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queen-mabs-revenge · 2 years ago

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OK so first of all i am not a nate-needs-to-mortify-his-flesh-to-be-redeemed girlie so fucking jot that down. i don't think he needs to grovel, i don't even think we need an extended boo hoo apology scene for anyone involved. nate's story is about reconciliation with himself and others through real self-esteem and contentment, not about whatever christian penance brainrot ppl are coming up with.

but i am fucking baffled by that opening scene with isaac, colin and will visiting nate at work and how -- yet again -- really essential character beats are just happening off screen and we're supposed to be super chill and emotionally swept along by it all?

(long ass v critical post under the cut)

"we want you to come back to richmond" uhhhhhhhhhh "the whole team talked about it and it was unanimous" …….?????????????? like besides the fact that there is literally no established tactical reason why the team feels that they need nate to come back considering they're pretty fucking successful at the moment, the show has given us no reason to believe that would be a decision made by a team that is and needs to be protective of its current interpersonal dynamic!

now again, i want to be very fucking clear as i go through the following that i don't think that nate is homophobic and i'm not accusing him of that, and again i'm not here like 'oh colin needs an uwu special apology'. but lay out the facts as far as the players know (because that's all that's been on screen): nate tore up the sign and ~~someone~~ exposed information about ted's panic attacks to the press - they're himbos but i mean come on. the last interactions between nate and the team - and especially colin - were pretty targeted cruelty and belittlement laced with misogynistic language (that yes, has been used pretty casually throughout the dressing room - not just a nate thing), and then nate goes to work for a club owned by the man who fostered the toxic swamp richmond was to begin with? bro. bro.

literally my first thought was -- how is colin eager to invite someone back who - as far as he knows - clearly very personally hates him, and has leaked information about someone he supposedly liked and respected that he was told in confidence to cause targeted harm to that person… when he just came out within a trusted organization with no intention of coming out publicly??? like no matter how this show tries to shorthand that everything is OK now, because they put no work into reestablishing trust… there is no way colin would take his safety as 100% guaranteed in this situation, and him being the person to insist on talking to nate doesn't shorthand that away!!!

like for me, this mismatch stands out as some fucking straight nonsense again bc you cannot use the horrifically queerphobic atmosphere in and around professional men's football irl for your very special episode and then just never address the personal vindictiveness involved in the character dynamic that was created between nate and colin previously, especially in the face of seeding the idea that someone would be afraid to come out to their trusted best friend because of the 1% chance the casual homophobia they tossed around was indicative of their actual beliefs.

and like ok the tendency of this show to just use experiences that reflect stuff of incredible real life consequence without considering the context or implications is already established. i get it. but like this is just another example of how by not actually engaging with the full consequences of the experiences they're capitalizing on, they've not done justice to any of the characters or representative stories involved.

the reconciliation between nate and the team had such great potential to bring out everyone's issues and have a real chewy resolution! nate getting tossed back into the rupertsphere and seeing the manipulative bullying inherent to rupert's concept of power, and consequently really understanding how that created the environment mirrored in the team's treatment of him, and how he held on to that concept of power and mirrored it back in vindictiveness.

maybe if they brought forward the bex and ms. kakes story to play out earlier (during one of these insanely bloated episodes), and if nate is tied in with letting them both know what was happening with rupert, the two women going to rebecca for advice could have been something that one of the players found out about (idk overhearing rebecca asking keeley for press/legal advice while passing her office or smth). that could have precipitated a conversation among the team that we were actually privy to about how nate stood up to rupert, put whole ass career on the line to protect people being deeply wronged instead of cozy up to power, and did it without publicly Exposing Their Business in order to get public kudos.

that conversation could have been the perfect way to get the team to understand nate's growth from what he did to ted by revealing and having them work through the implications of nates willingness to put protecting people from being harmed above his own need for power and validation, while also protecting their privacy and not seeking public validation at their expense! colin could have had a part in that conversation that both brought his queerness back into the story as something of actual consequence and not just a token feel-good moment, and it could have showed why the team would trust nate enough to hold a vote to ask him to come back to richmond while also showing the audience that the team has truly grown from its unhinged emotional reaction during the west ham match, and not just because they lost a game bc of it!

like idk man this just isn't good enough for me. this whole thing just isn't good enough for me, especially because they've made the implications and the stakes so fucking high by bringing in the incredibly consequential social issues they have. nothing feels earned, and everything feels cheap and flimsy because of it! everything from the journey we deserved to go on with all of these characters, to the seriousness and respect with which the show has treated the experiences they've profited off of, to the patronizing chintz of the last minute emotion-bombs being tossed to us as good enough wallpaper over the structural cracks we're meant to ignore.

#ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso critical #ted lasso #trying this again bc it's not being allowed in the tags so if you've seen this twice no you didn't

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thiemrossi · 2 years ago

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INDYCAR 101 PART 3 RESOURCE MASTERPOST: a 2023 guide to indycar by @thiemrossi

hi, hello, happy race week! If you want to start watching indycar this season but don't know where to start, this is for you. I couldn't cover everything, so I tried to focus on the drivers because there are so many unrecognized great personalities in indycar. If you have questions about anything on here or other stuff I didn't mention, feel free to ask me, I'm happy to help! This will also be multiple parts, so I'll link them all below

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3

This info was originally on slides, but I am just going to share it as text here. So, part 3 is a "how to find out more" masterpost.

Where can I learn more about drivers? (Long-Form Content)

Off Track with Hinch & Rossi Podcast & Bonus content on Youtube

The Vibe: Long-form, unstructured, casual, funny, feels like 3 friends hanging out & talking

Weekly podcast (Thursdays) with best friends Alexander Rossi (current IndyCar driver) and James Hinchcliffe (former driver, current NBC commentator) where they discuss their lives, IndyCar, & other racing with a healthy dose of banter that descends into wonderful absolute chaos in the off season

Fun for new fans & a great way to get to know two key personalities in the series especially if you listen after a race weekend

But you will miss inside jokes (which make it more fun) if you haven’t listened to the old episodes, so I highly recommend going back and listening to those if you have time

Speed Street Podcast with Conor Daly & Joey Mulinaro (full episodes also on Youtube)

The Vibe: Long-form, semi-structured, funny, honest, & casual but also journalistic

Weekly podcast (Wednesdays) with friends Conor Daly (IndyCar Driver) & Joey Mulinaro (Comedian, Journalist) with commentary and interviews from all racing series

Great way to get to know Conor & the drivers he interviews plus get great insider insight into race weekends

Conor also just talks in a very entertaining way that I find very funny

Dinner with Racers Podcast

The Vibe: VERY long-form, unstructured, casual, personal

Hosts Sean and Ryan get to know various figures in racing through long form unstructured conversations over dinner

These guys REALLY get drivers to open up & are very funny with it

All of the IndyCar driver/series figures episodes are great I highly recommend them

Trackside Podcast/Radio Show

The Vibe: structured, journalistic, informative

Weekly Indianapolis Radio Show with NBC commentator Kevin Lee and IndyCar VP Curt Cavin with series news and driver interviews (also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts)

They're probably the best series news podcast imo because they discuss things in an engaging way & give info we may not have heard yet

The Marshall Pruett Podcast: This Week in IndyCar

The Vibe: structured-ish, journalistic but can be casual

Weekly updates about the series, answering questions, driver interviews

Marshall has great insight but his podcasts can be hard to listen to because he rambles and talks slow, but the info is generally good & accurate

COMING SOON: 100 Days to Indy

IndyCar Docuseries produced by Vice and the CW following the lead up to the 107th Indianapolis 500 premieres April 27th at 9pm EST on the CW (will be available internationally as well)

Where can I learn more about drivers? (Short-Form Content)

Bus Bros with Josef Newgarden & Scott McLaughlin

The Vibe: Medium-form, structured but casual and fun, essentially a comedy show

IndyCar drivers Josef & Scott try local foods, interview fans, tour other drivers/fans motorhomes, read mean tweets etc.

Super fun for new fans so highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already!

If you want to see drivers having fun & showing their personalities this one is for you

Romain Grosjean Youtube

The Vibe: Short-form, technical, comparative Has a couple driver interviews (Pato, Scott McLaughlin, Conor Daly) but a lot of videos demonstrating technical differences between IndyCar and F1 if that's something you're interested in

All of these are behind the scenes during race weekends

Admit1 with Josef Newgarden You Don’t Know Jack with Jack HarveyPato O’Ward YouTubeIndyCar Inside the RaceArrow McLaren YouTubeJuncos Hollinger YouTubeOutside the Line Andretti YouTube

How to watch IndyCar

United States

All practices, qualifying, & races available live & on replay with a Peacock subscription

All races (except Toronto which is Peacock exclusive) are also broadcast live on network TV on NBC or USA network

Canada

TSN & TSN+ (this is new I think)

Australia

Stan Sport *looks* to be similar to peacock they’ll carry practice, qualifying, races & replays this season

SkySportsF1 broadcasts most of the races but from what I understand they won’t cut to IndyCar if F1 post-race is still happening & have also heard they sometimes replay the F1 race over indycar :/

According to IndyCar, you can subscribe to IndyCar Live to watch practice and qualifying but no clue how much additional cost that would be or if it actually works

Latin America (except Belize and the Carribean Islands)

ESPN (unclear if they’ll carry all sessions)

Elsewhere:

Check here

if your country does not have a race broadcaster IndyCar live will probably be available & even if they do, it might still be available to watch practice and qualifying

Here's NBC's graphic with the race schedule but download the IndyCar app!!! it is the most helpful race weekend resource to have!! It has all the session times & driver radios are free to listen to during races if you make an account!! you can also listen to the radio feed of the whole race (at least in the US) & check championship standings live!! it's one thing this series does right!! download it!!

Thanks for reading I hope you found these posts helpful & if you have questions feel to ask me!

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unhingedhearties · 11 months ago

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Aftermath Re-cap

Let’s travel back in time to October 8, 2023, moments after When Calls The Heart’s Season 10, Episode 11 finished airing. In the last few minutes of the episode, the two lead characters broke off their engagement amicably and went their separate ways, content with still being friends. Some fans were happy and some fans…

…well if you’re here, you’ve seen some of the reactions.

GOODBYE!

Two fictitious adult characters realized they weren’t right for each other = morals are gone.

“Look like a slut”

And there it is. You see the crazier fans allude to it a lot, but few of them are brave enough to say it outright. They think this woman, who hasn’t had sex with the man she was engaged to, is a “slut” for breaking off her engagement and maybe realizing another man is who she’d rather be with.

This person is yet another fan who seems to think Chris is leaving the show, despite there being no proof. Mind you, this seems to be a demographic of people who clearly think that if they believe something hard enough, it has to be true.

“Anti-marriage agenda”. Because once fictitious characters are paired up, they must stay together no matter what. Things like actor availability, chemistry, fan interests aren’t factors. It’s all a plot by the evil secularists to destroy God from within.

Also, “Allie & Robert”... those two are kids. Please don’t be weird about the child actors.

Character limit isn’t enough. Twitter needs to limit how many times you can respond to yourself.

The lore of Lindays Sturman according to the Lucabeth fans is fascinating. Lindsay is apparently unqualified to be the showrunner because she had never watched the show before accepting the job. Only hard-core, super fans of any kind of media should ever be showrunners apparently. She binge watched all the episodes, which is somehow no good because something about not being able to understand When Calls The Heart the way people who obsessively watch all 100+ episodes constantly understand it.

But now, this woman who’s never watched the show, watched it once and decided to join one side of this fandom that likes one of the male characters. And from there worked with the channel WCTH airs on to DESTROY the show.

Do you people who say this stuff understand how stupid you sound?

“They likely want WCTH off the air so they can replace it with some other ridiculous and corny series that fits their new agenda.”

Why would they do this? When Calls The Heart has amazing ratings compared to other scripted TV series on cable. What would be the benefit in getting rid of something popular that brings them money? WCTH isn’t on every hour of the day. If they want to bring in new shows and content, they can.

And be brave. Tell me what their “new agenda” is? Because I’ve seen people lose their shit at Hallmark for having more movies with non-white leads, gay couples and non-Christian holiday movies. If that’s not what you mean by “new agenda” say what you mean then. Because that sure is what it sounds like.

People constantly bring up producer Brian Bird and the former showrunner John Tinker saying they weren’t going to change who the love interest is. I understand being disappointed, but it’s come to a point where people are starting to sound like children. “YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE D:” Yes. That’s life. Things don’t always go the way you want them to go. If a TV show changing its main couple is what gets you to realize strangers sometimes tell lies, consider yourself very fortunate.

Those stupid drumroll emojis… you can tell this is a person who’s only frame of reference for anything in life is from TV and movies. People like this can’t talk like a normal person. It really is “main character syndrome” and they see themselves as the underdog giving the dramatic, rousing speech.

“...which on 1920 was deemed as adulterous and immoral, and it is.”

Hearties in general really love to pick and choose when to either praise or complain about the show’s historical accuracy. World War 1, the Spanish Flu, Residential Schools, the realities of racism and sexism… pay no mind. Isn’t it great that these things never happened and we don’t need to address them in our happy make-believe world of Hope Valley :)

A woman broke off her engagement and might have feelings for another man, well clearly that’s adulterous and immoral in the 1920’s AND IT IS!

#when calls the heart #wcth #hearties #hallmark #lucabeth #unhinged fans #fandom drama

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tokiro07 · 1 year ago

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Hey, I like the tag :D And don't worry about it, I don't feel really called out, it's just very "oh someone noticed how In It Too Deep i am" lol

I agree with your assessment, like as someone who has been all up and down the Networking Scale (from meeting Big Important People to just meeting a bunch of weirdos who like the same thing as me) in general i feel like we all trust each other's tastes and recommendations way more than a random algorithm :> And being able to say "hey! this is something For You to try!" makes a huge difference both ways. It's always satisfying when someone likes something I recommended to them.

