#plus like‚ since it's a comedy and already focus a lot on romance and relationships in general it's such a good base for fanfics

[just-a-little-unionoid]

currently realising with horror that if I want any fanfiction of the French Zorro TV adaptation to exist I will have to write it myself...

[deonideatta]

hi hi i heard you like chief kim and i'm here to get all the intel on why it's a good drama 😊 and what you love about park jae bum's other dramas 😊 pls let me know if there's romance bc that's the oxygen i breathe when i watch a show 💕

Hello!!! Thank you for asking me about Chief Kim!!!! I can go on about it for ages lol. This got a bit long so i’m putting it under a cut

Chief Kim (aka Good Manager) is a comedy office drama with 20 eps, and it aired in 2017. There isn’t a main romance plotline, but don’t let that put you off! It’s an incredible drama in so many ways. (tho there is a subtle romance side plot, but it doesn’t involve the main character and it’s never the main focus, though it is cute). It does feature a bromance that was so great that the two actors literally won an award for it tho lol, so there’s also that!

In a way, the general premise is somewhat similar to Vincenzo in that it’s the main character and an unlikely team of others fighting a big corporation. The comedic tone is also more or less the same. The drama follows Kim Seong Ryong (the titular Chief Kim, played by Namgoong Min), a man with a talent for handling numbers who goes from running a seedy accounting firm to quite accidentally becoming a champion of employees rights in one of the biggest corporations in the country. He originally joins the company with the goal of embezzling a lot money and moving abroad, but he gets swept up in office politics surrounding high executives and the sinister goings on surrounding the position he was recruited for, as well as the shady things the higher-ups want him to do and the suspicion of the other members of his department. Eventually he starts to work alongside them to fight the corruption of the higher ups, and quickly becomes the bane of top management’s existence by being so incredibly annoying that they begin to regret hiring him.

It’s the kind of drama that really gets you to laugh, while still being incredibly heartwarming. The main character is so unashamedly funny, and the character dynamics are all so warm, and none of it ever seems forced. The first tag for the drama on MyDramaList is “character development”, and that says a lot! There’s so much growth that goes on for all the characters, even some of the villains! It’s especially funny because to begin with all the good things Kim Seong Ryeong does are completely by accident, and he’s annoyed but also pleased with all the attention it gets him. Over time he begins to own it, and begins to actively try to stand up to the corrupt people at the top of the company. The other highlight for me besides the humor is definitely the characters. From the eccentric main character, to the no-nonsense second in command in his department Yoon Ha Kyung, to the aggressive finance director Seo Yul who is always eating (one of my all time favourite characters, played by 2PM’s Junho), to the janitor lady who always roasts everyone, there isn’t a single dull character, whether good or bad. And Seo Yul gets one of the best character arcs I’ve ever seen in a kdrama. You get to watch the characters struggle and triumph, and you feel for them because their struggles feel so real, and the drama really gets you invested in them. You see the ways in which they fight to survive as normal working class citizens and you want them to win.

It differs from Vincenzo in that the main character isn’t considered evil and loses his less savoury traits over the course of the drama (his character arc is one of becoming a more upstanding citizen), and the message is one of fighting against corporate greed using the corporate system against itself in order to make things better for the average working citizen. But there’s the same plotting, and the same feeling of rooting for the protagonist team to win as you watch them plot and plan. I never rewatch things, but i’ve rewatched Chief Kim twice already and i’m looking forward to rewatching it again soon (just writing about it is making me want to rewatch it right now lol). It especially hits well for me because i love office dramas, and the humor and the bromance are just right. (Also, not entirely related, but it’s the first drama Kim Seonho was in!)

Another Park Jaebum drama i can definitely recommend is The Fiery Priest! It’s also a comedy action drama with 20 eps (released in 2019), and it follows Kim Hae Il (Kim Nam Gil), a catholic priest with a real temper, as he works to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a senior priest. No romance there either, but it’s got the same humor as Chief Kim and Vincenzo, and the same overarching found family trope (that really shines for this one). It’s darker than Chief Kim, but not as dark as Vincenzo. The plot is very intriguing, and it’s the kind of drama you feel compelled to keep watching to see what happens next. And the host of characters in that drama is still one of my favourites to this day. Every character was incredibly written, and they all played vital roles in the overall story. Again, lots of character development all round, and great character arcs not just for the main character (even for a few of the villains!). Plus it was lovely to watch the various characters interact, get closer, and build relationships. Such an iconic squad. Not to mention how funny it is?? And the fight scenes??? In fact, I enjoyed it so much that when I checked Park Jaebum’s page on MyDramaList after watching it around June last year and saw Vincenzo as an upcoming project, I added it to my plan to watch list immediately even though there was only a single line of synopsis lol. It’s also got an absolute banger of a soundtrack!

When you think about it, all three (Chief Kim, TFP and Vincenzo) can be simplified to “guy with dubious past sets out to fight corruption and creates a great support circle in the process”. All three are dramas of finding people who care about you and are willing to fight alongside you, and fighting for your convictions/what you think is right. Each main character starts out as a somewhat solitary figure, and you get to watch as they each find people who are willing to fight alongside them and support them. What exactly those specific convictions are varies in each drama, but Park Jaebum writes the character development arcs incredibly each time, and the relationships between the characters are so real and so satisfying to watch. And yet the integrity of the main character in each drama is never compromised either, it’s shown that they can grow and become better without losing themselves. The growth is also in the way that they learn to work with and rely on others, because teamwork makes the dream work. And then to cap it all off he lets them have victories, and he makes it SO satisfying??? There are highs and there are lows, and you feel all of those right there with the characters, which makes the victories feel so so good. In each we see the ensemble cast get involved with the fight and the plotting, and we get to see all their epic plans and their execution, and the victories they win that build up over time. And it’s so satisfying to me! I love it a lot, just thinking about it is making me smile lol. It also shows how well humor and darker/more serious plotlines/events are balanced in the dramas, neither is compromised in favour of the other, but it always works so well that the humor never feels forced or out of place. As someone who doesn’t like overbearingly dark shows, I really appreciate that. They all give you lots to laugh at, while not losing any of the plot to the funny.

Of course there are differences, notably the romance, and the fact that Vincenzo is bad vs bad rather than good vs bad like the other two. They deal more with redemption (especially The Fiery Priest), but that works for the stories that are being told, and it’s very well executed.

It’s worth noting that Park Jaebum also wrote Good Doctor and 4 seasons of God’s Quiz. I haven’t checked those out yet, but I’ve heard good things about all of them. He also wrote Blood, I haven’t seen that one either but opinions seem to be split on how good it was. All of those are medical dramas (which is the reason I haven’t watched them lol, i can’t stand medical dramas) from before 2017, when he wrote Chief Kim. It seems he’s been on a roll since then, good for him and good for us lol. You can see everything he’s written on his MyDramaList page.

Overall I enjoyed the Park Jaebum dramas I have seen for first and foremost the comedy, but also for the warmth of the character relationships and for how well developed/written each character is. And I love how he balances the humor with more poignant/darker moments, I laughed a lot watching all three dramas, but I’ve cried over each of them as well. It’s a good balance to have, it gives you a good plot to be interested in, but doesn’t keep you stressed and sombre the whole way through. I’ve seen people say that Vincenzo wouldn’t be as good if it wasn’t so wacky, and I fully agree. It’s the same for both TFP and Chief Kim, and that balance is definitely what I appreciate most in Park Jaebum’s dramas. I know I will laugh, but I also know I will get an incredible plot and incredible characters, and that’s really important for me. Plus I know I can trust that there will be a good ending because the writer cares about his characters.

I definitely recommend checking out both TFP and Chief Kim after Vincenzo is done, especially since they’re so similar in terms of comedic tone and basic plot direction. If you ever get to watching either of them feel free to hmu to chat about it!! There’s lots of plot stuff that can be can discussed.

lol this got v long (i have lots to say about how much i love these dramas haha), but I hope it’s helpful!!!

[insertsexualitypun]

Some things I want from Legacies S3

This is going to be all over the place and pretty long. This’ll start with the general storyline things, then get down into smaller character arcs and whatnot. I’ll try to keep it somewhat organized and grouped by character but I make no promises. Also if you wanna talk about any of these feel free to dm! I’m incredibly bored in quarantine and would love to chat

- An introduction of a greater storyline past Malivore and moving away from the monster of the week thing. I know Legacies is supposed to be something different from TVD and TO, and the monster of the week concept is an interesting way to explore the universe past what we already knew, but with the premise as it exists and has been carried out now, it’s hard to develop the characters and relationships. If the characters are fighting new things every week, that makes it hard to give characters like MG and Kaleb their own stories. With a villain to anchor the season as the Big Bad, we can get characters that haven’t been given much of their own storyline a way to get more screentime as they go try and find someone or something with answers.

- GIVE HOPE HER OWN STORYLINE PAST BEING THE HERO/MARTYR AND BEING IN LOVE WITH LANDON. Hope is supposed to be the main character but this doesn’t feel like her story. As awesome as it is seeing Hope be a badass and fight monsters, I want more development from her as a person.

- Kind of ties back into the last one, but let Hope have more Dark moments like the Death Spell incident. Moments that show that while she isn’t just another Klaus, she still shares some of his tendencies towards violence and lashing out. This could work really well if they decide to keep Landon out of the picture for a few episodes.

- Let Hope and Landon break up amicably (assuming Landon isn’t really dead which let’s be real he probably isn’t) so that, again, they can grow as people. Then, if you want, they can get back together. Or just stay broken up and be friends

-  A resolution to the Necromancer - he’s a fun character and while I think he’d be fun to have around for a bit, I don’t think he’s an anchoring villain for a season. Plus to me I kinda figured that they were gonna wrap up his storyline in the last 3 episodes that they didn’t get to film before the production shutdown so chances are we’re getting this anyway.

- Either bring back Ethan, Maya and Mac more prominently, or don’t bring them back at all. Don’t get me wrong, I like the town normies storyline when it comes up, but it doesn’t come up much. Apparently, they were supposed to be in the last 3 episodes more but who knows. With the show already feeling kinda crowded (because again, the format of the show now doesn’t really allow for a ton of characters since they aren’t significantly developing, especially when these characters are in a setting completely removed from the main action of the show’s narrative), either have the normies for more than just getting caught in a magical crossfire, or put them to the side and focus on who you have at the school.

- The TVDU has progressed past the need for Alaric. That’s all I’ll say.

- The show being a little more self aware at the ridiculousness of it all. Like yeah, it’s not completely without that, but the last thing we need is the show devolving into a Riverdale, where the first season was aware of the ridiculous nature of itself, and then it started to take itself way too seriously.

- MORE LGBTQ+ REP. The show has done fairly well thus far compared to other CW shows but there’s still so much than can be done. The show doesn’t need to have show-stopping coming out storylines or anything - it’s actually the opposite. We get the casual drop of Josie having dated Penelope in the first episode of the show which was great. So let’s have more simple stuff like that. More mentions at crushes and other past romances - for all characters - that just allow for other sexualities to be normalized and not some earth shattering thing. 

- This ties into the last one but I felt like it deserved its own bullet, but also what is V NEEDED is rep of trans, genderfluid and non-binary characters. Again, it doesn’t have to be a huge storyline, but it’d be nice to have some recurring characters who are not cis. The show is meant to be set in a near future, so I think it’d be nice to show a normalized view on differing gender expression and sexuality as sort of a hope that such a future will exist.

- Hope loving beignets, eating/wanting to eat them all the time, and getting powdered sugar all over her dark clothes from them. Chances are, if you’re from/have been to NOLA, you’ve tried beignets and loved them because they’re amazing. SO LET HOPE HAVE HER BEIGNETS DAMN IT.

- More Wolf Hope moments. Let her turn more and just run because it let’s her feel more connected to Hayley :’( also the Crescent birth mark if that was ever a thing for Hope... I can’t remember, I’ve seen different things about it, lmk (politely) if that was ever a thing that Hope had

- Hope painting and sketching. It’s one of the few connections she still has with Klaus, SO LET HER EXPRESS HERSELF DAMN IT. (Yes, any time I say SO in all caps I need to end the sentence with DAMN IT, it’s a Thing now)

- MIKAELSON FAMILY MENTIONS AND APPEARANCES. Granted this one is different because there are real life schedules and whatnot that need to align, but even just more mentions of Mikaelson family members and others like Vincent would be nice. Yeah we’ve had some in the past, but it would still be nice to get some more. Also at least a mention of Rebekah and Kol checking in on Hope (assuming the writers aren’t going to pull something dumb like ‘oh the memory spell doesn’t work long distance like that so they still don’t remember her’)

- Hope also talking more about Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus. Again, feeling connected to her mom every time she’s a wolf. Always and forever, like Elijah always said. Telling stories about her father that put him in a better light than just being “The Great Evil” of storybooks.

- Hope being open with her friends about her past and how TERRIBLE it was a lot of the time like, y’know, people trying to kill her before she was even BORN.

- I’ve said this before in a separate post (which I’ll link at some point so expect an edit to this post) but I’d love for something to happen and for Hope to leave the school and go to NOLA and stay with Freya, Keelin and Nik because she’s tired of having to be the savior and still not saving everyone. (Also in that post it says Alaric comes and gets her and brings her back to the Salvatore School but we’ve progressed past the need for him in the TVDU so instead it’ll be the twins)

- Hizzie moments because whether you like them as romantically or just as friends, they are a DUO and we deserve more iconic sarcasm as well as genuine moments of friendship and caring

- Lizzie being the absolute Queen of Comedy

- But more importantly, Lizzie being more open about her issues and taking steps to have better mental health.

- Lizzie and MG having more open conversations and letting a relationship develop naturally - yes there has been a lot of development since season 1 but I feel like they both have a bit of growth to go before they should enter a relationship, if that’s something that happens

- Lizzie being happily single for a bit and not going for a guy that’s going to try and turn her into a vamp and keep her in a prison world 

- MG and Kaleb getting proper storylines or at least more play than just being the Local Vampires who help depending on the situation. They deserve WAY more than that

- ALSO MG and Kaleb backstories. How did they die and how did they get vampire blood in their system to keep them from dying permanently?

- Josie dealing with what happened pre and post Dark Josie and facing that she has always had some darkness in her. Yeah the dark magic definitely didn’t help, but she was willing to perform a spell that she didn’t know on a human over a football game and ended up breaking his arm. Not to mention, she was setting Penelope on fire as early as the first episode. It seems like we’re getting this since Josie locked away her magic in the last episode, but still, I don’t want this to just be a one episode reflection and then move on like she didn’t cause a lot of harm.

- More Hosie crumbs

- More Jade. OK admittedly this is probably really due to the fact that Giorgia Whigham is a Big Crush for me, but also the show really did start integrating her in a bit more with the black and white episode, which makes me think they’re keeping her around at least for a little bit. And I think she and Josie dating at least for a little while would be good for both of them. Jade was a ripper for 10 years in the prison world, and Josie was just consumed by dark magic and is now coming back from that. I think they’re a good (probably short-term) pairing that will help each other grow, but eventually break up because they just aren’t it for each other. And I saw this elsewhere on here, but someone pointed out that Jade could do what Penelope tried to do, but in a healthier way. Yes, Penelope was trying to put Josie first and show her her power and importance, but there’s a way to do that without gaslighting her sister and being manipulative. Sorry, I did not mean for this one to be so long.

- More Specialty episodes. The black and white episode was really fun in my opinion, and the show doesn’t have to be like that all the time, but stuff like that keeps the show interesting, as long as it makes sense within the context of the episode and storyline.

- Josie wearing the necklace Hope gave her

- I haven’t mentioned Rafael much and that’s because, despite being a main character, he hasn’t really done much besides run away with Landon, and feel guilty about having a crush on Hope. He’s personally not a favorite character of mine, but I think if he got more of a storyline - likely revolving around the fact that he was dead and being used as a pawn, as well as the fact that he possibly (but probably didn’t) kill Landon - it’d help give more to like about him.

- Caroline having a better reason for being away from the school than just researching the Merge. Like, her daughters have been fighting monsters, Josie almost died at the end of season 1, they were trapped in a prison world, Josie succumbed to Dark Magic, THEY LITERALLY HAD A MERGE EVENT and she’s still gone??? That’s not the Caroline we know. If she’s going to be gone (because like I said before, it all depends on Candice’s availability and willingness to come back), at least come up with something different than researching something her daughters have already done by this point.

- Since Landon’s not dead, let him unlock his full Phoenix powers. It’d be cool.

- Let’s have one season where Landon doesn’t run away like we don’t all know that he’s gonna be back within like 2 episodes if that

- More Dorian. I actually really like his character, he’s kind of a breath of fresh air sometimes so I’d like more scenes with him when possible

- A conclusion to Malivore and intro of a new villain. I kinda covered this earlier, but at this point, unless Malivore is going to become a tangible entity to fight instead of some black goo, it’s not a very interesting story thread to keep around for the next however many seasons Legacies goes on for.

Whew.

Ok, that’s all I can think of, but feel free to reblog and add more if there’s other stuff you’d like to see!

[newcaptainofsquad9]

Not So Korean Drama~Park Sooyoung(Joy) x black!fem!reader

Pairing: Sooyoung/Joy x reader

Genre: Romance, Comedy(not really), College AU, Fluff

Summary: The it girl on campus, acting major and international student, Park Sooyoung  is all you can think about. You aren’t the only one, every person has a huge crush on her too. You want to ask her out, yet in the back of your mind you know everything about it would be unconventional.

  Warnings: Anxiety, Mentions of bi-phobia (nothing major), Mentions of Microaggressions 

Word Count: 4,206

Author’s Note: Here’s some Red Velvet, I also decided to write more black readers because I want to write more for black women like me. Also I know this is very niche so I hope you guys enjoy it regardless if you identify with the main character or not. Hope you guys enjoy!

Sometimes I see this mediocre, yet funny life of mine as a television show. A world where I’m surrounded by so many generic people, well they aren’t really generic, just similar to one another. That’s usually how it goes at La Rouge University , or as most of the students of color call it, La PWI. It’s weird though, I don’t really fit in with the other black students either, nothing against them but I’m just more on the nerdy side. I know that doesn’t make me unique, but there aren’t a lot of nerdy black girls on campus. The only one I found was Brianna, who was close to Wendy and Yeri. I found my band of friends but Wendy can be a bit insensitive at times. That’s one of the reasons why I keep my budding crush on Sooyoung. Where can I begin about Park SooYoung? There’s so much about her that draws me towards her, well regardless of her sense of style, straight black hair and the ability to pull off any lipstick color. 

“Um, earth to Y/N?” Brianna asks. 

I blink up from my book, a page that I clearly checked out from. I totally forgot we were in the library of all places, whoops. Of course Brianna’s holding a smug grin while she taps Yeri. 

“Look, Y/N’s lost in thinking about Sooyoung’s eyes,” she teases.

Yeri giggles as she takes Brianna’s hand tightly. 

“I know right, I don’t know why you don’t just ask her out already,” Yeri says. 

I cringe at how loud she said it as Wendy approaches our table with her usual blue sweatshirt, tan pants and bag slung across her shoulder. She must have gotten from her English class since she’s clutching her literature book for dear life.     

“Who’s asking who out?” she asks as she pulls up a seat. 

“Um, no one,” I say quickly. 

Wendy throws a deadpan look my way. 

“It’s gotta be about you Y/N,” Wendy notes. “You’re the single person at the table and if Bri and Yeri were cheating on each other I’m sure they wouldn’t discuss it in front of each other.”

Both Brianna and Yeri shrug as they link arms and kiss each others cheeks. 

“You haven’t found someone else, have you babe?”Yeri whines. 

Brianna nuzzles against her cheek. 

“You know I haven’t jagi,” Brianna coos. 

Yeri giggles at the pet name she taught Bri, earning a kiss on her lips. They’re cute, teeth rottenly so, but I always wonder how they got together. Of course they’re in the same major and have an obsession with Boba tea but what about their obvious racial differences, with Yeri being Korean and all. I’m curious but then again, it’s not my place to ask. It’s their relationship. 

“So, are you gonna tell me who it is?” Wendy asks while she pokes me with the end of her pen.

“Nobody,” I say.“None of your concern.”

Wendy pouts as her pokes grow faster. 

“Ah come on! You were fine with telling Yeri and Bri about it!” she groans.

“Yeah, but you’ll just kill the vibe,” I explain, “plus you know them so.”

Wendy gasps. 

“Really? Ah! So it won’t be hard to guess!” she says.“Is it Minseok from the Starbucks?”

Yeri giggles. 

“Uh, it isn’t a he, Wendy.”

Wendy blinks at Yeri’s statement as I send a Brianna a knowing glare. She nods and pats my hand. 

“Oh, I didn’t know you were into women, Y/N,” Wendy says. 

“Yeah, but I’m still into men too Wendy,” I say. “But yes, this crush is on a woman.”

