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primal-slayer · 9 months ago

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Charmed drama Mega-Post

Mid 2000: Per Jason Priestley

Shannen talks Charmed and the joy she gets from working with Holly/Alyssa:

2001:

2.6.01 - Wanda at E!Online reports that there is definitely something a-brewin' regarding the rumors about Alyssa Milano leaving the show. A source close to the set has told her that there is some not-so-charming tension between Alyssa and her onscreen sibs. Apparently it's stemming from jealousy over better storylines and Shannen's more expensive wardrobe, which is full of Chloe and Versace and has created a few budget problems. Link

2.28.01 - E! Online's Wanda reports that things are getting really ugly on the set of "Charmed." Doherty acts like a primadonna all the time, demanding the best clothes and to be in the middle of all the publicity shots, and Milano is sick of it and threatening to leave. Meanwhile, Combs has managed to pretty much stay out of it.

5.10.01 - This week's Soap Opera Weekly interviews Executive Producer Brad Kern in an effort to confirm the rumors behind Alyssa's said departure from the series in her on-the-set battles with co-star Shannen Doherty. "Nothing I've been told from the people that I work for indicates whatsoever that anybody's leaving the show," Kern says of the rumor that Milano wants off and that her character will be killed. "Alyssa and Shannen are professionals. Are they best friends? No. Do they have to be? No. Do they work well together? Yeah. They're sisters in character only. They come in and do their job well. That's all that matters to us."

TVGO: After all the rumors about why you leftCharmed— including backstage feuding with covenmateAlyssa Milano— would you like to take this chance to clarify things for the record? Doherty: You know, I don't really want to be given the opportunity to clear the record. I have absolutely nothing to say. Details magazine will be out in August — that's probably the most honest interview that you'll ever read with me. I picked one magazine to tell the true story in and... if somebody wants to read it, then great. My opinion is, it really doesn't matter. I moved on, they moved on and who cares? You know, everything gets so blown out of proportion by the press that after awhile, you just gotta bury your head in the sand and go, 'I'm done talkin' about it.' TVGO: Any parting advice for your replacement, Rose McGowan? Doherty: [grinning mischievously] No, I think Rose will do a fine job, actually. I think Rose can hold her own and she's very sexy and beautiful — and I think it's actually going to make for a very interesting show, to be honest with you. I wish them all the luck.

"I think my passion for my work was too overwhelming," says Doherty of the fur-fly that became the Charmed set. Doherty claims the issue was one colleague's work ethic. "I mean, what do we do?" she continues. "Say a few lines, sit in our trailers, and get paid a fortune. That's really rough. And yet there was a person there that bitched about her job, day in, day out." According to Doherty, a "mediator" was brought in to diffuse all the poisonous estrogen. To this diplomat she said, "Are you supposed to be my shrink? Because I've already got one." Exchanges like these apparently so riled Milano, Doherty says, that the comely newcomer announced that she would not return to the show if Doherty stayed on. Doherty insists that she was the more politic star; to settle things, she took the matter up with the serge suits at Paramount, threatening to quit unless "changes" were made, though she says she wanted Milano to stay. "I would never wish another actor out of a job," she adds. "I think it's terrible karma." (Milano's reps did not return phone calls.) Six months later, at the end of the season, came a frilly pink slip. Though Doherty claims that she actually wanted to leave the show, she remains bitter that she's yet to hear from Spelling and that no one sat down with her to explain what happened. "You know what?" she says. "The lack of appreciation he's showing for me as a human being and as an actor is overwhelming." (Spelling's office issued a terse "No comment.") Others believe Doherty has her charms. "I worked with her for three years," says Charmed witch No.3, Holly Marie Combs. "I don't think she's difficult at all."

But trouble was undeniably brewing between Doherty and Milano by the time production started on the third season last summer. The fawning quotes to the press had stopped, as had the costars' time together away from the set. As Milano puts it, "I wasn't going to call [Shannen] on the weekend to go hand out." Rumors quickly swirled that Doherty was resentful of Milano's growing popularity, which had translated into several endorsement deals, including one with MCI. But those close to the situation claim it was more complicated than that. "There were no angels," Combs says. "We all had our bad days. We all [got] stressed out."

That's hardly surprising, says executive producer Kern. "People on a TV set work together 12 to 14 hours a day, five days a week. Rarely have I seen cast members stay, or even become, best friends." Adding to the friction, says Combs, was the stars' growing frustration with the show's direction. "We were in [a] rut, where we felt like we were doing the same episodes over and over again," she says. Doherty, in particular, "wanted to make the show bigger and better and stretch her boundaries," says Combs, who has been friends with the actress for eight years, and still speaks frequently with her. "I'd see her in the morning and she'd be like, 'OK, how are we going to fix this scene?' She was really dedicated and she didn't have a lot of patience for anyone [she felt] wasn't."

Whatever broke the spell, "we definitely didn't get along," admits Milano. "Shannen and I are very different people, and I think it's almost like a roommate. If you spend that much time with someone and there are differences anyway, you're not always going to get along.

Both Milano and Combs deny tabloid reports that Doherty would only speak to them when the cameras were rolling. But Milano acknowledges that she and her former costar could get downright witchy: "There were times when I'd come in and say 'Good morning, Shannen,' and she didn't say anything to me. And there wer times when she'd come in and say 'Good morning, Ayssa,' and I wouldn't say anything to her."

"The problems we had weren't things some big company mediator could fix," Combs adds quietly. "They needed to be fixed between us [by] going into [each other's] trailers and saying, 'All right, I don't like it when you do this.' Or 'I didn't like it when you said this.'"

That apparently never happened. Doherty has contended that Milano eventually got fed up and issued producers an ultimatum--either Doherty walked or she would--but Milano insists that isn't truel "I never even thought about doing that," she says. "I couldn't sleep knowing I backed out of something I'd committed to."

Doherty's eventual dismissal, then, came as a surprise. And the form Combs says it took--a phone call to Doherty's lawyer after the embattled actress had flown to Winnipeg, Canada, to start shooting Another Day, USA's upcoming Francis Ford Coppola TV-movie--still clearly angers her. "How do you go from directing the season finale to being [given] a pink slip over the phone, when [you're] in another country, at eight at night?" Combs says. "it was really a tacky way to go about it.

While no one's officially saying why doherty was ultimately cut loose, a series insider says, "It eventually became clear that [either Doherty or Milano] had to go." And Doherty may have been the safer choice, according to Stacey Lynn Koerner, an industry analyst with Initiative Media: "Alyssa is just as popular, if no more so, than Shannen. And when Shannen left 90210, the series did just fine."

While answering questions at the TCA press gathering in Los Angeles, a number of WB's own addressed what happened this last year on CHARMED regarding Shannen Doherty's exit. The network's Jordan Levin spoke of the matter, saying, "We knew last year that there were some decisions that probably had to be made in the best interest of Aaron Spelling and his company, our company and Shannen. And everybody came to the decision that they felt was mutually beneficial for all parties involved." When asked if the season finale was geared crafted in order to set up the entrance of a replacement for Doherty, Levin says, "We had an idea that we wanted to give ourselves some flexibility." More specifically regarding the addition of Rose McGowan to the cast, Levin adds, "There's a history within the mythology that there could be another sister because of the Lighter. We're still sort of hammering that out, and we haven't heard the full pitch yet and how that's going to work. But we're looking to bring in someone who could provide some conflict within the group and someone who could bring a younger audience into the show. We feel like Rose does that for us."

Early/Mid 2001

Alyssa claims that Shannen is out to destroy to her and it caused her to gain weight. Upon Shannens termination, Alyssa secures a substantial raise for S4

”I think it’s hard when you put…[long pause]…two very different people together. I’m very laid-back and passive. I have my Buddha,” Milano says, gesturing to a small shrine at the back of her trailer. ”I come in here and meditate. [Shannen’s] got a lot of energy, she’s very headstrong, she wants to get the job done…. I think it’s unfortunate that she left, and that she needed to bad-mouth everyone involved and the audience,” continues Milano, alluding to the former 90210 star’s recent dismissal of Charmed as ”a show for 12-year-olds.” (Doherty declined to comment for this story.) ”She sounds really angry. I just hope I didn’t contribute to that anger.”Shannen’s not the only one who’s miffed. ”It was done very poorly, in my opinion,” says Holly Marie Combs (Piper) of the producers’ postseason decision to allow Doherty to leave the coven. ”We should have had an opportunity to have her character, Prue, make a graceful exit and have our story writers properly plan for that.” Instead, writers were compelled to turn last season’s standard-issue cliff-hanger — Prue and Piper get thrown through a wall by a cranky demon — into a makeshift tragic send-off. ”Now,” adds Combs, ”we’re scrambling to explain why I live and she doesn’t.”

That stuff's hard to wash out. You're even more famous for those MCI commercials. Oh, yeah. Little kids only know me from those spots. They don't know from Who's the Boss? and aren't allowed to watch Charmed. It's a great night job, especially if Charmed doesn't last. Speaking of which... Shannen Doherty? You know, if you remember the way Shannen left Beverly Hills, 90210, it's almost exactly the way it happened on Charmed. She left for personal reasons, then it started coming out that she didn;t get along with the other cast members. It seemed she was so angry and upset over leaving another hit show that she had to lash out at me. Suddenly it's my fault. I think she did the right thing by leaving, but once she left she attacked many people—not only me, our audience, too, and almost everyone on the show. She lost credibility. She was like a bad roommate. There was a lot of tension on the set. I have a fear of confrontation, and she can be aggressive, so I was afraid of her. Shannen doesn't hate you—she hates herself. I haven't been able to figure it out, and I might die not knowing. And that's OK. OK. You and Shannen Doherty in a celebrity death match: Who wins? Sarah Michelle Gellar.

2004: Alyssa fires her agency over them signing Shannen. Agency sues and apparently wins their lawsuit against Alyssa for $1mill

2021:

While Milano said she's still so very proud of Charmed, she didn't always have the easiest time on set, especially when it came to her co-star, Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Shannen Doherty. After years of tension between the two during the show's eight seasons, Milano said she and Doherty are now "cordial." "I would say we are cordial," she shared. "You know, I could take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had. I think a lot of our struggle came from feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about. And I have some guilt about my part in that." While the 48-year-old actress admitted that she still has some guilt for her part in their feud, their decades-old spat didn't stop her from reaching out to Doherty when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. 2022/2023: Shannen speaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHisM0QLPEw&t=85s&ab_channel=Let%27sBeClearwithShannenDohertyPods

So it was interesting that when I had a problem after this all transpired and I wanted to discuss leaving the show and all my reasons why they put me in a room with Jonathan Levin, which I don't know that I had seen since we went to network, and you had told me about your background with him, which is varied and interesting, and he obviously has a very fond spot, shall we say, for you, And I don't know why they chose him to do this meeting, but I can tell you that during the meeting where I said this is not the show I signed on to do, I hear that you're looking for other people. And it's not about the list of names. It's about this was not a show that I wanted to do without Shannon. She didn't want to do it without me. Therefore I don't want to do it without her, and that should be fairly clear. And he hadars in his eyes already because he could see I was getting upset. As you can hear me getting upset, And I said, why would you hire her again just to fire her? And he said, we didn't mean to, And he said, but we've been backed into this corner. He said, you know, we're basically in a position where it's one or the other. We were told that it's her me and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment, which because she went to the therapist or the mediator or the corporate mediator, whatever the heck his title is, she built a case for herself where she was documenting every time she felt uncomfortable on set and for whatever reason, whereas you and I refused to speak to him. So that's where the deck was stacked There was no either even like harsh words exchanged. It was all behind the scenes, it was all in the trailer. It was nothing that anybody or any of our guest stars ever noticed or noted. And you know, there's not a director that would not work with you. Again, there's not any one of our crew members that did not have a great time working with you. So by today's standards, it wouldn't fucking fly, right, And I don't think being laid as a teenager on a set called nine O two one zero would fly for being fired either. Like it's just it's just doesn't make any sense anymore. There are people that actually behave badly and get away with it, and there are men that you know, abuse people, throw things, screaming fits and get away with it. Alyssa/Holly Speak:

Guest stars speak throughout the years:

Michael Bailey Smith aka Belthazor/Shax/Grimlock I did 14 episodes on “Charmed” and had a great time. Whenever I showed up to the set as Belthazor, Alyssa Milano would always give me a kiss on the cheek and say, “You’re not scary.” Holly was really nice too, really down to earth. And I know the rumors about Shannen Doherty, but for me, she was always nice and very professional. I would always see her doing extra work off the set with the stunt people just to make sure her fight scenes looked good. I remember one time when we were preparing for a scene, she got a box of roses from someone. When she opened them, they were dead roses. People can be so cruel. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157836541399125&set=a.404883944124&type=3&theater

Brian Krause (leo)“ I can just tell you that she was the hardest working person on the set. Yes, she could be terse and abrupt, but she wasn’t always wrong, I’ll tell you that.”“She had everybody’s back, she was part of the family, she was the family. And when she left, we all wondered how the show was gonna last, and it’s honestly a miracle that we did and kudos to Holly and Alyssa and Rose [McGowan] that we did, they kept it together. But I have nothing but love for Shannen Doherty.”“Most of those comments come from guys, men in power with money who don’t like to be told what to do by a woman, especially a strong opinionated woman,” he said, adding: “She wasn’t always right, but she stood her ground.”https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/brian-krause-interview/

James L Conway (producer)"Shannen was nice to almost everyday, she had script problems, always nice to the cast, she was the HEART AND SOUL OF CHARMED" That really says it all doesn't it? She viewed Charmed as her baby.Source: Charmed blu ray special feature

Christine Rose (Claire)"It was all with Shannen, and I thought she was absolutely darling. I had worked with her years before on Life Goes on. That was about a boy with a Down’s syndrome, and I was guest-starring as the boy’s teacher. Shannen was on that episode, too, and I was setting them up to be married, for what that might be like. I was new to L.A. then because I’d mostly been on the stage, and I was relatively new to being on camera. And I remember thinking, «This girl is a pro”. So I was aware of how good Shannen was, and she was very nice when I did Charmed. I enjoyed working with her, Holly Marie Combs, I had played her biological mother on Picket Fences. We didn’t get to work together on Charmed, but it was fun just getting to see her again. Otherwise my experience was pretty straightforward.

Actually, one other thing I remember was being at a table and another guest star was having a hard time. In between takes Shannen said something very encouraging and nurturing to her, and I thought she was very nice. So those are my memories, as sparse as they are"Source Unknown via: https://thecharmedcafe.proboards.com/thread/11658/guest-stars-working-shannen-doherty

TW King (andy) I think some of it is rumor, but a lot of it is based on truth because she was young when success hit her. The great thing about Shannen is that she is a total professional and is always prepared, and she expects everyone around her to be at the same level - and I like to think I am the same way, so I respect the way she is around the set. We get things done, things rapidly and according to the script, so I certainly can't complain.Source Unknown via: https://thecharmedcafe.proboards.com/thread/11658/guest-stars-working-shannen-doherty

Scott Steiner (Wrestling W/Demons demon) Steiner is asked about appearing on the TV show "Charmed" while working in WCW. He said that while explaining to Shannen Doherty's stunt double that he would have to put his hand in her crotch to perform a press slam, Shannen came up to him and said that she would do that and when Steiner told her that he would have to put his hand in her crotch, Shannen told him that is why she asked. Steiner says that she was cool and gets a lot of bad press.https://www.rspwfaq.net/2014/05/rf-video-shoot-interview-with-scott.html

Armin Shimerman (The Wizard) "I hated the ladies on "Bewitched"...um...uh..."Charmed!" "Charmed!" And there's a reason they were cast as witches. I...of all the shows I've ever worked, that was by far the ugliest." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zl24cHSS-w (8:10)

Danielle Harris (Aviva) First AC guy was talking to me - Shannen kept walking by, she wasn't very nice to me anyway but she kept getting mad. Wasn't sure what was going on. Wasn't a fun experience. A lot of fighting between the girls. If I pick Shannen, Holly would be mean. If I picked Holly, Shannen would be mean. Alyssa kept telling me what to do as if I didn't know anything. The AC was using me to get back at Shannen. He had been her boyfriend for 1.5 years. Thats why I was getting stink eye.

Scout Compton (Thistle the fairy) I did 7 or 8 episodes and it was interesting. I wasnt on (when Rose was on NOTE: She was only on 1 episode with Shannen. The rest with Rose)The women were always fighting in the makeup trailer.

https://talkscarytome.podbean.com/e/talk-scary-to-me-e9/ (22:00)

Geoffrey Blake (Four horseman) Alyssa was very welcoming. Most of them were except one that wasnt so nice**. (Shannen was largely absent this episode)** https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/geoffrey-blake-podcast-apocalypse-not-part-2/id1573860155?i=1000526963557

Elisabeth Hernois ( Brooke in the season 3 episode "Magic Hour"):

The dynamic on set was “interesting,” she said, as she “hadn’t really ever witnessed anything like that on a set — where people really aren’t hiding not liking each other.”

“Definitely as a young person, I sensed the tension on the set,” Harnois, 44, said, noting that her overall experience was “actually really good” as she shouted out Alyssa Milano, who she said “was a sweetheart to me.”

“She really took me under her wing, and a lot of my stuff was with her too, so that was helpful,” she recalled.