The irony of the sheer amount of content available in the world is that even if a single work finds the right path to its target audience, there's no guarantee that the target audience will be capable of engaging with it

I read Jump every week because it's easy. There is, at all times, an average of 20 manga in Jump, sometimes as few as 18, sometimes as many as 22, but pretty much never outside of that range. When one manga gets added, another gets removed; the stream is steady and predictable, so when there's something new, it's not taking up more of my time, it's filling a gap in the time I've already decided to allocate to this one hobby

If a manga runs in any other magazine though? It needs to really hook me, preferably fast. 100 Girlfriends? I caught it on day one. If you told me today "this manga has canon polyamory without cheating and is really funny, it makes a lot of Shonen Jump jokes, including a Medaka Box reference," I'd be super interested! But then I'd look at the 150 chapters and assess the amount of free time I have to dedicate to this and put it on the backburner, spending every day saying "man, I want to get into that...maybe soon..." and never getting around to it

Let that sink in: you could tell me it has a MEDAKA BOX REFERENCE and that won't convince me to drop time to catch up

Dorohedoro? Loved the anime, really want to get into the manga because I know it's more of the same and continues to develop the story. I'm too busy to start that journey

Dungeon Meshi? I've never heard anything about it that I didn't like, the art is great, the writing seems hilarious and I know I'll have a good time. I'll be able to carve out half an hour to watch an episode a week because I'll likely finish something else in time, but even if I do keep up with the anime, will I ever be able to get into the manga? I'll want to, but I just don't know

Games are even harder because in the time it takes me to finish one game, at least two more I'm interested in have come out. Pizza Tower caught me at the perfect time - I just finished Sonic Frontiers, Tears of the Kingdom wouldn't be out until the end of that week, I knew I'd be able to finish it in a day or two, AND I happened to be home sick from work. It was the exact size I needed it to be to fill the void

Meanwhile, I got into the IDW Sonic comics at the exact same time, but I was able to do that because I just finished Sonic Frontiers and wanted more Sonic content. As time passed and my free time ran out and Comixology stopped supplying me with the chapters I hadn't read yet, I ended up falling off of it. I'm almost caught up, and I can't bring myself to continue it because I can't use the super fun and convenient UI that I got used to

Having a constant deluge of content means you'll never run out of things to do, but fishing one out of the ensuing flood is so hard. If you're lucky, your friends will be wary of the moment you finish the thing you're working on and jump out of the waters to present you with the perfect catch

Otherwise people are just throwing fish in your boat while you're still eating this really good one and you're like "yeah, that is a good looking fish, let me just finish this one" and by the time you're done it's not looking so fresh and you're looking for another one, but you're not willing to throw the fish back into the water cus your friend gave it to you, that'd be rude

That metaphor got away from me, I think, but the point is that content piles up and selecting from it is a horrible matter of timing and motivation

#QU&A #media consumption #long post

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for-dramas-sake · 4 years ago

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My Favorite 2020 Dramas plus a few Honorable Mentions

In no particular order...

To Love

It’s not over yet, but already this is one of my favorites of modern Chinese dramas. The writing alone makes the story excellent in that it keeps you on your toes in every episode and keeps you engaged with the characters. Told from the two main leads’ POVs, it is a story of an undercover cop and a café owner who fall in love in the middle of his mission of a drug bust. It is a tale weaved from hard choices, complicated characters, and seemingly real life characters. It’s also a beautiful drama: full of color, excellent cinematography and lovely music.

I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to try out a underrated mature drama. I say mature for content (mainly for violence and drugs) as well for structure. This is NOT a bubbly, good-spirted drama. There is angst, pain, and conflict.

Qing Qing Zi Jin

I’m going to say it and mean it: My favorite drama of the year! I love it and have claimed the main leads to be “my babies” forever! The story is set in the Tang Dynasty of a mountain gang leader who comes to the capitol city to study at school not only to solve the mystery of ten years prior but to gain notoriety and fame. And let’s not forgot the love his life, a super strong (I mean that literally) girl who is a little shy at first, but then gains some backbone to go with those strong arms of hers.

It’s sweet, charming and lovely. And while that might sounds more like the perfect date, it’s not. There is plenty of drama infused: a jealous older sister, a cruel stepmother, a scheming royal, the truth of the FL’s mother, the secret of the ML’s true identity, as well as so much more.

I love every single episode and which it had ten more than its 40 episodes.

You Complete Me

Another modern drama that is so underrated! This is less violent and emotionally complicated as To Love, but it does pack a wallop of feelings. It’s another revenge story (third one in a row, I might have a preference for these kind of dramas). The male lead wants to take down the rich businessman who was the cause of his father’s demise but on the way he falls in love with the man’s daughter.

It’s the most life-like drama so far on this list in that it’s very business-minded. There are quite a few scenes just discussing business tactics, money transactions, and meeting scenarios which all fly over my head. I can see that is a turn off for a lot of people, but believe me that it’s not all numbers and figures! There is a lot of story behind the suits and briefcases. The female lead is my favorite of the year: she’s a total badass who wants to earn her own way and won’t let anyone help or hinder her. She’s fantastic. If anything, watch the show just for her.

Note: I’m a sucker for the trope “I Did _(insert revenge act here)__ But Then I Fell in Love with You”. It’s the whole Good Girl and Bad Guy trope, and I love it so. The ML isn’t 100% bad, per say, but he does not have good intentions towards his enemy.

The Journey Across the Night

Yet another modern drama! This one is full of mystery, intrigue, and darkness (more so than To Love). Unlike the other dramas, this one is not about revenge. But Like QQZJ, The ML is searching for truth as well as going to school. He is studying psychiatry under this creepy professor and hunting for answers. His mother and older brother both were diagnosed with schizophrenia when they turned 24 and he searches to learn how to prevent his own eventual dissent into madness.

This is a psychological, thriller drama but it’s not as scary as you might think. It’s pretty tame as horror dramas can go, but there are several creepy scenes and a few sketchy characters. The ML is a nice guy (do they exist anymore?) who doesn’t believe ghosts, but he manages to get pulled into a new mystery along with his friends a lot. The FL is a bubbly, loud girl who takes an instant liking to the boy. She confesses to him quite a lot over the show and it’s quite cute to see him blush.

This drama does not have a story flow (other than the ML and his quest). It is developed by the several mysteries the ML and his friends solve which is very interesting. Every mystery impacts one of characters differently which gives more insight into them as well their interaction with each other. Friendship is a major theme in this show. It’s thrilling ride with plenty of mystery, but bring your tissues!

Oh! My Sweet Liar!

What an adorable costume drama also set in the Tang Dynasty. This is a family grounded story set around the rich and powerful Li family. The FL is a painter who infiltrates the Li Mansion to paint “the four arhats” for money. She encounters the eldest son who doesn’t trust her from the start. But things take an interesting turn when she suddenly announces that she’s pregnant with his baby!

It’s a comical, fun ride that is lead by a sweet couple as well as the second lead couple who are childish but also adorable. It’s the least dramatic of the dramas listed so far with its ML falling in love rather quickly with the FL and a powerful family that’s not quite as domineering as imagined. But it’s a sweet story.

Need a pick-me-up? I recommend this one.

Under the Power

Crime fighting in the Ming Dynasty! It follows the trope of silly, but headstrong FL and the brooding loner ML. The girl is member of the local constabulary and she wants to fight against all injustice. The boy, a member of a special government enforcement team, endures her until he falls in love with her (wink wink).

The story follows the female constable and the government official teaming up to solve the case of the Disappearing Government Funds (play mysterious music here). They encounter multiple crime cases, battle different evil forces, even dip their toes into almost magical scenarios along the way. And they fall in love, of course.

It has its charm in the main couple’s cat and mouse interactions and slow burn love story. She comes from a poor background and he comes from the a government official lineage. They are night and day, but they click in a delightful way. Plus, there’s a ton of cool fighting scenes and a few likeable side characters too.

Eternal Love of Dream (aka the Pillow Book)

A fantastic follow up to the much-loved Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms with an appropriate story for everyone’s favorite minxy fox and the immortal who came from a rock. I love this story mainly because it gives depth to the shallow as a kiddie pool Feng Jiu from Ten Miles (I’m sorry, but she was not a favorite). She was such a crier that you needed an umbrella for a lot of her scenes. And Dong Hua was there too.

But then you actually see them have character and story and drama and a love story! And the chemistry is *chef’s kiss*. This drama is near perfection for its all mentioned previously except for a few minor things like it drags in some parts, a few side characters are boring (or the actors were switched from Ten Miles so I don’t quite care so much) and then it gets kind confusing in some parts.

Overall, a great fantasy drama with a well deserved ending.

...and now for a few honorable mentions!

Twisted Fate of Love

I’m on episode 11 so far and not quite fallen hard for it yet. I love Feng Xi (the scheming!!!) and all his questionable choices both to get Dong Yue and to get a promotion. But I don’t like Dong Yue much. She’s a weird mix of innocence and fighting spirit that I just don’t buy just yet. I will keep watching for their eventually love story.

The Heiress

The scheming! The secrecy! The playacting! The love story! I like it all, but it’s just not enough to get on my favorites list. I did say previously it as my favorite girl-disguised-as-a-guy drama, but it’s not my FAVORITE drama this year. Still very enjoyable!

General’s Lady

A surprisingly fun drama with a cute couple! I’m about 16 episodes in and would like to finish it one day. I do like how the couple is married very soon and have to work on building their relationship over the courses of the show. It’s refreshing from other shows that have the reverse.

Dating in the Kitchen

Cute, cute drama! I probably would have put this on my favorites list but I haven’t finished it yet (I’m so behind in a lot of dramas). It touches on the older man/ younger woman genre, which is so rare is chinese dramas. And it’s done well. Not cringe-inducing because the two leads have beautiful chemistry. And there’s lots of food.

And that’s my list! I hope this inspires some of you to watch some very good dramas as well as stretch outside your comfort zone. I know I went out of my usual bounds of historical dramas and fell in love with some amazing modern dramas. Here’s hoping 2021 will bring lots of fun dramas for us to discover!

#cdrama #chinese drama #Dating in the Kitchen #under the power #the heiress #oh my sweet liar #to love #qing qing zi jin #general's lady #twisted fate of love #the journey across the night #eternal love of dream #you complete me

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tsuna-sora · 4 years ago

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Hi, yes hello. Good day all my gender and none gender darlings <3 This is gonna be a long winded salt post about the current state of mlb and the fandom and if that’s not for you feel free to skip this post as you please dear. I want your comfort as a priority and you do you. And for people who disagree with me I’ll kindly ask you not to engage on this post please keep scrolling and don’t let me have any bearings on your day. I will not interact to dispute this post cause I’m kinda tired of stuff if that’s alright with you. Love you. OKAY. *breaths* As someone who when it comes to Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction only goes into the Adrienette tag and never got the urge to see other ships in fics ever since the start of this show till now, I can safely say that I am indeed an Adrienette shipper.... yah know EXCEPT FOR CURRENT CANON. Because, this may shock everyone who likes this ship, the relationship they have in fanfiction and canon is not the same thing anymore. This series canon writing has been atrocious since the start of S3 (if not the middle of S2 where I could notice things were in the start of going in a weird /later confirmed bad/ direction)

So this is just a thing I wanted to say, hey like could y'all kindly not deliberately go into tags of your notp’s and harass shippers in their own tags/blogs? Cause that’s like, not raaad my dude. \(uwu)/ And tag stuff accordingly if you disagree? Please and thank you for being an amazing human being? And be polite if you wanna debate them? And if your not sure the poster is open to it please first ask/check with them for consent for that debate? :3c

Also can we like not dismiss someone’s extremely valid points and logical points that they wrote/pointed out as flaws and/or good points and well written parts just because *le gasp* they ship Adrienette or Lukanette and/or Adrigami instead of what you ship or is endgame in canon! Blasphemy!

Okay now for the serious note, Marinette is always punished for shit she didn’t do to the point her embarrassment and distress in Truth made me cry and have an attack that later made me finally quit the show. (if you want to see that distress post it’s here) One of my bff’s who writes Adrienette fics on AO3 also hates the writing and destruction of characters in this entire show at this point and agrees that the writing for the characters has been shit, Marinette is both a great person and then suddenly a freak for plot reasons, Adrien is a saint except he literally is not and him not learning lessons is the worst representation and image for young boys ever, every single character has been distorted to fit plot instead of providing it, but they keep watching for lore for their fic and have been explaining to me what happened since then. So yes I know about Lies through them and osmosis of bloggers I follow. And some of them holy molly are Lukanette or Adrigami and even Marigami blogs because that doesn’t matter to me one fucking bit because they’re freakin’ darlings of people who tag stuff properly and aren’t rude to others or have ever been rude to me and the points they make are valid. Just as I also follow a lot of dedicated Adrienette only blogs and in fact what all of these have in common is that when I interact with them or ask stuff they all have been nothing but fluffy bunnies I wanna kidnap into my home.

Just as some other people have also pointed all these things out even tho they are also Adrienette shippers.

( Tipo EU, e outras pessoas muito giras que só shipam Adrienette )

Who have been silenced by the other majority. If you don’t agree with me that’s FINE. That’s why I put that first part of the post informing you that if you read this till this point I don’t want to debate out my experience of Miraculous if it doesn’t mirror yours. And you don’t see the same things I did. That’s okay my dude. :c

IT’S FINE I LOVE YOU ANYWAY AND I WANT YOU HAPPY.

MY POINT IS *deep breaths* someone being a Lukanette shipper saying that Truth is a bad episode and presenting reasons outside their ship for it is valid. An Adrigami shipper pointing out that Lies is badly written and posting logical points that have nothing to do with the ship is valid.

You know what’s not valid?

Dismissing someone’s argument cause you went into their blog and noticed they shipped a certain ship even tho their debate/post had no ships involved as points of argument to begin with and then decided to harass/dismiss them and their post directly at them.

Guys we need to be kinder to each other. We need to respect each other. We need to understand that some people only like the shipping in a show. Some people only like to discuss writing of shows. Some people like to salt, others not at all. Some post things as an outlet not wanting different interaction/debate, others do want people to discuss and debate. ALL OF THIS IS GREAT AND FINE. BUT WE NEED TO RESPECT AND BE KIND TO EACH OTHER.

I have not been a perfect example of this and I am a mature person who can admit this. So if I unintentionally did this to you? I’m sorry. I will hear the person speaking to me and check myself and correct my behavior for next time. And so can you because I believe you are a good person.

I had proof of this very recently where me and someone else had a misunderstanding within a post and we ended up talking and we cleared up stuff. Turns out that person did not want to make me feel bad at all. We just had a case of me being a none English speaker and not being able to make my entire point super cohesive and them getting a wrong idea and it snowballing from there.

