#doesn't matter though because look at all the recommendations if you haven't watched any!

[mire1li]

Reader as Alastor's Mother part 2

Part 1!, Part 3!

𓋼 You would absolutely decorate his microphone with a bunch of ribbons you found!

And he would absolutely allow it in fear of upsetting you, although he began to take them off later on when he had to leave, but seeing you get sad at his actions changed his mind… It did not help that the ribbons were glittery.

“Oh look, Sparkles got sparklier!” Angel had said when Alastor was passing by.

𓋼 He wants you to be happy but don't even try having feelings for anyone in hell, they'll most likely 'disappear under mysterious circumstances' and then you'll just so happen to hear their screams on Alastor's radio broadcast <3

Lucifer tries to flirt everytime he sees you outside (or once he comes back to see the hotel which… would be 'some' time later…) But it's not long before Alastor shows up bcs he has a shadow follow you everywhere

“My mother certainly would not want someone so… ancient…”

“are you trying to make me sound like a fossil?”

“Maybe~ I can’t say for sure though!”

"Y'know, I've stolen wives before… maybe it's time to steal a mother instead!"

"I'm going to fucking kill you"

𓋼 Lucifer would play silly games with you and bring you gifts by leaving them at the hotel’s doorstep, although you never received any (like he thought you did) because Alastor would always take them before you saw them. Or he would make them his own to give to you if you were having a worse day than usual!

“Mother, I had noticed that you weren’t feeling all too great so I brought you a wonderful gift!”

“Oh, thank you, darling!”

Your mood always brightened when he gave you these gifts. 𓋼 One time when Lucifer visited the hotel, he went straight to you to ask you about how you liked the gifts.

"[Name]! Hello, deer, how are you? Did you like the gifts that I left you?"

"Hello Luci, I'm fine, thank you! … Gifts? what gifts?"

"The ones… that I left on the doorstep of the hotel!"

"I dont recall seeing any gifts there… but Alastor recently started leaving the hotel more often! Not for very long though…"

And then Lucifer realised. You never received his gifts because Alastor got to them first! After that, he made sure to put a note with his signature on them. Though, that still didn't deter Alastor, to Lucifer's dismay.

𓋼 One time, Angel returned to the hotel at an unreasonably late hour, so you went to make sure everything was alright.

"Are you alright, Angel?"

"Huh? No, I'm totally fucked!"

"Why? What happened?"

"You know Valentino right? My boss?"

"Of course I do, everyone hates him quite a bit here and you always talk about him"

"Right, well, fuckin' Val made me work an extra 10 hours!"

"He what?!"

"Yeah! Absolute bitch move."

Naturally, Alastor was watching and listening to you two so you turned to him, with quite the menacing look in your eyes.

"Oh Alastor, prepare your radio broadcast!~"

𓋼 You noticed that most of the residents of the hotel all came to you for advice quite often (except Niffty, she's just an entirely different entity)

"It seems they have become quite fond of you, Mother"

"They have, haven't they?"

Alastor's expression was always one of annoyance whenever someone came to you for help. He wouldn't dare admit it, but he was most certainly jealous of anyone who even stood too close to you, let alone talked to you.

𓋼 Because of that one time that Alastor stood right next to Charlie to spite Lucifer, Lucifer decided to stand just that close to you to get back at him.

"An eye for an eye, Mr Radio!"

"I recommend you watch yourself."

𓋼 One time, when you were out of the hotel and walking around Hell with Alastor, Vox just so happened to see you on one of his tv screens, Valentino sitting by him, messaging someone.

"Hey Val, who the fuck is that with that old-timey prick?"

"Hm? No clue."

"You didn't even look, fuckhead"

"How would you know? You're too busy eyefucking Alastor."

"I am not"

"She's probably just another one of those redemption hotel idiots. It doesn't matter"

But Vox still just glared at the screen.

𓋼 Vox continued to keep an eye on you, seeing just how wonderful you are and so when you were outside the hotel alone (or so he thought) he went up to you. Somehow he didn't catch onto the fact that you're Alastor's mother.

"Hello-"

"What do you think you're doing?" Alastor, of course, suddenly appeared out of thin air, standing in between you and Vox, with an even more annoyed smile than usual.

"Alastor, is this another one of your friends?"

"No-"

"Yes, absolutely, ma'am. Great friends, in fact!"

"Ha! Well, you see, this is my Mother."

"Your what?"

Yeah, Alastor simply walked away with you whilst Vox was buffering.

𓋼 Vox constantly tried to talk to you alone but Alastor was always there to stop him, so unfortunate.

"Would you stay away from my Mother, you-! Ahem, my apologies, Mother."

"Hah! Your mother? I think you meant our mother!"

𓋼 Alastor would absolutely cover your ears when swearing at, or insulting, anyone.

𓋼 When you first met Valentino, you were so mad at him on Angel's behalf that you knocked him out and brought him back to the hotel with you. Of course, Vox was there with Val but he was like a lost duckling, just slowly trailing behind you, unsure what to do.

"I'm back!"

"What the fuck did you do??" Angel was lying down on the couch when you entered, dragging the unconcious Valentino behind you.

"A favour to you and hell!"

"No, but how?!"

"That's a secret~"

"Ok… so why'd ya bring him here?"

"Redemption"

𓋼 Back to Lucifer! He would tell you random animal facts to try and impress you! He would also unironically ask around, and search up (if necessary), how to impress a woman.

𓋼 Lucifer would suddenly start playing the violin for everyone in the hotel 'for everyones' entertainment' as he called it. (It was meant for you though). Each time Lucifer did this, Alastor told you that something important happened that required your attention. You always stayed for the beginning though.

𓋼 One day, you were baking cookies and you and Alastor left the kitchen for a while whilst they were in the oven, however, you both somehow managed to forget about them… so when the smoke alarm suddenly rang, you ran into the kitchen, everyone wondering what happened.

"Fuck!"

"Language, Mother."

"Don't you 'language' me, young man!"

𓋼 You redecorated his room. He wasn't a fan of all the new colours, but he still appreciated the gesture. (There was a lot of glitter involved)

𓋼 After a while of you staying there, everyone definitely sees you as a mother figure (Alastor didn't appreciate this much either but he's willing to look past it for his friends)

𓋼 As small gifts, you made everyone items that resemble them and filled them with different colours of glitter and paper that remind you of them. Bonus: Behind the scenes! 1. Yuri's bad timing:

2. Vox and Val:

[shmowder]

Your blog is making me want to replay Patho 2 again... I did play once on the intended difficulty, and then I replayed it afterwards on the easiest settings, doing everything and saving everyone and I'm ngl, that was some of the most fun I've ever had even though it wasn't quite in the spirit of the game haha

The so-called spirit of the game is this senior citizen wirh an overgrown 2000s anime boy haircut who shakes his cane at you sassily when you choose to only swallow a handful of razors as opposed to the razor muckbang the game offers.

I finished the game on the hardest difficulty

This was my first time playing the game ever. I straight up went to the intended difficulty, saved everyone, did everything, and never starved for a single day. I had 20+ Shmowders by the end. I was fully stocked on meat, I was fully stocked on homemade antibiotics and maxed the hospital shift each day.

All of that with only 3 Deaths

WHERE IS MY FUCKING CELEBRATION HUH? WHERE IS MY MEDAL? NO ONE THEW ME A PARTY, NO ONE INVITED BELLA HADID >:( MARK WASN'T IMPRESSED.

Fuck you Mark! ONE OF THOSE DEATHS WAS BULLSHIT YOU DUMB SLUT. YOU SPAWNED A GUY ON TOP OF ME WHILE I WAS PICKING UP HERBS, HOW THE FUCK DID HE ONE SHOT ME WITH FULL HEALTH HUH? YOU WHORE.

What I'm saying is. Look, we both finished the game on complete opposite extremes, yet we're both here. In a pathologic x reader blog on tumblr. We both had fun and shared a good understanding of the plot and characters. That's what matters. Everything else is just people patting themselves on the shoulder. You're the only one who will be impressed with the fact you beat the game flawlessly, and you're the only one who will be bothered by the fact you picked an easier difficulty

Because it's really not that different. To me, I have the kind of autism that makes games like pathologic smoother than water for me, I thrived on the ruthlessness of dark soul and did a no death run in darkest dungeon. But also. I absolutely suck at casual games, I can't play Stardew Valley unless I'm fully cheating, I can't for the life of me beat a single platforming game because I have a slow reaction speed.

Play Pathologic however you want! Ice-pick Joe isn't gonna pop from under your bed at 3am to beat you up with hammers. This is coming from the most tryhard difficulty elitism person there is in games.

Buttttt. I do recommend giving Pathologic classic HD a try. I promise anyone who beat Pathologic 2 on ANY difficultly will cuck tf out of the first game. There is no thirst! The vendors have unlimited money, and you can sell all of your trash to them! THE ECONOMY IS THRIVING I BOUGHT FOOD ON THE DAYS THE PRICES WERE SKYROCKETING BC I COULD AFFORD IT. I would've never financially recovered from buying food in P2 on any day that's not the first one. In P1, I rarely slept because I was deepthroating lemons and snorting coffee beans day and night since I could easily afford the health/hunger penalty.

Meanwhile, in P2, I'd save coffee beans to sell to get enough money to save up for army clothes.

The combat is so forgiving, the houses with good loot aren't the infected ones like in P2 but the burned ones! The AI in that game is so stupid you can trick plague clouds into disappearing if you stand still! You can glitch and jump over fences to take shortcuts through the town! YOU CAN SCAM THAT CUNT ANDREY STAMATIN FOR ENDLESS SHOTGUNS.

Lastly don't forget that 90% of the Pathologic fandom haven't even played any of the games at all. 70% probably never watched a single playthrough either and just video essays instead.

In the steam version of Pathologic 2, Only 10% of players who bought the game have ever reached the end.

10% !!! That's us there! Me and You! It doesn't matter how what matters is that we both did it while 90% of people gave up.

And the situation in the classic game is even more dire tbh-

Only 6% ever opened the game and made it through the first day. Only 3% ever made it to the last day.

So, really good on you for finishing the game! Good on me for finishing the game! WE DID IT! YAY! Someone really should give Bella Hadid a call.

Also, please do yourself a favour and ignore whatever the video essayist says about the difficulty of the games. They're good storytellers for building an interesting narrative to watch, but they're not good at videogames assessment. Each of their reasons is very personalised by their own experience and doesn't necessarily mean other people will struggle with the same issues. Don't listen to anyone who tells you picking an easy difficulty ruins the game either, Pathologic doesn't relay on its brutal gameplay to shine, it can more stand on its own as a narrative story walking game. If anything, it would probably shine better on easier difficulties when you have time to dig for context clues and plot without starvation breathing down your neck. I missed some flavour text quests because I was too stressed about balancing different objectives to do them or pay attention when something important was said.

