#actually I love the pattern of all these series being on eps 3. 5. 9. and 11

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Thailand & Vietnam End with Bangs, Korea with a Whimper

Jan 2022 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Not Me (YouTube) Ep 5 - OffGun still crackle on screen together. The parkour jumping thing was, erm, silly. Gram’s info-dumping in this episode showed us exactly why Not Me has no product placement. Also, I want a twist to be that Black was in love with Gram and gave the card. 

Love Area Part 2 (GaGa) Ep 1 - this is basically a continuation of the previous “season” - let’s be fair this is a 12 ep BL that they split into 6 & 6 for reasons of lockdown. Anyway the first half of this first ep is recap. Val & Toon are painfully endearingly awkward, but Toon cannot possibly be that dense about either seme’s intentions. King, Peat & Ice are more interesting to me, but their plot is dealing with domestic abuse and mental health issues which might be too much for me in a BL. There was a fun commentary on the Pink Milk = uke trope. New character Jun is VERY fascinating. So far, Jun is agender in both speech and appearance. Jun uses ha instead of krap/kha. So this show might be worth watching if only for Jun. 

Something in My Room (Ch3Thailand, YouTube) Ep 1 - It’s cute, basically He’s Coming To Me meets So Much In Love and not really scary at all (which I like). Also, nice to see Nut in a new role so different from Solo.  I’ll keep watching. 

Gen Y 2 (grey) Ep 5 - It was totally nonsensical this ep. I spent most of the tome missing ForthBeam. Updated the live blog here. 

Paint with Love (Gaga) Ep 9 - At least stuff happened? Except now the side dishes have gone wonky. GREAT KISS THO. Soem of the domestic bits were cute, I guess? Still, what is going on with thi show? 

You’re My Sky (Viki) Ep 3 - I’m not into the main basketball couple at all. The puppy/nerd-tsundere are cute but he’s a bit too stalker aggressive, still kinda MarkKit vibes. Frankly the cheater couple have by far the best chemistry (bummer because I hate the storyline) but I do love a shy grump vs a flirty playful boy. 

Bad Buddy (YouTube) Ep 12 fin - The bar has been raised, Thailand. This ending was unexpectedly satisfying if not typical romance-y. I give Bad Buddy a solid 9/10 mostly because of crazy good acting and all the queer affirmation and effort put in to specifically subvert damaging Thai BL tropes. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED I finished the live blog here and full review here. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Behind Cut (Korea - Viki) Ep 7 & 8 fin - honestly last week I thought this one was working itself to be something special, but then they did the old break ‘em up until a year later for no good reason K-drama (specialty of the house) and fubbed the landing. It’s fine, but no more than fine. Pretty much My Sweet Dear level so 8/10. RECOMMENDED, just don’t expect it to exceed the bounds of KBL’s narrow scope. The best bits were the dating scenes and it drifted from there. Full review here.

Color Rush 2 (Korea - Viki) Ep 1-2 - I like it. The new seme character, Se Hyun (played by Hyuk of VIXX) is a bit sinister while also reminding me a little of Sam Lin (always a good thing). Se Hyun is a very different personality from Yoo Han and I liked that they didn’t try to repeat the pattern. Frankly Hyuk is a better actor than Hwall (no offense to any B out there) and these two actors have better chemistry, even though we’ve been told this will be a bromance. Regardless, I want to find out what’s going on in this weird little universe so I’ll probubly stick with this show until the bitter end no matter what, and even knowing it’s likely to be ultimately unsatisfying. 

Rainbow Prince (Pinoy musical - YouTube) Ep 2 - Remains stupid glorious. Started out with actual 1950s level Disney tinkle music. Creepy stalker ex-bf is creepy but the prince needs a job. Honestly it’s kinda acted like its a cartoon for children. I don’t know where I am with this show but I do not care. 

The Next Door Crush (Vietnam - YouTube) Ep 4 - didn’t drop, again. I might be giving this series a dnf at this juncture. It wasn’t wowing me anyway. 

You Are My Stupid Boy Ep 1-2 (Vietnam season 2 YouTube) - is a continuation of 2 existing couples Couple 1 (Troung & Khoa) from You Are My Sunshine and Couple 2 from Stupid Boys, Stupid Love (who I like better). SBSL couple brings with them a supportive female bestie who immediately goes up against the resident faen fatalle threatening YAMS couple. AKA the Anti-Faen Fatal... explosion immanent. I like it okay, but it’s a quar project (a bit talky and slow) and you probubly should watch the first two series first. Luckily they’re on YT under the same parent channel. 

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam - YouTube) Ep 8 fin - these two are great flirts and good kissers. We got a fabulously (and quintessentially Vietnamese) domestic ending. Technically this should probubly still get a 7/10 when compared to, say, the Thai stuff, but it just that much better than previous Vietnamese BLs and I’m giving it an 8/10. RECOMMENDED. 

In Case You Missed It

Thai BL short ZMaj sort just a min music video but with a little dialogue. 2 boys work at a cafe and a breakup drives them together. That’s James (Beer in Oxygen) & Nat from upcoming Bed Friend & Middleman’s Love. 

Gossip

The Thai redo of Love Stage!! looks a lot more like the original manga or anime. I’m excited about that a lot, actually, since I was very disappointed with the Japanese live action version. It looks like Thailand is brave enough to do the cross dressing element (could go horribly wrong but Turbo is gonna be SO pretty) and Kaownah actually looks like a great Ryo, less slapstick and more of a gentleman. This series will be long enough to deal with the BL side couple of the brother and the house manager too (younger seme, older uke, plus somewhat whipping boy). So yeah, you can tell, I’m excited. It’s a first for Thailand too, doing its own adaptation of something Japan has already tackled. Let’s see how Thai they can make it! You can watch the trailer here. I might be expecting to much from this one. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

One Love (unknown) & Physical Therapy (GaGa) both start tomorrow (Sunday). Physical Therapy has been described as “bittersweet” so WATCH OUT. My Ride (unknown) is supposed to start Thurs. For Friday Enchante will be taking over Bad Buddy’s time slot (on GMMTV’s YouTube) and The Love of Winter (YouTube) also starts. Love Stage!! is supposed to start Saturday (Aisplay - no idea on international) and Restart(ed) on Sunday (unknown). 

I’ve officially given up on Tell The World I Love You. I want to see it. But doubt I ever will. It’s been nearly a year and it’s still no where near out. 

Upcoming 2022 BL master post here. It’s now static (Tumblr has locked me out of editing it). It’s a bug, please just realize I can no longer use it to keep you updated on new announcements. It’s static as of Jan 15, 2022. 

This week’s best moments?

Still living for these two cuties. 

[d-criss-news]

20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram  you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was  when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10.  How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11.  What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12.  If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19.  What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

[thekidsarentalright]

Fob Survey Results

Hi! So, a few days ago I made a post asking u all to take a survey i made so i could, basically, just see the different opinions in the fandom and nearly 400 people responded, which is crazy! I didn’t know that many ppl still were in fob bandom 😳 Anyways, without further adieu, the results are enclosed below under the cut!

First, I wanna start with some disclaimers or lil housekeeping things. The first thing I wanna mention is that, obviously, this sampling of people is small compared to every single fan of them ever but regardless of that i’m still gonna be referring to it all very generally just bc that’s easier for me lol. Next, I made a pie chart for every single question just so there was a visual of it but a few of them are a bit stuffed, just because the sheer amount of variety in peoples answers, which is great! But I just wanted to warn, and assure that i’ll be breaking down the charts a bit below the pictures so it’s more comprehensible. Also everything is color coded to try and make it a little easier! Lastly, more info and like discussion about any of this is totally welcome! if u have q’s, ask me! 

Question 1: When Did You Become A Fan?

This chart is one of the more comprehensible ones, thankfully. It shows that the era most fans became a fan was srar era, with 104 people answering that. The era with the least being tttyg era with only 5 people (technically pre-tttyg era/folie era since no one answered those). It’s so cool, to me, to see such a variety of answers! Fob rly are timeless 😌

Question 2: What’s Your Favorite Album?

I feel, for me, this one wasn’t a big surprise. Folie is clearly the fan favorite with 37%, while take this your grave is in last with only 9 people saying it was their fav. Again, lots of variety in this which is pretty cool to see! (also sorry that ab/aps name got cut off lol)(Also also justice for abap and mania)

Question 3: What’s Your Favorite EP/Non-Album?

Here, Lake Effect Kid Ep dominated the results with 126 people saying it was their favorite. B-Side was sort of close behind, with Pax Am Days in third. Here, what surprised me, was that anybody answered with eowyg or llamania, tbh. And, though I didn’t include it in the chart, 7 people answered saying they didn’t have a fav or hadn’t ever listened to one of them!

Question 4: Who’s Your Favorite Member?

This was one of the most biased questions with nearly 50% of u saying Patrick is your fav. I expected that, though I thought it’d be more of a battle between him and Pete. The only thing rly worth saying, ig, is that Andy and Joe deserve more love :(

Question 5: Favorite Fob Related Artist?

When I made this question and put mcr as an option I knew they’d be number one, so that’s not a shocker, to me. Here are your guys’ top 3 fob adjacent artists: 1. My chemical romance 2. Paramore 3. Panic! at the disco And, honestly, rest didn’t stand a chance against those 3 which I kinda expected but it is nice to see Some people appreciating cobra and gch! (Misc. answers included bands like idkhow, waterparks, as well as green day and elton john! Lots of variety!)

Question 6: What’s Your Favorite Song?

This question is where it starts to get a bit messier. I did my best to make it as clean as possible, but it still def looks a little wacky (sorry). According to you all, however, your top 3 favorite fob songs are as follows: 1. Disloyal order 2. (Coffee’s for closers) 3. Hum hallelujah Now, I am not at all surprised that disloyal order is that high up there, nor does hum hallelujah surprise me but coffee’s for closers kinda does! I’m also shocked that ginasfs isn’t higher. (where’s tkaa tho)

Question 7: Most Underrated Song?

Luckily, I managed to get this one a bit more organized looking (in my eyes) but, again, sorry if it’s messy! Regardless, according to you all, the top 3 most underrated fob songs are: 1. You’re crashing, but you’re no wave 2. From now on we are enemies = Headfirst slide 3. Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC) = Coffee’s for closers What is the funniest, and most interesting to me here, is that there are so many ties and also that 2 of these songs (Headfirst slide and coffee’s for closers) were in your top 5 favorite songs... making them clearly not underrated. I was delighted to see you’re crashing at 1, though. It hits hard.

Question 8: Most Overrated Song?

Now, with this one, I fully expected the results I got. It was very predictable: The singles are the most overrated. Something about them playing nonstop on the radio 6+ years ago rly bugged y’all (/j). Here are your top 3 most overrated songs: 1. Centuries  2. Uma Thurman = Immortals 3. My Songs  I’m very very stunned to see what a catch on there. And to all the people that said mania and the kids aren’t alright: ow :(

Question 9: This Or That 1

All the this or that’s are pretty self-explanitory, I believe. By a very thing margin, you all prefer sugar over thnks fr the mmrs!

Question 10: This Or That 2

By another very thing margin, wams beat out just one yesterday.