“Oh ok,” Wendy says. “I didn’t know that was your thing but ok.”

I hold back my words, but Brianna doesn’t. Thank God.

“And what’s that supposed to mean Wendy?” she asks.

Yeri pinches the bridge of her nose as Wendy glances at each of us in confusion.

“What?” she asks.“Aw, did I overstep again?”

I nod sharply when Brianna scoffs. 

“Took a giant step over the line,” I say. “I’m bi.”

Wendy’s eyes soften. 

“I-I’m sorry Y/N,” she says. “I hadn’t realized and you never talked about it with us.”

“It’s fine,” I tell her with a pat of her hand. 

“So,” Yeri says, breaking the tension.“When are you going to ask her out?”

Fortunately Wendy’s all smiles again, yet she goes to asking me again.

“So, who is she? Oh! is it-”

I don’t even register who Wendy’s talking about as my focus shifts towards the entrance of the library. The double doors slide open, slowly (maybe its my hyperactive mind) and steps in the woman herself. Park Sooyoung. Of course she’d step in now of all times with her stylish tan trench coat, white turtle neck and dark skinny jeans. Just like in the TV shows she brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. Ok it is my hyperactive imagination, she’s even walking this way. Shit, no that’s actually happening. Wendy pokes me again. 

“Y/N? Oh!” she gasps, realizing. 

Sooyoung steps up to our table with a tiny smile and a wave. 

“Hi Wendy, Yeri,” she greets.

Her attention shifts over to Brianna and I. Me. Park Sooyoung is looking at me. 

“Oh! This is Y/N,” Yeri says as she squeezes Brianna’s hand. “And this is my girlfriend, Brianna.”

Sooyoung grins, flashing a few of her teeth as she bows slightly, reaching for Brianna’s hand, shaking it then holding it out to me. I. My skin flares as my words begin to disperse. 

“Nice to meet you,” Sooyoung says. “Brianna. Y/N.”

Her attention is back on me, her eyebrow raised as she notices that I haven’t taken her hand yet. I grip it quickly and shake it just as swift.

“N-Nice to, meetyoutoo!” I manage to blurt out. 

Sooyoung turns back to Wendy. 

“I just wanted to ask if Professor Philip put the PowerPoint online,” she says. “I had to miss lecture today because of rehearsals.”

Wendy waves her off. 

“You’re in the clear,” Wendy reassures. “He’s going over it again next class.”

Sooyoung releases a breath of relief, another smile engulfing her striking features yet again. 

“Thank you Wendy,” she says.

It’s as if the entire library started to notice Sooyoung, guys start to pop up that I don’t even know. I know one of them, Jackson Wang, a friend of mine, we aren’t close, yet I didn’t know he knew Sooyoung.  

“Yo Y/N!” he greets. “Bri, Yeri, Wendy!” 

He then turns back to Sooyoung.

“We should get going,” he says. “JB and Bam Bam are waiting.”

“Ah, you’re right!” Sooyoung exclaims. “It was nice meeting you both, see you guys around!” 

And just like that Sooyoung’s gone and around the corner with Jackson flanking her. Are they a thing? Last time I checked Jackson was endlessly flirting with Namjoon, the library’s part time receptionist and full time genius. I’ve confided in Jackson about my sexuality before, but I’ve never talked to him about Sooyoung. Oh God, they must be dating.

“Y/N, Y/N you still there?” Yeri asks.

I turn my attention back to the table. Brianna holds a shit eating grin as always, Yeri tries to stifle a laugh while Wendy narrows her eyes at me.

“Sooyoung,” she says. “You have a crush on Park Sooyoung.”

“Not just a crush,” Brianna notes. “A school girl crush, I know you saw how nervous Y/N got. She could barely speak.”

I hunker down further in my seat as my face flares again.

“Shut up,” I groan. 

Wendy giggles. 

“It’s cute Y/N, but I’m not sure if Sooyoung’s-” she pauses prior to continuing. “You know.”

I get an uneasy tingle from Wendy’s words. She’s right, what if she isn’t into women. What if she doesn’t like black people? Another stab that would hurt more.

“What Wendy?” Yeri asks. “Gay or Bi? it’s ok, you can say it.”

Wendy frowns. 

“Guys, I don’t mean to come off like that,” she groans. “I just don’t want her to get hurt. Sooyoung hasn’t been here in the states for a while, I’m not sure if she’s-accepting.”       

“Well if she’s hanging out with Jackson, who’s big bi energy by the way,” Brianna explains. “She’s got to be somewhat accepting.”

Yeri’s eyes soften at me as she reaches for my hand.

“That doesn’t mean you should give up,” she says. “Just talk to her.”

I slip further down into my seat, it’s easier said than done. Sooyoung’s an international student which means she only hangs out with other international students. I only know two of them: Wendy, born in South Korea but studied in Canada prior to moving here and Jackson who moved here from China on a football scholarship.  They’re friends of course, but even they blow me out of the water with their style and the looks they get from students. Sooyoung especially. 

“I guess, ah look at that!” I say while getting out of my seat. “I got class in ten.”

Brianna grins. 

“Your class doesn’t start until 3:30, it’s only 3:05.”

I nod with a quick smile.

“I know!” I say. “I just need to get away from this conversation. Talk to you guys later!”

I’m out and away from the table before they can utter a goodbye.

***

Class was dull as usual. Thankfully it ended before my eyes glazed over and I can grab some dinner before heading back to my dorm. The classroom empty's out quickly, I rush to the exit of the building, ready for that cool air to hit me. 

“Ey! Y/N!” a booming voice calls.

I turn to see Jackson. He’s clad in his black and red Letterman jacket with the letters L and R embroidered on the front. His hair’s also gelled back to perfection, it looks awesome might I add. 

“Hey Jackson,” I say. “What’s up?”

I slow my pace for him to catch up with me from down the hall. The cool air hits my face, I sigh, then turn to Jackson, who’s already behind me as I hold the door for him. 

“Thanks,” he says as he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “You done with classes for today, right?”

I nod sharply. 

“Yep, you?”

Jackson chuckles.

“You know I don’’t have classes on Thursday,” he notes. 

I roll my eyes. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have asked. That’s what I want to say, but I restrain. I find myself doing that a lot here at La Rouge University. Don’t want to come across as that kind of black girl. Sure, Jackson and I are cool, I just don’t want him to put a thought into his head. I’m sure he’s seen many stereotypes of black women, black people in general. I don’t want to put that risk out, especially when Brianna and I have to had many talks with Wendy about it.       

“Hey,” Jackson says softly. “You good?”

I blink up at him as we stroll through the courtyard with the wind nipping at our skin. 

“Yeah, uh, I’m fine.”

Jackson smirks and leans closer to throw an arm around my shoulder. 

“So, Miss Y/LN,” he starts. “Tell me, how long has your little crush been a thing?”

I jolt at his words.

“Huh? C-crush? Nah, uh what do you mean a crush?”

Jackson chuckles and bats his eyes jokingly. 

“Don’t play coy!” he exclaims. “You looked like you were going to pass out around Sooyoung.”

My skin burns at his words. I wasn’t that obvious, was I?

“I-I, um, Sooyoung, who? Never heard of her.”

“Sure Jan.”

“When the hell did you watch the Brady Bunch?” I ask.

Jackson shrugs.

“I watched it with Yeri last weekend, you should have came over. I heard its a major part of American slang and memes which are hilarious.”

I nod in agreement. 

“Yeah, let’s discuss memes instead of Park Sooyoung oh-”

Jackson jabs his finger at me.

“You even know her last name, ha!” Jackson says. “You’re totally crushing right now.”

I sigh in defeat. 

“Fine, yes I like her all right. It’s not a big deal anyway.”

Jackson frowns. 

“It totally is,” he says. “Sooyoung and I are friends, along with classmates. I even know her schedule, for class and drama rehearsals.”

“Oh nice,” I say.

“I know that she’s free right now. Chilling at Reveluv Cafe, going over her lines, drinking some coffee or what not, looking stunning.”

I flush and cross my arms. 

“Yeah, probably flocked by drooling people,” I say. “She’s too stunning for her own good.”

“Yes, but unlike those drooling losers you’re going to talk to her.”

“I’m sorry, what? Jackson, no way,” I say. “She’s an actress, didn’t she act in a couple of K dramas?”

Jackson nods.

“Four actually,” he clarifies. “The first three were cameos, but the latest one she played a huge supporting role, over shadowed the male and female leads.”

“That doesn’t make my situation any better,” I deadpan. “she’s got status in her home country, gorgeous features and a promising career ahead of her. What the hell do I have?”

Jackson’s arm tightens around me.

“You’re sweet, pretty and nice to talk to,” he says. “You also have a career ahead of you crazy, that’s why you’re studying remember?” 

“You’re a friend,” I groan. “You’re inclined to say that.”

“Yeah, but even before we became friends, I always found you hot,” he admits.

I elbow him playfully in the ribs.

“Jackson Wang! Stop playing!” 

Jackson shakes his head.

“I’m dead serious, black women are sexy. And you definitely aren’t the exception.”

“Stop!” I laugh and playfully push him away. 

“What?” he chuckles. “look I know you find Asian guys attractive too! And I know good and well you like Asian women.”

He narrows his eyes and wiggles his eyebrows.

My face heats up as we enter the library for the second time today.

“Is there anything I can do to make you stop?” I joke.

Jackson nods.

“Talk to Sooyoung,” he suggests. “Hey, I can help! Start the conversation!”

I just stare at him as he puts his hands together. 

“Please?”

“Fine.”

***

Reveluv cafe is bright, a little too colorful for my taste, but still homey and comforting. The walls are covered in various fruits, some hand drawn and neon to bring, I guess variety. It’s cute. Even the floor is bright red, leading up to the counter that’s decorated with other tropical themes, the employees even wear sashes and white uniforms with fruit based buttons.

Jackson leads me to the lounging area of the cafe which has an area of circular tables and higher tables near the windows. Sitting at one in the corner at the far back is Sooyoung, her straight hair spills down her cream colored turtle neck. Her head’s down in a book, she’s transfixed on the page. 

“Jackson, maybe we shouldn’t-”

“Sooyoung, hey!”

Damnit Jackson.

Sooyoung’s head jerks up as a soft smile graces her lips. 

“Jackson, hi!”

I watch from behind Jackson. He walks up to Sooyoung, she stands and engulfs him in a hug. 

“How are lines going?” 

Sooyoung giggles.

“Great so far! What brings you and-” she pauses to look at me. “Hi, Y/N, right?”

I nod sharply. God, she remembered my name.  

“Yeah, hi Sooyoung.”

Jackson smirks with a knowing glare at me. Hasn’t this man clowned me enough?

“Y/N here was just nervous to speak to you.”

My hands start to tremble as Sooyoung looks to me with confusion.

“Why?” she asks. “You’re friends with Wendy and Yeri, so by default I think you’re cool.”

Wow. Park Sooyoung just called me cool. 

“Oh, she is,” Jackson declares. His mouth opens to say more, yet a slight buzz in his pocket stops him. 

“What is it?”

Jackson takes a look at his phone quickly before grinning back up at me, then Sooyoung.

“Sorry ladies, I kind of have a study date with Mr. IQ 148!” 

Sooyoung’s brows furrow. 

“Um, who?”

“Namjoon,” I say. “Jackson! Ah!”

I take his arm and whisper.

“You can’t leave yet,” I groan. 

Jackson pats my arm. 

“You got this babe, I promise to give you all the details with Namjoon if you give me the details you get with Sooyoung.”

God, this man is incorrigible.

“If I fuck this up you owe me so many smoothies.”

Jackson chuckles.

“You got to try first sweetie, she’s cool, you’ll see.”

Jackson says a quick goodbye to the both of us.

I turn back to Sooyoung who’s looking dead at me with her hands behind her back. 

“Would you like to sit?” she asks with another bright smile.

“Yeah, uh sure.”

She gestures to the empty seat across from her, I slide into it quickly, Sooyoung follows. 

“So, are you an English major like Wendy?”

I shake my head. 

“No, actually I’m a creative writing major.”

Sooyoung’s face lit up as she took a swig of her coffee.

“Really? So, you write your own books and stories?”

I nod, and try to hide a smile behind my hand. Her attention is fully on me. 

“Yeah, but mostly poems though,” I say, pausing once I meet Sooyoung’s eyes. I don’t finish, God I can hardly face her. If Jackson can see it than its got to be obvious to her.

“Y/N?” she asks. “Are you ok?”

“Y-Yeah, I-I I just-”

Sooyoung’s eyes soften as she takes my hand, which is already starting to get clammy and sweaty. 

“It’s ok, breathe,” she coaxes. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

I giggle, the action eases some of the anxiety. My heart rate goes down a bit, just a bit because Sooyoung’s hands are still over mine.

“I-I guess not to judge me, or freak out even,” I say. “I know we’re different, ok. And we’re both women.”

Sooyoung giggles, teeth baring rather sweetly.

“You’re cute,” she coos. “Yes, you’re American and-”

“Black,” I blurt. 

Sooyoung nods.

“Oh, I didn’t even notice,” Sooyoung jokes. She raises our interlocked hands together drawing my attention to my brown hand and her lighter, almost porcelain one. “Why? Is that an issue? Is that what’s making you so nervous?”

“Part of it, the truth is, I like you,” I admit. 

Sooyoung’s eyes widen, forcing me to pull my hand away from her own. She draws back to as she tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear. My trembles don’t die down, but the flaring in my chest does. I nod as my eyes travel down to the table, I can’t look at Sooyoung right now. Of course I made a fool of myself.

“I uh, I can leave you alone now-”

“Wait, Y/N!”

She grabs my wrist before I can get up, it startles me. 

Our eyes meet again, Sooyoung giggles, the confidence she oozes makes me glance down at the legs of her chair. 

“Can I admit something too?” 

I nod, she then sighs lowly. 

“Can you look at me? Y/N?” 

Before I can register her question warm fingers juts my chin up, forcing my attention on her face. She smiles and I swear her eyes lingers down at my lips for a moment prior to moving back up to my eyes. 

“I’m flattered,” she whispers. “You’re really pretty, I’d love to go out. Maybe next week, if that’s ok?”

“I, um, yeah,” I mutter. “I-I’m looking forward to it.”

***

Weeks come and go. The teasing from Jackson, Brianna, Yeri, even Wendy (surprisingly) continues as the dates with Sooyoung get frequent. We’ve start to hold hands even, which is a huge step for me (Sooyoung initiated it first of course).  Dating Sooyoung has been surprising to say the least, she’s even more flirty now that we know more about each other, which makes me more anxious to be around her now. It’s fun to be around her, she’s interested in aspects of American culture that she doesn’t know much about. One in particular being memes, thanks to Jackson himself and even slang. It rubs me the wrong way to hear her say, ‘sup sweetie’ at times but she’s still learning. Right? I’m just thinking too much into it. I’m sure she won’t start talking black and Jackson learned not to from me, along with a quick, yet needed scolding from Brianna.  

 I arrive at Sooyoung’s apartment a sweaty mess. This is the first time I’ve been to her apartment and I already feel like I’m gonna mess this up. She talked about living with someone, but what I didn’t expect was a stunning woman with straight, blonde hair to answer the door. I don’t remember seeing her around campus, I’m sure the people would flock to her as much as they flock to Sooyoung too. 

“Hi, uh,” I pause at how intimating she looks. “I-I’m uh, Sooyoung invited me.”

The woman chuckles as she gives me a quick once over. 

“You must be Y/N,” she notes. “Come in.”  

She steps aside for me which I do. 

The house looks like a loft inside: a low, white couch sits in the middle of the living room, a flat screen hugs the far wall, the carpet is clear and fluffy covering most of the floor, leading to the staircase. 

“Joohyun!” Sooyoung calls while rushing down the stairs. “Y-Y/N, hi.”

I give her a tiny wave as Joohyun chuckles. 

“Well, I’ll leave you to your date,” Joohyun says with a quick wink at me and a narrow eyed glare at Sooyoung. 

“How long are gonna be out unnie?” Sooyoung asks. 

Joohyun giggles and raises an eyebrow.

“Why?” she asks. “You both aren’t going to have too much fun, are you?”

My eyes scan down to the carpet to memorize how spotless it is. 

“Joohyun! Y-You’re so embarrassing!” Sooyoung exclaims. I see her black sock covered feet next to mine. 

“All jokes Sooyoung,” Joohyun explains. “I’ll be staying at Seulgi’s tonight. It was a pleasure meeting you Y/N.”

“Same here,” I say. 

When I meet Joohyun’s eyes her intimating demeanor disperses. An easy, toothy smile now replaces it. Once she waves and is out the door, Sooyoung’s hands are on my face. 

“I’m so sorry about her,” she groans. “She didn’t frighten you too much, did she?”

“Not really,” I admit. “Does she always do this to people she doesn’t know?”

Sooyoung giggles.

“Yeah, she’s just protective is all,” she explains. “Now, would you like to watch the show here in the living room or.”

She steps up to rest her hands on my sides. 

“My room could work, I have plenty of stuffed animals,” she suggests. “We could cuddle.”

She smiles, my heart flutters as she intertwines our hands together. I lose my breathe as she steps closer, our faces suddenly an inch apart. She’s using a bright, red lipstick, perfect at this distance. Kissabl-

“Can I kiss you?” she asks.

I nod, she tilts her head to the right before our lips meet. Her lips are smooth, with a cherry taste. I didn’t even know lipstick could taste this good. She smiles against my lips, her hands wind themselves around my waist in order to deepen the kiss. Sooyoung’s fevered kisses keep my lips moving with her, it continues until I run out of breath, forcing me to pull away. 

“How was that?” she asks prior to biting her lip. 

“It was I-”

It takes me a minute to gather my words. I never kissed a woman before and that was-

“Amazing,” I manage to say.  

Sooyoung chuckles lowly, takes my hand and leads me to the couch. 

“Yeah, would it be dope if we continue?” 

I cringe at the word dope, she notices right away.

“What is it? I’m rushing things aren’t I?” she asks.

I shake my head, but think about it for a moment. I want to have this conversation about our different cultures. Of course it’s something we’re got to talk about but why do I feel as if its so awkward? It’s just a few words, right? I just don’t want to come across as that kind of person. That kind of black person especially. 

“Y/N,” Sooyoung says. “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah, it’s just uh,” I pause to finally form coherent words. “Slang, it’s um kind of weird when you say it-not saying that it’s bad or anything its just.”

I pause again to sit next to Sooyoung, who listens intently. 

“It’s your thing, right?” she asks. “As an American?”

“As an African American, as a black person,” I say. “I just don’t want you to use certain terms without knowing where they come from. I’m curious about Korean too, but I want to go by it respectfully. I want to respect you.”

Sooyoung’s eyes lighten up, her fingers play with my right hand as a smile spreads across her face.

“I want to respect you too jagi, ah! To be honest I got most of those words from Jackson anyway.”

I roll my eyes. 

“I’m not even surprised.”

“So, can we still watch the drama?” she asks with a playful frown.

“Of course!”

Sooyoung lets out a delighted giggle, presses a quick kiss to my cheek and moves to turn the flat-screen on. Maybe dating Park Sooyoung wasn’t going to be so difficult after all. 

[mae-gi-writes]

Deobi Playlist (EP 7) | The Boyz Imagine

Ep 7: in which Mae and Kevin have THE TALK 

The Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series.

Main Characters: Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin and OC (Mae)

Sides: the rest of The Boyz.

Genre: fluff, slice of life, comedy, BROMANCE BRUH

EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11

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

“Yeonji?” Hyunjae asks.

“Yunji,” Juyeon corrects.

“Right, Yunhee.” 

“Yun-ji. Yun and Ji.”

“Right right,” Hyunjae pauses, forehead creasing, “Yunji.” 

“Fucking finally.” 

Hyunjae frowns, before throwing his arms around Juyeon in a cuddle. The younger man shrieks like a girl as he thrashes in his embrace, “ew, get off!” 

“I love you,’ Hyunjae says while batting his eyelashes up at him, causing Juyeon to sniff and push the caramel-haired man’s head away, “sure, sure.” 

“Oh I see how it is now, can’t even say it back now that you’re going out with Yeonhee?”

“It’s YUNJI.” 

“Oh shit. My bad. Anyway, same thing.” 

Hyunjae totally ignores the glare that Juyeon sends him, which would’ve sent anyone else running despite the fact that he is an intern. Not many are aware of Juyeon’s childish and easy-going nature because of his serious expression and nonchalant manner of speech. That, as a result, has unfortunately garnered him a reputation as unapproachable. 

Pushing Hyunjae’s face away so that he can shrug on his jacket, Juyeon grabs his bag before he says, “I’m off” and heads out of their shared office.

“Heading out already?” 

“Date night.” 

“But everyday is date night for you guys!” 

Juyeon ignores him.

