#my worst one is specifically classic rock

[before-what-god]

having music as a special interest is so embarrassing like what do you MEAN i have 4 alice cooper albums. what do you mean i have hundreds of dollars worth of physical music i could just play on spotify

[aventurineswife]

I was just playing HSR with background music on and it occurred to me...

What if SAHSR can hear the music you play?

I literally listen to everything

Phonk, romance, sad, early 2000's, kpop, etc

One minute it's a sweet and slow romance song, then it switches dramatically to some hardcore phonk and the characters reaction vary

(FIGHTING ENEMIES WITH PHONK GOES HARD🔥🔥🗣️)

Oh man, the amount of ideas I'm getting on what each character's favourite modern artist would be

(I believe in Boothill loving Lady Gaga)

I am FORCING the entirety HSR to listen to Lana Del Rey — 🤡 anon

Oh, this is chaos incarnate.

Imagine the self-aware HSR cast constantly subjected to your music choices—whether they like it or not. One second, it's a gentle, heartwarming ballad. The next? Hard bass phonk blasting through their souls.

Aventurine loves the unpredictability. One moment he's strutting to smooth jazz, the next he's cackling at death metal.

Sunday is eating this up. "Ah, what impeccable taste! Such grandeur! Such emotion!"

Dramatically sways to Lana Del Rey, then viciously air-guitars to a rock solo.

Jing Yuan enjoys soft, orchestral music. He can nap peacefully to it.

But suddenly? Hardcore phonk drops mid-slumber.

Jing Yuan, groggy, "…Is this punishment?"

Luocha is eerily unphased. He adapts to all genres seamlessly.

But secretly? He resonates with gothic, haunting music. Plays it off as coincidence.

Blade + sad romance music? Oh. Oh, he’s going through it. 😔💔

"Another song of lost love? Must you remind me, every waking moment?"

Dan Heng finds some of the lyrical poetry beautiful. But if it suddenly switches from melancholy to phonk mid-battle?

"This… is a contrast."

Welt respects classical music. Then you subject him to hyperpop.

"What... exactly is the appeal of this?" (But secretly, he likes it.)

Himeko taps her fingers to the beat of anything.

"At least they have variety."

Kafka LOVES how music can set a mood. Will comment on your song choices mid-fight.

"This one… is about betrayal, isn’t it? Is that a message, darling?"

Black Swan quietly memorizes your favorites. Will theorize about your emotions based on your playlist order.

Pfft, Boothill 😭🙏

"WHAT IN TARNATION IS THIS POP HIT??" (But he’s bopping to it. Don't let him fool you.)

You force-feed him Lady Gaga. And guess what?

He starts humming ‘Poker Face’ mid-duel. (He's definitely a Chappell Roan fan too, change my mind.)

They now associate certain songs with specific battles.

If they hear a familiar track, they brace themselves. "Ah. This is a boss fight song, isn't it?"

Argenti tries to compose poetry based on the lyrics you play.

March 7th now has a list of ‘Certified Bangers’ from your playlist.

And the worst part? They have no escape. You control the aux. Forever.

[moondustbaby]

You’re So Annoying

Bsf!Rafe x Bsf!Reader

Summary: While getting ready for a night out, Rafe’s classic habit of being annoying turns into something softer — and maybe something you’ve both been avoiding for a long time.

⸻

“Are you almost done?” Rafe groans dramatically from behind me, flopping down onto my bed like he’s been suffering for hours.

“We’re gonna miss, like, half the night at this point,” he complains, voice muffled against my comforter.

I roll my eyes at him in the mirror, steadying my mascara wand. “Rafe. It’s literally been twenty minutes. Chill.”

He lifts his head just enough to squint at me. “Feels like twenty years.”

I ignore him, focusing on my lashes, but in the mirror, I catch him getting up and wandering — which is never good. Rafe bored in my room is dangerous.

He picks up random stuff from my dresser, lifting a bottle of perfume and giving it an aggressive spritz into the air.

“Is this new?” he asks, cringing when it accidentally hits him right in the face.

“It’s like… flowers? And sadness?”

“It’s literally vanilla,” I deadpan. “You’re so dramatic.”

He shrugs, smirking, and then — horrifyingly — heads for the drawer.

“Rafe, no,” I warn, still mid-eyeliner.

He grins like a gremlin, yanking open the second drawer of my dresser, the one I specifically keep my underwear in.

“Ohhh, what’s this?” he says, victorious, holding up a tiny scrap of pink lace between his fingers. “These are new.”

My entire face bursts into flames. “RAFE!” I screech, spinning around in my chair.

“Put that DOWN!”

He laughs so hard he almost drops it, tossing it back into the drawer without a care. “Damn, you’ve been holding out on me. Didn’t know you were out here stockpiling secrets.”

I shove the drawer closed with my foot, glaring. “You are the worst.”

“You love me,” he says, grinning like an idiot as he flops back onto my bed dramatically again, arms spread out wide.

I turn back to the mirror, heart hammering way too hard for what just happened, trying to focus on lining my lips. But then I feel it — him moving again.

In the mirror, I see Rafe come up behind me, hands sliding casually into the pockets of his jeans, watching me finish my makeup like he belongs there.

He rocks back on his heels, close enough that I feel the warmth of him.

“Why do you need makeup anyway?” he mutters, just loud enough for me to hear. His voice is a little rough around the edges, almost shy, which is weird because Rafe Cameron is never shy.

I blink at him in the mirror, caught off guard. “What?”

“You’re already pretty,” he says, like it’s a fact, like it’s obvious, like he isn’t single-handedly responsible for making my hands shake while I try to cap my lip gloss.

I swallow, feeling my cheeks heat. I cover it with a laugh. “You’re just trying to make up for traumatizing me.”

He grins, stepping even closer so he can bump his shoulder against mine. “Yeah, well. You’re still coming out with me tonight, so obviously I’m forgiven.”

I roll my eyes, but I’m smiling — hopelessly, helplessly — because it’s him.

Because he’s standing here in my room, wearing a little bit of my perfume, looking at me like I’m the only thing worth paying attention to, and because even though he drives me insane, I don’t want it any other way.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” I mutter under my breath.

“What was that?” he teases, leaning in like he didn’t hear — but he definitely did.

“Nothing,” I say, smirking.

He just laughs, reaching out to tug a loose strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering way longer than they need to.

And for a second — just one dizzy second — it feels like maybe neither of us is joking anymore.

༶⋆｡ﾟ☽✿⋆˚✧✿☾ﾟ｡⋆༶

a/n: rafe rifling through reader’s stuff like a menace is literally my roman empire. anyway. if a boy sprayed my perfume on himself and then had the nerve to act like it was no big deal i would simply pass away on the spot. unhinged asks, keysmashes, and general chaos are always welcome!!

