#idk its just interesting? like the other characters do but lin is the only one that takes her as she is. if that makes sense

[varley-of-torment]

1, then mercie for 10?

OTP?

Honestly, I gotta say Linhardt and Bernadetta! their supports and paired ending are so good. Not romantically, I don't think they see each other *that* way, more like two introverted weirdos that are not cut out for the noble life latching onto each other and relying on each other-- even if there's still room for bickering or misunderstanding. they're a fun duo!

What's your favorite piece of fanart for Mercedes?

This is kinda unconventional, but it's actually a panel from this comic by yul-is-sparkling showing various characters in the rain and holding umbrellas.

look at her. You just know it was her job to bring the umbrella and she completely forgot. it looks like she's holding up her finger to say "uh, so here's the thing... I forgot the umbrella". it's so on brand.

[doyouevenshipbr0]

10 strongest earthbenders

i did this with waterbenders a little while ago and while i dont feel AS passionately about earthbending as i do waterbending, i still wanna give my thoughts bc i love atla and i love yapping duhhhh

rules: not including avatars and not including anything from yangchen or kiyoshi (havent read those) and honestlyyyyyy i cant think of a character from the comics in general that would make this list but im not gonna include ppl we meet in the comics either bc to be so honest 1 i havent read the lok comics and 2 i have only read the atla comics once and i read them as they came out so it was years ago. STRICTLY GOING OFF THE SHOWS!

realizing i def shouldve made this list right after my most recent lok rewatch (its been a couple months atp)

ANYWAYS lets go

honorable mentions: tbh the only one i wanna say here is the dai li. they probably could be like number 8/9 but idrk how to rank a whole group of ppl? but the way they use earthbending is super cool. in general, im realizing there are not nearly as many overwhelming earthbending forces as there are in waterbending? so this list starts a little shaky.

10. xin fu/master yu- so like. not sure what to say/how i would even differentiate. they are both masters. duh. we didn’t see much of them but we know they are easily outclassed by the rest of this list soooo… sorry! moving on

9. general fong- alright u might be wondering “who is this” so its the guy in the episode where they try to force aang into the avatar state in the beginning of book 2 to try and make him fight the firelord sooner. literally nothing of interest to note EXCEPT when he does that super baller move where he makes katara sink into the earth?!?!!?!?! logistically i dont think this makes much sense bc how tf did she not get crushed and i think this method would make earthbending kinda super broken lmfao so they literally only ever used it this one time (from what i remember) but it is suchhhh a cool move and it is SCARY! so props to this guy for being the only earthbender we see do this super sick move!

8. wei and wing- HEAR ME OUT!!!!!! they are soooo much more useful than u remember them being. they always are holding their own with their mom and aunt and all the other amazing earthbenders around them. theyre nothing super spectacular and are not given much time to shine since theyre such minor characters, but if u pay attention to the screen time they do have, they are really really good. the fact that they can earthbend so easily alongside their mom and keep up with her is really all u need to know. they WILL pull up!!!!!!!

7. bolin- so like. its tricky right bc he is THEE earth bender in the legend of korra but honestly he really is not THAT great. obviously he is great and that’s why he makes this list but yknow what i mean. he has lavabending!!!!!! which is super sick. he also has tonsssss of raw strength and agility which is probably his biggest strength. but honestly i think what keeps him low is his lack of skill, finesse, and honestly meaningful fight scenes that go in his favor. feels like his character maybe suffers from a littttttle bit of being sidelined bending wise bc he was SUCH the comedic relief. its almost like the writers didnt have time to make him a super fleshed out earthbender because they were too busy trying to make him funny?? idk im rambling but bolin is just a tricky one. still amazing! just not as amazing as the rest of the list.

6. lin- dont fight me istg. i can FULLY admit that my biases are coming into play here but im still gonna defend my point. here are the facts: i kind of cant stand lin and i LOVE su yin. i do understand that realistically, the fact that lin is the chief of police and has dedicated pretty much her entire life to it would make her crazy strong, and it does! shes the chief of republic city police for a reason. she has a fuck ton of combat experience which helps her to be as strong as she is. i just cannot, in good faith, have her any higher. from what i have seen from numbers 5-1, they seem better than lin.

5. su yin- ah su yin. i love su yin. and if im being logical, lin would be a stronger earthbender because she has (from what we know) farrrrrrrrrrr more direct combat experience. but if im being honest, when i look at them earthbend, su yin’s earthbending looks better. its more interesting, she looks like she uses more skill, shes more creative, she seems more resourceful, and she seems more adaptable as well. she killed p’li!!! also she was kicking lin’s ass in their 1 v 1 but it feels wrong to count that bc lin was like on her deathbed lmfao. still, although lin seems like she has more experience and probably a greater battle IQ, su yin just seems better. maybe its the bias! (it def is)

4. ghazan- lava bending. he is the best at it. just everyone in the red lotus is scary strong. i rly dont need to tell u why he’s this high. it is so obvious.

3. bumi- mf took back omashu all by himselffffff. i feel like bumi is by far the earthbender we see across both shows that has the most raw strength. hes also wise and shit!!! absolute beast. i know a handful of people think hes number 1, and i know MOST people think hes at least number 2, but he’s just not in my opinion. obviously still one of the best of the best.

2. kuvira- i just. wow. i feel like on my most recent rewatch i realllllyyyyyy saw how EXCELLENT of an earthbender she is. like ok first of all yes she was the villain of this season so she was definitely going to be strong but she is literally just beating the shit out of everyone for the entire season. like no one, not even korra until the last couple eps, can even compete on the same playing field. (i know korra was dealing with a lot of personal beef but STILL). the amount of skill and precision and effectiveness she has is the best we see in earthbending in legend of korra. she genuinely seems like she isnt even giving it her all in most of her fights and she is still just mopping the floor with everyone. she was a dictator for a reason ok like who is beating my girl?!?!?!? (other than thee mother of all of earthbending ofc).

1. toph- i mean. i dont want to even explain. no earthbender has a better connection, understanding, and natural ability with earth like toph. her bending is an extension of herself to the very fullest. invented metalbending. cultivated metalbending into the martial art it is today. was (kind of) a self taught master by 12. and the stuff that she DID learn she learned when she was practically a toddler from the original benders, the badger moles. i feel like some people try to argue her spot bc she isnt always as flashy as other earthbenders (bumi, ghazan, kuvira) but she is by FAR the most effective. and not just in a day to day basis, but in fights too. hence why shes the strongest. i dont think many would argue this position but yeah. GOAT.

[geee-three]

okay being serious about the hamilton x prsk au now

its not an au theres just. a production of hamilton. hosted by emu ootori who convinced (wonderhoy'd) lin manuel miranda into giving her the rights

wxs puts on a production of hamilton (rui painstakingly teaches tsukasa the entire thing line-by-line and is on the verge of pulling a nightcord by the end SLASH SILLY) and kidnaps other people (i.e. their fans) to help out (take on major roles) with the only pre-requisite being "please speak english and also know your part. we've spent a month trying to drill this into tsukasa's head and we think rui will actually jump off a cliff if we ask him to do it again".

so, with no further ado: the cast list. alexander hamilton - kohane azusawa. while you would expect tsukasa to demand the titular character he did not want to learn that much english (rui refused to teach him) and so he adorned it on his number three fan. who was thrilled. everyone knows my kohane hamilstan agenda by now. she kills it. an does not understand a word but is cheering the entire time. noone tells her that kohane is singing about adultery and tax fraud. aaron burr - toya aoyagi. once again, as a majorly important character, you'd expect this role to be filled by a member of wonderlandsxshowtime. no. toya :D. he knows english he can sing he gets along well with all the other cast members. its perfect! kohane dramatically brings up the fact he shot her on a daily basis from here on out and he dramatically apologises every time. eliza schuyler - nene kusanagi. we finally get to a wandashow member (we'll speedrun them all in a minute). "izza, why do you always give nene, a character allergic to romance, the first love interest?" i think im funny. no yeah i think she would KILL burn. like its dead on the floor. stabbed. perhaps even burnt. (also. nene beatboxing.) angelica schuyler - mizuki akiyama. "izza you said wandashow-" shut. its mizooking time. she mizooks all over the place. some men say that im intense or im insane. you want a revolution i want a revolation so listen to my decloration. george washington - tsukasa tenma. "izza this is still a very major character your excuses make no sense" shush my hamilton production i want kohane as lead. go away. i think blond bitch should be washington. if it works it works yk. king george iii - emu ootori. shes just here to have fun idk man. shes having fun. leave her be. john laurens/phillip hamilton - minori hanasato. i dont have an explaination beyond minokoha queerbait and also i think minori doing the. my name is phillip. i am a poet. and i wrote this poem just to show it. sequence would be amazing. imagine a version of phillip where hes delivering it as normal but with an idol dance routine. yeah. lafayette/thomas jefferson - rui kamishiro. i was actually really stumped on where to put rui. yes i considered maria. i did not do that (evidently). this is just because jefferson is really gay like in the way he dresses and such and i think rui can get on board with that hercules mulligan/james madison - airi momoi. she has officially ruined her idol reputation and haruka has clipped her making sex jokes on stage and turned it into a nightcord emote for the mmj server. ena never lets her live this down and has printed a screenshot of the sex jokes and stuck it to the shinonomefridge. she still stands by her decicion to participate. peggy schuyler/maria reynolds - saki tenma. this one is one of the more streched ones. i couldve put emu here. i couldve put rui here. but no i put saki. why? i simply think shed enjoy it. enrichment. leo/need casually dies in the audience. samuel seabury - ichika hoshino. she has just the right level of seriousness and whimsy to pull this off. phillup schuyler - keisuke ootori. i think im so funny. well? im not. james reynolds - shiho hinomori. she does NOT want to be here but apparently shes married to saki so everythign is okay. what do you mean saki cheated on her with kohane. my bestie you are gettign SHOT. (she gets very in character.) charles lee - mafuyu asahina. mizuki is laughing her ass off. basically mafumom found out that someone mafuyu knew (emu) was putting on a historical play and was all "go on join in!!" and so she did.

yaysies. honami and shizuku and haruka and an and akito and kotaro and tatsuya and hinata and ena and kanade and yuuki (and mafumom i guess) all go to see it and have a variety of reactions ranging from homosexuality to omg look thats my sister!!! to oh my fucking god airis making sex jokes on stage to why didnt my daughter get a bigger part

...@vivid-street i am ashamed of myself but its here now.