Question 11: This Or That 3

A pattern you’ll notice is that all of these are super close... once again, by a thing margin, Immortals (famously disliked) beat out champion (even more disliked apparently)

Question 12: This Or That 4

This one was ridiculously close the entire survey, for a majority of it pavlove was winning, actually. But, at the very end, from now on we are enemies won it 183 to 146.

Question 13: This Or That 5

Lastly for the this or that series, we have the most biased one. I thought this would be closer, but clearly you all have a Lot of love for disloyal order, picking it over the kids aren’t alright 240 to 105. That’s fuckin crazy.

Question 14: What’s Your Favorite Lyric?

For this one, so many people answered so many different lyrics all presented in a different way that I physically could not bring myself to organize them like i did the previous song questions. So, I present to you the songs that were quoted/referenced the most and therefore are precieved to have the best lyricism, according to you all. The top 3 most mentioned songs are: 1. Disloyal order (shocker) 2. Hum Hallelujah 3. Wams = Miss Missing You What surprised me the most here was that apparently overrated songs appeared, with a few people mentioning centuries, my songs, what a catch among others. And that disloyal order once again came out on top. 

Conclusion: What I learned from this is follows; the fob fandom (on here) is made up of people with somehow both very varied and yet congruent opinions. We might not all have the same favorite album or ep but we do all lose our minds to disloyal order and think that patrick is the best which i think is just beautiful.  (Feel free to come into my inbox and talk to me about this!! Naturally, I have all the data- the stuff that’s hard to see or wasn’t shown on the charts is interesting too. I’d love to talk about any of it!)

[nannyfeline]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Essential (to me) Episodes (+Garak)

I’m starting a rewatch of Deep Space Nine, but I’ve already seen it all the way through three times, so this time I’m focusing on just the “essential” episodes (plus the Garak-heavy ones).

This is a consolidated list of the episodes I’m watching so I don’t have to keep cross-referencing six other lists whenever I go to choose the next episode to watch. I’m putting this here for me to use, feel free to use it as a guide if you like or ignore it completely. 

Season 1

Episodes 1 and 2 – Emissary: The first episode.

Episode 3 – Past Prologue: Bajoran terrorists are a thing. Garak is introduced. He makes a pass at Bashir.

Episode 13 – Battle Lines: Space pope goes to space.

Episode 19 – Duet: Cardassians and Bajorans (but not Garak).

Episode 20 – In the Hands of Prophets: Nurse Ratched is Vedek Winn and she bad.

Season 2

Episodes 1, 2, and 3: The show becomes reasonably good. There’s an attempted coup on Bajor, and the station is “abandoned.” 

Episode 5 – Cardassians: Sets up some Cardassian background and has lots of Garak. Also Bashir.

Episode 7 – Rules of Acquisition: I mean, I guess. The Dominion gets mentioned, so sure, whatever.

Episode 14 – Whispers: O’Brien thinks everyone has been replaced by pod people.

Episode 18 – Profit and Loss: Quark, Cardassians, and Garak.

Episodes 20 and 21 – The Maquis: Yeah, sure. It sets them up. They’re important in other series.

Episode 22 – The Wire: GARAK! AND BASHIR!

Episode 26 – The Jem’Hadar: They’re important.

Season 3

Episodes 1 and 2 – The Search: Dominion stuff. Eddington is introduced.

Episode 3 – The House of Quark: Quark and a Klingon get married.

Episode 5 – Second Skin: Cardassians gaslight Kira.

Episode 7 – Civil Defense: Those old Cardassian safety measures on Terok Nor sure are tricky.

Episode 9 – Defiant: Riker and the Maquis. Or is it???

Episodes 11 and 12 – Past Tense: Sisko, Dax, and Bashir are transported back in time to approximately right now (2024, actually), and things are basically fucked but honestly not that different than real life in 2020. (In 1995, it seemed like we would never get to this point. 25 years later, and boy were we wrong. This one is important for understanding some memes, but it honestly may be depressing and triggering here in the summer of 2020.)

Episode 15 – Destiny: Sisko being the Emissary and also talking to Cardassians.

Episode 16 – Prophet Motive: This may be my imagination, but it looks like there could be foreshadowing for “Doctor Bashir, I Presume.” I don’t know, I haven’t rewatched it, yet. I honestly doubt they were thinking that far ahead. I’ll update after I’ve seen it.

Episode 18 – Distant Voices: Bashir is under telepathic attack. Reddit says it’s a good Garak ep.

Episodes 20 and 21 – Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast: Snap, Garak is doing some shady shit. It’s a tough watch if you want to keep Garak in the good guy column. Cardassians attack the Dominion.

Episode 22 – Explorers: Could be more “Doctor Bashir, I Presume” foreshadowing, but probably not. I’ll see.

Episode 26 – The Adversary: Founder infiltrates the Defiant.

Season 4

Episodes 1 and 2 – The Way of the Warrior: Klingons go to war and Worf joins the cast.

Episode 4 – Hippocratic Oath: Bashir’s such a grown up now! Love it! Making big boy choices wrt the Jem’Hadar.

Episode 5 – Indiscretion: Okay, sure, I mean, if you’ve never seen the show, I guess this one is important. It introduces Ziyal. She’s a terrible character, but whatever.

Episode 7 – Starship Down: Fighting the Dominion.

Episode 8 – Little Green Men: THIS IS THE BEST EPISODE! Quark, Rom, and Nog are transported back to 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, and this is the episode that makes me also sort of ship Quark/Odo.

Episode 10 – Our Man Bashir: Bashir and Garak are playing a 1960s James Bond holonovel and have to save the crew when a transporter accident causes their patterns to become integrated with the program. It’s dumb and fun.

Episodes 11 and 12 – Homefront and Paradise Lost: Starfleet violating civil rights a bit to root out Changelings.

Episode 14 – Return to Grace: Cardassians gonna Cardass, I guess.

Episode 22 – For the Cause: Garak and Ziyal become friends.

Episode 23 – To the Death: Sisko and the Dominion work together for a common goal. And we get WEYOUN!

Episode 25 – Body Parts: Quark thinks he’s going to die, so he starts selling off his body parts. Reddit says it’s a good Garak ep, though.

Episode 26 – Broken Link: Odo needs the Founders, uh-oh.

Season 5

Episode 1 – Apocalypse Rising: Whoops, there’s a Klingon Changeling, now.

Episode 6 – Trials and Tribble-ations: Set during TOS “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

Episode 8 – Things Past: Several of the kids, including Garak, are astral projecting to the Cardassian occupation.

Episode 9 – The Ascent: I don’t know, Odo and Quark are hanging out, I guess?

Episode 13 – For the Uniform: Eddington is back.

Episodes 14 and 15 – In Purgatory’s Shadow and By Inferno’s Light: The Dominion’s a’comin’.

Episode 16 – Doctor Bashir, I Presume: Julian’s secret’s out. (My favorite Bashir/O’Brien interaction is in this episode.)

Episode 24 – Empok Nor: O’Brien, Nog, and Garak are scavenging on Empok Nor, sister station of Terok Nor. Spoopy.

Episode 25 – In the Cards: A dumb Jake/Nog fetch quest episode, but Kai Winn meets Weyoun, so… 🤷‍♂️

Episode 26 – Call to Arms: Okay, there’s definitely a war on now.

Season 6

Episode 1 – A Time to Stand: They a’fightin’.

Episode 2 – Rocks and Shoals: Hey, look, the kids are stranded with some Jem’Hadar.

Episode 4 – Behind the Lines: Occupied DS9.

Episodes 5 and 6: Favor the Bold and Sacrifice of Angels: Retaking DS9.

Episode 11 – Waltz: Now Sisko and Dukat are stranded.

Episode 18 – Inquisition: Bashir is accused of being a spy, because why not. Section 31 is introduced.

Episode 19 – In the Pale Moonlight: Lol Sisko is a fascist. Garak helps.

Episode 26 – Tears of the Prophets: The Federation goes on offense.

Season 7

Episode 1 – Image in the Sand: Things just keep going, you know?

Episode 2 – Shadows and Symbols: I’m going to give this one a miss, personally, but it introduces Ezri.

Episode 3 – Afterimage: Poor Garak.

Episode 6 – Treachery, Faith, and the Great River: Weyouns Weyouning.

Episode 8 – The Siege of AR-558: Fightin’.

Episode 9 – Covenant: Dukat is bonkers.

Episode 16 – Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges: Bashir and Section 31.

Episodes 17 through 19: Probably should watch these. Beginning of the end.

Episodes 20 through 24: Getting there.

Episodes 25 and 26 – What You Leave Behind: The finale.

[incarnateirony]

*chef's kiss* Your "honk honk" seems of a different... attitude. I can't help but think you got information, and I wonder if it's the "‘Supernatural’ Boss on Season 15’s ‘Chance to Let Both Boys Be the Star of Their Own Story’" interview on Variety. If it's nothing, that's cool. If it's something else, I'm intrigued. Most of all, /if/ you write something about it, I/we always love hearing your thoughts. 🤡🤡

Hokay so this is going to be difficult to write out, because I do want to clear this up. Given, it took considerably longer than I intended, a few life kidnappings and one really strong IPA later, so if I get rambly, forgive me, I’m kinda buzzed.

That said, arrogant as it may sound, I’ve been told many times that people take me as a sort of seat of common sense and realism in this fandom, and “honk honk” can have many readings, so let me explain where I’m at in regards to the show, our canon, DeanCas and everything in this tangled web.

For those somewhat new to my blog, I didn’t really “ship it” until season 13, episode 5-6; I’d argue myself in reverse that my foundation was shaken by 12.19 in reverse, so put it somewhere in that time frame. Before that, I simply defended the validity and, frankly, sanity of Destiel fandom for seeing what they saw after years of them being gaslit, times confusion spawned from fandom levels that birthed all kinds of weird bitterness.

I kept it at arms length because realistically, on a production level, it just wasn’t a thing until somewhere in the ballpark of S12, which is when I joined fandom, and for a reason I will continue to vague blog about but I think some people have picked up on.

Even still, I have always endorsed being mindful of ones’ own emotions and expectations, and despite my honk honk, that still floats as a background element to everything I am about to say.

The TL;DR is that, quite frankly, any babbling about marketing or production issues aside, since season 14, Andrew Dabb has been seriously fucking my head up. Seriously.

I don’t know how long you’ve been with me, Nonnie; but early S14 I started blogging about the God of Control, Ialdaboath, Abraxas and other shit but also said I had no faith in it since in S11 already the network shut down killing god for fear of pissing off the fundies, and still, making him the villain holds about the same effect even if cruising on technicality. I built entire meta series pondering the pattern and direction of our canon, laying out how it was due to be Chuck, in reflection of Yellow Eyes and the sins of the Father, and then Dabb turned around and smacked my reservation out of my mouth in 14.20.

I spent hiatus blogging on about the next alchemical step being death of the relationship for birth of something new by Art and Lovers arcana; I referenced that old meta project, but spent equal time dismissing the balance of it, too Destiel, too front facing, to not expect it at all. Season 15 turns around smacking us with divorce and marriage shit all around and knocked that reservation out of my mouth too.

I blogged about Belphegor and patterns having a DeanCas breakup by 15.03 within mythology, but not to expect it to be forward facing; and ep 3 was so loud TVG and soap reporters started calling a spade a spade. Dabb knocked that reservation out of my mouth.