♥️ lani

Send Me Requests! 💌

Masterlist

[cerusee]

I've never watched any Chinese dramas but I really enjoy your posts/gifs about them and it's got me interested in trying some! Do you have any recommendations for somebody who's totally new to them? Any tropes/background context I should be aware of? The historical/fantastical ones seem the most appealing to me.

Oooooh! My first thought on reading this ask was, “oh, I’m hardly qualified”; I’m only on my *stops to count on fingers* eighth cdrama, not counting the one episode I watched of the Wang Zhuocheng xianxia where he falls in love with a rock. (Long story.) There’s a lot of cdramas out there, and I myself have not even scratched the surface of what’s out there! That said, if you’re interested in historical/fantastical dramas, those ARE the ones I’ve been watching, so I still have some opinions despite being a total noob myself.

Do not start with The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling. Twas my first cdrama, like a lot of western fans, who were drawn to it in part because of the big censored-but-still-very-evident gay love story between the male leads, but honestly, as much fun as it is for the slash fans, it’s not a great jumping off point for either Chinese television in general, or even for its own wuxia-inspired genre setting. I say this as some who is still deep in the fandom four years later, and has immense love for the show: the first two episodes are flat-out bad, the overall pacing is bad (episodes frequently stop MIDSCENE), the worldbuilding is thin (a carryover from the novel it was based on), and without a larger context for why it’s made the way it’s made (stylistic choices, industry conventions, government censorship, genre conventions) a lot about it is confusing as hell to cdrama newbies, which is…so evident…a lot…in fandom wank I mean in the discourse about what story this story is trying to tell. Like, if you came to me and asked specifically, “I’m thinking of watching CQL. Should I watch CQL?” I would say yes, absolutely! It’s so much fun! I’m obsessed with the characters! I’ve written a lot of fanfic about the purple guy! But it’s not a good first cdrama, nor it is the best example of what the Chinese TV industry has to offer.

A MUCH better first cdrama especially if you like the historical/fantastical: The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017), which not coincidentally was my second cdrama. It’s one of about a dozen television adaptations of the classic 1957 Chinese novel of the same name by Jin Yong, generally considered to be the inventor of the genre known as wuxia, which is a blend of history, fantasy, and martial arts. (One of the most well-known examples of wuxia in the west is Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which you have probably at least heard of.)

Legend of the Condor Heroes (hereafter known as LOCH) has it all: romance, revenge, evil plots and daring deeds, people jumping off a burning mountain and being rescued by the worst CGIed eagles known to television or cinema, boat adventures, mountain adventures, grasslands adventures, a weird cult leader who lives on a spooky flower island (there will be math), murder, baby kidnapping, more murder, one guy inadvertently racking up a ridiculous number of martial arts teachers, sworn brotherhoods which invariably end with one guy stabbing the other, lots of VERY good martial arts fights, and, of course, Genghis Khan. Technically there are no magic/supernatural elements in this show—no ghosts, ghouls, magic, angels, devils, gods, etc—although the martial artists do have l33t skillz that might qualify as superhuman depending on how you slice your genre conventions, and are awfully fun to watch.

I’ve actually seen two LOCH adaptations (there was one in 2024 I liked a lot, with my favorite Guo Jing so far), but 2017 is a much better adaptation for newcomers as it tells a fuller version of the story and doesn’t skimp on or rush through or rewrite as many elements of the plot as other versions do; it’s meant to be a LOCH for people who haven’t seen half a dozen versions of LOCH already. It has a WONDERFUL cast, including my one of my favorite cdrama leading men, Chen Xingxu,* as the lead antagonist, Yang Kang, who is a trash fire of a person you just can’t root for, but he also can’t help it because he was raised by Wanyin Honglie. You can catch it on YouTube (I recall that there are couple of missing episodes from that playlist, but you can search on YT for those when you get there, to find them subtitled from other channels.)

*If you, like me, come away from LOCH 2017 with your mouth slightly ajar at how great CXX is, I have wonderful news for you! He’s been a lead in at least two other very good cdramas: the 2023 xianxia** The Starry Love, where he gets to play, like, five different characters (huge acting flex, and he’s great, although I would rush to stress I loved a ton of things about this show besides CXX himself), and the 2019 semi-historical drama Goodbye My Princess, which might actually be my favorite cdrama I have seen to date, and arguably THEE best well-made on a technical level, with phenomenal acting, a great script, and editing and directing I am constantly swooning over, but I am not entirely sure I can recommend to you unless you are a Tragedy Enjoyer.

(If you are a Tragedy Enjoyer, please stop whatever you’re doing and just start watching Goodbye My Princess right now, it is phenomenal. It is also available on YouTube. Watch the Director’s Cut, not the regular one! This is important. In its haste to get the main leads on screen together ASAP, the regular version does a Reader’s Digest version of stuff the Director’s Cut spends like five episodes carefully setting up, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, nor does it flow well.)

**Speaking of xianxia! Xianxia is the high fantasy genre, full of magic and gods and demons and people dying and living multiple lives and whatnot. Important to note: xianxias are soap operas (complimentary). They tend to feature female protagonists, sweeping, epic romances, and put enormous emphasis on exploring the nuances of relationships and emotions. I have watched three that I loved (Love Between Fairy and Devil, The Starry Love, and Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms), and while technically I could recommend all three, if you were going to watch just one, especially as a cdrama intro, I have to recommend Eternal Love, which really is the quintessential xianxia, the one all other xianxias are kind of shaping themselves around. I have watched it 1.5 times and I can say that it does not properly take off until like, episode 10, or whenever it is that the main couple finally, properly meet. IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT. This show made me want to spit blood. I cried multiple times watching it. It made me feel things. It has a wonderful immersive quality that’s hard to describe except to say that the entire show sort of vibrates on its own frequency. The casting is just kind of…perfect? Props to Maggie Huang for portraying the most perfectly hatable xianxia villainess of all time. Absolutely no one is doing it like Su Jin. No one should try. I believe this is available on YouTube, but after an abortive start, I realized it was on US Netflix, and watched it there.

As for tropes and background context: ehhhhhh. I mean, it’s an entire industry? I know substantially less about how it functions than I do about, like, American TV and film. I know government censorship is a not-inconsiderable factor, but I don’t know much of the nuance of how that plays out in terms of filming and airing. Tropes will vary according to subject. Idol dramas (shows built to showcase media personalities regardless of their ability to act) are a thing. Most cdrama audio is still dubbed (this one surprised me!), usually by professional voice actors and not by the original cast, for a confluence of reasons, some of which historically make sense (noisy filming lots rendering original audio useless), and some of which are really stupid (fans throwing hissy fits if lead actors don’t have the “right” kinds of voices for their characters).

Anyway! My recommendations are this: try The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017) to start with, UNLESS you would prefer having your heart ripped out of your chest, in which case watch Goodbye My Princess (Director’s Cut, 2019), or UNLESS you love soap operas as much as I do, in which case watch Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (2017). All three are great shows, but they all hit differently/scratch a different itch.