[spookfished]

nov 2023 media roundup

hello again :3 welcome to the world from 2024!! im doing backlogs of media reviews lol. well i was really busy. and then i was super busy playing umineko!! looking back at this month, it seems like i didnt read a whole lot this month, but then i forgot that ruzhui is literally 300 chapters long. so.. a couple of these i read uh quite a few months ago by now so the review might be a bit stale. however i had like 80% of this written for several weeks so theres only a couple! this will be posted on my neocities at some point

books:

ruzhui by please dont laugh: f/f. after a terrible breakup, college yun an is happy to leave her life behind for some TIME TRAVEL! but while disguising herself as a man to avoid discrimination, she gets looped into a matrilocal marriage with businesswoman lin buxian?! intended as a fluffy palate cleanser after pdl's previous work a clear and muddy loss of love, i think it still kinda ended up getting mired in politics two thirds of the way in, when a lot of us were here for the moments with miss malewife yun an and her powerhouse wife? on the other hand, its hard to stretch out fluff for an entire 300 chapters without contriviances. i also really enjoyed how it managed to balance like. idk. 'returning to the simple emotions of the past' with 'holy shit guys the past actually sucked ass lmfao'. its a pretty relaxing read, so id recommend checking it out if youre into f/f!

the devil comes courting by courtney milan: f/m romance. can romance bloom while trying to create the first telegraphic encoding for chinese...? sooo cute im a huge fan of courtney milan as always. surprisingly goes into some pretty heavy topics including like. forced assimilation via child stealing?????? i thought it was well handled though the ldr stuff and the way amelia grows as a person was soo nice

the marquis who mustnt by courtney milan: f/m romance. the son of a conman returns home for one final trick. meanwhile, naomi just wants to take her medic class. the two become engaged on false premises and of course, catch feelings. once again extremely cute im very charmed. also liked the pottery details :3 i think in every fake engagement the whole 'pretending to themselves they dont have feelings' is a little ridiculous so i liked that they just like. acknowledged it at the outset. i think its honestly more compelling to be like 'yes my feelings are sincere and true however X still outweighs '. loove a guy shackled by duty

wandering souls by cecile pin: follows anh and her two siblings, refugees of the vietnam war. ok honestly i dont remember a lot about this book :( sorry but i did like it! its a really fast read and made me really sad so id recommend. (DISCLAIMER: AMERICAN) i also feel like i dont read a lot of non-american diaspora books so thats pretty interesting as well. nice prose also :]

detransition baby by torrey peters: a trans woman who yearns for motherhood, her detransitioned ex-boyfriend, and his pregnant partner struggle to find a way to live--together, or apart? ok sorry this is another review written in january so its kinda weighted more negatively. i had a LOT of thoughts about this in november but i forgot most of them. this novel is a deep look into a very specific kind of queer subculture--a subculture which is both very white and very annoying. sorry. the characters feel like a vivid, true-to-life depiction of the poeple i try to avoid at my little liberal arts college. however, it ALSO feels like the kind of really good gossip that you love to hear secondhand. also, the author shoehorns in discussions of race in ways that are really jarring and also, kinda bad? i honestly really loved the inner voices of all the characters which is why it sucked when i got to suddenly read a copy-pasted twitter thread about intersectional oppression instead. (especially coming from the mouth of a cis wasian woman..?) it feels all the more tokenistic since we immediately go back to the inner struggles of ames and reese instead. ugh. however, it sparked some really interesting conversations with me and my friends. i also got to learn more about ah i guess transfem detransition? as opposed to transmasc detransition. they are very different! um but i guess id recommend?

comics/manga:

surviving romance: action/horror webtoon?? the woman living in the body of a romance novel character is determined to get her picture-perfect happy ever after-- at all costs. everything goes according to plan until the day zombies attack the school. chaerin is forced to bond with the faceless extras of her story, and find out what is rotting at the core of *love every day*. very solid writing!! i like how the author gradually introduces characters, and how the tension ratchets up as more people to care for becomes more people that can be lost. definitely goes into some orv-lite type themes, which i appreciated. i guess my only complaint is that despite the solid execution it didnt really ~wow~ me in any way... still worth checking out though :3

run away with me girl by battan: f/f romanceish? two high school lovers meet again after midori decided that their relationship was just a childish whim. but even though midori has decided shes straight (and is married with a kid on the way!), maki still has feelings for her. dude soooo cute the art style is not personally my thing but i felt like all of the characters were really grounded and the introspective parts were really interesting. some beautifully atmospheric parts! would recommend :3 witch hat atelier kitchen (reread) by shirahama kamome: a spinoff of witch hat atelier, where the two teachers qifrey and olrugio make food together after hours! gorgeous art as always, and some cute recipes too! i reread this since an official english translation came out lol. monotone blue: short furry m/m about apathetic, aloof cat hachi, who meets aoi--a shy transfer student who happens to be the only lizard in the whole school. pretty lighthearted for the most part, but also heavily implied a sexual assault scene?? or at least the vibes?? in a way that treated it far too lightly and left a bad taste in my mouth. possibly worth reading for the art, but idk :/ definitely falls into the romance trap of having a love interest go "ill save you from these bad guys!" for like a cheap plot device and then not really going into it

movies/tv:

parasite: class-focused comedic thriller? the kim family finds a way out of choking poverty by working for the extremely affluent park family. its almost too easy--until it isnt. man everyone says parasite is so good. AND IT IS!!! i cant believe i took so long to see this movie i got to see it with some friends over thanksgiving break and it was so good :] had me stressed for my fucking life sitting at the edge of my seat. has a lot of meat to bite into analysis-wise but is also just so crushing in many ways.. the ending stuck in my head for a long time. rewatching it this january was honestly more stressful in some ways haha

revolutionary girl utena: allegory-heavy commentary on shoujo and princess narratives and the nature of heroism and-- f/f. utena is a girl who aspires to be just like the prince of her dreams. she is somehow wrapped up into an engagement with anthy himemiya, who calls herself "the rose bride." ahhhh i still havent watched the last two episodes actually. people always say "utena is a fantastic show but PLEASE mind every single trigger warning" and its true! utena tackles some really heavy subjects in a way that is delicate, understated, and vicious. i watched a bunch of these episodes late at night in the computer lab and they honestly left me breathless. has so many layers of symbolism to dig through that it can honestly be overwhelming, but also very compelling just on the surface! watch utena. also watch this amv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THN3gYKYojs

the wonderful story of henry sugar: a netflix adaptation of one of roald dahls stories (within a story). it was cute :3 not a lot of sticking power lol but i think this is the first wes anderson production ive ever watched. very visually distinctive!

video games:

lethal company: cooperative horror game about trying to collect garbage in a dystopically capitalist world ft. proximity chat! dude this game is blowing tf up i tried playing it with neil but 1. we are huge pussies 2. its really only feasible with 3+ people

music:

TILT by nanoray: anime breakcore is one of my truly guilty pleasures. i see the anime girl on the cover and cringe a little bit HOWEVER nanoray is a really good artist. the intro is so liquid... i think the album as a whole really just sweeps you up into a groove. some of my favorite tracks are into and DOGWALK2000 THE LONELIEST TIME by carly rae jepsen: i was so mean to carly rae jepsen in middle school. im so sorry miss jepsen i was just so tired of hearing call me maybe everywhere. im now a changed man. just a really well constructed pop album 👍admittedly not as iconic to me as emotion, but joshua tree and talking to yourself are my favorites atm SAYONARA WILD HEARTS OST: ive never played sayonara wildheart, but i think its a rhythm game about girls fighting each other on motorcycles? with bisexual lighting and tarot cards? but anyways this is a synth-y lush pop album thats super fun! it feels like it tells a story (probably bc it does) and it always makes me want to listen all the way through :3 my favorites are sayonara wild heart and their clair de lune remix

anyways if you read to the end, thanks as always! its really interesting to try and condense my thoughts about something into one paragraph.. sometimes its easier than others huh! im almost done with the december one so please look forward to that 👍

[scalproie]

ALRIGHT HYPOTHESIS TIME

(aka I need a refresher on the 3d games of the og timeline)

What I found so far (still to take it all with a grain of salt, you know how it is with leaks, plus this is basically sourceless so, yknow.):

^ leaked dvd cover art & title

^ leaked description of the plot

("Everything is at stake and never have the consequences been so grave!" Bro there was a mass cosmic destruction happening at the end of the last movie)

^ leaked cast audition list (OLD leak, from 2021, pre-botr release)

First off, safe to say this is a WILD departure from both the og timeline and the current timeline, obviously there has been a timeskip, but just how much time has passed? We can make two hypothesis based on Kuai: baby boy has grown and is still rocking the beard, but Kuai has been on record to skip his 30s, 40s and 50s in the og timeline because of the dragon medallion when he became Lin Kuei Grandmaster, so either he pulled a Metal Gear Solid 4 Solid Snake and gained a couple of decades in a few years, OR time has just passed naturally and the entire old cast would be quite old... but in that case how the fuck is Kano still kicking enough to try and take over the world? My theories are 1) Aussie boys make do, even at whatever age he is (keep in mind that Kuai is probably one of the youngest character of the og cast, so Kano would be older than him), 2) Kano died in revenge but was brought back, 3) Kano regained his youth somehow OR 4) its a mistake and it's not Kano but Shang Tsung that does these things (maybe disguised as Kano or as himself and the leak might just be wrong)

So now Im gonna do a character breakdown:

BASICALLY CONFIRMED:

NEWCOMERS:

Kenshi: basically the implied protagonist of this one, tho if the timeskip is real and Kuai isnt an outlier, he is MUCH younger than hes supposed to be, maybe even his own son's age from the games or even younger. His backstory with Shang Tsung and Sento might fully be intact considering Shang is on the cover AND Kenshi is already blind. From the plot description, he might have a standard "stepping up as the new hero" or smth heroic arc, almost feels like he took a page from Takeda.

Kobra: honest to god dont know, black dragon member but Im not expecting him to be super interesting, might just be a jobber like Reiko was in botr.

Kira: same goes for her, black dragon member as well but Im also expecting her to be here for some cool fights

Tremor: his ground/rock powers are definitely gonna make for some cool fights Im sure, as for the rest of the black dragons, idk what sort of arc hes gonna have, even tho I do think hes more interesting than the other two. If Johnny makes it in this movie somehow (or if hes just referenced), that would make for a fun interaction, considering Tremor is one of the only one who enjoys his movies.

Kabal: whatever goes for Kabal, he can be a good guy from the get-to, he can he a bad guy the entire time, he can have a heel-face turn during the movie, he can have a revolving door arc depending on who the winning side is. The fact that he's listed as a "ninja" above and not as a black dragon member is kinda eyebrow-raising tho... MAYBE he already defected or thats just a "vibe" description but... mmmh

RETURNING:

Kuai Liang: with what little we have so far, you really cant tell how his arc for this movie could go: did he rebuilt the Lin Kuei and became Grandmaster or did he not? It's the oldest we've ever seen him but is his age natural or medallion-induced? His main arc aka "revenge for big bro" was """TECHNICALLY""" over in botr, and judging by his advanced age implied in everything above: we skipped his second "reform the Lin Kuei" arc, meaning we dont know if he did or not. With what we have anyway, especially that line in the description, we can assume he's going thru a bit of a late midlife-crisis. So either his arc will be "the champion coming back for one last hurrah" or he will fully take on a mentor role to inspire Kenshi. Plus him having a link/alliance with Kenshi does fit their og timeline incarnations, but not wiyh such a large age gap. Anything goes, but I wouldnt be surprised if they killed him in that movie just like they did Raiden in botr. My question is: will they fully commit and give Kuai an entirely pacifist role, OR will they give him a fight, because come on, he's Sub Zero.

Kano: HONESTLY dont know what to make of it. I thought he died in revenge but he mightve not had? Or maybe he did and was brought back? Again, it all depends on how many years the timeskip is worth. Also the more I read the description, the more it doesnt sound like Kano... but also the black dragons seem heavily involved in the plot and he IS the black dragon so... yeah idk, will have to wait and see. What surprises me is that Kenshi has more beef with the red dragons, but I see why they would bring a known character back than introduce a new one.

Shang Tsung: hes on the cover art in his YOUNG form and he has history with Kenshi. So my guess is that, with Shao absent or dead, he used Kenshi to get the souls of the well of souls and get his young body back, I think he might have an important role in this movie. Plus, Shang means he may bring along with him Ermac and Mileena as he made them both (Ermac because hes relevant in Kenshi's story, and we may finally see that one concept art of Mileena that went nowhere in action). I would put my money on him being the main big bad of the movie with "Kano" being a misdirection. Idk. Like. "Take over earthrealm soul by soul". Come on.

*MAKES IDK SOUNDS*:

MIGHT COME BACK:

Sonya: If Kano is a big deal in the movie, it would be WEIRD not to bring Sonya as well... but also, outside of like, implied history, she doesnt seems to actually HAVE a lot of history with Kano, no mention of him killing her partner, and she was mostly focused on saving Jax in Scorpion's Revenge, they fought for 20 seconds, and he "died". Plus (again with that damn timeskip) IF the timeskip is natural, shes either dead or. pretty old. In any case, her arc has been done so idk what would they make her do. I would except a quick nod or a cameo for her.

Johnny: same as Sonya, his arc has also been "completed" and his character relied a lot on her in these movies, so I have no idea what he would bring to the table. Im also expecting a quick nod or cameo, but it wouldnt surprise me if he doesnt come back

Jax: the special forces form a whole, and if neither Sonya nor Johnny have smth to contribuate due to either age or other factors and dont return, sadly I see Jax as unlikely to return too. THO IF the black dragon are one of the main focus, there could be some references to Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (WHICH WOULD BE SOOO HYSTERICAL)

Liu Kang: so if "Kuai Liang is the only one strong enough to take on Kano", where the hell is the Chosen One? Idk if "the winner of the tournament doesnt age" is still a thing, but youd think the twice hero who saved the world would be the first choice to stop someone threatening earthrealm. Either he was unavailable (like. He died. But come on), or my guesses are: he stayed with Kitana in Outworld/Edenia, or he took Raiden's place in the order of light's temple.

