#i might even be indifferent towards romance plot lines if it wasn’t used to just make dumb decisions

[rataltouille]

HOUSE PLANTS, UPDATE 1

this has been long overdue. typical, really. [novel intro found here.]

the story is currently eight chapters in but it's also a very strange eight chapters. i’m not really happy with half of these words because they're unnecessary ™ and dull ™ and serve no purpose whatsoever ™. i’m simply choosing to ignore that i need to cut them out. :’] here’s a note i made that perfectly captures my feelings so far:

before we go into the excerpts, i want to talk a bit about how house plants is structured because the format is whack. each chapter ranges from 3000-4000 words. A few vignettes, around 500 words, are sprinkled between these chapters. the chapters narrate events from the fictive past, while the vignettes are snippets into the fictive present [the point from where lilith is retelling the story]. additionally, an important plot thread is told entirely in the form of an epistolary [through letters] and so there's a bit more of confusion to navigate through. fun times.

and now for the excerpts. they're from the first three chapters and are very weird out of context. i think that each update will feature excerpts from three consequent chapters, but that may change as we get closer to spoiler land.

excerpts:

chapter one

the novel kicks off with an odd vignette featuring an unhinged willow and an innocent lilith. chronologically, this is set way back, the earliest scene ever, around when lilith was ten or eleven. it’s meant to establish a sense of unease and to thread the unsettling undertone i’m going for. it's also major foreshadowing but we don't talk about that here. i’m not giving away much because there's not many excerpts to scrape out from a dialogue-heavy vignette like this.

”Here, let me help, mother.”

I tried guiding your palms to the rim of the pot, but you moved them away. From the brief touch, my fingers came away with moisture. On second glance, your knuckles were bathed in sweat. Your veins pulsed and your hands shivered. You gave me a wide-eyed glance, dumped the plant atop the brown, and stood up. You wiped the dirt away on your jeans. From below, with sunlight teetering over your golden hair, you were a personification of God. But were you, really? Does God fear their children? Does God volunteer to garden? I didn't know what God truly meant. I don't now either. But I’m certain it wasn't you.

”Sorry, Lilith. My pollen allergy is acting up.”

It's stunning how it ran in our blood, lying effortlessly.

chapter two

immediately after this we’re pulled off into the linear non-vignette chapter thing, aka the second chapter. [god what am i doing with this structure]. it starts with a soft little reminiscent bit about juniper?? i’m exploiting the tense a lot but it's been fun. (:

The first time she smiled at me is knit into me, like I’m not myself without it. I’m not. She breathed change and I ran with it. Whenever she gazed at me, with sunset dripping behind her head, or with rain clouds dotting her hairline, she’d smile. It was the sound of a ukulele in a winter draft, the kiss of dew on my favourite hemlock, the fond mythical curl of my father’s arms around me. There’s a phantom of love everywhere, and I almost caught it sneaking around her. Even now, Juniper dozes so soundly; she’s replaced everything I wanted you to be and everything you never were. You’d know, of course. You always have.

willow is officially introduced soon after, and so is one of the major plot threads, i.e. lilith’s correspondence with her dad. this excerpt is to show how the family feel about each other became, like i mentioned, there’s a lot of tea to be split here. not gonna lie, this paragraph reads as kinds pure.

You— the town called you Wistful Willow, but they did so behind your back and on postcards to neighbours— had a special lilt in your tone every time you spoke his name. ”Isac,” your lips would curl, almost a smile, and I’d smile back. You loved it, the sound of his name. It had become a ritual for us, pouring our sorrow and joy and unrest and comfort into those two syllables. A fallback plan, I suppose; there was always father to rely on amidst chaos.

willow is constantly at home and she’s probably not seen the outside world in a million years. she either cooks, reads, sits in a bathtub, or does everything at the same time. not odd at all.

The bathroom door, thick oak painted ivory, was right across where I stood. The house was large and empty, and I had three places— study, bedroom, garden— to myself. I lived only with you, so it was mostly quiet, except on Saturdays when we got father’s mail and watched TV together. That Saturday we had seen an old movie from the 70s, a random romance that neither of us cared for, but watched out of duty.

The door was shut. From it came the sound of pages rustling, not unlike a delicate breeze playing with the fronds of croton plants. I knocked softly.

”Come in, ” you said, a splash of water punctuating your voice.

I entered to find you half-immersed in the bathtub, one hand holding a novel, the other limp across the rim. There lingered the scent of soapy water, rose-tinted, and all over the tiled walls was the water’s reflection, a glow of opulence. You were half-naked, your garments drifting like algae. Your habit of reading in the bathtub had been increasing lately. You looked at me, questioning.

there’s also the introduction of lilith’s best friends marcy and faun, where they lay down in the middle of a field after a tiring cricket match and banter all through the evening. i’m really enjoying the trio’s friendship; it's both fun to write and they’re just so pure.

”If you insult Henry one more time, Marce...”

”He actually named the butterfly.” Her eyes were wide and amused; she dug up mud with her nails and flicked it upwards, glanced at me. ”Lilith. He named his fucking butterfly.”

”Faun, it's dead. You keep it in a box, ” I said.

”The dead don't magically lose their names, ” he countered.

Our laughter drafted into town. I don't think it heard.

chapter three

this is kind of uneventful but it sets up some major subplots. i might push it to later in the book, but i’m happy with where it it's right now. lilith randomly keeps reminiscing throughout so that’s convenient. this excerpt is about willow and thus is unreliable as hell. willow ain't good and lilith ain't 100% sincere narrating this right now, so don't let its pureness fool you.

People in town, I’d hear, found you odd and unsociable, cold and distant. I always scoffed when they told me so. They only knew the Willow who never attended community gatherings, who’d gaze out absentmindedly from the porch, who’d more so see than observe, hear than listen. They didn't know the Willow who was my mother, who hated loud noises, who loved her novels with a passion, who spoke so serenely— and rarely— that you hung onto her every word. Only I saw this side of you, and that suited me just fine.

there’s a scene where lilith [accidentally] spies on marcy and another guy. their conversation makes lilith tangent off in her head.

