#me constantly creating interesting situations and developments for them tbh

[tooquirkytolose]

Drawing blorbos from my mind again :^)

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep 14: Alliances

I didn't remember this one, so it was an interesting watch. I like the idea of Voyager trying to find allies in the Delta Quadrant, but the first place they looked being the Kazon was... a weird choice, to put it nicely.

First of all, Chakotay coming to the Captain and being all 'the Kazon are attacking all the time, our Starfleet rules are clearly the problem!' was a little nonsensical, and then he offered absolutely no suggestion for what to do instead of what they were already doing, so that whole scene was kind of a head scratcher. (Chakotay has been kind of a bitchy jerk these past few episodes- why? To what end? Why do the writers constantly try to undermine their main characters on this show??)

The former Maquis crewmen being in favor of giving the Kazon what they want in the hopes they'd go away was an interesting plot development, and I actually do kind of like it when they point out that the two crews haven't actually become the Brady Bunch yet at this point. It was obviously put there to set up later plot points down the line, but Captain Janeway's unequivical response that she would blow up the ship before she'd give the Kazon any part of it was, frankly, badass as hell, and I'm 100% with her. I would die for her tbh, what a queen.

Tuvok being in favor of allying themselves with the Kazon was a little out of character I feel, since he usually advocates caution in nearly every situation. His likening it to the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons was a bit of a false equivalency, since the Federation and the Klingons had dealt with each other for centuries before that treaty was made, and they occupied the same reagion of space permanently and knew each other's cultures and motives pretty well after all that time. Considering that was not the case with the Kazon, it did seem like a pretty dumb idea to try to make an alliance with the people who have been actively attacking them from day one.

But anyway, The Captain decides to do it, and almost everybody is like 'omg no!' including Chakotay, who whined to her about it in the first place, and she rightly calls out his hypocrisy in wanting to do something unconventional and then balking when it wouldn't be fun or easy.

I love how B'Elanna was one of the few people to unequivically support the Captain, even to her former Maquis friends when they try to appeal to her Maquis loyalties. She's really come a long way from the first ep when she questioned who the hell Janeway was to give them orders, to telling her Maquis friend not to question Janeway's orders in front of her. I love how B'Elanna has come to trust the Captain so completely in this short time, the respect and friendship that's grown between them is so wonderful, and one of my favorite things in these early seasons.

I hated the scene where Neelix goes to a bar on a planet to get his friend to persuade one of the Kazon sects to ally with Voyager. There was absolutely no reason they needed to have a half naked dancing girl in a bikini in that scene at all, let alone dancing around in the background of the whole scene. Aside from being sick of gratuitous female nudity in everything (and a thong where you could see her whole ass counts as nudity, how were they even allowed to do that on network TV in those days??) I'm sick of the implication that the entire universe is catered to the tastes of straight men from patriarchal societies. Where are the half naked male dancers?? Oh, they don't exist?? The whole universe is made to cater to straight men who enjoy exploiting women?? Sure, Jan. Gag me with a spoon.

Also hated how they just had to keep bringing up how the Kazon hated negotiating with a woman. Creating ragingly misogynist villains on the first series with a female captain was a total dick move. When we should've just been able to have a female character being large and in charge without regard to gender, instead we get constant reminders that she's a woman, and therefore should be considered lesser. I don't care that it was the villains saying it, it's still a gross and shitty thing to throw in the way of a female lead in a world where a lot of people did, and still do, actually feel that way. Why does their garbage viewpoint even get a space at the table? That attitude does not deserve a platform, and Star Trek should be the last one to give it to them.

The maquis guy trying to contact Seska was kind of odd after they found out she was a Cardassian spy (they told the rest of the crew about that, right?? Idk, maybe not lol). You'd think the Maquis, who had been fighting the Cardassians, would hate her most of all, but it's an interesting idea to have all these rogue crewmembers working with the enemy, and it does set up the potential for future conflicts, so I'll go with it.

The Kazon's former oppressors the Trabe being introduced as refugees on the planet, fleeing the Kazon, was a nice twist, and explaining that the Kazon's ships were all stolen from them finally made the Kazon having ships make sense. Allying with the Trabe seemingly made more sense, but the way the Trabe leader was being played seemed kind of insincere, so his betrayal at the conference at the end was pretty easy to see coming, even though I truly didn't remember anything from this episode at all.

In the end, the lesson we learned here was what I thought from the beginning- that they were too new to the Delta Quadrant to be wading into any kind of politics with people they don't really know, and that Captain Janeway was right all along in sticking to their Starfleet mission and principles. Surprise! (But not really.)

I appreciated that it tried to do something a little different in getting more into the politics of the Delta Quadrant, but unfortunately, the Kazon are such one dimensional villains that it made the whole story a bit uninteresting and unbelieveable.

Tl;dr: An attempt to do more of a political story that didn't quite work, but which introduced some interesting plot points to explore in later episodes.

[pixelnrd]

hi babe! glad to see you posting again <3 i was wondering if you'd be willing to share your favorite 3 heirs to play, and your least favorite?

Ok so I'm going to answer this from a purely gameplay-based perspective on who was a fun sim to play.

3 Favourite Heirs

Marigold/Primrose: I loved playing these gals because they weren't meant to be heir! So when the direction of play changed I create a post-war life for them where they both just swanned about working on their creative hobbies all day. Both sims had different purposes and goals which kept gameplay interesting and I never felt like one was heir over the other. It was also so nice to play them together after separating them from the start.

Ruth: I always wanted to use the heir for the 1930s to play through Cottage Living (back when it was released), and so playing Ruth and Teddy on their farm was fun because I was learning so much about the pack as I played. I also enjoyed the simplicity of their life - work hard, have some babies, living off the land starting with low funds. It was a unique challenge.

Maggie: I was looking forward to playing my 1950s housewife storyline with Maggie and going back to the roots of my Langston gameplay and just having lots of babies and seeing how it turned out - which kept the generation interesting as I developed all their personalities. Maggie was fun to play with because she had to sole parent all the kids, and also making her have her affair with Em without it destroying her marriage was an extra challenge.

3 Least Favourite Heirs

Daisy: OK don't get me wrong I loved Daisy as a sim. But I didn't find her super fun to play with once I got over sending her out to party and romance people constantly/fulfil my goal of her having children with different men. I enjoyed her daughters and the interesting characters that came out of them, but playing Daisy felt quite directionless as she fulfilled her aspiration early and didn't have a career, and her life was quite messy too with a lot of different living situations.

Douglas: I found Douggie a bit boring, tbh. He was just a Dad and focused on his career. The 1940s became boring after WW2 was finished and the family left the farm.

Leonard: The 1960s were really hard to play. Having a famous musician and actress at the same time, as well as raising children, was a lot of work. Leo fulfilled his career really early and crafting a story around a band when there is no band system built into the game was a lot of work.

[sigurdjarlson]

About the article, that part AND specifically the part referring to the "principles" line in the show, where some fans tend to interpret it as like... 'if Tom says it it must be true'? How not only is that not true, but because Greg has SOME values, that line ties right back into the loneliness. Like, he can't talk about it. -- I've seen you talk about at least some of this, but I think part of the reason I thought of you specifically is because it was a good take, and you're ALL good takes.

It’s always thrown me how a lot of people take Tom’s word for that tbh. Admittedly I think the show failed to show us Greg expressing this stuff in a situation that isn’t played for comic relief so it doesn’t quite..stick with people I think?

That’s kinda the problem with Greg. He’s used mainly for comic relief (and as a catalyst for things happening to other characters) and doesn’t get nearly as much emotional development or serious character exploration

I feel like In responses I’m constantly saying “Nic said” or “Jesse said” because a lot of the info I have on Greg comes from interviews rather than the show itself.

(S4 fix this pleaseeee)

He’s also written very ambiguously and I think that’s why takes on him vary so much and you see people with wildly different interpretations sometimes. (He was originally made to be the audience insert character that allows the audience to project on/relate to him)

But I never understood people thinking Greg is some evil amoral beast from birth cjsjdkfjd.

Nic has said (there I go again) Greg wasn’t like a martyr or showering people with charity or anything lmao but he wasn’t a bad person. He said there’s a goodness to him though, a naive sort of sweetness.

(What we’re watching is that gradually eroding)

Like we don’t ever really see Greg act maliciously. His betrayals aren’t intended to hurt anyone. He doesn’t want to hurt or anger anyone. He wants everyone to like him while still pursuing what’s best for him but that’s not quite possible here.

And he’s clearly quite self serving from the beginning but I don’t see this as always being an inherently evil trait per se? Like you gotta look after yourself sometimes. Especially if no one else is doing it for you. He’s not close to any of the Roys especially at the beginning. What exactly does he owe them? (Nothing) Why shouldn’t he mooch off his billionaire cousins who generally treat him like shit and are shit people lmao?

Also the Greg nepotism comments tend to make my eye twitch because the Roys are the nepotism babies here. There’s a slight element of that with Greg but not nearly to the degree the Roy kids have it. Tom gave him the job after all not Logan. And my dude is making what 100-200k? Compared to the billions the Roys are making? (Like that’s a lot of money but at the same time in comparison to the Roy’s it’s not at all)

And frankly if most people had an easy route to success like that they’d take it in a heartbeat. Is it fair? No but most things aren’t in the world the Roys live in.

(Also Greg has more to lose than anyone because he doesn’t have a billionaire dad to catch him if he fucks up. Which creates a desperation and a drive to survive by any means necessary. He doesn’t have the luxury of sticking by his principles or else he’s going to be flat broke)

But he does know right from wrong.

Like he’s clearly extremely uncomfortable at ATN at first. “Working at ATN? This is like the one thing I didn’t want to do?”

(If he’s gay that whole situation becomes so much more interesting tbh)

And idk the principles scene is interesting because Nic has said quite a few times that Greg does have a sense of morality.

The thing is Greg is getting more and more willing to push that aside in favor of pursuing money, power, etc

His self interest always wins out and that’s a character flaw. The original sentiment of “I don’t like this. It makes me uncomfortable.” Is there but he’s getting more and more willing to toss his morals in the garbage. (“What am I going to do with a soul anyway?”)

(However I do think people focus on his ambition and hunger for money and power which is definitely there but often forget a big drive for Greg at first was wanting to be a part of a family too. He turned down a quarter of a BILLION dollars because Logan said he liked him…)

No character on this show is purely evil and heartless or purely good (lmao). and that’s what makes these characters so fascinating. Logan probably comes closest to being the worst but even he loves his own kids in some fucked up way as Jesse and Brian say.

They’re all shitty people but there’s more to them, you know? The point of the show is money and power corrupts and twists people. It brings out the worst in you.

Also thank you I’m glad you enjoy my posts <3

[poptimus-prime]

Here is what the kids call my highly disorganized, half-baked list of stuff that could have been done with Jack to make him a better character.

@yeetmetothehell I am sorry if you are disappointed by my ideas.

“Optimus was more like...Jack.” OK…so show us that.

In my opinion...Jack seems like he was intended to be written to be almost a parallel to Orion’s journey to becoming Optimus Prime, at least how he is used in the plot. Jack is described as “smart and responsible”, which can also be read as “hardworking and responsible” and really this can be achieved in narratively using a few points, IMO:

Long hours in his room/the library studying outside of work and school. 

Filling out the background of the garage more with sketches/print outs of motorcycle blueprints (to keep the idea that Jack really wants a motorcycle and show hints of extreme dedication, but they’re kept in the garage rather than his room to metaphorically show that distance he’s put between himself and what he wants)

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too fast” (This will be discussed more later but TL;DR “I’ll handle the electric bill this month, Mom”)

Somewhat fragile work/school/life balance that Jack somehow perfectly maintained before meeting the team

Orion was very physically passive. Jack seems to be intended to be written as passive but it comes off as an apathetic reluctance that Orion doesn’t possess (Orion may not believe in violence but he clearly wasn’t unwilling to communicate his thoughts; it’s how he got the title of Prime in the first place.) However, Orion had to learn to become more outspoken over time probably, so we can keep him as being aloof/reluctant at the start of the series.

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too Fast”

It’s no secret Jack came from a nonconventional home; June is very explicitly portrayed as a single mother with a dad nowhere in the picture. However the situation surrounding Mr. Darby is unknown. The way June talks about it makes me personally feel like Jack’s dad either ran out or divorced June and doesn’t bother with his kid. Dysfunction in the family really just goddamn changes you TBH. (can confirm bc hi, I come from a dysfunctional home) Sometimes you just grow up super fast. Jack probably spent his childhood missing his mom as she worked shifts at the hospital and seeing how lonely and hurt she was. He maybe went out and got a job the first day he could and helps with smaller bills (“I’ll handle the electric bill this month.”), or maybe other expenses like groceries and his own phone bill. June probably makes enough to comfortably support her and her son, especially given her job and the cost of living in rural ass desert Nevada. But Jack still does this anyways--it’s how he copes with his issues after what happened with his dad. Doubling down and trying to be what he thinks is the bigger man because his dad couldn’t be fucked. 

This would make the disruption him letting the bots into his life creates more staggering; June doesn’t expect her son to pay bills, but the sudden change in behavior (skipping out on work) would be a cause for concern because sudden shifts like that are Usually Signs that Something is Very Wrong. Especially because Jack is usually responsible and open with his mom; he would have told her if he was gonna cut hours at work, theoretically.

Jack feels like he has to constantly put his own wants aside to contribute to his household. Even if June doesn’t force this expectation upon him, it’s a feeling that he will have, especially if he watched his dad just abandon him and June. Maybe he has resentment towards his dad for this and that is causing some anger he’s keeping tightly under wraps? And maybe the bots give him an excuse to do something he actually wants to do for once or some excitement in his life and that’s why he goes along with it? Lots of options, people!

