#and not only did it contribute to my love and understanding of music

[thefage]

In the beginning of Given, Uenoyama talks about how it took him a while to be able to play the guitar how he wanted. Uenoyama plays a Fender '72 Custom Shop Telecaster. At first I did not know the significance of this line, but after having attempted to play a telecaster twice I can tell you that bitch does not make any of the sounds you want it to, nor that you would expect it to, and that line actually points to this fact and tells the audience exactly how skilled Uenoyama is on the guitar.

[thequeer07puss]

The cosmological functions of Hera

I’ve been thinking a lot about Hera these past few weeks, and while reading “The Hera of Zeus: Intimate Enemy, Ultimate Spouse”, a new thought and association emerged about the goddess, leading me to analyse and interpret her role in the cosmos, both as a standalone goddess, and as the wife of Zeus.

[This analysis might contain UPG]

The gods as personifications: Zeus’s family as an extension of his power

Many of the gods we know and love have specific functions when they are in relation to Zeus. Hermes delivers his messages to gods and heroes, Apollo is his voice in the mortal world, and Athena is the personification of Zeus’s racing mind. Let me explain my thoughts

Athena is born from the head of Zeus himself, from Metis (which we translate as “wisdom” or “craft”) that he has in himself. As such, she would be one of the few beings in the universe to know and understand Zeus’s grand plans. For example, in the Iliad, Zeus’s grand plan is the destruction of Troy, which Athena was in firm favour of, despite the apparent opposition from her father, who had to restrain her from enacting his plan too soon.

“How is it relevant?” One may ask. “And how does that relate to Hera?” Put a pin in that thought dear reader.

Zeus did not create the universe: the cosmological role of Zeus and his marriages

Based on the interpretation above, many of Zeus’s family members are extensions of the reach he has over the universe, but only some of them could claim to be or have been his wife. Hesiod cites 7 goddesses as having been his wives, namely Metis, Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, and finally Hera. Since we have established the notion that Zeus’s family mean something in relation to him, my theory is that older goddesses, such as the Titans and early Olympians Zeus takes as wives are personifications of abstract concepts and concrete principles from which Zeus orders the universe.

[I would like to preface this next part by explaining a bit about the Ancient Greek view of marriage and sexuality. Marriage’s main function was the accomplishment of one’s personhood as well as creating new life who would contribute positively towards society. Additionally, sex was all about power dynamics, making the dominant partner (the man) the one in control of the submissive partner (the woman), making sex a sort of “subduing” of the other person.]

Zeus did not create the universe at all. He merely inherited it. It was established in Hesiod’s Theogony that all elements in the cosmos existed prior to his existence, albeit in a state of disarray and chaos. Zeus, as a god of structure, therefore inherited this disorderly world and created order from its constituents. In order to do so, he would need to be wise or crafty, which is the reason for his marriage to (and subsequent absorption of) Metis. After doing so he would need to determine the functionings and happening of the world, hence why he marries the Titan (natural force) responsible for establishing universal laws, Themis, from whom he creates goddesses who regulate the happenings of nature and human life, the Horae (Seasons or Hours). After establishing the functionings of the world and determining the best course of action for its happenings, Zeus had to think of what the world would look like, hence he took Eurynome, and from her made the Charites to make the world beautiful and full of delight. But the world was rough and unforgiving, yielding nothing of substance to that which Zeus would make, hence he married Demeter for her treasure of bounty and vegetation, and made Persephone. Then, after the world was beatiful, fruitful and plenty, there had to be intelligent creatures to inhabit it, so Zeus married Mnemosyne to create intelligence, learning, art and the delight of music, in the form of the Muses. Next, when intelligence had been created, it was time for the beings to proliferate in colonies, which is why Zeus married the fertile Leto, who produced Apollo and Artemis, representing the divide between civilisation and the savage wilderness. Lastly, when all had been made in good order, Zeus, whose hymn calls the most Excellent and Great, took in a wife, a final wife, the most beautiful goddess in existence, most excellent of birth, power and status: his sister-wife Hera, an equal to He who is Excellent.

The marriages of Zeus therefore represent a sequence of events that allow Zeus to structure the universe according to his will as the Divine Craftsman or Demiurge. His marriage to Hera therefore represents the completion of this ordering, the state of perfection in which all things exist under the order established by Zeus.

Hera the goddess of perfection

In “The Hera of Zeus”, Pirenne-Delforge and Pironti analyse the role of Hera as a goddess who pushes beings to their fullest potential. This is why, she is the mother of Hebe, which is the goddess of youth, a state where one reaches the full potential and power they will ever be capable of in life. This is also why in the story of the daughters of Pandareus, Hera gives the young women beauty and intellect above all other women. Therefore, it might come as no surprise that the goddess who grants perfection and loves excellence would be seen and worshipped as the goddess in charge of determining which deities are suitable to enter Olympus (see here), of initiating young people into greater society, and finding the most excellent match befitting of one’s status in marriage. However, as many of us know, perfection can not be achieved without a certain level of conflict, whether internal (like an artist willing to improve their craft) or external (a teacher giving students tough exercises to test their knowledge), and Hera being a lover of perfect things, thrives in this state of conflict or discomfort, which is exemplified in her relationship with her husband Zeus, with whom she argues quite a bit, with the goal to spur him on to consider and reconsider the way he rules the cosmos, and reestablish his supremacy among the gods. In the Iliad, Zeus seems to be used, or even expect to conflict and opposition from Hera, and even goes to her for advice on whether he should save Sarpedon from the war or not. In another story, Hera creates Typhon as the biggest challenge to Zeus’s reign, a challenge Zeus wins, reinforcing his superiority. Hera, in her role as wife of Zeus, is both a representation of the completion of Zeus’s reshaping of the universe, the goddess that reinforces her husband’s supremacy, as well as the goddess that forces Zeus to stay perfect to keep ruling and ordering the universe by constantly opposing and arguing with him to make him consider and reconsider courses of action to accomplish his plans.

Analysis of the Orphic hymn to Hera: the goddess of essences

Now that it was established that Hera is the goddess of excellence, and that she represents the state of completion that the universe exists in, a little question remains: why is the world so imperfect then?

Well, my friend, let me introduce you to the Platonic concept of “essences”. Plato saw essences as the universal, most basic, most condensed, most recognisable form of a thing or concept. They are essentially the “soul” of things or concepts. What is a cat? What makes a cat a cat? If you have a basic idea of what a cat is, it is because you are using the essence of “Cat” to produce a mental image of “cat”. Plato then proceeds to explain that we can not know these essences or experience them because we live in the material world, which is imperfect, which then alters the perfection of essences to make them appear to us in diverse forms.

“Then where are the essences?” One may ask. I answer: in Hera

The Orphic hymn to Hera calls her ψυχοτρόφους (psūchotróphous), which is translated as mother or nurse of souls, then proceeds to call her παντογένεθλε (pantogénthle), the source of everything, and say that she is in everything. Such a description is befitting of the goddess of essences.

[Here is part of a prayer I have written to Hera after a meditation on that aspect:

“Your hymn calls you the mother of souls, the Ψυχοτρόφος, the nurse of clouds, the source of all, my lady, wife and bedmate of Zeus, whose hymn calls him ἀρχὴ π��ντων and πάντων τε τελευτή, the beginning and end of all things. In yourself you have held and mixed all things, and have mingled your essence in them. All things are from you, all things are in you, you are in all things, and in the act of breathing we inhale your essence. You are queen, you are παμβασίλεια, for you are the blessed creator of the universe, who makes all things alongside Zeus, whose head contains the knowledge of all things.”]

Conclusion: tl;dr

In summary, Hera, the final wife of Zeus, does not only represent a simple marriage if you think about it on a cosmological scale. She represents the state of completion our universe exists in after a series of restructuring by Zeus, she is the goddess that makes both people and gods suitable and perfect, and she contains in her the essences of everything in the universe. She is a complex goddess whose interactions with other beings in myth and cult are often brushed off as being “simplistic” or “dramatic”, but reveal a very interesting story once they are given more thought.

Thank you for reading <3

[P.S: please feel free to add any thoughts or opinions to this discussion. It will fuel the voices]

[stardustizuku]

So I really don’t like Encanto’s music

That’s a lie.

I actually love “We don’t talk about Bruno” and I will always cry about “Dos Orugitas”.

But, Familia Madrigal? Don’t like it.

Waiting on a Miracle? Don’t like it.

Surface Pressure? Don’t like it.

What Else Can I Do? On thin fucking ice.

And that’s apparently a very controversial opinion. I was a bit baffled to see that everyone universally loved songs that I would consider objectively bad. I’ve seen musical experts make extensive videos on how good it is, which for the longest time deterred me from even saying how much I disliked it.

But like, I really can’t stay quiet about it anymore.

Okay, so first of all, we have to talk about accents.

Lin Manuel Miranda is from Puerto Rico. If you’ve ever heard them talk, you notice people from PR have a distinct way of talking. They put a lot of stress at the end of every syllable, and they talk very very fast. No, really. They talk very fast. There’s an inside joke among Latino people that most of us can’t understand Puerto Rican Spanish because it’s so fast and has what I can only describe as a “choppy pronunciation”. This is to say, they cut off their words off, use a lot of contractions and put the stress of a syllable always in the same place.

You can watch this interview with Bad Bunny to see what I’m talking about.

You can hear it, it’s extremely fast paced with even intervals of stress in their words. When they sing (again any Bad Bunny song can work to prove my point) you can hear that same style. Fast paced, with even intervals in the stress of their syllables.

This is their accent, coming through their music. It makes marvelous songs. Puerto Rican have a very distinct accent and their music gave way for this new wave of reggae music we see. One filled with rap and hip-hop beats. This is because their accent makes rapping the most comfortable medium for them to sing in.

And. When you put that side by side with Lin Manuel’s music, you’ll realize that it’s exactly the way he writes music. Most Puerto Rican musicians sing and rap in Spanish, for obvious reasons, but Lin does it in English! That is why it piqued a lot of Americans’ interest. His style was common in Spanish but innovative in English.

What Lin Manuel did is truly amazing. He mixed hip-hop, rap and Puerto Rican instruments to create his breakthrough musical In The Heights. This mix was a hit because of how well these three mix.

Lin Manuel raps, not only because he’s a lyrical genius, but his own accent gives him a natural advantage. It works best in his first musical because it is about his own struggles and lived experiences, growing up in Washington Heights.

In Hamilton, he leans more to hip-hop culture, mixing more African American styles of music. He’s using that same Puerto Rican intonation and style, and mixing it with hip hop, to tell a white story.

The juxtaposition of them both creates something unique. Founding Father history is boring, white and frankly tired. Giving it this new spin, mixing all types of sounds and voices, creates an idea that THIS history belongs to everyone; not just white people.

But. That doesn’t work in Encanto.

The problem with Encanto is that he’s trying to do the same thing he did in both previous musicals - but there is no reason for Puerto Rican inspired sounds to dominate the soundtrack (And boy do they dominate it)

This is about Colombian music and Colombian stories.

Like, people from the USA and who grew up there, adopt the same view of culture: The idea that all Latino cultures are extremely similar, should be melted together, and that everyone is allowed to contribute to part of it. It makes sense. Latinos form a community in a foreign country, where everyone is brothers and sisters, shoved into the same places and spaces.

But that only happens in the USA. In Latinoamérica, because everyone (for the large part, and excluding political refugees) has their own country where to create their own country style. So, while we are all friends - we’re not roommates, we’re neighbors. So people intruding into their culture, seems more of a bad taste.

Colombia is Colombia. They have a cultural identity almost separate and foreign to any other country (EXCEPT those that formed La Gran Colombia in the years of old). It makes no sense for a story or movie about it to have Puerto Rican sounds, Mexican sounds, Chilean sounds etc.

And Lin Manuel doesn’t seem to notice that his music, at its purest, is Puerto Rican sounds mixing with the environment. So, when he got put in charge of Encanto’s music, he used his style to create it- which leads to this huge problem where two entirely different sounds and style get put in a hotpot and what comes out is…

Odd.