Oh! Lastly! @dangermousie is a great source of cdrama recs. I should note she prefers dramas and tragedies and mostly does not vibe with xianxias. But she watches like eight million hours of dramas a week and reports her findings to us because she is a river to her people.

[gloriousmonsters]

ok listen. listen. hear me out. what if Angel was the one to propose the contract

like.... the intensification of heartbreak and guilt when Val tells him 'I own you, or have you forgotten that?' as Angel looks at his signature, the heart he drew next to it. the extra layer in 'what's the worst part of this hell? I can only blame myself'. and above all it plays well with my observation that their contract had to have been composed with some level of input from Angel, because... why on earth/in hell would Val have given him control of his life outside of the studio; and while Val invokes the contract to put Angel back in 'his place', Angel invokes it to remind Valentino that he can defy him. It's actually similar in composition to a kink contract/agreement--if I'm in this specific place, you hold all the power and call the shots; but outside of it, I don't give you that level of control. Angel can straight up tell Val to fuck off in front of a crowd and all Val can do is say he'll make Angel regret it next time he's in the studio (and isn't that an extremely dark variation of the classic kinky romance beat of 'sub misbehaves when they're in public and can get away with it, dom promises they'll pay for it later'?)

so like. all of that about the contract also works if Val proposed it, but I love headcanoning that their relationship was on the rocks around the time it was signed, and one of the factors was Vox coming onto the scene... and so now i'm just thinking about Angel in his peak era of both-sides-ing their relationship problems, knowing his 'commitment issues' (partly real, partly consisting of val's 'you know other men??' issues) are a major cause, furious and disconcerted at someone else drawing so much of Val's attention, wanting to make a stupid desperate Hail Mary pass to save their relationship but devoid of the usual options of 'have kid' or 'impulsively propose marriage' or 'move to a new house that's inevitably haunted' i watch too much horror, going for the option of '...hey do you want to make the kind of binding contract that is accessible to us?'

and surely it's not that stupid! he's only really giving Val a formal version of the power he gives him already, right? Val's his dom and his director and manager, and maybe there's... problems but it's mostly been great for Angel so far, so if having it on (magic eternally binding) paper would make Val happy and make him understand that Angel really wants him, wants them, the risk is toooootally worth it. just, best not to tell Cherri about it she'd definitely think it was insane.

(and when, much later, she learns about the contract and berates him for being an idiot and not telling her when Val brought it up, maybe don't correct her assumption. just keep it to yourself and feel even worse.)

[insufferable-prettyboy]

I want to talk about @mothercain 's body of work for a moment, specifically in relation to the profound affect it has had on me during the last few years. I don't really know if this is for anyone but myself, tumblr has always been a place I can just sort of throw things out into the void when I have nowhere else to say it, besides what is a tumblr blog but a place for yourself.

TW if you do read it i'm going to talk about uncomfortable and personal things so i guess don't if you don't want that. I suppose this is a review, maybe it's just a way for me to just talk about how important these pieces of art are.

I grew up in rural england, in a controlling home with an abusive christian mother and a very mentally ill atheist father, at Christmas we would go to rural wisconsin to see family. My only escapism was tumblr, porn and substances.

In 2018 my father died of an untreatable illness at the age of 47 and two days after the funeral I went into hospital for mtf gender reconstruction surgery. I was a little late to the party with the the discography and like many I didn't really know about it until Inbred. I have gone back and listened to the earlier works and they have been beautiful and touching, but the thing that makes Inbred, Preacher's Daughter and now Perverts so special to me is how they have shadowed my life as I have dragged myself through and back out of my downward spiral.

Inbred came to me at the worst part of my drug addiction. I had been using substances as a coping mechanism and was at the time still living as a woman. There was something that touched parts of me about the lyrics, the music, but most of all the way it seemed to take influences from everything I hold dear musically. Classic rock, The darker more introspective atmospheric black metal, the hymns i would sing in choir as a child in church. It reminded me of how i felt the first time I heard natural born losers. It made me feel ok to be fucked up and ok to be a mess, it made me feel like i wasn't a monster for wanting nothing more than to get fucked and be fucked up and then when I started to realise that I was in a bad place, it helped me through getting off drugs and moving out of the warehouse i lived in back into a real house. It's anthemic, there are songs that make you want to sing at the top of your lungs in the shower, or dance in the kitchen while you're cooking eggs.

I first listened to Preachers Daughter while riding home from work on my Harley, a bike which was the only thing I had gotten from my father's death, a consolation for mother refusing to let me have dad's bike in favour of it sitting and rotting in her garage. I'd gotten into a habit of listening to music while riding because the commute was boring and it stopped me riding like an idiot to make it more interesting. I had always been a very feminine boy prior to my transition and one of my major reasons for it was that I had always leant to that side of things. Post my surgery I had lost so much of myself that i had begun to dress as masculine as I possibly could in order to counteract the way my body was changing in a way that I hated, I couldn't look even look in the mirror.

When i heard western nights, and the words "He's never looked more beautiful, On his Harley in the parking lot" rattled around the inside of my helmet I pulled over to the side of the road and cried for the remainder of the album because I exactly in that moment realised that I had made a mistake with my transition, that I had listened to everyone else instead of myself and that I had tried so desperatley to push down who i was that it was easier to be a woman than it was to accept being a fem gay man. I have listened to that album regularly through my detransition period and it has been a friend to me as i've worked out how to love myself and push through this awful period of regression to find out who I really am and what my life looks like now. The landscape of the album reminds me of rural america, it reminds me of rural england, it is the essence of long open roads and sleazy dive bars and roadside diners in your own company. It's perfect to drive to, to lie in bed smoking to, to work on your motorcycle to, the tonality and instrumentation is a masterwork in minimalism and I cannot stress enough how hauntingly beautiful I find it.

I listened to Perverts for the first time today, I have been putting it off because I knew it would make me feel something. I knew it would awaken a feeling in me. It has been sat in the corner of my conciousness since it's release like the monster in the back of frame in a horror film. I don't know if I was ready to hear it but it was exactly what I needed to hear. Perverts has come into my life in a time post breaking up with my fiance of multiple years, where I am craving intimacy without love. A time where I have been trying to lift myself up and have been taken advantage of in my vunerable state and pushed back down again. Perverts it's a natural flow forwards in the body of work, it moves back and forth between being horribly uncomfortable to listen to, and being one of the most warm and comforting things I feel as though i've ever heard. There is a familiarity that has run through all of the releases as Ethel Cain, there is a warm sepia toned polaroid photo of a living room with a stained rug that sits in the background of all of these works in my head that feels very comfortable to lie on. The space that was there in the previous releases has on occasion been filled with harshness and repetition of pain, and sometimes allowed to breathe and bring comfort. I know that I will listen to perverts a lot this year, I know that it is a piece of art that will need to be heard multiple times to truly let it sit with you. On my first listen I couldn't even make it the whole way through without pausing it and taking a break, to me that is the hallmark of good art, It should make you feel deeply and loudly and aggressivley.

