#i was watching a video essay on the jobs episode and they showed up and my mind was like ALRIGHT LETS BE FUNNY

[interstellar-elf]

Sometimes I think about how Minority Report predicted the PATRIOT ACT, being a movie that was made before, during and after the events of 9/11 and released a few months before the PATRIOT ACT was passed.

[hershelwidget]

i’ve gone insane

[autumnsxxangel]

SandRay are an homage to Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together and in this essay I will..

...actually explain it because I see people catching his homage's to Western queer media, but not really his shout outs to Eastern queer media.

I assumed there would be allusions to Happy Together when I first saw the trailer, but this last episode centered around Ray really cemented it for me. After all, why would P'Jojo reference all these Western queer shows and not talk about what is probably the most iconic piece of Eastern queer media ever?

Wong Kar-Wai & Happy Together

For some background information, Wong Kar-Wai is a famous and insanely influential Hong Kong filmmaker. If you're a film nerd, you probably know who he is and recognize his style. If you like film and metas, I would recommend watching some of his stuff because afterwards, you'll realize just how much influence he still has on modern media, especially in Asia. Stylistically, he's known for rich color grading; thematic usage of music; an unending sense of nostalgia, heartbreak, and missed opportunities; and dialogue that mean nothing on the surface because everything meaningful is boiling just under, left unsaid (If you've watched Everything Everywhere, All At Once, the entire actress universe sequence was an homage to Wong Kar-Wai). His actors always do a phenomenal job because so much of what they need to portray can't be communicated through words. It makes sense why SandRay, aka FirstKhao, were chosen to represent Happy Together as they are the strongest actors out of the group.

Happy Together, simply summarized, is about two men, Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai, who are in a very tumultuous relationship. They end up in Argentina because they wanted to visit the waterfall that's on a lamp that they own. They get lost, end up using all their money, and have to figure out a way to get back to Hong Kong. While there, they break up, get back together, and break up again.

The movie was released in 1997 and is still ranked as one of the best queer movies of all time. The two main characters are played by Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung. You might recognize Tony Leung as Simu Liu's dad in Shang-Chi. Leslie Cheung was in Farewell, My Concubine, and was famously a bisexual man with a long term male partner. This is significant because it was virtually unheard of to be out and open at that time (he made his relationship public in 1997 though he had mentioned bisexuality in earlier years), especially in Hong Kong which was, and still is, very homophobic. Leslie received a lot of hate for his sexuality and androgyny. (If you're interested in learning more about Leslie as a queer Asian figure, this is a good video essay that goes over his work and his life).

Sand as Lai Yiu-Fai

Fai's, and in turn Sand's, character can be summed up by one line, "One thing I never told Ho Po-Wing was that I didn't want him to recover so fast. Those were our happiest days."

Both Fai and Sand are very static, straightforward characters. They stay above board for the most part and work a variety of jobs to survive. They have their morals about what is right and wrong, which unfortunately is both of their downfalls.

In Happy Together, Wing breaks up with Fai because he is bored with the relationship. He basically says, "I'm bored being with you. Let's break up. If we happen to meet again, we can try again." Then he leaves Fai stranded on the side of a highway.

Later, he reappears in Fai's life. The first encounter is a fight, much like Sand and Ray's first meeting in the bathroom. The second encounter is because Wing gets beaten up. He goes to Fai because he knows Fai will feel obligated to take care of him and he does. It becomes the beginning of their rekindled relationship.

Similarly, Sand has a strong sense of obligation. There are already metas out there about how Sand has a bit of a hero complex. He sees Ray too drunk to drive and he had to step in. He doesn't just take the keys and order a taxi. No, he takes the keys and drives Ray. Sand sees Ray being all sad and pathetic and he can't stop himself from helping. It makes him feel useful. It makes him feel needed.

Both of these men are caretakers. They show affection by providing care. Sand ends up cooking for Ray just as Fai cooks for Wing even when he's sick. As an added bonus, they both make fried rice.

Both Sand and Fai are characters that stand completely still. Ray and Wing always know where to find them. Sand can always be found at YOLO and Fai is at his apartment. Because of this, Ray and Wing come and go as they please. They know that Sand and Fai will take them back...until they finally don't.

Ray as Ho Po-Wing

Starting on a base level, both characters are bratty, needy, promiscuous, spoiled, and selfish. But most importantly, they both share a love of fluffy cardigans.

(I also have a theory they keep putting Ray in wife beaters as an homage to the 90's HK cinema style because otherwise...I just don't understand why, as a rich asshole, he's always in wife beaters. By Thai BL logic, he should be in shirts with too many buttons unbuttoned.)

Wing and Ray are both the ones controlling the pace and direction of the relationship. They come when they need someone to nurture their wounds, both physically and metaphorically. They leave when they're bored or have things they deem more important. They both initiate intimacy and won't take no for an answer.

Wing does this by first trying to join Fai on the couch and then chasing after him to the bed and begging him to let them sleep together.

Ray does it by continuously getting Sand to get in the car with him and then using his puppy dog eyes.

They are both also very, very pouty.

Wing's line is "We could start over". He says it every time he comes back after he's the one that ends the relationship. Fai always fights taking him back, but he always does it anyway.

Ray doesn't really have a line yet (unless you count his "na na naa~"s) but he bats his eyelashes and so far Sand has given into him every time. Sand keeps trying to set boundaries, but the moment Ray begs a little bit, Sand crumbles like a house of cards and lets Ray have whatever he wants.

Relationship Parallels

Wong Kar-Wai is known for making movies about star crossed lovers who are meant for each other, but aren't meant to be together.

Like Wing and Fai, Sand and Ray fill in each other's cracks in a way that complements each other. However, because of the nature of the cracks themselves, them complementing each other is exactly what makes the relationship so toxic. One stays and one goes. One takes and one gives. One is steady and one is flighty.

Most of what I wanted to say about the parallels between their relationships is in the character comparison. What I'm more interested in is the future of SandRay's relationship, especially if they continue to parallel Wing and Fai's in Happy Together.

Obviously, Wing and Fai don't end up together at the end. It wouldn't be a Wong Kar-Wai movie if they did. What is interesting is that Fai's relationship with Wing eventually pushes him into becoming something angry and spiteful. Once Wing heals, Fai knows that he'll become bored and want to leave. In an attempt to get him to stay, he steals and hides Wing's passport which is insane because they are both gay men stuck in a foreign country where they don't speak the language.

Wing, of course, leaves anyway.

There is also a third character, Chang, whom Fai ended up liking. These new feelings are what eventually pushes Fai to leave Argentina and move on from Wing and move on with his life.

The question is, if SandRay follows that same path as Happy Together, what will be the passport that Sand tries to hold over Ray and who will be Sand's Chang?

Stylistic Parallels

Smoking

Making Ray and Sand smoke is definitely an homage to Happy Together with the added bonus of being a metaphor. For the most part, we rarely see characters, especially main characters, smoke in Asian media because smoking is reserved for 'bad' characters.

Cigarettes in Happy Together represent boredom. Fai and Wing smoke at the beginning before they rekindle their relationship because they are just moving through life. Once Fai and Wing get back together, cigarettes stop making an appearance. It isn't until their relationship started deteriorating that we see the men smoking again.

This can also be said about Sand Ray's relationship. They started their 'involvement' with cigarettes. However, the last time we actually see them smoking is in ep 2 right before they hook-up. Since then, we have not seen either of them smoking. This probably means that we'll see one or both of them smoking again when their relationship starts to break down.

(In the preview for ep 5, there is an ashtray in the background on the balcony so let's see if Boston finding out about them is a catalyst for them to start breaking down.)

And of course, there is the added homoeroticism of asking for a light.

Ray's Opening and Closing Scenes

Ray's episode is really what made me go "I see you P'Jojo".

Ray's episode starts with a shot of him isolated and in emotional pain. The camera is claustrophobically close and it keeps moving around. He has a little voiceover opening. It's calm, it's contemplative, it's a little existential, and it is irrevocably sad. If that is not a Wong Kar-Wai staple, then idk what is. Even the song that starts playing gives me 80s, 90s Cantopop vibes.

Ray talks about how Mew being his emergency contact and the one he goes to. Fai talks about how Wing always comes back to him and says "Let's start over".

The movie and the episode ends with both of them once again isolated, alone. They've been through an emotional journey and they've technically moved on. But there's always the idea of not being able to fully let go in Wong Kar-Wai's movie. So just like how Fai has physically removed himself from Wing, but not emotionally, has Ray actually fully removed himself from Mew?

Cinematography

Then there's just a collection of scenes that reminded me very heavily of Happy Together and Wong Kar-Wai's style. I would have added pictures from his other movies for comparison, but Tumblr only lets me put 30 images in a post and I don't want to make a 2nd post.

This scene is specifically from the 1st trailer so I hope they keep it in the show.

This one I call the inevitability of falling. Both Sand and Fai realize they're fully committed to their decision to take care of Ray and Wing here.

The end title card

Actually, all of the end title cards give very Wong Kar-Wai vibes. Look at that saturated, neon color grading. Look at the elongated shots. The intense feeling of isolation.

I'm assuming we'll get all the characters at one point, but so far it looks like the end credit cards indicate who the narrator of each episode is.

Anyway, that's it for me! Sorry it was so long and rambling. I tried to organize my thoughts but as I was thinking, more thoughts would pop up and I'd get distracted. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

[basicallyjaywalker]

Wanna ramble about a moment/character in ninjago you think people need to talk about more?

I don't know who you are anon, but I'm glad you asked!

I am desperate for people to character-analyze Wu. I'm desperate for a lot of character analysis including Nya but since I got a lot of my Nya feelings out with some lovely folks the other night (edit: the other night was a month ago dw about it. this took a minute) I'm going with Wu this time

Master Wu to me is such an interesting case of a character who it is so easy to ignore the bits of the show that hint at his wider issues and traumas. He is a man defined heavily by his family and by his past. A lot of criticism he gets, I think, is due in part to that.

I've mentioned before that I've been rewatching S1 with a friend of mine and intermittently pausing to infodump on them about interesting character things I notice from that season. A lot of that has been Wu-focused because despite having seen RotS dozens of times throughout my life (watching it on CN, watching it on Netflix when only it and Legacy were around, rewatching it with friends) I have only just started noticing the seeds of character written in.