Why did this happen, again?

Well, many reasons: in part bcs cause Disney is Disney and doesn’t see Latino countries as their own thing, in part bcs I believe Lin was filled with hubris of his own success and in part bcs I think he just didn’t understand what a fumble he was doing; but that doesn’t change the fact that - they simply do not fit here.

I genuinely believe that, Disney being Disney, assigned their only Latino musical man to write the music for their Latino musical. Ignoring the fact that Lin Manuel has only one type of musical style, which is at complete odds with Colombian music or stories. Disney (in my opinion) waved their hand and let the Latino do their Latino stuff without bothering to check if they were the RIGHT type of Latino - and so, we ended up in this mess.

And Moana at least had Somoan artists writing alongside Lin Manuel to at least, reign in some of Lin’s more obvious attempts to make this Hamilton 2.0. But in Encanto? He had one artist writing alongside him whose only other connection to Latinoamérica was Coco.

And listen, I’m not here to say white people can’t write compelling music - Coco is a great example of white people stealing and replicating the aesthetics of a culture so well its scary - but it is iffy.

So, yeah. Encanto has Lin Manuel’s style all over itself like it’s In the Heights 2.0

The problem?

This is not about you Lin!

His style becomes horrendously apparent when he tries to mix in Colombian Music with lyricism genetically engineered to fit Puerto Rican Vocal Cords. Add to that that the fucking Main Character is voiced by a Puerto Rican artist and what you get - is music that signals one thing, and a voice that signals other.

Causing this entire thing to sound, not only convoluted - but also so off the beat you would think a white man wrote it.

Okay, so let’s take Familia Madrigal, and I’m gonna use it to point out the obvious:

Stephanie Beatriz is NOT COLOMBIAN.

Which, by the way, fucking shows. Her accent kills any indication you may have that Maribel is actually Colombian.

I know, that people from the USA failed geography in kindergarten and don’t even know that people from Latinoamerica are separated into countries - but surprise surprise they do. And they ALSO have extremely different accents.

Someone from Colombia speaks differently from someone from Argentina, or Mexico etc. So when Maribel opens her mouth, imagine my shock when, what I hear, isn’t a Colombian accent but a Puerto Rican one.

And while you think it can’t - it shows very much in the way people sing too.

It’s like a show brightly saying “this is a movie dedicated to London culture and it’s set in London using London narratives to tell it”.

And the main character starts speaking - and she has a fucking Texan accent.

Like, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart:

Why did Disney hire a Puerto Rican person to voice act their Colombian character…?

I get that they did something similar in Coco, but two things 1) Guatemala is pretty close to Mexico. 2) The sound design is so Mexican it’s scary. You CAN hear that there’s some missing timber and accent in some songs, but you just assume it’s due to Disney purposely flattening the more “ugly” parts of Mexican music (aka, this breathy raspy tone you use for some ‘corrido’ and mariachi music) because even the Spanish version is missing it.

But because Encanto was written by Lin - he’s writing lyrics with an undeniably Puerto Rican accent. THEN, you make the girl singing it a Puerto Rican girl, with a heavy PR accent.

And you’re left with this…song. That has lyrics genetically engineered to favor Puerto Rican pronunciation with Colombian Music in the background. It makes this weird, jarring sensation that, to me, feels like nothing I’ve heard before.

Which, if this were a new experimental musical, I would probably find it interesting.

But for fucks sake, Lin. This is a Colombian story. You’re supposed to be channeling COLOMBIAN vibes. Not whatever this is.

Okay, want an example? Compare “Familia Madrigal” to another Colombian artist (that isn’t Shakira) Bacilos: I think that Mi Primer Millón is the closest thing I can think of.

You’ll notice two things:

1) The voice that sings is so slow. It doesn’t rush every single sentence, the way it’s very characteristic of Lin. This is very common in Colombian music. It’s not fast paced. It’s lively! Fun! But not quick-paced the way Puerto Rican is. It’s relaxed.

And

2) The words drag. It’s not each syllable being stressed, but everything sorta drags and blends with the word in front of it.

It’s completely different from Family Madrigal - even if the music is kinda similar.

That’s what I mean when I say that Stephanie Beatriz’s accent kills any illusion of Maribel being Colombian. The way she sings would be PERFECT for a reggae song, or set in the nebulous America where all Latino culture is a melting pot.

But it doesn’t sound distinctly Colombian. It sounds - fucking American. And Disney American at that. Because there’s no hard defying Colombian aesthetic, but more of vaguely Latino sound.

The same happens in Waiting on a Miracle.

So, this works on two levels. First is the Disney “I want song” ballad, like Part of your world, I cannot stress how quickly it’s going, and how little it conveys.

As Colombian music - I heard Lin say that they’re using a Bambuco, a type of music known to have ¾ rhythm instead of 4/4 to symbolize Maribel. All family members sing in 4/4 while Maribel, the odd one out, sings in a ¾.

Except, when I heard this I was like:

What the fuck do you mean this is a Bambuco?

I was genuinely confused because Waiting on a Miracle does not sound like a Bambuco, not even in the Spanish dub, where like half the problems I have with the music are fixed.

But then you listen to background music without the vocals, and you’re like oh. Yeah, that kinda is a Bambuco!

The lyrics ruin it tho.

A popular Bambuco song is “El Barcino” which, when put side by side with Waiting on a Miracle, show that the lyrics ruin any pace the song is creating.

El Barcino uses letters that end and starts on vocals, and are short, to make sure that it has the least amount of syllables, even when it’s using quite a bit of words. It helps everything sorta blend together, with the harshest sounding letters like “r” and “ll” being left to the end. With that last word being the one that drags on the most.

Esta es la historia (4)

De aquel novillo (4)

Que había nacido (4)

Allá en la tierra (4)

Compare that to Waiting on Miracle that seems to do the opposite. It uses constant consonants that purposely break the sound, with no long words to drag at the end. In FACT it seems like the last word is the one that gets cut abruptly. With the middle of the sentence being the one that drags a bit.

I can’t heal what’s broken (6)

Can’t control the morning rain (7)

Or a hurricane (4)

Never mind that each line has a different syllable number.

The Spanish dub tries to fix this, and that’s why I say it’s much better. The actual VA attempts to sing in a way that mushes together the first few syllables, and puts stress on the last word - and the Spanish writers are fighting for their lives to shorten the syllables by using as many vocals as they can.

But genuinely, there’s just so much they can do, when Lin’s writing comes bashing with a hammer with its stupid tempo.

And I’ve heard people say that “well, Mirabel sings so different because she’s the odd one in the family”, which-…

Do you think that? Then why didn’t they hire a Colombian VA? Or a South American VA? Someone who could more closely emulate the type of accent Colombian people have?

My opinion, they wanted Stephanie because Lin is KNOWN to work with people from previous projects, in this case Stephanie was in his production of In Height Movie. I think he wanted her to land the job at Disney. Disney saw a big name with big backing and decided to cast her as the Main Character. And when this happened, Lin started writing her songs in a way that she felt more comfortable, or molding Mirabel’s character around parts of Stephanie herself (which is not unheard of, or even a bad practice. But it effectively ruins a pretty good song for me).

Less than Lin choosing Stephanie to sing this way bcs Maribel sings this way, I think it’s more of a Mirabel sings like this bcs Lin chose so, bcs it fits Stephanie better.

But again, it ends up sounding nothing like Colombian Bambuco. I don’t even know what it sounds like.

The problem I think, lies in the fact that three things are fighting like crazy in this song - Lin’s lyricism that has no business being here, a Disney Formula that was on its way to becoming so tired it ended up as “Wish”, and actual Colombian music that is sitting here being yanked and stretched to fit whatever these two idiots decide is best today.

As an “I want song” ballad, it also fails massively. I’m gonna go ahead and show an actual song in English to prove my point - Shakira. I’m using her first album in English (because it’s the one that is less touched by outside American influences), and picking the one that sounds the most like an I Want ballad throughout. It’s not a 1:1 but I hope it proves my point.

Take Waiting on a Miracle vs Underneath Your Clothes (granted, at this point Shakira still uses rock in her music (RIP Shakira rockera you will be missed) so I acknowledge the music is different. I’m focusing more on her voice rn)

You can definitely see the difference in the accent and way I’m so genuinely offended they hired Stephanie (her talent be damned, I want my Colombian artists to be given a chance)

You can hear the way Shakira sorta Just sings? There’s no choppy attempts to fit syllables into the right tempos. She dances with the music, instead of forcing herself through it.

Like, the “I can’t control the morning rain or a hurricane” sounds like it’s cut in pieces. But “And all the things that I deserve” just doesn’t. It stays in the beat with the music.

What's even weirder, tho is that recently, Shakira used Reggae and Puerto Rican style music to mix with her music.

Bizzarap may be an Argentinian musician but in her song with him she, well, raps and used that similar choppy style of lyrics that Lin uses - just that the background music is obviously not Colombian - but hearing her you can hear how different it is from Maribel’s singing.

And it’s a great example that my problem isn’t PR girls singing - cause honestly the song slaps - but that they’re doing it in Colombian story ; set in Colombia, where honestly PR culture has no business being here. Like, Venezuelan inspire music, Panama inspired music, or even Ecuador music wouldn’t be weird…But Puerto Rican? They weren’t even part of La Gran Colombia.

But okay, not everything is awful.

I actually love We don't talk about Bruno, because for all the reasons why Lin Manue style does not fit Colombian Music - musicals DO fit Colombian Music! And when done RIGHT, you get this masterpiece. They do everything right

Tia Pepa IS voiced by a Colombian girl! (Who also sung the Spanish dub, oh my god Carolina Gaitan the woman you are!)

The lyrics are repetitive and simple. Which allows people to actually sing! You can hear her drag the last word really nicely when she sings, it’s such a delight to the ears.

It’s followed by Dolores doing a RAP! A proper rap, to which they have a Puerto Rican rap singer!! No wonder she’s the highlight of the song! This was built for her, and she nailed it! Oh, my god, you see how amazing something can sound if you just know what you’re doing??? The Colombian girl who does the Spanish dub doesn’t pull it as good as the English dub.

The sudden change from Dolores to Camilo is great.

The ensemble is amazing. If Lin can do something good is an ensemble where everyone is singing their own verse.

Like I cannot stress how amazing everything fits for this.

What Else Can I do?

I say this is on thin ice because it shows that the problem isn’t just Lin lyricism but the fact that both Maribel and Luisa are voiced by Puerto Rican Voice Actresses.

That said, oh my god the Spanish dub is like 10x better. In English, they hired a PR VA for Maribel. But in Spanish? The entire cast is ACTUALLY Colombian!

(Fun fact! When I was listening to the Spanish Dub of this song I thought it was Mexican Inspired because the choppy Lin Style changed slightly to mix with someone singing with this melodic type of intonation - sounds extremely like a Tatiana song. Her version of the “Won’t Say I’m In Love” sounds so similar to this song. If you still think not, “Gotita de Amor” has such big vibes with “Inspiración” (Aka WECID but Spanish), it’s actually funny.)

It sounds really fun. But it’s again, not something I find ground breaking, The song is finally one that doesn’t put too much emphasis on the choppy Lin style - but that’s probably because THEY HIRED AN ACTUAL COLOMBIAN VA.

That said, this could have been a great way to introduce some Colombian rock - given that they ARE using an electric guitar in the background and she’s supposed to be breaking the idea of the ‘perfect daughter’ - but sure, let’s go for the generic Disney Princess Rebel sound. Sure, whatever, who cares about any sort of cultural references at this point, anyways.

(Never mind that THE Shakira started out as a rock girlie and her original albums could have been a great fit for Isabela - like Donde Estas Corazón or Si Te Vas)

Okay enough, at this point you either got what I was saying, or are still pissed that I don’t like the music.

Either angry that I don’t give Stephanie the flowers she deserve, that I’m too harsh on Lin, or that I have a vendetta against PR.

