#but that is some epic love story shit if i’ve ever seen it

[prettydjarinsoloinspires]

anyway the person Loki went back to ultimately ask what he should do was Mobius.

the person who couldn’t continue the job they’d been doing for eons because it was too painful without Loki was Mobius.

the person who stood alone in the second to last shot was Mobius.

the person who’s voice Loki heard at the end of time was Mobius.

if you don’t think that’s winning i don’t know what to tell you.

give me painful, bittersweet, star-crossed lovers over nothing at all any day.

[yourlocalartsonist]

MONTHLY MFIP UPDATE✨✨

9/24 | Month 2 | Next Month | Month 1

Hey folks 🦐 I finally got the chance to make this month’s MFIP Update cuz god damn life was kicking my ass. College is fine for the most part tbh, just a lot of reading and writing cuz of the specific classes I chose. HOWEVER I have 💥FUCKING PMDD💥 so um skill issue on my part but it’s why I’ve been kinda exhausted as shit this week and was late with the update so my bad folks! (Also for more info on PMDD, click here! I don’t wanna spend this post yapping about it but wanted to leave a resource to spread awareness just in case :3). Also, Imma be tagging some of y'all who have been reading/supporting MFIP consistently just for this post, so yk you guys actually know these updates exist. I was gonna do that for the first ever update but as with many things, I forgor, so I'm doing it now! They’re supposed to come out on the 18th of every month, but yk sometimes life happens and I’m a lil late. It won’t be any earlier than the 18th tho so look out for these once it hits that date! Anywho, cheers to this month’s update!

Alrighty folks we be starting with the Art~!

Alrighty so obvious new thing, WE GOT RAPH’S REF SHEEEEEEEET TEEHEEEEEEE

BRO IM SO HYPE ABOUT IT! It turned out so genuinely amazing and I’m ridiculously proud of it! Especially cuz I honestly thought Raph was gonna be a harder design to figure out yk? I’m not used to drawing his body type, I wasn’t as familiar with his outfit, and even tho I’ve sketched him a few times before, I was just a bit nervous with Raph. Funfact, he’s also been the hardest to figure out how to write back when I was first starting MFIP. I genuinely don’t know why, but I got there eventually (I actually really love writing him now—) and same thing happened with his design!

Since MFIP’s taking place a few months after the Krang invasion, i’m able to take creative liberties and update the boys’ designs more! For some clarification btw, in my story’s lore, the invasion took place in September 2020, and MFIP starts on March 2021. Anywhizzle, my ideas for the boys’ designs is to combine their movie look with their show look, cuz while I do LOVE the black on them, it doesn’t feel right to me to not make them still unique in their own ways. These guys are all about authenticity, so why make their gear exactly the same, ya get me? I basically recolored his show gear to be black and red (and added a lil asymmetry on his legs) cuz I think it makes Raph feel older and more sure about himself, just feels right for him! I also just think the red fade on the black is hella cool! Fun lil color theory i think application, the black is more of a really dark, inky blue, so it makes the red pop out even more! I decided to make a bow out of his mask tails, too! I don’t wanna spoil the entire lore reasoning for it yet (it’ll pop up in the story), but I can indeed say it’s intentional that it looks a little like a lunamoth with damaged tails :3 I also took a BUNCH of creative liberties with his sais’ handles, since we haven’t really seen it much so like idk gaslight yourselves into thinking it’s always been this epic✨✨

Also I gave him his shorts back because FUCK YOU I LIKED THE RED TRIMMMM—

OH I ALMOST FORGOT yes he has longer eyelashes! I saw he grows to have really pretty eyelashes in the future cuz of his turtle species, and I wanted to lean into that by showing they’re starting to grow now :3

Bullshit Gag Because Yes‼️‼️

There ain’t shit to say about this, I just pulled a silly. I saw the fact Donnie was supposed to have a “Doctor Donatello” persona in the deleted episode where Dale turns into a werewolf. I’m really heavily on the train of Leo being the team medic and into medicine in general. I don’t think it makes sense for Donnie to be the medic judging by his sensory issues and this mf being as much of a germaphobe as my mom, and in my opinion it felt too stereotypical anyway to have Donnie be the medic. Ofc, to each their own, and this is just my interpretation of it, but I thought it’d be funny if Donnie still had this persona and was passionate about it, but was like horrifically bad at being a doctor. I made this dumbass sketch that I’ll finish sometime in the future (it’s gonna be a chapter in Arc 3 probably) and I just wanted to share it with yall~

THEY’RE HUMAN NOW⁉️

My ass wanted to show off cuz I’m sketching out some ideas of what my human designs for the boys culd be. I already did Leo’s like ages ago so he’s not on here but I’m realizing as I’m typing this my dumbass forgor to post it so um my bad I will do that in a few days—

But I wanted to design (or more accurately, redesign cuz I did draw em once a while back but I’m not satisfied with them) and I think I ate so far so uh yea. There isn’t any logic to sharing this, I just thought it was cool😭

And actually, imma share them here too just so y’all can see my boy ;w;

(A lil outdated cuz I didn’t give him lips at the time)

Okay there we go~

As you can see, I want all the boys to look kinda etherial and like they'd turn heads, and I think I am SUCCEEDING SO HARD SO FAR CUZ DAMNNNN THEY'RE ALL PRETTY AS SHIIIIIIIT TEEHEE✨ Also am tryna make sure they actually look Blasian since that's what the canon of my story says they are. I'll talk about them more another time when I have all of them on here~

But yea that's all for art this time folks :> ONTO THE NEXT THINGGG

Chapter Progress Time Whoop Whoooop‼️‼️

I didn’t make much progress on anything this month due to college—again, it’s fine, but there’s a shit ton of time management going on in my part to just manage everything and make sure I’m on track—BUT I am indeed still working on chapter 10. We’re up to 20 pages now which is only two more pages written from last month, but it’s kinda cool writing Donnie and I feel like I’m getting a better understanding of him! One thing I’ve been tryna do is understand autism better as a condition cuz I do wanna acknowledge and show bro’s autism instead of just ignoring it due to a lack of understanding. Donnie ain’t Donnie without it, ya know? I don’t know everything and tbh I would say I still have A LOT to learn on the subject matter, but I’m tryna expand my knowledge every opportunity I get and experimenting with how to better show it! This is to say tho, I’M NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, NOR AN EXPERT ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM. This is what I’m finding and comprehending via my own research, and can tbh end up being wrong so please don’t quote me as a reliable source, I’m still learning ;v;

I remember one of the things I kept hearing about was autism leading people to struggle with empathy. The best way I heard it being described was someone bringing the example of when their friend was upset. That person can’t truly feel their friend’s emotions because they’re not the one experiencing it, so can’t properly understand how it’s making their friend feel. But they can see that their friend is communicating their sadness, and they still try to comfort them and make sure their friend knows they’re there for support. I understood it as bringing logic to emotions in a sense; collecting data and figuring out how to handle the situation based on the data rather than using intuition alone.

I’ve been using that to figure out how Donnie might handle more emotionally subtle situations, where he might try to rationally work through what’s happening and kinda substitute it in place of natural empathy. Like the little tidbit I gave above! Instead of just automatically being able to get vibes that the other person is upset, I felt maybe Donnie would instead notice the fact their tone is kinda different from before; it’s basically a data point. With that data point in mind, he could connect it to past experiences where a tone change could indicate a mood change, and as a result he might conclude that Salena’s tone change means she’s upset. I comprehend it as manually working through empathy rather than it being second nature, if that makes sense. Obviously and thankfully Donnie isn’t gonna spend the entire chapter playing a guessing game or anything with Salena’s emotions, it’s just one lil moment that I thought was cool challenge to myself with when writing him! I really love putting myself in the characters’ shoes when I’m writing them or their dialogue. I highly recommend it as a tool too, since it's helped me a lot with staying in character!

Last Lil Segment Y'all

Aight so, I wanted to try doing something cool if y'all are up for it. I really love rambling about my story and lore and characters blah blah blah, but I don't really know how to do so tbh. I'm not that familiar with how social medias work cuz I just never took it seriously, and I don't wanna just keep being like HEYYYYY ASK BOX IS OPENNNNN like I'm screaming from the top of the hill either. Sooooo insteaddddd

I think it'd be fun to do Q&As here! Or at least something similar. I'll open my ask box again and feel free to send any questions you want; it can be about the story, past lore, design questions, getting to know the characters, absolutely anything! Then when I'm gonna do my update for the month, I'll compile all y'all's asks, (prolly will have to tag to make sure you guys know I answered it, or if you ask anon then uh idk look out for the monthly update) and then answer them during the monthly update as the last section! I think it'll be a cool way to make this feel more interactive, and gives me an excuse to ramble. Don't be afraid to ask potentially spoilery questions either! If it's something I can't spoil yet or even give hints or vague answers about, I'll just say so in the update!

Anywhizzle, That's All Folks~!

