#devastatingly romantic no its not just because i love both of these characters individually

[onthesubjectofanything]

something deeply real and homosexual and frightening happened to those two after reggie got home from basketball camp, after archie spent the summer keeping that home safe

and whatever it was it scared archie so bad he ran straight to his little quad and then all the way to california into the arms of a nameless wife and he never fucking looked back, he couldnt look back

[generallypo]

“I heard your voice, so I came... Aoba-san.”

Hooo-boy, if that doesn’t get me emotional every single time. Call it my bias for eccentric bundles of sunshine and softness, or my crippling weakness for the secretly-handsome-and-devastatingly-earnest type, but you can’t change my mind: Clear is, hands down, DMMD’s best love interest. Character development-wise, thematically, romantically, he nails every trial thrown at him, gets his man,  and proceeds to break your heart in the tenderest, sincerest way possible. I am hopping with Huge Fan Energy, so this post is gonna be unapologetically long and self-indulgent and grossly enthusiastic. Yeeeee.

———— 

Look, DMMD meta analysis has been done to death, I get it. This game is old. But I think it stands as testament to its excellent production that it’s still a game worth revisiting years later — especially during these times when social contact is so hard pressed to come by and we all rabidly devour digital media like a horde of screeching feral gremlins. (Have you seen Netflix’s stock value now? The exploding MMO server populations? Astonishing.) It’s pure, simple human nature to want to connect, to cling to members of our network out of biological imperative and our psychological dependency on each other. As cold and primitive at that sounds, social contact also fulfills us on a higher level: the community is always stronger than the individual; genuine trust begets a mutually supportive relationship of exchange and evolution. People learn from each other, and grow into stronger, wiser, better versions of themselves.

Yeah, I’m being deliberately obtuse about this. Of course I’m talking about Clear. Clear, who is a robot. Clear, who is nearly childlike in his insatiable curiosity regarding the human condition.

And it’s a classic literary tactic, using non-human entities to question the intangible constructs of a concept like ‘humanity’ — think Frankenstein, or Tokyo Ghoul, or Detroit: Become Human, among so, so many works in various media — all tackling that question from countless angles, all with varying measures of success. What does it mean to be human? To be good? Who are we, and where do we stand in the grand scheme of things? Is there even a scheme to follow? … Wait, what?

Jokes aside, there are so many ways that the whole approaching-human-yet-not-quite-there schtick can be abused into edgy, joyless existential griping. Nothing wrong with that if it’s what you’re looking for, except that we’re talking about a boys’ love game here. But DMMD neatly, sweetly side steps that particular wrinkle, giving us a wonderfully grounded character to work with as a result. 

Character Design — a see-through secret

Let’s start small: Clear’s design and premise. Unlike so many other lost, clueless robo-lambs across media, Clear does have a small guiding presence early on in his life. It takes the form of his grandfather, who teaches Clear about the world while also sheltering him from his origins. It means he learns enough to blend sufficiently into society; it also means that Clear has even more questions that sprout from his limited understanding of the world.

Told that he must never remove his mask lest he expose his identity as a non-human, Clear’s perpetual fear of rejection for what he is drives much of his eccentricity and challenges him throughout much of his route. As for the player, the mystery of what lies underneath his mask is a carrot that the writers get to dangle until the peak moment of emotional payoff. Even if it’s not hard to guess that there’s probably a hottie of legendary proportions stuck under there, there’s still significance in waiting for that good moment to happen. And when it does, it feels great.

His upbringing contextualizes and affirms his odd choice of fashion: deliberately generic, bashfully covered from the public eye, and colored nearly in pure white - the quintessential signal of a blank slate, of innocence. Contrasted with the rest of DMMD’s flashy, colorful crew, Clear is probably the most difficult to read on a superficial scale, not falling into the fiery, bare-chest sex appeal of a womanizer, or the techno-nerd rebel aesthetic that Noiz somehow rocks. Goofy weirdo? Possibly a serial killer? Honestly, both seem plausible at the start.

And that’s the funny thing, because as damn hard as he tries to physically cover himself up from society, Clear is irrepressibly true to his name: transparent to a fault. He’s a walking, talking contradiction, and it’s not hard to realize that this mysterious, masked stranger… is really just an open book. By far the most effusive and straightforward of the entire cast, his actions are wildly unconventional and sometimes wholly inexplicable. But given time to explain himself, he is always, always sincere in his intentions — and unlike the rest of the love interests, naturally inclined to offer bits of himself to Aoba. It doesn’t take the entire character arc to figure out his big, bad secret — our main character gets an inkling about halfway through his route — and what’s even better is that he embraces it, understanding that his abilities also allow him to protect what he cherishes: Aoba. 

So what if he doesn’t fit into an easily recognizable box of daydream boyfriend material? He’s contradictory, and contradiction is interesting. Dons a gas mask, but isn’t an edgelord. Blandly dressed, but ridiculously charming. Unreadable and modestly intimidating — until he opens his mouth. Even without the benefit of traversing his route, there’s already so much good stuff to work with, and sure as hell, you’re kept guessing all the way to the end.

Character Development — from reckless devotion into complaisant subservience, complaisant subservience into mutual understanding. And then, of course: free will, and true love. 

At its core, DMMD is about a dude with magic mind-melding powers and his merry band of attractive men with — surprise! — crippling emotional baggage. Each route follows the same pattern, simply remixing the individual character interactions and the pace of the program: Aoba finds himself isolated with the love interest, faces various communication issues varying on the scale of frustrating to downright dangerous, wanders into a sketchy section of Platinum Jail, bonds with the love interest over shared duress, breaks into the Oval Tower, faces mental assault by the big bad — and finally, finally, destroys those internal demons plaguing the love interest, releasing the couple onto the path of a real heart-to-heart conversation. And then, you know, the lovey-dovey stuff. 

