#and ngl the first part of the new season was just not fulfilling to me like I need more yknow?

[queencvbra]

not me saying I'm going to be here more and then disappearing again lol

[astrobydalia]

Solar return observations

Virgo season is here which means my birthday is coming soon!!! I thought it would be fitting to share my first Solar Return observations with you. These are based on my experience, feel free to share yours!

Btw Ariel is my fave Disney princess I love her sm

work by astrobydalia

Fire rising in SR - these years were characterized for being SO SO chaotic and all over the place tbh. It was always a mix of good and bad things like damn I couldn't catch a break. So many rollecosters, STRESS, situations were I was at the edge of my seat, unpredictable and random stuff happening...

Air rising on SR - one word: fresh. Total opposite from fire risings. Air risings were years that felt so light and fresh! I felt like I was floating through the year in a good way! Just going with flow. And I've said this before the best most chill years where I've found myself thriving were Libra risings on SR (also venus in the 1st house)

Moon-Lilith conjunction in th SR - I felt like my life being sucked out of me and overall felt kinda unlucky that year. I felt so empty inside during this year it was insane. Also I was having mayor issues and conflicts with my mom

Chiron is in SR is a bit catastrophized imo. It can not only mean areas in your life that can "break" but also areas that could find healing or resolutions as well. Whenever I've seen the breaking or ending manifestation of this asteroid it was always from a place of reconsideration and healing rather destruction, like making peace with something. For example, Chiron in the 7th house could mean ending a relationship on good terms or unlearning unhealthy relationship patterns. On time I had Chiron in the 6th house and during that year I got a nice job after a long period of struggling to find a job. Of course it's nuanced and it can often be painful and disappointing process but I think people don't mention enough how Chiron is about finding relief as well

One time I read the SR for a client who had Pluto in the 6th house for that year and turns out she was planning to undergo surgery during that time for health reasons

Leo rising in SR - These years were TERRIBLE for some reason. Maybe it was due to Cancer 12th house but I was really struggling to find happiness and fulfillment in my life during these times

Cancer mars in the SR - So emotional!! Like truly it was years that were clouded by emotion. It was either due to family stuff, friends or relationships, but I was running on emotion all the time and I couldn't act on logic to save my life. However it's not like I was in my bed crying all day but rather these emotions were giving energy and motivation in some way. Somehow being emotional was always making be feel.... alive?

Moon in 12th house of SR - I was getting ready to move and separate from my family during this year

Taurus rising in SR - these years were surprisingly.... intense, specially with my relationships. A lot of patience, resisting and enduring. Every event that happened felt like I was going through a 10-year-long process and really had a strong impact in my life. Years were I reconsidered my priorities a lot and was really faced with what is it that I truly value

Uranus in the 1st house of SR - literally a few days prior to my bday I received shocking news that turned my entire year (and life) upside down so you can imagine how this energy played out. Life forcing changes on my life that I was not ready for but had to make it through one way or another

Virgo rising in SR - I started a new job!

Look at Part of Fortune and Vertex in your SR chart, these will be significant themes!

Capricorn rising in SR - I was.... borderline depressed here ngl. Those kind of years that never seem to end ever. I was receiving pressure from both my career life and my family life. Overall earth rising in the SR were years that felt very 'heavy' if that makes sense.

Juno in the 1st house of SR - these were years were I meant new people!!! I significantly enlarged my network

^Same thing with Venus/Libra/Vertex in the 7th house of SR. I didn't get into a relationships or had anything romantic going on, I met new people and made new friends in general. I also bought lots of new clothes and invested a lot in my image

Scorpio rising in SR -you know when you go through a very intense experience out of nowhere and then come out of it soon after like nothing happened and you're left feeling like "wtf was that for"? That's this.

Yod configuration in SR - very karmic life-changing and ground breaking events in my life. Before and after vibes

Moon in Capricorn in the SR - my girlboss era!!!! These were years were I began new professional opportunities like my first job or my first year in college

Moon in the 8th house of SR - you guessed it: trauma. I'm talking canon event kind of trauma. A family member died.

