#not even lying i hate that she got popular bc it all lead to this bullshit and i also have to scroll past 5000 comments everywhere about ho

[solasgf]

calling chappell "self-obsessed" when 1) none of us even know her and 2) the reasoning is bc you don't like her confidence and willingness to call fans out for being creepy and setting boundaries is the weirdest fucking conclusion to make ngl

[onthedgeofthend]

ending thoughts of the song of achilles bc my mind would NOT let me sleep until i wrote this

i get thetis like honestly i didn’t really like her in the beginning but she’s not bad cool even

idk what else Odysseus has done in literally anything eles but he seems like he would be fun to talk too

i agree with plato

when ever achilles and patroclus’ relationship is brought up patroclus is quick to worry over achilles’ honor

i really really like briseis like really really like her

i also think deidamra was cool too like i know~ she doesn’t have a really great character but she feels human

the part in the middle did lag a bit but out of it we got a good briseis + patroclus friendship and i like it

that one meme where it’s like a balloon with the words “male ego” written in it and someone is about to pop it was not lying

like no seriously patroclus probably wouldnt have died had it not been for achilles and agamemnon’s ridiculously high egos and “honor”

adding on to that hearing (reading) achilles say “ “I wish he had let you all die” was very very very very nice

anyways i would definitely read this again

i really hate patroclus’ birth father, you just don’t say shit like that to children

i really like that part when patroclus killed a man (by acccident) but before we knew he said the words “Our land was one of grass and wheat. Tumbles should not hurt. I am making excuses. It was also a land of rocks.” and idk why i just vibe with this sentence

i think it’s interesting how in the begining achilles arrogance and confidence was a source of anger for patroclus and then it was love and admiration and then it was anger again

i only just now realized that many of the men of pithia were the boy who achilles’ dad fostered so like,,, they know achilles and patroclus

like achilles and patroclus were away from them for three years and then all of a sudden they were back and leading them in battle

like imagine ur “friend” (or atleast the popular kid you hung around bc he was popular) from seventh grade just up leaves and then his weird friend followed him and then in tenth grade they come back ~way~ closer and then the popular kids leaves and for a month the weird kid looks half dead AND suicidal and then he leaves and then they comeback and all of a sudden ur fighting a war and a decade passed and the weird kid (who doesn’t fight) is leading you all into battle and kicking ass and then he dies and then the popular kid goes into a rage kill a shit ton of ppl and then he dies and not a moment later (a steel chair??!!) you learn that apparently while the weird kid was looking half dead the popular kid made a fucking kid and now a fucking twelve year old is your commander ANDD let’s not forget because the twelve year old didn’t put the weird kids name on the grave next to the popular kid now he haunts your fucking dreams and oh yeah the popular kids son (who’s an asshole btw) leads you to the end of the war (though your dreams are still haunted by the weird kid till the end of it

absolutely fucking wild

[miumiins]

Mary Jane gives me many feelings 😔👊 Fumi and Kai’s dynamic, Kisa and Sou-chan going unhinged, SOU-CHAN’S DEVELOPMENT IN GENERAL I CRY—And I know he gives the first-year crew a hard time offstage, but Ootori is such an underrated and versatile actor, especially as Bukuro! So many feelings…

Slight spoilers, but if you understand it, can you explain the story of the Winter Performance for me? It was hard to follow, which is a shame because the voice acting was wonderful! (That, and I have a Shirota-senpai bias) Thanks for your consideration 😊

HONESTLY otori talks Like That but he wants to put on a good performance just like anyone else, he just. needed to learn how to work together with his classmates

and gosh i'll try SLDKFJG i'll put it under the cut bc it's long (+ spoilers) but excuse the romanization/translations of certain things bc i don't really know how it's intended to be written in english LOL

oh rama havenna takes place in a city called havenna, the city of desire and pleasure, where people don't have to be ashamed of, well, their desires and pleasures.

chicchi (kisa) is an outsider of havenna, who came to the city to become a mugwort seller ("yomogi uri" in the game) under the alias "chikachiina", and what that job entails is, someone who will burn some mugwort as a sort of incense(?) and put men who are unable to sleep, to sleep. this job is sort of seen as like.. one of the most vulgar jobs within the city; so in a sense it's like a brothel minus the sex part i guess?

rukiola (shirota) is a girl who, despite being born in havenna, absolutely despises the city and dreams of leaving it one day, even more so if it's together with fugio (souchan), the most popular man in the city. rukiola HATES mugwort sellers bc later in the story, it's revealed that her father, fakio (otori), was taken by his current lover domina (neji), a well known mugwort seller, leading him to leave rukiola's mother, who is also later revealed to be dead.

the story follows chicchi and rukiola who are best friends, but chicchi is hiding one big secret, that she's a mugwort seller, and refuses to tell rukiola bc she's afraid of being hated by her one and only friend in the city. the only reason rukiola hasn't found out yet, despite chicchi being dyed in the scent of mugwort, is bc rukiola's nose is clogged and is unable to smell things well.

pretty much everyone except rukiola knows that chicchi is a mugwort seller and there are a bunch of instances where chicchi almost gets found out (fugio calling her by her work name in front of rukiola, rukiola noticing the smell of mugwort bc she's undergoing a therapy thing to improve her sense of smell again, etc). there's also this big love square like miguel (fumi) → rukiola → fugio → chicchi (maybe pentagon??? if u include jire's (suzu) feelings towards chicchi too)

in the beginning of the story, fugio is being chased by a bunch of fans, and is helped by chicchi and rukiola, and as thanks he prepares vip seats for his next show. at the show, he throws a flower into the audience, meant to be for chicchi, but rukiola catches it instead. because of that, rukiola has a huge misunderstanding, and her dream of leaving havenna together with fugio only grows stronger.

since then rukiola is always carrying around said flower, and sniffing it, bc she likes the scent, thus the reason why she's undergoing therapy to improve her sense of smell. one day she's walking in town with the flower in hand and bumps into domina, the last person she wants to see. domina, who is now stepping on the flower, is saying a bunch of stuff to provoke rukiola, and even goes as far as to ask "i wonder how that woman who was thrown away by fakio is doing" leading rukiola to say that she had already died. rukiola then says she wants to leave havenna as soon as possible, together with her beloved fugio. after hearing that, domina tells her that her "beloved fugio" is always going to pontalchia (the name of the shop chicchi works at) buying said mugwort, and that he's enchanted by a girl named chikachiina. domina tries to say more but is interrupted by miguel, saying that everything she's saying is complete nonsense.

with doubt in her heart, rukiola heads over to pontalchia anyways, and second guesses herself, saying that she shouldn't doubt people bc of what domina said, but she sees fugio head into the shop. there, she catches both fugio in the shop as well as chicchi in the middle of working at the shop. rukiola is absolutely shocked at finding her dear friend doing the one thing she despises the most, and chicchi is horrified that her secret was found out. rukiola demands chicchi to explain herself, and when she does, rukiola is still upset about the whole thing and leaves the shop.

rukiola heads over to the church to confess because she wants to forgive chicchi, she tried to, but her mind's a mess that she can't even think straight. she then says that maybe it was all rukiola's own fault, and that if she had been better, her parents wouldn't have separated in the first place, she would have been able to forgive chicchi for being a mugwort seller and hiding it from her. there, she continues to ask god for forgiveness.

against her wishes, fugio tries to take chicchi to leave the city with him, and there jire appears with a knife in hand telling chicchi to choose between leaving havenna together with fugio or going back to pontalchia with jire and punish fugio for using the shop's funds for personal reasons(?). chicchi refuses both choices, stating that she came to havenna of her own volition, therefore she will leave of her own volition, not because someone else wants her to become pure like when she first came to the city. it's also revealed here that jire was the one who got domina to reveal chicchi's secret to rukiola, because he didn't want her to be dyed with the scent of mugwort anymore, because he loved her.

chicchi is walking along the streets, on the verge of tears bc she lost her dear friend, and kisa who greatly empathizes with chicchi's feelings because of her own situation (lying about her real gender to her friends so she could follow her dreams of performing at univeil) cries together with chicchi. she runs into rukiola and apologizes. she didn't want to be hated by her bc she liked her, because she was her friend. rukiola, with a smile on her face, asks chicchi for forgiveness. chicchi says rukiola didn't do anything wrong but forgives her, and rukiola forgives chicchi as well. kisa thinks to herself that it's chicchi who was forgiven, not kisa, but shirota whispers into her ear saying that he forgives her as well, no matter who or what she is, he forgives and accepts all of her and she's important to him no matter what, leading to the big crying scene.

in the end, rukiola asks chicchi why she came to havenna, and chicchi just says that she simply just wanted to try being a mugwort seller. the story then ends with the father of the church (kai) walking along the streets of havenna, who runs into chicchi, telling her that he's unable to sleep. there she offers to burn some mugwort, and it ends with him saying "oh rama havenna"

[ivcsisms]

        - ̗̀ NOW INTRODUCING:  IVES ❝ IVY ❞ SERRANO !

new york’s very own ives serrano was spotted on broadway street , with a striking semblance to danna paola ! you may know her as @poisonivy or hitting the front page of tmz as social media star joins top 1% of only fans earners after just one day on the platform. according to tmz , she just had your twenty-fourth birthday bash . while living in nyc , you’ve been labeled as being manipulative , but also alluring . things that would paint a better picture of you would be strawberry champagne, rose petal blunts, and red glossy lips paired with gold jewelry . ( cis female + she/her  ) 

    ♡ — ›   𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲 / 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬    &   𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬    &   𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬    &    𝐚𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 

hi cuties !! i missed u guys sm !! i was around before the revamp so some of u already know me / ivy but to those that don’t hello i’m tay !! i can’t wait to meet y’all n ur muses soo i’m jus gonna get into it and give this a like if u want me to come bug u for plots !! or if u wanna hmu on discord u can find me at tay#6638. if u want a very long-winded, overly detailed account of everything in her life u can read the bio / stats page i linked above but if u don’t want to read all that shit here’s the basics: 

okie so the first thing u need to know abt ivy is that she is literally always lying like.. her name isn’t even rly ives ! it’s her middle name but still. she started using it when she was a stripper ( which she started doing like on her eighteenth birthday ) and her stage name was poison ivy, and then she created her online persona using the stage name and everyone just knew her as ivy so she went with it

she wanted to hide her real identity at first for like safety reasons but then as she became more and more popular she kept lying to hide her shady ass past bc she’s definitely been arrested a few times for like possession and petty theft/shoplifting type shit and also she doesn’t want anyone to know that she grew up poor, and that all of her money doesn’t come from a trust fund like she says it does

and that’s because most of her money comes from scamming and blackmailing rich men ! also from being a sugar baby but generally most of her money comes from being manipulative and using her looks for evil. she always jokes that her job is literally jus being pretty !

she got most of her ‘fame’ from instagram and other social media, and she’s done a little bit of modeling but more than anything it’s just like being the face of a campaign or a brand ambassador or smth bc she’s too short for the runway so u know like mostly print stuff. 

but most recently she’s been in the news for blowing up on only fans which honestly is the platform she’s probably most excited about being popular on bc u know.. money. she started the account like... mostly as a joke just like ha ha what if i had an of and she posted some pretty tame like lingerie pics and made a bunch of money super quick and just decided This Is What I Do Now bc she was a stripper for a while so it’s not like it’s anything that new to her

definitely spends too much time on tik tok !! social media in general tho too, she’s like always on her phone and is one of those people that can’t just hang out without posting selfies/videos on every social media site and then not-so-secretly obsessing over the engagement on it 

since her fame doesn’t really come from like ... talent ( i might make her a singer again later but for now she’s just Pretty ) she’s always doing crazy shit to keep her name in the press, whether it’s feeding into dating rumors or starting public fights with people, she’s always just trying to stay relevant and get attention ( plus the insta engagements lead to more sponsorships and brand deals sooo... all press is good press to her ) 

she is so selfish, and will always put herself first in any situation. she literally will throw u under the bus or take advantage of u without even thinking twice ok she’s so used to being manipulative and self-centered that she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it sometimes 

that being said she’s super charming and tries to keep a bit of a balance with her reputation, like people expect her to be pretty erratic and unpredictable, but she tries to at least seem nice most of the time so that she isn’t just like... universally hated. she’d much rather be hated by a small group of people that have a reason to hate her but have a mostly ok public reputation, ya know ?? 

and some people definitely have good reasons to hate her bc she takes advantage of / steals from her rich friends a lot ( not her good good friends but like acquaintances ) 

if you actually manage to get through her walls tho she is a super loyal friend and will literally do anything for u, it just takes a lot to get there like she doesn’t open up to a lot of people and is super super selective of who gets to see her be vulnerable and express her true emotions. like how she’s really feeling bc she can fake cry on command so she can be tricky and make u think she cares when she rly just wants something 

she’s also a huge partier and much more pleasant when she’s drunk or on drugs, except for the times when she gets too drunk and will pick a fight with anyone who is unfortunate enough to cross her path. 

she’s very toxic in relationships and therefore never seems to stay in them long, but also dating people / making people think she might be dating someone more famous than her is one of her favorite techniques for getting attention, so she tends to jump around a lot and have those awful on again / off again type relationships 

she’s also bi so her ass is rated e for everybody 

a lot of times she pretends to be dumber than she really is so people don’t suspect her of being the manipulative mastermind that she is, and also she’s so good at lying that sometimes even she believes her own bullshit. she also purposefully keeps an air of mystery about her, especially when it comes her her childhood/background type stuff, she’s just really vague and will usually change the subject when it comes up 

she wakes up every day and chooses chaos, that’s the gist of it really !

connections 

so i have this connections page from before and i’m still fixing / updating it BUT it has a lot of rly good ideas on there but here are just some like general ideas i would love !!

pr relationship / flirtationship / fake enemies ( like they pretend to hate each other or fight on social media for the attention ) 

exes on bad terms ( ig they could be on good terms too but i like drama ok ) 

someone she stole from 

someone that hates her for some other shady shit she did

party friends !!

mom friends that will make her Chill tf out 

bad influence friends ( either they bring out the worst in her or she brings out the worst in them / peer pressures them to do things ) 

on again / off again exes !! 

fwb / casual hookups 

friends to lovers or even better is enemies to lovers,, pls 

nd of course just like general friendships !! fake bitches need friends too !!

