#it’s basically the people’s choice awards

[justvanessah]

V: You are like a fine wine. Getting better with age, as cliche as that is. Also, congratulations on your Critic's Choice Award! Yeah well, life is too short to have people who are around you for the wrong reasons. And honestly, it wasn't easy to learn to do that but when something is bad for you, you remove it, you know? I mean cheating. Not sure if it was physical by the time we ended things but it was definitely emotional. The break up was like a divorce. And I even have an ex who went on dates with someone before we were even broken up so it's multiple people not just one. I mean it did make me more... guarded I guess. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger basically.

Jessica: I am quite old now, with a wealth of stories and anecdotes. I've experienced so much—lovers, adventures, and wild times—and I regret nothing, except perhaps giving too many chances to those who hurt me. So, hearing that you're the kind of person who has stopped doing that is a relief. I wish I had come to the same conclusion at your age and stopped giving second chances. May I ask how he betrayed you, and how it changed your perspective on life?

[sunbratz]

the critics choice noms......

[anastasiabowe]

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 — what it's like having a husband who's a celebrity!

Note: Quick food for your pretty little thoughts 😍💕 (NSFW UNDER CUT!)

Content Warnings: rough kissing, p in v, photography of intimate times, oral (m receiving), switch (Choso),nipple play, desc of male parts. MDNI.

𝙎𝙁𝙒

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who not only was famous in general, he was quite popular with the ladies. Everywhere he went there would always be some underage girls trailing behind us, never realizing that they could never stand a chance with him. He already found his soulmate, and no matter how many beautiful girls he comes across will change that.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who has to silence his phone at night to not disrupt your early slumber, or has to take multiple social media breaks because of all the overwhelming messages he gets every day. He usually has to make new accounts that are private for only him and his family/friends to follow so he can posts photos of you both for distant relatives to see.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who has to sadly keep you a secret. Many times paparazzi have seen you two together, but never once could they recognize you, but the headlines were glaring with fake gossip about his personal life. "CHOSO KAMO'S SECRET LOVER?!" "DID CHOSO KAMO LIE IN HIS RECENT INTERVIEW?!" "WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN ALONGSIDE CHOSO KAMO?!" he could laugh at how ridiculous the media is, always focused on what other people are doing and never worrying about real issues like homelessness or the rising numbers of people who can't afford basic groceries.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who although is always at some sort of interview/event always makes sure you are well taken care of. He always calls you, always texts first, and makes sure to make it up to you in any way he can. He knows you don't want to be in the limelight, but he can admit that he feels almost too selfish to be your husband. He wants to showcase you from the ends to the earth. Kiss you publicly, flip off any girl whose dreams were crushed, he wanted to show the wedding ring with your name engraved in it.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who always uses you to help him keep succeeding, that being having you help him memorize lines, because all he wants to do is hear your voice instead of the actress he has to fall in love with for the film, or have you help him get ready for a talkshow, and even sometimes a simple kiss on the lips and a quick pep talk, "Don't be so nervous, I don't want to see any wrinkles until your 45! So take a deep breath, and treat it like I'm right by your side, cause I am, just from afar!" making him laugh and loosen up a bit before any nerve-wracking thing he must do.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who pleaded and begged for you to come with him to an award show. Promising you any dress, any heels, any wish. He wanted this to be the moment he shines his golden wedding ring which went beautifully with your diamond one. He wanted to wrap his hand tightly on your hip, showing the cameras what's his. He wanted to go up on that stage and thank you, and only you for helping him work his way up to this. He wanted to introduce you to all his celebrity friends who they too didn't know you existed. To be honest, it wasn't a want anymore, it wasn't a choice for you anymore. You were going with him, and if you don't, he will simply die.

𝙉𝙎𝙁𝙒

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who doesn't waste a second pulling you flush against him after dodging and weaving to avoid paparazzi or fans. He holds you so close, kissing your lips to the point of pain. You moan into his mouth, feeling his growing boner harden against your thigh. "Mmm, fuck, finally get to show my fucking wife how much I love her." He growled bringing his hands up with your shirt to pull it over your head. He then unclasped your bra, and his mouth watered seeing your tits. He couldn't wait to have you in every position he could think of, he might even put you into the same one a few times, just so he can see you so desperate for him.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who is a switch when it comes to sex. He will very much pound, circle, and suck you into the very shell of yourself, but he also wouldn't mind you using him as well. He could have you at his mercy one night, on your hands and knees begging like a starved puppy, or, he could be pleading for you to touch him after an hour of being tied up and you playing with yourself in front of him.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who surprisingly has a nipple kink. He goes absolutely psycho when you play with his nipples. He could cum simply alone from nipple play, and that plays into your fantasies perfectly. "Aha! N-no more, I need to b-be ins-IDE you!" Choso wreathed underneath you as you sat on his stomach playing with his nipples, licking, sucking, and biting the pink nubs. His hands and feet were tied to the corners of the bed, and you only let go on one of his nipples that you've been licking and sucking, and softly kiss his wet lips. "just one more baby, and you can get whatever you want, just one more." His breath shook as he nodded, feeling your warm lips and tongue resume what they were doing before.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚��� 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who always, always, ALWAYS records/photographs you when you're being intimate. He had no plans of using them in a certain way, let alone post them, but he likes the feeling of having you with him everywhere, and that being when you both were the closest, when you both were the most connected (pun intended). The photos usually consists you somehow seductively posed before the intimate moment begun, then you looking like a hot mess. "fuckkk, look up at the camera baby, don't care which lense, look at all three for all I care." Choso encouraged as he bobbed your head up and down his dick. He groaned when you made eye contact with the camera, Choso getting butterflies seeing you look so... Sexy. Choso smirked as he recorded you, the gagging and slick sounds filled the phone, and all he could do was smirk at how obedient and hot you were. "Just like that, when I'm done recording this, I want a few more angles of you in different positions, does that sound okay?"

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who could literally fuck you for days. Not an exaggeration. He would fuck you all night, and let you sleep for a few hours, and then fuck you again for many more hours, then let you sleep. You once did nothing but fuck for 3 days straight, and that's because your husband was in Paris for a month. Choso could not get enough of your pussy, and you could not get enough of his dick. His dick was everything you could have ever wanted (next paragraph goes in more detail). He knew how to use it, and so did you. You knew how to roll your hips and how hard you should bounce on his dick for it to reach your g-spot. You were good at finding it, but he was the best. "Harder, Cho! Please baby!" You moaned into his ear as he pounded into you. Choso quickly stopped his thrusts, and readjusted himself. He spread your legs even more, and spread his legs a little more too. He got better ground, and it was fucking game over for you. He rammed fast into you, and the immediate buttery feeling filled you. You let out scream in Euphoria, and he chuckled "Found it." Before he leaned down to kiss you. His hands gripped the sides of your head tightly as you both moaned loudly into each other's space. He smiled seeing your fucked out face, and couldn't help but think how you look a billion times hotter all fucked and spaced out for him.

𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗 𝙃𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙤 who has a big dick. You knew, he knew, the media knew. How does the media know? Creepy people were taking photos of him at the beach, straight at his crotch, that sparked a whole new thing that resulted in many stories and fanfics being written about him that always talked about it, but here's his trusty wife to tell us the details. His dick is big in every way. 8.5. Fucking. Inches. Long. Not a joke, not a myth, it's a fact. And before any of you "that's not even a lot!" People start bitching, go look up an 8 inch dick and see if you can take that comfortably.. anyways, I digress. Everytime you both fuck, it hurts in the beginning. Choso obviously peeps you more than most, but it still can't change the fact it goes so deep. The stretch is a bit over moderate, but the depth is insane. You could actually feel it in your tummy, and Choso always pushes his hand deep into your tummy to feel it go in and out. You always wondered how you got so lucky to have a man like him, handsome on every part of him, inside and out, but truthfully, Choso always questions how he even pulled you, so who's really lucky?