“Are you going to eat sushi?” he hears Hyunjae call out after him, “Or is it European tonight? Don’t forget to bring some back for me!” 

Juyeon only proceeds to shut the door in his face and is satisfied when only silence resonates in the corridor. He loves -- adores -- Hyunjae with all his heart. But sometimes, the latter can be so loud and noisy that it takes up all of his energy to just keep up with him. 

Nevertheless, a soft smile dances across his lips as he thinks back to his older friend’s pout when he’d mentioned that he was going on yet another date with Yunji, and hopes that Hyunjae can find romance with a possible candidate like Sarang around. If there’s one thing that the said man lacks in his life, it is indeed, someone special whom he can confide into. 

Juyeon makes his way down to the ground floor as swiftly as he possibly can, ducking his head at the right time so that people don’t get suspicious of where he’s going, and only lifts his head when he’s out in the parking lot. Glancing right and left to ensure that the space is void of activity, he strides over to the red used car in the far corner: Yunji’s. 

“Hey,” his girlfriend says as soon as he slides into the passenger seat and closes the door shut. 

He grins back at her and without hesitation, drops a kiss onto her cheek, “hey noona.” 

“You really love calling me that don’t you?” she teases while sliding the car out and onto the road, “so? Where to?” 

With Juyeon’s directions, the pair find themselves parking off the side of the street next to the Han River before Juyeon motions towards a small eating shack nestled between two apartment buildings on the opposite side. It’s orange panel gleams with the words ‘Crispy Kitchen’ and his heart swells twice the size of his chest upon noticing how Yunji’s face lights up.

She looks at him with excitement dancing in her eyes, “fried chicken?” 

He can’t help himself from curling a stray strand behind her ear, “you said you were craving it. That’s the best place that serves chicken, cross my heart.” 

“You’re adorable,” Yunji says, leaning to peck him on the cheek, “let’s go.” 

Two baskets of chicken wings and two beers later, the couple decide to walk off the amount of food by strolling along the Han river. The wind is cold enough to be pleasant but not chilly, and as Juyeon shyly slides his hand into Yunji’s while looking away, he can’t help the smile from breaking across his face when he feels her squeeze back, almost shyly, as if even she isn’t used to such things. 

He had learnt, on their very first date, that she hadn’t had a relationship ever since she completed her Phd program. Her last one had been a complete disaster and the stupid bastard had been found cheating with one of her friends. Ever since then, she’d decided to focus on her career and hadn’t given dating a second thought-- until Juyeon came along.

“I really want to tell people you know,” Yunji confesses, looking up at him through her bags and her glasses catching the city lights in their reflection. 

“I don’t know noona,” Juyeon answers with unease growing in his stomach, “I don’t think they’ll take it very nicely.” 

“Who cares what people say?” 

He bops her nose gently, “I don’t care about me, but what will they say about you?” 

“Well, I don’t care what they say about me either,” she wrinkles her nose, “so why not? It’s not like it’s illegal or anything.” 

“You are my superior. I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m taking advantage of you in that way. Plus, if we tell people, they might separate us whenever we want to work together.” 

She hums in agreement, “still, I hate hiding like this. I--” when her eyes catch his, they are filled with a tenderness, honesty shining through so vividly that it makes his insides go all warm and fuzzy, “I really like you, Juyeon.” 

Juyeon lets out a soft smile and can’t help himself but dropping a small kiss atop her forehead then. She might be older, but she’s so so fragile, and he wishes he could just protect her forever from all the bad things that might happen. This kind of happiness is so fleeting, so outrageous that he fears something or someone might just roll in and break them up as easily as glass. 

“I love you.” 

Yunji’s head snaps up, eyes wide. She gapes at him and he feels like hitting himself for blurting it out like that in the open. Shit Juyeon, are you stupid?! He internally screams, what if she runs away now that your heart is all out in the open?! 

“I--Uhm--I--” his brain tries to scramble together a bunch of excuses, except nothing seems to work, his mind turning to straight-up mush, “sorry, I--” 

Her hands cup his cheeks and before he can finish his sentence, she’s up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

He stops breathing, muscles frozen in place. Yunji slowly pulls back, still so close that their noses brush together as he searches her eyes for an answer.

“I love you too,” she breathes, gentle affection brimming through her gaze, “I really do, Juyeon.” 

And that’s all Juyeon needs to hear really. That her love for him is as clear and as strong as his heart beats for her. 

----------

Having been sent to the Pediatrics department for the day, Ji Changmin is currently checking and ensuring that all appointments are up to date, when the door suddenly bursts open to reveal a flustered Kevin. The latter glances right, then left, and without sparing Changmin a glance, dives under his desk that faces away from the door. 

Changmin, slightly curious and concerned, peers down at him before chirping cheerfully, “what are you up to, Doctor Moon?” 

“Hiding,” comes Kevin’s gruff response as he internally groans. Why in the world does Changmin have to be his assistant? Today of all days? 

“Why?” Changmin asks.

“I--Uh--Just because. I’m tired.” 

“Why are you tired?” 

“Long shift. If anybody asks, I’m not here.” 

“Why not?” 

Kevin shoots him a glare, “just do it.” 

“Okay, if you say so,” Changmin replies like a cheerful little boy and it takes the doctor all of his self control not to punch him right where the sun doesn’t shine. Mind you, Kevin is a gentle person and it takes someone like him -- meaning, his greatest rival-- to rile him up that way.

His mind suddenly goes blank upon hearing a pair of footsteps rushing through his office door and almost jumps in sheer fright when Changmin’s voice booms through the room without warning: 

“Hi Mae! What are you doing here?” 

Kevin’s body instantly tenses up. Shit, his mind whirls with panic. If she finds him underneath his table, he’s dead meat. 

“Where’s Dr. Moon?” comes Mae’s breathless question. 

“Oh, he’s hiding.” 

Kevin almost curses out loud. The little f*cker.

“What? You saw him? Where is he?” 

Footsteps shuffle. A pause. Kevin can practically hear his heart booming out of his chest and he’s surprised that he’s managed to make it this far without yelping. As if on impulse, he can’t help but clamp his teeth down onto his lower lip, neck tucking between his shoulders like a turtle feeling attacked. 

“Kevin?” 

Mae’s voice is like a slap to his face. He bites down harder, so hard he tastes blood. 

He hears a foot step forward. Then another. Some more shuffling. 

“Changmin, I need a word with Dr. Moon.” 

“Why?” There’s a whine in Changmin’s voice. 

“Because he fucked up a surgery and now he’s going to pay for it.”

“Oh.” Pause. “Okay.” 

Kevin hears Changmin shuffle out before silence reigns over the room once more.

“Kevin. I know you're there."

Trying to hold his breath, his heart almost knocks out of his chest when he spots her shoes scuffle over behind his desk, right in front of him.

"Kevin."

With a loud sigh, the said doctor peeks out from underneath his desk and looks up at Mae's face, whose eyebrows are kissed together and her lips are turned down in an expression of consternation. 

"Yeah?" Kevin blinks up at her in what he hopes is an innocent way.

"So I've heard something interesting about you."

He crawls out of his hiding place like a kid about to be scolded, head hanging as he straightens up with a groan, "I'm very interesting."

She crosses her arms over her chest, "I'm gonna be frank. Do you like me, Kevin?" 

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

Tagging: @juyeonzz @thesingingfae1905

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 2nd Season Ep24 [”Here You Are“]:

Even though this wasn’t as comedy-focused as last week’s episode, things continue to be relatively chill and relaxed.

Just because there’s still one more episode left of this season and we’re almost exactly two thirds of the way into the overall story doesn’t mean things won’t suddenly and drastically change next week, right? :)))

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

I mentioned this last week since the next episode preview confirmed it, but they really did skip the whole Kyoko backstory arc, in order to jump straight ahead and adapt chapters 94 and 95 in this episode.

I still think this will work out fine in the end, though. It’s pretty obvious at this point how they’re going to end season 2, and it’ll be appropriately climactic. They’ll probably just revisit Kyoko’s backstory later on when it comes up again, which will hopefully flow nicely and not feel too much like a lengthy detour in the story or anything.

Either way, this episode continues the recent focus on Yuki and Yuki-related plot points by being about Machi, and then the New Years stuff.

In spite of the fact that I’m really not a fan of the Yuki/Machi ship, I honestly still really like Machi as a character, and the first half of this episode where we get our first proper look into her thoughts and her life really go to show why. My whole family and upbringing situation was very different to hers, but her whole depressed mood and how it impacts her self-perception and how she carries herself in general is one of the more relatable parts of the whole series. The art and cinematography in her scenes was also really good at getting across the whole mood of the scene.

But ultimately I still feel like as a character she suffers too much from coming into focus way too late in the story, at almost the exact same time that other plot stuff starts kicking into high gear and there’s no time to really focus on her anymore, so she gets a handful of very concentrated, heavy moments to establish her entire character arc and her relationship with Yuki, and compared to the more long-form storytelling that the rest of the series displays, it just ends up feeling kinda artificial. And even though I do really like her as a character, and I do relate a lot to her, her and Kakeru’s whole backstory almost feels like a parody of Fruits Basket as a whole, and the fact that it’s delivered so quickly and barely delved into doesn’t really help that impression. Like I said last time, Kakeru at least benefits a lot from having been woven into the story a lot since a fair while ago, whereas for a variety of reasons Machi has largely been kept in the background until this episode.

I wasn’t really planning to go into full detail just yet about why I don’t like Yuki and Machi’s relationship [which is a more or less separate issue to Machi’s character in and of itself and how she’s handled in the story], but I think this episode alone pretty much summed it all up, especially going by how people are already reacting to it.

Basically I just really don’t like how aggressively the story wants you to realize how Yuki and Machi’s whole relationship is basically just a parallel to Tohru and Yuki’s relationship. It’s so heavy-handed that it just takes me out of the story, and the fact that they’re intentionally drawing that comparison feels like it actively goes against a big part of what Yuki’s recent development has been about.

When Yuki was opening up to Kakeru about all his feelings toward Tohru, he made it clear that he actively disliked the idea of that sort of dynamic developing into a romance, because it was so fundamentally unbalanced and one-sided that it would make him feel even more lonely. He didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a mostly one-sided flow of emotional support, so I just can’t help but dislike how it feels like his relationship with Machi is almost exactly the same thing, but this time it’s Yuki who’s providing the support.

It’s not like Machi doesn’t provide anything for Yuki emotionally, but it’s also not like Yuki didn’t provide anything emotionally for Tohru either. It was just a *mostly* one-sided and unbalanced dynamic, and I feel like the same thing applies here.

I just feel like, going by his own whole speech about his feelings and what type of relationship he wants, I’d want him to get a romantic partner who he feels more ‘equal’ with, in a sense. Someone who doesn’t just receive his support, or who just treats him normally, but someone who pushes him to be a better person, and forces him outside of his comfort zone in a way that helps him grow.

Basically this is just an elaborate way of me saying that I ship him and Kakeru, lol.

And honestly I don’t even dislike the core concept of Yuki and Machi’s relationship, I just don’t like that it goes in a romantic direction, since it feels like it happens with the exact same reasoning as why Yuki said he didn’t want a romantic relationship with Tohru. I really do like the idea of him being able to grow enough as a person to help someone else [even if the story really isn’t subtle about how Machi is almost exactly like how Yuki used to be, lol], but I’d just prefer that to play out in a more platonic way.

Plus, from a slightly different angle, I also don’t really like the idea of Machi getting into a romantic relationship where it feels like she’s mostly just on the receiving end of emotional support, for basically the same reasons why Yuki said he didn’t want that for himself. I think she also deserves better than that.

But to be honest an unavoidable part of the whole problem is also just that we barely even get to see what their relationship is actually like in practice, and we pretty much just see the part where it’s like ‘wow, they’re JUST LIKE how Tohru and Yuki used to be!’, and we just have to kinda guess at how things play out for them after that. Which is yet another reason why I think she really suffers from being focused on so late into the story, lol. It’s entirely possible that if we actually got to see how their relationship evolved I’d be more on board with it, but we only see a fairly small portion of it in the end, so that’s what I’m basing all my thoughts on.

[Also there’s the whole separate but related topic of how I still think it’s disappointing how Yuki’s whole struggle about feeling unable to love Tohru romantically, and feeling socially obligated to perform normative heterosexuality with her is just followed up by him finding a different girl to have as a love interest, but I could make another whole post about that so whatever]

ANYWAY, that was a whole bunch of opinions I’ve been sitting on for a long time now, lol. Even though I kinda don’t care much about Yuki as a character in a vacuum, I feel very strongly about the way his character arc plays out, and all the writing surrounding him.

That aside, the rest of the episode was just about the New Years banquet and getting some glimpses at most of the zodiac members to start setting the scene for the final third of the story. The transition between the two halves of the episode felt super abrupt and jarring, and you could really tell that it was jumping from one chapter of the manga to the next, but still, I liked the second half a lot.

There’s a lot of different moments with different characters, but I really liked seeing more of Tohru and Kyo. By this point it’s really obvious how they’re settling into a comfortable groove with each other, even if they aren’t exactly open about their feelings yet. I think it’s really neat to see how their relationship has slowly but surely been changing and progressing across the course of this season, without them even being entirely aware of it. This season as a whole might have been largely Yuki-focused, but Tohru and Kyo have come a long way with their relationship since the end of season 1.

Also, I think this is literally the only time we’re gonna see Ritsu in season 2 outside of the OP/EDs, which is kinda depressing, lol. I really hope they can come up with some original content in season 3 to give him some screen-time, but at this point I’m not getting my hopes up.

And even though this episode is mostly pretty laid back, the scene with Yuki and Akito really does set up for the next episode, and how things in general are about to come to a head and fall apart.

I’m curious to see exactly where they end the next episode, since they might decide to end it only partway into chapter 97, instead of going all the way to the end. But at this point I think they’re probably gonna go all the way up to that big cliffhanger, and we’re all just gonna have to wait like 6+ months for the anime to continue from that, lol. If they go that far with the next episode, then I’m definitely curious to see how anime-only people react to it, for better or worse.

[triptychexe]

TITLE: Dinner Party SUMMARY: The 1st and 2nd Generations of Triptych unite with the help of drugs and alcohol.  GENRE: friendship, maybe slight comedy, slight romance, slight angst PAIRINGS: General Gen 1 x Gen 2 interactions. Yen x IM, Yen x Asa, Nia x Johnny, mentioned Cal x Ame.  WORD COUNT: 3.3k

WARNINGS: Recreational use of drugs and alcohol, swearing, being intoxicated, mention of vomiting. 

Winter 2018

Soonyoung didn’t think it was possible for things to go south so quickly, but he always believed in the phrase ‘there’s a first time for everything’. 

Right after they digested their dinner (graciously cooked by S.O.T), the bottles of alcohol were brought out (graciously supplied by Gen 1). Yen made them all take an oath that they weren’t going to throw up anywhere except for the toilet bowl, and then they all took a shot together as eighteen. 

And that was the last moment things were okay. 

Standing around the kitchen island, Soonyoung quickly turned into a bystander when Soojin and Yerin started going shot-for-shot with each other. 

“You don’t strike me as a shots girl.” Soojin bantered, pouring herself a third shot. Yerin, who clearly wasn’t a shots girl based off the full-body shivers she got whenever she dipped the clear liquid down her throat, slid her empty shot glass across the island. 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Yerin stated back, watching as Soojin poured vodka into the small glass, filling it almost to the brim. 

Soojin smirked and held the bottle up to the others surrounding the table. “You boys want any?” 

Sol held up a hand and shook his head. Hyunki did the same. Smart boy. He too must have realized that this was more than just two girls taking shots. It was a fight for dominance. 

The shot battle was over after about four more shots. By this point, the alcohol had started to hit Yerin’s system, her motor movements slowly starting to lose their accuracy. When Yerin started swaying on her feet, Soonyoung stepped in. 

“Hey, Yerin? Maybe it’s time you go sit down and drink some water.” Soonyoung suggested, a gentle hand coming out to take the shot glass away from the woman. Yerin reacted with amazing speed, her hand snatching the glass away.

“No. If she can do more, then I can do more.” Yerin said competitively. 

Soojin, who was probably only a little buzzed, shook her head sympathetically. “Hey, this isn’t a competition-” 

“Of course it’s a competition! Everything is a competition!” Yerin enunciated each word individually, but the ends of her sentences drooped, as if each word was heavy on her tongue. 

Hyunki gave Soonyoung an anxious glance. The poor kid was always slightly awkward when it came to dealing with drunk people. Especially drunk people he didn’t know well. 

“Alright, let’s get you some water.” Soonyoung stepped up, placing a testing hand on Yerin’s shoulder.

“Hey, hands off!” Yerin snapped, wiggling away from his touch. “I have a boyfriend, you know.” A smug, triumphant smile crossed over her face once she realized what she said. The leader’s attention trained back on Jin, who was watching the other girl apprehensively. “Yeah, I have a boyfriend. Johnny’s my boyfriend. Remember that. Johnny. Is. My. Boyfriend.” 

“I… Okay?” Soojin arched an eyebrow in confusion.

Yerin mimicked the facial expression, only hers was slightly off given her drunken state. “Yeah, so don’t even think about-” “Alright!” Soonyoung gripped Yerin’s arm and started pulling her towards the sink. From the island, Jin and Fin just watched in bewilderment. 

“What did I just tell you!” Yerin hissed. “Drink water and sober up before you say something you’ll regret.” Soonyoung advised under his breath as he ran a cup under the tap, handing it to his new leader. He watched as she drained the water, patting the corners of her mouth dry when she was finished. Even though she didn’t seem to be any more sober, he could tell that Yerin was starting to calm down. 

Yerin looked over at Fin and Jin, who were eyeing her carefully, as if she were a time bomb destined to explode. Yerin’s cheeks, which were already flushed from the vodka, started to become richer in color. 

“Um… I’m just gonna go mingle a bit… I’ll see you guys.” She looked down as she exited the kitchen, hurrying over to a different group of members to chat with them.

“What’s her deal?” Jin questioned, her focus still trained on the other girl. “People are so complex.” Hyunki sighed, taking a shot for himself, instantly gagging at the burning sensation.

Soonyoung shook his head. “Yeah. Complex.” 

The last two weeks had been some of the worst Yen had ever experienced. Changkyun and Micha had finally decided to cut things off over a facetime call. 

“Are you breaking up with me?” Micha asked, her voice spiking up an octave after Changkyun stated that space would be good for them. “I… Yeah.” Changkyun sniffed in through his nose, looking away from his phone screen. Micha felt her chest burn, even though the rest of her was completely numb.

“So that’s it? You’re going to break up with me over a fucking facetime call? You couldn’t come say it to my face?” Yen demanded, her blood boiling.

“What? Say it to your face so we can have goodbye sex right after?” Changkyun frowned. “Face it, Micha. That’s all our relationship ever is. We don’t love each other.” 

The statement shattered Micha’s heart into a million pieces, even though she knew there was truth in his words. Lately the two of them have lost their emotional touch. What they didn’t have they made up physically. 

“Plus… I don’t want to be made a fool.” Changkyun’s tone suddenly turned stoney. “I’m not blind, Micha.” 

The idol furrowed her eyebrows. “What the fuck are you talking about?” 

“Asahiko?” Changkyun stated it like it was obvious. “What about him?” Micha said defensively. 

“You guys act more like a couple than we ever do.” Changkyun stated in an exasperated tone. “And the way he looks at you…” The rapper sighed bitterly. “It’s only a matter of time before one of you does something and I don’t want to be the idiot that watched it unfold and did nothing about it.” 

Micha blinked, her jaw open. She couldn’t believe her ears. “So you don’t trust me?” Micha asked. Changkyun looked up at the screen for the first time since he dropped the bomb. 

“I just think our time has passed. I think you’ve started to move on and I think I should too.” Changkyun shrugged. 

Micha drained the rest of the spiked drink in her cup, letting the slight burn of the alcohol wash away the recent memory. Fighting off the mental replay of Changkyun’s face telling her that they don’t love each other, she pushed her way into the kitchen to refill her cup. 

There was a small queue at the kitchen counter where the bottles of booze were as people took turns with the bottles to concoct their own mixed drinks. 

The guy in front of her - the name slipping her mind - was pouring himself an extra strong drink using Micha’s favorite brand of vodka.

“Yo, save some for the rest of us.” Micha snapped at the new member. The boy looked up, arching an eyebrow. He gave her a small smirk before gesturing to the cup in her hand with the bottle. Micha held out her cup.

“Tell me when,” The boy said, pouring vodka into the plastic solo cup with a soft splash. Micha let him pour a little more than usual. She figured she’d rather drink it up now before the bottle was gone. 

“Jeez, rough week huh?” The guy chuckled, screwing the cap back onto the handle.

Micha huffed. “That’s an understatement.” 

