#i just love how everyone has slightly different versions of all the little guys we love

[persephoneprice]

i don’t know how to put this into words but i love how everyone has a different versions of these characters. like there’s a whole multiverse of different versions of my favorite characters and each one has its unique little moments to explore. and because of this they get to live an array of different lives.

[personasintro]

A part of Mutual Help series!

pairing: mh!jungkook x reader

warnings: explicit language, Kiko is mentioned (this deserves it's own warning)

genre: fluff

word count: 1.8k+

a/n: Merry Christmas! ♡

Mutual Help Series

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“Oooh, what could be in here?” Taehyung muses, pursing his reddened lips that has gotten its own intense color thanks to the cold weather outside. 

What was he doing outside when you've been at this place for around an hour? Flirting, of course. 

“Knowing you, probably tons of condoms.” you answer, causing Taehyung to stop shaking the present he's just gotten from Jimin. It stops rattling under his grip as he shoots you a glare across the table. 

Unfazed, you reach with your chopsticks for a piece of meat before you put it in your mouth. Next to you, Jungkook cackles under his breath and Jimin looks proud by your little comment. 

“Well, miss I-don't-need-anyone, we all like to have our fun. Maybe you should try it.” Taehyung bites back. Though his tone sounds serious and deep with his thick accent, there's a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. 

You know how far you can take it to joke with each of your friends. Taehyung's got a thick skin and there's only so little you could actually say to offend him. Not that you would ever want to. Taehyung loves jokes and fun, he loves teasing and most of the time he's the one who takes it too far but never to actually cause a damage to your friendship. Whatever he says, you know should not be taken to heart literally. Therefore, no matter what he says about your single life – you don't take it as an insult. 

“Hooking up with a bunch of strangers? No thanks.”

He grins, “Maybe you should try it.”

“You offering?” you shoot right back, Jungkook choking on his soda as Jimin laughs out loud.

“You know what? Once you grow up a little, text me.”

You snort, “Stop acting as if I was a child.”

Taehyung shrugs, “No, but you're the baby of our group.”

Groaning, you frown. “Don't call me that.”

“Deny it all you want, Y/L/N but we all know the truth.”

“You guys scare almost every guy that looks at me. It beats the point of having fun.”

“Don't say shit like that, now! I'm all for you exploring and having fun.”

“Our point of fun is slightly different than hers, Tae.” Jimin comments, putting more meat to your plate as you thank him with a grateful smile. For the meat, of course. Although, he's not that off about the entire fun topic. 

“We all know what kind of fun we're talking about.”

“Alright, let's move on, yeah?” Jungkook calls, shaking his head at Taehyung.

“Here we go, protective Jungkook.”

“Why do you always somehow bring up sex in every conversation?” Jungkook scolds him.

Taehyung gasps, feigning offense as he points his finger at you. “First of all, she started talking about condoms!”

Jimin laughs out loud while you shoot him a glare for being too loud. God, you hope the owners won't kick you out. Talking so publicly about sex is often frowned upon. No one who wants to enjoy their meal wants to hear someone talking about sex from the other table. Unless those people are… open like Taehyung. He's always been a bit shameless. 

 Jungkook glances at you upon Taehyung's finger that's directed toward you. You shrug innocently. “So what? You automatically got into it.”

“You know it doesn't take too much for me.”

“That's true.” Jimin nods along with Taehyung's response. 

You laugh, “Just open the goddamn present, Tae.” 

He cracks a grin and starts laughing before he rips the package open. Surprisingly, it's not condoms – you would seriously laugh your ass out if it were – but it's a box of popular male fragrances in smaller versions. You recognize all of them, silently praising Jimin for this year's present. 

You all exchange presents for each other. There was an idea coming from Jimin, you think, last year to pick up a secret Santa for each year. But there's something special and thoughtful about buying everyone a gift. And it makes a slight burden to all your wallets, but nobody said the presents have to be expensive. Yet, they're always meaningful and nobody gives shitty presents here. 

You meet every year before Christmas since all of you spend it with your families. You've decided to make your own and celebrate it together, even if it's beforehand. This year it has to be because you're flying back home sooner than usual. 

They were kind enough to meet no matter what, said it wouldn't be the same if you weren't here. 

After that is done, Jungkook is the one to take you home since Taehyung came to pick you up. There's fog everywhere with snow sitting down and not melting anytime soon. You love when there's snow around Christmas time.

On your way home, it's not that late by the time you arrive. Jungkook helps you with your presents upstairs and accepts a cup of tea you offer him with a stern look. You're quick to shed the layers of clothes and make yourself more comfortable. You bring Jungkook his tea and make a hot chocolate for yourself.

“What you got in there?” you ask, plopping next to him as the warmth and scent of home hugs you. 

“A little something,” he says with a cheeky grin. 

Spotting the same Christmas wrapping paper he has used for all his presents, you give him a knowing look. You're about to protest and scold the shit out of him when he shakes his head with another grin. 

“Stop.”

“No, you stop!” you whine, “You already gave me your present.”

And it was great. Jungkook has given you two tickets to a water park that's located on Jeju Island. That alone tells you it wasn't quite cheap.

“It's not much, I swear.” 

“But why? We all decided on one present.” 

Grateful that he's so thoughtful, you're slightly annoyed that he broke the rule that perhaps never was so serious but it makes you feel bad. 

“Just because.”

“That's not a valid reason.”

“Sounds very valid to me,” he sings out, teasing you a little further as you both giggle. “You'll understand it once you open it.” he finishes it with that, urging you to open it.

Hiding the heat in your cheeks, you playfully roll your eyes and start unboxing the little box he has managed to sneak in his jacket. Curiosity and excitement takes over you because Jungkook's presents are always something else. You rip the package and gasp as soon as you recognize the familiar box.

“Kook!”

“You told me you ran out the other day.”

“Did you–”

“Bought it when Jimin bought Taehyung's present? Yeah.” He answers, already knows what you were about to ask. But you're too stunned to scold him for interrupting you.

You open the box and pull out your favorite perfume. A few weeks ago, you don't even know how that conversation came up but you mentioned to him that your perfume is running out indeed. It wasn't anything intentional of course, more of a whine when you were about to spray a tiny amount as you were about to go out. You thought he was barely listening to you, urging you to rush out your ass outside. His exact words. 

But he's always listening. 

“I think I'm gonna be more careful what I'm about to say in front of you. You're gonna buy me everything I mentioned.” you chuckle, taking a good inhale of your favorite flowery and powdery scent. You mostly use it during warm seasons but it's a good one even in the winter.

It's your staple scent. Everyone knows it. It's special. You were using it back at home and it not only smells incredible, it also holds a certain emotional attachment you have with it. 

“Don't worry about that, you're out of my budget.” 

You kick the side of his thigh as you cross your legs under your butt, carefully placing the bottle on the table next to the ripped wrapping paper. “I wanted to buy it after Christmas.” 

“You don't have to anymore.”

You give him a look, questioning his answer for everything as he simply justifies his thoughtfulness in the most basic manner. He always brushes it like it's nothing. But it's very special to you. He is. 

In seconds, you wrap your arms around him and hug him tightly. He lets out a surprised gasp, a low chuckle escaping his lips as he hugs you back. He's warm, smells like a mixture of his wooden cologne and winter air. 

“Thank you.” you mumble into his shoulder before you slowly pull away. “But seriously, you should stop spending so much money on me. Don't you have a girlfriend to spend money on?”

As far as you know, she's fine with it but who knows. Jungkook isn't the type to let anyone get into your or guys' friendships. But he's also in love and people in love tend to be slightly blind, if you must say so. Not that you speak from your own experiences but well, it's quite known. And Jungkook is definitely in love. 

“Don't worry about Kiko,” he assures you, “She'll get a good amount of presents too.”

“Well, I hope she loves you for you and not for your bank account.”

He scowls, causing you to give him a childish toothy grin that acts innocent. “She's not like that.”

“But I'm serious, you should stop spending so much money on people. Especially on me.”

“I spend my money however I want and you know what?” he asks with a grin, leaning closer to you as you watch him with wide eyes. “It's none of your business.” he flicks your nose with his thumb causing you to cuss him out as you push his forehead to get him away from your proximity. 

“So really, just accept it.”

“You're stubborn.”

“You're telling me?” he laughs out loud as if you just told him the biggest joke.

Rolling your eyes again, you purse your lips. “I wanted to be nice, you moron.”

“Be nice by just accepting it. And the simple thanks is just enough, not needed though. The hug was very nice.”

You slap his arm in a teasing manner which causes him to laugh even more. “I'll hug you for the rest of my life.”

“Promise?” he smirks. 

“I promise.” you giggle, nodding.

“Well, then Merry Christmas.” 

“Merry Christmas, Kook.” you smile, the warmth spreading all over your heart. Even though this year hasn't been all rainbow and sunshine, it's alright as long as you have these people right beside you. 

Who cares about presents? They're nice and show the thoughtfulness behind them by each of your friends. What you need the most is just them. And the special relationship you have with each of them will hopefully last your lifetime. Because if it doesn't, nothing will ever be the same. 

Without them you would feel lost. At the moment, you're anything but lost. You have your second family, hoping this tradition between you never dies and will continue years and years.