Here’s the thing: as far as romantic progression goes, it’s really not a bad structure. There’s room to bump heads, but also to bond. The Scrap scene is a thematically cohesive and clever way to squeeze in the full breadth of character backstory while simultaneously advancing the plot. In this part, Aoba must become the hero to each of his love interests and save them from themselves. Having become privy to each other’s deepest thoughts and reaching a mutual understanding of each other, their feelings afterwards slide much more naturally into romantic territory. They break free of Oval Tower, make their way home, and have hot, emotionally fulfilling sex or otherwise some variation on the last few steps. The end. 

That is, except for Clear. 

Clear’s route is refreshing in that he needs none of these things — the climax of his emotional arc actually comes a little after the halfway point of his route. When Clear’s true origins are revealed, he comes entirely clean to Aoba, fighting against his fear of rejection but also trusting that Aoba will listen. It’s a quiet, vulnerable moment, rather than the action-packed tension we normally experience during a Scrap scene. 

That doesn’t mean it’s prematurely written in — it simply means that he reaches his potential faster than the other characters. Because of that, he’s free to pursue the next level of his route’s development much, much sooner in the timeline: he overcomes his fears of his appearance, he confesses his love to Aoba, he leaves the confines of a largely dubious master-servant relationship and allows himself to be Aoba’s equal. Clear’s sprite art mirrors his emotional transformation all the way through, exposing him to the literal bone — and Aoba’s affection for him doesn’t change a single bit. Beautiful.

The whammy of incredible moments doesn’t just stop there, though. I don’t exactly recall the order the routes DMMD is ideally meant to be played in, but I believe Clear’s is meant to be last. And if you do, I can guarantee that it becomes a hugely delightful gameplay experience — in order to achieve his good ending, you must do absolutely nothing with Scrap. It doesn’t just subvert our player expectations of proactively clicking and interacting with our love interests; it grabs the story by its thematic reins and yanks it all back to the forefront of our scene. 

In every route besides Clear’s, Scrap is a tool used to insert Aoba’s influence into and interfere with his target’s mind. Using his powers of destruction, Aoba is able to prune whatever maligned thoughts are harming his target; in any conventional situation, using Scrap is the right choice. 

But one of the central problems in Clear’s route is his conflict between the impulses of his conditioning and his desire to live freely as a human would. Breaking free of Toue’s programming is what initially made him unique; growing beyond the rules imposed by his grandfather is what makes him human. In the final conflict scene, Clear’s decision to destroy his key-lock is an action of true autonomy, made with perfect understanding of the consequences and a sincere, selflessly selfish desire to protect someone he loves. In order to receive his good end, you have to respect his decision. It doesn’t matter which option you pick — by using Scrap, Aoba turns his back on every positive choice he made with Clear and attempts to exert his authority over him. This is Aoba becoming Toue; this is Aoba trying to reinstate himself as ‘Master’ right as he approved Clear as his equal. That’s blatant hypocrisy, and it doesn’t matter if Aoba is trying to do it for Clear’s ‘own good’ — that’s not Aoba’s call to make. If you truly wish to respect Clear’s free will, you will stand by. This is the truth of the moment: Clear has no emotional blockages that Aoba needs to fix. Believe in him, just as he believed in you.

The path to his heart is, and always has been, clear. Scrap was never needed from the start.

While Aoba might be the main character, Clear is undeniably a hero in his own route just as much. Tirelessly earnest and always curious, he leaps headlong into the unknown and emerges with his newfound enlightenment. He’s unafraid of weathering trials, even to the point of accepting death, and returns anew from oblivion to a sweet, cathartic ending. That’s about as textbook hero’s journey as it gets — if that doesn’t make him unquestionably, certifiably, unconditionally human, then I will scream.

And only finally… there is the free end. The final CG is like a throwback to our first impression of him: indistinct, purposefully obscured from proper view. But this time, we know better — and so does Aoba. Looks were never what mattered in Clear’s route. If you were patient, and you were open-minded, and you listened… well, what we realize now is that Clear was doing the exact same thing for you, too.

From a carefree, aimless robot-man with only the gimmick of “eccentric ditz” to carry him forward, we get a supremely more interesting character by the end: a man who has graduated from the well-intentioned but claustrophobic conditioning of his childhood; a weapon who has defied the imperatives placed on him by his creator’s programming; a wanderer who has, through unconditional patience and empathy, discovered love, and striven to become a better person for it. Who was it that ever doubted Clear’s character? He’s the goddamn goodest boy that ever wanted to be a real boy. Of course Clear is human. And in fact, he does it better than every single one of the actually human love interests. You can’t change my mind.

The Romance — kindness is really fucking attractive, okay.

Like I’ve said earlier, I have my Big Fan Blinds stuck on pretty tight. I might be conjuring sparks from thin air. But I think every choice was a deliberate creative decision on the writers’ part, and they deserve all the kudos for it — I’m just the lucky player who gets to enjoy it. But aside from Noiz (who I also think is a perfect darling as well — I could go on and on about him), Clear’s route is a model example for consent and healthy relationships in VN storytelling. This is reciprocated on both sides: never does Aoba infringe on Clear’s boundaries, and neither does Clear. They’re sensitive to each other’s needs and concerns; they ask for permission and stop when it isn’t granted (and when it is, boy do they get frisky — I’m not complaining!) I don’t need to say much more, because I think that consent is both fantastic and yes, incredibly hot (the scene in DMMD is tons more sad, go play Re:connect!). Good writing shows off the massive erotic potential enthusiastic consent puts into intimacy, and Aoba’s and Clear’s relationship is honestly a dream playground. The point is, I think Aoba and Clear genuinely do find equal balance in their relationship by the end of his route (and certainly through Re:connect). If you follow through Re:connect’s storyline, there’s even more thematic richness that comes through in the form of Clear’s greatest asset: communication. The couple get to discuss the long-term implications of them being together; they both offer concerns, points, and assurances to the other, and it’s just a soft, honest moment not so unlike the worries of a real relationship. Hearing is kind of Clear’s motif sense, but it’s really great to see that Aoba also subtly picks it up, really flexes his own communication skills to better engage with Clear. 