Marcy spoke detachedly, like she was speaking through a filter of not caring. I worried for her and her charade. It didn't help that scented letters confessing love often found their way to her locker, or that roses were shoved in her face as if her admirers loved her so much that they forgot she was allergic to them. Idolisation and adoration took extreme forms; she was stalked for a month and sent death threats. She would put on a disguise of indifference and seem unbothered, but at night she’d soak her pillow and lose sleep, then inform us the next day about her insomnia so casually that we almost forgot how easily she hurt.

i’m not going to lie, the last line in this excerpt was just me indulging myself with the knowledge of the climax. i need to stop slipping in random tone changes like this lol.

My walk home finished quick, though my feet expressed exhaustion. I was right on time, too; you were sitting by your coffee table, glasses crooked upon your nose, a new novel— this one a bright red sky, gold print, gauzy— resting beside warm coffee. You barely smiled, but that was because you were daydreaming. I was familiar with every tell: your eyes would tilt towards my forehead, your lips would stretch, your fingers would drum on whatever you were holding. I’d always let you be when you drowned into your head. Did you ever notice that, Mother? Have you ventured out of your mind to witness my efforts?

and finally some food for thought. yes, that pun was intended. i’ll see myself out.

”Dinner’s ready, dear,” you called. I groaned out my fatigue and left my room, hoping to abandon my unflattering thoughts. In the kitchen, I helped you set the table. Soon we were both sipping hot carrot soup with a side of breadsticks. You were already invested in the novel. I held the spoon, the heat barely registering, and watched you drift through fiction and reality like a will o’ the wisp. Maybe I could read for escapism, too. It would do me good.

that’s all for today! thanks for reading so far; support is, as always, appreciated. hope you liked these excerpts ✨

[overthinkingkdrama]

Exit Review: My Country

Synopsis

This drama is set in the transition between the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties, and follows turbulent friendship turned fraught rivalry between Seo Hwi and Nam Seon Ho. Seo Hwi’s late father was the greatest swordsman of Goryeo, but after being framed for embezzling military supplies he was executed as a traitor, a stain which hangs over Hwi and his sister’s lives. Seon Ho is the illegitimate son of a powerful state official, but due to his mixed parentage he can never fully belong to his father’s world and has an insatiable ambition and bitter resentment toward his father which drives him.

Hwi and Seon Ho have been close since childhood, but when they end up going head to head in the state military exam a tragedy follows that will drive a terrible wedge between them. Eventually circumstances will force them to pick sides between General Yi Seong Gye (the first King of Joseon) an his ruthless son, Yi Bang Won, in the fight which will give shape and purpose to a newborn country.

Review

Story: My Country is a difficult drama for me to review objectively, in part because I loved it so much. Watching this drama was a truly absorbing and gripping experience for me, and it plays to so many of my story preferences. I was unequivocally obsessed with this drama from the premier to the finale, but during the weeks between airings I couldn’t help but feel like I was arm wrestling with the script.

It was characterization more than anything that gave me fits. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse the show of giving us thin or two dimensional characters. To the contrary, each of these characters has a fully realized matrix of conflicting desires, loyalties and ambitions that inform their choices and alignments. However, it is often difficult to sift through those murky motivations and draw a clear line between a character’s internal desires and their external actions.

This drama starts out with an incredible cold open that raises all sort so questions about who these characters are and immediately invests you in finding out how they ended up in this situation. It’s truly masterfully done, and I probably rewatched it upwards of 10 times through the run. It kept me asking those questions all the way until the pay off. But because the writers were so invested in keeping their cards close to the chest, clear characterization was sometimes lost in the shuffle.

That said, this drama really is one beautiful, tragic escalation after another. Just taking the first two episodes in isolation is quite a ride. I really thought after the first few weeks, or hell, the first half, that the drama would get bogged down in plotting and politics or have nowhere left to go, but to my great joy it really doesn’t let up a single moment until the finale.

Acting: Where to even begin with the acting in this drama? All three of the main male leads: Yang Se Jong, Woo Do Hwan and the inimitable Jang Hyuk are perfectly cast and give inspired performances. Everything from posture to voice to subtle microexpressions is so stunningly on point.

I came into the drama already a big fan of both Woo Do Hwan and Jang Hyuk as actors, having followed them through other projects, so it wasn’t surprising to me that I liked them both here as well. However, what did surprise me was the extent to which they were able to show off their range and talent. As a long time Jang Hyuk fangirl, I would confidently argue that this particular rendition of the Yi Bang Won character is him at his absolute best. I also went into My Country relatively indifferent to Yang Se Jong, or at least not overly familiar with or impressed by his previous work. I’m happy to announce that that is no longer the case, as his performance of Hwi is one of the most memorable of the year for me, and his sheer level of commitment to the role is awe inspiring. There’s a video of him talking behind the scenes about a moment early on where he actually yelled himself hoarse embodying a moment of panic and grief, which made me appreciate the level thought and effort he put into playing this character.

I don’t want to limit my praise to just that trio of actors either, because the entire cast is incredible. I didn’t know much about Seolhyun before this role, but I thought she was really strong as well, though her character doesn’t feature as heavily as one might like or expect from the promotional material around this drama. The villains too are captivating, especially the detestable Nam Jeon played by veteran actor Ahn Nae Sang. Wow, you are really going to love to despise this guy. I just cannot say enough about the performances from top to bottom, because we would be here all day. The acting is really what makes the drama, especially the stunning chemistry between the characters, and more specifically the chemistry Yang Se Jong has with all the other leads.