I'm glad there was so much to talk about this month! I actually deadass thought it would be short but I should know better with my yapping' ass💀✨ But yeah, thanks for reading everyone! I hope y'all enjoy the rest of your days, and I shall see you next month~ Bye :D

Tageroonies:

@yosajaeofficial @chaoticspeedrun @ramblehour @randomcerealbrand @goldanrabbit @m1sf0rtun3 @foundthethief @ackalice @jellyfishheartsss @dollyrin @harukonene @iieieiw @mwantstossleep @zipzaizen @hypocriticaltypwriter @lordfreg @rainbowpr1sm @idioticsky @oleander-nin @cheeselord-official @skittlesqueen101

By the way, if you guys think you’d like to be tagged whenever an MFIP chapter is posted, lmk in a reblog or comment (no asks or dms plz, too inconvenient) and I’ll be sure to tag so it’s more reliable than tumblr notifs :3🫶

ROTTMNT: Moths Fly In Packs

[corpsentry]

SORRY i keep coming here to yell !! you got me thinking about cdramas (& t dramas) i enjoyed and then forgot about :"] i watched 如果奔跑是我的人生 earlier this year and the ending lost me, but i was quite captivated by its 20+ episodes before. it centres around parental relationships (asian) and, i don't know much about dance at all but a main character is a dancer and her story made me feel things. the performances were sick, in my unprofessional opinion! I'm Fine is a gorgeous ost track. btw.... i've started rewatching 不良执念清除师 again and i CANNOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH. i've been thinking about it (on ep 5 LOL) and i actually don't think the ending dropped the thread or ball or 链子 or however that saying goes (im fever SORRY.... i think it was cathartic and beautiful in the way a galaxy is— i just could not get enough of those guys T__T 不良执念清除师 is about sulky teen (??) guys moving through the world with so much heart. it's about LOVE and ART and how the living go on after tragedy, it's about how. how (PARDON ME....) we get to keep everything we've ever loved for even a fraction of a moment & what we are doing is worthwhile even if it is very small !!!!! it is a show that is, in Voice from IMBD's words, an outstanding Taiwanese drama that excels in every aspect, because it was made with so much care and love...(meta!) also, gay people

first of all No Apology thank you for coming to yell!!! you have a big heart full of love for the world and it moves me!!!! i went down this rabbit hole on m*dramalist after watching 我们的少女时代/our times (2015)-

(tangent incoming) this movie Shook the secondary 2 scene in singapore when it came out everyone and their dog was sobbing about it and i listened to 小幸运 Religiously despite never seeing it myself. Having Seen It Now, it is a sweet little thing and it makes me feel desperately old. it also made me CRY, what can i say i’m a sucker for distances and ships passing in the night and i was soooo happy when liudehua appeared and then adult xutaiyu showed up and he Fuck Ass Hair. my lord, his hair looked like SHIT. PICKLED SEAWEED……… i couldn’t cry after that because i was so busy clenching my asscheeks out of sheer despair FUCK HAIR AND. AND!!! A TOO SHORT BLACK BLAZER ON SKINNY JEANS??? I MEAN REALLY??? I KNOW 2015 WAS NINE YEARS AGO but i don’t recall fuckass hair being the in thing then…. this memory i do not have…. you have to understand how emotionally devastating this was to me…… (tangent end)

(tangent part 2) (please look at the way they styled this poor man’s fuck ass hair. i don’t care how earth shatteringly sweet they were in high school if my first love turned up ten years later and he looked like this i would simply walk away)

(tangent end)

the point is, that i then went through vivian sung’s acting history to see what else she’d been in bc she was soooooo lovely and realized that 不良执念清除师 was in said history and then remembered this ask! and your heartfelt words about its story! and i was like Oghey, i watch—

just finished the first episode and mein gott yiyong is such a Teenager…… man i look at 18 year olds and i’m like i don’t remember being like that but i Know i must’ve been, once upon a time. but the range of emotions the script wrung out of him in one episode was kind of insane and his actor is kind of vibey as hell (perhaps this is my sign from god to finally watch your name engraved herein…) and vivian sung is still epic as hell and sooo goofy and i’m excited! i think of u in my head for some reason as the epic tight as hell short chinese dramas anon, i Trust your eyes. they’re good eyes. i’ve also locked down the first 20+ episodes of the other drama you mention here, especially because yang chao yue is in it and she was Breathtaking in the double T T T thank you for the recs! where do you find all of these? i don’t know but you must be doing good out in the world. be well anon. meet a chicken

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

I’ve seen you post a lot about Titans, and I was wondering if you could give a premise of the plot. I need new found family stuff to watch. 😂

Thanks! 🌻

Okay I'll try my best with the summary hahaha just a few fun facts before I get to it: this was my #1 show for the past 4 years, until tlou rolled around, we are on our last stretch of episodes before saying goodbye (my heart is broken) and a word of warning: if you get into it, you will love it as much as you will hate it. This stupid beloved show of mine can be a real pain in the ass sometimes 😂

Okay, time for a summary. Or, in other words, let me paint you a picture of this found family without giving away any plot 😂

So at the beginning we have these four lovely people who all find each other just when they need it the most when their lives are at their lowest. They are DC superheroes (some on their way to becoming them) but the most important thing the show had always put focus on (more or less sometimes but we lived through it) is that team is family. The team grows over time and they learn how to be a team and fight evil together and all that but these four are the core of it.

So, on the left you have the kids: Gar Logan and Rachel Roth. If you're familiar with DC Comics in any capacity, you might know them as Beast Boy and Raven. Gar can shift into animals and Rachel is a daughter of a demon. Fun times with these two!

Then we have the parents: Dick Grayson and Kory Anders. Known as Robin, then Nightwing and Starfire.

Dick is a master detective with some sick martial art skills (trained by Batman himself) and Kory is an alien powerhouse Queen!

Leaders of the team. Heads of the family. Father and Mother who will do absolutely everything to protect their children.

They also have an epic love story going on, just so you know. Season 4 is really taking them places.

Now, when I started this show, I came here for some superhero fun. But I stayed because the pilot episode served me one of the best father-daughter duos I have ever seen. Think of Joel and Ellie's "if you're lost in the darkness, search for the light" but here it's almost LITERAL sometimes. Dick has metaphorical darkness in him and Rachel is the one who brings out the light for the first time. But Rachel has the literal darkness in her and Dick is the first person in her life who isn't afraid of it and helps her accept it as a part of her.

She has a dream about him before they even meet and when they do, she immediately knows. And he's scared shitless of this new attachment, he's dark, violent, has issues and he can't do family but here is this orphaned girl who knows things about him that she shouldn't and hell if his heart isn't beating a little faster.

This scene here, it has a grip on my throat since 2019 and isn't planning to let go. This is where it all begins.

As for the plot, each season is a different thing. Season 1 is protecting Rachel from her father, season 2 is trying to settle down as a team but ghosts of the past are making it difficult, season 3 is about sibling rivalry and how that can fuck up a family and a bit of generational trauma, and season 4 is all over the place with a giant prophecy, some big and small returns, magic and shit, but season 4 is when the family is finally the strongest!

I hope you enjoy it! You can find it on HBO MAX in the US and on Netflix everywhere else (though international Netflix is one season behind). If you get to watching it, I'd love to here your thoughts!

Come join us in Titansland! Let me welcome you to the Graysonfam!

[gingerylangylang1979]

Any recommendations for Soft Romantic stories (books or movies) featuring Black Women?

I hope I don’t offend anyone and this is not meant to be a rant against all white women or anything. I also don’t expect every creator to create specifically for me, how can they if they don’t all get my experience? I’m just tired, y’all. 

I recently finished the Normal People limited series. I liked it at first but towards the middle I was really unimpressed and the end left me cold. No, I will not read the book. I think the thing that struck me most is how much I just don’t want to engage in any more romantic story lines that involve privileged white ingenues. I just can’t for the love of humanity watch a self absorbed girl rocking the nonchalant French girl aesthetic and strain to find her relatable. I live in Brooklyn. I know these girls. I just can’t relate. But they are not someone who’s inner life I need to get to know better. Maybe this is why I had no desire to ever watch Girls. I have a few white girl friends, they are not like these girls, like. at. all. I also recently watched The Boy Downstairs and The Worst Person in the World. See a theme here? Basically, I have Hulu and was struggling with finding modern romance to watch, thus this losing streak of irritating protagonists. I think Rory Gilmore is perhaps the archetype of this girl? I didn’t make it through the first season of that show. I just didn’t get the hype. 

Anyways, this got me thinking that I really, really, really would love to have some GOOD romantic entertainment that features someone that looks like me. But what I don’t want is a soap opera or a typical romance novel formula. ( I can get down with a good telenovela style epic drama, but I want a different flavor here). I think the appeal of genre of films I mentioned is that they try to go deeper, they try to be smarter, nuanced, layered. I get the draw. It’s just none of these characters are that interesting to me and people seem to fall at their feet for no discernible reason. But I want the fluff, the softness, the allusions to great literature and art, the camisoles worn ever so gracefully, travel, and promise. I just don’t want the sense that no matter what these girls are going to be ok and land on their feet. Maybe they have some trauma, but honestly I have trauma, too and I still have to be a Black woman that is still struggling to be valued in relationships, in the work place, in society at large. So no, one shitty parent and sibling is not the totality of my lived experience and the extent of my angst. There is a whole lot of other shit going on. I don’t have a trust fund to fall back on that can also finance all the self care, elite higher education, and travel I desire. I also still live with roommates. See what I’m saying? If you get it, you get it, if you don’t, you don’t. 

I’ve been writing a fanfic based on Carmy and Sydney from The Bear. It is so fluffy, but also deep, sensual, witty (at least I think so). Sydney is coming into her full womanhood, defining her career, loving a man who is wounded, and guess what, she’s broke ass fuck but still looks cute and has fun. I need that, but someone else to write it so I can enjoy. Props to all the other fanfic writers! Can we get something like this published or on the screen? FYI, I do not care if the romantic interest is Black, white, Asian, whatever. It does not matter to me. I want intelligent writing and a protagonist who is not aloof, who is vulnerable, delicate, actually works a challenging job, and inspires adoration not just because, but because she is seen. I swear if I have to sit through one more scene of a boring white girl in a perfect messy bun take a half bite of a pastry in slow motion I’m going to scream. Or watch a racially ambiguous girl get fawned over because of course she would because she’s slightly exotic and safe. AKA, she cannot be light skinned or mixed for the love of God! 