Point is, Clear’s route spoke to me on a lot of little levels. Design-wise, he’s already got a ton going for him, and his story builds upon it rather than against it, enriching his development and grounding him a little more solidly in the DMMD universe (and in my heart). His route, aside from being emotionally ruinous, carries a pretty solid chunk of world-building (only beaten out by Mink’s and Ren’s, probably), and the romance feels organic, healthy, and realistic. He’s not the only one with an excellent route, but he’s my favorite. If you read through all of this, you’re a real trooper and I’m extremely impressed. Thanks for tuning in. Peace.

[aion-rsa]

Best Romantic Movies on Netflix

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Romance movies are not that different from horror movies. Both are incredibly hard to pull off, are heavily watched during a cold time of year, and hopefully end with every character covered in blood.

With that in mind we present to you a list of the best romantic movies on Netflix. Because romance deserves it, damn it. Virtually every song ever written is a love song but poor romance can’t get a fair shake at the movies. Whether it be a rom-com or just a straight-up soul-enlightening/crushing romance, our list of the best romantic movies on Netflix will get you back in touch with your cold, dead heart.

Set It Up

Set It Up is Netflix’s most accomplished original romantic comedy yet.

Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell star as overworked assistants Harper and Charlie. Harper is an assistant to Kirsten (Lucy Liu) the woman behind a sports media empire. Charlie works for finance maven Rick (Taye Diggs). Harper and Charlie realize that their respective workloads might lesson if their bosses were more focused on their love life and less focused on work. So they…set them up.

Set It Up is a fun, novel high-concept romance movie positively filled with chemistry on all sides.

Outside In

We embrace every kind of love on our list of the best romance movies. Sometimes that includes some questionable, and some would say “icky” kind of love. So…Outside In is a teacher-student romance. But don’t panic! It’s ok.

Jay Duplas stars as Chris, a man who was wrongly imprisoned at age 18 and who is relased at age 38. When Chris is released, he immediately meets up with his old high school teacher, Carol (Edie Falco), who was his penpal when he was in prison. He wastes little time before he declares his love for her.

Despite its subject matter, Outside In is a mature, well-handled exploration of love and what it means to love someone for themselves as opposed to what they do for us.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

With a name as long as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the movie better be good to justify how many times we poor cultural commenters must type it out. Thankfully Guernsey is quite good!

Based on a book by the same name, Guernsey is a historical love story set in 1946. Lily James stars as British writer Juliet Ashton. Juliet begins exchanging letters with residents of the islands of Guernsey, which was under German occupation in WWII (so like two years before the movie starts). While there she meets the dashing Dawsey Adams (Michael Huisman) and romance begins to blossom.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an excellent, watchable classical romance

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Oh hey! Another Netflix original with a long title based on a book. Like the Potato Peel Pie Society, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is another effortlessly enjoyable romantic romp – this time of the teen variety.

Lara Jean Song Covey (Laura Condor) experiences every young person’s nightmare when private love letters to five boys she has or has had crushes on suddenly and mysteriously become public. But fear not. This is a romance movie, not a horror movie. So this sudden reveal has to go well for Lara Jean, right? RIGHT?!?

To All the Boys P.S. I Still Love You

The To All the Boys team returns for a sequel that teaches kids the harsh lesson that there’s no such thing as happily ever after! OK, so that’s a bit harsh, but To All the Boys P.S. I Still Love You does bring back its characters for another round of romantic angst.

Read more

Movies

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Review

By Delia Harrington

Movies

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Review: A Pleasurable Netflix Rom-Com

By Delia Harrington

Lara Jean (Lana Condor) is now officially Peter’s (Noah Centineo) girlfriend. But before they can relax and enjoy their lives together, an old flame of Lara Jean enters the frame. That’s right, John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher) is here and he wants to steal your girl, Noah Centineo.

The Danish Girl

2015’s The Danish Girl tells the story of a kind of love nearly unprecedented for its early 20th century time. Eddie Redmayne stars as artist Lili Elbe, who was born Einar Wegener and is believed to be one of the first individuals to receive sexual reassignment surgery. The film follows Lili’s journey and her love with wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander).

When Gerda asks her husband to stand in for a female subject in her painting, Einar does so and quickly comes to terms with the gender identity he’s been suppressing. The newly confirmed Lili and Gerda navigate this new dimension of their relationship and Lili continues her work as a subject for Gerda’s now very much in demand paintings. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Beauty and the Beast

2017’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast isn’t the best depiction of the classic fairy tale ever but that’s ok. It doesn’t have to be. All Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast really needed to be was a fun little dip into nostalgia with sumptuous visuals and a believable romance. On that front, everything goes according to plan.

Read more

Movies

Emma Watson on Beauty and the Beast: ‘I’m Very Grateful That This Character Exists’

By Don Kaye

TV

Beauty and the Beast Disney+ Prequel Series Set with Luke Evans and Josh Gad

By Joseph Baxter

Emma Watson stars as Belle and Dan Stevens is her beast. Belle heads off from her small French town to the Beast’s castle to rescue her father. What follows is Stockholm Syndrome: The Movie. But sexier. Beauty and the Beast really does look good and Watson and Stevens have just enough chemistry to make this a worthwhile romantic experience.

50 First Dates

50 First Dates has a somewhat disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score. Ignore that. It’s probably partially due to many critics’ distaste for at least one of the actors in the above screengrab. Not that they can be blamed. The presence of Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider in any comedy is rarely a good sign. In 50 First Dates‘, however, it’s not an issue at all. 

50 First Dates is a legitimately funny and romantic romantic comedy. Drew Barrymore stars as Lucy Whitmore, a woman with short-term memory loss. Due to a car accident, every day she wakes up believing it is October 13, 2002. Sandler’s character Henry Roth meets her in Hawaii and the two must overcome this bizarre condition to establish a lasting relationship.

Carol

Todd Haynes, director of Carol and Far From Heaven knows longing. And if there’s an element that makes for an excellent romantic movie experience its longing. That desperate sense is baked into nearly every frame of Carol. Based on a 1950s romance novel, Carol is the story of a young photographer (Rooney Mara) and an older woman going through a divorce (Cate Blanchette) undertaking a forbidden affair.