[oldmannapping]

Directly riffing off this post, my brain wouldn’t stop. The idea of Jason furiously becoming a superstar HR manager for his goons gives me such pure joy.

The Adventures of Jason Todd And His Goons

Jason: “Shut the FUCK UP. What do you mean you’ve never had dental cover? This is fucking bullshit. Get me the paperwork right now, do I have to do everything my fucking self? God. You have three kids, right? Of course they’re going on your fucking plan, what do you think this is?”

Jason: “You guys want fucking CAKE on your birthdays? Are you shitting me right now? Are you fucking looking me in the eye and asking for cake on your birthday? You’re not fucking WORKING on your birthday, dumbshit, that’s a paid day off. Buy your own damn cake, eat it with your family, Jesus Christ.”

Jason: “Is that a dog? Did you bring a fucking dog in here? What the everloving pissfuck. Who decided to have a bring your pet to work day and not tell me so I could have treats ready for the very good boy, yes you are, you’re a very good boy. See now I feel like an asshole, I don’t have a treat for you, and you’re such a beautiful doggy yes you are, yes you are. I’m only gonna say this once: EVERY day is now bring your pet to work day. EVERY DAMN DAY.”

Jason: “Did someone set up a crib over there? Is that a crib in my warehouse next to the fridge where we keep our severed heads and leftover bean casseroles? Steve! STEVE! Show the new guy where the daycare room is. Jesus Christ. It’s like I didn’t spend four days last winter teaching you fucks about how to induct the new guys.”

Jason: “Someone signed us up to have a FLOAT IN THE PRIDE PARADE? I’ve been voted a fucking EMPLOYER OF CHOICE??? Fuck. The bar is so low, man. I just treat people with basic human fucking respect… Shouldn’t get a fucking award for that. And who the hell signed us up for this with only two weeks’ notice, how the fuck am I meant to make a custom rainbow helmet in two weeks? You think this shit’s gonna bedazzle itself? There better be a hot glue gun in my hand in the next three minutes or I swear to god I’m cancelling paintball this week.”

[mockerycrow]

are you good at character analysis? I wanna know what your analysis would be for Gaz, I’m trying to figure out his story since he’s my favorite out of TF 141

KYLE GAZ GARRICK

BASIC OVERVIEW — BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick is a British Black man who enlisted into the British Army around 2008 or 2014 (unfortunately, the developers have inconsistencies). His operator biography states 2008 while the official activision website in a blog post about MW2019 states 2014, however it does make sense for him to enlist in 2008. He would have been at least sixteen years old which is the minimum age requirement to enlist. I would like to quickly throw in that Gaz is indeed older than Soap, as this is a misconception that I surprisingly see a lot! Gaz’s blood type is B- and he currently ranks as sergeant (which according to the official British Army website, it typically takes at least twelve years in the service, however it implies it also depends on the person’s abilities).

Gaz spent four years in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. During these four years going through a multitude of tests and challenges before passing selection for Special Air Service (SAS). The activision blog says during MW2019, it’s his sixth year serving as a sergeant. However, as Gaz had been selected for TF141, I believe their ranks have paused in time. Gaz has mostly spent his time in anti-terrorism in his military career. He’s an expert in demolitions, VIP escorting, weapons tactics, covert surveillance, and target elimination. He’s been awarded multiple medals, and earned his Parachute Wings whilst spending time at Camp Lejeune in the U.S. whilst collaborating with Navy SEALs. Kyle is a master of evasion and deception, being the only candidate in his entire class to escape capture from the facility and evade detection during resistance training. 

When Gaz first meets Cpt. Price, Gaz is currently assigned to an SAS specific counter-terrorism program in the UK who collaborate with the police, which is another misconception that Gaz was a police sergeant at one point (he was not! I believe some people think this because at E3, Gaz was wearing a police baseball cap).

CHARACTER OVERVIEW

Like true to the original Gaz, he is Price’s protege, being his student. Gaz is overall a serious and hardworking man, loyal and unbreaking. He knows when to joke and he knows when to reload. However, Gaz is not perfect and he does lose his cool (we see subtle development with this later down the road). While being loyal, Gaz does not hesitate to question Price’s choices and actions. We see this multiple times during the series, the most prime example being in MW2019 when Price and Gaz are interrogating The Butcher with Yegor. The Butcher taunts Gaz, causing Gaz to lunge and Price to send him off to fetch.. “The package”. The package being, The Butcher’s family. The reboot games, you have choices, so I’ll give the very basic run down. 

You have the option to opt into the interrogation or to opt out of it. If you opt out, Price bursts out of the room with the information (if you go near the door, you hear The Butcher’s family sobbing). If you opt in, you have so many options. At the end of the day, Gaz is mostly silent and follows orders from Price. In the police cruiser scene, Gaz questions Price in the car—he did not expect to be using women and children as bargaining chips and he makes that clear, and this is a big teaching moment between Gaz and Price. We have to remember that Gaz is young and considering everything, inexperienced to an extent. Price makes up for that inexperience, teaching him along the way. During the interrogation scene, Price makes a remark: “We’ve taken the gloves off.” This is because Gaz lashed out. Later in the car, Price says “When you take the gloves off, you get blood on your hands, Kyle. That’s how it works.” after Gaz questions him.

CONCLUSION

Overall, Gaz is a very complex character and I enjoyed watching his development during these games. I’ve seen people claim Gaz is boring or plain, but I genuinely do not believe that to be the case. Gaz, in my opinion, is also the most relatable character. He’s young, ambitious, and determined. He’s charismatic and efficient. I don’t believe a character has to be extremely traumatized, or look very very unique to be a well-crafted character and Gaz is a great example for this. 

Gaz is just a man who enlisted; someone who is smart and well-rounded (as much as an SAS member can be), he’s quick on his feet and he molds into group work fantastically. He’s extremely versatile and is a quick learner—and wants to learn. He has his flaws that make him human. Gaz develops great self control, is level-minded and is able to think for himself. A great student questions their mentor in everything and you see this with Gaz. 

You see Gaz struggle with morality in the series in a sea of characters who kill and do things without a second thought. We see him question things, we see his emotions and his extreme reluctance. We definitely see some development down the road as Gaz becomes more ruthless, but he never quite forgets his humanity in a way, compared to Price where he can easily disconnect humanity (ex. Calling The Butcher’s wife and son “the package/leverage”). 

Along with this, we see him struggle with the rules in place. I also think this is why Gaz and Price’s dynamic is great. There are rules for a reason, and both Price and Gaz know when to break them—but Gaz learns that breaking some rules doesn’t always happen for the most heroic of actions (again, Price’s quote about bloodying your hands after taking the gloves off). Gaz wants to save people and keep the peace, we see this in Piccadilly during the terrorist attacks and the aftermath scene with Price where Gaz lets the Captain know that he and his unit had actionable intel on the terrorist cell who committed the act. Of course, we see later down the road that taking the gloves off removes all limits, not just some of them. We also see a glimpse of Gaz’s conflicting feelings when 141, Farah & Alex, as well as Laswell learn about Hadir and his plans, as well as when Farah’s forces are deemed a terrorist organization.

I think I rambled on a lot about him, hopefully this is understandable! 

Sources: price & gaz activision blog intros (2019), inconsistency in enlistment date, cod fandom wiki, gaz scenes mwi & mwii, official british army website.

