#her. also … these are legit all re-adds lol)

[pcetstcrtured]

… because i was enabled (thanks @everdawn ) - regina mills & emma swan are now on this blog.

along with marta cabrera, gil legume, & peter pan -

[prettyoddfever]

Tumblr glitched while I was trying to answer this, but thankfully I took a screenshot of everything before refreshing because I legit cannot find that draft or question anywhere now, sorry. So here we go again...

I'll link to the post here. (btw any annoyance that might seep into my tone in my recent answers is NOT directed at the actual people asking... y'all are lovely). So that post is done in a very similar tone to the Ryden primers that the pre-split fandom posted, but I'm getting the sense that this is very very different... like that person seems to actually believe the content that they're posting is straight up facts (and even if they don't, the fact that you're referring to it as "infamous" probably implies that other people are at least treating it as real facts, so I'm still going to address it like the tone is serious). Here's an explanation of how the majority of the fandom used to view Ryden.

A lot of their pictures no longer show up, so I'm going to leave a wayback screen recording here for reference:

I'll just comment as I go through it if I have something to add:

I suppose that the tone of someone's comments is open to interpretation, so idc as much about whether those are misread or not.

That supposed AIM convo was shared as a myspace bulletin by Brent's brother Blake during the summer 2006 season when he was trying to stir up shit and was busy posting other inaccurate info too. I'm just saying to take it with a grain of salt. 

Ryan’s lj post on 9/27/05 was about the release of AFYCSO that day. He talked a lot in interviews that season about how it was weird for him to see so many fans singing his lyrics back to him.

uhh most of the pictures that this person lists "from this era" of 2004/2005 are actually from 2006. so they definitely know what they're talking about here lol.

they list one of Ryan's livejournal posts and then say "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I know it was some time in 06." It was from June 24, 2006. 

lol Audrey.

re: the Myrtle Beach theory

why is the part where Ryan called Brendon a golden god in late 2006 any different than when Brendon said this about Spencer that same season?

re: the 2006 mic-sharing & stage gay

fans would positively scream when Ryan & Brendon approached each other, especially in the last half of 2006. this moment in Munich in October 2006 seemed no different... the guys absolutely knew what they were doing.

the VMA performance just seemed like Ryan was still using Brendon as a safe space to look at so he wouldn't stare at his feet or guitar, but that is still very much something you could turn into a Ryden thing so carry on haha.

about the Rolling Stone interview

I'm laughing at the "squint a little harder" comment about finding Ryden content in 2008. That is so accurate. 

re: Dylan's myspace (yes, Keltie ran a myspace for Hobo that anyone could grab pics from).

Ryan absolutely sounds like he's saying dude... also that would be normal.

the picture of the bracelet is normal

I'm just going to link to this post since it addresses many similar inaccurate points about early 2009.

I was about to side eye them so hard for posting the Lana Jade letter as real, but at least they added that she made multiple posts explaining that it wasn't her. And yes, obviously Brendon's best friend was Shane (not Ryan).

omg Ryan's tattoos are not about Brendon. Those are Tom Waits lyrics. Ryan was good friends with Thomas Dutton. About a year before getting the tattoos, Ryan was hanging out with him on tour in the UK and later told Kerrang that “a friend of mine in Forgive Durden turned me on to Tom Waits when we were in the UK… I’ve been listening to him ever since. His voice is so rough and dark. I’d never really heard anything like that.”

the sharing beds idea was misunderstood in the Billboard interview... all 4 guys slept on bunkbeds in the same room when they were recording AFYCSO. That's what Brendon's referring to.

re: the Bishop Gorman tshirt… Ryan was hardly that size in high school. But Brent went to Bishop Gorman too (and so did Paulina, who was also friends with Brendon). Brendon did borrow some of Brent’s stuff in 2004/2005 (like money for food while they were first touring). Just saying… it's def interesting, but it’s not an automatic Ryden connection.

I didn't read Spencer's tone in that out.com interview the same way... there's some relevant bits in this post.

about the red shirt

here's my general tag for Ryden stuff

[hibiscussoupbowl]

Yk what ive already made all my statements abt the teen wolf movie on instagram but imma say it here

As much as i love and breath teen wolf, its not the perfect show which is fine bc recognizing that is what makes its good. The thing is the movie? Godawful. The one thing i can appreciate is that the movie had an opening and the graohic design was cool

My problems with it?

-the plotline being abt allison. I think alisson (is it allison or alisson?) Is a fine character especially in s3, however, you killed her off. That whole s3 ending was abt her dying and isaac leaves BECAUSE of allison dying. Now ur gonna reopen that plotline that was TIED OFF? Ur not even gonna get stiles or isaac back into play even tho theyre arguably the most important for that season. And ur not gonna tell us how s6 ended??? Even with a flashforward of 2 years??

-the fbombs. Im sorry, what? U make a show that doesnt use f bombs at all and u make it creepy and horror but when u make the movie thats r rated meaning u can go even harder... u use it on fbombs? Might i add in the worst way possible. "Darkness motherfucker" wow. It just sounds so cringey. Either use it once meaningfully or dont drop one at all. U managed to make s3 be creepy without it do it again

-why the absolute fuck was liam in japan. By the hour and a half mark that question wasnt explained and it never was. Him and this girl hikari (whos gr8 actually) are just in japan and i guess own a bar??? I dont even know what they are to eachother let alone how they ended up there. I only knew that they love eachother bc they say that in jpn but like still??? Is it a sibling ily or a were dating and ily?

-the actors. Im sorry but if ur gonna get all these actors like masons and parrish and malia and whoever but u give them like what one line? Mason had legit like 2 lines in that movie. And u dont even know how he beacme a police officer! He just is! And they dont even say anything abt corey??? U could easily get his actor i know he aint doin anything rn. Liam and hikari? Also have like 3 lines in the movie

-personal thing lol but not everyone looks good with a beard and a shaved head

-lydia and stiles. Just bc u coudnt get dylan obrien cuz hes like the most succesful does NOT mean u just break up the couple that u built for six. seasons. You couldve said literally anything you couldve said stiles was dealing with some fbi shit or another supernatural disaster. Lydia having the dream? Tragic but stiles wouldnt have cared bc he loves her and wouldve just wanted to be with her forever.

-how can u not tell us who elis mother is. We ALLLL wanna know who derek banged im sorry but he slept with the enemy like three times and with his history and family history everyone just wants to know who it was.

-dereks death. WHAT THE FUCK this man survived a *pipe* going thru his back for like 10 minutes and survived, got brutally slashed and survived and ur telling me he died by magical fire. Sure teen wolf sure.

-if ur gonna introduce a character like alec in the season finale, bring him into play somehow recast him idc but do smt. Even nolan! Someone !

-what was with the whole nogitsune temple thing?? It was so... not scary at all and it looked bad. Like idk it was just so kiddy. Like oh noooo we re trapped bc we re tied to a pole with rope -_-

-sorry but again why continue a plotline that has been tied off? And not continue with the one that was open ended when u cant even get the significant actors for the s3 plotline? Bring daniel sharman into play, medicis over he has the freetime.

-malia and scott breaking up is also stupid bc again they were "endgame" and they had no reason to break up other than the fact that allison was alive again and for plot reasons.

-harrison coming back was so stupid i was so glad they killed him off even tho i guess they never found his body. I was hoping

-are argent and melissa not dating anymore? Its been like 3 months since ive seen the movie so i dont rememeber that but if they arent, why are the writers/producers, whoever, so desperate to break up everything great they had goin at the end of the show.

The interesting parts of the movie were

-the intro

-elis backstory with his dad, except why would u hate derek its literally tyler hoechlin

-and scott having an animal clinic bc i think thats funny

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

So completely unrelated to the 1920s AU I felt like discussing a plot bunny I have for Aeon since I honestly don't have many mutual who even know RE let alone the video game canon lol.

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Long Kiss Goodnight and I think Ada fits perfectly as Samantha/Charlie. It's about a woman who woke up in a hospital pregnant with no memory of her life before. Her life before was as a spy for the CIA so her identity as far as she knows for 8 years is that of one of her covers as a suburban mom. Until one of her old enemies attacks her and she hires a private investigator to find out who she was. Honestly I think Luis would be perfect for that and it would be a fun Ada and Luis adventure, but here's where the Aeon comes in.

So sprinkle in a little Sarah from Orphan Black, Ada doesn't work for the CIA she works for herself as a mercenary and fell for one of her marks, Leon because he was so genuine and he's the father of her baby. In the movie Charlie struggles with her desire for wanting the suburban mom life but also not loosing herself as the badass spy and ultimately finds the balance and realizes she can be both versions of herself which i think is the reason why she had amnesia. Much like people with DID the mind creates another person to cope. Anyway I feel like that resonates with Ada so much in that she wants both but can't see how that's possible.

Anyway, sorry for the long message I just really needed to tell someone this idea brewing in my head and know of no one else who would care.

