#and then it crash landed for an ending ???
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(crash) landing in scala
#one of these days i'll learn how architecture works instead of seeing a screencap and going “okay let's use this exact angle as reference”#really manifesting mickey's scala trip to end up like this#strand this rat in the past and give brain the opportunity to learn about the future !!!!#okay i was gonna make a point about how donald and goofy are there in that one khux quest bc their gummi ship crash lands there#and i was about to be all like “surely mickey can do the same thing and just land in a different era instead”#but i just went back to that set of cutscenes and mickey is ALSO there. but not in his kh3 outfit. mickey why are u there#why are you like “so it wasn't the star shard that brought me here...”#did you not arrive with d&g??? chip and dale?????#“what in the world is going on?” me too mouseboy genius me too#kh#kh brain#kh mickey#my art#sketch#edit: okay no i skimmed the cutscenes wrong lmfao. mickey shows up with a star shard into the same time and general place as d&g#knowing they would've landed from the sky just like him#why were you guys traveling separately in the first place...... interesting to think on#kingdom hearts
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ULTIMATE SHIPS CHALLENGE → [03/10] Hugs ↳ “You can't leave like that! I can't let them take you like that. What do I do if you just leave me just like that? How could I live after you leave like that? What should I do?”
#kdramaedit#crash landing on you#cloy#cloyedit#hyun bin#son ye jin#kdrama#riri couple#yoon se ri#ri jeong hyeok#ri jung hyuk#mine#mine: cloy#mine: gifs#kdramadaily#dailyasiandramas#kdramanetwork#asiandramasource#ultimate ships challenge#to think this heart-wrenching scene was the original ending... i'm glad they got a happy ending!
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Crash landing on you is just like *most romantic scene you’ve ever seen in your life, the boys being cute and funny, women supporting women North Korea edition, evillest snake villain of all time, Se-ri’s toad family being toads, most romantic scene you’ve ever seen in your life—
#their acting—as in all good romcoms—really fills in the spaces#I am also so struck and moved by the way their scenes walk such a fine line of restraint#and commitment only to the present moment of making it romantic#while somehow not making their situations/difficulties feel out of mind for the two leads#they feel genuinely weighed down/troubled/hurt by their situation#but also there’s a lightness that keeps them in the present with each other#I am really struck by it and I really love it#and also this is why I am obsessing over the ending because I need to see if they can find a way to make this all ring true#in its final beat. I need them to get married 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭#I don’t want them to be lovingly separated 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 don’t do this to me. life is hard enough#OH I FORGOT THE SECONDARY LOVE STORY#WHICH IS SO GOOD AND WHICH I SHIP SO MUCH#crash landing on you
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one Warmup Gone Wrong later i finally have a full ref for the man, the myth, the legend, the minor annoyance, the thorn in the side of petty criminals and more successful heroes the world over, the one and only GOLDEN BOY (civilian name TBD. it's gotta be something super boring like, Jim or Something)
#anonymous puzzler art#anonymous puzzler originals#villain coded comic#casual outfit was going for more of a 'guy who grew up on a farm' vibe but ended up more in the vicinity of Kurt Russell In Every 80s Film.#which to be honest? is also the correct vibe. so we work with it#i've definitely talked about this elsewhere but golden boy is very much a Superman Type Hero. crash landed from Elsewhere raised humbly#was classic hero Silver Fox's sidekick for many years and became a proper hero in his own right after he retired. very idealistic guy#genuinely believes for good for good's sake and helping people and the ability for bad people to change and all that#very Direct and not a fan of red tape. needless to say he is not the Favorite of the current establishment and is often treated as a joke#he is buck and davey's Most Consistent Heroic Adversary especially pre-Minnie
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an idea i invite anyone else to write about / run with lol....
