#i watched like 2 ep of the remake. thought: whats the point of this? and started rewatching the original

[opens-up-4-nobody]

:-P

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - all these kisses Korea, are you feeling okay?

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 5 of 12 - I did think the sketch was done AFTER they’d become lovers. Meanwhile, I do enjoy the creepy slipping through time moments, adds nicely to the tension. I’m sublimely uninterested in all the hets but that's normal for me. Bit of a slow episode, but I'm looking forward to next week. 

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 5 of 12 - Cohabitation trope activated. Also "lovable grandma" is a new BL archetype I can get behind. Honestly PerthChimon's dynamic is good, it’s fun to watch a Thai BL where the leads are actually both stellar actors. There’s no stilted awkwardness to their dialogue back & forth or other interactions. I also like having MarcPuwin back on my screen. NO DAMN SINGING. Finally a fun twist on the faen fatale. 

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 10 of 12 - I like that we’re seeing actual realistic consequences of coming out. Not the big parental freak out, but the small nasties of opening up as an everyday queer. This is rare in BL.  

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 3 of 8 - Lap sitting, lots of kissing, one arm counter lift - thank you, boys. Stupid tiny dog (not a euphemism). Is it just me or does Max look extra pretty these days? Anygay, it’s all quite silly and I'm mildly enjoying it.  

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 11 of 12 - I remain enamored of Big Daddy & the Hot Doc but nothing else. 

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 3 of 10 eps - Their history and the consequences of the confession to their friendship all seems a little sad & cruel. But also it’s just this pulp, ya know? 

(10 points to the True Geek who gets that reference.)

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 6 of 10 - I want Mew’s moms’ story as a GL. (Not from this team, of course.) Ah even Sand can be a lying creep, best not to like anyone in this show... frankly, best just not to like this show. And ya know what, I'm pretty sure I really don't.

Could I make something clear? You can’t "steal a lover from someone." That's puerile thinking. That lover wants to go. It’s the lover’s fault (if anyone) not the one who stole that lover, no matter how much an asshole Top is. Sand’s ex is at fault, not Top. And screw Sand for thinking that way. Like his ex wasn't a whole person in their own right capable of making decisions?

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 3-4 Marry Go Round of 24 eps - The premise of this is dumb. The pair is fun. They still kiss great. The actors are good. Crap story. What can you do? Don’t watch it. 5/10 

I need to rewatch Destiny Seeker now. 

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 5 of 10 - Omg. Too stupid to live. Why am I still watching this? How many more? Ugh. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 7-8fin - SaifahZon (no matter what country) are probably the softest enemies to lovers ever put on screen. Yes they are very cute and I like them better than the original. However, no one can out do ZeeSaint for the count down kiss on the rooftop. All in all, I enjoyed the final 2 eps, very cute. I liked this BL a lot but I’d love to know what somebody thought who hadn’t seen the original.

Ultimately, what can I say about Why R U? Korea?

Korea decided to remake, of all possible Thai BLs, Why RU? And that is exactly what we got: a short form, clean & pretty, uneven chemistry, slightly confusing, all the same tropes KBL that kind of cliff-noted the original but with none of the heat or complex relationship dynamics. I just … what world is this? Because it is BOTH bizarro land, and EXACTLY what I expected. How do I rate something like that? In the end I have to go back to simple questions: did I like it, would I rewatch it, and would I recommend it? Yes. Probably. And probably not. What the actual hell reality? 8/10 

You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 1-2 of 10 - Office romance, broken-grumpy + innocent-sunshine. (Also cutie devil meets angel bestie hotties.) Gotta say, Taiwan is awfully good at moments of recognition. I sense some whipping boy and obsession incoming, looks good on you, Taiwan. Do I like it? Of course I like it! 

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 5 of 13(?) - Taiwan never met a trope it didn’t wanna play with. Teacher student + secret relationship, there’s only one bed but they slept together on the floor anyway... it’s a trope gum ball machine. I'm not mad, a bit confused, but who cares.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 5 of 8 - Uh-oh baby is sad. Yo is such a drama queen - I respect that in a boy. Also, I love it that W took it as and excuse to play Real Boyfriends. Also leaning v obsessive stalker there Japan. As expected you had to go there. Carry on, you do (and track on your creep app) you.

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - Ugh. I kind of enjoyed seeing Minato in pain and having to work for the relationship for a change. But that’s just because I’m so frustrated with his character this season and I want him to SUFFER. Sides are cute tho. I like them better this season. 

It's Airing But...

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - I just can’t. The sound. DNF 

Bump Up Business AKA Bump Up Project (Korea movie) original cinema release was 9/15 but MDL indicates it's been moved to October so I'll shift my dates. Last status update. Love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). Kpop boy group OnlyOneOf signed on to star. They’ve been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV series in this post. It’s from Idol Romance who will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You).

In case you missed it?

What Did You Eat Yesterday? is now available on Gaga. If you enjoyed Our Dining Table, you will enjoy this. 

I did a quick analysis of 2 different acting styles based on these 2 boys here.

Boyband, I finally watched the 6 eps that are available. It aired earlier this year and was hard to find. For good reason it turns out. Yes it’s about a Thai boyband so I skipped all the singing bits. I like the actor playing Juju (Brothers). Also hi Art, are you actually ageless? Lots of other familiar faces popped up like Copter, Max, Fluke. It actually started as a solid little story (if not much of a romance). The stuff with the organizers was v boring and there were 2 het sides but the rest of it was palatable. Operative word being was. Something happened around ep 3, like they lost funding as well as distribution and it just... fizzled. No real ending, no character dev, no story resolution, just blank. It’s like it DNF’d itself. 3/10 I don’t know what I just watched and neither does it. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Still To Come In September

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/27 Bon Appetit (Korea iQIYI) - from 2022, 8 eps from GoGo Studio, romance between an office worker who lives off junk food and the man next door who cooks well.

9/? Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam YouTube?) - it's Vietnam so your guess is as good as mine.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Just look at the PRETTY! His makeup is flawless this series. I don't know who GMMTV hired new for makeup recently, but this ain't Thai style, this genius trained at the feet of Korea's finest. You keep that bitch (hon. gender nu) around, GMMTV, ya hear? (Hidden Agenda)

Gah, I love Yai so much. He tries so hard. He's such a sweet earnest character. He's like the angel-baby opposite of Chan (devil-baby) but they both my 2023 babies. (I Feel You Linger in the Air)

You know I love it when a BL gets meta about tropes. Here's Why R U?K calling out enemies to lovers.

Kabedon!

Yes we like all the snacks, thank you Korea. Your BL is basically snack food anyway. I'm not mad about it.

SWITCHES! I love it when we get this kinda thing. (All Why R U? Korea)

It me in all horror movies and whenever a boy starts to sing in a BL. (Venus in the Sky)

(Last week) 

[calliettes-posts]

Would you rank the skam wlw seasons? and could you justify the rankings? I am interested in your opinion. sorry my english :)

Your English is fine! And sorry for the late reply, I just finished s2 of skam españa so that I can answer this properly

1. Fatou (Druck s6)- now this is me being completely biased, but watching Fatous season live honestly was so life changing, I've never seen a black main character be so portrayed in a beautiful and caring way in Germany, and I honestly adore Fatou. I love that her season didn't deal with a coming out, but that she was already an out and proud lesbian, and I honestly LOVE how they portrayed her and Kieu Mys culture. For me, when it comes to black sapphics and sapphics of colour, I feel like they always make their culture a point of conflict, but with Fatou and Kieu My, their sexualities and culture could just coexist without any problem, and that is so special to me. And I absolutely love Kieu My, I love how well fleshed out she is, how we learn more and more about her throughout the season, and how she's more than what she portrays, how she just wants to be seen and not have to be perfect and please everyone all the time, how much pressure she puts upon herself just to make everyone happy, and so much more, I also love how they used her social media to document how and when exactly Kieu My stopped performing and started ro just be herself. Also back to the culture, I loved how they referenced Fatous, Kieu Mys and Avas cultures, it felt like it was made for bipoc watchers, and not to educate the white audience, and that is what made it so authentic imo, because as a black person, I don't need explanation for certain things, like for example when ava explained how mailin behaved at the protest, I immediately understood why she was bothered by it, and so did fatou, and that was realistic, its the small things, but that made me relate to the characters so much more, or when fatou face timed her relatives and relied on her dad to translate to her, these moments are so special to me. I also love the symbolism throughout the season, from Kieu My being the axolotl and Fatou the tortoise to the astrology references to Kieu My being the ice queen and Fatou the warmest person ever, how well they complemented etc etc. Also: " Kieu My, du bist so schön. Ich hab mir ne Liste gemacht an Dingen die so schön an dir sind. Wie du zum beispiel immer deine ohren hinter deinen haaren versteckst, wie du so eng mit deiner Familie bist, und dass du so krass gut mit Horrorfilmen bist. Aber am meisten lieb ich wenn du lachst. Weil dann seh ich dich. Und wie viel liebe in dir ist."Like hello???? Also, the entirety of Sonntag, 13:28, and how they related and bonded with each other through their experiences of being a child in an immigrant family. Generally, I love how much care was put into this season, and that's why Fatous s6 and kieutou will always be on top for me. Also, it's the remake where I don't need any translations for lol