THAT'S OKAY I LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE HEEHHEHE

i've never watched! i'll have to add it to my list!

i love mixing various character traits with others in re because i think we all kinda objectively agree that the characterization for re has been okay at best, and extremely poor at the worst lol. we got SOME that are nice and interesting, but so much of it is sidelined imo

we got a lot of leon's characterization but i would kILL for more ada

i just think ada's such an interesting character. she's flawed, but in the way that's realistic (for her circumstances) and redeemable imo. i just don't think characters (even like leon) seem real. most of the re characters feel like caricatures of people and archetypes that are written in to fill the roles required for a story.

i'd argue that jill should have really been explored more in death island and leon shouldn't have even been there. he was only there because his face on his face. like LEGIT why did he have to be there. because they wanted a big marvel meet up showdown lol

i wanna know more about ada! her motivations her desires. she really feels like she has the most potential to be more fleshed out and explored than most. and i just love the idea of her struggle with her own self image and self reflection because of the life she's lived.

i think it's clear that she probably has some sort of ptsd (similar to leon, and the others tbh although i argue leon shows it the most)(and this is one of my biggest complaints that the other characters (usually the morally good ones) aren't shown to have any sort of reaction of the horrors they see. (it makes them feel less human and just like cardboard cutouts of people)

anyways yeah i rambled sjbfsjsdfs

[theycallmequeerhat]

Very much loving your WN fic - I (Really) Do. I love your writing style and the story is just so compelling that I can’t wait for Mondays.

It seems like you have a good taste in books as well with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Got me wondering what else might be on Bea’s bookshelf. Do you have any other similar recs for lighter reads like those? Thanks!

First of all, thank you!!

Second of all, here's a list of Bea's (my) sapphic shelf. Admittedly might have more, can add if I realize I've put something in the wrong place on my shelves at home. *I've not put Author's names in these because I'm not trying to turn into booktok. The people that have the energy and ability for tiktok deserve all the love and awards. I'm just a book worm and will buy/read anything that seems kinda sapphic.* That being said, if you can't find a book from here and want more info, just ask. I can send photos of covers, etc.

Sapphic Books

YA Romance Novels

-Last Night at the Telegraph Club- I can guarantee you that this would be Bea’s favorite lol

-A Scatter of Light- no where near as good as LNatTC. Also, you have to tilt your head and squint for this to be a sequel. Which obviously annoyed me.

-She gets the girl- cute y/a romance

-home field advantage- y/a. eh. had to google just now to remember what it was about

-A Falling in Love Montage- I will defend this book because I don’t feel like we get queer books like this. That being said, this book pissed me off.

-I kissed a girl- if you like low budget horror movies, this is your book. if not, it’s just okay.

-She drives me crazy-I thought Irene could do better. i said what i said.

-Her Name in the Sky- So accurate to growing up queer in the south. I cried several times. I also asked my mom to read it. She did. We then cried together.

-Ash- It has been so long since I have read this, that I’ve just moved it back to my tbr pile

Adult Romance Novels

-The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo-there's a reason this is getting developed into a movie/show. Netflix will probably ruin it, but there's a reason it's getting one.

-Delilah Green Doesn’t Care- probably my favorite sapphic romcom to date.

-Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail-I don’t like Astrid as much as I like Delilah so that probably impacted my feelings of this book. Well written, probably better than the rest of the list, but Delilah was SO good.

-One Last Stop- fun, almost fantasy, almost young adult, but it’s a wee spicy, so we’ll put it here.

-Count your lucky stars-possibly better than the first

-written in the star-super cute. there is a third in this series, but it's m/f and I'm just not here for that, as lovely as they might be.

-the Romance Recipe- spicy, legit started skimming the rest. preferred the porn to the plot.

-Read Between the Lines- Cute, i’d read more of this author

-The Perks of Loving a Wallflower- cute, regency, unrealistic, but totally fine with that, part of a series, but you don’t need the rest

-Bloodmoon: Bound <- Yep, I’m promoting my own book lol, though I doubt Bea would be into it. very nsfw. vampires, bdsm, it's a good time

Sci-Fi and Fantasy (My favorite and subsequently, Bea’s favorites)

-Crier’s War- i want a movie

-Iron Heart-i aggressively want a movie

-Gideon the Ninth-these books will change your brain chemistry

-Harrow the Ninth-like a fever dream you don't want to wake up from

-Nona the Ninth-i love nona.

-The Space Between Worlds-Bea would absolutely love this book. one of the coolest reads of my life.

-This is How You Lose the Time War-pure poetry. i read it, let out a weird noise between a sob and a gasp and then immediately re-read it.

-The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet- barely queer, but I’m counting it. no i won't elaborate, that would be spoilers.

Graphic Novels:

-Sunstone-If you’re in to BDSM. PLEASE do yourself a favor and order all of these now. i believe volume 8 is set to release in November.

-Lumberjanes- SO SO SO SO cute. and good. and innocent.

-Batwoman (The New 52)- 1-27 are amongst the greatest comics I have ever read. F*ck DC. They know what they did.

-Space Trash (really, anything by Jenn Woodall is queer. also, small run comic books, deserves some support, you can find them online)

Currently Reading/To Read this Year Shelf:

-Malice

-She Who Became the Sun

-The Jasmine Throne

-The Priory of an Orange Tree 

-A Closed and Common Orbit- Not sure if this will be sapphic

-Sorry, Bro

-These Witches Don’t Burn

-Melt With You

-I think I love you

[mermaidsirennikita]

This is a Very Good Post, and I would also like to add:

--As someone who loves Westcliff and loves Colin Firth, Lisa is insane for that. Colin's image is very "elegant, wears the fuck out of a suit, has Italian citizenship now and you can tell". I'm not saying that is who he is in real life because I do not know him, but that is the image created for him, which he fulfills very well. Westcliff is definitely rich and proper and blue-blooded, but the entire point of Westcliff is that he's the earl who can do it all; it makes sense that Simon Hunt is his BFF because you kind of get the sense that a part of Westcliff would like to be able to just run around do Outside Stuff Like A Poor, but it also makes sense that Sebastian St. Vincent is his BFF because at the end of the day, he's... not A Poor, his blood runs blue. He's an earl who would, in today's world, be able to mow his own lawn with efficiency; but also, if he really doesn't wanna that day, he can pay someone else. But he's not gonna be a dick about it, because like, his friends used to mow lawns!!!! He's got a tan, he falls in love with an American, he's a man of many qualities, but he is NOT. Mr. Darcy.

--Great point that post-1995 P&P a lot of people think of Darcy as like, this purposefully cold jerk type. Which is one reason why I do prefer 2005 so much, as much as I do love Colin (Mark Darcy is Colin Firth's Darcy and the best character he's ever played, let's talk about it). Matty Mac's Darcy actually isn't a jerk, though he IS elitist and does make bad decisions based off his inability to read a situation correctly (and imo, his projections about his own insecurities re: Lizzie onto Bingley and Jane, two people who have a perfectly secure relationship that Darcy sees as up in the air because Jane isn't immediately effusive--Darcy is insecure, Darcy wants verbal reassurance from the object of his affections without having to express his own attraction verbally, he assumes Bingley is in the same place). Matty Mac's Darcy is a guy who has good intentions and wants to Not Be An Asshole, but he's suspicious of people (and that doesn't come out of nowhere) and he's shy and awkward. NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE THINGS THAT WESTCLIFF IS LOL.

The thing that Westcliff has in common with Darcy is that he does register rather quickly that he's into Lillian, and he is very embarrassed about it because he finds everything she represents embarrassing, lol. But I would also argue that Westcliff does also find Lillian genuinely challenging and annoying as well, which Darcy does not find Lizzie. Darcy and Lizzie's exchanges are prickly, yes, but a lot of that stems from their inability to communicate properly (especially him), not from him feeling like Lizzie is a dumb person. And I do think Westcliff does INITIALLY in Summer especially think that Lillian is an asshole, because she is, to be fair, involved in a legit scheme to entrap some guy into marriage with Annabelle, lol. One thing about Lizzie versus Lillian, imo, is that Lillian does make much bigger mistakes but the carnality and era of the book also conveys her interest in "bad behavior" in a much more concrete way. She's not a girl who makes innocent mistakes, she's a girl who wants (as always, I say that if Westcliff didn't exist, Lillian absolutely would've slept with St. Vincent). Westcliff hates how much she wants because he wants her right back and in a way that does not fit into his view of himself. Because while Westcliff definitely sleeps around a lot, he also SAYS you only need it once a week, lol.

--In general, there is way too much conflation of "historical romance EtL" with P&P and we need to stop.