the premise that The Change gets all messed up for alberto, say it's something that can happen from stress, &/or happens rarely and you just have to wait for it to resolve itself....used as some parallel to struggling through some emotional turbulence / upheaval / questioning / Realizing Things, etc etc
#luca 2021#pixar luca#alberto scorfano#another idea i've failed to write for & so invite anyone else to run with: ciao alberto but what if he peaces out by swimming off lol#ends up in a coastal town maybe an hour's swim from genoa. but not Getting In Touch w/anyone for a while b/c plausibly he thinks that#giulia may not be a fan of him now by extension; just being too embarrassed asf to reach out to luca kinda lol....luca off doing his own#thing just fine & alberto not wanting to write him now like b/c i Ruined Everything again ahaha....#and by ''not in touch w/anyone for a while'' who knows. months; a few years even....might stumble across news of him b/c like.#say more sea folk are coming to land / more humans know abt them & not many places are as [harpoon]ly from the start anyways#portorosso exceptional in that way....maybe where alberto settles down they're like legendary but also considered Good Luck anyways lol.#anyways like some people know of him who might; say; swim down to portorosso. have their own teen who knows a teen who mostly lives on land#most convenient re sparking [wow could they mean Our alberto] if he doesn't go so far as to take up an alias lol. but why would he....#that difference in that massimo might figure that however alberto was surviving before; he could continue to do so now; but even though tha#is some comfort it's still Not Actually Enough....feeling way more Parentally towards alberto than his biological dad like that; obv#and anyways re: this [The Change gets messed up] idea it's more of an inconvenience lol but one that could still have some significance#like if he first finds out the issue exists via hopping right into the ocean; failing to change forms; never being human form'd in water b4#thee worst....crash intro course to the experience of drowning. observation of How Humans Swim / being able to grab any part of the boat...#and besides That unpleasantness it's like; hey. where's my nonhuman form at#or; of course; being in sea form even while dry....especially if he's still dealing with Nonsense on land. which is presumed.#&/or if there's an upswing in nonsense b/c of Other ways you're Othered...ofc we can consider like; tfw you're a gay fish & maybe that's no#something that on its own would be like Aah until it's like well a) i kinda wanna do things that would make this Visible and b) i've learne#that humans also Have Issues about this kind of thing....#appropriately my tablet was also all thrown off. no pressure sensitivity; input sensitivity overall was rough#but i would've had to restart my laptop about it lol like eh i'll just work around it
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Fuck you. Red Dwarf: Better Than Life novel fanart
"Lister did something then he wouldn't have done in any other circumstances whatsoever. He started to eat a sofa.
This seemed to go down well. There was a cacophony of whirrs, clicks and whistles, and the cockroaches circled in delight.
'Well, it's been absolutely wonderful,' Lister found himself saying. 'Terrific place you've got here,' he said to the mother roach. 'And you serve a wicked rotting sofa. But I really must be going.' He nodded, threw in a few clicks and whistles for good measure, and climbed on the first roach's back. It waddled speedily down the length of the cave, and flung itself over the mountain side. "
#red dwarf#infinity welcomes careful drivers arrived today!!! im tempted to read it at school tomorrow but its dr who day :/ i should honour the doc#better than life#my first rd fanart ever :)) the earth lore is so dark holy shit fuck#imagine you woke up some day and every human was dead but you and you had no one to return to so you figure#guess ill just fly back to earth and see if its still there. what else would i do#and then you crash landed on an ice world and then the ice age suddenly fucking ended and there was garbage everywhere and acid was raining#and slowly but surely you realize; after you narrowly escape acid rain and fire rain; that this IS earth#because while you were sleeping Earth was designated Garbage World and all the Garbage was dumped there and it just flew away off into spac#and then you were left to your own devices on the garbage planet with 8ft roaches on it for 34 fucking years#anyway. im normal about it.
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Hi Shan!
I hope you're doing well and thank you for all your metas and recs. They are always such a great read!
I have realised that I am quite anxious about currently airing shows not sticking the landing (IFYLITA mostly, I only seem to care about this one recently). You may have previously written about it(?), but which dramas (BL or otherwise), do you think have the most satisfying endings?
Oh, and bonus question, do you have an ending that you approve of, was really good and all, but you would never ever rewatch it because of *too many feels*?
Hey Kat! Thanks for the ask. I totally get the fear of a bad ending, it has soured many a drama experience, and sometimes it really does take you off guard. I feel like when most dramas end I'm just happy if the ending doesn't retroactively ruin anything, let alone it actually being meaningfully good. I had to think about this for a minute, but I do think there are some dramas where the ending is so good it actually enhances the overall story and watch experience.
First, a few that I would classify as having really lovely happy endings that feel very well-earned after lots of pain and strife
My Lovely Sam Soon
This drama is a classic from 2005, and it caught me off guard with how invested I got. It's a pretty standard romcom about a quirky "fat" (*stares into the camera*) woman who gets hired by a chaebol restaurant owner. They start out adversarial before eventually falling in love, with the hero working through his surprising feelings for this woman who does not fit his image of his ideal partner and the heroine overcoming her own body image and self-esteem issues. Sounds basic, right? But something about it just works. At the end, the heroine sings a love song to her beau with her terrible singing voice while he looks on adoringly, and something about it was just so touching that I actually burst into tears.
