#ow arc 5

[stellareveriey]

Time Passing Through (Our Wonderland Arc 5 Finale Tribute)

(cw: ow spoilers,angst,blood,monster imagery,injury,implied violence towards an child,axes)

Based on Kaden Mckay’s song! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7SERHazw3ss

Here’s more of my appreciation for OWs Finale!

Sorry that it took so long! Life sort of got in the way!

I’ve been working on this for 2 months now so there might be some inconsistencies! My bad!

Characters belong to @just_a_carrot

The backgrounds for some of the drawings aren’t mine. Taken from the game itself.

[raayllum]

Few things:

1) First off what a great fucking scene, for both Amaya and Rayla. It was lovely to get a deeper dive into Amaya's interiority, especially with the loss of her sister and her own trauma (something we haven't touched directly on since 1x05 way back when). And, of course, the fact that Amaya makes the connection to Rayla that she's traumatized / made her decisions likewise out of grief directly, and that it's an effective way to survive, but not to live.

2) "Stoic, strong, and lonely." "That does sound like me sometimes." Hearing Rayla admit that she's suffering, that she's lonely (which we've known & have always known) even with Stella, and only after two entire years on her own... She had to go through so much to get even close to this. You can see the weight it takes, that she can only admit so much, but that she's listening and taking it in because Amaya is also being open and vulnerable, and is an older woman Rayla can respect and learn from. For Rayla, "love" and "trust" were often two different things (all four of her parents loved her, but didn't always trust her; and Rayla never wants to burden people with her problems, either, although we luckily start to see that shift) but Amaya points out that that is "not enough," not that Rayla isn't. Talk about a breakthrough (even if again, I think there's still a long way to go on the sacrifice front).

3) Romantic and family love being interwoven and seen as mirrors, rather than entirely separate things. It would've been so easy to turn this into a "romance only" scenario, but TDP has always been a celebration of different forms of love, so I love that it's all anchored together here - familial, platonic, romantic, etc. Strong healthy bonds all have the same foundations and cornerstones, even if they manifest differently, after all.

4) Is congruent with the "humans teach the elves/dragons that it is better to be united than divided / better to break the cycle than perpetuate" arc the show tends to have across the board. Obviously it doesn't mean that humans ever can't be isolationist (they can and are - hi Viren!) but that it's not nearly to the degree that elves are

5) On that matter, the Amaya-Rayla-Viren "fiercely independent due to trauma, willing to put the world and greater good ultimately above their loved ones" parallels continue, thank you (re: Amaya choosing to safe guard at the Breach rather than just go after her nephews to save them, her prior opinions about elves being similar to Viren's, etc etc).

6) In regards to the montage, it makes me tear up now whenever I watch it, and I love the balance of clips chosen. Both the fun adventurous times, but also highlighting the moments that Callum and Rayla were there for each other in some of their lowest/darkest times - leading Rayla to finally fully recognize that Callum will quite literally always be there for her (as he's said) if she'll give him the chance to be.

[lookingviewer]

Happy ending of the OW Arc and my birthday!✨

this day is both sad and joyful

It’s sad because our favorite short story is finishing its story, and I’m moving from 20 to 21... Scary

But the happy thing is that the torment of the characters will be over! And that I managed to draw at least some art:D

@just-a-carrot , thank you so much again for creating and sharing parts of yourself in this story!

The characters feel like they are alive, like us, ordinary people (even though they are older than us🤣)

The story is that even in adulthood, there can also be problems, experiences, and thoughts about the past: Did I live well?

Like the same question for me: Did I live this year well? Do you regret it?

A story in which we saw different types of people, their past, and who they became (and also teaches us how not to behave)

Story - in which we can see ourselves. See from the outside or see your reflection in the characters.

The story, when you, Carrot, shared with us.

First Easter, now Our Wonderland, but I am sure that the story is not over, and there will be the same good story as the past (If the thought of it comes to you, of course!)

In addition: “The author’s work will live forever as long as people remember and talk about it."

There is no need to be afraid to create, there is no need to be afraid to try, experiment. Because creativity, art is the same way to show our thoughts, history and feelings ✨

We had problems, trials, but we get through them, with loved ones or ourselves.

Still, Carrot, thank you so much for inspiring me to create, albeit so often, but the desire and motivation to draw.