Vertex in the 8th house of SR - this was playing life on hard mode honestly. Not necessarily traumatic, but very complicated events and situations here that put you to the test

work by astrobydalia

[left4denver]

hey y'all! this is peyton [sh/th, 21+, cst—also the mun of dylan, selena, mouse & hyeon] and this time i'm bringing you guys hakgojae gallery's foh manager, oh dabin :~) you can view his stats here, his pinterest here & read all about him under the cut! i prefer discord so pleasssee hit me up at #seamonkeydefender

born and raised in seoul, dabin is a city boy to his core. his parents aren't "rich", but they're pretty damn comfortable—as a result, dabin is... a little... spoiled...

picky, difficult kid. not necessarily mean, but does have an attitude that seems to suggest he thinks he's above other people; his parents have him spend a lot of time with his maternal grandparents in jeju-do to kind of combat this problem as they're very hard workers and very humble people. worth noting that his grandmother is a haenyo/female diver, very much the breadwinner of their household and after dabin gets past all the judgment and whiny ass "you smell like seaweed! i hate you!" tantrums, she instills a very strong admiration/respect for women in him

anyway, as if that doesn't put him in his place, his parents having another kid when dabin is already 10 does LMFAOOOO... no longer the baby of the family, has to step up and help his parents out (as much as a 10yr old can) with the baby. it's a bummer. he fuckin' hates that kid for the first two months of her life, and then all of a sudden he loves her more than he's probably ever loved anything

sparknotes: by the time he's reaching his teenager years, dabin is mostly humble but extremely wild / daredevil, likes to do shit just for thrills / gets in a lot of trouble, is arrested a few times in his late teens & early adulthood and ends up being assigned community service hours as part of his sentence / becomes very compassionate in this timeframe as he learns about world issues and what he can do to make a change / ends up enlisting and then going to college a bit late (paid for in full by his parents who just want to see him improve his life), undecided major at first but eventually settles on art history (useless ass degree if you ask his dad LOLLL) / gets his bachelor's degree in 2018 and then his master's in 2021, by the time he finishes his master's he has drastically mellowed out / gets a job at hakgojae gallery as an art handler, eventually works his way up to being the foh manager oh yeahhh...

so here he is now. a 30 year old man who's Been There, Done That and just wants peace now. he's extremely smart, but also is well aware that he doesn't know everything and is always happy to learn something new. passionate about things such as animal rights, climate change, women's rights, etc etc, still volunteers often even though he fulfilled his requirements a while ago. reads a lot of books about self-improvement and various informative topics.

still kinda pretentious ngl... but i'm sure that vibe carries through enough in this intro that i don't even have to say it, LMFAO. that said, he is a very well-meaning dude; his intentions are pure, and he's trying every day to be better than he was yesterday.

other info: type to drink wine at 2pm on a wednesday / passionate about south korea and especially about seoul, has a side hustle/hobby of giving newcomes or vacationers personalized tours / his favorite season is autumn if u even care / really warm guy, strives to be a pillar for others to lean against and a friend for them to confide in / has a russian blue cat named willow, humoring the idea of getting a second cat so willow isn't alone when he leaves for work / king of making lists, very organized man!

plot ideas

y'all already know, but if you don't: i love extensive plotting and building storylines together from scratch, so if you're into this too, hit me up! let's talk about every little detail <3 but i'm also 100% down to jump into a base idea and just see where it goes. that said, here are some ideas:

friends of dabin's younger sister. she's about 20/21, so these friends would probably be in that age range but rly it could be anyone who knows her from uni as well—regardless, dabin will be a surrogate big bro to them :~)

also just random young adults he's taken under his wing... he acts like he's 50yrs old the way he's always like "i was young once. i get it. but because i was young once, i can also tell you you're being dumb as hell and you're gonna be embarrassed when you look back on these years" like dude... chill

aspiring artists who want to get their work showcased at hakgojae gallery and figure the best way (re: shortcut) to do that is to make nice with the manager

someone kind of new to seoul who dabin had a mutual (npc) connection with and as a result, welcomed them very warmly into the city/gave them a tour and helped them get settled in and all that

similar aged friends... people he met in uni, people he went absolutely wild with in his early 20's and now they're (probably?) both kind of settled down - but man, ain't it fun to reminisce?

pretentious art buddies, film buffs, whateverrrr

a budding artist who dabin is actually a big ass fan of

someone who volunteers at the same animal shelter as him

some girl who thinks he's stupid and fake as fuck 'cause he's soooooo loud and proud about "being a feminist" JDJFHBSDJ

etc etc... down for anything!

