#i think their concept was also school based? or at least it was for debut bc face was about bullying

[sanstropfremir]

AYE! You liked pop? pop! by csr? I recently found the song and omg it's so catchy and reminds me of the innocent cute concept I think? Do you have any thoughts on the group's concept? I find it cute that all the girls are the same age like actual high school class! I realized that's not too common in kpop or at least I can't think of any groups that everyone is the same age off the top of my head

yea i did! however i know truly fuck all about the group, so i don't even know what their concept is. i think that's kind of fun as an idea? they're doing age appropriate stuff too so that's good i suppose. to be honest i am not really interested in following them actively bc i only really liked pop pop and not anything else from their eps, and i don't really find them interesting to watch. also i'm too old for a high school concept lol

[sinsandsuccubus]

SUNDAY NIGHT - Jack Harlow

Context: “Somethin tell me that a relapse comin.”

Genre: angst

Word Count: 2.2k+

Pairings: Jack Harlow X Ex!Fem!Reader

Warnings: n/a

a/n: Okay, so this concept was based on a story post written by the wonderful @lcandothisallday , called “Promises”, which I have linked at the bottom of this post. Thank you so much for allowing me to recreate your story, I greatly appreciate it.

Also, sorry for any spelling or grammar errors, I kept disassociating when I was reading this back over.

Masterlist ☽☾

                                          ☽ ☾

Please don't let nothing get back to me

I've been trying to detach from you

Deep down though, I wanna know about what the fuck you been up to

Old him could have seen that coming

Fuck you I don't need nothing from ya

I was doing pretty good without you

But something tells me that a relapse coming

It was like high-school all over again. Seeing the school in similar shape as it was when you left brought back nostalgic memories. They had painted the lockers and had given the cafeteria and auditorium, as well as the gym, new looks. Of course, new desks were due, and better spirit and decor were all over the place, but overall? The place was a mirror image of memories. You traced the painted gaps of the brick walls with your finger, getting that same smooth feeling on the tip of your finger. Just as you were rounding the corner to the main hallway, you ran directly into a friend.

“Y/N?” You heard a voice speak, their hands landing on your shoulders to steady you. You looked up at the individual only to see someone you hadn’t seen in a long time.

Well, you’d seen, but not actually seen.

“Urban?” You exclaimed, almost jumping into his arms when he nodded his head.

“Holy shit! It’s so good to see you! You look gorgeous, as always.” He spoke, embracing your body in a tight hug. The black, thin-strapped dress that adorned your body as well as the matching black Louis Vuitton pumps and small diamond necklace. A beautiful tennis bracelet sat on your wrist, your hair styled to perfection, almost looking like you walked fresh off the runway.

You had made a name for yourself in your career field, which had put you in a pretty stable financial bracket.

Besides, it was always best to one-up the hoes of your old high-school at your reunion.

Especially since the Jack Harlow was in attendance.

You reflected back on those days when you both were smitten with each other, two teenagers in love. You, actually, often reflect back on it every time he posts on Instagram.

Not that you follow him on Instagram or anything.

No, you totally only see him through Urban’s account, which tags his account in things.

Right.

You and Jack had broken up shortly before his debut album, That’s What They All Say, Jack allowing the fame to take over his personal life and relationships. At least, that’s how you see things.

“Y/N, I swear it means nothing. You know that you’re everything to me, it’s all a part of the game baby. I’ve gotta remain a heartthrob for all the fans.”

“But you had to say you were single during that interview?! You couldn’t have diverted the question? Gave a different answer?”

“Like what Y/N?!”

“Oh, I don’t know Jack. Maybe ‘That’s for me to know and for you to never find out.’ Or, or! ‘I’ll leave it up to y’all to think and decide the answer.’ Anything that didn’t scream “Hey, I’m totally single and out for grabs.”

“You know that’s not it works baby. I have to follow a script.”

“Yeah, and I have to follow my gut.”

“What are you saying?”

“I want to break up.”

Sure, you had broken it off, but if Jack hadn’t played the part, you’d still be together.

Maybe.

“Yeah, and you still smell like weed Urban.”

“Seriously, it’s that bad? I thought that cologne I bought would hide the smell good enough.” He pulled up the collar of his shirt to smell himself, looking around the hallway you two were standing lone in. You laughed at his jester, slapping his shoulder.

“I swear you don’t change.”

“And neither do you Y/N.” He looked around again. “I swear Jack was just around here, he’ll be happy to see you.”

“Mm, I don’t think so.”

“Come on Y/N, don’t think like that.”

“Urban, how can I not? I broke up with him when he needed me.”

“Y/N, you and I both know that wasn’t the case. You got out before the fame got to him, which I don’t blame you for. It’s a little too much for me sometimes if you really wanna ask.” He put a hand on your shoulder, sliding it down to rest on your bicep.

“Look, 2fo and the rest of the guys are throwing an after-party after the reunion and I want you to come.”

“Urban, I don’t-“

“Don’t worry about Jack, don’t come for him. Come for me.” He looked you in the eyes, firm in his word.

“Fine. Only for you Urby.”

“I love it when you call me that.”

It was a house party. Urban had let you know before he gave you the address, and you thought it was a good idea to make a pit stop home to change the look.

Designer heels at a house party? In the backyard? Not a good idea.

Urban greeted you at the door and handed you a wine cooler, guiding you to the backyard where everyone surrounded the fire pit.

“Are there marshmallows?” You asked Urban, whispering in his ear.

“Yup. Some of the chocolate is infused though.”

“Of course it is.” You and Urban laughed before catching the eyes of a few of some other people.

“Y/N! Whatcha doin here?!” 2fo ran up and gave you a hug, squeezing you in his embrace.

“Urban invited me, figured I’d stop in.”

“Stop in? You’re staying. Come sit with us by the fire.” 2fo practically dragged you towards the pit, plopping you down in one of the free seats.

“Yo Y/N, how’s it going? How’s life?” Copelean spoke, giving you a fist bump as you set next to him. Sunni tipped his hat, proceeding to continue roasting his marshmallows.

“Pretty damn good. I made a name for myself after I graduated uni, I flew in just for the reunion.”

“How long are you here for?” 2fo asked, taking a hit off the blunt Urban passed.

“Another two days. I’m catching up with a couple of my girlfriends before heading back out.”

“And you weren’t gonna stop by?”

“I didn’t think Jack would like that.”

The area got silent, tension slowly filling the area. Before Sunni cut it with a knife.

“Y/N, I don’t think it was your fault at all. Yeah, you broke up with him, but you wanted out before the fame.” He spoke, taking a long sip of his beer.

“Yeah, and I can respect that. You never seemed like the type to be attracted to the spotlight. I remember when you got published for an article and you wanted to be published as “anonymous”. Cope spoke, laughing as he passed the blunt back to Urban.

“Listen, I was embarrassed-“

“It was good work.”

“Never said it wasn’t. I just didn’t want everyone to know it was me who wrote that long-ass paper.”

“Yeah yeah. Whatever. Either way, I don’t blame you. We all don’t. We just wish you would have stayed in touch with us at least.”

You nodded your head at all of them, them smiling in return.

“Well. Enough of that! Pass me a s’more, without the special chocolate.” Everyone laughed, Urban passing you the unopened bar of Hersey chocolate. An hour passed as you caught up with them all, sharing stories.

“Yeah, so then he thinks it’s a great idea to race with no shoes on in the dorm lobby. So then, as he rounds the corner, he slips and slides smack into the pole. That’s when I learned he was a lightweight.” Everyone laughed at your story, Urban turning his head as a figure appeared.

“Hey, every- Y/N? What are you doing here?” Jack spoke, his voice changing from happy to annoyed. You stood up, turning to face your ex.

“Nice to see you too Jack.” You folded your arms over your chest, Urban placing an arm over your shoulder as he stood.

“I invited her. It’s been a while since we’ve all seen her, I thought it would be good to catch up.”

“Yeah, without telling me. I greatly appreciate it.”

“Not everything is about you Jack.”

“No, it’s not. But I would have appreciated it if someone had told me my ex was coming.” Once again, it was silent.

“I texted you.” Urban spoke, eyeing Jack with narrow eyes.

“Yeah well, I obviously didn’t see it.”

“Yeah, and I obviously shouldn’t be here. If you’re gonna act like that.” You spoke, grabbing a napkin to wipe your hands of the remaining s’more.

“Y/N, don’t go.” Sunni spoke, now sitting up in his lawn chair.

“Actually, I think it’s a good idea.” Jack spoke, making your eyes widen.

“Okay, I get it, you’re hurt by me breaking up with you, but I’d expect you to be more mature than to hold grudges Jack.”

“Yeah, well, you thought wrong. How did you think I would react after you left me?”

“And how did you think I felt when you went on that interview?”

“You’re still on that?” Jack sighed.

“Yes, Jack! I am because that’s the main reason we broke up! I couldn’t live like that knowing I was your dirty little secret.”

“Yeah, well maybe I should have stayed single. Wouldn’t have to deal with you bitchin'.”

You stared at Jack in silence, tension higher than before. You clenched your fist, close to slapping him across the face.

“Say that one more time, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

“I said, maybe I should have stay-“

“That’s enough Jack.” Urban spoke sternly, dropping his arm from your shoulders to look at him.

“What? Y’all act like she didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Because she didn’t. We all saw how you acted during that interview, and we all can see how your fans are with you now. Y/N’s not cut out for that, and you know it.” Copelean stood up, moving to stand next to you.

“Damn, so y’all really gonna do me like that?” Jack spoke, glaring at his friends.

“Don’t worry about it guys. I’ll take my leave.” You spoke firmly, spinning around and heading for the patio doors.

“Y/N, wait!” You threw your hand up in response, grabbing the keys to your car off the counter, all the while Urban took to Jack.

“Are you fucking serious dude? You couldn’t have been more of an ass?”

“What? Y’all seriously thought I’d be okay with my ex at my party? Especially that ex.”

“Look, we get it, she broke your heart, but think about it Jack. How would you feel if she went on an interview claiming she was single for the world to see?” Sunni questioned, now folding his arms now his chest.

“I would say it’s for the business.”

“Bullshit. You were furious when Jason Rudolph asked her to prom. And she rejected him right in front of you.” 2fo spoke, raising an eyebrow.

“Face it Jack, you’re upset because you let a good one get away.” Urban spoke, angrily.

“You don’t get.”

“Oh no, I think I do get it. But what you don’t see is the other side. Y/N is my friend too. I was there when she cried after she broke it off. I was there when she felt guilty about it. I was there those nights she texted you and you never responded. And I was there when she decided to move so she wouldn’t have the reminder of you constantly there. You don’t know how bad she felt. She did it to protect herself. You can’t blame her for that.”

Jack was silent. He was taking in all of the opinions of his friends. And truthfully, he believed it. He knew he was in the wrong. He truly hadn’t looked at the other side. And truthfully, he would have done the same.

You had began to start your driving playlist before Jack appeared at your window, scaring you before you chose to roll it down.

“Yes Jack?”

“Look, I’m sorry for what I said out there. I was out of line.” He moved as you stepped out of your car, looking him dead in his face as he spoke.

“I get what you did, why you did it. I understand why you broke up with me. You were only protecting yourself, putting yourself first, and I honestly don’t blame you for it. Now that I see it, I would have done the same.”

You looked at your ex, his curls shining in the, now, moonlight of the night. His crystal blue eyes stared into yours, sending shivers down your spine. Yet you stood firm in your word.

“I’m not stupid Jack. I know you probably listened to what the guys said and brought yourself out here to apologize.” You making air quotes around the apologize.

“Y/N..”

“I get it. I get it why you’re upset. I broke your heart. Trust me, I understand. But what you don’t understand is that I broke my own as well. I wanted to be with you, I wanted to see you succeed. I wanted to be there when you made it big, don’t you get that? But that interview was just a preview of what our lives could look like if we stayed together. And I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t want to put myself in that position. Can you seriously hate me that much because I needed to put myself first?” You paused as you looked at him, waiting for him to say anything, anything at all.

But it was silent.

“Exactly what I thought.” You opened your car door, lowering yourself into the vehicle.

“I hope everything goes well for you Jack. And good luck with your new album.” And with that, you sped off into the night, tears in your eyes.

Please don't let nothing get back to me

I've been trying to detach from you

Deep down though, I wanna know about what the fuck you been up to

Old him could have seen that coming

Fuck you I don't need nothing from ya

I was doing pretty good without you

But something tells me that a relapse coming

-

[softxhariana]

34+35 live stream

description: ariana’s live stream before debut of 34+35 remix music video.

word count: 2.22k

A/N: little piece based off this live stream that ariana did in the countdown to her releasing the 34+35 remix music video with doja and megan. obvs not included every question but just a few fun bits and harry mentions for you x

also disclaimer, this is NOT real, if u don't wanna read about these two then don't, i’m not tryna act like they’re together it is fiction.

❤ anywayz hope u enjoy luvs xox

❖   "HELLO EVERYONE! thank u for coming to this premier,” ariana smiled sweetly at the camera, as the video cut to a shot of her for the beginning of the countdown.

“we had so much fun making this 34+35 remix video for you, and uhh, we hope you love it.” she continued, playing with her hair. no matter how long she did this for she swore she would never cease to get slightly nervous in these situations. where it was her alone, in front of a camera. but her fans made her feel at ease, and she felt she owed them something, as she hadn’t done many quarantine interviews like other celebs have.

“i thought i would come celebrate and join the countdown with you guys. which is something that I've never done before, but i’m very happy to be here and i was very excited to get some questions from you all...” she held up the sheets of twitter questions she had received, “um that i’m gonna be answering while i’m here so, i cant wait to celebrate this together and countdown and answer some of your questions!” she finished with a smile.

and it was genuine. a real smile that her fans were thrilled to see.

ariana was genuinely so happy and content with her life right now. with her family, her music, her friends, harry. harry her FIANCE!! might she add.

everything just felt perfect, and after all the shit the last couple years had thrown her way, she appreciated the break.

 she got her love back, she was making music that she fully loved, and put her whole soul into, and she had fans who had stuck with her and supported her through some of the darkest times in her life, that were now able to experience her happiness and personal growth with her. so truly, little things like this, felt like the least she could do for them.

“ohh this is a good one because its 34 35 related” she tucked her hair behind her ears, “@noirgrande said ‘ummm its just i wanna the end of 34+35 is it awww shit or nooo shit, i just wanna sing the song right”

“umm it is indeed no shit” she confirmed, smiling matter of factly at the camera before reciting the closing line of the song.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“@arianalocks1223 said ‘will we get to see the track list before the songs release?’” she paused for a second to process - which turned into a few more seconds, she was a bit slow today. she had told harry with full sincerity that she thought it was because she was getting old but he had just cracked up at her absurd statement, and told her that if that was the case he’d still think she was a milf

“you will!” she nodded with certainty, “indeed. ummm... i can tell you them now” she blurted, oops.

“i suppose thats not like... is that against the rules? can i do that?” she turned, to question scooter who was supervising off camera, not wanting to get her label mad at her for releasing too much information, something she has a tendency to do. 

after getting the nod of reassurance from him she turned back to the camera, “so out of ‘POV’, you go into, um, an interlude called ‘someone like u’. after that is a song called ‘test drive’, after that is the 34/35 remix with doja and meg” she smiles lightly, “and after that is a song called ‘worst behaviour’, and after worst behaviour is... a song called ‘main thing’...” she finishes, a shy smirk forming on her face, dimples appearing, “so that’s the tracks.” 

continuing with the countdown, ariana felt her heart warm at the love her fans were giving her and this album. she loved interacting with them and making them happy and proud of her so knowing she had done just that, was an amazing feeling.

“umm hesbloodsline... @hesbloodsline ... i’m really fond of this question because its really to the point, ‘where's the pig and where the fuck is harry?’” she smiled, holding in a laugh.

“piggy’s here, she's great, she's really doing so well and life is really good for her right now, she's really thriving and doing her thing” she ranted, a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “um, i make her big salads everyday that she likes, she's doing really great. she asked me to stop posting her as much because she's actually really offended by a lot of your jokes that you make on twitter, she asked me to have a word with you guys” she continued to joke, well aware that she probably found herself more funny than anyone else did right now.

“she doesn't like the jokes about being eaten, they really hurt her, umm yeh, and she asked me to convey that... no she’s great...” she finally decided to answer, “and harry, is on set today, so um, yeh thats where he is... but don't worry i will tell him to keep you in the loop, i’ve got you” 

ariana unconsciously let a small smile take over her glossed lips when talking about harry. he had been so excited about this new project and seeing him passionate and happy about anything he’s doing, always made her happiest.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“nicole! @nastyctrl. nicole said ‘who helped come up with the concept for the positions music video, love u sm ari’ love you so much to, i love you so much more” she paused, she loved this story,

“um this is actually a really funny story, dave and i had been going back and forth on several different concepts, and i couldn't, like... marry one... i couldn't really, like, really commit to one, i wasn't 100% sold. and it was missing a certain element of empowerment. and i kept, you know, trying to think of things that would make it more impactful cause i wasn't loving what we had...”

“anddd then me and harry were on this huge hike, and he just turned to me and was like, ‘what if you were the president?’ which was like, not at all fitting cause i was dying and complaining the whole time. but i was like,” she tried to imitate a shocked face through her smile and laughed 

“and when i called dave he was like ‘oh... kay, ill call you guys back’ and had the whole production team redo everything, and i had mimi pull completely different outfits and we completely started over cause that idea was what i was, craving and missing. and i was like, wow, thats so perfect” she smiled, shrugging her shoulders, “so yeh, honorary directing credit to harry styles, if you liked that”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“this is from @borderlinevinyl, who said ‘how much of the album was recorded at your little home studio?’ ummm..” she sang, looking off camera in thought, everything in quarantine had honestly just blurred into one so she was struggling to remember what exactly she recorded where,

“um... a lot of it was... i think i did parts of everything here and parts of things at tommy's i know i did, um, the final chorus ad-libs for positions at home” she began listing in her head, “i know i did all of off the table at home... i know i did the final chorus of my hair at home because we- i-” oops. she had to control the laugh threatening to leave her lips at the lack of subtlety in her correction

“-i got out of the shower and he was like ‘oh your whistles are really here right now’, and i was like y’know what... yeahh they are aren’t they” she laughed as she squinted her eyes and recited that part of the conversation, even trying to imitate his deeper accent.

she had been singing in the shower - as she always did - and harry joining her never seemed to stop her from belting out any whitney or old one direction classic she wanted to. he would even join in sometimes and they'd end up with their own mini concert, dancing around naked, shampoo and conditioner bottles in hand singing their hearts out to everything from high school musical to nicki minaj to fleetwood mac.

while it felt like too bold of statement to make as she truly revelled in and enjoyed everything they did together, showering with him was truly one of her favourite’s. whether it was steamy shower sex that had all glass surfaces in the room fogging up or letting loose and dancing and singing under the pouring water, every moment felt so intimate and sacred. it truly made her feel like they were they only people in the world. 

of course he would claim she was out singing him every time she whistled and would jokingly try to replicate the note but he was truly just in awe off the sounds that came from her mouth (in all senses of the word;)

"-and so i opened ‘my hair’ and just randomly did that” she continued, “um what else did i do here, i did the a lot of the backgrounds and ad-libs for 34+35 here, um, obvious was done at home, a lot of six-thirty was done at home”

caught in her own thoughts she only realised she had probably been droning on for too long when she caught scooters eye across the room and with a blush she shook her head as if to clear it, “this is an annoying answer, everything was kind of all over the place but i did a lot, a lot, a lot of the vocals for the album at the house" she finally finished the long answer, moving on quickly as she realised she didn't have long until the premiere and she wanted to answer as many of the questions as possible.

