#imo the ending is not that realistic (at least not the school reaction to what the girls did) bc people

[fea-the-grinch]

Their friendship <3 truly a great show.

Some coincidences, some bad timing, put in just to create more drama (which makes sense but... sometimes, it's truly hardly believable, bc what did they do to deserve that much bad luck), it was a little bit annoying at time, especially when everything was going fine again, just for everything to return to shit a second later.

However, it's really easy to see through this, because the message behind the show is so heartwarming. The character's growth, the friendships, how themes are treated... it's well done. I appreciated all the aspects of the show even more after this rewatch.

I would add : that show has a happy ending, for all of its three characters ! It is also really hopeful.

Anyway, please watch Trinkets.

(I ranted a bit more about it in the tags)(there are no obvious spoilers)

requested by anon: “could you do a gif set of Elodie and Tabitha? I loved their friendship dynamic so much.”

[arysthaeniru]

aAAA the joy of seeing an update on your current favorite fanfic is just aAAA

I always felt that kiwami 1s Nishiki was just a bit too,, I dont know how to describe it; but essentially he just felt off, granted yakuza 1 is a product of its time and therefore the plot is a bit dated and whack as all hell

The way you write Nishiki just feels so much better and realistic; in the original he just seems so uncaring towards Kiryu? which just feels kinda OOC? You'd think he still cares about Kiryu despite it all, especially when you take Yakuza 0 into consideration; and i feel like you portray Nishiki much more accurately

I never thought much about Yumi, because honestly, in the original she was kinda just, there? You actually made her a very interesting person! like I'm actually invested in her in your story! (side note you ever think about her clone who got tortued and died? yeah who WAS that???? thats never brought up is it??)

Theres so much more to talk about but in short; This is the best fix it/rewrite of a game plot I have read to date and it brings me joy in my current stressful school life. and no I will not stop praising it or the author, because this work has made me very happy. ;)

I just have a gift for picking favorites that end up dying,,aand another favorite of mine is Mine

imo theres a lack of soft, reassuring Minedai, i just feel like he'd need a reminder that people love him as a person and not just for the money he can provide, even if its obvious

I'd love to see how you'd write them, but I understand if theres more interesting/appealing drabble requests!

- Carp

CARP, thank you for this <3 this is so sweet!!!!! I’m so happy you enjoy my Nishiki! I had fun playing with what Yakuza 0/the Kiwami additions gave us about Nishiki’s personality and outlook on the world, and trying to reconcile that with the plot that Yakuza 1 initially had. Ultimately, I fell on the side that you did: even if Nishiki’s ambition took him down a monstrous path, I don’t think he’s the sort of person who neglects to pay back his debts. And he’s aware of the huge debt he owes Kiryu. Not to mention, their bonds of trust and love vanishing completely because of jealousy felt unreal to me. Their relationship becoming twisted or strange? Yes, but vanishing entirely felt unsatsifying to me. 

And Yumi!! I had so much fun excavating her character from the clues we get of her in canon. I worry sometimes, that she’s unrecognizable, because you know, I’ve given her a college education, and a whole bunch of interests beyond hostessing alone, but people seem to like it and like her, which is great!! I hate fridging women characters, so keeping her and Reina alive was important to me, hahaha. (RE: fake!Mizuki, there’s this substory in Kiwami that actually addresses who she was, BUT IT’S EVEN MORE HORRIFYING. So that’s why Yumi in my fic is the one captured and tortured by Nishiki’s men, because the thought of this poor innocent woman getting dragged into the mess was just untenable to me.)  

Anyway, thank you for your support and kind words, and I hope you’ll continue to read and that my fic can continue to relieve stress. I--tried to write this about Mine, but Daigo kind of stole the spotlight a little??? I hope you still like it--if not, I will try a ficlet from Mine’s perspective too. I enjoy minedai a lot, but I haven’t had room to think out their dynamic yet, so this took me a while. 

Daigo’s no stranger to being desired. He’s attractive, he knows this—his mother’s beauty lives in his veins, and he’s always had the money to look after himself. Fancy soaps to wash his face, the invisible retainers to keep his teeth straight, fancy suits and skin-tight shirts to show off his frame. For all that Kiryu insists his charisma is something that comes from the soul, Daigo knows it wouldn’t be able to draw the sort of attention he does without being attractive.

Which is to say that Daigo’s not especially thrown off by the intensity of Mine’s gaze. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. The thing that surprises him is how much he relishes in being seen by Mine.

Maybe it’s because Mine’s an island in a stormy sea, one of the only yakuza his age who’s sensible and level-headed enough to make it big. Maybe it’s because Mine’s gaze is always so reserved, polite, never overly lusty or overstaying its welcome, and Daigo has so rarely been desired so quietly. Or maybe it’s because Majima and Kashiwagi so clearly disapprove of him—Daigo’s always been something of a rebel, and he hasn’t shaken that off, even now he’s in his thirties and is the arbiter of rules for the Tojo Clan.

Daigo can’t quite put a pin on why he’s so comfortable with Mine’s yearning looks, but he’s never been one to hold back when he wants to indulge in something good. Not exactly a hedonist, not by yakuza standards, but Daigo has never kept himself from enjoying life, in the name of some dubious ‘honour.’

Which is why, in an after-hours meeting with Mine, as they eat cheap takeout sushi together, Daigo takes his chance. A momentary slip, the slightest hint of wasabi left at the corners of Mine’s lips and Daigo swoops in, rubs a thumb over the corner of Mine’s lips. Mine stutters to a stop, mid-sentence through a rundown of the real-estate that the Hakuho Clan’s been purchasing up, and stares at Daigo, eyes bewildered.

“Sixth Chairman?” he asks, his voice still remarkably composed.

“Wasabi.” Daigo says, nonchalantly, as if it’s nothing, and sticks his thumb into his mouth, slowly licking it off with a lingering lave of his tongue. He feels a sharp stab of satisfaction as Mine’s eyes turn darker, and his gaze follows Daigo’s hand down.  

Daigo straightens up, languidly, and cracks his neck, casually. At this point in the day, he’s untucked his shirt, and he knows that a slight strip of his stomach will be visible when he stretches out his arms towards the ceiling. And as predictably as clockwork, Mine’s gaze darts downwards, to that pale expanse, to catch that brief second of skin. Daigo can’t help but feel warm. Something about being watched by Mine is exhilarating.

“Smoke?” offers Daigo, but as usual, Mine refuses, with a polite shake of his head.

Daigo knows from hearsay that Mine’s something a health-freak, so he’s not entirely surprised. It’s already too late for Daigo to preserve his health—he knows that his liver’s already been pretty ruined from long nights of binge-drinking as a youth, and this job’s too stressful to withhold from vices like smoking and drinking, without an optimal end-goal. So he walks over to the window, cracks it open a little, and lights up.

The breath of nicotine curls over his body, a tender caress, and Daigo feels his shoulders drop, as the relaxation hits. He pulls off his cufflinks, tosses them into his pockets and rolls up his sleeves. He takes it slow, runs his fingers over his skin a little more than strictly necessary. Surreptitiously checking the reflection in the window, Daigo watches Mine watch him, and smirks at how intense that gaze is, how Mine’s mouth has opened, and Daigo can just see the soft pink of his tongue.

“Dojima’s just fine, you know. When it’s just us two.” Daigo says, turning over his shoulder. He smiles, one of those charming smiles that had always gotten him whatever he wanted as a child, “We’re same-aged friends, after all.”

“Dojima-san.” Mine acknowledges, after a brief pause.

Daigo turns around, to properly look at Mine and lifts an eyebrow. “Dojima. Or Daigo, preferably. Dojima-san’s always my father in my head.”

Mine nods, face impassive. Daigo can’t read him like this. Maybe that’s why he likes when Mine stares at him, filled with longing. At least then, Daigo feels like he knows him. In moments like these, his implacable gazes might as well be a brick wall. “Right. Your Father was also in the Tojo Clan.”

Daigo smiles, wryly, and blows out a puff of smoke. “One of the most horrible men I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting—and I had to call him Father. But damn if he wasn’t good at the job.” He sighs and stubs the cigarette out against the ashtray. “...sometimes feel like I’m competing with his dead spirit. Everybody’s looking at me and wondering if this is what my Father would do. Or what Kiryu-san would do.”

“You’re doing better than any of them.” Mine says, immediately, with a vicious ferocity that Daigo wasn’t expecting. He can’t quite stop his eyebrows rising in surprise, and Mine straightens upwards, looking self-conscious immediately. Daigo regrets his instinctual reaction, immediately. “That is to say, Dojima, that I think that you’ve pulled this Clan into somewhere far more respectable. From what I’ve heard of your Father, he didn’t have the temperament to do proper business on this level—too insistent on formal obeisance and unable to be flexible as the times require. And Kiryu-san might be very honourable, but we are yakuza. There are certain things you have to do as a Chairman, that he couldn’t bring himself to do. But you are practical and do what is necessary, while also not overstepping into excessive violence. You are uniquely suited for this job, Dojima.”

...he’s taken aback a little, he can’t deny it. Daigo wonders if his cheeks are colouring, wonders if his obvious shock is offputting, wonders if this is how Mine feels every time Daigo teases him lightly about his obvious attraction. A startling warmth spreads through his chest, and Daigo can’t stop the slight smile that touches his face. Has anybody ever said something so unreservedly kind and measured about Daigo before?

Maybe this is the difference between everybody else’s gazes on him, and Mine’s gaze. It’s based on something more than desire alone. Respect.

Daigo runs a hand over his slicked-back hair and ruffles it free, with a rueful smile, a smile that he couldn’t take away from his face, even if he tried. “I appreciate that. You know I couldn’t do it without you, right?”

He’d never really believed himself capable of attraction to a man like Mine. All of his previous childhood crushes had been on bright, cheerful conversational, pure-hearted people. Daigo had always figured they would balance out his sardonic cynicism. He’d never thought someone as reserved and principled as Mine would ever make his heart flutter. But then, there was something about that deep hunger and passion that Daigo craved. Perhaps it was because he was no longer the gloomy punk of his youth. Maybe his tastes have changed towards tall, dark and handsome. Maybe Mine’s just that special.

“Dojima—” Mine says, clearly trying to refute it, but Daigo cuts him off.

“I mean it. Everybody in this fucking Clan wants me to do something or be somebody else. Kashiwagi-san wants me to be my mother. Majima-san wants me to be Kiryu-san. Everybody else expects my Father. But not you. You deal with me honestly, and with candour, and never hold any expectations against me except success. I appreciate your faith in me.” Daigo takes a couple of steps forward, until his shoes almost brush up against Mine’s own. He leans down over Mine’s chair. “I could not do this without your backing and help. Truly. I don’t think I’ve ever had someone like you in my life. A true friend.”

Mine tilts his chin up to meet Daigo’s gaze, a hungry devotion in his eyes, and Daigo, for a moment, wonders if this is wrong. If he should hold back, like Kiryu would. But Daigo is Daigo, and Mine clearly wants him anyway, so he leans down and kisses him.

Mine’s mouth is velvety smooth and wet and hot and it is oh-so satisfying a feeling to put his hand against Mine’s broad neck and feel his warmth up against Daigo. He pulls back, with a satisfied sigh, and feels the burn of wasabi across his lips, a final parting kick.

[victorianoir]

... I'm glad that Sarah called her out on it because that was really unfair of her towards Chuck, at least to me, I don't know, it looks like Chuck's biggest cheerleader is in fact Sarah (other than Morgan of course), and that part I did loved, the sureness she ahs on him, just like he has on her, anyways, sorry for ranting, and hope I didn't over do it with my review, I really did loved the chapter... was that the end? please let it not be the end, haha, thank you so much!