Shannen Doherty and Holly Marie Combs, who made up the other ⅔ of the sister witches who led the show, “were nice to me but not as effusively kind as Alyssa was,” Harnois said.

“And they were always off in their own space and [Alyssa] would sit all the way on the other side of the set by herself," she continued. “There was a major divide on that set, even back then, and I don’t think that was that long into the show.” https://people.com/charmed-guest-star-recalls-major-divide-on-set-shannen-doherty-alyssa-milano-8604809

#Charmed #Charmed season 1 #charmed season 2 #charmed season 3 #Shannen Doherty #alyssa milano #holly marie combs #prue halliwell #piper halliwell #phoebe halliwell #celebrity feuds #thewb

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absolutebl · 4 years ago

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This Week In BL

May 2021 Part 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 6 fin - Chris & Jeno were TOO CUTE we got ALL the tropes: parental passing on the torch of care (a rare one), hair drying, hair touching, the prom with everyone was in adorable suits (Tang Yi approves), GOOD kisses, confessions galore, boop (+ bonus pool boop), tumblr now thinks they’re lesbians (new trope I’ve just decided on), claiming, rooftop assignation. Conclusion? This is one of the best BL pulps I’ve seen in a really long time. We are PLEASED!

Y-Destiny Ep 7 - a pretty classic take on the “reformed player/rake” romance trope plus a ton of BL visuals like back hug, messy eater, rooftop assignation, and pillow clutch (a Cheewin signature). Cheewin sure knows his tropes (he should, he started a lot of them and his YYY Special is nothing but a trope parody pastiche, it’s Absolute BL before Absolute BL and A LOT weirder).

Lovely Writer Ep 11 - The casting closet has come to play. I really like that LW is taking the industry and fans to task. It’s hard to watch sometimes, but it SHOULD be a little squirmy and uncomfortable. This was an excellent Episode 11 and we all suffered for it. I hope they can resolve it well in the finale. They’ve done great work so far, I trust them.

Close Friend Ep 3: (Willing or Not) - sports kinda romance, it was cute because MaxNat are cute together, but it reminded me a lot of their arc in Why R U, which is to say, short and somewhat forgettable.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 5 - am I over this? I think I might be over it. Not into the punching down humor in terms of femme or Sikhs, I don’t like Pi, and found myself fast-forwarding through most of this ep. Mostly I only watch when Mork is on screen. I wanna know why Mork likes Pi so much, but that’s all I’m interested in. Tons of tropes but I’m not even motivated to screen cap, which is saying something. Look, the characters pretty much lack motivation and so I’m losing sympathy.

Nitiman Ep 1 - oh I like it. This is the standard Thai BL delicious trash I know and love. 2 Moons university setting pastiche, check! Engineering students = gay, check! Instant hate vrs instant love, check! Seme vrs tsundere uke, check! Plus the side dishes are tasty. I’m disposed to be pleased, especially as Fish is disappointing. Sadly they insisted on singing, but you can’t have everything.

Love Area Ep 1 - I’m not holding this post just for one BL that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find tomorrow, so I’ll let you know how it is next week.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 7-8 fin - so flipping cute, their little smiles, just GAH. Bit of a dead fish kiss but I don’t care because I loved this tiny show full of soft bois and no one saying anything directly (except our man with the poetry, I hope he finds his true love). Adorable.

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 3 - HOW IS THIS SHOW SO WHOLESOME? This is possibly the cutest thing on air right now (and I don’t actually like children). Just GAH! The actual Taipei pride footage. I didn’t even mind all the product placement (I happen to like that bubbly myself). It’s just so cute. Everyone should be watching this. It will make you feel so good and happy. Not gonna lie, this ep is ALL about queer found family and I might have ugly cried over the teddy bear at the end - in a good way. *** Quick note because I think it’s super important: in 2020 Taiwan Pride was called March for the World. Why? Because Taiwan managed to control C19 better than any other country, they were the only country able to hold pride safely, so they did it for all of us. I don’t feel like they got enough recognition for this.

Word of Honor (China) Ep 34-36 fin - In the end, WoH turned out to be a morality tale about the superiority of agrarian society over semi-nomadic tribes combined with a message about enduring love profoundly undermined by Chinese censorship. It’s like this amazing meal. I ate my fill, and enjoyed every bite, but had a bit too much, and now I have heart burn. Am I upset about the ending? Sure am. Good for them for manipulating my emotions! Was this a great drama? Yes. Did I expect this from China? Sure did. Do i feel betrayed anyway? Sure do. I guess these things are going to have to coexist in my psyche. Along with heart burn. Here have the actual-not-really-epilogue-ending. It's wafer thin. I’m putting this one to bed. I feel like I’ve said my piece and I want to move on from 36 courses of pretty men in pretty robes full of pretty innuendoes and deadly peanuts. I’ll miss the big fuck off white fan, tho.

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 5 - still very much enjoying it, the secret identity lies are beginning to unravel, tension is increasing. I don’t see how they can resolve this in just one episode tho, so this series might go longer than 6 episodes (rare for Vietnam).

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 8 - I demand Boxiang & Zhigang (repping for the healthy LTR and marriage equality) show up in every HIStory installment henceforth. This was a cute ep, lots of good communication & tropes. Still not sure how I feel about the stepbrothers, but can’t complain about their chemistry (waves at TharnType). Speaking of, how awesome that Yongjie caught the man he always wanted, that man is a SUPER bossy bottom, and Yongjie is like ...

Gossip

Crazy rumor that Singto has a new BL in the works (totally unsubstantiated). It’s Still Just Us (frankly, the biggest strike against this being true is how grammatically correct the title is).

Vietnam is messing with our heads and hearts by putting the leads from Nation’s Brother and Most Peaceful Place together into a delightful little love triangle of... something or other. Honestly, I’ve no idea what this is. The actors playing around? A new series? An advertisement? What?

Breaking News

Mandee (of Why R U fame) dropped a “mini intro” for something that they’re calling Bed Friend series. HI BEER! But I thought these two (James & Net) were the side dishes for Middle Love AKA Middleman's Love. I am so confused. (Get your titles together Thailand, no one wants you going down the Taiwanese rabbit hole, mm’kay?)

Taiwan would call it: Middleman’s Middle Love: Bed Friend.

Top Secret Together got a full trailer with subs. I’m kinda over ensemble pulp pieces (like Close Friend, Bothers, Y-Destiny) but the presence of Newyear makes this one I’m still going to watch. It starts this Friday on Line TV.

Cutie Pie the series got a teaser (fundraising trailer). Arranged marriage, home/office set, Thai BL staring Zee? Sign me tf up! I am so excited, I hope they can make this happen. Deets here. (Thanks @heretherebedork for the tip.)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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janiedean · 3 years ago

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@seethemflying I think Sansa is in the next bracket down of important characters (with Jaime). In the outline, they weren't named as one of the big five, but in the process of writing have grown more important. No way is Sansa's ending going to be anything like Show Sansa's, though (and same with Jaime tbh).

agreed but lemme take a second from cramming to rant about this because I honestly have An Issue

in the sense: I 100% agree that both jaime and sansa are next bracket/secondary main (speaking as someone whose top five is made by ppl who are either secondary main or tertiary main if they have a pov like.... I'm not gonna argue that theon is a main fiver bc he's in my top three) but like what I can't deal with is the following as in that the main five are the main five bc they have in between them all the main themes george wants to tackle + the main plot stuff except for the 'romance is my #1 sense of existing in the plot', as in:

jon is azor ahai + has the chosen one deconstruction trope going on + most likely has the 'I never wanted to be Important™/have a throne but I'll have to for duty' ending + identity arc ie if he's not jon snow first of his name i'm eating my hat

dany has the dragons + the targ ancestry deal + 'I thought I wanted to rule but actually I don't I just want to help ppl' storyline (which is the hill i'm dying on)

bran has the oH WAIT fisher king deconstruction going on + the magic™ storyline + he's most likely kitn + he's tied to uh the literal rebirth of the continent so + how to deal with disability storyline

arya has the I NEED TO REALIZE WHO I AM storyline + the learning to be yourself as a gnc woman storyline + revenge is shit storyline + I'll become a skilled assassin and choose not to act on it unless absolutely necessary storyline + trauma/ptsd storyline tied to losing your own identity

tyrion has the shakesperean hero thing going on as in I have to make peace with the fact that I killed my father/did mistakes + overcoming the societal issues/problems/the prejudice most ppl have for him that’s caused by his disability storyline + he's the only one of these five who doesn't have any magical stuff in his background/only has his brain to rely on + overcoming his family's legacy and making it better storyline

now: a bunch of other minor/secondary characters have all of this (I mean idk theon and jaime have identity + learning to deal with/overcoming societal scorn given by them being disabled/having become disabled in various ways + ptsd, brienne has the gnc woman thing etc) but like each single one of these characters only lacks the OH I HAVE A BIGASS GREAT ROMANCE WITH MY BACKGROUND (I mean gendry exists to be arya's LI but idt it's gonna be important in her future storyline the way it'll be in brienne's to say one).. which oh wait SANSA JAIME AND BRIENNE HAVE, because guess what that's the next secondary bracket where those three characters have it as a main part of the story which is exempt from the politics angle (bc none of them is tied to the iron trap by the plot no none of them jaime doesn't want it, brienne isn't a contender and sansa was supposed to be queen in the beginning so she's obviously not going to be that later no not even qitn that's gonna be bran) and here falls the entire shebang because what half of this fandom doesn't seem to get is that *drumroll* george's favorite angle to tackle when it comes to romance is... THAT EXTERNAL BEAUTY IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT IN PEOPLE AT THE END OF IT AND GUESS WHAT THAT'S THE MAIN POINT OF ALL OF THEM PLUS THE KNIGHTHOOD DECONSTRUCTION THING and with that I mean:

not counting that sansa's reaction to trauma is written to be specular and opposite to arya's as in arya tends to lose sight of herself/becomes someone else/resorts to violence to survive sansa never loses track of herself/her innate kindness which... is smth I wish dnd remembered, the thing is: sansa is presented in the beginning as 'i'm a twelve year old with all the issues with shallowness a 12yo brought up like me can have and everything I want from life is a good love story', which... guess what she's 100% going to get except

characters need to have an evolution, if sansa wants a handsome pretty guy who'll make her queen in the beginning and she has to realize joffrey was The Worst, do we really think her endgame is being queen of a handsome nice king when her entire schtick is liking songs about knights and wanting true love and someone gentle and brave blah blah? no, and that's exceedingly obvious when the text throws at you in the face that her only two actually viable choices for LI - sandor and tyrion - are.. guys who are either disfigured or disabled or traumatized or all three of them but are actually good people and she has to learn to see beyond looks, and no one else fits that bill period - sansa isn't getting with a pretty guy who'll make her queen, sansa will find love with a guy who's nowhere near pretty or handsome but will love her for who she is and that she will see the good behind the not-handsomeness dot and she'll prob go back north with him and be happy advising bran bc she learned stuff in court at most and I'm dying on that hill, bc again the entire point of her sl is having the nice good love story where she sees beyond external beauty which has been clear from page five of her first pov imvho

never mind that again she wants to be a queen in the beginning and then she realizes it's shit so why would she be one in the end? like not to be that asshole but george isn't exactly pro monarchy and it's obvious he's not going to paint it as an inherently positive thing

this attaches back to the fact that there's a whole knighthood deconstruction happening for which sansa has to realize that the gallant/true knights are not the ones who seem that/look like it/flaunt it around

which brings us to the fact that oh wait sandor and jaime in themselves are true knights in spite of the fact that sandor refuses to even consider himself one and jaime thinks he fucked it up and no one sees them as such

and that the truest knight in westeros who will get recognized as such is brienne

who doesn't look standard hot either

and has the love story with jaime right on page

and jaime also has the love story right on page where he has to realize he's into people that aren't c. especially brienne and so on which is what's happening right now like jb recognizing themselves as true knights™ is part of their whole thing like... it's... important

(this counting that san/san is beauty and the beast played straight with sansa as the beauty while jb is the same trope except reversed on itself five times because both j and b are both of them)

and this would also like make utter sense if oh, wait, jb weren't in the riverlands where sandor also is and if oh wait who has sworn a vow to find sansa like again I'm dying on the hill that brienne kills stoneheart, they go on the quiet isle to recover, sandor is like AH YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SANSA and sansa gets rescued in the vale by the only three true knights in these series including the one that's her actual love interest at least the way I see it and where do you think that's going to end yeah exactly

as in: she'll have the umpteenth proof that all the true knights in these books don't look like the songs and she'll get the one she wanted

(also brienne is way more like sansa than arya in personality so like... parallelism of two girls into romantic stuff getting with the guys they like? except that for b. it's relevant bc she's ugly and she gets with hot guy who's into her and for s. it's relevant bc she's hot and she goes with guy-everyone-considers-a-lost-cause showing that they're not exactly a lost cause)

like sansa is there to a) have half of the main love story plot b) as the resident song expert witness what knighthood actually means, jaime is the resident person doing things for love and finding ways to do it that aren't toxic/finds someone who'll actually love him and not what he represents, brienne is the resident 'I never thought anyone would be into me and I'm pursuing my dreams without a shred of hope they'll go well' and she gets all of that and sandor is there to be sansa's LI and to tell ppl that you can go to rehab and have a decent life even if you were used and abused to hell and back (jaime too tbh) and like none of that has to do with the iron trap, the magic, the zombies and whatnot but it's okay because it's their point in the plot and is2g I just wish people would take characters for what they represent instead of shoehorning them into others's themes/stories just because it's what they want for them, the end

(I could rant about the third bracket of characters ie theon & co & getting over trauma/ptsd without the Love Story™ but I have to get back to study if I wanna fill some prompts later so it's not gonna happen for now but... sorry for the rant I'm just really tired of the whole sansastark will get the iron trap and the north and be the ymbq and get with a guy that looks good for her depending on what we ship not considering the overall reaching plot or her book plot and everyone else will have zero relevance in the story because we said so especially when it means giving all of that to a character who is uh not belonging to any of the categories represented by the main five which are actually kiiindaaaa relevant rep but I'mma just gonna shut up here)

#janie rants #janie writes meta #i guess #anti show sansa #seethemflying #janie replies #jaime x brienne for ts #sansan for ts #long post for ts #janie speculates #right i'm back on studying penal law rip #my stuff

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sebastianshaw · 3 years ago

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Gud morning folks. For new followers, on Munday I just do a random dump of OOC rambles that have nothing to do with Shaw or this blog. Under the cut is stuff about animals, my suspicions of the “mean lesbian” Tumblr trope, and how I don’t have a Spotify but what my list would be if I did:

- I really, really miss riding horses. I get the occasional trail ride once or twice a year, but I want to do more than just sit there on a walk through the woods. I want to actually RIDE again, like actually DO THINGS---trot, turn, canter, maybe even jump. I miss it a lot. - I’m very proud of my chinchillas and how well-socialized they are! They’re friendly to strangers, and will try to go to not only my dad, but also my mom and sister when I hold them near them. Chinchillas are very timid animals, hard to win over, and typically bond with only one person, so this is really awesome for them! - Fun fact about me, I am the most timid little person in public. I am lowkey terrified of people and always ready to bolt when I’m alone. I still go out and get a soda and stuff, just I’m very high-alert and I’m super non-confrontational. I basically have the same defense as an opossum, in that I try to be as contrite and apologetic as possible to avoid trouble. But when I am out with a female friend, I just go like, full guard-dog mode internally. I’m completely ready to fight the fuck out of anyone who bothers her. I had mostly forgotten this about myself because I’ve been in quarantine so long, but when I went to see my friend this month and we went walking the dogs in a dark park with no one else around, I was like, I will absolutely kill someone tonight if I have to. - I’ve been having rat anxiety dreams again. Basically scenarios in which I fail to take care of my rats and they suffer/die for it, or there’s too many rats to take care of at once :C - I have made jokes about being a “mean lesbian” myself because of how I rag on any male fave I have, or how I just don’t give a shit about the dudes everyone else in fandom/tumblr/etc is apeshit over, but like. . .I feel like the Tumblr invention of the phrase “mean lesbian” is ultimately couched in very heteropatriarchal stereotypes around lesbians. Because it case you didn’t know, lesbians have typically been represented as extremely unpleasant in media for a long time; positive rep for us is pretty new. The lesbian in media is invariably a man-hating, penis-envying shrill feminist strawman (usually overlapping with the “no-fun feminist who thinks everything is sexist and all men are evil” stock character) or, at best, a laughable object of disgust for her gender-nonconformity, her ugliness, her fatness, her short hair, her non-sexual attire, all the things that make her unattractive to men and therefore both useless and a walking insult to them. And this animosity towards lesbians, and depictions of us as horrid two-dimensional viragos who are just angry and mean all the time, comes from the patriarchal assumption that not being interested in men means hating them, because, as I’ve noticed for a long time, cis men just can’t fathom DISINTEREST in them, nor can society in general. They can’t IMAGINE that a woman just DOESN’T CARE about them one way or the other, we HAVE to be OBSESSED with them in SOME way, even if that way is hating them. That’s why SO MUCH of the perception of lesbians I encounter from people, or the questions I’ve gotten pertaining to being gay, is seldom focused around asking why I find women attractive, but on asking why I DON’T find men attractive. Because, as women, our sexuality MUST be focused around (cis) men, even if the focus is rejecting them; they can’t just be a non-issue to us. And, of course, that rejection cannot be “I’m just not into bros, bro” but an active seething EVIL HATRED. We must DESPISE them. And we’re BAD for that. We’re MEAN. As is ANY woman who, say, has turned down any man ever, or who has the mildest of issues with even the most egregious sexism, hence why feminists are always depicted as shrieking harpies who flip out over absolutely absurd shit, rather than ever having anything resembling an actual point about a real issue. We’re just MEAN, man! And that makes us easy to dismiss. Along with all the uncomfortable truths we draw attention to. See also: Angry Feminist, Angry Black Woman, etc. Maybe I’m reaching, but much like all the gross stuff that Tumblr has made around tops and bottoms that is just sexism 2.0 (pretty much every stereotype about bottoms is a stereotype about women, it’s just seme and uke all over again) I don’t think that the “mean lesbian” thing came out of nowhere with no basis in anything previous. I think it’s absolutely got sexist af roots, or at least very well could, even if people, including lesbians, are using it affectionately now. - I once told a friend that Artemis and Athena were my favorite Greek deities as a kid and she said “no one is surprised”

