#i don't like doing a plot i just want to do emotional gays saying stuff at each other

[blue-grama]

The Sign finale probably should have disappointed me, but... didn't?

It's been a heck of a run lately with Thai BLs that haven't quite stuck the landing, and it's got me pondering why The Sign worked for me despite sometimes feeling like a storyboard for a longer, better show.

I don't think they pulled off the emotional payoff they needed, despite that last reunion scene being so pretty and well-acted, simply because too much happened offscreen, from Khem's recovery from a gunshot wound to the entire multlifetime Tharn/Chalothon dynamic getting resolved without us seeing any of it. But somehow I wasn't that mad about it? And ultimately I think it's because this show did so many things well and so many things I'd love to see more of that I'm just like, yep, I enjoyed that ride sirs, please show me something this gorgeous again. In that sense it's joining something like Manner of Death or Kinnporsche where it's like, plot holes? Yes. Bizarre tonal shifts? Absolutely. Occasionally insane writing choices? Uh-huh. Love it anyway? You betcha. So here's what really, really worked for me:

Premise

I am always going to be onboard with QL that isn't solely coming-of-age or coming out. I'm not against those stories, of course, but give me gay romance with adult characters who know themselves and are doing adult things. I'm also a partisan for romances with high external stakes, so the mixture of crime and reincarnation was catnip to me.

Do I care that none of this training makes any sense? No.

2. Setting

Listen. Is The Sign the reason I have a document on my laptop titled "Imaginary trip to Thailand without ever seeing a beach?" Not exactly. But it's also not not the reason.

I am being willingly manipulated by the Thai Tourism Authority.

Kidding, kidding, but I do love when my Thai shows feel Thai or my Korean shows feel Korean, etc etc. I want to be driven to Wikipedia to learn more! Half the fun of watching stuff from not your own country.

3. Chemistry

I think @biochemjess covered what was underwritten about the romance in The Sign. Billy and Babe carried it on their backs and it was hard to dislike their romance, even when the series skipped over key beats.

Any time the pink lighting came out, you were gonna be in for a good time.

4. The camerawork

I don't know enough about film to speak intelligently about this, but the camerawork and aesthetics of this show were just so lovely to watch. It was really doing a lot. @chaos0pikachu wrote about it better than I ever could.

LOVED THIS. LOVED IT. So good.

We had some really lovely storytelling and visual parallels, too, like the first episode and finale both having a big action warehouse scene, or the multiple times that Phaya and Tharn ended up overlooking the Mekong river.

5. It was always kinda off the rails

I know some people felt this show started out with a strong premise and didn't live up to it, but I gotta say, I didn't have that experience. It was always kinda a bonkers watch for me. There were long training montages, random bodies in the shallows, missing genitals, extended performance art, that comedy flashback to Khem and Thongthai's college years... I never knew what I was going to get each Saturday. And I kind of loved that? I'm into unhinged. I was comparing this in my head to Last Twilight, which did disappoint me in the end, and I think it's because Last Twilight was NOT always bonkers and DID set itself up to tell a straighforward story, then dropped the ideas it had been juggling in the last episode. The Sign always felt chaotic to me, so a chaotic ending was par for the course. This is where I'd compare it to KinnPorsche, which had the weirdest fucking ending, but like, okay??? Why not!

End result? I see the flaws, but I'm giving this show tender forehead kisses anyway. Here's hoping for more like it.

[mildmayfoxe]

big fan of your romance novel complaint posts (love to see a fellow hater living it up) but i’m also curious if there are any you would recommend? not looking for anything in particular, just would love to hear your thoughts as someone else with nitpicky reading habits and a taste for trash

ok hello. i left you hanging for a FULL week and for that i am sorry but i wanted to be able to have some time to sit down and type out a real answer to which the short version is YES of course there are several that i have enjoyed!! my disclaimer is that i almost solely read gay romance so if you are looking for lesbian or even straight reccs i don't have much for you (although i will put a couple at the end anyway). hopefully something in this list is interesting to you or at least interesting to someone else! links are mostly to goodreads. break bc i'm gonna write too much

-kj charles is one of my fave authors in this genre bc they're all pretty reliable and there's a ton of them. they're all historical fiction and usually there's at least one murder- she's good at keeping a plot going while developing a romance. often supernatural or magical elements. sometimes cults! i've read almost all of the books she's written and have enjoyed them all

-charlie adhara wrote a really incredible werewolf series that i loved, the first of which is the wolf at the door. this is one of the only series i've read which keeps the emotional stakes up through the whole thing & kept me interested in a relationship after it was established bc sooo many series get boring the second the leads get together. i actually read the first book of the spin-off series (a pack of lies) first which is technically possible but i don't recommend bc i was like "wow they're really throwing me in here. i love it" and then i read the first series and i was like "oh i was supposed to know all this stuff." but i actually liked the dynamic between that couple better and i'm suffering every day because the next one still doesn't come out til 2025 and i read it in 2022. also worth noting that this (the original series) is cops-ajacent (~federal special agents~) and one of the characters is really prejudiced at the beginning & imo doesn't have enough character growth before it's waved away but if you can ignore that it's really good. mysteries! werewolves!

-speaking of werewolves (i could suggest several but i'll keep it to two) tj klune's wolfsong ends up at the top of a lot of gay werewolf novel lists (i'm keeping tabs) and there's a good reason. i enjoyed it a lot. made me kind of sad which is always a good sign to me. the writing voice was very fresh and novel at first but i did find it a little grating by the end so i've put off starting the second book in the series (it's also about a different couple which was disappointing) but i will get around to it. i enjoy tj klune in general although his recent stuff has a very different vibe than this and lightning struck heart is very 2015 in a bad way imo

-bone rider by j fally is a standalone that really delighted me. the russian mob? aliens? vaguely western? possession? throuple? it's got it all. very fun

-ok speaking of westerns there's this other series called magic & steam (yes it's steampunk. sorry. it's very silly) that starts with the engineer. a federal agent is sent to a town to apprehend a ~madman engineer~ except he runs into an infamous outlaw in the process. and the outlaw is really sexy. and probably why i enjoyed the series so much. the series also keeps them apart a lot in a way that i enjoy- i love when things take a long time. it's ongoing so this is another one that i keep checking for updates on

-i've read a lot of stuff by nr walker and they tend to be VERY hit or miss for me but one of my faves is evolved which is almost pure smut. it's about a sex robot that gains sentience. what more do i need to say. she also wrote a three-book series about an amnesiac that made me cry cry cry. and her cowboy (australian rancher) series is pretty ok. i could go through a list and tell you which novels of hers aren't worth it and which ones are good; i've read most of them

-salt magic skin magic by lee welch was a big surprise to me. cool magic, good folklore, fairies in there too. historical. big kj charles vibes which makes sense bc she edited it. welch also wrote a book called seducing the sorcerer which i had more mixed feelings about but had magic in it that i think about OFTEN (the horses)- that one's about an imposing sorcerer and a rundown groom cum handyman. and they're in their FORTIES!!! 🥳🥳🥳 (i love when books are not about 23 year olds)

-another one with a magic system i enjoyed was magician by kl noone. this was the first book i read by this author and i liked it but generally i find their books are too "nice" for me. i'm in the middle of one right now that i started months and months ago that i keep trying to go back to and it's sooo rough for me. but this one and the twelfth enchantment are pretty ok

-emily tesh wrote a duology of silver in the wood and drowned country that i loved because i am suuuuch a sucker for a wild man/green man story. really good. haunting! evocative! kj charles has a green man story too which was actually the first thing i read of hers (spectred isle)

-i complained about the monsterfucker book i was reading a while back but despite that i will also recommend the series it's from: lily mayne's monstrous, which starts with soul eater. are they messy? yes. are they repetitive? yes. are the monsters usually disappointingly humanoid? yes. are a lot of them about the military? also yes. so we're starting off on a bad foot. but the world building is interesting and there's LOTS of kinds of monsters and most of them were pretty fun. the one i just read (#7) was the worst one of the bunch though imo. and i have problems with #6. but 1 2 and 5 were good

-ok i should do a quickfire round. honeytrap: about two enemy agents during the cold war. put it off for a long time bc i didn't love that but it takes place over a VERY long period of time which is always interesting to me. zero at the bone: about a hitman who needs to protect a witness to a mob hit. really strong start but fell off a bit in the middle to the end imo.