Which is also something I wanna point out. Please don’t forget that some people aren’t native English speakers and may not be able to explain themselves fully to you or cohesive enough. Be patient and before you think they are debating something without pointing out this thing or x forgot to point out something in their post ask them about it politely if they have an opinion on it or if maybe they forgot to mention? Jesus where am I going with this post at this point. Okay what I want everyone to take away from this is that we shouldn’t be fighting each other. We shouldn’t be dismissing and harassing each other. You know what we should be doing? Beating up Thomas Austruc and his writing team with sticks and DEMANDING BETTER WRITING FOR THIS SHOW AND ALL OUR SHIPS BE THEY CANON OR NOT ALL OF US TOGETHER---- Okay pitch fork revolution idea aside I just wanted to stop people from using a ship as a means to hurt each other. We all liked or still like MLB and I want us to be above this stuff. I believe in us cause I’m a stupid shounen protag whose hopes die last when it comes to people. I love you all okay? I seriously do. I’ve had a lot of fun when it comes to the fandom of MLB. I love seeing people post cute art of my ship. I love seeing cute art of Lukanette, I love seeing cute art of Adrigami and Nino and Alya, and Nino or Adrien and JuleRose. I love the gifs, the salt, the cute content, the mostly lore debated stuff etc. I LOVE IT ALL. And I’m not giving up on us. And I bet 100% that you aren’t either you stupidly beautiful human being. *kisses your cheek with your consent* This has been again a very rare self post. And I bid you all goodnight.

#miraculous ladybug #Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir #ml salt #ml positivity #personal post #All ships are valid #I love you #I believe in this fandom #We will get there #Don't let others dictate how you feel about this show and that includes myself #I have no idea what to tag and it's very obvious #Can yall tell this was written very poorly thought out cause my brain is fried?

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signofwolf · 3 years ago

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Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas – book review

Series: Throne of Glass #7 Genre: YA, Fantasy Theme: Fae, magic users, war Warnings: mentions of torture, imprisonment Star rating: 0,5/10

Why did I pick this up?: I wanted to end this horrible series once and for all.

[Heavy spoilers ahead]

To make myself clear, before this book I quite liked this series. It wouldn��t place in my top 100 books, not even close, but it was a pleasant pageturner to listen to in audiobooks when working.

Language

Let’s start slow. I lack the words to express how much I hate the words ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘mate’ after this series. Not even gonna try to express my trauma. But these 3 gems aside, Sarah J. Maas needs a dictionary. Or compress her work to a manageable size. Everything sang, Everyone melted, Every man roared, Every woman trembled, Everyone was unleashing themselves at least once a chapter (number of chapters: 122) ). And now I know definitely too much about Yrene’s ‘womb’. I know so much…

Dynamism

I thought that was a book about a war with heavy action content. Oh boy, I was wrong. This 984-pages monstrosity has maybe 5 pages of action. If you squint.

Every sequence, where by design action should take place was followed by one of two scripts:

Few sentences of action and then a few pages long internal monologue. Often repeated with the same character after the next few sentences of action, or with the next character and then the next (sometimes the first character made a second appearance and then everything would go all over again). And the word ‘character’ used in these sentences is not because I’m rambling. This book is written that way!

Few sentences of action and then action stops, and we are graced by a few pages long conversation. In the middle of a battle. Or spying. Or in Erawan’s chambers, when his castle is going down, and he is running up the stairs...

Time

Leaving alone the fact that apparently all series took less than a year (till this book I estimated the plot for about 3 years, Wiki told me it was 2, but Maas knows best), because that is a can of worms in itself. Time in this one? I honestly have no idea. There were many ‘few weeks of travel’ parts with two main groups of POVs. Personally my only time indicator was ‘Orynth won’t fall till Aelin gets here’. But nothing just fit. And I saw Lost Song when in the last episode we as the audience realized that our two POVs parallel storylines are in reality millennia apart. Lost Song made sense.

Emotional loading

… there wasn’t any. Really, it was like reading a milk label. Every time the scene was potentially emotionally impactful, Maas went ahead to overexplaining EVERY. GOD. DAMMED. THING. And it was abso-fucking-lutely everything. ‘Emotional dilemma? Let’s current POV explain it! 2 pages should be enough… Damn maybe it wasn’t enough. I know! I’ll switch POVs and explain it through the other character!’ <= My impression of Maas’ thought process. I’m fairly sure that the record was 7 POVs explaining the same thing in the row, but I was blacking out a little, so I cannot be sure.

And if that wasn’t enough, this book had a second way to defuse tension: random-plastic-repetitive-badly_written-smut. Really badly written and really repetitive. How could you not feel the spicy bits, when Manon (cruel, self assured 100+years old witch-queen) reacts the same in bed as Elide (20years old, virgin, ex-slave). And the rest of them were the same, there weren’t ANY distinctions.Just copy-paste.

The next point in current case: Someone died, it was impactful, I really liked the character, so I got sad. But then 2 of our characters came out of the room with a body, and after a paragraph of grieving they started making out, and then I was regaled with 2-pages-long description of melting cores. That was the place then this book stopped being badly written, and started being distasteful.

Characters

Remember when I was writing about switching POVs (which is 15(!!!) In the whole book. Oh and an omniscient narrator in places when our current POV was grieving too much to overthink something, but Maas still wanted to inform us about something)? They were all savagely murdered in the worst way: character mutilation. Somewhere between books our maybe-not-that-original but colorful and interesting characters became carbon copies of each other. I have no idea how many times I didn’t realise there was a POV switch. The only indicator was a change of pronoun, or when Maas was telling us the name of a current narrator. These were the only ways. And if you can't distinguish if you are in Dorian’s head or in Manon’s, that is the sign of a really BAD writing.

Romance

…there wasn't any. In all this book there wasn't any naturally progressing romantic scene. There were Maas’ endgame pairings which were sexing or pinning. As the author Maas loves to write about soulmates. And it’s not a bad thing itself. When I want some fluffy story I often tag ‘soulmates’ in AO3 and voila, +10 to good mood. But God above, it is not cute when every pair you write about are ‘true mates’ just BECAUSE. It is the only way Maas sees a relationship, as a fated pairing, written in the wake of the universe by the God himself. There is no choice, nor the work to put in it. They are the author's OTP and that means that they are perfect and they should have children right now. Point in case:

Guy was treating a girl like a shit on his sole, including throwing her naked out of tent, on a snow, with their friends present, all the while abusing her verbally in a worst way. But it’s okay, because when she almost died he realised his mistakes and apologised. Two scenes later, he was forgiven, because... fated mates?

The pathos

I know that many people don't like this type of scenes, but it's not my case. I’m reading by picturing images and not repeating words. I like sequences that I can imagine to be grand and glorious, even if they are a little corny. That said, the pathos scenes were the most disappointing ones for me. Maas likes to write parts that are more picturesquely exalted than logically possible [point in case: meeting of 5 armies/forces in the random patch of sand in Empire of Storms, and it being painted as ‘an Aelin’s great plan’. I laughed myself silly at that. But not taking logic and all the plot holes into consideration that was a nicely looking scene. In Kingdom of Ash that wasn’t the case. I would say that the author wanted to paint us a renaissance painting every 20 pages or so. In my opinion, every time she failed miserably. Each and every of those scenes was or to farfetched to be even remotely realistic, and evidently written only for a sake of the picture, or just plainly stupid.

Example, and it’s so priceless a scene, that I just need to share it: Battle of Orynth, 25th day or so (time in this book doesn’t exist), the 13. sacrificed themselves (like thousands before them but hush). And then, time stops: grieving Manon is going through the city, they open the gates for her (yes, the siege is still on), she goes to the place where they died, after her come out all of our main heroes, and half the city itself with ‘flowers, rocks and precious possessions’ and they lay it there in a tribute to these brave (evil till 2 months ago) witches. I honestly can’t remember when was the last time I saw such an abstract scene. It’s a material for an essay in itself. No, I could not take it seriously.

Additionally, it's hard to make an impact as every damn sentence is grand and lofty. In the end it became truly pathetic, Aelin vs Maeve was unreadable.

Character deaths:

Let's make a quick count: main characters in a series at the start of KoA: 12 secondary characters in a series at the start of KoA: 20ish minor and total background: a lot more

Death count: main: 0 secondary: 3 minor: 2 (11 if we try very hard)

Resurrections: 1 (possibly 3, but not gonna analyze it)

Did you feel emotions of this impossible war against this all-encompassing, all-powerful, invincible, immortal, cunning Evil with armies from 3 continents and 2 worlds? No? Me neither.

Oh well, but there were a lot of deaths of ordinary soldiers. I’m quite certain that all of Terrasen’s army was at least twice brought back to life for them to die in these numbers.

Logic or lack thereof

Oh, and let’s not forget about the Deus ex machina army of unbeatable, magical elves on wolves, from legends, living for the past thousands of years in the unreachable lands of the north, because they managed to run from the surprise attack 10 years earlier. Did I mention that they came from portals, which the whole book was telling us were impossible to make in this scenario? After the previous saviour army was already fighting there for a day? And that Aelin didn’t know they would come for sure (how did she contact them again?)? Even though they were waiting in the full armours for these portals? Ah, and also: that army didn’t do anything. They just came and fought for maybe 4 minutes. And there were just so many things like that!

And if we’re on the topic of armies I present you: ‘My favourite absurd-list in the series: allied armies’.

(As a comparison, in A Song of Ice and Fire by J.R.R Martin, in 7 kingdoms of Westeros, at the peak of war there were 7 forces present, but not all were even engaged in a war.)

First the ones that made sense:

Armies of Terrasen’s Lords (counted as one, not gonna nitpick)

The Khaganate army (also counted as one)

Galan Ashryver’s armada

Whitethorn fraction

Rebel Ironteeth witches

…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’?

And there were some that did not:

Ansel of Briarcliff’s army

The Silent Assassins

Mycenians

Wild Men of the Fangs

Army of magical elves on wolves

And the ‘I don’t even know’ category:

Crochan witches

Overpowering and overreaching

Section title tells it all. The stakes were too high. I was honestly waiting for Aelin to become Super Saiyan and start to throw planets at Maeve and Erawan. I won’t spoil if this happened.

In my opinion it could be a really great series, if our list of villains ended with Arobynn and King of Adarlan, and the list of Aelin titles with an assassin and a princess. We could have had two main fight plots: one emotional with Arobynn, when Aelin would have to face a damage he had done to her, and overcome it. And the second one, with freeing Terrasen from Adarlan’s rule. That’s it. There was an asshole, power hungry king, who feared magic and wanted to rule the East part of a continent. A lot of plot, but not so much that we stopped to care, or didn’t have time to cover everything. We could really get to know what Terrasen and his people were like and not JUST GET TOLD that it was ‘the greatest place in the world’ every damn 20 pages.

Plus…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’? It's a REALLY valid question.

Climaxes

IIf I have to write a list of things that disappointed me in this book, this review would be thrice its current size, but one of the worst grievances I have is the complete lack of acknowledging the plotlines that had been started. This book series has overall 4 372 pages (not counting novellas) and 12 main characters (still not gonna address this). All of them had their storylines and arcs but if they weren't tied up in the previous instalments they wouldn’t be in this one. I get it, Maeve and Erawan got beaten (in an extremely unsatisfactory way) but they were only a background in this series' plots.

Aelin Well, Aelin was one of 3 people (+2 paragraf-long insertion from Nesryn and Chaol) who got their own POV’s after the battle (second was technically Rowan, who was ‘Aelin’s POV outside of Aelin’.The third Dorian, who got almost a full two pages). And from this we got that: she got crowned, Aedion got his bond and that Maas have no idea how the city looks after weeks of siege. In her case what angered me the most was ‘Terrasen is my home’ subplot. Only in this tome we read at least 3 times that Aelin will be okay with dying, if only she gets to see Terrasen one last time, or if she get to die on Terrassen soil. But you know what? Maas forgot to write the scene where Aelin actually ‘comes in’.

Mannon Didn't get her own POV after the battle, but here’s what we’ve got: She is going to the Wastes with Croachans and Ironteeth. Whait. What? Yes, that was the ending of this 500+ years of feud. They fought together and they decided to unite their two species, completely forgetting more than half a millenia of slaughter. I can only hope that there were at least some talks behind the scenes… NO! F*** NO! This isn’t how it works!

Rowan, Dorian, Chaol, Yrene, Lysandra, Aedion, Lorcan, Elide, Nesryn, Sartaq Lived happily ever after

Secondary minor and total background characters Survived (I acknowledge that they would be ignored in most books’ epilogues, but this abomination is almost 1000 pages of nothing!!).

Good Scenes

That saying, this book actually had 4 good scenes:

Crochan witches go to war - gathering-forces-to-fight trope, which is my *love-always trope* so I’m not even sure if it was relatively good, or if I’m just a slut for this trope. It was still only a paragraph long though.

[recurring] The children’s tale Aelin repeated to herself to remember who she is.

‘Lorcan Lochan’ - the only marginally funny scene in the whole book

I actually found Darrel making Evangeline his heir charming. Even if circumstances were far-fetched at least.

But the words crime of this book? It was agonisingly, mind-numbingly boring. If the overexplaining and repetitions were to be taken out I highly doubt that there would be 300 pages left.

For these 33 hours of audiobook I suffered through I give it half a star. Because Abraxos exist.

Please see my garishly accurate cover on my instagram! You can also like it there :D

instagram | goodreads

#book #book review #bookworm #review #signofwolf-book_review #opinion #throne of glass #throne of glass series #throne of glass spoilers #sarah j maas #kingdom of ash #aelin galythinius #mary sunderland #tog #fantasy #fandom

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aspiestvmusings · 5 years ago

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ZEP: Max & Zoey - Thoughts 1

Here’s my take... on some of the storylines/scenes/lines:

Again.. super long post. SPOILERS up to 1x10, and possibly hints at what is coming. Hence...SPOILER WARNING.

Analyzing the M/Z storylines from the perspective of “things that fans don’t understand or like about Max’s character behaviour”. And possibly providing a different perspective to look at some of the things/behaviour...

Mentions of Z/S relationship/storylines.

In the Pilot Max was encouraging Zoey to go after Simon, cause he knew she’s interested in the new guy... but that changed...at about the time she/he/they found out the guy is taken/engaged. That’s the moment when his “best friend mode” kicked in & tried to not let Zoey make her past mistake again with overly complicated, exhausting for everyone & not good relationship choices...

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The one & only reason I can’t be Team Simon.