… yeah, yeah that’s fair - I don’t have Spotify, but here’s a playlist Youtube made for me based on what I listen to most there: Winterborn by The Cruxshadows Rasputin by Turisa Wolves Without Teeth by Of Monsters & Men City of Night by Miracle of Sound King & Lionheart by Of Monsters & Men Still by Alanis Morissette Sophia by The Cruxshadows Nothing I Can Do by Dreams in the Witch House - A Lovecraftian Rock Opera Rammstein vs Lady Gaga - Du Hast vs Telephone mashup All the Myths Are True by Abney Park I Don’t Know How To Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar Reverent of Rats by Powerwolf Temple of Love by The Sisters of Mercy Blinding by Florence + the Machine Eye To Eye from Disney’s “A Goofy Movie” by Jonathan Young Come With Me Now by Kongos Airship Pirates by Abney Park Like A Prayer metal cover by Jay Smith The Hype by 21 Pilots She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult Plush by Stone Temple Pilots Beast of Gevaudan by Powerwolf The Tale of Cu Chulainn by Miracle of Sound I Like Giants by Kimya Dawson Birdhouse In Your Soul by They Might Be Giants

#out of shirt #munday #mun monday

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chainofclovers · 5 years ago

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no is a complete sentence: dead to me season 2

Dead to Me: The show that takes the concept “everything is connected” more seriously than any other show ever created—to its occasional detriment, but mostly to great effect.

I would have started writing this a bit earlier but one of my cats really needed to be held and that made it impossible to type. He has some Dead to Me meta he’d like to share with the other cats out there: “I watched all ten episodes of the second season with my human moms. There were no cat-related plots and a very upsetting missed opportunity with some rats. Don’t bother.”

Okay, with that done, I will say that as a human I think this show is VERY MUCH worth a careful watch. It’s sharply written, acerbically funny, and beautifully acted in intense scene after intense scene. No sophomore slump here.

Spoiler-filled thoughts about Dead to Me season 2 after the cut!

Queer Rep!!!

Let’s start with the most exciting thing—authentic, beautifully executed queer representation!

I LOVE Michelle. I love Michelle and Judy together. I love every conversation about zodiac signs and crystals and polenta and messy exes. (#lesbianculture) I love that Judy’s bisexuality is something she and the people she loves fundamentally understand and feel comfortable with. I read an interview with Liz Feldman (“‘Dead to Me’ boss supports women’s right to get angry: ‘It’s ugly. But it feels good’,” L.A. Times) about the decision to frame Judy’s interest in Michelle not as a big coming out plot but as something that was simply true about her character:

I’m married to a woman and I just was longing to tell a story about two people getting together and not having to explain it or talk about it or discuss it. Don’t get me wrong, there’s real value in a coming out story. … What I haven’t seen and I thought could be interesting was just somebody living their life, being attracted to somebody, going for it and it just not being a conversation. Because of all people, Judy has the capacity to love all people and that does not need to be explained.

If you watch the show and if you understand that character, she’s a walking, beating heart, you know? And she’s in a situation where she’s trying to start fresh in her life. She’s looking for something that feels different than it felt like with Steve. And she’s introduced to this woman [Michelle, played by Natalie Morales] and they have a simpatico connection pretty much from the beginning. And I very purposely cast a queer actress to play Michelle. And I just thought, “God, wouldn’t it be nice to not hang a lantern on it and not have to explain it?” Because when you see a straight relationship forming, it’s never explained. And I think just that’s kind of my political agenda, to say: “This is so normal. It doesn’t need to be explained or discussed or analyzed in any way.” She falls for this person and her best friend [Jen] is like, “You guys are great.” And I just thought it would be refreshing.

In related news, one of my least favorite parts of this cultural moment is young shippers on Twitter calling it a “hate crime” that Jen and Judy aren’t romantically together and saying that Judy/Michelle isn’t what they wanted and therefore the show is obviously homophobic or something, and Liz Feldman needs to be over? YIKES, y’all. I get that some of this is a generational difference in terms of the way groups use hyperbolic language and attempt to interact with creators, but it’s absolutely absurd to me (a thirty-something lesbian fuddy-duddy) that someone could watch a show in which the lesbian showrunner creates a subplot about a canonically bi/queer main character exploring the amazing chemistry she has with a gorgeous, kind, intelligent woman and to have your shipping lens so firmly in place that you can’t even appreciate the queer story happening right before your eyes?!

Let’s leave the hate crime talk to the actual hate crimes LGBTQ people around the world experience every day, because deploying that language against a lesbian showrunner creating queer narratives for personal and political reasons kinda makes you look like a white libertarian exercising your right to protest stay-at-home-so-you-don’t-die-in-a-pandemic orders at your state capitol with a gun and an “I need a haircut” sign while a lot of other people live in fear of police brutality.

ANYWAY.

Michelle is great, and while it was obviously too messy for the relationship to continue in its current state—Judy can’t be completely honest with her, and hasn’t yet done the emotional work to be able to respect Michelle’s boundaries w/r/t to texting too much and showing up to the hospital uninvited and all that, and Michelle will never be able to forget everything Ana Perez told her—it was an utter delight to watch their flirtation and photo-booth makeout and all-too-brief courtship. And it was an utter relief to watch Judy spend time with someone with zero interest in manipulating her, and for Judy to feel the impact of someone extending her kindness and appreciation.

Parallels, Coincidences, and That Ending

So, my wife and I were both ANGRY about the last thirty seconds of this season, when Ben hits Jen and Judy while they’re driving home from purchasing a car for Charlie and allowing themselves to talk hopefully and happily about the future. @janeslily pointed out that there’s some poetic beauty in Jen and Judy ending this season together as car accident victims considering everything that got them there in the first place, and that makes me feel a little better about the way the season ended, and about the potential for a season 3 that starts with Jen and Judy able to be honest with each other after a shared experience. I understand that if this show continues they’re going to need to still have a plot connecting the women to the Wood family...and Woods do love hit-and-runs...but it still makes me mad because it felt like a Big Shocking Twist that to me isn’t nearly as interesting as the emotional climax between Jen and Judy in 2x9. I would have preferred it if Jen and Judy had made it home to surprise Charlie with the car only to have him come outside holding the letter Jen wrote Judy.

I’d love to hear what others think about the car accident in the final scene, because that’s the only place where I felt truly let down, like I wasn’t on the ride anymore.

This show loves its parallels and twists and connective tissue, and for the most part—last thirty seconds notwithstanding—I find it an effective way to tell a story. Everything is heightened. No moment is wasted. Sure, we get a few minutes of the Holy Harmonies here, a double-date-plus-kids at the arcade there, a drunken night on the dance floor*. But for the most part, every scene is intense, and every scene propels a very specific story forward. Even moments that should be purely fun—what’s more relaxing than a spontaneous taco truck date on a sunny afternoon in Laguna Beach?—turn into an opportunity to wrestle with the past and fold yourself ever-deeper into the web of lies that’s ostensibly going to keep you from serious jail time but will destroy your soul in the process.

* When they crashed the wedding reception, my wife whimpered “Please stop drinking”...and then, when the bartender reveals he’s onto them, she pointed out “Their tab would be way more than $89.” I know the prime ambition isn’t to be hyper-realistic, but there really aren’t enough brutal hangovers in this show considering how much everybody’s putting away.

Plenty of the twists are pretty unrealistic. At one point in the middle of the season, Jen tries to blame it on being in a small town, and Detective Perez calls bullshit. Sure, Laguna Beach is small, but the LA metro area is decidedly not, and these connections are WILD. I think the show is trying to mimic what it feels like to lie, to be in too deep. Everything does feel connected, everything does feel dangerous and strange and raw. Even the parts that aren’t connected amp up the tension: You’re getting a ticket because of the cell phone in your hand, but maybe the cop also knows you’re a murderer? Your son’s ex-girlfriend wrote “I know what you did” on the garage because she’s got a broken heart and bad impulse control, but maybe she also knows you’re a murderer? The plot itself might be too tightly-woven to actually happen, but the frayed-nerve effect of never being able to get a break ever no matter what feels plenty real.

Because I’m Me I’m Gonna Have a Grace and Frankie Section In Here

(Shoutout to Jane Fonda for the title of this meta.)

Among the hyper-specific fandom circles I run in, and maybe in lots of other places, it’s a very fun thing to refer to Jen and Judy as young Grace and Frankie but with murder and I fully embrace it! Two dramatically different women are thrown Odd Couple-style into a shared living situation. Jen and Grace are caustic blondes hiding complicated emotional lives behind way too much booze. Judy and Frankie are chaotic free spirits hiding complicated emotional lives behind sunny dispositions and a cloud of pot smoke. Both sets of women have undeniable chemistry and undergo character growth that leads them to declare each other to be “their person.”

This season, though, really drove home my belief that the parallels are substantial but largely superficial:

In Grace and Frankie, the title characters’ relationship faces both internal and external threats, but it’s fundamentally healthy, and fundamentally allows them to be more and more themselves. Grace and Frankie get so much good out of their lives together that it enables their world to expand. They help each other heal from heartbreak and their hearts grow large enough to let in new experiences. The big question becomes whether or not they’re enough for each other (they are!), and whether it’s okay for that to be true (it is!). The foundation of their relationship isn’t a lie but a misunderstanding, and as they learn more and more about each other, and as they change to adapt to each other, their love only grows.

In Dead to Me, something much darker binds Jen and Judy together. Their love for each other is as genuine as Grace and Frankie’s, but their world is shrinking and it’s terrifying. The lies they tell everyone else in their lives—layered on top of the lies they tell each other—create this horrible micro-world they can never escape, and sticking together is frequently a matter of survival. Their natural, easy domesticity is fun to watch, and Judy’s heartfelt love for Jen’s kids is an incredibly wonderful presence that enters the kids’ lives after they’ve suffered a great loss. But until Jen and Judy can escape the hell of the things they’ve done, and until they can be honest with each other, their relationship is incredibly toxic. When Jen yells at Judy and berates her for being too loose-lipped, is she treating the woman she claims to love any better than Steve did? When Judy puts Jen in danger because she can’t stop performing the act of helping people like Ben, can we trust that she’s genuinely attempting to change?

The toxicity of these survival buddies is a fascinating dynamic that I absolutely love, even if it takes us firmly out of the territory of Grace and Frankie vibes. And when their relationship breaks open in 2x9, those moments featured some of the best acting I’ve ever seen...

Jen and Judy and Forgiveness and Healing and Character Development

...which I’ll explore in this section!

It was painful to watch Jen admit the real circumstances behind Steve’s death, and to watch both women fall apart in ways extremely emblematic of their characters: Jen lashes out, then feels wracked with guilt, because of course she genuinely believes she’s a piece of shit. Judy absorbs the horrible information and turns the pain inward, because of course she genuinely believes she’s a piece of shit. For the first time pretty much ever, there are no lies between them, and that makes it possible for them to finally reveal to each other just how self-abusive and even suicidal they both are.

When Jen moves from asking Judy to hit her in the face to asking her to hit her with the car...ahhhh, it’s so much on so many levels. And when Judy starts screaming for her to stop and starts hitting herself, it’s like she’s begging everyone who has ever abused her and lied to her and put her in unfair situations to stop, all in that moment, and it seems to snap Jen out of a spell. They finally see each other. They’re finally not hiding anything. They’re finally laid bare. It’s such an awful yet strangely freeing moment for the viewer.

The next morning, when Perez lets Jen go home and they’re sitting together on the front porch, able to breathe for what feels like the first time—that’s pretty much the first moment of the non-toxic version of their relationship. It’s the first time I can picture them together (whatever together means) without believing that even all the good they bring to each other’s lives is only going to wound them more deeply later. It’s such a satisfying conclusion for these two women, especially knowing there’s still unresolved suspicion from Charlie, and knowing Steve’s body will be excavated, and knowing Ben is still out there. Their problems aren’t over, but the solace they take in each other is finally true.

#dead to me #dead to me spoilers #dead to me season 2 spoilers #meta by me #judy x michelle #jen x judy #grace and frankie #dead to me meta #grace and frankie meta #abuse and suicidal thoughts cw #queer things #bisexual things #lesbian things

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skekheck · 4 years ago

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30 Days of the Dark Crystal Challenge

Decided to do poultry-blocks Dark Crystal challenge because it looks like a lot of fun to do. However I’m cheating and I wrote all of this within a couple of days. Warning: fairly large post with pictures and fan ramblings.

EDIT: I FORGOT TO INCLUDE DAY 16 WHOOP. It’s in there now.

Day 1. Your favorite skeksis

Idiot, feral, wildman who stole my heart. How? Why? Who knows. *chef kisses* Beautiful stinky bastard.

Day 2: Your favorite gelfling

Bless her and her skeksis cosplay. What a queen.

Day 3: A character that you love that everyone seems to hate.

The tides are changing for her it seems. I think people are appreciating her more, but she still faces her fair share of controversies. Not that I don’t think it warrants discussion nor am I excusing her actions. But she’s way more complex than what a lot of people are making her out to be.

Day 4: A character that you hate that everyone seems to love.

Hate is a strong word as I don’t hate him, but I don’t really care for Amri. He feels like a bootleg Deet mixed with a little bit of Kylan and Gurjin. Wasted potential and honestly shouldn’t have been the POV for Tides of the Dark Crystal. Seems I’m alone in this opinion, though. Maybe the book warrants rereading?

Day 5: Movie or TV Show? Why?

TV Show by miles! I think the series accomplishes way more than the movie does, like establishing lore, better written characters, and a more engaging story. I actually cared about the gelfling and it really fleshed out the skeksis in an interesting way outside of “oh they do evil things because they’re evil!”. Doesn’t mean it does everything right, but I’ll get into that later.

Day 6: Something you wish that happened in the series but didn’t.

Just a few things. I miss the gelfling intermingling with the mystics, particularly urVa. I love everything that happens with urGoh and skekGra, but some of the bonding moments Naia had with urVa are precious and I wish we had more of that. I also wished the gelfling got the message out to the other clans like they did in the book where Kylan dreametched their message onto the Santuary Tree’s blossoms and scattered them all throughout Thra. I also wished Tavra and Onica were an established couple, but maybe it’s not too late for that.

Day 7: Favorite gelfling clan

The Sifa! It was the Dousan at first, but the more I learned about the Sifa the more I grew to love the clan. If I were a gelfling I would probably be a sifa myself LOL.

Day 8: You opinion on Aughra

She’s a fun and fascinating character! Aughra puts a unique spin on the whole beautiful, wise earth goddess trope by making her ugly, old, and cranky. She’s also a character with her own flaws, even having a mini arc about neglecting to take care of her planet and doing whatever she can to make amends. Not to mention she’s wildly entertaining. Much love for Aughra!

Day 9: Skeksis or Gelfling?

Both!

Day 10: Your opinion on podlings?

They’re just funky little potato people who just want to have fun, dance, and drink all day and I respect them for that. They’re great. Also Hup exists and he’s just an amazing character so there’s that.

Day 11: Your The Dark Crystal unpopular opinion

I think it’s okay to sympathize with the skeksis as long as one is not excusing their actions. I see a lot of people say you shouldn’t because they’re evil and they commit atrocities. Which, yes, it’s true, but I think both can co-exist. I mean, skekTek’s whole cycle of abuse is written very sympathetically yet the show doesn’t coddle him. It shows the ugliness of his character and what happens when someone isn’t capable of cutting off from said cycle. Also the writers consider the skeksis as tragic characters due to their broken nature so I don’t think it’s wrong to be a little sympathetic. But once again with great emphasis, sympathy is fine as long as their actions are judged. They are awful bastards and no amount of sympathy will change that.

Day 12: Something you dislike about the series

I think the stuff I don’t like about the show is a result of its pacing and cluttered cast. There are so many stories going on and while I liked how they handled it for the most part, you can also see how the show rushes to get through all of them. A lot of important moments where a character should reflect or something that should simmer more is pushed aside for the next thing. Maybe if the show was given more episodes and time to breath it would have been better off.