I think she’s an amazing actress, I think she has a great voice. I love In the Heights, I had a Hamilton phase, and was super into 21 Jump Street until I realized it’s copaganda (we don’t have time to discuss you). And I don’t think there’s someone who appreciate having reggae songs being put in the club downtown more than me, because seriously WHITE PEOPLE NEED TO STOP PUTTING ABBA TO SIGNAL THAT THE PARTY IS ENDING.

Now. My problem isn’t that. It isn’t even the fact that people from the PR were put in charge of writing a Colombian story.

The music from Coco is Amazing. I have no idea how they managed it, but every single song sounds like one I grew up with. Ernesto’s Remember Me sounds like something my mom would listen to when we clean up a Saturday morning. Juanita sounds like something my grandpa would listen to when he’s drunk and thinking of my late grandma. Llorona sounds like the songs I used to dance to in Folklore Dancing classes when I was a kid.

And it was written by an Italian guy.

I’m not usually one to gatekeep who gets to make music. But I think the key difference here is:

The Italian guy knew he was intruding in a place he didn’t belong. This was not his music he had to replicate, and he had to put extra effort to make sure it sounded authentically Mexican and not Italian.

Lin did not have this approach. At least not when writing the songs. He tried to sample Colombian music, but did not put the effort into making sure his own bias of what music should sound like affect the music he’s writing.

Because Lin didn’t feel like he was intruding on a place! He felt like he was in his own environment, where he could play with the sounds and incorporate them into his own style.

But he wasn’t. He isn’t Colombian. He shouldn’t have felt this comfortable

And no one ever thought to tell him “this doesn’t sound authentic” bcs a) he’s Latino, therefore his music should be authentically Latino (even when, in his case, he’s not Colombian) b) he’s always been able to sell.

It’s a bit of a bummer. Because even after Encanto released, I saw everyone giving him flowers and loving it and streaming it - when all I could do was stare at it and feel like there was something wrong.

It sounded like Lin. It sounded like Disney. But it didn’t sound like Colombia.

It speaks a lot about an issue in Latinoamerican spaces in the USA and Canada that non-Latino people have been trying to talk about for ages, just to be ignored. That is: American-born “Latinos” are not really considered part of the Latino community in full. A lot of the values and perspectives that are considered by the LatAm community as integral to our culture, do not get transmitted to American-born Latinos. They’re raised with a hyper-individualistic mindset, assuming they can take from LatinoAmerican countries, when they have not lived the -frankly- harsh reality of everyday here. They don’t understand the culture, or the language, or day to day struggles - yet they feel entitled grab it and create aesthetics with no regards to the realities of people who have to live those experiences.

A great example is, Lupita in her recent “Emilia Perez” role. She did not care for the actual struggles of people living in Mexico. Even though she’s considered “Latina” by the USA, she’s not considered so in LatAm. Because she lived within the American privilege, she never bothered to understand the culture she is from, and is more than ready to throw away what she believed to be her “community” for a chance at the table.

And while Lin didn’t do something as egregious as to defend Jacques, he still sorta perpetuates this idea. That he’s entitled to take what he wants from LatAm countries because he is “Latino”. Even when he was raised in New York, and should be treating the cultures of other countries with respect and acknowledgement that they are not the same.

Something I need to kudos for is hiring Sebastian Yatra. His contribution to this movie is genuinely the highlight of the entirety of Disney in this decade. Two Orugitas and Dos Orugitas are songs that I think about constantly. He’s a very famous Colombia artist who created some of my favorite songs (Tacones Rojos, Ojos Marrones, Traicionera etc), so I was very happy to see him involved in this movie. In fact, I think it made wonders for his career. His success with Tacones Rojos undoubtedly made bigger with people knowing from this movie.

There’s also Colombia, Mi Encanto. I like that song. I think it’s great.

There was genuine effort put into this movie. And trying to trash it entirely because I think Lin did a terrible job in research, isn’t fair. There are good things about this movie, and musically I’ve heard worse. It’s not…shall I say unlistenable? I do listen to some of these songs. They’re interesting musical theater pieces. And, for all I hate his work on this movie, Lin does have power with the pen. He’s a genius of a lyricist.

But I felt the need to point out that, while Encanto does have good music, it’s surrounded by a very distinct type of internalized American imperialism that no one will care to ever address

[cyn-write]

"Heaven's Light"

Summary: Rollo has been eyeing y/n since her arrival, seeing you as the diamond amongst coals. At the Ball, his feelings culminate into a confession, but he didn't expect her reply...

Pairing: Rollo×F!Reader

Warnings: Y/n is lonely and ignored by NRC boy, first love, possible OOC, not edited, Lots of Fluff, the Rollo brain rot is real

Note: This is a lot longer than I intended! I hope everyone going through Rollo brain rot enjoys and if you are interested in reading an SFW or NSFW epilogue, let me know! If you would like to read the other parts in what I am calling my "Glomas Series" I will put links below! "She Blazes Me Beyond all Control" ft. Azul, Idia, and Malleus "I Feel Her, I See Her " ft. Riddle, Deuce, Ruggie, and Jamil

"Who might you be miss?"

Y/n gave a kind smile and nodded her head in greeting "I'm y/n, it's nice to meet you," she stayed next to Trein as she was there as his assistant.

"Yuu is our magicless perfect of Ramshackle. She will be working as my assistant throughout the trip," Trein added.

She felt Rollo's eyes scan her, and, unlike his greetings to the rest, he held out a hand. Being poilet, she offered her hand as well, and he lifted it to his lips, grazing her knuckles quickly.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, y/n. I understand it must be difficult, being surrounded by mages every second of the day. I hope you get a chance to relax this trip." Y/n blushed at the motion and bit her lower lip. All the while she could feel some of the others glaring daggers at her and Rollo.

"I-I'll do my best..." Y/n replied. Throughout the entire trip, Rollo seemed to gravitate towards y/n and used every excuse to isolate her from the group. They chatted about her difficulties at NRC and at the festival. As they chatted, she felt more and more drawn to the Student Council President

This all accumulated at the Masquerade. Rollo had given Y/n a proper dress for the occasion instead of the attire his counsel had chosen. The red fabric decadently adorned her figure and stunned the NRC boys with its beauty. But before any of them could ask for a dance, Rollo stole y/n away. He whisked her to the dance floor, and they started chatting.

It all felt like a dream, a wonderful, beautiful dream. Even though Rollo had tried to destroy magic, he was also the only person during all her time in Twisted Wonderland that she felt seen. The boys had always pushed her to the side, even when she was the only one whom the fire lotuses couldn't hurt but instead of including her in the plan, she was put on babysitting duty. Even at NRC, she was the one who dealt with the overblots, yet never thanked or even recognized as a full student.

Then she met Rollo and ever since their meeting, he treated her like a person. He recognized all she did for the boys and thanked her for her contributions. He even set aside time to show her around. Y/n never believed in "love at first sight," but ever since Rollo's lips grazed her knuckles, she felt her heart do somersaults around the stoic 3rd year.

Now, he asked her to dance. She felt like the Glass Princess dancing with her prince and just like the Glass Princess, she knew this would only last until Midnight. By this time tomorrow, she would be back at NRC. Back to being invisible.

As the song came to a close, she thought her night was over, but he must have been thinking about the same thing.

"Y/n, can I show you something?" He asked as the music quieted for a small interlude before the next song began. His face may appear as stone, but his blue eyes quivered. He was nervous.

Y/n nodded, "Sure."

Rollo, being a gentleman, offered her his arm. Determined to enjoy the moment, y/n leaned into Rollo as he escorted her out of the ballroom and up to the empty balcony on the upper level of the ballroom. The sun was set and the night sky was stunning, but what Rollo wanted to show y/n was the city at night. It was like a starry night itself as the city lamps and lights twinkled. It was stunning.

"Rollo, this is beautiful..."

"Y/n, stay here with me." Y/n turned to look at Rollo in shock and confusion, "Those fools at NRC do not deserve your purity. They treat you like a ghost. And I-" Rouge graced his pale cheeks and he looked into her (e/c) eyes, "I-I... I can't bear the thought of you leaving. You belong here. with me." He places his cold hand atop hers, "Let this be your sanctuary."

Y/n's heartbeat rose into her throat and before she could properly think what he said through, her heart spoke first, "Yes."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rollo was prepared for her to shoot him down, uprooting her heart like they did his flowers. What he wasn't prepared for her to accept.

Nothing this Halloween went as planned. His plot to destroy magic failed, Malleus and the fools at NRC destroyed his flowers, and y/n waltzed into his life.

He had read about true love and deemed it poppycock. There was no such thing. Then he saw her in her NRC uniform and his heart felt like it leaped out of his chest and into the sky. She was a pure flame burning in his chest and distracting him. He tried to ignore it, but any time he saw her that plan quickly became impossible.

He reworked his original plan to ensure she would be unharmed and fall into his arms at the same time. The first part of his plan failed, but he couldn't lose her. She was the last flame he had left.

Rollo was so sure of himself at first. He sent her a new dress, a proper one that enhanced her beauty far more than the one his counsel chose, he fixed the ballroom himself, he made sure to be her first dance, he read up on how to court a lady, prepared what he would say to her as they danced, and how he would ask her to stay and be his. Though much like his original plan with the fire lotuses, the moment he saw her. She was stunning, so stunning that he almost forgot everything he prepared. Thankfully, he regained his composer before he asked her to dance.

Now he felt his nerves resurface as it came time for him to confess. All his confidence and preparation failed to calm his beating heart. Thoughts raced through his mind as they walked to the balcony. What if she says no? What if she rejects me? What if I misread all of our interactions? he thought as they went out into the cool night air. Should I just keep my mouth shut? Abandon ship before it sinks...

Then he saw her eyes light up as she saw the city at night. The lights aglow, the soft mummer of music coming from the ballroom, and he knew he had to try.

"Y/n, stay here with me." He blurted out before he could convince himself otherwise, he decided to let his heart speak for once and not let his head take control. ""Those fools at NRC do not deserve your purity. They treat you like a ghost. And I-" he paused for a second and felt the fire in his chest grow brighter and brighter, "I-I... I can't bear the thought of you leaving. You belong here. with me." He places his cold hand atop hers, "Let this be your sanctuary."

Silence. He averted his eyes and clenched his handkerchief in his pocket.

His doubts returned and he prepared himself for rejection. He started to form a retraction in his mind, but she, yet again, surprised him.

"Yes." She said, her (e/c) eyes glimmered like stars and her voice rang like the Bell of Solace. "I-I'll stay with you."

Rollo felt his heart stop. He looked her in the eyes again and squeezed her hand. "You mean it." He removed his free hand from his handkerchief and placed it tentatively on her cheek, "Y-you'll stay?"

She placed her hand stop his and leaned into his touch, "I do." He could see tears forming in the corner of her eyes, "I don't want to leave you either."

On pure impulse, he pulled her into a tight embrace. Half of him was convinced that she would disappear if he let her go, and the other half was relieved. She felt the same as him. She wanted to be with him.

"Rollo, you're shaking," She commented as she returned his embrace. He didn't realize he was shaking so much. It must be the relief of her accepting his proposal. She looked up at him and placed a hand on his cheek. Her skin was warm and comforting.

"I guess I am..." He said and placed his own hand on top, "This is just what you do to me, my Flame."

She giggled and her melodious laugh made him respond with one of his own. "Do I?" she responded.

"Yes," He gently moved a strand of her hair away from her face and his eyes landed on her lips. Those beautiful red lips beckoned his own, "You have set my heart ablaze and it makes me want to listen to my heart instead of my head."

"And what is your heart telling you to do now?" She asks in a teasing manner.

"To do this," He leaned in and kissed her. it was gentle, nervous at first. Then as he realized she was reciprocating, he deepened the kiss. They parted for a moment to catch their breath before claiming another kiss, then another. Solidifying their love above the City of Flowers.

Rollo may have failed to rid the world of magic, but he found his new Heaven's Light.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Please Like, Reblog, and Follow for more! If you are interested in seeing an NSFW part 2 or any other request, please let me know! (Do not Steal)

[m1ssunderstanding]

Understanding Lennon McCartney Rewatch Part 2.1

Cynthia and John are worse and crazier for admitting what they admitted in the bio. But Jane and Paul are not exempt.

