#it's okay to cry if you're sad

[sirfrogsworth]

Froggie Gets a Ring Light

I got a ring light to help demonstrate why people probably shouldn't get a ring light and then I accidentally took some bomb ass photos with a ring light.

Soooo... do what you want. I'm not your mom.

[ringosmistress]

Happy Birthday, dear John

[thegreatyin]

ive officially entered the stage of OC brainrot where i start putting him in outfits for fun and (zero) profit

[bucky-obsessed]

My poor Bucky

[dazais-guardian-angel]

With today's entry, I was rather surprised and confused that Johnathan seemed to turn around so quickly from the absolute pit of despair he was in yesterday, having newfound determination and energy when he's seemingly been completely hopeless and inactive for weeks now (and for good reason). Not that I ever thought he'd completely given up, but there's definitely been a slow decline in how descriptive his journal entries have been to reflect his declining mental state (more robotic, less of his actual feelings about things), and today was a sharp contrast; it feels more like the early entries again. I thought, well, his mind is probably just so cracked at this point that he's looped all the way back around to being bold and energetic again, because by now he's desperate enough to throw caution to the wind: he either succeeds doing something extremely reckless to escape, or he fails and meets his end in a far better way than if he just waits for his fate by Dracula's hands.

...But having thought about it and reading other posts, I realized (probably stupidly obvious as it is) that his sudden change in mood probably has to do with what happened to the baby. Despite how scared he's been all this time, yesterday he didn't hesitate for a single second to try to save the baby once he realized from the previous incident what was happening, not thinking about his own life at all. And then he despaired when he couldn't save the child, the first time he's mentioned crying in the book at all, and then he had to witness the mother blaming him for her baby's death, and being killed herself for trying to rescue it. Now, the day after that horrific and heartbreaking failure, he's suddenly more determined than he's been in ages to escape. Maybe that was a turning point for Johnathan, and lit a fire under him... maybe he's clinging to the need to escape not just for himself and the people he loves anymore, but for the vain hope that he can put a stop to Dracula's schemes somehow once he gets out, because he doesn't want to let any more children die :' )

[deoidesign]

.

[secriden]

@boygirlcrisis, I hope you don't mind, but I suddenly remembered your SIMM liveblog post about episode 5 and remembered I intended to respond a while back and forgot. So I hope it's okay that I'm shamelessly using this to distract myself from the pain that is THK by talking about my darling comfort pair, KluenDao.

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theyre not very good at communicating are they. but depending on how old they are (im not sure?) i cant really blame them.

They're both first year university students, so they're both 18. I hardcore agree that it makes a ton of sense that they're bad at communicating at this age. They're still more boys then adults and moreover had one single interaction and then didn't see each other again until the start of the series. You really get the sense that half their journey was just figuring out how to actually TALK to each other (and jsyk this totally gets paid off by the end of the series!!!! TwT)

its realistic, ive done similar things before, -its very often that two people misuderstand each other and drag things out even when theyre actually on the same page

This right here is one of my favourite things about the misunderstandings in SIMM -- as frustrating as they are, they're also incredibly believable and realistic and, most importantly, character driven.

Both Kluen and Dao are aware and acknowledge the reality of Dao's confession, but the problem is Kluen doesn't see his response as a rejection while Dao does. As a character, Kluen is incredibly straightforward, but simultaneously not very verbose, so his non-answer to Dao's confession was exactly that: not an answer. There is a certain logic to this understanding -- Dao even explicitly defines what a clear rejection is:

...which Kluen specifically did not do.

So when he hears Dao talk about the pain caused by his confession, Kluen doesn't understand that Dao is talking about a rejection. Instead, what he hears is "confessing caused me pain" and "loving you has hurt me". There are reasons why this is extremely significant in severely undermining any confidence Kluen has about pursuing Dao (which comes to light later in the series), but the point I'm trying to make here is Kluen takes this to mean something very devastating: that there is something fundamentally wrong with him (Kluen) such that loving him leads to pain and misery for Dao.

It doesn't help that he seems to have all these confirmations of how terrible he is for Dao, how he's not worthy of Dao. And if this is the truth, if Dao's feelings for Kluen is the source of Dao's misery and Dao wants to move on and wants to throw his feelings for Kluen away; if there is someone else who can step in and take away that pain, who won't cause Dao to cry -- what can Kluen do but apologise and let him go?