My Mister
One of my favorite endings of any drama ever. Our heroine Ji An has been through it, and via a platonic relationship with her older boss, she gets the support she needs to turn her life around. I spent half of this drama white knuckling in fear that they would try to turn the relationship romantic, but they stayed true to the purpose of this narrative. Instead of a romance, we end with the two of them running into each other on the street after a time skip. They meet eyes, he sees that she is happy and well and they just smile gently at each other. Perfection.
The Untamed
Possibly a controversial pick, given that this is significantly altered from the novel, which has a much better resolution to the romance. But given the constraints this adaptation was under and the need to keep the relationship ambiguous for censorship reasons, I think this show did a remarkable job of getting the romance across. This ending where they meet again on a hillside, Lan Wangji calls his name, Wei Wuxian turns and we see a smile slowly light his face up is absolutely beautiful and a very romantic note to leave us on.
This second group of endings are more bittersweet resolutions, but ones I thought really added to the poignancy of the stories and made the relationships feel all the more epic
Bad Buddy
Something that always surprises me about the way people talk about BBS is they often seem to...forget that the ending is actually really fucking sad? I guess because the couple is together and still happy with each other, folks overlook the deep melancholy of the circumstances under which they are able to maintain their relationship. So let me remind you! Pat and Pran are in a long distance relationship, they are still not out to anyone but their closest friends, and they are forced to put on a charade in front of their families so everyone can carry on pretending. They are still hiding, their family relationships are irreparably altered, and we know it's a constant strain on them. It's a perfect bittersweet note to drive home the serious sacrifices they are making in the name of filial piety even as they refuse to give each other up.
Crash Landing on You
Switzerland, the true MVP of this story. Se Ri and Jung Hyeok do not have the option of simply choosing one of their home countries to live in together, and both have obligations they cannot abandon at home. And so in the end they settle for being mostly apart, taking time together in neutral territory as often as they can manage. Is it enough? No, but it's better than moving on from each other.
Goblin
This story is a tragedy and it stuck to its guns on that while also finding a way to give the characters (and the viewers) some kind of happiness to hang onto. Shin is doomed to live forever and watch Eun Tak die over and over again, but at least he also gets to meet and be with her before each death. Him meeting her again in her second life, with the looming knowledge that he will outlive her again and be left alone, is a perfect combination of joyful and mournful, very appropriate for this story.
I Promised You the Moon
One of my favorite romance endings ever, because it does what the genre rarely allows in acknowledging that the couple may not, in fact, stay together forever, and that's okay. Oh-Aew decides to take Teh back because he wants to be with him and he hopes they may be better equipped to deal with their issues in the future, not because he feels confident things will not go wrong again. In fact, he directly acknowledges that they probably will. It's a very mature resolution and a fitting end to a coming of age story.
Someday or One Day
This time travel story ends with the leads deciding to break the loop they have been living in, sacrificing their romantic relationship in the process. It's a brave and selfless choice made to protect others, and the narrative rewards them by giving them some hope of another path to each other in the future. We leave them meeting again at a different time with a significant age gap and no memory of each other, and a hope that they will find a way to each other in this new reality.
These next two kind of stand on their own as unique, as I have not seen other dramas that pull off what their endings do
The Glory
The best thing about this drama is that it's a revenge story where the revenge is fully carried out, no one is given unearned redemption, and every character gets exactly what they deserve. That probably shouldn't be revelatory, but in my experience, it is! Asian dramas love to hand out unearned redemption to villainous characters, but this drama was simply Not. Having. It. It was such a satisfying watch.
Utsukushii Kare
The ending of this one pulled off the neat trick of reframing everything that came before it, flipping the perspective so that nothing about previous events actually changed, but our understanding of what it all meant was turned on its head. This is a difficult writing trick that requires deep understanding of your characters' psychology and full command of every detail of your story, and it was incredibly impressive. It instantly turned it into one of my all-time favorites.
Bonus question: Dramas with endings that were fantastic, but that made me never want to watch again because of the feels
I had to think on this one a bit because I actually really enjoy getting into my feelings over dramas and regularly torture myself by rewatching sad shit. But I did come up with two dramas that I probably won't ever watch again for different reasons: The Red Sleeve and Secret Love Affair. With TRS, it's rooted in a specific kind of pain that I found quite brutal as a viewer: the total denial of any moment of happy catharsis, which was an intentional and appropriate choice to underline its message. This is a love story that the heroine did not want or choose, and so she never gives in and embraces it, and neither can we. The show refuses to romanticize the concubine life and I respect it, but boy was it hard to watch.