2. Anaïs (Wtfock)- now I know the writing has been disappointing since ep7, but honestly, I am sosososososo grateful to have Anais as a main character in a skam remake. I honestly love her, I love how loyal, caring, and kind she is, and there's nothing that could make me hate her, like that's my nigerian sister, I honestly never thought that we'd get nigerian sapphic rep, and I'm so here for it. As for Anobbie, I love how their development was shown from ep1 to 6, especially ep3, that ep felt like it was straight out of a rom com, from anobbie fleeing together from that Fries place and getting closer to the subtle flirting of Bobbie, to Bobbie looking out for and helping out Anais at the party and with her friends drinking away her dads alcohol, to Bobbie opening up to Anais about her dad and showing her the place where her fathers ashes were sprayed, to Anais and Bobbie getting closer, to Anais arranging a date meeting with bobbie, to Anais playing "I'm gonna make you love me" and making Bobbie dance with her, to Bobbie finally kissing her, like it was so beautiful to watch. Also, I love how anobbie complements eachother and how theyre exactly what the other person needs, Bobbie makes Anais feel free and able to stand up for herself and feel like she's herself, and Anais makes Bobbie feel safe and provide a sense of stabilty, they really adore eachother and would go to great lengths to protect eachother, and I honestly love to see it. Also they reminded me a lot of kieutou, and alone for that they're high on the list. Also, just like Kieu My, I love how fleshed out Bobbie is as a love interest, she's such an interesting character that you want to know more of, and whether you love her or hate her, you pay attention to her, that's how interesting she is and im so here for it. And after druck, they're the remake where I need the least amount of translation for lol

3. Cris- (skam españa s2)- I just finished watching it, and omg, crisana literally invented gay staring, from their first meeting their eye contact was so insane, it got me giggling and kicking my feet lol. I really liked the season, I loved how reassuring and supportive Cris friend group is, how they were there for her every single time she had problems with Joana, and generally they seem like such a sweet friend group, and now i see why they're most peoples fave girl squad. As for crisana, they were so cute, I love how much they adored eachother, and I really love how reassuring cris was with joana at the end, telling her that she won't run away and that she'll be there for her. I also loved howbwe could see just how much cris cared for joana, like she cried in almost every single clip after joana disappears. honestly sometimes forgot that this was an evak remake lol, but I think it did the OG justice

4. Lola (skam france s6)- I don't remember much from lolas seasons except that it was veeeeryy dark, and that she could never catch a break, like why did they make her suffer so much? I feel like her and Maya could've had more development because their relationship felt rushed to me, but they were really cute, and I really love the scene where Maya draws on lola while she's laying there crying, it feels to intimate and special. Also, just like Bobbie, Lola is a polarising character, and I love those types of characters, especially female ones

5. Maya (skam france s9)- this never happened, mayla are still happily together while they work on their issues through proper communication, lola never broke up with Maya, and they still have their tattoo together

But honestly, this was so disappointing, the first time a LI got a season, and then we don't even learn anything about the LI at the end, it feels they just made the season to have an excuse to break up mayla, but we already knew that

[southernwolf16]

After coming across SVSSS-related stuff on the blogs I follow/stalk, I finally gave in to my curiosity and checked the donghua.

I tried reading the novel a while back, but it didn't entice me that much so I didn't finish it. I think seeing the donghua helped spark my interest again.

Then I held back from watching Ep 10 for the past week and started reading the novel. I'm almost finished with it.

It's so different from MDZS. I find myself laughing most of the time. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan edition) are such disasters. I'm sure the more senior fans have already written eloquent posts about how codependent they are, Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan's relationship, why Cucumber Bro and Airplane Bro transmigrated to the novel they read/wrote, why the System exists in the first place, writing what you're passionate about vs writing what'll bring in money, and who is Jiang Cheng's counterpart in SVSSS, among other things. I think I read a post suggesting it's Liu Qingge? Or is it Shen Jiu?

Anyway, back to the donghua. I hope I'm not alone in saying I like the character design. At first it was a little jarring---maybe because I'm not used to watching CGI---and the donghua isn't actually 100% polished a la FFVII remake (on a side note, someone joked that Yue Qingyuan seems to be from the PS2 era). Regardless, I appreciate the design since it gave me an idea how the characters look like.

Which is why I'm a bit surprised when I started trawling the SVSSS tags here at Tumblr and saw art depicting Luo Binghe as a curly-haired, big-muscled mountain of a man. Perhaps this is influenced by Western taste? I'm not an expert in Chinese literature or culture, but in some pics I've seen from Cdramas those of demon blood who play major roles don't have the physique of someone who can crack walnuts with their biceps. Think Wang Yue (Wang Zhuocheng) from Legend of Chongzi and that actor from Love Between Fairy and Devil. Furthermore, Luo Binghe is described as a pretty boy in the novel so at this point, I'm of the humble opinion that the donghua got his body type right. And I subscribe to the standards of beauty from the source culture.

Okay, going back to the donghua Ep 10. As we say here in my country, papunta na tayo sa exciting part---I'm going to see Luo Binghe get pushed down the Endless Abyss by his beloved Shizun. Oh, the angst, the drama.

Nope. Nothing of the sort happened.

Oh, so they saved it for Season 2 [Tries to find Season 2]

[Season 2 not yet released] 😨

What. The. Hell.

I held off finishing Season 1 because I thought Season 2's already available. The site where I watched the donghua said Season 2's release is 2022.

Dude, we're two months' shy of closing 2023. 😱

Season 2, where art thou? 😭

[flower-boi16]

Lily Orchard’s Takes on Hunter are garbage and here’s why [The Owl House]

I decided to remake this post because there were some things I wanted to add in or change about the original post (and because no one saw the original post lol). So...let’s just get this over with. 

I'm just gonna cut to the chase; The Owl House is a fantastic show and I think LO's takes on one of the characters in the series are poorly thought out or just not true and here's why. For those who (somehow) don't know; Lily Orchard is a youtuber who makes video essays on cartoons, she's also probably the most controversial youtube critic I've seen. I'm not gonna cover much of the drama that Lily's been involved in, but I felt like that was worth mentioning. The Owl House is a show that Lily covers quite a bit on her channel, but she has a very certain dislike of one particular character in it; Hunter. I decided to make this post for two reasons; 1) I don't see many people debunking Lily's arguments about Hunter outside of some asks on LO gossip blogs on Tumblr and 2) I really like Hunter. He's probably my second favorite of the main characters right below Luz for me, and I wanted to make this post after finishing the show because...

Lily's arguments about Hunter aren't very good. They are filled with Lily constantly making poorly thought out and false arguments about Hunter that could be easily disproven if you actually watch the show. So I'm gonna cover some of Lily's points about Hunter and why they are false. This post is going to cover some of Lily's major arguments criticizing Hunter and why I disagree with them. Let's begin.

"Hunter Is a Passive Character"

I'll just take this piece of text from a really good article I've found about passive characters right here:

"These characters have goals — from as small as a glass of water to as big as saving the world — and their determination to achieve those goals creates the stakes of the story.  Passive characters are, naturally, the opposite. They wait for things to happen instead of making them happen. They’re reactive, not proactive.  Whereas active characters impact the story, passive characters sit back and experience the story." -WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID WRITING PASSIVE CHARACTERS (& HOW TO MAKE THEM ACTIVE)

As the text says, a passive character is a character that doesn't contribute to the story in any meaningful way and simply sits back, and watches the story as it goes, often waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen. It's important to define what a passive character is to illustrate my point; that being, Hunter is not a passive character, which is what Lily accuses him of being. To take some quotes from Lily's video on Hunter:

"Hunter's character has been passive from his first appearance, even when he had the trash boy Vanitas vibe going for him. He shows up, does nothing, refuses to elaborate and leaves."

"Typically passive characters aren't a good thing to give this kind of screen time to because the majority of that time will be spent watching them hem and haw and drag their feet. This was the problem with Hollow Mind. It doesn't go through much information that's new to the viewer, and indeed that new information is kept to the background paintings. And that's because 90% of the episode is spent watching Hunter cope and seeth which grinds the story to a halt"

"Most of the time when he's actually in an episode, the story grinds to a halt while Hunter sits there and does fucking nothing and you may as well skip to act 3 because its going to go the same way the last few of them went" -Glass of Water Character Potential Doesn't Excuse Lazy Writing

Lily says that in most of the episodes centering around Hunter, he just sits there and does nothing until the episode's third act. However, this simply isn't true. Let's look at four out of the five episodes focusing on Hunter and why the things he does in those episodes don't make him passive.

S2 EP 6: Hunting Palisman: I don't have much to say about Hunter in this one. This episode basically introduces us to Hunter proper where we get to see him grow a slight friendship with Luz and him deciding to let her take the palisman instead of betraying her. Don't have much to say here.

S2 EP9: Eclipse Lake - This is an example of Hunter pushing the plot forward and him not being a passive character. Here, he disguises himself as a coven scout to go to the expedition led by Kikimora searching for Titan blood in eclipse lake so he could prove himself to be useful to Belos after he says that Hunter is "replaceable".  Later in the episode, he gets the Titan blood key and gives it to Belos. This is an example of Hunter being an active character; he pushes the plot forward and contributes to it, which is important because passive characters don't do that; rather, they wait for the plot to happen and react to it rather than actually making the plot happen.