Kitana: this seems like an earthrealmer-issue so far so I dont see any edenian/outworlders being heavily involved in the plot, which mean, sadly, I wouldntbbe surprised if Kitana didnt returned other than again, cameo or quick nod. Plus she speeran her character arc in the last two movies so.

Raiden: so obviously Raiden lived at the end of botr but will they actually go somewhere with that? They could go the dark raiden arc... somehow, or they could go the "the world is safe so I will leave earthrealm's fate to the mortals" road, or he might straight up not show up.

Scorpion: babygirl has been done with his arc all on his own in the first movie, in the second movie he was here for Kuai Liang, and so far he seems absent from the third movie. Also, same problem as Liu Kang, if 60-70 Kuai Liang is the only one who can save the world, where the hell is Hanzo, who is still a wraith which doesnt age? Maybe they had a "Lets agree to never see each other again" with Kuai, or maybe he "disappeared into legend", or he went back to the netherrealm, or again, with such little information, anything goes. It would be REALLY WEIRD for the poster boy himself to NOT feature in a mortal kombat movie, but his arcs have been twice done over, so it would sadden me not to see him but it wouldnt surprise me too much if Scorpion was absent from the third movie or just having, again, a cameo/quick nod.

Bi-han: Im not betting a lot of money on it, and Quan Chi is dead, but Shang can fill the role of necromancer, or Bi-han can just come back from the dead with sheer force of will like Hanzo did. He would only come back because he was kinda wasted in Revenge, and Sub Zero Brothers Drama is always engaging to watch, but theres nothing so far that would imply his return.

YEAH I DONT SEE THEM COMING BACK:

Kung Lao: dead. Unless as revenant, somehow

Stryker: dead. Unless as revenant, somehow

Jade: sadly, if Kitana is not involved, Jade has even less chances to be able to

Shao Kahn: yeah I know "his body's gone" but I think itd be a bad call to bring him back as the main big bad again

Most Outworlders: Kintaro, D'vorah, Reiko, Li Mei and so on: they dont seem to have ANY stakes in what we know of the plot so far so I highly doubt it

Quan Chi: dead. And it would be such a fuck you in the previous movies' face if they brought him back, same goes for Shinnok

You can include the cyber Lin Kuei here as well tho I would expect them to be mentionned

... or I'm just dead wrong about all of this. time will tell. Time Will Tell.

[mejomonster]

Even if Bai Lin and LHJD are soulmates, LHJD is too good for Bai Lin.

YES luohuo jidu is way too good for bai lin. luohuo jidu was/is such a good person at heart, and i feel bad for him constantly that his naive heart ever ever fell for and cared for a person like bai lin. ;-; my poor man.

i just ToT i think about them cause im like. well thanks love and redemption for a queer backstory for xuanji/luohuo jidu. it could’ve been literally anything, and that’s what the story chose to do. it chose to make one of xuanji/lhjd’s love interests a demon with a heart of gold and endless kindness, and their old other 2nd love interest a heavenly emperor who’s incapable of knowing what compassion or kindness even is because he’s so destructive in his prejudiced hatred. when like. 

1 so many stories in a similar genre would’ve made the first love interest the heavenly clan person. 2 so many stories in general just would’ve made the bai lin type the main love interest. 3 so many stories wouldn’t have given lhjd a love interest either way, let alone both times, let alone let him be xuanji’s origin story of having loved someone and been hurt SO bad that xuanji turned into ice emotionally and eventually felt so betrayed that as lhjd/god of war’s many lives she didn’t want to feel anything. 4 literally just the choice to make xuanji and lhjd the same person through lifetimes Means so much to me personally, i am in love with that decision for endless reasons. 5 just the fact the show put in a queer romance with the leads that Was not as easy to slide past as sifeng/lhdj (since that could be argued by a party who wants to ignore it as xuanji/sifeng as if xuanji isn’t also in part lhjd). whereas by making lhjd having loved bai lin once upon a time, so clearly and fully and trustingly (my poor fucking man lhjd u deserved BETTER you DESERVED someone like sifeng i am SO glad in your many lives you eventually DID meet him and as xuanji eventually did have him with you in life ;-; ). by making lhjd’s person who he considered so special, be bai lin, it connects to how bai lin’s been setup as the ‘2nd romantic lead’ this whole story (along with the villain), and it means idk we get a bit of a queer romance origin with lhjd. im personally just... im bi, i love when i can see characters as bi or relatable, and love and redemption for a pretty standard story on its surface really did a lot (particularly with xuanji/lhjd character, but also with sifeng and bai lin) that i could relate to and connect to and i really deeply appreciated that it was there. 

Like... so easily, a more cowardly show could’ve painted bai lin and lhjd as enemies from the start (which would’ve made the betrayal less completely Heartbreaking and Horrific and Impactful), could have made sifeng ONLY act like he loved xuanji AS xuanji (instead of what it did - which was show sifeng loves xuanji as ALL of xuanji - including god of war, including lhjd), could have made lhjd and xuanji feel like separate characters (but at least to me, it felt like lhjd and god of war were very much ‘past lives’ of xuanjis and parts of her still fragmented and needing healing/addressing in the present, which i personally liked). instead this show was like: nah luohuo jidu considered a man his ziji, wanted to spent his life with bai lin, and then like anyone who’s fallen in love with a CRUEL person got just completely destroyed by being close to someone who didn’t care for him. and then like. it works SO well. because it puts all of hao chen’s interactions with xuanji into retrospect. Him trying to marry her, him trying to control her, him not giving her answers as god of war, him ordering her to kill devils as god of war, him ordering her to kill demons as xuanji, him talking to her father, him trying to control her life path, him acting like the ONLY rational romantic choice for her. And xuanji CONSTANTLY rejecting him/insisting she doesn’t want him. It puts it all into retrospect that like... not only is Hao Chen a fucked up person trying to control her, hes an EX. He was ‘close’ to luohuo jidu, and hurt lhjd/god of war xuanji SO MUCH - and he’s basically an Ex lover. That makes everything he does somehow feel even worse, and its already pretty much the most fucked up things in my book. It’s like... not only is he awful and controlling, but xuanji is LITERALLY someone who used to love him, and LEFT him, and both her as god of war AND lhjd SWORE if they had to they’d anihilate the heavenly clan just to KEEP him away from them. And despite that, Bai Lin still fucking comes to try and control xuanji, try to get xuanji back, when in her past lives xuanji did EVERYTHING possible to break up and get away from him and hate him. So its just like extra fucked he’s trying to con her into trusting him, into obeying him, when SO much of her previous lives has been her purposely doing anything to keep that from ever happening again. And it all hits SO hard precisely because in her first life, as luohuo jidu, lhjd loved bai lin so unconditionally. AHHHH the CHOICE to make Bai Lin an EX, specifically the FIRST love and first EX, is so satisfying in a way from a storytelling perspective.

In SO many ways, the love triangle in love and redemption breaks so many of the usual molds i’d gone in expecting, and i adored it for that. Xuanji being the god of war, the typical male lead in a lot of the things she does, the one who actually gets to ultimately fight her own battles and win over her enemies, who’s decisions are what saves the world or ruins it. That the man I pegged as the ‘traditional first romantic lead’ was actually the villain, the ex, the most awful person ever lol, and also someone xuanji loved in her first life as luohuo jidu so therefore an EX even. That the man normally i’d peg as the tragic second romantic lead who will suffer and die and lose no matter what, is the moral center of the show, the absolute most loving and compassionate, is a key demon in the story - superb and Exactly what i craved after Ashes of Love and Eternal Love lol. That xuanji is both the hero and the person ‘typically painted as the big bad villain’ but because of the way Love and Redemption does it, lhjd isn’t that villain but just our broken hero we’re still rooting for. Literally the ENTIRE way morality is handled on the show, along with all the themes. Ahhhh I love this showww.

Anyway i’m sorry i went on a tangent ToT i just i love so much about Love and Redemption lol. Basically: yes u are ABSOLUTELY right Luohuo Jidu deserved so much better than Bai Lin, the Biggest tragedy of that time was lhjd had fallen for someone like bai lin instead of fucking ANYONE BETTER for him. But like, as a storytelling mechanism, i absolutely LOVED the choice to make lhjd and bai lin exes - and how that ends up affecting all the later lives of xuanji and her interactions with bai lin.

And while I’m thinking about it... I don’t actually think lhjd and bai lin were soulmates. (Although i think, actually, bai lin might’ve thought so - though i dont think he understood love, cause of every fucking horrible awful violation he did). I think its a very interesting case of one of this show’s points: that we can pick our own lives, our own wants, and what we want is most important over Destiny or Heaven’s Will or Authority’s Command. Xuanji has SO many pressures on her telling her its her ‘role’ or ‘expectation’ or ‘destiny’ to do this and that. And a major factor in her picking Sifeng - is that he’s NOT who she’s supposed to pick. Just like she’s “not” supposed to go looking to get her senses back, she’s “not” supposed to hear demons out, she’s “not” supposed to go against Heaven, she’s “not” supposed to stop the cultivation sects from scapegoating and torturing innocents. But Xuanji tries to do what’s right, and tries to make her life what she wants, even if its “not” her destiny. Bai Lin, in some fucked up way, thinks its xuanji’s destiny to obey him and be what he wants. (to be his ‘soulmate’ maybe, even). And Xuanji, as with the rest of her choices and growth, chooses NOT to be with him or obey him. Because she doesn’t pick to do what the whole universe seems to be expecting her to subject herself to. She picks a demon lover Sifeng, she picks to become lhjd if it will save him, she chooses to find her senses again, she chooses to go against Hao Chen and Bai Lin’s orders. 

Even as lhjd - he chooses to not start as big a war as planned, as everyone painted him as the villain to ‘do.’ He chooses not to listen to Yuan Lang, even though he’s supposed to be this ‘evil figure’ that changes the world order. He even chooses not to let Bai Lin go the way the heavenly emperor wants in the end - because that is HIS closure he needs, and if he needs to see Bai Lin die to feel closure, then he’s not going to let it slip past. lhjd decides to not become as big of a monster as Bai Lin - even tho bai lin, and the whole world expect him to be, with the exception of Sifeng. Sifeng of course, being a core choice Xuanji’s always made that’s gone against what she was ‘expected’ to do. So i think like... on so many levels lhjd/xuanji’s journey is about picking not what’s expected/destined, but what they wanted, what they felt was right. And if Bai Lin DOES see them as a soulmate, that just feeds into this idea even more, since xuanji does NOT choose him.

(And if I wanted to dive even deeper - then even back in the beginning, lhjd wanted peace with the Heavenly Clan, loved a man who was important in the heavenly clan, and was clearly even back then someone who did what his heart led him to over what was ‘expected’ since I’m sure as someone on the opposite side of the war ppl didn’t expect him to want to push for peace so hard. He, and later xuanji, have always been this kind of brave independent person at their core.)

in short i deeply love that luohuo jidu/bai lins situation is present in the show in the way it is, and as explicitly is. Further, making bai lin so explicitly clearly a villain, ties xuanji/lhjd emotionally to the villain in such a fascinating way as their abusive ex, which also brings in the themes of consent into this show even more intimately then they already were. storytelling wise, i found it great. emotionally, it wrecked my heart and stomped on it mercilessly.

i also just liked them because i liked that LaR in some ways went explicit about the different kinds of romantic relationships on the show, when it very easily could’ve tried to go heteronormative, at the expense of losing the interesting nuance of the way they ended up telling the story this way. i really liked that xuanji was herself AND luohuo jidu, its relatable to me lol. and i really liked that her ex was as luohuo jidu, and her present love is Sifeng. and that none of that changes even as she’s changed so much through the growth of her many life times. i found it interesting and relatable i guess, that gender didn’t affect who she was at core or how she grew, that it didn’t affect the kind of people who’ve loved her (or in bai lin’s case, claimed to but never treated her kindly). her family loved her as xuanji and lhjd, sifeng loved her as everything, and xuanji once mistakenly placed love in Bai Lin as lhjd, only to be so destroyed by it that she almost never wanted to love again. and bai lin - well he never loved her, not really, not in action or respect, as shown by how even when he wants to ‘marry’ her as xuanji he’s STILL disrespecting her boundaries and choice and being horrific. it just added a ton of depth to the story, for me. 