Clothing Choices: The Hoodie™

You are going to have to deal with me being a whore for costuming choices and what they can mean. The show has a problem with the humans wearing the same shit every time they’re on screen and I’d love to rant about all of them (yeah yeah I get it saving money) but I’m focusing on Jack right now. Give Jack a hoodie 2020. A grey one or some other dull and drab color. And make him actually always wear the hood (except like in scenes where he is working bc workplace dress codes obviously) As time progresses, the drab hoodie is changed to a more vibrant color, but he still always has the hood over his head. And then, at a pivotal moment, the boy takes the hood off. (You could even throw in Miko cracking a joke about Jack actually having hair if you really wanted TBH.) Why this? The narrative is that Jack is constantly holding himself under wraps because of his self-imposed responsibilities. As he starts to become more into his own, he decides to express himself more with brighter colors, but still has some reservations. When he takes the hoodie off, that’s when he’s fully realized himself in this process and thus completes the parallel.

Actually make him interact with Optimus in a meaningful manner.

Arcee can still be his guardian in the field and I think working on strengthening their relationship is vital. But also, if you’re gonna make Jack the confidante holding the key to Vector Sigma, there actually has to be...meaningful interaction. Optimus asking Jack what he’s so engrossed in reading and Jack explaining the book he’s got with passion before shutting himself up and saying “it’s kinda dumb though” or something. And Optimus just responds “I don’t think it’s dumb, tell me more.” Coaxing him towards more self-discovery and expression. Optimus maybe sees more of his old self in Jack and starts attempting to be a quasi-paternal figure without really thinking about it because he is, after all, Dadimus. Jack maybe lashes out about how he doesn’t need Optimus to be his dad and that makes the space between them tense for a while. Eventually Jack comes to apologize and maybe there’s an important Talk.. Just a few ideas I will expand on later. I feel like forgiveness and lack thereof is a good theme--I know I was held back for a long time because of how convoluted the concept of forgiveness is with family.

The Character Arc

 So, what would Jack’s character development throughout the events of season 1 be? My basic idea for a Jack arc that mirrors Orion’s self-realization and coming into Prime-hood without being a carbon copy is essentially: 

Jack is portrayed as a responsible, hardworking, studious teenager who constantly turns down chances for fun and excitement to handle his responsibilities. Has clear dreams for after high school and for his own personal life; but he’s constantly contemplating and changing his mind about whether he will or not because he’s extremely dedicated to helping his mom and all that. However, he still gets super curious about Arcee and gets swept up by her in the Vehicon chase, and he still has whispers of courage and protects Raf during the altercation. He first tries to ditch Team Prime because he’s concerned about his responsibilities, but eventually returns because he’s drawn to the opportunity to finally go buck wild for once in his life (even if he spends his time being hesitant about everything.) His hesitancy and dedication to severe self-imposed responsibility is a result of his inability to move on from what his dad did to him and his mom; he’s under the impression that he 1) Has to forgive someone to move on, and thus 2) He cannot move on because his dad isn’t there to bother to say sorry and take on his position as Dad. In essence, he becomes less the character telling Miko to stop and more the character being pushed by Miko to be more adventurous. In lulls in action, Optimus starts to take interest in him when he notices his constant hesitance to express himself and is just being dragged along rather than going willingly. Has a conversation with him about a book Jack’s reading, which Jack attempts to shut down because it’s “dumb and childish,” but Optimus urges him to continue. The idea that June knows about Arcee as a bike and Jack explaining that he bought a motorcycle as a fixer-upper for dirt cheap can stay. (He probably still is saving up for his motorcycle.)

The longest portion, after Optimus starts interacting with Jack on a level of bonding and gently coaxing him to be himself— Jack becomes more outspoken and he’s shown as curious, analytical, quick witted, and has a deep sense of justice. Being young and craving a childhood lost to his trauma and self-imposed obligations to help his mom with running the household, he suddenly starts spending more time at the base pursuing hobbies and going on missions rather than studying and work, which concerns June. She tries to press Jack, and is met with what can be described as typical teenage headbutting that gets progressively worse. She grounds Jack after the fight, MECH takes her, the rescue happens. (That makes sense to stay in this narrative IMO.) Around this time, Optimus has effectively started becoming Jack’s own Alpha Trion—teaching him things that he’s picked up that he may feel apply to Jack. Jack interprets one of these lessons as Optimus trying to be “dad” and he’s not having it. Makes it VERY clear that he does not need a dad (“didn’t need one before and sure as fuck don’t need one now”) and definitely snaps at Optimus, which then pushes his progress in the arc closer to the end. He eventually comes back to apologize, and Optimus forgives him. He and Optimus have a heart-to-heart about one of the hardest lessons Optimus has had to learn—how to let go of the past without forgiving those who have hurt you and refuse to make amends, so that you may determine your own future. It’s very clear he’s talking about Megatron, even though he never says his name. Jack takes this lesson to heart.

His final bit of development before the hood removal thing probably happens during the events of “Rock Bottom” and reinforces that hard lesson, right when he’s faced with the option to off Megatron. Maybe there’s some taunting about how Optimus preaches softness and forgiveness too much when Jack refuses to kill him. Jack gets angry, and he’s about to fucking do it. But then he stops, takes a breath, and says “Optimus doesn’t preach forgiveness, he preaches moving on from those who refuse to move on themselves. He will never forgive you, but he’s learned to live on despite what you’ve done.” Soon after this, when Megatron comes to the base, Jack takes off his hood, stares Megatron right in the face, and says “This is not forgiveness, Megatron. Don’t you forget that.” Later, when Optimus gives him the key, he tells him something along the lines of “you have grown since we’ve met, Jack, and even though there is still a long way for you to go...” he hands Jack the key. “...Remember that even I am a work in progress.”

Anyways this is again, half-baked. And needs lots of polishing. But it’s something.

[ctl-yuejie]

Finally managed to add the translation for the second actor interview from the showing of Long Time No See at the Seoul Pride Film Festival

Disclaimer: This translation got a bit messy and I am not 100% content with it , but the video went unsubbed so here you go. I really liked and enjoyed his answers, especially the process of him creating Gitae and the behind the scenes info on the kissing and sex scenes were pretty interesting. Enjoy!

(You can find the translation with time stamps in the comments of the linked video)

YSH: Hello, I’m Yeon Seung-ho, who plays the role of „Wild Dog“. I’ve seen the movie for the second time today and while I do not know how everyone else has perceived it, it has been the product of hard work from the actors, the director and staff members, so I'd like to advertise it having that in mind.

(Conversation with the LTNS audience at the 7th Seoul Pride Film Festival -Actor Yeon Seungho-)

MC: Since the work is noir while also being a queer movie and you have to both use your body well and act emotionally, it must have seemed like a difficult role after receiving the script.

Question:  - Wasn't it difficult to transform into “Wild Dog” for the play? -

YSH: First of all, because I had to show totally different looks, I acted a little bit brighter in the beginning, and I don’t know if it was noticeable, but I thought that I had to be cuter and more flirty. In fact, the question was whether to break that bright character gradually over time, or to break it at once. However, with such a concept, in my case, I wanted to go the unexpected way and break that bright image at once and appealed to the director to do it that way. The director understood that, so I tried to act it out in that way.

Question: -How was the action scene shooting? -

YSH: I actually got hit more often than I expected, and since I wore short sleeves, shooting the action scenes meant that I got many bruises on my arms.

MC: If you don’t calculate correctly, you might get hit for real...

YSH: That’s why you might see some bruises on my arms earlier on. My lips got hurt constantly and our first and second shoots were actions scenes. It was very difficult for us to try and not get each other hurt. In my case, one action scene didn’t get used.

MC: That must be disappointing as an actor.

YSH: Yes, it just didn’t get used.

Question:  - What emotions did you face in order to act out same sex love -

YSH: You might know this, but we had more skin ship scenes than expected. In the original work there are only few kisses and hardly any skinship scenes.  Later on, we also did more adlibs. What used to get communicated by talking, turned into something happening between us and us falling in love. And as we were being in love and as conflict started to develop, just thinking about what normal people in love would do, we went with the flow.  When ordinary couples are together with just the two of them they feel like they want to kiss. Like the scene at the train tracks, we express the naturalness in those parts, and try to show a little bit the everyday as a homosexual person. Rather than showing who is different in those parts, we hoped to illuminate daily love, so I tried to use more of my skills and make an effort to make it seem as if Chisu was my first love, even if I don’t know if I succeeded in that.

MC: When you shoot kissing scenes or love scenes it must feel strange in the beginning and you might not know how to express yourself, but once you shoot it two times, three times and you get more comfortable, you might start to play around a bit. Did something like that happen?

YSH: To be honest, as I said earlier, we were at a point where we could do adlibs for skinship scenes, so I it was easier to do kissing scenes. When we shot the love scene it was my first time.  Not in real life though.

MC: I thought you might say that it was your first in real life, so I fretted where to tell you to lie, that’s why I said it like that.

YSH:It wasn’t my first time in real life, it was my first time shooting a love scene.

MC: With another sex or same sex, it was your first love scene.

YSH: It was my first time doing such a scene.

MC humorous: It was obvious that you got angry at me insinuating you were lying.* I am sorry. 

YSH: Thinking about how the love scenes should go, how and what I should prepare, there was nothing I could prepare.  I was going to do it, but instead of thinking about how the love scene would look like, Woo Seok Hyung’s breathing was very heavy (laughs) and I always minded about my shaving. It was really prickly. Usually, I can do what I’m told, but since there were these experiences it’s like a realized something new.

Question:  - Why did “Wild Dog” become a killer? -

YSH: In the original work there wasn’t a particular reason given as to why he became a killer, so I analyzed the character myself and when I created the character I thought about me and my sister’s relationship as “Wild Dog” and I got a little bit informed by how close we were and how we were living. 

Both our parents aren’t there anymore, my sister has raised me lovingly and even if the situation at home wasn’t as difficult, we are not living in abundance, so “Wild Dog” always seems to feel guilty about that.  I feel sorry for my sister so I do whatever I am asked to.  The only parts of my childhood shown in the movie is what happened at around the third year of high school, but my sister also understood what had happened without any words.  Even so, while I said that I love my family, there was a time where “Wild Dog” wandered around, and must have become twisted during that time.  People in the dark meet shady people so while I lived my normal days with my sister, if there was a need I worked as a killer.  It comes out in Taesan Seonbaenim’s (black panther) line as well: “I need a killer without a face”. Because of that I looked at the original work, took those parts together and created “Wild Dog” as a character who had lived such a live.

In the original work there are many parts where there is strong messaging.

It is a bit philosophic, but I chose this project because it is a movie concerning human rights -  or more particularly- it is a movie including a message about LGBTI people. Once many people watch it, I hope that they will focus on those parts when doing so.

In the future, as an actor, I will see you soon with other works and show you good appearances.

Thank you very much.

*„거짓말이라고 화낼 뻔 했어요.“ 03:28-03:30

This one threw me for a loop tbh and is the biggest reason I took so long. I think this is what the emcee meant by that. Their banter during this part was silly, so I think it does fit in context but I am not 100% sure.

[dearestpartnerofgreatness]

give me your top ten couples in the dramas you've watched and why they're so great

Okay this is gonna be super in depth + full of spoilers so details below the cut to spare y’all scrolling on your phones haha. 

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Chen Qing Qing x Situ Feng (Accidentally in Love, Cdrama) - I love both of these characters so much. Qing Qing is such a bad*ss, and Situ Feng is such a lovable dork. I love how well-matched they are in wit and humor. They are also the best example of enemies-to-friends-to-lovers I’ve seen on any drama so far. The way their bond developed was so natural. I also LOVE how obsessed they are with each other while also remaining independent. They are physically affectionate in a believable way that you don’t see often in dramas. 

Nam See Hee x Yoon Ji Ho (Because This Is My First Life, Kdrama) - This couple is just so soft. They’re also so dang compatible--they genuinely enjoy each other’s company/habits and support each other without jealousy or drama. I appreciate how they subvert traditional drama stereotypes-- See Hee is blunt + honest without being mean, and Ji Ho prioritizes her work + friendships just as much as her relationship. Also, they have one of the most beautiful, sexy, realistic first kisses in any drama ever!!! THEY ACTUALLY  MOVE THEIR LIPS AND EVERYTHING.

Woo Soo-Ji x Ma Sang-Goo (Because This Is My First Life, Kdrama) - What do we love more than a cool, confident, feminist heroine? A man who adores and supports a cool, confident, feminist heroine. Their scenes together range from sexy, to sweet, to tender, to comedic. Both actors bring so much depth and range to their individual characters, thereby creating what is one of the most interesting and shippable beta romances (imo).

Wang Qiang Wei x Wang Qiang Da (Lion Pride, Tdrama) - THESE TWO. The jokes, the eye contact, the mystery solving--everything about the way they interact is just so CUTE. The scene right after they’ve kissed and are hugging in the street (when Si De tries to prevent Tsiao Tie from seeing them) is just bursting with intimacy and affection. They strike the perfect balance between a youthful, innocent romance and a more domestic, mature romance. 

Lian Si De x Tie Bu Fan (Lion Pride, Tdrama) - What I love most about these two is how similar they are. On the outside, they’re confident, stars of their workplaces, and popular in the dating world. But at their core, they are loyal, selfless, hard on themselves when they make mistakes, and the two best friends anyone could have. Watching them fall for each other amongst the crazy circumstances of the mystery plotline endeared them to me so much. Also, that scene with the umbrella is A+ ROMANCE. Still mad they never got to kiss. 