[carolmunson]

the boy is mine | a writing exercise

excuse me, can i please talk to you for a minute? do you know somebody named...y-you know his name. oh yeah, definitely, i know his name. well, i just want to let you know that he's mine. no, no, he's mine.

hi, this is carol and i wanted to create a fun blurb writing exercise a la @superblysubpar and @chechelia considering the current state of the eddie munson x reader fandom. i, personally, can barely stand the seemingly never ending infighting between writers and groups on here. whether it be writing style or characterization, it seems everyone sort of has a problem with everyone. (not me tho, i truly am vibing). in the words of monica and brandy 'you need to give it up, had about enough'. -- so instead of leaving, i wanted to try something fun, fresh, and cute to bring us together. we all have our own eddie munson head cannons that we hold near and dear to our hearts. but i think that's part of what's fun about fandom, there's a little something for everyone. so this exercise is a way for us to all be on the same playing field -- same prompt/dialogues we have to use. only written how your personally HC eddie, our og guy (no au versions pls). i loved how this manifested on cece's old blog because it was so fun to see what people came up with. below is the dialogue and prompt as well as the best way to participate. yes, if you are a steve girl you can participate lol. if you are someone who has me blocked and/or vice versa and would like to participate, please send your link to a friend so i can add it in an upcoming masterlist.

the scene: a romantic night in at the trailer. props included/mentioned (in passing or can hold bigger meaning): a throw pillow, vanilla frosting, a small notebook. dialogue included (can be manipulated slightly if needed, can be placed in any order): - "i ran out of like, nice cups, is this okay?" - "aw, don't be like that. that's not even true." - "and you like that?" - "if you don't stop, we're gonna have a problem." these don't have to be sexy. they don't have to lead to anything. it's just a romantic night in -- and it can end in anything. angst, fluff, smut, alien invasion. who cares! i just wanna see how you'd write in your world with YOUR eddie. so we can see all of our eddies!

to participate, please write a blurb or ficlet titled 'the boy is mine (____'s edition)' and tag me so that i can add you to the upcoming masterlist. share each other's ficlets. enjoy how they differ and how they are the same. what do we all think is true? what do we differ on? i think this could be really cool.

here's a list of people i'm tagging from different 'x reader' groups to spread the word -- but everyone feel free to do it, please! share with your friends, encourage your friends to do it too: @loveshotzz @chechelia @abibliophobiaa @aphrogeneias @jo-harrington @bewilderedbunny @impmunson @queenimmadolla @oneforthemunny @superblysubpar @sweetsweetjellybean @rebelfell @crappymixtape @lesservillain @courtingchaos @bettyfrommars @somnambulic-thing @bimbobaggins69 @blueywrites @lonelysatellites @wroteclassicaly @wheels-of-despair @rip-quizilla @upsidedownwithsteve @powderblueblood

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Many Tiny Idiots, Some Irreverent Hotness & an Engagement

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Oct 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Fourever You (Thai Thurs YT) ep 4 of 16 - OK so Hill has really been trying to pick him up from the beginning? I don’t understand why there’s any doubt around girls at all. He Gay everyone. Why is Tatch (2 Moons Ambassador) the only seme in Thai BL history allowed to actually just say "I don’t date women.”

Why is that so hard?

This show is definitely frustrating me, but I must admit that it’s the one I look forward to the most each week.

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 6 of 15 - I am now only watching the uncut version, and I gotta say it makes all the difference. Please don’t watch the cut version of this show if you can possibly help it. It’s like cliff's notes of cliff's notes. I love the tiny side couple of tough kid + the dork of the music club. Ah the beach sequence. Condenced WAY DOWN, I see. We lost one of the most iconic lines in all BL but i think everything is improved by how much tighter the plot is in the remake (6 episodes became 1!). So I’m enjoying it. Weirdly, I'm not sure I would be enjoying it, if I hadn’t seen the original.

Is anyone watching this on iQIYI who hasn't seen the original? Just out of curiosity. Tell me how it's going for you, would ya? 

I'm doing a face-off style watch along of this new version versus the original 2014-2015 version.

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - I don’t entirely get it. They were apart for approximately 11 minutes. I would’ve thought GMMTV would’ve drawn it out for longer and more angst. Smiley face kiss was cute, but the star of this ep was that gorgeous pale blue waffle sweater on Q. What a great color for Leng! 

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 7 of 12 - I do like that we’re seeing an honest exploration of poverty and hopelessness. I’m not sure how I feel about it inside my BL, tho I’m willing to persavere for this pair.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 12 end - Someone said recently "just imagine what TutorYim could do with an actual script." And you know what? I agree. Because they sure as shit haven’t gotten one yet. And it’s getting quite frustrating. I’m having JaFirst flashbacks. Frankly, 2024 has been a year of unmitigated BL nonsense narratives. And I’m tired of it. I know it’s bog standard for the genre, but it feels like there’s been more than normal faff this year.

Summary 

An incredibly convoluted, disjointed, and badly-paced drama that is about(?) some writers writing a thing and some boys who knew each other when they were kids, lots of pretty sexy times, and not much else. The visuals are gorgeous, the side couples are overly appealing (with little to no screen time), the dubbing and sound is absurdly bad, and the fantasy novel (play within a play) makes no sense whatsoever while also managing to be the show that we all actually wanted to see instead of what we were given. 6/10 

In conclusion, I have no interest in attempting to understand or revisit this show, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it, but if you have nothing better to do…… the sex is good (frankly I have exes that satisfy all the same criteria). So there it is: this show is like a bad but still hot ex.  

Every You Every Me (Thai Mon Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - Nice to see Fiat in something again. Namping is very angel baby.  This episode made me think that this pair would do a great Thai remake of Love Tractor, and now that’s pretty much all I want in life. I enjoyed wardrobe in this episode. It looks like we get the same characters next week. Cool. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - I guess everyone is messy slutty bisexual in this show? Do I care? Not even slightly. BLabies, I don’t think I’m gonna make it. I might have to drop this one.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

See Your Love (Taiwan Weds Gaga) ep 1-2 of 13 - I adore it, what a wonderful meet cute. I love a Taiwanese BL that starts with a gratuitous kidnapping, some chasing, and a bit of a fight sequence. We in OLD fashioned territory. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 5 of ? - I continue to enjoy it very much.

My Damn Business (Korea Sat YT) eps 4 of 7 - Oh! Is the sleazy boss gonna turn out to be actually a sleazy player? That would be an interesting twist.

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (Korea Thurs Gaga) eps 3 of 8 - I’m really not a big fan of my pain coming from Korea. I’m getting a whiff of To My Star 2 from this one. And that does not make me happy. I know: high quality high angst yada yada blah blah blah. But also unnecessary pain? No thank you. 

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 12 end - Of course, I love the part where Reese and Orca spoke each other’s languages.

Conclusion

Had this been produced a mere 3 or 4 years ago, I would’ve been quite enamored. But by comparison to what we’ve been getting, this is a lackluster offering. A has-been musician and a much younger composer meet, fall in love, and attempt to rectify his stalled musical career. Cute side couple of a Thai popstar + his Korean manager. Everyone is very fine and it was a fine show. I wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t impressed either. 8/10 

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 6 of 10 eps - It was a fun little confession and climax, there was crying, and a bridge kiss (been a while) all of this appeals to me even if they are tiny idiots (in the immortal words of @heretherebedork )

Eccentric Romance (Korea Weds Viki) eps 5-6 of 12 - More tiny idiot boyfriends who don’t realize they’re boyfriends. That’s it, that’s all that’s happening. Ostensibly there’s some kind of murder. But it seems to be acting more like set dressing than plot.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) 10 eps - Supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

In case you missed it

Mew & Tul legit engaged.

Love in the Big City (Korea Viki) 8ep - Vicki dropped them all at once which means I did what I do under such circumstances and skipped to watch the final episode. (I am well aware that this makes me a monster. ) Anygay, that told me that I’m not gonna be bothering to watch the series. Now y'all can tell me how amazing it is and what I’ve missed and blah blah blah. But I’m comfortable with my choice. It’s ICRY 2.0 + HIV. And I’m not willing to play its literatti game. At some point I might watch it on fast-forward for the sex scenes, but I’m not at that point yet. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming:

10/27 Perfect 10 Liners (Thai Sun YouTube?) 24 eps! - New directing yet another university BL with engineers + their mentees. Based on a Jittirain novel. with a massive cast and massive run time. We will be watching this until APRIL of 2025!

ForceBook playing the same old characters = enemies to lovers tsunder/sunshine jock/nerd thing.

PerthChimonSanta are doing the cohabitation cool guy/dork trope.

JuniorMark are doing popular sunshine meets lonely sad boy (the only interesting pair IMHO).

I think Blue Canvas of Youthful Days has started on iQIYI but I only get it on Viki and that doesn't drop for a few days, plus...... CBL......? Not sure I'll report on this one unless it's really good.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

From Uncle Unknown which is truly terrible but this was so SO funny. I'm still chuckling when I think about it.

The first representation of shipping in a BL that I actually enjoyed. Also Dat's clear approval of being shipped didn't hurt. (Judge)

(lask week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[prototypesteve]

Sent.

Just told the last remaining “I’ve known this guy forever” friend that I’m aromantic and asexual. This friend watched me recover from the first fake relationship (late 90s), and watched me go through the second fake relationship¹ (2005-2008). He’s only known me as someone who assumed they’re allosexual and alloromantic, but who was just really, really bad at it.

The send button used to take me about an hour to tap. And I’d often hesitate and delete the message, and wait a few more days. But with each person, it gets a little easier. It used to be terrifying, but now it’s just really scary.

Anyway, all that to say, it gets easier, but I don’t know if it ever gets easy. Don’t feel bad if there are people you just can’t (or won’t) ever tell. This isn’t something you owe them. This is something they earn.

Whether it’s your sexuality, or an invisible disability, or the special way your family formed, or even just your secret carrot cake recipe, you don’t owe anyone anything you feel they haven’t earned the privilege of knowing.

Invitation Only.

Some friends of mine like to replace the idea of coming out with a different way of seeing it: “Inviting in.”

Sometimes, with certain people and to certain audiences, using the term “coming out” can feel like you’ve kept a secret and you’re admitting to it. It has a lot of cultural baggage. It can feel like confessing to something bad. And fuck that.

“Inviting in” changes the dynamic. Now it’s about exclusivity and qualification. It’s members-only clique or an invitation-only club, and there are standards to be met. You must be this emotionally mature to ride.

