#The fact that Job Job didn't have an identity of their own was my biggest gripe with the game

[captainfightingflower]

God the sticker sheet is going to be just as atrocious as Job Job’s isn’t it?

Y’know, why put in the effort of designing original Yõkai when you could just jerk yourself off and shove references up the wazoo? It’s not like doing this strips the game of it’s own identity and eventually everything you make is going to be so malnourished from the constant coprophagy that you’re going to have nothing going for you. No, because why should you try anymore when you could pander?

[skzdarlings]

hi, hi! I saw your ask game and I thought it was so cute and fun!!

✄ DVD BONUS: pick a fic and I’ll describe or write a deleted scene!

with the Felix!bodyguard fic!

i know with the bg fic I'm writing right now that there are A LOT of deleted scenes/ different directions I could have taken it in (I have a 12,000 word document just worth of the plot I had originally done ended up hating it all and choosing something different haha)

so I was curious if you had any deleted scenes!!

oh gosh yeah definitely, i know the feeling of 12000 words getting scrapped all at once. i have a word document full of deleted moments from all my fics and it's 75000 words lol

as for bodyguard yes!! this story changed directions a lot in initial planning. the absolute BIGGEST change however is chan's role in the story.

in the earliest version of the story, miroh existed insofar as there existed some kind of military/business/operation where felix would have been raised and trained. some of the backstory was the same - however, none of those characters were named.

chan and changbin were not going to be former soldiers like him. in fact... they were going to work at a cafe!! lol suffice to say, that version was very different than the final outcome.

chan and changbin were going to own a cafe/restaurant near the university and she was going to have an under-the-table-paid-in-cash part-time job there, making money and hiding it to hopefully plan for a future if she and felix escaped.

of course, with chan not being the person felix was trying to save, who was? in that original draft, felix was going to have a twin brother who essentially occupied that role. there is actually a little bit evidence to this still present in the final story; while it's explained that felix dyes his hair because he generally can't stand to look at his appearance and think of the boy he was under miroh, originally this was doubly so because he looks identical to the boy he was trying to save, and he didn't want to see his twin looking back at him as a reminder of what he was failing to save. i had originally established blonde felix by the time i scrapped the twin, so i just ran with it haha

i went with chan in the end because i decided that i wanted the boy he was trying to save to be someone we were also familiar with. so the job and cafe got scrapped and poor chan and changbin got put through the ringer instead hahaha

thank you for the fun question! <3

[gotskamstuff]

I love your anaylsis because that makes so much sense about JJ's family and how it led to this. That's what Kiara said in the very first episode, "Just because we have money doesn't mean we are kooks." Foreshadowing. So JJ would have to come to terms that he can have tons of money but doesn't have to change to be "one" of those snob kooks lik eother guys act like they own the town and people are so beneath them, you know. JJ can use his money for good reason, use it for good cause or help his friends who need it or something. I can see him doing that because it has always shown from the very season one that he always, always thinks of others before himself. He never thinks of himself or what he needs, he only thinks of what his friends need. When John B needed help to find his father in season one, JJ didn't hesitant to help him, no question. He went out to help him find him. That is who he is. So I can see good things come out when or if he gets tons of money.

Also, I just remember, I forgot his name, you know black guy who worked for Wes? The maintenance guy? He was only one who stuck around. Notice that from the first episode, he kinda stared at Porgue and every time they showed up, he would lurk in the background and stared at them like he knew something and didn't say anything. And not to mention, he was the one who gave JJ the letter. You see, Chandler could have destroyed the letter, no question. But the fact that Wes trusted him to give it to him and he followed through it. I find it quite interesting that he kept popping up when Porgue went to visit the island. Maybe he was behind helping Larissa or Wes or found JJ when he was baby and gave him to someone who would raise him and protect him and JJ would be in good hands. Who knows? What do you think of that guy? Do you think he might be something important from this story?

Yes yes yes to all this! You explained it perfectly!

That’s why I am loving so much this story about JJ’s family and origins, they’re doing and amazing job at intertwining it with JJ’s psychology as a character and feeding into what have always been his biggest insecurities towards himself and his identity.

I also agree that the scene at the beginning was an amazing foreshadowing and although I think there’s gonna be a moment at the beginning of part 2 when he’s gonna crush down badly and probably isolate himself a little, in the end both Kie and the Pogues will be the one able to ground him and those that JJ will look at to remember who he truly is.

I think this was an amazing storyline for JJ, I know it’s a bit controversial and some people are loving it and others are hating it but honestly it exceeded my expectations in a positive way, I truly think it’s a brilliant story for JJ’s journey and to finally detach himself from the prejudices held on him and grow from it.

The Pogues are 100% his real family and the ones who raised him and made him the young man he is today, but sadly we have always seen how his blood ties and his family reputation have always weighted down on him.

I think that’s what JJ’s journey is all about, detach himself from the idea that a name and your dna define who you are or where you can go from there, which is exactly what he was always led to believe, from the Kooks and the Carreras who always said he was just like his father, from the reputation he held because of the Maybank last name, from the authorities always saying he had it in his dna to be destined for prison, even from the manipulation that Luke always put upon him with those “you’re not gonna help your father, your own blood” “I am your father, you owe me this” manipulating him into believing that he always gotta have that sense of blind loyalty towards his biological family…he sadly grew up with a lot of negative and manipulative preconceived ideas put into his brain that needs a lot to be untangled.

Everything happening right now will probably make things worse for him and confuse him even more, but it’s gonna be the ultimate breaking point for him to start processing that it’s not his name or his biological family that make him who he is, kind of like “it needs to get to the lowest of lowest before it can get up”

SORRY I STARTED RAMBLING SOOOOOOO MUCH but I tend to do that when I talk about things I love and you sparked such a beautiful conversation anon 🫶🏻

Also I’ll keep it short (yeah right) but to answer your question YES, the man working for the Genrette family DEFINITELY knows what went down and the way he moved delivering the letter to JJ behind Chandler’s back makes me believe he doesn’t have any loyalty towards him and therefore he knows he’a behind Larissa and Wes deaths…’cause I mean, NO WAY IT’S NOT CHANDLER’S FAULT!!

[writebackatya]

Random question, but what are your favorite things about fendra? And what do you see are the biggest strengths of their relationship, and how do you try to incorporate that into your writing?

To me, both Fenton and Gandra represent that point in life when one is still getting used to being an adult and just trying to make your own mark on the world. Both of which have their own career paths that they have formed and set their eyes on and have their own way pursuing that path. The two have some similarities and differences with each other that I think benefit and build one another up

There are some differences between the two: Fenton is an open and social butterfly while Gandra is someone who is the exact opposite. Fenton is bubbly and optimistic while Gandra is a bit snarkier and pessimistic. Fenton is someone who has a lot of people in his life who will support him while Gandra has Fenton (at first). We don't know much about Gandra's personal life, but I think it's safe to assume that she probably cut her own family off; so when we first meet her Gandra was out on her own while Fenton is living with his mom

Guess I'm just a big fan of opposites attract. Whenever I try to capture that dynamic in my writing, I like to show that neither is bothered by the way the other is. In fact, their personalities have an effect on one another. Fenton's personality helps Gandra open up more while Gandra's personality helps Fenton build more confidence within himself

There are plenty of similarities. The two both have dual identities (scientist as well as superhero/spy), they're both minorities (that I definitely hc as mixed race, but the point is neither are white), and I personally think both are vastly underappreciated in their own fields

I always felt before Fenton met Gandra, he could be treated better by those who were close to him. In fact he was kinda flat-out ignored by people like Gyro and even his own m'ma that I don't blame him for acting out and jumping at the opportunities that came to him. Not to say that both Gyro and Mrs. Cabrera are bad people, it's just they didn't see Fenton the way he needed to be seen because they didn't quite get him and that's normal. It happens, sometimes the people close to you don't quite understand certain aspects of your life that others can. Like sure, he was still an unpaid intern when he started but he was really passionate about his job and ready to show what he had to Gyro and everyone else, but mostly he was ignored. His own m'ma just showed nothing but disinterest cause he was not getting paid as if that's all that mattered to her. I'm sure it didn't but I wouldn't be surprised if Fenton felt that way

And Gandra, she's someone who I think is one of the loneliest characters we've met in DuckTales. She was by herself. The only people that would kind of listen to her are people who would use her skills for their own advantage. I always assumed she was the type of person that would take any job that she can get and then move on with her life when she's done without making any friends

And to me, that's another reason why their relationship makes a lot of sense. There's this understanding between one another about wanting to be heard and seen for their own skills. It's been a while since I watched The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee! but I recall during their "meet-cute" that when Fenton asked Gandra what she did, there's a brief moment where Gandra looks caught off-guard. Her cocky facade just stopped because she was shocked that someone is taking an actual interest in her life

Another thing I love about these two is that they listen to one another. I loved seeing the two "science together" and when Fenton called Gandra out for her actions that had an effect on her. The two have always had chemistry with each other and even if some people don't like Fendra, they can't deny these two do have a nice friendship

I guess one way I love to incorporate that in my stories is by showing how supportive the two are in their own endeavors. I personally don't want Gandra to become an employee for McDuck because to me that's saying "In the end, all she needed was a corporate job!" when I don't think there was anything wrong with her freelancing and independence, she just needed to be careful and more mindful of her actions. So I love showing the two be supportive of each other's career paths. Both want the best for the other. And heck I work in the medical field (I'm a pharmacy technician nothing too fancy) and I've met pharmacists who are married to other pharmacists and usually their spouses work another job somewhere else

I also LOVE showing Fenton's superhero side and Gandra's spy side, because these two are more than just scientists. In one of my stories I showed they were an effective duo (which we did see a few times in the series) and I still have Gandra be called "Agent Dee" when she's working, why? Because that's her spy name! Not her F.O.W.L. name!!

I'm sorry mini-rant, but I always thought the whole "Oh don't call me Agent Dee. Cause that was my F.O.W.L. name :(" was a bit silly. Cause come on, she's a spy. Not because of F.O.W.L. or Mark Beaks, but that's career path she's going down because she's damn good agent. I mean really, let's say Gyro worked for F.O.W.L. and then left. Do you think he'd want to be stopped being referred to as Dr. Gearloose?! Hell no! He worked hard to get that title and he ain't letting anyone take that from him. but like if that's your headcanon that's fine. My headcanons are just as accurate as yours are

Also I like to imagine Gandra occasionally jokes about how she used to work for F.O.W.L. cause she's someone with a dark sense of humor. Like one of these days she'll be surrounded by the McDuck family during one of their adventure bickerings and Fenton would be like "Whatcha thinking about?" and she'd be like "Oh just how much I miss being in the Lost Library of Alexandria"

[mdhwrites]

Will HSR 3.0 Powercreep 2.0?

TL:DR No. This is for a LOT of reasons but the biggest is that 2.0 saw a refinement of Star Rail's identity and an abandoning of mechanics that hold back some 1.0 characters, especially DPSes. Combine this with the simple fact that archtypes mean many characters will stay evergreen (just look at Jing Yuan taking top marks post Sunday) and you have a likelihood of seeing expansion on current power but not necessarily the overshadowing of it.

So when I talk about the refinement of HSR, what am I talking about? Well, it's actually kind of simple even if it's not obvious. There are two major places where you can see some rigidity in design that has been abandoned: Hunt and Burn.

At 1.0, almost every Hunt character has a major trace that protects them in some way. Most of them literally have the same trace where if they get low enough in health, they draw less aggro. Yanqing has instead a boost to effect resist. Stuff like that was just MUCH more prevalent at the very launch of Star Rail.