Production: There is some movie quality cinematography throughout this drama. It just looks very, very good both in the way it is shot and the attention to detail, the props, the costumes the sets. There is a beautiful long tracking shot following Hwi through a battle field in episode 3 or 4 that was just jaw dropping. It really felt like they were flexing, honestly, and it’s refreshing to see this kind of cable quality coming out of South Korea and ending up on American Netflix for people to watch and appreciate.

I love the music in this drama. Some of it can come across a bit camp, like the electric guitar and strings heavy instrumental “My Country” that accompanies many of the sword fight scenes, but I loved Bang Won’s wailing violin theme music every time it showed up, and the OST definitely sets a mood.

One of the more distracting choices the drama made was to allude to certain historical characters like Poeun, Sambong and Choi Young but never have them actually appear as characters, in the present or in flashbacks, opting to address certain important events and philosophies through fictional expys such as Nam Jeon and Seo Geon instead. They even resort to filming certain scenes in strange oblique ways so that we understand Sambong is in the room but we don’t see his face.

The only thing I can figure is the writers wanted to use the audience’s familiarity with these historical figures without chaining the story too closely to the actual flow of historical events. Or perhaps they decided to exclude these characters in order to avoid too much direct comparison to the critically well-received and highly rated drama, Six Flying Dragons, which covers much of the same time period.

Feels: For me My Country watches like a bitter-sweet tragi-romantic melodrama centering on a toxic love triangle with a historical backdrop. And when I say “love triangle”, I am 100% referring to the interplay between Seon Ho, Hwi and Bang Won (my sincere apologies to poor Hui Jae) because that’s how the entire drama is structured. My Country is one of the most purely homoerotic things I’ve ever watched. If it weren’t for a few limp attempts to imply Seon Ho’s romantic interest was in Hui Jae and not his former friend, I would say “unapologetically homoerotic” but alas, South Korea isn’t quite there yet.

The romance between Hui Jae and Hwi never quite caught fire for me, though lord knows they were trying. It always felt like a side dish to the main course that the drama really wanted to serve: namely the star-crossed relationship of Hwi and Seon Ho. (And this is not meant as a dig toward those who liked the Hui Jae/Hwi romance. This section of the review is just about my subjective experience.)

There were moments where I worried, or couldn’t quite tell where the drama was taking us with regard to Seon Ho and Hwi, or where I feared everything was going to end in senseless destruction and they couldn’t successfully bring the plot to closure in just 16 episodes. But for the handful of issues I had with the writing of the drama, its final resolution was poetically, heart-wrenchingly, perfect.

My Country just pushes so many of my narrative and aesthetic buttons and plays heavily to my id. This is a drama that I’m going to be thinking about for a long, long time. I will definitely be watching it again and I will try to get as many other people to watch it as possible. I liked it that much.

Would I recommend My Country: The New Age? Yes, oh god yes. Please watch it. Watch it and then come talk to me about it. Definitely one of the best of the year.

9/10

[abigailnussbaum]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, S5

Overall I’d say this was the best season since the first one, and the ending it gives the story is a satisfying and moving one. I really liked how the show gestures back at some canonical She-Ra concepts - the rebels hiding out in the Whispering Woods, for example - while at the same time doing things that are completely outside the original canon’s scope - She-Ra in Space! And I thought the ensemble was well-used, main characters, side characters, and antagonists all getting their own storylines and resolutions in a way that isn’t easy with such a wide cast of characters, but was handled with elegance.

But look, if you’ve read anything I’ve written or tweeted about this show over the last four seasons, you know I have fundamental issues with how it chooses to direct its storytelling and characterization energies. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the concluding season didn’t address most of those issues. A big part of that is that the show I wanted She-Ra to be clearly wasn’t the one Stevenson and her team were making, and that’s fine. But I find it genuinely strange that of the three series that are obvious thematic and emotional successors to Avatar: The Last Airbender - She-Ra, The Legend of Korra, and The Dragon Prince - none of them reach the same heights of plotting and characterization, and at least in She-Ra’s case I think this is rooted in an unwillingness to complicate a rather simplistic central theme. 

(Also, at least part of the problem has to be that the show’s five-season, 52-episode run spanned only seventeen months. Even if you add in the production period for the first season, that’s a truly bonkers schedule that must have told in the depth and complexity of the final product.)

Take Catra, for example. If you’d asked me where I thought her storyline was going before watching the season, I would have said pretty confidently that she was going to get at least some level of redemption story. After all, her situation at the end of S4 perfectly positions her to switch sides by stripping her of all the things she thought she wanted and placing her in a precarious position that she might not be able to talk or manipulate her way out of. The season premiere establishes those facts even further by making Horde Prime a literal monomaniacal monster. And yeah, it’s pretty clever that in a series that places so much emphasis on the importance of friendship as the path towards moral growth, the villain is narcissism personified, a person who has no use for others except as they reflect himself, and subjugate themselves entirely to his will. So it’s not surprising that, finally cut off from any realistic path towards power and made to feel her own vulnerability, Catra would finally start doing some soul-searching and realize how badly she’d treated the people who cared about her. 

(Though if you’ll allow me a snide moment, I can’t help but point out that in the Best Redemption Story Ever, Zuko actually gets all the power and approval he’d thought he wanted before realizing that it means nothing without his honor and self-respect. I think we all know that if Catra had gotten a position of power from Horde Prime, she would have felt no loyalty towards Adora and Etheria, and helped him to conquer them.)

Similarly, I think I would have given you better odds than even that the series would end with some romantic storyline between Catra and Adora. And I don’t want to downplay the importance of depicting a story like that - before the end of the season I found myself wondering why Bow and Glimmer’s romance was being depicted so chastely, before realizing that the writers wanted the first kiss on the show to be between two women. I respect that impulse and the representation the show ends up delivering - we’ve come a long way from Korra and Asami holding hands at the end of their show. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel that the way that the show arrives at this point requires a significant rewriting of Catra’s personality and character arc, not to mention the history of her relationship with Adora.