Because, I love to draw. Create. Give people happiness :3

Thanks to my friends for supporting me (especially @quamaii , companion in Wonderland>:) ) and to you Carrot for reacting and sharing cute moments from life, hehehe✨

p.s.

Wow, did I make it? Did I make it on time?

No, but maybe I’ll finish it. But it looks beautiful this way too ✨

Wow 👀🦊✨

P.s.s if I finish the drawing, I’ll just change the art and that’s it 👀

[silly-goofy-mood]

Hi everyone, ready for a theory that made me shit bricks when i thought of it?

I posted this on the uc discord already but i figured i should tell the hellsite

SPOILERS FOR EP 1 OF ABA AND ALSO ARC 5

So i think i figured out what the "edge of the world" is.

This arc takes place in the whispering woodlands, which are next to the city of solaris. You know what else happened in solaris? That's right, a city-wide time loop! And if you recall, the number of loops they did didn't sync up to the time in the outside world, so until someone fixes that, Solaris is stuck like six hours behind the rest of the world.

Whoever was talking about stepping into the edge of the world (i think that was Myrm the anteater) said they stepped forward and it was night, then backwards and it was day again. That's what would happen if you stepped into solaris from the outside, because they're basically in a different timezone!

(yes i just copied and pasted my discord message lol)

[ashersbraincell]

OHHH OMG I FORGOT HOW GOOD THE MUSIC WAS IN THIS SECTION

[princess-ibri]

So have you heard the news? We are officially getting another Frozen film.

WHAT?

well…cant say I’m at all surprised xD I’m tentatively hopeful it’ll be good, a bit sad I can’t fully pretend my Frozen 3 is what actually happens now but hopefully there will be good new stuff to add into my DisneyVerse, and worse comes to worse and it’s bad I can just ignore it x’

*after looking it up*

…oh my gosh Toy Story 5?? Stoooooop. They should have stopped at 3 Disney whyyyyy?😩

[rionsuke]

when I was a kid I bought volumes of Sailor Moon at random based on cover art, not knowing anything about linear story, and now that I'm finally reading my completed collection, I can say concretely that I was right to do that bc the Sailor Moon manga is ass. Somehow as a kid, I'd randomly selected the volumes with the best content, aka the side stories about the Sailor Scouts, aka the only ways you get to connect with them at all bc they might as well not be part of the main story for how little they affect anything. Thank god for the anime bc this shit is so shallow. I love and honor it still, but it is so shallow.

[cybertronian-menace]

Vaccines don't cause autism. Papyrus Undertale breaks into your house and stares at your baby like this

Until they're autistic. Sometimes Undyne comes with him and this makes your baby gay. If Mettaton is with him. Baby will trans gender.

If Sans shows up all hope is lost the baby is ruined and it's first words will be "get dunked on". Throw the baby away. Start over. New baby.

Y'all keep misunderstanding my vision so here's the run down. Warning: I'm doing just about every character in the gane

Papyrus = autism

Undyne = gay. All sexualities included in this

Mettaton = trans. All gender identities included in this

Sans = ruined baby. Start over

Frisk makes the baby determined

Toriel takes over. Her baby now

Asgore makes the baby terminally divorced

Alphys makes the baby a weeb

Flowey makes the baby a video game completionist

Napstablook gives the baby depression

Burgerpants makes the baby a loser

Temmie gives the baby Adhd also a college scholarship

Bratty tries to eat the baby. And catty like. Totally saves the baby!!! Omg Bratty!!!

Mad Dummy gives the baby anger issues

Asriel becomes a big brother to the baby

Monster Kid makes the baby an Undyne and Papyrus stan

Snowdrake makes the baby the worlds worst comedian

Greater dog plays cards with the baby and loses

Lesser dog is overwhelmed with affection from the baby

Dogressa and Dogamy cancel out Asgore's terminal divorce. Only a 5% of them showing though.

Doggo gives the baby a nicotine addiction

☝✌💧❄☜☼ ☜☼☜✌💧☜💧 ❄☟☜ 👌✌👌✡ ☞☼⚐💣 ❄☟☜ ☠✌☼☼✌❄✋✞☜

Grillby wants the baby to pay its tab already

Heats Flamesman makes the baby Really Good at remebering names

Chara makes the baby terminally misunderstood

Jerry makes the baby the absolute worst. Another ruined baby.

