#his emotional support quadrangle…

[goosessideblog]

[ID: A digital drawing of A Sphere and A Square from the 2007 Flatland film, with A Sphere grinning and holding A Square up to the camera like a piece of paper. A Sphere is yellow with red eyes, and A Square is pale blue. End ID.]

why does half of my flat art look like this

[eviltiddyproductions]

Destined with You : Episode 10

that transition from past to present made me suddenly remember that Rowoon is gorgeous!

my man’s never changing her contact name from civil servant haunted house 💀

Jo Bo-ah’s eyes 😭😭😭 !!! I feel every emotion!

she’s so happy to see him ^•^

from the day this show premiered all of us knew they were going to fall for each other spell or not and yet here I am, grinning like a dumbass happy to hear it [except break up with that girl Sin-yu ENOUGH, let me enjoy this blossoming relationship minus the grey area]

that child 💀

wait for me is such a realistic thing to say except it never seems to work itself out in kdrama land 😭😭😭

as of now I guess let me just officially look away from their grey area situation so I can selfishly enjoy

look at her fingers !!!! look at how happy she is !!! her turning back every 3 seconds 🤣

break up with #that girl already! minus whatever she’s got going on with her other man, and whatever horrible thing she’s planning for my sister ; you have never looked at her with love in your eyes !!!!

lmao her side (piece man?) wore glasses and I didn’t recognise him for a second and thought she was meeting someone new 💀

lmao girl you can’t just walk away from a breakup??? stand up ???

well she just sat down…

despite everything I still have like zero empathy for her

lmao now the second male lead is here 😭 I got the flower bouquet peaceful moment for 4 seconds….

please let this be a dream sequence

oh thank god 💀🙏

everything about the office scene was awkward but the lift moment was surprisingly sweet (it was like 30 seconds of them being in proximity, my brain just accepts anything 😭)

this mother and younger coworker storyline and the two bosses coworker romance storyline are things that I support (why not!) but confuse me like sister the main plot has not started unfolding yet, can you take this stuff elsewhere 😭🙏

lmao she always has more heat for hongjo than sinyu like sister get your priorities straight 😭

naur he spat his wine 😂

wait he changed her name on his phone!!!

lmao babe you’re about to be surprised

that is an insane amount of beer bottles for one table 😭

the gloves

talk your shit sister! 💅

of course it was the second male lead lmao. just got pepper sprayed 💀

lmao second leads can never waste a single second like if you rejected the girl once, it’s over for you 😂😭 imagine your competition being someone who was engaged like he obviously didn’t think that man was going to win over him

Jang Sinyu get a grip for real bestie! she’s in an emotional and moral pickle because of you!!! 😍 she liked the other guy first and now has to wait for you but also feel all of these feelings lmao like let her chill.

my sister got into this weird love quadrangle spiritual past life mess before she could get one simple boyfriend

lmao this ‘pure’ talk might be their banter or whatever but it is totally not my vibe 💀

okay secretary Kim chair thing

and this is why you do not kiss around in your workplace

the way I do not know these office characters enough to root for them

you cannot feel any empathy for Nayeon like deadass bullied my sister into dropping out of school and now she’s scheming with someone terrifyingly creepy 😭🙏 STAAPPPP IT

not only is she conspiring to do voodoo on my sister, she’s getting her transferred as well…

get him Mr Kwon !!!

sister put up a little fight?

would it kill him to be a little honest with the one he claims to love 😍

THE HAND !!!!!

I ruined my life watching a show I cannot binge omg 😭. tell me now !!! lmao @the shot of Mr. Kwon clinging to the wall

[liketheinferno2]

Accidentally made myself attracted to Elskan great job @xx-vampycat-xx all it took was darker lipstuck

Getting into ShB the boy best friends are thrust into a scary apocalyptic scenario without the rest of the greater Scion family and left with no recourse but to huddle for warmth and share the bedroom. And the bed. And the shower. WHAT ARE WE.

I finally got bunny peets for Elskan, everyone clap.

Patchah'li's got a lot to think about. Gotta track down those kids, then the rest of them, got ejected from a whole plane of existence in the middle of a war, yes, but also this expansion has instantly thrown open the gate for some love quadrangle nonsense. Got a guy [cough]Estinien[cough] back home who won't commit to the rest of society yet so all they've managed is dragoon roof hopping and sneaking around behind everyone else's backs while he deals with his avoidant personality in some long form offscreen therapy. Got Elskan here who has been his best friend for years now but he's in a cuddlier mood than ever and Shit Is Getting Gay. And then the "Exarch" ... morally Patchi cannot ignore the pleas of a Tia in distress lol the problem is that he won't stop fucking LYING.

I know you have a tail under there my guy.

I think I understand, already, why people love this one. Although at this point I trust FFXIV more than any living man. The game's just good, it's just so relentlessly quality, I think part of this is that it'll hand you some very tropey stuff but then try to do those tropes better than anyone on the planet has ever done them, and because it does have the chops for that, the resulting story is like an unrelenting torrent of things you already probably love done extremely well, and extremely respectfully, without pulling any emotional punches.

It's also misleadingly metal. People think this is the cute little catboy game. It is, but this also is the game where you have to comfort your surrogate daughter who you've formed a bond with over hundreds of hours as she watches everyone she loves and has come to depend on scream and collapse on the ground as soulless empty husks with no known way of reviving them and so clings to you for emotional support. I just saw a teenager made to carve a piece of his flesh out as offering to a mad king and it's all tonally consistent because FFXIV, like all good JRPGs, takes its genre-specific absurdity completely and utterly seriously, thereby granting it leave to get real when it needs to.

I wanted to show my gposes but I started shilling for it again lol. Free trials are open again if you wanna hop on this bad boy btw.