Structurally speaking, we continue to tread forward into louder and louder territory, and any time I try to apply any form of reservationist logic to it, Dabb cockslaps me into the dirt so hard I don’t know what to call logic anymore.

The interview may be part of it, for sure, but full honest I’ve been honking since before that.

Now, what “honking” is lacks a specific goalpost. As someone fully at peace with the level of effort our crew has been giving us beyond restrictions, as someone respecting the low key textuality plugged into this season even if it failed to meet “good representation” boundaries as people have identified, or the performative release anyone’s after, I have no specific expectation beyond:

Louder.

It’s going to get louder. It’s going to get harder, and harder to miss. And they aren’t shy about it anymore.

When it comes to corporate level shenanigans, there’s other things at play; some associated with certain topics I vagueblog about; others less vaguebloggy but related, like the WB losing 5 of its and its sister companies’ CEOs in the last year and complete corporate turnover that led to Pedowitz’s recent promotion to make CW more self-standing without babysitting as much by its parent company (not even minding the CBS-facing Moonves disaster which makes it 6 in CW’s blast radius).

Whether it be the first-female-WB-CEO making a change in how the business is handling its business decisions and marketing decisions, or simple “Forgotten Child Syndrome” that has given Dabberens the right to get away with everything but murder, in all we know of the crew, and all we see, the direction is only one thing: Louder.

And for that, I’ll gladly honk to death right now.

This crew is taking it as far as they can, and I will gladly blast the circus music announcing them in their wake.

We have truly reached a “roll the dice” point, which at no other point in history have we been at a horizon of beyond the curtain. We could still turn up snake eyes. That’s fine. Or we could nat 20. Or it could be a tepid 10. But the fact that the dice are rolling at all – honk honk.

I don’t know what’s real or logic anymore at this point, it’s one big muddy mess. So I may as well enjoy the ride, throw the dice, honk my heart out and see just how far these fuckers manage to sling us. 

But if I could get in a TARDIS and zap back to season 7 fandom and try to tell them what was going on, right here, season 15, the final season, with Dean and Cas, everybody would tell me I was on crack or full of shit, and that’s the kind of perspective this bitter ass fandom desperately needs to wrap their heads around and hands over rather than being lost to waves of irrelevant arguments.

I mean let’s look at S8-9 fandom that weren’t paying attention to the production curve at the time. A large sum convinced themselves it was “going to go canon”. But where, when, how? What was canon? They didn’t know, they just knew they got mad when a corp exec went “dafuq is a Destiel” in sum, because he was rightfully blindsided and everybody went bananas and didn’t come down from it since. If you had asked them then what “going canon” meant, you’d get a million different answers much less explanations why they thought it, some being really bizarre meta about fish or other RANDOM shit that literally makes you go “the FUCK?”.

And that has plagued the DeanCas community ever since, frequently addressed as “moving goalposts”, wherein person just needs XYZ and then it happens so somebody else makes a new thing they want and so on into eternity.

But as of late I’ve noticed a large, and I mean large section of fandom has detected certain patterns in Dabb era and have pretty unilaterally set an idea– for example, fandom has come to realize Korrasami, right down to the handholding, seems to be putting off beacons and pulses in the show time and time again. It’s not the loud rep some want, but a great deal of people are out here, seeing this groundwork laid down. There’s a how and a where and a when and I really can’t think of any other time in the history of this fandom that’s actually been in conversation, and I don’t think fandom has really grokked that as a difference, as well. 

Because it’s, for the first time, actually been handled like a genuine potential. How far that potential goes is up in the air, but it’s no longer punch line subtext or weird “oops I tripped and fell in the gay” shit. It’s not even just lowkey background parallels. It’s entire goddamn story arcs crafted front and center with loud cultural resonances, partial text level breaking dynamics and more, just lacking the affirmative sentiments people want– and suddenly, fandom actually has a formulative idea of what those sentiments might look like in the show.

And that my friends? That’s different.

Honk honk.

[sophygurl]

I love the question memes and my fave kind is the kind @pixiedane​ just tagged me in (thank you!). [Also sidenote: ILU @theawkwardterrier​ for always tagging me in the tagging memes but JSYK I won’t be doing the latest one because I’m just not really a picture person so I don’t really have a lot of pictures saved and the idea of trying to use whatever weird random stuff I might have saved to describe myself would just not work. But you’re the best and I’ll catch ya on the next one!]

The rules:

Post the rules

Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

Write 11 questions of your own

And tag 11 people

1. What’s the meaning of your name? Does it suit you?

Rosemary doesn’t seem to have a specific meaning, although of course it’s an herb, and Rosemary is for remembrance, which is hilarious given my memory problems. Mary means bitter, so some name meaning sites say the meaning of my name is “bitter rose” which I guess is a nice combo of sweet and sad, which I would not really classify myself as. So, no, the various meanings of my name do not suit me.

The name itself? Does. I love my name, and while most people can’t be bothered with a 3 syllable name in casual conversation, my preference is to be called Rosemary and not Rose. Rose does not feel like me.

2. What’s a movie you never get tired of?

A lot of movies fit under this category, but the movie I have probably seen the most amount of times and can still watch either in full or in chunks and still enjoy every single second of no matter what is Dirty Dancing. 

3. Your favourite movie soundtrack?

Are we talking soundtrack as in collection of songs used in the movie and put into an album, or as in score for the movie, or?

Because nothing but nothing beats the Star Wars scores for me. Well, original and prequels and TFA anyway - the last two have diverged quite a bit which has felt odd to me but whatever. [Second place would be the scores for the 70/s80s Superman movies - also John Williams of course]

If collection of songs - then we’re back to Dirty Dancing.

Although if we’re considering soundtracks of musicals, then I’m gonna be reduced to flailing and just naming half a dozen or so, so we’ll just pretend that’s not part of the question. 

4. How would you describe your personal style?

Accidental? I pretty much just buy things that I find interesting, and then put things together that seem interesting to me, and then end up with some pretty ... interesting outfits. One of my roommates actually described my look yesterday as “crazy” if that tells you anything.

Think colors that don’t quite match, conflicting patterns, stripey socks, chunky jewelry, and then at times like now at the end of winter when I haven’t shaved my head in awhile - short floppy hair that is sticking up in all directions that I swear I tried to tame but it just doesn’t take. 

5. Name a fictional crush.

Spike from Buffy. Also Buffy from Buffy. And put them together? Double crush. 

6. What’s your motto?

I don’t really have a motto, per se, but I do have a mantra, which is: love, peace, joy, hope. Those are the qualities I try to embody, embrace, spread, whatever. All four are of equal importance to me. 

7. Are you a gamer?

If by gamer, you mean obsessively playing the Sims, then yes. But most people who consider themselves gamers would probably say no.

8. Would you rather spend time on a secluded beach or at a fancy cocktail party?

How about a fancy cocktail party on a secluded beach? Too much sand in the drinks, never mind.

Ah, these are both problematic for me. I don’t do so well with being completely alone, especially without some kind of distraction or diversion. I guess if I had a book with me on the beach, I’d be okay for a little while, but I’d also get uncomfortable super fast if there wasn’t, like, a comfy sofa or something to recline on. 

And I also don’t do well with fancy, or come to think of it with cocktails since I can’t drink any more with the meds I have to take. 

But, if I had to choose, I’d probably pick the party. I’d be dressed inappropriately (probably something with loud colors and polka dots?), and sitting in the corner mostly people watching, and I’d get overwhelmed and head home early, but still. 

9. Recommend a television series.

oohhhoooomygods just ONE?

I’ve rec’d this one many times, but since it just came back for season two last night (I haven’t watched the ep yet - it’s next on my list), I’m gonna recommend Imposters to you all again.

Imposters is a lil show with a small but dedicated fandom on Bravo. 

It stars Inbar Lavi (Prison Break, The Last Ship) as a con woman and Rob Heaps (Home Fires, And Then There Were None), Parker Young (Arrow, Suburgatory), and  Marianne Rendón (Mapplethorpe) as three of the people who she has swindled. Additionally, Brian Benben (Private Practice, Dream On), Stephen Bishop (Being Mary Jane), Chastity Dotson (Pitch, Veronica Mars), and Denise Dowd (Secrets and Lies, Beverly Hills 90210) star. 

The story of season one is that these three scorned exes find one another and begin a quest to find the woman they all alternately view as their loving spouse and the cruel con who stole everything from them. Along the way, they learn some cons of their own, gain back some of their confidence, and of course discover the power of friendship. 

There are many twists and turns along the way which I won’t spoil for anyone who wants to watch season 1 for themselves, but it involves cons within cons within cons and unlikely teammates. 

Also - Uma Thurman as a hitwoman.

As the finale of season one had our three scorned exes riding off together into the sunset, I am very excited to see where season two leads us. Seriously, you have to watch this show. 

[But if I may very quickly rec some of my other underwatched faves: 12 Monkeys, Colony, Counterpart, Ghosted, Insecure, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Madam Secretary, People of Earth, Scream, Speechless, Timeless, UnREAL,You’re the Worst - ask me about my underwatched faves plz.]

10. Do you have any phobias?

Boy howdy, do I! I have OCD, which often comes with phobias as part of the anxiety which leads to some of the obsessive compulsions. [FELLOW PHOBES MIGHT WANNA SKIP THIS PART - PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.]

I have a slight germ phobia which I mostly don’t go deep into because I don’t have the energy to do what I’d need to do to feel better about it so I just make myself not-think about it really hard, but the underlying anxiety is Still There. 

This is especially true of what I call “poop germs” - which is anything that has ever been inside of a bathroom ever. This makes, you know, having to use bathrooms very upsetting and problematic for me, so again, I deploy my aggressive pretending it’s not there as much as I can, but poop germs can cause me to break down into tears on a bad day. Fun times!

I’m also an emetophobe, which means I’m terrified of throwing up - a fun little phobia to have when you have constant low-grade nausea which occasionally flares up to higher-grade, lemme tell ya.

Another biggie is infestation of any kind - so any kind of insect or small animal that comes into my home. Like, I am absolutely fine seeing these critters outside where they belong - I might even oooh and aaah. But the second I see one INSIDE - I’m screaming bloody murder and waking up the entire apartment complex. 

I’ve worked real hard at being less scared of the harmless single bugs that enter a home, especially the kind that EAT other bugs - so for example I am perfectly fine with spiders (being obsessed with Charlotte’s Web as a kid helps), and even centipedes after the initial screaming over how creepy they look is done. And I’ve gotten where I look insects up on websites that identify bugs and talk about them in positive/scientific ways and have stopped panicking about certain bugs and their larvae now as I can tell which ones are and aren’t actually harmful or prone to infestation. BUT. I’m still prolly gonna scream when I initially see them because eaauughhss. 

Those are the main ones, but the fun thing about OCD is that new ones develop all the time if you don’t stay vigilant about letting those obsessive thoughts do their thang, so I try real hard to ignore those news segments and articles about bringing black lights into hotel rooms and about all of the horrible ways people are committing violent crimes these days and other terrifying and/or gross things that might creep their ways into my fear center. 

