#but lowkey this could be a plotline in a show

[floradanika25]

Okay sooooo…..

Gossip time

There is these two guys me and my roomie have been friends with for a little while, and they started coming in our room later than theyre allowed to. Especially one of them. And after a while it became obnoxiously clear he liked my roomie. And my roomie most of all just like played along. She doesnt seem too into it but she just kind plays along. And he is so down badddd. And i feel so bad for him because he is genuinely a great guy. (And so is she) and i dont think she is trying to be mean but it feels like she is kinda leading him on and he will get his heart broken and i feel sobad for him and i dont know what to do.

Also because now apparently they have like made out, and he said he loved her but like i dont know, and she just felt awkward and left. And i do not know what too think or do but i think she should not lead him on if she dont like him, but i dont think she idk. I feel bad for him

I know i have said that thrice now i just really do.

[spookberry]

Wait no are you telling me melinda doesn't have a reincarnated ghost kid. Ugh that wouldve been such an interesting plot tho

[boobi-boy]

HOT TAKE. As a society, we are conditioned to hate final seasons. This is fair. We were all betrayed by Game of Thrones and Supernatural and whatnot. As someone who has never watched these (I have only heard generalised complaints about them), let me (drunkenly) yap about the Umbrella Academy s4.

I'm gonna try and keep this vaguely organised.

Luther

I was an adamant Luther hater back in season one and two, I will admit, meeting his actor at Comic Con in 2021 did colour my opinion a little bit, but I loved him in season three. I mean, his romance with Sloane always felt a little rushed to me, but it was certainly sweet, and their wedding was a nice tie in to the "we only see each other at weddings and funerals" thing.

Pros;

In season four, I loved him. He's optimistic about life and goes to great lengths to brighten the moods of people around him, which is the kind of person he lacked all his life. He's being the person he always needed and I love that for him.

The implication that he's pushing aside his festering feelings of dissatisfaction for his life to be there for other people is so moving, and also I love those moments where him and Allison get to just be normal siblings, showing that he's moved on from that toxic era of his life.

His fight scenes are epic and he's all round a good character this season. I understand people's disdain for being sidelined, along with his grief for Sloane, but there are a certain two factors that should be taken into consideration here. The first being that, by s4e1, its been six years since he lost her. He has probably processed that grief and moved on by now, despite how profound the loss. Obviously he still thinks about her, which is why he occasionally brings her up, but it's been a long time. Additionally, he's semi-sidelined because his character arc was pretty well rounded by the end of s3. He's moved on from Allison and was on a trajectory for a healthier life. Its tragic that he lost Sloane, but good that he continued trying to be happy.

Cons;

I do wish his relationship with Ben had been more developed this season. To me, I think the implication is that he's hanging on to Sparrow Ben as a brother (in-law) because he's the closest remaining connection to the Sparrow Academy, therefore Sloane.

Why is he living in the decrepit Sparrow Academy house? Why? Literally why??? This needed more explanation.

Diego

My mother hates him. I lowkey love him. In season two, his character plus his saviour complex was explored so fucking well. I loved him then. I think his character in season three is a decent testament to how boring 'settling down' can be.

Pros;

He reacts very well to everything that happens. That's the best way I could explain it. The realisation that sometimes life is just normal. Its a sweet plotline and I enjoyed it

I loved his relationship with Luther, his visit to the CIA and the fun approach to his power this season.

His final words to Lila, that he knew she didn't mean to hurt him, were so mature and a brilliant way of rounding off his character with a sense of satisfaction and finality. I loved it so much. In that moment, before everything, he was her husband, and that was beautiful.

Cons;

I have very few. I think his depiction as a mailman is silly. I just wish it had been a different job.

Also I wish he'd spoken more Punjabi because I'm pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong) he learnt that to converse with Lila and her family in their native language, despite Lila's family speaking English.

Why was he immature enough to fight with Five over his wife when the literal world was ending? Not very consistent with his character development but I still liked that scene. Honestly, that was obviously written in as a segue to Five going back to the subway so I guess it did have to be there it just felt a bit weird.

Allison

Oh dear God. Allison Hargreeves, what happened to you? I loved her so much in seasons one and two. Season three Allison ruined everything ever forever. Not through bad writing. Through very good and despicably devastating writing. She has lost so much and she coped with it so badly that she altered all of time to avoid her grief. The evillest girlboss of all time.

Pros;

CLAIRE! Claire Bear. I love you. Thank you season four for giving us Claire and Claire/Allison bonding time.

Also the fact that she's coping with her being a terrible human being by babysitting Klaus for five years (which she is obviously very spiteful about) is very well written.

I like the return of Allison badassery when she shows up and literally busts a man's balls.

I like how she ends the show being physically vulnerable and now Klaus is taking care of her now. That was cute.

Also I love that she's being held accountable for her actions and it makes her a slightly better person! That was fun.

I like that we learn that without her power she was a B-list actor at best.

Cons;

What the fuck were her powers this season? I know they got janky marigold but why is she literally just telekinetic now????

Why didn't they tell us why Ray walked out? She literally altered time to get him back. Like, I know Allison has fucked up every relationship she's ever had but PLEASE tell us what happened.

Also fuck you for what you did to Klaus.

Klaus.

Oh, Klaus Hargreeves, the man that you were. Season one. TRAGIC. I loved it. Season two, the exact same commentary. Season three, I loved him so much, he keeps being my FAVOURITE and also the idea that the drugs and trauma thwarted the full potential of his powers, but the drugs was the only thing that could keep him sane because of his trauma and his powers was so cool. Well done for beginning to overcome your rampant daddy issues Klaus. Season four. He is still my favourite.

Pros;

Having him sell his body in the weirdest way possible was amazing. I love to see it.

The moment between him and Claire where she knew exactly what was happening and he just repeats 'it's too late' and swears at her. Beautifully devastating.

Him getting buried alive was so fucking fitting I can't properly explain it I just love it.

His final line, and the third-to-final line of dialogue in the whole shows being 'I just wanna say, I love you guys, but you're all assholes' sums up perfectly. And it just had to be him that said that. He can never escape his nihilism and I love him for it. Its who he is.

Learning that the 'real' Klaus is a total germophobe was fun.

Cons;

Give my man more screen time. I beg. I am on my knees begging. Please Mr Blackman. Please Mr Way. Give the love of my life more screen time.

I wish Dave had been mentioned once or twice. Dave is forever a part of Klaus. Why didn't he try to contact him when he got his powers back? Why has he forgotten him? If Luther gets a Sloane mention then Klaus should have gotten a Dave mention. I guess Netflix hates the queers unless they're from Heartstopper (/j)

Five

Five is my mother's favourite and she was vomming this season because of you-know-what. The poor woman. She still loves him though, So did I. Five defines The Umbrella Academy. He spent two seasons wearing the uniform, he got the first f-bomb, he was responsible for SO much exposition. All in all, he is quintessential to the aesthetic, plot, and entire existence of the series. Did season four give him justice?

Pros;

I love Five being a CIA agent. This is so him.

Jerome is a funny name for him.

He doesn't ever stop being himself and I love that.

I like how blunt he is about the fact they all have to end their existence. He understands existentialism and his place in the universe more than his siblings (and most people ever) can fathom. It had to be him to deliver that news and he does it so well.