I don't know why i wrote this. I think more than anything, I felt a compulsion to. I needed to talk about how important and insane I feel having had these records hit me at such massive milestones in my life and be exactly what I needed.

If you haven't listen to these records, take some time, make some space and do it, I feel as though you will find something of yourself in there that maybe needs to be perceived. I guess this was more of a thank you note than anything else.

[rosypenguins]

Day 19! Music Club Headcanons! (Music Edition!)

I’ve already shared most of my Music Club headcanons, so I’ll be keeping this post pretty simple. Just kinda want to share my thoughts regarding their music tastes, because why not?

🩵Hailey mostly listens to country music. Woman’s country specifically. Like, the songs about killing your exes for cheating. If it weren’t for her kindness and strong moral code, she probably would’ve slashed Drew’s tires and bashed in his windshield to one of these songs by now. He may not be an ex, but she hates him all the same.

💜Zander mostly listens to stuff from the 80’s and 90’s. Pop music specifically. He’s one of those people who claims music is getting worse, and hates about 90% of modern artists. (TikTok would be his worst nightmare.) But I do imagine he’d really like Conan Gray. He’s definitely cried to several of his songs. (Also Luke definitely got him tickets to one of his concerts and he cried for like a solid 5 minutes.)

🧡Luke doesn’t really have much of a music preference. He’ll enjoy whatever anyone else is listening to. But on his own, he’d probably listen to a lot of classic rock. (Like something someone’s dad would listen to.) (Also I could totally see him listening to Arctic Monkeys.)

🩷Milly would mostly listen to punk-rock and metal music. Something she can blast late at night. (I have so many artists I think she’d listen to but that’ll take too long to list lol.) Most of these songs are either about how much the government sucks or how much life in general sucks.

💙Similar to Jake, Sean will listen to just about anything. However, instead of having all his songs in one playlists, he’s created countless, all with very specific vibes. (And he definitely has a shared playlist with each member of the Music Club.) His only ‘disorganized’ playlists are his recent faves list, and his vent list. Anyways, despite being down to listen to anything, I feel like he leans more towards EDM. Or anything loud. Anything to drown out his thoughts. (I refuse to stop with the Sean angst headcanons.)

🖤Bonus! I feel like one of the only artists the Jomies (including Zoey and Lia) can agree on is Kesha. I could totally see Drew driving them all somewhere with Joyride blasting out the speakers. Everyone except Drew’s singing along and Drew’s this close to driving the car off a cliff. (Not actually though he loves these idiots.)

@31days-of-freakblr

[coraniaid]

I did some googling to make sure this is unpopular and I think it is so unpopular opinion for the ask game: S1 of Buffy is pretty good.

Now if I was ranking them it wouldn't be my favourite or my second. But it might be my fourth favourite and I'm pretty positive on it, it's pretty goofy and honestly is probably a distinct enough era even compared to the rest of the high school era that it's not even super indicative of the rest of the show. But it can be a lot of fun, and even in that era with all of the monsters in the world at their fingertips, after a two parter with vampires, setting up the premise of the show natural, a witch, classic choice, they go with giant praying mantis for their third story instead. And I have to respect being willing to go with such an off the wall choice. And the Master? Honestly up there as one my more beloved Big Bads, great look, has a lot of fun with the role and whenever he shows up again after s1 (like the four times I think it is?) is always a treat.

Also I Robot, You Jane is specifically a banger, I love it, Moloch is great fun, introduces Jenny Calendar, the first of the inexplicable Robot episodes which are broadly inexplicably good? Be careful who you meet online it might be the robo devil! I love it.

(I'm distinctly not mentioning Prophecy Girl here because yeah Prophecy Girl rocks that's not unpopular but S1 is good outside of Prophecy Girl)

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I'm not sure it's in my top four seasons -- I'm not completely sure I even have a consistent top four --but I do agree that Season 1 is good. I think you're right that it feels very different to Seasons 2 and 3 (especially from around a third of the way into Season 2).

There are sadly a couple of episodes this season I genuinely dislike a lot (I think they might be contenders for two of the worst ten episodes of the show) and (other than Prophecy Girl which we're agreeing not to mention) there are no episodes that I'd call truly great.

But the opening two-parter is solid, Witch and Never Kill A Boy On The First Date and Angel are all fun and I enjoyed them when I last rewatched this season a couple of years ago. And towards the final third of the season the world of the show starts to get much fully realized and we meet Principal Snyder (who I raved about earlier) and as you say Jenny Calendar (and, for my money, S1!Jenny Calendar is the best iteration of her character) and Cordelia stops being quite so one-dimensional and we even get our first recurring minor character in the form of Harmony.

Sometimes (as in Nightmares) the special effects make it very clear this season was made in the mid-90s with a not especially large budget, and the show is generally a lot goofier and silly than it would later become (the fake cliffhanger endings of Teacher's Pet and Out of Sight, Out of Mind all feel very much of their time as well).

While some of the performances are a little shaky (especially from the one-off characters), I think SMG in particular really nails the role of Buffy right from the beginning of the season. Even without her big scenes in the episode we're not talking about, I think her performance in the title role is a big part of why the show got renewed for a second season. And I like ASH as Giles and Kristine Sutherland as Joyce and, yes, as you say, Mark Metcalf is a really enjoyable presence as the Master, too.

Honestly, I just have a lot of nostalgic fondness for this era of the show. It's not the show at it's best, but it helped lay a lot of the ground work for my favorite seasons. And one plus side of the very episodic nature of this season is that even the bad episodes can't really derail it. The bad episodes of the later seasons are bad partly because they set up long-term subplots that haunt the show for weeks or months, and that just can't happen here (the Anointed One isn't anything like as annoying as people say). Next time I rewatch this season I'm just skipping the two episodes I don't like and it will have no bearing on my understanding of the plot at all. If only that were true for all the show's worse episodes.

[casey-ackkat]

Weekly Tag Wednesday 🌿

Thank you for tagging me @lazystargazy @milkymilkovichh and @runninonemptyy 💕 you pretty much made my evening with this thing, cuz I had to think real hard to answer some of these😅

Name: Casey (well, technically it's Katherine, but I've always felt like it's too official, so yeah 😅)

Popular music/artist while you were in highschool: 5 Seconds of Summer 🎹

What's one thing you wish you'd known when you were younger? There's no point in trying to live up to people's expectations cuz you can never please anyone, just do whatever makes you happy

What is a course or certification you wish you'd done? Nothing specific comes to mind, but probably something that has to do with phycology

What's a style you wish you'd never rocked? Skinny jeans?? Ripped jeans?? Idk, I wouldn't say that it's the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it's the only thing I can think of😂

What's a style you totally killed? Cargo pants, shirts and converse/dr martens kinda stuff

Do you still wear it? Absolutely!!