[jostenneil]

I would like some shoujo recs! I haven't read any in a longtime. I don't mind if they have love triangles or love quadrangles as long as the dynamics are good.

i’m sorry for getting to this late! and i hope it’s okay to rec some josei as well, the only difference between shoujo and josei strictly speaking is the age demographic, otherwise both traditionally cater towards women (not that other ppl can’t read these obv!) 

princess tutu (anime) - this is one of the greatest pieces of shoujo i’ve ever been exposed to. it centers on a rly clever and cathartic adaptation of the swan lake mythos, and what’s most interesting about it is its focus on storytelling. the primary tag line of the show is “may those who accept their fate be granted happiness. may those who defy their fate be granted glory”. it’s all about the characters making choices and realizing their own ability to write the story that follows, rather than remaining shackled to the insidious story penned by the primary villain, drosselmeyer. the relationships are complex and dark but also rly healing in the long run, and the ballet aesthetics are exquisite! 

kanata kara (manga) - this isekai manga centers on noriko, a girl suddenly dropped into an alternate world where she’s referred to as “the awakening”, fated to awaken the monstrous sky demon. everyone in this world is bent on getting “the awakening” first to use it to their own benefit, but noriko is actually found by the sky demon, a boy named izark, and they start to travel together through various countries while on the run. the rly charming point of kanata kara is that noriko doesn’t magically know the language of the world, she has to learn it entirely from scratch. she’s also someone who works rly hard to be useful and a source of solid support for izark and the friends she makes, and i think that coupled with the narrative message of each person having their part to play in the betterment of the world is rly inspiring to read about 

akagami no shirayukihime (anime/manga) - shirayuki is a girl with rly vibrant red hair, and the prince of her country wants her as his concubine bc of it, so she decides to run away to the neighboring country. there she meets the country’s second prince, zen, along with his friends at the palace, and she makes a new living for herself as a palace pharmacist. it’s a rly sweet manga that i appreciate for delving into the behind the scenes part of court politics, particularly bc we tend to think that fantasies imply battles, but that’s not necessarily the end all, be all of relations between countries. there’s also a wonderful focus on shirayuki’s work as a pharmacist, and how her knowledge of plants and medicinal herbs helps her support zen as he works to become a prince more involved with his people 

legend of basara (manga) - this series focuses on a post apocalyptic japan ruled by an oppressive emperor. a child of prophecy is fated to be born into a village and save the country, and when twins are born, the villagers assume the brother is the fated savior. when they grow up, however, one of the emperor’s sons, the red king, kills the brother, and so his sister, sarasa, has to pretend she’s the one who died so she can carry on the revolution as her brother, else all hope is lost. all of this is tied in with the fact that in her rare free time, sarasa happens to meet a boy named shuri, who is actually the red king! neither of them know each other’s real identities or that they’re the ones facing each other on the battlefield, so it makes for a rly angty romance, coupled in with excellent political commentary on privilege and oppression. shuri has one of the best antagonist to protagonist developments i’ve ever seen, and sarasa is a great example of a character vested with so much responsibility, who wants to bring her people to freedom but also be just a normal girl 

honey and clover (anime/manga) - this is one of my all time favorites! it follows some university students attending art school and their day-to-day life as they struggle to create, maintain relationships with each other, graduate, etc. i think chica umino’s works in general can be exemplified by her portrayal of every day life, and how it’s not so mundane and actually carries a lot of emotion. there’s so much catharsis present in this work for me bc it really reaches out to people who feel lost of purposeless or alone in their lives and feel like they have no reason to continue creating or moving forward. i think it also has a rly realistic portrayal of romance in the sense that its focus is on how characters grow through romance rather than whether they end up with a certain person. esp if you’re a college student, i think it’ll rly resonate with you 

kobato (manga) - this was serialized in a seinen magazine for some reason but i think most ppl agree it feels shoujo in delivery. it’s probably my personal favorite clamp work. the floral aesthetics and artwork of angels is absolutely gorgeous, and it features a rly endearing story about a girl, kobato, who must collect “healed hearts” in a bottle in order to return to a certain place. i can’t really reveal what i most enjoy about it without giving away serious spoilers, but there’s that classic clamp execution of the binding nature of contracts and weighing the things we want against the things we must do, which makes for some rly heartfelt, angsty progressions. mostly i just love seeing the narrative unfold kobato, as she starts off as is this seemingly naive girl who we come to realize is actually hurting deeply inside

lovely complex (anime) - this is a classic so if you’ve already heard of it i wouldn’t be surprised but nonetheless it’s probably my favorite in that area of early 00s shoujo romcoms. the story follows risa and otani, who are known as a comedic duo in their high school bc she’s unusually tall and he’s unusually short. there’s lots of gags and kidding around, but ultimately the story delves into how both of them subconsciously fall for each other despite treating each other like gag men at first. there’s comedic love triangles and plenty of miscommunication galore, but i think it takes these shoujo tropes and puts a rly refreshing twist on them that drives you crazy in a way that’s actually very entertaining. the infamous bear curry gag has practically been immortalized in shoujo fandom 

yumeiro patissiere (manga) - this is another one most people have probably heard of BUT, that’s usually bc of the anime. the manga is actually much shorter and different in some ways, and at the end of the day i think i prefer it, esp art wise as the charm in matsumoto’s art style is just impossible to replicate anywhere else. it follows a girl named ichigo, who has a very sensitive taste palate and is spontaneously selected to attend a patissieres academy, despite the fact that she can’t cook for shit! she’s placed in the a-level class alongside the academy’s three genius students, commonly called the “sweets princes”, and they befriend and gradually help her hone her skills until she’s at a level where she can compete with them on a team. all in all it’s a rly endearing story about perseverance, hard work, and the desire to make ppl happy with the food you make for them (kitchen princess is also a predecessor to this series that i think may even have heavily inspired it and i would recommend it, too! it’s just a little on the darker side in terms of dramatics) 

this is just the start of a list tbh but these are some of my all time favorites that came to mind! do let me know if you try out and enjoy any of them, i would love to hear about it ❤️

[flying-elliska]

S5 Review pt 2 : the Bad

So in my last meta I listed a lot of reasons to like this season...but then why did it not (at least to me) all add up together ?  Looking back, I can think of so many clips that I thought were incredible. But looking back at the season in general, I just feel a big ‘meh’ and it’s sort of puzzling - why exactly ?  Here is where I thought the season could have been a lot better :

I loathe love triangles : I hate the trope in itself. Is S5 the worst example of it ever ? No, it served somewhat of a thematic purpose and the resolution was interesting. But I can’t help it, when I feel a love triangle coming on, I generally disconnect emotionally because I have been annoyed to hell and back by it before - one big offender being Skam France s4, in which the love triangle/quadrangle marked the beginning of the season going down in flames, with it overshadowing everything else and making the characters behave in completely obnoxious and puzzling ways. S5 isn’t quite as bad, it feels more respectful of the characters, but I find it weird that the writers chose a love triangle again on the heels of the reception of s4. 