And oh, my poor darling he tries so hard to mean this. He wants Dao to be happy so, so badly and if all Dao needs - for whatever reason - is to have Kluen's blessing, Kluen is determined to give it to him.

And Kluen will rip his own heart to shreds if it means Dao gets the chance to forget about the hurt Kluen never even knew he was causing Dao. Kluen would break his own heart a thousand times rather than continue being the source of Dao's tears.

Only because Kluen and Dao are talking about the same thing but with wildly different nuances, it sounds to Dao like Kluen is saying that his feelings for Kluen don't matter. Like he's callously telling Dao to get over his feelings because they're just an inconvenience or annoying or stupid or a myriad of other things that make sense for Dao to think but Kluen absolutely does not mean.

And to Dao, this is a nightmare come to life. Because he never wanted his love to be a burden to Kluen, never even wanted Kluen to KNOW about his love for him. And definitely never meant to cause Kluen to feel so uncomfortable with Dao's love that he's begging Dao to move on. It's why Dao wanted to pretend like there was no history with Kluen at the beginning -- his feelings for Kluen were always something that was Dao's to treasure. Dao has made peace with his love for Kluen being unrequited as long as it's something he gets to keep in the secret, soft spaces of his heart.

So to be told by the very object of his affection to throw the tender feelings which he's spent so long carefully protecting and tucked away in his chest -- it was more than Dao could bear, which is why he lashes out the way he does.

And the night leaves both our boys brokenhearted but in a way I really adore, because this misunderstanding is completely and beautifully realistic and believable because of who these characters are and what they've been through.

But also it's precisely because of moments like these, and the journey they take to learn to communicate through them, that the love they share at the end of the series feels so beautifully and wonderfully earned.

[v4lta01]

Finished Loki...I got spoilers for how it ended but ugh- I cried.

So good but so sad!

I need some emotional recovery time! :(

[pa-pa-plasma]

i don't think i'll ever get over how people treat kids that aren't good in school as worthless no matter what. "oh it can't be that bad" my guy idk how to tell you this but the last time i went to a normal high school the principal called me into his office to brag about how he failed me in all of my classes before the semester was even finished & i should quit while i'm ahead cuz i'm too stupid ("officially" diagnosed as such by a school counselor & a psychiatrist!!) to succeed. & this is considered normal

[katierosefun]

oh there's something particularly painful about my mister in that dong hoon tells ji an that as long as no one knows, it's no big deal, and there's something particularly painful about how ji an tells dong hoon that sometimes, i want [my secret] to play out on big screens for everyone to see, and there's something particularly painful about how the second dong hoon meets the loan shark tormenting ji an, he starts screaming and yelling about how she's just a kid, how could you do that to a kid, and there's something particularly painful about how dong hoon doesn't even let ji an know he did that, but ji an knows. she knows because she was listening in the entire time and she just starts crying because someone actually knows this ugly, sad part of her and still took her side, and something particularly painful about how my mister started with as long as no one knows, it's no big deal but really concludes with there is so much risk in having someone know who you are but there's also so much comfort and peace to be found in that, too and maybe you shouldn't isolate yourself and maybe you should reach for that kind of comfort in being known and loved anyways

[girlivealwaysbean]

so sad for absolutely no reason

[baycitystygian]

guys. I'm freaking out I just had an Experience

[ghostzzy]

like the sadness is just not LEAVING

[stardust-moth]

looking at some takes on characters or relationships or scenes in which things happen between them and just thinking,

How in the hell are people interpreting it this way??? But then i step back and realize that the story or character in question is fundamentally and extraordinarily different from the average person's life experience and I go,

ah,

you guys just... don't have a deep enough understanding of trauma responses...

[mistylacrimosa]

Just watched Star Trek Nemesis, my devil i don't remember the ending hitting that hard!

[iamaverysadbanana]

Sad Banana's First Impressions: IF

It's just a silly kid movie, I foolishly thought. Something fun and light to watch while celebrating my birthday. What's the worst that could happen? Reader, I fucking cried. You think you're going to get a harmless children's film and instead you find a bittersweet meditation on the realities of growing up and losing your childhood innocence. I found myself touched by the themes of nurturing your inner child, even as you grow older. John Krasinski, you magnificent bastard, you have broken my heart. But I'm not letting Ryan Reynolds, Steve Carell, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge off the hook either. Overall, I found this movie to be surprisingly heartfelt with a strong thematic basis that I think most people can resonate with. I fully recommend watching this film once it hits digital.