#i really went wild on my plot prediction…

[amor-immortalem]

Obey Me Nightbringer plot theory/Prediction also some extra questions that’ve been living rent free in my head

I know this isn’t my usual style of content but ever since the announcement, the cogs in my little peabrain have just been turning and turning- especially with the hints we got during the livestream Friday night trying desperately to put together a cohesive story.

So, what little do we know about Nightbringer’s plot and how can we use those pieces to try and figure out an idea what’s going to happen?

The three hints given to us were this:

The game takes place after the Great Celestial War

Satan and his brothers

Solomon and the attic

The opening movie also had some interesting imagery namely Barbatos and the doors.

So let’s start with the first hint, shall we?

The game takes place after the Great Celestial War

First off, this is the most straightforward of the hints. I’m excited by this. The period after the Great Celestial War is a timeframe for the brothers that we haven’t seen a whole lot of in past seasons other than a majority of them grieved over Lilith for possibly hundreds of years afterwards. It holds a lot of angst potential.

But how exactly do we see this unfold? This leads me back to Barbatos and the imagery of doors we see during the beginning and ending of the opening. All of us who are caught up through at least Season 1 know Barbatos utilizes his time magic through doors. When he sends us back in time to figure out who set Belphie free, its through a door in his room. But Barbatos has also canonically stated he doesn’t like using his time and reality magic very often if at all essentially because it would make life boring to know what’s coming next.

I think I’m getting away from the point here but what I’m trying to say is that I believe a very credible threat to the Devildom (possibly all three realms, even) may arise and the only way to deal with this threat is to go back in time and subdue or contain it before it can get out of hand and that’s how we end up experiencing the events after the Great Celestial War.

Satan and his Brothers

I find this as an interesting hint because it kind of goes hand in hand with the first hint. I also find it interesting in the way it was worded too. It makes it seem like Satan is meant to stand out here. This could just be a hint that we’ll be seeing how Satan formed the relationships he has with his brothers and how they dealt with suddenly having a new brother *coughnephewcough* after having just lost their sister.

It could also hint toward something being wrong with the brothers as a group. If you remember in the opening, there was this one scene of what appeared to be this little ball of light kind of surrounded by this liquid-y substance and then the substance also appears in the backgrounds of the character reel.

Perhaps this liquid is somehow corrupting the brothers even further to be the absolute worst versions of their sins that they can be (that could also be why lucifer looks to be in pain, satan looks far more aggressive than usual like he’s not even trying to hold back his wrath, and levi looks cold and distant and Asmo was Yuno-fied. Also as a side tangent Belphegor was giving me heavy lesson 16 vibes for whatever reason. Beel and Mammon were the only two where I didn’t get an immediate ‘oh something is very wrong with them’ vibe.) moving on!

Solomon and the attic

One of these hints is not like the others~ All jokes aside, this hint - when I heard it- made me really stop and think about it. Why was it important- I can’t think of any reason why Solomon would be interested in the attic in the first place. Unless for some reason he ends up trapped there.

I believe it was stated that Lucifer used to store his things from the Celestial Realm up there after the fall. What if there was something Solomon needed in the attic and then Lucifer ends up trapping him there like he did with Belphie? That’s really the only story beat I could see coming out of this hint.

So… to finally get to what I predict the plot might be like:

the story begins with MC and Solomon living together.

he’s helping them fine tune their magic as any good teacher does when Mammon (under the influence of that liquid-y substance we see in the opening) attacks them, jealous over the fact that MC and Solomon have been living together when MC is his human and how dare Solomon attempt to encroach on what’s his.

MC is quickly able to subdue Mammon with their pact but gets the feeling that something is horribly wrong with the rest of the brothers as well so they along with Solomon take Mammon back to the Devildom and stop in to check on the rest of the brothers as well.

It becomes clear very fast that something is off as they can’t even get into the House of Lamentation so Solomon and MC make their way to the demon Lord’s castle to meet with Diavolo and Barbatos.

When they get there (along with Mammon because the clingy bastard refuses to let MC leave his line of sight) Diavolo fills the humans in on what’s happened with the brothers and how they were exposed to a liquid called ‘the Nightbringer’ which corrupted them to exhibit and indulge in even more of their sin than they already did. (Think everyone back in S1 but even worse. They’re almost completely feral in this state.)

Dia then goes on to explain that under the effects of the Nightbringer, Lucifer attempted to stage a coup believing himself to be a better ruler than Diavolo so the Avatars had to be sealed away in the HOL for the time being until the effects of the nightbringer wore off or Dia and Barb could find a way to reverse the effects themselves.

Solomon remarks how similar the situation is to the great celestial war and that’s where Barbatos gets the idea to send MC back in time. If they can secure or contain the Nightbringer before the brothers get a hold of it in the present day then they can reverse this situation. The only issue is they don’t know where to start.

Thats when Mammon reveals the Nightbringer was originally a strength enhancing potion from the Celestial Realm all of them had used during the war that had been tainted from the change in environment and age and was something Lucifer had brought with him during the fall and that they have more vials of it in the HOL’s attic because Lucifer was trying to find a way to dispose of it.

And that the only reason they were under its influence now was because Mammon had stolen a vial from their stores and attempted to sell it but he accidentally dropped and broke the vial and it spread quickly through out the HOL.

With that information, Barbatos takes MC to begin their time shenanigans while Solomon is sent to the HOL to try and get his hands on the rest of the Nightbringer stores in the attic but he eventually get trapped there.

This got really fanfiction-y in a hurry but yeah that’s basically my prediction on how the story will go… I’m probably dead wrong though.

Tell me your plot predictions.

Extra thoughts that don’t really fit with the theory/prediction but were still rattling around in my empty skull

What are the game mechanics going to be like in Nightbringer? I can’t imagine why they would make a whole new app just to reuse the current game mechanics from the og app. Perhaps it will be like twisted wonderland? Where you have the story section and then actual turn based battles or rhythm game levels? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’ve also seen on twitter that one user thought perhaps Nightbringer might be a visual novel and if that’s the case would that mean routes for our current set of love interests?

The devs did confirm that the og app would still continue on. Whether this means s5 is coming or not in the near future is still unclear. Whatever the outcome I’m expecting the story for S5 to not be any better than what we got for S4 but I’m also infuriatingly optimistic it might be better since Nightbringer and S4 (perhaps even S3) were likely both in their plot development stages at the same time. Maybe that’s why the writing was oddly paced in S4 too.

Hey what the fuck ever happened to Ruri Tunes? Did it get cancelled? just turned into Nightbringer? Does anyone know? The last we heard of it was back around late September, early October-ish when they did the beta test. (It was really fun and easy to play. I just wish they had more songs on the beta than Sinful Indulgence) I’m assuming RuriTunes just got turned into Nightbringer hence the need for the character song remixes but who knows now.

Is the anime getting a season three? What I wouldn’t kill to have full length episodes with an over-arching plot line instead of the 5 minute episodic stuff we get currently (not that there’s anything wrong with it though it just doesn’t feel long enough ya know?)

When will the English translation for the rest of the Manga come out on Manga plaza? Will we ever see it completed in english not that I probably couldn’t translate it myself with the help of a Japanese dictionary but damn I don’t wanna do all that extra work man…

[the-clock-of-the-time-dragon]

[Wicked: For Good speculation/predictions]

[obviously spoilers + wild conjecture + musings]

Okay so I have many thoughts about what we might get in the second film, and decided to put them all in one place; so here we are.

1.) I've heard a lot of people mentioning that the movie might choose not to jump straight into Thank Goodness, and instead opt for some sort of buffer opening to establish the time-skip and whatnot. I think it would be amazing to actually see Elphaba flying around Oz saving Animals and being harbored as a fugitive and stuff; maybe we could even get reintroduced to Brrr briefly! He's obviously able to speak, so maybe that implies Fiyero took him to an Animal resistance group or something for safety? The map of Oz shown in Something Bad does imply that there might be such groups around, plus of course Doctor Dillamond mentioning protests. Maybe we'll get to see some of that on-screen; I think that would be fascinating. Maybe as kind of a soft adaptation of Elphaba's domestic terrorist phase in the book. This is possibly all supported as well by the shots we've seen of the Yellow Brick Road under construction; presumably this will be early in the film, since obviously it must predate Dorothy's arrival, so I suspect these might be the opening scenes before we get to see how Oz is reacting to Elphaba's activities at the start of Thank Goodness.