The problem with this trope is not ‘oh we don’t want drama ever’ it’s just so bloody annoying, so trite and overused. It rests on centuries of sexist tropes : either a wishy washy girl in the middle who doesn’t know what’s good for her/her own heart ; or two girls competing for a man’s attentions. It often ends in the fandom villifying the women involved no matter the shape of the triangle, comparing them against each other, which definitely happened this time (Twitter was just so annoying this season), and this whole ‘team x’ thing gives me hives, as the assumption that this is what young women viewers care most about. 

Also it generally involves the characters showing that they have very little self respect, letting themselves be walked over, bad communication, implications about what the ‘better woman/man’ should be like, cheating, etc...it’s very rarely fun or interesting to watch because we’ve seen it a thousand times before in teenage soap operas. Again, the s5 ending avoided the total trainwreck but this is a show you watch in real time, and for weeks I was afraid it was going to be absolutely terrible, and it ruined a big part of my experience of the season. When they introduced Noée I started being scared, and when it became clear Arthur was developing feelings for her, I basically noped out emotionally. I started following it in a much more detached manner, I wasn’t looking forward to the clips anymore, I stopped writing meta so much. And it sucks. I wanted to love the season. But this was just not a ride I really wanted to be on. 

Alexia (and Noee) deserved better : I love Alexia and developing her character is one of the best things Skam France ever did. In OG, the character of Chris, if interesting, is just continually reduced to the ‘funny fat friend’ persona and it really sucks. So giving Alexia a real personality, making her bisexual, giving her more of a role in s3, making her a dancer and a singer was really cool. I’m bi myself and I spent most of my high school struggling with my weight and if I’d had a character like her, who radiates self-acceptance, it would have meant so much to me. I was really stoked for her to have more of a role in s5 - only to spend most of the season feeling really sad for her. It was just...not fun. I so wish she could have had her own season and her own story that didn’t revolve around a dude she was so supportive of and still ended up treating her like shit. 

Also, real talk : when is a curvy girl actually a love interest without it being shown as funny or not good enough ? Especially of the main character ? Almost never. Coline might have lost some weight, but she’s still written as a curvy girl this season and it’s an important part of the character. So for her to have this particular role this season - the girl that isn’t romanticized, that doesn’t get to have the cute and thrilling moments, that is just sort of there and patient and understanding as if she couldn’t get anything better, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sure the end of the season did her more justice but god it took so long and in the meantime, it just felt...very ill considered and careless. 

In the same way, I wanted to love Noée, I thought she was amazing, but because of her role in the plot I just felt this instinctive defiance towards her character. It would have been so cool to have her in a friend role, or even a love interest outside of the triangle or I don’t know like...have someone else fall in love with her. Also, I just did not understand why she loved Arthur ? Like she just met the dude a few times, and he’s mostly been a total asshole to her, who makes very little efforts to communicate with her...I get she could get attracted to him but love ??? The moment where she tells him ‘I love you’ felt demeaning to her, like the moment in OG where Noora falls after running after William. It’s like, Arthur has just been an enormous asshole to her, and she pushes herself to do something she’s never been comfortable with in the first place ? Why ? This show romanticizes teenage boys being assholes and girls being desperate way too much. 

The Skam dilemma, love vs politics and “Let’s all just be nice.” : There is a reoccuring problem accross all Skams, starting with the OG : they bring up very political topics, usually in the beginning of the season, and then they...don’t really do anything with them. In the OG, Noora’s feminism is really just window-dressing and we see her bend over backwards to accomodate this super toxic asshole into her life. And we see Sana’s struggles as a Muslim in Norwegian society, but then love drama takes over, and it’s waved away with an insulting ‘everyone should just communicate more’ ending. Skamfr s4 made it even worse, by making the girl squad a lot more overtly racist, never having them make a big gesture for Imane, putting her in a position to apologize, and never showing that the girl squad had an idea of where they messed up or real growth. It was insanely frustrating, especially since the beginning of the season was so good at showing all the little micro-agressions. In the end it felt like all the racism was just there to motivate Imane’s breakdown for plot reasons and not to actually say something. S5 never stoops quite that low, but there was a bit of a similar dynamic at hand here. Instead of the boys actually have a real conversation after their fight, most of the denouement of the show was consecrated to talking about the love drama. It was, again, as if the focus of the show was on the wrong things, and it robs you of the catharsis you’re expecting. As if they used the love drama for a metaphor for the actual issues, have it do all the emotional heavy lifting, and in so doing bypass having to adress the actual problem. There is this weird ideas that the audience of the show - teenagers and young women, mostly, in the end care the most about the love stuff and that everything else has to take a backseat and...this feels neither a good message to send, nor realistic to me. I like it when shows about teenagers decenter love and show the real complexity of their characters’ lives without making them paragons of virtue or wokeness - Derry Girls is a brilliant example of that. Skam, and Skam France in particular, feel a bit immature still compared to those, punching below their weight for shows that pride themselves on their social impact. 

