#plus it uses what they actually say from ep 14 (?)

[bird1e-painty]

FUCK

i found an ii fnf mod and it’s so cool!! i love the art style and literally everything abt it is so awesome sauce

i just can’t get past the second but when fan gets taken by the shimmers 😭😭 i can play rhythm games but the ones with arrows are hardd

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - a shocking upset to the rankings

Organized, in each category, by ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Nov 2023 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

My Dear Gangster Oppa (Thurs iQIYI) ep 5 of 8 - It remains absolutely delightful. We already knew this pair does boyfriends damn near perfectly. It’s a pleasure to watch them as a couple, coupling all over our screen. The relationship does feel a bit rushed but frankly I like the pacing, it’s kind of Korean style which makes sense considering the original IP. 

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 1 of 10 - You know what this is? It’s FUN is what it is. I haven’t felt this way about a BL in a while. Sure is has an uneven story, fight sequences, pacing, and acting but still… yay! Billy is great, he very good at thirst. It’s a crime Lee Long Shi isn’t in this, but otherwise weeeeeeeeee!

(Also was that Bangsean I spotted?)

Last Twilight (Fri YT) ep 3 of 12 - The montage of them learning and training together was so stinking cute I can hardly contain myself. Plus a little language play? (Did you catch the added “na” on to thank you? Gah! So sweet.) Have mercy. I love the banter that these two can execute so smoothly. It reminds me the most of TayNew back in their Kiss days. Or Nanon & Ohm in Bad Buddy.

There’s this breezy casualness to friendships and long-term relationships that Asian BLs seem to find really hard to execute (I’m thinking about something like Hospital Playlist as the best example). It’s more a friend chemistry than a lover chemistry, although of course it can morph into that.

Anyway, I am waffling, but I’m loving this show. (The bit with the teacher made me cry.) I also really love how much actual Bangkok we’re getting from it for a change. 

Finally... how much did @respectthepetty and I love the pink milk shirt moment? SO MUCH. Color theory, plot devise, fashion, food, and a trope reference all in one. Well done GMMTV! Very well done.

Twins the series (Fri GaGa) ep 4 of 10 - I would like it if we got onto the BL section of this BL. Please and thank you. 

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 2 of 14 - it's delightfully trashy, btu slightly less trashy than last week because they introduced AlanJeff who are my new babies of age gap delight and you cannot have them. THEY ARE MINE. Also Way. WAY IS MINE. Also, I decided to do a trash watch.

Bake Me Please (Mon Gaga) ep 1 of 6 - It’s nice. It’s fine. Atmospheric and pretty and full of deserts. What’s not to love? Is it inspired? No. Definitely has an Antique Bakery (play it again, BL). But I do love food based cinema. 

Middleman’s Love (Fri YT & iQIYI ep 3 of 8 - What’s annoying is that this could’ve been so good. It’s a poster child for squandered potential. 

Absolute Zero (Weds iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - Because of the temporal paradox, and Thai BL not being all that great on narrative consistency anyway, this is a confusing piece as well as a painful one. Now Ongsa seems to be nothing more than a stalker who cries all the time. 

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 2 of 14(!) eps - This really feels like Thailand is trying to relive the gory days of Japan's pinks. I wasn’t into it then and I’m certainly not into it now. It’s a mess and weirdly mechanically not sexy. I’ll stay watching it but, like Only Friends, I don’t think I’m gonna warm to it. I just don’t like shows where there are no likable characters. 

Also imma say it, so plug your assears. This is about as deep as a dildo can go. Which is to say, the size queens seem to be finding it more deep than the rest of us who are already bottoming out. Just make sure you're taking adequate lube prep with your psyches.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) Friends Forever ep 14 of 24 - No thank you. 1/10 

I've decided, for spreadsheet reasons, that each of these is going to be tracked as its own 2 part show.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

A Breeze of Love (Korea iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - The shopping together scene was absolutely darling. But I’m getting a little frustrated not knowing exactly what happened in the past.

VIP Only (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 1-2 of 10 - Of course it starts with the crash into me trope, oh Taiwan. It’s cute enough, I love the support cast, and it’s always nice to have something from my favorite tiny island on my dash. 

You tell me: is it safe?

One Room Angel (Japan Gaga) 6 eps - This one finished. It's an adaptation of Harada’s manga (which I did not like and dnf'd) about a clerk who nearly dies and ends up cohabitating with an angel. Thoughts? Is it sad? Is it meh? TELL ME!

It's Airing But...

The Whisperer (Sun ????) 1 of 10 - Thai horror BL that ALSO involves cheating (what joy is mine). He has dimples (My Ride) but I don't think even that gives me the will. You can tell me how this goes if you can find it.

SHADOW (Thai Gaga) 14 eps - I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all) even one featuring Singto and Fluke. I'm holding off. If told it's good, I'll binge.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - trailer here, horror-esk. Adapted from y-novel of the same name, directed by Tu (180 Degree) stars Jet (Why You… Y Me?). Giving me Luminous Solution vibes, so I'm waiting to binge if told it's safe.

Beyond The Star (Weds iQIYI) 8 eps - House of Stars meets Boyband. I was NOT impressed with ep one. Waiting to be told if I should bother.

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - I find this series more fun to binge, so I'm waiting until it completes its run.

In case you missed it

I posted 20 BLs with the BEST Thirst! and decided to distinguish the different type son need in BL as follows:

Thirst wants to slide a hand under his waistband right tf now and grind.

Horny wants to rip his clothes off, and probably pop buttons and laugh about it.

Yearning wants to run both hands up his back while they kiss deeply.

Hunger wants to lift him by the ass and slam him against the wall.

Next Week Looks Like This

(Today) 11/26 Cooking Crush (Sun YT) 1 of 12 - OffGun are back, trailer here. Adapted from the novel “Love Course! เสื้อกาวน์รุกเสื้อกุ๊กรับ” by iJune4S this is about Prem who runs a not-so-popular restaurant with 2 friends. About to go on a cooking competition with a huge reward, Prem gets involved with Ten, a stressed-out med student who wants Prem to teach him to cook.

11/30 For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 1 of 10 - high heat trailer From the people who brought us Unforgotten Night (please no) based on a y-novel, man nursing a heartbreak has a one-night stand, but the other boy didn't want it to end. It looks terribly trashy so I'm in!

Original 2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Look at how gd cute they are!

Ah yes... (both Last Twilight)

We stan a supportive bestie/brother (orphans together? - not sure on the backstory)

It is a rule universally aknowledged that an cutie in a baceball cap must get his brim tweaked. (all from The Sign)

Way is the best.

I kinda love the BTS for Pit Babe.

(Last week)

[silver-and-stars]

Fangs of Fortune ep. 27

Indeed you are helpless girl but try the flute pleaaaase ! YES ! Thank you Pei Sijing, don't let our girl khs, those boys can be unfrozen. I mean, they are frozen but one is turning into an ice demon and the other one is immortal, so they are alive in there. Also sorry Yichen, you just got friendzoned while afk. Also girl, you should free ZYZ from the college-zone oath if he is your beloved. I bet he didn't say anything about it because, since he plans to die, he shouldn’t start a romance with her as he will leave her heartbroken soon.

The way Pei sijing gently touches her face, the gl is strong in this episode.

So whose old soul is it ? Bingyi's or Yinglong's ?

Oh noo my sweet boy YC, he kept the birthday flowers ))))): So if YC is 24 and is family was killed when he was 14, they met 10 years ago ? OH SHIT ! It's not he gift that says he loves her, it's a gift that reminds her what she told him when he was in mourning, so she can apply it to herself when she mourns HIM.

Ying Long called him Bingyi-a URRRRG the affectionate suffix !

Bingyi is so pretty, so is Yinglong Also the power of creation that’s badass and he became the STARS IN THE SKY OMG and look at them, the two of them together after the end of the world, enduring it together

Nooooo from the start it was "you must kill me to save the world" Don't do it twice : don't start a circle ALSO HE SAVED THE WORLD BUT WAS REMEMBERED AS A VILLAIN NOOOOO Wait did ZYZ actually connected with his past self who then knew his death would work and he kinda would meet BIngyi again ?

I love how silky the fabric of Bingyi's clothes look, like water Yinglong even dissolves very prettily

"You don't have to bear any guilt" "Fuck that. I'm gonna turn myself into a mortal so I can die quicker and I'll bury what's left of your body and soul with me and give your bones as legacy for my family"

So it's Yinglong soul that is lonely af and wants a frozen friend AND THE ONE WHO CHOOSE TO STAY WITH HIM WAS BINGYI'S DESCENDANT/REINCARNATION So the secret of the Bingyi clan forbidden area is that the soul of his dead bf(f) is kept there ?

“Long time no see” they say, looking at each other like that ! boys it was like a minute ago, did you missed each other that much. So romantic

Also i'm SCARED of the future YC saw (and kinda disappointed he didn't saw the past) OH NOOO SO HE DOES KILLL HIM. I mean that was my bet but I want them to find a loophole, I don't want it to happen !

OKAY YINGLONG the most 2 beautiful things are (Bingyi's face and Bingyi's eyes) a false alarm and a reunion after a long separation so gimme the false alarm now (they aren't frozen dead, just frozen) and the reunion at the end of the show (like shits happens, maybe ZYZ dies or becomes human, but then reunion with YC, WX, the team) YEES REUNION AND ADVENTURES ! Give that to Yinglong who was sullied by History. He deserves that, so do you and so do we !

Dude you're six, not five ! What about Ying Lei ?!

Also YingLong dies to save the world and his reincarnation (cause YL had no children so ZYZ cannot be his descendant) is doomed to destroy it

How they look at each other ! NOW KISS

Pei Sjing, girl, GO FOR A GROUP HUG !! Also Yichen must be torn : heartbroken over Wen Xiao or over ZYZ ? Both I guess !

YINGLONG TRUE BRO, he saw Bingyi's descendants/reincarnation (come on, they are too alike, Bingyi never met YL again, probably cause he reincarnated, plus that bound with ZYZ is too alike the one of BY and YL), so YL saw him dying from the demon blood and went : "I can take it from you or I can make you a demon using MY BONE to give you a magical heart- I mean core!" What remained of YL fused with Bingyi's descendant/reincarnation. LOOK AT YC bowing to the remnant of the soul of ZYZ's past-self. Also ZYZ, bow to yourself, will you ! LOVE YOURSELF MAN ! Yinglong was goth af for making a sword out of his own horns and bones to give his bf(f) so he could kill him with it and Bingyi was equally goth for making that sword his family legacy and taking the bones of his bf(f) to enshrine them in his tomb.

YC, hand over his belly "I think I have it.. A CORE I MEAN" Wen Xiao "congratulations" (is that a mpreg joke? It is! They are insinuates YC became pregnant thanks to YL)

So ZYZ truly is a white ape with tree-demon ex ? (here I thought it was jest and he was a dragon)

Bai Jiu’s mom : "His favorite person is Zhuo Yichen" YC : "and I failed him and he got possessed and kicked my ass so hard I became a great demon and realized I have a soulmate"

ZYZ ? Are you jelly of YC praising YingLei ?

How is Chongwu f*cker in the Wilderness ?!

Lady use your tree power to have a TREE VS TREE fight with Lilun and get your son back !!

WENXIAO, GIRL, DID YOU TIED YOUR LIFESPAN TO YOUR FLUTE BY ACCIDENT?! ARE YOU DYING TOO ?! you can't ! Don't leave YC alone and don't die in front of ZYZ ! URRRG WenXiao was YiChen’s flower after the snow, he was her light leading her out of the darkness! Look at YC smiling, HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL !!

[bomikalover]

What’s your favorite American Housewife episode? I can’t pick a favorite but I have a few fav episodes from every season.

I’ll do one a season because I love so many. And they might be less my favorite but more memorable to me (if you get what I’m saying)

⚠️SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVENT SEEN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE!!⚠️

Season 1, is Episode 12 “Surprise!” Because it was Oliver’s bday which is already special but it was also the first episode where we actually see and meet cooper for the first time. Baby Cooliver really makes my heart warm and seeing Oliver and his dad share a moment was super sweet.

Season 2, is between episodes 17 “All Coupled Up” and episode 19 “It’s Hard To Say Goodbye.” Ep 17 showed more cooliver but also showed Gina (Oliver’s gf at the time) and how Gina was making Oliver someone he isn’t. It gave us some lovely Cooper and Katie moments and it was when Anna-Kat made it “official” with Franklin. Plus we got some Trip and Taylor too so all together a jam packed episode. Ep 19 was when Spencer passed on and we got to see a more emotional Oliver and a more caring Katie. Katie and Oliver’s relationship is very complex as they have the most distant relationship out of all the Otto kids imo and this really showcased how much she truly cares about Oliver and his emotions.