You didn’t overdo it! And I hope my response doesn’t offend you. I’m just hoping to get you to look at Ellie’s character in a different way--as a human being who isn’t infallible. My intention was to write Ellie as human, reacting the wrong way, but reacting in a realistic and human way too, and still being lovable. I’m bummed it’s making people hate her so much. I just don’t think Sarah should be the only woman character in the series who is allowed to have layers and human thoughts/reactions. So I tried to give Ellie layers and nuances. Maybe I didn’t accomplish it for some folks.

That said, IMO a staple of Sarah Walker’s character is that she puts Chuck up on a pedestal sometimes. And she does it in a way his sister wouldn’t. He’s constantly kind, he is always there for her, he’s warm and funny, he says what she needs to hear, and honestly, his behavior that whole entire night just made her insides PUDDLE. She’s not as aware of his faults as his sister is. She doesn’t see them as clearly. And she doesn’t have Ellie’s experience of watching this genius kid blossom, get accepted into Stanford and kick total ass until he’s unfairly framed and kicked out of school and is dumped by this girl he’s in love with at the same time, and just immediately LOSES any successful spark he had in him. Becomes this depressed, cheese puff eating, bearded mess on her couch for six months who cries and plays video games and only talks to her, Awesome, and Morgan. She experienced that. She saw it and lived through it. And now she sees that he’s stuck at the Buy More and isn’t trying very hard to go anywhere else. He didn’t get his Stanford diploma and NO OTHER DIPLOMA IS EVER GOING TO BE ENOUGH SO WHY EVEN TRY. And that’s SO FRUSTRATING for Ellie.

Sarah doesn’t see any of that. All she has is that he’s brilliant and skilled, and that he could be so much more than a guy working at the Buy More. She has this fresh take on him, and she has received two years’ worth of being overwhelmed by how fantastic he is. 

But to answer your question, NO IT ISN’T THE END!!! Still more coming! I hope you don’t think I’m mad at you or anything. You gave me the opportunity to actually explain where I’m coming from with the characters in this fic and I appreciate that. Someone yelled that Ellie basically accused her brother of r*pe in their review and that triggered me and set me off. Such a disgusting thing to say and totally not accurate. So I appreciate getting the opportunity to explain because of your messages! Thanks! Again, hope I don’t upset you. I am trying to gently get you to see where I’m coming from.

Have a good weekend!

[marzaid]

God it's so nice seeing some ppl who don't like Bakugou here cause everywhere I look it's full of Bakugou praisers who don't even acknowledge all the shit he did. I HATE that Izuku keeps him on a pedestal. I saw that Horikoshi said that Bakugou will have to apologise but given his (imo) Bakugou favouritism I think that the apology will come super late and that it'll be badly written. What do you think?

Welcome my friend!! I think that if Bakugou is given real character development then maybe I might like him or at least appreciate his character. But it makes it difficult to deal with him when everyone is kissing his ass including Horikoshi. I hate that Izuku keeps Bakugou on a pedestal but for me it makes a bit of sense as to why he acts that way. It’s honestly Stockholm Syndrome. In later chapters, he stands up to Bakugou but the way he stilll holds him in high esteem is because of years being told that Bakugou is the strong one and the one to be and to beat. Bakugou is the only friend Izuku had throughout his entire childhood that we know of until he got to UA and he treated Izuku horribly. Izuku learned early on that that is how he should be treated and that Bakugou is amazing. Sure he admits on the second day of school to Ochako that he hates Bakugou but he also says that he’s too amazing. Izuku can admit that he hates Bakugou but he can’t admit that he has done terrible things and he can’t admit that Bakugou isn’t as amazing as he was led to believe. For Izuku the reason he keeps Bakugou on such a high pedestal for two reasons. The first being that no one has really shown him that Bakugou is wrong. Sure people like Kirishima have told him off for being a jerk but no one has explicitly told him that he needs to change and then tried to helpgetbetter. The second is that taking Bakugou off the pedestal means a complete reinvention of Izuku’s worldview. He spent his entire life being told that Bakugou was the best of the best and that he was going to be a top hero. He spent his entire life looking up to Bakugou because he was the closest winner he had to All Might. It would do Izuku so much good to take Bakugou down from his pedestal and I hope that we see more of that as Izuku progresses through the story but I’m not sure if Horikoshi is going to do it.

I want to hope that Horikoshi will write a well written thorough apology from Bakugou. It’s something that I look forward to because i think that it would give Bakugou some much needed growth but I don’t know if he is going to. From what I’ve seen so far and in my personal opinion, Bakugou’s redemption has been lackluster at best. Sure he is slowly starting to learn how to work on a team and actually rescued people as will be his job as a hero but his attitude is still basically the same. He is still just as violent but now it’s passed off as a gag that quite frankly isn’t funny. There is some set up for it as seen in the chapter where Izuku and Bakugou eat over at the Todoroki household. Izuku tells Shouto that he doesn’t have to forgive Endeavor for everything and we see Bakugou making an angry face in the next panel. Maybe it can be interpreted as Bakugou realizing it can be aimed at him for what he’s done to Izuku. Since what would the point be to add Bakugou in that panel and his reaction.

So we have the beginnings of a redemption for Bakugou. We have a potential for Bakugou to apologize to Izuku for over an decade of bullying but I’m not sure how it’s going to end up. I would love to see Bakugou humble himself and apologize and actually show with his actions that he means it. I would love for Bakugou to go from only caring about being the best and winning to turning around and finding a balance and actually wanting to help other people without thinking about how he’s going to win in some way. Will Horikoshi rush it? I hope not but I’m nervous to see how it turns out because again as of right now the growth we’ve seen in Bakugou has been minimal. He has growth and is slowly getting there but he has a long way to go before his actually apology will have meaning behind it. Sure he could apologize right now but it wont’t have the same impact.

Apologies mean nothing if your actions don’t back them up. We need to see scenes where Bakugou thinks back on his past actions and their impacts. We need scenes that show him expressing his. regret and his remorse and talking about it maybe not just yet with Izuku but with someone (maybe Kirishima since we know him and Bakugou are very close). Then we need to see Bakugou break down and be completely honest with Izuku and communicate with him without physical or verbal attacks. He needs to sit down and explain his jealousy and fear to Izuku so that he can truly know. Explain to Izuku that he hated him for so long because he hated that Izuku had the personality for a hero and was the closest to All Might for Bakugou and that’s why he attacked him. No that doesn’t make it right but he needs to explain that to Izuku so he can understand why he treated him that way. Maybe there could be a scene where Bakugou has to choose between winning at something and saving someone, saving Izuku. In this scene, Bakugou should choose to save Izuku or choose to help Izuku instead of getting the recognition and winning. Then either after this scene or in the future Bakugou completely humbles himself to Izuku and apologizes and understands that as Izuku said to Shouto, he doesn’t have to be forgiven. We know that Izuku is probably going to forgive Bakugou if he hasn’t already because that is the kind of person that Izuku is.

But the apology also won’t mean anything if Izuku doesn’t take Bakugou down from his pedestal. He is going to need to shake his entire worldview and admit that Bakugou wasn’t always right. We are slowly staring to see this with Izuku because he is admitting to himself that Bakugou isn’t right and he is starting to stand up to him. We have seen a lot of growth from Izuku and think and hope that he eventually take Bakugou off the pedestal like he has with All Might.

Overall, I am hopefully that Horikoshi will give Bakugou and Izuku more growth so that it makes an apology from Bakugou more realistic. I’m nervous to see how things are going to pan out because I know a lot of people think that Bakugou has had more than enough growth already. I do hope that Horikoshi doesn’t take a short cut and actually puts in the time to make Bakugou give a full apology and a proper redemption arc.

[o-daintyduck]

I like your POV abt shirbert. Let’s face it, for all the time how our girl fantasises abt romance, she is a realistic girl through and through based on he previous life experiences. She will get over the hurt and plays off her love for Gilbert as a one time crush she should get over. And once she’s moved on, I have a feeling the script will make Gilbert be the one pining again, this time full force, to make it canon to the book. So relax lovelies, they are after all, endgame 😘😬

Yes to all this!! This episode was all about Anne and her beautiful mind at war with each other, Gilbert's doing in her fantasies God knows what lol, her reaction when she sees Him and Winnie together was like," Really I fell for this guy.. uggh" yes, she is definitely crushing hard on him, and is totally enamoured by his eyes and that chin.. but that's about it for now. Shirbert is taking it's due course as it should.

The people reacted the way they did (atleast the ones I talked with) for many different reasons. Shirbert was the least of their problems, especially when we were fed really well in 3.05 and this one too with Anne playing tug of war with her feelings. The thing that caught people off-guard was his apparent apathy to Anne's distress, I ranted about it once or twice in the flurry of emotions that we were supposed to feel on behalf of Anne. Now, that I've rewatched it with my brother - he thought it was a very "Gilbert thing" to do - he has what you may call tunnel vision, blind side, doesn't catch on obvious things on the first try - heck it took him 3 years to move on from Anne, having fixated on her all that time. Remember, he almost lost Bash bc he got carried away with medical school.. he's doing the same thing as of now... But he's also an idiot and indecisive fool in this episode. I guess it's hard to figure him out in this season when we are accustumed to do with Anne, she's supposed to be the one requiring figuring out - now we have to deal with not one but two hyper- complex individuals... He's confusing me very much too, not gonna lie, but I'm excited to wait and see what happens and where they take him.

The thing that baffles people the most imo is the constant incoherence, inconsistencies and cramming of too many themes and stories all at once, it looks as if the themes are driving the characters' storylines and not the other way round. A lot of it can be attributed to the weekly episodes. I'm pretty sure that we are being shown one-sided narration (a very common romantic trope) and it will come together by the season ends.

Anyway, people are free to feel what they feel and have healthy conversations about the things they liked and didn't like. People love and adore this show very much and every aspect of it so with that comes emotions and opinions. This fandom thrives on the diversity of everything under the sun, let's keep it that way.

But YASS!! Shirbert is endgame and again only good things are in store for them.

[smores100]

once again we’re in full agreement lol. What’s your take on s3 remakes you’ve watched? Wondering how you feel about Skam FR as it’s kind of a similar situation to me where the chemistry & beauty is there but the writing and style is iffy (overwrought &overdramatic). My favorite s3 is druck. As a wlw I had high hopes for españa but it was p slow/v desexualized—a whole discussion, but my other gay friend & I were disappointed given how remakes with guys don’t hold back in that respect.. Thoughts?

Honestly re: wtfock tho I really do wonder if they had like one good writer in the room surrounded by fools. Bc it really does feel like some group projects I’ve been in where I feel like I’m the only one who’s not a fucking fool and carry the whole thing while having to fend off bad ideas (but when the majority rules, those bad ideas/execution get put in). I wonder if that’s what happened w wtfock.

re: wtfock, lol group projects are the worst….idk what wtfock’s writing process was like, but i’d love to know it. according to their wiki there were 3 writers this season? all seem to be male, naturally. did the two other writers have good ideas but there was a main writer who overruled them and did his own thing? or maybe they’re the rl one brain cell squad, that would explain a lot :p in any case, i’m unimpressed (friday’s clips did not help with that).

as for the other part of your ask….oh damn i have so many Thoughts on that, lol. this is probably gonna get long and messy, but you asked for it!

