenplay

Nick mentioned needing to be back in the UK for filming soon

They would probably like to release this in US election off-cycle years, so that means 2025 or 2027 (and 2027 is too far away). 2026 would be less bad since it’s a midterm election, but still.

Filming could reasonably start sooner rather than later, and even without an unfinished script

I guess we’re back on content watch for blond hair and BTS pictures

[skaruresonic]

TBH I refuse to play SXS Gens out of pure principle until the option to restore the original Generations dialogues and animations are avaible, fuck the rewrites

I just finished the Shadow portion lol. Overall I feel like you're not missing much. Like, yeah, it's supposed to be an anniversary game and all that, but there's honestly not much in the way of story. You would unironically be better off playing the older games before this one.

I really feel like the "SxS Gens is necessary to catch new players up to Shadow's history" argument is looking a lot weaker now. If anything, you wouldn't understand the emotional resonances behind many of the allusions unless you've played previous games; they don't provide exposition or context within the narrative itself. You wouldn't know that the ARK raid happened because nobody implies as much. The narrative is written as though it expects you to know why Black Doom's threats to possess Shadow are such a big deal.

This game's narrative is about as patchwork as Gens; characters are in nonsensical spots (why do we find Metal Overlord in Kingdom Valley's boss area, but Mephiles in some random cave on the side of Chaos Island's? what purpose did Metal Overlord's presence serve? or Mephiles', for that matter?) and the plot is just "stop giant monster before it destroys the world" sans Eggman. Much peak, many wow.

There's literally no plot progression from point to point; there are six levels in total, and you will only see most of the "plot" unfold at the 3/4ths mark. Until then, you're just running around without much rhyme or reason.

Maria and Gerald are simply there for moral support. They don't really do anything besides that. Gerald justifies this by claiming he doesn't want to mess with the timeline by changing anything.

I went around talking to various characters. Conversations with Big and Maria were the most enjoyable, and I felt like they were the highlight of the game. Rouge gets a bit on-the-nose by comparing herself to Amy when saying she'd support Shadow. Some of Omega's lines strike me as a little acanonical. For some reason, Orbot and Cubot are also there, and you can help them build a rocket by collecting 80 machine pieces. From what I've heard, however, there's no reward for collecting them all, so I was like "lol bye" and left.

I was also disappointed by the lack of a Sonic boss fight. I would have loved a reprise of the original ARK race from Gens; it would have been a nice callback to how you get to see the race from both perspectives in SA2 as well, but we can't have nice things ig :v

Mephiles appears. Lol. Lmao, even. Rofl, if you will. It feels like ST included him solely to riff on the fact that he'll never be canon. He's such a nothingburger of a character and is so negligible as a plot point that he might as well not have been there. He's only there because fans wanted to see him again.

For one thing, you find him in an out-of-the-way cave under Chaos Island. For another, my guy literally says "I just want to exist" and Shadow goes "no. perish." Based, but also, way to waste my time lmao.

Black Doom wants to consume the world as well as possess Shadow. It's not explained how he returned; Gerald handwaves it as "he rebuilt his body through timey-wimey shenanigans."

The gameplay is serviceable for the most part but also incredibly tedious; I found I only enjoyed Radical Highway Act One, and that was because the design was unencumbered by the use of Doom Powers.

Chaos Control and Chaos Spear are your standard abilities, nothing to write home about.

Doom Missile has limited application since only enemies or targets can be shot down, and thus isn't used much.

Doom Surf controls like a friggin' surfing Blooper.

Doom Morph is okay, I guess. Shadow turns into a giant squid and is able to traverse pools of Black Arms juice.

I hate how the Doom Wings control so much omfg. And they say the Homing Attack is a crapshoot. >.>

tl;dr It's okay. Not terrible, but I honestly don't think I'd play it again.

[inhumanliquid]

Okay so I love the fact that the channel itself is like 12 years old or something and not only is it still going but there's like INTENSE LORE that wasn't there when it started

Like imagine watching from the start as he slowly gets better editing skills and tools and watching the content go from Mario 64 bloopers to episodic little mini-stories to wait holy shit there's continuity?? An arc??? MULTIPLE ARCS!?

And the fact that once the r word started being considered a slur he not only stopped using it in videos but he also REMADE some of his R64 series (which as you can probably guess the full title was [r word]64) and renamed it to REMASTERED64 which is not only removing the word but its also a pun is just. Aough

Rewatching some of his old videos (m. maybe not Snowtrapped though) i get so nostalgic bc smg4 (character) DIDN'T HAVE VOICE ACTING and just. wow. Also with the stuff like the addition of voice acting and the redesigns you kinda know just by watching any particular video roughly when it was made even without looking at the description

Speaking of, I remember I didn't like the redesigns at first (at least those of 3 and 4) bc like they've been Mario recolors for so long. It's like the new minecraft piston sound. But after the second redesigns im fine with it. Actually I think he did comment about the fact that redesign 1 was like. cocomelon looking or something

Also he made the redesigns kinda. Canon?? He put them in the lore kinda

And at the start when it was still bloopers he collabed with a bunch of other yt'ers about the size of his channel like X and FM, but once he got big they kinda stopped showing up but the crazy thing is HE HAD A LORE EXPLANATION FOR THEM DISAPPEARING

Spoilers for uhh i forget either the Genesis or Revelations arc, skip to the bold green text if you want to watch first (you should tbh as long as you're not scared of what I'm scared of)

So Zero was actually the reason the Mario recolors disappeared, which is interesting bc that was back when 3 and 4 were still Mario recolors but around then it's also found out that SMG doesn't stand for SuperMarioGlitchy like the channel implied up to that point (iirc it was even called SuperMarioGlitchy4 for a bit), but it actually stands for Super Meme Guardian, and if Mario dies the universe will end bc Mario is the Avatar, explaining why 3 and 4 (the meme guardians of that universe) look like recolors of him. Also one of my favorite lines from the whole series was in that arc, "Killing us won't fix what happened to you!", said by smg2. Oh yeah there's other universes and smg1 and smg2 are from one where the Avatar was a guy named Spudnick, who smg2 looks like a recolor of. ough the DETAIL i love that arc despite. what happened to Axol..

spoilers for those arcs over

And there was like. If Mario was in video games that would have Mario be transported INTO the games CANONICALLY not just start with him there

And the recent arcs. OH THE RECENT ARCS

spoilers again. this time for the It's Gotta be Perfect arc, Western Spaghetti and really the whole Showgrounds era

Okay so smg4 goes crazy and wants to make the Ultimate Video or whatever. And he gets this keyboard from an ad with a TV mascot... (important later)

Thats part of a whole arc where smg4 is missing for Mar10 Day bc he can't stop working on the video, but it's revealed that Mario wanted smg4 there for a specific event that smg3 has to be there for instead, but after that which i think was one of the redesign announcements, Mario REALLY needs smg4 for something but he's not leaving his work so eventually the wifi router ends up being knocked over and THEN smg4 comes out, but he's oNLY YELLING ABOUT THE WIFI, he kicks everyone out, puts the router back and goes back to work again. Yknow what Mario needed him for? HE FUCKING WANTED TO GIVE HIM A BEST FRIEND AWARD

And yknow what really started this ultimate video insanity? Smg3 got millions of views on a livestream. That might not sound like much but one of his running jokes is that he NEVER gets more than like 3 views, one of which is always either Eggdog (his pet) or a Ugandan Knuckles that lives with him

But he didn't do anything special or different that one stream. SO WHO GOT HIM THE VIEWS HUH??? (This is my theory, but it's. The same TV guy from the keyboard ad i thgink. You'll see why I think that soon)

So at the end of the IGBP arc, the main crew loses their home (oh yeah have i mentioned they were living in Peach's castle this whole time) due to a giant Eldritch abomination that was released/summoned by smg4 using the keyboard

So they have to search for a new home. But when they go to the house market, Boopkins (one of the main characters) is working there and mentions he hasn't seen the listing before. And there's a mysterious logo next to the listing, titled The Showgrounds. Tbh i didn't notice that the first time i watched bc there wasn't any known significance to the logo at that point. But remember that.

