#past has honestly been doing so well imo

[warriorsofsplatsville]

//yet another under my belt

[kittlyns]

A hard pill for me to swallow lately has been that, despite everything, I'm probably the best version of myself that could've existed. And that's not really a comforting thought.

[mickeym4ndy]

I think Ian has every right to talk about Frank's abuse, honestly. You can't just dismiss the abuse Frank inflicted on Ian and the rest of the kids just because Terry's abuse was worse.

That said, I don't think that this scene was the right moment to bring it up.

The timing and the context are the issues. Mickey was clearly having a moment. Seeing his dad paralyzed, I think a part of him felt bad for Terry, even though he hates him. Terry put Mickey through literal hell for years, making his life unbearable. In this scene, Mickey's expressing his emotions about Terry in a way he rarely does, because he's right there in front of him, in pain and paralyzed. Mickey’s being honest and upfront about Terry’s abuse in a way he doesn’t do often - compare how he acts there to "you don’t know a thing about my dad!"

That moment wasn’t the right time for Ian to make it about Frank or his own family, in my opinion. It turned it into a competition, failing really offer him the support he needed.

I will say, Mickey probably doesn’t even realize this; he likely thinks he shouldn’t need support, because why would he care about what that asshole is going through? He probably wouldn’t have been very receptive at the moment, and maybe Ian’s thinking of that. But handling it differently still would’ve been better for them in the long run.

Imo Ian should’ve just bitten his tongue, listened to Mickey with care, and tried to understand him. Frank’s abuse definitely warrants a conversation between them, but that wasn’t the right time or way to do it. I like to think they had a more mature and understanding conversation about it after Frank died.

Maybe Ian was trying to make Mickey feel less alone in his feelings. Like saying, "I hate my dad too, you’re not bad for feeling that." But Mickey's struggle is that sometimes he doesn’t hate Terry. And the complexity of this and Mickey’s feelings about Terry is something Ian has always struggled to wrap his head around, and thus he struggles to console him, (not just in that scene, but throughout the show). And Ian’s confusion isn’t unwarranted, feelings around abusive parents are complicated.

(I will say while it makes a lot of sense for Ian to be like that in the earlier seasons when he was young, I don’t really understand why they continued to write him like that in the later seasons, because of what he went through after Monica died. But, alas, that’s how they wrote him).

Anyway, Ian often trips up when trying to console Mickey because he doesn’t really understand Mickey’s feelings. Ian can also just get too caught up in his own feelings that it causes him to lose sight of things. Because of this, when he does try to comfort Mickey, he tries to console him the way he would console himself - telling Mickey that Terry was an asshole who hated them anyway “Terry hated you. He hated us.” But since they don’t really feel the same way about their dads, it doesn’t actually help Mickey. It’s the only way Ian can really think of, though.

However, Ian gets there eventually. Even if he still doesn’t quite know what to say, he learns to just be there for Mickey. I think he still doesn’t really get Mickey’s feelings by the end of Terry’s “funeral,” (which tbf, neither does Mickey, really) but he does know that Mickey needs comfort and a distraction, so he finally puts his own confusion aside and offers Mickey comfort through affection and humour/distraction. Basically saying, “idrk what you’re going through, but I’m here anyway.”

And then we have this scene!

Ian handled the “I’d be a shitty dad” situation really well. He sensed Mickey’s discomfort and didn’t try to side step it like he had done in the past. Once Mickey spoke, he knew that Mickey needed physical touch more than a lot of words. He also didn’t try to go deep into why Mickey felt that way etc. because he knew Mickey wasn’t ready for that yet. He just gave him reassurance and love. He validated his feelings but still disputed them, because he doesn’t believe Mickey would be a shitty dad, and Ian wants him to know that. Plus, Mickey actually communicated why he was feeling on edge and didn’t try to run away! They’re learning!

Season 11 had so many flaws, and even this scene isn’t perfect (talking about having kids while acting like Yevgeny never existed???). BUT this scene shows how far they’ve come, and that they’re both learning and getting better at communicating and understanding. I think it leaves the audience feeling that their relationship is moving in a good direction for the future.

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Blocking Ads on Mobile Devices

Blocking ads on our phones is way harder than it should be so I figured I'd make some recommendations. These are not the only options out there, just the ones that I know and use.

Please note that browser-level and system-level adblocking are complementary; you'll have the best experience if you use both of them together as they each block different things in different places. If you want a basic idea of how effective your combined adblocking setup is, you can visit this website in your mobile browser.

Lastly, there is some additional advice/info under the readmore if you're curious (EDIT: updated June 2024 to add info about sideloading altered versions of social media apps that don't contain ads on Android and iOS).

Android

Browser-Level

uBlock Origin (for Firefox)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard

Blokada 5 (completely free version) OR Blokada 6 (has some newer features but they require a subscription)

iPhone/iPad

Browser-Level

AdGuard (Safari extension; free for basic browser-level blocking, requires a subscription for custom filters)

System-Level (works in all apps, not just browsers)

AdGuard (requires subscription for system-level blocking)

AdGuard DNS only (this is free and does not require the AdGuard app, BUT I would only recommend it for advanced users, as you can't easily turn it off like you can with the app. Credit to this Reddit thread for the DNS profile)

Some additional info: browser-level blocking is a browser addon or extension, like you might be used to from a desktop computer. This inspects the HTML code returned by websites and searches for patterns that identify the presence of an ad or other annoyance (popup videos, cookie agreements, etc.). System-level blocking is almost always DNS-based. Basically whenever an app asks your phone's OS to make a connection to a website that is known for serving ads, the system-level blocker replies "sorry, I don't know her 🤷‍♂️💅" and the ad doesn't get downloaded. This works in most places, not just a browser, but be warned that it might make your battery drain a little faster depending on the app/setup.

Each of those types of blocking has strengths and weaknesses. System-level DNS blocking blocks ads in all apps, but companies that own advertising networks AND the websites those ads are served on can combine their services into the same domain to render DNS blocking useless; you can’t block ads served by Facebook/Meta domains without also blocking all of Facebook and Instagram as well because they made sure their ads are served from the same domain as all the user posts you actually want to see. Similarly, browser-level blocking can recognize ads by appearance and content, regardless of what domain they’re served from, so it can block them on Instagram and Facebook. However, it needs to be able to inspect the content being loaded in order to look for ads, and there’s no way to do that in non-browser apps. That’s why using both together will get you the best results.

These limitations do mean that you can’t block ads in the Facebook or Instagram apps, unfortunately, only in the website versions of them visited in your browser. It also means ads served by meta’s/facebook’s ad network in other apps can’t be blocked either (unless you're one of the rare beasts who doesn't use facebook or instagram or threads, in which case feel free to blacklist all Meta/FB domains and watch your ads disappear 😍; I'm jealous and in awe of you lol).