Season 3, is also between 2 episodes. Ep 13 “Mo Money, Mo Problems” and Ep 23 “A Mom’s Parade.” Ep 13, was a fav for me since we saw Katie and Greg get some alone time but we also saw Cooliver and got some Taylor being a great big sis to Oliver so all in all a good episode. Ep 23 is good because I love music and musicals lol. I literally have all the songs on my Spotify playlist, “You Can Do You” is a certified bop. Katie’s voice was amazing and i honestly wished for a 2 hour musical special after that 😂

Season 4, is between 4 episodes (I literally can’t pick one 😭) Ep 6 “ Girls night out”, Ep 14 “A very English scandal”, Episode 19 “Vacation!”, and Episode 20 “Prom.” I liked ep 6 since we saw Cooper and Trip basically become permanent members of the family and the adorable scene of them recreating the picture will also be in the back of my mind. Ep 14 was when Oliver “came out” lol and we got see to see Oliver be who he truly wants to be (he just doesn’t realize it yet) and I loved how everyone thought it made sense and that Cooper was his boyfriend 😂. Plus the love story between Greg and Viv made my heart happy. Ep 19 was a breath of fresh air as it was actually shot outside and in LA which was nice. We got a Cooliver side storyline which ended in them agreeing that with Oliver’s family and Cooper’s money that they work perfectly together which made me so happy. Anna-Kat and Taylor had some bonding going on and I love to see it. Episode 20 was great, I’ll always love a prom/dance episode. I was sad that Oliver went to prom with the teen help line girl and not Cooper (especially since the teen help line girl ignores him next season 🙄.) but the little dance scene at the end was cut and that was the last episode with OG Anna-Kat 😭.

Season 5, is Ep 1 “Graduation”, Ep 3 “Coupling”, and Ep 4 “Homeschool Sweet Homeschool.” Ep 1 was great as we say Taylor graduated but we also saw that Cooper was moving away. Oliver was so sad and lost that entire episode at the thought of loosing his Cooper. But it made me so happy that Oliver had a heart to heart with Katie and in the end Cooper moved in with Oliver and the family. Ep 3, was so full of Cooper and Oliver acting like an old married couple and I loved it. Katie and Greg even joked about making them a sex basket like they gave Trip and Taylor. (Side note: I love how supportive Greg and Katie are of Oliver’s sexuality. LGBTQ+ or not, they love their son and just want him happy 🫶🏾.) Ep 4, once again full of Cooliver moving in together and having those married couple vibes.

Basically anything with Cooliver I loved which was a lot of episodes lol. Trip and Anna-Kat’s relationship was so precious to me as he was a second older brother to her and it warmed my heart. But anyway tysmmmm for asking me stuff and don’t be shy to ask more. 🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 3-4, Peekaboo Challenge

When we left off, the trainees had just finished their performance of Love Whisper. And now it's time for the Great Peekaboo Fuckup of 2018. Are you psyched? You should be -- we'll be seeing AleXa, Yiren from Everglow, Lee Gaeun, Jang Gyuri, Yujeong from Lightsum, and a bunch of other great trainees. Plus, place your bets now on how many times you will hear a slightly vocally challenged "fine". I'll give you a hint: a lot.

We start off toward the end of episode 3, at 1:58:30.

Lee Seungki comes out to introduce the next song, and as you have already deduced from the above paragraph, it’s Peekaboo.

The two teams come out and introduce themselves.

LTR: AleXa, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Gaeun, and Eunyeong. Sorry that my screen shots are so low rez -- I’m doing my best, fam. 

Team 1 Introduces themselves as “Peeka-chu.” (In Korean, “chu” is a slang word for a kiss, hence the A*pink song Mr Chu and the f(x) song Chu.) 

LTR: Kim Yubin, Kato Yuuka, Kim Dahye, Hong Yeji, Shitao Miu, Lee Yujeong

Team 2 introduces themselves as “Kiss Blowers.” 

I don’t know what’s up with all the kisses -- it’s not a direct reference to a lyric or anything, so I guess they’re just flirting for votes, and I say, get it, girls. 

Seungki talks to Jang Gyuri, and at mention of her name, there are loud male bellows from the audience. Those loud male bellows always make me like 10% uncomfortable. Seungki asks, Does she have any smack talk for the other team? Gyuri smiles and says, “Please yield this match to us.” Hong Yeji, who is somehow only 14 despite being possibly the tallest person on stage at the moment, replies, “We’re younger than you. We’ll show how energetic we can be.”

And then…. It’s showtime! By which Seungki means it is most definitely not showtime! It’s time for a flashback package! Woot!

Let’s see how rehearsal went for Team 1.

The members:

Jang Gyuri, Fromis9 member, who landed in F and was most recently ranked 14th, is the main vocal.

Bae Eunyeong, who landed in B and was most recently ranked 30th, is subvocal 3.

Lee Gaeun, our Pledis queen, who was always an A+ girl and was most recently ranked 1st place, is subvocal 2. 

Wang Yiren, future Everglow visual, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 7th, is subvocal 5.

Matsui Jurina, queen Jurina, who stayed in B and was most recently ranked 12th, is subvocal 4.

AleXa, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 86th place (ouch!), is subvocal 1.

We left off with the lingering question of, is Wang Yiren the right choice for center over Jang Gyuri? 

We pick up with Mary J Lee helping the girls decide who should be their center. There’s a whole weird flashback-with-a-flashback, but the gist of it is that Mary J Lee says that Wang Yiren needs to sparkle more and asks if anyone wants to challenge her for center. Gyuri challenges, and they both audition. We find out that Gaeun thinks Gyuri should potentially take over, while Eunyeong continues to prefer Yiren. Ouch, Eunyoung! No loyalty to your label mate, huh? In the end, Mary J Lee says they both do well but thinks Yiren should stay the center.

We head over to vocal lessons, where we find out that Gyuri became the main vocal since there isn’t anyone much better in her group. What we’re hearing of her voice in rehearsal sounds really great, actually. Singing without accompaniment, she goes slightly off key, but it’s hard to sing without accompaniment, and Soyou gives her a lot of praise.  She says she’s going to rehearse a lot. Don’t rehearse too much, Gyuri. Drink some throat coat tea and take care of yourself.  

We see them at dress rehearsal, and now Gyuri’s voice sounds shaky. She says she’s losing her voice, and it’s her fault for not taking better care of her throat. ARGH. The fact that this happens every season on these shows drives me nuts. She says there’s nothing she can do now, but I hope that at least she’s putting herself on complete, 100% vocal rest. No whispering. Friends, if you ever lose your voice, don’t whisper!! Don’t even clear your throat harshly. Hot liquids only, and drink lots of slippery elm tea. Trust your unnie -- I talk for a living, and used to lose my voice all the time until I figured out what to do.

Ok, the show starts. Here is PD48 Editing’s blessed edit of the performance. Definitely check it out, because the MNET editing on this one is particularly atrocious.

My thoughts: 

Alexa, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Eunyoung, Gaeun

Vocally, this was almost flawless. You’d hardly know that Gyuri was having trouble with her voice, except for a slight scrape on one of the high notes, and on one of the last “Yeah yeahs.” Honestly, it’s barely noticeable. It’s not really any worse than the slight scrape Wendy herself has on the same note in this performance. Gyuri has a really nice vocal color and hits those ad libs with confidence. In fact, I was so surprised by how nice her voice was that I have raised my estimation of her significantly. I had gotten the impression that she was one of those idols who was only popular because of her looks, and this performance showed me she really has talent.

AleXa sounds fantastic, too -- I’m so glad that we get to keep AleXa in the land of Kpop, no matter what happened on P48. As good as she sounds, though, she looks kind of... off. Like she's trying too hard with her facial expressions or something? I've heard that she was working around a leg injury, so that may explain it.

The others do their jobs properly, even on the cheesy sing-talk-rap thing in the middle. I've listened to this song a million times and the Korean rap sounded pretty right to me -- I couldn't swear to it, but my ears sort of nodded. Yes, my ears nodded. That's what I meant to say.

Dancewise, I think they do really well, though as usual the camera work seems designed to prevent you from being able to see the dancing. The choreo isn’t unusually difficult, Boombayah style, but it requires precision, especially in the bridge, where they do the arm trick. (Did you ever notice the arm trick in this choreo? I’m a big fan of this song and I still somehow missed the arm trick the first few times I watched this choreo. The viewer has to be lined up just right for it to work, but when it works it’s cool.) I’m not a dance expert, as you know, but they looked good to me.

Stage presence wise, I think they’re all did just about equally well, especially if you watch their fancams. It’s a tough song to pull off and they did the thing. I even was won over to Jurina -- this is the first time I’ve seen her look natural in a performance. She fit here, somehow. 

However, when you watch the full performance, some of the girls sort of fade away in the group. I feel like AleXa’s overall presentation kind of suffers from her being a few inches shorter than the rest of the girls -- if there was more variation in height it wouldn’t matter as much, but having just one girl be several inches shorter than all the rest was kind of noticeable. Not fair, I know. I’m really short myself, and I don’t hold it against her, but it does affect the optics in a way that I think Koreans in particular would notice. I looked it up and AleXa is 149 cm/ 4'11, which is quite short. Maybe that’s why she works best as a soloist.

It is also a little odd how little of an impact that Gaeun had if you watch the full performance. She’s apparently Subvocal 2, but you don’t hear or see much of her in either version of the edit. I think it’s a combination of the choreo shoving her to the back -- sometimes quite literally -- and the camera man preferring to show Gyuri whenever possible. I watched Gaeun’s fancam and she did great, so I don’t know why we didn’t see more of her. It’s almost as if the show couldn’t hide the fact that she almost was center and was really popular? But also didn’t want her to win…? Hmm.

Ok. Deep breath and let’s talk about the MNET edit, starting at 2:05:20 .

I had a feeling that the tiny scrape in Gyuri’s vocals would take over the whole performance, and it does. We approach the vocal run -- fine, fine, fine, fine-fine fine-FINE -- literally five times. 

The first time is at 2:06:06 and it takes almost a full MINUTE before we actually hear the final “FINE” with the scrape in it. In the meantime it’s all flashbacks about how Gyuri’s worried about her voice. Then we hear it, and we hear it SIX times. Then the episode ENDS! It ends on Gyuri’s horrible, horrible, unforgivable, slight vocal scrape, x6. 

MNET WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS. 

Well no, it doesn’t END there -- there are several minutes of preview of some of the other teams, including a few seconds of Wonyoung wiggling around at the beginning of Very Very Very, and some pixelated members of the other team. and then they give the current standings of the trainees. I’m not going to concern myself with their new ranking since we’re going to have a big vote off in episode 5, and we’ll worry about it then. There’s also a preview of Sakura getting yelled at while tears run down her cheeks. 

Anyway! Let’s go on to episode 4! We’re doing great. Here’s the link.

After a brief recap, the episode dives back in to the challenge mission, reminding us, of course, about Jang Gyuri’s vocal scrape. We go right the fuck back to the whole damn “fine fine fine….” vocal run, and hear the problematic “fine” FOUR more times. That's a total of ten. We jump ahead to the gym bathroom Results Zone and see all the girls crying at the results, and then jump back 20 minutes to see why they’re all crying. Thanks, MNET! Thmnet. 

If you are watching along, you can skip to 2:17. This time we get to watch the whole performance. I’m struck again by how pretty Gyuri’s voice is, and Alexa’s as well. We have to hear two more instant replays of “fine” -- so that's 12 times now, THANKS-- but at least this time they show the whole performance. The show is presenting the tiny problems as if they're the end of the goddamn world and it’s driving me nuts because if you just watch the unedited video, it’s so minor. 

The judges say they’re proud of her for not giving up. Backstage, Gaeun kindly tells Gyuri that she did a good job -- WHICH SHE DID -- but she shakes her head and says she was terrible. She interviews that she’s mad at herself.

She didn’t know that if she sang a high note all day it would strain her voice. Hey, vocal trainers, who failed this girl? I’m remembering all those trainers who said to “practice hard” and “do it 100 times.” Did anyone tell her to take care of her voice by not overusing it? I’m guessing not. 

Anyway, that's behind us now, and it’s time for the second group!

GROUP 2

As the girls take the stage, we hear AFUCKINGGAINHOLYSHITWTF Gyuri’s tiny vocal scrape on "fine". That’s 13 times now we’ve heard it, and I assume we'll hear it again in the future. Anyway the girls in team 2 think that maybe they can win since team 1 made a mistake -- but maybe not, since team 1 is full of popular pretty girls.

Let's see how their rehearsal went! 

Here’s team 2: 

Hong Yeji, 16, one of the CNC girls, the one who fell down in her video evaluation and then fell from B to F, is ranked 76th.

Kim Yubin, 16, one of the CNC girls, fell from B to D and is currently ranked a very low 93rd. OUCH.

Lee Yu Jeong, 14, future Lightsum member and C-class mainstay, is ranked 48th.