2.) I suspect we'll find out that Madame Morrible is not only the one who brought Dorothy to Oz, but also the Wizard — and maybe even more interestingly, caused the Great Drought (which I think is quite heavily implied to be the Dust Bowl, based on the time period and a scrawling on one of the chalkboards in the background; which I think is meant to be Dillamond's research). (My current headcanon is that Morrible accidentally caused the formation of the Impassable Desert (since it is also mentioned on the same chalkboard), which caused a ripple effect out into Kansas and started the Dust Bowl.) If we do get more background on Morrible and her earlier magic experimentation (and maybe even the Grimmerie), I suspect we'll learn that her heart's desire was always to be the prophesied magical savior of Oz, and the Grimmerie based on those vibes (since it seems to read the hearts of the ones using it and flip to pages that will give them what they want, like how it heard "birds" and went straight to relevant pages) brought the Wizard (and by extension, Elphaba) and Dorothy into Oz. In a way it feels like the Grimmerie is sort of the dark magical inverse of what the Wizard does: they hear the desires of people's hearts, and "grant" it in a deceptive way. The Wizard "grants" wishes through bullshitery and spectacle (and the people who come to him for help always end up having to get what they wanted themselves), while the Grimmerie "grants" wishes using real magic (and so can actually give things that the wisher didn't already possess) but always in a fucked up way that they'll end up regretting. I've already made a post about the theme of "the heart's desire" and how it's explored in the original Wizard of Oz and in Wicked — and maybe at some point I'll do a longer analysis of that (for instance, the fact the Wizard was in possession of the book and got his heart's desire to be a father in the most catastrophic way imaginable) — but it's really interesting if we consider that Morrible's desire seems to be to essentially be the Witch of Oz, and the answer given by the Grimmerie might basically have been the giant magical backfire that brought all three of the most plot-important characters into Oz in the first place. It's possible this won't actually be explained and will remain in headcanon territory, but with the way they've been focusing more on Madame Morrible I think we'll probably get at least a little something exploring her background and connections with the Wizard (and it would be really interesting if we got more stuff relating to the Grimmerie in the process).

3.) In the frames we've seen of Dorothy, the slippers are still silver! Not ruby! We know from interviews that the production team read the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz and took heavy inspiration from it, so I assume keeping the shoes silver was an executive decision on their part. But it has some really interesting implications about what sort of changes might've been made to Part 2. We already knew that we're getting major alterations to Nessa's narrative — groundwork for that was already laid in the ways they changed her in the first movie, particularly surrounding her relationship to Elphaba and her agency regarding movement, which I think is great — but regarding this I've heard some people asking if this means we might not get Nessarose standing. Marissa Bode who plays her is capable of limited standing and walking, so I doubt that part will have been cut entirely; but I'm really curious about the ways in which Nessa's story might have been rewritten. The point of her independence has been emphasized a lot thus far, so I think we might get some tweaking (or outright cutting) of the "hideous chair with wheels" bit; and with how we got the lines about Nessa wanting to make a new start and Elphaba getting in the way of that, I think it's likely we'll get less of a focus on "why haven't you used your powers to help me walk Elphaba?" and more on "wow, you ruined my life again Elphaba". I am curious about whether Nessa will still be able to read the Grimmerie (which always felt a little like a plot hole/contrivance in the original show, so it would need a proper explanation at the very least), or if perhaps — since I believe it's being set up that the Grimmerie can "read" people around it and give them a fucked up version of what they think they want — Nessarose's dark desire at that moment is to not have a heart (kinda like that line from the 1939 movie: "As for you, my galvanized friend: you want a heart. You don't know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable") and gets Elphaba to read it: but neither knows what it will actually do until Boq's heart starts shrinking away into nothingness. (Also I'm fairly positive that the still we got of Elphaba below is from the Colwen Grounds scene with Nessa and Boq: I've heard some people presuming it's from No Good Deed, but the background, her expression (which seems to me to be obviously her trying to get Nessa/Boq to calm tf down), and the fact she seems to be in the same costume as in the Yellow Brick Road scene, tells me it's almost certainly from Wicked Witch of the East.)

4.) We're told to expect two new songs from Stephen Schwartz! I'm extremely curious what these might be (and naturally, Gelphie simp as I am, would like at least one one of them to have some more good ol' gay goodness from our girls), but we don't have a whole lot to go on for clues yet other than (as far as I can tell, unconfirmed?) reports that one is an Elphaba solo and the other is a Glinda solo. This is very exciting of course, but until we have more insight it's still too early to make deep predictions. Although as for hopes, I'd obviously like for a new Glinda number to involve her grappling with her feelings more — a much-needed addition — and for Elphaba to perhaps get some of that as well (it would help the lead-up to Wonderful make a bit more narrative sense, if nothing else). And if it turns out they aren't Glinda or Elphaba songs, then I think Fiyero or Boq deserve to get a little bit more to sing. All Schwartz has said thus far is that the new music was made to meet the needs of the story: so (since the two songs DON'T seem to just be reworkings of existing ones, and are actually all-new, film-only material) that further supports the fact we'll be getting fairly major changes to the plot.

5.) The Glinda-Fiyero wedding seems to either happen or very nearly happen??? Extremely interesting expansion on the original material, I can't wait to see what they do with it. I've heard some people saying it might just be a fantasy sequence or something — and I suppose it could be — but I don't think so; the style of filmmaking and writing is deliberately "grounded" to make Oz feel real, and the first film didn't have any imaginary scenes. I think the wedding scene will happen at the same time as (or directly before) Wonderful, and will probably be interrupted: maybe by the release of the flying monkeys, the Wizard rallying the guards after Elphaba, or — scandal! — even by Elphaba herself! (No, I don't think we'll be getting the "I object!" sequence out of Shrek, even though it would be hilariously apropos, lol.) We've seen an image of what looks like Elphaba back in the Emerald City (maybe right before Wonderful, perhaps sneaking into the Wizard's palace to free the Animals; or perhaps just after Wonderful, after finding Doctor Dillamond and deciding to remain the Wizard's enemy?), and judging by when these events would have to line up based on the story of the musical, I think these are almost certainly within the same section. It seems like the wedding sequence might be a decent spot for some of the new music: or maybe a beefed-up version of Glinda's I'm Not That Girl, if she got left at the altar or something.

6.) We've seen this image of Glinda running up a staircase (with the Grimmerie in hand, and in her Bubble Dress): this seems very likely to be immediately after For Good and the Melting — I suspect Glinda is heading up the stairs to see the aftermath, recover Elphie's hat, and receive the green bottle from Chistery. OR, it could also be related to the Wizard — the wood reminds me of the tower in the Emerald City palace where all of Oscar Diggs' old stuff from Omaha was stored at the end of the first film, so I'm wondering if this is Glinda going up to confront him after realizing that he's Elphaba's father, maybe.

EDIT: I realized after reviewing a better quality image with higher contrast and saturation that the latter possibility I suggested is more likely than the former — behind the wooden beams are the emerald blocks we see in the Wizard's palace, so this frame seems almost certainly to be from the scene where Glinda confronts the Wizard in his tower after returning from Kiamo Ko. And what a brilliant way to do that scene, if indeed that's what this is: the Wizard isn't just sitting despondent in his throne room, he went up to wallow in his old mediocrity — and Glinda doesn't just fly up to him, she ascends the same path she once went up with Elphie, processing her grief the whole way up. The painnnnnnn. It makes her ordering him to fly away in the same balloon that he arrived in — and that Glinda and Elphaba NEARLY escaped in before everything — all the more bitter and ironic. Can't wait to see Jeff Goldblum sell the Wizard's descent into the mother of all midlife crises, fiddling with his old sideshow props in the attic as he comes to know the true despair wrought by his hand.

7.) Will the ending be changed?? It seems all but confirmed that the cloaked figure riding away out of Kiamo Ko at the start of Part 1 was Elphaba: this costume concept for the second film looks identical to what we saw the rider wearing. Add to that (as I've talked about in a prior post) the fact the Scarecrow is shown alongside Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road, implies that at the very least the events of the last few minutes of the musical have been revised. My earlier post listed four different possible alterations (from Elphaba leaving Oz alone, to her still meeting with Fiyero somewhere else after everything, to her somehow letting Glinda and/or Fiyero know she's alive before leaving, or (hope against hope) that she takes Glinda with her), but it's still far too early to tell what they might've gone with. I just hope that at least wrote it better than it was originally. The image of Elphaba riding out of Oz on horseback across the desert would certainly be striking, no matter which option they chose.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - We In A Slump, but help might be coming from a very strange source

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

Sept 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 3 of 12 - I don’t have a lot to say except that the plot is somewhat predictable but the show is still very engaging. War is fantastic. I’m enjoying it a hell of a lot.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 10 of 12 - The second leads are getting better in this one. I understand where they are coming from, which makes their conflict so much more understandably painful, and honest to a friends2lovers trope. The main couple is kinda standard college relationship drama, but they are cuties.  

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - How is Ohm so damn gorgeous? Meanwhile, babies’ first argument. And it’s sponge bath time. Q has got to be wondering if Min is as meticulous with all kinds of care and attention to detail all......the......time. Somebody here in the hellhole said something about this being "the most BL to ever BL." And I think they’re right. At least right now. Although, watch out, we got us a new contender from the east.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - I do love the continuation of the perversion, in a good way, of the punishment trope from last week's episode. Oh, has the show finally remembered its title? NO SINGING. 