Cons;

The elephant in the room. Him and Lila. I see it. I see the vision. Yes. If two people spend seven years with only each other for company, suspended in time, they will probably develop a romantic relationship. That doesn't make me like it. It is in character for him to lie to Lila (or withhold information from her)about knowing the way home. I just hated every second of it. I thought they were going to steer clear of Five romantic relationships because of how weird his ageing is. He's mentally more than twenty years older than Lila and physically more than ten years younger than her. It is gross. I hate it. It was a reasonable plot choice Honestly, their relationship remaining strictly platonic would have been less realistic than what happened but when has this show ever been realistic? I will say, it makes sense for Five to revert to old coping mechanisms (I am referring to Delores) in a time like this, it's just that this time he had a real person to enact them with. In times of utter distress, Five is a romanticist, so at least his character is consistent.

Why didn't they let him wear a suit that fits him? That was not nice.

Ben

Sparrow Ben is a sexy cunt. I love how much of a knob he is. All the time. This season was a slay for him. We heart assimilation allegories for love and obsession.

Pros;

I repeat - I love the assimilation metaphor. He didn't get to go with grace. I've seen people criticising that he got no meaningful death scene but that's the point. His meaningful death was stolen from him because of his unhealthy obsession with Jennifer and how deeply in love with her he was. It's a commentary of how toxic and co-dependant relationships will destroy a person. I love it.

I love the scene where him and Jennifer are sat either side of the wall watching the same movie. That was so fucking cute.

Cons;

The CGI for his powers was shit. He looked like the squid version of She-Hulk.

Why have the Umbrellas just adopted him into his family? That was weird.

Victor

I have always loved him. Best trans representation I've ever seen. Autism coded. The amount of times I said 'His powers are just autism sensory overload' or 'his powers are just anger issues' has probably burned the phrase into my mother's mind.

Pros;

I like that he was a manwhore in Canada.

I love him having control over his powers this season. We support self control my man.

I love how adamant he is to save Ben. All this man has ever wanted was to save someone. And he never could. So he sacrificed himself to save the world.

Cons;

I was not here for the fit this season. The boots. The jean jacket. Not a serve. I am sorry.

He was kinda cringe and irrelevant this season I'm not gonna lie.

Lila

Thank you Lila for being what I picture when I hear Golden Brown. It makes me happy.

Pros;

A devoted mother. We love her. I also love that her character involves her children but she's more than that. But she still sacrifices everything for them. "Make sure to read to Gracie every night! And don't let the twins fight!" absolutely destroyed me.

I don't know what it is but her fit ate this season.

Her final words being 'Fuck you!' was fun.

Cons;

Her 'LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME' personality got annoying after about four episodes. Not even in s4, just in general.

I wish her backstory had been more addressed this season. It was just completely ignored. Sad.

The Plot.

Pros;

If this show is anything, it is self aware. It makes fun of itself for just doing the apocalypse four times. I love it.

The tragic ending. Too many shows have happy endings these days. I need my bittersweet tragedy and the Umbrella Academy delivered. It actually made me bawl because these characters meant so fucking much to me.

I always said that Klaus's story couldn't end without him dying. I also felt like Five dying would work. Now I think that if one of them goes, they all have to. They were born at the same time and they died that way too. It explains WHY they keep ending the world. Their very existence is apocalyptic. They are a collective incarnation of the apocalypse and that just rounds off the show in such a meaningful way.

I know people hate the 'one true timeline' thing and the 'they all die' thing and feel like its a copout, but its so beautiful to me. They were the problem the whole time. They can't just find some creative and resourceful way out of it this time. This is the end. That's WHY the SONG in the TRAILER WAS 'THE END' by My Chemical Romance!!!!!!!!!!!

Cons;

The plot holes like why does Luther getting his powers back give him his monkey body back when the life-saving surgery that he didn't need in this timeline didn't happen???

Along with many other plot holes that have already been pointed out within this post and by other people a million times so I won't go through the tedium of doing what has already been done.

Special mentions!

The Gene & Jean dance scene! The show knew they couldn't get away with making the Umbrellas dance again but they needed an obligatory Umbrella Academy dance scene and they ATE IT UP.

The song they danced to was also a banger, which segues nicely into my next mention which is the SOUNDTRACK. It SLAPS. Muse! Bloodhound Gang! Cher! ALL IN ONE SHOW. The Umbrella Academy's soundtrack has always been amazing and season four is not any different.

The closing line "On the eighth of august 2024" etc. DESTROYED ME.

THE USE OF 'I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW' KILLED ME.

THE POST CREDITS WITH THE MARIGOLD FLOWERS AAAAGHHH.

ALL THE SIDE CHARACTERS UGH.

Also, the production photos from across the years in the credits. I loved them so fucking much.

They kept handling Victor's trans storyline well, not pretending he was never a girl and including him in flashbacks. Idk I liked it.

Diego naming his daughter after his mother is so sweet.

Random criticism though - the casting for the teen versions of the Umbrellas was ATROCIOUS. Klaus somehow looked five years old and in his mid forties at the same time.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

PADMÉ AMIDALA (STAR WARS) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) From the beginning, she only existed to be Anakin's love interest and Luke and Leia's mother. Although she's an important political figure in all three prequels, her characterization in being Anakin's crush/maternal figure in Phantom Menace, Anakin's love interest in Attack of the Clones, and Anakin's wife and baby mama in Revenge of the Sith. She literally dies of a broken heart when Anakin turns to the dark side in RotS, right after giving birth to the twins, because her whole purpose in that movie was to motivate Anakin's fall and be the twins' incubator. What's more, she didn't even know she was carrying twins until after Luke was born because George Lucas apparently gave no thought to what prenatal care would have been like in a universe with futuristic technology despite the whole main plot revolving around Anakin thinking Padme was going to die in childbirth. There was also a subplot cut from RotS where Padme helped found the rebellion with Bail and Mon and then goes to Mustafar to kill Anakin after he falls, but it was apparently deemed not important enough to keep.

2.) Her characterization was drastically forgotten about in the prequel films in favor of her husband's (despite her being one of three main characters in the prequel franchise). She went from queen of an entire planet to a senator of a galaxy-wide political body to dying of a broken heart. She does not question the actions of those close to her despite them contradicting her character morals (which her character was built on!!). Plus, she is rarely mentioned outside of the animated series. The show, Kenobi, doesn't even mention her name, only that she was essentially kind and brave. Also, she was not approached for a cameo in any of the largest related media while the men have.

3.) oh boy. she basically dies because apparently George Lucas doesn’t realize that women’s healthcare exists??? like you could argue that she wouldn’t have died if she just had an OBGYN. in 2/3 of the movies she’s basically just used as a tool for the main male character’s development. then there’s this whole plotline in The Clone Wars (aka TCW) series where there’s all this gross stuff with her ex who literally tries to kiss her when she’s actively saying no, then her husband proceeds to lowkey victim blame her??? it’s just so unnecessary. I could go on