S2 EP 13: Any Sport in a Storm - Now this is where Lily's points about Hunter being "passive" really begin to show their cracks. In this episode, Hunter goes to find recruits for the emperor's coven after being "ordered" by Darius to do, so he could, like in the last episode, prove his worth to the emperor's coven. Here, he joins Willow's flyer derby team and after playing a game he basically kidnaps them and makes them join the emperor's coven against their will. After realizing what he did was fucked he goes to protect them by saying their too weak for the emperor's coven, giving them a chance to escape. Hunter, like in the last episode, is not only an active character by pushing the plot forward, but he also goes through development here as he learns to make connections with people outside of the emperor's coven and is even willing to take a lethal blow from Darius to and sacrifice his status to protect his friends. Hunter, like in his last episode, is not a passive character.

S2 EP16 Hollow Mind - Hey, did you know that Lily thinks Hollow Mind is the worst episode of the show and thinks it's a 1/10? I could cover how bad Lily's takes on this episode are but someone already did make a video on that so I won't touch on her other takes about the episode here, but it's clear from the last quote that Lily misses the point of the episode. In this episode, Hunter gets trapped with Luz inside of Belos's mind and they end up seeing Belos's memories, which challenge Hunter's entire worldview. The episode shows how much Hunter was manipulated by Belos, as he believes that Belos has done nothing wrong and that he is making Hunter do the right thing. As the episode goes on however, and he and Luz begin seeing Belos's memories, Hunter ends up being in denial that Belos is actually evil, making excuses for what he did in those memories, with this line after Hunter and Luz see what the sigils actually do standing out to me;

Luz: You can't deny it now. Belos is trying to hurt people!

Hunter: He was just... perfecting sigil magic! Besides, maybe, he's remembering things wrong. Who knows how mindscapes work?

Luz: I thought you did!

Hunter: Well, maybe I'm an idiot!

Hunter was raised to think that emperor Belos was doing a good thing, and that he loves him. All of that comes crashing down when It's revealed that Belos has killed previous Golden Guards, and the episode ends with breaking from Belos's control and realizing that he was being used and manipulated all along with his whole world turning upside down. This episode has Hunter learn the truth about Belos and shows how much Belos warped his worldview into believing he was doing the right thing. That's the point of Hollow Mind; It's about Hunter realizing that Belos has lied to him this whole time and breaking free from his abusive "uncle". The fact that Lily just labels this episode as another one where he "waffles around about whether to do the right thing again" is just missing the point. Again, he's been lied to his whole life, it's gonna take a lot for him to see the truth.

S2 EP18 Labyrinth Runners - I don't have much to say about this one, but Hunter does still grow as a character here. In the episode, Adrian (The head of the illusionist coven) tries to get the students of Hexside to get sigils for the day of unity, and Gus ends up creating a giant illusion that covers the entire school making many students (and teachers) get lost in the illusion. Before that, It's revealed that after the events of Hollow Mind, Hunter has gone under hiding from Belos and went to Hexside to crash in. Like the previous episodes, this episode has Hunter grow as a character, with him overcoming his trust issues with Gus, but he also saves Gus from Adrian. This is another episode where Hunter grows as a character and actively pushes the plot forward.

So, as we've seen through all of these episodes, Hunter is not a passive character, unlike what Ms Orchard over here would like to tell you. He doesn't spend most of his episodes focusing on him sitting around doing nothing; In all of the episodes he's in he is either actively pushing the plot forward or growing and developing as a character. Lemme take another piece of text from that article I previously mentioned;

These characters have goals — from as small as a glass of water to as big as saving the world — and their determination to achieve those goals creates the stakes of the story. - WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID WRITING PASSIVE CHARACTERS (& HOW TO MAKE THEM ACTIVE)

Hunter starts out as a character that has a goal; that being proving himself worthy to the emperor's coven, and we see him try to work for that goal in S2 EP9 and S2 EP13. So, Hunter is not a passive character, he's a character who either pushes the story forward or is actively growing and developing, unlike what Lily would like to tell you.

And here’s another thing; notice how Lily never sites any examples to her point where she says this:

"Most of the time when he's actually in an episode, the story grinds to a halt while Hunter sits there and does fucking nothing and you may as well skip to act 3 because its going to go the same way the last few of them went" -Glass of Water Character Potential Doesn't Excuse Lazy Writing

“The same as the last few of them went”, Lily, please explain how each of Hunter’s episodes go if you’re going to make this claim. Hunter’s episodes don’t have the same structure copied and pasted throughout, if you actually watch them you would know this. I know Lily watched these episodes, so where is she getting this from?

"Hunter is Stapled onto Other Characters"

This is another common complaint Lily has with Hunter, that being he is "stapled" onto other characters in his episodes and that he often overshadows them. I'm just gonna cut to the chase; wtf does this even mean? Lily doesn't specify what she means by Hunter being "stapled" onto other characters nor why it's a bad thing, if anything all she is describing here is Hunter interacting with other characters in his episodes. However, there is another side to this argument that Lily has, that being that she thinks that Hunter overshadows other characters, mainly Willow and Gus, and that they get pushed to the side for the sake of his arc, and that Hunter takes up too much screen time.

The issue with this point is that Hunter really doesn't overshadow other characters as much as Lily says he does. For Gus in particular in Labyrinth Runners he isn’t pushed to the side in favor of Hunter like how Lily says he is; the episode shows both of them working through their trust issues. Hunter isn’t being “stapled” onto Gus here just so he could overshadow him, both characters support each other’s arcs and help them grow. It really feels like Lily hates Hunter for just...being in an episode, regardless of the reason. As for Willow, I don’t think Hunter overshadowed her much either. That being said, I always found Willow to be an underdeveloped character to begin with so maybe that’s why, but like Gus she also does support Hunter’s arc and helps him grow. 

She even sometimes says that Hunter is just shoved into an episode for no reason other than Dana apparently liking him a lot which...also no, Hunter is not shoved into an episode for no reason, in his episodes he is interacting with other characters and growing because of them.

So yes, Hunter is stapled onto other characters....why is that a bad thing tho? He’s just interacting with other characters in the show, what’s wrong with that? Why is a character interacting with other characters bad? Like, in her TOH season 2 round up video, one of the cons for the episode Hollow Mind is “Golden Guard is stapled onto Luz to inflate his importance”...so she’ll just list Hunter being there or interacting with the characters as something wrong with an episode...ya. If that’s not another really bad point I don’t know what is.

"Hunter is a superfluous character"

This section is going to be shorter than the other two mainly because this was partially responded to in the first section, but it was a big enough criticism for Hunter that Lily has so it's worth giving its own section to. So anyways, Lily often says that Hunter is an unnecessary character and that you could remove him from the story and nothing would change. This, like Lily's other points about Hunter, isn't true. Aside from how, like I mentioned earlier, Hunter has a connection to Belos, the main antagonist of the series, he makes major contributions to the plot outside of that. He's the one to give the titan blood key to Belos, he saves Gus from the illusionist, he discusses what is going to happen on the day of unity with the other students at Hexside, and he's the one to get possessed by Belos. So no, Hunter is not an unnecessary character, he's a character that makes contributions to the plot , and major ones at that.

Conclusion

So, that was my mini-essay on why I disagree with Lily's points on Hunter. I had never made a post as big as this one before, but hey, at least I get satisfaction out of defending one of my favorite characters in a show that I like from someone who clearly misunderstands it. So ya...bye

[agentemo]

Netflix's ATLA initial thoughts, ep 8: Legends

Honestly love Katara joining Aang in attacking the ships. I still wish he could waterbend too. Oh Sokka is here! Teamwork :')

Awkward CGI ftw. I had to mention it at least once.

Iroh giving Zuko advice makes more sense! That's the kind of thing I wanna see! That said, "Lu Ten woulda been proud" is not as strong as "You are like a son to me." Whack dialogue strike 74.

Bringing in the airship early is...a choice. And oh man Iroh, you will find out what job soon enough.

WHY HAVEN'T WE SEEN AANG WATERBEND

I GUESS WE'LL SEE ALL THESE WOMEN FIGHT INSTEAD I'M NOT CRYING

Sokka and Yuuue sitting in a...on an ice block

Master Katara seemingly as earned in this show as in the OG. Which is extra points against this show lmao you're supposed to improve upon the flaws you stupid remake!

Fucking fire sage traitor ass bitch. I don't mind the sages having this information; makes sense. I also like that the ocean and moon spirits appear rarely instead of BEING mortal. That is the kind of flaw improvement I like to see.

I don't love the super powerful being (Aang) seeing things others don't. It's giving hallucinations for plot purposes, which I hate.

Momo came here to nearly die, I see. I'll allow it. There's a push and pull (heh) between realism and fantasy and they are leaning toward realism. It works if Yue has powers and needs to save someone in an oasis that is not just a 10 by 10 island.

I love seeing the adults act. They're so believable lmao.

Katara Zuko fight! Lmao and Aang telling her to go easy on him. I wish that was earned.

"Yes. You're looking at her." PERIODT! I...wish that was earned.

Zhao wanting firelord is bullshit. Also how do you know which fish is the moon? Must... not... nitpick... final... episode.......

I will say Zhao's actor ate this whole season. He came to the Netflix buffet and had his fill and then some.

Color grading, I kiss you on the mouth.

So many water tribe warriors would have died in the wake of the death of the moon spirit. I'm glad they showed that. It hurts to watch but I didn't sign up for this live action remake to have my hand held.

I finally believe this kid as Aang and it took him about to go kaiju. Maybe because I couldn't see his eyes.

Speaking of kaiju!!! Fuck it up, kings! We BIG mad with the Avatar and ocean spirit!

He's a small man! Who's gonna meet a small end!!!

