#im bingeing 2000s rom coms

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

sorry for all the harry potter posting in 2021…. but like….. reflecting on just how dark the later books were/are, why on earth did every harry potter fan always romanticise having a movie marathon with the movies??? like yeah, it’s basically what i’ve been doing for the last few weekends staying at my sister’s on my own…. and since i’ve been awake this morning, i’ve gone through ootp, hbp and deathly hallows part 1 so far….. and like…… these movies, to me, aren’t really made for marathon watching/binge watching in a sense….. due to the heavy subject matter imo. they’re made to be standalone (although part of a series) viewed movies one by one, not back to back to back in succession; when there’s just so many incredibly substantial themes like death and obviously racism, systemic corruption etc etc. to be thought about while watching.

like of course everyone is going to say that im reading far too deeply into this and that the hp books and movies are trash….. but like the constant romanticisation in the 2000s and early 2010s of wanting to do harry potter marathons as if they were as cutesy and happy go-lucky as romcoms…. or simply just as lighthearted kids movies backed by whimsy and fuzzy feelings back in the day, was just so fucking backward.

like obvs since im older now, i can see that harry was abused by petunia & vernon for example. and by reading other teen fiction (specifically aussie YA fiction series’ tomorrow when the war began series and the ellie chronicles trilogy); harry’s horrible dreams/flashbacks of cedric before/after he was killed in goblet of fire is a symptom of PTSD (which i read in harry potter essays in uni when i did i philosophy essay on epistemic injustice in ootp in the courtroom scene). i can actually see how harry is being used as a pawn by dumbledore in his master plan. and obvs in analysing these things im putting my apparently “useless” arts degree in english and philosophy to use lmao. and of course as kids, we either ignored those themes or never picked up on them because they went straight over our heads.

on this bent then, another YA movie series that is NOT made for binge watching is the hunger games. which i found out to my own kind of detriment last year….. considering that i had never bothered to read the books back when they were popular past the titular namesake hunger games book (and had also forgotten all the early 2010s tumblr posts about how dark it was)…. while deciding to watch all the movies til catching fire part 1 in a binge watch sesh in the middle of 2020. the binge watch sesh was also spurred on by the book about young president snow that came out in 2020 lol.

so last year, when i finally decided to watch hunger games, i could actually understand and contemplate the political ramifications of katniss’s & peeta’s behaviour and defiance… which was something that i completely brushed off while it was hugely popular in the early 2010s because it was “too political”…… while i utterly denied the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS major political undertones and themes in harry potter because i was so obsessed with it….. but I obvs was most specifically preoccupied with what hogwarts house i’d be in lmao and whether i was more like hermione/luna/ginny or a mix of all of them. like yeah. it was so backward.

of course, the HP movies do have a bingeable quality to them; but my god. from really goblet of fire onwards, they’re heavy as fuck and really don’t need to be binged back to back in succession….. like you can do with how i met your mother or Loki eps in terms of tv shows. or idek, for movies, old rom-com faves like suddenly 30/13 going on 30 or rom-coms starring sandra bullock (bc they’re some of my faves)…. or teen indie comedy faves like juno or napoleon dynamite.

bc harry potter at it’s core, is a war story, more obviously from the end of GOF til the end of the series. it’s heavy, it’s dark, and emotionally devastating (for me when i was younger obvs). in some scenes, such as when harry returns with cedric’s dead body in GOF and it’s backed by the cheery marching band music but then drowned out by fleur’s scream and amos diggory dramatically scream sobbing “MY BOOOOOY!!! MY SOOON!!! MY BOY IS DEAD!!!!” (which as a kid i used to laugh incredibly inappropriately at every bloody time i watched it)…. but NOW??? THE PAIN! THE SUFFERING! THE TURMOIL! which is finally paired with the sad score music and camera panning out from the tri-wizard cup school stadium??? oh! i am but torn asunder by it all (okay not really, but i feel amos’s pain more acutely and i can shed a tear or two is the point here). and speaking of GOF, it’s pretty sad that over the years, it’s always been reduced to “C A L M L Y” and hermione’s yule ball dress being pink instead of blue bc of both the real and supposed lack of book to film accuracy…. when there’s obvs more important things to focus on lol.