[sovonight]

I've been considering playing Baldur's Gate because of you. Do you recommend it What is a good order to play the games in??

absolutely i recommend it!

first off, it's important to know that bg1 & bg2 are their own story, and bg3 is practically separate from them. bg3 is set a century after the events of bg1/bg2, and just has a few character cameos and references from bg1/bg2 (though from what i've heard some of the cameos aren't very good interpretations of the original characters). bg3 doesn't enhance the bg1/bg2 story in any way, and knowledge of bg1/bg2 doesn't matter when playing bg3.

i'd suggest starting with bg3 if you:

are used to modern rpg games, and 3d visuals are particularly important to you

know you don't/won't like infinity engine games (for a spoiler-free preview, look up walkthroughs of icewind dale 1 or 2 and watch a couple minutes of travel, dialogue, and combat gameplay)

i'd suggest starting with bg1/bg2 if you:

don't have a strong preference for starting with bg3 instead

enjoy the potential for mods to expand the game--not just in terms of gameplay, but in story/quest additions and companions, too

are interested in knowing the story that i'm drawing all my fanart of

have a limited budget (you can get these games for very cheap, they frequently go on sale)

if you want to start with bg3, you're all set! go ahead and get started. if you want to start with bg1/bg2, i have a bit more to add:

if you've looked into buying these games, you may have noticed that there's bg1/bg2, and then there's bgee/bg2ee (ee meaning "enhanced edition"). there's also a new dlc that's ee-only. so here's the original playing order:

baldur's gate (bg1)

baldur's gate: tales of the sword coast (tosc): bg1 expansion, adds new side quests and areas to explore during bg1

baldur's gate ii: shadows of amn (bg2, sometimes abbreviated soa to distinguish from tob below)

baldur's gate ii: throne of bhaal (tob): bg2 expansion, directly continues the story from soa and officially ends the series

and here's the enhanced edition order:

baldur's gate: enhanced edition (bgee): contains bg1 and tosc

baldur's gate: seige of dragonspear (sod): bg1 expansion released in 2016 to bridge the gap between bg1 and bg2 (i haven't played it yet, but if you're just testing out the series i'd say don't bother getting it yet, it was released 15 years after the story concluded so how necessary can it really be)

baldur's gate ii: enhanced edition (bg2ee): contains soa and tob

the enhanced edition also adds 4 new companions, an arena side adventure, and overall provides a lot of fixes/improvements/updates on the original games. obviously, considering all these additions and the ee mods that have come out since the ee series release, the ee series is where you should start.

side note--if you buy the ee series on gog (maybe on steam too, but i've only checked it on gog) you'll actually get downloads for the original, non-ee games as well. if you enjoy playing old games for the feeling of time-traveling into the past a bit, and you have the patience to fuss around with troubleshooting and mods, they're a perfectly fine place to start as well! (i personally am still playing the non-ee trilogy even now, but that's for a whole mix of reasons, including that i like using the physical cd's i bought them on lmao)

now finally, if you got this far and are thinking "okay, i'm cautiously interested in bg1/bg2, but which one of the two should i start with???"

start with bg2 if you:

just want to jump in and see what all the fuss is about

don't care about having context in the beginning (you'll gain some context as you play, though not all)

want vampires, technology, and more sewers in your d&d experience

prefer a story with darker tones and a lot of driving urgency

start with bg1 if you:

like starting at the beginning to have context for everything that happens

want a standard, classic adventure with camps, forests, and bustling cities

don't need the plot to engage you if your companions are there with conversations, commentary, and banter

are willing to install at least one mod, BG1NPC

i found bg1 to be kind of a slog to get through on my very first playthrough, but adding in character interactions via BG1NPC really livened the game up for me and made it my favorite game out of the series. (imo this works best if you're willing to do a romance though, bc unfortunately romanced companions tend to get the most interactions & care put into their conversations.)

you don't strictly need BG1NPC on bgee bc the ee adds those aforementioned companions who do have conversations with you, but iirc they don't talk as much or provide as many opportunities for interaction as some of the modded companions do. (for context, in the original bg1, companions don't talk to you or comment on events at all; that only became a thing in bg2.) playing bgee without BG1NPC means you'll have to get at least 1 of the 3 ee companions to hear any conversations at all.

anyway, hopefully this wasn't too long or confusing. i hope you try the games out!

[convenientalias]

Ranking Every Park Sung-woong Movie I've Watched

This year, deep in a Park Sung-woong obsession haze, I set out to watch a bunch of Park Sung-woong movies, wondering if I could rank all the movies he was ever in. I did not end up watching all his movies. I did, however, watch 15. So today I am finally going to rank the 15 I did watch so that people will know what movies of his are worth watching and which are less so, and you will not have to strike out blindly like I did.

(Notable absence: I haven't watched The Dude In Me, I'm sorry. Yes, he did win an award for it, and I mean to watch it someday. I just haven't gotten around to it yet and I didn't want to procrastinate this post any longer when I have no idea when I will.

If there are other great PSW movies I've missed, feel free to recommend them!)

So.

Starting with the worst.

15. The Closet (2020)

This is the worst movie I watched this summer for Park Sung-woong purposes. It's a bad movie in and of itself; it's a not very thrilling thriller, and the main characters aren't likeable or interesting. However, PSW's role in it is worse. He's in about three scenes and in one of them he's killed like two seconds in. Also his worst death scene I've seen.

However, he was pretty creepy in a flashback, featuring that classic menacing PSW smile. So I'll give him that.

14. A Man of Reason (2023)

I wanted to rank this movie lowest purely because of the haircut, but I had to be just. It IS a bad haircut, to be clear. And it's not impossible to make Park Sung-woong look good in long hair (see: A Friend In Need). I guess they wanted to change up his typical cold, clean cut gangster look typified in A New World, but if this is where you were going with it...

Anyway, maybe I could forgive the haircut if PSW's role was actually good in this movie, but instead he's given a few ominous scenes as a gang leader and then one of his underlings basically takes over the plot and he only appears once ever again for the rest of the movie. He Does Not Matter. This is a movie for fans of Jung Woo-sung or Kim Nam-gil; they're both pretty good in it. It is not a movie for a fan of Park Sung-woong.

13. Office (2015)

I'm gonna be real with you: I love this movie! And that's saying something bc it's a slasher and I don't really like slashers. Its real strength is its female protagonist, played by Go Ah-sung. Her workplace problems are relatable and tense, and her involvement in the (somewhat supernatural) killings at the office slowly builds in a very satisfying manner. As a thriller, absolutely recommend.

As a Park Sung-woong movie, though, eh. PSW's character is a cop. He's there to investigate crimes and provide an outsider perspective, but while he's billed as a main character, he doesn't really matter much to the plot. And PSW plays him very straight, little of his signature style coming through. I don't dislike the character but I think pretty much any middle aged man could have acted it equally well. However, good for PSW playing a leading non-villainous role in 2015--at that point he was definitely still fighting the villain typecast (by now, he still does play villains of course but he also has a fair share of protagonist roles under his belt; at this point in his career, less so, at least in cinema).

12. The Tooth and the Nail (2017)

Primarily, Park Sung-woong's role in this movie is as a framing device: he's a prosecuting attorney presenting a complicated case of murder and revenge. He is not at all the main character, but you do still root for him, and he has a lot of smarmy charm. And he's a bit of a deuteragonist in his own way: while the main character fights a battle of revenge in the main plot, PSW drives the action in the courtroom and keeps things from getting boring in parts of the plot that could otherwise come across as drily procedural.

11. The Wild (2023)

Park Sung-woong is actually the lead in this movie. It's just not a good movie.

He's a washed up boxer, previously involved in a gang and now trying to disentangle himself. (But honestly, not trying that hard.) He becomes interested in a woman, a sex worker at a club run by the gang, and tries to protect her. Meanwhile all the gang allegiances become a hot mess.

There are some good fight scenes in this, and there's a LOT of Park Sung-woong to watch. But his character feels a bit wobbly--like, I never totally got what was driving him. Sometimes it would seem to be one thing, sometimes another. Too much weight is put on the romance, which has no chemistry to back it up, and not a lot of logical build up either. Sometimes you feel PSW falling back into his typical gangster style, which for this character doesn't make sense; he's not meant to be deeply entrenched or classy the way most PSW gangsters are.

So I don't love this PSW character. But I did enjoy the movie as an easy watch; it's mostly afterwards that I got frustrated by its flaws and all the missed potential.

10. Tabloid Truth (2014)

Here we have the first of the good PSW villains on this list ;) The majority of this movie follows an idol's manager (played by Kim Kang-woo) looking into who spread poisonous rumors about her through the tabloids before her death. Technically the main antagonist of the movie is a shady politician who masterminded everything. HOWEVER. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT GUY. because Park Sung-woong is playing his right hand man, a hitter who threatens, tortures, and kills as needed to keep people quiet and in line for his boss.

Kim Kang-woo and Park Sung-woong have incredible whump chemistry in this movie. Every scene they're in together is tense and menacing. There's finger breaking. There's strangling. It's not too graphic, actually, but PSW definitely comes across as a threat and adds tension to the movie that it otherwise kinda lacks. Some sexy menace. You know.

This movie could rank higher if Park Sung-woong had more screentime. As it is, he dominates through a handful of scenes--I enjoyed watching the movie primarily for him but it's not too high up there on my list of PSW villains.

9. A Friend In Need (2010)

This movie is about a businessman who, in the middle of a midlife crisis, runs into an "old friend" who always used to come save him when he was in trouble when they were kids. Suddenly, the businessman's enemies start turning up dead...

Park Sung-woong, if you hadn't guessed, is the "old friend" (and if you know psychological thrillers, you may guess where that's headed). He is a spooky spooky guy. He's cheerful and friendly, but also commanding and soooo creepy. Also, he has medium-long hair and looks great in it, proving that A Man of Reason HAD NO EXCUSE but I won't go into that right now.

Once again, if PSW had more actual screentime in this movie, it could easily be higher on the list.

8. Ok! Madam (2020)

In this movie, Park Sung-woong plays the husband of a spy (who turns out to be a spy himself). The two are on a train that gets hijacked and have to take down a bunch of enemy agents. It's good action comedy fun.

I do tend to prefer a thriller/ominous PSW to a comedic PSW. However, I also think he can be funnier than this. I always enjoy PSW most in a comedy when he's a little bit understated, maybe even deadpan. This movie is more slapstick and over the top, which I don't think is his strength. However, if you've ever wanted to see PSW play a wife guy, get into fights, and get tied up, it really is a lot of fun.

7. The Deal (2015)

This is the only simple serial killer Park Sung-woong I know of, and he enjoys it. I've seen reviews that say PSW smiled too much in this movie, but I disagree. He has the perfect serial killer smile and he should show it off. He could have smiled the whole movie and that would have been okay with me.

But if you need more than Park Sung-woong smiling in a movie, how about Park Sung-woong Killing People, or Park Sung-woong getting into a fight totally naked in the showers in prison? (I personally think the problem with taking him seriously as a villain in this movie is not the smile but the amount of fanservice.)

6. Live Stream (2023)

After watching The Deal and mostly coming away thirsty, I thought Park Sung-woong couldn't genuinely creep me out anymore. Then I watched Live Stream :(.

Live Stream explores the dark web, focusing on hidden cameras and sexual assault. While there is no actual sexual assault in this movie in the end, it is not a comfortable watch. Park Sung-woong plays a man running a live stream of a sexual assault (which ultimately does not take place, but the movie skates close). It's a movie with a dirty, creepy, tense tone--definitely not for everyone. (If you're interested in watching but want some spoilers to know what to expect, feel free to message me).