Favorite pair of shoes you've ever owned: classic high top black converse, wear them 90% of the time✨

Have you ever worn heels? Do you regret it? Do you wish you had tried to wear heels? Do you think heels are the devil? What are heels- definitely worn them for some events and I kinda like the feeling of it when I'm in the right mood

Name one bucket list item? Start a travel journal and fill it up with beautiful places as I visit them🗺️

What's something you would do if you could step outside all your insecurities/fears today? Reach out and start conversations with people I wanna talk to, communicate some more

Is there another language you wish you learnt? Sign language! How cool would that be, huh? But I'm pretty sure they are somehow different in every country, which would make this waaay harder...

What's something you've done to your hair that you look back on and cringe? Burgundy highlights... The idea was pretty decent, but it turned out to be kinda weird

Okay last one.. what's a real regret? Stressing out and wasting my time and energy on little things that won't matter in the long run

Pretty sure most of you have already been tagged, so... If that's the case - it's just me giving you a hug then🤗

@em-harlsnow @firecrxtch @heymrspatel @starry-nights-17 @isthatmickey @martzyink

[moonlight-prose]

get to know your mutuals!

thank you for the tag @saradika darling!

what’s the origin of your blog title? i had an old old one a few years ago that had been around since 2013 but i love the moon and i love the moon and some days i sit outside and write beneath a full moon. doesn't happen often but i figured why not use that. it's a pretty username so i went with it.

favorite fandoms: marvel, star wars, x-men, top gun maverick, arcane, the last of us.

OTP(s)/shipname: oh god um....poolverine, timebomb (for jinx & ekko), sambucky (yes. yes.), hangster, i think that's it unless i missed one.

favorite color: green, various shades of dark red, some browns and blues too.

favorite game: jedi fallen order, battlefront ii, spiderman. (i use my brothers playstation so whatever he plays i play.)

song stuck in your head: DtMF - bad bunny & Big Love - suki waterhouse

weirdest habit/trait? being able to crack my spine like a glowstick. it freaks out my family.

hobbies: crocheting, painting, writing & reading, making playlists.

if you work, what’s your profession? unemployed babyyyyyyyy. but also i guess published writer and soon to be literary magazine editor (i hope).

if you could have any job you wish what would it be? professional/published writer. which i am working on and sorta getting closer to. but the other is being an archivist for literature and books specifically.

something you’re good at: cooking. i just know how to figure it out on my own. which helps cause no one else in my house really knows how to cook.

something you’re bad at: shutting the fuck up. i'm horrible at taking compliments and finishing things.

something you love: my family, my friends, my stray pumpkin loaf of a cat, the stories that have stuck with me, and music.

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: star wars, moon knight, lore about my favorite characters, classic literature, and history.

something you hate: assholes, racist motherfuckers, the government, the consistency + taste of tapioca pudding, and when my food gets stolen (looking at my siblings).

something you collect: crystals + pretty rocks, tarot decks, pretty jars and vases, crystal ash trays, and skulls.

something you forget: responding to text messages. it's a constant thing even if i set reminders. i don't know how to fix it.

what’s your love language? making things for people and going all out for gifts, quality time, words of affirmation.

favorite movie/show: practical magic, almost famous, little women, fleabag, my lady jane, gilmore girls, i could keep going.

favorite food: coffee, pasta, birria tacos

favorite animal: cats & raccoons

are you musical? yeah. i was classically trained in piano when i was younger. even though i forgot a shit ton of stuff.

what were you like as a child? my family says i wasn't a kid. i was little adult. so yeah i guess not very childlike/very independent.

favorite subject at school? english + history

least favorite subject? i love science but i fucking hated chemistry.

what’s your best character trait? loyalty to those i love. i'm a ride or die for my family and best friends.

what’s your worst character trait? i am blunt and straight forward and it can come off as being an asshole sometimes. when really i just don't know how to sugar coat anything.

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? that @soulores and i were together in person to celebrate our friend anniversary. but sadly she's at work. (we're not even that far we just don't fucking drive yet.)

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? i'd want to meet joan didion for coffee in the sixties. and go to dinner with carrie fisher in the eighties.

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love!): i have a sideblog @djarins-riduur for fanfic love! definitely go check that out for all the good stuff.

tagging the lovelies: @/soulores @softanon @ovaryacted @avocado-writing @superhoeva @pennyserenade @ozarkthedog @karasong @ohtobeleah @fluffyprettykitty @starryeyedstories @sunflowersteves

[shiveringgroovy]

Got any RITHOTD headcanons?

YES SIR/MA'AM/ENTITY OF THE SLOP I DO!!!!!! spoiler they're all autistic and i'm gonna project onto fyodor like nobody's business

Fyodor

Class 2 Autism with debilitating executive dysfunction (no i don't take criticism i know damn well that weirdboy can't get shit done. sincerely someone with class 1 autism and debilitating executive dysfunction)

Paranoid Schizophrenia with religious delusions

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

REALLY picky about sensory stimuli

Can't Stand: spicy food, mushy textures, dried mud and paint, velcro, hot environments, having dry hands, overwhelmingly sweet scents/tastes, the smell, texture, and taste of blood

Really Likes: soft/long hair, smooth textures, wood smells, carbonated drinks (listen idk why but i think as soon as shit like monster energy was released he was INSANE)

REALLY loves nature, but doesn't interact with it often

Favorite Animals: Rats, Spiders, Roaches, Tardigrades, Cats

Really poor eyesight, needs glasses but hates having things on his face

Pushkin

Class 1 Autism

ADHD with major executive dysfunction

Major Depressive Disorder

Arthritis

Also really picky about sensory stimuli

Hates loud noises and scraping sounds in specific. wears earplugs/covers his ears with his coat hood to block out some noise

Not a huge nature fan, but likes most rodents and canines

Had a service dog for a while, probably a boxer or a doberman

Uses a cane, but would prefer crutches

Listens to classic rock like a fucking NERD. probably has a last.fm account too. someone introduce him to goreshit

he's my babygirl.

Ivan

Class 2 Autism

Epilepsy

Psychosis

UGGGHGHHHHH I WANT THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS WITH SEVERAL DISORDERS SO BAD I'M GONNA [gets crushed by a rock]

World's most normal Throbbing Gristle fan (the band)

Loves nature, especially invertebrates

Favorite Animals: Roaches, Beetles, Isopods, Centipedes

Stims by blinking rapidly, cracking his joints, and throwing rocks around like a cat toy for himself

Stands with his feet crossed and twisted to keep his balance

Often manipulates the ground below him to keep his balance as well, it pisses Pushkin off because he ends up falling

Mushitaro

people seem to forget this guy (was) in the rats blehhhhh (i like him :3)

Class 1 Autism

Owns exotic animals (macaws, old-world tarantulas, axolotls, etc)

Music taste varies. He'll listen to "whatever" but still skip through a ton of songs to get to one he likes

The worst backseat driver of all time

Has trouble regulating his voice volume, normally very loud

Has kept hundreds of diaries, this guy doesn't play about journalling.