[saezutte]

yuletide letter 2020

Dear Yuletide Writer, 

Oh, hello again. I didn’t see you there.

This year, I have transcended earthly desires and struggled to find any fandoms to request. I want nothing. I wish my cat was nominated as a Yuletide fandom so we could all write stories about her life. 

Nonetheless, I have some small requests!!!! I believe you can make me happy in ways I’ve never been happy before. I trust you. Happy end of 2020, the cursed year, I hope you are blessed with rest. 

My AO3: saezutte

My public twitter: juncassis

My tumblr: here but I do not use tumblr much anymore, sorry.

Do Not Wants

[note: I have no actual triggers, nothing you can write for me will make me any more depressed or anxious than I already am]

Death (of major/important/beloved characters)

Suicide attempts, self-harm

Rape (outright; OK with dub con, manipulation, noncon short of violent-rape-for-violence-only)

Eating disorders, body shaming

Angst without a happy ending, really too much angst at all

Established relationship

Cheating

Actual Unrequited Feelings

Pregnancy (the actual process; breeding kink is fine)

Scat or watersports

Hard BDSM or any kink complicated enough that the characters would have to discuss it ahead of time

Homophobia as a plot device

Excessive attention to identity or politics, sometimes known as “issue fic”

Note on AUs: I am ok with the usual popular AU tropes but I do not want them combined, e.g. A/B/O is fine and coffeeshop is fine, but I don’t want an omega barista getting his scent all over the lattes he makes for some alpha lawyer who comes in every morning. (Ridiculous example, but you get the point.) For AU/modern settings of fandoms with magic, I often like it when the magic is still there in the AU setting. I also like AUs which maintain the general outlines of the character’s relationships, like if the characters are childhood friends in canon, I like to keep that intact.

General preferences:

I am a pretty basic bitch when it comes to fanfic: I like it when two clueless boys pine for each other through some shenanigans and then lock eyes/lips/dicks.

If you fed a neural net every fanfic written in Stargate Atlantis fandom between 2005 and 2010, the result would probably be some nonsense I’d enjoy.

I love many tropes. Tropes! Bed-sharing. Sharing an umbrella. WASHING EACH OTHER’S HAIR? Confessions where they are having an argument and then one of them yells “Because I love you!”

I love situations where characters are forced to spend time in close proximity and find themselves with feelings.

I love fakeness: fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, fake lust induced by sex pollen or heats, aliens make them have sex, whatever.

I love porn, if you want to just write me some quick porn, that’s great. I do prefer (per the established relationship DNW above) that it be first time or get together porn. I know that can make it hard to just write porn, but I don’t need much to be convinced of sex.

Nirvana in Fire (TV)

Requested characters: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan

Note: I also love Lin Chen so if you want to write some MCS/LC or LC/Fei Liu or LC/MCS/JINGYAN OT3??? go for it. I am also a Nihuang/Xia Dong shipper so if you want to put that in… somehow… my gay little heart would be happy. I also like Nihuang/MCS/XJY or MNH/MCS + MCS/XJY but I’d like the focus on the men in that case!

I watched this show because someone recommended this show to me as, like, Chinese Game of Thrones but good. I think it’s genuinely one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. I love plots and revenge and good people doing bad things for justice. Even the ending is good for me though obviously it left me unsatisfied on several points.

I am deeply into sickly doomed genius MCS and every time he got even more deeply ill, I fell deeper in love. Every time he coughs up blood, my heart would race. I love his terrible schemes and stupid self-sacrificing choices. I find watching this show very soothing because I knew he would always come out on top in his schemes. I trust him. I love handsome clueless Jingyan and how he’s just so good (it’s terrible.) I love his mom and how much he cares for her. I love him but he is useless, he needs his Xiao Shu and I need fanfic to restore him to him.

Note: So my limited research on this says that male/male sex practices were accepted and well-known in this time period in history, so I really don’t want them thinking “oh no what are these weird gay feelings.” There are other barriers to them being together, like a ruler or official being overly attached to one person was considered very bad. I am also a big supporter of the socially-approved polygamy of this time period, so I don’t need Jingyan to refuse to sleep with his wife or something out of loyalty to MCS—he has to do it! Or all their plans are ruined! And he can enjoy spending time with her or the concubines without affecting his feelings for MCS—you could explore that complexity in fic if you like.Prompts:

Mei Changsu isn’t dead, he’s hiding again, Jingyan searches for him

They start having sex during the series, the ending is averted [somehow]

Post-canon, MCS is alive and Jingyan hides him in the palace with his consort/concubines to keep him on as an advisor without anyone objecting

omega verse where MCS was an alpha before he “died" but an omega after he came back.

AU where male/male marriage is customary (maybe aristocratic men are expected to have one male and one female consort?) and so MCS decides the best way to influence and help Jingyan in the capital is by becoming his wife or one of his concubines

anything just get them together and happy.

Tokyo Babylon 

Characters: Subaru, Seishiro

I read Tokyo Babylon as a child and I imprinted on it deeply, now I love politics, ghosts, stalking, age differences, magic. Within the CLAMP canon, I love TB for its episodic focus on smaller stories, the commentary on contemporary society, and Seishiro being an outright creep. I love onmyojutsu and exorcism and Subaru’s innocence getting ruined. I love the city of Tokyo (where I currently live! but do not be intimidated, I don’t know the city well because we’ve been in quarantine most of the time I’ve been here and won’t judge you for details.) I’m open to fics that comply with X canon or not.

With Seishiro/Subaru: It’s bad but I love that predator/prey dynamic where the predator ends up being hopelessly entranced/obsessed/in love with the prey. My read was always that Seishiro lost the bet and couldn’t admit it—he’s just, you know, killing twins to avoid dealing with his feelings! Relatable! (?!?!) Subaru, I love particularly in his evolution from innocent to adult in love to betrayed. I’d prefer post-TB fic to during-TB fic (so Subaru knows Seishiro’s deal and loves him anyway.) I am also a fan of Hokuto and you should feel free to bring her back to life to troll if you desire.

Prompts:

AU or reincarnation plot where they are Heian period rival onmyoji

Because this is such a heavily place-based series, if you are a writer who likes to play with details of real life locations, I’d be interested in versions of different “Babylons” if you have an idea for it.

Tragic first times post-TB lol

Seishiro is a virgin the first time they have sex

I’d probably love some fucked up dub con for this, however you want to play it

Honestly, do whatever you want as long as you don’t fuck me over like CLAMP did.  

プリティーリズム | Pretty Rhythm

Characters: Hiro, Koji

Pretty Rhythm came to me at a weird time in my life. I lived in a house of spiders in Yokohama and did nothing for eight weeks. King of Prism cheer screening transformed my life and I didn’t even know what it was. Then I got weirdly deep into Rainbow Live and the Pretty Rhythm franchise overall. I am a scientist of prism theory. Idk why I like it, it’s just wholesome and crazy and there are penguins and DJ Koo. I love every TRF song because I’m a 90s gay at heart. It’s truly the end point of all media development. The prism world represents the fearsome power of virtual/digital+real hybrid life. Yes, I know I’ve lost my mind. I went to one of the real Prism Stone stores, the one in Harajuku.

Hiro Hayami: one time a fujoshi asked me to describe what types of anime boys I like and the first type I listed was “prince but bad” and my example was Hiro. Hiro is the crazy gay stalker disaster of my heart. He overcomes great hardship to achieve his dreams and foolishly falls in love along the way and he does everything wrong and Koji keeps leaving him. The moment when Hiro is crowned King of Prism in Pride the Hero was one of the top ten moments of my life. I made friends who don’t even know Japanese watch the movie unsubtitled with me on my birthday.

With Koji, I’m a bit guilty of “I want to give the character I love the most the character he loves the most” so I do like him less (it would be impossible to like him equal to how much I love Hiro). But he has many good points that make him perfect, like how he also sucks underneath his chill exterior. I love to see him go apeshit.

I also love everyone else in Rainbow Live, no exceptions. I love all the girls. If you do write the girls, I would prefer they not be paired with the OTR boys. I would prefer they be paired with each other, any combo is good.

Prompts:

this is the sort of pairing where I love fic where they split up and then 15 years later meet again as washed up has-beens but there’s still time for them to find each other

Canon-compliant companion piece showing the “background” of them getting together romantically over the course of the series.

AU where Koji is a prism world fairy sent to inspire Hiro but Hiro is kind of a mess

dirty, dirty porn… let Hiro get fucked

I have a lot of doujinshi with multiple copies of Hiro (a la the Mugen Hug jump) but I’d like something where Hiro gets overwhelmed by many Kojis

They start fake dating as a publicity stunt and have to keep doing it… especially good if it starts when Koji is at max hating Hiro level

Ring Fit Adventure 

Characters: Dragaux, Ring

Keeping this one simple: I like to be encouraged to exercise by a storyline and a trainer that never mentions weight loss, lol. The world is fun and pretty and I love that buff dragon.

AND THEN THE PAIRING. I’m sure Nintendo has some market research that told them a certain subset of users are very motivated by enemies who seemed to once be lovers or best friends. I am that user.

What is up with these two? They were so in love! Now Dragaux is a horrible swole bro (not in a good bro way) and Ring is training me instead? I can’t compete with their love. It’s the only time the game makes me feel inadequate.

You can keep Dragaux and Ring as dragon/ring-like as you like. Obviously I’m down with dragon fucking but you can also make him a human fucker too. I play with Ring on the masculine voice setting for maximum BL vibes as I exercise, but, you know, it’s a ring, I don’t think it has gender. Feel free to incorporate the player or other random characters too.

Prompts:

AU where Dragaux and Ring owned a gym together and Dragaux sold out to a big chain of gyms

What happened between them when Dragaux was still captured, pre-game? Bondage… literally??

Ring is always bossing me to train, but I’m really doing all the work. Why doesn’t he fight Dragaux on his own for once?? (because the sexual tension is too powerful.)

Tragic flashback to their dramatic break-up ending with their present day reconciliation.

Player/Dragaux/Ring threesome??? I’ve unlocked the sexercises???

With all fandoms, you are free to disregard the prompts and do your own thing. If you’re not sure about me, you can probably dm seriesera on twitter, she knows what I’m into. 

Well, I suppose that’s all for now. Please stalk me online to get more details on my bullshit. I hope you have a nice time.

Best,

Caitlin 

[rqs902]

.

IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS 

ITS MY BOY ENYU!!!! ON THE FRONT PAGE???? okay also a big deal for zhaohao and li hao too!!!

ok now into part 2 of the ep

interesting that they focused on junhao for everybody. can understand he probably has the most different and struggle experience so probably more interesting for dramas sake lol im surprised they dont spend more time on shengen, considering his popularity. 

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA JUNHAO FREAKING OUT over the fact that they only learned the dance for 40 mins. LOL thats the level of tyger + kou cong + shengen, i can imagine the struggle of the yang guang nan hai group in comparison AHAHA i just imagine him running down the hall freaking out like HOW DID THEY LEARN THE DANCE IN JUST ONE CLASS WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE 

lollll “theyre all dachang boys” “theyre all zhang yixing’s students” HAHAHAH you know even though he is slightly struggling compared to the rest, he aint bad and theyre all taking it light hearted with laughter so seems like a good learning environment! and he’s confident he’ll get it LOL thats good! i think thats what makes him so amusing 

HAHAHA i love how lin mo just keeps giggling at junhao like he genuinely just finds him so amusing LOL yay for making new friends 

awww bc junhao’s always been a leader i feel like for him to finally feel like hes being taken care of is so nice. i have absolute confidence that this group will treat him kindly. AW HE CALLED HIM MOMO 

im still disappointed they have YET to show zhan yu’s funny/strange personality and this wouldve been a great opportunity bc hes surrounded by friends he’s comfortable with!! like his friendship with kou cong! or akey and lin mo! but sigh...