Apart from how sheerly creepy Park Sung-woong is in this movie, I have to say it does a good job of maintaining tension with a limited scope. Primarily the movie focuses on just two men, each sitting at a computer screen. And yet, you have to watch it with the sense of watching a train crash; it's not easy to look away. And that speaks to good writing and cinematography, but most of all the acting of both Park Sung-woong and his co-star Park Sun-ho.

I don't think this movie is a fun watch. But it is very well acted.

5. Bear Man (2023)

This movie is so fuckign wholesome and funny. Park Sung-woong plays a dual role of twin bears that have turned into humans, one adopted by friendly scientists and one adopted by a mafia boss who turns him into a human weapon. There's not a ton of plot; it's mostly just a movie of watching Park Sung-woong act kind of like a bear, and that's enough.

Park Sung-woong's characters are both so cute in this movie. The main bear is cheerful and friendly, kind of dumb but gifted with bear strength and super senses. He loves his family and his friends and his neighbors and really just wants to help people out. Meanwhile, the gangster bear has been trained to fight and obey his boss without question, but he obviously just wants love and warmth which he's lacked his whole life. I want to give them the world <3

Remember how I said I preferred more understated comedy for Park Sung-woong? This is more what I meant. It's not actually that understated--there's plenty of physical comedy in PSW catching fish with his hands and teeth, or collapsing into hibernation whenever it's cold. But PSW's characters are fairly grounded; they might be unusual people, and not the smartest, but they act pretty down to earth and even quiet a lot of the time, and PSW doesn't have to over-act to sell the humor of a scene.

It's simply a fun movie.

--

Okay, ever movie after this point is literally trying to kill me in the effort of ranking them. They're simply excellent movies and Park Sung-woong is killing it.

I've reordered it fifty times. So this ranking is how I feel about them right now, but I can't say it's really that definitive.

They're definitely all worth a watch!

4. New World (2013)

This is it. The role that made Park Sung-woong type cast as a classy gangster forever. I wondered before watching it if it could really be that good. The movie in general is slightly better than average gangster fare. Park Sung-woong in this movie? He is that good.

We're talking sinister smiles, shit talking, palling around with the henchmen, threatening to kill a doctor bc your boss is dead, menacing your rivals even from behind bars, dying serenely with a smile on your face style classy gangster. This is some Good Stuff. He isn't even the main character of this movie. He isn't even in the TOP THREE main characters of this movie. And yet, and yet, and yet.

Personally I wished he was in every scene of the movie and also that he won his gang war but you can't always get what you want, especially in Korean gangster movies. Anyway if you've ever wondered, "Is Park Sung-woong in New World really THAT iconic?", yes. Yes he is.

3. For the Emperor (2014)

For the Emperor is like if someone watched New World and they were like, hey, we love that PSW guy playing a classy mafia boss. What if we took that guy and he was still a gang boss but now he's actually got a secret heart of gold and then we gave him a subordinate to have a complicated, possessive, homoerotic relationship with? And there were lots of knife fights and he got whumped and had to be saved like a damsel in distress?

Obviously this is very much up my alley!

I think as a movie, New World may possibly be better. However, in terms of pure dysfunctional slashiness, For the Emperor takes the cake. It also has way more Park Sung-woong in it, as PSW is one of two main characters.

2. Method (2017)

Some of you may have hoped Method would win the ranking purely for being gay. Some of you may not have known Park Sung-woong was ever in a gay movie. Anyway: Yes! Yes, this is the one and only Park Sung-woong BL and I do love it. Yes, I love it partly for the slashiness and gay kisses etc. But there's so much more to Method than just the fact that it's gay. It's also a psychological thriller, and I love the tension and suspense of the second half of the movie just as much as the mellow, gradually building romance of the first.

And I love Park Sung-woong's character. Don't get me wrong: As a person, he's scum. He's cheating on his wife, and pursuing a significantly younger man with no intention of commitment, a younger man who's kind of his mentee and looks up to him as something of an authority figure. But. It is very hot of him to do that. And he's got his own complexities. He's committed to his art to such an extent that he loses himself in it; he's committed to his art to such an extent that it's going to ruin his life.

Also it's just very satisfying to watch him GET WRECKED oh my god. I've watched this movie... maybe 3 times now? 4? and I know I will be watching it again. It's just such a fuckign ride. You gotta.

1. Daemuga: Sorrow and Joy (2022)

And here we have it, folks: My favorite Park Sung-woong movie is Daemuga.

I don't think a lot of people will agree with me on this choice, if only because I don't think a lot of people have WATCHED Daemuga. It's a movie about three shamans who get entangled with an ambitious gangster. Park Sung-woong for once is not playing the gangster. He's a middle aged shaman whose shamanic abilities have failed him, who has become a drunk and starts the movie in prison. Throughout the movie, he has to regain his spiritual powers and find himself again, struggling to return to the person he once was, a successful and well-known shaman. He also is trying to protect a younger woman from the gangster, who wants something from her she's not able to give.

Daemuga is a FUN movie. It is a thriller too, and has some tense scenes, some action scenes--but mostly, we're watching characters explain who they are and watching them interact and grow. I love the swagger of Park Sung-woong's character. He's a has-been, but at least he HAS been, while he's dealing with two shamans who are new to the world of shamanism and lack experience if not talent. He's sometimes pitiful (and intimidated by the gangster villain) and sometimes full of bravado. Even when cowed, he hangs tight to a core of inner strength, the will to protect and to become someone stronger than he currently is. Also in one scene he wears full face paint. I just simply love him. What more can I say?

--

If you disagree with this ranking, I'd be curious to hear yours! Also, this summer I combined my movie watching quest with an attempt to write fanfic for as many of these movies as I could. so if you'd be interested in that, here's a link to that series.

I love Park Sung-woong movies <3

[imaginespazzi]

Long awaited, chapter 8! 

-"The older woman seems to possess some sort of magical power that weaves itself into Azzi’s nervous system, soothing away her frazzled nerves with an unspoken promise of and if you give me the chance I’ll make it all okay." "For the last eight years, Azzi has been her own protector and she’s learned to guard herself" Oof, the independence Azzi has built because she didn't give Paige the chance. I'm not okay.

-"Azzi hurriedly moves away first and she can see the betrayal of if only you’d just let me hold you in front of the world written all over Paige’s face." Well this reminds me to bring up something I'd noticed in chapter 7 but didn't end up mentioning. Ruthie: “what is love if it can’t be seen by everyone?” By this Ruthie means on Paige's face. You can see on her face how inlove she is. But it could very well make Paige think of Azzi not wanting to share their love to the public. And that always hurt Paige, clearly. But going back to the way Ruthie originally meant it then, really it doesn't mean Azzi loved her any less. It's in the look on her face when she thinks of Paige, it's in the way she subconciously pushes Paige-like things onto her daughter, it's in the way she can't get into another relationship, it's there. It's simply a matter of that agrument on to sides:

side 1: Just because I don't show it properly doesn't mean I don't love you.

side 2: Just because you love me doesn't mean I feel loved.

-Paige called back to say goodnight to Stephie. Another promise kept. I know a lot of anons expected Paige to leave that morning in chapter 7, but she didn't, and I feel like you're actually making her keep all her promises and though some may think this is building up to her eventually not keeping one, I actually don't think so. I think she's gonna keep every single one of her promises and though I do wonder what the problem/source of angst is going to be, since it's kinda still all fluff right now, even if there's a moment of separation, that just means Paige can't make new promises to Stephie, therefore can't break any either. And eventually they'll figure out the problem too, bringing her back to Stephie (if there is a moment of separation) and probably making her say something cheesy like "I promised you I'd try to stay". I'll touch on what I think about problems in a bit though.

-"Paige laughs, “I’ll be there as soon as I wake up.”" That will hopefully be next to Azzi.

-"My wife is perfect. She loves me. She loves being seen with me. She loves being known as my wife. Everything I ever wanted from you, she’s willing to give me." I don't know if you've watched that Julia Roberts movie: My Best Friend's Wedding. If you haven't you can pretty much completely ignore this whole next bit cause it won't really make sense to you, but it's really giving me the same vibes. I also therefore really recommend it + it's a great movie. Anyways so, although Micheal ends up with Kimmy (his wife) I always thought that that was weird, and wrong. I felt bad for Kimmy really, just like I feel bad for Olivia. But the point is supposed to be that, though I feel bad for Kimmy, that doesn't mean I was rooting for her. I was rooting for her to go and live her own life and have a good one at that. But Micheal still loved Julianne, at least I thought that seemed clear. They made it seem like that wasn't the case and their last interaction is a simple "platonic" hug, though before he leans in he looks like he wants to kiss her. And the 3 of them have the exact same dynamic as Paige, Azzi and Olivia do here since, really Kimmy (Olivia) is simply what Micheal (Paige) settled for because he wanted to be loved publicly and Julianne (Azzi) wouldn't let him have that. But to me the moral was more that Micheal (Paige) wanted to be loved publicly BY JULIANNE (Azzi). I don't see his marriage realistically working out but whatever.

-"I know- I know your reasons but why- why couldn’t you have just loved me enough to look past them?" Ooohhh, yet another mention of Azzi's reasons, plural at that, but still you're not adressing themmmm! I neeeeed to know.

-"“I didn’t,” Azzi whispers, so soft she’s not sure Paige heard it" DID SHE HEAR IT???!! HEY DID SHE HEAR IT???!!!

-"“And some might say Edwards that being fashionably late is being on time,” Paige quips back." I love my huuugeee stretches and yes, believe me I'm aware this is about to be a stretch. But umm, what if this is mirroring their situation? Like Paige and Azzi's timing always seems to be off, but maybe that doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong, maybe being fashionably late is still on time.

-Ok so Clémence isn't a problem and honestly I didn't expect her to be. I genuinely have no idea what the problem will be. I feel like you have angst planned but, I don't see it fitting in now. Like maybe you're actually just gonna do pure fluff onwards, I doubt it. But the thing is I know a lot of people think the contract thingie with Liberty will pose a problem, idk but I just don't think so. In my head I don't see Azzi getting mad because legally it makes sense and shouldn't the team be aware to some point that Paige's contract is short? I mean if anything I thought it would sorta maybe possibly if you'd let it be perchance be a source of fluff. Like Paige just making it clear she's not leaving GSV, not leaving Azzi and Stephie. No matter how much the NYL offer. I can't even picture like a misunderstanding apart from from Stephie's POV. But Pazzi wise, if you plan on a couple more ups and downs consider me intrigued cause I have no clue what to expect really. Plus I still expect a Pookie reunion and they probably won't go see Drew together if they're fighting soo, with that being like chapter 9/10, the proposal 10/11, wedding 11/12, angst just doesn't fit in into my peaceful fluff schedule.

-"“baby you are the exception to all of my rules.”" Please break the sleepover rule, please break the sleepover rule.

Okk that's it thank you soo much and have nice holidays but ugh I want chapter 9 soo bad, I'll be patient though, it's all good. 

-🪐

-I'm so glad you caught that cause I definitely wanted to show Azzi's -in a way forced- independence where she's had to become her own protector without Paige

-YES! I was wondering if someone would bring up what Ruthie said last chapter and I'm glad you did because that's definitely a part of the conflict. And without giving anything away, I do have a conversation/argument planned where they're forced to confront their different viewpoints on the two sides of the coin your brought up

-I have seen My Best Friend's wedding but it's definitely been a bit but I agree, I always thought he was settling at the end. And the last scene is proof because it clearly wasn't all that platonic if he wanted to kiss her. But he found all his "perfects" in something else or at least he found what he wanted to see, which is exactly what Paige found with Olivia.