Hit with the idiot stick : Speaking of underwhelming resolutions - yes, the boy squad messing up with Arthur, I found relevant and realistic. But...did they really even adress it ? I was really hoping for the boys to have more of a conversation, for Arthur to open up to them about what he went through, about his father, to tell them that they should have asked him/listened to him more, etc...and I know ‘teenage boys’ or whatever but ...aren’t they trying to change those stereotypes too ? Like when Arthur went to see Basile, they must have had a conversation, why the fuck did we not see it ? That’s the emotional bond I cared most about ! And we just had a hug ...underwhelming tbh. Same Arthur talking with Lucas but then it was just about their love lives ? Or when they came to the hospital, again, it was just about the love drama ? God it really sucked out the oxygen out of the season. The resolutions of those things just being hugs or speeches or handholding at the end felt hollow, and a lot less powerful than they could have been. And again, there has to be a tolerance for messiness, but I found the boys so incredibly dumb at several points in the season. Especially them being like ‘oh cheating isn’t so bad’ after they found out that Arthur’s dad was cheating on his wife ? Like why the fuck did they take Patrick’s side ? What kind of lack of empathy ? It would feel a lot more coherent for teenage boys to be furious at the destruction of a friend’s family, not talk like cynical 50 yr olds who just divorced for the fifth time. It felt so unrealistic and stupid and just meant for Arthur to finally clue in to the idea that cheating and lying is bad maybe, himself first without external clues from characters that really should have known better by now. Especially Yann and Lucas advising Arthur to keep his mouth shut after what happened in s1 like...did whoever write this read the previous seasons of the show ? There were just too many times where the boy squad felt out of character and mandated to be idiots just for plot reasons, and it felt...very crudely drawn. Disappointing, because the beginning of the season was awesome. But again, Skam France failed in delivering real growth for their friend group. At times, it even felt like character regression. Them holding hands at the end of the season made me emo but damn it could have been so much more.

Also some plot twists - the car crash in particular, just felt dumb and unnecessary, seriously. 

A too distant main : In the end, like I said before, my main issue is that I didn’t feel as connected to Arthur as I wanted to. I mean, the cheating bit was just very unrelatable to me, after how they showed how supportive Alexia was and how she supposedly made him happy like...why. But maybe that’s just me. Regardless - in the first few episodes he felt distant in an interesting way, because it made sense for his character to be so walled off. But...I felt like his self discovery was way too blurred with the ‘oh I like Noee’ part to the point where it ended up being obscured. I would have loved more clips on his own, maybe something more about him questioning his path in life, whether he truly wants to do medecine. And like apparently he liked fine arts ? Then, why didn’t we see anything about that ? Did he paint the x-men painting ??? That feels so relevant, why the fuck didn’t we see that ? Also why didn’t we see him take those LSF classes with Camille and actually make an effort this time ? Having almost all of his realization moments tied to Noee was just...the manic pixie dream girl trope. That’s what it’s called, when you use a quirky female character as a device for the emotional development of the male one. It’s...not flattering tbh. And then that farm episode - it was funny but for a week I felt like I completely lost touch with Arthur’s POV ? I’m really not sure that was the right choice. All in all, there were just not enough introspective, small, intimate clips for it to really feel like Skam, and that’s a shame tbh. I recognize a lot of myself in Arthur, and Robin acted his heart out to make him relatable, but because of the writing, there were way too many times where I was reluctant and puzzled instead of in it. I saw several people saying it was too much tell and not enough show and I think that’s very on point. I feel like a lot of Arthur’s actual character development happened behind the scenes in moments where we didn’t see it.  

Yeah...I think as a conclusion most of my issues are tied back to the preponderance of the love triangle. The season wasn’t bad but god it could have been so excellent if they hadn’t gone that route, and this swerve from greatness is just sooooooo frustrating. I don’t think it’s enough to condemn the whole season but...

Next up : some things I’m just very ??? about and a general conclusion. 

Bonus bitching round, fandom edition : oh my god, I don’t get into this often but...the fandom was so bloody annoying this season. Starting with the people sending death threats over a tv show (like...what the fuck) or thinking them being nasty assholes is somehow for the greater good (???), from people that don’t want anyone to use even 1 analysis capacity (especially on Twitter) and go beyond praising everything on the show, or the people either villifying Alexia and Noee and indulging in that ‘team’ crap, to the people that shoot down every single detail of the show without discernment or accuse the creators of being ableist sexist garbage or maltreating their actors ... And then you have the other remake stans coming to pollute the tags talking about how we were all stupid for liking the show in the first place. Like...seriously, what is up with you people. I really loved the block button this season, damn. 

[bthump]

How do you think guts, griffith and their relationship would be if they were both women or if one of them was a woman?

If one of them was a woman it would be canon lol, no question, no hesitation, no one would doubt it for a second.

If both were women, I mean, it would depend. Personally when it comes to f/f AUs I like to change as little as possible. If the character isn’t feminine as a man I don’t want them to be feminine as a woman, I don’t want to put all my effort into contemplating how socialization would affect them and change them, yk. The appeal to me isn’t about examining gender roles or the effect of misogyny or w/e, the appeal to me is hot women with the same dynamic as the m/m ship I love lol.

So that said, f/f griffguts would be the goddamn ideal man.

Like just imagine big buff butch Guts and dapper elegant butch Griffith with the exact same personalities and dynamic and hair as they have in canon. (Though Griff with more androgynous short hair would also be good tbf.)

Now you can go 2 ways with this: nothing much changes, and Griffith rising up into the nobility through military achievement and charm still works. In fairness, Casca didn’t get any grief when she became a recognized war hero and got knighted, so while Griffith would have another barrier standing between her and success, it might still work fine. I mean Miura namedropped Rose of Versailles as an inspiration, so there that’s just another similarity. They could even wear suits to the ball, because why not, it would be hot.

Charlotte would presumably be a prince in this, and just as reluctant to actually rule, and Griff would still be aiming for marriage and political power.

OR Charlotte could still be a princess, and Griffith’s entire modus operandi would change from marriage and somewhat secured power to pure court politics and influence. She could still seduce Charlotte, and convince her not to marry and to take on the mantle of Queen Regnant with Griffith at her back, advising her every step of the way and being her emotional support.