BUMBLE (WARRIOR CATS) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) Back with another Warriors submission, I bet you’ll be getting a lot from other people too LMAO. Bumble is a kittypet (housecat) who befriends the male protagonist Gray Wing’s girlfriend, Turtle Tail, and lets her stay in her house. This gets Gray Wing all pissy because he’s controlling of Turtle Tail and shares most of the wild/clan cat’s proclivity for looking down upon kittypets. Turtle Tail gets pregnant by another kittypet, Tom, who tries to control her by hiding the fact that humans take away kittens after they’re born. Eventually Bumble comes clean about it so Turtle Tail returns to the forest. Some time later, Bumble is found in the forest seeking refuge because Tom has been physically abusing her, scratching her where the humans can’t see. So, she’s CANONICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED as a domestic abuse victim (unlike Squirrelflight who meets all the textbook signs but the narrative and authors deny it). How do you think our good guy protagonists, i.e. Gray Wing “The Wise” and Turtle Tail, respond to an abuse victim seeking refuge? They tell Bumble to go home, thinking to themselves that she’s fat and soft and therefore would be useless in their group. Bumble stands up for herself and asks to speak with the leaders of the group. One of them asks if Bumble could just get along with Tom better (bro???) and when Bumble says it’s not within her control, the leader suggests being nicer to the humans instead. Another rival leader butts in and verbally abuses Bumble again by ripping into how fat and lazy and useless she would be. Despite Turtle Tail having been friends with Bumble and Bumble had helped her through her own hard times, to Gray Wing’s approval Turtle Tail chooses not to intervene as Bumble is forcibly escorted back to her abuser. But that’s not all. Later Bumble is found in the forest maimed and dying, and it seems likely that Gray Wing’s brother Clear Sky, a male with a long history of violence, is the culprit. Rather than mourn the dying innocent cat, Gray Wing’s primary concern is how other cats might be mean to Clear Sky if they think he’s a murderer, and reassures himself that refusing to help Bumble in her time of need was still the right decision.

2.) I have no idea how she managed to be written so horrifically from an abuse victim and woman (/she-cat I guess) standpoint but here we are. Okay so my memory is a bit fuzzy but basically Bumble was a character in Dawn of the Clans and a close friend to Turtle Tail, a major character, as well as a character who lived close to Tom, an abusive dickhead of a cat. Bumble was largely depicted as just a really sweet cat. Turtle Tail was very briefly the mate of Turtle Tail, but once she got pregnant, he became super violent towards both her and our gal Bumble. Tom actively hid the fact that, once her kits were old enough, Turtle Tail’s kits would probably be taken from her, and made Bumble keep quiet about this too, but Bumble eventually told Turtle Tail the truth, Turtle Tail left and Tom became extremely violent towards Bumble because of this, and was extremely abusive towards her. Eventually, Bumble ran away from him to where Turtle Tail and co were and begged to stay, since the wilderness as a whole was genuinely more safe than being around Tom was. Naturally, this meant kitty xenophobia from cats who had only arrived in that area recently, because everybody was insistent than, since she was a kittypet/house cat, things wouldn’t work out, and even her friend Turtle Tail denied her on this, insisted she was too soft to live in the wild and only sent her towards a cat Bumble wanted to convince because she was absolutely certain she’d be denied. Also our good old protagonist Gray Wing got to spend this scene being all upset about this soft cat wanting to join them to escape an abuser and was all bitter about the fact that Turtle Tail lived with her for a short period of time, and he also got to have a sweet romantic moment with Turtle Tail after denying an abuse victim an escape from her abuser. Also as much as I like Tall Shadow usually she sucked ass in the following scene because she was essentially telling Bumble to go find a way to make peace with Tom as if she was not the one being abused (Bumble pointed out that Tom was the one who would need to make peace for it to happen, not her) and that she should just make life better by going back to being a housecat and being spoiled despite the fact that she was actively at risk with her owners because of Tom. Then she leaves after being threatened by several cats there and is called soft on the way out. The next time she appears she is literally dying, and her death is just a plot device to create a stupid little mystery which is solved in a very stupid way. Also her abuser does continue to be a shithead and for some reason is fully permitted to kidnap his own children but he also gets a heroic death and the only reason I will not rant more about him is because this is too long already. Long story short Bumble deserves the world and everybody who decided not to let her escape her abuser just because they thought she was soft sucks

3.) Is nice to the group of starving, feral wild cats that left the mountains so their friends and family could have more food to eat and befriends one of them to the point of opening her home to her after she leaves the group because the guy she likes is too dumb to notice she likes him and keeps falling for his brother’s love interests.

Unfortunately, because Bumble is a house cat who lives in a house with people and not a Wild and Free cat, this is a grave and horrible crime (luring a wild cat into the safety and comforts of domesticity) and is villainized for the rest of the arc, including for things wildly out of her control

I.E.

Her owners taking in an aggressive male cat that bullies and abuses the two female cats already living there

When Bumble’s friend leaves and goes back to the wild cats, Bumble leaves her home (as the abuse as has gotten worse) to see if she could either get help or have her friend return so the abuse isn’t as bad again)

Bumble eventually dies in the wild because the feral cats all hate her for ‘stealing’ their friend and tricking her into becoming a kittypet for awhile and refuse to help Bumble adjust to wild life or even teaching her how to hunt.

They are littl e to no hard feelings at her death beyond 'good riddance’ but the aggressive tomcat that chased her out of her home is later regarded with good feelings and regret at such a 'good, heroic cat’ passing when he dies despite him literally never doing a good or kind thing in his life and actually causing trouble for the wild cats right before dying

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

The reason I think Alastor should be in the wrong(or at least mostly in the wrong) in his and Vox's falling out is that I don't think their relationship would be worth exploring as deeply as it sounds like it will be next season if Vox was the primary reason they started fighting, because it would do NOTHING for Alastor's arc.

Like- okay, Alastor's arc is very clearly going to be about learning that trusting people is Okay and not a sign of weakness, right? He's literally the only character in the show that is very clearly about the power of friendship who refuses to accept any sort of help, like even the VILLAINS are constantly hyping eachother up! If they fell apart because of something Vox did, and their relationship is going to be super important next season, wouldn't that not really do anything for Alastor's arc? Unless Vox pulling some weird shit is the ROOT CAUSE of Alastor's trust issues, but, given what we know about his past and how his ego seems to be the biggest contributor to said issues, I don't think it is. Alastor would HAVE to have contributed SIGNIFICANTLY to their falling out if their relationship is going to mean anything to his arc, because otherwise it just feels more like a weird aside then anything else? Like "oh yeah we used to be friends but then he did some weird shit and now we're not friends anymore". It adds nothing. There's nothing emotional for Alastor to confront in this scenario.

Which makes for a more interesting story, the relationship between the mc and someone from their past who, while they miss, isn't the kind of person they want to be around anymore so they don't really feel bad about cutting them off who ALSO doesn't pose any real Active Threat to the mc, or the mcs relationship with someone who they respected a lot but cut off because they felt the two of them were getting too close and we can't have THAT, now can we? It's the second one. It's the second one because the second one HAS HIGHER STAKES! The first one makes for a good one episode plotline, but for a season long arc? Takes where Vox is in the wrong actually make VOX a more interesting character to follow then Alastor, because that makes HIM the only one with an actual emotional stake in the conflict. But this isn't Vox's story. It's Alastor's story. Alastor is the main character. Which means, for their relationship to provide anything of value to the plot, Alastor needs to have emotional stakes in the situation too. The best villains are the ones that force your characters to grow and become better people(unless you're doing a silly little monster of the week type of show but THAT'S NOT WHAT HAZBIN IS-), and the only way Vox being the main antagonist next season is gonna cause any kind of growth is if Alastor is being forced to reconcile with his past.