“ok, second last question from hannah, ever- @everdxystxless, im sorry i don't know how to pronounce that” she laughs looking up at the camera with wide eyes, not sure how exactly how she was supposed to go about pronouncing the username, 

“im sorry, um, but anyway she say’s ‘ari baby, how do you feel about harry getting to do a movie with florence pugh, we know your a big fan of hers, ps. i love you so much!’ well hannah, i love you too” she replies, as she thinks back to when harry first introduced the two, after she had gotten over the initial fangirling, the pair became amazing friends. florence struck ariana as such a genuine, loving person and they shared the same dry sense of humour. plus ariana might of been just a little obsessed with her accent - not that she would ever admit that and scare the girl off.

“and... um, yeah, it literally, made me beyond happy, i was fully like, fangirling when i met her the first time” she laughs as she plays with her hair, “she honestly, probably was like, ‘who the fuck is this girl? what is she doing?’”ariana imitated, a faux scared/weirded out look on her face, playing the part of a mildly pissed off florence - which she luckily had never been on the receiving end of, “im sure i was being the opposite of subtle about it but, no, she really truly is the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful, talented human being” she emphasises, the thought of any news outlets of fan’s trying to spin a ‘jealousy’ story about this making her internally role her eyes,

“midsommar is, like, one of my all time favourite movies, and she's amazing in it, and harry’s like so fucking lucky its crazy. so yeah, thats insane”

~~~~~~~~~

"...so yeah... thank you so much! this was so much fun!” ariana exclaimed as she wrapped up the Q&A, smiling wide at the camera, she knew her fans were going to love the music video and she couldn't wait for them to watch it, plus interacting with them in this way always made her happy.

“i love you guys, i miss you” she reminded, “i am so appreciative of everything you've done for this album, for these singles, for this music. i hope that, um, that this makes you super happy, i hope it makes you smile...we had so much fun shooting it and um, the girls are so fantastic, so i hope you love this and i hope you love the deluxe!” 

ariana didn't know how many more ways she could say thank you and express her gratitude but she still had over a minute and a half so she’d have to come up with something, even if it meant she’d sound like a broken record

“i am so thankful for everything and for the love that you've shown this music i cant even begin to articulate it properly so, thank you! i appreciate it so much” she breathed out all in one, “but anyway, the video should be starting soon, so... i hope you like it, don't refresh! it’ll be here soon... i promise... just don't refresh” she urged dramatically, she was really dragging this out, “but yeh” she got out through laughs “the video should be starting anytime now, i love you guys” she blew a kiss to the camera before moving as close to the lens as possible “byee”.

🖤 there u go!! i hope you liked it, and any feedback would always always be welcomed and so so appreciated pls and thanku x 

[taglegend]

Tag Fact #3 -  I’ve come to realize I’ve always been a fan artist more than I thought. so here is a timeline of influences that shaped my childhood to now. from nostalgic times, to sad changes, to great loss, to strange rises to fame and phases, to stepping stones and finally a laughing place. all the things that make up your favorite fan artist Tag.

1. Rayman (bumped into this in the year of 1999) was actually the first fandom (with crossovers) I bumped into when I was 9. although the internet wasn’t available at the time it was still fun to dwell in home amusements. I remember the storylines and the OC’s I made but they’re kind of embarrassing and it’s probably a good thing there was no internet. I’ve done fanart and comic crossovers of Rayman with Calvin and Hobbs and Nights Into Dreams, spinoffs of Sonic the Hedgehog OC’s, Yoshi with Pikachu, and the Pokemon/Digimon craze with OC’s and other Nintendo comic shorts. but the drawings and comics are long gone and disappeared in the garage in a backpack due to suspecting my sister’s dad accidentally throwing them away. years later towards the year 2018 (now 28), we decided to move to North Carolina and it was my chance to find them again. unfortunately the backpack was gone just like I suspected (my main stuff), but for some reason I found my Pokemon/Digimon fanart, a good batch of Super Mario drawings (vaguely remember doing these), my sister’s drawings and some other neighborhood kids’ drawings in a dirty box. I was partially happy I found something at least but it was the backpack I wanted the most. sometimes I regret not looking for the backpack (’cause I was too busy being a kid) but it’s alright, noone needs to see that shit anyway, ha ha. anyways, I recall being a fan of Rayman from 1999 ‘til 2002.

2. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (bumped into this in the year of 2003) my second fandom I bumped into when I was 12 going on 13. at the time, my sister and I both liked the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise based on the Battle remake and ended up making our own secret fanart club that consisted of only us two members. she liked Sonic (and that was her boyfriend, ha ha) and I liked Knuckles (and he was my boyfriend, ha ha) and we were crazy in love about Shadow’s backstory. we listened to the game’s soundtracks as we drew fanart and comics after school and man, those were good times. however, as we grew older towards the year of 2005, we ended up having separate rooms and I believe it played a part in disconnecting on the same interest. then one day, I asked her why she wasn’t into Sonic anymore and she replied, “Because I grew up.” I was sad after that and slowly observed that she was influenced by the emo culture and the new friends she’s made. I was the only member of our little club for a little longer...but eventually I moved on too. I still have some surviving fanart we did together but it doesn’t mean shit anymore since she turned out to be an abusive mother from the last I’ve heard of her. 

3. Gorillaz (bumped into this in the year of 2006). as the Sonic years were at its end, I first heard the song “Feel Good Inc” on Music Choice and seeing the first image of them as displayed on this post (except the fan-made background doesn’t count since I can’t find the original artwork). this was my third fandom and later had proper access to the internet to the website I still currently use called DeviantArt. at first I liked 2D but eventually fell for Murdoc and developed a spiritual connection towards the character as obviously seen in my old fanart and rare photos of my devotion shrines on Valentine’s Day and his birthday every year. for the longest time since being a permanent fan from 2006-2017 (11 1/2 years) I had no knowledge that it was a political propaganda band and other realizations I don’t want to talk about. I only followed them because it was a cartoon and not the bullshit behind the musical project. the world I’ve built and support for them for all those 11 1/2 years shattered the fuck out of me and I just wanted to be left alone to find myself again, somehow. activity stopped on all my profiles, the flow of fanart stopped since I now cringe from the fan service and felt I was used for my talent. I didn’t want to be reminded of it all so I took down all my Gorillaz fanart and archived them for old followers’ nostalgia but also in the hopes they’ll be forgotten in my timeline. I ceased to exist in the fandom for huge personal reasons but it’s best to not say why. I know for sure that the fandom wonders what happened but it’s none of their business. THE END.

4. Waluigi (although I knew he’s been around since 2000 during childhood, I took deep interest once I revisited the character again in the year of December 2013). as silly as this sounds, when I revisited him again, the character was so bizarre that I ended up staying up 3 nights and 3 days in a row just looking all over the internet on everything about him and the questionable “hush-hush” absence of a backstory. despite there being no backstory he slowly gained a cult following and in many ways it’s a good thing. however, since the early 2010′s tension has been building up between Nintendo and its fans about him starring in a main game but everyone hasn’t fully gotten it in their heads that it’s not gonna happen. as long as Nintendo is in control of that, the fandom will not win, I’m sorry to say. on the other hand, if it’s going to be this way, then that’s what fanart and comic projects are for. as for me, I am doing my very best to get my comic project “Waluigi Land” going. again, I apologize if it’s taking very long to get Chapter 2 going if you’ve been keeping track but aha moments need to develop before I start permanent drawing (since concepts, character design and storyline needed improvement badly). as of right now I am still a Waluigi fan and I will not quit on him.

5. Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph (although it debuted in 2012, I watched the movie two years later into the year 2014). for some bizarro reason, I had an unhealthy obsession with this character to the point where I dressed up as him for Halloween 2014. only 2 fanarts of him and the Turbo Twins exist on my profiles, mainly because my mind was more focused on just ‘thinking about him’ or ‘being him’ rather than drawing physical drawings. luckily, this supposed alleged fandom didn’t last long a little after Halloween so I chalk it up as a very short phase. to this day I don’t know what has gotten over me about him. the only thing I can think of now is that I think it’s because the character had yellow eyes and teeth but I don’t know. now that I think of it, that little fucker was ugly as hell and I STILL don’t know what had gotten over me. one day, my brother mentioned what that was about, and I said to him, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

6. Undertale (although it debuted in 2015, I later took interest in it in 2016). It was all about Sans and Papyrus. I couldn’t get enough of the skeleton bros. eventually Toriel and Mettaton EX became my favorites but it took a long time to draw more of all 4 of them because I had other important things to do in my life plus I was still waiting for the next Gorillaz album to revive my imaginative juices (or so I thought). I really want to have this as one of my frequent fandoms but I just don’t have time for it anymore. it’s still in the back of my head to want to draw them but at this point I still have other better interests to be in. and besides, I’m lazy just like Sans.

7. Cuphead (June 28th, 2017 was the official day I called quits on the British-based band Gorillaz due to the bullshit behind it. since that date I was lost, had no inspiration to look forward to and no cartoon guy to make me smile...but lo and behold of the same year, I took an interest in playing the game Cuphead and man...that shit was a frightening exaggerated metaphor for being on that one drug (forgot the name though) and having sex at the same time but man that was the best fun I’ve had in years. I mean, it’s like, enemies are just so happy to murder you and that scared the shit outta me. and the facial exaggeration?....I think I should stop, ha ha. anyways, the Moldenhauers saved my ass from spiraling down, they have no clue. anyways, eventually I became a permanent fan of their work so to ease the hurt and erase my past from the G-fandom I had to re-wire my brain into a different cartoon category that’s a rather more American, so anything Toon related like Roger Rabbit, Felix the Cat or another favorite that’s a western-based cartoon makes me feel better, especially my new man .......King Dice <3 <3<3<3. however, there was something about this new fandom category I still didn’t quite understand until the date March 14th, 2020. I finally understood what it was but I feel I shouldn’t bring it up. anyways, Cuphead and anything western or rubber hose is my last stop in inspiration for the remaining years of my life. many say never say never but I believe I’ve found my laughing place and that’s all that matters.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Small Isles Interview: Filmless Music

Photo by Dustin Aksland

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It’s rare that you find a record with a genesis as specific as The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, the debut album from Small Isles. The new project of guitarist Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, former Modest Mouse) and songwriter/composer Jacob Snider has its basis in film scoring. The catch? The films don’t exist. The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea is presented as an imaginary score to an imagined sequel to Ang Lee’s 1997 familial drama The Ice Storm, itself based on Rick Moody’s 1994 novel. And the band’s upcoming, unfinished EP, with strings arranged by Snider and recorded by collaborator Sienna Peck, is, according to the band, a distillation of the concept of the band, one that consciously combines film scoring motifs with traditional songwriting. In a way, you could say that Small Isles is music about film scoring as much as scores itself.

Fairchild and Snider hold the belief that film scores should hold their own as a piece of music independent of visuals, and on The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, they announce themselves convincingly. Opening track “The Concept”--essentially the prototype for the band--combines vaguely harmonic deep bass sounds with pristine, echoing string plucks, and wordless vocals, building up like an Explosions in the Sky tune. Other tracks, too, juxtapose the ambient with recognizable structures. “Fort Wayne” shimmers atop a drum machine, while the vocal samples of “Maybe We Will” cut in and out among the beats and arpeggios. Each track also has a pristine sense of place, as much of the album was written while Fairchild was on tour with Modest Mouse, tracks like “Fort Wayne” and the washy, atonal “Lake Superior” started in those locations.

I spoke with Fairchild (calling from his home in Ojai, California” and Snider (calling from near Philadelphia) last week, a few days prior to the release of the album via AKP Recordings. (The album comes out on vinyl next month). Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity, about the band’s artistic process, The Ice Storm, adapting the songs live, and what Small Isles has in common with Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour.

Since I Left You: You’ve called this record an imaginary score to an imaginary film. Did you think of the sequencing of the record in a narrative arc?

Jim Fairchild: Kind of, but honestly, there’s a sequence that originally existed, and I don’t remember what it was, and it would have been more aligned with what I pictured from the movie, but it didn’t work as well as a comprehensive piece of music. The last song on here, “The Plot to Take Clover”, that was earlier before. “Life at One”, the first single, really kicked off me and Jacob’s partnership. It was designed that way; it’s not the way the record plays out. I wrote all of the principle themes, the underpinnings of all the compositions, as an imagined score to some sort of a sequel to The Ice Storm. I don’t know exactly how it would play out with Rick Moody. The first one was really successful. I have this idea for a similar type of movie that takes place in contemporary California and all these cues I can use as a mood board. Like, let’s sit down and figure out what this palate is. Let’s write a movie around it. That’s what I was thinking.

SILY: You wrote a lot of this while on tour. Had you conceived of the idea before then and wrote while on tour because of your downtime, or was the downtime the launching point for the idea?

JF: I was totally inspired by the idea. I started some of the themes that popped up, but once the actual Ice Storm Ang Lee idea came to mind, it was really generative. It’s how a lot of this stuff works with me. It kind of floats around for a while, reaching out this way or that. Once the real kernel appears, it’s like, “That’s it!” It all happens pretty quickly. That was definitely the case with this. It was the real fine-tuning that’s the most time consuming. That’s what Jacob and I have experienced. The EP that we’re releasing later this year, basically how it’s worked so far is I send him a sequence of chords and basic rhythm, which happens pretty quickly. Then--and we’ve only done it on Zoom with the new EP, though it was the same with “Life at One”--there was this theme. Jacob came in, we were gonna write some other stuff. He came in with a mic and sang some stacked harmonies. Then it’s carving out all the other elements around that to make it. 

These are unconventional compositions. They’re meant to accompany visual ideas. With that in mind, cues and scoring music doesn’t always work in recorded music, traditionally speaking. There’s all these lengths, sometimes time signatures shift, a melody might exist in an unconventional way to fit what’s happening visually. I really wanted to embrace that. With “Life at One”, Jacob did all this stuff, and there’s this really interesting sound I don’t know how to describe. He asked, “What are those over there?” [My partner Natasha Wheat] had made these ceramic bells for me, and that’s the most fun part about working with Jacob. A lot of the people who are trained as Jacob is--and I say this with great admiration for his abilities--are stuck in certain modalities. This is a perfect example. He looked at the bells and said, “Let’s do that.” He grabbed a drumstick and played the edge of these bells and processed them. That was a big feature in the composition of “Life at One”. This all happens very thematically and reflexively, but to then carve it up and get it to have purpose, meaning, ebb, and flow and make it work visually--that’s where the dirty shit happens. [laughs] I also look forward to when Jacob and I can be in person more. We’ve made a lot happen over the past 7 months, but it’s hard when you’re not in the same room. Plus, I’d like to show off. If he’s sitting right next to me, play some fast guitar...[laughs]

SILY: The title of the record refers to various aspects of topography, and there are song titles that refer to specific places, like “Fort Wayne” and “Lake Superior”. Do these aspects exist within the narrative of the film?

JF: “Lake Superior” and “Fort Wayne” were just started in those places, literally. I picture the Ang Lee movie--the new Ang Lee movie that is inevitably gonna take form because he’s gonna hear me and Jacob’s music and think, “You’re right, we gotta do this,”--in this zone a little bit east of Berkeley. It’s the West Coast equivalent of the Connecticut zone where The Ice Storm exists. It’s this affluent, green place. But the reason I chose to keep the others as titles is like, Fort Wayne, that’s pretty grand and has Batman implications. And Lake Superior, what a fucking great name for a lake, you know? I like the power of those, and if I were sitting down and writing a movie, those titles could be at least generative of a conversation.

SILY: What about the other song titles? What inspired them?

JF: “The Concept” is literally the concept for our band. The concept has expanded since then, but out of the ordinary--no sounds are out of the ordinary in modern production--but in the film scoring landscape, out of the ordinary, ambient, or textural sounds. But then big, beautiful melodies. Jacob’s voice. All that stuff. Synthesizing our two strengths. Jacob’s also a songwriter and makes amazing songs, but my background’s in bands, and so I treat our relationship as if it’s a band. Taking our two strengths. Jacob’s more conventionally trained, schooled, and knowledgeable than I am. He has a richer depth of knowledge in theory and orchestration. I can arrange that way, but he knows what’s going on. Mine is more reflexive--I don’t want to say auto-didactic because that’s kind of an arrogant term--but learning through mistakes. I think Jacob’s made fewer mistakes than I have.

SILY: What were all the instruments used on the record?

JF: There’s a lot of found stuff. 12-string guitar. I was writing it using this Rosewood Fender Stratocaster that Fender made for me. The 12-string is prominent on “Life At One”. There’s a piano Jacob played. There’s a lot of me coming up with drum beats. A lot of the initial stuff was in the box. I’d roll in my portable studio backstage, I’d have a guitar, Universal Audio space, whatever drums and synths I had.

SILY: What is your background in film scoring?

JF: I don’t have a specific background. From a very early age, I’ve been into film scores. I’d buy them starting when I was 15 or 16. CDs. Pretty obvious releases, but things like Danny Elfman’s Batman score, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Sort of getting into Jerry Goldsmith. Elfman, Morricone. I like some of the Bernard Hermann stuff. I started studying it from the way I study everything: figuring out chord sequences, the way the melodies work, to the degree I was able. In the early 2010s, I was making a lot of music that was getting licensed for TV. Once Modest Mouse really started touring [2015 album] Strangers to Ourselves, I let a lot of those pursuits wither a little bit. But I’d always longed for a collaboration. A lot of that stuff was done in a solitary way, so I felt very fortunate when Jacob and I met. He was into that idiom but has a range of skills I don’t have. We also really work well together. All the reflexive stuff that happens, the melodies, it’s easy for us to go back and forth and see what we’re into and where to keep going. Neither of us get upset when the other person isn’t feeling whatever the direction is.

As I get older, I realize the value of stimulating multiple senses. I look forward to Jacob and I doing more of this stuff in collaboration with people. The Riley Thompson video for “Life At One” was him responding to a finished track, but in an ideal world, filmmakers would come to us and, in the way Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross work with David Fincher, where he says, “This is the concept for the new film,” and Jacob and I come back and say, “This is the sonic and melodic landscape we’re thinking of, and here are some character cues. Let’s take it from there.” I love being in conversation with people collaboratively and am attracted to the idea of it across media.

SILY: Do you think the idea that the music might not be responding to a finished film would make the score stand on its own more as a piece of music?

JF: The scores that I like totally stand on their own as music. When Morricone passed away, I read that John Zorn had a quote when they were hanging out in the late 80′s or early 90′s, Zorn said, “Don’t do it unless you’re thinking about what the soundtrack record is gonna be like.” The music needs to be cool enough to just be music.

SILY: Tell me about the album art.