Pi Yanuo x Du Zifeng (Bromance, Tdrama) - If you want a couple with red-hot passion, you don’t need to look further than these two. The sexual tension between them had me screaming “JUST KISS!” at my TV practically every episode. Beyond that, the level of trust + loyalty was beautiful--they really were equal partners in the relationship. Also, I LOVE that the show explicitly stated that Du Zifeng’s attraction for Yanuo went beyond her gender, and he would love her the same no matter how she identified. (Also, that final scene in the hotel hallway is, to this day, the hottest scene I’ve ever witnessed in a drama.) 

Liao Guang Chao x Zi Han (Bromance, Tdrama) - At first, this couple felt more like a “pair the spares” situation for me. But the more time they spent together, the more I appreciated the humor of their moments. By the show’s end, I fell in love with how they bring out the best in one another + help each other grow. A-Chao challenges Zi Han to rethink her assumptions, manage her temper, and be less selfish. Zi Han emboldens A-Chao and inspires him to be more hard-working, brave, and determined. The actors are also comedic gold individually and as a pair, so that helps them slip into the top 10. 

Lu Yang x Lin Jingxiao (A Love So Beautiful, Cdrama) - These two were the real otp of ALSB, lemma tell ya. First of all, Jingxiao’s super cool: feisty, intelligent, and ambitious, but also a little too aggressive sometimes. Lu Yang’s obvious adoration of her, as well as his charming, loyal, humorous, and slightly scaredy-cat personality, made them such a fun and lively pair. I also appreciated their “you exasperate me but also I would die for you” dynamic and how that continued after they became official--I can’t stand when a drama has a couple get together and then changes one of their personalities to hide the fact that they just wouldn’t work (*cough* *cough* like they did with the main couple for this show). 

Oh Dong-baek x Hwang Yong-sik (When the Camellia Blooms, Kdrama) -  I am 100% on board with this pair!!! I ADORE their honesty and communication. So many dramas are exasperating bc their leads constantly misunderstand each other or can’t explain what they want, but not these angels! They excel at compromising to suit the other’s needs/wants and find ways to show love through meaningful actions. The level of care and nurturing is so lovely. Also, the actors have amazing chemistry--they genuinely look so happy together! (Where can I get me a Yong-sik???)

Fei Fei x Wen Li (Well-Intended Love 2, Cdrama) - The only thing that got me through season 1 of this show, tbh. I will say that I liked the development of their relationship in season 2 a lot more. Unlike a lot of other couples, the awkward moments in their relationship came off as comedic rather than cringey. Their meet-cute at the bar and the scene where Wen Li cleans Fei Fei’s house while she sleeps showed how sweet and genuine their connection was. I’m glad they gave them that shift where Fei Fei realized she had to go after him and put her all in the relationship too--Wen Li was such an angel, so I'm glad he got to be the one who was romanced after spending so much time romancing her. 

LET IT BE KNOWN that I wanted to include Ji Jia Wei x Xiao Tong from the Tdrama Murphy’s Law of Love on this list, because Jia Wei is my favorite male lead of all the dramas I’ve watched so far. Unfortunately, the consistent wishy-washy-ness of Xiao Tong prevents me from doing so. I still can’t get over how she constantly misinterpreted what was happening in their relationship and refused to communicate DESPITE LITERALLY BEING A DATING EXPERT. 

Also honorable mention to Cha Soo-hyun x Park Hae-young (Signal, Kdrama) because although they aren’t a canon couple, they clearly have intense chemistry considering how much they invade each other’s space, and their intense emotional connection coupled with what a dream team they are as crime-solvers just gets me, y’know? If the season 2 rumors are true, I’ve got my fingers crossed for them to go canon!!

[firesfelt]

afternoon, all ! finally getting my last ( for now... i already have Temptations ) intro up, and hopefully without a rushed ending because i suddenly have to do something lmao. while i’m not Wild about my intro graphics in general ( why does this one lowkey look stretched, for a start... ) but the fact that that ‘o’ is perfectly circling amanda’s eye ? an absolutely accident but *chef’s kiss* nonetheless. i’m writing this up while saving rp icons, so let’s see if i can multitask !!

( amanda seyfried, 30, cis woman, she/her ) AISLING O’CONNOR was seen listening to HAPPY BY LEONA LEWIS on their way to DIETICIAN. AISLING is known to be OPEN-MINDED & UNFORIGVING.

➜ so first thing’s first, aisling is pronounced ‘ash-ling’ ( or ash-lin depending on your accent/whether you drop your ‘g’s or not ) and although it would make my life so much easier when it comes to typing if she did, she really doesn’t take well to anybody calling her ‘ash’ ( i’m up for the challenge though ! give me someone in her life who can finally get away with shortening her name !! she doesn’t tolerate nicknames at all but can we change her ? let’s see ! )

➜ and with a name like aisling o’connor, i’m sure y’all really don’t need three guesses as to where she’s from. she was born in belfast, and is the oldest of six sisters -- all of them blonde, and all of them beautiful ( would it be obnoxious to submit wc’s for all of them ? possibly... will i do it anyway ? perhaps... ) she comes from a very family orientated family, so when her parents wanted to move the family out of ireland due to the conflict at the time, it wasn’t surprising that aisling’s aunt, uncle, and cousins came too, as well as her darling nanna. 

➜ aisling landed in huntsville at the age of six, but you best believe her accent is still just as prominent now as it was while running around belfast. as the oldest sister, she took on a lot of responsibility within the household, helping to raise the little ones with a roll of her eyes a each request, but also while being easily ignored. her parents were in no way neglectful, but with five smaller children to look after, their focus simply wasn’t on aisling.

➜ this meant that aisling fell through the cracks a little, and issues that began to surface as a teenager went unnoticed. while she never actually had a problem with her weight, teenagers can be wildly cruel and the societal pressures of looking a certain way can lead to young minds being warped, so aisling was very aware that she looked different to her peers. she was more... thicc/curvy/buxom, as a way to put it. 

➜ attention might not have been drawn to her body as much if her interests were different. aisling spent her childhood and teenage years in dance classes, drama workshops, and singing lessons, all with the goal of training in musical theatre and going on to become an actress. there was a certain body type that surrounded her, and it wasn’t one she possessed, herself. 

➜ it never became a problem, though, until she did go to college for musical theatre. her parents wanted all six of their girls to go to university, and they promised they’d pay what they could towards it as long as they went. they’d support any course, any major, just please go to university. however, aisling dropped out after two years. teachers, professors, agents, casting teams, they all  had something to say, something to critique, something to jab at, and it lead to aisling’s self-image crumbling to the point of severe unhappiness, and developing an unhealthy relationship with food. constantly being told to drop ten pounds, as one can imagine, had a pretty gnarly effect on her. 

➜ while she knew it would be possible to make it anyway, to prove the industry wrong, to make change, to represent different body types so young girls in the future don’t have to doubt themselves like she did, aisling decided her own mental health was both too fragile to do that, and more valuable than doing that. 

➜ i feel like i’m going on about this a bit too much lmao, so i’m gonna wrap it up a bit: she was able to recover from the disorded eating that formed as a result, and discovered a newfound passion about nutrition, and was able to care about it without obsessing. she really wanted to form new habits around food and body image, and realised that her perspective and beliefs actually went way back to childhood, and it then extended into wanting to help other people. eventually, aisling went back to school and studied to become a dietician, which she now is. she has a special interest in helping young woman recover from disorded eating patterns and develop a healthy relationship with food and their body, and stomping all over diet culture, but she sees all kinds of clients in general. 

➜ so life has obviously taken a very different turn for her, but she’s really kind of,,, okay with that at this point ? it is what it is, and that pathway really didn’t suit her. she didn’t have the skin for the industry --- or maybe the industry shouldn’t require her to have such thick skin, but it’s in the past now.

➜ also, p.s, i really don’t want it to come off like i think that there’s no place for women in theatre that don’t have sutton foster’s body, y’know ? that ain’t it !!!! it’s more,,, the absolutely ridiculousness of the pressure actresses have to look a certain way, esp. in theatre where if you’re not really slim, but you’re not big enough for roles like madame thernadier/tracy turnblad/nadia mcconell/martha dunstock/etc, there’s no place for you ? or people act like there’s no place. also don’t want it to come off bad in that,,, obviously at the end of the day, aisling is a thin woman that’s a bit,,, curvy ? like oh poor thin white woman ? that ain’t it, that isn’t what i’m trying to do jshsbss. d’you get me ? tryin to comment on how the industry can be a bit Shit, without making it out like little white cis women are the ones discriminated against. hopefully y’all get me sjhnbssbs

➜ also, when i was Creating aisling, i was originally going to make her older, and was gonna use keri russell, which is a Fun Time. i absolutely love keri though so don’t be surprise if i pop up with a keri fc later on down the line, lmao. 

➜ in terms of personality, i feel like the two traits i picked for her app are a little, like, contradictory in a way ? but i love characters with conflicting personality traits. she’s very open-minded, easy to talk to, very accepting, etc ( she’s kinda like a therapist in that when you talk to her, she’ll just kind of nod and not show any kind of,, Reaction either way, she’s just Observing until it’s her turn to speak. she’s just taking everything in and Receiving without judgement for the most part ) but when she’s personally hurt, in a way that directly impacts her ( usually related to her family, tbh ) there is,,, no forgiving. she’ll hear you out, and maybe be able to move on from it, but forgiveness for the big, big things is r a r e. 

➜ like how gwen is always sort of,, Faking happiness, i feel like aisling is always sort of chasing happiness ? she always wants to do what’s best for herself, and loves and respects herself deeply, so she’s always making the choices that are more likely to lead to long-term happiness, even if it bloody well hurts in the meantime ---- like giving up acting. 

➜ i feel like while emika is just a loner in general who can’t handle more than fwb situations and one night stands, and gwen doesn’t have the time to form proper relationships with people due to her shift work, aisling is just really, really unlucky in love. like, for whatever reason, things just don’t work out, or turn sour, or just... fall apart. there’s a long line of exes and flings, people she took home to her parents and people she thought it best not to, all of which ending in tears. 

➜ at least she has her bunny rabbits, though. they’ll never let her down. their names are sondheim & shwartz, and they are her pride and joy. 

➜ her family play a massive role in her life, and she doesn’t know any differently and wouldn’t want to. her nanna is, as you can imagine, really quite old at this point, and deteriorating health-wise, but the whole family band together to keep her well and try and keep her mind active.

➜ in terms of connections and plotting, again, i’m really open. i’m willing to give absolutely anything a go and try and work stuff out. i’m also always open to hearing ideas for plots people really want and seeing if any of my characters fit. but for loose ideas for now: failed relationships & exes ( there’s lots of room there ), clients ( definitely don’t have to have issues with food necessarily ! she also sees people for things like dietary restrictions due to allergy or recently diagnosed illness like diabetes or pcos or w/e, pregnancy, folks who just want to create a meal plan that makes their body feel its best, picky eating in kids, etc ! ) people she went to school with, other theatre-y folks to bond with, honestly absolutely anything. 

[astrologysvt]

Chart First Impressions - Minghao

For more SVT astrology posts, follow my blog! Check out my masterlist to see all the readings I’ve done so far and what I’ve got coming up! 💫

This is just a very general reading of the member’s charts — the parts that popped out to me, things I personally liked, things I thought were interesting or contrary to the image I have of them. I’m not looking at anything in particular with each reading. Some of their readings may be more aspect focused, where some may just focus solely on their personal planets and their signs. If you have any questions on specific aspects or want to request a more specific reading, feel free to send me an ask!

we really be out here looking for water crumbs over here. 

minghao is 1 of 2 whole water signs in seventeen, can you believe it? 

(jihoon sits in purgatory when it comes to statistics until he decides to give us his birth time). 

this is our last water sun chart first impressions, thank you for joining me on this journey i hope you like air, fire, earth cuz otherwise you’re out of luck.

but wowie a scorpio

he’s got both his sun and mercury in scorpio.

scorpio is one of the most misunderstood signs in my honest opinion. 

they’re inherently contradictory because they can be sneaky, calculated and all that scary scorpio hooplah.

but if you’ve got a scorpio in your corner they’ll literally die before they let you down, and can be martyrs in a sense? not to the point a pisces would be, but if it came down to it, they’d put themselves in the line of fire before they even let their loved ones NEAR IT. 

they’re the types to suffer a lot for the sake of the people they care about, and never tell them because they understand the emotional weight it may have on them. 

so even if there are actual problems, they don’t want the others to see it at all because they don’t to give them even an ounce of that burden.

they do have a sense of secrecy and with that comes this vibe that they’ve got a hidden agenda. 

and honestly they probably do??? and that’s not necessarily a bad thing if they’re well-developed.

they have these “hidden agendas” not because they set out to be sneaky or secretive, but because they’re so goal oriented, persistent, and determined. 

everything they do, they see how it traces back to their ultimate goal and are constantly chipping away at it and keeping an eye out for opportunities.

may it be professionally, socially, personally -- whatever goal it is, they do not put forth any ancillary effort. if they’re doing it, it’s with purpose. 

so it may seem superficial and manipulative for them to have these agendas in the forefront of their minds, but that doesn’t negate the sincerity that they live their lives by. 

the goals are obviously always there, but if you’re sitting face-to-face with a scorpio you’re getting the real deal. they are there, they are present, and they’re not about to waste your time. 

there is something about them that sincerely requires a great deal of trust for you to truly vibe with them. 

they feel connected with people when there is a level of assumption in their positive intentions, or a level of trust being put in their competence. 

and this is something well-developed scorpios OBSESS OVER. 

they are absolutely terrified of dropping the ball for the people they care about. 

if they DO manage to drop the ball, it’s a good thing to just not harp on it as they probably have the whole situation mapped out and where they messed up, why, and how they could have done it better. not to mention how upset with themselves they’d feel. 

they’re so protective. 

i love seeing a scorpio click into action. 

if they catch wind about someone saying something mean or doing something questionable to someone they care about -- they instantly start studying them. 

to check if they’re okay, for one, but it’s also because they’re calculating their plan of attack.

out of nowhere, you just start getting questions “what did they say? what’s their name? when did they say that?” 

they’re getting ready to POUNCE my dude. 

and that’s the ultimate sign of scorpio love. 

they feel as though someone truly understands them when they acknowledge what’s underneath their cold and intense aura, and trusts that they mean well. 