So they get to the Showgrounds, build their new castle and. there's a boarded up room? That never gets addressed?? Also the castle looks SICK AF seriously google "smg4 Showgrounds castle" it looks AWESOME

Holy shit i just realized i don't think the second floor of the castle has been shown yet-

uh. Anyway they have an arc at this place called Western Spaghetti (which Mario seemed very eager to go to for obvious reasons) and on the train everyone starts acting like cowboys and time freezes. And there's actually an official gmod map that was made for this arc, where some lore stuff is idk I don't play gmod

But anyway yeah they go to Western Spaghetti because they want to find Meggy's idol, One Shot Wren. But as it turns out, Wren is a villain and the whole place is a SIMULATION that was.. gifted to him. And guess what cloddamn logo was on the letter Wren got. YEP THATS RIGHT THE SAME ONE FROM THE SHOWGROUNDS

And they only get out because Tari has experience with simulations before (this connects to lore of Meta Runner, a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SERIES MADE BY THEM)

and THEN. Another arc happens, the Marty arc, where Mario makes a cardboard guy named Marty who inexplicably is super fucking resistant to being moved when he doesn't want to. Mario drew Marty into existence bc he didn't want to work at his pizza shop bc he didn't realize running a pizza shop rneant giving OTHER people the pizzas

But after Mario stole all the money Marty made to pay for the castle (yes this is a bit out of order sorry) there was this big arc that started with the printer at the pizza shop being hijacked to print something that basically said if Marty was able to open smg3's secret notebook uhh i forget what exactly would happen but it would be good for Marty. But wait. The printer glitched when it was hijacked and you'd NEVER GUESS what logo appeared when it glitched.

Mario helped Marty steal and try to open the notebook and this caused War of The Fat Italians (shortened to WOTFI) 2023 to happen which was the end of the arc

and hold on. 2023? Yes that's right the first appearance of the one known only at the time as "TV Adware" was in the IGBP movie, which premiered MARCH 18TH 2023 and according to my theory his influence goes all the way back to SMG4... Are You Ok? Which happened FEBRUARY 18th

The movie where this mega arc ended premiered APRIL 20TH OF THIS FUCKING YEAR. NOT EVEN A MONTH AGO

Anyway the ending of WOTFI 2023 was when we got to see what "TV Adware" really looked like, which. woah he looks cool

Spoilers over lol I have a lot to say about those arcs

Yknow what. As much as I want to im not going to ramble about the Puzzlevision arc bc I don't want to spoil it for you. I can't recommend enough that you go watch it because HOLY SHIT, also why im not spoiling it. Start from WOTFI 2023 and skip to No TV Make Mario No Okie Dokie if you need to. It honestly won't take that much time, maybe like a day at most so you absolutely should go watch it all

Hough. Sorry this took so long to type and [tumblr] I swear if you fail to send this fucking ask-

anyway this has been Me Rambling About SMG4

Wow. I will absolutely go watch Puzzlevision, then. Holy shit.

Feel free to come infodump about anything you want to whenever, by the way. I like listening to people rant about things. /gen

[deeplyclosetedjameswilson]

heres the original last supper

heres my labelling

i think the three people on either end rule out the three apostles on the left/right. ive really gone by just heads here, so foreman is philip rather than matthew but ill address both

chase as peter (and maybe also judas??) - for starters, look at the way hes talking to cameron. that pose mirrors the way peter and john are talking in the original last supper painting.

two things come to mind for me for peter: him denying christ three times, and him succeeding christ as head of the early christian church. i assume chase has ‘betrayed’ house at least three times throughout the show so there’s that. AND he becomes the next head of diagnostics, essentially taking on house’s “ministry”

he might also be judas, looking at the position of his left hand but tbh i think peters denial of christ suits what he does better than what judas does

cameron as john the beloved: cameron may as well be called cameron the beloved in the show. arguably house’s favorite fellow. plus, john and peter are both part of a triumvirate (more on that later) AND they kind of are fighting for the position of jesus’ favorite. just funny to think about in terms of chase and cameron

house as jesus: blah blah blah house the healer died for the sins of the world (wilson) and came back to life blah blah blah. rip house you would have hated this comparison. house is kind of god to a lot of people though. jesus said a lot of stuff that people thought was crazy. so did house. yeah

wilson as thomas: thomas the doubter. after jesus died, when the apostles got word of it thomas was the one who said “i’ll believe it when i see it😒”. contrast this with wilson at house’s funeral talking about how house had truly abandoned him. wilson the doubter

cuddy as james the great: tbh we dont know a lot about james the great. he is the third member of the aforementioned triumvirate which is why i kinda wish they flipped cuddy and foreman’s places. or made cuddy matthew. james is the brother of john (cameron) so i guess think about that when you watch the valley girl bloopers ft cunty cameron and cuddy

oh shit actually i forgot james and john were two of the three witnessing christ when he was in the garden (the whole bleeding from every pore). compare with cuddy and cameron both caring for house’s wounds in season 3/7. granted james and john did both fall asleep. compare with cuddy and cameron both eventually leaving house.

(peter was also there as part of the trio. again why i think foreman as james the greater would be a better spot for him but whatever)

foreman as philip: we know very little about philip👍

foreman as matthew: we know more about matthew. worked as a tax collector for the romans, gave up tax collecting to follow jesus. compare with foreman trying very hard to give up his house like tendencies but always falling back on them.

again i think foreman would be a better james the greater as original followers of christ/original fellows, and was there with christ at the end/was there for house until the end. but alas

BONUS: wilson as judas, since he self-identified himself as judas (talking to tritter about needing 30 pieces of silver): you can easily draw a comparison between judas trying to return the 30 pieces of silver and killing himself and wilson telling tritter he wouldn’t testify on pain of going to jail. pathetic attempt at career suicide if you will

I labeled it, any Bible fans wanna analyze it? I really don’t feel like reading and annotating the Bible.

[poplinn]

So I watched the mario movie and here are my thoughts. I really fucking loved the movie and was a lot better than anticipated. Some stuff I wasnt a huge fan of but like, it's still just more of a kids movie. I loved I thought it was really enjoyable, but felt a bit rushed at parts and at some points it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Overall I had a great time and am probably going to rewatch it for all the details and Easter eggs.