She’d still have to have risen into the nobility through military feats tho or else how would she meet Guts? I could imagine a version of Griffith who follows like, more of a The Favourite track and pulls herself from household servant to nobility while seducing a queen, but I can’t imagine f!Guts as anything other than a mercenary.

So they’re both still mercenaries, they have the same relationship as in canon. Casca’s also still a woman in this, so you get an epic complicated f/f/f/f love quadrangle into the deal.

Griffith as the centre between Charlotte, Guts, and Casca. Seducing Charlotte feels like work and is wrapped up in her dream/guilt issues/self-loathing/etc and it’s just kind of miserable. Casca’s crush on her reminds her of her duty as a leader and also reminds her of her dream but from more of a position of power - Casca is someone who helps her be strong and emotionally repressed. They’re not fucking or anything, but yk, Casca still has her crush. And her relationship with Guts is the freeing one, the one that makes her forget her dream and just feel loved and secure and worthy all on her own even without achieving anything.

Guts who is in love with Griffith but feels inadequate next to Charlotte and even Casca, who considers settling with Casca and maybe they both rebound together briefly before realizing it’s just not going to work because they’re both too hung up on Griffith.

Casca torn between her impossible love for Griffith and feeling like she could potentially fall in love with Guts, but knows that Guts is hung up over Griffith and she can’t compete with the idea of her.

AND hey how about endgame griffguts and Charlotte/Casca? Casca and Charlotte meet by chance and end up becoming friends, and Charlotte eventually realizes that her thing with Griffith is completely hollow compared to her real genuine friendship with Casca, and then they fuck and some unrelated griffguts drama finally convinces Griffith that love is all you need and everyone lives happily ever after or whatever.

I mean one change that would follow from both of them being women is that Griffith would probably not have made the same Promrose Hall speech lol, since it starts with Griffith philosophizing about why men like to fight. So instead of tragedy and torture and demons you just get fun court politics and relationship drama.

Though otoh she still could’ve made a very similar speech about not having any friends, and everything could’ve gone exactly the same as canon. Except no stupid fetus thing. Damn, that’s actually perfect. I’d even love gtsca, as yk, a failed attempt at a rebound. I still wouldn’t ship them like I ship griffguts and I would still be a little creeped out by their post-Eclipse stuff, but I mean overall I would enjoy the fuck out of their awful toxic doomed thing lol.

I guess maybe NGriff would have a bit of a harder time securing her power, but I mean, have the pontiff call her a saint or messiah or whatever and have Charlotte appoint her as regent and boom, easy.

And then Farnese’s crush on Guts would be 500x better, and like, honestly most of his storyline would be infinitely improved if he was a woman and there was no moonlight boy. Maybe even Isidro would be less of a dumb asshole if his hero the hundred man slayer was a woman lol.

Like literally the only thing that I would not prefer wrt the f/f version of the characters would be the sexual assault backstories tbh. And like, whatever, still definitely worth it.

[mtvswatches]

Crazy Ex Girlfriend 4x15 I Need to Find my Frenemy

Click here for previous recaps!

 Stray thoughts

1) ….

I wonder what this girl must’ve thought, being forced to deliver all these bizarre, irrational one-liners without any context whatsoever. Do you think she knew what CEG was about?

2) I was just about to comment on how Rebecca is talking about happiness while spreading butter on toast and how ironic that was considering the reason she went back to West Covina was that butter ad but she beat me to it. *shrugs*

3) And here she is trying to be focused and not to get distracted by the things that normally throw her off course and…

I’d come to sort of tolerate – if not like – Josh Chan, but… seriously? He literally didn’t hear a word she just said, because if he had and he cared more about her than about expressing his own feelings and getting what he wants then he would’ve kept his mouth shut. What does he think is going to happen? They will almost get married again?

At least Rebecca is having a proper reaction to this confession – she feels utterly uncomfortable and she just ran away. And she should keep running away, far, far away from Josh Chan.

Late, indeed.

4) Paula is not going to fit in in the new firm, is she?

5) I’m on Beth’s side, though…

VALENCIA: Why can't you just let me have this? I love you, I want us to spend our lives together, and I've always dreamed about being a bride.

BETH: Right. And is this part of what you always dreamed of? Bullying the person you love into proposing?

VALENCIA: Yes. Isn't it magical? Say it's magical.

BETH: You're going through a thing that has nothing to do with me. And I don't want to fight about it anymore. I'm going home to New York, Valencia.

6) Tough choices…

I love that what they all have in common is that they’re amazing in the sack. Sounds legit.

7) Wait…

Guys, maybe it is Greg. Maybe it is Nathaniel. Maybe it is Josh. Oh, my God. This is just... This is terrible. I can't believe this is happening again and that I'm back in a... Oh, God.

Could it be… a love square?!

8) Love quadrangles!!!

That… wasn’t as charming as the original. And I get it. Rebecca doesn’t want to be in this position anymore, it feels like a step back in her journey, tbh, and I’m glad she feels the same way, and that how she feels is actually reflected in her demeanor and the lyrics of the song.

9) I mean…

REBECCA: Guys, you heard David. Audra needs me.

AJ: Or you want to procrastinate on your decision and see your frenemy at her lowest so you can feel superior and rub it in a little.

who wouldn’t?

10) So… the girl group is going to Las Vegas and running away from their problems. Can’t say I blame them.

11) Why does Josh think that it’s up to him to decide who Rebecca wants to or should be with? He claims that he cared about her before Nathaniel, but that’s hardly true. He treated her horribly for as long as they’ve known each other, and to be honest, it’s still kind of beyond me how either of them would want to be in the other’s life. Rebecca was basically a stalker and Josh was a douchebag, and I don’t understand why either of them is romanticizing what they had.

12) Oh, they’ve found the board! But they had a more mature reaction than I’d expected? Maybe they’ll freak out later on.

13) I DIED

14) Oh, the callback!!