11. What’s your rarest rarepair?

Oh, good question. I don’t tend to have rarepairs because the way I fandom is deep immersion into canon and not necessarily delving into fanon/fanfic. So even my non-canon ships tend to be ones that the canon itself at least played with a little bit or that the fandom-at-large has talked about enough that I start to see it. lol

I’m having trouble even thinking about a ship I have that could be classified as rare? It would probably be something involving Spike because I ship that fool with pretty much everyone he’s ever shared screentime with because he is just so yummy, and because Marsters was just really good about getting his character to bring interesting things out of whatever characters he was interacting with, and because he’s clearly so omnisexual that he just oozes chemistry with everyone he meets, but like. I’m also definitely not the only one who sees all that about him and also is shipping him left right and center. So. I’ll just toss out Spike/Harmony because I’ve never heard of anyone else who actually liked them together ha!

Phew! That was fun. I hope all of you all who I end up tagging have as much fun with my questions (and if not, feel free to use some of pixie’s).

My questions:

What is your #mood rn?

Tell me the sweetest childhood memory you can think of.

Favorite mythological/fantastical animal/creature.

What is your favorite mode of storytelling - for example, books, movies, TV shows, graphic novels, video games, etc. - and why do you think that’s your fave form?

Star Trek, Star Wars, or Starlord? (this is not a serious question and you may feel free to expound upon all three if you wish)

Favorite type of geographical location to visit, and is it different from where you prefer to live?

Name a character that you love, but who you would probably hate in real life.

Reboots, renewals, and revivals. Are they ruining your childhood or do you love ‘em?

Tell me about your favorite cookie (or other sweet if you don’t care for cookies).

If there is one thing people could just atomatically know about you upon meeting you that would make socializing with you better or easier, what would it be?

A lot of stories based on comics posit the theory that eventually humanity will evolve into at least some humans developing super powers. Suppose this started happening today - what would the results be, do you think?

Tagging:

(and of course, please consider yourself tagged if you wanna do this - I’d tag all of you if I could but I try and just pick folks I think enjoy doing these. if I’m ever wrong - please feel free and ignore the tag. additionally - please remember to tag ME so I can see your responses! also, feel free to re-tag me in this one since the questions differ and you all know how much I love to talk about myself.)

@absolutelyiris, @dianebluegreen, @c-l-ford, @theawkwardterrier, @the-invisible-queer, @brokenyellowcrayons, @knitmeapony, @fatherjerusalem, @swordsandparasols, @dmphelps, @nightlocktime

[flashhdtv]

‘Episode 8’ | Real:Time:Love 3 Ep.8 [EngSub] Korean Drama Romance 2020

Watch Real:Time:Love  Season 1 Episode 8 1–2–3–4–5–1–7–8–9–10 Full Episode Real:Time:Love  Temporada 1 Capítulo 8 Sub English / Español 2020 ➤ http://watchepisode.online-tvs.com/series/380261/3/8 VISIT HERE ➤➤ http://watchepisode.online-tvs.com/series/380261/3/8

Real Time Love is a sitcom-like web drama that follows the honest, curious stories of 18-year-olds. (Can be watched in 킼TV (WHY NOT) channel both on YouTube and V LIVE).

🎬 Real:Time:Love 3 Episode 8 Online Free 🎬

Title : Real:Time:Love Episode Title : Episode 8 Release Date : 02 Oct 2020 Runtime : 15 minutes Genres : Comedy , Drama , Mini-Series , Romance Networks : VLIVE

Real:Time:Love 3

Real Time Love sitcom-like web drama that follows the honest, curious stories of 18-year-olds.

Show Info

Web channel: Korea, Republic of Naver TVCast (2019 - now) Schedule: Fridays at 20:00 (15 min) Status: Running Language: Korean Show Type: Scripted Genres: Drama Comedy Romance Episodes ordered: 8 episodes

With dozens of films genre being released each year, a typical one that gets overlooked by the more popular ones (action, drama, comedy, animation, etc.) is the subgenre category of religious movie. These films (sometimes called “faith-based” features) usually center around the struggles and ideas of a person (or groups) identity of a religious faith, which is, more or less, has a profound event or obstacle to overcome. While not entirely, the most commonplace religious type movies focus on the religion of Christianity, sometimes venturing back into the past in cinematic retelling classic biblical tales, including famed epic films like Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur (the original 1959 version) to some more modern endeavors from Hollywood like Risen, The Young Messiah, and Paul, Apostle of Christ. Other Christian “faith” films finds a more contemporary setting to tell its story, with some being “based on a true-life account” like the movies Unconditional, Heaven is Real, Unbroken, I Can Only Imagine, Indivisible, and Miracles from Heaven, while others might find inspiration from literary novels / fictionalized narratives like The Shack, Overcomer, War Room, and Same Kind of Different as Me. Regardless, whether finding inspiration from true life, references from the bible, or originality, these movies usually speaks on a person’s faith and the inner struggle he or she has within or one society’s views, spreading a message of belief and the understand of one’s belief. Now, after the success of 2018’s I Can Only Imagine, directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) and Lionsgate studios release the 2020 faith-based film / music biopic feature I Still Believe. Does the film walk a fine line between its religious aspects and cinematic entertainment or does the movie get entangled in its own faith-based preaching?

THE STORY

Its 1999 and Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a young and aspiring musician who would like nothing more than to honor his God through the power of music. Leaving his Indiana home for the warmer climate of California and a college education, Jeremy soon comes across one Melissa Henning (Britt Robertson), a fellow college student that he takes notices in the audience at a local concert. Falling for cupid’s arrow immediately, he introduces himself to her and quickly discovers that she is attracted to him too. However, Melissa holds back from forming a budding relationship as she fears it will create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend, Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a fellow musician and who also has feeling for Melissa. Still, Jeremy is relentless in his pursuit of her until they eventually find themselves in a loving dating relationship. However, their youthful courtship with each other comes to a halt when life-threating news of Melissa having cancer takes center stage. The diagnosis does nothing to deter Jeremey’s love for her and the couple eventually marries shortly thereafter. Howsoever, they soon find themselves walking a fine line between a life together and suffering by her illness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in music, himself, and with God himself.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