[laufire]

Supernatural s2

I’m halfway through s3 already (technically a rewatch, but there were episodes I didn’t watch the first time around), so this post is a little overdue lol. At this rhythim the posts will overlap. Plus I’m hoping I can finish s4-5 during the holidays to see the ~intended ending~ before I have to slow down on the binge-watch. After that, a season a month sounds achievable AND won’t take longer than 2021 xD

ANYWAY.

-Overall, I’ve enjoyed it more than the first one, but at the same time I’ve found myself missing how... claustrophobic? Insular? Compact? That one was. s2 was about the world opening up just a little bit more, introducing new characters to the brothers’ life, etc. I do love the detail that this is something that can only have, narratively speaking, once John is dead. Again: this show gets abusive families, consciously or not.

-The foreshadowing is beautifully done. 15 seasons make for a lot of unintentional and ironic foreshadowing later on, I’m sure, but the purposeful foreshadowing is superb this season. About the crossroads deals, of course, but especially about John’s last words. I already knew he’d told Dean he might have to kill Sam (father of the year, seriously. Though I side-eye the fandom even more for always having acted as if this is only awful for Dean lol), so I was hyperaware of every single detail. My favourite moment was the absolute horror of hearing Gordon proudly, cheerfully relate how he murdered his sister when she became a vampire (which, btw, as someone that’s still bitter about what went down with the Gunn siblings on Angel, I found it healing to see something like that treated as a horror story).

-Speaking of Gordon: I unashamedly love his character lmfao. Sterling K. Brown is mesmerizing, always. At the same time, I have serious mixed feelings (especially after seeing his arc in full in s3) because man, if it isn’t a racist mess. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s not exactly revolutionary that the first time we see the story from the monster’s POV (something I want the show to do! Often!), it’s when white monsters are stalked and brutalized by our first black hunter. Especifically a white woman, btw (although I’m happy to see Tara Maclay as a brunette vampire. I didn’t know I needed that in my life, but I did). And you can tell that the show thinks it’s just so SMART and FUNNY to have a ~racist black hunter!! I mean, the comment about how psychic kids would be “betraying their race” if they allied with demons?? FFS.

And ofc there’s the fact that he’s condemned for the exact same type of stuff that makes Dean be hailed as a hero lmfao. Though I won’t like, I love the moment where, faced with the comparison, Dean’s response is “I might be like you, I might not. But you’re the one tied up.” I love those kinds of character moments. As of s2 I officially have a love-hate relationship with Dean Winchester, I hate it here xDD

But still, on his own, Gordon is an amazing character (it’s one of the most frustrating things about the show, the greatness tainted by the bigotry :))). Charismatic, terrifying, and ofc superbly acted. Also, I love that the fact that he praised John (as opposed to every other hunter having a rockier relationship with him) is clearly supposed to be a red flag LMFAO.

-I enjoy how the seasons delves more deeply into Sam’s ~~dark origins, since it was my fave thing about him way back when. I’m already mourning the (as I suspect) lost of his powers, ngl. There’s a little more attention in how he tends to over-identify with supernatural creatures struggling with their ~dark sides too (bitch me too, the fuck xD), which I LOVE to see (among other reasons because at least in that way we get a little of their POV in the forefront lol). One of my favourites in that sense was the episode centered around the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-ghost, played by Tricia Helfer. I clocked early one what was going on, but it was still very enjoyable, especially with Sam’s empathy with her (contrasted by Dean being a total bitch about it, btw. I can’t believe I still see post about how Dean is all heart/kindness/compassion/whatever the fuck. Dean is all about selective empathy and only when it conveniences him, pls).

I was more divided on the episode with Madison the werewolf, tbh. OTOH it put Sam in a better position, for a change xD. As the one willing to make The Hard Choices by fulfilling his promise to kill her because she was dangerous, even when Dean offered to ~take the burden from him. OTOH I hate that kind of thing lol. YOU GUYS KNOW A HUNTER PRO LIKE BOBBY, I BET HE COULD’VE FIGURED OUT SOMETHING TO CONTAIN HER A FEW NIGHTS A MONTH. Also, my immediate reaction was to compare this to when my man Angel had a crush on a werelady and helped her every month lmfao. But then, very few characters can withstand a comparison with Angel, in any sense :P

I also liked Sam’s subplot with his fellow demon-psychic kids, though I wish it’d lasted longer :/ (also: RME at the queer girl dying almost immediately AND her power being killing people, her girlfriend first of all, with her touch. The black guy was the last one to die at least...?). My fave was Ava, by far. I loved her since her reaction to helping Sam stealing a psychiatrist’s records was yelling “I’M AWESOME!!”. It made it easy to buy that someone that appeared so mundane, with her easy life and her fiance and whatnot, would become so power hungry and go off the rails, IMO.