Loves brightly-colored things

Hawthorne

Borderline Personality Disorder

Really good at baking and cooking

He literally CANNOT stand up after a fight because fym he intentionally loses that blood????

I'm ngl I was never interested in this guy

Cat and dog lover, hates invertebrates and considers them "dirty"

He's a total lightweight trust me. has one drink and starts sobbing

[ambrossart]

Hello, my question is about the Bowers gang and the music. I simply found it curious and fun and since Victor also seems to be a music fan and invited Evelyn next time to listen to music, my question is about her musical tastes, if she has a group. favorite or what genre of music do they listen to or if they have a favorite singer since Belch is a character who is characterized by the fact that he loves Metallica, so he asks me what type of music would each one listen to, Belch, well, he listens to metallica and anthrax (he has a band t-shirt and it appears in a movie if I remember correctly) Victor in one of the chapters says that he likes an Aerosmith song but from there I don't have an idea of ​​the bands or singers I heard, much less Henry or Patrick, I feel Patrick would be the strangest, he doesn't even seem like a person who listened to music or is a fan of someone and Henry doesn't seem that way to me either, and also it's from the 80's so it's even more interesting because I love the music of the 80's. 80s and 70s.

First of all, I absolutely love questions like this! I’ve had the worst week, so this was a very welcome mental vacation. Thank you for this.

Anyway, let’s discuss everyone’s music preferences! I’m just gonna break this down character by character to make my life easier.

— Evelyn

Evelyn likes whatever songs catch her ear on the radio. Music isn’t a huge part of her life, so she doesn’t really have a favorite song or artist. She has songs she likes (a lot of those classic 80s pop hits), sure, but I doubt she knows the names of most of them. So far, I think the only artists I’ve specifically mentioned her liking are Olivia Newton-John, the B-52s (literally just for “Love Shack” probably), and The Beach Boys, but we’ll discover more of her interests later. It’s not a major storyline by any means, but it does get explored.

— Vic

This may be a departure from canon, but in my mind, Victor Criss is an early adopter of the whole 90s grunge aesthetic. Messy hair. Ripped jeans. Flannel. Oversized shirts. Drinking coffee and smoking weed. If this story took place in the 90s, Vic would be all up in that grunge scene. I’m honestly super bummed I couldn’t go that route with him, but mark my words, that boy will go full grunge in college. He will.

Since this story doesn’t take place in the 90s, a lot of people (and by “people” I mean the characters in the story) probably assume Vic’s into heavy metal like Belch, but that’s not necessarily true. See, Vic is very picky about his music, and I don’t mean that in a snobby way at all (although Vic can be a little snobby about it). For him, music is therapy. Vic just wants to get really high, listen to some music, and escape himself for a while. And the wrong kind of music can be painfully grating to him, like to the point where it would cause him intense physical discomfort. That’s why he’s so picky.

So what kind of music does Vic like? I dunno… I could see him being into psychedelic rock, artists like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Byrds, The Beatles, stuff like that. Vic is very private about his music, though. There’s a reason Christie Gibson can’t seem to figure him out.

It's also a pretty big deal that Vic has invited Evelyn to listen to music with him. Just saying.

— Belch

Next to Victor, Belch is probably the most serious about music. As we all know from the movie, heavy metal is his preference and his passion, but he’s also the kind of guy who can (secretly) appreciate a well-composed song regardless of its genre. That being said, Belch does tend to steer clear of the mainstream pop music scene… unless, of course, Christie Gibson is with him. Yeah, when those two are together, he pretty much lets her play whatever music she wants (because Belch is a good boyfriend).

— Henry

Yeah, I don’t think Henry is that serious about music. He listens to it, sure, everyone does, but it doesn’t impact his life significantly. Despite that, Henry’s tastes are probably very similar to Belch’s, simply because that’s how Henry gets exposed to most of his music: he listens to whatever Belch plays in the car. Apart from that, I could also see him being into bands like Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Purple, Kansas, etc. But would he consider any of them his favorite band? Probably not, because Henry doesn’t have a favorite band.

Honestly, I think Henry has a very negative relationship with music in general. Anything that tries to tap into his emotions or influence his emotions, yeah Henry doesn’t like that. At all. He doesn’t wanna feel things. He doesn’t wanna think about his parents or his childhood. He wants all that shit to stay buried real deep.

— Patrick

For Patrick, all music sounds the same—and by that, I mean it’s all just “noise” to him. He doesn’t connect to it on any level, least of all emotionally.

In Chapter 5 (I think?) we saw Patrick using the radio kind of like a weapon. He purposefully messed with the knob to create the most annoying sounds his possibly could, hoping that it would drive the other guys in the car crazy. And it worked. Belch almost crashed the damn car. That pretty much sums up Patrick’s relationship with music. It’s just something else for him to manipulate and use for his entertainment.

So yeah, I could see Patrick listening to some really weird shit, like music that isn’t really music, but more like a bunch of random creepy/disturbing sounds put together. Patrick’s a weirdo. There’s no way he listens to traditional music.

___________

Okay, that's all I have to say on the subject. Thanks again for this ask! It was a lot of fun to think about. ❤️

[luucypevensie]

🐨 for Freddie?

YAS A BRAND NEW ASK FOR MY FAVORITE BOY! THANK YOU ANNA! Tagging @dancingsunflowers-ocs, @rose-of-oz, @ginevrastilinski-ocs, @thetenthdoctorscompanion, @nikosasaki, @gabbysdawsons, & @aliverse

The last movie they saw in theaters: Rocketman (2019)

If they're a good or bad driver, if they drive at all: As of the s1 storyline, Freddie hasn't begun learning to drive yet because his parents couldn't be bothered. Once he began living with the Penns, Jasper and Henry took turns helping him learn how to drive. He passed with flying colors because he's a damn good driver if he does say so himself

A song I connect with their main friendship: Is it cheating if I say Flying Solo by Julie and the Phantoms since Julie wrote it for Flynn, but in over you, she wrote it for both her and Freddie? Otherwise, Young Volcanoes by Fall Out Boy would be a good second choice

If they're sentimental or not: Freddie can get pretty sentimental, which makes sense as he never knew his older brothers at all due to losing them at such a young age. As a result, anything that belongs to Reggie or Steve, he tends to hang on to

Which poker card they represent: The Joker

If they have a specific motif (animal, color, shapes etc.): Navy blue and gray colors, cats, books, drums, gay pride flags, records

What their room looks like: At his parents' house, Freddie's room was kind of the bare minimum because he never wanted to spend time there and was either at Julie or Flynn's house. When he moved in with the Penns, he painted his room navy blue and his bedding was also navy with gray sheets. He had a movie poster of School of Rock over by his desk, as well as posters for Nirvana (his favorite band) and Great Expectations (his favorite classic book) and pictures of his loved one framed and hanging everywhere. The Penns also made bookshelves for all his many books and there's a corner for his drums as well

Which Winx Club character they are: Musa

If they had a wish right now, it would be this: To be able to keep Reggie with him forever

The worst thought they've ever had about themselves: That he is unlovable as his parents said and no one ever will love him like he wishes they would

[heechwe]

get to know your mutuals | tag game

my love @xomakara tagged me tysm cutie! ♥︎

what's the origin of your blog title?↠ lee heeseung x vernon chwe (a lovely combo if you ask me)

favorite fandoms: ↠ engene (enhypen), stay (stray kids), atiny (ateez), moa (txt), carat (seventeen), deobi (the boyz) aaaand onedoor (bonedo)!