Burn on the other hand was an attribute that was shared across I think literally EVERY fire character at the start. Asta, Himeko, and Hook all apply burn on basic. Since then, we've not seen a single fire character with that shared trait and most of them don't even care about burns being on the opponent, something Topaz held onto.

There's actually a lot of little quirks like this with early Star Rail design. Anyone remember that we have people who can remove buffs from the opponents? Luocha and Pela both can do it and there is like ONE use case for that mechanic in the entire game because most buffs from opponents cannot be dispelled. So... Why are they there?

Because a young game is still going to be figuring out its identity. Something like all the burns for Fire leaned into an idea of mono-fire being a core pillar of the game where burn is dominant for that element. Serval pushed the idea of a shock focused team, meaning mono-electric. That elements in general were supposed to form more of their own niches like Mono Quantum did. Hunt characters meanwhile exhibit a drag out, knuckles bloody brawl sort of game that is antithetical to how Star Rail's endgame looks like. Instead of trying to maximize damage, these characters sacrifice parts of themselves for longevity.

And a big part of why I think that might have been done is that I think at one point the SU was seen as a more traditional roguelike mode. Where life comes hard and fast and is a currency to spend. Where you have to run yourself ragged between fights. A form of the SU that mostly didn't materialize and wouldn't be that much fun anyways. Swarm Disaster is close to the worst version of the SU for its nail biting difficulty and leaning into the cruelty of roguelikes, rather than the joy of being overpowered. That would have been the version of endgame that Star Rail was most thinking about designing early characters in mind with since it wouldn't be until 1.6 that we got stuff like Pure Fiction and Gold and Gears which began shifting the design space of endgame modes.

And I think this WAS for the best. I don't want as much rigidity in my team composition as mono elements imply. I'd rather genuinely be playing with how mechanics or character quirks function, such as follow up attacks, summons or DoTs. Or, for that matter, Break. Things that allow for you to play within a space and shift elements as is needed instead of hoping the enemy is the one element you're strong against. This is especially something I'm glad about for the removal of the hyper carry meta. Bronya should not be seen as the core of every team and now that has fluctuated more as more characters have found their niches.

Buuuuuut there is a flipside. Characters like Acheron, Robin or Aventurine are for the most part still very pure in their team roles without much flair so this refinement has seen them SKYROCKET past many other characters as general utility members of a team. They do their job so well that it's hard to not see them as incredibly powerful. They are extremely smooth characters, with fewer of the rough edges of 1.0 and arguably polished to a point that isn't as interesting as the 1.0 characters.

ALL of this though makes me believe that 3.0 will see a bit more chill. The Herta and Aglaea are actually both signs that Star Rail is trying to pull back on just how much gas their DPSes have by their own mechanics. The team you make for The Herta is critical to get her stacks in a timely fashion whatsoever while Aglaea has one of the most explicit wind up times of any character since Yanqing. Both are not going to be able to 0 cycle things and be close to the limitations someone that, say, Jingliu (someone who suffers from two different ABYSMAL major traces) has while still indeed fulfilling their new design spaces and smoother design.

This all makes me suspect we'll see cries of powercreep because people just do that for EVERYTHING but in reality, it'll be more even design. Or we'll see more things like Sunday/Jing Yuan where an old archtype is finally given love again and so a character who has been waiting for so long sees transcendence. Like, imagine a character who buffs a character based on their crit rate. The 80% of the time 100% Crit Rate Jingliu will love that. Imagine someone who benefits seeing life loss for the whole team? Suddenly, the Jingliu, Blade combo team sees a resurgence as life loss finally sees a win after over a patch cycle of being neglected. Fucking, I saw someone thinking that because of how The Herta worked, SERVAL might make a reappearance because of her job as an ult spammer, a mechanic that has been entirely placed on the shoulders of DPSes with few supports that even give energy, let alone make ult spam as explicitly powerful as it is.

2.0 focused so hard on follow up and break effect that we are probably going to see those two teams languish for a bit but they were built so solidly, on new, better principals for the game, that I imagine they'll be shaking hands with upcoming archtypes, not watching them soar by. That is my hope at least with how well Star Rail has handled making its gameplay interesting. See you next tale.

======+++++======

My link to Amphoreus' pre-registration, if you want to help me out. Still feels weird to say that a pre-registration is happening for a game that's already out.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.

I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.

If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[shana-reviews-tmblr]

Everything you need to know is from the art shown within the episodes in the family portraits and such

as a visual medium it is important for them to take advantage of that fact and allow the viewers to see things so as to not boggle down the pacing with exposition

"Show don't tell"

In many portraits that you see, Stolas has ALWAYS been there for Via since her birth, he held her as an infant, played horsey with her and even took a pocture of his as an infant, even one image showing Via happily celebrating her 13th birthday

compare this to the portraits we see of Stolas from The Circus and there is a vastly BIG contrast as Stolas's birth was shown to be simply one of many that his father didn't care to remember his name and as an infant he was left alone in a crib that showed that loneliness, contrast to Via's portraits which are colorful and vibrant to show she was loved.

this is further shown in S1 Ep2 and even in Seeing Stars as we are shown that between her parents STOLAS is the one she looks to the most for comfort and is shown to be closest to while also showing us that Stolas is very comforting and parental to Via

On top of what we got in S2 where he stood up to Stella telling her how he endured all her insults and cruelty for Via's sake

these are the biggest indicators that show the audience how deep Stolas's love for her is

and to answer the question "why didn't he just tell Via"

as someone who grew up with a dad who lived a similar marriage life as Stolas and for me growing up in Via's position, it is EXTREMELY difficult for a parent to tell their child the horrible things they endured for their kids without making them feel as if it was their fault

this happens in real life and it is why MANY kids of divorce relate to Via and understand Stolas' position, we've had parents do the same.

Stolas trying to protect Via was a double edge sword because it did its job well, but because Stolas wasn't able to tell Via the truth and because Stella cruelly kept Via away from Stolas for 1 month the window of opportunity for Stolas closed up until Via saw his meds and assumed the worst.

Stolas's character is complex for a reason

he had no real parental figure to guide him to being a parent, he was simply told, you got a role to fulfill and you are going to give this family an heir to continue the bloodline whether you like it or not.

on top of him living a life that has given him privilege didn't help his world view, which S3 will no doubt dive more as Stolas now realizes he is no longer able to enjoy his status, his way of life, and will have to work for his living, in a sense reflecting Adam and Eve being banished from Eden, S3 will be the season Stolas now has to reconstruct his identity as "Prince Stolas of the Ares Goetia" is no more.

Fans have also rightly pointed out that Millie's pregnancy can be something Stolas can also help out with and be a means for Stolas to better empathize with Imps, especially with families who do not have the means or finances to support kids, while Millie is going through her own journey.

It seems unfair to fear the worst when something hasn't happened yet and to assume that they will botch the writing when truth be told, the series has managed to do a good job handling most of its subject matter.

Stolas as a character is well written as we first saw him as a rich prince who we weren't sure of if he genuinely cared for Blitz or saw him as a boy toy, Loo Loo Land showed us there would be heart to this story, Ozzie's showed us Stolas genuinely does want something with Blitz, but because of his own cowardice and upbringing he fumbled, The Circus showed us his history with Blitz and what lead to the events of the series happening and that he genuinely does want to fix things and end the arrangement ( I made a tumblr post on this subject for Blitz and Stolas's growth so if you're curious give it a read on my tumblr)

but yeah i don't think the writing should be written off as if it isn't doing a good job

is it perfect? Viv has said multiple times she wishes she could go back and change things, but doing that now will take time and money away from producing the rest of the show, so no it's not

is the show doing its job at convincing the audience and reaching them to get them invested? clearly it is since even if the consensus is divided, it's clear the story is resonating, the way events are playing is reaching people.

It's probably better to save any final judgements or criticisms for when the show is completed, because Viv and Brandon, who are both writing for the show along with Alex, have all said the show's end point has been decided and they are ahead in production, none of this is being written in reaction to how each episode is received.

Give it time and when the show ends, then see how much it lived up to its potential.

but imo I think Stolas and Octavia's relationship are handled well, because it brought back memories i had, how much i relate to and was in Via's position and how much it makes me want to see her reunite with her dad, because Stolas IS a good parent, he's not a perfect parent, but he is a good father, it's why Via's pain hurts so much because of how close they are and her being closed off from him gives the future seasons a stakes, something that most shows tend to try and wrap up or in Sinsmas case, if this were a lesser show, it'd try to give a happy ending for the holiday theme thus depriving the seasons of another thing Stolas has to work to make right while playing into the age old TV Trope of things getting wrapped up and unearned.

About sismas,I'm gonna say,I don't think stolas real mean by saying he cares for Octavia. I understand that the man has been through a lot and I understand,but honestly,I never see the owl try to prove what he say is true. He may say he care for Octavia,but we all know,that's he's just bluffing. Like,he's saying this so he can make himself feel better and want Octavia to believe the man like he always do except she didn't and she is rightfully angry at him. Honestly,I really really don't get the show wants us to sympathize with stolas when he already lose a lot of his chances.

I did some research both on the hazbin wiki and through social media and from what I have seen, the spindlehorse crew seem to be AWARE that Stolas fucked up and he is flawed like everyone else but they aren't really good at showing that in any of the episodes. I think the closest they got to him having a proper introspection instead of fans relying on asking the show creators personally was his whole crash out in sinsmas.

I did like what they were going for when Octavia got angry at him because he has let her down time and time again and simply telling someone how much you love them over and over isn't going to cut it forever. I think it could've been a great story on generational trauma in a different way, where the parent is actually better then the grandparent in terms of raising kids but the bar is already set so low and the lifestyle the parent grew up along with other factors like his affair often impedes on his relationship with Octavia.

I am hoping that season 3 will TRY to show this more in the show instead of having to ask everyone on Twitter. It would not only help will Stolas's reputation given how it's been declining thanks to the characters actions along with the show being poor with proper portrayal but it would take so many tropes and make something unique out of it.

But this is the same show that wasted every opportunity to make Stella interesting so I'm not gonna raise expectations so high and Vivzie is showing signs of bias for her characters so the whole self awareness might not stay for long.

Something a little extra: I'm a little worried about how Vivzie is going to write Millie now that we know she's pregnant. Millie in season 1 was kind of always in a box with two personality traits which were loving Moxxie and being a brutal powerhouse and you'll probably remember how people complained about that and it did not help the allegations that Vivzie was a tad sexist.

my favorite parts of season 2 were almost all Millie related since she was now finally leaving that box of two personality traits and went into more depth about her relationship with Blitzø, her family, her job, how she feels about being away from home, all of that. It was exciting to see the improvement in the writing in some places but now that Millie is confirmed pregnant I'm worried Vivzie is going to put her in a box again, that'd be really disappointing given how much we get to see.

Only time will tell I guess.

[thefabledpheasant]

1. Audio Manips

I mean personally, I don’t really jive with the edits of actors having sex even without AI, but that’s not the point anyway. This is about AI. It’s about using AI to clone a human being. If it had been made without AI, I wouldn’t have said anything and instead just blocked them.

2. Actor Consent

Actors are aware and accept that when they play a character, people will engage with creating different kinds of art of the characters that have their face and body.

That doesn't mean there isn't a line in the sand. That doesn't mean they agree and accept that their voices/faces will be cloned.