BTW: RME at Dean being all “oh Sam is going too dark/becoming to cold” when Sam kills Jake. Jake ripped off his spine and killed him first!! It both amuses me and infuriates me all the times Dean tries to push Sam to be more like himself and then freaks out whenever Sam is not all sunshine and rainbows (while still remaining, IMO, far less cold than Dean himself. Besides, it’s not easy to be colder than Dean, lol).

Lastly, a little character detail I loved was when Sam was jealous about Dean being in the federal database but not himself lmfao. 

-I loved the new foreshadowing crumb with Sam finding out Mary knew the demon, too (information he’ll withhold from Dean, which I approve of LOL). I mean, I know exactly what’s up, I’ve watched most of s4 xD (also, what is UP with this family and making deals with demons. Everyone but Sam so far!! And then HE gets dragged for ~getting too close to one smh. Maybe lead by example!! Also also: yes, it was meant to be ambiguous, but I can’t help but notice the only kiss-pact -or further, depending to how close YED was to Lilith’s levels, since to make a deal with her you have to fuck xD- we didn’t see was the one that must’ve happened between John and YED. Cowards!! xD). Still. I’m so curious about her. Her resurrection is one of the main reasons I’m determined to make it to the later seasons, ngl.

-Another thing I LOVED about this season is how they used sibling relationships to parallel/foreshadow stuff about the brothers, the way s1 did often with fathers. I’ve already mentioned Gordon and his sister, but the others are not less brutal imo: Andy having to kill his evil twin, who wanted him all for himself (... Dean is that you xD); the little girl’s ghost who wanted her grand-niece to commit suicide to stay with her, and didn’t give in until her old sister agreed to die in her place. It was chilling. Also, at one point the parallel was between the brothers and a married couple (the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-a-ghost) and asñdlfkajsf. I’m guessing they had fun with the shippers lol.

Speaking of the brothers’ relationship, this season also goes a little further in escalating the violence between them, when Dean punches Sam in the face and he refuses to respond (“you can hit me all you want, it won’t change anything”. Fuck), or when Dean again punches Sam after Sam was possessed by Meg ¬¬

-Going back to my love-hate relationship with Dean, lmfao. My biggest beef remains how much validation his POV gets from the narrative, granted or not; he’s one of the most irritating cases of protagonist-centered morality and I know it’s only going to get worse smh. At least this season it feels a little more balanced than in s1, with episodes like the one where the civilian Sam had tried to keep away dies halfway through the ep because Dean allowed him to get involved, for example. Still, it grates on me xD. The continuing prison rape jokes/demonic possession rape jokes (with Meg and Sam), his general grossness with women and his lack of sympathy for non-humans even when they’re not trying to hurt anyone don’t exactly help. Also, I often see him praised for some of his political views, a lot of which I agree with (his mistrust of cops, saying convicts don’t deserve to die no matter what they do), but when contrasted with his general attitude across the show it’s really grating ngl.

But then he has such AMAZING character details thrown in, that make me appreciate him as a POV character nonetheless, as much as I often want to curb stomp the guy xD. I loved his speech about how there’s no such thing as a dignified death. I love how he refused to come near his mother’s grave, both at the beginning and at the end of the episode (this show is like, the cure to DCCW’s shows false fuzzy sentimentality istg). I love his pop-culture references, like when Sam mentions Dean always thought OJ was the murderer or Dean jokes about freeing Katie Holmes from Scientology’s cult xD (sometimes it really hits you how old this show is lol). I enjoyed his Wishverse episode, and his lines after Sam dies/he sells his soul to save him (“I had one job”, “my life can mean something”) hit HARD.