One note: some apps may behave unpredictably when they can't download ads. For example, the Tumblr app has big black spaces where the ads are, and sometimes those spaces collapse as you scroll past them and it messes up scrolling for a few seconds (UPDATE: looks like the scrolling issue may have actually been a Tumblr bug that they have now fixed, at least on iOS). Still way less annoying than getting ads for Draco Malfoy seduction roleplay AI chatbots imo though. And honestly *most* apps handle this fairly gracefully, like a mobile game I play just throws error messages like "ad is not ready" and then continues like normal.

One final note: on Android, you may actually be able to find hacked versions of Meta’s apps that have the ad frameworks removed. In some cases they are a little janky (unsurprisingly, apps don’t always take kindly to having some of their innards ripped out by a third-party), and they are often out of date. BUT in return you get an Instagram app with no ads whatsoever, and some of them even add additional features like buttons for saving IG videos and photos to your phone. However, use these apps at your own risk, as there is functionally no way to validate the code that the third-parties have added or removed from the app. Example altered IG app (I have not vetted this altered app, it's just a popular option): link.

It is technically possible to install altered apps on iOS as well, but Apple makes it much, much harder to do (unless you are jailbroken, which is a whole different ballgame). I'm not going to cover sideloading or jailbreaking here because even I as a very techy person eventually grew tired of messing with it or having to pay for it. If you're interested you can read more about the different ways to do sideloading on iOS here.

[ganondoodle]

was watching another totk video and through that found out what the reward is for completing koltins quests, honestly im not really surprised but also baffled and it really just shows, once again, that totk kinda does exactly what you shouldnt do in a sequel imo.. double down on all the bad stuff of the previous title

at this point i have talked about various problems in detail but i just keep realizing over and over just how much of the wrong lesson they seemed to take from botw, they recycled almost everything from botw by changing some paint or some words, made a giant game even bigger and filled it with boring and tedious busy work that has mediocre to insulting rewards EVEN MORE than botw

game too big and empty? make it TWICE as big, change barely anything about the map of the previous title and the new added map(s) is ONE biom that almost everywhere looks the same and even emptier with little to do

too many krogs? MAKE IT MORE and double down on the literally shit reward bc its the SAME just with one more stack of shit

too many shrines with short puzzles? ADD EVEN MORE and make them even shorter and easier to complete, alot of them not even involving a puzzle and multiple being an utterly out of place tutorial that could have been explained to you in a single text box

rewards in the overworld being mostly either a krog or a shrine which gets repetetive with shrines being ALOT and krogs being wayyy too many? add even MORE shrines and EVEN MORE krogs, but now add over a hundred of caves to it that all get repetetive after just a few of them and you only do them for a shrine or a currency you have to collect to get one cool looking but pretty bad to use armor set and a piece of cloth for your parasail that you can only use one of at the tiem and to switch have to go back to a specific NPC, theres ghost lights to collect which only serve to yet again buy one armor set from a set of NPCs and ar meaningless afterwards, the light roots dont require you to do anything but walk to them and the reward for finding them all is a "you did it" sticker that doesnt even stick (its useless)

weapons break too quickly? well make the weapons you can find even worse to force you to fuse a material to it so its at all usable BUT IT STILL BREAKS and when it does it breaks not JUST the weapon but ALSO a material, materials that you will need for now EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE armor upgrades too, weapons cannot be rewards anymore either bc they will always have to be fused with something to make them stronger bc none is strong on its own- this also applies to THE MASTERSWORD, something ALSO complained about that it still 'breaks' even after empowering it through the DLC in botw, and now it cant even BE empowered (bc no DLC) unless you fuse soemthing to it (to. the. MASTERSWORD.) EVEN THO EMPOWERIGN THE MASTERSWORD IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF ZELDAS ULTIMATELY MEANING- AND CONSEQUENCELESS SACRIFICE !!

the dungeons were to samey and simple? make them look different but keep the core structure (activate terminals in completely seperate from each other "puzzles", fight boss) while also makign them be even more skippable (climable walls, the ceiling jump ability- something the titans DIDNT have) with incredibly easy bossfights that end with an embarassing copy and paste scene that hits you over the head with long known and obvious information over and over

people didnt like how the story was so detached from everything in the present? well, make the story and the present EVEN MORE detached from anything in the present, so far in fact that there is literally no connection to it aside from zelda who is the only connective thread and is also only treated as such (she is as personality lacking as sonia as soon as shes yoinked into the past) and the suddendly and out of nowhere intruduced architecture and history that wasnt a thing in botw but is treated like it was always there

people didnt like how far botw was detached from all other zelda games? ok totk is not only FURTHER detached from those it also completely detached itself from its on predecessor :)

people didnt like the memory system? ok make it WORSE then, its a linear story now that you can ruin by seeing even one out of order, they are super short and dont give you anymore context to anythign than the things you could figure out yourself or were already told really, instead of giving you views into a characters personality you get to view a basic plot summary of a story that is so flavorless and predictable i knew what would happen from the start yet acts like its being vague and cool that i felt like i was beign treated like a literal toddler

too few enemy types? well, we will reuse the old ones EVEN MORE thant before over twice the map and the new ones that are there are either utterlly irrelevant to change up the gameplay or largely feel like the old ones just with a paint job (constructs), the griocks looked cool at first but are just a more annyoing version of the lynels (who feel like an actual duel, akin to a proper boss)

even the things that were adressed, or attempted to, didnt fully work, like the bosses ARE more unique, but also still so incredibly easy and ALSO have multiple duplicats just sitting around in the underground despite them being supposedly the root of the problems of the regions (i like refighting bosses, but id rather have a character that lets me choose ok i wann fight this one again and teleporte me into a vision or sth- also the most fun fights arent even part of it (koga) )

the rain complaint got a new effect type to counteract it, which ... doesnt work well, you need specific materials to make potions with that effect which you also need to upgrade the only armor set wit hthat effect that ONLY works once you upgrade it (i think ... i dont know how high i got it but if even the full upgraded set doesnt negate the rain effect i will not be surprised either lol) also it adds just yet another effect type that spams your inventory and you dont really need .... or i might be the only one that saw no value at all in the "attack up when hot" new type of effects bc it felt so specific and situational while also having a way better option (just make it a standard attack up thing?) at least in my eyes-

... ill stop here .... this got longer again didnt it O-o

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[blossoms-phan]

Isn't is crazy how 2 people can watch the same video and come to 2 such vastly different conclusions? The unbelievable contrast between the "they know exactly what they are doing to us by posting this but look how happy and open dnp are being, they are not even trying to hide anymore" vs "they look so uncomfortable, it was hard for me to watch and it's sad they had to keep reinforcing how they were playing as friends throughout to stop people getting the wrong idea. It is wrong that they have been forced by their sponsors to play this couples game when the company knows how much they want to distance themselves from any of the false relationship narrative."