This is the thing, a real persons rights are being infringed on when you do this. Arthur is not real, but Bradley James is. That is Bradley James’ voice. You aren’t just simply editing together words he spoke on screen, you are literally attempting to clone his voice and speech patterns so you can hear him say whatever you want. You are creating a voice puppet of him without his consent. The visual equivalent is digitally cloning his face/body to have him do whatever you want in a scene.

3. AI and creative spaces

I don’t really understand why something being done in the name of “fandom” creates this gray area. Infringing on the rights of human beings cannot be justified by the fact that it makes your fandom experience more enjoyable.

The reason I brought this up in the first place is because AI in the art world will make people lose their jobs if it’s normalized. These companies don’t want to just use it as a tool, they want to replace you. They want to take the humans out of human art because it gives the billionaires even more money. AI as a tool to help with non-creative related tasks is great, but that’s not what it’s being used for.

Idk if you're aware, but there was the biggest actors and writer strike in history very recently, mostly because the studios wanted actors to agree to Al replicas of them and the actors didn't want it. And they wanted the writers to be okay with AI being used so heavily it would make most of them obsolete.

4. What is “morally ok”

I mentioned before in my message I have always followed the rule of just ignoring what I don’t like because not everything is for me and that’s fine.

But this is about the use of AI and the way it’s shaping the world. Specifically the world for artists like us. Specifically in using peoples faces/works without consent to make its own “art”. This is actively harming the future for artists and performers. I already basically said in the other paragraphs why AI is not okay, but to recap:

any kind of AI cloning is infringing on that persons right when they haven’t consented to it. Their face and bodies are their identities and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The other problem with AI is companies don’t want them as tools, they want to replace humans because it saves them money. AI is not art and completely removes what makes art human. Normalizing AI for art is genuinely detrimental to our future.

I never pushed the issue through DMs. I sent both of you one ask each trying to explain why this is harmful, and when they responded I just decided to drop it because I could tell we’d go in circles, though the other blog agreed with me the smut was too far. I did not send multiple post replies. I made two separate posts about the issue of AI voice cloning but I didn’t tag or name anyone involved because I wasn’t trying to send hate but instead talk about a topic that is extremely detrimental to our futures if we don’t impose lines in the sand.

Alright, I just saw a post using voice cloning of Colin Morgan and Bradley James for a smutty Arthur x Merlin fanfic scene and it’s not ok. I’m going to message the creator and the author of the fanfic and explain why it shouldn’t be on there, but please if you see it do not reblog it or endorse it.

AI voice cloning is not ok. AI has no business in art. The actors did not consent.

I truly don’t wish any hate to anyone, but this is not a topic that should be taken lightly. It’s not an issue of “oh it’s just not for me” it’s an issue of consent and what is morally ok to do.

[isthisitbytaylornicole]

"is this it?" BLOG POST #1: hey, you! meet adulthood. the ghetto, if you will...

Author's Note:

First of all, welcome to my blog! It feels so surreal to be saying that because this is something I have wanted to do for so long, but fear, laziness, and "plans" kept me from doing so. I am so happy that you have decided to take time out of your day to sit and read my post. I'm so excited to be able to share these stories with you all about my dirty little cousin, Adulthood. She doesn't mean any harm, she just doesn't know any better. Trust me. I hope you are intrigued by what I have to say and I would love to chat with you in the comments about these topics. Enjoy!

"Don't you find it odd, that when you're a kid, everyone, all the world, encourages you to follow your dreams. But when you're older, somehow they act offended if you even try."

-Unknown (The Hottest State)

I can say, without hesitation, that I was not fully prepared for what adulthood had to offer. She came without remorse, but made sure to bring all sorts of debt, the occasional iffy encounter, and topped it all off with a micro-aggression or two (or ten). In these instances where I was thrown into situations dealing with money, racism, self-identity, relationships, etc., how did I handle these episodes with minimal detrimental impact on my inner psyche? The answer; I didn't because I didn't know how to.

I vividly remember the process of applying to colleges, final senior presentations, deciding what school I wanted to go to, all while being molded in the belief that college was the best option, if not the only option, for young, black, teenagers, like myself, who wanted to be successful. Please don't misunderstand me when I say this. I definitely agree with the fact that as young adults we should be able to take advantage of all the opportunities given to us including continuing an education at a four-year institution and experiencing all that college has to offer like social engagements and freshmen fifteen. However, I do not believe that is the only way to solidify success in a society where situations like going to a four year conventional university have become the norm. While we are molded into believing a four-year college is one of only three options for teenagers of color [the other options being pregnancy or prison as stereotype culture has taught us] we are limited in the knowledge of only knowing how to make it TO college, and not how to be successful THROUGHOUT and beyond college and I am a prime example.

Due to the stigma of black high school dropouts, often times, high schools in cities like Detroit (who primarily house students of African decent) strive for one-hundred percent high school graduation and college acceptance rates ,as apposed to, one-hundred percent college fulfillment and graduation rates. In other words, they don't care how you get home from the party, as long as you were invited. And I mean who can blame them?! While primarily white high schools with students trying to decide if they want to attend either Harvard or Yale are spitting out graduates left and right, primarily black high schools can't even get scantron sheets on time for their junior students to take the SAT, which is it supposed to be an equal opportunity test for all students, accept those with brown skin of course. (This happened at my high school btw.)

Then I get to college only to see that all of my professors are old, white, dirty men, which is not in fact the demographic I grew up within. Is this it? Is this what my parents are paying almost forty-thousand dollars a year for? Is this your King?! 👨🏼‍🏫Well, I'm here now and I guess I need to stick this out. Never mind being one of only four black students in an intro to political science class of almost forty-five. Never mind having a black roommate who didn't know if she wanted to be Ebony or Ivory that day. Her white boyfriend did tell me I had nice skin one day which was nice of him. Never mind me working at the McDonald's right across the street from my dorm my freshman year where almost everyday somebody I knew would come and try to get free food from me. (That didn't really have anything to do with my hardships during my time at college, but it was irritating trying not to get caught smuggling cookies and McFlurries out of the store every other day. I was too nice obviously.) Never mind having to refrain from using any kind of ebonics in order to fit into conversations and/or lectures about political science topics in order to sound more professional and educated to my white peers and professors (A.K.A code switching😶‍🌫️ 🎛). Overall, the majority of my time spent inside the college classroom setting was often done in ways that involved me faking it until I made it, until I didn't make it.

I dropped out of college at the end of my sophomore year and at the time it seemed like my biggest failure. Not only did I feel like I failed myself, I felt like I failed my family and closest friends and quite literally I failed most of my classes😬. Not to mention the thousands of dollars in student loans left for me to pay back which was bound to happen anyways but that is a totally different conversation for another post. (Sallie Mae better hope she don't catch these hands.) I felt like, as do most young adults my age, there was a timeline on my success. If I didn't get that college degree in four years, and have a car and apartment by twenty, my life had no worth. This narrative was brought on not only by my school environment growing up, but it was brought on by the climate that we live in today. As young people, we are so easily influenced by pop culture, social media, YouTube, sports media, our peers, music and so many other ideals constantly bombarding our everyday lives. We're shown these unrealistic almost fantasy-like scenarios in which all you have to do it make a prank video in order to make money and once you have money, fame, and a VLONE shirt, boom, you have worth! Why am I rushing to fulfill these egregious standards set by these dull influencers who can't even spell egregious. Success does not have only one definition. To me, success is defined by your own standards and not society's. And college is not a one stop shop!

The picture of adulthood has been painted so monochromatically that I have at times lost my ability to dare to dream bigger than what has been laid before me with society's crusty hands. Yes I plan on finishing my education at a four year college, but at the time, my college experience would not have allotted me the opportunity to discover the world of Cyber Security and the many job opportunities and networks I've been exposed to.

All in all, take advantage of ALL the opportunities you encounter whether they are laid out in front of you or even if you have to network to find them.

This was just a piece of the perspectives I am excited to offer as I continue to share my stories in this world of blogging and rediscovery. I hope I didn't scare any of you off already because in my next blog piece I will be diving into more aspects of adulthood and the whole notion of relationships(romantic and non); do we really need them tho? and how do we weed out the bad ones and water the fruitful ones?

PLEASE TUNE IN ON TUESDAY FOR MY NEXT INSTALLMENT OF "IS THIS IT?" BY TAYLOR NICOLE AND THANK YOU FOR READING!💛

By: Taylor Nicole

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS BELOW! I WOULD LOVE TO CHAT.💛

[asagi-s-garden]

WB is the worst when it comes to DC. It's no coindence that Constantine is leaving 'Legends of Tomorrow" in the wake of the upcoming HBO Max show. And this pandemic ruined a lot of plans. As you said "BL" wasn't meant to be in the Arrowverse put when it happened they were all gung-ho for it. They had plans for Jeff to visit Central City and for Anissa and Grave to chill in Gotham. But then the pandemic and whatever BTS drama that got "BL" canned. Like *something* happened. It got an early renewal in Jan then it was cancelled in Nov. And CW didn't even bother to have proper trailers for new episodes. Don't tell me somebody on the show didn't rub the network the wrong way to result in that level of pettiness

Yeah, WB isn't just the worst with DC, but really the worst with favoritism in my personal opinion

They tried so hard to make the DC streaming service a huge success but as soon as they saw it wasn't going to be they got rid of everything like it was on fire, HBO Max is the new golden child so they're cutting their own throats in other areas to make it succeed- IE: Theaters

My poor Suicide Squad 2 ;_; no I won't say "my THE Suicide Squad" it won't roll off the tongue it was a sacrificial lamb to the damn streaming service :(

I know it's an unpopular opinion to not be all over streaming but they're really clearly cutting way more than just corners in order to feed that specific beast and try to make it compete with Disney+, that's why they're starting to draw the string on the Arrowverse :/ The same thing happened, I think, with the DC streaming service though, when they saw that the biggest success of DC was the Arrowverse, they decided to pull their dying streaming service as well as the DCEU into it to pump the Arrowverse up more, now that the Arrowverse is starting to go under- with three shows being gone, Batwoman being in questionable territory, and the two biggest successes of the year being largely disjointed from it (Superman and Stargirl), I think they're going to try to scramble it like eggs :/ They're doing the same with the DCEU to a degree though, by having loosely connected stories that do more universe hopping and tone changes (IE: Joker coming out just months before Birds Of Prey and having been preceeded by Shazam!) I think since they're seeing more promise in that approach right now for the movies, they might be trying to do the same for TV- or they're just trying to let the Arrowverse die of neglect so they can pump up HBO Max like you said

Ofcourse now that WB has been bought by Discovery, we might get some big changes to this; Discovery already said they wanted to pour seven BILLION dollars into DC properties specifically in the first year alone, and I know the rumor is that they're only going to try to gloss up DC so that they can sell the assets to the highest bidders once their "probation" period ends but like.... seven billion is a hell of alot of gloss..... and if they can start pulling in more numbers like Joker, Superman & Lois, and The Suicide Squad (wich may have not been a huge hit at the box office but wich reportedly smashed the HBO Max numbers enough that WB is circling James Gunn like a starving shark), then I have a hard time believing they'd be wanting to get rid of it, especially when, let's face it, DC is easily the most well known and most marketable asset Discovery has ever had and probably ever will have purely because of Superman alone, you can't find a person anywhere who hasn't atleast heard of Superman, regardless of how much the film properties are hit-and-miss financially, I have a hard time believing anyone would just throw that kind of name power to the wolves....