THEY PUT ZHAN YU IN THE FRONT FOR THE SEXUAL LINE HAHAHHA PERFECT BUT I SEE LIN MO BEING ONE OF THE ONLY ONES NOT SHOWING HIS ABS HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA

wow the lyrics are so fitting for lin mo to scream LOL but also ay his vocals?! aw im glad they put in a little rap for shengen and akey! honestly was kinda hoping for more bc they havent had a proper stage together before and i feel like itd be awesome but also junhao and zhan yu vocalization at the end was on point!!

lol all the kids being like zhang pd’s words are so detailed and professional... sigh theyve been missing out until now 

im glad they really pointed out how each member of this team did well! they really all did a great job with each of their parts, and they each got a little part to shine, and when put together, it was a complete performance. im proud of them and happy for them!

aw.... i feel like we’ve been waiting so long to hear lin mo get complimented.... i feel like it’s been since qcyn namanana that we’ve been waiting for him to redeem himself and climb back up to the peak. ugh its been nearly a year and a half. im just so terrified of whats gonna happen next bc im way too skeptical at this point to expect this high to continue, esp with what happened after namanana last time......... but for now, im happy. relieved hes finally getting the recognition he deserves and im happy that hes happy. lol i was also half scared we were gonna get spirit of the knight-ed again with his pink hair (nightmare flashbacks to lin mo and changxi’s deletion from that perf) i dont think ill ever get over that :( i feel like as a lin mo stan, ive been trained to not keep my hopes up and to prepare for the worst bc hes the type of person who just always gets the short end of the stick, it feels like. 

aw the part when they go back to the waiting room and jin fan is waiting for them with an encouraging smile and the whole exchange of "帥的真的帥的" "哇~可以吧" "我沒想到" "那必須的" our leader did them proud :’) 

ugh the part where luo jie calls them and tells them he can’t come back........ heart breaking. i can see why lin ran and xikan would be really affected. lin ran has been luo jie’s go-to since he left and knowing how their usual friendship involves making fun of one another and jokingly complaining about each other, it hits hard when lin ran says he cried his eyes out. it hurts that they didnt get to share the stage again before he left. xikan may not have shared the stage with luo jie during ip, but hes known him since then and has been with him through both rounds here. it interesting bc i feel like the namanana perf was very light hearted on qcyn but i cant see that happening here, esp with their outfits? 

aw shiwei and chaowen taking charge to raise their spirits :’) 

lin ran’s voice fits so well with this song wow! i really like his lines! also lol i didnt know xikan would have abs but okay and tbh im always hesitant about dances with props bc it always is so easy to look messy..... like every slight difference in angle in the way you hold your arms is immediately magnified 

and like sxl’s fan is obviously broken and having performed fan dances myself i know that that’s like the most annoying thing to happen on stage, and can be really difficult to deal with, even tho it happens ALL THE TIME with those types of fans ugh :( 

i mean its super kind of them to leave luo jie’s space empty for him, but its kinda weird to have parts of the audio missing sadly :( and also chaowen’s voice did something weird in the middle there, like its sounds weirdly weak 

wait didnt yixing tell them to close the fan? but they didnt? 

xikan’s facial expressions are perfecttt, good for him! wish they gave more screen time to shiwei during shiwei’s lines lol... but also i cant help but hear lin mo’s voice during that part LOL ugh speaking of which i miss that team dynamic namanana team a on qcyn HAHAHAH hwx being a brat and fjj running around wild and lin mo giving up on them all just laughing like idiots for hours on end while bo yuan just judges them from a corner LOL i love the beginning of the wenxuan and lin mo friendship good times :’)  

HAHAH ENYU AGAIN WITH THE REALEST COMMENTS - i agree AHHAHAH i love these kids too but there was something off about this stage 

im surprised but also not surprised by what the judges are saying 

o didnt realize sxl was supposed to be center but i guess that explains the big puffy thing on his shoulder lol.......... agree with cx tho, even without his broken fan, i think the fans made them look worse bc it just looked messy 

well idk if we’re getting all the stages today but at least jin fan’s is also getting aired! TYGER HUG FOR JIN FAN YESS

jin fan teaching them dance? yes thank you for showing us he is a good dancer. oof jin fan’s just too nice :( hes trying to avoid conflict too much that it caused conflict smh......... lol oscar trying to talk to su er hes having such struggle i feel that bro LOL hes doing really well though, tbh being relatively young, hes really trying his best and is being reasonable. 

LOL HE CALLED HIM JIN FAN GE i forgot jin fan is considered old lol..... jin fan really taking the higher road here and im glad they sat together and talked it out a bit

THE JIN FAN VOICE YESSSS hahahhaha kou cong holding the tyger sign!!

oo is that some of his bel canto-style singing coming through LOL 

AY NICE for hong weihao and oscar to put in some rap 

some of those high notes were a bit questionable at the end but okay jin fan is really claiming that vocal + dance teacher role i see.... interesting 

but agree with yixing that he doesnt need to force himself to do high notes bc his voice is so nice regardless!! yay for oscar getting recognition! im still waiting for jin fan to do a cool dance performance sigh

wasnt expecting an enyu feature BUT ILL TAKE IT 

oof huang enyu saying hes really trying to put himself out there by going for leader and the realest comment that he hasnt considered getting to debut he just wants to pass this round oof and he feels like his opportunities may be cut short bc hes getting old oof

enyu and chenxu crying watching the movie 

AW THEIR HAHA VIDEOS ARE THE CUTEST THING I LOVE THESE KIDSSS so sad that so many of them are at risk of elimination :(  im glad these vocals made their own friend group! I hope itll be a memory they carry forward. they do all have shared experiences as vocals on this show. 

this reaction to junrong’s voice

same tho :’) but actually all of their voices are so so nice like actually these 5 are all people whose voices ive really listened for on this show, but wow renyu’s voice in particular like really ugh just sounds so pure 

also enyu looks really nice in this performance but thats a side note okay moving on

i mean literally these reactions

and li hao crying while singing and so many kids in the waiting room crying while watching OOF this perf has got me emotional 

HAHAHHAHA THEIR INTROS HAHAHHA

UGH ENYU his plea just.... the way he yelled it bc it mustve taken courage and it mustve been a frustration on his mind for a while now and bc maybe he wouldve broken down if he hadnt yelled it out but im really crying now.... and its so out of character for him that you know he really really is feeling desperate and feels the need to speak out

lol wait gjm posted on weibo about him? is that why hes getting more attention lol..........

i really hope the vocals win :( 

no tygers in the next ep preview? hmmMMMMMmm okay 

well also interesting that they put the other 4 perfs with the elims...... seems sketch but at least most of my kids got to go this week ahhhhhh i feel bad for the other groups already. esp the ones with the kids who arent as popular... 

[grump-the-deer]

stuff about HDM ep 8 + overall season thoughts

in other words.....

FINALE TIME BITCHES

this episode was INCREDIBLE. A+++, perfection.

this is what I expected from the get-go, and what I got a lot of the time.

we got some great exposition + bonding double time with Asriel, some excellent portrayal of Asriel and Marisa’s relationship, plenty of dæmons being cool and adorable respectively (Pan and Salcilia running around playing anyone???), some STUNNING visuals, an epic little fight scene with the fire-hurlers and the zeppelins, some great culmination for Iorek and Lyra’s relationship, good ol�� Thorold development, some more Lyra & Roger development (ESPECIALLY the tent and end scenes - Roger’s death KILLED ME OH MY GOD) - just the perfect fuckin meal.

this was exceptional. round of applause for HDM.

(except the Will being 15 thing. what? why is he so old? he could pass for a tall 13- or 14-year-old. that makes it a little weird. I hope Lyra is supposed to be like 13 now then, idk. that’s still a pretty big difference at that age.)

I really have to wonder though - if they show they can do the above stuff perfectly, why didn’t they do it before???

the Bolvangar episode still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. this episode proves that they can make intercision horrific and emotional, and make it mean something with the dæmons interacting. Salcilia and Roger had good reactions - hell, Lyra reacting to remembering almost being separated from Pan was more emotional than the actual scene itself!! Roger’s death was HEARTBREAKING, thanks to his and his dæmon’s reactions!

they put the dæmons in enough, especially in speaking roles, that even when they weren’t around you didn’t really forget about them. I could always do with more background dæmons, but I can absolutely understand budget restraints - so long as you put them in enough. we need to feel they have an emotional impact on the characters. we need to feel like they ARE characters. not accessories.

Pan was a character in this episode. the things he says and do make an impact on the story. he was not a character in the Bolvangar episode, despite the fact that that was the MOST IMPORTANT episode for him to be around and active in.

they can do it right, but they didn’t. this series would be wonderful if they cut out that episode and reshot it and replaced it with a better take. hell, even just the intercision scene. it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would work.

so, overall:

HDM season 1 was a spectacular ride. the dæmons and bears look fantastic (when they’re actually in the shots), the voices are spot-on, the actors do a phenomenal job, and the writers actually added some interesting extra material and development.

some highlights for me are:

- Iorek and Lyra’s relationship. they got it absolutely perfect, if not better than the original. Iorek is perfectly stoic and bearlike and resolute, but Lyra earns his respect and even adoration, as best a bear can. it feels organic and has plenty of development scenes. just heartwarming.

- Lord Asriel all around. really awesome take on him, James MacAvoy loves him to pieces I can tell. he’s way better than the original, and that’s saying something. he’s got a lot more heart and I feel more connected to him despite him being a complete mad genius.

- Mrs. Coulter, for the most part. she’s got a bit of shaky characterization with Lyra towards the end - I’m not really certain of her motivations at the end - but generally she’s fascinating to watch on screen and absolutely horrible. I love her and I love Ruth Wilson as her. she’s positively uhinged. they did some really bold stuff with her character and her relationship with Lyra and I enjoyed every minute of it.

- Farder Coram ended up being great. he and Lyra are always a pleasure to watch interact. he really grew on me as soon as he started getting characterization, particularly with Serafina and the story of his son.

- the cinematography, lighting, set design, and graphics. I couldn’t ask for anything more. they went above and beyond and the framing and this world and its creatures look AMAZING. 10/10. hats off to the animation team in particular, of course.

- the acting. the acting is absolutely brilliant. particular standouts include Dafne Keen as Lyra, of course, James MacAvoy as Lord Asriel, Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter, the voice of Iofur Raknison, and Farder Coram. honorable mention for Will, because he gets the character down so incredibly well.

- the respect for the source material. we’ve seen it blow up once with the Golden Compass movie, but this production obviously has every ounce of loyalty to the original. well, almost every ounce. the stuff they added ended up working very well and feeling organic to the original, and the stuff they kept, especially the verbatim lines, was delivered exceptionally. it’s clear they really care about the story they’re giving us.

- the opening credits are the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. a beautiful tribute to the magic of this series’ themes and world.

and some notably bad stuff, a couple that almost come close to ruining it for me:

- Lee Scoresby. an absolute mess. one moment he’s true to the original character and being sarcastic and selfish, and the next he’s stealing pocketwatches for funsies, yelling out his dangerous motivations in the middle of a town infested with armed Magisterium soldiers, and cooing over Lyra like she’s his flesh and blood and he got injected with Mother Hen Juice. he’s genuinely stupid. his characterization is all over the place. his “development” with Lyra is either nonexistent or rushed, and the only thing he actually does for the plot is fly the damn balloon for about 5 minutes tops. Hester is his only saving grace, and even she can’t do it all. I’m sorry Lin, I really love your work in Hamilton, but this was really disappointing. and I have to blame the writing mainly. they wouldn’t let Lin act a character, they had to shape the character around him. and the whole thing suffered for it.