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 某某 / Mou Mou / The On1y One

The On1y One is a 2024 Taiwanese coming-of-age drama about two high school students who fall in love, but more importantly, become friends -- and oh, they're also living in the same house now, because their parents have decided to get married.

Let's get this part out of the way: Yes, they're (almost) stepbrothers. No, that is not a kink thing at all, especially since they meet and start having complicated emotions about one another before they know their parents are together. Look, I had a childhood acquaintance promoted to stepsibling when I was in high school too, and I can tell you that your feelings about someone do not immediately jump to close family status just because your mom likes their dad. This is a show about how becoming a family; it is not a show about fucking your family.

Here are five reasons I think you should absolutely watch this twelve-episode drama -- and they're going to be as spoiler-free as I can make them, largely because...

1. Holy shit, it's ... actually good?

Believe me, no one could be as shocked as I was to find out this was a thing of actual quality. I first found out about this as 'hey, the handsome doctor from House Haunters is in a Taiwanese BL about high-schoolers' -- which of course sold me on it immediately, as I thought Liu Dongqin was the absolute highlight of the beautiful disaster that is Psych-Hunter, but which also, you must admit, sounds more like a novelty than a real thing of objective value.

Thus, I was prepared for trash! More accurately, I was prepared to enjoy trash. I am clearly on record as a trash-enjoyer. I was going to tuck in and gleefully laugh my way through awkward antics just to see that handsome boy kiss another boy.

Which means I was not prepared to be knocked off my feet by how thoughtful, intense, well-acted, and damn beautiful this series is. It's good. It's actually good. It is, like Beyond Evil, a thing you could put in front of Your Average American Television Enjoyer Who Can Handle Subtitles (And Boys Kissing) without having to apologize every five seconds about the jank. It's stunningly lit. It's chunked into episodes that have reasons to be episodes. It's well-written in a way that even comes through the translation.

Here's a clue to its quality: It's directed by Liu Kuang-Hui, known for Your Name Engraved Herein, an explictly gay film released in 2020 that won, like, all the awards -- which it fucking deserved to. (You don't need to have seen Your Name to watch this, but I think if you have, it adds an extra layer of meaning.) This is a BL made by someone who understands how being a teen boy in love with another teen boy is like being expected to walk around with a knife in your stomach while you pretend everything's fine.

But this is not a show about misery! It is a show about building connections, learning to trust, getting over yourself, and finding joy in taking care of other people. Maybe that sounds a little grandiose for a tiny Taiwanese BL, but it's not an exaggeration. When this drama bills itself as a coming-of-age narrative, it means it's going headfirst into the beautiful hell of being seventeen.

Keep those tissues on hand. You'll need them.

2. What if you fell in love with someone you also liked?

This is a true cat4cat relationship -- but different cat personalities! Finally, diverse cat representation!

Jiang Tian is a feral kitty who has spent so long telling everyone he hates them that he has no idea how to convey that he likes someone, and thus spends the first several episodes basically dropping dead birds at Sheng Wang's feet. Don't let his stoic nature fool you -- he's exactly as into this as (and much sooner than) the much more demonstrative Sheng Wang. Episodes end with little scenes you saw earlier, but recontextualized from Jiang Tian's perspective. So don't ever worry that Jiang Tian's being taken advantage of or coerced in any way. The boy has agency, and he uses it.

Meanwhile Sheng Wang is like a pampered little housecat who only eats wet food and sulks about everything -- but he's earned at least some of it, as he's clearly dealing with some major life upheavals. New city! New school! New friends! New house! New stepmom! New stepbrother! New and horrible things his teenage body is doing to him! So it's not surprising that he's clinging to what familiar comforts he has, even if it means being a total bitch about it.

And they become friends. That's the great part. This is a love story, but it's a love story where the love is friend-shaped. If anything, the friendship is the more important (and visible) aspect of the dynamic. It's not saying that one is more righteous or correct than the other -- it's saying that friendship is part of romantic love! Maybe it's even the best part of it! Maybe the only thing better than falling in love is making your crush your best friend and then falling in love with them.

It gets to the point where they spend most of their time not thinking about being in love with one another because they're such good friends. This is just what having a best friend is like, right?

(Jiang Tian knows it is not just what having a best friend is like. Jiang Tian is constantly chewing glass because he's sure friendship is the best he's going to get out of this, and also it's the best friendship he's ever had, and if that's all he gets -- and it will be, he's sure of it -- it'll be enough. It'll have to be.)

My favorite parts of their relationship are when Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian get to just enjoy spending time with one another as complete goobers. They're such teen boys! I mean, they're teen boys from very particular circumstances that have made them have to grow up fast, so it's great when they just get to regress around one another and act their age. The whole scene at the carnival is by itself worth the price of admission.

Look, here's some more shots of them being cute at one another. Don't let Jiang Tian's stoic face in the other pictures fool you. He's capable of making expressions, and it's so good when he does.

See?

3. This, too, is yuri

I mean, shit, you make a gay teacher and I'm already there. You make two gay teachers and I'm going to love you forever. Then you make them both gay teachers and gay owners of a little gay cafe? I don't know if my little trope-loving heart can take it!

Enter Zhao Xi and Lin Tingbei ("Benny").

From the moment you meet these two, it is obvious to you, the viewer, that they are a married couple. Except they're not. They're not married. They're not even a couple. It took me like nine episodes to realize that the reason they're acting so weird is not that they're trying to hide their relationship from other people, but that they're not in a relationship. They are mutually pining for one another and have no idea that the other one is having similar feelings.

Sorry, I have to go feral about these two sapphic-coded gay men for a moment: You two had an incredible meet-cute, went abroad at the same time, came back together, opened a cafe together, call one another "partner," have rainbow motifs on various visible objects in your life, AND YOU STILL ARE UNAWARE THAT YOU'RE BOTH IN LOVE WITH ONE ANOTHER

I can't stress this enough: When you meet them, your first thought is, oh, you two are married. MARRIED. Not just dating, but comfortably wedded. I kept expecting one of them to have a gentle After-School Special moment he tells the children, no, we're life partners as well as business partners. But they didn't! And do you know why? It's because THEY DON'T EVEN SEEM TO KNOW THAT THE OTHER ONE IS ALSO GAY

The only thing that makes sense is that they're both male lesbians. This is some Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! shit right here. How do you unknowingly wind up in what is basically a marriage with man you've never even kissed? I don't know, but they've somehow managed to do it. It's insane. It's incredible.

I don't even feel like I'm spoiling you for anything here! Like, I wish I'd known from the start they weren't actually together, because I was baffled by their side plot for fully three-quarters of the series. Why are they behaving like this? Why are you being weirdly jealous about the hot lady teacher? Oh, it's because YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE HUSBANDS, THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU HUSBANDS

WE GOT DOUBLE MUTUAL PINING HERE, FOLKS, DOUBLE MUTUAL PINING, TWO SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS OF GAY DIPSHITS WHO ARE AS BAD AS YOU CAN BE ABOUT FEELINGS WITHOUT IMMEDIATELY DYING OF IT

Sorry about the caps lock, just ... I'll be over here screaming into a pillow about it, okay? Okay, thanks.

4. Actual Teen Feelings

So nobody in this production is an actual teenager; both leads were just on the underside of thirty when it filmed, and all the other "kids" are at least in their mid-twenties.

And honestly, I like the aged-up casting better, since ... look, I'm over forty, and I just don't find the youths as attractive as I did when I was much closer to that age. Seeing actual 16- and 17-year-olds do this would have given me the ick. So I feel kind of like, this is a teen story told for adults, and the way it does that is by giving you actors that embody how cool you thought your peers looked when you were that age, and not how gangly and awkward everyone actually looked.