-Did she hear if? 👀

-See I did not think of that but it doesn't feel like a reach. Timing has been an issue but better late than never right?

-The team (Azzi) knows Paige's contract is short but the implication is that she'll likely renew because stars of Paige's calibre don't necessarily just go to a team for a year. It's like Stewie with the Libs where she was signed for year last year and then cored now. The deal with the Liberty in the fic is not public and something that's been negotiated off the books. How big of a conflict will that be? Guess we'll find out.

-LMAO well I do have a lot more planned then just proposal- wedding. Suffice to say we're headed for more than 12 chapters lmao.

-Ahahha another one for the let the gays fuck agenda huh?

[purplesurveys]

1923

in what form of communication did you last use to talk to the person you're currently interested in? I'm not interested in anyone.

if you were to leave the house right now, would you change your outfit all? I'm already dressed up, actually; I'm just taking this before I head out since it's still a little early. So no, need to change anything from what I'm wearing now.

when was the last time something really cute happened to you? Last night Cooper quietly shook my hand when I asked to, even though he was visibly sleepy and just wanted to go to bed hahaha.

why aren't you texting the last person you kissed? Because we haven't talked in four years and I intend to keep that timer running until I die.

has anything happened to you within the past month that's made you really happy? I went to the cinema by myself last Friday to watch Jungkook's movie.

do you want to see someone right now? I'm okay to be on my own.

did a boy or girl text message you last? Girl.

when was the last time something bothered you? Work always sneaks its way up my head to bother me, even on weekends; that being said, the correct answer to this would be just last night. I envy people who can switch off their Work Minds during the days their job doesn't have to matter.

what was the last thing you looked up on youtube? Probably a Going Seventee episode. I seldom look stuff up myself anymore and just go through my recommendations.

have you held hands with anyone in the past 24 hours? Nope.

did the last guy/girl you kissed have any piercings? I think she did, yeah.

what exactly did you drink the last time you were intoxicated? It was a few glasses of espresso martini.

do you actually love your parents? In the grand scheme of things, yeah. It's very easy to say this about my dad, but with my mom...a little more challenging. She hasn't treated me the best, hasn't been the best mom all my life, hasn't ever uttered a single apology for all the damage she's done; but the older I get, the more I see her as just a flawed person much like everyone else.

Maybe it's self-induced Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe it's just easier for me to let the past go because I've wiped out very, very big chunks of my memory and only remember what I choose to remember. But I have at least feelings of what I'd call love for her. I haven't said it to her since I was 11/12. But I think I feel it for her.

have you ever had a school picture turn out absolutely dreadful? No. We're permitted to check them anyway and do retakes until we're happy.

are you more prone to being the social butterfly, or the wallflower? It really depends on the crowd. I can hang out at both sides.

would you rather go to a katy perry or taylor swift concert? That evening sounds horrendous.

have you ever thrown up from working out? No but I've nearly passed out. Like, my vision started blacking out and I had to stagger my way to the restroom completely blind, only relying on my memorization of the rooms' layout. It was a stupid decision not to call for help but I didn't want to make a scene and have more people crowd up on me.

what pattern do the sheets on your bed have? It's just a plain brown/mocha sheet.

are your days full and fast-paced? Unfortunately they are.

what languages can you count to ten or higher in? English, Filipino, Spanish, Korean, French.

are you good with painting nails with your left hand? No.

do you feel uncomfortable sharing drinks with other people? Nah. We drank from each other's cups/tumblers in college all the time so I've brought over that habit to the present day. I wouldn't share if I'm in an unfamiliar setting with new people, though.

have you gone through a lot emotionally, or has life been easy thus far? I'd be very surprised if someone answered with the latter.

have either of your grandparents ever told you a sexual joke? I don't think so.

do you spend more time outside or inside? Inside.

would you rather give up the computer or the tv? Computer. I watch everything on the TV and tbh only use my laptop for surveys.

do you own any fake designer purses? No.

who was the last person you were with that smelled really good? My mom.

do you think braces are sexy? Not particularly.

what were you for halloween in first grade? I can't remember if I even dressed up for Halloween in 2005.

last person to make you seriously mad? The customer service rep at GCash.

don't you hate when people have cell phones but never answer them? I can think of a few people who are chronically on their phones but can take forever to reply, but it only bugs me when it's an emergency situation.

who have you recently made up with after fighting? I wanna say Gabie? We've had a few clashes at work because of differing philosophies, but because I'm non-confrontational and very burned the fuck out out I chose to be the one to adjust because I'm always going to be seen as the wrong one given my higher position.

what kind of toothpaste do you use? Colgate.

last thing you bought at the grocery store? Milk and bottled coffee.

what were you doing this morning at 1am? Eating pizza.

funniest name you have ever heard? Haven't encountered a 'funny' name.

what could someone do to irritate you? Cut me in line. I will 100% take a photo of you and post it for the world to see...I just did it the other evening.

have you used a tissue today? Yes.

the last person that slept in your bed gets arrested, what do you do? Laugh.

what color hair does your mom have? Black.

when people ask "how are you?" do you say "good" even if you aren't? Yeah, of course. Unless you're a friend, then I'd give you an essay.

honestly, did you really love the last person you said i love you to? Yes.

when was the last time you were told you were cute? That's not a word I get a lot.

how was your friday? Eventful, chaotic, eventually peaceful.

when is the last time you were in a swimming pool? In?? Cannot remember. But at a swimming pool, Wednesday.

did you speak to your father today? Haven't yet but I probably would today.

what was the last thing you drank? Water.

is there anyone you want to come see you? Nope.

how did you wake up this morning? Just by myself.

[t1meslayer]

It's peanut butter jelly T1me!

... Alright, now @alchemicallymoon doesn't have to call the authorities.

You know the drill — go check out my latest Dungeon Meshi fanfic, "Peanut Butter & Jelly." Then click that button down below to read my completely overindulgent author's commentary!

Dungeon Meshi... Ah, Dungeon Meshi.

I wrote my first DunMeshi fic "Scrambled Eggs" when Trigger's anime was beginning to air. Maybe this was a silly idea given it's a post-canon event, thus alienating the people who might've been curious to join community spaces after watching the first couple of episodes. However, I read through everything before the anime started on the recommendation of friends (including my collaborating body of spiders @trybard) and fell deeply in love.

No joke, some things in that story changed my life at the exact moment I needed it. I couldn't hold myself back when it came to appeasing the DunMeshi faithful among us.

And hey... It worked out! "Scrambled Eggs" became my most successful fic of all time, sitting at over 250 Kudos as of this writing.

I can't judge any fanfiction.net metrics because that site doesn't even have a Dungeon Meshi tag... But that's a whole other story.

That Farcille story was not the only idea I had logged in my Notes app, but needless to say that success did encourage me to continue sooner rather than later.

... Perhaps a little bit later following self-imposed hiatuses for my poll-winning Stardew Valley fic "How You Get The Girl" and the first part of my ambitious Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fic "Fallout." But I have also been doing some Meshi writing for the Dungeon Meshi Cookbook Zine?

That brings us to "Peanut Butter & Jelly." I believe it's mandated by law that all DunMeshi stories are named after a relevant food item or monster within their narrative.

In this case, the titular sandwich was my inciting incident. I've recently found myself working retail for the first time, stocking shelves at a major brand store. One day I was pushing merchandise on the aisle with peanut butters and jellies and thought, "Senshi would make a killer PB&J."

My first developmental task was deciding what kind of monster could be cooked into the sandwich. One early source I came across was a blog for fantasy author Alex Maven, in particular the article "TENDING A GARDEN OF TERROR: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO PLANT MONSTERS IN 5E DND." This introduced the vegepygmy:

I haven't played much Dungeons & Dragons outside a "Gaming in American History" class during college, so I can't say I'm an expert in the subject. But I gathered through Maven's site and fandom projects like the Forgotten Realms Wiki that vegepygmies are forest-dwelling, humanoid rot creatures created by exposure to Russet mold spores who tend to use basic tools such as slings. They can drop skins upon death, which Maven describes as an item that "looks like a furry patch of mold. It has not much use to leatherworkers but can prove to be really useful to alchemists, healers, and medicinal experts."

A few details were simplified for my fanfiction (let's call those "creative liberties" ala Ryoko Kui's unique takes on classic monsters), but the gist still felt right: forest creatures using a weapon that fires small projectiles.

What better projectiles to find in a forest than hard-shelled nuts?

I imagined something like walnuts, but the semantics don't really matter. For the most part this was set-dressing to write a story in which the main party gets to interact, unlike my isolated Farcille piece. That's where this became a "lost chapter" set prior to the discovery of Thistle's home on the Dungeon's bottom floor.

I channeled my best Ryoko Kui absurdist cover art for the featured image, though using digital collage. Originally I planned to use full color, but a fun idea came later to desaturate things for more accurate manga sensibilities:

For comparison

The impetus to write this piece when I did was two-fold. On one hand, I had time to kill during production on "Fallout," and it only felt right to do a bit of extra prep for another Dungeon Meshi zine application I've had my eyes on.

On the other hand, I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second ED for a good while. Especially this frame with Kabru's party, and the implication that Rin is constantly on the verge of wiping her entire team on accident:

Kabru fic one day.

Later I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second OP. Long-time fans may remember when I had matching levels of anime opening brain rot for my Jujutsu Kaisen Satosugu fic "Infinitesimal Distance."

Obsession, it turns out, can be good for creating silly art.

I tend to give myself a challenge for each fanfic to help further my craft. This time, the challenge was to capture these wonderful characters in a way that matches the rhythms of the original series. I pulled from the styles of a few older pieces to differentiate stages in what Alchemically put as the manga's "kill-cook-eat" formula:

The brief Laios battle uses a Falin flashback ala the manga's Living Armor arc. I used text formatting and alternate tense to separate this moment as in my Splatoon fic "Yesterday is But Today's Memory." ... Also the action is almost directly lifted from my friend's Stardew Valley OC Lotus fighting a skeleton in "Willow."

I used a bit of funky text placement with sub- and superscript formatting to convey motion with details like Izutsumi's yawn in the post-battle cooldown period, like my ScarVi fic "Paradiso."

Senshi's cooking segment is vaguely reminiscent of the recipe at the start of my Breath of the Wild fic "Recipe to Please a Princess." I used blockquotes to convey Senshi instructions as "narration," interspersed with character reactions and interplay.

Finally, I discovered that you can set a "Heading 3" HTML format over empty text to create double-lined dividers. Thought that would be a fun way to present the final ingredients list (sans nutritional information - I'm barely qualified enough to write a recipe without looking up guides on how to make peanut butter and how to make jam).

Speaking of that splash screen... We should talk about the stand-out part of this fic.

My drawing!

That's right, I draw now. Expect to see a lot more funky stuff.

I took a figure drawing class hosted by one of my friends recently, which coincided with seeing fics written by lovely folks like @flutefemme and @duelbraids that utilized custom artwork. Extra special shout-outs to duelbraid's "Splatsville Daily's Concert Review" for inspiring this artwork insertion via a whole Getty Images pastiche.

Incredibly cool idea!

Go follow them. I'm not asking.