With SLA, it's more a matter of the anxiety it provokes. That drama was, hands down, the most stressful watch experience of my life, even more than thrillers that are intentionally trying to stress me out! The romance is actually super compelling but you can't relax for a moment because everything is on a knife's edge. And the ending was not at all happy, but somehow still managed to feel like a breath of fresh air for both the heroine and us, because we finally escaped that confining dynamic she was trapped in. A perfect ending to a brilliant drama and also a watch experience I am not looking to repeat.
#bad buddy#crash landing on you#the untamed#goblin#the glory#utsukushii kare#i promised you the moon#someday or one day#drama recs#drama endings#thanks again for the ask!#i do love an excuse to ramble about my favorite dramas#shan answers#shan recommends
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Peter: Isn't it amazing! Seven continents, eight billion people on the planet and a whole lifetime of choices and possible outcomes and in this particular string of decisions, in this particular moment... it had to be you stuck in the bathroom I walked into so I could pull this pole out of my thigh!
Tony: HOW ARE YOU STILL TALKING!? HOW ARE YOU BREATHING!? HOW ARE YOU COMING UP WITH THIS SHIT ON THE SPOT, WHILE YOU HAVE A POLE IN YOUR THIGH!?
Peter: It's a gift
Tony: WE ARE LEAVING! NOW!
Peter: I am gonna tell everyone you were stuck in a public bathroom, you know that right?
Tony: *sarcastic* What bathroom? You think I use a public bathroom? Me? You're delusional from the blood loss kid
Peter: No I'm not!
Tony: But no one will believe you
Peter: you sick son of a bitch
#this post was a rollercoaster ride#but I stand by it#Peter would do anything to distract Tony from the fact he has a pole in his thigh#amd would most definitely use Tony Stark getting stuck in a public toilet as leverage#what was Tony doing in a public toilet?#that is a story for another time#but it may end in him crash landing right outside it#and panicking that someone followed him#so he went in and the lock jammed#but he can't yell for help#because goddamnit Peter! Tony Stark does not use public toilets!#I will never recover from this if it gets out!#tony stark#peter parker#marvel#mcu#marvel cinematic universe#incorrect tony stark#incorrect tony stark quotes#incorrect peter parker quotes#incorrect peter parker#incorrect marvel#irondad#incorrect marvel quotes#textpost#funny#incorrect mcu quotes#incorrect mcu#marvel incorrect quotes#incorrect quotes
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Why I prefer cdramas over kdramas(as an international fan)
kdramas ive watched - business proposal, sweet home, rookie historian goo hae-ryung, mr queen, link: eat, love, kill , the glory , crash landing on you, what's wrong with secretary kim, true beauty, romance is a bonus book, goblin, meow-the secret boy, hometown cha cha cha, see you in my 19th life
cdramas ive watched - the untamed, word of honor, blood of youth, ten miles of peach blossom(i regret watching this one), love between fairy and devil, the starry love, till the end of the moon, put your head on my shoulder, mr honesty, the romance of tiger and rose, love o2o, go go squid!, love and destiny, currently watching back from the brink
1) Cdramas tend to have more developed side characters
ive seen a good variety of kdramas, and i always find the side characters to be lacking! they are often treated as props or only used for comical purposes. meanwhile, in cdramas, they tend to have more personality and are important to the plot as well rather than just being a plot device! (i agree that not all cdramas do it well, but the ones that do leave behind a good impression)
2) Cdramas make the characters interact well
one thing that i have noticed in cdramas is that they make character interactions to be deep and meaningful! personally, i prefer consuming media where both the main characters and side characters stand out, and while it's hard to create something like that, cdramas do it better than kdramas! side characters often don't get enough screen time or are too one-dimensional to make an impact on the viewers! im not saying that kdramas don't do it at all, im saying that a lot of times, it just doesn't hit as hard as in cdramas.
3)The angst hits harder in cdramas!!
now, don't get me wrong, im not saying that kdramas can't be angsty! it's just that a lot of angst in kdramas tends to be more romance related, and as an aroace person, i don't care much for romance and that's why the angst in cdramas(not just romance related) feels and hits way harder! yes, i absolutely adored the angst in the glory freaking loved it! i live for it, but angst in cdramas tends to focus a lot more on familial and platonic relationships, and my lil heart just loves it too much!!
4) kdramas have a lot more filler than cdramas
yes, ik that cdramas are longer, but just hear me out! i have noticed that a lot of times, if you remove a couple of episodes from a kdrama, it makes no impact on the plot whatsoever! or a lot of arcs just feel like they don't deserve as much screen time, and some arcs don't make much sense either after being dragged on for so long!! meanwhile, cdramas are definitely longer, but most of them, if not all of them, are adapted from a webnovel, and that, in general, leads to them being super long! yes, it feels like they are dragging some parts out, but it all seems significant to the plot and is not just filler!
