#and I am baffled how some of the actors are supporting him

[tuttle-did-it]

@nosolaceofastraightanswer - saw your previous note in tag. You don't need to make a new post if you're worried about bothering me with your post. EVERYTHING you have added here is important and deserves to be seen. And I enjoyed reading your comments.

Blackman obliterated both Rita and Emmy's characters. Everything you've added above makes absolute sense. I'm not sure which woman he was retaliating against, but the more I rewatch the show, the more I wonder if he was retaliating against EVERYONE. Especially the women of colour in the show (and the writers who were just trying to give authenticity and consideration to their story-arcs.

He made Allison cross line after line in the previous season, made all the fans hate her by making her sexually assault Luther, betray everyone, kill Harlan and generally just be a ball of hatred to everyone and everything the entire season 3.

And then with season 4, they deprived her of any progress to move past that role, and erased Ray without a word. She did almost nothing of substance in this season except be there to cause tension between the other characters. The ONLY scene that showed her in an important scene was a CUT scene embracing Klaus when he's at an alcoholic support meeting.

Lila was criminally underused in the entire show. She became an appendage to Diego, and, like Allison, was just used to bring tension to the family and to throw in a sarcastic comment once or twice. This season, was used to help destroy not only her character, and Five, but the entire season as well. Her relationship with Five will be primarily what people remember this season, and it's so gross that Lila (and Five) have to wear that. Because it never should have happened.

Watching some of the interviews with the whole cast, it feels like several of them are trying really hard to spin it to keep a smile on. David Castañeda was clear about how he didn't approve of this final season. I hope the other actors, writers and crew feel safe speaking out about their experiences if they choose to do so. They deserve to be heard if they wish to speak out.

The more I think about these VARIED and MULTIPLE accusations against Blackman, the more I re-evaluate the entire series, and the more I can see the cracks within the entire show. And the more I have to wonder just what the fuck he was trying to accomplish this entire time with his transphobia, racism, sexism and general toxic gross behaviour.

If we don't keep these conversations going, people like this will continue to be platformed and in power. PLEASE continue the conversation here by adding more crucial context to what is happening. Please, let's recognise this fucking scumbag for what he is. Keep the conversation going. Get this piece of shit recognised for what he is.

Well. This explains a fuck of a lot, doesn't it?

A few highlights from the Rolling Stone link above:

"The sources and the HR complaint paint Blackman as a manipulative and chaotic showrunner who fostered a toxic workplace by pitting staffers against one another; creating an environment of fear and distrust; taking credit for other people’s work; and allegedly making lewd remarks that sources say they found to be sexist, homophobic, and transphobic. (Blackman’s behavior was also mentioned in two other complaints made by a writing-team member and an actress, Rolling Stone has learned.)"

“From the get-go, it was one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had in my life,” says a Season One source.

In text messages provided to HR, he wrote, “Elliot wants to come out as trans on the show. As Ivan. Oh my fucking God. Kill me now.” (Ivan is the formal name of Page’s character’s original name; the show ended up using the name Viktor instead.)

Throughout the show’s four seasons, sources claim to Rolling Stone, Blackman would make what they viewed as homophobic and transphobic comments, including juvenile and perverse commentary on individuals’ sexualities and wondering aloud about people’s anatomies. “He found it very funny, like the butt of a joke,” one says. Again, sources claim, Blackman was clever in the art of the spin, attempting to pass off inappropriate comments as harmless jokes and innocent questions.

“He could be very good at dropping something that starts to be transphobic or homophobic, like, ‘They’re a he/she,’” a second staffer says. “But then [he’ll say], ‘It’s all good, I support it. It’s awesome, live your best life.’ … He toes the line of seeing who will join in and laugh with him, and then if nobody does, really skillfully backpedals.”

Blackman would also make sexist, lewd, and disparaging comments, such as remarks about female staffers’ breast sizes and wondering aloud about their sexual proclivities, sources and the HR complaint claim.“She’s relentless,” Blackman allegedly texted one staffer about another, according to texts that were provided to HR in the complaint and reviewed by Rolling Stone. “I’m sure that’s good for certain things… but in the room it’s exhausting. But … the rack.” 

[katatonicimpression]

Hi,

Do you find that the negative way that the fandom, actors like Stan, and the writers treat the character of Sam Wilson, take away from your ability to enjoy the fandom at large?

It seems like everyone, literally everyone hates Sam Wilsons character and it sucks. How do you deal with that? sorry for the long ask.

"Everyone, literally everyone hates sam wilsons character" - well, clearly not literally everyone.

So..... let's address this in pieces. As far as coping with fandom is concerned, I do not go to spaces where normie dude bro type fans are. I don't read YouTube comments. I don't do marvel reddit. Even before twitter was fash, I didn't do fandom there. Those people are not any more "real fans" than I am, and honestly a lot of them are genuinely thick idk.

There's only so many times you can read "his real name is Clarence" in one day lbr

On tumblr, I block people who post racist or aggressively obnoxious opinions. I block liberally, it really eases the mind.

There's been a drop in his popularity on here in the last few years for a few reasons. Some bigger fans have left the platform, or moved onto other fandoms so aren't engaging with much content. There's also the known phenomenon of the popularity of black characters (and ships involving them) having distinctly less longevity than white ones (famously discussed to death around the finn/poe thing and other ships). There's also the sheer length of time it's been since tfatws, and the call from bds to boycott the upcoming film.

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The writers? This one is weird to me because in the 55 years since he was introduced, sam has had very little (as a proportion of his appearances) good writing, and when it is good it doesn't last. From the very beginning, his history is fraught and to this day the issue of many of those handling him giving zero shits about him is a self replicating problem. Complaining about sam being mishandled or underutilised is about 60% of this blog.

The beauty of comics is that they can always change, fix things and do better. Bring things back that work, and retcon things that don't. I whinge a lot, but I do firmly believe that there's good writing in Sam's past and future.

As for his writing in the mcu? Well, tfatws had issues; I liked a lot of it, but not all and had problems with how sam was handled at times. This opinion seems to be common among sam fans, even if we squabble over the details. For the earlier appearances in the mcu? They're mostly fine. It sucks shit that they took his powers away, and he's underutilised but whatever.

We don't know what the film is like. The bullshit headlines from spam farms saying "rumour: film is bad" are dumb. Theres been reshoots, but some of that is to be expected. The hulkification of what is supposed to be his movie is worrying, and I'm baffled by the decision to include sabra (although it looks as though they've tried to work around that as much as possible without removing her, which they'd face a counter backlash for*) but we genuinely have no idea if the film is well written or not, if it handles him well. We haven't seen it yet so... yeah no one can speak to its quality.

*that's not a defence, just my assumed explanation as to why she's still in the film.

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I do not know Sebastian Stan.

All I know about this is that he said he'd be excited to see Chris evans back? I don't think he said that to spite Sam or Anthony Mackie. I think he just didn't think about anything much at all. It comes across badly but hey that wouldn't be the first time... in general, stan has spoken supportively about both mackie and sam, so this seems like projection. Parasocialing too close to the sun.

If I have beef with anyone on this topic it's the interviewers. They ask irritating questions (usually in the form of hounding mackie about anyone other than his own character), and we're left with these irritating answers.

As for evans? They're probably doing stevil. I'm ambivalent about it. Maybe sam will get to showdown with him. Hopefully they don't give all the good moments to bucky.

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Maybe, mayyybeeee also consider that when there's a black led project in any nerd franchise (see The Acolyte, or Star Trek: Discovery) the narrative will emerge that it's irredeemably terrible, driven by the "anti-woke" types. Then, that backlash starts to influence the normal people too and then suddenly there's no talking about it ever because that group feel insulted when you point out how it all started.

That's not all of what's going on with sam right now, but it is absolutely a factor. I wish people would remember that people don't typically preface a racist opinion with "I'm racist and I think that..."

And this is, obviously, not the same as saying that "if you don't like this character, you're racist". Obviously not. Because, normally, when you don't like a character because you just don't really vibe with them, you just ignore them. If you can't keep their name out of your mouth, then there's clearly something up.

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For those who are planning on not paying to see the film because of bds, I support that decision and I think sam would too if he was real. I have talked about this at length before.

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So, is it hard being a sam fan? Yes and no.

I wouldn't talk about him, write him and draw him if I didn't enjoy it.

But it does mean a lot of this emotion 🙄 a lot of the time. It's probably one of the reasons my blocklist is so long. Hell, I started this blog in 2021, the era where multiple bucky fans were calling sam an abuser for using the word cyborg.

And obviously for Black fans in this space, the problems are worse. The people I know here who have received the most harassment are all Black women. I cannot speak for the experiences of Black fans, but I have a fucking heart. I have so much sympathy for those who ended up leaving the space for somewhere where they weren't forced to defend themselves every day.

So, yeah. A mixed bag. But people do like sam.

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I'm aware I've referred to star wars twice. Yes I've broken my own rule. Do not ask me followups. I do not talk about star wars on the Internet.

[technicolorfamiliar]

Technicolor Familiar Watches Too Many Conrad Veidt Movies Part 3 of ?

Part 1 // Part 2

Anders als die Andern (Different From the Others), 1919 Dir. Richard Oswald ⭐4/5 Watched Nov 15, Archive.org It really breaks my heart that so much of this film was lost and destroyed, and that the story is unfortunately still relevant 100+ years later. Maybe I don't have as much to say about this one because it's so chopped up, and because it's already been written and talked about so much. I am glad it seems to have found its proper place in literature/content about LGBTQ+ history, getting the acknowledgement it deserves. Despite already knowing so much about the movie from various books, podcasts, and documentaries, I was still very affected by the story and performances, especially towards the end. It really hit a nerve, surprisingly so. Connie's Paul is really lovely, tragic, and so sweet with Kurt.

Jew Süss, 1934 Dir. Lothar Mendes ⭐3.5/4 Watched Nov 26, Youtube There's something about the structure and the hazy, dreamy quality of the film itself that makes this seem like a fable. There are parts that are deeply upsetting and chilling despite the mediocre supporting cast. It's imperfect, but definitely did a lot more than other films to create complex and sympathetic Jewish characters in the 1930s (even if still playing on stereotypes). I'm a total sucker for 18th century opulence and fashion so I can’t complain much. And oh boy, does the 18th century suit Connie. He knows how to work the lace and silk to great affect. Some of the things he's doing as Josef are really fascinating and gut-wrenching. He's doing so much vocally, too. He's in an entirely other class compared to many actors of that era. P.S. The scenes with Josef and his mother and daughter were, uh, interesting. I have… mixed feelings.

Rome Express, 1932 Dir. Walter Forde ⭐3/5 Watched Nov 26, Youtube My expectations were pretty low for this one based on some things I'd read online, but it's a cute if slightly baffling train thriller with an ok-ish ensemble. I'm a little biased, my inner child fuckin loves trains so any train movie is at least going to be semi-enjoyable. I was so stressed the whole time about how everyone was handling that apparently very expensive painting. Connie is so extra, though. Why is Zurta eating a banana as soon as he jumps onto a moving train? Why does he hold a gun like ~that~? Why are his fingernails so long?? It's so funny seeing him next to all these tiny British actors. It may partly be how they dressed him for the role, but he makes everyone else look positively shrimpy.