I might also just be reading too much into things, but hear me out

In S1 (and by extension, the pilots), Wu is characterized as your typical old wise teacher. In the first few minutes of EP1: Rise of the Snakes, he is chewing out the Ninja for playing video games instead of training. The line he uses? "Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today."

It's a line that gets repeated throughout the series. In fact, it gets repeated that very episode when the ninja go (pun not intended) to fight the Hypnobrai and a literal pre-teen. At first, it seems to just be a piece of wisdom. Some old proverb Wu's picked up over the years, possibly one he even coined himself. However, in EP7: Tick Tock, Wu tells the story of who, possibly, first told him this.

(Source: Tick Tock/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom, highlight added.)

It was Garmadon. Now, I'm not gonna dwell too long on Garmadon, if you spend five minutes talking to me you'll learn he was the first character whose story I obsessed over and I want this essay to be about Wu, but I think he plays a role in Wu's overall story, as does Wu's family as a whole.

Prior to this, Wu and Garmadon's relationship has been more of a sibling rivalry taken to a good vs. evil extreme. We didn't know why Garmadon was evil and we didn't know about Wu and his relationship as kids. However, this scene establishes the backstory. They were, as Wu puts it, "the best of friends." That is, until Garmadon gets bit by the Devourer going to get the katana Wu lost.

Now, I know the Devourer bite was destined to happen because of the Overlord or some shit, but Wu doesn't. As far as he's concerned, Garmadon getting bit was a direct consequence of both his mistake and his cowardice. He lost the katana. He was too scared to get it. Garmadon went over instead. Garmadon got bit.

The scene goes on to show the FSM tending to Garmadon in the aftermath. Wu is watching from behind the door, likely told to stay back, but concerned. And in his POV, we get this intense moment, where Garmadon turns, looks directly at him (his eyes turning bright red for the first time), and says "It's all Wu's fault!"

(This clip should begin at the start of Wu eavesdropping. If it doesn't, skip to 0:58. I highly recommend also paying attention to Wu's body language during this scene.)

The camerawork does a great job of showing how this probably felt for Wu. It zooms in, Garmadon's voice echoes, and the background blurs. We see in the flashback that this is a moment Wu has etched into his memory. Not to mention, he was likely a very young child when this happened. LEGO characters' ages are weird, but Wu in this scene has the Big Eyes, which always seem to be used for characters under 12. We don't know exactly how much older Garmadon is to my knowledge, but he doesn't have the Big Eyes, so he's probably closer to 12 and a few years older than Wu for sure.

Imagine that. Being in elementary school and your older siblings gets hurt. They're acting strange. They're lashing out at your father. Then, they blame it all on you. They're hurt because of you. Wouldn't you internalize that?

I could go on about Wu's relationship with Garmadon, but again, I think I've spent enough time on it and I don't want to only focus on that. It's an important part, but there are others.

Let's talk about Wu's relationship with his dad.

Now, I have not yet read the Spinjitzu Brothers series. I cannot speak to any development of Wu and the FSM's relationship in there. I have, however, read The Book of Spinjitzu and blogged some of my thoughts on it here, including some of what it says about Wu.

For those who haven't read it, first, there is a Google Drive folder floating around with all of the canon spinoff books/graphic novels in it. Here's the link if you wanna read them!

The FSM is an... intriguing figure. I mean, in the series he's basically god? He made the entire world. That's already a very high bar to live up to. Then, in Book of Spinjitzu, there's a few specific parts that, when I read them, signaled that Wu internalized a specific message when he was young.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 3).

Wu does not want to disappoint his father. It is up to him (and Garmadon until he turns evil) to "uphold the legacy of Spinjitzu" and, by extension, his family. He says he was "very young" when this was explained to him. Considering he seems to already be training at an elementary age, "very young" means VERY young.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 16).

Here, we again see Wu being very aware that he has some large burden to carry. Something else interesting here is that the thought of the Green Ninja Prophecy is already weighing on him too. His considering if he might be the Green Ninja is of extra interest because of how the Green Ninja Prophecy and the--I wouldn't call it obsession, possibly fixation?--with who it is factors into his later actions, but we'll get to that later.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, Page 19).

This one in particular gets me because it comes after Wu mentions Garmadon becoming more evil. It is a statement of power. Wu knows that the legacy of Spinjitzu now rests in his hands alone. He cannot let himself fall the way Garmadon did. He cannot disappoint his father. Whether or not the FSM intended it, Wu always knew the fate of the world rested, at least in part, upon his shoulder. He knew this from the time he was a young boy and it remains in his mind to this day.

Now, these quotes are indirect, but they all point to one clear idea: As a child, Wu internalized the idea that he alone is responsible for keeping Ninjago safe. He will play a pivotal role in its history.

There's not evidence in this book that the FSM's was a bad father, per se. However, just because one doesn't set out to harm their children, doesn't mean they won't. I often say Wu has an "Atlas complex," which I have no idea if it is an actual concept but use it to refer to this idea. Wu feels as though he is responsible for holding up the world, much like Atlas. He must keep the balance, he must solve the Green Ninja prophecy, he must make his father proud.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, page 61).

I'm going to get further into what this means for Wu as a teacher to the current Ninja Team, but for now let's look at Wu's first foray into teaching.

Morro. Wu's Biggest Mistake.

That might seem like an overstatement, but it's not.

(Source: Ghost Story/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom)

Okay he says regret, not mistake, but I was paraphrasing.

Let's turn back to his quote about his destiny. Wu writes, "Is my life's mission to be the Green Ninja? Or maybe it will be to find the Green Ninja and protect him (or her)??"

From a very young age, Wu was not only aware of the Green Ninja but prophecy but also thinking about his place in it. We see this again when he takes Morro in and trains him.

(Source: Ghost Story/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom, highlight added)

A big thing Wu is criticized for here is making Morro believe he is meant to be more. That he is the Chosen One. And Morro, being a young homeless orphan just now given some semblance of power and protection, latches onto that. And I can see it, but when you take into account the above that he was trained from (likely) a younger age than Morro and given a similar level of responsibility, it becomes more understandable. Wu is just doing what he was taught. He doesn't believe that he is harming Morro until it is too late.

This is the entire story, but I'm specifically going to be discussing 1:36 onwards here. I also wanted to add that rewatching this scene made me lay down on the floor! What the fuck! But I digress.

There's a lot going on in this scene. For one, Wu washing his hands of Morro in some ways, but not others. He turns his back on Morro when he tells him that destiny has decided, but looks at him again when Morro storms out. He goes to save Morro from the Grundal, but decides that he cannot "teach those who would not listen." Most importantly, when Morro leaves to go find the Tomb of the FSM, Wu leaves the door open. He waits for Morro to return, but never goes after him. And Morro never comes back.

Wu gives Morro's fate a dismissive response at the end of his ghost story ("I am saddened he was banished to the Cursed Realm") but it's clear he still cares deeply about him in the finale of the season.

Wu's VA in this is phenomenal btw. That "Please Morro!" and "MORRO!" make my heart ache.

Morro believed Wu stopped caring, but he didn't. Even after all he's done, even after trying to destroy all of Ninjago--destroying what Wu had spent his life trying to protect--Wu tries to save him. He begs for Morro to come with him. Morro refuses, Wu watches him perish.

Someone else Wu is close to is gone. Wu again considers himself responsible. Everything is his fault.

And finally, we reach Wu today. A cautious, secretive man. He loves his students, this much is clear. Even as early as the pilots, he drops his wise teacher persona to joke around with them.

As with Morro, he trains them like his father did him. He even uses the same methods his father used when he trains them.

(Source: The Book of Spinjitzu, page 32)

While he is hard on the Ninja, wanting them to succeed and training them to help defend the Realm, he lets his guard down more than it seems he did with Morro. He also learned a valuable message from his experience with Morro when he hides the Green Ninja Prophecy from the Ninja, getting angry when they start to push themselves in the same way Morro did upon learning about it. It's clear he doesn't want a repeat.

Now, I can't speak for later seasons (I will eventually) but this fear of repeats, his students going down a dark path because they're tempted by power or greatness, losing someone else, likely drives Wu not telling them other important information. That is just a passing thought though.

Final notes:

I'm currently in the process of rewatching S7: Hands of Time. I actually got this ask right after finishing EP68: Scavengers, which opens with Wu having a nightmare. In it, he and Misako are walking outside of Yang's temple. While walking, Misako delivers this line in response to Wu reminiscing about the time they've spent together:

(Source: Scavengers/Transcript | Ninjago Wiki | Fandom)

This line, to me, is Wu's subconscious trying to tell him something he needs to hear. It's hinting at what might be his greatest flaw. Wu is haunted by his past, by his mistakes. He finds it difficult to tell others because of both his guilt and his desire to not put that worry upon them. In this very season, he makes the mistake of trying to face his past on his own, and he nearly dies for it.

In the same episode, you see Wu trying to make sure Lloyd doesn't make the same mistakes.

(Source: Prev)

Wu stresses the important of the team. It's as if he sees Lloyd blaming himself for what happened to Wu, sees him doing the same thing Wu has, and is trying to prevent him from doing the same thing. This is further emphasized when, after Wu falls asleep (well, fakes falling asleep), Lloyd says "Wu's mistake was going in alone. So was mine."

Master Wu is, like many characters in this show, someone who is more complex than meets the eye. He is not just a wise, old teacher. He is a man who, throughout his life, has made mistakes and carries the weight of each of them on his shoulders. He is a man who tasks himself with making up for those every day. He is a man who wants better for his students, his family.

Until the day he dies, he will guide and protect his students. And possibly? Even after death too.

[sitron-sunni]

I watched the new episode of 9-1-1

a personal essay on queerbaiting (sorta)

I watched the new episode of 9-1-1, and immediately burst into tears as the credits started rolling.

Then I rewound the last six minutes, and watched the scene again, pausing to rewind the kiss. Again. And again. And again.