Okay. I love Azula in this. They made a good choice here. Actually no. They made many good choices here. They brought her forward a season and they made so many compelling choices with her character. Incredible.

Yeah keep throwing fireballs at a water kaiju you dumb fucks.

Sokka and Yuuue... and then just Sokka...

Katara, he can't hear you. Stfu.

I love seeing the aftermath except I don't. Fuck the aftermath. Have I not cried enough?

NOT THE GUY WITH THE DIMPLES

You don't! Have to be a warrior!!! To be a hero!!!!!!

A man needs his rest!!!!!! And a me needs their CRY

Chemistry between the trio in the literal last scene of them lmao.

Azula helping conquer Omashu? Under the shadow of the siege of the north? Brilliant.

NOT AZULA BEING A WEAK SACRIFICE.

Yeah what the FUCK is next, Azula?

G-give...me season 2? Now. I want it now.

More thoughts coming....well I have a lot of work the next few days but this will be front of mind anyway lol

[imsailorpluto]

Island - 아일랜드

thoughts pt xyz, pre-finale

It all started with a few cool gifs on suggested for you page. Then I found the show and watched the first part. Next thing you know, I was reading the old manhwa, it was like discovering oasis in the middle of a desert. At first I was ecstatic but then disappointment hit me and I tried to brush it off. I thought reading manhwa would give me some solid answers regarding drama. Despite the fact it didn't, reading this unfinished masterpiece was extremely enjoyable. There is a new remake of manhwa, which I'm not a big fan of and honestly doubt I'll be finishing it (but you never know, curiosity does wonders if applied constructively).

The thing is, I'm in love with the old graphics of Island. This is it for me. I don't want the reboot. I want the old manhwa to continue where it stopped. That's Island.

If you've meet Pan and Miho through manhwa, then watching the drama might be quite shocking. These two (four??) characters only resemble each other. As a matter of fact, atmospheres these two products bring are not comparable at all. The only consistency that keeps binding manhwa and drama seems to be Johan or John, whatever you want to call him, although even he was wrongfully neglected too many times. He isn't a weak boy who can easily be stopped by someone pulling on his hoodie, and although such depiction does contribute to his cute image, it also contributes to making him look weak. That, he most certainly is not, which is greatly covered by manhwa.

Liking Johan is as easy as breathing. He deserves the world. If that character came to life and asked for anything, my card would fall out of the wallet and start hitting the desk all by itself that instant. No questions asked. The end.

While this isn't an attempt to draw parallels between drama and manhwa, I can't help but think why the writers chose their approach of bringing many tremendous changes. There's so much potential in the story and character development, but that's all. It's just the potential. Miho is regressing as a character as drama continues in pt 2, and so is Pan. And all for the sake of recycling an overused love story.

Just don't mess with the original code if it works, ok?

I can't deal with this pairing. Yes, it was cute at first how Miho and Pan interacted in part 1. They made my heart flutter. It's something about Pan's lack of interest and Miho's character portrayal in part 1 along with her fascination with Pan in those very first episodes that made their dynamics charming. Their toxic interaction tickled my imagination, just like everyone else's. Anticipation of possible romance between these two fit in there perfectly. However, actually going a step further in a way it was executed (in ep 10) feels inconsistent with the previous events.

Can't we have yearning and bond as deep as the sea that isn't romantic? Because their bond was pretty special. She actually needed him to protect her from lust demons. She was desperate at this point. It was either she dies or she hires a "killer" to protect her.

What's wrong with "I'm a half-demon and would kill you but you pay me well so I'm not going to" or "I promised not to let those demons harm you and that alone is the reason I am there for you, don't be fooled". Can't we have a human falling for a half-demon who's been out of touch with his humanity for so long that he doesn't even take Miho's feelings (in development) seriously?

It didn't felt right when Pan pushed Miho's head into the desk in part 1, but something about Miho reaching out to him nonetheless makes all the difference here. That's the point. That's them.

Couldn't writers work more on that toxicity, since that's how their relationship started in the first place? Somehow we got damsel in distress and knight in a shining armor instead, even for a brief moment in ep 10. I love a good romance but the drastic shift from their original selves doesn't sit right with me. Characters went from 2.0 to beta-testing mode.

Appealing to the masses just doesn't seem like a suitable explanation anymore. Someone who is only getting familiar with Island through watching the drama will almost certainly get awfully confused before disappointment hits them, let's keep it real. Wrapping up is rather clumsy and episodes leave impression as if different crews worked separately on filming. Making one slow burner episode in a 12 episode challenge is something most would frown upon. Making more than one slow burner episode while not resolving so many important issues most definitely won't sit right with the audience. Well, it's done. Whether we like it or not.

Then there's Gungtan, a whole mess of a character. Beautiful. Tragic. Broken. Beyond repair. But only on the surface.

While the old manhwa has John in the position of writer's personal punching bag, in drama that special place is reserved for both Pan and Gungtan. Gungtan appears in the remake of manhwa for the first time and his purpose there is killing Pan, apparently. That's as far as I've got, which is really not even half-way through. In drama, however, writers put him through hell and back, for the sake of creating a generic super-villain. It's been implied that his purpose is killing Wonjeong/Miho, but something doesn't feel right about this. Again.

My what will be what now? Honey, can we talk about this? You know I want only what's best for you. Let's have some nice warm tea, I've even baked you your favourite cookies. Let's take a shower, put on some fresh clothes and then we can go to the park and have a little picnic out in the sun. Come on now.

Writers, why couldn't you make a choice on time and stick to it? Why would anyone appreciate this poor and hurried attempt of vilifying? Are we building a complex character who is also a villain? Are we adding some very realistic depths to his character and making him look more human? Or are we making a simple cold-blooded murderer without a proper backstory because there is simply no humanity in him to begin with and therefore this whole narration is useless? What the hell are we doing? We can't do both at once. Because I'm pretty sure accidentally turning him into an actual protagonist of the show in few easy steps cannot be "fixed" by a (useless/pointless) shocking mass murder, preceded by lovey-dovey fabrication pulled out of thin air. Only to bring him back to factory settings from part 1 all over again. I'm taking it as screenwriter's cry for help, nothing more and nothing less. Did that second mass murder even happen? Not in my head it didn't.

Fear of the audience favorizing Gungtan, murderer of the whole religious sect of child abusers, over a forced cliché beauty and a beast love story, between a damsel in distress and a morally enlightened demon-slayer who is half demon himself, is very real. God forbid that happens, of course. Well, it's happening anyways and no cheap trick will stop it. He stole the show, it's done.

We. Love. Gungtan.

May the babygirlification begin. Starting sequence in 3, 2, 1

Leaving manhwa aside, the series had a huge potential to go in so many different directions, without even following original plotline. That's exactly what happened, it went into too many different directions at the same time and ended up being a huge mess difficult to clean up and wrap up. The only thing that makes me cling to it is the genre it represents and what's left of main characters, as each of them has their own well distinguishable charm. I'm loving the series, despite what it turned into.

It's like putting on every piece of clothing you ever looked good in, all at once, at the same time, because, well, you think you'll look even better. And it doesn't work that way. Or buying all the finest ingredients you could find and thinking it will make the food taste heavenly but instead you've got served Rachel Green’s Thanksgiving Trifle, so what do we do now?

All in all, it's easy to conclude even writers got lost in redefining already well defined plotlines, so nobody truly knows what is going on and why. Formulas for success got mixed up pretty badly. Even without taking manhwa in consideration, there's that bitter-sweet taste. Nothing is clear and everything's been mushed. It takes some time for impressions to set, but as time goes by, the less I am happy with the final result.

It's gonna be better next time. Hwaiting!

Pluto's out

[slayerkitty]

helloo!! sending you the ask as promised :)) firstly, how are you? how’s your health? hope you’re feeling better now!!

so here’s what i was thinking, completely entertaining the thought that ep1 & 4 of OF were in fact referencing SKAM. the reason i even thought of this comparison between OF & SKAM was because of the title cards in ep1 & 4. as i was researching, i also found that texting between characters which was used as a motif in SKAM, also shows up in in OF ep4 between nick & top (i’ve attached screenshots for all of this). however, for reasons such as the fact that the narrative frameworks used in OF don’t repeat in a linear pattern and that there definitely has to be a reason behind why a particular narrative framework was chosen for a particular ep, i think the reference runs deeper than just the title cards and text trails. given your post on narrative frameworks in OF & the super tiny discussion we’ve had in its comments, i thought i’d ask you for your opinion on this :))

title cards part 1:

SKAM:

ONLY FRIENDS:

text trails:

SKAM:

ONLY FRIENDS:

title cards part 2:

SKAM: i’m not sure if we saw title cards of the name/actual title variety in SKAM and i couldn’t find any in my brief YT rewatches also but pls do lmk if u find any!!