All Through the Night, 1942 Dir. Vincent Sherman ⭐3/5 Watched Nov 27, Vudu Once I finally leaned into how silly this movie was, it was pretty entertaining. The dialogue alone is so stupid, but self aware of how stupid it is. And it features one of my favorite gags of all time: making up gibberish words for technical terms with complete confidence. There's a dog. (Question: Is the dog a nazi like the monkey in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Does the dog know it's complicit in war crimes??) Peter Lorre looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. Mrs. Danvers is there. Some of the visual comedy is actually pretty great -- the dog in the boat at the end when Connie is being totally deadpan serious? Hysterical. (DID THEY BLOW UP THAT DOG?) I think this was the first time I've heard Connie speak German, too.

The Spy in Black, 1939 Dir. Michael Powell ⭐3.5/5 Watched Nov 27, Youtube Interesting that the main character, the person carrying this British movie in the late 1930s, is a German U-boat captain. But wow. I'm obsessed. Hardt's entrance into the hotel? Baa-ing at the sheep? The delicious gluttony with food? Dragging the stupid motorbike up the stairs to his room? "It is evening. And I am grown up."?? We love a sexy, honor driven character like Captain Hardt. Therefore, Valerie Hobson going for the British officer seems totally unlikely and unbelievable. I think I like this movie marginally better than Dark Journey, as far as espionage films go. It's slightly more engaging (but that may be Connie and Valerie Hobson's chemistry) and the story is a little better.

[minimeowsom]

Moonlight Chicken just ended and i can't deal with it.

So i cried, not today no today i laughed and squicked mainly. But yesterday or last week, the last four weeks of Moonlight Chicken were gut wrenching sadness. And just two weeks ago I posted a Post saying I was ready to throw hands if Li Ming and Heart don't get a happy ending. I was willing to trait everybody else's happiness to make sure the babies are happy. But now I think I can't stay with that. but more on that later. 

JimWen

So I saw a very good post about people not being able to really care for JimWen because they can't relate to them. And I agree, I am , let's say, around 10 years younger than them. I didn't have to deal with the struggles they had to deal with yet, they feel genuine and tragic to me, but not relatable. This is in no way meant to discredit Earth or Mix Acting, they were really good in this, I could feel especially Jims Hurt and anger a lot. But what I am trying to say is I don't feel like I am able to say something useful about their Relationship or characters because I don't know what I would do in their situation, I will leave that to people who can. moving on.

LiMingHeart

 LiMingHeart the Heart and Light of this show, especially in the first seven episodes they were the light to everybody else's darkness.They of course both had their on set of problems and struggles do deal with, but between Li Ming feeling misunderstood and Heart not feeling heard at all, whenever they were together they were shining, loving and supporting one another. I would say as a couple i can relate to them the most, (alan is also a strong contender here but we talk about him later) I am just like one and a half years older then someone who is just finishing highschool, and i had to explain to my parents that i have no idea what i wanna do after school, and coming from an academic household that is not what they wanna hear. me going to university was always a given to them. Li Ming's main conflict with Jim revolves around a similar situation. I can feel how misunderstood he feels, especially because Fourth is an exceptional young actor, he is so good at conveying his feelings through his eyes. I am baffled every time. 

And Heart with his parents just breaks my heart every time. The way they needed some eighteen year old kid , come in and show them how to love their son is so sad. But we love to see some character development and how in the end they not only learned sign language for him, but allowed him to go to the states with Li Ming.Gemini as Heart was fantastic too, the boy had three lines in this show, so his lines were his facial expression, the way heart signed (because we didn't get subtitles for what he said either) and his body language. And Gemini made you feel it all, the happiness with Li Ming, or the anger and frustration at his parents for not trying to learn for him.  I loved their story and the way they discovered first love between them, and as I said I was ready to let everybody else suffer to make sure they stay happy…. but then someone just went straight into my heart.

AlanGaipa

Alan just struck a chord with me. Not two Weeks ago I got out of a four year Relationship my Partner ended (for me) out of nowhere and I still have him in my life, because we have the same friend circle and we don't want to break it because of our breakup. So yeah how do you deal with your partner still being there but not really being there. So from the moment we got introduced to AlanWens story I felt with him, yes he had no right to act like Wen cheated, which he didn't, but Wen didn't really help the situation by continuing to sleep with someone who was obviously desperately trying to hold on to him. But somewhere along the story I just wanted something bright in Alan's life. not just for him, but for me , someone to help us heal. And who better than a boy who has so much love to give, who needs someone that recognizes that love and is willing to give just as much love back to him. Because we know Alan gives so much to his Boyfriend, maybe a bit too much for Wen but I am sure Gaipa can take it, and respond with the same amount.

This is also very much swayed by my love for FirstKhao and everything they do. Khao is such a talented actor when it comes to his emotions and his feelings. It is the first time I cried for a TV series in my life, when I saw him breaking down in the hospital after his mother died. 

And the way First played Alan gave me the Feeling of looking in an emotional mirror, because yes i know what he feels like and how hard it is to let go of five years of love.

But in the end we got crumbs of what their flirting and future might look like and it was enough for me to fall in love with them and feel like Alan will for sure find Happiness in him and maybe just maybe a Geipa will walk into my life too. 

At first i thought for sure they wouldn't give Gaipa and Alan a story, i was sure they would just go off to heal on their own, because we had nothing after Episode 6 and normally the show takes time to develop something as big as a Relationship, but maybe that's what they tried to tell us, not every Happiness takes as long as Jim and Wen, maybe you can meet the cute chicken seller boy, get his number, and ask him on a date in a couple of days. 

Something i thought after watching yesterdays and todays Episode was that they put it in because it is FirstKhao we are talking about, their friendship and especially their success as a couple, but that is not true, they filmed Moonlight chicken while the Eclipse Premiered, before First and Khao became the “Powercouple” they are today. Like they let the scene in where First cried when Khao sang, because that is what it was, because it was not in the script, First is just a huge softie for Khao.So I am even happier about the fact that in the end even both people that were left behind by Jim and Wen found happiness in each other.

Something Else i wanted to add was a very interesting post about the color coding of the show. Alan is seen in dark and Blue colors, taking it with him wherever he goes and even putting it on other people, it shows his sadness and loneliness even more, but the moment he meets Gaipa at the Funeral he starts to glow golden like the rest of the characters in love.

And as he leaves Gaipa and the Funeral and goes to leave it comes back, we then again see him in yellow and gold again with Gaipa at the bank and the restaurant, because Gaipa brings the light slowly back in his dark world. 

Conclusion:

Honestly 10/10 would recommend, for everybody, not only BL or Drama Fans, just everybody, i am probably gonna force it on one of my movie nerd friends, just because of the Filmography and the superb acting in this series

[nottsangel]

I don’t get why people hate on people who don’t deserve it Elaine has done horrible things and pretending like she hasn’t is insane to me not only is she racist said the n word plus played Nazi vs Jew beer pong shes also made cutting her wrists jokes she’s been exposed on all social media accounts expect maybe ig actually no ig as well for being racist Pinterest showed her liking slut shaming photos and pro life photos on her she would comment on fics about jj and get mad when people would say they were uncomfortable both her and Rudy block and unadd comments about her being racist on ask.fm account she was exposed for being a bully she still acts like a mean girl also I really don’t care but what people think videos of her and Rudy that have come out looks like she’s pulling him and if you think that man doesn’t look drained asf now it’s not about thinking they have a chance with him at all cause they know they don’t it’s about how her actions effect people and all the people defending her saying treating her like a normal human we are normal people get called out all the time proof is all over social media also the whole Madison and Elaine thing that happened Elaine posted the your confused I’m fucking confused on ig then deleted it after people saw it and posted a pic pretending she was in nc then someone did the thing where you can see what day it was taken and it was taken weeks ago and Odessa is a Zionist so if these two girls are people you willing support that says more about you then then the “pick me girls” who are actually just calling them out on what they’ve done no one thinks they have a chance with any of those guys plus proof of how horrible they are is all over the internet

gonna reply under the cut. bear with me.

you obviously did not get my point. i was talking about the girls thinking they know rudy and drew and everything about their lives and think they have a say in who they date or not, acting like they’re their mothers and taking it way too far with invading their privacy.

yes, i completely agree with calling people out when they do horrible things. but acting like you’re in their inner circle saying that they’re a bad influence or ‘draining him’ like please. he is not a baby, he is a grown man. if there was something bothering him in the relationship, i’m sure he would communicate that with her like a mature person, and that’s not up to anyone else, especially not outsiders they don’t even know. i genuinely do not understand why people base their entire relationship off some videos and pics. like how do you even think that is a real representation of them

what i also don’t understand is why people are so obsessed with them. if they’ve done bad things, fine call them out and hold them accountable, but be for real, aren’t there bigger problems in your life? it just baffles me that the people saying they hate them are also the ones following them and keeping track of them 24/7 like how does that work. that’s just an obsession. move on with your life. they’re not gonna break up because some random person on the internet told them to

and please, you’ve got to admit that there are plenty of girls hating on elaine and odessa just out of jealousy. we can all see it.

also, i am not defending their actions, at all. i didn’t even know about them, actually. why? because i have better things to do than obsess over every single part of rudy and drew’s life.

all in all, there’s a difference between holding someone accountable and hating and obsessing over them. besides, drew’s and rudy’s private lives is just a line you shouldn’t cross, in my opinion. like i said, they’re actors doing their job. that does not mean their private lives are any of your business.

edit: also i dont know why you think i support them. my whole point is, why are people so obsessed with their lives. i never said i supported them or their actions, because i simply don’t care.

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)”

I enjoyed the first Black Panther film and loved Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa. I was looking forward to seeing him more in the MCU which is why his passing was heartbreaking. The sequel then had a tough choice on whether to recast T'Challa or not. Marvel Studios decided to go down the route of not recasting him which I understand but was a little disappointed by. I love the character of T'Challa and having his journey in the MCU end so prematurely was slightly saddening. Did Ryan Coogler make the right choice, or was this an unfortunate misstep?

I have to say that this is indeed one of the most emotional and mature Marvel films in a long time. The choice to have T'Challa killed off is handled with the utmost respect and care within the story. Shuri is the main central character and the emotional core is about her grief with her brother's death. The story does a phenomenal job of illustrating her emotional journey which is deep and compelling. We also get to see how other characters handle the passing such as Ramonda and their way of handling grief which is different from Shuri. I appreciated that as people do indeed handle grief differently. One issue with MCU movies lately is the overabundance of comedy. Thankfully, this movie does not do that and for the most part, is a very serious movie. The beginning and ending are wonderfully done as well and are not typical of Marvel.

It is clear that Chadwick's passing affected the actors as their performance is stunning. Letitia Wright gives a vastly different performance as Shuri that shows the pain and anger of her loss. Danai Gurira also delivers a great performance as Okoye and Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia respectively. Winston Duke returns as M'Baku and is still more or less the funny character but there are some great moments of serious from him that I love. Tenoch Huerta Mejía is the antagonist Namor, King of the underwater country Talokan, and I think he does a great job. He is fearsome and royal but his performance is quite charming with some heart. The biggest performance standout comes from Angela Bassett as Ramonda. Her performance is phenomenal! I am not surprised she got the best supporting actress because it is that good.

On that note, I really like that Talokan does not look like Atlantis from Aquaman (2019). The design is more traditional and inspired by Mesoamerican which is a great choice. Ludwig Göransson returns to compose the soundtrack and he just continues to do a brilliant job. There is a scene where it is about exploring Talokan which sticks in my mind because of the great design and the amazing music score. In terms of action scenes, there is a pretty enjoyable car chase near the beginning that I liked.