Day 13: Most disappointing thing about the series

SkekMal and urVa didn’t have enough screen time and we were honestly ROBBED.

Day 14: Your OTP

Speaking of which... . Its a crack ship, but I’m all about that allegory for self love (and I just want these two to be alive). Day 15: Favorite quote

Listed plenty of my favorite quotes before, but I’ll pick this one:

“ Life is my paint. Death is my canvas”

Day 16: Rate the skeksis from least favorite to favorite OR rate the gelfling from lest favorite to favorite [or both!]

And if you want my gelfling hot takes, here’s this list (just backwards in context to this post)

Day 17: Opinion on Raunip?

Raunip is a fantastic character. I loved him in Creation Myths and I can’t wait to see what role he’d play in the resistance. And I absolutely love the parallels between him and the urskeks it’s great.

Day 18: A character that is most similar to you.

I too am a dark-dwelling gremlin who constantly forgets where I put things and crack a few dark jokes at my expense.

Day 19: Which character do you strongly dislike, why?

This is entirely based on the books, but I find Mera to be awful. I think it’s because she’s so fake and condescending? When Naia arrived in Sami Thicket, she was acting nice and polite but when the Drenchen asked her why the skeksis never visited Sog Mera responded “It’s only worth counting what’s valuable”. She continuously disrespects her by calling her pet names even when Naia became maudra. It doesn’t come off as cute, it’s gross. I don’t recall Mera ever apologizing for any of the shit she did to Naia... or Kylan for that matter. She was a pretty neglectful step-mother to him. She doesn’t have an excuse being busy with Maudra stuff because Laesid was a kickass mom to her kids. So in conclusion, fuck this bitch.

Day 20: What do you like so much about the Dark Crystal?

The better question what’s not to love about the Dark Crystal? It has amazing creature design, an expansive world that feels real and alien from our own, having complex and interesting characters as well as villains, the fact that it relies heavily on practical effects a.k.a puppetry... . There’s nothing like it and that’s what makes it so wonderful and unique. It needs to be appreciated more.

Day 21: Favorite music piece from the soundtrack?

Can’t beat that opening theme.

Day 22: Your opinion on the sequel comics [Power/Beneath the Dark Crystal]

They have cool concepts and ideas, but they’re not written well. Power is just the movie if it was put into a blender and shredded and ignoring a large portion of established lore for the sake of plot. And Beneath is just a generic fantasy story with the Dark Crystal logo slapped on it.

Day 23: Which character from the YA novels/comics do you wish we would see more of?

There are plenty of characters that are a given to appear in the series at some point (skekSa, skekLi, urSan, etc). And of course I want to see them, but I really hope Periss shows up (and his brother too). He is one of my favorite characters from the book series and we could use some more Dousan rep!

Day 24: Your opinion on the Age of Resistance comic?

I have yet to read the comics. I’m waiting on them to be part of a collection so I don’t have to buy all of the volumes at once (I prefer owning physical copies). I’ve heard good things about them, especially the story with Hup and the current Mayrin arc. I’m excited to get my hands on them.

Day 25: The best moment/scene in the series?

There are a lot of great moments, but Rian and Ordon’s fight with skekMal is still my favorite in the entire series. The "Speak For the Dead” scene is a close second.

Day 26: The death of a character that hurt you the most?

He did not deserve this. Fuck you, skekMal.

Day 27: Your favorite episode from the series?

It’s got to be 4. Not just because a number of my favorite characters debut in this episode, but it’s an important one for the plot. Stakes are being raised, we’re seeing set ups to major story elements and character arcs, and events that impact the rest of the series. It also has a handful of my favorite character moments and interactions.

Day 28: Your favorite non-skeksis and non-gelfling character? Why?

I’ve come to realize the reasons why I love urVa are the same as why I love skekMal (incredibly appropriate I might say). There’s enough information about him that we get a good understanding on who he is as a character, but still mysterious enough that there’s interest in wanting to know more. Much like his skeksis, he’s unique from the other mystics and thus giving him unique experiences that are fun to speculate. However, the YA novels are responsible for my current fondness of him.

Day 29: Do you like the urru and skeksis apart or like them as urSkeks together?

A main theme of the Dark Crystal is unity and balance. The main conflict of the franchise are the skeksis, the broken fragments of their urskek self who, according to the writers, “...[have] a dire need for the qualities they lack”. Their only salvation is to become urskeks again and unfortunately many of the pairs never achieve this. They’re basically a giant allegory for the self and self-love. While we don’t really know what they were like when they were an urskek (aside from SilSol perhaps), we can get some understanding when we look at their pairs and see what traits they share. Speculation is also fun! So as much as I love the skeksis and mystics as individuals, I prefer them to be whole again.

Day 30: What are your wishes for a possible season 2?

A whole bunch of things. I want to see them explore more about the mystics and their lifestyle, having Raunip play a big part in the plot, seeing more of skekSa’s fall from grace from her perspective, the beginning of the Garthim Wars, and more.

#the dark crystal #my posts #long post

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medea10 · 4 years ago

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My Review of To Heart

How did I get into this anime? I have been curious about this anime for a straight-up decade now and the randomizer decided to bless me with something not incest. Thank you Arceus!

Since she was young, Akari Kamigishi has been best friends with Hiroyuki Fujita. Because of kind acts he did for her as a child, Akari has stayed by Hiroyuki’s side. Now that they’re both in high school, something has changed in Akari and it feels more like she’s falling for her childhood friend. Will Akari find happiness with her best friend or will she end up friend-zoned?

And because this is a harem, there are quite a few girls hanging around Hiroyuki throughout the two seasons. Just to name a few, we have the brash friend, Shiho. Then there’s the tomboy type, Aoi. The very silent type, Serika! And then there’s the robotic maid, Multi. Yes, you read right. A robot! This is Japan after all! Oh yeah, there’s also the class rep, an actual American girl, and a quiet girl with supernatural powers.

Akari, girl, you need to step up your game if you’re up against all these chicks!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Before I discuss all that, let’s go down the ugly story about To Heart for fans in the U.S. The first season (and only the first season) was dubbed by RightStuf (at least I’m certain about that). Everything else wound up undubbed and even unlicensed. To Heart was kind of left in the dust due to what happened when the first season was supposed to release in the U.S. A lot of damaged material was the culprit and this came during the time when animation was transitioning from animating using cells to going digital. So to sum that up, the anime debuted in Japan around 1999, Rightstuf licensed To Heart in 2004 with a release in 2005, and the actual release was delayed to 2007. And in back-in-those-days times, that’s pretty fucking long. I can see why they didn’t want to bother with this series after it took all that trouble to remaster a series many were calling only “OKAY”.

Now then, on with the good stuff! I went in thinking that this was a Geneon reject, but was blown out of my ass to hear voices from New York! Lisa Ortiz, Jessica Calvello, Veronica Taylor, Wayne Grayson, and my personal favorite (not who you’re thinking), Carol Jacobanis! Yeah, surprisingly I didn’t hear Ted Lewis here. But Jacobanis is my second favorite in the NYAV group. I am in nostalgia heaven! Yes folks, these were the same people to give life to many characters from Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Berserk, His and Her Circumstances, Bakuman, Gravitation…OH, gambled and lost! Well, you get my meaning! Thankfully this dub wasn’t as horrific as Gravitation (despite Hiroyuki’s voice actor is well-known for something from that particular anime). Here’s what you might recognize these folks from!

JAPANESE CAST: *Akari is played by Ayako Kawasumi (known for Ursula on Pokemon DP, Saber on Fate/Zero, Izumi on Beyond the Boundary, Aoki on Bakuman, Laura on Index, Yoshida on Shakugan no Shana, and Nodame on Nodame Cantabile)

*Hiroyuki is played by Kazuya Ichijo (known for Hoteye on Fairy Tail and Zafila on Nanoha)

*Shiho is played by Chieko Higuchi (known for Tomo on Azumanga Daioh)

*Multi is played by Yui Horie (known for Hanekawa on Monogatari, Tohru on Fruits Basket, Hanyuu on Higurashi, Minorin on Toradora, Charla on Fairy Tail, Chie on Persona 4, Maria on Umineko, and Riki on Little Busters)

ENGLISH CAST: *Akari is played by Debora Rabbai (known for Mika from Gravitation, Rika on His and Her Circumstances, Leina on Queen’s Blade, and Boogiepop [original])

*Hiroyuki is played by Rich McNanna (known for Jack Walker on Pokemon Movie 9 and Shuuichi on Gravitation)

*Shiho is played by Jessica Calvello (known for Prima on Pokemon, Hange on Attack on Titan, Excel on Excel Saga, Kanako on Maria Holic, Tsukino on His and Her Circumstances, and Aika on Aria the Animation)

*Multi is played by Tara Sands (known for Richie on Pokemon, Soujirou on Rurouni Kenshin, Mokuba on YGO, Badiane on Sailor Moon SuperS movie, Tori on Pokemon Movie ~ Deoxys, and Filia on Slayers Try)

SHIPPING: So remind me what genre this anime is!

HAREM!

We’re watching a harem! But it’s more slice of life than anything romantic. There are a lot of love interests for Hiroyuki throughout the series. It’s just that it doesn’t develop as much as one might think (except for maybe Akari) in season one.

And it’s so easy to think that Hiroyuki is the object of every one of these ladies’ desire. Serika waits for him to come to the club room. Aoi finds him helpful, as does Tomoko and Lemmy. Multi got attached to Hiroyuki’s headpats. As for Akari, she’s got quite the teddy bear collection because of Hiroyuki. After watching all of season one where Hiroyuki is hanging with all of these ladies individually, I thought there would be a moment of jealousy from one or more of these girls. Much to my surprise, that was not the case. It didn’t go down any of those bad-end routes you’d see with things like Kanon, Clannad, or God-forbid, School Days!

But then season two happened…

Ooh boy! First of all, Hiroyuki ended up getting his first confession of love from the most unlikely person ever. Kotone wasn’t even a contender in the first season as she had other issues. In fact, didn’t she have feelings for Masashi in season one? But halfway in the season, she gets ballsy and confesses to Hiroyuki. He rejects her and thankfully it didn’t get ugly (except Akari heard it and got jealous). Lemmy, I also thought wasn’t in play, but here we are! She was apparently childhood friends with Hiroyuki and brought it up when confessing her feelings. That unfortunately came at a bad time as he’s in a quarrel with Akari so he dismisses her.

And then there’s Akari! She’s been able to put on a smile and kind of be a wall-flower whenever Hiroyuki is doing something with one of the other girls. And most of the season, we see him mostly with Aoi and Multi. Thankfully, Aoi never showed romantic interests in Hiroyuki. I much prefer Aoi x Kotone if you want to know the truth. But halfway into season two, jealousy came in like a drunkard in a bar. Akari was definitely pissed when she saw Kotone confess to Hiroyuki and would get jealous seeing Hiroyuki and Multi together so much.

Oh yeah, good old Multi! Yes Multi loves Hiroyuki. Now does Hiroyuki love Multi back? It’s complicated! Because of Multi, Hiroyuki ends up pursuing a career in robotics and as a result spends quite a bit of time with her (pissing Akari off in the process). But because Multi is kind of a malfunctioning robot, who the hell knows if she’ll even remember being with Hiroyuki.

Now are there other boys interested in any of these other girls? The only other boy that has any prominent screen time is Masashi. It’s just that after season one, he’s only seen every so often because he’s busy with soccer. But in season one, it almost felt like Kotone was admiring him from the distance. Don’t get excited because that was just a one-and-done sort of thing before Kotone set eyes on Hiroyuki. Actually, Masashi does reveal his fondness for Akari (at literally the worst possible time). But it seems like Masashi ends up with Shiho in the end. So…whatever!

Hiroyuki DOES end up with someone. Just go down to the end of season two to get that answer.

ENDING TO SEASON ONE: The last two episodes of this season consist around Shiho deciding that she wants to throw a Christmas party at an old hangout from her middle school days! But this isn’t the only nostalgic kick she feels. Shiho ends up remembering the first day she met Hiroyuki and after he took care of a wound she got, Shiho starts seeing Hiroyuki in a new light. Yeah, up until this point, Shiho and Hiroyuki’s relationship could be summed up by saying they both give each other shit every day. Then you have Akari, who is also feeling a little nostalgic with trying to see if Hiroyuki is able to remember things from their past. During the finale however, Akari does develop a cold and has to bail on the party planning.

When Shiho came to visit Akari, it kinda comes out that both girls do care for Hiroyuki. But because this isn’t one of those kinds of romance animes, it really doesn’t get ugly. It’s more of an “I acknowledge your feelings for the boy I like and good luck to you”. Shiho really didn’t do any confessing and we get a cute moment with Hiroyuki and Akari out in the snow.

Let’s see how Season Two holds up!

OMAKE: Nozomi Entertainment also released the six Omake specials that came with releases of the first season. Not dubbed! Just a couple of minute-long specials that range from cute to wildly absurd.

There were also Omake specials in season two that mostly consisted of all the girls fighting each other in almost a Street Fighter or Dragon Ball style.

REMEMBER MY MEMORIES: Five years after the first season aired, To Heart returns with a bit of a time-leap from where we left off last and some slightly improved(?) animation. And if you’re wondering why this season isn’t called “To Heart 2”, there is a series named that already. To Heart 2 is a spin-off of To Heart. It’s just that none of the characters from To Heart are in To Heart 2. ANYWAYS…

It has been a year or so from where we left off. Hiroyuki, Akari and the others are now in their senior year of high school and a lot has changed. Minor character, Kotone who mostly kept to herself in the first season, has found another role in hanging out with Aoi (the chick who’s into martial arts). Serika is still silent, but that blue hue to her hair is definitely not silent. What the hell is with this new animation? And finally, Multi apparently left a year ago and came back in the first episode of season two. Only now Multi has amnesia. A lot has changed since season one, especially when it comes to romance. Buckle up!

ENDING TO REMEMBER MY MEMORIES: Yeah, this season layed on the melodrama really thick compared to the previous season. All the ladies love Hiroyuki and at least half of them expressed those feelings to him. Akari had some conflicted feelings when it came to Hiroyuki. She loves him, but feels like he doesn’t return the feeling due to him hanging around a lot of other girls (especially Aoi and Multi).

Speaking of Multi, this girl has had such the rotunda of computer issues. My stroked-out Dell PC from 2005 had more working power than this girl! For starters, her memories are in danger of being wiped away at several points of the series. We even begin season two where Multi returns after over a year with full-blown amnesia. And since then, Multi had some sort of malfunction issue arise every other episode. This was showcased in the finale, where Multi gets so upset and runs away to the amusement park!

So, Hiroyuki and all of his friends come together to look for Multi. They thankfully found her at the amusement park (during closed hours) and broke into the main-frame to the Ferris wheel. And did I mention these people almost committed assault on police officers? Yeah, these kids are about to have a rap sheet the size of Texas by the end of the episode. Anyways, Hiroyuki, Akari, and Multi ride the ferris wheel and have a nice talk before Multi falls asleep for…

…Let’s say a long time…

Fast-forward to high school graduation! Hiroyuki and Akari seem to be doing a lot better. They’re both going to attend the same college and are pretty much on better terms than when Akari was having a jealousy, bitch-fit. At graduation, they both decided to give each other the Christmas gifts they never gave each other. Because Multi was having another malfunction, they never got to give the gifts. Hiroyuki got a hand-knit sweater. And Akari got a ring!

Hiroyuki wanted it and so he put a ring on it!

During the ED credits, we see the characters we’ve seen throughout these two seasons and what they ended up doing after high school. Lemmy is back in San Francisco. Aoi and Kotone are still doing the fighting matches. Rio is a primary school teacher. Serica is still into the occult. Tomoko is working for her father’s business. Masashi is becoming a big soccer star with Shiho working on journalism (and I think Shiho ends up romantically involved with Masashi).

And we close with Hiroyuki and Akari working with the HMX robots and surprise, surprise, Multi wakes up.

And before you ask, I did NOT watch To Heart 2. And I don’t intend to…at least not yet. I’m saving it for another day and putting it back on the randomizer list.

This anime was…just okay. Yeah, a lot of things were predictable, especially when it came to who the main male lead was going to end up with. Come on, we all know Akari was going to end up with Hiroyuki in the end. If this were the visual novel, I’m sure there were infinite numbers of routes Hiroyuki could take and there’d be a good end to all of the girls. But I’m mostly anime only here! In terms of recommendations, ehh…I feel like there were other better harems you could watch.

Only season one of To Heart got an official release in the U.S., but you might have to search around for any DVD copies as I’m pretty sure it’s currently out of print. Anything else from the series, you’ll have to do some heavy searching to watch all the way through.

Okay, next licensed limbo/unlicensed classics!

What’s that one play everyone and their mother has seen, but you haven’t?

*sighs* Hamilton.

No, the other one.

Les Miserable? Wait, this never got licensed?!

Okay! I guess I’m watching that. I hope I can do well at this review considering I never watched the play, read the book, or watched that film where Russell Crowe can’t sing.