Will forever love this pic of Paul and Julian. He does not look like the fun uncle. He looks tired and dependable. Just stepped out of the womb as a father, didn't he? The sperm that fertilized his egg probably passed some fatherly advice and hair tussles to the other sperm as it passed them. 

They should've bought the fucking island.

They never look more like a couple than when the women they're actually dating are right next to them. 

The India footage actually looks so beautiful. Obviously it's a beautiful place, but they all genuinely look so free and at peace there. It really could've been so good for them. Getting enlightened, getting soberish, growing closer as a band, taking a much-needed rest. It should've been good. 

The music choices in this documentary! The drastic shift from, “all you need is love” and “the dream I had was true” and “I don't need much to set me free.” to Paul leaving to “yes I'm lonely. Wanna die.” “I'm going insane.” “Look at me. Who am I supposed to be?” 8d8 psychic damage. And the thing is it's real. John really did flip a switch, just like that.

Smashing my head into a wall. It's the same as Yoko's quote about how ‘nobody hurt John more than Paul.’ Really Pete? Worse than after his mum died? Really Yoko? More than that drunk cop? Paul, what the fuck did you do to him in India, seriously, because at this point in the doc I can't accept the theory that it was just some lack of communication, I just can't. 

It's also telling to me that when John's losing it, everyone's solution is some time alone with Paul. Nobody panic. Paul can fix him. Little do they know Paul's the one that broke him. Or maybe they do know and that's only another reason they know Paul's the only man for the job?

Old-fashioned ad voice: You liked Protective Jesus Scandal Paul? You'll love Protective LSD Scandal John! Really. Before the question is even out, he's making fun of it. I think he cuts off the interviewer at least three times with jokes before he can get the sentence out, and by the time he is, Paul's giggling too hard to feel bad about his little PR fuck-up.

Then he lets Paul talk a bit before jumping back in, this time with his Hard Man suit on. It's just so good. A testament to their unconditional love, really. Because, clearly, Paul's just hurt John pretty bad. And yet, here John is. Using every trick he's got to defend his friend. 

But actually, though John is supposedly the one everyone's worried about, Paul's doing a pretty shit job of being the “stable” one. This entire press tour he's either fucking blazed and laughing at everything or disassociated and not contributing.

(((except during that political discussion – again! Paul secretly has actual thoughts on actual things?!)))

But for the most part, John's absolutely holding down the fort. I wonder if this is another case of everyone – all their friends and business associates, just like we as a fandom still do now – assuming John is the problem child, and Paul's the strong one, but actually they're both both. 

Back to the political interview. They're just so in sync. Finishing each other's sentences when you're talking about the weather or your shared work is one thing. Finishing each other's sentences on complex topics like why poor whites often vote bigots in or the cause of rampant misinformation is quite another. 

“Letting his dad cut his hair at sixteen, seventeen.” You all know that John hates Jim quote. 

John: so there's war, and vegetables. There's relativity and absolute.  Paul (absolutely smitten): that's great Johnny. Int: that's rather hard for people to interpret. John: well if they can't interpret it now, maybe they will later..... 1. John really was extremely intelligent. 2. That last statement sums up Beatles historiography.

Paul really just Won't be alone with John, will he? Well, two can play at that game, Paul, and John's going to win, let me tell you. 

But he's going to do one last panic grab for attention first.

I really do think if John had done something like that *before* Paul would've given him that attention. Told him he's being insane and taken him home to splash some cold water on him or something and then given him whatever softness Paul was capable of. But not anymore. 

I wonder if Paul could go back to 1966 if he just wouldn't have taken John to that Indica show where he met Yoko. If he would've just said “okay John, sure, let's just stay home and trip on the couch tonight.” I don't know.

Anyway, Yoko gets an A+ for persistence. Imagine being Paul, George, or Ringo, though, and John is suddenly madly in love with this woman whose been begging you all (and then him specifically) for a platform for over a year? It would be weird to say the least. 

John: don't you hate me? I'm crazy, you know. Paul: no I don't hate you. John: aren't you pissed at me now, Paul? Even a little bit? Paul: I'm very proud of you. It's the unstoppable force (“Don't ‘nore me, Mimi!”) vs the immovable object (“I learned to put a shell around me”.) Someone get them some professional help before they nuke the whole world. 

“There is, however, a desire to get power in order to use it for good.” One of those quotes that just really lets you see a person, you know? Benevolent dictator Paul. 

Yoko, why are you talking about how bad your boy doesn't want to fuck you right in front of all his closest friends and on record for posterity? If you have to be talking about your sex life, shouldn't you be lying about how insanely horny he is for you? Oh, right, she will think of that, just not yet. 

And then she waxes poetic about how turned on John is when he's working on music with Paul. Cool. Smart. Thanks for that, though, genuinely.

And Then (gosh, Yoko is such an asset to Beatles history when she's not actively spreading misinformation. Everyone give her a hand) she goes on about how Paul goes out of his way to make her feel respected and even valued. Compare that to John and Linda, anyone? And I want to be clear, I'm not saying this means John cares too much and Paul doesn't care at all, which might be the surface read. I just think John's reaction was to scream in everyone's face that he was in pain and Paul's was to insist ad nauseam that he was fine. You know?

[viola-verse]

June 21, 2025.

Warnings: Briefly alludes to Yoongi's "scandal" and how the antis treated him. Military dischargement. Alludes to the speculation that Yoongi's married is starting. X is still called Twitter in this cause I'm not calling it X.

Wordcount: 1,593

Send a request or a suggestion if there is something you want to read

Author's Note: This is short and sweet, not all imagines will be this short (or long - some might be quick timestamps & social media posts). This is just the idea that I had that started the Viola-verse.

Viola is in one of the dance studios practicing her choreography for her second comeback as a solo artist. As the music to title song fills the room, she moves along with it precision and dedication. Beads of sweat form on her forehead as she pushes herself to perfect each movement. Suddenly, she hears the door to the studio creak open, interrupting her concentration. She turns her head, about to scold the person, but stops herself when she sees it's Yoongi. 

Yoongi steps further into the room, clad in military uniform and a soft smile on his lips. Because their relationship is still unknown to the outside world, she was kept busy with schedules and dance practice. 

"I thought you could use a break," he says gently, as he picks up her water bottle and towel and brings it over to her forcing her to take a break. 

Viola's stern expression melts into one of gratitude, and she nods walking over to the sound system and lowers the volume of the music. She walks closer to him taking the bottle and towel. She gulps down the cool water, and then dabs the sweat from her forehead with the towel. 

"Thank you," she says, as she leans in for soft peck. “How did your discharge and live go? I tried to catch the en-” 

She’s cut off when Yoongi presses a kiss to her lips, pulling her against him.  

“I’m sweaty and gross,” she mumbles against his lips, a soft giggle leaving her lips.  

"I don't care," he whispers, his breath warm against her lips.  

Viola's heart swells, and she wraps her arms around his neck, savoring the moment. For a few minutes, they stand there, holding each other, the music playing faintly in the background as they begin to sway to the song. 

“Is that your title track?” he asks, his smile turning a little smug. He knows for certain that the song playing is her title track. He had a hand in writing it with her.  

Viola chuckles and nods. "Yes, it is. And it's all thanks to you," she replies lovingly, acknowledging his contribution with a warm smile. Her title track – You, Me, Us – is an emotional love song that perfectly captures the love she shares with him. Yoongi co-writing and producing the song makes it even more meaningful to her.  

“I left my wedding ring on during the live,” he admits, unable to hold it in anymore. Yoongi’s intention was to switch his wedding band from his left to his right hand, but it slipped his mind as he anxiously waited for the live to start. “Can’t get anything past Army’s, they noticed I was wearing it before I remembered I was.” 

Viola's eyes widen slightly in surprise. “How did they react?" she asks, anxious about how his fans would handle it. Her mind flashing back to last year and everything that went down only makes her worry more. 

Yoongi lips brush against her forehead in a soothing gesture. "You know how the fans react to things. They go wild.” 

"You don't have to wear your ring during work if it makes it easier for you. I understand,” she says, softly, reassuring him that she doesn’t have an issue with it if that’s what he wants to do. They’d had a few conversations about what they would do once Yoongi is back with BTS being the rapper and producer everyone loves. Ultimately, they never decided on what they’ll do.  

Yoongi shakes his head, his gaze softening. "I know, but I’m used to wearing it. I have been for the last 11 months. It’s a part of me now,” he assures her. “Everyone will just have to deal with it.” 

"I love you," she whispers. 

"I love you too," Yoongi murmurs, pulling her close again and pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

Their moment is soon interrupted by the door swinging open, Namjoon and a frazzled looking Jin. The couple breaks apart, taking a step or two back from each other.  

“Ya! We’ve been looking for you!” Jin scolds the younger man, who’d quickly disappeared after his live, avoiding whatever surprise the rest of the group had planned for him. 

Viola and Yoongi exchange a quick glance, a silent understanding passing between them. “Sorry,” Yoongi says with an apologetic smile. “I just wanted to see my wife.” 

Namjoon raises an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. “Well, you’ve seen her. We have a surprise waiting for you.” 

Yoongi looks at Viola, who gives him an encouraging nod. “Alright, lead the way,” he sighs, trying to pretend to be annoyed as he goes to leave the room with them. 

“You too, Hannie,” Jin calls out to her, holding the door open, using the nickname he uses for her. Hannie being from her Korean name Ha-neul. 

“Me?” she asks, confused.  

“You think we’d have a surprise for Yoongi Hyung and not include his wife, Noona?” Namjoon asks. 

“Give me a minute,” she tells them, scrambling to turn off the sound system and gather her belongings.  

Yoongi waits for her, a subtle smile playing on his lips as he watches her. Once ready, Viola joins them, and together they head down the corridor. The sound of chatter and laughter grows louder with each step they take, a clear indication that a celebration is underway. 

They enter the large rehearsal room, which has been transformed into a celebration space. Decorations hang from the ceiling, and a large banner reads, “Welcome Back, Yoongi!” 

The room erupts in cheers and applause as they step inside. Jimin is the first to speak up, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “We knew you’d try to hide, but you can’t escape us that easily!” 

“I knew you were planning something!” He says allowing his chosen brothers to hug him. 

“You know us too well,” Hoseok chimes in, handing him a drink. “Don’t worry we all went through this after our live. Couldn’t let all the food and cake go to waste.” 

Yoongi laughs, accepting the drink and taking a sip. The atmosphere is warm as everyone relaxes, enjoying the reunion. Viola watches as Yoongi interacts with the rest of his group, his face lighting up. It's heartwarming to see him surrounded by those who love and support him the most.  

As the evening progresses, each BTS member takes turns to express their happiness for them being back together again as a whole and being able to continue doing what they all love. Namjoon’s heartfelt words about brotherhood bring tears to Viola’s eyes, reminding her that no matter how much time passes, they’ll always be those same boys she met during their trainee days. 

When the celebrations start to wind down, Yoongi finds Viola conversing with Jimin and Hoseok. “Ready to go home?” he asks her. She nods starting to feel her social battery draining. 

They say their goodbyes to everyone and follow the staff member tasked with driving them home. Walking closely together, Yoongi slips his hand into hers as they exit the building to where the car is parked. The car ride is quiet but comfortable, filled with the soft hum of the engine. Viola leans her head against Yoongi’s shoulder, as they both feel the excitement from today turn into exhaustion. Both their social batteries are on nil. 

As they near their home, the city's vibrant lights reflect off the car windows, casting a warm glow inside. The driver pulls up to their building, and they thank him before stepping out into the night. Yoongi's hand finds hers again, their fingers linking naturally as they head toward the entrance of their home. 

Once inside, Yoongi and Viola change into more comfortable clothes and settle on the couch. Yoongi leans back, pulling Viola close, resting his chin on her head. Viola has her phone in her hand and starts scrolling through social media. It doesn’t take her long to find posts about Yoongi possibly wearing a wedding ring. 