Froggit makes the baby not know why it's here

Vegetoid teacges the baby the importance of a balanced diet

Whimsalot makes the baby a battle hardened knight akin to Joan of Arc

Loox gives the baby a Complex

Woshua cleans your baby. Why is your baby so filthy

Aaron makes the baby a gym rat

Shyren gives the baby Vocal Talent

Knight Knight makes the baby sleepy

Madjick makes the baby a wizard

Astigmatism gives the baby an even bigger complex

Whimsum makes the baby anxious

Icecap wants your baby to stop looking at its hat

The baby puts a decoration on Gyftrots horns much to his dismay

Annoying Dog runs away with the baby and leaves a strange dog residue in the crib

The Nicecream guy makes your baby want to open a business in the worst locations

The Royal Guards make your baby a Dude Bro in the best way

Tsundere plane totally doesn't think your baby is cute or make it a tsundere or anything

Vulcan makes your baby the ultimate hypeman

Pyrope makes your baby turn up the heat

Muffet makes your baby broke. Also it owes her 9999G

Moldsmal makes the baby understand the world

Gerson makes the baby Old

Migosp makes your baby friends with the wrong crowd

Final Froggit makes the baby know exactly why it's here

Moldsbygg makes your baby respect boundaries

Mad Mew Mew makes the baby a magical girl and also better than everyone else

[roseworth]

hi. here are my top 5 favorite comic moments ever (sort of in order, they can all be switched around sometimes depending on my mood)

"the son has not surpassed the father" (batman #645)

i cant even put into words what i like about this scene because everything about it makes me insane. its just so beautifully written and fits so well thematically and shows so much about how bruce is feeling without explicitly saying anything. so fucking good

2. "maybe he did. but my little girl is still dead." (batgirl #19)

fucking. fuck. again this moment just shows so much about how cass feels without saying it explicitly. theres a flashback to the man she murdered right after this because she sees herself in the murderer and doesnt believe she can be redeemed. itsfuck ignf. yeah. maybe he changed but she's still dead

3. "i owe you no explanations. i took the only compassionate option." (titans #12)

hoooooooly shit. i get chills every time i think about this im serious. adeline was suffering and about to die and kory killed her. kory saw herself in the suffering of someone else and KILLED HER. hard as fuck. i will refrain from going on a whole tangent about this but i feel like writers sometimes have the Good Guys kill someone and it doesnt really feel right, but this does it so well because it makes sense within the story AND for kory's character. she was right

4. "the last two bullets are for us" (green arrow #32)

this was so fucked up. can i call this a power couple moment. dinah has so much fucking kidnapping & torture trauma then she finds ollie after he was kidnapped & tortured and she goes dw babe we're gonna kill ourselves later. HELLO. i need to chew on them

5. "for all the times i will never forget. for all the things i can never forgive" (gotham city sirens #21)

everyone drop what youre doing and read gotham city sirens #20-21 right now. or read til the end of the book. gcs is mostly just an okay book but it fucking nails the ending. but this moment in particular makes me lose my mind because harley shows exactly how competent she is and gets into joker's cell in arkham with a gun when she thinks about how he hurt her. then the second she sees him she joins him again. its the ideal pre-breakup harley writing to me and this issue (this entire arc tbh) changed me

in conclusion i love my picture books 💞💞 i think more people should post their fav comic moments too because i wanna see everyone else's plsssss

also im putting honorable mentions under the cut:

"its not them" (blackest night: titans #3)

"i still dream of krypton" (supergirl woman of tomorrow #8)

"to the microscopic beings alive on his skin, this child is the entire universe" (poison ivy #6) (basically this entire issue is my favorite but i had to choose one page)

[ennn]

Initial Agatha All Along Ep 5 Meta Thoughts

Holy FUCK. This episode did not go where I expected it to. Spoiler-y thoughts and theories below:

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

Now I know so many folks are gonna be arguing how awful or evil or deplorable Agatha is for killing Alice. Did she do it on purpose? Or was she not aware or have control as she claims?

On a rewatch (ow my heart) and I guess in Billy’s defense it does seem textually ambiguous. Enough time passes and Agatha seems aware enough of what was happening that you see her lean into the power siphoning — euphoria evident on her face.

And on rewatch, it’s also ambiguous if she had the ability to snap out of it when her son was mentioned or whether it stopped because Alice was fully drained in that moment.