However, that is the only action scene I enjoyed. One thing this film does not do as well is the action scenes. The first issue is that there aren't a lot of action scenes and the second is that every action scene after the car chase is not entertaining. The choreography is not as well done and the final fight is just dull. The final fight is also logically baffling tactically as it felt like an incredibly silly and dumb plan. The movie just lacked a lot of triumphant moments that would make you cheer. It doesn't help that this movie is an incredibly slow burner with it taking a while for things to happen. The movie is really long at 160 minutes as well and it didn't even need to be. The movie could cut 20 minutes of its runtime and most of the core story stays the same.

In terms of story, they try to incorporate the idea of other countries going for Vibranium ever since T'Challa opened Wakanda to the world. I don't think they do a good job at this as it felt distracting from the main conflict. Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) returns from the first film and Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) returns from other Marvel projects. However, their incorporation into the plot is forced and doesn't add to the main narrative. One issue I have with Phase 4 of MCU is this running theme of kids being hunted down by bad guys. It happened in Doctor Strange 2 and Hawkeye but also here in Wakanda forever with Riri Williams being hunted by Namor. It's it flame as it feels like it was done to give Riri a TV series rather than being an integral character plot-wise. I also don't think the film does a good job of showing how Talokan is a huge threat. Their tech feels minimal compared to Wakanda so it is hard to believe that Wakanda would struggle against them.

Overall, Ryan Coogler handled this wonderfully. He treated the passing of Chadwick with the utmost respect, and I got to admire that. I don't think this movie is as good as the first one but it is definitely one of the more emotional ones. I'm not sure what direction Black Panther can go in now but whatever it is, I hope it retains the mature take of Wakanda Forever.

For more reviews like this visit:

https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[dekaydk]

Oi! Or, Twins the Series postmortem

As they say in Thai BLs when they're exasperated, Oi!

This show was mostly what I expected at the outset, based on the trailer. Lots of pretty men on display in athletic gear—which I totally support and definitely enjoyed—but not a lot of writing, acting or directing.

The writing, directing, cinematography, sound (especially in the last episode) were uniformly sub-par. But the writing deserves special opprobrium because it was terrible. No matter the actor you cannot elevate writing this bad.

I'm not going to rewatch the show. Some reactions, roughly in chronological order.

The setup for Zee's beating was completely inadequate. First of all, why? What was the motivation to commit a serious crime? The fact of it and the scene itself had less impact.

Zee and Sprite's parents should have been better explained up front.

Same with First's dad. This relationship wasn't explained well.

Zee was never likeable, so why Sam liked him was baffling.

Tan is into Sam because the plot requires it. He has no reason other than SAM CUTE (which I grant is a starting point; Team is cute) but he acted like he had a lot more knowledge of Sam as a person. But what am I expecting, given the short shrift this show gives to character development.

Speaking of character development, the behavior of the volleyball team members was only occasionally consistent. At times it felt like they edited scenes from different episodes into the same episode.

The jujitsu team deserved a little more backstory so we would understand the dynamics at work.

The F&Z lights in the dorm room: where did they come from, why did they show up long before they're even confessing?

Same goes for Salmon as for Sam on liking Zee. What's likeable? If she's gonna be into anyone you'd think it would be Sprite.

Sprite deserved to absolutely DECK Zee for being his usual jerky self to First. Then Zee says ,"Oh I had nothing to do with why First is upset so you have to fix it." Salmon, you should have smacked some sense into your man, but nooo, you're cool with this self-indulgent nastiness.

Sprite and Zee's parents got a VERY unearned redemption at the end. So, for that matter, did First's dad.

Namkhing got really, really punished. I'm not sure if this is intended to be a swipe at delulu fans, or what.

The last episode was one of those Warp 8 wrap-ups. (Stuff got resolved in ways that violate conventional space-time laws.)

General observations

The writers and director did not have a theory of the case behind the script. It was just a "get to the end while keeping the audience from leaving" effort.

Plausibility was stretched to the point of how things get spaghettified near black holes. I kept thinking "yet another scene where people are puzzled by Sprite/Z's behavior and don't ask about what's going on." (Or they express something to each other, then drop it for the seventeenth time.)

The script was also repetitive, with the basic plot elements getting replayed over and over and where is the fast forward button.

The script did Frame dirty by not giving him something to work with in the contrast between Sprite and Zee. As a result, Frame came across as just a pretty face. As someone (possibly apocryphally) observed of an up-and-coming starlet of the 1930s, his acting skills "run the gamut from A to B." When the script (theoretically) called for Sprite to display sadness, irritation, uncertaintly, Frame kept going to that slightly slack-jawed expression. The director gets a lot of blame here too, because the audience should be getting what's going on in the character's head. Was there even an acting coach? Was this the acting coach's first job too?

Ryan did a lot better. Though I suspect with a better director and script, he could do better still.

Mike's actor ("Ten" Apivit) out-acted EVERYONE on this show. Too bad the character was so badly written.

Continuity was terrible. Why do they keep changing uniforms in the same day? (Athletic clothing sponsor, yes, but in the same practice session?) The F & Z lights again.

Sound editing was weak, and in the finale, terrible, with the music almost drowning out the dialog.

Cinematography was almost nonexistent. The rooftop scenes were semi-decent but you cannot shoot rooftop scenes without at least trying. Doesn't have to be Bad Buddy et. al., but knowing those excellent scenes exist means you can't just phone in your own.

Lighting was almost uniformly harsh/even. What few lower lit scenes we got were outdoors in the dark.

Summary

Amateurish effort overall, but I will not complain about having been provided with much eye candy. (Team's legs are still my favorite anything in this show. Fight me.) The pulchritude was off the charts, and I am delighted to have been introduced to Team, Ten, Nut, Frame, Kong, and of course Ryan.

[duyeqing]

I am in particular sad about bilibili. The amount of personal attacks of LYX on there is absurd. Death wishes, photoshopped and ai fake images, straight up harassment, spreading of fake edited clips, etc. and if you report any of them, they won’t take action. he is received treatment irl like how TantaiJin is treated the show.

Attack on his looks, his body image, on his orientation, on his acting, on his professionalism etc etc

If anyone is not happy about anything, bash LYX. People be collecting his birth times to make cursed dolls. He gets more hate than WuYiFan there. If just by the comments you’d think he murdered their parents or something.

Even DMing him and his fans and anyone who dare to speak up for the drama. I posted one comment on a smear video with evidence clarification, gets spammed with personal attacks, name calling etc. A lot of fans no longer even want to open the site. Cause when they log in you see 99+ in a red dot when you know they are all calling anyone who dare to like TTEOTM traitor to the nation,misogynist, LOw for liking Tantai jin etc.

TTEOTM had to survive with none stop black marketing hot searches since day 1, a mass reporting to the government, saying it’s anti national?!?! to try to take the drama down. First 10 days of airing LYX has his face, his weight, his shoes, his tongue coating, his way of walking, his height, none stop trending black searches trying to smear him. (Through research a bunch of these YXH was funded by the same marketing company) you’d be hard pressed to find a LYX trending where they are not trying to associate him with something negative. Even the #LYX acting# one started off as a smear campaign trying to say his acting regressed since AOL (it’s joint effort on 3 platforms to have it trend) except they failed because people had enough of all the bullshit at that point. And started supporting him in the real time comments.

If you happen to open bilibili trending, You won’t believe what they hate LYX on.

Some more crazy ones that make me scratch my head include:

He act too well and not considerate to his coworkers ?

He discuss too much with the director about his characters, and have too much idea about how the character should act in the scene?

Him using his own voice and doing his own stunts, because it’s not perfect? (An example: a clip of CJM fighting with siYing and MoNv, comments and bullet comments praising CDL is better actor🤨 (who is stunt double), and bullet comments filled with “kick his head in”, “kill him”, “ his face makes me ill”, “ murder this mantis wearing clown makeup” etc etc. )

LYX somehow is responsible for the make up, editing, filming of the scene and only want to make himself look good and is bullying the director, his coworkers, do not follow direction, bossy, and uncollaborative (like where???)

He cries ugly? He is really ugly when he makes expressions??? (These antis should have a fight with the previous one who says that he only care about making himself look good and TTEOTM is his personal MV)

he dare to wear a coat in winter? He dare to sit down on a stool during break, when he was kneeling on gravel for 2 hours filming etc etc.

Tens of thousands of comments on some videos, pens with 10k likes calling him a lowly human??

Etc etc. so much more.

And they used his past successes to attack him, saying Runyu was so good, he can’t act now. Ohhhh he’s not the Runyu I remember I really see him for what he is now ( dude where were you guys when he was bullied for playing Runyu in 2018? It’s just history repeating itself)

I bet if HYx comes out and he play CWN, then there’s be people coming out saying ohhhh my TantaiJin filter shattered. He’s too effeminate etc. etc. not like it hasn’t been the case already.

The campaign against TTEOTM on douban, weibo and Bilibili baffles the mind. Attacking everyone involved in the production, even made the author came out with a statement refuting all the crazy things they alleges she did, somehow attacking her with fanfiction characterization and down rate her book.

All that just mainly talking about one platform. Weibo and douban is another topic.

But just to clarify, there’s a massive audience who loves this drama. Douyin pretty much fell in love with TTj. # half of douyin is LuoYunxi# is not exaggerating by much during April and may. TTEOTM #tag has 30billion views on douyin. And even on the 3”B” sites plenty of people quietly loves the drama. When all the black marketing died down, weibo mostly returned positive, douban the silent majority always votes LYX No. 1 in fav costume drama actors despite how horrible the attacked on him has been and still on going. While bilibili limit positive video traffic for him, a lot of editors up roots and moves to douyin and leave a platform now that promotes hate culture. (Newer dramas by Zhao Lusi, and like Liu YiFei also gets massive hate there. It’s became a toxic pit in the entertainment section of the site)

LYX was beloved by a lot of editors, and fan content has always been his fandoms strong suit. and so this time they really tried to target his most positive platform. Plenty of proof of that. (Maybe one day i’ll make a summary post) But didn’t expect him to explode on douyin.

About the mixed response in China & why I think TTEOTM will prevail in the end 💪

Saw the "Badly Received in China?" post earlier and thought to share a longer take on the situation in China, why are there so many antis, and my own predictions on its future.

First, a clarification, TTEOTM has been an massive hit in China. The data speaks for itself in every way you can measure commercial success: viewership, platform membership, app downloads, social media heat index, advertisements, merchandise sales, unintended tourism GDP contribution. The drama has shattered records and outperformed all the recent xianxias, which you'd never dare to expect for a drama with no dingliu (顶流) that airs exclusively in the dead April slot on a platform that's 3rd (sometimes 4th) amongst online streamers. (Some day I'll create a master post just on the stats.)

The only area it falls short on is critical response. It's not just the low Douban rating (opened at 6.x and now dropped to 5.6). The three Bs - Douban, Weibo, and Bilibili (which you can think of as China's IMDB, Twitter, and Youtube) were full of attacks against the show. This included trending topics on how the actors looked (LYX too thin, BL looking old/big/overshadowed by CDL, CDL 照骗 not looking as good as in photo) as well as allegations of plagiarism and drama behind the scenes between cast & crew members. A lot of people watched video edits that twisted the facts and had a poor impression of the drama and even left 1/2-star reviews on Douban without ever watching an episode. (This type of brainwashing is more effective than you'd think. I've been reading a lot of negative posts about the Little Mermaid movie and almost caught myself writing something negative about it without ever watching.)

