#in order of their involvement with the series

[harmoonix]

Remember Me ❤️‍🩹

More Solar Return observations ❤️‍🩹

❤️‍🩹 Moon in the 1st/4th or 5th house can focus a lot on their family/relatives in that year, you'll have to reflect on them

❤️‍🩹 4th house ruler in the 9th house can indicate moving in a foreign country during that year/can happen alone or with family members (vice versa)

❤️‍🩹 Sun in the 11th house = Getting more friends, being more social & open to new changes in your life

❤️‍🩹 Saturn or Pluto in the 11th house can indicate being betrayed by friends or people close to you, backstabber indicator

❤️‍🩹 Sun in the 2nd house can benefit more financially during that time. Making more money

❤️‍🩹 Venus aspecting the MC (Midheaven) can indicate getting more attention for your appearance during that time

❤️‍🩹 Chiron in the 4th/8th or 12th house will involve unhealed traumas coming back to you as a sign of awareness

❤️‍🩹 Saturn in the 8th house will have you locked in chains as it shows an insecurity about their intimacy or sexual life

❤️‍🩹 Sun x Ascendant = Getting more recognition for the things you do during that time. People starting to see your worth

❤️‍🩹 Jupiter in the 10th house can excel in their career/job/work/ during that year. Being praised at work!

❤️‍🩹 Jupiter x Neptune in harsh aspects can indicate staying in denial for a certain situation. Like something you don't want to accept

❤️‍🩹 North Node in the 11th house or Aquarius can be into social media/online during that time, getting popular or just recognized there

❤️‍🩹 North Node in the 7th house gonna experience seeing relationships/partners with other eyes during that year. Something changing about their view

❤️‍🩹 North Node in the 3rd house can be more vocal about specific things during that year. Something that make you more excited

❤️‍🩹 Venus in the 3rd house becomes more charming in their communities during that year, their communication skills can change in order to charm others

❤️‍🩹 Moon aspecting the south node will have you reflecting on your past a lot. Things from the past can reappear in your life

❤️‍🩹 South Node in the 7th house can be an indicator of exes coming back in your life. But not only for a relationship.. can be any type of it tbh

❤️‍🩹 Pluto x Venus aspects can attract potential manipulators or toxic people into your life during that year. Especially obsessive people

❤️‍🩹 Pluto in the 1st house can indicate an intense year where you'll go through emotional and painful stages to gain/find your power

❤️‍🩹 Fire Risings can indicate finally starting doing the things you like/things you wanted to do for a while/focusing on your needs

❤️‍🩹 Neptune in the 3rd/6th/11th houses will interact more with people, can be at work/school/social places etc/festivals

❤️‍🩹 Venus in the 11th house can gain more admirers on social media/people can become more closer to you in online

❤️‍🩹 Guys I swear every solar return I do for literally like 4 years continuously. Lilith is stuck in my 12th house- the healing never stops ✋️😭

❤️‍🩹 Jupiter in the 9th or 11th house can be indicators of making foreign friends or having different ethnicities in your social circle

❤️‍🩹 Usually Sun or Venus in the 5th house are great for discovering new talents or new hobbies you didn't know you have

Since the year is ending soon! Here are more solar return observations ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹!

[absolutebl]

Of My 50+ Favorite BLs these are the 10 I rewatch the most

So you could call these my favorite comfort foods. Everything on this list got a rating of 10/10 or 9/10 from me.

10 Most Comforting BLs

(for me, in order of most recently rewatched at the top)

Our Dating Sim

Korea 2023 Viki (watch the series not the movie)

This is a perfect short form KBL, an office set reunion romance featuring geeks that really suits 8 eps with no fluff and no chaff. Just comforting and yummy. I adored every aspect from the casting to the pristinely simple premise to the quietly smooth execution. Sure it’s low stakes, but that makes it high domesticity and extremely warm and gentle. This is a fuzzy blanket of a story - a cozy BL. It lives in my rewatch pile and you know what’s best about it? Every single episode is in that pile. There’s no skipping with this one, it might be good natured and calmly sweet but it’s tight and the pacing is excellent.