Aside from the fact that the idea that rich adult men with established careers were being forced to do anything by a board game company is utterly bewildering, it is mad that there seems to be such a clear divide in opinion about anything that could be perceived as dnp "relationship" content. People seem to have very strong and unwavering opinions, even when their views clearly make no sense.

Sorry, this is already too long, but whilst i am ranting anyway, some people still massively underestimate the power dnp have. They don't need to do anything anymore. Big Boardgame Ltd probably would have forced an end to the hiatus long ago if they did. It is just such an insult to dnp to consider not only their brand, but also their own self worth weak enough at this point in their life/career to think they would be forced to do anything for a paycheck. These are not naive, broke little boys, these are smart, savy businessmen and some people really need to start respecting that more imo.

yeah i mean i agree with you anon, sorry im late to these and keep rehashing the same discussion (twt has probably already had like 3 discourses since then its their favourite thing to do) but i really don't get where people were getting the latter view from. im not gonna say anyone is wrong for having their own opinion but genuinely at this point if you don't recognize that dnp know what they're doing and their entire relationship with us and what they say about their personal relationship is based on control now and has been for years than idk what to tell you. like you said they don't have to do anything they don't want to anymore, they've made it so clear how they do things differently now and say no more often and the thought of them being "forced" to do this is so crazy lmfao like i promise that's not and will never be the case. they are pretty damn smart and aware of what they're doing, they know we'll eat up anything they give us but they're just more comfortable being themselves in general now and playing a "date night" game in their own way is honestly not the craziest thing and pretty on par with the way we've been steamrolling the past couple of months. they don't have to say We Are Dating, just playing the game and acknowledging how well they know each other is enough and literally anyone can conclude those are life partners. plus i always say this but they're not technically wrong in saying friend or buddy so what's the harm in toying a little with the narrative (that once again they've been in control of for years now)

[biblically-accurate-dca]

overanalyzing (nitpicking) these pins (under the cut)

sun's hanging pin: printing error on the ribbon on sun's right hand (yellow instead of red)

this has since been fixed but it's really funny LMAOOOO how did that happen

moon's hanging pin: the ribbons and the hat are going different directions in the artwork (moon's hat falls down but the ribbons don't, most likely because this is essentially just an edited version of sun's artwork)

this one's a little hard to explain. the colors for The Sun and the stars on sun's hanging pin share the same color palette as sun, but the colors of The Moon and stars on moon's pin don't relate to moon's color palette as easily. the star's are the same color as their teeth, but The Moon itself has it's own unique color. it's actually the clouds surrounding The Moon that share a color with moon (same color as their face)

this makes me think that the clouds were added for the sake of sharing colors from moon's face so it's like sun's? but idk that's just a theory lol. imo it's an odd choice to add clouds to it but it's honestly the prettiest part of the pin so i shouldn't complain too much i guess..

"sun and moon" hanging pin: this is obviously based off of eclipse so why are they calling it "sun and moon"? is it because it's not technically ruin eclipse and therefore they can't call it that? that's odd to me. maybe it's for a legal reason. who knows? i certainly don't

the pants don't have any stars even though the hat has them. and this was a purposeful choice. is it because it'd overcomplicate the design? is it a restriction required to make the pin? it's just an odd choice considering it's such a noticeably empty space now

all the dark parts that are meant to represent moon are a weird grey color now and it looks really odd to me. i'm guessing this is just to differentiate them but it's kind of ugly HFJSJGJD

their button's are blue? even though moon's aren't? why

the crators on The Moon on this pin are positioned slightly differently than the ones on moon's. i thought the design was just copy pasted onto this pin but i guess i was wrong? i'm not sure if this even means anything JDJSJFKDG

the bobble head pins: i think their poses are the same as the other's but they've been flipped and edited to differentiate them. this is probably a really obvious observation. regardless i do think it's fun when they parallel each other so i guess i can't complain about how cheap it feels HFJZJGK

there's a weird space between their arm and their ruffles? for sun it's on the left and for moon it's on the right but i can't really figure out why it's there... my guess is that it might've too hard to cut out since it's enclosed in the design, but it's too large of a space to hide it by coloring it in so they had to leave it like that. there's a space like that on the ribbons too so that's probably it. oh well, nothing's perfect

speaking of the ribbons: they're drawn differently between sun and moon! i thought it was just the hands that were changed but i guess the ribbons were too

moon's bobble pin: according to the art for the pin moon's secondary body color is supposed to be a dark blue, however it's so dark that it just looks black on the pin... it's probably more of an oversight than anything but i honestly think it looks kind of cool. i wanna draw it

i think moon's primary body color on the pin is honestly kind of ugly. the color on the art is ok even if it's a little dark but the cyan tint on the pin combined with how dark it is makes it look ugly to me

sun's bobble pin: sun's colors are... a little too yellow for my tastes but are otherwise fine. the colors on the art itself look nicer but i'm aware that the physical coloring doesn't always line up with digital color codes so you can't be too picky about it i guess

sun's secondary body color is technically incorrect (it should be the same secondary color as the face) but it does look nicer like this so just consider this as an observation rather than a complaint lol

the candy shaker pins: i dont have much to say about these (i think theyre nice but a little boring) but i do like how the designs for the bags match the time of day for each of them. the moondrops have a moon with stars and the sunnydrops have a sun with rays of light. it's charming

overall: they're cute i guess... but the fact that there's an entire collection of dca pins makes it so obvious who they're marketing to lmaooooo

[multifandomslxt]

Hey Krystal! 💎 It's me again 😌

Hope you've been well. 🥰

WayV members as type of rich bfs (sugar daddies) 👀..... Anything and everything within this prompt is most welcome 🤭. Have a great day bye ❤

Hey sweetheart! how are you?

You scared me again with the name ngl lmaoo

but it's all good

ENJOY<333

Way V Members as Sugar Daddies

MDNI

MINORS GO AWAY

Kun

He's a bit hard to get through to at first IMO

When he says sugar daddy he means money in exchange for accompanying him to events

he's so strict with himself that he really doesn't allow it to get past that.

That's all it is for a few months yk?

until you express that it seems a bit weird because you were definitely expecting more...

And Kun like the damn provider he is

gives you just that...more

but definitely explains to you that he's a possessive little shit.

good pu$$y turns a perfectly sane man in to a mad man pt.1

he's mad asf for youuuu

now that s3x is involved this man SPOILSSSSSSS you

way more than he was doing prior

which seems a bit impossible because babyyy you were getting bagsssss

he's so strict too like he makes it clear that you belong to him

period.

istg at some point he graduates from sugar daddy to husband

you want a spontaneous trip to some crazy rich island? ok, no problem

you want a bag that costs way too much money? he'll get you that in the next 2 hours

also...don't let that cute smile fool you, the man is a menace.