[lookwhatilost]

i finished my second watch of bojack s6 p1 and here’s a predictably massive post of some thoughts/observations abt it

spoilers under the cut obviously

the “fuck” of the season definitely came in a moment that i didn’t expect, but i rly liked how it was used. like, it was a callback to when gina dropped it in the last season –– something that traumatized her vs a reaction to her PTSD symptoms. a lot of people seem unhappy w it but i think it’s more powerful than people are giving it credit for being

the gatsby reference in e3 rly brought to mind that there are, like, a lot of gatsby tie-ins w this show and i never rly pasted them together mentally bc of the ubiquity of the “rich guy is utterly depressed and alone” trope. like, the imagery related to the pool, the shallow parties, the yellow car, the spacious but empty house, the billboards staring him down as he drives when he’s hallucinating in s5. charlotte/daisy being a weak parallel in that he had feelings for her when they were younger, held onto them for years, only for her to be married when they reconnect, but it’s worth mentioning that the glow stick balloons were green.

someone on reddit pointed out that jameson’s baby in e1 had physical traits associated w fetal alcohol syndrome. like, short, upturned nose, eyes that are far apart, and low ears. it’s hard to say if it’s intentional, but he’s drawn w a lot more detail than a lot of the other babies i’ve seen in the show. if it’s purposeful, like, that’s amazing attention to detail

i liked how the season opened on a planetarium flashback, because honestly, the immediate aftermath of sarah lynn’s death is definitely kind of glossed over in s3 when it initially happens. and though i suppose the added information isn’t terribly surprising (like him lying abt the events that lead up to her overdose and minimizing his own role in it as much as possible), it did make me wonder why i hadn’t thought abt it before

bojack rly does show signs of serious growth in the 6th season and it’s cool to finally see him move forward w/o simultaneously backsliding in other ways. a lot of his good actions in previous seasons were only rly things that benefitted him. and there are a lot of examples of it, but i think the one that stuck out to me the most was w his therapist. when he fell off the wagon, it’d have been rly easy for bojack to look the other direction and walk away like we’ve seen him do before. realistically, he has no real incentive to care for doctor champ’s wellbeing if he’s no longer staying at pastiches, but he checks him into rehab anyway, and when doctor champ throws his insecurities in his face to be hurtful, he immediately identifies it for the petty jab it is instead of letting it fuel his negative thoughts and using it as an excuse to dive into self-destructive behavior. honestly e6 was the emotional high water mark of part 1, even though it wasn’t the kind of gut punch that the dramatic, narrative focused episodes of bojack tend to be

i’m glad that the writers finally /did/ something w todd that made him feel like an actual character instead of jst a device for the comedy part of the show. i used to watch this show w a friend and we always used to say that todd had very little depth given the amount of screen time he occupies and seeing them move away from that was refreshing. his struggle w jorge is very relatable as someone whose parents have always pushed me towards things i didn’t sincerely want based on their expectations and desires for me vs my actual opinions of what success and happiness would look like for myself. but, on the other side of the coin, there’s finally a little bit of confrontation of the fact that todd’s erratic behavior and shenanigans are very taxing things for people who care abt him to deal w. and todd is rly the only character who’s somehow defied the show’s formula in that he never faces accountability for the things he does. like, he’s enabled PB’s impulsivity many times and drove him to bankruptcy, care of PB Livin’, and it’s a detail in the show that’s never truly been acknowledged or talked abt at all. he fucked PC over when he wouldn’t follow through w his sham marriage to courtney, and it was met w a cheesy speech from her abt how he needs to follow his heart and do what he thinks is right. it always struck me as a weird oversight, and to finally see someone take him to task for how taxing his behavior can be was refreshing. his only other “depth” was the asexual stuff and honestly? that is stupid and does not actually count for anything

if it didnt warm your heart when PC named her daughter ruthie then you dnt have one. i wasn’t as invested in her narrative as i’d have liked to be, but its good when PC is happy and that’s what everyone wants

IM SO GLAD JUDAH IS BACK. also i still hope he and PC end up together (and maybe she has a viable pregnancy this time w him a la sex and the city charlotte but that’s a little too cornball sappy for this show). generally rly enjoyed how characters from previous seasons were incorporated this time around. but i dnt want them to bring back vincent adultman jst to spite everyone who’s always saying “bring back vincent adultman”

pickles is still my least favorite character even tho the surprise wedding episode was probably the one i found the funniest. realistically i wanna see things work out for PB but his relationship w her is obviously not the move for him, and she’s also the worst

i like diane and guy together, they have rly good chemistry but i also have a bad feeling abt where things are headed w them. he seems ambivalent abt how principled she is and the scene where his son comes to the party and he makes her leave when he could have jst introduced her as a party guest if it even needed to happen at all... there was jst something off abt it. like you can definitely see the cracks in the foundation already and it’s disappointing

the scene btwn PB and bojack where bojack says to him “but i understand that feeling of needing to bottle up your guilt, not burden other people w it. you think you’re protecting them from your toxicity, you convince yourself that you’re being selfless, but it comes out in other ways and it infects everything” hit close to home bc it reminded me of someone i used to bond over this show w and like... whew

i rly love how the dominoes are being set up w the reporters (even tho their his girl friday shtick got old fast) bc the way things are culminating, the story getting out is liable to expose bojack for everything. if they approach penny and she talks to them abt what happened, she’s liable to tell them that bojack and sarah lynn went to ohio to find her in the time before sarah lynn overdosed, and the pictures that her classmates took of them could establish a time frame. he was in new mexico when he was supposed to be filming secretariat, and that knowledge could lead to them finding out that he’d been digitally replaced in the movie. when this information gets out, it’s very likely that gina will dogpile onto it w the truth abt what happened on the set of philbert, since trying to conceal her ptsd is actively hurting her acting career bc of the reputation she’s developing as a problem actress, and even though she dznt *want* to be “that girl that got choked by bojack horseman”, she won’t have a choice if she can’t get jobs otherwise. i guess there’s always a chance that penny and charlotte won’t talk to them, but now that hollyhock knows about what happened in new mexico, either way his personal life will be hurt by this. i’m not sure what’ll happen to him professionally, since there’s a recurring point the series has been making w famous people never being held fully culpable for their negative actions, and it’s a dicey thing for them to approach w a character that many viewers find sympathetic without ending on some myopic note abt cancel culture (whether intentionally or by popular interpretation) but im excited

i also hate how my obsessive watching and rewatching of this show meant that the intended pete repeat reveal (like, you’re not supposed to recognize him until his identity becomes obvious through the prom night story) was sort of compromised for me bc i recognized his voice and the second he introduced himself, i placed him IMMEDIATELY but it was still such a great scene. it’s the most tense i remember feeling when watching and an all around great cliffhanger

the final line of e7 comes off as some rly grim foreshadowing–– “it looks like you found solace in our show. stay if you’d like. in 30 minutes, we start over”. but it’s such an incredible line in context. my god, i fucking love this show, you guys

[thecloserkin]

book review: K Webster, Hale (2018)

Genre: Romance

Is it the main pairing: Yes

Is it canon: Yes

Is it explicit: Yes, extremely explicit. In fact if this had been published on literotica i would have accounted it a well-above-average story.

Is it endgame: Yes

Is it shippable: Yes

Bottom line: This is the most vanilla thing I have read in a LONG time and if i hadn’t paid $3.99 for it i doubt I would have bothered to finish it

I picked up this title because shipcestuous added it to her to-read shelf on goodreads, and while it’s clear from the editorial copy (“This book is an epic, emotional, raw love story”) that they think something groundbreaking is going on here, I would like to direct these amateurs to the Sibling Incest tag on Ao3. Or the Incest Shipping Yay page on TVtropes. Or Astrid’s now-defunct blog, if tumblr ever sees fit to restore it. Trust me, you do not have to be doing anything experimental or original for me to enjoy your tropetastic incest story. You don’t even have to be good with words. Stephenie Meyer, for instance, is not what anybody would call a first-rate stylist, and yet I’ve never had any trouble finishing any of her books (none of which feature incest, but the point was about writing generally).

Hudson and Rylie Hale lose their parents in a tragic car accident. Their shared grief is the catalyst for the affair that blooms between them, and I will give them this much: these kids at least know better than to leave any incriminating texts or pictures lying around on their phones. Their vigilance in the digital realm is then completely nullified by the way they conduct themselves irl—they’re walked in on by (1) their aunt aka Rylie’s guardian and (2) Hudson’s roommate at college, all within a week of getting together. I know the risk of being caught is part of the allure of incestuous relationships, but these clowns need to learn to keep it in their pants at least until they can find a closet.

In my opinion this story would have benefitted from an Outsider POV or two. Not every story needs one—Cathy Dollanganger’s first-person POV is more than adequate to carry Flowers in the Attic, and speaking of authors who are shoddy stylists, look at how bad V.C. Andrews was, and how little it mattered—but there’s not enough substance to either Hudson or Rylie’s characters for their alternating POVs to keep the reader invested. In brief, Rylie’s clinically depressed, and Hudson’s attending college on a baseball scholarship. There’s a scene where they watch a movie together and end up fucking on the couch, which would usually be my jam (standard sibling interaction leads to white-hot sex), except I was boooooored. There’s a scene where she visits him at school and they go skinny-dipping in a lake with some of his friends, and they both have to fight off the attentions of prospective romantic partners, and it ends with him carrying her to his truck and fucking her in the back off it. Which again in theory sounds amazing. In practice I think the jealousy trope works better if you’re threatened by your partner’s emotional intimacy with somebody else. And what is Rylie worried about? That this girl has porn star tits, where Rylie is much more modestly endowed. Ok you know who else has small tits? Natalie Portman. Keira Knightley. Emma Watson. Physically unprepossessing women the whole lot of them, amirite? Rylie is overcome by the same unwarranted insecurity when it comes to Hudson’s on-again-off-again ex-girlfriend, who is described as having humongous knockers. I understand how this can make Rylie feel inadequate—women are taught to hate their bodies from day one—but this chick also clearly has nothing going on upstairs, and her emotional connection with Hudson is nowhere in Rylie’s league. So Rylie’s jealousy strikes me as unearned and unrealistic.

Hudson and Rylie spend a good chunk of this book struggling against their feelings, berating themselves for being sick and twisted, all of which would normally be my kryptonite since i am on record gushing about the taboo/forbidden angle of incest and how I’m into sneaking around!! And none of it did damn thing for me in this case. The more reviews I read that contain the word “raw” the more I start to wonder if we all read the same book.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

As far as canon incest happy ending goes, the “run away together to where nobody knows you guys” strategy has its drawbacks, namely that it means leaving loved ones behind. I have discussed my preference for Option B before, but that option isn’t on the table for Hudson and Rylie because THEY GOT THEMSELVES CAUGHT IN THE ACT and exposed their relationship to multiple people so they can’t plausibly carry on denying it. Especially when Rylie starts popping out kids. Look, I’m into pregnancy kink as much as the next person but it just seems unearned. As is the fact that Hudson found a good-paying steady job even without the college degree their parents worked so hard to push him to get (he was kicked off the baseball team + lost his scholarship due to a combination of grieving for parents & obsessive infatuation for sister). This is America, where good jobs don’t just fall into high school graduates’ laps (unless you have family connections, which the Hale kids don’t, bc they had to move a thousand miles away to live amongst strangers!). And I can’t write these lapses off to the influence of the genre because I know there can be coherent class discourse in a romance novel.

A professor of mine once gave me a copy of Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature (1984) by Janice Radway, and it remains to this day one of the most transformative nonfiction reading experiences of my entire life. Janice Radway conducts interviews with dozens of mostly-married, mostly-middle-aged women in a midsize midwestern American city, and finds that for them reading romance novels is a form of self-care. They spend the rest of their time supporting and nurturing their families & extended social networks, but with a Harlequin romance in hand, husbands are much less likely to bother them. They can carve out time and space for themselves, they can draw from these escapist fantasies the emotional sustenance that their marriages/children are not providing. They can form friendships with like-minded women who also read a lot of romance. It resonated deeply with me even if I’m not a middle-aged white homemaker in middle America in 1984, because ever since, I’ve been very clear-eyed about why I read romance: To meet my own emotional needs that are for some reason not being met by my existing meatspace relationships. That, to me, is the point of the romance genre, and to hell with character and plot. And that’s why I say Hale let me down, because it didn’t succeed in making me feel anything.