Side note: I do recommend Good Luck to You Leo Grande (the ending was a bit meh, but the rest excellent and my goodness Emma Thompson always makes me cry) and Enough Said (who knew James Gandolfini was a great romantic lead). Maybe middle aged and older white women are better viewing than millennials and Gen Z?

Anyways, who has recs for my rant?

Edit: I think I found the vibe of what I’m looking for. Imagine all of the love songs from The Sea and the self titled albums from Corinne Bailey Rae. That’s it. 

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #118 (Year 3/Week 14):

My 3rd re-watch of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean’s magnificent, all-male epic and the movie that Steven Spielberg had seen more than any other film. It’s so grand that the nearly 4 hours spectacle opens with 4+ minutes of orchestral music prelude on a dark screen and includes an ‘intermission’.

It got me to realize that most all movies (maybe because of the economics of movie-financing) always show deference to authority; The influences they represent, whether government, military, religion, civil powers, or simply ‘the big man’, the rulers are always accepted as masters.

🍿  

The Garden of Words, my second anime ever, and coincidentally also my second by Makoto Shinkai (After ‘Your name���). A melancholy and poetic story about a 15-year-old aspiring shoe-maker student who keeps meeting a woman skipping work on a park bench at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyo-en gardens during the raining season. Gorgeous visuals of nature and rain.

The Wikipedia page for this film is nearly as long as the one for Obama!

🍿

3 more terrific debut films by young female directors:

🍿 For some unclear reasons, I’ve seen a large number of Parisian high school dramas recently. Spring blossom is one of the best. A gentle drama of a shy 16 year old girl who falls in love with a 35 man she sees outside a local theater.

And like Quinn Shephard’s ‘Blame’, it’s twice as impressive, because it was written by the talented Suzanne Lindon when she was only 15, and she directed it and starred in it before she was 20. Je l'adore! 8/10.

🍿 The Hive, my first film from Kosovo. Another on my growing list of “Debut films directed by female filmmakers”. The “first film in Sundance Festival history to win all three main awards – the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award – in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition”. Based on a true story, it tells simply but touchingly about a war widow who started a small business, making homemade Ajvar and empowering the women in her village. Highly recommended. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And of course, reminiscent of the Macedonian documentary ‘Honeyland’. 8/10.

🍿 Rye Lane, a cute new rom-com about two young black South London strangers who meet at random and spend the day getting to know each other. Fresh and original.

🍿  

My 7th by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Every time I watch another of his movies, I get elated. There is nobody who make movies like him, he’s one of a kind. The man without a past, the second of his “Losers” trilogy, opens with a cinematic gut pinch and doesn’t let go until the end. My favorite of all his films so far?...

The trailer. 9/10.

🍿    

The Hollywood Reporter Critics put out a new list of their ‘50 best films of the first 21 years of the 21st century’, and I decided to go through the ones I haven’t seen yet.

First was Far from Heaven, my 4th tragedy by Todd Haynes. A precursor to his masterful ‘Carol’, this is another Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama of oppression and unrequited desire in middle class America of the mid 50′s. Drenched in luminous colors over all (except of the scenes of illicit dangers, in the gay bar and black cafe), and accompanied by another expansive score, it’s a devastating tale of the price of conformity. The husband who can’t control his homosexual urges, and the wife who falls for a black gardener are doomed, and their lives will be shattered. The poor players had simply nowhere to go. 8/10.

🍿 

‘Today I learned’ about ‘Elite Panic’ describing the “behavior of members of the elite during disaster events, typically characterized by a fear of civil disorder” and the shifting of focus away from disaster relief towards implementing measures of "command and control".

New order, my third memorable film by Mexican auteur Michel Franco (after the terrific ‘Sundown’ and the disturbing ‘April’s daughter’) describes a society collapsing, the exact moment when the shit finally hits the fan, when the riots on the TV screen cross over and knock on your door. It’s a brutal and unforgiving story, ugly, violent and without any sentimental sympathy. Shocking anarchy escalates quickly when the pressure gets too much.

When the revolution comes down, it will bring some serious bloodshed. No wonder the greatest boogieman the ruling class warns us all about is “Class Warfare”. The most distressing film of the week - 9/10!

🍿  

To catch a thief, Hitchock’s romantic thriller. The Good: Grace Kelly on the French Riviera, the ultimate glamour of the lifestyles of the rich and famous at Cannes and Nice, Hitchcock’s first (?) use of helicopter shots and modern car chases. The Bad: The genre roles & sexual politics of the husband-seeking unmarried young woman would not fly today.

I watched it solely because of this clip.

🍿 

2 with Brigitte Fossey (of ‘Jeux interdits’):

🍿 “...The square is mine!...��

I forgot that she played the grown-up Elena in Cinema Paradiso, one of Ennio Morricone’s most popular movies. And yes, without his magnificent score, the 3-hour long nostalgic trip to the heart of cinema, would not be half as enjoyable.

The question that was not well-answered was: Why did he not bother to visit his mother for 30 year? (Re-watch).

🍿 The happy road, a mediocre 1957 children comedy about 10 year old American boy and French girl, who escape from a Swiss boarding school, and hitchhike to Paris. Directed by and starring Gene Kelly, falling for the girl’s mother. 3/10.

🍿    

Inside, the new Willem Defoe survival thriller. He’s an art thief who breaks into a hi-end NYC penthouse of a wealthy art collector, intending to steal 3 paintings by Egon Schiele. But the security system traps him inside, and he’s unable to escape for many months. Captivating hi-concept and one-trick film, but a bit too long. 6/10.

🍿    

...”Never forget how much he loved you, Kubo”...

After being seriously obsessed with everything ‘Coraline’ all of last year, Adora moved on to Laika Studio’s next stop-motion animated story Kubo and the two strings. A Japanese-inspired action story about a one-eyed Samurai son who creates magical origami figures from his 3-stringed shamisen. But it was as if all the pretty parts were combined by an AI-engine. 4/10.

I will introduce her next to ‘The Iron Giant’, and ‘Isle of dogs’.

🍿    

First watch: The green room, one of the last few François Truffaut films I haven’t seen yet. In it, he plays a somber 1920′s journalist obsessed with death who builds a shrine to everybody he had lost. I love his human directing style, but this was a confusing mess. 2/10

🍿    

RIP, Ryuichi Sakamoto X 2:

🍿 In remembrance of his passing I started re-watching Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, but to be honest, I got bored after 30 minutes; I blame the less than HD version of my pirated copy. So maybe I’ll try it another time.

Instead, I went back to my of favorite ‘Black Mirror' episodes, and the only one he composed the score for, Smithereens. It was directed by the same man who did my other cherished story ‘Hated in the nation’, and was also about online media frenzy that spirals out of control. This ‘Tyranny of the Screens’ parable received mixed reviews, because it wasn’t futuristic enough, but for my money it is a tense thriller on par with the best of them. 10/10.

Sakamoto’s dark score is subtle and minimal. You have to strain to notice it. Perfect!

...”This is my last day!”...

🍿 Psychedelic Afternoon, a 2013 animated short, featuring David Byrne, and released to raise money for children who survived the 2011 tsunami.

🍿  

‘Mad men’ is one of the few TV-shows I've seen, and I’ve seen it 3 or 4 times (including once last year). “Hazel” of YouTube ‘Dream Dimension Productions’ analyzes one “Perfect Scene” from Season 3 finale “Shut the door, have a seat”.

A terrific breakdown, which got me to watch it again, together with a few more.

Extra: Her ‘Netflix has a content problem’, which I also agree with, as I was attempting to avoid 90% of all their content.  

🍿   Talk to her, my 3rd unsatisfying film by Pedro Almodóvar (after ‘All about my mother’ and ‘The human voice’). A twisted story about two unappealing men who befriend each other at a clinic where they both care for comatose women. His editing choices and scattered direction, constantly focusing on unrelated detail in every scene turned me off. Some artistic perversions (like a silent film clip of a tiny man entering a giant vagina) notwithstanding. I guess I’m not a fan. 4/10.

🍿   2 more by Noah Baumbach (both with Adam Driver):

🍿 The last film I saw this week was also the best one:

I started watching the new Adam Driver dinosaur fantasy ‘65′. but it felt so stupid the moment Adam Driver opened his mouth, that I had to switch it off within 5 minutes. Instead, I turn to Marriage Story again. An absolute masterpiece, so painful and so true, for all divorced couples and parents of children of divorce. (That 10 minutes long scene at the apartment was raw! - Screenshot Above). 10/10 deservedly and without any reservations. 

(And now I must see ‘Two for the road’!)

🍿 (Actually, I ended up with his uneven While we’re young, which didn’t measure up to that. The milieu of hipster millennial poseurs and Brooklyn wannabe documentary filmmakers was uninteresting, and I also can’t stand Ben Stiller.)