5) relationships between females are better portrayed in cdramas!!
i absolutely adore female friendships or just respectful relationships between females. and cdramas definitely do it better than kdramas! look at li susu and pian ran from TTEOTM or jiele and xiao lan hua from LBFAD or WOH or back from the brink! female connections are better portrayed in cdramas!
6) cdramas tend to be more fantasy focused than kdramas
i enjoy fantasy as a genre a lot, and cdramas tend to be more fantasy based! chinese fantasy is so interesting, and i absolutely adore wuxia/xianxia as a genre! kdramas don't have something similar, and while i adore a lot of historical kdramas, fantasy just hits differently! especially cause there is just so much to explore in chinese fantasy! look at the blood of youth, i had so much fun watching that show. and the fight scenes were so well done!
7) cdramas have beautiful platonic relationships, and i adore the found family arc a lot more in cdaramas
there is definitely a found family arc going on in most of the cdramas ive watched, and i live for it! a lot of time, the characters might not have as much screen time, but they all seem to have depth, and that makes the drama so much fun! yes, kdramas also have found family arcs, but a lot of times, the characters are purely used for comical purposes and have no back stories! they are mostly just used to fill screetime! whether it's the untamed or the starry love, the found family arc would make my heart go so soft cause all those characters have back stories and depth and i am so in love with all of them and even losing one of them can make me go feral and that's exactly why i adore cdramas!!!!!!
shortcomings of cdramas:-
a) the re-dubbing in cdarams- as you all know that China re-dubs their drama, and that can be annoying cause it's always the same va!!
b) the chinese censorship is so strict, and a lot of times, some scenes don't make it into the final cut which can be frustrating or a lot of time even getting past the censorship can be impossible!!
c) i feel that fans seem to be more critical towards cdramas! people behind the scenes put way too much effort so that we can watch their work, but how the drama changes after the censorship is not in their control! they try their best, and adapting novels is not easy!! yet the fans are less understanding towards them! i just wish the audience was a little more understanding!!
d) another problem that's persistent with most cdramas are the poorly translated subtitles! sometimes, the subtitles can be very unclear, or the translation is not accurate at and that can create a disconnect with the international fans in general!!
this is just my opinion! im not saying that cdramas are better than kdramas. i adore them both a lot! im just saying that i PREFER cdramas more! please be understanding and try to be polite when interacting with this post!! that being said, feel free to leave recommendations cause i WILL check em out ;))
#cdramas are lit#i adore them both#kdrama#cdramas#the untamed#word of honor#wei wuxian#mr queen#rookie historian goo hae ryung#sweet home#chinese drama#korean drama#the blood of youth#back from the brink#till the end of the moon#crash landing on you#put you head on my shoulder#love o2o#love between fairy and devil#the starry love#the romance between tiger and rose#the glory#business proposal#true beauty
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Junelezen Day 27: Dream
"Thanks for bringing us to Lyhe Mheg Feo Ul."
"Of course my sapling. You four have fun now!"
#ffxiv#alinea skylark#alira thorne#annabeth rose#aurora calypso#junelezen 2024#ffxiv oc#What better place to go in a dream than to Lyhe Mheg#And how nice to go with your best friends#Of course they had to have a race down the slide#And naturally none of them went down at the right angle so they landed up crashing into each other before the end#Poor Aurora is so much shorter than the rest of them#But she's still captain of whatever ship they're on
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Trope Talk #2: Breaking Their Heart To Save Them
OK let's talk about a trope I DON'T like.
As I've started watching a lot more Asian dramas this year, my patience with this trope - already occasionally featured in Western media - has approached rock bottom. You'll know this romance trope when you see it, usually around the start of the third act. The main couple will have overcome every obstacle - but suddenly everything will be too much. Some external factor is forcing them apart, and this time one of them becomes convinced the two of them should break up. But how to convince the other party of this?
Easy! Tell them a bunch of lies. Pretend you never even loved them in the first place. Break their heart because it's the best way to save them. Satine does it to Christian in MOULIN ROUGE. Both leads do it in LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL. Gorya does it to Thyme in F4 THAILAND. (That last one very nearly got me to ragequit with just two episodes left to go.)
So, let's discuss why this trope doesn't work for me, as well as some ways it might be justified, subverted, or deconstructed.
I think the main reason the trope doesn't work for me is that most of the time it feels quite cruel, especially when it acts as the third act breakup. Breaking someone's heart to save them is supposed to occur as a gesture of love and care for another person, but it's pretty messed-up to deliberately wound someone, someone you claim to care for. Let's look at two examples that didn't work for me.