Agatha being possessed means she didn’t initiate this exchange — but something happened in the moment. Was Agatha operating on pure instinct? Like an addict trying to come clean but just had their drug shot into their system? Did she even see Alice or just the power going into her? Did the hunger and euphoria just override her thoughts?

We simply don’t know enough about how Agatha’s ability works. What we do see is Agatha looking distraught after she snaps out of it. She looks taken aback by what she’s done.

Now we know Agatha lies. She lies even to herself sometimes. Agatha lies to survive, for power and to protect herself. She puts on a show when she’s afraid, as Rio points out (more on that in a bit).

Why I think Agatha did not want to kill Alice comes from the scene after, where you see Agatha alone. She’s shaken. She’s not happy about what she’s done and here there’s no audience to put on a mask for.

She definitely reads as sincere trying to defend herself to Billy, although there is the possibility that she is genuinely lying to herself as well, in that she could have chosen on some level to give in to that incredible rush of power, everything else — including herself — be damned. Definitely not the first time we’ve seen the “magic as a drug” analogy.

My Shipper Heart

Okay so we got some delicious food this ep. Agatha and Rio giving each other their brooms all too easily, despite the awkward looks. Agatha flying free and looking at Rio like she’s her North Star, like she’s the one she wants to share this with.

And yes while Rio may seem eager to slit Agatha’s throat (who knows how their no-killing rule works!), she’s also the one who truly understands Agatha at this point.

I’ve mentioned this before but Rio’s arguably the most truthful one of this group. She’s mercurial but she’s honest about who she is and what she wants. And she’s been with Agatha enough to shed light on her truth.

Rio’s the one pointing out whose trial this is, who sees Agatha doing dumb shit as her hiding her very real fear.

And notably we see Rio toss aside her casual detachment and raise her voice for the first time on the show. No. No way!

Power, Grief and Darkness

Look, Billy is going to be a Young Avenger or something so we know he’s gonna go on an arc for the remaining eps but what a juicy one it’ll be, because at least Agatha will be there with him. I’ve suspected he placed the sigil on himself for a while now but I have no idea how aware he is of everything that’s happening.

What’s interesting is how Agatha puts the villainous mask on right after Billy claims to be morally superior. Agatha’s bullshit detector pinged and she digs into that indignation, that anger for strength. Agatha doesn’t like being on the backfoot, certainly not when it comes to feelings like regret.

I see Billy as needing to confront and understand his own darkness, and in doing so understand Agatha’s darkness. Things aren’t so black and white when you’re in pain, and angry at the world, and have the power to lash out.

Agatha is set up to be a mentor to Billy here in a way she couldn’t for Wanda, although the potential was clearly there.

It’s definitely going to be an interesting Road with them going forward, given how dark this ep got.

[fictional-orphan-smackdown]

ROUND 3, MATCH 5!

All propaganda and what each competitor is from under the cut

Trafalgar D. Water Law (Once Piece)

Law is a genocide survivor who saw his parents' dead bodies along with experiencing a whole bunch of other messed up stuff (his sister burning to death, the people of his country being shot for being poisoned by their own government, being terminally ill, escaping the genocide by hiding under a pile of dead bodies, etc etc). After all this shit, he eventually got forcibly adopted by this one guy and dragged around the world looking for a cure for his illness. Right when Law started to trust and love his new caretaker, he is also brutally murdered in front of him. Law's life goal for the next decade is to get revenge on the person who killed his adoptive father. Vote for him bc he needs a goddamn win for once in his life. He is the people's princess and the narrative's favorite punching bag. Also, his depressed, PTSD-ridden autistic swag and scoliosis realness have captivated me body and soul

His biological parents were killed (before his eyes, by the governement) when he was 10(?). He then joined a bunch of pirates, knowing he wouldn't have much time (and will) left to live anyway. There he was sort of adopted by the Big Bad Pirate's brother, who managed to save his life, only for said brother to be killed (more or less before Law's eyes, by the Big Bad Pirate), when he was 13. You could say he was orphaned twice.

He’s literally got the double orphan special (Parents died and then the guy who took him in after them died too) that’s a 50% increase in orphannedness above your standard orphan. He’s also cool as fuck.