More detailed thoughts under the cut, spoiler warning!

The trailer

Some things in the movie were noticeably different from the trailers that we had seen. Some scenes and lines were different. What I noticed is the things that the trailers received backlash on were either changed or fully removed, like Chris Pratt's voice at some points. Like the "wahoo" he does in the trailer is different, it was a lot better executed in the movie. And some lines like the "let's a go" that people hated were fully removed. I think it's p obvious why these things got changed.

The voices:

Okay so, Chris Pratt is a bad actor and a terrible voice actor, but I'm going to be very honest with you all, it's horrible at first but after like 5 minutes you get used to and don't notice it anymore. He doesn't sound like himself too much, bit of an accent twinge which is already a lot more than I expected tbh. It's fine, but at some moments you are horribly reminded that picking Chris Pratt was not a good choice.

Jack Black was amazing as bowser, though I felt like his voice could have been a bit lower and a bit more grovelly.

I'm personally not a big fan of anna taylor joy, and I really don't think her voice fitted peach. Like with peach I'm more used to her high pitched and I feel like Anna's voice was too low. Too "" basic white girlie"" idk how else to explain it.

Charlie Day as Luigi was fine, though I felt like he could have been more Luigi-er. Like it would've been amazing with just a biiiit more effort.

Some of the voices for the characters just.. Didn't fit to me. Like cranky kong or that one toad with the really low voice.

Seth Rogen as DK was surprisingly great! And yes, he did do the laugh!

Easter eggs, details and small bits:

Omg there were so many cool Easter eggs and details referring to like Nintendo stuff and Mario's history like wrecking crew, jumpman, punch out, duck hunt etc. And the scenes were filmed with SO much detail holy shit! I am so going to rewatch it so I can spot everything bit by bit.

I really liked some references to like the DK song and everything. For someone who like grew up with mario it was soo cool!

Some stuff I didn't quite like:

One thing i didnt like is how small the roles were for like luigi, Pauline and foreman spike. The way spike was announced made me thing that he had a bigger role in the mario origins but nah he was in like 3 scenes and that's it. But disappointed. And once again they did my boy luigi dirty, like he didnt really have a lot of screentime. I get you can't do much when you're Captured but also like come on man... And Pauline only had like.. 1 line. I expected a bit more of that.

Some stuff or scenes didn't really make sense to me, like the whole dog fighting scene and adding Mario's family,,, like?? I don't get it. I also thought the jumpman at the arcade was related to mario as a small nod the way donkey and cranky kong are father and son but making him a random stranger felt weird?? And suddenly giving the bros a full family also just... Felt wrong!

Some small stuff I did like:

Also personally am not a fan of the 'bowser wants to marry peach' plot that some of the games and now the movie uses

One hand I liked how many references to the games they made but on the other hand it felt like they wanted to reference everything in a very short amount of time? Felt a bit too much or rushed at some point but I still appreciated it. Like the little bloopers were so cute!!

Mario calling luigi lou is adorable! And the toads were cute af too!

And they way they turned iconic mario songs into like cinematic tuned was great!

The jokes were funny, but you gotta keep in mind that it's a movie rated for everyone including kids right.

I love! The personality that they gave donkey Kong, it's different from what I know about him, but I'm glad they didn't make him into a brainless smash monkey lol.

Overall, it really wasn't as bad as people were going to say it was. Yes, it could have been a lot better, but it also could have been a lot worse. I really enjoyed and was so excited and pimped, and still am, after seeing it. It was great!

I might have forgotten to add something and if I did it'll be in a separate post.

[hopefullystillatheatrestudent]

i'm so excited about you taking asks again ahhhh okay so. if you'd absolutely had to choose. what would be your top 5 cockles moments, and why? thank you ily <3

here’s the thing: there are so many routes i could go down with this, because cockles moments come in all shapes and sizes and formats. these include moments from their panels, their bloopers, the footage we get when they don’t even know they’re being recorded, stories being passed down from photo ops & autographs(one of my personal favorite ways to get cockles, tbh, because they’re all insane), and social media(tweets to each other, instagram posts & comments, etc.). 

SO! since many a list like this has already been made, and i want to stand out from the crowd, what i’m gonna do is definitively give the number one spot to each of these five categories.(i might even throw in honourable mentions because they’re so despicably in love that they warrant that. i really put my whole pussy into this, guys, i hope you’re happy.) 

disclaimer: these are my own personal opinions. but that also means i’m right. so. enjoy. 

number one: top cockles panel moment

so we’re starting off with a bang, because how do you even BEGIN to rank what atrocities jensen and misha commit at jibcon. every single one they’ve had is damning in it’s own right, for different reasons.

however, considering just how much unabashed fuckery they’ve given us to sift through, it’s a good thing i do have a personal favorite despite it all. it’s heartwarming, the sweetest thing i’ve ever seen, AND it’s jarringly cinematic - mainly because it has a whole ass arc to it that was years in the making. it might even be surprising to some people, but my favorite cockles panel moment, and what i consider the one that encompasses their entire gut-wrenching journey from 2008-2013 in the most sweepingly romantic gesture possible, is this one.

i want this burned into my retinas. i am not even joking. when i'm through with my explanation, let me convince you why this is thee most romantic cockles moment of all time.

first, some history: people call this the resume off, but many seem to forget the botched attempt at a resume off a year prior. and yes, you guessed it: it's during their break up. it's a juicy time period for a reason, guys. it came across as exceedingly one-sided and VERY awkward. let me refresh your memory as to just how bad it was, and just how hard jensen was trying and ultimately failing at winning misha over: the funniest part of the whole resume off in 2013??? every joke/bit had literally already been made/done. they were just going through the motions again, but the difference THIS time...is that misha reciprocated jensen's energy. it. is. fascinating. i want to get into it more detail in another post, and i'll link it here when i'm done, but the main takeaway, i think, and the main difference that showcases how much they've grown in a year, is that in jib 3, misha flat out refused to do an accent, and this time around, he indulges jensen for literal minutes. when i tell you they're crazy, they're crazy. i can't wait to actually dive into it later.