As the fifth season argues it, the root of Catra’s resentment of Adora is romantic disappointment. She complains that “Adora doesn’t want me. Not the way I want her”, and leaves the team when Adora decides to risk her life by destroying the Heart of Etheria because she takes it as a personal rejection. But this is, to say the least, a massive whitewashing of what we’ve seen of Catra and Adora’s past relationship. In flashbacks, particularly the ones from S4, it’s made clear that even when they were on the same wavelength, Catra and Adora’s friendship was toxic and dysfunctional. Catra may have always loved Adora, but it was a selfish love, one that saw Adora as an instrument for the validation of Catra’s confidence and self-image, and denied her any opportunity for pursuing her own interests and desires. 

There’s room for a story about Catra growing past that selfishness and learning to love generously and openly, of course, but we don’t get that story in S5. When Catra complains that in sacrificing herself for Etheria, Adora is refusing to want things for herself, it’s not an honest character moment. Catra has never cared what Adora wants - in fact, her refusal to acknowledge Adora’s right to make her own choices and take a path in life that left Catra behind has been the crux of their enmity since the series premiere. Having her suddenly change tunes doesn’t feel organic, but like a parachuted-in personality transplant.

To put it back in ATLA terms, Catra was never Zuko. Adora is Zuko - someone raised with bad principles who nevertheless has enough innate compassion, and a powerful moral compass, that with a little support - emotional or magical - they can break through their indoctrination and become a hero. Catra is Azula - obsessed with power, possessed of very little compassion for others, and, most importantly, seriously emotionally unbalanced. I’m not saying someone like that can’t be helped and can’t become a better person, but it takes a great deal more than what the last season of She-Ra has given us.

Meanwhile, if you look at Adora’s storyline, on one level it gives us what I’ve wanted for a while. I’ve complained a lot about how Adora has remained static throughout the middle seasons of the show while other characters - Glimmer, Catra, Scorpia - got character arcs and changed meaningfully. One effect of that has been to create a strange disconnect between the show’s central themes and its main character. In a story that is supposedly all about the importance of friendship and personal connections, the heroine is someone who achieves her heroic destiny by rejecting those connections in favor of a more global morality, and who then had to struggle with balancing her sense of global responsibility with personal attachments - to Glimmer and Bow as much as to Catra.

The fifth season finally circles back to these ideas and places Adora at its center. I thought her conversation with Mara about having the right to be more than She-Ra, and to do more with her life than sacrifice it for others, was a really powerful moment. I just feel like, once again, the foundation wasn’t laid for it. First because Adora’s growth has been mostly ignored during the intervening three seasons, and second because this is a character arc that clashes with the show’s friendship-above-all message in ways that aren’t really acknowledged.

When you think about it, the moments when Adora has been the most herself are the ones when she rejects toxic friendship and stands up for herself - in her confrontations with Catra, especially over the course of the first season, and when she defies Glimmer’s decision to use the Heart of Etheria and the end of S4 and destroys the sword. So to the already complicated issue of where to draw the line between the things you want for yourself and the things you owe others, you add the thorny matter of when to detach yourself from toxic friends who see you only as a means to an end. Except that She-Ra never really grapples with this extra wrinkle - and again, Catra’s hasty personality transplant plays into this, because we get to pretend that the only problem she and Adora ever had was romantic miscommunication.

In a season that is all about putting aside differences and personal grievances to fight for a common cause, there is a refreshing number of instances that remind us that those grievances are still relevant - the fact that nobody will ever really trust Shadow Weaver, for example, or the other princesses calling Entrapta out on her seeming indifference to the consequences of her actions (though in this case, and yet again, Entrapta’s neuroatypicality is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card from taking personal responsibility). Even Glimmer gets to spend a bit of time in the dog house, at the same time that she and Bow work together and save each other’s lives. But once again, when it comes to the main character, we can’t let pesky matters like a lifetime of toxic friendship get in the way of a happy ending in which lesbian love conquers all.

There was a good story to be told here, one that could have easily ended up in the same place as the series actually did. But it required actually delving into the complexity of a character like Adora, and dealing honestly with the problems in her relationship with Catra. She-Ra ends - as it did throughout it run - by choosing to paper over those difficulties in favor of a friendship-conquers-all message that is a great deal less convincing.

(Also, am I wrong or are there a lot of loose ends still? I don’t think we ever find out who Adora was, what Greyskull is, and what She-Ra actually is.)

[regalitytm]

⋆ ° ⟡ ( ADRIANA LIMA, thirty five, cisfemale, she/her ) has MARCIA BRAGANZA ALMEIDA MARTIN, the CROWN PRINCESS from BRAZIL arrived yet? i heard they can be quite COMPLACENT, but also VIVACIOUS. there’s rumours they’ve come to genovia for SHE WANTS TO CREATE AN ALLIANCE, but you never know. A PHONE THAT NEVER STOPS RINGING, A PERFECTLY TAILORED POWER SUIT, LIPSTICK SMUDGES ON AN EMPTY WHISKEY GLASS always remind me of them. 

hey y’all! it’s me, your neighborhood trash bringing a brand new muse. i’ll put a lil blurb about her personality below.