As all of this unfolded, I kept asking myself, why all the smearing? Who is behind it? And why TTEOTM in particular?

A lot of what appears to be normal user activity is driven by water armies, marketing accounts, and "black" hot search ranking, all paid. This is all backed up by photo evidence captured by netizens. It comes down to commercial interests of rival platforms, productions, actors. This actually happens to every drama that is threatening in some way (almost a proof of success), but TTEOTM attracted more anti $$$. Why? For one, it's seen as the secret weapon that could elevate Youku's status as a 3rd/4th player to a close 2nd to rival and even at times overshadow Tencent. It's no coincidence that, Bilibili, which is owned by Tencent and has way more daily active users than Youku, has promoted hate videos and limited the traffic of fan videos - at some point not even recognizing the drama's Chinese title in search results. (Bilibili used to be a haven for LYX fans and a platform LYX has partnered with extensively. This flipped 180 degrees since he no longer has any unaired dramas with Tencent.)

TTEOTM is also a target for rival productions. It's got big name stars with solid acting reputation, one of the hottest IPs, and high anticipation from all the promotional materials - they've been super loud in letting everyone know that they have better costumes, special effects etc Meanwhile, there's a massive pipeline of unaired xianxia dramas that stick to the old formula and will likely feel dated after people have watched TTEOTM. People even started questioning how some productions with bigger rumored budgets ended up with cheaper-looking promotional materials, costumes, CGI (read: embezzling). So if you've invested in xianxia 101, you'd really want to discredit TTEOTM and stop people from watching it.

But there's also rival fandom jealousy, which is almost worse. Someone asked which fandom is behind it, I would say everyone. There are only so many "resources" to go around in the "entertainment winter" and it's a zero sum game. LYX and BL are both already big stars but still not at the top yet. They are big enough to threaten the dinglius, but not big enough to be accepted as having "made it" by other rising stars. E.g. Yang Mi, Yang Zi, Xiao Zhan receive a lot of hate too, but it's less realistic as a prospect to bring them down. In contrast, the smearing of Bai Lu actually kind of worked. (And I'm really talking about the fans. The actors probably leave it to their agencies/companies.)

Other fandoms are especially bitter in this case because TTEOTM really upset the status quo and commonly accepted truths in a way that kind of discredits everyone else. A lot of the below have been used by fans of dinglius as excuses for when a drama doesn't perform:

Youku is a rubbish platform and Youku exclusive web dramas will never have high viewership

It’s impossible for an actor to break out twice within the same genre

An actor can only develop a big dedicated fan base with CP marketing

Breakout hits are always unanticipated dramas that come out of nowhere

Autumn/Spring is a dead slot. Hits can only come out of the summer and winter holidays.

IMHO A lot of the intense hatred comes from long held beliefs being proven wrong. LYX has always been thought of someone who’s borderline A list and B list, yet the opening viewership of TTEOTM is like double that of dramas led by bigger stars. It would have been less threatening if it started low and slowly gained traction because the drama proved to be good. But the initial hype speaks to the market power of a LYX xianxia, so a lot of people wanted to see it fail and looked for faults everywhere.

Moreover, because TTEOTM had an explosive opening, it did not have enough time for word of mouth to develop before people started bashing it. If you look at Douban ratings, shows that fewer people watched tend to have better reviews because only fans bother to rate it. Starry Love and Back from the Brink, both harshly dismissed as flops by the industry, both have >7.0 on Douban. Meanwhile, people love to hate on a show that is receiving a lot of hype - suddenly they are held to completely different standards even if the budget is similar. Why are people more accepting of the rise of Dylan Wang and Esther Yu in LBFAD? In the end because the expectations were pretty low. They were able to build up a fan base while no one was watching.

Finally, TTEOTM does have lots of production problems, some of their own doing and others not their fault. Either way this left the drama less defensible in the face of scrutiny or tucao (吐槽) culture. The production is very ambitious and took risks, but did not deliver everywhere. It's got parts that look like a blockbuster film and parts that look like a B grade TV show. I personally did not like some of the editing, lighting, cinematography, color grading, special effects, makeup. AND this is precisely the type of production details Chinese viewers LOVE to fixate on. Meanwhile, compared to western viewers, they are more forgiving about things like mediocre acting, dubbing, slow pacing, repetitive tropes or storylines, uninteresting characters. (I think this has something to do with cultural differences around rewarding perfect execution over innovation/risk-taking, sum of the parts over parts that carry the sum.)

And then, there are creative choices that are daring and controversial. These are not problems per se - for every viewer that hates it, someone loves it because it's different. But this perhaps explain why its score has dropped further, even in non-Chinese platforms like MDL, even amongst fans of the show. For example... (spoilers ahead)

Opting for a bad/open ending, knowing that it'll upset some fans, but sticking to it because they feel that it protects the overall integrity of the story (no deus ex machina). Of course, most viewers prefer a happy ending. It would have been easy to just give people what they want. The screenwriter doesn't even have to come up with a new ending for god's sake! However, almost every xianxia that has come before has resurrected the lead character after the big climax. Viewers have been making fun of the cop out: What's the significance of life and death if everyone just reincarnates?

Packing lots of details in a fast-paced, highly complicated, non-linear plot, trusting viewers to be engaged enough to use their brain, rewatch, and discuss outside the show (a bit like Christopher Nolan films). The downside of this is that it's hard to edit out a scene. There's also high risk of viewers getting confused and complaining that the plot makes no sense. Even though most things do if you go several layers down, some rightly point out that they just want to be entertained and the drama should stand on its own.

Making this a male lead centric (大男主) drama, which is rare in the xianxia genre that more recently has targeted young women exclusively. The story shifts from focusing on LSS's mission to TTJ overcoming his fate, perhaps at the expense of the romance (a criticism I see a lot from viewers looking for a pure love story). However, for context, viewers in China (including CCTV itself) have been complaining that the xianxia genre has lost the "xia” (heroism). It's gone from Chinese Paladin, which is about ordinary people overcoming odds to become heroes, to stories that are just about pretty people, who happen to be gods, falling in love since the success of Eternal Love and Journey of the Flower. TTEOTM brings the focus back to "zero to hero" character development, so this is also a change that many welcome.

Allocating a crazy portion of budget and screentime to superhero fight sequences. I agree with all the critics who say these scenes don't add much to the story, the B roll looks better without CGI, and they could have kept other scenes instead. BUT guess which scenes I find myself rewatching and showing off to friends the most? Episodes 14, 15, 32. Because it is thrilling and glorious. Plus after enduring so many Marvel films over the years, I'm pleased to see a version that's genuinely Chinese (not some pan-Asian BS), rooted in our philosophy and martial arts tradition, featuring Chinese faces that have real kungfu training.

Going over the top on aesthetics - colorful costumes, hair accessories, and heavy makeup. A violent reaction against the simple pastel aesthetics that have dominated xianxias over the years. Of course, lots of people hated on the eyeliner and found the extravagant visuals distracting.

However, even with all its flaws, I'm glad it aired and did not wait for perfection. (A lot of May dramas did not go live last minute due to "technical problems" i.e. government censorship. These days, airing = success.) In addition, I predict that over time people will come to appreciate TTEOTM more. Here's why:

1) A lot of dramas now widely lauded as classics started out with poor ratings. Over time, the noise will die down and make way for what really matters - compelling acting and story. Empresses in the Palace (2011) opened with a Douban rating of 2.7 out of 10 (yes, this bad). Viewers didn't like the casting choice. They thought the actors looked bad. There were also issues with the costumes. Over time, its rating increased to 9.4. It's now a show rewatched so loyally that data analysts use its viewership to track market size. Similarly, a lot of the issues people have with TTEOTM are superficial. The things that matter most like acting are good, and even if you dislike the story and editing choices, it did manage to keep 70M people watching and engaged till the end, incl. people who don't watch a lot of TV or like this genre.

2) Moreover, when people look back or rewatch, they tend to focus on just the highlights, and TTEOTM is full of memorable scenes. There are also so many standout memes/gags (出圈梗) that will live in our cultural fabric forever. Fans on Douban were surveyed on who they would have chosen as the director instead and still overwhelming "rehired" Kuk Kok Leung. Biases aside, I think people realize that you could have a better executed drama overall - higher production value, greater consistency, more attention to detail, BUT you might also lose a lot of the things we loved. I don't know if another director would have allowed TTJ go full creepy/evil/weak in the first few episodes or filmed all the steamy love scenes without a modesty backlight. TTEOTM feels so different because it breaks ALL the rules (see above) that I'm not sure if dramas in the future will try to replicate. If they do, TTEOTM would have started a trend. If they don't, TTEOTM will remain the only option.

3) Only dramas that inspire passion will stand the test of time. There are plenty of dramas that score well but don't inspire passion - they will fade away over time. The TTEOTM fan community is intense - there's so much discussion and engagement everywhere. Its Douban group is the #3 most active ever (measured by # of comments). Its MDL page has 68K comments, highest of all aired CDrama. Its Douyin topic has close to 29B views, highest of all costume drama. (Interesting to note that TTEOTM has an excellent reputation on Douyin, the platform with the most active users and least amount of toxic fan activity.) Fans have spent >25M RMB on merchandise, an unprecedented amount - 3M RMB on a character that appears for <10 mins (OG Devil God). It's got to have done something right because this is way more buying power than the fans of LYX and BL combined. And in my N=1, I've not been this excited about a franchise since Game of Thrones and then Harry Potter.

Bottom line, you might have liked it, liked it with regrets, hated it... but if you're spending the time to read this post, all the way till the end, you've become a luna-tic (or 烬神病人)!

[sparrowsabre7]

The Flash s09e09 - It's my party and I'll die if I want to Review

"The Flash"'s final season has largely been disappointing thus far. Much like "Supergirl's" it's full of somewhat baffling decisions and a keen interesting in focusing episodes on supporting characters rather than the show's lead. While excusable in "Supergirl's" case due to its lead being pregnant, "The Flash" has no such excuse, frequently ousting Barry to the background in many of the early episodes in favour of other show original/largely show original characters. In addition, ushering in a whole new character who is yet ANOTHER Snow sister/personality/whatever (who is actually a delight, but nonetheless a staggeringly perplexing move to introduce someone brand new for the final season played by the same actor), shelving Joe West only a few episodes in l, and rather wasting what could have been a truly terrifying villain in Red Death.

Still, there has been promise; the season opener went with a classic time loop but actually made for a pretty good watch in terms of grappling with Barry rushing to the expected future and Iris not wanting it planned out for them. The season has worked best when dealing with the personal issues of Mr. Allen and focusing on him rather than trying to speed run unearned endings for his supporting cast.

S09e09 actually does something very similar in that respect, it takes a tried and true villain of the week formula and uses it to centre on two Flashes' baggage, whilst also adding in a special guest appearance from Blorbow from my show.