But onto Black Lightning, I actually have a pretty strong theory about that one

I'm almost certain that China Anne McClain is why the show was canned

And do not get me wrong, I don't mean that in a snippy way, but China quit Black Lightning pretty urgently- to the point that she only wanted to do limited episodes for the final season

Backing up a moment here though, let me explain why I think this was the nail-in-the-coffin

Black Lightning was very quickly becoming centered around Lightning specifically

That doesn't mean to say that it wasn't still Jefferson's story and that Anissa wasn't still important, but Jennifer was getting set up to be The Powerhouse of the show, with the bulk of the drama probably surrounding her and the thought of her potentially taking on her father's mantel

It seemed like the idea of Black Lightning retiring or atleast putting on the suit a little less was starting to become a thing, and with Jefferson firmly accepting his daughters as part of the world of Metas at that point, that would have lead to Anissa and Jennifer taking much more of the spotlight than they had in the beginning- that's a natural progression of things, and although I actually prefer Anissa's storyline (it's just more my personal cup of tea), I will readily admit that Jennifer was the one who had the ability to carry an entire season's worth of story on her shoulders.... not so much Anissa, who has her wife (so romantic subplots are pretty toned down), her powers are developed and stable (nothing quite like the learning curves Jennifer was facing), she has a stable job and a stable superhero identity- two, in fact-, so no literal schoolyard drama or issues with "Am I in my father's shadow? Is this how the world sees me and do I want them to see me this way?" much like what Jennifer was starting to experience in the end of the show either

TLDR Anissa mostly had her shit together, wich is great for her, but it doesn't lend to being able to carry the most dramatic storylines like it does with Jennifer, who's still figuring out pretty much everything

I think Jennifer was already starting to take a very large amount of the story as of the last season and even starting to steal the spotlight before that, if they were to come back for more I feel like she would have been in a place of being much more obviously groomed to take on the main charector status wile Jefferson stepped back just a little bit to be more supportive to her journey instead of the other way around

And the show could still exist very much as Jefferson's story wile that story happened to center on Jennifer

.....Buuuuuuuuuuuuut that's where the problem comes in

China said before the show was cancelled that she was going to step down from playing Lightning because she wanted to focus on her faith more and be removed from anything that wasn't "in service to God", wich is totally fine for her, but it does put Black Lightning in a bit of a difficult position because the charector they were gearing up to make their breakout star was suddenly going to either have to pull a Winn and just... be.... gone.... or have to get recast

To be entirely honest, I'm not sure why they didn't stick with the recasting instead, I thought Laura Karuki did a fantastic job as Jennifer and the "Am I Jennifer or am I JJ?" story would have been a great thing to explore for an entire season, but if I had to guess, they maybe just didn't want to mess with it?

Black Lightning had good numbers but it wasn't in the top five or anything to my recollection, not since it's premiere season anyway, and it could have been a compound decision of "We weren't going to keep this up much longer anyway so let's just take this as a sign to wrap it up", although I think that the way the recast was done could have presented a stable option for them if they had decided to give it a go for a full season, although maybe that's just my opinion and they initially made the recast so that the people behind the curtain could see if Laura would work well enough as Jennifer and when they decided that the vibe wasn't right they went on ahead and pulled the plug rather than risk getting the same um... resistance.... than Batwoman met over their recasting choices

Although I could go on for days about why that situation is different (to be clear: I do like Ryan quite alot but I don't think the Batwoman situation was nearly as seamless as Black Lightning's in terms of recasts, but that's another story for another day)

TLDR I think if China had stayed aboard they would have gone on for atleast another season or two, but there are some shows where members of an ensemble cast are so essential that their leaving is too big of a blow to stay through

It's much like when Dylan O'Brien had to bow out of Teen Wolf for a little wile, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a fan who absolutely loved season six, and even before that people were having a hard time staying with a lack of Tyler Hoechlin, with some even stepping away when Crystal Reed left, even though- at both of those points- most of the core cast was still there and at no point did the titular main ever leave, I feel like Black Lightning's situation is very similar, people were just too invested in Jennifer

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

In a recent post on I Dream of Twilight Sparkle I said that I noticed asks that were not in my inbox the last time I decided to read through my entire ask box. So I did the same for my mod blog. And while there were some also that I didn't see before. Most are questions I feel either I feel like I may have already sufficiently answered enough with my thoughts on an episode and/or it'd be weird at this point to answer something that's obviously years after the fact.

But there is two I found that I feel like I may want to respond to. The person who sent it was someone who used to discuss the show with me almost all the time, though obviously they must no longer be on Tumblr as all their blogs are deactivated. But I still want to answer since it is sort of relevant to recent stuff. Particularly in their 2nd ask.

By the way, I'm always open to questions on the show or even non-pony topics here on my modblog. I still do love talking about G4 ponies and I wouldn't mind some questions if any of you would like to know my opinion on anything. Now that the show has been over for nearly 2 years , I can have a perspective on many topics about Friendship is Magic that I wouldn't mind sharing. Maybe some things have changed here and there, though I think I still generally have a positive attitude towards most things for certain. I stuck with the show until the very end, and was satisfied with how it ended. And I still have interest in doing more in G4's world even as G5 approaches. (Though I'm sure perhaps once that movie has aired that may be the focus of any questions sent here)

((My answer and more after the break))

For the most part, I think I still generally agree with what I said in my initial thoughts about the Season 6 finale. It's a solid episode with some great interactions between Starlight, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax. Though the way the ending is executed is a bit of a headscratcher. Maybe somewhat less so since thinking about it now, like even if Chrysalis did keep some things loyal. What would stop them from eventually seeing what Thorax's changelings did shortly after.

But I suppose I wanted to answer this mostly about Starlight. Since while the Season 6 finale made HomerJ get over some remaining feelings about Starlight. I'll admit it took literally until writing Secrets of the Dragon's Tear (A year after the show was over) to realize the sort of potential that Starlight had. The baggage from the Season 5 finale always felt like a cloud above her for the entire rest of the show's run. And I consider Season 6's largest mistake is not trying harder to endear us to Starlight. That's what that season's entire job was, to try to make us feel a little better of how rather rushed Starlight's redemption was by giving us a more expanded look into Starlight's character. And unfortunately, I feel like it failed at that in my opinion. Thus I basically disagree (Though respect the opinion of) with those who would say the Season 6 finale was when Starlight finally won them over.

Don't get me wrong, I like how Starlight is portrayed in the episode. But it would of been stronger if say the season had explained more about Starlight's past. How did Starlight get her cutie mark, and given her opinion on Cutie Marks how did she feel at the time?

Instead, we mostly just got Starlight reuniting with Sunburst that didn't exactly give any more details to her rather vague reasons for turning to darkness from him moving away other then finding out Sunburst's personality and how his side of the story went. And from there we had Starlight befriend Trixie... in an episode I still don't really like to this day.

Ironically, the character in the Hearth's Warming episode that casts Starlight as the story's version of Scrooge (Snowfall Frost) is given more reason to sympathize with then Starlight herself.

Starlight then just about disappears up until the episode that introduces Thorax. Where she doesn't do much other then be among the crowd that Spike has to convince that Thorax is not evil.

The next time we see her is Every Little Thing She Does. Which is something of a controversial ep from what I hear, though ironically despite my skepticism of Starlight at the time. I actually sort of liked that episode since it was basically Starlight's own Lesson Zero. Though I get why Starlight deciding to hypnotize all the Mane 6 besides Twilight against their will would not be approved of. Though it does feel like at the very least Twilight and the rest give her enough of a piece of their mind at the end.

And that's how things stood before the Season 6 finale happened. Even though I do think Starlight has good moments in said finale, nothing earlier in the season really dispelled many of my feelings about the Season 5 finale's ending. So despite a good showing, I could hardly care for it. I wasn't convinced yet we were given a satisfactory answer about the many questions that Starlight's sudden redemption prompted.

Another part of my thoughts I feel still applies is when I mentioned that Starlight's a "Diet Sunset Shimmer" (Which considering what I did to link the two for SOTDT, is a bit funny in hindsight). It took just one movie (Rainbow Rocks) for the fanbase to turn a 180 on Sunset. While an entire season with Starlight as one of the good guys goes by and she remained just as divisive as before if not more so by the end of Season 6.

Come Season 7, and Starlight appears quite a bit more often though under the assumption that the Season 6 finale was enough to warm you up to her. There were many complaints during the first half of Season 7 that she was appearing more then she should (Even in an Equestria Girls special where she got to meet the character she was so often compared to). Though another thing about Starlight in Season 7 in hindsight is besides from her meeting a few more friends like Maud. Starlight isn't actually given much to actually work towards. They dropped the whole student aspect so it's not like she was doing friendship lessons under Twilight anymore (Though I suppose on the bright side for the detractors, it lessened worries about her becoming an Alicorn). Season 8 and 9 does somewhat fix that by having Starlight employed at the school, first as a counselor and ultimately ending with her as the school's Principal as Twilight herself got promoted to sole ruler. Which I'm still unsure about if fans of her character feel that was a proper ending for her. Though probably the best that could of been done in context of not much having been done with her over time.

Still, at least for me personally it felt there was alot missing about Starlight and as time went on it became obvious I wasn't going to get the satisfactory answers about her that I wanted. So as a result, I only had lukewarm reactions when a new Starlight episode was coming up. It also didn't help that there were two episodes that raised my hopes of at least one interesting aspect that would of been cool to see. The first being the episode "All Bottled Up" which I had hoped would mean it would be an episode that's somewhat genie related. And then there was Road to Friendship where Starlight and Trixie try to travel to Saddle Arabia (which is an important location in I Dream of Twilight Sparkle)... and yet never actually get there. So even on the few times that I was hoping to be excited about a Starlight episode, it dropped the ball. Partly my fault for getting so hyped about something that wasn't promised, but I would of loved to at least SEEN canon Saddle Arabia.

I'd never say that I hated Starlight back during the show's run. But she was a frustrating character for certain back then. I couldn't hate Starlight as much as some others did, but at the same time I couldn't like her as much as others. She was in likability limbo. For every fun and or good moment that included her, it's brought right back by either lingering problems that arised from the Season 5 finale or otherwise dropping the ball in some way.

In some ways, she's still a frustrating character. Though that's just how it'll always be with the canon Starlight. It's up entirely now to fanon to give their approach on Starlight that was never done in Canon. With SOTDT, I obviously did a bit of a "Fine, I'll do it myself" when it comes to making Starlight a more satisfactory character for me. Though I'm sure there are many interpretations that are vastly different from how I approached it that can satisfy others and probably be more popular and better written then mine. (My interpretation might be understandably controversial just for Starlight being put back on a path where she'll likely become an Alicorn eventually. Something Starlight detractors feared the most. Though I think I at least try to explain as best I could that makes sense with the story, her cutie mark moment being similar to Twilight's, and the identity of her mother. And I myself sort of feared Starlight becoming an Alicorn might happen, so for me to actually write it so that it might be inevitable. That's just how much of a 180 I've taken on Starlight because of writing SOTDT)

I think I mentioned this before, but I can pretty much say that in a way that I can actually say I like Starlight now. But sort of in a "FiM's biggest missed opportunity" sort of way that it becomes sort of sad to look at how canon Starlight was done. Rather then me simply shrugging her off back when I didn't care so much about her. I also understand it's a bit cheating to say I like Starlight now after doing my own sort of fanfic that had her in a major role since that might be me tooting my own horn a bit.