WARNING: if you like this post i won’t stop messaging you on discord until you plot with me. 

character inspo:daphne kluger ocean’s 8. peach salinger you. emily nelson a simple favor.

death mention. 

marcia is business Smart. she knows exactly how to generate favorable opinions about her. she doesn’t really care about anything other than herself & her family. she is a LEO. THROUGH & THROUGH. she has the be the center of attention by any means necessary. she’s poised, elegant, & not afraid to say whats on her mind. i would say she’s indifferent towards a lot of the people here. she’s always playing nice with people so it’s hard to tell if she genuinely likes someone lmao. she’s a know it all. doesn’t have a compromising bone in her body. 

marcia isabel aurora braganza almeida was born into royalty on july 26, 1984. the dry & humid rio de janeiro air didn’t stop the people of brazil from traveling far & wide to show their support of the new family. they hospital walls were lined with breadseed poppies (reportedly the Queen’s favorite) from citizens & other royals alike. the King & Queen were complete at last. 

her childhood was filled with love & laughter. she never left her mother’s side. the two were attached at the hip, completely enamored with one another. often they would visit hospitals in the city & pray over the sick. the King always instilled the importance of community because a Queen is nothing without her loyal subjects. he wanted his daughter to understand the people that she would one day rule. 

death tw 

those ritualistic outings became less frequent as Queen Estela got more sick. even the best oncologists in brazil were worried. the disease went rampant in her body. she was diagnosed & only two months later, she passed away in her sleep. marcia was six years old. 

sorrow swept over the nation at the loss of their beloved Queen. King João was inconsolable. millions tuned into the televised homecoming held in her honor. it was from this day forward that the kingdom never went a day without a fresh vase of poppies. 

eventually the King’s heart began to heal. there was pressure to marry again. perhaps a princess from a neighboring nation ? 

the King was remarried & soon after the happy couple was blessed with a child. another daughter. it was apparent in adriana’s adolescence that she was no threat to the throne. marcia wasn’t worried. her younger sister her the ally, not her competition. 

every second of her life was spent in preparation for the day she would rule. her fate was decided for her without any consideration for what she might want. while other teens were getting busy in the back of their parents’ cars, marcia was practicing archery & mastering the worlds many languages of trade. when the time came, she enrolled in cambridge without a second thought. 

suddenly she wasn’t being suffocated by the amount of guards & ladies in waiting. she didn’t lose herself in the endless booze & daddy’s gold card like most royals would. she studied dutifully. she was determined to be the best monarch brazil had ever seen. 

after getting her ba from cambridge, she met a man. the founder of tesla just so happened to be a lover of charity galas. & so it was. their whirlwind romance was a media frenzy. the press couldn’t get enough of the powerful duo. it seemed unlikely but it was Hot. with any great royal comes great commitment issues. as elia delved deeper in his work, the future queen of brazil found herself enduring far too many lonely nights. being isolated is not something the princess is very fond of. think of the marilyn monroe quote “alone, but never lonely”

this is where fraser comes in, ready & willing to be used like yesterday’s paper. their relationship ran its course. it was a wild cycle of marcia crawling back & forth between the two men whenever one wasn’t adequate enough. 

finally !!! two years ago things with elia became less turbulent. he proposed to the crown princess with a custom band made of mars paraphernalia. fitting, because her nickname is mars. of course she said yes. their love transcended across continents for the last ten years. they eloped in private & all was right with the world. until elia was back on his bullshit. they’ve been separated & not yet legally divorced for six months. 

[wonfairywoo]

Little Do You Know (Pt. 1)

WONWOO SCENARIO #2

Request: A Wonwoo marriage angst au! With my own twist! This plot has been FOREVER in my head! The title is inspired by the song by Alex and Sierra! Check it out~

Genre/s: Romance, Drama, Angst

Warning/s: Divorce, Mentions of drinking, CLIFFHANGER (please don’t kill me!)

“I remember when you first told me you loved me.” She whispered, feeling him stir behind her. She never turned to face him in their bed. Long ago she stopped wishing he would wrap his arms around her to comfort her— to ease the pain in her heart. “Do you?”

She waited with baited breath for his answer. Anything. Any sign that he still loved her. That she wasn’t an idiot for staying and fighting for what they had left.

“No.”

That night she stopped fighting. She stopped making it work between the two of them, stopped asking him if he was free so they could go out by themselves. She stopped trying to kill herself with heartache for a man who had fallen out of love with her.

By the end of the week she had lost reason to stay. So, she walked out the door—

And he never came after her.

The airport was crowded— it always was but today it was overly so. She’d heard from a group of people as she passed by that some actor was coming home from filming a variety show overseas. Given her curiosity, she would have gone to check it out herself.

But she was on a different mission that day.

She had someone special to see.

Dragging her luggage behind her, she weaved her way through the crowds of reporters, photographers, and fans. There were young women wielding large signs that really should have been banned at a place like this. The pointed edges could bring an accident upon anyone.

She didn’t have time to read the signs either, she was already in danger of being recognized with such a large crowd. She pulled her scarf over her head and made sure her sunglasses were secure over her face. She thought a few people here and there would glance at her but quickly brushed it off as a figment of her imagination.

She was close to where she was told to meet them, so close. But then suddenly the crowd moved, and she was swept in the wave, pushing her roughly to the front line. A place where she shouldn’t be and didn’t want to be.

Life had other plans that day.

She bumped into someone hard and the next thing she knew she was falling back. Gasping, she closed her eyes and braced for impact with the ground.

But it never came.

“Y/N?” A deep and breathless voice spoke from above her.

Her heart stuttered, her breathing stopped as she stared up at the man who had saved her from falling.

She knew that face. She had spent what felt like countless hours in the night watching that face as he slept, oblivious to the world and her hurting. That face which once lit up with such joy when he woke in the morning— that once lit up with such pride and love when she walked down the aisle that it brought her to tears.

She knew that face, because once upon a time she loved the person attached to it with all her heart and let herself become a shadow of herself just to stay with him, hoping he would save her. And he never did.

Because this person that saved her from getting a concussion… This was her ex-husband.

At 29 years old, Jeon Wonwoo was an actor, a veteran idol, and a divorcee. At 23 years old he had married the love of his life after 2 years of being together. Then at 24 years old she walked out the door, and 3 months later, divorce papers were mailed to him.