CRASH LANDING ON YOU has a male lead who is always scolding the heroine for her decisions, especially when those decisions lead her to sacrifice herself for him. When she wakes up in hospital after taking a bullet for him, instead of saying thank you like a normal person, he scolds her to the point of tears. Because he's constantly treating her like a child and making decisions on her behalf, it makes perfect sense when he decides to break up with her by telling her he never loved her. The characterisation is consistent and believable; the problem is that this sort of character is a huge red flag, and the show never stops depicting the hero's paternalistic behaviour as a totally normal and romantic thing, actually! This is a great example for what this trope represents even at its most internally consistent - a character making a huge decision without their partner's input, taking away the say that should rightfully be theirs, and never being called to account for it.
Take F4: THAILAND as an example of this trope that doesn't make ANY sense at all. Our two leads kept me fully charmed throughout most of the show, but it all fell apart for me in the final three episodes. Gorya is a wonderful female lead whose strong sense of self-respect, dignity, and tenacity has driven her to challenge Thyme's bullying and inspire him to become a better person. These traits have empowered her to defy his mother's systematic destruction of her family's finances and those of everyone she loves. When Thyme's mother offers Gorya money to break up with Thyme, she scorns the offer. However, when Thyme's mother tells him that she is dying and that she needs to use what little time she has left to consolidate Thyme's leadership of the family empire, Gorya chooses to break Thyme's heart to ensure that he can become CEO after his mother's death. This is pitched as worthwhile because of the good things Thyme could do as a powerful capitalist who puts people, not money, first. Gorya knows that after everything she and Thyme have been through, he's absolutely devoted to her, and that hurting him badly enough to part the two of them will involve returning him to the old, villainous, bullying Thyme. Thyme's mother even encourages her to do just that - because it's only the villainous Thyme who CAN consolidate his control of the family empire. It made no sense to me that Gorya would fall in with this program. Why would this person hurt someone she loves, bringing back the villain she reformed, so that he can keep control of the riches she spurned? I didn't believe it for a moment. It felt like gratuitous cruelty, totally out of character, and militated against the story's themes.
I always find myself asking the same questions when I see this trope: why couldn't the characters have an honest conversation about this? Why couldn't they face this challenge together? Why wouldn't they do literally everything within their power to avoid systematically destroying their loved one's self esteem? Taking a relationship out the back and shooting it just seems like an incredibly disproportionate response to 99% of the scenarios that give rise to this trope.
Still, like all tropes that are used poorly, this one can be deconstructed, played with, or even justified. Let's look at some examples of this trope that work a little better than most.
Look for ways to soften the trope
The more love and trust there is between the characters, the less credible it is that one of them would choose to withold information from the other, lie to them, and break their heart. In the YA space opera romance THESE BROKEN STARS, at their very first interaction the female lead mocks and antagonises the male lead specifically because young men who show romantic interest in her tend to meet with unfortunate "accidents" and she wants to spare him that fate. Since the two of them are strangers, there's less trust to be broken, and by the same token, it takes the female lead less effort (and cruelty) to destroy his interest in her.
Similarly, think about the somewhat similar situation in PRIDE & PREJUDICE where a third party, Mr Darcy, breaks up Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet because he thinks it would be better for Bingley not to ally himself with the embarrassing Bennet family. This is not an example of this trope, but it's a very similar one - two people in love are cruelly broken up because somebody decided they knew best. While Elizabeth at first believes Mr Darcy's actions to be unforgiveable, she quickly learns of an extenuating circumstance: Mr Darcy had no idea that Jane was seriously attached to Mr Bingley and would not have done what he did if he had known.
2. Make sure there are realistic consequences
I don't think it's IMPOSSIBLE for a couple to end up together after a use of this trope, but as in PRIDE & PREJUDICE, in addition to extenuating circumstances, there would ideally be a whole character arc in which the person at fault proves that they are going to stop trying to make decisions for their partner.
I also loved the deconstruction of the trope in ANOTHER MISS OH. In this show the heroine's fiancé, facing financial ruin and prison, tells her just days before their wedding that he doesn't love her anymore and is disgusted by the way she eats. When he gets out of prison early, he's extremely miffed to find that his ex is now dating the very bloke responsible for him being in jail in the first place. He tells the female lead that he just wanted to spare her the pain and disgrace of his prison sentence, and she very properly calls him out on it. He intentionally humiliated her and left her with lasting wounds and insecurities, and although her new boyfriend isn't perfect either, at least he never did THAT to her.
Although this is a deconstruction I think we can still learn from it. After all, this trope is always depicted as a mistake on somebody's part; the important thing is to make the consequences believable.