"Can't believe I deprived myself of this pretty c*nt" he thrusts inside you so slow...dangerously slow

"That's right baby Daddy's right here to give you everything you need"

Ten

Maam.

he gets right to it. lmaooo

Tells you that he needs you to accompany him to events and asks you if you're ok with other "stuff"

duhhh

first off the chemistry between y'all is AMAZINGGG

We all know this man loves fashion so having the latest designer pieces is a given

what starts off as a lil service after events

blooms into something more

very protective of you

baby he doesn't play about you or the custom diamonds he put around your neck. TRUST!

compared to before the relationship bloomed the s3x between you two was rather respectful?...yh that's the word

now?

LMAOOOOO

he rips that shit off youuu

President of the "I'll just buy you a new one" club

it's rough btw unlike Kun, Ten is rough and occasionally enjoys it when you're on top

hehe

"fuck...I'd choose this pu$$y over diamonds any day"

Winwin

See how pretty this man is?

yeah he's gonna make sure you're even prettier than him

Literally bathes you in expensive shit.

SPOILLS you omggg

it's worrying sometimes

to the point where the bank calls him

asking if he's aware that there is a concerning amount of money leaving his account

From head to toe it's luxuryyyyy

the s3x is good....just good

I'm sure I've said this before but Winiwn strikes me as someone who just gets to it.

not too rough not too gentle yk?

its just right

he does like when you wear that little diamond collar he got you when he's ball deep inside you though

he's strictly sugar daddy btw

I think he'd prefer that

Xiaojun

if you manage to pull him and keep him you're one lucky mf

this man moves through sugar babies like the days of the week

He likes the thrill of it all imo

yes he'll spoil you

but you better make sure the pleasure you give him is worth the 100k he just splurged

"C'mon now princess, Daddy knows you can do way better than that" he whispers teasingly as your body trembles from exhaustion and overstimulation

he likes to be kept on his toes

and you keep surprising him

your bills are paid and you're getting f*cked dumb

and he has the prettiest girl to spoil and break

It's a win-win honestly

Hendery

he's so sweet at first omlll

yes he dotes on you and all that jazz

but you guys actually become friends yk?

he's a whole gentleman

never crossing the line

just kind and attentive

gets you WHATEVER you want

and mean ANYTHING

nothing is out of reach for his baby

he just expects you to behave

but what's the fun in that?

let him catch you trying to buy things with your own money

or some shit like that

you are DONEE

when he f*cks you

he ensures that you merge with the mattress

takes "fuck you into the mattress" literally

ass up face down supremacy

do not play with him like that.

"Move your hand baby, I told you actions have consequences"

Yang Yang

This mf is just horny

lmaooo

very possessive oml

and not in the mature way like Kun or the gentlemanly way like Hendery

but possessive like a damn child

you go to parties together and he doesn't want you talking for anybody else too long

look at him and only him

the fucker got you a carrier bracelet with his name embedded into it

and told you to wear it at all times

for the most part, he's harmless

extremely touchy-feely

controls his urges well though

unless you're fucking around too much

then he has to show you why you should just let him be

it's fast and hard

I'm so serious

This MF can go roundsss

because he's desperate asf

BABY TRAPPING CENTRAL

"Such a fuckin' tease. let's see how much teasing you'll do when I swell you up hm?"

[darling-wendy]

they made each other fathers

This has been staring us right in the face the entire time, but it's only just registering to me that Kazuki defaulted to "Rei-papa" when he could've easily just said "Rei-niichan" or "Rei-ojisan" or "Rei-san", some other form of honorific. A four year old is aware of the concept of an uncle, he could've gone with that to begin with. It's very interesting that Kazuki instinctively reached for the one honorific that tacitly implies a relationship between him and Rei. Like, somewhere in the back of his mind he said 'Well, if I'm her pretend dad then Rei, as my partner (and it's also interesting that the first time we first see him use the term, it's the ambiguous English loan word rather than either of the two Japanese equivalents), is obviously also her pretend dad'.

And, honestly, Kazuki doing this seems to kinda low-key incept Miri into viewing Rei as her second papa lol.

She was told by her mother that she had a Papa, singular, and that she was going to meet him at the Varint Hotel. Kazuki presented himself as such, and in the specific context of rescuing her, which is something that Misaki seems to have have told her is what a Papa does.

(The expression on her face and her hand gesture and the way she says this sounds like she's repeating something a trusted adult told her rather than something she came up with herself imo)

So, case closed. But then! her papa tells her to go play with this other guy, who is apparently also her papa? He says he isn't, but the seed has been planted, and it sprouts up later.

Kazuki is berating Rei for not just telling the neighbourhood watch guy that he was her dad, and Miri takes notice. Rei once again denies being her dad, but the idea seems to have stuck for her.

Look at her hurt little face after she heard Rei outright deny being not just her father but also some other sort of family member. She's attached to Rei. She wanted to eat breakfast with him and later wants to sleep next to him. And I'm sure at least some of that is having had him introduced to her as another parent. Fortunately, it works out in the end.

(The voice Kazuki uses here kills me softly. There is genuinely no heterosexual explanation for it lmao.)

('All according to keikaku')

Don't look so smug, Kazuki. Aside from taking Miri into your shared home in the first place, you put the idea of 'Rei-papa' into her head.

So, within Rei's overall arc of changing to become a suitable parent, there's this first mini arc of him accepting identifying as her papa, and it's partially instigated by Kazuki. On Kazuki's end, he doesn't struggle with the label (despite and/or because of his past? Kazuki, you are fascinating), but he has his own unique arc around it.

Part of the reason that Kazuki is so fascinating to me is that he's very straightforward but also he masks as readily as he breathes. Rei isn't as demonstrative or expressive, but he doesn't really hide what he's thinking or how he's feeling. Rei's arc with becoming a father is pretty linear; he first denies then accepts being Miri's papa, he gets a bit involved with raising her, he learns the lesson of how he's not doing enough and needs to step up, then he gets more involved and becomes more confident, culminating in him declaring his desire to be her father in an outright permanent way and he continues growing after the main timeline wraps. His failings are mostly due to having no idea of what a parent is supposed to be like. His father wasn't his father, he was his boss. (Imagine being ~11 years old and having your father hit you in the face and tell you that he's your boss, not your father. This is immediately after he forced you to try to kill a rabid dog, arming you with nothing but a knife, and berating you for not finishing it off. Woof).

Kazuki's failings seem to come from him being too prescriptive or blindly using negative personal experiences as an anchor for what not to do. He also had a terrible childhood, but we lack specific details. He seems to have been abandoned when he was young, so young that he doesn't even remember his parents, and so lacked a real example of how a parent should behave. This undoubtedly would've come up as a stressor when Yuzuko was pregnant. I imagine that he would've gone through the beginner level stages of growth that we saw with Rei, if not exactly in the same way. We come to him at an intermediate level where he knows a lot of basics, but gets tripped up by more higher level concepts.

(Pre-school socialisation isn't about establishing dominance and young kids can have an understanding of right and wrong, Kazuki)

Over the course of the series (and especially in eps 7 and 9), we see Rei look to Kazuki for guidance, and there are also times when Kazuki asserts himself (often erroneously lol) as having the right idea of what to do in a particular situation.