There’s a post floating around that contrasts the way we categorize published fiction (by genre, ie. what happens—wizards or starships? corsets or lawyers?) with fanfiction, which is organized based on how it makes us feel: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, etc. And fic has never let me down in that department, so I guess that’s why romance and fanfic fall under the same mental classification in my head. In this essay I will

[ryoshan-a]

ok. listen i know i havent been here in ages and this isn’t an original idea but hear me out:

RWBY as a live action tv series, and our characters as the actors, actresses, and crew.  

set in our world modern verse. featuring a small production company, employing and casting crew and actors from all over the world. not convinced yet? here’s why y’all should indulge me: 

your muse canonically dead or afk? not anymore!! they produce the show now. or write it. or just hang out on the set when they’re free. 

your muse a villain and hard to rp with other folk? not anymore!!! let them be pals with the most unlikely of other people. see how they deal with fndm hating their character. (or loving their char too much)

your char an oc? nOT ANYMORE. theyre canon chars now. maybe they write the show. direct. tell qrow off when he almost posts spoilers on twitter. ANYTHING

whats a crossover? the ocs you rp with are now actors/crew in their own universe’s movie/game/tv show. the chars from other fandoms are actors/crew in their source’s show/movie/game. 

your ship a rarepair u jump through hoops to put together? not anymore!! their actors are shacking up. 

lbr we’re all suffering the hiatus. who needs canon material for this!! they’re in shooting for the eps that’ll air in october. 

seriously, how easy would it be to get,, literally the entire community involved in something like this. TAG ME IF YOU DO!!! i wanna see what folk come up with!!

still not convinced? here’s some ideas i came up with, with the help of @iruzurru and @rosescattered. obv if i mention your muse and you wanna get in on this dont feel like you have to follow these!! these are just meant to inspire™

under the cut, cause lONG: 

taiyang and summer club together every year to fund a holiday for the entire cast and crew to celebrate the end of a season. they buy out an entire plane for the journeys and instigate travelling songs 

taiyang is a writer for the show who played ruby and yang’s dad more as a cameo, but got given more scenes when the character proved rlly popular 

summer is a writer too. noone, not even tai knows she’s gonna be playing summer when she shows up later in the show >:3c 

emerald and cinder being best friends who play up icly for the fans. emerald throws down on twitter with anyone who harrasses cinder for playing a baddie 

winter wasn’t an actor originally. she writes novels, but she was on set one day waiting for weiss to finish shooting so they could go to lunch. 

she was given first dibs on an audition to play weiss’ ic sister and nails it. weiss insists she’s not even acting, she’s just Really Like This 

winter writes fanfic of emerald/cinder on ao3 for shits and giggles dont @ me. noone knows its her bc she uses winter’s ic callsign as a username and ppl just assume its a winter fan

this is yang’s first big acting job, but she’s Known in celebrity circles because her mom is the Very Famous Raven Branwen.raven’s a household name 

raven subsequently gets cast as her real mom because it just makes sense and would boost the series’ popularity following her guest appearance at the end of volume 2 

qrow is very vocal about his character’s storylines and supports charities relating to substance abuse. he frequently finds himself in twitter discourse with fans because he loudly discourages romanticising his character 

this gets him accused of hating his character, which he doesn’t. fandom either loves him or hates him 

qrow and raven arent siblings but they might as well be because they’re so fking close and roast each other on twitter all the time 

neo’s actress is actually a really famous opera singer who’s breaking into acting. this gives rise to the popular fanon that neo actually can talk and has a bitchin’ voice but chooses not to. 

emerald’s an orphan. she bounced around kids homes and developed a great talent for lying in the process. hearing a drama teacher describe acting as ‘lying really well’ sealed the deal for her career choice. she’s had bit parts and lives in a shitty apartment until rwby becomes her first big break. 

coco was a big actress in france. she came to america seeking to break into hollywood, and found it pretty difficult. she’s emerald’s roommate, and it’s emerald who tells her about the opening for a member of team cfvy and pushes her to audition. 

ilia has to wear one of those green screen suits all the time so they can animate her scales. yang gets a selfie with her every time she’s wearing it. takes upon takes have been ruined by blake and sun laughing at her. 

it annoys ilia at first. then, she starts to find it funny. then, she gets her own back by purposefully making people laugh. she does the yoshi mlem every time she cracks her whip. 

pyrrha’s actress routinely gets bit parts and cameos in future volumes bc the cast and crew love her so much they want her around all the time. she’s like 50% of the reason a comedy mini-series where nothing bad happens exists alongside the main series. 

the entire cast and crew rallying around cinder after v3 when the fan backlash comes from pyrrha’s onscreen death. they throw a party after to celebrate pyrrha and cinders great performances. its a greek theme

team rwby, smartasses that they are, all come dressed as achilles with little papier mache arrows stuck in their heels

weiss is a Career Showman. she started off in ballet, then moved to broadway, then onto the bigscreen. she’s had a huge amount of success despite how young she is, and was continually pushed to land greater and greater roles. she suffered a very publicised breakdown because of the stress. 

she ‘disappeared’ in the showbiz scene when she went to live with winter in her remote little writing shack in the middle of assfuck nowhere to recharge. 

rwby is her first acting job since then. she was hesitant to start back at all, but finds herself extremely supported and refreshed by the small, close-knit production. 

blake’s had to work twice as hard for every role she’s ever landed due to being an ethnic minority. her professionalism makes her seem closed off and cold, so she hasn’t made many friends. she has a small, devoted fanbase, though.

summer is one of those fans, and has always wanted to cast blake in something. her character was written with her in mind, and summer was elated when blake accepted the proffered audition and subsequent role in rwby. 

ruby is summer and tai’s daughter!! they are not shy at all about saying that her part was written For Her. they don’t apologise for it either fuck u they created this show they cast who they want. 

the red trailer only initially existed for ruby to do a screentest of her character. it was so well produced and nailed so hard they made it promotional material and wrote the white, black and yellow ones to go with it. 

ruby grew up reading her parents’ stuff and writing her own, too. in school, she wrote, directed and produced an entire play for her classmates, but never thought of acting until her parents suggested she play the lead in this new show they’ve been thinking about. 

ruby and yang met on set. they’ve been thick as thieves ever since. 

...AND SO ON I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY GUYS 

[houseofgriffons]

Ok, so it was quick to review and comment on all Kdramas I’ve watched because I’ve only fully watched 10. I have hover watched 22 in total, but the remaining 12 I’ve only watched halfway or a 3rd of the way.

This can be explained by my very low attention span and also by the fact that I’m a boring person who only likes romance and uses Kdrama to rub my itch for cheesiness. As such I usually stop after the romance gets resolved and at the first signs of the final Drama™. Or the romance wasn’t interesting enough so I just lost interest.

I will then be reviewing the 10 dramas I’ve watched completely, which are all good and that I like otherwise I wouldn’t have watched ‘til the end. Then I’ll give a quick look on the ones I haven’t watched ‘til the end cause you might like them. I’ll also tell which ones I want to watch, and give you some nimes of popular dramas that look kinda cool but probably won’t retain my interest. Also tell you about the 4 korean movies I’ve actually watched rofl

All of that under the cut !

Part 1 : The good (aka. Things I could watch all the way)

Loosely ranked, but the last 5 are my absolute favourites and I wouldn’t really be able to rank them from 1st to 5th. Chief Kim isn’t in there although I love it because it’s not as deep.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo

About a collegiate weightlifting student (Kim Bok Joo, played by Lee Sung Kyung who is ♥ ♥ ♥) and a collegiate swimmer (I only remember two names in that drama, not his lol. The actor is Nam Joo Hyuk and he’s also bae). It’s kind of a slice-of-life show, but it follows their struggle both as athletes and as people. Deals with eating disorders in a pretty underwhelming manner. There’s also my wife in it, Lee Joo Young who plays Bok Joo’s best friend, Sun Ok (the only other name I remember). While it was funny and heartwarming, and the characters were interesting, it was lot of drama on top of drama, and miscommunication and lies are often used as plot devices (it is VERY often the case in kdramas I’ve noticed) and that’s just annoying to me. I basically sped through the last 4 episodes cause I just wanted to be done with it. It was very popular though, and it’sstill a good watch.

Love in the Moonlight

It starts with my favourite plot: a girl who has to dress up as a man. It also has my least favourite plot point: main guy has a gay scare because he thinks girl he likes is a man. But that’s just me. The heroine dresses up as a guy and finds herself enrolled as a eunuch in the palace, where she starts serving the prince. Shit happens and there’s stuff about rebels and all. I wasn’t really paying attention. I think it’s visually lovely, there lots of beautiful scenes. It also has Kwak Dong Yeon who’s one of my fav. I mean. Get a load of this :

How was he not the protag ? Anyway, it’s a nice watch but like a lot of other dramas I think it suffers from unbalanced pacing. The change of tone from the last arc compared to the beginning of the show is also kind of disturbing. The thing is, when you start watching a sweet romance thing with light themes you’re not really in the mood for a heavy political/action plotline by the end, you know ? I rushed through the last episodes cause I just didn’t give a crap lol

Witch’s Court

We’re getting to the good stuff. I didn’t even have to take a break before watching the end of that one !

Yi-Deum is a prosecutor. She’s a selfish and ambitious woman who would do anything to get ahead. But one day she does like one good moral choice and it leads to her being demoted to a new unit which deals in sex crime. As such the show is pretty heavy, but I thought it handled the themes pretty well. She becomes partnered with a newbie who’s a former psychologist. Her mom also disappeared when she was like 16 so that’s something.

Although there are overarching plots, it’s usually a one cas per episode/2 episodes type of deal, which I think helps to keep a balanced pace, while not undermining character developpment.

Character development is HUGE in this show by the way. Cause Yi Deum is a BITCH. And when I say that I don’t mean “Booohoooo she’s mean to the cute guy :’(” no I mean she’s a heartless money grabber with no morals and no empathy AT ALL. Even when she does something good, she does it in a “bad” way. So it’s really enjoyable to see her slooow progress towards being a worthy protagonist. Love her.

W

You know, Take On Me’s music video ? Yeah.

Oh Yeon Joo is an intern in surgery, and the daughter of the famous author of the webcomic W, which tells the story of Kang Chul, a prodigy olympic shooter who was wrongly accused of the murder of his family and turned a new leaf after being proven innocent. He then became a millionaire by creating a crime solving network channel and he catches bad guys yada yada yada. Anyway, he’s not the real star of the show, Yeon Joo is. One day, the two world start overlapping as the forces of two different creative minds collide.

I have found that Korean Dramas are really good with mind bending concepts, and they make for very smart and thought provoking plot points. I watched this with my best friend who got me into Kdramas (it was the secon drama I watched). My friend and I thought the ending was very disappointing though, but I’d say the journey is worth the mediocre destination, and well, opinions might differ.

Yeon Joo carries the show. She’s one of the greatest heroine I’ve ever seen. She’s smart, brave, resourceful. She’s not a ditz but she still retains a girly charm, and she’s got such a strong spirit. It’s a delight to see her and Kang Chul interact, mainly because they’re on equal grounds most of the time. She doesn’t let herself be intimidated by him at all, and she saves his ass as much (if not more) as he saves hers.

Also her and Lee Jong Suk are so fucking hot like omg what a power couple. The good thing is that they are always honest with each other. Because of the fact that the comic is a thing, there is no reason to lie, and even when it’s not because of the comics they remain truthful with each other and I don’t remember miscommunication ever being used as a plot device.

Chief Kim

This one is not about romance at all, it’s about accounting and frauds. It’s hilarious. Kim Sung Ryung is a small time accountants, expert swindler, who works for small town mafiosos. He manages, somehow, to get hired as the director of the accounting department of a large company after the former attempted suicide and ended up in a coma. At the same time, former prosecutor Seo Yool (played by my ABSOLUTE FAVE OF ALL TIMES LEE JUNHO), specialising in frauds, start working as a director at the company, ready to cover all the dark dealings of the company, despite accountant Yoon Ha-Kyung’s effort to uncover the truth behind the suicide attempt. 

How does something about accounting manages to be so funny and still full of suspence ? This got me on the edge of my seat all the way through, and still managed to make me laugh my ass off. The acting can be a bit over the top sometimes, as it is still a comedy show, but Junho and Namgung Min are incredible as a duo. It’s very rare to see a friendship or rivalry take the center of a show instead of a romantic one but their interactions are always so fun to watch. 

I really liked it, I don’t know... I like office stories. The female lead is super cool. She’s smart, level headed, soft hearted, empathetic, and her friendship with Sung Ryung is the kind you rarely see in dramas. 

Page Turner

The shortest drama on the list. It’s only 3 episodes long and IT SHOULD BE LONGER. 

Yoon Yoo Seul is the daughter of a piano teacher, and attends a musical high school. She’s a prodigy pianist rivaled only by her mother’s former student Seo Jin Mok, a rich spoiled brat who hates Yoo Seul bc she’s just that good. Because of an accident, Yoo Seul may have to give up on her mother’s dream of her becoming a famous pianist. Meanwhile, promising athlete Cha Sik faces the same situation and gives up on ever becoming a professional athlete, but he starts considering the piano instead, although he’s never touched a piano ever in his life.

It’s heartwarming, it’s beautiful, it’s raw and soft and it’s hopeful. It’s short so I can’t say much without spoiling stuff but if you need to watch something, watch this. 

While You Were Sleeping

Lee Jong Suk always has good romances. 

Nam Hong Joo (Suzy the Bae ♥) has always had dreams where she foresaw the future. She lives with her mom, who runs a pork restaurant. One day, they get new neighboors; Jae Chan, a newly appointed prosecutor, and his younger brother. AAND honestly I won’t say much more than that because the first episode alone is such a RIDE that it would be spoiling it.

The three main characters are AMAZING. They are funny, resourceful, quirky in unexpected ways, honest and good. And because premonition is a thing, lying and miscommunication is rarely used as well ! The characters are honest with each other, and their relationships develops naturally and “organically” without stealing the thunder of the main plot.

As I said in W, they use the concept perfectly and intelligently. It keeps you on edge and you’re excited to see what will happen next. Also, Jae Chan being a prosecutor, there’s a bit of that case-by-case element going on that I like which helps balancing the pace. I watched it in one go and did not even take a break at some point !

Goblin

If you have ever looked at the Kdrama scene, you’ve probably heard of Goblin. That show’s been a huge phenomenon. I’ve seen it referenced in other dramas a lot, and it’s basically become a cult. And it deserves the praise.

When General Kim Shin was slain by the king he was serving, he became Dokkaebi, a powerful and immortal entity which can only be killed by the goblin’s bride.

900 years later, Ji Eun-Tak is a high school student (she’s 19-20, the age at which korean usually finish high school !) with the ability to see ghosts. Her mother died when she was 10. On that night, she met the Grim Reaper.

And as you can expect from me presenting this to you in such a way, Eun Tak is the Goblin’s bride, though she does not know of the duty that comes with that role. 

The show is funny, beautiful, heartwrenching. The characters are PHENOMENAL, and not just the main protagonists, but you’ll see what I mean. The concepts presented in the show are so interesting ! Especially their vison of death, reincarnation, redemption... It’s an incredible and emotional journey all the way. It doesn’t shy away from sadness and tragedy when it is needed or expected (unlike W *cough*)  and yet manages to leave you elated and smiling (through the tears). A classic that you NEED to watch. And that I wanna rewatch too.

Scarlet Heart : Ryeo

I’ve just noticed that my top dramas are all super sad. 

It’s based on a chinese Drama. After a terrible break up that left her in a ditch, emotionally and financially, the heroine almost drowns during an eclipse. She wakes up in the Josen period as Hae Soo, a young lady in waiting to the wife of one of the 8 princes of the kingdom. As she gets accustomed to this new and strange setting, she gets to know the princes, the schemings of the court, the rivalries and the dangers of that period.