3. Make sure it's believable for the characters to act in this way
When this trope is played straight, as a major third act breakup between avowed lovers, I almost never find it truly believable. But the story that comes closest is MOULIN ROUGE. Our heroine Satine has always seen herself as the older, worldly wise, cynical one in the relationship. She doesn't believe in the power of love the way her love interest, Christian, does. And she's spent her whole life prioritising money and survival. So, when Satine finds out that her would-be lover, a powerful duke, wants Christian dead, it's credible that THIS sort of person would decide to break up with Christian and tell him she's choosing the Duke and financial security over love.
There are also additional reasons why this works, and all of them are deeply rooted in characterisation.
For one thing, this isn't Satine's first choice. She originally plans to run away with Christian. It's only once she learns that she's dying of consumption that she decides to break up with him instead. We SEE that Satine would rather fight for her love - and we understand why she comes to despair of it.
For another, staying true to Christian won't save him heartbreak because he's going to lose her anyway. On the other hand, if she breaks Christian's heart, she will save him from the Duke and also give the Moulin Rouge's prostitutes a chance at becoming actresses and real artists. We can understand that the price of putting love first is so high, with such little return, that Satine would choose to act this way.
Finally, because Satine's character has already been established as so mercenary, she doesn't actually NEED to work hard to convince Christian that she has chosen the Duke. In fact, one of the things that sets MOULIN ROUGE apart from other examples of this trope is that, from memory, Satine doesn't even lie to Christian. She doesn't try to convince him that their love has been a complete sham - she just informs him that she's decided to give the Duke what he wants. Christian believes it because it's exactly the sort of thing the Satine he first met would have done.
Compare this to the example in F4: THAILAND. In that show, breaking up with Thyme doesn't fit with Gorya's character. She doesn't try to find any alternatives. Thyme finds it so hard to believe her when she says she wants to break up with him, that she has to seriously hurt him in order to make him believe it. And as a member of the audience I wanted to know why exactly it would be so terrible - in a show that is explicitly about the evils of wealth - for Thyme to abandon his family empire.
4. Connect it directly with the themes
The cdrama LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL contains a rendition of this trope that actually works WITH, rather than against, the themes of the story. LBFAD avoids the often sexist and paternalistic overtones of this trope by having both leads at different times break each other's hearts to save them. Best of all, it uses the trope as an expression of the main thematic conflict of the story. This campy fantasy romance dares to ask whether the greater good is more important than personal love and happiness. When each lead character chooses to break the heart of the other, they do so implicitly because they have bought into the lie that they must set aside personal love for the greater good. Their whole character arc and happy ending hinges upon their ability to see that the only way to sacrifice for the greater good, is to learn love and compassion on a personal level. As such, even though it still stretched credibility that two such devoted leads would treat each other so badly, the story used the trope wisely, not to manufacture melodrama but to discuss its central themes.
5. BONUS: Restore agency to the dumped party One of the annoying things about this trope is specifically that it involves one character choosing to deprive the other of agency in their own romance. So, one of the most fun ways to play this trope is by restoring agency to the dumpee.
This happens in the cdrama TILL THE END OF THE MOON. At first, the way this trope was played in this story really annoyed me. The God of War, Ming Ye, has unexpectedly fallen in love with his at-first unwanted bride, Sang Jiu. Now, however, he's about to go off and fight a battle in which he expects to give his life. Rather than let Sang Jiu know about this, he hands her a bill of divorce and tells her he never had any feelings for her. Sang Jiu has been in love with him from the shell, and this breaks her heart. It seemed completely gratuitous to me - why would Ming Ye divorce someone he's about to widow in any case? If he wants to send her to safety, why can't he just ask her to go home for a visit to her beloved family until the danger blows over? However, I was FASCINATED by Sang Jiu's response to this ultimatum: she puts on her wedding dress, marches into Ming Ye's room, and demands her conjugal rights before she leaves. Although there were definitely things about this scene which I, ah, found problematic and would have done differently, it was a terrific thing to see the female lead seize back agency in this situation. I also appreciated how it foreshadowed later problems in the subplot, in which the male lead's inability to communicate and the female lead's tendency to take things into her own hands dooms them both.
Similarly, in one of my books, a character is forced to break up with another in public, which she does, very coldly. But he takes the first opportunity to get her alone, throw himself at her feet and swear that even if she doesn't want to be his partner anymore, she will still have his undying devotion and lifelong service. It was huge fun to defy the common expectations of the trope in this way!