We got a kiss. I didn’t know we were getting a kiss. I sorta knew we were getting bi Buck, but I didn’t know we were getting a kiss. After last week’s episode, a lot of people were 100% convinced we were getting bi Buck. I saw their reactions before I watched that episode, too, and I was so confused once I finished it. Had we seen the same episode? That guy, Tommy, Buck’s so-called bisexual awakening-guy, was barely in there. He had about two memorable lines, and then he was in the background of a different shot, where he received a job-well-done slap on the shoulder from Buckley. That last one’s the one people were focusing on online. Look at the way this is framed, look at how he’s positioned, between Buck and Eddie. This is foreshadowing how he’s gonna get between them. Buck and Tommy is gonna be the gateway into buddie. They’re actually gonna do buddie, why else would they introduce a relationship between Buck and Tommy?

Reader, I’ll keep it straight with you. I did not believe them. After a while I gathered a lot of people already knew the name of the next episode; Buck, Bothered and Bewildered. They’d seen some stills, they knew there would be conflict and jealousy within that trio. They were putting it all together with comments and hints dropped by the actors. All those things added up, and it did paint a far more convincing picture. And I thought it was fun! I reblogged a few posts about it, I think, or at least I liked some. But the fact remains: I did not believe them. I thought, oh, imagine how cool it would be if they actually went there. I thought, yeah, realistically it would make sense to bring in a third person if they were actually gonna do it. That way they could test the waters, gauge audience response, and it could work as a catalyst for the relationship after so long. But mostly I thought Okay, so they’re gonna bring in Buck’s fear of not being enough for the people he loves again, this time through his friendship with Eddie, and we’re gonna get some sort of final resolution for that. Like, a big moment of catharsis. Or something along those lines, anyway. It just seemed to me like the most realistic thing that could happen. I mean, the idea of canon buddie was nice, of course it was! The queerbait is why I started watching the show in the first place: I wanted a good queerbait! But ultimately, a ship like that going canon was completely unrealistic. I speak from experience, after all.

Maybe it would’ve been different if I was younger. I remember being in fandoms when I was a teen. I remember reading theories, watching youtube-videos with “proof” that this or that was real, that it was gonna go canon. I remember getting my hopes up, thinking Oh my god what if they’re actually gonna do it!? for shows and pairings that, in hindsight, were completely unrealistic. Maybe that’s why I, even with fairly good evidence in front of me, didn’t actually get my hopes up this time. Because why be that stupid? Why invest emotionally like that? Why not just enjoy what we actually had instead, and then get anything extra from fanworks? Haven’t we learned by now?

I woke up this morning and opened tumblr, and I read half a sentence about how we actually have bisexual Buck confirmed canon now, before I quickly closed the app to avoid too detailed spoilers. Oh my god they were right! I can’t wait to watch the episode, I thought happily, and went on with my day. I opened the app again a few hours later, and scrolled for a few minutes, until I saw a brief glimpse of one, maybe one and a half gifs. Bucks face, Tommy’s face. Warm orange-y yellow lighting, Buck’s loft, you still owe me a beer. Close the app, move on. There were other posts throughout the day, more glimpses, all along the same lines as the first one. The last one came late in the evening, this time on twitter. Just the word in all caps; ANNOUNCEMENT, and then Bucks face and a bisexual pride flag.

And then finally, finally, after I’d brushed my teeth and gotten into bed, I was alone with my laptop, and I could watch the episode. The hype had built up, I was so excited to finally watch it. I was internally vibrating just a little bit. I was giggly, I was grinning widely, I was making comments to myself out loud, and laughing. I said oh my god, they’re really laying it on thick. I remember watching that scene for the first time and thinking how Tommy really looked so nervous at some points. That last one I found interesting. I really liked the actor’s portrayal; His facial expressions were quite subtle, and I thought he captured that nervous feeling so well. Maybe I took such notice of it because, well, I wasn’t quite expecting it.

I wasn’t expecting nervousness in an interaction between Buck and Tommy, because I still wasn’t actually expecting anything. At least I don’t think I was. Even with everything I’d seen online. Even as I was watching the show, I convinced myself. Those words, you still owe me a beer, they’ve misinterpreted them. They think it’s an invitation to a date because Buck’s jealousy in this episode is making it more plausible than ever before. Sure, the show’s leaning into it this time, but they’re gonna pull the rug out next episode. No, of course it wasn’t an invite to a date, what show were you watching, are you delusional? It’s just gonna be one week of people speculating and theorizing and building it up, and then the show’s gonna resolve it with some no-homo followed by a nice new buddie moment. The buzz will die down, and things will go back to normal.

And then the kiss happened. And then I burst into tears.

And now I think, oh my god isn’t it wild that they’re introducing a new romantic relationship for one of the main characters, and for the entire lead-up to the relationship, both Buck and Tommy are entirely focused on Eddie? Like, they’re just making everything about a third person! Imagine if they did this for anybody else! and, oh my god Tommy’s gonna break up with Buck because Buck’s basically already dating Eddie or something, isn’t he? and, oh my god it’s gonna be glorious! and, oh my god I can’t wait!

And I’m also thinking, I was wrong, and you were right. And I’m so happy I could cry.

TL;DR: If you and I share sterek, or destiel, or god knows what other similarly-shaped trauma, 9-1-1 might heal ya.

[hellfirenacht]

Isekai Chronicles START

A/N: Welcome to my new experimental fic series! This is where you should start for context.

I don’t have it in me to write the 100k slow burn fic of my dreams, so I thought I’d try something new. I’m going to write the first chapter and everything else will be non-liner, episodic story telling based on YOUR prompts! Rule will be at the bottom of the chapter!

Summery: Through no powers of your own, you end up in Hawkins 1985, in a tv show that you once saw on Netflix. Slow burn, Eddie Munson x Reader will be canon, choose your own adventure to a degree, monkey’s paw author.

We begin.

Master List

August 5th. 

By the time you get home from your job, it’s pretty late. Work had been busy, to the point that your break had been pushed back so far that your supervisor just told you to go home thirty minutes early. You were pretty sure that wasn’t exactly legal but you weren’t going to complain about being able to go home. Lucky for you, it was payday which gave you an excuse to grab yourself some food on the way home. As if you wanted to cook after such a long day anyway. 

You fumble with your keys and make it inside, kicking off your shoes and making your way to your room where you planned on having a very relaxing evening watching mindless tv while having dinner before going to bed.

Alright fine, you were going to have the tv on but you were probably going to be staring at your phone the whole time while the tv provided some background noise. 

You pulled your wallet and keys out of your purse and dropped them in the backpack next to your bed. Tomorrow you were meeting with some friends and you’d need the backpack more than your purse. You plugged in your phone and started flipping through channels on your tv to find something to not pay attention to while you ate. 

Pulling YouTube up, you looked through your recommendations, seeing an eclectic mixture of D&D related content, 6 hour video essays about shows that you’d never watch, and the occasional clip compilation from different shows. 

STEVE HARRINGTON BEING A SINGLE DAD FOR 6 MINUTES 

You laughed to yourself, and scrolled past it to watch some random video essay. 

It was 1:58 when you finally decided that you needed to go to sleep. You forced yourself out of bed to pick up your trash and take it to the kitchen. The tile was cold on your feet, far colder than it should be. Actually, for being the middle of summer, it was freezing here now. It felt like the temperature was dropping rapidly. 

You made your way to the thermostat, but it read normal to you. You really hoped that you wouldn’t have to call the a/c repair guy. That wasn’t exactly something that you could afford right now. Then again, it couldn’t be worse than the power bill you’d get if it kept up the cold.

Grabbing a hoodie from the laundry, you make your way back to your room. It was too late to call anyone to fix whatever was going on with the unit, so you’d have to call first thing in the morning. Yay. 

As you cross the threshold to your room, your stomach drops. When you go to set your foot down, it felt as though you missed a stair. The room spins, and for a brief moment you’re reminded of the last time you were on a roller coaster. Your head feels light and everything around you spins faster and faster until you're on your knees, trying to hold in your dinner. The chill in the air was now almost a relief as you felt yourself burning up. If you got food poisoning from that fast food place you were going to be so pissed. 

Just breathe. Just relax. It'll be okay.

You don’t even realize that your eyes are closed until you open them. It was dark in your room now and quiet. Too quiet. Had the power gone out? The tv was off, as well as the lamp that you had next to your bed. You stood up with shaky legs, the nausea slowly subsiding. You picked up your phone to check and see if there were any blackouts in the area, but your phone didn’t light up when you pressed the home button. You frown and try holding it down for 10 seconds to try and hard-start it, but nothing. It remained off, reflecting your worried face on the black screen. 

That’s when you noticed the vines. 

Creeping along the edge of your desk, snaking their way around the bedroom were long vines that tangled around your room. For a moment you were completely frozen, only your eyes daring to move along the strange plants. What the hell was happening?

As a child, you were prone to nightmares and sleep paralysis, and you were holding your breath, hoping desperately that this was the same as when you were so small. You had learned how to snap yourself out of it most times, and you focused all of your energy into clenching your hand into a fist over and over and over again. If this was sleep paralysis, this would have alerted your body enough to snap out of the dream state and wake up. Nothing happened.

You back up towards the window, convincing yourself that this was a bad dream. You'd fallen asleep and now you were having some sort of lucid nightmare. Alright, if this was a dream, you'd have to follow dream logic.

You grabbed your backpack, an old beat up thing that hadn't held school books in years. Now it was where you kept your role playing books for your weekly meetings with your friends. There was no reason to grab it other than this was a dream, and things don't make sense in dreams anyway.

Lucid dreams could be fun when they weren’t terrifying. You could count on one hand the amount of times you’d had a dream where you were fully aware that you were in a dream. Though even in those dreams you weren’t fully there. There was a foggy feeling in your brain and in your limbs, that had to mean this was a dream. You wished briefly that there was someone here with you to share this with, some dream person to bounce ideas off of. 

It was the loneliness of this dream-scape that made everything feel wrong. 

You make your way out of the room again, it was just as dark and quiet in the rest of your home as well. Everything was covered in these weird vines, and you shuddered. You could see your breath now, and you rubbed your arms to get some sort of friction and heat. You make your way to your front door, reaching for the knob-

BANG

The door shook with the force of whatever was on the other side. You screamed and backed away, stumbling backwards over a vine that now wrapped around your ankle. It tightened around you, and you thrashed trying to get it off. 

There was another BANG on the door, louder and harder. A piercing sound echoed through your home. Whatever was out there was strong, and loud, and did not sound human. You needed to wake up NOW. 