(i say cold and intense as a generalization, tho do not get me wrong, scorpios can be super fuzzy people) 

not only that, but because they are so goal oriented, they really like feeling as though their loved ones will continue to understand and support them even if their attention can get pretty tunnel visioned. 

it’s very similar to how earth signs are these very consistent, reliable people. they like being someone their loved ones can trust and it’s very clear in their intentions. 

where they differ from scorpios is that earth signs go about this by trying to bring stability to (or in the face of) turbulence. 

scorpio, on the other hand, is already an incredibly dynamic and turbulent sign in and of themselves. 

they are aware of this and do not try and fight it as they see it as a part of their inherent nature, maybe even one of their strengths. 

scorpio is the sign of transformation, and natives with this sign are constantly in a state of flux. 

what’s so fixed about them is their values. 

it’s the integrity they go about things that remains the same regardless of the circumstances. 

this is why undeveloped scorpios can be so toxic and manipulative, as they have yet to find that stabilizing factor in their values that prevents them from feeling that sense of security they need in what can feel like tidal wave after tidal wave of change. 

change can be scary when you are a fixed sign like scorpio, and without having that surety of “okay, no matter what happens i know i can do this” that a scorpio craves, it really creates a great deal of unrest in them. 

it’s those values, too, that prevent well-developed scorpios from being those “the end justify the means” type of people, as scorpios can be pretty unrelenting in their pursuit of their wants/goals.

without those inherent values, they can be pretty cutthroat.

then you have his aqua moon. 

if you thought a scorpio’s sense of social and emotional responsibility was strong already, you add in this aqua moon and those principles are reinforced tenfold. 

they’ve got such a strong sense of ethics and morals. 

his humanitarian aqua influence makes it that he wont stand for any type of injustice, and isn’t afraid to put himself in the line of fire for what he considers unfair. 

but having an aqua moon in someone with a scorpio sun is a very odd combo. 

scorpios are one of the most intuitive signs of astrology, they’re so analytic and discerning, but they go about it in such a fluid way. 

minghao is literally able to feel the rippling of energy the moment someone walks in (as dramatic as that sounds, lmao). 

this is why you trust scorpios if they have a bad feeling about something, because they’re so capable of reading people and do it in such a seamless way.  

but scorpios with aqua influences kind of struggle in fully grasping their intuition. 

they more or less refuse to be vague about these things. 

if they can’t pin down their hunches to a specific reason, their logical side kicks in and tells them they’re probably making it up. 

at the same time, he is an incredibly observant person thanks to this aqua influence.

he has this crazy database in his head for every single person he’s met, the things they said, their word choice, the possible connotations/agendas. he takes careful note of the things that annoyed them, signs that they’re in a good mood, etc. etc.

literally after a day of meeting him, he can probs list off a few of those things about you if you asked. 

this is also why he is such a chill guy. 

his calm outward appearance taking account for the large portion of his brain that is being used for observation. 

he can get tired being around high-energy people for very long.

needs his alone time, 100% has lone wolf tendencies. 

he’s really just such a stand up guy, so unique and is such a pioneer for his own values, morals, style, and mind. 

his scorpio mercury is sextile his aqua uranus and cap neptune. 

he is very creative, imaginative, yet capable thanks to that cap neptune and venus. 

if he weren’t an idol he’d 100% be an artist, maybe fashion designer -- something he could potential enterprise while also allowing him access to a very clear and vast outlet for his avant garde expression. 

so so so unique, his aqua influence is very strong which is why he is so experimental with his fashion and so unapologetic. 

his sag mars means he’s got a vast array of interests and goes about pursuing them with gusto. 

he wants to get his hands on everything.

that aqua innovation, cap aspirations, and scorpio determination means he really wants to put his creative signature on the world. 

he honestly would more than likely never tell people his exact goals as he wants to remain limitless in his opportunities. 

and tbh his more practical influences like cap and scorpio would probably tell him he’s being silly for having such big dreams and to get to work before he starts telling people about them.

(even tho he’s got all the willpower and creativity to achieve those great things).  

definitely a super powerful chart, i can’t say it enough. 

[bi-dazai]

ok my bsd predictions for major plot points in the future

1.

If dazai were to be killed off in bsd, chuuya would probably be killed with him in a final act of coded symbiosis.

Tbh tho that's such a major thing that it probably wouldn't happen until when the manga is finishing up so

2.

Chuuya will either become the PM Boss or he'll join the ADA.

So chuuya is strongly suggested in two ways for his future which is HM INTERESTING. So the way that Mori clearly recruits him not just for his ability but for his leadership skills, plus the how chuuya has been developing those skills, is something I was thinking about a lot in S3. Mori is very clearly not happy with Dazai being the heir, even though he was the best choice. Dazai would have probably killed Mori and taken his place by the time he was 20 if odasaku hadn't died. Chuuya has loyalty to the mafia plus the fighting and leadership abilities. He's also got a certain obedience and controllability that if Mori was to step aside and not die he would like. Also something ppl forget is that chuuya is actually good at negotiation and staying calm under pressure, it's suggested that dazai particularly triggers his anger because dazai is an annoying shit who seems to be in canon attached to him whenever they're in the same room.

HOWEVER. Now I don't think I've ever said this on this blog despite me constantly thinking about it but Fukuzawa's ability is the perfect thing for Chuuya, as it has the possibility of actually reigning in corruption. If chuuya joined the ADA he would actually be able to use corruption's ability of throwing black holes without losing control of himself. Arguably that would also get rid of the need for dazai's intervention although it's been established that skk were thought of as a perfect fighting duo for a year before corruption even first manifested in a fight, so I don't think this would kill skk. And chuuya joining the ADA would mean that he and dazai have to interact on the daily. It also means that the mafia is left without any clear heir. People have vouched for kouyou in this situation but I think it's clear that kouyou is being forced to be in the mafia, she's given up on leaving and doesn't want to be there actively.

I don't think the second outcome is very possible plotwise for a few reasons. These are all totally writer's arguments so appeals to logic and plot aren't exactly going to work here, but as a writer myself these are the planning issues that stick out extremely badly if we get chuuya to defect:

- it would have to take something extremely major to get chuuya to leave the loyalty of the mafia

- chuuya becomes even more OP. asagiri kafka has said that though he really likes chuuya (as evidenced by the amount of goddamn times chuuya comes up in the novels), he avoids putting him in the manga because chuuya is extremely overpowered. If he and dazai were logically paired together for each issue every arc would be solved far too quickly for things like character development, or like...story...to take place. This is why chuuya is constantly sidelined. You have to actively make it so that chuuya isn't on people's minds constantly, or get him out of the picture immediately, so that your narrative can actually develop. Chuuya is honestly a mistake in a writing sense. But he's a strong character and he and dazai were written in tandem to each other so he's absolutely unremovable. A character like chuuya NEEDS to exist. So the way chuuya has been toned down is Corruption. Chuuya's ability by itself is just...incredibly powerful. He's virtually indestructible. However Corruption, the ultimate form, is shown to actively kill chuuya. The only times we've seen corruption used is cthulu, shibusawa, and shibusawa big dragon, all extreme threats. So chuuya's life when he's pulled out as the deus ex machina is tied to dazai. This makes chuuya's unchecked OP a little less unchecked and a little less OP. Chuuya is actually a fantastic example of why you CAN have OP characters, you just have to write them a certain way.

However in writing them a certain way, the most stupid thing you could do for your narratives would be to bring corruption under control, and to bring chuuya into the group of protagonists. you have to find excuses in every problem to why chuuya can't just come out and handle this himself, like you were before but now dazai's absence isn't an issue PLUS your readers are paying more attention to chuuya because he's around all the time.

So yeah, chuuya being in the ADA would be a bad choice narrative wise unless it was for like...one arc or smth. Chuuya becoming the next boss of the port mafia is wayyyyy more likely to me. I don't think chuuya would like it but he's really the most obvious choice

3.

Dostoyevsky/rat arc is going to be mega arc/s.

one of the exciting things abt this series is that I have no idea how long this conflict with the rats will go on for. At first I thought it would be an occasional and ongoing plotline that is explored not as one big set arc but interspersed with other non-rat arcs. However by the way it's going it looks like we have two options, either 1) the rat issue is being dealt with across one mega-arc or 2) rat issues will still be dealt with like I thought, interspersed, but each time they pop up it will be a mega-arc like it has been so far. I genuinely don't know how this will be resolved, and I'm actually kind of wondering if the characters will finally leave kanagawa prefecture and maybe head to Russia to defeat the rats. I think this could be a good start to travelling the characters to settings outside yokohama.

4.

Agatha Christie is going to be matched up to Ranpo.

Like Dostoyevsky is dazai's foil because their works IRL were similar in tone, Agatha Christie and Ranpo match up in that way perfectly. We've already met the trick foil (we thought he would be, but he wasn't) for Ranpo in Poe (IRL Poe actually did write mystery at times, and his works do contain elements of suspense and unknown). Ranpo is clearly going through hell in this arc which makes me feel like he's going to start being a much more major character in the future.

Agatha Christie and Edogawa Ranpo's works both fit in the mystery genre and were both alive irl around the same time. They both played historic roles in developing the mystery genre of their language's literature and are pretty well-known in non-literature circles because mystery often has a pulp, mass-consumable aspect to it. It was actually surprising to me that they were made into characters considering the other characters are named after authors of much "higher grade" Literature, as in Literature capital L. Mystery authors especially like Agatha Christie don't fit that bill, but they've played a central role in developing the fiction industry so I don't find it odd. Plus there's a bit of a debate what counts as Literature and every person has different opinions. Mine differs to asagiri kafka's which evidently seems to be that if the author has had a significant impact on the literary field then their works become Literature, thus they become 文豪 (Literary masters), thus they become a bsd character. I think that's fair, even if it isn't what I would personally say Literature is. This is par for the course tho lol, p sure any person who is into Literature will have a different thing to say about what gets that capital L.

But yeah, I think Ranpo and Christie are clearly going to be each others foils.

5.

Christie is going to be cold. Like. COLD.

Dostoyevsky is more obvious evil, it shows on the surface. But Christie will have a polite veneer, a charm to her. We've seen her in a shot, and she sits tall, she enjoys tea, she dresses expensively and lives in colourful rooms. But she had no hesitation to destroy Yokohama if a situation wasn't dealt with within half an hour in the cruelest way possible. Christie was actively ready to incinerate Yokohama alive, that was her first instinct when contacted for help. Christie very clearly has a lack of care for the lives of others, OR she wants to destroy Yokohama in particular. However considering this is the goal of Dostoyevsky and Christie will probably be the next major villain after Dostoyevsky, repeating that goal and motivation is pretty boring and not very bungou stray dogs.

6.

The order of the clock tower will not come to yokohama first.

The Guild were the ones to come to yokohama and threaten it up close. The order of the clock tower was a major threat to yokohama from across the continent. That's terrifying. The ADA/Mafia will have to work proactively

7.

The end of the clock tower will have major repercussions.

The order of the clock tower seems to have its claws in everything and has a tight maintenance of leadership and control over almost every gifted organisation we've met. The Order seems to literally keep order. But they've clearly got a goal with sending the guild and the rats after the book. If the order is destroyed then certain aspects of gifted society slip loose and create new problems. This will probably be the creator of an arc or two after the order arc is over.

8.

Chuuya's backstory is linked to Dazai's.

Chuuya was used by the military and experimented on until he could contain a god of destruction, after which he went haywire, blasted a huge crater in yokohama, and became a feral child.

Dazai was...we don't know. The furthest back we can tell is that some time in his early teens he was taken in by Mori. Before that he was apparently wandering around trying to find some kind of emotion, something to make him feel. He eventually found that with the violence and adrenaline rush of the mafia.

Now I don't think that dazai is a psychopath. It's easy to say he is with the way he seems to talk about the hole in his heart and the absence and emptiness. However dazai very very clearly cares. He cares about odasaku, he cares about atsushi, he cares about the ADA, and he even cares about chuuya (this is not my shipper brain talking, I am literally talking about canon). Dazai very clearly CARES. He isn't a psychopath.

My belief is that dazai is the most clear argument for my case that the series is about mental illness and self worth. Dazai very clearly has a major depressive disorder.

I also think that dazai is extremely traumatised. Obviously he's traumatised by being in the mafia at 15 and by odasaku's death, but I also think dazai may have been traumatised even before then.

Atsushi is dazai's mentee, the half of shin soukoku. He's shown to have childhood trauma. Akutagawa also has childhood trauma. Chuuya has childhood trauma. This may be a coincidence but almost every main character in this series has some form of early trauma.

Dazai IRL was not called Dazai Osamu. Dazai Osamu is actually a very sad name but Dazai's birth name is Tsushima Shuuji. IRL dazai/Tsushima was the son of a rich family that lived in Aomori prefecture (which is very rural lol). Dazai had an absent father and a sick mother and wasnt raised by his parents but rather by servants and his aunt. His father died when he was young (not that he got very old) and his life was plagued by constantly running off with girls, getting his allowance cut for being a marxist, and, yes, suicide attempts.

