#posting this as i'm watching ep 5

[inadequate-nefelibata]

Amar Chadha-Patel and Tanya Reynolds as Dioneo and Licisca THE DECAMERON (2024) • Episode 3: "By Homer, It's a Winner's Wreath!"

[mysticalcats]

started watching dead boy detectives. working out how to draw this guy

[athousandbyeol]

st(r)ay.

he dreamed of warm hugs. tender caresses on the crown of his hair. tidying the messy curls of his bangs behind reddening ears. and he would giggle. he would blush. he would have tears in his eyes. all good things. everything wonderful.

he dreamed of a pair of piercing eyes. that gaze was never directed at someone else but him. and he would replay that scenario every night, each scene was an animation against the emptiness of the ceiling—before he could remember how lonely his nights were before he came. because he was alive when those eyes were on him—he felt so seen.

and that infamous cold smile. he saw it through the haze in his vision and the daze in his mind. and he couldn't remember anything else but that smirk, the smugness of it all.

the roughness of his palms against the softness of his own. they flutter like broken butterfly wings. but still so mesmerising. when their fingers intertwined, he saw a splash of colour, in all shades of black and blue and grey and him.

sheng wang dreamed of jiang tian.

he saw jiang tian in the recesses of his imagination. there were tears in his eyes. they fell. and fell. but jiang tian was still quiet—why was he so silent?

and sheng wang tried reaching out. but the distance between them grew the more he crossed the forbidden line. jiang tian was untouchable. elusive. like the nightmare he had as a child. like the memories of his father's fading warmth on his skin, the conversations between them, tiki-taka. and by then, sheng wang realised, everything was in vain.

so he opens his eyes.

he opens his eyes and sees a shadow of light against jiang tian's face. his features gradually soften as the moonshine dances elsewhere, promising the stars to tango. and its darkness again, in all of its glory, bestowing on the sleeping jiang tian. but in sheng wang's vision, he has always been the brightest. nothing could ever compare to jiang tian's blinding shine.

oh.

and sheng wang feels the overwhelming urge to hold him. to embrace him. to be with him. because he has always been curious—those little touches were lethal, and sheng wang's already addicted. there's so much more in jiang tian that sheng wang wishes to desire. can he?

the sense of security washes over him like a growing tide, making his lungs tighten, and sheng wang could never forget how jiang tian made him feel.

and he feels so much. too much.

he could never forget how jiang tian made him be.

jiang tian is now drenched in red.

sheng wang knows this is a warning, a sign—don't. they sound like white noise in his ears, these no's and don'ts and pleas. sheng wang couldn't care less. because temptation has always been so delicious, and sheng wang's always a bit reckless.

so he leans closer. just enough to count the long lashes brushing against jiang tian's cheekbones, lulling him to sleep. just enough to remember the zeal of jiang tian's presence, ever-so-grounding, like an old tree under the pouring rain. just enough to understand that he loves.

he loves jiang tian so. he hopes jiang tian won't go.

his heart, oh, his poor heart. sheng wang believes that jiang tian could hear it. the roar. the growl. but maybe sheng wang wants jiang tian to listen. listen to the voice calling his name ever since—ever since he knew what wanting is—ever since he understood what loving is.

it's cold. so sheng wang pulls the blanket further up, covering both of them, sheltering them from the potent glare of these red lights. and when he breathes jiang tian in, sheng wang surrenders. he shudders.

don't leave me.

sheng wang shatters.

[frobby]

Nothing is stronger than the bond between a girl and a piece of media they brushed off 10 years ago that they now realized is the greatest thing ever made

[feedingicetothedog]

i can't believe ppl are still debating ep 5....like come on! use your brains for once.

i'm going to start blocking ppl for calling the dv scene 'shock value' or out of character. it's neither of those things and straight up the beginning of that scene comes almost directly from the books.

"And our fragile domestic tranquility erupted with his outrage. He did not have to be loved but he would not be ignored; and once he even flew at her, shouting that he would slap her, and I found myself in the wretched position of fighting him as I'd done years earlier before she'd come to us." (IWTV p. 104)

yeah is the scene in ep 5 more graphic/brutal? sure. but one could argue that louis in the book is playing down the violence in order to maintain the image he's painted of lestat as a weak, stupid failure of a mentor. in opposition to the book, the show has added claudia's account as corroboration of the abuse that they experienced as well as the scale and scope of that abuse. later in the book when claudia proposes that they leave together, louis says this:

"I could hear a vague mingling of sounds now, which meant he had entered the carriage way, that he would soon be on the back stairs. And I thought of what I always felt when I heard him coming, a vague anxiety, a vague need. And then the thought of being free of him forever rushed over me like water I'd forgotten, waves and waves of cool water." (IWTV p. 117)

i don't know about anyone else but this reads to me as an abused spouse hearing their abuser come home. i also think that this vague anxiety and vague need that book louis describes here is etched all over ep 6. the louis of ep 6 is Extremely submissive and placating to lestat in a way he never has been in the previous eps because he's afraid of him. at the beginning of ep 5 itself he straight up tells lestat to shut the fuck up and in the middle he goads lestat by making fun of his intelligence. the contrast is stark and why? because he has been given a fuller picture of the sheer magnitude of lestat's strength and power and knows that it can be turned onto him or claudia. to say that the show doesn't reference the violence after that ep is absolutely ludicrous. claudia references it directly!

this is only one example of several in this ep. the violence was necessary to make the urgency of louis and claudia's need to leave make sense. if lestat wasn't keeping them there with the unspoken threat of repeated violence why would claudia need to scheme and plot to walk out the front door? she did it at the beginning of ep 5, why couldn't she do it again? claudia is older in the show than the book, she's not a 5 year old trying to brave it on her own, the modern conceptualization of the teenager didn't exist, she could reasonably get by. the dv scene was necessary to account for the new context of the characters.