-you'll notice a lot of these have subgenres of like fantasy historical supernatural etc but here's some regular contemporaries. a lot of these are about sad guys bc those are my favorite. best laid plans: hardware store owner helps a guy fix his house. in the middle of somewhere: same author actually. guy moves to small town to work at a college. mr jingle bells: this is a christmas one. bad title. fake dating. part of the reason i think i liked it so much is because i expected it to be awful but it was actually pretty good. good emotional stakes. published 2021 but feels very 2014. ignore that part. work for it: i rated this five stars but actually don't remember much what it was like. i think they were both really sad which i love. give me big emotions and i eat them right up with a spoon. i should read it again

-OK now i've got some straight & lesbian options. talia hibbert's brown sisters series is good and cute. she also wrote work for it, above. the unhoneymooners is the first real Romance Novel that i read and it really surprised me because i had fun! previously i had kind of written off romance novels as not for me but this kicked off a reading habit that is still going strong (primarily reading romance novels). i read this in 2020 so it might not be as good as i remember. as for lesbian options olivia waite has a series that i enjoyed that's also historical, and a friend of mine really enjoyed delilah green doesn't care (but i haven't read that one myself). and while not really romances i will always be a sarah waters fan: you may recognize her as the author of fingersmith, which is the novel park chan-wook's movie the handmaiden is based on. if you haven't seen the movie or read the book i recommend both. her books are very dramatic lesbian historical fiction; they don't always have happy endings but they're all very good

ok i think that's the end! regular disclaimer that romance is generally not a genre notable for Good Writing so a lot of these are just things i had fun with or just stuck out in my memory for having fun conceits etc. i can't guarantee that any of these are actually good, especially because this is a list solely based on my own taste and bad memory. would love to hear anybody's thoughts and/or if anybody has recommendations for ME!!! this post took me over three hours to write! crazy!

[rikeijo]

My friend doesn't think Yuri and Victor is in love romantically and it's more of adrenaline/trust is what's fueling their actions including some of the clickbait stuff since there isn’t anything official. I can understand where she’s coming from since I don’t usually like shipping unless it’s cannon but Yuri On Ice is a special case. Is there any comment from the creators about this? I saw say the creator confirmed they’re soulmates in an english blog but there was no source so I wasn’t sure if it’s legit

Hi! Thank you for the ask!💜

I also can't say I don't understand where your Friend is coming from.

Unfortunately, there was never any concrete confirmation that the relationship between Y&V needs to be seen as romantic. The official statement has always been that everything is open to personal interpretation of each fan.

The soulmates comments are from here and here.

Otsuka Manabu was pretty close to confirming Y&V during a con, but I have never heard/seen a transcription of his statement in Jp - it seems, however, that he indeed confirmed that Sayo wanted to portray 'romantic love'.

Adding my personal opinion - for me, the biggest 'proof' is that Yamada Reiji, Sayo's personal friends, talks openly about their relationship as gay. In Jp, it is still a taboo to some degree, and certainly was 10 years ago, to suggest that somebody may be gay - like there is zero openly gay Jp figure skaters, but there are countless discussions about ホモ疑惑, 'suspicion that somebody may be gay/the f word' (probably people, who are into Jp fs, know who has the longest history of being discussed in this way), but the word 'giwaku' is also used for eg. when somebody is suspected of doing something bad/illegal etc. That these discussions aren't 'neutral' is pretty clear. Because of the general taboo/negative stereotypes&connotations, imo, if Sayo wasn't content with Y&V relationship being seen that way, imo, her friend would surely respect that and wouldn't talk about it so openly and consistently - but 2016-2019, he always talked about YoI as a gay romance (and yeah, you can find negative comments from YoI fans under his videos bashing him for that). Fun fact is that he also admitted that Sayo used one of his works as inspiration for YoI, a manga titled... 'Agapes' 😆. The plot is about a gay guy in love with a straight guy. It's not my interpretation, but on Jp side, one interpretation of YoI's story that you can come across reading metas, is that it is indeed a story about a gay guy (Victor) in love with a straight guy (Yuuri), who really just looks up to him as his hero=the champion figure skater, and doesn't see him as romantic interest; that's why figure skating is always the bridge between them etc. In 'Agapes' the bridge is also a sport, to make things even more interesting - baseball.

On the other hand, it's also true that there was a lot of accusation of queerbaiting on both sides of the fandom - especially, after some of Mitsurou's statements. Here, imo, it seems the Eng fandom simply filtered out her less nice comments over time, to protect YoI's reputation of not being just another queerbait sports anime. (I don't think that it is anyway, but I also don't think it's as simple as 'Y&V are engaged and if we ever see a continuation they will get married'. It seems that this is what a lot of people in the Eng fandom want to believe.)

There is the rings-related stuff, about how engagement rings are not for engagement (but it's in the name...? yk, engagement? like people get engaged to be married?), but there is much more out there - listening to her mental gymnastics, I personally could summarize it as 'I wanted to portray 'deep emotions™' the way I wanted to, and yeah, people may misunderstand that, but that is their problem and I don't care, I'm not afraid of being misunderstood'. A lot of more progressive fans and YoI-antis alike were ridiculing these gymnastics in combination with eg. the 'exchanging of rings in front of the church' scene, as 'if you want to fujo-pander then pander, if you want to make them gay then make them gay, if you don't have the courage to do either, then just stop, bc that's pathetic' - in this context, it seemed she tried pretty hard to make people 'misunderstand' the relationship, including all those romantic/some people say 'pandering' scenes in the show, but then, when asked, it was always 'no, it's not like that, you see, people who work together...', but people are not idiots, so they were calling her out for that, simply speaking.

I was ranting a few times in the past why, imo, she decided to take this stance.

[babybatscreationsv2]

I watched Deadpool and Wolverine and I have thoughts

Spoiler buffer for people with notifications on

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First of all

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ELEKTRA

I cannot believe I saw my girl Elektra again and yes I would have cried and thrown up if they killed her. If Blade and Gambit are both getting a new movie where's Elektra's?? I say we riot. And I'm only a little bit kidding. Spider-Man needs a new mother figure after all. How about an Elektra/Jessica Drew team up? OMG I'm just realizing they could have put her in the canceled Shang-Chi film. Does the Hand never face off with the Ten Rings? You would think a couple of a martial artist gangs would have a rivalry. We could have been shipping Elektra and Xialing 😭

Okay actual movie thoughts

Yes the car scene was in fact a sex scene and I don't even think that's even debatable. You can't tell me Hugh Jackman threw his head back like that and groaned like he was fucking cumming and it wasn't an analogy for sex and then following it up with a pan away/sunset shot? It was 100% an ode to the many gay writers who hid their desire to penetrate another man through swords, guns, and fangs. Bram Stoker would be proud

Do not watch this movie if you're uncomfortable with inappropriate sexual touching, or language for that matter. Everyone's getting sexually assaulted and it's a joke every time, but at least they call it what it is I guess?

