#obviously there are more songs like this

[wibbly-wobbly-kylie-wylie-blog]

oh yes, my favorite kpop songs WA DA DA, BOM BI DI BOM, DDU-DU DDU-DU, DADADA, LA DI DA, DamDaDi, Dumhdurum, DUMDi DUMDi, and DARARI

[heartorbit]

i want to know everything that makes you happy! 💫🪐🎇

[hey-hey-j]

okay so I may have gotten a little obsessed with the Trolls Thriller concept last night

(★ my Kofi)

[ranna-alga]

"Do the Evolution" - Pearl Jam

[witchlingcirce]

Tbh, I think the writers kind of fumbled by making so many of these characters not be adamant for the side there supporting! 😭😭

WHYYY is Aemond the only team green member team green??? Whyyyy is Jace the only team black member locking in (won the north, vale and the freys)

Can y’all get up or something ?? 😭😭😭

[michelle-jacksons-art-blog]

Amorcito corazón

Yo tengo tentación

De un beso

[shyshyaaaaaa]

Jekyll and Hyde: A Gothic Musical Thriller they could never make me think you are more than average <3

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he probably very irritating, absolutely, but an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would shock me. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[fridayiminlovemp3]

i’m open to more ideas

[nicollekidman]

as an enormous fan. one of the worst things about taylor swift is how deeply cowardly she is when it comes to Avoiding Upset and how this + the vacuum of her life makes every interview/public appearance just. devoid of any real meaning. just absolute crafted nothingness.

[meyhew]

i have something to say 👩🏽‍🦯‍➡️

[spitblaze]

This is going to sound mean but I mean this in the most sincere and compassionate way I possibly can:

If you see a comment on the internet that is transphobic towards your group and your first assumption is that the person who wrote it is a different kind of transgender and not cis, especially if that comment is completely removed from all context or anonymous, no avatar or username or anything, take that as a sign to log off for a few days or pick up a new hobby.

[mbmbimbo]

liking a christmas song to the point of listening to it on your own time on purpose is SO embarrassing. i might as well shove a candy cane up my ass

[unamusedyams]

amayo no seppun (kisses on a rainy night) ~ 🌂🌸🪻

also made a small edit! :>

Translation | Live Performance

[prolibytherium]

I never touched it but I feel like i only ever hear positive things said about song of achilles.. in (rough strokes at least) what makes it dogshit to you?

Okay it's been a while since I actually read it so some of this might not be spot on accurate. Sorry if at any point I say 'the book never does xyz' and it actually does once or twice but I think my underlying criticisms are accurate

-Patroclus is made into like this soft gentle tender quivering little yaoi boy. In the source text, he's shown as compassionate and moved by the suffering of his own men (and apparently having some medical skill, tending to the wounded in the camp), but very much invested n combat and very, very good at it (pages worth of descriptions of the guys he's killing left and right). In this, the arguably more complex character from this 8th century BC text is flattened into Being A Healer, he doesn't want to go to war he just wants to help people, he only goes because Achilles has to but he doesn't want to fight he's a HEALER he's a gentle lover NOT A FIGHTER who just wants to help he just wants to help everyone around him he HEALS while Achilles is a doomed warrior who is so good at fighting and KILLING its a DICHOTOMY GUYS!!!LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL SUN AND MOON DOOMED LOVERS SO SAD patocluse HEALER . (I Think he's specifically characterized as being BAD at fighting but might be misremembering)

-I don't remember much about Achilles' characterization I think it just makes him less of a jackass while not adding anything of interest and levels out into being mad boring.

-Not getting into the literal millenias old debate whether the mythological characters Achilles and Patroclus were being characterized as some type of lover by the original oral sources of the Iliad or its Homeric writers. We will never know. We don't even know what (if any) culturally accepted conventions of male homosexuality existed in bronze age Greece (we know much more about their descendants). But there are some interesting elements of their characterization in this direction, with how unconventional their relationship is WITHIN the text itself- Patroclus is described as cooking for Achilles and his guests (very specifically a woman/wife's job), Achilles chides Patroclus like a father, but there's also scene where Achilles' mourning of him directly echoes a passage of Hector's wife mourning her husband, Patroclus is explicitly stated to Achilles' elder, and is overall treated as his equal or near-equal, closest confidant and most beloved friend (to the point that pederastic classical Greeks would debate over who was erastes (older authority figure lover) and who was eromenos (adolescent 'beloved')- many took it as a given that this text depicted their present-day cultural norms of homosexual behavior but it existed so Outside of these norms that it had to be debated who was who). Their relationship is non-standard both within the text and to the descendants of the civilization that wrote them.