Kazuki's papa arc is more about breaking down the ideas he had built in his head about what good parenting is supposed to look like and holistically feeling it out with respect to what Miri specifically--not some amorphous Child--needs. Rei kind of has the opposite problem, operating purely on vibes rather than structure lol, and that's why they balance each other so well.

Now for the reverse. By the midpoint of ep 3, Miri has been calling Kazuki 'Papa' for days now. It's just hitting me that he didn't try to gently let her down and reveal his lie after they got out of the gunfight. [Rei straight up asked her 'What about your real father?' and got a philosophical answer, so maybe that strategy wouldn't work anyway lol]. I guess he might think of it as easier to just lean into being 'Papa' until they got rid of her, but I'm gonna call it an inverse Freudian slip. Especially since it ties into the first moment I wanna highlight.

Rei is emotionally stunted but also very perceptive. He's read something in Kazuki's actions, tone of voice, body language, etc that indicates that Kazuki doesn't actually want to give Miri up. She's been a little torpedo that imploded two jobs back to back, she gets underfoot, she and makes lots of noise, she and breaks things...and yet. He knows Kazuki well and he saw, perhaps, what Kyu saw when Kazuki was having a moan about them in ep 7.

The rest of the episode plays out and ends with Rei, Miri, and Kazuki going home together for dinner, this time as a quasi family unit. They haven't made any declarations yet, they're just kind of feeling and fumbling their way along. They have some ups and downs as they settle into a dynamic. Then it all blows up in ep 10.

[I could write a whole screed about how ep 10 was a necessary--at least a highly valuable--story beat, but this post is already very long. Some other time, perhaps. ]

Misaki comes back for Miri thanks to Kyu, they are successfully convinced to give her up, and then their little unit falls apart. Another explosion comes in ep 11 with Misaki's death, and now Miri is officially orphaned. Rei, as per usual, asks Kazuki what they should do, and Kazuki reveals that he's in a deep, guilt-induced trough.

We see how Misaki's death is weighing heavily on his mind, and he's surely thinking that he got yet another woman killed due to his desire for a family. He processes her 'protect Miri' plea as needing to stay away from Miri--that that's what he has to do to prevent her from becoming the second child he has to bury. But Rei surprises him.

Kazuki's response is a bit cruel, though not entirely unfounded. He had to temporarily ghost Rei for him to realise all the work that goes into looking after Miri. And even though Kazuki left a fridge full of meals, Rei still ended up ordering pizza because he couldn't recognise them as such. He has a long way to go as a parent. But he wants to do it, and he beseeches Kazuki to make the jump with him.

Kazuki's talking back to himself just as much as he is to Rei. "It might not be too late. [for] Normal happiness" is what he said to Rei on the Ferris wheel. At that time he genuinely thought there was nothing else for them to do but give Miri back to Misaki. But that was when he, like the rest of them, thought that simply stepping back would be enough for Shigeki to be satisfied. It's different now. They both know that, but Kazuki is too raw with hurt and guilty to let himself be happy. It's that characteristic manner in which he gets in his own way. But Rei breaks through all that.

This is the moment. Rei, for the first time as far as I can recall, is shown to initiate physical contact with Kazuki in a way that's soft and not utilitarian. While he talks, he even gives Kazuki's hand a little squeeze. He is going way further than he ever has in expressing his emotions. Change has been a motif for both of them, and Rei says it's possible for them with such conviction--that they can make Miri happy--that Kazuki stops getting in his own way. He comes around in the most Kazuki way possible: transitioning their serious conversation about taking responsibility for Miri (and the implications of dealing with the organisation) into a comedic moment about Rei doing his share of the household chores and childcare.

And with that, they're over the finish line! There's still a lot for them to do in the final episode, but this is the climax of their respective papa arcs. Storming the Suwa compound, confronting Shigeki, and the 10 years later bit are denouement. The two of them approached fatherhood from completely different backgrounds and stances and levels of experience, but it was a journey they took together and one which was not possible without the other.

[cbrownjc]

Some Quick EP 2x05 Predictions

So yes I'm excited as hell about this episode and will be avoiding things online starting at 7 AM my time tomorrow (Saturday) since I know that is when Australia will get to see the episode and I do not want to be spoiled. Because this is the episode I have most been waiting for since I learned about it.

And there honestly isn't much of anything I need from the episode itself. For me, Devil's Minion having happened in the past was fully confirmed back in episode 2x02, and now I just want to see how the show slowly unfolds the story. But there are still some thoughts and predictions I have in my head that I want to note before the episode airs.

Again, this isn't stuff I'm hoping for, just stuff I feel we might see or might happen based on what we know so far:

-- After the fight at the end of 2x04, Armand will be missing/gone during the Dubai scenes for some reason. Because so far, all the little glimpses we've gotten wrt the Dubai scenes have been Louis and Daniel by themselves. For Armand to not be there, even just to keep an eye on things, then something really must be up (or was said during that fight that we just didn't see).

-- We will find out where Armand is/went off to in the present day at the end of the episode. (And if we see Armand talking to Justin Kirk's character, that will confirm he's Marius, even if he's still calling himself Raglan James.)

-- In 1973, Louis and Armand actually weren't living together in the apartment at 503 Disavadiro Street where Louis and Daniel had their interview. Either Armand lives in another, separate apartment in that same building, or he lives in another place altogether. IMO, this is confirmed by the last line we hear at the end of episode 2x04 when Armand says, "I was at home picking --" Which, along with the door we hear opening and then slamming shut when Armand comes in calling Louis' name implies Armand has just arrived at that location. Meaning that where Louis is is not Armand's home.

-- In the 1994 movie, a specific line was added -- that isn't in the book -- when movie!Daniel asks movie!Louis to turn him. And that was movie!Daniel saying that what movie!Louis wanted -- what movie!Louis was looking for -- was a companion. And I think tv!Daniel is going to say the same thing to tv!Louis. The show has very much been emphasizing that two vampires who are chosen companions is a much deeper connection than even just being lovers. And so I think that will be part of what will be included when Daniel asks Louis to turn him in the show -- Daniel offering himself to be Louis' companion.

-- Daniel offering to be Louis' companion will definitely have him thinking about Lestat and I don't think that alone is what will set Louis off into attacking Daniel -- but I don't think it's going to help.

-- As is already quite clear, part of what keeps Daniel alive after Armand gets hold of him is jealousy, as well as curiosity, about why Louis would open up to this seemingly random human boy in such a way, when Louis has not done so with Armand himself. And that is going to be what continues to keep Armand from killing Daniel -- just his own curiosity about him continuing to grow. And, by the end of the episode, I think we'll hear Armand say to Daniel what he said in the book about that in one of the final flashback scenes: "As long as I find you interesting, I won't kill you." This will give a hint as to why Daniel is still alive in the present day, but still will not give the full story as to why just yet either.