"People are already speculating about your ring," she tells him scrolling through some of the comments left on one post. “It’s already trending.” 

He chuckles, taking her phone to get a better look. "Let them speculate. We’ll be fine as long as they don’t do anything." 

"What if the antis or sasaengs do something?” she asks, voicing her concerns. “It broke my heart seeing those funeral wreaths with your name on them in front of the building. My manager had to stop me from going out and destroying them. I should have done it anyway," she frowns remembering what happened in the months following his stupid scandal.  

Yoongi's expression softens as he takes her hand in his. "I know it was tough, but we'll face whatever happens together,” he tries to assure her. "For now, how about we focus on something else?" Yoongi suggests, trying to lighten the mood and get her mind off things. "Our first anniversary is coming up next month. Have you thought of a way that we could celebrate?" 

“If we have the time, I was thinking we could go away for the weekend. Maybe to the beach,” she says, the thought of a beach getaway bringing a sparkle to her eyes. 

Yoongi smiles, knowing the beach is one of his wife’s favourite places. “The beach sounds perfect,” he says, agreeing with her. 

Viola nods, feeling a surge of excitement at the idea. “Once I know our schedules, I’ll start looking for places we can stay.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Yoongi agrees, pulling her closer and presses a kiss to her lips. 

©️2025 @viola-verse & @dancinglikebutterflywings - Do not copy. modify and/or repost anywhere.

Tagged:

@carattinymoa - @rainyday-daydreamer

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Day 16: Yes, no, maybe

Masterlist flufftober 🎃

Reblog if you liked it!

Yes, no, maybe. I don't know. Can you repeat the question?

Spencer had gotten used to hearing that song as the opening theme every Friday, from your TV. One day at work, you referred to one of your favorite sitcoms, and you were quite surprised that the young man didn’t understand what you were talking about.

It turned out that the doctor had extensive knowledge in practically all areas, but entertainment was his weak point. So when you found out he had never seen Malcolm in the Middle, you basically forced him into having weekly meetings at your house to watch all the seasons.

At first, Spencer wasn’t too thrilled, as that genre of television wasn’t his favorite, but after the first season, it turned out that he was quite enjoying the show. The sharp humor, the cleverly written plots, the chaotic and dysfunctional family... all the elements seemed to have captivated his attention.

Many times, for both health and economic reasons, you prepared food at home for dinner. But that day, you decided to treat yourselves and ordered a large pizza with a six-pack of beer for you and lemonade for your friend.

You were both comfortably settled on your couch, ready to start the next episode, when you heard Spencer speak.

“I have a theory.”

“About what?”

“About Malcolm's family”

“Hmm,” you hummed, with your mouth full of pepperoni pizza. “I’m listening.”

“I’ve been thinking, and I believe Hal suffers from compulsive lying and gambling addiction, in addition to clearly seeking a mother figure in Lois. She has obsessive-compulsive disorder, needing to control everything to feel that things will go well; I’d say she’s a bit narcissistic as well, and she’s addicted to nicotine. Francis is completely impulsive, and I would even dare say he suffers from oppositional defiant disorder. Reese displays sociopathic and antisocial behaviors and has low self-esteem that he reflects through violence. Malcolm is gifted, of course, but also has antisocial and narcissistic behaviors, and is even a bit controlling and self-pitying, as if he had the worst of each of his parents. Dewey has musical genius; he’s somewhat introverted but quite sensible, and I want to think he’s the least toxic in the family. I mean, considering the family environment they’re in, they could be worse, but I couldn’t help but notice those psychological peculiarities in each character.”

Throughout the time Spencer had been speaking, you watched him attentively, and when he finished, you let out a loud laugh.

“Reid, when did you have time to think about all that?”

“This week! I started to remember, and somehow I needed to talk to you about the psychology of each family member. I think it’s very interesting; that’s why.”

“Only you could watch a show like this and come to those conclusions,” you laughed friendly.

In the background, the sound of the Wilkerson brothers fighting actively filled the room, and suddenly your friend became shy.

“But what do you think? Do you think I’m right?”

“On all points. It’s a very accurate analysis, yes,” you murmured playfully, taking a sip of your beer. “Who’s your favorite character so far?”

“I think Dewey. He seems very sweet and small… I don’t know, I think he’s a very noble and intelligent boy. Malcolm makes the mistake of letting his ego control him; otherwise, he would be my favorite.”

“Mine is Francis,” you confessed. “When I was a teenager, I was hopelessly in love with him.”

“That makes sense. I think because of your childhood experiences, you seek those chaotic situations in the opposite sex. In your partners, more specifically.”

“Oh, so now you’re psychoanalyzing me?”

“If we’re talking about psychoanalysis from a Freudian perspective, of course not. But Jung, on the other hand, had some contributions that I think are more suitable…”

“Reid,” you interrupted, placing one of your hands on his arm to get his attention. “You know I love hearing you ramble about all that, but do you really want to do such a deep analysis about this? About Malcolm in the Middle?”

It wasn’t a complaint, of course; you just sounded amused by the situation.

“You’re right; I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’ve thought so much about it.”

“That’s how the minds of geniuses work, I guess,” you joked, giving him a playful shove with your shoulder. “But now I want you to relax; let your brain shut off a little so you can enjoy silly TV situations and eat pizza like any of us mortals.”

Your friend nodded, feeling strange about all the thoughts that had arisen from something as bland as a sitcom, and he settled back into the couch, asking you for another piece of pizza. You spent the entire time laughing, eating, and drinking beside him, chatting occasionally about the show or really anything else.

Suddenly, you started to find resemblances between the characters on your TV and your colleagues in the unit, and when you dared to compare Ida, Lois’s mother, with Chief Erin Strauss, he broke into loud laughter. You rarely heard him laugh so freely, and inevitably, you felt contagious with joy, even if your joke hadn’t been that funny.

“I think she does look a bit alike,” he finally said, practically sprawled on the couch from laughter. “Especially in… you know, her particular personality.”

“Do you think you would have been in the advanced class of brainiacs that Malcolm is in?”

“Of course.”

“Show-off!” you exclaimed, teasing him for the confidence with which he had spoken while playfully shoving him.

You settled in better and pulled a blanket that was nearby so that you two could cover yourselves at least from your legs to your laps. This involved shortening the distance between you, but it didn’t bother you at all.

“I like watching TV with you,” he suddenly murmured, finishing his last piece of dinner. Spencer didn’t like the crusts of the pizza, and you always offered to eat them for him, so that night was no exception.

“I like it a lot too. It’s like… we’re getting rid of a bit of all the stress from work, right?”

“Yeah, I believe so.”

“Especially if it’s with my best friend at work.”

“Am I your best friend at work?”

“Don’t get too excited. You are because I don’t have many options.”

The man let out a hearty laugh, but he took the compliment anyway. In silence, you continued watching the comedy until, at some point during the night, Spencer spoke:

“You’re also my best work friend. And that’s saying something, considering I do have more options.”

With a smile on your face, you leaned over to kiss him on the cheek soundly, like a little girl would do with her preschool friend. It was innocent and sincere.

In the presence of the cold creeping under your feet, you both cuddled closer to each other (in the most respectful and friendly way possible) and continued enjoying the marathon, quite happy to at least be able to steal a couple of hours from the busy life you led.

[idkwh0y0uare-haha]

MCR HELPED ME FIND MY CONFIDENCE AND NOW IM GONNA RANT ABOUT IT

admittedly, I'm a new mcr fan. I started listening to them a year ago and they've been my favorite band ever since. Shortly after I started listening to them I started watching clips and interviews bcuz i thought the band was so interesting. The last band I really liked was lovejoy (yes, ik what the lead singer did and I no longer support him or his music) but i started liking mcr a lot more

Of course, I really started liking gerard way, and he stuck out to me in particular. Dw, I love mikey, ray, and frank too, but gerard was the first to stick out to me (could also be because he's the frontman, but I don't think so)

I found gerard to be such a relatable person. Obviously, I don't relate to EVERY ASPECT of gerard's life but there were some things that I was able to relate to, which I won't go into detail about that right now but probably later

As a trans, queer, and alternative person, I found comfort in the fact that mcr was (and is) such an icon to those communities. Like if I was alone in a room with gerard, mikey, ray, and frank, I would feel EXTREMELY safe and just the fact that they're so well known is just so important to me

I was able to relate to gerard's gender non conformity because even though i'm a trans man, I still appreciate things that would be considered "feminine" especially amongst my peers. Before listening to mcr, I would try to present as masc as possible because my more "feminine traits" made me feel extremely dysphoric and all I wanted was to pass, but the things that gerard would say about gender and sexuality helped me feel seen in a sense. That's when i realized that I liked wearing eyeliner and eye makeup. I actually liked dressing differently in clothes that made me happy. I actually liked painting my nails black and red. And I actually liked wearing lots of jewelry. I'm not sure when I would have realized that if i didnt start listening to mcr

Not only that, but I stopped caring about how "masc" I looked, because in the end, none of it mattered. I wasnt happy trying to be as masc as possible. I wasn't happy trying to be like every other boy in my school. I'm happier just being me and not caring about how I'm perceived, and ironically ever since i started dressing how i actually wanted to, I've been misgendered a whole lot less which I personally thought was hilarious.

And because i'm dressing and looking how i want to, I feel so much better about my appearance and personality. I feel like I can actually be myself and like what i wanna like, and nobody really gives a shit anymore. Sure, I get a few weird looks and people just not knowing what my gender is, but I don't care anymore because i'm happy, and I feel like mcr really contributed to that fact

if it wasn't for me listening to helena on the school bus one random day, I would have never watched any mcr interviews and I would have never known just how much gerard way specifically would have helped me in my journey to finding my confidence again. Gerard way helped me stop caring so much about how other people see me and instead how I saw myself and while i still have those days where i feel like shit and just wanna hide in a hoodie and a pair of jeans, that happens a lot less than it used to, and who doesn't have a bad day every once in a while?

it probably sounds stupid saying that gerard way (unintentionally) helped me find confidence in my gender and how i express myself, but he really did. I feel so much more comfortable in my skin and to be honest, it's because listening to mcr made me realize that i'm not alone and that there are other people out there who feel the same things i feel, and that made me feel seen.

So excuse me if i talk about gerard way a lot, but gerard really helped me understand my gender and how i wanna express it. I'm so much happier not having to worry about conforming to gender roles that don't even matter, and honestly my chem and gerard way really helped me realize that

so yeah, I fucking love gerard way. Before you get annoyed about the fact that i talk about him so much, maybe think about why i do

Mcr saved me

thank you for listening to my emo yap session

[psychette]

MiziTill and IvanTill analysis.

— First, understand Mizi, Till, and Ivan’s character.

Mizi’s guardian must’ve contributed to her naivety as arts of her with her guardian seemed sweeter than Till and Ivan’s interactions with aliens. Till was constantly thrown around and treated like garbage as his guardian ENJOYS TORTURE. Ivan is also treated horrible which contributes to his pessimistic personality compared to Mizi.

Mizi had something Ivan didn’t: Optimism. That’s most likely why Ivan didn’t hate Mizi when it was obvious Till has an infatuation with her. “When she smiled at me, my heart was reborn” which is obvious, Mizi’s brightness attracts people and which is why she’s able to make friends very easily. Ivan knew Till needed that, one of his ways of wanting to make Till as happy as Mizi does is by telling him how horrible Alien Stage is and wanting to run away with him.

I forgot which animatic but it’s shown that Ivan never had a red dot in his pupils until he saw Till. That must’ve been his sign of attraction. This same red dot is seen in Till’s eyes as he runs away with Ivan, he’s happy — until he thinks of Mizi. He remembers Mizi and thinks of what horrible things they’ll do to her if he leaves. The red dot disappears in Till’s eyes.

— Second, Till’s struggle with attachment.

Till clearly struggles with attachment as seen with Ivan, which is confirmed by VIVINOS on her Patreon, saying: “Till has a deep love-hate attachment with Ivan” which is one of the evidences that Till actually struggles so much with how to react when someone shows care for him.