* druck - my absolute favorite. it’s the only one i’ve watched since s1, so that definitely played a part in my emotional investment and attachment. still, there was more to it than that. it was the closest to og imo in vibe and style (it felt small, real, lowkey, quiet, natural like og, as opposed to - as you said - overwrought and overdramatic + overproduced like the others); they cast an actual trans guy to play a trans character, if you wanna talk about a skam remake doing something REVOLUTIONARY? druck is the one; i loved matteo’s and david’s characterizations, how they both had a bit of isak and even in them, and the role reversal in some scenes, made things feel fresh *and* fit their characters/story; i LOVE that teens matteo and david were played by actual teens michi and lukas!! they’ve completely ruined me for all other remakes, bc thissssss is how it’s supposed to be! thisssss is how it should look like! THEY ARE KIDDOS. and they (druck and michi/lukas) truly captured what it’s like to be young and fall in love for the first time, the awkwardness and the nervousness and stuttering and fumbling around, the softness and pureness and innocence of it all!!! also they have THE BEST dynamic - other people might prefer all the hot kissing and steamy making out and the smouldering looks, but me? i just couldn’t get enough of their dumb chaotic energy, best friends who love each other deeply and are also constantly little shits to one another. gimme them pranking each other and playfighting every day! and then being soft and THE HANDS and matteo being a clingy koala basking in david’s affection :3 i also loved how for the most part they didn’t just copy/paste og’s storyline, they made some changes and knew how to make *other* changes accordingly for it to make sense and fit the story *they* were telling - for example, replacing the ‘call your gf’ scene with matteo’s panic attack/breakdown (one of my fave scenes), or their reunion at the end of ep 7 (replacing the desperate kissing + sex with a comforting and relieved yet also bittersweet and melancholic hug), or even matteo getting advice from his drug dealer instead of the school’s doctor, lol. also THE BEST BOY SQUAD, hands down. and matteo is my favorite isak bc to me he felt like his own character instead of just another isak, he was different and reletable and a constant Mood. that being said - it wasn’t perfect and it had its issues. there were a few times when i did feel they stuck too close to og scenes and it didn’t *entirely* work for me, just felt a bit off; i will forever be disappointed that they didn’t directly address and acknowledge matteo’s mental state/depression, bc there were enough signs imo to indicate that he did suffer from something. they mentioned ‘therapy’ in mia’s, alex’s and kiki’s cases, i truly thought they would with matteo as well, but alas, they dropped the ball on that one; i was extremely upset with david’s outing, but i’ve since calmed down and have managed to see it in a more positive light, tho i still have mixed feelings about it and am not fully on board with that decision, still wish it had been done differently (but at least! it wasn’t brushed off and was addressed immediately and eventually led to david having agency and yelling out his pain!!! which was good and important and cathartic); also eps 8 and 9 were pretty messy writing-wise, things either didn’t make sense or would’ve made more sense had the clips were organized differently (that random ping pong clip….?). overall tho, the good outweighed the bad, and it remains my fave

* skam france - now that’s a tricky one. the way i felt about it in the first half of the season, is different from the way i felt about it in the second half of the season, is different from the way i feel about ever since watching druck’s s3. it’s funny you should say how similar it is to wtfock for you, bc i’ve been thinking the same thing for quite some time. those neighboring countries sure have a shared flair for the dramatic! fr’s s3 was pretty much the first s3 i watched (i gif-watched half of skamit, couldn’t get into it). i wasn’t planning to (i was extremely unimpressed by the couple of s1 eps i tried watching, and same by axel’s acting in those first two seasons), but even is the loml and they got me gooood with their eliott pov trailer, which might have affected my excitement over it during the first half. back then i really enjoyed it for the most part, despite some clips being rushed or missing the point thus not fully having the required effect (their locker room scene, for example, or the ‘generalizations are bad’ convo), or how much i hated basile (a character so obviously written by a man it’s amazing), or the cheesy piano music. there were enough good things for me to focus on instead (more in a bit) that i could ignore the things i didn’t like or weren’t as good imo. however, all the positivity got sucked out of me when yann noped tf out after lucas came out to him bc WAY TO MISS THE POINT OF SKAM!!! and things went downhill after the director’s IT’S NOT DISNEYLAND IT’S FRANCE 2019 comment. i’m getting all upset just thinking about it, but to say *that*, to explain that horrendous decision bc lowkey homophobic reactions are realistic!!! only to THEN be all ‘haha jk yann isn’t homophobic! we just wanted you to *think* he was! he’s actually an awesome friend who took several days to reflect on all his past wrongdoings while his bff was at home having a nervous breakdown bc he believed his bff hated him!’ ughhhhhhhhh, miss me with that shit. great that they had yann apologizing for his past comments, but the way in which it was done was for pure shock value and angst, completely ooc for his character (all season he was all ‘tell me tell me tell me let me help let me help let me help’ only to do *that*?? nahh), and interesting how out of everyone the only black character was the only one with a negative reaction (remind you of anyone), highlighted even more during ep 7 aka the ott lucas coming out tour. then ep 8, that should have been 100% all lucas and eliott and building up to eliott’s manic episode suddenly had that weird random pov changing clip in the middle of it which truly wtf, basile was still basile, lucas thanked chloe for outing him, more scenes felt rushed, they had sex in school where people could come and go in front of huge windows in broad daylight and luckily didn’t get poisoned from licking all that paint! and i did not like the flatshare, i absolutely hated mika and lisa kicking lucas out of his room - which he pays rent for! - and manon not even trying to put up a fight, and them being like ‘roommate isn’t just a place, it’s a way of living. that’s a family, and you’re more like a cousin.’ ‘a second cousin.’ ughhhhhh and then when eliott was recovering from his depressive episode, they *still* didn’t give lucas his room back or at least let eliott stay there, he was sleeping on the couch, i’m aldjlajdafj. can’t believe i’m gonna say it, but TAKE NOTES FROM WTFOCK. tl;dr there were some good moments in the second half, but i was feeling bitter more often than not about certain things, so my enjoyment wasn’t as high as when it first started. and after watching druck, druck’s brand is definitely much more my style. plus, i was already struggling with making myself believe axel and maxence were in their teens, but after druck it’s completely impossible, so i just pretend they’re in college or something lol. all my issues with it aside, i’d still rate it higher than wtfock, bc overall the writing was better, more coherent, and made much more sense. i also liked lucas’ friendship with the girls; i loved that instead of copying the underwater kiss + 21:21 like some others have, they came up with their own thing i.e. polaris, which i thought was lovely; the lucas/manon crying in the middle of the night together in front of the tv was one of my fave scenes of the season; also love how we were introduced to eliott on the first week! and they spent time together! and specifically the piano playing scene, ohhhh; and in general elu are sweet and i reeeeally like axel and maxence and their friendship. so yeah, it had some major issues, but i’d rather have a coherent story with something done for shock value and drama ONCE than an incoherent story with several shock value moments.

* skam espana - sorry to hear you girls were disappointed! i only watched half of it, so i can only comment on what i saw. i decided to binge watch s1 and give s2 a shot when i heard they were giving cris isak’s story - it felt a bit weird to me, but it was also something different and new, and i did have an appreciation for their decision to have a wlw season (also much more revolutionary to me than showing a gay bashing), so i was intrigued and willing to try it. sadly i didn’t really vibe with s1? it’s totally a personal preference i think, maybe even a cultural thing idk, but it felt very fast and loud and hectic to me, idrk how to explain it. i was just more into the chill more lowkey vibe of druck and skamnl. but i still gave s2 a shot, and idk, it still wasn’t my cup of tea. i thought it was ok for the most part, but there were some things that bothered me - joana/cris felt underdeveloped to me? and things b/w them felt like they were moving so fast from the second they met, like jona was so intense and forward ALL THE TIME, they had like 6 almost kisses in a really short time, like shhh slow down. i remember disliking their ‘call your gf’ scene, it felt really petty and kinda mean to me? bc i felt like joana came on to cris *really* strongly and *very* frequently, so cris was more than entitled to feel hurt and betrayed when she found out joana had a bf, but then cris was kissing a dude and joana positioned herself and her bf in front of cris so she’d see them kissing too, and i just didn’t like bc seriously?? cris is valid, just apologize to her and explain?? idr much else tbh, they had some really cute and sweet scenes afterwards, i’m still against doing the underwater kiss + 21:21 so i was kinda meh about that (tho aesthetically speaking it was BEAUTIFUL, and i’m like, fiiiiine girls deserve an underwater kiss too, i’ll allow it just this once!), and that cuddling clip in ep 6 i think was sweet and the last one i watched. like i said, i was less vibing with this remake, and iirc it was going on during druck’s s3 and skamnl’s s2 - which were my faves, plus skamfr was on too i think and i was lowkey following it too, so….there was just too much all at once and something had to go, and it was skamesp. it was also around the time when panaphobia-gate happened, so *shrugs* i’m not wlw myself so your opinion on it being desexualized is probably more valid than mine? i just know when i did watch, there was a lot of kissing and making out and being cute and touchy with each other, so i thought it was ok? as i’ve mentioned before, i don’t need to see a naked butt or anything like that to *get* it lol, i thought they were lovely! but that’s just me. i will say that my faaaave part was most definitely the cris/amira friendship. they were so wonderful! one of the best skam friendships imo. i might one day go back and finish the season just for the heck of it, but they didn’t do anything major or highly offensive that made me have negative feelings towards it, it was just a personal preference + circumstances (too many remakes!) that made me be less into it and drop it before the end.

[luminisvii]

okay im gonna go black out and write some bullshit about my Thoughts on Literary Analysis and Character Writing bc i love writing and i love trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. i am an unfortunate fan of fire emblem, so the real joke is on me, but let’s do this anyway. using a lot of bold as always! it makes me feel special.

Why is Leonie such a divisive character? 

as per usual, here is my disclaimer that it’s okay to like Leonie. it’s also okay to dislike her, as long as you’re not being a massive dick about it. lord knows people are rude to me about lorenz and i didn’t ask for their opinions. if you like leonie, i am not out to get you, i’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t, i’m not even mad at you. Neat! you like a character i don’t! and that’s just fine. i honestly don’t care! go have fun! 

so let’s talk. theres a TL;DR at the end so be ready.

i’ll make no bones about it: i’m in the camp that dislikes her. i don’t have the energy to hate her as i do for faye, but leonie is pretty obnoxious as a character and it’s an uphill battle to like her. i’ve played VW like three times since i’m a self professed GD stan so i’ve dealt with her a lot, read most of her supports, and seen her as a character in actual cutscenes and stuff.

the short answer: making a character obsessed with another one and having that be most of their personality is really annoying. 

the long answer: let’s start on that now! these are my personal thoughts and analysis, so you’re free to disagree with me if you think i’m falling short.

one statement i will make right away is that i’m not offended by leonie being mean to the player. a lot of people who stan leonie like to argue that people dislike her because she’s one of the few characters who doesn’t kiss byleth’s ass immediately. that’s fine. that doesn’t bother me. after all, seteth and hapi are mean to byleth at first too, and those two are far more beloved… in fact, it’s funny that they’re mean to byleth. i would also argue that my favorite lord claude is not buddy buddy with byleth at first either, but if these popular opinion threads have proven anything to me, people love taking claude’s lying ass at face value. that’s besides the point—it’s okay that leonie isn’t immediately friendly to byleth. that is not an objective character flaw. characters need something to conflict over in the narrative, and not being instantly friendly to a player insert is not a problem in the slightest.

the major flaw in leonie’s character, imo, is that the writers decided it was a brilliant idea to make her obsessed with a man who barely seems to acknowledge her. this is an extremely unfortunate reoccurring character trope in fire emblem. notable other victims that more modern fe fans may recognize are faye and cordelia, faye being the worst offender. luckily, leonie isn’t as bad as faye. but it really is irritating that leonie, along with these other women, seem entirely driven by men who cannot acknowledge them. within three houses, you have similar traits in male characters as well: cyril is another notable offender, and to a lesser extent, dedue’s fixation on dimitri. now, we do see jeralt talking to leonie at the very least, and he does speak about her at least once in my memory, and positively at that. so it’s not as pathetic as the likes of faye. 

outside of that, leonie cannot stop fucking reminding everyone she comes across: she loves captain jeralt. she’s his only apprentice. and you, dear player, who is his child, are not good enough, because you don’t love him as much as she does. practically all her convos with byleth are about how they don’t love jeralt enough, save for a slight turn around in the A support where she talks about her promise to protect byleth in jeralt’s place. to be honest, i usually ditch her in any run i’m forced to take her (hello sylvain, the superior idiot redhead cavalier) so this promise is just cute.

the arrogance in this attitude is insensitive at best, and as seen in her B support with byleth, potentially malicious and self centered at worst. 

let’s not beat around the bush. the main point of contention for leonie is her B support with byleth, which is locked to jeralt’s death. you cannot get this support until jeralt has kicked it. and if you’re on GD, chances are you have gotten enough support points with leonie to get it immediately upon his death. the man’s grave is still fresh. what does she have the gall to say to her beloved mentor’s child?