Law's parents were already on death row along with him and his younger sister due to a disease that shortens the life span of a person. The disease can only be passed down genetically and has afflicted everyone in the town that he has grown up in. Due to the sudden outbreak and unknown nature of the disease to the rest of the world panicked and the government closed off his city, killing everyone there. That is how his first set of parents died when he was 10, I think. Still then Law would later join a pirate crew where he would eventually be taken away 2-3 years later by Corazon, marine working undercover as a pirate in order to take down this brother, who is the captain of crew Law joined. Corazon took him in order to cure Law's disease which he still had and to get him away from Doflamingo, his brother. Over the course of 6 months the two became close with Corazon essentially becoming a father figure to Law. I am simplify this but at some point of Doflamingo catches on to Corazon being a double agent and finds him. Doflamingo then proceeds to find Corazon and shoot him in front of a chest that Law was hiding in.

Law has faced many hardships since he was a child, but used his experiences to become an extremely powerful doctor. His pirate crew theme and his Devil Fruit ability are all owed to his adoptive father. Law acts really gruff and serious most of the time, initially seeming like a cool, calculating character and feared swordsman… but one second around the Straw Hats and you quickly see just how silly he really is. He hates bread. He collects coins. He is obsessed with ninjas and superhero comic books. In one arc he just fucked around with his powers and INVENTED harpies and centaurs. Oh, and his First Mate is a polar bear. What could be better than that?

The government ordered to kill everyone in Law's country due to everyone getting "fantasy lead poisoning" disease, which was wrongfully thought to be contagious stroked. Law's family was living at the hospital when they got attacked, his parents (who were doctors) got killed and the hospital got set on fire with his little sister inside. He managed to fled the country hiding in a pile of corpses and ended up joining a pirate crew lead by Doflamingo. Law knew he had the disease and it was going to kill him in three years. Doflamingo's brother, Rosinante took Law hospital to hospital to find a cure but they always rejected him thinking the disease was contagious. Then they learned that someone had offered Doflamingo a devil fruit that could grant him immortality. The fruit could also cure Law so Rosinante stole it and made Law eat it. He then made sure Law could escape Doflamingo and got killed by his brother.

dude spent his childhood getting thrown out of windows, while dying from a deadly disease (that was eventually cured) but while he was still showing symptoms of the disease no one would go near him out of fear and disgust, save for his father figure.

nothing can ever go right for this man. its fucking hilarious in the series and makes for some wonderful angst content. i want everyone who has not watched or read One Piece to know that, for half of his 'main' arc, he's carried around like a potato sack by MULTIPLE people. he is a damsel in despair. he didn't even need to be carried, he honestly could've walked, but he had to save that energy so he could take the like 17 lead bullets out of him. he's always getting shot or thrown out a window and he's severely injured more often than not. he's also a doctor/surgeon, one that should be able to cure incurable diseases, yet his pathetic loserboy ass is too busy being emo to worry about the several gunshot wounds and internal bleeding. god help this man but also don't because honestly it's really fucking funny

Ok, FIRST, when he was a tiny frog-disecting little kid, him and his family and island contacted a disease equivalent to cancer BUT his fam didn't die from that. No, no, his parents got gunned down by the military and his little sis was burned alive with the rest of his house, so, yeah, very traumatic, horrific in a way that makes you very angry at yourself and life and want to oh I don't know, kill everyone and everything possible until the day you die, which won't be long because you have cancer after all. Later, after joining a mafia/cult/gang, Law meets Corazon who after like 2 years kidnaps him to try and get him healed and so they spend the next 6 months bonding, WEEEEEE!! Wait, no, NOT weeee because Cora who is now his father-figure DIES having protected and saved him, and thus bruv becomes orphaned not once, not thrice, but TWO very traumatic times! If this isn't an orphan, idk what is……

Anthony Lockwood (Lockwood and Co)

Lockwood (he's known by his surname mostly) is the mysterious, daredevil and charming founder of Lockwood and Co., a detective agency specialised in protecting people from angry -and sometimes sort of hungry- ghosts in a world where they're rampant. His agency is starting small despite Lockwood bragging it's the best in London but get more and more recognition as the series progress and the agents composing them meet success (when they're not on the verge of dying). Lockwood has open manners but hid his painful past from his coworkers to protect himself. He and George, the first teenager he recruited, are quite stunned by Lucy, a country girl who fled to London after disaster striked in her hometown. Thanks to her talent, she quickly becomes known as one of the best ghost fighter in London and finds her place in the small team despite having the same determination to hide her past than Lockwood, which draws him close to her, making George jealous, but Lockwood's manifest good skills in leadership and the three of them become fast friends while unravelling secret truths and risking their lives repeatedly

He has a lot of trauma and a lot of pain but he always smiles and always has a warm and polite attitude; he’s so protective of the ones he loves that it overrides his suicidal tendencies; at the end of the series he starts to heal from his past; he’s hot but has only two braincells.