Kim Da Hye, who auditioned with I Don't Like Your Girlfriend and fell from A to C, is ranked 89th.

Shitao Miu, 17, who wore the hat on her waistband in her Mister audition, stayed in D and is ranked 45th.

Kato Yuuka, 20, who auditioned with Funny People and rose from C to B, is ranked 73rd.

When we left off, we met the team (which was chosen by Yubin) and learned that Dahye is actually fluent in both Korean and Japanese. That’s about all we know about this team.

When we catch up with them, we find out that things aren’t going well. Dance teacher Mary J Lee has told group 2 that they made a lot of mistakes and that they’re likely to lose to team 1. And poor Shitao Miu is having a lot of trouble with the choreo.

She’s obviously starting to cry a little, but she does keep trying, and I appreciate that about her. The mental exhaustion of being away from home and not being able to consistently speak your first language just makes everything more difficult. 

Mary J Lee asks her what’s wrong -- not unkindly -- and Miu gives a really mature answer, I think. 

“I’m upset. I’m mad at myself for being unable to catch up. It makes me cry. I’m causing other members trouble.” 

Later on, leader Yubin kindly tells Miu, “We didn’t get a compliment, but I don’t want you to blame yourself.” The other girls stroke her hair and make consoling noises, and Miu says that the other members’ bright energy cheered her up. Aww! 

Over at the vocal lesson with Soyou, who I am currently a bit annoyed at, we find out that Yeji is the main vocal.  She is, to my ears, a bit pitchy. Yeji asks Soyou if it’s ok to sing it in falsetto, rather than with full voice (the translation calls it “original voice”), and Soyou says she can, but it will probably make them look a bit bad. 

We see that Yeji is practicing over and over even in the dorm -- great plan, definitely sing it over and over and over and over until your throat is raw. Her teammates tell her that rival Gyuri sings the notes in full voice, so Yeji has to, too. 

Dress rehearsal doesn’t go well. The judges make faces. 

Jeremy's doing a "red" concept.

Dance Bae tells Yeji, “don’t worry, just sing.” Jeremy tells Yeji, “you need more confidence.” Then the Wizard of Oz tells Yeji she’s had the power within her all along! 

It’s time for the actual performance. For whatever reason, that blessed angel PD48 Edits didn’t make an edited version of the performance, which is fair, it must have been a lot of work and they did most of them. 

Here’s the full version, MNET edit and all. 

This is Hong Yeji’s fan cam, which is a lot less irritating to watch than the MNET edit. Obviously it’s not a full cam but since she’s center, you can see a lot. 

Yuuka, Dahye, Yubin, Yeji, Miu. Hidden: Yujeong

Yubin, Yuuka, Dahye, Yujeong, Yeji, Miu

Yujeong, Yuuka, Yubin, Dahye, Yeji, Miu

Well, first off, Stylist Unnie needs a thorough talking to. Who said that translucent thigh highs were a good look for Yeji and Yujeong? Especially considering that Yujeong is 14…?!? For one thing, they're a bit too sexy for a 14 year old. For another, they dig in to your inner thigh, which isn’t a great look, and they’re just sort of… I don’t know, inelegant and discordant.  They look unfinished. Red Velvet didn’t wear translucent thigh highs. They wore high boots sometimes, which were definitely opaque! I understand that boots might be outside the budget, but why not just completely opaque tights? ARGH! 

Anyway, to the performance itself. It’s so hard to even have thoughts without being able to watch the whole, uninterrupted performance. The MNET edit chops it up so much it's hard to take it in. But overall, compared to Team 1's performance, this felt like the store-brand version of the performance to me.

Dance is so hard to evaluate because the camera doesn’t show their legs 80% of the time. I think they mostly did fine fine fine fine-fine fine FINE. Dahye would sort of forget to dance when it was her time to sing, and sort of overdanced certain steps. There may have been other issues, but it's hard to know.

Vocals-wise: Yeji does her best, but her vocals are overall kind of shrill and pitchy, even if she can hit that high note. I’d rather listen to the Gyuri version, scrapes and all, than the Yeji version. There’s more to life than high notes. Dahye does a good job on Subvocal1, and really no one in the team embarrasses themselves or anything. It just felt less tuneful that the first group. Also, the rappers’ tone was a little… I don’t know, off? Just not as pleasant to listen to. 

Stage presence-wise, I thought they were inferior to the first group overall. Yeji looked confident, but almost like she was just looking into the mirror in her practice room rather than at an audience. Poor Dahye seemed to be fighting with her hair for a lot of the performance. One bright note, though, was Miu. After all the trouble she had rehearsing, I was curious how she'd do and checked out her fancam, and you know what, I think she actually had the best stage presence of all of them! I’ll be durned. 

Shitao Miu understood the assignment.

Since Yujeong has since gone on to maybe the biggest success of this group, I went back to watch her fancam too. She does a totally fine job, but I think she just looks too young to take seriously here in this kind of mature song. She commits fully, though, I’ll give her that, and does a much better job than you'd expect a 14 year old to do. 

I think the worst performer (stage presence-wise) in this group is Yuuka. I feel bad saying that, but she just has this totally bland smile the whole time. Like most of the Japanese trainees, she’s great at looking directly into the camera the entire time, but she looks like she’s just marking the steps in a rehearsal, rather than performing on stage. 

The MNET edit is pretty kind. The judges are especially complimentary toward Yeji, saying she's born to be on stage.

AFTERWARDS

When the performance is over, both teams come up on stage. Lee Seungki asks Jurina which team did better, and she says "ENHH?" which everyone loves. Then, through a sweetly smelling cloud of sugar, she says, "I think maybe team one?"

Then Seungki asks Miu, "how do you feel?"

She pulls a piece of paper from out of her jacket and begins reading in what sounds like phonetically transcribed Korean.

"I won't look back. I'll run looking forwards."

It's cute, and everyone applauds. Seungki says the ever creepy phrase "Vote for your girl!" and the audience votes.

The judges talk amongst themselves. Group 1 went out of key, but they did have a better "aura," so both teams have pros and cons.

top row: Alexa behind the onscreen caption, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Gaeun, Eunyoung bottom row: Yubin, Yuuka, Dahye, Yeji, Miu

Kim Yubin, leader of group 2, acknowledges the popularity gap, but still is hopeful.

The editors reveal the votes starting with sub 5 and work up.

Main vocal: Jang Gyuri 78 Hong Yeji 92 Sub 1: AleXa 4 Kim Dahye 26 Sub 2: Lee Gaeun 74 Lee Yujeong 98 Sub 3: Bae Eunyoung 28 Shitao Miu 116 Sub 4: Matsui Jurina 110 Kato Yuuka 102 Sub 5: Wang Yiren 54 Kim Yubin 40

Yuuka voiceovers, "If we were in Japan, Jurina would win by a win by a lot, but since this is Korea, I wanted to win." That made me glad she came pretty close, even though Jurina still won the battle.

Eunyoung is pretty sad at how low her votes are. Presumably AleXa is too, but we don't even get to see her react to her getting the least votes of the entire night. Don't worry, AleXa.

The underdog will strike back!

Everyone is astonished when little Lee Yujeong beats the extremely popular Lee Gaeun, and when Hong Yeji beats the extremely popular Jang Gyuri.

For those of you who don't want to do the math -- group 2 wins!

The group 1 girls cry.

Jang Gyuri is in that stage of misery that is beyond crying, and she comforts the others as best she can.

We're not allowed to see Alexa, you guys. She is kept carefully off screen.

I don't know why team 1 lost here. I'm not saying that they should have won, exactly, but it's just that I thought they would. Maybe they were sort of held back by AleXa's visuals not living up to Korean standards. Maybe Gaeun was literally hidden too often in the choreo. Maybe there were a lot of AKB48 fans in the audience. Maybe the other team really did that much better. I don't know!

But I do know that this is the end of this post! Thanks as always for reading. In the next one, we'll cover team Short Hair by AOA. Come back soon! Love ya!

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s4 ep 14: Message in a Bottle

I always forget which one this is, because the title doesn't really describe it well- but if they'd have wanted a descriptive title, they'd have had to call it 'Silly Shenanigans in Space', which doesn't exactly have the gravitas Star Trek usually goes for lol

So in this one, there's actually a pretty important plot about finding a seemingly abandoned alien relay network, which they use to try to get a message to a Starfleet ship on the edge of the Alpha Quadrant. They can't get a regular message through, so they send the Doctor's program instead. (Though how it would be easier to send an EMH hologram than a short audio message, idk- but for the sake of the plot, okay, sure.)

Once the Doctor arrives there, he finds the crew killed off and the ship taken over by Romulans. It's an experimental ship, filled with experimental tech, including an upgraded EMH, played by one of the most annoying actors they could have found, Andy Dick. (He was on a popular sitcom at the time, I don't remember which, but it was obviously meant to get ratings, so ok, whatever.) From there, it becomes EMH insult smackdown, plus fish out of water comedy as two incredibly bitchy and egocentric emergency medical holograms try to retake the ship and fight off some Romularn warbirds, all without knowing what any of the bridge controls do. They're unabashedly playing it for comedy, and it mostly works, but I thought it was a little too silly of a tone for the situation they were in.

And then for subplot number 1, we have more Dumbass Shenanigans with Tom being worried that he'll have to be assigned to sickbay permanently if the Doctor doesn't make it back. He cajoles Harry into trying to construct a replacement EMH from scratch. It obviously doesn't work, and it's honestly the stupidest shenanigan they ever get themselves into. It feels exactly like one of Jake and Nog's teenage schemes on DS9, and not something that grown ass adults who've graduated from Starfleet Academy would do. I usually love when Tom and Harry get up to silly shenanigans, but this was just too stupid. (But then so is the whole idea that Tom would be the most qualified person on board to be a medic in the first place. What about Ensign Wildman? She's a xenobiologist for heaven's sake! Surely she took way more medical courses than a pilot who majored in astrophysics! Don't tell me all the science officers on board aren't a better choice than their primary helmsman.)

The second subplot is another one that I didn't care for- I hate that they're making B'Elanna and Seven fight all the time now, especially when they seemed to be making a real effort to work with each other before. I also hate how Chakotay acts like B'Elanna's the one being unreasonable when she's telling him about Seven's behavior, which frankly wouldn't be tolerated from anyone else. But apparently Seven is Janeway and Chakotay's precious pet Borg now, so she gets to ignore Starfleet protocol and do whatever she wants. (Put her in a uniform!! If they could make the Maquis part of the Starfleet crew, they can do the same for Seven. It's not like she's Neelix making stew in the mess hall- if she's working in vital ship departments like engineering and astrometrics, she needs to be part of the command structure and follow rules just like everyone else. The first two seasons were all about how important and necessary it was to the ship's survival to do everything the Starfleet way- now suddenly Janeway just abandoned that?? Because Seven is a special blonde Borg babe?? What??) I really feel like having two of only three main female characters suddenly fight all the time and hate each other was even worse than having two female characters never talk to each other at all. Do not pit two bad bitches against each other!!! That's not feminism!! To say nothing of backwards character development. And this one was a written by a woman too, like come on, girl, why???

In the end, the clueless EMH's defeat the Romulans against the odds, and the Doctor returns to Voyager before the aliens who own the communication relay disconnect them. He brings the message that he talked to Starfleet HQ, who now know Voyager is still out there. Starfleet had declared Voyager officially lost a little over a year ago, but now they'll reverse that status, and inform their families that they're still alive, and do what they can to bring them home. It's an important milestone for the Voyager crew, despite the silly episode that precipitated it.

Tl;dr: Pretty much a crack episode, played almost entirely for laughs, despite the plotline that was actually pretty high stakes and important. Fun if you like the Doctor, not so much if you don't.

[hils79]

Hils Watches Strong Woman Do Bong Soon - Ep 14

Okay, I've seen enough horror movies to know the dude totally survived that car crash. Also there's still 3 episodes left.

Yes, I'm sure all of you staring at her will make her feel better

Look, I have never understood fashion at the best of times but wtf is she wearing? It's like three completely different dresses stitched together and then put on over a sweater. I think if it was just the black and white halves that might look okay but why is there a random bit of denim skirt too?

I'm not sure telling your daughter to pretend this traumatic event didn't happen is the healthiest coping mechanism for her...

Okay, I know you want to hammer home the point that she's not strong anymore but wow no one even attempted to help her up when some dickbag man bumped into her and knocked her over

Why are we spending so much time on the butt problems of the man who stabbed Ahn Minhyuk?

Did he though? No body, no death.

No, you idiot. This is the part where you tell her that her strength wasn't what made her unique and then list all the things you love about her. Come on that is romance 101.

Picking something totally at random I'll do the thing you asked In Gookdoo to do for you that one time. That moment definitely does not still live rent free in my head

I mean she verbally and physically abuses him, he has to hide money from his own store so that she won't take it. I'd be asking for the divorce papers there and then

Some comics are sad! Don't make fun of him!