Though I will say as much as necessary that I am very aware alot of what happens in SOTDT would have been impossible to do in canon and I don't plan on pushing what I did to expand on Starlight's backstory as gospel. It only applies to what I'm doing on the blog, I will not be making a case that my interpretation is the only correct one. I'd actually welcome seeing some different interpretations on things such as who Starlight's mother is, what they feel her past was like outside of the Sunburst leaving incident, and/or especially how Starlight originally got her cutie mark. (I've even said my personal guess is different then how I did it in SOTDT, as my guess is she got it the first time she discovered the cutie mark removal spell). Cause if nothing else, I've realized Starlight is a very interesting character that I think would be fun to explore all the possibilities with. It certainly could be something for those still on the G4 train to talk with one another about.

[overthinkingkdrama]

Exit Review: Hotel De Luna

I'm trying to find a new, quick, neat review format that I can use when I don't really have enough to say to give you the whole review. But let's face it. This blog hasn't really been about reviews for a while now. A lot of that comes down to a shifting of my priorities these days. But I definitely am not ready to shut this blog down or stop doing what I've been doing for the past years, which is giving you my completely selfish commentary on Kdramas and how they make me feel.

That said, he's a review for a drama that ended back in September:

Synopsis

Hotel Del Luna  is the 12th full length drama written by the Hong Sisters, and like many of their other works is built around ghosts, folklore, and the sisters' particular brand of adapting previously existing stories into the classic Kdrama romcom format.

The drama tells the story of Jang Man Wol (Lee Ji Eun, aka IU), a materialistic, bad-tempered immortal woman who is the caretaker to The Inn of the Moon (rebranded Hotel Del Luna to keep up with the times) the last pit stop for the sprits of the dead before they pass on to the afterlife. She competently undertakes this task as a way to pay off some heavy duty bad karma from her tragic and bloody past. After centuries spent like this, world-weary Man Wol strikes a bargain to bring hardworking, scaredy-cat and Harvard grad, Goo Chan Seong (Yeo Jin Goo) to work as her hotel manager...very much against his will.

Whether he likes it or not, Chan Seong ends up acting as the human liaison for this luxurious ghost hotel, unlocking the secrets of its CEO and her mysterious past, as well as finding out what his connection is to this magical world.

Review

Story: Hotel Del Luna is essentially a gender swapped Beauty and the Beast set up, but with gods and ghosts. Which, is absolutely my cup of tea. And there's some pretty on the nose symbolism alluding to familiar Beauty and the Beast motifs (like enchanted undying flowers, lonely compelling monsters in high towers, well meaning peasant [boys] indentured to said monsters against their will, fancy staircases...)

But after the first couple of episodes the familiar set up recedes more into the background, and the format becomes a straightforward monster of the week, unlikely partners kind of drama. We've seen this before from the Hong Sisters. Hwayugi does it and Master's Sun does too, to a greater or lesser degree of success. This is clearly the Hongs' comfort zone, and they're good at it. I even noticed a couple story lines that had been taken and tweaked from previous dramas (specifically the spirit marriage plot line which is reused from Master's Sun) and it felt like they wanted to redo some old ideas with a bigger budget and a more experience. For the most part it works.

However, the drama suffers from some serious issues with pacing and tone. While the tone issues even out over time, there is a fair bit of one off slapstick humor which feels disconnected and rather corny in the context of the grander narrative. (Think My Girlfriend is a Gumiho's running fart gag, but classed up slightly.) But by far the pacing is the biggest problem Hotel Del Luna struggles with for the entirety of the run. It feels like the episodes are about a quarter filler. An issue that I feel could have been completely sidestepped had the Hong Sisters had only 1 hour to fill per episodes, rather than tvN's monstrous feeling hour and fifteen minute episodes which only grow longer as the run goes on.

Acting: IU owns this drama. This is Man Wol's world and we're all just living it in, ladies and gentleman. It's not just the fact that IU is consistently the most visually enticing thing in any given scene, she gives the drama vibrancy and life and you feel the lack whenever she's not on screen.

It's not that Yeo Jin Goo isn't a solid young actor, or even that he does a bad job in the drama. He doesn't do a bad job at all. It's just that Chan Seong isn't nearly as complex or dynamic as Man Wol. He's very much playing the uptight straight man to Man Wol's capricious and charismatic anti-heroine, and as such he seems to rather shrink beside her. If you want to see Yeo Jin Goo in a role that stretches him and lets him show of his dynamism, The Crowned Clown was his break out moment of the year. In HDL he is more or less another pretty accessory to hang from IU's arm.

Because the Hongs have been around forever they've also worked with everyone, this drama is a wealth of cheeky cameos and familiar faces and the extended cast makes the world feel full and lived in. There were a number of minor characters I felt invested in and enjoyed watching their plot lines play out.

But let's be real, IU is the single best reason to watch this drama.

Production: HDL is gorgeous to look at. The sets and costumes (especially Man Wol's outfits, which she changes at least 5 times an episodes) are downright luscious. We've come a long way from the distractingly chintzy makeup and costume design of Master's Sun. Hell, it even feels like we're lightyears ahead of Hwayugi, which was just two years ago. The style and motifs of HDL feel like they have a real identity, that they all come from the same place. Real love and thought went into the way the hotel looks and feels, as well as the way the characters dress and the supernatural world they live in.

Feels: The biggest thing about HDL that I felt let down by was the romance. It's not that it was bad, or in some way offensive. Quite the opposite really. The romance in HDL was just okay, just middle of the road. They had an excellent template (Beauty and the mofuckin' Beast y'all) to draw from, and two attractive, talented young people to helm the show and it just...didn't ignite for me. I've seen people praising the chemistry between the leads, and I'm sorry to say I just don't see it. It's okay, it's not leaping out of the screen for me. It's...functional. That's it, that's the big hairy gripe I've got with this show (besides the filler and typical tvN bloat).

What I loved about this drama was the heroine. I loved Man Wol and all of the joy and fun and sentiment and sorrow IU poured into her performance. I felt like IU was establishing herself in this role as a Park Min Young-type force in the drama world, who can carry entire productions on her shoulders. Man Wol in HDL isn't Ji An from My Mister--she can't be; she shouldn't be--but like Ji An she is allowed to be flawed, she allowed to be cruel and miserable and petty and sometimes even wicked. And I love that, because we don't get enough female characters like that, who are allowed to be wrong and yet redeemed, who are allowed to be shallow and bitter and do the selfish thing, and yet still learn from their mistakes and do better.

I like that Man Wol's gray morality isn't abandoned half way through the drama, and her arc isn't dropped or subordinated to Chan Seong's. She is the main character, the driver of the story, and that never changes throughout the run. The "happy ending" of the story is about her, not about the male lead. There's really nothing that annoys me more than a drama that builds up its lead as having a dark side, a checkered past, a hair trigger or a penchant for violence, and then refuses to show that side of the character to the audience for fear of making them unlikable. Female characters especially get this sort of treatment all the time. Man Wol is allowed to be an ambiguous character, she is allowed to fuck up and be forgiven, and ultimately be rewarded. And I think that's fabulous.

Would I recommend Hotel Del Luna? For fantasy fans, IU fans, and misguided Hong sisters completionists (that's mainly just me, I think) I would absolutely recommend HDL. It's definitely one of the better Hong Sisters offerings, stronger on its own merits than Hwayugi, and the closest yet in my opinion to reclaiming the glory of Master's Sun in terms of fantasy romance fun.  8.5/10

[student-film-lying-piece-of-shit]

Hello! So I'm here today with an idea I've been bouncing around for a long, long time. A few folk have been headcanon-ing that Tim may have DID, but I do think it's a 100% canon possibility Tim has an alter.

I know some people might think that me talking about this possibility could be seen as me mirroring other possible tropes we've seen in horror films (let's look at media such as Split, which dictates a kidnapper who has several personalities as the prime one) and the countless almost comedic portrayals in others (the strange reoccuring theme of "sneezing to become xyz in anime for some odd reason?). However with Tim it's different.

So, I want to start off with this. Marble Hornets is a heavy character study, and the lore isn't too highlighted on. What I mean is that we don't know how the operator takes over people, and we're not sure how these dissociative states work. Not that we're constantly left in the dust. It's a manner that it's focused on the protagonists going through these trials and tribulations rather than spoon-feeding us the intricate details on how this being works.

We know the side effects, and we know how to "stop" it (the medication we see throughout) but as far as how the operator actually takes over the characters (more so referring to Tim and Brian), it's more up to us to break down if we want more than just "spooky being does spooky stuff!"

So I will use this allagory for how I see it: Brian and Tim both have a car (this is a stand in for their body). Brian owns his, it's all in his name and he doesn't let anyone use it. Tim has a car, however, he shares it. It's understand two names legally.

Imagine Brian gets robbed and he's held up at gunpoint to drive. He has to do whatever this guy says or else he'll get shot on the spot. Or even that the robber straight up puts Brian in the trunk, and drives and does whatever he wants with the car and Brian is absolutely left in the dark. This car may be his legally, but he's barely the owner anymore.

Okay, now that we have that, imagine Tim drives the car, and it's pretty okay. Then the other person he shares the car with gets hijacked and the robber forces him to do things, or throws this person in the trunk and does whatever he wants. However the robber returns the car to Tim with seemingly no damage, alongside with his friend. Every time, or nearly everytime the other person drives, this happens. Tim has absolutely no control over these things, and sure, he does get his car back sometimes, but at what cost?

The main thing that makes Brian and Tim different is how Brian never, canonically, had a break in his hoodie state. He never wakes up as Brian, scared and confused. He never is not under the influence. The fact he carried the audition tapes can make this theory a bit wonky, but back to the car metaphor. Imagine Brian bashing his legs and screaming in a trunk, and the robber noticing. He has to do something to get him to shut up, even if it's something small. So it could easily be that aswell. However I'm going by the deal that there was never a break.

Tim is not in the Masky state (from what see, which to be fair, could be a lot more) as frequent as we make it up to be. He loses giant gaps, but we see him a handful of times on screen as "The Masked Man". The big deal is that Tim has these breaks and they're for days, weeks. He isn't always under this influence. He has more control.

We can chalk this up to the medication they take, and I feel like Hoodie at one point would've takened the meds? And we would've seen Brian. We also see empty med bottles around where Hoodie's been (he could've dumped them but still, I wanted to say.)

I don't think the meds 100% prevent Tim's dissociative states. It just helps with the other aspects and ends of his slender sickness, and it can aid in it, but I  think him taking the meds /=/ him not becoming absolutely feral. He should of course take his medication, but I think it more so helps with his seizures and psychotic effects.

Hence why he shares it with Jay: why would he share something that Jay wouldn't need? Jay never has a masked state, canonically. Why would Jay need meds for something that focuses on Tim not dissocating? It feels weird, not to mention very out-of-character and pointless.

Now, let's look at the functionality of how dissociative disorders work. We're gonna focus on the disorder I believe Tim has in the cluster of dissociative disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder. The basic criteria is

-  having one or personalities (inculding the core) which distinct, individual features

- amnesia (ie: missing large gaps of time due to people fronting, "knowing" people despite never remembering meeting them, waking up in random places you don't remember driving to)

- feeling detached from your body, also known as dissociation, or just not in control

One thing we can obviously apply is the first two. "Masky" is obviously a state that is distinct from Tim's, and is obviously not him. The second one is also stated

"...imagine going into your job only to find out that they fired you for not coming in for three weeks."

As an example of this being canonically said. We are aware Tim feels out of control, and that he doesn't own this body, he's very vocal about not understanding what's going on in his life and body. That he was dragged into this situation and he knows just as much as Jay (though near the end he does have tapes that have information, but even then he barely knows what he's doing in those tapes / has no memory of it).

