#i hope this isn't too negative

[pharawee]

I think it's no secret that I'm not all that much into gmmtv BLs. I used to think that it's because I'm just not that into the romance/slice-of-life/ensemble cast genre and it's pretty much all gmmtv focusses on in their BLs. Or maybe I'm really that shallow and I just don't like anything mainstream.

I can't really talk myself out of the mainstream thing because it's unfortunately kind of true, but also I like plenty of romance/slice-of-life/ensemble cast shows by smaller companies, like Gen Y or Future or Our Days (the list goes on and on and on).

There's just something about gmmtv BLs these days that loses me every single time. A series starts out strong with an interesting concept and characters and then it just gets... boring to me:

The things and characters and issues I find interesting are never delved into, and (probably because of that) everything just feels so shallow and formulaic and palatable. Shows like Never Let Me Go and Be My Favorite and My School President completely underwhelmed me towards the end, to the point where I was relieved when they ended and I no longer had to gif them (which is an entirely different thing that I'm trying to work on 🙏).

And now the same thing is happening with Wandee Goodday and it makes me really sad because I really like Great and Inn and the rest of the cast.

Mind you, I'm not blaming gmmtv for this. They're mainstream for a reason and good for them! I'm also not saying that their approach to making series or marketing their actors is bad because clearly their success and their many fans prove them right.

But there's just something about how smaller or indie companies work that appeals to me so much more. I like shoestring budgets, I like it messy and rough around the edges. I like it when they're so passionate and ambitious about their projects that they try to make it happen no matter what. I like it when they take risks with genres and stories that bigger companies wouldn't touch because they're not as marketable. I like when they say "fuck it, let's do wonky sound and rookie actors because if we don't we won't have the budget to make it happen at all."

I suppose it's similar to gaming for me, where I appreciate indie games and ambitious AA titles much, much more than AAA games that tend to appeal to the biggest possible audience.

Ultimately, I'm glad there's a market for both, but it's sad to know that many smaller productions will never be as commercially well-received as mainstream titles (while ironically being held to the same standards). And it's also bittersweet to know that whenever gmmtv contracts one of my favourite actors (which is fine of course - it's one of the best things that can happen to an upcoming actor in Thailand), I know that I won't get to see them again in the kind of series that I prefer.*

*Sometimes they contract them out to non-gmmtv productions. That's how I became a fan of Marc Natarit. But as soon as they're in a fixed acting pair it's basically over.

I guess the easiest solution is to just stop watching BLs from gmmtv (I'm explicitly only mentioning BLs here because I like most of their gen shows a lot more - The Gifted is still one of my favourites and just recently Enigma and Midnight Museum and Mama Gogo were absolutely amazing) but the problem is... their pilot trailers actually get me excited. Right now I'm really looking forward to Kidnap and ThamePo. Plus, once in a while gmmtv DOES take a risk and then you get incredible shows like Not Me (which apparently didn't do very well numbers-wise, so from a business pov it makes sense not to invest in them too heavily).

In the end, I think I need to get a lot more selective with the Thai BLs I want to watch. After all, there's now so many of them that we can finally afford to be picky (and that has to be a good thing, right?).

[mondscheinprinzessin]

Tommi/Joel for the ask game?

Don't ship it at all.

With any Tommi ships I just have this general problem of not knowing how to write him or how to perceive him because I feel like we don't know enough of him. So I'm not sure how to explain their relationship or how to make it work in any way.

Sure, he can be a steady rock in Joel's life, but that shouldn't be everything about him.

I think if we had more videos with Joel and Tommi I could try to figure out their dynamic, but at this point the ship doesn't give me anything.

Also if Tommi is portrayed in a vulnerable way that could work, because right now he is that guy who has his life together, and I don't really see Joel fitting into that, and I don't like it for one person to be this mess (not saying Joel is a totel failure here, just talking in fanfic tropes) and for the other to be this helping figure, I want to have an equal feeling to it.