Oh, look, to the surprise of no one he's still alive

I was just about to say no one is going to fail to recognise you just because you cut your hair but actually he does look really different

Sure it's only a small step from kidnapping for sexual gratification to domestic terrorism

I don't like that she's getting kidnapped 5 minutes after losing her strength. Didn't she do all that fighting training with Ahn Minhyuk? But they seem to be saying that without her strength she's totally helpless

Okay, I have questions. And I'm sure I'm thinking about this too much but I'm going to ask them anyway.

So, the curse is that if you hurt an innocent your strength is taken away, right? Why didn't she lose her strength when she broke Secretary Gong's tailbone, or broke Ahn Minhyuk's toe? Neither of those people had done anything wrong.

And now she's got her strength back because she wants to save Ahn Minhyuk. Which is great. I am a big fan of both of them not being blown up. But at any point has there been a 'if you then want to use your strength to save someone you get it back' mention? Is she just special because she's the main character?

I'm sorry I swear I'm not usually one of those 'a drama should be super realistic' people but the bomb she threw into the air just somehow turned into fireworks

But on the plus side there's still two episodes left and she has her strength back now so she gets to kick that dude's ass on equal terms. Well, not even equal. He's just a regular dude and she will squish him.

[adanima]

KPTS Soundtrack - VegasPete edition

Listing of the songs played during emotional VP moments ep11-14, in chronological order, plus some meta as a treat (shout out to @aletheiarynne's post for starting me off on this journey)

Timestamps are for when the song starts in the episode. Colors are to indicate type of instrument - purple for strings, blue for piano, red for other (usually guitar or some electronic synth) <- more on the instrument type later

EP 11

40:22: Vegas bandages Pete - Dreaming While I’m Awake by David Celeste

41:32: Vegas gives a kiss pill to Pete - Little House on the Hill by Francis Wells

43:50: Pete tells Vegas about his own abusive dad - A Sky Sparkling by Johannes Bornlöf

48:49: Vegas shows up in front of Pete in his jammies, "I'm hurt...it's not as bad as before" - True Bliss by Line Neesgaard

EP 12

20:55: Pete turns back from escaping and walks to Vegas sitting on the lawn - From the Ashes of a Previous Life by Lama House

22:05: Vegas cries for his hedgehog - Hypothesis by Jo Wandrini

23:12: Vegas and Pete walk back into the safehouse after hedgehog funeral - Therapy by Bireli Snow

24:29: Vegas tells Pete about the other hedgehogs - Quiet When Dark by The Tap Room

26:34: Vegas hits himself, "your eyes tell me you like it" - They Broke Out by Farrell Wooten

28:44: VegasPete sex scene - Stable Delusion by Max Anson

EP 13

11:19: Pete tells himself he didn't like sleeping with Vegas, Vegas trashes his kitchen - Unspoken by Silver Maple

13:21: Vegas drops the bowl of noodles to the floor and puts Pete in a chokehold - ??? note: don't know the name of this one but it matters for what I say later, so I'm listing it here. lmk if you know the name!

16:06: Pete tells Vegas he never exists and grabs the knife - This Creed by Johannes Bornlöf

18:34: Vegas pleads with Pete to stay with him - ??? note: same deal as above lol

30:59: Vegas and Pete try to eat dinner alone - ย้อนแย้ง by เอก Season Five (Contradict by Aek Season Five) special mention for an OST song because I say so. the song actually starts playing at 30:02 but the vp scene starts at 30:59

40:16: Vegas tells Pete he's sorry in the bar alley - Touchless by Gavin Luke

EP 14

40:49: Vegas and Pete raise their guns at each other in the garage - Silent Castle by Jay Varton song actually starts playing at 40:40 but vp scene starts at 40:49

42:35: "Could it be you who kills me? I love you, Pete" - Felt like November by Magnus Ludvigsson

50:16: Vegas points his gun at Korn, Korn tells Vegas he'll take care of him and Macau, Vegas leaves, Pete resigns - A Most Dignified Betrayal by Trevor Kowalski

52:59: Pete takes off his jacket after resigning - End of an Era by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen

56:46: Pool scene. "I'm your pet. Could you please turn around to see me?" - Glory Be by Heath Cantu

57:41: Immediate aftermath of Vegas getting shot - Ink by Charles Holme

1:18:52: Post credits scene - Midsummer Waltz by Wanderer's Trove

So...why color code by instrument type?

Here's my claim: string instruments (violin, cello, etc) are used to signal external forces/pressures, specifically their unequal positions in the mafia, getting in the way of VegasPete's relationship, while piano is used to signal VegasPete baring themselves to each other, without the masks, and becoming equals.

I'm about to sound like an obnoxious English teacher "the curtains were red because…" so putting the rest under a cut.

First, another quick shout out to aletheiarynne's post for pointing out that guitars seem to be used for KinnPorsche's sweet scenes, which is what prompted me to pay attention to the type of instrument used in VegasPete scenes.

Note: The color coding may not be wholly accurate or representative of the songs. I'm color coding based on what I hear in the episodes. Meaning the whole song may use strings and piano but if the sections of the song we hear in the episode only use piano, I only color coded for piano, not strings. And I mostly color code and look at what instrument is playing the melody or can be easily picked up on while watching the episode. That leads to a couple of points of error - my ears aren't perfect, the audio used in the episodes may have been modified from what we hear in the youtube videos, what I consider to be the melody may not actually be the melody.

Now, we're gonna go episode by episode, scene by scene. All timestamps used below are episode timestamps. Remember the coloring - strings, piano, other

EP 11

Vegas bandages Pete, Vegas gives a kiss pill to Pete, Pete tells Vegas about his own abusive dad

gah the timing of the music throughout the whole bandage > pill > talk scene is so so good

Vegas bandaging Pete is the first time Pete gets to see Vegas as something other than cruel, something other than the minor family heir or his captor. The BGM is all piano for the entire bandaging and the kiss. We don't get the first note of a string instrument until 42:16 when Vegas sits down on the floor, looks away from Pete, and Pete asks why Vegas didn't just let him die, as might be expected from "Vegas from the minor family". The entire time Vegas is trying to heal Pete, he isn't bothering to put up a front as "big bad evil Vegas". He's just a guy who worries when his hedgehog isn't eating. It isn't until Pete poses that question "Why don't you just let me die" that the reality of their respective statuses come back to the forefront and the strings come in, but the piano is still there. Vegas says "you must suffer" which sounds in line for minor family Vegas but it's said without his usual evil glee.

The next couple of seconds could honestly just be due to good timing within the song but if I choose to believe it's intentional, my claim looks stronger lol. The strings and piano still play intertwined here but when Pete asks "What happened to you?" the strings fall back and only the piano plays aka this is Pete (not head bodyguard or prisoner Pete) asking Vegas (not minor family heir or captor Vegas). The strings kind of swell up as Vegas talks about his dad who is very much an oppressive force in Vegas's life and the main marker of Vegas's status as minor family heir.

When Pete talks about his dad, it is all piano. Pete is completely revealing himself to Vegas here, no more mask as dumb, cheerful Pete. The first note of a string instrument happens at 44:48, right when Pete says "And has he ever beaten Khun Korn?" which again, brings the major vs minor family conflict back to the forefront of the conversation. The strings are still mostly in the background for a bit, with the piano holding the melody. There's a slight increase in how loud the strings are right after Pete says "they, themselves, suck" and Vegas presumably rethinks his entire life/relationship with his dad. But by the end of the scene, it's really just piano we hear. Which makes sense - Vegas and Pete both end that scene having learned entirely new sides of each other.

Vegas shows up in front of Pete in his jammies

This one is easy. Other people have talked about how Vegas wearing his comfy clothes signals Vegas being open and more himself, less of the minor family heir, in front of Pete. Having the BGM be piano adds another layer to this. Vegas is being honest with Pete, revealing how he is actually feeling.

EP 12

Ngl, pretty much all the BGM in ep 12 contradicts my claim. I have no idea why they decided to use so much guitar or synth (is that even the right word?) sounding music for VP here, other than to make it seem eery?

Pete turns back from escaping and walks to Vegas sitting on the lawn, Vegas cries for his hedgehog

Honestly, if the songs for this scene started off with strings then transitioned to piano, it would make my claim look so much stronger. Unfortunately, they don't.

First, we have piano playing when Pete initially runs out of the safehouse. When he slowly walks back to take a long look at Vegas being sad on the grass at 21:13, the strings come in. We get Pete shaking his head in disbelief before heading down to join Vegas. I could say that the strings when Pete shakes his head is him reminding himself of their respective positions and that this is Vegas - minor family Vegas and his captor - but I'd be lying if I said I 100% believed that. It's all piano again when Vegas first turns to Pete and says the hedgehog is dead. He's not putting up a front. Pete looks hesitant or conflicted for a moment before laying a hand on Vegas's knee and that's when the strings come in. Again, maybe the strings are there to remind them and us that they should be in opposing positions but even I don't believe that.

Everything else for VP this episode is not strings nor piano, so idk lol. Given how the only other moments in this list non-string or non-piano music is used for VP is Vegas begging Pete to stay (ep 13) and the post-credits hospital scene, maybe we can take it to mean extreme turning points in VP's relationship. Or maybe a release/freedom from something? We got Pete letting go of his inhibitions in the sex scene, Pete letting go of their budding relationship when he leaves the safehouse, and both of them letting go of their previous positions in the mafia in post-credits scene. The more likely option is that I'm pulling stuff out of my ass for this lol. Moving on.

EP 13

Oh dear, this and ep 14 is where we really get into the fun stuff. I'll try not to go on too long, since I'm drafting a whole other post about the music choices for the breakdown/escape scene + alley scene

Pete tells himself he didn't like sleeping with Vegas, Vegas trashes his kitchen

Reality is crashing in for Pete. He knows there are a multitude of reasons he shouldn't want Vegas, one of the biggest being their respective positions in the major vs minor family and their relationship as captor/captive. He doesn't want to want Vegas.

For Vegas, he's dealing once again with the reminder of his position in the minor family, as his father's son. And, most of all, dealing with the pressure of it and not living up to it. Both of them are putting walls up around themselves again. Of course we're hearing all strings, no piano.

Vegas drops the bowl of noodles to the floor and puts Pete in a chokehold

Again, other people have talked about how Vegas is wearing his Vegas-clothes here and how he's back to being "minor family Vegas." Obviously he isn't showing his bare self to Pete right now. For Pete, this BGM starts right after Pete told Vegas to give himself up to Korn. Pete is bringing that external party into their conversation. The grip the mafia has on both of them, and their place in it, gets brought back into the spotlight with Pete's words. Again, all strings, no piano.

Pete tells Vegas he never exists and grabs the knife, Vegas pleads with Pete to stay with him

Now, you would think that if my claim is true, we should hear some piano for this moment, right? Pete is revealing some long hidden truth about himself. But when does this BGM start? Right after Pete says "I got nothing left. Not even my humanity." Now, it's possible Pete may have felt this even before becoming a bodyguard. But being a bodyguard certainly doesn't help this feeling, and most likely exacerbates it. His place in the mafia is a cause for him feeling this way.

Everything Pete says applies to Vegas too. Vegas's place in the mafia, in the minor family, directly contributes to him feeling less than human and lashing out at Pete.

Strings in the BGM don't necessarily mean VegasPete are occluding/hiding their true selves from each other. It's more like strings in the BGM means external forces like the mafia are asserting themselves on VegasPete and getting in the way of them expressing themselves to each other. Here, because of the mafia, both Vegas (his father showing up and hitting him) and Pete (remembering he doesn't exist his whole time as a bodyguard) are at breaking points and unable to interact with each other here without remembering the weight of their respective positions. So, we get strings in this scene. (Again, don't really know what to say about the more electric/guitar sounds.)

Vegas and Pete try to eat dinner alone

This one should be fairly simple. They're alone, no pressure to put up a front, and both crumbling to pieces because they're separated. They're letting the walls down and letting themselves truly feel the loss of one another. Even if the other person isn't there to see it, we the audience are, and some inner part of them is being revealed here. Plus, neither of them are acting in their mafia positions, so no strings, just piano.

Vegas tells Pete he's sorry in the bar alley

When they first see each other in that alley, both of them are back in their mafia positions. Vegas is in his Vegas clothes, Pete has returned to the main family. This BGM starts as Vegas puts Pete's gun to his chest and says "Why don't you shoot? Don't you want me to disappear?" Vegas is reminding Pete of all the reasons why Pete should hate him. This is similar to when Pete was telling himself he didn't like sleeping with Vegas.

Their past status as captor/captive and their ongoing status as minor family heir/main family bodyguard should dictate that they want nothing to do with each other. But Vegas says the infamous "I don't think you can. And you know why." And, yeah, we really do.

You know when the piano starts? When Pete starts crying. When Pete gives up on wanting to hate Vegas and gives in to Vegas.