So my ideas for how this may translate into bsd dazai is this:

- dazai ran away from home when he was young

- dazai never had a good parental figure

- dazai is from a rich family in a rural area very far away. Like for those who don't know Aomori is at the northern tip of Honshū, just below Hokkaido. Yokohama is just south of Tokyo. The region in between is mostly forest and smaller cities. Most of Japan's (major) cities are cloistered around Tokyo and Kyoto and Fukuoka which are towards the south. So dazai is a country boy who has wandered japan after running away from home.

- dazai's real name is Tsushima Shuuji and there's a personal reason he's distanced himself from that. This one im not sure about but yeah

- thus follows that why would dazai be so fucked up if he isn't a psychopath and he did come from a rich family? Dazai to me reads that something major happened. In shin skk it's clear that atsushi and alutagawa share a past of abuse at the hands of parental figures and loneliness. With all the similarities and parallels drawn between the characters in skk and shin skk it seems logical to me that chuuya's past of torture may be similar to Dazai's in a way. It would be disappointing to me if dazai's past was covered and it didn't in some way affect him. The clearest parallel between skk is that they both lacked parental figures most if not their entire lives.

There's also this comment that dazai makes when the head of atsushi's orphanage dies. It's that relationships with fathers are messy and even if they were terrible it's natural to cry. This seems like bsd dazai may share irl dazai's father's death early in his life. It's hinted therefore that dazai's father was either abusive or neglectful and died when dazai was younger.

Anyway this went longer than I thought it would but I invest far too much brain time into bsd so it's gotta seep out at some point lol

[charlieism]

Any podcast recs?

woo yes!! i love podcasts!! i’ll get right into my favs :D click the read more bc it gets kinda long

The Adventure Zone

If youre on tumblr youve probably heard of this already. It’s created by the McElroys, and follow the adventures of Taako, Magnus and Merle and a lot of fun other side characters all voiced by Griffin. Its hilarious and full of goofs, but the story it weaves Will make you cry by the end, there are so many plot twists, gays, found family tropes, its just ugh. amazing. very good to listen to if u want a laugh tbh, but the episode are pretty long, up to an hour and a half. but the story is beautiful, the characters are amazing, n i feel like im constantly laughing at jokes i dont even understand bc the mcelroys r Just That Funny. there are also other arcs u can listen to, like amnesty, which is about a trio of monster hunters, commitment, which is about superheros, and dust, which is a western supernatural mystery!

EOS 10

This is for sure one of my favourite podcasts ever. The characters are so easy to love and all so complex with very human issues, except its set in space surrounded by aliens so the shenanigans are never-ending and all so, so entertaining. the general plot is about dr. dalias, a surgeon on the space station EOS 10, and his friends and coworkers dr. urivdian, jane, and levi the hypochondriac, chaotic alien prince (and akmazian, the gay space pirate). the relationships between the characters are to die for, the gays are beautiful, and its fucking hilarious. 10/10 recommend, the episodes are relatively short between 10-15 minutes so its very easy to listen to.

Wolf 359

This was the second podcast I ever listened to, and will forever be held close in my heart. it starts off as a funny, light-hearted podcast based on the logs of communications officer doug eiffel, an astronaut aboard the USS Hephaestus, a spacecraft with only 2 other crewmembers, commander Minkowski and scientist Hilbert. eventually more characters are introduced such as captain lovelace, and the SI-5 crew Jacobi, Kepler, and Maxwell. the series goes from something entertaining and joking to a story with an unfolding plot that honestly blows me away, morally grey characters and the complex relationships between everyone, and amazing character development. the episode start out pretty short but they get longer as the plot progresses. you’ll laugh too many times to count, find yourself crying near the end and wonder how you got here, and fall in love w the characters, the jokes and the mystery. i cant recommend it enough (eiffels development ugh my fucking boy…..)

The Penumbra Podcast

This podcast is so fucking fun. its a detective-noir type storyline set far into the future on mars. it follows PI Juno Steel, a detective in Hyperion City, and all the cases he lands and has to solve. its intriguing as hell, the characters draw you in completely bc theyre so layered and complex but so easy to love, its gay as FUCK (theres only one straight person on mars lol) and its v enjoyable listening to juno’s character development and his interactions with other characters (namely nureyev and rita). im literally never bored listening to this podcast, and if the detective theme wouldn’t typically be your thing i swear you should listen to it anyway because with how its set on mars, in space, in the future, there are things youd never imagine and worldbuilding so smooth and surprising and fun. there are hilarious moments, tragic moments, heartbreaking moments, heart-healing moments, and just. the whole thing is brilliant dude. i adore it. (theres also a lot of mini episodes set in different universes like old western lesbians, and the Second Citadel, which runs alongside juno’s universe and is kind of a knights vs monsters fun thing but theyre also all bisexual lol).

Time Bombs

This is a mini-podcast made by the same creators as wolf 359. its only 3 episodes long so if u want something quick to listen to this is v good! its about a bomb squad on new years eve as Simon Teller tries to break the record of most bombs defused in a year. its very funny, easy to listen to, and just a fun lil thing!

Lake Clarity

Now this boy is a horror podcast. Its about a bunch of teens who go up to the abandoned Camp Clarity for a trip together before they graduate. they uncover abandoned military bases and a conspiracy, mutations and monsters, and get picked off one by one. i admit i never finished the second season but i greatly enjoyed the first! it was interesting (and they acknowledged the slightly basic set up in show a lot lol) but i like it!

King Falls AM

I only recently started listening to this one but its so good dude!! its set in a radio show in King Falls, hosted by Sammy and Ben. Sammy just came to the town from the city and Ben has lived in King Falls his whole life: we listen to the strange events happening around town as they happen and ben and sammy report on them, listen to the residents send in calls about their weird situations, meet new characters, and get a lil freaked out by some spooky things! its funny, its odd, its creepy at times, its the perfect blend of humour, supernatural, and horror!

And now for some honourable mentions

Welcome To Nightvale

This is one you’ve probably heard of as well. WTNV is a radio show hosted by Cecil Palmer, a citizen of the town of Nightvale, which has got to be the weirdest town in the world. its delightfully strange, entertaining, fun to listen to, and i havent finished it but i like it and i know a TON of other people adore it, its v popular!!

The Magnus Archives

Another horror podcast, I never got very far through it (mainly bc i just. struggle to listen to jon’s voice and accent rip) but the gist of it is a british archivist is going thru some archives n recording the stories. its full of monsters, supernatural stuff n creepy stories. people love it, if ur into horror n creepy stuff then i recommend this one!

The Bright Sessions

Another one I never got very far through, it follows dr. bright, a therapist for the ‘strange and unusual’ and her sessions with various super-powered people, for example empaths, time-travellers, etc etc. im not sure why i didnt get v far thru bc it is v intriguing and has a lot of potential, im sure id pick it back up one day! i think it could have a lot of cool overlapping storylines if u dig that!

Directive

This short podcast is very interesting, its about a man who is on a spacecraft alone looking after people in stasis for many years, and isnt allowed any real contact with other people on the ship outside of a video call once a night. there are plot twists, you will randomly find yourself crying by the end of it bc of the raw emotion, and it can be a little slow in the start but its worth the quick listen!! it goes into the effects of isolation and moral dilemmas on a person and is v interesting!

And now just some ones on my to-listen list that have been highly recommended to me!

Limetown

Wooden Overcoats

Within the Wires

Rabbits

Alice Isn’t Dead

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Fanon characterization of the Calypso twins between me and The Wild West Pyro: 

We both have the strong sinking feeling that the twins are slowly going to lose it as the game goes on, so here’s our collaborated analysis of the two:

I’ll be in non-cool text, while The Wild West Pyro will be in italics, for easier distinction between us. [There will be slight edits and changes for cohesion]

“It would be pretty interesting if we found out the Calypsos/the cult started out with 'good intentions'.”

“Hell, you can see the populism kicking in there.What did the writers say? Ah. "Your poor bandits! You're kicked around and nobody likes you, but we can give you a purpose in life! We can make you feel appreciated and loved!" [This is a reference to the Danny Homan interview] Something of that line.”

“oh yeah! the twins are also providing them with food and weaponry. i mean i can see why a bandit desperate for something better would follow them.”

“I'm guessing how this goes: The Twins start off by winning people over by talking about how they want Pandora to be finally at peace after endless war and giving the bandits a new life where they're treated like actual people. Then once they've got enough people, they say that the Raiders have to go, the corporations have to go, with the Vaults seized the universe will see no more war. Actually, I'm predicting rn that they have a very, very cult-like end goal in terms of IRL parallels.What if they choose to "cleanse" the universe with whatever power Tyreen possesses? And once everything standing in their way is gone, they can create this ideal utopian peaceful universe where there's no corporations and no more fighting. Meanwhile the Eridians are panicking because they know it's a doomed plan and the Vaults do not work like that.”

“[this is very much a] large scale Opportunity situation. literally reverse uno card as to what jack was attempting”

“Yep. Paradise for the common man bandit. OTL parallels to what usually sparks communist revolutions or popular revolutions in general. So yeah, Tyreen could very easily justify herself in that she genuinely wants to bring peace to the universe, with all means necessary. Of course, internally, the Twins just want to be gods and play at being them and hold onto their power as absolute rulers presiding over an eternally-grateful populace.”

“definitely sounds like two teenage cult leaders to me ngl. i could see them not being too secure in themselves (behind the vvv confident personas they put on) and constantly second guessing themselves and reassuring that they're doing this for everyone's own good even as things just keep getting worse and worse. could [have] a tie-in to whatever tragic backstory they might have”

“Yep and yep. And there's this internal fear that they don't know what being a god entails, if they'll lose sense of who they are or not... but put that aside. All for the greater good! I'm actually thinking about this. People note that the Twins are basically streamer critiques, which is a yes. But if you want to take them to serious universe-spanning villain territory, I think that they'll absorb the knowledge from Elpis at one point. And they start to become more detached and more frightening, and a lot more eloquent as they really start becoming gods in the BL sense. While still being narcissistic attention whores who actually like killing people off with their powers but pretend to act benevolent. Essentially, you have the Greek Gods except there's two Zeuses, one is a girl and they've both got all of Zeus's worst traits cranked up to eleven.”

“oh god are they gonna dick everything that moves? oh no... cover ava's eyes! joking aside, that sounds accurate. especially given the borderlands universe loves to tie in its greek mythology. also also i am glad someone else agrees the twins are going to elpis. i refuse to believe they'd destroy it/blow it up before going there for the info. that shit is valuable! especially if you want to convince people you're gods?? accurately predicting the future is insanely good for doing that! plus all the other cool shit you can do by knowing exactly what's going to happen.”

“It also makes the Twins much more dangerous if they can see every outcome...unfortunately, Lilith is very good at playing 4D Chess by now.”

“lilith, putting on her sunglasses and cracking her knuckles: it's time to show them what a real military organization can do. ellie is her hype woman with the drink and a towel. also also lilith is probably kicking herself for not being fast enough this time to punch the vault symbol into tyreen's face.”

“Honestly, I'd love Lilith to turn out to be this really crafty, really charismatic guerrilla warfare commander. Like an Innie leader but they're hypercompetent, not a terrorist and also have Keyes's sheer talent for analyzing battles and tactics and adapting accordingly. Lilith sitting up in Sanc-III being BL!Keyes except a lady and specializing in ground warfare would be sick.”

“yes. fucking. please. gearbox please give lily all the character development, your girl deserves it. im glad because it does seem like she's getting there when you crash land on Promethea. and even the way she handles herself on the bridge is very smooth and confident.”

“tfw you can see the future and, yet, the lady you robbed of her siren powers is outsmarting you 24/7, 365 days a year despite you being able to see the future. also you're trying to fight fate and desperate to change reality so that you can't lose like the future said you would. joke's on you, you cannot fight it.”

“There is no changing it. bonus points if ty only saw the very end, so she is utterly clueless on how the middle bits play out. so lilith is kicking her ass across elpis and she's like ‘this is NOT how i saw this going’.”

“I'd seriously imagine that life in BL corporate society really is like life in Rapture or Columbia. The upper class profits immensely and reaps all the best goods, but they refuse to do the dirty work themselves so they rely on this huge workforce who they constantly cheat, lie and exploit. The few achieve huge power and stuff at the expense of the many. Looking at the Twins in the parallels of how revolutions go, they'll basically go from recruiting the bandits to recruiting the huge lower class of every planet.  Looking at records from all the planets, we've got people being screwed over again and again, corruption and other nasties. The Twins claim that they want all corporations to go, to bring some form of unified government back to the galaxy. And it works- their army size quadruples overnight and goes from there. By the time we get to Promethea, the COV are already recruiting everyone dissatisfied with corporate life. If they successfully seize control of Maliwan like I predict, they'll be a force to be reckoned with. The Twins will use the masses to achieve some sort of theocratic revolution, [they] claim that it's all for everyone's good. But in reality, they want to be absolute rulers of the universe, gods worshipped and feared by all.”

“Oh yeah, the twins are definitely feeding (maybe literally) off the huge numbers of dissatisfied people across the universe- the mega corporations are evil, no doubt there are millions of people waiting for something better. tbh, if gaige wasn't booted from the main game, I could see a whole side story of her having started a revolution somewhere, and then joining up with the Crimson Raiders once her entire party just up and joined the CoV. And [I would] 100% bet the twins started a campaign against DAHL and Atlas and suddenly nearly every bandit on pandora joined up with them. (also Athena was sitting in a chair clutching at the armrests and janey was like "don't you fuckin dare, hon" and athena is like "but... Atlas...")”

[We talk more about Gaige’s anarchist revolution and trying to topple the mega corporations in a less cult-y fashion here]

“... Bonus points 2: The COV fire up the memories of Jack to rally everyone into opposing Hyperion and suddenly Athena is like "OK I'm not going, mobilize the army." And Janey is like ‘Here we go...’.”