“I’m Myungdae, by the way.” The new member introduced himself again. “Micha, right?” “The one and only.” Micha grinned dryly, bringing her cup to her lips. She wrinkled her nose. Maybe adding more vodka wasn’t the move. Myungdae chuckled and held his hand out.

“Here, lemme fix that for you.” He offered. Micha obliged, handing the monstrosity in her cup over. 

The boy took a sip of her drink. When he brought the cup away from his face, he gave Micha a playful smirk. “This is delicious.” He teased. “My kind of drink. 90% vodka.” 

Micha rolled her eyes, but a smile broke on her face too. “Just fix it, please.” 

Myungdae held up his index finger and took another small sip. He smacked his lips together with a concentrated expression on his face, as if trying to pinpoint what exactly was wrong. Then he got to work, grabbing juices and seltzers to add to Micha’s drink. Once he was done, he handed the drink to Micha.

“Try that.” He said smugly. Micha slowly brought the cup up to her lips. Her eyes widened. “This doesn’t even taste like vodka?” She wondered aloud, completely blown away. 

Myungdae spread his arms in pride. “What can I say. I’m a man of many talents.” 

The two left the kitchen, making room for all the other members on the hunt for a refill. The two found themselves leaning against the wall in front of Micha’s bedroom. 

“You know,” Myungdae said, giving Micha’s body a scan with his eyes. “You’re so much prettier in person.” 

Micha arched an eyebrow, trying to look unimpressed. “Trying to butter me up?” 

“Only a little,” Myungdae suppressed a chuckle, looking over his shoulder. The only people around them were Eunha and Soonyoung, who were in deep conversation about something. Myungdae’s hand dug into his pocket, slowly pulling out a small plastic baggie with fine white powder in it. 

Micha blinked. She’s been around drugs before, most nightclubs she went to had drug needles on the floor and people walked around with blood dripping from their noses. She just never thought she’d see coke in her own dorm, a place that was completely separate from nightlife culture. 

“Want some?” Myungdae asked. “I think doing a line together would really cement our friendship.” 

If it had been any other week Micha would say no, but after what she’s been through these past seven days, she thought she’d enjoy herself. She looked around before leading Myungdae to her bedroom, quickly shutting the door behind them.

“I’ve only rubbed it into my gums before.” Micha admitted, reflecting on the one other time she was offered the substance. Myungdae nodded. “Are you sketch about snorting things?” He asked, tapping the powder out onto Micha’s vanity. His actions seemed a little rush, like he had been waiting for this moment all night.

Micha shrugged, watching Myungdae work. “A little.” “Well, don’t feel pressured to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” Myungdae grinned, taking his credit card out to form a neat line. He looked up at her through his lashes. “You got a dollar?” 

Micha gestured to the small change jar she kept next to her makeup brushes. Myungdae opened the jar, taking out a bill and rolling it into a tube. Then he placed one end of it in his nostril, closing the other with his finger, before inhaling sharply, sucking up the powder with ease. 

He blinked a few times, swallowing thickly before looking a little more relaxed than he did a few moments prior. 

“Here, let's get you-”

Before Myungdae could finish, Micha’s door opened. Micha jumped, turning to see who had just caught them. 

Asahiko stood in the doorway, his eyes wide at the sight before him. Micha felt a wave of relief. At least it was her best friend who caught them and not her leader. 

“Koko, have you met Myungdae?” Micha smiled, gesturing to the boy next to her. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” Asa asked, his voice steely. Micha’s smile drooped. 

“We’re just-” Micha started but her explanation was drowned out by Asahiko’s raised voice.

“Are you trying to fucking kill yourself?” Asahiko scolds, his eyes wide.

Myungdae sniffed a little. “Hey, dude. I wouldn’t have let that happen, don’t worry.” 

“Oh thanks, that’s really reassuring coming from a literal crackhead.” Asa snipped, coming forward to pull Micha off the ground and away from Myungdae. Micha scooted away, anger flaring up inside her. Now she understood why Changkyun broke up with her. It was all Asahiko’s fault.

“Stop acting like this!” Micha whined, leaning out of Asa’s reach.

Asahiko scoffed, not understanding. “Acting like what?” “Acting like my boyfriend.” Micha narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “You’re not my boyfriend, Asahiko. I don’t need your protection.” 

Asahiko’s expression turned to stone. He took a step back, but the distance between them suddenly seemed vaster than just physically. Micha knew she struck a nerve, but she was too intoxicated and too emotionally drained to do damage control.

“You’re right.” Asahiko said flatly. “Enjoy yourself.” 

And with that, the Japanese man left, closing Micha’s bedroom door with more force than necessary. Beside her, Myungdae let out a low whistle. 

“Y’all got some tension.” Myungdae noted. “We don’t usually fight.” “Not what I meant.” Myungdae smirked to himself before filing another perfect line of white powder with his credit card. He gestured the rolled up bill to Micha. She hesitated slightly before grabbing the dollar. 

“What the fuck am I looking at right now.” Eli said in awe.

“I honestly don’t have any words.” Van shook his head. “It’s like a car crash…” Teo frowned. “I can’t look away.” 

The three idols sat at the dining table, watching Cal and Ame making out on the couch in front of them. It was an uncomfortable sight to take in. After knowing Cal for most of his teenage years, it was hard to imagine him pulling girls. Or having women interested in him at all. Yet here he was, the most awkward of their ensemble, sucking face with the pretty new member. 

“Should you guys like… make it stop?” Teo asked, clearly uncomfortable. “I feel like they shouldn’t be doing this.” 

Eli and Van looked between them. As leaders, they probably had the authoritative power to go in and break them up. They could even pull the whole “triptych values our friendly and professional dynamic…” schtick. But the both of them just shook their heads.

“They’re not really hurting anyone.” Van shrugged. “And I’d feel like the worst friend for blowing one of Cal’s few shots with a girl.” Eli admitted. 

Teo shook his head. “It’s just wrong. We’re practically co-workers.” 

Van clasped a hand on Teo’s shoulder, giving the thinner man a body-rattling shake. “Lighten up, Injung. Here, buddy,” Van poured half his drink into Teo’s empty cup. “Let’s just relax, alright? Nothing wrong with a little smooching. Hell, I love smooching.” 

“I love smooching too, but I wouldn’t wanna kiss any of your ugly mugs.”

The three boys looked over as Eunha slid into an empty chair at the dining room table. She glanced over at Cal and Ame (who still seemed to be pretty busy) with an impressed grin on her lips. 

“Where have you been all night?” Eli asked, glad to see his old friend. “Been wiping vomit off one of the youngster’s face.” Eunha wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant memory. 

“Which one?” Van asked in concern. “Sunhee. Her friends are in my room with her now making sure she drinks some water and doesn’t choke on her own puke. Poor girl just doesn’t know her limits.” Eunha said sympathetically before taking a sip of her own drink.

“Anyways, I came over to ask you guys if you’ve seen Yerin.” Eunha asked. 

“I haven’t seen her all night.” Teo realized. “Me either.” Eli frowned. “Have you called her?” “Yeah. I’ve checked the whole apartment too.” Eunha’s voice started to sound a bit more anxious. 

“I’m sure she’ll turn up.” Van shrugged. “I heard she’s got some steam to blow off anyways.” 

Eunha let out a deep sigh, surveying the room around them. Drunk teenagers and old friends were grouped together. Soojin had a particularly large circle surrounding her as she talked jovially with her free hand. 

“I guess things are gonna be a bit different from now on, huh?” Eunha bit her lower lip.

“Yeah,” Eli shrugged, a smirk on his lips. “But things were starting to get boring around here anyways.” 

Yerin never comes up to the roof, but she felt like it was the only place she could clear her mind and prepare herself for the call she was about to make. 

In a drunken state, she claimed that Johnny was her boyfriend. That wasn’t completely true. Yes, they flirted. Yes, they’ve gone on secretive little dates together to get coffee and whatever. But they’ve never put a label on anything. She wasn’t even sure what Johnny wanted out of their connection. If he wanted to date her, shouldn’t he have said something by now? What if he was just stringing her along? She needed answers right now. It couldn’t wait until morning and it especially couldn’t wait after whatever she pulled in the kitchen. 

She paced the rooftop as the phone rang, waiting anxiously for him to pick up. Even though it was still winter in Seoul, the alcohol in Yerin’s system numbed her to the true temperature of the winds wiping around her. 

“Hey, Yerin? You okay?” Johnny’s sleepy voice asked on the other line. Yerin only now realized how early in the morning it was. They were nearing the 4am mark, and her group mates were still partying downstairs. 

“I’m fine.” Yerin nodded to herself. “I’m drunk.” She added as an afterthought. Johnny chuckled on the other end of the line. 

“Aw... “ Johnny cooed. “Do you need me to come pick you up?”

“No. I have something to tell you, though.” Nia stopped pacing and looked out over the city’s landscape. In the distance she could just make out the fluorescent ‘SM’ logo on top of one of the buildings. 

“Alright, shoot.” Johnny said mirthfully, his smile almost visible in Nia’s mind. 

She swallowed thickly. “I told everyone you’re my boyfriend.” 

Johnny was silent for a minute. Yerin was starting to wonder if she shouldn’t have made this phone call after all. Yerin’s drunk brain hit the panic button. Yerin laughed flatley. “Nevermind, sorry for waking you up. This was stupid. I made a stupid mistake. I’ll do damage control tomorrow. Goodnight.” 

“Woah, wait, Yerin,” Johnny’s voice responded. “It’s all good.” 

Yerin held her breath. Johnny continued. “I mean, I don’t mind that you called me your boyfriend. That’s probably the most accurate title you can give me… Kinda like how I’ve been referring to you as my almost-girlfriend for like… two weeks now.” 

The confession made Yerin blink in surprise. She wasn’t expecting that. 

“You’ve been calling me your girlfriend?” Yerin asked quietly.

“Yeah. I had to tell my mom.” Johnny gave a small chuckle. “I think she started getting worried I’d never find someone.” 

A small smile broke on Yerin’s lips. She swung one of her legs around, spinning herself in a lazy cirlce. “I mean, you found me.” “Right. I found you.” Johnny said fondly. “Hey, where are you right now? Do you wanna come over?” 

Yerin groaned. “I’d love to, but I’m at a party with the new members. It’d look so bad if I actually left.” 

“You’re at a party? That’s got to be the quietest party I’ve ever heard.” Johnny chortled. “Must be a pretty lame party.” 

“Oh, no, I’m on the roof.” Yerin shrugged. “You’re what?” Johnny’s voice suddenly sounded more alert. “You’re intoxicated and you’re on the roof?” “Yeah. Is that an issue?” Yerin’s words slightly muddled together. “Uh, yes?!” Johnny exclaimed. “Get off the roof, dummy.” 

Yerin rolled her eyes. “I’m fine, I’m fine!” She protested, but even as she said it, she felt the world around her sway ever so slightly.

“Yerin, get off the roof.” Johnny repeated. “Seriously.”

The vocalist smirked. “Who knew you’d be the protective type?” “Not wanting your girlfriend to die makes you protective?” Johnny wondered. Nia ignored his statement, the word ‘girlfriend’ ringing through her brain. “Say the word ‘girlfriend’ one more time and I’ll get off the roof.” Nia baited in a sing-song voice. “Girlfriend. You’re my girlfriend.” Johnny complied. “Now get off the roof.”  “Hm. That was nice.”  “You’re ridiculous.” Johnny chuckled fondly. “Call me tomorrow, okay?” 

“Wait, Johnny?” Yerin quickly asked before he could hang up. “Yeah?”  “Why didn’t you tell me about Soojin?” 

Johnny gave a short, airy chuckle. “Because when I’m with you, I’m too focused on you to bring up other girls. You take up my whole brain, Yerin. I mean that.”

Nia’s cheeks flushed, a small smile forming on her lips. “Now get off the fucking roof and drink some water. Please.” Johnny said.

Yerin chuckled. “I’m going down now.” “We’ll make hangover eggs tomorrow, okay?” Johnny promised. “Sounds like a date.” Yerin smiled.

“See you, dork.” “See you, loser.” “Goodnight.” “Goodnight.” 

[thewickedmerman]

My Fan-Cast for the Live-Action Remake of The Swan Princess

As some of you might be aware, there is going to be a potential live-action remake of the 1994 animated classic, The Swan Princess. The original movie is one of my all-time favorite movies, not just in animation but in general. It has fantastic songs, a lovely score, great characters, beautiful animation, a cool villain, awesome action scenes, funny comedy, and an engaging romance. So I am both very excited and cautious about the live-action remake, due to how much the animated movie means to be (I was actually born only twenty-one days before the movie was released in theaters). I don’t want it to be an exact copy but rather tell it in a new way while staying true to the original, as well as justify its existence. The creators of the original Swan Princess, it’s two hand-drawn sequels, and its terrible CGI movies are wanting to make a live-action remake of the classic. They are really awesome with how they interact with their fans and even accept that most of the fans really hate the computer animated movies. They appreciate praise and criticism, unlike some studios that only want praise. Anyway, they created a concept trailer, which is pretty much like what a pilot for a TV series is. It’s to give an idea of what it could be rather than being a finished product, so the actors in it aren’t necessarily going to be in the actual movie, as well as the effects/CGI not being finished. They are looking for the right studio to help make the film a reality. To get an idea, here is the concept trailer.

Anyway, despite being a little nervous about the movie, I am also excited for it because I want to see how they bring it to life. Besides, just like many fans, I’d much rather see a live-action remake of The Swan Princess than one of their computer animated movies, but I won’t go into that. Something I will go into is my dream-cast for this movie. As many of you know, I have a thing for doing my own fan-casts for movies. I’ve even made a video of my fan-casting choices as well, which I will include at the very end of this, which shows their acting and singing abilities. However, I did not include the animal sidekicks (Jean-Bob, Speed, and Puffin) or Bromley and I replaced Bridget (The hag and Rothbart’s little minion) with Rothbart’s daughter from the original Swan Lake ballet, the Black Swan herself, Odile. Let me be clear, I have nothing against those characters AT ALL. I love all of them! However, I feel like their very cartoony and Looney Tunes style of humor wouldn’t work in a live-action setting. So without further ado, here are my casting choices.

Jennifer Morrison as Odette’s Mother

If you have seen Disney’s live-action remakes, you’d know that they have a thing for actually showing the dead mothers of Disney Princesses. Cinderella’s mother, Belle’s mother, they revealed that Ariel’s mother is going to be in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and while Jasmine’s mother didn’t make a physical appearance, she was mentioned a lot. So why not do the same with The Swan Princess? It could be added to the prologue and have her die giving birth. Jennifer Morrison has proven in Once Upon a Time that she is really incredible in labor scenes. Emma giving birth to Henry is considered one of Jennifer Morrison’s best performances, if not her absolute best. She also has a beautiful singing voice, which could make for a lovely new song in the movie, like a lullaby to Odette before she dies from childbirth. Maybe it would be one that could foreshadow Odette’s journey like the song “All is Found” from Disney’s Frozen II. Plus, Emma Swan is basically the Odette of the Once Upon a Time world. She’s too old to play Odette but she can still play her mother.

Kevin Kline as King William

I instantly thought of him for King William because of his role in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. He showed such tenderness and a loving fatherly nature as Maurice that he would be perfect for King William, who is protective of nurturing towards Odette. He can also be funny and charming, which is another part of King William. He’d be able to show what a loving father and an entertaining character he is, which will make his death all the more heartbreaking and you could even show flashbacks to Odette’s childhood that shows how much she misses her father. The live-action remake should show more of how Odette is traumatized by her father’s death and how she didn’t get to say goodbye, hug him one last time, or tell him that she loves him for the very last time (But still have the main focus be on her relationship with Derek and try to develop it further). So it would add a layer of depth and complexity to Odette’s character and showing some flashbacks of their bond will make her refusal to give Rothbart her father’s kingdom even more powerful than it already is. She’d also wonder if she’d be the kind of queen he wanted her to be or he would be proud of, which he would be because she’d be putting the needs of her people ahead of her own by not giving into Rothbart. Kevin Kline is a strong actor that would exemplify everything that would make for a great King William and help with Odette’s own journey as a character with her wanting to make him proud. Not to mention that Kevin Kline has Broadway experience and can really sing. He actually has a better voice than what he had displayed in the remake of Beauty and the Beast, which will be important for the musical sequence, “This is My Idea.”

Josh Gad as Chamberlain

I can’t imagine anyone else as Chamberlain! I mean, he’s flamboyant, he’s hilarious, he doesn’t rely on shouting or being loud for humor, he can be subtle, he can act, he can dance, he has so much charisma, and he can sing. Josh Gad IS Chamberlain! His credits speak for themselves with his Broadway work, voice acting, and film work. Sure, his singing voice is higher than Chamberlain’s but he actually can sing in a lower register. Even if he can’t, he still has a phenomenal voice and so much energy that it wouldn’t really matter. He’d bring alive the musical sequence, “Princesses on Parade.” He’d be able to make the humor of Chamberlain feel like it’s more natural in the live-action remake the same way he managed to make Lefou feel more grounded in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.

Sandy Duncan as Queen Uberta

This won’t take much explanation because of the fact that she is the original voice actress for Queen Uberta in the original film. She’s the right age to play her in live-action and even said she could do Uberta now. She’s known as “Funny Girl, Sandy Duncan” for a reason. She will be able to bring Uberta to life with her humor, charm, quirkiness, and charisma. But also show her caring and motherly side. Besides, it would be a great callback to the original movie to have her reprise her role in live-action.

David Hyde Pierce as Lord Rogers

This would be absolutely PERFECT! I mean, if you have seen him in his most iconic role, Niles Crane from the sitcom Frasier, you’d know he would be able to capture the dry wit that Rogers is known for. He can also do physical comedy as well, which Rogers does some of. Not to mention he can also pull off the wise and caring mentor aspect that Rogers is to Derek. He has such an appealing sounding speaking voice that is 100% right for Rogers. He’s the right age and still has a lot of energy in him, despite his age. He also has Broadway experience, so he’d be able to pull off the singing aspect as well.

Bella Thorne as Odile

I know a lot of people hate on Bella Thorne, but that doesn’t change what a brilliant actress she is with A LOT of experience. She’s been acting since she was six-years-old and even played a villain at the age of eleven (Maybe even younger) in the movie Forget Me Not. She has experience playing villains in movies like The Duff, You Get Me, The Babysitter, and The Babysitter: Killer Queen. She can be very frightening, especially in You Get Me, despite the film not being very good. Just the look of her eyes shows how intimidating she is. She can be very sassy and make it come off as very natural and not feel forced. She puts her heart and soul into every role she’s in. It’s always clear that she is giving it her all. While her movie Infamous was received negatively, her performance received critical acclaim. One critic in particular compared her talents to award winning actress, Sandra Bullock. Her acting talents have even been praised by award winning actress, Jessica Chastain, as well as many other celebrities that just loved working with her (Which is pretty much everyone she’s worked with). She’s very seductive, which Odile is known for, and is absolutely gorgeous. She also has a lovely singing voice. Nothing great but still good enough for a movie musical. If they included her in the movie and decided to make her a redeemable villain, Bella Thorne would be able to show that with her wide range of acting. Crying real tears is something that comes very easily to her. She’d be able to show the complexity and dimensions of the character.

Either way, it makes much more sense to have Odile be in the role of the Black Swan instead of Bridget. The Fake Odette is supposed to act seductive and also give Derek some hesitation to show that he has a feeling something isn’t right. It shows how he isn’t only interested in Odette because of her looks. This makes more sense with Odile because her behavior and mannerisms should be more like her own rather than like Odette’s, which doesn’t work with Bridget. In all the scenes that Bridget is in, she’s very comedic, wacky, silly, and over-the-top in her behavior and mannerisms. That makes her entertaining, but it doesn’t make sense in the context of the Black Swan trick. Just an observation I have. Not to mention that it could give Rothbart more motivation for wanting the kingdom, because of his love for his daughter. Besides, a lot of fans are hoping that Odile will be in the live-action remake. In my opinion, Bella Thorne is the only real choice for the Black Swan. She’s a phenomenal actress, she’s a good singer, she’s sexy and seductive, and she’s gorgeous. With a major movie like this, she could end up getting an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and have people finally take her seriously as an actress. I think she’s the most talented actor on this fan-cast list (I don’t care what anyone says) and that is saying something because this cast is phenomenally talented.

Toby Stephens as Rothbart

First of all, I cast a real redhead as Rothbart because I’m not ignoring gingerism like a lot of people are. Second of all, talent is in his blood, since he is the son of critically acclaimed actors, Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith. With brilliant talents like that for parents, you know that he has to be a brilliant talent as well. He is a phenomenal actor with many credits to his name. He’d be able to capture the gruffness of Rothbart but also the class, anger, sinister nature, wit, and energetic charisma of the character. He can also sing, though out of all the actors here, he has the weakest voice. However, his voice suits the character. It’s deep and raspy, which is perfect for the musical sequence, “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” He’s the second most talented actor on here, next to Bella Thorne, which makes sense because villains tend to be the ones to steal the show. Everyone loves a good villain. Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone else as Rothbart but Toby Stephens.