bc literally one of the most horrifying scenes in the gof movie for me, in retrospect, is voldemort being reborn???? and wormtail sacrificing his own hand to get that essentially cursed silver hand that ends up strangling him to death in DHP1. and also david tennant’s albeit very disappointingly short appearances as barty crouch jr???? that was good casting. and also the incredibly fucked up storyline in GOF of BCJ imprisoning the real mad eye moody in moody’s own enchanted chest for his hair for polyjuice potion???? it hit me last week again (bc it hit me in 2020 when i reread the series with audiobooks as well) just how ridiculously FUCKED UP and BATSHIT that ENTIRE storyline really was. and i read and watched that???? and was fine with it at 10 years old???? jesus christ lmao.

okay. i went a bit off topic and overboard. but y’all get what i mean??? it’s so weird that an entire generation romanticised a YA series that was essentially about a war in its later instalments (and obvs a full blown one by deathly hallows) as some cutesy marathonable story bc it was/is so whimsical and its filled with childhood memories. but in doing it myself over the last few weeks, it’s just not. it was definitely one of the heftiest book series for kids/teens back then. but also for the movies, aside for their run times mostly all being close to 3hrs long, they’re quite emotionally charged and are astonishingly dark & dense in subject matter/themes for a KIDS movie series for the backend of the series. and mostly the only reason it’s “marathonable” in a sense, is because we all know the story so well.

[wincore]

AHHHHH MOONIE I JUST READ ROMEO ROULETTE AND I AM FOREVER BLOWN AWAY BY HOW VERSATILE YOUR WRITING IS???? like i knew you described it as a romcom before but i’m literally still so blown away by Just how romcom-like it was?? it literally felt like i was watching an early 2000s romcom!! i felt TRANSPORTED. i can literally imagine the writing as the narration in a romcom.. it was a change from your usual writing but so so so so good nevertheless. ALSO the humor was so fucking funny 😭😭 i was dying at some of the dialogues!! u are a PRO at writing dialogue, it feels so dynamic & fun omg. i also love the reader’s personality so so much she’s so funny & flirty & i love her work ethic. i think she might be my favorite reader-persona uve ever written 😳😳 (don’t hold me 2 that tho im sure if i reread an older work of urs ill get swayed LOL). anyways she’s such a 3-dimensional character (i love delving into character insecurities & motivators!!) & i just Felt her pain sm but also adored her so much bc she’s so cute. it’s always such a pleasure to get to know the original characters you write!! ur one of my favorite writers for jaehyun too, i think the easy-going but easily-flustered behavior was Spot On!! i just rewatched princess diaries 2 last night & wanted another lighthearted e2l kind of thing and this hit the spot perfectly!!!! u literally never miss... u never disappoint. this was such a fun read and reminded me how fun fics can be :’) i haven’t read a new fic in mooonths but i seriously loved everything about this one. another 10/10 as usual moonie!! p.s. as someone who is considering going into either marketing or HR, the banter was SOO funny to me 😭😭 they both made valid points!

TATA I SWEAR U MAKE ME WANT TO CONTINUE WRITING ON HERE 😡❤️ early 2000s romcom?????? That's the highest praise u could give me omg ????? I can't express how giddy this ask is making me 😭😭 I'm so glad my experimenting worked out just fine!!! Honestly it was a change of pace from my usual writing so I was surprised it hit 20k bc it sure didn't feel like it LOL

Also omg??? I never considered myself a dialogue writer bc I always thought I was better at descriptions but thank you??!!!!!! My confidence in dialogue writing has been restored. I'm glad you liked the humour, like, I can't remember but I remember I started laughing at one of my own scenes and went. ok. It's time to close the laptop.

I loved this reader-persona too!!!! She's what I would raise my child to be. (Minus the insecurities and lack of affection 😭😭) I just had to make her annoying bc. I am annoying and I want more annoying original characters. 😬💕 One of your fav writers for jaehyun..... ma'am. That's such an honor PLEASE.

omg I rewatched princess diaries (the first one lol) with my friends a few days ago and. I have an urge to binge old rom-coms rn !!!! I'm so glad you liked reading my fic, you are The light of my blog 🥰💓

HHHHH omg HR or marketing??? You are rr jaehyun and y/ns child. Honestly it was so funny writing this bc I kept asking a senior from my uni that now has an HR job about office life and she thought I was interested in the job and went all hr recruiter on me 😭🤚