There was a pair of scissors on the table behind you. If you could just grab them then you could cut this stupid vine off of you. Another vine shot out, grabbing your leg this time and you thrashed harder, reaching for the leg of the table and gripping it for dear life. You shook the table as more vines started for you, until the scissors fell next to you. 

With a desperate amount of force you stabbed through a vine. Of course these were the shitty scissors, ones that you had been meaning to replace for weeks now. Your arm was sore as you hacked at the vines, the slamming of the door getting harder and closer to breaking through. 

One good kick later and you were scrambling back towards your room, needing to find an out. You slammed the door behind you and locked it, as the sound of your front door broke open. Panic flooded your veins, any lucidity from this dream vanished in an instant and all you cared about was getting away from whatever the fuck was now inside your home. 

You rushed to the window, which opened surprisingly easily. You could hear your heart pounding in your ears as you looked down. The fall didn’t look like it would kill you, but it did look like it could hurt like hell. But it was better to be able to get away limping than dying by a spooky vine monster. One good jump should lurch your brain awake enough to sit up and shake off whatever the hell this was. You looked down at the ground, adjusting the backpack and taking a deep breath.

Maybe you'd actually be able to fly if you were lucky. You never were that lucky though. In dreams, the best you could ever do was doggy paddle through the air for a few seconds. 

You  pushed yourself forward and found yourself tumbling to the ground. Your stomach lurched again, dropping as you fell forward. You tried to aim for the bushes to break your fall, but they never came. That feeling of being upside down washed over you again, and you fell with a hard thud on... concrete?

You groaned and sat up, the world had changed again to... you assumed normal? No, you had to still be dreaming as you  found yourself in the middle of a street. It was dark, save for the lamp posts lighting the street. You took a few deep breaths, your head was still spinning and your stomach was protesting hard at what just happened. You took a few deep gasping breaths, begging yourself to not puke everywhere. You felt clammy, shaky, and now warm again. It was warm again. 

There was an ache in your shoulder where you had landed on a hard concrete sidewalk. The backpack didn't help, and you slid it onto just one side of your body. You close your eyes and stretch it out. At least it didn't feel broken. That was a good sign.

"Holy shit." there was a voice from behind you, and you swung around to see two boys there.

One was... awkward looking. All gangly limbs and skinny with shaggy dark hair. He didn't look older than fourteen, in that awkward height where he wasn't quite taller than you but gave the impression he was just one growth spurt away from shooting up like a beanstalk- or maybe he was already in the middle of it?

The second boy looked more proportional. He was shorter than his presumed friend with curly hair and slightly darker skin. They were both looking at you like you were a fucking alien or something.

You might as well have been, considering that they had just seen you fall out of the sky, from a portal that absolutely had no business opening and shutting as quickly as it did. A portal, you'd come to realize, they knew about all too well.

You look at them, and they stare at you slack jawed.

"Shit." the shorter one says.

"Yeah. Shit." Agrees his friend.

"...Shit?" you echo back to them and that seems to snap them out of their trance as they start towards you.

"Did you just come from the Upside Down?" demands the taller one as they approach you.

"The what?" You stare blankly at them.

"The place with the vines everywhere!" the shorter one explains. "Looks like this place but darker and worse off? Crawling with demodogs possibly? Particles in the air?"

Particles? Had there been particles? You couldn’t remember, but you did know the vines. You shook your head, trying to pull yourself out of the fog of whatever this dream had turned into. Had you snapped your brain out of one dream to be pulled back into another? It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened either. Everything just felt so cloudy still in your mind.

You made a move to stand up, but your legs refused. Looking down you could see the indents of where the vines had dug into your skin. This was all too confusing. Who were these kids and how the hell did they know about your nightmare? And where even were you??

"How di-" you froze as the two boys stepped into the spotlight of the nearest lamp post.  

There's a funny feeling that happens when you're in a dream. Things make sense, except they don't. You blindly accept things that aren't possible. You could swear you have physical sensation, but everything feels the same. A 'clear fog' would be the best way to describe it, if you had to put it into words. Reality and fiction, a world of your own making based on the world you lived in. Nothing is real, but everything was real somewhere else. You can be in five places at once because your mind pulls the fabric of your memories together to form a seamless transition of all of the space and time you've ever inhabited.

When Dustin Henderson steps into the light, that feeling snaps and you're awake. Any traces of sleep and dream disappear and you had the same feeling you would get after waking up from a nightmare. Your heart starts racing in overtime, you feel clammy all over. Your shoulder hurts, and your mind feels sharp and panicked.

You squeeze your hand into a fist, digging your nails into your palm and feeling the sharp pain in your skin. Real. You are awake now.

Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson were standing right in front of you. You knew their names and faces- you'd watch them grow up over the years but now they were in front of you.

You were awake but they were standing in front of you, existing.

You hadn't even thought about Stranger Things since the season finale last summer.

"Hello?" Dustin waved his hand in front of you. "Come on, dude. We're not the bad guys!"

As if two high-schoolers could be. Then again, you had been in high school once.

"The Upside Down." you said. You could feel the slight vibration of your throat as you forced the words out of you. Your tongue moved in your mouth, saying each syllable carefully. Real. Your words were real. "Holy shit. Where the fuck am I?!"

Your question caught them both a little off guard. This time it was Mike (Mike!) who spoke up. "You're in Hawkins, Indiana. Did you come from a lab too?"

A lab? That was laughable. You have never been anywhere near Indiana before let alone a lab, unless you counted science classes.

"I... am absolutely not from around here." you said. "I have no idea where I am-"

"Hawkins," repeated Mike, missing the point.

"-Or how I got here."

"Portal from the Upside Down?" offered Dustin.

You dropped your backpack now. It felt too heavy, and your shoulder was still sore from the impact.

"Do you know what your name is?" Mike asked.

That was an easy question. You were able to at least give them your name.

While you were spiraling and trying to decide on what to do next, Dustin walked over to your bag, which had spilled on the ground. Well, spilling was a generous word. You hadn't zipped it up properly as the zipper had a bad habit of getting stuck so when you dropped it, the books inside had slid out partially.

"Player's Handbook?" Dustin asked, picking it up. "This isn't what this is supposed to look like"

"Fifth edition." the words were out of your mouth before you could stop yourself. Fifth edition, fuck they were no where near that in ninetheen-eighty-something. Were they on the second edition? Second edition came out in 1989- shit.

Mike grabbed your backpack before you could stop him. These teens were awfully grabby for having just seen you appear out of thin air.

"Dude" you said as they pulled out your heavy D&D books, looking at them in awe. The hardcover books rarely left your bag as you had your own table to play with every week. Well, every other week. Sometimes, maybe once a month? Scheduling was hard with a group.

Would your friends even notice you were gone? Could they notice you were gone?

Mike was thumbing through the Dungeon Masters guide, with wide eyes. "Where did you even get something like this?"

Well, you might as well rip off the bandaid.

"Hey, what year is it?" you ask, ignoring his question.

The two boys look up at you, then each other, and then at you again. There was a silent conversation happening between the two of them.

"It's August 5th, 1985" Dustin said.

"Right. Cool." you sat your ass on the concrete, suddenly feeling dizzy.

The two boys stepped away, talking to each other in harsh whispers that you could still hear.

"We need to bring them to El."

"El can't do anything, she's- she still doesn't have her powers back!"

"They fell from a portal from the Upside Down and don't know what year it is!"

"El's leaving in a week to move to California-"

"So?! We've saved the world in less time than that!"

"We don't even know if the world needs saving right now-"

"That was a PORTAL that opened and closed on its own from the Upside Down! You think that's NOT a sign of something happening?"

The two boys continued bickering as your mind raced. 1985, meaning it was somewhere between seasons 3 and 4. Early August, so no Hellfire Club, El's still here for at least a little bit- there's no mall. Not that you have any money anyway. You rack your brain, it had been so damn long since you watched the show and now you're here?

"You know I can hear you both, right? Like, you're not even trying to be quiet." You call out.

Mike and Dustin stop their discussion and turn back to you. "You're coming with us," Dustin said. "We need to know everything that happened and how you got here."

"Do I at least get to know your names?" you already knew their names, but they hadn't supplied them to you.

Introductions were shared and books were put back. You struggled to zip up your bag, knowing that it'd be a worse struggle to get them out later.

"We're going to Mike's house." Dustin explained. "We can hide you in the basement for now."

"You two are being weirdly okay with putting up a complete stranger that just appeared out of nowhere." you said.

"This happens a lot." Mike said. You laughed, yeah, you suppose for them it did.

"So, what year are YOU from?" Dustin asked.

You walked forward with the boys, feeling each heavy step as you navigate through the suburban neighborhood. At night, in the street like this, it didn't look too different from a neighborhood in your own time. The only difference being the site of a tube tv glowing through the window of one of the houses. If you ignored that, you could pretend that you were back home in-

"2023."

--------

RULES

-I’m not writing in a liner way, but I’m not ready to write any romance between Reader and Eddie. This is a slow burn after all! Current timeline I’m wanting to write is between August-December 1985. We will get to ‘86 later

-You can suggest reader do anything, there is no guarantee that I will pick your prompt!

-I already have the meeting planned between Eddie and Reader, that is off the table. Anything else is up for suggestion!

-Prompts must be submitted through ask, as “READER => Do something” If you know, you know.

-Reader is a weirdo, a freak, and is not shy or popular. Reader probably has really bad ADHD.

-If I need to add more rules I will, if I change rules that’s allowed because it’s my fic.

-This fic is officially named “That Time I was Transported into a Netflix Show And Joined A D&D Club” but I’ll be tagging it as “Isekai Chronicles” for simplicity

-Monkey’s paw author.

-Make it fun, everyone <3

Tumblr User ==> Leave a Prompt

Recommended Next Chapter: Reader ==>Meet the Party

[martian-hermit]

After not only binging the show, but also watching a dozen video essays about it, The Bear’s only become a show that I absolutely love more than anything else I’ve ever watched.