Derek Klena as Prince Derek

I mean, he already has the name for it, though that had nothing to do with this casting choice. He has an incredible singing voice and a lot of Broadway experience. He even played another Non-Disney hero on Broadway in the musical Anastasia as the love interest, Dimitri. YES! I’m aware that Disney bought 20th Century Fox and therefore own Anastasia. However, I still don’t consider Anastasia to be Disney. Anyway, his voice has a love of passion, power, tenderness, and is just the voice of a prince. He also has experience in screen acting and not just stage acting, which are two completely different skillsets. He demonstrates a lot of charm and charisma in his acting, so he’d be able to bring the character to life. When he sings, he shows just what a great actor he is as well as a singer. You can instantly connect with the character he’s playing and what he is feeling/going through. Not to mention that he is really handsome. But I hope that they won’t give Derek that ugly hairstyle that he has in all of the movies.

Demi Lovato as Princess Odette

Now for The Swan Princess herself. I bet some of you think that this is an odd choice because of how Demi is a pop star. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be a princess. Look at Mandy Moore as Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled. Besides, look at Demi with blonde hair. She looks exactly like Odette! Demi Lovato’s voice may not be as light as Odette’s usually is, but she still has a voice that would translate very well into the Broadways style music. Her vocal abilities speak for themselves and are undeniably brilliant. Not only that, but she’s a great actress, which a lot of people seem to forget because of how she focuses on her music career. It also wouldn’t be the first time she’s played an elegant princess, since she was in the Disney Channel original movie, Princess Protection Program. I also feel like she’d be able to capture qualities of Odette that people often overlook. Odette in the original trilogy (Especially the first movie) was feisty, strong-willed, and defiant. Demi represents those qualities perfectly in everything she does. She can capture Odette’s kindness and caring nature, since she is such a loving soul, but also manage to represent other qualities that make Odette who she is. She isn’t afraid to go against Rothbart, find a way to get out of her bad situation, and even defy her father in wanting Derek to tell her what he loves about her besides her looks. She even has some experience with voice acting, so she’d be a natural when having to do voice acting for Odette when in her swan form.

She’d also be able to capture the sexy and seductive behavior that is required for when Odile is disguised as Odette. If you have seen any of Demi Lovato’s music videos where she’s very provocative, she’s clearly able to capture that perfectly. Plus, if the movie does have Odile and they cast Bella, it would work because of how Demi and Bella are actually really good friends, so they’d be able to work together to make sure that Demi could imitate the mannerisms that Bella establishes for Odile.

Lets also not forget that she could help write an original song for the movie, which could get an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Demi’s songs, more often than not, have a story-telling quality to them. Her songs have her emotions and feeling out on her sleeves for people to know about and sometimes even have something of a character arc. Combine that with a traditional Broadway score by Lex de Azevedo or maybe even with the score from the original Swan Lake ballet by Tchaikovsky. Besides, with her MASSIVE fanbase, she would draw in a LARGE crowd, especially since they would love to see her in a movie musical, particularly one that would have a theatrical release. I wouldn’t be surprised if she got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

BONUS MATERIAL:

For some bonus material, I’ve included who I would choose to sing the end credit songs from the original movie, “Far Longer Than Forever” and “Eternity.”

“Far Longer Than Forever”: Jordan Fisher and Coco Jones

These two singing a duet together would be absolutely HEAVENLY! They have absolutely amazing voices with wide and versatile vocal ranges. Jordan Fisher is pretty much a male version of Mariah Carey. Coco Jones is pretty much a younger version of Jennifer Hudson. Not to mention singing the end credit song to a remake of an iconic and beloved animated movie could help her get the recognition she deserves. She was done dirty in Hollywood because of her being a dark-skinned black woman. Singing the end credit version of “Far Longer Than Forever” in the live-action remake could be to her what “Reflection” was for Christina Aguilera. That song is what helped make Christina the massive star she is today, so much so that she came back to sing a new version of the song in the live-action remake of Mulan.

“Eternity”: Anneliese van der Pol

Anneliese van der Pol is such an UNDERRATED talent! She has one of the most amazing voices I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s so powerful, she can seriously belt, has such an old fashioned beauty to her voice reminiscent of singers like Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand that is rare to find nowadays, she can be full-on but also tender, and is a Broadway singer. She would do the song justice and would stay true to the spirit of it. I mean, listen to her cover of the song “Candle on the Water.” Usually with Disney Mania, it’s almost always modern style music to classic Disney songs, however, Anneliese’s cover was in the same style as the original song, which is unique. In fact, her cover was better than the original.

Lastly, did you know that The Swan Princess has an OFFICIAL Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram? They even interact with fans A LOT! Take a look!

https://www.instagram.com/swanprincessofficial/

@theswanprincessofficial​

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm_Q3k32sEVQbrANS7-vSjA

https://www.facebook.com/official.swanprincess/

You can even send an email to Odette@swanprincessseries.com where you can ask a question and it might be chosen for the monthly Chamberg Daily News (Chamberg is the name of Derek’s kingdom).

[tigerlilyhasablog]

What I’ve Been Watching

Hello everyone! If you read my comeback post, you know that I promised a round-up of  the movies I’ve seen so far in 2020. This post has taken WAYYYY too long for me to get around to writing, but now I’m self-isolating and have plenty of time on my hands, so hopefully I should be writing more! So let’s get into it. Before I talk about films from this year, I’ve got to sneak in my thoughts about my absolute FAVORITE film of 2019…

Knives Out – 5/5

I cannot tell you how much I love this movie. I’ve seen it three times in the theater since it came out! I knew that I wanted to see it the moment that I saw the trailer, and I had heard good things about it, but I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Everything about this movie is just so. Damn. Good. The characters, the storytelling, the aesthetic setting and costume design… perfection, perfection, perfection. The cast, of course, is incredible. This movie is just so much FUN, and I’m obsessed. If you haven’t seen it already, GO SEE KNIVES OUT GODDAMMIT!!!

Now for 2020…

Richard Jewell – 4/5

I went back and forth on whether to give this a 3.5 or a 4, because its been a minute since I watched it, and honestly, I had kind of forgotten about it. Upon reflection, I’ve decided that is because of how many really good films I’ve seen so far this year, not because Richard Jewell is a forgettable movie. I really enjoyed it at the time… it has just gotten overshadowed by things I’ve watched since. The performances are great; Paul Walter Hauser was not someone I was super familiar with before this film, but he seriously impressed me as the titular character. It is just a very solid film about an important story that I really should have known more about since it happened in my home state.🤷‍♀️

Just Mercy – 4/5

Oh boy, bring some tissues for this one. What can I say, this is just a really good movie: its a well-told story of a real-life issue, its hard-hitting and tear-jerking af, the performances are great (Michael B Jordan, man🙌🏻), its just super solid all around. If you don’t cry your eyes out watching this, then sorry, you have no heart.

1917 – 4.5/5

Whoa. Okay, this is an absolute must-see. Holy shit, this movie is something else. As you have probably heard, this movie is shot and edited in a way that makes it look like it was one long take. Not only is this seriously impressive, but it is also effective as hell. There is never a break from the intensity of the film, and you will be on the edge of your seat every second (I’ve seen it twice, and I was completely on edge the entire time even during the second watch.) That’s not the only thing that makes ‘1917’ super impactful, though. The actors are fantastic… I was really impressed by George MacKay. This movie really doesn’t hold back; it is an honest, horrific, emotional depiction of war, and wow, it really isn’t like any war movie I’ve ever seen before.

Like A Boss – 3/5

Okay, time for a drastic change of tone from the last few movies! Not gonna lie, I went into this movie with basically no expectations, as I had heard nothing good about it. But you know, I liked it better than I thought I would. It was funnier than I expected, though not all the jokes hit, and it was overall incredibly silly. But it’s also a fairly sweet story about female friendship. I went to see it with one of my own female friends, we had the theater to ourselves, we laughed at all the stupid parts and we had a good time. So yeah, I didn’t hate it.😅

Dolittle – 3/5

This movie was… weird. Not necessarily a bad weird, but like, really, really bizarre. It’s hard to explain exactly why without giving plot points as examples, but I’ll tell you that there were numerous times throughout the movie where I turned to my sister and said “what the fuck??” I think that there were some drugs involved in the making of this film. On the plus side, I kinda enjoyed it. There were some parts that were genuinely funny, and overall it was something fun to watch with my younger siblings. My 12-year-old brother loved it, and that’s the real test, isn’t it?

The Gentlemen – 4.5/5

Ok, this movie was fucking GOOD. Not gonna lie, when I first saw the poster and trailer for this film, my first thoughts were, god, do we really need another cool-guy crime comedy with an almost entirely white male cast? The answer is no, no we don’t. But damn, if this isn’t a great movie anyway. It surpassed my expectations in every way… I loved it. The humor is not going to be for everyone; it is very British and often extremely crude, but I fucking cried laughing, it was hilarious. The laughs alone were enough for me to like this movie, but there is more to it than that. The plot is engaging, and although I’ve heard some people complain it was slow or too hard to follow, I liked it and enjoyed the story-telling elements. I also found myself caring way more about the characters than I thought I would. Oh, and there are some gorgeous cinematic elements to it as well. Overall, great movie. I guess I need to go and educate myself on some other Guy Ritchie films.

Birds of Prey – 4/5

So, I’ve given this a 4, but this is another one that I debated giving a 3.5. I had wanted to see it again before I reviewed, but the coronavirus screwed that plan up. I decided to round up, however, because my overall feeling about this movie is that I enjoyed it. It isn’t perfect… There were some odd plot decisions, and some so-so action, but you know, I liked it. It’s just FUN. The characters are all bad-ass, the music is on point, it’s funny, it’s colorful, it’s just really enjoyable. The cast are all great, and I thought Ewan McGregor made a great villain. Also, in amongst the mediocre action there were some really great scenes (small spoiler: I’m obsessed with Harley breaking people’s legs.) Like I said, I feel like I need to watch it again to really decide how I feel about it, but overall it’s a thumbs up from me.

The Photograph – 3/5

Huh, this movie was an odd one. I really wanted to like it, and I mean, I didn’t dislike it, but I just wasn’t feeling it, you know? I confess, romance is not really my genre (I like a good rom com, but just straight up romance? Meh), but I just found myself completely uninterested in the main couple. If you haven’t seen this movie, the plot is split between the relationship between Michael and Mae (LaKeith Stanfield and Issa Rae), and flashbacks to the 80s that focus on the relationship between Mae’s mother, Christina (Chante Adams,) and a man named Isaac (Y’lan Noel.) When it came to Michael and Mae, I just did not care at all whether or not they ended up together. I didn’t give a shit about their relationship throughout the entire movie. I liked their characters individually, but together I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry. Now, with the other couple, Sara and Isaac, I actually cared a lot more. I looked forward to the parts that would focus on them, and was annoyed when the film would jump forward to the present day again. I dunno, I mean, I didn’t hate it. It was funny in places and moving (to an extent) in others. The storyline outside of the romance was alright. I just didn’t love it.

Parasite – 4.5/5

Ok, usually I only do reviews for films I see in the theater, but I had to make an exception for this… I had some friends came over and we watched it from my couch, but only because nowhere nearby was showing it. If you haven’t heard of Parasite, you’ve probably been living under a rock. After it scooped up 4 Oscars, everyone was talking about it, and rightly so. Honestly I’m not gonna give it a proper review, because you just. Need. To. Watch. It. Basically, the first half is genuinely really funny, and then it slowly gets darker and darker, and holy fuck, I did NOT see that ending coming. The story, the acting, the symbolism, the cinematography, the setting… All fucking amazing. Watch Parasite, people. Just do it.

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

my top 10 series of 2019~

aka i gush about shiz i watched this year for waaaaaay too long lol... 

i watched a lot of stuff this yr (well... it felt like a lot? there’s a lot more i wanted to watch but i’m terrible at time management lol...) so let’ssss explore that in a ~numbered list~ lol

(spoilers - there’s a lot of gay shit here lol... what can i say, twentybiteen really pulled thru lol)

10 - Stranger Things (series 3) 

i know some people didn’t like this series, but i legit thought it was really good lol... i felt it had gone back to the style of the 1st series a lil more? (whereas series 2 had felt a lil disappointing in a way??) & i loved all the new characters introduced (robin is a personal fav, obv), & the whole splitting off into the lil groups was really effective in not just feel like it’s always the same group together, and it also allowed for some interesting character moments!

visually, stranger things always looks amazing! but i thought the whole summer/july 4th vibes really made it especially stunning tbh... as most things on this list, i’ve only seen it once, so i would like to rewatch it at some point (actually wanna do a full stranger things marathon tbh i was trying to explain what had happened in the show to my friend who stopped watching it early in series 1 & it was so difficult to remember exactly what had happened in it lool... ) 

there were obv things about it that i wasn’t as big on, like the whole evil russian-invincible guy was v cliche and kinda silly, & some of the actions scenes were a bit awkward(?) feeling... but i’m a sucker for any 80′s style media so those things just reminded me of the goonies or some shit lol

9 - Ghosts 

actually the funniest & cutest series ever tbh!!! as someone who grew up with horrible histories with the original cast, this just made me immensely happy to see the whole team together again! the humour style is v similar to horrible histories too btw, though i feel they let themselves have a lil more ‘dark humour’ than in that (since this is more a general audience, whereas hh was definitely more aimed at kids tbh... tho they still won a comedy award for it lol! actual legends lol anyway...)

only downside is that it’s only 1 series atm & it’s pretty short... but i know there’s gonna be a new series at some point so i’m v excited for that!! i feel there’s sooooo many places they can go with the concept (i.e. exploring how/when the other characters died (like kitty!!! i need to know her story lol i love her!), maybe introducing another character who can see ghosts?? like a medium/psychic or something/etc ...) but legit, please watch this if u haven’t!!! 

8 - Good Omens

this pretty much took over the internet this year lbr lol & tbh i’d def say it was worthy of the praise!! ineffable husbands aside, the main story is super engaging and enjoyable, with some really awesome side characters (& some of my fav character designs in anything ever tbh!!) but definitely the biggest draw was the ‘6000 years mutual pining’ romance which they did so well lol & it was something that was genuinely so lovely to watch tbh!! i also really loved the ending message of the show! i really hope to rewatch this next year when i think it’s gonna be aired on british tv at last????

downsides would be that the plot can be a bit confusing at times? but maybe that’s just me being dumb lol... but i imagine it’s a lot easier to understand if u’ve read the book lol?? i don’t have a problem w/ aziraphale & crowley not being “explicitly” gay or whatnot (i know i’ve seen some people annoyed with this?), since the whole idea of their relationship is so much larger than just them bonking or whatevs lol? (in general i think more media should have less focus on kissing/intimacy as an indication of love/romance... which is something i’ve already talked about lol)

oh, and the title sequence is INCREDIBLE lol i seriously loved it so much!!

7 - Killing Eve (series 2)

finally finished this the other day & it was so good!!! i really love the dark comedic tone of the show tbh & i def feel there was more of it in the 2nd series then the first! i also liked the further development of villanelle & eve’s relationship, which is obv the highlight of the show tbh! there was also a nice lot of twists tbh, though i’d say it was a lil less intense than the 1st series? (overall i’d say i prefer the 1st series, but the 2nd was a fab continuation... btw i also watched the 1st series this yr lol)

negative points are that the plot wasn’t quite as interesting as the 1st series... i think cos the focus of the murders was taken off of villanelle that we lost some of that drama from the 1st? i thought the ghost was gonna be a more integral part but she was kinda weirdly pushed aside once we learnt her identity? & the creepy son dude just annoyed me lol (but i suppose that was the point lol...)... so like yh there were lil things that didn’t engage me as much as the first, but overall i still really enjoyed it lol

this is def fulfilling the hannibal-shaped hole in my heart tbh... (another series i finished this yr...)

6 - Dark Blue Kiss the series

look, it’s no surprise this is on my list lol... i was hella hyped for this series when it was announced last yr, even though my expectations were VERY LOW after kiss me again the series (which, lbr, is a massive mess lol... like it’s My Mess tho)... but for real, this series really exceeded all my expectations... & then some! like i’m legit shook at how good it was ngl! especially morksun’s storyline, which was by far my fav in the show (as much as i’m petekao trash lol...) also, i was surprised by how genuinely pretty this show is! esp in comparison to kma (like i know i keep going on about the goddamn bruise makeup but it is so ugly in kma, but they really did a great job in dbk tbh!)

ok so there’s a lot of flaws lol... like... a lot (i’m already complained a lot so i won’t bore u with that rn lol...) but for real, the thing that i love the most about this is the discussions of coming out/homophobia/general young people struggles/etc etc which is so refreshing to see in these series! like i love that despite the cheesy tropes, it still knows when to be serious & genuine...

5 - He Is Coming To Me

another thai series, i believe this has the same director as dbk? (don’t hold me to that tho...)... legit one of the best, if not the best, thai series i’ve ever seen tbh! so adorable, so well acted, so funny & heartwarming like... legit it’s so good!! i was already excited about it from the trailer, but the way it really delivered on the emotionality, whilst keeping it lighthearted, was truly wonderful tbh! the main actors did a brill job i gotta say, and all the side characters were amazing too (there really wasn’t a character i didn’t like i’d say tbh? i need to rewatch tbh... there’s a lot i’ve forgotten since this came out p early in the year lol)... also, visually it’s so pretty!! i swear the cinematography in these thai series just keeps getting better & better & it def improves the watching experience tbh!

a down point would be that the first ep is a bit slow/awkward to get in to... & i think it def could put someone off? but i’d say to stick w/ it since it just keeps getting better & better! i’d actually say there isn’t really anything else i didn’t like about it ngl? it’s just so good guys... u really need to watch it!

4 - Russian Doll 

probs the only series on this list that i actually actively went to rewatch straight away lol (didn’t do a full rewatch btw)... it was SO good for real! i already loved the premise lol (it’s basically groundhog day, which is already such a great film, but they explored those ideas even more in this which i loveeeed) the leads are fantastic, and the story is generally so interesting!  plus the editing & song choices are really brill tbh... 

my one complaint would probs be that the series loses a lil momentum at certain points (esp later in the series), but it still keeps ur interest, and the ending is really well done too! i know there’s gonna be a 2nd series, so i’m really hoping it’ll be able to live up to this one, and also explore more of the characters/concepts/etc! i’m def hyped for it tbh!  

i feel like this series is simultaneously underrated and also v well known lol?? like i know everyone sees that ‘thursday! what a concept’ meme but i feel like i didn’t see as many people talk about it as much as other series this yr??? 

(for my top 3, i’d say i love them all equally/for different reasons... so the order they’re in is changeable lol)

3 - Gentleman Jack

one of the greatest bbc series of the year, maybe even the decade lol! actually a masterpiece of cinematography, incredible acting, gorgeous costumes, beautiful depictions of love and intimacy, hilarious characterisation & just generally a wonderful series!! like i can’t praise it enough! it’s literally everything i could ever want from a series, and more!!!!!!! like everytime i think about it i just feel like ‘!!!!!’ constantly lol... like... what did we do to deserve such a series for real?? something that i esp loved was that i vividly remember not that long ago w/ people complaining about the bbc for having minor lgbtq characters in things, so to have a actual main lesbian couple series be on prime time bbc telly is kinda mind blowing lol... like.. i know we’ve got a long way to go, but it does make me immensely proud!! 

i have no complaints lol... other than - needed to be longer (i think we’re getting a 2nd series right???? i hope so tbh!!)

2 - The Untamed 

look, i don’t make 15 piece series’ for nothing lol... this show really got to me ngl... like i knew it was gonna be amazing from seeing tonnes of mutuals start watching it & praising it.. .but ohhhhhhhh boy i wasn’t reading for the angst and heartbreak and just generally how invested i’d be in all the characters lol... like genuinely there’s so much to praise about this show! it may not be as super ‘polished’ as some of the other shows on this list, but it really has so much heart and hard work and dedication put into it which really shows in the final  product!

there’s obv issues with it, but i feel like it’s kinda unnecessary to go over them lol? there’s so much more of this series that has brought me genuine joy, the biggest being the fact they were still able to depict a really beautiful, loving and /romantic/ relationship despite the strict censor is truly incredible lol!! like w/ good omens, it just shows what you can do to depict love/romance without having to over-sexualise something...

i feel like i’m saying less for these top 3, but it’s just cos i’ve already gush to high heavens about how much i love them lol... 