What makes Ivan’s care different from Mizi’s though? Why couldn’t he accept Ivan’s but he could accept Mizi’s?

Ivan was close to him. He was always around him and even if they did fight, they would still hangout. While with Mizi, Till failed to even build a relationship with her. Evidence being Mizi’s intimacy score with Till: “He’s so distant… does he hate me?” And this is because that outside of rebelling, Till writes songs. It’s most likely a coping mechanism for him to vent his feelings. You can see in one of the animations as Till is writing something, Ivan is right next to him. This can be used as a symbol of their closeness. Even if Mizi wasn’t there, Ivan was.

Because of Till’s struggle with healthy attachment, he couldn’t react properly when someone genuinely built a bond with him, but he could with someone who barely hangs out with him.

This is a sign of avoidant attachment. Till’s struggle in how he can show love. After all, how can someone who has never been shown love by his own guardian give love? He was never even taught what actual love is.

— Third, difference between idolization and crushes.

According to VIVINOS on her Patreon she claims that Mizi is a “fantastical figure” to Till. As stated before, they barely interacted as Till was almost always in his own world (rebelling or writing music). Even though Till knows and speaks to Mizi, they don’t even have a bond anywhere close to how Till is with Ivan.

When you don’t build a bond with someone, you only perceive them as a figure. There’s very little to perceive about them when you aren’t close with them. This is how Mizi’s naivety and brightness comes into play, she was everything that Till isn’t. She isn’t a pessimistic, traumatized jerk who hits his own friend (Ivan) just because he gets frustrated with them.

Because of his trauma, he wanted to feel that too. Till put Mizi on a pedestal. This is IDOLIZATION. It’s a way to cope, a form of escapism from his harsh reality.

How can I be so sure it’s that? You can see it in Round 6. Mizi, already going through Round 1, is traumatized. She’s seen the worst. In Till’s flashback, she pictures Mizi in her Anakt Uniform when she was still innocent.

Conclusion: Till does love Ivan, but because of his attachment issues, he didn’t acknowledge that.

[pluviophile6104]

Idk if anyone will care at all but now thk being aired I thought I should share this. I love watching reaction videos, it feels like I have someone to watch with, especially to my favorite shows and finding that channel is quite hard for me. I want them to do justice to the show and contribute something to me while it's being entertaining. And actually like what they're watching. So I Just wanted to share my two favorite channels if you also like to check them out because they deserve it. I discovered them with their the eclipse reaction. And then they did only friends as well. Now with the heart killers, these are the only ones I like to watch and wait for their reaction. No shade to the others but they exactly understand things? (Some of them istg I don't even want to mention because...) That's why I wanted to share it~ highly recommend them:

He is actually my favorite because of how he understands the characters and appreciates everything such as filming, cinematography, acting, music, styling and actually have an experience and knowledge on the field. Plus, he loves firstkhaotung and loves their acting :) His reaction to the only friends is just a must watch. Considering how controversial the series was he actually gets it and sandray was his favorite couple and Sand was his favorite character. (he is not awkward at all and doesn't cringe, pretty chill. It's important for me okay lol)

I just love her because of how emphatic she is. Her reaction to the eclipse... I've watched it multiple times. I know she loved it as much as me and always have something thoughtful to say. She is very mindful about mental illnesses so her only friends reactions... Oh you just have to watch it because most people's reactions to Ray made me mad as hell back then but she just gets it. She's vulnerable, attentive to details and at the end says her thoughts and actually talks about everything, what she's thinking, what did she like or not like, theories etc.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I've seen so many reaction videos and I'll tell you some really pisses me off 😂 Anyway I'll just add one more because their reaction to the only friends was also very good and exciting:

[a-student-out-of-time]

My Thoughts on Project: Eden's Garden- Chapter 1

Hey everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? My apologies for that ^^;

I'm pleased to say, after one long month, TA and I have finally completed Chapter 1 of the long-awaited quasi-fangan Eden's Garden. I'd promised many times about sharing my thoughts and finally I can tell you all what I think.

Bear in mind, I like to take my time with these things and give my thoughts in detail, hence why it took us so long to get there. So I'll share with you both my praises and my criticisms, and what I think this may mean for P:EG going forward.

So without further ado, let's dive in.

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The Good:

So let's get the obvious out of the way first: the production values of this game are amazing. They're genuinely on par with Spike Chunsoft itself, with elaborate 3D environments, detailed artwork, expressive character sprites, etc. You don't need to tell you that, you just need to look at it for yourself.

The music is also excellent, the voice acting is professional-level, and sound design is solid throughout. It's more proof that fan projects are more well-put together than most mainstream AAA titles : P

I also really have to give praise to the creators for providing us with a really great cast. Sure, it's only Chapter 1 and we haven't exactly had a lot of time to get to know them yet, but what we do have is still very well done.

One of my biggest problems with DR is that you tend to have a very narrow focus on just a couple who contribute, while everyone else can end up feeling relegated to jokes until they get their time in the spotlight. EG has done a great job to make everyone feel like they play a small but substantial role in the plot. Even including them all contributing to the closing argument segment.

It's also great to see a cast that doesn't rigidly adhere to standard tropes in their characterization, but is instead given more room and more chances to show off their personalities. There were some moments in this chapter that actually did surprise me, such as Kai turning out to be a pretty solid support (for the most part).

I also really love how most everyone in this cast is contributing and cooperating in their daily lives. Damon and Eva were so quick to dismiss them, but you have so many people trying their best to make life comfortable for everyone while still searching for a way to escape. Sure, we as the audience understand that their situation is probably not going to be resolved easily, but it's still nice to see small gestures like them offering to do laundry or just helping each other feel comfortable.

The mysteries in this were so obscure that I really had no idea how to explain them until they all came together at the end, and they did so really well. I had no idea how the weird posters fit into it until a code was mentioned.

Unfortunately, the efforts by the group didn't completely eliminate a murder from happening. And what we got was already a pretty complex mystery, one that took quite some time to piece together with what we had, and it even required some details we didn't directly see but were still told about.

I really enjoyed that aspect. It gets the players to think about everything they knew, all without immediately making it obvious who the killer is. We had Desmond's taser and Jett's batteries that turned out to be massive clues, but weren't immediate killshots. They were red herrings that, in retrospect, made perfect sense as clues when we learned who our killer was.

And naturally, as it turned out, Eva had obtained the traitor perk. She could see through the security cameras and thus potentially play anyone how she wanted in the game, but with the caveat that she was given a limited time to do so or else she'd be killed by the masterminds. A very cruel plot twist that does at least soften the blow on the reveal with her.

Eva as the killer was...well, it was surprising to be sure, but it also makes a lot of sense and part of me expected it. Wolfgang as the victim was a bit more surprising, but I really feel like I should have expected it.

It's also interesting that we have blackmail material on several characters, yet it didn't really play that much of a role in this chapter's plot. Instead, it seems to have done more to add to their characters, such as Wolfgang's parents and how he's implied to have killed his father for killing his mother.

We also learn he was born after April 17th, 2001, which is actually the first time we have a definitive date in any of these games. It also sets EG firmly sometime in the 2020s.

What does this mean for the rest of the blackmail in our story going forward? What more will we learn about our cast and what have we learned that will prove more important later on? Seems only time will tell.

And yeah, I have a lot of the same praises for the game that others do. Overall, it's very well done and I'm looking forward to Chapter 2, but I also have some critiques for it that I feel the need to share.

_____________________________________________

My Critiques:

All this isn't to say that Chapter 1 is perfect. Far from it, honestly, and that isn't me just hating. Eden's Garden is a high-profile fan project for good reason and I genuinely want this game to excel in what's aiming to do. You don't do that just by praising what it does well, but in trying to point out where things start to fumble.

The simplest one for me is that some dialogue scenes feel like they drag on a little bit too long. Yes, DR is a visual novel series and every game is bound to have some yapping, but that's a general problem with how exposition is delivered in this genre rather than singling out EG in particular.

I just feel that a lot of the information that was necessary for this case could've been delivered with half or even a third of the dialogue in the final game. I don't feel we needed to run down an entire list of who was staying in whose room until the trial.

I could be biased here, but I feel brevity would be a little more helpful in the writing process. It really makes the information we receive that sounds casual or even forgettable suddenly become a lot more important. The bit with Jett sharing details about the batteries in his room and that becoming much more important in the trial is a good example of it being done well. Still, it's not a huge issue.

No, for me, the biggest issue with EG is its protagonist, Damon Maitsu. And I'll be completely honest: I don't like Damon. At all.

Damon is abrasive, egotistical, selfish, uncooperative, and overall a massive jerk. And while yes, I do think it's an interesting idea to have a protagonist who's the complete antithesis to a standard DR one, and I know there are people who adore this sort of character type, it's not for me.

That isn't say to say you can't write a character like this and still have them be complex, endearing or at least entertaining. The problems I have with Damon are threefold:

First, he's a pretty two-dimensional character. There's very little variation in how he interacts with the others, mostly because he's constantly judgemental and dismissive, and doesn't have a kind word to say about anyone. Not even Eva, the only person who initially seems to be on his side. His primary emotional states are "I hate everyone here" and "I'm scared, someone please help me."

If you're one of those audience members who finds shit-talkers funny, sure, I can see why you would enjoy him as a character. But constantly seeing Damon mentally judge, belittle and dismiss everyone isn't fun for me. As someone who actually likes this cast, it's annoying at best and off-putting at worst.

Say what you will about Makoto in DR1, but at least he showed variety in the ways he acted: admiration, concern, cooperation, recognition, friendship, anger, hurt, fear, sadness, guilt, even snark when he was meeting everybody. He was a dynamic character from minute one and I wish more people understood that.

The one time Damon's reaction actually shocked me was when Eva's execution actually drove him to tears. I did not expect that, and it was a welcome surprise to see him experience more genuine emotion.

Now, I've heard some try to say that maybe he has no social skills because he has no friends or maybe he's autistic or something similar. I can see where you're coming from, but let me tell you my second biggest issue.

Second, Damon is a self-centered hypocrite. Every concern he has, outside of some basic human decency, is only about himself and his own survival. He's only focused on looking out for number one, while everyone else is a temporary asset to his survival or they can go kick rocks. That would at least be an interesting aspect to his character if he weren't our protagonist.

The reason why I feel it harms the experience is because DR isn't just a murder mystery game, it's a character-driven story. The characters are what make these games so compelling and so memorable, especially when they're done well. But with protagonists like this, they don't want to interact with anyone, and when they do, they treat them like chores.

When you have a protagonist who is less interested in learning things about the cast that the player is, I feel that really harms the experience, because WE want to learn more while Damon couldn't care less about them.

At least Eva made it very clear that her unwillingness to approach others, while it was also deeply self-centered, also was the product of real trauma and fear from being bullied by others in the past. She had her reasons to not feel comfortable getting close to others or being excluded in this game.

With Damon, we have no indications that he faced any sort of discrimination like that. His thoughts when he's with others are almost always about what he doesn't like about them, how they're stupid or annoying, and ultimately that he feels they're beneath him. That's not poor social skills, that's just pure elitism.

And yet, Damon himself is guilty of the very things he believes the others are. He criticizes people for wanting to use their talents for admiration and popularity, and yet he made it very clear in the prologue that he ALSO wants to be admired for his talent. But it's different for him because, in his mind, his talent is more useful and he's more important.

Except he's really not.

See, Damon is also kind of an idiot. He constantly acts as though he's being actively excluded by everyone out of spite or because he spoke "the truth," when his entire situation is his own fault. It was his decision to speak up against everyone in the prologue and he made it clear he thinks they're all beneath him. Even if he says that wasn't his intention, he didn't do anything to try and resolve the situation and didn't even bother to correct what he said.

And does he do anything to try and correct that? Does he do anything to try and help his situation? Does he even make an effort to try finding a way out? Nope!