Anyways uh, yeah that's it. I could do a tangent about how their relationship lowkey parallels Fizz & Blitzø(a comparison I made in this post but didn't actually go into depth on bcuz it wasn't relevant to the post beyond supporting my argument + didn't have much backing at the time), but I do NOT have the brain power to go in-depth comparing and contrasting that stuff rn, bcuz, despite the similarities, whatever the fuck Vox & Al have going on seems to be a LOT more Complicated and Sad then an accident and some dad-induced miscommunication. So I'm just gonna leave it at that :)

[peachetteprice]

could you do a one shot where like ghost and the reader are in an established relationship and they are both so bad ass (i saw a really good edit of ghost and he looked so like badass and it made me think of this) and maybe soap can be close friends with reader and he’s lowkey intimidated by her. maybe something funny in there but also shows reader and ghost as such a bad ass couple 😁

Thank you!!

OOOOH! I could do some cool stuff with this. Sorry to out your prompt into the world pre-emptively, but I have to clarify - I want to do it justice - anon, do you want smut in the end? Or like, do you want it to follow a mini-mini-plotline? (I already have an idea, but if you have your heart set on anything, I'd love to hear it!)

If so, what sort of smut? What sort of mini-mini-plotline? Any other details?

Please do tell! This is gonna be fun :)

[meenawrites]

So.. I finished Alchemy of Souls

Guys, the amount of tears I just shed in front of my entire family in the last episode of part 2 is crazy.

They were just sitting there like, you good? It's fiction as I'm sobbing my eyes out.

Anyway.

I have many thoughts. So many. And I lowkey want to make a separate post for each of them.

But for now I do want to leave some of my impressions about the finale: (spoilers ahead obviously)

I thought it was pretty well done. I expected to be a bit more shocked about the whole Jin Buyeon is Jin Seol-ran plotline but it honestly made sense to me and I feel like it was actually foreshadowed pretty well for the most part, even in season 1.

Also they definitely got me good with the deaths of Park Jin, Maidservant Kim, and Jin Hogyeong (if that's how you spell her name). Like that's when I started crying tbh. (I could care less about Mama Jin tbh, she sucks, but that deserves its own post). And I'm glad that them actually being alive didn't feel like a cop out to me. They established early on that Jin Seol-ran knew what would happen and used that to their advantage so it was believable and didn't feel like a Deus Ex Machina move for them to be saved. Well, maybe one of them should have died (cough–Mama Jin–cough). But it's fine.

I do feel like the last two episodes were kind of rushed though. I don't know if they had budgeting constraints or if Netflix didn't give them more than ten episodes, but I think that they should have had at least 12. Two more episodes would have allowed for more expansion on the climax and allowed them to up the drama more, which I think would have done well for the series over all, and would have been a better payoff.

I think the time could have been used well to flesh out some of the side characters arcs more. I feel like Danggu and Jin Choyeon were kind of pushed off to the side this season, and especially in the latter half, but I would have liked to see more of them and their relationships not only with each other but with Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Buyeon.

For all intents and purposes, Naksu/Jin Buyeon lived as Jin Choyeon's sister for three years, and we can see that despite everything that happened three years prior, Choyeon did treat her as her sister even knowing the soul was Naksu's and cared about her. I think that could've and should've been expanded upon, her choosing to care about Naksu/Jin Buyeon or how that came to be. Also, after Naksu regained her memory AND found out Jin Mu had been for sure controlling her at the end of Part 1, I would have loved to see the conversation between her and Choyeon about what she did, an apology and an explanation that she would never have done that if she were sane of mind. What I said about Choyeon applies to Naksu as well because she lived three years as Choyeon's sister, and we can tell she cares about her, so I would have loved to see more of her feelings towards her, especially upon remembering all that had transpired in part 1.

When it comes to Danggu, I mean, he's one of Uk's best friends, and he was left out of the loop a lot when it came to anything Naksu-related. I would have liked him to find out or for Uk to tell him at some point and see how he makes peace with that. Because Danggu and Mudeok were friends in part 1 and he supported her (erroneously) in her supposed romance with Seo Yul. But then she killed his fiance's father and tried to attack him. I can't imagine the sense of betrayal he felt, but also finding out that it wasn't her fault and how he could come to terms with that would have been great to see. I also think his whole experience/trauma from part 1 was kind of glossed over. Like his main thing this season was his broken heart after Choyeon didn't end up marrying him, and I think that was making his feelings a bit too one-dimensional there. They do talk about how he feels slightly uncomfortable/doesn't know what to do with Jang Uk at the beginning of the show, but once Seo Yul comes back, that's kind of forgotten about and the three of them just start hanging out again no problem. I would've like to see a bit more about him struggling with becoming Leader of Songrim as well and how he adapted to that amidst his heartbreak for both his love and his friend who he doesn't even know how to act around anymore, and even towards Naksu/Mudeok who kind of ruined his future and that of his best friend but also being intuitive enough (because he is and he has one of the best hearts we've seen in the show) to realize that there's more to the story than her just going on a murder spree.

I've seen some talk about people saying they didn't like the actress for season 2 as much as season 1 (forgive me, I forgot their names), but I think both brought something good to the table.

Season 1 actress for Mudeok was really good. Her facial expressions were spot on and her chemistry with Lee Jaewook and the other cast members was really good. I think she definitely had great stage presence and made the show popular in the first place. I just don't agree that season 2 actress was worse.

I think season 2 actress definitely put in the work and embodied who Naksu/Jin Buyeon was for the majority of the series. There were times where she made expressions that perfectly resembled/echoed Naksu/Mudeok's that really got me like yes they are the same person even if she doesn't remember. She may have been cuter than we were used to with out sharp-tongued and emotion-resistant Mudeok, but I think Naksu needed that. As Mudeok and before then she didn't have the luxury to be more emotional and girly, it's only now in this body that she does, and I'm glad she had the opportunity to express that side of herself that had never seen the light of day.

We did get a glimpse of that side of her at the end of part 1 where she's playing around with makeup and what might make her look pretty, and it really spoke to all that she had missed out on and had to give up in order to survive. So yeah despite all the angst, I'm glad Naksu/Jin Buyeon had that opportunity through season 2 actress who played it really well while keeping in line with the essence of Naksu/Mudeok.

This whole thing about Naksu being the shadow to Jang Uk's light and if light exists then it needs a shadow broke my heart you guys, it was so perfect. And the fact that they were each other's light and shadow at different points but were also wholly necessary to each other in that was beautiful. I want to talk more about this in a separate post, so I'll table this metaphor for now.

Shout out to Crown Prince Go Won, a great character this whole season in terms of both comedic relief and massive character growth. So good.

Uk's arc was fantastic too but again want to save that for a full post.

Those are my out of order first thoughts about part 2, but I have SO MUCH MORE to discuss, so I will come back for sure. I just needed to scream to the world for a bit (virtually of course).

Question though for all of you more knowledgeable in the k-drama world: is there going to be a season 3?