- the intercision, and dæmon relationships. the Bolvangar episode wasn’t terrible overall, but it did not build up well to the intercision scene, and the episodes around it didn’t help either - especially the previous one. Billy’s death was not sad for me, because the middle of the show did not utilize dæmon relationships with their humans and dæmons as actual characters. we didn’t see them interacting enough with their people to matter consistently to us. the first couple of episodes did this bonding beautifully, even with budget restraints to how many dæmons could be in a shot, and how frequently they could come up. they showed us just enough for us to care about them and what they mean to their humans, particularly Pan and Lyra, and conveniently kept them out of frame when they weren’t necessary to the dialogue between humans.

they can do it properly, but they chose to let it fall by the wayside towards the middle, and it really shot the show in the foot. almost irreparably, I’d wager. Bolvangar, for all its masterful horror trope usage and suspense, was not nearly horrific enough nor emotional at all, thanks to the lack of buildup. we did not care about dæmons and their humans beyond knowing the humans are basically dead without them. there was no feeling behind the threat of Lyra and Pan getting split apart, other than Lyra becoming a shell. the focus was on Lyra and Mrs. Coulter’s relationship, which I don’t have a problem with - but not at the cost of Lyra and her dæmon. you know, the very FIRST line of the books? the main theme of the entire book? arguably the whole SERIES? dæmons as souls, as a person’s sense of free will and consciousness? kind of important to develop an emotional attachment to, don’t you think?

- the Gyptian leads (sans Farder Coram). Ma Costa was passable. she did a lot of crying and a lot of being desperate and pining for her son, and not a lot of kicking ass, proportionally. she didn’t come off as a strong boat mother at the center of her family with sway in her community. she came off as a wiry and lost soul who is somewhat capable but more interested in being depressed and worried. she did get to shine when she killed the Bolvangar doctor, but that wasn’t enough for me.

John Faa was boring. he was a hardass and only every so often came across as the original jovial, caring, but no-nonsense King of the Gyptians. most of the time he was just telling someone not to do something or insisting someone do something. no real personality other than being serious.

Billy Costa had no real character. a waste, considering we’re supposed to care about his death.

Tony Costa was alright. he was kind of a loser, which I guess is okay. I liked capable Tony and his gobbler-fightin’ gang from the books better though. he had a couple good moments with Lyra, and Benjamin was a good addition.

- the themes of belonging. I don’t like how they changed the message about Lyra belonging in different groups. the point isn’t that she can “be anyone she wants to be” - that’s not how real life works, or should work. she can live with the gyptians and like them, but Ma Costa in the books asserts that she can’t be a gyptian, because she’s not part of their ethnic group. a similar message was overlooked with the bears - Iorek gave her the name Silvertongue because of his deep respect for her and what she had done for him, not because she was “one of us bears” now. she isn’t a bear, she’s a human.

the point is that she doesn’t have to be something to find an emotional home with the people themselves. it’s about what she builds, surpassing what she is - which is a product of two twisted, misguided people - taking what’s given to her and making it into something beautiful of her own volition. it’s a very nuanced theme and it’s basically thrown aside in this adaptation in favor of pseudo-colorblindness theory that origins don’t matter and you can stuff yourself anywhere you please. it’s not a deal-breaking point and most people probably won’t pay attention to it, but it’s worth mentioning anyway.

-

so overall, the show was really really spectacular. a ton of fun, beautifully crafted, with a few hiccups and one major major issue. the dæmon thing gouged out a good chunk of the enjoyment for me, and the integrity of the actual story too. a huge huge blunder on Jack Thorne’s part. I’d like to say they recovered from it, because they did do a pretty great job wrapping things up, but it still lingers in the back of my mind as a big blemish on an otherwise incredible work.

I have high hopes for the future seasons though, when dæmons aren’t around as frequently and less characters are on screen, so there will be more time and budget available to be devoted to them, particularly Pan as a character. they’ve shown they can handle this material skillfully, and I have a good amount of faith in them. I can’t wait to see what else they do with the concepts I’ve come to adore so much.

[mytcisanartteacher]

So. It’s 4 am. It’s also my 18th birthday. Maybe tomorrow I might expose the journal entries that I wrote about my TC. Not all, just the appropriate ones.

It’s crazy to say that I’ve actually made it to this day, along for other birthdays to come. I’ll be fishing today, playing Minecraft with friends and be kinda drunk 😵 🤭, and just have fun today. I’ll be missing my friends who are moving somewhere else for college. Kudos to them for doing that, I know I’d never.

There’s this one friend I wish to hang out with. But apparently he says he’ll be in another town for a few days and won’t be able to make it. He and I had a past, we’re trying to be friends... I guess he just doesn’t want to hang out. I could tell he’s lying. I told one of his friends if he said to them if he’ll be in another town. He said he never heard from him in a while or know any of that sort. So...

I can never stop listening to Hamilton or watching it. I can see why my TC loves it so much. During wrestling trips he sometimes played the playlist. I got an interest because I like musicals a little bit. Then got Disney+ for Marvel movies and Hamilton. I loved it so much! When I listened to it I got chills, but watching it? Oh my goodness it gave me the best chills and got a few tears out of me. My favorite songs are You’ll Be Back, mostly because it just sounds... possessive? I know the people on tiktok use it in that way. My most favorite scenes are Helpless, Satisfied, Guns and Ships along with History Has It’s Eyes on You because the chorus, CHRISTOPHER JACKSON! But Helpless and Satisfied is first favorite because I just felt everything. The way Angelica (Renèe Elise Goldsberry) was singing, tone, emotions, pitch.... gave me mega chills. Even when She was walking with Hamilton with the whole “Where are you taking me?” Oh when I listened to it first that gave me chills. With Satisfied... I can relate. I’ve liked many guys and they went in relationships or told me they don’t like me back... I went on. But I felt the way she was singing.

Usually when I watch it I like get some deep sense of the play. When watching it, when they smiled out of control because they’re realizing it’s a successful show and people love it so much. The overwhelming feeling just hits me when I see their expressions. Like the whole production is amazing! For the stage crew, the lights, music, beats, lyrics... EVERYTHING! I loved the light production when they did the scene Right Hand Man.

Adding on, the whole Satisfied scene gives me mega body chills. For a split second I can just sense that I’m there experiencing that. I felt that when Angelica would rather see others she love happy and sacrifice and bury her desires and wants sometimes. Even the part of keeping and remembering the most special thing when meeting someone they deeply love. For me... it’s his words. They’re so kind. Sure he said some things that offended me a little bit, even the one time he said something that made me feel like I was slapped for some unknown reason. But... that letter of recommendation. It’s the thing I’ll always remember from him. Even the words he wrote in my yearbooks.

My other favorite thing about Hamilton is keeping the characters main words being said along the production. Like Hamilton and his shot. Eliza is helpless. It’s the little things that make the whole show amazing.

The only scene and song that I can feel like I am in that time is Satisfied. I can never stop talking about it, listening to it, and watching it. It’s like I’m looking through it in Angelica’a eyes. I know it sounds crazy. I just feel a lot of things that I can’t explain. It’s kind of a special thing for me. If I deeply love a song/musical/movie scene then I can just feel what is going on and being there experiencing it. It’s an amazing feeling.

When I first listened to it 2 years ago. I wasn’t as deeply in love with it. I loved the music, but as I got excited to see it last month, the whole wait was worth while. The built up impatience to see this amazing production, very much satisfied me. Then seeing the whole crew making hilarious and wholesome videos before the show, after the show... or just hanging out or doing interviews. It’s a new thing I’m obsessed with.

I’ll definitely have to tell my TC about my whole thoughts on Hamilton. I bet he’ll love it.

EDIT

Ok so I’m rewatching it again even though I should be sleeping but I’m just so EXCITED AND my brain is not tired. Writing about Hamilton definitely gave me brain energy. So another scene that I love is Schyler Sisters because of their (is it harmony? Their tones together?) I know nothing about music words. But that’s my guess. My other favorite thing I forgot to mention is when Lafayette and Hamilton said “Immigrants, we get the job done” and when the crowd cheered and you see Lin just smiling at it.... YES SERETONIN. Not to forget when Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) scene around the end when you see Lin just smiling very big... it may be just Hamilton smiling cuz the war is won but if I did something Lin did and scripted a whole musical and get the crowd clapping... I’D BE OVERWHELMED. Just being on the stage, having a successful night, the crowd is there... mega chills and immediate overwhelming feeling. It’s just chefs kiss.

I think that pretty much covered what I wanted to add on to this post.

OH and the funny thing I found is that Anthony Ramos who played as John Lauren and Philip Hamilton... the first song when he sang “I died for him��� 💀💀💀 he pretty much died for him twice. Ok Ik I’m late to this fandom (by 6 years) BUT ITS FUNNY.

Edit

I just can’t stop watching that scene... when I saw Renèe on the screen, I recognized her from Altered Carbon (my favorite show) and when she sang...

I was all over it. Her voice is so strong, beautiful, so POWERFUL! The Satisfied scene.... I just can’t stop rewatching it. I just can’t. I love every bit of that scene. Everything. The parts where the lights are on her, Hamilton, Eliza. The blue lights. The whole choreography. The chorus. The background singing. The EMOTIONS! If I saw this show live, I better carry some tissues because there’s just a lot of strong emotion. It’s not in their acting/facial expressions. It’s the way they sing, the emotions, the overwhelming feeling! It’s official. My bucket list is to watch Hamilton live. But how tf can I when people can’t follow CDC guidelines! I just have to impatiently wait and save up money for travel expenses and tickets. I very much loved the part where she was clutching her stomach. Like that heart shattering feeling that you realized it was too late. When she acted in pain just seeing Eliza falling in love with Alexander more, when they talked and at the wedding. Not to mention the last look at him at the end of the song. It’s so strong.

Along with the Satisfied scene... the rewind, the background chorus (idk what they were saying but it sounded like Hey? Face? That sounded so nice with the beginning.) not to mention the way they moved in slow motion. Oooo that made it better. I can never stop talking about that scene.

[frenchibi]

top 5 books

Hello friend!!!! This is areally really tough question bc I read so many different genres and have SOMANY FAVORITES so I’m going to cheat a little bit… I’ll give you Top3 or 4 (I have no impulse control) for several genres so you’ll get more than 5total but not like.. an inordinate number of books, ok? xD (Who am I kidding I’mgoing off the rails, no apologies)

Fantasy

The Name of the Wind(Kingkiller Chronicles Book 1) and sequel(s) by Patrick Rothfuss. Has beentalked about loads in fantasy circles and I have nothing to add other than“this is the best fantasy book I have ever read, and probably in the top 3 ofbest books I have ever read, period.” The style blew me a way, the characters are fantastic, the system of magic/power in this world is the coolest I have EVER SEEN and… yeah. I’m invested.

Howl’s Moving Castleand sequel(s) by Diana Wynne Jones. Y’all remember the ghibli movie? This isthe book this is based on and it is way, way better than the already fantasticmovie. It is ridiculously charming and witty and lovely and I recommendeveryone read it. You will not regret it. This is my ultimate comfort book, if that makes any sense.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – a hilarious bookabout the apocalypse with absolutely amazing characters and incredible styleand wit. We’re getting a TV series this year and I am beyond stoked. Pleaseread this. It’s… just… yes. British fantasy is SO GOOD.

Honorable mention: Die Stadt der TräumendenBücher by Walter Moers. Theremight be an English translation of this, but honestly I only recommend you readthis if you can read it in its original German – I’m not gatekeeping, it’s justthat so much of its brilliance relies on in-depth knowledge about German culture,history and language and it’s inevitably gonna lose that in translation. It’sone of my absolute favorite books ever and it pains me I can’t share this withmy English-speaking friends :/

YA

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) by Patrick Ness. It’shands down the coolest YA book I have ever read and it doesn’t even… feel likeYA at all, more like sci-fi? It could just as easily have gone in the “experimental”category and I don’t wanna give too much away but… the typeface of this book ispart of its charm? Different characters have different fonts and shit? Definitelyread a physical copy of this. Also, the narrator is illiterate so he writeswords by sounding them out – and I know that sounds like that would bedistracting but trust me it’s fantastic??? Please please PLEASE give this atry.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. Y’all want a good queerstory that’s not romance-heavy but instead has intricate worldbuilding and really cool magic? Pleaseread this, you will not be disappointed. This is a more “adult” version of YoungAdult Fiction and I absolutely love it.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Is this fantasy, actually? Probably. Does it haveissues? Yes. Is it still a very fun ride with a cool magic/power system? HELLYES. Also the characters are a bit older, which works very well. It’s like YAafter you’ve kind of outgrown YA.

