#but i'm not like. invested in them as characters in the way that i am for es megs. if that makes sense?

[protect-namine]

thinking about the manhua still. I love that it explores aspects of the story that the show doesn't (or hasn't) delved too deeply upon, and it's also more like the first half of S1, which is my favorite format for link click.

I'm really enjoying how it explores the idea of how a client "sticks" with cheng xiaoshi, their regrets and obsessions linger in his thoughts and dreams post-dive, and how lu guang tries to take care of him through that. there's more thought put into post-dive "aftercare"

also them doing odd jobs like this:

the cases are much like S1 cases, and they're interesting to me. I like that they do missions that extend beyond the actual photo-dive, where a dive is just a part of the plan and not the whole plan itself. like, there's a clear difference between S1E2 shiguang who keep diving in photo after photo to find a noodle recipe, and manhua!shiguang who does like, internet searches and talking to people as part of their job helping a client find an old video recording.

manhua!shiguang........... oh man. lu guang acts way more, hmmm, how should I put this. feels like manhua!lg will jump through hoops to make sure cheng xiaoshi avoids feeling bad about a dive, while S1!lg either has a little more trust in cheng xiaoshi on handling himself and following his lead in unsavory situations, or he just straight up panics when he realizes that cheng xiaoshi is about to do something reckless.

like, lu guang's character has always been a tug-of-war between being extremely careful about handling cheng xiaoshi to the point that it can be seen as controlling, and being more trusting of cheng xiaoshi in how he handles an operation, even if it risks danger to himself. S1!lg is pulling on both ends but manhua!lg is definitely more on the careful side. kinda feels like manhua!lg has asked cheng xiaoshi if he's absolutely sure he wants to do a dive way more than I've seen donghua!lg asked that question.

some interesting characterizations:

love that we get some lu guang pov.

lu guang is still very principled (when he's not being a hypocrite) (for example, him telling cheng xiaoshi not to dive in a dead person's photos out of respect for their privacy) but it's clear that they have different priorities. cheng xiaoshi gets invested in the missions; lu guang is invested in cheng xiaoshi not getting fucked up by a mission.

it leads to fun moments like this where cheng xiaoshi is doing detective work from the get go, meanwhile lu guang is out here not really caring yet and preparing their sleeping bags (tbh I am soooo here for more detective-ing and operation-leading from cheng xiaoshi)

it's actually like. insane to me how palpable it is that manhua!lg cares little about their clients beyond fulfilling their primary objective of helping them (compared to S1!lg). like, he does care, but he really only acts when he sees it's upsetting cheng xiaoshi that they can't help out more. I think donghua!lg at least cares a little bit more about their clients than that (live action version is on the extreme end and cares way more than the first two, at least from the episode I've seen).

you can feel that manhua!lg has Gone Through Grief more recently and is channelling all of that into devotion lmao.

anyway. manhua!shiguang........ oh cheng xiaoshi you are so beloved in every universe

cute siblings moment:

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 29 December 2024

The end of the year kicked my ass, but I wanted to get one last one of these out for 2024! The last one before this was 10 November. If you're interested in GL older than that, check out my GL rec list through Feb 2024 and my #gl recs tag for the other odds and ends posts. New series marked with an asterisk*.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to 29 Dec):

The Fragrance You inherit 5/8 (Japanese, Friday/Saturday-ish, no official distribution but fansub on @isaksbestpillow's blog [thank you Siiri!] I have been really enjoying this show and have been writing when I have time (last post was for ep4). At its core this is a gentle show about kind people who love each other doing their best, which is always my favourite thing. Subs are on pause for the moment so you have time to catch up before the finale!

Pluto ep 11/12 (Thai, Saturdays 9:30 AM ET, YouTube) This plot continues to be absolutely wild. There's a lot of discourse around Oom this week, to which I'll just say: Setting a test to see if the people you love will hurt themselves in order to make you feel better is not loving or healthy behaviour, even if your motivations are understandable and sympathetic. Namtan is doing a great job making these twins feel like different people, and she and Film are still gorgeous together. And I have no idea what's up with the messy lesbian sides, but I'm on the side of all of them need a time out! I've been pretty dialed out of this show because it's not my thing, so I'm not that invested in any of the relationships going into the finale, but it's been a wild ride and it seems to be holding together for those who enjoy the high drama of this plot.