Ever since I was mildly horrified that Colin Firth is a fancast for Lisa Kleypas's Lord Westcliff (by Lisa herself which.... come on, you need to pick someone who is not hot and yet inexplicably super attractive because of his "vitality" or whatever, Lisa), I've come to realize people actually liken Westcliff to Mr. Darcy, and even call It Happened One Autumn a 'spicy" version of Pride and Prejudice which.... well, we won't get into that particular suggestion, buuuuut I do think likening Darcy to Westcliff is kind of a disservice to both characters (and calling it "spicy" Pride and Prejudice is a disservice to both texts).

For all that Westcliff is shown as this perfect paragon of aristocratic virtue, he's honestly.... kind of not. Apart from him and Darcy sharing a sense of duty and a degree of aristocratic snobbery (which, tbh, most aristocrats or gentlemen would have at the time), they really aren't all that similar personality-wise

Do I think the narrative about Darcy being a brooding borderline douchebag was pushed by by fans post-1995 Pride and Prejudice? Maybe. To a degree. But let's be real here, Westcliff comes way closer to being a dbag than Darcy ever does, particularly his hot-and-cold behavior with Lillian (the time he calls her an easy target for St. Vincent and then immediately pounces on her and fingers her in his butterfly garden comes to mind). Darcy's behavior towards Lizzy is fairly consistent; it's just, they both misinterpret one another's actions until the proposal makes everything clear. That's not to say they don't change their attitudes afterwards, but there was always civility at the least.

And I don't think Darcy is a super broody type, but he is definitely shy around people he doesn't know (awkward too), and seems like the type to socialize with a few close friends (like I'm convinced his only confidantes are Bingley, and then his own cousin Col. Fitzwilliam). Westcliff on the other hand displays no qualms about socializing in large groups, in fact, he seems to command a lot of attention in large group settings like balls and the big house parties he hosts (routinely, based on Secrets of a Summer Night, where he's described as an accomplished host).

I know it's hard to compare a text with on-page sex to a text that is much older and has no point of comparison, but there was this detail in Secrets of a Summer Night that stood out to me:

This is veering into headcanon territory but the more generous headcanon I have regarding Darcy's premarital sex life is largely "widows" and "older women" and that too... I imagine it's a limited number (otherwise, he's a virgin. or partially a virgin; that's my favorite). What I'd never think Darcy would do is "join in" with any village wenches in Lambton (a combination of his shyness and upper-class snobbery about socializing with the lower classes for fun). Nor do I think he'd he exhibitionist enough to do things with paramours at parties where friends could see him. Interestingly, in IHOA, Livia comments that Westcliff has had a few discreet affairs and nothing more, but between a secluded sister and a friend who routinely goes around town with him, I believe Simon Hunt lol; that being said Westcliff is deffo more of a society affair type than a sex worker/courtesan mistress type. To be clear, this isn't me judging Westcliff for having sex with a lot of women, it's just, again, for all that he outwardly behaves in a proper fashion, he really isn't, and has relatively relaxed views on propriety, even as he judges Lillian for her lack of it at first.

In his second proposal to Elizabeth, Darcy basically said he understands that "no means no", while Westcliff..... does not quite understand that.

Ways Westcliff is similar to Darcy:

They both are brought to their knees by women who initially don't fit within their notion of a "right" spouse. But that's such a broad trope, as is the fact that they both "save" their heroines in some sense.

There's a decent amount of language in P&P describing Darcy as a a fair-minded master and "liberal"; while I don't know enough to speculate on his actual politics (though I have read some pieces that suggest he might be, based on, among other things, the real-life figure Jane Austen may have named him after, the Earl Fitzwilliam), what we do know is that he's liberal in the sense of being a very involved master at his estate, liberal with money where his estate and tenants are involved. Basically, he's not stodgy and backwards, just like Westcliff is when it comes to his estate and tenants. Kleypas takes Westcliff's liberal attitudes a step further by aligning him with progressive causes and progressive politicians.

Look, both Westcliff and Darcy are classist to a degree; both initially balk at marrying women with connections to trade, but ultimately, they a) go ahead with marrying them anyway and b) we know they like to associate with people in trade in other ways. For example, Darcy and Bingley are good friends in the way that Westcliff and Simon Hunt are friends. Plus, we know Darcy gets on really well with Elizabeth's Aunt and Uncle Gardner (who are in trade), to the point that they're frequent visitors at Pemberley after their marriage. Basically, their snobbery is not universal.

Westcliff and Darcy are good to their siblings but even here, the actual sibling relationships are different. Westcliff is closer in age to both his sisters so their relationship is (mostly) noninterfering (tbh Westcliff exercises remarkable forbearance when McKenna returns) and Westcliff is less high-handed than I imagine Darcy is with Georgiana who, based on their age gap, likely regards him as a second father of sorts.

[petruchio]

re: movie snow, i suspect that they'll either make him seem like a flat character (since his pov in the book is so focused on internal conflict and What Goes Unsaid) or fail to make cohesive connections between his unsympathetic and sympathetic moments (which would ignore the underlying tragedy conventions of tbosas, and feel inconsistent and jarring). i wouldn't be surprised if most of the character's internality is reduced to a superficial impression that He Lies. the film won't make him "good," but will it make him anything at all? i feel like this is also what happened with katniss -- movie katniss seemed generically cold because there wasn't nearly enough focus on the compassion and love she's forced to hide, and that's not even getting into the ways her trauma was (not) addressed. if the films can't show how katniss gradually learns to trust her so-called enemies, i doubt that they can show how snow gradually learns to distrust his so-called friends. but maybe they can! who knows! i'm actually much more concerned that the portrayals of lucy gray and sejanus will lack nuance and ignore their symbolic roles -- just like how peeta and gale aren't properly developed as philosophical "choices" in the adaptations of the original trilogy. they all have to work well as both symbols and individuals, and tbf that's very hard to balance. i'm sure i'll be getting my hopes up again as usual though lmao

yep i agree pretty much 100% here. like im not really afraid of “hot villain” snow as much as im afraid of “completely thematically barren tbosas” and that fear is founded on… how they handled things last time. im not particularly optimistic for the movies handling the nuanced themes of the book. mostly i just want to look at the costumes and the set design i guess, that’s the only thing i am legit looking forward to lol

honestly i don’t rly have anything to add haha like yes you said it perfectly! this is it lol

[justrandomselfships]

thinking abt making proper refs for my “main” S/Is and idk who I should go with first

- Obey me MC where I’ll draw (most) of the event outfits too. I guess I kinda wanna do it before signing up to Obey me Secret santa but at the same time I can use my old one just fine. - Three houses S/I just to draw her fullbody for once lol - Danganronpa S/I where I wanna add something to all versions of her so you can tell which game universe is it just by looking at her and not by who she’s with

or my genshin S/Is:

- My Sumeru self insert where I need to re-do some of her design details (maybe even change some of the colors) - My Mondstadt S/I cuz the one I’m using is sooooooo old and looking at my old style makes me cringe - My Inazuma S/I- IK I recently did one for her but I want to make a proper one (with front and back view + how her cape works)

oooor league S/is (where I would obv also draw the skins):

- THE SETT ONE WHO DOESN’T HAVE A FUCKING NAME YET- I just reaaaly don’t like her design for the most part and I legit wanna keep just the hair and her rings. - Soleil cuz she’s my main S/I and I have just my first design concept as her “main ref” - Odrey cuz she doesn’t have ANY refs and the only thing I have with her is that one drawing I did of her and Ezreal

[orangepeelsyndrome]

karasuno boys in the morning

DAICHI SAWAMURA ;

wakes up at 6 every morning

steaming hot cup of coffee to get through the day--literally the hottest cup of coffee you've ever seen like hOW do you not burn yourself siR

possibly goes for a run? at least does some sit-ups and push-ups

breakfast is a MUST for this man

takes the train to school and hypes himself up on the way with good music

SUGAWARA KOSHI;

tries to be a morning person--i mean he wants to be SO badly but absolutely cannot get up earlier than 7

does the cutest little yawn + stretch when he finally gets up

will whisper good morning to his plants like the sweet bean he is

breakfast is light but nutritious

i feel like he drinks tea ? but he definitely has a pumpkin spice latte when fall comes around

brings a journal with him on the train to school (he wants to use it to write poetry or short stories but he never knows how to finish them bc he can't find the proper words)

ASAHI AZUMANE ;

jolts himself awake kinda like how you would when your body thinks you're falling

gets up extra early to make a smoothie or acai bowl or some shit

also needs the extra time to do his hair (he definitely messes with it a lot and re-does it until it looks perfect you cannot convince me otherwise)

also his skin care routine is ✨immaculate✨

NISHINOYA YU ;

this is the mf who sets his alarm at 4:30 to finish last nite's homework but sleeps through it. every. single. damn. day.

def scrambles around to get all his shit packed and ready for the day

rolls out of bed with perfect bed head (the smexy kind tho dw) :)

somehow has time to put together a good breakfast

TANAKA RYUNOSUKE ;

also gets up super early to do his homework (like maybe 6) but still manages to either get it completely wrong or doesn't finish

doesn't need coffee (wbk tho) but always steals some if his sister is making it

packs a shit ton of snacks to eat sneakily in class

somehow always forgets something dumb like an eraser or pencils

blasts music on his way to school that everyone can definitely hear (but they're all bops so no one really minds)