Murder/Mystery

The Strings of Murder (& sequels in the “Frey & McGray” series) by Oscar de Muriel –listen, the main character is a little SHIT and that’s absolutely fine? Themysteries are kind of convoluted but not in a distracting way, it’s just a funseries with fun characters that I really enjoyed!

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie (and honestly pretty much everything she has everwritten) – I have nothing to say about Agatha Christie that has not been saidbefore :’D

Phantom bySusan Kay. Now this is kind of also a drama and it’s been a while since I’veread it so idk how well it fits into the murder/mystery category but it’s aboutthe Phantom of the Opera before he became the actual Phantom (or rather, thepath to how he became the Phantom), and I have endless love for this verydramatic and mysterious and misunderstood character so… yeah :D

Collections of Short Stories

Topics About Which I Know Nothing by Patrick Ness. Yes, this is the author of “ChaosWalking” (see above), and this is a collection of a VAST variety of shortstories he has written, all of which are insanely creative and so, so fun??This man has an insane imagination and I love it, instant recommendation toanyone honestly.

Dear Life byAlice Munro – another one that I read a while ago and don’t remember that muchabout, but I remember absolutely loving this book, and that it’s one of thebooks that made me want to read more short story collections :D

The Refugeesby Viet Thanh Nguyen – an interesting bit of perspective, this book centersaround different characters who are Vietnamese or of Vietnamese descent in theUnited States. I loved how eye-opening it was tbh?? I love reading books byauthors from cultures vastly different from my own and this was wonderful.

Poetry/Experimental

Milk and Honey / The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur – two collections of very personaland touching modern formless poetry that honestly blew me away. I’m not a bigfan of classic poetry, or poetry in general, but these two books are justincredible.

Good morning, Good night by Lin-Manuel Miranda – a collection of Lin’s “good morning”/ “goodnight” tweets that, idk, give me hope for humanity? Ideal for perusing if youneed cheering up and just an all-round wholesome book to own.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn – a “novel without letters” I wouldn’t know where to placeexcept under “experimental” because its premise is basically… an island thatslowly bans more and more letters from everyday use? It’s told in the form ofletters between the characters and it’s just… such a FEAT of writing, the waythe author forces his characters (and himself) to get by with fewer and fewerletters of the alphabet? Fascinating, from a writer’s perspective, and anabsolute recommendation!!!

Sleeping Giants (Book 1 of the Themis Files) by Sylvain Neuvel. This is a sci-fi book,but it’s under “experimental” because, well – it’s told through interviews. Iwas a little confused/put off in the beginning by this style, but the jaw-droppingstory pulled me in and hooked me. It’s a sci-fi EPIC… don’t get too attached toanyone because the apocalypse is coming for them all - and you’ll be at theedge of your goddamn seat. This is a fantastic series.

Drama

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Honestly, anything by Khaled Hosseini, unsurpassedauthor of dramas that will rip your heart to shreds, and you’ll never be thesame after reading them.

Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng. This is one of those books that will never leave you afteryou’ve read it. It starts with “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” –unravelling the mystery and consequences of the death of a Chinese-Americanfamily’s teenage daughter in gut-wrenching detail. A family story that willleave you sobbing on the floor but also filled with such profound hope forhumanity – I don’t even know. This book eviscerated me.

Homegoing byYaa Gyasi – the story of two sisters, one a slave and the other a slave-owner’swife, and their descendants. A family history of choices and consequence thatis… raw and personal and a very, very important book.

Home Fire byKamila Shamsie. The story of a British-Pakistani family – more specifically,the story of three children whose father was a terrorist. I am weak for familystories, and this one is politically charged and relevant and gut-wrenching aswell.

Novels/Fiction

The Hours byMichael Cunningham. The first book I read in a stream-of-consciousness style,and I still really enjoy the plot of it, too: The story follows three women;Virginia Woolf writing a novel in the 1920s, a woman reading this novel in the40s, and a woman basically living the plot of this novel in the 90s. It’sfascinating, really? I highly recommend it.

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde. Another story told in three time periods – a man whoinvents a new type of beehive for beekeepers in the 1800s, a beekeeper whosebees are dying in approximately present day, and a woman 100 years in thefuture who pollinates plants by hand because all the bees have vanished. It’s…fascinating, again, and a really good story. I also feel like it was quiteeducational? I enjoyed it a lot.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. Technically this is a drama too (but shh) – it followsa black delivery nurse who is charged with a serious crime after an incidentinvolving the baby of a White Supremacist couple. It’s an explosive topic butit’s handled with a lot of nuance? Reading this book will frustrate you greatly,but I think it’s… idk, important? It shook me.

Eyrie by TimWinton. I have never seen depression portrayed more accurately than in thisbook. I was highlighting passages on almost every page – also the style ispretty cool? Snappy? Sharp? I’m not good at describing it but… yeah this leftan impact.

Non-Fiction (listen I knowthese are all by youtubers but hear me out)

So Much I want to Tell You by Anna Akana – letters written by Anna to her sister, who committedsuicide when she was 13. It’s raw and personal and important, stories aboutpersonal growth and lessons learned, about grief and regret and moving on. Irecommend this 100%.

Secrets For The Mad by Dodie Clark. A collection of charming stories and anecdotes and songlyrics and doodles – a book that reads like what watching dodie’s music videos andvlogs feels like. Safe and soft and personal. I love this.

Doing It byHannah Witton – a book about sex education that honestly everyone should read.Hannah blazes through taboos like they’re nothing more than hot air – as theyshould be. (Also, watch her videos.)

Bonus

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. I don’t even know what category to put this in? It reads like a fable and it is just... so beautiful and enchanting. Please read it, you will not be disappointed. It’s a story of chasing your dreams and self-discovery and it’s... just wonderful.

-

Did I make this entire listas a means of procrastination? Yes. Am I sorry? No.

Listen I have been wantingto blog about books for the LONGEST TIME but I never took the time to because…idk, I am not involved with the book reviewer community on any platform andhonestly I’m intimidated? But I do have a lot of Thoughts so if you’ve read anyof these and want to yell about them with/at me please dm me??? Or send me anask if you want to hear more detailed opinions about any of these from me????

…yeah. Thank you for this question,man. I love books.

Send me “top 5″ of anything and I’ll respond with my favorites!!!

[mikiruma]

✨ 🎥 💕🏳️‍🌈 with saints row!

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

viddy game.... Fun..... i like the plot being linear enough so its easy to follow but juuuuust batshit to allow comedic potential... and also ik some ppl would say flat-ish characters r bad, but i think enough is provided abt characters already so u can expand on them urself... that & the fandom in general is VERY creative!!! so if theres somethin u didnt like in source, chances are like 20 ppl have reworked it in 20 different ways and theyre all pretty appealing. not canon specific but im puttin that out there :P

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?

hard tie between “dex & troy,” “a romantic dinner” and “of shipments and skee-ball”.... those cutscenes make me go nuts ive rewatched em so many times

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

ONLY ONE>??

johnny is the easiest choice so of course i’m gonna go off abt him.... he’s the designated badass & i love his whole “surviving mortal wounds” schtick, but like. listen. he’s a doof??? listen his love for dumb sci-fi??? taking shit from nobody except the boss??? his sr4 loyalty mission??? or just anything he does in sr4???? also im repressed twink so when i see a bear/hunk i heart eyes

oh yeah i have also been in a pierce mood, i’m so mad he’s just the funny haha butt of all the jokes bc he honestly seems like one of the best friends u could have... going out of his way to try and lift everyones spirits in sr3??? as much shit as boss talks abt him he’s genuinely fun to be around and i love when u get to hang out with him???? yeah he’s kind of the meme too but he’s also real and i would die for him

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?

i don’t have TOO many hard-set hcs but like... johnny & pierce bi rights & boss is trans/nb.... also idk if i saw this somewhere or just thought of it but trans lin?? thank you. WAIT ALSO johnny/aisha/boss good end ot3..

for neuro hcs.. autistic matt miller of course....

but yeah all my sexuality hcs are basically “vaguely het’nt” bc i dont focus too much on ships, but if i like it & think abt it enough & have it in my peripherals often enough i just might hop on... same w gender hcs, like as much as i joke and jest abt everyone being trans, in the end it comes down 2 projection or considering other ppls hcs. yes i think for myself

no race hcs bc i honestly don’t do as much homework as i should on this front & don’t wanna be a jackass

[teazensstuff]

rules: tag 10 followers you want to get to know better!

@little-xikan THANK YOU FOR TAGGING MEEE 😏💞

Lettuce begin with this long journey

Star sign:

I'm trash so maybe it's gonna be long. But aye y'all can skip it though xD

I'm a Capricorn. Was born on the day before Aquarius happened.omg

Rising Scorpio

Moon in Gemini

Venus in Sagittarius

For the ones who are interested in. Capricorn is pretty the most boring sign next to Taurus. We're hard working people. One thing I can say is that Capricorns tend to be serious when they're young and relax as they get older.Rising scorpio means that I'm the kind of person who doesn't trust people easily and I don't open myself instantly. Plus I do not forget the things people do or did for me.The moon in Gemini makes me unofficially a social butterfly. I'm in contact with people from different groups and I love to talk and tell you all about my opinions. Of course I'd love to listen to what you say. Lmao I lose focus easily.Venus in Sagittarius. its just says that I'm fun to be with because I'm optimistic, open minded and in general a positive thinker.

Sexuality:

idk man. Still in my experimental phase tho

Wallpaper/lock:

I have Lin Yanjun as ma wallpaper and Yukhei as my lock. Nothing special thooo

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

If I was unrealistic but optimistic I would say that in 10 years I’ll be having my own business. But lmao who would buy my stuff probably just me, myself and I. At the same time I’d want to see myself working in the entertainment industry. Enough with it. So for now let’s just say that I don’t have any plans besides of being happy and healthy.

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be?

I love travelling, so I’d like to be at some places I’ve never been like China, Rio, Egypt, South Korea, Japan & Russia.

Who was your last kiss?

Never had my first kiss, which means there was no last kiss either. The only kisses I had where in my dreams. I remember that I once had an emotional dream where my crush and I were about to die and the last things we did was kissing each other. After that I woke up in tears.

Have you ever been stood up?

Nope

Have you been to Las Vegas?

Yeaaahh, I’ve been in Vegas a few times. The older you get the more fun it is. Well I’m just saying this because the first time I went there was when I was 10 and the only thing I did was watching some shows and dying in the heat. Last time I went there was in summer. At that time I made lots of friends and we had a sleepover at Caesar Palace hotel. Ended up in a mess.

Fave pair of shoes?

Nude wedge with bows. All of my friends are thinking that I’m a vans/converse/sneaker person. Hell y’all wrong. I just can’t wear heels when I’m at school. But when you meet my outside you can see me running in heels. Maybe I like heels because they are some sort of weapon too???

Fave fruit?

people will hate me but I love durian (stinky fruit), jackfruit, cherry’s and strawberries

Fave book?

Well, my favorite book is actually a wattpad book. It’s in german and I really really love it. The way the person wrote it and the characters it was just so amazing to read it. The name of the book is “behind the screen” author @07nia11

Stupidest thing you’ve ever done:

Idk. I’m doing stupid things 24/7 and therefore stupid things...are just routine. But wait since I can’t give you a story of the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I’ll tell you a story of many embarassing things I’ve done within a day.

So I was with my class in Berlin. I guess I was 15 when that happened and it was actually pretty chill. BUT then there was a specific day where so many things went wrong. The things started when it was afternoon. So we lived at a hotel which was near a pizza store. My friend and I saw a cute guy, like he was super cute. And from the 5th floor we screamed “HEY CUTIE”, don’t ask me why I did this y’all. Anyways he didn’t hear us since he was with his friends. Or he pretended that he didn’t hear us. My best friend then came and whistled and yelled “AYE YOU IN RED”. The guy turned around and saw us and I then yelled “MA FRIEND HERE THINKS YOU’RE CUTE!”. Well then in the evening, my friend which was the same person from above, my bestie and I went to the mall. And lmao we got filmed as we accidentally walked in the opposite direction as the escalator went. I bet the people who filmed that still have it. Before we went back to our hotel we met cute guys again...omg. I guess we walked around 5 times past them so they’d notice us (Well tbh that’s something I would do if I ever meet my bias). The last time we went there my best friend walked to the other part of the street because she already knew that I’d do something super embarrasing. To be fair. I did something embarrasing, like super...So I said confidentaly “hubsche hubsche junge” well it means pretty boy with an accent. I almost died. The good thing was that he invited my friend and me to dinner the next day. The bad thing I couldn’t go because I had to go to the club where everyone went crazy and where my innocent soul got robbed because a guy twerked on my goddamn table.