I cannot ever consider Team Simon for one simple reason - the writers had the character be in a relationship/engaged...when his emotional affair with Zoey started. IF he would have been single, I could talk about choosing sides/teams, but this single fact takes Simon out of the equation. No matter how good looking, cool, hot, or compatible he might be with Zoey. No matter if their relationship grows in the future... Their first moments were cheating (on Jessica), and no matter how “human” and “real”, that is the line for me that shan’t be crossed. And the fact that the relationship ended does not change what happened before - they kissed while he was still engaged. You can’t take that back. IF the writers would have made him single..since start...I could debate which Team I’m on, but the fact he was engaged eliminates him for me. But none of their cute moments or shared grief bond... or hot dances change the simple fact that he cheated on Jessica.

Sidenote: if we’re talking cast, then I'm both Team Skylar AND Team John C. Those two gents are both great AND they can both sing!

***********************************************

Yes, unless Max knows something we don’t know about Zoey (that she, just like her dad, actually, secretly loves big gestures and moments) his choice for how he professed his love seems to be wrong way to declare his love for this specific lady. Because according to what we know Zoey is not into music (but then again...the use of a flash mob was a plot twist device by the writers... who just decided to use that surprise for Max/Zoey, when it could’ve been any other character... but this was simply done so that the show could mess with Zoey’s powers and give her character “oh, this isn’t in my head, this is real” moment.) But... that’s just a possible bad choice by the character, not anything horrible. And that’s the way he knows how to say it, even if a small, personal, reveal seems more Zoeys style.

But... are we actually correct in assuming this? After the flashmob she never once mentioned anything about it being “too much of a public declaration for her taste”. She even called it “an amazing gesture”, which tells us that while she might be uncomfortable with “big moments” in general (public speaking...), she is comfortable with them with people she’s closed to (her dad, her best friend...) And we saw her talk about it with Max & with Mo. Her only worry was related to him telling her, in reality (not just in her mind...via heart song) that he has feelings for her. She has not shown any worry regarding it being done via “grand gesture”. So... is it possible that it actually isn’t so “not her” as we assume?

Just as perhaps Max from 1x09 is not as “passive” and “not interested in promotion” as Max from 1x01? Perhaps time & peer reviews, and everything else...has changed him? And he’s actually interested in climbing the career ladder.,.. as opposed to the Max in the Pilot, who told Zoey that he does not want any of that...

Maybe Zoey is her fathers daughter, and actually (secretly) loves big moments & grand gestures? Because her dad is all about “big moments”. And maybe it’s actually really appropriate for Max to tell Zoey about his feelings this way, in “big moments/grand gesture” style flash mob? To honor her dad...in a way. Cause Mitch loves these kind of moments & Mitch is No 1 in Zoey’s life, so... maybe we’re all wrong in assuming it was “not Zoey’s style”?

*************************************************

From Max’s POV this is what’s going on with Zoey/his relationship with Zoey:

She ends their regular movie nights...with no explanation. Something that they’ve done...forever...since they are best friends. (He probably thinks it’s because of her dad’s health and that she’s focused on..that... after her promotion he even asks if her “weidness” is because of “her dad” and/or her now being his boss)

She starts acting strangely...around him, and general...and she doesn’t talk to him anymore (it’s been implied that they’re BFF and talk about everything... but she hasn’t told him what’s up with her). He wonders if it’s because of her dad’s health and everything related to it (but he doesn’t know if its only because of that, or if there’s something more/else, too)

He has feelings for her, but he doesn’t tell her (she only finds out cause she can hear his heart songs). Finding out that her BF has deeper feelings for her freaks her out, even though he himself does not pressure her or anything like that..yet. She is the one who assumes their “discussion” at work is presumed as “lovers quarrel” & she is the one who presumes that “is it a date” means he considers a meal together as date...when all he means is “are you free to go” (to the new place which they both wanted to go to..as friends) Up until the flash mob there is zero “pushing” from him.

He only sings love songs to her when he’s single - during the time he’s dating someone else (Autumn) he stops singing to her, because he’s not a cheater. When he’s with someone, he’s with that someone, and devoted to that person..only. So he stops for a while.

He sees & hears her say that the thing she had for/with Simon is over (1x06) & that she’s not doing any of that anymore. Since she doesn’t talk about any of it with him, this is all he knows so he assumes she meant it, and she’s done chasing the engaged man. This is also probably the only inside info she has on the whole Z/S situation - what he sees/hears during the “burnt roses” moment. (So... it is not a nice surprise when he learns in 1x08 that after everything her words were not true, cause it’s not all over/done with S...)

Why he doesnt believe her right away when she tells him of her powers: As a rational person he has a hard time believing her claims about superpowers at first. Also... it seems like such a “lie” to change the subject, and simply avoid giving him an honest answer (yes OR no) But after hearing some more facts he starts believing. And by the time she “glitches” he has no doubt that she’s going through all this...

Both Zoey and Max are emotionally challenged. (tbh, just like Max I believed Autumn when she said that all is cool when they broke up during their morning jog. I’m emotionally challenged, too. I honestly did not know that what she said and what she thought/felt were different, so I get why it came as a surprise to him to learn she wasn’t cool about it) The whole Autumn/Max break-up tells us that Max doesn’t get the subtle clues, and needs to hear the words to know the truth. Hence he believes what Zoey tells him... at first.

He misreads her signals in 1x05 - 1x06 - 1x07 (”I need more Max”, reinstating their movie nights, touching his bicep, commenting she needs more Max in her life, checking him out when he’s shirtless, etc), and based on that confesses his love for her via flashmob. What surprises him is not so much that she doesn’t respond with the same, but that she doesn’t give him an answer...at all. (Mo explained it best to Zoey...later; the boy deserved an answer... even if it’s “I don’t know...yet”. Also... we’ve never heard her say that she didn’t appreciate it because it was a big gesture...so she might not be as uncomfortable with the gesture as we think) Instead she runs, and then she avoids giving him an answer, kinda changing the subject, and telling him about her powers. Instead of telling him the truth right away, cause truth might hurt, but it’s better than avoidance/ignoring.

This is shown later in the episode, when after Zoey finally gives him her...messy & selfish answer... he’s hurt, but content. She tells him that the reasons why she isn’t ready to go from friends to more is because her focus has to be on her dad for now & because she’s afraid that “they” won’t work out & she’ll lose her best ftiend...for good... and she can’t risk that... at this time. This is not the answer he hoped for, but as Mo predicted...this is the answer he accepts. That can be seen in the elevator scene with Simon. He’s OK with waiting & this not being the right time (cause she needs to focus on her dad at the moment). He also doesn’t say they’re done, he asks what she asked - pressing pause on their traditional friends activities like movie nights.

During the 1x07 end elevator convo he also learns that the totally engaged man has been “keeping tabs” on Zoey & Z/M. Which concerns him. Cause why is an engaged man looking at other women & paying attention to whom they socialize with (when his focus should only be on his fiancee)? Like Mo, he probably thinks “the guy is a player” after this convo. And again... he, as Zoey’s friend, is not in the wrong, when he thinks he should “protect” her from the morally questionable guy.

Then in the “very next day basically” he learns that she wasn’t completely honest with him. And since she promised 100% honesty to him, he’s hurt that she as his friend isn’t being honest. She sings him a love song (it is possible that she wasn’t aware of her deep feelings for him...but after this she definitely is...100%)...but then tries to take back the honesty and claim that the truth she spoke is not the truth. But what really hurts him is how her “honesty” from their last convo turns out to be a lie (and we know it is, because we’ve seen Zoey tell her mom & Mo about her real feelings, not the cleaned up version she told Max at the end of 1x07) - and he voices why he’s upset. It’s not because she doesn’t return his feelings, it’s because she wasn’t honest with her best friend. Because through her heart songs he knows for a fact that she has feelings for him - that she loves him, too. So he’s not upset that she doesn’t love him back. He even says it during their bathroom convo - the best reason to be “mad” at her is that she told him she loves him/she’s his, when she didnt mean to tell him this (the truth). Meaning: she thinks it’s “unfair” he’s upset that “she sang him a heart song, when she didn’t mean to”... or in other words: she thinks it’s fair to keep the truth a secret from him...and this rigth after she promised 100% honesty to him... and he doesn’t agree with the secret-keeping.

We saw Max’s feelings progression since Pilot: in 1x01 he THINKS he’s in love with her, in 1x02 he’s a SUCKER for her & by 1x07 he fully admits he LOVES her. With Zoey the timeline is..kinda... starting in 1x06... The “500 miles” moment is her “I think I love you” moment & her heart song to him in 1x08 is basically her “I love you” moment.

She claims she isn’t ready for a relationship because she needs to focus on her dad right now, when in reality she really is torn between two men - and she wants Max to be her emotional support and shoulder to lean on (knowing he loves her, and knowing that he knows that she knows he loves her), while she herself is pursuing another man, Simon. An engaged man she’s obsessed with cause she “finds his body hot & has a grief bond with”. (in reality: her role has mostly been being his grief therapist - and she’s not really told him about her dad that much...so it’s pretty much one-sided anyway) But just as she didn’t want to be the other woman, he doesn’t want to be the other man/third wheel... and that’s understandable.

Then when Max gets the job offer he goes to his best friend for support. And while I personally read the scene as him saying “no, that was not the right answer, but it gave me mine (I’m taking the job)” being a response to her asking “was this the right answer?” because this meant she wasn’t still being honest with him, and instead of giving her her true answer she gave him the answer she thought he wanted to hear... I am willing to accept that what the writers meant was that he wanted her to give a more personal answer and/or ask him to stay because he is a valuable member of the team.

Her reply was as his boss, and co-worker/friend. She only focused on their work relationship, not their personal friendship. She’ll miss sitting across from him... not that she’ll miss him outside work (and yes...it’s only two floors up, and working in different departments does not mean they can’t hang out oustide work...) but still her answer did not include her role as best friend/possible future romantic partner....even when he asked her to specify the “I’m Your’s Zoey’s” answer - she only focused on the work related part when replying...to that. This gave him the clarity needed - she’s not into him, so he did the right thing & put space between them. Since she didn’t include the “I’m Yours Zoey” that meant to him that she’d choosen Simon...and just as it’s very human to grieve and cheat...it's also very human to feel hurt/heartbroken. And he should not have to subject himself to seeing her with someone else (when he knows she has feelings for both) - making the same mistakes over again she’s made before with her relationships. So his choice was the right one...for both. They need time apart, time to grow as individuals, time to reflect...

Yes his speech in 1x10 was directed mostly to her, but he was adressing the whole 4th floor/Team, really. Cause no-one stood up to give him a “good luck” hug when he came to collect his things. And his best friend didn’t even have any encouraging words to him...on the day he moved to the 6th floor.... and even admitted she didn’t get to get him a “good luck gift” (which he could just assume is because she’s busy with her dad, but we know that while she had 4 days to buy that pen/mouse...and didn’t, she managed to get a plant as housewarming gift for the other man in like 4 hours. And we also know that she voiced no concerns about losing her best friend and a good team member at work...while talking to Mo... yet she had lots of things to say about “the man who just broke up, and whom I said I would not chase anymore, but now that he’s been single for 4 seconds, we can make out and it’s not cheating this time anymore”... so she’s showing no signs of caring about his best friends life changes, while caring a lot about the other mans life changes)

So of course he feels underappreciated on the 4th floor. The peer reviews, the boss, the team manager, the job offer... it all plays a part in his decision. And the D*rk Point boss knows exactly what to say...to make him feel appreciated...something he didn’t feel he got on the 6th floor... but he didn’t realize until he heard Ava point out his good work..with the maze, with the chirp pitch...and though he may not realize that Ava, too, has her own agenda, hearing that he is appreciated...as a worker & as a human...made him feel good (we saw how important positive feedback is for everyone during the peer reviews plot), and he realized he didn’t get any of that, really, on the 4th floor. And once again... while he may have secretly wanted to hear her say “stay”, what he actually really wanted/needed was for her to encourage him, and show genuine happiness for him, and for her to be completely honest with him. And he didn’t feel like that’s something she could be right now. To put it in her own terms: “everyone is so nice & polite, and no one is giving me the raw & honest feedback”...cause her reply to him when asked about the job offer was “polished” & “nice”, not “honest & raw”. (and I think we all agree that her telling him to take it & him taking it was the right move...for all... cause they both need space & to grow individually)

In the Pilot we learn that Max thinks he’s not management material & he’s not looking for career opportunity. So to Zoey's knowledge this is not in character for him? So whether or not he’s changed during the time between then & now, to Max’s knowledge she knows that he likes being just a coder. So for her to not know him...and not remember that he’s told her this, could be disappointing. So her reply: That’s a great career opportunity MIGHT tell him that she doesn’t know him and what he wants. (this is the flashmob argument: we, fans, think that a flashmob is “not Zoeys style” & we, fans, think that promotion is “not Max’s style”. We might be wrong, cause we don’t know everything about the characters + they can change...over time...)

Another thing she says to him when he asks advice regarding the job offer is “I would never stop you from going after what you want”. When they both know that what he really wants is her - he’s made it clear. And yet... here she is saying she’d not stop him, when she is “stopping him” from doing just that. And at the same time...as pointed out in the last part... is a promotion what Max really wants? Cause it is not the case for “1x01 Max”...and we & Zoey haven’t been made aware that he’s changed his mind. So... does his best friend not know him? (or does she known him better...and know he’s changed his POV on promotions)

Max & Zoey have been best friends & colleagues...for 5 years...since the first day on the job. From Max’s POV...something changed..suddenly...a few months ago. For a while he didn’t know why and what, but now he knows why. And just like it took time for Zoey to adjust to her “power”, same applies to Max (adjusting to her powers).

From Max’s POV...his best friend is dishonest with him, she avoids him, she has changed, she comes to him when she needs him... but she herself doesn’t offer anything back (yes, he is aware she’s grieving, and he understands it, but his best friend is not letting her friends help her during the time she needs to lean on family/friends). We have rarely seen her talk to him about anything else than office gossip...or her powers related stuff...recently. And it’s heavily implied they used to talk...all the time... about everything. His best friend also set him up with another woman...just to avoid him after she learned that he has feelings for her. His best friend claims her focus has to be her dad, and she can’t do more than friendship at this time, but at the same time she continues pursing another man. And this after she promised to be 100% honest with him. And she betrayes that trust the “very next day”. So he has every right to be upset, and hurt.