ANYWAY, the resume off culminates in this moment here. and, like, a million things happen in this gifset. actually, more like a million and one. the music starts playingneediremindyouthatthesongissingingintherain(h e l p), misha starts dancing, jensen 'perpetually fake grumpy' ackles lets misha think he's not going to join, misha sits down defeated, but no!!! that was jensen's plan all along(look at his stupid fucking smirk) and he offers his arm to his dance partner who immediately grins like a fool, jensen then leads misha into their kick step, they perfectly synchronise and let loose, and are then very clearly having the time of their lives, hanging off of each other with joy and ease. from their expressions alone i can tell that this moment is so. so. so. so! much more than what initially meets the eye. i mean-misha is fighting back the biggest smile i've ever seen. to me, it reads like jensen is offering something to misha, something that misha kind of gave up on expecting, and him offering his arm like that is like, a surprise to him in the best possible way(and it's so not platonic, let me just say that.) as soon as jensen did that, it ushered in a new era of cockles. this panel is jensen and misha's favourite for a reason, and i think this moment is the biggest clue as to why.

whew!!! ok. that took a lot out of me and that was only point one. moving on,

number two: top cockles blooper moment

cockles bloopers hold an extremely special place in my heart, because it shows just how fucking disastrous jensen and misha are. they are so goddamn infatuated with each other that they HOLD UP PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER(???). let me repeat. let it sink in. jensen ackles; arguably one of the most professional actors on that show who puts everything he has into each scene, with mountains and mountains of notes to prove it: would rather hold up production to flirt with misha collins. this sounds fake. it's not. he does it. all. the. time. and here's the thing guys!!! i'm gonna let you in on a secret!!! misha loves it. he loveesssss it. on top of that-misha collins: overlooked because he's pranked and people assume he's unprofessional as well, but his only pranks are in retaliation/off-set, and he rarely if EVER causes problems if he can help it....lets himself get carried away when it comes to jensen making kissy faces at him!!! are you actually kidding me!!! i mean. misha. it's just a face. you've seen it a million times. i don't buy that it triggers something in you that strongly....you like it, and you like jensen's reaction. you can't fool me!!! lisa berry's face in that one gifset shows just how fed up the crew is with their gross, coupley boyfriend antics.

i could pull up so many examples. sooooooo many. but my favourite was sealed since the moment i saw it.

i actually already wrote an analysis on it but i can't find it :(((( which SUCKS because i really unpacked the whole thing. i'll try to summarise.

basically, a backstory is part of this too!!! jensen and misha both had a really really hard time with this scene(because it's explicitly romantic there i said it), they sat down for hours and poured over their scripts together, they were super super nervous going into filming, both of them, jensen especially, were super hard on themselves for their performances not being true to their characters but they both complimented the other's work(boyfriend moments fr). so, yeah. they weren't confident going into shooting. and how do they get themselves to feel better???? by cuddling each other, apparently.

a lot. a LOT. happens in this specific blooper. to the point that i saw it years before i knew about cockles and it raised all sorts of flags for me.

1) stop pulling my face towards your crotch(as a thinly veiled request that misha would, in fact, move jensen's face towards his crotch, considering it was jensen moving himself there in the first place. also, why so comfy down there guys???) 2) you're my baby daddy i know(in the most intimate voice i've ever heard please) 3) i know, i know, i love you too i didn't say i love you i know but you wanted to say it etc. misha's right, of course. that's what jensen meant.

it just reeks of comfort, familiarity and intimacy between the two, and it's a moment that is extremely sweet and silly at the same time. they're so <3

number three: top cockles found footage moment

WONDERFUL category. truly the culmination of the cockles experience. many people have said that shipping cockles doesn't work because 'they're just onstage you dummies!! they're playing it up for the audience!!!' here's the thing, love. i could not disagree with you more. once you climb your way up the cockles ladder, you soon learn that they are, in fact, playing their dynamic DOWN, not up. they really are just Like That™, and they could not care less about the paying audience, if we're being honest, considering how much time they take to giggle with each other and refuse to let the audience in on the joke. and i love them for it <3

anyway, my point is that this category is for all you naysayers out there, all you 'jensen and misha's relationship is just for show and is real life queerbaiting'(?????lordhelp???) oh yeah? ok, explain this.

he. he. he calls jensen sweetheart. literally enough said. there's nothing to really add here, except, misha and jared then immediately engage in damage control. jared's method is distraction and misha's is retconning('get out of the car, dude') this was what got me to buy into the cockles dumpster for GOOD good. you don't call your buddy sweetheart accidentally and sound so completely earnest while doing it! especially not when that buddy is jensen ackles!!! you think he would let any of his friends call him that? do you?

one more thing; if it was a slip of the tongue, little mouth thing or whatever, you think jared wouldn't have jumped on it immediately??? i can hear it now. 'did you just call him SWEETHEART???' yeah. that's what i thought. you know why he didn't? because it was too revealing.

number four: top cockles autograph moment

i mean, i think we all know what it's gonna be, and if you don't, well, do i have the piece de cockles resistance that is gonna send you over the edge.

if you haven't heard of this story by now, as a cockles, truther, i'm gonna go ahead and get you to read it, because there is no possible heterosexual explanation for any of it, and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

spoiler alert: it's the story where phones weren't allowed in an auto session, jensen nuzzles himself in misha's hair, leans his full body weight onto him, holds his hand, etc. etc. i'm imploding just repeating this back, actually. also, just, the sheer amount of stories from photo ops where they tackle hug each other or slap each other's asses or sing romantic songs to each other or almost kiss is, frankly, a lot. if i could wish for anything, it would be to witness them in person.

and finally,

number five: top cockles social media moment

this one is super difficult, because there's obviously a lot to choose from. but you know what? full send, i'm going with this one:

i just. what to say about this. how often do misha and jensen watch sunsets together for it to qualify as ‘always’ ??? why are sunsets synonymous with their relationship??? that’s like??? a very romantic thing????? ‘this guy’??? the fact that it’s a CANDID??? i don’t know guys.

that could have been better but i am TIRED so. there you go rose ily

[normal-thoughts-official]

Thots on a figure skating au??? 🅱️lease

hmmmmmmm ok so disclaimer that i know nothing about figure skating so i'm just making up whatever

you got me in a difficult position here cuz on the one hand, i'd love for magnus to be a trainer/coreographer. i think it suits him wonderfully and that while obviously he is great at dancing and loves it, i think that he's more on the creative side of things, you know? so i could imagine something like figure skater alec and trainer magnus. and like alec is a shadowhunter so of course that demands a high level of control over your body that is similar to a figure skater's

but at the same time its funny to me to try to imagine alec figure skating when hes a fucking giant like that because like hes so big?? and when ur big like that ur kind of like... mandatorily graceless and clumsy to a degree methinks (not in a like oh hes always tripping and blushing way, more like the "you're on my leg, you asshole" blooper), because things aren't made for you. like really its an actual matter of accessibility sometimes, especially if you actually have the proportions of a real person like alec does (well, except for the yaoi mcfuckhands. they look big even compared to the rest of his ridiculous body he just b standing there and im like christ edward fingerhands we get it) cuz then Everything Is Bigger Than It Should ya feel

so yeah i can't really imagine alec in like, spandex being all graceful and shit, but at the same time rationally i could imagine that for his character, but also no. so i can't really go with that idea without laughing

but also i can't imagine him as a trainer/coreographer and i don't know who the fuck else is involved with figure skating anyway so is alec like, the janitor or some shit???? some fucking basketball player who sees him at the olympics??? lord help me i have no idea