For my sandwich art, I looked at references for braided challah and whole grain breads (since I figured that was more natural for the setting than a "Wonder Bread" look), and drew those overtop the shape of stacked slices using real-life bread reference. The knife and plate are also based partially on utensils I used for reference.

My backdrop is simple, meant to look like the plate is atop a transition point between patches of tall grass and worn pathing in the forest clearing within which our scene is set.

Creating a recipe title card ala banners in Dungeon Meshi's anime (used to great effect with bits such as the dragon meat bundles rolling past Senshi) and an ingredient list ala the manga came later.

However, I do think it's fun that the titles look imposed over the food, rather than blending too much into the background.

===

Bonus content for those still reading along:

You can see me practicing bread on the opposite side of the page in this sketchbook. Plus, my "Fallout" teaser image is bleeding through.

===

In terms of actual writing quirks I'll be brief. My favorite part of this piece is the smaller arguments and references throughout.

Laios and Falin's childhood village having no magic uses, which means no ice cream [ :( ]. This points to the negative reactions people had when Falin discovered her own magical aptitude.

The introduction of Laios' party ending with Izutsumi just being. Izutsumi. I'd draw later attention to an "Izutsumi thinks about herself" joke with some fun gender(tm), but this early moment was meant to convey my intentions for capturing DunMeshi style.

Yes, Laios talking about using mold powers to regenerate limbs is a reference to Resident Evil Village. No, I have not played most Resident Evil games.

Chilchuck's laughter being stylized as "nahaha" draws a connection to Izutsumi's similarly smarmy sense of humor. It's also a reference to how PokeMas wrote Rika during a story event around the time I was writing this. I feel like those characters sound similar!

Marcille does ritualistic morning hair care. IYKYK.

Izutsumi flies across the sky like a startled cat in an old cartoon.

Chilchuck is tired of everyone using his lockpicking set for odd jobs like mimic meat retrieval and walnut cracking.

Laios wants to get Namari some slings to inspect!! I just think they were really chill buds, actually. He'd probably get her hyperfixations, even if he doesn't get armor.

Marcille's holier-than-thou speech about assuming there's some sexism in Senshi's Scooby-Doo party division is cut off by Chilchuck digging into the idea of the Canaries existing at all. What are they, some kinda Suicide Squad?

Izutsumi is always hesitant about their food. Luckily, this is perhaps the least monster-filled meal yet - unless you're Laios, using leftover Changeling sauce that was meant to be an ointment. He's a freak like that.

Food opinions: Senshi likes crunchy peanut butter. Marcille cuts the crusts off her sandwiches.

I actually presented a poll to my beta reader wondering whether Chilchuck or Izutsumi would chuckle first at Marcille using the term "nut butter." Izutsumi won handily.

Most divorced dad definitely made his daughters sandwiches. That's, like, the one real divorced dad meal I'd expect.

For those in the know on events in the manga, Laios noticing some droppings on the floor is a pretty solid indication of what story beat the gang is approaching within the fiction...

Finally, I know one of peoples' favorite parts about "Scrambled Eggs" was the sheer amount of food-related descriptors. I'm not sure I had quite as deft a hand this time around since most of my energy went toward dialogue interplay, but hopefully you still got your money's worth!!

[cipheramnesia]

I watched my first horror movie tonight since i was a teenager in the 90's. Back then i mostly giggled through Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer with friends. Then life happened and i sort-of stopped watching things in general. Anyway, I'm now finding myself on months of bedrest and am watching things to pass the time and decided I'd watch a movie tonight and picked horror just to see if i even like horror. I caught The Pope's Exorcist and actually really enjoyed it, which is delightful! It kept me on the edge of my seat and in suspense and i know my heart was racing at times. So I figure enjoying that one gives me a starting point in the genre, and i was wondering if you might be able to suggest others based off my liking that one? I picked it based off rotton tomato critic and audience ratings. Not because i care heavily about such things, but it made it a logical place to start of what's new. I'm not catholic so i don't care about religion based horror but I'm not opposed to it. I don't like jumpscares. Learned that from Sixth Sense and 12 years on tumblr. Oh! I've also recently seen Renfield, though none of the dracula movies that follow the books. I don't really count Renfield as horror in this regard because it's comedy horror and more funny than scary. Kind of like how i found 90's horror. Though that might have been just as much me being a punk ass kid trying to look brave with my friends. Who knows. It was a long time ago. Anyway, do you have any suggestions? Old or new doesn't matter. I'm bored and mostly stuck in bed. Thank you for your time!

I haven't seen The Pope's Exorcist so I had to search it up - exorcism movies don't do a lot for me, but The Taking of Deborah Logan and Daniel Isn't Real are perennial recommendations which I think would sync up with possession movies. Deborah Logan is kind of divisive with how it treats Alzheimer's and dementia - for me it resonated with my experiences and felt like a sensitive exploration of the topic for horror, but it can also reas the opposite way.

Hellbender and The Deeper You Dig are some fantastic work by a team of independent filmmakers who are also a family. They all act and direct and write together in upstate New York and have astonishing talent. A magnificent illustration of why seeking work by independent artists is such a good idea.

I just watched Ghost Crew, a weird little low budget Scottish movie that I won't say too much about except that it starts out as slightly cringe-comedy faux documentary and grows into a lot more. Zombie For Sale is an adorable Korean romantic comedy zombie movie I had a fun time watching. The Dark (2018) also very intriguing movie, basically victims of abuse getting revenge but one of them is a revenant.

Jamie Marks Is Dead is a queer ghost story that made me cry, everyone should watch it. Also in the sweet romantic category is Attachement, a Jewish and queer horror. It's written and directed by a Jewish person and to my experience felt very true to life. My personal reading of it was a kind of metaphor about how Judaism can be carried forward in different ways everywhere from generational to academically to people who convert. It's another one that I think could be read different, but the positive reading works better for me.

A Wounded Fawn is just bonkers surreal, I can't describe it exactly but it's about a serial killer who gets in deep with some very hallucinatory shit. Related, but Vicious Fun is exactly what it says on the tin. Very fun silly stuff. He's Watching is imho one of the most terrifying found footage movies ever. All found footage movies use a lot of pretty common and consistent tricks of limited light and limited perspective, but He's Watching fucks with the sense of reality by constantly obfuscating who or what is recording, where the line between real and film is blurred.

Babysitter Wanted is also a fun twist on the satanic panic trope. Also similar in that vein, Anything For Jackson is pretty neat. And while I'm thinking about Shudder, The Mortuary Collection is pure spooky fun, a delightful anthology movie with Clancy Brown getting to chew up some scenery. Also for the movie that has everything, Saloum. It's a kind of revenge crossed with magic crossed with evil spirits centered around a bad ass team of mercenaries for hire.

Also check out my horror movie tag.

[hayannoran]

DA02:TB WAS AMAZING!! Personally, I enjoyed it WAY more than Last Evo Kizuna, and that's really saying something since I think about DA:LEK a lot. I'll be talking about spoilers and my thoughts down under the readmore line!

Okay, so I'll start off with the one thing I somewhat dislike first before getting to positives and just gushing about details: I didn't really like the fact that the digivices dissolved. That's it, really. This is mostly because I'm a bit worried about how travel between the human world and the digital world would work, now. (Also, maybe this is just my Miyakari brainrot, but I was thinking about how this would make it harder for Hikari to visit Miyako... it's ok, my lore brain comes before any kind of shipping brain, but I'm a little bit sad.) Personally, I'm just headcanoning for fun that they eventually can just. Go into digital screens persona-4-style since I think that would be goofy, but that's probably not going to happen lol.

On Rui: I was really pleasantly surprised at how he's written!! Honestly, I felt his frusturation; honestly, I was a bit peeved at what Hikari said to him when he first told the 02 team about the time he broke his digivice due to what Ukkomon did, because even though I agreed with her on what she was saying, I felt like she was ignoring his point of view and his understandable grief. (People aren't perfect when responding to other people's trauma all the time though, so I don't mind from a story perspective.)

I really liked Ukkomon's weird eldritch tentacle form. The tree branches make me think that it's probably Yggsdrasil that Ukkomon has contact with? Since they didn't specify what Ukkomon's connection is, I really hope they explore it more in the future with more episodes, or maybe even another animated series. (Though, maybe a movie would be better for the sake of a more polished end result? Idk, more digimon content is always welcome to me.)

The one scene of Daiken baiting was kinda funny but a little sad since yknow it's queerbait and we know it won't happen canonically due to the epilogue 😭 and the directors doubled down on the epilogue in interviews so we know its not happening... I remember clearly seeing Daisuke blush, but I think Ken was largely unaffected, which, if that blush is anything other than embarrassment, has some slightly sad one-sided connotations. (I'm a Bi Daisuke truther. Maybe I'm delusional. Who cares it's for fun)

This is just a small detail, but I noticed that Silphymon's voice (in the dub at least) (I watch sub usually but the only viewings near my area for both today and tomorrow were dub viewings) was just Tailmon's voice and had none of Hawkmon's voice, which was kinda interesting? It doesn't matter much, it just stuck out to me. I thought it was kinda funny.

I do wish the 02 cast interacted with each other a bit more, but I'm not nearly as bitter about that as I thought I would be, since Rui was a main character I enjoyed. If there's more digimon media in the future that riffs off of this movie, I *would* like it if the 02 cast got more focus, but Rui is a welcome addition to me. (I hope they all get to meet Wallace again at some point... that would be really fun [said by a person who has Hurricane Touchdown as their favorite movie])

Overall, I thought the movie was really good. It had a few other issues, and as someone who's used to the sub I found that the dub voices weren't *entirely* my favorite (except Rui, Rui's performance was excellent), but they didn't bother me as much as I thought they would, making for an amazing experience imo. Review sites I've looked at put it at a B, but for my personal opinion, it's one of the best pieces of digimon media in a LONG time. I'd recommend that you watch it yourself to form your own opinions though (if you haven't watched it and are still reading this for some reason hah) since that's what really matters.

[derfisch]

okay, I said I was gonna do it! below the cut:

a brief review of every anime I watched this season (no battle shounens, guaranteed)

there are 11 that I watched! wow!

to start with, I watched some less recent anime:

Fruits Basket (2019)

I can see why this one is a classic. if the original is anything like the new one (I haven't watched that either), this is held together by excellent, deep character writing and a fantastic sense of place that never falters. the main character, whose archetype of "ditzy genki girl" would usually be written as very one-dimensional and fluffy, has loads of interesting facets of her personality, and goes through plenty of character growth along with everyone else around her, all without feeling the need to make her less girly or compromising her agency in any way.

for negatives, the humor fell flat more often than not, and the melodrama felt a little heavy handed, especially toward the end when they need you to know The Stakes Are High. I'm also unsure how I feel about how it decided to portray some really incesty relationships? but as a CCS enjoyer it's not like I can complain too much there, lol

despite those flaws though, I would still absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a good drama. I found it pretty good for sleepytime watching too, if you need something like that.