I've described the behavior of the teen characters as "rationally irrational" -- like, you know that the decisions they're making are bad, and they kind of know it too, but you also get that they don't have the regulatory mechaisms to compensate for when their hormones tell them it's time to sulk, or or talk back, or lie, or do something reckless. They're stupid teens, but they're not stupid because the writing is stupid. They're stupid because the writing is good and knows exactly how stupid teens are.

And of course this is most visible with our boys, who are complete dipshits in some very rationally irrational ways.

I alluded earlier to the fact that I have stepsiblings, and that I acquired them during my teen years, so yeah, a lot of the complicated stepfamily dynamics hit hard for me. Sheng Wang's mother is dead, and he's being a sulky baby about it because he (kind of correctly!) feels like his dad both is trying to replace her and has started paying attention more to his new partner than to his son. Sure, an adult with more coping mechanisms would be able to handle it without being a dick to everyone around them. But he's not an adult -- but also he's not not an adult? He's in that awful place of adolescence where you feel all grown up, but people still keep making huge life decisions for you. I remember it; it sucks.

Meanwhile Jiang Tian's father is still alive, but that's complicated too and has led to Jiang Tian's being kind of estranged from both his divorced parents. His then becomes a story less about how to get along with your new stepfather, and more how to reconcile with a mother who wasn't always in a place to make the best decisions for you she could, as you are yourself approaching the age she was when she made those decisions.

It's just so many feelings! Just a giant fucked-up Sargasso Sea of feelings! Every nerve is raw and every emotion is like staring straight at the sun! So many characters are completely at the mercy of their worst instincts, to the point where you can't even be mad because, yeah, if I had no ability to tell my most visceral intrusive thoughts to go away, I'd be ruining my own life left and right too.

Also, you are not prepared for the parts with boners. I say no more.

bonus: LUCKY CAT!!!

When was the last time you saw a fat character in a piece of Asian media -- or a piece of any media -- who was just allowed to be fat in peace? Whose fatness was not the constant butt of jokes? Who was not depicted always (comedically) eating? Who wasn't thrown into the mix just so their sexual/romantic interest in some skinny person could be turned into gross-out moments?

Lucky Cat is the best. Her students call her Lucky Cat because she's always cheerful and she does a precious little paw thing. The name is meant to be endearing! They like her, and she's portrayed consistently as a good educator and generally nice person to be around. She's fashionable, too! She has the cutest little outfits!

And she's fat! It's just a thing about her not worth commenting upon! Shit, I wish the show's lack of commentary weren't worth my commenting upon, except, ugh, you know it is. It's even more so worth saying because I've seen her in something else where she was exactly what she isn't here, and it was vile. The contrast is incredible.

Love you, girl, one fat, overcaffeinated educator to another.

5. Delicious(ly timed) pining

I want to talk about the structure of the show for a moment, and I'm going to try and do it as spoiler-free as I can. Even so, this gets into territory that you might be better off going into blind, especially if you like the tension of not knowing where a love story is going. If you're convinced already that you need to watch this show, skip this section -- scroll right down to the picture of a pitcher and glass of lemon water on a kitchen counter.

Go on, now, get.

However, if you're still on the fence about watching it, though (or if you've seen it already and just like reading my thoughts on it!), here's a very slightly spoilery selling point for you:

Normally, BL shows are all about waiting for the moment those boys finally realize what's up and kiss one another. The On1y One makes what I think is a brilliant decision to frontload the kissing. These boys smooch twice all the way up in episode 2 -- but under circumstances that are, respectively, a dare and a faux-casual demonstration that the dare didn't mean anything.

And that's it. They don't kiss again.

I think this is such a good choice because it makes those boys spend the entire rest of the show with three thoughts in their heads: we have already kissed; it didn't mean anything to him; I think it might mean something to me. Their entire friendship is colored by the knowledge that, yeah, that happened. If anything, it makes the BL-style waiting even more glorious, because now it's not about wondering if I kissed him, what would he do? but about wondering if I kissed him again, would it still be a joke to him?

There's also some very good asymmetry in there, in how Jiang Tian is clearly already the world's greatest expert at stuffing his gay desires into a little box and not making them anyone else's problem, while Sheng Wang is having a sexual awakening in real time.

You figure out very near the end why Jiang Tian has a complicated relationship to his own gay longings, and boy, is it a hell of a reason. I know we joke about characters who are both gay and homophobic, and I don't want to call him homophobic, because that's not it. But you definitely get to see why, of all his locked-down feelings, he's locked the gay ones down hardest of all.

Meanwhile Sheng Wang is popular, has friends, has surely been on a number of cute and chaste little dates, has probably even kissed a couple very nice girls -- and has clearly never had a horny thought in his entire life before now. He is both falling in love and figuring out what makes him hard at the same time, and oh boy, that is some rough shit to hit at seventeen. You get to see him recontextualize those kisses several times, slowly putting names to the emotions he didn't know he was having. And when he does finally understand the extent of what he's feeling, he makes a stupid decision about it, because of course he does. He's seventeen. Stupid decisions come with the territory.

Anyway, once they finally get to fucking, Sheng Wang is going to be the lord high king of the bratty bottoms. Just an absolute menace. He's got Jiang Tian's number so hard, and Jiang Tian is going to love suffering through every minute of it.

~

Okay, did you scroll down? Here's a little more spoiler buffer! Hi! How are you doing today? I'm having fun writing this. I hope you'll like watching it. There, that should be enough.

caveat: This is not an ending.

I need to stress how much this is clearly made to be a part one of more, and also how a second season has not been announced and thus is not guaranteed. I am being optimistic based on a) how good it is, b) how much clout the director has, and c) the fact that it's so new, it makes sense that further installments might not be announced yet. But if an unfinished (and possibly never-finished) series bothers you, maybe put this one in your pocket for later.

But oh, this show needs a second season. I am burning incense to the television gods in hope that it gets a second season.

Want to tuck in for some actual good television?

This one is wonderfully easy to find. We watched it on GagaOOLala, but you can also find it on AppleTV, WeTV, Viki, and iQiyi.

Back to the Your Name Engraved Herein connection: The On1y One reads to me in many ways like a celebration of how far Taiwanese culture has come about gay people. Like, things still absolutely aren't perfect in 2012, when this show is set, but at the same time, it's no longer 1987 -- which was the homophobic, hopeless world Liu Kuang-Hui grew up in. If Your Name tells the story of what actually happened, this series tells the story of what the person that all happened to imagines things could be like today. It's so hopeful it makes me choke up a little thinking about it.

Bah, just go watch it. Do it! Go! There's links right up there!

Gay thoughts say peek-a-boo.

[pucksandpower]

hi >< i freaking love love LOVE your insta au’s so much so i would like to request one my self :’› can i please request an ig!au for toto with a supermodel!reader. let it be like a secret marriage/relationship and the people only finds out they're together when they're accidentally spotted together during a merc party for their win <33 thank you so much in advance!!