“I've spent my whole life working to become a great mercenary like your father. There were so many times when I wanted to ask his advice, but I couldn't. I just had to make do. That's how I've made it this far. Just hard work, all on my own. But then you come along... And it's like you don't appreciate Captain Jeralt at all, or how lucky you were to have him around your whole life! Ugh! It still really bothers me! You might be his kid, but I'm still his best apprentice! Got it?!”

YIKES.

no matter how you dice it, saying that to someone whos father just died? NOT GOOD. it doesn’t matter what her reasoning is. a lot of people argue that this is realistic, that she’s acting out of grief. maybe so. however, if the game wants me to like her, they’re failing, no matter how realistic her reaction is. if this was supposed to be seen as a moment of weakness, that would be one thing, but it’s clear leonie never learns anything from this. she never gets better. she spends the rest of her life constantly centered on jeralt, and sees byleth as a competitor and obstacle to his affections, even after he’s dead. 

i don’t want to entirely make this about byleth, because let’s be real, byleth is only one of her many supports. but it is the most easily noticeable, and the least charitable to her character. 

also fun fact i did a basic search for jeralt in her supports and thats 37 times hes mentioned lmao this isn’t even accounting for her non support dialogue! which is still a lot! 

so a decent chunk of her supports still involve her talking about how great jeralt is as if the man is jesus. her better supports don’t involve him at all. i don’t have easy access to a lot of her dialogue by chapter, but quite a bit of her regular dialogue references jeralt too, be it by name or title, and a good chunk of her endings, especially her solo one, have her just taking up his title and job and drinking habits. it’s supposed to be seen as cute.

this woman is in her 20s at the beginning of the game. she’s my age. this kind of behavior is worrying. 

so you’re thinking “tell, you’ve spent a LOT of time talking about how leonie won’t shut the fuck up about jeralt. what about the rest of her character? unlike faye, she actually has one!” right you are! i will concede that. leonie does have things going on for her outside of her constant screeching about jeralt! what are they?

we see that her personality has her as a hard worker and frugal person because she’s grown up in a life that has less than many of her peers. she’s rational and rather keen, capable of assessing her opponents correctly and outsmarting them. she likes to help others. her supports with claude are fairly interesting as they talk about their own perspectives on the world to each other in a friendly manner. she talks to bernadetta and praises her skill in craft and manages to befriend her. in fact, all her supports where she doesn’t mention jeralt at all are pretty good. she can be headstrong and sometimes quick to jump to conclusions, but leonie isn’t one to be too beholden to preset ideas and shows a capability to learn and change.

wait, this sounds like a pretty well rounded and likeable character i’m describing! what happened here? this kind of portrayal is almost contradictory to the side of her that only thinks of jeralt. 

a lot of people who like leonie like her for these aspects. at first, i had thought her to be interesting, since she’s the poorest student in the entire school, here on money raised by her entire village, which must have been extremely difficult for them to do. she doesn’t understand how nobles can be so frivolous, and butts heads with the likes of hilda, who has been raised in luxury her whole life and she clashes even harder with lorenz, who is obsessed with nobility. in a way, leonie is the slap from reality that many of the rich students from garreg mach need. and she also serves an important function in the dynamic of the deer—she’s a bit of a hapless straight man to all their bullshit. they always need one of those! in the lions, that role falls to ingrid, while edelgard plays that to her own house. 

so yes, there is merit in leonie’s character. there’s a lot to like about her here. however, in my opinion, it’s not enough to make up for the incredibly abrasive aspects of her fixation on jeralt. it really just comes back to that—that someone decided that it would be a fantastic character trait to have her never stop thinking about a man, and flaunt this to the man’s child. constantly. almost all her dialogue directed at byleth is about jeralt. post skip, a lot more of her lines become about jeralt and making him proud. it’s like she thinks that he’s her dad. she’s a grown ass woman! leonie is one of the older students! she is an adult by the time the game starts! an adult with some actual worldly experience, unlike her peers! what went wrong? why is she like this? why did they make her so fucking annoying when it comes to jeralt?

so yes, that’s what i think is the major flaw of her character. a flaw that is not easily overcome. cyril is a largely derided character for similar reasons. another simple control+f tells me that rhea is mentioned in cyril’s supports 59 times so uh, woo! he has leonie beat there.

worst of all this is a flaw that narratively, she does not overcome. she never grows and gets better from it. she never changes her single minded determination to impress jeralt, even long after he’s dead. a good chunk of her endings have her taking up his business and acting just like him, taking his title too. somehow lorenz is the more likeable character, and lorenz starts off as a much worse person than her! he starts as a stinky incel classist and somehow, especially over the course of verdant wind, manages to learn and grow and change into a much better person, while leonie remains stagnant in who she is. her own peers outdo her in almost every aspect, in that they appear to be capable of growing up while leonie, already an adult, never seems to show any signs of maturing over the course of the game. we see ignatz turn from a meek nerd to someone who’s willing to do what it takes to protect what he cares about. marianne grows from suicidal and depressed to finding the will to live because it means she’ll be able to spend more time with things she enjoys and people she loves. lorenz goes from snobbish and distant over his complex about nobility to being one of the kindest members of the deer, willing to go against his father for the greater good. even hilda matures! hilda starts the game lazy and unambitious, trying to avoid work, saying she’d never risk her life for her friends, to fighting against some of the strongest forces in the continent and ESPECIALLY on CF we see her refusing to abandon claude in his time of need, no matter how bad it gets, even if it costs her life. what does leonie do? leonie seems to forever be stuck in the mindset that she has to impress jeralt, no matter how far she goes.

this is incredibly nitpicky, i’ll admit, this isn’t really part of the character analysis, but i find she under performs as a unit too. she may have ungodly speed and no weaknesses in her skills, but damage output wise she’s easily outdone in house by the other canon paladin of lorenz and his wonky statline, and out of house sylvain has basically the same ability as her, the same color hair, and a crest + relic that make him way more effective. the man has bulk, too. so, that’s a small ding to leonie as well. i had the same problem with sully in awakening. for all the talk about how these women are just as good as the men, they appear to under perform quite a bit.

and i’m gonna talk real quick in a basic list format of arguments i’ve seen for people defending leonie, since i’m running out of like, a coherent way to talk about some of this stuff.

-She’s realistic.

maybe so, but the game intends for me to find her as likeable and sympathetic, as it is for all recruitable characters. her reactions to byleth and sometimes others may be realistic, but don’t paint a charitable image of her. again, the moment in her B support with byleth is so bad, it makes her seem like she’s acting towards them with cruel intent. while i don’t care about byleth’s feelings since byleth isn’t a real person, what it does is it paints leonie as malicious, no matter what her intent was or how realistic it is. yes, she’s in grief, she’s lost someone important to her, but in what context is telling someone who just lost their dad that they didn’t love him enough supposed to garner anything but hatred? even if she apologizes for it in their A support, that means she basically took years to do so and still seems to think of byleth as an obstacle to her being like jeralt.

although as i have said before, the rest of her personality is fine. i find her non jeralt stuff is much more well written. she’s a down to earth person amidst a sea of lunatics. that’s not a problem.

-People don’t like her because she’s mean to Byleth. 

this is probably true in some regards although i can’t say for certain. because byleth is a player insert and some might take it personally, but otherwise i find this isn’t much of a good universal claim since there’s more to the disdain to that. personally, i think it’s hilarious when video game characters are mean to me, but that’s just My Opinion, so no, i’m really not offended by leonie being mean to me. other characters are also mean to byleth, and that leads into the next point...

-Other characters act similarly towards Byleth and they’re popular.

one, look at those stupid unpopular opinions threads on twitter. they’re not as loved as you think. two, a lot of the characters who are listed for these things are often the likes of seteth and felix, and let’s talk about the context of their actions there. seteth is indeed mean to byleth at first, but his intent is wildly different from leonie’s—he’s suspicious, and rightfully so, of this mercenary who came out of nowhere and rhea is suddenly showing a lot of interest in and is giving a position of power to. seteth is not acting out of malintent or jealousy, he’s acting out of concern for the students and his daughter as well as rhea. because his core intent is “protect everyone around me” it comes off as far more palatable and dare i say, endearing. this is vastly different than “i’m jealous towards byleth because i love their dad and hate that they’re getting attention i can’t.” with a character like felix, this is outright incorrect—felix is not necessarily more rude to byleth more than he would be anyone else. felix is angry with the faerghus four in particular, but everyone else gets the same level of vague disrespect from him otherwise, so his behavior is not centralized to byleth. again, i don’t care about byleth’s feelings. there is also cyril, who is similarly obsessed with rhea, and is just as irritating as leonie for it, if not worse because he gets an extra layer of being a poc character obsessed with a white one who saved him. 

tl;dr: context and intent matters. a lot. i know this is a ton to ask of the fe fandom to consider taking things beyond face value, but please consider the context of characters actions and their intent behind them.

-People who don’t like Leonie are misogynistic.

i won’t discount that there are bad actors who are likely extra critical of leonie because she’s a female character. it could be and has been argued that the reasons that characters like edelgard and ingrid are so controversial is because they are female. but not everyone who raises criticisms is strictly doing so in bad faith. most people i’ve seen criticizing leonie do it for the same reasons i am, which is that she’s an abrasive character. these traits would not be any better on a male character and in some regards could be worse. so for this one, it’s better to take it as a case by case situation, and pay attention to how people are talking. those doing so for less savory reasons often let it slip eventually, somehow. i’ve been avoiding using the word “bitch” in this entire thing for this exact reason.

-Her non-Byleth supports are good.

this is highly subjective imo and comes down to what you personally like in a character. i do like some of her non byleth supports, but she still has an unfortunate habit of bringing up jeralt in non byleth supports, so the only ones that are truly good are the ones where she doesn’t talk about him at all. even then, some like her one with marianne can do the same accidental portrayal of her seeming like a pretty unpleasant person. this isn’t saying that leonie can’t be flawed or short tempered, after all i adore felix and he’s got Some Fuckin Issues, but her portrayal as a kind and bright person clashes with how she’s portrayed surrounding byleth and jeralt. far too much. i like her supports with claude, i like her line with bernadetta, and her seteth one is good too, but i’d also argue that as a personality she doesn’t bring much to the table. she’s a perfectly serviceable character when she’s not dealing with byleth, but i personally fail to see more appeal to her. she isn’t particularly enrapturing like some of the others, and unlike someone like ingrid who has a similar role in BL, doesn’t have the shared history and integration with the deer that grants ingrid a unique perspective on her peers. although again, this is highly subjective, so it’s tough to argue about this. i’ll grant that yes, the writing that doesn’t surround jeralt is WAY better and almost makes leonie a redeemable character.