But most of all? I LOVE how and why he starts losing respect for John. It’s so fucking cold and abrupt and makes so much sense!! Like, yes, part of it is John’s message about killing Sam (... again, father of the year!), but most of all it’s about John making a pact with a demon and dying TO SAVE DEAN (and probably, simply that he died at all. That shit de-mystifies anyone). IT’S SO FUCKING GREAT TO WATCH. “He spent his life chasing that demon. He was supposed to die fighting, not making a deal with the damn thing. That was supposed to be his legacy, not this." Damn, Dean xDD. The *contempt* with which he said that killed me.

I also love his inherently atheist vision of the world (even if yes, it’s extremely funny knowing this show has canon God and angels and shit -no Jesus Christ though, which I find endlessly funny-, or that they actually meet the archangel Gabriel in disguise xD. Either way, the episode with the fake angel and its foreshadowing was hilarious), his anti-destiny stance, and that it’s him and not John who gets to kill YED.

-I liked Ellen and Jo. Not LOVED, but I liked them. I keep fearing that secondary (especially female) characters will feel empty/shallow but the show keeps proving me wrong, even with one-episode wonders, and at first I wasn’t sure about them, but I was sold quickly. Partially because of the actresses, they both had this... humanizing, endearing quality? It worked really well.  I also loved the explicit contrast between John and Ellen’s parenting styles, with Ellen wanting Jo to return to school and be safe from the hunt, and Jo wanting something different. Also, I wouldn’t ship it if you paid me, but LOL at anyone who actually buys Dean sees Jo as a ~little sister just because MEG said that rme.

This show is just REALLY good when it comes to giving depth to a character with only a couple of brush strokes, which makes it all the more frustrating when they abruptly die or disappear to never be seen again/only once more (to abruptly die!) :)))

I was less sold on Ash; he was amusing, but having a Genius Hacker TM helping them out seemed like the beginning of increasingly giving the brothers ways of deux ex machina-ing them out of problems, when one of my favourite things about the show is seeing them creatively find ways out themselves. I like when they’re competent! Like with the multitude of codes they have to improvise plans, like in the episode where with two words through a lawyer they implemented a quick scheme so that Sam would escape from a police precinct. I like that stuff.

-I’m still so bitterly jealous about the dead man’s blood hurting vampires detail. SO BITTERLY JEALOUS. I love a lot of what this show does with its lore but that little bit is the worst offender. I want it so bad xD

[monstress]

any korean variety show recs?

alright so saddle up because this is long

 for new watchers who know next to nothing about the korean entertainmentindustry, wants to learn more abt culture:

abnormal summit, esp s1. group of semi-diverse expat panel discussculture/issues and how it pertains/compares to south korea and their owncountries. also ngl some of the panels are hot so shoutout to sam oykere anddaniel from australia.

first time in korea. changing guest of long-time expats bring their friendsover to south korea to experience the culture for the first time. you getrambunctious friend shenanigans and crash course of interesting places to visit+ eat.

korean food table. long-ass running, well-beloved food show. im hungry.

for new watchers who want to get into it because of the hallyu wave:

x-man. the start of it all. fixed members and guests play games and try tofigure out who is the spy among them. the precursor to running man. it endedyears ago but it’s LEGENDARY. i can’t tell u how many clips from some eps thatare still being played on other shows today. see your favorite stars at theirmost humble of beginnings. introduction to the dominating MCs of today: yoojaesuk and kang hodong.

happy together s3 (the sauna version). the only talk show of its kind withequal number of male and female mcs (sad ik). funny as hell, even withnon-celebs guests. way back when even jun hyun moo, the MC with the most showson his belt right now, was a nobody and made his bread and butter dancing toshinee’s Lucifer. great talking segments which i’m sad they got rid off in thelater iterations.

strong heart. a talk show where celebs share interesting stories from theirlives. if you can manage through kang hodong’s overly boisterous MC style,there are some absolute gems from this show but imo just watch based on theguests. also lee seunggi!

knowing brothers. popular talk show with a school-like setting. imo watch it based on the guests, again if you can manage through kang hodong lmao

i can see your voice. celebrity guests try to guess if a person is a good singer or tonedeaf.already multiple versions in asian countries. honestly surprised americansdon’t get in on this.

masked singer. a panel try to guess who the voice from an unknown, masked singer belongsto. i don’t know why they made an american version since the formula is onlythrilling with a tight-knit industry but ok!