#anime review #to heart #to heart remember my memories #hiroyuki fujita #akari kamagishi #shiho nagaoka #hmx-12 multi #kotone himekawa

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clover-png · 5 years ago

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character quirks!

originally this was going to be a list of passive and active character quirks (ex. passive = loves history but knows nothing about it, active = well, everything on this list), but once i started it, i realized that’s not how it works?? all of your quirks and hobbies and loves and hates leave stains on your personality, even in the tiniest ways. so here’s a list of quirks that actively change your character, with simple explanations! and please remember, this is strictly for characters. it is, in one way or another, based in stereotype! and humans aren’t built around stereotype, you are not built around stereotype.

i don’t write about what I don’t know about, so almost all of this is taken directly from my own self or someone i know :]

only likes cold pizza/raw bagels/the off-brand version of a popular food - can indicate this character is a particular, detail-oriented person, and typically this type of person is not snobbish, but they are stubborn (if you’re looking for something similar to indicate the person is snobbish: they refuse to eat leftovers, wipe grease off their food, shuns fast-food restaurants)

homeschooled/grew up homeschooled - coming directly from a homeschooler, we get a bad rep! not all homeschoolers are antisocial, extremely religious or have old-fashioned views on society. that being said, homeschoolers tend to act more like their parents and siblings than other kids do, and that’s where those stereotypes tend to stem from. while many homeschoolers are very sociable, it’s common for them to still be more reserved and a little more socially inept than other kids, just from lack of practice. homeschoolers also tend have a strong sense of loneliness, even if they have lots of friends/have graduated, that feeling will stick.

walks along the curb of the street, swinging one foot in front of the other - turning something as minuscule as walking along the side of a road into a silent game shows that they are in their mind a lot, they live in their imaginations. showing them walking normally can indicate that something’s wrong. traits that match with this quirk but aren’t necessary: quiet, optimistic

hates wearing hats/skirts/tights/etc. - a person that hates hats/skirts/tights/whatever is very much comfort before fashion. they’ll tend to not wear fully matching or fitting clothing and this can stem from a fear of change. if someone who openly dislikes wearing hats comes into the room in a beret, it’s change (yes, it can be as small as that. trust me, it took me 2 years to work up the courage to wear a non-formal dress in front of my family.)

always tapping their foot/bobbing their head/patting their leg - this means someone is more musically inclined than others, and it’s almost always subconscious. they probably play multiple instruments, and come from a family of musicians/music-lovers. close friends/family might make fun of them for dancing all the time, or someone might get frustrated when they won’t stop doing it during a serious moment

zones out easily/can stare at nothing for hours - similar to the person walking on the curb, a character that tends to zone out on nothing for long periods of time is probably daydreaming about the other lives they could lead. they might feel like they’re stuck with the hand they got dealt in life. when things go wrong, they’ll probably get as far away from every person as possible and fantasize about running away and starting it all over. they don’t have to be loners, but they’ll typically feel isolated and different from their friends, maybe not as invested in their friendship as the other person is.

having stuffed animals - a character, especially outside of young childhood, having stuffed animals can be a sign of their loneliness, the manufactured hug of a friend or soft fur of a pet when they don’t have the real thing nearby. a character with stuffed animals might be more empathetic and sensitive than others, getting upset if someone makes fun of them for it or holding extra tight onto one that fell or got damaged somehow. they also might have childlike fears or simply be more fearful than most, and the stuffed animals might be a sanctuary for them

draws slight attention to themselves in public (listens to music without earbuds, does things that could be done inside [painting, reading, stuff like that] outside, asks a stranger a question to prove their point in a conversation, wears bold clothes, talks loudly, etc.) - while it’s possible for these to just be seen as obnoxious/extroverted quirks, on a deeper level they can imply the character wants something to happen. they want to be seen by strangers. maybe they consume a lot of entertainment (books, tv, movies) and they subconsciously set up their life to be met with question, then a greeting, then a friendship, constantly giving “The One” a chance to appear.

hates jewelry - fear of being trapped. a necklace feels like being choked, a bracelet feels like being chained down, a ring feels like circulation is cut off, but also take it in a figurative way. by accepting the jewelry, an expensive gift, they’re accepting that someone cares about them/they’re accepting that they have to wear it enough to make up for the cost. it sounds dumb i know but i can tell you from experience this is a very real thing

puts off work to the last second/procrastinates - i’ve really grown to hate that word. they grew up smart, or with an easy workload, and now they refuse to adjust to the updated workload. this one is short but there’s about a million posts on procrastination, and i’m sure there’s a more in-depth one than i could ever do! some ideas for prompts for this quirk is running out of time on something important, someone getting mad at the character for leaving the work until the last minute when they need them, being overworked, having a stress-induced meltdown and a love interest/forming friendship offers to help

goes through phases rapidly - based on what kind of phases they are, this could show unrest at home for a secondary character. one day they go to MC’s house wearing florals smelling like fabric softener, soft rock music wafting through the air from their cheap earbuds. they’re making clever jokes and urging MC to go on a walk in nature with them. next week, they show up wearing a ragged, wrinkled black t-shirt and they have bags under their eyes, looking like they haven’t showered in five days. they’re being insensitive with their sarcastic cracks and impatient with MC’s reactions, maybe even admitting they didn’t know why they showed up in the first place. obviously that’s a dramatic juxtaposition, but just an idea.

a gentle vandal (carving their initials into old wood, drawing/writing in textbooks, letters to no one put in cheap bottles and thrown into the ocean, underlining passages in books, so on and so forth) - fear of being forgotten, a good romantic partner/close friend of this character would be someone who reminds them they’re not alone in the universe.

never paints their nails/does their hair/wears extravagant clothes - fear of being seen as “different,” doesn’t want to be noticed by people. probably was bullied when they were young, or they have a family with a Reputation™ to uphold

struggles to accept compliments - a character that struggles with compliments, and basically any positive attention on themselves, would have low self-esteem to begin with. they probably didn’t grow up being seen as “pretty,” or someone made them feel ugly when they were young, regardless of whether it was true or not (example: Cinderella)

tips restaurant employees/delivery people way above the average/gives big gifts for small celebrations - this could mean they grew up in a upper class/upper middle class household and feels guilty for it, or that they grew up in a lower class/working class household and know what it feels like not to get gifts/have extra money. either way, it can give you insight to a character’s past without too much exposition, just a simple line of dialogue after an action.

always has at least one band-aid on somewhere - this can show that a character is careless with themselves, or maybe that they have a very active mind and force their body to match it (running to write something down and tripping, getting excited about seeing something pretty to sketch in nature and getting scratched by thorns as they tried to reach it as fast as they could, etc.)

wears vintage clothes and/or watches old movies - in the most accurate sense, i think, a character who enjoys these types of things would likely have an old soul, they probably think life should be more exciting than it is, and they’re dissatisfied with the current state of humanity (this doesn’t mean that they have to have an old-fashioned mindset! i wear vintage clothes and one of my favorite movies is meet me in st. louis, but i’m still VERY glad we don’t live like they did. not everything that makes logical sense in life can be drawn together with a bow on top)

i hope this didn’t come off too preachy or anything? i mean, i don’t know shit, i just like writing and characters that make sense, and i feel like i see a lot of character flaw lists that are very.. generalized, and not everything works for every character! obviously you’re free to use any of these, but if you’d like to show me how you used them in your story i’d love to see it!!! feel free to message me any time!

#writing #writing prompts #writing tips #scene prompts #writeblr #writing inspiration #writing inspo #lolas posts

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nancydrew428 · 4 years ago

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Hi!! So I’m conducting kind of a survey/study? Can you rank the games in order from best to worst in your eyes? A simple list will suffice. Include MID, and both SCKs please. But exclude dossiers ;)

Hi! Sorry for the late response! I’ve been doing finals and my last assignments of the semester haha. But I eventually finished this!

Also, don’t hate me (I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this except for on my bingo card, subtle plug), but I haven’t played 10 of the games, and of the ones that I have played, I still haven’t finished 3 of them🙊😂 So I might not be the most helpful, especially if you need exact rankings or answers from someone who knows everything about each game. I’m sorry! But hopefully my answer will still help you. If not, I’m hoping it’ll be interesting!

1. Curse of Blackmoor Manor

This one has definitely been my favorite game! It took me 8 years to finally finish it, but I’m so glad I did. I love the atmosphere, especially the creepy vibes (and I do like the English moor aesthetic, haha). The game used to scare me so bad, but now it’s just cute, and a little spooky. The only thing I don’t like is the moving rooms. All the other puzzles were good. But that one made me dizzy and confused, lol.

2. The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Dave Gregory. That’s it. That’s the tweet. Lmao. ...Seriously, though, I love being out on the ranch in real life and I love how that translated in the game. I love horses and cowboys. The love story with Frances and Dirk… My heart. I also loved the book. And I liked the glyphs. And the chocolate Shadow Ranch cake is to die for (it’s my go-to chocolate cake recipe!⁠—although I will never do walnuts).

3. Danger on Deception Island

This was the first game I played, so obviously it had to be high up on my list. Again, I love the atmosphere (that’s probably my biggest factor when ranking these games, and with playing games in general). It really reminds me of a place along the California coast that I visit during the summer. And I don’t think there would have been a better game to introduce 8 year old me into the world of ND video games.

4. Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake

This one used to scare me. Every night I would be afraid for the dogs to jump on the house and windows. Every time I would be in the woods looking for bugs I was terrified that something would happen. Also, Yogi! And I remember actually enjoying the puzzles and the hunt for bugs. Also, the speakeasy was so cool!

5. Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon

The Hardy Boys!! I saw someone say this is like an off-brand Murder on the Orient Express, and it was so funny to me, and I wanted to share it with you. But I love the train idea, the Hardy Boys, cooking, the potential “ghosts,” the hunt, and the dialogue.

6. Secret of the Old Clock

I loved this book. It’s the first Nancy Drew book (definitely a classic), and I love how they set the game in the ‘30s. It was completely different in that aspect than any of the other games. Although the driving wasn’t the most fun, I lovedthe pies, going through the secret passages, playing mini-golf, and the ugly yet cute cat that I don’t remember the name of.

7. Shadow at the Water’s Edge

I don’t know how accurate this is in the portrayal of Japanese culture. I hope that it’s pretty accurate and that it isn’t racist, but I’m not sure. But I remember playing this game when I was 11 and being absolutely terrified. The bento boxes were very cute, but I remember getting frustrated with it. The jumpscare is arguably the best part of the game and the scariest scene in any Nancy Drew game.

8. Sea of Darkness

This one is honestly this high up specifically for the graphics. Overall, it is a good game. I liked the puzzles, the setting, characters, dialogue, etc. But the graphics stole the show. It is the best Nancy Drew game with graphics, plus the scenery is pretty (even if it wasn’t as quality). I love the snow and the chilly atmosphere, and I definitely feel like it’s a winter game.

9. Treasure in the Royal Tower

I liked this game. I loved (you guessed it!) the atmosphere. I loved being snowed in, and I loved Hotchkiss. I don’t remember much of this game, and one might argue that that means that it should be lower on the list, but I remember really enjoying it, so I’m keeping it in this spot.

10. Legend of the Crystal Skull

I love the atmosphere, New Orleans, and Henry so much. This isn’t my favorite game, but it is so good!

11. Danger by Design

I like this one, with the Sonny Joon references. I also like Paris, and I think this is a fun game. But I always get it confused with The Phantom of Venice, which is why Phantom is listed right below this one. Which one has JJ and the cookies? I couldn’t tell you.

12. The Phantom of Venice

Like I said, I always get this one confused with Danger by Design. I couldn’t tell you what happens in each. Except this one has you dance in a catsuit and play SCOPA, but I don’t remember necessarily caring for either of these.

13. The Captive Curse

I like this one. I like Germany, the monster, the scary beginning, Renate falling asleep. But I feel like it could have been scarier. (If it was, let me know! I gotta replay it in that case.)

14. Alibi in Ashes

I love Alexei, the ice cream/milkshakes, and getting to play other characters than just Nancy. But other than that, it’s not my favorite game.

15. The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

I’ve only played the Wii version of this game, so I’m not sure how different it is from the PC version. + I never finished it. I loved the kitchen and cooking, and the wolf is super cute! But I didn’t like the ice thing. I could never get past it. Is it any easier on the PC?

16. The Haunting of Castle Malloy

I’m Irish and I think it’s cool that the game is in Ireland. I actually like the character design, but it feels a little bit….ridiculous to me? And the banshee? I don’t know. But I love the atmosphere, and from what I remember, I liked the characters.

17. The Creature of Kapu Cave

I remember liking the game, and I love anything with the ocean or lakes or swimming or diving. Like, the water is where I belong, and I think it’s so fun. But the character design is awful. Frank and Joe don’t look the way they’re supposed to, and I can’t get over it.

18. The Deadly Device

It’s a good game, but I’ve never finished it. It’s difficult in some parts and boring in others. But I love the Tesla idea, Mason’s sarcasm, and Ryan (I just love Ryan). But it’s never really pulled me in. (I think part of it might be because it’s the only game, other than SSH that I’ve tried playing without using any walkthroughs, so I’m having a tough time, lol.)

19. Warnings at Waverly Academy

I know that this is a fan favorite, but it isn’t my favorite. I like all of the Nancy Drew games that I’ve played for the most part, and it is a good game. But I’m tired of school, and I play video games to escape it. Plus, other than Mel, I don’t like any of the characters. That might be the point, but in a game where you have only a handful of characters, I don’t like only having one of them be likeable.

20. Message in a Haunted Mansion

I don’t remember much of this game. But I love anything even slightly spooky, and I remember thinking this game was cute.

21. Secret of the Scarlet Hand

I’m playing this game right now (not as I type this, but I’ve played it on and off for the past few months), and it’s pretty good. I like learning about Mayan culture, but it isn’t that special of a game. Nothing really stands out to me, and none of the characters are all that likeable imo.

22. Secrets Can Kill Remastered

Again, I don’t remember much from this game. It didn’t stick out to me much, and I enjoy games with a good atmosphere and a somewhat lasting impression. This game isn’t bad; I don’t think any of the ND games I’ve played have been bad tbh. But I don’t care about high school, and I want something else to remember. But I give Her Interactive kudos for making a game for girls about murder (especially because it was technically their first game, and this was just a remake). And that sounds sarcastic, but it actually isn’t! Lol.

23. The Haunted Carousel

This wasn’t a bad game. I just don’t really have an interest in carnivals and that sorta thing. They’re okay, but they don’t intrigue me that much. And I don’t remember much from this game. I played it around the same time that I played most of these games, and it didn’t stick out to me. However, I do love the cover and the fact that not every character is white.

24. Ransom of the Seven Ships

I know this game gets a bad rep, but I don’t think it’s a terrible game. But the black face is just too racist and makes me too uncomfortable to enjoy it as much as it could be enjoyed. If HeR toned down the racism a little bit, I could have actually enjoyed this game (except for George’s character design; they did my girl dirty, but what’s new?).

#trademarknickersoncharm #answer #game ranking #nancy drew #her interactive #video game #video games #game #games

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youreallyshouldtalkmore · 6 years ago

Text

Make Up Theories_Part 1

Another installment in the Lion and His Lamb series.

To all the women who might not swear by makeup (though we love to use it occasionally...) (*raises my own hand*)

This is for you.

Part 1

You stood in the makeup isle trying your hardest not to look at the prices before you found what you wanted. But before that, just trying to find what you wanted was a headache. You walked the four isles of makeup three times and you still weren't any closer to understanding what everything did. You were starting to doubt this current venture. Even after looking up makeup and watching countless makeup tutorials, you managed to whittle it down to a basic list.

So you thought.

After walking isles and isles you found it overwhelmed you. Even if you narrowed it down to makeup that would fit your skin tone, you were still overwhelmed.

Really how many different variations of foundation did a woman need? How many different kinds of lipstick?

What still blew your mind was that women actually paid this kind of money for makeup. No wonder the beauty sector in America was worth about $80 billion and counting.

(You knew because you looked it up, thank you)

The most your makeup consisted of was putting some castor oil on your face and doing your eyes. You just recently got into BB Cream but that was about it. You did do skincare but you didn't really count that as makeup per say.

But all this other stuff….

You groaned, your shoulders hunching over.

Maybe you should just go back home, but you were hoping to surprise Erik at the state function. This idea actually came to you a week ago. Erik invited you to go as his date to the California state function that he and T’Challa had to attend. You didn’t necessarily need to be there as you didn’t work at the Wakandan Outreach Center barring the fact that you had done their wall. You had a sinking suspicion that was part of why Erik wanted you to go. If he could show off the artist, he would. If he could show of his artist girlfriend…..ooh, the man couldn’t resist.

But either way, you agreed quite reluctantly to go

But one day Shuri ask you to take a book that Erik had called the front desk for because he forgot it for his class he had with just boys. She wouldn’t stop smirking as she handed you the book and sent you on your way. You knew that she was an avid and vocal supporter of the relationship the two of you had. Any opportunity for her to lock you two in the same room would be taken.

Erik had recently started a class for just boys hoping to talk to them and give them a chance to know that they had support. He knew from growing up, how hard it was for boys to talk in the first place. He felt like his experience would help them.

So you were walking toward the classroom with the book in hand when you heard voices. Normally you would have walked and knocked on the door but once you could make out the voices and what they were saying, you slowed down.

“Malik, you need to be paying attention and not be looking at these magazines. You too young for this.” You heard the sound of a magazine slapping the back of a head.

“Ahh, come on Mr. E. I’m 18 years old. I’m grown!”