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 7 of 10 - More kidnapping and an attack and now there’s a girl involved and somebody’s going to China and I don’t understand anything! And I don’t really care. Is this how the actual book originally went? Because it’s wild. Also TOO MANY of flashbacks. I guess they got a bit of a boyfriend era, and the claiming during the water fight was cute, but otherwise...... meh

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 15 - One shouldn’t make comparisons, of course, but all I can think about is how amazing Captain was as Noh in the original series. Thus this show is mostly just making me want to rewatch the original. It’d be an interesting twist to have Aim be queer instead of a damaged cool girl slut. Was the helmet hand letting go a foreshadow of the iconic bookstore hands letting go? Also, I gotta say for the second episode of a series there are already too many flashbacks. Why are they using filler when they have so much content crammed into so few (comparable) episodes for a series? It’s annoying. Stop it.

Live in Love (Sun Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - This show has some interesting, if heavy handed, things to say about shipping and trolling, but also predatory/proprietary female behavior. It’s fascinating to see it tackled head on, if handled in a profoundly clumsy manner. I’m not sure how I feel about it. That said, most of this episode was actually an advertisement for a resort in Phuket. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I'm getting What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? vibes from this show. Only this is WAY more bullying. It’s very old-fashioned 90’s billionaire romance novel only gay. It’s never a good sign when I’m watching two boys kiss and I really want one of them to just bite the other ones lip off instead.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - No ep this week. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun grey) ep 8 of 10 - Gosh it’s so frikin adorable. Baby got sick. He has SUCH A CRUSH. And such a courageous little confession! Yay! Can’t wait for next week. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YouTube) ep 1 - sure, yes this is, in fact, just Ba Vinh doing his thing with pretty boys again. And yet...... There is a REASON this leapt into the standings guns blazing. So it’s high school set but it's stepbrothers trope. (My, aren’t we popular this year?) I know, but I NEVER get tired of this trope. We got us Bach (BV's sullen tsundere) and Dat (babygirl meets bully). It’s GREAT how the brothers' dynamic is entirely different at school than when they're at home. My ear isn’t trained for Vietnamese, but I think Dat is using different pronouns depending on his location (his personality entirely shifts when he’s at school). I’m not sold on the Bach character, although I always trust BV to serve in the end (at least we know the kisses will be good), but Dat is utterly in love, a touch spicy, and reasonably complex. The surrounding cast is good too, my favorite pretty boy is there playing top dog (woof), and one of the besties is out gay (YAY!). The plot of the show is...... well...... absent. Nothing happened. But if we are aiming for Love Sick slice of life style BL, I'm game. Subs are appropriately terrible and confusing. But I like it A FUCK TON so far, so I’m gonna keep it in rotation. Nice to have Vietnam back in play. What a shocker.

2024 has been a year of upsets.

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 3 of 10 eps - I weirdly enjoyed the farcical music and the utter absurdity of the court case. I also liked how it highlighted what a good team these two are. Frankly I don’t mind a bit of an antihero sleazy lawyer + conman, it's engaging. I’m getting wholesome out of Thailand. I don’t really need it from Japan at the moment. Also I don’t believe for one second our conman actually is serious about the relationship. Conmen gonna con. I'm reminded of the scorpion and the frog fable.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - I love Orca so much. I do not love the autotuned version of Orca, but I knew what I was in for with this particular show, it's in the title after all. I did laugh a whole lot when Laing used kha. Hon, I don't think that word means what you think it means......

The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) eps 11-12fin - I never thought I’d say this, but the pacing was off in the penultimate episode. Taiwan, and its chronic misuse of flashbacks strikes again. That said we eventually got a "lock in" trope and Wang being the biggest little flirt shit in the cafe OMG!!! Of course, you shouldn’t use a girl to torment your bf, but it was so well done, I can’t really complain. Meanwhile, teacher kisses. And now I understand exactly why they’re present in this narrative. Clever. Bummer of a burden on that ending though. I cannot see how they’ll manage to stick this landing. [That was ep 11]

AND NOW EP 12 - doomey doomey doom

Not the water bottle trope! Argh the teenage lust of it all. Just stop it. Wang is so smart he knows exactly how bad he has to be to leave the class. And his bf certainly knows that too. And......

......

So that was not an ending and I’m not happy about it and no one is surprised. Even I’m not surprised. I’m just disappointed. Even tho I suspected this was where we were headed I'm disappointed. That’s it. That’s all I got. How do I review something that was such a crushing let down?

Conclusion:

Based on a Mou Mou novel + the Your Name Engraved Herein team, this is old-school coming of age BL and it was bloody fantastic. Tsundere seme to beat all tsundere (smartest + tallest + bestest at everything but people) meets socially-ept cutie smart-ass uke. They're living together by end of ep 1 and start kissing by end of ep 2. A stellar tense slow burn stepbrothers trope that ate my life and than just belly-flopped the finale. What I'm left with is epic levels of disappointment and well...... at least nobody died? My standard "fatally flawed" rating for any BL is 4/10 so I guess that’s what I’m giving it. 

Before you ask me for the stats: Taiwan does not have a history of second seasons. I went ahead and ran the numbers and the odds are certainly not in our favor. I put the chances at 2%.

Yes, I contemplated a revenge rating of 2/10 but even I'm not that mean.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

In Case You Missed It

Falling For My Boss is vertical format (nash) short from Korean BL about a happy-go-unlucky man who keeps losing his flower shop business because of romantically misbehaving employees (apparently it's a thing). When his best employee brings in a new boy he's worried she's falling for him, but it turns out it's his own heart on the line. He a clueless softy and The Boy is a lost broken sweetheart, making this a gentle little snippet of a show. There's a baby linguistic negotiation, some hung slinging, awkward handholds, and everyone is very pretty. For me the absence of kisses and the vertical format were more annoying than the length, which felt fine but many viewers will find too short. I enjoyed the 30 minutes of cute. All of which makes this a solid 7/10 from me. It was originally only available on this one ap in very short form with ads so I wasn't gonna bother. Then some kind soul cut it together without ads and stuck it up for download. Say thank you.

Oddball recommendation next: This podcast episode touches on some stuff we see in Thai BL so I think it's worth listening to. Journalist Dominic Faulder on the Complex History Between Thailand & Myanmar

Happy of the End (Japan Gaga) - Completed its run. A boy is disowned for being gay, dumped by his boyfriend, and ends up in a dysfunctional co-dependant relationship with his would-be kidnapper. We were due for another messy JBL and it's exactly as expected. I do not like it at all and DNFed. Gossip round the hellhole is that was a solid decision.

Marriage Equality Law has officially been enacted in Thailand...

Yes the actual law. Goes into effect Jan 22, 2025

Next Week Looks Like This:

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

Coming Oct 2024:

10/3 Fourever You (Thai iQIYI?) 16 eps - New directs Earth (UWMA, 12%) + Pond (Century of Love, 180 Degrees), Bas (Gen Y, 2 Moons) + Maxky (Why You… Y Me?) and other familiar faces like Bever. Sampler pack university BL from Wabi Sabi that looks like it's trying to be a gay Boys Over Flowers (4 older med students hot boys) and I'm not mad about it. Trailer Not sure who's distributing this but my guess is iQIYI since they had the last few from this house.

10/7 Every You Every Me (Thai Gaga) 10 eps - Jade and Chin have lived over a thousand lifetimes. In each one they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. (This pair, TopMick was piloted in a My Universe ep, that was one of the only ones I liked.)

10/10 Eccentric Romance (Korea ????) 12 eps - Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab, that has been in production since 2022 which is a LONG time in the BL world. I'm worried but I like the concept: friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER.

10/10 Gangster and His Boyfriend (Korea ????) 8 eps? - Kim Dong Bin (famous trainee & idol reality competitor, yeah that happens) stars as a fallen idol who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a gangster family. Discovers that his friend’s father is responsible for the murder of his entire family years ago. I don't know much about this one, neither does anyone else and I'm not sure where I got that release date so……

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea ????) 8 eps - Adaptation of Booker-nominated famous coming of age novel of the same title by Park Sang-Young. Cynical yet fun loving student writer Young pinballs from home, to class, to Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju. As time passes Jaehee settles down and leaves Young to face his problems on his own. Young finding comfort in the arms of the series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness and another who might be the great love of his life. Not really BL. Stars Kim Go-eun (The King: Eternal Monarch), Noh Sang-hyun, and Nam Yoon Su (The King’s Affection). This already released as a movie and isn't very well regarded, this date is supposedly an international release as a series. I'm wary of it being BL.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I got nothing, The On1y One drove me into a funk.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

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

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

[snarky-wallflower]

TIMES SNARKY WAS A CHILD OF THE GATES FOR PULP PREDICTIONS

So, I've been thinking about this for...a while. I will not lie, this is a bit of a silly post, but I had fun making it. Here we go (linked with evidence, of course. I have RECEIPTS).