Damon spends the entire chapter either judging everyone for trying to cooperate or sulking about how nobody likes him and how he's afraid to die. He doesn't do anything to actively try and reduce the risk of someone turning to murder, which everyone else is at least trying to do, and instead devotes his time to complaining about everything.

He's more willing to try and negotiate with Tozu- the guy who trapped them all here- than he is to cooperate with anyone else. That's just insane to me.

To anyone who wants to say that Damon is a realistic protagonist, I have to disagree. In this situation, the best thing you can do is try to form connections with others and give them reasons not to turn to murder. Friendship is the key to survival and I'm very tired of people who act like the cynical approach is the correct one. Damon is proof of why it doesn't work; you can easily get taken advantage of by someone who is willing to exploit you and tell you you're smarter than everyone else.

And by the end, it's pretty clear he's learned nothing. When Diana tries to find a positive spin on their situation, all his trauma and fear are overshadowed over how much her hope speech pissed him off. Maybe he's just upset about all this, but the fact that he's more concerned about being mad at her than mourning Wolfgang and Eva really paints him a negative light to me.

I'm honestly surprised he even earned his title because he's genuinely a bad debater. He's volatile, reactionary, bad at articulating his points, unwilling to listen to anyone else, and can never accept when he's wrong. He gets a little better in the first trial, where he doesn't want to vote Diana because she isn't given a chance to defend herself, but that's still more about his own survival than any concern about her well-being.

Now, you may read all this and say "But Bubbles, can't you see? It's Chapter 1! Clearly they're setting Damon up for a character arc going forward!"

And to that, I have to ask: are they?

See, my last bit of criticism has to do with the story. While the prologue did a great job at delivering on a very different scenario than we see in DR, Chapter 1 feels like a very standard opening chapter. I don't think that's a bad thing, but after all the statements about how EG wouldn't be following the DR formula, it's a bit of a letdown. Once again, we see the seemingly important character and your best friend (or the closest to it) die first.

But again, I'd hardly all that a deal-breaker. What worries me a little is how the game treats Diana near the end, where she immediately takes up a very hopeful stance and makes a speech that she'll carry on Wolfgang's legacy. And everyone looks at her like she's nuts.

The whole thing is one massive bathos moment, where the classic hope speech is awkwardly cut off because everyone is still so shaken up after seeing Eva's execution. And as I said, the note we end on is that Damon is more upset that she decided to carry on Wolfgang's legacy than the fact that two people died.

While we've seen clear evidence that Damon and Eva's own antisocial behaviors were why they ended up distrusted and excluded, the story almost seems to lean in their favor with that ending. Are we setting up Diana to be the hero antagonist? Are we supposed to agree with Damon and also be upset? I don't know and it really bothers me.

I unironically love how much DR talks about hope and showcases how people can change, grow and persevere in the wake of tragedy. Even if it gets memetic and silly, it's always been a part of the series I love, and seeing it get treated as a joke honestly rubs me the wrong way.

To me, fangans that fixate on the violence, betrayal, trauma and cynicism always feels like they're the missing the point. People who are more interested in the murders and executions miss how those are supposed to impact the characters, since it's the characters and their journeys that we should be focused on.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun and worrying about nothing, but I just wanted to be clear what my concerns are. A story that focuses on hope and friendship is not automatically naive, and a story that fixates on cynicism and misanthropy is not automatically mature. I don't want Eden's Garden to turn into an overblown edgefest where I can point to everything wrong with it, I really want to enjoy what it has to offer with its story and characters.

And ultimately, I want Damon to be less of a douchebag going forward. Not a complete retread of everything we've had before, but at least someone who I can actually tolerate playing as.

_____________________________________________

Sure, I had a lot of critiques for it, but overall it was a great experience and I really look forward to what else the P:EG cast and crew have in store. They're all very talented people and I believe in their abilities.

Overall, I give Chapter 1 a solid 8/10

If you guys have any other questions, please let me know!

[kailoraurelius]

Dr Mitchell and Sheila are invited to the family dinner in AIAOY while in SG it took Beca a longer time until Chloe forced her to see him and is still a bit awkward between them. Beca did say her dad left when she's 11 but she wasn't all that sad, I'm just curious does having a huge loving group of relatives and friends lead to the earlier reconciliation? I would like to hear more about your psychological thoughts you put in your stories

Okay, I been excited all day to get off work so I could dive into this ask lol! First off, thank you so much for it, cause I love to nerd out about this stuff. Second, absolutely yes, the huge support system changed how I wrote them in this one! Strap in, I'm about to go off and write a fuckin' essay.

In the movie, it's canon (as far as I know) that Beca is an only child who favors her mother over her father, because she sees him as someone that abandoned them. This is a fundamental characteristic of her character. It's why she's so rude to him in the beginning and, even though she claims she just wants to get to LA and make music, it's very obviously a contributing factor to why she's so against college. Seeing as she later proceeds to stay in school and have an amazing time that she is very proud of, it's easy to assume college was never the actual issue. Sure, she didn't think it was the future she wanted, but she KNEW it was the future her dad wanted for her and she hated that.

It became a core tenet of her character: "You don't walk away from family." She says this to the Bellas in PP3 while she's explaining that she's turning down the very thing she's always said she's wanted: to make music. Why? Because it wouldn't be with them. Because making music is NOT her truest, deepest want. She wants a family. People she loves and trusts to have her back. The thing her father was supposed to be to her. (And I think he is, this is not a reflection of my thoughts on his character, because I love him, but we'll get into that in a bit. This is just what I think Beca feels.)

That's why it's so interesting that she does walk away from the Bellas in the first movie. She does EXACTLY what she hated that her father did. She tried to make it work, it didn't go well, and she dipped. And this, obviously, is why she goes to her father to talk it out. Yes, she's sorta pushed away Jesse at this point and she doesn't have anyone else around to talk to, but I think some part of her also knows her dad will understand. If you watch the deleted/extended scene of that conversation at her dad's house, he tells her, "Look, Bec, the day I left you was the saddest day of my life. I should have... I'm still trying to make it up to you." And THAT is where I took inspo from for AIAOY.

In Stained Glass, their dynamic is incredibly different from the movie. Beca's mother has passed and there's this whole thing about how strained the relationship was with her father. "For her, family time was quiet dinners with her mother in a hospital room and even quieter dinners with her father at home. And when they were together, it was like sitting around a time bomb with the timer covered." So when I wrote Dr. Mitchell and Beca in that piece, I did it with the constant knowledge that they both blame him. She blames him for not emotionally being there for her when she needed him and he blames himself for being too heartbroken to be able to take care of her or her mother the way he wanted to. They both just shut down.

And that anger and guilt and silent hope that the other person would fix things created this huge rift between them, to the point where they both sorta iced each other out because that was easier, less terrifying, than trying to jump the gap. Beca moved away, pushed all of her old life into the back of her mind, even the good parts like Jesse. And her dad eventually moved on, started a new family. In my head, that guilt from before ate at him all the time and made him a better father and husband that time around, because he was desperate to not have a repeat performance.

That's why Beca is so much more prickly in SG. In fact, (slight spoilers for Teach Me Something) when you see more of her back when Stacie first meets her, she's kind of a total bitch lol. She isn't interested in letting people in, she takes care of herself and that's that.

But then Stacie worms her way in by being persistent. And that softens her enough that Chloe is able to get in too. Then Emily. Then the rest of them lol. And, eventually, that softens Beca enough that she lets her dad back in too.

When Beca's getting ready for her wedding and thinking about how she's glad Chloe kinda forced her and Dr. Mitchell back together, there's a moment where she realizes, "She forgot he was kinda funny." They've been so distant from each other for so long and they've purposely shut out all the good things because it hurt too much. So, at that point, they're sort of relearning each other. The new people they've become, the old people they still were. While also trying to reconcile that they both made mistakes in the past. So yeah, it's awkward. But it's just the start for them in that story. A new start.

In AIAOY, (I'll try to be careful of big spoilers lol) it's already past that point. When Chloe first meets Beca in college, it's probably the closest it would have been to their dynamic in SG.

In this one, Beca's mother is alive and she has this huge support system of Stacie's family, her cousins, her other friends later on. So when I was writing them here, I thought a lot about that. In SG (and in the movie, maybe) I feel like Beca didn't believe in permanence. Her mother died, her father faded away, she shoved everything else away and, more importantly, it went. (Jesse was a good friend to her and he respected that she didn't want him around, but that wasn't probably best for her in the long run.)

But in AIAOY, Beca is surrounded by permanence. Yes, her dad left and she was righteously angry at him, but then was able to realize it was his loss. Her mother was still there and still just as wild and loving. The rest of her family was still all around her, unchanged. Stacie and Amy were at her side always.

So, of course, when Chloe came along and was like, "I'm staying in your life forever, thanks", Beca believes her. And lets her in much easier than she did in SG or the movie. Because she's spent her whole life surrounded by people that have softened all those hard edges we see in canon. So this Beca is softer, more prone to silliness and sincerity.

Which is why it made sense to me that she would be on good terms with her father by the time of the story. In my head, there was no fault in the marriage. They just didn't love each other anymore and he didn't really know what he wanted, so they split. Beca blamed him and hated him, of course. She says, "For a long time, I would get so mad if someone said I was anything like him. Even if they just said I looked like him. I didn’t want to be compared to him at all. Because I wanted it to be clear to everyone that I was nothing like him. I’d never leave my kid. You don’t walk away from family, you know?” Different from SG or the movie, Beca doesn't have the option of shutting everything out and growing resentful. She's surrounded by too much that she loves and she's just angry her dad left that behind. Left her behind. Like the great life they had just wasn't enough for him.

So yeah, it's difficult for a long time. And she barely goes to Barden because of it all. But other circumstances--the house, Stacie and Amy going there, the nice studio in town--swayed her. So she kinda had to deal with seeing him more. And, in that time, she started to see he was different. Happier with Sheila. And she was, eventually, able to realize it wasn't that their family wasn't enough for him, it just wasn't right for him. So she forgives him and even gets close to Sheila. And she's emotionally able to do so because she knows her family and friends have her back. The thing her character so dearly needs.

As for Dr. Mitchell (hey, we made it back to him, told you!), he's probably the most canon character in the story lol. He's made mistakes and didn't handle his divorce or keeping in touch with his kid as well as he wanted to, but he loves her very much and wants to do better. And Beca realizing that both in the movie and AIAOY AND SG is what eventually lets them be good again. Closer than they even were before the divorce, because now they understand each other better.

Next chapter, tiny spoiler, you'll get to see that for them. How it isn't awkward like in SG or borderline hostile like the movie. Those things have already been worked through by this point in AIAOY. And I hope it will be enjoyable to read them together in this new way!

Sorry for the literal essay lmfao. I was joking, but then I wasn't xD

[no2ticonderoga]

Inspired by today’s Final Jeopardy, I now require a one shot wherein ITSOTK Percy meets William Bligh and immediately concludes that he’s an asshole.

So, I love this. But I'm afraid I will disspoint you slightly. My read on Bligh, from a historical perspective, is a bit less rigid than some...I think the movies and film have done him dirty. I'll admit that he probably was harsh, but no more or less than most officers of the time. And the mutiny in New South Wales against his governorship had more to do with the wealthy merchants being threatened with the breakup of their monopoly. Bligh was actually quite popular with the poor settlers in Australia for that reason.

So I've presented him here a bit more sympathetic, in the last days of his life when in lived in London after the Napolonic Wars ended. He died in 1817 of cancer, possibly of the stomach.

“Sir Percy, may I present Admiral William Bligh?” 

Percy looked the man up and down, offering his hand. Bligh shook it. “Sir Percy.”

“Admiral,” Percy replied. The man did not look well. He looked pale and gaunt. He supposed that the man might be worn out from a career that included two mutinies against him, but this seemed like true illness. But it was best not to point it. Percy settled for a compliment. “The story of your voyage to Timor is inspiring, sir, allow me to congratulate you.”

Bligh coughed and cleared his throat. “Thank you, Sir Percy,” he said. “That means much, coming from a man of your reputation.”

“Thank you, Admiral.”

“We share something in common, I think. We both served under Nelson,” Bligh said.