JF: Natasha and I sold our place in Los Angeles last year and moved to Ojai. We thought it was a temporary transition, and now it’s somewhat permanent, because we bought a place here. We’ve been in this guesthouse next door since November. I like taking pictures at night with whatever ambient light [there is], so I took that picture from our place. I wanted there to be contrast with this technicolor paint and silver border on the upper and lower parts of the image. Homes are very interesting to me, and there’s a lot of that in The Ice Storm. There’s that shelf people look at from the outside and think, “It could be dilapidated, it could be beautiful.” People think of it as a thing. But there’s this whole other world that only exists inside of there. It’s always fascinating to me when walking by the place. Stories in the shell. I like the idea of a structure having implications. I don’t have an agenda for what those implications might be, but I like the idea that there could be implications there.

SILY: Jacob, when Jim came to you with this idea, how aware were you of The Ice Storm?

Jacob Snider: I had seen it. I don’t know if in our first meeting, it came up that specifically and clearly that this is where the music was going. In fact, it started more as a casual meeting of creative types. When I came over to Jim’s studio, he just showed me the latest thing he was working on without any huge idea behind it expressed to me in that moment. Jim might have been thinking it in that moment, but that day was more, “Alright, I’m working on something, what do you hear and is there something you think you could contribute to it?” It was really organic. Like Jim mentioned before, the best thing you can do when making something is show it to somebody else, because they’re gonna hear it in a different way or they might suggest something if you’re open to it. People can make amazing solitary music, but it will always be just their thing. You bring in someone else, there’s a different energy, a different perspective. 

As it stands, I do love that film. It’s really haunting. Jim and I talked before that it’s not a movie you can watch every week. It’s heavy, and the themes are deep: family, loss, grief, betrayal. It’s a great one. I think it’s a movie that’s cinematic but also has a lot of depth. I think that’s what we’re going for with Small Isles. It has shades of film music but also shades of rock and roll and romantic string writing from the orchestral traditions. I think we’re trying to combine a few things at once, and we’re really curious how it starts to strike people and how some filmmakers respond to it.

SILY: Are you both generally Ang Lee fans?

JF: I haven’t devoured all of his work. There’s plenty I like. But I’m so in love with [The Ice Storm]. I was in love with the book before the movie came out. He treated it so beautifully. As high in the sky as it is for two nascent film composers to say, “I want to work with Ang Lee,” it’s very important to know where you want to go. It may take a long time to get there, but [it’s important] to have a place where you’re headed. That was definitely the case in the early Grandaddy days, and having watched [Modest Mouse lead singer] Isaac [Brock] for as long as I did, I think it was the case there, too. It may not be as specific knowing that I’m traveling in this direction, but that direction can totally change. There can be diversions that knock you off your course positively or negatively, but thinking about how beautifully he treated that material, that’s where I want to go.

SILY: How are you adapting Small Isles to a live performance?

JF: We’re gonna play at least some of this, maybe all of this live. I’m really looking forward to it. Jacob’s only on half this record, and the 5-song EP we’re releasing later this year, he’s on all of. That’s a straight-up 50/50 collaboration. I’m looking forward to the stuff Jacob didn’t contribute to on the record, hearing what he does with strings. We’re still figuring out how we’re gonna approach it. Jacob will be on keys and vocals, and I might sing a little bit. I’ll be on guitar. Our friend Sienna who Jacob went to school with, who’s doing the strings, we’re talking about having her lead a double string quartet. I would like to have a drummer doing some electronic drums and maybe a kit as well. I definitely don’t imagine we’ll totally nail it on night 1. There’s a lot of stuff we have to work out. There aren’t many antecedents in this zone, but something like Explosions in the Sky mixed with Johann Johannsson. I saw [the latter] in 2010 in San Francisco; there was a little bit of strings, various electronics, and he was on piano. That was a very striking performance. So the explosiveness of a big arena rock show with lots of subtleties and nuance that can come from strings and orchestral.

SILY: What else is next for Small Isles?

JF: We wanna finish this EP. I also really love the way a lot of rap and hip-hop people have gotten it right over the years. Using current listening habits and technology to get out as much music as possible. I definitely have the seeds for at least another EP behind this. Once we get this EP done--there’s just a little bit of tinkering to be done over the next month before going into the mixing stage--I want to make as much music as possible and release it. With the spirits of the world willing, I want to get off the ground live and collaborate with filmmakers, dancers, artists, people in the visual medium. I just love making music with Jacob and this type of music. I’d like to have a few releases a year. EP length [or] album length. I have a number of concepts written down. The seeds that Jacob and I have been playing with to make the EP. I was thinking about The Last Black Man in San Francisco when making this EP, and I’d love to collaborate with those filmmakers. Even just being in person, to tell Jacob, “What do you think of this sequence?” and have him respond without dealing with latency issues and dodgy DSL.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

Jacob Snider: I’ve been listening to a lot of pop. I’ve been listening to the Olivia Rodrigo record [Sour]. I think there’s great writing on there, great production. Watching, I’ll just piggyback on The Last Black Man in San Francisco. It took me a while to finally see it, but I had a filmmaker friend tell me I had to, and I loved it. Also the other film Emile Mosseri did the score for, Kajillionaire, the Miranda July film. Reading-wise, I’m about to jump back into Louise Erdrich’s The Round House.

JF: I’ve been digging the Olivia record, too.

JS: There’s some cool strings on there too from the guy who does a lot of the strings for Portugal. The Man, [Paul Cartwright]. They created a string orchestra sound with just one guy layering violin and viola, which is really cool, and that’s what we’re doing with our collaborator Sienna Peck. There’s totally room for that now, the way the world has been so remote. We can’t put 16 players in a room right now due to public health restrictions, so let’s get one person. It’s really hard to do--you can be a great violinist and not be able to layer yourself in a way that makes it sound like a string orchestra. You have to change your position in the room, the way you’re playing slightly, pretend to be three different people sharing a stand. That’s what you’ll hear on the next record.

JF: I just got into How to Change Your Mind, the Michael Pollan book about psychedelics, which I really loved. I just started a book called The Magic Years, which is about child development. I have a three-and-a-half-year-old son, and I’m very fascinated by what’s going on in his brain and what makes him make the decisions he makes. Just how to be a better dad. I am always a religious reader of The New Yorker, every week it comes out. Natasha and I watched The Kids, a documentary [about the making of Larry Clark’s Kids]. When that movie came out, Grandaddy were skateboarders, so it was important to us. But even as a young kid, I felt that it was really exploitative, and the documentary verifies it. It’s heartbreaking. Larry Clark is a really derelict dude. Truly lecherous. But [The Kids] is a beautiful movie. We’ve been watching Los Espookys. I’m really excited about Vince Staples’ upcoming record. My friend Nik Freitas put out a new song. My musical diet’s gotten really regressive in a way because my son is very into the Super Furry Animals record Radiator. It’s all he wants to listen to in the car.

[jaesqueso]

What if Johnny debuted in EXO?

If you didn’t already know when Johnny joined SM Entertainment he trained with the EXO members and he was actually part of some initial line-ups but ultimately not debuting until years later with NCT instead. As EXO are one of my favourite groups and Johnny happens to be my NCT bias wrecker sometimes I wonder what would happen if he had actually debuted with EXO so if you’re interested in it to, do join me on this ride!

✰

Position, Unit, Symbols and first Teasers

For position I think he would have the same as he currently has in NCT: Lead dancer, sub-rapper and vocalist. These positions really fit him and I think he would specially be a good addition do the dance line. He would also be replacing Sehun as the maknae as he is the youngest of the EXO final debut line-up.

Since EXO initially debuted with the Korean and Chinese sub-units concept I think he would fit more with the members of EXO-K than EXO-M so I believe he would be placed there until eventually the units are blend.

From the existing powers I think the most fitting one for Johnny would be Fire (because let’s face it, he does light a fire within us, right? No? Just me? Ok). But if he was an addition to the line-up instead of a replacement they would give him a new power so I think it could be something like speed, that would be a good addition to the existing ones. As for his number, since most numbers are based on their birthdays or favourite numbers he could either be 09 or 02.

EXO was announced in December 2011 but only officially debuted in April 2012, in the meantime we were presented by several teasers introducing the members. I believe Johnny could have easily slayed the “Lightsaber” teaser (originally by Kai), be part of one of the teasers that feat several members or even having a brand new teaser with another demo that SM teased but never released (the fact that we never got a full version of Metal still doesn’t sit right with me…).

Mama (EP)

“What is love” was the first pre-released track sang by D.O and Baekhyun (Korean version), and being the vocal song it is Johnny wouldn’t be part of it much like the rest of the members.

“History” was the second pre-release single and all the members are included in the vocals and dance so he would too. Johnny would probably get Chanyeol ad-lib’s in the beginning of the first and second parts of the song, as for dance he would probably be centre at least in one of the chorus and mostly in the front line of the formations. Out of the 3 singles for this EP I think this is the one that would fit him best.

“Mama” was the last single promoted for this album. I don’t think Johnny would have a lot of lines here because most of the song they all sing together. Honestly I do believe this choreography could’ve looked better with 7 members instead of 6 as some parts look a bit strange, and I think Johnny could have quite a few centre parts instead of Kai (don’t get me wrong, I love Kai but we gotta admit SM was way to biased in the beginning).

As for the other songs: “Angel” is sang by the vocal line and “Two Moons” by the rap line, I think Johnny would fit “Two Moons” better. “Machine” would also be a song he would fit in well.

XOXO (Studio Album)

“Wolf” is the title track for this album and there are a lot of parts for Johnny to slay, from the beginning divided by the rap line to the last section of the second part before the chorus. I would love to see him being another branch on the EXO tree (I love this choreography so much) and since all the members come together on this song he could have a lot of time in the front line.

As for the other songs: I don’t think he would participate in “Baby Don’t Cry” like Kai and Sehun because I think it’s really well split between the other 4 members. The songs that would most fist him in my option are “Let Out the Beast” as it has some good parts that would fit his voice, “Heart Attack” (I might be a bit biased on this one as it’s my favourite track on this album) and “My Lady” as I think the all vibe of the song would be very interesting to see him in.

XOXO (Repackage)

“Growl” is a very fitting song for Johnny in my option, he would absolutely kill this choreography and the whole school concept would look so good on him.

As for the other songs: he would be freaking adorable singing “XOXO”.

Bonus note: I would love to see his acting skills in the little drama they did for this album. SM could’ve done so much more with it if that concept had been more developed.

Miracles in December (EP)

“Miracles in December” this track is only sang by the main vocal line so again I don’t think Johnny would be part of it, although he would look gorgeous in that music video (the acting scenes).

As for the other songs: the most fitting one in my option would be “The Star” as I think it has the best vibe for him. Also can you imagine him in the elf costume? A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

Overdose (EP)

“Overdose” would also be a good tittle track for Johnny from styling to the choreography. In this one the rap line barely has any lines but I think he could’ve blend in with the vocal line instead.

As for the other songs: he wouldn’t participate in “Moonlight” as it’s only sang by D.O and Baekhyun but I would love to hear him in “Thunder”.

EXODUS (Studio Album)

“Call Me Baby” has a very nice vibe for Johnny, again styling and choreography wise he would absolutely slay this and I feel like he could also get quite a few lines (but last face it, this would be the perfect song for EXO if they stuck with the original tittle “Call Me Daddy”).

As for the other songs: he would participate in “My Answer” as again is focused on the main vocal tine but I would love to hear his voice in “What if…”, “El Dorado” and obviously “Playboy”.

Love Me Right (Exodus Repackage)

“Love Me Right” has such a beautiful aesthetic we would get so many cool Johnny shots. And even thought the stylist screwed up making them wear American football uniforms with baseball hats (logic where are you?) I would love to see him with that. For this one I don’t think he would have many lines but there are a lot of parts in the choreography where he could easily be centre.

As for the other songs: “Tender Love” would suit him so well.

Sing for You (EP)

“Sing for You” is a slower track pretty much sang by D.O, Chen and Baekhyun so I wouldn’t see him having a lot of lines, but also it wouldn’t be the most suited concept for him.

As for the other songs: obviously I think he would fit “Lightsaber” as I previously mentioned he could’ve been in the initial teaser, but also “Girl x Friend” has some good lines for him.

Ex’Act (Studio Album)

“Monster” has a very cool choreography for Johnny to slay and there are a lot of good lines for him too. Visually we’ve seen dark Johnny a few times so he would fit right in.

“Lucky One” would have me go crazy with Johnny in those white suits. Also if his power was speed, like I mentioned in the beginning, it would be cool seeing him use it in the music video to trick those women who are keep EXO locked down.

As for the other songs: in terms of side tracks this would be a very good album for him as most songs would fit his vibe, except “Stronger” that is sang by the main vocal line and I don’t really feel like there would be space for someone else as the original distribution is really good.

Lotto (Ex’Act Repackage)

“Lotto” is my favourite EXO tittle track (I don’t even understand why some many people hate it) and I would love to see Johnny there. The whole concept just screams his name, even if they didn’t gave him a lot of lines he would still stand out here.

As for the other tracks: “Can’t Bring Me Down” would also be a great track for his voice and I think he could’ve also joined the line-up for “She’s Dreaming” even though it’s not sang by the whole group.

For Life (EP)

“For Life”, just like “Sing for You” would also be a track where Johnny wouldn’t have many lines.

As for the other tracks: like in their first EP we have two songs one for the vocal line “What I Want for Christmas” and one for the rap line “Twenty Four” and although I would love to hear him on the first one he would’ve definitely be in the second one instead because it’s so much his vibe.

The War (Studio Album)

“Ko Ko Bop” is the tropical vibe I crave to see Johnny in. Ever since I saw him in that floral shirt for the “Resonance” teaser pictures I knew he would’ve slayed this. Also it would be amazing to see him dance this choreography.

As for the other tracks: let’s just cut to the case and admit we just want to see him do the choreography for “The Eve”. Now that we got that out of the way I can also say that this would be a very good album for him in terms of side tracks as I could see him fit any of them.

The War: The Power of Music (Repackage)

“Power” is my least favourite EXO tittle track but honestly I could see Johnny in this music video with the other members fitting that weird spaceship with Doctor Octopus arms and they could’ve even used his speed power to defeat the villain. This would be a great opportunity to show case his bright and corky personality. It would also be amazing to have his ‘superhero’ cards and have him included in the comic that you get from the physical albums.

As for the other songs: “Sweet Lies” would be an amazing song for him.

Universe (EP)

“Universe” is another slow song so it would pretty much be like “Sing for You” and “For Life”.

As for the other songs: this album has my favourite side tracks so I’ll be biased and say he would sound amazing in all of them. Well, except for “Lights Out” which I think is the same situation as “Stronger”.

Don’t Mess Up My Tempo (Studio Album)

“Tempo” would make all our biker Johnny dreams come through. There are some pretty good line options for him and he could also have some killer parts in the choreography. Overall another great tittle track for him.

As for the other songs: this would be another great album for his vibe, specially “Sign” and “Oh La La La”. Also I would die hearing him sing “Smile On My Face”.

Love Shot (Don’t Mess Up My Tempo Repackage)

(There are no individual pictures for this shoot)

“Love Shot” is another tittle track with a great choreography for Johnny to slay, can you imagine him dancing that chorus? Anyway, when I saw the editorial NCT 127 did for Elle Japan I just knew his yellow suit would have looked so good next to EXO’s suits for this era.

As for the other songs: I would’ve loved to know how his voice would complement “Wait”.

Obsession (Studio Album)

“Obsession” has such an amazing duality concept, I would love to see Johnny against x-Johnny. Styling wise it would be something very interesting for him to try. In terms of line I think this would be the hardest one to fit him in as I think this is probably the best EXO distribution of their discography but anything is possible.

As for the other songs: the best ones for him in this album would definitely be “Trouble”, “Jekyll” and “Ya Ya Ya.”

✰

Wow, this took me so long to put together but it was worthy to walkthrough the EXO memory lane with Johnny. In my honest option I think it was the right decision to not debut him with them as I feel like he fits the whole NCT vibe way better but it’s always fun to wonder!

Do let me know your thoughts on this and also if this is something you’d like to see again maybe with other groups or members.

Thanks for reading ❤︎

[sailorfailures]

ColourPop is dropping a Sailor Moon collab on Feb 20th and I have some Opinions

It’s the moment Sailor Moon makeup geeks have been waiting for - ColourPop cosmetics, noted for their affordable and colourful official pop culture makeup collaborations, has announced a Sailor Moon collaboration containing an eyeshadow palette, two liquid lipsticks, two lip glosses, two blushes, and two body glitters. Most likely this collab is being timed with the 25th Anniversary of Sailor Moon’s debut in North America to contrast with Japanese cosmetics from brands like Creer Beaute and Shiseido, which were released for the Japanese 25th anniversary.

Source: ColourPopCo on Twitter

After my initial excitement about the long-awaited collaboration died down, I was left with a somewhat disappointing realisation... this entire collab, over a total of nine products, was not about Sailor Moon: The Show... it was about Sailor Moon, the character.

When I imagine a makeup collection for Sailor Moon I immediately picture the rainbow of colours represented across the whole Sailor squad, or at least the OG Sailor Team five. But almost everything in the collab is quite warm, and either pink or neutral/natural. Exceedingly neutral/natural, in fact. One look at the names for all the product colours - “Shining Moon”, “Twilight Flash”, “Bun Head”, “Usagi” - make it clear that the products are intended to reflect Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon only.

The packaging itself is... interesting. I can appreciate that they were trying something new with the eyeshadow and blush cases, as they are all topped with different holographic pictures - not (just) the shiny kind of holo, but the old school kind that flips between two different images, all exclusively featuring Usagi and sometimes Luna. You can see the effect in action in this video review by TrendMood. Good concept but slightly awkward execution. I think they would’ve benefited from some kind of static frame around the images so that it didn’t look like I’d just hot glued a pog to my pencil case. The rest of the packaging features the same old redrawn clipart from every other piece of anniversary merch, so, yawn, though the prismatic elements are nice. The body glitter pots are cute, featuring Usagi’s first transformation brooch to mirror the round shape of the pots, but ColourPop’s “gliterally obsessed” branding seems out of place. I know that’s the name of their glitter gel series but maybe it could’ve been swapped out just this once.

(Screencap from above video by TrendMood)

The lip sticks/glosses are by far the most disappointing. Apart from the cardboard boxes they come in, the only branding visible on the tubes themselves is the series logo and a nondescript crescent moon pattern on the caps. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of subtle packaging. I don’t really want Sailor Moon’s face plastered all over a lipstick either; but I’ve also never been a fan of using random moons/hearts/stars as a stand-in for something more relevant to the show when that imagery is so generic and disconnected from the series. Why not little graphics of the Silver Crystal? If they’d thrown some rabbits, bows, and/or roses into the pattern then the combination would read more as “Sailor Moon” than moons on their own. (That said, splitting them into “Moonlight” for the liquid lips and “Daylight” for the lighter glosses with transformed vs. non-transformed? Brilliant. Genius. The perfect blend of nostalgic and practical.)

(Screencap from above video by TrendMood)

Here’s a photo of the palette taken from Temptalia’s website with everything but the shadows desaturated, so you can read the colours more clearly without being influenced by the packaging:

At first I wasn’t sure what this colour story was trying to tell me. I definitely understand going for a more neutral/“everyday” palette over something more glam, since the characters themselves are generally fresh-faced, but the AMOUNT of neutral shades here seem out of place for such a bright series. Tuxedo Rose and Love (the two pinks in the middle of the bottom row) are so similar for such a limited palette. Twilight Flash (top, second from the left) feels out of place; oddly saturated and just a bit too warm to play nicely with many of the other colours. Mare Serenitatis (the coppery-looking one) stood out as unusual but is actually more of a wine/plum under all the glitter, which is much more appropriate and reminds me of Sailor Moon’s transformation.