OK SO IT'S BEEN LIKE 5 MONTHS SINCE I FIRST PUT THE FIRST PART OF THIS ANSWER IN MY DRAFTS (rip anon im so sorry) and i THINK i got it!!! alec could be like, the uhh personal trainer? physical trainer? YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN like the one dedicated to making sure the figure skater's body is. capable of. dancing. idk how to explain it but you do get it don't you??? ok

i'm mostly going off my dancing experience here (i had dance classes for like, 10 years of my life, and ugh i miss it) and like besides dancing you always have to train like lifting and doing localized training and stuff because you can't really dance if you don't have strength and flexibility and stamina and all that stuff. the only time i would willingly work out was for dancing lmao especially when i was in my hiphop crew. anyway

and while for me the one responsible for that part of training was the same person as my teacher/coreographer (or when i was doing hiphop it was just. on me to do that lmao but i'm not complaining) i figure when you're a professional and not just a dumb kid that's probably two different people, right? if not it is now. idc

i could go with figure skater magnus and trainer alec but also im really feeling the dynamics of coreographer magnus and trainer alec? like it'd be cute/funny to see them trying to work together for that ya know. so sorry that this feels less like a figure skating au especially since it took me so long to answer it but aaa

but also i mean as a coreographer magnus would have to know how to do it obviously so you would most definitely get a figure skating magnus. alec going to close up the gym and seeing magnus practicing by himself just for fun, anyone? and magnus looks gorgeous as ever way more gorgeous than whoever they're coaching but that's just alec's opinion and magnus kind of stops like "oh, i didn't know you were here" and alec's like "oh oops. anyway keep going you're great at this" and magnus feels a little self conscious but soon he gets lost in it again because really he loves doing this and alec is just appreciating the artwork :)

ANYWAY the dynamics of trainer and coreographer are fun. magnus showing up to alec like "hey alec so i need some heavy lifting on them arms cuz meliorn [idk i don't have any better ideas for who they could be coaching] is gonna carry an elephant onstage" and alec is like "uhh" and meliorn is like "a fake elephant" and alec is like "i mean good but i still have questions"

and magnus is like "obviously we would never use trained elephants, the way they are treated is inhumane" and alec is like "you're completely right but also that's your only worry when it comes to meliorn carrying a real elephant?" and magnus is like "i'm sure you could pull it off ;) you're the best after all" and alec gives him that amused smile

advantages of meliorn: they don't care about the flirting anyway since they are literally Like That too

also magnus and alec working out together off the clock, some ogling on both sides and just generally funny competitive shenanigans. especially cuz like magnus is hella fit but alec works in that stupid gym so he knows what he's about. and alec's all smug about it like "i can lift more than you :)" and magnus is like "oh yeah? let's see how you do in the ring" "no" "yes" "no" "why, can you not do it?" "yes. i know my limits" "well that's too bad... because you're going in anyway"

cue alec falling on his face probably but also like goddamn it he's competitive and he's not gonna let magnus have too much of a win so he tries his best rip. anyway then we probably get some hip touching bullshit when magnus tries to explain it to him and magnus is flirting the whole time and alec's laughing and it's sweet

i have half a mind to make up some angsty backstory about how magnus used to be a figure skater too and his partner was (you'll never guess it) camille and then she pulled the rug from under him and he kinda left the competitions altogether for a while. and then he came back as a coreographer (listen, he loves to dance, but creating is one of his favorite parts and he was always involved in coreographing anyway. his old coreographer and him were always having a blast and camille did not like it) and this is kinda his debut as a coreographer at some big shot competition idk and he just feels like he has so much to prove?

lol bonus camille's new coreographer is lorenzo so the hating magnus squad is in thick against him and it's a whole thing you know

OH MEGA ANGSTY camille got him out of the competition because she outed him as trans and he was declassified because something something transphobic bullcrap so he wasn't allowed anymore. i assume this was like right after they won because of course she wouldn't compromise herself, or maybe it was at the beginning/pre-stages of the championship so she had time to find a new partner. yeah that last one and then she won with the coreography that he had helped them create. im saying she did that because he broke up with her finally after years of abuse both in work and out of it so she did that as revenge or to make sure he couldn't have his passion anymore. and it took magnus years to build himself back up as a coreographer this time because transphobia (and racism) in the market but guess what? he is extremely smart and talented and creative so now he is back at the championship and he wants to show the world what they have been missing on

hmmmmm also i implied this is in pairs since magnus and camille used to be one so i think meliorn's pair would probably be izzy and maybe that's why alec's involved? like he was already a personal trainer or whatever which his parents were fine with even though it's not of course as grand as they would've liked (meaning they were total asses about it) but when izzy decided to go into sports/art they lost their shit and didn't want to support her so, you know, alec did and became her trainer. which is just as well because he is the best so like, deal with it. not saying they like kicked her out or anything (esp cuz i imagine part of alec's reasoning is that izzy stood by him when he came out and if they didn't kick him out over being gay they wouldn't kick her out over being a skater but y'know) but they definitely wouldn't support her so they both also feel like they have a lot to prove

lol me: i have half a mind to make this angsty. also me: paragraphs and paragraphs of angsty backstory

anyway they win obviously idk what to tell you they just do cuz we stan talent. camille is second for maximum drama and vengeance, the lightwoods try to get the spotlight once izzy wins and she and alec tell them to fuck off, they advocate for specific rules prohibiting ppl to declassify trans ppl over being trans and that's all i have tbh

sorry it took so long to answer daiudsauihda but i hope that outline is at least interesting for you!

[monstaxscenario]

Take Out

This was requested by @curlynoona​ “For the Monsta X drabble! Can I have #4 with Hyungwon, please? Thanks!” 

4) "Perhaps you'll take me out one day - or do I have to make an appointment?"

I wrote this after I got bored of doing my Chemistry homework. I’d rather write than do hw tbh. Hope you like it <3

~Admin Angie (๑>◡<๑)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You have been offered a role in a movie and you’re so grateful. You’ve been wanting this part ever since the audition. You’ve worked hard and practiced with the help from your best friend. You knew that you would have a busy schedule with filming and promotions in the upcoming months. With that in mind, you promised your best friend that you’d hang out with him every chance you had before you left.

For the past month, Hyungwon and you have been hanging out every day, he’s also been sleeping at your place for the past week. You’re happy that you got to spend endless time with your best friend, however, tonight was your last night together. Your flight to the set location is in the morning. No matter how many times Hyungwon and you went over the script, you were nervous about being on set.

You were currently in your living room eating your favorite takeout with Hyungwon. You’re also spilling out your endless overwhelming thoughts about tomorrow that you haven’t taken a bite of your food.

“(Y/N) relax,” Hyungwon holds your hand to stop you from rambling further. As soon as you feel his warm hands touch your skin, your mind goes blank. You turn slightly to get a better view of him, yet he’s already gazing at you with a soft look. “I’ve known you for years now, I can guarantee that you’ll do amazing.”

You smile at him in gratitude. “But bloopers are always comical so it’s okay if you mess up.” He adds on. At this, the two of you chuckle. “Now, worry later and eat.” He lets go of your hand and grabs your food to feed it to you.

You take a bite, not embarrassed that he fed you. “You know, I’m going to miss you.” You voiced out to him. You weren’t lying, you’d definitely miss presence, especially since you’ve gotten used to seeing him every day.

“Of course you will, I’m awesome,” Hyungwon boasted, leaning back and pointing to himself. You rolled your eyes and threw a crumpled napkin at him.

“Yeah, only when it comes to sleeping all day,” you commented. He chuckles.