[grim-echoes]

Commission for @justgyr of her Lancer gal Leonida ⚔️

[chirpybirdy]

i really wish mota let gale cleven tell more stories... like we basically open with buck telling the story of why he's buck and its SO. GOOD. and then it never happens again. learning about how gale crashed into that farmhouse kitchen and tried to use his highschool german... ugh i understood why they didnt include that scene (difficulty, tone, pacing) but gale cleven should have told that story to the other POWs.

the whole episode is about storytelling!!! rosie finally hanging out with the other guys at the flak house, croz having an entire voiceover on stories they tell themselves (while sandra refuses to tell him anything about her work! potentially cool concept!!), the room full of lockers and the guys who can still fly talking about the ones who went down like theyre ALL dead. (but we find out that episode Buck is alive. idk. im not watching for the plot lmfao.)

gale telling his story of capture to the other POWs would have been a great way for me the viewer to see who else was captured too. and i always feel like the best way to reveal the thought-dead is with a smile and i think gale cleven's storytelling would have made them smile!!!

TL;DR i think the POWs swapping stories about how they came to be POWs would have been great framing (? term) LIKE: the very human tall tale "the bombardier is the pilot" > the warehouse full of dead mens lockers > gale cleven, great storyteller, talking about landing right next to the pancakes.

[daresplaining]

opinions on the red fist saga? :0

Resoundingly negative, unfortunately. I actually only just read it, because I was having a rough time with it while the issues were coming out and so decided to put it off until I was in a better headspace for it (or until I saw a preview for an issue that excited me and gave me the motivation to catch up, which is what happened with next week's anthology issue).

As I said, I disliked this story very much, so if you aren't interested in hearing me rant (perfectly fine! I wouldn't blame you!), read no further. I really hope you liked it. I really don't want to get you down if you did. This whole run was just the epitome of Not For Me.

Ahem.

The "Red Fist Saga" is, in my opinion, a flimsy "Shadowland" knock-off, centered around the abrasive, moralizing religious zealot who has been inhabiting Matt Murdock's body for the past few years. Elektra Natchios, an incredibly complex character whom I love dearly, had her backstory savaged to remove its autonomy and complexity (that's a rant for another post...) and exists in this story as an accessory to this Matt look-alike and as a handy target of his moralizing (at one point he comes to the revelation that this recent journey she has been on has been worthwhile because it was all about God saving her from her wicked ways!!, at which point I may have blacked out from rage for a few seconds). Matt and Elektra GET MARRIED, and the implications of this massive shift in their relationship are not explored at all. And phew...the less said about Sam Chung's single scene, the better. As was true throughout Zdarsky's entire run, Matt speaks and thinks in this story like he is reading a prepared speech at all times, making grand-yet-hollow pronouncements about the nature of good and evil. He doesn't sound like a real person, but rather like a robot that has been fed a steady diet of religious texts, along with a few surface-level social/systemic reform concepts. His personality consists of being alternately sad, angry, and making lofty proclamations about "fighting evil in the service of God's plan", and I just have no emotional investment in that. I'm not Catholic (and neither, until recently, was Matt Murdock, making this whole thing profoundly weird).

There were some cool elements to this story. I'm a huge Stick fan and I'm thrilled that he is finally back from the dead after all these years. I love Stilt-Man. I love Speed Demon (for some real Speed Demon goodness, go read Superior Foes of Spider-Man, one of my favorite comics of all time). Foggy had a few good panels. I got to read Milla's name; always a treat. Kirsten didn't actually die. Mike was...mentioned (I've already griped about his death; I won't do it again here). The twist that Foggy and Stick were actually already dead was effective and very cool and I didn't see it coming at all, so I will give full credit for that. And I'm someone who genuinely does enjoy Hand shenanigans. I love that stuff when it's done well. But the degree to which I could not stand this new Matt and did not care what happened to him or what he was doing, plus the fact that I had seen all of these plot points executed already, and better, by previous Daredevil teams, meant that this story was just a protracted slog through painful writing, past scene after scene that could have been so much better in the hands of a different creative team or centered around a version of Matt Murdock who was actually a compelling protagonist.

[jakeperalta]

one hope I have for taylor's future music is that whenever she inevitably directs more music videos we get something more based in reality. on the whole the videos she's directed/co-directed have had this feeling of not being real-life and that's not necessarily a bad thing — e.g. the midnights videos are all so cgi heavy, but they're cohesive as a collection and have the sense of unreality that comes with dreaming or being half asleep, and similarly the cardigan/willow videos blend fantasy and reality in a fitting way for the album themes — but for me something that really stands out with all too well in contrast is how grounded and real it feels and I'd love to see her explore that more in her videos!!