*Petrichor ep 5/10 (Thai, Saturdays, 10:00 AM ET, iQIYI) The procedural aspects of this show are unfortunately not well executed, but Engfa and Charlotte have fantastic chemistry. I'm also really loving seeing Na and Max again even though I am very worried about getting too attached to their characters. It's always hard for me when a show is about a police officer trying to do good work in a corrupt system because the only takeaway I can accept is that that is not possible lol but I'm enjoying seeing these two on my screen every week (except this week, because we sadly did not get a new episode today).

*Mate, 6/12 (Thai, Tuesdays, WeTV (uncut version)) This one is hard to describe. It seems to be trying to do for trauma in a GL what Love in the Air and Bed Friend did in BL--show a realistic depiction of trauma in one of their characters and have them fall in love, and be taken care of and healed that way. But that also makes it extremely hard to watch. The trauma flashbacks and trauma responses is rough. The main character is not very likeable but that's kinda the point, I'm not minding that part of it so much. There are a lot of things I like about this show, so I don't want to discourage views. Just go into this one informed, and make the decision that's right for you.

*INTP 1/? (Korean, Fridays (?), YouTube) This is the latest short series from RedQ, who produced some of my favourite GL short series including More than or equal to 75 degrees C, and To the Ex who Hated Me. No info on how long it will be or if it will be weekly, so that Fridays release schedule is a total guess. The setup of this one reminded me of Semantic Error if SangWoo realized he was attracted to JaeYoung at their first group assignment meeting.

Recently Completed:

Apple My Love 6.5 50-min eps (Thai, Oct 12-Nov 16, GagaOOLala and YouTube) I ended up feeling like this one bit off a bit more than it could chew, as much fun as I had with it, it was a wobbly landing. I was ok with the ending at the end but I spent a lot of time watching the finale uncertain about how I felt about all of it. There's a 30 min "episode 5.1" that is an important bridge between episodes 5 and 6 (and also includes a 10-min fingering scene, thank you show) that I think resulted from either poor pacing or realizing they needed to set up the episode better? It was odd but something to make sure not to skip. The show does a lot of what I love about Kongthup's latest BLs: it avoids the worst drama pitfalls and calls them out in the show itself when it uses them, and it is largely about being kind to its characters who are figuring themselves out. Warning for extremely hard to watch secondhand embarrassment in the first couple of episodes lol Kris is such a cringefail lesbian I love her. With the caveats above, if you don't mind secondhand embarrassment and want a comedy GL and are willing to be a little patient with the ending, give this one a try!

The Loyal Pin 16 65-min eps (Thai, Aug 4-Dec 1, YouTube) Anin was the bravest right through to the end. I really liked a lot of this show, but I found the pacing a bit uneven and the finale a little rough. It's hard, because I actually am happy with the way the show ended--it makes perfect sense and was where I was hoping they would get to the entire show. What I didn't like was how we got there. It seemed wild that Pin and Anin didn't at least talk about this possibility before we got there; and didn't feel like we ever resolved the disparity between the two leads, though the show was aware of it the whole time which I did like. And you may have seen the shouting about the prank in the finale, it was in really poor taste. In the end, this show was beautiful, gave a platform for promoting Thai culture (food, clothing, history), and had excellent intimacy. I really enjoyed the slow burn between Anin and Pin, and I loved that every character had and used the agency they had, but that the show was realistic about what was in and outside of their control. If you want a slow-burn and high-heat romance and are willing to be a little frustrated for the sake of the drama, and/or you really like a pigtail-pulling romantic dynamic, you should watch this show.

Red Whisper 8 10-min eps (Korea, Oct 2-Nov 11, YouTube) Honestly this show never got better after what I wrote about it a month ago about how its portrayal of bisexuality and nonmonogamy was upsetting. For the record one last time: Not all bisexuals are nonmonogamous, and entering a monogamous relationship under false pretenses and then acting like your partner is being unreasonable by not wanting an open relationship is shitty behaviour. This one is sadly not recommended.

The Nipple Talk 10 30-min eps (Taiwanese, Nov 8-22, GagaOOLala) I highly recommended the first half, and so I am so sad to say that I can't say the same for the second half of the show. I was really enjoying how much the show seemed to support a mix of monogamy and nonmonogamy, but the second half of the show leaned heavily into 'everyone wants a monogamous relationship when they meet the right person', which disappointed me. The show also tried to introduce some themes that felt very dated in terms of how they handled them (e.g. HIV) and I ended up just not really liking the Pony character as a person by the end. The lesbian relationship was super messy in a way that I did not find fun too. Mama was the best part of this show, and I hope we get more characters like them in future (better) shows!