ONLY FRIENDS:

lil disclaimer here, i watched the dutch remake of SKAM till mid of s3 (which is the queer season) when it was airing, so sometime in late 2019/early 2020. the original SKAM was also polish so there might be a few discrepancies between the two shows (none that i came across tho) and some gaps in my memory but anyway, coming back to the point.

so for context, the most important thing about SKAM that remained consistent across all of its remakes (i think) was that it told the story of a group of teenagers within a high school in whichever city the show took place and while each season had a new protagonist/core characters etc. they were all connected and were friends w each other (for example the protagonist of s3 was classmates w the protagonist of s1 (and as far as i remember friends w her boyfriend?) so more like everyone was a friend of a friend/classmates etc.). this meant that while each season dealt w a different couple/core group of characters, these characters and their plot was still impacted by the side characters, the side plot lines, the past, the present etc. and vice versa.

now, one thing that i noticed in both ep1 & 4 of OF was that we seem to move away from the typical couples and get a larger peek into the relationships of all the characters, their dynamics w each other, different past storylines etc. more than in the other 3 eps. ep1 was obviously more of an intro/context-setting episode where we were introduced to each character, the different relationships we’re to get etc. but ep4 specifically went more into the past of the friend group, top & sand’s past, explored vulnerability in nick & sand’s friendship, the whole ordeal with ray & mew. it essentially explored relationships between characters from different couples (in both the past & the present), that we otherwise haven’t seen much of at all. do you see the similarity i see?

now where am i going with this? idk either, this is the point where i get stuck. now while all of this could easily be chalked off as part of building the plot in OF and have no connection to SKAM, i am just not able to ignore these similarities. i also didn’t go too deep into my own research/exploration of this similarity so there might be stuff that i missed (pls pls tell me if u think i have) but i think a deep dive is extremely worthy here. further, i think that as more eps air, and we get to some new narrative frameworks/old ones repeating, we’ll probably be able to identify patterns better and get more insight into this similarity and arrive at the purpose/rationale behind the other narrative frameworks.

what are your thoughts @slayerkitty? do you see what i see or am i trying to connect dots that are worlds apart? cant wait to hear your thoughts on this!!

also also, so i have been reading the ephemerality squads posts on voyeurism and how OF explores this motif and i found some really cool connections to SKAM in this regard. i’ll not go into too much detail here because this ask is already miles long but apparently SKAM poland played a lot with the use of social media in its show and the characters had real, live instagram accounts that fans could access between airs. additionally, when SKAM poland was airing, the official SKAM website would apparently drop 5-minute clips of the show at the same time as when the scene occurred within the show’s universe (as in if two characters had a chat at 9.30am on tuesday morn, the scene would drop at the same time) throughout the week at random intervals and then these would be compiled into the final, weekly episodes. i’m not sure if the show intended to incorporate these in the context of voyeurism, but do you see the controlled voyeurism similarities?

Aww, thank you for asking. I'm doing a bit better, not quite 100%, but getting there.

Oooooo you gave me some stuff to chew on.

I'm not sure if the days are an homage to SKAM or not, but that is a very iconic shade of yellow, so I can't rule it out. P'Jojo did say there was more to the whole day's of the week thing because it was a way to show how structured Mew was (apparently it got cut). I think I'm gonna add this to my narrative frameworks post as a visual moment for episode one.

Text trails are harder because it's very common for shows to do this. I don't know if we can correlate this back to anything specific because I think it's just a sign of the times with phones. Having said that, you could be right and combined with the yellow text cards...

So I have watched all the queer seasons of all the SKAMs, lol (except newer seasons of SKAM France cause that show is on like season 10 omg), and pieces of other seasons. I do not recall if the titles ever appeared on screen, I will have to look into that. If they did, that could possibly lean us toward more certainty.

Now I've seen people mention that OF is more along the lines of Queer as Folk, which P'Jojo has referenced, but I wouldn't necessarily shoot down the core friend group being a kind of homage to SKAM either. It's not a perfect parallel either way. (And yes, Isak and Jonas are BFF, and Jonas dates the main from season one, though they break up later, and omg, I forgot her name).

YES!!!!! The way that SKAM airs to this day (I think France, Germany, and maybe Italy are the only ones still on air, but apparently Korea is gonna try their hand at it next year??) is that clips drop during the week at the time they take place. So if the characters are doing shit at 1am, a clip is dropping at 1am. Then, at the end of the week, the network airs all the clips together as the epiosde on tv. SKAM was revolutionary and wild. They did social media, too, and the nature of its release combined with that does have a very voyeuristic vibe as well.

Season three of original SKAM (Norway) was also an homage to the late 90s film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, so it could fit in with the late 90s aesthetic we've picked up on in OF.

I think you are definitely not wrong to have made these correlations - I see them, too! I think we might need a few more episodes before I wanna weigh in with any certainty, but I am like this right now: 👀👀👀👀👀

[aotopmha]

This anime season was the first season in a while I followed several series and finished them.

My general thoughts:

Chainsaw Man Season 1 – Entertaining action/horror. Cast with strong base personalities, interesting focus on craftmanship of moments and letting moments sit.

Pop Team Epic Season 2 – Extremely entertaining comedy. The series continues its streak of understanding shitposting and what makes it fun.

Mob Psycho 100 Season 3 – Fantastic finale to a fantastic series. The highlight of this season was concluding all character arcs in a satisfying manner. I also think it's one of the rare cases where, when looking at the series as a whole, I don't have any points I view as bad.

Most of my favourites at least have either a streak of episodes or an arc I dislike or don't care for as much as other material, but Mob Psycho doesn't have any kind material like that to me.

I initially wasn't as emotionally invested, but I never once thought the series was bad. In fact, I think the series doesn't actually have a single episode I think that's just bad. Which is very impressive to me.

To Your Eternity Season 2 – This is the only series this season I fell behind on.

It's very similar to my experience with the new Berserk anime or as a more recent example, the Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer anime.

Production almost never gets in the way of me enjoying a story; the entire thing can be a slideshow if it has strong writing backing it, but the overall direction for season 2 of To Your Eternity made it so difficult to enjoy it.

The episodes don't let any quiet moments sit or action scenes play out properly and moving from scene to scene is stilted because the episodes just keep going in the same pace regardless of content and as a result of that, none of it is nuanced, when in comparison, if you look at the script, it clearly is supposed to be.

The series continues to explore some great ideas, so I'm planning to eventually watch it all (and if it is just that poorly made, at least catch up with the manga because in this case I can really tell the source is so much better than how any of the adaption makes it seem – I really feel like if there is one series that needs a remake in 10 years from now on, it's absolutely this one). 2/3rds or so of the first season were fantastic and ep 20 was a great finale for season 1, but season 2 has been really struggling for these 7 or so episodes I was able to watch before stopping.

[telenovelameta]

woo let's go. new blog! created this mostly so i dont spam my main with stuff most gringos haven't even heard about lol

so as anyone who's talked to me for 2 minutes irl knows... i watch a lot of novelas. like a lot. specially when working all-nighters... i usually get through a lot of storylines pretty quickly (i can hit 20+ episodes in a night easy, healthy? idk... but there's just something about melodrama that hits The Right Chemicals in my brain, esp during Deadline Crunch Time). but, i'm usually someone that likes to analyze and criticize the stuff i watch, and it's usually pretty frustrating to not have anywhere to put those thoughts (besides the after mentioned off-topic spam on main), i also feel this medium is kinda under-scrutinized, even by "professional critics" (who are usually, tbh, pretty baseline in their analysis), so, hence this blog. expect takes / opinions / analysis just general comments on novelas i'm currently watching. maybe some gifsets reblogs here and there when i catch those rare fish, maybe some fanart if im really in the mood... in general tho i'm extremely busy w/ other projects (fandom projects included) so expect this blog to be rlly informal and "train of thought"- ish. sorta like ur personal broadcast of my internal monologue from injecting 200+ hours of melodrama into the brain. .... so, what to expect? currently i'm going through: 1- a viagem (the 90s globo remake, am at chapter 61 of 167)

2- totalmente demais (have about 10 eps to finish)

3- bom suceso (about 30 eps to finish i think?) 4- alem da ilusao (i was following this day-to-day when it was airing but kinda lost interest in the last month, i'm looking to finish it at some point though) --- there's 3 novelas that live rent free in my head and i will probably post about sporadically as well: i've also been doing an on-and-off rewatch of senhora do destino (third one, this time with my mom), we're on episode 90 or so I believe. it's been about 2 years of a rewatch tho so lol may take at least another 3. besides that, some n i'm part of the team of @floricientasubbed , and am always translating and analyzing the eps of floricienta. mostly the new takes i get while doing that are kept on our discord, but if there's a worthy enough idea to share, i'll put it here. i'm also working on a long-term sequel project (fan comic format) to cheias de charme, which i may also post about from time to time. --- in the future im looking to watch some venezuelan ones... and maybe rewatch las aparicio (maybe after reading dona flor y sus dos maridos? i feel in first watch i missed some of that literary context). i have more brazilian stuff in the queue as well, but i would like to switch it up a bit after finishing the ones i'm currently going through. well, that's it for now! back to the proverbial tube...