Lee Ji Eun (aka IU) is phenomenal. I think this was her second or third role ever, and her first big role and holy crap she is incredible. Her character is just perfect and it’s really great to see her evolve, grow and try to keep up against this cruel time.  I don’t want to say much about it because i really don’t want to spoil anything.

The story spans over like 15 years if I remember correctly. And what might seem like a cutesy quirky romance period drama turns into something darker and heavier while never losing its spark. It will make you cry, but like, in a good way. That was the first drama I watched with my best friend and it’s awesome and now I kind wanna rewatch it.

Just Between Lovers/Rain or Shine

Rain or Shine never pretended to be cute or happy. It deals with trauma and survivor’s guilt, and it also involve disabled characters. Lee Gang Doo (JUNHO!!!!!) and Ha Moon Soo were both involved in the collapse of a shopping center as teenagers. Now grown up, the experience still haunts them and those around them. Now the site of the incident is going to get rebuilt again, and they will have to face their past.

 I binge-watched this so hard I barely slept. The characters are incredibly human and vulnerable. They bare their soul to the viewer in a way that leaves you completely shaken. And yet amidst all that, what I remember from it is softness (and tears, lots of tears). I think Gang Doo is the most outstanding male protagonist of all the dramas I’ve seen. He’s vulnerable, like. SO VULNERABLE. He’s a coward, he cries, he runs away from his problems, he keeps everything to himself. Moon Soo seems like she’s just a quirky shy girl but she turns out to be so strong, she’s the exact opposite of Gang Doo in a way, but somehow they work together so well. 

As a sidenote, I’d like to add something that striked me when I watched it, pleasantly so. The disabled characters are mentionned retain their agency. One of them is an autistic man, although he might seem like he’s infantilized during the series, in the end he still retains his agency as a person and as an adult and I thought that was really great to see, especially in a Korean drama. The other is a paraplegic woman, and she’s incredible. Despite her situation, she isn’t completely desexualised, she still retains romantic and sexual agency and she is also completely independant, as a successful webcomic artist.

I had a hard time deciding between that one, Scarlet Heart and Goblin for my favourite, but I think that one is closer to my heart. It really touched me in a way I didn’t expect, and I felt so close to the characters, because they were so well written.

Part 2: The Bad (aka Not really, I probably just got bored bc of the aformentioned reasons)

A Korean Odyssey (AKA discount Goblin): it’s an interesting take on the tale of the Monkey King. woman sees ghosts, woman meets weird magical entity. There’s someone killing someone else involved. It’s a bit cheesy, it’s kinda funny. I stopped because it was just drama atop drama and quiproquos and “I’m not gonna tell him/her because I wanna protect her/him but that’s just gonna make it worse !!!!” and that sort of stuff. In my mind it was kind of cheap plot devices. Interesting concepts though, and you could definitely make a nice mash-up with Goblin.

Radio Romance: It’s a cute romance, the cast is good, the heroine is cool, the male lead is cute. I was watching it weekly and at some point I just lost interest. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. Girl wants to be a writer for the radio, famous actor agrees to hos her show. Drama happens. It’s cute you should watch it if you have a longer attention span than me.

Temperature of Love: Woman meets a guy. She wants to be a writer, he wants to be a chef. One day he disappears, she becomes a writer, he becomes a chef. They meet again. It’s very cheesy, BUT it’s super hot. Yang Se Jong is super cute and he’s really popular atm. I just didn’t care enough to watch completely but I don’t have any real complaint.

Hospital Ship : I ALMOST watched til the end, until there was like a ridiculous plot point because we can’t just let the protags be happy, it needs DRAMA. I love medical dramas. My favourite show is actually Grey’s Anatomy. I love when there are different cases every episode and having the characters try to figure things out. Like, the medical is my favourite part of Medical Dramas, the drama not so much. So I bailed when it was TOO MUCH drama for me. The heroine is cool. It’s a bit on the cheap side, but it has a nice feeling to it.

Doctors : The heroine is a kick ass (litterally), but I didn’t like the romance, and it focused more on the drama than the medical imo. Lots of people like it though, and Park Shin Hye is a phenomenal actress.

School 2017: SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER. Apparently School 20-- are a popular series and each season as nothing to do with the other. This one was great imo, it adressed the pressure in the korean educational system, the corruption, the privilege of rich students, adult indifference, abuse, bullying... And the main protags are great. The heroine is cute and hilarious and strong willed, the male lead is hot, awkward... I didn’t finish it because ... I don’t know, I just interest. Also... Yeah ok spoiler ! So I learned that there wasn’t actually a kiss between the main couple in the show (which has probably to do with the fact that the actress is an idol. Ugh) and so I was like “UHM WHAT’S THE POINT THEN ???” I’m shallow like that

My Secret Romance: Girl has a one night stand on the beach, leaves the guy naked in a car and bails. 3 years later he’s her boss. It’s hot, but SUPER cheesy and SUPER cheap. Like honestly the only reason I watched it was for the romanc but DAMN BANG SUNG HOON IS SUPER HOOOOOT. But hotness can only keep you going for so long and when the plot devices you would expect in a cinderella story happen you’re just like “ugh bye”.

Ms Perfect: I need to finish it. A mom of 2 gets fired, she learns her husband is cheating on her, the mistress dies mysteriously, and also a weird psycho offers to live in her house. I need to finish it but I guess it just got a little too much for me. There’s Sung Joon in it, he’s really cute, i like him a lot. He’s also in the two next dramas.

Madame Antoine: A woman pretends to be a medium channelling the spirit of Marie-Antoinette and teams up with a psychologist (Sung Joon) who’s also conducting an experiment on her. Cheesy. Not that interesting, but the case they study are interesting sometimes. There’s Hwang Seung Eon in it, she’s super hot.

High Society: Basically about the korean Jet Set. Watched for Sung Joon initially. It’s an older one, and I think it’s a bit tacky. It’s also a lot of clichés, and I don’t like the heroine. I love her best friend though, and her relationship with Sung Joon’s best friend in the show, played by Park Hyung Sik. But yeah, it’s not a high IQ show.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon: this also has Park Hyung Sik in it. I think he’s really cute. Bong Soon was born with super strength and she wants to work in the video game industry. She meets video game company CEO whatshisname (Park Hyung Sik) and he hires her as his bodyguard and huh stuff happens. It’s cheesy, but somehow super creepy as well cause there’s a serial killer who kidnaps women in it and he’s soooooooooooooooo creepy. But it’s also infuriating cause it’s like “Oh no, a young woman got kidnapped for the fourth time in that area ! *cut to another young woman not giving a shit and walking around that area at night also the police doesn’t patrol the area for some reason*”. It was really popular, but I didn’t really like it.

Tomorrow with you : guys can travel in a few years in time by using the metro, and he tries to set things right using this power. It’s a bit of a mindfuck and it’s kidna complicated to follow. I need to finish it !!!

Hwarang : There is no use watching this. Don’t. The cast is great but that’s just not enough. Terrible pacing, terrible romance, the side characters are way more interesting than the main ones but they get easily sidelined. The pacing is terrible. It has the dumbest death I’ve ever seen, and it was used for shock value.

Shopping King Louie: Fashionista and heir Ji Sung/Louis loses his memory in a failed assassination attempts, and ends up living with country bumpkin Bok Sil, come to Seoul to find her missing brother. I stopped watching in the last lap, basically the final obstacle was showing its head and I was like “yeah that’s enough for me”. It’s really cute. 

I almsot forgot

Hit the top: artist from the early 90s travels in time to 2017 and starts living with a young man who dreams of becoming an idol who is actually his son. Didn’t like the way the romance went. Like. I really was against it. The male lead is annoying. Minjae is better.

Hip Hop Teacher: it got cancelled but FUCK IT WAS USPER GAY IT HAD LEE JOO YOUNG IN IT AS A TERRIBLE MUSIC TEACHER WHO RAPS AT NIGHT AND YURA WAS LIKE jdsiughergegreg there’s only 2 parts but watch them if you can cause it makes my wlw soul live

Part 3: The pretties, aka things I wanna watch

My Mister: just because IUs in it. She looks incredible.

Mr Sunshine: it has Kim Tae Ri !!!! Aka the handmaiden from The Handmaiden !!! It takes place in 19th century Joseon ! It adresses japanese ccupation !!!! Rebel princess !!! Korean victorian drama !!! The hot dad from Memories of the Word is there !!!!

The Great Seducer: Minjae just looks super hot in it idk but I bet he doesn’t get the girl and I’m gonna be mad.

Memory and Wok Of Love cause Junho’s in it lol.

The Ghost Detective, Something in The Rain, cause it jas Lee Joo Young in them

Part 4: Things you might want to watch

These are pretty popular, but I’m not that interested myself, you might like them.

Juggles; office romance, looks kinda steamy, the male lead is super hot

The Bride of Habaek; based on the comic Bride of The Water-god. Reallyyyyyy hot. Has Nam Joo Hyuk in it. IDDK I heard it’s good

Fight for my way: i have no idea what it’s about, but the main characters’ relationship looks cute

Legend of the Blue Sea: modern take on the Little Mermaid. The male lead is a swindler who uses hypnosis, the heroine is funny because she looks very mature and hot but she’s a mess of derp

Descendants of the Sun: it’s about a female doctor who gets sent to Afghanistan I think ?????? Everyone always praises it

Part 5: the movie

Royal Tailor: the tailor of the royal family seeks the help of an innovative tailor who usually works for prostitutes. It’s not a happy movie. Beautiful

Pirates: You wanna see kickass women kick asses ? This is for you. Your more typical martial arts movie

Memories of the sword: If you like women kicking ass too, but you also want to cry. It has Kim Go Eun, and also Junho !!!!! And the guy from Mr. Sunshine. Loved it. But super sad. Not a happy movie at all. But very cool and visually pretty.

The Handmaiden: I mean I don’t even need to explain it. If you haven’t watched it, just know that, as Park Chan Wook movies tend to, it is VERY WEIRD and unsettling. 

The Last Train to Busan: ZOMBIE MOVIES !!!! It has the main actor from Goblin in it !!!! It is super cool because it’s not just “UGH zombiiiies ! Smash heads ! Violence ! Scary ooooh !” it is also a critic on greed and selfishness (and not as something stupid like “yeah zombies are actually a metaphor for consumerism”) it makes you think, it keeps you on edge, it’s not overly scary but it’s still manages to give you good scares and has some very tense moments. LOVE IT.

WOOOOOOOOOH I AM DONE. This took me 3 HOURS TO WRITE can you believe it ??? I hope this was helpful. Don’t take some of my critics to heart, I’m harsh when it comes to that sort of stuff, and very particular. If you need to watch somehting. Go for my top 5 ! Thank you for trusting my opinion that much <3

[wannawrite]

This Isn’t Part Of The Plot

Wanna One's Lai Guanlin X Reader TW: violence, emotional abuse Word count: 3430 

Fluff, mild angst • you and ( actor! ) Guanlin are filming a drama series together • fun fact: you two despise each other because of a scandal awhile back but c'mon pretending for the cameras bc you gotta get that cash amirite ;) • eventually...some unexpected things happen hurh hurh biAS BIAS BIAS ALERT WEE WOO I LOVE GUANLIN SO MUCH AND I MIGHT BE MEETING HIM NEXT MONTH HOLY SHIT anyways....thank youuuu for requesting this anon :) I hope you like it, sorry if it isn't what you wanted. Re-request if you want to! Also, we might be closing the request box really soon so do request before then, both admins will be extremely busy with school. Admin N iS woRKING HARD OKAY I PROMISE I WON'T DEPRIVE YOU GUYS OF HER SHE'LL BE OFF HIATUS VERY SOON I PROMISE - admin L _________ You swore that the bottle of nail polish you clamped down on was about to crack from the pressure, your force displayed by your whitening knuckles. The anger that bubbled within you threatened to spill, you didn't imagine your temper would explode through the roof at this time but it just seemed like a ticking time bomb. "Y/N! Y/N! Are you okay? Calm down," your manager - more like a best friend-, Nayoung said, running her hands through your hair in an attempt to soothe you. You two were very close, you had known her since your trainee days and she too felt your anger and frustration. "Listen, I'm not exactly happy about working with Guanlin and his manager either. Especially after all the trouble they caused us last year, it's very shocking CEO would insist on this. Please, for all our sakes, try to control your emotions on set. After that, I'll let you rant all you want." Nayoung massaged your shoulders and slowly plucked the nail polish out of your hands. The whole day, you had been sitting on in the dressing room ( refusing to leave in fear of bumping into Guanlin ) to be pampered in preparation for filming. Your lines were engrained in your head and every action was carefully calculated, whether you would be able to execute them with your fellow lead was another matter altogether. Lai Guanlin. You despised him. Well, you wouldn't have if he had kept his mouth shut and hadn't blabbered bullshit about you. Partially, it was your fault because you responded in a harsh manner but all the trouble and drama he had stirred up for you was worth it. What happened? 