“Aye, I understand you had the honor of serving with him at Copenhagen, was it?” Percy asked.

A little pride animated the Admiral’s sunken eyes. “Aye, it was, Sir Percy. But you were there at Trafalgar, I understand.”

“Aye,” Percy agreed. “ThoughI had but a poor view of the action.”

“Still, a great victory,” Bligh said. “A great victory.” He sighed. “It is unfortunate that so much of my career I was unable to contribute more. I was surrounded by fools and reprobates.”

Percy’s smile became a bit fixed. “A great shame, Admiral.” 

“So much time wasted,” the Admiral muttered. “And all for a want of discipline!” He shook his head. “I’m sure you had discipline to manage your great cruise.”

“Of course,” Percy agreed. The cat had not left it’s bag more than twice the entire time that Percy had commanded Naiad, but he wasn’t about to point that out, and risk prolonging this conversation. 

Bligh began to cough again. “Excuse me,” he said, after catching his breath.

“Are you quite well, Admiral?” Percy asked, concerned in spite of himself. 

“Bah,” the older man brushed this aside. “The fool surgeons say it is a cancer, but what do they know?” he gave a wheezy laugh. “All they know how to do is take off an arm or a leg, eh?”

Alarmed, Percy said. “Have the prescribed a course of treatment, Admiral?”

“They dose me regularly, little good it does,” he wheezed. He waved this off, but began coughing once again. “Forgive me, Sir Percy, excuse me.” He managed, and began to withdraw.

“Of course, Admiral.” Percy drew away.

He reunited with Annabeth shortly afterward. “Who was that older man you spoke with?” she asked.

“William Bligh,” Percy replied.

“Of the Bounty?” She was surprised. 

“Aye,” Percy nodded.

“How did he seem to you? Do you think the mutineers were justified?” she asked.

Percy sighed. “I do not know, I was not there. He certainly came across as a man overly concerned with discipline, but I have known many men who were not put adrift by their own men, or arrested by his own soldiers. Though from what I understand of the New South Wales business, they were a pack of greedy profiteers. To be honest, my dear, I only felt pity for the man. He is quite ill.”

“Oh dear,” Annabeth said. “Such a shame.”

“Indeed.” 

Music was beginning, and Percy turned to his wife and smiled. “Shall we dance, my dear?”

“I’d be delighted,” she replied. 

[neko-loogi]

Heeeyy, I'm back with a new Helluva Boss opinion post thingy

Okay so, the Mammon episode- it was alright I guess? Tbh it didn't strike me as super awesome or anything, it's just kinda there?

Anyway, let's talk about it a little bit!

So I wanted to start off with Mammon himself, I'm gonna be honest I don't hate him but I don't like him either. I'll admit I do actually like his voice, I'm sure y'all might find it annoying but I dunno, I like his accent and the way he talks is kinda funny. His design tho? Eh, it could use some work.

For instance, his eyes are weird, like every time he was on screen my first thought was always: "Wow, he looks like Robin from TTG". I also hate how he's shaped like your typical "fat" character from cartoons. But for some reason they decided to give him skinny arms but a round body. He's weirdly disproportionate, which is disappointing because they definitely could make a better plus sized character design. But oh well, knowing Viv, she wouldn't even try.

I will admit his true demon form is kinda cool, except that I actually thought he was going to be a caterpillar or something but he's a spider? I swear, Viv has some weird design choices.

Moving on, the episode was cluttered as hell. It had way too much stuff in it, which made the episode feel eternal. Not only that but the episode has 4 songs.. FOUR FUCKING SONGS- When will Viv realize that not every HB episode needs a song? Like is this shit an animated series or a fucking musical? Make up your mind Viv-

Anyway, I'm glad this episode focuses on Fizz, but his character did feel a bit off in certain scenes, but aside from that everything else was fine. (I found that scene of Fizz talking to the deaf imp child while using sign language to be very endearing).

Alright, I'mma point out a few other things real quick:

Ozzie's relationship with Fizz is absolutely adorable and I love them so much. However I don't understand why they portray their relationship as a bad thing? Like, fucking Queen Bee is dating Vortex (who's a hellhound, and they are a lower class than imps) and nobody says anything and she's a sin- so why can't Ozzie do the same??

I also happen to noticed that Fizz and Mammon's relationship is similar to Angel Dust and Valentino's- I just hope they don't completely butcher my boy Fizz, because he's the ONLY character I genuinely like from this god awful series.

Edit: I find it outrageous that Fizz apologized to Blitzo in the previous episode for the accident and claims that yes, he was affected by it but he's gotten over it. Yet here, he's super insecure about it and seeks approval from Mammon. It doesn't make sense- I swear it's like the characters are evolving backwards (as in the character development just resets and they act like nothing happened).

I also just wanted to say that this character made me feel super uncomfortable throughout the episode (which I guess is the point, but honestly they didn't need to add him.) Like, was it really necessary to include this Reddit mod, Discord user incel with an obsessive personality to the episode? He doesn't really contribute much other than to probably trigger people who have dealt with some form of harassment like this, and to make Fizz look super helpless so that Blitzo can defend him.

Blitzo didn't contribute anything to the episode, they didn't need to add him either. Like we get it he's the main character but that doesn't mean he has to be in every fucking episode doing absolutely nothing other than saying a bunch of curse words or shooting someone.

In conclusion, I didn't like this episode that much. I was expecting more to be completely honest.

Sorry if this post was a little long- I wanted to write more stuff but I don't want to burden y'all with reading a lot of shit lmao. Anyway, that's all, love ya <3

[the-labyrinth-of-me]

Alan Wake 2 revived and expanded my love for art.

Long read under the cut

I used to read a lot as a kid. It was the first thing I did in the morning on the weekends - grab the book I was currently reading from the nightstand and continue where I had left off the other day, then go and have breakfast later. I didn't like the other language related stuff I did at school - although I was always good at it - like reading and learning poems, interpretations, the likes. I needed fiction to dive into. As I arrived in the late teenage years, I stopped reading completely, and discovered my love for music. That never faded, but reading was an interest that had simply died. When I moved out from my parent's and into an apartment with my boyfriend, I started watching movies and shows, which I never properly could at home since I didn't have my own television. Life was okay back then, ups and downs, nothing out of the ordinary. We played Alan Wake for the ole XBox 360, simply because my boyfriend was a passionate reader and the game was about a writer lol. I had so many books around because of my boyfriend , but almost never grabbed one of them (aside from Game of Thrones and maybe a handful of others, at most).

I never viewed all of those creations, those art forms, as art, however. For me, art was always reduced and exclusive to weird sculptures and undefined paintings. Stuff nobody could understand. If it's not making sense, it's art. Nothing from the entertainment field especially. And entertainment never was art for me.

A few years ago, my private situation changed. Boyfriend and I got married and we started a family. That's when entertainment related art became a sort of escapism for me. Something I could dive into rather than family business. I still didn't connect the things I was into back then as art. That only changed when I was captivated by Alan Wake 2. This game single-handedly changed my understanding and tolerance not only for my favorite forms of art (namely music and video games), but got me into exploring for myself what art is. Listening to interviews with people involved in making this game also contributed to that as they talked a lot about art. As per usual with my hyperfixations, I thought about this game, the characters and the storyline a lot and jumped into all kinds of rabbit holes. And one day, I realized that this game that is highly revolving about artists (as per the Dark Presence's nature) does in fact not feature many, many kinds of art, but can truly be called an artistic work, and is an ode, a homage to art. This game celebrates art and its existence and it doesn't tell you which form of art is better and which one is worse. It cherishes and values anything that resembles and represents art, cherishes and values creators. Artists. Poets. Novelists. Photographers. Musicians. Actors. Directors. Filmmakers. Painters. Video game delelopers. Even fan fiction authors. It is those that make fun of these art forms that the game reprimands and punishes. Hartman and the Mormants namely for abusing artists, only seeing them as tools, as content creators for the sake of creating anything, as long as it fulfils a selfish purpose. The game takes us on the journey of creating, of success and failure, try and error, rewriting, scratching, editing, more drafts, doubts, depression, the list goes on. Also addiction. Apparently, Stephen King wrote some of his books while he was drunk and he couldn't remember later what he even wrote (hello to Alan and his memory problems). Artist's addiction definitely is a subject in the game. It helps them see and expand their creativity, yes, but also causes problems, naturally.

So what is art? It's anything that triggers an emotion, basically. A song that deeply touches you. A painting that reveals more its beauty the longer you observe it. The composition of nature, captured in a photograph. The Dark Presence feeds on emotions. Alan can't escape from the Dark Place until he ties emotions into his story through Saga. His work doesn't work without emotions. And if a certain kind of art form doesn't resonate with you, try another one. During an interview, Ilkka said "never only choose one form of art, always be open for others". I tried to follow his advice and he's right about it. And I found out that, by engaging with art, you might discover a thing or two about yourself as well, because art is tied to your emotions. It's a journey through your memories, your soul, your feelings. I discovered that I appreciate art much more than I thought, and I could kiss Sam Lake simply for the Lake House DLC and its take on ai art, and the exploration of what art is, when art is art, who defines if and when someone is an artist. It's an interesting thought process that I haven't finished for myself. Sam also taught me to always carry something to write in case you get an idea for a story lol.

What did the game ultimately bring for me, then? How did and do I profit from it? Well, first of all, I joined an English writing and reading club in my hometown. I'm more comfortable to talk openly about my fanfics. I got back into reading. (roughly 150 pages left in House of Leaves). I'm more sensitive to the beauty of nature, which I try to capture in photos. It kind of feels like a piece of a puzzle I've been missing without realizing it. It has only happened once so far that a piece of media has had such a huge impact on me before (rest in peace Arthur). And the Alan Wake community is so lovely too.

I would go as far as to say that art is arguably the biggest invention of the human race. Not only because the existence of art can be traced back to thousands of years ago. But because engaging with art causes to trigger what I define as our most important trait: emotions. Sometimes I wonder if people who don't have an interest in any art form see and feel the world in a different way. If they might even be disconnected from their emotions in some point, from their vulnerability. Art makes us vulnerable. This can be scary. But, like I said, it's worth the journey to discover more about ourselves. Because without art, we'd just be apes.

[aihoshiino]

Seeing that ask about the movie being now Aqua's is kinda ironic because there's this one video they released celebrating Onk's ending and the movie arc part clearly seemed framed as Ai's story lmao. It was Ruby and Aqua reconciling as both their previous counterparts but also as family (fk that incest shit and kiss, they don't exist to me, i do not see) and moving on together to create this piece for their dead mother to honour her. Yes they made a shortcut of it obviously so we kind of skimmed through what really happened, but I wished so much that this was the REAL thing we had gotten in the manga...a moment for the whole Hoshino family to finally come together in understanding Ai

I'm still bitter we didn't get the promised movie about Ai, even as the series ended already. I love Hikaru and all but man...when did the plan change? I hope the anime handles it better at the very least

If you haven't seen it yet, anon is talking about this music video celebrating the end of the manga! I genuinely recommend watching it, it's both fun on its own and gave me a lot of soft fond catharsis about this dumbass (affectionate) manga

It really is a shame that 15YL ended up as such a wet fart of a plot point because it really SHOULD have been such a good avenue for Aqua and Ruby to work through their shit together. Ruby even says herself that the movie was being made (in her mind) as a way of helping her family move on from the tragedy of Ai's death and start heading towards the future but we never really get that. At best, we get Ruby starting the process of deconstructing her idealization-and-idolization of Ai as she empathizes with her as a person but that's only the start of what should've been a longer process of her properly coming to terms with her 14+ years of The Ai In Her Head not being the same as the one that existed in reality and that being okay because what truly matters is that Ai loved her.

Aqua doesn't even really get to start that process even though it's telegraphed so hard. If I like... squint and tilt my head I can MAYBE see it being one of the things that contributes to his fate (i.e, his inability to let go of his idealization of Sarina -> Ruby & Ai leading him to sacrifice himself on their behalf) but it ultimately really just feels like half assery lol