OTP(s)/shipname:↠ (vernon + me) = vexi??? lernon??? / (heeseung + me) = heexi?? leeseung??? / (soobin + me) = sexi??? THAT i can work with hehe / (jeongin + me) = jexi?? leongin?? / (mingi + me) = mexi??? lingi?? i like either lingi or sexi the most theyre pretty funny

favorite color: ↠ robin's egg blue like the tiffany's packaging?? that's my favorite

favorite game: ↠ The Last of Us 2 probably because I just love how utterly cathartic it is but I also for nostalgic purposes have to say Bratz: Rock Angelz also.

song stuck in your head: ↠ On my current Replay playlist the #1 song is R.I.P. by Virginia to Vegas so that's what I'm going with.

weirdest habit/trait? ↠ It's not weird per se but since I've been doing it since I was 7 I'm gonna say biting my nails.

hobbies: ↠ reading, writing, singing, watching movies, watching reality tv, crafting, and just lounging i love to do nothing sometimes lmao

if you work, what's your profession? ↠ I'm a teacher, specifically an English teacher :P

if you could have any job you wish, what would it be?↠ Definitely think teaching is partly my calling, but I would love to be an official author or even singer like the arts are in my blood I can't fight it.

something you're good at:↠ I am funny, like that's one thing I know without a doubt if someone asked me what I can do best I would say JOKES.

something you're bad at:↠ Fitness FHJDERJG

something you love:↠ writing, my family friends, and loved ones, reading, my moots, music, my favorite movies.

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: ↠ Oh my god I could talk about conspiracy theories all day. Roanoke??? Favorite one hands down.

something you hate: ↠ bad traffic caused by terrible drivers, where i live, where i work JFBERJKG, the american government, any type of phobes (homophobes, racists, etc), the list goes on like for as happy go lucky as my friends think i am i am an extreme but justified hater

something you collect:↠ stickers, makeup, nail kit stuff, also i've recently been into buying skirts?? i love flowy, maxi skirts

something you forget: ↠ most of the time my keys or essential items before i walk out the door. i legit pack my backpack the night before work like a little kid so i don't forget.

what's your love language?↠ words of affirmation and acts of kindness

favorite movie/show: ↠ oh my god how much time do we have?? movies, i'll do top 5 is 1) eternal sunshine of the spotless mind 2) juno 3) scott pilgrim vs the world 4) school of rock 5) 13 going on 30. for tv, my favorite show of all time has to be one tree hill it's a classic for me and has one of the best romantic ships of all time.

favorite food: ↠ anything

favorite animal:↠ my fur babes (2 dogs and a cat to be specific), capybaras, red pandas, elephants, sea otters

are you musical? ↠ oh yeah i love to sing, been doing it since i was 4. one time i played ariel in little mermaid junior in middle school so i definitely love a musical!

what were you like as a child?↠ i'm the baby of four so i think i was pretty spoiled lmao but I WORKED FOR IT!! i didn't cause problems at school and i always listened to my parents so i think i earned the good things i get, and it taught me a lot about work ethic and just overall being a hardworking, good person

favorite subject at school?↠ english (i mean its what i teach) and world history

least favorite subject?↠ honestly science JFNRJNG

what's your best character trait? ↠ i think my best trait is that i'm very loving. like i may be sensitive but i will give my everything to someone i care about

what's your worst character trait? ↠ i'm impulsive for sure, the second one is probably i can be very hot-tempered like if you piss me off i don't let it go and i make it known.

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be?↠ being at work JFNSKFJG i wANNA GO BACK TO BED

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? ↠ Oh my god she's still alive but I would love to meet Pat Benatar in her prime like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" days that's one of my favorite songs hehe but on a more sentimental note I would love to have met my grandmother at my age and see like what she was like in her 20's.

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love): ↠ oh my god too many to count but one off the top of my head that stands out is "Wondering" by @frenchkisstheabyss it has been on my mind constantly and i don't say that lightly it's so well-written and representative??

tagging @jjunberry @fangel @jjunbug @lovetaroandtaemin @pars-ley @petrichor-han @tinycatharsis @innocygnet @fangel @pars-ley @ghstzzn @ylangelegy @gyubakeries and any of my other moots who see this and want to do it! <3

[lesbiancolumbo]

Sydney! I was wondering if you have any advice on how to write an epistolary fanfiction? Did any story inspire you for your latest fic (besides i lost my girlish laughter)? I’m looking for some examples and i wanted to ask you since i enjoy your work!

my biggest inspiration on personal & confidential was actually a published collection of the memos of david o. selznick if you can believe it. that sounds insane, but as we know, i am an insane person. nothing else in the form of epistolary novels informed me on this one… but the documents in the case by dorothy sayers might be of inspiration! i read that after i’d started work on this and it wasn’t a big inspo for me but fun and a good example. otherwise some classics are dracula of course, and my favorite novel frankenstein (though dracula is a better example of what you can do in the style). another book that didn’t directly inspire me but tbh probably did indirectly or subconsciously is biography of x by catherine lacey. even if it doesn’t do much for you in terms of inspo, it just rocks as a novel lol. others can rec more novels here too

i always feel like the worst person to go to for writing advice because i am such a wing and a prayer kind of person but for this type of writing it’s helpful to have a calendar handy to make sure dates and such line up. i even wrote a cast of characters guide to help me keep columns and relationships straight lol, here’s a behind the scenes look for funsies

for me i worry about the text first and the formatting later, which maybe is the wrong advice, i don’t know, but i write everything out semi-formatted in my draft and worry about the actual style once i’m in AO3. here’s an example (with something that hasn’t been published yet so it’s like a sneak peek 😉)

once i’m in the draft on AO3 proper i have a template that i’ve kinda adapted to suit what i want. i can send it to you if you wanna play around with it. but you can also freestyle it style-wise the way i did in starving works. again this is just me but personally i don’t think the look matters much, it’s the substance over the style. i only use a format for this new one because i’m interested in playing with formatting (another reason why i did another epistolary thing)

otherwise play around with it and have fun! it’s fun to write these types of fic for me because it feels like freestyling in character. let me know if you need more recs or specific guidance - i’m always here (and i promise i’m gonna start working on personal & confidential again soon!!!!)

[superfallingstars]

Hey, for the playlist ask thingy, what about:

What Peter would listen to

Remus trying to find a job

What you think the weird sisters would sound like if they existed

send me a playlist prompt!

