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byemambo · 3 months ago

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4Minutes EP. 5 - My Takeaways

I'm back! I hope everyone is doing well and recovering from what happened this episode. BIG WARNING: I hacked the system (while happily creating more work for myself /lh) and made my own photo layouts to maximize the 30 image cap so I'm not sure how long this post will be but at least it's reference heavy!

The full analysis is under the cut to not spoil it for those who haven't watched yet :O

We start the episode off with Title's downfall and now in the hands of Tonkla, drawing connections in the supposed timeline dependent on whether Dome is dead or alive. Since the main story has funneled its way in solidifying the passing of Dome, we now are given the opportunity to watch Tonkla's revenge plot play out. My main question is wondering what Win will do once he is confronted with Tonkla, either through initiating that interrogation himself or look out for signs and gather evidence since they're now living together. But this is only if Win chooses his morals over his own vices, which will be one of the main points I wanted to cover today :)

Confrontation vs. Compliance: The Return to Ethics

As we've seen in the released episodes, there has been a wide range of how Tyme and Great approach life and its circumstances. Although both of them are introverted in nature, we can see their differences most through Tyme's guarded personality marked with tactical execution side by side with Great's impulsivity and kind hearted nature bursting with a strong sense of duty and justice. Tyme's pivotal life circumstances caused him to become detached and absentminded in his every day living, only giving his true self away to his grandmother and holding the strongest bond with her. Great on the other hand, entered the main family circle once Korn's mother passed and Great's mother, the mistress, elevated in status to be alongside both the son's father. In a sense, one person grew up with power handed to him and the other with power taken away from him, which really highlights how both of them interpret the world around them and interact with it.

Great is confronted with his most pivotal decision thus far, really putting himself to the test in challenging his passive nature for action: helping in seeking justice and accountability against his own family's corruption, which he is still wrapping his mind around since he's been told of how they affected Tyme's family along with others like Nan. I find this in contrast to the Great we first met in episode 1 to be so striking considering that the "old" Great was reckless and seemed to have little regard for his family, specifically his father, and now having to ponder on the ultimatum Tyme presents: confrontation or compliance.

Growing up in a Western culture with individualistic views in contrast to my ethnicity's Eastern culture with collectivist views, relationship with family is strong but in its respective ways. Individualism evokes a person to ground their reality in themselves and those who are an extension to them, such as immediate family members. These cultures value autonomy, personal responsibility and rarely fall to ostracization or becoming a scapegoat.

Collectivism finds strength in the prioritization of group effort and maintenance, valuing cooperation and collaboration, but easily gives into sacrificing autonomy for the sake of the group's overall success. We find such values in families who thrive off of power and exploitation, living in a "dog eat dog world." In a dynamic that feeds off of manipulation and utilizing violent or illegal methods to gain access to capital gain and status, many of these families, intentionally or by force, follow in blind faith that the head of the household dedicate themselves to these means for the sake of the family's survival, discouraging conflict and divergence within the system. Because this family involved themselves in high risk activity, tensions between them and other rivaling families and even within the family itself is kept under wraps until it's impossible to avoid.

This boiling point is best highlighted once Great begins to solidify his moral stance, which to his family interprets these actions as defiance and causes impatience and true colors to show through. Great's father uses deliberate language when his temper gets the best of him, willing to disregard familial love and affection for potential financial gain while throwing his own children under the bus after they've displayed no use to him.

Great's father has always operated on the basis of investment (he is a business man after all), which translates aspects of his life in terms of assets that have their various levels of worth and value in relation to himself and his own personal gain. Once he realizes that Great's behavior isn't simply another car accident scandal or frenzy that'll cause an uproar in the media and taint the family's reputation, he prepares himself for a point-of-no-return, already shoving aside his son and his mother and baring no relationship to them. "Get that son of yours," disconnecting himself at the point of realizing there is a chance of failure if he continues investing in this part of his family, that Great's behavior is not of his own son, a son like Korn who has set himself up for a life deeply rooted in submission. Korn represents compliance, Great represents confrontation, which reaches its peak once Samarn reveals information about Nan and her escape without Korn's permission.

Not having enough time to process and sort out his thoughts about the whole ordeal, Korn wishes to speak to Great before meeting their father, ending in Great's veil being pulled back to reveal his family's true nature.

Korn follows the footsteps of his father, falling under the guise of filial piety and familial responsibility. I spoke more on Korn's character traits in my episode 4 analysis, which has become oppressive and unyielding as he finds himself deeper and deeper in keeping the business from falling apart as it seems to be on its last leg.

I find that because Korn has witnessed the vast amount of violence and crime within this organization, he'd rather sacrifice himself to keep Great away from his eventual fate in also participating in the business. Rather than choice, it has become an obligation that has slowly consumed him whole to a point of not being able to shield his brother any longer from the main threat: their father.

Grief: A Shared Experience

Throughout the episodes, we've seen Korn beaten down by his father on almost every occasion he occupied the same room as him, to which he throws the bait by disclosing Great's involvement in Nan's escape and is instantly confronted by Great's mother defending her son. Living under a close eye by his father for most of his life, we're starting to see Korn enter a period of grief for himself and his life circumstances.

Denial when he found out Great helped Nan escape, anger when Great was defended by his mother to which his father defends her and leaving him with no one by his side (who used to be Tonkla), bargaining when Fasai proposes her offer to help him out of this situation on her own terms: marry her and stop seeing Tonkla, who was nothing more than a toy.

Depression when Korn identifies with his learned helplessness, that no matter what decision he makes, it's nothing but an illusion and he will ultimately give up something he loves. Acceptance when he agrees with her terms, and we witness a part of him that dies, the part which was dignified, ambitious, respectable and has become dishonorable, insecure, shameful. That person is no longer there, accepting his fate and making amends with his crossroad.

In contrast, we witness Great undergoing the same grieving process, but instead of grieving for the person he once was, he grieves for the family he once knew. The family who is loved and hated by many, the family who endured the death of a loved one, the family who carries enough influence within the industry that a few stories revealed by families suffering in the hands of their involvement will only make a mere dent in their reputation: this status and footing in their society means nothing to Great if the means in which all their wealth and resources caused irreparable damage to other families, to families like Tyme's.

Denial when his father refuses to accept responsibility for their family's corruption that has deeply impacted the lives of others. Anger once his finally meets eye to eye with his father and finalizes his estrangement from him.

Bargaining by his mother, who is also deeply affected by their initial status in the family as the "mistress and her child," finding any way to salvage the dire situation that will impact their lives forever due to her husband's influence and methods.

Depression once he confronts his mother with the real questions that haven't been answered with any ounce of satisfaction: who is this all for exactly? What is exactly best for me? Why does my voice not matter? Why do I not have a choice? Why am I being shamed and blamed? What are we even doing? Who exactly are we?

Acceptance once Great mourns for a brief moment that in order to save himself, he must make the painstaking decision to abandon his family, including his own mother. This sequence along with her desperate cries got to me, the pain a mother experiences when losing her child. Not only have they lost Korn, they too, lost Great. However, rather than sacrificing himself for his own self interest, he chooses to sacrifice himself to be with the one he loves, the one that he carries an indescribable pit in the stomach levels of guilt for, as his family has directly caused a lifetime of pain and suffering.

A cardiac arrest ensues once Great sees the guy with the gun in attempt to harm his mother, sending him back and he still chooses to sacrifice himself for another person he loves, this time his own mother.

We are blessed with an authentic depiction of unconditional love from both ends: Great telling his mother to run away, his mother remaining by her son's side, Great biding his possible last I love you, experiencing a different reality of acceptance. His mother willing to die right beside her son and allowing herself to take the bullet, she too, had experienced her own grieving process. Denial that her son has supposedly helped in Nan's escape that caused the scandal leak, which will possibly affect their family's reputation, anger and bargaining by conducting any possible attempt to bring Great back to apologize to his father and keep the position she had worked hard to attain in this life, depression once she realizes that her son is leaving for good and there's nothing she could do to stop him, and finally, acceptance in her own fate to die, as long as she can die alongside her son, the only person she has ever loved unconditionally.

We also arrive back to Tyme with his grandmother, renting their home and hiding out at a relative's house for the time being and wearing the exact outfit worn in the intro of episode 1.

Episode 5

Episode 1

Now entering the possible point-of-no-return at high stakes, we've arrived back to the beginning of the story, in which the person in need of CPR and medical attention in episode 1 is Great. This "full circle moment" is also visually present in the series's b-roll: all of these objects are spinning or being circled counterclockwise, as if time has reverted itself back to stage one. Even the camera rotation while Tyme is running to the hospital is rotating counterclockwise, that in this timeline, Tyme has the opportunity to rewrite his own history, a history that will reunite him with the one he loves, the one who's just as willing to sacrifice himself in order to protect each other. The one who both exchanged mutual reasons to choose life as an active participant, and became each other's reason that makes life worth living for.

We are the ones who are capable of changing our fate: it's all within our grasp, it's all within the confines of our hearts, it's all within our reach, it's all worth fighting for.

Honorable Mention: Jes in All Shades

Every day, I'm becoming more and more enamored by this gentleman. To think Jes is a household name who took the chance to venture outside of what he's always known as a means to try something new and challenge himself, to think that Bible has found his match who's into all the same things as him, who becomes observant of others whenever Bible speaks to make sure they're actively listening, to be so humble when people mention his accolades in so many areas that he's dedicated himself to (acting, music, sports, hobbies, etc), to be so endearing with such a fun and bright personality that is just the right temperature that compliments Bible well, to be so kind in taking care of him as the more experienced of the two, to be such an amazing person inside out that you can't help but want to scream off the rooftops for the world to discover such an incredibly hardworking individual whose goal for this particular series is to bring something new to the Thai entertainment industry, to become a trailblazer and take it upon himself as well as the 4M cast and crew to break out of the mold that's been complacent and safe, to be the best person for this role that I can't see anyone fulfilling it. Thank you so much for being a part of this project and bringing so much life to Tyme, and bringing so much insight and enthusiasm for the rest of us that support BOC series. <3

And we made it to the end WHEW. Totally wasn't fighting sleep trying to form coherent sentences before I sleep on it and forget literally everything

Quick shout out to everyone who's shown appreciation for these posts, that means the world to me and I love reading everyone else's thoughts :)

See y'all next week <3

#4 minutes #4minutes #4 minutes the series #bible wichapas #jes jespipat #bas asavapatr #natty nantanat #jesbible #thai bl #thai drama #thai series #bl series #mambo.4minyap #mambo.speaks

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wahgifs · 3 years ago

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F4 THAILAND EPISODE 1: THE FOOTPRINT OF METEOR

#lakornet #asiandramanet #f4 thailand #boys over flowers #thai drama #f4thailandedit #long post #10 gifs is overkill right lmao oh well!!!#it was over 1 hour long #and i loved it #they really amped up how sinister the bullying culture is #and how volatile thyme is #they are gonna have to work hard to rehabilitate him because rn he is despicable!!!#it's only ep 1 but the contrast between family dynamics #says a lot about who they are #it's goes without saying but I LOVE GORYA #also there has been so much negativity which i understand but no one is excusing the behaviour #we don't know how this version will go #definitely seems more sincere

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absolutebl · 2 years ago

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Until We Meet Again

This is going to be a watch along starting in Oct 2022, right before Between Us (the spin off) airs. But since I have never done a proper analysis or review of UWMA, I'll start with that.

Until We Meet Again is a 2019 Thai BL from Studio Wabi Sabi directed by New Siwaj.

It is an adaptation of the y-novel The Red Thread by LazySheep. I watched shortly after it aired in late 2019. You can currently (still) watch it on YouTube. Trigger warning.

Quick Pitch

UWMA is, without question, a work of narrative genius with a powerful and cohesive romantic backbone and stellar performances. It is (to date) the only Thai BL (of c.170 watched) that I’ve rated a 10/10 predominantly on the basis of story structure. That said, it is also very well cast (and it’s a BIG cast), with solid production values, and enduring pair branding as well as being the best Thai BL from a storytelling perspective. It is one of my favorite BLs of all time and I have probably rewatched at least some parts of it over 20x.

Narrative Frameworks

UWMA is long for a Thai BL at 17 ep of c.45 min of fresh content which means it comes in at around 13 hours total. It’s tropes include fated mates (or soulmates), past love/tragedy, sins of the fathers, and family drama. It has a strong seme/uke structure and multiple couples (both hallmarks of Thai BL). Leads are grumpy/sunshine pairings, with a side dish of sunshine/tsundere. It’s medium heat but still rather sweet, because while all couples are followed into the bedroom, there’s a very strong emotional chemistry component that renders the physical chemistry somewhat background to the pure love connection driving the relationships. As a series, it is paced well, but is perhaps not the best one to binge watch. To me it feels like a show that needs room to breathe.

The production values are high but workmanlike. There are some flaws in sound, wardrobe, makeup, and repeated establishing shots. But the crew and cast were clearly bigger and better funded than any Thai BL production since. I would hazard a guess that this was one of Thailands most expensive BLs (with the possible exception of KinnPorsche).

Thai Language Corner

From a Thai linguistics perspective it’s pretty standard for a college set BL. I do use both DeamPharm and WinTeam as examples when talking about basic and more complicated linguistic couple dynamics (more here). OhmFluke, however, are a bit more interesting IRL.

New uses staggered couple framing, central aperture faming, peekaboo framing, and lighting to contrast the secretive and doomed nature of the past relationship against the attempted recovery and reformation of the modern day. He paid very little attention to manga style or BL’s yaoi roots, possibly because his style as a director is evidently not at all influenced by it.

This show stars Fluke Natouch as Pharm [reincarnated In] and Ohm Thitiwat as Dean [reincarnated Korn] AKA OhmFluke. They are a branded pair who since UWMA have done Close Friend 1 & 2, and Oh My Sunshine Night and have more BLs scheduled for 2023.

It also stars Earth Katsamonnat (AKA Smol Earth or CooHeart) as Intouch or In [Pharm’s past self] and Kao Noppakao as Korn [Dean's past self]. Earth has gone on to co-brand as SantaEarth starring in 7 Project and My Only 12%. He had acted in several BL shows prior to UWMA, although Fluke would have been the most experienced lead actor on that set. Kao would go on to star in Lovely Writer. Both Fluke and Earth are openly gay and were out at time of filming and promotion.

The support couple (or side dish) featured Prem Warut as Team [Pharm's best friend] and Boun Noppanut as Win [Dean's best friend]. BounPrem are strongly cobranded and have since co-lead 7 Project, Even Sun, Long Kong, and guest-coupled in Cutie Pie and You Never Eat Alone. They will anchor Between Us the spin off of UWMA (an adaptation of Hemp Rope) reprising their roles of Win and Team. In UWMA their couple has relatively little screen time but they absolutely stole fan attention and adoration.