[we joke around a little bit more about Athena and Janey here]

“I can imagine Rhys's internal conflict, knowing that he has to make the galaxy a better place but at the same time, maintain his corporate power and control because without it, he's doomed. Then again, Rhys is no stranger to doing shady stuff. I think a lot of the Twins's evil will be in how they treat their followers.There's all the smooth-talking and promises of the future. And then when you actually get there, you're brainwashed into being another unthinking, 100% loyal attack dog for them. And you follow everything they ask you to do for 100%, even if they use you for power experiments or cannon fodder. And the game will remind us that these people weren't all bandits - over the course of the story, the COV includes people like former corporate execs, entire families, people who were just trying to get by day to day. And now we as Vault Hunters have to kill all these ordinary people to save the universe. Tough choices, eh?“

“Oh geez, you know that's a really fair point. i know borderlands likes to push the 'morally gray' aspect of things, but holy shit that's dark. (not saying i don't love it though, i totally do lol) You’re probably 100% right that rhys is struggling internally. especially after being so closely tied up with hyperion and even fiona and sasha, seeing exactly what hyperion did to people not just on helios but the people trying to live their daily lives and survive on pandora. im sure he has a similar reasoning to himself as the twins: im doing this for the better of the people. i can help so many more people with this money and power. somewhat similar to handsome jack, but hopefully lorelei (if she's not evil) helps ground him and keep him from jumping into the middle-to-deep end.”

“I'm still betting that Rhys will remain on the good side, if a teensy bit unscrupulous. I mean, the whole thing about the Twins is that they're social commentary of livestreamers and influencers and the incredibly toxic influence they can have. There are countless aspects of that to explore. If streamers can mobilize their entire loyal fanbases to bully the crap outta some poor chump or buy things or let their fans believe that they know the streamer 100% as a person and not a persona, the Twins can convince people to go to war.”

“Oooh yeah, it's not hard to imagine they probably don't even need the brainwashing for a majority of their cult, just the select few who are either on the fence or against it, but are [still] 'available'. irl streamers can be seriously fuckin scary, man, im not surprised this is the route gearbox is going for. now, it would be severely fucked up if there was a scene where tyreen demands someone kill themselves on the spot and they do without hesitation. if you watch the moze gameplay there seems to be a hint of something like that going on over the radio/TVs, she mentions something about their sacrifice or something, then you hear a dude screaming/gurgling.”

“Everyone's thinking that Tyreen will be this laughable, entertaining villain. But I'm constantly seeing hints and estimating that she is going to be far, far more scarier than we give her credit for. For one, Jack was a presence largely relegated to audio. We only physically saw him in BL2 twice. The Twins run a cult, which itself is frightening already. And it looks like we'll be seeing them in person very often.”

“Oh yes, tyreen is fucking terrifying. i mean even that she can steal siren powers is already a huge "whoa what the fuck" in my book. that one line at the end of the HBC where she's like "you're my most loyal follower vault thief, you just don't know it yet"? fucking scary, how her voice drops and gets all serious for a split second and then the hologram just cuts out. i was like "wh- wait hang on-???" i definitely think she is putting up a persona and as the game goes on we're slowly going to watch her lose it. troy will probably grow a bit distant from her as well if he doesn't lose it, too. definitely think ty is going to try and kill him once he's of no use to her, because he's just been a pain in her side because she had to keep him alive as the brains of the operation. but once the operation is done... whoops. sorry pal. don't need you anymore. they're the main villains, i can't see her holding the bonds of family in high regard at all. she could totally write off his death as like ‘he sacrificed himself for the Great Vault, now we pray to him every day and sacrifice ourselves in his name’ or smth”

“She puts up this fun-loving persona as a streamer, but she then decides the Vault Hunters get to see her true self. It is not pretty. It makes Jack look like a kitten-cuddling fluffball, that's how bad the real Tyreen is. It makes Piston and Vasquez sound like friendly guys you'd take out for lunch after work. It makes Hector's goals look very reasonable and sane. Also, perhaps she kills him and we never see how she did it, which ups the scare factor. It's like Troy disappeared and we have no idea how she killed him and how long it took for him to die. We just find a lot of irreconcilable proof that Troy is dead now and we don't know how. That is the amount of horror I'm estimating.”

“Oh man I love this. That's so horrible (in a good way), I can 100% see it happening. Jack swore revenge for us killing the person he 'loved'. Tyreen herself kills the person she 'loved' and we start to realize holy shit this is the real deal. She can't even pretend to care like Jack pretended to care (he didn't actually care about Angel as a person, but he did say things to try and make Angel think he did, just putting that out there cuz I don't wanna sound like I support him lol). There's just a complete contrast between her and Jack during the final levels of the game. Jack stops joking around "you feel that, child killer?", he's dead serious and ready to kill vs Tyreen laughing or just being off the rails bubbly for her 'streamer persona' while looking utterly unhinged”

so yeah, the convo teetered off after this a bit, but the general gist is that Tyreen is going to go absolutely off-the-wall by the end of the main story. this is somewhat supported by the Danny Homan interview that states the twins are going to have their relationship warp and twist.Tyreen is going to start going crazy with all the powers she absorbs and realize once the plan is over she won’t need Troy’s expertise anymore, and Troy is going to get sick of being relegated to the side when he’s the one with the master plan. We both have the deep feelings the twins aren’t going to stay as charismatic as they are in the little bit of promo material we’ve gotten of them. which i get, because in a lot of the official trailers, Troy looks pissed. Tyreen is always super smug no matter what shot she’s in, but Troy... he looks very angry in some shots we get. even when Ty is holding his forearm in that one shot, he rips his arm out of her grip. For example: “How many IRL streamer "friends" get into ridiculous drama and feuds with each other? Answer: a lot. Could be mirroring that with the twins. A lot of people are saying that the new villains will never match up to Jack. This is our take, and we're proud of it, and very confident in Gearbox's new writing team. ”

EDIT: some edits made by The Wild West Pyro

[scigebabadook]

cisfemale — ever hear people say SAIGE BORDEAUX looks a lot like LIANA LIBERATO? I think SHE is about 20, so it doesn’t really work. The LINGUISTICS + CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY major is a SOPHOMORE that is from ALL OVER THE PLACE. They can be BLITHE, but they can also be EVASIVE. I think SAIGE might be a SHEEP. They are living in BALTA. ( snot goblin. 20. EST. she/they. )

hello ,,, it seems i am a sheep and Refuse to leave the herd. aka i love u all so frickin’ much ,,, and w/o further ado, here is saige !! pleathe LIKE this so i can shimmy into yr ims !!

TW: drug use, alcoholism, implied abuse ? shitty parents at the very least, addiction

a e s t h e t i c s

stick n’ pokes at 2am – when your drunk and giggling too much in between purposeful stabs, avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk because they’re bad luck and they’ll break your mother’s back – even if your mother doesn’t love you, because you love her, the familiar riff in an old song – one that’s got you strumming along silently; there is no guitar, only empty air lit by the christmas lights you haven’t taken down. it’s may. swallowing down shots, and by default, swallowing down problems. laughing quick, easily, constantly. skinned knees from skateboarding, despite being rubbish at it. wishes on eyelashes stuck to your cheekbones, glitter sticking, running into the ocean at sunrise; feeling at home. excuses, and the many forms they come in. telling people you love them through hand squeezes and fresh muffins, sideways glances and soft, eager grins.

general info !!

full name: saige alouette bordeaux

nickname(s): n/a so give her some uwu

b.o.d. - july 7th, 20 whole yrs old.

label(s): the hedonist, the icarcian, the reveler, etc. etc.

height: 5′7″ !!

hometown: thibodaux, louisiana

sexuality: firstly when aren’t my babies bi as FUCK but she also prefers masc-presenting folks

pinterest

stats

biography !!

the fallible daughter of two very infallible people: robert bordeaux, US lieutenant general, and manon levesque, world renown fashion designer. both calculating, cold, and purposeful.

saige never believed she was created out of love. it was an action with a purpose, intentions to create the perfect child. the hybrid of both military genius and fashion extraordinaire, molded to their will.

it took them no more than six months after her birth for her parents to up and move, thus beginning the cycle of packing and unpacking, flying and driving, state-to-state and country-to-country. the longest saige had ever stayed in one place was two years.

kept on a short leash, homeschooled, and learning skills she had no interest in – she was more like a pet, a project, than a child. the world moved all around her, but she felt restrictively tethered to her parents.

she had always felt this way. a bird in a cage of thorns.

it was hard to keep and maintain friends – saige would be there one day, and gone the next. a ghost, a very visible ghost. even so, she tried her hardest.

running from bodyguards (nannies, in a sense. her father is a paranoid man) into festival crowds and climbing out of windows in the dark of night to swim in lakes with locals she’d meet only a few hours earlier – she absorbed as much of what she could get; this intense, undying love for a world she had always craved to see.

it was the start of something near dangerous – a phase that seemed to never end, rebellion coursing through her veins. a wild child in the making, unknowing of limits. the bad sort of crowd was the crowd she found herself landing, more often than not – introducing the sheltered girl to a world she hadn’t quite known existed

she ran away, briefly, at age fifteen with a man three years older than her – which nearly ended up in a tabloid magazine if it hadn’t been for her parents’ money. though the guilt of her parents’ disappointed weighed on her, the thrill fueled something much worse

from that point on, she became a problem child. from public intoxication to vandalism – it was clear their daughter was unraveling and nothing could contain her.

boarding school was a small attempt to stop it – she got expelled.

she hadn’t intended to go to university, either – but, by some chance – and after a mysterious year-long disappearance from public eye during her eighteenth year of living, next thing she knew, she was a student at gifford university in a town she’d never been to before.

personality !!

bubbly. so fucking bubbly. she’s got so much fucking energy on her – she goes running every morning and every night and swims like every afternoon and she’s n e v e r tired ?? the personality of a coke bottle shaken up but like if the bottle could laugh.

tries her hardest to be the Happy Fun friend, y’know, the one who can hook you up w/ some sicccc shit b/c she befriended/possibly slept with her drug dealer and now she gets discounts.

like, generally, comes off as very confident of herself and fearless and, like, yes–reckless, but like a fun reckless, y’know ??

talks a l o t, could ramble for days, hand gestures and all.

if she wants to do something, she will do it and there’s not much you can do to stop her tbh. she’s very easy-going, very go-go-go, very…mischievous, y’know? even if she’s trying to do something stupid you kinda just have to let her do it or otherwise she’ll mope for three hours and pout at you and you’ll feel ?? this weird sense of guilt ?? which isn’t the Best thing but she’s not the best person either so dfghjh

a vegetarian !! meat makes her sick, like, physically.

uuuhh her vocabulary consists of a lot of ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ and ‘y’knows’, y’know ??

i am like 99% sure she’s got adhd but she’s never been diagnosed with it b/c her parents suck with that stuff. her parents sort of suck in general.

like…she’s currently not on speaking terms with them. she’s not disowned…like, yet, but they haven’t said more than like five words to each other since saige was eighteen and it k i l l s her but they also send her a shit ton of money every month so.

owns like…four cars…..she has them all on campus…..she prolly isn’t suppose to…but she does…one of them’s a real sleek sports car, one is a jacked up pick-up truck that’s decked out in like LED lights n shit, one is the same exact fucking car from the princess diaries b/c saige is obsessed w/ the movie. the other is like. a mini cooper probably.

a photographer, her walls are covered in photographs and art and taped-down plants and in general her room is very ?? cluttered ?? like it’s very home-y but god. she’s a mess. clothes everywhere. she’s probably got a pile of instruments and other miscellaneous hobbies on a chair in the corner that she hasn’t touched in a while

speaking of !! she has a bunch of random, like, skills ?? like knitting and sewing and cooking and three different forms of ballroom dancing, and she can definitely work a gun and a car engine except she goes thru interests so rapidly and is disinterested in most of the other ones b/c her parents forced like half of them onto her.

she plays bass guitar. she loves her bass guitar. she knows other instruments but the only ones she’ll really fidget with are her bass guitar and like, her violin. everything else she’s like ~okay~ at

got really obsessed with languages at a young age and started learning them ?? her mother is like. super french, like genuinely from france, so she already grew up speaking both english and french but she’s learnt others for the hell of it and she’s still learning like three other at the same time which is a MESS but she’s a mess so like can u blame her sdfghj

but like i said, she’s v e r y reckless. very much a party girl. she uses like…quite a few drugs, both socially and alone and frankly – she’s rarely sober.

a budding alcoholic because she’s convinced that without it she’ll be Miserable and Horrible to everybody because she’s a Horrible, Awful person who is the absolute Worse and if drinking vodka mixed in with 23 crystal lite packets helps with not thinking like that then she’ll do it no questions asked

its a problem she’s been developing since she was younger, only amplified by … the situation, that happened when she was eighteen.

is essentially wearing this mask of confidence and giddiness and flirtatiousness b/c she doesnt want people to think she’s doing Not Okay.

she loves so much. she loves everything, everybody. falls in love like five times a day but nothing really sticks to her either. if ur a shitty person/come off as an asshole then she’ll be more likely to be attracted to her b/c shes Always been like this. finds them super interesting which is ?? questionable ?? sometimes i want to just. knock some sense into her but y’know what…it’s fine we’re Fine

she gets around p frequently but is also the type of person who’ll like, try n maintain a positive, good friendship with whoever she sleeps with b/c the idea of having regrettable encounters is smth that Bothers her and she just pretty much refuses.

it’s honestly a bit of a problem ?? she blurs the lines between friendship and Something, Anything More too often and with too many people b/c she just. wants to be loved. but there is never enough !

she does stick n pokes !! a whole bunch !! let her give you one !! she can’t draw for shit but i mean, who cares, right ??

uuuhh her mom sends her like…prototypes of things she designs n shit that isn’t out yet and saige 100% always gives it away or it sits in her closet and essentially that is her go-to gift for birthdays or christmas or whenever she feels like it

there’s literally sm i could say about her but i’ll stop Here b/c it’s getting too long sksksksk

wanted connections !!

give me. a best friend. just somebody who sticks by her side even though she’s a Mess

like, a ride or die ?? is that the same as a best friend ?? idc i want both :)

and just in general, like, people she’s p close to ?? she’s really friendly and is the kind of girl who’d be really popular in high school but doesn’t care abt popularity n talks to literally Everybody like she’s known them all her life.