Yes, "Oliver Queen is alive", but unlike other aspects of season his return is not handled too clumsily and manages to avoid feeling too forced while still delivering some fan-pleasing moments. My main concern with Oliver coming back would be that it would undo or otherwise take away from his send off in his own show. While it gets a bit handwavy the show manages to bs its way through an explanation as to why he can be back but can't stay back. This is still Spectre Oliver, and it's credit to Stephen Amell that he manages to deliver a performance that is 100% Oliver Queen, but distinctly the Spectre and not Green Arrow. At least in his first scene. Thereafter he's fully geared up in Green Arrow garb, and only able to use his fighting skills due to yet another piece of quantum babble, but to quote Diggle in this episode: "I don't care." It may be transparent fanservice but to see Amell suit up as the Green Arrow one last time is a delight and he (and his stunt team) have lost none of their fighting panache.

The show also takes the time to give David Ramsey's John Diggle some closure, giving him and Oliver the goodbye they deserved, after Dig lamented not being there for Oliver either time he died. I know I just said that it was a flaw of this series that it was spending too much time tying up supporting characters' stories and that should go double for those from an entirely different show but consider 1. I am a hypocrite and 2. shut up.

Despite all the fan pleasing moments, Oliver's return is not simply a gimmick and is in service to Barry's journey in the episode in dealing with his survivor's guilt, brought to the fore by Diggle's birthday gift for him: Oliver's bow, served with an unhelpful side of traumadumping. Maybe read the room before spouting off about how much you're still grieving your dead friend, Dig.

Oliver is thus the crux of this particular problem, his conversation with Barry helping to demonstrate how they both dealt with their grief and whether what they have done has made a difference. It echoes their conversations in "The Flash" pilot and "Elseworlds" and fits nicely here.

But Barry is not the only Flash dealing with emotional fallout. Seeking enlightenment, returning Keiynan Lonsdale - who at 32 has surely graduated to Man-Flash instead of Kid-Flash - is dealing with the injustice of his own troubled upbringing. Upon mentioning his emotional baggage to Barry, Barry - in a stunningly insensitive move for the "Paragon of Love" - responds by saying "what baggage?" followed by an implied "aren't you over that already?". For one largely cognizant of other's struggles, it feels like poor writing justifying conflict later in the episode.

The A plot ends up hinging on this, with returning villain Bloodwork, portrayed with delightful hamminess by Sendhil Ramamurthy, able to flex his acting muscles a bit more without being cloaked in voice distortion and cgi makeup as much as he was originally. His plan feels appropriately dangerous, in a rare example of a returning (half)season villain seeming to be as much of a threat in one episode as they did over a season. In terms of logistics it's pretty by the numbers: corrupt Flash's friends and family>use Wally's power to open the multiverse> take over multiverse with blood powers; but it fits here to keep the focus on the two Flashes emotional pain and also allow time for the guest star to shine.

It's not winning any awards, but it's still a thoroughly satisfying and sometimes affecting (if you're an "Arrow" fan) episode, and definitely the best of the season so far.

[dwellordream]

Initial Impressions of HotD, Episode 8

be warned there are spoilers below.

i have read fire & blood, but i am not judging the show as to its accuracy towards the book, as i had major issues with fire & blood, particularly in regard to how grrm wrote the female characters and handled the Dance.

this is not an evaluation of it as an adaptation but on its own merits.

The time jumps in this season so far are insane. We’ve done a six month time jump, then to about four years later, then again to ten years later, and now to six years after that. At this point we’ve nearly passed 20 years in one season alone. I understand they want to end the season with Viserys’ death, but I think the pacing really hamstrings the character development.

I appreciate them trying to give Vaemond some character and good reason to believe his claims will be believed in court, but I’m worried the show is going to white-wash what happens to him purely to give the Blacks the moral high ground again. I don’t think it benefits the show for the Blacks to always be reasonable and right, and the Greens to be cartoonishly evil.

The egg extraction scene on Dragonstone was gross and cool, and appropriately sci fi.

Jace’s determination to master Valyrian is a nice hint to how he might be grappling with the knowledge that he is a bastard. Though it is a bit confusing as to why he only seems to be learning it now, at 16, as opposed to when he was a small child.

It’s baffling to me why Rhaenys would be so loyal to Daemon and Rhaenyra. They themselves admit that they made it out as though they murdered her only son. Unless Laenor got some secret message to his mother later on, she has every reason to loathe them.

I’m not sure what court being almost deserted is supposed to imply. That Alicent is so unpopular as queen that most of the courtiers have fled? That they fear whatever disease Viserys has? That Alicent is such a religious zealot that court is now miserable?

Alicent’s gown is very clearly modeled after Cersei’s final look in GoT, which I loathed. I tolerate this a bit more because it’s not so anachronous to the pseudo-medieval aesthetic, and I do like her Seven medallion.

I do like the make-up on leprosy-stricken Viserys (at least I am assuming it’s leprosy). They did a good job making him look on death’s door.

Major trigger warnings for the scene in the aftermath of Aegon sexually assaulting a maid. I appreciate that they did not show the assault itself, and Alicent’s response is very interesting. She embraces Dyanna (the maid) and assures her that she knows it was unwanted, but then goes on to coerce her into drinking moon tea. It’s obviously not ‘good’, but I’m glad we didn’t see Alicent do a 180 and have her killed off on the spot or anything like that. I don’t think Alicent’s ‘I believe you’ was entirely feigned, though. She seems genuinely distraught when she confronts Aegon, and not just because of the embarrassment of it.

Aegon being genuinely lost as to what to do as his mother’s firstborn son and coping with that by being a sexual deviant and an alcoholic is pathetic, of course, but also sad.

Aemond’s adult actor looks much, much older than Jace and Luke’s, but I appreciate the absolutely deranged look in his eyes, lol. He’s clearly the warrior, compared to Aegon’s drunken sot.

I appreciate that Rhaenys does call out Rhaenyra and refuses to immediately agree to support Luke’s claim, even when Rhaenyra offers to betroth him to Rhaena and Jace to Baela. I have no problem with Rhaenyra being justified at times, but I don’t think making her the unproblematic heroine of the show really serves the larger themes of the Dance. The point is that they all kind of suck as human beings and don’t care about those beneath them on the social ladder. 

Rhaenys does then almost immediately revert back to supporting Rhaenyra and Lucerys once Viserys makes an appearance, perhaps reasoning that Viserys will never denounce his daughter as adulterous.

Vaemond goes a step further here than in Fire & Blood and publicly denounces Rhaenyra as a whore in court, which... what did he think was gonna happen? Ironically, Daemon immediately killing him in front of everyone was less shocking than Criston killing Joffrey for a simple joke. 

Viserys’ heartbroken speech and showing his ravaged face was genuinely wrenching, and I wish the pacing had been slower and allowed him more moments like this over the course of season 1.

Helaena’s speech about the joys of marriage was a little too on the nose but the scenes of her dancing happily with Jace were sweet, and Aemond’s speech was, of course, very accurate to the iconic scene in Fire & Blood where he calls his nephews out as bastards as passive aggressively as possible. 

I think trying to tie this all back into the Prince that was Promised and the Song of Ice and Fire is a mistake. The Dance is arguably the time of Westeros most-removed from questions of prophecy and the fate of the world, and that’s the point. It’s people putting politics and personal grudges over the greater good of the common people. 

Overall, I liked this episode a lot better than episode 7, but I don’t think it at all was as good as the first half of the season. The highlights were Rhaenyra and Alicent’s tepid attempts at faux(?) reconciliation, and Aemond hamming it up.

[scarletmaster143]

Part 2

I ran out of space but i need to talk about a couple more people

Ren- our angsty king of the night, this man is so stupid and needlessly complicated it baffles me, but also endears me to him, he is seen as this larger than life figure by everyone around him but he's just a petty, sulky moody little bitch, lory is the only one who sees through his act, i love whenever he has his gentelmanly smile on, scaring both yashiro and kyoko, my man has gaslit kyoko so many times, but he is also unfailingly kind, generous and hardworking and we love that for him. Side note, but i also love the dolls kyoko makes of him and would love if i could get one. Though I know his age gap with kyoko might be a bit of a problem for some people but since they have agreed to not be in a relationship i don't know if i mind it that much, what i cannot fathom is how tall and broad he is, referring to the setsu hickey scene again, she is sitting on him and it kind of feels like he is a raft, but i digress. Ren has a lot of emotional baggage and i do like how meeting kyoko has forced him to deal with that baggage instead of running away.

Kuon- so technically he is also ren but i find that the story makes it a point to distinguish the two, kuon slips out a lot of times when ren is not in a professional setting, we know he has a violent streak but is also insecure as a teenager. As a child he is much more cheerful and teasing, and a lot more lively and we see that especially in the guam arc, also later after he has confessed a bit of kuon starts slipping through ren in how he teases kyoko and acts around her

Sho- there he is, my favourite house cat. Jokes aside sho was the first character i fell in love with, largely because Lee dong hae played him, but also because of the eyeliner, I'm kidding, i just love how much of a drama queen he is. Yes, in the beginning he is a complete douche bag and yes he deserves to be punished for what he put kyoko through but simply as a character he is so much fun to watch, his rapid mood swings, his unwavering self confidence, how much he wants to succeed, i think it's easy to forget that he also left his home to prove his family wrong and the he has both ambition and drive like kyoko, in fact his relationship with kyoko is the most interesting thing about him: he hates her but he cares for her well being, he wants her to be miserable but he doesn't want her to fail, he considers her his mortal enemy but also his childhood companion. It is fascinating to watch him grapple with so many different emotions every time he interacts with kyoko especially during the saena arc. In the future, though I know that they won't become friends and i wouldn't want them to, I hope we still see glimpses of the special companionship they share with each other even if it's bickering and fighting.

Moko- I personally don't have anything massive to say about her except that she's a solid best friend character and it's hilarious to see her tsundere behaviour with kyoko, she is dependable, competent and strong willed, i love that scene where she straight up threatens the most popular actor in the country for the sake of her best friend, she gives solid advice and has some very well written character development throughout the series

Yashiro- another really well done support character who is the perfect balance of funny and serious, he has really cute interactions with kyoko and i love his banter with ren, i also love how unfailingly polite he is, just 10/10 husband material

Lory- So. Fucking. Over the top. I am completely baffled by him and yet i desperately want to be him. Solid writing, amazing dialogue and expressions and just a really good depiction of an older character.

These are the series 'regulars' as such that I feel deserve their own sections. The other characters usually come and go as the story demands so i won't be talking about them.

Overall skip beat is perhaps one of the few manga which has adapted to its aging audience while still retaining its core. It does not tire out tropes and manages to keep the story fresh. It is very funny to see the transition from flip phones to touch screens to smartphones taking place in the manga without any in-universe explanation being given for it, the fashion also changes as the manga progresses to reflect more current trends. Of course I will keep tuning back in for all the banter, the acting and the love, even if the love-me section's stringert soldier has fallen to the gorgeous star.

~~end

Skip beat: a hilarious mess full of love, friendship and human connections

(please do not expect cohesion or structure)

Skip beat will always always have a very special place in my heart solely due to the fact that it is the funniest show I have ever watched. The manga is written in an absurd, exaggerated style and both the anime and the drama manage to capture its unique sense of humour excellently. Ivy's over the top acting, siwon's cool but baffled expressions, dong hae's haughty side eyes (so much eyeliner) managed to capture the characters of kyoki, ren and sho so beautifully. It will always be a great pity that we never got a season two for either. (also props to the actors who played Mr yashiro and lory in the drama, they have my heart)

Coming to the characters themselves-

Kyoko: my beautiful bold courageous child, who dreams of fairytales even when she's going through hell. Her journey is amazing and inspiring and I adore how she rejects love but gravitates to cute things. Her friendship with moko is heartwarming and so is her big sister-ship with Maria. She makes so many connections throughout the story and each connection is so precious, i love it. My fav arc for her has to be the natsu arc but i will go into each character in detail.