The second biggest difference between Brian and Tim's slender sickness experience is that Tim has delt with this his whole life. He's seen as a carrier of the sickness the entire third season by Alex and even by himself for some time. He was rasied in a hospital and he talks about how they locked him in his hospital room during outbursts that he didn't remember. His childhood together is something extremely vague to him.

One thing I WANT to highlight, and this thing was actually vital for me to understand there's ambiguity here is how Tim says "They settled for Schizophrenia, but even they weren't really sure."

DID is so commonly misdiagnosed, and there's such a common misconception that Schizophrenia carries the symptom of having multiple personalities. Even among the professionals because of how frowned upon it is to diagnose it if it isn't 100% the ideal presentation of what to expect with a dissocative disorder. Tim 100% could've easily been misdiagnosed as a child.

DID is also a disorder that nearly always stems from severe childhood trauma. It's usually asiocated with heavy abuse. However, picture a 5-8 year old being abandoned by their parent(s) in a facility, which even if it's not the stereotypical psych ward, is still a horrible place to live. As someone who lived in a facility for years, there's so many things to list that I won't weigh on this post. But it is a very stressful place for the staff, let alone a mentally ill child.

Tim had symptoms of a psychotic disorder beforehand, but that doesn't mean he's immune to developing a traumagenic disorder.

So, here's how I see the entire deal:

Tim being a child abandoned by his mother, under the care of inpatient staff, easily witnessing violence and could've been at the end of the horrible health care system (especially for minors) developed an alter to protect him from the stress of the inpatient. When TO came into their lives more frequently, Tim's alter was the victim of TO's influence, not Tim himself.

So yeah! This is my take. I'm willing to talk but read the banner below if you're gonna talk to me about how I'm explaining DID 🙃

[briangroth27]

Spider-Man: Far From Home Review

This is my 200th original blog! I’m happy to make it about one of my favorite fictional characters and I’m glad to report that Spider-man: Far From Home is an absolute blast! I loved it and can’t wait to see more of Peter (Tom Holland) and his corner of the MCU. They did a great job of retaining the well-developed interpersonal relationships of Homecoming while upping the stakes and taking Peter and his classmates on a tour of Europe.

Full Spoilers…

Peter’s journey from street-level Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man to full-blown international superhero Avenger takes a solid step here, with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) drafting him into a battle with Elemental beings from a parallel universe. At first I thought it was kinda lame of Fury to be so all-in on high school junior Peter Parker suiting up instead of helping Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) fight the Elementals himself—I’ve always thought the MCU’s reliance on SHIELD to bring heroes together rather than the heroes teaming up by themselves made them less altruistic in a way, plus why do we need Fury if he’s just going to sit on the sidelines and point heroes at obvious threats?—but then I realized they were playing Fury as the parent or invested teacher in a high school movie. So, forcing Peter to help in the battle with the Elementals was their take on that kind of character encouraging a kid to step up and make the most out of their potential. He even goes so far as to ruin Peter’s vacation to get him to take his “job” seriously, and looking at him that way—with the Spider-films functioning as superhero movies by way of John Hughes—his role works really well (much like Tony Stark’s role as a parent who could say no to Spider-man in Homecoming). I also liked that Fury did agree to help Peter keep his identity a secret to an extent—that was reasonable of him—and "Night Monkey" was a fun gag (I wonder if he’ll don that simian alter ego again, given how this movie ends).

I liked that Peter’s anxiety over telling MJ (Zendaya) how he felt affected his Spider-sense—it seemed like a realistic parallel to being so stressed out that you literally worry yourself sick—and this worked much better than Spider-man 2’s Peter losing his powers just because he didn’t want to be Spider-man anymore. Making his “Peter Tingle’s” (lol!) function related to his stress and emotions also leaves the door open for his Spider-Sense to fail again, which is a nice dramatic bomb waiting to go off. Another dramatic bomb I’d like them to detonate is letting Peter realize that Tony wasn’t all great and did screw a lot of people over. Both Mysterio and Vulture made valid points about Tony and it wouldn't be a betrayal of Peter's Stark-adoration to recognize that he was a flawed person; it'd be the responsible, grown-up thing to do. Much like in Homecoming, I do worry that the MCU is playing Peter as Tony Stark's successor and heir apparent too much without fully exploring what we know to be the truth about Tony. I don’t want Peter to be the next Iron Man—he should be the first self-made Peter Parker instead—but it was a nice moment to see him take the steps of designing his new suit (even if I was hoping it’d be the classic one). Karen was fun and useful as someone for Peter to talk to in the last film, but I didn’t miss her in his new suit since he had Happy (Jon Favreau), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and MJ. I liked that Peter got to put his science skills to use and design his own web attacks instead of Stark gifting everything to him, though I’ll concede that the "moment" of Peter picking up the holo-designers did have a significant impact. Still, I loved him walking away from the Avengers in Homecoming (though I wish he hadn't gotten the Stark suit back) and I hope he eventually walks away from Stark Industries too instead of inheriting it or something. I want him at Horizon Labs and/or creating Parker Industries as a startup, inventing tech that helps the little guy instead of creating global defense networks. Speaking of, EDITH (Dawn Michelle King) was a fun addition to the film and Peter's mistakes with it felt appropriately teenager-esque (in a heightened superhero way, of course). I liked that it was way too much for him to handle and that he tried to get rid of it. I wish he’d destroyed it in the end, though my initial impression was that it’s essentially neutered now since all the drones are down and, given his reaction to seeing into everyone else’s phones, we can trust that he won’t use it that way again.

On the whole, the Spider-man films are the most enjoyable in the MCU (I also love that so much of their screentime is about Peter’s non-superhero life; we don’t get to see that from many other MCU heroes), but ignoring major dramatic moments keeps them from topping the Cap films as the MCU’s best. My biggest disappointment here is that we didn't—and apparently won't—see the fallout from May (Marisa Tomei) finding out that Peter is Spidey. I would’ve thought she’d be concerned about how being a superhero will affect his future (not to mention his safety), though I guess not since she fully encourages him to take his suit to Europe (also playing into that "embrace your potential" parental space Fury operates in). Was there a period where she worried about him before they came to this "everything is fine!" place? Did they compromise on ground rules for his superheroics vs. getting his homework done? The fallout from that reveal was a necessary piece of their arcs and it’s a mistake to skip it. I wish we hadn't had to detour into Infinity War after Homecoming (or that May walking in on him in the suit had also been Peter’s introductory scene in IW) and that we could've seen more of Peter and May's paths to get to this point.

Regardless, I liked seeing a new role for May now that she's in the know. It would've been nice to use that role to help give Peter advice or something, but it’s OK that that mainly manifested in her pushing him towards being a hero (and giving him an alibi to ditch the trip). Peter asking her for pointers on how to tell MJ he liked her would've been a solid route to take too (like when she helped him get ready for the dance in Homecoming), and it could’ve been a chance to bring up Uncle Ben and how he first told May about his feelings. I love that life for Peter and May hasn't ended with Ben’s death, but it would be nice to directly reference him. Continuing to mourn him would've been too much with Peter also mourning Stark's death (and it would've made Happy and May's flirtation awkward), but both Peter and May have clearly moved on so it would be OK to reference him without always being a downer. Ben’s initials on Peter’s briefcase were a nice subtle touch, but my friend pointed out that the suitcase getting blown up should’ve had more meaning to May and Peter instead of getting played off as joke (“Where’s your luggage? Oh right; it got blown up!”). Even a moment to say that physical things don’t matter when they can remember Ben and live as he did would’ve been enough. Speaking of Happy and May, I thought they were cute and I like where it's going (it if does go anywhere). At one point I thought not Snapping May would’ve been a way to bring the classic May into the MCU, but I wouldn’t have liked putting her through five years of hell with Peter having vanished. I like this May much better than the classic one who might have a heart attack just by finding out that Peter is Spider-man, and taking him away for that long probably would’ve led to that version so I’m glad they didn’t. I liked May helping the homeless shelter rather than sitting at home worrying about Peter being Spider-man: it’s nice to see her being a hero in her own right. I wonder if that job will bring us Mr. Negative sometime down the line; he could make things even worse for Spidey's rep.

Speaking of, this was an excellent rendition of Mysterio! I can't believe I didn't realize how perfect a villain he is for an era full of Fake News, where our leaders lie to us so casually and very few citizens bother to fact-check what they say. I hope he’s not dead and I don’t believe it. Faking that death would be a hard needle to thread with people clearly believing that he died a hero—so there must be a body, right?—but I’m sure there are ways around that. If he really is gone, what a way to go out! I definitely didn't expect him to announce Peter's secret to the world, but I'm glad they did: that’ll open up a lot of story potential and we’ve seen Peter do the secret identity thing in seven movies now; we can do one where he fights to put the genie back in the bottle and has to deal with the fallout. Gyllenhaal was very good in the role—the perfect mix of heroism, menace, and self-important ridiculousness—and while I knew he was a villain, he had me wishing that he wouldn't follow his comic book roots. I liked that he was the adult who let Peter slack and indulge in what he wanted rather than what was (arguably) best for his future (and certainly best for the world), and their chemistry allowed for a quick development of their brotherly bond. I liked the idea I saw online a while back about Quentin Beck having been a special effects guy on the "really old movies" Peter is always referencing who lost his job because of CGI, but his backstory here was so much better and it was very cool how they tied him and his cronies into the history of the MCU. I'm also so happy we got a comics-accurate costume for him! They really drove home the point that it would be impossible to fight Mysterio if you didn't have Spider-Sense and the sequence showcasing that was fantastic. Yes, that CGI was noticeably CGI, but given how he creates his illusions and the fact that it's a filter over real-world dangers, I thought it totally worked. The point wasn’t to create a photo-realistic illusion at that moment anyway, as there were several images that didn’t make logical sense in the “real world:” Beck was trying to scare and disorient Peter, getting him to hurt himself on real-world dangers, and the kid fell for it. I've never seen that threat level from this character before and that was a standout sequence of the entire MCU. I'm sorry that it looks like Sandman, Hydro-Man, Molten Man, and Cyclone are just illusions in this universe, but the Buzzfeed theory the gang finds means they could still be out there. Maybe Mysterio based the Elementals on them in the first place!

I'm of two minds about Nick Fury in this film. On one hand, I like the role he played in Peter's life here. On the other, the post-credits reveal that he was actually Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) acting as Fury while the real Nick was on vacation undercut the genuinely interesting character development Fury got. I really liked that he went from knowing everything about the world to knowing nothing. It's also more impressive if Mysterio dupes the real Fury instead of a stand-in. If Talos was sending Fury regular reports, then both those things are still at least halfway true, but it's not as effective or clean IMO. I’m glad to know Fury is a human who needs a vacation sometimes—the always alert, always prepared, always badass character the early MCU films painted him as would get boring and one-dimensional—but with these character developments maybe this wasn’t the best time to play the Skrull card. I hope the Skrull reveal is a one-time gag about Fury taking some time off (which does explain his insistence that Peter jump into the battle instead of doing it himself) and not a prelude to Secret Invasion. There just isn't time in these movies to sacrifice a whole film's worth of character development for a Skrull reveal. Secret Invasion would totally work in an MCU show, but the films aren’t like the comics where we have decades of time spent with the real characters plus a significant amount spent with their replacements; if they decide a character was a Skrull for an entire movie, that’s like a ninth of their total MCU screentime and development (if not more) erased.