Gunpowder and Rum (Possession Potion)

My first listen through Ghosts, I was instantly going oh I do not trust Kal one bit , and sent this message.

...I believe I said something along the lines of "I got that right?? I am Apollo and I am never going to die!" once I heard G&R part 2.

Itzal as Margaret's Dad (Dadzal)

I've been a space royalty Margaret truther for a long, long time - basically as long as I've been in the fandom. I played around with that theory a lot.

Dakkar as Margaret's Brother (Brokkar)

...I just heard the mentions of moonlight and shadows and went a little wild. I have a lot of Dakkar thoughts.

Ipomoea, Part 1 (Training Scene!)

...this one I'm still shocked I got. The way I wrote the lore (all the way back in March, to be fair) makes little sense now. It's not the fic I'm proudest of, and I could probably rework it? But the concept of Sia helping Margaret to train, because using her powers brings back her memories?? Oh yeah. Uh. That apparently still holds true.

Rose Dipping John (The CORRECT Interpretation)

Listen. I'm a Pulp fan. So of COURSE I had Paper Stars thoughts, especially when Shifts (Reprise) came on.

so, when I saw this on the Insta live--

I might have screamed.

Scratch that.

I nearly threw my phone across the room in excitement. ...okay honestly this one might be more of a stretch, but I thought it was cool, so I'm mentioning it. I highly doubt Curt will ever see this, but if he does - hello, hi, I'm a huge fan and deeply admire your work! Pretty cool to me that you agree with me!

It's really shocking how many things I manage to guess ahead of time - I am usually much less able to pick up on plot twists like this!

Therefore, clearly I am Sia for these musicals. Thank you all for your time.

[the-trinket-witch]

PlayfulLand Theories before the event starts!

Everybody's excited for the New Twst Halloween Event coming to the JP servers, right? I am too. These bones been rattlin' since I found out. And my brain has been rotting with theories and predictions. Are they baseless? Likely. I would like to say I've seen enough of a pattern in this game to see a familiar plot coming down the pipe. Call it grasping at straws or pareidolia, but I'm having fun turning this all in my brain. Everybody in the Brainrot Buggie, we're making wild guesses and throwing shit at the wall to see what is right. 

(SPOILERS FOR TWST PLAYFULLAND EVENT, TWST CH. 6, BLACK BUTLER: BOOK OF CIRCUS. CW for Child Abuse, manipulation/loss of physical faculties, and general body horror)

Biggest takeaway from this theory dump: Fellow and Gidel aren't the main antagonists of this event. 

"But Trinket, they're the face of the event! How are they not the Big Bads?" I hear you wonder. It's because they weren't the Main Antagonists in their own source material. These two were:

Stromboli and The Coachman.

Assuming anyone reading has already watched the 1940 film, will note these two are connected to Honest John and Gideon/The Fox and Cat by their financial dealings. The Coachman in specific pays the Two for them to round up boys to bring to Pleasure Island to meet their fates. In most iterations of Pinnochio, Mangiafuoco/Stromboli and The Coachman are two separate entities. One adaptation, though, combines them. And while I will not delude myself to think it was an inspiration for the potential 'Actual Big Bad', an idea came to mind when thinking of the character from the 1996 The Adventures of Pinnochio, Lorenzini. A couple ideas, actually…

But before I get to that, where else in Toboso-sensei's work have we seen Charismatic Gingers in Circus Settings who are the bait-and-switch 'face' of a story arc?

That's right:

Joker. 

I guess not really 'bait and switch', but a lot of emphasis was put on him as a character when Book of Circus first came out. But then he and the rest of the Circus troupe began mentioning a man they called Father. Baron Kelvin. 

Before his obsession sparked for Ciel, he was a philanthropist who could have been considered a good man. But in the state we meet him in for the first time in BoC, he's a completely changed man obsessed with becoming physically appealing to Phantomhive, to the detriment of the children who had and would come under his 'care'. Their bones became the ceramic used to give prostheses to the rest of the circus. 

What if we're gearing up to have a similar figure 'pulling the strings' in this coming event? An amalgamation of Stromboli/The Coachman/Baron Kelvin…and Monstro the Whale? 

"Why Monstro? We already have a reference with Azul's cafe!"

Remember Lorenzini that I mentioned earlier?

He's also a combination of The Puppetmaster, Coachman, and Whale.  What if this Combination character… was a Whale merman? A merman looking for a different way to stay human, in a sense 'Become a Real Boy'? What if his transition to humanity has him stuck in one location out of the way? What if this is all a trap to sap the life/magic out of these boys so he can shirk his mer form for permanent legs? While it could be a stretch to say this is the case, lemme see if I can coherently explain…

@thecosmicjackalope posed the notion that the extraneous went characters might in some way be foils/parallels to the Overblot Gang. So far we have Idia getting a parallel with Rollo (two siblings dealing with the grief over the death of their brother), what if this is an event paralleling Azul and his dynamic with The Tweels? 

Shady fish men with (possible) varying degrees of disgust with their mer forms

Equally fishy business practices

Employ more physically capable individuals to do his 'legwork'

Plan(ned) on having the student body of NRC under their thumb of servitude

Employ magical tactics to entice and bind those they want into their grasp.

On top of all of this, what if his magic extends to both Fellow and Gidel? What if those two are just a regular fox and cat given sentience to do a whale's dirty work? Would they turn back after being defeated? That would explain the motivation, outside of just 'I'm getting paid handsomely to bring these boys in and not ask questions'. Even if this part is all thrown out the window, the idea that a shady Ringmaster lording over Playfulland just won't leave me. So then, what else can I guess about this event? (NOTE: THESE ARE ALL QUESTIONS AND THEORIES, not posed by much/any evidence)

The costumes/masks might specifically be used to control the boys. In a way similar to The Beast and the trees of Over the Garden Wall, thanks to @squidwen for the notion, maybe the masks progressively creep up on the NRC boys both subduing them, and eventually sapping them of life/magic? What if the incentive for the boys to act 'like jackasses' is how the mask takes root/grows? What if the end result (the host losing their life/stores of magic) their bones turn to wood?  What if the park is literally built of the Bones of Fairgoers Past?

Something I already began to theorize about when the announced SSRs came out was: why those three were picked.

Ortho we know shares A LOT of parallels/references to Pinocchio already. It's basically a given that he'd be a part of this. He is naive and fresh, so he could very well follow wanderlust wherever (by whoever) inspires it.  But why Kalim and Ace? Ideas for each:

Kalim:

He's a trusting person (played as 'To his own detriment')

A bit of a party animal

One to go with the flow, isn't quick to realize he's in deep shit til it's too late

Ace:

Brutally honest

Brother worked at a theme park. (Possible enticement to bring him in, on the promise of finding him somehow?)

One of the biggest liars of the cast-couple that with his immaturity and quick willingness to shirk responsibility, he's a prime candidate to pick off to someplace that promises leisure and fun away from school.

All three of the SSR boys are technically prime folk to lure off to the equivalent of Pleasure Island. Kalim with his weak will and shortsightedness, Ortho with his lack of experience both as a bot and now as a legit person, and Ace again because he has the most maturing to make for this arc. If anybody becomes a literal donkey in all of this: I can see it most likely being Ace. 

Assuming the rest of the Event Cast are only there on the premise of having drawn the short straw and not able to go to the Glorious Masquerade, I don't have any other theories for them. (Though I gotta say I'm digging the much more blatant Mad Hatter Ref in Trey's design.) A gameplay theory I had is that maybe we have to fight them to 'cut them loose', with eventually Ortho, Kalim and Ace being the 'final' bosses of the event, who defend the Puppetmaster in one final stand. 

For a TL:DR:

It's Book of Circus 2: Electric Boogaloo if it was written by Neal Shusterman (of Full Tilt fame). A Fishman wants to be a Real Boy, masks are terrifying, and Ace is an immature clown who's gonna get a lotta folks put in danger.

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

my danganronpa v3 chapter 4 pre-investigation running commentary:

once again, i knew we weren't done with rantaro!

who did rantaro leave this message to? himself?

are we like, stuck in a time loop?

i am now suspicious that the tiny bugs gonta has been seeing are something else. surveillance cameras?

i'm so confused about the robot lab. keebo clearly hates it, and there was nothing i could even interact with in there. and why was it attached to miu's lab?