So, one fine day while Guanlin was carrying out a Livestream interview and you were out there minding your own business, breathing your own air. When asked the question "Guanlin, which rising star would you choose to collaborate with?", he replied with "Definitely Lin Zhaoxi of WannaWrite Entertainment." Your fellow actress in the same company who had debuted at roughly the same time. The damned interviewer posed another question... or exclamation rather "Not with Y/N? Y/N is becoming quite popular lately." Guanlin laughed and shook his head. "I'm sorry but please don't... associate? me with that kind of level acting. Y/N is good but she's just getting by with her pretty face. I can't say I support her fully." There was an outcry. For days, tabloids and entertainment platforms reported about this. Reporters and paparazzi swarmed both Cube Entertainment and WannaWrite Entertainment, pestering for statements from you or Guanlin. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal but since both of you were pictured together leaving a casting building, the world assumed you were on good terms and even dating. Me, with that imbecile! How could they! It was a random coincidence that the two of you exited at the same time but the pictures were taken and the rest was history. A few days later, acting on impulse and your hurricane of emotions you tweeted out. officiaY/N @laiguanlin01 thanks for the compliment. Weren't you only cast for your previous lead role because of your face too? You don't have much to say (icantbemeantohimimsorry) Of course, CEO L had hacked your Twitter and deleted the tweet and their publicist had tried her best to cover it but it was too late, the damage had been done. You thought it was sure to end there but surprisingly, Guanlin responded. laiguanlin01 @officialY/N wow petty much? Maybe if you paid this much attention to practicing you'd be better and wouldn't have to rely on your looks or popular friends. Grow up. You were furious beyond words but manager Nayoung banned you from the internet, afraid of your negative response. It was embarrassing, to say the least. However, time continues and that drama was left behind, you wanted to burn and bury it. You just never expected to be cast in for lead roles with Guanlin and even though you knew your management could withdraw you, they kept pushing you to do take the role. The alliance with Cube and WannaWrite had to form and prosper. Truthfully, you would do almost anything to repay your company. "Y/N? Are you ready? We must start shooting soon...." You snapped back to your senses at manager Nayoung's words. Sighing, you nodded reluctantly and prepared to step on set. Be professional. Be professional. Control yourself, Y/N. Show Guanlin what you are made of. Shakily, you stood up, mentally preparing for the moment. Yes, there were a few intimate scenes and you hoped that at least, he was a good kisser. Just think about the paycheck in your bank account. All is well. ... "Okay! Good! We got it! Cut!" You had never wanted to hear those words more than now. At first, Guanlin had greeted you with a simple 'hello' and the two of you did not interact during breaks, only speaking when absolutely necessary or when delivering lines. The scene of hugging ended, you quickly jumped apart and retreated to your stylist. You felt your face grow hot and palms sweat profusely. It was absolutely maddening to act romantic with someone whom you hated so much but, Guanlin was handsome and you would be lying if you said his looks hadn't attracted you. If only his rotten personality didn't ruin it, you thought bitterly, the makeup brush flicking across your cheek. You knew Guanlin wasn't a terrible person, he just had the wrong words and the wrong time, yet, you couldn't exactly see the best in him either. It was a checkmate. "You two did great! Anyone would believe it was a real romance!" The director praised, jumping up from his seat and excitedly hugging some members of the production crew. In the background, Guanlin smiled but shook his head. His gaze bore into your own and while his remained quite warm and friendly, yours narrowed and burned. He put his hands up in mock surrender which almost elicited a laugh out of you but you spun away and faced the other stylist before he could read your expression. Ugh! Get it together, Y/N! Do not let Lai Guanlin affect you. "Y/N! Y/N! To celebrate the start of shooting, the director wants to treat everyone for dinner! You have to be there," Manager Nayoung informed in a hushed tone, taking your hands in hers. You let out a whine. I'm already an actress as my full-time job, how much more will I have to act like I can tolerate Lai Guan Lin! Nayoung sighed, she shot a sympathetic smile at you and petted the top of your head. "Don't worry, I can handle it if things get out of hand but please, just maintain this a little longer so we both keep our jobs." You cracked a smile at her lame joke and nodded although it was reluctant. But a part of you was curious, interested to find out what Lai Guanlin was really like. ... Thankfully, the dinner wasn't as awkward as you thought it would be. Guanlin kept to his crew and you to yours. Occasionally, the sides engaged in meaningless small talk. Guanlin even asked about your day and how his acting was. "Um, you d-did well. Good job, you worked hard," you improvised or rather, provided a textbook answer but Guanlin seemed pretty satisfied with your reply. He sent his adorable gummy smile your way and you nearly fainted right there and then. Guanlin was charming. However, some asshole had to bring up that huge scandal that happened. You panicked, looking across at Guanlin. He cleared his throat, sensing your discomfort. "Ahh, that. That was a very long time ago, I was being childish and immature about it. I acted rashly, I'm sorry Y/N, I never got a chance to apologise personally. I'm sorry," he piped, an upset look slipped onto his face. "I-it's fine. I was...rude to you as well. I apologise, let's put this behind us," you croaked, reaching for your glass of water. His sudden apology had you flustered. Wow, his acting had improved so much. I'm impressed, anyone would have bought that. Apology my ass. There was a pregnant pause before the entire table burst in applause and cheers. You turned beet red, bowing slightly to the crew members. "Yah! Make up properly, go and hug each other." A voice rang out and still, you had no clue who it was. You hesitated.... But Guanlin didn't. He stood up from his seat and waltzed over to your own. Forcing a smile on your face, you wrapped your arms around his muscular shoulders and pulled him close. He was a good hugger, he radiated off warmth and security. Bonus! Guanlin smelled like he stepped out of the Dior perfume section. Heavenly. Finally, he pulled away, a tiny bit to your dismay but before he returned to his seat, you pressed a quick peck to his cheek, making the 'apology' all the more believable. Manager Nayoung's excited squeals could be heard above all the noise. You smirked at Guanlin whose ears had turned red and could only smile shyly, scuffing his expensive leather shoes together. Unknown to you, his heart thudded inhumanely fast, peculiarly pleasant shivers ran down his spine. Not as awkward as you imagined it to be. ... The next few weeks of filming were blissful. Why? On the third day, Guanlin had broken into your dressing room and requested to talk. When all the stylists had left, he apologised profusely for the drama he had initiated. "Didn't we put it behind us on Sunday?" You had asked, puzzled. "I know! But I didn't want you to feel like it was just for the crowd, I'm truly sorry. I hope you believe me," he pleaded, genuinely apologetic. You ended the session with a hug before shooing him off to get ready, assuring him that all the drama was in the past. You knew Guanlin was growing on you and somehow, you didn't want to stop him. You were in a dilemma, your heart and head were telling you two extremes. Amiable Guanlin continued to make an appearance, he always smiled and greeted you whenever both of you bumped into each other and at times, he would venture to find you in case you needed help with running lines. You found yourself hanging out in one of the common rooms with him often, practicing scenes or even hanging out as...friends. You talked about how your day had been, about your friends and about each other's interests in general. It became very clear that at the end of two weeks, you were falling for Guanlin. You were joyful. But all good things must come to an end. ... The cold stung your cheeks, causing them to redden. You shuddered uncontrollably, legs shaking like jelly and teeth chattering. The night was still young according to your director despite it being 9 pm and pitch darkness should the production crew not have brought spotlights. It was ridiculous. Despite all these factors, the show must go on. You continued to deliver your best. It also helped that Guanlin kept your heart in a fuzzy mess by telling you all his lame jokes and stories in between takes. Your heart was warmed by his sweet laughter, it sounded like music to your ears. "Okay! Wonderful! It's a wrap for today, everyone start packing up!" The shooting site had been tossed into a frenzy, the crew was so frantic to keep the equipment no one noticed you and Guanlin slipping away from your dressing tents. You couldn't stop the giggles from the adrenaline rush, sneaking away from your manager and staffs was a huge thing for you, plus it made you feel like you were actually living a normal teenager life. "Hey, I heard there's a really nice milk tea shop nearby. Want any?" Guanlin suggested, he pouted when he saw hesitation flicker across your face. "C'mon! It'll be fine, we'll be back before anyone notices. Besides, I got one of the staffs to cover for us. It's okay, live a little, Y/N." Sighing, you agreed. Guanlin smiled and grabbed your hand, causing just about a billion sparks to light up. It felt like there was an entire zoo in your stomach. He didn't seem to realise you two were walking hand in hand towards the shop. The street was pretty deserted as this was a housing estate and it was late at night, no one would have caught both of you in this promising position. "Do... you want me to wait outside while you order? You know, shops have cameras and... confusion will arise if we step in hand in hand," Guanlin muttered, a sense of discontent in his voice. You let go of his hand just as the shop came into view. Before you entered, you sent him a shaky smile, gesturing for him to pull up his black face mask to hide his identity better. You adjusted your own baseball cap to fit tighter. It was useless. You had to force yourself not to gasp, not to hold your breath when you saw who the worker was. Your ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend you broke up with before your debut because you caught him cheating on you with another girl. The ex who had tormented you emotionally, who haunted your nightmares with his malicious words. The one who always told you that you were never good enough for him, that your acting was never going to take your anywhere. It took all your willpower to not burst out crying or run out of the store. You tried your best to avoid his slimy gaze. "Y/N?" Too late. "It's you, isn't it! Awww, the big time actress! I guess I was wrong, your acting did get you places. Do you have a boyfriend now? Let's get back together." How dare he!  Your anger was slowly but surely building up inside. Your mouth ran dry, no words could be said. "Ahh, speechless? I know right! Yah, remember all the good times you had together? Don't you miss them?" He taunted. "You mean the times you left me hanging? Stood me up on dates? Insulted me in front of all your friends? Told me you loved and cherished me but made out with Jasmine an hour later? Yeah, I sure do miss those times!" You yelled, infuriated by his words. "Don't try and act that you didn't know I was hurt, you told me to wait for you while you went out clubbing with like twenty different girls! I've had enough of your games." "Yah! So you think now that you have scored a job or two you can come and accuse me of such ways! Do you know how much I sacrificed for you? I did all I could, I was the best boyfriend!" He leaned over the counter and set a hand on your shoulder. It made cold shivers travel all over your body, goose bumps appearing. His touch wasn't comforting like Guanlin's, it was cold and controlling. You hated it. "Get your hands off me! You have no right to say anything to me!" You managed to shrug him off and turned to leave but he grabbed your wrist at the last moment and tugged harshly. You tripped, he shoved your shoulder hard and you fell to the ground with a thud. "You bitch!" He sneered. Crack! The sound resonated throughout the entire store. A red handprint visible on your cheek which you cradled, jaw open in shock. The tears that you tried so hard to hold back now flowed freely. The door burst open. "Y/N! You hit her! How could you!" It was Guanlin. Honestly, you didn't want a fight to start because of this. You had enough. You wanted nothing more than to return home. Guanlin raised his fist to punch your ex-boyfriend but you caught his arm and whimpered, pleading with him not to. Your ex-was in shock, but he recovered quickly. "Yah! Who do you think you are? She's my girlfriend, I can do whatever to her." ( no you fcking can't please get this mindset out it's fcking wrong and I hate it ) Guanlin really wasn't having it. He shoved your ex-boyfriend harshly in the chest. "That's wrong. Y/N is a person, not an object. You can't play with her like that. You're sick, I'm calling security on you. We're leaving." But before he could, the ex kicked him in the stomach. It was like he expected Guanlin to be affected by that. Guanlin just chuckled, sinisterly. "You don't mess with people like that." He didn't stall, he punched the other guy in the nose, blood started to flow. Then, he focussed his attention on you. When it was clear you were too traumatised to even stand, he scooped you up and stormed out of the shop. ... "I'm so sorry. I'm so so so so so sorry," Guanlin apologised. "Hell, my sorries can't even fix this. It was all my fault, Y/N. I should have never suggested this. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He looked like he was about to cry as well. "That was my ex....he may have said many horrid things to me but never once did he hit me...." That caused Guanlin to tighten his grip on you. "I'm so sorry, I-I really should have never made you leave...." His perfect face had tears running down. "It's-it's o-okay. You didn't know anything, it is not your fault. Don't be like this," you stammered, your own emotions were in a mess. "If I didn't suggest it, you wouldn't have been hurt! It's all my fault!" He shrieked in panic. "It's my fault you got hit!" "It isn't! It really isn't!" You insisted. "What are we going to do about all the rumours though?" "Y/N! Priorities! You just got injured because of me, we need to get you to the hospital!" The sense of urgency rising in his tone. "Yah, Guanlin-ah. I'm okay. I'm stronger than that. But the whole world will think we're dating after this incident, what will we do?" Guanlin shrugged, he blinked back tears. "Well, I won't deny rumours that I want to be true." What? "...no way. You? Want to date? Me?" "Y/N, this isn't the time to be talking-" "Yes! Yes! I will date you!" "No, we need to get you to the hospital. I'm sorry you got hit, I will make sure that never happens again. Let me call security." You waited for his call with the security to end. "They're going to catch him. Y/N, it's all my fault. I'm so so so sorry-" You cut him off by pressing your lips to his. They were plush and velvety, he had kissable lips. At first, he was frozen in shock but after awhile, he began to kiss back with passion. When you broke apart, there was a dazed look in his eyes. "Woah...." The tips of his ears turned red, his face grew hot. "Y/N, I caused you so much misery. Why would you like me? I hate myself for this. Why can't you hate me too? Life would be so much easier," he said, almost absent-mindedly. "Because I like you," you blurted out. "Let's date." "But-" "Guanlin, you care too much. My ex was an asshole, to you too. Yes, he hit me. Yes, no one should abuse anyone, which is why we reported him anyway. Yes, it may take time for me to recover but I hope you can wait for me. I'm sorry I'm a mess," you confessed, blushing. Guanlin's eyes grew as large as saucers. "No! No! Don't apologise. And...if it's you, I'll wait for you. I want to help you recover. I want to be there for you. It must be tough to deal with this." You beamed, tears nearly flowing again. Thank you." "It's what any potential lover would do. Let me know when you're ready for a relationship again, we'll take it as slow as you need it to be. I hate to rush things anyway," he admitted and really, you couldn't ask for anyone more perfect. The walk back was silent after that but really, you communicated in other ways without using words. Guanlin was wonderful, who had scripted this part of the story? It was almost too good to be true. guys, abusive relationships shouldn't be romanticised. It's horrible and mentally tormenting. Please don't go through with one. Leave it immediately. I feel like I kind of romanticised it a bit here and I hate it so much. Please give me feedback and I will gladly take this down if it's too much. Abuse is never okay or something to be taken lightly. If this offends anyone, it will be removed immediately. This was hard for me to write and I truly apologise if is triggering. Let me know, I will take it down.