For something like asexuality and aromanticism I even use the term “clarifying”. I have friends who’ve only even known me as single, or other friends (like the one I just came out to / invited in) who’ve seen me damaged by a failed relationship, then in a really unsuccessful and loveless one for a few years, then apparently happily single for 15 years. So they know something’s different. Maybe gay? Maybe I’m just traumatized? Maybe I think people of our faith aren’t allowed to remarry? They see the stuff. They just don’t know what’s causing the stuff. So I’m mostly just clarifying.

But whatever you do—come out, invite in, clarify—do it when it’s safe, when you’re ready, and only to people who’ve demonstrated they deserve to know you that well. There’s no timetable, no cutoff age, no obligation to your community.

Footnotes:

¹ “fake relationship” is a slightly harsh way to put what happened. This was when I didn’t know what aroace was, so even though I was aroace I had been raised to assume that as someone who felt male, I was were either straight, gay, or bi, and that everyone needed someone. (Extreme allonormativity, amatonormativity and compulsory sexuality.) The most I ever felt was what we would call Platonic Love, but at the time I assumed what I felt was just my broken version of romance. I wanted to be like everyone else (even my gay friends felt love, FFS, what was my excuse?). So I tried. I really, really tried. And I couldn’t. I could be enjoyable, but I couldn’t enjoy, and that hurt the people I was with. It made them feel undesirable even though really it was me who couldn’t desire anyone. And I hate how that happened. I don’t hate why it happened, but I hate that it had to happen because words like aromantic and asexual were hidden away back then. And my way of dealing with how that hurt is to incorrectly call them fake relationships, for now. I hope there’s a better term out there.

[niqosblog]

Why Do People Distrust Reboots of Cartoons?

An Analysis

Root of The Trust Issues

I feel like ever since Teen Titans Go, people have lost faith in reboots of classic shows. Especially since their only basis is "this is a show for little kids", and they expect it to be immature and plotless.

You can't just announce that you're making a TV show reboot of a classic with a more simplistic art style without expecting backlash.

Just saying "I like the [insert media] reboot!" Everyone is gonna be on your back and say that it's a bad lifeless reboot. But I believe that some are actually good. They have kept up similar themes and still progress with the modern world.

The Exception

If we're really getting into this topic, may I say that Voltron: Legendary Defender is a reboot that people loved to pieces. Even with its awful ending, people still loved it. Yet no one asked for it.

No one looked at the old Voltron and said "I wish there was a reboot".

Was the show good? YES!

It performed amazing during its run. It had a strong fan following to it as well.

Was it bar for bar, character for character accurate? NO!

Keith was supposed to end up with Allura, going so far as to marry her. Pidge was actually a clumsy dwarf boy that had a crush on Allura. Hunk was some buff white guy rather than a chubby Samoan dude.

Yet, did people complain? ALSO NO. And the only reason why, was the art style.

Simplistic Art Style

Then we get to things like the My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake Reboot. These are objectively good reboots as a stand alone, without a nostalgia bias.

They have representation, life lessons, friendship themes, basically everything that the original was. But the fact it's a 'reboot' is what throws people into hysteria.

Strawberry Shortcake was always a spunky girl who would always problem solve in a kind and caring way. Always true to her friends, loved making friends.

She is such a stereotypical good girl that the show even pokes fun at it. Making jokes that she's too trustworthy and friendly. And they keep this trend in the reboot. Yet people didn't watch it.

And you want to know why?

"it looks lifeless" "it lost its spark" "the designs are ugly"

Why This Argument Sucks

This isn't a real argument. Exhibit A would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT).

We can agree that TMNT has kept a consistent art style. Mostly consisting of the big eyes, similar body shapes, wide mouths... The only two thing differentiating them being the eye covers and weapons.

Now in the reboot, there are several differences.

Raphael - Stocky, beefy, wider, taller, snaggle tooth

Leonardo - skinner waist, broad shoulders, long head, slightly muscular arms, eye markings

Donatello - basically the same as Leo but he has skinner arms, and goggles

Michaelangelo - rounder, shorter, bigger eyes, more colors

Unlike the other adaptations, where they look like the same copy and paste character with a slight hue shift, they actually look different. But before it came out, there was a lot of backlash of the characters looking ugly.

That soon changed when clips started circling around that people gave it a shot. And guess what. They liked it! They called the characters charming and unique, and even got a huge fandom from shares on Tiktok and advertisements from the program airing the show.

Sure, people did complain about the simplicity. But they eventually came to enjoy it. So why can't people keep the same energy for other reboots?

Nostalgia

The biggest factor of all is nostalgia. I loved Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bitty Adventures. And I dabbled in watching the 2003 version because I loved it when I was a kid. Yet, I still love the reboot.

Berry in the Big City isn't a bad reboot, people just don't want to give it a chance because of the nostalgia factor. They grew up with the 2003-2009 version and expect no changes, and when things did change they threw a fit.

I don't know how to tell you this, but this show was made for KIDS. Not teenagers looking for a fun watch, not adults looking for a taste of classic TV, but children.

Sure, there are some teens and adults who love this show because they might be a babysitter or an older sibling. Or maybe just someone who heard it was good and wanted to give it a watch.

But if your only reason for disliking a show is that "it's not my [insert character]" is showing that you're just scared of change. If I'm really being honest, BITBC shows more personality in their characters.

Back in Berry Bitty Adventures, they all felt like the same girl just with a different goal. Here, Strawberry is more hyperactive and passionate, Blueberry is going with the flow and airhead-ish, Orange is a competitive athlete, Lemon is an emotionally closed off inventor, Lime is a nerdy fashionista.

And they all look different.

I have confused Raspberry Torte and Strawberry in 2009 more times than I can count. Even characters like Cherry Jam and Blueberry who have a different color scheme, look similar when desaturated.

And if you feel hurt by the fact that I'm saying cons about a series you loved as a kid, then you're part of the problem.

I don't expect you to say that "oh, yeah, I can see that." but instead, admit that not everything you grew up with was perfect.

And if Strawberry Shortcake isn't enough proof that people glorify the original too much, may I remind you people continuously hate the Monster High reboot.

The original had racial stereotypes, outdated jokes, sexist characters, toxic relationships (that for some reason stayed together), misrepresentation of disorders, and way more.

The reboot actually tries to be sensitive to who might be watching their show. They made Asian coded characters not yellow, they properly represent disabilities, they don't make Abbey's foreign accent a joke, they have body diversity. And g1 is apparently still superior.

Another reminder is that when g1 tried to make progress with their first gay character, they back tracked it and made it subtext. There will always be a problem with g1 Monster High, the only people who ignore it are people who are scared of change.

Conclusion

Are you supposed to watch all reboots from now and forever into eternity. No. This is just a thing I noticed when goons glaze on a cartoon that they (probably) didn't even watch getting a reboot.

There are bad reboots out there, (I'm looking at you Velma..), but I feel like if you just watched a couple episodes you'd find them more enjoyable. The original doesn't disappear when you watch a reboot. In fact, most of the examples I've mentioned are free on YouTube.

[sunshinemoonrx]

since you've taught me so much already. top 5 characters from historical literature (i love the guys i've heard about so far)

Helllll yeah. Okay so a lot of these are gonna be "all right here's a pretty famous guy but did you know he was originally different and weird!" Folklore time let's goooooo

Honourable mention: All of Medieval Welsh Lit

This is a catch-all I'm using to stop all 5 of these entries from being this because I gotta cover places like Turkey and Ireland. There's still a couple dw. But there's so many more like Rhiannon, world's most magical snarky part-time ponygirl; Macsen Wledic, who everyone wants to be their ancestor, or wait this is a reflection of the historical would-be Roman emperor Magnus Maximus; Mabon ap Modron, world's specialest boy who does fuck all Oh Wait this is an ancient deity who was syncretised with Apollo? Neat! Okay actual entries Go

5. Robin Hood

This is a prime case of "in the original version..." I'm actually a big fan of the earliest medieval Robin Hood ballads we have, they're very fun bouncy little adventures and the middle English is just comprehensible enough that I can alternate between reading the original text and the translation. Did you know that it took a couple centuries for Robin to be turned into an exiled lord (to make him more palatable to a noble audience when they started making plays about him, he originated in songs and performances at country fairs), and he was a commoner fucking with the king before then? And that despite how much a "modern twist" it seems, Marian (who might have started as an unrelated character with her own adventures) beating him in a fight actually pre-dates the nobleman thing!

4. Battal Gazi

The absolute lad. A pulp adventure style hero from medieval Turkish epics sourced from the Byzantine frontier. There's a real cowboy adventure vibe to these. And they got made into a series of campy adventure films in the 50s! And he defeated one HUNDRED Romans with EACH swing of his sword and EVERYONE clapped (for real I'm pretty sure he kills Charlemagne in one of these)

3. Taliesin

The secret main character of medieval Welsh literature and poetry! An actual historical poet of the 6th century who became so famous that later medieval writers would write legends about him having magic bardic powers, write poems in his voice...which makes it hard to figure out what he actually wrote! But what can be sorta confidently attributed to him mostly consists of praise poetry for the north-British king Urien Rheged, which is...maybe a little romantic? He always ends them with

"And until I fail in old age,

in the sore necessity of death,

May I not be smiling,

If I praise not Urien."

Which is nice. Urien is the sneaky other subject of this--he's also a really interesting guy halfway between history and legend, subject of a whole bunch more poetry and hegemon of his while region. His son, Owain, possibly fought in the famous battle of the Gododdin, was written as the leader of hundreds of giant magical ravens, and finally got absorbed into continental Arthurian legend as 'Yvain'

2. Cai the Fair

Speaking of Arthur! I'm a big fan of the original version based in Welsh folklore, a wandering warrior prior to his transformation into a chivalric king. Similarly, some of his knights started as companions of the original version, and my favourite is the counterpart of Sir Kay. In later and mainstream Arthuriana he's the jackass who exists to get clowned on to show how cool Lancelot or whoever is, but this is actually because he started off as Arthur's best guy, so in anime rival tradition, showing him up is an easy way to establish your cool new OC. The original Cai can grow giant, has both heat and cold powers, can survive underwater for weeks...he slays all kind of giants, fights a giant cat, and then he does one giant slaying in a slightly sneaky way and Arthur (who is sometimes called a "frivolous bard") sings a mean song about him and he swears never to help him again. Oops!