My Roommate Is A Cat

while I did like it a lot, there's not a whole lot to say about it. I like all the characters, even though they don't go too deep. it's fun, it's cute, and it's funny. there's a cat. I like the bits where we get to see from the cat's point of view, and they totally misunderstand the situation. it's not the prettiest anime out there, but I'd still give it a watch if you have the time for a short one

Love Stage!!

absolutely gutted by this one. as a BL anime from about a decade ago, there's a genre-required sexual assault scene. I cannot recommend it to anyone on that basis alone. this is not a triggering subject matter for me, and I was made deeply uncomfortable by it

which really, really sucks, because outside of that I'm super into its characters and its scenario. the tonal whiplash between the sexy seme raping the innocent uke and a few episodes later when he's genuinely regretful of it, and they actually have to work through their feelings over what happened, I appreciated it so much. and even outside of that, the relationship between the two is really interesting. the character writing is super strong, and the conclusion is satisfying and somehow feels earned

if you're absolutely sure you can handle the uncomfortable stuff, maybe give it a watch. otherwise, there's much better gay media out there for you that doesn't subject you to uncomfortable shit like that

Oshi no Ko

I literally cannot tell you anything about this other than you have to watch this. even if you don't give a shit about idols. I'm serious. watch the entire first episode (and I mean the whole thing! don't quit halfway through), and you'll probably know if it's for you or not. but it is gorgeous, and the storytelling and characters are phenomenal. there's a reason no one will shut up about it. I am chomping at the bit for season 2, and the only reason I'm not going to read the manga is the anime is so beautiful

A Herbivorous Dragon of 5,000 Years Gets Unfairly Villainized

[kenny lauderdale voice] is chinese animation anime?

I remember my roommate watching the first episode of this with me around when Dragon Goes House Hunting was airing, to compare the two, and he ultimately passed on it. with that no longer fresh in my mind though, I went back and gave it another shot, and I'm glad I did

it's really short, the usual 12 episodes of a season being made up of 15-minute episodes. the characters don't have a lot of room to breathe, and the story doesn't have enough time to build on its premise for the climax to feel justified. but despite that, I loved the characters themselves, and their interactions with each other. The humor was pretty good, and I found the main duo super endearing. It's not much of a time commitment, so you don't have much to lose by giving this one a shot. oh, and watch Dragon Goes House Hunting too when you're done

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years Of Virginity Can Make You A Wizard?!

[kenny lauderdale voice again] is live action drama anime?

I saw this recommended a lot when I went looking into popular BL drama. maybe I expect too much from my media, but I wasn't really into this. the main character has barely any personality beyond "anxious wreck," and his love interest comes across as a bit creepy, but otherwise not very interesting. In fact, it takes a flashback for us to really have any hint of why the love interest likes the main character at all. this is also peak "why do japanese dramas have such ridiculous acting"

I couldn't really bring myself to finish it. I made it about 2/3 through, seeing if it got better, but I just really couldn't go on any longer

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

another drama! this one was much, much better. it starts with the couple already together, and focuses more on how they cohabitate and work on their relationship. the characters in this feel very real, and their scenarios never feel particularly contrived or unnatural. also, it features characters who are properly middle aged, which is pretty rare for Japanese media in general, let alone BL

this was the hardest one to watch though, because it's only available on Netflix and it's blocked in my country! I couldn't find a good site to pirate it either, so I had to use a VPN. I hope it becomes more easily available some day

now, into the newer stuff:

My Happy Marriage

what interested me about this is it billed itself as a "historical drama," which is surprisingly rare for a culture that seems to have no problem commodifying its history. unfortunately, that's only half true. the setting seems to have one foot in meiji-era japan, and the other in a poorly explained fantasy setting with nonsensical magic powers

I could put up with that, except I really can't stand the characters either. the main character is Tradwife Prime, who's incapable of mustering an ounce of agency except to simp for the man she was forced to marry by her very abusive parents. said husband is nice, but bland as they come. she has a sister who is a huge jerk seemingly just to mess with her.

it has two things going for it: there is some catharsis in seeing husband guy treat this poor woman right, and also it's drawn and animated really well.

maybe it gets better after the first half, but I dropped it about halfway through. if you are the straightest, most misogynistic man, who only sees value in media that reinforces your pitiful worldview, and think all women should exist to be subservient to their husbands, maybe watch it. except even they probably shouldn't, or they'll risk feeling inferior to the most boring man on the planet. but maybe watch it if you like pretty pictures, and don't have a functional brain? or just watch it in a language you don't understand, I guess. make up your own story! you'll probably do better than the writers

Yohane the Parahelion

I watched this because, I kinda liked love live when I watched it a while back, and I thought putting the girls in a fantasy setting sounded neat. also, there's a cute dog, and I wanted to see more of the cute dog

unfortunately, the story is too busy expositing about the characters themselves and their nothing personalities to tell us about the setting, which feels underutilized. every few episodes, there's a hint at some spooky magic stuff happening, which is then stopped after a couple minutes to go back to light drama and fluff

and I started out liking the dog, who kinda feels like a big sister character, but that's literally her entire personality, and I got bored with her after a while, and the show itself just as quickly. it feels like a story yohane (the one in the love live world) wrote herself while she was bored, without consulting an editor or anything. can't recommend unless you really like looking at the cute dog

Sweet Reincarnation

this is a bad anime. I can't believe I watched it all the way through

the premise sounds fun. a patissier gets sent to the shadow realm and then gets isekai'd into life as a prince in generic fantasy world (do all these isekais take place on the same world, you think?), and is totally unhinged about turning the world into a sugar utopia under his command

what are the implications of this? the consequences? we'll never find out, because instead he just does really boring political drama shit. also he's like really good at diplomacy and negotiation for some reason? I don't think candy makers normally have to do that

it's kind of a shame because there are brief moments where the anime remembers what its stupid premise is, and those are genuinely fun. dude bankrupts the treasury buying fucking apples or whatever. uses his OP isekai power to invent irrigation and scare the shit out of everyone in the surrounding area. super fun stuff. but it lasts like 3 minutes every episode, and then it goes back to boring shit

also more arranged marriage, and this time it's with 10 year olds! no commentary whatsoever on how fucked up that is either, main character who is mentally about 30 years old at this point, totally stoked about his actual 10 year old wife to be. real normal shit

you already know it's shit though, right? you don't watch isekais to see a good anime anymore, right? you'll watch your garbage anime and you'll enjoy it anyway, right? okay

The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today

I love this anime. it follows the lead that Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill took of living life with a gruff, much more capable giant animal domestic partner. but instead of a cool magic wolf, yukichi is the masterful cat in question, and he fills the role of what I can only describe as the perfect house husband, with some sass and kitty antics included. he's also a big soft boy, which naturally gets bonus points from me

the series is pure slice of life. I haven't read the manga, but you can feel where the chapters begin and end within episodes, which makes them feel like short vignettes, rather than full stories. that's all this anime needs to convey its characters though! everyone feels well fleshed out, and their interesting personalities shine through

I do have 2 content warnings though: one, the main character ends up drinking alcohol a lot. you might know this is a trigger for me in certain scenarios, and this did make me uncomfortable. I was able to manage because the scenes in question are so short and tend to avoid portraying it as much more than an annoyance for yukichi, but if you're more sensitive to it than me, you're gonna have a rough time. second, probably less serious, but in an episode, the main character gains a bit of weight (which you would never guess by looking at her, but you'll have to trust the writers lol) and they make a big deal about her having to diet and exercise. might be kind of uncomfortable for some people who are used to having their weight pathologized, so feel free to skip that bit.

aside from those two complaints though, I really recommend this anime! it's super fun and really sweet

I ended up really watching a lot this season! I hope next season has some good ones too

[kimbapisnotsushi]

Hi....Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite anime (can be series or movies) or top 10 favorite manga? And why do you love them? Also, what are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite moments from any anime (can be series or movies) or manga that you loved?

Sorry if I ask too much, feel free if you want to answer both of my questions or just pick either one......Thanks....

aaaahh no i'm so honored to be asked something like this!! these are REALLY hard questions tho LMAO like holy shit i STRUGGLED. i ended up choosing the series/moments that left me with the greatest emotional impact or were really formative during my younger years. this turned into a really long and wordy post so uhhh sorry about that, I would have added more pics but they couldn't all be the same size so i gave up LMAO. Anyways let's get into it!!

TOP 10 ANIMANGA SERIES/MOVIES (in no particular order)

I. HAIKYUU!!

I wouldn't be much of a Haikyuu!! fan if this wasn't number one on the list (even though I said they were in no particular order, haha). With how the anime adaptation is coming along, I do absolutely recommend reading the manga. Aside from the fact that the art is just gorgeous, I love how Furudate puts so much care into the characters and story. The symbolism and poetic one-liners that have no business being in a sports manga are fucking fantastic, the development is great, everyone gets a happy and fulfilling ending, and it all wraps up like an emotional sucker punch to the stomach. I also LOVE that there's so much canon material for fans to play around with, and that there's so much left to the imagination. Haikyuu!! really is just a master class in storytelling and a total dream to analyze.

II. THE NIGHT BEYOND THE TRICORNERED WINDOW

Okay, I lied earlier. I just HAD to put this one second. (I swear after this the order doesn't matter!) It has an anime series and live-action movie adaptation, which I haven't watched, but I've heard that they don't really do the manga justice. Now, I wouldn't really recommend this one to kids, which I guess can be pretty broad or specific based on your definition? Strictly speaking there aren't any NSFW explicit scenes - nobody even gets naked at any point nor is it the hated ecchi style with random underwear/breast shots or whatever - but the two main characters are pretty euphemistic in, say, the first quarter or so of the series.

(Hiyakawa borrows power from Mikado and when that happens the feelings mirror the pleasure of intercourse, to put it bluntly, but that's not something that actually ever happens. Mostly we, the audience, just see Mikado get red and flustered, although Hiyakawa says/does shit to go along with it sometimes. It gets milder -> nonexistent as the plot progresses because that's not really the focus of the story.

Also, if you're sensitive to dubious consent then this probably isn't for you, since a big part of Hiyakawa's arc is learning how to be less fucked-up than he is and he often uses Mikado's power while Mikado tells him to wait or slow down - not because he wants to hurt Mikado or make him suffer, but because Hiyakawa just genuinely doesn't know that it's the wrong thing to do due to his upbringing. I won't go into why for spoiler reasons, but it becomes really clear by the end of the story. For those of you who are willing to look, I'm going to show a couple pics of this in action down below - otherwise, please skip over it and just scroll down to the parenthesis.

I wasn't really expecting to to go as in-depth as I did about this, and I do love this series, but I also want to give fair warning since the way the dialogue and Mikado's expressions are depicted give off a very real sense of urgency that I would hate for anyone to be caught off guard/be triggered by. I'd love to talk more about it if anyone wants to ask, but I've already diverged enough from the original question.

I don't want you thinking that they have an imbalanced toxic relationship in which Hiyakawa has all the power and Mikado is subservient to him, though, because that's not what it is either. Mikado has always been his own person, and Hiyakawa never tries to control him in any way besides from his own misunderstanding of consent. They help each other on equal grounds, but apparently the anime does a terrible job of showing that.

END )

So, why do I love this series? Well, it's modern paranormal/supernatural, which I'm a HUGE fan of. Apparently Gege Akutami (Jujutsu Kaisen author) named it as one of their own favorites, and once you read it you can really see a LOT of similarities. There's a character just like Okkotsu in that they've done REALLY shitty things and don't know whether they deserve to live or not. There's also a lot of learning how to be brave when you've been running scared your entire life and taking back your own control/power through it. And, other than the heavy stuff, it's actually quite funny. There was one moment I wasn't expecting where I actually laughed out loud.