“You know what would be awesome, you becoming famous after this movie,” Hyungwon tells you. “All the celebrities you’ll meet, the award shows you’d attend, and the after-parties you’ll go to.” He rambles on and on. You listen to it nonetheless. You enjoy hearing him talk, it soothes you.

“With all that you say that can happen, it sounds like I’ll be pretty busy. Probably too busy for our monthly takeout and movie nights.” You teased him. You know that even if you were to become famous after this movie, you’d always make sure to be with Hyungwon whenever you have the chance. Without him, you wouldn’t have gotten the part.

“Well, if that will be the case, then . . .” he ponders for a bit and then looks at you. “Perhaps you'll take me out one day - or do I have to make an appointment?” He teases back, using a line from your character in the movie.

[spiritpriestess]

I probably had the weirdest dream in a while last night

and I feel like sharing it,so here you go ~

So for startes I know I had lots of dreams that night but this is the only one I remember (and I don’t usually remember them..)

It was nighttime, I was on a field or something like that with a good friend of mine. There were these huge disks rising up to the sky (the size of a smaller apartment, but really thin). They weren’t physically on top of each other but rather levitating above one another, and from the ground it looked only a few feet, but when you looked closer it was wider.

They looked and felt weird, and my first thought/feeling of them was that they may have been different timelines of Earth. The top one felt either like Creation or the Stone Age (so basically really long ago). Maybe Stone Age was below it..idk. But then my friend told me to jump on them, and I was like, alright why not.

The thing is, I didn’t actually see what was on the disks, I just had this feeling, vibe. And there was a part in my dream where it was shown from top to bottom in a fast motion (on the right side of the ‘screen’ like during credit roll of a film where they show bloopers), and I had glimpses of something but I don’t remember what they were now because it was too fast.

And then I only saw what was on the top disk, but I don’t remember that either now. And when I say ‘see’ I didn’t actually, physically see it, I think, rather in my mind’s eye, and I just knew.

So I ran towards this catapult thing, jumped on it then flew off into the sky. I didn’t even jump that hard but I kept flying higher and higher and at one point it felt like I was outer space. Then I moved towards the top disk, but instead of landing on it I fell through a hole in the middle, and kept falling through all the disks until I landed where I began.

Then my friend told me that I’m not supposed to jump through, I have to land on it.

So I tried again and this time with success, but I floated a bit before landing and the weird thing was, I saw my friend and the ground as if I was only a few feet up in the sky, but I was also outer space and really high up? That was pretty fucking weird tbh.

Anyway after this the dream took a bit of a turn and idk if this is just nonsense or maybe connected, but when I landed on the top disk I found myself on a space station, or a flat that felt really futuristic. There were two dogs and a really werid bathtub. The dogs were dirty and I had to give them a bath, but they didn’t want to, at first at least.

I filled the tub with water, well, the left side which looked triangular, the right side was...like a Picasso painting tbh, it was broken into parts, weird angles, smaller stages/stairs and it didn’t have walls. I pushed a button and then these glass walls rose up on each side of the Picasso tub.

So I washed the dogs, I assume both but I only remember one of them in the tub, who looked like a German Pointer only lighter in color. When I was done, I just jumped off the disk as if “my job here has been done”.

When I landed I noticed there was this big ass metal machine footing thingie, idk what the hell it was, but it went down into the Earth and I noticed that the disks also continued down there. And then I think I woke up because I don’t really remember anything else afterwards.

So yeah, this was long, idk if anyone reads this, but I have no idea if this even means anything or not, it just feels weird to me, because, even though I dream a lot, a rarely remember them, but this one was so vivid and just weird, and I woke up and I just couldn’t put it anywhere and I had to write it down, which I also haven’t done in my life.

[sassyhazelowl]

Lists:

LGBT+ Fiction LGBT+ Anime Yuri Manga LGBT+ Film & Comics

Part 2 of LGBT+ Fiction because I’ve had some free time to finish a few more books. Under the cut for length, and for this batch, it is mostly bi or lesbian fiction. Enjoy.

Titles/Author: Tides/ Betsy Cornwall Genre: YA, [urban] fantasy, romance Relationship(s): f/f The Good: likable characters, solid plot, quick and easy read The Bad: villain was a bit wimpy Extra Notes: selkies! how can you go wrong with that? also grandma lesbians. Warning: eating disorder mention. Personal Rating: 8/10 Recommend: Yes

Titles/Author: Summer Prince/ Alaya Dawn Johnson Genre: YA, romance, dystopian Relationship(s): m/m/f, m/m The Good: lively and fast moving plot, interesting world building, good characters and motivations, character development, writing style is easy and pleasant to read The Bad: unnecessary sex scenes, tension falls flat, okay ending, world building holes Extra Notes: unlike coda I feel this one is enjoyable regardless of whether you like the genre or not but I’d be hesitant to recommend to readers under 16 due to inappropriateness. also, it is based on brazilian culture (I believe), which could be problematic, but I don’t know enough about it to know myself. A reviewer said it was “so tumblr” and I have to agree it has that vibe to it in some ways. Personal Rating: 8.5/10 Recommend: Maybe, see notes

Titles/Author: Serpentine/ Cindy Lo Genre: YA, romance, fantasy Relationship(s): f/f The Good: easy read, fast paced, solid plot, emphasis on sister-sister bond as the main relationship The Bad: not necessarily bad but the book felt mediocre for the genre in pretty much all aspects, not a huge fan of the male lead Extra Notes: the sequel sounds more exciting tbh Personal Rating: 7/10 Recommend: Yes

Titles/Author: Santa Olivia/ Jacqueline Carey Genre: adult fiction, dystopian, paranormal Relationship(s): f/f The Good: unique writing style, diverse support cast, likable protagonist, subversion of genre tropes, romance had conflict The Bad: beginning dragged and threw off the pacing, ending was good enough to be satisfactory but could’ve been better with a tenser climax Extra Notes: liked the book a lot but have no interest in reading the sequel Personal Rating: 8/10 Recommend: Yes

Titles/Author: Fingersmith/ Sarah Waters Genre: historical fiction, crime, psychological thriller Relationship(s): f/f The Good: fairly true to the setting and time period, characters are very realistic and a bit gritty, plot and narrative have a unique twist, ending was satisfactory The Bad: big drag in the beginning of part two where it basically is a re-telling of the end of part one, gruesome and graphic in places, hard to get into at the beginning even though the set-up is extremely important to the plot, language is a bit difficult until you get the hang of it Extra Notes: I watched the movie The Handmaiden first, so I had a good idea what was coming at me. Fortunately, it is not as gruesome and disturbing as the movie is, but unfortunately it is still full of potential triggers and uncomfortable topics. It is also an extremely long book (600 pages). Sex scenes, allusions of rape, mentions of torture, etc. I enjoyed it and rammed through it in two days but I just can’t imagine the general populace wants to read this book without an interest in the dark and macabre. Personal Rating: 8/10 Recommend: No