ENNOSHITA CHIKARA ;

sets his alarm for 7:00 but doesn't actually get out of bed until like 7:30

why do i feel like he's a morning shower kind of guy

tbh his go-to breakfast is toast but some days he'll spice it up and add some avocados

tbh has a basic morning routine but don't ever let him hear you say that he will get self-conscious (sweet baby boy we love youuu)

sometimes gets up earlier just to re-write his homework if he thinks his writing is messy (it literally never is tho)

KAGEYAMA TOBIO ;

usually will sleep in but now has the habit of getting up early just so he can get to school before hinata

breakfasts are a chaotic mess like he'll just grab whatever junk food he finds first

gotta get that milk tho

one of them boys who rolls out of bed with clear skin and amazing hair without even trying sjdbjfjd how

sometimes has to sprint back home half-way to school because he forgot his whole ass bag

HINATA SHOYO ;

baby crow isn't a morning person in the slightest but needs to beat kageyama so his alarm is literally set for 5 am

meat buns for breakfastttt

will tie his sister's shoes before he leaves and she pats his head afterwards bc they're adorable

hypes himself up in the mirror and when his sister catches him she helps hype him up in the mirror too

will always accidentally put on an item of clothing incorrectly and has to rush to redo it

doesn't have any coffee in the morning bc let's be honest it would ruin his two braincells

it's canon but we all know he speed bikes to school

TSUKISHIMA KEI ;

either gets up at 6 or 20 minutes before school starts

was probably trolling people the nite before and forget to sleep so the eye bags are extreme

no breakfast bc he doesn't have the energy in the morning to function

morning routine is short and simple but i hc that he spends extra long taking care of his teeth or that dental hygiene is weirdly super important for him idk

like the man MUST floss before he leaves for school otherwise all hell breaks loose

YAMAGUCHI TADASHI ;

angel baby is not a morning person sorry

like if it weren't for tsukki sending him wake up texts/calls he would def sleep until noon

and then when he wakes up after the fourth text he always, always calls him to apologize

loves breakfast (i can so see him having a pinterest board of breakfasts he wants to make) but legit never wakes up in time to execute

washes his face in the morning and has the softest towel to dry afterwards

bought a dinosaur toothbrush to impress tsukki (lowkey it did but he'll never admit it) that he uses regularly now

bonus:

SHIMIZU KIYOKO ;

a queeeen with a badass morning routine

wakes up at 5:30 and does yoga while the sun rises

breakfasts are so important and they always turn out amazing somehow (pls teach me your waysss)

puts a lot of effort into her skin and hair routine (but only to keep it healthy and moisturized)

sometimes if she has time i so see her trying out little accessories that look ADORABLE on her but she lowkey would feel self-conscious wearing to school (like noo wear a beret to school plss i beg you)

HITOKA YACHI ;

an angel but not really a morning person

definitely sleeps with a stuffed animal that a close friend gave her

her breakfasts are actually the cutest things you will ever see and they smell amazing

brings a book to read on the train to school because the thought of small talk is terrifying (same lol)

like kiyoko she will also experiment with accessories but quickly gets too shy to wear them out of the house (again imagine yachi with like a pastel headband or scarf plsss im soft)

has started using the scented hand cream she saw kiyoko use and now she's lowkey obsessed with it

[whetstonefires]

Same anon as before. I loved Vision, though as a Runaways fan I'm not sure how to feel about making Victor a murderer. Strange Adventures really feels like he had a decent story idea but stretching it to fill 12 issues resulted in too many useless plot twists. It felt at the beginning that he was going to do something re: the non "human" residents of the planet but then the thematic payoff turned out to be "being tortured made Strange evil."

I didn't read his Strange Adventures at all! But the 'being tortured made Strange evil' thing sounds kinda par for the course, King is...weird about trauma, as we all discovered very thoroughly in HiC.

Word on the street is he's a veteran? Ah I have looked it up he spent a decade in CIA counterterrorism, so that kind of culture but weirder and with less access to social support. Which honestly explains a lot, because his relationship to the concept of trauma is very...military-man focused, with an emphasis on isolation.

The central preoccupation he keeps drawing his stories back toward is the experience of being a man who wants to be Normal (generally in the sense defined by Marriage and Stable Nuclear Family), but is impaired by his Trauma and Brokenness. The classic PTSD Veteran narrative, reformulated variously. Which works out, artistically speaking, better sometimes than others, and better for being self-contained and having fewer characters to work with.

His Vision worked so well because the whole story he was telling was about the dissolution of that middle-class normality construct under the burden of emotional disregulation and pretense. And because of the nature of Vision's family, all of them legitimately were props reflecting aspects of Vision's identity crisis, because he literally made them as props for his vision of what a normal guy was like and how he could fit into it.

And that's an issue and desire that's dogged Vision for a long time (see: the saga of how we got Wiccan and Speed lol) so while it was a bizarre escalation it wasn't unnatural to the character.

All of them sharing the same spiral made sense, and the whole thing held together so it could be consumed on more than one level and still work. Readers can come away with different takes about whether the neurotic attempt to play human in order to achieve normal happiness was itself the problem or a worthy goal tragically doomed, for example.

In Mister Miracle, King had the advantage that Barda and Scott have heavily overlapping trauma so they could focus on it together without it being too weird and Barda being too obviously a scott-mirror, and Darkseid is designed to be daddy issues made monstrous, and the baby was too young to have opinions.

It's as he adds additional people who have their own stuff going on (without a co-writer to synergize with because his collab stuff doesn't suffer this as much from what I've seen) he falters. Because he has to either break his flow to allow for there being more than one fully realized psychology on-set or change the whole sensibility of the piece, when it turns out this heavy psychological work doesn't really allow for more than one actual person in the narrative, which is a very limited definition of psychologically-driven story lol.

So hm also yeah I think anyone in the Ultron branch of the Pym family should be understood as capable of killing. Especially the ones who were built as weapons. That's something legit to struggle with, for the character! As some variety from the Am I Person thing. (Viv's Champions struggle with alternatives to authority as virtue ethos has been a nice change on the robot front while also building somewhat on what Vision was working through in her series of origin.)

But the actual setup of Victor-Victorious (i tag him like this in my head because he is technically one of 3 Victors on the Runaways okay ;lsjfkd;l) killing his...nephew? Should we say nephew? I'm saying nephew, rip Vin Vision. Anyway I found it unsatisfactory yes. King did not attempt to do anything significant with Victor's character really he just gave him a drug problem and had him lash out. (And then die.)

Coming up with excuses to have a character lash out and create drama is of course a staple of cheap pulp literature like comics, and I don't want to say King shouldn't have access to cheap pulp narrative beats at all just because he gets pretentious because that's silly. Grim Reaper accepting Vision as a version of his brother but being Weird about it transforming into Grim Reaper wigging out and wanting to kill Vision for not being Wonder Man so he can in turn be the first to get murdered is within normal comic book drama variance.

But now I think about it King is noticeably drawn to that moment of trauma-explosion as a drama beat and story goal in its own right. It winds up centerpieced a little weirdly sometimes.

Like the focus of the narrative movement is on setting up that moment of collapse, like the desired catharsis is playing out the horror of it? And then even when space within the story is set out for recovery of some kind following, it tends to be weirdly perfunctory and unrewarding to read, because the narrative isn't involved with that as a goal and doesn't know what it should look or feel like.

Idk if this is like, King struggling with actual unprocessed personal trauma or the fear of it, or just a matter of personal taste shaped by environment? I don't normally think about that kind of thing at all and now that I have I'm still eh. But it does show up a lot.

[goblinconceivable]

More Leverage ‘cuz binging

stuff and thoughts

1.3

Aha, there be NW going a bit flaily, in completely appropriate usage and reminiscent of Ford while being distinct rather than competing.  “Manic” lols

Like that little ongoing joke about Sophie not running things like Nate speechwise.  And that little speed up to the scene transition?  I really like it.

Parker’s performance on the shooting range?  She’s come so very far as a grifter.  Eliot seeing the cop car and riffing?  So has he.  All highlighted by Breanna racing to catch up.

Even though we don’t know these gamblers, I love this extension of the Team’s “social network.”  Back in the day we had Maggie, and the “Second Team,” but in this revival they’re more integrated into a worldwide web.  I think they were all actors at the fake auction, hoping to see more characters, and some blasts from the past.   Archie?  Maggie?  Sterling is 100% going to show up at some point, I figure a quick cameo at the end of the halfseason break.  It’s a nice touch that this time the gamblers are indebted to Ford, keeps the memory alive while loosening up the playing field.  (Also knew the woman at least was in on something with her slightly off line read “not again”)  Subtle and effective foreshadow :D

I would like to hear more about that gorilla enclosure.