You rolled your eyes at that. How was it that we all thought that 18 years old was grown? At that age you were barely aware of the world out your front door.

You heard Erik snort, “That’s what’s wrong with our boys now. They get an inch over 5’7 and three days pass 18 and think they grown. You still a child, boy.”

“Come on, Mr. E, you know how it was when you were younger.”

You could hear the casualness in Erik’s voice, “I’m sure you’ll remind me.”

The boys snickered and Malik continued, “It’s not like we can walk outside and see them kind of honeys, so that’s what the magazine is for. They fly, ain’t they?”

You could hear the rustle of pages, “You know that half of this is fake? Real women don’t look like this 24/7.”

“Some don’t look like that ever!” another boy cried as another tacked on, “We got some ugly chicks runnin' round here.”

There were raised voices in agreement.

“Aight, settle down.” Erik called over the rising den of voices.

Malik continued, “Well, women are supposed to be like that!”

You assumed photos in the magazine as he added, “Girls around here are wacked!”

The group of boys agreed

“Wacked? You blind or something? What about Keisha? I see you be hugging up to her. You don’t find her pretty?”

There was a rising mocking tone of the group of boys.

You could picture Malik sliding down his chair, “Don’t put my business out in them streets, Mr. E. You know I’ll get a bad rep.”

“I ain’t interested in your rep right now. We are having a serious conversation. Do you not find her pretty?”

There was dead silence and you could picture a group of boys leaning towards Malik who finally busted out, “She aight, Mr. E. But she’s not finnnnnne!”

The boys hooted and laughed.

“And you think if she as finnnnne…..” You covered your mouth with your hand to keep the snort silent at Erik’s mock, “.....that would be any better? You think a more beautiful woman will love you better than a pretty one?

You heard a pound of emphasis, “Heck, yes. A beautiful woman is something to look forward to. Who wants an old hag?

The crowd exploded the noise level almost making you wince. Once the noise level died down you heard Erik continue:

“Which is why ya’ll are still babies. Looking at the outside as if that is anything worth anything. Any woman can put on some stuff and make herself look better outside but if her heart ain't yours, solely yours, trust me it won’t make a bit of difference.”

You couldn’t help the small smile at that. You were a bit surprised to know that Erik felt that way. Although the two of you never discussed past relationships, you just assumed, especially based on Aquaneesha (you shuddered at the memory), that Erik would be the type that wanted an overly made up woman 24/7.

You were fixing to go in when Malik’s next comment made you paused:

“Well, I never see your honey looking fly like that.”

You heard the sound of something being thrown and hit the wall followed by Erik’s deadly voice, “You put some respect on her name lil nigga. Ms. Y/N to you.”

“Fine...Ms. Y/N….never looks like that.”

“You don’t have the privilege to see her 24/7 so how would you know?”

“Aight fine, does she ever look like that?”

You could almost hear Erik hard exhale, “No. That’s not her style.”

“So don’t you think you are getting the short end of the stick?”

Erik laughed then, “I’m not gonna explain my business to a bunch of 8 year olds trapped in 18 year old bodies but Ms. Y/N gives me more than just a pretty face. And yes, she is cute. Have you seen her?”

There were a few mutters throughout.

Malik snorted, “Cute is for puppies, Mr. E. We want fine. Like them honeys in the magazine. Don’t tell me you never wanted that?”

You were unaware that you suck in your breath.

You could sense the eye roll here as Erik said, “I don’t feel the need to explain so much as educate you lil heathens. You probably won’t get none of this until you go through it yourself but one day you’ll look back and go Mr. E had it right. I should have listened then and my life would be 10x easier now.”

The boys shooed that away.

“So in the interest of education, yes I had that. And yes, I was your age once and I didn’t believe nothing that no one told me about this subject. But like you, I wanted what I saw in the magazine and chased after that. But that was just a look. Believe me, I've seen some fine women in my day but I got to a point then I realize they were statues. They did nothing for me except be beautiful. As you will find out beauty is not everything. Your woman also has to have substance.”

Here you heard Erik sniffed, “Though in Malik’s case, you better get some substance yourself if you expect to hold onto a woman.”

The boys laughed and Erik snapped at them, “This is not time for a jeering session. Ain’t nothing about my words a joke.”

“I got substance, Mr. E. I got Keisha don’t I?” Malik cried.

“Lil nigga, A. Don’t come back here with no babies and B. Just because you can make a baby don’t mean you got substance, little man and C. What makes you think that Keisha will be there for a long haul? Followed by D. What are you doing to keep her for the long haul provided that you are interested in the long haul?”

There was silent and even you could sense the stare down.

“Whatever... You just jealous, Mr. E.” Malik finally said.

“Jealous? Of an 18 year old?” Here Erik gave a loud bark of laughter.

“Well, Mrs. Y/N is not like that.” another boy said, “Like you said, she’s cute. But can she look fine like the magazine?”

You could sense Erik’s shrug, “Probably, if she wanted to be bothered. I think all women can look like that. It’s just a matter of getting whatever glued on, brushed on, sewed on or tacked on.”

You wanted to laugh hysterically. How did men manage to reduce all the women go through into a simple statement as if it’s a matter of a 1-2-3 step process? Even you knew it took more than that. That was just a start.

“And you are fine with that?” Malik challenged.

You craned your neck, wanting to catch Erik’s answer.

“I ain’t gonna complain. If she doesn’t want to do all that of that I ain’t gonna make her. She a grown woman.”

“But you wished just once for her to look like that, don’t you?” Malik asked slyly.

You suddenly wanted to smack this Malik.

“You homies all up in a nigga's grill.” said Erik and you could hear the grin.

You heard the smuggness in Malik's voice, “You skating the issue, Mr. E.”

Suddenly you didn't really want to know and decided to knock at that moment. When Erik opened the door he gave a small smile. “Y/N.”

You smiled at him, “Shuri told me to deliver this to you.” You held up the book.

“Ah, thanks.” He opened the door wider for the class to see you, “Show Ms. Y/N some respect.”

Under Erik’s watchful glare boys chorus, almost in perfect sync, “Hello, Ms. Y/N.”

The boys had straightened up and you raised an eyebrow as they all smiled and waved at you as if they were perfect little angels.

You were trying hard not to laugh and said pleasantly, “Hello, boys. I will not hold up your session.” Looking at Erik you gave a brief smile, “See you later.”

Erik returned it before shutting the door. Walking down the hallway the last you heard was:

“You never did answer the question, Mr. E.” Malik said.

“I suggest you get into these books and not into my business.”

You picked up the pace as you walked further down the hallway and out of earshot.

In the next few days leading up to the function that conversation you heard stayed with you. And it brought back some unpleasant memories. Your ex-boyfriend, Trevor, used to frequently complain about your lack of makeup once he started making it in the law circle. Before then, he never mentioned it and you never thought it to be problem. But by that time, it became a problem, you realized you didn’t care enough anymore to try. It was just one reason to a long list why the two of you didn’t make it.

But you found you liked Erik more than you ever liked Trevor. And you began to wonder if he would appreciate seeing his girlfriend look like that on occasion. You decided this function you were going to attend as his date was the perfect reason to try.

Which is why a week later found you standing in front of a makeup isle, becoming more and more dejected, the longer you looked at any of this stuff.

Can’t you just buy some new eye shadow? That is low maintenance. You scanned your list again. Why did you need lamp-chop eyelashes? You had them since the day you were born.

“Can I help you? You look a little lost.”

You turned to see a pretty young saleswoman who gave a friendly smile.

You gave a weak smile, “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”

She chuckled, “A little bit. What can I do for you today?”

You took a breath intending on trying at least, “How are you on makeup?”

#black panther fanfiction #black panther #killmonger x reader #makeup

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dent-de-leon · 6 years ago

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Hi Leo! I'm curious, can you tell me about Dragon Age?

AJSKSDJSKFSG THIS IS PROBABLY LIKE A 3 HOUR CONVERSATION IF YOU GET ME STARTED, BUT REAL QUICK:

Dialogue heavy, story driven RPG where you are a Chosen Hero (or Unfortunate Bastard of Circumstance) and gather allies

You can build up friendship with party members and even romance some of them. Shoutout to all my love interests that left me…I cry about a new elf or mage ex every time a new game comes out…

The combat’s fun!!! I’m especially partial to playing a mage in DA2 and Inquisition–this will also heavily impact the story cause mages and mage rights and lots of other plot based stuff,,,

You can be a snarky smartass and in DA2 that’s my whole personality

Real quick basic plot summaries for each of the main three games:

Dragon Age Origins: Nightmarish creatures called Darkspawn exist. And rarely, they manifest in one huge plague known as the Blight that consumes everything in its path. Like in Inquisition, you can choose your race and background. But here, you actually get to play out your origin story, hence the title. You eventually end up whisked away from your home to become a Grey Warden, honored–and cursed–heroes that are specially trained to end Blights. As it happens, you and another junior Grey Warden end up being the only Wardens left in the country, so you’ve gotta figure out everything you never got to learn in your (x1) day on the job, gather allies, lead a war-torn country, and maybe pet your dog.

Dragon Age 2: You can only be a human. However, class does still play a huge role. And in this case, whether or not you’re a mage will determine so much of how your journey plays out, as this game is entirely about mage vs templar politics (mages aren’t trusted to control their power, so they’re guarded in towers by templars, it’s a whole thing). As a way to balance team mechanics, whether or not you’re a mage will also determine which younger sibling your Hawke gets to keep (iM REALLY SORRY BETHANY,,). You are Hawke, and your day just keeps getting worse. You’re one of the refugees fleeing the country that got devoured by the Blight in DAO. You’re just trying to get by in this hellhole of a city. Reluctant hero gets plunged into the heart of all their city’s problems until the whole place is torn to pieces. Try and protect your family–or whatever’s left of it–and hope you trust your friends enough to forgive them. I always saw DA2 as being as much about your companions as your PC, so really pay attention to them. I also think a lot of this game is about redemption and whether or not someone deserves it, ect. Also, Fenris did nothing wrong and I’d die for him.

Dragon Age Inquisition: Rifts into this thing called the “Veil” that lead to a magic world known as the “Fade” are torn open. And by unfortunate happenstance, you end up receiving a mark on your hand that is slowly eating away at you–but is also the only thing that can seal the rifts. People from across the lands look to you for help as their supposedly chosen savior because of this, and you are heralded by the dominant religion as such–though opinions of this will vary if you’re not their ideal candidate, as in,, not human, a mage, ect. You can choose to bask in your newfound glory or publicly denounce that some god has fuck all anything to do with it. Either way, you become the leader of an Inquisition and have entire armies at your disposal. Also Cole is so good and I’m still crying over him.

DAO AND DA2 ARE!!! HARSH!! WITH CONSEQUENCES!! You can absolutely get party members accidentally killed. You can also commit absolute atrocities against them. DA2 is especially unforgiving with this because you can end up automatically losing people if you don’t have their approval high enough based on their personal allegiances. But like, Inquisition is really forgiving. None of the party members can die, but they can ditch you. Which is Fair

Inquisition is probably the easiest game to get right into. Aspects of DAO just haven’t aged well and the combat’s so much more tedious for me. DA2 and DAI have much better combat systems, but I think DAI feels a lot more like a traditional “DA” type high fantasy game. There’s also lots of different places to explore as opposed to being confined to one city and such and you get into lots of really different lore with throwbacks to the older games. DA2 is also, uhhhh….depressing,, like, I love it and replayed the hell out of it, but the ending isn’t that big triumphant hurrah or happy comfort you get in DAI (and in endings for DAO). So yeah, I think if you just want a glance at DA, you can try out Inquisition.

DA2 is treated as the ugly black sheep of the franchise but it’s the Best story so that’s that on that. Also, Hawke is by far my character I’m most attached to. Warden is badass and legendary and Inquisitor was fun but,, I dunno,, Hawke was just very different and personal. They weren’t leading an army or anything, they were just trying to get by and I kinda liked that

If you’re playing Inquisition I hope you like elves (i love them lmao) but yeah it’s huge on ancient elf lore!! If you’re playing an elf you might be more into that

COLE IS MY BOY IF YOU PLAY INQUISITION PLS TAKE GOOD CARE OF HIM HE’S A GOOD GHOST BOY AND I WOULD DIE FOR HIM

There’s also a fair bit of lgbt rep, though there is some discussion as to whether or not it’s as progressive or representative as people would like, but, real quick on potential relationships for your PC: There are 2 bi romance options in the first game. Every romance option but an added DLC character is bi in the second game. The third game’s romance options include a gay man, a lesbian, two bi characters, and a pan character. And of course there are characters that are queer beyond just the romanceable NPC’s. Krem, for instance, is one of the only trans characters in a video game I’ve ever seen that isn’t treated like a joke and is a fully dimensional character where that part of their identity isn’t shoved under the rug.

There’s lots of Fantasy Politics so like,, hope you’re into that. Also, fuck the templars and the Chantry.

NOT NEARLY AS MANY DRAGONS AS ADVERTISED,, CERTAINLY NOT ENOUGH TO BE CALLED “DRAGON AGE,” SHOW ME THE DRAGONS BIOWARE,, PLS,,–Inquisition has absolutely the most dragons, so there’s that

Morgan and Leliana are fucking amazing and seeing so much of them again in Inquisition was the best

Fenris is Best Romance and that’s that on that

I’m so sorry this was so long, but its not as long as all the hours I’ve logged in every one of these fuckin games

#you innocently: 'hey can you tell me a little bit about dragon age?'#me stressed and trying to procrastinate at 1 am: 'BOY--'

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janiedean · 4 years ago

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Hi! I'm the Plato anon for before. First of, thank you so much for your offer, but I think I managed on me own. Second, could you elaborate on the "analysing as YA" vs "analysing as an adult" approach? I assumed that "discourse people" on this website generally don't go beyond "antagonist is bad because they are against the hero!" out of ignorance/lack of interest except to score Internet Fame Points, not that it was due a specific mindest. I also don't really read YA (except Tiffany Aching)

TIFFANY ACHING!! T_T ANON LET ME HUG YOU it’s like the only YA I actually liked in my entire life apart from nick hornby’s one book but that wasn’t typical lmao

THAT SAID, well your discourse people point is pretty much part of it but since I’m here and I can rant have the entire thing I was too tired to hash yesterday ;) so, in order:

first thing, we need to establish that ya books and **adult** books generally have different target audiences which is fine and good because obviously if you want to write a thing you’ll do that for An Audience That You Have In Mind; this doesn’t mean that adults can’t read ya or that teenagers can’t read **adult books** because everyone can read what they want (and personally for one I never cared for ya in my entire life not even when I was the target audience), but it simply means that some books are meant to be liked by one category first and eventual others later and they need to be talked about in that specific context first and everything else later - then there might be books that are aimed for kids/young readers or sold like that or that can be read on more than one level which can be appreciated for different things later in time (for example I read huck finn at sixteen and I absolutely loved it but it was a book that here is seen as good reading material also for eight year olds, and at eight I wouldn’t have liked it for the reasons I did at sixteen, and if I read it now I would still like it, while a bunch of the books for kids I read when I was seven is stuff I enjoyed then but forgot now and probably was good for that age but didn’t stick with me);

second thing, that means that when I discuss a young adult book aimed at teenagers I will never hold it to the standards I would hold a book aimed at a general adult audience, especially if it’s the kind of ya like dunno as stated the vampire diaries aimed at teenage girls which is obviously the kind where you have the fantasy world with the hot dark guy who swoons the high schooler protagonist off her feet etc because that stuff is basic teenage girl fantasy 101 and like... I’ll expect a bunch of romance tropes, the usual push and pull, the guy eventually being into her, the protagonist being someone a fourteen year-old can see herself in, probably a few sexual elements thrown here and there and so on, because that’s the shit marketed at fourteen year-olds who want to read that and like... it’s really not that deep. I can’t ask the vampire diaries to be moby dick because it’s not meant to be. or, if I read percy j/ackson - which is another thing I have zero interest in but I know about because I see tweets from the author - I expect to have a bunch of teens coming into their own coming from different backgrounds because the author wants to represent properly a lot of categories so most of his readers can have someone they can see themselves in and like if a thirteen year-old who suspects being lgbt or whatever sees themselves in the gay kid from per/cy jackson guess what that’s what that book is for, so I won’t judge it on like... being a faithful representation of greek myths or how good the style is or whatever, because even if to me it’s not top notch writing or has a plot idc about it has to be for teenagers and pre-teens, not for me, a thirty year old who again didn’t even like pre-teen aimed literature when she was a pre-teen;

third, I can extra clarify it using the damned hp discourse, as in: when I say I’m tired of people not reading anything else or reading everything like hp, it means that they read it when they were growing up/were teens and it was aimed at them which is fine, but then twenty fucking years later when the people in question are way beyond their twenties (guys I’m almost 32 and I remember when the first one came out come on) when talking about any single piece of media in existence (movies, comics, other books) use hp characters/situations as the terms of paragon - like guys I had to read sn/ape comparisons with theon and ky/lo ren on the basis that THEY’RE GREY CHARACTERS as if sn/ape is the only grey character that ever existed, people keep on talking about vold/emort as the only bad guy that ever existed and so on, and like... you can’t talk about, idk, asoiaf or any book aimed at an adult audience like you’d talk about hp, because at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if I read comparisons between sn/ape and ivan karamazov and I think I don’t need to specify how completely nonsensical that would be;