The next few months were spent searching for her, asking questions to himself, getting drunk out of his mind, and grieving because of his mistakes. It took one of his members punching the drunkenness out of him to get a grip on himself. And if that didn’t sober him up, the fact that it was Joshua-hyung who did the punching, did.

He sobered up the next day, went back to work, and hired a few private investigators to search for his wife. Yes, she was still his wife. Because he never did sign those papers.

After a few months of failed searching he gave up. Because he knew that he had fucked up their marriage with his indifference. This was his fault. She became miserable because of him.

He had gotten complacent in their relationship. Thinking that, since she loved him she would understand and would stay. Be with him when he was being difficult. But how could she understand when he never told her? He had forgotten about how things needed to be spelled out for her as well. He had gotten selfish thinking that she would always be there.

He knew things got too much for her, but she never said either. But he should have known back then, after all she told him once that he knew her best of all.

The day she walked out the door he was too shocked to go after her. And then he thought that she would come home soon, that she was just having a tantrum and then he would take her out for dinner and everything would be okay.

She never came home.

And it was all his fault.

He signed the papers as his form of apology. He was setting her free.

And 5 years later he lived with that heart ache, burying it deep down in his being and then dug it up at night when he was alone in bed. The right side of the bed where she used to lie was cold, and even the memories of her could not warm it.

If he could rewind time and go back to those times that he would ignore her, when he would stay in the practice room instead of going home to spend some time with his wife, he would go back and beat himself up for being an asshole. If he could go back and tell her how much he did love her, that he wanted to try again. If he could go back and hold her in his arms, he would never let her go.

But then 5 years later here he was. Standing in the middle of the airport with the love of his life in his arms.

He was never going to let her go.

Until he realized that they were in the middle of the airport, surrounded by people and cameras.

He cleared his throat and helped her stand up straight, reluctantly removing his hands from her. He felt his heart sink when she took a step back from him, bowing her head so her eyes wouldn’t meet his.

At 29 years of age she was as beautiful as the day he first met her at the bookstore. She was still the love of his life.

Making up his mind Wonwoo turned to one of his managers, quietly telling him to do damage control as fast as possible and that he had somewhere to be. Someone he needed to talk to. He didn’t wait for his manager to protest before he took Y/N’s arm and dragged her away from the crowd, letting the security guards keep the people away as they walked off.

She didn’t know what possessed her to allow him to drag her off like that. Was she mad?! This was her ex-husband for god’s sake! She divorced him!

So what in the world was she doing letting him drag her towards the parking lot?!

Gasping, she wrenched her wrist from him with all her strength, determined to go back where she came from. She had someone waiting for her after all. She ha started to walk away until someone gripped her arm. She tried to shrug off the hand only to fail.

“Y/N.” His voice still sent shivers down her spine. “Please it’s been so long. Let’s talk.”

“We have nothing to talk about.” She spoke, surprised at how hard her voice sounded. How unforgiving it felt to her own ears. “You’ve never been one for much words Wonwoo.” Just saying his name caused her knees to weaken.

“I am now.” He murmured, and she felt him step closer to her, his breath now brushing the the hairs at the back of her head. “Let’s go somewhere to talk. My treat.”

“I have somewhere to be.” She answered stiffly. “People to meet.”

She couldn’t let him see. Not after all this time. Not after what happened between them. She had to leave quickly.

“Can’t you re-schedule?” He walked around so he was facing her, using a hand to tilt her stubborn chin up so she would meet his gaze. “If I don’t take this chance you might disappear on me again.” His tone held sadness in it, and fear.

“Wonwoo I really have to go.” She stepped back once more, eyes scanning the crowd warily. They weren’t looking at them but she had to be wary, because there were some things he shouldn’t see. Things he shouldn’t know. “I’ll just find you okay?”

“I don’t believe that.” He sighed, stepping towards her and chuckling when she stepped back. “How about I just go with you? I can wait till you finish your appointment.”

“No!” She shouted, shaking her head furiously. “You can’t!”

A raised eyebrow was her answer. “It’s not like you have anything to hide from me.” He narrowed his eyes, stepping towards her again so her chest brushed against the front of his shirt, eyes scanning up and down. “Do you?”

She was still so easy to read to him. She was always such a bad liar, especially when it came to him. Now his curiosity burned. What was she hiding that she didn’t want him to see? To know?

“MAMA!”

Wonwoo felt her stiffen before him, he felt the blood drain from his face when he heard thundering footsteps racing towards them. The next thing he knew a small form launched itself onto Y/N and it clung to her when she caught it in her arms.

It was a little girl.

“Mama! Eunha found you!” The little girl, Eunha she said her name was. “Mama, Eunha missed you lots!”

He watched as Y/N nodded mutely, avoiding his eyes but he could see the guilt written on her face. His thoughts raced a mile a second.

Whatthehell?whosekidwasthis?wasshemarried?whendidshegetmarried? whendidshegetpregnant?whogotherpregnant???whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck?!

“Mama who is this?” He gasped when the child turned in her mother’s arms, looking to him when her mother didn’t answer. “Hello mister! Is mister mama’s friend?”

He couldn’t reply. He stared slack-jawed at the child before him, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest as everything began to make sense. He felt like he was going to faint.

Because looking at the little girl’s face now, there was no doubt he knew who her father was.

Because his daughter had his eyes and nose.

DON’T KILL ME I’LL WRITE A PART 2 I SWEAR! BUT FEEL FREE TO COMMENT AND SEND A MESSAGE :D

I wrote this in one sitting by the way! So I haven’t edited it yet. It’s meant to be a rush but I hope you still like it!

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Questions for HSM III (Part IX)

Caption: “My life is over.”

This is cruelty, folks. I just can’t look at the above picture without shaking my head. This is how Troy looks for the vast majority of this movie, which I now realize is the primary reason I found it so insufferably dull on the first watch. He’d lost his vibe, his spark, his zest for life. And this is the face of a student who is in a beautiful, romantic relationship, so the script says?! For real?!