He's also a bit gay with it--he's often paired with Bedwyr (source of Sir Bedivere), they love questing together and swear by each other, Cai was heartbroken when he died...

1. Cú Chulainn

The BOY. My GUY

The central hero of most of the Ulster cycle, you may know him from Fate. But the Fate version is less weird and less anime than the medieval version!! This Cú is a weird little trans-coded twink with three-coloured hair, seven-coloured eyes, a bunch of named special moves and an epic duel to the death with his boyfriend.

He's such a fucked up little guy! He's the perfect product and also the perfect victim of the glory-obsessed warrior culture he exists in, he's driven to destroy himself and everyone around him by a constant terror of not being the best at all times, he's so...arrrrrgh. he's the guy!! He's an extremely bad person to be clear. I love him. Sometimes he gets so worked up into a warrior's frenzy he generates a flaming aura that can melt snow and has to be dunked in cold water to chill out! I have like three writing projects in the works that are basically "Cú Chulainn for lesbians". Highest honour I can bestow

[xerith-42]

Got Vincent headcanons to share with the class?

Your recent post is making me think about him lol

I love thinking about Vincent!!! He's one of my favorite guys to think about!!! Here's a few headcanons regarding one of my favorite little guys!!

* Vincent really likes spicy food. This was the truth before he became a shadow knight, and was only amplified afterwards. I'm serious you know that one friend who brags about eating a Carolina Reaper one time? That's a weaker version of Vincent, he will pick the spiciest pepper Ru'aun has to offer off the tree and eat it whole like it is nothing

* His favorite past time is fucking with Cadenza. She understands quite a bit about Shadow Knights and how odd they can be, but Vincent really turns it up to 11 and is just as weird as possible around her. He was weird as hell before he got raised into undeath, the necromancy only made him worse.

* I once described Vylad as the type of mf to talk to you about a niche subject for ten minutes only to admit that was all lies, and Vincent is very similar. He loves telling Cadenza random facts and she responds "Is that real??" And his response is usually a shrug and a "Could be." much to her chagrin.

* Vincent and Cadenza first met about two years after everyone disappeared, purely by chance as it were. Cadenza was in O'Khasis to inform the Lord there that her father had fallen and she would be taking his place. While she was there she stopped at a bar to drink her worries away, where she met Vincent. Vincent had actually met Lord Hayden once before, and while he didn't take a particular liking to him, something about Cadenza stood out

* In an attempt to get to know her he offered to buy her a few drinks. As a result, Cadenza drank him under the table and the two spilled secrets to each other over the empty bar almost the entire night.

* It was the most fun Vincent had in over a decade.

* Vincent is a musician, he's literally been alive for 100 years of course he's a musician. But not any ordinary musical instrument, no, this man has to be different. He has to be unique. He plays the Zither, this weird fucking string instrument I found on Wikipedia!

* Vincent could not teach you how to play this thing. He learned it so long ago that he is running purely on muscle memory whenever he whips out this bad boy

* He also doesn't really read sheet music anymore, mostly because it can be really hard to come by. He's much more of a play by ear kinda guy.

* Just as Cadenza used to dance to Laurance's songs, Vincent learned to play for Cadenza when she was getting too stressed and needed something to pull her away from work for a bit. A good song usually works.

* It was also Vincent that helped her with her first designs of combining fashion and armor

* Overall Vincent and Cadenza bounce ideas off of each other quite often, sometimes literally as they toss around balled up pieces of paper to one another on long nights, and would likely refer to one another as muses

* We fools would classify it best as queerplatonic besties

* This does mean people have thought they were dating, but that's never been the case

* Vincent is gay as hell

* There's kind of an otherworldliness that people can pick up from Vincent. Nothing distinct, nothing they can put a finger on, but the vibes are just... Not off, but a little to the left.

* I know these don't exist in Ru'aun, but if you pointed a Geiger counter at Vincent it would show him as slightly radioactive

That's the best thing I've written this entire post, cutting it off here because I will never write something more true to Vincent's being than that

[nocturnal-nexu]

"Ninjago 7 AU"

General Lore Master Post

(I'll tag any posts I make related to this AU with "#ninjago 7 AU" so you guys can find them easier.)

(Warning! I love character analysis, so this is going to be really long.)

When Pixal first started constructing her little Mini Pix army, she started with just some simple base programming. To follow instructions and stuff. They aren't necessarily conscience AI like Zane and Pixal are.

But after making a few Mini Pix's, Pixal decided to experiment a bit by incorporating a slightly more cognitive AI system. It's not programming exactly like hers and Zane's, though.

Just like in real life, I think that Ninjago's AI learns through experience. Like how after you search and look at different things on Tumbler or Pintrest, it starts to tune the feed to your interests. Or how, after running tons of scripts from a show through an AI, it can predict how a script from that show would go. (Albeit a very wacky and random version of a script. 😂)

Of course, Ninjago has vastly more advanced technology than the stuff we have.

I think that Cyrus Borg built Pixal with most of her "experience" data already built in. I don't think he had time for an AI to learn and develop from analyzing situations in the outside world. The tech boom in Ninjago City seemed to happen pretty fast in season 3.

(This could also partially explain her extremely robotic personality at the beginning of Rebooted. Most of her "experiences" at that time were just information and data recorded in her system and not actual real-life experiences.)

Anyway, because of this, Pixal was built to be mentally an older teenager/young adult from the start.

Mini Pix #7, however, was built with only a base AI, with little to no life experience data built in. She is definitely much more aware of her surroundings than her many counterparts, but she is still just a base AI. Her AI programing at the time of her creation is about that of a 3 year old child.

She, of course, gets schematics of whatever Pixal is working on, just like the other Mini Pix's, and knows how to do technical things (that's what she was programed to do after all) but there is a big difference between technical knowledge and emotional maturity. Basically, just imagine a 3 year old who is crazy smart for some reason, but still has the mannerisms of, well, a 3 year old.

(Like if she isn't scheduled to work on whatever project Pixal has going on at the moment "7" will go pout in a corner. She's just a little toddler who wants to be included in whatever is going on.)

After spending a lot of time and energy programming "7", Pixal found that she did not have much of either to spare when there was so much work to get done, vehicles to build, and missions to help organize. So, for the rest of the Mini Pix models, she used her original blueprints, and no more AIs were integrated.

Now we're up to Crystalized.

In the episode "The Fall of the Monastery", "7" as we know, saves Pixal, Wu, and Skylor from the monastery fire. (This particular scene is really important later. I'll get to that.) After which, in a subsequent episode, Pixal decided that she deserved a name and thus dubbed her "Mini Pix 7"

"7" also joined everyone else in that final battle at the end of "Crystalized' as well.

We don't really know when Pixal first made all the Mini Pix's, but at the time of "Crystalized" I have "7" being about 4 1/2 cognitively.

(If you have any info that says otherwise, let me know! I love discovering all the lore of this show, and I know that the time frames of things always seem to be up to debate.)

Anyway, in the months following the whole "crystal king debacle" as the monastery was being rebuilt and thereafter, "7" became a bit more of a permanent fixture of the team. She helped a lot with the rebuilding and was constantly following Pixal around, wanting to be included. The rest of the team quickly accepted her into their little family. She would always be getting into shenanigans, with Kai and Jay especially, and started to follow Zane around about as much as she stuck by Pixal. She would constantly be asking him to make pretty ice crystals for her and would do happy little somersaults when he obliged.

Well, as well as she could ask, with her limited vocal capabilities.

This became a problem.

As the months passed, and "7" grew and experienced more and more of life, the more she wanted to say. And you can only communicate so much with beeps, boops, and facial expressions.

She would get very frustrated when she couldn't communicate what she wanted to her friends, and as that was becoming more and more frequent, it made for a very grumpy robot.

As this problem persisted, Zane and Pixal started discussing building "7" a proper nindroid body. But they came to a bit of an impasse in regards to her memories.

Pixal argued that it could be dangerous for "7" to have to carry the memory of dragging her family out of her home and then watching it go up in flames. She was essentially 4 1/2 at the time! No child should have to live with that. Maybe not even deleting the memory entirely, but at least blurring it a bit, scrub away the details and such, make it bit less tramatic. And she had noticed that "7" already tended to have very expressive emotional responses to things. She wanted to give "7" the best life she could, as her and Zane at this point had become her main caretakers and in their hearts considered "7" their daughter.

Zane was completely against the idea of any memory erasure or even tampering. He stated that even if their intentions were to help "7," messing with memories was not a good idea in the slightest. He knew from experience.

(Ahem...Dr. Julian....ahem...Ice Emperor...ahem)

The arguments went on for weeks, and the rest of the team couldn't remember a time when they had seen the two so angry.

Especially Zane.

He was very adamant that removing any of "7"s memories was not even to be considered as an option.

(In other words, Pixal is being a momma bear, and Zane is having memory tramua.)

They both made very good points, and really, they just wanted to protect "7" in their own way. In the end, they came to the concensus that they wouldn't alter her memories, but they would keep a close eye on her and her emotional responses to things moving forward. You know, talk to her about it and stuff, and help her to work through the memory if it started to bother her.

About 6 months after Crystalized, Zane and Pixal were finally done building "7's" new nindroid shell. And "7" was very eager to transfer over. She is cognitively around 5 at this point.

The process actually took a bit longer than Zane and Pixal thought. But "7" had been through a lot of adventures in her first couple of years alive. There were a lot of experiences and data to transfer over.

When the transfer was complete, "7" couldn't have been more excited!