From the insanely beautiful use of color and lighting to describe settings and atmosphere to the 17 MINUTE LONG ONE-TAKE EPISODE, it’s perfect. I absolutely adore the story, the characters, the relationships between them, the character development, and the fact that every ounce of stress that exists in the show can be felt by the viewer as if they were in this world. And as someone who has personal experience in restaurants and kitchens, there’s a lot of nostalgia in feeling the pressure and stress of existing in those environments. But among my favorite examples of the genius and creativity of this show involve S1E7 “Review”, S2E4 “Honeydew”, S2E7 “Forks”, and S2E10 “The Bear”

S1E7 “Review” is the aforementioned 17 minute one-take episode. And when I say one-take I genuinely mean no hidden cuts, no tricks, a genuine single take throughout the entire episode. Now, the biggest reason I love this relatively short episode of the show is more about the way it feels to me personally because of the single take rather than the fact that it just is a one-take. The feeling of absolute chaos in the kitchen, people quitting on the spot, stress, high expectations, and stakes just feel not only terrifying, but also exhilarating. As I mentioned before, I’ve worked in foodservice for years, and thus all of those feelings are extremely nostalgic to me. But, hearing that other people who have no experience in a kitchen still feel that same pressure really goes to show how effectively the show conveyed how that work environment is. Part of the reason it’s so effective is the fact that there are no cuts to give the viewer any relief, you’re stuck in the moment for the entire episode. You have nowhere to be except in the moment with everyone else struggling to keep their composure, and it’s fantastic. The accuracy of the setting paired with the ability to drag the viewer into that uncomfortable spot whether they want to be there or not is so well done that it feels like you’re either working in a kitchen for the first time, or you’re doing it again.

S2E4 “Honeydew” was, at least I think, completely under appreciated. Seeing Marcus’s character development throughout, especially as he gets mentored by Luca is not only a nice break from the complete chaos of The Bear back in Chicago, but also important to watch to really understand Marcus as a person. In his apprenticeship under Luca, he asks questions, expands upon his knowledge, and becomes more confident as he learns. But Luca also adds so much to this episode by simply not being a stereotypical “I’m the pro and I resent you for not being as good as me” type of chef. When Marcus asks a question, he answers. When Marcus wants him to expand, he does. It’s a wonderful representation of two people with a somewhat informal mentor-student relationship interact in a way that doesn’t establish a dynamic of greater and lesser, but just two chefs that seek to improve. Nothing more.

S2E7 “Forks”. Oh my dear god, this episode. Arguably, it’s the best one out of both seasons of the show. But this doesn’t follow our main protagonist Carmy, but rather Richie, who was thought to be the antagonist thus far. Richie gets sent off to what is said to be the greatest restaurant in the world to stage. He begins the episode waking up in his bed, reluctantly bringing himself to get ready to begin his temporary job away from The Bear as per Carmy’s demand. When Richie walks into the place, it almost feels like a horror movie. The lighting is dim and unwelcoming, Richie is completely resenting being there, and he is unfortunate to be in the typical position of having to shine forks. It’s normal for a stage to start this way, but when Richie is half-assing the job entirely, the person overseeing him brings him outside to talk. Richie, expecting to get chewed out or let go, instead learns about the passion of the people working here regarding their jobs. And that’s the turning point. Richie goes from an antagonistic asshole who couldn’t care less about what’s going wrong to a guy who actually applies himself. He’s enthusiastic. It’s most notable when he runs to grab a deep dish pizza for a family visiting Chicago, and once the chef snobifies the dish, Richie of all people volunteers to give it to them. It’s when he’s at their table, giving them the food and talking to them that we really see that new side of him for the first time shining through. The immense change of his character from the beginning of season 1 to more than halfway through season 2 is immensely satisfying, but also extremely effective in presenting us with a character arc that makes you tear up. The only thing that makes it a million times better than it already is, is the fact that the lighting throughout the episode gets brighter as Richie grows. It’s a beautiful visual representation that gives a subtle visual representation of him becoming a “brighter” person.

Finally, S2E10 “The Bear”. The last episode of season 2 aptly named after the show itself is the Family and Friends night of the renovated and reinvented restaurant. This “dress rehearsal” seems like it’ll go perfectly smooth, everyone has high hopes, and after Carmy and Sydney have a heart-to-heart while fixing up a table before the real busy work begins, we feel this sense that nothing could go wrong. And, to be honest, for a while it actually plays out that way. But the issues start (just like the story Uncle Jimmy told Carmy before they started) when Carmy fucks up the first thing that night, which is when Sydney says she’s overwhelmed and would like Carmy to take over Expo, but Carmy just says she’s fine. It’s at this point that a toilet is down, tables are all behind, one of the chefs ditched to do drugs, the tension and stress multiply by several orders of magnitude, and finally, Carmy locks himself in the walk-in. But Carmy being stuck in a situation where he can’t be involved in the kitchen is when things look up. Richie takes over Expo, Sydney can cook, they start catching up, and they manage to fix up their string of fuck-ups in just four minutes. It’s perfect that it worked out BECAUSE Carmy got cut out because he had neglected to contact the fridge guy to fix the walk-in. He put himself there. That’s all his fault. But this happening instead of him suddenly overcoming his overwhelming hostility and aggressiveness as well as the neglect of the walk-in getting fixed made that first night of service perfect for the show. It’s not a flawless performance. There’s still a lot fucked up. Carmy has a lot of baggage and issues he hasn’t resolved that almost costed them that entire night. That’s why it’s perfect. He’s been deeply flawed the entire series, and having all of that resolved by the end makes a no sense. And we really feel the weight of this when Carmy ruins his relationship with his girlfriend, berates Richie, and vents to Tina about how he’s a “psycho”. We learn so much, and get the feeling that Carmy wants to be better, but still has this fear that good things will happen to him that break him out of this pure logic routine of things he’s turned his life into. It’s nowhere near resolved. Sure, the restaurant’s first night was successful, people loved it. But, Carmy’s still so, so far from having completed a character arc like so many others have.

I rarely ever watch shows more than once, but this might be the only show I’ve ever watched that I could watch over and over again without getting sick of it. I only appreciate every detail more, and it’s honestly slightly obsessive of me to love this show this much. But the way it feels like I’m back in a kitchen, stressed out of my fucking mind trying to work and keep up with everything while people are screaming at me to get things done, it’s nostalgic and addictive. I’ve never once described a show as perfect before, but I would describe The Bear as the greatest and most perfect show I’ve ever watched. The only drawback is that there’s only 18 episodes total, and I find myself wanting more, which is a rare feeling for me to hold for shows. But the real weight you feel from it, and the fact that you feel like you know the characters personally, it’s indescribable in terms of how impressively effective the show makes you sympathize with everyone and grounds you in their world. So despite the immense amount of stress and frustration you feel watching it, it’s still such a beautiful show to experience when you can connect so deeply with so many different parts of every character and feel the reality of the situations you see. And just because I can’t say it enough, I have to end this post by saying once again that The Bear is absolutely fucking perfect. Hands down, no question.

[uncloseted]

i feel like your taste is so chic and effortlessly cool, so what are your current favorites? anything as far as trinkets, skincare, movies, foods, creators, music ect! I feel like you spend so much time giving advice that it would be fun to learn a lil more about what makes you happy lately! hope you're having a good day!!!

That's so nice of you! I've been collecting the things I've been loving over the past few days and here's what I came up with:

Clothes, makeup, and hair:

Essie Expressie Seize the Minute quick dry nail polish, which is a really nice red with blue undertones

Lisa Says Gah Museo Bianco Elizabeth Dress, which I bought secondhand off Depop. I got it for my trip to Greece but I'm worried it's a little too on the nose so I'm not sure if I'll bring it yet (still very cute though)

Uniqlo Wide Straight Jeans. They're just the right amount of slouchy

This matching set from Amazon. I've been wanting a set like this for a few months now and I ended up being so pleasantly surprised with this one. It ended up being way cuter than in the product pictures and fitting really well

Inkey List Vitamin C Serum. It's made my skin tone way more even and bright, and they're a clean, cruelty free brand

Tir Tir Red Cushion foundation. Mostly I bought it because I think the packaging looks really chic, but the product provides a really nice, buildable coverage as well

Jones Road Miracle Balm in Au Natural. This one I got as a gift and at first I didn't really get how you were supposed to use it, but now I'm really into it. It gives the nicest dewy glow without looking shiny.

Video Essays:

Jenny Nicholson's "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel". She hated the part of the experience that I worked on as much as I hated working on it, so I feel vindicated 😭. If you've ever wondered what it was like to stay at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, this answers that question in such intricate detail that by the end of it you'll feel like you actually went

Quinton Reviews' "The Failure of Victorious" and "The End of Victorious". As you might guess from the titles, it's about the Nickelodeon show Victorious and why it was such a failure. Is this the second time I've watched all thirteen hours of this? Yes. Do I regret it? No, not really.

PhilosophyTube in general, but especially her recent video "I Read The Most Misunderstood Philosopher in the World" which is about Judith Butler's philosophy of gender.

Music:

Chappell Roan. It's Pride month, I'm a queer woman, enough said

I've been getting back into Marina lately, especially her newest album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. She's always been my pick out of the Tumblr sad girl musicians and I'm really impressed with how her music (and her public persona) has grown and changed over the years

I Only Have Eyes for You by Tashaki Miyaki. I heard this song years ago and it randomly popped into my head the other day and would not leave. It's just very vibey

TV:

Doctor Who with Ncuti Gatwa. I'm in love with him and I think his take on The Doctor is perfect.

Legion. I mostly started watching this because my girl Lauren Tsai is in the third season, but I love it. I think it's a really unique take on the superhero genre.

Bee and Puppycat. This is a show about a girl named Bee and her best friend/pet who is a mysterious creature who looks kind of like a cat and kind of like a dog. They take temporary jobs so that they can afford to buy snacks and leather jackets. It's a really special show, and I've watched it a few times now. The original series is on YouTube, and there's also a series on Netflix that expands on the original episodes.

Books:

Babel by RF Kuang. I'm reading this for a book club and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's about a child in an alternative-reality 1830s England who is adopted from China and taken to Oxford University to study the art of translation.

Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I've actually never read The Odyssey before because I am bad at being Greek and also at being a supposed descendant of Homer. Dr. Wilson is the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English

Games:

I just finished playing Planet of Lana, which is a really gorgeous puzzle-platformer inspired by the aesthetics of Studio Ghibli films and the gameplay of Playdead games such as Limbo and Inside. It has a great story about a girl who's looking for her sister, who has been abducted by hostile alien machines.