[franeridan]

thinking again about how in trigun 98 they had nick kill someone with the face of a child posing as an orphan for vash, and how in tristamp they had him kill a child in the body of a monster who had no choice in what had been done to him, and how instead in trimax nick for vash kills a man who'd approached vash for a death match, who'd demanded to either kill or be killed, a man nick had given vash a fair chance to fight and win against and who nick would have left alone hadn't said man attacked vash when his back was turned after the duel was over and done with, a man who'd been one step from possibly seriously harming vash hadn't nick stepped in. and about how after in all three versions vash yells at nick for it, but only in trimax nick tells vash that he's lucky he's there to play the devil for him so that he can stay a saint, and only in trimax in the arc right after vash ends up thanking nick for killing for him and protecting his home when vash couldn't because of his own morals, and only in trimax in the end when nick isn't there to play the bad guy for vash he ends up being right, and vash ends up having to dirty his hands himself to protect what he loves - while both in 98 and for now tristamp vash stays a saint until the end, and that fight they have ends in itself, and the only lesson it leaves you as a viewer is that nick is jaded enough to kill a child

[danthropologie]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSSA!!!!! so thrilled to be in this fandom with you! have a lovely day!

aw thank you em!!!! i'm so happy to be in this fandom with you too!! 🫶💕

[feral-lore-creature]

Jade Shadows review spoilers!

I'm going to do a review on the quest, and it's going to be long. While I, personally, don't believe it's an epic quest you just NEED to experience for yourself, I want others to create their own opinions first.

Okay, bluntly, Jade Shadows struck a bad cord with me. I don't take direct/personal offense to it, as I've never had a loved one die from complications with pregnancy, nor have I had any issues like those myself, but I can at least say it wasn't good.

For my sanity's sake, I'll be putting my thoughts into categories.

Gameplay: It's as generic and predictable as any other set of missions, only with new/uncommon characters talking via transmission. Very average. If you've played Warframe long enough, you know what you're in for.

Music: As per usual, the music itself is fucking stunning. Once again, no surprise there. It's very fitting for the energy of the story as a whole, and is very beautiful. That's the best part. (Aside from little owl Ordis, obviously. 💜)

Story: Okay, this is where my problem REALLY lies. I wasn't expecting much from a filler quest, but look, if I wanted to watch a (fictional) pregnant woman die for the sake of a man's development, I'd watch any subpar action/thriller film streaming right now. It's clear that the writers didn't want to make light of pregnancy, but while sticking to the message of how hard pregnancy is on the body, but still insisting the focus be on Stalker/his missions, they devalue Jade. We never get to know WHO Jade really is, and we probably never will. She has no actual personality presented throughout the quest, has even fewer voice lines, and therefor functions as an incubator/love interest to some guy. (A guy we barely know, in fact.)

It's like she's sidelined, which is ridiculous to me, since SHE'S the NEW Warframe we're getting for gameplay, and SHE'S the focal point/message of the story in the first place. (Or at least she SHOULD be-) Her active suffering has heavier weight than whatever else is happening.

Concluding Thoughts: It was overall very emotional -and it might just be my period hormones talking- so I'd say this quest didn't exactly feel like a slap to the face, even if my wording seems harsh, but the lack of detail/character given to Jade is still upsetting. Again, less insulting, more disheartening and disappointing.

I don't want to think this problem was intentional, as it was likely the lack of dedicated time/resources as a whole that caused this. (DE is dealing with Tennocon, and also working on a big main quest, etc.) I don't believe it was from carelessness, It's just too damn short. It's a reason, but not an excuse.

All in all, this a story that should have stayed on the shelf until DE had the proper time for it.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

[just venting a bit into the void you understand you understand 😌] Lately I've been feeling very caught between "I have a lot of thoughts on Sparrow and Normal and all that with the ending and teen talk and feel like I need to get them out and voice them for my own piece of mind and resolution" and "I am lacking the strength and energy to actually sit down and write it all out and kind of really just want to fully move on to other things (AUs, fics, anything else)" but my brain can't seem to commit to either and that's quite frustrating cause it's just left me very restless. *Sigh*. Idk! Just needed to complain about that a bit ig, it's silly but this is what has been ailing me as of late.