On The Dumping (Part II) and Chad Danforth

1- So when we left off, Gabriella had ruined Troy’s plans in one fell swoop by deciding that she wouldn’t show up for prom, the musical or graduation. Just to give you some context, please remember that this is nearing the end of the school year. It’s a time of excitement, nostalgia and anticipation. Everyone else will be looking forward to prom... EXCEPT Troy, who is now once again dejected, lonely and withdrawn. As if he hasn’t enough on his plate, what with the musical tanking and almost everyone blaming him, the Wildcats showing no sympathy or interest in either his feelings or his future, his dad being unable to allow him a say in his own education, his indecision about where he might go after graduating-- now he has no date for prom. At the END of the school year, folks. And this is ALL because Gabriella doesn’t have the common decency to keep her promises. Her tears here are thoroughly irrelevant, whether genuine or contrived. The question of why she was smiling beforehand remains unanswered. I like to keep swearing in my posts to a minimum, but at this point, I was so DONE with her behaviour for the millionth time that I couldn’t help myself. So she hangs up, pretends that she’s just made a difficult decision (I maintain that her “explanation” was pulled out of thin air) and then we’re back to Troy’s devastated, disappointed and miserable face. As if this poor kid hasn’t been punished enough. 

In a movie series designed to convince us that Gabriella’s goodness was next to that of Jesus, why was this plot line included? What good does it serve the overall message, the plot, the character arcs, the impressionable viewing audience or Troy himself to see this live massacre?

2- "That’s lousy man. Really is.”

When I was doing my minute-by-minute commentary, I was initially annoyed with Chad’s behaviour in this scene, and then realized much later that he did actually redeem himself. First of all, he shows some GENUINE sympathy-- hallelujah!-- towards Troy. This shows that despite Chad’s many faults, this friendship is REAL and pretty damn resilient. I mean, Troy forgave him for that cruel webcam stunt in HSM I, which was a MASSIVE betrayal of trust. I’ve seen friendships ended for much less. Troy apologized TO Chad in HSM II by accepting the false claim that he had been a jerk whilst never mentioning how Chad had yelled at him in front of everyone else on the flimsiest provocation, and said nothing when Chad laughed at him for getting a scholarship opportunity. By contrast, Chad gets credit for apologizing in HSM I, but from then on, it’s like he’s never heard of the word. He cut Troy down to pea size in HSM II, and then agreed that Troy had been a jerk, mocked him endlessly (”Let’s see if Tiger Woods still has a jump shot!”), made numerous false accusations against Troy, like accusing Troy of not thinking him good enough (”If I was as good as you?” Of course, Troy had praised Chad’s teamwork in front of Mr Evans and his guests not long before), and took no notice of how Troy had given up on a massive opportunity to get back into his good books. Whilst Chad’s behaviour improved in HSM III, he still has been insensitive throughout as I have already explained. The fact that they are still best friends, like brothers, is incredible. Like I said, I am a huge fan of their friendship, but it’s flawed as hell. As always, very little of this is Troy’s fault, apart from the fact that he so often enables Chad’s unjust behaviour. So, Chad is sympathetic here. 

I notice that Troy doesn’t even repeat Gabriella’s “explanation” for not coming back. Why is this? Is it because he knows it’s as stupid as it sounds? (I wish!) I mean, how would he say it? “Gabriella’s not coming back because she misses everyone.” 

More importantly, why doesn’t Chad ask for an explanation as to why Gabriella isn’t coming back? He has just presumably accompanied Troy to the clothes store so they can buy the suits for prom. His best buddy was obviously excited, on the way. His best buddy was excited to show off the suit to his mother (cute scene, by the way). His best buddy was excited to speak to Gabriella, and then HE, Chad, saw the smile gradually slip from Troy’s face and melt into sadness and disappointment. And we’re supposed to believe that he isn’t curious as to the reason?

3- “Everybody knows that you don’t bring the girl with you after high school!”

Really starting to wonder how Chad managed to find a girlfriend. If not for the chemistry and sweetness of Chaylor, he’d be a bachelor for life. And how on earth is this classically insensitive comment going to make Troy feel better-- Oh wait. It was intended to pour salt in Troy’s wounds. What have I said about Chad being on another wavelength? I think he’s in another universe. Folks, this is the first time that Chad has attempted to reach out to Troy, which is saying a lot, since we are over halfway through the movie. But believe it or not, I actually do believe that was intending, in his own brash manner, to raise Troy’s spirits. Tell him to man up and get over it. Yes, he’s using crass and unhelpful language, but in the long run, isn’t this better than allowing Troy to wallow in misery ad infinitum? You have to be cruel to be kind. And to be fair to Chad, he is right about the nature of high school romances. They ARE transient and fleeting, aren’t they? Isn’t he just telling an uncomfortable truth, to spare his friend the pain? Don’t like the means, but they do justify the end. 

On the OTHER hand...

4- “Look, Gabriella is already one step ahead. As usual.”

And herein lies the hypocrisy. This basically nullifies any somewhat helpful advice he gave Troy not two seconds ago. In HSM I, Chad considered Gabriella to be “an elevated IQ temptress girl” who was detracting the Hoops Dude from his true calling as basketball superstar and perpetual Wildcat. Then he decided to be supportive of Troy and Gabriella’s relationship. Ever since then, he has thoroughly bought into the legend of Troyella; he not only approves of Gabriella, but has never criticized anything she’s done regardless of the devastating effect it had on Troy. When Gabriella dumped Troy in the middle of the summer (sorry, not over that one), Chad was indifferent, as he was already giving Troy the silent treatment. (”Chad won’t talk to me”). His best friend had just been dumped, and he didn’t at least try to bury the hatchet and reach out. Gabriella could not be wrong. He’s said nothing when Gabriella left Troy for California, instead choosing to excoriate Troy behind his back for messing up repeatedly in rehearsals for a musical that HE, Chad, was initially unwilling to join! Gabriella could not be wrong. Later, when Gabriella makes her appearance at the musical, she gets cheers from Chad in the sidewings and a hug. Even now, he never asked for an explanation as to why Gabriella wasn’t coming back; instead, he treats it like one of life’s misfortunes. “That’s lousy man...” instead of “Why isn’t she coming back?”