UWMA also featured Samantha Coates (AKA Sammy) as Manow [Pharm's best friend] and Pineare Pannin as Del [Dean's sister]. Sammy is a staple of many BLs, being an active member of Wabi Sabi’s stable. Del is best known for playing Yuri in 2014′s Love Sick, Thailand’s first big hit BL. These two starred together in Wabi Sabi’s only GL (part of 7 Project.) (Don’t bother, it’s still all about the boy.)

I am telling you all this up front because I will make mistakes and refer to everyone by their character or actor name all the time. Sorry. Also I want you to know how biased I am.

I LOVE this show.

And now....

the watch along.

Episode 1 - Oh, I Forgot...

It has probably been about a year since I did a rewatch of UWMA. And I think I’ve only ever watched the first installment of the first episode one time through. I didn’t forget how dark it was, but I am reminded why I always say ‘original trigger warning” on UWMA.

I can see why I like to the show from the start, because it does open on a crying kiss. I am an absolute sucker for a crying kiss. This time around, I noticed the intrusiveness of the music a lot more, especially in KornIn’s stuff.

Earth turns in a killer opening performance (in the great cry off between him and Fluke that is this show). In that moment before he picks up the gun, Earth almost does look like Fluke will later on. It’s a really interesting bit of facial performance and acting.

I got to say, barring some of the darker Japanese BL, this is probably the most powerful opening sequence we’ve gotten in the genre. Honestly, if this show we’re being released right now I don’t think it would’ve had this opening. They would’ve kept the trigger, but it would’ve appeared more chronologically towards the end.

Is this a pleasant way to start a BL? No.

Is it powerful? Yep.

Manaow and Del are still 2 of my favorites. We were robbed with their GL.

Oh my God Prem looks like such a baby.

I like that there are these extra bits with extra characters in UWMA, like in the cooking club. We don’t get a vast ensemble casts like this anymore. Not even from Thailand, not with this attention to detail. I kind of miss it. The little extra bits set in different parts of the university, they remind me a bit of origin yaoi.

Honestly Fluke is one of the best blushing maidens to ever blush. It’s still not my favorite archetype but he does do it beautifully. The part where Team jokingly says he’ll protect his two friends, is pretty telling actually. Since he’s going to have to step up to the plate later and try against and older boy. I do adore this friendship group. In the end, perhaps Pete & Kao’s friends (Kiss series) beat them out slightly. But not by very much.

And the set up for the whole show:

I will keep searching until I find you.

30 years later...

(You know, when I was first watching this show I always called it Until You Again, in my head.)

I wonder how hard it was for Fluke to cry on command like that, all the time. Here watch this AMAZING FMV of Fluke and Gun (Theory of Love) having a cry off.

WinTeam and the towel in the locker room is still one of the best early couple moments ever.

The end of the first episode and we haven’t even had a proper meet cute. And yet the pacing feels. I think because the show opens so top-heavy with the deadly drama at the beginning of the episode.

Honestly, I forgot how sort elegant and well executed to show was. I’ve grown to no longer expect that from New. It just goes to show that he’s one of those directors that really excels and thrives when he has a very strong script.

Episode 2 - The High Beans!

I love this meet cute. LOVE IT. Can’t wait to watch it again. But first the library (not quite) assignation.

One of the best prevailing themes of UWMA is this idea that making food, and specifically Thai desserts, is meditative and important for the cook. But also that preparing food is about the love and affection that you sprinkle feelings into the dish like seasoning, so that people can taste it when they eat.

Note the only other guy in the cooking club? That’s Best Vittawin from Check Out and a bunch of other higher heat BL. Also some of you who are paying attention to the language might notice that Luk Choup is mentioned quite a bit. Yes that is the same name as the character in La Cuisine. It’s also the desert that In makes with his Maa, and that Pharm makes into special star shapes for Dean in Ep 3.

Honestly KaoEarth never much resonated with me, but on this rewatch I am liking them so much better than I ever have before. It that @heretherebedork ‘ss influence? Possibly. I think it’s also because of both My Only 12% (which is making me like Earth more as an actor) and Lovely Writer (which made me like Kao more).

One of my favorite character development threads in the show is Dean’s relationship with his siblings. I love how austere and cold he is at the beginning of the show. But how, after being with Parm for a while, he mellows around Don & Del. It is Pharm who brings a family to Dean in the end.

The note passing in the secret smiles and the spitting of the orange juice remains very cute.

I am quietly obsessed, well not quietly (because I’ve never quiet), about Dean with his hand in his pocket.

Honestly, the only time Dean takes his hand out of his pocket is to touch Pharm.

And there it is, FINALLY, the mung bean meat cute!

Best ever.

This is such a GREAT romance.

Pharm starts to cry and Dean immediately touches his face. There is a reason I call Dean the most handsy seme in BL. He is pretty much never not touching Pharm from this moment on. It’s glorious (and very unlike KBL and JBL).

And you can see him look at his own hand and surprise, because he is clearly not a touchy-feely person. But being then he just accepts this about himself and will do everything he can to be close to Pharm from here on out.

I love how New does this dirty screen peekaboo shot on DeanPharm right before he cuts back and forth to KornIn, it’s like framing foreshadow since normally this style of short is used with KornIn so highlight the secrecy of their relationship.

Episode 3 - Wabi Sabi Shows Off The Stable

I just realized one of In’s friends (played by Title Tanatorn) is also in Remember Me and My Only 12% airing right now. Boy needs a series. He v cute. Also “HI DR SING!” (Sorry, due to Triage, Tonnam will always be Dr Sing. Although he is also a side character in LITA right now. Honestly my brain is becoming an MDL for Thai actors in BLs. Of course, Perth is great in this role, a foreshadow for all the crying he’ll do in LBC2. I am sorry we never got to meet his character older. It would’ve been nice for him to have gotten closure with the Pharm as reincarnated In. I wonder if his character got to meat Pharm did in the book?

And Win’s Patented move the casual arm throw. Honestly, Win gets all of the best lines in this show. No wonder we all like him so much. I hope he stays a witty and snarky in Between Us.

I have to say, Dean’s soft voice is one of the best in the biz, thank you Ohm. Almost as good as Solo’s (Oxygen).

And so Dean learns about Pharm’s panic attacks and the after effects that his past self’s actions have wrought on the person he loved the most. And he reacts in the most seme way possible. Honestly he is such a poster child seme in this series.

Also he flirts.

In a VERY Dean fashion.

Dean: I’m still single.

Pharm: I am single too.

Dean: Not for long.

This is the show where I first learned that in Thailand do you say “bur” when you want someone’s digits. This makes me unreasonably happy.

Meanwhile back in the past selves, In is so brave. The worst consequence of the tragedy that lead to their reincarnation is that his future self is so timid and afraid because of what was done to In in the past. It’s really the only reason I forgive Pharm’s blushing maiden actions. I think of that fact of his personality as somewhat dictated by the past, much like his panic attacks.

The bit where Pharm is serving Dean breakfast in his condo for the first time and he puts out a carafe of water and there are little flowers floating in it? What are those flowers?

Meanwhile, he way Dean fixes Pharm’s hair and tie and then Phram misspeaks “gin” gets me every time. Although I gotta say if a boy cried like that every time he met me, I’d probably have backed off my now.

Episode 4 - Bisexual Rep & Stereotyping. Are we happy or sad?

Does one get pleased to see bisexual rep or annoyed by the stereotyping? At the time, because it was so rare in BL (still is, actually), I was pleased. But now with Mame busting in on the bi/pan=predatory slut trope regularly I’m just annoyed.

P’Alex (Mean in his best role, fight me Tin stans) as a sleazy bi actor won over by food. Honestly? Been there done that, been that done there, and fucked that. Oo, I’m three for three!

OK so in LITA when Payu says/implies that he wants Rain to talk like a good boy, really he wants him to talk the way Pharm does to Dean (all the time). Pharm is so bloody polite.

So cute that Dean won’t allow Pharm to be jealous for one second. Dean has no interest in playing any of the normal BL games. These two are fated, gay, and into each other and he has no interest in pretending otherwise. Oh he will tease his uke like a proper seme, but only because Pharm lacks faith in Dean’s constancy.

The scene with Pharm and the girls carving the dumplings is one of my favorites. It’s so cute the way Manaow teases Pharm with Del’s sibling connection. Also it’s really sweet the way that Pharm instantly understands the complexities of Dean’s familial relationships, and immediately sets out to heal them.

Win and Dean racing.

Look, competition is how 2 semes show their love for each other.

And then the most famous scene in a BL that’s full of famous scenes.

Does anyone one in BL execute the feeding trope better? I think not. And if you can name one, leave a comment and make a case for it.

In addition to having one of the best soft commanding voices in Thai BL, Ohm has got to have one of the best side eyes as well.

I love that Del is already protective of her brother’s boyfriend.

Happy clap hands we get the first date and the penguin walk next!

Episode 5 - The Ping-guine Walk!

I would like to stress from this moment on that we, the collective BLers, do not talk about Dean’s driving in this show. Or we did at the time, but that time has passed. Just ignore, okay? Cause it cray cray.

Del cooking for her brothers is so cute. Also the way she gently teases Dean about Pharm. Love her!

And now the first date.

The bus trip so Make it Right. Just FYI Thailand and Korea LOVE a bus trip in romance (BL or otherwise). They tend to do it the most. Japan has done it a few times too. But the others not so much.

Also sharing earbuds = MIR again.

I do love P’Sorn.

Yes, that’s Na from Kinnporseche but we knew him when (also forthcoming Wish Me Luck).

I love the aquarium visit.

Pharm doing the penguin walk.

Dean’s expression when Pharm does a penguin walk.

Dean secretly taking photographs of his cutie. It’s just wonderful. Pharm is so bouncy and cute and Dean is so soft and indulgent. And it’s one of the few times where we get to see Pharm be a little bit more like In. Dean spends the whole time looking at Pharm rather than the fish. He’s so doting.

It’s so good.

The story about the sea ogress and what to do with a traitorous lover. Pharm’s response is actually typical uke, as possessive as seme are, it is usually the uke in yaoi & BL who ends up being the most fierce about ownership in a relationship. Because the uke has, in many ways, sacrificed part of their identity to the seme (in In’s case, all of it), their’s is the more powerful claim by right of sacrifice. It’s very old gods, ancient instincts.

Meanwhile there’s Dean always making his intentions crystal clear.

That hand hold.

But also...

No Dean, he doesn’t trust you, and for a very good reason.

And finally we have everybody’s least favorite character in UWMA: Ja’s wig.

There’s a wild speculation around this wig.

Perhaps he had just finished Ror Dor and had no hair? Or had just come back from serving in the military? No matter wha,t it’s totally unacceptable.

Thailand is never allowed to use wigs. It’s one of the sacred rules of BL. It’s a bummer because Sorn & Sin are fab minor characters. (They will rep for the “elder gay advice giver” archetype. One of my favorites.)

Episode 6 - The Read Thread Kiss

This rewatch I really feel a lot more for Korn than I ever did before. He really did try to warn In that it wasn’t a good idea for them to date, like he knew he wasn’t gonna be brave enough, even for love. But In is so relentless and so cute, who could resist?

Everyone eating lunch together and teasing each other and Del finally relaxing around Dean is one of my favorite little vignettes. Also, everybody laughing at Dean rgr “forgetting to swallow.” And my boys holding hands under the table. It’s glorious.

I also like how we get to see Dean reacting to the past negatively too, finally. And his siblings are so worried about him. This crack in his stoic armor.

I do love Pharm standing up to Alex before the play. And the fact that Del records it and sends it to Dean is just so good. Especially knowing what happens next.

The fated mates of the red thread.

Dean’s faculty cohorts are all such frat boy type dicks. I kinda love their sleazy mame-ish little ways.

Honestly there’s nothing carnal when these two kiss but it’s so beautifully romantic and soft.

I love love love the way Dean checks in on Pharm and tidies him up, afterwards. It’s so sweetly caring and careful.

And then the big realization about reincarnation over shabu shabu.

I gotta say, as a chronic rewatcher, this show stands up to a rewatch better than pretty much any other Thai BL I could name. Probably because it has so many character vignettes, and little moments of side affection between friends as well as lovers. There’s a lot of meat and sweetness to revisit.

Episode 7 - Possibly my Favorite Episode

The tiny snippet where Dean sees Pharm as In is actually one of the saddest bits of this whole show. It’s rough watching DeanPram figure everything out.

I do love the scene where Pharm meets Dean’s younger brother. Don tricks Dean into coming over, and everybody teases them.

I feel like every episode I say “this is one of my favorite scenes.” Which just goes to show why this is my favorite Thai BL ever.

Meanwhile, sitting on the couch crying, DeanPharm finally figure out that they promised to find each other and that they are both experiencing the same feelings of reincarnation. This particular exchange of gifts is so significant actually talk about it as an example in my blog post on the trope. Gift exchange is not a trope I love but it has a lot of meaning in this particular instance.

Public claiming of a relationship is one of my more favorite tropes on the other hand, which means the next scene where Dean has to run Alex off is just too good. When I talk about Thailand in the context of age dynamics as part of culture, I use the example of how hard it is for Team to protect Pharm under these circumstances - where he is fighting against Alex who is not only older but from a different department. It’s such an important insight into Team’s character, that he’s willing to stand against Alex even though the whole social structure is against him. Dean sweeping in and running Alex off is just so powerful as a result. Also I really love the way Dean is always touching Pharm and tidying/playing with his hair and clothes - it’s so proprietary and boyfriend. It also shows that Dean is never not thinking about him, his eyes are always on Pharm whenever they are together.

And this ep ends with WinTeam and the forehead kiss in the convenience store. Finally there’s some movement on their romance. This really is one of my favorite episodes.

Other Stuff Related to this Show

Why Until We Meet Again is special among Thai BLs

Thai Desserts in Until We Meet Again

BL With the Highest Chance of Breaking Into The West - Until We Meet Again (I wrote this before KinnPorsche)

Sex negativity as part of the seme/uke dynamic

Thai Food You Should Eat Because of BL

(source)

So I will try to updated this original doc as much as possible, but sometimes Tumblr just stops me from editing, in which case I have to repost and add. So I’ll be putting a rough date here, please don’t get mad if something is out of date and I can no longer fix it. October 2022.