Sorry if this sounds a bit familiar pieces from my review of I Can Only Imagine, but it definitely says what I feel about these films. While I am a devout Christian (not a crazy zealot or anything like that) for my bases of religion and my outlook beliefs in life, I’m not a huge fan of the “faith-based” feature films. That’s not to say that they’re bad or that I find them deplorable to the other more popular movie genres out there, but sometimes they can a bit preachy and corny / honky in their religious overtones and overall dramatic direction. Personally, I like the more biblical tales that Hollywood as put over, with Cecil B. Demile’s The Ten Commandments and William Wyler’s Ben-Hur; both of have proven to stand the test of time within filmmaking. Of course, Hollywood’s recent trend of put out more “remakes” movies puts an overcast on those biblical epics with 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings and 2016’s Ben-Hur; both of which failed to capture a sense of cinematic integrity and had a messy religious outlook in its zeal aspect. Of late, however, Hollywood as retreated more into contemporary pieces, finding narratives that are, more or less, set in a more “modern” day and age to their Christian-faithful based features. As I mentioned above, some have found success in their literary forms (being based on a book and adapted to the big screen), but most derive their inspiration from true life accounts, translating into something that’s meant to strike a chord (with moviegoers) due to its “based on a true story” aspect and nuances. Again, some are good (as I liked Unbroken and The Shack), while others kind of become a bit too preachy and let the religious overtures hamper the film, making them less-than desirable to mainstream audiences or even members of their own faiths. Thus, these religious-esque films can sometimes be problematic in their final presentation for both its viewers and in the film itself; sometimes making the movie feel like a TV channel movie rather than a theatrical feature film. This brings me around to talking about I Still Believe, a 2020 motion picture release of the Christian religious faith-based genre. As almost customary, Hollywood usually puts out two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases usually being around spring time and / or fall respectfully. I didn’t hear much when this movie was first announced (probably got buried underneath all the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer was released, which looked somewhat interesting to me. Yes, it looked the movie was gonna be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I Can Only Imagine (a film that I did like). Plus, the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some time, so I kept on seeing it a lot of time when I went to my local movie theater. You can kind of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. Thus, I was a bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-19 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, due to work scheduling, I haven’t had the time to do my review for it…. until now. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is definitely in the right place and quite sincere, I Still Believe is a bit too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religious message is clearly there, but takes too many detours and not focusing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation. As mentioned, I Still Believe is directed by the Erwin Brothers (Andrew and Jon), whose previous directorial works include such films like Moms’ Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine. Given their affinity attraction religious based Christian movies, the Erwin Brothers seem like a suitable choice in bringing Jeremy Camp’s story to a cinematic representation; approaching the material with a certain type of gentleness and sincerity to the proceedings. Much like I Can Only Imagine, the Erwin Brothers shape the feature around the life of a popular Christian singer; presenting his humble beginnings and all the trials and tribulations that he must face along the way, while musical songs / performance taking importance into account of the film’s narrative story progression. That’s not to say that the movie isn’t without its heavier moments, with the Erwin, who (again) are familiar with religious overtones themes in their endeavors, frame I Still Believe compelling messages of love, loss, and redemption, which (as always) are quite fundamental to watch and experience through tragedy. This even speaks to the film’s script, which was penned by Erwin brothers playing double duty on the project, that has plenty of heartfelt dramatic moments that will certainly tug on the heartstrings of some viewers out there as well as provide to be quite an engaging tale of going through tragedy and hardship and finding a redemption arc to get out of it. This is especially made abundantly clear when dealing with a fatal illness that’s similar to what Melissa undergoes in the film, which is quite universal and reflective in everyone’s world, with the Erwin Brothers painting the painful journey that Melissa takes along with Jeremy by her side, who must learn to cope with pain of a loved one. There is a “double edge” sword to the film’s script, but I’ll mention that below. Suffice to say, the movie settles quickly into the familiar pattern of a religious faith-based feature that, while not exactly polished or original, can be quite the “comfort food” to some; projecting a wholesome message of faith, hope, and love. Personally, I didn’t know of Jeremy Camp and the story of he and Melissa Henning, so it was quite a poignant journey that was invested unfolding throughout the film’s proceedings. As a side-note, the movie is a bit a “tear jerker”, so for those who prone to crying during these dramatic heartfelt movies….get your tissues out. In terms of presentation, I Still Believe meets the industry standard of a religious faith-based motion pictures. Of course, theatrical endeavors like these don’t really have big budged production money to invest in the film’s creation. Thus, filmmakers have to spend their money wisely in bringing their cinematic tales to life on the silver screen. To that effect, the Erwin Brothers smartly utilized this knowledge in the movie’s creation; budgeting the various aspects of the background and genetic theatrical make-up that feel appropriate and genuine in the film’s narrative. So, all the various “behind the scenes” team / areas that I usually mention (i.e. production designs, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography, etc.) are all relatively good as I really don’t have much to complain (whether good or bad) about them. Again, they meet the industry standard for a faith-based movie. Additionally, the musical song parts are pretty good as well. As mentioned, I really didn’t know anything about Jeremy Camp, so I couldn’t say what songs of his were good, but the songs that are presented in the film were pretty decent enough to certain highlight points throughout the movie. Though they are somewhat short (assuming not the whole song is being played), but still effectively good and nice to listen to. Might have to check out a few of the real songs one day. Lastly, the film’s score, which was done by John Debney, fits perfect with this movie; projecting the right amount of heartfelt tenderness in some scenes and inspirational melodies of enlightenment in others. Unfortunately, not all is found to be pure and religiously cinematic in the movie as I Still Believe gets weighed down with several major points of criticism and execution in the feature. How so? For starters, the movie feels a bit incomplete in Jeremy Camp’s journey. What’s presented works (somewhat), but it doesn’t hold up, especially because the Erwin Brothers have a difficult time in nailing down the right narrative path for the film to take. Of course, the thread of Jeremy and Melissa are the main central focus (and justly so), but pretty much everything else gets completely pushed aside, including Jeremy’s musical career rise to stardom and many of the various characters and their importance (more on that below). This also causes the film to have a certain pacing issues throughout the movie, with I Still Believe runtime of 116 minutes (one hour and fifty-six minutes) feeling longer than it should be, especially with how much narrative that the Erwin Brothers skip out on (i.e. several plot chunks / fragments are left unanswered or missing). Additionally, even if a viewer doesn’t know of Jeremy Camp’s story, I Still Believe does, for better or worse, follow a fairly predictable path that’s quite customary for faith-based movie. Without even reading anything about the real lives of Jeremy and Melissa prior to seeing the feature, it’s quite clearly as to where the story is heading and what will ultimately play out (i.e. plot beats and theatrical narrative act progression). Basically, if you’ve seeing one or two Christian faith-based film, you’ll know what to expect from I Still Believe. Thus, the Erwin Brothers don’t really try to creatively do something different with the film…. instead they reinforce the idealisms of Christian and of faith in a formulaic narrative way that becomes quite conventional and almost a bit lazy. There is also the movie’s dialogue and script handling, which does become problematic in the movie’s execution, which is hampered by some wooden / forced dialogue at certain scenes (becoming very preachy and cheesy at times) as well as the feeling of the movie’s story being rather incomplete. There’s a stopping point where the Erwin Brothers settle on, but I felt that there could’ve more added, including more expansion on his music career and several other characters. Then there is the notion of the film being quite secular in its appeal, which is quite understandable, but relies too heavy on its religious thematic messages that can be a bit “off-putting” for some. It didn’t bother me as much, but after seeing several other faith-based movies prior to this (i.e. I Can Only Imagine, Overcomer, Indivisible, etc.), this particular movie doesn’t really rise to Cursed in Love and falls prey to being rather generic and flat for most of its runtime. As you can imagine, I Still Believe, while certainly sincere and meaningful in its storytelling, struggles to find a happy balance in its narrative and execution presentation; proving to be difficult in conveying the whole “big picture” of its message and Jeremey Camp’s journey. The cast in I Still Believe is a mixed bag. To me, none of the acting talents are relatively bad (some are better than others…. I admit), but their characterizations and / or involvement in the film’s story is problematic to say the least. Leading the film’s narrative are two protagonist characters of Jeremy Camp and Melissa Henning, who are played by the young talents of K.J. Apa and Britt Robertson respectfully. Of the two, Apa, known for his roles in Riverdale, The Last Summer, and The Hate U Give, is the better equipped in character development and performance as the young and aspiring musical talent of Jeremy Camp. From the get-go, Apa has a likeable charm / swagger to him, which make his portrayal of Jeremy immediately endearing from onset to conclusion. All the scenes he does are well-represented (be it character-based or dramatic) and certainly sells the journey that Jeremy undergoes in the movie. Plus, Apa can also sing, which does lend credence to many of the scene’s musical performance. For Robertson, known for her roles in Tomorrowland, Ask Me Anything, and The Space Between Us, she gets hampered by some of the film’s wooden / cheesy dialogue. True, Robertson’s performance is well-placed and well-mannered in projecting a sense of youthful and dewy-eyed admiration in Mellissa, especially since the hardships here character undergoes in the feature, but it’s hard to get passed the cringeworthy dialogue written for her. Thus, Robertson’s Melissa ends up being the weaker of the two. That being said, both Apa and Robertson do have good on-screen chemistry with each other, which certainly does sell the likeable / loving young relationship of Jeremy and Melissa. In more supporting roles, seasoned talents like actor Gary Sinise (Forest Gump and Apollo 13) and musician singer Shania Twain play Jeremey’s parents, Tom and Terry Camp. While both Sinise and Twain are suitable for their roles as a sort of small town / Midwest couple vibe, their characters are little more than window dressing for the feature’s story. Their screen presence / star power lends weigh to the project, but that’s pretty much it; offering up a few nuggets to bolster a few particular scenes here and there, which is disappointing. Everyone else, including actor Nathan Parsons (General Hospital and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water) as musical talent and mutual friend to both Jeremy and Melissa, Jean-Luc Lajoie, young actor Reuben Dodd (The Bridge and Teachers) as Jeremy’s handicapped younger brother, Joshua Camp, and his other younger brother, Jared Camp (though I can’t find out who played him the movie), are relatively made up in smaller minor roles that, while acted fine, are reduced to little more than just underdeveloped caricatures in the film, which is a shame and disappointing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The power of faith, love, and affinity for music take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life and times of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life with his relationship Melissa Henning as they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult times. While the movie’s intent and thematic message of a person’s faith through trouble times is indeed palpable as well as the likeable musical performances, the film certainly struggles to find a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluggish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats, too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religious overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary /supporting characters. To me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It was definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor (from start to finish) and definitely had its moments, but it just failed to resonate with me; struggling to find a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, despite the story, it could’ve been better. Thus, my recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some will like (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religious faith-based flicks, I Still Believe stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama can be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.

[sachiro]

Victor/Yuuri and the Media

Alternately titled “Sachiro can find Victor character development pretty much anywhere he looks”.

As an attempt to get over the writer’s block that has been plaguing me for a month and a half, I decided to try and tackle something new. Something that’s a more outside-of-the-box idea in terms of analysis (at least I think) so let’s take a look at an aspect of the series that I haven’t seen talked about too much in terms of character development: the media!

I started thinking a while back about how we can actually see a clear change when it comes to Victor and his interactions with Yuuri in regards to the media, especially when we compare the earlier episodes to the later ones, and it got me thinking. Why does Victor act so protective of Yuuri in front of the media in earlier episodes and what changed by the later ones to the point that he’s so noticeably not there (and at what point did this shift take place)?

Victor himself actually enjoys the media attention and we have that shown to us repeatedly over the course of the show. Yuuri, on the other hand, tolerates the media but while he doesn’t enjoy the attention he isn’t actually a terrible speaker in front of the cameras.

Before we get into the meat of the discussion, let’s take a quick look at how each of them interact with the media when left on their own (at the start of the show anyway).

Victor

The very first time we see Victor, he’s in front of the cameras. His heart may not have been into it but he was still able to pull out a big smile. Even more in our faces later, we see him winking at the crowd at Worlds and sending everyone into a tizzy. He’s very much an extrovert and gets his energy from others around him.

Even after he moves to Japan, and especially once Yuuri and Victor get back into the competitive circuit, we see him thriving off any media attention he can get; whether it’s interviews, at the kiss & cry, or from the attention given to him by his fans.

Yuuri

On the other hand, Yuuri is very docile in front of the cameras. He’ll respond with phrases that you can tell he prepared ahead of time. You can see that he doesn’t really enjoy the attention but he’s been at this long enough to know how to deal with and tolerate it. In contrast to Victor, you don’t see Yuuri waving at the cameras and actively seeking out attention from his fans.

We can see examples of Yuuri on the far side of this spectrum in episode 1 where he actively tries to avoid interacting with his fans. We can also make the assumption that he avoided all media and social media in the space between the GPF and the Stammi Vicino video due to no one having an inkling as to what his career plans were (even though him skipping out on Worlds as the only Men’s Singles skater for Japan would have already been suspect – I wonder what excuse he gave because it definitely would have hit the press either way).

Edit: he didn’t qualify for Worlds at all due to his poor performance at Japanese Nationals, my bad!

As you can probably guess, putting both of them in the same frame would certainly cause some interesting interactions, and that’s exactly what happens! So let’s take a look from the start and see how they managed to somehow get to a point where Victor is leaving Yuuri to deal with the media alone/actually been tame in front of the cameras as seen in the last episodes!

(More under the read more due to length/images so please enjoy the rest of the analysis!)

Victor and Yuuri interactions

The way that Yuuri handles the media is something that we can see Victor clearly doesn’t understand. He saw Yuuri being nervous and decided that the best way to help would be jumping in to support him, many times literally. We see the first case of this in episode 3 at the Onsen on Ice.

It begins with us seeing both of them interacting with the cameras separately. Yuuri stutters a bit and is nervous, falling back on a practiced speech about his hometown (or more notably, not about himself). Victor, on the other hand, goes all out with a costume and is overjoyed to talk on camera -- even going so far as to forget about why he was out there in the first place.

But once you get them both on the same camera, we get to see them interact with each other in front of the media for the first time. In this case, it’s after Yuuri wins the Onsen on Ice and is standing up on the podium with Victor. This moment also begins a pattern for the two of them. Yuuri gets slightly nervous and Victor jumps in to “save” him.

This first moment might have set the precedent but it’s actually really tame compared to the following examples. In episode 3 Victor provides a silent support. He doesn’t actually say anything and lets Yuuri handle himself.

In contrast, the next time we see them dealing with the media together is in episode 5. Victor doesn’t even let Yuuri answer the question about his own skating plans, deciding just to answer for him. And you can tell this wasn’t pre-planned because Yuuri immediately shuts him down for what he chooses to say.

We see Victor do this multiple times in just this episode. Although he lets Yuuri deal with his fans on his own (Minami for example), he gets into the habit of trying to “protect” Yuuri from the rest of the media and will physically jump in front of Yuuri when he’s getting interviewed or answer questions for him. He even goes so far as to give Yuuri a back hug and gives him his advice directly in his ear before his short program knowing that all the cameras are trained on them. Even the times he doesn’t jump in he’s still close at hand such as during Yuuri’s post-SP interview.

And then up comes the press conference in which he physically can’t do any of that. I’m positive that Victor was itching in his seat back in Hasetsu to jump in and give his “aid”, as unwanted as it would have been, and that he ultimately came away with the conclusion that “see what happens when you try and talk in front of the cameras without me?” (for various reasons).

Skipping forward a month, we see them next at the Cup of China. The first time we see the two together here, we actually get something interesting in regards to how they individually handle the media even though they’re both in the same shot. Yuuri gets thrown by a question he didn’t expect (“how strong is my power of love?”) and Victor is hyper and distractible, asking Yuuri about going for food in the middle of the interview.

The only real thing to note here is just how Yuuri reacts to questions he doesn’t expect—that is, he doesn’t. So in a way you could even see Victor excited off-topic question as another attempted “save” although I doubt it was intentional this time.

Victor, however, returns to enjoying the camera attention at the kiss & cry as well as continuing to either jump in front of Yuuri (ep 7 post-skate interview) or comment from the background (ep 6 post-event interview). And of course we can’t leave out his tackle kiss on international TV.

But then something changes at the Rostelecom Cup, and I’m not talking about Victor leaving to go back to Japan before the free skate. 