Hey they showed the red button, and like the gun in the first act...  Buuuut, is this another winging it situation, or a flashback setup?

Parker eating Eliot’s cake?!?!?  double lols

I am satisfied with my flashback reveal explanation.

And yeah, the pearl.  Gun #2.

1.4

“We usually let our clients find us.”

Well, no.  Remember way back when, Hardison had set up web crawlers to find clients?  Remember one episode ago when they picked up the job based on a TikTok post from a teenager to her friends?  And they already knew this was in Harry’s backlog and that he’s seeking redemption.  All in all, stupid line.

O. M. G.  Parker and ELIOT know Klingon!  And Beanna had a lovely comeback!  And Eliot did his twitchy thing!  They’re becoming a family it’s so cute :D

Okay they didn’t know, but why do I know?  Didn’t he talk about it with his old boss and they were listening?  Didn’t they do a background search on him?  This feels shoddy and unnecessary, just there to have him going rogue without... actually... having gone rogue.  

Breanna brilliant.  Again harkens back, this time to Parker and whatever that duck thing was.  Building her own brother/sister relationship with Eliot, which makes me miss the old Parker/Eliot.  I think Parker grew up along the line and their dynamic changed a little, which is natural but makes me really want a good scene between them.  Which itself is odd because the Klingon thing just happened and that was adorable, but maybe it didn’t hit how I wanted because it was at heart about something between Eliot/Hardison and Parker/Hardison rather than Eliot/Parker.

I will mention here that despite preferring the Eliot/Parker dynamic in fic, in canon I love Parker/Hardison and hooking up Eliot and Parker romantically would be very wrong.  But platonically speaking, I do think they’re my favourite dynamic onscreen.

Re: Harry/Sophie scene...  This feel unearned, is this the intended episode order?  It must be, given the platform, but I was not aware that he was not in that raw “redemption” phase anymore such that he’d be ashamed enough to hide this?  I don’t feel how this was his “Big Regret,” why this case carries the emotional weight.  Yes, people died, but he wasn’t there or personally know anyone affected.  People died from the opiates.  

It’s hard not to compare with the original run, especially because there are so many callbacks, but this feels like a vague shadow of Nate, the first that comes to mind is his emotional conversation with Maggie about not getting the experimental treatment approved.  And that was earned and fundamental and an actual admission of deep trauma.  Maybe more an analog to Eliot’s reveal about Damien Moreau, since that wasn’t central to the show premise either, but that was POWERFUL.  For reasons we all know why.  I don’t know what this is.  Which makes it feel cheap.  Convo with Eliot lends legitimacy, but I don’t feel it, don’t feel that Harry’s depth is the same.

Probably because they haven’t shown us that he actually knew he was on the wrong side all along but was burying it.  I don’t know if Eliot’s speech is harkening to that, but even if it is, not organic.

But hell if I don’t adore the reveal that Parker was there.  Because a) she knows that about Eliot so she doesn’t even need to comment and Eliot doesn’t care she hears and b) adds some dynamic to the scene and c) speaks to the comfort in their roles during a con, even if they really haven’t done them in a while.  Though we know Parker and Eliot do most of the travelling, is that seperate or together?

It’s been increasingly nagging me, but they’re going after Jason, when clearly they should be going after his wife?  Or was she not involved then?  I’m fuzzy on that?  So instead they’re triggering a dude who was being manipulated, and at least atm it appears to be about catching him rather than using him to get to his wife, who is legit our expected kind of evil?  I just feel bad for this guy.  All kinds of confused with this episode.

The end was satisfying I guess, but also not?  But also yes?  I’m used to a hammer fall at the end, stamping the bow into the thing, but in this case the ending was initially funky because they didn’t get justice, just money and such.  I do like that we get the intended result in a roundabout way but there was no flashback to the workman’s comp thing to show the real ending with a wink and nod.

I just didn’t get this episode, maybe on a second viewing without pausing it’ll go better.

[tellywoodtrash]

immj2 29.10.20 lb

dadi getting a lil too intrusive in her confidence in vansh's ability to pyaar, just coz he got his wife’s wrist size right.

appropriate response.

idhar chachi lamenting ki ohnoe i think vansh really loves riddhima now.

yet again, an appropriate response.

but for wrong reason. coz this one's like, look at all the great love stories. the truer the love, the more bitter the ending.

mummy like ughhhh but these two seem annoyingly indestructibleeeee.

aryan is pretty chill. he's like we shall try try againnnnn, mom. till when will she escape and he keep saving her??? at one point or the other he'll be late by 5 min. that day, we'll get her.

time for riddhima to get an angre of her own, methinks.

meanwhile someone's fucking with the mehendi. ofc.

lo. adulterated mehendi has been delivered to correctttttttttttt victim itself. even though there's no name or anything written on the trays.

she's SOOOOOO excited to put mehendi that she's not eaten all day and telling dadi she'll eat after the mehendi is dry. her cheerfulness is annoying me. who would be this happy about a hetero relationship with a man????? wouldn’t be me.

husband has noted the point ki karwa chauth vrat seems to have started a day early.

black string on chachi's shoulder, same as from mehendi-fucker-upper ka blanket thingy. i mean..... i think it's a red herring, coz she and aryan were bitching when the mehendi was being tampered with, but who knows with the timeline of this show anymore.

the stupidest thing here is that only the open mehendi has been fucked with. i wouldn't use that in the first place and just use the cone for sheer convenience and less mess. also KNOWING that everyone in this house wants to kill me???? why the fuckkkk would you use the one in the open container????

ainvayi mein these three are glaring at her. imagine letting someone this stupid live rent-free in your head all day. be better, queens.

hubs is here with khaaana.

dadi has to taang adaaofy some more and force him to feed her. honestly, iss dadi ko bohut zyaada utaavli chadhi hai. calm your tits, woman.

not to nitpick on a nice thing being done, but that dal to rice ratio seems waaaaaaaaay off.

also gross, she eats like a baby. truly incompetent in every single way.

sir what is your face?????? but also yes, simp more for your wifeee!!!!!

ew dal waale haath se hi baal bhi sawaar raha hai.

GODDDDDD, GET A FUCKING ROOM BEFORE DADI POPS IN BETWEEN YOU TWO LIKE

yup. she had to say some nonsense in between and make me die of cringe. i'm fwding the scene coz i realllllly can't handle the second hand embarrassment.

if my cat stepped in mehendi and walked all over my palms, it would look better than this.

DADI IS LITERALLY KILLING HER POTA BY EMBARRASSING HIM TO DEATH. PLS WOMAN, STOP. I CAN'T HANDLE IT.

ishani and mummy being eternal mood.

itch itch itch itch itch.

sensible dude is like just wash it the fuck off you idiot, and she's like noooooooooooooo but the rang!!!!

“tumhe lagta hai mehendi zyaada der tak rakhne se rang gaadha hota hai, ya phir pati ke chaahne se?”

“dono hi samajh lo.”

gotta say, i like flirty riddhima. it's the only time she uses her brain a lil and is tolerable. BUT OH GOD JUST GO WASH YOUR HANDS YOU DUMBASS.

thank god, he insisted and sent her off.

these two's issues i really dgaf about anymore, so fwding. like........ i think angre needs to back the fuck off a little bit. har waqt uske mooh mein ghuske yeh pati waala drama karoge toh kisi ko bhi gussa aana hai.

wonderful. aur rakho itchy mehendi haath pe.

husband ready to burn down mehendi waale ppl's house. totes appropriate reaction.

she's like oh no idc about my sore, bleeding hands, i just feel so bad for dadi. omfg dumbass just get a brown sketch pen from somewhereeee. like the old bat would be able to tell the difference. 

“mehendi ka rang aur pati ka pyaar, inn dono mein koi connection nahi hai.”

ex-fucking-actly. i gots no pati and my mehendi comes out DARK AF, every single time. it has to do with body heat more than anything. and since i am a human furnace, i don't need no pati ka pyaar. not only in this area, but in alllllll areas of my life. #aatmanirbhar

“yeh mehendi ka rang humaare rishte ka certificate nahi ban sakta hai; lekin agar tumhe aisa lagta hai, toh mere paas ek solution hai.”

sweet.

ugh i don't caaaaaaaaare about these family waale and their neverending tippaniyaan on these two's marriage. fwding.

anyway pati is here to tell everyone to stfu and gtfo, thank god.

ofc that gets these 3 to turn on laser glare eyes and vow hellfire and brimstone on riddhima.

ishani was mehendi culprit?

here some more bitching and theories ki riddhima ne itna dimaag chalaana kabse shuru kar diya, uski neeyat kyun badal gayi about giving kabir the memory card, blah blah. i'm just here to stare at kabir in all black.

hein? mummy ALSO has the black kambhal???? did alllllll of you bitches add your own own poisons to the mehendi???

oh?????????????????

can't say i wouldn't do the same.

lol she's straight up calling him out for being an asshole when awake.

and now she's imitating him and maarofying all his dialogues, including the "interestingggggggggg.... veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy interesting." again, this episode is perhaps the firsttttttttt time i've liked riddhima as a character.