ESP if ur muse is a lil grumpier !! she will fuck their shit up, but like, in a friendship way.

party pals, where they don’t talk that much outside of parties but inside them ?? super close. glued to the hip. hold-your-hair-back kinda tight.

frenemies ?? fake friends ?? toxic pals ?? ppl using her for her money or like, sex, or something ?? anything ??

bad influences ?? who just encourage all of saige’s shit ??

good influences ?? who are like YOINK stop being an idiot.

a tutor b/c she’s like…she’s smart, okay, but she’s also really stupid LMAO. she’s rly bad at math and science. somebody help her.

hook ups ?? fwbs ?? that one, rare one-night-stand that went weird ??

exes ?? she’s sorta noncommittal so idk how long they would’ve dated but like sjdfkbo yolo ?? ex hook-ups too ??

…somebody who just. hates her. but she doesn’t realize bc she’s a big ol’ idiot. she thinks theyre pals !!

let her b a thorn in someone’s side, just like, an absolute annoyance LMAO

gimme an enemy, or like an ex-best friend where something happened between them n it ruined their friendship

i will take literally anything i dont know

she steals ur character’s mail ?? ur cat keeps escaping and she keeps letting them inside even tho she’s allergic ??

one of those friendships where theyre always bickering like an old married couple ?? but it’s Purely Platonic (or is it ??)

an off-and-on again that just. it’s not good for either of them b/c they keep enabling each other and then getting pissed off and it’s a Mess but ?? it’s so hard to stop.

the drug dealer she keeps sleeping with even though she can just ... pay for her shit. b/c it’s funner this way !

just ... people where their like ... relationship status is Blurred and it’s like, are they a thing? are they not? b/c she’s a mess and gets involved with too many people without intending to !

please. take her. give me connections.

[hnnnfdfds]

ohhhh, tell us about yaiba!! who’s your fav, what do you like the most about manga/anime in general and whatever else you want to share🌊💕

!!!!!

I can’t really settle on a fave, tbh? I mean, it’s gotta be Tanjirou bc I almost always end up loving the mains and he’s just so damn pure,,, Nezuko is cute too, omg!!! Also, I really like Zenitsu!!! But then Inosuke came and I was like, damn he’s cute!!!

But like, Giyuu??? Shinobu??? Someone how to decide???

Mhm, I think what really gets me in an anime, is if the world-building is done greatly. I never really realized it until one month ago, but I pay a lot of attention to the world/universes in fictional work. It doesn’t even really have to be made up, you know? It could totally be sth taken from reality and just adapted with a few little differences, varying from living styles to incorporating stuff like a demon slayer organization and life between demons and humans.

So, yeah, KnY, really has done it well so far. It has all the basic questions done. Demons exist. Relationship between demons and humans? Bad because demons eat humans... yet Nezuko is differently so it creates curiosity and the whole wondering of if-situations... 

How to counter the bad nature of demons? With demon slayers, of course!

A whole organization with ranks has been invented. Even the demons have some kind of rank system which connects the whole world-building to the plot.

Why do they have a rank system despite being quite content being alone? Ah, because there’s a guy, obviously stronger than them, that created them in the first place.

The plot is about a boy trying to beat this guy out of revenge but mostly to turn his demon sister back. It’s not mindless revenge, it’s emotion-driven but not to a negative strong extent because of said sister existing.

It’s not some mind-blowing plot, at least not if you cut it down to the basics.

- Guy creates demons

- Demons kill humans bc food

- Boy loses his family like that

- Proceeds to chase the guy

You see that kind of plot a lot in anime. It’s also why a lot of people don’t like a plot bc it’s abnormal or somewhat impossibly different. People end up liking works with the same plots or totally different plots.

Because? Because either they really like the basic plot or they just really care about the differences which are shown in the details surrounding a plot. Those are, of course, part of the plot but different on their own.

Basic plot but...

- Kid sister is alive but a demon and she doesn’t get kidnapped or something

- Guy actually just really wants to cure his sister (Tanjirou dislikes Muzan but the first time we really felt his rage was when he actually met Muzan before that it was just worrying about Nezuko)

- He can only do this with special kind of weapons and breathing styles (I really love the concept of the breathing styles)

- Nezuko is basically somewhat different from other demons

- Demons are shown to be actually really miserable creatures

- Demons were actually once humans. They didn’t just one day appear and start existing, they weren’t created out of nothing either. They were turned into demons.

Actually, that point is fucking sad.

If you look at most of their backstories they decided to go be a demon either after the people around them let them down, were assholes, or their circumstances let them be desperate enough to accept being a demon over what they were before. Or they were turned against their wills.

It really parallels to how some humans just turn... into assholes or at least end up being really miserable? If you get constantly told you’re trash or if you feel desperate in a bad state of mind, it’s not impossible that you either stop caring or rejoice in paying back.

Hmm, I mentioned it already but I really love the breathing styles and the action scenes in general. Like, bless, the animation bc holy fuck, the action scenes are so damn gorgeous.

But overall, I just love the concept and the imaginary to go along with it and how it works. It’s so different from what I’m used to in weaponry/attacks/fight styles. Like, take, BSD for example. I always loved BSD’s concept of abilities because it’s actually in a sense an unusual idea. Take the most known book, and go over its plot to create a good ability fitting the character, which is more or less based on said book’s author. 

It’s also one of the points that will come up the first when I tell someone about BSD.

Like for BNHA, I’ll most likely go with something along the lines of, “It’s about a world in which most humans have quirks and thus heroes exist to make sure villains don’t cause chaos.”

For BSD, I’d go, “It’s mostly about this detective agency with special abilities... You know, the characters are based on those authors and...”

I go a bit more in detail in the BSD explanation. For Bnha I’d only mention that it’s about heroes most times. And an interesting fact for me, quirks suddenly developed and almost everyone has one. 

For BSD, the natural choice for me would be to tell them about characters and skills is based on authors and books because it’s just kind of unique to me. 

If I were to describe KnY, I’d most likely go, “Ah, there’s this anime about a boy becoming a demon slayer to obviously slay demons. But you know, you’d really give it a try, because the attacks are kind of interesting.”

It’s such a simple fact, but the moment something interesting/unique comes up we’ll mention it because it stays. The plot is like a basic mention. It’s just something you say to either warn someone about what kind of anime you talk or test to see if they might like it and you can continue talking, but once you get over that basic testing, you immediately pull out the most convincing facts about it in hopes to keep their interest in the anime/manga.

And I’m totally off-point again,,,,

I’m still not that far in the manga so I can’t say much except I really like the art style so like, bless. But what I’m happy about it, that it’s far enough to approach the topic of the Pillars. You know, being a demon slayer in KnY seems like a weird concept at first. Nezuko and Tanjirou travel around and slay demons — the only contact to others from the organization they have are through crows/letters. In some situatiosn, they do have a lot of contact with other slayers/workers because of situations where they need help or need to provide help. Of course, Zenitsu and Inosuke are also part of the organization but most times they feel more like travel companions except when they fight against demons. 

In fact, the whole setting is airly and friendly, that only in the most recent episode—episode 20—did they find out that something like Pillars exists. They passed a test to join an organization. I totally find that intriguing because whilst of course, we get to see small snippets of it, it’s never really portrayed like how it really is. 

The kids are working under someone. They are part of something led by someone.

It’s only in epi 20 in which it started to properly show for me. Well, the whole scene in the forest with the workers also went there for me. Like, there are clean-up workers and obvs higher-ranking people. Other squads are sent out to help when there are problems.

It’s a whole fucking system.

And they didn’t even know about the existence of Pillars as proven in epi 20. This is most likely to keep our interests as watchers/readers more or less at the same wavelength and because of a new arc kind of situation. 

But like, the moment they passed that exam they somewhat agreed to work under that organization. And I really, really, love observing inner-workings of such in fictional works.

Like seriously, I love the agency’s dynamic in BSD and I really, really like the Port Mafia because they basically kill people but they have an orderly construction in their systems, it’s fascinating. 

Uhhhhhhhh

I’m gonna go write some prompts now because life.

[saigeboredeaux-blog]

( cisfemale ) haven’t seen SAIGE BORDEAUX around in a while. the LIANA LIBERATO lookalike has been known to be (+) CONFIDENT & (+) AMIABLE, but SHE can also be (-) RECKLESS & (-) IRRATIONAL. The 20 year old is a SOPHOMORE majoring in LINGUISTICS + CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY. I believe they’re living in FIDELIS but I popped by earlier and no one answered the door. ( james! 20! est! she/they! )

i loved naeva but it isnt her time, she doesnt belong in the mortal realm sndjkfjgkh BUT i did wake up from my nap with an INTENSE FEELING OF LOVE AND MUSE for saige, who is my actual legitimate daughter. so pleathe, have her. love her. respect her. if you haven’t already dropped a like on my other post and you’d like to plot with saige, pleathe do so on this one !!

TW: drug use, alcoholism, implied abuse ? shitty parents at the very least, addiction

a e s t h e t i c s (i saved them this time !!!)

stick n' pokes at 2am -- when your drunk and giggling too much in between purposeful stabs, avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk because they're bad luck and they'll break your mother's back -- even if your mother doesn't love you, because you love her, the familiar riff in an old song -- one that's got you strumming along silently; there is no guitar, only empty air lit by the christmas lights you haven't taken down. it's may. swallowing down shots, and by default, swallowing down problems. laughing quick, easily, constantly. skinned knees from skateboarding, despite being rubbish at it. wishes on eyelashes stuck to your cheekbones, glitter sticking, running into the ocean at sunrise; feeling at home. excuses, and the many forms they come in. telling people you love them through hand squeezes and fresh muffins, sideways glances and soft, eager grins.

general info !!

full name: saige alouette beaumont

nickname(s): she…doesn’t have any in this timeline but PLEASE, she LOVES nicknames. she’s a nickname slut.

b.o.d. - july 7th, 20 whole yrs old.

label(s): the hedonist, the icarcian, the reveler, etc. etc.

height: 5′7″ thank u very much !!

hometown: thibodaux, louisiana

sexuality: firstly when aren’t my babies bi as FUCK but she also prefers masc-presenting folks

pinterest

stats

biography !!

the fallible daughter of two very infallible people: robert bordeaux, US lieutenant general, and manon levesque, world renown fashion designer. both calculating, cold, and purposeful.

saige never believed she was created out of love. it was an action with a purpose, intentions to create the perfect child. the hybrid of both military genius and fashion extraordinaire, molded to their will.

it took them no more than six months after her birth for her parents to up and move, thus beginning the cycle of packing and unpacking, flying and driving, state-to-state and country-to-country. the longest saige had ever stayed in one place was two years.

kept on a short leash, homeschooled, and learning skills she had no interest in -- she was more like a pet, a project, than a child. the world moved all around her, but she felt restrictively tethered to her parents.

she had always felt this way. a bird in a cage of thorns.

it was hard to keep and maintain friends -- saige would be there one day, and gone the next. a ghost, a very visible ghost. even so, she tried her hardest.

running from bodyguards (nannies, in a sense. her father is a paranoid man) into festival crowds and climbing out of windows in the dark of night to swim in lakes with locals she’d meet only a few hours earlier -- she absorbed as much of what she could get; this intense, undying love for a world she had always craved to see.

it was the start of something near dangerous -- a phase that seemed to never end, rebellion coursing through her veins. a wild child in the making, unknowing of limits. the bad sort of crowd was the crowd she found herself landing, more often than not -- introducing the sheltered girl to a world she hadn’t quite known existed

she ran away, briefly, at age fifteen with a man three years older than her -- which nearly ended up in a tabloid magazine if it hadn’t been for her parents’ money. though the guilt of her parents’ disappointed weighed on her, the thrill fueled something much worse

from that point on, she became a problem child. from public intoxication to vandalism -- it was clear their daughter was unraveling and nothing could contain her.

boarding school was a small attempt to stop it -- she got expelled.

she hadn’t intended to go to university, either -- but, by some chance -- and after a mysterious year-long disappearance from public eye during her eighteenth year of living, next thing she knew, she was a student at lockwood. (more on this later :~) )

connection to tatiana: party pals !! super close as long as they were drunk, but they generally ran in different circles (though saige sorta...runs through all circles?) whilst sober

personality !!

bubbly. so fucking bubbly. she’s got so much fucking energy on her -- she goes running every morning and every night and swims like every afternoon and she’s n e v e r tired ?? the personality of a coke bottle shaken up but like if the bottle could laugh.

tries her hardest to be the Happy Fun friend, y’know, the one who can hook you up w/ some sicccc shit b/c she befriended/possibly slept with her drug dealer and now she gets discounts.

like, generally, comes off as very confident of herself and fearless and, like, yes--reckless, but like a fun reckless, y’know ??

talks a l o t, could ramble for days, hand gestures and all.

if she wants to do something, she will do it and there’s not much you can do to stop her tbh. she’s very easy-going, very go-go-go, very...mischievous, y’know? even if she’s trying to do something stupid you kinda just have to let her do it or otherwise she’ll mope for three hours and pout at you and you’ll feel ?? this weird sense of guilt ?? which isn’t the Best thing but she’s not the best person either so dfghjh

a vegetarian !! meat makes her sick, like, physically.