"do you want to live in a fictional world?" something about this line piqued my interest and made me suspicious

bro did tsumugi get me mocktail drunk?

that classroom set in tsumugi's lab looks suspiciously like the classrooms in the first game

oh it's my lab!!!!!!!! we finally got to my lab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why is the music here called "living in a lazy parallel world"? that feels incredibly suspicious

"this doesn't feel like an ultimate detective's lab. more like a criminal lab." is this implying that i am a criminal?

lmao didn't this game come out before covid? they're certainly predicting it in this flashback light bit

"the computer is surrounded by capsules big enough to fit a person inside." huh??? they didn't tell me that part before. what is this??? the plot of DR2 all over again??

bro WHERE is the caged dog village document??? i went back to kiyo's lab looking for money and it's not there anymore that is highly worrying

hm hang on. if we're following the structure from the previous games, chapter 4 murder is gonna feel sacrificial, isn't it? and then chapter 5 murder is gonna feel convoluted and heavily overarching plot-related?

shuichi was really judgemental that kaito's reasoning for becoming an astronaut was "because it's cool" but like i'm pretty sure that's the reason most people become astronauts

hmm so maki asked shuichi if he like-liked kaede, wondering if it's possible to like someone you didn't know after such a short period of time.......hmmm methinks someone is trying to sort out her OWN feelings

"then why did you bring it up?" because she's got it bad for kaito and she doesn't know how to deal with it

he did it, gang. after a couple failed tries, kaito FINALLY punched kokichi in the face

what did miu find in the computer?

the "training" scene with himiko and gonta and shuichi talking to tenko in his mind was really sweet. "you've reached her, tenko."

"that person has to be special. it has to be someone like kaito" "only someone like kaito could help me" shuichi plz

"i shouldn't be talking about another boy like that" hahahaha i knew he dug him. shuichi it's okay you can be bi

kokichi meeting privately with monokuma can only lead to good things

why was there a curtain that said "the end" after the morning announcement???

the reveal that himiko is a soap opera fan and actually was invested in the monokub drama/nonsense was the biggest twist of the game tbh

"we were completely unaware that an unspeakable malice was brewing" what an ominous start to free time!

i gave keebo a laser gun and he said "you understand me...i feel...happy" keebo i love you so fucking much

this free time event is wild. me and keebo are role playing as a caregiver out in the middle of the dorm hallway. and keebo threw out his back. keebo, i threw out MY back a few months ago, i understand you!

i love that in the final climactic free time event with kaito, shuichi tells him the story he already told kaede wayyyy back in chapter 1 lol

"he does so much for me...i could never turn my back on that. i will never break my bond with kaito!" bro shuichi just Kiss him you clearly want to

"kaito's smile was bright as starlight. i couldn't help but smile back" shuichi good lord keep it together

bro the way shuichi talks about kaito is so funny he is literally a teenage girl on his bed kicking his feet and giggling

this computer isn't the neo world program from 2, is it?

this virtual world is actually super cute ngl

of course the first thing kokichi does in the virtual world is punch keebo. when will keebo stand up for himself and beat the fuck out of kokichi? i've been waiting for it so patiently

okay that definitely said neo world program. and mirai falls? this is getting real fishy. and then all the references to murders/trials from the previous games, the gyoza in the shape of someone's face [i spend WAY too much time thinking about this particular object]. there gets to be a point when it stops being references to previous games and starts becoming incredibly suspicious

keebo is implying that we are ALREADY in a virtual world. i did have this thought previously

ah so kokichi DOES have a crush on me

MIU NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

i said i wasn't gonna handle it well when one of my faves died, and i was right. i'm not handling it well

also, after much running around looking for coins and grinding in salmon fishing, i did end up buying the key of love, but i think i bought it literally one free time slot too late. i was under the impression that when you go to bed that night after buying it it'll trigger the event. i knew i was on the last free time availabilities of the chapter, but if i remember correctly in the previous chapters we went to bed and then the murder stuff happened the next day. but this time these assholes NEVER actually WENT to bed. they just collected me to go to the computer room right after free time and we pulled an all-nighter in the virtual world like a bunch of freaks smh. and i don't have a convenient save file in this chapter i can go back to unless i wanted to restart the chapter, so i guess i'll wait and see if the key activates in chapter 5? or i'll have to wait and play this game again. damn, that sucks. ah well.

well, on to the investigation!

[rokurookajima]

1, 12, and 13 for the fanfic ask game!!

i fear all my answers are going to be incredibly predictable 🙈 but still thank you !

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

honestly this was a huuuge year for fanfic for me, i haven’t written this much ff in YEARS (lowkey maybe ever, considering i’ve actually finished 2 fics, have been continuously writing the longest multi chapter i ever have, and made good progress on a few other ideas) so this has been wild. i am also really truly happy with everything i have written this year which is a great feeling

but ofc … my favorite is claw machine :’) when i decided to jump back in to literally 3 paragraphs of an idea i’d started TEN YEARS ago for lolz during waava week, i was REALLY not expecting where it went. i wrote the first few chapters in one week which is .. the most i’ve ever written in such a small span of time in my life lmao.

but i am fr soooo happy with how that’s shaped up (and also with what is to come of the remaining 3 chapters 🥺). it’s what i always wanted to write for metalbanders to give the au a way fuller structure and narrative plot, and didn’t have the skills for yet back in 2013-2014. the general premise of raava leaving school to visit college for a month and wan having to face the reality of life without her was the original idea started back then, but i love how i was able to write that while also weaving in all the flashbacks and scenarios that got them to the present ?? that’s a lot of words just to say that claw machine is my baby and i’m rather proud of it :’)))

12. favorite character to write about this year

hehe welllll also very obvious answer. i’ve only written about 2 characters for real and it’s wan and raava so it is.. them. i love them so much i can’t be normal about either of them!! and them together just hits every trope and note i want in a ship to make me crawl up and down the walls and bang my head on the ceiling.

i also love that writing them in canon (which i really rarely attempted before now, but feel like i’ve rlly found a feel for that too) and writing them in metalbanders are still very much the same two characters but so different at the same time? so i’ve had a lot of fun developing their au personalities alongside writing canon, how writing them clearly younger in metalband differs from canon, how different those two universes make their relationship but it’s also still THEM ITS STILL THE SAME

13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

the i saw the tv glow soundtrack!!! which also just ended up as my album of the year & my top song was claw machine by sloppy jane from it (gee i wonder where that fic title came from…)

it’s rlly crazy bc that movie just… meant a lot to me on first watch, but it’s also somehow directly how i ended up back in this brainrot ?? the soundtrack reminded me of songs i would’ve put on the original 2013 metalbanders playlist, and i was like holy shit wait a minute… then texted nye in a blind panic “waava i saw the tv glow au” and then?? i was off to the races (also still stand behind that is a GREAT idea maybe one day….)

i am also a huge playlist person, so truly it’s my general waava playlist i’ve been collecting since beginnings aired, and then i made a claw machine specific playlist that is … mostly the istg soundtrack anyway

[mosswolf]

reading summary - march

vespertine, by margaret rogerson: i really enjoyed this one, YA but no romance, about a horrible fucked up little death nun who gets possessed by a bitchy ghost and becomes a joan of arc figure in a fantasy french setting. whats not to like really

river of teeth, by sarah gailey: this one's like alternate history lousiana, usa, with hippo cowboys. the concept fucks, but i was definitely hoping for more mystery than this novella had, possibly due to it being a novella? but if you like fantasy cowboys u gotta check this one out

sword, stone, table: old legends, new voices, edited by jenn northington and swapna krishna: LOVED this anthology, lots of really interesting retellings of arthuriana. my favourite was flat white by jessica plummer which is about elaine who works at a coffeeshop and gets tangled up with regular customers lancelot/arthur/guinevere in a messy codependant poly situation and i genuinely think about it such a lot. really really well written,,,

lorehaven bound by joy demorra: love ursula cant wait to see more ursula!!

the starfang trilogy by joy chng: hugely let down by these. theyre about werewolf clans in space which sounds great but they were super nothingy when it came to the main plot, had a really random cousin incest thing and a really weird attitude towards drug addiction? finished the trilogy because theyre all really short and feel super incomplete alone, but man. what a disappointment

clockwork boys & the wonder engine by t kingfisher: these were really fun, you can definitely tell that theyre earlier books than the saint of steel series but still lots to enjoy. the end of wonder engine had me screeching

swordheart by t kingfisher: wasnt as immediately engaged with this one because theres no paladins..... but i listened to this audiobook on a long coach ride basically all in one go and it was extremely solid in a very familiar and comforting way.

guides for dating vampires 0.5, 1, 1.1, 1.2, by d.n bryn: predictable in a very soothing way, loved vincent as a character

the dawnhounds, sascha stronach: very discworldy, but if discworld was biopunk and way more specifically about autonomy. i was also hoping for more of a mystery or central plot from this one, it felt quite scattered, but the concepts were super cool.

atomic awakening by james mahaffey: read this for uni, and it SUCKED. i always forget that people think that nuclear weapons are cool and that the usa is good. why.