[thecruellestmonth]

Normal Batman fans: I don't want to engage with parts of canon in which my fave is an abusive asshole. I choose to engage with other stories instead, and I ignore stories that I dislike.

Nasty toxic Batman fans: Ooh, Bruce is being totally gross again, don't mind if I do~

Good Dad Bruce™ stans: Yes, I fully acknowledge that every single one of Bruce's kids is deeply—at times suicidally—traumatized by his parenting failures in canon, but he is NOT a bad parent! Bruce LOVES his family. Sometimes COMPLICATED PARENTS make their children feel WORTHLESS and ISOLATED, and then don't do anything to fix it! It's totally NATURAL, Bruce is just a COMPLICATED parent! He's COMPLICATED! Bruce LOVES his family. COMPLICATED, I say! NOT ABUSIVE! Would an abusive parent put a hand on his child's shoulder in a vague display of warmth once every few years??? Hm??? Yeah, I DIDN'T THINK SO, YOU STUPID ABUSE VICTIMS!! Bruce LOVES his family. He does nice things—why are you ignoring all the nice things that he's done? He is just an IMPERFECT person, he has made some teeny tiny mistakes repeatedly with 5+ separately acquired children over a twenty-year period. Bruce is just a regular IMPERFECT human being—which means that you critics are the UNREASONABLE MONSTERS imposing PERFECTIONIST standards on a poor innocent middle-aged baby adult man! Bruce LOVES his family. How could we expect exceptionally privileged hyperintelligent parents NOT to regularly use their position of power to make 4-6 children feel inadequate, unsafe, and alone?? What ridiculously high standards! Bruce LOVES his family.

[daz4i]

let me preface this by clarifying i am not anti therapy in any way whatsoever and in fact encourage people to get therapy if they can and even go the extra step to help friends find the right type of therapy that may help them

ok now that that's out of the way.

therapy is bullshit man you go to a therapist saying "hey. i wanna kill myself. can you help me stop wanting to kill myself somehow?" and they go "sure! first step, stop wanting to kill yourself" and you say "well i can't. that's why i came to you. bc i don't know. how to stop wanting to kill myself" and they'll say "that's a shame. i can't help you if you want to kill yourself. that'll be 125$ please"

[tvrningout-a]

so a lil quick psa is in order, i feel. starting off, this might be a little tmi? but plainly speaking, my hormones sometimes make my time of the month very challenging emotionally and mentally. i haven't experienced this in quite a while, and i wish i knew what changed or if it's just a random thing i have no control over, but i have no idea sadly! all i know is that i become very prone to bad mood drops and sensitivity, so if i'm extra quiet or inactive, i apologize; i'm just trying to handle myself gently and avoid making this all worse.

with all of that said, thank you for being patient with me <3 it really does mean a lot that y'all put up with my snail-like pace!

[wereh0gz]

I just want to be done with this one stupid class I don't wanna do shit for it anymore

[vickyvicarious]

But he can talk, no matter what happens, and he says things I remember. They seem to paint my brain with pictures which he gives me to keep. So his words are like his eyes, not to be forgotten. You know in our garden at the convent there were flowers which would not be banished, though the gardener pulled them up by the roots again and still again: poppies for instance. Some thoughts which come to one from other people's minds are like these. They persist, and they plant their seeds in a deep place where they cannot be pulled out.

Mr. Caspian is like the gardener at the convent. He tries to stamp out these thoughts, to plant others in me. But the roots have gone down where he cannot find them.

I really, really like this metaphor, actually. It's used here in the sense of romantic thoughts, but even without that particular spin, it could work just as well for a friendship... The idea of someone planting a seed of love in a deep place in your heart, from which thoughts of them will always regrow, no matter how others try to stamp them out - it hits pretty hard.

[burke-juliet]

shadow and bone netflix killing off david before he got to marry genya and be part of the triumvirate is my villain origin story