Forbidden because, you know, ’50s. And that’s where the longing comes in. Nothing is more romantic or sexier than a forbidden romance. Carol channels that romantic energy into something mature, fascinating and heartbreaking.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook is all about how generally terrible it is to be a Philadelphia Eagles fan. OK, fine – it’s only a little bit about that. This star-studded 2012 film from David O. Russell is more about the challenges in finding love when one isn’t sure they even love themselves.

Bradley Cooper stars as Pat Solitano Jr., a young man with bipolar disorder living with his parents after being released from a psychiatric hospital. Pat is determined to win back his ex-wife and to that end enlists the help of young widower Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence). The two become closer as they train for an upcoming dance competition and share their respective damages with one another.

Silver Linings Playbook works because Lawrence and Cooper have a real crackling chemistry. And they both just happen to be devastatingly, almost supernaturally attractive.

Runaway Bride

From stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts to director Garry Marshall to conspicuous usage of enormous cell phones – Runaway Bride is an intensely ’90s film. And to the rightly organized mind, that just makes it the platonic ideal of a low-stress romantic comedy.

Roberts stars as Maggie Carpenter, an alluring young woman who has made a habit of leaving multiple fiancé’s at the altar. Gere is Ike Graham, a New York columnist seeking to tell the definitive story of this “runaway bride.” Runaway Bride is a charming experience that will make you think long and hard about how you really like your eggs prepared.

Loving

It feels reductive to call Loving a “romance” movie, as its more of a historical exploration of the very real, very tragic legacy of American racism. At its center, however, the film is about love.

Loving tells the story of Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga), a mixed-race Virginia couple challenging their state’s law against interracial marriage in the Supreme Court. The details of the Lovings struggle for basic human rights are astonishing. Edgerton and Negga’s empathetic performances make sure the film never loses sight of the humanity at play amid all the legal drama.

Always Be My Maybe

Everyone always talks about “the one who got away”, but what about “the one who was always kind of around”? 2019’s Always Be My Maybe tells of one such story.

Ali Wong (who wrote the film) stars as Sasha Tran and Randall Park stars as Marcus Kim. Marcus and Sasha grew up next door to each other and also embarked on a brief, ill-fated relationship in their teenage years. When Sasha returns to San Francisco to open a restaurant, she discovers that romantic energy remains between her and Marcus. But is that enough to spark love in the busy, chaotic adult world?

Always Be My Maybe has a lot to say about family and growth. It also features a truly winning performance from Keanu Reeves playing…Keanu Reeves.

The Kissing Booth

There’s an interesting dynamic at play in teenage romantic comedies. Oftentimes, the worse they are, the more watchable (and rewatchable) they become. The Kissing Booth is a prime example. Based on a book by the same name from Beth Reekles, The Kissing Booth isn’t exactly celebrated for its realistic portrayal of American teenagers.

Thanks to charming lead performances from Joey King, Jacob Elordi, and Joel Courtney, however, that doesn’t really matter. The Kissing Booth is all about how one girl’s first kiss turns into an emotional minefield of teen angst. That alone is enough to support 105 minutes of pure high school drama…and two sequels!

The post Best Romantic Movies on Netflix appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[smuttymess]

bts astro soulmate reading | for seidj

sign: gemini sun | gemini moon | leo rising

lovers + soulmates Park Jimin | Jung Hoseok

This reading is for Seidj, a lovely fellow hard-stan moot & Hopekook bias. Please note that this is the first reading I’ve done wherein both options were too close to call (I spent hours agonizing) so I decided to incorporate a triad/throuple situation - lucky you ;) Please enjoy, love!

The powerful, fiery of your Leo rising is only fueled by the dreamy, airy nature of your Gemini sun and moon, making you all but impossible to pin down here on earth. This combination is the most enthusiastic in the zodiac, making you a natural born leader in all areas of your life. The Gemini is the brilliant ideator at the helm of initiatives who steers teams towards success at work and is the cheerleader in their various social circles. You are undoubtedly the life of the party - the fun, burst of energy cherished by close friends and admired by strangers alike. People are inherently fascinated by you as they are not always sure what they are going to get when you walk into the room. Gemini is the true sign of duality, after all, and with this in both your sun and moon placements you truly exist in complex multitudes that many people can never quite anticipate or understand but are more than happy to go along on the ride for. Generally aloof and always on the move, it is likely that people want to tame you, proving that your mysterious can be subdued and controlled to some degree. A person of your star placements, however, knows deeply the profound need for individuality and will likely avoid the trappings of normalcy at all costs - your fantasy world is undoubtedly superior than any real-world happenings on the ground.

The inability by others to pin you down applies directly to your romantic life as well, likely leading to a long path plenty of broken hearts in your wake. You do not mean to hurt anyone, its just that you love love but not necessarily commitment to just one person. Easily bored and occasionally self-obsessed, you may develop crushes on people easily, falling hard and fast in true romantic Leo fashion for a beautiful stranger that passes you by (this may be the one!) You likely realize just as quickly that this person does not satisfy you either intellectually, physically or both before quickly moving on to the next shiny new thing. Ultimately, you are looking someone who keeps you on your toes (and makes your toes curl), is mentally stimulating, and stabilizing without inhibiting your innate need to be free. In the meantime, you're all about enjoying the ride on your way to true love.

Luckily, the equally charming Park Jimin is on your wavelength when you meet in a chance encounter at a lounge on a random night out on the town. Jimin's Libra is a true match for your airy Gemini, and within moments of approaching each other you instantly click. Sharing a Gemini moon means that there is a magical alignment here: the charm, intelligence and wit essentially that pours from both of your energies is natural, giving off the appearance that perhaps you've known each other for years. Your synchronicity bleeds into an undeniable sexual chemistry - it's apparent from the moment his fingers graze yours as you dance, sliding across the room before coming together for a soft, warm kiss as the lights flicker above you. You two become inseparable, though of course there is a bit of game playing over flirtatious texts and the usual hard-to-get behavior of two attractive air signs. Ultimately, you're both happy to let your respective guards down and let each other into your internal worlds. Though generally soft and sweet, Jimin's powerful placesments of Neptune in Capricorn and Venus in Scorpio providing just enough edge for your Gemini soul, while his romantic nature speaks directly to your bold, expressive Leo rising. You need someone who can talk as well as they can listen, and Jimin is that for you - hanging on every word you say, but also equally able to engage with you no matter what the topic. This is a duo that loves to play, so you are likely to fall in love over intimate dance lessons, drinks at local watering holes, and long walks through the city. You could easily spend hours together, holding hands and sneaking in little kisses in alleyways, which you do. Friends would certainly appreciate if you could keep your hands off of each other when you're all out together.