Still I will look for the rest of his movies I had missed.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

[lexa-griffins]

thanks loads for the quick response, you were so lovely!! 🌸 as i said i’m just starting to educate myself so i don’t want to get things wrong or support someone who doesn’t deserve it. for example, Eliza.. like im still confused about this other topic bc i’m not interested enough, my heart already belongs to Alycia and i mean Alycia only, so… that’s what i’m focusing on. okay so basically that’s what i thought, the “could’ve handled it better” was about her not actually handling it at all, in a way, which i like to believe has nothing to do with her “hating” lexa (it’s something i keep reading online and idk where it comes from) or her fans. Bad advices and likely her trying to save Jason’s a** lead her to shut the discourse. but if this makes sense for the first weeks/months following lexa’s death, what i don’t understand is why she did seem annoyed when fans brought up lexa to conventions etc. but if she hated the fans and/or lexa, i can’t possibly believe she would’ve ever accepted to come back to the show for the finale. she came back bc she cared (about lexa, i mean SHE played her for gods sake, it must be hella important for her as well!!) and knew it was important for the fans, i guess. I’m almost scared to talk about this as i know Eliza’s fans are mad about it and especially Eliza/b0b supporters (i’ve seen enough on Twitter dear lord) but if what some people say is true, that he asked Jason to fire her bc he was jealous of her success, then maybe HIM being fired was also one of the reasons she willingly came back? like don’t get me wrong, i’m sure a big fat paycheck played a huge part too 😅 but trying to add more pieces to the puzzle here, as i really know like 40% of what happened behind the scenes with Jason and all when lexa was killed off, so again, i’m sorry if this always ends up being super long but i’m trying to do my homework here 📋🖊️ (and you genuinely are super kind btw which i’m super grateful for 😭)

I have never opened my mouth about the E and B topic because I am not about to open that can of worms or invite their fans to fight me here. I was a huge E fan and just a week before all the shit came out i was talking to a friend about how i wish clarke and her got the same love Lexa and Alycia do... that came back to bite me in the ass real quick 😅 you guys know how much i love Clarke but damn was it impossible for a bit there for me to be able to watch clexa and clarke scenes again and be able to seperate e from Clarke. We clearly got there tho 😌

In a way, I can understand why she was a little annoyed at cons. Alycia never went to a con with the main intent of talking about Lexa, she was on FTWD, she was probably very excited about it and was sent there to talk about it and yet every question she got was about a character that st that point she had not played in maybe a year if you account for the time between filming and the episodes coming out. And its probably nerve wracking to have a room full of people who care so deeply for a character and that are part of a community that is marginalized and her having to say the right thing. Not to meantion like most actors sometimes the line betwwen Lexa the character and Alycia the actor got a little blurred and i get the sense Alycia is the type of actor who wants a clear separation between herself and the character. Maybe wrongly so she tried to distance herself from Lexa not because she hates the fans but because it was what she and others around her felt was right for her career having just started on a new show.

We know B was most likely fired but I doubt that he was the reason why Alycia left. I truly think Jrot believe he was doing something with Lexa's death and that he was telling a epic story, i really think any other story of B wanting her gone and what is now know its false about her not being able to do both shows (AMC was ready to let her continue on the show, i wish i could link you a source to this) - making Alycia agreeing with Jason probably just PR trying to not cause a drift. Alycia (and Jason) kind of alluded to the fact that there had been chances for Lexa to come back before but that Alycia didn't feel comfortable with it and I do think that shows that she respected the fans and didn't want to be used as a prop to make fans to watch the show again. Her being in the finale was a surprise (well, not to me and many others because it felt like there had been hints being dropped for a good while). While i dont doubt the nice pay check wasnt an incentive Alycias entire message for the shows finale felt very sincere to me and very clearly dedicated to the fans. Blorke/B/E fans (well, B fans, lets be real here they only care for her because shes with him, they used to call her names before that) think that just because Alycia is both rather private and doesnt try to take fans money left and right that she hates her fans and hates Lexa. I just think that Alycia didnt really speak up when it was the time for it for whatever reason - i dont think it was out of malicious intent but i do think she should have said more - and talking about it now would just come across as trying to stir something up unless it was directly asked of her to talk about it. Id like to think she has proven herself an ally and a decent person where i dont think she has to talk about Lexa for me to consider her "forgiven" for not speaking up back then.

No need to say sorry, i totally get trying to understand what the fuck happened in this fandom of ours 😅 i just hope im saying things accurately because i have been here since mid 2015 so some things really get blurry around the edges. There used to be master posts or something im sure that explained things because this was a whole thing that last through most of 2016.

☺️ i might not remember or know how to answer everything but if you have any more questions about the fandoms history and if i can help and respond, feel free to ask me! :)

[subbyfoxelf]

[webseries review] dimension 20: the unsleeping city (2019)

did i miss the fantasy high setting/characters? yes. obviously. but what this proved to me was that the real magic was always brennan lee mulligan dming for the incredibly talented cast of players known as the intrepid heroes.

the stakes this time are theoretically much higher, and some epic shit does happen over the course of this campaign, but i gotta be real with y’all, the stakes didn’t really feel higher to me? because i just wasn’t as attached to these characters as i was to the fantasy high characters.

the tone is darker, the stakes often feel more dire, but it’s not grimdark. and i just really trust everyone involved in this as storytellers so the altered tone felt, idk… safe? if that makes sense? like, this isn’t the sort of story i often go looking for, but in their hands i’m more than willing to go along for the ride.

i do need to mention as an aside that while the first season gave us “laws are threats” & “the police are basically an occupying army,” this season gave us… uhhhh… a truly embarrassing like uninterrupted five minutes of everyone expressing profuse love for a fucking supreme court justice??? like, i don’t wanna overstate this or anything, it was just a bit of a bummer/heavy eyeroll moment, that’s all.

ally is still my favorite player because i’ve just been a huge fan of theirs ever since i saw their first few appearances on dropout’s “um actually…” and lou is probably a close second, but i gotta say i think zac’s character ricky matsui was far & away my favorite in this season. he’s another himbo, but a completely different himbo than gorgug? i just got such a kick out of him lapsing into superhero/firefighter safety cadence at the slightest provocation. fucking incredible.

also, out of the three seasons of dimension 20 i’ve seen so far (this & the two fantasy high seasons), towards the end of the season brennan oftentimes likes to put his players in a position of having to make difficult choices immediately before (or in this case during) the final confrontation with the season’s big bad. this season had the extra dramatic step of him actually having the other players physically leave the room while he talked to each player in turn, and i really loved the way this ratcheted up the drama but also how true each character’s response felt to the journey their characters had been on throughout the season. (or, in ricky’s case, he hadn’t really been on a journey at all, he was just consistently the most extremely goodest boy, and appropriately enough his response radiated good boy energy.)

it’s nice to know that even when the broad strokes of the story don’t interest me as much, i still really love watching these wonderful people play dungeons & dragons and weave stories together. and i still have so many more seasons to watch! fuck, guys, i’m so happy my mate introduced us to this show.

[girl4music]

Hi, @100percentshipper

I actually have no idea where Renee said that but it’s mentioned here at the 1.20 mark by Sharon Delaney; host of the Creation Conventions and President of the Xena Fan Club so she obviously said it at some point.

But Renee says crazy shit like this all the time about the nature of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. She’s an avid shipper of them as a romantic ship but not necessarily a sexual one which I find so interesting because I kind of regard them and their love in that way too even though I do believe they were sexually involved and a committed couple eventually. But I find it’s the friendship between them that is the most profound thing about their WLW love story. I have written an entire character study thesis talking about how their relationship went way beyond just romance and that in itself makes them so much more of an epic love story than any other WLW ship that I’ve ever seen.

Renee goes really depth in her expressions about how all-encompassing their relationship really is. As do I. She definitely seems like someone who would highly resonate with my character study thesis that basically states that Xena and Gabrielle became that of one person or being in the end because they were one soul in two bodies all throughout and would be that for eternity. So they sort of come full circle in that they originally started out as one physical entity as per The Soulmates Story Gabrielle relays to a dying Iolas in ‘Prometheus’ and they return to that nondual physical nature as one soul in one body by the end of the show.

If you happen to find the source of where Renee said what Sharon said she said, please let me know. ☺️

“When I first started playing Gabrielle I wanted to find a way to relate to Lucy and I’d never played with a woman who was the hero. There was obviously the maternal connection. But I remember playing the lover affection for a person with her. In my mind that’s how I started to relate Gabrielle to Xena: I was falling in love with this woman.” — Renee O’Connor

[nerdyenby]

netflix live action atla reaction

Ep 1

I don’t feel like the opening sequence actually added anything to the story. I mean, it gave the other nations some more agency I guess, but it doesn’t actually accomplish anything, at least not at first glance

Kyoshi voicing the opening is so random what the

I’ve heard criticism about the show starting with Aang and I agree, but I also think that the point of remakes is to give us different perspectives on the same story. I’m not a huge fan but I don’t hate it either

The bending looks so weird, not necessarily bad, just off

Idk how I feel about the southern water tribe seeming so much more built up, it kinda diminishes the first impression of what the war has done to them

Other people have already talked about them butchering Katara’s character so I’ll just say yeah and move on. Hopefully she’ll grow into herself and become more confident and proactive, but I guess we’ll see

Iroh don’t feel like Iroh tbh

Gran Gran reciting the og intro is painful, we already got this info three times in the past twenty minutes queen

Katara, kindly never liken your loss to Aang’s. You just met this kid who just found out everyone he’s ever known is dead, you don’t know him and you don’t know what he’s going through. You can empathize with his grief, but don’t act like it’s the same please

So far my expectation of “mid” has been holding true but the scenery is beautiful and the establishing shots are absolutely stunning

“Protect those who can’t protect themselves” ZANE NINJAGO?!????

Ayo Zuko kinda in character?!??? Who wudda thunk

“Let’s go save that weird kid” Yeah!!!! Sokka!!!!!!