ASLKJDLASDLKASJDLKJASLKDJLASKJDLSAJLKDJL I LEGIT SCREAMED

and he's back to growling at her. but good for her, she doesn’t seem intimidated at all.

but april fool! he likes it!

“ek baat boloon?”

“haan bolo.”

“kabhi tumhe aise muskuraate hue nahi dekha. aadat daal lo, achche lagte ho.”

“tum bhi aadat daal lo. mujhe yeh aise achcha lagta hai.”

OH GOD SHE'S GONNA RUIN THE MOMENT BY TELLING HIM ABOUT KABIR. OH GOD. OHHHHHHH GOD. IDK IF IT'S MY PERIOD CRAMPS OR SHEER TERROR, BUT MUMMMMY, MY STOMACH HURTSSSSSSS.

ok phew, she didn't say the R(agini) word. she just says that like you had a story in your past, i have one too....

andddddddd he told her he doesn't care. it's her past. it's done. he only cares about living with her in the present. well dang. such a reasonable response? from this dude???? unexpected.

but also, He Knows right????? He fully Knows already.

is the person writing their scenes on some special drug these days? whatever it is, they should keep doing it. remarkable improvement in romantic scenes. like, crazy amazing improvement.

is it that, or have i developed stockholm syndrome for this show now??????? oh fuck.

early morning sargi blah blah.

ishani like i don't even got no saas, why i gotta be here for thissssss?????

riddhima as usual has to be overrrrrrrrr, and has prepared sargi for ishani and hands it over.

OH GOD DADI IS TELLING HER TO TOUCH RIDDHIMA'S FEET OH GOD DADI WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS YOU JUST WANNA SEE THIS MANSION BURNNNNNN, DON'T YOU

ofc there are promises of soooooot-samedh badla.

aaaaaaaaand mummy purposely messed up riddhima's sargi. ouff. saas bahu politics. idccccccc.

lmaooooooooo i am ishani. i can't help it, i just really am her.

wait mummy is saying shit like “mere bete ka dil todkar, vansh ke liye karwachauth ka vrat rakhne chali hai.........” ARE YOU TELLING ME KABIR REALLY FELL FOR THIS CHICK??????????? IT ISN'T JUST A EGO THING FOR HIM??????? RE DEVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

[gleekto]

Even Better than the Real Thing (2/15)

Summary: College AU/Famous!Blaine and Fanboy!Kurt - Kurt POV

Kurt really doesn’t have time to figure out the dating world between being a freshman at prestigious theatre school, LAADA,  and his active but secret blogging life in the Sing!Fandom. So what if Sing! ended last year? There are still fics to read and actors to follow. Especially the uber talented heartthrob lead, Blaine Anderson. He can act. He can sing. He can even dance. He’s gay. He’s out. And he’s only 24. Kurt is willing to twiddle his thumbs and click refresh until Blaine Anderson’s next project.

He just didn’t expect the next project to be on his roommate Rachel’s new TV show.

Part 1

Even Better Than the Real Thing (2/15)

Kurt drums his fingers nervously on his keyboard, idly refreshing and scrolling his tumblr dashboard. He has some major info. He wants to share it. But that would be wrong.

To post or not to post? On the one hand, it is top secret intel, on the other hand, Blaine is about to start filming on a set where paps are always nearby - it couldn’t be that long until the official announcement. But on the other other hand, Rachel would kill him if she found out. But on the other other other hand, he would be a fandom hero.

Kurt devises a plan that he thinks is low risk and ethical enough to keep him out of trouble while still reaping the benefits of his golden egg.

LimaBlaineFan: I have a source. I trust them. Under the cut for the goods:

Blaine Anderson is about to be on a TV show. A significant supporting role. He will start filming soon.

Kurt reads over his three sentences at least five times, making sure he is not giving away anything that could go viral beyond the fandom but will whet the many hungry palates of his friends. He’s not a troll, that much people know about him. And as soon as the news is public, they’ll have confirmation that his “source” is legit.

It takes five hours for him to gain another 300 followers but luckily it seems to taper off there. Blaine Anderson isn’t that famous yet and his rabid online fanbase still appears to have a ceiling. He turns off permission for anonymous messages after the twelfth “lol you wish” and “Sorry but why should we believe you?”, but not before reassuring the anonymous sender that they absolutely should not believe him. Just wait.

A few minutes later, the red flag comes up on his dashboard, again indicating that he has yet another new message.

MercedesSing! asks: So why should I believe you?

Mercedes is his fandom friend turned sort of real life confidante. Sort of because he hasn’t actually met her in real life - She lives in New York, he lived in Ohio, and now LA, but they talk and text about more than just Sing! She gave Kurt pointers to perfect his LAADA audition, watching him perform countless times over FaceTime. He knows she’s aiming for leads on Broadway, while biding her time studying music at Columbia. They share stories of surviving racism and homophobia in high school, leaving them each with a thick skin as an an armour. She even knows that despite Kurt’s cool confidence on the outside of the thick skin, that somewhere buried underneath he’s still a romantic who would love to actually find someone worth his time. Both of them are too fabulous to settle for just anything or anyone. That much they agree on. And in the meantime, they can swoon over the silly romances in coming of age TV shows.

He sends her back a private message. I can’t say more right now but believe me, I’m not making this up. Blaine Anderson is about to be on our TV screens again.

...

Kurt paces his apartment on Tuesday evening, just waiting for Rachel to get home. He cleans all the dishes, sweeps the floors, wipes the counters, then sweeps the floors again. In addition to Tuesday being the day of Kurt’s music theory test, it was also Rachel’s first day of filming episode three. Even if Kurt had forgotten (which he hadn’t), he would have been reminded by Rachel’s overwrought complaining that morning that Patti and Barbra would only start filming on Thursday, with the next two days reserved for a scene with that Blaine guy - Colin Red is so taken with Rachel’s star vocals that he accidentally kisses her   - forgetting about his strained relationship with his popular girlfriend.  Sounds like a tough day.

Rachel finally comes home at 9 o’clock. She’s clearly tired, flopping down on the couch and opening a Cosmo magazine. Kurt, of course, had planned for this scenario, and hands Rachel a warm water with lemon and a homemade chocolate chip cookie.

“Meyer lemon?” Rachel glances at the tea cup.

“Of course.”

“You know me so well.” Rachel scooches up to Kurt on the couch and squeezes his side.

“So how was it?” Kurt asks casually.

“Long,” Rachel sighs, re-opening the magazine. Kurt waits. “Blaine Anderson is nice, though.”

“He is?” Kurt tries to sound disinterested. 

Rachel looks up at him skeptically over her magazine. “Did you know he’s gay?” Kurt nods as she adds, “He’s a good kisser, though.”

“Though,” Kurt repeats. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He’s heard from reliable sources that some gay men are indeed good kissers.  Not that he would personally know.

“Oh shut up. You know what I mean.”

“I guess he’s just a good actor.” 

“Touché. Anyways, there’s a cocktails evening for the full cast this Thursday, after Patti and Barbra’s first day, and I definitely need you with me. I know these schmoozing evenings can’t compete with another evening on your laptop but-”

“You want me to come with you?”

“Yeah, as my plus one. I need you to make sure that I don’t make a complete fool of myself in front of my idols. Who else would I trust?” That’s true. “And besides, it’s a great career opportunity for you. A musical theatre student meeting Patti Lupone. You should pay me.” 

Kurt rolls his eyes but obliges as nonchalantly as possible. “Okay, I’ll come.” He would never give up a useful career opportunity.

[multsicorn]

book-and-show

My preferred mix of the two canons is basically ‘The Untamed, but Wei Wuxian lost control of his zombies by his own goddamned self, and also plot/logic holes are taped over by explanations from the book when needed and possible.  And we know that wangxian are together and will be married, but we're left with spaces to fill in the details.’  (One of the cool/interesting things about having multiple versions of a canon is that one can mix and match!)  But there are definitely things that I prefer, separately, about each.

[two very long lists.  all of which are all about personal opinions/preferences, and none of which are looking to start discourse!]

Eight Things I liked better about the show:

1. "Who am I to you?"  "I had thought, that you were the one who knew me for my whole life."  "Still, I am." is *twenty zillion times* more romantic than a stolen blindfold kiss, in a way that pretty much encapsulates why I so much prefer show to novel wangxian overall.  And in this TED talk - I mean, in another post, hopefully, in not too long, I will.

2. Lan Wangji's explicit questioning of and overturning his understanding of 'what is right, and what is wrong,' rather than simply being motivated by 'if loving Wei Wuxian is wrong, then screw everything else.'