I feel like the amount of graphic sex jokes was to cover for the fact that they were told not to joke too much about drug use. Although choosing to joke about how they can't do coke was possibly my favorite joke, don't ask me why

They sure did let that little people joke in there though... yikes. Disney is really begging people with dwarfism to jump their asses this year

The weakest part of the film was definitely the villain dialog. I guess they didn't want any big plot twisty reveals because man these dudes came out monologing and like who asked? Nobody. Why are they talking so much?

I have a genuine love for Happy becoming the new Stan Lee cameo. I just love that man as a character and it feels right that he has a hand in everything.

I saw someone on here pouting about the photo of Tony and Peter together and how Peter's face was covered BUT ACTUALLY it's a running gag in the comics that Deadpool can't see Spider-Man's face or hear his name. Even if Peter takes his mask off right in front of him the "Marvel censors" hide it from Wade and I hope to god that's why they covered it because it'll be so damn funny if and when they're both in a film together

Speaking of funny, the comedy in this film was so well done. They poured most of the jokes out in the first act and left room for the movie and the characters to be taken seriously. I'm here praying that the other Marvel writers take notes because while I'm a very emotional person who requires comic relief to get through most movies without crying, we all know the humor in Marvel films is getting to be a bit much.

I was holding my breath during the big team up thinking it was going to be Deadpool 2/Suicide Squad all over again, but they actually got to have their hero moment and it was beautiful.

But WTF? Why did Blade and Gambit get a big moment where they show off their skills but Elektra gets half the screen time during the fight and her moment is just her kicking someone? She has magic ninja abilities?? She could have also done something cool?? The martial arts stuff was cool in her stand alone film, it doesn't impress in a crowd of people who know how to fight. At least let her skillfully throw her sais or something, damn.

And how good is Channing Tatum as Gambit? I'm not a Channing Tatum fan or anything, but damn does he nail it.

NICEPOOL I love Nicepool, I have no idea what Deadpool variants exist in the comics because I actually hate multiverse stuff that isn't spiderverse, BUT it's canon that if Deadpool were to stop killing people that he would become pretty again and I love that there's a universe where's he just insanely nice and handsome mostly because I don't think they would ever make a Spider-Man/Deadpool film so at least we acknowledged that this happens, sorta, they don't really talk about why he's pretty and our Deadpool isn't

I love how it was a Deadpool film, but also everyone got their moment. It was barely even about him. He was the vehicle through which Wolverine and Nova and Laura got to tell their stories and it worked really well

I also feel like Wade getting Johnny killed felt weird and mildly out of character. He's an asshole, not a sadist. There's a big difference. If they wanted him dead to get rid of Chris Evans and still have their cameo, it didn't have to be Wade's fault

Wade and Logan recognizing Chris's face as belonging to Steve also sets a precedent for RDJ playing Doom. (It also means that yes people in universe will recognize him and angst will happen, I'm still crossing my fingers that there's multiple Dooms)

I give the whole thing a 4/5 had a good time, few complaints

[gyarucoded]

gimme a sec i need to talk about this !!

so i saw a long ass reblog under an anti-sylki blog that started off as something like "actually loki & sylvie has good romance chemistry meanwhile loki & mobius doesn't have any romance chemistry at all"🤓– and in this moment i went "alright best frien i'm not reading all that" then went to block instead of arguing.

didn't try reading that bullshit of a post further either just to anger myself, i know better.

i especially didn't wanna argue cuz i think that was a child..??? (assuming from the miracoulus ladybug theme cuz no adult in their right mind enjoys that trash) but if i'm wrong that just makes it worse tbh, like grown ass ppl who srsly think toxic relationships should be the example of peak romance needs their brain to be studied fr.

i usually try to be respectful for others' opinion but i genuinely can't see where this opinion comes from.

makes no goddam sense to me.

maybe it's cuz i can't view things through a heterosexual lens, maybe not.

who knows?

but...(i won't make this abt lokius but focusing more on the "loki & sylvie" part) this made me wonder like...

what do sylkie shippers even post about?

no i won't check it out myself to spare myself from the headache but do they go "omg today episode's syIkie crumbs was so lovely dovely 🥺" and the crumbs in question is them disagreeing on almost everything and sylvie wanting to avoid loki as much as she can & constantly seeming to be angry at him.

sure, in s1 they did have a couple of cutesy romantic moments like being under blankets despite of them being supposedly immune to cold or the literal kiss but, it truly doesn't take a huge analyzation to realize that this "relationship" became one sided, even in that one little moment when they had to hold hands, sylvie immidiately goes "don't overthink it" like omgggsfg💀😭 and it's also clear that loki eventually got the hint, in ep3 he doesn't try to be with her anymore or gets emotional with her, he silently gave up.

not to mention loki avoiding to mention the kiss, when appearantly the two has nothing to hide? 😕

i don't know where this is gonna be heading off but if they randomly switch up after all this character & dynamic development then i have no hope for marvel's writing team cuz that would basically create a plot hole.

like aside from the psuedo-incest, that used to bother me in season 1 era but now i am concerned more about how this "ship" overall has no appeal, yet some of these ppl genuinely thinks it can work healthily between them and that ppl who are against it are just "petty that their gay ship isn't canon" when there's MORE to this.

in season 2 there's absolutely *nothing* happening with them that would make us, the audience, root for them to be together as a couple like i'm sry.

so yeah you can say i'm doing too much and too crazy over a fictional tv show (yes i know that babes i have full self awareness) but i literally cannot stress enough about how unhealthy it is to think that this is how a good romantic chemistry works.

based on a syIkie shipper's views: we could technically say that me + that one co-worker of mine who we always have disagreements on political stuff with & dislikes me for no reason is my "lover"... since we wanna pretend this is how love works 😀😀 no?

[buddiebeginz]

https://www.tumblr.com/buddiebeginz/749045441710129152/people-are-saying-that-its-rude-and

It’s funny too because I guarantee most of those people saying it’s rude to call him that, had zero problem being the first in line to call all of bucks previous romances stepping stones to Buddie before they collectively decided Tommy was somehow the new Sun and Moon and Stars of Bucks world. Which is wild to me because the vast majority of them didn’t even remember who he was until they looked him up after Tim said he was briefly coming back. And sorry not sorry but if people like Abby and Taylor who were both much more integrated into the show and much more developed as characters, can be called stepping stones, and those people never found that rude or disrespectful, then Tommy who has had a grand total of maybe 10 minutes screen time in the entire series so far (being generous) and set up to be a mirror of Eddie from start to finish since his return this season (Tim’s own words mind you 🙃) can certainly be called what he is. A plot device.

Yeah my feeling is a lot of people are so in love with T*mmy mainly because he's connected to Buck's bi storyline. So all the emotions people felt at finally getting to see Buck come out and kiss a guy have been in part also put onto T*mmy. I mean consider this. If T*mmy was brought back to be a boyfriend for Josh (a character who has been canonically gay the entire run of the show) would people still be obsessing over him as much? I doubt it.

Also like you said people called other relationships of Buck's stepping stones or had issues with his past girlfriends but that was never as big of an issue as it is now. Now it's if you dare to say anything that isn't positive about T*mmy you don't care about Buck or his bi storyline. Yet we're also being told as Buddie shippers that we're making everything about Buddie. When they've definitely made Buck's bi awakening so much about T*mmy.