Now, the strings don't entirely go away. They stay throughout the rest of the scene. But they're in the background, playing the accompaniment while the piano holds the melody. Which is so fitting for this scene. Yes, they're reaching out to each other and holding on to each other. But Vegas is still on the main family's blacklist and Pete is still going to return to the main family at the end of the day. In this moment, they and their true feelings are exposed to each other, but the reality of their situation with opposing loyalties looms in the background.

EP 14

Oooooh boy, we're about to get into stuff. Let me point out that in this episode, every single time VegasPete are truly alone, we get piano BGM. Every single time there isn't someone else present to be a physical reminder of their positions in the mafia, they are truly genuine with each other and able to see each other without caring about their positions and statuses.

Vegas and Pete raise their guns at each other in the garage, "Could it be you who kills me? I love you, Pete"

I mean, do I need to say anything? VegasPete aren't even trying to pretend they want to shoot each other in the garage, Vegas fully lowers his gun. And then the love confession is pretty self explanatory.

Vegas has no defenses, no walls up for Pete. And Pete isn't fully ready to accept he wants Vegas, not yet, but there's definitely no mask here. His emotions are plain to see on his face.

Vegas points his gun at Korn, Korn tells Vegas he'll take care of him and Macau, Vegas leaves, Pete resigns, Pete takes off his jacket after resigning

The whole time Vegas is in that library, his focus is no longer on Pete. All he's focused on is his dead father and the threat of Korn. There is no way he can let himself shed the "minor family Vegas" persona in front of these people. Of course we're hearing strings. Again, strings = assertion of external forces (the mafia) getting in the way of VegasPete expressing themselves to each other.

And when Pete resigns, he says it himself. "I can't betray my own feelings anymore." Being a bodyguard for the main family means Pete can't express his true self/feelings for Vegas. It isn't until Pete takes off his bodyguard suit jacket that we hear some piano. Pete is literally shedding his status within the mafia in order to express his own feelings. Now, we do get some strings in the background here, especially as Korn says "Take care of him" which not so subtly brings back to our attention that Vegas is still related to this mafia family. A nice little foreshadowing for the pool scene? So, you know, there's that.

"I'm your pet. Could you please turn around to see me?", Immediate aftermath of Vegas getting shot

I love the BGM here. It's actually silent during the pool scene until Pete yells "Then why did you tell me you wanted to be with me?" and Vegas finally gets some hint of understanding in his face. That's when the piano starts. And all we hear is piano for this entire interaction because right here, Pete is no longer a bodyguard and Vegas no longer has anything of the minor family left. There is no external societal status to get in the way here. This is just Vegas and Pete, telling each other that yes, I want you.

And then, of course, the gunshots and subsequently, the string instruments. A literal mafia presence coming in and causing a wreck in VegasPete's relationship.

Post credits scene

Last but not least, we get guitar BGM for the post credits scene. Okay, definitely not least in terms of the scene, but maybe least in terms of what I have to say about the BGM. Again, guitar - don't really have much to say. Could possibly represent true freedom from the mafia, since a guitar is a string instrument but the guitar sound is very distinct from other string instruments like the violin.

Caveats

I am making this claim about strings vs piano in BGM purely for the VegasPete narrative. I do not know whether this music observation holds up for the whole series and I highly doubt it does. As mentioned in aletheiarynne's post, some of the music used for VP scenes were also used for KP scenes and just looking at the KP scenes mentioned in the post, I don't think it holds up.

Why only talk about strings and piano? Why not other instrument types? Because I only paid attention to the VP scenes in ep 11-14 and those instrument types were the ones that stood out to me. I'm too lazy to go back through the whole series and dissect every piece of music used. Also, the prevalence of strings and piano instruments in the music used could honestly just be down to what music is available. Pretty much all this music comes from Epidemic Sound aka those copyright free music channels on Youtube. Most composers will use piano or string instruments as the main instrument or the instrument that plays the melody. This is a choice that has historical and physical reasons. Composers have focused on piano or string instruments for centuries and continue to do so today because musicians are able to play these instruments for longer hours than, say, woodwinds which require you to breathe and thus have limited play time. It just makes sense for composers to use piano or strings in their music more commonly than other instrument types.

Also, it is entirely possible that this is all coincidence and Be On Cloud meant nothing quite as deep with these music choices. I could be making a fuss about nothing. They could have just chosen whatever emotional sounding music they liked and that music happened to have strings or piano for whatever scene they lined it up with. I'd like to think there was some meaningful thought behind the music choices, though.

And there we have it. A rather unasked for breakdown of some of the music in VP scenes. If you've read this far, thanks, you're a trooper.

[laesas]

For fanfic ask game 👀, 🌝 and 🖊 please!

OMG I ended up writing so much for these that I'm gonna have to put the long answers under a readmore! But short answers:

👀 Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

KimKen dubcon interrogation... 👀

🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

Weirdly as of late: Chan! - I'm entering my Dilf 4 Dilf divorce era someone give me pre-canon ChanGun I'm begging.

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

Chay + Tankhun hours under the cut!!

Thanks so so much lovely!!

✨📝 Writers Ask Game 📝✨

💌Send me one here!💌

👀 Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

Soooooo. I there's only one fic that I've actually written up that won't ever see the light of day and that's the 4k or so of the initial ideas and concepts for the KimBig - Kim ended up coming across as more distrustful of Big than he is (because it's Big POV we dont get to see inside his head), and it ended up coming across as a little too "Vegas". While he's rude to Big in canon he isnt actually hugely distrustful; he's banking on Big serving Kinn over Korn to get information on Porsche and the potential mole(s).

I love the energy but it felt very 2-dimensional and I couldn't wrangle the context it to make it work. Plus I absolutely love the emotional vulnerability I've created in the KimBig 2.0 from Kim's perspective - it feels a lot more realistic. I realised if I wanted to use the first dynamic I'd definitely have to make it happen with someone Kim didn't trust at all (cue Ken).

So in short: The rework where it's KimKen - Kim suspects that Ken is the mole and goes all knife-to-throat femme fatale while accusing Ken of sleeping with Vegas. Which he is btw. But that's beside the point lol.

🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

Considering the rest of the content of my blog you absolutely could not guess this but yeah! Chan...........? the last few weeks I've suddenly been gripped with a bunch of swirling thoughts about his relationships with the three main family boys, with Big who also grew up in the household and how he's not allowed to pick a favourite bodyguard (big) or a favourite sibling (kim). Plus all the nuances of his loyalty to Korn and interactions with the minor household as well.

Chan + Vegas' dynamic particularly fascinates me! Vegas often uses english as a show of status: to include his family and exclude lower ranking bodyguards who are primarily thai speakers (eg. speaking english with macau at the dinner table, speaking english to Porsche and using weird idioms to throw him off balance). In ep 14 he pointedly says 'know your place!' in english to Chan. To any other bodyguard it would be another layer of pulling rank but Chan is acting on Korn's behalf and completely fluent in english so the effect is competely different, as is his response. There's a kind of implied superiority that Chan is immune to, both because of his proximity to Korn, AND because of his fluency in english. IDK if I've explained that well at ALL but there's something super interesting there ✨ Point being: Chan's english fluency vs Vegas' pointed use of english my beloved.

Also I joke about him and Gun giving "divorced" energy, but I feel like ChanGun has the exact same energy I love from KenBig but with even more hatefucking and complex ranks and loyalties. I am entering my Dilf4Dilf divorce era it seems. Rotating them in my mind as we speak.

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

I'm currently reworking the first chapter of my KimChay which starts with Tankhun and Chay bonding hours! Chay's trying to get Tankhun to let him learn self defence and Tankhun is deflecting.

“What-?” Chay says, momentarily distracted. Khun pounces. “Yes! Robots, I helped him build them, you know! It was like a video game! No need to learn fighting when you can shoot with the computer or make explosions from the safety of your safe room! They were so helpful when- Owh. I don't want to talk about it actually.” “When what?” “I’m bored of this topic now, it’s not interesting to me anymore.” “P’Khuuun,” Chay whines, hopping up onto the dresser and trying more and more ridiculous angles to lean himself into Tankhun’s eyeline as he dips and dodges around Chay’s encroaching face. Chay eventually gives up and grabs hold of his wrist, the way he does with Porsche, the way he did with-  Khun startles and tenses, wide eyed, milliseconds from snatching it away.  “Sorry-” Chay starts, removing his hands, but Tankhun’s arm stays frozen in mid air for a moment before he comes back to himself. Chay watches in the mirror as Khun settles his expression, when he’s satisfied he turns to look up at Chay. Level. His smile is soft but his eyes are blank. Chay’s seen that mask before. “It's fine,” Tankhun says quickly, it sounds clipped and strange. His smile is bright as a camera flash and gone just as quickly. “Could you- in my closet-” He frowns, “You should swap the jackets. You forgot one. I picked it out for you and you forgot it and now your outfit is all wrong. Go and fix it-” he clicks his fingers “Pol. Help him fix it now.” Pol nods, smiling at Chay and walking them back through the wardrobe doors. He beats Chay to the jacket and crouches to pick it up from where it was slumped on the floor. Chay reaches out to take it, suddenly desperate to leave and go back to Tankhun, to fix things, to apologise and tell him he was right and that the jackets do look better the other way around. Pol doesn’t let go. “Hold on, he needs a moment sometimes,”

It all ends up ok in the end! Tankhun is fine really!

In my mind Chay has very much latched on to Tankhun as a stabilising presence (which Tankhun has revelled in because very few people trust him that way). Tankhun is able to support Chay because he just inherently understands a lot of what Chay's going through, but because Khun is so overwhelmingly supportive, sometimes Chay forgets that the root of the understanding is that Tankhun is still traumatised too.

BUT it is fine. And crucially after he calms down, Khun doesn't let Chay shrink and go all apologetic and pliant the way he does when Porsche feels bad. Chay is allowed to feel bad for hurting Tankhun without that requiring him giving up all his autonomy and reasonable requests. I think that's a pretty important thing for Chay to learn - and that theme of autonomy becomes important in his conversations with Kim later!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ASKING LOVELY LOVELY EGG!!

[losyash]

Draft from 15th of June: How many chapters does MHA have left?

an old post I found in my drafts. did not finish it exactly but I figured it might be a fun read for someone. I tried to calculate it via anime seasons (laid down nicely) and manga volumes (did not lay down nicely at all but I forgot abt the last volume bonus content which is bound to be more than usually)

this was after ch 425 so I still had just a tiny bit of copium left in me

everything after the cut is text from the draft:

tldr: around ten maybe, maybe forty

one of our main measuring points there will be the anime coming out

as this wikipedia screenshot shows, season 7 is going to have 21 episode. we are one third through!

episode one starts with chapter 329 and ends with last pages of chapter 331. three chapters.

i decided not to check every single ep because that's long and annoying and instead grab all seven. if the amount of chapters serialised is consistent episode seven should end with chapter 349. which is exactly what happens!

so by extending this logic we can assume that episode 21 will contain chapters 389, 390 and 391 thus ending dabi's plotline in final war arc and bringing up the sad man parade. the main trick here is that chapter 391 is 9 pages long so exact details may vary but honestly i am willing to bet the season will end around there

but what then?

right now studio bones makes their anime seasons have either 25 eps (mha s7 is not an outlier if you count specials btw) or somewhere between 12-13. how many exactly? well

in last ten years there was one anime with 10 eps, 2 with 11, 9 with 13 and 18 with 12, however among those 18 two had specials released either during the airing period or just before it akin to s7 specials so it might be more correct to say that there are 10 animes with 13 episodes, 16 with 12 episodes and one with 14. debatable honestly

we will keep all three possibilities in mind

so, how many chapters is that? chapters 392-423 fit perfectly to give us 11 episodes

which means 1 more chapter for 12 episode (probably not)

4 more chapters for 13 episodes (most likely option out of three)

40 chapters for 25 episodes

"okay well what about manga volumes?"

GREAT QUESTION

we usually get 12 chapters per volume. the last released volume is vol. 40 which goes up to chapter 410 and includes it.

by the same logic volume 41 will contain chapters 411-422. but maybe actually 411-423 because come on that's just. one last chapter of final arc. it does not fit well here.