Rich lady- yes I'm including this in her list of roles even though she didn't really play this part. The anime rendition of this is my favourite episode to watch solely because of how beautiful she looks and how much grit she has. It is also the first of many instances we see where kyoko draws from her own life consciously to act out a role, her past with sho is so shaded by her devotion and his indifference it was amazing to see how she took something positive from that.

Promo clip angel- legitimately gasped when I saw her outfit in the anime, so fucking gorgeous and it was so funny how she couldn't stop crying when thinking of moko (ahhhh kyoko is so adorable) also in the drama when she is bickering with sho (or shang ig?) in this outfit, have a hate-love relationship with the prisoner song tho.

Mio- ah mio, has there ever been a more iconic character, the last one we see in the anime and drama mio is iconic to kyoko in-universe as well as in the real world. The masterful way she crafts the character to be a little twisted but still striving to do the right thing, how she takes ren's advice and completely flips that perception that people have of mio, and how much heart she puts into learning about mio is awe-inspiring. Kyoko looks so good during her entire time as mio and i legitimately forgot how long she plays the role for- so many things happen while they are still shooting dark moon. Mio also allows kyoko to showcase a little bit of her darker side with the spirits of grudge

Natsu- the most delightful and horrifying character natsu's arc is the epitome of a showbiz drama. Her being so determined to shed mio but completely unable to, the entire sequence where the director and his assistant (?) discuss how she carries herself so different from other people her age, HER GOING TO REN'S PLACE AND DEMANDING HE TRAINS HER LIKE A FEMALE MODEL, chef's kiss. I like that she kept mio's wickedness but amplified it in a way that was more true to life. I feel like natsu somewhat resembles sho in certain ways tho I'm not sure if that was intentional. All in all it is the first step in kyoko's journey beyond dark moon and it is executed really well .

Kuon- lowkey forgot about it but when kuu asks kyoko to act as his son, it gave me goosebumps. Knowing that kuu is kuon's father and that kyoko has actually met him the past was already exciting, but when she showed up in that American boy outfit, i was stunned. Her meeting with ren was so cool, yashiro being confused af, ren being like wtf and her panicking internally, such a chaotic arc, her relationship with teacher/father is so adorable, she really thinks of kuu as a mentor and it warms my heart, i really want to see more kuu-juliena/ren-kyoko interactions simply because of how much ren's parents adore kyoko individually, but yes kuon is very special to kyoko and it helped her get over he funk with mio and natsu

Setsu- if natsu is my favourite arc then setsu has to be my favourite character. Made up for no legitimate purpose except for the ✨romantic spice ✨ setsu is such a cool character and her dynamic with ren as cain is absolutely revolting but also so cuuttteee. I love her fashion, love her confidence, there is a bit of natsu to her but definitely more outcast-y. My girl is totally a Vivienne Westwood grunge queen and i cannot ever get the hotel-hickey scene out of my head, kyoko's acting grows leaps and bounds here as she works with ren who even falls prey to her, it is beautiful. (Love that she kicks sho just for laughs) I hope we find some way to meet setsu again since we see murasame make a reappearance, would love to see her act as setsu in front of beagle boy,

Momiji- we haven't seen a lot of momiji the character but i do adore a tragic love, the momiji arc was probably the best in displaying how much kyoko has grown and how her connections with other people have shaped her, she's more sure of herself largely because she knows she has reliable people backing her up and their loyalty is a direct result of her kindness/positive behaviour with them. Her faith in her own abilities is very encouraging to see and i find momiji surprisingly similar to mio in that she has to hide her real feelings due to circumstances out of her control, her devotion to shizumasa and her grudging respect for chidori just as she bleeds out perfectly tie up her arc and though she is tragic she is splendid. I like that they took the time to establish kyoko's current position before moving into the route arc which I feel is going to be long and tedious, morizumi was a pain and director kuresaki is so pathetic i love him

[tooktheladdedgbtq]

....and the Oscar goes to.. | Tom Holland X Male!actor reader. 

A/N: this was just something I wrote because I got inspired I guess. Happy Pride everyone!

——————————————

You couldn’t decide whether time was slipping through your fingers too quickly or if this had been the longest night you’d ever experienced.

seconds slowed to a crawl while you tried to gather yourself before it was your turn to take the stage. You were nervous. Not about being at the oscars or presenting for the first time. Not even about being nominated for your leading role in the second installment of a critically acclaimed trilogy. No, you’d been used to these sorts of things, you’d been an actor since you were a very young kid. Starting on television before film, and you even got to hold the Emmy the show had won when you had just turned a teenager.

No, you were nervous about who exactly you’d be presenting to. Of the five nominees and potential winners, only one could cause such an intensive feeling in your chest. Only one could awaken a sense of dread that battled with a feeling of intensive happiness mixed with anticipation, and it was Tom.

You’d known each other for years and had come to fall in love. You’d met as young co-stars on set and eventually grew into an inseparable friendship that progressed into something far more. Neither of you were sure when the feelings started but it felt like they’d always been there and you weren’t exactly complaining.

Your blissfulness with Tom was beautiful but short lived. After almost a year of being official you both agreed to take a break from the relationship. Unbeknownst to Tom you were just agreeing to save face and hadn’t pried for an answer out of fear of being hurt. You just accepted that this was how things were now, and took a step back.

You’d still kept in contact with him. It was hard not to. He was still your best friend. But whether it was the business of work or something a little more awkward, distance grew between you both as the multi-hour long facetime calls and text threads became once-a-week check-ins to just make sure you were alive and okay.

Time had passed, and you didn’t have a clue what you could possibly say to him now. You certainly didn’t want to ruin his special night. But you’d missed him so much and felt like you would implode at the first sign that he’d be interested in getting back together with you. But you also didn’t want to seem desperate or needy if he’d moved on. You didn’t want to slip and say those three words again in the moment.

Father time showed you no mercy as the sand in his hourglass suddenly shifted from a slow-motion drip to a flood. The seconds you’d spent daydreaming of your past with Tom and pondering about the your potential future had passed and left you with little time to gather yourself before presenting. still you shook your hands, arms, and lastly shoulders, putting all your worries aside and waited for introduction from the host.

Before long you’d been counted in to walking on stage, and heard the host over the microphone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, to present the award and introduce the nominees for Best Supporting Actor, please welcome one of this year’s nominees and one of our generation’s greatest talents: Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

The applause erupts from the audience like a revved up engine as you took center but it was nothing compared to the standing ovation you’d receive later on that night when receiving your own award for Best Actor.

You were stood promptly center staged with the towering Oscar statue reflecting onto the black stage floor beneath your feet. Your outfit was alluring and would surely be the next hot topic which is rare for male stars. You looked like a million bucks. Everyone knew it, most of all, Tom.

You smile and wave as you approach the microphone, your teeth shining a blinding white, and wait for a hush from the crowd.

You chuckle lightly as a few hoots and hollers sound out as the cheers subside.

You eye the monitor across the room and start to read, your nerves dying down as your jokes land and laughter echoes around the room.

As you finish the introduction, clips start to show behind you to accompany the names of the nominees as the cameras catch a glimpse of each of their reactions.

You couldn’t help but notice how tough the competition was as each actor was called. Steven Yuen playing a detective in a thrilling murder mystery. John David Washington in a fictional film playing the world’s first black astronaut aiding in the discovery of lovecraftian horrors. Andrew Garfield for his role as a psychotic narcissist and genius businessman. Oscar Issac acting in a sci fi space opera asking questions of existentialism.

Finally, you had to withhold your smile as you called out the last name. He had returned to his Billy Elliot roots being nominated for his role in a astonishing musical romance film. “Tom Holland.” You’d been ecstatic when he’d told you about it as you’d always recommend he tried it again since it made him so happy in his younger years.

You spot him a few rows from the stage, making eye contact with him and wondering if he was thinking about you the way you had done with him earlier. You couldn’t help but notice him squirming in his chair and fidgeting with his hands. Selfishly asking yourself if this wasn’t just about the award but about having you present it to him.

Seeing you here after what felt like an eternity apart and your reunion potentially being the greatest achievement of both your careers. Making it the greatest night of your lives, that is, if you were still together. But you were still best friends. That’s what mattered. So you push your self centered thoughts aside and shoot him a small wave that he returns with a smile and thumbs up. letting you know he was okay and that you could continue as the camera pans back to you capturing your not so hidden giddiness.

This awarded some small oos and aahs from the crowd as your relationship with him had been a wholly celebrated one. especially among your marvel peers.

You’re handed an envelope and statue as the music ends and the applause dies down and you take one final glare into the camera before beginning to open the envelope.

“....and the Oscar goes to,” you take a peek at the crowd and see some of the nominees holding hands with loved ones. others plainly

awaiting your next words with bated breath. The anticipation shone on everyone’s faces. Even those that weren’t nominated. Your not-so-hidden grin giving away the answer mere milliseconds before his name escaped your lips. “Tom Holland!”

Tom shot up with a shared expression of shock and happiness on his face. Pecking his mother on the cheek as she wipes the tears of pride from her eyes. His best mate Harrison gives him a quick embrace and a pat on the back before he moves on to shake hands with the director and smile at everyone cheering him on as he gradually moves toward the stage still completely baffled at the victory.

As he walks towards you in his pink pastel colored suit and brown leather dress shoes you can’t help but swell with an overwhelming feeling of joy having been here to share this career defining moment with him. You thought about how far you’d both come to get here and almost started tearing up remembering all you’d been through together.

He skipped up the miniature steps and blanketed you with both arms. You didn’t want it to end as you hadn’t felt it in a while. You threw your arms around his neck and he tightens his hold around your torso. Before you could even process them, your blunt thoughts spill out as whispers.

“I’m so incredibly proud of you. you deserve this and so much more.” you hear a small chuckle escape him as he responds. “I am trying not to cry y’know mate?” a wolf whistle comes from the crowd as you apologize for being so sappy and before he can tell you off for it you hand him his award and shove him off toward the microphone.

As he takes center stage you stand off to the side to watch him give his acceptance speech. He pauses and takes a second to gather himself before he starts talking straight from his heart with nothing prepared.

“Um, Wow. I really can’t believe this is really happening and I probably still won’t believe it happened tomorrow. Just.. wow.” his words were filled with that charmingly British accent you’d come to love so much.

“First I would like to thank my mother, without whom of course, I would not be here. I would like to thank the academy and everyone who worked on this movie from the producers and camera men, make-up and costumes, to our wonderful writers, composer, back up dancers and vocalists, and of course my friends, my co-star and the director Damien Chazelle.” whom he gestures to sitting in the second row. “I share this with all of you and I can’t thank you enough for awarding me with the opportunity to create something I love so much.”

He thanks the other nominees before turns towards you to end his speech. you felt your heart in your hands when you saw his big brown puppy eyes dart in your direction with an intensive glare of admiration.

“last but most importantly, I want to thank the inspiration for all of the love songs I sung in the film and the reason I decided to take the role. The person standing here on my right.”