I was happy that we got to spend a lot more time with MJ in this film. She's awesome, Zendaya plays her perfectly, and I really like this direction for her character! Her interest in the morbid history of everything is very endearing and I also like her obsession with telling the truth. At first I thought that might be a fun and interesting challenge for her once she found out about Peter (a twist the trailers shouldn't have revealed...classic Sony!), but now I'm thinking it could drive her towards journalism like in the Ultimate Comics universe. I would love to see her, Peter, and Ned team up to prove Peter's innocence and tell the world what really happened (while covering up Pete’s ID, which would bring that challenge aspect back to her). I liked that she played an integral role in discovering the truth about Mysterio and that she figured out Peter was Spider-man on her own; now I'd like to see that applied to her future. Her burgeoning relationship with Peter was sweet and felt well-developed given how long they’ve known each other; they are very cute together and their first kiss felt very teen-realistic. I can't wait to see how they work as a couple! With Midtown’s mascot being a tiger, I wonder if we'll get the "Face it, Tiger..." moment at some point.

Ned and MJ's low-key competition about knowing Peter's secret was fun too. I'm glad Ned has grown out of wanting to tell everyone Peter's secret (though that did create some fun drama and obstacles we wouldn't have gotten from the more responsible Peter by himself). I really like his friendship with Peter (and Batalon’s rendition of Ned) and even though he didn't get to be the Man in the Chair this time around, they could easily bring that back next time to help clear Pete's name. Ned and Betty's (Angourie Rice) trip-long summer romance was a funny subplot and a nice nod to their comic book marriage. I'm glad Betty got more screentime here, even if it's still weird to me that she's so visually patterned after Gwen Stacy (if they are saving Gwen for Spider-Gwen, I'm all for it!). I loved that the school news reports Betty and Jason (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) anchor are still so hilariously (and realistically) bad! They were the perfect vehicle to recap The Blip and I really liked how it was handled. This film isn't the place to look at the massive problems such seismic shifts in the global population would cause, but I firmly believe the MCU needs to address them somewhere (Agents of SHIELD and the other shows would be my choice). They could get literal years of great drama exploring the fallout of both snaps, the global upheaval, the extremes surviving heroes went to, surprising heroic turns from villains that were left behind, etc. and while I'm glad they didn't just erase Thanos' Snap, it's a massive missed opportunity not to mine the fallout for all it's worth somewhere. Global changes like this should be felt in everything going forward, even if they're not the main focus. Still, the kids’ frustration that they had to take their midterms over again and the weirdness over some kids having aged five years while the rest of them didn’t worked perfectly for the corner of the MCU this movie was playing in. Those felt like realistic teen complaints and they’re all I needed from this film in terms of the Blip.

Flash (Tony Revolori) was funny and I liked the surprise beat at the end about his parents not arriving at the airport to welcome him back. His adoration of Spider-man and jerkiness to Peter is still a fun combination too, though I would like to see Peter ruminate on that dichotomy a little more. Give Peter a moment where he feels like he’s getting one over on Flash because his bully idolizes his alter ego or something, then pull the rug out from under him with Flash being Flash (they almost have this moment here, but it’s more about establishing Flash’s Spider-fandom than Peter really considering/laughing at it). Still, I can't wait to see how he reacts to the knowledge that Peter is Spider-man! The teachers (J.B. Smoove, Martin Star) were great again too! Peter has one of the best supporting casts in the MCU and this film was no different. Mr. Harrison's tragic and over-shared love life was great fun, as was science teacher Mr. Dell being convinced the Elementals were the work of witches. Even though they do care about the students, the teachers being so inept goes a long way towards justifying how easy it is for Peter to slip away to do his hero thing. It’s also very funny; I wouldn’t change a thing! I liked that they made a point of joking that there had been very little science on this science club trip, but as excuses to get them to Europe go, it didn't bother me at all that they never got to study science.

I was delighted to see JK Simmons return as J. Jonah Jameson! That was a great bit and the evolution of the character into a Fox News-styled conspiracy theorist pundit who peddles lies is a perfect direction to take the character. I can't wait to see where he goes next! It would make total sense for him to hire the Scorpion (who already wants revenge on Spidey) or Kraven to take down the "menace" of Spider-man (perhaps as a dry run for the Sinister Six) in this context. I'm also wondering if we'll finally hear "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" as a rebuke to JJ from Peter: with such a large platform that commands power and implies trustworthiness, Jonah (and the press in general) has a responsibility to tell the truth, especially in an age where people will believe anything. As bad as our leaders are, the press enabling them by publishing conspiracy theories and not calling lies out as lies is an equally enormous problem and that would be an excellent “villain” to tackle in the next Spider-man. I wonder if they’ll let Peter re-establish his secret ID, or if he’ll end up accepting his pubic status as a way of showing he’s different from the liar leading the Daily Bugle.

The world of this film was great and I'm eager to see more of Peter's corner of the MCU. I liked that they continued to emphasize the diversity of the real world through Peter’s classmates; we definitely need more of that (in addition to getting more diverse characters as leads). I thoroughly enjoyed the acting from everyone in the cast. The pacing was perfect and they balanced the romantic drama, decisions about Peter's future, action, comedy, and stakes very well! There was a cool variety of fight scenes and I really liked Peter working to secure buildings and civilians while Mysterio took on the Elementals. The CGI was great and well-used. Michael Giacchino’s score was excellent once again! I really like his orchestral version of the 60s Spider-man cartoon theme (and hope we get a similar rendition of the 90s X-men theme for their reboot), as well as the other themes Giacchino developed for this series. The pop culture songs they used are great, but they shouldn't shy away from songs today's kids like as well. As a kid in the 90s, I listened to songs from the 60s on an oldies station along with current music so it doesn't bother me that Peter's music also spans decades, but there should be a more even mix of the two. I’ve seen comments online about how using modern music would date the film, but a major reason the 80s classics are “timeless” is because the people who grew up with them now use them in their films. Peter and his tastes shouldn’t be limited to what a 30-40 year old thinks is cool; they should be what the current teens think are cool.

I wonder how Peter being unmasked will affect Vulture for keeping his ID a secret, to say nothing of how it's going to wreck his personal life. This should be a seismic shift in his status quo and I hope they don't skip over it again like with May finding out. Maybe Black Cat could help Peter navigate the “criminal” lifestyle and make things even more complicated for him when he’s seen hanging out with an actual thief. Maybe Peter will get snarkier because of all this (since these movies are already so funny I didn’t notice his lack of quips until I saw author Gail Simone mention it on Twitter, but this turn of events could be a way to sharpen his comedy a bit). How will it affect May? Regardless of my (ultimately small) misgivings with certain aspects of this Peter’s development, Tom Holland is excellent in the role and they're telling their story very well, so I’m happy and excited to see as many adventures as he’s willing to suit up for! Who knows; maybe they can make Miles Morales the self-made, homemade Spidey instead of Pete. If he were Peter's contemporary instead of his multiverse counterpart here—do their team-up like a buddy cop movie with them as competing teenage Spider-men—they could make a statement out of Peter getting handed the keys to Tony’s kingdom while Miles has to resort to homemade methods, which would be pretty cool and socially relevant.

Whatever the future of the MCU has in store for Peter, I can't wait to see it! Far From Home is an absolute blast that's neck-and-neck with Homecoming for best live-action Spider-man film (Into the Spider-verse is still the best Spider- (and superhero) film overall) and you should definitely see this while it's in theaters!

 Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[ihaveraebies]

It makes me crazy because most of the (male) doctors I have encountered adopt this incredibly condescending tone. I understand that they're not going to be able to tell that I'm familiar with A+P just by looking at me, but there's something about a male doctor explaining your monthly cycle to you and what androgens are gives me the biggest ick, plus the fact that so many clinics give lip service as to how they accept your gender identity online, but in clinic default to referring to you and treating you like your biological sex. It was assumed at a dermatologist appointment that I didn't know my body produced androgens naturally and that I'd be fine with taking hormone-altering medication to fix the problem. I'm agender and I like my androgens where they are - they allow me to put on bulk muscle faster than people who share my bio sex on average.

The topical med they prescribed works fine and is the least invasive treatment. Why wouldn't they just suggest that on its own first? I wasn't given the chance to decline the aldosterone pills they prescribed, so now I have a vial of pills sitting in my house that I refuse to take, which I ended up having to pay for.

The moment I divulge that I have done a little research into an area and advocate for myself, I'm treated differently - because how dare I try to make their job as easy as possible and take account of what's going on in my body and have the knowledge and skills to describe it in a detailed way.

This ABSOLUTELY works.

I have used this for many years. Definitely b do it.

[rainywritingsx]

Torn • BNHA X OC • Chapter 1

You can find the prologue here. I thought posting the first chapter would be fun too and I’m thinking of updating the fanfiction weekly if people really like it. Please let me know what you think! Leave a like or reblog if you enjoyed it please. I think that’s it, enjoy reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!!

xxx admin rainbow

Words: 1622

“I don’t think you realise how dangerous you could be.” My twin brother smirked as we made our way to school.

"Seventy percent of the human body consist of water, and you have the ability to control any fluid in the universe! You can basically make the whole world your slaves if you train your quirk enough." I sighed softly, not feeling the need to reply to his boring words that I'd probably heard a million times already. I was born with this power, did he think I wouldn't have figured that out after fourteen years?

I mean how couldn't I, when my father, despite my mother's protests, had been training me since I was four up until this year, because according to him training at school would be enough.

"Mom and dad will be so proud when you can finally go into the field too, Janie." He said, his voice dripping with pride and

excitement for my future. I, however, wasn't as interested in that, I must say. But I didn't say that out loud of course, due to the fact that I know that's not what he'd like to hear and I wasn't in the mood to argue with him right now. Not like I ever was in the mood to do that.

You see, unlike my younger siblings, I had the big responsibility which would be given to me as soon as I became the new leader of the so-called 'villain world', which would most likely happen as soon as my parents decided to stop - that would take a while considering they found their job absolutely lovely. Any villain would've been stoked for something like this, but me? I despised it from the day I was born.

Yes, there was a very small proportion of 'villains' that actually had some rational ideals, like them not agreeing with some situations though they were seen as 'right'. For example: Stain, the hero killer, didn't have the worst ideas in my opinion. He didn't agree with the fact that some heroes didn't become heroes with the intent of helping people. All they wanted was fame and glory. He decided to kill anyone he deemed unworthy of being a hero and kept the worthy ones alive. So, yes, his way of handling them was a completely different case but he had some decent morals.

However, the majority of this community was filled with people who just wanted to inflict pain on others, see their terrified faces before taking away possessions or sometimes even their lives. I did not want to associate myself with people like that.

And those were the exact kind of villains my parents were. As parents, they were just normal people but everyone knew both went ballistic during fights against heroes. There were some stories of heroes who could still hear my mother's psychotic laugh as she killed their allies. My dad would always look his victims right in the eye as he did whatever he wanted to do. I can't even imagine the amount of sins that they must've committed.

They expected me to be at least as crazy as them when I took over, but I wasn't even planning on becoming a villain at all. Even if some villains had ideas that seemed okay, it didn't make up for their actions. I wanted to become a hero and whether I'd become famous or not didn't matter to me. Helping people was all I wanted to do. However, we should put the emphasis on "wanted". I couldn't become a hero, my whole family would consider me absolutely insane.

We entered the school and parted our ways since we had different classes until lunch break. I never minded that, to be completely honest. We weren't the type of siblings that couldn't live without each other. I didn't have that relationship with any of my siblings. (I've got three younger brothers, I'm thirteen minutes older than my twin brother so yes I'd consider myself older, the others are twelve and ten.) Sure, we all cared about each other but we didn't have the tight bond some siblings do have. I thought that that was partly due to my parents, who never really let us do things together to get closer to each other. It was only when we got older that we started doing some things together. Maybe it was also due to our ideals being different but of course he didn't know that.