-- That is NOT Daniel who Louis and Armand are carrying out of the house in the surveillance photo taken by the Talamasca. That is the man who was wrapped in plastic, with his mustache shaved off. Things are being staged to make it look like that is what is happening, but it is not.

-- "I know where he is." This is either Armand talking to Louis about where Lestat is, or . . . Armand talking to Daniel about where Louis has gone off to -- which would be to go and find Lestat. Either way, I feel that line is connected to something having to do with Lestat.

-- In Dubai, Louis is going to get some type of memory back from some event that we saw in Season 1 -- but this time it will contain extra context that we didn't see then -- that going to have Louis realize that his memories about things are way more faulty than he initially thought -- to the point where it all really shakes him to the core. And he and Daniel will both agree to figure out what and why, as their gaps in memory will seem quite similar to each other.

-- I don't know what it'll be or the context it'll be presented in, but we'll see something of REAL Lestat in this episode IMO. Either in 1940s Paris, or 1973, or . . . in the present day. Just because I'll be incredibly shocked if Sam Reid isn't in the episode at all. Even if it is just for 30 seconds I think Lestat will be seen in some kind of way.

And that's kinda it. Not much longer of a wait now! 😊

[andy-wm]

3D by JK (feat. JH) - my take.

Ok, unpopular opinion maybe, and I might get my ass beaten for this (not in a good way 🤣)

Feel free to disagree RESPECTFULLY.

Disclaimer: If anyone comes at me with that cancel bullshit I will block you, because we all get to have an opinion.

If my post enrages you, scroll past until you can be civil, then come back and talk. Or block me. I dont mind.

And don't tell me that because I don't love this song I have to hand in my ARMY card... I'm not going to.

🙂💜🙂

I'll start by saying I love JK so, so much. Adore him. Will always support him.

But for me, 3D is a misstep.

My feeling is Hybe should have reconsidered releasing it as it is.

JK's lyrics are fun and sexy. The innuendo is on point. The melody is great and the chorus has excellent sing-along value. Even though I'm not a huge pop music fan, I like the vibe.

The MV dancers are awesome, and I got a kick out of the fire hydrant metaphor.

And in that jacket with nothing under it, JK looks hot enough to melt asphalt.

However....

Including Jack Harlow's rap IMO is a mistake. It sucks, frankly. Not in a good way.

It not only misses the mark on the tone of the rest of the song but his lyrics are really just offensive. Misogynistic. And racial refrences are just... not cricket. It's 2023 not 1995, regardless of what his hairstyle tells you.

His lyrics sound like an incel bragging about their sex life when all they've ever done is watch porn. From his words, I doubt he knows how to please any person but himself.

His message is gross, but its still just... generic. Like he went to urban dictionary for spicy language and then googled how to treat women like shit. There's nothing original about what he's saying. He's not even being gross in an intersting way. It's gross AND boring.

(Jack, if you're reading this, sorry my guy you gotta do better.)

I've been army since 2018 and this is the first BTS song I have tried to find merit in and given up.

I honestly tried to be into it and i just... can't. It doesn't sit well with me.

This is a new experience for me because even when BTS release something i don't immediately love, i still stream and watch and let it sink in, or I work on figuring out what I am missing and why it's ACTUALLY good even if i can't grasp it.

This... it's just... not good, in my opinion.

I have to clarify here...

It isn't about explicit content, i am totally down for that. If anyone read my post on Seven, they will know my response to that song. In a nutshell, I believe all adults who want to, should happily and shamelessly be doing ALL the horizontal tango. Every type, every day, in every way. With anyone and everyone they fancy as long as all parties are informed and consenting adults who are equally enjoying the experience.

Yes. I am all about getting down.

That doesn't mean treating your partners like a body count or using and abusing them with no consideration. That's not cool.

**PSA: please be safe and use protection. Get tested regularly if you have multiple partners. Don't do anything you don't feel good about and dont stay with partners who harm or manipulate you 💜**

Now, back to the smut.

Some criticisms i saw of Seven were about how dirty it was. A few people were upset because JK said fuck, and because he sang about how and when he liked to fuck. But more criticism was levelled at Letto. Why?

It seemed like it was because she's a woman, singing about sex.

Letto totally owns her sexuality and she knows what she wants. I snorted with delight at how deliciously filthy her lyrics were. Some very clever wordplay made her verse so visceral, and pretty shocking to the pearl-clutchers, without her ever saying anything directly. I really enjoyed it.

She was telling us straight up how good she is in bed. Good for her. She totally rocks. And she wasn't disrespecting anyone. She didn't need to do that to make herself cool AF.

The difference between Letto's rap and jack harlow's is that jack sounds like he's just looking at the women he's singing about as a hole to stick his dick in. Women have fought for long enough for equality and respect. They don't need this bullshit. You can sing about getting down, and you can be absolutely filthy and nasty and wild, and you can do it without degrading your partners.

I did read a theory about this song being social commentary on toxic masculinity. You can find it here and you can read it below:

Its not bad as a theory. At least it wouldn't be if Namjoon or Yoongi or Hobi - or Jungkook himself - had written the song. If that were the situation we'd see some inkling of self awareness in the rap, and maybe a hint of character development. But there's none.

Sorry ARMY, this is not the class of lyricism we have come to expect.

If jack is trying to make a social statement^*, or play a character, he is not succeeding in showing any growth or humanity at all. He's really just that stereotype.

In the last few lines, after he offers to fly his victim from Korea to Kentucky, he says "and you ain’t gotta guarantee me nothing I just wanna see if I get lucky."

How considerate...

All I see is zero care factor about the actual person he's trying to get with. Which is quite different from JK's lyrics, which show awareness that he's interacting with a conscious, living human being, not a piece of furniture.

jack follows with "I just wanna meet you in the physical and see if you would touch me"

Ugh. Not with a ten foot pole, douchebag.

And how about, in his first verse "All my ABGs get cute for me"

Good god, really? Is he seriously saying this?

So its a no for me.

The ONLY saving grace is that there's an alternative version which is pretty fun. It's almost as if Hybe knew we would hate the version with jack harlow. Wow, such insight!

Now, i know that's not the only reason they made an alternative. They needed a clean version for US radio play (let's be real, what possible other purpose can this song serve? *°)

But they could have censored jack's... actually they couldn't. The rap verses can't be salvaged. They genuinely have no merit, the only hope for the song is totally removing them.

What does that tell you?

ARMY will no doubt still chart the main track but personally, I would feel morally compromised if i supported that version. So I'll stick to the alternative and hope for better things to come.

------------

^* Stylecaster doesnt think so either. I visited their website to check thr lyrics. They said, of D3, "Meanwhile, Jack Harlow brings the cool with his two verses as he raps about all the women he could pull"

Uh, really? I hope that's intended to be ironic.