now, with all of this explained, what I mean is: ya in general - which is not a fault per se of the genre since it’s aimed at teens and pre-teens - tends to have... very fixed narrative schemes depending on which teens it’s addressing - like, stuff like tvd or twilight is obviously the romance teenage girl fantasy where you have the girl fighting to be with the dark beautiful supernatural creature in question, per/cy jackson is more like I’ll give you a bunch of relatable characters having cool adventures against bad guys with the occasional redemption so we can see that people are redeemable but you still have right vs wrong, hp is sort of like that in the sense you get relatable-ish protagonist with relatable friends growing up throughout the entire thing and fighting on the good side vs the evil side including the usual death of the mentor plus people who seemed bad actually not being bad™ except that PJ has more povs and better rep from what I gather but that’s not the point so it’s basically the growing up journey for the young protagonist(s) the kid sees themselves in, then there’s stuff like hunger games where you actually have the dystopian worldbuilding just written to be enjoyable by younger people who don’t want to get too depressed (and ngl I haven’t read the books but I’ve seen the first two movies and guys the way everyone ignores the classist commentary in thg to discuss the love triangle is... a staple of the problem tbh) but still try to introduce deeper themes and have more nuanced characters and at the same time are still written to be enjoyed maybe by the more adult side of the target, and at the same time I can’t say that thg is the same as 1984 when it comes to target audience because 1984 doesn’t make the ugly dystopian themes more accessible using the love story/teenage protagonist etc;

at this point the problem is: if you only ever read ya and nothing else in your life (which is what a lot of people here do - guys again when I got here in 2011 if people didn’t discuss hp they discussed john gr/een, the only *adult*-aimed book I see discussed on tumblr is asoiaf... because of got X°DDD) then you end up seeing every other piece of literature expecting what you do out of a young adult and then you expect adult literature out of young adults/ya to approach certain implications the way an adult novel would, which is... frankly ridiculous;

specific examples: I see blogs which are principally about like ya fantasy books ie acotar or shadow/hunters or whatever shitting on grrm because AAAAH HE’S PROBLEMATIC/MISOGYNIST/HE HAS VIOLENCE AND RAPE IN THE BOOKS BLAH BLAH and like... spoilers: if I wrote a fantasy series aimed at fourteen year-olds who want their fantasy romance with the hot dark guy who is maybe a tiny bit problematic but turns their leaf for them I would hold back on blood and violence, if I wrote a fantasy for adults where I want to be realistic about misogyny I will not, and the fact that grrm gets judged on what happens and not how he writes it (and again, saying that a guy who has 1/3rd of his pov characters female except that it’s actually 50/50 because there are no throwaway povs except for mel while guys have a lot more of them and all the female povs have narrative weight [and mel has it before she gets one] and all of them have a different personality and he also has the same trope [brienne and arya] in two people with wildly different personalities and needs which is basically a goddamned miracle is a misogynist because there’s misogyny in his fantasy world is ridiculous imvho) which is.... exactly expecting of asoiaf what you’d expect out of acotar, when grrm and acotar’s writer write for wildly different audiences. now, if I had read acotar at 15 and asoiaf at 15 I’d have had no doubt re asoiaf being more my thing because again the subgenre acotar goes for is not my thing because I never related to that fantasy while brienne is my rep, but in general a 14yo girl who likes the acotar-like stuff will not care for grrm.... which is normal because grrm writes for adults of both genders, not teenage girls (I mean teenage boys also have their own subgenres for which the same rules are valid), and someone who likes percy jackson (aimed at both genders but like... pre-teens early teens) who doesn’t gaf for grrm won’t because it’s not aimed at them unless they like grrm for other reasons ie idk they realize that they relate to jon snow idk but you see my point, so like tldr that’s what I mean with if you only read ya you’ll expect adult writers to handle their themes like ya writers would and like... sorry but if I write stuff for adults I won’t feel the need to specify that the bad guy is B A D with neon lights because an adult should grasp that from the narrative, I don’t need to make sure it’s obvious bc it’s aimed at kids;

reverse: when I see people saying ‘the vampire diaries is problematic because it’s about people who are a hundred years old preying on teenage girls so we need to stop teenage girls from reading that kind of thing because it makes them think it’s okay to go with someone that much older than them’, we’re at the opposite problem in the sense that you’re asking a young adult novel what you would ask of AN ADULT NOVEL when there’s no point in it. like, a teenage girl knows perfectly that damon salvatore doesn’t exist and vampires don’t exist and werewolves don’t exist - the entire point of tvd is that she gets to fawn over the hot supernatural dude who changes for the better thanks to the female protagonist she most likely sees herself in and she gets to have a few nice fantasies about that which is like... normal for people who are developing their sexualities, most people wouldn’t actually want damon salvatore the way he’s exactly in canon irl because they know it’s a fantasy and so it should stay. like, sorry but as someone who watched the show because ian somerhalder is hot in her twenties and tried the first book and gave it up at page 30 because I couldn’t do it, I can 100% assure anyone that the biggest issues with tvd books are that the writing is really fucking bad (for my standards at least), with the tvd show that from S4 the writing spiraled downwards and no one wanted the magical vampire pregnancy witch twins ridiculousness, but none of the content actually was shit that anyone would take seriously like that and I wouldn’t expect tvd to approach that subject realistically. if I read a vampire book aimed at adults who actually wants to write such a relationship as creepy WELL YES OF COURSE I’D EXPECT IT TO BE OBVIOUS ABOUT IT BEING CREEPY, but if it’s aimed at freaking teenagers... it’s a fantasy and not really that deep, take it for what it is and let teenage girls enjoy thinking about smooching damon salvatore (or stefan or whoever) without assuming they need to be protected from Horrible Vampire Fiction™, same as no one goes bitching about unrealistic sex scenes in serialized romance books because people read them because they’re unrealistic and escapism, not because they expect nobel prize worthy exploration of themes from them;

now, ^^^^^^ would not happen if people actually read variedly and studied some decent lit analysis in school - but like, after I had to read I think at some point that of mice and men is ableist... THAT’S the damned point - with ya you can take a lot of the plot at face value, with adult lit you can’t and you have to see motivation beyond the action of the characters and you can’t do that if you only read books aimed at pre-teens/teenagers where obviously that’s... more spelled out than it would be in a book aimed at an adult audience;

that by the way also means wildly missing actual adult themes discussion in ya, because again, I haven’t read thg but from the two movies I’ve seen it’s fucking obvious that the whole thing is an anti us-classism commentary from how the districts are built to how the games are rigged to pretty much everything in the worldbuilding, but all the discourse I see on tumblr is about either the love triangle or katniss being miscast or president snow being a jerk and whatever else, but I never once saw anyone saying ‘heeeeey the people in katniss’ district are an in your face metaphor of poor people in the us of a belonging to certain categories while the first few districts are absolutely the 1% and the entire point of it is that she wants to tell you A CLASSIST SOCIETY IS BAD AND WILL LEAD TO REVOLUTIONS’, which to me was... like, glaring, it was literally what 90% of the entire thing was about and no one ever discusses it in a fandom-wide sense (I mean... I saw a bunch of hg posts back when the movies came out, I never saw this brought out), which... is a problem because it means that the moment people are put in front of a ya product that actually tackles that kind of issue.... they go and worry about the love triangle (which seemed to me the excuse to draw the people in the story) not about the social commentary, and like, maybe a twelve year-old won’t catch on the social commentary, a twenty-year old especially from the us should, and I don’t see that happening;

and sorry but that is because if you only engage with content aimed at a younger audience than your target first you assume that every piece of literature should be consumable/readable/enjoyable by a younger audience (and sorry but no, some of us don’t want to write stuff making sure teenagers like it) and then ask of actual ya media to cater to their *adult* needs and not to the needs of the target audience because wow obviously if you’re 25 you won’t want out of literature what you wanted at fourteen;

and this also is valid for children’s media because again, I’m cutting it short, but adults watching st/even universe and sending people death threats because they don’t agree with their opinion of a cartoon aimed at an audience that’s at moooostttt eight years old is a thing that shouldn’t even fucking exist, and if you think steven/universe is that important at an adult age you need to re-assess your priorities;

tldr: adults should not expect media aimed at kids/teens to cater to their interests and shouldn’t analyze it the way they’d analyze a piece of media aimed at an adult audience and should not presume that every piece of media should have the scope/schemes of medias aimed at kids/teens because some of us don’t want to read that.

now, I’ll leave you with a nice short anecdote which hopefully will further clarify what I mean and add to another point which would be, kids and teens don’t give a fuck about what you, an adult, do: when everyone was in a frenzy about my little pony back in 2013 or so I had to see a ton of posts like ‘AAAAAH MEN/BOYS WHO ARE INTO MLP ARE STEALING THE SHOW FROM YOUNG GIRLS HOW DARE THEY ENJOY IT WE NEED TO KICK THEM OUT’ with added people saying that a ten year old male kid who tried to kill himself bc his friends bullied him bc he liked mlp deserved it and the likes, my only thought was that... when I was 8-10 in elementary school and was actually the target for cartoons and stuff, sailor moon was the rage between all girls my age me included, we’d spend recess playing pretend (and I’d get stuck playing sailor mars bc no one wanted her, sad) and our hugest first world problem in existence was that we needed technically a mamoru and of course no self-respecting boy in elementary school would have admitted under death threats to watching sailor moon because it was a girls’ thing (aaaaah gender roles in the early-mid 90s, how fun) so everyone despaired because ofc no one wanted to play mamoru... and the few times any guy actually showed up like HEEEEY I WANNA DO IT BUT PLEASE DON’T TELL MY FRIENDS I LIKE SAILOR MOON we’d all be like OMG YOU’RE OUR NEW FAVORITE PERSON PLEASE YOUR SECRET IS SAFE because we couldn’t believe we found the magical boy™ who wanted to do it, and if anyone had told us that the kid in question was stealing sailor moon from us we’d have laughed in their face.

like.

kids don’t ask of media what you, an adult do, and it’s unfair of you, an adult, to ask children’s/ya media to cater to your damned interests, which are amply catered to by the tons of adult literature around which also forces you to push on your views and read more challenging things and to not read/watch stuff at face value, which is why I would really appreciate it if the amount of 20yo people on here who I consider adults engaged with more adult media and let themselves be challenged instead of just going back to ya/kids’ things, which are good for teens and kids and can be enjoyed by everyone but should not be the only goddamned genre you measure all other literature against because then you get people saying that lolita is pro-pedo when it’s exactly the goddamned contrary, but if you think that pov character = protagonist = good guy (which is... staple kids/ya stuff for obvious reasons) then you decide that humbert humbert is someone you’re supposed to root for. too bad that you’re not and the author was an actual csa victim so it’s a completely ridiculous reading that wouldn’t happen if you didn’t read lolita the way you read hp.

... okay, I’m done, sorry for how long this was, I hope it cleared things for good xD

#literature for ts #janie rants #idek #Anonymous #ask post #suicide attempt cw

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codevassie · 6 years ago

Note

Hi (ノ^o^)ノso i saw ur post about accepting one shot request and i was hoping if you could make a fluff one where Ash and Eiji are somewhat internet friends and their friends made a plan that would make them both see each other for the first time. :3c btw love your works ☺☺

CV: I don’t know what I wrote. Please, just take it.

I’m so sorry this took so long!! School is destroying me but I’m trying to do things that I enjoy so I can keep stable. Hence, this one-shot was So Much Fun to write. This turned out nothing like I thought it would though, tbh. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything like this. Which is weird bc I’ve wanted to do internet friends au for a while, and now, with the chance, I turned it into a crack fic. RIP. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Thank you for the fun request!

And, thank you so much! It’s so funny to see when people find me who already like my stuff lol. It warms my heart

Bringing his phone’s camera up, Ash took a quick picture of his shoes, kicked up on the table, to send to Eiji. It wasn’t anything special, anything significant. It was a conversation starter, because Ash was bored out of his mind and, hopefully, Eiji wasn’t too busy with class to reply.

“Nadia’s not gonna like that,” Shorter said from the table next to his in the Wong’s family-owned restaurant. His table, in contrast to Ash’s which held only his dirty red converse, was scattered in papers, covered in an incomprehensible jumble of symbols in light and harsh pencil, two different handwritings. Surprisingly, the lighter was Shorter’s, while the heavier, harsher handwriting was Sing’s, the kid from Shorter’s neighborhood he was helping with homework.

Ash shrugged, but slid his feet off the table, glancing toward the boy next to Shorter. He was frowning down at his paper, scratching his head with a cheap mechanical pencil that had the tip almost chewed completely off. He was short and had a billowy-looking jacket on. It was hard to believe he was a high school student, to be honest, and Ash wondered what it must be like to see him in his university classes. He dual-enrolled at one of the colleges close by. Sing was a smart kid. It made him wonder why he’d go to Shorter, of all people, for help. Most people didn’t typically see Shorter as the “smart” sort.

But Sing had known Shorter for most of his life, apparently. And he looked up to the guy a lot. Not that Ash, as Shorter’s best friend, knew him that well because of it. To be honest, Ash could count on a single hand how many times he’d met the kid over the years.

The kid was weird too. He didn’t really talk to Ash, and refused to look at him when Ash tried to make eye-contact. The second Ash looked away, though, he could feel the kid staring. It was a little unsettling, but he could tell Sing didn’t mean any harm, so he pretty much ignored it.

Ash’s phone buzzed where it was still safely clutched in hand, and his eyes snapped away from the two at the other table. When he looked at the screen, he confirmed his hopes with a slight leap in his heart, and clicked eagerly into his messages where a picture had been sent in response. It was of a pair of tennis shoes, walking along a sidewalk, going by the slight blurriness of the picture. Surprisingly, it was a pretty ugly picture.

Ash: i thought you said you were a photography student damn

Eiji: Meanie! For your information, I am carrying twelve hundred pounds of textbooks in my bag rn so leave me alone >:(

Ash: >:P

Eiji: >:P

Ash chuckled, about to reply again when Shorter’s voice carried over, sounding amused.

“Hey, dude, stop making kissy faces at your phone and come help with this problem.”

Ash looked up, a frown on his face. “I was not making kissy faces,” he said, defensively, shutting off his phone anyway.

“Oh, really?” Shorter asked, voice teasing. “So that wasn’t Eiji you were texting?”

Sing looked up, curious now and suddenly able to look at Ash. It took him aback for a moment. “Eiji?” he asked.

It was Ash’s turn to avoid Sing’s gaze, getting up to move over to the table. He pulled the paper toward him, looking at the problem in question while Shorter took it upon himself to explain.

“Eiji is Ash’s online crush,” he said. Ash sent him a death glare. “Online friend,” he corrected, not sounding too serious about the correction, truthfully. Ash gave up, taking a pencil and scratching out the steps to the problem on a blank sheet.

“Really?” Sing asked, sounding surprised. Ash’s pocket vibrated and he reached for it immediately. Shorter laughed.

Eiji: Natto for lunch! I know how much you like it!

Ash rolled his eyes and got to work typing out a reply. He didn’t notice the contemplative look Sing had adopted as he watched him.

-/-

To tell the truth, Eiji really didn’t like his statistics class. Math had never been his forte, no, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. His professor kind of sucked. In that way where he goes insanely fast through the material, doesn’t work any of it out on the board, and gets irritated when a student has a question. Eiji usually tried to keep an open mind about people, especially math professors, who get bad reps just for being math professors, but this guy really got on his nerves.

But, at least he had friends in this class. When Eiji entered the lecture hall that day, Yut-Lung was already sitting in his usual spot, carefully unpacking materials from his bag and placing them one-by-one on the table. When Eiji approached, he greeted Yut-Lung with a big smile.

“Good afternoon, Yut-Lung!”

Yut-Lung looked up, already sighing. His shoulders were both tense and resigned at once. With an annoyed eye, he observed Eiji moving into the seat, Eiji’s usual spot as well, beside him.

“Eiji Okumura,” he greeted, nothing but cordial. He placed a few pens neatly beside his notebook, then a calculator.

Eiji wasn’t stupid. He knew Yut-Lung wasn’t his biggest fan. But Eiji thought that maybe with a little patience and respect and kindness, he could crack that cold exterior. He wanted to be friends with Yut-Lung, and, believe it or not, he’d already made tremendous progress. It was a little dissuading at times, especially when it was almost the end of semester and Eiji couldn’t think of any reason Yut-Lung would continue seeing him when this class was over, but he wouldn’t give up.

“Hey, guys,” another voice joined and Eiji perked up. When Sing took the seat on the other side of Yut-Lung, Eiji waved. Yut-Lung even spared a ‘hello’ for the boy. Sing was, apparently, a lot better at getting to know Yut-Lung. Instead of dissuading Eiji further, however, it gave him hope. Yut-Lung could be befriended. This was the proof. Plus, Sing was a good friend of Eiji’s too and he couldn’t be mad at him for something like that.

“How are you today, Sing?” Eiji asked as Sing plopped his bag onto the table in front of him and unzipped it. Before Sing could respond, however, Eiji’s phone went off. Though he knew it was rude, Eiji couldn’t help but take it out immediately. It was a text from Ash.