[r-o-se]

A summary on Produce 101 Season 2 Episode 8 its ya boy back at it agian with another let’s play this time its evaluations and painful crying time

1.     BOA GOT THEM FOOD SHE GOT EVERYONE PIZZA

2.     Physically restraining myself from screenshotting everything Jinwoo appears in and posting those as the best moments

3.     They show the winners of each category again aka Taehyun, Jonghyun and Gunhee

4.     Sfkdjhlajk who said that those clips of hugging crying trainees are acceptable

5.     Seonho keeps saying 1, 2, 3 and looking at Guanlin as if he wants him to say ‘fighting’ but none of them will say it lmao I love my dumb chicks

6.     They showed solo clips of both Daniel and Jisung but not Jinwoo haha nice ;)

7.     Kiiahoiadjh Hyunbins failed b-boying how beautiful

8.     I am not emotionally prepared for this Jinwoo won’t make it I have too many goddamn faves just stab me

9.     Ok they’re showing concept evaluation stuff first this is basically like last season

10.  Im crying Jonghyun is 1st and BoA publically thanked him he is so shy and aaaaaaaahhhhh

11.  Ok the voters choose the best team and the idol that suits the concept best, most voted team gets FUCKING 220 000 VOTES!!! THE FUCK!! And the trainee who gets the most votes out of the team gets 100k votes, the rest from that team get 20k

12.  And here we gooooooooo the producers, first, Shihn Hyuk one did stuff for SHINEE!!!!!!!!! And also EXO and Justin Bieber I guess lol his song is ‘I Know You Know’

13.  Kigen & Assbrass from Monsta X next, they wrote hiphop song ‘Oh Little Girl’

14.  Ren’s visuals are done so dirty in this show I swear to god

15.  Next comes Geunwoo, ASHTRAY and Oh Seonghwan from Kyuhyun and Yesung who wrote a nu disco genre song ‘Showtime’ and LMAO THE CHOREO FOR IT HAS DONGMYEONG’S SIGNATURE DANCE AAAHAHAHAH POOR PLAGIARIZED ELIMINATED BABY

16.  Now composers called Devine-Channel who did songs for VIXX!!!! and BTS and their contribution is a Future EDM song ‘Open Up’

17.  TRIPLE H WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCKKKKKK THEY MADE A SONG

18.  It’s a Deep House genre song called ‘Never’

19.  Overall, Open Up and Never sound the best imo holy fuckkkkk those songs are LIT AS HELL

20.  Danik, Dongbin and Kiwon did the unthinkable and hinted at the songs they want and as a penalty they get sorted last

21.  I know Daniel wanted the fourth song which makes me emo bc I LOVE THAT SONG!!!! SO MUCH!!!!!! And now he cant get it lmao dumb boyo

22.  They look so ashamed aw

23.  Now everyone are getting sorted to songs, Baekho first aaaaaaand they didn’t show us what he got I don’t think they show any songs before the teams are full agh

24.  Everyone get their songs one but one and the reactions vary from jumping to absolute neutrality lol I’m not gonna say all of their names

25.  BoA brought up Samuels 15 place rank drop Kindly Shut Up Please

26.  Samuel, Sanggyun and Namhyung are all in one group

27.  Jaehwan also chose Hyunbin as the one he doesn’t want to be in a group with since he has already been with him twice aaaaaahahahhahah

28.  Jaehwan DOES want to be with Jonghyun and so do Baekho and Yongguk as well EVERYONE LOVES HIM THIS IS SO CUTEEEE

29.  JONGHYUN IS WITH JAEHWAN AND THEY HUG RIGHT AWAY!! CUTE!!

30.  Winkdeep are the only ones in their practice room well nvm THAT’S HYUNGSEOB all the cute popular visual ones are together again

31.  Taehyun joined the badassery that is Samuel, Namhyung, Sangbin and Sanggyun and Samuel IMMEDIATELY goes like OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! SAME THO FUCK I LOVE TAEHYUN

32.  ???? Woodam went to the badasses room?? GOOD CONCEPT!!!

33.  Jihoon is discussing his endless aegyo techniques

34.  IT IS GUNHEE IN THE ROOM OF CUTIES!!! AND SUUNGWOON WITH JR

35.  The Sinners are all in that room and give their formal apologies aw kiddos it’s ok I don’t care lol

36.  Danik goes to the practice room where JINWOO IS!!!!!! YES!!!!AND SO DOES KIWON!

37.  Dongbin is with the cutie group lol

38.  The song for the badassery group is SHOW TIME!! Sangbin is dead inside but Samuel just gave a kiss to the song sign lmaooo

39.  Jonghyun group gets Never also HOLY SHIT this team has Jonghyun, Minhyun, Jaehwan and Seongwoo are all here it is like 2/3 of Sorry Sorry lol

40.  The cutie team gets Oh Little Girl  Justin looks so blessed out of this world and hugs w Hyunngseob YUEHUA PRIDE!!!!!

41.  All other group want open up lol

42.  Danik-Baekho group GETS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

43.  So the other group gets I Know You Know everyone are crying inside

44.  The temporary centers for Oh Little Girl are chosen now, Ren, Jihoon and Euiwoong all want to be center

45.  They are trying out and honestly I have such second hand embarrassment rn but everyone think Jihoon and Minki were better including Hyungseob whos labelmates with Euiwoong

46.  Wait so… Jungjung, Euiwoong, Justin and Hyungseob are ALL in the Oh Little Girl group damn whole Yuehua squad here

47.  KAHI JUST BOUGHT THIS YUEHUA THING UP!!! I SAW IT BEFORE!!!

48.  Euiwoong was really worried about doing mistakes but KAHI CONGRATULATED HIM BC HE DID RLY WELL!!! CUTE!! DON MILLS TOO!!! LIL KID SLAYING IT

49.  JINWOO LOOKS SO GOOD HERE!!!!

50.  Anyways Jinwoo was like maybe someone who is good with dance as the leader for Open Up team since it has a hard dance and Baekho was like ya what about Daniel AND THEN INSOO IS LIKE WHAT ABT U DONGHO IKAJAKI TRAINEES LOVE BAEKHO WILL MNET FINALLY STOP LYING

51.  Baekho still pushes it back to Daniel and Danik is like I’d totally love to be the leader JINWOO NODDING ALONG MMO PRIDE

52.  Apparently Daniel is having problems paying attention to all 12 people and Kenta is a bit salty over it and tbh I understand his reasoning

53.  But Daniel noticed it too and heh fucking apologized don’t drag him for this he’s younggg and doesn’t know that much about leading

54.  It’s Showtime team now and everyone want Woodam to be the venter but HWISEUNG IS THERE TOO!!! PAY ATTENTION TO MY BABE HES AMAZING AT HIGH NOTES GIVE HIM SCREENTIME!!!!!

55.  Hwiseung was 56 but raised to 36 LET MY BOY!!! LIVE!!! PLEASE!!!

56.  Taehyun recommends the cringefest that is facial expression battle

57.  Wtf the two ones who didn’t even sing got to be the centers what’s going ooooooonnn

58.  EVERYONE ARE SHOOK BY HWISEUNG AND WOODAMS ADLIBS AND FOR A GOOD REASON AAAAA THEY ARE SO GOODDDD

59.  He’s so cheerful and keeps cracking jokes LET MY BOY!!! DEBUT

60.  Never team is choosing the center I hope Sungwoon gets it tbh let my boy rise some ranks

61.  The centers are Guanlin and Minhyun rip I mean I love both of the kids but LET SUNGWOON SHINEE!! FOR ONCE

62.  SUNGWOON VOLUNTEERED FOR SOLO DANCE CHECKUP PLEASE DO WELL BABE I BELIEVE IN YOU HE DOES REALLY WELL IM SO GLAD BABE I LOVE U IM PROUD OF U I LOVE U LOTS PLEASE DO WELL

63.  HE DID WELL AND GOT PRAISED A SHITTON I AM SO PROUD BABE KILL IT KILLL IT WELL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! DEBUT!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

64.  I Know You Know has a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttton of low ranking trainees and I feel so so sorry for all of them ugh

65.  WHY IS HWANOONG SO LOW RANKS CMON PEOPLE!!! HE WAS CENTER!! HE IS FUNNY!! HE IS CUTE!!! WHY YALL HATING

66.  The centers are Donghan and Hwanoong and all of them got praised a lot by Kahi and even Hyunbin got the footwork down fml I’m so proud of my kids

67.  This elimination gonna hurt no matter what I got too many faves they show the lower ranked kids like Woo Jinyoung and Hwanoong and Dongbin and Justin and whatnot I AM SO SO EMO!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! LET MY KIDS LIVE

68.  Most of those kids already feel that they’re gonna drop and it’s so fucking depressing I love so many of those kids I feel so bad rn oh my fucking god II want to save them all I want them to be happy and popular and debut well

69.  23 of my own children are gonna be beat away from this show I am so angry anyways thte last time there was abt 2.5mil votes this time its GODDAMN 5.5 MILLION WHAT ON EARTH

70.  HYUNBINN SURVIVED THANKK GOD!!!! THANK FUCK!!!!!! I am not allowed to cry about each trainee I CANT

71.  YEHYUN MADE IT MY MUSICAL GENIUS!!!!! FUCK!! HIS STATS ARE LIKE A ROLLERCOASTER

72.  Moonbok deadass fell from 2nd to 32nd what the fuck this show is so unpredictable and I hate it

73.  KENTA BABY MADE EIT WITH 0 SCREENTIME I LOVE MY BOY SO MUCH

74.  Gunhee also made it what the fuck why is he such a low rank with the goddamn 110k benefit and you can see the light leave Hwanoongs eyes because if Gunhee is so low what happens to him

75.  Its HF and Woodam went up he fell like 10 places fuck he said ‘You’ll have to go up’ to Jinyoung IM SO SADD!! FUCK!!!!!

76.  SUNGWOON MADE IT!!! HE LOOKS LIKE A LIL CLOUD W HIS BLEACHED HAIR!! PROUD OF U BABE

77.  SUNGHYUK MADE IT AGAIN!!! ROSE SO FUCKING MUCH!!!! HE WAS 95 BUT NOW HE IS 24 WHAT ON E A R T H HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK

78.  TAEHYUN IS THERE!!!! HOTTSHOT BOYSSSSSSSSS IM PROUD HE HIGHFIVED SOMEONE IN THE LINE

79.  Oh my god 20th place trainee already has over 1mil votes this is fucking wild whos it gonna be ITS REN!!!!!! WHYS HE SO LOW!! HE FELL TWO PLACES WHAT THE FUCK

80.  Everyone are apologizing this is so sad also JIHOON ACTUAL ANGEL SAID HE MIGHT BE PERSUADED TO GIVE HIS CENTER POSITION TO REN WHAT ON EARTH

81.  Hwiseung is so bright and cute…. How does he do that….

82.  Jinwoo looks dead inside like he has already accepted his place…… but also proud and smiley at Jisung and Daniel… I’m so sad yall what the fuck

83.  WOOJIN DIDN’T HIGHFIVE YOUNGMIN AND WOOJIN RAN BACK FROM THE STAGE TO HUG HIM BRAND NEW PRIDE

84.  I hate Hwiseung why is he so good…. And loveable… in those dark times… fucking god I’m so sad

85.  BoA said cue and Seonho just stood up without the name and BoA was like wdym and Seonho is like it cant be Guanlin bc he’s a superstar

86.  KJALFSA HYUNGSEOB IS THANKING WOOJIN IN HIS SPEECH IM SO EMO THIS IS SO CUTEEEEEE

87.  SEWOON EXPOSED MNET BAEKHO AINT SCARY GET FUKT BOIIII ITS TOP 11 TIME NOW

88.  Oh my GOD it’s a god fucking damn cutscene are you SERIOUS!! Blocked anyways they have a punchinc machine it will be somekinda strength off and they deadass chopped the 1st place seat off and put it there

89.  HWISEUNG AND BYUNMIN ARE THE MC’S why are they doing this to me

90.  Ren is so dumb I love him how does he do THAT with his shoulders

91.  Seongwoo is there and he sure is making himself look cool he does into the trainees to go faaaaaaaaaaar so he can get the motion in and puts sooo much into the show BUT FUCKING STAYS UNDER 900 I LOVE MY DUMB SON HE IS SO STUPID AAAAAAHAHHA FUCK I LOVE HIM HES SO FUNNY EVERYONE ARE LAUGHING LIKE HYENAS

92.  Donghyun was embarrassing w his stretching but fuckin WRECKED that machine taking the throne from Sunghyuk who took it from Dongbin

93.  ITS BAEKHO TIME GODDAMN HWISEUNG SAID IT’S BOSS FIGHT LMAO I LOVE THEM

94.  His punching sound was so loud holy fuck AND HE GOT THE IDENTICAL SCORE!!! WHAT!! LMAO

95.  Rematch, Donghyun hit 949, Baekho 950 lmaooooooo MY SUNSHINE TIGER  

96.  We are back in the elimination its rank 11 ITS BAEKHO!! MY BABE!! MY FIRST BIAS!! POWER VOCAL DUMBO!!! LOVE U!!!!!!!! BoA asked him to do aegyo I’m so done lmaoooooooo

97.  Seeing low ranked trainees be quietly emo and cry is seriously the worst fucking feeling I’m so angry and sad

98.  JAEHWAN IN TOP 10 INDIVIDUAL TRAINEE PRIDE!!! I LOVE U BABE UR AMAZING BY VOCALS AND PERSONALITTY AND LOOKS I HOPE U DO WELL!!!!!