*° The MV had only 4.5million views after 12 hours. And we know what brilliant strategists Hybe employs. I am travelling in Korea right now. There was no promo visible here. And it was no accident that it was released at lunchtime on Chuseok - the biggest famiily holiday of the year - when relatively few people in Korea would be available to engage with it. THEY KNEW IT WAS A STINKER.

[sarah-yyy]

what: modern cdrama // 25 eps, roughly 40 mins each (we’re on ep 15 atm) where: youku (you can also dl the app) // youtube // this is now on netflix nz so i’m assuming netflix everywhere else has it too?? (ps - usual disclaimer that i do not use eng subs so i don’t speak to the quality of subs) why: when was the last time i was so !!! over a modern cdrama, buddies?? if y’all also want to spend 40 mins experiencing Serotonin being injected into your bloodstream, please join me in going ahhhh over the absolute fluff-fest this show is

these two are duan jiaxu and sang zhi! she’s his best friend’s little sister who’s been crushing on him since she was in high school. he’s a puppy with a Tragic Backstory who has come to start seeing her in a different (and very 😍) light. 

that’s it, the concept is really just this simple!! 

these two used to be quite close when they were younger, but due to some Misunderstandings, she went radio silence on him, they meet again when she goes to uni in the city where he lives.

(i’ve not read the novel so idk if there’s more Drama to it than just this, but given it’s 25 eps, i’m thinking not??)

the flirting is really well done and the mutual pining is Adorable! the chemistry between the leads is really good! and jiaxu-ge really be like out here dropping cheesy lines and heart-eyes in the past two episodes and it’s A LOT BUDDIES!!! it’s just.......40 mins of fluff every goddamn day!! 双向暗恋真的看得我很上头！！嘉许哥真的很会！！！！

honestly duan jiaxu the best boy tbh, he’s patient and kind and really goddamn good to her!! i love how quickly he tries to clear up misunderstandings (once he becomes aware there is A Problem), and how he’s so !!! about his crush for her.

buddies watch this and come and yell about jiaxu-ge with me thank you, it’s an super easy watch, i binged like 10 eps in one go the day i started watching.

(for those who will ask: the age gap is alright imo, he’s 24, she’s 19; nothing happens when she’s in hs, literally zero feelings on his part until they meet again back when she goes to uni, but ik this might not be for everyone!!)

[leviathanofdeath]

rotb spoilers i talk abt Noah in depth bc im autistic and its 1 am

(this is also strictly talking abt the movies)

idk bout yall, but i really like Noah and his character and the way he interacts with everything thrown at him., I really like how (because of Mirage's chill personality) he wasn't completely overwhelmed by the existence of robot aliens. sure he was freaking the hell out abt the car driving by itself but yknow he caught on pretty quickly. and this is also due to the fact that he wanted to save earth as well. and specifically he wanted to help his brother. can we talk abt the fact that he was so willing to go against his morals just to scrounge up some sort of cash to help his family. as soon as he got into Mirage he was like "I don't wanna do this" and he was trying to get out the car. I also really like the relationship Noah had with his little brother. trying to be that light in his life and give hope. doing everything just to help his little brother not be in so much pain. it was just a nice touch to show us how truly compassionate and caring Noah is and you could really feel that through the performance, imo. you can tell they've both been struggling for quite some time. you feel sorry for when Noah gets immediately rejected by that security officer, and he's completely honest and trying to explain how he deserves a second chance (and he does) and he's probably repeated those reasons a thousand times in the past. he almost completely doubts himself until his brother reiterates that they're always gonna be there together and theybcan do it. and even though it sounds unrealistic, me and my sister have said the same thing to each other so it feels all the more powerful to me. it's a completely different approach to a character in the movie series and I cannot appreciate it enough.

and can I just say, sorry to the sam likers out there, I like how Noah doesn't just immediately insult Mirage trying to save him or befriend him. they actually have a strong ass bond almost right off the bat. sam was always yelling at bee everytime bee came in to save his ass (I hated this bc bee can do no wrong ok) but when Mirage was fighting scourge all by himself JUST to buy time for Noah, literslly risking his life for Noah. literslly becoming a suit of armor for him. Noah was nearly in tears, watching mirage's optics fade becsuse they've already become so close. Noah and Mirage have the silliest banter because they just get along so well. I know it's kind of stupid to compare the two (sam/bee and noah/mirage) but my point is simply: they connect so well together and I really fucking appreciate that. we've seen it with Charlie and Bee where they genuinely care for each other and now we see it again with Noah and Mirage. its just so nice to see the two get along swimmingly. even after they save the world, Mirage meets Noah's brother and everything and Noah begins to fix Mirage up as well. showing that they've become closer after the entire incident.

and Mirage. I just gotta say he is seriously the star of the show. Pete Davidson did an amazing job with him. and Mirage's personality fits with Noah so incredibly well. They've got the same type of style, use the same slang, stuff like that, and they compliment each other. Mirage is so genuinely interested and curious about Noah that he comes off as extremely friendly, defensive, and playful. He doesn't hesitate to risk his life for Noah and he gives Noah a little gauntlet to at least keep himself safe when they're apart. he even tells Noah off the bat that he can turn into any car and be sold so Noah can have money for his family. Maybe its the fact that Mirage has been cooped up and told to stay hidden for so long that he can't help but appreciate the first person to "reawaken" him, but regardless their relationship is just extremely refreshing and nice. The way they can bounce off each other is awesome. God i love them so much honestly I can't think of a better duo than these two theyre just perfect for each other whether its platonic or more

[weebsinstash]

FINALLY SOMEONE BRINGS UP HANAHAKI WITH YANDERES, THEY'RE SUCH A GOOD COMBO THAT I NEVER SEE!

The best part of Hanahaki is just how many different variations there are to it imo.

For example for it to form does one have to actually get rejected? Or does assuming you will be, or them actually just not liking you work too?(imagine finding out your crush doesn't return your feeling by getting Hanahaki, quite literally the worst way to find out)

Is it fatal or just stay till you move on or they reciprocate? Does the surgery exist and if so what are the after effects if any(usually loss of feeling and/or memory of crush, or feelings as a whole)? Would the disease scar/ruin your lungs?

An idea I've had for Hanahaki is someone having to go back repeatedly for the same surgery because they either keep falling for or never fall out of love. Meanwhile their lungs just keep getting worse from their constant surgeries and the plants....

NO SHUT UP BECAUSE THE MOST PAINFUL HANAHAKI TROPES ARE "you can have surgery to cure it but you'll forget all your memories of the person you love" OR "you're dying BECAUSE they don't return your feelings and there's no way to save you even if you confess you're just dying knowing they don't love you back" and now that I think about it it was specifically the ultra sad fics that kind of drove me away from the trope, but.... it has its uses....

A yandere begging you to have the surgery to forget about how much you love them so you can live, and you'd rather die than forget all the time you've spent with them, what they mean to you, especially if they're your only friend or someone you've had all your life. Your yandere knocking you out and having you operated on against your consent, taking your love away, so you can live, even if it breaks their own heart, crying as they know you LOVED them but, soon won't even remember their name...