In summary, I do think that this trope can work, but it does need to be fully supported by the story. It should not be overdone; there must be consequences; it must be in character; there must be high enough stakes to make the pain inflicted seem worthwhile; and it must be in keeping with the themes rather than militating against them.
#trope talk#writing advice#writing#romance tropes#lbfad#tteotm#f4 thailand#love between fairy and devil#till the end of the moon#moulin rouge#pride and prejudice#crash landing on you#cloy#another miss oh
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rewrote my young justice self-insert ... he's an almeracian ( yeah ) named Alraai. He gets introduced in season 1 as a girl under the deadname Lethe, as a protégé of Wonder Woman!
I'm gonna write out some personal lore for the planet almerac in Young Justice eventually but I think it's somewhere between Tamaran and Krypton in terms of vibes. Maybe. But like the comics, Young Justice! Almerac is definitely a repressive society.
Alraai ( Still in the closet, and still going by his deadname at the time ) in season two really succumbs to Cisnormativity and has a whole ass breakdown at the end of the season. He comes out sometime between season 2&3 though. If you can't tell, I'm gonna be projecting onto him super duper hard. Yeah.
#oc: Alraai Tradmor#almeracian oc#young justice oc#young justice self insert#my art#he ended up crash-landing on earth a year or so before season 1 due to escaping war on planet almerac i think.#diana sees this sad and in-denial trans kid and goes 'yeah i'll take them under my wing'#proper illust. soon.....
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Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Firmus Piett & Luke Skywalker, Firmus Piett & Darth Vader Characters: Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Firmus Piett Additional Tags: Crash Landing, Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Crack, Forced Camping Trips, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Vaderkin-centric, Animal Attack, Darth Vader Has Issues, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Canon-Typical Limb Loss, POV Alternating, Darth Vader A+ parenting, camping trip AU, And befriend Luke, The Force is doing favoritism, Pray For Piett, He will need it, even if he is not here yet, Darth Vader Needs a Hug, or to stop losing importants part of himself, like limbs, Bespin hasn't happened yet, But Luke destroyed the death star and Vader knows he is his son, Temporary Amnesia, very temporary, It’s more like... blow on the head confusion, Protective Luke, Sunshine Luke Skywalker Summary:
As all good Skywalker stories does, this story begins with a crash. For once, it's not Anakin's (Vader's) fault; or so he would say.
Luke very much wish he hadn't crashed and gotten stuck with his father's murderer, Vader is glad to finally have his son in his hands, and Piett swear he will never again participate in straws draw. Maybe something might be revealed during the trip?
#THIS IS FINISHED#AFTER TWO YEARS#Wrapping up the end felt so satisfying xd#even stars burn out#star wars#sinvulkt fics#anakin skywalker#darth vader#fanfiction#star wars fanfiction#sw fic#vaderkin#luke skywalker#crack#angst#firmus piett#pray for piett#Crash landing on space australia#sinvulkt#my fics#fanfic#sw#original trilogy
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Tell me the ending of crash landing on you is good 😭
#(without telling me all the details)#crash landing on you#I’m 5 from the end#I’m just really worried all of a sudden
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Anyone got any kdrama recs for me? (Preferably not older than 2019 bc older kdramas are more cringy kdnfkfj)
#I recently watched:#crash landing on you: liked it but the ending ruined it for me. hated the ending.#marry my husband: mostly liked it but the final third was a bit dumb.#mr. queen: obsessed. i pretend the ending happened differently.#gyeongseong creature: it was really good. looking forward to s2#death's game: it was CRAZY! Loved it.#bloodhound: I ADORED THIS SHOW😭#whats wrong with security kim: it was fun to watch but a bit too cringe (it was from 2018 tho i think)#bad and crazy: it was really fun. loved it.#what else....#if u wish upon me: eh... it was slow but nice.#ALMOSR FORGOT#the worst of evil: goddamit i need to rewatch it... best show ive seen in a while
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"Come on Lane, live a little." "Putting on Limp Bizkit is your idea of living?" "It's either that or A Rush of Blood to the Head." "Curse your britpop-obsession... Bring on the nu-metal."
The Last Great American Dirtbags: An Audio Junkies Roadtrip AU
(Raw images: not mine)
#I am convinced that if the planets had ever aligned for it Lane would've forced Jess to take her on a roadtrip#I imagine a trunk full of music to play in the car#trying and failing to live off the land#moping about their love lives#crashing random concerts and open mic nights#and of course#losing their voices from screaming songlyrics for hours on end#can you tell that I'm obsessed with this theoretical fictional friendship#audio junkies#lane x jess#but platonic#lane kim#jess mariano#gilmore girls#gilmore girls au#gilmore girls moodboard#my aus#my moodboards
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