-Other characters are worse.

very true! i’ll cite faye again as the bottom line for “this is how abysmal this character could be” and in feth itself there is, as stated many times before, cyril. however it doesn’t mean that leonie is better by association. and i also often see people citing seteth as an example over the rudeness to the player too, but once again that’s about context and intent. hapi is a lesser example, due to a similar mistrusting nature, and there’s quite a bit of the cast who are cold and rude because that’s just who they are. now, thank fucking god that leonie actually talks about things that aren’t jeralt. like, seriously, i’d die. she still talks about him too much, but i really should go through all of faye’s dialogue to do a proper count. 

so now you’re probably thinking—if you even got this far—“gee tell, you sure do like running your fuckin mouth, eh? so what’s the point of all this?” let’s wrap it up. 

the TL;DR:

what this all boils down to is that leonie’s got a serious problem in her writing where her entire life revolves around a man, and the way it’s dealt with isn’t particularly great. she doesn’t have a dynamic character arc like some others that redeem them from their problems, and the personality she has outside of her relationship to jeralt and byleth often clashes with the one she has with them, particularly centering on byleth. when dealing with byleth, the image it paints of her is extremely negative, and not one easily shaken—again, the B support moment is just THAT BAD. that is the most cited moment for why people hate her. it just seems like for all the flaws she has, they are not compensated for or grown out of like other characters in the game do for theirs.

theres also that tweet about how we put more thought into these characters than intsys does, so. yeah. definitely doing that right now. thanks, intsys, you did it again.

i will also point to the argument that we should hold the writers accountable, not the fictional characters who aren’t real and don’t have feelings. i don’t think leonie needs to be held accountable for her bullshit. i just wish the writers could have treated her better.

this is personally why i find leonie so difficult, and hopefully if you didn’t understand why people don’t like leonie, this can help enlighten you. i’m willing to hear people out if they have something to say, and as always, if you are a leonie stan, please go enjoy yourself, have fun, and don’t let me ruin your parade. i just enjoy trying to figure things out and talking a lot along the way! so that’s all, here’s hoping that in the future they do better, and remember that GD is the best house okay bye take this picture of me typing up this whole ass thing

[briangroth27]

Annabelle Comes Home Review

Annabelle Comes Home is a respectable and dependably spooky addition to the Conjuring franchise. It isn't the scariest—none of the spin-offs have been able to touch The Conjuring 1 or 2 yet—but this is my third-favorite film in this ever-growing horror shared universe and I had a lot of fun watching it!

Full Spoilers…

It was great to have Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) back in more than just stock footage, even if they still had reduced roles. I’m glad they touched on the real-life questions surrounding the veracity of the Warrens’ investigations: that’s a good aspect to mine for drama, both for them and for Judy (McKenna Grace) with her peers at school. As far as the Warrens go, it’s hard to play that real-life public scrutiny any further than they do here: there’s no question whether ghosts are real in the movies since we can plainly see that they are. This film finds the Warrens in a more traditional horror setup, with them out of the house and the terrors affecting the teenagers left home alone, but the movie’s creators found the right balance to keep them recognizably “the Warrens” while also exploring that setup. Plus, Farmiga and Wilson are both so good in these roles that it’s nice to see them in whatever new situations the writers can cook up! This setup offered a peek into their home life when they’re not on an investigation and brought a little more variety to this cinematic universe’s offerings. The one thing I would’ve liked from Lorraine and Ed this time was a discussion about whether or not they should continue keeping their haunted vault room in their house with their daughter. They have to decide that they will, given it still exists in the Conjuring films, but I would’ve liked to hear the thought process behind keeping it. Did they have second thoughts at all? Do they just trust that the kids have learned their lesson? Did Judy reassure them that she’d be fine, either through her actions here or with a newfound strength uncovered by the film’s events? Might they even use the archives room to train Judy in the use of her paranormal sensitivity to some degree? (Probably not, given that would mean intentionally exposing her to dangerous demons). 

Like the Warrens, the rest of the characters were very likable and engaging. I greatly appreciated that the kids at the center of this film weren't the typical dumb teenagers messing with haunted things for fun or because of carelessness, but were instead aware of and at least a little respectful of the power of the Warren's archives. They were also capable in their own right (at least, as much as they could be in the face of this sort of danger). Judy's struggle with her burgeoning paranormal powers was well-handled and this was one hell of a first experience! The fallout at school from the questions about her parents' honesty was both a smart place to plant the seeds for the movie's main plot and to explore the unexpected (and until now, unexplored in this series) effects on Judy. I wonder if they’ll take liberties and have Judy grow up to follow in her parents’ footsteps someday, because Judy going from scared, lonely kid to opening herself up to the supernatural to save her friends was a great arc that could easily build into a new sub-franchise (particularly as we haven’t seen Lorraine’s early experiences with her supernatural abilities at an extended length). Grace did great with that transition and she was also really good at playing the more everyday character beats like Judy’s conflicting hesitancy and eagerness to open up to a new friend (Katie Sarife) despite pretty much everyone she knew thinking she was a freak (a very relatable tween/teen struggle). That development was a nice, grounded parallel to Judy’s sensitivity to the supernatural. I liked the idea that there would logically be good ghosts out there in addition to the demons the Warrens investigated, just like not all people are bad. That bit of wisdom was a cool moment for Judy’s babysitter and (initially) only friend Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) to help Judy on her journey, giving Judy the courage to lean into her abilities to help save the day.

Mary Ellen was a refreshing change of pace as a responsible babysitter who truly cared about her charge. I liked her friendship with Judy and their scenes together felt totally natural and lived-in, as if their hangouts had been going on for years. I also enjoyed her displaying no hesitation to trying to put an end to the ghosts once she knew what was going on. Iseman’s acting and Mary Ellen’s writing also made good use of the push and pull between her responsibility to take care of Judy and Daniella’s intrusion into both the Warrens’ house and her romantic life. Mary Ellen’s awkward flirtation/burgeoning romance with Bob (Michael Cimino) was cute and the film included just enough of it to sell their mutual attraction and chemistry, while keeping it at a realistic level for teens who knew each other but didn't really hang out (so there was no "it's totally love already!"). The one beat that rang a little false for me was Mary Ellen and co. going “We’re totally fine!” at the end of all that terror: that was a touch too glib IMO, but as teens trying to save face in front of their peers—especially the guy she liked—it still worked. Besides that, I’m glad the horrors here weren’t just laughed off and there was an honest discussion with the Warrens about this being a serious incident.

Mary-Ellen's friend Daniella gets that talk and it was a nice show of responsibility that she’s the one who pushed Lorraine to call her out on her mistake. Throughout the movie, she was well-drawn not just as a dumb teen looking to stir up some ghosts for laughs, but as someone who had real pathos in wanting to see her dad (Anthony Wemmys) again. While you’re spending the movie thinking that she should absolutely not be exploring the vault and trying to contact her dad, her performance and the writing make it totally understandable that she would. I bought her sadness and guilt and thought she walked the line between accomplishing her agenda and genuinely caring about Mary Ellen and Judy very well. I also liked that she truly seemed interested in Judy as a person, even if she was also using her to see her dad again (if only she’d just asked Judy which artifact could help her!). All three of the central girls have a similar complexity to their characters, pulled between what they want and what’s been forced on them (Judy’s powers and the isolation caused by them and her parents’ reputation), what they’ve been hired to do (Mary Ellen, though she would still be Judy’s friend; her arc has the least tension), and what they’ve convinced themselves they have to do (Daniella seeing her dad again, which makes her a nice foil for Judy in that the paranormal is what she’s seeking but her pull away from it comes from befriending Judy). That’s a cool common building block to these characters that immediately makes them multi-dimensional, a state that’s only further enhanced by the actresses’ performances. Ben was fun as an awkward teen with a crush, and I liked that he wasn’t too toxic, like you might expect from a high school boy in a horror movie. Another refreshing twist (and a bonus gift stemming from the public scrutiny about the Warrens’ cases) was that all the kids readily accepted that ghosts were real rather than having to go through the motions of beginning to believe in them.

While this was entertaining, I’m over Annabelle as an antagonist at this point: she was fine here, but the other ghosts definitely felt like more of a threat and stole the show while it felt like the doll didn’t do much of anything (even though it was the object pulling the other ghosts to the house). I wouldn’t mind if this were the last Annabelle movie, as it seems like they’ve said all there is to say about the doll. They also included a nice full-circle tie back to Annabelle Creation with a brief vision of her human self (Samara Lee), making it feel even more like this is the last one. Thankfully, there was a sizable monster mash of new ghosts here too! While I would’ve liked some more focus on each of them (a longer haunting act would’ve been nice), I liked what we got and there was a solid variety to the types of scares they generated. The Ferryman was scary and I liked the mythology behind him as well as his appearance. The the coins hitting the floor and rolling in to view to herald his approach were really creepy-cool, and the rules about him appearing in the dark vs. disappearing in the light were used against and by him really effectively. At one point I was hoping the “werewolf” case would be the basis of Conjuring 3 since it seemed like an original take on both a possession and a werewolf movie, but I guess not. Still, I liked that they got some classic werewolf imagery out of the Black Shuck (Douglas Tait) when it ripped up the car. The Bride (Natalia Safran) and the typewriter brought a classic ghost sensibility to the mix and the Feeley Meeley game was bizarre even before it was haunted! The movie definitely left me wanting to know more about the other ghost artifacts in the Warrens’ vault, especially the cursed samurai armor and the future-telling TV. Maybe they could make a web series or something exploring the cases that brought the vault objects to the Warrens’ attention! 

Annabelle Comes Home has a strong cast with well-written and atypically alert characters facing a good variety of specters. The pacing’s solid: they take their time introducing us to the characters, which helped generate fear for them when they were put in danger and made the film feel like a throwback to 70s horror, which is fitting given the film’s setting. It also helped to defuse any knee-jerk “this is a real dumb plan” reactions to Daniella trying to contact her dad because she explained her mission enough for me to be invested in it (giving her such a strong a need to see him also avoids any “this is what you get for being stupid” reactions when her quest puts everyone in danger because I felt sorry for her). Jump scares don’t bother me—they’re fun too!—and this movie definitely has some effective ones along with the creepy visuals (like the denizens of a graveyard (Sheila McKellan and others) approaching the Warrens’ car that only Lorraine can see). The paranormal attacks seemed more intense overall in the Conjuring films and Annabelle Creation, which are probably the three scariest entries in this franchise so far (though I liked this one and these characters better than Creation’s). The music, both the score and the 70s songs, was well used to creepy effect.

This movie might not have been necessary, strictly-speaking, since we already saw Annabelle get loose in the first Conjuring, but it was definitely a lot of spooky fun! It's a solid haunted house flick with a strong cast and that’s exactly what it needed to be. It’s also a good ending to Annabelle’s spin-off trilogy and got me ready for the next Conjuring with the focus shifting back to the Warrens (and maybe Judy this time?). You should definitely check this out!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[someobscurereference]

I don’t really see why everyone is so upset but the possible student/teacher(i’m assuming all the ‘students’ will be 18+ imo)it’s not like anybody pointed out any other power dynamics? Like any royal/General+any of their soldiers is as bad as teacher-student power dynamics wise if not worse. Your teacher doesn’t hold *that* much power over you meanwhile a royals could for sure have you executed if you don’t reciprocate? But everyone’s fine with those? Idk this might just be me missing something

I guess it’s just a sticky situation all around. Traditionally teacher/student relationships aren’t very good because there’s usually a significant power imbalance in terms of both age difference and the teacher being able to inflict some sort of payback on the student should things go badly. Which, for the student, can usually impact your future at the school quite negatively. Also, the student is then focusing on their romantic relationship with the teacher and not their studies. It’s a distraction. The fact Byleth seems to be the same age as everyone else (and presumably they’re all 18+ like you said, though I guess we’ll have to see) does help with at least part of it. But in any kind of educational setting, you definitely want your teacher to be unbiased. Romantic stuff means that they’re not being very unbiased in a pass/fail and favoritism sense, usually. Also they’re not a very good teacher if they’re mixing their job and personal life. (Again, speaking strictly from a “they’re all adults in the same age range” POV). (Also IRL, most of the time if you hear about student/teacher relationships, that situation often ends with the teacher needing to lose their job or be in jail, usually rightfully so. Granted, this is a video game and not real life, but a situation did happen in my hometown just recently that makes my gut reaction go “yikes” when I think of that sort of thing.) 