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uselessheretic · 2 years ago

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idk how to explain this exactly, but ofmd is a very straight forward show while still being layered and full of additional information if you pay attention to the details. it doesn't purposefully obfuscate, but it does hold high rewatch value where the visuals esp inform the scene and lets you look into the characters thought processes.

not everything the characters say is the full truth, and there is unreliable narration and warped perspectives that we are supposed to dig deeper into. however, just because there can be unreliable narrators, doesn't mean everything that disagrees with your interpretation of a character can be chalked up to "the show says that, but it probably means this bc i think that makes more sense"

a good example is stede's perception of mary and his feelings of isolation. the first time we see stede flashback to his family, we see him distant from them where when he tries to join in on the conversation at the dinner table, he's silently shut down and ignored. if we went from this interaction alone, we would assume that mary dislikes stede and isolates him from his family. that means when stede questions if his family really thinks he's dead "or did mary report me dead out of spite" would have some traction.

but we aren't supposed to view this as 100% true and the show demonstrates that for us. it tips us off in the first episode where the ending shows an alternative family dynamic of him talking and laughing with his family. it draws a direct contrast where as an audience we have to question which of the two dinner scenes is the correct dynamic. we also can infer mary isolating stede is possibly not the complete truth when you rewatch the first dinner scene and see that nothing is spoken to stede directly. there's an exaggerated stare and pause to show that his family doesn't want him to be in the conversation, but if we look at the scene as possibly biased, we can see that if you change the length of pauses (something that can be easily warped in your memory of perspective) it's entirely possible to completely subvert the tone of the scene without adjusting any of the dialogue.

throughout the series we receive other cues that let us know that we can't trust stede's perspective on his family and mary especially. episode 4 shows their actual interactions but this time the camera doesn't exclusively favor stede. we see things that contradict the scenes in episode 1 where stede is actually the one who's more distant to mary. there's moments where he straight up ignores her, but we don't see the same from mary.

this eventually gets wrapped up in episode ten when we view the story through mary's perspective. we learn that she's actually a very empathetic figure with her own life and needs, but also one who genuinely wishes for stede's happiness. this realization isn't out of left field because the story took care to challenge the narrative we see from stede's perspective. this makes the difference between a good plot twist vs a bad one where rewatching the show from the beginning, we're able to pick up the clues throughout that leads up to that moment.

compare this with izzy's claim that he's been doing most of the work while ed's been slacking in ep 4. i would assume that almost everything izzy says in his little tantrum he throws at ed is true because the narrative doesn't give us anything to contradict this and shows us examples throughout the episode and series. the only thing i can think of that can be taken as a contradiction is "i have massaged this crew when they've questioned your judgment" because we see that his way of doing that is just yanking fang's beard. that isn't enough in my opinion to discredit him (and also i honestly think shows that he's not lying??) because what we see isn't that izzy lies, it's that he has a different idea of what "massage" means. but we do see a crew member doubt blackbeard and we see izzy immediately shut it down. we don't see fang go back to questioning blackbeard either, but complaining about izzy instead. so has the crew questioned blackbeard's judgment? yes. has izzy stopped that line of questioning? yes. is it a good way or sustainable? no which is why izzy's fucking rage quitting in the first place because he's tired of doing it! even izzy calling ed half insane doesn't contradict this because part of blackbeard's image is that he's half crazy because the blackbeard legend is built on fear.

like i said, i would guess almost everything izzy says in his rant is true because the show makes sure to demonstrate that the things he's complaining about are happening. we see ed have erratic mood swings. we see ed allow crew members to die because he wanted to save stede. we see ed act out in eccentric ways where we see that he has a purpose with a lot of it, but that this behavior isn't abnormal and isn't something izzy's making up. izzy's accusing ed of not shouldering his share of the weight for the last few years and we see this demonstrated throughout the episode where ed complains about always needing a plan and that he's tired of it. we also know this true because ed says so himself when he tells stede "i don't even need to be on the boat."

the episode continues doing all this without ever having us question izzy's legitimacy. it goes out of its way to confirm it actually by choosing to end the episode with ed talking to izzy. when izzy tries to apologize and take back the harshness, giving the narrative a chance to decide whether to doubt his earlier rant, it then confirms it as true with edward telling him "you were right. about all of it."

anyways i feel like this is all super fucking obvious and i'm dying about how this is even a debate of "is it true that izzy is overworked due to ed being depressed and burnt out?" when the show LITERALLY says "yeah it's true" and then provides you 30 mins worth of sources

#ofmd #ofmd meta #i guess #long post #im sorry this is killing me

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ultraericthered · 2 years ago

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Anime Update V2 21

Noragami Aragoto - After spending some downtime with the whole family dynamic of Yato and his friends, which is always something I love to see, we got a sharp contrast with Yato’s original family; his crazy sister (Nora) who sics maksed phantoms on him and abducts him to bring back to their father, who (we think) we don’t see in the episode, Nora has Yato kill a convict who’d killed someone's child.

Hunter x Hunter - Watched through the whole Zoldyck Family drama that caps off the Hunter Exam arc. Not much different between the two versions aside from some stuff added and subtracted, I think Canary was better developed in the 1999 anime but I liked the presentation of Killua’s parents better in the 2011 anime (especially with Michelle Ruff and Chris Tergliafera as their voices). And in both versions the lead family butler, Gotoh, was splendid in both versions. The sleight-of-hand game with the coin had my eyes glued to the screen the whole time. After getting Killua back, Leorio and Kurapika take their leave for real this time, headed off for York New City and agreeing to meet with Gon and Killua there on September 1. Until then, Gon and Killua are left to find the Hunter Exam’s true final trial.

Fruits Basket - It’s Valentines Day and White Day, back to back.

2001 - Kagura made her first return and oh my God, how is she this fucking precious in this? In the same episode, we abruptly end the Valentines Day stuff and go straight to White Day, where Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, and Momiji go stay at the Sohma Family-owned hot springs resort and we just get more filler shennanigans not from the manga.

2019 - Kagura’s return in this version brought back the painful “Kyo acts like he’s very afraid of Kagura and it’s played straight yet then Kagura’s rage and violence towards him is played for laughs “ shtick, but Kagura was surprisingly bearable to be with after that. Not only did we get the Valentines Day “double date” that the first anime left out, but it was part of an episode largely centered around Shigure and showing us glimpses at his more sinister nature, which is just not present in 2001 Shigure and puts things in a more serious tone so of course it got axed from the first anime. The following White Day hot springs visit reminded me of why 2019 Momiji’s German accent really makes the character come more alive compared to the 2001 version.

Also, that Tale of the Foolish Traveler that Momiji tells in both version is legit one of the most disturbingly fucked up short stories I’ve ever heard and it surprises me that Natsuki Takeya just made it up.

Rozen Maiden - Watched the two part finale. Rozen Maiden making me cry was, to me, even less likely than Assassination Classroom making me cry, yet it fucking happened! I don’t want to get into when or why, I’ll just say that the main part that did it involved Jun and Nori, and there was another part that has someone burning to death that got me too. And even that aside, this finale was very well done and capped this show off in a satisfactory way, though the final battle at points due to where it was set was giving me flashbacks to the final battle of Noragami Season 1, which this predated, I know, but still.

Fate/Stay Night - Also watched the two part finale to this anime, which regretfully wasn’t nearly as satisfying. As riveting as the final battles of Saber VS Gilgamesh and Shirou VS Kirei were to watch, the driving plot and character motivations behind them just felt sort of shallow. For instance, we’ve barely seen Kirei in this anime despite his voice always narrating the Next Ep previews, yet now he’s the cause of how the last Holy Grail War ended, the evil mastermind behind what’s been going on in this war, AND the one who killed Shirou’s father? All revealed to us with little breathing room. And of course several loose ends such as what was going on between Rin and Sakura go unresolved - they even had the gall to show us that shot of Zouken in the special end credits! So while I can certainly say I liked and enjoyed this show, it simply wasn’t all that great overall.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - Last two episodes of the Black Rose arc, at least prior to the next recap special.....nope! Not even going to ATTEMPT to describe what I watched here! @animebw already covered it in extensive detail much better than I could (though I will say that my interpretation differs slightly in that I don’t think Souji Mikage actually was Nemuro, I think he’s the idealized memory of Nemuro as he saw himself in his youth, an idealization that was so strong that it lingered and took on a life on its own long after Nemuro was gone. Which is why when it came time for him and the “Nemuro Memorial Hall” fantasy he was sustaining to vanish, it all vanished.)

Love Live! Nijigasaki School Idol Club S2 - Yu had a day out with Shizuku to an idol exhibit, Ayumu and Setsuna actually teamed up to follow her and insert themselves into it, we ran into Lanzhu there and got another clash of ideals between her and Yu, and there was a weird Beauty and the Beast play that the girls acted out towards the end there. Ayumu later tells Yu that she thought she didn’t feel like she could be in a unit until she performed with Setsuna and Shizuku.

MAR - Ginta and Jack are now training elsewhere, so the first fight in the next round, set in a desert battlefield, goes to Snow, who proves to be as sharp, resiliant, and badass as she is adorable. Go Snow!

AMC: Tengen Tonpa Gurren Lagann & Kill La Kill - Watched an episode of both these Studio Trigger shows. In the former I got to see the debut of the Black Siblings and the hilarity of Kamina’s incessent pressuring of Simon to “combine” with him to form Gurren Lagann again, which they do when fighting against a Beastman that the crew had tried to eat before knowing what it was, yes really. This show dared to be extra stupid in its first half and I’m always there for it. Then in the latter I got the rather famous episode where Ryuko and Mako try to apply a “two birds with one stone” solution to the Honouji Clubs antagonism and the Makanshou family’s poor living conditions by starting a Fight Club, which works too well and turns Mako into a total douche overnight, and eventually she’s given a Goku uniform by Satsuki and fights Ryuko, leading to a big climax and resolution that’s as heartwarming as it is absurd. And then it turns out this entire tme, Satsuki was using Ryuko for some house cleaning. ‘Cuz of course.

#Anime Update #Anime Update V2

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chalkrevelations · 3 years ago

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OK, y’all, I’m back, finally, with Word of Honor Episode 8, and I have … a LOT of notes on this one. I’m trying to figure out how to organize this. Buckle up, I guess, because this is kind of a long one.

First of all, the usual warning: SPOILERS. This is a re-watch, so there are spoilers not only for this episode, but for the entire show. Scroll away and come back later if you want to watch all 36.5 eps unspoiled.

So, this is an ep that’s really good to me, because the found-family dynamic is one of the things that sold me on the show, and a ton of the ensemble work that builds and enriches that dynamic is centered on scenes about food and eating together, on literally nourishing the body(ies) of the family, from A-Xiang’s repeated instances of cooking bread on a stick over a fire, to fish soup with Ye Baiyi, to Wen Kexing’s elaborate New Year’s meal, and all the various and sundry restaurant sit-downs in between. Feeding each other and eating together is how these characters form bonds. Alternately, inability to provide sustenance or rejection of food implies distance. The point at which Zhou Zishu is still denying Chengling’s request to become his disciple, he’s unable to cook a fish properly for the poor kid to eat. Cao Weining falls in love at first sight and immediately buys A-Xiang not one, but two dinners, because the first one gets cold and he’s going to spend the rest of his life providing the best (emotional) nourishment he can for her. Paying for Ye Bayi’s meal earns a favor from him. When A-Xiang is separated from Wen Kexing and Zhang Chengling and Zhou Zishu, she eats up the little corn family she sees as representative of them, as if she can keep them with her by taking the food that represents them into herself. Despite the fact that Zhou Zishu is losing his sense of taste (evidenced by his ability to suck down wine that any and everyone else spits out in disgust), he continues to fully participate in meals, sharing food and both accepting and providing choice bits to Chengling and WKX at Siji Manor, in a scene that is possibly the most heartfelt domestic bit of the show. Rejecting (dramatically so) the table that’s been set for him by Prince Jin is symbolic of Zhou Zishu’s rejection of their relationship. And as we ultimately learn from Ye Baiyi’s storyline, eating is what makes us human, with all of our messy, painful, gorgeous connections to the world, in contrast to the icy seclusion of immortality. Which makes me feel some kind of way about the facts that WKX started out by burning A-Xiang’s mouth on too-hot porridge before he learned how to take care of her and was saved by her in Ghost Valley and that A-Xiang and WKX, who are both trying to find their way back to the human world from the world of ghosts, become the primary physical nourishers in their relationships with Cao Weining, Zhang Chengling, and Zhou Zishu. It also makes me feel some kind of other (ambivalent) way that part and parcel of the immortality Ye Baiyi achieves for a time and passes on is predicated on being willing to only eat and drink ice and snow, and the symbolic ways that separates you from the rest of the world and from forming the various connections we see forged through food.

All of which is to say that I’m delighted by this ep, where one of the first scenes is an extremely awkward dinner scene at the restaurant with ZZS, WKX, A-Xiang and Cao Weining, which not only plays into a lot of that, but is also comedy gold, and possibly one of the best scenes of the ep (and I say that knowing we’re eventually going to be getting to Han Ying, My Beloved). It’s hilarious how irritated WKX is by the mere fact of Cao Weining’s existence (JunJun, your little pouty face, it’s amazing). And it is triply hilarious how much of a whole-ass troll ZZS manages to be when he realizes the opportunity this presents. I’m not sure we’ve seen ZZS this cheerful … well, yet, at this point in the show, as when he’s just realized how much WKX clearly disapproves of this character who’s after his baby girl and how much of a chance this provides to fuck with WKX. It’s such an asshole move, but at the same time, it’s so weirdly charming to see him willing to play like this. It gives us a great character grace note right in the middle of the comedy - it’s the sort of teasing we see from him with Jiuxiao over the hairpin in Ep 1, and at the same time, it’s also kind of subtle, I think, in the way it calls back to almost the entire ZZS-WKX relationship up to this point. ZZS has clearly been paying attention – almost everything he says to Cao Weining is him giving up with both hands stuff that WKX has had to pry out of him with a crowbar. And it’s blazingly obvious that it’s deliberate. When he compliments CWN, ZZS comments that “it’s our fate to meet each other,” directly echoing what WKX said to ZZS in Ep 2. He waves off the price of dinner, telling CWN that “money is just a possession” after making WKX beg for his wallet and deploy the Sadness Eyebrows before he was willing to hand it over in the last ep. He immediately volunteers his name (or, at least, the name he’s using, Zhou Xu), and asks CWN’s in return. He waxes eloquent about CWN’s sect and background. WKX’s entire face journey through all of this is a delight to watch. ZZS repeats that it’s their fate to meet, and WKX’s eyes almost roll out of his head. ZZS invites CWN to sit and have a drink together, and WKX’s mouth literally drops open. Finally, when WKX learns that A-Xiang is not going to make this interloper go away because he’s her ticket into Yueyang sect, he orders her to go find his wallet (presumably knowing that CWN will follow her when she leaves). As CWN leaves, ZZS reassures him that making friends is “mostly about resonance,” and the implication I presume, is that there is resonance between ZZS and CWN (and yeah, in more ways than one, as CWN will be the ZZS stand-in as these two relationships grow more and more parallel), in contrast to a supposed lack of resonance between ZZS and WKX. I … am not entirely sure that this is just to fuck with WKX, although it’s definitely part and parcel of that, or if it’s a little bit of ZZS trying to convince himself, particularly given a moment later in the ep, which I’ll get to later. In which case, sure, A-Xu. You keep telling yourself that. You didn’t get off at ALL on him staring at you like you’re the most gorgeous thing on earth. Uh-huh.