We see him in an interview at the beginning of the event attempting to actually move the attention away from himself and towards Yuuri. While the words make sense for how far he is in his character development, we then get to see how he follows that up. Victor is then seen basking in the attention of his fans at the stadium before Yuuri yanks him “down to his level” and tells him the performance has already begun.

This is the moment that marks a definite shift in how Victor interacts with the media in regards to when he is on camera with Yuuri whether that be during interviews or at the kiss & cry. The next time we see the two of them, Victor is kissing Yuuri’s skate in a gesture that seems to say “I am stepping down off my pedestal and passing the reigns of media attention off to Yuuri, just as I said I would, so please focus on him. He’s the real star here”.

Going into the final 2 episodes, their interactions with the media have noticeably changed. Victor no longer jumps in front of the camera. He no longer waves and makes heart shapes at the kiss & cry. He becomes a silent supporter for Yuuri or is just straight up absent such as during the post-skate interviews.

I actually feel that this speaks a lot to his character development in multiple regards.

Victor’s focus has changed. Whether he realizes it or not, he stopped thinking about any kind of attention being targeted towards himself and instead has started redirecting that attention to Yuuri. It’s no longer about him on either a conscious or subconscious level. And I think this moment illustrates this point perfectly:

Before we end this analysis, however, we need to take a look at the post-skate interviews for the GPF. Victor is absent in both and we as viewers know that it’s because he has other things going on (concerning, respectively, his grief and then his return to skating). I would like take a second to revisit these moments, however, to look at these disappearances from a slightly different angle.

I mentioned back at the start that Victor jumping in front of the cameras or answering questions for Yuuri was done in a misplaced desire to “protect” Yuuri from them or as a way to support him. At the end of the day that desire came down to one simple fact: he didn’t trust Yuuri to handle himself in front of the media without his support. Whether that be because of the knowledge that Yuuri gets nervous confronting situations where he doesn’t have complete control or because Victor himself is more comfortable taking the reigns in regards to media interaction as a whole, it still boiled down to the same thing.

But comparing where we started in episode 1 to the GPF, as well as the drastic shift in episode 8, I feel like we can truly get a sense of the scope of the journey Victor went through in those 9 months since he flew to Hasetsu. The ultimate reason, not the “why” he left Yuuri to deal with the media alone but the fact that that happened in the first place, is because he trusts Yuuri. He trusts Yuuri to be able to handle himself. He now has the confidence that Yuuri will be okay even if he’s not standing at the ready to jump in front of him if a question gets thrown that Yuuri isn’t completely prepared to answer.

And I feel that more than anything, it ties back into a line we hear Victor say to Yuuri within his first month in Hasetsu because while it may have been Victor’s goal to make Yuuri feel confident about himself, he definitely picked some of it up along the way.

[radishsnakes-moved]

1) Sorry if I came off as rude or attacking you, that wasn't my intention, but I just think that calling shinoyama 'queerbating' is simply not correct. Yamagi's feelings for Shino were hinted at as soon as in ep 4 of s1, when he outright asked if Shino liked girls - girls specifically (why would he be interested in Shino's orientation if he wasn't intersted in him personally in the romantic sense?), then were made clear in ep. 7 with the heart grab scene and then further reinforced later on, by

2) showing Yamagi's evident disdain/jealousy every time Shino mentions girls etc. It was very obvious from the beginning that Yamagi is gay for Shino, so the only question left was whether Shino would ever find about Yamagi's feelings and reciprocate, to which episodes 45/46 gave us an answer. The 'let's drink till morning, the two of us' WAS, in fact, Shino's explicitly asking Yamagi out romantically. It just couldn't have been anything else in that context, when we know for a fact that Shino

3) does consider going out for drinks, two people only, as romantic (again, the AkiLafter scene in ep. 41, and Shino's 'don't you know what that is? go with her alone'). And then there's Yamagi's reaction - the wide eyes and the 'quit joking around, you don't even know how I feel' (plus his confusion about 'how Shino felt' later on when he talks to Eugene) which made it clear that's exactly the way it felt to Yamagi as well - as a date invitation, except he couldn't know back then that Shino was

4) serious. But Shino WAS serious - the fact that he grabbed Yamagi's hair out of his face to look him straight in the eyes before asking him out was a clear indicator of how serious he was. He wouldn't have given Yamagi false hopes otherwise, while being perfectly aware of Yamagi's feelings for him. And it's not only that, the entirety of Shino's body language towards Yamagi in all their scenes together in ep 45, his fond expressions, the looks and the smiles that we'd never seen on him

5) before that, the gentle tone of his voice, him calling Yamagi scary with evident fondness (it's actually a common motive in anime, to reveal that a manly man may not be afraid of enemies, war etc. but he's always afraid of his spouse), everything about those scenes screamed that Shino knew about Yamagi's feelings even before the big reveal and was totally on board with them. Ep 46 basically confirmed what was already obvious, that in the end, they both had romantic feelings for each other

6) and had Shino not died, they'd have ended up together eventually. They're basically as canon as an IBO couple can get and their not getting a happy ending doesn't make them any less canon (technically there's still a chance Shino could turn out to be alive, as they literally went out of their way to not show us his body). As for the other potentially queerbaiting couples, I don't think that orumika, gaeein or makugae are meant to be interpreted as romantic (even though I ship all three).

7) As for Aston/Takaki, in their case I do interpret them as romantic without a shred of doubt in my mind; after all, there was a canon blushing and Aston promising to protect Takaki and his happiness was a clear-cut romantic trope, and they just seem like your typical Gundam couple, but I guess it was probably too early to establish that explicitly in canon, as Aston was most likely not ready yet to realize what his feelings for Takaki really were. Anyway, they fit into the pattern of s2's

8) policy of killing romantic couples off (followed by Naze/Amida, akilafter and shinoyama, and maybe Mika/Atra/Kudelia in the nearest future). But that's just Gundam for you, to destroy a love before it has a chance to bloom. It doesn't really qualify as queerbaiting to me, as they do this to hetero couples just as much. As for Gundam 00, I don't think that anything has been confirmed when it comes to characters' sexualities and such, but it was easy to figure out from the context. I've seen

9) a post in the general tags listing all the characters considered to be LGBTQA, so, from the top of my head - most of the named innovades are gender-neutral, from what I've gathered, with the exeption of Anew and Ribbons, I guess? The situation with Tieria is more tricky than that, though, as it's been made clear in the show that he identifies as a man, and that's how basically everyone sees and treats him; it's been also said a few times in the show that only men can be Gundam pilots and

10) I think it's about the physical build rather than how someone identifies (thus the theory about Nena Trinity being, in fact , an actual trans-girls; I've read it once on tumblr and it made a lot of sense within the story, but I can't find the post anyomre; I guess the blog has been deactivated), but then the official materias list Tieria as gender-neutral too, so it's really hard to tell, especially given the fact that Tieria has the means to produce spare bodies for himself and probably

11) decide their gender as well? So yeah, the whole situatuon with Tieria is as unclear as it can be, but one thing clear is that he identifies as a man in canon and is canonically in love with another man (Neil) even if he can't classify those feelings yet (as his letter to Lockon would suggest). I think it's safe to say that Lockon is bi; he says something about being nice to women in the show once and he clearly feels something special for Tiera (that even Feldt has noticed) and calls him

12) cute etc. I think it's safe to say Lyle is bi as well, as he literally hits on Tieria in the beginning (only to be immediately shot down, because there's already one Lockon in Tieria's heart). Setsuna is pretty much considered to be asexual (but not necessarily as aromantic, as he clearly feels something for Feldt in the movie). Alejandro Corner is gay; he's explicitly shown to be sleeping with Ribbons in the Special Edition compilation movies. There could be more, but it's hard to remember

13) everything on the spot (I should try to look fot that masterpost in the tags; hope it's still there). As for other Gundam gay couples I personally consider canon, there's Trowa/Quatre from Gundam Wing and Dearka/Yzak from Gundam Seed. Oh God, this turned out so damn long and now I'm feeling bad for bothering you and making you read all this, but those Gundam discussions are always so compelling (hope tumblr doesn't eat any of the messages; I had them saved just in case though).

Don’t worry about it; I’m always happy to discuss Gundam! Admittedly, I don’t get as heavily into Gundam as I’d like to; 00 is my favorite series, but I’ve only seen the main 50 episodes, not the movie(s). As for other Gundam series, I’ve only watched the original, Unicorn, about 1/4 of Wing, a tiny bit of Age and Reco, IBO, BF, BFT, and F91 (IBO and 00 being my favorites of what I’ve watched). I’m going to try and address every point in this, feel free to shoot another message if I miss anything important!

Admittedly, in the beginning I didn’t pay attention to IBO while I was watching. I tend to have a one-track mind when it comes to anime I like, and when I’m obsessed with one, I usually can’t bring myself to care about another, so I didn’t pick up a lot of things.

ShinoYama is, in my opinion, the least queerbaity ship in the entire Gundam franchise; I’d go as far as to say it’s completely canon, and honestly, I feel like it’s the closest we’ve gotten to a gay ship being treated exactly the same as a het ship. Yamagi obviously had romantic feelings for Shino, and Shino didn’t seem to consider it out of the question. Had he survived, I actually think they might have gone canon. Sorry if it came across as me dismissing ShinoYama as queerbaiting; I think they’re the closest we’ll ever get to representation!

It could be me caving to heteronormativity, but I feel like AkiLafter was made more explicit than ShinoYama in the “he’s being asked out on a date” department. It was handled similarly, but I still get a different vibe from it. I could be wrong, though!

Body language and wording are always a part of ships in series like this. And I feel like they were all leaning towards romantic in ShinoYama; they were heavily implied to like each other romantically. But again, it’s always just implied. None of the explicit kissing and “I love you”s that you get with things like Lyle/Anew and Naze/Amida.

I abandoned MakuGae pretty early on once Ein was introduced, so I don’t know a lot about what hints may have been dropped. And Ein and Gaelio weren’t around each other long enough for anything to be solidified. Orga and Mika, however, I feel are at least slightly indicated to have feelings for each other; it may be completely platonic, but there is such a strong emphasis on all the times that they hold hands, if one of them had been female it would have automatically been considered to be canon, even with the MikaKuuAto situation going on; which I could talk about for a long time, but in short, it’s pretty much canon, though with the KuuAto being a bit more subtle than MikaKuu or MikaAto (I am acutely aware of how Kuudelia said she loves Atra, though; that’s not something I can overlook, I’m just comparing it to the explicit MikaKuu kiss and Atra’s request to “have babies with” Mikazuki). MikaKuuAto is an entirely different subject that I’ll save for another post.

Aston and Takaki were very much hinted to be romantic. All the tropes were there, all that was missing was explicit confirmation; and there’s not a doubt in my mind that we would have gotten that had they been a straight couple. My issue with all of this, if you can call it that, is that the het ships are always made more explicit than the gay ones, however “canon” the gay ones may be. The only problem in my mind is that so many het couples have been made concretely canon, while the only gay one we’ve gotten is ShinoYama. And though there’s an equal amount of killing off between them, you’re still left with more living het couples than gay ones. Equal killing of love interests is like the difference between equality and equity; if you take an equal amount from someone with everything and someone with almost nothing, that’s technically “equal”, but the person with less inherently loses so much more than the person with everything.