As for my two other younger siblings, they were a lot closer to each other so there never really was a need for them to have this really tight bond with my brother and I. Those two were completely fine as a duo.

I entered the classroom, not saying a word as I walked over to my seat. I also never really bonded with my class either. It didn't have to do with what I though, but more because of the fact that I was the daughter of the two most notorious villains ever. Nobody would ever talk to me and I had the tendency to be quite shy at first, so I never took the first step either.

"Alright everyone! Please open your books, classes will start now!" Our English and homeroom teacher, miss Deceit said with a bright smile on her face in the same annoyingly high tone she always used. "Today's lesson will be really exciting!" Maybe her name gave it away already, but she was a teacher who was great at creating illusions. After training for years and years, she could make someone's biggest fear and taunt people with those images. And people tend to do strange things when they're absolutely terrified... Sometimes a slightly less deathly version of that is used as a punishment for students, but only in very extreme cases. Now that she had reached an older age, she mostly used her quirk to make classes more fun than they actually are and the majority falls for it, but my parents taught me how to deal with quirks like that so it almost became like a reflex that I saw right through it.

And if you were wondering how on earth some of these villains were able to even set a foot in the outside world, there were two answers: serving in jail and fake identities. Some villains were able to get away with certain crimes and that way they got a shorter sentence, so after they served in jail they could just return to society. Other villains made fake identities and at my school they never turned people to the police. 'Villain code' is what they call it. You help other villains when they need it but you never ever call the cops on them.

The day seemed to last forever, but after villain training I could finally go home. I almost ran out of class, not wanting to spend another second with these people. My brother finished early today and went away to hang out with some of his friends, so I was on my own. It wasn't like I missed much though, no offence to him.

I frowned when I noticed a big sign set on the usual path I took to my home. It said that work was being done on the road, which meant I had to take a different road, a longer one sadly. I sighed quietly and then continued walking again. Before I could think my feet stopped on their own, making me almost fall in surprise. I looked up and gasped when I noticed it.

UA high.

The school I had admired since I was a small child, because that was the school where heroes were made. If you wanted to become a hero, you knew you just had to attend UA.

My eyes became wide when I noticed huge banners hanging. Today, and only today, they would let potential new students in and take a look in the building, like classrooms etc so they could see what to expect. I tilted my head in slight confusion. Why was this done though? UA wasn't a very open school at all, barely letting any students in. I wasn't complaining though..

Then a thought struck me. Wouldn't it be strange if I came home late? I usually got home at the same time every day so it would seem odd... But then again, I was usually the first in my family to arrive since my parents' "working hours" varied and my siblings usually hung out in places after school. I'd just go to look at the school and find an excuse later.

My excitement grew with each step I took, realising I was getting closer to the school I could only dream of even seeing. The school was huge and from the start the whole atmosphere was just completely different from what I was used to in my school. It felt like one community, whereas my school was just a mix of small groups who didn't really bother to talk to other people, let alone make other friends. Maybe I could actually make some friends here...if I was even able to attend the school at all. My parents wouldn't ever approve of this in a million years of course.

Okay, I'd just take a look. Nothing more or less. Looking wasn't a bad thing for sure so why was I worried about them not approving of it? I wouldn't attend the school anyway, nope. It was totally fine, I'd be there for a few minutes and then gone before anyone could notice. Yes. I'd do that.

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[me-on-set]

Harrowingly Strange

When was the last time you had to face a moral dilemma? I am still reeling. I actually just got home. I think I invented a new selfie style. I wanted to take a photo of my makeup on and off.

As I currently write this, I am not an actor but instead have been doing background work for the past year. I've occasionally been a featured extra and was a body double once.

It's fascinating, seeing and doing the work that embodies being on set.

A couple of days ago, I received a message from a casting agency that had my headshot asking to submit my photo for a featured non-speaking role with a local production company. It was a one or two day shoot at $200 per day. I said yes and I got the gig.

When you are cast, you get an email the night before with details about the set location, start time, special instructions, and wardrobe. This show I booked was for a reenactment TV series about real world events. The exciting news was that this particular episode revolved around a crisis that occurred in my parents' homeland. I was to play someone at home seeing the news on television, and then in a second scene complain to police of their incompetence. I was asked to bring leisure clothing one would wear at home.

When I first started being an extra, I would bring my clothes in a backpack, trying really hard not to care too much. That behavior did not last. I found my interest stumbling forward into a natural evolution. I started taking luggage to neatly carry my wardrobe options. I found that I would mostly get cast as a mid-30's businessman. This led me to comfortably bring my outfits in a garment bag. It's funny how familiarity can grow your views.

For today, I packed shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts, a hoodie, a pair of runners, and a pair of flip flops. I got these flip flops during my last vacation with my mom overseas in her hometown. I also brought some henley shirts and arrived on set in khakis and a short-sleeved polo because there was also a mention of button-ups being an option.

The majority of work involved as an extra is waiting. It's a good idea to bring a book, although in this day and age, occupying oneself with a smart phone is a much more fulfilling time killer. I didn't end up using any of the clothes I had brought except for my belt and my runners. After my hair and makeup were done I decided to satisfy my curiosity by searching keywords of this specific production. I searched the name of the character I was to reenact. Adding quotations to strict strings of words, I had soon discovered the event I was going to portray. This was when my moral dilemma began.

I was born and raised in North America by immigrant parents who arrived in their early 20's. The typical experiences had by people of color paint a relatively positive mural that represents my upbringing. Having visited my ethnic country many times throughout my life, I felt, and still feel, a deep connection to the motherland. This connection is common for others like myself, powered by identity in a time where life will sometimes present it as a limitation. Conversely, this only strengthens cultural pride.

The role I was to play was an international representing their countrymen against the very country I identify with. Pangs of uneasiness flooded my body. There was another featured role performer who had an earlier call time. We sat together in the holding area. He was cast to play the part of a family member learning the news of the event. What surprised me more was the fact that he was a recent immigrant from my country of ethnicity. Us both, cast in roles of coincidental conflict of interest?

When it comes to acting, the only other time I recall having feelings of apprehension was during a big budget movie filmed in a church. I was a church goer among a sea of church goers seated in church pews. We were instructed to portray the enjoyment of a church service. Some of us were selected to stand and sway to the Christian music. Some had their eyes closed, head tilted to the ceiling, palms facing up to the heavens. As easy a physical task that is, I instead opted to clap along to the band and pretend to really feel the sounds of my favorite music. I know it's just acting but I was driven by the thought of my mom seeing me do anything other than that on camera. So, I coursed the music through my veins. I know the history of the band members, the albums, this music moves me, pretend.

I received my paperwork and read it over a cup of coffee from craft services. It was standard paperwork that I've filled out over a dozen times before. I looked at the inviting exit door. I was parked right outside. This is not that big of a deal, is it? I imagined this TV episode making its way to the news overseas, the citizens all over the world deeming me a traitor for perpetuating a negative image, not merely through action but through representation against them. Against us. Am I selling out? For two hundred bucks?

I thought about getting up and leaving. I thought about all of the hard work that people have put into this specific production. If you haven't been behind the scenes before, it is quite the trip. An assortment of heavy duty cables line the floors, taped in place. Racks of props in designated areas. The backstage crew zip around in sync, bursting with walkie-talkie sounds and hollers of instruction. There is a commonality in the many interactions, their minds tuned into the goal meant to be achieved. This is their career.

This is my hobby. I am a prop. Would leaving this put a blemish on my record in the local film community, or the film industry as a whole, because I wasted everyone's time being sensitive? As I languished, I get a message from my best friend and I tell him I'm on set. I tell him:

For some reason, that makes me feel better. I just might be able to work with that mentality. The other guy has finished. He returns his wardrobe and collects his belongings. I ask him if he knows what this show is about. We speak in our language among the English-speakers. I ask him if he thinks people back home are going to be mad at us. I ask him if he knew we were going to be doing this. He seems ok with it all. He said he was there during the actual event. He's new to the industry. We laugh about how we can pass as different races. This is his first time being on camera. He said he enjoyed the experience. I ask him if he'll continue. He said yes. I hope he does.

Finally, wardrobe is set and I am wearing a navy blue golf shirt and some gray slacks. I want to feel good, like the other times I've worked. How can I get that feeling? They're calling me on set. They adjust the lighting while I sit in front of the camera. A fog machine fills the mock living room belonging to my character. When the camera rolls, there is a fake TV in front of me that I am to watch casually at first and then grow increasingly interested as the live footage I am pretending to watch unfolds. I am supposed to build up into a frustration with the host country. My country. As I understand it, the real guy is being interviewed and I am the reenactment; the illustration of his side of the story. I do the scene. Twice. Filming took less than 5 minutes total. The whole time I was thinking about my mom. I can remember it still, a few hours ago today, the director describing the gradual transpiring of the footage to guide me. To help me see a reason to be frustrated on camera. It wasn't helping. It's not his fault. I don't think it's anyone's fault. I don't think they even knew why I would be uncomfortable. I don't think they knew much about the countries involved in the event. They even spelled the city name wrong. I don't even think the takes were that bad.

I wish it wasn't about my country. If it were different, I feel like I could have given more - like I had done at the church.

It's unsettling to perform make-believe, but for myself I have managed to apply a mental exercise that immerses me into a character; to actually be the person. The trick is to relate. To tie the emotion to a real memory and relive it. If it had only been about another country, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the process a lot more.

I'm writing this and I was hoping it would help me shake away this dread. Thoughts of regret imagining if I had only researched the keywords sooner. Maybe I would have cancelled. But that wouldn't have been better. I would be blacklisted and never cast as another role again. Or maybe I'm being dramatic. Hey, that's good for this line of work, right?

I honestly hope the final cut looks great. This is the biggest role I've ever been in. They gelled my hair funny like a nerd, I had on large framed glasses, just like the portrayed, and they put makeup on my upper lip to hide my dark, clean-shaven stubble.

When I got home, before I washed my makeup off, I took a before and after mirror selfie because my face looked comedically smooth. Taking the pictures reminded me of when I was sipping coffee in the holding area. I had taken pictures of my paperwork. I remember my mind racing. The feeling was like gathering license plates and insurance information after a collision. You know, just in case I have to stand trial, my cultural membership in jeopardy. I can review my situation with a lawyer to see what I can and can not say during a variety show interview that is getting my side of the story after viral, captioned screenshots of me flood the internet with embarrassing memes, stamped into history. Jesus Christ, that would be the worst. Here I go again with extreme maybes. It's an entertaining curse that I will forever be engulfed in my own hypothetical torture.

Anyway, here's that selfie I invented:

Yeah my bathroom mirrors are dirty.

I can't wait for my next job that I can cleanse my palate with. I really hope I can accept today as purely an actor's portrayal, and not a turncoat betrayal. This can't be my last go at acting. I ate some of my country's food for supper. I feel a bit better. I'm wearing a shirt that is emblazoned with our country's sports hero.

I have always been excited to see the final release of a production I am in, except for this one now. Uncontrollably, my perverse curiosity into the film world is only strengthening, so I don't think even the worst thoughts can slow my future participation. The silver lining is that the uncomfortable bar is set to a new level. I could reenact a murderous deviant now without batting a moral eyelash, I like to think. All for the sake of film.

- WSS, February 8, 2019