42 - 424-436

43 - 436-448

44 - 449-456

45 - 457-465??

math does not math well here to be honest. it DOES lower chances of getting like five chapters and be done significantly, but beyond that? debatable

what about the plot however? we still have several threads hanging:

lov state, surviving members, their fates

tomura dying and kurogiri's sacrifice. to be honest chapter 420 does not make me believe hori gives a single fuck about kuro and his plotline but what if??

mystery person

izuku's dad (horikoshi did say he wants to do something with him but as for ch 425 we still have nothing)

actually becoming the greatest hero. it did not happen yet. allmight can say whatever he wants really but izuku has not even graduated, i kinda doubt hori will just leave him in 2-a

ochako and shouto's plotlines in general. they don't feel finished yet and we know that at least with shouto there is definitely something coming up next chapter

a lot to cover. i would normally say four chapters definitely won't cut it but then again we DID have four pages to resolve the rooftop gang plotline. it's not the likely option but it's still an option for me now

horikoshi himself predicted he would end the manga in 2024 but he did the same thing about 2023 plus he could not have predicted the amount of breaks he is taking. still it does speak more in favor of having maybe 10 maybe 20 chapters rather than 40.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - P’ABL Versus The Hotel Wifi

(spoiler, I lost)

Oct 2022 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Eclipse (Fri YT) 10 of 12 - Neo is so damn good in this role. But the plot is starting to drag. I don't think this show will hold up to a binge watch. But Akk & Aye really are a killer couple. Akk caught himself a live one. I didn’t even mind the wifey talk. 

My Only 12% (Fri iQIYI) 10 of 14 - Cake being back and jealous as fuck and totally into Eiw is way better and more satisfying than I thought it would be. Santa is good in this role. These 2 define codependency and it’s a little worrying, but Cake’s unalloyed joy at being with Eiw and just looking at him again is the warmest I’ve felt since the final ep of DNA Say Love You. This is a greta little show. 

Ai Long Nhai (Mon iQIYI) 3 of 10 - It is a perfectly serviceable little pulp, it’s hitting all the tropes, but was a bit dull this ep (plus a bit crass and theres the stalker thing). I don’t really have a lot to say about it. Ai does switch from mueng to ter after kissing Nahi - that was cute! 

Ghost Host, Ghost House (Weds YouTube) 2 of 8 - I still hold that the lead couple is nice but not sure about anything else. 

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 1 of 8 - I don’t know what it is about a voice over + Thailand but it never works well, it’s always jaw-clenchingly cliché. I don’t know if it’s the way the script is written or the limited capacity of those captioning it, but it’s never as poetic as it’s trying to be. It’s like a poem written by a middle schooler who thinks they’re very deep. This is one of those situations where the Gaga interface is failing me, because I need the skip ahead button and not the 1.5 speed (although I’m using it). Look, I’m really not into 90s nostalgia. All that said, and despite the fact that this was mostly about a pack of kids running around, which is not my thing, I actually enjoyed this ep. I was hoping to take this one out of rotation because I have too much on at the mo. But I guess it’s staying in. JaFirst = penpals who never meet. ManTitle = sunshine chatty and The Boy Who Never Speaks. Mean = the clownish leader, and random other boy = the token het. 

Big Dragon (Sat Gaga) 2 of 8 - Surprise kink! This is a bunch of rough and angry nonsense, but fun nonsense. Like relationship drama between friends you don’t really like. Things that are meant to be funny, aren’t funny, things that are meant to be tense, aren’t tense, but I’m still watching it. I think that makes me the sucker, tho. 

Work from Heart (Thurs YouTube) 4 of 7 - My Favorite boy with the tattoos makes a reappearance. But mostly this show is just really boring. 

Love in the Air (Thurs iQIYI) 9 of 13 - whatever, Pai: DUMPSTER FIRE TRASH WATCH ALONG HERE. 

Fahlanruk (Sun GaGa) 5 of 12 - And I’m out. This one is a dnf for me. Someone can tell me if the 2nd half is worth it, after it finishes, but I’m not gonna bother to watch it every week anymore. I genuinely don’t like any of the couples and the fujoshi framing is repulsive under the context of a narrative trying to be this authentically gay. I’ve lost all patience. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun (Japan GaGa & Viki) 8fin - These 2 were tooth achingly sweet and impossibly lovely. This show was beyond charming: soft, gentle, adorable and packed with cuteness and angst. Did anything actually happen? No. Was there any kind of even attempt at a plot? No. Did I enjoy the hell out of it, anyway? Oh yes. 9/10 TOTALLY RECOMMENDED UNDEMANDING FLUFFY GOODNESS 

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (Korea Thurs Viki) 1 of 8 - I like it a lot. Rich poor. Enemies to lovers. Forced proximity. Pretty boys. What’s not to enjoy? 

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Fri Gaga & Viki) 1 of 12 - It’s cute, quirky, well acted, and a bit slow moving. Pretty much what I expected. 

Kabe Koji (Japan Mon Viki) 2 of 10 - Seriously this should be everything I love in the world but Japan has to be overly creepy and stalker about it and now it’s totally borked it for me. Oh well. I’m still watching.

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

War of Y 20 eps - it’s just all too much for me.

My Roommate 32 eps of 2 minutes each + terrible production values? - I’m not bothering.

Oh My Sunshine Night 16 eps (update: 20) - I’m scared it’s gonna be sad, so I’m waiting for spies to tell me it’s safe, so far reported to be quite the soap opera.

To Sir With Love AKA Khun Chai 10 eps (update: 28!) - dito 

2 Moons 3 Thai (Mon ??) 10 eps - I searched for it in a lacklustre manner but couldn’t find it legally anywhere convenient so gave up. I will watch it if it’s easy to do so. 

SELF (Thurs ??) - same again 

Wish Me Luck (Sat ??) - and again

Hard Love Mission (Sat WeTV?) - and again 

I might have a bit of a hunt when I get back, but for now it difficult enough to keep up with the main list. 

Gossip

I have been seriously considering an UWMA rewatch (as Between Us starts up next month). I’ve never chronicled or properly reviewed UWMA (which is my all time favorite Thai BL). And my understanding of Thai has markedly improved since i last watched it. What do you think? Anyone else interested? 

Japan announced a new Takumi adaptation. I think is is a terrible idea for many reasons. 

Sorry the whole work thing means I haven’t had time to check my usual sources for BL announcements and new releases. Also, you’ll notice very few screen shots. It’s a mad crazy world out there beyond the boundaries of one’s homey high speed internet. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Look my calendar is a nightmare. It’s all just too much right now, you’ll have to wait tell I get everything sorted. There’s a lot of stuff airing, you should watch what you like and ask me for recs if none of it appeals. 

October 2022 line up is here.

This week’s best moments?

Finally!

Those smiles! 

So many jellies 

(last week)

Current earworm? HYNN's The Story of Us featuring a very familiar face with some of my favorite dimples 

[chalkrevelations]

What the Ai in Ai'Kinn means?

Hi Anon,

I'm assuming this is related to my post comparing Pete dropping Khun when he's addressing Vegas in Ep 14 to Porsche using Ai' when he's addressing Kinn in Ep 9. Full disclosure, my knowledge of Thai is extremely limited and mostly confined to what I've learned from Perth Nakhun (Ken in KP) on his Youtube channel, plus a couple of websites with advice for travelers. That being said:

The Ai' particle before someone's name is a type of address (like P') that's very informal and only used between very close friends, otherwise it's considered rude, derogatory, even confrontational. Like, there's a difference between when you call your BFF a shithead while you're out drinking together and when you call your boss a shithead at the office. Ai' doesn't mean "shithead," but that's the level of difference you're looking at when you use it with close friends vs. anyone else, from what I understand. The thing is, Porsche also constantly uses the very informal pronouns guu (I) and meung (you), which are also incredibly disrespectful and offensive unless, again, you're speaking to a very close friend. Like, potentially fistfight levels of disrespectful. (Pete, by contrast, clearly refers to himself as pom for "I" in the Ep 14 scene when he's speaking to Korn shortly after he noticeably does NOT use khun to address Vegas - "pom" is formal, respectful, polite and a little bit old-fashioned, which means it only points up his earlier lack of "khun." I found it interesting that Chay also uses "pom" for "I" with Kim, while using "phi" for "you" - at least during their argument at the bar - so there's a definite contrast the show sets up between brothers, using language.)

Porsche absolutely shouldn't be speaking to his boss in this way - he really shouldn't be speaking to anyone we see on the show other than Jom or Tem this way. The fact that he calls Kinn Ai'Kinn is a sign of either extreme rudeness or extreme intimacy - those are the only two choices - and while no one would be surprised at Porsche being extremely rude, given actual precedent, the tone in which he says "Ai'Kinn" is clearly NOT being rude, and Kinn noticeably doesn't take any offense from it. That Porsche does this in front of Big and Ken tells them ... pretty much everything about Kinn's and Porsche's relationship there is to know.

[connoisseursdecomfort]

How to get Anya to trust you: The Importance of Aligning Thoughts and Action

The one thing I really appreciate about Ep. 20 is that line from Twilight:

“Because we can’t read minds, we must let go of all preconceptions.”

This speaks so much about BOTH Twilight and Anya. We all know and appreciate how nonjudgemental Twilight tries to be. But the thing is, Anya does have preconceptions. 

Yes, she loves waku-waku, and she often gets into trouble because of her curiosity. But she doesn’t trust anyone until their behaviours align with their thoughts.

The manga/anime also shows us the two scenes where Anya runs away from Twilight and Yor in their first meetings when she senses danger. 

The first one, of course, being Twilight thinking to himself how holding her hands means he can’t prepare for an enemy’s attack. I think she bears that in mind and seldom holds his hand - she’s often seen to be clinging to his legs after that when she feels insecure tho. She thinks spies and missions are waku-waku, and she knows Twilight is a huge liar, but she doesn’t think he’s cool until he reminds himself how he wants to make a better world for children, and that she knows he means what he says and he truly acts on it.

Anya also thinks assassins are waku-waku, and one can only imagine how soft Yor’s thoughts get when she sees Anya. Anya is very happy about that until she hears how Yor broke Yuri’s bones by just hugging him. Things only changed after Yor saved Anya from those kidnappers/gangsters outside the supermarket, when Anya hears Yor’s thought on how Yor wants to become a better mother and actually tries her best.

The same goes for Becky in ep 7/ch 9 too. 

Anya must have met so many people who would think the nicest thoughts but do nothing to help her. She must have seen how the nicest thoughts could turn into evil stuffs in a slight second. Thoughts help you understand more about people, but they mean nothing if you don’t do anything about them. And is that why Anya is still not friends with Damian yet (not until the latest chapter tho)?

And Anya, so smol and scared, went from default run-for-cover mode in ep 1 to default run-for-haha mode in ep 12, and to run-towards-danger-to-rescue-chichi mode in ep 14.

PS. I don’t think wanting spies and assassins as parents mean anything other than waku-waku to Anya at first. Anya wants to Twilight to adopt her not only because he’s a spy, but to be honest, Twilight’s thoughts are just neutral but the owner of that orphanage is downright hostile. Being a spy is just a plus. Yor’s thoughts are probably peaceful and nice to read for Anya until she is triggered and goes into her murder fantasies. `but then Yor would stop herself from thinking any further anyway. It doesn’t occur to Anya that they have high-stakes jobs. She wouldn’t even understand what high-stakes means.

Wanting waku-waku doesn’t mean wanting to get into trouble. Do you remember how many times our parents have to tell us NOT TO PLAY WITH THE FAN, NOT TO JUMP ON THE BED, NOT TO PLAY WITH FIRE, and us thinking, but it doesn’t hurt if we try just a little? This is Anya isn’t it? I’ll go look for the doggie, just a little. I’ll just get into this secret passage, just a little. Just a little won’t hurt, she thinks. We were all Anya, we just don’t have spies and assassins as parents, and because they are hiding their identities, they would not have this lecture with Anya, not even: I have this and that here and do NOT ever mess with my spy/assassin stuffs because this and that could happen and you’ll never get to come home.