Yeah the show has totally made it clear that Tommy is supposed to be a mirror of Eddie, like him in so many ways just not quite the real thing. They even had Eddie saying and doing similar things to him in 704/705. There's no way this stuff isn't intentional given how popular Buddie is. The writers would know to be careful of how they handled Eddie if they didn't want Buddie to be a thing. Yet the message they're sending to the audience is that Buck is dating someone who is a replica of Eddie because it's just never occurred to him that Eddie was an option. T*mmy's main purpose in my opinion is help wake Buck up to his true feelings for Eddie.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i'm WAY behind. friday we watched voy's "tattoo," saturday i finally womaned up and agreed to watch ds9's "the visitor" and then we also bravely soldiered on to "hippocratic oath," and last night we did ds9's "indiscretion" and "rejoined."

tattoo (voy):

it's a real shame about (waves vaguely at racefaking "expert" on voy's writing staff) because, due to my own lack of education, i never know which stuff is based in fact and which is just wholesale bullshit. i remember one time i googled something about chakotay's culture because it seemed so obviously fake, and it turned out to be Kind Of True But Not Like That. it sucks because not ONLY was it a huge missed opportunity for Representation And Education (tm) but chakotay is a really interesting guy and i'd like to know more about him and see him get to do more stuff without him getting buried in the like. mysticism and racism of it all. it's no good for him and it's no good to sit through either

bc like. at this episode's core. if you could somehow remove the racist panflute and the whole thing where we portray people from THE SPACE TRAVELING FUTUREEE as primitive savages, you could have had a good story. chakotay struggles with not feeling at home where he lives/in his own culture, goes to space about it, then has an emotional crisis when his dad dies while the two of them are on bad terms. i know that's a good story and i know star trek can make that a good story because do you know who else has that story? SPOCK.

LIKE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY. WHAT WERE YOU DOING!

anyway, chakotay naked. i know he was naked for the wrong reasons but that man had his whole ass out. bold moves heretofore only taken by sir patrick stewart himself. GOOD FOR HIM!

oh yeah the b plot of this episode sucked. we have to give the doctor a cold because of his lack of compassion? since When has he ever complained about sick or whiny people? been gruff with them, sure, tough-love kind of guy definitely, but no one would program a doctor who hated serving patients?? i did like that kes gave him an extra hour to be evil though. i love her so much

the visitor (ds9):

i don't want to talk about it.

or, no, i actually already talked about it, and i don't have anything to add, except that 1. christopher nolan can still suck it 2. every episode of ds9's 4th season so far has made me feel like i need to give it a "must see" on the spreadsheet. i almost can't believe i'm watching star trek. i have to start grading the damn things on a curve

hippocratic oath:

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN. stuck with the jem'hadar and julian is like "i can fix them" and o'brien is like "i have been racist my whole life and i'm not about to stop now and also you cannot fix them so i am going to condemn them to a horrible death in order to save your life" because he did at the beginning of the episode say out loud with his mouth that he wished his wife was more like julian bashir and then promptly refused to examine that thought even a little bit

like this had EVERYTHING. gay people. ethical dilemmas. twink with a spine of steel. worf forgetting he's no longer in tng. my best friend odo disguising as an inanimate object. and i'm supposed to just give it a WATCH?

like, i was right there with julian. fix them fix them fix them it's so easy they CAN be weaned off of it this could change everything i was so livid with o'brien for condemning those guys to a painful and undignified ending and for repeatedly ruining julian's attempts to help with all his attempts to escape and then he was like. yeah. i did all that to save YOUR LIFE because i saw that YOU were in danger.

and it obviously doesn't excuse anything and you get the feeling julian COULD have helped them with enough time and the right tools and and and...but he didn't have all that, and obrien KNEW he didn't have all that, and he wasn't willing to risk his friend's life on a gamble when it came to helping enemy soldiers

like, it's his fucking cardassian ptsd. note how he didn't speak when they were captured but bashir did because the gun was on his friend. note how he had to explain why the commander couldn't escape with them. IT MKAES SO MUCH SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. who hasn't done horrible things for the people they love? if his wife doesn't get back soon he's going to be asking for julian's hand in marriage by season 5

indiscretion (ds9):

KIRA PULLING THE THORN OUT OF DUKAT'S ASS. sorry i'm good i'm normal

something about dukat...at first he was very boring and flat, and then he was funny but still pretty 2-dimensional, and then he was funny AND gay with sisko but still 2-dimensional, and now he's got all kinds of depth. i completely wrote him off as generic cardassian villain at first but i am genuinely thrilled to see him every time he shows up

like, the bajoran lover and the daughter is such an amazing plot twist, but also, sorry to say this, he and kira have q and picard energy. as in, q wants picard to fuck him so so so bad, and picard has zero interest in doing this, and somehow that interest gets even lower the more q wants it, and the lower his interest gets, the more rabid q is for him, and it's probably the only thing i really enjoyed about either character, a few of sir patrick stewart's better speeches aside. dukat is exactly like that with kira. he is GAGGING for her strap and she finds him vile and rephrensible and the closest they got to fucking was when she pulled the spine out of his ass cheek and laughed at him and he probably is going to put that in the spank bank for the rest of his life. and she will still never fuck him

really fun when she told him to shut up and he shut up <3

i just love episodes that deal with the fallout of the war...it's always such incredible character work. i was worried that with the dominion threat these kinds of episodes would go away and i'm glad that's not the case

also, hi, sisko fumbling things with his gf for the b-plot. dax and julian giving him romantic advice and then mocking him when he leaves. jake being the only one who can talk sense into him. incredible. 10/10

ALSO, not only did capt yates make him work at that apology she did NOT kiss his ass goodbye. and he deserved it.

even quark was funny in this episode, despite the misogyny. he was nice to jake in "the visitor" so i think i've forgiven him because i've made at least two quodo jokes since then. my first love will always be kiraodo (kodo?) though

rejoined (ds9):

LESBIANS IN STAR TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as previously stated about 600 times on this blog i DID NOT KNOW there would be a gay kiss happening. i thought btvs held the honors for the first gay kiss and that this was going to be like an allegory or a metaphor like in tng. and i did like the tng ep for what it was! but holy shit this blows that out of the water.

i think it's so important that this would have been absolutely NO different whatsoever if either half of the couple had been a man. for the time period especially it's very much like. Queers Are Just Like Us which i think is an important step 1 to reel in potential bigots who are still on the fence. i cannot believe my mother is going to watch this episode someday

also, hi, the allies in this episode...? julian sitting through that WHOLE dinner without the first word of complaint. sisko telling dax it's a bad idea but he'll back her tf up. kira bewildered that any of it is any problem at all. sisko's moment was especially nice bc at first you think he's being a dick which is out of character for him and then you realize 1. he's scared for her 2. he loves her 3. he would probably fight the homophobic (recursionphobic...?) trills with his bare hands if he had a good excuse

it's also nice that zero people in this episode were weird about the idea of two women together. it was SO NORMAL. god i can't believe andor let those two women touch hands for a single shot and called it progressive between that and spn my standards are through the FLOOR!!

TONIGHT: ds9's "starship down" and "little green men," and then we're finally back to voyager.

[cringelordofchaos]

i kinda wanna get into sp??? not nearly as much as you but like watch a few episodes. i probably wont watch it for a while cause i have a LONGGG list of stuff to watch but everything else is relatively short wheras south park. well. even though im probably a sonic mutual to you i think south park has wayyy too much stuff for me to like. just start from anywhere.

anyway point is do you have any episode suggestions??? i dont really mind if you just decide to give me all the creek episodes and call it a day tbf, the only one i actually have it in my head that i "need" to watch is the transginger ep

SJJFJEJFBFJRJFNF this makes me so happy for some reason !!

The thing is with this show you don't really have to start from anywhere or go in a specific order, at least I didn't and it's pretty episodic so it's really easy to be a casual watcher tbh

I will say thought the show has a ton of like, shock humour n a lot of bigoted characters, like cartman who's a bigot in every way possible but he's never actually justified in his bigotry and the creators of the shown obviously don't share his views but yea

You can watch it on southparkstudios.com for free and with very rare ads - though for some people it won't let them watch anything on it so idk

For creek episodes - there's "tweek x Craig" (my first episode!!!) and "put it down" which is sometime after the aforementioned episode (my second episode-), there's also "tweek vs Craig" which takes place much before tweek x Craig but it doesn't really have much of an impact on their relationship afterwards, though I really like all those episodes especially put it down, for some reason, it actually helped me understand relationships and emotions better ??????? Even though the advice is pretty simple it still helped

Creek also makes minor appearances in splatty tomato (though the episode is mostly about Cartman and Heidis toxic relationship), and buddha box (ep focused on isolating urself from societu pretty much), though they're there !!