I admit it’s been a while since I’ve watched 00, so I don’t remember much about it. Nena being trans isn’t something I ever picked up on, so it could have been made more clear. I definitely headcanon most of the Innovades as some form of nonbinary, but I always based “canon” for that around what pronouns are used for the characters; and in all of their cases, it was always he/him or she/her. With Tieria, it was mostly a headcanon spawned from the episode where he crossdressed to infiltrate that party, and how easily the female form and voice came to him; hell, on Wikipedia’s “List of transgender characters in media”, Tieria is listed there. Later in Season 2, though, he’s portrayed as being a cis male, so that somewhat threw my headcanon of him being a trans boy out of the window. I also heavily headcanon Regene and Revive as trans boys, though solely because of their voices. Really, though, the pairs like Regene and Tieria or Anew and Revive; they’ve been stated to share the exact same genes, so in same-gender pairings, neither or both of them are trans, and in different-gender pairings, one of them has to be trans.

I do think it’s implied that Tieria loved Neil, but again, it was never made as painfully explicit as things like Chris and Lichty, Anew and Lyle, Naze and Amida, etc etc. Tieria obviously cared a lot for Neil, and never really got over his death; but I still feel that it was never made as clear as those other ships whether the feelings were platonic or romantic.

As I never saw the movies, I didn’t know about the thing with Alejandro and Ribbons; if that’s a thing that happened, then I definitely have to see the movies. And though I never fully watched Wing, I did pick up on something between Trowa and Quatre, but still; Never hinted at as much as Heero and Relena.

Wow, my response ended up almost as long as your questions. You don’t have to worry about bothering me; I very much enjoy talking about Gundam! If I missed any points you made, don’t be afraid to send me another message~

[abbeywilliams101]

My Most Anticipated Music Releases for 2017

I have a good feeling about 2017 when it comes to music. Almost all of my favorite bands haven’t put anything out recently, which means 2017 is most likely their year. I spent the first couple weeks of the new year thinking about all the releases I just cannot wait for so I could compile them into this article.  Here are 10 of my most anticipated releases for this year:

1)     All Time Low: (rumored, but probably happening) This is probably my most anticipated release of all, even if we have almost no information. It’s been nearly 2 years since their last album “Future Hearts” came out and the lack of new music from them is killing me. I know they were in the studio a lot for the second half of 2016 and they haven’t played in Denver since 2015, so a girl can only hope that they have an album waiting for us. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m sure I’ll love it because, well, it’s All Time Low.

2)      Neck Deep: (rumored) Once again, I am unsure as to whether or not this band full of powerful pop-punk anthems will release anything, but I’ve seen plenty of rumors about it all over Twitter. I’ve also seen some Instagram posts and Snapchats of them in the studio so it has to be coming sometime soon, right? I love these guys so much and they haven’t been on tour in a minute, so hopefully that means they’re spending their down time making new music and planning a tour before. I’ll be waiting patiently for new information in the meantime.

3)      Halsey: (sometime in 2017) As I sit here and type this up, Halsey announced on Twitter that she will be on the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. Obviously, we are getting a new song in a matter of days, but an album is still not being discussed too much. She said at the end of her Badlands Second Installment tour that she would “see us in the Garden” and that it would be in 2017. I’ve been refreshing Twitter like a madwoman in hopes she’d have more clues for us. I do know she has been in the studio despite her battle with Endometriosis that just required she have surgery, so I’m hoping that once she recovers she will have a release date set. Until then, you can find me playing her new track for Fifty Shades over and over again because we all know it’s going to be amazing.

4)      Pvris: (rumored) Pvris have also been in the studio writing again for what we assume is this year, but they haven’t given us much to go on either. (Are you sensing a pattern?) Lynn Gunn, the band’s lead singer, has been talking about how good their new tracks have been as she’s recording, so the projected release time has to be right around the corner. I know this band is going to kill it either way, so I’m very excited for this sophomore album.

5)      The Maine: (VERY SOON, I hope.) The Maine have been ever so kind to take us along on their journey for album 6, with a documentary series called Miserable Youth on YouTube as well as frequent updates on Twitter and Instagram. We know that the album is done and ready for release, but they have yet to give us any name of the album or when we’ll actually be able to buy it. It’s absolute torture because I have been wanting this album since Warped Tour last summer. According to the band, it’s a mix of Forever Halloween and American Candy, which are my two favorite albums. With that in mind, you probably know that I am a distraught mess not knowing when I’ll be able to get my hands on this album and find out what this combination sounds like. I pray that within the next month I’ll know the plan for this release or own it already. (Let’s hope for the latter.)

6)      LANY: (This year for sure) When I went to the Kinda tour date in Denver back in October, I preordered LANY’s debut album at their merch table. The preorder is for 2017 and the “Zine” it came with said it would be out at some point this year. Again, social media has been so helpful in showing us that they have been in the studio, so it’s definitely in the works. I’m predicting the album drops this summer, maybe even early fall, judging by the progress I’m seeing from the band. Regardless, I cannot wait for this album because it’s their first one ever. I’ve listened to their EP’s countless times and if their new stuff is at least similar to what they have out already, I’m going to be one happy girl.

7)      Knuckle Puck: (Soon?) I’m honestly so unsure of what’s happening in Knuckle Puck’s world right now. I know they’ve been in the studio and I know they have plans for a release this year but that’s all I have. I loved Copacetic so much, so I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. I love this band so much and I know they’re going to nail it no matter what.

8)      Broadside: (March or April) According to Alternative Press, Broadside will have an album for us very soon and I am so ready. They’re a band I just got into, but I already want more. “Old Bones” was such a good album to debut, I hope their second album continues on this path. It’s so classic in terms of pop-punk and their lyrics are so strong. This album will be a huge success for this band, I can feel it.

9)      Hey Violet: (Spring) I’ll be honest; Hey Violet was a band that I didn’t like at all at first. But, when they released “Brand New Moves”, the band’s second EP, it really showed their maturity as a band and I like it a lot. I’m stoked to hear their debut album if they have plans for it to sound like “Brand New Moves” because it’s perfectly fun and with that catchy alt-pop sound. I hope that they release this album very soon, because the more I think about it, the more excited I am to see what they come up with.

10)   Paramore: (we don’t know but we are STOKED) For my final pick, I give you Paramore. This band was the one that opened my eyes up to the world that is pop-punk & Hayley Williams was my hero in junior high. Paramore brought me to All Time Low, which brought me to State Champs, which brought me to Neck Deep, etc., etc. To hear and see Hayley in the studio made me so happy I almost cried. It’s been so long since Paramore has released anything and I honestly thought the band was retired. We have no idea as to when this release could happen, as it is literally just a rumor but I hope that it’s soon because I’m in desperate need of some new P-more.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

AND SO HACKERS, LIKE PAINTERS, MUST HAVE EMPATHY TO DO REALLY GREAT WORK

And that's why startups thrive in startup hubs like Silicon Valley? Instead of thinking of most places as being sprayed with the antidote. Instead it does y.1 When my IBM Thinkpad's hard disk died soon after, it became my only laptop.2 Measured by traffic, Reddit is much more successful than Hacker News. Quite small, but important out of proportion to its size. What a disaster that would be, to attract thousands of smart people to a site that kills submissions provide a way for users to see what got killed if they want to do it more. Usually a startup is that you get less dilution. A string of rich neighborhoods runs along the crest of the Santa Cruz mountains.

The main reason I don't like it is that there's no such thing.3 No, it turns out, we're not even the center of things is difficult to discard.4 They'll all lose their jobs eventually, along with all the time they expended on this doomed company. That, it turned out, was no coincidence.5 It falls between what and how: architects decide what to do, and engineers figure out how to do it more. The influence of fashion is not nearly so great in hacking as it is in painting.6 This was a mistake.7 A round to a startup we'd seed funded. This of course gave empathy a bad name, and I still occasionally get lost. The reason was that we discovered we were using an n² algorithm, and we haven't yet evolved ways to protect ourselves from them.

It's hard to say exactly what it is about face to face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn't yet been duplicated by technology. Not because they contribute more to the startup, but simply because they're least willing to move. Mean people are more likely to know they're being mean than stupid people are to know they're being stupid.8 They're about as hardcore OS hackers as you can imagine, produces wild oscillations in the stock price of a startup hub, you need a lot of people interested in the startup if the rival VC didn't end up making an offer, and they tend to be short. It's very much worth seeing inside if you can, try to avoid the worst pitfalls of consulting. Over and over we see the same pattern.9 They learn to hack by taking college courses in programming. They'll invest in you if you're a hacker, here's a thought experiment you can run to understand why there are basically no hacker VCs: How would you like a job where you never got to make anything, but instead spent all your time listening to other people pitch mostly terrible projects, deciding whether to fund them, and above all, be malleable. But hacking can certainly be more than just deciding how to implement some spec.10 Both components of the antidote—an environment that encourages startups, and most of the initial sales of the Apple II came from people who bought one to run VisiCalc. Control of a company is doing well, investors will want founders to turn down most acquisition offers. If one top-tier VC firm started to do series A rounds for as much equity as founders want to sell and with no option pool that comes only from the founders' shares stands to reap huge benefits.

Google looked a lot like a charity in the beginning. And practically all startups, even the most successful startups got started. Silicon Valley proper is mostly suburban sprawl.11 Bad comments seem to be a deal; everyone acts like they have a significant amount of money, and another for love. Then dumb threads would grow slower. What makes Google so valuable is that their users have money. It's that death is the default for startups, and chance meetings with people who help you—are driven by the same underlying cause: the number of startup people around you care about what you're doing. I was working on spam filters I thought it would be a fine idea if people actually did write programs the way they taught me to in college.12 It will work not just as a statement of values, but as a guide to strategy, and even a design spec for software.13 These companies may be far from failures by ordinary standards.

Notes

Seneca Ep. That companies will naturally wonder, how little autonomy one would have seemed shocking for a couple years.

In every other respect they're constantly being told that Microsoft discourages employees from contributing to open-source browser would cause HTTP and HTML to continue to maltreat people who lost were us. The US News list?

Whereas when you're starting a startup to become more stratified. N teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 3n teaspoons ground cumin n cups dry rice, preferably brown Robert Morris wrote the editor written in C, and you need to get the bugs out of a silver mine. I realize revenue and not least, the only result is that Steve Wozniak started out by a central authority according to some abstract notion of fairness or randomly, in the US in 2002 was 35,560. We didn't let him off, either as an adult.

It's one of the word programmers care about, like hedge funds, are better college candidates. You could also degenerate from uppercase to any-case, 20th century cohesion would have started to give their associates the title partner, not you. For example, would probably find it was worth 8,000 or a blog on the critical question is to seem big that they will come at an academic talk might appreciate a joke, they have to find someone else to lend to, the world, and there didn't seem to understand about startups. Enterprise software sold through traditional channels is very high, and the restrictions on what interests you most.

The main one was nothing special.

Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. But it's a departure from the DMV. According to the principle that declarations except those of popular Web browsers, including that Florence was then the richest country in the mid 1980s. There are still expensive to start a startup enough to turn into them.

With the good ones, it could become a function of the money, in the process of selling things to the problem, but this disappointment is mostly evidence that the overall prior ratio seemed worthless as a cause.