Toto Wolff x supermodel!Reader - Social Media AU

yourusername

Liked by lewishamilton, mercedesamgf1, and 1,749,365 others

yourusername it’s lights out and away we go

tagged mercedesamgf1

View all 3,827 comments

mercedesamgf1 you’re basically part of the team already with that outfit

yourusername had to match with the good guys 🤍

lewishamilton are you coming out on the yacht with us later?

yourusername of course! wouldn’t miss it

yourusername’s story

mercedesamgf1

Liked by yourusername, georgerussell63, and 591,432 others

mercedesamgf1 Look who we just happened to find in Qatar

tagged yourusername

View all 1,806 comments

yourusername fancy seeing you here

mercedesamgf1 what a coincidence 😉

bumblebea you guys ain’t slick

legallylewis and your conspiracy theory is still a conspiracy theory

bumblebea come on, it’s so obvious they’re together

paddockgossip

Liked by f1wagupdates, y/nupdates, and 113,896 others

paddockgossip in a video posted to tiktok and since deleted, toto wolff and y/n y/l/n showed the world their relationship is less than professional as they partied it up while celebrating a mercedes double podium

View all 2,574 comments

f1wagupdates jaw = dropped

redflagged who needs soap operas when we have f1?

f1wagupdates too true 😭

y/nupdates can’t say that i saw this coming

y/nupdates but can we talk about how amazing y/n looks?

dailymail

Liked by y/nupdates, paddockgossip, and 158,764 others

dailymail After their relationship was revealed in a shocking video just a few weeks ago, supermodel Y/N Y/L/N and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team principal Toto Wolff kept the surprises coming by taking their two secret children out for a day by the beach. We’re sure everyone wants to know how and why they kept this hidden for so long

View all 2,829 comments

yourusername i hope you have as much fun dealing with our lawyers as you did paying people to stalk my husband and i while we were just trying to have a nice time with our kids

f1wagupdates you dropped this, queen 👑

f1wagupdates wait did you say HUSBAND?

y/nupdates excuse me while i scream

y/nupdates still screaming

y/nupdates still screaming

y/nupdates and still screaming

y/nupdates now that my mental breakdown is over, their little family is adorable

f1wagupdates

Liked by hamilfan44, werewolff, and 97,856 others

f1wagupdates Y/N Y/L/N was joined by husband (my brain has yet to process this) Toto Wolff at the People’s Choice Awards for their first official outing together

View all 1,042 comments

hamilfan44 they look so good together 😵‍💫

formulafashion that dress with the necklace and red lips is everything

werewolff and toto in a tux 😍

bumblebea i get it now

bumblebea sorry for saying your wife was dating your driver. please don’t kill me, toto

[thewadapan]

Sat down to watch the Be More Chill musical on my computer through legal means and got sucker-punched by the fact that the show was basically butchered when it was revived for the 2018 Off-Broadway production, I can only assume as a direct result of the casting of Will Roland in the lead role as Jeremy.

Roland apparently auditioned for Jeremy in Be More Chill in 2015, and was snubbed in favour of Will Connolly, who you hear on the first Original Cast Recording. In the meantime, he went on to perform in Dear Evan Hansen, which turned out to be phenomenally successful, and he won a couple of awards, which I assume is why when he came back to Be More Chill in 2018, the new song "Loser Geek Whatever" was added, becoming the new end-of-Act-1 number. This song, which is basically just an extended solo for Roland where Jeremy sings about resenting his social status and wanting to be cool (an emotional state which has been painfully well-established by this point), is like nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. It's like a caricature of what you'd imagine Be More Chill to be like if you haven't seen it.

If it was just one song, I guess I could grit my teeth and just skip it, but sadly Roland's performance and vocals are about as consistently offputting. It's difficult coming into a role which has already been originated by another actor, and putting your own spin on it, but I just think he fucked it. I can only describe his delivery as aggressive, angry and entitled instead of self-effacing and sardonic. He's so incredibly punchable. It's unbearable. I think it completely changes the tenor of the story. I'm not the only one; a quick google search yields tons of results for people making a similar point.

Anyway, I realised I'd never actually seen footage of the original 2015 Two River Theater production, just audio, so I went to look for it. Will Connolly's performance, by contrast, is far more naturalistic and precise; a lot of his mannerisms are subtle and awkward, his expressions are guileless, his delivery is earnest. Jeremy is still a little shitstain, but more in an "argh, what are you DOING!" way than a "fuck you fuck you fuck you" way. The only known video of the Two River production to exist covers just the first half-hour; maybe a third of the show. There's complete audio for the rest. Plus, of course, the studio recordings of the songs. And when it comes to musical theatre, it's like, yeah, same as it ever was—but for me this is my own personal Star Wars Special Editions controversy, where the only extant version of the story is one where it's like a madman has combed back over it to fuck up as many things as possible.

An animator called Claudia Cacace on YouTube produced several animatics for the show, splicing the studio recordings into the Two River audio, with lofty ambitions of eventually adapting the whole thing. I think a lot of her directorial choices are brilliant, but again, she only really touched Act 1—and last year she released an unfinished animatic, announcing that she was done with the project because people were being insane about it online. Again, same as it ever was. I can see some other YouTube users have valiantly attempted to compile playlists of animatics from various animators to cover the whole show, but what's the point, if the overall look and quality of the thing is wildly varying every five minutes?

Maybe I should go read the original novel. I hear it's good.

[skarsjoy]

I’m still thinking about Alexander Skarsgård looking like a million bucks at the Nosferatu Hollywood premiere last Thursday.  

I thought earlier that he was wearing his Tom Ford suit from the S4 True Blood premiere but it is not. I think it is the suit that he wore to the 2018 Critics Choice Awards (when he won for Big Little Lies). It was a Boss bespoke wool 3-piece suit, he just didn’t wear the vest this time. He was styled by Jeanne Yang for the 2018 event.

Alex quotes from his interview with Trishna Rikhy for Esquire in September: “It’s not sustainable with fast fashion, where we’re incentivized to buy new pieces of clothing every single day and then throw them out and then buy new stuff,” he says. “I think it’s very important that when you go out to buy stuff, [you] buy stuff that you obviously love and you’re excited to come home and try on but [also] pieces that will last and sustain you. You want to build a relationship with those pieces, or at least I do. I love having stuff that I’ve worn for many years and that I have many memories from wearing.”

He doesn’t like the idea of having a brand-new outfit for every red carpet, either. “What signal does that send out to the public?” he asks. “It’s basically saying you can’t be seen in the same outfit more than once, which incentivizes people to just go out and buy, buy, buy, which I can’t endorse.” 

📸 Alexander Skarsgård attends the Los Angeles premiere of Focus Features' "Nosferatu" at TCL Chinese Theater on December 12, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Andrew Toth/WireImage)

📸 Actor Alexander Skarsgård attends The 23rd Annual Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 11, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

[stardvstbby]

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Yona, but this is such a cop-out. Who is she to say what Zeno’s true feelings are? She’s basically saying: “I know I’m important to you. You wouldn’t want to cause me pain, would you?”. Like Yona, love, that’s completely beside the point. No he doesn’t want to hurt you! Of course not! But she’s deflecting, avoiding confronting a difficult choice that would lead to her friend finally finding rest after many lifetimes of suffering.

I understand why she needs to enter the chalice and speak directly with the gods. The cycle itself is the issue and she could prevent further people from being burdened with dragon power, and killing Zeno would only end his suffering.

But the way she completely dismisses his wishes irks me. She could’ve said something like: “Hold on. Before we commit to anything concrete, let me try speaking with the gods. Allow me a second option. And if that doesn’t work at least we know I can end this pain for you,” but no. Instead she like…gaslights him? “No, this is what you’re actually feeling.” “You’re in too much despair to make this choice, you’re not in your right frame of mind.” Even if it’s true that he doesn’t want to hurt her she’s still assuming she knows his thoughts and emotions better than he does. This is pure Sheltered Princess behavior.

Yona is robbing Zeno of his autonomy over his choice to die here, which ironically is exactly what the dragon powers are doing to him. When will he be awarded agency of his own life? His feelings and desires?