Zoey has every right to be upset about the fact that she thinks Max is “pushing her to have feelings for him” (when they both know... for a fact..after her heart song that she does have feelings for him), but in this case Max has every right to be upset about the fact that he thinks “she is avoiding him”. She has the right to grieve, so does he. If she has the right to be upset that Simon doesn’t return her feelings... then Max has the right to be upset that she doesn’t return his feelings. The same rules have to apply to all, not just main character. And if you look at the storylines closely, you’ll see the parallels... the things that Zoey is upset about (fans are upset about) regarding Simon’s behaviour (when pursuing him) are the same exact things that Max is upset about regarding Zoey (his pursuit of her). The same way that some fans point out Max is “obsessed with Zoey” there’s a parallel story with Zoey is “obsessed with Simon”. All Max wanted from Zoey was what Zoey wanted from Simon - clarity. For her/him to have clarity. And just as she felt the other man didn’t have it, he felt that she didn’t have it.

Because we, the audience, know that Zoey (thinks she has) has feelings for both men - her behaviour in past episodes (especially 1x06 - 1x07) and her heart song confirm that she has feelings for Max, and because he knows her secret, he knows that that’s a fact. So he has every right to be upset that she “doesn’t like him back/doesn’t want to be with him”, when he knows that she does love him back, while claiming the opposite. And she won’t talk to him about it...

From his POV it is as follows: they both have admitted they love each other. She claims she needs time to deal with her grief and can’t risk their friendship. She tells him she loves him...and the very next minute goes to another mans arms - that’s the part that upsets him. He’s not upset that she’s not returning his feelings/not wanting to date him, nope. He’s “upset” because he, as her best friend who knows her & her past relationships, knows that her thing with the engaged man will not end well for her. And yes, he is not wrong in saying that in a case when she has feelings for two men it’s a better option to choose the best friend, who has always been there for her (she’s said this herself) than the totally engaged (until just recently) & morally questionable, emotionally unavailable grieving hot guy.

While Max choices have been just “mistakes” (perhaps not the best idea to confess your feelings via flash mob to a girl who only listens to podcasts?), then Simon’s choices have been actual “bad decisions” - cheating. And though both Simons & Zoey’s bad choices have been rooted in their grief/depression, they cannot “excuse” it with being a mess due to grief. Instead of continuing the downward spiral they should own their mistakes, acknowledge them as not good choices. It’s one thing to use the wrong gesture to confess your love to somone, and completely another thing to cheat on your fiancee (and blame it on being a mess cause of grief). Those two things should not be comparable.

I can’t believe how some people see Max response to her “no one understand why you got the promotion” (translation: you didn’t deserve it) as harsh. Like her cruel words were “justified” because she’s grieving..or just because...even though she was not right to say them, but his behaviour has been “unacceptable”. Yes, his comments to Zoey are not the friendliest (when he’s telling why he chooses 6th floor over 4th... after the “The Boy is Mine” sing-off, but they are nothing compared to Zoey’s “you don’t deserve this promotion & you are selfish for not being there for me whenever I need something from you”.

We can all see & understand that each character has flaws & makes mistakes & says some things they shouldn’t. But some of these things are “worse” than the others. And his reply to her rude-fuled-by-her-anger-phase-of-grieving comment to him was tame. He was actually quite calm & cool during his response to her (you’re calling me selfish?). And he directed the coded message at Zoey on the 6th floor directly at her because he knows she’s emotionally challenged, so she needed to undrerstand that it was directed at her, too...so she’d start understanding that she hurt him with her words/behaviour too. He wanted her to get that message, cause he had seen that until now she had no idea how her actions/inactions affect him.

He may seem like being “upset” with her... but it’s also understandable, because she kinda broke his heart, and just as she’s allowed to not return his feelings, he’s allowed to feel sad that she doesn’t. To put it in “fairytale terms”. But he’s in no way pressuring her to return his feelings & start a relationship now. All he wants/needs from her is honesty & clarity.

And mostly... when will Zoey finally give Simon the advice he needs - go see a professional therapist! What the man needs is professional help not a mind-reader, who is a mess herself. And is Zoey doesn’t stop keeping it all in and won’t talk to her family/friends about her grief, then she, too, will soon need professional help... (therapist).

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Through all of this Max’s there for her: he supports her when she’s interested in the new guy..(until he finds out the man is taken); he supports her to go after the promotion; he brings her dad... his “closest thing to a dad he’s had” soft food...that he can eat, he goes to support her when she gets a call about her dad’s health & he finds a way to get her to her dad..fast; he saves her “glitch song” and turns it into a pitch for the CEO; he goes to check on her, & gives her her mom’s message..even when he’s hurt by her (and on top of that he gives her good friend advice about her dad). And she does acknowledge this..on several occasions. So...this “social distancing” (physical distance between them during work & off work) is needed to make her/them start to see things from different perspective, and realize some truths... that only distance/change could give them.

There is a real inconsistancy between what she really feels & thinks...and what she says/acknowledges she feels & thinks.

ETA: And it all won’t start moving forward & she won’t start character development until she’ll truly embrace her powers. Cause she still seems to view them as “burden” instead of “helpful tool”. Sure... she has started to realize the good she can do with having this ability (in general Howie/Abigail situation was the first time she really used her ability to really improve the situation & first time she really emphatized), but until she fully embraces it all, she’ll remain “lost”. The turning point will be actually losing her dad...for real.

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#SPOILER #text post #analyzis #THERE ARE MANY OTHER THINGS....BUT THE POST IS ALREADY TOO LONG #ZEP #ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST #ZOEYS EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST #ZEP spoilers #ZEP SPOILER #Max Richman #Zoey Clarke #Max x Zoey #Zoey x Max #Team Max #Clarkeman #Zomax #Zax #long post #analysis

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softlass27 · 4 years ago

Note

Directors cut of One More Word and you Wont Survive 🙏

Gah, this fic is so long, but I shall try and break it down!

So the initial idea came from a brief conversation I had with @soft-husbands about how ridiculous it was that in 2018 the writers had Lachlan kidnap Rebecca (who literally no one cared about) instead of Robert, which would have been a much better storyline. Since I needed to write something for her in a gift exchange, I decided to do my own version of it!

These are the key points/main ideas that were the most important for me:

Aftermath

One thing I knew I definitely wanted to do – even before I’d really worked out the exact plot – was include a lot of the actual aftermath of the kidnapping, and really show how it mentally affected Robert (as well as Aaron). I didn’t want to write one of those fics where you just have the drama, and then maybe one scene at the end where everything’s suddenly okay again. Which, y’know, is what the Emmerdale writers tend to do. 🤷

So that’s why the fic is literally divided into two halves – the action and the aftermath. And I loved writing the second half – looking at Robert’s mental state, showing other characters’ reactions, lots of communicating between him and Aaron etc.

I didn’t want Robert to just be fine straight away, I wanted him to take some time to settle back into things again, to go to counselling and to work towards recovering from what he’d been through. I kept it mostly quite upbeat and hopeful – I couldn’t bring myself to make it too angsty – but I did have Robert struggle to come to terms with what had happened to him.

On top of that, I wanted Aaron to be his rock. The writers never really gave Aaron a chance to be the strong one in the relationship, not for longer than a couple of episodes or so, and I wish we could’ve seen it. It would’ve been great to watch, but also a nice switch for Danny and Ryan (who would’ve both smashed it!).

And of course this was an excuse for me to write lots of soft fluffy husbands content, which as you all know, is my jam.

Lachlan

So in the show, I thought the writers did a good job of building up Lachlan’s psychotic tendencies. In late 2017, he did begin to seem quite scary, you could see they were building up to him properly snapping.

But then as soon as he actually did start killing people, he became kind of… meh. They’d done all this buildup to make him as deranged as possible, but from the Whites car crash onwards, his character lost all that great creepiness and just became a bit of a wet wipe. His killing of Gerry was completely lame, his kidnapping of Rebecca was rubbish and so was the aftermath. He spent most of his time flapping about what to do and obsessing over Belle, and honestly he became one of the most boring soap villains they’ve ever done. By the time he was arrested and went to prison, they’d lost so much momentum it was kind of a pitiful ending for him.

Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of crime stuff (both true and fictional), but I just wanted more. I wanted him to be terrifying, to be unhinged and scarily cold. And it made sense to me that he would really show this side of himself by kidnapping and torturing Robert. Robert’s been his number one enemy from the beginning – he hates him more than anyone and essentially blames him for every single thing that went wrong in his life. In terms of storytelling, it only seemed right that his final showdown would be with Robert and no one else. It’s what both characters deserved.

So that’s what I wrote. I did a big final “fight to the death” between the two, and I tried to make Lachlan this cold-blooded psychopath who got off on making Robert suffer as much as possible – for as long as possible. All those years of built-up resentment finally spilled out of him and it made him totally lose the plot. But at the same time, he was able to switch that off and act completely normal when he was with Belle. I tried to show this in a few scenes, like including a moment where he told Robert – his kidnapped victim – he had to go because Belle was expecting him to go for breakfast with her family.

I really enjoyed doing it, but at the same time I was terrified that the way I was writing him would seem ridiculous, like he’d come off as a bit of a silly pantomime villain. It seems to have paid off though, judging by peoples’ reactions, so I’m quite happy with how my Lachlan turned out :)

Chas/Paddy/Liv

I knew from the beginning that Chas, Paddy and Liv would all be on the “wrong” side of the story, so to speak. They’d be the sort of “lesser” villains, the ones causing conflict on Aaron’s end and in the second half of the story.

On the show, I never really believed that any of them actually accepted Robert as family after reunion 2.0, to me it seemed like Chaddy were just civil with him as long as he made Aaron happy. And I never bought into the whole “roblivion” concept during boyfriends era, so I was even less convinced of it in husbands era. I always found it shallow and fake on Liv’s end.

This was pretty much proved right by Chas, Paddy and Liv’s behaviour during the aftermath of Robert’s exit – all three of them showed their true colours and their true feelings about him very quickly.

Considering every time things got rough for Robron on the show, Chaddy and Liv either turned on Robert or just acted like he never existed/meant anything and actively tried to push Aaron to “grow up” and move on from him, it made perfect sense to me to have them suspect the worst of Robert in my story. To assume that him disappearing meant that he’d done something wrong, rather than he was in trouble.

(Fun fact: the scene where Robert has that big showdown with Chaddy in the pub was actually one of the first ones I wrote. Ah, priorities.)

I wanted Aaron to be strong, to never doubt that Robert was in trouble and to unapologetically stick by him in the aftermath. I wanted him to stand up to Chaddy and to put Robert before Liv for once (judging by quite a few comments that I got, lots of other people did too, so I’m glad I went for it!). I also wanted him to make it very clear that his main family unit – his priority – was Robert and Seb, not the Dingles’ feelings. Anyone who disagreed with him could fuck right off as far as he was concerned.

By the end of the story, Aaron has very much allied himself with the Sugden family, that’s why we saw lots of him with Diane and Vic. I really wanted to call back to the “Who Shot Robert” era, where they both stepped up and rallied around Robert 100%, only this time with the bonus of Aaron being on their side, too.

Rebecca/Ross/Seb

I mean… this is quite self-explanatory, but I knew from the beginning that Rebecca would die and Ross would end up going to Liverpool miserable and alone. No happy ending for either of them because they didn’t fucking deserve it.

And of course, this would mean that Seb would stay with his dads where he belongs. I will never get tired to coming up with new ways for this to happen (just you wait for Aaron week).

The ending

Since I was writing this fic for the engagement anniversary gift exchange, I thought it’d be fun to include an actual engagement at the end of it. I hadn’t necessarily planned to make it another lay-by proposal, but when I looked at my story timeline (yes, I did make an actual timeline lmao) and I realised that the 4th December wasn’t very far away, I knew I HAD to get them back to that spot. It was only right!

So I’m probably in the minority here, but I’m not actually a huge fan of proposal 2.0. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice and super cute, but the whole “trying to propose to each other at the same time” gimmick just wasn’t really for me. I thought it was a bit unrealistic that they’d both separately just randomly come up with the same idea at the same time (I know, I’m sorry). And since we’d already had Robert do it the first time, I kind of wanted the second one to be totally Aaron’s thing, let him have a proper turn.

So I took elements of proposal 2.0 that I liked – the location, some of the dialogue – and took out the bits that I didn’t – Robert trying to propose, Aaron’s funfair lie (I’m sorry but that was just dumb), the jinx thing, other people (Chaddy and Liv) being so involved. Thereby creating my own perfect version of proposal 2.0 (what can I say, I am a self-indulgent girl).

I think in this universe, after everything they’d been through, after Aaron’s terror of losing Robert for good, it seemed right that he would be the one to do the asking. And because we know he’s a sentimental sod, it made sense that he would wait until their lay-by anniversary to do it.

#omg i'm sorry this is so long #i think i've covered the main things #but if anyone wants me to expand/mention something else #go for it!#my writing #lauren rambles #robandaaronsoulmates

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

Text

Survey #331

my head hurts way too badly to think up some intro lyrics, so just g’night.