The first thing Seven did was excitingly thank her mom and dad for her new body. Zane and Pixal were a bit surprised at this. They saw Seven as their daughter, of course, but they didn't realize that she shared the sentiment and thought of them as her parents. (As pretty much the whole team cared for and looked out for her in their own ways.) There was a lot of hugging and kissing and happy tears. 🥺 🤍💜🩵

(I want to eventually write out this particular scene with all the feels and such)

When asked if she wanted a new name, she declined, saying that she liked the name Mommy gave her. I mean, everyone on the team had been calling her "Seven" for a while, so I think that she would have become a bit attached to the name.

Behind the Scenes!

(I originally did want "7" to ask for a new name. She was going to choose "Crystal". "Like daddy's ice crystals!" was her reasoning. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that with everything she went through in...ahem..."Crystalized," I figured she wouldn't choose a name that would remind her of the evil purple shards that took over her home city and almost destroyed her family.

Also, I came across someone else's Pixane kid OC who was named Crystal, and I didn't want to steal that from them. So, with the combination of those factors, I scrapped that idea.)

In contrast to her parents' calm and thoughtful nature's, Seven is a bit of a handful. She's a very adventurous little 5 year old and is always seeming to get into trouble. Sometimes, in a mischievous way, but mostly, she's just exploring and learning about the world around her like all kids do.

She has a very bouncy and bubbly personality, and, as Pixal observed earlier, she can be rather emotional at times. She is very empathetic and doesn't like it when someone on the team is sad. She loves jokes and harmless pranks, and often, Jay and Kai will rope her into their prank wars. As much as she likes mechanical and electronic things, Seven loves to run around outside. She especially likes finding bugs.

Seven likes to spend time with her parents a lot. She was a bit clingy in her original shell, and that trait has definitely carried over. You'll often find her in the kitchen with Zane or in the Sam X cave checking out whatever new invention Pixal is working on.

Zane and Pixal, love their daughter so much!!! They are a little mini family inside of their bigger found family. They give each other hugs all the time and enjoy a big snuggle pile during movie nights.

Seven still loves watching Zane make snow flurries and ice crystals, and Zane loves seeing her face light up when he does. He often involves her when he's in the kitchen whipping up a new recipe. There is often a big mess by the time they're done. (Like when they made Cole a surprise birthday cake. Flour was everywhere!)

Since she started out working on inventions with Pixal, Seven still has a passion for electronics. She likes to hang around in the Sam X cave with her mom helping her with her inventions, making modification suggestions, and making stuff of her own. Pixal often hums when working on projects and Seven joins in. It often escalates into a full concert, both of them singing at the top of their lungs.

As Pixal predicted, Seven does have a bit of trauma from the whole monastery on fire incident.

It mostly surfaces as nightmares of fire and losing her family.

Zane and Pixal are with her through it all. Comforting her when she wakes up in the middle of the night, encouraging her that they aren't going anywhere. They will always be with her.

Zane got Kai involved, and he was able to show Seven that even though fire can be dangerous, when handled correctly it can be a beautiful thing, providing warmth, light, and comfort.

After that conversation and a few more experiences with Kai teaching her about fire, Seven began to overcome her fear of fire.

Seven loves her aunt and uncles!

Nya thinks that she is the absolute cutest thing and loves to work with her and Pixal on the silly projects Seven comes up with. 5 year olds have some crazy ideas for inventions.

Jay loves having someone around who actually laughs at his jokes. He loves being an uncle and playful teasing often ensues.

Lloyd is teaching her how to play some of his favorite video games, and in the process is taking more time for himself to relax and take a break from being the leader.

Kai is very happy to see this.

After helping Seven overcome her fear of fire, Kai has become a bit of a big brother figure to her. (Big surprise 🤭)

He likes to tease her and get into tickle fights until they both end up on the floor in fits of laughter.

Cole loves being an uncle and is always giving piggyback rides. They have a little game they play where Cole sees how high he can toss Seven into the air. This worried Zane a bit in the beginning, you know, his daughter being tossed straight up toward the ceiling. But he's used to it now. Cole knows what he's doing.

Probably.

Zane and Pixal have discussed eventually passing on Zane's element to Seven. But obviously not right now. Right now, they are just letting her be a kid, and trying to raise her to be the best nindroid that she can be.

And I personally think they are doing a great job.

That's all for now. If you've read this far, wowie! Thank you! You've got some perseverance! I'm not really the best writer, so thank you for listening! I have Seven's design planned out, and I hope to draw her soon for y'all. Stay tuned!

@100-percential-human I'm assuming that the wide eyes emoji on your reblog means that you are interested in this concept, so here you go! I hope you enjoy! :)

[chaoxfix]

i have so many fucking thoughts about the miraculous movie.

the motivations and characterization was just seriously rushed. they didn’t show me jack shit, they just needed characters to accomplish certain goals and told us they were doing it and that it made sense, but there was no heart or real motivation.

the songs were generic and had little to no personality, they sound like they were written to be relatable and easily streamable rather than to be character portrayals.

it really feels like they were afraid to really get into miraculous lore, everything was so watered down. it made no sense for them to have a lovesquare rather than ladynoir because adrien and marinette barely interacted.

many of you im sure filled in the gaps by things you know from the series, but that’s not how this movie should function. it’s clearly an au and needs to be standalone. if you hadn’t seen the show, would you really think an adrienette ending made more sense than ladynoir based on how it was set up? on that, were ANY ships set up particularly well? marinette goes from truly being annoyed but chat noir but less than 2 minutes ago was terrified and didn’t want to be ladybug at all but now is sassy to him? not only that but she really wasn’t all that competent and clearly disliked chat, why was he so obsessed with her competence and insistent on being with her? it wasn’t explained well and i felt like the writers just expected me to remember the origins episode instead of what i’d just watched here.

on that note… why does everyone want gabriel to be redeemed so badly? why do you feel it’s so appropriate for him to be redeemed here? not all villains need redeemed. this seems to be the major difference between zag and astruc; chloe and hawkmoth are both redeemed /watered down to be likable in this movie. astruc holds his ground and says some people can be redeemed but not everyone will. like real life. because some people are assholes.

don’t get me wrong, i don’t love lila or chloe’s exaggerated evilness. but 1) it’s a fucking superhero drama, without assholes we run out of secondary conflict inherent to the genre 2) hawkmoths exaggerated evilness is what gives him SPICE, taking it away from him here just leaves him so goddamn bland. oh the terrorist wants to be redeemed bc he was sad about his wife despite saying he had nothing to lose even in the movie with a fucking child? nah. no way. fuck that.

chat noir was fucking weird about his crush. 0/10 from me.

i did like marinettes clumsiness and her general disaster aura and how it has a real effect on whether people like her or want to be around her — the show grew out of this by s2, similar to the montage here, but it’s more prominent here. i like this clumsiness and social anxiety portrayal slightly more. but s1 will always have a bit of my heart for disasternette

very little got explained well; i felt like i was relying on the show for lore to fill in very basic gaps which isn’t good for a standalone movie. the lore in general wasn’t well explained.

the whole time i sort of just wished i was watching this in the show tbh. another what-if situation. i’d love for the alt versions to meet and exchange lives for a day to point out the differences.

no sentimonster adrien here. where is the lore. :(

other ppl said this better but adriens story and motivations are nonexistent or very different to the show to the point of unrecognizability. show adrien wanted friends, movie adrien shuts them out. it’s not necessarily the worst change but it does feel odd.

fart jokes. ://///

nino and alya were cute separately as friends to the lead characters, but the romance subplot between them felt super forced and rushed compared to their real chemistry in the show.

anyways.

the show >>>>>>>>>> the movie

it’s not even a question for me.

also you guys hate on astruc so much but zag seems to be the one watering down characters and making them generic and marketable. astruc has the heart of the series and keeps the characters feeling authentic. he lets them grow in truly unique ways and gives them real goddamn conflict unlike the garbage zag led projects lead to.

[ahautism]

MCYT Yuri Week - Day 1 - Break

(crossposted on ao3)

It’s stressful work, preparing for the competitions. El tries to brush it off for the camera, usually, but it gets tiring, to put it simply. And she’s grateful to Cleo for teaching her, she really is, but their… shape… magic… thingy makes El’s brain hurt. She’s also not sure why a time witch has specced so heavily into explosions, but hey, to each her own.

Luckily, Cleo notices that she’s… a bit lost, and stops teaching for a second.

“Need to take a break?” They ask, stepping away from the diagrams she’s drawn up, and picking up the spell components lying on the ground.

“I… yeah. If you don’t mind.” She laughs awkwardly. Cleo sits down on the ground where they’d been practicing – the un-exploded part, and gestures for El to sit beside her. When El obliges, and sits beside Cleo, they wrap their arm around her, pulling her closer in to their chest. Her skin is soft, and almost warm enough to be alive after so long in the sun. A soft breeze flutters around them, making Cleo’s robes flutter slightly, exposing a bit more of her thigh, big and soft, stitched together from different pieces of skin that El doesn’t want to know the origins of. She leans against their chest, and lets out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Cleo chuckles a little, and rubs her shoulder.

“That any better?” She asks, leaning back against the whiteboard she had been using to diagram. El blushes, just a little. Hopefully Cleo doesn’t notice. They’re too perceptive.

Suddenly, she’s behind a quiz show pedestal, one of those annoying show host guys, dressed in a velvet tuxedo welcoming the audience back from the break.

“Welcome back to the Gobber Games Quiz Extravaganza! We have a new question for our lovely contestant since the break, and she even gets multiple choices this time! Drumroll please…” The drumroll sound effect plays, and Eloise groans out loud as the question is read out to her.

“How much of a crush does SoupforEloise have on ZombieCleo? Is it…

A.) A lot!

B.) An embarrassing amount!

C.) More than she thinks!

or…

D.) All of the above!

What does our contestant think?”

The host shoves the microphone in her face. El puts her head in her hands.

“E! None of the above! Stop this, come on guys!” A loud incorrect buzzer sounds.

“I’m sorry, that is not correct! The correct answer was D.) All of the above!” The studio audience boos. El hates her life right now.