uuuhh her vocabulary consists of a lot of ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ and ‘y’knows’, y’know ??

i am like 99% sure she’s got adhd but she’s never been diagnosed with it b/c her parents suck with that stuff. her parents sort of suck in general.

like...she’s currently not on speaking terms with them. she’s not disowned...like, yet, but they haven’t said more than like five words to each other since saige was eighteen and it k i l l s her but they also send her a shit ton of money every month so.

owns like...four cars.....she has them all on campus.....she prolly isn’t suppose to...but she does...one of them’s a real sleek sports car, one is a jacked up pick-up truck that’s decked out in like LED lights n shit, one is the same exact fucking car from the princess diaries b/c saige is obsessed w/ the movie. the other is like. a mini cooper probably.

a photographer, her walls are covered in photographs and art and taped-down plants and in general her room is very ?? cluttered ?? like it’s very home-y but god. she’s a mess. clothes everywhere. she’s probably got a pile of instruments and other miscellaneous hobbies on a chair in the corner that she hasn’t touched in a while

speaking of !! she has a bunch of random, like, skills ?? like knitting and sewing and cooking and three different forms of ballroom dancing, and she can definitely work a gun and a car engine except she goes thru interests so rapidly and is disinterested in most of the other ones b/c her parents forced like half of them onto her.

she plays bass guitar. she loves her bass guitar. she knows other instruments but the only ones she’ll really fidget with are her bass guitar and like, her violin. everything else she’s like ~okay~ at

got really obsessed with languages at a young age and started learning them ?? her mother is like. super french, like genuinely from france, so she already grew up speaking both english and french but she’s learnt others for the hell of it and she’s still learning like three other at the same time which is a MESS but she’s a mess so like can u blame her sdfghj

but like i said, she’s v e r y reckless. very much a party girl. she uses like...quite a few drugs, both socially and alone and frankly -- she’s rarely sober.

a budding alcoholic because she’s convinced that without it she’ll be Miserable and Horrible to everybody because she’s a Horrible, Awful person who is the absolute Worse and if drinking vodka mixed in with 23 crystal lite packets helps with not thinking like that then she’ll do it no questions asked

its a problem she’s been developing since she was younger, only amplified by ... situation, that happened when she was eighteen.

is essentially wearing this mask of confidence and giddiness and flirtatiousness b/c she doesnt want people to think she’s doing Not Okay.

she loves so much. she loves everything, everybody. falls in love like five times a day but nothing really sticks to her either. if ur a shitty person/come off as an asshole then she’ll be more likely to be attracted to her b/c shes Always been like this. finds them super interesting which is ?? questionable ?? sometimes i want to just. knock some sense into her but y’know what...it’s fine we’re Fine

she gets around p frequently but is also the type of person who’ll like, try n maintain a positive, good friendship with whoever she sleeps with b/c the idea of having regrettable encounters is smth that Bothers her and she just pretty much refuses.

she does stick n pokes !! a whole bunch !! let her give you one !! she can’t draw for shit but i mean, who cares, right ??

uuuhh her mom sends her like...prototypes of things she designs n shit that isn’t out yet and saige 100% always gives it away or it sits in her closet and essentially that is her go-to gift for birthdays or christmas or whenever she feels like it

there’s literally sm i could say about her but i’ll stop Here b/c it’s getting too long sksksksk

wanted connections !!

give me. a best friend. just somebody who sticks by her side even though she’s a Mess

like, a ride or die ?? is that the same as a best friend ?? idc i want both :)

and just in general, like, people she’s p close to ?? she’s really friendly and is the kind of girl who’d be really popular in high school but doesn’t care abt popularity n talks to literally Everybody like she’s known them all her life.

ESP if ur muse is a lil grumpier !! she will fuck their shit up, but like, in a friendship way.

party pals, who, much like tatiana they don’t talk that much outside of parties but inside them ?? super close. glued to the hip. hold-your-hair-back kinda tight.

frenemies ?? fake friends ?? toxic pals ?? ppl using her for her money or like, sex, or something ?? anything ??

bad influences ?? who just encourage all of saige’s shit ??

good influences ?? who are like YOINK stop being an idiot.

a tutor b/c she’s like...she’s smart, okay, but she’s also really stupid LMAO. she’s rly bad at math and science. somebody help her.

hook ups ?? fwbs ?? that one, rare one-night-stand that went weird ??

exes ?? she’s sorta noncommittal so idk how long they would’ve dated but like sjdfkbo yolo ?? ex hook-ups too ??

...somebody who just. hates her. but she doesn’t realize bc she’s a big ol’ idiot. she thinks theyre pals !!

let her b a thorn in someone’s side, just like, an absolute annoyance LMAO

gimme an enemy, or like an ex-best friend where something happened between them n it ruined their friendship

i will take literally anything i dont know

she steals ur character’s mail ?? ur cat keeps escaping and she keeps letting them inside even tho she’s allergic ??

one of those friendships where theyre always bickering like an old married couple ?? but it’s Purely Platonic (or is it ??)

an off-and-on again that just. it’s not good for either of them b/c they keep enabling each other and then getting pissed off and it’s a Mess but ?? it’s so hard to stop.

please. take her. give me connections.

[scoobydoominuscoobydoo]

Why we started shipping Shaphne. Just Random Rambling-

I’m gonna go ahead and say this is not an argument on why Shaphne is better than Fraphne because no ship in better than another, especially in the Scooby-Doo universe.

I’m gonna take a few moments to discuss the worst portrayal that ruined my opinion on Fraphne for a long time. 

And just because Shaphne is always gonna be the OTP of this blog doesn’t mean I don’t get why people ship Fraphne. I’ve seen every incarnation of Fraphne to date and they actually are cute, I get it.

Okay with that, let’s have some fun!

Mystery Incorporated:

Let’s start by addressing the only Scooby show that actually made Fraphne canon, and how they managed to screw it up so poorly it wasn’t even funny.

Now listen, MI was the incarnation I grew up with so I do actually have a lot of sentiment attached to it. But I am not going to argue with the fact that it did a poor job of characterizing all of the gang, Scooby included.

It tried it’s best to try and flesh out the gang to have them feel more, real. Like actual teenagers.

But oh my Lord they just made it worse.

And I think the one who got the worst of it was Daphne.

Her amazing and well rounded character that had existed since forever had been pushed down to the pretty girl that had a crush on Fred. And for most of the first season none of her actions were outside of her crush shenanigans. 

And she absolutely did not deserve that, Daphne was not part of Scooby-Doo solely to be Fred’s love interest. Way back in 1969 they understood that because Daph’s actions did not revolve around Fred 24/7.

When I watched the show when I was younger I never caught onto just how much of her “development” was her managing to get Fred to say something romantic to her. I honestly love the episodes in season 2 where Daphne isn’t in love with anybody because she actually gets the chance to just be herself.

Be quirky awkward Daphne.

And then she comes full circle and returns to having the same kind of relationship she had with Fred in season 1.

When they were together it wasn’t any better.

Rewatching the episodes when they were dating now when I’m older honestly made me uncomfortable. And when they got engaged it was laughable how poorly that was executed. Tbh I’m sure Fred had no idea that he proposed to Daph and just went along with whatever she said.

Then he just goes ahead and dumps her like it’s not painful or any sort of big deal while it actually crushes Daph enough to distance herself from the rest of the gang.

Season 2 Fred made me incredibly freaked out, like I love Fred Jones to bits and pieces but MI season 2 Freddie was the worst version of him and anyone who believes otherwise can explain why they disagree. 

I’m honestly curious if other people weren’t bothered by his disturbing behavior towards Daph for the beginning of that season.

Anyway bottom line, MI was why I had lost interest in Fraphne.

And why I gained a new interest in Shaphne.

I’m sure everyone remembers that episode in season 2 where...um...stuff happened.

Mod Silas is still convinced they slept together and I feel like it’s strongly implied but whatever.

That’s not what made me ship Shaphne since during all of that Daphne though Shag was Fred and Shag also thought he was Fred. Anyone feel like explaining how they managed to experience the same hallucination? So seeing that whole thing as Shaphne does kinda seem pointless.

What made me ship them was the short scene that happened afterward.

Both Shag and Daph quickly figured out what had happened and for like a few seconds they just stare at each other and don’t say anything. Like no panic or weirdness until Fred and Scoob reacted.

Shaggy ogles over being kissed by an angel, like twice I think.

Now both of those things don’t seem like a huge deal until you remember how much of a disaster these two’s relationships in the past were.

Both of them being in very forceful and controlling relationships.

Now it’s very probable that both of those reasons mean absolutely nothing and of course I’m reading into things as always.

But that was enough to catch my attention and pull me down into a void.

Because I’m gonna go ahead and be 100% honest with everyone:

Shaphne is never gonna be canon!

We all know it.

This isn’t a Riverdale/Bughead situation where people had wanted Betty and Jughead to get together long before the idea of Riverdale was created.

People were always for Fred and Daphne. And since the dawn of time it’s been clear that Fred and Daph are always gonna be each other’s respective love interest.

Hence why Shaphne is a void of pain.

But as I became open to the idea of it I made an observation.

Though Shag and Daph have very little interaction in most of the shows it was enough.

Shaggy and Daphne always take care of and understand each other. And it’s also super obvious that Daphne is very protective of Shaggy. Different from how she’s protective of the rest of the gang.

I’m not sure why their dynamic has always been like that, but it’s a dynamic that’s survived all the way into the modern age which means a lot to me.

Another thing that’s clear is Daphne loves Scooby.

Possibly just as much as Shaggy does idk.

The significance of that fact is best explained through a motto that Mod Silas and I have always had since we started shipping it:

“You can’t get Shaggy without getting Scooby.”

This was the biggest amount of drama with Shelma in MI was that Velma always saw Scooby as a dumb dog, as Shaggy’s pet, when it came to their relationship. And never saw him as Shag’s best friend, which is exactly what he is.

So when Shag broke up with her, she chose to blame the dog even though the reason he gave her was he wasn’t ready for a serious relationship.

And for the rest of the show Velma only ever gives Scoob sarcastic and condescending treatment.

 But Daphne has always loved Scooby, that much is clear,

Scooby and Daphne’s bond within MI alone is something to be appreciated.

And over the course of time I just kind of enjoyed the fact that Shaggy and Daphne would have a very healthy relationship, platonic or otherwise, if it had ever been further explored.

That’s a good portion of Shaphne, unexplored potential. 

And it’s definitely gonna stay unexplored.

However MI was just the beginning of my unhealthy Shaphne obsession.

The rest of the Universe:

Now the other Scooby shows had me approaching Shaphne differently because I wasn’t comparing it to Fraphne or Shelma in anyway since I didn’t have anything against the other incarnations of the ships.

For this I was able to just appreciate the dynamic Shag and Daph provided as a whole and not have to have that be my central focus for whatever show I was watching.

Like I can actual enjoy the friendship between the gang.

This version of Shaphne is the most relaxed and the one I wish got more attention, because this is the one where you see that they respect and understand each other. They also seem bonded over their love and protectiveness over Scooby which always gets me grinning like an idiot.

Daphne being protective of Shag is also another nice thing that’s presented.

However, in the old Hanna Barbera cartoons, romance was never supposed to be the main focus, or even really an element in the shows.

And to be fair romance isn’t meant to be the center of Scooby-Doo, it’s the friendship between four kids from very different social classes. 

I will say that shipping Shaphne and keeping up with all of the made for TV films is typically a treat since there are a good handful of them that just provide plenty of scenes showing the perfect dynamic they share.

For people who are looking for recommendations I’d say #1 is Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Phantosaur, which on it’s own is a really good movie just to watch. But the Shaphne on top of it is a nice addition.

For #2 I’d say both of those live-action movies Cartoon Network made. The Mystery Begins and Curse of the Lake Monster.

While I have problems with those movies, *cough cough* Fred with brown hair *cough cough* 

I think those movies do the best job of portraying Shaggy and Daphne’s relationship and it’s really sweet to watch.

13 Ghosts + New Scooby and Scrappy:

I’m gonna go ahead and finish this off with the two key pieces in the Shaphne art museum.

I’m sure everyone is already aware of the existence of the two shows where it’s just Shag and Daph and company.

These are the ones where we actually get to see Shaggy and Daphne work as a team it’s all I ever needed and more. While the main reason these exist is because Shaggy was the most popular character and then they added Daph ‘cause they needed a pretty girl.

“How to make a famous cartoon in the 70′s 101.”

Now both of these shows focus like a lot more on the “comedic relief” and their fun shenanigans than on the duo but that’s to be expected since this show was made for kids.

But for the most part it’s worth sitting through Flim Flam just always talking and never shutting up or Scrappy constantly saying “Puh-pup-puuuppyy Powweerrr!!” Every 8 seconds to see Shag and Daph in the background acting like overwhelmed babysitters that aren’t getting paid enough.

Plus there was all that fun drama where people thought they were living in the same house together.

While I am very certain that these shows don’t exist because everyone at HB was secretly the biggest Shaphne shippers in the world, I am very thankful for them.

In then end I think the reasons I ship Shaphne aren’t because I want the underdog to get the girl in the end. And I don’t want it to be like some sort of ‘guy on the wrong side of the tracks dating a pretty, rich girl.’

I really just want these two to be happy and functional and honest and themselves.

I always just see it as them being there for each other because though they may be really different people it’s never bothered them before. I just see two people who accept and help each other and that’s just something I see even though their dynamic gets no screen time.

At the end of the day Shaphne is always gonna be a fill in the blanks kinda ship. 

And I’m fine with that.

-Mod Ninja