Cosmetic Playlover

Japan 2024 Gaga

The most recent release on this list, it came out this year and I've already rewatched it 5x. I love this little show. It's a classic office BL about the older workaholic who loves his job and the younger upstart who unexpectedly loves his boss. It’s a hyung romance where everybody is extremely earnest and sweet and pretty about everything. Except our seme, who is slightly unhinged and a little obsessed in all the ways one likes best from Japan (if one is me). Plus the kisses are good! Utterly charming unexpected gem of a show. What fun!

Jun and Jun

Korea 2023 Viki

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Other boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy (sometimes even raunchy) script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and decent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. My only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else.

My Personal Weatherman

AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan 2023 Gaga

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but are so repressed they don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that aspect is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan. That said it's also bruisingly romantic. Emphasis on bruise.

Unintentional Love Story

Korea 2023 iQIYI

OMG the plot! Uke forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the PAIN in those gorgeous eyes. Gah. Okay, so: A boy loses his job due to trumped-up corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back, if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya). All that said, when I rewatch this it's usually just the second half, but WHAT a ride.

Semantic Error

Korea 2022 Viki

Sexy older boy discovers pouty younger boy has outed him as a slacker, starts out bullying him, accidentally falls madly in love instead. Korea hits it entirely out of the Parks by doing a university BL with everything we expect from BL just done exactly right. Korea's signature quality executed perfectly with added bonus good story, great pacing, stunning visuals, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. Another one where the rewatch is mostly just the second half.

Old Fashion Cupcake

Japan 2022

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said boss with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s a stunningly filmed late-in-life comg of age/queerness story packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity, love, and loneliness… and it’s beautiful.

Yes yes. But the bit you know you want to rewatch is that long shot with the bite kiss. YOU KNOW you wanna.

Seven Days

Japan 2015

Ha! I faked you out 'cause this wasn't at the top but of course it's on the list! One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). Older boy dares the hot af younger one to date him for a week. Turns out they both like it... A lot. The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses.

Takara & Amagi

Japan 2022

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show, but a rewatch is way less tense. Reserved cool kid must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning.

We Best Love

Taiwan 2021 WeTV

WBL successfully managed to pick up and combine the best features of Korean, Thai, and Japanese BL as it exists right now. Couple that to the insane chemistry from the leads, and we have one of the greatest BLs of all time, cooking to a recipe I doubt anyone else will ever be able to replicate since only Taiwan is this flexible. It's basically every classic BL trope bombarded at us in two parts, rapid fire, one after another. Rewatching this show reminds me of everything I love about this genre. It is the genre in pure concentrated form.

The End!

I think it's no accident that none of these are Thai, part of a rewatch for me is the brevity of the show, longer stuff does get rewatched, but not as frequently.

(source)

[chaos0pikachu]

Anon I get what you're saying but for Sanji's general queerphobia/misogyny/transphobia to be a flaw there would have to be some sort of acknowledgement or specific framing as such in the narrative. It's just a gag; it's meant to be comedic - it's not, but then, it's also a very old gag.

Oda has credited Dragonball by Akira Toriyama as one of his big influences - not Dragonball Z specifically but Dragonball.

I specify b/c early Dragonball is much different from the modern conceptions about DBZ which is more familiar with western/english speaking fans due to how the dubs were released.

And like, Dragon Ball also has a lot of these pervy gags, and characters. Master Roshi gives Goku a "mission" in order to be trained by him to find him a hot woman with big breasts. Krillian bribes Roshi with porn magazines to accept him as a student. Oolong kidnaps young women in a village to be his brides. There's lots of sexual gags involving Bulma. In the first world martial arts tournament, a female martial artist strips down to her underwear as a fighting tactic to distract her opponent in order to win.

I list these because 1) in each case they're meant to be gags - Dragon ball was originally a gag and action adventure comic not the battle comic it's become more known for - 2) this is the series Oda credits as being heavily influential on him, and 3) this was extremely common in animanga of the time (the 80s).

Even Rumiko Takahashi of Inu-yasha fame and one of the most well known women creators in manga used this as a gag and often: Urusei yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Inu-yasha, and Maison Ikkoku.

My point is, it's not a flaw, it's a gag. I hate to say Oda is a product of his time but, well, he's a 50 yr old man who isn't unique to his generation. I wish he was, but he isn't. One Piece is very much a product of it's time and is just a very rare piece of media that's still alive and kicking much longer than a lot of other pieces of media from one singular creator. Which is why certain parts feel very dated - like Ussop's racist character design, Sanji's perv gag, the okama - all these things were, unfortunately, much more common and considered "acceptable" in animanga 20 years ago.