Basically what I'm saying is this book had opportunities to like, explore the unconventionality of the relationship (being presented here as explicitly lovers), explore the dynamics of why Patroclus wants to do 'women's work' (besides being a tenderhearted softboy), the weird dynamics where they take on paternal roles to each other but also roles of wives, how they feel about being this way, and just kind of Doesn't. Which I guess isn't an intrinsic fault (because it omits much of what I just talked about to begin with). it's just like.... Lame. This book takes jsut abandons everything interesting about the source text in favor of flattening it into bland Doomed Yaoi.

-The conflict that sets off the core story of the Iliad is Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over Briseis, an enslaved Trojan woman taken by Achilles as a war-trophy, Achilles spends most of the story moping because he was dishonored by his 'trophy' being taken. Achilles and Patroclus and everyone else are raping their captives, all the women in the story are either captured Trojans (or in the case of the free women within the walls of Troy, soon to be enslaved, and are slave owners themselves). Slavery as an institution and extreme patriarchal conventions are innate to the text and reflective of the context in which it was developed. You cannot avoid it.

But obviously you can't have your soft yaoi boys doing this, so the author has them capturing women to Protect Them from the other men. Their slaves are UNDER THEIR PROTECTION and VERY SAFE (and they might even Like And Befriend Them but I might be misremembering that. Briseis does though). Our heroes have apparently absorbed none of the ideals of the culture they exist in and the author seems to think "they're gay and aren't sexually attracted to their captives" would translate to them being outright benevolent (also as if wartime sexual violence is just about attraction and not part of a wider spectrum of violent acts to dehumanize and brutalize an accepted 'enemy')

In the source text, Briseis mourns Patroclus as being the kindest to her of her captors, who tried to get her a slightly better outcome by getting her married to Achilles (which probably would be the Least Bad of all possible outcomes for a woman in that situation, becoming a legal wife instead of a slave), and wonders what will happen to her now that he's gone. This is a really really sad, horrible, and compelling dynamic which could be fleshed out in very interesting ways but is instead is tossed entirely aside in favor of them being Besties. Like brother and sister.

All of the above pisses me off so much. If you don't want to engage in the icky parts of ancient/bronze age Greece then don't write a retelling of a story taking place in bronze age Greece. I'm not gonna get mad at children's adaptations of Greek myths or silly fun stories loosely based on them for omitting the rape and slavery but it is SO fundamental to the Iliad. If you're not willing to handle it, either fully omit it or better yet set your Iliad inspired yaoi in an invented swords-and-sandals setting where you can have all your heartbreaking tragic doomed lovers plot beats and not have to clumsily write around the women they're brutalizing.

-The author didn't seem to know what to do with Thetis and she made her just like, Achilles bitch mother who spends most of the story trying to separate our Yaoi Boys (iirc her disguising Achilles as a girl and hiding him on Scyros is made to be more about getting him away from Patroclus than trying to save her son from his prophesied doom in the Trojan War) until she sees how much they loooove each other and I think helps Patroclus' spirit get to the afterlife or something in the end?

-This is more of a personal taste gripe but it has that writing style I loathe where the prose feels less like a story and more like an attempt to string together Deep Beautiful Hard Hitting Poetic Lines that will look great as excerpts on booktok (might predate booktok but same vibe). It's all very Pretty and Haunting and Deep but feels devoid of real substance.

I really like The Iliad and The Odyssey in of themselves. They're fascinating historical texts that give a window into how 8th century BC Greeks told their stories, saw their world, interpreted their ancestors, etc. And genuinely I think these texts have 'good' characters, there's a lot of complexity and humanity to it.

WRT the Iliad- all of the main Achaeans are pretty fascinating, the one singular part where Briseis Gets To Talk and laments her situation is great, Achilles fantasizing that all of the Trojans AND the Achaeans die so he and Patroclus alone can have the glory of conquering Troy (wild), Achilles asking to embrace Patroclus' shade and reaching out for him but it's immaterial (and the shade being sucked back underground with a 'squeak' (the squeak kinda gets me it's disturbing and sad)), Hecuba talking about wanting to tear out Achilles' liver and eat it in a (taboo, exceptioally pointed) expression of rage and grief for his mutilation of her son's corpse, just one tiny line where the enslaved women performing ritual wailing for their dead captors are described as using it as an outlet to 'grieve for their own troubles' is heartrending, etc. A lot of grappling with anger and grief and the inevitability of death, a lot of groundwork laid for characters that could be very interesting when expanded upon in the framework of a conventional novel.