Jimin's Venus is in Scorpio, meaning that he is prone to loving with the intensity, jealousy and passion trademarked by the scorpion when he falls for someone and opens up to them fully. While you are both incredibly flirtatious and sociable, Jimin can become unnerved when he sees you getting too close a potential new love interest. You can both openly admit that while unwarranted, his jealous does lend itself to excellent foreplay. You may not love when Jimin is controlling, but you love how his eyes darken and his hands firmly grip your waist as the elevator doors close on your way back to your apartment. My girl likes to play, hmm? Let's play. His love style is not so much dominating as it is all-consuming: his lips devouring yours before tracing your jawline, your neck, and the top of your breasts as his hands follow along to trail your hips. Fortunately, a private elevator allows for privacy with a bit of exhibitionism, which ignites a naughtiness within the both of you and leads Jimin to act a bit out of character as he kneels down in front of you, lifting your leg over his shoulder before his tongue moves in between your thighs. In this duo, Gemini is the wilder of the two but pleasure-seeking Gemini is more than happy to oblige, enjoying the way your legs tremble as he alternates between flicking his tongue over your clit while his fingers craze your core. He lives for praise, which you are happy to give while his hands grip his hair as he brings you to your edge. Yes, just like that. Do you know how fucking perfect you are?

Typically, an overly emotional Libra may not bode well for the very independent double Gemini. This is a pairing that is able to be both friends and lovers because of the other placements in your charts.  Jimin's moody and emotional Gemini moon and Scorpio Venus is tempered nicely by his Libra sun, which ultimately seeks balance above all else and to please those in his orbit. As much as you adore each other, he knows that you are someone who is curious about the world and is not easily settled, so he does not try to lock you into a romantic, monogamous commitment. Libra lives to love, and wants to satisfy you by any means necessary. As a result, is able to respect your need for freedom while giving you the emotional connection you need. In return, you can easily promise to love and respect him for life in a way that you've always wanted to.

It is in your nature to explore and seek out new experiences, which brings you to an open-air music and art festival just outside the city on a warm late-summer evening. You are in your element, thriving in the buzzing of the music floating through the air and the energy of the people around you. Your Libra rising paired with Gemini means that you do not have a signature "style", opting instead for whatever you're feeling on a given evening and knowing how to rock it with your innate confidence. It is not unusual for you to have all eyes on you, but you are taken aback when you spot particularly handsome man who is taking you in from head to toe. The piercing nature of his stare from beneath his bucket hat is electrifying, and the sly smile that follows immediately ignites your fire. This only intensifies when he turns and continues to make his way through the grounds, instead of predictably approaching you as anyone else would. Your Venus in Aries lends you to loving the thrill of the chase, so you are happy to play, playfully shadowing him until he stops in front of an interactive exhibit and beckons you to join him. Interesting isn't it? I love this artist - he does some of my favorite street art. I'm Jung Hoseok, by the way.

The Aquarius Hoseok has an energy that is irresistible to your Gemini spirit, and is characteristically charming, strange and intriguing to you. You are kindred spirits in terms of your quirkiness and individuality, which connects you on a friendship level first. Neither Aquarius or Gemini want anything that is easy, conventional or predictable, so the relationship begins by simply getting to know each other, playfully and intentionally, over dinners and little adventures around the city. As highly intellectual beings, you and Hoseok are able to know each other mentally, sparring and enjoying the quick-witted, intelligent candor of your conversations. He is unlike anyone you've ever met, regularly surprising you with his signature uniqueness that spans from his worldview to his fashion sense - a trademark of his Aquarius moon and mars placements. HIs Moon in Taurus makes him hard-headed at times when it comes to what he desires in life, while his Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn make him extremely strong, creative and instictual - all key components of his success (and his ability to afford to live of an adventurous Aquarius). It is likely you want him to loosen up a bit at first, and you are able to lighten up with your Leo fire. Beneath the devastatingly cool, professional demeanor, Hoseok possesses an emotional depth that you may not have expected as a result of his Venus in Pisces. Intimidating on the surface, Hoseok is a romantic soul whose dreaminess translates into his work and the way he loves - passionately and with unmatched dedication. Hoseok is drawn to the quickness of your mind and how it works a mile a minute, bouncing from one idea to the next with such dexterity he can't help but admire. He also deeply appreciates your independent, free-flowing spirit, which cannot be bogged down in the status quo or societal expectations of black and white thinking. Despite your differences or perhaps because of then, this is a relationship that deepens to an extent - despite your highly individual natures - wherein you cannot fathom being without the other, creating a fundamental friendship bond that is impenetrable.

This pairing recognizes a shared attraction that sends shockwaves through their veins from the start, and when these two finally get each other alone and naked, the connection is nothing short of intense. This is a moody pair, and that translates very well to sex, which can be soft and tender or more aggressive and intense depending on the time of day. Distract this Aquarius from his work with a bratty text and you're guaranteed to be met with Jung Hoseok, his brow furrowed and sweat dripping down his neck as he thrusts into you from behind against his desk, moans filling the studio as you take every inch of him with pleasure. You just couldn't wait, could you? He gets harder watching you let go under his touch, your lips forming into a smile as your eyes meet each other's in the mirror, causing him to ramp up the energy as only he can with his lean dancer's physique and stamina. When Gemini gets horny on the way to dinner, its only a matter of moments before you're pulled off into a discreet area of the parking lot, your hips grinding onto the hardness in his jeans before pulling your skirt to the side to slide onto his cock without thinking twice. You're both exceptionally curious about each other, wanting to become experts at getting the other off, and sex can often feel like a game as your eyes lock into each other and feed off of the shared fire and desperation. This is likely one of the kinkiest couples in the zodiac, the nature of your airiness activating each other's deepest, wildest energies when the mood strikes. Hoseok's Pisces Venus makes him especially passionate, his deep voice whispering into your ear as he's he knows you're about to finish. Let me hear you beautiful, I want to hear my pretty baby say my name while she comes for me. While this duo connects on numerous levels, the physicality of this particular coupling is off the charts - so much so that you're likely to bring in a lucky special guest or two into the bedroom from time to time to share the experience.