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 10 November 2024

Still feeling out how regularly it makes sense to do this; first one was 2 weeks ago on 6 October, second was--oops--3 weeks ago on 20 October. If you're interested in GL older than that, check out my GL rec list through Feb 2024 and my update in July 2024. New series marked with an asterisk*.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to 10 Nov):

*The Fragrance You inherit 1/8 (Japanese, Friday/Saturday-ish, no official distribution but fansub on @isaksbestpillow's blog [thank you Siiri!] I wrote about episode 1 already, but just to keep it all in one place: this one looks great. Not really a GL, more a family drama with a lesbian at the center of the story. I'm doubtful we're going to actually get anything other than closure for the romance in this one.

Pluto ep 4/12 (Thai, Saturdays 9:30 AM EDT, YouTube) This plot continues to be absolutely wild (at this point both of them have suspected the other of being involved in attempted murder?!) but Namtan and Film stay gorgeous and serving so I am still tuned in.

Apple My Love ep 5/7 (Thai, Saturdays 11:45 AM EDT, GagaOOLala and YouTube) This show is very sweet and continues to hold up the recent Kongthup pattern of being great about things like sidestepping the most annoying drama tropes, showing great friendship dynamics including asking your friends about sex, and in this one, excellent sibling dynamics too.

The Loyal Pin ep 15/16 (Thai, Sundays 12:15 PM EDT, YouTube) Anin remains so brave. This latest episode felt a little like we rushed to the finish line, but I've really enjoyed the way this show has handled things overall to date. The show continues to enjoy faking us out in previews so I'm not going to speculate on the ending until we get it.

Red Whisper ep 7/8 (Korea, [schedule is kinda unpredictable; vaguely every 5 days??], YouTube) Oof we've graduated to actively upsetting me with the way this show has depicted nonmonogamy and bisexuality. For the record: Not all bisexuals are nonmonogamous, and entering a monogamous relationship under false pretenses and then acting like your partner is being unreasonable by not wanting an open relationship is shitty behaviour.

*The Nipple Talk 5/10 (Taiwanese, weird schedule: the first 5 dropped on Nov 8 and the last 5 will air Nov 22, GagaOOLala) I honestly owe this show a separate post, it is great! This is an ensemble show with the main character being a heterosexual woman but her two besties are a gay man and a lesbian woman, and the show follows all of them through relationship issues. There is a lot of sex, great conversations about sex, and different relationship styles from one night stand casual flings, to nonmonogamous casual regular sex partners, to long term monogamous relationships. It is very funny, fun, and charming as all hell. It's made a couple small stumbles in the first 5 episodes but I'm still enjoying it a lot. If you liked Diary of Tootsies, this is highly recommended!

Recently Completed:

Reverse 4 U 8eps (Thai, 3 Sept-22 Oct 2024, Netflix / YouTube) I did not like this finale--in the end I was sad where we ended up with this show and I hope we get to see these actors in something else. Also looking forward to more genre GL, which is in the works!

Unlock Your Love 8eps (Thai, 11 Sept-30 Oct 2024, GagaOOLala / YouTube) This show was a little slow, but it stayed cute and relatively low stakes, and the actors had excellent chemistry when they were allowed to do their thing, which was relatively often--I appreciated the amount of good kissing in this show lol. The plot meandered, and we forgot we were in a worklpace GL by the end, but I enjoyed this in spite of that.

Chaser Game W s2 8eps (Japanese, 19 Sept-7 Nov 2024, GagaOOLala) @lurkingshan is already doing a great summary of this week to week in her JQL weekly round-up, but I'll add my thoughts to the finale here. Honestly this show did not do it for me for several reasons, but the main thing this final arc did that bothered me was introduce lesbian motherhood as a serious conflict, and then seemed to suggest that homophobia only exists because queer people are not brave enough. It rubbed me the wrong way. Plus the boss who sexually harassed characters in the first season was back to sexually harass characters in the second season with no consequence. I think this show was trying to do to much and as a result it didn't feel coherent.