The more I looked at this palette, and the more I saw of reviewer's looks using it, the more I slowly realised that this palette wasn’t really evoking the character of Usagi herself, but rather the nostalgic, hazy, pink-washed aesthetic of the entire 90s Sailor Moon animation.

The dreamy not-quite-pastel quality of the 90s anime (half conscious design choice, half convention of the time) has received a lot of modern attention and praise. It makes sense that the palette feels like it’s being viewed through a rose-tinted filter when the entire show felt that way, or is at least remembered that way. It wouldn’t surprise me if ColourPop literally based some swatches on recurring colours picked from screenshots.

That being said... Does that make it a good choice for a makeup collab? Is this what Sailor Moon fans want and will buy? Is it versatile enough to warrant a purchase for non-diehard fans? Is it actually what casual fans, who might buy something like this out of pure nostalgia, are actually nostalgic for? Just because I see what ColourPop was going for, does it automatically translate to the most appropriate choice?

Ultimately, my judgement on that comes down to whether this is ColourPop’s only Sailor Moon collab. If this is them testing the waters to see if they can branch out into releasing products focused on the other girls, like a blue/silver mini palette for Sailor Mercury, a green/pink mini palette for Sailor Jupiter, etc. then I’m all for it. When perceived as a palette that represents the show itself, and not any specific character - not even Usagi, despite what all of the swatch names suggest - it really shines. But that’s not really ColourPop’s MO. Most of their pop culture collections are released in one big shining burst of products and then... nothing. And there are quite a few different products here.

I’d also be remiss not to point out that there are lots of indie Sailor Moon-inspired makeup collections already on the market, which makes sense for an almost-30-year-old series that literally repeats the words “make-up!” nearly every episode. Maybe ColourPop felt like they would be stepping on fandom toes or running the risk of copycat accusations if they strayed too close to any of the 2,348 red Sailor Mars-inspired eyeshadows online, though I assume they’d have the legal upper hand. In that respect, I do appreciate that this is a unique approach to a concept that has been nearly driven into the ground.

But ColourPop is not an indie brand and there are some benefits that come with that. They are generally more accessible, sometimes more affordable, can usually ship to more places in less time at a lower cost to the buyer, and can afford much larger runs that will sell out less quickly (though don’t be fooled, this collab will almost certainly start to sell out shortly after its launch). For many fans, especially younger fans, this is probably their only feasible option for Sailor Moon makeup. And some fans prefer the stamp of authenticity from an “official” collaboration, even if indie collections are often, well, better. So I think there’s an impetus for ColourPop to release a less specialised collection that’s reminiscent of more characters.

If this really is the only Sailor Moon collab ColourPop is planning to release, then the packaging, in my opinion, is an odd choice. I don’t know why they decided to focus exclusively on Usagi herself; if the colour story is meant to represent the entire series, then why not either have all the girls on the front in a rosey colour scheme, OR have none of them and focus on one of the cityscapes that clearly inspired the palette? I feel like there are lots of fans who aren’t necessarily fond of Usagi herself who may be put off by the overwhelming focus on her.

Overall: The lip sticks are nice but not super exciting, but I like what I can see of the lipglosses. The subtle glitter is very Sailor Moon. I love the Moonlight/Daylight concept but wish it were reflected on the actual tubes. The body glitters (Moonlight Legend, Moon Prism Power) are exciting and interesting, by far the most experimental part of the collab. The shape and colour choices for the glitters are very “Sailor Moon” and I can see them getting some use on the festival scene. The blushes also seem cute but a tad overpowering for the otherwise understated vibe of the rest of the collab, like the liquid lipsticks, and I love the Luna stamp in the blushes but would be sad to actually use them and see it get worn away. And while I like the gauzy backdrop-inspired looks people are making out of the palette, I feel like it’s extremely limited in the number of unique looks you could actually pull off.

So, in the end... am I going to be buying any of these? Hell, probably, if they’re not totally sold out by the time I get to them. My initial roller coaster of OMG COLOURPOP SAILOR MOON!!!! excitement dropped into “that’s it?” disappointment but has now leveled out at a respectable buzz of interest. I could see myself wearing most of these products, and the collector in me wants at least a piece of the collab for posterity. I just really hope that this isn’t the end of ColourPop’s involvement in Sailor Moon and that we might see some future products tailored specifically to the other girls, so that my collection isn’t just Usagi’s face staring back at me.

[welcometomy20s]

February 7, 2021

This is Part two of the introduction of Nijisanji. I have written for an audience who has just gotten to know vtubers through hololive and wants to explore more. This part cover all of Nijisanji members who has debuted in the year 2019.

2019 Part 1 (Jan-Apr)

Warabeda Meiji - Another eleven year old, but likes FF14 and K-On! So frequently described as an 11 year old third season. But she is genuinely cute! And a really good singer, so much so that her K-On cover gets banned for being too close!

Gundou Mirei - Actually a teacher, but definitely a ditzy and lazy one, that is incredibly sexual to an uncomfortable degree, you know, a fan favorite, including of mine. Watch her 3D streams and you will be amazed. Has a ship with Shoichi as mentioned before, even though she’s a self-professed bisexual. It’s odd but, you know, it works!

Yuzuki Roa - Kind of innocent devil like Towa, but more like a kid than an older sister. Really like Belmond. Was friends with Chitose, a retired member, and got a costume based on her a bit, and maybe is retiring herself, considering she hasn't uploaded for quite a few months now. Well, whatever. She’s cute and innocent.  

Onomachi Haruka - Another of the rare, truly seiso people in the team, but can go wild if the vibe goes that way. Lost and found a llama in minecraft once.

Seto Miyako - Kind of a quiet girl who might be psychopathic... you know the type. Her true tendencies pop up during gaming. Also tweets a lot... make sense.

Kataribe Tsumugu - Basically retired, but her concept was so shocking that it took Naruse Naru’s return of old design to push her into the bottom of the list.

Otogibara Era - She’s a Cinderella if she has gone completely out the window. People routinely separate the original Cinderella side as Era, and her true side as Gibara.

God, how do I describe her. Gibara is just great. Her adult comments are something to behold, let’s say she gels with Tamaki very well. She returns to monke often, and does other types of screams too... seriously look at her gacha stream and witness Gibara in her full glory. Also incredibly lazy and definitely cannot live by herself.

But as you have guessed it, she is an incredible singer. (It might be the case that incredible singing is associated with madness) Had knockout hit with her 3D stream, trending number one on twitter and 30,000 US dollars in superchats!

Lize Helesta - Queen of Shizuoka, I mean Heleste kingdom. Usually behaves like an empress, but as with most royalty has a real competitive spirit, so she knows how to badmouth when she needs to. So, she’s a really stingy person as well... not really fitting for a royalty, but you do know some people that act like that.

She’s a strange person. Look at asphalt or a handstand in order to sleep. Friends with Ange, who was a childhood friend, even with an age difference. Also does radio stuff with Lulu as well. Reveres Mito, wonder why. Again, incredible 3D debut.

Ange Katrina - Nice low-middle voice with a smooth upper body, and surprisingly small but that got fixed as 3D started. Think she’s cute, but blushes when people agree. Just a cool gal who I enjoy very much... her streams, I mean.

Inui Toko - She’s a cerberus, and now works at a cafe. A little bit out there, but definitely a tsukkomi. Usually does little gaming outside Minecraft, so mostly talks and sings. A unique laugh and loves Ensemble Stars. Hangs out with red and blue people, like Lize, Ange, Roa, Ayame, Suisei and so on. Actually is boing boing, Ange felt betrayed.

And as mentioned above, a great singer, and can play many instruments as well!

Saegusa Akina - High tension singer, who is quite sickly and is terrible with girls. But he got better as time went on and the ship with his gen mate Manami started to sail. Actually he hangs around with many girls... maybe it’s just Manami?

Arizona Manami - Ito Life’s daughter... so you know what she looks like. Calls herself the queen of sensitivity, and yes she does very suggestive streams... but she’s pretty innocent and childish... so she’s kind of like Melody in a way. Has a very fond-looking relationship with Akina as mentioned above.

Suzuhara Lulu - Just your typical art student. She’s a rich girl, so she knows very little about the outside world. Definitely has stamina of a thousand horses, famously played 11 hours of Dark Souls, then straight onto 10 hours of Ring Fit, and never got phased. Seriously, she never gets phased. She rode the freaking snake without a problem! Apparently really beautiful in real life, really has large expressions.

There’s a rumor going around that she’s actually some kind of an eldritch god... and I don’t know where that comes from at all. Look at her, she’s such a sweet gal, look at her dancing and singing... she’s a true idol, that’s what she is... (don’t hurt me.)

Yukishiro Mahiro - First-year high-schooler. Good variety of content. Her personality is of a rude kouhai. One viewer described her as a bad-tempered chihuahua. Really likes Kanae, which is okay, I guess. There’s not much more than that.

2019 Part 2 (May-Aug)

Ex Albio - A hero from a different world. Originally portrayed as a rude snarky figure, much like Kazuma without charm or luck but with perseverance. Got his fame through his noob Minecraft experience, as with Minecraft servers, they are ripe with collab opportunities, so he started to collab especially with Ars Almal, which he thinks as a mentor... and so they both talk in high register. Eventually became a couple.

Has a thing where he questions something and immediately denies it, which is quite funny. Eventually got a dark alter version due to the imagination tournament I talked about earlier, which brings the fact that he can’t fight until tragedy occurs.

Levi Elipha - Actually only six years old, and apparently dense, like physically dense. Great singer and good physique, does some English songs as well.

Nui Sociere - A 25-year old witch, but more like a NEET with an addiction to horse racing. Very much like Megumi in terms of magic abilities, but capable of melee.

Kind of sounds like Doraemon when she screams... usually plays JRPG... and well, just look at her. Damn... well, least you have something to look forward to.

Hayama Marin - Hayame is Hayame. She’s just a little kid with a pure mind. Yeah.

Hayato Kagami - CEO of a toy company, so called that. Polite and diligent, but like a CEO of a toy company, completely becomes a boy when getting a bit excited.

Actually is a great singer, maybe a trained singer as well. As a good example of rich getting richer, fans have a tendency to throw red superchat, a typical stream might hit 10K USD, even though there’s nothing particular going on.

Yorumi Rena - Idol magician, but no actual proof of her magic abilities. Plays APEX a lot. Very much an outgoing person with lots of collab from everyone. Hakase calls her mama. Sleep promptly at midnight, except when ARK was involved.

Also makes 8-bit art proficiently, does all her loading screen. A bit of a lewd mind.

Hakase Fuyuki - HIgh school girl who likes to experiment, but it’s obvious none of it ever works. Tries to ship Yorumi and Kagami, and calls him papa. Just absolutely in her own world and everyone is just privy to it... also incredibly bad at gaming.

Mayuzumi Kai - A white hacker. Very cool, but has a thing for comedy, almost to the level of Joe Riikichi, but laughs very little himself. Make sense, since he lost his parents at an early age and lived in the system, therefore is a night streamer. Very good with kids as a result, and very kind and polite as well.

Ars Almal - A mage who specializes in lightning. Started out by apologizing, gets bullied for her round face, usually by Shiina. Cute voice with toxic words with a knack for pranks and taunts. Actually is quite boing boing. Good at Minecraft construction, but get rough and dirty under the wheel, as in Mario Kart. Became a kitsune, and then immediately got compared to Fubuki... much like Fubuki in a sense.

Aiba Uiha - Another idol who is a bit out there, has a tendency to be clingy. Also has a large physique... kind of a denatured Lulu is what I’m getting at. Sisters with Ara Chae, incredibly bad eyesight, apparently. I can see that, actually.

Eli Conifer - A flower fairy and maid with a unique phrasing. Likes to immerse herself in games, very knowledgeable, especially with teas, and also handy at housework, and superb at drawing and singing. Ryushen and Rion think she’s a badass, and they might not be entirely wrong on that aspect, actually.

Kokoro Amaiya - Dragonborn, I think. But there’s no dragon anymore. Has that mumble-speak that people really don’t like. She’s very much kid-like in a sense, uh, so get put into the loli category much like her fellow peer. Incredibly weak.

Ratna Petit - Adventurer with an independent streak. Does games and ASMR, tries to be grown up during collabs, but retreats into a kid in solo streams. Got the infamous random deletion of the account that Kiara famously got.

Nijisanji ID Gen 1

Taka Radjiman - Another CEO, this time a food CEO. Usually streams games, but much like other CEOs here, a pretty good singer as well. Obviously a good cook as well.

ZEA Cornelia - She’s an automata. ZEA is short for Z-type Executive Automation. Likes to sing, and sung many songs including La Vien en Rose by IZONE! I really like her, her streams are bit odd and ZEA can carry a stream like no another.

Hana Macchia - A design student, much like Lulu. Likes drawing as you expect, also like gaming as well. Does some barista stuff as well, a kind of the ambassador of Nijisanji ID, since her father is American and her mother is Japanese, and she lives in Indonesia.

Papa Macchia appears on stream from time to time, and apparently was the progenitor of Hana’s gaming prestige as he played Doom and Half-Life. She’s on the cute side of things, but blushes when she gets called that. Also cries in horror, but screams in excitement... just overall a well-rounded in strangeness. I really like her.

2019 Part 3 (Sep-Dec)

Sukoya Kana - Incredibly smart, but also has an otaku and perverted side. Likes acting, as you might have guessed and bad at housework. Has a quiet voice, but gets savage when a game is involved. Pretty good at english as well. Does a radio show as well.

Oh, yeah, likes to throw up. It’s a thing. Also plays drums. She’s pretty cool.

Shellin Burgundy - Before Kanata did her PPT intro, Shellin was the first one. Professes himself to be a detective, but little lightheaded for that. Good narration voice, though, which means he’s a good singer as well. I kind of like him. He’s good.

Hayase Sou - An outdoorsy girl who likes cosplay and road biking. Kind of talks like she’s middle age, but she acts pretty young. And of course she likes shotas.

Fumi - It took over a year for her to debut. She’s a hikikomori gundam otaku and a goddess. A bit airheaded and pretty bad at gaming, and since she is 67, gets called grandma infrequently. She’s fun to watch. Has a ship with Nagao.

Hoshikawa Sara - Half Japanese and half English. Definitely a cool and tough, ready to take whatever sex jokes and insults you throw at her. Hangs out with Mahiro a lot, or with male members like Yumeoi, Ebio, Shellion or Kanda. Has a wide voice range, with a wide personality as well. There’s a sense of healing to her, honestly.

Obviously gets fangirled by many, including Matsuri, whose frequently red superchats her much to her confusion and relative embarrassment.

Yamagami Karuta - She’s a tengou in training, since she is filled with desires, mostly to connect with people. This is real, apparently. Has a ship with a staff member...

Matsukai Mao - Smartest devil... no, she’s an airhead like the rest of them. Apparently she can spit out crude oil... which is pretty useless. Definitely an unlucky, miserable person who needs to be protected at all times, and she relishes that like the devil she is.

Hangs around with Luis a lot in real life, apparently. Also plays APEX and stuff.

Emma August - Demon Lord that was thrown in an uprising, living with Morinaka Kazaki, and got a new house in February of last year. An alcoholic and a masochist, who gets berated by Kazaki of all people. Definitely not a loli, that’s for sure.

Luis Cammy - An expert thief, which excites Shellin very much. Seen as the leader of the gen, but found out to be much of a kid as the gen mates, especially around Shellin. They are a couple now, apparently. Oh yeah, she did an Outlast stream with a cat outfit and invited Shellin because she was scared? Now there's a loli version of her... yikes.

Fuwa Minato - A host, but a teetotaler, because of health problems... yet drinks Monster energy like it’s no business. A bit out there, as Nijisanji people are. A bit of a trickster, a bad boy if you will... right there with being good at games as well. He’s pretty cool.

Shirayuki Tomoe - When I first saw her, she felt like one of those people in mahjong tournaments. Well, she’s a queen of the night, so night-time streamer, although she has daytime streams as well. Strong drinker. Talks about SM, but also effortlessly friendly and a lovely person. I think she’s attractive, but I can see why people call her cute. She hates bugs, loves cute things, odd thoughts... feels like an aunt to me.

Very bad at reading kanji, not that she’s good at anything else. Likes to practice, hence preserved her way in the Mario Kart tournament. Does talk and ASMR streams with a third of her viewers being women. Likes Mirei, makes sense. Oh, she’s a nudist.

And don’t forget the relationship between Kana and her. Purported to be the most real of the ships of any vtubers. I believe it’s called Crossick. I don’t know too much.

Gwelu Os Gar - Presenter for the elf kingdom, hired as a presenter, since Nijisanji got so big and there’s only so many Kakeru around. Unfortunately seen as boring, and transitioned into kind of a Maimoto character.

Already married, I don’t know why that’s significant but there you go. Oh, and an actual dad! That is pretty significant. Although Setsuna also has a child, and had to retire to take care of the little baby. Teaches math to others, so that’s cool.

Mashiro - Recent high school graduate. He’s a boy. Yes, he has heels and boobs, but he’s a boy. And yes, he is a bit out there, stealing candies from the office.

Naraka - Another oni, and a loli-baba. Obviously a fan of the fellow oni, Mikoto... which has a queen kid relationship. And yes, her chest is smaller than Mashiro... sad.

Kurusu Natsume - 19-year old college student who likes music and sheep. Very smart and very normal. Has an ASMR test stream, which was pretty fun.

Nijisanji ID 2nd Gen

Rai Galliel - An interdimensional policeman. Likes cheese, but hate porridge due to only eating one for four months. Likes baking, pretty cool personality, if a bit straight edge.

Amicia Michella - A freelance illustrator, so the drawing is superb. Like sleep but also sports. Also penguins. Likes to play horror games pretty calmly. Raises two dogs, well one of them passed away late last year. Sang a 10cm cover?

Miyu Ottavia - A business student, and likes otters and is optimistic. Mostly plays RPG and online multiplayers. Tries to be cool, but look at her! She’s very cute.

Riksa Dhirendra - A 24-year-old freelancer and works as an editor and translator. Looks mean, but is actually a very decent gut. He is pretty competitive. Plays RPG.

[sanstropfremir]

I think at this point I’m just using these asks to get your opinions on artists that I like so hope you don’t mind (I can stop if you want) cause you have a lot of great insight on the industry (I mean you are a professional). Okay so I’m going to assume that you aren’t that much of a girl group fan but are you familiar with Dreamcatcher? Concept wise they’re the closest a girl group (or really any group) has gotten to Vixx’s stuff and I love their nightmare horror concept they have going on (at least with their first 5/6 releases) and their choreo is top notch (in my opinion). The intro to Good Night’s dance is *chef’s kiss*. Love the creepy doll/marionette vibes. One of my many gripes with a lot of current groups is that they don’t fully commit to concepts and prefer to go for a water down, glam, non controversial version of whatever concept they choose so they don’t go all the way which isn’t bad necessarily but there’s just so much more potential to go wild but that’s not the case for Deamcatcher. They’re really leaning into the whole horror, fantasy dystopian theme and I’m living for it (their first three MVs are some of my favorite story based mvs). It also doesn’t hurt that most of their discography have a rock element (or are just full on metal-Light My Flame has such strong Nightwish vibes I got yeeted back to middle school) to them.

ok i finally got to this!! please keep asking me about other artists because its great exercise for me and also it's fun! answering questions about kpop is my only hobby at the moment because i am still deep in the throes of trying to graduate.

I would agree that they are the closest ive seen to anyone coming to vixx at their horror heyday. with the exception of a few shots, chase me and good night could have easily passed for mvs filmed in 2012/2013; chase me in particular absolutely has a voodoo doll/hyde flavour. they obviously put most of the conceptual energy into the mvs, which is not a flaw at all, but like with every kpop group that does larger concept work i always want to see it pulled through way more in the actual performances. especially in the costuming! now i realize this is a little unfair because dreamcatcher jumps right in the deep end with their debut track and obviously the monetary priority is into the mv, and also they’re not going to go full horror right away, but dear lord those first few stage costumes. don’t make me look at them any longer. but thankfully when they got more established they started putting money into costuming. i feel like i dont talk about costuming nearly enough for the actual amount of time i spend thinking about it or working with it. their most recent stuff definitely has that a more consistent and larger scale aesthetic symmetry which i definitely appreciate, but i do also miss that contained, stylistic simplicity that comes with the 2012/2013 era of concepts that they were trying to emulate with their first three mvs.