Outside, A-Xiang and CWN have a little foodie moment together, and if there ever was a fandom that needed a food-truck AU, it’s this one. I’m SO glad that after A-Xiang and Cao-dage got married, they settled down together and opened that little restaurant just down the mountain from Siji Manor. (Shut. Up.) Meanwhile, ZZS and WKX continue to drink inside, now that they’ve gotten rid of the kids. They discuss Mo Huaiyang (:spits:), with ZZS calling him a “cunning old fox” and wondering what a big rabbit like CWN is doing in his den (owowowoOW). WKX promises to get A-Xiang to check on ZZS’s disciple inside Yueyang Sect – he kind of emphasizes that your disciple bit, like he doesn’t really care at all what happens to Chengling, nuh-uh. OK, my dude, you keep telling yourself that, I guess. There’s yet another discussion about Philanthropist Wen’s real motives, which he claims are to empty out hell, which is metaphorically taken to mean saving the damned, although he probably literally means razing Ghost Valley and maybe the jianghu along with it, as he warns ZZS once again that “the fiercest ghosts tend to disguise themselves as human.” And because everything has a triple meaning in this show, this also, again, is also, again, a warning about himself – that he may look human, but he’s not, really.

Meanwhile, Chengling’s been delivered to Gao Chong at Yueyang Sect, where he’s undergoing the worst kind of family bonding. We learn where ShenShen gets his sparkling way with people, when Gao Chong’s first move is to frown at Chengling, feel his biceps and want to know if he’s sick, because he’s such a weakling. We also see where ShenShen gets the yelling and threats of violence. Both Gao Chong and ShenShen put the press on Chengling for the Glazed Armor, as he continues to insist he doesn’t remember anything about it, while Zhao Jing continues to be the “reasonable” one, tearfully telling Gao Chong to be nicer to the traumatized orphan for the sake of his father, oh, oops, I didn’t mean to remind Da-ge of the estrangement with Mirror Lake that’s mentally torturing him now and make him so emotional that this conversation gets cut short, no really, that was not my intention at all, my bad. Sure, buddy. Anyway, this gives us confirmation that Zhang Yusen hadn’t been interacting with his Five Lakes brothers for a while before Mirror Lake was targeted. But never mind that, you can trust us, Gao Chong tells Chengling, and follows up by asking him: Besides us, who can you trust? Which does not actually sound that trustworthy, my guy, and I begin to suspect that Five Lakes Alliance is running things because you’re the biggest bullies, as not a single one of you seems to know how to be the least bit politic. Except for Awful Yifu, who’s not so much adept at politics as at skullduggery. ANYWAY, when asked who he can trust, we can see Chengling thinking “MY NEW DADS” like it’s lit up in neon over his head. We also see him continue to press or clutch the place on his abdomen where we previously saw his injury, so that’s still bothering him, and I can’t imagine why it might do that any time he has to argue with one of these Five Lakes assholes about the Glazed Armor, amirite? I do also notice, though, that he calls both Gao Chong and Zhao Jing “bobo,” which I think is a more familial term for uncle? as opposed to “shishu” for ShenShen, which is martial, and I’m not sure exactly what distinction he’s driving home by doing so, but there you go. Chengling is sent away to rest, and on leaving the hall he immediately gets bullied by Xie Wuyang, one of Zhao Jing’s undercover Yueyang twinks, before being rescued by Gao Xiaolian, daughter of Gao Chong. She takes him to his new room, which faces right onto the training grounds, because no one’s told him yet how much he needs to build himself up, right? And we get to see a bunch of little Yueyang shits who acted like good boys and promised Xiaolian to her face that they would train with Chengling but who then immediately turn around and start mocking him as soon as she goes away, so WKX’s assessment of how the jianghu is full of assholes continues to look kind of correct. What is Cao Weining doing in this whole hive of scum and villainy?

We get a brief detour here to go with Xiaolian to meet Cao Weining and A-Xiang, and she agrees to let A-Xiang stay with her, before a disciple comes to get her to help set up for taking Chengling to worship at the Five Lakes Alliance memorial. Xiaolian helpfully lets us know that this is weird, because it’s going to be dark soon. A-Xiang sneaks away and informs WKX and ZZS that this is weird, because it’s going to be dark soon. ZZS and WKX also spot some of the Tian Chuang Action Lanterns and surmise that some “feudal lords” seen outside the city are up to no good, so they go and skulk in the bushes along the road to the Five Lakes Alliance monument.

This is getting super-long, so I’m going to get right to the next important part, which is the bit where Han Ying (My Beloved) and his Tian Chuang forces have laid a trap for Gao Chong and Chengling on the way back from the monument, and they try to kidnap Chengling. Han Ying continues to be cold, haughty, and capable at his job right up to the moment when ZZS jumps out of the bushes to foil the kidnapping with his signature Swiftly Moving Steps and a frankly ridiculous bit of gauzy fabric tied around the bottom half of his face as a disguise. Han Ying’s instant change of demeanor is something to behold – he can’t even notice that WKX has him by the throat around the hearts in his eyes as he recognizes ZZS. Which, let’s face it, he ought to, because ZZS spent a decade and a half running around with all of these guys with the bottom half of his face covered, so you’d think more of them would recognize him, but apparently the Cover Girl bangs throw them off. Anyway, WKX grabs Han Ying and they use him as a hostage to get Tian Chuang to release Gao Chong, Chengling and a bunch of Yueyang disciples. Once everyone else is gone, WKX and ZZS drag Han Ying into the bushes, where he hits his knees ten times faster than WKX has yet for ZZS, so maybe it’s WKX’s own fault that he’s left standing around, ignored and vinegary. Han Ying is back to the puppy-dog he was around ZZS in Ep 1, and interestingly, the way Zhang Zhehan is styled here makes ZZS look more severe than he has in a while – he’s got a lot of his hair up in the high pony that looks a bit like the topknot from the front, all the rest of his hair is back behind his shoulders, and his bangs are pushed back out of his face more than usual, making him look more like his Tian Chuang self as he talks to Han Ying. Who he calls Ying’er, and omg, fuck you subtitles, for not including this because HE CALLS HIM YING’ER AND I’M DYING. (Also, oh god, I just realized that the Ying of his name is the same character as “hero.” Which, just, the simple fact of it, of course, but also it was used in the “hero saving the beauty/beauty saving the hero” (overdubbed) lip-read from Ep 6, and now I’m dying on the floor, because that’s kind of a weird little link between Zhen Yan WKX and Han Ying already. It’s likely coincidence, but it’s potentially USEFUL, yes, all my fic writers out there?) Anyway, Han Ying is desperately worried - he knows something’s wrong, because ZZS isn’t bothering to disguise himself with that awful fake face anymore to keep himself safe from Prince Jin’s spies, and also, HOW IS YOUR INJURY, MY LORD? (DO YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TAKE TENDER CARE OF YOU?) WKX continues to look vaguely uncomfortable about this whole thing that’s going on right in front of his salad. Han Ying swears he’ll do anything for ZZS. WKX clears his throat loudly to draw attention and suggestively asks if he should leave for a while. (I am not shitposting here, this actually, literally happens.) ZSS literally huffs in annoyance and ignores him. He tells Han Ying that he saw signs of Tian Chuang at Yueyang and thought they were after him. We can see Han Ying thinking, “No, if I’d known you were here, you’d have found me on my knees by your bedside waiting patiently like a good boy.” We learn that Duang Pengju (that asshole) has had Han Ying looking for the Glazed Armor since the Mirror Lake massacre, probably to take credit for anything he finds. Han Ying reiterates that he’ll do anything for ZZS, and ZZS tells him to stay out of all this, saying that what Han Ying can do for him is stay alive (well, OW).

After this, we get a scene of ZZS and WKX still hanging around by the side of the road after dark. ZZS sincerely thanks WKX for his help, and says he owes WKX a favor. WKX asks him what’s really going on with ZZS and Chengling. ZZS says that he couldn’t stand around and do nothing while this kid was in danger, likely stirring some Zhen Yan feels in WKX that we don’t officially know about yet, at this point. ZZS asks WKX, again, about his Weird Thing about the Five Lakes Alliance and whether it was a coincidence that WKX was at Mirror Lake for the massacre. WKX goes vaguely Ghost Valley Master wild-eyed and says of course not! before laughing and saying, “I followed you, remember?” He gets friend-zoned and follows up by asking ZZS, “Why don’t you ask what I think of you?” ZZS – pretty unconvincingly, tbqh – says he doesn’t care and stomps off, leaving WKX to stare after him soulfully and call him zhiji. Much like that resonance thing earlier - you keep telling yourself that, A-Xu. The next time we see them, they’re at the marketplace, probably the next day, and you remember that thing I said about bonding via food? We’ve come back full circle to that, too. Zhen Yan WKX is 7 years old again, he wants some reassurance that he is ZZS’s super-special friend, and he works his way through the marketplace making ZZS buy him every sweet thing to eat that he can find. Every time ZZS has to pull out his wallet, he makes this pissy little face, but he keeps paying. ZZS is hopeless at cooking, but if you can’t make your own, store-bought will do, WKX is craving reassurance, and as uncomfortable as ZZS is with how close WKX has gotten at this point, he continues to provide it. I also want to point out another censorship dub here, thanks again to AvenueX on Youtube: As they’re figting over the way WKX is spending ZZS’s money in this scene, when WKX tries to grab ZZS’s hand, and ZZS is all ‘”Don’t touch me,” the voice dubbing has WKX say that repaying ZZS is no big deal, he’ll just let ZZS order him around, with ZZS’s response being to tell him to get lost, then. OTOH, lip-read gives us, from WKX, that it’s no big deal, he’ll sell the rest of his life to ZZS, with ZZS’s response as a threat to sell him to a brothel, then. :hands:

Quick wrap-up from there: They go watch some exotic dancers, only there turns out to be an unexpected pile of heads in the follow-up magician’s act, which turn out to be from the guys who were in the “bridal party” at the Ghost Valley “wedding” a few eps ago, and everyone swears vengeance against the Ghost Valley. WKX and ZZS go to visit Chengling, who is supposedly sick and can’t see them, but they get introduced to Gao Chong. Gao Chong and WKX are weird at each other, and ZZS is increasingly suspicious. He’s got his thinky face on, and we don’t get any literally pokey fingers, but I can’t help but think there are some mental pokey fingers going on, as he turns over all the info he knows in his head. Then some Yueyang disciple comes shrieking in about a dead body, omg, death, destruction, death, and Gao Chong is all, Seriously? In front of guests? before we’re out.

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #cao weining #han ying #gao chong #shen shen #zhao jing #gao xiaolian #something something food as bonding #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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hanna-kin · 3 years ago

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Eagles season 3

Finished season 3 and would love to hear other people´s opinion on the finale and the season as a whole.

Here are my thoughts, with spoilers.

Overall this is my favourite season so far. To be fair I never enjoyed season one that much but still decided to watch season two. Won’t gt too much into detail on these season in case I get feeling and post about it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this season and looked forward to every episode. I feel like season three went even darker and deeper than season two and I feel like it really benefited the storylines.

One thing I’ve always feard though is the writers ability to handle such deep topics. Overall I think the creators did a good job with this but I still think such deep topics could use more time. For instance what happened with Felicia and especially the aftermath. Ten short episodes is such a short time to dive deep into all of the characters storylines and I feel like it got a bit obivous in season three aswell.

If they had made the show even two episodes longer I think that would have improved tha pacing quite alot. Felicia’s storyline obviously got the most focus and for good reason but I would have liked to see more time put into Amie’s storyline with her dad and the pressure of her going on tour and dealing with her record company. Felt like we just touched the surface on both of them honestly. Same goes for the other characters.

With longer episodes or a few more added ones I feel like they could have gotten some more attention to the other stories as well.

I´m not the biggest fan of all the time jumps either. The first one I can get behind. It was clever to have a year go by after the first ep. Didn’t mind that. But then I lost track of time. How much time passed between ep nine and ten? No idea. A week? A month?

And green trees in december? In Sweden? Yeah...no. It’s a minor detail but it bothered me so much because they could have made the timeline make more sense.

That was probably my least favourite aspect of the show. It just felt a bit jumpy in my opinion.

For the things I did like though. The contrast between the different families. Ludde’s family having a super strong and close bond all four of them and supporting eachother. The contrast with the Kroons being awkward friends (Felicia and her dad and the house warming party) or straight up not supporting eachother at all even through the hardest times and just yelling at eachother. We have Amie and Petra who have such a realistic relationship with Amie struggling with getting to know her father. In the end they have such a great relationship and its so telling that even if they sometimes clash Petra has always been there for Amie. Finally Klara’s family. So sad. She’s such a lonely person, isn’t she. With everything that happened last season I do feel bad for her. Having lost her dad thorugh a super traumatic event and having a shitty relationship with her mother who just seemed to disappear abit after her dad died. We have four families with such different dynamics.

It’s interesting because outwards the Kroons and the Ceder’s probably looked like the most stable but obviously they are not.

I also love the Kroon sibilings. I feel like their sibling dynmic is realistic. Loved how Elias was angry at Felicia but also just dropped at soon as he couldn´t find her. Also loved how Felicia noticed that Elias is not treating himself very kindly despite her own struggles. Best relationship in the series?

I also like the realationship with Ludde and Andreas,they really are ride or die with eachother.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what I liked about this season but there was alot more. With the exception of the time jumps I found myself enjoying it alot. I liked the vibe and the storylines even if I would have wished for more time on them. Elias issues were hinted at but will they be dropped or developed further like Felicas were?

Thought I’d go through the main storylines one by one. I started with Felicia, planning to just do it in this post but wow it will take up so much space. I’ll make them in a separate post.

I’m gonna be honest and say I expected something more from the season finally. I mean I guess we got alot but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I thought it would be. It’s not entirely a bad thing though. Loved to see Felicia getting help and her parents teaming up to go see her. I know many people loved to see Amias finally get together and I do love them together. I just don’t know. Even with the cliffhanger it was not as dramatic as I had expected.

But what do you think will happen? NO matter what Andreas has such a sad fate. Either he dies/gets hurt or he gets back in prison? Or the shot just went off in the aiir? probably not though.