Kick their ass Aang!!!!!

Ok but we’ve seen him fly without the glider several times now, why does he need it?

Ok, yeah, I’d kill for Sokka/Aang bromance

Ep 2

Iron’s saintly patience makes it’s debut lol

MOMO!!!! He’s so ugly I love him

If Gran Gran had the scroll the whole time, why did she only just now tell Katara about it? Her letter just says that it’s dangerous but the fire nation hasn’t come to their village in years

“But most importantly, you must have- sticky rice!” “Uncle, we don’t have time for this” oh, now we’re getting somewhere!!

This show is so stupid, I love it

Suki best character after four lines of dialogue real not clickbait????

Shirtless guy per episode: 2/2

Katara’s outfit is so pretty!!! My irl watched the show before me and said the costumes are good but feel like costumes and I second that but it’s fun seeing how they interpret the og outfits

Suki is playing with him and having too much fun with it, as am I

Aang being afraid of himself is such a good decision, really reminiscent of his reaction to burning Katara in original

Ewwww romance /hj

Obsessed with the discussion of what it’s like being a nonbender and the extra steps you have to take

Yeah ok, they’ve already done Suki better than the original

Kyoshi boutta throw hands with a twelve year old fr

Women win these

Dang, Sukka kinda cute

The cgi is decent but Momo not having a shadow is so distracting

Ep 3

That’s… that’s Azula…

A resistance??? Epic!! I’m sure everything will work out just fine for these kids

I’m so excited to see what they do with Azula

Don’t love Aang teaching Katara instead of the other way around

“What makes you think we’re outsiders?” *Katara and Sokka look pointedly at their bright blue clothes*

Teo my love!!!!!

The inventor’s actor looks so much like him, I didn’t realize he didn’t have a name in the original lol

Ewww stop hitting on her Jet istg

Ok stop, you’ve fundamentally misunderstood Jet as a character. He does not think he’s cool, he doesn’t give a shit. He thinks he’s right. He’s too angry to care about charming people. He’s a boy hardened by loss and war, he’s not a fuckboy for pete’s sake

I really like this take on Sokka: he’s smart as a whip but was born and raised to fight, he’s never had the opportunity to take himself or his ideas seriously

“We don’t need to be afraid of our pain, we just need to decide what we’re going to do with it” that’s the good stuff right there

However, it is not escaping my notice that Katara only improves when guys give her advice

The blasting jelly looks so stupid

Ep 4

Bumi time!!!! I really do wish Aang mentioned him earlier

It’s giving season 2 finale and I’m here for it

Ok I’m kinda into this, the way it’s folding aspects of different episodes of the original together is really making it a distinct story. Still against live action remakes on principle, but it’s at least doing something interesting.

Bumi my love!!!! He’s so silly and unhinged, I would die for him

Katara popping off!!!!!! Love her taking ownership of her power

I really like Bumi getting into how he’s seen all the devastation of the past century and that Aang doesn’t know what that’s like, his rage and pain is so important to me

Oma and Shu lesbians?!????? /vpos

I am so glad their getting into Iroh’s actions as a general, it hurts but it’s something I missed in the original

DAMN lil zuko deserves the world, man

THE ‘LEAVES FROM THE VINE’ MOTIF GOT TEARS IN MY EYES INSTANTLY, WHAT THE HELL???? Atla has me in a chokehold and always will tbh

I really like that we’re getting Sokka and Katara bonding in the cave of two lovers. Romance is OUT family is IN!!

Zuko is kinda crushing it

Platonic love for the win!!!!!

Katara is so quick with it!!!

Bumi getting the emotional confrontation he always deserved my beloved

Aang’s lil “is that really so bad?” I love him so much. The only way the world can heal is childlike hope and an unwillingness to sit back and accept tragedy

“Home? Everything I need is on this boat” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ep 5

Sokka is a mess this episode, good for him

Heibai my beloved

This whole episode is so fascinating, I’m just along for the ride lol

Ep 6

Roku is so silly goofy and for what

June girlbossin’

Ew why she up in Iroh’s face???

Blue Spirit time baby!!!!!!

Zuko and Aang actual conversation time?????

The boys are bonding!!!!

What the fuck?! They made his scar less severe???? Zuko has a vision impairment, how dare you take that away

Zuko’s crew being the division he refused to sacrifice is everything, actually

Bro I thought there were only six episodes, if it ended there I would’ve lost it

Ep 7

Zhao SUCKS, man gleefully tried to murder a child

I knew the wolf was Yue

Making Yue a spiritual leader is a move I respect, idk how I feel about her being a waterbender now

I don’t know how I feel about Yue’s characterization, her personality feels weirdly unnatural

No one told Kuruk that friendship is magic ig

Kill that man Katara, you can and you should

Rare Aang L

“So no plan?” “… I’m working on it, uncle” love them

Sokka popping off!!

“Go kick his ass” how did I know he was gonna say that lmao

Did her hair fall down lol, that was so forced

Ep 8

I saw it coming but I like the other waterbending women getting a role

General Katara my beloved, I don’t see people putting her in leadership positions post-war very often but she deserves it, she’s a great leader

Don’t think I like the moon and ocean spirits only visiting, feels like an odd and unnecessary change to make

THEY KILLED MOMO?!!??!!? WHAT THE FUCK?!????!??!!!!

Nvm he’s fine

Aang telling Katara to go easy on Zuko!!!!

We’re really ending the season without Aang waterbending a single time lol

Conclusion

It was enjoyable!! Not great but pretty good!!! It starts slow but once it gets going it does some really interesting stuff. I’m not a fan of all the changes they made, but a few of them are ones I’m very glad are there. The effects are decent but whoever is doing the fake beards needs to be fired. Definitely some choices made that I don’t like regarding some of the characters (specifically Katara and Iroh) but it overall is distinct enough from the original to be a worthwhile watch and also pretty fun

[death-and-other-myths]

The Unhoneymooners Deadass Book Review

Olive is the uptight, careful twin. Her sister (can’t remember her name. We’ll call her Tammy) is the wild cheapskate one. Tammy is marrying (uhhh) Travis. And she is told she has to get along with Travis’ brother, Evan, even though she HaTeS hIm AnD tHeY’vE nEvEr GoTtEn ALoOoOoNg!!

HERE WE GO! The Unhoneymooners By Christina Lauren

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Well shit goes down quite literally at the wedding, when everyone starts having explosive diarrhea and vomiting except for Olive and Evan, who are the only ones who didn’t partake in the seafood buffet.

I should have seen this coming. I read the premise on the back of the book: “Olive and Evan, sworn enemies, go on a honeymoon after everyone at the wedding gets food poisoning.” But I wasn’t prepared for the amount of graphic detail described in everyone getting sick… or it happening quite literally at the reception. It was pretty epic though. Like damn, Christina Lauren.

I haven’t read many romance books. I’ve read books with romance in them… like.. Harry Potter and Warm Bodies. But apparently in the Rom-Com Romance genre, the “Enemies to Lovers” reigns supreme. So a lot of reviews on this book say “this is literally the same plot of every modern romance book”. But I liked it because I’m dumb and don’t know any better.

So Olive and Evan go on Tammy and Justin’s Hawaiian honeymoon, and they have to pretend to be actual honeymooners because if they don’t, they’ll….go to Mariott jail. I don’t know. Olive is like real freaked out by this, but I have a feeling the hotel staff would literally not give a shit. They’d be like “Are we still getting paid? Neat.”

Evan is sexy but brooding. The story is narrated by Olive in present tense. Olive says that Evan has “always hated her” ever since this… weird backstory of their first meeting. Which was at a county fair. And (according to her) she went and got some fried cheese curds and when Evan saw her eating them, he made a face and walked away. And she’s been pissed about it ever since.

First of all…

Okay I just googled fried cheese curds and they look like fried mozzarella sticks in nugget form. I was going to side with Evan on this one, but for real, these look good. (Why the gross name then?)

Anyway, the point is moot because eventually, we find out that Evan didn’t really hate her after all! (SURPRISED FACE!)

He had the hots for her all this time, but his brother told him that she was a bitch and to stay away. Then we find out Trevor only did this because he was cheating on Tammy, and he didn’t want Olive all up in his business because he was using Evan as an excuse to travel a lot and go meet women (even though Evan was never actually going on these trips with him).

Anyhoo, that all happens at the end of the book after Evan and Olive have already fucked and are in love, but then they get into a huge fight because no one believes Olive when she says that Jason is cheating on Tammy. But then the truth comes out. And Evan and everybody comes crawling back asking forgiveness. It’s good. It’s juicy.

Not as juicy as the fun parts in Hawaii though. Like when Evan gets sea sick and puts his head on Olive’s lap. And when they run into Evan’s ex girlfriend at the resort and she is a total biatch. And when they go get a massage, but it turns out to be a COUPLES MASSAGE where they are to learn how to oil each other down, and Evan gives Olive a massage and it’s all sexy. Then the next day, they drive around the island and go out drinking at a cool local eatery, and Evan gets sloshed and kisses Olive when they get back to the hotel room. And then I think they get into a fight the next day or something. And then make up, and a few hours later they totally do the nasty.

It’s cute.

I mean I get it. It’s tropey as shit. Lots of “accidentally walking in on each other” and “HE HATES ME! I know he just complimented me and seems really into me and is being nice BUT NO HE’S A TOTAL JERK!”

This book is stupid, stupid candy, but gosh I enjoyed it. I tore through this book in like 3 days. Read it if you like fun and goofy, horny idiots accidentally falling on each other all the time.