Places:

Wasteland secondhand stores in LA. I've been finding a lot of really great pieces there in the past few weeks, and the pieces I've found there have been around 75-90% off their original price.

La La Kind Cafe. I go to these when I need to convince myself to leave my house. They have a good vibe and the drinks are great.

Miscellaneous Stuff:

Nicola Coughlan. I've been watching all of the interviews she's doing for Bridgerton and I'm obsessed with her whole vibe. Her new dark comedy show about a woman with bipolar disorder, Big Mood, is also really great.

Earscapes. I reopened a bunch of old piercings I had and I'm having so much fun trying different combinations of earrings in them. I honestly can't believe I left them closed for so long.

Using lipstick as blush. I have such a hard time finding blush colors that work for me and then finding a blush that goes with my lipstick. So instead what I've been doing lately is putting on my lipstick, blotting it with my finger, and then using the leftover on my cheeks. It works super well and it means I can stop buying new blush products

This sardine tin makeup pouch. I haven't gotten it yet so I can't tell you how it is, but I just thought it looked so cute, and I needed a makeup bag for travel. I'll let you know if it ends up being good

Baths, just as a general concept. My old apartment didn't have enough hot water to fill up a bath, so I never used to take them, but they're so great? I got this full body bath pillow, which has made it was more comfortable to just relax there.

[ilikekidsshows]

Hot take: they should have left out the Triceraton invasion reveal and instead included a proper fight between Mikey and Kluh. Up until the end they did a great job of giving equal weight to the tournament and the takeover plot, but the conclusion to the tournament feels like an afterthought when they put all that effort into setting up Kluh’s grudge against Mikey, and Mikey trying to avoid him before they get to fight. I guess the writers realized this themselves, since Kluh does come back in a later episode for a proper rematch.

Also, I’ve come to realize that the level of misunderstanding several youtubers have about this show just shows that they have no grasp of theming or they’re not actually properly watching this show for their analysis videos. It’s especially flagrant in videos discussing every iteration of Turtles, but there seems to be some real rushing through the material even in video essays discussing this show. Here’s the rub: several Youtube videos claim that this show de-emphasizes the Turtles' familial relationships because they don’t make grand gestures and aren’t constantly tackle-hugging each other or whatever. But the Turtles constantly do these small touches between each other and are comfortable in each other’s space.

In addition to the Turtles’ subtle physical closeness, family is this show’s central theme. How families come together and fall apart is a recurring topic that I have discussed repeatedly in these wrapup segments of the liveblog. Even this arc, one of the best of the entire show, and one of the most iconic ones, considering how the Battle Nexus gets transplanted into later iterations, contrasts the Turtles’ family with the people they meet. This arc is ultimately about how the Daimyo and his son fail to see each other properly. The Daimyo saw his son as a precious child who needed to be sheltered, and was blind to how corrupt he’d become. Ue, meanwhile, saw his father as merely a source of status instead of a person he cares about. Meanwhile the Turtles' beef over Mikey bringing in the win, and being smug about it no less, was just a reason for some friendly roughhousing. No assassination attempts or true resentment in sight. The possibility of Mikey winning was also taken seriously by Splinter and Raphael both. Despite the hints that Mikey is the "baby of the family", no one saw him as less capable than his siblings.

[newtonsheffield]

Hi, Molly! Could you share your favorite Kate and/or Anthony scenes from season 2? And what are your thoughts on not showing their wedding? Were you happy with the epilogue?

My favourite Kate and Anthony scenes from season 2? Okay

If you want a more thorough review of Season 2 I really would recommend watching my Tea and the Ton Videos, yeah, they're long and you have to put up with my bad jokes and me calling a man we've never seen Dilf Daddy Sharma, but I also burst into tears randomly and stab myself in the eye while doing some bee themed makeup so... Ya know. And each episode gets a discussion of about an hour and a half

But my favourite scenes are in no particular order

Kate listening to Anthony talking about being a man of action and realising she feels a kinship with what he's saying. I also love the moment after Kate's spoken to Lady Danbury and you can see Kate slip back into her mask before she rejoins the party. I think in that moment we see, just for a second how lonely Kate really is. And it's very different from the face she shows everyone else

Pall Mall. I love seeing Kate and Anthony be themselves, I love her getting to tease him, and Anthony relaxing a little bit and their stupid little giggles when they fall in the mud are so cute. And I like that Kate's almost disappointed when Anthony just abandons their game because she was actually enjoying herself with him.

Hearts and Flowers. I love the slow motion, I love the tension, I love the moment they realise this isn't something they can really ignore anymore. I love that Kate wants to dance with Anthony, but she also doesn't because she's afraid to let herself know what that feels like and Anthony's the same way. He wants to ask her to dance, but he's afraid of what he'll do because every time he's close to her it's so hard to control himself. And I love the scene afterwards where you can tell in that moment Kate does hate Anthony. Because if it wasn't for him the job she came to England to do would be so much easier. She wouldn't have to worry about the fact that her heart feels like it's going to pound out of her chest every time she's around him.

I know, I know this is a really sad scene But I like the scene where Kate tells Anthony to marry Edwina. Purely because you can see their true characters. You can see that Kate's taught herself to push down every feeling she's ever had and she believes that she can repress whatever she's feeling for him. She can. Because she has to. And you also see that Anthony would do anything she asked him to do. Even if what she wants is the opposite of what he wants.

I don't think I need to mention that the Gazebo Scene is in here. Both of them letting themselves go and being stupid sluts. Perfection.

When Anthony B bares his whole entire soul I almost forget what a dumb fuckboi he truly is and when he cries over Kate being okay: Honey, you're perfect, never change.

The epilogue is three minutes of cinematic perfection. I love how stupidly happy they are. I do. I love it They wanna stay in bed and fuck all day: as they should. And they absolutely do not let the fact that there are actual children watching stop them from sticking their tongues down each other's throats. Perfect. No notes.

Also we know I love the Kate and mary scene. I write an entire essay on it.

[semper-legens]

59. Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play, by Anne Washburne

Owned?: Yes Page count: 91 My summary: After. People huddle around a campfire, trying to remember an episode of the Simpsons. But this is no idyllic campsite. Something has happened, something that ravaged the world. The survivors are trying to pick up the pieces, keep what they remember alive. But culture warps and changes over word of mouth. What will remain of our world after the end? My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

Well, this is something new for this blog. A play! I know, I know, plays are better experienced than read, but a) as far as I know there are no currently-running stagings of this play and b) I supplemented reading the script with watching a version of the play staged by a group who posted it to YouTube, so I have seen an iteration of this. Anyway. Ever since I first heard about it some years ago, this play has deeply interested me. A couple of months ago, a YouTuber I really like posted a video essay about it, which inspired me both to watch it and to read through the play script. It's an odd play. Set shortly after, seven years after, then seventy five years after an unspecified apocalypse, the main thrust of the narrative concerns a small group of survivors attempting to remember the Cape Feare episode of the Simpsons. It turns from an idle pasttime to a paid performance to a ritualistic ceremony over the time periods, and warps and changes as the post-apocalyptic society does. And it was so good.

First of all, I'm in love with how this play is written. Standard sentences, punctuation, and capitalisation are eschewed in favour of a more naturalistic speech pattern that reminds me of how we had to transcribe interviews for English Language classes. Sentences are left unfinished and interjections and filler words are transcribed. It's odd to read on the page, at least at first, but that coupled with actually seeing the dialogue performed leads to a much more realistic flow. You don't just see what they say, you see how they say it, and that betrays some of the thought and motivation behind their actions. It's very slickly done.

Were I a smarter person (or, you know, Kyle Kallgren the aforementioned video essayist) the rest of this post would be devoted to a complex analysis of the play and what it has to say about memory, humanity, capitalism, and the things that will survive after the end. Alas, however, I am not a smarter person, but I shall try nonetheless. The choice to focus around the Simpsons is an intriguing one. The Simpsons, almost accidentally, have become an idealised family of a byegone age - even the show is now quick to point out that the kind of idealised suburbia in which the Simpsons live, where an unqualified man can get a solid union job that supports his entire family on one salary, is a thing of the past these days. For a group of ragged survivors living in the aftermath of a cataclysm, it's no wonder that sort of thing is comforting. And further - in Act Two, the largest part of their performance that we get to see is 'commercials', playacting advertising based around a comfortable, stereotypical middle-class existence. A far cry from bartering batteries for necessities.

The issue of power - as in, electrical - is also highlighted by the text. Batteries are exchanged for goods. Nuclear plants are left unattended and irradiate the land and the people, leaving large parts of America as no-go zones. Lighting in the play is done by natural (or faux-natural) sources; the flickering light of a TV set on an actor's face turns out to just be candles in the shell of the casing. It's something we take for granted here in the present, but it's a vital part of life as we know it. Electrical light is comfort, it's safety. It's stabler than fire - tamed, almost. Without it, we are quite literally shrouded in darkness. And yet, it is one thing that is lacking. And, in the case of the nuclear plants, our past reliance on power damns us. But it's Mr Burns himself who provides the largest embodiment of this theme. Despite not being much of a player in the actual Cape Feare, Mr Burns becomes the major antagonist of the future play, a murderous maniac bent on destroying the Simpsons. It bears repeating that we the audience don't know what ended this world. But capitalistic greed covers a lot of scenarios.

More than that, however, I really enjoyed how achingly human this play is. The first act is heartbreaking, with the survivors desperately trying to remember Cape Feare then being interrupted by the arrival of another survivor, one who opens the audience's eyes to just what has happened here. He is the one who brings in reports from the road, of other settlements…and the list of names. Everyone has a list that they recite, and everyone has a notebook filled with names and fates. It's never quite stated what the deal is, but it's clear that these are friends and loved ones who have disappeared. And the names in the books are those who are known. The name ritual is formal enough that it seems to be a custom in this new world - people wanting to know what happened, wanting closure. Closure that we the audience never get. We see these people, see their desperation and fear in Act Two, and then we hear gunshots and we don't know. It's a short amount of time, and a small window of characterisation. But all the same, we feel for these characters. We want them to be okay - want someone, anyone to be okay. We see ourselves in them. They're not special, not talented, not anything but a bunch of people from the old world making their way through the new. And there's just something special about that.

Next, back to the streets of Yharnam.