Finally

It feels like the acting has gotten so much stronger since season 1 which is nice to see. It’s pretty solid across the cast with some reallly good performances (Alva, for instance) which makes me even ore excited for season 4. I feel like the writing has only gotten better and better and that it will continue to do so. Looking forward to next season alreay.

What did you like best with season? What was your favourite/least favourite thing? What dou you think will happen in season four?

I realise people probably won’t care about my opinions but ive been dying to discuss this show with someone since this season started, I’d love to do it. And I’ll probably do some more posts. Definitely on the different storylines and which ones I liked the most and maybe some predictions for season four.

#eagles svt #svt eagles #eagles s3 #eagles spoilers #tw suicide attempt

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panharmonium · 4 years ago

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Merlin and Naruto

I did Merlin here, so here’s Naruto! :D

[disclaimer for everyone: I have only watched up through Season 10 of Shippuden (the arc with the Five Kage Summit), and I am trying to avoid spoilers for everything after that point, so please don’t interact with this (including tags, because tumblr shows them to me automatically) unless you are avoiding ALL spoilers. For me, this includes discussion about whether you like/dislike future seasons, comparisons of various seasons in terms of quality, etc. Thanks, everyone! <3]

My favorite parent-child relationship: I know they’re not blood-related, but Iruka and Naruto have me crying every time I see them together. Naruto straight-up says that when he’s with Iruka he feels like he knows what it’s like to have a father, and honestly, Iruka loves Naruto so much at this point that he would insta-adopt him if Naruto asked. I love how Naruto always cites Iruka as the first person who cared for him even later in the show when Iruka hasn’t had as much screentime, and when I saw Iruka cry because he’s so proud of Naruto at the end of the Pain arc, it was just...too much for my little heart to handle.

My favorite sibling relationship: You know, thinking about it, almost all of the people in Naruto are only children, as far as we know! But in terms of just that sibling vibe - Sakura and Naruto definitely give me that feel. I know he has a crush on her, but their relationship has always felt more sibling-like to me, and I especially love how deep their bond has become by the time we get to Shippuden. They are just so comfortable with each other now - the depth of the love and friendship they feel for each other is palpable.

My favorite family relationship (other): I adore Naruto’s relationship with Jiraiya. That scene where Naruto falls asleep against his back almost killed me, and Jiraiya’s later line, “Your smile is my salvation” - that was too much. It absolutely destroyed me. The way Jiraiya kind of gave up on everything after his old life went to hell - neverending wars, Orochimaru gone, his original students dead, his student’s students dead, Minato dead - he just ran away after that, and it was meeting Naruto that kind of rekindled that spark of hope in him and helped him reconnect with his community and rediscover a sense of purpose in his life. Naruto enabled him to finally come home, and I think that’s beautiful.

My favorite friendship between two people: There are so many friendships in Naruto that I love (one of the greatest things about this show for me has been how little focus is given to romantic relationships, at least so far; it’s very much a friendship-oriented show), but right now I’m in a bit of a Kakashi-Yamato hole. I was super primed to not like Yamato when he first showed up, because him being there meant that my favorite character WASN’T there, and also he ended up replacing Kakashi on the one mission where the team finally found Sasuke, but the guy won me over in the end. He is one of my favorite characters now - my heart just swells every time I see him - and I think his relationship with Kakashi is super interesting. I’ve written before about how Kakashi’s only truly intimate friendships are with people who are dead, and I do think that applies when it comes to Yamato, too, even though the two of them are obviously very companionable and close. There is still a level to that relationship where Kakashi is a bit of a mentor figure, the “superior officer,” which results in a degree of (still friendly and affectionate) distance. And as with all of his other relationships, Kakashi doesn’t really confide in Yamato about his life or open up to him in the same way that he does when he talks to his dead friends - but at the same time, there is an element to their relationship that doesn’t exist in Kakashi’s other friendships, and it’s the fact that Kakashi trusts Yamato with his kids, implicitly and without reservation. Kakashi’s entire life right now is very much enmeshed in what happens to his students, and even if he doesn’t necessarily talk about that with Yamato, Yamato is still deeply involved in that work. Yamato VOLUNTEERED for that work. And he continues to dedicate himself to it even when his first mission as Kakashi’s stand-in ends up going completely off the rails and turning into WAY more than he signed up for. He keeps doing his utmost for Kakashi’s kids without it even being his original responsibility, and that is such an unusual thing, for Kakashi, who in every other circumstance is always the one stepping in to help other people, the one who always shoulders his burdens alone. Nobody ever asks Kakashi if he needs help with these incredibly high-needs children, and neither does Yamato - but the difference is that Yamato jumps in to help regardless, and he stays no matter how complicated things get. That’s huge, and it’s only going to become more important. It’s just - it is difficult for Kakashi to have intimate friendships with people who don’t share his history, and this rules out almost everybody else in the world, because all the people who truly share his own history are dead. But the degree to which Yamato has altruistically and irreversibly entwined himself into the most important parts of Kakashi’s new history - the chapters being written right now, the ones that are going to define the rest of Kakashi’s life - means that Yamato is well on his way to breaking through that wall and becoming the first exception to a universal rule. [There is a lot to be said on Kakashi’s side of this, too, like - every time Kakashi refuses to call Yamato by his code name I lose my mind just a little bit, and I have MANY thoughts about Kakashi basically dragging folks who’ve been victimized or exploited or experimented on out of ANBU and then absorbing them into his own team, where they become a part of a family-type unit that respects them and cares about them and treats them like human beings. I mean, there’s a huge difference between the Yamato we meet in S2 vs. the Yamato we know in S10 (and the same thing goes for Sai!) - and that’s something I think about a lot.]

My favorite friendship between a group: I love all of the team dynamics, but Team Gai is a fave XD The absurd contrast between oh-so-serious Neji vs. Gai/Lee’s incredible goofiness (with Tenten’s exasperation in between) is comedy gold. I screamed with laughter in S1 when Gai was trying to get Neji to put his hand in the circle and do their “shout a slogan like a sports team” thing - I’ve never seen anything funnier on this show than jonin!Neji trying to put up with Gai’s antics.

My favorite mentorship: My favorite mentorship is always Kakashi and whichever kid happens be onscreen with him at that moment, but I’ll be honest and say that Kakashi+Sasuke was the first dynamic that got me actually invested in this show (as opposed to me just watching it because it was on and not really caring what happened to any of the characters). They are still the mentorship dynamic about which I have the most complex feelings, and that is especially true after the last season we watched. I will probably end up making a separate post about this, because I still have not written down all of my thoughts about the end of Season 10 and I am still trapped in my feelings about this very lost child and the only adult who ever tried to help him the way he deserved to be helped, and I know I have way more to say about them than I can reasonably fit in this bullet point. But - the short version is that I am super compelled by the way that every tragedy that’s befallen Kakashi is precisely what shapes him into the only adult who can help this particular kid, the way seemingly senseless events ended up putting Kakashi in a position where he’s the only adult who can intervene on this kid’s behalf many, many years later. The way Sasuke’s plight (and the potential that Kakashi has to help him) suddenly grants meaning to the worst parts of Kakashi’s life - that knocks me on my butt.

My favorite rivalry: So I probably would not have said this until the episode where Kakashi comes three seconds away from being made Hokage, but I’m gonna say Gai & Kakashi, solely to express my love and appreciation for Gai in that episode. This is the ep where Gai challenges Kakashi to a race through the entire village (as a sort of “last hurrah before we can’t do this kind of silly shit anymore” thing) and Kakashi is initially kind of reluctant to do it, because he’s stressed out about a lot of things, but he does end up agreeing to it, and then he has SO much fun, and I LOVED this so much; I can’t even tell you. This moment takes place immediately after Kakashi returns from that horrible, awful confrontation with Sasuke, and everything preceding this scene was very hard for me to see, because everybody is just asking Kakashi to do more and more and more for them without giving him even a hot minute to be like “i almost just killed my own kid. i almost just had to kill my own kid, who was trying to kill my other kid, who was trying to kill kid #1 first, so i wouldn’t have assume the burden of killing him myself.” Nobody checks on him, nobody asks, and Kakashi has to just hold onto that horror and also fret over the uncertain yet chilling secrets that Madara Uchiha disclosed and also prepare to shoulder the crushing weight of an office he never asked for - AND THEN. GAI SHOWS UP. And even though Gai doesn’t really know what happened, he still checks Kakashi over from top to bottom to make sure he’s in one piece, and then he drags him into this stupid competition, and it makes Kakashi LAUGH. They go running all out across the craterized scene of devastation that used to be their home, and they have FUN doing it, and Kakashi straight-up tells Gai, “This was just what I needed,” which - god. It would be great if Kakashi had somebody he could actually talk to, sure, but there’s also a space in our lives for people who just cheer us up, no questions asked. It’s like when you tell someone you have a problem and they ask, “Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted?” Sometimes you don’t need to talk about it. Sometimes you just need people who will take you for a goofy footrace and make you feel like you’re running too fast for any of your troubles to ever touch you again, for a few minutes.

My favorite hatred/antipathy: The answer to this question used to be Kakashi and Itachi, and while I’m even MORE fascinated by their dynamic now than ever, it’s taken on a whole new dimension, given that I think Itachi is (secretly) thrilled to see someone like Kakashi so committed to taking him down and keeping Sasuke safe. So, in place of that, I’ll just say that I love how much all of the Akatsuki cannot stand each other XD Almost none of them get along, and it makes me laugh every time - I can’t believe they ever get anything done, though I guess that’s to be expected when you get that many super-criminals together in a room. I especially love how they all think Orochimaru is so stupid...cannot get over them laughing at him and his body-snatching immortality schemes.

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon: Okay, these are both silly answers, but - I would have KILLED to see Jiraiya interacting with Minato’s team. Like, I’m certain they spent time together, but honestly, what I wouldn’t give to have witnessed some of it. All I could think about during that mini-arc where Jiraiya teaches Naruto how to sync up with Gamariki was how little!Kakashi would have taken one look at the dancing frogs and decided he would be using dog!summons for the rest of his life; meanwhile Obito would have already been in the frog’s mouth begging to be launched into the air like a cannonball. Also - my sister said the other night how it is a CRIME that we never got to see Sasuke forced to interact with Jiraiya and honestly, that is too true.

#naruto #pan watches naruto #long post #meta #(sort of)

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aqvarius · 4 years ago

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[REVIEW] Her Love in the Force: Ayumu Shinonome - Who I Once Was

I got some pretty good reception on my previous Episode 0 review, so I thought I would share my thoughts on Shinonome’s Who I Once Was as well. It’s not so much a review as much as just my personal thoughts on what this Episode 0 contributes to Ayumu’s past and future, some character analysis on Shinonome, Naru, AyumuxMC, Team Kaga, and why I think it tells us a lot about how I think Ayumu’s Love’s Trial route might play out.

Ayumu’s whole season so far has gone in a pretty different direction from everyone else’s. For example, one of the biggest differences is that his Love’s Battlefield route actually focusses more on his development rather than his MC’s (who frankly… gets little to no development). This is due to another big difference, which is how the role of Tsugaru is used to emphasise the changing dynamic between him and his MC due to their change in hierarchical divide. (I’m also currently working on a piece about how the MC’s dynamic with Team Tsugaru is used as a plot device for the key character and relationship developmental themes and how this differs from route to route, as well as what is consistent.) His Episode 0 does a similar thing.

When I read Soma’s Who I Once Was, it thrilled me because it helped contextualise and provide insight into his character by letting me retrospectively analyse his behaviours and traits in his earlier routes. This was important information since Soma is someone who doesn’t change much before and after joining Public Safety; his MC is the one who has the biggest effect on his changing attitude (and it’s something that he is conflicted about even into his second season). Therefore, his Episode 0 helped develop a more well-rounded picture of the version of him that we actually get to see. Ayumu’s Who I Once Was does the opposite thing for me. While Ayumu’s Ep 0 does provide a lot more information about his past that we have never heard of (almost everything that happens in Kaga, Goto and Soma’s routes are things that they have already mentioned), what this does is help set up the direction that Ayumu’s future route is heading towards. If Goto’s and Soma’s Episode 0s help us understand where they came from, Ayumu’s tells us where he is going.

Typically, the rest of the PSD instructors join Public Safety to fulfil their vendettas, except Ishigami whose reason for joining Public Safety (apart from maybe his sister’s case) is never explicitly stated afaik because his Episode 0 is literally just about academy life with Kaga lmao. However, Ayumu has no personal tragedy that leads him specifically to Public Safety. He ends up there because of his own mistakes, and the act of joining Public Safety alone helps him to develop a sense of purpose. Contrast this with Goto and Soma, who are still lost in the mist of grief and vengeance even after joining Public Safety, or Kaga, who literally only just got closure on one aspect of his motivation and is still working on the other. For the others, joining Public Safety is a stepping stone to helping them get to where they want to be. For Ayumu, Public Safety finally gives him a sense of purpose and choice, meaning that the Ayumu we see in his MS1 is already markedly different from the version of him we see here in his Episode 0. Later, I will expand on why this is still not entirely him going on his ‘own’ path, but it is still a significant decision nonetheless.

The path that brings Ayumu to Public Safety is influenced most strongly by two reasons, the former of which is influenced by the latter, and they are: (1) ennui; (2) his love for Sachi.

You may be thinking: how could you leave out Naru, who orchestrates the entire string of events that leads to Ayumu even first getting involved with the police? That’s because the reason that Naru even comes to learn of Ayumu is because of Ayumu’s ennui. So let’s begin with that.

Ayumu’s ennui stems from his privilege and his sense of obligation. We learn that he’s studying at T University (presumably Todai, a.k.a. Tokyo University, one of the country’s most elite institutions) to take over his family’s business (which is in electronics), but that he finds this unsatisfying. Because he thinks that he was adopted just to be the successor to the illustrious Shinonome house, he feels like he has to fulfil his role as heir. However, this is something that he finds personally unfulfilling. The reason for this is partially that he is just a genius who needs more intellectual stimulation. But more significantly, this is because he is struggling with his internal conflict over obligation to his parents (becoming the heir to Kochi Electronics) and his feelings for Sachi (becoming a police officer in the hopes that he will recognise him as her hero). Ayumu is someone who we know to be extremely concerned about his image – not just in the literal, physical sense, but also his whole persona. We know that Ayumu doesn’t even like to show his true self to his own parents; the only person that he’s ever been truly vulnerable around is Goldie. He protects his true feelings well and is quite prone to doing things to keep up an impression that other people have of him. At the same time, he is also someone who is not very communicative, and can often make assumptions about people’s intentions. This is one of the reasons why he is so inherently burdened by what he perceives to be the expectations of others.