1 - HIStory 3 - Trapped

you - *pretends to be shocked that this is my number 1*

yeh... no surprises that this is in my top 3 lol... what can i say that i haven’t already screamed about for months??? this series truly surpassed any expectations i could have had for a HIStory series... the story line is complex & pretty well done (it’s not perfect... but nothing is so....), the characters are wonderful & also brilliantly acted! i think the thing that i love the most is that the director wanted to create a series that wasn’t just a cheesy gay series (don’t get me wrong, i loVE cheesy gay series’ lol... ) but also would have a more interesting, well developed & more ‘mature’ story line (i think esp in comparison to other HIStory series’ which are usually school/uni based)... it’s also one of the few lgbtq series i’ve seen that isn’t just about ‘first loves’, and doesn’t place a big emphasis on a sexuality/identity crisis... it’s just so unabashedly a mystery-romance drama, which is just so refreshing to see! & i genuinely hope we can see more series like this, where gay characters don’t need to ‘prove’ themselves in order to be in a series or to be in relationships (which it often feels like, where writers need to explain /why/ characters are gay...)...  

phew... that’s a lot of text lol, just like w/ the untamed, i feel like i’ve already talked about the negative points of the series (plot holes, awkward moments, weird editing/sound choices, bad tropey plots), but the positives of this series seriously make it worthwhile, and i’m just so so SO happy this show exists lol...

all 3 of these series have a special place in my heart of inspiring lots of my own exploration of art, as well as writing, which has been really crucial in me understanding what i wanna do with my life (i know that sounds kinda weird, but at the start of the year i really didn’t know what i wanted... and i wasn’t even sure what i was good at lol... so thru these shows i was able to discover a lot more about my own style of working & thru all of them i was able to meet some wonderful new people on here which has made 2019 actually one of my most enjoyable years on tumblr! 

this has been an...... interesting year lol... but definitely these shows made it just a lil bit better!!! 

Happy new year to anyone who actually read thru this & let’s hope 2020 brings us even more brill shows ~~~

[gatesofember]

1/3 Hi! I just wanted to send a message about the AM au. I LOVE reading it, and a friend and I bond over it, and we just wanted to tell you that we read the au because of your writing, and how beautifully you handle the balance of “but this is historically more accurate” and “but this makes for a better story”. And we’ve both been seeing how much you seem to feel pressured to include an explicit consummation scene in the story, while you don’t seem to feel like it fits, and for what it’s worth,

First of all, I’m sorry it took me like a week to get around to answering this. I am now a foster mother caring for an teeny tiny perfect adorable kitten who needs attention at all hours of the day.

I am so flattered that you and a friend have bonded over my fic and I love to hear how much you appreciate all the work I’ve put into it! I definitely try to find a balance for the au - both between historical accuracy and good story and between what I want and what the readers want.

Early in my fic-writing career, I promised myself that I’d never take requests or commissions. Commissioned and requested fics of my favorite writers had always fallen short for me and I suspected that was because the writer wasn’t enjoying themselves. My worst fics are the ones I don’t have fun with and my worst scenes are the ones I want to skip. It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but the way I see it, if I don’t want to write it, no one will want to read it. Whenever I get to a scene that’s dull or tedious to write, I know I’m doing something wrong. I ask myself, “How can I reframe this scene? What might make it more interesting? Is it necessary? Should it be replaced?” Thinking like that has rescued so much of my writing. I dropped many scenes from “The Whitethorn Hearth” because they didn’t fit and rearranged a lot of the events to improve the flow. I over-wrote chapter 3 and I struggled to pull the chapter together because it was such tedious work. When I caught myself thinking, “I just want to get this chapter over with,” I finally stopped and said, “What is going on right now that’s preventing me from enjoying myself and how can I fix it?” So I took a step back, figured out what was wrong, and ended up really happy with the chapter.

When I started this au, I promised myself that I wouldn’t let audience reactions change my vision for the story. I’ve done my best to stay true to that, but I’ve definitely been influenced. I wanted to write a historically-inspired drama about two people in an arranged marriage, but story veered toward romance because I felt like that was what readers wanted. Mostly, the betrothal part of the au became longer and more detailed than expected. And that wasn’t always a bad thing! I mentioned some of my regrets about the engagement in the guide, but I prefer some of the changes. Originally, Nico and Will didn’t actually say the “L” word until after the wedding, but I’m much more pleased with “The Whitethorn Hearth” than the initial wedding plan. But on the downside, the late changes meant I was unprepared. Because I didn’t take the time to reframe the story, many of those changes were poorly executed.

What I regret most is how much Will’s character fell flat. I only intended to write a few fics about the betrothal, enough to establish Will as a pure-hearted boy who’s always been surrounded and protected by good friends, a loving family, and his connections to powerful people. He starts out innocent and underdeveloped in contrast to Nico, who carries a lot of baggage from his past. AM au Will was also supposed to contrast with canon Will, who I interpret as hardened by the loss of two brothers and fighting in two wars. AM au Will’s character was supposed to develop while he struggled to live far away from his family, to find his place in a new home, and to figure out his relationship with his husband. Unfortunately, because of the extended betrothal phase, I was stuck on the innocent, underdeveloped Will for a long time. I should have reframed the story to figure out how to make him interesting and dynamic in the early story when I realized I’d spend so much time writing the betrothal phase. But at least now that the wedding is over, I can save Will’s boring character and we’ll watch him grow into the war-hardened yet still calm and kind Will Solace we know from canon.

As far as explicit sex is concerned, the reason I started writing smut was because I felt like there was a tragic lack of good, non-underage content in the Solangelo tag. I thought, “hey, I’m a decent writer, maybe I can do something about that.” Then people liked it and they wanted more. But…smut is kind of boring to write, honestly. There’s a formula to it: describe the action, describe the sensation. Maybe add a bit of fun dialogue, possibly some romance, but once you’ve written a few smut fics, you’ve written them all. Sure, you can try different positions, different types of play, or different anatomies, but at the end of the day, it’s still just describing physical arousal. A lot of the time, if you change the setting, the universe, or even the characters, you can still copy and paste the actions and sensations. Smut doesn’t have much room for creativity. I always tried to make mine different; I did my best to frame it to be unique to the setting and I used a lot of dialogue to showcase the characters’ personalities and relationship. Even then, it got boring after I’d written a few, and although I said no whenever someone made a request, I still felt like I had to keep writing smut even though I wasn’t having fun.

Thankfully, I’ve gotten a lot better about staying true to myself since my smut-writing days. If I have a hard time writing the consummation fic, I plan to stop and ask myself why, then find a way to fix it. I don’t think it will be very pornographic. The purpose of the consummation fic isn’t to elicit the reader’s sexual arousal; the purpose is to tell a story of the developing relationship between two characters, specifically them figuring out their sexualities and physical compatibility. It’s also meant to have a slight commentary on how heteronormativity has influenced same-sex sexual practices in the au, with hints of existentialist questions like “What defines sex? What is its function as a non-reproductive practice, personally, interpersonally, and societally? Where does the definition of sex begin and end, and what actions count as sex? Is there an objective definition, or is it entirely subjective? And if it is entirely subjective, can we say that sex exists at all?”

But mostly it’s full of absurdist comedy with a dash of dirty humor, plus some romance.

So no, I don’t want to write smut. But I do want to write the story of Nico and Will hilariously making complete idiots of themselves while trying to figure out anal. If I focus on the aspects of the story that I want to write, then I’ll have fun doing it.

Thank you for your support and for reminding me not to let myself be influenced by expectations. I think most readers will be ok with my choices. I occasionally get comments that are rude, demanding, or entitled, but the majority of my feedback is wonderful and supportive! And if readers are dissatisfied by the level of explicitness, they can fuck right off and find a different fic to read. I’ve already contributed enough smut to the Solangelo tag. It’s my au and I’m going to do what I want!

[blapis-blazuli]

For that one ship meme: any Invisible person you feel like doing. Don't overload yourself, though.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I wasn’t sure which one to pick, so have all of them

Scientific Romance (Arthur Kemp/Jack Griffin/Flora Cranley/Rosemary Carew/Henry Jekyll(/Jack Griffin)) [Monster AU]

When or if I started shipping it: For a while now. As it currently is? Uh… Our conversations on Discord would imply since early September of last year, given the development between Rosemary and Flora.

My thoughts: It’s cute? It’s a lot of fun to come up with things for all of them? Maybe too much fun even?

What makes me happy about them: They’re all dorks in love and it’s great.

What makes me sad about them: Universal will never have the balls to make Griffin/Kemp canon, let alone this. …Then again, Universal had the “brilliant” idea of trying to cast Johnny Depp as Griffin (which I still think was terrible casting), so maybe it’s for the best that they don’t try to do something like this. (Plus, you and I both know how bad The Umm turned out. I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing their new take on my favorite of their monsters)

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: I’m kinda concerned that a hypothetical fanbase for this AU would:

Ignore that they’re all in a happy, consensual relationship

Ignore that none of them are straight and only focus on Jack/Flora and/or Henry/Rosemary

Fetishize Flora/Rosemary and ignore that they’re both also happy with Jack and Henry respectively

Fetishize either Jack/Arthur and/or Jack/Henry and either act like Flora and Rosemary don’t exist or treat them like they’re evil and “in the way” of one of those relationships

Things I look for in art/fic: I’d be impressed if someone besides us wrote about them at all, to be honest.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Eh.. The closest thing I can think of is an AU where Jack was nicer to Thomas Marvel and they also got together and maybe things ended up working out with Henry and Gabriel Utterson. Other than that… I dunno.

My happily ever after for them: I just want them all to be happy.

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Just relaxing together and enjoying when things aren’t falling apart around them.

Invisible Poly-Square (Kitty Carroll/Helen Manson/Geoffrey Radcliffe/Frank Griffin(/Kitty Carroll)) [Monster AU]

When or if I started shipping it: The moment we started figuring out how to fit both Kitty and Geoffrey into this AU.

My thoughts: They are incredibly sweet. I love them.

What makes me happy about them: Everything? They’re just great?

What makes me sad about them: I’d say “Universal would never make it canon” but… Well, see the previous one for why that doesn’t bother me.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: I have a few of the same concerns for this ship as I would for the previous one.

Things I look for in art/fic: I’d be impressed if it existed at all, especially given the… lack of popularity regarding both Invisible Man Returns and Invisible Woman.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I dunno.

My happily ever after for them: That they’re happy at all.

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Just being near each other and enjoying a quiet moment together, all four of them.

Dr. Jekyll/Claude Griffin/Mr. Hyde [Mad Monster Party/Mad Mad Mad Monsters]

When or if I started shipping it: Oh gosh, uh… shortly after watching Mad Monster Party for the first time, if not during the first time seeing it.

My thoughts: Best MMP couple. No contest.

What makes me happy about them: I think they’re just fun to think about in general, especially as a way to explore the idea of Jekyll and Hyde both being in love with the same person and that person loving them both back (and with someone who already knows they’re both in the same body).

What makes me sad about them: …Does anyone even care that much about the movie they’re from?

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: I’m pretty sure Mad Monster Party/Mad Mad Mad Monsters fic doesn’t exist.

Things I look for in art/fic: That it exists to begin with.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I don’t know, but I definitely don’t see Claude getting back with Nagatha.

My happily ever after for them: They escaped Baron Boris’ island together and are happily starting a new life with each other.

Their favorite non-sexual activity: For Jekyll and Claude: just talking about things together. For Claude and Hyde: causing mischief.

Henry Frankenstein/Nagatha [Mad Mad Mad Monsters]

When or if I started shipping it: After I tried thinking about what Nagatha would do with her life after divorcing Claude (let’s face it that marriage wasn’t meant to last) and thought about her maybe going to assist Henry Frankenstein.

My thoughts: They’d be a much better match than Nagatha and Claude.

What makes me happy about them: I enjoy the thought of them working together while also breaking the animated formula of having the Invisible Man with the Invisible Woman (fuck you, Hotel Transylvania).

What makes me sad about them: It’s gonna take some time to think of a way for them to get together that doesn’t feel forced. Not like I can do much worse than the actual relationships in that special though.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: lol implying Mad Mad Mad Monsters fic exists

Things I look for in art/fic: That they exist to begin with.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I dunno, just don’t have Nagatha and Claude get back together.

My happily ever after for them: I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Science!

Boobula/Ghoul [Mad Mad Mad Monsters]

When or if I started shipping it: A little less than a week after we first watched Mad Mad Mad Monsters together, apparently.

My thoughts: I think they’d be great boyfriends. They’re vampire-invisible person solidarity, which is honestly underrated. A vampire can see things that other humans can’t. Things like an invisible person. So Boo would have no problem actually seeing his invisible boyfriend, things that others usually wouldn’t be able to see.

What makes me happy about them: I like to think they’d have a gradual childhood friends-to-lovers kind of romance and they’re already so close that it takes a while for them both to realize they have romantic feelings for each other.

What makes me sad about them: That some dipstick gave one of them the name “Boobula” like who tf does that I don’t know of anyone else who ships it.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: That would require for said fic/art to exist to begin with.

Things I look for in art/fic: That it exists?

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: …I dunno.

My happily ever after for them: They’re happy together whether their respective families approve of their relationship or not. (Which at least Claude does.)

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Mostly harmlessly horsing around with regular humans, and each other too.

Eric Creighton/Sid Griffin/Nadia/Danya [OC/Gravedale High/OC/OC]

When or if I started shipping it: I think we started shipping Sid and Eric pretty shortly after we started working on him, and I kinda started shipping Nadia with Sid pretty quickly too. I pretty much immediately jumped to shipping Nadia and Danya.

My thoughts: I love them and look forward to hopefully doing more for them at some point? Sid was kinda not treated very well by the other students in his class, even towards the end of the show, and he’s the only one who never had a close friend like everyone else in class did, so I like how this kinda changes that.

What makes me happy about them: It’s been fun developing OCs for a show that doesn’t really get that much love outside the internet that happen to fall for a character I adore like a son? I think this finally helped me let go of the idea that OCs who end up with canon characters are inherently cringy and/or badly-written that I was pressured into believing as a younger teenager.

What makes me sad about them: That this show never even got a DVD release, what the fuck, Universal, give me my teenage monster children

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: Not about this ship exactly, but have I mentioned how disheartening it is to find that the few GH fanfics I’ve found mostly focus on Vinnie and Reggie as if they’re the only characters from this show worth focusing on? (They’re great, but the others deserve attention too.)

Things I look for in art/fic: I haven’t even drawn Danya yet, and I somehow lost the one rough sketch I’ve done for Nadia, so…

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: (shrugs)

My happily ever after for them: All four of them live together with their future daughter Grisephone.

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Musical comedy nights. I mean, any time they’re together they have fun, but especially musical comedy nights, because who knows what’ll happen.

Dr. Henry Davenport/Edgar Raven [Monster in my Pocket]

When or if I started shipping it: Er… late July of last year, apparently?

My thoughts: They would absolutely be dorks together.

What makes me happy about them: Thinking of them being Carrie’s dorky dads together is endearing to me.

What makes me sad about them: I can pretty much guarantee that Edgar isn’t even in the other unaired episodes that are who knows where now so I don’t think we’ll ever know what he looks like.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: I’m pretty sure that Edgar’s not even in the very few fics for this show that do exist.

Things I look for in art/fic: I’d honestly be impressed if any art of Edgar exists, fanart or otherwise.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My happily ever after for them: Edgar and Davenport get married and the latter officially adopts Carrie to become her official Monster Dad (the other three good monsters being her honorary monster uncles).

Their favorite non-sexual activity: Reading and writing together with one helping come up with ideas for the other.

Thank you so much! I’m sorry this is so long, I have a lot of feelings for invisible characters.

(Send me a ship?)

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior August 28, 2020 – THE NEW MUTANTS, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC, LINGUA FRANCA, CLASS ACTION PARK, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, CENTIGRADE and More!

So more movie theaters reopened last week, and while I haven’t monitored areas where those theaters opened for COVID spikes, which we probably wouldn’t see until this weekend or next week anyway, I think things seem to be trying to get back to normal with two fairly high-profile releases, one getting a full theatrical release getting some kind of hybrid of theatrical and VOD. There’s also lots of digital stuff, lots of virtual cinema, and of course streaming ... I mean, you can’t complain that there’s nothing to watch, and there’s even some good stuff in there. So let’s get to it...

This week’s “Featured Flick” – which I’m bringing right back to the top of the column where it deserves to be is – is Filipina filmmaker Isabel Sandoval’s LINGUA FRANCA (ARRAY), which debuts on Netflix today as part of Ava DuVernay’s new distribution initiative, and it’s quite a wonderful indie drama that I can’t recommend more highly. While the film isn’t Sandoval’s first film, it is her first film since transitioning and her first film mostly in English, and it very much deals with both the trans and immigrant experience in New York City. Sandoval not only wrote and directed but also stars and produces the film set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, playing Olivia, a trans woman trying to navigate her life as a caregiver for an elderly woman (Lynn Cohen) when she gets into a relationship with the woman’s grandson Alex (Eamon Farren). Olivia also has paid an American to marry her so she can get her green card but when that falls through, she needs to look at other options.

At its core, this film is about the tentative romance between Olivia and Alex but it’s such a layered story that beautifully captures that part of Brooklyn and features an amazing supporting performance by the late Lynn Cohen as Alex ‘s grandma Olga, which ends up being a far more pivotal role than may be expected. As much as the film is about Olivia, the film also follows Alex as he deals with his own issues, keeping a job but also how he questions his feelings for Olivia, since he’s surrounded by a pack of toxic transphobic bros. Still, you can’t help but hope that Olivia and Alex’s story has a happy ending despite all the travails they go through.

My main takeway from Lingua Franca is that Sandoval did an amazing job with an incredibly personal story, not only in the writing and direction but also playing Olivia, and I’m so excited to see what she does next, because this is a movie that more than lives up to some of her influences. Either way, this is an absolutely wonderful film  that you can watch on Netflix RIGHT NOW.

I also wanted to draw attention to Flavio Alves’ THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND (Dark Star Pictures), which won a jury prize at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, because it’s a nice companion piece to Lingua Franco (purely by coincidence) with a few similar elements, despite being a VERY different movie. In fact, I don’t want to spend too much time comparing them, because it wouldn’t be fair to either filmmaker.

This one stars Carlie Guevra as Tina, a Mexican trans woman living with her grandmother, who is in the process of transitioning, but just needs her therapist (Ed Asner) to sign off that she’s ready. She also has a boyfriend, Jason (Alex Kruz) and a couple jobs, one as a ride share driver and she gets a second job as bartender. Her main concern is getting her surgery, although we get the impression that she may not be legal. Either way, that’s not as key in this movie as in Lingua Franca. The movie also cuts between Tina and a young man who works at the bodega named Chris (Anthony Abdo), who seems to have some cryptic connection with Tina, but he also hangs out with a bunch of transphobic baseball players. It’s not quite clear what part he will play in this story, except we assume that maybe he’s closeted gay or trans and wants to keep it secret from his friends. The point is that the inclusion of Chris in the story means that we don’t get nearly as much focus on Tina’s problems since the film frequently cuts away from her.

The ending of The Garden Left Behind, which has won a number of awards at festivals including the Visions award at last year’s SXSW, gets quite dark and quite tragic, but it’s obvious that Alves wanted to make a statement about anti-trans violence and how it affects everyone in that community despite any of us that think that things have gotten better. It hasn’t, and it’s a huge shame, although unlike Sandoval’s film, Alves doesn’t make clear that his film is set in the current Trump era where there’s more hatred. Either way, it’s a fine film with a few minor tonal issues that shows another side to an important and topical story.

Premiering on HBO Max this Thursday is Seth Porge and Chris Charles Scott III’s documentary, CLASS ACTION PARK (HBO Max), which I absolutely loved. You may have guessed from the title that it’s about the Vernon, New Jersey staple from the ‘80s and ‘90s, Action Park, one of the earliest and biggest water parks, but also one of the most dangerous places to bring your family for a fun day.  I was a teenager in Connecticut during the early days of Action Park so I was all over the commercials, and I vaguely remember going but don’t really remember what I did. The movie starts out in a rather comedic way, helped by the likes of comedian Chris Gethard, but once it gets to the legendary Alpine Slide, a freewheeling luge ride down a concrete track with a cart with brakes that rarely worked, well it suddenly gets a lot less fun or funny. For the most part, the film paints a pretty bad picture of the park’s creator Eugene Mulvihill, and the fact that he seemed to care more about making money than about the safety of the patrons that flooded the park every summer weekend. The film also delivers more than a few gut punches when you realize how many people were severely injured and even killed while out trying to have fun. Either way, this is a fantastic doc that really captures the wonders of a place that so many people remember fondly, or at least those that survived. (I can’t confirm this but I’m almost positive I saw former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in some of the archival footage and considering his age and how long he’s lived in Jersey, I just want to believe that it was indeed him.)