gathering moss: a natural and cultural history of mosses by robin wall kimmerer: this was really interesting, and robin wall kimmerer reads her own audiobooks and her reading is super relaxing to listen to as well

consort of fire by kit rocha: this was about dragons and magic and poly romance and stuff but i dont know, i didnt really like it. just didnt really ever grab me despite the subject theoretically being exactly my thing

dirty strays 1 & 2 by riley nash: okay i picked these up because the description starts like this "We’re lost boys, wild and forgotten. Born into a world of poverty and crime, my two best friends and I have nothing to rely on except each other. But I have a plan: if I can film viral BDSM porn" and it carries on but THAT WAS SO HILARIOUS TO MEEEE LIKE BRO REALLY WENT THERE INSTANTLY. DIDNT CONSIDER ANYTHING ELSE FIRST. but yes theyre EXTREMELY horny and also i really liked them especially the first one. a fucked up family of fucked up people, semi verbal mc, they get a dog. really endearing in a strange kind of way

how to do nothing by jenny odell: this was okay, nothing lifechanging and i'd read a lot of the books that are quoted already, so i kind of felt i already got the gist

[melancholiast-clair]

i wanna hear about sean/mo

OH MY GODS YES OKAY.

spoilers for whispered faith, a youtube series that has been out for far, far too long below!

so . i don't know if you're familiar with the 2000s-2010s slenderverse boom where there were just a shit ton of people creating youtube series based off of the slenderman images.

the basic idea of these series is that slenderman is hunting or haunting or just hurting the protagonists for some reason, and they are trying to defeat him or escape. sometimes slenderman just shows up briefly, sometimes he ends up being the main villain.

one of the smaller series is called whispered faith! this is where sean and mo as characters come from. whispered faith is based off the 2006 creepypasta 'the rake,' which talks about a pale humanoid creature that runs around on all fours and whispers terrible prophetic truths about the world.

some basic important stuff to know about whispered faith before i get into sean/mo specifically:

sean is the leader of a cult that worship the rake. it's unspecified in canon how long he's been part of this cult, but he is completely devoted to the rake to the point of destroying himself.

sean is ALSO the main character's childhood friend who went to high school with him. the main character, named lee, at one point goes to sean for shelter after a mysterious cult (oh hm wonder who that could be) invades his home.

mo is lee's best friend. mo spends almost the entire series being the only character with any fucking braincells and a normal moral code, which includes things like 'hey don't kill the guy. yes even if he hurt you we don't kill people.' and 'hey don't meet with the mysterious number texting you, that's not a good idea!'

sean kidnaps mo and attempts to trade with lee - items the family wants for mo back. it doesn't work - mo escapes and lee doesn't have to give up the item, but. yeah. sean also kidnaps lee, and during the time lee spends with sean and the family, sean ends up cutting off one of lee's fingers and mailing it to mo.

this series is two hours long in total and is written by college students and posted to youtube. it's not a wonderful series. it's not super well-written and they drop a lot of very important plot points and very compelling information and then do absolutely nothing with them ever again... so of course i am insane about all the ways i could make it better.

mo and sean die together in mo's basement, where sean has been held for ten months after lee and mo kidnap him.

SO. because there's so little substance to the characters in the original text - they've got basic characteristics, but most of the stuff we end up defining is all just... over-analysis of the same two hours of content.

in my mind, sean is a deeply tragic character. he's 20~ and part of a fictional cult. based on what little clues we get, sean has been in the cult for most of his life, meaning they likely picked him up as a young and vulnerable child. he's supernaturally addicted to the rake's prophetic predictions. he's so sure he's his god's chosen disciple, and then he dies in a dingy basement after staying there for ten months at the hands (claws?) of the creature he has been worshipping for most of his life. and he doesn't even get to die. because he's supernaturally connected to the rake, he ends up wandering forever in its endless realm of thin forest and empty air.

he drives me INSANE.

and so enter mo, this character who has this strong moral compass that tells him people are people, no matter what they do, and everyone - everyone - can get better. this character who has been hurt really fucking badly, has been stalked and watched and beat up and eventually killed by this cult. this character who spends the entire series focused on protecting lee as sean spends the entire series trying to hurt lee.

and i stick them together in a small space, especially post-death in the basement, and i go fucking WILD. one of my favorite spaces to explore them in is in the rake's realm, as if mo ended up there as well - i like the idea of the two of them trying to make a space together in there, sean struggling with being abandoned by the speaker and mo struggling with. well. sean.

i just think that as a pairing, as opposite characters - one who has no moral code, who has spent his life alone and intent on hurting, and one who has such a strong code, who has spent his life with lee and is shown to have several other friends throughout the series and with almost every action works to protect, they are SO fucking fun together.

anyways hahha . im normal about them. yeah. anyways.

[gayleviticus]

assorted thoughts on the two new doctor who episodes (spoilers below)

space babies

Weird concept but I think it worked. i dont think the token political allegory had a ton of depth but the stuff about stories is interesting enough i feel like i need to think abt it a little bit

my biggest issue is it feels like the doctor and ruby do a very jarring 180 on sparing the bogeyman at the end. like, i think in some ways it was predictable, but it happens so abruptly after they show zero concern for the bogeyman even knowing the truth of its origins I was super confused. like, i was just content to dismiss it as literally a pile of snot and not a living being.

ironically given the pro-choice vibes in the episode, this actually reminded me a little of kill the moon, where the episode doesn't spend any time actually fleshing out what the Bogeyman is, whether it has consciousness, its degree of sentience etc, the characters just decide killing is bad.

since this episode doesnt try to make a moral dilemma of it it feels less bad than kill the moon (altho I think unfair moral dilemma is a very deliberate choice on KtM's part to make you empathise w Clara aginst the Doctor) but I think it makes the 180 more baffling given the episode seems so uninterested in the Bogeyman as an actual being? if that makes sense?

the devil's chord

to be honest, while it was a fun watch at the time, this felt like an episode that ran out of ideas midway and the more I think about it the more I sour on it. at least scripting wise - i do think this was a very strong episode presentation wise!

Based on this and the Giggle I genuinely don't think RTD knows how to write godlike adversary; both these stories generally collapse into just 'godlike enemy hams it up and does goofy things while the doctor tries random stufff to save the day.' Like, as soon as Maestro turned up it felt as if the thread of narrative logic snapped and it just became a random events plot. And I felt the same with the Toymaker.

I think the issue is that these episodes overplay the power differential so much the Doctor doesn't have any kind of plan - but because these godlike entities like to toy w their victims it means neither the protagonist or antagonist are really driving the plot? i think the fact Maestro read as hammy rather than threatening also didn't help.

I also think these episodes don't set up clear enough rules. If you're going to have godlike aliens with gimmicks confronting the Doctor, the obvious appeal is that it's a story about manipulating the rules of the game to come out on top. It's like dealing with the Fey - or even Weeping Angels; the tension is in figuring out how to rules lawyer the godlike alien out of existence. But instead too much is made of the Doctor not knowing the rules and not attempting to discover the rules and it becomes boring. And if you take that aspect away what actually is the appeal of Doctor vs godlike alien?

They should have played devil went down to georgia during the music battle smh

The Beatles saving the day felt cheap, but it would have been incredibly cheap if they weren't real life people. Like can you imagine any other Doctor Who episode where one-off characters dismissed in the first 10 minutes save the day?

ngl while the ending song was fun and not lyrically terrible... it did feel like the lyrics were ironically the same kind of thing as the bad songs they were lampooning at the start of like, just perfunctorily rhyming random things together? idk. i guess it wasn't as pedestrian but i found it a bit funny

both

i feel like these episodes had a bit more of a return to a kind of procedural investigation format of Doctor Who - characters turn up to a new location and slowly have to piece together what's going on, the rules. which we also had previously in Wild Blue Yonder tbf, but i think it's interesting.

I like how there were moments where Ruby takes charge and says something a bit Doctorly - like when they enter the recording studio in devil's chord she says something like "Right, let's go!" and leads the way. It's a small touch but it just subtly chips away at the dynamic where the Doctor is always In Charge yknow?

Space Babies riffing on End of the World and Devil's Chord riffing on Pyramids of Mars for exposition scenes is perfectly justifiable (esp in the latter case given Pyramids of Mars is like 50 years old now), but I did definitely feel w those scenes that I'd seen it all before? Like, it's one thing to reuse a tropey scene because it's an efficient way of moving the story along, but I felt w both those scenes as soon as I knew what was going on I'd seen it all before. Nothing new. I could go to the toilet for a couple minutes

The magical realism is interesting (the handling of godlike beings aside) but i especially like the ideas of memories, songs hidden in Ruby's soul, and the snow appearing - that's very cool!