When an Aquarius and Gemini come together, it is best to expect the unexpected. You both understand that life is to be meant to its fullest, and that as long as everything is handled financially and in your respective careers that there is no need to be tied down or stagnant for too long when there is so much to savor. A Gemini and Aquarius pairing is not meant for a traditional life, opting instead to march to the beat of their own drum, which works out well considering your boyfriend Park Jimin isn't going anywhere anytime soon - and you don't want him to. This is a special relationship which provides both financial and emotional stability with the business-minded Aquarius Hoseok at the helm, alongside the spontaneity and adventure that your energetic Gemini heart requires (think taking the jet to the Shanghai or Tokyo on a Thursday afternoon with your boyfriends for the hell of it). The Aquarius/Gemini are likely the primary couple in this dynamic, with our Libra Jimin being there for you when you need an escape, or a day-long cuddle underneath the covers, or a partner to socialize with when Hoseok is in producer/director mode. This is only possible with a profound level of respect, trust and appreciation for their other as a partner and an autonomous person which is something very achievable with this duo. Ultimately, you are able to create a life that may not be understood by all - and you wouldn't have it any other way.

[topmixtrends]

MUCH OF THE COUNTRY has spent the better part of the past year and a half trying to understand disenfranchised white America: its grudges, its prejudices, its feelings of having been wronged. The insularity of small-town life has always held a certain fascination for novelists, but these days novelistic attempts to understand, deconstruct, and empathize with the citizens of such a town also promise to shed light on the massive divide in our country between the urban and the rural, between those constantly seeking reinvention and those resolutely plodding along without change for generations. Who are the “white people” out there who feel so devastatingly left behind, who have become so susceptible to hating the Other? Nonfiction books such as J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy attempt to answer such questions directly, while other works of art, such as Susan Henderson’s second novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams, attempt to get inside such a world without the loaded controversy of contemporary politics. She takes the town and its residents on their own terms but leaves the reader with lingering questions that burn.

Set in the fictional town of Petroleum, and based on Winnett, Montana, where Henderson’s grandparents lived and where she spent a month alone doing research for the novel, The Flicker of Old Dreams is about, among other things, the improbability of finding hope amid decay. After the town “hero” (a teenage athlete, as is often the case in such towns) is killed in a grain elevator accident, the grain mill shuts down and a vast number of Petroleum’s residents lose their livelihoods overnight. Naturally, the town needs a villain on whom to blame their misfortune, a role that falls to Robert Golden, the 14-year-old brother of the deceased who inadvertently caused the accident. Petroleum’s cruelty to Robert, both at the time he loses his brother and decades later, when he returns to see his dying mother in the present-day frame of the novel, would be shocking if it weren’t so eerily familiar. Robert is the scapegoat for everything the town has lost, for everything that has passed it by. That he escaped and lives in Seattle (Seattle!) only confirms, in the locals’ eyes, every nefarious thing they’ve attributed to his character.

It is only Mary, the embalmer daughter of the town mortician and the story’s narrator, who sees Robert in a different light. Mary, who in a more urbane environment would likely have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, was a small child when the accident occurred, and she was weaned on its mythologies like the rest of Petroleum. But in part because of her odd profession, Mary serves a role that every small town bestows upon someone: she is the weirdo, the freak, the girl whose affect is too “off” to allow her to fit in with either friends or suitors. So she relies mainly on her aging father for companionship before Robert’s return to town.

Instantly upon meeting him, Mary is drawn to Robert in ways she has not felt in her limited circle, but what is most skillful and interesting about Henderson’s portrayal of Mary’s blooming infatuation is that it is ultimately more about Mary than about the object of her affection. She once held artistic aspirations and planned to leave Petroleum for a different kind of life but ended up trapped, entrenched, and lonely by the age of 30. It is only Robert’s return that allows her to imagine that other possible scenarios might still exist for her beyond her father’s true but oppressive love and her safe but claustrophobic town.

It’s worth noting that The Flicker of Old Dreams does not concern itself much with pacing or the building of suspense. Though it has a romantic attraction at its center, the story is all about desire and not at all about consummation. As such, it may not be for those who want page-turning or edgy reading material. Henderson is a master stylist whose sentences are cut with razor-sharp precision, and what she is crafting here is an old-fashioned literary novel of longing versus obligations in the mold of writers such as Edith Wharton. She builds a world driven by character, by place, by the why more than by the what. She is also unafraid to put death center stage, exploring both its permanence (Mary’s mother died giving birth to her) and the private rebellions with which people attempt to outwit it.

Mary’s long-widowed father, for example, is having an affair with a married waitress. He’s trying to find some pockets of joy in his life now that he has traded the slick TV-commercial stardom of a decade prior for “oily hair, what’s left of it, the stained undershirt, the checkered pajama bottoms with rice stuck to them.” Yet it’s never occurred to him to push beyond his clandestine mutinies, and when he sees his daughter striking up a friendship with Robert he is protective and alarmed, not only because of Robert’s despised status but also, it becomes clear, because he is afraid Mary may also leave Petroleum — and him — behind.