You can see them falling more and more out of favor in more recent series - the perv char isn't as common, tho they def still exist like Mineta from MHA, or Spirit in Soul Eater, there's more Black chars that aren't based off minstrel artwork thank god, and the okama gag seems to have mostly died out.

OPLA is just giving One Piece a much needed update especially in specific aspects like Sanji's dated misogyny gag.

I love Sanji with all my heart but I'm not blinded by the fact that his animanga self is also very flawed. OPLA gave him the rizz early animanga Sanji was known for and I understand why a lot of fans complain about his not so very appealing characteristics (like his chivalry towards women being over the top and his not so subtle transphobic/queerphobic attitude). Those aspects of Sanji's character are what makes him a flawed and complex character. He isn't perfect and that's the point. And just because Oda-sensei writes Sanji that way it doesn't automatically mean he echoes the same sentiment. Other characters, most notably Luffy, don't even react the same way because they are different people.

And for how OPLA is going to adapt Nami and Sanji's relationship, I think he'd be a total pushover for her and Nami can be her manipulative (affectionate) self. Sanji takes pleasure in being of service to women. It isn't as obvious but he does still serve (meals) the men in his crew even if he's angry and rude about it.

I'm a big supporter of flawed characters -- people are flawed! writing anyone as "perfect" is boring! purity culture in media is harmful! there should always be room for growth! and i know that sanji is a complex character with a lot of good attributes. i know writers giving characters problematic/negative traits does not reflect on their own personal beliefs.

BUT a direct translation of animanga sanji's "flaws" to live action would have been bad. casual fans don't have hundreds of chapters / episodes to get to know him. the writers had four episodes to give him a backstory, dreams, a personality, and above all make him likeable.

I think there's plenty of things in the live action that make him complex -- including his silly little hissy fits, the way he said cocktails, and the way he's a big fucking sycophant for luffy after one compliment. we don't need over the top transphobia/queerphobia/misogyny to have an interesting, flawed character

[tremendouskoalachild]

happy pride month to queer high republic authors!!

Cavan Scott (he/him/they/them) - author of The Rising Storm, Path of Vengeance, The High Republic comic, The Monster of Temple Peak, Saber for Hire, Tempest Runner

Justina Ireland (she/they) - author of A Test of Courage, Out of the Shadows, Mission to Disaster, co-author of The Edge of Balance Vol. 1, Path of Deceit and Defy the Storm

Tessa Gratton (she/he/they) - author of Quest for Planet X, Temptation of the Force, co-author of Path of Deceit and Defy the Storm

Alyssa Wong (they/them) - co-author of Escape from Valo, author of short story Rogue Element

Vita Ayala (they/them) - co-author of Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

i just HAD to say "worm life series au" and now my brain is spinning

this is gonna distract me from current ongoing fics i just KNOW IT

[mumblesplash]

season 9 has been amazing but i’m kinda excited to be around for the beginning of a hermitcraft season, they were well into the empires crossover arc when i started watching double life (which was pretty much my introduction to mcyt in general) so this is gonna be my first time actually being around for the early game

[randomnameless]

tbh, I stopped caring about houses that much when I found out that it's an otome/dating sim game with srpg gameplay sprinkled on top. In other FE games, you either gather supports by pair ups or by having units standing against one another. And mechanics like cooking in Fates were done to get some more stat boosts. And even if the avatarization of the game started with New Mystery, Robin and Corrin feel more like customizable characters than an avatar for the player.

In houses, Byleth is like every typical dating sim protag, that does not speak and the few times they do is by having the player choose options that may raise heart points with a character or lower them, you have to find lost items and when you give them back you gain heart points, you have to give them gifts to gain heart points and cooking now doesn't give you any beneficts in battle and only works for, you've guessed it, getting heart points. And let's not kid ourselves, tea time is like the "dates" in otome games, in which you can spam gifts till you raise the affection to the max. The only thing that distincts those points from the otome ones, is that those are necessary for proficency and for unit classes.

Heck, we even have a ring to give to the chosen blorbo in order to get a special custom made cutscene, when in pasts games getting an S support gave you a broken unit to deploy and a little blurb of text during the credits. And of course, calendar/day systems are also common in these tipes of games too.