[jellogram]

I feel like the transgender website should pay more attention to Lily Simpson, a trans person who has been systematically evaluating portrayals of trans people in like every TV show ever and doing a really good job of it:

Her magnum opus is this 10 hour harry potter dissertation wherein she piece by piece examines every fucked up aspect of the franchise:

If you are a fan of queer-centered media analysis and super long video essays I highly recommend checking out her channel. I like how straightforward and fair she is, taking things like context, time period, and intention into consideration while still refusing to pull punches. She's awesome and you should watch her.

[angelmeateater]

TW- MENTIONS OF RAPE

THAT WAS THE WORST HELLUVA EPISODE EVER WRITTEN OMGGGGG

CAME OUT OF NOWHERE, WHERE WAS THE BUILD UP? WHY DO THEY REFER TO CHARACTER MOMENTS THAT NEVER HAPPENED??? "U MADE ME REALIZE I COULD CHOOSE" BITCH WHEN, WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

THIS EPISODE USES A LOT OF FANCY LANGUAGE TO GET AROUND THE FACT THAT STOLAS AND BLITZ' RELATIONSHIP IS BUILT ON RAPE "YOU ARE NO LONGER OBLIGATION TO SEE ME, TOUCH ME OR BED ME" BEING UNDER OBLIGATION TO FUCK SOMEONE IS RAPE, IT ADMITS THIS FACT YET AGAIN WITH "ALL I CAN SEE IS HOW ITS SO WRONG TO BE TETHERED TO SOMEONE IN SUCH AN UNFAIR WAY" YES. POWER IMBALANCE. RAPE. ITS DANGEROUS FOR A SHOW WITH SUCH A YOUNG AUDIENCE TO SKIM AROUND THIS TOPIC AND MAKE IT SEEM NORMAL. SO NO. JUST BECAUSE STOLAS SAYS HE CARES ABOUT BLITZ DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS RAPE. IT WAS A GOOD THING WHEN HE WAS TELLING BLITZ HE DIDN'T HAVE TO FUCK HIM AND THEN THE SHOW WENT AND TREATED THIS LIKE A BAD THING. THIS IS DANGEROUS. (IF U WANT MORE ON THE SUBJECT U CAN WATCH THIS VIDEO ESSAY BY MADELINE MAYE)

BLITZ IS TOTALLY RIGHT AND ITS A BAD SIGN THAT THE FANDOM TREATS THIS LIKE HE'S WRONG. HELLUVA BOSS HAS A RACIAL HIERARCHY THAT IT HANDLES VERY BADLY, A) IT CAN BARELY DECIDE IF ITS REALLY THERE B) IT DOESN'T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ITS WORLD, SO I WILL PLAINLY SAY IT MEANS THE WORLD OF HELL THAT VIZZIEPOP HAS CREATED HAS A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM, MUCH LIKE REAL RACIAL HIERARCHIES THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT TO EXIST AND IT IS NOT BASED ON SCIENCE OR ANYTHING, EVEN IF YOU GOT RID OF THIS SEEMINGLY EXPLICIT HIERARCHY, IT WOULD STILL BE THERE, MUCH AS IT IS STILL NOW. I FIND THE SHOW IS FALLING INTO THE SAME PROBLEM AS HARRY POTTER IN THAT IT WANTS TO HAVE A RACIAL HIERARCHY AND A SORT OF "SLAVE RACE" (IMPS MAINLY SEEM TO DO ALL THE SERVANT LIKE JOBS, AS WE CAN SEE IN STOLAS' PLACE, THIS ISN'T NECESSARILY SLAVERY, BUT HONESTLY WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE WORLD SO AT THE VERY LEAST WE CAN SAY THE SOCIAL POSITION OF IMPS MEANS THEY CAN'T BETTER JOBS FORCING THEM TO TAKE THE ONES THEY DO. LIKE THAT'S WHY I.M.P. IS SUPPOSED TO BE SO SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE THEY'RE DOING SOMETHING THAT ISN'T USUALLY DONE AND ITS WORKING (HOWEVER U COULD EASILY MISS THIS BECAUSE THEY NEVER FACE ANY PREJUDICE WHEN TRYING TO SET UP THEIR BUSINESS)) YET IT DOESN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, U SEE FOR MOST MEDIA SET IN A WORLD WITH AN EXPLICIT RACIAL HIERARCHY YOU WOULD EXPECT THAT TO BE THE MAIN FOCUS AND AT LEAST TACKLED IN SOMEWAY, AND MAYBE THERE IS A VERSION OF HELLUVA LIKE THAT IN VIZZIE'S MIND BUT SHES OBVIOUSLY BLINDSIDED BY HER AWFUL GAY SHIP TO CARE ABOUT THAT. INSTEAD WE GET A PIECE OF MEDIA WHERE INSTEAD OF TACKLING WHAT U WOULD EXPECT TO BE ITS MAIN ISSUE, IT ENFORCES IT, EITHER EXPLICITLY OR THROUGH IDEAS. I DON'T HAVE TO TELL U HOW SHITTY THIS IS. THIS IS NOT A PROGRESSIVE SHOW AND IF UR CRITERIA FOR SOMETHING PROGRESSIVE MEANS "HAVING GAY PEOPLE IN IT" THEN U REALLY NEED TO GET UR PRIORITIES IN CHECK MAN, U KNOW I REALLY DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE TO HAVE A SHOW WITH SO MUCH GAYNESS IN IT BUT SO MUCH CONSERVATISM IN IT, ACTUALLY WAIT I CAN BECAUSE THE GAYNESS IN THIS SHOW ISN'T ABOUT QUEERNESS ITS JUST MISOGYNY. ANYWAY BECAUSE OF THE POSITION THE SHOWS LANDED ITSELF IN IT HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO REVERT BACK TO INDIVIDUAL OPINION WHEN A SYSTEMIC ISSUE IS BEING DISCUSSED, THIS IS WHY WHEN BLITZ SAYS "TREAT ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR BUTLER IMPS. YOU ROYAL FUCKS THINK YOU CAN DO THIS EVERY TIME, PLAY WITH OUR FEELINGS BECAUSE WE'RE SMALLER AND NOT AS IMPORTANT", STOLAS HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO SAY " BLITZ I THINK SO VERY HIGHLY OF YOU, I DIDN'T THINK U THOUGHT SO LITTLE OF ME", LIKE OMG BLITZ WAS CLEARLY ADDRESSING THE LARGER SYSTEMIC ISSUES AS WELL AS HOW HE'S BEING TREATED BY STOLAS, AND HE'S TOTALLY FUCKING RIGHT, WE AS AN AUDIENCE HARDLY KNOW WHAT BLITZ EVEN THINKS ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH STOLAS, IN FACT THE WHOLE THING, EVEN THROUGHOUT THE VERY EPISODE SEEMS VERY TRANSACTIONAL, BLITZ' FEELINGS ARE NOT CONSIDERED IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, THIS WHOLE INTERACTION IS ABOUT STOLAS' FEELINGS NOT BLITZ', THE AUDIENCE IS SUPPOSED TO THINK BLITZ IS WRONG IN WHAT HE SAYS BUT IN REALITY THE SHOW ITSELF TREATS BLITZ AND THE IMPS JUST AS BLITZ DESCRIBES, BLITZ IS NOT A CHARACTER IN THIS SHOW, HE IS A TOOL FOR A GAY RELATIONSHIP. STOLAS' RESPONSE READS VERY MUCH LIKE A "WHITE WOMAN BEING CONFRONTED BY HER RACIST ACTIONS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THOSE ACTIONS ARE SYSTEMIC" , IT IS TURNING THE SYSTEMIC INTO THE INDIVIDUAL, IT'S "HOW DARE YOU CONFRONT ME ABOUT MY POSITION IN SOCIETY AND THE PROBLEMS THAT I'VE NEVER ADDRESSED, YOU'VE MADE ME UPSET AND UR THE PROBLEM", ITS BAD, ITS SO BAD. THIS SHOW IS SO SHITTY, PLEASE STOP.

LISTEN IF U LIKE THE SHOW U HAVE TO RECOGNIZE ITS ISSUES, ITS NOT JUST BADLY WRITTEN BUT SPREADING SOME DANGEROUS AND CONSERVATIVE IDEAS, IDEAS THAT I KNOW A LOT OF THE YOUNG QUEER AUDIENCE WHO WATCHES IT, WOULDN'T ACTUALLY LIKE, STOP FALLING FOR THE SHOW JUST BECAUSE OF ITS GAY CHARACTERS, IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY LIKE YOU AND YOU SHOULD FIND SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT QUEERNESS RATHER THAN JUST PROFITING OFF YOUR NAIVETY.

[bereft-of-frogs]

is friday. have a list.

reading:

(finished) Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka: Still excellent, still thinking about the ending

(in-progress) The Great Transition - Nick Fuller Goggins: I got this from the person who runs the horror book club I go to. The blurb compared it to Station Eleven, perilously high praise, but I'm weirdly enjoying it. Weirdly because I was afraid the structure would get annoying and weirdly because it's doing a bunch of things I usually find annoying but I'm not annoyed? I think it's because even though there's a lot of social justice themes, it never really feels like the characters are lecturing at the reader. Like there have been some scenes where characters are lecturing other characters - but so far they've all felt like they were more about revealing about the characters and their relationships rather than being like 'see, I know about solidarity, look how good a person I am!' I also really like that the exposition is being given through one of the POV characters (a high school student)'s essays, which have comments from her teacher and the comments are all PERFECT - and sure enough the author's day job is as a teacher. XD

(finished) Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule: still not my favorite, but it does pick up once you get past the first part. I think the narration of that action goes on for a bit too long and doesn't leave much space to take in the characters or setting because so much is happening, one thing after another. But, as I said last week, infinitely better than doomscrolling

(in-progress) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: Ok the thing about Light is that I didn't really care about any of the deaths in it....until this book made me care. I think Gray is just a little bit more adept at character writing, I really started to fall in love with the High Republic and its characters in this book. I am sad though, given I'm probably going to have to skip Midnight Horizon to avoid getting derailed again, this might be where Reath and I part ways. I ended up loving Reath so much! But alas! Midnight Horizon was not my cup of tea, so I will have to say farewell.