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on today’s volume ! now why the hell are we a girl going to casa and not a casa girl !? we didn’t even get the season 6 treatment of being able to show up first. FB is so nasty for this

moving on, yash, larson, and caleb are all very cute !❤️ everyone’s already pointed out that yash looks like zeph, but how about larson lowkey being the guy version of lisbeth 😭 just imagine him with amber eyes

raunchy races was pay to win, to absolutely no one's surprise. the free option text being something among the lines of "i am not a main character" truly sums up this season 😭 i chose to have the underwater kiss with lisbeth

bare minimum but i love when the islanders actually remember specific things about MC, like her job

dean is… let’s just say liam-esque 😬 i actually don't mind islanders that are not romanceable, not attracted to MC, whatever whatever, but disrespecting her by acting like she doesn’t exist is not it. at least tristan served cunt 💔

up next is tea spilling with lisbeth, one of many "pay to find out what happened" scenes. i have no idea why MC couldn’t have just watched this stuff happen on the TV in the hotel, even if it was still paywalled it would've made more sense. also tristan and sofia being dumped offscreen is some of the most ridiculous bullshit ever, especially if they don’t end up returning (which i'm not sure about honestly, i'm split between either #tristofia coming back, or dean & whoever is stupid enough to bring him to the villa replacing them) why couldn’t MC take them down herself ? why couldn't we witness them melt down ? there's no way FB seriously thought this would be satisfying to players

anyways, the game does acknowledge that both jesse and lisbeth are into MC ! but the way it's worded would make more sense if MC hasn't been pursuing him at all, like idk why my girl is so confused. i literally picked the "reveal that you've always fancied him" option before leaving the villa 😭

party time ! i chose to dance with lisbeth, and then there's a diamond scene with dean spilling the tea in the most obnoxious way possible. moving swiftly on

then there’s some more grafting on the guys, i really enjoyed the scenes. afterwards we reach the point where we’re forced to pick a casa guy. i like all of them but they're just gonna be a placeholder for me. i used a number generator and got a 1, so caleb it is !

we have a compatibility challenge, and obviously MC and caleb won ! the drink was cute lol

but where is the option to throw hands with dean ! i can deal with him treating MC like trash, but lisbeth ?! 👹👹👹 he is legit a liam clone, down to the weird "tormenting our female LI" thing

(and isadora & nyah being like “he’s just joking teehee 😍” is so gross)

i chose to sleep with lisbeth ! i only snuggled her because FB’s lazy asses keep reusing whatever MC does at bedtime in casa for her movie night clip. i may be romancing everyone in sight, but i'm evading the consequences of my actions classy about it 😏

…as an OG islander ??😭 we were a bombshell, the AI is AI-ing. anyways, i wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up exactly like “umagate,” where we meet the casa girl that wants our partner. it would be nice to see jesse though 🤞🏽

overall, we're at the point of the story where everything starts taking a complete nosedive. call it the casa curse, i guess. and to make matters worse, a bunch of the worst plotlines from previous seasons have been reused, this is certainly the season of all time 😃 but for real, the only upside to this volume is that we could spend a lot of time with lisbeth ❤️ (and for me that's pretty much the only positive thing about us not being a casa girl) also, caleb's such a sweetheart, he deserves the world ❤️

[mediumgayitalian]

HELLO omg i love your solangelo royals AU, their flirtatious enemies to lovers chemistry in part 2 is so cute 😭 not sure if you’re planning to write more in the universe (i’m already so grateful for what you have out!!) but i just gotta say i am so curious about nico seeking asylum, and what the circumstances were when he showed up, and i desperately want to read more of EVERYTHING in this paragraph:

“Will was annoyed with him the first day they met. He was annoyed the second time, seething, really, dragging Nico back to the sterile surgical suite to fix his torn stitches. He was annoyed when Nico first shouted at him, bewilderment at this random physician treating him like he was another resident of the palace, not the only son of Hades. He was annoyed, notably, the one time Nico came to the infirmary after spraining his wrist in sword fighting and, in Will’s words, “breathed too loudly.”

i hit that ao3 subscribe button so fast 🫠

anyway, love your writing and all the snippets you post!!!! thank you!!

hi hi hi!! you have been reblogging my stuff!! i am very grateful for it as it makes me feel appreciated enough to keep posting!!

i am absolutely planning more in-universe 😎😎 i want the main fic to be long, slowburn, and will pov; i have lots of scenes rattling around in my brain but i'm still working on an actual plotline lol. if i figure out a way to start it i'm just gonna start and hope the plot finds me along the way lol

okay so the asylum thing. i have Lore and im so pumped u asked so here is my rambling:

my idea, and this whole spiel is pretty heavily inspired by this royal au series i'm obsessed with by @gatesofember (with a sprinkling of setting inspo from this fic by @percyinpanties), is that each olympian/major god is a House. so like House Zeus, House Apollo, House Hades, etc. i just thought it was way cooler than kingdom lol.

nico has been fighting nonstop w his father since bianca died. just. constantly. notoriously. they do not get along. they argue about EVERYTHING.

one day, Prince Nico of Hades shows up at House Apollo, ass o'clock in the morning, barely clinging to his horse, exhausted, and claims asylum.

uproar. basically. like thats DRAMA.

of course apollo loves drama and also cannot refuse asylum without good reason, so he graciously accepts. some fun details about that:

nico is now, before a prince, an Asylum Seeker. by status, he is not royalty outside of his own House if he steps away from the role, which he lowkey has done by seeking asylum from his own House. he has very little say in anything now.

apollo, however, has granted him shelter in the royal wing of the House, granting him a royal suite of apartments as if he was a visiting diplomat/royal/House Hades representative. this does not, technically, change his official status, but it does make abundantly clear that apollo still considers him of royal status. aside from that, he's still a prince, and no one wants to make an enemy of a prince (since he can still easily return to his throne, essentially? like there are no laws stopping him from doing so. this whole situation is just Odd and Weird and Really Good Gossip), they were all gonna treat him like prince anyway. he has the fancy clothes and still wears his circlet and often sits in on apollo's fancy meetings and shit (apollo likes his nerve).

will could not give any less of a shit.

he is the only person in the entire House and probably beyond who not only does not give a shit, and does not give a shit to nico's face.

this is insane behaviour.

will is the house physician, right. so in term of respect, he has a lot of it, but he has no authority outside his own infirmary, really. he gets a lot more respect than his status calls for because he's prodigiously good at healing. like. people tease that he can raise the dead. he can't, but. you know. apollo is the House of Drama, really, so no surprises there.

will kinda holes himself up in the infirmary?? there are a few reasons for that. one, apollo is a very artistically inclined House, and will is not very artistically inclined, so he started working in the infirmary as a kid and basically stayed there lol. the court physician before him was actually apollo's oldest daughter, hygieia, whom will adored to a million pieces and who doted on him lol. (she got him a little physician's tunic when he was seven and he literally wore it until it was threads). anyways. he feels useful in the infirmary, and its also where he does all his studies, so he mostly stays in that area of the castle. two, he doesnt get boundaries very well. he also thinks hierarchy is deeply, deeply stupid. for his own safety his friends are like hey. maybe dont interact with visiting royals and diplomats and shit. because someone is going to stab you one day. (and will is like 'well i'll just fix myself then' and they're like 'will for the love of the gods. please.') plus the east wing of the castle (where the infirmary is) is rly well lit and beautiful and leads right to the gardens and the library, so will likes it there :)

this would usually be a great mix, right? nico, who has been treated very much as a prince his entire life and has had people either walking on eggshells around him or scared of him, who has never had anyone but his father and maybe his sister defy him in his life, chilling in the centre part of the castle with the rest of the more royal members, and will, mr Authority Who? Don't Tell Me What To Do, chilling out in the east. no need to interact with each other.

except.

except.

nico is a dumbass who got hurt on his way to House Apollo. and did not tell anyone bc thats embarrassing. so he collapses right after asking asylum, and is carried to will's infirmary, who waits with his foot tapping until nico wakes back up and tears into him 😭😭 calling him the biggest dumbass to ever cross these lands and getting quite creative with it, really, absolutely running his mouth, and as soon as nico recovers from being bewildered (does not take long) he is like you??? cannot fucking talk to me like that???? i am the prince of ghosts???? fucker??? who do you think you are talking to??? and will is like i brought you back into this world, you fucker, i will send your ass right back out of it if you dont sit down and shut up and write down these recovery instructions. and nico is like ???? meanwhile the nurses in the infirmery who know will's stubborn ass are GIGGLING. like they think hes gonna die but at least its funny.