People complained about awakening and fates for turning the franchise into a dating sim, but 3Houses is literally one in and of itself, and yet is praised as peack FE experience and as peack srpg.

(I could also argue that is because of this otome nature why the characters are "tell don't show" with their given trauma, unlike in pasts games when it was "show don't tell" (Nino, Reison, Camilla, Leif, Soren...))

Well,

When you put it like that, it becomes obvious that the other games (FEH, Engage) mentionning Fodlan are stuck on the uwu monastery part of the part 1 and not the, y'know, events happening that will lead to part 2 because as you said, the SRPG aspect is just "sprinkled on top" lol

However, the "pair up your units and build their relationships!" has been a non gameplay mechanics for decades now (FE4's was a gameplay mechanic, it had no support convos - FE6 added the support convos and gave a small gameplay boost but it didn't commit and we had no endings, FE7/8 had endings, FE9 had convos but FE10 removed them and yet had endings depending on the pairs, etc etc) even without avatars.

Then we entered the avatar era and if it added the "my waifu and my bae" shenanigans, FE13/14 were still more centered on the story aspect that on the "dating sim" aspect, as in, even if you could raise affinity with a character by doing X or Y, it wasn't really coded in a minigame - came FE16 which you analysed perfectly : tea time, gifts, eating, S-support CG, etc etc.

That being said, FE is a RPG, meaning it has characters : you play FE for the solid gameplay but you also build characters, and imo the best way to develop and write characters is to interconnect them with other characters, and/or with the plot/lore.

Sure, Arden functions as a wall/tank. But through the 5 lines he has, you learn that he is part of a group of knights, has friends who often tease him but is relied upon by those people and takes pride in that, he'd also like to find a wife someday and has self-esteem issues.

Is he as developped as, say, Xillia's Alvin? Hell no! But they're characters from two different genres, Arden has those 5 lines that puts him above any "generic" armor.

(I find it interesting how UO and in a way, FE11, gives you the opportunity to play with generics instead of playing with named characters, in UO generics will turn out to be better since you can change their growths, but they're generics. Do you want the RPG of the Tactics/Strategy aspect?)

So, I'd say that support conversations are important, I love Saias and Ralf to bits, but I'm sure I'd love them more if they had more lines. And since support through battle can be a chore (hello FE GBA and trying to get Bartre and Karla's supports when she joins 2 chapters before the end!), I initially welcome any way to grind those supports faster lol.

However, it can quickly spiral in, well, the otome mechanics we have in FE16 - if you want to build support then why not have an entire mini-game for that, and meals and chorals and whatever else?

It's all about finding balance between developping your characters without turning your game in a dating sim or what I'd call "playing the sims and pairing those dolls with those other dolls you like".

Still, let's not kid ourselves, nowadays the "dating sim" aspect of the series is, while decried by some, very popular - and FE is first and foremost, a series that has to sell.

3H is not peak SRPG not peak gaming experience or even in FE gameplay that'd be FE5 but I can't ignore the fact that its dating sim aspects might be part of the reason why it's still very popular.

[bluevelvt]

when people think anakin wouldnt have turned to the dark side if qui-gon trained him im just ?????

YOU THINK THAT WOULD HAVE STOPPED PALPATINE???

i mean qui-gon took anakin to be trained cause he thinks anakin is the chosen one or this is at least a major reason why and like??? PALPATINE WOULD HAVE JUST PIVOTED LIKE

"it's such a shame my boy that the council and even your master only see you as the chosen one and not your own person"

"i hope that they trust you as a jedi and not just part of a prophecy"

"i fear that qui gon only wants you as the chosen one and if you weren't, you would never have left tatooine"

LIKE PALPATINE WOULD HAVE DONE THAT! HE ENGINEERED A WHOLE WAR JUST TO TAKE POWER AND QUI-GON BECOMING ANAKIN'S MASTER WOULD HAVE DESTROYED PALPATINE'S PLANS???

idk just gets on my nerves and feels like a slight against obi-wan who yeah wasn't perfect and the circumstances for becoming anakin's master weren't ideal but i think he was a great master and this idea also makes palpatine seem far less manipulative, cunning, and evil

the man once said he would gladly make vader again given the chance, even knowing how it would eventually end, so he's not stopping just because anakin has a different master

[dottores]

crying hysterically i have such a good fic idea for post-cataclysm teyvat but i just dont have enough time for another series rn

[hanzajesthanza]

it's both a really good feeling and a really bad feeling to have the next three videos planned out and drafted, and the next four to six videos planned for after that...

like i'm glad to have a vision and all, but i'm staring down the barrel of a lot of work, and a path which i can't necessarily diverge from now

[the-girl-with-too-many-ideas]

I started getting into Heaven Official's Blessing, and the similarities between Xie Lian and Guda have me sobbing.