3. Introducing so very many characters earlier in the chronological timeline, and showing us more about them and their relationships prior to Wei Wuxian's death - and outside of the key moments in which they're involved in the plot.  Wen Qing and Wen Ning, Jiang Yanli, Mianmian, Songxiao, Xue Yang, Meng Yao - this list could also be its own post.

4. More focus on the Sunshot Campaign and its aftermath, pre-death, specifically on the period when Wei Wuxian is the feared necromancer, and he and his loved ones are dealing with that, against a background of war and then possibly more war.  It's by far my favorite part of the narrative, just because of my preferences re: genres, so I appreciate it being foregrounded rather than just a backstory that's shown in flashbacks.

5. The successive confrontations between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji over 'leaving the right path'!  In the courtyard, when Lan Wangji pulls Bichen on Wei Wuxian to make him listen; in the sad umbrella rain, when Wei Wuxian holds Chenqing out in front of him, defying Lan Wangji's efforts to rein him in.  These things probably fall under the umbrella of the TED talk from the first point, but they're the beating heart of WHY I LOVE THIS STORY.  And they're not even in the novel...!  I thank the CQL team for my life.

6. Also, THE COMB STORY.  I'd never have thought either that 'how do we improve an m/m romance novel?  By adding a het romance subplot, of course,' but the fact is that I love the dimension it adds to both Jiang Cheng's and Wen Qing's stories.  Highlighting their shared loyalty to their clans - except not shared, because they're from different clans! - but their shared *understanding* of what righteousness, justice, etc., is, and the way it leads to their tragedies, and the way it's a counterpoint to Wei Wuxian's and Lan Wangji's different and ultimately shared understanding of 'what is right' and the way *that* brings *them* together is just... so good.  I am getting over it approximately never, and, again, it's show-original.

7. And I think the last big thing - other than, the acting's wonderful, imo, the visuals are great, (even the 'bad' special effects? I like 'em kinda ridiculous?), and when the prose-in-translation of all versions is iffy at best, (not judging MXTX's prose! or the scriptwriters'! but I unfortunately cannot read or understand it) it's REALLY NICE to have other major dimensions of the story that aren't lost or diminished in translation.  Honestly, I am only watching cdramas and not reading cnovels (I only read MDZS so I'd know what's in it) for that reason alone.  But in terms of *story* stuff -

8. I think that censoring wangxian's relationship down to the '(really really loud) subtext' level counterintuitively also makes the rest of the story seem considerably gayer.  If wangxian exists in hints and looks and narrative parallels etc., then likewise, so do the 3zun and Yi City triangles.  Not as much as wangxian, but they're more minor characters, and they're on the same continuum... to the extent that I legit thought that songxiao and xiyao would also be novel canon.  (They are not.)  If Wei Wuxian shocking Lan Wangji by showing him gay porn in the library, and commenting on Lan Wangji's beauty, is because he is actually into guys, then maybe Nie Huaisang lending Wei Wuxian that same porn, and also commenting on Lan Wangji's beauty, means the same thing, if that's all we have to go on. etc.

Nine Things I liked better about the book:

1. There's something about Wei Wuxian's narrative voice, the running commentary that he gives about others and most of all himself that is... funny?  Yes, it is, but that's not the part I love.  It's hard to pin down, but the pattern of the things he judges and the things he doesn't judge at all, even though maybe he should, but he really has so much empathy - in the literal sense, I mean, as well as the magical - is very specific and endearing?  He's exactly like that in the show, too, but we hear much less of it when he's not telling the story.

2. Getting to hear A-Qing in her Empathy fleshes out her cleverness and her bravery, again, in a way that's not easy to replicate seeing it from outside of her head.  (I think we may have more of all of the ducklings/juniors, actually, but I'm just not all that interested in their friendly banter.  Not when there's life-rending trauma in the OG of the same story!)

3. From the chronological start of the story, the Wens' domination and power-hunger is portrayed in a realpolitik way that's both more interesting and fits the rest of the story better, with the Jins later filling that same vacuum, and fearing Wei Wuxian's potential to do the same sort of thing to them, etc., as chronologically following and competing different takes on the struggle for power, without any need for the flat fantasy mcguffins of the Yin Iron or the 'spirit snatch.'

4. Wei Wuxian ~appreciating~ Nie Mingjue's dead body parts is hliarious. I love him hanging out with the corpse girls.  I love the Wens risingout of the blood pool for him ;___;.  Overall his relationship withthe corpses that he magics is such a cool weird fun part of the book,that is missing in the show except his friendship with Wen Ning for'let's make a show about necromancy but pretend it's not' reasons.

5. The fact that Wangxian don't split up and go their own ways at the end of the story, even temporarily!  I could go either way on 'Lan Wangji becomes Chief Cultivator' - I like the way that it moves into 'the future will be better than the past, and we'll work to make it that way', in the same way that 'the kids are alright' does, and the fact that Lan Wangji hates diplomacy and is bad at it can make for good amusing stories!  But I also approve of the fact that the personal win condition for so very many of these characters is to peace right the fuck out of sect politics, (like Mianmian our true hero does <3), and I believe in that as a happy ending.

6. Wei Wuxian's and Lan Wangji's complementary ~ravishment~ kinks.  I don't like the exact way they're written in the novel (and extras), but I *will* take and run with the existence of them, nevertheless.

7. The post-resurrection plot makes, um, sense?  Let's not forget the importance of that!  (But, honestly, 'must a plot make sense'?  It's not all that important to me, lol.)   Going from one place to another to collect the pieces of 'our dead friend's' body rather than seemingly at random makes the journey feel purposeful rather than direction-less, and gives an indication of progress that's not simply 'amount of the story read as per chapter count.'  Though it's still not clear to me why the juniors squad needs to be in Yi City!

8. It has more of Wei Wuxian's inventiveness.  Whether founding the Diabolic Path rather than 'just' inventing some tools and talismans within and also outside of it, or figuring out/explaining how some sort of magic works, whether lecturing to the juniors or working it out for himself, or something like that one night-hunting extra where he's being a supernatural consulting detective... it's fun to see more of his ~mind at work,~ in a way that doesn't fit as well either into an audiovisual medium or under the constraints of 'what is happening? definitely not corpse magic!' that censorship imposes.

9. The structure of revealing what happened in (what I can't help thinking of as) the main portion of the plot - who Wei Wuxian is, what his life story is, and Lan Wangji's part in it - through interleaved and not even necessarily in-order flashbacks is... so interesting?  Unfortunately I can't tell how well it would've worked for me in terms of changing my understandings of characters etc., because I watched the show before I read the book, so I came to it knowing the outlines of the story.  But it's a cool idea, and I wish that I could experience it properly!  (Though I would never have read the book without watching the show first, I would've failed out at the start due to translation issues and then if I'd persisted past that due to all the gay chicken stuff.)

[moviesrotbrains]

FREAKY slashes up a piece of that horror-comedy pie

Hey, let’s remake FREAKY FRIDAY, but this time it’s about a middle-aged serial killer who swaps places with a 17-year-old girl. That simple yet ridiculous premise is the main plot behind a surprisingly perfect, and fantastically gory, horror-comedy.

FREAKY is one of those movies that could have failed hard. It’s a brilliant idea that could have fallen apart in the wrong hands. Many films have tried to balance genres and get lost along the way. FREAKY is NOT one of those fails. It’s one of those films that had me rooting for it from the first 5 minutes and still had me pleasantly surprised throughout. In addition to being a great body-swap flick, it’s also an engaging horror flick. It’s like someone shoved your favourite FRIDAY THE 13TH scenes in a blender with MEAN GIRLS. It shouldn’t work… but it does. It’s an ode to 80s slashers, but it’s also an ode to high school-centred comedies? And it does all this while keeping hardcore horror fans pleased by giving it a hard R rating?!? And it’s actually really funny?!?

When they first announced this film, I was expecting a fun PG-13 flick in the vein of HAPPY DEATH DAY, and I was okay with that. I really liked HAPPY DEATH DAY (as with FREAKY, also directed by Christopher Landon). HAPPY DEATH DAY, was a smart spin on GROUNDHOG’S DAY that it did a lot of cool things while also being able to do so with a PG-13. It wasn’t trying to be MANIAC, nor did I ever expect it to. I’m an annoying purist, but I’m ok with light pop-corn horror if done right, and that film did it right. 

So with that in mind, I was utterly blown away by the very, very R-RATED kills in the opening 10 minutes. It was a brutal onslaught of gore. It was Landon’s way of saying, “Relax, horror bros, I got you.” It was like a Greatest Hits from decades ago but with a fresh spin on it. Slashers got a little lazy in the last few years, and this film just let it all hang out in that opening scene. It was ballsy as all hell, and I was totally on board. And luckily it didn’t just stop there.