Your jaw drops and your eyes widen when his words hit you like a speeding semi. you realize that he’d just called you his muse in so many words. the inspiration behind the love songs in the film no less. Meaning that with every lovestruck note his character sung he was reminded of you. All that time spent worrying if the distance between you two would cause him to forget about you, or if he’d maybe moved on and found somebody else. But no such thing had happened. He was relating his character’s longing in the film to his longing for you this entire time and that made your heart do a backflip.

You blush and cover your still ajar mouth with your fist whilst trying not to pay attention to the crowd who’s attention was fully focused on you.

He takes a deep sigh before continuing. “Y/N you’re not only the reason I took this role, but you’re the reason I was able to play it with such sincerity. You’ve been a unwavering beacon of support throughout my career in general but here you really gave me the inspiration for something special. He faces the audience again as the all follow his words with whispers of how adorable you both were. “from reading lines together in the middle of the night, to keeping me company when i’m on the brink of a meltdown.” It was all true and it only made you miss you relationship more and you found it difficult to hold back your tears.

“Y/N is the kind of best friend everybody needs, the kind of partner everybody deserves, and the person I’m so incredibly lucky to have known for so long. ..and I still can’t believe he never figured out the lyrics were all about him, It was kind of obvious-” the audience laughed you’re so close to swooning as he turns toward you again. “But, with all my heart, I love you, Y/N. Always will.” you feel as if you’re floating.

He shifts to the crowd one last time to say a final thank you before you both walk off stage one arm around one another’s shoulders. You have a short but sweet conversation backstage with him where reassures you that everything he said on stage was true and completely unscripted. He wants to talk more but knows your category is coming soon so he asks for a later opportunity and you agree before returning to your seat in the crowd.

The rest of the night flew by with you winning the award for best actor and receiving the biggest applause of the night. Tom joined in the standing ovation. You thanked everybody involved in making the film, the academy, and squeezed a little joke directed towards Tom that garnered a shared laugh from both him and the audience. You were the last award of the night and after the celebrations it was time to return to your place, where Tom was waiting for you. Wanting to talk about everything that had happened not just tonight but everything leading up to it. He also hoped you’d kept a spot open in your heart for him to return to.

[littledreamling]

Okay so a couple of days ago, I made a post about making an enjoyable afternoon out of scrolling through Neil Gaiman’s tumblr likes (and I stand by that; if you choose to do so, it will be an afternoon filled with wonder, education, laughter, and not a small amount of confusion as to why he’s liked certain things) and I made the joke that I wasn’t sure if he knew that his likes were public for the world to see (I partially stand by that too; I’m also pretty sure that he just recently learned about tagging, since I’ve never seen him tag anything up until that head pat ask, but I could be very wrong; he’s been on the internet longer than I’ve been alive), but I think there’s more to it than that.

I think he has his likes public for a reason, a very specific, very meaningful reason. You see, tumblr doesn’t have an algorithm. It’s one of the (many) things we tumblr users love about tumblr; it won’t collect your data, it won’t pander specifically to you (leading to an infamous reputation for downright yet hilariously horrible ads), and it sure as hell won’t spread your posts outside of your circle of followers (at least not until recently, though I have fully embraced the new tumblr tabs; they provide enrichment and new genetic material for my pool of mutuals). For the vast majority of us (roughly 98% of us), liking a post does absolutely nothing. Sure, it lets the author or artist know that you enjoyed their work, but it doesn’t spread the word, and tumblr’s entire function revolves around spreading the word. Liking is useless in that regard.

But for people like Neil Gaiman, who have a sort of power here (he’s our resident celebrity, a fact that never fails to make me smile because it means he’s the same sort of weird as us) (some of us, at least), who have a recognizable name and a massive fanbase and holds the adoration of countless, liking posts (and making those liked posts visible for anyone to see)… well, suddenly it starts to mean a little bit more. He doesn’t like a whole lot, sometimes just a few posts a week, sometimes even less, but scrolling through what he does like is a heartwarming experience (one that I fully encourage people to undertake themselves, paying particular attention to the number of notes that certain posts have) (no seriously, how does he find these posts sometimes?? they have single-digit note counts and he’s among the first to like completely untagged posts, it’s baffling) because they’re things that boil down to (what I can only assume to be) the essence of Neil Gaiman. They’re funny comics about reading. They’re gut-wrenching news articles about current global politics. They’re stories from fans about meeting him, or wanting to meet him, or not being able to meet him. They’re pictures of barbecues and famous actors and movie posters. They’re trans-positive and queer-supportive and riot-encouraging (because the first pride parade was a riot and queer means fuck you). They’re artworks done by fans featuring his characters and meta posts about his works and raving reviews about his shows. They’re wholesome and alarming and lighthearted and important. And for someone like Neil Gaiman, who uses his blog almost solely as a way to connect with his fans, as a way for his fans to be able to see him for who he is, making his liked posts public is… shockingly refreshing.

As a trans person, I have had many idols in my life, especially authors (*cough, cough, you know who I’m talking about*) who have written fantastic works but have let me down with who they are as people and their beliefs. Too many times have I dug deep into an author only to find that deep down, they’re just shitty people. Imagine my surprise when, as I dove down the rabbit hole of Neil Gaiman, unearthing everything he willingly offered to the public to find about him, all I found was support. All I found was righteous anger and encouragement and an all-encompassing compassion. All I found was Neil’s steadfast belief in me, in everything I am, in everyone like me who came before me and who will come after me, in my brothers and sisters and siblings, in my community. And above all else, I found love. For myself, for my community, and for the author who isn’t afraid to show up, to be loud, to put his money where his mouth is, to come to the defense of a community that (to my knowledge) he is not a part of, and to stand firm in his support even when he’s under fire for it.

So yes, his likes are public, because for him, it’s not about an algorithm. It’s not about spreading word or creating a ruckus or drawing attention. When Neil Gaiman likes posts, he is simply saying “I’m here. I hear you. I see you. I support you.” And he isn’t afraid to show the entire world that he does so. And I, for one, respect him as an author, as a personal inspiration, and as a human being all the more for it

[queersouthasian]

Thank you so much for your posts about vv cos some of the stuff I’ve been seeing online infuriates me! I think there are some issues with it, but the concept and the characters are fantastic and much better than 95% of the bls gmm produce.

Also the constant comments about ON outacting/outshining jimmysea frustrate me for multiple reasons - I agree 100% that ohm and nanon are better actors than them (then again nanon is a better actor than most imo), but it’s not ohmnanon’s show and it never was they were always going to be special guest stars. Jimmy and Sea have really impressed me and they’re relative newbies. I feel like saying stuff like this only sets ON up for hate across the rest of bl fandom. And when nanon in particular has already been cancelled multiple times over based on false accusations and is barely defended by his own fans, moaning that they’re not front and centre is not the best idea

EXACTLY THIS. i couldn't have worded it better, thank you so much for this. Yes exactly it's not ON's show it's JimmySea's and they have done an incredible job like you are lying if you disagree and they are new actors!!! Whereas ON have been in this work for long. Also this is why i am constantly worried about Nanon uk, i am so glad that they thai translators are there for any kind of misunderstanding and have defended him like the time he got homophobic because of A MISTRANSLATION OMG, imagine being so virtually and publically open about lgbtq support and talking in a queer show and being able to be honest and frank and say hiw he was unfamiliar when younger but learnt as he grew up(that's the most human thing to do) and bls has been a part of that learning just be shamed for something he didn't say, it's baffling how fandom culture and specifically stan culture works, so frustrating.

[spiderling-space]

May I ask for headcanon of dorm leaders' reaction to MC talking about her crush and trying to hint on the person being them but the guys misunderstood she meant someone else.

It is hard to find occasions where a misunderstanding such as this could happen.

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

Riddle Rosehearts 

“He isn’t on the tall side which makes him cuter than he already is. His big eyes are just another charm. And I love how his uniform is always in the best shape.”

She is talking about Epel. That is the only explanation Riddle can think of. He sure is disappointed but he can’t let this show right?

If she doesn’t have feelings for him, at least they can remain as friends and friends support each other. “I am not the most qualified to say this but telling Epel would be the best solution.”

Confused (Y/N) asks what he meant by Epel and Riddle innocently says that she should let Epel know she likes him.

Amused (Y/N) bursts out laughing before telling him that it is him she likes.

Riddle’s cheeks will adorn with furious blush after her confession. He was not prepared for it at all!

🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

Leona Kingscholar

“His ears are so cute, I just want to pet them and ruffle his hair.” Leona just wanted to nap but he heard (Y/N) talking with her Heartslabyl friends about her crush.

Leona assumes it is either Jack or Ruggie and is annoyed that he is the second choice or not even a choice at all.

He doesn’t want to hear them anymore so he leaves his spot, “Oi herbivore, you’re interrupting my sleep. Talk elsewhere about your love life.”

When he appears out of nowhere, the Heartslabyl boys abandons (Y/N) alone, taking Grimm with them. He hears the one with heart shape quip about lovebirds.

Leona tsks, “You won’t have one if you keep yapping like that.” – “I like you!”

Leona is taken aback but he won’t let the herbivore know that he is surprised. The smug hoe Leona smirks and acts as if he knew it all along. He appreciates her bravery to confess her feeling, reminding him of the Afterglow Savannah women.

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

Azul Ashengrotto

“I know it is stupid but y’know, his shadiness interests me.” Azul overhears (Y/N) and her friends talking about simple things such as first loves and whatnot.

Azul is disappointed that (Y/N) likes Jamil Viper, someone even Azul finds shady but he hopes that get over that disappointment soon. 

What's better than making a deal to get rid of this adversity?

Azul asks (Y/N) to come over the VIP Lounge and tells her that he can help her to get together with Jamil by making a deal.

She asks what he meant and he answers her inquiry which results in (Y/N) giggling. 

When (Y/N) clears up the confusion, Azul is startled, his glasses slide on his nose.

He fixes himself the next second, pushing his glasses where it originally was.

Azul tries to ease the awkwardness in the air while planning his first date with her in his mind; where they will go, what they will eat, what activities they will do...

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Kalim Al Asim

Kalim has liked (Y/N) as more than friends for some time. His heart is crushed when he heard her liking Cater since he is always cheerful and outgoing and likes parties.

Kalim may be saddened that she doesn’t like him the way he likes her but he is her friend before anything else and he wants her to be happy.

Kalim offers (Y/N) to help her get together with Cater since they both are in the light music club. (Y/N) is perplexed and asks why he would do such a thing.

Kalim answers her question and says that even if he liked her more than a friend, he is willing to aid her in any way she needs.

(Y/N) holds Kalim’s face between her hands and lets him know her true crush.

Kalim is too excited to hear it that he yells, making (Y/N) jump. He will hold her hands and ask him out. If she says “yes” then he will throw a party at Scarabia that day. If she doesn’t immediately accept, he will throw a party again to celebrate they like each other.

👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑

Vil Schönheit

When (Y/N) mentioned liking an actor, model and beautiful person, Vil thought she was talking about Neige since he saw her follow Neige on Magicam recently. Vil certainly wasn’t checking out what (Y/N) liked nor who she followed on Magicam. It was pure coincidence.

It annoys Vil to no end. Neige of all people!

Vil will start talking about his photoshoots, acting gigs and of course, his natural beauty when (Y/N) is around.

When (Y/N) asks what’s going on with him, he accidentally says, “I don’t understand what you like about Neige when you’re next to me.”