Another can’t miss doc that’s available digitally this Friday (after a nominal drive-in release) is David Darg and Price James’ YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE (Super), an odd title for a movie that is indeed about actor David Arquette, best known for movies like Never Been Kissed and the Scream movies. He also has another claim to infamy, and that was in 2000 when he starred in the wrestling comedy, Ready to Rumble, and decided to promote it by getting in the ring himself, and angering millions of fans by winning the WCW Heavyweight Championship. Arquette was so loathed due to his antics in the ring that twenty years later, he’s still trying to atone in a way. This doc covers Arquette’s serious efforts to train and get in the proper shape needed to take part in the country’s #1 form of sports entertainment.

This was another particularly interesting doc to me, maybe because I wasn’t really following wrestling in 2000 (just as I’m no longer now), so I missed most of what’s covered in the first few minutes of the movie. I also didn’t really read up about the movie before seeing, which always allows for a better viewing experience, Ed says while writing words he hopes someone is reading.

It’s a pretty fascinating “hero’s journey” (of sorts) that deals with Arquette’s troubles with alcoholism and getting roles, as well as dealing with depression that has him taking ketomine. Some watching this might think he’s crazy to put himself back in the ring, particularly during a scene where he shows up at a backyard wrestling and allows himself to put himself through all sorts of indignities and injuries. These only get worse as he gets into a professional match with many wrestlers still detesting him as much as the fan.

Fortunately, this ends up being a fairly inspirational feel-good movie i.e. Arquette doesn’t die as we assume Mickey Rourke did in Darren Aromnofksy’s The Wrestler, but there are definite real world parallels that makes You Cannot Kill David Arquette quite an entertaining endeavor as a film.

Before we get to the (gosh!) theatrical releases, I want to talk about a few festivals taking place this week and next. 

Up in virtual Montreal, the virtual Fantasia Festival, and I apologize that I haven’t been able to see more movies to include in this week’s column just because I just don’t have the time right now with so many releases. (Actually, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is playing as part of Fantasia, so there’s one movie right there!)

If you go all the way down to virtual Birmingham, Alabama, you can see some of the movies playing at the Sidewalk Film Festival this week until Monday, which this year includes a drive-in component. I’ve never been to Sidewalk myself but I’ve met quite a few of the people involved with it at the Oxford Film Festival, and there’s a good mix of already-released movies and new indies. It opened on Monday with the doc Banksy Most Wanted and other recent releases include First Cow and The Burnt Orange Heresy, plus lots of classic favorites like Teen Wolf and Teen Witch and lots more. It’s a cool regional festival that I hope to get to someday, just not necessarily in the summer. 

I was hoping to catch some of the offerings of this year’s virtual “New York Asian Film Festival,” which plays from August 28 through September 12 with the theme  “Women Transforming Film,” opening with the North American Premiere of Rae Red’s The Girl and The Gun, and with an impressive line-up either directed or led by women. I’ll try to watch some of the movies over the next week and try to report back, but you really can’t do wrong with the NYAFF going by past years even with no physical in-person screenings.

After literally years of waiting, Josh Boone’s THE NEW MUTANTS (20th Century/Disney) is finally arriving in theaters in regions where movies are reopened, and honestly, I would love to see this since I’m such a fan of the source material, but who knows if I’ll have a chance. There’s a lot that got me excited from the fact that this would tie into the X-Men movies with the inclusion of James McAvoy – presumably? Has he been in a single ad for this? But also a great cast playing the mutants, including Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Alicia Braga (who is also in The Suicide Squad), Charlie Heaton and more.

Unfortunately, Fox wouldn’t let anyone see this movie before it hits theaters, including the millions of New York and L.A. film critics who won’t have any opportunity to pay to see it in theaters either. Hopefully it’s good and hopefully it’ll turn up on Hulu sooner rather than later, but I don’t even have the heart to try to predict its weekend box office, but probably around $10 million or less.

Also opening in some theaters this week but mainly taking the PVOD route is the comedy threequel BILL AND TED FACE THE MUSIC (Orion Pictures/MGM), once again starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (and to be honest, I cannot even remember which is which). I also haven’t watched any trailer so I know almost nothing about the plot, but it’s been 29 years since Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and people are still excited to see this. (At least it’s directed by Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot, so there’s some hope.) MGM would not allow any critics to see the movie before Wednesday night, and I could only watch it at 10:30PM myself, plus there’s an embargo until Thursday night. And yet, I’ve already seen the movie, over 12 hours before I was supposed to receive the screener, which is completely impossible and something that could theoretically cause complete chaos within the space/time continuum. Whoa. 

Mini-Review: I was never a really huge fan of the “Bill and Ted” movies, though I’d seen them both a few times, and I certainly was wondering how they were gonna pull off a threequel nearly three decades later with both Alex Winter and especially Keanu Reeves moving onto bigger and better things. The result is Bill and Ted Face the Music, which brings back a good amount of the talent that made the first two movies, joined by director Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest).

It is indeed almost three decades later and Winter’s Bill and Reeves’ Ted are married to the Medieval princesses they met in the second movie and they both have daughters – Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) – who are very much like their fathers. In fact, we’re back in their lives as Bill and Ted are giving a speech at the wedding of their former babysitter Missy, who has divorced Ted’s father and is now marrying Ted’s brother (Beck Bennett). If that sounds confusing, then you’re not even close to ready for all the time travel stuff that’s to come.

Their career as Wild Stallynz just never took off as their bass player Death (William Sadler) stole their name, and they’re having marital issues that has them seeing a couples counselor (Jillian Bell) – both of them with their wives.

There’s so much to talk about re: Bill and Ted Face the Music, but if you’ve been waiting this long to see what they’ve been up to, you’ll probably want to know as little about the actual plot as possible. The basic gist of it is that Bill and Ted must save reality which is collapsing on itself, commissioned by Kristen Schaal’s Kelly, who is the daughter of the Great Leader, a role taken on by her mother (Holland Taylor). Bill and Ted need to find the perfect song that will bring the entire world and all realities together. They’re also being pursued by a killer robot, just… because?

One of my biggest takeaways for the movie is what good sports Winter and Reeves are to take part in everything that’s thrown at them, including playing different variations on their characters, and some very funny ones indeed. I was also hugely impressed by Weaving (who I didn’t recognize at first) and Lundy-Paine at their spot-on impressions of their “Dads” to the point where their subplot about trying to put together a band to play their Dad’s song by travelling through time and convincing the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong and Mozart to band up.

There was a time in the ‘80s and ‘90s where movies could just be a fun form of escapist entertainment, and Bill and Ted Face the Music brings that feeling back as it doesn’t seem to care what people think of it – kind of that lovable drunk at the party. Sure, it gets a little corny towards the end when Thea and Billie bring all the elements of their band together, but hey, at least it doesn’t feature an appearance by Smashmouth.

Bill and Ted Face the Music is more silly (and sometimes dumb) fun that is right in the line with the first two movies, but you’re likely to walk away being more impressed by the new generation and how well the filmmakers use Bill and Ted’s family in the mix. I don’t know if I necessarily need more than this, but the movie works better than so many other long-awaited comedy sequels from the past decade or so.

Rating: 7/10

Filmmaker and British TV icon Armando Iannucci make a quick shift into the world of Charles Dickens with THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD (Searchlight), a fairly faithful version of the writer’s classic memoirs of the life of a writer, in this case played by Dev Patel. It’s been a minute since I read Dickens’ book, but Iannucci’s adaptation seems fairly faithful as it follows David (or Davey or Daisy, depending on who is addressing him) goes through a series of homes and jobs, falls in love and meets all sorts of strange characters that he turns into the basis for his first novel i.e. the movie you’re watching.

On paper, it might not be obvious how Iannucci’s normally sarcastic sense of humor might work within Dickens’ storytelling, which has its ups and downs for its main protagonist, but is mostly hopeful. Iannucci’s adaptation is quite ambitious, particularly with the large cast he put around Patel, who isn’t exactly known for his humor. He doesn’t have to worry so much about doing any comic heavy lifting, because he’s surrounded by the likes of Tilda Swinton as his aunt, Mrs. Trotwood; her kite-flying husband, played by Hugh Laurie in possibly his most comic role since Blackadder? Of course, Iannucci brings back his In the Loop ringer, Peter Capaldi in a key role. In all three cases, they make brief appearances but then return later to play a more pivotal role.

The cast is the definition of an abundance of riches including Aneurin Barnard as David’s best friend Jim, Gwendoline Christie, Rosalind Eleazar, Benedict Wong but the most surprisingly funny is Morfydd Clark (St. Maud) as David’s crush Dora Spenlow (and also playing his mother in the early part of the movie? Not too Freudian), whose dizzy laugh and behavior just works splendidly. Similarly, Ben Whishaw play an absolutely hateful Uriah Heep, who continues to plague David and everyone around him.

Like the recent Emma, this is an adaptation that certainly grows on you as it goes along, and that may be because Iannucci never loses sight of the source and doesn’t try to abscond Dickens with his own type of humor. There’s definitely a version that could have been over-the-top and more like a Monty Python adaptation but Iannucci shows a good deal of growth with this adaptation over The Death of Stalin. (Incidentlaly, I also have a crafts review of Iannucci’s movie over at Below the Line.)

Brendan Walsh’s CENTIGRADE (IFC Midnight) is the type of high concept survival two-hander that I have enjoyed in the past, as it puts Vincent Piazza and Genesis Rodriguez in a car in the middle of the wilds of Norway where they’ve been frozen shut into their cars with little in the way of food.

Being IFC Midnight, I was thinking this would be more in the horror vein, but it’s barely a thriller as we watch this couple, Matt and Naomi, wake up to find their car completely covered in snow with no way of getting out and little chance of survival. Also, she’s eighth months pregnant, which could also be a problem.

There’s so much about this movie that I normally love but watching this couple squabble for the first hour of the movie and then for the developments that happen after that. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything if you’ve already decided you want to watch this but the movie is very uneven, and it’s hard to even figure out how they got into such a predicament because we meet them inside the car. Every once in a while, the camera goes outside to show the snow-covered Norwegian tundra, but this is an aggravating semi-thriller that really tests your patience since you can’t figure out how they’re going maintain this for a full thirty minutes.

I will say that the movie’s ending almost makes up for everything you have to endure before that, but with so many better movies in this vein --  you’ll hear a lot of comparisons to Frozen – not the Disney one, but Adam Green’s thriller – and last year’s Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen – Centigrade just never lives up to the high-concept premise it begins with. It’s probably fathomable that this is based on a true story. It’s just not a very interesting one.

I was pleasantly surprised by Greek filmmaker Minos Nikolakakis’ ENTWINED (Dark Star Pictures), maybe because I once again didn’t read anything about the movie before I watched it. It stars Prometheus Aleifer as Panos, a doctor who arrives at a small Greek village to be their first local doctor, and he meets a young woman named Danae (Anastsia Kiddi) who is seemingly abused by the violent old man she lives with. Things aren’t always what they seem.

Without saying too much about how Panos’ story plays out after we meet him talking to his half-brother George (John de Holland) at a funeral, we then follow him to the village where he nearly hits Danae with his car. As a doctor, he feels the need to step in and help her, as she’s clearly being abused by this brutish man with a long beard, but he then becomes … wait for it… entwined with her!

There’s a lot I enjoyed about this movie, but most of all is the fact that it follows great gothic horror traditions like the work of Mario Bava or Czech filmmaker Juraj Herz, particularly his 1978 version of Beauty and the Beast. You see, Entwined isn’t horror as much as it’s dark fantasy with a tinge of the erotica as Panos finds him trapped with this beautiful young woman and unable to get back to the village, while George tries to reach him with no luck. Nikolakakis doesn’t use a lot of visual FX to create the sense of dread that Panos must feel as he becomes trapped and seemingly in love with this woman who is obsessed with keeping a fire in her house burning brightly. Without giving any more away, if you go into this not expecting heavy doses of Western horror but more of a gothic fable, then you should enjoy this crafty first feature from a filmmaker that should shine more light on his country’s cinema.

The faith-based historical drama FATIMA (Picturehouse) from Italian director Marco Pontecorvo, may be more of an acquired taste, although it’s getting more of a high-profile release.  Set in Portugal in 1917 at the heigh of World War I, it tells the story of three young children from the village of Fatima who tell people they’ve had an encounter with the Virgin Mary. At a time when Portugal was fraught with many anti-religious sentiments in the government, these kids tell the masses that show up that the Virgin Mary wants them to pray and repent for their sins for the terrible war to end.

I knew going in that this might not be my kind of movie, just because I have a hard time believing all this faith hoopla, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expected, mainly because it’s a beautifully-shot film, but the problem is that so much of the story relies on the three child actors, and there’s so much pathos and over-acting that it’s hard to take anything seriously. Probably the best parts are the present day story-framing sequences between Harvey Keitel and Brazilian legend Sonia Braga (playing the adult version of the main girl, Lucia), but the movie really depends very much on you believing in things that you may not believe in, just like so many other faith-based films.

I don’t want to completely throw Fatima under the bus, because I think some people will find it to be watchable and quite enjoyable. It’s not a complete train wreck, but it just spends so much time going over the same points with very little new to add as it goes along.

I was gonna review Matt Eskarandi’s HARD KILL ��(Vertical Entertainment) when it was meant to open last week, but the movie is so bad that Vertical decided to skip its theatrical release and just dump it on digital along with most of the Emmett Furla productions, starring the actor who just doesn’t give a shit anymore, Mr. Bruce Willis.

Actually, this is an action movie starring Jesse Metcalfe (from Desperate Housewives) as Derek Miller, a former soldier called upon by Willis’ Dayton Chalmers to protect him because his company Chapterhouse has discovered something called “Project 425,” and a week after watching this movie, I could not even begin to tell you what that is, except that every time someone said those words, I couldn’t help but start cracking up. Even worse is that they’re trying to keep this thing from a terrorist known as “The Pardoner” (Sergio Rizzuto) which leads to a lot of conversations where most of the actors seem to have trouble keeping a straight face. It’s like no one making this movie realized what a bad movie they were making.

Otherwise, here isn’t a ton to say about this action movie which mostly takes place in a giant warehouse that doesn’t seem to care that it’s just a giant warehouse but it goes back and forth between shooting guns and talking about the two things in quotes above. The writing is bad, the acting is even worse – I mean, the fact that former WWE star Eva Marie comes off the best amidst all the macho posing. As might be expected, Willis is in the movie about as little as he has to be in order to get a paycheck.

Essentially, this is another one of those VOD-sasters that we used to get so many before COVID hit and every movie released was just mediocre since all decent movies just got delayed until theaters reopened. It’s just such a poorly-conceived movie that it’s shocking that it even got financed. Oddly, it shares a cast with the one and only movie produced by MoviePass Films, 10 Minutes Gone, and not just Willis but Texas Battle, Rizzuto and Swen Temmel, which makes me wonder what happened there. Did Willis bring all of them on this movie? Was it a two-for-one? It’s definitely a mystery especially since the movie is so bad, and that movie wasn’t that much better, but this possibly one of the dumbest movies I've seen this year.

I was hoping to watch the Brett Haley-directed ALL TOGETHER NOW, which debuts on Netflix this Friday, and I’ll probably try to get to it since I’m such a big fan of his work from The Hero to Hearts Beat Loud and others. Haley is a really great filmmaker at getting great performances out of his cast, so I’ll be curious to see what he does with younger actors like Auli’l Cravalho (the voice of Moana!), who plays Amber Appleton, a high schooler with musical aspirations who has to overcome personal hardships. More importantly it co-stars an absolute legend in Carol Burnett and the incredibly funny Fred Armisen, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. (If I have time to watch it on Weds, I’ll try to add a review here.)

Opening virtually via the Film Forum in New York is Werner Herzog’s new documentary, NOMAD: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE CHATWIN (Music Box Films), which is about (you guessed it) Bruce Chatwin, who honestly I never heard of, but I didn’t get too far into the movie to find out, cause it was pretty effin’ boring. I guess if you’re interested in Bruce Chatwin, you should check it out, If you have no idea who he is, then Google it. Sorry!

Apparently, the Other Music doc that played last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, directed by Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller, comes out this week, and I would have loved to have seen it, not because I ever frequented the New York City alternate music store but just cause I’m curious about it now that it’s gone.

On Demand and digital this Friday and then right to DVD and Blu-ray next Tuesday is M.J. Bassett’s ROGUE (Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate), starring the one and only Megan Fox (remember her?) as “battle-hardened mercenary O’Hara, leading a squad of soldiers on a daring mission to rescue hostages in remote Africa, until they have to face a gang of rebels and a horde of hungry lions. Oh, Megan Fox, we miss you so much from your Transformers days. No review screeners for this one, so obviously too good for the likes of me.

Let’s get to some of that Virtual Cinema next…

First of all, Film at Lincoln Center has launched its very own Virtual Cinema platform where all its curated content will live, including virtual screenings for the upcoming 58th New York Film Festival, will live. There’s a pretty cool slate of films on there now including last week’s Son of the White Mare and Route One/USA, but also classics like the restoration of Claire Denis’ Beau Travaile (1999), Tsai Ming-Liasng’s The Hole (1998) and more. This Friday, Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos’ 2019 movie Ghost Tropic will be added.

Down at the Metrograph, they’ve added Laurie Anderson’s 1986 concert film Home of the Brave, which you can watch by joining their Digital Membership, although it will only run through Friday. On Friday, it will start an Ulrike Ottinger Retrospective, showing the film work of the German filmmaker, beginning with his 1979 film Ticket of No Return. On Sunday, it will begin showing two of the shorter films by Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty (Hyenas), new restorations of Le Franc (1994) and The Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999).

Launching through Kino Lorber’s own Virtual Cinema (to help the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and the Laemmle and Lumiere theaters in LA and others) is Hupert Sauper’s portrait of Cuba, Epicentro, which won the Jury Prize at Sundance for World Documentary. Also opening in Virtual Cinema this Friday and on Digital, Streaming, VOD, whatever you want to call it on Tuesday, September 1, is Dan Partland’s doc #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald J. Trump, and honestly, you can’t get much more self-explanatory than that title.

Other movies I just wasn’t able to get to this week include Still Here (Blue Fox Films), Driven to Abstraction(Grasshopper Films), The Blech Effect (Virgil Films), One Man and His Shoes (Shout! Studios), The Faceless Man(Freedom Cinema) and Through Greenland (Topic). The sad fact is that there are just too many movies being released

On some of the other streaming services, you can catch GET DUKED! (Amazon Prime) and Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe (Disney+), but I just couldn’t get to those either.  Also, Amazon wraps-up its drive-in series tonight (Weds) with “Movies To Make You Laugh,” screening Coming to America and Girls Trip.

Next week, I think Tenet might finally be coming out in America, but don’t quote me on that!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[fridge246]

@bookhobbit​

...So here’s a bunch of fic recs for Lord of the Rings fic in response to your post requesting some... I wrote some notes about whether or not there was romance and how much worldbuilding there was... i have no idea what you have read already so i just kind of put down everything i could remember off the top of my head!

...I haven’t read some of these fics for years so I may have forgotten some problematic elements (or not noticed them... i was a different person at 15/16 :\) ...or i may not have accurately remembered the writing quality... I have no idea if your tastes even match mine... actually i’m kind of nervous you won’t like any of them ha  but here we go anyway:

Lindelea: LOTS of Hobbits, and detailed worldbuilding on Hobbit society. Not all of her writing is romance-free but theres SO MUCH of it that the non-romance content is still a considerable amount. Does a good job of treating Hobbits as a real society instead of innocent children or silly and oblivious. (though she’s also good at comedy... there’s just an enormous range of fic)

 Going, Going, Gone is a pretty good and fairly short fic with an interesting premise even if it’s not one of her more worldbuilding-heavy ones (also it has rosie and frodo being friends) and she also wrote a good one about the history of how the Shire began which has LOTS of worldbuilding ...but also is 90% OCs

Canafinwe: Low on the Hobbits but really REALLY good at making Middle Earth feel REAL and filling in worldbuilding gaps (especially the interpersonal and political dynamics- everything is fully fleshed out and complex it’s GREAT). and she writes Gilraen really well! The only romance i can recall is a little bit of Aragorn/Arwen but that’s done... well literally the best I’ve ever seen it done EVER, and it’s very understated. Just. all around character dynamics are realistic and A+ aaaaand i could go on for a week so i’ll stop.

...the fic A Long and Weary Way is really good but can get kind of grim/painful... if you want to skip right to the part that has more interpersonal interaction it’d probably work to start at chapter 55 or 56 instead of the begining. Everything else is ....less continuously harsh? so maybe start with one of her other fics. I’m not up to date with her newest fic since it’s still in progress, but it seems to be of a consistent level of excellent with the others!

...i guess start with one of the short stories or this one *shrugs*

Soledad: does some good versions of Hobbits and Dwarves! (pre-hobbit-movie dwarves no less! a rare treasure) I remember really liking Elf-root and a couple of other ones.