[undertheknightwing]

I'm sure this is absolutely predictable of me but - your boy Gar and my girl Rach for "Send me a character" 💚🖤

The siblings of all time ✨️

Garf first 🐯

First impression

Oh baby boy. Such a sweetie pie 🥺 *watches Asylum* Whoa! This show is actually letting Gar have a character besides goofy sidekick?? This just got so much more interesting.

Impression now

So that was a fucking lie. Buttt.. if I wrote out my true impression of him now we'd be here all day so imagine I'm unfolding a comically long list of my Gar thoughts because there’s a lot. The less the show did with him, the more I got to over analyze and create from there.

Favorite moment

When he's left in the tower and just messes around for a few days. I re-watch it all the time. It's very relatable too, I get sad and unmotivated after a day without having people to talk to as well. Also that scene from s3 ep1 when he's talking to himself in his room, I love his silly facial expressions, and "nothing tops a Super" has been burned into my brain.

Idea for a story

Fic wise? You'll just have to wait and see 👀

Unpopular opinion

I don't think it's really unpopular but his hair is so bad. I wasn't a fan of it in s3 but s4 made it so much worse. I'm also not a huge fan of his suit but that's for "it looks cheap and plain compared to the other ones" reasons.. like the abs on it look like the kind you'd see on a Halloween costume. It's weird.

Favorite relationship

In canon.. I don't really know. Gar's character felt it went from "DickKory's son" level of importance to just "oh yeah that guy" throughout the seasons. Gar's relationships with the characters (besides Rachel) is pretty surface level imo, especially in seasons 3 - 4. But whatever Gar's relationship with the Red is seems cute. It changed it's realm color for him and looks to care about him a lot through what I saw in the episode. He's clearly the favorite child and I love that for him.

Favorite headcanon

I got one too many of those, but him being able to purr is always a great one, and acting cat-like at times. Empty box? That's his now. Left a cup on the island? It's pushed onto the floor. Nothing is safe. He might have left a dead bird somewhere as a gift too, who knows.

And just for fun have some songs that gives me his vibes: Shapeshifter by Brye, The Garden by The Crane Wives, and Wild Things by Alessia Cara

It's Rach time 🖤

this is more your territory so I'm sorry if it's a little lackluster 😅

First impression

Precious girl. So precious. Must be protected at all costs. I really like this take on her powers and character.

Impression now

Much like Gar, she got the short end of the stick in the show tbh. She went from being the most important to a side plot thing which sucks. She should have had much more to do in season 4 since they were dealing with her family.

Favorite moment

I like a lot of her scenes in season 1 the most. Her interacting with the Doom Patrol was cute.

Idea for a story

That's your thing lol but I never liked how they always kept her stories tied to Trigon somehow in any media so I would give her a more unique story about something else.

Favorite relationship

She and Kory were my favorite for a long time but I've warmed up to her and Dick's father-daughter relationship because of you. So I choose them 💙🖤

Favorite headcanon

She's an artist who prefers painting over the other arm forms and painted something special for all the Titans members.

And some songs for your duo: Protector by City Wolf or Calm Me Down by American Authors, they have season 1 vibes

Thank you Mundi! 🖤💚

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Hello hello

Sorry for the intagible rambling below for I ask this in a confused? hurt? but also intrigued? curious? state.

I glimpsed a twt that seemed frustated that ynm went ~too~ into the homo in recent chapters and seemingly finished the mystery/crime plot that drew them in the first place (seemed like they're also too mad to continue reading the new chapters themself).

It makes me thinking... if you're not searching/sensitive for a hint of sherliam (or not a mlm shipper), do you think sherliam confession from end of milverton - london bridge arc is a shock and out of nowhere? Because believe me, even as a shipper myself I can only believe sherliam progression when I read the manga. It's too abrupt in the anime for me.

Also what do you think/predict about ynm arc next? Do you think there could be enough mystery to satisfy early fans like them even though the crime arc is over?

I think if people don't want to read something anymore, they shouldn't. Human lifespans aren't long enough for a silly, edgy manga to be worth people's time if it's not for the fun of it, and frankly, I'm super tired of people complaining the series did something they didn't like in my Tumblr inbox anyway.

I can't really speak for what it's like for someone who isn't a shipper because...uh...well. But, I find that people who don't want or expect something to be gay or have queerness or whatever, are really, really, really good at ignoring very obvious signs of it happening. Which, in the YuuMori manga? Was pretty blatant pretty early on.

Sure, I didn't expect it to get as explicit as it did, but the series was pretty quick to hang off their relationship, and their relationship was pretty, "Special, excited, fond," from the get go. My inbox for the past two and a half years has been a fascinating dissection on "people have no reading comprehension and some people don't want to."

(Reading comprehension is a learned, trained skill, and not everyone is good at it and very few people start good at it--I am good at it, so I don't mind helping and analyzing, but sometimes I'm fascinated to see what the other side does--but it's nice when they come hang out here trying to learn)

I remember people complaining the culmination of The Final Problem was too fanservice, which is wild when you consider that was the resolution of the climax of the series--it was the major confrontation and turning point of the crux of the series. A thing like that simply can't just be fanservice. It's too vital to the structure of the narrative.

But that is also to say that people have been complaining it's "too gay" for literally years now.

I think YuuMori is also very good at twisting expectations on their head, which is great if you're into that (me). If you wanted something very specific, maybe it's less satisfying.

Also, are they upset that...the narrative arc...ended? Because that's what good narrative arcs do.

I can't speak for what the next arc does. I expect spy shenanigans myself.

[llycaons]

ftr this is my current list of books I started and plan to finish

the adventures of anima al-sirafi (fun, and I enjoyed city of brass too despite some juvenile writing choices)

ancillary justice (👀)

annihilation (BIO SCIFI!!! the writing is so beautiful)

entangled life (fungi 🥰)

go tell it on the mountain (just gorgeous and so powerful)

kitchen (I learned about this one from a FANFICTION don't look at me. it's good)

mask of mirrors (one of the few ya-esque action novels I still enjoy. the social politics and con artistry and action is pretty fun)

mistborn (I've wanted to read brando sando forever. his ending of wot may have been a bit off-key but he's undeniably a giant in the high fantasy world)

see what you made me do (really insightful!)

snow crash (honestly this one is a bit racist, or at least tone-deaf, but the plot is really interesting and it's wild to see a view of the future from the 90s that's fairly accurate in a lot of ways)

books I have yet to start

babel

beloved

the bluest eye

the buried giant

dead collections

the fire next time

gathering moss

a gentleman in moscow

giovanni's room

the goblin emperor

horse

I'm glad my mom died

land of milk and honey

lolita

a memory called empire

monarchs of the sea (octopus book)

my year of rest and relaxation (I've heard mixed reviews but like. why not)

other minds (other octopus book)

our share of night

pachinko

the parted earth

the tiger's wife

the translator's invisibility

uprooted and spinning silver (tbh I don't remember why people hate naomi novak and these look kind of neat)

the water dancer

the woman in me

year of wonders

books I tried but couldn't get into

fourth wing (looked a bit silly from the outset but the writing was SO juvenile I was like no by the first page)

jasmine throne (the opening scene just was not engaging imo)

jonathan strange and mr. norrell (weirdly boring and the austen pastiche fells a little flat)

way of kings (brando sando got so classic he went full predictable chosen-one beginning and it was really boring)

kindle keeps reccomending me paperback thrillers and romances, which are among my least favorite genres. I can see why people like doing this one goodreads or storygraph but I don't know anyone on there so this is better bc I can actually discuss with people I know. man I hope I keep up this momentum to actually finish half of these bc this is a lot 😭 I have so much catching up to do

[chainofclovers]

2, 10, 21 for the "yet another writing ask" questions ❤️

Hi friend! Thank you!

2. Anything that you’d like to write but feel like you’re unable to?

I feel like there's a ton of stuff that fits in that category, but maybe a lot of it is actually stuff that appeals to me when I read but that doesn't actually appeal to me as a writer. (Such as fics entirely based on missing scenes from earlier seasons of a show, fics with major canon divergence, etc.) It's weird because I love reading what other people imagine, but canonical details get really cemented in my brain.

Probably the thing I truly would love to write but "can't" would be a really long, intricately-plotted AU. My list of stuff to write includes @kittensittin's vision of a full series retelling of Ted Lasso that starts with Ted/Rupert divorcing and Rebecca/Michelle still married (with Ted hiring Rebecca to coach, and with a Ted/Rebecca ending). After people went wild thinking through all these different potential details, I felt so inspired, but the thought of actually sitting down to write it feels daunting and nearing impossible.

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

There was only one bed

Marriage of convenience/fake dating

Friends with benefits/friends-to-lovers/catching feelings after having sex/

21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what’s your secret?

Not really! I think I'm pretty good at sensing whether a story idea would require something snippet length, a more full-feeling one shot, or a longer fic, and usually I end up with an end product that reflects what I initially guessed. I think a lot about structure and formatting, so the overall shape of how it'll be when published is part of my relatively early planning. But the actual word counts? I don't even have a ballpark estimate in my head. I don't even really think about it or try to predict! (Can you?)