The beauty of what Henderson pulls off here is how little the novel actually hinges on what happens to Mary. A novel of character and process rather than punch lines and clean resolutions, The Flicker of Old Dreams finds the revelatory in individual moments. “I don’t pretend to have any illusions,” Mary tells the reader early in the novel. “I know we’ll get along easiest when I see them on the embalming table.” The lovingly intimate details of Mary’s work are all the more captivating because every body that crosses her table is a person she has known all her life yet been set wholly apart from in her oddity. This mix of intimacy and distance is at the heart of the novel. Also at its heart, interestingly, is the supposition that fulfillment is less about “true love” with one person and more about the ability to dream, to move, to grow.

It has become virtually impossible to think of poor, rural whites in the United States without thinking of racial issues and the manifestation of these issues on the political stage. Yet Henderson has not written a novel to help anyone understand a Trump victory, and it is not about race. The Flicker of Old Dreams is a deep exploration of the way difference is treated in places with a conformist mentality and why scapegoats are essential in the face of devastating mass losses. That this town blames a 14-year-old boy for its misfortunes and essentially drives him into exile in the manner of some old-fashioned banishment is as revealing as it is cruel. These are ordinary people, “salt-of-the-earth” as the media likes to say, people with whom Mary’s well-intentioned father wishes she would fit in. And yet their mistreatment of a kid — a kid who has just lost his brother, no less — brutally illustrates how heartless the insular collective can be when seeking a target for their resentments.

Robert is white, and The Flicker of Old Dreams is a work of realism not allegory, but it’s hard to read this novel without hearing in it the constant echo of how downtrodden white Americans have come to blame immigrants and others they have never met for their troubles. Their troubles are real. They are not sociopaths or killers or “bad people.” Yet the way they treat Robert makes it impossible for the reader to want anything other than Mary’s escape. Do the townspeople have other options? Would it be possible to live in Petroleum and not lash out at Robert? Is it possible to lose everything, to feel oneself disappearing from the modern world, and blame no one? Of course. But is it common? Here, Henderson presents one of the hardest truths of human nature: we all tend to look for someone just a little lower in the power structure to kick.

Robert is the most intriguing and charismatic character in The Flicker of Old Dreams, and it can be a letdown to see him only through Mary’s sheltered and repressed lens, which is flattering but limited. A novel of Robert’s life and perspective would be a more sprawling, rollicking thing, just as Henderson’s debut novel Up from the Blue is a wilder kind of animal, full of arson and mental illness. Henderson’s achievement here is quieter but formidably deep. Though Mary is a memorable narrator and the reader cheers her on, in the end Henderson has crafted a novel that is as much about all the things not said as it is about the things on the page. The Flicker of Old Dreams is not only about art, family loyalty, infatuation, and the demons of the past, it’s also, intractably, unspokenly, about the United States’s horrible divide and the impossibility of healing some old wounds.

In Petroleum, a town left behind, there is kindness, there is forbidden love, there is community, but there is also a stubborn, proud cruelty in a loop of perpetual self-reinforcement: the only people around to bear witness to it are those who initiated it and feel justified in sustaining it. Mary can, ultimately, flee Petroleum if she chooses, and because she is not Robert, because her ostracism is more subtle, she may remember it fondly for all its broken beauty. For the Roberts of the world, however — for those on whom such ordinary, “good” people pin their shattered dreams — the town evokes an ugliness that echoes where we are as a country. Is the problem that the people of Petroleum are inherently prejudicial and mean? Or is it how similar towns all over the United States have become vulnerable enough to allow the spirit of the collective to hinge on a single grain elevator tragedy or one star high school athlete? Henderson does not answer such questions for the reader, but she presents them nakedly, subtly, there on the embalming table where, despite Mary’s clinical clarity, intimacy ultimately overrides our reductive binaries and easy judgments.

¤

Chicago-based writer-editor Gina Frangello is the author of four books, and her work has been published in The Chicago Tribune, Best of the Midwest, Prairie Schooner, and others. She is faculty editor of The Coachella Review.

The post Small-Town Tragedy, Big-Time Resentments appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books https://ift.tt/2F7QS51

[piecesplacesthings]

Why ‘The Fall’ is one of the bravest shows I’ve ever watched

The Fall is a show about a murderer and a policewoman but more than that it is a dirty, distorted mirror that reflects our opinions and expectations back on us, asking us if that first response is really the right one. 

To say that Season 3 of BBCs The Fall has been divisive would be an understatement. Even among its early season champions there have been those who felt that the pace, always achingly slow, had become preposterous, that the excitement had dwindled and that what they’d loved about Season 1 was gone by midway through Season 2. Those people are entitled to their view but twelve hours after watching the Season 3 finale, and still rocked by what I witnessed, I want it on the record how very impressed I am by the series in its’ entirety.

Here’s why I think The Fall is such important viewing and why I will go down shouting that it is one of the bravest, ballsiest things I have ever had the privilege to watch.

Upside Down TV

Television, but specifically the thriller/crime genre, relies on keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. There are huge differences in execution depending on the sub-genre,  the trappings of procedural drama, a psychological thriller and an experimental Scandi project are wildly different but they all rely one common thing. The withholding of information. In almost all crime dramas the audience is missing certain key pieces of information. We spend the show watching for clues to string together seemingly unrelated events which will lead us to a plot conclusion. Along the way we are fed characters, situations and atmosphere which lead us subtly to the desired conclusion, that flurry of revelation at the end where everything suddenly makes sense. At the moment of climax our understanding of what happened suddenly catches up to our expectations, to the emotional understanding we have and we walk away from the show feeling relief. We expect to be surprised and are pleased when we work out the surprise the nanosecond before it is revealed.

Not so The Fall.

From the first episode we know who and we know what and we have some strong suspicions as to why. The first season looks and feels more like other thrillers because you have the cat and mouse element, but what’s happening under the surface is a huge departure. Under the cover of an edgy but understandable plot, the foundations of everything we expect from a show of this type is being chipped away. The obvious changes are easy We have a female lead, utterly divorced from the domestic setting without a backstory to help us comprehend her. We have a murderer whose entire life is laid out to us, who plays both the sinister and the sweet with intensity. We watch them circle but as we focus on that, short side scenes are thrown at us which add and takeaway from what we think we know. And when the chase is over it’s these minutiae that are thrust into the spotlight.