As for heidi there's also doubling down which takes place before splatty tomato, and also put it down where her n cartman's relationship is paralleled to creek in a way

This is random but theres also episodes focused on gay acceptance, such as "big gay Al's gay boat ride" (aired in 1997!!!), where Stan learns to accept his dog for being gay essentially, and "cartman sucks" which is actually pretty cursed because half of the plot is about Cartman sexually assaulting butters, uhm but the other half is mostly an anti conversion therapy message (though there's a lot of moments referencing suicide rates in conversion camps)(episode aired in 2008) which is when butters was sent to a conversion camp

Speaking of Butters he's absolutely horridly traumatized and abused and if you'd like to see it on screen there's "butter's very own episode" and "Marjorine" ,both are dark as hell though so uh tw for murder attempt, referenced suicide, and uhh horror themes in general ???

OH ALSO RIGHT. THE TRANSGINGER EPISODE sorry j lost track of my words. It's called "The Cissy". I like it though some people consider it to be anti trans I beg to differ, it's mostly about gendered bathrooms and pop singer Lorde though

My fav sadder ? Episodes are "Kenny Dies", "you're getting old", "ass burgers" (the latter two connected and focus on Stan's depression), though they still use dumb humour

For Craig centric episodes there's "pandemic" and "pandemic 2 the startling"

If you want to be cursed to hell u can watch "Scott tennorman must die" though it really freaked me out even though I exactly knew the plot twist I was still horrified lmao

For STAN and KYLE episodes (?) (the super best friends I adore as well) you can watch "guitar queer-o", "follow that egg" and "smug alert!"

If you want episodes about Kyle feeling like a total outcast you can watch "the list", "chinpokomon", "Mr Hankey the Christmas poo", "the world-wide privacy tour" and "south park is gay"

Dang sorry I dropped like what. Twenty episodes at once.. well I think I watched tweek x Craig first, then put it down, then you're getting old?, then Kenny dies? And I just like spiraled from there

If you want any more specific episode recommendations feel free to ask !!! I haven't personally watched all of the show myself (still omw to do it) so I don't know everything

Uhmmm I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore cuz of how cursed this show is though 😞😞 but good luck if u decide on watching it !!!

[hxhhasmysoul]

Just see this in twitter by someone :

"Why do people read shonen for subtextual doomed yaoi click bait when X exists and you don’t have to pretend?"

"I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, this blog of yours is one of my favorite place...

First of, thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying my blog even if it's a hot mess at times.

While I enjoy my ships that I have from the shounes I like, I didn't read /watch HxH or JJK for the ships. When I first watched the HxH anime it was after years of deep depression where I stopped reading things and watching things or playing games with plots. I'd just put forgettable shows or youtube videos in the background and play some mind numbing click game if I wasn't working.

I literally don't remember anything from that time, at least I was semi functional then, I had worse times. But summer was the worst, I didn't make much money generally but over the summer I had like one fifth of my regular work load at best and I just couldn't handle the existential dread and anxiety.

And I was watching videos of people speaking about media i knew all day and eventually I ran out of those that were about stuff I knew but I liked the person's voice so I clicked onto videos about stuff i didn't. And things they said about HxH made me go: really? And it was something about the last phase of the Hunter's Exam, it had nothing to do with any ship.

And I made the effort to watch a whole ass fucking anime. Like 100+ episodes. In about 5 days. It had characters I really started to love early on like Gon and Killua or Melody and train-wreck characters like Hisoka or Illumi that I couldn't stop myself from looking at with utter fascination, like wtf. And it had these intertwining plot lines and it didn't focus on just one character and Gon didn't even fight some of the bosses and the plot just veered into places I didn't expect but in the best fucking way possible and in the Chimera Ant arc it was really going from bad to worse and getting more tense and painful and the sense of dread and doom was mounting ... and it traumatised me. And I didn't know what to do with myself and for the first time ever I turned to fandom to process what I've experienced. And yeah I came out of convince that Gon and Killua loved each other in a romantic way and it was very important but like I didn't go into it or even kept watching for that.

HxH unlocked in me the ability to enjoy stuff again. To actually interact with media. It made me write alone again, not just co-write with a friend.

And like I don't watch/read that much. I don't have the time or energy, I also want to keep enjoying fandom and that takes up time and write my own stuff.

I don't even remember why I watched JJK. I knew absolutely nothing about it going, not who the characters were, not what the plot was. Like I must've read some blurb but I really don't know. And like episode one and I loved Yuuji and I just kept watching and the Junpei episodes came and I had to stop watching for a day and collect myself because how could they you know, how could they to my child... And after I finished the anime I read the manga and it was better? And worse, so much more traumatising.

But JJK is my kind of story too, it doesn't overfocus on one character, it has intertwining plots. It has some characters that I love or am fascinated by.

Years ago I used to read a lot of BL but none really stuck with me because they weren't that much my kind of stories. I'm not saying they were bad, they just weren't it for me.

But this is why I read HxH or JJK. The shipping for me is the result, not the reason. I just want more with the characters I love, more situations more emotions. So I love the fanart and the fanfic and it really adds to my enjoyment of these characters and their stories.

But also everyone is different and reads for different reasons. So people who say you should read X instead are really presumptuous, the imagine that they understand why someone enjoys something, what experiences and emotions they are after. And like maybe there are BL stories with characters like Gon and Killua and Yuuji, there are certainly BL stories with guys with kinda Sukuna vibes, I vaguely remember that. It's just that I haven't stumbled upon any that'd have the other factors too that make me enjoy HxH or JJK. Maybe I will encounter them and enjoy them but with how much time and energy I have, I likely won't go out there to look for them to prove someone's point that I'd just enjoy those hypothetical stories more.

There's this annoying culture in fandom where people expect others to justify why they enjoy things. And it's not enough for you to have a reason to like something, the reason will be scritinised and it's validity will be judged. And those people who feel that need to play judge to what others enjoy and and how, they really make fandom and online spaces worse for everyone. They are like those nosy neighbours who stand in their window all day watching what everyone else is doing. And we all know that the window neighbours are creepy, but somehow the fandom judges are not called nosy and creepy enough and honestly they should be. Because honestly they should mind their fucking business.

[oodlyenough]

aa3 trials and tribulations

alright after dragging my heels to get four months out of a idk 35 hour game i have finished aa3. spoilery thoughts mostly about the last case bc i played the others months ago fjglhgkf

Positive stuff:

FRANZISKA... my mvp... I loved Franziska after aa2 but she was so great here, everything I could've wanted from her lmao. My best worst girl. I LOVED having her hang out with Phoenix fhlgfhgklf incredible, showstopping, spectacular. Their dynamic is sooo much fun and I also really liked seeing her interact with the witnesses outside of the courtroom, and how she tries to establish her authority but uses that authority to try and comfort them, etc -- she gets mad at Phoenix when he isn't complimentary enough of Sister Bikini lol, she takes control of the sacred cavern situation, she bullies Edgeworth into selfcare garden sulking after the earthquake, etc. It was really interesting and kind of sweet, in her way, it was nice to see that side of her. I can easier see how she and Adrian ended up with their weird gay thing although I have to admit Franmaya remains my Franziska ship of choice. (Just yesterday I was telling someone "I want Franziska to show Maya how to use her whip"... so close and yet so far Capcom.)