[soujux]

DMD Friendship The Reality — Thoughts

The year is yet to end, and Your Sky is airing, so I think I still have the time to talk about Domundi Friendship The Reality.

Totally not a dating show, by the way, but kinda functions similarly, which is perfect for a bored aroace girl in a limbo during holiday break. I also have no idea who these people are, so that adds to the experience.

DMD Friendship The Reality is a reality show by Domundi where they have 8 of their talents live together for several days. They do missions, get rewards, bond, and search for a partner to potentially win the Best Couple Award and become the main leads to a new series. There are 6 episodes of the actual show, and 1 episode of them doing a Q&A. In retrospect, it's basically an acting, performing, and chemistry workshop, because the missions all revolve around the contestants honing their skills in the areas relevant to their careers as DMD artists.

The participants are as follows according to the introduction:

Keng (24)

FirstOne (23)

Namping (22)

Latte (23)

Teetee (18)

Kong (20)

Thomas (22)

Gems (19)

I honestly thought it was too calculated to have 8 contestants—an even number—when they are supposed to each choose a partner at the end, and DMD probably thought the same after awhile, because in episode 3, they introduced Tle (25). Overall, the show had 9 contestants.

First Impressions on the DMD Artists

FirstOne is the lovechild of Mix (GMMTV) and Seokjin (BTS). He has very soft, but manly features, and his mannerisms are very boyish.

He moves a lot during interviews. When he talks, he smirks and grins almost in a playful way. He looks like the popular naughty kid in school. He has a face of an it-boy.

Also, I don't know if it's him or Keng, but one of them kept saying "Annyeong!" and it was kinda funny.

I find Kong to be so cute. I adore his braces, but what really sold me was his fudanshi tendencies.

He knows more than me, because he obviously clocked KengNamping really early in the show. There was a conversation around the authenticity of the show, because Keng and Namping was fairly established upon entering, but more on that later.

It was so interesting for these celebrities to introduce themselves by their educational attainment, because I don't see that everyday. Most of the contestants are degree holders, and Kong, for example, is a sophomore taking up engineering. He balances work as a DMD artist and his studies. He even talks about it twice with Thomas later on.

I really enjoy the premise of the show. Just chill guys in a chill mansion doing chill missions. We don't often see a reality show that doesn't isolate or restrict its contestants from the world. I love to see them use their phones before going to bed.

KengNamping as Contestants in DMD Friendship The Reality

Starting this show with no background was confusing. Did KengNamping work together before entering the show? Did they have a project lined up together? I felt like being in a new friend group and I don't know the inside jokes, so I just have to go along.

So, starting off, I had to establish that:

Keng and Namping are KengNamping.

They are always together and making Tiktoks together. (Source: FirstOne)

They will be one of the couples by the end.

Kong is the captain of the KengNamping ship.

However, I did enjoy the drama in the first episode. Absolutely nothing prepared me for the shame and disappointment awaiting Namping, but I appreciated Keng's reasoning behind it.

Context for those who don't know or forgot: Keng won the first mission and was rewarded a fancy dinner with a partner of his choice. Everyone and their mothers expected him to choose Namping, but he ended up choosing Teetee, leaving Namping embarrassed and disappointed. Teetee was so shocked and confused, but neverthelss, grateful. In Keng's defense, Teetee is a new addition to the company, and the dinner was his attempt to get to know his junior (in this context, his nong.)

Although, I have to admit that I got "salty" over it. I wrote a long rant about it in my notes, and it goes a little something like:

"Keng and Namping entered the show with the contestants having this preconceived notion that they are the KengNamping. That's why it was a big deal when Keng chose Teetee over Namping for a dinner date, despite his good intentions, because they are expected, almost pressured to always choose the other when they win special awards. Otherwise, it's an act of betrayal."

All of their interactions after that, especially the one in the suite, to me, felt a little forced. I kind of felt bad for Namping, because I saw it as Keng feeling sorry for him. I'm sure they do care for each other, but the dynamic between them and the contestants was not a wise set-up. If Keng and Namping were given a little more independence; it would have been interesting to see them interact with other people, like how Keng dined with Teetee, before seeing them actively choose each other.

FirstLatte and ThomasKong Dinner Dates

May I introduce my favorite dinner "date" in the entire show?

Everything about this dinner was perfect—yes, even the mosquitoes! From the announcement, the arrangement, the editing, and the results. It was well-thought of, and underappreciated.

After Teetee departed to eat with Keng in episode 1, the remaining contestants are given the chance to also have a fancy dinner with a partner. But here's the catch.. the dinner can only happen if you choose each other mutually.

These were the results:

Thomas chose Kong.

Namping chose Kong.

Latte chose FirstOne.

Gems chose FirstOne.

Kong chose Thomas, and FirstOne chose Latte. They have dinner in the garden.

The editors did such a great job at this, because they didn't reveal Kong and FirstOne's choices until during the announcement. It was so well-thought of.

It was one of those moments where I was sure ThomasKong and FirstLatte was gonna be a thing. The aspect of the dinner happening because you both chose each other in secret is very romantic. No fancy dinner in a cruise or suite could ever match up to it.

At this point, it's obvious that I forgot to stop treating this as a dating show. I started to get delusional the moment FirstLatte declared that they'll choose each other as partners over and over again. I began kicking my feet when Thomas said that he found the partner he was looking for.

Althought FirstOne eventually ended up paired with Tle in the future, the moment he shared with Latte in this dinner remained special. FirstOne will go on ahead and choose to spend his next dinner rewards with Keng and Tle, but it is not a dinner that rewards you for choosing each other.

I Guess, I Really Like the Implication of Being Chosen (ThomasKong)

I lied. I actually had a surface level idea of who Thomas and Kong were, because I watched 6 episodes of Your Sky before watching DMD Friendship The Reality. In my defense, I only knew them as Muenfah and Teerak! So, I did not really lie about not knowing who they are as DMD artists.

But oh, ThomasKong. What a couple. Watching them in the reality show felt like watching two people in your friendgroup that are obviously dating, but didn't tell you.

I didn't know that they were close before the show (or off-camera). They don't really talk, even though you always see them sit beside each other. So, I was honestly surprised when Thomas sent his postcard to Kong, and Kong to Thomas.

Not only that—they constantly chose each other all throughout the show.

We talked about the perfect dinner™, where they had the cutest "date" that felt so spontaneous and earnest. Although they never really explicitly said that that they would choose each other as partners, the qualities they mentioned when describing an ideal partner ultimately referred to.. well, each other.

"I want someone I'm comfortable talking to, and someone who is older."

Kong said this while talking comfortably with Thomas, his Phi.

"Just someone I'm comfortable with. Someone I can be my true self and be happy with. I think I've found him."

Well, do we even need to discuss Thomas' response?

It is quite a popular comment in each episode that Thomas locked-in on Kong from the get-go, but I honestly believe that Kong is no better. Kong also sent Thomas the postcard, chose Thomas for dinner, and it's Kong who chose Thomas during the acting mission.

The acting mission was one of my favorite episodes, because I was thrilled to see a script interpreted in several ways. My best pick in acting from the show were Gems, FirstOne, and Thomas' performances.

Thomas and Kong won this mission, and I think it's a pretty significant win. While they still lack in the acting department, they were the only group that leaned into the romantic subtext of the script, and delivered. They delivered it so well that the judges (and I) were left giggling and blushing after the scene. They were capable of selling a character to you, and it was an immersive experience.

They were rewarded with a night together in a suite. Then the dinner, mosquito bite joke, and the exclusive video happened.