(in-progress) Lord of the Rights chapter-a-day reread: Pelennor Fields today. DEAAAATTTHHH!!!!

watching (tv):

(finished) Silo (Apple TV): WHY am I still thinking about that finale?? why was that so good? WHEN is season 2 coming out?

(in-progress, rewatch) Altered Carbon (Netflix): to stop myself from just watching dumb commentary youtube videos while I'm cooking/eating dinner/etc I started rewatching Altered Carbon and damn it's just so good. I'm almost finished with the first season, I know the second is controversial/isn't quite as good but I still enjoyed it so will continue on

I'm in kind of a hangover post-Silo for the show I watch as part of my bedtime routine. I watched 2 episodes of Foundation and precisely 30 minutes of Severance before I fell asleep last night (I was just really tired because a certain Void Creature had me up at 5AM, not Severance's fault), so idk which I'm going to continue on with. Probably Severance, I'll get back to Foundation eventually.

watching (film):

The Strangers (2008): That scene where Liv Tyler is smoking in the kitchen and the intruder is standing unseen in the background is my LITERAL NIGHTMARE.

Hell House LLC II: The Abbadon Hotel (2018) and Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019): This is such a bizarre series because the first is slightly above-average found footage, the fourth is actually surprisingly scary, and the middle two are SUCH hot garbage, but. Completionist. I have seen them all now. The best scene in the third is with the cultists/demons scuttling around and I realized why it makes me laugh, they remind me of the wraiths in What We Do in the Shadows XD

Dune Part 2 (2024) - I SAW DUNE AGAIN IT WAS STILL GOOD. Aside, is Austin Butler in something the Youths (TM) like? Because I only know him from the awful Elvis movie I suffered through last year. The girl selling my ticket was like 'yeah I've seen it twice as an audience member and then I keep going up to the projection room to watch the duel because Austin Butler *heart eyes*' and I was like.....him? Really? Are the kids just horny for Harkonnens? I have questions.

video game update: I'm unstuck on cult of the lamb! I had the run of my life and got past the underwater level, it was great.

craft update: Skein still tangled, don't want to talk about it. But I've finished the short rows on the sweater vest and am onto the repetitive part! The next real milestone will be getting to where it joins the back under the arms, and I no longer have to purl. I can't wait.

weekend list -- just kidding it's a WEEK list because I'm on vacation! (technically I am dogsitting but I'm still taking a week off from work to go hang out with a dog, so that counts as vacation):

focus up to get through the workday. friends, it is 11AM and that is not going well, let me tell you

go for a run

pack / tidy up apartment so I don't come back to wreckage

non-writing things to do while at parents' house:

many walks! dog cuddles!

try out their fancy peloton thing, see what this cult thing is all about

knitting - planning to work on sweater vest, despite the fact that it is black and my parents' dog is so, so yellow... (she's a yellow lab)

laundry. so much laundry. everything that is in my apartment that can be put in a washing machine, is being brought. We've got sheets, we've got towels, bath mats, etc etc. My parents are paying me for dogsitting services in water usage.

read: I'm bringing 3 books I took out of the library yesterday which seems...ambitious...but maybe doable if I-

--don't scroll. seriously. I've blocked so many things, if I can just stick to occasionally checking my tumblr dash and maybe pinterest once in a while, I can get so much else done

writing to-do:

main project: longfic I am tentatively calling 'the station' (probably will change but this is at least better than my last working title which made no sense so I'm keeping it for now), I have 25k in a very rough draft, and am on chapter 2 of 12 in the rewrite (about 8k words). (It's probably going to be much longer than 25k, that was essentially just the self-indulgent scenes that came easily, now I'm doing the hard plot work, connecting scenes, etc, trying to go roughly in order so I don't have to do another full draft.)

start on the final part of 'omens and all kinds of signs': ideally finish a rough draft but we'll see, I have not started it at all, but I know it will feel good to finish it, if I can get some of the pieces together, that would be great

rough draft of the third variation on the tattoo theme (I have...900 words so far)

rough draft of an alternative POV to an already posted fic that's just an excuse to be shamelessly self-indulgent (I have ?? words scribbled in a notebook about it)

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: July 2023

Summertime! Full of good vibes and a bunch of good movies I’ve yet to see. Here’s how I spent the month of July.

……….FILM……….

Barbie (2023) Just incredible. As an artist who works with existing properties overseen by a lot of people, I was amazed at just how deep, critical, and weird this movie was able to get. I truly had no idea where it was going. Funnier and sillier than I expected but am so thrilled that this wasn’t a generic cash-in.

Lupin the Third: The Mystery of Mamo (1978) Years ago I saw a poster by Sam Bosma and that was both my first introduction to Lupin and the reason I wanted to check him out as a character. Going in mostly blind (aside from knowing the main character is a master thief), this movie was weirder, hornier, and way more avant garde than I was expecting! Some really cool animation on display and while the pacing is up and down, I can’t recommend it enough. The main villain reminded me of a mix between Akira’s espers and Paul Williams and turns out Swan from Phantom of the Paradise was an inspiration! So wild.

……….TELEVISION……….

Jury Duty (Episode 1.01 to 1.04) The premise is fun and just when I thought it was starting to dip it turns out the fictional case is compelling too so I’m BACK! Very keen to see how the season ends and what Ronald makes of this in the end.

Mashle (Episode 1.01 to 1.12) This series seems to answer the question: what if Harry Potter was a meathead with no magic? It didn’t really hooked me and the characters are kinda thin but it has moments of wonderful goofiness that I’m glad I finished out the season.

The Bear (Episode 1.04 to 1.08) Just when I thought the show was getting less stressful, the characters pointed out that fact! Then the following episodes ramped up the stress again. But it never feels contrived or unnatural. Everything, from the humor to the stakes to the character interactions, feels wholly organic. Like we’re watching real people live out real lives. I dunno I guess what I’m saying is it’s really good.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03] by Not Just Bikes VIDEO (Title if needed) I’ve been watching a lot of videos about transit lately (like this series by Vox) but the above video is probably the most important one you can watch. His entire Strong Towns series is great and succinctly explains why north american cities suck and keep getting worse. Vote for elected officials that push for density.

What if We Had a GREAT X-Men Game? by The Cosmonaut Variety Hour VIDEO Real shift from bikes and cities but I keep thinking about this video. Speculative stuff rarely hits for me but this is really great and hits all the right notes for the series. Really wish this sorta stuff could get made.

……….READING……….

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber (Complete) I think it was a mistake to keep the original article/essay that inspired this book at the beginning. I found the points made were clearer and more succinct in the condensed version and the book’s tone seems to waffle. There are some good ideas in here but I think it needed more time in the oven. If anything, read the article and the last chapter and I think you’d be good.

……….AUDIO……….

Lofi Covers of Popular Songs (Playlist) I’ve been writing a lot lately so I haven’t been engaging with a lot of music. HOWEVER this playlist on spotify has been on in the background and offers the perfect balance for me: not distracting but engaging if I focus on it.

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 Crew is currently on the run after the retiring couple they kidnapped escaped but I’m sure everything will work out just fine.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The group is still navigating a group of elves on the island and seeing what happens now that they’ve let their star-collecting duties slip. Big trouble. You can read about it here.

And that’s it. See you in August!

[stick-named-figure]

quick post on the music in episode 22: parkour.

i have work i need to be doing but i can't stop thinking about the music here. it's not a complete analysis, there's a call that's repeated but i'm not sure why and i need to find out.

so first of all, i look like this right now. remember i don't care whether an artistic choice was an accident or a non-choice. no just blue curtains in this house.

anyway. this episode does REALLY well with music. scott buckley did a great job on the score. i'll give buckley a handshake and a trophy any day of the week.

use the video as needed, because i'm going to be providing timestamps.

the start of the music is really nice. i'm not sure what quality it is but it sounds a lot like the older minecraft music. the quiet marimba just hits different.

anyway. green is the first one to notice that something's wrong. green's very observant, but that observation also seems to be directly connected to purple. the running melody that appears at 0:44 is on a clarinet, the instrument that's directly tied to green. it comes to a peak as red tries to jump over the piglin and moves into a string section's part, though i can't tell whether it's a violin section or a viola. might just be a "string section" sound.

i don't have much to say about that part (musically. i have plenty of autism i need to get out about how the stick figures handle themselves in this entire video, but that's going to be 30 minutes worth of reading time stuff), because the real reason i wanted to write this post is the part where king is revealed.

at 1:48, purple walks towards king as a much slower ascending violin section plays. it slows as king is revealed fully. there's a cute little reference at 2:06 to "in the hall of the mountain king" by edvard grieg as king has purple show off the minecraft maps with king's plan on them. obviously the crown and everything tells us what king is, but the musical nod is nice too.

anyway the post is about that melody at 1:48. it only plays fully once, it's a four bar melody. every other time it plays it's cut short or modified. the next time we hear it is at 2:45, as orange decides to jump off the platform. the music as orange runs through the looping section goes hard btw.

after that, there's more musical build up as the screen reveals what the place the stick figures are in actually looks like. that reveal makes me go wild. really good. also king's reveal. that goes crazy.

also the dead silence as it's shown king's been drawing little pictures for AT LEAST 4 minutes straight is so fucking funny. purple is bored out of their fucking mind watching this old guy draw for 4 minutes.

the imperial march rhythm at 5:08 is nice too. king later uses "forceHold" on green. that's not an actual command. it's just a reference to star wars.

the real exciting part is when purple tries to take off at 5:30, where that melody comes back again, and is again cut short as green tackles purple back down. it's cut short at the same point as when orange decided to jump off the platform, but this time there's a response, a descending violin section. ascension and descension are very important melodic types for purple, and i'll talk about that later when i can spare the time to finish my essay on episode 29.

the fourth time we hear it is at 5:50, when purple tries to take off and nearly escapes. the start is a bit muddled, but it's only 3 bars, an incomplete resolution for the melody we've been presented.

this melody is purple's. it's not their motif (that's in episode 29), and it's not king's, because king only gets the one usage of the melody. it plays fully when purple believes they've succeeded in the tasks that king has given them.

it's cut short when orange is the first one to escape the platform. it's cut short when green grabs them, and it's cut short again when green stops them.

it's a very good usage of theme. i really hope that motifs keep showing up in the ost because i love tearing them apart. yes i was into undertale.