A yandere who, very happily actually, forces you to have the forgetting surgery because it's SOMEONE ELSE you love, not them, and once that person is out of the picture, well, your savior has a greater chance at truly wooing you, don't they?

A yandere who develops hanahaki and HAS to have the surgery to live, they can't protect you if they're dead, but they circumvent the amnesia by recording tons of videos first, talking all about you, about your times together, their memories of you, how much they love you, which things, why, and once they've forgotten you, they watch those tapes and their passion is ignited all over again

IMAGINE A DANGEROUS YANDERE FINALLY FORCED INTO HAVING THE SURGERY AND YOU THINK YOU'RE SAFE BECAUSE THEY SHOULDN'T LOVE OR EVEN REMEMBER YOU ANYMORE BUT NO IT WAS PART OF THE PLAN TO LOWER YOUR GUARD AND TAKE YOU--

Yandere who use their knowledge of you previously loving them to lovingly recreate events in the past that caused you to fall for them, lowkey manipulating you into loving them again by tweaking little behaviors or doing specific things, being genuine but, measured, practiced, calculating

Yandere who are like "you know what? Watching you nearly kill yourself with this totally preventable disease that couldve been cured by an immediate 'i love you' which i obviously would've accepted has actually completely cemented my own delusions about you absolutely 100% literally needing me to survive and you're gonna live under my roof and my constant supervision now :)"

Honestly just the potential like... plot and obsessive potential from the yandere from you almost dying. Like. What obsessed manic possessive lover wouldn't absolutely dial up their behavior and devotion after almost losing you? What kind of self proclaimed hero wouldn't bend over backwards to cater to your every need when they see you so weak and wheezing and needing medicines and special care and maybe even mobility aids now? Can you imagine something horrible like, the hanahaki damaging your lungs to the point you temporarily or permanantly get winded with prolonged exercise and need a wheelchair for longer walks? Or it weakens your body so much you develop allergies or autoimmune issues?

There's just so much GUILT POTENTIAL too. Here's your stalker thinking they knew every little nook and cranny of your mind, obsessively collecting every last detail of your life, and they didn't know you loved them? Loved them so much you got sick for them? AND you were so scared and assured they would reject you, they wouldnt love you, the thought of which hurt you so much, you would rather die than hear them turn you away? Certain yanderes would CRY, they're like, begging for forgiveness at their secret closet altar of you, saying they WRONGED YOU, they PROMISE THEY'RE DEVOTED TO YOU, they'll spend the rest of their life proving it with every ounce of their heart, PLEASE let them prove it--

Of course I also can't help but think. You confess to cure your hanahaki and your yandere accepts you, but then once you're in their house and getting to REALLY know them, you're INSTANTLY "um actually this is. Gross. I'm not attracted to you at all anymore and actually now our entire friendship all these years feels fucking tainted and creepy because I was looking at you with love and you were like. Taking photos of me sleeping and stealing bristles from my toothbrush the entire time"

Finally, because we are so dramatic. We've discussed fandoms on here before where the series can delve into multiverse shit like Spiderverse or Justice League stuff. Imagine a version of your yandere from another universe coming after you because they watched their version of you wither up and die from refusing to confess but the yandere found out their feelings afterwards anyways and it drove them to their breaking point 💀like maybe your universe's version of this person is actually totally normal for you, but, in the acts of defeating this new threat, they realize how easy it would be for someone to hurt you, TAKE YOU AWAY, and one day after the battle to defeat the doppelganger is over, you're looking over at your friend and smiling, and they wait for you to turn your back until *cough* a few little petals fall to the floor....

[niiikasa]

Honestly i was also of the assumption that yuuji would die to save megumi but i feel no matter which way you look at it, it would be a terrible conclusion to yuuji and megumi's characters, and 265 proves that. Even if it fulfills his grandfather's words, he'd still be stuck in a 'role', a path predetermined for him, which i think would be regressing from the message 265 is trying to make.

And he also wants to save Megumi, that's literally all he's been trying to do this entire time, it'd be wack if gege just decides all that build-up just to kill him off (though it wouldnt be the first time). And if he fails to save Megumi, then what would be the point, especially when he's sacrificed so much to do so? Yuuji has always wanted to save people, him breaking away from the cog mentality doesn't change that ideal. If all of that and he never ends up actually saving anyone in the end, after failing before (junpei, nanami, nobara) and now megumi, it wouldn't really be a conclusive resolution for him (unless gege goes the route of making him accept that sometimes you just can't save everyone and make him come to terms with the fact that he doesn't have to save anyone which admittedly would also be an interesting direction for the story to go, but i don't think yuuji is that type of character to change so drastically like that, especially this deep into the fight where he'd already lost so much trying to get him)

I don't think megumi will die either. I see this prediction that megumi might wake up, use the last of his strength to kill sukuna, and die in the process, but it wouldn't conclude his character imo. He'd still be incomplete, stuck in the climax of his character arc without a resolution. He never gets to process or deal with what happened to him, he never even takes control of his life (literally and metaphorically) nor does he ever reach his potential or find any sort of light at the end of the tunnel? (Gege has been a bit execessive with the deaths, but every single death that happened in this story, the character's arc is more or less concluded, and they accept death and are even smiling at the end (with the exception of junpei but he's a minor character all things considered) megumi wouldn't fit that criteria, as his character still hasn't completed, and there's still so much unresolved about him. Not to mention, it'd be a pretty disappointing way to kill off your deutrogonist.)

Yuuji dying wouldn't bode well for Megumi's character, either. Think about it; Megumi, since the start of the series, has been trying to save yuuji, tell him that his life is worth more than he's trying to sacrifice, and never lets him wallow in his own guilt or self-hatred and even tells him to share the burden. He's always of the belief that he DOESN'T want Yuuji to die, that he deserves to live, sukuna or not. He shares the same sentiment with his sister. But it wouldn't work for Megumi's character if all of this, Even after telling yuuji to give up on him and just kill him, he's the one that ends up living, and the two people he's been trying to save this entire time don't? What would be the point? (Again, gege could go the route of making Megumi learn to live for himself and not for the sake of others like his sister and Yuuji, but that development could be made just by his sister dying, he doesn't need to kill yuuji for that, too)

So i think gege changed his mind on that aspect of only one living and decided to keep them both alive. It would work well with the theme of the newer generations breaking the cycle of the older generations, where gojo and geto died before they could truly bear the consequences of their past mistakes (Culling Games) Yuuji and Megumi live through the consequences of what Sukuna did (Shibuya and Shinjuku) and share the burden together as opposed to Gojo and Geto whom beared it alone and drifted apart. But i guess thats too hopeful an ending for a manga like jjk lol

(There's also evidence of both of them dying so who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

GUYS THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL (i will make my response in a bit... i need to shower...)