I am absolutely fond of how comfortable they are with each other. They gave us several swoon-worthy moments, but I am the most at awe when Thomas checks up on Kong, when Kong trusts Thomas with everything, and when they feel safe enough with each other to talk about personal topics.

Their conversation about choosing each other and being 200% certain is very important to me. They make a promise, and it's a promise for years and years to come.

Issues With DMD Friendship The Reality

I'm not surprised that there are scripted interactions. I honestly think the entirety of episode 5 is scripted, if not, orchestrated by the staff to happen.

They revealed quite a lot about it in DMD Friendship The Reality Last Ride, and it was kinda funny, because they weren't even hiding it.

Some of the confirmed orchestrated moments in DMD Friendship The Reality:

Teetee and Kong's conversation in the rooftop. The conversation (probably) was not scripted, but the location and the timing was decided by the staff.

Thomas' "jealous" reaction to Teetee calling Kong. Thomas admitted that he was curious, but the staff told him to act a certain way. He thought it was funny that it made him look mad.

Tle interrupting Latte and FirstOne's conversation.

Keng and Namping talking about being each other's partners by the pool.

Scenes that I think are either orchestrated or scripted, but not confirmed:

Teetee and Thomas talking about Kong.

Thomas and Kong talking about being each other's partners on a random deck. However, I don't think the polaroid joke was scripted, because that's something only Thomas can think of.

Thomas and Kong's exchange after the red string journey. The blockings and the "From now on, please, take care of me, Mr. Kongpob," "Please, take care of me, too, Mr. Teetut," felt too unnatural. Plus, Kong was obviously acting.

I also heard a rumor about KengNamping and ThomasKong being fixed from the very beginning, and that the show was made to make them sell, but I'm not entirely convinced. I just think it's a waste of time and money for DMD to conceptualize and create a whole reality show for that purpose. However, it's also not far-fetched. After all, both couple won Best Couple Award, because they apparently tied.

Anyway, In Conclusion..

I really enjoyed DMD Friendship The Reality. I think it did a great job at fostering healthy bonds between colleagues, and developing DMD artists in several departments. It also did a great job at presenting male friendship as something that shouldn't fear closeness and vulnerability. I enjoyed watching a bunch of friends go on dinner dates after missions, and share beds without being scared of it seeming inappropriate.

As an aroace person, I adore the exploration of profound connections between ThomasKong and KengNamping. Actors in partnerships like this got to be my favorite queerplatonic relationships.

[littlesparklight]

The way that, when it comes to the Judgement itself, what the ancient Greek writers were saying Paris did wrong isn't that he chose the objectively wrong goddess. For the first, it's of course that he was bribed (let's ignore that he did not ask for anything and each goddess on their own offers a gift; choosing a goddess then becomes choosing a bribe/gift).

For the second; there is in fact a couple sources that, in arguing that the very idea of the Judgement is silly, basically points out that the other two goddesses wouldn't have competed with Aphrodite in beauty [because they wouldn't care/she is the objectively correct winner in such a contest].

It's not even that he chooses wrong because another option would definitely not lead to Troy destroyed and so many people dead.

(Which it would. Hera's gift assures the destruction of Troy's royal house, at the least, and Athena's with war... well. People die in war. Cities get attacked and sacked in war. Why would Troy be spared?)

It's that Paris chooses the unmanly option.

As a man, he shouldn't prioritize a relationship/marriage, and certainly not sex; that shows a lack of (manly) self-control over his body and urges. As a man, he should want/should be dedicating himself either to war or kingship, among the gifts/bribes the goddesses offer. As a man, it doesn't matter that not choosing Aphrodite c/would be objectively wrong; by what they offer only either Athena or Hera are the "right" options in the view of Ancient Greek social mores.

The goddesses' individual beauty does not matter in terms of "correctness" of Paris' choice.

That Troy (and others) are equally doomed no matter which goddess chosen doesn't matter in terms of "correctness" of Paris' choice.

The only thing that matters (again, aside from complaints of judicial corruption when the judge also cannot refuse the gifts involved), is that Paris confers the prize to the goddess offering him the unmanly gift/life option/what have you.

Like Blondell phrases it, Paris' affirms who/what he already is (effeminate) by choosing who he will henceforth be (sex/love-oriented, that is, effeminate) though awarding Aphrodite the apple.

[balioc]

BALIOC'S READING LIST, 2024 EDITION

This list counts only published books, consumed in published-book format, that I read for the first time and finished. No rereads, nothing abandoned halfway through, no Internet detritus of any kind, etc. Also no children’s picture books.

(There were still so many children's picture books.)

(I've relaxed my standards a bit for this year. I've counted two graphic novels, and one text so short that it's basically just an illustrated short story. This doesn't particularly feel like cheating, and it doesn't seem to be lowering my standards generally. Next year, I may decide to count texts read on the Internet, so long as they're genuinely substantive in some way; we'll see.)

The Pilgrim of Hate, Ellis Peters

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, Amanda H. Podany

An Excellent Mystery, Ellis Peters

Moon Dark Smile, Tessa Gratton

The Raven in the Foregate, Ellis Peters

Demon Daughter, Lois McMaster Bujold

The Rose Rent, Ellis Peters

Bea Wolf, Zach Weinersmith

The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandasekera

The Hermit of Eyton Forest, Ellis Peters

Warlock, Oakley Hall

The Confession of Brother Haluin, Ellis Peters

The Heretic's Apprentice, Ellis Peters

Of Ghosts and Goblins, Lafcadio Hearn

The Potter's Field, Ellis Peters

Golden Hill, Francis Spufford

The Summer of the Danes, Ellis Peters

The Holy Thief, Ellis Peters

Ducks: Two Years In the Oil Sands, Kate Beaton

The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett

Brother Cadfael's Penance, Ellis Peters

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Brandon Sanderson

Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild

Emma, Jane Austen

Lyorn, Stephen Brust

Magus: The Art of Magic From Faustus to Agrippa, Anthony Grafton

The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett

Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, Bill Schutt

The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, Russell Hoban

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo

Unraveller, Frances Hardinge

Pilgermann, Russell Hoban

Breaking Hel, Miles Cameron

The Emperor's Sword, Christian Cameron

Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Törzs

Out of Tales: Or, January, Meg Moseman

Chinese Buddhism: A Thematic History, Chün-fang Yü

Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson

Intelligence: All That Matters, Stuart Ritchie

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Süskind

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee

Prince of the Godborn, Geraldine Harris

Children of the Wind, Geraldine Harris

The Dead Kingdom, Geraldine Harris

The Seventh Gate, Geraldine Harris

The Night Parade of 100 Demons, Marie Brennan

The Game of 100 Candles, Marie Brennan

The Market of 100 Fortunes, Marie Brennan

Aztecs: An Interpretation, Inga Clendinnen

Sand, Wolfgang Herrndorf

The Wood at Midwinter, Susanna Clarke

The Chains of the Earth, David Mealing

Plausible works of improving nonfiction consumed in 2024: 7

Balioc's Choice Award, Fiction Division: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Süskind

>>>> Honorable Mention: Warlock, Oakley Hall

Balioc's Choice Award, Nonfiction Division: Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, Amanda H. Podany

>>>> Honorable Mention: Chinese Buddhism: A Thematic History, Chün-fang Yü

The Celephaïs Award for Mythopoesy With Which I Would Have Been Absolutely Obsessed Had I Read It As a Teenager, and, Let's Be Honest, It's Not Like I'm Not Obsessed Now: the Seven Citadels books by Geraldine Harris [Prince of the Godborn, Children of the Wind, The Dead Kingdom, The Seventh Gate]

The Emerald Champion's Award for "I've Cared About This Setting Since I Was Twelve and This Story Can't Possibly Be Canon, Oh Shit, There Was a Total Reboot and Now You're One of the People In Charge of the Canon?!": Marie Brennan's L5R novels [Night Parade of 100 Demons, Game of 100 Candles, Market of 100 Fortunes]

The Pepsi-Cola Award for "We Have Brandon Sanderson At Home": the Ascension Cycle books by David Mealing [Chains of the Earth, plus two earlier books read in previous years]

The Dumott Schunard Award for Advanced Queerness In the Field of Metaphysics, No Seriously, You Did Not Know That Fantasy Worldbuilding Could Be So Fundamentally Queer: Moon Dark Smile by Tessa Gratton

The Glandeco-Angelinian Award for Real Goddamn Outsider Art Made By a Real Goddamn Outsider Artist Who Is Definitely Thinking Thoughts That Stretch Beyond Your Trifling Mundane World: Out of Tales: Or, January by Meg Moseman

**********

This year was a lot better than it looks. I swear.