*Soul Sisters 24 12-min eps (Chinese, iQIYI) This entire show dropped this week so I binged it in one go. The basic setup is a GL version of Meet You At the Blossom, except the gender fuckery lasts for most of the series and they don't actually ever get to kiss. I loved this little show; it is a frenetic, very silly and censored comedy, so calibrate your expectations accordingly. But it walks the line in a way that is palatable (or was for me, anyway). Without giving too much away, it is an open happy ending. The caveats for this one are that there is no wasted tape, so the pacing is rollercoaster fast, and the cuts are sometimes jarring. But it's a surprisingly beautiful show for the budget, and I really appreciated all of the ways they came up with to give these women shippy moments. Also, good lord this main character is so competent, which is a major weakness of mine. I had a great time!

*Whisper Me a Love Song 12 25-min eps (Japanese anime, Apr-27 Dec, HiDive) This started airing in April but there was a delay and the last episode didn't air until yesterday. High school lesbians in a band having embarrassing confused and misunderstood feelings all over the place (with good endings including a kiss for at least one of our couples). I appreciate that this anime is not playing with the 'are they friends who joke about wanting to touch each other's boobs or are they more' line, they outright say they want to be more than friends and then kiss. The music is good too! Recommended if you are feeling like a high school dramedy with good tunes that stays pretty light and is in the 'bubble'.

Recent One-offs, Side Couples, etc.:

My Hot Butch Roommate (actually a 2-parter) aired on bilibili 1, 2) and was subtitled by @douqi7s on YouTube (1, 2) These two are very cute, and this little short does a ton with the very tiny 5 minutes of total runtime it uses. Give the original bilibili uploads a stream so they get views, even if you watch the YT subbed version!

Fufuknows put out a new lesbian short titled The Choices of Two Lesbian Couples in Love on YouTube This was a great short (11 min) film featuring the story of two couples at different stages in their relationship, and the different choices they make about their futures. I really enjoy Fufuknows as queer short filmmakers, and I appreciate that they regularly include lesbian and wlw content in their bi-weekly (as in, every other week) fictional shorts that they produce and release. This one is recommended!

Aim's Lesbian plotline in the new Love Sick 2024 remake concluded (this was not a plotline in the 2014 version and it's one of the changes I really like and that I think works really well) Spoiler: she doesn't get a romance happy ending but her story ends with acceptance from her friends about who she is, which was lovely to watch

There was a brief of-the-week lesbian couple who wanted to marry in Spare Me Your Mercy Spoiler: their story is tragic, which is par for the course in a murder mystery

I am suspecting wlw sides in See Your Love I may end up eating these words but I was getting vibes, and so I'm putting this out in the universe now in hopes I'm right lol

There is a new Korean shorts production company on YouTube called Lovememory (Their first BL ep is out and the GL, First Love, has a trailer)

Mom Ped Sawan started airing but I don't have a source so I can't give any info or links unfortunately. If anyone knows of a subtitled source for this show, please let me know!

My Ex's Wedding came out in Thai theatres waiting for an international source for this too

Korean short film What's In my Bag was uploaded to Matchbox I haven't seen it yet but the trailer is on YouTube if anyone is curious! The film is available now for a small fee on Vimeo (runtime 12 mins).

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so; that being said I haven't had time recently so if I've missed anything good let me know!

Starting soon:

Us the series, Thai, 18 January 2025, most likely YouTube (as this is a GMMTV show) Caveat that this date is a rumour, see comments

Fragrance of the First Flower s2, Taiwanese, 18 February 2025, GagaOOLala ok this isn't that soon but I'm just so excited we're getting this second season after all!

It is so, so nice that we have this much GL to keep track of, I can't complain! This covers a whole month of content and it was a month I was very distracted from my QL consumption so while I always welcome anyone pointing out stuff I missed, I would particularly appreciate it this round.

[high-voltage-rat]

I think the problem with Veilguard is mostly just that they were so focused on giving a culmination of the Deep Lore that they forgot about the shallow lore we've had for the last 3 games. Anything about the chantry systems, the dalish as we know them, the political situation as it currently stands in general- it's fallen by the wayside pretty much completely. But deep lore theories about the blight, lyrium, old gods, spirits, the origin of elves and qunari, titans and the dwarves, etc. have all been addressed. However, in the process, these big reveals end up feeling pretty par for the course, rather than a groundbreaking revelation to the characters uncovering it OR to us, the players.