I think most of the “yikes” factor so far is we just don’t know the ages of everybody, and the school setting gives things more of a “high school” than “college” vibe at this point. If we can say definitively that nobody is underage when the game is released, that’s probably going to avert most of my “uh-oh” feelings about it. But from a realistic standpoint that’s still a conflict of interest. Which is usually against the rules for a reason.

I guess we’ll just have to see how the game handles it? I don’t want to get worked up about anything when I don’t actually know how the game is going to play out at this point. And yeah, you’re right that a General/Soldier dynamic does have the same kind of vibe! And those are often banned irl for similar reasons! I think because the FE games have always taken place in an army setting and they’ve been handled (usually) well, we the audience feel good about them in FE games. If those weren’t allowed, we usually wouldn’t have any S Ranks at all in FE. Also, sometimes your underling soldier is a dragon. So things are a little different in that context, lol. In contrast, we’ve never seen the school setting before, and students are usually at a huge disadvantage against teachers irl. (And again, usually the age thing, but we’ll see if that’s a factor here. Otherwise it’s just unprofessional). So that makes a lot of us wary at the prospect at this point.

tl;dr it’s the inherent power imbalance

Sidenote: I don’t really want to get into a debate with people or let my inbox become a space for this kind of debate/different people’s opinions to be posted nonstop, so if I get any other asks pertaining to this aspect of the game, I’ll probably just delete them automatically regardless of if I like what you have to say or not. Sorry! I just don’t want anything getting out of hand. And if the game handles S Ranks tastefully and well, I’ll be excited! I’m just a little wary right now but staying on the positive side. We won’t know until we know.

[ctl-yuejie]

Thoughts on Jamie and Namnhao

(includes spoilers until the first half of episode 7)

I started watching this series because l’ve been in love with Mild since Kiss The Series, but the way how Jamie and Namnhao are written really was a pleasant surprise.

Both are only side characters so they could’ve easily gone with the popular “jock falls for the quiet and shy boy” - trope. Instead their relationship is way more nuanced and I love every second of it. 

Jamie

While he is on the popular kids’ basketball team and good friends with college heart-throb Aud he doesn’t really fit into their hierarchy. We see him defend Aud against what seems to be the “alpha” of the team and at all parties he’s moving independently of everyone else. He’s still part of the gang, getting invited to events etc. but he doesn’t seem to give in to peer pressure. 

Jamie is not the loudest team member but he will do anything for his friends and even gets physical with the “alpha” guy (he’s the worst I didn’t care enough to remember his name) after he mocks Aud. (I should point out that Aud has lied to Jamie, so he is unaware of what a monster Aud really is)

At the same time he isn’t out to his friends: he evades Aud’s questions about who he’s texting and just denies that it’s a girl and he gets flustered when the “alpha” guy makes homophobic comments and insinuates that he might know about him dating a guy.

Jamie himself however thinks that he’s neither in or out the closet. 

And this is why I like the way he’s written so much. Because both Jamie and Namnhao feel so realistic to me in 2018. Jamie didn’t have a coming-out but he never lies about his sexuality either. I believe he feels quite smug telling Aud that he’s not texting a girl, because he is telling the truth. And I get him. I don’t want to speak for everyone here, but at least I believe that I would love to live in a world in which I didn’t need to constantly come-out. A world in which no one assumes you are straight, a world in which you can just talk about crushes of any gender or introduce your significant other to your friends and family without anyone making a fuss out of your sexuality. That doesn’t mean that I don’t take pride in my sexuality or the community but to me this would be the ideal world. I do see myself in Jamie. He seems to believe that no one should care about him dating Namnhao and thinks of his own sexuality as something so normal he doesn’t feel the need to address it publicly. (This is not in the show but in my head canon he’s not out to his parents either, but tells himself that he’ll just bring his boyfriend home someday and they will say nothing special about it)

Jamie himself tells Namnhao that he doesn’t mind people talking about him, that he wants everyone to know that they’re in a relationship and he teases Namnhao for hiding in the bathroom in order to video-call him.

And Jamie genuinely beliefs to be in this place of self-acceptance and have this progressive environment because he acts like he does.

When he first meets Namnhao at the party he immediately starts flirting with him in front of everybody and straight on hits on him during the night. He initiates all the hand-holding and pecking in public, which is a lot when you consider that PDA in general is not that much of a thing in Thailand (or so I’ve been told).

Of course we already see the tell-tale signs that everything is not as settled as Jamie thinks it is and we hope it to be. As soon as his sexuality becomes a topic in his inner circle, his team mates and people from school, he panics. Even when Namnhao says that he wants people at the party to know about their relationship, he panics for a second and then tries to find an excuse not to do that.

When he gets taunted in the locker room by his team mate he gets very defensive and calls Namnhao just a friend, the moment someone who recognizes him is around him he stops showing any affection for Namnhao. In episode 7 they are in the safety of a gay club and he’s about to kiss Namnhao but he runs of when some other guy in the bar recognizes him as “Jamie from the school’s basketball team”. 

This is what I love about his character. He doesn’t struggle with his homosexuality, but he has this underlying fear of being made an outsider and being left alone if people find out about it.

He lies to himself about how courageous he is and every time he gets confronted with his fears he finds an excuse: by only telling Aud that he’s not texting a girl and by making the fight with his team mate in the locker room about Aud getting disrespected even though it were the homophobic comments that ticked him off and we can see in his eyes how scared he really is of people finding out. He’s not scared of his homosexuality he’s scared of the consequences his sexuality has in a homophobic environment. And to me that’s very legit and also part of the contemporary struggles that LGBTQI+ youth face.

Jamie not only lies to himself, he lets Namnhao belief that he doesn’t give a shit and tries his best to act upon it. As long as he’s surrounded by strangers he will kiss Namnhao and hold his hand and tell him that Namnhao should be more courageous and open about his sexuality. 

Which leads to the bathroom scene in the gay bar when all comes tumbling down and he has to confront himself and Namnhao about the lies. He’s enraged not because he’s angry at the gossipy gays or Namnhao but because he’s so disappointed with himself. He had this whole constructed logic about how he was doing fine and and how he is confident but now he realizes how scared he really is and how he’s hurting Namnhao. He holds himself to such a high standard that it must feel like a punch in the gut to have these sobering thoughts.

Jamie is courageous but his romantic view of himself and the world has blinded him to his own fears. However, we can see him grow and come to terms with himself fast. Because after he leaves Namhao crying in the bathroom he comes running back to look for him.

Namnhao

Namnhao has the realistic approach to the world that Jamie needs. He is not out to his family but unlike Jamie really doesn’t seem to care if people know. Namnhao is very confident in his gayness. We don’t know anything about his social circle besides his twin brother but we know that he went to that gay bar before. 

In my head canon Namnhao keeps to himself at college but has some childhood friends he’s still close with who know that he’s gay. And out of curiosity he’s been to gay bars before and while he’s not one for a casual hook-up I do think that he feels happy and comforted by the thought that this is a place just for him where everyone is just like him and somewhere where he can feel safe.

Namnhao is quiet and soft spoken but he’s very strong. He just knows what fights to pick and which not, whereas Jamie is very emotional and doesn’t think before he acts. Namnhao will stand up against three of Jamie’s teammates to protect Lookkaew, who he isn’t even close with. All he knows is that she’s the girls everyone and his brother keep talking about and that everyone else just keeps taking videos on their phones instead of helping her to get out of the situation. Namnhao will never stand for injustice.

Namnhao also knows that his dad is a homophobe so he decides to not come out to his family because he has enough evidence to come to the conclusion that they won’t accept him. He doesn’t like PDA that much but he will unabashedly show his adoration for Jamie in private and tease him mercilessly. Unlike Jamie he’s very aware of where his boundaries are and what he dares to do but he constantly tries to challenge himself and be more open. This is one of the reasons why he likes Jamie so much, because Jamie will hold his hand and kiss him in public and tell him how he wants everyone to know about them.

The only miscalculation he makes is with his brother. Namnuea figures out that Jamie is much more than a friend and he makes it a point to tell Namnhao that he thinks that Namnhao shouldn’t be afraid to be who he is because he believes that their generation is that progressive. It is really sweet to see that Namnhao was wrong about his brother not accepting him and I think it gives him the courage to not assume that his surrounding is mostly homophobic and become more open.

He feels much more betrayed by Jamie turning out to not be as confident as he says he is. Namnhao who’s always calculating the risks decided to fully trust in Jamie and he gets disappointed. He’s angry that Jamie is so afraid of being outed that he won’t even show that they’re together in a gay bar. Because this is the kind of rejection he expects of his father but not Jamie.

Namnhao has to learn that Jamie doesn’t like him any less just because he’s not ready to be as open as himself yet. He can’t just put all his expectations he has of society on Jamie and expect him to not fold under the pressure. I hope he realizes that.

I had to include the last scene of ep 7 -  so more spoilers! - I won’t get too much into the elephant in the room because I’ve already ranted about this before and how strongly I disagree with that progression of the plot.

Obviously his whole situation changes drastically by the end of episode 7 but there’s also such a change in how he sees his own position. The homophobic reaction of his dad is nowhere near as terrifying as to what he had to survive so he just sits there at the table and basically tells his dad “I’m gay, deal with it”.

All in all I love their characterization because imo the writers managed to include a lot of emotional turmoil that young LGBTQI+ people experience nowadays.

You want your society to be more progressive, you don’t want to need safe spaces and there’s the tempting assurance by straight people around you that everything will be fine and the world is not that homophobic anymore. But as in the series you see the lack of empathy towards victims of sexual assault around you, you see people disrespecting basic privacy rules because they lech at the “otherness” of people around them. So despite the assurance, there’s still the big unknown as to how your coming-out will play out. You can be stealth about your sexuality and belief that in this time and age you don’t need to come out anymore. Which is legit and luckily a reality for some people.  However it requires just as much courage to come out nowadays and to feel confident in oneself and I think they did a great job encapsulating all of this in Jame and Namnhao.

[four-pages-zine-blog]

Issue 1: Tass

How long have you had your store: I started officially selling clothes after I finished college in 2013 and moved back home to the suburban midwest, so I guess 5 years now! I was working at the local newspaper at the time but was looking for an extra way to kill time, not necessarily even to make money. I started with Poshmark and loved connecting with other people who liked similar clothes, which was actually kind of rare for where I lived. I loved being able to see people showcase their own style in the form of their own closets and let people “shop their closet”. I also became really interested in clothes trading, which I like doing with my irl friends, so the fact a lot of people were willing to trade items was also really cool to me and something I hadn’t seen before.

How would you describe your shop? I think the clothes I sell are kind of more one-off like something that would be worn as a funny statement piece - I love a bright color and bold pattern, power clashing, and anything rainbow, glittery or that can incorporate faux fur in a tasteful way. It’s pretty reflective of my midwestern lifestyle and probably the clothes I consistently have the most of are windbreakers and winter coats, the main way we can express ourselves here for half of the year or more… There are a few sticker art projects I have in my store that I started doing around 2012 out of boredom when I was still in school, the most prominent one probably being the 6 foot tall Britney Spears poster that’s completely covered in (vintage) Lisa Frank stickers but never intended to actually finish or take seriously. Over the years I used sticker collaging as a way to keep my mind off things and have it be a means to add color and vibrancy to otherwise more plain posters/art.