[gizkasparadise]

hello! i was wondering if you watched jdramas and if so which ones were your favorite?

i havent watched a ton of jdramas! here's what i've thought of the ones i've seen/am currently watching:

in progress/still watching

gokushufudo/way of the househusband: i keep meaning to catch up on this one. im only 2 episodes in, but the show takes a wild premise (ex-yakuza becomes a househusband/stepfather) and runs with it. it's really enjoyable, but also EXTREMELY cracky, so watch when you want something that's easy and you don't have to have your brain on. if you're someone who's not into slapstick or wacky hijinks this one probably isn't for you. so far 8.5/10

kikazaru koi niwa riyuu ga atte/why i dress up for love: im close to being done with this one, currently on ep 7 of 10. premise is that a social media influencer/PR rep ends up living in a sharehouse with a minimalist chef, a reclusive artist, a counselor, and another chef. i really like 'different people become friends after cohabitating' as a trope, so if you enjoy that this is a good one. im not always liking the main romance though. the ML can be pretty condescending and flakey. but bonus points for cute dog and an interesting side pairing/side characters. so far 7.5/10

completed

koi desu: yankee-kun to hakujou garu/it's love! yankee-kun and white cane girl: a yankee (gangster) falls for a young woman with a visual disability. this is my favorite jdrama i've seen so far, it's just. wholesome and fluffy and cute. it's also really informative about blindness and low vision and you can tell the writers did their homework there (there are none of the cliches that are so often found with blind protagonists in dramas). it loses some points for me because the secondary "pairing" resolution rubbed me the wrong way, especially as a queer person. 9/10

kanojo wa kirei datta/she was pretty: a remake of the kdrama by the same name, and imo w/ a way better take on the lead pairing. the FL's actress was great, and the speedrun version of the drama (10 eps of about 40min compared to 16, 1-hour eps) really helped streamline the story. enjoyable! 8/10

i don't love you yet: a remake of the taiwanese drama "in time with you" where two life-long best friends navigate feelings as they bet on who will get married before they turn 30. it's not bad but it's not great, and the OG version of this drama still reigns supreme imo. the ML was great. the ending was super abrupt. 7/10

suki na hito ga iru koto/a girl and three sweethearts: a pastry chef ends up living with three brothers and working in their cafe over the summer. it's okay if you want something fluffy and not very brain-demanding, but i found it pretty bland & often was frustrated on behalf of the FL because the ML could be a pretty big jerk and the SML was the king of mixed signals. 6.5/10

dropped

imawa no kuni no alice/alice in borderland: lol Unpopular Opinion time. the premise is cool, and i love survival game/horror/thriller dramas, but the spinning of the camera in the first ep(s?) made me nauseous and then there was a sex scene in like ep 3 or 4 that was so severely off-putting that it made me ragequit the rest of the drama :'D

[diamondcitydarlin]

The kate used the trans community as an advertising pick-me-up anon here: It might just be me, but I'm semi-optimistic for the next season tbh. For a lot of reasons, but mainly:

It's clear now from the start Loki was never actually about Loki, it was about Kate and Sophia using personal nepotism to make it a vanity project.

They only really cared about making it about Sophia and her character spotlight over everything else. It shows how broken the show was that Marvel/Disney itself told them to go back and rewrite/remake parts to make it more about Loki and less about Sophia/Sylvie, and the fact Kate considered that a funny whoopsie.

Whoever the next director will be, whatever else that happens, at least they won't be marred with that massive favouritism, and will probably actually give the Loki show back to Loki. knock on wood

See, this is rather strange to me because in the projects I work on the director rarely has that much of an independent creative say outside of how scenes should be shot (but then I work almost exclusively right now on music videos, commercials, modeling shoots and those are jobs with clients that mostly say how a thing is going to be, though sometimes musical artists will choose their own director and give them a ton of creative leeway ok sorry I digress). I mean, good for Kate I guess that she seems to have gotten a good bit of creative say, just wish she hadn't used it solely for self-indulgence, terfism and nothing else. This is a show for, like, millions of people to watch after all.

But lets not let Michael off the hook too quickly; the Loki script was ofc based off of his original screenplay that incorporated a strong sexy kickboxing woman whose personality is 'pretend not to be attracted to the mediocre main male character even tho I am because the man writing this demands it' and it's rather clear to me that's where Sylvie came from. The original screenplay doesn't (imo) have main mediocre male character longing as openly for this female character as the final cut of Loki has Loki doing to Sylvie, so I guess I'm saying this smacks of a team effort to do some self-indulgent nonsense under the assumption that it would come across as good writing that multiple people could relate to. Or, they just said 'fuck it we do what we want', which also seems likely.

But the downside of of trying to tack on actual quality storytelling about Loki and giving him a relationship that actually enhances his character and his story rather than steamrolling it to make him into the perfect love interest is that the show comes across as terribly disjointed and, ultimately, a huge disappointment. The show that is set up in episodes 1 and 2 is not the same show the last episode takes place in. Nothing that happened in those two eps (or indeed in any Loki media to this point) had much or any bearing in what came after that.

I mean for fuck's sake, even the marketing and trailers and glimpses we saw don't match up to what we ended up getting. All these repeated shots of President Loki like he's going to be a focal character, maybe even a main villain- nope, he literally just cameos for 5 seconds, does some dumb shit, and then gets his hand bitten off. Scene after scene of Owen and Tom being centered as the show's main duo. KING LOKI THAT JUST TOTALLY DISAPPEARED.

But yeah they really wrote what they did and expected people invested in Loki's character to be happy with him being sidelined for someone we 1) have never met before, 2) is not even fully fleshed out in the 4/6 episodes she dominates. I mean, honestly, what? Loki is a character with a 10 year history in the MCU and a beloved fan favorite, marketing success. And yall really thought this was just...gonna be acceptable?

But I'm speaking as if these people actually care about fans, the fandom, and/or the integrity of a beloved character and the truth is they don't. The 'creatives' don't because why should they and the executives don't care until they're forced to upon the risk of losing money.

So I guess my hope is the same as yours, and more specifically, I hope that pressure has been enough to make the powers-that-be reevaluate the direction of the second season.

So yes of course, I hope more than anything that you're right. This show had every potential to be a great character piece for Loki as well as, idk, maybe one of the first Marvel properties that considered and more explicitly incorporated the queer experience as indeed I thought they were doing by ep 3 (not me thinking sylvie and loki are clearly gay twins, not me thinking their convo in the bar sounds so much like intimate, nonsexual conversations I've had with my gay friends, not me allowing myself to think maybe we'll get to see masculine/feminine intimacy that is not motivated by a sex and/or relationship at the end of the rainbow, not me seeing the 'found family' tropes and thinking it was part of this effort to tell a queer story-) and, in truth, that can still happen. I can easily see how it could still happen.

Remember, I've just been around a very long time in fandom and now that I work in entertainment and better understand the mindsets of the people who work within and dominate it, I have very little faith in the integrity of most shows I watch. For this reason I actually don't take on new media any more as often as I used to, but the Loki show came to me at a time when my family was going though a very difficult situation and my brain latched out of selfpreservation, I think. You need a hyperfixation, my brain said, and look at Loki in this impossible, dehumanizing situation, isn't it awful?? Isn't it almost like YOURS? But wait...Owen Wilson is here. And he speaks softly and he's so comforting and he actually gives a shit and I can see why Loki takes to him so quickly. (Also I was eagerly watching each Marvel show addition for hints of the X-Men and I'm still doing that smh)

Give me an impossible situation, a character that has hit absolute rock bottom and another character that reaches out their hand and says 'hey lets get you out of here' (my sole survivor x nick valentine from fallout 4 is one of these...Lokius Fallout AU when???)

Anyway. I hope you're right. I want nothing more than for season 2 to be the version of the show it should've been from the start.

[absolutebl]

This Week In BL

May 2021 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Lovely Writer Ep 12 fin - that was a long arse final ep, but solid performances. I liked that we focused on the fallout amongst the side characters. (Very clever of them to depict Chap with Tae, his Y-Destiny pairing. Especially as both actors are slated for new BL roles with different partners again, The Tuxedo and You’re My Sky.) The camera certainly enjoyed wallowing in Sib & Gene’s separation, but that’s an Asian drama for you. They like to DWELL. (Frankly, I like a bit of wallowing myself.) I thought the inclusion of the “actual” writer at the very end thoroughly unnecessary. I don’t think they had to beat us over the head with the 4th wall meta quite that much. Still, this is probably one of the best BLs we’re getting from non-GMMtV Thailand this year. RECOMMENDED 

Y-Destiny Ep 8 - (Thurs) I found the first half uninteresting but once Casper the Friendly Gay showed up it was fine. The ghost reminded me a bit of Fuse from MIR. 

Close Friend Ep 4: (Just One Life) - is it just me or is Talay insanely charismatic? Anygay, the director got ahold of a drone for this one and would like us to KNOW ABOUT THAT FACT. Look, I just don’t think YoonLay have great chemistry but this was alright, cute enough. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 6 - This was a better installment than we’ve had in a while. I like the obsession vs love explanation from Mork, insightful if creepy. Meen & Duean are okay, I guess. A bit annoying. Everyone in this show is a bit annoying. But the wipe toothpaste then wipe eye crud got to me. Toothpaste in the eye, yech! And then I was all, oh that’s basically this show: toothpaste in the eye. It just reviewed itself. (Also why do they keep switching aspect ratio between the two pairs? It’s like they were filming with two completely different camera types... oh. ah. Weird, GMMTV usually doesn’t make mistakes like that.) 

Call it What You Want Ep 6 fin - I skipped to the last ep on this, I told you I do that sometimes to find out what happened. So CIWYW ends happy for the main couple, but trigger warnings on: eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, depression, mental abuse, and a few other things. If you don’t mind your BL dark, gritty, self aware, and honest then you should be okay with this show. But if your preference is for fluff, then there are other fish in the sky. Speaking of... 

Nitiman Ep 2 - Giving me My Engineer vibes. This is OLD school Thai uni BL. I kinda feel like it was meant to come out in 2018, the gap year that was, but I am SO GRATEFUL we’re getting it now. Pay TF attention FUTS this is how you redeem a tsundere uke. Also I love that Bboom is just a terrible flirt and the football match twist was great. I love this show.  