I get the sense that this game was built on the core goal of trying to give closure to all the little lore threads they'd planted in the last 3 games. It wasn't to explore the current state of thedas, or the effects of the events that we dealt with in each game- just the metaphysical state of the setting and how it came to be. In a weird way, it seems to be built to appeal to new players and deep lore buffs, but not to the people who just, like, played all three games and are invested in the present-day storyline. But honestly I think the shine for lore buffs is even limited, because so many of the great mysteries of the setting have been explained that there's nothing left to really theorycraft about. Our own world has so many mysteries, so much unknown- it's what gives life wonder. Even in a fictional world, taking that away makes things feel flatter. If everything is known, why explore?

Don't get me wrong, I still love it. I'm having a lot of fun and I really love the lore reveals we've been given. I'm a deep lore guy. I had already put together that Ghilin'ain was blighted, that original elves were spirits in lyrium bodies, that old gods corresponded to evanuris and were probably their dragon servants, and I've been excited to see my theories come true. But as someone who also has a great love for the dragon age setting in its present day, I am also pretty disappointed that you can play the game without any real knowledge of what the circles in the south are like, why the mages rebelled, what happened with the antaam in Kirkwall, what the current living conditions of elves are, the relations between the Grey Wardens and Ferelden, the colonial history of Orlais and its chantry... and lacking any of that knowledge will make no difference to your understanding of the game. It will never even tell you that info, aside from some short and oversimplified codex entries, because you don't need to know. If dragon age historically operated on this kind of simplified, "only what you need to know" style, we would never have the lore threads this game is based on to begin with.

[themoonking]

you know the way starscream is written in the second and third seasons of earthspark actually takes away potential character development from megatron, which is a shame because i actually quite like es megatron.

(aka, my attempt to prove that my issues with es s2/3 aren't just because i'm a bitter starscream stan. but also it’s still mostly about starscream </3 warning: long!)

in my opinion, s1e21 "what dwells within" deliberately set up a little mini character arc for megatron regarding his attitude toward starscream that (at least as of right now) was never followed up on. and in fact has lowkey been completely dropped. while earthspark megatron saw the error of his ways and changed his behavior before the events of the series, and is generally depicted as being very aware of the harm he has caused and wanting to atone for that harm, he has a very obvious blind spot when it comes to starscream and his treatment of him.

in "what dwells within", when starscream escapes from prison and megatron + optimus prime are discussing next steps, optimus directly asks megatron to bring starscream in without excessive force (the implication being that he believes this will be difficult for megatron), to which megatron replies that he will me when i lie. however, when megatron first encounters starscream later in the episode, his immediate reaction is to blast him with his cannon, even though in that moment starscream is literally just standing there. this clearly demonstrates that while this version of megatron is typically very calm and measured (being a grandfatherly source of stability for the malto children, rarely raising his voice, and also himself being the one to advocate for moderation when dealing with the other decepticons), he is unable or perhaps unwilling to temper himself when dealing, specifically, with starscream.

while the audience has only ever seen es megatron as gentle and caring, starscream describes a megatron that "ruled... with fear and intimidation", one that did not hesitate to use violence against those he had authority over. and that version of megatron is directly shown to us in his eagerness to use violence against starscream. near the beginning of the episode it was megatron who was very angrily pushing hard for croft to focus on recapturing starscream, specifically; he's so persistent about recapturing starscream that he, personally, sets out to do so despite croft's commands and optimus's obvious hesitance; as mentioned, his immediate reaction to seeing starscream is to beat him to the ground, despite the fact that when he sees starscream he is just hanging out and despite his earlier promise to bring starscream in "without excessive force". it's very deliberately shown to the audience that however many strides megatron has made in bettering himself as a person in the last ~15 years, the "old megatron" is still very much present when it comes to starscream.

however, "what dwells within" then depicts megatron as coming to some realization about the harm that he has caused to starscream, and as having potential for growth in that regard. when hashtag defends starscream against him and is clearly distraught at the way he's acting, megatron is forced to see how his actions toward starscream appear to others (particularly, others who he cares about). when starscream deliberately puts himself in danger to protect hashtag, megatron is forced to consider if his internal conception of starscream as "too unpredictable and dangerous" to be allowed to exist out in the world is, perhaps, off base. most especially, at the end of the episode when megatron offers "somewhere safe" to starscream and is rejected with the line "nowhere is safe if it's with you", the "camera" lingers on megatron's expression. we are very deliberately shown megatron's reaction to starscream's words; upon hearing this, megatron is either surprised or contemplative or something along those lines.