This one has all the tropes of classic stabby fright flicks. Huge emotionless killer? Check. Ominous mask? Check. St upid teenagers getting in trouble? Check. Inventive kills that make you cackle “Holy Shit”? Check. Twists and turns? Check. A growing body count? Check. Final girl? Check. And let’s throw in an occult artifact in the mix that swaps that final girl with that emotionless killer and that’s where you get something new and different!

And if you’re coming into this one from a comedy perspective, this one has all the tropes of classic high school movie. Insecure lead going through an awkward time? Check. Supportive comic relief friends? Check. Parents that just don’t understand? Check. Villainous teachers? Check. Mean girls? Check. Huge awkward misunderstandings? Check. And let’s throw in an occult artifact in the mix that causes said misunderstandings and that’s where you get something new and different!  

That new and different wouldn’t be what it is without the standout performance from the two leads, Vince Vaughn & Kaythryn Newton. Vaughn is the aforementioned creepy masked killer. He’s wonderfully cast here as a towering, silent brute. Vaughn of course might be known for his comedic work, but he’s actually got an impressive range that’s very rarely utilized (see BRAWL AT CELLBLOCK 99 for more details). Here he excels as the Butcher. Effective, brutal, and cold. He’s been on a killing spree lately, which we see a bit of at the beginning, and he’s definitely looking to kill some more. And it looks like he found a spooky looking occult dagger

Newton, known to genre fans from her recurring role in SUPERNATURAL, is very likeable as the main lead, Millie. Having recently suffered from the loss of her father, Millie is currently dealing with the ongoing depression that the loss put on her mother, as well as her own struggles to return to normality. Can she survive a day at school from the usual trials, tribulations, bullies, and high school crushes, let alone a serial killer lurking nearby?

And thus their two paths meet in the most unexpected (or very expected) of ways. We soon witness a thrilling chase, very reminiscent of the best Michael Myers and Jason hunts-- in fact this whole chase actually takes place on the eve before Friday the 13th, a very knowing wink to the genre that birthed this film. And soon the Butcher, with Millie in his grips, claims his latest victim… only he doesn’t… darn those occult daggers!

And that’s when the two leads really showcase their acting chops. Vaughn is now a frazzled high school student, and Newton is the silent and sinister stalker. Both take on their new roles excellently and they both embody (heh) them flawlessly. Vaughn is awkward and fragile and Newton is menacingly fierce as fuck. Newton utterly transforms into someone else and her performance is a total triumph. Vaughn is adorable. 

Seeing them both re-interact/meet with their friends (and foes) in their new forms is endless fun. You see Vaughn run like a girl and Newton go on a homicidal spree. You see Vaughn give off his best flirty eye and Newton’s best glare of doom. They both seamlessly fill their new roles.

But it’s not quite the seamless exchange for Millie and the Butcher. Millie clumsily gets used to their bigger and stronger frame… and the Butcher realizes they are not as strong as they once were. A lot of what works about this ride is seeing how they both adapt to their new struggles and use it to their advantage. The Butcher has a new mask, and Millie soon finds confidence in herself in her new self. 

The supporting cast is used with great effect, too. They all get us to where we need to be. Everyone serves a purpose. From the mom, to older sister/cop, to the comic relief, to the love interest, and classmates of varying degrees of douchebagginess. Everyone is either likeable or unlikeable as they should be. There’s even a nice nod to previous academic farces with a cameo from FERRIS BUELLER’S Alan Ruck as an asshole shop teacher. 

Director Christopher Landon is really slicing out a nice niche of off-kilter spins in the horror genre, and it’s reassuring that he knows what he’s doing. It truly is a well-crafted film. Not just as a horror film, but also from a technical standpoint. The pacing is dead perfect, every joke hits, the story beats and setups are well orchestrated, and not a moment is wasted. It’s tense when it needs to be tense, gory when it needs to be gory, and legit laugh out loud moments when it needs to have those LOL moments.

It’s such a great spin to the body-swap comedy genre, a genre that feels like there’s an endless amount where they all sort of felt very “samey”; especially in the 80s, where at one point three different body-swaps came out within 2 years of each other! This one takes the better elements of those, relishes in them, carves new ground, and adds a bit of Tom Hanks’ BIG in for good measure.

 But homage to a decade old cinematic fad aside, at no point does it ever stop delivering on the humour and slasher content. It’s tight, daring, and keeps you enthralled throughout. Whether you’re a horror junkie, or into well-written oddball comedies, or even into clever thrillers, the end result has you covered.

There’s a great message in there too, as the film tackles school killings, social media, pc culture, and the general malaise many of us experience after the loss of a loved one. It’s about grief and acceptance and moving on… yet it’s very light-hearted. And you still get ample buckets of blood and splatter.

Yes, fans, there’s so many gruesome and cool looking on screen deaths your morbid heart’s desire. Amazing uses of wine bottles, tennis rackets, chainsaws, and industrial equipment. A creepy serial killer flophouse complete with creepy mannequins and various implements of torture. Possibly a severed head in a bloody toilet? Yeah, this film has that too.

You can currently rent this one on various VOD services. Hopefully this one hits the majority of streaming services soon, since it had the misfortune of opening late last year during the pandemic. It definitely needs a wider audience because it’s another one of those instant classics. It’s easily my favourite current horror-comedy, and I’m looking forward to more from Christopher Landon. A film that’s both goofy and gory with just enough twists to keep your attention and please jaded genre fans? That’s freaky.

[flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash]

Hi Ash! What are your favorite Stephen king books? I’m trying to figure out which one to get next. I already have The Outsider, Misery, and Gerald’s Game.

*after writing out my response, I had to come back up here and say I’m so sorry for my wordy af response because apparently I had a lot to say about King’s books XD*

Hey! So I’ve only read about a dozen of his books so far, but am slowly making my way through his list and hope to one day say I’ve read them all haha. Of those three you mentioned, I’ve only read Gerald’s Game, and I have such a complicated relationship with that one. On one hand, I skipped most of the middle of it because it was so wordy and also it’s one of the only books ever to legit trigger me while reading, so I couldn’t read the one plot line that was happening (the one in her past). On the other hand, the present day plot line of what was happening to the character scared me so badly that it’s also the only book to legit make me sleep with the lights on for two nights in a row. So I’m always like “is that my least favorite King because of the parts I hated, or the best King because it’s the one that terrified me?!” It’s definitely my most complicated relationship with a book lol 

Of the other ones I’ve read, my favorite is The Long Walk. It’s soo good and creepy. And pretty short for King. I first read it in middle school (in my defense, he wrote it as Bachman so I didn’t know I was reading a King novel so young and was shook at the contents) and then I re-read it again last fall and omg it hit so different as an adult. It’s one of those books I’ll re-read at different life stages because I think I’ll get different things out of it each time. It’s also the OG dystopian hunger games type novel, written way before Hunger Games was even a thing. 

I also LOVED reading IT, but that was also because I had never seen the movies and so went in knowing basically nothing. I flew threw that beast of a book and it’s only been about 3 years but I’ve been itching to give it another go, maybe on audio this time. 

The Running Man was another one I enjoyed that he wrote as Bachman. It’s pretty short and I flew through it in a day (and he wrote it in 3 days which wtf?!). It’s super fast-paced. 

If you’re into writing, his On Writing book is also fabulous. The first half is basically his life growing up and how he developed as a writer, and I gained such an appreciation for how much work and dedication he put into his craft before Carrie became his first hit. The amount of rejections he received, even when he was a kid and teen trying to write, is inspiring for me to remember when I consider giving up on anything.

Another good one is 11/22/63. I was superrrr hesitant about this one because I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction, and this was pitched as a time travel novel in which the lead character goes back in time to stop the JFK assassination. Well, that might’ve been the underlying theme, but in reality this book came across to me as more of a love story. I was shook at the amount of romance in this one, and how well done it was. I bawled at the end, because it ripped my heart out and stomped on it, and I was beyond impressed at how much King made me care and love his main character (like seriously, I love Jake so much). It’s a chunker of a book, and there was about 150-200 pages in the middle where I did get a bit bored, but the beginning and end chunks were sooo good. It proved to me that King is so much more than just a horror writer. 

My most recent read of his was Dolores Claiborne, which I read last month and it was really good! I read along while listening to the audiobook, and I highly recommend doing that if you can get an audio copy from your library or somewhere. The whole book is an older woman telling the story of how her husband and the woman she worked for ended up dead (and why she’s the prime suspect). The audio felt like you were right there, sitting down with a cup of tea to listen to this woman tell her tale, and I was really hooked on it. Not sure if it would’ve been as riveting to just physically read tho, so that’s why I’d say try to get the audio with it. 

Okay, lemme stop rambling lol. If anyone has any other King favorites to add, let me know! I’m always staring at his books and debating which one to pick up next lol. I’m trying to read one book of his every 1-2 months, because if I do more than that I tend to get overwhelmed because he’s a wordy bitch (like me apparently, looking at my answer to this ask).