Of course, I don’t need to expand upon the nonsense of extolling Gabriella’s cruel behaviour as being “one step ahead”. 

What on earth did Chad think he was accomplishing here? Is he Troy’s best friend, or Gabriella’s best friend? 

5- “’Kay, Taylor’s heading to Yale.”

Of course, Chad would never have had to beg Taylor to embrace her future and lucrative opportunities. Taylor is mature and forward-thinking and doesn’t believe that a relationship should get in the way of personal achievements, which is why she urges Gabriella to attend Stanford. (The latter simply whines because me, me, me). This is another example of the healthy relationship between Taylor and Chad. Like I said, they don’t mess each other around. They have a silent understanding between each other, and they stick to it. They understand that they can’t live in a fantasy world of perfect relationships, unlike a certain Troy Bolton, and so they accept the future as it comes. Notice that Taylor did not bail on Chad with regards to prom; the scene where she said “I’d be honoured!” was far sweeter and more meaningful than Gabriella’s “in every language”, which as we know, turned out to be a lie. Despite the contrived set-up of Chaylor, they DO care about each other and they do value each other’s presence. During HSM II, when either or both of them were upset, they silently turned to each other for comfort (after Mr. Fulton dared to make them work for pay, after Chad came into the kitchen angry because Troy wanted Swiss, after they got banned from the Talent Show). When either Troy or Gabriella was upset, there was no communication, period-- silent or otherwise. Troy was left to flounder on his own, Gabriella quit in a righteous huff. There’s no way that Taylor would bail on Chad for no good reason, and there’s no way that Chad would do the same vice-versa. 

However, the above dialogue implies that Chad and Taylor would break up, which leaves me stuttering and speechless. Of all the canonical characters, they would be the MOST likely to last longest, due to their maturity, respect, genuine affection for each other and natural closeness. HOW could the screenwriters not see this? Distance relationships can work if there is enough will. Says who that Chad and Taylor would not have had the will? What crime would Taylor have to commit in order to justify this horrible plot-line? Despite Taylor’s faults, she is NOT like Gabriella when it comes to her relationship, which she actually takes seriously, despite her competitiveness towards Chad. I’m furious and quite frankly disgusted that the healthy relationship gets shunted aside, whilst the unhealthy one is sold as healthy. Why?

6- Troy tries-- again-- to tell Chad that he doesn’t see his life as a ball game. Chad, of course, ignores this. However, Chad does redeem himself somewhat with the following line: “You’re gonna go to the prom with us. You’re gonna be with all your friends, you’re gonna have a great time.”

So you can see my indecision with regards to Chad in this scene. Is he being encouraging in a difficult way, or is he being a hypocrite in a pretty damn easy way? I can’t figure him out. But this is some solid, excellent advice to Troy that compliments his earlier comments about not bringing the girl after high school, crass as that comment was. Once again, he’s offering Troy a way out of lying in bed, staring into the nothingness and looking like a lost cause. As I have mentioned in another post, Troy was one of, if not the most popular kid in school, and despite the insolent ingratitude of the Wildcats, he did have some genuine friends. The viewer will recall the scene where Troy is walking through the corridors at East High hi-fiving/joking around with his buds-- we don’t know any of these characters, but they appear to be well-known to him. In HSM I, we see a brief hint of his other friendships: he shakes hands with members of the Drama Club (who were probably seen as losers by other students, if Chad’s disdain towards other social groups is to be believed), the Science Club members let him sit up on the roof and the Gardening Club members could be relied upon to provide flowers for Chad. 

Why didn’t we get to see some of Troy’s non Wildcat friends, whom I honestly believe would be better friends to him than his team-mates? Why couldn’t he be seen hanging out with other people, and not just the same folks who saddled him with unreasonable expectations and then heaped opprobrium on his head for being a flawed human being? I think Troy’s friendships with these various other clubs is very significant. Remember in HSM I, Troy doesn’t seem even remotely interested when Chad is expounding upon the rules of Social Interaction at East High, just because Troy dared to take an interest in things other than basketball. Up until it was convenient for the plot, Troy’s basketball buddies didn’t even know he had a secret hideout, thanks to the Science Club. I think these nerd clubs would have been viewed with disdain by the alleged cool kids, so Troy, Wildcat superstar, East High’s Primo Boy and All-Round Nice Guy refusing to see any such distinction is massively significant and I think those kids would really appreciate him for that. Would it have been nice to see some of Troy’s other interests and time spent with these people? I mean, it appears that Troy has an interest in science and botany (or is that my headcanon speaking?), which explains his his some of his nerdiness/dorkiness and the model airplanes in his treehouse. Why couldn’t we see THIS side of Troy?

But back to the point about his canonical friends, Kelsi and Ryan, the only two people who have supported him wholeheartedly throughout, did not deserve to be left behind just because of Gabriella. Why did the script never show us THEIR feelings about this? Because I honestly believe that even Kelsi would have been at the very least disappointed with Gabriella. (Or I hope so, anyway). 

More importantly, WHY oh WHY didn’t Troy take Chad’s advice?

Chad leaves, thinking he has gotten some sense into Troy. He gives Troy an affectionate slap on the head. Troy’s head droops because he’s lost all life and lustre at this point. We think that Troy will, however, attend his prom. 

And how wrong we are.

TO BE CONTINUED.