my reading of these moments (and particularly that ending moment), which i don't think is that controversial, is that megatron never really considered the damage that he has done to starscream. if i may theorize a bit: i think megatron conceptualized the conflict between starscream and himself as one between matched equals, while what starscream presents it as (and, let's be real, what it actually was) is a conflict between an authority figure and his subordinate, who he had both physical and social power over. therefore i don't think megatron ever really stopped to consider both the physical harm and the enduring psycological harm that he inflicted on starscream, even after his redemption arc where he presumably spent a lot of time thinking about how he has hurt others. you know, the large scale societal harm caused by starting a multi-million-year long interplanetary war is perhaps easier to recognize than the intimate, personal harm inflicted by one individual onto another in a complicated relationship between two people.

in this episode, however, megatron is forced to consider this. the fact that the reality of the situation may be different than how he's been conceptualizing it for ~15 years (if not millions of years) is brought into acute focus both by starscream all but directly telling him how his treatment had long-lasting negative effects on him and also by hashtag all but directly telling him how deranged his violent fixation on starscream looks to outsiders.

and i think it's a massive shame that this (in my opinion) deliberate set up was unceremoniously dropped between seasons.

first of all, while to be clear i do not believe that megatron's redemption happening off-screen before the events of the series is a flaw with the series itself, it still would have been interesting to see some kind of microcosm of that redemption arc through his relationship with starscream. especially considering how much of earthspark's first season was about change and redemption and second chances, it would have been. i don't know. nice. if they continued that theme into the rest of the show. and particularly this would provide an opportunity to send a message to the show's intended audience of children about how redemption is an ongoing process, and a process that isn't perfect. you know, just because megatron has changed doesn't mean there isn't still room to grow. just because he's recognized his faults in this area doesn't mean there aren't other areas that haven't gotten that same attention. we should always be working to better ourselves, don't let yourself become complacent and too self-assured of your own goodness to see where you need to change, et cetera. the closest we get to this is his changing dynamic with prowl, but that simply doesn't have the same punch because (1) neither the audience nor megatron have any kind of pre-existing relationship to prowl beyond knowing that he exists and (2) megatron's attitude toward prowl is that of being a little mean and jealous - it's just not the same. it's not as strong of an impact if the starting point that megatron needs to grow from is "having a mutually catty antagonism with a new addition to the friend group".

and second of all, the dropping of this storyline kind of leads to some gross unintentional messaging lmao?? like, season one very deliberately presents starscream as a victim of abuse from megatron, and presents megatron as needing to change in regards to both his physical treatment and also his mental conception of starscream. but when this is dropped, and starscream is rewritten between seasons to be so cartoonishly evil in contrast to his s1 portrayal that it's almost laughable, it kind of just validates megatron's earlier attitude - the attitude that was clearly presented in s1 as being off base and in need of altering. like, no, actually, megatron doesn't need to work on his obsessive and at times violent fixation on his former victim, because his paranoia about what starscream would get up to if left unsupervised was correct and warranted! no, actually, megatron doesn't need to feel bad about the physical and psychological violence he inflicted on starscream over the course of millennia, because starscream is "worse than [he] ever was"! very upsettingly, it almost sends a kind of... "look what happens when megatron isn't around to keep starscream in line; wasn't it better when megatron was in charge?" message. which is, again, gross as hell considering s1 all but explicitly stated that the way in which megatron treated starscream was abuse. like, to be clear, i do not believe this was intentional on the part of the earthspark writing team - i don't think this is what they were trying to say. it's just that, much like with the 😬 stuff surrounding the chaos terrans, i do not think they thought about the implications of their own writing in conjunction with the previous season before metaphorically hitting send.

anyway. the complete assassination of starscream's character also dominoed into megatron having his own little character arc pulled out from under him, which is just sad :-( i would have wanted to see some emotional development for megatron. and they should have given that old man something to do besides bitch at prowl for a season. and i'm making this post on my birthday so you're legally not allowed to disagree with me /lh

[amelikos]

I am already a big enjoyer of Friede and Amethio's rivalry and dynamics in general, so if Crave turns out to be Amethio's father, I feel like this knowledge would reframe their rivalry in very interesting ways and give additional readings and perspectives..