Titles/Author: Iron & Velvet/ Alexis Hall Genre: paranormal, detective Relationship(s): f/f, background m/m The Good: fits genre expectations, quick read, lots of action and excitement The Bad: it is a little over the top with some of the supernatural stuff, side characters aren’t that great Extra Notes: This book was gaudy as all get out but a ton of fun and lots of witty lines. I don’t really think it is the kind anyone will re-read but it is a fun book for entertainment value alone. Sex scenes, lots of casual mentions of sex and wanting to have sex. It reminded me of fanfiction circa 2010. Personal Rating: 7.5/10 Recommend: No, unless you like the genre or fanfiction circa 2010

Titles/Author: Star-Crossed/ Barbara Dee Genre: YA romance Relationship(s): f/f The Good: completely age appropriate, addresses real life topics frankly, super cute, likable characters The Bad: predictable (for an adult or well-read children would probably be fine for most kids), Shakespeare is overused and that seemed to make it more cliche than it actually was Extra Notes: This is one I was looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. It’s really rare to find a young adult written for younger teens and this was written perfectly to suit the age group. It is super cute and very positive without washing things over with rainbows and sunshine. Real-life problems are addressed, acknowledge and dealt with, which I always appreciate in a story.  Personal Rating: 9/10 Recommend: Yes, if you’re 12-14 or a parent or a childrens’ librarian or just want a cute read

Titles/Author: River of Teeth/ Sarah Gailey Genre: alternative history; bio sci fi Relationship(s): hard to qualify but there is a gender fluid, gender binary and 2 bi characters along with bi x nb relationship vibes The Good: Interesting premise, fast paced, distinctive characters, lots of tension, subtle but not non-existent romance The Bad: It’s a novella, so it’s short. Some of the action at the end, while well-written, was still confusing to visualize mentally. A few editorial bloopers. The characters aren’t as fleshed out as I’d like but it is a novella, so yeah, expected. Extra Notes: I read this while waiting for my stupid computer to update. It is a novella not a novel, so it is short. But it is extremely well paced and the balance between action and dialogue is well done. There is death and there is knife play and people having unfortunately accidents with hippos. There is a sequel, which was also good, but for completely different reasons (much heavier on the romance). Personal Rating: 9/10 Recommend: Yes, unless you are afraid of hippos

Titles/Author: A Place to Rest/ Erin Dutton Genre: romance Relationship(s): f/f, background m/m The Good: A light, quick read with a realistic flavor that doesn’t get too heavy. Very cute premise and heavily character-centric with nice arcs. Obligatory hot cocoa scene. The Bad: The pacing dragged a bit, the side characters were pretty stock. There were some repetitive elements that came off clunky in execution. Nothing terrible just seemed like the author is a bit inexperienced in a few areas. Extra Notes: This, to me, read like a slow burn coffee shop AU fanfiction, so if you like that sort of thing, you’ll really enjoy this book. I, personally, enjoyed the fact that there was family-centric tension that wasn’t omg you’re gay! and instead focused on normal sibling problems. Also, I liked that the protag was in her 30s because a good chunk of recommended reads for queer books are YA and at some point its nice not to read about teenagers. Sex scenes. Personal Rating: 8/10 Recommend: Yes

Titles/Author: Letters Never Sent/ Sandra Moran Genre: romance, historical fiction Relationship(s): f/f The Good: Well constructed and interesting plot, realistic premise, suitable twists, lots of pertinent and salient issues, queer history in the US midwest The Bad: Not a lot. There are 2 main characters, a mother and daughter, so it does waffle between the past and present time, which isn’t balanced perfectly and could have stagnant spots. Extra Notes: Honestly, I’d like to find a lot more adult books like this one. It hit my radar as a Must Read, and I don’t always care of Must Reads, they tend to be hyped from a small pool of mediocre. This one was worth it but... on to the warnings: sex scenes, homophobia, internalized homophobia, rape, abortion and murder. Nothing was gritty, in fact, the story itself is serious but not overly important about it.  Personal Rating: 9.5/10 Recommend: Yes

[hopefullystillatheatrestudent]

okay so i’ve been going crazy these past few days. all about cockles/jensmish and obsessively watching their panels or reading the transcripts BECAUSE. THEY ARE LOUD. LIKE. i saw some fancams on twt and i thought people were just exaggerating but noooooooooo!!!???? so, getting to the point. you said that how do we know that jensen is performing masculinity? because jared isn’t and THAT IS A BIG BRAIN MOMENT. ON POINT. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. a particular moment from gag reel that jumps out (which you’ve talked about) when jensen goes ‘cas, you are my baby daddy’ and misha goes, ‘i know i love you too’ and jensen goes, ‘i didn’t say i love you’ and misha goes, ‘i know you wanted to’ and jensen says, ‘i love you’ WHAT THE FUCK! that was NOT a joke. yes, people took it as a joke and had a good laugh BUT I HAVE WATCHED IT TOO MANY TIMES AND IT LIVES IN MY MIND RENT FREE BECAUSE IT WAS NOT A PERFORMANCE. THAT WAS JENSEN. THAT WAS MISHA. jensen has a had trouble with the pda and being all touch feely (the breakup theory) and he gradually grew into it, accepted it and misha was right there all along, never pushed it. it was like a deancas au but tbh, 99% of destiel is because of cockles and we all know it. i just. jensen has latched onto dean as an emotional support because he tunes with it. understands it. projects on to it. yeah, i just had to say it and get it off my chest. (and what about those poetry pages on instagram? alma? what is your opinion?) btw, you have a lovely blog and your analysis are right on target.

so there is a LOT i’m going to address here(how dare you bring up [gunshot] i HAVE to talk about it now) so again!!!! under a cut it goes but i hope you appreciate my rambles anon it seems like you do :,)

1. jared vs. jensen and performing masculinity. hell yeah man. jared and jensen are both just ‘guys from texas’ but they are still so vastly different. today i actually had a revelation that i’m pretty sure has to do with me being bi. and it’s that i have a group of straight friends(that i love dearly but they care too much about hockey and pitbull imo could not be me) and i have a group of queer friends(who are also batshit[affectionate]). and it’s like whichever group i hang out with a different side of me emerges? they’re both me, it’s just that certain aspects of who i am as a person only surface depending on who i am around. however, i will say i feel like i watch what i say around my straight friends more. i see that very clearly in jensen as well. around jared during panels and on set, he’s definitely putting on an air of machismo and engages in typical guy talk. i do think an element of it is performative, because he wants validation from jared that they’re still just two dudes from texas taking on the world together despite his sexual identity. does that make any sense??? i hope so. but when he’s with misha he is an entirely different person and his sense of humour becomes wildly different. the machismo fades away, he’s way less caught up in what people think about him, lets his guard down, etc. to go back to my original point which is how j2 are different in that regard....jared does not do this. he is a constant. he does not flip a switch between ‘performing masculinity’ and ‘not’ because he isn’t performing any part of who he is. he just IS. so yeah these two are similar in many regards but there’s somewhat of a dissonance between them when it comes to how they perform masculinity because one of them is putting on a show and the other is merely being.