Omg sorry it took me a billion years to get to this. The problem with making playlists is that there is basically an infinite number of songs in the world and I'm always like, well maybe there's a better song out there that I haven't heard yet and I should listen to just one more song/album/artist/etc. But that's the devil speaking. Anyway these prompts were so fun and I really really enjoyed them :-) also I wrote SO much

First up is Peter! I already have a Peter playlist (it's kinda on the silly side, aka it's rat-themed), but for this, I tried to focus more on what he would listen to, rather than songs that describe him (or rats). Since Peter is evidently very impressed by showy, tasteless displays of masculinity (aka James and Sirius), I imagined he would listen to – PROGRESSIVE ROCK! Prog rock at its best is like, really incredible musicianship and composition, and if you can buy into the drama it can be really good. But at its worst, it's just tasteless and pretentious and you're like, wow these musicians are so far up their own asses that they can't even tell that their extremely technically impressive guitar solo sounds like garbage, and also did they even listen to these lyrics, cuz they suck. And I went for specifically, like, late-70s-early-80s prog rock, when it started to get really overproduced and bad. Sorry I just kind of reamed prog rock in this paragraph I swear I legitimately like it… You can only hate something this much if you're intimately familiar with it. I should also note that I chose some of these songs for their lyrics ("The Logical Song" and "The Very Last Time" both are REALLY great songs for Peter's personality and friendship with James, respectively) and some of them are even good. They're not all bad. But they're mostly bad. Anyway! Please enjoy my garbage! 

Track list:

Supertramp - The Logical Song: "The questions run too deep / For such a simple man / Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned / I know it sounds absurd / Please tell me who I aaaam!!!"

Utopia - The Very Last Time: I love you Todd Rundgren. "Nobody sees how you treat me like dirt / Nobody knows just how badly a man can hurt [....] It's the very last time you will get on my case / It's the very last time 'cause I won't be a fool no more!"

Yes - Roundabout: this song is literally good

Rush - New World Man: man I hate Rush. But this is rather tolerable. "He's old enough to know what's right / But young enough not to choose it / He's noble enough to win the world / But weak enough to lose it / He's a new world man"

Yes - Parallels: sucks

Kansas - Point of Know Return: sucks

Asia - Heat of the Moment: sucks but it's a classic

Yes - Leave It: sucks even more than the last Yes song, which is really saying something

Electric Light Orchestra - The Way Life's Meant to Be: We're ending on a good note imo. They don't make concept albums about time travel like they used to! But really I put this on here because it made me giggle. "...I wish I was back in 1981 / Just to see your face instead of this place / Now I know what you mean to me / Ooh, and I wonder, yes I wonder / Is this the way life's meant to be?" lol. lmao even

Ok onto music that is good!

Next prompt was Remus trying to find a job! Gah I adored this prompt! That being said I kind of just made the saddest playlist ever LOL. I'm really fascinated by the time in Remus's life between the Potters' deaths and his employment at Hogwarts. Wtf did he do all those years? How did he get by? Since this playlist is about that time in his life, it's full of songs about the meaninglessness of life and just generally feeling lonely and empty and disconnected. And also working. FUN. Again I admittedly poached a lot of songs on here from my (very bloated and unfinished) Remus playlist. As far as genre goes, I like the idea of Remus having a pretty eclectic taste. But I tend to lean towards things that are lo-fi, scrappy, and less polished, as well as things that are a little jangly or jazzy (basically what I'm saying is that The Cleaners from Venus are theeee Remus band of all time). I'm going to try to restrain myself with the commentary this time

Track list:

Yo La Tengo - Everyday: One of the most depressing songs of all time imo. "Looking to forget tomorrow, looking everyday." Yeowch!

The Cleaners from Venus - Wivenhoe Bells (II): Like I said the Remus band of all time to me. Jangly, jazzy, lo-fi, + incredibly catchy songs about everyday English life

Even As We Speak - Nothing Ever Happens

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Pavement - Here: "I was dressed for success / But success, it never comes" 👍

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: obviously

Nick Drake - Been Smoking Too Long

Galaxie 500 - Cold Night

The Dismemberment Plan - Come Home: The more I listen to these guys, the more I'm convinced that they're one of the best bands ever, as well as being the rare math rock band with good lyrics. Very literary.

Mount Eerie - Moon, I Already Know: I can recite this whole thing like some devastating prayer. Remus song of all time. Moon, I already know I'm small on the ground I roll around and feel menacing mountains And all depths of sorrow dwarf me All towering terrors are mine to cower below I know, I know, I know already So don't look at me like that and then Duck behind clouds I know I'm small and that I have no idea I know, I know, I know Let me be dumb again Let food drip off my chin Let me think you're a light Please please let me sleep through the night unknowing Let me close eyes. Ok I'm gonna throw up and die

Ok this was probably the most difficult prompt for me – I really had no idea what The Weird Sisters would sound like. But if there's any area of music that I'm familiar with, it's mediocre 90s alternative rock, so let's get to it. In the movie, The Weird Sisters are made up of members of Pulp (hi, Jarvis Cocker) and Radiohead, so I decided to start there. And I think Britpop is a natural place to start for a UK band that was big in the 90s. But I wasn't really feeling it with the usual culprits – Pulp was too sweeping and dramatic... I thought Oasis would be more "rock," but frankly, they were just too annoying. I wanted something a little more power pop (a genre that I can only describe as sounding like Disney TV show theme songs. Or, like, Stacy's Mom). And while tapping through related artists for small Britpop bands I've never heard of, I came across the song "1 Time, 2 Times Devastated," and I was like – THIS IS IT. Exactly the kind of mediocre 90s rock/power pop that I was looking for. (Also sorry that I keep saying mediocre I just can't imagine that The Weird Sisters are very good LMFAO! Idk wizards have not convinced me that they have a cool youth culture! Sorry bout it!) Other than that, I thought "Girl From Mars" by Ash was also a good fit. The rest of the playlist is mostly early Radiohead songs (they've got that Britpop feel, but they're a little messier and unpolished. And solidly mediocre) and the more up-tempo Supergrass songs (there's this sort of bouncy piano + drum thing they do that I quite like).

Track list:

DM3 - 1 Time, 2 Times Devastated

Ash - Girl from Mars

Radiohead - Just

Cud - Robinson Crusoe

Supergrass - Tonight

Radiohead - Anyone Can Play Guitar

Supergrass - Moving

The Stems - At First Sight

Radiohead - Thinking About You

Supergrass - Richard III

Anyway this was probably more specific than anyone would ever want but idk man. What I lack in media taste (what with my enjoyment of Harry Potter and other mediocre children's media) I make up for in, um, media taste (pretentious music nerd).

Thank you so much for the ask. Please send me more music asks I beg. There's like a 20 business day turnaround but like, I love making playlists, and getting to infodump about music is literally my dream. I hope you enjoy the playlists :-)