Have you ever become good friends with someone you never met in person? Oh yeah, I've had best friends over the Internet. Hell, I'm closer to many online friends than I am most irl ones. They know "the real me" more. What do you consider your default mood to be? Stressed, probably. Discontent. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve ever kept a goldfish alive for? Not long. Proper goldfish husbandry is a very neglected topic, and I sure as hell never knew how to set up its tank adequately. Have you ever been paintballing? No, don't plan to. It looks like it hurts like a bitch. Do you want a large wedding? No. Did you ever collect any sort of cards? I had a very small collection of Pokemon cards. I didn't collect them avidly. What’re the best and worst books you ever had to read for a class? The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was the best. The worst was some book we had to read in the 6th grade about a kid during some war that moved around a lot... I don't remember the name or who wrote it, but it sucked. What’s the best meal you had at an amusement park, or If you haven’t been to one, how about a good meal at another place like a zoo, aquarium or museum? I don't know. I haven't been to many. Who, whether a person or company, emails you the most? My PHP therapist emails me a check-in sheet and Zoom link every day there's a therapy session. What kind of sound or noise freaks you out the most and why do you think it scares you? Let's seeeee... I don't know if there's a sound that actually freaks me out. There are some I don't like, but none that like, frighten me. At least that I can think of. What’s the strangest art piece you’ve come across? Biiiitch there's a painting in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs I'm not gonna go into, but shit fuckin wild. What’s the most clever or unique name you’ve come across for a business? I've definitely heard some cool ones, but I don't know about one that really stands out to answer this. If you had to name one of your hypothetical future children after a song, which song would you pick? Maybe like... okay, I'm blanking. Good thing I'm not having kids to name then, right? What’s the last song you heard? "Down in the Park" by Marilyn Manson is on atm. What is your favorite line from a TV show? *shrug* Any current family issues? No. How many hours do you spend online a day? How do you feel about that? I'm doing something on the computer pretty much... always. I hate it, and I hate it a lot. I don't want my life to be tied solely to the digital plane. I want to do more than bounce back and forth from website to website. Do you think that people have the power to make their own lives better? Absolutely, but there are some things they simply cannot change. It's about perspective and how you play the deck you're dealt. What is the biggest problem in your life right now? Right now, the most limiting thing is my physical health, probably. Just walking being torture affects my ability to exercise, and my body is a major reason - if not the biggest, at this current time - for my depression. This also plays a massive role in jobs I can handle. Not to sound like my emo self writing middle school poetry, but my body feels like a prison. Do you feel that you are loved? I know I am by some people, though I have a hard time understanding why a lot. What is the one thing you want most from life? Life satisfaction. Pride in what I've accomplished. A regular state of being content. Birthplace? I'm just gonna say in eastern NC. Do you believe in love at first sight? No, merely infatuation. Love is much too deep for that. Do you think dreams eventually come true? Some can, but usually only if you put effort into making that so. Favorite fictional character? like ummmmmmmm have you heard of this sassy bastard called Darkiplier- Go to the movies or rent? Before Covid, I loved going to the theater. It was something to do, plus a giant screen is nice. McDonalds or Burger King? McD's. I'm not a big BK fan. I only really went there during my vegetarian phase for the veggie burger. Current annoyance? This motherfucking headache. Last thing you ate? I have a meal replacement shake with me right now, if you consider that "eating." I didn't have a proper dinner. The last solid food I had though was some cookies and cream Greek yogurt. Last thing you bought? With my own money, I think I bought Mom and I some cheap McDonald's order semi-recently? Or maybe paying my $100 deposit for my tattoo was most recent, idk. Soonest thing you are looking forward to? For Mom to get her CT scan and find out what's going on in there. What did you do today? It was a pretty average day. I woke up way too early, though. The only thing even semi-unique about today was I played World of Warcraft for a few hours again; I've been quite unattached to it lately, but I went through an episode today of actually having fun playing. Oh, and I've been battling a migraine. It's more of a severe headache now, at least, but it still sucks big time. Do you like to see it snowing outside? Oh yes, absolutely! When you were in high school did you ever have bomb threats? I believe once we did from a very volatile student that honestly caused quite a lot of trouble. He's dead now. Who knows ALL of your secrets? Nobody. Did you have a job before you were in college? No. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have a baby right now? That's a terrifying thought, no. Are you on birth control? Yeah, but just because it tames my menstrual cramps. Without it, they could be debilitating some days. Who is your last sent text to? My best fren. Have you ever eaten at Chipotle before? Possibly? Idr. Do you swear often? Excessively. I had a dirty mouth prior, but my swearing got really bad when I started staying at Jason's house a lot. He and especially his mother swear like mad. Do you own any shirts with a peace symbol on it? No. Do you have your national flag hanging up anywhere outside your house? Not at this house, no. Would you ever go to Japan? Oh, yes. I would love to. It's... very morbid, but I would really like to walk the (public) paths of Aokigahara Forest, nicknamed "Suicide Forest" for the horrible amount of, well, suicides that happen there via hanging. Like, you might just casually run into a dead body. I want to just... feel it there, walk in silence and empathize with people who didn't know what else to do and hope so deeply that those departed know they were never alone in their pain. I know with absolute certainty I'd probably be teary-eyed the whole time and cry a whoooole lot, but it's just an experience I want to have. What was the last thing you went to Walmart for? Some basic groceries. What should you be doing right now? Sleeping, given this headache... I just don't want to yet. Are you afraid of getting your heart broken? I'm fucking terrified of that ever happening again, far more than words can properly express. Have you ever been in a choir? Yes, actually; when I was a Catholic kid, my sisters and I were in the church choir for a year or so, idr. Do you have a Twitter? Yes, but only to like Mark's tweets, haha. Oh, and very rarely enter giveaways I'm interested in. Describe your retainers to me, if you have them, that is. I have a permanent metal one behind my front row of bottom teeth to keep those straight. My upper teeth had one of those normal retainers you take in and out, but I didn't wear it enough, so now it doesn't even fit. Would you like for someone to call you right now? No. I'm tired, my head hurts, and I'm enjoying the song I'm bingeing. It's so weird, I rarely ever go on music hunting trips (no real reason, I just... don't), but I've found great shit lately. Do you like to brush your teeth? No; it's a chore. I only do it because I don't want my teeth decaying, falling out, or getting too yellow, and the taste in your mouth and gritty texture on your teeth isn't exactly great when you don't brush. Have you ever had a surgery? Two. Give out your phone number over the internet? I have over private messages. Do you look older or younger than you actually are? Given my wardrobe (like graphic tees and band shirts), I probably look younger in the eyes of especially older people. I personally say I look my age, though. When is the next time you’ll be up on stage? I never plan to be again. What is the last show that you watched a full episode of? Some cooking show with Mom. Nailed It!, I think? Do you know anyone who lives in Utah? No. I love Utah, though; it's actually a place I'd be willing to live in with just how pretty it is and not super populated. Do you get your feelings hurt easily? VERY. I'm probably one of the most sensitive people you can meet. Do you still talk to the person you last made out with? Yeah. Have you ever seen your best friend cry? Ugh, yes. What kind of vitamins did you take as a kid? First we took those nasty, chalky Flintstones kinds, but as time passed, Mom moved onto giving us gummy bear vitamins that were perfectly fine. Did you get any compliments today? No. Are you friends with your neighbors? Not "friends," no. What towns have you lived in? Three different ones. That's all you're getting. Have you ever thrown up from drinking? No. Done any illegal drugs? No. I mean I've had some alcohol underage, but I've never done anything remotely hardcore. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve been on an airplane without changing flights? Idk. Who have you texted today? My mom and best friend. What time did you wake up this morning? Ugh, like five in the fucking morning. I couldn't go back to sleep. What is your favorite condiment to go with french fries? Ketchup. What do you have a habit of doing when engaging in a conversation with someone? Making shitty eye contact, and I'm one of those people who "talks with [their] hands." I also lose my train of thought a whoooole lot. Have you ever layed in a hammock? Yeah; we had one growing up. Have you ever lost a pet in a tragic way? How did you cope? Well yeah, I've had lots of pets, so thus lost some in particularly painful ways. The most scarring loss of a pet though is as follows: Teddy, my dog, picked up one of our cat's very young, wandering kittens in his jaws in a manner that looked as if he was trying to carry it like Aphrodite (the mother cat) does when she would bring them back behind the couch, where she gave birth/had her little "nest." I absolutely freaked and had to pry the kitten from his mouth, and it slowly died in my hands. I think Teddy accidentally crushed its ribs. I. Was. A. Mess. Then, there was Aphrodite herself. I've told the story before of our former neighbors calling animal control because our cats would wander through their yard, and all of our cats were taken away while I was unaware at school. Came home, and they were all gone. Aphrodite was my baby, so I was devastated. Screaming, sobbing, cursing on the porch for like 20 minutes... It was awful. What type of curtains do you like? I don't... know? I don't know the actual names of any types... What type of quality is a must-have in a friend? I absolutely cannot be friends with someone who thinks they're above everyone else. Are you any good at reading someone's body language? I think I am. What goes good with a nice cold glass of milk? Cookies! Especially Oreos. Dip it in there for around five seconds, and it's perfection. What fruit is too sweet to you? Grapefruit came to mind first. How did you feel after your first kiss? I had butterflies galore and was so giddy and smiley. After the first, I just wanted to kiss him a billion more times. What’s your favorite constellation and why? I don't have one. Shower curtain or door? Curtain. The glass doors are too revealing. Have you ever thought to yourself that you’re the luckiest person in the world? Most deeeeefinitely not. What time of day do you most enjoy looking at the sky? Sunset if there are clouds present, but sunrise if the sky is pretty clear.

#survey #surveys #questions

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bluetiefling · 5 years ago

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Sanditon Season 2 Wish List

Divided between things I think season 2 absolutely needs to reach its potential, and things I don’t 100% need but I would love. Special thanks to @beavesaintmarie and @eleonoraditoledo for all the great discussions we’ve had about this and to whom I attribute many of these ideas!

Most important:

Sidney and Charlotte having at least one torrid make out while he’s still engaged to Eliza. The kind that’s like up against a wall or a tree, and there’s tongue and their hands are just everywhere, and they almost take it too far before one of them pumps the brakes. The culmination of several episodes of unbearable tension before they can’t take it anymore.

Sidney and Charlotte having sex while he’s still engaged to Eliza. I’m realistic about how unlikely this is but I legitimately think this is an important step in their relationship arc, particularly for Charlotte, and it’s not just because I really wanna see them bone under the most dramatic circumstances possible. This would be about Charlotte’s own emotional journey she’s been on since she arrived in Sanditon and came of age - realizing for herself that she wants Sidney, come hell or high water, and she stops being guarded, stops being shy and afraid about the immensity of her feelings, or worrying about what the right and proper and unselfish thing is. It’d be about Charlotte learning how messy love really is, and diving in anyway. Ideally this would be when Charlotte confesses her love and finds the words and bravery to express everything Sidney means to her, which she of course didn’t get the opportunity to do in season 1. And like yeah, their first time on screen will be that much hotter if they don’t know if it’s going to be their only night together or not, and this ship Deserves that intensity.

A DEDICATED ARC ABOUT FIXING SIDNEY AND GEORGIANA’S RELATIONSHIP WHERE THEY GET REAL SCENES OF THEM TALKING THINGS OUT AND THEY CAN GET TO A GOOD PLACE OF TRUST AND AFFECTION AND BE A FAMILY. They have a lot in common now over their romantic woes and that’s a great starting point for them to start fresh and try to bond. And yeah just, give them complete conversations where they can clear all the misunderstandings between them.

A raw and honest confrontation between Sidney and Tom. It’s got to address everything from Tom’s screw ups to how they got to this point where even years after Tom bailed out Sidney, he still feels he’s obligated to throw his lifelong happiness under the bus for Tom’s sake, while Tom is barely perceptive of Sidney’s emotional state on a good day. This can’t be swept under the rug.

Belligerent UST again for Sidney and Charlotte! Let the pain of this separation strain them so much it bubbles over into anger and frustration, and they need to pick fights with each other because it’s become something comfortable for them, and it’s a release from being that sad and tense all the time over not being together. Sidney agonizes over Charlotte’s determination to be stoic around him so he resorts to provoking her to know she still cares. Charlotte snaps at him over something kinda innocuous because she’s so frustrated about everything else. If there’s another guy contending for Charlotte’s heart let Sidney provoke a big argument with her over it, let her be furious with him for not letting her move on while deep down she desperately wants to see this jealousy from him. Etc etc! These two do that kind of snarky tension so well and I’m so into seeing a new, season 2, version of it where feelings are out in the open.

Sidney having agency when the time comes for the dissolution of him and Eliza. I feel it’s important that when the engagement (or marriage? idk how far it’ll get but we’ll see) ends, it’s a hard choice Sidney makes while there’s still potential consequences he would bear, such as being labeled dishonorable or when Tom’s money situation is not secure yet, etc. I think it’s important for Sidney’s own journey of recovering his self-worth and deciding he’s done sacrificing himself. There shouldn’t be external forces, like someone else swooping in with the money Tom needs, that ‘allows’ Sidney to do this easily. If anyone does swoop in to save them all at some point, it shouldn’t be the deciding factor in Sidney’s choice to free himself and his choice to be with Charlotte.

Charlotte being courted by another man in a serious way which helps her realize the depth of her own love for Sidney and that she can’t be content settling for anyone else. There’s a lot you can do with another guy trying to come in and be a contender for Charlotte’s heart, a jealous Sidney being one of those things. I want to see Charlotte put on a brave face and try to find happiness elsewhere only to find she ultimately can’t, because no one compares to what she had with Sidney, and that’s more obvious to her every day she’s around this other guy. Even better is if she and this other guy get engaged or close to it and Charlotte feels more pressured to not hurt this guy’s feelings but she uh… ends up hurting him anyway because sometimes you can’t help but be selfish when it comes to love. And that it doesn’t make her a terrible person.

Things that are not 100% necessary but I would enjoy very much (under the readmore):

A love interest for Georgiana! I’d be happy with Otis returning and him earning redemption in her eyes, but I admit that I’m keener on the idea of a romance for Gigi that we get to see develop from day one. I’m less invested if the couple already fell in love entirely off screen, so I’d love to see a new guy sweep her off her feet. I have a LOT of ideas for what kind of character this guy could be and where he comes from. Currently my favorite one is that they introduce one of Charlotte’s grown up brothers to fall in love with her? It’d be a pretty easy retcon for one of Char’s brothers to be a 20something, and he’s a hunk. Maybe we haven’t seen him yet because he’s been at university or abroad, and he and Char are super close and he decides to go to Sanditon with her. Or Gigi comes to Willingden and the brother is very into her and decides to follow her and Charlotte back to Sanditon or wherever under the guise of looking after his sister but mostly he wants to be around Gigi. Lots of fun ideas to be had and really I just love the notion of Gigi falling for Char’s brother and it leading to all kinds of cute awkwardness for everyone involved (including Sidney lol). (ideal actor to play this role would be Thomas Doherty! someone save him from the CW pls)

AN EPISODE TAKING PLACE AROUND A COUNTRY HOUSE PARTY. BABINGTON’S HOUSE PERHAPS? House party shenanigans are such a fun staple of historical romance and I’d love it if this was season 2’s version of the London episode, where the action shifts to a different location temporarily and it raises the tension and stakes all around. I want Babington to see how unhappy and stressed Sidney is and he and Esther decide to invite a few friends to spend the weekend with them at their estate. Babington deliberately picks a weekend when he knows Eliza is busy. Tells Sidney to get his ass over there to just chill out for a few days. Esther invites Charlotte. Neither Sidney nor Charlotte realize the other is going to be there until IT’S TOO LATE. Cue all kinds of opportunities for them to get stuck alone with each other in and around Babington’s humongous house and expansive gardens or wherever. This could even be the place they finally just give in and sleep together (Sidney’s guest room will conveniently be just down the hall from Charlotte’s of course)

Replace Stringer with a new guy to be Charlotte’s love interest and a rival to Sidney. Like… I know they probably won’t and we’re stuck with him but Stringer just didn’t do it for me at all and I already know that if they make me sit through his bumbling courtship of Charlotte next season it’s gonna be tedious. I don’t want to hear about his class woes or his dad angst or watch him try to conjure up a whole relationship with Charlotte in his head like he did in season 1 again lol. And the jealous Sidney and alternative courtship story line I want for Charlotte next season won’t be as strong as it could be if they rely on Stringer, because I’ll never believe that Sidney is truly threatened by this guy or that Charlotte could ever see it for him. Like I said, we’re 99% for sure stuck with him but ugh… what if…….