i'm not that familiar with girl group choreographies and their general trends as a whole, so i can't really comment much on how they compare, but they do quite frequently have very good intros and occasionally an unusual sequence here or there. they do quite a lot of hand work which takes not an insignificant amount of skill. there’s also a short waacking moment in the dance break in fly high, which surprised me because i think this is the only time i’ve seen a waacking sequence like that in a kpop routine? (it pales in comparison to an actual waacker but still). the intro for good night is excellent and i think probably my favourite choreographic moment, and i think it's the closest they get to fulfilling the horror concepts from their mvs in the choreography itself. obviously they aren’t going to be able to fake stab the members on stage a la voodoo doll, but there are only a few of the stages that i’ve watched where they actually get close to matching that same energy. red sun, scream, and the intro of good night are my favourites, song wise and choreographically.

these aren’t the most in depth analyses in the world because that would take a lot more time and i wanted to get this out before the next kingdom episode, but if anyone has any mvs or anything specific about dreamcatcher they want to ask me to look at just let me know!

[sparklyaxolotlstudent]

I blame my own brain for coming with new things instead of continuing with the WIPs that are really in need of working on them!

Based on my recent Crack Theory of Lila having a broken Miraculous

(I’m lacking a name right now)

-

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

Lila jumped back from her desk, as she looked at the green… thing that had appeared from her earring. The thing was looking everywhere, and their eyes seemed to move independently, which only freaked Lila even more.

“Finally! After a thousand years I’m free again!” The thing proclaimed happily. Then it turned to Lila. “Took you long enough, Lila”

“How… how do you know my name?” asked Lila, clearly afraid.

“Oh right.” The thing focused both eyes on Lila. And honestly, she didn’t know if this freaked her more or less than that thing having her focus elsewhere on her room. “You know what a Miraculous is, don’t you?”

Lila nodded, a slight fury replacing the fear on her face. “Yes, it’s how that Ladybrat and that Mangy Cat get their powers”

The thing rolled their eyes, which grossed Lila out. “Yeah, that. Well, turns out your family heirloom was also a Miraculous” said the thing, pointing to the earring she was polishing before. “Some family heirloom that turned out to be, huh?”

“What” Lila made a run for her earring, picking it up and examining it again. “How?” she asked. “Why now? I have worn this practically all my life! And who the hell… WHAT the hell are you?”

“Let me begin from the start. Hello Lila Rossi, my name is Glamm, I’m the Kwami of Perception, the Kwami of the Chameleon Miraculous, which now you have in your hands”

“Chameleon?” Lila at least now knew why the thing was so weird. “Wait, Miraculous? I have a Miraculous?” she was finally processing the words of Glamm.

“Yeah, it seems that paste you stole from that girl with pigtails fixed my Miraculous”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t steal this from Marinette! She offered it to me!”

Lila quickly remembered how she had acquired that paste. Marinette was cleaning those horrible earrings she was always wearing with it during recess, and thanks to her crafty manipulations of the rest of the class, she had made her give it to her.

Glamm rolled their eyes again. “I have been alongside my miraculous for a long time Lila Dolores Rossi. I have seen every lie, omission and manipulation you have dished out. The fact that my Miraculous was broken was the only reason why your pathetic lies were believed in the first place”

“What?” Now Lila was furious. She was a Master Manipulator! She had been doing this her whole life she… had been wearing the Miraculous this whole time too… “What do you mean?” she asked more calmly.

“Kwamis are the Anthropomorphic Personification of an abstract concept. In my case, I’m Perception, how you see and how other people see you. Normally, my Miraculous allow the user to shape shift into other people, and even copy their powers if they have some”

Lila’s mind started going a mile a minute about how she could use this to discredit Ladybug.

“BUT! Ever since my Miraculous was broken, my connection to the physical world was broken too, and I was unable to interact with anything. But my power still seeped out of the Miraculous, although in a more passive way.”

Lila blinked in confusion. “What do you mean, exactly?” she narrowed her eyes, imagining where this conversation was going, but hoping she was wrong.

“My power allowed you to be perceived as you wanted. Why do you thing all people believed your frankly ridiculous claims without even checking?”

“I’m… I’m very good at lying”

Glamm raised an inexistent eyebrow.  “Really? The journalist wannabe doesn’t check with Ladybug, who she encounters every other day? The napkin to the eye is believed by a child who was able to create artificial intelligence? Your teachers believe your many many disabilities without a doctor’s note? Your own mom believes your school is closed without checking for herself?”

Lila let herself fall on her seat. “But… they always believe me… it was because of you?”

Glamm nodded. “Yes, I had no choice in that.”

Lila looked at the earring in her hands and felt a myriad of things about it. Anger, regret, disillusion... If an akuma wasn’t currently attacking the city (Either that giant baby or the pigeon guy, she hadn’t pay attention to the Akuma Alert, other that it was a repeat akuma) she was sure she would have attracted an akuma by now.

“You have a choice now, though. I know you, you probably think that you can use my power to make trouble to Ladybug, don’t you?”

Lila opened her mouth to argue, but knew this thing already knew the truth. “And what if I do, Pascal?”

“Pas… Oh I get it, very funny, ha ha.” Glamm replied sarcastically. His eyes focused on Lila again. She recoiled. “Naturally, you can do whatever you want, and I will assist you, but you are smart. You should understand what will happen now that my Miraculous has been repaired.” He waited a few seconds, until saw Lila change expressions. “Your silly lies won’t be believed as easily. Your previous lies will not be believed as easily.”

Lila grabbed the earring and tried to break it with her bare hands. Glamm rolled their eyes again. This girl really had a thick skull.

“Only a Cataclysm can break a Miraculous… which is how it happened last time, by the way, thanks for asking.”

Lila glared at Glamm. “So what do you suggest?”

“Well, like I said, you have options, and you probably won’t like any of them” Lila glared at him, but just sighed. “Well for starters, you could give me to Ladybug”

“HELL NO” she said, putting the earring back on her ear. “No fucking way I’m doing that”

“I’m just listing your options, you dolt. Option number two, you keep your life as is, and become better at lying”

“I like that one”

“Of course you’ve had my power basically all your life; so again, your lying abilities are basically the same than when you were five years old. People will catch up really quickly, and you will be humiliated, isolated and probably sued by all those people you have lied to and about to.”

Lila gulped. If Glamm was right and all her “expertise” was actually their power all along, she was very much screwed.

“Another option, of course, is what you already planned. Use my power and transform into Ladybug”

“Yeah! She will be hated by everyone and…”

“And she and Chat Noir will eventually caught you and take me, and since this is no akumatization, you will be again: humiliated, isolated, sued and probably end up in jail”

“Yeah, like they would catch me, look at their track record!”

“They always catch the akuma. The only reason Hawk Moth is still at large is because he sends akumas instead of going himself.”

Lila glared at Glamm again, but knew they were right.

“So basically, I’m screwed either way I go. I always thought getting a Miraculous would be better than this” She sunk in her chair, holding her legs.

“I’m not finished.” Glamm flied to Lila’s range of vision. “There is another thing you can try… like I say, you probably won’t like it, but…”

Lila perked up. What she didn’t understood is that while she merely thought she was a good manipulator, Glamm was the real deal, and while all they were saying was the truth, they were also playing Lila like the cheap kazoo that she was.

“There is another way to crew with Ladybug… and that Cat too, if you want”

“Really?”

“Really. Remember when you were Volpina the first time?”

Lila nodded. She had always thought that everyone was lying when they said they didn’t remember the things they did when they were akumatized, as she remembered her time as Volpina (Both times) and as Chameleon. Now she realized that it was probably because of her own Miraculous that she had her memories of those times.

“Well, you can become a hero again. A real one this time. We can help take Hawk Moth down… and easily upstage Ladybug as Paris best hero”

“We’ll have to help her?”

“Yes. And keep a secret identity too”

“Pfft, work without credit? No thank you”

“Should I remind you that Chloe is Queen Bee and still no one likes her?”

Lila looked at the kwami. One of their eyes was wandering again. Lila will take some time getting used to that quirk. And to the fact that they were right… again.

“If you really want to screw with Ladybug and everyone else, we have to play the long game. You can’t claim to be ‘Paris Greatest Hero’ on your first outing, or ‘The only hero that Paris needs’ or any of those silly things you said as Volpina.”

“That’s boring”

“But effective. Do you want to be recognized by Ladybug immediately? I mean, it’s the same for me if she takes my Miraculous, but you might have other plans…”

“But what about my normal life then? Without your powers…”

“Without my powers you might want to lay low for a while. You’ll have to fight against the urge to claim outrageous things, or to make that pigtailed girl miserable. You’ll have to play nice, for real, and try to tell the truth. Your old tricks won’t work anymore.”

Lila contemplated her new life. She wasn’t opposed to be a hero, really, having the adoration of the public would be rather nice. After all, Chat Noir was admired and respected despite Ladybug doing most of the work anyway. She would need to think on a good super hero name. A shame she couldn’t be “Volpina”.

“We could go on now, you know?”

“And make my debut be against a giant baby? No thank you.  Magnifique Caméléonne will have a debut worth of the gods”

“… Magnificent Chameleon? What did I just tell you? Caméléonne will suffice”

“… dammit”

-

Notes:

Glamm is supposed to be nonbinary, so please tell me if I refer to them as “he/him” or “she/her” instead of they/them so I can correct it. 

Glamm’s phrase is gonna be “Glamm, tongue lash” unless I find a better pun.

Caméléonne is simply the french word for a female chameleon. I’ll change if there is something better. The italian word would be vetoed by Glamm as being “too obvious”, so either something in french or english. (Countess Chameleon has a nice ring to it, but it’s too long)

The Chameleon Miraculous power is “Replication”, where the holder transform into someone else, powers included. Their Five minutes start counting when they change, and if they transform into another miraculous holder, they can use their power only once, their counter is unaffected. I’m debating in whether giving them the drawback of not being able to change back until their counter runs out or not. 

the Chameleon hero��s weapon is one of these bad boys

but shaped like a chameleon tongue(or just without the “fingers”), of course. I was going to use a whip, but this is waaaaay more fun. 

Opinions? Suggestions for Lila’s hero name?

Her suit will probably be just heavily based on her Volpina one, ‘cuz let’s admit it, that thing looks rather good. 

[fmdivy]

thirty days of development: ivy

Everybody needs a little poison ivy

+ Day One: Introduce your muse. Are they solo or in a group? What is their position in the group? Consider this day the day for writing the basics.

Kang Yumi is a vocal and dance soloist with Dimensions. Both her persona and real life personality are reserved, but that is where the similarities end. Yumi is kind and warmhearted. She is also demisexual, so any sexual encounters are only after she has developed an emotional connection. Ivy, however, is bolder. She is sexy, cold, and cool. People see her as something untouchable, even though that is far from the truth.

+ Day Two: Talk about your muse’s childhood. Where did they grow up? Did they have any dream jobs besides being an idol? When did they realize they wanted to be an idol?

Yumi was raised on a rice farm in Pocheon, South Korea. She has very humble origins and has never lost sight of where she came from. As a kid, all she wanted was to be a professional ballerina. Really, to this day, she would be perfectly happy being one. She really only became an idol because it was an opportunity to dance and to make money for her impoverished family. However, she loves it now. Really, it was the best accident ever.

+ Day Three: Take us back to when your muse was either recruited or auditioned to become an idol. How did that go? How did they feel getting up on stage for recruiters? If your muse could give their younger selves advice before the audition, what would they say?

Yumi was recruited when she was fifteen years old. She was doing a performance with her ballet class in her hometown and there happened to be a scout for Dimensions in the audience. Really, that was about as much of an audition as they needed. She was a very skilled dancer and also, in all honesty, she partially got recruited because she was just that pretty. Yumi would probably go back and tell her younger self that it would be okay, that all those hard times were worth it. Also, that being in love really sucked.

+ Day Four: Remember the trainee days? What are some of your muse’s memories of being a trainee? How long were they a trainee? Were they worried about potentially not making a debut? Talk about any challenges they might have encountered.

Being a trainee was a complicated time for Yumi. She was living in a big city for the first time in her life, away from her immediate family. Yumi was mostly very focused during her time as a trainee. If she wasn’t dancing or singing, she was doing homework. Her parents gave her aunt strict orders to make sure Yumi focused on her work because there was definitely a chance this would not work out. She hung out with a lot of the fellow dance obsessed people because they respected her dedication, but there was a lot of jealousy. Yumi was worried about not making a debut because that would have meant she wasted a few years she could have been auditioning for dance schools. She would have still been happy doing ballet. The biggest challenge for her was practicing her vocals because she had absolutely no vocal training beforehand. It was honestly much more difficult than learning all the different dance styles, which was a lot more natural for her.

+ Day Five: Recall your muse’s debut. What was the song they debuted with? How did it feel performing for the first time on stage as an idol? Feel free to bring up their thoughts about the concept, choreography, lyrics, music video, or other components. 

This is a bit of a complicated question because Yumi technically debuted twice. Her first debut was with Nebula (which has no official discography, though I picture it kind of Chocolat because underappreciated beans who had good intentions, even if it did not pan out well, and they deserve the love; my headcanon is they first performed Syndrome probably though). Her first time on stage as an idol was with the rest of Nebula. The concept was fine with her. She liked the music and the outfits, though they were not exactly teeming with star power. Her second debut was different because yes, Nebula had some sexier comebacks, but as Ivy, she was full on sexy. The dancing was hella sensual. She appreciated the fluidity with which she had to perform though. Honestly, she preferred her second debut. At least no one was trying to trip her during Irreversible. 

+ Day Six: What concept does your muse think they can pull off best? Cutesy? Manly? Sexy? What concept do they have a hard time pulling off? What kind of concept would they want to do at some point?

After having the same concept for a decade, Yumi does not have any complaints. Reserved and sexy is fine with her, though she is sometimes amused when people realize she is asexual. For Yumi, it is a part of her image as Ivy to be sensual. She doesn’t feel one way or another. Quite honestly, a cutesy concept would be very hard for her at this point. She is not very outgoing in that way and way too shy.

+ Day Seven: Which era is your muse’s favorite in their career? Why is it their favorite (think concept, promotions, choreography, etc.)? If your muse has recently debuted, talk about what they would want to do for their next comeback.

If we are discussing the classics, Yumi really liked the Full Moon era. She has never quite captured that otherworldly vampireness again. It was quirky and different; she liked it. Also the costuming was gorgeous for it. She is proud that a lot of people still consider it a bop. Of course, she has a soft spot for Gashina. The song was catchy and she appreciated the artistic approach they took. The choreography was a lot more fluid than she got to do in a while, so she has no complaints. Honestly, if she could incorporate ballet in a music video, she would be golden.

+ Day Eight: Talk about your muse’s strengths and weaknesses as an idol. Feel free to discuss their own personal thoughts regarding these components. Think of qualities such as vocals, dancing, visuals, acting skills, and variety show skills, for example.

Yumi is a decent actress. She has these moments of earnestness on screen that really make her shine. However, she doesn’t have the widest range. She can play bitchy characters or shy girls. That is about it. But, she is good at it and brings a maturity to certain roles. Her dancing and vocals are both very prominent, though she was a bit rougher on the latter earlier in her career. She will never be a rapper, though. Her variety skills are also non-existent unless it is based on performing (like King of Masked Singer). She is friendly, but just not the most compelling to watch joke around with the hosts. 

+ Day Nine: What is your muse’s fashion style? Talk about what kind of clothes they love to wear. To them, what is the essential thing to have in their closet? What is their favorite outfit?

Yumi was very confused about clothing when she moved to Seoul because yes, she had opinions, but it did not matter that she had opinions. She had to wear whatever her older sisters no longer fit into. Her preference is flowing dresses and wide brimmed hats. She likes summer best, especially now that she is not working in fields. She is also down to wear some plaid button downs and jeans if she has to do labor (but, she never really has to do that unless she decided to help her family when she goes back home because she is not a lazy bum). However, people very much want to put her in little black dresses or sparkles. She doesn’t mind. In the winter, she likes heavy wool coats because she gets cold very easily. 

+ Day Ten: Talk about your muse’s three closest friends. How did they meet? How long have they known each other? What do they love most about their friends?

Yumi is friends with a lot of people younger than her because they just gravitate towards this very friendly noona/unnie who is willing to help them navigate the entertainment industry. She usually meets them while acting or backstage at variety shows. She even makes it a policy to get to know her backup dancers and the trainees that dance with her. They are usually a bit excitable, but she thinks it is cute. She is also friends with people her age in the industry because old people need to stick together. Yumi is still close with her sisters as well, calling them whenever she has a chance. There are six of them though, so it is a bit hard to coordinate a group phone call. Usually, she has to go one by one.

+ Day Eleven: Has your muse had any scandals? How have these scandals affected your muse as an idol or as a person? If your muse has not had any scandals, talk about their views on scandals. Is all publicity good publicity?

Despite her image, Yumi has not had any public scandals. However, she got dangerously close when she became engaged. Off-screen, it was the first time she had ever given the company any sort of trouble. Sure, she was off a reasonable enough age to get married but her doing so would have killed the fantasy for many people. So, she would have likely have to leave Dimensions at the very least and rebrand with a new concept, unless she was willing to question the sexism within the industry. She doesn’t really hold people’s scandals against them unless they are less “I smoked drugs once” and more “Burning Sun”. For her, it is all about the product/effort you put into your work. If you are good at your job, why should your personal life be a big deal?

+ Day Twelve: If your muse is in a group, what are the fun things about promoting with other members? What do they love about being in a group? What do they love about their members? If your muse is a solo artist, what are their thoughts on promoting alone? What do they love about being solo?

Promoting with the other members of Nebula was never fun, especially since Yumi was always comparing herself to the others. She did not feel as talented as some of them at times, though, her hard work changed that. There is not a single member she looks back at fondly. Promoting was a nightmare and Yumi mostly just read books while they traveled. Or, she watched dance practice videos so she could incorporate her observations while practicing alone later. She does not mind promoting alone because she is such a reserved person. She wouldn’t mind spreading the attention on the actual stage, but she is so used to it at this point, she does not mind. Plus, it is admittedly nice to have no one impeding her spark.

+ Day Thirteen: For the muses in a group, what are the challenges of being one of several people in a group? Have there been any troubles that have come along with being in a group environment and times they wish they were alone? For the solo artist muses, have you ever felt lonely promoting alone? Do you ever wish that you were in a group instead?

Yumi sometimes wonders if she just got unlucky with Nebula because plenty of other groups are out there actually practicing camaraderie and supporting each other through all their comebacks. She really wishes she could have had that experience, especially when she has to lie in front of the camera about her time in Nebula. Honestly, everyone probably knows things were not good between her and the rest of the girls, but Yumi is not going to be the one to bring it to light. It was over a decade ago; it is time to move on. She likes being a solo artist just because it gives her a bit more versatility. They can play a bit with her comebacks and don’t have to coordinate with anyone else. She might get a little lonely promoting alone, but she has a real good crew to keep her company at least.