Success here is that you can control.

You can just start from the truth to say yet how much you get an intro to a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school.

A rolling close usually prevents this. This has already happened once in China, Yale University Press, 2005.

As I explained in How to Make Wealth in Hackers Painters, what that means service companies are up-front capital intensive to founders would actually increase the size of a cent per spam.

I have no way to find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, the airplane, the average employee.

Not surprisingly, these are even worth thinking about for the correction. In Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. If you want to impress are not written by the Corporate Library, the space of careers does. The image shows us, they are at least one beneficial feature: it might be a hot startup.

[awwishfulthinking]

Houshin Engi 100 Questions!

There are SPOILERS!

I did this seven years ago (my god...) but I’m re-doing this because I can.

1. What is your name? My online nickname is Ariana. 2. When did you get into Houshin Engi? Around when I started university. So around 8 or 9 years ago.

3. Did you read it in Weekly Jump magazine? Or the tankoubons? Or both? I read the scanlations by SnoopyCool. 4. Do you own all 23 volumes? Sadly, no. But I hope I have the space/money to obtain them someday. (They’re actually on sale for a good price at Book Off, I just don’t have the space atm) 5. Do you own Houshin Taizen? No. 6. Do you have the special Houshin Taizen that came with Akamaru Jump? I wish. But no, I do not. 7.Do you want a Houshin Taizen 2 to come out? Yes! 8. Did you watch the anime? I’ve watched the 1990s anime all the way through at least once; I’m currently watching the remake it’s not great 9. Did you tape record it? I burned all the subbed episodes of the 1990s anime on five dvds... Felt bad about it and recently bought a complete series, official DVD set. I’ll likely buy the complete series DVD set for the remake as well because I love HE that much even though the anime remake is kind of. Eh. 10. Give your honest opinion on the last episode. To be honest the second half of the old 1990s anime has been nearly completely wiped from my memory. I don’t know how I feel about the remake’s last ep as it hasn’t aired yet, but I’m praying it provides some decent closure. 11. Do you own mp3s of the opening and ending songs? Yes.

12. Do you buy the soundtrack albums? No. I really should, shouldn’t I... 13. If you answered ‘yes’ to #12, what is your favourIte track? N/A 14. What Houshin Engi merchandise do you own? Unofficial merch: Like 12 doujins. Official Merch: A bunch of acrylic keychains, and hopefully that Taikoubou prize figure, the nendoroid, and the mini plush doll.

15. Have you ever bought any of the Senkaiden games? I have the Senkaiden ni II game for wonderswan (downloaded). 16. If you answered ‘yes’ to #15, which ones have you bought? refer to answer above 18. Could you name all the characters in Houshin Engi? I don’t think I’d ever be able to remember everyone’s names. 19. Favourite male character(s)? Taikoubou, Taiitsu, Gyokutei, Tenka. And far too many others but those are my usual top faves. 20. Favourite female character(s)? Yuukyou, Sengyoku, Ryuukitsu Koshuu, and Ko Kibi! (This answer hasn’t changed at all in the past 7 years lol) 21. Which is your favourite Taikoubou outfit? I used to like his post-Chou Koumei arc outfit, but now I think I prefer his original outfit slightly more. The post-Chou Koumei outfit seems a little... too much to me now. The gloves on that outfit really annoy me for some reason. 22. Your opinion on Youzen’s outfit during the fight against Jyoka? It’s fitting. 23. Your opinion on Fugen’s shoulder-revealing shirt? how does it stay on??? 24. Have you ever imitated Dakki’s speech pattern? Nah, I don’t really like faux-cutesy speech patterns. 25. If you could transform like Youzen, who would you turn into and what would you do? I honestly don’t know... lol 26. Which act/chapter is your favourite? The Chou Koumei battleship arc still remains one of my favorite arcs to this day. 27. Which anime episode is your favourite? For the 1990s anime: The one where Taikoubou fights Raishinshi using the drunken fist technique. For the remake: Episode 10... it’s painful but it’s probably the best episode of the remake so far. 28. Which volume cover is your favourite? Of the fancy tankoubons, the last two volumes. 29. Which title — be it volume title, chapter title, or episode title — is your favourite? I don’t pay attention to them enough lol... 30. Have you ever cried while reading Houshin Engi? No, but some parts of the manga did make me feel emotionally drained. 31. Do you still buy the calendars? I kind of want one but eh, I can live without them. 32. If you answered ‘yes’ to #31, do you keep the old ones up? refer to answer above 33. What is your favourite quote, and who said it? “Let’s go flying to the land of rainbows on my ferrari!” —Doukouson. (my answer still hasn’t changed lol) 34. Do you have a favourite romantic pairing? Ko Hiko x Kashi. (He loved her so much...) 35. Say anything you want about that favourite pairing? Out of the (very few) confirmed romantic pairings in HE, I just love that Ko Hiko is portrayed as a man who loves his wife that deeply (and that she loved him that deeply as well). 36. Why are you into that pairing? refer to answer above 37. Have you thought of a perfect song for that pairing? What song, and by whom? I’m not really the type to think up pairing songs... 38. Which houshined character do you want resurrected? *slams fists on table* All the Juunisen members and also Tenka.

39. Which character made you think “I’m glad s/he wasn’t houshined!”? Taiitsu. And Bukichi. 40. Which of the Konron 12 would you like to be scouted by? Taiitsu would definitely be the most “fun” to have as a teacher. Fugen or Kuryuson (Dokouson’s master) would also be good because they both seem pretty nice and laid-back. Also Gyokutei because he’d be a good teacher (I can’t believe I initially forgot about him orz) 41. What are your reasons? refer to answer above 42. Suupuushan, Kokutenko, Kokukirin. Who would you want to ride? Suupuu! He would be the best conversational partner.

43. Do you have any friends who like Houshin Engi? Thank god for the HE discord group. 44. Who’s your favourite Jyuttenkun? Kinkouseiba! Her design is A+ 45. Did you like “Ennui Academy”? It was good as a gag; but honestly, if this was an actual manga series and not just a three-page gag it’d probably be kind of insufferable. 46. What’s your favourite non-romantic pairing? Bukichi and Suupu’s friendship in the latter part of the series is adorable. 47. Which do you like better; the Dakki Sisters or the Beautiful Sisters (Venus and Co.)? The Beautiful Sisters! 48. Do you want Roushi’s suit? Sure. It seems useful. 49. Name one paopei you want. I’d love to have a mini-version of the Zansanken (Gyokutei’s sword) if only to chop up ingredients quickly. Also, Youzen’s Koutenken because... how could you turn down a fluffy, giant white dog that you can pet and also use to attack people with if necessary? 50. What would you use it for? refer to answer above 

  51. Who is the strongest character, in your opinion? Fukki. 52. What is your reason? He freaking beat up Jyoka, who was the strongest being in the HE universe. Do I need to state any other reason? 53. Which character makes you go, “I’ll never forgive him/her!!”? Outenkun 54. What colour do you like on Taikoubou’s hair? Black. 55. Name a master-disciple combo you like. Gyokutei and Youzen. 58. Which is your favourite splash page? The one of Fukki under the waterfall. 59. Taikoubou + Outenkun = Fukki. Did you easily accept this fact? I was spoiled but yeah. Sure. 60. Did the entrance of Fukki affect your opinion on Houshin Engi? No, although tbh I’m still ambivalent about Fukki’s entire existence. 61. Do you think of Taikoubou, Fukki, and Outenkun as three seperate people? Yes. 62. Where on Taikoubou’s body do you think Outenkun’s paopei’s mark appeared? I know this question was asked for all the perverted minds out there. I’m just gonna say it was probably on his hand. 63. Who would you want to be houshined by? I would rather not die if I could, thanks. 64. Who would do you want to houshin? Ryogaku; he’s the one that deserved it the most. 65. Which of Dakki’s many outfits is your favourite? It’s been 7 years and I still like her retro-space outfit (reference to Space Channel 5) outfit the most. 66. Is Venus scary? Only if you get on her bad side. 67. Which paopei made you go, “That’s terrible!!”? Rikukonhan. I think it’s pretty much unanimous. 68. What is the colour of Chibi Youzen’s horns? Gray. (I think that’s what they are in the anime?) 69. What cup size is Dakki? C. Any bigger would be kind of ridiculous. 70. Who’s your favourite Colourful Trio sennin? Taiitsu! 71. Your opinion on the brand new sennin world? It’s fitting for Taikoubou’s ideal of what a senin world would be (no interference in the human world) 72. What is Fukki’s hair colour in act 201? White. 73. Ask yourself a question concerning Houshin Engi. What does this question even mean 74. Your response to that question? ???? 75. In your opinion, is Nentou in love with his half sister? Probably 76. Did the Sennin World War leave a deep mark on your heart? The page where Taikoubou cries has still got to be the most hard-hitting two page spread I have ever seen in my life. 77. Do you own any Houshin Engi doujinshis? Yeah, I have about a dozen because I have a serious problem 78. Kichiku, hentai, yaoi, shounen-ai, general. Which doujinshi genre do you have the most of? I have the most shounen ai doujins, but I really prefer gag doujins. 79. Do you make Houshin Engi doujins? I wish I could, but sadly I can’t draw. 80. If you answered ‘yes’ to #79, do you make doujins about couples? refer to answer above 81. If you answered ‘yes’ to #79, the amount of Houshin Engi doujinshi circles is decreasing, but do you intend to continue yours? refer to answer above 82. Who’s the easiest character to draw? Taikoubou’s alien form (lol) 83. Who’s the hardest character to draw? As much as I like Taikoubou, he looks like an absolute pain to draw. I like his outfit design, but it is kind of a mess. 84. Have you ever done Houshin Engi cosplay? No, because everyone’s outfits are so complicated it looks like it’d be hard.

85. If you answered ‘yes’ to #84, who have you cosplayed? refer to answer above 86. Does your website mainly have Houshin Engi in it? I don’t have a personal website lmao 87. Is there a Houshin Engi fan you can’t forgive? Who and why? ...no comment. 88. What is Hanyoutai Youzen’s colour scheme? whatever it was in the remake 89. If Nataku were to give you a ride, where would you want to go? let’s be real he’d probably kill me before I even had the chance to do that.

90. Which of Choukei’s outfits is the best? His Jyoka arc outfit is nice.

91. Say anything about the most memorable scene in Houshin Engi. ouch my feelings 92. What do you think of the ending to Houshin Engi? Probably one of the more satisfying endings out there for a series. 93. Have you imagined what happens after the series’ end? It’s pretty much like what happens in the Senkaiden Ni II game I guess. 94. If you answered ‘yes’ to #93, give more detail. http://s2he-game.livejournal.com/ (angry that my walkthrough pictures no longer work thanks photobucket) 95. Have you read Parallel World Houshin Engi? Yes 96. Do you own “Dramatic Irony”? No. 97. The series has ended, but is your love for the series still going strong? My obsession with the series definitely comes and goes... but I think this is a series I will always be a fan of no matter how old I get. 98. Do you really think Fukki has nothing left to do in the end? let the lazy bum be lazy. He deserves the retirement. 99. Say anything you want about Fujiryuu. I don’t always understand your character design choices but I love your story-telling. 100. Any last words? please let there be new HE content forever thanks