Top Secret Together Ep 1 - it’s out there but no eng subs. It’s an office set romance with multiple couples all tangential to one building. A bit stilted and low production values but I’m intrigued. I hope we get subs... eventually.  

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 9 - gets the safe sex gold star for lube + condoms AND a verse discussion? Not to mention asking for sex advice from queer fam? Is this a first in BL? Might be. (I still think it’s weird that product placement hasn’t jumped on the lube bandwagon, too slippery perhaps?) I like the embezzlement drama. I always enjoy good outside conflict playing to setting, and this is the kind to be easily resolved in next week’s finale. What a roller coster this series has been. 

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 5 - I LOVE THIS SHOW. A heartbeat after i thought, “they better address what he’s doing to the girls he’s dating,” they did it. Clever scripting that. The messaging is gorgeous, the idea that pride and media coverage and knowing about a changing world can broaden minds and lead to acceptance was basically Taiwan making a case for itself paving the way for marriage equality in Asia. Genius. 

Most Peaceful Place 2 (Vietnam) Ep 1 (AKA 4) - dropped with subs and improved production values, someone is learning (or got more dough). The younger brother’s drama is a bit confusing, but I am here for cute boyfriends being cute boyfriends together. And I love that they took the seme’s previous pair (from Nation’s Brother) to be the faen fatale, very crafty of them. Even though it’s not a trope I like, there’s great chemistry all around. 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 6 - I weirdly love this show, okay? I’m just hoping Long has known Minh’s secret all along and is playing a reverse long con cat & mouse game, waiting for Minh to tell him the truth. Because that would be THE BEST. I could do without the faen fatale but ya can’t have everything. (I’m so glad it’s not the standard 6 ep arc, MOAR!!!) 

Gossip 

Rumor is GMMTV Thailand started shooting Baker Boys (here’s the teaser trailer). This is a remake of Antique (AKA Antique Bakery) a 2008 Korean movie (you can watch it on Viki) which is a remake of Antique (a 2001 Japanese series) with is an adaptation of wildly popular manga Antique Bakery. Knowing the plot I’m not sure this will qualify as BL. I’m still predicting Lee gets his first gay kiss in this series from Singto. More details about this series here. 

Breaking News

Love Area release pushed out, reportedly due to C19. (source DramaCool) 

Be Love In House: I Do (Taiwan, of course, with that title) got a new softer trailer (no subs). It drops next week, May 19, 2021 on Viki. All the information I have is here. 

Tangential to BL 

Two BL-adjacent shows, both from Taiwan. 

I’m watching Love is Science? on Viki which has a het foundation, but it’s a good one. There’s a BL side couple who are on an enemies to lovers slow burn trajectory; featuring a disaster bi slut meets elegant bad ass super gay. So there’s THAT. The mains are an older career woman and the sweet boy from her distant past who has pined for her for years. (He is the softest sweetest service sub you ever saw.) Props to Taiwan for a seriously underused het dynamic. As usual in Asian rom coms the straight boy love interest is a Perfect Cinnamon Role (yes I’m looking at you True Beauty & Love O2O) but I find Taiwan’s version more palatable than Korea’s or Mainland China’s. It’s not finished yet but... RECOMMENDED. 

Starting this week is Love Outlet a 50 (?!) episode show about a mall that sells relationships. It is supposed to have a main gay romance, but it might be a side dish. Very little else known about it. Coming to Line TV.

Honestly, I’m at the point where if Taiwan makes it, I’ll probably watch it. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Starting:

Be Loved In House: I Do (Taiwan) 

Golden Blood (Thailand) we think, like Love Area this may be delayed due to surging C19 cases 

Love Outlet (Taiwan) we think 

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[bloopme911]

Random WandaVision Thoughts

Thoughts about WandaVision I cannot get out of my head, so here you go.

SPOILERS AHEAD. BLOOP. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. 

1. Wanda and Vision are connected by the stone. 

I went back and watched AOU and pretty much from the moment Vision is on screen, the connection between him and Wanda is obvious. Her reaction to him in particular struck me. She exhaled like she was drawn to him--to the stone. She also said she saw inside his mind before he was brought to life. 

I believe they’re meant to be together, not only b/c of their chemistry together and compassion for one another, but also b/c of that mind stone. It gave him life and awakened her latent powers. It drew them to one another the moment they met. Vision himself even said in Civil War that he didn’t fully understand the stone, or how it works exactly; it’s a mystery to him. That stone is POWERFUL. It “speaks” to Vision, it “has a mind of it’s own”, it’s not a passive player, IMO. 

...more after the kr...

2. Wanda can channel the powers of ALL of the stones in her chaos magic.

This I can’t claim credit for, but I believe it. I saw a theory on ScreenCrush (great YT channel for dummies like me to break things down) that Wanda can not only bend reality to her will, she can channel pretty much all the powers of the five stones. She demonstrates this in many ways -- bringing the butterflies and stork to life, rewinding the turkey until it turned into eggs, planting visions into Avengers heads, controlling the minds of the Sokovian citizens so they would evacuate the city in AOU, etc, etc, etc. 

ScreenCrush theorizes that the stones are all connected, having sprung from the same fabric of the universe, their powers work alone but also together. Inside Wanda. If she concentrates, if she wills it, she can be just as powerful as Thanos was with that Infinity Gauntlet. So yeah, I believe she can trap a whole town under a spell and give Dr. Strange a run for his money across the multiverse, point blank periodt. 

And if she can do that, could she not remake Vision? Pull his atoms back together, reform him, especially if she (somehow) got ahold of the copy Shuri made of his neural network? Why wouldn’t she bring Pietro back to life? I’m not sure...perhaps it could be that it’s simply too painful. Or perhaps she just doesn’t want to put her brother under a spell in a dream world. Vision is Vision, he can handle this, and she may not feel as bad resetting him when he gets too suspicious she might if she had to do that to her brother. I don’t know...time will tell, hopefully.

3. Wanda was an Avenger, training under Black Widow. She got rid of her accent intentionally. 

I see people referencing her “suddenly disappearing” accent a lot. I think she (the character) did this on purpose. In the opening of Civil War, when her accent was first starting to fade, she was being taught to spy by Black Widow and Sam and the gang. It stands to reason that accents and speaking with what TV folks used to call a “non regional diction” or any accent she pleases would be part of that training. 

Since this WandaVision is based on a sitcom reality, if you know how painstakingly they recreated these sitcom eras, plot tropes and all, then you’ll find that not only is Vision’s behavior based on the popular ‘TV Dads’ of each era (Dick Van Dyke, Mike Brady, Ricky Ricardo, etc) but Wanda was also mimicking the way TV wives speak and act during each era. Perfect 50s diction for Ep 1, slightly more relaxed like a Mary Tyler Moore in Ep 2, a bit more broad and (with a lot more physical comedy in her face, she’s so adorable) for the 70s.....the MCU didn’t forget about Wanda’s accent and Elizabeth Olsen isn’t being lazy.

Wanda deliberately got rid of her accent while she was a spy, and she slipped into it when she was thinking of her brother, her home, her childhood lullaby. 

4. “Geraldine” a.k.a. Monica was casing Wanda’s house. 

I noticed that from the moment Monica set foot inside, she covered a lot of ground. She found little ways to check that house out because she’s a trained agent and I think even though she was NAILING the part of the stereotypical 70′s black “foxy” nosy neighbor, she was 100% on a mission that whole time. She went in to get Wanda out, but the pregnancy obviously derailed that. I think she was waiting for an opportunity to gage when she could jog Wanda’s memory and probably also waiting to make sure Wanda would be at home alone before she stopped by. 

She has “no home” in the town, Agnes said, but she is a SWORD trained agent, so she knew how to survive until she could make her move. Unfortunately, Wanda was not having it. She does not want to be saved. “Geraldine”/Monica also said during her crazy work story that she keeps her cool under pressure, which she did during that BONKERS delivery. She even gave Wanda the coaching she needed to get through it despite the house going all Poltergeist around her. 

I only wish that when Wanda was questioning her, she would have been like “I’m Monica Rambeau, I’m here to rescue you.”

5. The townspeople have known all along about both Wanda and Vision’s powers, but they’re only terrified of Wanda. 

Vision used his powers in front of people from day one. Helping Mr. Hart at dinner (notice how IMMEDIATELY after Vision saved him, they left in a hurry? They were terrified. They went there to act out a dinner, not for Mrs. Hart to watch her husband almost die without being able to break character to save him, and Mrs. Hart knew it was Wanda who could make it stop). Speed computing at the office. Obviously the magic show kinda sort doesn’t count but does b/c come on mirrors don’t work like that. Getting the doctor, etc. No, I think the townspeople know Wanda and Vision are Avengers, but there is nothing they can do about it because they are under a spell and they must carry out the FOR THE CHILDREN evil plot. I’ll bet word spread about Wanda choking Mr. Hard, so they def don’t want to piss off Wanda, nor bring the wrath of the nefarious entity controlling them all (most signs point to Mephisto). 

6. Agnes’ witch costume reminds me that there are some tropes in media where evil witches are the wives of the devil (or sell their souls/enter a pact). 

Obviously the Mephisto Comic story line sets this up, but I just love the way they executed it in the show, using the spouse that never appears on screen as a big fat clue.

Agnes may not be evil but she def wants Wanda to have children for her devil husband and she def does not want “Geraldine” disrupting that. Everyone else just seems straight up afraid of Wanda but Agnes knows who is really pulling the strings here. Agnes is terrified of the Big Bad, whereas the townsfolk fear Wanda b/c they know what she’s capable of. They may even believe Wanda is the one controlling them all--and she is--but Agnes knows who’s manipulating Wanda--Ralph, or Mephisto to us.