[cluescorner]

They fucking did it again those bastards. Jason Todd fucking dies 2: Electric Boogaloo. Fuck it, let's go for a threepeat at this point. It'll be funny as hell.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know multiple of these are likely important to people, but I'm asking in terms of like - which of these do you tend to focus on the MOST, enjoy the most, that is most essential for you to actually care about the media, etc.?

(For example: someone finding "Relatability" most important would likely not enjoy a show much if they have trouble empathizing with the characters/relating to it, even if it were good otherwise. Or, someone might be able to overlook bad acting and ugly costumes, as long as the Character Dynamics are fun to them, because they value that more than Aesthetics- while for others, bad costumes would be a dealbreaker.)

Also feel free to reblog and explain your answer or more information in the tags- I've always been curious about people's relationships to media, how they conceptualize it/what they get out of it, how some people value some parts more than others, how that informs their overall taste and genres they may be more inclined towards, etc. :0c

[astrxealis]

sorry to ffxivlovepost always anyway Man the way the devs & game did so good in making an mc that is Basically a blank-slate for the players, and there's so many opportunities to make your oc However you like but. the game itself adds so much story and character to that blank-slate guy. amazing

[rivilu]

Another negative side effect of this release is that filtering d///a//i content out of my feed has become impossible again

[childofaura]

Ok I thought I was gonna be making one nitpicky rant about TLoU show deaths but

I guess I’m actually making two. Because I saw another death and while I find there was nothing broadly wrong with it, there was some cinematic choices that drove me bonkers that I just wanna stress over.

So the rest will be under the cut, but for starters, this is about Sarah and Tess

Ok so Sarah isn’t really the meat of this rant, but I do want to talk about her death scene in the show because several things about it had bugged me. And please, I’m not really here to talk about the race swap. Overall I think it’s a little sus, moreso because the actress is the daughter of one of the executives of the show; so it suspiciously indicates nepotism. But the actress herself actually managed to do a pretty great job for Sarah’s death so really I couldn’t give a shit. ANYWAYS, the show’s death. What bugged me about it was the fact that there were CUTS while Joel is trying to comfort her and struggling to pick her up. The beauty of the cinematic choice in the game, where it turns into one continuous shot the moment Joel crawls over to Sarah, is that it inherently puts us in that moment with Joel, and by panning the camera over instead of cutting each time, it really shows how Sarah is right at death’s door, like you can HEAR the exact moment that she cries her last little whimper and just... goes quiet, right when the camera pans towards Tommy’s face. The problem with having scene cuts is that it drags the scene out in such an awkward way. Plus, Sarah’s still actively crying while Joel is screaming for Tommy to help him, and then the moment it cuts to Tommy the audio just cuts out very clumsily. As it cuts back to Joel Sarah’s just already dead, and additionally it makes no sense for Tommy to call to Joel to have him realize Sarah’s dead when she was still screaming and crying right as the camera cut. And then additionally, I’m not fond of the addition of Tommy saying Joel’s name, it feels almost... cold and detached. Like the tone of that line is “Joel she’s dead, it’s too late”. Whereas in the game, he’s moving towards Joel and Sarah and he’s in so much shock because he’s watching his niece dying in a crying, bloody mess.

So long story short, nothing wrong with the scene itself (though I gotta say I don’t think I’m a fan of Pedro Pascal’s line deliveries while he’s trying to stop Sarah’s bleeding. That’s less of a “one’s better than the other” and more of “that’s just my opinion that the emotion of the line delivery in the game was better”). Scene stayed true to the game.

But ohhh, OHHHH, you wanna know which death REALLY ruffled my feathers? Tess. Tess’ death was done so damn dirty in the show compared to the game (and side note, I hate the change to Tess’s character design. I loved the short hair held up by the headband, and I loved the short sleeves that showed her arms). I think by changing the entire death in the show, you take away from the character herself, and let me explain how.