Deadass Rating: 7/10

[mytalemyworld]

Some thoughts about Love Like The Galaxy

I was a bit reluctant to start this show. Because A) Chinese period dramas can be very heavy and I wasn't in a mood to watch something so serious B) It was like yesterday I watched the male lead in Nirvana in Fire and I thought I would have a hard time to accept him as a general.

It turned out I was wrong in the both aspects. Because A) The drama balances the heavy moments with the light hearted ones and B) I was sold out to the show after watching him in a couple of the scenes. He may be like a Terminator and a little too cold for my taste (he has reasons for being this way ofc) but oh my in action he is really something else.

It has been ages since I was deeply invested in a serious period chinese drama. I literally can't wait for the new episode and I wanted to explain why this is a great drama and recommend it if you're looking for a cdrama to watch. Even if you haven't watched any period cdrama before.

Usually I can tell if I will be hooked on a tv show after watching the first 30 minutes of it and this show wasn’t an exception either. Because the world building and the characters in this 30 minutes length are so good.

First of all you don’t get bombarded with lots of background information or confusing flashbacks. You start learning everything step by step.

Second of all, the leads were immediately shown under interesting circumstances and the writers put some flesh on the bones even in this limited time.

And the first meeting of OTP. 

Intriguing and making you crave to see more because you could already tell they would be one hell of a couple (and later epic!) I may write a post only about them later but from the very start the show made a clever choice and built up a huge anticipation for them to meet again while giving delicious otp scenes when they weren't even in the same frame.

About the light hearted moments...

When we were given these scenes...I was like yeah clearly a big budget show and it would be epic but then the show made a slight turn and you found yourself watching the female lead's family shenanigans. I was a bit confused about what the show would be about but later you came to understand why this choice had been made.

Because this is kind of coming of age story for the female lead and you MUST see whom she had dealt with throughout her whole life and what kind of person she turned into. Secondly, it is also a smart move to know the main characters, all relationships and kinships before telling the big events.

For example the show first revolves around a military embezzlement which then turns out to be there is more to this issue than meets the eye. And while showing this, we can see some critical morality choices of the main characters and little otp moments.

Also there is one thing seriously makes the show much more light hearted which is the emperor himself. Probably this is the first time I've ever seen in a show that the emperor ships OTP very hard. Usually the emperor or someone from the imperial family goes against this relationship but in this show he is like their fairy godmother. I mean...even though I think this is refreshing I still find the whole general-emperor relationship weird. Because sometimes the male lead even answers back to the emperor in front of the strangers... For example:

The Emperor: *being intimidating and scaring her* Meanwhile Zhisheng:

She and her father: *gasp* The Emperor: YOU. LITTLE. SHIT.

Well, I know he dotes on Zhisheng but come on, there is too much fiction going on here.

The pros of the show for me, this show is not about imperial mind games or cruel power games. Yes, of course there is enmity, jealousy and dangerous power dynamics but none of these make this show darker. The show is about the choices and consequences of them, the darker elements are mostly about these consequences which sometimes lead to a war, or a huge massacre or cause a child to feel worthless.

Also there are some scenes contain too much blood and violence which I don't find gruesome but some may, but still this is not unnecessary violence, I can assure you.

This removing arrow scene got all my attention for example, I watched the entire scene without blinking, even though it lasted long like a damn lifetime.

What can I say, romance at all costs.

But this one particularly gave me goosebumps.

So in conclusion, I can certainly recommend this show even though it hasn’t ended yet. I know it can be difficult to wait for the new episode, but this one is worth it, I think.

[halveablock]

maki

i just wanted to properly verbalize exactly why i love maki so much. in particular, the way her character development is shown through her design. i suppose this is a bit of character design rambling. contains manga spoilers up to chapter 149.

to be quite honest, maki didn’t catch my eye that much when i first read jujutsu kaisen. she felt awkward actually; design-wise, it felt like gege couldn’t commit to a type of feeling. her style felt just vaguely unkempt and bit feminine, but had no real identity. part of that is the characters are all in dark uniforms, but they can be customized to give off a certain feeling. yuji, for example, wears hoodies not because he’s a hoodie guy but because he can be indecisive (volume extra).

but this all changed once i saw this infamous chapter cover:

i immediately went: shit, i wish maki actually looked like that. she didn’t really have this masc energy until this chapter cover. (and then upon rereads, maki really captured my heart...) there, i saw what maki could be, so i was wondering why her pre-shibuya design felt so dissonant to this image, which felt perfect for her.

i think gege decided on her “aesthetic,” so to speak, once he designed toji. not that toji wasn’t designed or concepted before, but it’s possible that gege hadn’t thought to push the toji-maki parallels that early until his design was finalized, since this is just 2 chapters before his appearance. and she has gotten only closer and closer to him in aesthetic until in chapter 149, gege blatantly draws a side by side comparison to make sure you really saw it, in case you hadn’t realized it yet.

it’s interesting then that with ogi’s appearance, maki’s previous ponytail had some meaning.

the way the ponytail is drawn is virtually identical; it’s as if maki was striving to be her father, in a way. i imagine the image of strength she had in her head was ogi before she saw toji on the beach: there, she saw what she could become. (btw, i don’t think it’s a coincidence that she meets toji on the beach as her old self, and then says good-bye to mai on another beach as her new self)

gege most likely designed maki first then ogi, so i think giving him a ponytail was definitely intentional to indicate the shift in maki’s understanding of what she could be.

at any rate, post-shibuya, i think gege had fully embraced the masc style for maki, while keeping up with his high waist fashion obsession for the ladies. he may have also felt creatively limited by jujutsu tech uniforms, so he probably wanted to break some rules around that. the cape gives her a strong leadership look as indicated by her role among the students and a distinct silhouette so i think maki will keep it despite not having it on at the end of ch149.

maki’s new hair has the double function of getting closer to toji while making her look even more identical with mai. a crossroads of sorts: she could either become like toji, or stay in the bottom with mai. we all know what happened at that, albeit it wasn’t really her choice. in another sense though, she became both, gege deliberately putting both maki and mai in their sleeveless outfits (remember maki still had her cape on after waking up, before shedding it in the epic spread) in the beach scene to convey this merging even more.

as for her writing itself: on the surface, she’s a “strong” female character: stubborn, sassy, ambitious. an action girl, if you may. but the recent chapters showed that she’s actually filled with doubts and that a lot of this attitude is airs she put on to live as a self-affirmed human being since her family could never give her that affirmation. her choices, too, were driven by her fierce love for her sister, something she couldn’t openly express for fear of her sister facing even more prejudice.

and just in the meta sense, she’s everything i’ve ever wanted out of a female character in a shonen manga. i’ve seen her type of character for sure, but not really in a shonen: her abused history, insane family drama including a complicated relationship with her sibling, these two chapters becoming her tragic origin story, the way her trauma is carved into her skin with the burns and the eye scar, the way her trauma is reflected in her characterization without her succumbing to it. the way she constantly echoes an existing feral, violent male character, suggesting that she will embody similar traits. the way her goals were centered around her ambitions, but underneath that, her sister as her core motivation; the way the plot actually impacts her goals, and how they are now changed to destroying everything, including the family, the system that refused to acknowledge her.

in short: i love you with my entire heart maki, and i can’t wait to see where you go next.

[parks-and-get-wrekt]

Very few people have probably seen or put much thought into the Theatre Batkids Discourse but as a stage manager myself I have OPINIONS and this is my little soap box from which I shall scream them to the heavens

Alfred is the root of all of their drama and theatre origins, he’s a Shakespeare nerd who was definitely in a number of shows. He read baby Bruce epic stories at bedtime. He did voices and everything. 100/10 A+ theatre dad I love him

Bruce is the most dramatic goth bitch I’ve ever had the pleasure/horror to lay eyes upon. He wears a floor length cape with a tastefully tattered edge. He’s in it for the drama. Not to mention he was a VERY angsty teen, he’s the emo kid that sulks in the corner and judges people. He’s the best to have bitch sessions with though

Dick is also very dramatic. Boy is the embodiment of the “google earth always taking pictures” meme. He can’t even fall off of buildings normal. He lands in a graceful sprawl, like an actress on an old fashioned fainting couch. He was the MC in Cabaret once and it was a stunning performance. But he won’t shut up about it either. He has fallen off of a set piece and broken his wrist before

Barbra has definitely been in the spotlight a few times, but found her true calling in stage management. She’s the only one with the strength of character and fortitude it demands. She has those actors on a short leash and if you touch props that aren’t yours you will die

Jason is our wonderful nerd, he’s gotten leading roles, directors either love him or hate him no in between. He takes theatre superstitions very seriously, do not say Macbeth around him, he might deck you. He has gotten mono before a big performance from messing with the prop cigarettes. This is a very specific take and no I will not explain it.

Tim is not an actor. Baby boy probably had stage fright as a kid and now he’s just not in touch enough with any emotion but tired. He is a techie. He works the booth. He has that “sold my soul for tech week” energy. Besides, overly caffeinated is a character trope for tech people.