“Worry not, our contestant still gets a consolation prize! This beautiful mug that says “Tell her you like her!” El walks off stage, to the host still yelling game show jargon at her, and wakes up, still in Cleo’s arms. She hates these dreams.

“You okay? You looked like whatever was happening in that dream, you were annoyed by it.” Cleo asks, and El goes bright red.

“Uh… yeah, haha! Just weird dreams, you know how it is.” Cleo shrugs.

“Just wanted to make sure.” They seem so… sure of herself. El is amazed at how it seems like she can just… take up space, without worrying about it. She’s a trickster witch, sure, but… the attention is usually on her pranks, not her. Usually, if the attention is on her, if she takes up space, it means she’s done something wrong, but with Cleo, she seems so solidly herself, so present, even if she claims to be about a hundred versions of herself, scattered across tons of timelines. El admires it, admires her. Cleo removes her hand from around El’s shoulders, jerking her out of her thoughts, and back into the real world.

“Ready to get back to it? That competition isn’t going to win itself, you know.” El jumps to her feet.

“You really think I’m going to win?”

“Of course you are. You’re in the most powerful coven around. And I don’t leave people behind.” Cleo sounds so sure of it, even though she and Scott could have so easily have just paired up, still been the most powerful group on the server, and scorned everyone else. Instead, though, Cleo took her under their wing, and believed in her, believed she could be just as powerful as they were. And then she just… made it happen. Like it was that simple. Scott had said the same to her too.

“Once Cleo decides you’re with her, she never gives up on you.” Then he had frowned. “I’m not sure how I know that. But I can feel that it’s true, you know?” El didn’t know either. But the more time she spends with Cleo, the more sure she is that Scott had been right, and that she likes being one of Cleo’s people.

When she wins the competition a few days later, and sees Cleo cheering her on from the stands, El finally starts to feel like maybe she can do it. Maybe she can be Supreme Witch. Maybe she can make friends. Maybe she can even follow that annoying game show host’s prodding, and tell Cleo she likes her.

@mcyt-yuri-week

[alitgblog]

litg characters I'd cast in romcoms

When Harry Met Sally: Seb as Harry!! Then Genevieve as his ex, Tom as MC's (Sally's) ex, Nicky as Seb's best friend, Elladine as MC's best friend

I actually have this all sorted how this would work out but my post got deleted 😭

Notting Hill: Jin as Hugh Grant's character (forgot his name lol) because in my head he's history nerd so like just imagine him in cozy sweaters okay. He's got that wacky roommate whose name I have also forgotten and naturally if we had to pick from S8, Liam, but I also think Jamal would be a fun pick (make the roommate less wacky and more just fun and wild though). The other version of this is Jake as as the main character with his roommate Tim.

Legally Blonde (and I'm going based off the musical): Literally only here because I know I can cast the lawyers, like clearly Suresh as Warner (and oh lean heavily on the implication that he cheated on MC while they were dating) and Blake or Marisol as Vivienne (I like her being cut throat but still looking for love). I'd really like Hari as Emmett because they have a backstory of working hard for their dream and would have a fun banter with the main character without being overly cheery and also is very competitive when needs to be although may be an underdog, but lowkey could also be anyone that has the very grounded boy next door vibe so like Tyler, Rohan, Jake, James, and Lewie are also good picks imo. The other sorority girls needs to include Chelsea, Thabi, basically any of MC's besties (...minus Amelia). It's hard to think of anyone as Paulette because she's an older character and everyone in the game is pretty young but we can further my Angie x Cora agenda and have it be Angie talking about her lost love and then in comes the hot deliverywoman, Cora. She also has like sage advice vibes when she's in the villa sometimes so I think that works.

She's All That: Gary as the main guy. Eddie as his shitty best friend. I don't know why but this came so quickly to me I'm not sure I'd even have to explain but like Gary gives off cool guy / player vibes but I'd also see him absolutely get into or at least support whatever weird artsy stuff his girlfriend is into and have a character arc and all that.

While You Were Sleeping: the OG "I fell in love with your brother while you were away" story, so clearly Ozzy as Peter, Marshall as the brother, Grace as the girl Ozzy's actually dating

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days: Because I've already said Gary for a different romcom, I'm inclined to have the suave ladies man esque character be Will or Youcef. I also think an evolved Suresh or Finn or Mason or Levi could work. Often I forget about her but I think Lulu would be a fun whatever Kathryn Hahn's character's name is.

A Cinderella Story (the Hilary Duff version): I think the fandom's go to "I don't wanna do what my dad says" character may be Lucas but I want to give Oliver a chance as the sweet lead even though I remember nothing about his backstory in game. MC's best friend can be someone a little dorky and the only person coming to mind right now is Felix.

Ten Things I Hate About You: Again, a reformed Finn could've been so good. Instead, we're going for mysterious and brooding so I think Joyo is a good choice for Patrick. Then to continue the streak of me remembering S7 characters, I think Raf could be a good Cameron because he's got that innocence and silliness that works. Then we need the friend that gives Raf an explanation of how things work and I could see that going to Andy because he's a little silly and dorky but mostly pretty confident (slightly different vibe from the character but that's fine). Other option, Bruno. In the movie, I believe he also ends up with Kat's best friend, who I just remember being very confident and alternative vibes so I think Najuma, Cora, Bella, or Lottie for her. We also need Kat's sister Bianca, and that could be easy and I say it's Amelia, or we could pick a tolerable option like Bea. There's also the guy Bianca initially has a crush on, and dare I say we pick Toby?? Just a character that's full of nothing. Or it could just be someone pretty like Levi or someone rich and an asshole like Miles or Jasper. All I remember about Bianca's bestie is that she backstabs her at the end and since fusebox hates women that could be a number of characters but my pick is Sophie or Erikah.

I could go on forever so I must I choose to stop now before I get carried away 🤣

[oswildin]

I don’t know how I feel when people say they ‘want the old Loki back’…

Whilst I get it, trust me, Dark World Loki made my knees weak, but I think the version we have now is so much better… Ragnarok Loki quickly became my favourite for the pure fact that he finally began to accept himself, he was willing to sacrifice himself to save Thor, because there ain’t no way my man picked up that dagger and didn’t know he was gonna die I—

TVA Loki is more grounded. He was shown that his whole desire for a throne was ultimately meaningless (I mean in the grand scheme and tbh he never really wanted it in the first place, just wanted to be Thors equal). Even when Miss Minutes and He Who Remains tries to tempt him into getting his throne, sure he falters for a moment, but he knows that isn’t his purpose now. He is actively trying to not do what led to his mothers death. Be bitter and callous (or at least portray that that’s who he is when we all know he’s always had a heart and is emotional).

Sure, i get it, you want intimidating Loki, powerful Loki, threatening Loki… But episode two showed he can still be those things, except now with more restraint. And I actually think it makes him more intimidating that he was so ‘goofy’ and casual in how he spoke to Brad during the interrogation scenes. His calmer demeanour instead of blind rage is scary.

Loki has a duality that many characters don’t. He can be the tough intimidating guy, he can be the emotional guy, he can be the problem solver and the problem maker, he can be a good friend and a bad one… He’s so multifaceted and I think only wanting the ‘villainous’ side of him diminishes his character slightly.

I related to Loki in Thor 1 because to me he was someone who was lost, confused and hurt, lashing out like… well, like a child. And we now know that that role had been thrusted upon him due to his supposed ‘path on the sacred timeline’, that he was ‘made to cause others pain’. But he’s learning that it doesn’t have to be that way, that he can simply be himself without the hardened armour, the mask of a villain. It was always clear he didn’t enjoy hurting people. The fact he cried when he was fighting Thor, he cried when his mother died, even when his father died he was upset (despite me thinking odin didn’t deserve it but anyways…)

And everyone likes to reference the scene where Loki is taking that man’s eyeball in the Avengers, but if the theory is correct he was under the influence of the mind stone, then it was most likely amplifying his darker thoughts and emotions, hence the smile. He finally felt like he held the power, he had the upper hand. It wasn’t about the torture he was inflicting, it was about how people finally were viewing him as someone to take seriously, be afraid of. (Plus I really doubt at that point marvel even had in mind how his character would progress considering I don’t think any of them expected Loki to become a beloved character, hence why I take that scene with a pinch of salt).

People also say ‘how did he go from this to this’ or ‘this the same Loki that did this’, like… People can be multifaceted… They can have different sides to themselves… I think if deleted scenes with Loki weren’t cut, it wouldn’t feel that way so much to some people. For example the deleted Thor and Loki scene from Thor 1 where he turns the wine into snakes, showing his childish like mischief, him telling Thor he loved him despite his own jealousy. That one little scene would’ve added more depth to his character (in that film), and the scene with his mother where he gets given the throne? Ugh, should’ve been kept in because it showed his shock at being given that power. And also, his plan - whilst yes, bad and misguided - was all about trying to prove himself, and protect his family in the process from the ‘monsters’ that he saw himself as, almost to be like ‘see I’m not like them, look-‘.. I—

I want to see Loki feel accepted, banter with Mobius, eating pie even though it’s too sweet, embracing his powers and magic for good (and mischief ofc), be honest and talking about his past/emotions, beginning to realise that he can be whoever he wants. He doesn’t have to fit in a box, not a villain or a hero, but someone who is flawed and is trying his best.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[0iam0]

Team Chandora, redesigned a lil cuz it's kinda insulting how boring their designs are lol. I maintained their colour scheme in clothes but changed it to be different from one another. Ig it was intentional for them to wear similar clothes so I let that be. Idk if ppl even remember them so, there're the characters that battle wild fang once. They also fell victim to Masked Bull's "speech" that embarrassed everyone in Japan, maybe something that people would remeber. They are minor one off characters only to be seen once again as a single frame. This post is basically Indian bladers across generations, cuz, I Indian.

I love this guy and his adorable snake friend.

what are they

Below is just me overanalyzing and comparing the generations.