everyone lowkey expects nico to tattle to apollo and get will thrown out or something.

nico does not. which is weird, because, like, maybe he usually would?? but will makes him so mad he cant even think straight. the second hes released from the infirmary he stomps to his new quarters, seething. he shows up in the infirmary next day with the full intent to start an argument. instead, will tries to put him to WORK. and then gets irritable when nico refuses and kicks him out.

just absolutely insane behaviour. if anyone talked to nico like that in his House theyd be arrested, if not excecuted. hell, if will says this shit in front of apollo he might still get arrested, because what. but nico keeps going back and continues to get humbled by will basically every day.

and, ho ho, what happens?? does he maybe begin to care about will?? no. of course not. will is a pain in his ass.

insert part two here, blah blah blah, nico very obviously does care about will and its embarrassing

he realises right after this that he cares about will. although theres still a layer of denial over it bc will is his fucking nemesis, a pain in his ass, and also a Whole Ass Guy, so.

will begrudgingly allows nico to drag him out of the infirmary on occasion.

he has to admit, that when nico isnt being a diva, he is.

kind of.

charming.

a little.

if he had a knife to his throat, he would admit this.

maybe.

in terms of falling in love, they fall in love FAST. after that barrier of "you're so fucking annoying" "IM annoying?!?!?!" "yes glad you agree" crumbles, they both go TUMBLING off that cliff bro. will takes a cannon to every single one of the bitchy walls nico put up after his sister died, leaving him heart wrenchingly lonely. he treats nico like a person. and nico treats will like an equal, not someone lesser, in fact he treats will like hes not a prince, not a king, but a god. he reveres him. will has never felt this worthy of anythign in his life.

obviously, though.

its vague ambigious royalty times.

their relationship is forbidden and very, very secret.

nico, as a royal, wouldnt face many consequences, but will...

the issue is that will is the most frustrated by the secrecy. nico has always known that he would have to love in secret, he grew up in that truth. will has never lied about anything in his entire life. the whole royal hierarchy makes no sense in any way and pisses him the hell off. he doesnt like having to be cautious about the way he touches nicos shoulder.

4. wrote too many things in one block and got cut off 💀💀 turns out i DO have a plot omg. thank you for asking. GOD i love them so bad.

5. as for the paragraph you liked -- ME TOO I WAS SO PROUD OF IT. IM GLD YOU LIKED. im seeing now ive kinda mixed the first and second "will was annoyed with him" in my brainstorming but eh. ill iron it out later.

6. anyways!! thank you!! expect more for the royal au soon. not sure if im gonna do what i did on my other blog and start slowly updating & posting the long fic, or if ill add some more short ones as i write the long fic in its entirety before posting, but ill figure it out. i have lots to say about them and theres nothing more fun to me than writing secret relationship and rivals to lovers teehee

[horizon-verizon]

I’m already tensed up re: the Vale and House Royce, and how they’ll likely have Daemon’s murder of Rhea undercutting Jeyne Arryn’s declaration of support for Rhaenyra as a fellow ruling woman. 100% bet it’ll be another Rhaenys and Driftmark issue.

In F&B, Jeyne’s like “Daemon’s a dick, and lowkey judging Rhaenyra on that, but that doesn’t change the fact women gotta stick together”- but they changed it from Daemon disliking his wife and leaving her alone (which I have no doubt is exactly what Rhea wanted) to straight up murdering her. So we should all be ready for the counter argument of “what about sticking with Rhea Royce who Daemon violently murdered” which I’m sure is the writers intent.

HOTD will try to diminish/erase Rhaenyra’s extensive and massive support throughout the realm in general because she’s a woman. And since Daemon murdered Rhea, I can totally see them using her cousin Gerold Royce to lessen Rhaenyra’s support and popularity in-world.

I anticipate that House Royce (hell, maybe Jeyne Arryn herself) will be at the very least resistant to supporting Rhaenyra, if not straight up Green in the show, and that Rhaena will be part of that plotline. And Jeyne will probably berate Rhaena for her father’s actions.

Yep, yep, yep! I just can't put my heart into this show for this alone. It's a continuation of what pessimisticpigeon said about the isolation from Rhaenyra's individual female supporters (Rhaenys, her ladies-in-waiting, Laena). I get too angry, and there's already other stuff I should be reserving the anger for. Since at least epi 6 of the 1st season. You could also refer to how they wrote her to feel that Daemon cost her masses of could-be supporters through Blood and Cheese. Not that she shouldn't at least feel anxious, but I never really thought it was enough for Rhaenyra to question Daemon's loyalty & interests in making sure she is the next monarch and actually practice as a leader.

So, if what you say happens, oh well. Brace yourself for more "F&B is unreliable" excuses.

[real-total-drama-takes]

https://www.tumblr.com/real-total-drama-takes/764140232656453632/why-do-people-hate-prileb-im-so-confused-i

I assume you’re asking genuinely anon and not just trying to say “if you hate praleb you’re stupid” so I’m gonna respond: yeah I do hate them because of how much screentime they got + Damien’s departure. Tbh I think priyas story ended well with season 1- she met her life goal of winning the show and really didn’t need a second major season long plotline. There were so many reboot characters I was excited to see in season 2 because they weren’t explored a ton in the first season or their arcs felt unfinished but of course they were either early boots or got shafted a ton in s2. I can get behind Lauren being the first boot ig but booting Millie 3rd? Emma 4th? Yeah no they were both robbed big time and a good chunk of the screentime used for the praleb arc could have gone to giving them proper development. Priya does not need to be the main character every time, it’s completely fine to not have the same protagonist every season and I don’t understand why a lot of people don’t seem to grasp this concept. And yes, Damien’s elimination does play a major role in my hatred of this pairing. While yes his elimination was mostly the fault of Julia the hockey bros both literally state they voted out Damien for the sole reason of “we didn’t want to split up the new couple,” which is beyond stupid and honestly kind of lazy writing that they didn’t bother talking to him about it at all. And the relationship in general is just lowkey abusive; priya has serious anger issues likely as a result of her abusive childhood and would scream at or sometimes even try to physically hurt Caleb every time he messed up in some way. Legitimately I hate this relationship more than Chemma because at least they’re broken up for good

[rise-my-angel]

wait did u had ideas or have ideas on how you would have wrote house of the dragon ( based on that prologue post u mentioned how got did a good job versus hotd telling really nothing)?? i sometimes think about it and someone once mentioned about writing it in the pov of the great houses and i just kept thinking bc i personally would have liked seeing something like; showing the targaryens just from afar, keeping them detached from everyone, really into that above all men, keeping the mystique and just showing them unreachable. it doesn’t make sense in a writing way, especially george’s world and the game of thrones world because even the villains were shown their complex sides. but idk it would have been lowkey interesting seeing them just like afar and the pov being the great houses. or even the smallfolk. i know that people joke all the time about hugh or ulf and that we don’t need their backstories but maybe even from a pov of them who in the future become dragonriders would have been a cool story. idk. something new and interesting and different but not too different. i mean writing about the privileged characters who are monarchy and trying to show the complex sides of even them it’s something that i like personally, but like it’s a hopeless story?! ofc seeing dragons and the politics are things that got people excited so idk how much would these ideas really make people watch but as i said it’s a hopeless story?! and not to be cliche but we do need the good guys or the “heroes” to root for or something good and real to root for.. even jace and sara could have been a good story?!?! but yeah hotd is disappointing

The thing is, they chose a very complicated story to tell. They had a lot to live up to, because the Dance of Dragons is one of the most pivitol wars in the history of the Targaryean dynasty and due to the nature of the book being framed as an in universe historical recounting, there is a lot of detail to consider.