...the numbers are real bad, I know. 52 is the absolute bottom edge of "respectable" for a year's total-books-read count, for me, and no fewer than 11 of those were part of the same silly historical-mystery series. 7 is well below the absolute bottom edge of "respectable" for the nonfiction count.

But, given how shamefully little reading there was overall, there was a surprising amount of serious high-quality stuff with lasting value. Chinese Buddhism, Aztecs, and Weavers, Scribes, and Kings are all exactly what I want nonfiction tomes to be: each one left me with a sense that I understood a particular chunk of the world much better than I had before. I think any one of those three probably caused me to feel more educated than some entire years' worth of nonfiction reading. And on the fiction front, there was just a lot of excellence. Books like Pilgermann and The Saint of Bright Doors are flawed but also possessed of genuine literary greatness. Books like Of Ghosts and Goblins and the Seven Citadels novels are light-weight, but light-weight in the way that a faerie-gossamer cloak is light-weight; they possess genuine beauty that moves them into the realm of the transcendent. Even the usual genre-fiction filler stuff had a lot of semiprecious gems.

I'm still alarmingly bad at getting any reading at all done when I'm working on a serious writing project. I should figure out what I can do about that. Possibly it's time to bite the bullet and start listening to audiobooks when I drive.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina, I have a poll idea that I'd like to share, so maybe you can make it if you think it'd be interesting!

So I was thinking a "how I joined the fandom" poll (all of these apply to both the band and any of the boys' solo stuff, except ofc the xfactor and larry one), with choices like

• saw them on xfactor

• heard their music on the radio/any streaming app and liked their music

• heard of them from a friend/acquaintance and were curious

• saw their photograph in a newspaper/article etc and found them attractive

• read an article/interview about/with them and they seemed interesting/likable

• saw them in an interview /concert video and they seemed fun people

• saw larry videos and were intrigued/wanted to learn about the theories/ shipped them

• other (please specify in the tags)

It'd basically show what drew fans in: their looks, their music, dynamic, personalities, relationships etc etc.

I'm personally super curious to know everyone's answers so I hope you wouldn't mind doing this Gina! If you can think of any other answers feel free to add to, or rephrase any of the choices!

Oh, that’s a fun idea.

Please reblog to get a broader response.

[thoughtfulchaos773]

The Bear Season 3 & Meta Filmmaking II

with the opinions & work of William Friedkin

This is who Richie is this season.

Here is Part I on meta filmmaking, where we discuss the first branch of the film legacy: Hitchcock, who inspires the meta filmmaking choice this season and self-reflexivity- the director surrogate, Richie.

Richie, as director surrogate, guides us through dialogue inspired by William Friedkin.

The part of the legacy Storer took from Chicago native Friedkin was his passion for filmmaking and his opinion on the movies and the industry itself. Friedkin considered the Academy Awards as a fool's errand to pit art against art, and Richie's dialogue on The Star System for Restaurant highlights this.

Interestingly enough- did Storer tell his own prophecy? Before falling off Hollywood's grace, Friedkin came from a high of two highly acclaimed films (like The Bear's two highly acclaimed season), Friedkin was riding off a high from The French Connection and The Exorcist, but his third film received mixed reviews. I'm wondering if this season was Storer's big fuck you to the Hollywood System and Awards System.

Another note: Hitchcock's Vertigo received mixed reviews from critics but now is referenced in filmmaking legacies.

We haven't seen Storer give any awards speech, have we? Calo has shown up, but no Storer.

Legacy not only comes from the work but also comes from the opinions of those before you.

For Friedkin's work- it can be taken as part of the legacy and why most of us here are seeing all sorts of horror inspiration this season.

The Hitchcock-Friedkin legacy.

Fun fact: William Friedkin's Exorcist- well, exorcist steps- where the priest falls to the death were informally called "Hitchcock steps"for famed suspense and horror film director Alfred Hitchcock. But is now referred to as The Exorcist Steps. Legacy!

If we go based on other legacies—based on William Friedkin's opinions of Hitchcock, he inspired the editing of Friedkin and his understanding of suspense, which influenced his movie-making skills for The Exorcist. @moodyeucalyptus explained they see parts of Mike Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House as we discuss the hauntings of this season. How is Mike Flanagan part of the Friedkin Legacy? He was inspired by the workings of the exorcist and is now part of the new remake.

Another horror inspiration: Now how is Friedkin related to another horror legacy that @espumado wrote a meta on this week?

The exorcist legacy comes from the Night of the Hunter legacy.

Carmy: Like, um, something would start somewhere, and then, uh, people would take that thing and then they would take it somewhere else. So, all these parts of an original restaurant would end up at a new restaurant, and that kind of thing. That would happen over and over again. And then all these parts of all these restaurants, they would sort of…You know, they would find each other. And then new people would take those parts and put ’em into their restaurant. And the whole thing, it would, um… It would start to happen all over again.

This is all about legacies and meta on where Chris gets his parts.

But how does this relate to Sydney and Carmy?

As we talked about before, Richie is observing. Friedkin, whose legacy comes from Hitchcock, believed Hitchcock was Observational in his directing. Richie the character included himself in the narrative but the one narrative he stayed out of and only observed this season was Sydney and Carmy.

Richie is the director's surrogate, who highlights and explains the basics of why Carmy is the way he is—not who Carmy himself thinks he is but what the audience can take from Carmy's self-sabotage.

The story we are observing is correct. This dynamic between Syd and Carmy is worth examining because it is a central part of the story and a big aspect of the filmmaking process.

I'd say it's proof! Richie is telling us our eyes are not deceiving us; the dynamic is interesting.

As an audience, we subconsciously absorb the cinematography, music, direction, and dialogue, taking cues on the story being told and its inspirations. Another ledge that can show us that their synergy is legit its filmmaking technique in editing.

Friedkin-Scorsese-Hitchcock favorite part of filmmaking is the editing. Scorsese is the best example of this, and I'll explain his legacy in editing in the next part and why that relates to sydcarmy.

Read:

Hitchcock and His Use of Surrogates

Ancestors and The Bear by @whenmemorydies

Richie and The Viewer by @whenmemorydies

Natalie & Night of the Hunter by @espumado

The Bear Season 3 & The Mirror @currymanganese

Richie's Journey is not Over @currymanganese

The Paradigm Shift @brokenwinebox

Taglist: @yannaryartside @whenmemorydies @ago0112 @chaoswillcalmusdown @ambeauty @anxietycroissant @turbulenthandholding @tvfantic87