And Song Of Achilles really doesn't do much with all that. I know a lot of my gripes here are kind of just "It's different from the Iliad", I would have thought of it as mostly mediocre and forgettable rather than infuriating if it wasn't a retelling (and I DEFINITELY have strong biases here). But I think the ways in which it is different are less just a product of a retelling (of course there's going to be omissions and differences) and more a complete and utter disinterest in vast majority of its own subject matter, to the book's detriment. I think a retelling has a point when it EXPANDS on the source, or provides a NEW ANGLE to the source. This book doesn't Really do either, it just shaves off the complexity of its source material, renders the characters into a really boring archetype of a gay relationship, and gives very little else. Its content boils down to a middling tragic romance that has been inserted into the hollowed out defleshed skeleton of the Iliad.

Bottom line: I definitely would not be as mad about it if I wasn't familiar with the source material but I think it's fair to expect a retelling to Engage with/expand on its source, and I also think it's weak purely on its own merits. This book was set up to disappoint Me specifically.

[gwendolynnderolo]

critical role ships as taylor swift songs

vax / keyleth : the prophecy

percy / vex : this love

pike / scanlan : the story of us

fjord / jester : state of grace

beau / yasha : long story short

caleb / essek : the great war

imogen / laudna : afterglow

orym / dorian : come back...be here

ashton / fearne : i can see you

specific lyrics that i feel like represent the pairings under the cut!

vax / keyleth : the prophecy

thought i caught lightning in a bottle, oh, but it's gone again

i guess a lesser woman would've lost hope, a greater woman wouldn't beg

who do i have to speak to about if they can redo the prophecy?

slow is the quicksand, poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand, oh, still i dream of him

a greater woman has faith, but even statues crumble if they're made to wait

i'm so afraid i sealed my fate, no sign of soulmates

percy / vex : this love

in silent screams, in wildest dreams, i never dreamed of this

this love is good, this love is bad, this love is alive back from the dead

these hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me

this love left a permanent mark, this love is glowing in the dark

your smile, my ghost, i fell to my knees

when you're young, you just run, but you come back to what you need

pike / scanlan : the story of us

i used to know my place was a spot next to you, now i'm searching the room for an empty seat

so many things that i wish you knew, so many walls up i can't break through

i don't know what to say since the twist of fate when it all broke down

oh, i'm scared to see the ending, why are we pretending this is nothing?

the battle's in your hands now, but i would lay my armor down if you'd say you'd rather love than fight

fjord / jester : state of grace

we are alone with our changing minds, we fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds or fades in time

and i never saw you coming, and i'll never be the same

you come around and the armor falls, pierce the room like a cannonball

so you were never a saint, and i loved in shades of wrong, we learn to live with the pain, mosaic broken hearts

love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right

these are the hands of fate, you're my achilles heel, this is the golden age of something good and right and real

beau / yasha : long story short

fatefully, i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me

when i dropped my sword, i threw it in the bushes and knocked on your door

and we live in peace, but if someone comes at us, this time, i'm ready

no more keeping score, now i just keep you warm

and he's passing by, rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky

and he feels like home, if the shoe fits, walk in it everywhere you go

long story short, it was a bad time, long story short, i survived

caleb / essek : the great war

and maybe it was ego swinging, maybe it was her, flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur

you said i have to trust more freely, but diesel is desire, you were playing with fire

and maybe it's the past that's talking, screaming from the crypt, telling me to punish you for things you never did

it turned into something bigger, somewhere in the haze, got a sense i'd been betrayed

soldier down on that icy ground, looked up at me with honor and truth

we can plant a memory garden, say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair

imogen / laudna : afterglow

why'd i have to break what i love so much?

i'm the one who burned us down, but it's not what i meant, sorry that i hurt you

it's so excruciating to see you low, just wanna lift you up and not let you go

this ultraviolet morning light below tells me this love is worth the fight

tell me that you're still mine, tell me that we'll be just fine, even when i lose my mind

tell me that it's not my fault, tell me that i'm all you want, even when i break your heart

orym / dorian : come back...be here

i told myself, don't get attached, but in my mind i play it back

and this is when the feeling sinks in, i don't wanna miss you like this

the delicate beginning rush, the feeling you can know so much without knowing anything at all

if i had known what i know now, i never would've played so nonchalant

this is falling in love in the cruelest way, this is falling for you when you are worlds away

ashton / fearne : i can see you

i've been watching you for ages, and i spend my time trying not to feel it

but what would you do if i went to touch you now? what would you do if they never found us out?

cause i can see you waiting down the hall from me, and i could see you up against the wall with me

i could see you in your suit and your necktie, passed me a note saying 'meet me tonight'

and i could see you being my addiction, you can see me as a secret mission