weekly idol. if you’re into kpop, surely you’ve seen random dancing segmentsby now. watch it based on who you stan i guess.

doesn’t care about idols, just want to have fun:

new journey to the west. cast travels to a country and needs to win gamesfor food/sleeping place/dragon balls. fuckinnnn??? hilarious?? established cast and production team chemistry (from their previous show, 1night2days) so even the pilot doesn’t have new cast awkwardness. stellar editingand ingeniously entertaining yet simple games. they’re not afraid to rip eachother apart (some of the members’ have some…interesting past which is fun tobring up).

i live alone. a clip show of an average day of celebs who live alone. while it does haverotating celeb guests, the major draw of the show is the permanent panelmembers established in 2017, esp park narae (who is a legitimately talentedentertainer and tbh deserves better! you’ll get what i mean when u watch theshow!!).

omniscient interfering interview. clips of daily lives of celebs and their managers (who in the industry arealways in the shadows but now it’s their time to shine). wildly popular thateven most of their managers have shot for commercials. watch for the fooddescriptions from lee youngja which was a career-defining talent for her thatshe won the channel’s top entertainment award. the first woman to have everdone so across all three major channels.

infinite challenge. this show has a LOT of episodes but imo watch these specials: the ballroom dance eps, the summer music festivals, bobsleigh challenge, calender model challenge, extreme part-time job, history x hip-hop, the jack black eps, saturday saturday i am a singer, and the (very incredible, very powerful) express delivery special. iconique.

running man. i’m amazed that this show is still airing. the choi minsoo eps and sherlockeps are one of the show’s stand-out. again, if you’re into the cast chemistry,check this out.

2 days 1 night (s1, skip to s4). where the new journey to the west’s cast chemistry and production team isfortified! season 1 was very popular but it ended because the director wantedto pursue his studies. season 2 and season 3 tried to capture its magic with new casts and directors but it just wasn’t the same. when season 4 came ploddingalong, people thought it’ll be canceled soon enough. the newest director was amentee of the original director though and with great luck in the new cast, season 4was herald as the show’s comeback. the ‘no smoking’ episode was brilliant. edit post chatroom scandal: from the bottom of my heart, don’t watch s4 because of one member who is an honest-to-god piece of shit.

what on earth??. an underrated show! a limited series of four men who embarks in a dangerouscross country trip. the first few eps was set in a Qatar desert, the next inthe wetlands of Scotland. educational, good chemistry btwn the members, sharpediting. also not gonna lie part of the reason i did watch this was for ji jinhee. sue me i was in a jtbc misty withdrawal! shares the same director as 2d1n season 4!

sister’s slam dunk. a rare show with an all-female cast with the premise of fulfilling eachmember’s dream with the help of the other members. honestly just watch seasonone for min hyorin’s dream of debuting as an idol (hence dragging in the othermembers too, much to the chagrin of the older members). if you like thechemistry between members enough, stick around! the cast is funny andcharismatic and it’s just (sniffs) i love women! i still bop to the songs onthe regular too.

doesn’t care about guests, just want to relax (my fave kind):

lee hyori’s bed and breakfast. popstar lee hyori and husband opens up their home as a bread and breakfast. depression? cured! streamit on netflix!

little house in the forest. this show is glacial…in the best waypossible. it’s like an ingmar bergman film. honestly best to watch when you’rein bed ready to sleep

youn’s kitchen. legendary actress youn yeo jung opens a restaurant in a foreigncountry with season one in indonesia, season two in italy. idyllic af.

hodong’s kitchen. a spinoff show with the cast from new journey to thewest (they won a bet that if they win a game, their wish is to shoot a showlike youn’s kitchen since they share the same director). if you like the njttwcast and want to see them run a small restaurant, here’s your show!

blind date cafe. what it says on the can. blind dates are done in a cafe withwaitservice that consist of musician lee juck, actress yoo inna,comedian yang sehyung and sf9 member rowoon. it’s very…cishet lmao buti love yoo inna and will watch her wait for paint to dry. some of the couplesare EXTREMELY valid tho (if anything, watch for the webtoon artist andchildrens horror book author! i STAN their love!)

coffee friends. actors set up a cafe. fulfill your coffee shop au daydreamwith yoo yoon seok here!

may food bless you. a team of close female friends that consist of actress hwayeong and comedian lee youngja, song euni, and kim sook gives advice and suggest food to aid for submitted concerns while having a meal. a great show to watch while having dinner.

note: these shows…aren’t perfect. lemme be upfront that there can be elements of casual -isms in them (the relaxing shows are generally okay tho) and i’m just gonna leave it at that.