99.  Danik fell by 6 spots I’m emo and he even apologizes at everyone HE IS SO CUTE!!! FUCK!!! STAY UP THERE BABE

100.   Ong has a lot of male fans and Guanlin was like ‘I’m a fan too’ why shouldn’t you be tbh that dude is perfect in each way like hes pretty and can sing can dance ran rap and has a sense of humor the hell else do u want then

101.   Minhyun got 5th and his face on the big screen everyone are like fuck hes hot anyways HE SAID HE WANTS TO DEBUT W JAEHWAN I love how close Jaehwan is with 2hyun aaaaaaahhhh

102.   YOUNGMIN IN A PUPPY HUG PILE I LOVE U RED ALPACA BABE

103.   HE IS GONNA DO SOME BITCHASS ALPACA DANCE SINCE HE GOT 5TH AAAAHAHA SO CUTEEEEEEEEE

104.   The top 4 is Jihoon, Guanlin, Jonghyun and Daehwi

105.   Daehwi is 4 and thanked his mom in America poor kid HES CRYING!!!!!! HE HUGGED YOUNGMIN SO TIGHT!!! THIS IS SO FUCKING SAD!! FUCK POOR BABBIE

106.   JIHOON IS THIRD!! EVERYONE WERE SO READY THAT ITS GONNA B GUANLIN INCLLUDING HIMSELF

107.   OK OVERALL HOW THE FUCK DID GUANLIN GET SECOND!! GODDAMN AINT I SHOOK!!! GOOD JOB LIL CHICKEN

108.   JONGHYUN!!!!! BABY!!!! GENTLE SUNSHINE AND BEST LEADER!!! BEAUTIFUL SMILING CHILD!!! A BAB WEEB!!! IM SO PROUD!!!!!!! IL OVE HIM SO MUCH IM EMO!!!!!! HE CRIED ABOUT NBOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH THOSE YEARS BACK!! AND NOW HERE HE IS!!! NATIONS LEADER, LOVED AFTER FINALLY HAVING SOME EXPOSURE!!!!! FUCK YOU PLEDIS FUCK EVERYONE WHO HAVE SAID SHIT ABOUT HIM I LOVE HIM AND HE IS BEAUTIFUL AND GOOD FUCK YALL

109.   I’m dead Guanlin thanked Baekho and then asked BoA to buy them more food b a b e

110.   ITS TIME FOR THE 35TH!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!! THE CANDIDATES ARE SUNGWOO, DONGSU, DONGHAN AND EUNKI AND ALL OTHER OF MY FAVES ARE DEAD AS FUCK IM SO SAD RN

111.   DONGHAN MADE IT!!!!!!! BLONDIE BABY!!!!! HES CRYING SO HARD!!!!! I FEEL SO EMO ABOUT ALL OF MY FAVE BUT HE MADE IT!!!!! TAEHYUN LOOKED SO LUCKED OUT WHEN HE WAS ANNOUNCED!!!!!! BABY DOLL IM SO PROUD OF YOU YOU DESERVE IT!!!!!

112.   Hwiseung dropped 3 ranks this is why god doesn’t exist

 Overall THANKS MNET FOR ONLY GIVING HWISEUNG AND HWANOONG SCREENTIME WHEN THEY GET ELIMINATED LOVE YA

[leaughrilke]

Outside of their family, how are the kids doing socially? Do they make friends, trust people easily? Do they have a hard time keeping their powers a secret? Does one of their moms being a Luthor affect the way people act around them? How do they deal with their moms kinda being in the public eye?

oof well this started fluffy and got angsty and then got cute again so do with that what u will

so for the most part?  the kiddos do alright!!!  they rlly do, like they’re all enough like kara that ofc they attracts ppl like moths to flame

finn’s like easily one of the most popular kids in school, starting from elementary school and like he’s not one of the traditionally popular boys??  like he’s not a jock and he’s not one of those uber macho dudes but he cares so deeply and fully and like all the girls love him to death and all the uber macho dudes for the most part love him to death as well 

like he’s rlly soft and kind and remembers ppls birthdays and who has a nut allergy so he always makes sure to make a separate safe batch of baked goods for bake sales.  he’s that kid that’s got tabs on everyone and knows who is having a bad week and who might need someone to eat with at lunch and he makes it look so fun to be nice??  that he just manages to lead by example and national city prep academy is a nicer place for him being in it

maia’s that ride or die friend like she’s super intense and kind of scary tbh but god when she picks you, she Picks you and she’ll keep picking you, keep standing up for you, keep vehemently defending u until her dying day tbh like she loves so much like kara, once she sees the good in you, once she’s decided ur one of her ppl, she’ll fight everyone in her sight for u and that is so wildly appreciated, like she has all the girls at school wanting to have her on their side, in their corner and the best thing is that she is, she will be, no questions asked

like??  she’s not half as soft as finn but she’s just as caring, just as loving and she like??  doesnt have a cult following, but she definitely is that hot ass senior that has all the underclassmen stumbling over themselves bc she nodded at one of them in the hall during passing period and stella dies a little inside bc all her friends are in love with maia to some degree

stella is the one that struggles the most socially??  bc everyone loves finn and maia doesnt give a shit if some ppl dont like her, barely notices it, but stella is a little quieter and a little bit different and she kind of weirds ppl out bc she’s just as intense as maia but she doesnt have the cool factor, she stumbles over her feet and stammers and gets easily overwhelmed and most ppl get a little weirded out by how stella always seems to know how they’re feeling??  can sort of predict whats coming in a conversation???

but god when she makes friends, they are so so protective of her.  like??  stella is disliked by a lot of ppl, is a pretty easy target but her friends love her so so deeply bc she knows how to help them best, is v careful with their feelings in a way that not a lot of kids think to be u know??  she’s not the most popular, but she’s p well insulated by the time she hits high school, has a rlly solid group of friends that stick close to her

this kind of goes hand in hand with the first part but here’s some other anecdotes lmao

finn makes friends so so easily like that boy walks into a room and within the first ten minutes he’s already got five new friends like??  he’s probably one of those student ambassadors, shows all the new kids around the campus tbh and like for sure has brownies or something to give them

like???  he’s for sure voted mr congeniality.  For Sure.  he collects friends and favors so easily and so quickly and he loves them all so much, you would think that maybe some friendships arent as deep as others and that’s true, but that doesnt mean he doesnt love those friends just as much, wouldnt drop what he’s doing to go pick them up bc their car died on the highway

that said, he doesnt trust super easily??  like he’s p wary in general, a little more suspicious of ppl than he ever lets on.  like it takes him a Long time to rlly ever tell his rlly close friends any big details abt himself.  it takes him even longer to ever invite ppl over to the house, even tho his moms are like you can??  pls do??  have a childhood kiddo

maia takes a little longer to make friends i think??  but that’s more a matter of her not noticing someone is trying to be friends with her, like she’s sort of above it all a lot of the times, often wrapped up in her own head.  but like i said, she’s p intense so once she’s noticed, she’ll dive in head first like all in, ride or die

and its so funny bc she is so so like non-plussed by things like what movie to see or stuff like that, she’s kind of a rlly great friend without meaning to??  like oh, yall were planning to do a mall night but ur period started and u dont have the energy and now u just want to lie around and eat ice cream??  she’ll pick up ur fave flavors and probably a couple redbox rentals and is down for a movie night, maybe becomes ur favorite person in that exact moment

she actually trusts ppl more easily than finn, if only bc generally the ppl that are more insistent abt actually getting to know her, not just that scary person she puts forward are usually ppl that genuinely care abt her and want the best for her??  that said, she gets in with a bad crowd and dates this super fucking awful abusive asshole that sort of destroys that innate trust for a while.  she gets it back eventually, thanks to those friends she had before the entire experience, who stood by her even when she tried to push them away

stella takes the longest to make friends??  she’s like that shy kid in the corner that wont make eye contact but when she does u feel like she’s probably seen ur soul and knows all ur secrets (which....techincally she doesnt see souls and only knows maybe four or five of ur secrets) but she’s rlly sweet and v earnest and ppl sort of find her endearing after a while

like??  she finally finds her ppl when she joins the drama department and switches soccer teams and gets into debate and starts a chess club, like??  when she starts actually embracing who she is and not trying to model herself after maia or finn or kara or lena, when she sort of loses herself in doing things that are actually interesting to her and not just what gets her the least negative responses from other ppl, she makes so many friends !!!  like girl just has to get out of her own head sometimes

of the three kiddos, she definitely trusts the easiest, just bc like??  she knows what ppls intentions are, knows when someone’s hiding something from her or has ulterior motives for trying to befriend her.  like most of the work is done for her just at first meeting like she rlly doesnt have to worry too much abt trusting ppl

they all sort of struggle with hiding their powers??  some more than others for sure

like finn probably struggles more than maia??  bc maia keeps taking that power-suppressant all through school, but finn wants to learn to control himself, wants to not be as dependent on something else to make him more human, safer for others to be around.  so he wears the glasses and softens his touch and makes sure he never moves too quickly, gives up on sports and works hard to never get angry, never let the hum of his heat vision get too distracting 

its rlly hard when he’s around his friends, harder when he starts dating, bc other ppl dont have to worry abt the stuff he has to worry abt??  like he has to have like a lot of talks with kara abt it bc he gets overwhelmed a lot, worries a lot abt accidentally hurting someone he loves

maia on the other hand struggles more with the lying??  like she has this ride or die mentality and it fucks her up that she cant tell the ppl she trusts this giant secret abt her, this thing that defines her existence??  Fucks Her Up tbh like.....she’s like a vault, her friends confess all their shit to her and she hates that she cant do the same??  cant do that without endangering her brother and sister and moms and, rlly, her entire family and she’s not going to do that, wont ever do that

so like she struggles with that, but the actual powers part of it isnt as big of a thing for her bc she keeps taking the suppressant bc she just??  doesnt trust herself not to.  doesnt trust the power in her hands, like she wont take it on the weekends bc thats when kara trains her and finn, takes them to the deo to spar but during the week, when she doesnt have kara’s steady presence to ground her, finn’s quiet hand at her shoulder to stop her when she’s about to go too far

stella struggles with it but its different??  like she’s not hiding superhuman strength or the ability to fly or anything so conspicuous, but she has to like.....constantly monitor what she says and how she acts towards ppl that dont know like??  ppl get kind of weirded out when she knows stuff abt them or like....knows their heart or some shit when they’ve only rlly known each other for a few months

that said, she also gets away with a whole lot by just saying she’s rlly empathetic with this weird little smirk that her friends think is just her poking fun at the fact that she can be kind of spacey and not super aware abt other stuff all the time but lol little do they know

i mean??  at school??  most ppl dont know like she’s mrs danvers or (insert kiddos name)’s mom and like especially in elementary school, she’s not the one at pta meetings bc she knows what will happen if other parents see her and make the connection??  so its usually kara and she usually flies under the radar, like ppl kind of know that she’s the kara danvers from page six, wife of lena luthor and doing the gala circuit when needed, but no one ever like rlly registers it ya know??

likes the kiddos friends kind of put it together but she’s still just mrs danvers to them, their friends rlly cool mom that helps them do these rlly awesome science experiments when they come over and are bored.  a couple ppls parents find out and refuse to let their kids go over anymore and the kids dont understand why and lena like.....lost tbh.  like how does she explain that??  how does she let them know its her fault, that she did this to them by association and for that she is truly sorry

but like the kiddos rlly just let it roll of their backs like it only happens maybe a handful of times and their friends are still their friends at school

but like??  when they get older, they get more vocal, like??  they’re proud of their mother and theyre so fucking sick of hearing the weird, awful comments ppl make about luthors whenever lex winds up in the news again and maia reaches a point of just FUCK OFF levels of anger, starts screaming IM A LUTHOR TOO, MOTHERFUCKER when she tackles someone in the hallway after hearing superman should do the world a favor and just get rid of that entire rats nest during passing period and that’s sort of what outs them all

things change a little after that??  like most of their friends stick around, but there is definitely a wariness towards the danvers kiddos after that, but they bear it with pride, like finn and stella arent upset in the slightest.  like??  so they lost a couple friends; good, better leave now bc they love their mom a whole hell of a lot more than those ppl and that’s never going to change

like??  they rlly arent that aware of the weird spotlight they live in for a while when they’re small, particularly maia and finn like......kara and lena kept their relationship rlly rlly quiet for a long time.  like??  no one knew they were an item until they rlly needed to come out and say it, and then they got engaged and married rlly quietly, just family and lena kept her name professionally so no one rlly knew.  and they kept her pregnancy under wraps, not necessarily hiding??  but just not announcing it either and quite honestly the press doesnt know abt finn until some opportunistic pap gets a shot of kara and lena with little roly poly finn at the park, looking every bit the deliriously happy family they are.  its much the same for maia, with no one outside of their little circle of friends and family knowing abt her until someone catches a picture of them with two little ones, not one.  and like stella??  hell, stella doesnt rlly get a debut until she’s nearly four tbh and its bc she v seriously asks to be lena’s date to her gala and like how was lena going to say no to that request

that said, when they get older, they’re kind of prime targets for some asshole opportunistic paps to swarm and try and get quotes from, try and smear the luthor name some more.  lena issues a no nonsense statement that she’s fair game, but her children are off limits.  catco worldwide issues a similar statement, that the family lives of their reporters are not open for discussion and that such targeting of children is a reprehensible act that has no place in journalism

that helps, that and the ruthless way their family encircles them, fights the press and tabloids and fights to give the kiddos as normal of a life as possible.  and like???  they rlly do.  there’s a couple incidents where the heightened scrutiny was noticeable, but mostly??  the kiddos rlly dont notice, just flip the newspaper over when its lex on the front page or switch whatever gossip show off when the topic comes round to lena, little things like that that help them live as normally as they can

[myfeelingshavefeelings]

What she says: I'm fine

What she means: Kaz Brekker is such a good example of how to write asshole characters who are actually likeable because he wasn't childishly arrogant nor did he undervalue the other characters - in particular the women that he worked with. An asshole as written by most other authors could never have recognized the potential of a sex worker (and a slave, no less) and, even if he did, he wouldn't have treated her with even the slightest bit of respect, constantly putting her down until she 'proved' herself to him. Sure, as Kaz and Inej got to know each other he would be sarcastic and self-praising, (greed is your servant and lever? how edgy lol) but he never once put her down or questioned her ability, and he was respectful about the trauma she underwent, even when it would have been easier not to. He wasn't some childish edgelord who assumed himself to be better than the others, he was a cunning and intelligent leader who was able to work around his own trauma without letting it control what he could and could not do. The asshole male lead is a popular trope in young adult fiction, but Kaz Brekker is one of the few that are actually interesting, realistic, and genuinely likeable as a character.