Defense attorney Edgeworth was awesome what a fun idea, and the Edgeworth/Franziska court battle ruled. I think I talked about it a lot at the time so I won't dwell much but lmao. wonderful. you're both sooooo bonkers

The Fey family drama! Cool af! Love a matriarchal society of women murdering each other. Amazing. I was spoiled for bits and pieces but not for Misty, which was a great surprise, I had expected they'd just leave that thread hanging but resolving it was the correct choice. I also loved that this game gave a bit more of a nod to Mia. I had said in my previous reaction post that I loved Mia having her own lil Moriarty in Dahlia and their showdown was so fun. Get her ass Mia. Pull each other's hair in the afterlife.

The actual plot mystery stuff in this case was great. I was able to do 3-4 and 3-5 without any walkthrough help AND without banging my head into a wall, which really does make it more fun, lol. You feel clever for solving it without feeling like it's being spoonfed. Or at least I didn't feel it was spoonfed :P and I guessed wrong about some things.

I loved Dahlia LMAO she was fr on the stand like "Your honour I was born evil and I died evil and I'm still evil now. Peace". I sort of expected she'd have mixed emotions at least about Iris but uh nope. Choose a way to born: Evil Baby. You could probably say something about AA returning to these cartoonishly evil villains to smooth over any of the ethical quandaries probably but tbh for the most part I just find it fun. Whatever. Cant a girl have hobbies (poisoning, failure).

Less positive stuff:

I was surprised and disappointed to not get a send-off epilogue screen for Edgeworth or Franziska 😔 they just kind of disappeared in the back end of the case, and while I don't have an issue focusing on the Feys in the end, the Edgeworth/Franziska stuff felt a bit unresolved to me, to not even get a few lines when Oldbag and Larry do. I guess Capcom wants me to play AAI (... sort of. not enough to port it or translate it :P).

Two finale cases in a row shelved Maya for a considerable portion. She got much more to do here, in the end -- her as Nick's last witness was very good, and obv she's central to the whole case -- than in 2-4, but I still felt her absence.

And I do wish we'd gotten to see more of Edgeworth and Phoenix interacting - they're sort if implied to be spending time off screen but I would like to see it.jpeg, I thought he was gonna be a more active part of the case after trial day 1. Since AA1 it often feels like the game is juggling characters so I can have like, one fave with me at a time but not more lol. Rude.

The Iris/Phoenix stuff was 🙄 I realize it's futile to be mad about like, token heterosexuality in a 20+ year old video game, but 🙄 lol. Also naturally I spent most of the game believing Dahlia had grudgingly put up with Feenie while dreaming of murder for 8 months and that's so much funnier than the truth turned out to be, lmao. Her eternal torment.

I couldn't stand Godot lmao I didn't like him at the start of the game and by the end I hated him. His gimmick was boring to me at best, I found him deeply condescending and sexist in the case with Mia, and then obviously 3-5 just sent all of that overdrive. The upswing was that he was the killer so that was satisfying for me lmfao. Throw the book at him judge.

Overall:

I see why this is often called the best game. The overarching stories all tied together well, I can see how the cases of the week led into the finale even if I hated one of em (mask de masque do NOT interact), the puzzles are good while being solvable, and there are some really really great fun moments of character stuff in here for almost everyone.

Having said that, I think the first game is still my fave. Its comparatively limited scope meant each major character got their moment, Maya and Edgeworth are my besties and it's the only time I actually got to have both of them around at the same time. And Turnabout Goodbyes is just so good and so is Rise from the Ashes.

I'm sad the trilogy is over 😔 while I wait for 4-6 to get ported I'll play TGAA and AAI, but not sure in which order, and in either case I'm gonna miss my best friend Phoenix Wright. Luv u buddy

[butmakeitgayblog]

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I do kind of understand what Harry Styles was saying about gay sex scenes because sex scenes with men are always so ROUGH 😭 With het and MLM scenes I typically have trouble believing that they actually have any feelings for each other beyond Horny because the whole time I’m just like damn dude are you even trying to make it good for them cause it’s not all about you!!!

And then like you said we get a hard cut to two girls doing nothing more than laying in bed holding the covers over their titties and I feel infinitely more chemistry and love between them than basically any sex scene with a man 😂 Have men in the industry not got the memo that sex doesn’t always have to be getting railed until you can’t walk but rather there are many ways to have sex and it can in fact often be a loving and dare I say cute experience??? If there’s gonna be a sex scene I want it to show something about the characters and their relationship, how they treat and care for each other (or not 😬) not… whatever tf the scene in TLFOAH was. Wasn’t sexy, didn’t contribute anything, super out of place… ugh

Well, respectfully idk about all that. I mean I think there have been sex scenes involving men that are perfectly lovely and loving in their depiction, it's just unfortunate that those don't tend to be the stories Hollywood dork ass loser execs want to portray 😒 they all want rough sex and violence and exploitation

And really I don't even necessarily blame the actors. I mean yes it's their performance, but I assume they're mostly being directed on how to shoot these scenes. I believe most, if not all, sex scenes these days have choreographers that break every movement and touch down beat by beat to try and do away with any variables that could mess up a shot or give opportunities to less savory actors trying to pull shit in scenes that make stuff weird.

And that's where my bitching and complaining comes in! Lol because now they have no excuse. There's no excuse for the bullshit that gets peddled and is so obviously made salacious on purpose rather than loving.

Like this scene for example.

It could have actually been worth a damn. A sex scene could have worked here, if they had not been thinking "hmmm ho how can we make this as sexy as possible so whoever's boyfriend that's being made to watch this with will get their dick hard", and actually used it as a vehicle for the plot and for character development. I would've been completely for it. If they had slowed down and taken a few beats to show him being sweet with her, show him lovingly kissing her, maybe a few smiles or intense looks while they slowly undressed each other, moments where he stops just to look into her eyes and build that connection. Have the rhythm of the sex be slow and sweet, as though he's giving her tenderness and caring that she hadn't had before - that she's so obviously been searching for in all her pain and trauma and abandonment. That would've been amazing! BECAUSE THEN! You jump forward to the beach scene only a few moments later, and you see that veneer crack. You see the beginnings of his ugliness and his abuse start to emerge.

How much more impactful would that have been?

That stark contrast. That immediate shift that would've felt like the rug was yanked right out from under the viewer and Alice both.

To move between these scenes of seeing her falling into him, thinking '*sigh* Finally. Finally, here's someone who cares about me. Here's someone who will be soft with me. Here's someone who will protect me, help me heal, give me the love that's been stolen from me over and over again in my life. Here's my safety.'

And then... you see him change.

That would've totally been so effective and speak to the characters and the blossoming of their relationship, and how someone can be so blinded by emotions that they don't see the danger signs right in front of them. It would've built such a more solid foundation for why Alice would make excuses and exceptions for him and his behavior, because we'd know that she'd already have this love story written in her head fROM THE SEX SCENE

But no.

Nope.

Uh uh.