They started off roughly, the narration flashback kills most of that interesting history. The details of the Great Council of 101 AC is very detailed, there was a lot going on and there is a lot of nuance to why they made the choices they made that go beyond "Viserys was a man". Yes that was part of why they overpassed Rhaenys, but they also passed on Laenor because he was a male heir through a female bloodline. So it isn't just women bad, men good. It's a very specifically structured system that is so dense it required near a thousand Lords to gather to discern how to handle Jaehaerys succession.

In truth, they had enough characters in the main show whom were there, that they needed to give the answers slowly. When Otto suggests Rhaenyra for heir to replace Daemon, that was the perfect opportunity to start exploring the history there. Say more then just that the Lords wont accept a female heir, explain why.

I think another issue is simply, they were bad at knowing when to hold back and when to cut things. I think they needed to focus in way more on the politics on the story then the details of the Targaryeans and their legacy or purpose. They needed to go in on the details about the politcs and why characters are doing what they are doing, instead of showing off the life around that.

Cut everything about the prophecy, it makes no sense and bogs down the pacing. Either make the plotline of Daemon fighting the Crab Feeder more relevant to the plot then just "this is what Daemons doing btw", or cut it entierly. It felt too disconnected from the politics of the story because they didn't really connect us to why that matters to this story. It felt like a side story for the wrong show.

They also made a very bad choice in framing. Fire and Blood presents as a historical texts, but with testimonies of different perspectives to explain that there is no affinitive prognosis on what is the full truth. The show made a bad choice by choosing what side was right, when in reality, it needed a mix. Show aspects of both sides, and for more, go in the middle. More often then not, when you have two vastly different descriptions of one incident, the actual truth is somewhere in the middle. The show needed to be that middle.

Also, a lot more focus needed to be on building up to Lucerys death. His death becomes the cataclyst for so much of the war, and they really needed to lean into the tension between the families before that. We needed to truly feel like these are two toxic sides of the same family, and peace was never going to be possible. By the time Viserys dies, we needed to feel that "oh shit". That moment of, he's done and nothing is in these families ways from starting their own ends.

I think the Green Council was their best episode, showing the time sensitive nature of crowning Aegon and all the details that went into that process. Now I think they should've stuck closer to the books events because it's simply the more ineteresting version, but thats personal opinion.

But the Black Queen, thus needed to be the true final nail in the coffin. They needed to the tension leading to his death, we know something bad is going to kick off this war, but we don't know what. Because when Lucerys sees Aemond at Storms End, it feels like things got tense out of nowhere when in reality, we needed that to be the climax of the episodes tension.

Season 2 though, is a mess. Fixing season 2 would require an episode by episode playthrough because I cannot elaborate here alone on why season 2s structure was so bad. It didn't need to be the book, but it still needed to be good, and it wasn't even on it's own merit.

Basically, I have ineterest in exploring how I'd fix hotd, but I'd really need to go in episode by episode because I think they had enough time to tell this story and they completely wasted it.

[merp-blerp]

EVEN FREAKING MORE Things about Cinderella's Castle I'm excited about already as a big Cinderella fan

Part One, Part Two, Part Three (This)

I could not watch the whole 12-hour stream, so forgive me for forgetting or excluding anything.

I had no clue this show was leaked. I'm glad I didn't see it. This fandom’s seemingly on the smaller size, but we're pretty respectful to the creators from what I've seen and I think that's great. Funny that Jeff leaked it. 😆

YEAH LET’S GO FOURTEEN LIMBED FAIRY QUEEN!!! Maybe. Of course, no pressure. Praying Mantises scare me, to the point where I'm not going to look it up to see if I spelled that right, so it's a pretty perfect inspiration for a pretty-but-terrifying fairy queen. At least for me. I didn't know they came in purple, I'm too busy running away from them.

The “great grey days” I believe it was called. An event with the trolls where the sun was blocked out. Wonder what that has to do with anything coming forth in the Lands That Are stories. Kinda reminds me of the death of the dinosaurs.

"Starlight" has been mentioned in some of the lyrics released so far and I wonder what that is. I suspect a type of magic. Probably "good" or "light" magic, just based on the good associations I have with the word starlight, but maybe that will be subversive. Or maybe it'll be good, but misinterpreted as bad magic. Who knows. All we can do is wait.

I was thinking about the Fairy Queen and how she might be treated in the story. Ella's mother was killed for witchcraft, so I wonder if Fairy Queen will also be sought out for witchcraft, hence why she sings about Ella's mother in "Ash to Ash" like she knew her or of her struggle. Or maybe the town will see her differently than whoever they think are witches. The name "Fairy Queen of Sweet Dreams" doesn't sound like she's considered a witch, but things can be subverted in stories. I wonder exactly what in the town's minds makes up the difference between good and bad magic users if there is one to them.

I know it's probably just my knee-jerk reaction to think bad characters can have more to them, but I mildly feel bad about the trolls getting hunted. I know they're supposed to all be bad human killers, but I can't wrap my head around them all being bad and deserving of their entire species being wiped out at this point in time. I don't know… THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS!

I wonder if characters from potential upcoming Lands That Are shows will meet ones from this show in the future and so on, like the Hatchetverse. Btw, what are we calling this world exactly? The Landsverse? The Castleverse? The latter seems like the best option to me as the Langs have been calling them “castle stories”.

I’m so curious about what other fairytales might be adapted for the Lands That Are. I feel like lesser-known fairytales, like Donkeyskin or Bluebeard for example, would be interesting, and the base versions of those stories in particular seem to fit the darker tones of Lands That Are. More well-known stories would be great too of course, and are a bit more likely to happen if I'm being realistic. But maybe they could combine lesser-known stories with more-known ones, either combining the plotlines to make one story or in a style like Into The Woods; for example: Beauty and the Beast + Bluebeard. Lowkey wanna write that myself if they don't.

I'm so glad Starkid decided to do a series of fairytales! I feel like the world is starved of genuine fairytale stories these days.

I'm excited to learn more about Ella’s two un-named friends. Nick and Matt seemed to love writing them, so I can't wait to see what they're about. I also can’t wait to see Crumb and Sir Hop’s relationship, it sounds really cute.

Ella’s oak tree reminds me of Into The Wood so much (and whichever version of Cinderella Into The Woods pulled that from). If they do little subtle tributes to other versions of Cinderella that would make me really happy. I admit, when I hear of any new "reimagining" of Cinderella I get nervous that it'll go the girlboss route in a way that isn't actually inspired, almost seeming ashamed to be a fairytale story and teasing past versions or it's source material for not being girlboss or "sensical" enough. Happened with Amazon's Cinderella. But I trust Starkid a hell of a lot more with reimagining in an actually meaningful way that isn't embedded with internalized sexism or whatever some reimagined fairytales have going on.