No no no no. The thing is, he is most of those things. He's arrogant enough to know (bc let's be honest, he's right) that the dregs are nothing without him. He do think he's above others, the thing is that he also knows that there are some people who are kinda in the same level. And that's the point. He's an asshole. He's a person willing to murder a little girl if he has to. But! But he's still human. So he has his trauma, that some times he controls, sometimes it controls him, some days is better, some days is worse (and like, that's how traumas work isn't it?),and he respects Inej's trauma. He doesn't force her to anything she doesn't want to (except job but that's for another reason) or feed her with lies of promises that he's going to change. Or with Jesper. Kaz wasn't the best friend. Never once Kaz told Jesper anything about his past, but he did trust him with his life, quite literally. And Kaz even saw him as his lost brother, even when they were fighting. And even in all his arrogance, he still knew everyone's weaknesses and skills. He knew Jesper was a better shooter than him, and he never made fun of him for being always restless (side note, i still think Jesper had AHDH), Inej was a master of hiding, Nina could control his heart beat only with lookin (also, that i can remember, he never once called her witch, term that she hated because that's what the Druskelle call her type in a mean to dehumanize them in order to hunt and kill them, so yeah) (also, no main ever disrespected her for being fat, hell, she was the most flirty and confident person in the books, and she embraced being fat. She wasn't ashamed, and no one ever questioned this) (well maybe matthias but i don't remember), with Wylan, and his fucked up father, Kaz never once compared him with him (not even when wylan had nothing to earn his respect), and Kaz even defended him from Jesper (granted, it was in part bc he needed him, but still. He could have let him be the outcast, could have taken an actual amo guy and leave wylan imitating him, or could have like, let him unconscious and kept him that way and idk, kaz had more options) and pretty much let him get away with lying to his face so he could see his mother, and tried to spare him his father sick joke when he had the chance (remember the periodic thing?) and he never fucking once he made wylan feel inferior for having dyslexia.

Because Kaz is not a bad person as in: racist, homophobic, or sexist. He's a bad person as in: he'll do whatever it takes to achieve his goal (or at least that's what he says, but we readers know that he still got some bare morals) (and which some people don't actually think is bad so is up to the reader), he's a murder and a thief, and he doesn't care for innocent ppl being robbed. And those things, even tho bad, have their motives. He's not some senseless killer going around killing who he pleases. He kills exactly the ppl who either deserve it, or who have to do in order for him to achieve his goal. He's a man on a mission, however just or unfair it is. And also, that's what the book is about. We have a get some "And he changed, for love" bullshit, we don't get "He had pure motivations underneath" or "Inside, he was a good person". We have his story, we have his motives, and we have his dreams and hopes, but we also know that he's, in general, a bad person, which makes him a great character, because he doesn't get some senseless redemption aside for the fact that he actually shows his care for Inej at the end of ck, or how deeply he actually cared for Jesper by mistaking his name with his dead brother. He did bad things, if for a good or bad reason is up to you, but he had a reason, one that we could understand, even if not share. And for all his greed and arrogance and bullshit, he managed to care for his little murder at the end (see what I did there?)

Thanks for coming to my edtalk

[thegloober]

How Parents Can Teach Boys to Deal With Rejection

Stories of men responding to rejection badly are an online literary staple, a genre of micro-nonfiction. Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook are piled high with brutal recollections. “When I turned a guy down for a 2nd date, he became angry, telling me he ‘knew’ I was into him,” @I_Am_StephanieD recently wrote on Twitter. “For the next 8 months, he showed up at my office and home repeatedly. Each time insisting he was ‘giving me a chance’ to change my mind [sic] bc I was ‘so stupid’ not to go out with him again.”

That’s far from the worst of it. “I was out at a concert with a friend,” an anonymous Tumblr user wrote in September. “Some guy approached me and started talking to me and trying to make advances; I tried to make it clear I wasn’t interested. He didn’t get the message so I blatantly told him I wasn’t. He got angry and punched me in the face.”

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The worst stories aren’t told in the first person. In August of this year, a 14-year-old boy from Oklahoma stabbed a girl after she rejected him romantically. In August, a Tennessee woman declined to give a man at the gas station her phone number, prompting him to jump on top of her car, punch through her window, and drag her out by her hair. In 2014, a Connecticut teen was sentenced to 25 years after stabbing his 16-year-old classmate to death after she rejected his prom proposal. In April of this year, a 25-year-old self-described “incel” by the name of Alek Minassian ran over a dozen women in Toronto, killing them all. He said he was inspired by Elliot Rodgers, another “incel” who perpetrated a mass shooting in 2014 to “get back at women who had rejected him.”

Data suggests parents of daughters should be scared. More than half of American women who are murdered are murdered by men. More than 90 percent of those are perpetrated by men that women already know, most commonly a current or former romantic partner. For women, men who know them are more dangerous than men who are strangers.

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That women are at risk of being murdered by the men in their lives is not news. But what often goes unstated is that those same statistics — and all these stories — should trigger action on the part of parents raising boys. Clearly, young men are failing to understand or cope with rejection. Giving them the tools to do so and demanding better not only protects girls and women from men, but men and boys from their own worst impulses.

Rejection is crushing. We all know this. And dealing with rejection is difficult. That’s why parents need to have (and re-have) conversations about weathering emotional blows and why it’s important to provide context for kids confused by messaging around rejection they might get from popular culture.

Part of this messaging comes from the commonly-held idea that women don’t know what they want, that no may mean yes, and that if a man tries hard enough, he can change a woman’s mind, either through persuasion, persistence, or downright deception. How many families have a story where persistence was a key trait in the getting together of two grandparents? And there are classic and well known examples of this like Say Anything, The Notebook, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Sixteen Candles. But even seemingly innocuous movies often teach weird lessons about rejection, potentially communicating to boys that women don’t get to have the final say.

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Wedding Crashers is a prime example. When Owen Wilson’s character, John, meets Claire, played by Rachel McAdams, he continues to make moves on her despite the fact that she is engaged to another man. He even goes so far as to poison her fiance (played by Bradley Cooper) to get time alone with her, all the while lying about his true identity. When, in a turn of events, Claire realizes she can’t marry her fiance, Cooper’s character then gets belligerent and angry and tries to order Claire back onto the altar. The entire movie is men acting about women, and not asking what women want, and somehow, despite engaging in the same nefarious and upsetting activities that Cooper’s character does, Wilson is the good guy.

So what’s a parent to do? The rather obvious and also correct answer is this: Talk about it.

“We can’t control everything, and we shouldn’t,” says Dr. Steve Silvestro, a pediatric doctor who runs an expert-driven podcast on raising healthy and thoughtful kids. “But by ignoring it, or by hoping that our kid won’t pay attention, or that your kid will stick to something you talked about in the past as their guiding principle, these open a lot of opportunities for their thoughts and feelings to be swayed in a way that probably isn’t the best for them.”

There are, per Silvestro, a couple of ways for parents to tackle this particular issue. The big one: time and time again, parents need to tell their boys one thing: if a woman rejects you, you respect her decision and you move on. You can be her friend, but you don’t have to be. You can cry if you want, but you don’t have to cry, and you don’t do it to make them feel bad. You can be upset, but that girl is not the focus of your upset. You are upset because you are hurt, because you put yourself out there — and that’s the bravest act of all. And you hammer that home with empathy.

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As conversations around masculinity are changing, long-held beliefs about male aggression have never been so hotly contested by the cultural zeitgeist at large. It is no longer culturally acceptable for men to behave poorly in response to rejection, either by ignoring the wishes of the women who rejected them or by responding with violence. In order to clearly state to those reluctant to change, the world at large, and specifically parents, need to change the way we talk about romance. Women are not sending secret messages with their words. They are simply saying what they want.

The pop cultural trope of men continually propositioning women after they’ve said no, or even following them and manipulating them into relationships, or being angry and vindictive after rejection, is rampant in rom-coms. It’s even rampant in popular music. Miguel’s How Many Drinks ft. Kendrick Lamar reads: “How many drinks would it take you to leave with me/Yeah you look good, and I got money/But I don’t wanna waste my time/Back of my mind, I’m hoping you say two or three.” The suggestion that the right amount of alcohol might lower a woman’s defenses and have her engage in sexual activity is problematic for a number of reasons, largely due to the fact that it suggests that consent is a blurred line, one that can be manipulated.

Most adults know that these tropes are not how real life goes. But kids don’t.

If parents listen to a Miguel song with their kid and it features a boy chasing a girl who keeps saying no, parents should ask their kid what they think about that. When they watch a rom-com that features a boy who is relentlessly pursuing a girl who is not interested, they should ask their son how they would feel if someone was doing that to them. These conversations shouldn’t only happen when a kid is already in trouble for doing something bad. They should be proactive, and constant. If the messages a kid gets from the boys around him and from the tv and the music and the radio say that reacting with violence is okay, then it’s a parent’s job to make sure their kids know it’s not.

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So why did this attitude take hold? Why, at any point, was male aggression normalized and even tacitly accepted to the point where it became a pop cultural norm? And what is there to do about it?

A study by University of Kansas researchers on male aggression in the face of female rejection posits a theory: Long ago, particularly in the American South, men had to protect themselves and their families from perceived economic and existential threats (the two often being interchangeable). A man in the South couldn’t let a thief steal his horses, not only on principle, but because they represented his family’s livelihood. The power and aggression of his defense was what made him a capable defender of his home, someone to be feared and someone worth the respect of his peers.

What emerged from a culture in which defensiveness was more valued than the ability to bind together a community? What researchers call Masculine Honor Culture, a social system in which men respond to any form of “emasculation” with aggression. The problem now is that we no longer live in a system where the ability to protect one’s home is more important than the ability to make friends and influence people. But culture has lagged. This leads to men profoundly overreacting to minor forms of perceived emasculation, notably romantic rejection.

Why a woman’s rejection is seen as emasculating is another question entirely. There’s not a clear answer there other than that it represents a manner in which men are not only told that they cannot have what they want, but are informed of this by women. This rankles those who see being bossed around by a woman — even one they admire — as a humiliation. That’s a significant population.

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The best thing parents can do is help their sons recognize that people reject others for a whole number of reasons; yes, maybe it is them, but it’s not because of their manhood. Or maybe it’s because they’re seeing someone else, or maybe it’s because they don’t want to date. Maybe it’s just because they don’t like their personality. But whatever the reason is, it doesn’t matter. That’s the whole point: what other people think of you is not what defines your worth. But a lot of men today — especially those who cling on to their sense of identity as something that must constantly be proved — haven’t understood that yet.

Parents have no choice but to help their boys understand this. Otherwise, sons’ sense of self-worth — and what it means to be a man — might lead to them equating rejection with inadequacy and not taking no to an answer. There are already enough stories like that being told by frightened women and myopic screenwriters. We don’t need any more.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/how-parents-can-teach-boys-to-deal-with-rejection/

[corvidspectre]

What she says: I'm fine

What she means: Kaz Brekker is such a good example of how to write asshole characters who are actually likeable because he wasn't childishly arrogant nor did he undervalue the other characters - in particular the women that he worked with. An asshole as written by most other authors could never have recognized the potential of a sex worker (and a slave, no less) and, even if he did, he wouldn't have treated her with even the slightest bit of respect, constantly putting her down until she 'proved' herself to him. Sure, as Kaz and Inej got to know each other he would be sarcastic and self-praising, (greed is your servant and lever? how edgy lol) but he never once put her down or questioned her ability, and he was respectful about the trauma she underwent, even when it would have been easier not to. He wasn't some childish edgelord who assumed himself to be better than the others, he was a cunning and intelligent leader who was able to work around his own trauma without letting it control what he could and could not do. The asshole male lead is a popular trope in young adult fiction, but Kaz Brekker is one of the few that are actually interesting, realistic, and genuinely likeable as a character.

No no no no. The thing is, he is most of those things. He's arrogant enough to know (bc let's be honest, he's right) that the dregs are nothing without him. He do think he's above others, the thing is that he also knows that there are some people who are kinda in the same level. And that's the point. He's an asshole. He's a person willing to murder a little girl if he has to. But! But he's still human. So he has his trauma, that some times he controls, sometimes it controls him, some days is better, some days is worse (and like, that's how traumas work isn't it?),and he respects Inej's trauma. He doesn't force her to anything she doesn't want to (except job but that's for another reason) or feed her with lies of promises that he's going to change. Or with Jesper. Kaz wasn't the best friend. Never once Kaz told Jesper anything about his past, but he did trust him with his life, quite literally. And Kaz even saw him as his lost brother, even when they were fighting. And even in all his arrogance, he still knew everyone's weaknesses and skills. He knew Jesper was a better shooter than him, and he never made fun of him for being always restless (side note, i still think Jesper had AHDH), Inej was a master of hiding, Nina could control his heart beat only with lookin (also, that i can remember, he never once called her witch, term that she hated because that's what the Druskelle call her type in a mean to dehumanize them in order to hunt and kill them, so yeah) (also, no main ever disrespected her for being fat, hell, she was the most flirty and confident person in the books, and she embraced being fat. She wasn't ashamed, and no one ever questioned this) (well maybe matthias but i don't remember), with Wylan, and his fucked up father, Kaz never once compared him with him (not even when wylan had nothing to earn his respect), and Kaz even defended him from Jesper (granted, it was in part bc he needed him, but still. He could have let him be the outcast, could have taken an actual amo guy and leave wylan imitating him, or could have like, let him unconscious and kept him that way and idk, kaz had more options) and pretty much let him get away with lying to his face so he could see his mother, and tried to spare him his father sick joke when he had the chance (remember the periodic thing?) and he never fucking once he made wylan feel inferior for having dyslexia.

Because Kaz is not a bad person as in: racist, homophobic, or sexist. He's a bad person as in: he'll do whatever it takes to achieve his goal (or at least that's what he says, but we readers know that he still got some bare morals) (and which some people don't actually think is bad so is up to the reader), he's a murder and a thief, and he doesn't care for innocent ppl being robbed. And those things, even tho bad, have their motives. He's not some senseless killer going around killing who he pleases. He kills exactly the ppl who either deserve it, or who have to do in order for him to achieve his goal. He's a man on a mission, however just or unfair it is. And also, that's what the book is about. We have a get some "And he changed, for love" bullshit, we don't get "He had pure motivations underneath" or "Inside, he was a good person". We have his story, we have his motives, and we have his dreams and hopes, but we also know that he's, in general, a bad person, which makes him a great character, because he doesn't get some senseless redemption aside for the fact that he actually shows his care for Inej at the end of ck, or how deeply he actually cared for Jesper by mistaking his name with his dead brother. He did bad things, if for a good or bad reason is up to you, but he had a reason, one that we could understand, even if not share. And for all his greed and arrogance and bullshit, he managed to care for his little murder at the end (see what I did there?)

Thanks for coming to my edtalk