IF THEY DID BRING A NEW GUY TO ROMANCE CHARLOTTE have him be an enemy from Sidney’s past! Of all the options for such a character this to me would be the most fun. Have him be rich and attractive as well to make him even more of a threat for Sidney to sweat over. He can be a good guy at heart who sincerely likes Charlotte or he could just be showing interest in her to mess with Sidney – or a bit of both! Maybe this guy’s actually in love with Eliza and this is all a ploy to get to her! Whatever, it’s all good to me. (CAST DAVID OAKES AS THIS DUDE)

Sidney and Eliza have an honest confrontation. Like I want to see Sidney directly challenge Eliza on this idea that they can just recapture what they used to have when it must be so obvious to her by now that it’s impossible. Eliza being forced to face that Sidney will never love her again, even with time, and questioning if what she really wants is another loveless marriage. I’m into Eliza being the bitchy villainess most of the season but it’d be great too if this story ends with her giving up Sidney graciously.

SIDNEY BEING A WRECK. Especially when season 2 opens. He’s drinking and staying out all night. He’s got a beard of sadness growing in. He’s self-destructive. It gets bad enough that his friends and Tom have to say something (maybe this leads to the big blowup with Tom?). Maybe Eliza even gets desperate enough to ask Charlotte to talk to him lol. I just wanna see Sidney Not Able To Deal and trying to drown out the pain.

Sidney and Arthur becoming closer! To me it feels like Arthur and Sidney don’t know each other that well, perhaps because Arthur was a fair bit younger and was off at school while Sidney was already grown up and running off to Antigua and whatnot. Arthur really proved his quality in season 1 and it’d be lovely for them to bond, especially for Sidney to be closer to a brother who doesn’t need or expect him to look after his interests. And for Arthur to get validation and affection from his distant older brother who he cares for a lot but who hasn’t paid much attention to him in turn for a long time.

Lady Susan whisking Charlotte off to London to cheer her up and introducing her to a bunch of eligible bachelors. I’d love it if this was how the new season began, with Charlotte going to London and not expecting to see Sidney and hoping she doesn’t, but of course she does. And this can be how Charlotte meets the new rival love interest I really want lol. Gigi should be around for this too! Have the two friends reunite at a London party before they eventually return to Sanditon together.

Sidney and Charlotte skinny dipping together! Lmao but seriously! Maybe this can be a scene that happens when the drama is all over and they’re free to be together, like either when they’re engaged or even already married. Maybe it’s the last scene of them in the show, even? It’s poetic, okay!

Edward being a more substantial villain figure and Clara showing up pregnant with his kid! Lol I feel like these two could as easily not return at all next season but if they do, I wanna see Edward level up his villainhood and for Clara to return in a big way, showing you should never count her out. I’d like to see them cause problems for Esther and Babington somehow to give those two something else to grapple with while navigating their first year of marriage together.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – a backstory twist revealing that Sidney is the illegitimate son of Georgiana’s father, and it’s the real reason why Sidney was entrusted with looking after her! This felt like such an obviously great twist to me all of season 1 and I kept waiting for it to happen. It contextualizes EVERYTHING so perfectly. It would do a lot to explain Sidney’s strained position when it comes to where he stands with the other Parkers. Why he has so little self-worth and feels like he’s gotta do dramatic things like destroy his own happiness for their sake. He’s secretly been a Fake Parker this whole time and so there’s that much more pressure to prove himself to them. It’s a big part of why he went off on Charlotte that night at the ball, when she essentially told him he’s nothing like his two brothers, something that is an inadvertently sensitive subject for him. It explains why Sidney looks nothing like his siblings lol. It could be the reason why he went to Antigua when he was looking for an escape from his Eliza depression years ago. Like he thought maybe he should go meet his real father who he just found out about from his mother, or perhaps Mr. Lambe wrote him a letter revealing the truth, etc. Sidney’s looking for an anchor and tries to connect with him, goes into business with him via the sugar trade against his better judgment, ends up largely regretting the whole experience. Unexpectedly comes away from it with a young half-sister who he is now responsible for and to whom he can’t reveal the truth of their relationship because it’s such a complicated source of shame for him. He probably hasn’t ever told Tom the truth let alone this girl who resents him immediately. He thinks it’s better to just keep Georgiana at arm’s length even though his obligation to her as both guardian and secret older brother makes him want to do better by her, even though he doesn’t really know how yet. I was dying for this to be true because I know it could lead to some deeply poignant scenes between him and Gigi once she found out. I know it’s unlikely now and they probably didn’t put as much thought into this backstory beyond some boring life debt to her father, but I still want it to come true, and there’s no reason it can’t still come to fruition I think. It’d be an amazing revelation to use towards further developing and fixing Sidney and Georgiana’s relationship. They already act like siblings, too, and a twist that reveals they were actual siblings all along would be quite cathartic. I’d really love to see how it would affect Gigi, too, who seemingly has no family left alive and has felt so isolated. MY KIDS DESERVE THIS STORY LINE BASICALLY.

#sanditon #YOUR MOVE ANDREW DAVIES #text post tag #lol we were coming up with so many ideas I figured it was time to collect them all in one place

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laboratorium2d · 4 years ago

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Children's Animated Series, As Graded by a Parent Who Has Watched Far Too Many of Them

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: The brony thing is legitimately weird, but this is legitimately a great show. The combination of epic-fantasy plots with a deep dive on friendship is a winner (and has also been deeply influential on kids' television). It also makes the obligatory pro-social messages feel earned, rather than an afterthought. The characters are charming, the writing sparkles, and the animation is still distinctive. Endlessly watchable, which is a good thing when your kid wants to watch endlessly. Fake holidays: Nightmare Night, Hearth's Warming Eve, Hearts and Hooves Day. Grade: A+

Avatar: I was fifteen years too old for this when it was on TV, so I didn't understand what the fuss was about. Now I do. It's epic but not grandiose, funny but not dumb, and morally deep without giving into plot gravity. The world-building, the writing, the animation, the voice-acting, the fight scenes, the side characters: everything works, and everything is pulling in the same direction. (The sequel series, The Legend of Korra, is more of the same, with an interestingly updated setting and better music.) If your kids are like mine, they'll want to talk about everything, and so will you. I guess binge-watching is a family thing now. Grade: A+

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: This show is so gay. However gay you expect it to be, it's ten times gayer. It's also pro-diversity along every axis you can imagine, including body-type. It's completely awesome. It captures the uncannily compelling techno-fantasy atmosphere of the original, and it has characters with the same names, but otherwise it's a total gut rehab. The character studies at its core are compelling, even as the overall plot and action hold a young child's interest. It takes lots of anime animation tropes and tones them down to the verge of naturalism, which I wouldn't have thought would work, but totally does. Grade: A-

Wild Kratts: The big kid was learning biology from this show almost from before she could talk. "Giraffe. Long neck. Eat leaves." The premise of the show is genius: animated versions of veteran kids' wildlife-show hosts Chris and Martin Kratt have suits that give them "creature powers," and they travel around the world having adventures with animals. The science is legit and it's presented entertainingly. And the characters are winners, especially the creature-suit inventor Aviva Corcovado and the colorful villains. The only thing consistently annoying about this show is that it can be shouty. Everyone is Just! So! Excited! About! Animals! Grade: A-.

Phineas and Ferb: The Arrested Development of kids' animation, Phineas and Ferb is impossibly dense with overlapping plots, brick jokes, and a large army of recurring minor characters. Every episode features an original song, some of which are genuinely brilliant ("Squirrels in My Pants" is a household favorite). It is also a wholly, completely sweet-hearted show. Even the antagonists -- Candace and Dr. Doofenshmirtz -- are sympathetic, charming, fully-realized, and allowed to grow and be happy in ways that a lesser version of this show would never even have realized was a possibility. The allegretto pacing and intricate writing keep the show consistently fresh. New Disney at its best. Grade: A-

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom: From the same team who brought you Peppa Pig, but even drier underneath its treacly trappings. The comedic timing is straight out of classic British sketch comedy. The voice actors are clearly in on the joke, which if anything makes the show more fun to listen to than to watch. B+

Dinosaur Train: Sometimes high concepts work. The show 100% owns its message: dinosaur physiology is a diversity metaphor, presented with just the right degree of insistence. The characters are sketched with grace and sympathy, and the science is pitched just right for its target audience. Over the years, the show (like all railfans) has gotten increasingly obsessed with its train equipment: the aquacar, the submarine, the ... zeppelin. The songs are surprisingly catchy, too: our favorite is probably the Dinosaur Train Zeppelin song, which, yes, is a Led Zeppelin pastiche. Grade: B+

Odd Squad: This one really grew on me. If all you've seen is short clips, it just seems like everyone is shouting about math all the time. But the show overall is delightfully goofy, with a real sense of how to string along a running gag, and some genuinely talented child actors. Grade: B+

Creative Galaxy: Despite being a total Daniel Tiger rip-off, down to the animation style, the obligatory song in every episode, and the live-action codas, this one is actually kind of nice. The art projects are well-chosen both to interest kids and also to actually be doable. Fake holidays: Heart Day. Grade: B

Peppa Pig: It took me a long time to appreciate this show's arch sense of humor. Everyone's pretensions and ambitions are punctured; embarrassing mistakes and small indignities await adults at every turn. Once you realize that the show is making fun of most of its characters but loves them anyway, it's much more bearable. Grade: B

Curious George: Entirely forgettable, with two mildly redeeming qualities. George himself is as charming as always, and the jazzy musical score is pleasant. Grade: B-

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir: It took me a while to understand what this show was doing. It's very, very French. Grade: C+

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Even my kids recognize that Daniel Tiger is needy and whiny. The show inadvertently teaches kids what to be afraid of and how to misbehave. There is also something deeply wrong with the economy of the Neighborhood: everyone seems to have multiple jobs and the public transit system runs on magic. On the plus side, the potty song has come in handy as a reminder: when you have to go potty, stop and go right away. Fake holidays: Love Day, Snowflake Day, Dress Up Day. Grade: C+

Ready Jet Go: I suppose there's some science in here somewhere, I guess. Grade: C+

Tumble Leaf: Reviewers might call this one "gentle," by which they mean "boring." The animation is lovely and the music is calming. But what's the point? Grade: C+

PAW Patrol: Unbelievably, incredibly formulaic. For example: have you noticed that they get in their trucks at exactly the same point halfway through each episode? Just Canadian enough to be noticeably off, but also rah-rah in a George W. Bush-administration kind of way. Sometimes I imagine grown-up versions of the pups. Chase regularly engages in police brutality, Rubble has a drinking problem, and Marshall has joined the alt-right. Grade: C

Nature Cat: Nature Cat is annoying and his friends are worse. I'm not clear on what they're supposed to be learning. And the theme song manages to be both unmemorable and an earworm. Make it stop! Grade: C

Super Why: More like Super Why Does This Exist, amirite? The whole show is oddly paced: I find the story-within-a-story structure confusing and can only wonder how much of it kids actually get. Having each character deal with a different aspect of literacy leaves the show's educational content unfocused. And the Super Letters are like the world's lamest game of Wheel of Fortune. Plus the song is an earworm, and not in a good way. Grade: C

Sofia the First: Empty Disney calories, this show is the reductio ad absurdum of Disney's democratization of the idea of "princess." The plotting, the writing, and the music are technically proficient. The cel-shading effects that give 3D animation the luminosity of 2D hand drawn are lovely. The messages are perfectly innocuous. But the heart of the show is a giant gaping void. Fake holidays: Wassailia. Grade: C

Lion Guard: More empty Disney calories, like Sofia the First but with more obnoxious characters. Inexplicably real holiday: Christmas. Grade: C-

Peg + Cat: All I can remember is that the show is inexplicably drawn on graph paper, and they have a BIG BIG PROBLEM every few seconds. When people complain about STEM, and I remember that this show exists, I have to admit that they have a point. Grade: C-

Martha Speaks: The AV Club's term for this kind of show is "least essential." Even by the standards of kids' shows, the premise makes no sense. Nobody here, human or canine, is remotely sympathetic. And the plot comes to a screeching halt every time it's time for a new vocabulary word. Grade: C-

WordWorld: I have so many questions about this show. If everything is made out of words, what about the ground? The sky? Windows? And what are the letters in the words made of? What is going on with the accents? And who greenlit three seasons of this garbage? Grade: D+

The Adventures of Puss in Boots: This is a weird, weird show. And not in a good way. Grade: D+

Trolls: The Beat Goes On: Quite possibly the most misanthropic kids show currently streaming anywhere. The combination of grimdark setting and hackneyed uplifting plot tropes is somewhere between unsettling and child abuse. Poppy is a walking illustration of emotional labor; Branch has severe PTSD. The show treats both of these as laughable quirks. And I am never going to get used to the Auto-Tune. Grade: D+

Kung-Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny: Pretty much your standard DreamWorks animation. This is not a good thing. Grade: D

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie: The animation and voice-acting are innocuous. But building an entire show around the "if X, then Y" formula led to some disastrous choices. The show taught my big kid how to say things like, "If I see a rock, I just have to bring it home with me." It takes a special kind of kids show to affirmatively instill bad habits. Grade: D-

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2018): An absolute travesty in every possible way. The remake is the direct opposite of everything the original represented: crude instead of clever, manic instead of playful, and mean instead of goofy. Grade: F-

#culture

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skamofcolor · 5 years ago

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Hi! Im trying to decide which remake to watch next. I have seen the og, france (i have to say besides season 3 it was super bad) and druck. Which remake is the best in terms of representation, like how would u rank them? (I trust u wont recommend italia lol)

This is an interesting question because I’m not sure that the remakes with the “best representation” are the ones that I personally find the most enjoyable to watch? (I’m also going to assume that when you say “best in terms of representation,” you mean the most ethnoracially diverse just in terms of casting?)