[that-bl-bitch]

Reveal your watch and rewatch drama list

I was tagged by @ommited-miscellaneously thanks! Cause I saw this and actually wanted to do this :)

Currently watching

Cherry blossom after winter- loving this a lot I already thought I was gonna like it before it premiered but I like it waaaay more than thought honestly I think it’s going to be the best KBL I ever watched

Cutie pie- at first I was not Vibing with this show but then I kinda changed the way I was thinking about and I realize it’s actually a really good show and I’m so excited for the next episode

Enchanté- yeah I like this show, good show, solid show

Koisenu futari- it took me so long time to find a way to watch this show and soooo much effort way more than I’ve put into finding a show in a while I forgot the struggle, I came to so many dead ends and I was this close to giving up and at like the third wall I hit I fucking got it, and I’m so glad I didn’t give up cause this show is fucking fire so far, I’m about to start ep 5, and dare I say the best asexual representation I’ve ever seen from show

La cuisine- this one is very classic cute and simple and I love it a lot it’s nothing crazy it’s very straight to the point but it reminds of the BLs I used to watch when I first discovered BLs and it’s like oddly nostalgic for me lol

Love stage!!- shows great, a little hard to find good subtitles but it works out

Physical therapy- I hate this show I’m only watching this cause I started it and I hate quitting shows especially this close to the end there is one pro to this show and it’s the the main couple do have some of the best chemistry I’ve seen like they can be doing the most mundane things and it gets me shy but even that isn’t enough to make me like the show as a whole

The tuxedo- this show is fine it’s 8 eps with a 20 min run time so not huge commitment so I’m into it even if it gets bad, so far so good I’m invested in the story so I’m not having a miserable time

To watch/coming soon

There are a lot of things I plan on watching like say Gap for example OMG I’m so excited but that would be a way to long long list so Im just going to do the stuff I plan on starting soon plus the April stuff I plan to watch

Dear doctor, I’m coming for soul- I’m starting this one probably today i was just waiting to get caught up on the tuxedo first and I just finished that yesterday

SCOY- I’m gonna start this as soon as start dear doctor, I was gonna watch this when it was first announced cause I was excited for multiple reasons but overtime I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good so I changed my mind but then I changed my mind again cause it was only 6 episodes but then it updated to 14 and I was out again cause what if it was so bad i would have to stay cause I don’t like starting and then abandoning them unless it’s absolutely necessary but as it’s been on I’ve been keeping my eye on it and it’s peeking my interest so i think I’m gonna watch it even it is bad, I mean I hate physical therapy but I watched it from the beginning and I’m going to the end, I can do it for SCOY

Blueming- I’m so excited for this I think it’s going to be really good, if you didn’t know I’m not a huge fan of KBLs but so far this year they have been blowing me out of the water and there’s like a bunch I’m actually looking forward to which doesn’t really happen for me

Kinnporsche- finally will be watching this one but lowkey not sure if I’m gonna like it as much as I thought

Fukou-kun wa kiss suru shika nai- don’t know much about this one but the synopsis got me

What’s zabb man!- can’t wait to see my genY boys!!

Meow Ears up- Listen...... I hate shit like this absolutely hate shit like this and like heard talking of the show for a while and like obviously I wasn’t going to watch it but then recently they released a trailer and I was just around so I just watched it just for kicks and giggles‘s and I liked it alot like the main couple was better than thought they were going to be and the side BL couple was cute as hell then they showed a side GL couple and I died and I had to watch it and now it’s on my list and now I’m gonna watch a show where a man and a cat fall in love,,,,☠️ also just to add this trailer had no subtitles and still got me invested in the story somehow and the GL couple is like a sort of boss and assistant/ underling employee situation and oh god I love the power imbalance I have to watch it

Plus & minus

Star in my mind

Rewatching

And I’m not rewatching anything right now I only rewatch things when I have absolutely nothing else to watch and right now I’m busy enough

im tagging: @listeningwithearphones @missjennym @a-wilting-wallflower and whoever no pressure and sorry if you already got tagged and did this lol

[swinterr]

fic rec vii ♡

hi!

this is a another new set of fic rec and i’ll probably do a compilation of genre (?) just like the first ones.

read and support the fic and authors here: the fic rec ♡

made some changes like tidying up a bit and adding summary, for those that doesn’t have any summary i’ll try my best to add my own summary (it will probably be shit tho, i ain’t making a smut summary guys, i’m not confident in my describing a fic ability but i’ll try my best. if its in italic it means i made the summary hehez )  if the summary is shit, i made it okay.

a for angst

f for fluff

s for smut

// for series or list

kpop oc/s

1. jane by @baejiyeonz

2. bee by @purpleyellow

3. lian by @nct-lian

4. taehui by @jeontaehui

nct

sungchan

1. [10:47 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

haechan

1. [5:21] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

2. you’re warm by @dreamystuffers | f

- a drunk hyuck can only mean a clingy hyuck.

3. you’re short too by @pastelsicheng | f

- 5 times hyuck teases u for ur height.

4. no title by @heychan | s 

- dirty thought cockwarming haechan and johnny comes in to the room while you are trying to hide it but haechan doesn’t care.

5. wishes by @lucaswithnoshirt | a f

- standing on stage is everything you’ve dreamed of. except in the time it’s taken you to get there, you’ve been dreaming about other things, too.

jaehyun

1. moving in: the series by @jaehyun-ified | f

- after agreeing to move-in with jaehyun, you decided to curate a little series on your channel to both give in to your viewer’s request to have jaehyun frequently on your contents and to document your moving in process with the love of you life.

2. [8:14 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam. 

3. boyfriend by @simpsiren | a 

- a relationship with jaehyun wasn’t always perfect. there wasn’t a definite label on it, which only sent the relationship down a complicated pathway as we tried to find the meaning of our love once again.

4. best part by @okayoongii | f

- don’t know how to describe this tho, just read it. also 10/10

5. can i help you? by @sugarjaee | f s

- when working an extra long shift at work, your boyfriend surprises you with a visit.

6. stages of love by @biletdoux | a f s

- a playlist for the trials and tribulations of a beating heart. 

7. [9:04 am] by @jeongvision | // f

- domestic fluffy blurb. 10/10!!

8. suds by @kim-taehung | s

- first person to move does the dishes for a week. nothing is off-limits.

9. promise by @bvbyxuxi | f a

- jaehyun has loved you since you were both kids, things were going well until he messed everything up; meeting again as young adults, he refuses to let you go again but would you give him another chance?

mark

1. one minus on plus one by @wonjaekook | f a 

- in all of the years you’ve known jungwoo, you should have figured out to not take his words at face value because, though you haven’t even met, mark lee seems to hate your guts. 

2. [12:03] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

3. pretty boy by @epinebleue | f a

- fluff, the tiniest bit of angst, the reader is two years older than mark, jaehyun makes an appearance as the reader’s fuck buddy, use of alcohol and drugs (marijuana), mentions of violence (mark punches someone), smut (protected sex, inexperienced!mark, dry humping).

4. camera flash by @morkleemelon | f

- mark taking a picture but forgot to remove flash waking up oc, pretty fluffy and cute! 10/10!!!

5. retrouvailles by @kireimarkeu | f

- counting down the days until you finally see your long-distance boyfriend.

jungwoo

1. [1:14 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

johnny

1. man-icure by @haejunehui | f

- based on jcc ep. 26

taeyong

1. reverb by @lovingonrepeat | s

- taeyong + studio sex. 

2. unspoken by @bvbyxuxi | f s 

- you had never thought to see taeyong again after your one night stand with him until this year where he takes you by surprise; turns out he wasn’t the guy you sought him out to be after all.

ten

1. [2:32 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

lucas

1. [4:31 pm] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

2. king of hearts by @raibebe | f s a

- a little bit of everything, a chef’s kiss. 

yuta

1. [5:51 pm ] by @dont-look-down-on-me | f

- based on the nct relay cam.

doyoung 

1. redamancy by @heavenlyhaechan | f

- this is just so fluffy! i wished to be doyong gf please. 

2. fools together by @yongiefilms | f

- two fools in love with each other? 

3. acedia by @jaeminscoffee | f

- a day in the life of yours and doyoung's love life.

4. our little secret by @haejunehui | f

- read to know their little secret. hehe.

5. caught red handed by @hannie-dul-set | f

- all you wanted to do was take a picture of the handsome law student during your train ride home. you did not expect things to end up like this.

jeno

1. i see red by @0097linersb | s

- pure filth 🥵10/10 tho.

2. addiction by @love-mi | s f

- you and jeno keep your relationship a secret to avoid backlash from your companies and fans; but keeping himself away only makes him want you more.

3. surprise visit by @nakamotonudes | f s

- you hadn’t seen your boyfriend for over a month because of his hectic schedule so when he suddenly shows up at your place one night for a surprise visit, you both have to make every second worth it.

bts

jungkook

1. the pitter-patter of the heart by @koorara | f s a //

- pieces of newlywed domestic moments with jungkook, your husband. the young film and literature lecturer and his wife, you, who works as a journalist of a web magazine. both of you managing the career, the time for each other and the new house. not to forget, chip, the cat that has been with you for years. 

2. please love me by @ahundredtimesover | // f s a 

- as the only unmarried jeon and kim children, your families propose a union to symbolize your unbreakable bond that spans generations. but despite developing an affection for jungkook growing up, he never returned it; he never seemed to like you, actually. you’re okay with the proposal, but surprise surprise, he isn’t.

3. first love, last love by @floralseokjin | f s //

- a collection of drabbles following the longterm relationship between jungkook and you... 

4. second chances by @parkhabits | a s

- work. one of the most important things to him. It kept him company at night, it was all he thought about, all he put his attention to. his work had become the mistress within your marriage. years after you left him you’re back with only one goal in mind. get him to sign the damn divorce papers. yet you should’ve known that your husband wouldn’t let you go that easily. 

5. crush by @jungxk | f s 

- jungkook woke up with amnesia (?) he totally forgets that he has a wife and child. and he totally has a huge crush on his wife. 

6. bare necessities by @gguksgalaxy | f s a

- when you ask your boyfriend for a relaxing vacation you don’t exactly expect him to take you to disneyland out of all places. luckily, jungkook knows just how to get you to relax — being needy is definitely not the way. or is it…

7. krampus for christmas by @ddaenysus | f

- when your daughter overhears your nightly activities close to christmas, jungkook takes it upon himself to convince her it was the sounds of the legendary demon goat.

8. a date with destiny by @imjustfanfictrash | f s

- you are a boss lady in the tech industry traveling to world for work. he is a chart-topping artist touring the globe to perform in front of millions of fans. In the cosmos of life, you are not likely to cross paths. luckily, fate has a different plan for you two.

9. stranded by @gguksgalaxy | f s a

- jungkook’s offer to help you study for your exam is unwelcome. his entire presence is unwelcome. you don’t want help from the guy who passes all his classes without even trying. it’s annoying — he is annoying. from the way he grins whenever he catches you staring at him, to the way his eyes shine whenever he smiles at you. oh, and let’s not forget the way his tattoos shift when he stretches or the way his jawline sharpens when he’s focused. nope, you definitely can’t stand him.

10. sprout by @v-hope | f

- after a nice evening out with your friends, you find yourself coming home to your sleeping toddler and the new hairstyle she had tried on your husband.

11. friday nights and take-out by @ahundredtimesover | // f s a

- you meet pop star/idol jeon jungkook at the café, you get close, and as hyejin says, you’re like friends with benefits without the sex. but you’re bad at feelings and so is he.

12. jealousy by @ephemeralkookie | f s a

- jungkook’s closest friend, namjoon is getting married and he invited you three to his wedding. the only unexpected thing was jisoo, his ex, and we’ll just say that you were not too happy to see her flirting with your boyfriend right under your nose

13. a quarter past us by @jjiimin | f a

- when you break up with him out of fear of losing your freedom in university, he finds himself showing you why leaving him isn’t the answer. 

14. pretty boy by @angelguk | // f s a

- alternatively known as the jock!jk universe drabbles in vague chronological order. 

15. summer solstice by @boulevardk | s

- down on your luck and desperate for a successful harvest, you pray to the gods. you figure no one in heaven was listening to your prayers when nothing happens immediately. but one fateful night, your prayers are answered. are you willing to pay the price? the sacrifice might not be what you were expecting….

16. lilac wisteria by @blushoseoks | f a 

- over the years, things change - but the one constant is your love for lilac wisterias.…okay, maybe jungkook’s been there too.or, alternatively:the first time jeon jungkook says that he is going to marry you, you are five years old sitting underneath a large wisteria tree.

17. obsessed with your ass by @kooklovesu | f s 

- jungkook has an obsession with your body he cant get enough of praising you. he wasn’t comfy showing the world his affection towards you in public because he’s a private guy, but when he finally did, good luck.

18. from home by @gyukult | // f s a

- jungkook is the youngest of five boys, the last in line to truly inherit any his parents’ money. but what if his mom suddenly cuts him off due to his current poor behavior and he’s forced to learn how it feels like to be part of the working class?

19. black card by @minsprings | // f s

- black card fic and drabbles, also a chef’s kiss.

20. oh my god, they were (quarantined) roommates by @ot7always | f s

- what do you do when you’re quarantined for months on end with jeon jungkook - s tier cuddler, workout robot, and thirst trap extraordinaire? fuck him, you guess.

21. let the games begin by @venusiangguk | s

- just another fic where oc rides jk in his gaming chair pls still read it tho lmao its hot i promise

22. the probability of us by @jiminrings | f s

- jungkook’s the son of the university’s president, y/n’s cardigan is everyone’s favorite, and adjacent walls mean shared victories. 

23. open when by @iluv-hobi | f

- jungkook likes to write letters to you, especially ones with purposes, like “open when ___”. one day, on a particularly bad day, you open, “open when you’ve had a shitty day”. 

24. good day by @ilikemesometaetaes | f s

- his motive was made quite clear once he called you out of work. he just wanted to spend a nice day with his girlfriend. is that too much to ask for?

25. calculated by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // s 

- some people would call you far too serious. some would call you stuck-up. and some would call you a bitch. but to freshman jeon jungkook, you’re the head calculus I TA noona  – and he’s determined to fuck you.