The mockup of the set!!! It looks so beautiful. Everyone who has the opportunity to see this show live is going to be so lucky I bet! I'm not jealous at all. Unrelated, but it vaguely reminds me of the Max Reinhardt Spring Awakening set.

A little nice to put the sapphic Ella hopes to semi-rest. Any ships will be “up to interpretation” and maybe that's for the best for this show, as Ella escaping her abusive home will presumably be the main focus. And that's my favorite—and I think the most important aspect of any Cinderella story anyway. I've seen some hopes for aroace Ella and those are really important too. Let's try to not fight over which sexuality Ella (and maybe other characters) "is", as it doesn't seem like there will be a canon answer, so there's no point in arguing with the wall; many people could possibly see themselves in Ella once Cinderella's Castle is released and that's a beautiful thing. And at the end of the day, all non-cis—heterosexual people are lacking in representation one way or another, so let's try not to play oppression olympics.

[somelosercritiques]

Helluva boss episode eight review‼️‼️

(I skipped seven because I decided I want to start with episodes I haven't watched yet)

The positive stuff

The voice acting was amazing if there's one that they'll get right it's everything that has to do with the voice work

There were actually some funny parts in the episode

Vortex is literally like one of four genuinely good characters in this entire franchise he just seems like a dude that would actually be cool to hang with

Finally, 40% of that song bee sung was good and the visuals were amazing

The negative stuff

Dear God where do I start with this one tbh 😭

Ok so I'll get one thing that confuses me about this entire world out of the way. This is less of a criticism or nitpick but more of a genuine question.

How the hell(lol) does time work in hell? Is there like a day night cycle? Are there hell timezones?? Is there a hell sun and moon??? How does time work in different rings???? Why do I keep increasing the question marks with each question I ask?????

But in all seriousness I just realized that there's time in hell so that's kinda weird to me

Ok now time for the actual critiques

I'll start with that God awful cotton candy song. Now to be honest I've never really liked Kesha. I don't hate her but she won't be on any of my playlists. I think she didn't technically sing the song but it's a Kesha song. Remember how I said I liked 40% of the song? Well that's because the chorus literally ruins the other 60%. It's so shitty and repetitive. Like saying two words over and over again is cocomelon levels of songwriting. Normally the chorus is the best part of a song but nope not here 💀

Bee as a character is very confusing in my opinion. Like when blitz was drinking himself to death why did she look sad?? She is the literal embodiment of gluttony. Like this part is genuinely annoying me the most why does she even care that he's getting black out drunk at a literal party? Is that not the point of those? And he has someone that could take him back home if needed so she should be even less worried. In my opinion it would've made more sense for tex to be the only one who cared about him.

Another thing that kind of annoys me is how much of an asshole loona is being for no reason. Bee showed her nothing but kindness and even was worried about her father but then she starts getting defensive for no reason?? Like girl you do realize you're lowkey picking a fight with a SIN.

Oh yeah and that girl that was bothering loona in the beginning of the episode was pretty much the average vivziepop female character. Bitchy and sassy for no reason and also did we mention she's skinny and white coded.

Luckily the last part of the episode was the funniest. When blitz starts breaking down on the couch I'm pretty sure everyone reading this had the exact same reaction as me LOL

Final thoughts

In all this episode was a waste of time and a strange diversion from the previous episode. The fact that this is a season finale is an insult to not only the fans but also all the episodes that came before it. This is more like an extra that should've been a short (like five minutes long). It would've worked much better. Or how about a better idea? Continue the plotline started last episode. This episode was a horrible way to introduce one of the most important figures in hell. 😭

Tbh I'm kinda dreading the next episode because I heard it was horrible and when the show started to decline but that's for tomorrows me to deal with

[llumimoon]

If you don’t mind, I would love to hear about the Snow White DnDads AU.

Also, I just want to say, I love your art, it’s so cute and bubbly; and I love the DnDads AUs you (and others) make. I’m so normal about the Perfectly Regular AU

(Also I don’t know what EAH is, could you give me a brief explanation?)

hehehehe omg thank you so much !!! :D that makes me really happy to hear <3333

I actually finished up the EAH AU designs for the teens so I'll probs be posting that later today w/ a brief explanation of the AU plot but I absolutely will tell it for you too 😤👍

EAH is Ever After High! Its a twin franchise to Monster High based of the kids of fairytale characters. It's primarily a doll line BUT it had a show that was (imo) phenomenal. Like the writers really went off with it !!! Unfortunately it got canceled some years back but I still get brainrot about it every year or so.

the whole AU came from me pointing out the parallels between the two EAH main characters, Raven and Apple, and comparing them to Scary and Normal LMAO. LIKE . Raven is a sorceress who grew up with her mother trying to guide her into evil and so she grew up not being able to enjoy soft and good things that she liked and then later she decides to rebel against the social narrative that said she had to be the villain and reclaimed her magic powers that she got from her mom for something good instead ....... and then Apple being a paragon for toxic positivity with no trustworthy adult figures in her life and constantly trying to conform to get her mom's approval.... Her with control issues trying to do what she thinks is right and good (but isnt always whats best).....

Anyways it totally spiraled and got away from us very quickly as we started filling out the rest of the plot and the cast. It went pretty off course from the original show aside from the Apple accidentally releases the original Evil Queen from her mirror prison plotline (aka Normal accidentally freeing Willy) and its just a LOT OF GOOD FUN.

Hermie also ended up playing a bigger role than the initial show and got upgraded to main character status lmao. And swiftli get to have a cute and silly romcom B plot while marloakworthy go through The Horrors.

The kiddads are all also involved !!!! The things that happen in the teens generation of the Snow White story are lowkey a consequence of what happened in the previous generation of Sparrow's Snow White story. WHICH WAS INFLUENCED BY HENRY'S. We really tied in the generational aspect this time round.

[incohorace]

@butch-springsteen OK SO EXACTLY THATS WHERE THE THEORY STARTED!!!!

bat out of hell & born 2 run are sooo similar in plotline (you could replace booh with b2r in the booh musical with zero change to the plot like even the song structures resemble each other) and born 2 run also mentions wendy which is very obviously linked to booh via peter pan themes <3

ummm jim was actually accused of being similar to springsteen but he said the usual stuff about booh being huge and theatrical & also having written the 1st verse before b2r came out but still. its been acknowledged.

HOWEVER. i noticed the backing & melody of heaven can wait are very recognisably similar to an instrumental bit just past 4 mins into thunder road 👁️ hence i have my little theory that steinman was directly in dialogue with springsteens music when writing his songs.

now the crush part comes in when i was reading the interview meat loaf did after jim died and he says:

i’ve never told this story, but jim is gone now and it’s time: we had finished the demos in 1975 when he called me one night. he said, “there’s this guy down here at the bottom line.” he didn’t even say “bruce springsteen.” it was just “a guy.” this is 11 p.m. at night. ... he said, “there’s a guy doing what we do down here at the bottom line. you have to come down and see the second show.” i said, “jim, i’m not going to come down there in the middle of the night.” ... i didn’t go. jim stayed for both shows. ... i guess jim liked springsteen. he felt roy bittan was one of the best piano players in the world and he wanted him on this record. he said, “this guy is better than me.”

so by this point its probably clear that my crush theory is insane and made up + of COURSE steinman and springsteen interacted with one anothers music because they were both huge in the same era. this isnt a revelation. but in My beautiful mind steinman is hugely repressed (come on. objectively true just watch one of his music videos) and springsteen is lowkey his type (puppy guys?) and. it makes sense. to Me <3