+ Day Fourteen: If your muse is in a group, how do you think they would have fared had they had a solo career instead? What kind of concept would they have? If your muse is a solo artist, how do you think they would have fared if they were in an idol group? What position of the group do you think they would have? 

Yumi has been a part of both so far. Had she been a part of a nicer group, she might not have strove to be as strong vocally (dancing was always going to be her main goal), but she would have probably been better adjusted for most of her life. If some type of  Unnies-esque group would form she would be down. She would have preferred a main dancer position in Nebula, but she was young and still had to learn. As a soloist, she doesn’t mind her concept, would probably not be against something more artsy. 

+ Day Fifteen: Who does your muse look up to in the industry? Why do they look up to this person?

At this point in life, Ivy is the one you look up to in the industry; there aren’t many people older than her within it. Though she has remained with Dimensions for years, she really does not think much of her C.E.O. (she has been a part of the Dimensions system; she watched a lot of people crumble under it, though she herself was never really a victim). She usually avoids his nephew as well because lord knows she will not be accused of dating the guy she basically works for. No, for her, it is all about Bang Sunyoung. She is an actor, a dancer, and started an entire empire. The two of them are not that far apart in age, so Ivy would kill to collaborate with her, though it would probably never happen. Honestly, had Gold Star Media been more established by the time Nebula had been disbanded and had Dimensions not offered Ivy a solo, there would have been a good chance Ivy would have found herself working for Gold Star.

+ Day Sixteen: If your muse could do a special stage with another artist or idol group, who would it be and why? What song would they perform?

Aside from her majesty Sunyoung, Ivy would enjoy doing a special stage with Lucid. She likes their darker concept more than their bubblier concept, and it would be easy enough to coordinate considering they are within the same company. Besides, she likes supporting her dongsaengs. She wouldn’t mind doing any of those singles since they are in fact very impressive dance numbers as well. But, she could also see them performing Full Moon or some type of mashup. 

+ Day Seventeen: How would your muse fare in a variety show? If your muse could appear on any variety show, which variety would it be and why? If you don’t have a lot of knowledge of variety shows, talk about what kind of variety show they would go on.

Watching Yumi on a variety show is an experience, for sure. She is great at performing, but is not the best public speaker. She needs practice and honestly, it is her least favorite part of being an idol. As an actor, she follows the lines religiously. So, she is never great if all that is involved is talking or being generally silly. She is good at variety shows that involve competition and less ad-libbing. Yumi would dominate in King of Mask Singer or Dancing with the Stars. She likely performed when Hit the Stage was on air as well.  

+ Day Eighteen: What entertainment agency is your muse a part of? What do they think of other groups and artists that are in the same agency as them? Which labelmates do they get along with the most, excluding group members?

Yumi is a member of Dimensions Entertainment, which has somewhat of a sketchy reputation for how it treats its trainees. She respects the other artists in the agency and likes to look after the younger idols. While she does like all the groups well enough, it is no secret that her favorite group is Lucid. They are newer than a lot of groups within the industry. Plus, she also respects that they are taking risks with their music and the complex choreography. If any of them asked to perform with her or to have them take her under their wing, she would do it in a heartbeat.

+ Day Nineteen: Is there anything besides idol activities that your muse would want to do? Would they want to take their hand at hosting a variety show or act in a television show or drama? Would they want to try out modeling or a musical? If they have done things such as these, talk about their thoughts toward these things.

Yumi became an actor out of convenience. She wanted to make sure she stayed in the spotlight long enough to make it to her next comeback. Really, if there was an idol option of doing ballet, she might have considered that. The only reason she did not do modeling was because she was sure she would have definitely been bored doing; also, she does not like using only her looks for anything. Her first role at least had a decent amount of dancing and using her skills as a vocalist. Really, that was probably why she got the role despite her lack of acting experience.  Since then, she has gotten better and is coveted for more mature roles. The genre does not always matter, as people just like that she is willing to step outside the box and challenge patriarchal norms.

+ Day Twenty: If your muse was able to be a part of a supergroup that comprised of current idols, who would they want to be in the same group and why? What kind of concept would this group have? How do you think the group would do in terms of popularity?

It might be interesting to do a supergroup full of other members of Dimensions Entertainment. She is fine with a co-ed one, but an all-girl group could definitely be empowering. The concept would be something dance based (because of course it is) and fun. Maybe a little edgy or experimental. They would probably not do many comebacks, but it could be interesting to keep the fans interested during breaks. Some group members would be more popular than others, but Ivy would look after everyone.

+ Day Twenty-One: How does your muse feel about their fans? How do they feel about sasaeng fans? How would they handle a situation in which they were faced with obsessive fans that followed them or invaded their privacy? If they’ve had problems with sasaeng fans before, how did they feel about it?

Yumi likes inspiring people, particularly women. Really, at the end of the day, isn’t that what part of her image is about? Much more than a sexy icon? However, she doesn’t really mind people being attracted to her. So, she is always probably kindest to her fans. However, she does not handle saesangs well. Yumi will not let anyone invade her privacy or her personal space.  She would probably deal with it in a mature manner, such as reporting it to Dimensions or the police. Maybe hire some protection if she was feeling physically endangered. However, she can certainly take care of herself if in imediate danger, she just would not want to do any damage to her reputation or her image. She has not really had any problems with saesangs so far, thankfully, but she has a feeling that is mostly because the company is good at handling it.

+ Day Twenty-Two: Talk about your muse’s goals that they have for their group or themselves if they are a solo artist. Where would they want to promote if given the chance? Do they want to do a solo album at one point? This can be any sort of professional goal.

Yumi would like to earn a Nation’s Title one day because that would be a sign that she most definitely made it. Of course, she would prefer if it was something based on her talents and not because she is super sexy. But, beggars can’t be choosers. She would like to promote in Latin America as Gashina had very heavy Latin vibes. She thinks she could do well there and the different cultures sound interesting. 

+ Day Twenty-Three: What is your muse’s thoughts on being an idol and dating? Are they against dating? Have they ever been in a relationship after debuting? If so, talk about the challenges that have come along with dating. If they aren’t dating, would they want to date?

So, because Yumi is demisexual and a workaholic, dating has never been high on her list of priorities. She never dated as a trainee the only dated very sporadically as an idol. To her, hiding relationships is just part of the job. They all know what they are getting into and need to be careful to follow those rules. Of course, she was engaged so she was fully prepared to accept those consequences. It does hurt her that sometimes, difficult decisions must be made. She is not currently seeing anyone seriously, as it never ends well. But, that is also the only type of relationship she likes. 

+ Day Twenty-Four: Who is your muse’s ideal type? Why is this person their ideal type? 

Yumi’s real ideal type is just someone motivated and kind to her. Her dad was incredibly respectful to her mother, so she could never be with someone who did not treat her as an equal partner. Younger or older, she is not particular, but she does consider herself an old soul, so that constantly gets in the way. In terms of attractiveness, she tends to focus less on physical appearance and more on the emotional connection

+ Day Twenty-Five: What does your muse want to be remembered for in the idol world? Do they want to be remembered for their vocal prowess? Their image? Their dancing skills? Their scandals?

Yumi is proud of how she has improved in her vocal skills over the years. She is good and she knows it. She earned it. However, if she were to pick one thing to be praised for it would be her dancing ability. She has worked her entire life to become the best dancer she can and has sacrificed a lot to do so. Looking back, she has spent the past twenty-something years dancing. It shows and she wants to be recognized for it. If she is also praised for her female empowerment that would be the icing on the cake. She definitely does not want to be known as someone with a lot of scandals. That would hurt her deeply, because she worked so hard to remain in line and to dedicate herself to her craft.

+ Day Twenty-Six: Does your muse ever regret becoming an idol? Do they ever think about what they would be doing instead if they lived a normal life? If they could go back in time, would they do everything all over again? Or would they end up doing something else?

Ultimately, Yumi does not regret being an idol. In her mid twenties, she did wonder if she should have stayed the course and become a professional ballerina. It would probably not have involved as much financial security and would have not given her as much mainstream attention, but it was her dream for so long. Now, she likes how her career turned out. For her, there has never been anything more important than dancing, so if she can continue to keep that up, she is fine with whatever career she has. When she was engaged, she did contemplate if she could ever live a normal life. She does want to get married and raise some children (even if say, she married a woman and had to fly to Taiwan to do so). But, she wants to keep working amid it all. Ultimately, she does not regret the decision she made to become Ivy.

+ Day Twenty-Seven: After working hard on promotions, your muse is given the chance to take a two week vacation anywhere in the world at any time they want, with nobody bothering them. Where would they go and when? Why would they want to take their vacation there? If they had the opportunity to bring three other people, who would they bring?

Yumi is not a very difficult person to please. She honestly does not know what to do with her time off, so she usually takes on an acting gig or a commercial or something, just so she can keep working. If she had forced time off, Yumi would go back to the farm to hang around with her parents and her siblings in the area. Some of them have children and she would love to hang out with her niblings. They seem to be the only people who know how to force her to stop for a moment and enjoy herself. She would probably end up helping in the fields anyways though. It would be considered a compromise. As for who she would bring, it would have to be a romantic partner or very close friends, because otherwise she would rather go solo.

+ Day Twenty-Eight: Talk about your muse’s low point in life. Why was this a low point in their life? What kind of challenges did they face and how did they feel about this? Were they able to overcome it? If it is still ongoing, are they working on overcoming these challenges? 

The lowest point in Yumi’s life was when her engagement was broken off. It is funny, she never thought she would feel worse than she did when the girls of Nebula bullied her, but that moment surpassed it easily. She had trusted someone so deeply and had every intention of potentially giving up the career she worked so hard for in the name of love. And they did not care. They broke her heart and left her shattered to pieces on the ground. Had she not been reawakened by Gashina, she is not sure she would have ever recovered. Still, she definitely has a whole different set of issues with intimacy now, particularly romantic intimacy.

+ Day Twenty-Nine: Talk about your muse’s most meaningful moment as an idol. This is what they feel so far is the highest point in their life and where they’ve never been happier. Recall the memory and describe it; what happened and how did they feel? 

Yumi’s most meaningful moment as an idol probably when she released her solo debut. It was incredibly meaningful for her that someone had recognized how hard she had worked and how much she had to offer. Really, that is probably one of the reasons she has stuck with Dimensions for so long, despite their questionable reputation. After all, they gave her the gift of a career. They gave her a shot and they have never abandoned her, even when she was thinking of getting married (though they certainly asked her often enough if she was sure about the whole thing). Really, it is something she will never forget.

+ Day Thirty: Think about your muse’s life down the road. Where would they be and what would they be doing? Would they still be in the entertainment industry? Would they settle down and have a family?

In like another twenty years, Yumi will definitely still be working in the industry. She will probably be acting as the mother in kdramas or maybe even a grandmother later down the line. She will have a family and probably has cut back hours for the kids. She would not mind working as a mentor for Dimensions or another idol company. If not, she would probably open a dance studio and intensively teach some kids. She knows her life as an idol at that point will probably be over, especially because of her image, but that is fine with her. She just wants to keep doing what she loves in some way. Plus, she is sure she had some good years.

[spooky-skz]

Game Over (Cheater!Hyunjin AU) PT. 2

Pairing: Hyunjin x You

Part 1 can be found here.

Genre: Angst

Warnings: none.

A/N: Hello! I’m so sorry for the delay with this fic!!! It took me so much time trying to figure out the works but :-D here ya go!

Summary: Hyunjin’s schedule had been packed due to their upcoming comeback, leaving you two to communicate through text messages and short phone calls. He texted you late one night saying he’s going to be practicing with Felix for a song. You buy the boys food and just as you’re about to enter their practice room, it isn’t Felix that Hyunjin was in there with, and they surely weren’t just, ‘dancing.’

You ignored the text and shoved the phone inside your back pocket. It was as if your legs had a mind of their own because you were in the elevator and then out the back door of the jyp building in a matter of a few minutes. Your body didn’t want to be anywhere near Hyunjin. In all honesty, you were considering on boarding the nearest plane at the moment to the next country over just so you could be miles away from the cheater.

After the first tear escaped from your eyes, the rest followed like an unstoppable river. The frosty air wrapped itself around you, and the warm liquid which cascaded down your cheeks were messily brushed away by your freezing knuckles. The atmosphere felt constricting. Your breathing was so erratic that the people watching you stagger through downtown silently expected you to pass out. To them, you were just a very upset girl pacing away from her friends or something of the sort with a bag of food hanging around her wrist, swaying recklessly side to side. Their staring didn’t bother you the least bit. There was no particular direction that you were headed to, but the further from the building, the better. However, your legs were losing strength. In a moment, your knees caved in and fell to the rigid cement.

The door to a convenience store abruptly swung open as Jisung and Chan stepped out with bags of snacks at hand. They were having a random conversation about bees when their eyes landed on a familiar figure on the ground.

Both rushed to you, one asking what had happened while the other helped you stand up slowly.

Jisung let your body lean against him for support while Chan held one of your hands and lifted up your chin so there would be eye contact. Their faces expressed sorrow. You were a good friend to them and seeing someone they adored in this state made them ache.

It seemed like you hadn’t heard their question, so Jisung repeated it. ”What’s wrong ________?”

Your bloodshot eyes turned to him and your lip began to quiver as a single sentence was uttered out, ”People don’t realize the value of trust and love until it’s all thrown away.”

The statement stunned them. Neither had a reply because they had no idea what was going on.

”W—What?” Chan spluttered out, unsure of how he should react.

Jisung gave a look of equal confusion to his friend as he mouthed the name of your cheating boyfriend, silently asking if Hyunjin had been the culprit to your tears.

After taking a shaky step towards Chan, “Hyunjin’s cheating on me,” is all you said to the boys before looking down at the cement you had been kneeling on some minutes ago.

“Oh hell no,” thought Jisung and Chan at the same time.

For a while now, they’ve had suspicions about his behavior. JYP had used some of their members to film an M/V with a girl group who were debuting in a couple of days and from what they’ve heard, the girls were pretty nice. Perhaps, one was too nice to Hyunjin specifically. Since their concept was based on more cutesy school-girl love, some scenes involved light skinship such as hand holding, wrapping arms over each other, and a 3-second hug. However, the other boys who partook in the film making noticed that Hyunjin was holding that girls hand when the camera wasn’t even rolling, his arms were draped over her shoulder more often when they weren’t filming, and their hugs outside of the set lasted longer than what anyone would consider appropriate. Despite the fact that the M/V was completed weeks ago, Hyunjin was still seen with the brunette nearly every day. The boys shrugged it off, saying that the duo were just good friends and that was it. Now, everything was beginning to make sense.

Chan urged for a talk somewhere private, and it led to the three of you walking in the direction of your apartment which was merely a minute away.

The security guard looked suspicious of the two boys beside you, yet still let them in after they signed their names on the check-in log. Your door code was messed up a couple times because of the shakiness in your hand from the weather outside. Jisung sat with you on the couch, wrapping you as best as he could with the blankets he had found in the closet. Chan returned to the living room with three cups of warm hot chocolate. The first sip was difficult to swallow because you were experiencing hiccups due to the heavy crying.

It took awhile, but eventually you told them about the scene at the JYP building. Both were in deep shock and couldn’t even form words to respond. They knew that Hyunjin could be a little reckless sometimes, but this was totally out of proportion.

“What did you do after seeing that? Did you talk to him or the girl?” Chan asked, his fists were clamped tightly on your couch pillow and was beginning to crumple it from frustration.

You bit your lip and answered, “I just left. I didn’t want to face him or her at all because— what could I have done?”

Jisung scoffed and rolled his eyes at the thought of decisions Hyunjin had made.

“We’ll talk to him, making sure he knows just how badly he messed up—“ Chan ranted.

“Don’t be direct about it yet. Treat him like you know he did something wrong, but don’t tell him that we all know exactly what he did. I want to compose my thoughts first before anything else. I might break down if he and I talk anytime soon, and I’m not gonna give him that power over me. Not this time.” Your mind flashed back to all the times Hyunjin had used your moments of vulnerability to encourage you to forgive him through the acts of false promises and passionate kisses.

The boys nodded in agreement and promised to not cause too much suspicion.

After an hour or so, they left your apartment with heavy hearts and returned to their dorm filled with a couple of hungry members craving the snacks they had asked the two to buy.

As Seungmin and Minho were rummaging through the bags for their snacks, Hyunjin entered the dorm casually, commenting about how much colder the weather was getting.

He hung his coat on the rack and turned around to catch a glimpse of Jisung on his way to the bathroom. He said a small greeting but was just ignored.

Hyunjin assumed he wasn’t heard by the other boy and plopped himself on the couch in between Woojin who had earphones on and Chan who was scrolling through his phone.

“Hyungs, what time is practice tomorrow?” He asked the older boys.

Woojin didn’t reply since his music was too loud and Hyunjin noticed this. He waited for Chan’s answer since it was impossible to not hear the question when the two were inches from one another.

“Hyung?”

. . .

“Hyunggg?”

. . .

“Hyuuuung?”

. . .

Felix who was seated on the floor with his laptop looked up and softly poked Chan.

“I think Hyunjin had a question for you.” He said slowly, somewhat concerned at the lack of response.

Chan faced the boy who had asked and said, “It’s at 9.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes playfully and said, “Was that so hard to answer?”

Chan scoffed and said in a sharp tone, “Maybe if you’d check the emails, you wouldn’t have had to ask.”

Felix, Hyunjin, and Woojin (who had removed one earphone to listen in on what was going on) were all surprised at the retort of their leader. Chan wasn’t the type to snap at a question by any of the members. They knew today wasn’t tough in practice and they had received good remarks on their performances from the fellow producers. His patience was also pretty good especially even if the day wasn’t going as great as he would have preferred.

After releasing a heavy sigh and showing an unreadable facial expression, Chan stood up from his seat, uttered a bid of good night to everyone, and shut his bedroom door.

An unsettling silence took over in the dorm living room. No one dared to say anything for the tension to ease. The sudden ringing of Hyunjin’s phone felt like the relieving sound of a bell during a boxing match. He casually wriggled out the device from the back pocket of his jeans.

Woojin and Felix both looked confused at how fast their young member sprang up from the couch and hurriedly stepped outside in the freezing cold to answer a phone call he could have done inside the protection of the warm dorm.