Also, the characters are really compelling! Aside from everything I said about Hiyakawa earlier, he's one of those nonsensical types who says the most ridiculous things with the utmost sincerity and with a straight face. Mikado acts as his opposite - he easily freaks out and is very expressive. Also, the villain? Like holy SHIT. I could go on about them forever. Like. Holy fucking shit. Top-tier how they handled the boss battle because hoooolyyyyyy shiiiiiiit. But I don't want to spoil, so I'll leave it at that.

Also, the background stories for the characters - once you get to them - will break your heart. Yamashita draws really simply, sure, but they have such a powerful way with storytelling that the emotions just hit you like a brick through the window.

Mostly, though, it is a story about healing, and I'm a sucker when a bunch of people who need to heal in different ways because of the same thing all come together and help each other. I can also guarantee a happy ending, so look forward to that!

III. SNOW WHITE WITH THE RED HAIR

Oh, how I love this series. I know the anime hasn't adapted to its current point, so I def encourage you to read the manga even though it's not complete yet either (and I started in like middle school LMAO). Shirayuki was honestly such a huge role model for me growing up - she was smart and pretty and determined and, even when she wasn't so sure of herself, she always wanted to do the right thing. All the characters in the main squad are so lovely and feel like a real family altogether, and I adore every single one of them. It's sweet and romantic and nails nonmagical fantasy worlds right on the head, and I'd LOVE for more people to get on board with it.

(If you need more convincing, there's pirates and festivals and assassins and a character to love for every single person out there. I know Kiki and Mitsuhide are enough to cause a crisis.)

IV. BOYS RUN THE RIOT

OKAY Y'ALL. LISTEN UP. YOU WANT MORE LOUD AND PROUD QUEER REP IN MANGA?? HERE'S YOUR QUEER REP COME AND GET IT.

It doesn't have an anime adaptation so you can't really watch anything and be done with it, but there's only four volumes so it's easy to collect. it's a story about a transgender teenage boy named Ryo who expresses himself through fashion and GOD I love everything about this series. Jin is the BEST ally. It feels like such a warm hug to see something so proudly represented in manga. ALSO Boys Run the Riot started as a prototype one-shot that the author entered into a contest, and in THAT one of the first characters prototype-Ryo comes out to actually reveals to him that he's Korean!! He kept it hidden and changed his name to protect his identity!! Do you know how fucking REAL Keito Gaku was for that!! Like there is a whoooole conversation to be had about that topic but that is not for now!!

Anyways yes Boys Run the Riot makes you want to cheer and scream when everything comes together in the end because it felt like an uphill battle you were holding your breath through the entire time and I LOVE that they get a hopeful ending. Give it a try, I'm BEGGING.

V. CARDCAPTOR SAKURA

Okay, I'm going to be honest: this is pretty much the only series that has a manga AND an anime in which I've only ever seen the anime. I hear it does a pretty good job of adapting, though, so I'm not too concerned about it. (I do plan on reading the manga to catch up to the Clear Card arc.) I'll also admit upfront that since CCS is a kids' series, there were quite a few problems in it that I didn't realize until I was much older and went back to it.

I like that Sakura feels like a very real protagonist. She was scared and wimpy quite often, and as a kid it was really empowering to watch her develop into someone confident of herself and her abilities. She's got such a great supporting crew behind her, too! I especially loved that CLAMP brought in Syaoran and Meilin from Hong Kong - even nowadays, a lot of non-Japanese foreigner animanga characters fall into the American or European category.

Also, Yuki and Touya. Just do it for them. Seriously. You can watch CCS for them and ignore everything else.

Mostly CCS, for me, was fun and magical and a great escape for a little kid who wanted to get lost in a world not too far from their own. Also, it's got that 90s-drawn aesthetic we all know and love.

VI. PLAY IT COOL, GUYS!

Honestly, I love all of Kokone Nata's works so far. She's one of the more modern authors who got picked up on Pixiv, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where she's going. Play It Cool, Guys! is one of my favorites. It's actually a manga in color, and Kokone Nata utilizes it beautifully. She has so many fun characters and makes normal, everyday life seem so bright and fun. And not to sound like a main character, but I'm also a very clumsy, accident-prone person, so it's really nice to be able to see the crew do everything that I do and do their best to overcome them.

I also love how naturally their relationships develop. Like, seriously - how would a high school kid, two entirely separate and totally opposite college students, a late-20s office employee, and a semi-famous author all fall in together?? Everything is up to fate but Kokone Nata has a way of never making it feel forced. It's not at all unreasonable to bump into each other at the bookstore or in the park - especially when we see that they actually DO interact as strangers first who all happen to hang out/live near each other, and they just drift closer when they finally recognize each other. It's so subtle but so amazing to watch in action.

Also, it's very soothing and fluffy and healing and you absolutely do not have to put the amount of analysis I do into it LMAO, so if you ever need a pick-me-up I absolutely encourage this series or any of Kokone Nata's works!

VII. POKÉMON

Yeah, yeah I know. But I couldn't not include another childhood fave!! It was one of the very first I watched and Ash is honestly such a great protagonist and role model for younger kids. Sure, he can be an annoying brat in the ten-year-old way, but he takes losing like a champ and he always tries to do what's right. He was incredibly selfless, kind, and considerate for a character of that age and growing up alongside that really taught me a lot about what I wanted to put out into the world. Watching any episode just makes me feel comforted and like I'm paying an old friend a visit and it will always be in my favorites list. Plus the dub actually has some HILARIOUS lines LMAO.

Also, the Special Adventures manga series by Hidenori Kusaka is a total gem and was my first introduction to fandom, so if you're a Pokémon fan who hasn't read it then I really encourage you to check it out!

(I would like to make a note that I got stuck after this and was kind of fishing around in my head for the last three LMAO)

VII. HIBI CHOUCHOU

This one is one of my favorite high school romance series - it's sweet and fluffy and might be a little cheesy, but the characters are all so lovely and you can't help but want to cheer them on! The plot is kind of ridiculous when you first start it - "all guys instantly fall in love with the super pretty MC who hates the attention and has been declared 'unattainable' because of her distant attitude towards them and ends up falling for the one guy who didn't act crazy-in-love with her from the start" - but it's really heartwarming to see the growth Suiren and Taichi go through. I also really love Taichi because he feels so different and refreshing from a lot of high school romance manga male lead/love interests that I've seen. (Maybe because of the glasses? I can't name any other male lead/love interest with glasses LMAO.) It's such a gentle series and feels like a warm hug, and watching two quiet people find their way together really did wonders for shy high school me.

IX. FADED FIRST LOVE

Oh gosh, this one is SUCH a gem! You know how sometimes people want representation as a sweet story that's not about an identity crisis but just having fun and in love? That's what Faded First Love feels like. It's genuinely funny and sweet, and while Aoki DOES encounter a couple homophobic problems here and there, it's mostly lighthearted and nothing he can't handle with the help of his friends. He and Iida are both learning and doing their best, and it's one of the series I go back to whenever I want a pick-me-up.

X. JUJUTSU KAISEN

I did say before that I was a huge fan of mixing paranormal phenomena with modern settings, and Jujutsu Kaisen is a great example of that. It's crazy how much thought was put into the technical aspects of that world - every time I think about Gojo explaining to Itadori how to channel cursed energy, it makes my head hurt. The monster designs are so creative and the characters are all such a great bunch. I tear up whenever I remember Miwa listening to Mechamaru's voice recording on the plane. What really nailed it as a Top 10 for me was JJK Volume 0, because hooolyyy shiiiit. Okkotsu's growth was FANTASTIC to watch and I LOVE how confident he is now and how he follows the philosophy of "the people I care about care about you" when it comes to Itadori.

So that's it!! God, that was hard. I hope you enjoyed, and for anyone else reading it I hope this encourages you to pick up one or the other!!

Honorary mentions to: Promare, Kimi ni Todoke, From Up on Poppy Hill, Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, and tbh I'd list more but that would take forever LMAO

This is already a really long post so I'll reblog or make a part two with my fave moments, I'll let you know!

thanks all <333

[ohlexa]

don't hate what you are, what you are is beautiful. oh my god OH MY GOD. that line!?! i was hooked. like instantly they had my heart in a vice grip and my only thought was, fuck, no. because i pretty much knew how it ended. i've never been more thankful for writers. i'm already half way through sixth to the ninth hour and they weren't wrong, it's incredible. i'm pretty picky and i don't know these characters all that well yet, but it feels perfectly in character. exactly what i was looking for tbh. i know you prefer au but i highly recommend it.

do you have any headcanons for them? what's your favorite scene? did this fandom go through the whole top/bottom debate we seem to love to have? are there any must watch moments or interviews with the actresses? do you have *one* single favorite fanfic for them? fave fan video? i'm sorry for all the ? but i need more damnit 😅

Seriously - what would we do without the fandom creators?! I have Sixth to the Ninth Hour bookmarked so I'm hoping to start it soon - I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Okay, headcanons....🤔...well, I've always loved the idea that Ava loves space. (Don't even get me started on the whole Ava can't move and is literally tethered to the earth vs. that shit doesn't matter if you're in space so OF COURSE she's going to love space conversation....) And you know how her bed in the orphanage was right below a window? Well, sometimes Diego would sneak over, open the blinds, lay down next to Ava and they'd look at the stars together and make awful puns about them (so awful that most times Ava would say "I'm starry! I'm starry!"...ya know how it is). So couple this with Ms. Encyclopedia Brown (am I aging myself with that reference??) that is Beatrice No-Last-Name and it's just perfect. Beatrice spouts all about Greek and Roman astronomy and the little she knows about astrophysics (which, of course, is way more than the average person) and Ava eats it all up.

And while I've never been to Switzerland, I can only imagine how beautiful the starry sky looks like over there. Beatrice surprises Ava one day with a telescope and they spend the entire night looking at all the constellations they can find. Ava's looking up, her face full of wonder while Bea can't help but stare at Ava...because well, you know how it is.

Oh, and that hat Ava wears throughout s2? Bea totally bought that for her, too.

It's so tough to choose a favorite scene (THERE ARE SO MANY), but I'd probably go with their night dancing and drinking at Bar La Vasseur. I find myself going back and rewatching that scene the most. So yeah, that one. (What's yours??)

Ya know, I'm not really sure if there was a "debate" but from what I gathered, most think Bea is a top? (Is this correct? I feel like I joined the fandom a little late to really see it all go down. I'm with KTY though - they flip flop!)

Watch all of the interviews. All of them. KTY did a handful after s2 aired and there are several ones with AB after s1 came out and they're all fun to watch. If you haven't already, I suggest visiting AngeChats on YT - they've interviewed a lot of the WN cast - insightful stuff! (And we can't forget KTY reading thirst tweets!)

I hate you (affectionate) for asking what my ONE fav fic is, but I'd probably go with of greater marvels yet to be. And I really enjoy this fan video.

No need to apologize for all the questions - glad you're here, anon!

[mindthetimes]

On The Movie "Vanilla"

Well this movie was quite the cluster…truck. Van, actually. Or ice cream truck. Well, there wasn't really an ice cream truck, so…and no I wouldn't dare curse on this blog of mine, which I value too…dearly.