[chromsai]

i didnt want to answer this using the actual ask because since the full, untagged name is there, i just know that tumblr will find a way to get it into its main tag and just out of courtesy to its fans, i don’t wanna be that person.

that said, and out of courtesy to any of my followers that like it, i’ll put my actual opinion under the cut as extra precaution because, again, i dont wanna be that rude ass person.

(long rant ahead tbh)

it’s my least favorite ygo. i mean, setting vr aside for now just to be fair since it’s still not done yet, it is without a doubt my least favorite ygo because its writing is just that piss poor. 

tl;dr: it’s a fucking mess of a show, it doesn’t appeal to me, i find it to be (ironically) superficial (in terms of themes and messages), i dont like the decks, character arcs? god they’re wasted, the writing is just a bunch of asspullery nonsense, and “foreshadowing” is actually just spoon fed self-fulfilling prophecies. it’s my least favorite show and it almost made me quit yugioh altogether. but i still don’t discourage anyone from watching it. because maybe it didnt appeal to me or click with me, but maybe it would for someone else, and i’m not afraid to admit that. because people have different tastes.

its characters overall get little to no development, what little development most of them get (like shark and ........i wanna say kaito, but i dont wanna include kaito in here because i think his development was the only one that was actually decent, but idk who else to put here since... most characters didnt actually get development? as/t/ral, i guess?) is completely ruined sooner or later when the plot decides to inevitably asspull. i will admit i did like where shark’s development was going but the fucking moment he was revealed to be na//sh is when his development went completely down the fucking shitter. oh so JUST cuz some “destiny” says you’re “destined” to fight against yu//ma you just... go with what it’s telling you? you don’t even like your own destiny or some of the people you’re working with but... like... just cuz you remembered some memories of your past life you gotta finish the mission? even tho... 1) you didn’t actually want to, 2) you can just talk this all out (seriously this plot CAN be resolved with just talking things out, the card games are notably forced up this plot’s ass), 3) wtf happened to yu//ma being your friend??? you don’t wanna fight him but you will because you must, it’s your destiny?!? what kind of fucking non-explanation is that. fygdshbjkl honestly there are so many more questions that can be asked about just na/csh’s logic for fighting ALONE and i am still left dumbfounded. the amount of utter STUPID going on in this writing is incredible, honestly that i’m left without words.

ze//al’s plot & writing is NECK DEEP in allll that kind of stupid nonsensical logic, literally i could probably go on all night asking so many questions about where the fucking common sense went while writing this show. like i have so many fucking issues with ze//al II’s writing i just don’t understand how people think of it as legitimately good? it was all drama for drama’s sake with no real consequences since everything was reversed back to normal anyway??? fuck, i have less issues with ze//al’s first season and i actually liked it better. but anyway, moving on....

the aesthetic... is ... well before vr, i would say it was horrid, but at the very least ze//al gives us colors... it’s very colorful and the animation is pretty nice, ngl... but do i care? not really. not when i didnt really like almost any of the character designs... IV, Kaito, Mi//sael, and A//lito, Du//be, Rei/Vec//tor’s designs imo are nice... the rest... “what about the other arc//ights or [insert character here]”. no, if i didnt mention them by name just now, i didnt like their design. Yu//ma’s design... it’s... it’s very generic shounen protag. he is definitely, imo, the worst design of all the ygo protags, but i don’t think he’s HORRIBLE to look at. at least not most of the time, anyway. and actually you know what, i’ve never been into alien stuff but As//ral’s pretty, i’ll give him that. i guess perhaps that’s why i didnt like the aesthetic... too... alieny for me (gross, imo....... i just... absolutely hated the Ba//ians).

the little foreshadowing it gives us from the beginning through the end is spoonfed to us, and you literally gotta be foolish to not understand what it means straightaway. not only that, some of it uses retcon as a mechanism to seem like it’s foreshadowing (that fucking door from the first episode telling Yu//ma that he’ll lose his most important thing... and then at the end it turns out it was As//ral?? did Yu//ma not have anything important to him at the time he dreamt of the door??? or like... wtf is this door a prophet or smth or is it trying to make a contract, which is it??? make up your damn mind!!)... so yeah... it doesn’t actually give us any real “foreshadowing” as much as it uses self-fulfilling prophecies...