Nothing of Note by Primsong lots of hobbits, and Bilbo goes on a trip around the Shire+the land just outside so we get to see some worldbuilding up close! excellent Bilbo and Frodo friendship/family relationship and a nice balance of funny and serious. It’s long though. The author wrote some fic with dwarves, but I haven’t read it *shrugs*

Less Worldbuilding, More Hobbits?

...er also i got a little bit carried away so some of these might not have a total worldbuilding focus ...of course people still have to build most of hobbit society from scratch so there’s at least some? it’s always nice to see which names off the Hobbit family trees get turned into actual characters

Dreamflower: lots of Hobbits...! and she does a little bit of Shire history too! 

on the non-worldbuild-y side of things her Eucatastrophe series is an AU where Frodo only needs to sail West for a short time and then returns the shire... i remember it being pretty good, if blatantly a AU for Happy Ending Purposes 

Thundera Tiger: i don’t really remember much about her fic?... i think she writes good gapfillers...? also Fey is just a good mystery story all on it’s own- and it adds in a bit of worldbuilding which is a plus?

Gamgeefest: pretty good Hobbits but i think sometimes their writing strays into movie-verse territory? movie-verse appearances anyway i think? but I don’t 100% remember. Anyway, just read this one shot if nothing else... and i remember this fic being kind of fun and also having some worldbuilding/cultural exchange?

Larner: can get a little... “character infodumps exposition” at times but pretty good at writing Hobbits and their society!

Budgielover: i remember really liking this author back in the day but i don’t 100% remember everything... ? might get a little bit ‘and then people prank each other’ but it’s been years so idk 

Cairistiona: is one of my personal top favorites so she goes on the list even though she only has a couple stories with Hobbits! Very good at OCs that feel natural and does some worldbuilding of the towns/culture in the areas her fic is usually set. 

there’s a LOT more i could try to track down... i spent like two YEARS obsessively reading every scrap of decent LotR fic i could get my hands on, and it’s all kind of a blur now ha... but yeah these were what came to mind. There was one more person who did excellent worldbuilding but i just can’t remember their name or any fic titles :\ i’ll figure it out eventually

random extra bonus fic rec

just this chapter of this fic it’s Frodo and Feanor having a chat due to a chance meeting in Valinor after the end of Lord of the Rings. 110% better than it sounds but it does have a bit of not-third-age stuff so i’m not officially putting it on the rec list. it’s one of the few ‘elves of legend meet hobbits’ that actually works and treats both characters with respect and dignity. There’s actually quite a bit of worldbuilding just because they’re both curious about the other’s culture/background. Also they talk about linguistics a lot and it’s fun?? idk it’s hard to explain. there’s footnotes!

[honeybee-bzz]

Coffin-Soil again! Thanks for the answers, here is my next ask, related to TdV: How would you describe Sarah's and von Krolock's relationship? (for example, is it true romance? what drives them? and what happens after the musicalin your opinion?)

Hooo boy,this is a good one, Coffin-Soil-Anon. 

Short version: I don’t view them as aromantic couple, and I think Sarah took off with Alfred to go see the world.The lyrics of the finale as well as the Count being buried (and possibly killed)by the collapsing ballroom suggest that the other vampires also fled the castleto go and take over the world, so that really answers any questions regardingthe ending.

Buuut I doof course have some more detailed thoughts on their relationship.

Longversion under the cut:

I’m gonnago with Sarah first:

I’d saySarah is infatuated, if not with him, then with what he represents/offers. She’sa girl in a small village yearning for “adventure in the great wide somewhere”and first Alfred seems like a possible way out of her dull life (plus he adoresher and in Draussen ist Freiheit she clearly knows how to use that to heradvantage); but then there’s Krolock,who offers her danger and excitement and seduction and pretty trinkets and she’sjust the right mixture of frustrated, naïve and determined to choose that overthe safe option. And maybe she’s a little entranced by him, because hey, she’s17 and she’s been stuck in this inn her entire life and he’s all cheekbones andcharm (and he has a really nice bathtub); I also think she knows what she’s gettinginto when she follows him to his castle (I mean, she has to know what he is since the entire village isclearly aware that the castle is full of the living dead).

Ultimately,whatever romantic notions she may have had about him are definitely gone whenhe bites her during Tanzsaal because at that point, it becomes obvious she’sjust going to wind up as another inhabitant of that graveyard (hey, there’s areason there are so many ladies in fancy gowns in that crowd, and my personalheadcanon is that at least some of them are previous “Sarahs”, if you will) LikeI said at the top, I think Sarah ran away with Alfred – what she truly wantedwas to be free, to go on adventures and maybe have someone to share them with –and of course to be her own mistress. She definitely wouldn’t have liked livingas one of the damned in Castle von Krolock with the Count controlling her.

WithKrolock, it would be easy to just say, “nah, he just sees her as prey/adistraction/whatever”, especially since movie!Krolock is a meant to be a parodyof every Dracula movie ever and thus follows a lot of the classic villainclichés. Musical!Krolock got an angsty edge what with all the singing abouteternity and unquenchable hunger and whatnot. Not unlike Sarah, he’s familiar withdullness – the whole Ewigkeit song, as well as Unstillbare Gier focus on howeternity means eternal boredom, everything repeating itself over and over,being cursed to live in darkness and never be satisfied etc, etc. Like her, hetoo is always searching for “something more”, so it’s not unreasonable tobelieve he would see her as a kindred soul – after all, it’s implied that he’s alreadybeen watching her for a while during Gott ist tot.

I thinkUnstillbare Gier is the key scene here – we learn that some of his victimsstood out for him in some way (the two women in 1617 and 1730 and the page boyfrom 1813 who half the fandom believes is Herbert, for some reason) and Sarahseems to belong to that list too. He also does say that he longs to feelsomething other than bloodthirst, and calls Sarah “the miracle that allows himto make peace with reality”; I think he wants to feel something for her, notnecessarily for her sake but to feel anythingother than depression and thirst for once but in the end his nature wins overhis wish as always (the ending of Unstillbare Gier already hints at this too,with him already admitting that greed vanquishes everything else in the end).Maybe, with more time and under different circumstances (if the annual “feedthe graveyard inhabitants” ball hadn’t been around the corner, for example), hemight have come to love her – like I said, I think they would have been able tobond over a mutual desire to change their lives.

tl;dr: I think that Krolock and Sarah aren’tmeant to be seen as a romantic couple; I think she isn’t purely a victim as Ibelieve she actively knows and chooses her fate and that he wants to besomething other than he is but fails; I think they both use one another to getwhat they want/need and they are both unapologetic about it in the end; I thinkthere might have been a potential for a genuine connection between them underdifferent circumstances but that that isn’t the point of the story.

In the end, it is meant to be a comedy afterall.

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Christmas Edition!)

Salutations and welcome to a special edition of The Week in Anime! With my winter break starting, I’ve been able to catch up on all of the anime and now I have stuff to say about them, both good and bad (fortunately this time, it’s mostly good). Because there’s around 3-4 weeks of stuff to write about, I’m gonna revert back to my old style of TWiA for this week. That is, I’m gonna write a blurb for every show, and not give out any awards. And since most of the shows ended this week, it’s also kinda nice since I can talk about the show as a whole. Thus, there will be spoilers. That’s kinda self-explanatory, plus I usually use spoilers in my posts... but no matter, still nice to have a warning. So let’s start off this show with the usual...

The News Corner

Since it’s been a while since I had one of these posts, there’s bound to be a lot of anime news that I can talk about. Maybe important stuff like Shokugeki no Soma getting a “fourth season” in Spring, Boku no Hero Academia’s third season airing during the Spring, etc. But here’s what I think is the most important anime news of the past few weeks:

http://moetron.news/post/168065646960/back-street-girls-tv-anime-has-been-announced

Yes friends, Back Street Girls. Read the synopsis for yourself, since I don’t think I can do it justice by describing in my own words. Truly, a pinnacle in anime.

Ok seriously, this is... something. Something weird AF. But I’m not gonna lie, it got my attention. Obviously since I’m writing about it, but it did. So much so that I ended up reading the translated chapters of the manga. And I have to say... it’s not that bad. There definitely is the merit to the complaint that the three dudes have the same personality and thus would probably be better as one person, but they’re different enough that it wasn’t too much of a concern in the manga.

In its core this whole thing is a gag comedy. I don’t expect it to be deep with its topic, and neither should you whenever this show airs. Definitely gonna be an interesting show to watch when it does come out.

All righty, with that, let’s start the rankings/blurbs starting with my AOTS:

Rankings:

1 (0). Shokugeki no Soma S3 (8/10) COMPLETE

So when I heard that this show was gonna be one cour instead a standard two cour, I shared the same opinions as the thread commenters of /r/anime: “no”. But after watching the last episode, I have to say the season ended on a really good note. Soma sharing the info that Joichiro was his dad to Azami and Erina was a nice cliffhanger to the future events I don’t know much about, but heard meh things about.

Disregarding the future though, this season was miles better than the second season. It brought back the nice balance of intense cooking battles and relaxed slice-of-life moments that made the first season so fun to watch, something the second season lacked until the last few episodes with the Stagiaire Arc. The biggest issue has to be the animation, something I didn’t notice until I saw it being mentioned on discussion threads. At first I dismissed those claims, saying that all anime was like that and that people were being their circle-jerky selves. But I went back to the first season and yeah, I admit it got worse. There was a lack of action-y moments in the third season which were replaced with panning shots. Now I don’t think this is a huge issue, because let’s be honest the animation isn’t a big draw in Shokugeki: it’s the nice-looking food and the explanations about the nice-looking food. And this season delivered on those fronts, making it a super fun watch as long as I had something to eat/wasn’t hungry. Because otherwise I suffer from watching good food being made/explained while wanting said food, and that’s not fun.

Anyway, overall Shokugeki S3 gets a 8/10 from me. I would say I’m excited for the next season, but based on comments from manga readers I’m not expecting too much from the next season... though I would recommend the show if you haven’t watched it, since the first season is in my top 10 favorite anime and this season’s looking like my AOTY.

2 (+1). Just Because! (8/10) [11/12]

Mmm that’s good stuff. Most anime nowadays just are stuff that I watch and move on from. But with this show, it’s been both a really nice slice-of-life/drama/romance/kinda comedy(?) that’s brought out a lot of nostalgic and comfy moments. It’s rare for a show to get me so emotionally invested, but when it does you know something’s going right.

Since the last episode is airing next week, I don’t want to go too much into detail about the show in general yet. So I’ll just talk about this week’s episode. It reminded me a lot of the time I was applying for colleges. A painful experience, yet for some reason I felt a warm nostalgia through the whole time watching this. Plus it was a really nice set-up episode for the finale: we get Natsume passing, Komiya winning an award, and Eita maybe passing (it was kinda ambiguous). Who will win in this love triangle? Who will end up with who? Will anybody win? Why did I ask the same question three times? Find out next week in the next episode of Dragon Ball Z!

I have to give credit to Pine Jam (the studio making this): all of this is amazing when you think about how much delays the show’s been going through. It seems like every other week the episode is delayed on Amazon Strike even when it aired on time in Japan (a sign that they just finished the episode). Yet the animation hasn’t taken a nosedive in quality and it’s kept a steady consistency in all aspects. Hopefully the finale ends the show on a high note because so far it’s been a fun ride.

3 (+2). Net-juu no Susume (6/10) COMPLETE

If there’s one word to sum up this show, it’s AWKWARD. But you know what, that’s totally fine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s that the last few episodes focused on the real life relationship of our two main characters, Moriko and Sakurai, who were some pretty awkward kids.

Before I go deeper into that, let me talk about the show as a whole. The first half of it was a nice “romance” with minimal interruptions. Towards the middle, the show faltered a bit for me with Koiwai become more of a presence and that weird gray area when Moriko and Sakurai were finding out the truth about each other and their online characters. Then we get that end with the awkward. The last episode especially, though I enjoyed how cute the whole thing was... minus the washing machine cucking (and the kids in the end to a degree).

I know that’s probably what most people were disappointed in: nothing definite happened between Moriko and Sakurai. I was a bit bothered by it too, until I realized it was probably the best ending for the two. After all, they’re two people who don’t have experience with love or people in general. Why would you expect them to suddenly confess their feelings or even straight up kiss? It’s a bit unreasonable to think that, and so the hand-holding thing at the end was a good enough confirmation that yes, they are in a relationship.

Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the 11th episode/special yet. I wanted to finish the show and write my blurb before doing so. So maybe something more might happen... though based on the MAL rating, doesn’t look like it.

If there’s one thing that did bother me, it was the number of sheer coincidences that had to happen for everything to fall into place. I mean I know it’s anime but still... it’s a bit too much. I can’t get over the fact that they met not only once, but twice in sepearte MMOs. That’s about as good a chance as me getting 5 UR cards in a single 10+1 pull in School Idol Festival. Which never happens. I think.

Anyway, overall the show was pretty nice, albeit a bit forgettable (since I’ve already forgotten a lot about it already and it hasn’t even been a week since I finshed it). 6/10, would recommend if you like a good romance.

4 (-2). Juuni Taisen (6/10) COMPLETE

“I mean it ended the way I thought it did.”

That’s if we’re talking about the battle royale aspect of the show itself. Because the actual anime didn’t end with just that, but rather spent its last episode with Nezumi’s wish, which turned out to be a pretty lackluster end to a show that in hindsight, wasn’t as great as I thought it was. Now that sounds harsh, but I had this show rated pretty highly for most of the season. Overall the show wasn’t bad, but there were some questionable decisions such as spending two episodes on the twins (whose backstories weren’t particularly interesting) and not having Rabbit’s backstory. Though I guess not having Rabbit’s backstory works with his personality. But I was curious to see why he’s like that, which is something we’ll never find out.

There were a lot of good moments in the show, though. Most of the backstories of the characters were pretty interesting, and made what sounded like a cliche battle royale into a more interesting study of characters with differing personalities and techniques battling each other. I love competitions as much as the next guy, so seeing how each warrior matched up against each other really triggered the inner sports fan in me. So much so that if I wasn’t into the competition, I probably wouldn’t have liked this show as much. Overall a solid 6/10, would recommend for those into battle royales and interesting character stories.

5 (+1). Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season (6/10) [12/13]

You know at this point, I accepted that idol shows aren’t for me. Their whole focus of “the power of friendship and miracles” really isn’t my thing, and honestly it’s my fault for not realizing that sooner. Now don’t get me wrong -- I’m still very much in idol hell. Just... in different ways via the music and mobile game (which I should really stop spending money on...).

Now to the actual show critique part. Taking the above statement into account, this was probably the better Love Live Sunshine season. But as of right now, I’m putting this as the lowest ranked show in the Love Live series. Something about the number of cheesy episodes just really got to me, culminating in the penultimate episode with the most cheese so far in Love Live.

Okay, I’m gonna stop talking about cheese and actually use real words. There were some really great episodes, which happened to be the character-focused episodes. My favorite definitely is the YohaRiko episode with the dog, with a close second being the Dia episode. Episodes like those still have good cheesiness to them, but the cheese is character-based and more relatable instead of “let’s shine” and other buzzwords. Plus it adds good depth to the characters: Dia went from my second-worst girl to right in the middle of the pack. Riko went to the top 3, and Yoshiko/Yohane, well she was already #1.

Speaking of characters, there were definitely a few that got shafted hard in terms of screentime and character development. You is definitely an example: even though the later episodes have focused on her relationship with Chika, I still wouldn’t know much about her if I didn’t read her profile-stuff on the wiki (I was bored okay). Like the fact she’s a Olympic-level high diver. Did you know that? I did. Maru’s another example of this, though that’s more getting reduced to memes which honestly a lot of characters in LL have been prone to. I do have to give props for developing the third-years though, because I can now see Mari as more than just “Shiny” and “It’s Joke”. We can all agree though: Chika least best girl. Everything the girl says is cheesy AF.

Having said all of this, if a third season were to happen (or a movie, given this season might be the last one), I’d still watch it no problem. Truly this is the power of idol hell.

We’ll see how the last episode goes, because it might just be the end of Aqours... :(

6 (+3). Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara (6/10) [12/13]

I think this is the first time a show I rated a 3 or lower rose back up to a good grade. But that’s what happens when you focus on not having your alcoholic main character be drunk, but rather have nice moments where they aren’t drunk. Because it feels cheap to me when they’re acting cutesy while drunk. Almost like it’s fake in a way. The last two episodes in particular were really nice because they were the backstory in how Chisato and Sora met, which was actually pretty cute. More episodes like that please.

7 (+1). Blend S (5/10) COMPLETE

Sigh... this was an interesting one. Let me just say this right now: the “relationship” between Dino and Maika was the one factor in ruining the show for me. Yeah, the fanservice was pretty iffy, but if the romance wasn’t a thing I would’ve enjoyed the show a lot more.

I loved the idea of different personas in a maid cafe type of thing. It reminds me a lot of my favorite channel on Youtube, Cow Chop. They play up their bits in a “role” for most videos, but in their podcasts and other miscellaneous stuff, they’re their real selves which is refreshing to see. Because their bits and roles, while funny in doses, would be horrible if it was their real personality. Which is how I feel about Blend S. If the characters’ personalities were actually their roles, the show would be annoying as heck. But because it’s just a role, it’s fun to see how different they are compared to their actual selves. How Maika unintentionally becomes sadistic. How Kaho is actually the nicest character in the show. How Mafuyu is actually the most savage character in the show. How Miu is... kinda the same actually. And how Hideri is... exactly the same.

...Oh. Never mind.

All that would’ve made this one of my favorites, but that romance though. It just really bothers me. Now I know it doesn’t bother a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I’m just not about the weird age gap. I’m not saying I hate age gaps in general, just that when the gap starts with a high school girl, it’s a bit questionable. This may sound shallow, but if Dino was a bit younger or Maika a bit older, I would be totally fine with it.

Speaking of that, having Maika be older (say 19 or 20) would make a lot of sense in the context of the show. A girl struggling to look for a job so she can study abroad: still makes sense if she’s college-aged, and relationship is ok-hands for me.

Disregarding the relationship, the characters were fun. Yes, even Hideri, though I think it really helps that the VA for the character is the same VA for Nico of Love Live fame. Really got the obnoxious idol character down pat, plus her deeper male voice was really well done. Sasuga Nico.

One last thing: the OP is pretty bomb. Yes, I know how meme’d the first few seconds of it got, but watch the rest of the opening. It’s very fun, reminiscent of the Working OPs (which this show shares some similarities with in other areas).

So with all this said, 5/10 would maybe recommend if you like moe shows. Also if you can disregard the Dino/Maika thing, which I see a lot of people are anyways... SMILE

SWEET

SISTER

SADISTIC

SURPRISE

SERVICE

WE ARE STILE

(expected the meme? Pls)

8 (-1). Animegataris (4/10) COMPLETE

So... what the actual baloney did I watch? Seriously, that went off the rails after a certain point, that point being the festival arc. I have so many questions that were left unanswered and just brushed under the rug with the explanation that “the anime world and real world are being combined”. Like... really?

Confusion aside, the show’s only nice aspect was the meta with its sick anime references, both with the industry and the fandom. A modern version of Genshiken in a way. The “namedrops” were pretty fun and the explanations for some of the industry norms were the best parts of the show for me. Unfortunately, that all went downhill after the first half of the season as the show went full meta and went towards the “combining worlds” plotline that just ended up confusing me. Though I do admit the finale of the show was nice, albeit a bit lackluster compared to the WTF-levels of the few episodes before it.

But just because a show is meta doesn’t mean it’s good. At the end of the day, this show just crammed references and meta without much consideration for the characters or the story, which were both somewhat underdeveloped.

Off topic: one thing that really bothered me was the whole thing with Yui fanservice right before the OP for the first nine episodes (which continued even towards the last scene of the show. So I was right that something would happen with that. It’s just that the thing was just an OP with only Yui (Just Yui). Now that would be fine if she had something to do with the events of that episode, but she didn’t. So... WHY. WHY DID THEY DO THAT. SERIOUSLY. I’M SO CONFUSED AND I’M SCREAMING NOW SEND HELP.

That’s basically how Animegataris made me feel during its latter half. The “wao how META” doesn’t work for me in this case, and so I leave it with an unsavory rating and a “don’t watch this unless you like sick anime references and meta AF plot.” 4/10.

So before we end, I know I said no awards, but there is a little one I wanted to mention:

The “Red Flags” On Hold Show of the Week: Pingu in the City

It’s not that the show itself is bad. But... I don’t know, I don’t really have the motivation to watch the show. That’s usually how these shows end up on hold: I lose motivation. Maybe I’ll watch it again sometime in the future. Maybe not. Maybe I get to the 100 other shows on my PTW list.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading this extra-long post! Hopefully I’ll get my “What I’m Watching” post out soon: I’m around 40% done with it so far. Anyway, thanks again, and I’ll see you in the next post!