[lampmanliveblogs]

A few things to unpack here, and unlike what I spent the majority of the previous post talking about, these things are actually important to the plot and characters!

So first and foremost, neither Luz, nor Hunter seem to be doing all that well. Which is to be expected after what they’ve been through recently. Luz listed a few of them. She feels guilty for having helped Philip find The Collector’s disc.

As I mentioned previously, Hunter really does not want the others to find out about him being a grimwalker.

Of note is that he seems to have figured out that he is indeed a clone of someone Philip knew, another human who was also a witch hunter. So he’s got double the reason for him not wanting the witch kids to find out.

Now, he’s missing some important context. Like, you know, the fact that Caleb wasn’t a witch hunter, but a much kinder soul than his brother Philip. Also, I feel like the kids would be savvy enough to realize that a clone of a witch hunter does not a witch hunter make.

(speaking of Caleb & Philip: we’re obviously going to learn more about them and their backstory. At the very least I’d like to know the name of Caleb’s awesome girlfriend. I am also still holding out hope that the prediction I made all the way back in Yesterday’s Lie will come true and that Jacob Hopkins or the Gravesfield Historical Society will play a role in that. Jacob obviously wouldn’t know what went on in the Demon Realm, but he might know enough to make Gus put the puzzle pieces togehter with the memories he saw when he used his trauma spell on Philip)

And don’t think I missed that we have Luz & Hunter worrying about what the others will think of them, and we cut to this shot of Amity and Willow, their respective love interests.

Pictured: One of the guys in your DnD group brought his girlfriend who knows nothing about DnD with him for a session and now she has no idea what’s going on.

I like this screenshot, because it looks like ”Philip” is about to jump into the garbage where he belongs. It’s subtle imagery like that that makes me appreciate this show all the more.

I wanna take a brief moment to mention another one of my theories/predictions.

It’s obvious that this exile to the Human Realm will not be permanent, our group of Exiles will find themselves back in the world of demons and magic. Camila even said as much right now. But the big question is ”how?”

Exactly how the portal door works was never really explained, but there is one component that we know for a fact is needed that it cannot function without, and that is Titan’s Blood. Now, we do have a Titan, and one who would be willing to donate a bit of his blood if it meant bringing Luz & the gang back, but I have a feeling he might be a bit busy dealing with his new best friend.

There is still the possibility that King will somehow manage to open a new portal, maybe with a bit of help from Eda & Lilith. But again, King might be busy playing  Owl House with his new friend, the celestial toymaker.

Is there any way for the Exiles to get to the Demon Realm? Not without Titan’s Blood, and there is no Titan’s Blood in the Human Realm… that we know of. Hear me out here: at some point in the past, after Philip created the portal, but before he lost it, he could have made a short trip back into the Human Realm and hid some Titan’s Blood there. 

And while I’m making wild, unsupported guesses… Jacob had a history book showing a building similar to where the Gravesfield Historical Society now resides from somewhere around the early 1600s, meaning that building has been around for a long time.

Is it a bit of a stretch? It’s a lot of a stretch, but it’s the only realistic way I can think of how the kids would get back to the Demon Realm. I’m probably hilariously wrong, but whatever. If I keep making predictions, eventually one of them will be at least sorta right.

Of course Gus is losing his mind over all these cool human artifacts. Good to see him being happy again, we love to see it.

Continuing on with the trend of me noticing tiny background details and missing things in the foreground: I immediately noticed what looks like a wedding photograph on the shelf there, but didn’t notice the box that says ”Manny” until I rewound the scene to get a better screenshot. I’m gonna go ahead and wager that is the name of Camila’s late husband and Luz’ father.

Manny is, of course, a shortened form of Emmanuel, a hebrew name that means ”God is with us.” It’s also slang for a male nanny. I knew these things beforehand and did not need to look them up.

Speaking of things I already knew and did not need to look up, the little flag in the box is the flag of Puerto Rico and the big flag on the wall is the flag of the Dominican Republic.

Hm… is this a joke, or a trauma response?

Although to be fair, I feel like a lot of people react like that whenever they hear an alarm clock. Still, it’s too bad none of these kids know any construction magic, because, ah… I feel like that hole in the floor is just the first of a long series of damages to Camila’s house.

[bonesandthebees]

OH GOD ITS THIS CHAPTER (5) OH GOD OH FUCKSHFKGKF

I remember this chapter caught me SO OFF guard, i wasnt expecting the angst to be so intense /pos goddd this chapter is so good

Another eerie parallel of hats and my life is my aunt gifted me tarot cards, and we spoke a lot about tarot when i went to visit her, wild

Apparently her mom used to do tarot but then she predicted her best friend's death so she stopped 🧍‍♂️ LIKE??!?! MY AUNT JUST DROPPED THAT ON ME AND CHANGED THE TOPIC LIKE HELLOOO GO BACK WDYM UR MOM PREDICTED SOMEONES DEATH?!??!?@?

Shits wild, she ALSO told me some hella spooky irl ghost stories

Also lmfao i love hats tubbo sm, hes so iconic

I LOVE WILBUR SO MUCH

HES SUCHHHH AN OLDER BROTHER SOBS CRIES WAILS

SCREAMS

*SCREAMS*

I FORGOT HE ALMOST SLIPS UP OHMYGOD OHGMDYDOHGKDYFI

OIHDHDJDJD

HE LOVES HIM SO MUCH:(( HE LOVES HIM SOOOO MUCH BROISHFODUEOF 😭😭😭 THIS FIC MAKES ME SO ILL MAN SO ILL

It is crazy how accurate tarot can get like bruh... whenever i do it the cards themselves align with each other so well, to the point where sometimes they'll literally say the same thing 😭 out of the 60 plus cards in my deck i somehow chose the two that say the same thing, wild (i dont have an exact tarot deck, it's a spiritual oracle one but still cool :D

EUEUEUEU i love thr reading sm

I love how immediately after the cards call tommy out for not talking to Phil, he runs into him 😭😭 its so funny i love it sm

HEJRKFIGJDGEKFJFJDD OHMYGOD WE'RE AT THE SCENE OHMYGODDHDKGKF

I remember being so jumpscared by the amount of adrenaline this scene gave me like ??? Bro its a slice of life movie, Why do i feel like im fearing for my LIFE /pos THE ADRENALINE IS SO MUCH FUN I LOVE THIS SCENE SO MUCH ITS SOOFOGOSJGKGK AAAAA ABDKGKGNDKDJKGKGMFBRJGNFNFKGMNF I CANT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS FIC

THIS IS SO AWKWARD [SCREAMS] OHMYGODDD

I love tubbo:( all of them are so supportive

This is the most fucking awkward conversation 😭😭

GODDD I CANTTT HE WIDPFIFKF THE MISCOMMUNICATION HURTS SJFOGIGJTN AAAAA SOBSSS

Wilbur caLLED PHIL DAD OHMYGOD NOBODY MOVE BEE SANDDUO OHMGYFOHMGYDPHLHUDHSFODIAHEFODUODFJKFKDJEOTJDJFKGKF IM SO WEAK AND FRAIL AAAAAAA

SGFKFUSORHSKFJJFJDB ABDKAVJRBSJDBSKSBRKSN

SLAMS FIST ON DESK

CRIMEBOYS

THEYRJEOSOSOSUDKSDIFJFK THEYRE A9DOOOSODJFDLFJ I CANT I CANT OHMUGODUDHDOWHRIDJ

HES SOOOO FOND OHMYGOD

Tommys such a little shit shfkgkfkf a clever one but still shfkgkglf

THIS FIC IS SO GOOODOFJFLGKDHSJFKF

THE HUG, IM SCREAMING

God i am not ready for the next few chapters

LMAO ngl I don't know how your aunt's mom could've predicted someones death when that's not really what tarot does (at least to my knowledge) but uhh idk I don't do it myself so who knows

tangerines crimeboys make me so ill you dont understand aaaaa wilbur wants to be a supportive older brother but also doesn't wanna push too hard and make tommy uncomfortable bc tommy was so young the last time they were siblings and just gahhh

I'm actually very much a skeptic of all those kinds of things tarot included, and I view tarot as more of a self reflective tool than anything else, but yeah it can definitely feel scarily accurate at times. the few times friends have done readings for me sometimes they say something insanely close to what i'm dealing with in my life and I'm just like OH

lol yeah ngl I was like "do I really want them to run into phil right after this tarot card reading" but I didn't want to put it off for another chapter bc the setup was just too convenient so I was like oh well it'll be plot convenience

it was SUCH an awkward conversation god all the interactions between tommy and phil in this fic are so tense

crimeboys <333 tommy using being drunk as an excuse to get a hug we love to see it