So, mfb. Team Chandora. It's the best in terms of giving them a personality and also screentime. The character names are most probably just slightly altered versions of some really popular Indian actors/celebs. Salhan - Salman (Khan); Vridick - Hrithik (Roshan); Aniel - Anil (Kapoor). Neither of their names are familiar to me, nowhere near a common name in India and, mean nothing actually. So this is how I think they named them. Salhan is the hot headed guy I'm assuming. His design is just as basic as you can get. Even tho he's the leader, I can't say much about him. But he's probably a good starting point in building a character. Which will never happen he's a one-off character. They all pretty much have the same height too, so I gave that a variation in my drawing. Vridick is the tallest. Ok, the first time I saw Vridick I thought "wtf is wrong with him". Like, his eyes. I realised it's just a "animators drawing characters weird in low budget episodes" problem, his design is probably the best of the three. Simple yet cute cuz idk if anyone else has noticed it but he has a little catness about him. The eyes and :3 mouth. It's subtle, but it's there. Just because of that he's my favourite of the trio. (I didn't realise this before but I'm a fan of his corresponding celeb lol) Aniel, is the one I was "wtf" about till the very end. His design is just horrible 😭 like, it SHOWS they really tried making a design look even somewhat distinguishable, but failed. Like with them "eyes that are different from the first two" and "hairstyle that isn't short like the first two" naw. So I just redesigned him to have, pretty much the same hairstyle but doesn't reveal the weird hairline. They are all the snake beyblades, cuz India snake charmers yadayada. Tho their designs don't really reflect the snakey thing; so I just added a dupatta/scarf to reflect that. (I originally just added it cuz it looked cool actually).

I can't help but notice how badly they were disregarded in their episode. Like not even in a way that would teach them to not be so full of themselves, but in a way like they are not even considered to be a proper opponent but an obstacle on the way to defeat the protagonist of the series (I'm talking about kyoya). They get overshadowed by kyoya and ginkas battle. It's actually kinda sad (

I ALSO can't help but notice the Blader DJ of India is based on Gandhi. Lmao. It's actually funny asf. Where did the battle between wild and fang and chandora take place, the Taj Mahal? Idk how many people don't know this but Taj Mahal on contrary to it's name is not actually a palace, it's a mausoleum. You would wonder where the tombs went. Even worse they might be battling ON the tombs. lul (edit: I don't really know lmao. The thing they built seemed like it was based on taj mahal. It's actually pretty neat if they designed it themselves. It's beauty :>)

Now on the bsb, first season bsb Indians we meet are the Charming Princes. They have the weirdest designs of all like wha. The unnamed blader is probably the most normal of them all. But the rest, idk what to say. I kinda like Ronnie's glasses ig, even tho they are impractical. Tho they are the weirdest in terms of design, they are the best in terms of beyblades, as in, a team quirk. That their beyblades are as big and heavy as one can be allowed to have. Makes sense cuz they are all princes of some place. They don't get much screentime either, just some guys the bladebreakers defeat. Robin gets overshadowed (annihilated) by Driger coming back to Ray and his rivalry with Lee.

Next in beyburst, it's Dhaula Giri. So, he's the best in like, overall. He's the best in design, he's not bland or weird, just a normal guy from India. He has a normal generic beyblade (same Suoh's original bey). Nothing crazy and I think that's a good thing. Oh oh, and a cute lil Snaker, I just love him for having a snaker just hang out with him, it's goofy but I actually like this idea, it's way better than giving them snake beys. I think he and Hae Jin would be homies. He's not much personality wise, prolly just a nice guy. Not much plot or screentime either but Hae Jin getting over his fear of his snake friend was neat enough. His name is good too, not entirely random names like Robin or Ronnie, or just jumbled celeb names. Out of all, I like him the best. Tho I'll have to say, if I build upon Team Chandora, I'll probably like them more.

[withasideofshakespeare]

A Rundown on the Absolute Chaos that is First Quarto Hamlet

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This post may be getting a revamp with better citations—my cross-checking source was scrubbed from the internet entirely???

I said I was going to sleep before writing this. I did not. Here it goes anyway!

TL;DR: Multiple versions of Hamlet were printed between 1603 and 1623. Across these multiple texts, we get some fairly major differences in characterization and plot disparities. The First Quarto is most infamous for its oddness- which includes shockingly brief soliloquies, mother-son bonding, wild spellings of everyone’s names, and deleted/adapted scenes with major plot/character implications.

A full (long!) rundown is below the cut, including sources, transcribed Q1 content and lore, further Hamlet lore, and my fan theories! Feel free to skip the bits you don’t care about, I got way too into this.

Note: *I have updated these lines to their modern spellings for ease of reading

What is the First Quarto? What’s a “quarto”? Who wrote this?!

All pressing questions, my dear dedicated fan of William Shakespeare’s hit play Hamlet! 

The First Quarto was published in 1603 and was (presumably, as implied by the name) printed as a quarto (a little book created by folding printed pages into four leaves- eight pages). It is much shorter than the later publications and is presumed to be transcribed from memory by an actor (probably the guy who played Marcellus), who may have been a member of a touring troop of actors performing the play. 

Q1 is not necessarily considered a first draft of the play, but something of a “pirated” (by memory) copy that was later amended by Q2 and F1.

Are you saying that Hamlet comes with the stageplay equivalent of a “deleted scenes and extra credits” movie disc?

Yes! And not just one, but many: Quartos 1-5, the First Folio, multiple foreign language versions, and more! Your typical modern copy of Hamlet is a combination of the Second Quarto and First Folio. 

Q2 (published in 1604 or 1605) is considered more “Shakespeare-accurate” than Q1- it seems to be a manuscript actually written by Shakespeare combined with an edited version of Q1′s Act 1 text rather than just some guy’s memory of the play. F1 was published much later (1623) and is some combination of another playhouse manuscript and possibly Q2 (but which—Q2 or the manuscript—had more influence in the creation of F1 is unclear). Q2 and F1 have tons of differences in wording and each has some content that the other doesn’t, but what you need to know here is that a typical modern script is an F1/Q2 combo (because editors didn’t think the public would want like six different scripts- fair enough.)

Quartos 3-5 are slightly edited versions of Q2. There seem to be a few other versions in different languages (like the German version) which share points from a variety of the above sources. 

So... Q1? How is it any different from the version we all know (and love, of course)? What do the differences mean for the plot?

We’ll start with minor differences and build up to the big ones.

First of all, the language! Everything is spelled to the discretion of the transcriber, which produces gems such as “for England hoe.”

These spelling differences also extend to the characters! Laertes is “Leartes”, Ophelia is “Ofelia”, Gertrude is “Gertred” (or sometimes “Gerterd”), Rosencrantz is “Rossencraft”, Guildenstern is “Gilderstone”, and my favorite, Polonius gets a completely different name: Corambis. 

(This goes on for minor characters, too. Sentinel Barnardo is “Bernardo”, Prince Fortinbras of Norway is “Fortenbrasse”, Voltemand and Cornelius- the Danish ambassadors to Norway- are “Voltemar” and “Cornelia” (genderbent Cornelius?/hj), Osric doesn’t even get a name- he is called “the Bragart Gentleman”, the Gravediggers are called clowns, and Reynaldo (Polonius’s spy) gets a whole different name- “Montano”.)

The stage directions include more detail! Ex: Ophelia enters in Act 4 with a lute to play along to her song of insanity. (*Enter Ofelia, playing on a lute, and her hair down, singing). (Some bits are missing direction though! In Act 3, when Hamlet calls upon Horatio to watch Claudius on the night of the play, there is no instruction for Horatio to enter the scene. He appears without being asked.)

There is a slight reordering of scenes in Act 3. Claudius and Polonius go through with the plan to have Ophelia break up with Hamlet immediately after they make it (typically, the plan is made in early II.ii and gone through with in III.i, with the players showing up and reciting Hecuba between the two events). In this version, the player scene (and Hamlet’s conversation with Polonius) happen after ‘to be or not to be’ and ‘get thee to a nunnery.’ I’m not sure if this makes more or less sense. Either way, it has minimal impact on the story.

Many lines, especially after Act 1 are considerably altered or shortened. Everyone is a lot more straightforward and (sometimes) a lot less iambic pentameter-y and poetic. A few examples: Laertes’ usually long-winded I.iii lecture on love to Ophelia is shortened to just ten lines (as opposed to the typical 40+). Polonius (er... Corambis) is still annoying and incapable of brevity, but less so than usual. His lecture on love is also cut significantly! Hamlet’s usual assailing of Danish drinking customs (I.iv) is cut off by the ghost’s arrival. He’s still the most talkative character, but his lines are almost entirely different in some monologues, including ‘to be or not to be’!  In other spots, however, (ex: get thee to a nunnery!) the lines are near-identical. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to where things diverge linguistically.

And then the big differences: the additional scene and Gertrude’s promise to aid Hamlet in taking revenge. Act 3, scene 4 goes about the same as usual with one major difference: Hamlet finishes off not with his usual declaration that he’s to be sent for England but with an absolutely heart-wrenching callback to act 1, in which he echoes the ghost’s lines and pleads his mother to aid him in revenge. And she agrees. Here is that adapted scene (without line breaks for some reason- ah, formatting!):

*Gertrude: Alas, it is the weakness of thy brain which makes thy tongue blazon thy heart’s grief: but as I have a soul, I swear by heaven, I never knew if this most horrid murder: but Hamlet, this is only fantasy, and for my love forget these idle fits.

Hamlet: Idle, no mother, my pulse does beat like yours, it is not madness that possesses Hamlet. O mother, if you ever did my dear father love, forbear the adulterous bed to-night and sun your self by little as you may, in time it may be you will loathe him quite and mother, but assist me in my revenge and in his death, your infamy shall die.

Gertrude: Hamlet, I swear by that majesty that knows our thoughts and looks into our hearts, I will conceal, consent, and do my best what stratagem so ever thou shalt devise.