Anyway, the different mindsets that he holds regarding these two options are illustrated particularly effectively through the two groups of his university ‘friends’. On the one hand, you have the guys, who are little more than schmoozy jerks who are only interested in one night stands and talking about their sexual conquests. They represent life as a future CEO, where Ayumu would be forced to network with people (and perhaps even become the type of person) who he finds shallow and frankly not worth his time.

On the other hand, there’s Suo, who represents both a more idealistic and meaningful type of future and a choice that goes along with Ayumu’s goal of being Sachi’s hero, but this path is also something that he clearly is unsure about. Both of these options are ones which are based on what Ayumu thinks that other people want him to do, not because of his personal interest. This is why, quite predictably for a genius but also because he is trapped in a place where he feels he has no real control, Ayumu ends up unfulfilled.

This lack of fulfilment leads him to partake in something that is genuinely a personal interest of his: hobby hacking. We can tell that this is actually fulfilling to him not just because he’s exceptionally talented, does it a lot and says he enjoys it, but also because hacking is the only thing that he is sure about. This is expressed through the directness of his hacking style, which Naru becomes attracted to and praises as “straight to the goal, like a comet”. And this is why I would argue that Naru is less responsible for Ayumu’s ultimate trajectory than Ayumu’s own tedium, because it is the tedium and indecisiveness that Naru takes advantage of the most.

Kinda weird that they didn’t use a close up sprite of Shinonome to match Naru’s one tho.

If you’ve played Ayumu’s Battlefield route, it’ll come as no surprise to you to know that Naru is manipulative. Honestly, I would go as far as to say I find him to be one of the most terrifying villains throughout HLITF. I won’t go too far into his character, but I want to talk a bit about the relationship between him and Ayumu. For all of his smarts, Ayumu falls into Naru’s trap so easily. This is because Naru recognises and targets certain weaknesses that he picks up, such as Ayumu’s disdain for those around him, which is why he taunts him that he can do better than being friends with those “kids” whose conversation is “way below your level”.

He’s both stroking Ayumu’s ego and affirming his belief that the uni friends are immature. He does the same thing with the job situation, taunting him not just about Ayumu’s consideration of applying for a civil servant position but also about taking over the family business. Here, he recognises that Ayumu has reservations about both, and seduces him into taking a third option beyond those two: to focus on his hacking and join forces. Naru shows him that his current situation isn’t enough for someone as great as him, recognising Ayumu’s tedium and showing him a dangerous, challenging world.

Ayumu becomes tempted. I think the biggest clue that he has actually fallen into the trap deliberately set by Naru comes at this one point, where we see Ayumu’s internal monologue about how he is spending more and more time with Naru and on the hacking forum. He thinks that he should quit soon, since he was treating it just as a challenge and now knows where his level is. Naru interrupts this line of thought, saying “Too sweet”. He is commenting on the peach nectar, saying that it’s literally too sweet (too much sugar), but the same word 甘い in Japanese is also used to mean naïve, meaning that Naru could be calling Ayumu naïve (for being so easily manipulated). Obviously, Naru probably isn’t responding to Ayumu’s internal monologue since he can’t read minds, but from a reader’s perspective, I think that moment was quite deliberate. Maybe I’m just reading too much into things, but I found it to be both very clever and also quite haunting, especially since the next move that Naru makes is his first attempt to propose the hacking duel which ends up being a trap for Ayumu to allow Naru to steal confidential NPA data.

It’s also clever that Suo interrupts before he can go through with this proposal, since wholesome Suo represents an idealistic path towards justice.

Anyway, even after Naru, who has more or less lured Ayumu almost completely to the dark side, actually successfully proposes that battle, there is one thing stopping him from going through with it, and that leads us on to point number 2.

Let’s talk about Sachi.

She, and his love for her, are the only reason why he’s even considering a future in law enforcement at first. He says as much, that it’s not his dream.

Those typical Ayumu character traits that I previously discussed in relation to his relationship with his parents make their reappearance. Firstly, the fact that he feels like he needs to keep up a certain image, which is demonstrated when he drinks coffee in front of her and lies about no longer drinking sweet beverages. In this case, he is trying to perform maturity. Secondly, his feeling of obligation: he feels obliged to Sachi to fulfil his promise that he’ll become a police officer in her stead. Thirdly, the fact that this feeling is self-imposed. Sachi never explicitly said “I want you to become a police officer.” He made that promise of his own accord, assuming that’s what she wanted. Ayumu is doing everything that he thinks is expected of him.

(We later find out that she never forgot and he was just assuming that she did)

Even his disillusionment at uni life and his friends to some extent stems from his feelings for Sachi. The main reason he sees those friends as immature is because they talk about nothing but girls and hooking up, even when they are getting top scores in tests. He even actively separates himself from them in this regard: when he thinks about their girl chat, his mind drifts to Sachi and he thinks about how he’s different.

Ayumu is a fool for love. We see the same thing happen over and over again even with his own MC: he’s surprisingly (not that surprising anymore haha) childish and emotional when it comes to his feelings. He is a one-woman man through and through, to the point where he is literally so head over heels that he often allows his feelings towards the subject of his love to dictate his actions. We like to think that Ayumu is so clever and calm and logical – and he can be, when it comes to work – but every mistake he makes in his Episode 0 is the result of an uncontrolled emotional response to being hurt by Sachi. He lost his virginity to a random one night stand when Sachi went on an overnight trip with her teacher. He’s resigned to throw away a future in law enforcement as a way to get back at Sachi because he thinks she’s forgotten her words.

Think about it: he has no personal negative feelings about the police, not in the way that Soma does, for example. He sees the police agency as a place that’s associated with a promise with Sachi, and how he wants to be seen by her. I previously mentioned that Ayumu is someone who cares a lot about how people see him and is weighed down by a feeling of obligation that he imposes on himself. Thus, when he thinks that she isn’t even thinking of him anymore, he decides to go through with hacking them as a way to get back at her as well as to throw away his heavy feeling of obligation towards that promise. To be honest, every time he threw everything down just to listen to Sachi talk about another man was devastating to read every time. My heart just ached.

However, despite being the reason why he ultimately chooses to give in to Naru’s manipulation, Sachi is the one element about Ayumu that Naru doesn’t know about. What Naru doesn’t know is that all of these emotions that he used to taunt Ayumu lead back to Ayumu’s feelings for Sachi. Those college friends’ talk of hooking up is cheap next to his feelings for Sachi. His indecision over career is due to his internal conflict over whether he will just have his heart broken again. We know that his parents are such great people and keep encouraging him to do what he wants to do, but Ayumu actively chooses to disregard their sentiments in order to keep himself trapped as an excuse.

To be honest, I think he is choosing to be in denial since he knows that even if he does go through his promise to Sachi and becomes a police officer, it wouldn’t change the fact that she loves some other guy, but he just is too afraid to admit that to himself honestly. He wants the choice to be taken away from him so he doesn’t have to take responsibility for the outcome. Let’s be real, refusing to admit his honest feelings to himself is one of Ayumu’s defining traits lol.

This is why I truly believe that Ayumu is the one man in HLITF who loves the hardest. At the end of the day, all of Ayumu’s choices and mistakes in his Episode 0 come down to his feelings for Sachi. His indecisiveness over his career, his disdain for college talk about hooking up, his conflicting feelings about law enforcement, even his choice to ultimately join Public Safety, almost his entire identity is based around Sachi. Personally, I really appreciate that the writers didn’t underplay how important she was to him and almost his entire past just to appease readers who want to forget about her. Even when the choice to join law enforcement becomes his own choice (bc of the bombing incident), he still relies on Sachi for strength.

The reason I feel that way is because this is a demonstration of how strong Ayumu’s love is, but also because it just goes to show how much his MC changed him to make him able to forget about someone as important as Sachi and fall in love with her instead. And this is also why I believe, in Ayumu’s future Love’s Trial route, that Naru will be defeated because he will not be able to understand the level of depth and dedication that Ayumu’s love truly reaches, and how his words, actions, thoughts and entire world are shaped by his love for his girl.

Let’s revisit those three points of his character that I mentioned previously and see how they relate to his relationship with his MC – more specifically, how she has managed to overcome them.

1. Needing to project a certain image. This defence mechanism is something that HLITF MC gradually wore down over the years through her relentless pestering but is dealt with most explicitly in Our Graduation Epilogue chapter 3. She wants to be his home, i.e. the place where he can be himself entirely without any pretence of trying to be cool.

2. His feeling of obligation. This is something that isn’t as clear cut as a promise, but I would say that the closest thing to obligation here would be his role as her instructor. I think this is one of the reasons that he is so adamant about maintaining that teacher/student boundary and why he has always worked to bring out her innate strengths, because he feels obliged to her as an educator and mentor and that he has to fulfil this duty to her. That’s why he gets so worried about losing that dynamic, because he’s worried that he’ll lose his worth to her when that role no longer exists and that she won’t need him anymore. Luckily, she disproves that for him and shows that she’s actually more excited for that boundary to be dispersed.

3. Being assumptive/imposing burdens on himself. This is related to what I previously explained about his anxieties. But also, jumping to conclusions is something that we see Ayumu doing throughout the first two seasons and substories as well. These two are constantly getting into arguments because of miscommunication, particularly in substories (the ones that come to mind the most are Temptation Lingerie, 夏、ほてりが冷めるまで and Surprise Date Love Story). But luckily, we know that things always work out because he’s just so in love with her haha and because she’s so unwavering in her love for him~

Naru is formidable. I really think the second half of Ayumu’s S3 is going to be one of the most intense routes in the entire game because he is a direct nemesis who just seems like an anarchistic edgelord, not a whole terrorist group or organisation that has a goal wider than just chaos. He’s clever and crafty, and I believe his hacking skills will be at least on par with Ayumu’s (i.e. I think Ayumu will find it challenging to go against him technically). I think he will be furious that someone of Ayumu’s talent has been coopted by Public Safety, of all people, and he will do anything he can to get his ‘friend’ back with him, perhaps employing the same types of taunting and tempting techniques that he used in this Episode 0.

What will separate the two will be what Ayumu will do for, and with, his MC. The one key point that Naru was missing the first time was that Ayumu’s decisions were ultimately swayed by Sachi, because you know he would have exploited that weakness if he had known. And I believe he will miss that point again this time when he tries to take Ayumu back. He already knows that Ayumu cares for his MC but what he won’t realise that Ayumu’s love can strengthen him now; it’s not a weakness. Plus, Ayumu has already demonstrated, and is now even more explicit about, how far he is willing to go to help her. Also, if he has to battle Naru, he won’t be doing it alone. He has the love of his life, who he personally trained into a specialist, fighting alongside him.

Anyway, that’s enough speculating from me. I don’t have the energy at the moment to articulate in detail about the ways in which Ayumu and his MC love each other, but I’m sure it’s obvious to all of you who have read his routes and fallen in love with him. I just want to mention some things that I loved about this route.

The great thing about every Episode 0 route is that all of the characters are still extremely flawed even at the end, which allows us to get a good sense of how they got from point A (life before PS) to point B (joining PS), and then how that then brings them to point C (meeting and falling in love with you). I mentioned before that joining Public Safety is still not really Ayumu’s own choice. This is because he’s still madly in love with Sachi, and his choice is still at least partially because of her words, although also because of all his mistakes. Also, speaking of mistakes, man does Ayumu make a whole lot of them here.

I really enjoyed seeing him get thrown into a position where he suddenly becomes startingly aware of his relatively privileged life, which also contributes to his sense of ennui btw, and become forced to question huge questions about life, death and morality. Considering all this happens in about 5 years and he presumably spent a couple years at the Police Academy before entering Public Safety, it made me realise that Ayumu learned and matured really quickly. The Ayumu we know now is so much more experienced that it was really fun seeing him basically just be a dumb kid who think he’s so great getting caught up in something bigger than he could have ever imagined. The bombing issue is Ayumu learning what being truly powerless really means. Choosing between life in IT or life in the police becomes a non-issue when he suddenly gets given a day to figure out what to do with his stolen information.

Also, can we just talk about Kaga’s kindness? You guys know how much I love Team Kaga dynamics, and I kind of love that we get to see that their dynamics are basically like this from the start, with Ayumu basically being a brat to Hyogo-san and then Kaga kind of begrudgingly adopting him and going out of his way to recruit him. We love bratty Ayumu but thinking back now, I also love how obedient he is to Kaga and how much they trust each other despite their first ever interaction being Kaga beating Ayumu in a dark alley lmaooo. But the thing that is the most telling to me about Kaga is the fact that we now know that Shinonome was involved in the deaths of Hamaguchi and co., i.e. the very thing that made Kaga choose to transfer to Public Safety. So like Goto and Soma, Kaga and Shinonome play a role in bringing each other to Public Safety. You can tell the writers consulted either a show bible or Kaga’s Ep 0 because the dialogue at the press conference is almost exactly the same in both routes haha. Anyway, Ayumu got tricked into stealing files that Naru deleted from the NPA database regarding the bomb threat case that Kaga was working on. It was Ayumu’s tip to all the reporters and Kaga that led to Kaga sending Hamaguchi and the rest of his squad to the abandoned building where they lost their lives. I mean, obviously, as Namba says, the fault lies with the terrorists (and then with NARU!!!, and of course with the higher ups who just buried the case) but Kaga knows that the case information that Shinonome helped Naru steal was crucial to this case, and yet not only does he not blame Ayumu, he actually goes out of his way to recruit him. I love how Kaga-style it is as well to say “I’m gonna have you in the end anyway. You may as well come quietly. Say yes and then think about it after.”

(This is almost a Prince Joshua level “yes or yes” proposal)

By the way, I also want to bring attention to this one moment in particular where Kaga’s expression SOFTENS when he sees Hamaguchi… Kaga cares about the people around him so much ;~~;

Anyway, I’m gonna wrap it up now because I will literally keep on going and never stop and I’m already about about 4000 words so I’m just gonna add a few more of my notes:

No wonder Namba still treats him as a kid cause he met bratty 20 year old Ayumu

By the way, how great was Namba’s advice? “Whatever you choose, I only hope that it’s to help others and not for your own amusement”

This is another defining difference between Ayumu’s (current) and Naru’s mentalities which I didn’t want to get into cause I had a slightly different focus.