Recent One-offs, Side Couples, etc.:

A very short and cute Chinese GL Oh General! My General! aired on bilibili and was subtitled by @douqi7s on YouTube This short manages to speedrun training, shared bath, cheek kiss, forced separation, timeskip, and happy ending in 2 minutes

The sapphic backstory in The Hidden Moon concluded with a happy-in-the-afterlife ending

We also got more of the Aim as a Lesbian plotline in the new Love Sick 2024 remake again (this was not a plotline in the 2014 version and it's one of the changes I really like and that I think works really well; her conversation with her mother was a good scene)

The Thai lakorn The Empress of Ayodhaya had a kiss that earned very high ratings on Thai television (This show does not have international distribution so I can't cover it in any detail unfortunately)

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so; that being said I haven't had time recently so if I've missed anything good let me know!

Starting soon:

My Ex's Wedding [in theatres in Thailand 14 November]

Mom Ped Sawan, Thai, 17 November [international distribution uncertain; it should be on VIPA app with subs, but that is region-locked]

Petrichor, Thai, 23 November, iQIYI

Mate, Thai, 26 November, WeTV

[raayllum]

that it will help this other person, because I will take that hurt off of them in some way.” [...] Because she, herself, believes “I must continue to sacrifice, I must go off on my own to try and fight Viren, I must do all these things, but Callum, you don’t have to.” And it’s sort of like, [Callum is] a little bit exempt from her entire philosophy, because her philosophy in some ways exists to protect him.

—The Dragon Pod interview with writers Iain Hendry and Devon Giehl 

[just-a-carrot]

in addition to dabbling around with some new stuff, i've also finally started working on bit and bobs for the OW remaster, yeahhh!! took a vid to show off the variety of things i've been doing: sprite tweaks, sprite redraws, CG redraws, more CG variations, and ofc the (toggle-able) Iggy side sprite 😌

i'm honestly really happy with the level of polish it's adding. it's been so surprising how much even little tweaks have helped parts of it, particularly with art style stuff that's changed greatly since drawing it and old drawings that make me cringe...

it'll be slow-going as i work through the game, though it'll be mostly only early arcs that need the polish (like i can't imagine much i'd need to do in Arc 5 for instance besides implement the Iggy sprite). i also want to add new CGs, as well, though i'm not sure yet what all those will be

anyway, quite happy with it so far. i think the game (particularly the early arcs) will really benefit from this

[fluffypurpleglitterdemon]

Second round of dice truth or dare: Pain Edition

I am enjoying this game of dice truth or dare immensely (and so is Shi Qingxuan)

[buttercuparry]

Again people, as much as I love to call Joe a himbo, as much as I groan at the screen when he is being a himbo, I have to say that Joe agreeing to spend time with Ming is not a part of his himbo routine. He is not jumping back into an intimate relationship with Ming because he is dickmatized or whatever. He is taking a job. It is as simple as that.

So calling Joe stupid because of this, or saying that we can't save Joe if he is so eager to run head fast into old patterns, is a disservice to the character arc.

Throughout this episode we see Joe saying that he promised he wouldn't be a stand in for Tong again but he needs money for Mrs Ing's treatment. We saw it in the previous episode too. Money is very much a factor in the universe and Joe feels it acutely. So he swallows his pride and rushes to the set even when Joy tells him that Tong has no need for him anymore.

When he tucks Ming into bed, for a moment he felt fond but then he quickly shook himself out of that stupor. Because it doesn't matter whom Ming misses: be it Joe who was Tong's stand-in or Joe the person. Joe, who is Mrs Ing's son cannot entertain any of that anymore.

So the ending that we saw today, was not Joe falling back into Ming. It was Joe setting a boundary in a job. Because that's what he did. He took to sex work to provide for his "adopted" mom. Yes he was upset initially because he thought Ming wanted him as Tong's stand in again. But then the reality of his situation won out. The money owed to the debt collectors, the bills for daily dialysis won out. So Joe rushed out and set his terms before Ming, he set his terms before it could get out of his control again ( Ming's "I get what I want"). Joe took control and setled the deal with 5 million baht and a house for Mrs Ing. He didn't readily take Ming's money while rejecting Wut and Sol's help. With all three of them Joe said the same thing: give me a job and I will earn what I need to for my mom.