Hamlet: It is enough mother, good night. [to polonius] I’ll provide for you a grave who was in life a foolish and prating knave.

*exit Hamlet with Polonius’s body*

Despite having seemingly major consequences for the plot, this is never discussed again. Gertrude tells Claudius in the next scene that it was Hamlet who killed Polonius (Corambis, whatever!), seemingly betraying her promise.

However, Gertrude’s admission of Hamlet’s guilt (and thus, betrayal) could come down to the circumstance she finds herself in as the next scene begins. There is no stage direction denoting her exit, so the entrance of Claudius in scene 5 may be into her room, where he would find her beside a puddle of blood, evidence of the murder. There’s no talking your way out of that one…

And now the most drastic change: the bonus scene. After IV.vi (act 4, scene 6), (but before IV.vii) comes this scene*, in which Horatio informs Gertrude that Hamlet was to be executed in England but escaped. Here it is with modern spellings but without line breaks (man, I hate formatting things!)

Enter Horatio & Gertrude 

Horatio: Madam, your son is safe arrive’d in Denmark. This letter I even now received of him, whereas he writes how he escaped the danger and subtle treason that the king had plotted, being crossed by the contention of the winds, he found the packet (letter) sent to the king of England, wherein he saw himself betray’d to death, as at his next conversion with your grace, he will relate the circumstance at full. 

Gertrude: Then I perceive there’s treason in his looks that seemed to sugar o’re his villainy: but I will sooth and please him for a time for murderous minds are always jealous. But know not you, Horatio, where he is? 

Horatio: Yes, madam, and he hath appointed me to meet him on the east side of the city to-morrow morning. 

Gertrude: O, fail not, good Horatio, and commend me a mother’s care to him, bid him a while be wary of his presence, lest that he fail in that he goes about. 

 Horatio: Madam, never make doubt if that: I think by this news be come to court: he is arrive’d, observe the king and you shall quickly find, Hamlet being here, things fell not to his mind. 

 Gertrude: But what became of Guilderstone and Rossencraft? 

Horatio: He being set ashore, they went for England and in the packet there writ down that  doom to be performed on them pointed for him: and by great chance he had his father’s seal, so all was done without discovery. 

Gertrude: Thanks be to heaven for blessing of the prince, Horatio, I once again take my leave, with thousand mother’s blessings to my son. 

Horatio: Madam, adieu.

If Gertrude knows of Claudius’s treachery (”there’s treason in his looks”), her death at the end of the play does not look like much of an accident. She is aware that Claudius killed her husband and is actively trying to kill her son and she still drinks the wine meant for Hamlet!

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! My thoughts! Yippee! 

Clearly, my favorite gift this Christmas was my copy of The Riverside Shakespeare, gifted to me by my grandma. I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again now that reading this is an option. (This play has me head-over-heels, goddamn!)

Anyway, here are my thoughts on Q1 (as abridged as I can get them, seeing as this post is already nearly 2,000 words long.)

On Gertrude: WOW! I’m convinced that she is done dirty by First Folio and Q2! She and Hamlet have a much better relationship (Gertrude genuinely worries about his well-being throughout the play.) She has an actual personality that is tied into her role in the story and as a mother. I love Q1 Gertrude even though in the end, there’s nothing she can do to save Hamlet from being found out in the murder of Polonius and eventually dying in the duel. Her drinking the poisoned wine seems like an act of desperation (or sacrifice? she never asks hamlet to drink!) rather than an accident.

On the language: I think Q1′s biggest shortcoming is its comparatively simplistic language, especially in ‘to be or not to be’*: (again with the formatting!)

Hamlet: To be, or not to be, aye, there's the point. To die, to sleep, is that all? Aye, all: no, to sleep, to dream, aye, merry there it goes. For in that dream of death, when we awake, and borne before an everlasting judge, from whence no passenger ever returned, the undiscovered country, at whose sight the happy smile, and the accursed damn'd. But for this, the joyful hope of this, who’d bear the scorns and flattery of the world, scorned by the right rich, the rich cursed of the poor? The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd, the taste of hunger, or a tyrants reign, and thousand more calamities besides, to grunt and sweat under this weary life, when that he may his full quietus make, with a bare bodkin, who would this endure, but for a hope of something after death? Which puzzles the brain, and doth confound the sense, which makes us rather bear those evils we have, than fly to others that we know not of. Aye that, O this conscience makes cowards of us all. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, but it doesn’t feel quite complete, which makes sense for Q1- that’s the vibe I get overall from this version: it’s Hamlet at an earlier point in the play’s journey to becoming its modern renditions and compilations. 

On the ending: The ending suffers from the same effect ‘to be or not to be’ does- it is simpler and (imo) lacks some of the emotion that F1 later emphasizes. Hamlet’s final speech is significantly cut down and Horatio’s last lines aren’t quite so potent- although they’re still sweet!

*Horatio, to Fortinbras and co.: Content yourselves, I’ll show to all, the ground, the first beginning of this Tragedy: Let there a scaffold be reared up in the marketplace, and let the State of the world be there: where you shall hear such a sad story told that never mortal man could more unfold.

Horatio generally is a more active character in Q1 Hamlet. This ending suits his character here: He will tell Hamlet’s story, tragic as it may be. It reminds me a bit of We Raise Our Cups from Hadestown. 

Overall, I loved reading this version and highly encourage you to do the same! (Two PDFs are linked below!) The spelling is hard to overlook at times, but if you can get through it, this is a fascinating interpretation of the same Hamlet we love and it’s worth a read! There’s so much more I want to get into but I absolutely must sleep, so adieu for now!

And finally, my sources:

The Riverside Shakespeare (pub. Houghton Mifflin Company; G.B. Evans, et al.)

Q1 PDF (Internet Shakespeare) https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Ham_Q1/complete/index.html

***THIS SOURCE NO LONGER EXISTS.*** Q1 PDF (STF Theatre) https://stf-theatre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HAMLET-%E2%80%93-the-1st-Quarto.pdf (cross-reference for lines) 

[pastelwitchling]

I thought now would be the proper time to talk about my (maybe slightly unpopular) opinions on The Eighth Sense. Here are my thoughts on this show, why I think it was so popular, and my overall opinion on kbl. At least, the ones I've seen so far.

So grab your tea and some biscuits, because this might be a long one.

I loved The Eighth Sense. Let's just get that out of the way real quick. I thought the actors had so much charm, I love everyone they wanted us to love and hate everyone they wanted us to hate, and the characters themselves were also great and refreshing.

Jihyun is a country mouse, but he's independent and unyielding. Jaewon doesn't keep a distance because of any kind of homophobia, but because of his own self-deprecation. The characters, for the most part (I'll get into that more in a bit) are very nice and good-hearted people. Except for two, but we don't like them, so we will be ignoring them.

I saw the reaction people had to this show, so I had to check it out, and yeah, I get the hype online. Very quickly, I realized why it was being talked about so much. Has anyone ever seen the show Skam? Either the Norwegian or French versions? Well, The Eighth Sense is shot exactly like that. To someone who's never seen anything but the Asian-based bls, seeing that European style on a kbl is kind of surprising. Even if you have seen Skam, the style is still shot more "indie" with simpler, quieter scenes, and it's not something we're used to seeing with non-European characters. At least, not in a bl.

That said, a lot of the shots are a little too... artsy, in my opinion, and I didn't like some of them. Like as Jihyun comes down the stairs at one point, the scene cuts to him on opposite sides of the staircase, or there were mirror scenes, or closeups on people's faces for no reason, and they kept yanking me out of the scenes.

But the real controversial opinion comes here, are you all ready?

I think the show could be a little... offensive sometimes.

I mention this because I didn't see anyone else say it, and maybe I'm just missing those posts, but... you guys ever notice that the chubbier characters are always snacking on something? It's such a small, but such a gross stereotype. If you're not stick-thin, it's because you're constantly eating. And then, wouldn't you know it, these only two chubbier characters end up with each other at the last minute even though they never shared so much as a scene throughout the whole show, AND despite the fact that Joonpyo clearly had a thing for Aeri. But oh, she's this pretty little social thing, so we can't have them together.

And... Hedwig. Look. If they'd teased him and had a problem with him because of how rude he is, fine. Great. But from the very beginning, before he's even said a word to anyone, he's being laughed at and mocked, not just by our sweet little country mouse and his friend, but by the entire class and professor just because of how he's dressed and how over the top he is. What, because it comes from a queer character and an ally, it's okay? It just really left a bad taste in my mouth.

And that's really it. Oh, and the fact that the villains are forgiven in the end so easily despite not deserving it for a second, but that's more a personal preference. I really enjoyed the show, the acting was amazing, and Jihyun is actually pretty inspiring for how tough he is. That said, no, I don't think it was the flawless masterpiece that everyone else seems to think it was. It was certainly shot different, but not perfect.

That's pretty much the gist of kbl, in my opinion. They're shot different--quieter scenes, more of a budget with things like mics and soundtracks--but not perfect. Could any other show, from any other country, do what Until We Meet Again did? Could any random couple manage in My School President better than Gemini and Fourth? I don't think so. And a lot of that comes down to how Studio Wasabi (I know that's not what they're called, but that's what I've always called them) and GMMTV do things, even with the smaller budget.

I also think that a lot of this "kbl is the superior" attitude comes down to BTS and k-drama hype. A lot of people are caught up in the whirlwind and excitement of the Korean everything coming out nowadays, but for someone who already had her BTS and k-drama phase long ago, I'm just not as taken in, I guess?

I don't know, personally, bigger budget doesn't equal better. And I think giving kbl this much praise for just starting to do what thai, japanese, and taiwanese bl have been doing for years now (and with plenty of flaws, too, Semantic Error and Unintentional Love Story are the only two I can think of that I enjoyed beginning to end without any really uncomfy moments) is, I'm sorry, just a little ridiculous. I think they still have ways to go before they're my go-to for bl.