When I first opened my shop in 2013, I made a holographic wall out of posterboards to hang my clothes on and that was my first store display on Poshmark and Etsy and always tried to have unique ways to show my clothes ever since, and to change the look of my store at least once a year. I’ve wavered between thinking having consistent “branding” is best and thinking it’s best to change as my ideas change, and have ended up going with the latter at whatever expense that has had, resulting in my store bio now being “Hi I’m Crazy Branding” lmao. The last time I re-did my store I got a mannequin from the city off Craigslist that I painted hot pink and move around my yard or put against different backdrops/bright colored walls to model the clothes. At one point I put velcro on the back of all my stuffed animals plushies and trolls and stuck them to a white wall in my apartment I was living to use as the background. I used to love to bring around solo holographic poster boards to my friends’ houses before we went out so that we could all take pictures behind them as the backdrop, portable aesthetic is essential.

What era or year is your favorite in fashion? My favorite looks are early 90s minimalistic grunge but not too minimal - Black jeans, velvet dresses, and plain tees, all of that, but then on the flip side I love the super excessive part of those eras of fashion too, like rainbow everything and floating glitter inside plastic holographic accessories. My favorite outfit of all time is something my aunt gave me from her 80s closet, it’s a long elastic teal leopard mermaid-style skirt with a matching teal leopard flowy button down shirt, all cotton and polyester. I love outfits that are completely matching like that and have been seeing that lately in brands that I follow, so I hope that sticks.

What item of clothing in the world are you lusting after or saving up for?

One of those new robot dresses that react to your moods or whatever lmao but if I’m being more realistic there is a designer who I really love that I found on Instagram who knits beaded sweaters using like thousands of different colored beads and completely covers them. They’re works of art and I would love to have one some day and be able to support an artist too! I’m definitely always lusting after new pairs of plain black pleather platform (but not too high anymore) shoes. I love the brand Hot Lava and I guess if I'm saving up for one thing it would be their "Barbed" rainbow matching bralette/pants combo.

Favorite clothing brand/brands and why? Since I usually only buy thrift for myself these days, my favorite brands are probably just based on design only but I love Discount Universe and other sequins-covered clothes or otherwise outlandish/tacky patterns, especially if they’re owned/designed/produced by women - Wacky Wacko, I have the Tabloid Dress they made a few years ago and it’s one of my favorite of all time even though I never wear it I also LOVE everything from Big Bud Press and YardSale666 in general.

What music do you like, does it play a role in your personal style? The music I listen to most now is probably "experimental pop" and growing up I loved pop punk. Both of those have affected my style and stayed with me to this day, I still wear skinny jeans and slip on Van-style shoes most often no matter what else I’ve layered on top of it. I used to like to purposely wear edgy clothes and do my hair to provoke a reaction out of people when I was younger - my brother would pass down band shirts to me that said things like “What the F*** are you looking at?” (lol) and I would cut them off into a crop top and wear it with a super long high-waisted thrifted pink and purple plaid skirt. That was definitely my go-to outfit for like an entire summer straight. I’ve always liked clothes that makes a statement even if it’s in a literal way with words, clothes with a lot of text on them, and I really like the new wave of DIY embroidery, especially on thrifted or up cycled clothes. Band tee shirts were also just like a huge part of growing up for me, buying them at shows and collecting them and wearing them all the time. Also in my shop I have a guitar that I completely stickered/bejeweled which was one of my longest running projects that I really want to make more of. It was one of my brother's old acoustic guitars that he let me completely deck out and it perfectly combines the femme pop elements I love with an actual instrument. Music and fashion are so intertwined all the time I think, and clothes/accessories are something that always stuck out to me about singers and bands too! I love how fashion plays a role in music today too and can make or break an entire aesthetic or era.

Does living in your city/state inspire you? Where are you most creative? Yes lmao living in rural suburban Illinois actually inspires me a lot and I’m probably the most happily creative here. When I lived in the city, things were a lot more stressful so it made me work on a lot of projects to distract myself, but I eventually burned out from that pretty bad. I get inspired by midwestern people but mostly in a way that most people find cringey, I mocked it more when I was younger but now try to tastefully incorporate it into my looks. State Fair Chic is inspiring to me. My mom has a lot of handpainted and iron-on sweatshirts for different holidays that are staples of my closet. Living in the midwest and being bored definitely made me thrift more and imo makes the thrifting better, it made me always be working on craft projects, and always changing my hair and style.

What things do you love to create? I think my favorite things to create are entire rooms and looks, I like to make different aesthetics through combining colors, furniture and fabrics that all feel familiar even if it’s a little chaotic. My long term project with my bedroom was turning my walls of thrifted art (with 20-30 framed pictures) into matching colored frames that fit the whole look of the room, so I guess just really getting at the details of design. I think I’m pretty tacky so I like to stick to things that embody that and will always love stickering huge projects, painting everything plain into bright colors and incorporating anything I find thrifting or in the garbage into larger art aesthetics. My favorite thing to do is thrift and upcycle clothes, furniture, wall art, lamps, etc. anything that I see “potential” in lol.

Who are some of your favorite artists?: There are a ton of artists I follow that inspire me every day, definitely just “regular” people or like more lowkey artists. People who thrift or collect and refurbish toys are amazing to me and I love the doll community on IG. Witches or people I’ve met through astrology who are creating more spiritual art inspire me every day with their words and presentations. I also love comedians and movies, I love John Early and Kate Berlant and recently saw they collaborated with Peggy Noland and Seth Bogart of Wacky Wacko so that was iconic to me.

I collaborate a lot with my brother who has done a lot of graphic design stuff for me over the years. He makes resin toys of his own and designs t-shirts. He’s great at painting and drawing, two skills I never was good at that I really appreciate in him that he is always willing to lend a hand to me. He is two years older than me and went to school for advertising so exchanging ideas and doing projects with him is something I like to do too. He also has more of a background in music production so we recently started trying to make music together. We both love combining fashion and music!

What album do you recommend to pick up ASAP? Hayley Kiyoko - Expectations, hands down the vibe for summer

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[bidickgrayson]

trials of apollo remains my fave. MAJOR spoilers under the cut for the burning maze

every time i read listen to the trials of apollo, i always feel compelled to make a post like this, just talking about all the things i love and appreciate about the series

as always, the narrator of this series on audible is so next level good, i’m constantly amazed at how great his performance is

i’ve been thinking about how much i love apollo the character, how he’s, imo, a genuinely really strong character who is capable of both making me tear up and also making me laugh out loud. the balance rr found in writing his character in this series is *chef’s kiss* perfection

i really appreciate when he does come across as the thousands-years-old former god he is, with all the experience that comes with. obviously, a big part of his schtick is that he’s silly and dramatic and over-the-top and narcisstic, but the moments when he’s serious or shows genuine concern for his friends are some of my faves. like when he had that great scene with piper talking about how she can find herself. oh, and of course, him talking with jason. and any serious talk that he and meg have. idk, apollo is in a strange position of, obviously, being technically now a teenager, but also have a very experienced and caring adult figure to the actual kids in his life. i LOVE any scene that features serious and sincere apollo

apollo’s character development is just so good and so consistent and i’d actually die for him. i’ve come to love him more with each book

i always love the scenes where apollo is forced to reconsider what positions the gods are in. like when meg wants apollo to answer why her mother was never around, and never helped, and apollo considers the various reasons, like, she was just too busy, or just forgot, etc., and realizes that they’re seriously dissatisfying answers. and later, when meg is like, being a hero means making personal sacrifices, and apollo thinks about how he had never thought of heroes that way

piper is so good in this book!!! i never really connected with her in the heroes of olympus, but i feel like riordan learned a lot in how to write her. i loved how much focus there was on HER, away from her relationship with jason!! so much of her trying to figure out who she was, and the thing where she was trying to reconnect with her cherokee heritage was really satisfying 

i was kind of wondering how much fandom was freaking out about jason and piper breaking up, but GOD i was so glad they did, for so many reasons, not least that i think it was an interesting and sympathetic conflict, and that i’m glad her and jason remained really good friends, even if they weren’t sure how to be around each other at the moment. one of my problems with heroes of olympus was the couples, and it always bothered me that piper and jason’s relationship started as a lie and continued to be manipulated by the gods. the fact that that was actually addressed in the book multiple times?? realistic couple problems?? so good. and man, i LOVE piper

and to address the elephant in the room.....................jason’s death was absolutely BRUTAL, and would have been absolutely shocking to me if i hadn’t seen a spoiler on twitter.

seriously. the details of jason’s death was brutal, and i don’t think there’s anything in the riordan series i’ve read that really compares. people have died, of course, but never so explicitly, never with so much attention to the details, so much focus on the grief of everyone around it, and CERTAINLY never to a MAIN CHARACTER holy shit. like. jason was a main, pov character, and i kind of can’t BELIEVE that he’s actually dead, because i never expected this series to actually go there

(just keep remember the line about the emperor dude stabbing jason again in the back while jason was face down, ruining apollo’s hopes that he would be okay)

and like.....i’m not the kind of person who actively wishes for character death or angst but. also. in a way, from a story telling perspective, i’m glad jason died, for a couple of reasons. like, one, it raised the stakes DRAMATICALLY, made everything matter SO MUCH MORE than if it had just been side characters like the dryads who were dying off screen. like, wow. i was honestly stunned, listening to the scenes after jason’s death, where meg and piper are desperately trying to find a way around it, refusing to accept it, them going to piper’s old place and piper’s dad finding them crying on the beach. GOD. another reason why i liked it was how good the scenes were following jason’s death.

like. the image that made me start crying again was when piper’s dad found them, and piper’s face is explicitly WRECKED, and jason’s DEAD, and what he says is, a surfing accident?? like, that wrecked ME, because jason and piper had just gone on a terribly dangerous mission to try and save the world (again!!), basically, only for jason to be brutally murdered by an ancient roman emperor, and all most people will think is that there was a terrible surfing accident. like. we’ve been told this whole time, that demigods’ lives sucked and weren’t very happy and were generally quite tragic, but tbh, it’s never felt this real, this heartbreaking to me.

loved apollo in the scenes following jason’s death. how obviously heartbroken and devastated he was, but how...logical he was in the face of piper’s denial, the heartbroken voice of reason. “jason’s dead. we can’t bring him back. even if i was a god, i couldn’t bring him back. jason’s dead. jason’s dead. you and jason both worked to fix death. you know that he wouldn’t want you breaking it to bring him back”. it was narratively satisfying, in an obviously heartbreaking way, all the many ways they wanted jason to be all right, for him to have escaped death, and all the ways it was crushingly confirmed that he was not. it felt kind of like the readers were being told explicitly that it wasn’t possible for jason to come back--they found his broken, obviously dead body. the emperor ran him through not once, but twice, and his body was riddled with arrows. they couldn’t trick some way out of death, bc there weren’t any feasible options, and hades would never allow it

piper angrily blaming apollo and the gods for jason’s fate, and demanding apollo leave? so satisfying. piper saying that he wasn’t supposed to die like this, after everything he had done, everything they had done? apollo reminding her that he had died saving his friends, and that that seemed like a good way to die? god

i keep thinking about the heartbreak of all the people who loved jason. like, fucking leo, who never got to see jason again. god. and of course, all of others in the seven, and nico, and reyna, and thalia :((((

a detail that made me cry (again): when apollo mentioned jason having died in his school uniform, and wondering about his school dorm room, and what they would think became of him. just details that drove home that jason was just a kid, who was living his life, and died because of the gd gods

i’ve gotten really sidetracked, and i have more to talk about, as always, but i think this is enough for now

i will say: i will feel very silly if somehow jason DOES come back in the end, but i think that would go against a big part of the book and would be pretty disappointing. and i gotta figure/hope that riordan learned his lesson from how...bad, imo, leo’s “death” and build up was

i also wonder what fandom’s reaction to this is like, because wow, that’s a pretty significant event. like, i expect/know people will be heartbroken, but i wonder how many people are actually angry at this choice, for example. i was never really emotionally invested in jason, no matter how i tried and no matter how i logically really liked him. it would be a lot harder for me to be so....positive, about his death, if i were more emotionally invested in him in the first place

[millennialdemon]

A bizarre non-reaction to the preceding scene where everyone at his school freezes and then throws themselves at some mysterious, violent man who suddenly appears out of nowhere... “Hm, yes, I wonder if I’m just being affected by that thing Freud invented...” is a dumb and unbelievable reaction to anything, never mind the entire world freezing in time so your friends can wordlessly attack a strange man in an unreality world. 