Hyunjin ensured that the door was fully closed before answering the phone call of Minji, the girl who’d stolen his heart years ago.

~

The boy could still remember his beginning encounter with Minji and you. She had trained in the company a year before he began. Everyone and anyone knew of Minji Choi. She ranked as the top prettiest girl trainee according to the majority of male trainees. Female trainees would even describe her as their ideal type when it came to appearances. Her talents were also no joke, everyone just knew she’d be the center of whichever girl group the CEO would place her in. She could dance almost as good as their choreographer could, thus giving her the nickname, “Dancing Queen.” Her potential was riveting.

Although, if only her pretty face matched her personality. One problem with Minji was her temper. The littlest thing would set her off. One time, she had asked another female trainer to pass her a water bottle from the fridge. All was going well until she tasted the water, spat it out on the girl, threw the opened bottle on the ground, creating a major mess on the floor, and proceeded to shout unnecessarily about how the water wasn’t cold enough.

Hyunjin felt such a burning desire to always grab Minji’s attention in any way, shape, or form. She was his dream girl at the time and if he could get her to glance at him for even a mere second, it’d be worth it. Alas, his attempts were generally disregarded by the dancing queen.

You, on the other hand, worked at a well-known coffee shop that he and the boys enjoyed going to on their time offs. It had been another, ‘failure to make Minji notice me,’ type of day for Hyunjin. He sat alone in the shop, just wallowing in his sorrow. The sound of a cup being placed on the table alerted him to look up and the scent of his favorite brew fluttered to his senses.

You smiled warmly at him and pointed at the drink, “I know you didn’t order that, but by the look on your face, it looked like you needed it. Remember, you’ve gotta withstand the storm in order to see the rainbow.”

Hyunjin didn’t know what to say or do. He just stared at you: eyes wide open, mouth agape, and he could feel his heart beat in a similar pace whenever Minji was around. But, she wasn’t.

Maybe it was the heat from walking in the summer sun to get to the coffee shop or maybe he was going insane, but Hyunjin swears that there was a bright light radiating from behind you and a halo was directly above your head. You basically resembled an angelic being that came from the heavens above to cheer him up.

It was a weird feeling for him at first. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen you because the boys go there often and you took their orders numerous times. Had you always been this mesmerizing? Was your smile always that welcoming? Maybe his mind was too occupied with Minji, that he also failed to notice the beauty right before his eyes, just standing behind a cash register in a work uniform and an apron.

Since the shop wasn’t particularly busy that day, you sat with him and talked about the most random topics, but it didn’t matter. Hyunjin was like a moth drawn to your flame.

Although, it’s been almost three years, and it looks like the moth has wandered back to his previous flame.

~

Their phonecall was short and sweet. Minji wanted a goodnight call from him and they went over the details of their meetup tomorrow night. He entered the dorm again with a goofy smile and went straight to his room with a skip in his step, causing Woojin and Felix to exchange a look that said, ‘...Well, someone’s happy,’ and they couldn’t have been more correct.

Hyunjin went to bed with a peace of mind, while you tossed and turned in your room, the image of the kiss replaying in your head.

[crystalnet]

Pop Music in Ghibli

If you mention Ghibli and soundtracks in the same breath to most people, the first thing they will likely think of is Joe Hisaishi-senpai’s prodigious and immaculate compositions, BUT it occurred to me recently that there’s actually a great amount of pop music showing up in a handful of some of my very favorite Ghibli films. They’re more rare compared to the instrumental tracks, sure, but in that way it might be even be more impactful-- especially for plebeians without an ear for vocal-less music-- when they do show up. Click through as I explore pop music in 5 Ghibli classics. 

#1- The Wind Rises: ‘ "Hikōki-gumo" (ひこうき雲) by Yumi Matsutoya

Okay so hearing this song on a recent viewing of this film was the whole impetus for writing this. By hugely influential and popular song-writer Yumi Matsutoya, this closing-credits track drops just in time for a full fatality against the viewers’ emotional fortitude- if it remains in tact at all by that point. Between the bittersweet lyrics-- which corresponds beautifully with a plot point from the end of the film-- a righteous hammond organ part and this heart-breaking melody, it all just becomes a bit too much, in a great way. 

Mrs. Matsutoya here is outright indecent towards our emotions here. And I love it. In addition to that, the track counts as only one of a few instances of a pop song in a Ghibli joint serving as the closing track. So uh yeah, go down a rabbit hole of Matsutoya’s music if you wanna explore the wonderful world of vintage J-pop/city pop etc., and you will not be disappoint. Also, this isn’t even the first time one of her songs was used... her debut in Ghibli occured 2 decades earlier in....

#2- Kiki’s Delivery Service: ‘I’m Gonna Fly”- Sydney Forester

Okay, so this is not another Matsutoya song. But in the original Disney release of Kiki, this song stood in for what was in the Japanese release a rather different, rockabilly-pop song from one of Matsutoya’s early albums ‘Rouge no Dengon‘, and this has since been corrected on subsequent releases. Tonally they are pretty different, but they both share a level of charm. This English replacement is way cornier though, but I imagine whichever one you grow up with will be the superior and preferable dose of nostalgia. I’m tainted by living with the original 90s English version for so long, that I get really thrown off in the first 20 minutes if, mid-maiden voyage, Kiki turns on her radio to Matsutoya instead of this funny little stand-in.

Speaking of Kiki’s radio, this is one of only TWO instances I’m aware of in which the pop song is diegetic within the film-- meaning it actually comes from a source within the actual world of the movie-- at least sort of (it’s that kinda pseudo-diegesis where the volume of the song makes it clear that it can’t actually be coming from her little radio). This song just really has a kind of saccharine horse-girl charm which I love and I feel like it matches the movie’s atmosphere pretty well despite being modern sounding, whereas Kiki’s world seems to be vaguely set in a version of the.... 50′s where dirigibles never went away? Never really thought about it actually. 

But yeah, these weird contract-based one-off recording artist concoctions are always kinda fun. They remind me of weird tracks from the Detective Conan opening themes where you just wonder about how and why they come about. Ultimately though, Disney probably made a good choice. The song occurs early enough in the film that it might do some work towards dissuading any reservations younger viewer-- or their parents-- might have after wading into such a then-exotic animated film such as this. It gently reassures one that despite appearances, this film CAN be a movie for English-speaking Americans. Plus I mean this lady’s voice actually rocks. I feel like it helped sell the movie to my older Jewel-listening sisters when we were kids and for that I’m grateful~

#3- Only Yesterday: “Omoide No Nagisa”- The Wild Ones  (and much much more)

Okay so Only Yesterday is stuffed to the brim with tons of pop music and other cultural ephemera, far too much for me to parse through now (maybe deserving of its own deep-dive post) but I’ll focus on one that shows up early in the movie.

(This isn’t full track, for some reason the only full version on youtube will not embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlKvOiXgjo

This track plays during one of the early memoir-esque narration-heavy flashback scenes. It’s before we are fully thrust into those more washed-out, impressionistic coming-of-age sequences, and are being lead gently into that world by way of recollection from the now adult protagonist. She is remembering the craze in 1966 around “group-sounds”, a genre in Japan that was clearly partly indebted to the British Invasion happening on the other side of the world. 

I like the song a lot because I can hear the Beatles, Kinks and Monkeys etc., but it has it’s own really unique flair on top of that influence. I hear smokey curry and coffee shops. Fuzzy bunny-eared television signals. I think of young fresh-faced Japanese Boomers experiencing a newly technicolor world of pop-culture. The echo on the mic pick-ups whirs in my mind pulling me back toward a “simpler time”. 

The appearance of this song early on is a tip-off to the unfurling of a particularly globally-minded and varied soundtrack in this film which continues to surprise throughout the runtime-- it is my second favorite Ghibli soundtrack after ‘Totoro’ by far and that usually has to do with the incredible Bulgarian choir music that appears, but stuff like this Wild Ones track is just great too. Whether the male-lead/love-interest is playing that Bulgarian “peasant music” via his Toyota’s cassette player or we are getting a history lesson in early J-pop/rock, it’s all particularly tasty. There’s even a couple appearances from music from Japanese children’s television.

A lot of the referencing is nigh impossible for this westerner to parse, but all of it--save for one track-- is pretty ace. That one let-down for me is yet another pop song in the form of the ending credit-sequence track, a Japanese cover of ‘The Rose’. I think Bette Midler is just not a tasty association for an American of my ilk and so even if the rendition is tasteful, and the ending scene is beautiful, it remains the only time I’m let down sonically in the movie. 

Before I move on, it’s worth mentioning that the movie itself may be named after an American film OR a song by the Carpenters. I can’t be sure, but I kinda wish they actually used this Carpenters track to close the film instead of ‘The Rose’ but maybe it was a licensing issue. Anyhow. Perfect movie. 

#4- Whisper of the Hear: “Take Me Home, Country Roads”- John Denver/Olivia Newton John/Various

Okay so the way this song factors into the movie is way different than anything else we’ve discussed so far. I’ll embed the Olivia Newton-John rendition that the film opens with as opposed to the Japanese version that plays in the ending, because uh, as cute as it is, the vocalist (who I think is just the main-character’s voice actress?) is pitchy as hell (maybe in a twee, intentional way?) 

But so yeah, this song is a big part of an initial and reoccurring plot-point in the film which has the young protag. translating the American song into Japanese with her school friends. It’s a slightly illegible plot-point if you watch the English dub, but it basically comes across. According to Wiki, the producer of the film’s daughter actually supplied her lyrics which Mr. Hayao himself supplemented, which is just too cute. In the film, her version is called ‘Concrete Roads’ which has some nice thematic resonance with a lot of the angst that shows up in ‘Pom Poko’ regarding the suburban developments which sprawled out from Tokyo and other major Japanese cities throughout the 20th cent., encroaching on that same beautiful countryside that John Denver was initially sending up.

In a climactic scene, the protag. nervously but triumphantly sings the song along with her magic-boy boyfriend and his grampa’s grampa-friends, and uh yeah it’s cute as heck. 

The film is based on a manga, and though I’m too lazy to research this much, I assume the manga was the first to introduce the concept of centering so much of the story around a relatively benign country-pop tune such as this. But I mean, the choral arrangement in the intro of Newton-John’s is kinda emotional as hell. Mountain-momma indeed. 

#5- My Neighbor Totoro: Ending Theme- I don’t know...

Alright we’ll end with a sampling from the best of the best. I’m not gonna force too much “research” for this ‘cause like, I don’t know man, I just don’t wanna do anything that would remotely threaten to extinguish the magic. And I refuse to ever listen to the abomination that is the Disney re-dub. But I understand they re-recorded these tracks for that. Which, like, why? I’m also assuming the songs were pretty faithful translations of original Japanese tracks, because they’re just too good to have just been created for the western release. Like Hisaishi has to be behind those kalimbas and synth-lines. The lady’s voice basically sounds like my mom to me(?) and the dusty patina on her vocal-track alone kinda makes me wanna weep. 

And I kinda hate when people just joylessly parrot internet meme terms, but this song is what I would be unable to not describe as a “bop”. I mean the drums alone rip. 

This song has a sister-track in the form of an introductory credit-sequence song which accompanies a ridiculously cute visualizer, and they’re both just perfect matches for the joyful, innocent and exuberant nature of the film itself. Elsewhere on the OST, this is basically the last time that I’m aware of Hisaishi using synthesizers and it’s just glorious. Get this man on drum-machines and synths again! So uh yeah, I mean it’s all just great. What else could I say? Best soundtrack of all time period. Full stop. The end. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok that’s that. Keep in mind, there’s like a small hanful of Ghibli I still haven’t seen so there could be some major instance I’m missing but uh, maybe I’ll update if one day I find out there’s a straight up Utada Hikaru song in ‘Princess Kaguya’. Oh and uh yeah there’s this one in ‘When Marnie Was There’ by one Priscilla Ahn . It’s like a b-side of the Kiki song but not as good as that makes it sound like it’d be. But it’s horse-girl-core as hell. So uh yeah.

see ya space cowboy~

[fmdminheearchive]

idol headcanon / not accepting!

send ◙ for an audition headcanon. ( wc: 232 ) minhee auditioned for bc entertainment when she was fourteen years old, and she actually skipped school to go to it. she didn’t want her parents, her mother in particular, to find out that she went to the auditions before she at least had a callback. she knew her mother probably wouldn’t approve, but she didn’t know that her mother had already turned down some offers of private auditions over the years. at her initial audition, minhee sang and danced. singing was secondary in her mind that day, and she sang something that she could talk-sing through for the most part.  she was extremely nervous about singing, but was hopeful that her dance skills would make up for the poor show. for the dance portion, she danced a routine that scored her first place in a competition a few weeks previously. as mentioned, she was most scared of her mother’s disapproval once she did get a callback, but to everyone’s surprise, her mother went along with the rest of the audition process happily. really, minhee’s mother was just excited to seize the opportunity, thinking that minhee’s own wishes were finally lining up with hers, and that her auditioning of her own volition meant that she was serious about hitting the big time too. while that may have been true to an extent, minhee’s ambitions were nowhere near as fame hungry as her mother’s. 

send ○ for a training headcanon. ( wc: 210 ) by now, i think that everyone knows the classic “hwang minhee’s mother forced her to get a nose job before letting her start training so that she would go into bc entertainment as perfect as she could possibly be”. but besides that, minhee was only a trainee for just over a year before she debuted as lipstick’s maknae. she already had a considerable background in dance training, and probably would’ve gone professional in the next couple of years had she not auditioned for bc, so most of her time as a trainee was focused on maintaining her skill level in dance and bringing her up to a somewhat acceptable level in rap. minhee was fairly confident in her chances at debuting because she was such a good dancer, but she was also afraid of her rap skills dragging her down. back then she was really just about passable, and it was a skill she had to build from the ground up. it was never a passion of hers, it was just a matter of bc’s trainers deciding that they would teach her to rap because she could barely sing. she always felt a little bad for the couple of girls who genuinely seemed to rap with their hearts and souls.

send ♥ for a headcanon about something my muse likes about being an idol. ( wc: 216 ) it’s cheesy, but minhee loves dancing and performing more than anything else. as mentioned previously, she would have gone professional as a contemporary dancer within a handful of years if she hadn’t auditioned for bc. the feeling of being on stage is a feeling compared to no other, even after all of these years, and being recognised for her talents. even if at first she was pushed into it by her mother, nowadays minhee performs for herself. being on stage like that is kind of a late rebellion against her mother. she’s grown a lot as a performer too, and she’s definitely much happier following her path as an idol than she would have been going down the road her mother laid out for her. she definitely didn’t always feel so pleased with her decision, but she grew into it gradually. so despite all the bad experiences she’s had in the industry, minhee feels happy and extremely lucky to be able to live out her dancing dreams on mostly her own terms. she has to deal with bc entertainment’s strict management and the expectations of her fans, but at the very least, she’s free from her mother, no matter how much she admittedly would still like just a little bit of validation from the old woman.

send ♫ for a performance headcanon. ( wc: 218 ) minhee is definitely not a natural born performer. people (her mother) like to say that she danced before she could walk, but that’s simply not the truth. in all actuality, minhee was bred to be a performer by her mother, who sent her to dance lessons starting at three years old. that being said, it is something she has always enjoyed, despite how hard it was pushed onto her. she loves being up on stage and having all eyes on her. she’s able to lose herself in it, and she gets the added bonus of feeling everyone’s attention following her as she dances. it’s so fun for her, to get up there, perform, escape from everything going on in the real world and interact with the crowd. being on stage suits her well. over the years, she’s started to feel incredibly free while performing, unlike in lipstick’s early days when she felt trapped by their sexy concept, and really takes every opportunity that she can to enjoy herself. minhee has become somewhat of a concept chameleon as she’s learned to have fun on stage and as she’s grown into her own skin. she’s a strong performer because of her obvious passion for it, along with her immaculate technique, something from a lifetime of training that she’s never lost. 

send ☀ for a variety headcanon. ( wc: 215 ) with her cutie sexy maknae image, minhee is known for being silly and kind of playing dumb most of the time on variety shows. a lot of people aren’t able to tell when she’s playing it up for the cameras and only acting like she doesn’t know something from when she’s actually being serious. she’s become so good at it that sometimes, not even her own members and close friends can tell. she’s very good at game and personality based variety shows because of her natural silliness, and never shies away from the chance to show off her aegyo because yes, she is that embarrassing. general knowledge is definitely her downfall because of her many random gaps of knowledge, and at some points over her career that’s been used to make her look stupid by some nasty hosts and editing teams. she really enjoyed filming roommate late last year, and would definitely prefer to do more fixed cast variety shows in the future, rather than traipsing through the same few single episode appearances that she does on shows throughout promotional cycles. these kinds of shows feel especially lonely to her while promoting solo, and it’s clear that she doesn’t shine as much on them without her members or other familiar women to fall back on.

send ☏ for a good fan experience headcanon. ( wc: 222 ) ever since minhee made a start on her solo career, she’s gained a lot more female fans, at least in her own personal fandom, lipstick and vanity aside. seeing this change has made minhee really happy, especially when she’s hosting solo events. demographics wise, her fans are still largely male presenting rather than female, but that only makes it extra special when she gets to see and talk with her female fans. in particular, she’s started to receive direct messages on instagram from more casual fans, usually younger teenage girls, who tell her that they find her dancing and music really enjoyable, and that watching her perform makes them want to dance too. she was a fan of several of her seniors in her early teens, and seeing cool, cute and powerful women dancing to pop music on stage is what inspired her to veer off her mother’s prescribed path. if she hadn’t had her own interest in being an idol piqued by girl groups, she might never have committed that act of rebellion and gone along to the open auditions that day, which would mean she wouldn’t be where she is now. the idea that she could inspire the same in a fan, and maybe even play a minuscule hand in their potential success one day is an extremely satisfying feeling.

[behind-the-screen-of-bangtan]

The Hip-Hop culture

This post is part of the TSU. It belongs to the third part: Socio-political reflection.

Here are the different parts that will be developed in this post:

Album structure

References to hip-hop in the music

References to hip-hop lyrics

References to hip-hop in MVs and concepts

Being hip-hop

Album structure

While the notion of album structure is not specific to hip-hop, the way BTS organized their works was heavily influenced by the genre.

All of BTS’ albums are structured. Most of the times, we’ll find an intro that’s used in the comeback trailer video, as well as, interludes, and outros. You can find such tracks in several genres of music but it’s something that was heavily used in 90s hip-hop albums, for example, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic.

Concerning the intros, it was explained in the WINGS Concept Book that the boy doing the intro of an album is the guide in this era. Until now, we’ve had:

RM: School trilogy, Persona

Suga: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life

J-Hope: Wings

Jimin: Her

V: Tear

Jungkook/Jin: Wonder/Answer

By checking the lyrics of those different songs, we see that they indeed talk about the main theme of their album and thus introduce us to the world forming the era. Typically, while “Intro: Skool Luv Affair” is about defining love, “Intro:  What Am I to You?” is tainted by the doubts of the boy whose love is not returned.