In the game, they get to the Firefly meeting place, the Fireflies have been wiped out, and we find out Tess has been bitten. The military shows up, and Tess tells Joel that she’ll buy them some time and convinces both him and Ellie to leave. And the IMPORTANCE of her line “I WILL NOT turn into one of those things!”, which I’ll talk about. Joel and Ellie leave, Tess composes herself and gets ready to fight the soldiers. As you leave, you hear gunshots and hear Tess scream, and you find out she took out two soldiers; there was six guys and Tess took down two of them. This death is a perfect encapsulation of Tess’ character: resilient, stubborn, tough-as-nails, takes matters into her own hands. That is a death that treats the character with respect and actually plays into the character’s personality. It FITS. Tess is a woman whose life, her choices, it’s all in her hands and she will do what SHE wants to do.

In the TV show, they get to the Firefly meeting place, the Fireflies were killed by infected, and everything still plays out the same with Tess’ infection reveal (and I gotta say I’m not a fan of the dialogue choices nor am I a fan of the fact they tried to heavy-handedly push how Joel and Tess are a couple with the cuddling scene, whereas in the game the ambiguity of their relationship plays better into that final scene. I like the “Look, there’s enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me” way more). Joel hears the infected, Tess starts tipping over some gasoline and grenades, and Joel and Ellie leave. Tess is panicking and frightened as the infected approach and flood in while trying to light the lighter, and then the BULLSHIT. The FUCKING KISS from the infected. And no I don’t wanna hear any ‘bUT it’S NoT A kISS, iT’S INfeCTiNg HEr’ excuses. It’s a fucking kiss disguised under the thin veneer of being some cool new infected lore, and it changes the entire death from a defiant last stance to a creepy, voyeuristic scene that’s going for a cringe-out factor. Like... Sure, you COULD explore that method of infection, it COULD be a neat behavior that we haven’t seen before.

But you don’t do that for Tess. She’s the wrong character to explore that with, and the show better actually try to stay consistent and show that again if people are gonna use the excuse of that scene being necessary. And the reason why it bugs me so much is because Tess, despite her short time in the story, is such a poignant character. She’s Joel’s partner, she’s OUR first partner. Taking that power out of her hands, putting her in this freaky powerless position where it’s like she’s being taken advantage of, does not compliment the character, especially when the death is a very easy to pull off trick that only solely relied on the lighter not working for cheap tension. If you wanted to give us a tense action scene, they could have actually shown us the Tess gunfight scene from her perspective, maybe give her one or two more kills than she had in the game. But this death was really insulting to the character.

TL;DR I’m incredibly autistic about all this dumb shit and it really just boils down to a difference of opinion.

[moe-broey]

Oh. Huh.

[fragmentedblade]

.

[outromoony]

"I'm not like other girls." Well, that's good for you, but I am. I love reading books and fanfics. I love obsessing over fictional characters and screaming music at the top of my lungs. I love fangirling over celebrities and getting overly invested in ships that will never be canon. I cry over sad endings and laugh at memes no one else understands. I love getting way too excited over small things, daydreaming about impossible scenarios, and staying up late to finish just one more chapter. I love getting lost in fictional worlds, losing sleep over them, and rewatching my favorite shows a million times. I love spending hours scrolling through fan art and feeling alive through the stories, music, and love for people I will never meet. I love being like other girls.

[montanabohemian]

i know this is a nitpicky thing to complain about fics, but when you read something and it's just so obvious that the author is not from the country where it's set. and i'm not talking about like getting overall locations or whatever wrong, i'm just talking about the language that's used. makes it so obvious. and if something is clearly set in middle america and the characters are from the states, but they speak like they're from the UK? buddy that can pull someone out of the story so fast.

also, can authors just let me go through their work with a red pen and do some editing for them. please just let me do that. for the love of christ and my peace of mind.

[teiasviago]

seeing bg3 gameplay makes me feel 11 again bc it feels like all the popular games that were age appropriate but also touched on the depth/scope I've always loved were the turn-based RPGs (i did in fact play some wizards 101 and pirates 101). like not the cutscenes just the (default) distance of the camera from the player the automatic circles around the party members (i think i spotted some)......................... obviously you couldn't [redacted for spoilers] in those games. or [redacted for spoilers] either. i'm definitely nervous to get it for xmas bc it's always so hard to deal with expectations for things when the expectations are from when you were a kid LOL. anyways. doing this for the kid inside me who had zero interesting lore-heavy games to play bc they weren't old enough for them.

[pmpwbrrs]

GNNNNNNHHHH hkKKKKKH!!!!!!!!!

off string au - meeting ten silver roots

rivers and phrases meet somebody new in the wastes while making a perilous escape.

i have put these guys through some real situations everyone!!! you have no idea!!!! :D who is dune????? whar????????????