7. I get the strange impression that the sitcom credits start because Wanda is waking up for the day, and end because for her the day is over... 

...and she’s done concentrating so hard on the sitcom spell. It’s sleep time for REAL-real. If she’s using magic to keep this stage play going constantly, then it stands to reason she will tire even though she’s pretending to live in sitcom world where time works totally differently. I believe the commercials are her dreams, sending her subconscious messages about her past traumas. I also believe dreams could be the way Mephisto called out to her--subconsciously drawing her to Westview.

Fun fact: TV way back in the day used to turn off at a certain time at night. 11pm or midnight, I can’t remember, but the networks STOPPED BROADCASTING at a certain time and there was no such things as 24-hour TV until like the late 80s. 

There are waaaaaaaay more thoughts banging around in my head but this post is pretty long so until the next time I’m wide awake at 4am with the 70′s WandaVision theme song stuck in my head...

[kingreywrites]

In what order would you rate all the songs in the Tangled franchise from best to worst (including movie and series) and why would you rate them that way?

That sort of question is so stressful like, I hope none of you expect me to have good taste or anything, I'm only listening to songs for the emotions they give me asgdhjdj also if I didn't make a mistake, there's exactly 40 songs between the movie and the series and it pleases me greatly

Anyway this is very long so read more it is (and btw since i cannot ever make up my mind this is far from a fixed list, ask me tomorrow and it'll be different asfhdjd the first ones and the last ones stay mostly unchanged but the middle is a big puddle of what i've been listening to the most lately)

1. I See The Light

It's very soft and very sweet and I could spend my life listening to it. I loved it before even watching Tangled for the first time and now I've got all this emotional attachment too so like yeah it deserves the first spot

2. Stronger Than Ever Before

Straight out banger okay, I love it so much and it always put me in such a good mood 😭💕

3. Buddy Song

Same reasons as above asghdjd

4. When Will My Life Begin (reprise)

Dude I just….. yeah this song always makes me emotional it's so freaking great i wish it was one hour long

5. Next Stop Anywhere (reprise)

Underrated new dream duet, again i only wish it was LONGER

6. The Girl Who Has Everything (reprise)

i listen to it and i cry what more can i say it's too sOFT

7. Everything I Ever Thought I Knew

Listen it's eugene's song at this point i cannot deny that i just love these songs based on what they make me feel and this one makes me feel a LOT

8. Nothing Left To Lose

Discovered the show through it and that part when they both sing at the same time hits just right 😌

9. Mother Knows Best (reprise)

It hurts but god is this an awesome villain song, both in the performance and the lyrics ;-;

10. Ready As I'll Ever Be

I love that song but I'll be honest I mostly love Varian's part and the chorus (?) part….. it's a banger but i tend to skip cass and rapunzel's part asfhdjdk (sorry it's still amazing tho 😭)

11. Life After Happily Ever After

Eugene's part 💕💖💖💕💖💖🥰💕🥰💕

12. Bigger Than That

Lance has the best voice all his songs are the coolest

13. Crossing The Line

The beginning between Rapunzel and Cassandra?? Unparalleled, I just. wish they kept going like this. Cass' solo part is still great but the beginning was SO good

14. With You By My Side

Very sweet and I love when people sing together asgdhjd

15. Waiting In The Wings

I do not have the same adoration some people do for it but it's clearly a banger, tbh the best Cass song even tho I've rated some higher here (but it's because there's other people in them)

16. I Will Make You Proud (reprise)

Can they start making these damn reprise longer I LOVE THE KEY CHANGE

17. I Will Make You Proud

I love itttt

18. Next Stop Anywhere

Honestly I feel it should be higher but I forgot so it's here instead asghdjdj i'm not remaking this but I love it (especially the Rapunzel and Eugene's parts because like. i'm me. ofc)

19. Wind In My Hair

It's stuck in my head like 70% of the time and i'm not even complaining about it

20. Through It All

I just…… love group numbers ghdhdjd it's catchy and i wish i could… idk, frame Eugene's "we all must heed the call" cause his voice is awesome here

21. Set Yourself Free

I really love Rapunzel that's all 🥺

22. Listen Up

Yes it's mostly useless but i love that song so much i can't explain it, IT GIVES ME ENERGY (also cap's moment is awesome gjfhfjgh)

23. Mother Knows Best

I'm all for upbeat and chilling villain songs, and Gothel's are amazing examples of that

24. If I Could Take This Moment Back

Okay I do like it and I do enjoy the angst but since it's like, nearly the only new dream duet in the series, I wish we got something better 😔 i like happy fun songs so much

25. When Will My Life Begin

It's such a nice song I know it by heart and I love it :')

26. The Girl Who Has Everything

I have Thoughts about this song and its meaning but it gave me the reprise and it's also very cute and catchy so I still listen to it quite often

27. Wind In My Hair (reprise)

It's soooo short but when she starts it up it's really amazing, it's just not that different from the og which is longer, so I tend to listen to the first one more

28. Life After Happily Ever After (reprise)

*listen to Rapunzel's part* *skip forward for 3000 years* *listen to the end* asfhdjdj Rapunzel's voice makes up for the annoyance tho i'm so proud of her

29. Something That I Want

Catchy, even though it doesn't really feel like tangled to me

30. Hurt Incantation

Literally one of the most fascinating twist of the series, it's not a song I listen to in itself but it's hella cool

31. Healing Incantation

Same, difficult to listen to it as a song but it's pretty and just… rapunzel singing it brokenly over Eugene's body haunts me ;-;

32. I Have A Dream

Group numbers my beloved <3 it ended a bit low on the list but idk i like it

33. The View From Up Here

It's cute idk what my brain has against it but i think it's the birds scaring me asgjdjjk no honestly i just think i have no emotional connection to it

34. I've Got This

Very plot focused song which is okay but it's just not really interesting to listen to it separate from the show, if that makes sense

35. More Of Me

A cool song but i just don't seek it out

36. I'd Give Anything

Pretty song but i cannot disconnect it from how stupid it is for Rapunzel's character arc so like, not the worse in melody but i avoid it

37. Friendship Song

I forget that it exists half the time… it really doesn't add much and i don't get why they made it 😅

38. Waiting In The Wings (reprise)

The only reprise that's actively worse than the original, both because of the twist and because the kid's voice just ain't it 😭

39. Living The Dream

I honestly don't care about it and Hookhand's an ass

40. Hookfoot's Ballad

Last on behalf of the ep making me believe that Eugene and Rapunzel were going to argue while singing and i got hookfoot instead. also it sucks

[canonicallyanxious]

Do you think the eps could be longer? that is my biggest criticism, I barely got into first gen druck because of all the geoblocking, but I remember that the first half of the episodes of s1 were less than 15 minutes with 2 or 3 episodes were 20-25 with one 30 minute ep as the finale. Mia's eps were consistently 20+ with 2 or 3 30 minute eps. Not sure about s3 since barely more than a few clips were available when i was trying to watch it.

hey anon! regarding s3 i actually did a bit of research on this a while ago as i wanted to compare episode lengths across the seasons and i found that s3 was also on average quite short, with only 2 episodes the whole season breaking 25 minutes and none breaking 30 minutes. as you said mia’s season was pretty long in comparison, and it doesn’t seem fair to me at all to compare s4 to the previous ones as Amira only got seven episodes in her pov but i will say that neither of the two longest episodes of that season, both over 30 minutes, were in her pov. so. you know. i’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from that information lol.

[i don’t generally remember personally being that bothered by the length of episodes in s3 when i was watching it live, but I wonder how much of that was being affected by me knowing what plot points each clip was supposed to hit anyway, like s3 had og skam’s plot to follow so there wasn’t pressure to come up with a tightly written storyline completely from scratch, but who knows]

as far as what i think about ep length for s6 in particular - in general i think i care more about what they show on screen versus how much screentime that takes up. so if the pacing feels good, the writing feels tight and coherent, we’re getting all the story beats we need for the character arcs to develop properly, then i’ll generally be more lenient with shorter clips. and imo a lot of the writing we’ve got this season has actually been quite strong. That said, would i complain about longer clips for fatou’s season? definitely not! i always thought of druck as one of the remakes that actually lets their clips breathe along the veins of og skam but i feel like i’ve been missing that feeling a bit this season compared to the last one. like it makes sense why and i see what they’re trying to do but i read someone making the point that it kind of seems like druck is focusing a lot on hitting the expositional beats and not so much the character beats which i can def feel especially in the last few episodes. 

so while i wouldn’t say it personally bothers me so much that the clips are shorter [although i can absolutely understand why it would be a big problem for others!] one of my major criticisms of the season is that i would like to see them focus more on the more character driven stuff. like i think a lot of the drama would have more impact if we had more scenes like the cashqueens playing basketball, ava and fatou cuddling after they make up in ep 5, just more stuff to let their personalities and dynamics with each other shine through more. Like i think the planetarium date clip is so effective precisely because they reserve a few minutes at the end to just let the characters goof around and hang out so we can see more of their dynamic so it would be nice to see more of that especially in this back half of the season. and because the clips are shorter they definitely have room to show more of that less plot heavy stuff. so i hope they take that into consideration into future seasons bc i would really like to see it esp for a show that’s as character driven as the skamverse!