(Y/N) will giggle and explain that she wasn’t talking about Neige. Vil then acts as if he didn’t say that and he knew all along that (Y/N) was into him.

Vil might offhandedly ask (Y/N) to a date after a couple of days.

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

Idia Shroud

“I’m willing to bet he has Greek God-like body but he covers it all the time.”

While Idia doesn’t know what Greek means, he is certain that it is a compliment to whoever (Y/N) is crushing on. Idia assumes it is Malleus since he is covered head to toe all the time and anyone with a half brain can guess he is shredded under those clothes.

Idia is upset that she isn’t returning her feelings but he isn’t surprised.

He sends her dating advice from a website he found on the internet thinking that at least (Y/N) can be happy with someone else.

He is baffled when (Y/N) does the advances which are in the dating advice on him.

He asks if she is practicing on him for Malleus. He freezes when she says she is into Idia, not Malleus.

She needs to give some time for Idia to speak again.

🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉

Malleus Draconia

“I know it is silly but I always liked tall, dark and handsome aura and this guy is the embodiment of it.”

Oh… Malleus thinks. He is a bit upset that (Y/N) likes someone else and irritated that the someone is Leona Kingscholar of all people in NRC. Still, he can’t let her know how she feels but dark clouds start gathering.

“I didn’t know you would be this upset, Malleus. You should just say you don’t like me that way. I would understand.” (Y/N) grows quieter as Malleus tries to make sense of what she has said.

He bluntly asks her what she meant and she tells him.

Oh… Malleus feels happy that the person he likes sees him the same way. He just doesn’t want to remember and embarrass himself for what he presumed before.  

[petersasteria]

Raising You - Holland!Reader

Holland!Reader || Main || Taglist

Requested? Nah. 1,941 words TW: character deaths, swear words, nothing super bad

I was supposed to post this on Mother's Day, but it wasn't ready by then and I didn't know the direction of this story. But yeah. Here it is now. Enjoy.

* * * *

“I hate you!” You screamed. “Why do you always ruin things for me?! You’re no fun at all!” Tears were streaming down your face as you ran up the stairs to go to your room.

Tom followed you and said, “Tough luck, Y/N! I love you and whether you like it or not, I’ll always meddle in your life!”

“Go away!” You shouted, went into your room, and slammed the door. Tom furiously knocked on the door and let out a frustrated sigh when he heard you lock it.

He rubbed his face and went downstairs to cool off. He walked in the living room and saw a framed picture of both of you. He smiled at the sight and immediately went to grab the picture. “When did you grow up?” He asked himself quietly.

Things were different. His life was difficult. He no longer had parents and his brothers perished in a terrible accident. All he had left was you. He could’ve followed his dreams and took his talent to Hollywood, but life was cruel. He never got a chance to do that because his family mattered more to him than any film career.

Tom couldn’t remember a time when he had a decent break. To him, he was always working and on the go just to get by. But he knew that his parents would be proud of him for stepping up at being the best brother for you.

Tonight was just different.

He got a call from your school saying that you left prom with one of the douche-y dudes. It was just fitting that Harrison was with him, so he had some help in dealing with you.

“Haz, I’m really worried. She could be anywhere!” Tom said as he paced back and forth, clutching his phone.

“Mate, calm down. We’ll find her, alright?” Harrison said calmly. “Have you called her?”

“Yes, and she didn’t answer. I left 20 fucking voicemails, Haz! Fucking 20! Still no answer. I called her friends and they said they didn’t know where she went and obviously that’s bullshit! What if she was kidnapped? O-Or killed somewhere and she’s dead in a ditch in the middle of fucking nowhere??” Tom rambled, running a hand through his hair frustratedly.

Harrison looked at his worried best friend and only said three words, “Check your wallet.”

“What?” Tom stopped pacing to look at him. Harrison shrugged, “Check your wallet.”

“We have no time to shop online right now, Harrison.” Tom said through gritted teeth, but grabbed his wallet anyway. He opened his wallet and he still didn’t know what he was supposed to look for. As if reading his mind, Harrison added, “Check your credit card or debit card or whatever fucking card you have. Check your cash.”

Tom did what he was told and groaned in frustration, “Y/N took my credit card and she took the fake ID that I confiscated from her.”

Harrison nodded and pointed to the phone, “Call the bank and ask for your recent activity.”

Tom called the bank and asked what his recent activity was. They told him that he checked into a motel about three minutes ago and gave him the address. Tom has certainly never been there and it baffled him on how you wound up in a place like that. Tom thanked the bank and hung up.

“She’s at a motel.”

Just like that, the two best friends got in Tom’s car and drove to the motel. Tom was too nervous to drive, so Harrison drove instead. Tom was looking out his window to see where the motel was and they eventually found it. Harrison parked the car and they both got out.

They went to the person in charge and asked if they'd seen you. “She was wearing a prom dress and she’s with some guy who was probably wearing a tux.” Tom explained.

“Yeah, I know those two.”

“Where are they?” Harrison asked.

“Room 2A.” The man said.

“Okay. Can we please have your spare key for that room?” Tom asked. “It’s an emergency.”

“No, sorry.” The man replied and sipped his coffee. Harrison glanced behind the man and immediately saw the key for room 2A. He walked around the desk and grabbed the man from behind. “Tom, go!” Harrison shouted as the man tried to get out of his grip.

“What are you doing?!” Tom shrieked.

“GET THE FUCKING KEY.” Harrison nodded his head toward the key and Tom’s jaw dropped in realization. Tom quickly jumped on the desk and grabbed the key for the room. When he grabbed it, he ran outside; followed by Harrison.

“Return that key!” The man shouted.

Tom and Harrison went up the stairs and walked around until they found your room. They stood in front of the door and Tom whispered, “What now?”

“You go in there and just take her. I’ll be out here for back up.” Harrison whispered back and Tom nodded.

Tom knocked on the door and said ‘housekeeping’ in a high pitched voice. Harrison slapped his arm and mouthed “what the fuck”.

“It’s improv! I can’t just barge in like a freak. I’m an actor, Haz.” Tom defended quietly, earning an eye roll from his best mate.

“We’re busy!” A male voice said which enraged Tom.

“Alright. Now, I can barge in.” Tom said as he used the key to open the door. The chain was in the way, but he managed to break it by pushing the door open.

“Y/N!” Tom shouted.

“Tom! What are you doing here? How did you find me?!” You shrieked. Your hair was messy and your dress wasn’t as neat compared to when you left the house. The guy with you was just watching the whole scene go down.

“That doesn’t matter now. Get in the car!” He yelled.

You shook your head, “No! I’m staying here with Brad!”

“Over my dead fucking body, Y/N.” Tom said before he grabbed your wrist and dragged you outside. Brad intervened and grabbed your other hand, “Let go, man!”

Tom was stronger and he was able to pull you out of Brad’s grip and told Harrison to take you to the car and give the key back to the man downstairs. You and Harrison went to the car and Tom stayed to lecture Brad.

“Chill out, man. Nothing happened!” Brad exclaimed.

“Okay and what if something did happen, hmm? What if you got her pregnant? Can you pay for child support? Do you plan on marrying my sister in the future? Are you ready to take care of a fucking baby?! I DON’T THINK SO.” Tom said angrily.

“She’s 15 and she has a great life ahead of her! I’m not going to let some boy ruin that. If you look at her or even blink at her, I will end you, Brad.” Tom threatened before leaving.

Tom sighed and put the picture back. Harrison left when you got home and that’s when your screaming match with Tom started. He walked up to your room and knocked on the door.

“Go away!” You said.

“You know, saying that will only make me knock on the door again. Just let me in. Let’s talk this out.” Tom said softly. He waited for a few seconds and he heard you unlock the door. He smiled at himself and let himself in.

He stared at you as you lay in bed with red eyes and puffy cheeks. He went further in the room and closed the door behind him before sitting down on the foot of your bed.

"I'm sorry for what happened back there, but I was doing it for your own good. You'll thank me in the future." Tom said and you rolled your eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady." He gave you a pointed look. "I'm serious. I guarantee that if it happened, you'll regret giving it to someone who isn't special after all. So you're welcome, I saved your ass."

"You're not the boss of me. Don't you remember what it's like to be young?!"

"Yes, I am the boss of you and of course I remember what it was like to be young. It was five years ago when I was 19!" Tom raised his voice and stood up. He paced around your room to calm down. He didn't want to fight, but you were being stubborn.

He looked at you and put his hands on his hips. “I never got to truly explore or- or experiment with different things, alright? I was robbed of my youth because I have to step up. I’m the eldest so it’s my job to take care of you; all of you.”

“Do you know how shocking it was for me?!” Tom shrieked. “I never got to grieve properly because I had to be strong for you and Paddy and Sam and Harry. It was too much for me to handle, but I forced myself to push through because I had no choice but to move forward.”

“Sam and Harry had their youth taken away too because they had to help me. When they were your age, they worked and picked up a few side jobs just to help me pay the bills. We’re lucky that we get to keep this house because it was already paid for by mum and dad before they died.”

“I had to give up everything for all four of you and you have no idea what that’s like, Y/N!” Tom yelled. He was clearly frustrated and it dawned on you that he never released those pent up feelings and you just let him shout.

“Sam and Harry were there sometimes, but they were also too busy trying to make something of themselves. Most of the time, it was me! They were working and going to school for their future and I was at home with you and Paddy because both of you were still too young. All my friends were out partying, dating, going to university. Meanwhile, I’m at home too busy being your mum and dad and brother.” He cried out of frustration, causing you to cry too.

He sat down at the edge of your bed and wiped his tears as you stared at him., not bothering to wipe your tears. “Now three of our brothers are also gone and it’s fucked. They never got to reach the finish line of their dreams and goals.” He said quietly. Tom looked at you and gave you a tight-lipped smile, “I don’t want to fight anymore, okay? It’s just you and me now and we have to be a team. We should help each other, so before you do anything stupid ask yourself if it’ll put stress on me. If the answer is yes, then don’t do it. I don’t need more stress.”

You only nodded. He got up from your bed and said, “Good night.” Before he left your room, you walked up to him and gave him a hug, “Thank you for your sacrifices and I’m sorry for being a pain in the ass.”

He chuckled lightly and hugged back, “I’m sorry for being strict, but it’s all part of the parenting thing.”

“You’ll be a great dad.” You said softly before yawning. Tom’s heart melted when you said that. “You think so?” He asked.

“I know so.” You told him. He smiled and kissed the top of your head. It may be sad that five of your family members left both of you, but it was okay. You had each other and that’s all that matters.

* * * *

𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃!𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @blueleatherbag @thatforgottenangel @turtoix @runawayolives @chewymoustachio @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @alexx-stancati @rumplebutterbaby @dummiesshort @thevelvetseries @quxxnxfhxll @angelsgrxzer @dreamy-clousds @bora-world @caitsymichelle13 @wannabemobwife

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @holland-styles @trustfundparker @alinastarkrovs @felicityparkers @hufflepuffprincess24 @tommysparker @justasmisunderstoodasloki @quaksonhehe @call-me-baby-gir1 @itstaskeen @theonly1outof-a-billion @lost-in-the-stars03 @justafangirlduh @piscesparker @speedymaximoff @miraclesoflove @lexirv @blairscott @getbywithasmile @pqrkerr @lavender-writer @blackbat2020 @hoodpankow @bi-lmg @emmastarz