15) They were disappointed when Audra seemed to be convinced to go back home…

And then they were so happy! This is so unhealthy but I love it!

16) At least Greg had a proper reaction to finding out about the Columns. Well, at least they were Pro Columns. It’s not like she was doing something a la Ross Geller… But still. If you need to rationalize your feelings this way, maybe you shouldn’t be making the decision in the first place.

17) They’re really going all in with callbacks!

18) OH MY GOD!!!

19) WTF Paula

20) They got the suits, and it kind of reminds me of Let’s Generalize about Men?

21) You gotta trust White Josh, he’s been the voice of reason in this show for four seasons…

JOSH: I have known you for most of your life, and I've never seen you as happy as you are when you're with Rebecca, even though I am truly, deeply perplexed as to how, not only you, but two other guys could be so into her. Truly, one of the great puzzlements of the ages. But… Yeah… You, uh you guys seem like you have something special, so I don't know. I think you got to give that a shot.

22) OMG are we getting the opposite of JAP Battle?

I think this song is a great bookend, isn’t it? It’s like coming full circle.

23) What kind of crazy plan did WhiJo come up with?

24) Why is she just realizing this? I don’t get it…

25) So…

This was the brilliant plan? They’ve collectively asked her out and then she’s supposed to make a decision? Okay, I guess.

26) It was a fun episode, but I don’t know, it felt too filler-ish so close to the season finale, you know? I was expecting the stakes to be higher at this point and to be overwhelmed with emotion, kind of like I felt during the previous episode at different points. Will the season finale be about Rebecca choosing one of the guys? That can’t be what this show ends up being about, right?

27)  Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[bookofmirth]

what do you think will be the roles of the actor secondary characters for this new "spin-off"? specifically vassa, eris (i would be happy if all of autumn court self-combusted from their firedicks), tamlin, etc... i thought that vassa and lucien seemed to have a fun broship happening and could see some fun moments of her trying to help him talk to elain. i got the vibe they could be like mor and cass 2.0 lol. anyway what is basically your wishlist for the secondary characters?

Hi NonNon,

First off:

i would be happy if all of autumn court self-combusted from their firedicks

Props on the imagery and making me lol (Also sorry for taking a couple days to respond, I didn’t want to answer while under the influence, and also the fanfic writing fever clearly took me these last few days.)

I don’t know if we will see much of Tamlin anymore. I don’t think he has much of a purpose anymore in the broader story. Moving forward, I assume he is slowly, but surely, going to learn some emotional intelligence and be able to become a better person (based off a few of his actions in acowar), but that’s not necessarily going to be a part of Feyre’s life, or anyone else’s of the “main” characters. Which I guess I would consider Feyre, Rhys, Nesta, Elain, Cassian, Mor, Amren, and Az. Lucien is… hanging in there.

I think it’d be great if Lucien and Vassa could have a broship (since I ship him with Elain, this doesn’t need to be a love-quadrangle, thanks). And omg him having someone he can rely on and tell his secrets too who will give him crap but be there to support him - I think he and Feyre could be that, but they have some baggage, currently.

Eris probably will play a role moving forward, since he is such a part of Mor’s history, and there was the whole thing with the CoN and Cassian and Az being protective. And maybe that means we will end up learning more about Lucien. Yeah, now that I think about it, Eris will probably be around more, just because he hinted at Mor and Lucien not knowing the whole story about his family. Which. Ok, whatever. It’s not that I’m not interested in a redemption arc for “bad guys”. I just literally don’t care about him. On a scale of 1-10, I am “meh”.

Let’s see, other secondary characters would be Viviane and Kallias, which I super need more of them, especially Viviane, because Mor, much like Lucien, really needs a good friend who she can be open with. And she does have that with Feyre, but Viviane is such a snappy little… winter… sass-master. (???)

Ok I’m going to be honest here and say that when I made my initial list of main characters, I totally left Amren out. She gets left behind a lot, maybe because the ships aren’t such a thing with her? The reason I even thought of her was because of the possibility of an amazing broship with her and Nesta. But I would like to see more from her, specifically her getting used to being a High Fae and not as immortal anymore.

This might be weird but this is how I was thinking of the spin-offs - certain characters have connections with each other, more so than others, so I was thinking Cassian/Nesta/Amren/Mor/Eris/Az as being central in one spin-off, then maybe Lucien/Vassa/Elain/Azriel in another? Not necessarily in ship ways, just because of friendships or plot things that are already going on. (I hope that makes sense.) I still don’t really care about Miryam/Drakon. *shrug*

Also, I feel like Viviane and Kallias and Viviane’s sister have to make an appearance, but I’m not sure if they would be more tied to a storyline with Mor? Or Feysand? Based on the novella description, they could definitely play a role in the next one?

[lareinedediamants]

Favorite episodes (season 1)

I'll try to stick to 4 favorite episodes per season (and cheat with honorable mentions lol).

1.01 "City of Heroes"

"City of Heroes" is one of my favorite pilots. It made me fall in love with the show, its premise, its characters and their relationships.I liked the locations chosen to represent Central City, the sets (CCPD, Barry's lab, Jitters, Star Labs) and the way the music was used to set the mood and highlight the personality of the main character (see the upbeat intro playing when we meet grown up Barry for the first time).  

Along with the congenial vibe, the superhero journey, the writing, the dynamics and the score (I love that the show has a kickass theme for all the important characters like Cold, Reverse, Trickster, Zoom, Savitar...), the thing that makes this show dear to my heart, is its cast. I have never loved an entire cast, especially a big one, as much as I much as love the cast of The Flash, and "City of Heroes" did a wonderful job introducing their characters.

I became an instant fan of Nora Allen and I was heartbroken by her death.

I thought Barry was an absolute sweetheart, just adorable, and a great CSI. It was also love at first sight with Joe West, who came across as a smart, no nonsense, lovable guy with a sense of humor, who was fiercely protective of Barry and incredibly proud of him.