What happens when we think nothing is happening…

Season 3 is all about those minute details. The first 5 episodes are an achingly slow expose of all the motivations and ramifications of what has gone before. There is no “action” per se. No car chases or daring escapes, no murderous nurses or corrupt coppers working for the defence attorneys to destroy evidence. There is just a cast of people trying to understand what has happened, why it has happened and how they need to respond to it. And the audience becomes a part of that process. We’re a witness to the murderous happenings of Season 1. We’ve followed the police through the official investigation Season 2. And in Season 3 we’re asked to review, to take apart and to reconsider. Season 3 is about us…

The show’s tension shifts from a fear of physical menace to a much deeper, less comfortable fear - the fear that justice may not be served, that the truth will not be enough and that our questions may never be answered. Week by week I found my perception challenged, my opinion slightly altered and as I went into the finale I was asking myself how I wanted it to end - how it could end? How on earth would they tie together five hours of minute nuance and complex motivation in a single hour?

And then it exploded in the simplest way possible.

The one thing that had been certain from the moment Paul Spector broke into Sarah Kay’s home was that he was a creature of incredible intelligence and brutal instinct. Yet somehow while we watched my friends and I, along with the shows doctors and lawyers and to an extent the police, had allowed ourselves to be lulled into a sense of security. His compliance through S3 had made me question his nature and intentions, even at moments to pity him. I never believed he should be forgiven but I questioned whether or not he could eventually find some sort of redemption…  which made watching what happened not only harrowing but incredibly personal. I felt personally misled and in some ways individually responsible for the situation which led to an explosion of grotesque and unflinching violence from a man we all knew was capable of such behaviour, but had all been too busy analysing to remember to fear.

Which is why The Fall is, in my opinion, such necessary viewing.

Bring Your Own Morality.

This is not TV for the faint-hearted or the impatient. It is not comforting or clean but rather raw and ragged and challenging. It is in many ways imperfect but it forces you as a viewer to go one step further in your TV experience.

To get anything out of The Fall one cannot simply sit and watch and wait to understand. It just doesn’t come together that way. You have to fight. You have to dissect and you have to engage. The heroes are flawed and the villains tug at your heart, the victims are liars and aggressors as well as innocents. You watch the seemingly infallible Stella Gibson make mistake after mistake and you wish for the simplicity of S1 where she was simply a feisty, no bullshit leader. You watch Spector fight his way back from death, try to reclaim his memories and identity and you wonder whether his horror when told of his past is disbelief at what he became in those 6 years or the fact that he can’t remember and revel in his crimes.

Your own morality is as much on trial as Spectors is.

At no point do the cast and crew offer you an easy out, a moment with a swelling soundtrack to remind you how to feel, or allow you the distraction of a romantic side-plot or a bumblingly humorous side-character. All you get is a series of small, intense happenings, a thrummingly tense score and an ensemble cast who put in a raft of stellar performances which threaten to blow you off the knife-edge of the main plot.

And then it’s over.

The still, brooding tension of S3’s first 5 episode is shattered in the most brutal, bruising fashion and we are left aching and clutching at ends which feel unfinished because… well they are! I never expected a warm and fizzy finale from The Fall but now that it’s over I don’t know why I even expected any sort of neat, satsfying ending. Because this is not a neat show.

Humanity is not neat. The survivors of a man like Spector do not wander off into a rosy sunset to lick their wounds, they stagger on, day by day, forever altered by what happened to them. His family, his surviving victims, the people who fought for and against him - all of them will be forever impacted by his existence. So to finish with Stella Gibson, exhausted but upright at her kitchen table, fresh flowers delivered by some friend with a note that I imagine says something like “Welcome back! Hope you had a successful trip to Ireland” seemed so very very appropriate. Sweet but trite, well intentioned but meaningless.

Beyond the credits Stella will go to bed and get up and go on with life, absorbing the events of The Fall into her personality. And I feel like that’s what Allan Cubbit asks of us as an audience.

Instead of giving us a glossy, slick 18 hours of television with carefully managed peaks and troughs of tension he gave us 18 hours of interlinking questions that it will take us weeks, months even, of flashbacks and water-cooler conversations to figure out how to respond to. He gave us a show that keeps strangers up talking until 2am on Twitter about the significance of a single scene. He gave us characters that lingered past their time on screen, whose development challenged us to reconsider over and again our first impressions.

Yes, The Fall is a show about a murderer and a policewoman but more than that it is a dirty, distorted mirror that reflects our opinions and expectations back on us, asking us if that first response is really the right one. The writing is dangerously sparse, the acting devastatingly good and the overall effect could have been disastrous, But it isn’t. It made me sit up and take notice. It made me question things a bout myself. There were things I hated, disagreed with but also things I never would have considered otherwise. The chances taken, on balance, paid off and the final result was me, sat on the edge of my sofa, watching the credits roll one last time, shaken, shattered and moved to the point of tears.

And for that I will always defend it as one of the bravest, most brilliant things I have ever seen.

[amostexcellentblog]

#let me reiterate:#“let me take up the slack! sleep in your barn learn the ukulele break bread with your mom your dad!”#SLEEP IN YOUR BARN. BREAK BREAD WITH YOUR BELOVED FAMILY.#AND THEN THEY EXCHANGED ILOVEYOUS *AGAIN*#devastatingly romantic no its not just because i love both of these characters individually#oh you both felt something strong when you werent quite ready in your teen years and then you both just HAPPENED to never reach out#you both just HAPPENED to create legacies seperate from each other but inexplicably mirrored#with wives whose names arent even mentioned in your epilogue??#get in line we all have a friend from high school we were in gay love eith who we deliberately stopped talking to#riverdale#archie andrews#reggie mantle#edit: NO DISRESPECT TO THE QUAD I LOVE THE QUAD#or as i prefer to call them: the core fourgy

something deeply real and homosexual and frightening happened to those two after reggie got home from basketball camp, after archie spent the summer keeping that home safe

and whatever it was it scared archie so bad he ran straight to his little quad and then all the way to california into the arms of a nameless wife and he never fucking looked back, he couldnt look back