Gratuitous boinking always wins and I just

[tonya-the-chicken]

Thoughts on Barbie

Mostly negative ones but some compliments too (tagging @galaxydaggers cause you asked) SPOILERS

White cis feminism Both main characters are white. We saw plenty of different Barbies but they serve 0 functions, I wouldn't even call them supportive characters they are just in the background. The only other "active" Barbie is also white. The two human characters are Latina (I think?) but I think they lack depth (more on that later) The movie feels kind of cisheteronormative, ngl. There are 0 queer people or at least not enough for me to notice... Some might say Allan but I don't think we should settle for comic relief that is not even clearly gay. And all this Ken and Barbie stuff that exits the characters at hand and serves as a larger metaphor for the relationship between men and women... My friend also mentioned how Barbie went to a gynaecologist immediately after becoming "human, " showing that being a real woman means having female genitalia... I think this perspective has some value even though personally I just saw it as a joke with no thought behind it

Too many topics to handle This movie is about many things. It's about feminism, it's about an existential crisis, it's about growing up, it's about relationships and a one-sided crush. It lasts two hours and it is not enough to develop such topics and cover them in details and nuances they deserve. The movie tries to be about so many things that it ends up not doing any of them justice

In the face Well, the message of the movie is that feminism is great and becoming your own person is good as well. It is hard to miss because the characters will tell you this in the face. The whole speech thing I saw being praised is just one of the characters spelling out what the movie is trying to say about feminism. It could've been just a tweet or a tumblr post. It doesn't have much artistic value and it is something that has been said many times You can disagree with me but I don't like this. I prefer when a movie makes me think or delivers the message in a subtle way. I like it when I need to move my brain and arrive at my own conclusion instead of being spoon-fed like a baby. I think in a movie the message should be delivered through the actions of characters, their situations, and emotions and not through making them spell out every conclusion you want to make

Underdeveloped characters and lacking plot Most characters have no depth to them, no personality. Ken was probably the most interesting at the beginning, feeling jealous and fighting for Barbie's attention but it was sidelined to make him more of an idiot. Human characters have a bit more personality but not by much. They are the way they are because the movie needs them to be this way and they act the way they do because of the plot or haha funny. And the plot isn't even good. Characters lack motivation (Mattle needs to stop Barbie because... what?) and there are no explanations for some things (like the hell is Barbieland?) Some plot points I'll discuss more in detail taking their message into account

Is it that easy to switch? After Ken finds out about patriarchy he goes back to Barbieland and turns it into Kendom. And all women dress up in revealing outfits and serve men now. And my question is... Why? Why would they listen to him and agree with him? How could he brainwash them? Why are they so happy to be in this position? Are women just a bunch of sheep ready to throw their rights away? This is not how systems of oppression are established and it's no like the oppressed group just gives up on being presidents and writers for fun. That's just stupid

Ken and Barbie questionable moment One of the more outrageous moments to me is the whole Ken-Barbie relationship and what it says about feminism and male radicalisation. We see that Barbie doesn't treat Ken right and sidelines him, and then Ken becomes obsessed with patriarchy. Ken's actions almost feel like Barbie's fault. The movie doesn't blame her but that is the way the plot develops. Not to mention how after everything that he did Barbie has to lull Ken and convince him to leave her house and develop a personality when imo Ken had plenty of personality before the movie made him a patriarchy-obsessed idiot

Where does existential crisis come from? It's supposed to be one of the main themes but I left the theatre feeling confused. Why was Barbie thinking about death? Her human's trouble was too mundane to justify it tbh.... How many kids think about death, c'mon, there are suicidal children and somehow you are telling me it is the first time something like this happened? Plot-wise it's stupid but message-wise it kinda says that existential crisis comes out of nowhere when it is a deep rethink of what you are... Are you telling me the writer couldn't come up with a life-changing event? Or at least show depression properly?... I don't believe

Men crying and women crying Curious thing. Why when Barbie is crying it's this touching significant moment but when Ken crying it is haha funny moment? And then you say "I am a modern man I know crying is ok". Kind of weird to say that after not treating their crying as equally important?...

Good?

It is fun I must admit I laughed

Pink everywhere It was a nice experience to be a part of some big cultural event and dress up in punk and go to barbienheimer and all that stuff. Truly a unique and interesting experience

The final question is: what was this movie made for? It lacks artistic value. It lacks a good message. It's funny and touching sometimes. Yet, it just feels empty and disappointing at the end. It sure has a cultural impact but that makes it a good meme, not a good film. Maybe all it is, in the end, is an ad for Barbie

[diagonal-queen]

thungo thursday: oh god bones please don't fuck this up

manga spoilers for this one boys

gotta love how teruko was FULLY ready to murder atsushi no issue but now she's like 'gimmie a piggyback SLAVE'

also atsushi always going like 'im a tiger not a cat' does he??? not know?? that tigers????? are just big cats????

atsushi is incompatible with gay sadists (including but not limited to yosano, akutagawa, kouyou, teruko)

nevermind lol

OMG KENJI AND TECCHOU 1V1 LETS GOOOOOOOO

okay i love tecchou, he's a great character, and so is jouno. but seeing kenji get hurt in any capacity fills me with a mighty rage and now i think tecchou deserves at least one passionate backhand from yours truly

BABY ATSUSHI NOOOOOOOOO

YESSSS GET FUCKED TECCHOU (i love you but like if i really had to choose between you and kenji...it's a no brainer babe)

also i'm legit like kenji fr. i couldn't give a shit if people like try to hurt me or whatever im like ok, but if anyone tries to hurt my friends i get unbelievably pissed about it and genuinely will throw hands

FUCK yeah they actually did kenji right. i was so worried about how they would animate this lmao but they actually did it properly good job bones

omg tecchou it literally doesn't matter if jouno would have wanted you to save him. the fact is that you tried to do it anyway and that speaks volumes (YOU'RE GAY YOU'RE A FUCKING QUEER)

you have to wonder if kenji admires chuuya in part due to the fact that he understands the difficulty behind CHOOSING to be nice when you're actually hated by the world and full of rage because of it. fuck maybe i kin kenji more than i thought. i also am one of those people who doesn't care if someone hurts me but if they hurt my loved ones i get fully pissed and will throw hands

KENJI AND TECCHOU'S FRIENDSHIP IS SO WHOLESOME OMGGGGG also did tecchou really not know the names of the detective agency? maybe that information was withheld from the hunting dogs in order to get them to subconsciously dehumanise the agency, so they wouldn't be swayed by the agency's efforts to prove their own innocence as easily...then again jouno recognised kunikida immediately so mayb not...

i love how sigma was called a three year old by dazai and he just...didn't react. no 'i'm not three years old' or 'technically i'm an adult', just -_-

FYODOR DUCKING TO GET UNDER THE DOOR WHILE CHUUYA JUST WALKS THROUGH LMAOOOOO

LMAOOOOOOO SIGMA BBY HE'S SO EASILY SWAYED (me too bub.) BABY YOU'RE ALREADY WAY SUPERIOR TO FYODOR. also dazai saying 'he's the atsushi kun type' bro i know. they're two of my top three bsd kins. I'M the atsushi kun type. also sigma looks so cute when he's thinking so hard i wanna boopdesnoot

why the fuck did they animate fyodor to be like 'chuuya san!' in the most babygirl voice ever, they even gave him emotions and everything wtf

'the walls are anti-gifted' ARE THEY ANTI ARAHABAKI THOUGH (don't come for me i havent fully read 15 or stormbringer i dont know if arahabaki is an ability or not im maKING A JOKE GUYS ITS A FUCKING JOKE!!!)

not the cutesy wink dazai oh my fucking god stop trying to rizz up sigma real quick and JUST KILL FYODOR

oh yeah are they ever gonna fucking explain timestopper catgirl?? she was there for like two seconds and then she was offed by fyodor once he escaped the water. like???? huh???? WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT BESIDES THE VERY LAZY PLOT DEVICE?????? also she looks like a mha character i think people have already said this but she doesn't belong here she belongs in mha

how do mersault prisoners go peepee and poopoo

OH MY GOD THEY DID IT RIGHT!!!!!!! THEY DID IT PROPERLY!!!! YESSSSSSS

'goodbye' MAMORU MIYANO YOU DESERVE THE WORLD FOR THAT YOU LEGENDARY MAN I WANT TO KISS YOU ON THE LIPS YOU'RE THE MAN EVER

aya is smarter than i'll ever be how on earth does she think of this stuff. you go girl i cant wait for you to save the world

she doesn't take ANY of bram's bullshit she's just amazing

how did bram grow back his eye

bram when aya normally: aya you foolish peasant smh ur dumb bram when aya is in danger: 😰😰😰😱😱💥💥💥 😠😠😠😠😠

well that was a ride! im stuffed. i might need to pull a bram and take a nap. i feel bad for the anime onlys who now think chuuya's dead yikes yall

[dynamic-power]

Evie @energievie tagged me in an end of year writer interview! This is such a cool idea.