I tag:

@yukhis @yukheible @peachyxuxi @oreonlineo @yukh3is @babyjunguwu @peekaneo @nctsoftie @idolprodicons @onghwangs

[palukoo]

for ur headcanons ask: 1. lin beifong + star trek au (u can do specific, like, specifically voyager, or super broad, like, there's aliens and starships and maybe a federation lol) 2. gelphie + any au you want (sorry way to wimp out i just couldnt think of any) 3. any character/pairing u want + theater au (agaIN im sorry im just uncreative)

wow okay you’re right, you are uncreative. i still love you, and thanks for this, i appreciate it. but im gonna put this under a cut because like, i cant just list shit. i have to show people my thought processes. it adds to the experience (does it tho?). point is, this may get long and half of my followers probably don’t care about this shit.

Lin Beifong + Star Trek AU 

so ya know i feel like a good starting point is what species she is. uhm, lets see. i think originally in my plans from like 2014 (omg thats when i started voyager isnt it has it really been that long jfc), i believe she was a borg severed from the collective, but like… idk… i feel like in later things i made her half klingon? because ya know it makes sense, i promise. but like that wouldnt really explain her suppression of emotions unless she was also like… half vulcan. and i honestly feel like that would be really interesting because lin’s obviously like obviously angry and can hold a grudge for 3000 years and all that but she also tries to be logical and stuff, but actually has other emotions!! idk where im going with this and idk how ill feel about this answer in two minutes but for now okay. Lin is half Klingon half Vulcan.

She’s the chief security officer. like, it just makes sense. im just sayin

She’s (eventually, im not here for the they’ve been together for ever and all that jazz, in fact, i dont want them to get together at varrick and zhu li’s weeding shockingly enough im sorry i feel like im being an asshole its just my thoughts) dating the chief medical officer, Kya who I’d have to think bout what species she is but rn imma say unjoined trill. or maybe bajoran. idfk and you didnt ask me so bye

she’s all for breaking the prime directive. but not the temporal prime directive, because time travel is weird and confusing and she doesn’t wanna get involved in that bs, thanks

alright last one. so like… in lin’s case im making starfleet/the ship shes on or whatever the police department. so like… i was thinkin about why she joined but i guess just like to help people or follow in toph’s footsteps or ssomething idk. i cant think of a main point to bold here. its less of a headcannon and more of a ?????

Gelphie + Any AU I Want  Harry Potter AU

glindas a slytherin. like i dont get when people put her elsewhere, except for kind of ravenclaw but she’s still overwhelmingly slytherin. she’s ambitious, she’s incredibly loyal but only to a very small group (herself, elphie, elphaba’s family in the books, fiyero in the musical), she can improvise well, im just saying she’s 100% slytherin. elphie is a hufflepuff. she’s loyal to everyone, believes in doing whats good, and all that jazz. i can see her sorted elsewhere, just not slytherin

glinda’s top off her class. like glinda’s head girl or whatever for slytherin. elphaba, even though she’s reallyy really good at magic, prefers to not ya know talk to people. and she gets in trouble a lot because she doesnt care much about the rules. she sneaks off the forbidden forest like all the time to just like hang with unicorns and hippogriffs and centaurs. she gets glinda to go with her like twice but glinda doesnt wanna get in trouble

glinda is better at potions than spells. as far as spells, though, she’s best at charms. sorry, i have no explanation, just a gut feeling really. elphies good at potions and charms too, definitely. she’s also really good at hexes and jinxes

madame morrible teaches charms (or dada or divination idk) and is head of slytherin, and they both hate that bitch with a fiery passion. glinda’d never actually do anything about it, but elphie puts hexes and jinxes on her and her stuff all the time. morrible gets really mad but can never actually prove that its elphie

everyone is kinda confused if/when they find out that theyre together unless they’re part of their friend group. (glinda is liked by most of the student body but becomes a lot more withdrawn when both her amma and the herbology or history of magic prof, dr dillamond, die). their friend group consists of: boq (hufflepuff, not great at magic tbh), fiyero (gryffindor), nessa (ravenclaw, really into muggle religion [she and elphie are half bloods, their dad is pretty anti magic and so is nessa so why is she there ???]), crope and tibbett (both slytherin and obviously dating), and im sure im forgetting someone but…

BONUS: glinda’s really into wandless magic

Any Character/Pairing I Want + Theater AU

mattie i have nothing

i, too, am uncreative

i cant just… think of something to make a theater au for

thats not how my mind works, i think of the ship/char/work of fiction i want to write for first THEN the au usually, with only a few exceptions

not that you’re asking me to write a fic but like…. still…

like now im just trying to think of things i watch and im like… the west wing is the last thing i watched… and before that i think it was charmed, which you don’t want me to talk about and also…

im lazy. but on that not paige is prue’s understudy in some show sorry bye

[kindergarchy]

You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

On the book jacket’s sleeve, Kathleen Alcott (not sure who she is, presumably an impt/well-known figure in contemporary literature) praises this book: “A terrifying and elegant talent you will not soon forget.” In contrast, I do actually want to forget about this book…. and I did, until I remembered that I have not penned down my thoughts abt this book.

I thought the book was weird, maybe you can manage to imply good interpretations - maybe the issues she is trying to raise are impt - body image, the mechanism of a cult, noise caused by an endless tirade of commercials and advertisement, consciousness, a sense of self + belonging, etc… but all of these are drowned in a foggy sea of plain weirdness.

Tbh, I did really like some parts, I did go wow that’s rly well-written. It made me think of tao lin’s taipei, like small revelations of things, things that people dismiss - these things are not a ‘big deal’, nevertheless it makes you think that ok so it’s not just me. Maybe I do have a bit of social anxiety, that’s why I can find traces of me in A, but most of the time this seething, electric sense of connectedness is eclipsed by the extreme alienness of sensations the character is experiencing. I also like parts where the narrative keeps questioning A’s sense of self, sometimes it rubs off on me, especially after reading Sam Harris’ Waking Up

Ok I’m gonna paste its synopsis on goodreads here:

“A woman known only as A lives in an unnamed American city with her roommate, B, and boyfriend, C, who wants her to join him on a reality dating show called That's My Partner! A eats mostly popsicles and oranges, watches endless amounts of television, often just for the commercials— particularly the recurring cartoon escapades of Kandy Kat, the mascot for an entirely chemical dessert—and models herself on a standard of beauty that exists only in such advertising. She fixates on the fifteen minutes of fame a local celebrity named Michael has earned after buying up a Wally's Supermarket's entire, and increasingly ample, supply of veal.

Meanwhile, B is attempting to make herself a twin of A, who in turn hungers for something to give meaning to her life, something aside from C's pornography addiction. Maybe something like what's gotten into her neighbors across the street, the family who's begun "ghosting" themselves beneath white sheets and whose garage door features a strange scrawl of graffiti: he who sits next to me, may we eat as one.”

I was reading it on the sleeve of the book jacket and thought… ummm. Weird. And sometimes it happens when I read a synopsis, so I thought of it as nothing - the impression dissipates as soon as I savor the book and have a good taste of what the book is trying to portray/drive at - replaced by a relief, a sense of familiarity. I thought I would arrive there, so I waited and it never came, not even on the last page. Like… the weirdness did not feel bizarre in a way that makes you wonder (I’d like to think of myself as having a good tolerance for strange things), it felt forced and synthetic… again maybe this is due to the fact that I do not have extreme paranoid tendencies, I think it’ll be good to have real ppl who do experience paranoia to testify whether the scenarios laid out are plausible, if they do, then probably my unfavorable view of this book emerged not out of the book’s lack of merits, but my incapability to absorb something I can’t relate with well enough

I liked this part where A mentions to her boyfriend C about a weird sighting of her neighbors, which C dismisses almost instantly. C is often capable of convincing her effortlessly, perhaps even unintentionally, that everything is fine, normal. I felt that this is done semiconsciously by C out of convenience, he does not want to bother entertaining probable, but seemingly ludicrous possibilities (low-level paranoid thoughts) - and A likes that, because it makes her think less crazy thoughts, nevermind that it leads her into thinking that she is the crazy one, and without her realizing creates an imbalance in their relationship’s dynamic (ie A needs C more than the reverse):

“Okay,” C said thoughtfully, as though he had made a decision. He put his phone in his pocket and pulled himself up to a standing position. “You are a sensitive person, you saw something weird, you feel spooked. No pun intended. There are plenty of reasons why what you saw might have happened, and some of them are weird. But some of them are just boring. You know? That family could have been going to some kind of school pageant. Or a birthday party. So you can ask yourself: Do I live in a weird town, or a boring town?”

I blinked at him.

“I’d say boring,” he added, nodding and then raising both eyebrows expectantly.

I loved his face, his bland white good-looking face. I believed in him and therefore in the boringness of my town. C was good at handling me. He made things suddenly, instantaneously normal, just by explaining them. He was like a magnifying glass, I only had to look through him to see the world in crisp detail. And he had a really nice smile and good teeth.

This is one of those “not a big deal” moments, and how the narrator jumps from C’s ability to his physical appearance, like his positive quality has a halo effect on his physical appearance (or maybe it’s the other way round), this thought process seems very natural, how your mind jumps from one thing to another, following a pattern

I also think this is very well written, how A describes her gaze direction which relies on her boyfriend’s - a subtle hint at the commensalistic tendencies their relationship is developing:

I went over and got under the blanket with him. I tucked my feet in under his things and looked where he was looking.

Also this kind of self-inquiry, the idea that your sense of self is constantly evolving, it assumes and loses its shape constantly - reminiscent of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, only here told directly and real-time instead of being inferred through a nostalgic rewind:

Think this through, I said to myself. Just because you weren’t the person he thought you were doesn’t mean that you won’t be that person at some other time, someday. It doesn’t mean you’re not you.

And this separation between inner and outer lives, which to some might seem like an act of hypocrisy:

What bothered him, what seemed filthy, was the emotional aspect, the way I had dictated the personal. “You need them not only to be doing something for you but also feeling some specific way about it,” C said. A begging quality had entered C’s voice. C said: “Why can’t you just let people have their own inner lives, as long as they’re doing pretty much what they’re supposed to do with their outer lives?”

Plus substituting your object of desire as a coping mechanism, citing classic sociology studies:

Baby monkeys taken from their mothers will form attachments to fake mothers made of cloth or electrified wire, ducklings with no parents will imprint on a cardboard box with an alarm clock ticking inside of it. Wanting things was a substitute for wanting people, one of the best possible substitutes.

And lastly, what keeps you from going batshit crazy (like in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, it is a very thin thread we are holding on to with all our might):

“Are you one of those people who acts normal, but is secretly about to chuck their lives and disappear?” I asked. If that were the case, I wasn’t going to waste my time getting to know him. I knew that we’d be dating for a while, at least, when he laughed several times, loudly, and kissed me for what was then the third or fourth time ever.

“Yeah, right. No way. Neither are you,” he said. “I’ve seen that on TV, those dads, and it is nuts. No way. Everything’s worked out great for me since whenever, I don’t have any plans to make it complicated. Besides, I’m attached to my material goods.”

What material goods? I wondered. Then I followed the arc of his arm pointing to a location across the room. He had been referring to his collection of DVDs, heaps of horror and comedy and porn, stacked together in a pile the size of a small love seat.

But these parts are more or less detached from the main crux of the story, I found myself slowly growing a particular dislike toward Kandy Kat’s commercials, and the ridiculous (not absurd) appeal of the cult…. Idk, it felt like the narrative invents a problem then attempts to solve it, instead of borrowing one from real life and emphasizing it

So yeah, I’m open to read more of Kleeman’s stuff, she nails interesting observations, and this book is fun to read at times, despite my complaints