Both were seventeen when their lives were irrevocably changed forever. Kind and naive teens, with hope in their hearts of saving the world. Only to have it all thrown in their faces in the worst ways possible. Forced to become hardened and cruel when all they want to be is kind. Sacrificing so much, even parts of themselves, only for it to mean nothing to ungrateful masses.

Two people who have taught themselves to be overwhelmingly optimistic or be crushed with the absolute horror and trauma of all that they've endured.

All I can imagine is Xie Lian being summoned as a servant towards the beginning of Guda's journey. Seeing this poor kid put in this horrific situation in which they have to save the world or risk extinction, and them accepting it with absolutely resolve and unwavering determination. Looking at them and being reminded so much of himself and the words he once uttered so long ago.

"I wish to save the common people"

Remembering leaves a bitter taste in his mouth and thinks, 'Not this child. I won't let their journey turn out like mine'.

When the singularities are resolved and humanity restored, Xie Lian is desummoned back to his own world. He is left feeling sad having to leave Guda (who he has come to see as his own child), but proud about how it all ended without them losing it all. He is happy that Guda's journey ends in an optimistic note.

Until he is resummoned during the lostbelts, and is met with the broken down shell of who Guda used to be. He is beyond horrified and devastated at the realization that not only did Guda's journey continue, but had gone down a much more horrific path than his own did.

Nothing is worse than thinking you've saved someone, only to realize that you didn't and that their fate was far darker than yours ever was.

[calypsolemon]

consistently torn between "nanami and saionji should just never speak to touga again" and "touga finally recognizing he wants genuine connections and putting in the effort to fix what he's broken and the three of them reaching some sort of catharsis with each other Despite It All"

[6ebe]

does anybody remember when I accurately predicted how game of thrones tv show would end bc I had a basic understanding of how the Tudor dynasty ended. lol.

[intuitive-revelations]

Revisiting The Witch's Familiar and I just realised... it's the same filming location!

Now is it the same location in-universe? Did the Doctor enter the Governors' / Angels' realm before, or has Clara been inside M017 at Coal Hill before and is therefore imagining Twelve as being there?

I guess the new Barbara Wright building might be built at this point, so I suppose the latter is possible... I would question why Clara hadn't noticed something, but perhaps the Governors wanted to interview her and wipe her mind Black Archive style?

On the other hand, Missy does say the Doctor was being chased by "android" assassins, doesn't she?

[controlaltdelete-my-existence]

ah the parallels

[minart-was-taken]

Short explanation of what the hell the Luffy tab on top of the dashboard is:

- For some reason the tumblr marketing team decided to make a deal with Netflix to promote the new live action One Piece movie with a site wide tab, instead of like... An ad.

- The Tab started with the name Luffy, the protagonist of the series. It has now changed to Zoro. There's not explanation given but I suspect it's in the order of the One Piece rap

- The tab seems to be very broken, only showing 5-7 posts that were posted months ago. The users who's art and posts have been included were not asked permission to be used in an ad campaign.

- The disclosing of this being an ad has also been suspect, with many only finding out through word of mouth rather than the tab telling it. I'm not a lawyer but I think that's at least skirting a crime.

- The popular reccomendation is to not engage with the tab, because it'll encourage tumblr to pull more stunts like this. Their sponsors will be delighted the more you click, no matter if its out of confusion or not.

This whole thing is a mess and I hate how marketing teams are trying to bypass adblockers by making alternative ads that get people talking. The act of me posting this is what they want and I'm enraged.... Still, uh, I want to spread the info we've gathered as a community. Let me know if you find more or something is incorrect.

Ps. dont attack one piece fans, they didn't know this was gonna happen either. Please dont leave weird comments to the posts in the tab, the OPs are not involved.