Iris waltzed into Barry's lab, talked his ear off and ate his fries lol. She looked like she adored him, and I was struck by all the things that were hanging in the air, left unsaid between them. He was attracted to her. She was oblivious. I had my suspicions that she might like him too when she started going on about what an amazing guy he was. Any doubts I had vanished after she climbed him like a tree when he walked into Jitters 9 months after his accident.

Originally posted by grantsass

I fell hopelessly in love with the utterly fascinating and enigmatic Dr. Wells, who remains my #1 favorite character on this show after 3 seasons. He had a darkness about him, bubbling under the surface, beneath the veneer of elegance and class, and I could NOT take my eyes off him. He was a ticking time bomb and I was afraid I would miss something important if I blinked when he was on screen.

Also fell in love also with the adorable, funny, supportive and amazingly gifted Mr. Ramon (my number 2 fave after Eobard). I had a soft spot for the grief-stricken, kind and nurturing Dr. Snow (I kind of wanted her to me my doctor until she went icicle on us). 

Now Henry Allen gave me another dose of sadness when I was watching him talk to Barry (who was crying his eyes out) from behind that prison glass... Let”s just say Henry will always have a special place in my heart.

I even liked the metacriminal-of-the-week, Clyde Mardon and the tornado he summoned on that farm. I didn't know it yet when I first watched the pilot, but the other guy shown in the police photos (there were 2 mugshots, one for Clyde and one  for his brother Mark), was going to become one of my favorite metabaddies ever : the Weather Wizard :)

10s across the board!

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1.15 "Out of Time"

Westallen kiss #1, Weather Wizard, Barry rearranging timelines. What's not to love?

Originally posted by henycavil

First, there's the awkward love quadrangle with Barry, Iris and their respective dates at the bowling alley. Iris was acting a bit territorial and touchy feely with Barry. I don't think she was fully conscious of what she's doing but Miss West was bothered, the entire time Barry was dating Linda. Her jealousy really came to the surface when she asked Barry, how things were going with "Lindaaaaaaa" in the same tone she used to hate on Barry's old girlfriend, Becky "Coo-perrrrr" lmao. Linda, Eddie, Barry, Joe, it seems everyone can see that Iris has feelings for Barry, except for Iris herself.

Lots of suspense in the episode because Cait and Cisco are trying to trick a man who's a lot more dangerous than they realize. The first time I watched the episode, I was worried for Cait when she took Wells to Jitters to get him out of Star Labs. Wells kept talking about Star Labs, and he didn't want to stay at Jitters to enjoy his coffee. When Cait got up to take the coffees to go, she came back to an empty wheelchair.  😱

I should have been worried about Cisco. "Out of Time" gave us the unforgettable scene where Reverse shreds Cisco's heart, after saying that Cisco showed him what it was like to have a "son". 

One of my fave baddies ever, the Weather Wizzard, almost stole the show when he flexed his metamuscles to create a tsunami. A WHOLE tsunami! I'm in awe of Mark Mardon's skills, I’m not even gonna lie, but Barry’s still the boss meta around here, and his powers are nothing to sneeze at. He's been seeing another Flash running alonside him. He and Iris kiss, he tells her he's The Flash and then runs around the Central City coastline so fast that he goes back in time and erases the entire day.

Epicness! From start, to finish.

----------------

1.09 "The Man In the Yellow Suit"

Ah yes, that Christmas episode. It's tree trimming time at the West household and Gramma Esther become a household name for her nog. There's foreshadowing to Barry proposing when he gives Iris a replica of her mother's wedding band. Barry breaks my heart whe he tears up after Iris tells him she's moving in with Eddie, and when later admits that he's in love with her.

There's also a first showdown between Barry and the Man In Yellow and Barry gets his ass handed to him (s'okay Bear, you'll get him next time).

It's an emotional episode for Caitlin. She sees Ronnie, or rather what's become of the man she loves (a confused, twitchy, vagrant on fire, wearing Future!Barry's wig... or is that his brother Oliver's island wig but I digress), and the poor thing is devastated. Cisco as always is there for her. It's easy to see that Cisco has a very deep kind of affection for Caitlin...

Another beautiful bond? Joe and Barry's and that emotional scene where Joe tells Barry the light Barry he brought to the West family. "The world may need The Flash but I need my Barry Allen."

One great alliance: Cisco and Joe. They make detective and crime-busting magic when they work together, and they have a breakthrough in their investigation into Nora's murder when Cisco realizes that there was not one, but two speedsters in the house the night Nora died.

At the end of the episode, Iris is staring at Barry and looking uncomfortable on Eddie's lap as if she's not supposed to be there.When Eddie has her arm around her, she looking back at Barry and all I want to say is Iris honey, you’re trying hard to convince us that you’re happy with Detective Pretty Boy yet here you are, staring at your bestfriend like he’s a white chocolate brownie (they told us in the pilot that Iris had a brownie obsession).

This action-packed, emotion-packed, revelation-packed episode ends with Wells' iconic "Merry Christmas" as he's facing his yellow suit in the time vault. Come on. Eobard!Wells was the GOAT and that's a fact lol.

----------------

1.20 "The Trap"

Barry, Cisco and Cait find the time vault and the 2024 article written by Iris West-Allen. Well well...

Joe, Captain of the Westallen ship refuses to give Eddie his blessing to propose to Iris because he knows his daughter's in love with another man. Hmmh...

Barry has a hilariously awkward conversation with Eddie who believes Iris will one day be Mrs. Thawne. Oh, boy...

In a flashback to Barry coma days, we learn that Iris likened her saying yes to Eddie asking her out to a "dumb thing" she did because Barry was not around to stop her. 

Iris might be confused about her feelings, but she is right on the money when it comes to her investigation. She figured out the link between the explosion, Star Labs, and all the people who acquired powers. My girl!