2. that crypt scene blooper(here just in case you need to see it again. do it. as a treat.) when i tell you i have easily seen this over thirty times??? since it first came out??? i mean it. it is such an overlooked(r*mantic) moment and it means so much more than people think it does. i’ve talked about the context behind it, and i think that’s why this blooper was so meaningful, so i’ll mention it again. jensen and misha had a LOT of trouble with this scene. the reason is that jensen couldn’t wrap his head around why dean would be saying these things, if i remember correctly, and both of them sat down and scoured over how they should play it for a while before filming(teamwork ;) teammates *ahem*). [to be honest we all know why jensen had a hard time with that scene and it is because it is blatantly romantic. rip to him but i would simply give in to it at that point but oh well] so anyway, their heads were scattered going into shooting, which is NEVER a good headspace to be in for a scene, ESPECIALLY not a pivotal one. but they had each other to help them through said weird energy on set that couldn’t possibly have invoked the best feelings, especially considering jensen STILL doesn’t think he played that correctly(but he praised misha on his performance :,) ). and with that context every single part of that video hits haRD 

-’stop pulling my face towards your crotch’ i think this is objectively hilarious because it really really looks like jensen is pulling HIMSELF towards misha’s crotch. again, you’re fooling no one, jensen. misha’s wheezing laugh and the way he wraps himself around jensen is also,,,sweet??? like i don’t know how else to describe how i see it but this moment really reads as jensen, in his weird ‘constructing elaborate rituals’ way is asking for security through a physical touch from misha and he happily obliges and gives jensen what he needs. because i mean...watch it again. jensen ‘fights back’, but not really at all, actually. pretty wimpy counterattack. he literally lets himself be smothered by misha, and i would literally describe what they end up doing as cuddling. 

-’i need you, cas. you’re my baby daddy’ i love having an actor’s perspective on things bc i think i can explain what’s going on here. jensen just delivered what was(in his own mind) a rotten take of the lines he’s most scared of delivering. so the scene was already messed up. therefore; ensuing fuckery is warranted to help him feel better. but there’s also for sure more than meets the eye for what he says here because of misha’s reaction after??? like he seemed genuinely touched. first of all, he’s saying ‘you’re my baby daddy’ as half-jensen, but not necessarily dean either(because he didn’t say the previous lines as true to his character...you get it), to misha, not cas. i think i’ve made this point before, but every single innuendo in the gag reels is to misha specifically, never once cas. therefore; logical conclusion: ‘you’re my baby daddy’ was for misha and it meant something deeper than we think because of what follows it

-this part. jensen’s giddy ass smile after he sees misha crack and then misha says ‘yeah, i know’ (can i just say his voice when he says this is so intimate???? like am i intruding guys??? sorry i’ll let myself out) also he is smiling SO BIG

- ‘i know’ ‘why are you laughing?’ ‘no i know i love you too’ this analysis is already so long but i still want to get into what THAT whole exchange means. ‘why are you laughing?’ to me sounds like jensen’s pretending to be affronted by misha laughing at something that is serious. and it’s serious because he quite literally meant ‘i love you’. he did. misha knows it. misha’s really REALLY good at cutting the bs and just getting to what people are actually trying to say. he has an innate sharpness to his sense of humour. so yes, misha is being 100% accurate when he says ‘i know, but you wanted to say it.’ misha isn’t lying here. jensen did want and mean to say ‘i love you’. and then he actually does say it(in a jokey way but not really). 

- so yeah. it is actually so romantic??? like in a weird way jensen was professing his love for misha here?????? and that’s why this clip will NEVER. ever. get old. 

3. jensen having trouble with pda and projecting onto dean: we can all call ourselves dean coded cas girls but NO one deserves that title more than jensen ackles himself. he is dean winchester but marginally less repressed because he actually did admit he was in love with his best friend and let himself be happy, and pretty early on too. one year and two months as opposed to twelve years. so. happy deancas au is correct. and yes about the pda thing: one day i want to write my own post about both of their body language when it comes to each other, but all i can tell is jensen, even in the early days, couldn’t help himself from flirting with misha, but if misha ever crossed a line, jensen would not be happy. clearly he’s come around, however. what i find sweet is that misha always follows jensen’s lead when it comes to how much affection they’re allowed to show each other onstage. it touches my soul

4. destiel is cockles fault. yeah. and the thing is everyone knows it, too. even non-cockles shippers will explain early destiel as entirely dependant on jensen and misha’s wild chemistry. and that chemistry is easily explained by the fact that misha and jensen are literally just wildly horny bisexuals who were crazily attracted to one another and were falling in love on screen before our very eyes. and when you have THAT insider info(which sounds cray doesn’t it!!!! the destiel actors are in love irl??? huh???) everything really does click into place. why destiel got SO popular when the show and actors never ever intended for it to happen.(i know some people think misha was playing cas as gay the whole time for shits and giggles, and i won’t deny that[especially considering he found out early on that destiel was why he was staying on the show], but i don’t think he really wanted it to amount to anything, nor did he care??? i mean he has the real thing with jensen, for one, so their characters aren’t really as important. for two, he loves joking about destiel because it’s a cultural phenomenon and it’s fascinating, and i’m sure he did ship it because he’s unhinged, but i don’t think it was vastly important to him either way.) destiel got popular because everyone was and is unintentionally reading into the real deal. i could pull up countless gifs that people have used as destiel proof that is actually just jensen and misha being messy. mainly jensen. if i’m being honest.  the symbiotic relationship between destiel and cockles is why i’ve stayed onboard the destielcule and shellerscape for three solid months now; because it is utterly fascinating to witness and kind of super beautiful, too. 

5. alma(and others). so. i do NOT want to really REALLY get into this in its entirety here and now so i will just give you my opinion on if i think alma is misha or not. also; i don’t want to mention the other poetry accounts here bc i feel like that’s a bigger breach in privacy, but a lot of people do know about alma now. way too many, actually. this is why we can’t have nice things. anyway-to answer your question-there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that yes, misha is running that alma poetry account. i am 100% certain. some people think it’s actually three people and they’re all connected to misha in some way but that is so needlessly complicated. as it goes in psychology; the easiest explanation is probably the right one. it’s just one person running that account, and it is misha collins. i don’t know why it’s so hard to believe KNOWN POET misha collins(who is known to spend most of his free time writing poetry anyway) would have created a secret poetry account to write about his intense secret relationship under an alias and also get legitimate feedback since no one used to know it was him. oh and the handwriting is identical??? you are blind if you do not see that i am sorry. and a million other things prove it’s misha too but yeah all you need to know is yes. it’s him. it would take a literal livestream from a random woman on that account to convince me otherwise. and honestly not even that because a random woman could technically still log in if misha asked her too. so. it would take a hell of a lot to convince me otherwise, clearly. that said DO NOTTTTTTTTTTTT GO ONTO THAT ACCOUNT WITH A SUPERNATURAL RELATED USERNAME AND COMMENT THINGS THAT ARE COCKLES RELATED. ARE YOU BRAIN DEAD WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT’S OKAY. sorry i got heated but god please just don’t be dumb so many people have already gone way too far 

6. thank you for your lovely compliment on my analyses!!! i love doing them but i don’t know if people actually like reading them so i really appreciate it