leading us to my next ironic point: this show is superficial af. as i just said, everything is literally spoon fed to you. literally all of its themes are plainly spelled out to you and laid out on the surface, you don’t really need to actually think to to get its message, and there is certainly no point in digging deep to find richer subtext... because there is none. there literally is none. and you know what? i know this is a very subjective preference; i personally love to delve deep into the symbolic and get analytical with the stories i enjoy because my brain is just naturally curious like that... but... even with a naturally curious brain... i just... no matter how much i try... this show is all bones and no meat. there is an established foundation of a message and it’s nice but it’s... way too straightforward and, as i said, spoon fed for my liking.

if you like that kind of story-telling, that’s completely fine, i get that. we’re not all here to watch YUGIOH, of all franchise, trying to give us some deep, meaningful message. hell, that’s not even the reason why i’ve enjoyed yugioh ever. i’m here for the same appeal that everyone else is here for: teens saving the world with stupid ass card games. but i just strongly prefer when a story, ANY story, shows enormous amounts of attention to detail and hints at deeper meanings in its context that i can use my brain to work around with and delve into. ze//al doesn’t give me even a hint of this. past ygos have, but ze//al doesnt even try. it’s meant for a younger audience tho, even for ygo’s usual demographic, so i get it. but... it’s because of this that i find it so lackluster.

speaking of the card games.... this show literally... has my least favorite decks. i’m not so into the OCG/TCG that i’m an expert about it so i dont wanna delve into something idfk much about, but just... that’s my taste... this show’s decks are terrible for the most part. the card effects are all too particular and disturbingly OP (one OP card after another... it always happens and it always makes the duels a drag to watch, even if they’re just one or two episodes long at the most)... plus... aesthetically... i guess they’re not all terrible, but still none of them wowed me either...

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again... this show nearly made me give up on yugioh. my logic was “if they’re just gonna keep making ze//al after ze//al, i’m just gonna stop.” thankfully... well i think you know what happened next...

even after all that’s said and done and i’ve pretty much ranted and ripped this show a new one, I STILL DON’T WANNA DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM WATCHING IT IF THEY REALLY WANNA TRY IT. because i know that maybe this show just wasn’t for me and it didnt click with me, but it might for someone else. i’m not here to tell you that it’s a piece of shit abomination that should never have happened and it should be whipped out of existence and you should go watch something else instead (HUR DUR GO WATCH VANGUARD INSTEAD) . i’m not here telling you what you should and shouldn’t like. if you like this show, that’s awesome. tbqh with you, i still enjoyed some of it and i’m not afraid to admit that. but overall? it was super lackluster and unimpressive, IMO. at best, i’d say it’s forgettable so for the most time i’m just like... “oh ze//al? yeah it happened i guess” and move on without a second thought and let its fans enjoy it as if its the best thing in the world even tho i personally do not see it that way at all. 

but again, i’d say watch it and make up your own opinion over it. i think that’s honestly the best course of action for any media that might even slightly interest you. don’t let people spoon feed their opinions to you. this was all MY experience of the show. go have your own.

p.s. (more of my opinion) i LOVE music and soundtracks of things. they’re always also a big factor of my enjoyment of the media i consume. the soundtrack for this show is decent at best. no track really stood out to me (like maybe one did) but for the most part... the soundtrack is just... i wouldn’t say it’s bad, it’s just... again not memorable... not my style... and my biggest gripe is that a lot of the tracks have this pseudo-grandiose feeling to it that just ultimately fall flat and don’t convey actual emotion. it mostly just seems like it’s music for music’s sake. personally, i think good soundtracks should be able to tell a story or convey an overwhelming feeling without the context of its source material being present. i... i just never got that with ze//al’s soundtrack. maybe once, as i said, but... even then i dont remember it.

on a more positive note tho... i have to admit all of the ED themes are really good (Challenge the Game was literally too good for this show, who the fuck allowed this). i’d listen to them way more often if i didnt associate them with ze//al tbh. not a huge fan of any of the OPs tho. no, not even the second OP. like it’s nice for the first few times but then, to me personally, it starts getting really grating and wangsty.