Cass is a stealth theatre nerd, you don’t expect it but Steph indoctrinated her with Hamilton (her favorite is Hadestown though). She doesn’t love the spotlight so she doesn’t really try out for leading roles, but she knows her shit and comes prepared. She has her blocking memorized to a T but she never remembers to bring a script. She’s the best at stage makeup

Do you even have to ask about Stephanie? Girl loves musical theatre. She really prefers them to regular plays, she rocks the choreography, and she knows all the words to every song from every show, you know the type. But she’s not obnoxious about it so we’ll let it slide. Her favorite is Candy store. She marks up her script with very bright highlighters

Damian is as much of a drama queen as his father. This was only encouraged by Alfred and the others. He named his dog after Titus Andronicus people!! He thinks he’s hot shit but he is actually good. He will be mean to you, he will be wearing a black turtleneck, the insults will be devastating. He has corrected the director to their face, it was awesome and terrifying

Duke is new to all of this, he’s sweet and he’s still working through some of the nerves. He has a great singing voice though, and it’s impossible not to love him. He’ll get a leading role in senior year and ROCK it. He’s gotten yelled at for sneaking food into the theatre before. He was hungry ok? It was just a granola bar!

[ghoste-catte]

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

[tillidontneedfantasy]

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 9th Studio Album: ‘evermore’

“My collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore,” is how Taylor Swift introduces us to this album in its foreword. One might assume a “sister record” would entail b-sides, or tracks that didn’t quite make the cut for folklore, despite Taylor’s explanation that “we just couldn’t stop writing songs.” evermore’s release came at a strange time, upon the heels of the Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions film on Disney+, as well as 5 Grammy nominations for folklore. The world still captivated by folklore, it’s understandable why one might not consume evermore as critically. Even as a die-hard fan, I felt some whiplash by this announcement; I am still processing folklore! Hell, I’m still processing reputation!

If this was the Taylor from two years ago, this may have been a big enough fear of hers to hold off on releasing evermore. But as she explained upon folklore’s surprise release, life is too unpredictable now, and there are zero givens or guarantees. So she followed the same path this time (although making sure it fell in line with her birthday weekend). But it’s not just the strategic timing of the release that she’s thrown out the window for now, but also her mindset whilst making records. As she explains in the evermore album foreword,

“I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one as soon as an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them.”

This is a revelation for Swift, to let the music lead her into artistic freedom, which is what makes evermore such a triumphant return. Truly folklore’s sister record, Taylor wrote evermore with the same creative team: Aaron Dessner of The National (Swift’s favorite band), long-time pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and William Bowery aka Swift’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn (as officially revealed in the Long Pond Studio Sessions). Additionally, former 1989 tour openers and close friends of Taylor, the HAIM sisters, join the crew, along with Marcus Mumford for some dreamy backup vocals.

The production is just as wistful and mesmerizing as it was on folklore, yet the storytelling on evermore is kicked up a notch, expanding on the topics and worldbuilding established in its sister record, with even sharper lyrics and an effective and elaborate use of alliteration. The best thing about Taylor is that no matter what she does, her masterful lyricism is always at the heart of her art, and somehow, she keeps getting better. Once again, I wanted to explore the rich stories she’s crafted in this woodsy universe. This is how I’ve interpreted the album, but I hope you find your own meaning in the songs as well.

1. willow It is fitting that the opening track to folklore’s sister album, where we wade further into the forest that is Taylor Swift’s imagination and storytelling, would center on the type of tree that is a symbol of hope, belonging, safety, stability, and healing. “willow,” one of the few more obviously autobiographical tracks on the album, is a hymn of gratitude for her man (as she wants you to know, yes, thirteen times), Joe Alwyn, and how the invisible string tethering them together pulled her to him in a time when everyone else was counting her out. Though not as present on many of the other songs later to come on this record, you can feel the lightness in her heart on this song as she embraces the way in which the willow has bent, wrecking her plans, throwing her into the water and leaving her happily lost and afloat in his current. The downward key modulation throughout the last two repetitions of the chorus is beautiful and very fitting for Swift vocally, but also sounds like the feeling of finding your comfort and settling into it, basking it in while you wait for the next place the wind pulls you. Best lyric: “Now this is an open/shut case / I guess I should’ve known from the look on your face / Every bait and switch was a work of art.”

2. champagne problems On the second track of the album, Taylor dives back into the fictional worldbuilding she began to explore on folklore. While on folklore high school relationships and dramatics took center-stage, evermore graduates from adolescence to young adulthood, not that it is any easier emotionally on the listener’s heart. “champagne problems” chronicles a rejected marriage proposal between two college sweethearts at their old dorm building. Taylor sings as the narrator, a reflective, self-deprecating young woman who jokes about belonging in a madhouse and dismisses all her turmoil as champagne problems. The term ‘champagne problems’ itself could have various meanings here: their trivial concerns, the fact that their “sister splashed out on the bottle” of champagne that they will not be using to celebrate as they had hoped, or perhaps it could even hint that excessive drinking is a piece of all the ways the narrator is “fucked in the head,” as they said. Although the person she is singing to is the one who got hurt in the story, the hurt in the narrator’s heart is just as palpable and relatable, because you only have yourself to blame when you self-destruct. Best lyric: “’She would’ve made such a lovely bride, / what a shame she’s fucked in the head,’ they said / but you’ll find the real thing instead / she’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.”

3. gold rush On her YouTube live chat prior to the album’s release, Taylor explained that this song “takes place inside a single daydream where you get lost in thought for a minute and then snap out of it.” The daydream consists of a love story so pure that the town had never seen such a thing; it could only happen in a fantasy for the narrator. How could she possibly have the gall to call them out on their contrarian shit, or end up with her Eagles t-shirt hanging from their door, when they are so coveted by all, and when she cannot withstand the thought of even competing? She sings, “My mind turns your life into folklore / I can’t dare to dream about you anymore,” a sweet little connecting piece to this album’s older sister, effectively convincing herself out of the idea of jumping into the chaos of the gold rush because even inside her own imagination it’s too dangerous. Best lyric: “I don’t like that falling feels like flying ‘till the bone crush.”

4. ‘tis the damn season According to Aaron Dessner, Taylor had written the lyrics for “’tis the damn season” in the middle of the night amidst their Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions recording after a long night of chatting and drinking with their co-conspirator, Jack Antonoff. The lyrics perfectly encapsulate the guttural ache the track evokes. It is a tale of two people who always find their way back to one another in their hometown, which acts as the ever-returning fork in the road. The path taken, back to L.A. in pursuit of her dreams, is the one she chose and continues to choose, but whenever she returns home, she takes a ride down the road not taken, just to get a taste of what could have been, even if just for the weekend. What starts off as an icy homecoming always transforms into the warmest intimacy. The success of this track is aligned with the success of Taylor’s entire career; even with such specific details, it feels so deeply personal to the listener. You know the street you’d drive along late at night laughing, the spot you’d park the car, the person who stars in every what-if. You will never really know if the road not taken is as good as it seems, but that might be ok; sometimes, the fantasy is better than the reality, anyway. Best lyric: “It’s the kind of cold / fogs up windshield glass, but I felt it when I passed you / There’s an ache in you / put there by the ache in me.”

5. tolerate it Inspired by the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, “tolerate it” is an agonizing track from the perspective of a devoted wife who polishes plates and paints portraits and waits by the door for her husband with a battle hero’s welcome, who at best tolerates all her adoration. There are few things as painful as idolization being met with indifference, when you have all this love to give to someone who just leaves it there untouched. “tolerate it” captures that desperation for the approval you know will never arrive, but you sit and watch, waiting for it just in case you’re wrong, but you know you’re not. Best lyric: “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life / drawing hearts in the byline”

6. no body, no crime feat. HAIM “no body, no crime,” the one evermore song solo-written by Taylor, has the clearest plot from beginning to end. In the same vein as the female powerhouse country classic “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks, Taylor is out for blood to avenge her friend, Este (named for one of the HAIM sisters). The story goes as such: Este’s husband kills her for calling him out on his infidelity, and then Taylor kills the husband and frames his mistress. The HAIM girls, who are long-time friends of Taylor’s and former touring mates, lend their vocals to reinforce the accusation on the husband and to provide Taylor’s alibi. “no body, no crime” is so far the closest we’ve gotten to a return to “country Taylor,” proving that she is still the master of a killer country tune (yes, pun intended, it had to be done I’m sorry). Best lyric: “Good thing Este’s sister’s gonna swear she was with me / (she was with me, dude) / Good thing his mistress took out a big life insurance policy”

7. happiness Written a week before the album’s release, “happiness” is one of Swift’s strongest and most reflective breakup songs. Although she writes it as though it is recent, there’s a lot of power in knowing that she’s been happily in love for four years, and that she is even better now at doing the thing that has always been best at. She is finally “above the trees,” as she sings, and is able to see it all for what it is, but her character is still in the heat of it all, trying to navigate the stages of grief when a relationship ends. We see the narrator grapple with many of those stages throughout the song. Most striking is the anger displayed in the second verse when she sings: “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool who takes my spot next to you / No, I didn’t mean that, / sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury.” That section is jarring and feels like one of the most honest moments in a Taylor song, the insanely difficult emotional balancing act when we are grieving a relationship. The devastation of loss can distort our perception, and a part of that is the difficulty of understanding how multiple seemingly opposing things can co-exist in our hearts, such as happiness because of someone and happiness after them. But when you leave it all behind and finally find your place above the trees, you can find happiness after someone and also look back and appreciate the happiness they once provided. Both of these things can be true. Best lyric: “Showed you all of my hiding spots / I was dancing when the music stopped.”