Ash: good luck in hell class today

Eiji beamed at the message as his heart warmed. He’d complained about stat to Ash plenty, who even helped with his homework and studying a lot. The guy was some kind of genius with his double major, double minor, and insane knowledge in the STEM field and politics. If only he could pick what he wanted to do and stick with it.

“Who’s that?” Sing asked and Eiji looked up, blinking, having been too immersed in the phone to pick up what he’d said.

“Huh?”

“He asked who you’re texting after you asked him a question,” Yut-Lung explained, raising a single eyebrow in his direction. Eiji’s cheeks colored.

“Oh, it’s just Ash,” he explained. Yut-Lung rolled his eyes, but he could see a certain softness to them. Eiji had told Yut-Lung about Ash before. It was one topic that seemed to amuse him enough to carry on a conversation with Eiji.

“Ash?” Sing asked, sounding a little off. When Eiji looked over, there was a strange, thrilled look to his face. Eiji furrowed his brows, confused.

“Yes? He’s a friend online. I met him through my blog,” he explained. Sing laughed incredulously. “What?” Eiji asked.

But Sing just shook his head. “Nothing.”

Eiji, confused, looked over at Yut-Lung, but he ,himself, was looking at Sing with narrowed eyes. Eiji opened his mouth to ask again, but, just then, their professor spoke up, starting class. Frowning, Eiji sat back and accepted his fate. He’d just have to ask again later.

Out of sight, Sing began typing on his own phone under the table. Beside him, Yut-Lung’s phone went off in his bag. Elsewhere, Shorter’s buzzed to life.

Sing: Yut-Lung, Shorter, I think I’ve discovered something great.

-/-

It was odd how receptive Yut-Lung had been towards him lately. In class, he nodded a lot more when Eiji spoke to him. He walked with him after class until they had to split, asking questions and even calling him just ‘Eiji’ instead of the dreaded full ‘Eiji Okumura’ which made his name sound like a sin. Yut-Lung had even asked him to lunch a couple times these past few weeks.

He was a huge gossip, Eiji came to find, and used to his advantage in conversations. Eiji could gossip, and Yut-Lung loved hearing it all. For someone who liked to keep to himself, he sure liked to know everything about everyone.

One topic that Eiji already knew was a favorite of Yut-Lung’s came up quite often. But, of that, Eiji was a bit more reluctant to talk about. Ash was… special. He was Eiji’s friend. He trusted Eiji with all he told about himself. But Yut-Lung didn’t seem too interested in the personal stuff. Mostly, well…

“You haven’t told Ash how you feel yet?”

“What? How-” Eiji had squeaked, eyes wide, but Yut-Lung had waved it off.

“It’s very obvious,” he said. “Painfully.”

So. There was that. But there was also a lot of questions about the two in general. How did they meet? Did they know where one another lived? Did they know each other’s full names or what they looked like? The answer to most of these was no. Eiji and Ash didn’t talk about the surface personal things. But, they had shared pictures of themselves once before.

“So he knows what you look like?” Yut-Lung had asked, looking very interested.

“Yes?” Eiji had responded, feeling like he was missing something from the look in Yut-Lung’s eyes. But it was never explained.

As odd as it all was, Eiji was mostly just happy that he was finally getting through to Yut-Lung. And sometimes even without Sing around. Eiji was finally allowing himself to believe that maybe their friendship could survive past the semester.

So, when Yut-Lung invited him and Sing to lunch after yet another horrible statistics class, it wasn’t a surprise. Eiji cheerfully packed up his things and they headed out, walking to a simple cafe. It wasn’t Yut-Lung’s style but, having gone to lunch with Eiji and Sing, two horribly broke normal college students, he’d learned to adapt.

Today, Sing was very excited for some reason. Even Yut-Lung allowed a small smile as they walked along the sidewalk of busy lunch rush Manhattan. When Eiji had asked them about it, however, they brushed it off, leaving Eiji a bit put off. He frowned, but allowed them to continue on, walking without conversation.

When they arrived at the cafe, they approached the line and Eiji scanned the menu above the counter, outlined in chalk. Usually, Eiji just ordered a soup, but he might go for a sandwich today.

Eiji was standing directly behind someone who was taller than him, with a yellow hoodie and purple mohawk. It was a pretty cool mohawk, but Eiji knew better than to stare, so he shifted to the side in order to look up at the menu. The movement, though, was enough to bring the guy’s attention to him.

His eyes lit up as he took him in. When Eiji noticed, he looked behind him, wondering if it only looked as though the stranger looked… excited. To see… him. Eiji, however, didn’t find anything behind him to warrant the reaction. When he turned back, the guy was giving Sing a thumbs up. “Heya, Sing.”

“Shorter, what’s up, man?” Sing asked, looking behind and around the guy for a second, as if for something specific. Something missing.

“Nothing much. Just stopping by for lunch with my bud,” Shorter said, and somewhere in Eiji’s mind the name sounded familiar. Maybe Sing had mentioned him before? “He stepped into the bathroom, but he’ll be back.”

“Perfect,” Sing said. And that was a weird thing to say. But then Eiji’s phone buzzed and, for a second, he hoped it was a text from Ash, until the buzzing continued, signaling it was a call. He slipped it out of his pocket, checking the caller ID.

“Crap,” he cursed, pressing answer immediately. “Hi, Ibe. I’m sorry; I forgot I said I’d help you today. I’m on my way right now.”

Listening to Ibe’s reply, Eiji nodded, reassuring the man it was no big deal - that he could make it. He hurried to get off the phone, embarrassed at his blunder, and ready to rush over as quickly as he could.

When he did get off the phone, he turned to apologize to his friends. He was surprised to find they were already standing, watching him. Sing looked a little panicked. Even his friend Shorter looked like he had swallowed something whole, the uncomfortable feeling stuck in his throat. Eiji, however, didn’t have time.

“I’m really sorry, guys. I totally forgot I had something scheduled.”

Yut-Lung, ever the quickest and most snappish, immediately spoke up. “Now. It has to be now?”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you guys,” Eiji said, already backing away and checking the time. He could make it if he hurried. The shoot would be starting soon. “Bye, guys!”

And, with that, he darted out the door.

When Ash came out of the bathroom, he took in the scene. Shorter, Sing, who he hadn’t expected to see there, and one other guy he didn’t know, staring blankly out the door, a large empty gap between them and the register, and the employee behind it looking irritatedly their way.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

-/-

Ash was content to scroll through his phone for the rest of the day if he could. Over and over again through the same five photos. Because Eiji had uploaded new pictures to his blog, and Ash loved Eiji’s photography. It had been the reason he’d first found Eiji’s blog, spamming his own with reblogs enough that Eiji had actually reached out to say thank you. It had been a little embarrassing, but one of the best decisions of his life. If he hadn’t gone all stalker mode on Eiji’s beautiful photos, they probably would have never talked and then where would Ash be?

Not only were the photos beautiful, though, but they were completely new. Since coming to university in America, Eiji hadn’t posted anything. These were the very first, and they were of a city so alike New York that Ash held onto the tiniest hope that it was. Hence, why he seemed to determined to stare at them all day. Why he scanned them for anything familiar; why he took in every detail he could. It was a stretch. He knew that. There were plenty of cities Eiji could have gone for university. But it didn’t stop that incessant little hope.

One picture was of a tree in a city park, framed with green grass below and grey buildings above. Another was of a bakery display, the colors of each pastry popping with Eiji’s brilliant use of angles and light. Ash didn’t know much about photography, but just by how pleasing it was to the natural eye, he could tell Eiji was good.

“Let’s go out to lunch,” Shorter said.

“Are we going all the way across town again?” Ash asked. When Shorter hummed, Ash sighed. “You own a restaurant. Why do you want to go so far to grab a sandwich?”

“We don’t serve sandwiches!” Shorter protested. Ash continued to examine the photo he was on for the umpteenth time, committing it to memory. It was a street corner. No street signs. It actually looked like a dump, to be honest. It showed an alley with some trash and crumbling brick walls, but the color in the setting sun was vibrant. The red of the bricks and paleness of the sidewalk. Somehow, Eiji had directed a unique lens on the scene, as if he was looking on it all with a tender gaze. How he could see the alley with such tenderness mystified and enthralled Ash.

“The place up the street serves sandwiches,” Ash responded absently. The picture was so like New York. Ash hoped it was New York.

Maybe he should just ask Eiji…

No. That was a horrible idea. Why would Eiji trust him with that information? He was just some random dude online.

“I told Sing I’d meet him after his class, though,” Shorter argued and Ash sighed, giving up on the image for now. He put the phone in his pocket and stood up.

“Fine,” he conceded. Shorter whooped and they left. They took the bus and chatted a little. Shorter told him they were meeting Sing at a food stand, then heading to the park to meet with some of Sing’s friends. Ash grumbled a bit about meeting people, but mostly looked out the window for the ride, watching the Manhattan landscape slide past.

That was when he saw it.

He jumped to his feet, hand on the rope above their heads and calling for a stop. Shorter was already asking what the hell was up, but Ash just darted off the bus when it stopped, hoping his friend would just follow. He couldn’t explain until they were there. He didn’t want to say his suspicions out loud until he knew for sure.

It probably wasn’t anyway. He was getting his hopes up.

Ash ran until he stopped in front of an alley beside a shoe store. It wasn’t sunset, the trash had shifted and changed a bit, but, if he stood just so. Yes. That was it.

“He’s in New York,” Ash breathed.

That was when Shorter caught up. “What the hell, man?” he yelled, out of breath, but Ash was still standing, transfixed.

He was right. Eiji was here. He was right.

But he still couldn’t bring himself to tell his friend. Suddenly, the knowledge felt too big, too much. It was real, so real, but it was too big for him to speak of. Shorter was his best friend, but he couldn’t bring himself to share his elation.

Because this brought on a whole new dilemma. Was he going to say something to Eiji?

“Ash, come on dude,” Shorter begged now. “I told Sing we’d be there. His friends are going to be waiting at the park.”

But Ash shook his head. “I’m not going.”

“What?” Shorter asked, voice suddenly strangled.

“I have to go,” Ash said, tearing his eyes away from the alley.

“But- Ash!” Shorter protested, but Ash was already walking away. He felt his friend keeping pace beside him, hand gestures wide and voice incredulous, demanding to know what was up, trying to persuade him to turn around, to come with him. Ash shook his head again and again.

In the end, he got Shorter to go without him. He had told Sing he’d meet up with him; he should go.

When Ash boarded the bus headed back to their end of town, Shorter cursed.

“Damn it,” he sighed, watching the bus pull away.

That night, Eiji posted a picture of a park full of people and a grey sky.

-/-

“I’m getting real tired of their shit,” Sing stated one evening when the three of them - him, Yut-Lung, and Shorter - met up.

“You’re getting tired?” Yut-Lung cried. “You don’t have to deal with them directly. Do you know how many times Eiji has looked the wrong way at the wrong time? Had to run off? Been lost in his thoughts? They’ve stood three feet apart on the subway and there was nothing I could do to get them to actually see each other!”

“And they haven’t even been texting each other all that much lately,” Shorter said. “I ask about Eiji and Ash gets really weird these days.”

“Do you think they know?” Sing asked, looking alarmed. Sure, that was their goal, but they’d worked so hard for it to be a surprise.

“Eiji is oblivious. I ask him constantly for updates on Ash. He doesn’t tell me much either, but he does say enough that I know he doesn’t get how close they are.” Yut-Lung said, flicking a piece of hair out of his face.

Shorter just shrugged. “Like I said, Ash gets weird when I ask about Eiji. I don’t know anything.”

“You don’t think something happened between them?” Sing asked, looking back and forth between Yut-Lung and Shorter, gauging their reactions. The two looked at each other, frowning.

“Time for more sleuthing?” Shorter asked. Yut-Lung gave a flat look, then shook his head.

“I say we continue. Seeing each other’s stupid faces will be enough to solve whatever petty feud they have.”

“Our plans aren’t exactly working though,” Sing pointed out, to which Yut-Lung sent a less than pleased look.

“It’s time for a more direct route then,” he said, whipping out his phone. “I am done with this scheme.”

-/-

Eiji: Hey! How are you today?

Eiji spent a tremendous amount of time looking at their chat after sending this message before giving up and putting his phone away. He looked out the window of his apartment, noting the soft light and gentle sky. It really was picturesque. It was one of the reasons he had gotten the apartment, other than the fact that it was close by the university and was kind of affordable-ish. He wasn’t in the mood for photography at the moment, though.

It had been a week since he’d had a real conversation with Ash. He supposed it wasn’t that long, really. He didn’t even contact home weekly. But, when it came to Ash, the absence was like an ache in his chest - in his heart.

He tried to reassure himself that it was just because Ash was busy. It was close to midterms, after all. It wasn’t anything Eiji had done. It wasn’t… right? Or, worse, Ash couldn’t have been getting tired of him?

Eiji shook his head, ridding his mind of the thoughts. It wouldn’t do him any good to lose himself in them. Instead, he stood and grabbed his camera bag and wallet, heading for the door. Maybe he was in the mood for photography. Just not here.

He wanted to calm down and forget the world through the lens of his camera. He wanted to stretch his legs throughout the city of New York. New York was beautiful, from its most beautiful buildings to its most rundown alleys. Everything there had character, had a story, and Eiji wanted to discover that story.

So, swinging his camera bag over his shoulder, Eiji stepped into his shoes by the door. He shrugged on his cardigan, patted himself down for his keys and phone - his hand rested on his phone, imagining the annoying chime lighting up his day with a reply from Ash.

He hoped he heard from Ash soon.

Then Eiji stepped out the door. Before he even heard the thump and click of it shutting behind him, before he could turn to lock it up and be headed on his way-

Eiji saw black.

-/-

Ash wasn’t putting up with this shit. He didn’t know why Blanca was even here, but it was bullshit that he could still subdue Ash so easily. When he came to in a strange place - elaborate decor, but not of the fashion Ash was used to; he really had no idea where he was - he was fuming when he saw Blanca’s face first. The bastard had made the mistake of leaving him unbound, though, and he was about to learn exactly how much of a mistake that was-

But then-

“What the hell, Yut-Lung?” a familiar voice exclaimed and Ash’s head snapped in its direction. Shorter was walking into the room, straight for Ash. “This is not what I had in mind when you said a more direct route.”

“This way there’s no chance for them to not see each other.”

“You’re insane,” Shorter stated, turning back to him suddenly, but Yut-Lung just rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to squabble further until Blanca cleared his throat, silencing them both.

“He’s awake,” Blanca announced. They both turned suddenly to Ash.

“Ash!” Shorter exclaimed, rushing up to him. “Are you hurt?”

Instead of answering, Ash blinked once. Then twice. “Shorter,” he said. “What. The. Fuck.”

“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know that bastard was gonna-”

“Excuse me?” Yut-Lung exclaimed from not too far away. Shorter turned back ready to argue again. While they were arguing, Ash had a short stare down with a blatantly unamused Blanca. He sat forward in the chair he had been thrown into, a simple fold-out one - not very comfortable.

That’s when a new voice joined the mix. And this one was one Ash had never heard before. He turned toward the door where two figures had come in, Sing and another boy, looking groggy and rubbing at his head. Ash furrowed his brow, examining the boy. Something about him looked familiar.

“What’s going on?”

All faces turned toward him. All went silent. Then, there was a lot of back and forths, shaking heads. They seemed to be looking between him and the boy. Ash, puzzled, looked again at the other.

The boy, too, seemed to catch on, looking to where everyone else was, and his eyes connected with Ash’s. Suddenly, Ash could piece together why the boy looked so familiar. How could he have not seen it before? This was- This was-

“Eiji?” Ash asked, incredulous. Eiji’s eyes widened and something clicked in his eyes too.

“Ash!” he said, rushing forward. Ash leaped up just in time to catch Eiji in his arms. “Oh my gosh! How are you here?”

“How are you here?” Ash asks back, setting Eiji back down to look at him, to really take in the fact that he was here - right in front of him. Eiji still looks surprised, but he’s beaming up at him, laughing.

“I- I don’t-” he laughs, then turns back to Sing. Ash looks towards Sing too, one eyebrow raised, while Sing rapidly starts to turn dark and darker shades of red.

“It- it was Yut-Lung’s idea!” he exclaimed.

“You said it was fine!” Yut-Lung argued.

“You said what?” Shorter asked, looking betrayed.

“I thought he was joking!”

“Wait,” Eiji suddenly spoke up, and everyone looked over. He was looking right at Shorter. “You’re Sing’s friend from the sandwich shop!”

Everyone went silent. Shorter’s eyes went a little wide. Ash looked between them all, his own gaze landing on the one occupant in the room he probably knew the least.

And- that guy-

Yut-Lung must have noticed his stare, because he looked toward him with a raised brow. He looked like he was waiting for something.

Then, it clicked. Oh.

“Oh my god.”

“Twelve different attempts to have you two meet,” Yut-Lung said. “You’re welcome.”

Ash and Eiji looked at each other. Something seemed to pass through their gazes and they burst into laughter. The rest of the room looked on, Shorter smiling, Sing looking a little shocked. Yut-Lung sighed, but there was the smallest trace of a smile on his lips.

“Can I go?” Blanca asked from the corner.

#requests #asheiji #bf #banana fish

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sdvbrsb · 3 years ago

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