The team sets a trap to get Wells to confess to Nora's murder. There's a little bit of angst when it seems like Joe killed Wells but nope! It's Hannibal Bates aka Everyman, the shapeshifting meta. My man Wells is playing chess while everybody's playing tic tac toe lol. He has all the footage of their secret investigations in the time vault and he's on his way to snatch Eddie up, right as Eddie's about to propose to Iris.

Flash comes to save his woman from Eobard's Vibrating Hand of Punishment and when Iris touches Flash's hand, she feels the same jolt of electricty she felt when she was sweetalking Barry and touching his hand when he was in the coma. 

Finally there's this great scene where Eobard!Wells talks to Barry, and marvels the irony that he's now stuck having to protect him after he came all this way to kill him. I got chills when Eobard said he watched Barry grow up, "science fairs and soccer games". Reverse Flash has one of the most compelling story arcs I had the pleasure of watching in a while. Karma bit him in the rear a major way. 

Travelled through space and time to kill Barry, killed Barry's mom and was punished through the loss of his speed, had to wait for Barry to grow up, make him The Flash, train him, 15 years of stalking and hard work, only to fail in the end. I don't know what happened to Thawne on "Legends" because I don't watch the spin-off, but his story arc on "The Flash" is amazing storytelling.

----------------

Honorable mentions

1.04 "Going Rogue" Introducing Captain Cold (and his theme), my third favorite villain after Eobard!Wells and Zoom. Felicity walking into trivia night in that cutout dress 😵, E=Mc Hammer ("can't touch this" lol), Eddie sweating bullets in the car as "When a Man Loves a Woman" and "Let's Get It On" start playing on the radio right after he had a tense conversation with Joe about Iris ("quiet is good") lmao.

1.08 "Flash vs. Arrow" That A-MAzing fight scene between Barry and Oliver, and Barry like we never get to see him, giving free reign to his anger and jealousy as he attack Eddie under Rainbow Raider's control and demands to know WHY Eddie gets to come in here and TAKE whatever he wants *coughIriscough*. Oh yeah...

I think that’s it for season 1.  😄

My favorite episodes

[uomo-accattivante]

By Yasamin Beitollahi, Contributor

Love is The Promise’s stock in trade. Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, this historical romance features epic, emotional stories — captured in 72 days across 20 locations throughout Spain, Malta, Portugal and New York — all set against the backdrop of the Armenian genocide. “Along with this heavy topic, we’ve created a very moving and emotional love quadrangle that carries us through the film,” says Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), the film’s director and co-writer. “We set out to create something that would appeal to a broader audience. This is a big, old-fashioned love story that takes place during a very dark period in history.”

For many Armenians, the orchestrated campaign of denial for 102 years has been a weight that has been on their shoulders, because so many people have had experiences from their own families of atrocities being committed. “That pressure has always been on Armenians,” says Esrailian. “To develop a sense of awareness that doesn’t quite exist is a challenge. Having a film that allows people to finally have a window into the Armenian culture is something that has never quite happened on this scale.”

This comes to life with Shohreh Aghdashloo’s role as Oscar Isaac’s loving mother. There’s such a real purity and rawness to her, and there’s such a duality of this character. Like any mother, she wants nothing more than to see her child succeed, and there is nothing she won’t do to protect her family. “It’s not just in my role. It’s my real life as well, says Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays Marta in the film. “It’s hard to keep the balance. Something interesting to add, a German psychologist has divided women into a few categories: Mothers, Geishas and Amazon women, who I personally identify with the most. Marta is a true mother — be it Armenian, Iranian or American — makes no a difference. I was raised in Iran, and in the good old days, Jews, Muslims and Christians were all together. I was raised with Armenians. Their story was told to me but I couldn’t grasp what exactly took place because I was so young. Later, when I started politics in the UK, I became more familiar with the cause. It wasn’t just a cause I wanted to portray, I wanted to be a part of it. When I left Iran, I promised myself that I was going to put my talent at the service of meaningful films and projects.”

Perhaps one of the most endearing characters in the film is performed by Marwan Kenzari (Emre). Best known for his role as Majid in Wolf, Kenzari takes on yet another diverse role in The Promise and delivers. “Marwan is a genius actor. He just is,” says Terry. “This was a relatively hard role to cast. It couldn’t be cliche. It couldn’t be stereotypical or over the top. There had to be a fine balance because it’s one of those characters who despite his animal, physical instincts, finds a better man in himself. You just love him. He’s a great actor and deserves a broad spectrum of roles. I hope to work with him again.”

Marwan’s love for the process of acting comes to life on the big screen. “I always try to imagine myself sitting in the audience and imagine what I would want to see,” says Kenzari. “I learn a lot from the actors that I work with. Apart from being extremely good and intelligent, they’re very funny human beings. We had a scene where we had to dance the tango. We took classes with a very kind but also very tough teacher. I remember Christian was fooling around, Oscar was fooling around, and we were all just enjoying ourselves. I loved that moment.”

Despite the fact that the film focuses on the Armenian genocide, the commonality of these social issues to people of all backgrounds is profound. It’s a reminder and an unfortunate reality that man’s inhumanity to man has resulted in some of the most catastrophic events of our times and yet we can shift our focus from despair to actually do something and look at the situations in the world today and see how we can help people.

On the night of April 24, 1915 (Easter Sunday I believe it was in 1915) the intellectuals and the business community leaders in Constantinople and Istanbul were rounded up as the first move in the genocide and each year the Armenian community comes together to memorialize that moment and the start of this holocaust that befell them. “The first reading of the script actually started on April 24, 2015, 100 years after the Armenian genocide started,” says Terry. “It was very relevant for us to release close to that date and also to encourage people to support this movement and have the genocide recognized.”

There are few films more powerful and important than The Promise, but that’s not why you should watch this film. Watch it for the brilliant storytelling, great acting, and its sunning message that love can make a difference in the face of great atrocity. The film may even prompt a discussion of genocide elsewhere in the world and what individuals can to do help put an end to it.

The Promise opens in theatres on April 21. All proceeds will benefit non-profit organizations and humanitarian causes. To learn more about this film, follow #KeepThePromise

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