"Vanilla" is, quite literally, a play on what we know about the flavor of vanilla. It's not exactly a movie that I can...freely write about at this point of my life, what with the topic that gives me...discomfort, and yes it's a three-letter word, and also with having the same fears as the main character, Elliott, of being...thoroughly unsuccessful. But what I can say is that the road trip frees them up by the end of the movie, but it's not what makes the movie pack a flavorful, delectable, and I'm using fancy words here, piece of cinema.

A road trip movie is not something I'm unfamiliar with, having blogged about Diarios De Motocicleta, 2004, but each one is quite different from every other movie. That's kind of the thing about this...whole car thing. (I don't have a car, just a mini kick scooter.) The road trip...wait, why do I keep saying that? It wasn't technically defined as one, if I may say so myself. The movie is...quite so about the closing and opening, the push and the pull, the forward and backward motion, but also just the fleetingness of it all that is well, the vanilla ice cream. I do want to say that there is something in the movie that is like, this well, I can't say it because I don't want to write about the three-letter word, but that sort of linear flow of the direction here but also this well, wow, shapes. It's...no, I just don't want to mess this up again. How many ice creams have we all had? Does this movie really hit that close to where I'm at for me to feel so washed up with it? But saying that would mean I'm...no I'm not really into all that kind of stuff, and I'm here to leave a review about the movie, and why it's such good cinema!

Yes, back to the matter at hand. There's no denying this isn't one of those aesthetically-pleasing movies but focuses on precision that hits its target. It's kind of like seeing a dejavu and your life flash by in a movie, what with how bleak it is and all. It's like an olympic medalist archer's arrow shooting you straight to the...pee-pee. That's not quite how I would like to describe this movie, but it is and I do not want to talk about.

Much like this blog post, this movie is not a waste of your time at all because it doesn't shoot you on your...private areas, and leaves you motionless. What it does is...oh dear, I have been saying so much rubbish about this movie haven't I? I don't mean any kind of offense at all, I just...I just don't know why I find it hard to describe why this movie is extremely good, to the point where I'm doubting the medium, the time of viewing, the place, the media, the person I'm viewing it with, the exact times I looked away from the screen, the fact that I watched it with earphones on, and everything about my existence as a whole... I could really use a good scream right about now. It's...it's kind of a bit too much but also right, and that's kind of the attack of the movie itself that I'm talking about, and I just...don't know how to respond to it.

Perhaps I'll come back to this movie someday, and it will be an entirely different experience. But for now, that's where it's at. Thanks for reading this.

Edit: If I may, I would also recommend this app for the phone called "Ice Cream Disaster", which the app Elliott was making in the movie reminded me of. The movie wasn't a disaster, though, and no, sorry, I'm not even talking about the movie at this point...

[worrywrite]

I don't really care how this comes off, but as someone who really enjoys Discworld and is just... So incredibly tired of modern trad fiction. Don't skip Equal Rites. It's a good book. It doesn't hit home at the end as hard as some others, but it's still a fantastic book.

And on the other hand, there are some that I do think you probably shouldn't start on that others have said are great. Mort, for one, while being a decent book, isn't particularly interesting and doesn't serve as a great introduction for Death as a character even though this is his starter novel. Small Gods, on the other hand, is a brilliant novel and one of the ones I think everyone should read--but definitely not the first one people should read. But I still think people should get around to reading all of the series if you can (even though I haven't myself, because there's just so freaking many of them).

If you want to start, it really depends on what your existing preferences are. It you like fantasy in general, I recommend Guards! Guards! If you like d&d I would actually recommend Colour of Magic or Equal Rites (though my preference is EQ). If you're more of a drama and romance, I recommend Going Postal. Monstrous Regiment is also very popular, but might not resonate with a lot of readers that don't want to think about gender in a fluid sense (even though there is more to the book than gender/sexuality discourse).

Reading series in order is, in my opinion, a pretty good idea if you can. But reading them in any order is just as fine. I am of the opinion that if you can't bear to read a book because you know what is going to happen then you just don't like reading and you're forcing yourself to do it anyways. If something doesn't make sense, I fully support you going to the Discworld wiki and seeing what happens in any given book you missed and then going back and reading it when you can. They're all worth reading, even the "bad" ones. You can't really spoil Discworld because the charm of pretty much every book is that the plot doesn't exactly matter so much as what happens around it. But there are some that you are better off having a better taste of the world before you get to. You will want to know more about Vimes before you get to Night Watch, you will definitely have wanted to get a lot more books in general under your belt before any of the Death books, and the industrial revolution books have a much different feeling to them because they are when the setting changes a lot so it feels like things are ending and it's a little hard to bear if you enjoyed a lot of the older ones.

Tl;Dr just read them however you can. The books aren't particularly well circulated and can be expensive to buy if you can only get them from Amazon or something. Check your library system and look for starter novels. G!G! And EQ are my recommendations.

where can i start reading disc world?

(tl;dr version: Either with Guards!Guards! if you want angry urban fantasy or Wyrd Sisters if you want angry rural fantasy, then follow the list for that sub-series)

Oh anon brace yourself, there are in fact several ways people have big opinions on.

These are mine:

1. My least favorite way is from the start in chronological order

the trouble here is the first few Discworld novels were written as these kinda silly goofy fantasy/dnd parodies that weren't even supposed to be a part of a bigger thing and they honestly aren't that good, especially not compared to later books. That's the way I started and I just dropped the series for a few years cause of it, so I really don't recommend it. The author himself said he wasn't that good of a writer back then which is understandable, cause it was like 40 books ago.

2. What I reccomend is in chronological order based on different sub-series

Discworld novels all happen in the same world, but they follow different groups of characters, so you have several sub-series.

I'll post a list here, but it's pretty confusing so I'll also explain two of my favs below.

City Novels (Watch novels and Industrial Revolution novels)

About a huge, terrible metropolis and the people that help it run, stumble and sometimes trip over the years.

People normally split this into watch novels which follow the city watch and are crime procedurals/adventure books with a ton of social commentary and industrial revolution novels which are about the city speedrunning from medieval to industrial era via several inventions and follow different main characters who are mostly all there against their will.

To me, the main character is the city itself and I super recommend reading these from start to finish in order to see how it changes with time.

starting book: Guards! Guards!

Witches Novels

About three witches doing witch things in a small mountain kingdom, unless they're going on a trip somewhere.

Incredible horrid old lady characters, a lot of exploration of fantasy tropes, some deep emotional beats, very warm human phlosophy and personal responsibility themes.

There's a semi-seperate "YA" series about a younger witch (Tiffany Aching novels), but don't let that fool you, because those hit just as hard as the "adult" ones.

starting book: Wyrd Sisters (technically Equal Rites, but that's also in the awkward early books period for me)

As for the others, the death novels are also very very good, Small Gods is an amazing standalone book and I'd literally just avoid the Rincewind novels until you're already hooked on the series, but they probably have their fans too.

3. Just pick up a random book you see in the library

A tried and tested method a lot of people swear by, most of the books are standalone enough for this to work, BUT my personal opinion is at least the city books should be read in order (especially Night Watch) and there's several less than stellar books you could pick up first by mistake this way (Color of Magic, Light Fantastic, Interesting Times and Faust being the worst imo).

[writers-lack-of-craft]

Insomnia? I got you.

It's more than fair not to be able to fall asleep sometimes at night. Hell, I know I usually can't. So here's a list of (mostly) realistic things you could do when insomnia places toothpicks to keep your eyes open.

Stare at the wall and regret every life choice you've ever made. (kidding. am I? No, yeah, I'm kidding. O_o)

Have a pretend argument with your stuffed animals. They are very opinionated but their opinions are wrong. (okay, also kidding.)

Shadow-box your demons and then promptly run when they punch back. (last one, I promise)

For real though,

Listen to some music. Doesn't matter what kind - any which way you're feeling. Maybe have a little dance party with the stuffed animals you were just arguing with.

Unsubscribe from junk emails.

Journal. Write something, anything, about your life in the notebook. Write about that neighbour that is always fighting with her husband. Write about the moment you realized that some someone, somewhere, still remembers you because you were kind to them when no one else was.

Organize - makeup, clothes, art supplies, kitchen drawers, that one manic obsession you had for a week.

Meal prep. You have the time now. This way you don't have to eat the depressing unseasoned deli meat between two slices of white bread. Don't be shy. Add some vegetables. Actually have some fibre in your diet.

Read some poetry. Listen to some slam. Relate, be wowed, wonder how someone could think so eloquently when you have the brain speed of a slower-than-average sloth.

Write some poetry. Get frustrated. Write about your frustration. Be proud of the discombobulated writing you produced.

Watch a movie. Actually watch the first episode to the show your friend has been telling you to watch for a month, no wait, two months.

Write a letter to yourself a year from now. Label it as such and put it away to read when the time comes.

Look at old pictures of yourself and take the time to realize how much you've grown. Recognize the wounds that still haven't healed. Slowly fold away those, possibly painful, memories.

Think about an excuse to text your childhood friend to meet up and reconnect. Suggestions? Grabbing a cup of coffee, a stroll around the old neighbourhood, or tell them about something that reminded you of them.

Search up images of fluffy dogs on the internet. Scroll. Keep scrolling.

Plan the next day, even though technically it's the same day, a few hours later. Include breaks. No need to always be on the go.

Pick up a binge-read-able book. I find that John Green books are the way to go, but you can always have bad taste and read something else. (see, that sense of humour is back. I am JOKING -please recommend good books :))

Stretch. You don't have to be fancy with a yoga tutorial (or do, all the power to you), just help your body release all the stress from the day previous. In the words of the beloved queen, let it goooo.

[endlesscloudsoftime]

Tagged by: @thechroniclesoftrash​ [Thank youuuu  (*≧ω≦*)]

Rules: tag 9 people you want to know better or just because you feel like it.

Relationship status: Single [I suspect this will be my status forever *sighs*]

Favorite color: Blue ＼(≧▽≦)／

Last song I listened to: Maahi Ve from the movie Kal Ho Na Ho [a Bollywood movie for those who don’t know]

Last movie I watched: The Lion King (1994). I doubt I will ever stop watching this

Top 3 tv shows: xxxHOLiC (PLEASE WATCH THIS IT’S AMAZING), Kazoku Game (another amazing show), The Crown (phenomenal)

[I have so so so so so many more to list so I’m going to do it here because I can never stick to these rules apparently:

-F.R.I.E.N.D.S (like how can you not. I mean there are people who don’t like it but still HOW) -Criminal Minds – The Mentalist – Ouroboros – Clannad – CCS – Psycho pass – Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi – Soul Eater – Death Note – K-ON – Ano Hana – House – Noragami - Yuri!!! on Ice

I couldn’t not mention these. Forgive me.]

Top 3 characters: Ichihara Yuuko from CLAMP universe (xxxHOLiC, Tsubasa Chronicles) [SHE IS MY ULTIMATE FAVOURITE SHE’S PERFECT], Chandler Bing from F.R.I.E.N.D.S (please please please I need a Chandler in my life *grossly crying*), Yato from Noragami [how can you not]

What I’m currently reading: Fanfiction, fanfiction, fanfiction, Anna Karenina.

 I tag @omgkatsudonplease​, @savedbythenotepad​, @possibleplatypus​, @porkcutletbowltrash​, @iwritebetterthanispeak, @phaytesworld. @katzuyas, @crossroadswrite and @exile-wrath

[If you don’t want to or if you’ve already done this then you don’t have to of course!]