It’s also inconsistent imo with his reaction at the ceremony at the end of the episode - seeing the aforementioned situation play out “was probably just my ~subconscious~ or something “ but the ridiculous scene at the end where his classmates turn into cyber monsters was worth getting upset over? If you’re going the enigmatic unreality route, at least be consistent so we have precedent for what is an actual threat and what is not. What is worth our protagonist pausing and thinking, or unbelievably ignoring, or reacting realistically to? Because we saw all three this episode and I see no real rhyme or reason to why he reacted the way he did to certain things, but not to others.  

Also, another point to the Northern Pike, who would never cite Freud. 

[goldenscript]

get to know me! [part 2?]

tagged by @tendershepherd <3 love u!!!!

1. Which BTS song means the most to you?

if i had to choose one then save me because as cheesy as it sounds it really did help me out at one of the most confusing and worst points of my life. when i hear it, i get so happy and nostalgic about all those nights i spent not sleeping and just binging through dps and bangtan bombs that eventually led me to where i am now! plus!!! this was also when i really got back into writing which is really big since i only did it every so often in high school (sadly enough).

2. How do you feel about astrology?

i love it!!!! i feel like i’ve met a lot of people who will say that they don’t like or believe in astrology because they don’t like being defined by their zodiac / sun sign and stuff but imo i think it really is just a personal preference in whether you believe or even like it or not. to me, this is something i’ve grown up with because my mom loves it and seeing it become such a huge phenomena now is so fun! i honestly feel like my birth chart explains me really well and that’s kinda important to me since i’m the kind of person who likes to understand myself considering i’ve spent 19 years trying to figure who i am anyhow.

3. Do you think ghosts exist?

oh fuck yeah

4. What’s your favorite instrument?

i love the piano for sure. guitar’s nice but there’s something about the piano that has this alluring vibe that attracts me

5. Who was the last person to make you really smile?

seeing my friend before my english final :( i haven’t seen her in a few days and seeing her just really made me happy

6. What do you do when you feel vulnerable?

it really depends because when i’m in a vulnerable state i find it hard to articulate - both through words and just overall. this is mostly because i feel like i can be really nit picky with what i hear in response to how i’m feeling and so during these moments when i’m most irrational i try to sift through the emotions myself and figure out what’s going on. if i want another opinion or the company, i’ll go to my closest friends.

7. What is the last dream you had?

ummmmmmmmmmmmmm. i know i had this one dream where i was basically studying with wooseok from ptg and he was explaining something to me before he just stopped and looked up to meet my eyes then looked away. but me being me, i just grabbed his chin and kissed him and he got so blushy and it was really adorable because then we kissed again. gbjfbhrijgkmr

alternatively, there was this dream with lucas from nct where my best friend called me and asked me if she could give my number to her cute friend and i was like “yeah ok” because i was half asleep in my dream and wasn’t thinking. so, later that night, i wasn’t sure if it really happened until he called me and i was kinda shook but very happy and by the end of it, he’s like “i can call you again right?” and i’m like “yeah” and it was just really cute and cheesy and my first initial reaction was to tell @jungnoir, as always.

ok, bonus dream but i also had one where jungkook and jennie switched bodies and i knew it and i confessed to jungkook in jennie’s body that i liked them and i even kissed them and and and it was just wild because there was a gang that was the cause to the body switching and they wanted to talk to jungkook-jennie and jungkook-jennie wanted to talk to me but i was embarrassed and i was just wondering where jennie-jungkook was by the end of it

8. Are you a nature person?

i do like nature, but i also feel like i don’t belong in it since i’m totally privileged to the indoors life.... and horror movies man

9. What’s your favorite thing to do to relieve stress?

if i’m stressed with things to do i like to actually do the things i need to do instead of procrastinating (which is ironic since i’m actually procrastinating on this research paper due tonight but whatever). again, it really depends. sometimes i’ll just tackle tasks head on or i’ll make a small check list of what i can do then save whatever else i need to do. of course, this is done by priority so really it’s just me categorizing shit. if that doesn’t help and i have no motivation, i’ll go to the gym or even nap or surf tumblr just to take a breather.

10. Do you have any other blogs you’d like people to check out?

everyone i follow??? idk??? i could just as easily make a follow forever for this since i highkey rec all of ‘em

11. Marvel, DC, or neither?

both! i grew up reading some of the marvel comics and i used to watch justice league as a kid so i love both universes man

12. What do you want out of 2018?

i forgot to answer this one kjsdfhjshf but anyway i just want to finish the school year strong, go into my third year of college with a license, and probably finish my drabble games since i started ten million of those.

alternatively, i would also like to just get through the year and the direction it goes in

13. Do you hold grudges?

not really? i stop caring after while

14. Who is your favorite Disney hero/heroine?

Mulan, hands down. i asked my family to replay that baby until my family taught me how to rewind the vhs in the tape rewinder lmaooo

15. Do you consider yourself a positive person?

i consider myself more of a realistic and literally all of my friends will tell you this. like i can be positive but i give it a realistic spin because that’s what people need to hear even if it isn’t what they want. that’s what i need at least so i try to dish out things how i’d like to hear it

16. What is something you love that’s underrated?

otome games lmao. bigkrbhtgijerok i can feel @wonhopes judging me but they’re a guilty pleasure and the storylines are just fun

17. What is your dream job?

squish together a job where i can travel, write, and plan events and we got somethin’! besides that, i’d love to just be a writer with a steady income cuz u kno adulting demands the steady income part

18. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

i haven’t traveled enough to know where i want to settle but i wanna say maybe socal?

19. When was the last time you faced a fear and how did it go?

driving on the freeway really wasn’t as bad as i thought. i mean i’ve done it maybe like 3.5 times prior but this was the first time i did it in a van and i had like 3 people in there with me LOL. we all came out alive and no one yelled at me so i consider it a success

20. Which would you prefer to read: poetry, fiction, or non-fiction?

fiction

21. Where do you feel most at ease?

i can’t really think of a place besides my bed / room but sometimes i can feel insane there so i can’t say for sure. i feel pretty at ease when i’m with people i love so yeah!

tagging: @jungnoir / @workofteaguk / @taesthetes / @boosoonhao / @baechuni / @taegetes

[bardqueenofgallifrey]

MacSingh and Marlie for the ship thing

Who would be the big spoon/little spoon? They take turns. Who would wake up first? April is absolutely a morning person. Ram is horrified. Do they have nicknames for each other? If they do, absolutely no one else knows about them. How do they apologize after an argument? Ram buys flowers and sheet music and works his best puppy dog eyes. April, after going for a long walk to vent her feelings, is really straight forward and honest and apologetic. What would they be like as parents? I think it would take them a fair while to fall in sync with each other, but eventually they’d find a really good rhythm and be a pretty decent parenting power couple. When their daughter wants to play football and their son wants to do ballet and violin, they think that’s the coolest thing ever. Who is more romantic? They’re both the most hopeless romantics you can think of, Ram’s not even good at hiding it and playing cool anymore. What sort of gifts do they get for each other? I think they like to surprise each other with activities, days out, as opposed to material things. Surprise paintball, surprise movies, all that jazz. Who gets jealous easiest? They’re both pretty jealous, but April is a lot worse at hiding it. Who gets more excited for events e.g.. Birthdays, Christmas? Well, Ram doesn’t celebrate Christmas, but even if he did, April would still by far be the worst culprit. She goes all out, of course. Who is the most adventurous? Definitely April. Who is the most protective? They’re both pretty protective. What would they have been like as childhood sweethearts? They’re still in school, I’m counting that, they’re babies. Who uses all the hot water? Ram. Who would accidentally set the kitchen on fire whilst cooking? isn’t it canon that April burned a pizza in the books or something? realistically it seems like she’d have to be good at cooking, so I’m going to say RamWho initiates sexy times the most? It’s April. Who is more dominant? Still April. What would they do if the other one was hurt? Go on a serious rage. Who gives nose/forehead kisses? They both do!What their biggest fight was/will be about: Probably that whole mess during detention, so at least they got that out of the way. 

BONUS #1: Song to sum them up? Please Don’t Say You Love Me by Gabrielle AplinBONUS #2: A head canon? That Ram conspires with Jackie to get April a puppy for Christmas after the finale, to help April with the trauma of dying and coming back to life, since we all know that’s what happened and absolutely nothing else super weird or cliffhanger-y. 

BOTTOM LINE: Do I ship it? Of course, they’re adorable! The writing was rather rushed, of course, but I found their connection and dynamic to be genuine, it’s just the progression that was off. 

Who would be the big spoon/little spoon? I think Matteusz is usually the big spoon, but sometimes when he’s having a bad day, Charlie will be the big spoon for him, happily. Who would wake up first? Matteusz is an early riser, and always ends up in the kitchen having coffee with Quill. Do they have nicknames for each other? I think Charlie say ‘Matti’ on occasion when they’re alone, but that’s about it. Maybe they eventually start calling each other ‘babe’? I could see that. How do they apologize after an argument? With a lot of talking, and then a lot of cuddling and make up sex. Once they work through the cabinet related tension and trauma, though, their arguments are pretty damn rare. What would they be like as parents? Matteusz is about a hundred times more naturally gifted with children, but when they adopt, Charlie really tries even if he’s the Anxiety Parent and freaks out every five seconds. He gets better, and the day that one of his kid’s friends calls him “cool”, he loses his shit and won’t stop bragging about it for like a month. Quill punches him, twice, with Tanya and Ram’s encouragement. Who is more romantic? They’re both disgustingly romantic, I still can’t believe them, honestly.What sort of gifts do they get for each other? Matteusz likes getting Charlie various types of confectionery, if only to enjoy his various, strange reactions to them. Charlie is not generally allowed to go shopping because of his lack of understanding when it comes to capitalism, but he likes to bring Matteusz little flowers he finds while walking. Who gets jealous easiest? I think Charlie does, but it’s not even really in a romantic way, he just likes being the object of Matteusz’s attention bc he’s a prince who expects as much, and is a bit disgrunted if that attention wanders. Who gets more excited for events e.g.. Birthdays, Christmas? Matteusz, of course. Who is the most adventurous? They’re both tiny granddads they have no sense of adventure they want to sit at home and cuddle. Leave the adventuring to the girls. Who is the most protective? They’re both as bad as each other like have you SEEN this ride or die couple, they’ll fuck you up. What would they have been like as childhood sweethearts? Again, they are smol and still teenagers thus they ARE childhood sweethearts imo. Who uses all the hot water? They both enjoy a long shower, but neither is overly ridiculous about it. They often save water by showering together. (Not much actual water saving occurs, given how they tend to get distracted. Quill unamused.) Who would accidentally set the kitchen on fire whilst cooking? Charlie. Please never let him near the stove, dear god. Who initiates sexy times the most? They’re both insatiable horny teenagers, it’s often mutual. Who is more dominant? I think Charlie naturally is, but not overly so. What would they do if the other one was hurt? Where’s Quill’s gun again? Or that candlestick?Who gives nose/forehead kisses? BOTH but especially Matteusz. What their biggest fight was/will be about: Well, you know, the whole cabinet and genocide thing...

BONUS #1: Song to sum them up? Run by Jasmine ThompsonBONUS #2: A head canon? They get married young and they’re so stupidly in love that no one can really be mad. Matteusz writes children’s books and Charlie does the illustrations. They’re about friendly aliens. 

BOTTOM LINE: Do I ship it? Is water wet? Of course.