26. brat taming by @sugasbabiie | s a f

- jungkook has been your roommate for almost a year. since the day he moved in he has acted like nothing but a spoiled little brat who is used to getting anything and anyone he wants. he eats your food, he doesn’t clean, he’s loud, oh and now he has colored his hair the exact shade of blonde as you. He’ll do anything to get under your skin. you’ve had enough of his filthy mouth and his fuckboy ways. it’s time to tame that bratty little roommate of yours. think you can handle it?

27. sugarplum energy by @bymoonchild | f s a

- you know no bounds nor depth with jungkook. while your fuck buddy loves sleeping in your bed and doing laundry for you with his favourite fabric softener, you are in love with a mysterious honeyed, velvety voice on soundcloud. all’s fine, until you find out that the voice that metaphors your heart to a sweet sugarplum melody actually belongs to the boy who has been taking up a special spot in your bed and in your heart, strumming at your heartstrings all this while. or, jungkook has one braincell, but it’s heart-shaped.

28. ancient history by @moononthejoon | a s f

- there is no way to deny that you and jungkook have chemistry. the two of you used to be a couple, after all. what happens when after a not-so-amicable breakup the two of you are cast as opposite leads of a movie?

29. that’s not daddy by @nochuobsessed | f

- jungkook comes home with a new hair color and his sons can’t tell if he’s appa or not. pretty cute! 10/10

30. no title by @himbojk | s

- jk got a blowie from his oc while on a zoom class meeting, like cam on with a whole set up but his oc under the table sucking the life out of him while he sits and tries to take notes .

31. dilf jk by @himbojk | // s f

- dilf jk drabbles.

32. no title by @himbojk | s

- blond jk with full tattoo sleeve who looks like the baddest boy but is actually baby and just wants a handie in the library while studying with his oc because she aspires to have those high grades. 

33. no title by @noteguk | s

- bf!jungkook going down on the reader while they watch anime.

34. silent treatment by @blu-joons | f

- baby kook asking daddy kook to say sorry to mommy. 10/10 too!

35. getting railed by @dearlytea | s

- getting dicked by your boyfriend during a train ride.

36. the view by @koyamuses | s

- jungkook knows exactly what turns you on; every kink, every dirty fantasy that’s buried deep within your mind. he knows exactly how to make you beg for it.

37. let’s play: dirty by @jungkxook | f s

- on today’s stream, watch as the king of gaming jeon jungkook gets totally pwned by some newbie player on overwatch (he swears he was stream sniped)! to make matters worse, he can’t seem to focus anymore when you’re in the room but he promises that’s not because he’s in love with you or anything. use code ‘jungkook’ on any game purchase through steam at checkout for 25% off so that jungkook has something to feel better about! iloveyou btw!

38. more dilf!jk by @cutechim | s

- oc thirsting over jk, talk about finances, jungwoo is an innocent cock-block as infants are, disrespect towards a major film franchise. 

39. you are inherently beautiful by @ggukachuwu | f a

- when y/n and jungkook accidentally reveal their relationship to the public because she walked in on him doing a vlive and now netizens and kmedia are tearing apart her appearance because y/n is chubby from struggling with pcos. jungkook takes it upon himself to cheer her up because he absolutely adores her.

40. morning with jk by @min-arya | f

- jungkook drabble of him catching his s/o admiring him in the morning with soft sleepy cuddles.

41. even a forest fire dies out by @9uk | a s

- it became from “grab a coffee with me?” to “why should I grab a coffee with you?” too fast for your liking. you had thought the both of you were so in love with each other—only to realise it was only you who had fallen into this trap of feelings. and as for jungkook, he might have just been as confused as you are.

42. all that we had by @starlightauroras-writes | a s

- four years, two months and five days ago, you lost the love of your life with no explanation. living with a failed marriage at such a young age without knowing why was impossibly hard, and when you’re invited to your high school reunion, knowing he would be there, you really don’t want to go. what happens when you do leaves you questioning fate. 

43. aquarium by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // a

- life after jeon jungkook was grey. you had to find your own color, grow your own rainbow. but what would surprise you the most is the appearance of white cosmos, seven of them clutched tightly in kim taehyung’s hand.

44. contentment by @btsqualityy | f s 

- oc’s using jk’s card to buy rug and the rest is history. 10/10!!

45. heartbreaker with a heart of gold by  @filmflowersbangtan | a s

- love this!!! you know i love me some angst! 10/10!!!!!

46. the ikea test by @mercurygguk | f

- you and jeongguk face the IKEA test. successfully? sure!

47. before you universe by @ephemeralkookie | // a f s

- jungkook has taken a huge place in your life after he tattooed you, and you can’t even picture how life was before him. he has always been there for you since day one. but how will things change after you find out you’re pregnant?  

48. christmas cream(pie) by @smoochkooks | s f

-  a day before christmas dinner with your boyfriend’s parents, you discover another alternative way to use the chocolate cream you’re making. jungkook is more than willing to indulge in your little fantasy.

49. last minute by @moononthejoon | f s

- christmas day had gone by, and now you were back home after holidays with your family. your friends had agreed to have a late christmas party, but as always, you and jungkook procrastinated gift buying.

50. you go in knowing bros together by @blu-joons | f

- a cute fluffy knowing at knowing bros moment. 

51. no title by @v-hope | f

- the way y/n would react when someone else flirts with jk and how he’d handle the situation.

52. hair dye by @mercurygguk | f s

- jungkook got his hair dyed while at work. you lose your mind the moment he steps through the door.

53. stay gold by @yeojaa | s

- blond!jk being a good boy?

54. crystal snow by @honeyj00ns | f

- when you join Jungkook and the rest of the guys for some fun in the snow, he can’t help but feel jealous.

55. 6:21 am by @sincerelyourfangirl | f

- in which he makes your morning extra special.

56. plan b by @btsracket | s

- dressing room quickie, unprotected sex request, use of Plan b pill

57. possession by @bngtanah | s

- jungkook is your boyfriend, sometimes you have to remind him what that means.

58. puffs and touches by @mintseesaw | f s

- “Stop doing that with your face, someone else is going to snatch you up”

59. the quiet things by @btsracket | s

- sleeping bag sex.

60. good boy by @ephemeralkookie | s

- secret, read to find out AHAHAHHA.

61. make it right by @jungkxook | a s

- you’re wholeheartedly, madly in love with jungkook and yet you shouldn’t be because it’s been almost a year since you broke up with him. worst part of it all is that you know he’s still in love with you too

62. it takes two by @junghelioseok | s

- struggling with the idea of your ex-boyfriend moving on, you enlist the help of your quiet roommate in a scheme that quickly spirals out of control.

jimin

1. picking petals by @cutechim | s 

- you asked for a baby, so a baby is what you’re going to get. 

taehyung

1. daddy by @btsracket | f s 

- there’s only one choice when this happens on a date out.

2. love me or we both go down by @gukyi | f s a

- after going through with an arranged marriage to please his parents and secure his inheritance of the family business, kim taehyung thinks he’s got it all figured out. he doesn’t. apparently just being married to you isn’t enough, not when everybody and their mother can pick up on the fact that the two of you absolutely loathe each other. but taehyung wants his inheritance one way or another, so he decides that desperate times call for desperate measures: the two of you need to fall in love, and you need to fall in love fast.

3. saudade by @jiminssthetic | a s f

- a demanding idol lifestyle was something taehyung and yourself were all too familiar with. it wasn’t so hard when considering your unconditional love for one another, but lately, taehyung wasn’t the same anymore; and you decide it’s time to find out why.

4. ineffable by @99liners | f

- boyfriend taehyung takes care of his sick s/o.

5. tease by @caiuscassiuss | s

- you knew you were hot. you saw how the guys looked at you, how their eyes were drawn to a tight t-shirt or short skirt. and maybe this would fail epically—crash and burn like a failed experiment—but you wanted to get under kim taehyung’s skin the only way you knew how.

6. aquarium by @whatifyoulivelikethat | // a

- life after jeon jungkook was grey. you had to find your own color, grow your own rainbow. but what would surprise you the most is the appearance of white cosmos, seven of them clutched tightly in kim taehyung’s hand.

got7

yugyeom

1. yugyeom as you boyfriend by @sunshinekookie | f

- i need more yugyeom fics in my life.

astro

eunwoo

1. rainy say saviour by @imsarahbum | f a

- upon seeing you getting bullied after school for being short, dongmin can’t help but step in and defend you - despite both of you not really knowing anything about each other.

anyway, thank you again for the writers please take care and be safe!

please free to recommend your favorite fic that i haven’t feature yet.

if the links won’t work and i labelled some fics wrong please let me know and i’ll try to fix it as soon as possible!

support the fic and the writers!

[kaypeace21]

The St d&d comic is giving strong byler vibes-and I’m here for it!

First we have in ch2 Mike being very defensive about Will-when visiting him in the hospital (between s1 /s1, 1 month time skip).

 Mike in s3 used the excuse of Nana to not talk to and lie to El -and the Will/nana parallel means (like s3 implied) Will is the reason mike actually wanted to avoid /lie to El. 

Mike says before d&d he was  “scared ALL the time “ of what everyone think of him- boys at school, his own family at home-he was scared everywhere he WENT. Sounds like a boy paranoid someone will find out -he’s not ‘normal”(cough gay).

On the next page-he admits d&d taught him to deal with homoph*bic bullies (troy and james) which he called “monsters at school”. And just like s1 - the bullying still mostly target Mike- despite Will being there.

He grows more and more insecure about how his friends will no longer want to play d&d again. And thinks he’s “stupid” for being so hung up on being so emotionally attached to the game-echoing Will’s feelings in s3 in relation to d&d etc.  

*It’s like how in s3, Will calls himself “stupid” after fighting with Mike and saying he thought they’d play the game for the rest of their lives (and not get gfs).Flo in s1: “only love makes you that crazy and that damn stupid.” In s2, next to their feet was the d&d game -when Mike and Will agree to go “crazy together”.I also told you Mike was bluffing in that s3 fight- why he got upset Will tried to give the game away at the end of the season 3 . And still had every d&d drawing Will gave him on his wall -throughout s1-3).

In the comic, Mike gets very insecure and upset when he assumes Will doesn’t want to play the game anymore- and like I mentioned in prior posts Mike (at the end of s1) decides to write a d&d story for Will. This assumption of mine was confirmed by this comic...

Mike eventually breaks down and cries admitting to Nancy  he’s “scared” for Will cause he can’t accept Will being a ‘victim’.Will HAS TO BE a hero to Mike .(which i don’t know- ‘victim’ is a very loaded term- kind of gives credence to my DID/C*A theory maybe). Plus, the idea that Mike is “scared” of what his family/strangers think of him and how he similarly is “scared” for Will- could be a hint they’re both lgbt. Mike dealing with homoh*bic “monsters at school” and Will dealing with literal “monsters” (that represent Will’s issues with his sexuality/ab*sive h*mophobic dad). And Mike as a child wants Will to destr*y that symbolic monster and help him do so.

Also notice his sad face of calling himself “stupid” matches his expression of being “scared” for Will.*Hopefully this is a hint Nancy will be accepting of byler (even if it takes a while).This discussion leads up to what we see at the end of s1. Mike in the last ep in s1 ,writes a d&d story for Will.  in ep one Will tells Mike “it was a 7, the demogorgan it got me.”At the end of the season Mike writes a whole story of him and his friends killing a 7 headed monster, and showing the decapitated head of the monster to king Tristan (Will). Similar to how at the hospital he tells Will to not worry cause “it’s dead now”. This is right after Will rolls a 14 (cause Mike and Will are 7s together). And Mike who is a fan of starwars has King Tristan give them medals after killing the monster. Cause he wants Will/king tristan (instead of Leia -a girl/princess) to present him with medals and be his romantic love interest.

After talking to Nancy ,Mike says in order for Will to be the hero -everyone (not just himself) has to work together to help . We also have Karen hug Will in identical framing of how she hugged Mike (after Will’s death). AWWW- we get it he’s your future son in law- karen . XD

These themes of the comic hint at what i already discussed in  more detail- in this previous post- Mike was bluffing about not wanting to play. Mike dedicated and wrote that s1 story specifically for Will. Like the pilot scripts mentioned about Will/Mike- d&d is used as an “escape” for both boys about their sexualities-and is heavily linked to their relationship in various scenes. In the pilot, they even say Will has “sexual identity issues” and uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about his sexuality “like mike” & Mike uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about not having a gf.  And no, dustin & Lucas didn’t use d&d to “escape” anything- in the pilot script bios.

ch1 also shows Mike was the one to tell Will about the game- he also gave him the nickname “Will the wise.” 

Plus, lol in ch 1 Lucas says romance books are useless (while Mike defends it’s worth-cough cause he low key writes one for Will in ch2).And Will symbolically runs away from romance as Mike chases him and says “wait up”. LOL XD

I take the comics with a grain of salt- as far as them being canon or only partially canon. But so far- pretty cute. So i wanted to share.