8. dorothea Taylor Swift has the uncanny ability to create such developed and well-rounded characters with such little information, which is what makes her storytelling so compelling. In “dorothea,” we learn much about the title character through the narrator’s eyes, and the relationship they once had. The lyric “skipping the prom just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemes” alone tells an entire story in itself. “dorothea” is also the companion song to “’tis the damn season,” just from the other person’s perspective, which helps shine even more light on the story. The narrator of “dorothea” reveres her but wonders if she’s still the same soul in L.A. as she was back in their never-changing town. Whatever the answer, they’re still willing to support her no matter where she is, but she’s always welcome back in Tupelo by her hometown love’s side if she ever just wants to be herself rather than someone known for who they know. Besides, they’re the only soul who can tell which smiles she’s faking. And you can always return to the road not taken. Best lyric: “They all wanna be ya / but are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? / Well, I guess I’ll never know / and you’ll go on with the show.”

9. coney island feat. The National What really started the folklore / evermore journey was Taylor’s love for The National. Taylor has cited them as one of her favorite bands for many years, and as we know, this led to her beautiful new collaborative relationship with Aaron Dessner. So it would make sense for the track written with the intention of this duet to be so well executed; you can feel the love and care Taylor put into writing this song. In her press for these sister albums, she has spoken about trying to channel frontman Matt Berninger’s writing style. But what actually happened was she just produced her own signature lyricism at its sharpest. “We were like the mall before the internet, it was the one place to be / the mischief, the gift-wrapped suburban dreams / sorry for not winning you an arcade ring over and over,” is a hall of famer Swift-ian lyric. “coney island” explores the confusion, hurt, and self-reflection when a passionate affair burns out fast because you did not prioritize that person. And to top it off, Swift and Berninger’s harmonies are achingly beautiful, transporting you right there in the story, on the bench, wondering, over and over. Best lyric: “Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there? / Will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care?”

10. ivy Leave it to Taylor Swift to make a song about an affair sound so romantic, and so sympathetic to the narrator, that you’re rooting for adultery. “ivy” tells the tale of a woman in a lifeless marriage, likening her home with him to the tombstone that the widow in town visits each day. I like to think this is the same wife whose husband was out there building other worlds without her in “tolerate it,” because then that means she found someone who celebrates her love, who holds her pain for her, who blooms all over her; they started it, but she’s fighting for it all the way to the end, nonetheless. “ivy” showcases Swift’s gorgeous vocals and her sharp lyrics, with a melody so infectious it is bound to permanently plant its roots in your dreamland. Best lyric: “Oh, I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland / my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you.”

11. cowboy like me With the beautifully blended backing vocals of Marcus Mumford, “cowboy like me” is an entrancing love story of two con artists who lost at their own game and got conned into forever with each other. She’d gone from swindling old men for their money and fancy cars to falling victim to the danger of dancing with someone who only has eyes full of stars, and she knows she’ll pay for it. “cowboy like me” is one of the most romantic tracks on the record, proving that life never plays out quite as we plan. Best lyric: “Now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon / with your boots beneath my bed / Forever is the sweetest con.”

12. long story short One of the more pop-sounding tracks on evermore, “long story short” is pretty much a summary of the long story behind reputation (2017). The song is filled with various metaphors for her reputation crumbling around her, and then finally putting her defenses down to be with her lover, someone as “rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky.” It is a sweet ode to her boyfriend, and a gentle comfort to her past self that it will all work out. But it is also an oddly relatable example of how we shrug off our struggles and minimize them to just a “bad time,” when the time she is singing about was obviously something that deeply affected her (as will be further explored in the title track); but sometimes it actually feels good to just shrug it off as just a blip in your life, because at the end of the day, you survived, and that’s what counts- even if you’re not keeping score anymore. Best lyric: “Pushed from the precipice / clung to the nearest lips / long story short, it was the wrong guy. / Now I’m all about you.”

13. marjorie Whereas track 13 on folklore was a tribute to Swift’s paternal grandfather, evermore’s track 13 is a tribute to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, who was an opera singer in the 50s, and passed away in 2003 when Taylor was 13 years old. “marjorie” is quite possibly the most touching track Taylor has ever written thus far in her career. Grief is one of the most difficult topics to tackle in a song; the genius of “marjorie” is that it is simple, yet not understated. Swift reflects on the profound lessons she learned from her grandmother, about the difficult balances of kindness and cleverness, and politeness and power. She curses herself for not cherishing the moments she had with her, for complaining rather than understanding in the moment how admirable her spirit was, for all the amber skies she’d love but will never see. The chorus, blunt and hard-hitting, reminds us that someone does not have to be living to be alive, to be all around, to be with us. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were singing to me now,” Taylor sings towards the end of the song, right before you hear a sample of Finlay’s opera singing in the background, a truly eye-swelling moment. It is clear that Finlay played a pivotal role in Swift’s own ambitions, as she sings, “all your closets of backlogged dreams, and how you left them all to me.” Marjorie knew she was leaving them in good hands. If you haven’t yet, check out the moving lyric video for the song, where you can see photos and video clips of Marjorie, both throughout her career and in her time with Taylor. Best lyric: “Never be so polite you forget your power, / never wield such power you forget to be polite.”

14. closure On the most experimental track musically on the record, Taylor writes off her need for closure from a relationship of some sort, whether it be romantic or platonic or business, all of which can cause hurt of equal intensity. The subject of the song is trying to make nice with Taylor, and she is just not having it, as it is not coming from a genuine place, but rather to ensure that their life remains picture perfect, or to clear their guilty conscience, or to preserve their own ego. This is a deeply relatable sentiment; as valuable as forgiveness can be, sometimes the person who hurt you just doesn’t deserve it, and all you can do is forgive yourself for blocking their number or shredding their letters. Best lyric: “I know I’m just a wrinkle in your new life / staying friends would iron it out so nice.”

15. evermore feat. Bon Iver To close out the standard edition of the album, Taylor joins forces once again with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, with whom she collaborated on the Grammy-nominated duet, “exile” for folklore. However, Swift leads most of the track this time, lamenting the difficult time she went through in 2016. The piano and Swift’s vocals are haunting, particularly when she describes this time in her life as “catching my death,” consumed by a pain that she feels will never end. If you’ve ever been depressed, you know what that feels like, and the dark places it leads you. Although she is singing about a time four years prior, it sounds so present, and it is heartbreaking to hear her in such a state. When Bon Iver comes in, the tempo of the song picks up, the piano riff becomes more erratic, like a winter storm hitting you in the face, and he voices all the anxieties of the cost of such a downfall. But through those anxieties, Taylor finds not a cure, but an anchor in love, and then the tempo slows back down. By the end of the song, Taylor has the foresight to understand that although it may not feel like it now, the pain she is experiencing is not permanent (a sentiment my therapist has been trying to instill in me for years). In her Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, Taylor explained how the lyrics parallel the times we are in currently, and so it feels really special to have the album end with someone who knows how it feels to be imprisoned by your pain gently comfort us with the wisdom that “this pain wouldn’t be for evermore.” I hope one day soon, as we leave 2020 far behind, we can all truly believe her. Best lyric: “I was catching my breath / barefoot in the wildest winter catching my death.”

16. right where you left me (bonus track) The first bonus track on evermore, “right where you left me,” captures a moment so earth-crushing, a piece of you is trapped in it forever. In this song specifically, the narrator finds herself stuck in the same corner of a restaurant where she was told by someone she loved that they had met someone else. “Glass shattered on the white cloth, everybody moved on,” she sings in mourning. We have all experienced those moments that we could teleport back to if we just closed our eyes; the scenery, what you wore, the smell and taste of the season, the very point in your body where it felt like your insides were collapsing. Or that one particular person, who is long-gone from your life but seeing them is like time-travelling back to that person you once were, ready to pick up where you left off. But as much as you want to stay in that moment forever, just in case it changes in your favor, the cold reality is that the world stops for no one. Best lyric: “If our love died young, I can’t bear witness / And it’s been so long, but if you ever think you got it wrong / I’m right where you left me.”

17. it’s time to go (bonus track) “right where you left me” was Taylor’s cry for help to get out of restaurant, and “it’s time to go” is the answer to the call, as she sings in the first line, “when the dinner gets cold, and the chatter gets old / you ask for the tab.” This song is about gathering the strength to leave situations and relationships behind that no longer serve you. She grieves the betrayal of someone she thought to be a twin from her dreams (almost definitely referring to former friend, Karlie Kloss), acknowledges that keeping a marriage together for the sake of the kids often actually has the opposite intended effect (possibly- but not certainly- something she and her brother experienced), and recounts attempting to bargain with someone consumed by greed, only able to leave with herself (absolutely referring to the end of her fifteen-year long business relationship with Scott Borchetta, her former record-label owner). But as painful as leaving all of those situations was, Taylor has gained the wisdom to understand that walking away sometimes takes as much strength as persevering. You can’t stay at the restaurant, or at the mercy of someone else forever; you have to forge your own path, even if it’s in the opposite direction of what you envisioned for so long. And even with all her past success behind her, as folklore and evermore have proved, there is so much more ahead of her. Best lyric: “That old familiar body ache, the snaps from the same little breaks in your soul / You know when it’s time to go.”

In a time where we are all trapped in our homes and in our heads, the folklore/evermore experience has been the sweetest escape. If anything, the creation of these wonderful sister records has taught me that our most powerful tool in times of distress is our own imagination. Even just the ability to close my eyes while listening to one of these tracks and feel the character’s story is a gift. The way I’ve always been able to pick up Harry Potter and escape to Hogwarts when I’ve felt alone and friendless, I can listen to folklore and evermore when I feel scared or hopeless and escape into this enchanted forest Taylor has built, where I can climb above the trees and see it all for what it is. I feel so lucky to watch Taylor’s imaginative world unravel around me. I can’t wait to see what she creates next.

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: I would literally die for this bitch.