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1. How many works do you have on AO3? 

15! I plan to increase that by a lot next year!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Just shy of 62k.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Since Prom - Steddie, E

An Offer - Kanej, T

back to the past - Steddie, T WIP

Coach H - Steddie, T

Kinktober Drabbles - various, E WIP (it's finished on tumbr. I just need to move the last few to AO3 lmao)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Ngl, I struggle with this. I want to. I see and cherish every single one! But I forget to reply, or I don't know what to say, or I don't check for comments for a month and when I finally see them, I feel like it's too late. 😅

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

That would be A Coat Or A Blanket. Angst is not my forte. I want happy endings for everyone.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Probably Since Prom? Or Arrivals. Just because there's an actual plot and a real ending lol.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not yet. But maybe in the future? 🤷

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes lol. It was on a kinktober fic. Ao3 rule number 1: don't like, don't read. Apparently they didn't get the memo. 🤣

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Most of my fics are kinktober! So kinky, gay sex. 😏 That'll change next year. I mean that I plan to write a lot of non-kinktober stuff, not that I won't be writing kikny, gay sex.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so 👀

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I wouldn't be opposed

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, but I wouldn't be opposed. Seriously, if you ever want to collab, lmk! 😄

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Currently, it's Gallavich. But my favorite of all time is Drarry.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

It's one I haven't even started posting yet. It's a Gallavich soul mate AU where the pair have special gifts centered around eye contact. Mickey can see soul mates and Ian severs soul mate connections. I'm absolutely in love with it but I'm also kinda struggling to get through it. 😭😭😭

15. What are your writing strengths?

Word limits. I love the challenge of trying to portray certain emotions or situations in a limited amount of time, and I feel like I'm really good at it. I don't have to get caught up in details, I can just make my readers feel in just a few sentences.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing lol. I don't have patience, I always end up rushing my ending.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

2 situations. If the POV character doesn't speak the language, I try to limit it to things that can be easily assumed without need for translation. Expletives, nicknames, or recognizable phrases. Unless, of course, the POV character is meant to not understand what is being said. And 2, if the POV character speaks the language, I'll usually have them translate in their thoughts. I just want the reader to be on the same level of understanding as the POV character.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. That was way back in the day. I posted my first fic in 2010. 🤣 On my current account, it was Six of Crows.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Hooo boy. Doctor Who comes to mind. I'm obsessed with the idea of Fourteen and Jack Harkness meeting again. I've always wanted to do something for Criminal Minds. I'll probably dip my toe into Supernatural, too. I've done drabbles for Mungrove, Harringrove, and Harringroveson, but i'd also like to do full fics for them. Idk, I've always got too many ideas.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Either Since Prom or Coming Soon To Home Video. I can't pick.

If you write fanfiction, you should totally do this! Consider this me, tagging you.

Our just giving you cake. 🍰

[spacerockwriting]

FIC WRITER INTERVIEW

Thank you so much @energievie for the tag!

---

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

24, currently.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

its gotta be like 500k or something close.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Moments that Made Us

Insecurities

Fashion Victim

Slices of the Heart

Puzzles and Patronus'

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Almost always. Mostly it's a Thank you! But I try to respond the best I can. Sometimes, however, I just don't have much to say.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oof, going JUST off my A03 works (am not touching the FF.net ones) some of my HP ones.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Soft Bitch, for sure. It's just happy Gallavich.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not really, no. I don't read them much either.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeah. On FF.net most of it was just someone getting mad I wrote gay stuff. But on A03, yup, but not as much.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not much. All my stories are rated pretty maturely, for the most part, but I still don't write smut.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, and I hope it stays like that.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm. I've got a few: Larry Stylinson, Stan/Kyle for South Park, Justin/Brian, Queer as Folk, and Nico Di Angelo/Will Solace, Percy Jackson.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Everything on my FF.net profile. I'm WORLDS better than I was at like, 14 writing.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I really don't know? The tone? Knowing the characters? i'm really not sure. But if I don't know something and it's plot crucial i research the hell out of it.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Would you like to meet my emotional support comma? Also i repeat things a lot and stuff.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I might write it, but I don't bracket translate anything for a fic. I don't like the flow of something like that.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Codename Kids Next Door, probably. In middle school.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I am really enjoying my time writing Gallavich. So i dunno.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

My SBB really. I'm really excited about it. That, or The Moments that Made Us. But my SBB tops it all, I think.

Tagging: @ian-galagher, @skylerwinchester, @mybrainismelted

[thatblondeperson]

You know, as a bi man I really don't mind how Tim coming out was handled too much, besides, you know, they not showing Tim and Steph break up on panel. I feel that there's this trend when it comes to male bi characters in media and in comics too, that the only romantic relationships that are given emotional depth are the ones they have with other female characters, while their relationships with other men are just something physical or not "deep enough". Like, people forget that while there's this annoying ideia that bi people are only "bi enough" if they are with someone of the same gender, there's also a lot people that are only okay with bi characters if they end up with someone of the opposite gender. And I feel like this sentiment is really common in comics spaces.

Idk, I'm happy that they're showing that Tim is happy with another boy, and that his relationship with him is real, and special and important. I still want him to get back with Steph in the future, they're my OTP, but for now I'm really happy with how things are.

Oh it's absolutely wonderful the way they're portraying him with Bernard. It's sweet and sappy and cheesy and romantic as hell. On top of that, I'm thoroughly enjoying this solo run, i think it's cute and it feels very Tim. It's a nice fun story.

I don't think there's a way to win with bi portrayal in media. If they're in an opposite sex relationship, it's not bi enough. It's defaulting to heteronormativity, it's regressive, it's lazy. If they're in a same sex relationship, they may as well have just written them as gay. The biphobes come out and say that writing them as bi isn't enough rep and if they're already with a same sex partner, why not make them gay? Bisexuality gets dismissed when the bi character is in a same sex relationship because it's too complicated to discuss or whatever. It's a mess.

It's never going to be perfectly clean. I think Meghan does tend to ignore canon with some stuff, which is where her decision making gets clunky for me, but in the larger picture of viewing the story as a whole, I'm not mad at her writing. I just think we skip over stuff and miss maybe important plot details along the way. We're not going to get them, so that's my time to try to fill in the blanks with whatever I've got.

It's all a game of interpreting the text. That's what I'm spending my time doing while I read and disect Tim's character. I like to pull him and his experiences apart and put them back together in the stories he's in a re-approach the text in different ways. Overall, I'm happy with the direction we're in. Please don't mistake my obsession with past canon and overanalazing emotional bonds as anything other than my normal shtick of reading far too much into every line of text.

There's a million ways they could have written this whole scenario, what I am most upset about is not getting to see what lead up to, and the subsequent breakup, and not getting to see Tim really coming out to Steph. If they're not together, it's fine. They're my OTP still, but I'm happy if they're just given the respect of being two halves of a whole, whether it's romantic or platonic.

I think we're going to get quite a bit of emotional depth with TimBer in this arc which is going to be so nice, and I'm excited to see how the Robin card gets played in their relationship. It's nice to get to have another romantic partner for Tim to be fully open with, and to be vulnerable and honest with. I don’t want it to come across that I don't like that we're getting that.

It's a great story, it's a great direction, it's a great little queer romance, and it's much needed representation that's been a long time coming. I'm all here for it, I'll be buying the trade book probably once it's out. ✌️🩷💜💙