I said this before but I’ll say it again: Ayumu’s parents encouraging him to follow his path and do what he wants to do even though it means that their business will no longer be a family business…. Gives me Emotions

“The shittingest”

Why did Ayumu get the nice giant dorm room that MC gets at police academy when Kaga and Ishigami had to share one room lol

And Goto and Subaru had to share a room too even when they were working detectives in Criminal Affairs

Ayumu calls Kaga yakuza no less thanTHREE TIMES lol

I know that this has been mentioned by Sachi before but this route really hit home for me that the bullying way he treats his MC is like... what he does when he’s happy?! He was so depressed and disillusioned this whole route that we got none of that behaviour and it made me really miss it

By the way, I’m like 90% certain that Suo is going to make an appearance somehow in Ayumu’s Love’s Trial route

TSUKUNO AYUMU!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I wish they gave us a little more introspection on Ayumu’s relationship with MC at the but also what a typical scene between the two of them we get to see! (Her being a dorky, clingy girl and him grousing but actually ENJOYING IT like the tsundere he is)

Do you agree/disagree with my thoughts? Let me know what you thought of, and enjoyed about, the route and my notes on it!

#ayumu shinonome #hyogo kaga #jin namba #her love in the force #hlitf #who i once was #review #voltage inc #voltage otome #otome game #otome romance #love 365 #love 365 find your story #this ended up being more than 4000 words lmao

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butterflydm · 5 years ago

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The Untamed Rewatch (ep 1)

Series Overview | Index | Next Episode

Oh, yes, I was very correct about this all hitting me a lot harder after I’d seen the whole show. I am also watching it on viki.com this time and the subtitled translations are already a lot better than the ones on the tencent youtube channel. They flow much more naturally as lines of dialogue (there’s a new set of translated videos popping up, too, that I might check out on my… third viewing… that will probably happen after this one… I really like this story y’all).

Things that stood out to me on this viewing (note: I am going to be spoiling the rest of the story as well when talking about things, including the twists):

Okay, so in the drama, when Wei WuXian is brought back to life, it seems like he definitely does look like himself again from the start —he specifically questions Mo XuanYu’s cousin to see if the Mo family would recognize him and learns that they haven’t seen him without mask or heavy makeup since he left home for a while at thirteen. What I infer from the conversations is that their looks were similar enough that when Mo XuanYu called Wei WuXian’s spirit into his body and the magic reshaped it, his general shape didn’t change enough to be noticeable, plus the family didn’t really look at him much in any case. And Wei WuXian worries that the “Lans of Gusu” might know enough about how he looks to recognize him, even if they aren’t “him”. I mean, obviously the doylist/meta reason is that they hired Xiao Zhan for a reason and they’re gonna have him play the part, but yeah, thinking about it is interesting.

Wei WuXian playing wangxian on the piece of grass: fucked me up so much more now. This show does such an excellent job with this entire romance. The whole way they set up Wei WuXian both wanting and not wanting to see Lan WangJi again is a lovely representation of their push-pull dynamic in the drama as a whole.

Which brings me to how much I love that song. The wangxian love theme is absolutely beautiful, enough that even when they play it like ten times in one of the later episodes, I’m still like “aaaah, so pretty! <3”. The first time we hear it is when Wei Ying has the flashback to Lan Zhan in his Gusu robes when he’s talking to Lan SiZhui and it’s so subtle there but it starts building up the mood of their romance, piece by piece. And WWX is so overcome by the memory that he literally sinks down and sits on his heels.

I also really love Lan Zhan’s theme song, as well. Lan Zhan’s introduction is… a lot. I love that we don’t see his face until it’s WWX seeing his face again, too. And he’s just this floating ethereal being and WWX stares for a long while, transfixed… and then makes fun of the way he’s dressed, with a fond smile. There’s such a good job there of putting in a sense of familiarity and history with how Wei Ying reacts to seeing Lan Zhan again.

The set-up of the sixteen years ago, seeing that moment, and then when we come back to it 30+ episodes later as we see both that there was so much we didn’t know but also that the show didn’t at all ‘cheat’ about the emotions of the scene — the backstory information we get complicates the picture of that day that we start with but doesn’t undermine it.

Wei WuXian also comes back in a much better emotional place? Given the way resentful energy is presented in the drama as a corrupting force, I wonder if part of that is attributable to getting a ‘new start’ in Mo XuanYu’s body — his own original body had been put through so much physical trauma in addition to the emotional trauma. The removal of his golden core. Being thrown down into the burial mounds. Then years of resentful energy being held inside his body and built up over time. Even just getting a chance to wipe that out and start again in a body that hasn’t been through that trauma might be helpful. This fey, trickster Wei WuXian is reminiscent of how we meet him in the flashback.

Though, in the drama (as I understand it, his death happens differently in the novel), another element might be that we did see him reach a moment of peace right before he died — he saved Lan Zhan’s life. He was already able to break out of the stranglehold of his grief and pain long enough to do that before he died, so his mind already started the healing process (but then he died, so it was short-circuited — sort of? Wei Ying does make it clear he was aware of being dead and he even knows how long he’s been dead without anyone telling him). I’m not sure how much of that applies to the novel’s version of WWX, but that’s what I got out of the drama’s version.

I really love Wei Ying’s casual displays of power. Snapping his fingers to freeze Mo XuanYu’s cousin in place… it just comes so naturally to him. He just has this very spontaneous-feel to when he uses magic (is it still called cultivation in this context?) that makes it just part of who he is and it’s very charming.

We see the hints of Nie HuaiSang’s hand behind everything — he paid the storyteller to talk about the YiLing Patriarch for three solid days, probably to influence the timing of Mo XuanYu’s ritual. He makes sure he stays there to see the initial results through — which he does again in the final act of the story. I have much genuine love for Nie HuaiSang tbh. He gets his revenge thoroughly but doesn’t go incredibly overboard the way most of the revenge-based characters do in the series (though he is ruthless about it). He knows his own strengths and weaknesses — he’s not a fighter, but he knows where he can find one. He doesn’t have overweening ambition beyond what he can handle. If his big brother had never been murdered, I get the sense he would have happily stayed a decorative baby brother all his life.

The Lan juniors are the cutest lil beans in creation. I love the contrast between them, because we see that Lan SiZhui is much more polite and formal than Lan JingYi, but he’s also incredibly compassionate and his heart is very much present on his face at all times. He’s respectful but openly kind. The moments when his memory is getting tickled by the way Wei Ying is behaving is also… it means so much after having seeing the drama all the way through once. And I love Lan JingYi for many reasons, but also because I think his (tbh kind of straight-up bratty) attitude implies that the Cloud Recesses have calmed the fuck down a bit about their strictness in the past decade-plus. And he finds Wei Ying’s dramatics amusing for the most part, which is cute.

Lan SiZhui recognizing wangxian — I suspect he’s remembering Wei Ying playing it rather than it being a post-death memory of LWJ playing it, since Lan JingYi doesn’t remember it at all. And because if Lan WangJi played it for anyone after Wei Ying died, then I’m not sure he would have been so certain from the start that the person playing it had to be Wei Ying. Meanwhile, Wei Ying isn’t aware of the full emotional importance of the song to Lan Zhan, and he seems to play it a couple of times as a soothing action (self-soothing here, and then to calm down Wen Ning’s corpse in episode 2)? Likely because it reminds him of being cared for by someone (in this case, of course, Lan Zhan). Wei Ying keeps precious hold of things like this and is very sentimental from what we see, and it makes sense that he associates this song with affection in the same way that he associates lotus root and sparerib soup with affection.

I am… honestly not at all surprised that people (even apart from the Lans) are using all the cool shit that Wei WuXian created even while most of the cultivation world still condemns him. That was the way they behaved when he was alive, too. They wanted his cool shit but judged him for making it.

Wei WuXian standing up for Lan SiZhui and the rest of the juniors when Madame Mo is yelling at them: he’s such a natural defender, tbh (which, of course, ends up being a big part of why he and Jiang Cheng end up at odds because WWX doesn’t limit his caretaking nature to his family but extends it to literally anyone who needs it no matter the cost). He’s nurturing in a careless/teasing way at times but he’s also very protective. And that impulse to jump in to help other people is such a big moral thing that he shares with Lan Zhan.

Okay, so, thoughts on grief as presented in the drama: Lan WangJi is well-known and beloved by the young Lan disciples. His reputation is back to being spotless, because it’s been over a decade since he did anything wrong. so, I don’t think he was publicly still grieving, though I will note that the Lan junior disciples seem relatively open to the idea that the YiLing Patriarch was probably not the worst person ever and it wouldn’t suck if he really weren’t dead after all, kind of reminiscent of MianMian’s daughter talking about how the YiLing Patriarch only goes after bad people (Lan JingYi honestly sounds hilariously excited about the idea that the YiLing Patriarch might still be alive, tbh - what have you been telling these children, Lan Zhan? lol).

So while I don’t get the impression LWJ spent most of those years openly pining, I’m sure the subject of WWX has come up, as he’s still a popular monster-in-the-night for a lot of people, and LWJ probably did defend his memory, in his own quiet but solid way. But I also get the impression overall that LWJ put his deep grief for Wei Ying in the same box as his deep grief over his mother, and he did his duty.

Then, he realizes Wei Ying might be alive and everything changes. I love that they both instinctively think of each other by their given names, too. Even when Wei Ying isn’t sure whether or not he wants to see Lan Zhan, that’s still how he thinks of him first — as Lan Zhan. And Lan Zhan just stares at the sword while it’s giving off those black smoke trails, transfixed, and when he first wonders if Wei Ying is alive and there, it’s just... Peak Romance, y’all. Peak Romance.

It does crack me up that the second Wei Ying gets the chance, he dresses himself in his own colors of black & red and doesn’t stick with Mo XuanYu’s colors. The only effort he puts into his ‘undercover’ disguise is the mask. He deserves a “I don’t think you even tried at all” star tbh.

Series Overview | Index | Next Episode

#mdzs meta #the untamed | chen qing ling #wangxian #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian | wei ying #lan wangji | lan zhan #long post #text post #cql rewatch

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acuatique · 6 years ago

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Understanding the relationship between Takasugi and Gintoki

This is gonna be a long one, so please bear with me.

So from the very beginning of the series, we’ve been trying to understand the entire dynamic of these two complex characters, Takasugi Shinsuke and Sakata Gintoki. Up until the Tendoshu plot began unraveling, we’ve seen Takasugi as the primary antagonist. The trope is fairly easy to understand- two characters who completely contrast each other- we have Gintoki, a person who has a positive outlook on life, and forges relationships on the way. Shinsuke on the other hand, is focused on the entire “I will destroy this world” complex, and makes more enemies than friends (apart from his loyal comrades in the Kiheitai). Yet, these two share some very compelling similarities- the love they share for their teacher, and protecting what really matters to them. Having the same purpose, even if they carry out their way of fulfilling it differently (we’ll get to this later.)

If we examine their relationship from their childhood, we can see that they do share a sense of rivalry- especially on Takasugi’s end, counting the wins/losses. However, they do respect each other- their teacher is instrumental in instilling this realisation in them, that perhaps they aren’t that different. Katsura on the other hand acts as the mediator between them, because he can see both of their POV’s since he has personally experienced loss as well.

Fast forward to the time when Shouyou sensei gets arrested, and the three of them lose their father/teacher/guardian figure. We see two different reactions:

Gintoki, one of sensei’s earliest students, can immediately understand that Shouyou knows the implications of being arrested. He does try his best to prevent his sensei from being handed over to the Naraku, but seeing his teacher willingly leave, he can tell something’s up.

Takasugi, also having tried his best, but unable to save Shouyou from being taken. Takasugi is someone who was disowned by his family, and craves the intimacy he gets from being like a son to Shouyou. Seeing his teacher stripped away from him instills a huge amount of anger in him.

Fast forward to the Joui war, we have Takasugi, Gintoki and Katsura fighting for the soul purpose of avenging their sensei. In comes Sakamoto, and the Joui4 is born. Together they fight in what ends up ultimately being a losing battle. But one thing we need to understand here is that they aren’t fighting against the amanto for taking over the country- they’re fighting to get what matters to them back, and that’s Shouyou sensei.

At the end of the battle, we have Oboro giving Gintoki a choice:

Kill your teacher (and mind you this was the first time they saw him after he was arrested)

or, kill your comrades (Takasugi, Katsura)

Like I’ve said before, Gintoki understands sensei in a way that’s different from the other two- he knows what it is that sensei would want. He knows that above everything else, sensei’s dying wish would be to see his students alive. So he is burdened with the task of killing the man who raised him, fathered him, loved him. Takasugi doesn’t understand this- he can’t fathom why Gintoki would want to kill sensei, because he knows sensei mattered to Gin more than anyone else. The fact that he chooses his comrades over his teacher, is the point where their animosity begins.

Now coming to the Kiheitai’s debut, 20 years after the Joui4 went their separate ways. Mind you, we’ve seen Takasugi once before, when he attempted to assassinate the Shogun with Gengai’s robots. His efforts to destroy the Bakufu are ruined by the Yorozuya+Katsura’s joui faction. Here is where we see the “I want to destroy this world that took our Sensei away from us” story begin.

Takasugi continuously attempts to start a civil war within the Bakufu government- we can see this in the Shinsengumi Crisis Arc and the Baragaki arc as well. In between, we have the alliance between Takasugi and Kamui (Odds and Evens, ep 215)

In the Courtesan of a Nation arc, Takasugi slips into the jail where Tokugawa Sadasada is being kept. In a way, he avenges his teacher by killing the man responsible for what happened to Shouyou. In the end, we get a scene where Gintoki and Takasugi cross each others paths, but it’s only Gintoki who turns back. Gin still shows a slight bit of concern for his old friend- he knows the path he is on will only lead to his own destruction. Takasugi has no reason to turn back, because he still sees Gin as the man who made that wrong choice all those years ago.

Now we have Takasugi going in for the kill- allying with the Hitotsubashi faction to destroy the current regime in Edo, Kamui alongside him. And then, using the faction as a means to get to, and kill Tokugawa Shigeshige.

And now, we have a full fledged fight between Gintoki and Takasugi. Quite a considerable amount of their relationship is revealed to us- this is actually where we first see why this animosity exists to begin with.

Battered, the two part ways yet again with their respective Yato companions (Gintoki, Kagura; Takasugi, Kamui).

In the Farewell, Shinsengumi arc, the main Tendoshu/Utsuro/Altana plot is revealed. Gintoki is now aware of what his sensei really was. He knows that Utsuro is the man he will have to kill- the man who gave, and stole his beloved Shouyou sensei.

By the time the decisive battle on Rakuyou has begun, Takasugi is also aware of Utsuro. At this point, Gintoki and Takasugi share the same goal. Destroying Utsuro, and putting an end to his scheme of destroying the Earth. the arc ends with a Joui4 reunion, and again, the two part their ways.

The next time they meet, they’re on the same fighting side.

With the war done, we have the time skip (2 years later)

By now, Takasugi is fully able to understand Gintoki, and why he chose to save his comrades. He finally forgives him, and now the two try to save Shouyou sensei yet again- using the heart of Utsuro.