The interludes are usually in the middle of the album - the notable exception being “Interlude: Wings” that ends WINGS and makes the bridge with You Never Walk Alone, in which it evolves into “Outro: Wings”. There are two more interludes. The first one is in 2 Cool 4 Skool and has the particularity to be the only BTS track with no lyrics, it’s only music. The second one is in Dark & Wild and this time it has the least lyrics of all of BTS songs: it’s just Jungkook repeating “What are you doing?” the name of the interlude. Dark & Wild’s interlude makes the separation between the “dark” part and the “wild” part (src).

Almost all albums end with an outro - 2 Cool 4 Skool and Love Yourself 承  Her having the particularity to have two hidden tracks after theirs. It seems the outros can have two purposes: they can conclude the era (”Epilogue: Young Forever”) or open the path towards the new one. A very concrete example of the second case is O!RUL8,2?’s outro “Outro: Luv in Skool”. The song is sampled in Suga’s verse in Skool Luv Affair’s intro (src), which is the next song in BTS’ discography after this outro. This way, the two albums connect with each other.

Several albums are also rhythmed by two other types of songs that are typical of hip-hop: skits and cyphers.

The skits are little comedic plays. They usually serve to fill time but in BTS’ albums, they rather give a glimpse of the boys’ thoughts and lives. The skits have already been discussed in the post about the autobiographic references. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the history of skits here and about their decrease here.

Cyphers are initially improvised performances where rappers compete against each other and tell their story (src). The BTS cyphers are a bit different since they are written in advance and the boys aren’t competing against each other but they still use them to explain their stories and settle accounts with haters. You can learn more in the post about BTS’ relationship with haters and fans.

The intros, interludes, and outros structure the albums just like the 起承轉結 organizes the whole Love Yourself series. Once this frame is set up, the boys can embroider their message on it clearly and efficiently with the other songs. That’s what allows them to consider complex themes and to explore them. It also makes the whole album worth listening, so we can have the full story.

On a side note, the choice to release albums rather than several singles has proven to be safer for the sales. You can refer to this thread by Odie for details: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Lastly, a CuriousCat Anon pertinently pointed out that the choice of starting BTS’ discography with the school trilogy could remind of Kanye’s West College trilogy (made of The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation). Indeed, both series are the first albums released by their artist, and both include lyrics about the artists’ personal life but also about the problems faced by their generation. Also, just like BTS brought socially conscious music in the heavily commercial K-pop world, Kany West linked the socially conscious underground hip-hop with the commercial popular hip-hop. The two projects were planned by their artists since the beginning and both evolved with the situation (BTS added the sequel Dark & Wild while Kanye West changed what was supposed to be the fourth album of a quadrilogy into 808s & Heartbreak, an album influenced by the heavy changes that happened in his private life at that time).

References to hip-hop in the music

The first seconds of the first song in the first BTS album is a reference to hip-hop. Indeed the beginning of “Intro: 2 Cool 4 Skool” is a sample of Epik High’s “GO”, from their 2003 album, Map of the Human Soul.

“No More Dream”, the title track of 2 Cool 4 Skool, was intentioned to “revive the gangster rap hot in the 90s with the emotion of 2013″ (src). RM cited Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover” as an example. Actually, through its structure and its music, the whole 2 Cool 4 Skool single could be considered as a 90s hip-hop release.

“N.O”, the next title track, from O!RUL8,2?, is “an exciting trap music” (src) and “Boy In Luv” in Skool Luv Affair has old school hip-hop’s strong beat and rock sound”(src). The title tracks are not the only hip-hop songs. The whole school trilogy is heavily influenced by the genre. It started changing with Dark & Wild and its rock sound. The boys then started exploring other types of music but without forgetting hip-hop.

Another element typical to hip-hop music, even though it’s not exclusive to it, is the sampling. BTS used samples at different levels. “Coffee” and “Am I Wrong” are complete reinterpretations of existing songs: “Coffee” by Urban Zakapa and “Am I Wrong” by Keb’ Mo’. Another notable cover from Bangtan is “Born Singer”, a song based on “Born Sinner” by J.Cole. Not only is the music originally hip-hop, the lyrics tell the story of the boys and their relation to music - something that relates to the authentic feeling of hip-hop. “Lie” just use a short extract of “La Vida Breve” by Manuel de Falla. “Not Today” and “War of Hormone” have just one particular sound (the yell of the crazy German kid and a sound effect from Super Mario). You can find a quite decent list of the samples used in BTS songs on Who Sampled. While those samples can be seen as homages or inspiration sources, there are two samples with more meaningful use.

“Outro: Tear” uses the same piano as in the Highlight Reel video. It allows linking the two even though the Highlight Reel was released before Love Yourself 承 Her. On a BU related note, it’s interesting to point that the Notes released with Love Yourself 轉 Tear correspond with the events shown in the Highlight Reel, notably on the 30 August.

The other occurrence is even more impressive. “I’m Fine”, the second main track in Love Yourself 結 Answer is an ambigram of “Save Me”, the second main track in 화양연화 Young Forever. A lot of elements, be it in the music or the lyrics, mirror each other between the two songs. It shows the progression of the message, from a cry for help to the ability to stand on their own, while staying the same: the boys didn’t change, they evolved.

References to hip-hop in lyrics

Bangtan referenced their models in several texts, notably “길” (Road/Path) and “힙합성애자” (Hip Hop Lover). We heard the names of:

American rappers

Eminem

Jay-Z

Nas

Gang Starr

Black Star

Eric B

Rakim

Pete Rock

CL Smooth

The Notorious B.I.G.

Tupac

Mac Miller

Kanye West

Kendrick Lamar

A$AP Rocky

Korean rappers:

Garion

Epik High

Dynamic Duo

Verbal Jint

Debut albums:

Nas’ Illmatic

Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle

Pharell Williams’ In My Mind

KRS-One’s KRS-One

The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die

Dr. Dre’s The Chronic

J.Cole’s Cole World

“길” (Road/Path) and “힙합성애자” (Hip Hop Lover) are also the occasion for the rap line to tell their story and how they discovered hip-hop.

We can add Epik High’s “Fly” mentioned in “Skit: Circle Room Talk”. The white shirt and red necktie Suga talked about are a reference to the MV and to the album cover for “Fly”.

As the lyrics are the part Bangtan is the most invested in, what we have here are the most personal references to hip-hop for the boys.

References to hip-hop in MVs and concepts

Opposite to the lyrics, the boys probably have a lot less to do with all the hip-hop references that can be found in the MVs but they’re still interesting nonetheless.

Both photo concepts for 2 Cool 4 Skool and O!RUL8,2? are inspired by Gangsta rap but with the influence of 2013 fashion.

In the MVs, little nods to hip-hop artists can be seen:

“Can i kick it”, the title of a song by A tribe Called Quest, written on a shelf in “Boy in Luv” JP

The cover of Mos Def’s The New Danger is in the cubicle in “Boy In Luv”

“You think big, you get big in”, a citation from The Notorious B.I.G. is written on the blackboard in “Boy in Luv” JP

Nas’ Life is Good is in “Danger” next to RM

J. Cole on the cover of Billboard in the set of Short Film #4 FIRST LOVE but that actually only appears in Short Film #1 BEGIN and Short Film #2 LIE

There are also several posters about initiatives related to hip-hop:

It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop, a book about the social and political issues faced in the hip-hop field, is in the yellow bus of “No More Dream”

The Temple Of Hip Hop logo can be seen on a custom poster, still on the bus. The Temple Of Hip Hop is a non-violent organization defending the hip-hop culture

In the comeback trailer for O!RUL8,2? several elements you can associate with hip-hop (radio, mic...) assemble together with the BTS logo to form a sort of Bangtan-style hip-hop temple

Hip Hop vs War, a festival against can also be seen in the back of the bus

The Hip Hop Re:Education Project, an album made by young people from New York, is in the hallway in ”Boy In Luv”

Rhythm & Poetry, a documentary about hip-hop in Australia

Lastly, some elements are not hip-hop per se but still relate to the hip-hop culture. It’s the posters from SNEEZE magazine (details in this post) and the graffitis, notably the ones from the JnJ crew that could be seen in “No More Dream”(you can see the list in the glossary).

Being Hip-Hop

Reading articles about hip-hop and its history, there’s a notion that quickly stand out: there’s a whole difference between being hip-hop and doing hip-hop. Simply doing hip-hop without searching to understand the culture, just by imitating what’s been done, is usually very badly perceived and seen as cultural appropriation. Another important element is the idea of authenticity, someone should be sincere about their story and passion.

Interestingly, BTS has been labeled as fake by default because they’re not black Americans and worst, they’re k-pop idols. Add a few mistakes due to youth and ignorance, American Hustle Life, which as any self-respecting reality show put the emphasis on problematic stereotypes and I’ll let you imagine the result. All these problems are discussed in the article “Respect must be earned: BTS’ journey towards gaining its stripes in black America”. You’ll note that no one considered teaching them before hating on them and that everything was taken from an American point of view.

Which is probably where lies the problem since BTS are Korean idols. I won’t develop the subject since I’m not a professional but you can refer to this Vulture article and this one from Medium to know more about K-hip-hop (the Wikipedia page is also well written). You can also read Elliot Sang’s analysis of “Hip Hop phile” to know more about the complicated relationship between Asia and the black culture.

In summary, hip-hop was slowly imported in South Korea after the war. At first, it was dancers then rappers slowly appeared. Two names completely changed the game in the 90s and can be considered as the founders of K-hip-hop: Drunken Tiger and Seo Taiji & Boys. Those two groups helped the development of Korean hip-hop, which later evolved into the K-pop we’re familiar with under the influence of Seo Taiji & Boys.

The members of BTS grew up under the influence of those two groups - as well as all the acts they namedropped in their songs. Hip-hop was something normal for them, totally part of their own culture and not a foreign thing. Concerning RM and Suga, it has actually been a full part of their teenagehood (see baepsayed super complete posts about the pre-debut of RM and Suga for more details). So when Suga says during their first showcase that BTS “will do the most authentic hip-hop music” (in comparison to other idol groups), it’s not a selling argument, it’s the truth. Another argument in favor of the authentic feeling is the goal of the group: protecting the youth of prejudice and denouncing the unfairness of society. The third point doesn’t come from the boys themselves but from their own models: Drunken Tiger (now Tiger JK) and Seo Taiji have acknowledged them. RM featuring on Drunken Tiger’s Timeless and BTS participating to Seo Taiji’s 25th birthday concert is extremely meaningful. And you can add Suga’s collaborations with Dynamic Duo and Epik High. Garion also revealed in an interview they loved BTS and they were thankful for their song “Mutu” inspired RM to start rapping. For a more complete list of interactions between BTS and the K hip-hop scene, you can refer to this thread by @smollyoongs_.

From the Korean point of view, BTS has to be one of the most authentic hip-hop acts possible. Even though pure hip-hop can be mainly felt in the school trilogy era, BTS remained true to their selves when it comes to their lyrics and their passion. As for the sounds, you can still feel a strong hip-hop influence in the rappers’ solo releases. If you want to read more about BTS and authentic hip-hop, you can check this Twitter thread with screenshots of the book Hanguk Hip Hop by Myoungsun Song, in which BTS is included. 

I’ll conclude the post with three more articles, the first one appreciating RM’s solo works from 2015, the second about RM being both a k-pop and hip-hop artist and the third about Suga and his storytelling talent. That’s just some more proof that the boys are being acknowledged for their talent and sincerity.

People can criticize as much as they want, the fact remains that BTS has been accepted by the founders of K-hip-hop and by music professionals, they are an authentic hip-hop group.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

“After the disappointment of the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man movies, everyone’s favorite wallcrawler has been having a renaissance. Entering the Marvel cinematic universe in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the webslinger fully redeemed himself with well-crafted live-action film in Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

 Yes...okay...that was definitely what Homecoming was....

 “and a wildly successful spin-off film Venom, ”

 I mean financially successful sure...

 “In the midst of all his success, Spider-Man has quietly become one of the most inclusive and socially conscious superheroes of today.”

*raises eyebrow*

 Okay...go on...

 “Last week, it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home would feature two out transgender actors playing trans characters, the first big-budget superhero film to do so. Spider-Man: Homecoming also featured a queer character, as well as numerous people of color.”

  Wait who was the queer character in Homecoming?

 “It’s also worth mentioning that Spiderverse included a Jewish version of Peter Parker, who is typically portrayed as either secular or Christian.”

 ....ehhhhhhhhh....yes and no.

 In media adaptations barring maybe one (the 1994 show cos I do not remember where he got married) Spider-Man is portrayed as...I guess secular but really it’s more that they just don’t say anything.

 It’s not that the character is not a believer in a faith per se, especially if you go by older adaptations during times when hardly anyone was secular. It’s just that they, understandably, aren’t saying anything.

 In the comics Peter is some kind of Christian but probably a Protestant (unless you go by Amazing Grace where he is an atheist but that’s hot trash we don’t talk about) but we don’t really talk about it that specifically.

 We just know that he and his family celebrate Christmas and very, very occasionally Aunt May references going to church and that she, Peter and MJ believe in a monothetistic deity they refer to as ‘God’.

 And really apart from the Church thing there is no clue to Peter’s religion and Marvel probably (wisely) would rather keep it that way. He even got married in a civil ceremony!

 However in the SUBTEXT...he’s Jewish. And it’s basically an open secret that he is and always has been Jewish.

 “The Spider-Man video game also featured a wonderful easter egg for queer fans by having a giant rainbow flag, as well as several smaller ones, scattered around the game’s fictionalized New York City map. ”

 I mean that’s wonderful but I wouldn’t call that an Easter Egg so much as...it’s just what you’d find in modern NYC.

 “Even the Venom film got in on the fun, with fans shipping Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and the titular male alien-symbiote after the two kissed in the film. Sony even encouraged the pairing, releasing a romantic comedy-esque trailer for the film to promote the home release. While some complained of queer-baiting, most felt that it was all in good fun and included queer people in on the joke, instead of making us the target.”

 Again, good for them but I don’t think that was the movie actively trying to be positive towards queer people.

 Brock and Venom kissed when Venom was bonded to Brock’s ex-fiance and had a pronounced female form, being an adaptation of a character literally called She-Venom.

 And it was based upon a script written in the 1990s so really it was more the movie did it and then people took it as a thing that was shipping Venom and Brock (even though Venom is sexless). Brock and the symbiote have been shipped numerous times in the comics but the subtext has always been that the symbiote, if any sex, is female. In the Spec cartoon it is referred to as Symbi (a pun on Cyndi) and in the Spider-Girl comics it is marked out as female (granted this happens after it’s bonded to a woman).

 And again, headcanon away but like...that probably wasn’t intentional at all Sony were just being goofy or unintionally made something people took a certain way.

 “Indeed, even in the comics, Spider-Man has always been a fairly inclusive hero. Miles Morales was introduced in the early-2000s, taking over the mantel from Peter Parker for several years. ”

 Okay, this is so weird for me to be correcting such a praising point but lets really look at this.

 First of all Miles didn’t take over Peter’s role for several years he did it permanently.

 Second of all Miles is from 2011 so that’s not the early 2000s, that’s the early 2010s, but okay maybe that was a typo.

 Third of all, is it really all that logical to say this franchise that began in 1962 has always been fairly inclusive and then cite a character from 2011 as proof of this? Wouldn’t examples from during the FIRST quarter century have been more apt?

 Fourth of all...eh. Has Spider-Man been fairly inclusive from the start? Yes, no, its complicated.

 Look there were exactly 0 LGBTQ+ characters in Spider-Man until maybe the 1990s and even then I couldn’t off my head tell you who they were. Felicia Hardy is bisexual but we didn’t find out until the 2000s and it was most prominent in an AU. Really the most significant LGBTQ+ character who’s had the fact that they are queer be more than a one off reference was Max Modell and he debuted 2011 and IIRC wasn’t established as queer until 2012. In defence of Spider-Man the Comics Code literally FORBID any character be anything other than straight until the 1990s and even then it was relatively rare, even in X-Men which you’d think it wouldn’t be.

 If we’re talking POC again this one is a bit complicated Glori Grant, Joe Robertson, Randy Robertson are frequently appearing POC characters but not in every run and they aren’t usually as prominent as like Jameson, Aunt May, Harry Osborn, MJ, etc. Characters of other ethnicities are even less frequent and I don’t even know what we should make of Puma/Thomas Fireheart. I mean A for effort, they wanted a Native American character who wasn’t really a villain and wasn’t exactly a sterotype so there is that I guess.

 Again though...most other Marvel franchises decade by decade weren’t much better with this and we should give credit where credit is due to the same guy who created Black Panther writing a nuanced scene where 2 black people in the 60s separated by age discuss different approaches to civil rights with neither being proven right or wrong.

 When it comes to disabled people, outside of evil insane villains, forget it, there is nothing before Flash Thompson in 2008 unless you count Aunt May’s chronically poor health.

 “Spider-Gwen quickly became one of the highest-selling female superhero comics. Spider-Woman was a prominently featured bisexual character, and the female Asian-American hero Silk also had LGBT supporting characters, Rafferty and Lola, who were in a healthy relationship. Additionally, many view vampire villain Morbius, who is getting a spin-off film starring Jared Leto next year, as a metaphor for those suffering during the HIV crisis of the '80s. ”

 Again...Spider-Gwen and Silk are 2010s characters so that’s not ‘always fairly inclusive’.

 I don’t even know if Jessica Drew is bisexual, I’ve never heard that but I don’t think she is.

 Morbius as a metaphor for HIV...MIGHT be true if we are specifically talking about his 1990s solo-book which I’ve never read. But the character as originally created 100% was never about that because he was created in the 1970s before HIV was known about.

 “Unlike his Marvel counterparts Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Spider-Man’s world has accurately reflected real world diversity for years.”

 ....Not really.

 I’m not even saying Spidey maybe haven’t been comparatively better at it than those guys but he’s deffo not been accurate.

 Plus to be fair to the other guys, Captain America and Iron Man have had at least one major black supporting cast member and in Cap’s case he was fairly candid about social strife and issues.

 And with Thor it’s not that fair to throw shade at him for not reflecting the real world given that 90% of this characters and stories are literally pulled from fantasy and myth. I don’t even know if there are any queer figures in Norse myth let alone poc.

 “While it’s a seemingly simple idea that any of us can be a superhero, it’s sadly still a radical concept in a endlessly growing film genre that has predominetly centers straight cisgender white men. ”

 Well that’s mostly because the comics the movies adapt are about those types of people.

 “That is because relatability and inclusion has always been core to Spider-Man’s appeal and message. It’s why the late Stan Lee decided that, unlike other superheroes who expose parts of their faces, Spider-Man had to wear a full-face mask.”

  Stan Lee only speculated that that was part of Spider-Man’s appeal, he never had any input on that design choice it was all Steve Ditko...who frankly was unlikely to have been thinking about that...

 “Even further, Spider-Man isn’t the king of a country, a billionaire, a woman out of a Greek myth, or a brilliant scientist. He’s just an average high-school kid from Brooklyn who always strives to do the right thing even while struggling to balance his everyday life and hiding a secret identity.”

 WHOA there buddy...Spider-Man isn’t routinely ‘a kid’ nor is he from Brooklyn.

 MILES is from Brooklyn but Peter, as evidenced by that great big caption in Captain America: Civil War, is from QUEENS.

 “And it’s the idea of balancing a secret identity with everyday life that has always allowed Spider-Man to connect with queer audiences long before comic writers were allowed to explicitly include LGBT characters.”

 ...I’m not denying this necesarrilly but whilst i’ve heard stories from poc who connected with Spider-Man I’ve never heard this about LGBTQ+ fans of Spider-Man.

“Indeed, perhaps the strongest part of Spider-Man’s inclusivity is the subtlety to which it has been done. While Black Panther, Black Lightning, and Wonder Woman rightly put issues of identity front and center, Spider-Man’s quiet diversity allows audiences who typically cry “SJWs are ruining my favorite characters” to actually see diversity showcased without it being overt.”

 Errrrrrr...sure....*represses memories of when Miles Morales was first announced*

 Lets um...wait and see what happens when those trans characters show up in the movie this year okay.