So instead of doing a ranking, here’s an outline of the ethnoracial representation of each one and my brief opinion on how each show works in terms of representation:

Skam España

Season 1: Eva (Eva) / Season 2: Cris (Chris & Isak)

España is one of the least diverse remakes in terms of ethnoracial identity, there’s no denying that. Although they have a few Latin American actors on the show, there are only two characters that aren’t white (or white-passing).

However, España is my favorite remake. Season one is pretty solid and I found myself interested in all of the characters and their personalities. Season two is absolutely spectacular, and while I have a few complaints, I cannot praise it enough. They gave Isak’s storyline to their Chris Berg (Cris) character, so it’s a wlw storyline.

One of the best parts of it is how they treat their Sana (Amira). Imo España puts in way more care and effort into Amira than any of the other Skams do, including the OG. The Girl Squad actually seems to care about Amira’s religion and they make the effort to educate themselves, and Cris especially works to make Amira feel like she belongs. That’s not in spite of her differences, either, the show acknowledges how difference affects people and why it’s also a source of pride and important to a sense of self-hood. It’s the first Skam show, tbqh, where I’m not scared for the Sana season.

Most of the racism/Islamophobia Amira experiences is from outsiders commenting on Amira and through Cris’s mom. Their Vilde (Viri) is definitely sheltered and shows prejudice on a number of occasions in S1 but seems to be the one who lets go of those biases the most out of all the Vildes. Otherwise a lot of the prejudice is misogyny, homophobia/biphobia and ableism (which relates to the themes in Eva’s and Cris’s season).

Overall, I would describe España as tender.

Skam Austin

Season 1: Megan (Eva) / Season 2: Grace (Noora)

I think Austin the most ethnoracially diverse of the Skam shows. 3/5 members of the Girl Squad are WoC, and their Isak is a Black lesbian. (Yay!!!!!!)

Season one was fun but felt a bit rushed in some places. Season two started out pretty badly in terms of dialogue and characterization, but I did think it picked up well towards the middle of the season. I think it really hit its stride in the last few episodes!

All of the characters of color are fun, lovable, and get more complex characterization by the end of S2. What I do dislike about Austin is that they seem to love putting their characters of color in painful situations with very little resolution or support from other characters. I’m not sure how to get into this without spoiling things, but I was not happy with their Sana’s (Zoya), Eva’s, (Megan), Chris’s (Josefina) or Isak’s (Shay) storylines or how they wrapped up. However, when given complex dialogue and scenes, these actresses really pull out all the stops.

There’s not too much racism/Islamophobia in season 1 besides the patent Vilde-to-Sana (Kelsey to Zoya) prejudice. Megan is actually Latina but I don’t remember that really being brought up at all. I love Josefina but at points I feel like she was also just supposed to be the comic relief as well. Season 2, imo, had a LOT of racism/islamophobia, mostly directed at Zoya but a few microaggressions against the other girls as well. Kelsey seems to grow and isn’t blatantly racist/islamophobic but is still cringe-y/funny in that white-woman-who’s-trying-too-hard kind of way. Other forms of prejudice are misogyny and lesophobia (season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault).

Overall, I would describe Austin as campy.

Skam Netherlands

Season 1: Isa (Eva) / Season 2: Liv (Noora)

Netherlands is extremely ethnoracially diverse as well. They’re also the first remake to give us a WoC!Noora and a MoC!William.

Season one is probably my favorite season one (besides the OG). They built on so much of the wonderful aspects of the OG and went a step further, imo. Season two started out so well, but then it began to teeter off towards the end. It felt very rushed by then and some of the changes they made to the characters didn’t affect the plot at all, which was disappointing and almost nonsensical to watch. The show is very aesthetically pleasing though and I love most of the characters because they’re so... emotionally messy. lol.

Overall, their characters of color are quirky and nuanced. They’re also treated pretty well by the narrative. However... I think the show tends to not acknowledge their ethnoracial identities at all. Overall, it gives me the impression that the show did “colorblind” casting and then just either didn’t want to or forgot to engage with ethnoracial identity on any kind of level (sort of like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella or Still Star Crossed). This… is not necessarily a bad thing? But it annoys me because I personally think that stories inherently change when you cast marginalized actors. The exceptions to this are their Sana character (Imaan, who is only in season one) and their new Sana/Linn hybrid character (Esra who is in season two).

Again, because the show doesn’t really engage with ethnoracial identity, there’s not much racism/Islamophobia besides the Vilde-to-Sana stuff (Engel to Imaan). Engel is also painted as a cutesy, just doesn’t know any better kind of ignorant and not purposefully racist like many of the other Vildes. In season two, her interactions with Esra have a different tone like she’s genuinely curious, which can still be couched in prejudice. To me though, the dynamic is different because Esra is so much older than she is, so the power is more balanced. The show mostly deals with misogyny but not in a racialized way with Liv, which I found disappointing as well. Again, season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault.

Overall, I would describe Netherlands as surrealist (Also, from what I’ve seen, a lot of people who like Druck really like Skamnl too).

WTFock

Season 1: Janna (Eva) / Season 2: Zoe (Noora)

WTFock is in the middle when it comes to ethnoracial diversity.

Season one starts out slowly, but the small changes they make to the plot make a lot of sense and I really quite liked. It’s underrated but I think some of the characters are extremely strong, and for some reason it gives me the most OG vibe. Their Noora (Zoe) and Sana (Yasmina) are some of my favorites. I haven’t watched season two fully yet, maybe five-six clips. I did like the ones I selectively watched because it seems like they did change things up in a way that actually impacts the storyline (unlike in other remakes, who do small changes but ultimately stick to the exact plot of the OG).

I adore Yasmina and have no strong feelings about the rest of their characters of color so far. Their Chris (Luca) isn’t as strong as some of her counterparts, imo, but I think there’s potential to really build her up. I will say though that their one MoC, Moyo (a Mahdi/Magnus?) is arguably also the worse. He’s obsessed with saying fa**ot and is pretty homophobic. I have a suspicion that WTfock is gonna pull out some antiblackness the same way Skamfr did but again, I haven’t watched most of season 2 so I feel like I can’t really say that for sure yet. The show is good so far at hinting at Yasmina’s backstory, which I also really like. I feel like Wtfock and España have been the best at giving their Sanas a life outside of their friends, where we get more about then in early seasons then we did with Sana.

Yasmina deals with a lot of racism/Islamophobia from her Vilde (Amber). Imo, Amber is the fucking worst, and I don’t know how anyone can tolerate her. She’s even worse than Kiki which is saying a lot because I really really loathe Kiki. But anyway. Season one also has a “Mexican” themed party which was atrocious to watch, and not one of the characters seems to think that’s racist at all. The show tackles with misogyny as well, and season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault. I’m not 100% certain because again, I haven’t watched it, but apparently a bunch of characters, not only Moyo, have also been really gross, fetishizing and homophobic towards Robbe.

Overall, I thought season one was solid. I can’t really comment on the show as a whole yet.

In Conclusion

Anyway!

I hope this was helpful, but what you’re going to like really depends on you. This is all my opinion and ofc folks are free to disagree with me. I might be missing a lot because I wrote this all off of memory, but these are the impressions that stuck with me the most.

- mod Jennifer

#answered ask

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doktoreth · 5 years ago

Text

Rebuttal against dragon-ball-meta

So my stupid ass has no idea how tumblr works, even to this day. After meta responded, I wasn’t able to reblog his stuff, message him, or even follow him. I’m quite certain he blocked me, which is . . . unexpected to say the least. And sad. A real eye-opener, that is. Here’s my rebuttal to his response. Someone let me know if he replies again or something, maybe copy+paste his shit for me, I dunno. Let’s begin:

Hey, thanks for responding, man. Appreciate it.

It’s Toriyama’s words against yours, pal. Regardless of how it was ignored or overwritten, none of this actually precludes its canonical connection with the main story. This isn’t actually an argument against filler’s canonicity, it just reaffirms the admittedly nonsensical connection Toriyama himself decided to establish. Let’s examine the entirety of the last scan(remember, fourth post):

“12: From time to time, il would happen that people whom I didn't even know were approaching me about the anime. Things were often said like: "Oh jeeze, between the manga and the anime, you must never take any time to let yourself breathe!". In reality, I had hardly worked at all on the anime, I had put confidence in my collaborators. I had enough to do just with the manga. I didn't want to work myself to death, you know...

Toriyama: I want to live until I'm 100 years old!

13: For example, drawing an image of a movement in a manga is relatively simple, but to animate this image, you had to decompose the movement and draw all the intermediary movements. That demands a colossal amount of work. (Ok, the example of Kame-sennin might not be the most appropriate...)”

Nothing much here. He’s essentially elaborating on how much his work is cut out for him. Now all that’s left is the final quotes:

“14: Of course, those who have read Dragon Ball have noticed that certain stories which are found in the anime didn't existe in the manga.

Oolong: What's this? I never saw that in the manga....”

Toriyama and Oolong mention the original stories found in the anime, the filler stories. Obviously.

“END: As one adventure in the manga corresponds to about 10 minutes of animation, and since one episode comprises on average 30 minutes, the entire series of Dragon Ball would have passed by very quickly. The team of animators therefore had to insert some original stories. I admire what they have done, that's a hell of a job!”

Toriyama’s reasoning for inserting original stories is padding, as you know. He’s not talking about how it’s fine if people like both or how the padding didn’t upset him. Anywho, we know that when he speaks of “original stories”, he’s speaking in a narrative context.

“Toriyama: Dragon Ball, it's the anime and the manga!”

Whereas the previous quote denotes his reasoning, this final quote confirms his overall treatment of the anime, being that it along with the manga comprise one wholesome narrative. Everyone knows it’s for the sake of padding. That’s been obvious from the very beginning. Still doesn’t negate Toriyama’s clear and explicit connection between the two mediums. Remember, Toriyama > You/Me.

I’m not sure what your point is in saying I think those types of alterations are “akin” to the driving episode. My view on the filler’s canonicity is akin to Toriyama’s. I also think it was a stupid decision on his part to establish such a connection for reasons I’m sure you’d agree with, such as character breaking moments and inconsistent power levels. I see filler as supplementary evidence for Plague, honestly. He doesn’t need ‘em to defend Tien.

See, the issue there is that all that fandom backlash and meme shit is frankly an insignificant indicator as to where his popularity is concerned. Weekly Jump 1993 has Krillin living the good life just behind Piccolo, Weekly Jump 1995 has Krillin taking more of a backseat and yet he’s still popular enough to remain in the top 10, and Dragon Ball Forever has Krillin just catching up back to Piccolo. He’s evidently the most popular human character, so I’m not at all out of line in connecting the dots (or votes, in this case) to his relevancy in the series. No conceit or irrational dislike here, meta, when I’ve mostly no problems with Krillin’s treatment in the series, only how others like Tien are being left in the dust.

Christ, this again? I can tell this conversation is heading to, “Oh, Krillin’s progress makes sense for his status as the strongest human” instead of addressing Plague’s overall gripe. Frankly, the exact point of plateau is too vague and arbitrary to pinpoint for any of these guys. Meta, please listen, just listen: I believe you. Krillin’s progression making him surpass Tien WITHOUT artificial power boosts is realistic. Would it have happened eventually or inevitably? Neither of us know, but that was never the point, which is that Tien’s importance as a fighter is no less than that of Krillin, and yes, even Yamcha. Plague’s premise was never reliant on Tien being the strongest, he touched on that for literally only a few seconds near the end, so let’s drop this tangent on who would’ve surpassed whom, yeah?

Well, first off, I would respectfully ask you to quell your bias for Krillin, as Plague’s video on Tien touches on him quite infrequently anyway. You spend too much time on this subject, and while I’m happy to engage you on it, it’s quite the digression. His videos being internet comedy videos (scroll down and you’ll find his comment), he makes sure to stay on point without rambling off-topic. The comedic value of his content would be severely diminished if he was all like, “Tien is fading into irrelevancy in comparison to other fan favorites”, instead of saying, “This is a Toriyama handjob.” You can call this intellectual dishonesty from a dishonest hack, I call it what it is: comedy. If you can discern no difference between the two in relation to his actual points, then I can’t help you there. I can only hope I’ve made everyone here more open-minded and vice versa.

I’m beginning to think you haven’t watched his video, meta. He doesn’t think Toriyama hates Tien. He called Tien’s stand against Cell his “greatest accomplishment” in the end of the video, albeit begrudgingly. Any examples in Z are mere digressions, anyway, as he specifically criticizes Tien’s treatment in SUPER. Anyone can look at Tien’s entry into the ToP and take that to mean he was kept important; Tien’s performance was a joke comparatively even in terms of strategy, forget power. His only notable achievements are Tri-Beaming an already incapacitated Za Priccio, courtesy of Roshi, earning Tien a knockout and his FIRST EVER ATTACK landed on an enemy that isn’t a Frieza soldier, and the most humiliating ringout ever in the form of using clones to tackle Harmira off the ring AFTER Tien’s original body was thrown off when he just as well could’ve used one measly clone as bait beforehand. Yes, power isn’t the sole indicator, but it’s the most important one in Dragon Ball. So when the ToP is played up to be needing more strategy, Tien is still treated as a joke of an afterthought.

That’s great, meta. Neither do I and neither does Plague.

I wildly disagree. His thoughts are spot on precisely because he acknowledges Tien’s motivations as a character. I don’t find them argued from emotion any more than I find yours regarding Krillin, tbh. It’s okay for you to be wrong sometimes too, meta.

P.S. You’ve said this already. I agree. I think the same can be argued for Tien given the extremely vague context as to what certain side guys have been doing off-screen. I’m literally watching the Tien video for the third time (you don’t stop talking about this, so I need to make sure), and I get the impression that Plague’s mad about Tien’s piss-poor performance comparatively rather than him being the strongest human (again, this was NOT the crux of his argument).

P.P.S You’ve . . . made this point already. Nobody said this. Plague didn’t say this. Jesus. He never even spoke of Krillin’s popularity to begin with. I know why Krillin’s popular. Hell, I loved his character from the very beginning. Krillin, Krillin, Krillin, Krillin, Krillin. We get it, meta.

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