Gintoki is Takasugi’s alter ego- he is the part of Takasugi that would have done the same, 20 years ago. More than anything, Takasugi is fighting with himself. He’s fighting with the part of him that would also have chosen to save his comrades over Shouyou sensei all those years ago. Post the time skip he knows why Gintoki made that choice, because he himself faced death, only to have Shouyou sensei save him yet again (through Oboro’s ashes).

To sum it all up, we can split their relationship into parts-

1. Childhood rivalry

2. Joui war camaraderie

3. Post Joui war animosity and hatred

4. Protection (Gintoki) vs. Revenge and destruction (Takasugi)

5. Understanding

6. Revival of brotherhood

If you managed to get to the end of this, thank you so much for reading!!!

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americankimchi · 6 years ago

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in comparison to vox machina the mighty nein’s storyline looks like it might be longer in comparison??? or if not longer at least slower in pacing

like for vox machina we started in media res and the entire pace of the campaign was one thing after another, much faster than cr2. for m9 they’ve only barely scratched the surface of any real plot; they might have a few threads in hand but the actual overarching big campaign plot seems just out of view and they’re just doing more “monster of the week” quests than anything else. MUCH more slowburn with the focus being more on the character interactions than an actual outside plot. that’s probably because we already KNEW what the relationships were like for vm and we don’t for m9??? and vm already knew what the dynamics between each other were so the focus was more on the unknown things like “what’s behind this door” or “what loot are we going to get”. like within the first 20 or so episodes we were introduced to the horn of orcus (which... i thought that was going to be a Thing but it wasn’t, which is funny af) and were teased with the beginnings of the whitestone arc, but the characters were all friends and their backstories all known quantities.

to be fair iirc they were... i think like level 9 or something? level 8? somewhere around there and they obviously had like what two prior years of gameplay under their belts so to make any comparison to episode 1 of season 1 to episode 1 of season 2 is uhhhhh. what’s the word. it’s not... fair? we’ll go with that for lack of a better word for it.

we never got to see the fledgling S.H.I.T.S. (and isn’t that interesting, that they had a different name? i wonder if m9 will have a new more ‘official’ sounding name once they’ve finally found their footing) grow closer together as a party and as a family, we were introduced to a fully realized group by the time the first episode hit the air. we don’t have that with cr2 we have the luxury of being able to see these awkward people try to mesh their broken edges against each other to find a better whole.

like i feel that even starting off the characters seem more fleshed out than the cr1 crew was during those first few eps? maybe it has to do with the fact that the cast’s accepted that this game isn’t just a game but also a performance so the characters they created had that in mind... while for cr1 the characters were made for a oneshot; their fleshed out backstories came after to fit a certain pre-made persona.

like if you look at scanlan episode 1 vs nott episode 1 you can clearly see a stark contrast in terms of characterization. scanlan was the ‘joke’ character in episode one, nott, while still falling under the category of a ‘funny’ character, that’s only a fragment of her character, not the driving force behind it. scanlan was made to entertain, he only became an entertainer-and a few episodes down the line.

there was a point to this somewhere but it got lost along the way ghfjkgf ah, stream of consciousness;;;

ANYWAYS, for m9 we’re starting from the very beginning!!! they’re only just starting to become friends!!! the bonds of trust are fragile and newborn and just barely starting to strengthen as they struggle to survive in an increasingly cruel world. i’m excited to see how this different tone will end up affecting the campaign and what kind of story we’ll get out of it. undoubtedly it will be much more different than the one we got to experience with vox machina 👀

#personal #critical role #does this count as meta if it's just me rambling about the campaigns in a stream of consciousness ghjfdhgjfk

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bisexualraplines · 5 years ago

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things about the gays from the unt*med that make me go absolutely unhinged: an incomprehensible list by my sleep deprived self (contains spoilers obvs)

1. the fact that they’re ancient china’s spock and jimothy equivalents right down to the chaotic bisexual dumbass and obedient grumpy energies. i am predictable ik but hear me out....

2. when they first meet (after lz’s Dramatic Entrance) they’re literally just standing there staring at each other. for like a whole minute. love at first sight is real I’ve seen it

3. for their second meeting they immediately start swordfighting cause wwx broke school rules

4. all the times wwx tries to get lz’s attention, even in class, and lz being Extremely Flustered But Annoyed About It. or when he straight up ignores wwx’s advancess and wwx is like “he didn’t hear me. he’s just hard of hearing” ajdjsjs

5. when lz’s uncle “punishes” them both by making them sit in the library for the day and wwx annoys lz to death by a) drawing a portrait of him (its really good) b) sneaking porn into his book and c) asking him to give him the honour of “Glimpsing His Way” okay babey...

6. when lz gets Wasted and passes out on wwx’s sofa and wwx laughs so hard but still tucks him in 🙂

7. when lz ties his headband around both of their wrists like its the String Of Fate (it is)

8. lz telling wwx he doesn’t like touching people yet still touches him every chance he gets.... i see you

9. lz’s brother side eyeing and shipping it so hard and being unable to not bring up wwx to him in like every private convo between them “you care him!!” “I Do Not >: (“

10. lz getting drunk and stealing chickens for wwx as a gift because he’s overwhelmed with romantic frusteration and then the both of them carving their names on a tree

11. wwx, jealous: “do u like miammiam” lz: [gay judgement and prolonged silence] wwx, bursting out laughing: i’m kidding imagine heterosexuality!

12. when resurrected wwx sees lz again for the first time and lz’s wearing pure white robes and wwx’s face is so tender and he says “always dressed in white. like he’s at a funeral” with the softest voice and it killed me dead

13. when wwx comes back to life and he plays the song lz wrote about them in their youth and lz recognizes it and therefore recognizing him behind the mask and he approaches him for the first time in 13 years and time stops and he touches his wrist and they stare at each other for like several long moments and it made me have a whole breakdown

14. when wwx is half unconscious in the cave and asks lz to play a song for him to comfort him and lz plays the song he composed for him 🙂

15. wwx giving lz bunnies cause he knows he likes them. and later a bunny painting and lz smiles at him for the first time and wwx points that out and lz gets flustered

16. “what am i to you” “i saw you as my soulmate in life” “i still am” do not look at me i am breaking down

17. when lz got drunk and passed out and wwx (again) tenderly touches his cheek & tucks him in. then the next morning lz is like “did i do anything dumb...” and wwx is like “i recall u saying ‘i like..’” and lz’s horrified Gay Panic

18. wwx being annoyed by lz’s clans endless rules and telling him lz would never find anyone that would want to marry him bc of those rules and being the whole circus when he marries him in the end

19. when wwx adopts an orphaned kid and they become dads (accidental baby acquisition)

20. when wwx dies and lz raises the baby alone. then later when wwx talks to lz about how their son would be a teenager now if he was still alive and lz looks at him like oh yeah raised ur son 😬

21. lz telling wwx his biggest regret was allowing him to die/letting him go and telling him he’s never leaving his side again

22. when wwx tells lz he wants to take him to his home one day and then a decade later they DO and they basically get married there under wwx’s clans customs 🥺

23. every single time one of their siblings or youth drinking buddies third wheel or Knowingly Side eye

24. wwx wearing lz’s undergarments and wwx taking off his overclothes in front of lz’s uncle and brother and lz’s uncle Noticing and his face is literally just [hand to mouth]. power move of the century

25. lz disobeying his own family to protect wwx even when wwx was too far gone and receiving severe punishment by getting hundreds of lashes

26. lz asking wwx to Run Away With Him when everything was getting bad and his location of choice is where they first met lol

27. when lz gives wwx a lotus when they’re (lowkey cuddling) on the boat in lotus pier (paralleling with wwx telling him he wanted to show him lotus pier and how he’d give him a lotus..... bro)

28. every single time wwx attempts to strip in front of him (there has been several times) and lz’s look of Gay Panic

29. Breakup In The Rain and wwx telling lz if he was to die he wanted to die by his hand and its the most beautiful and tragic scene in the whole show

30. when lz gets alarmed wwx reaches for his hand 🥺 every single time!!

31. when wwx takes the shot for lz during a lan clan ceremony (he doesn’t like alcohol) hottest scene of all time

32. this quote: “when everyone admired my power and wanted to flatter me, you’re the only one who scolded me. But right now, when everyone wants me to die and hates me, you’re the only one standing by me.”

33. *wwx is resurrected* lz: ah shit here we go again

34. sometimes when you grow up you become an esteemed scholar. and sometimes your boyfriend becomes a necromancer. its fine

35. the extremely predictable sun/moon dynamic. the contrasting colour schemes. I rest my case

36. the slowburniest slowburn of over 20 years with the best emotional payoff. i deserve to see it

more to be added cause your girl is only 20-something eps in 🤡

#2020 #mitski’s i will plays in the distance

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wits-writing · 7 years ago

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Riverdale Reviews: Season 2 Ep 1 “A Kiss Before Dying”

[My other Riverdale Reviews here]

Riverdale is back with a bang!

Or rather, picks up from where the bang at the end of season 1 left off, as we see Archie deal with the immediate aftermath of his dad being shot. The echoes of that gunshot ring out through the lives of every character on the show as the events of season 2 are set into motion.

[Full review under the cut]

Throughout my discussions of season 1, I brought many of my problem’s back to how KJ Apa as Archie Andrews felt detached from the main mystery narrative of the show, with most of that being centered more around the drama in the lives of Betty, Jughead, and Veronica to varying degrees. If there’s one thing to be taken away from “A Kiss Before Dying”, it’s that Riverdale has set out to correct that problem in the most Riverdale way possible. Archie’s story picks up mere minutes from where season 1 left him and Fred off, as he rushes in Fred’s truck to get his dad to the ER. All the drama in the episode from there is a direct result of that or one of the other threads that season 1 left dangling in its closing moments. The shooting at Pop’s brings in all the supporting cast to the hospital, however briefly, to show their support for Archie as they wait to see if Fred will recover.

Riverdale has been a show that’s dealt in extremes from moment one, so Fred’s near-death being the moment that brings Archie into focus fits. We spend most of the episode seeing how Archie deals with the various bits of aftermath from the shooting. His first step is to bring in his friends so that he can have someone to go through this with and they each offer support in their own way as the episode goes on. Veronica, being his girlfriend, obviously wants to be able to do as much as possible to make this easier on him, since she’s still working to be a better person. She even says to Betty, “The old Veronica would’ve bolted by now.” She’s the first to tell Archie he should leave the hospital and go back to his house so he can get out of his blood-stained clothes. Their time together at the Andrews’ house provides the setup for some of the best moments in the episode, including Archie talking to Veronica about how much no one in the family cared for their dog, Vegas, more than Fred.

Veronica’s connection to Archie ends up tying back to the shifting dynamics in her own life as they get set up for the season. With Hiram Lodge’s imminent arrival in Riverdale hanging over everything, Ronnie’s relationship with her mother, Hermione, starts to take on a more antagonistic bent now that Hermione no longer needs to keep up appearances the way she did last season. Veronica remembers how Hermione wanted to buy Fred out of their contract to renovate the old drive-in’s land before Hiram arrived, which is all that’s needed to fan these sparks of conflict between mother and daughter into flames. The new dynamic between the characters is set into place in a tense scene where Veronica confronts Hermione while she’s praying and lays bare her suspicions about her mother’s motives. Hermione’s reply, telling Veronica to remember that she’s a Lodge before anything else, says all we need to know about where things could end up going between the Lodges as season 2 goes along.

KJ Apa as Archie and Camila Mendes as Veronica are easily the standout performances of the episode, but an honorable mention goes to Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl. Her brief scenes in this episode set up how she’s already plotting to advance her own position in her life in the wake of her burning Thornhill Manor to the ground. She lies to everyone about what happened that night, saying her mother sustained heavy burns to save her while she slept through it, though Mrs. Blossom really went back in to recover a family portrait. Cheryl lays out her intentions plainly to Penelope as she lays bandaged up on her hospital bed. She’s going to be the one in charge from now on and in exchange she won’t tell anyone what really happened in the barn with Clifford Blossom at the end of last season. Cheryl closes out her speech to her mom with my favorite line in the episode, “Henceforth, if you breathe it’s because I give you air.”

Betty and Jughead’s relationship is the last major thing in focus as the couple deals with the fact that the Southside Serpents have made it clear that Jughead is one of them now. Betty struggles to deal with it as she fears that Jughead could end up falling into the dark if he gets too involved with them, even as he reassures her that that won’t happen. Her mother, Alice, is still insistent that Jughead has that darkness as a simple fact of who he is thanks to FP (“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, especially when there’s a snake in it.”) Meanwhile, Jughead is falling into a new routine as he’s living in FP’s trailer and riding his motorcycle while his foster family covers for him with social services. Cole Sprouse as Jughead gets to be a little less moody in this episode than he could get at points in season 1, calling Archie “Pureheart the Powerful” for saving Cheryl and Fred and saying his appetite “increases tenfold” during a crisis. He’s still definitively this show’s version of Jughead, since he’s the first to bring up the idea that what happened to Fred didn’t happen by chance. So, he asks a couple of the Serpents to search around for information about who might’ve pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, this show still has one member of the core four getting less focus than the other three and this time the misfortune falls to Lili Reinhart as Betty. Her entire story this episode is about her worry over Jughead’s involvement with the Serpents and it doesn’t leave her a lot to work with. By contrast, while Veronica spends a lot of the episode worrying about Archie’s well-being she still had a story of her own moving forwards in the form of her relationship with her parents. Meanwhile, Betty seems to only exist in this episode to be Jughead’s supportive girlfriend. It’s not a good use of the character/actress at all, especially in contrast to how much she had to work with last season.

“A Kiss Before Dying” may be one of the strongest season openers I’ve seen in a long time. It manages keep up the momentum from Riverdale’s season 1 cliffhanger and uses that to give most of the characters something interesting to deal with. There’s other great moments I haven’t discussed, like Fred’s stylized near-death nightmares that cycle through the phases of Archie’s life he’s worried he won’t be there for before he finally recovers and wakes up. Mark Consuelos arrival on the show as Hiram Lodge is the final piece that falls into place showing exactly where Hermione’s loyalty will lie this season and establishes him as an intimidating figure in his own right. The overdramatic Jughead mocking Pop’s own overdramatic description of the hooded figure that shot Fred as “the Angel of Death” makes for the best comic beat in the episode. Finally, the episode closing on the same hooded figure murdering pedo-creep Ms. Grundy feels like a message from the showrunners that they have learned from the missteps of last season.

But we’ll see what the fallout of that event is next episode in “Nighthawks.”

#Riverdale #Riverdale season 2 #Riverdale Reviews #TV Review #Wit's Writing #Archie Comics #Archie Andrews #Veronica Lodge #Jughead #Betty Cooper #Cheryl Blossom

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