also the slave/master dynamic was not created wholesale by the show writers, that's straight up from the book:

"The vampire made a slave of him, and he would be no more a slave than I would be a slave, and so he killed him. Killed him before he knew what he might know, and then in panic made a slave of you. And you've been his slave." (IWTV p. 120)

they have claudia say this in the show practically verbatim. they didn't add this just to make on the nose points about race, they simply expanded on what already existed in the book. the fact that claudia and louis in the show are black make this sentiment more uncomfortable but it's not any less true. in fact, i think it adds to why claudia refuses to let the situation continue. the transgression becomes more egregious because of the larger implications of white frenchman lording his status over his black creole subordinates (this where lestat's 18th century roots become so interesting as well as his aristocratic heritage. i also think it's interesting that you have lestat = aristocrat; louis = bourgeois; claudia = working class/poor as their economic backgrounds but that's a different post).

if the showrunners were to walk this back i legit would be pissed. it would be such a cheap shot to write such a brutal, narratively cruel scene (i mean this as a compliment) that contextualizes one of the main character's motivation, plot, and worldview (claudia and to an extent louis) and then be like 'jk nevermind, louis was lying! claudia was exaggerating! it wasn't that bad actually!'. like that's just bad writing. it also would be racist. i actually love ep 5, all of it. i've never been to affected by an ep of television in my life and i think it's so brilliantly written. do i think it complicates the loustat relationship? sure but i'm not watching this show because of ships, i'm watching it because it's some of the best crafted television i've seen in years. it's not afraid to piss off fans in favor of a better, more compelling narrative choice and that's why i respect and trust writers more than i do for most other shows.

i also need to emphasize that i love lestat. he's my special boy and has been one of my favorite characters for like 16 years. ep 5 did not diminish that for me, i love how it works in relation to his backstory and how in the books lestat does not break the cycles that terrorized him as a child/young adult. he continues them by putting himself as the perpetrator and isn't that what he does ep 5? the writers get these characters, the actors get these characters. i still think lestat is wildly sympathetic and that's a testament to how strong the writing, directing, and performances on this show are.

anyway, let's all start talking about a different ep, this one has been discoursed to death

[cuelovecrime]

I'm halfway through acofaf and nobody talk to me for the rest of the week. rue and hob are deeply in love and they don't know it's reciprocated. they don't know that the mere sight of the other one literally makes them stop in their tracks, lose their train of thoughts, catch their breaths, and stumble over their words. they don't know how deeply they move each other. they're burning up letters and turning the other way, feeling like a coward. they. don't. know. I want to scream

[wordswhisperinthedark]

If Bravern doesn't get an OVA imma riot

[rainbow-arrow]

him.

[fountainpenguin]

By the time this posts, I'll be at Twitchcon! I put together a simple Skizzleman cosplay for Saturday. Say hi if you see me! 💚💛❤️

[belleandsaintsebastian]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh my goddddddddddddd guys ..... dawsons creek s4ep15 am i RIGHT!!!..........GAHHHHH

[spockvarietyhour]

This is how I read those subtitles

[tortoise-teapot]

i think i'm having the opposite experience about turning 30 than i thought. i'm so excited to get out of my fucking 20s oh my god. is it truly almost finally over?

[nokhwa]

They wrote the women of this show as all very much unbearable. And it's not in a way that's gender specific (a guy can't be annoying from being a pick me and a girl can't be annoying from being a dude bro, if you reverse the roles these tropes are quite fun), they just made very annoying characters and decided to make all of them women.

[astarlightmonbebe]

now that i'm halfway into part one of my dearest (i.e. have watched five episodes), here's a list of thoughts and observations that didn't all deserve their own post:

janghyun and gilchae really grow on my every episode...i was honestly not super bought in ep one, but since then each episode has made me enjoy them more and more. not a major otp that makes me lose it just yet, but one whose story i'm still interested in watching unfold

i think eunae nailed it when she said that gilchae cherishes yeonjun, but he's not the one she loves. gilchae 'loves' yeonjun for what he represents: stability, loyalty, steadfastness. janghyun is the antithesis of that - he seems to always be leaving, and can't commit (at least to her) - but he also matches her on her level, something she desperately needs. no wonder their interactions always leave her flustered and upset!

for main characters, yeonjun and eunae don't actually get as much screentime as i expected, but i like the insights we started getting in eps 4 and 5. i'm surprised (shocked?) that eunae, who passed out twice at the sight of blood, grew a strong enough stomach to nurse soldiers back to life.

i wonder what happened to their other friends from the village...and their families...it's the wild west out there in joseon

the costuming is epic! i was watching the bts with the costume designer saying she created period-specific fabrics and made so many, and it was all mind blowing

the little banter dynamic ryangeum and gujam have going on is so funny to me. gujam is always annoyed by ryangeum lolll

for a 'singer,' ryangeum is an extremely skilled fighter (he demonstrated exceptional aim with the bow and gun, which makes me think his main skill is archery, but there was a few seconds clip of him using a sword in ep 4 which was cool)

as the eunuch said at the end of ep 5, janghyun doesn't care for the king, but he clearly cares for the people of the nation. i don't think he really cares for joseon honestly, not as a nation, but he cares for the common people (that the govt doesn't)

janghyun did seem to focus on the crown prince upon first seeing him in ep 5 and i'm wondering if there's something there...

the LOOKS! gilchae and janghyun both look at each other when the other has just turned their head. ryangeum is always giving janghyun longing looks when his head is turned (he's very conscious of janghyun's every move and minute emotions/expressions, re: the ribbon, gilchae, etc)

that being said, namgoong min has that look he wears when he gets angry/worried/driven where he widens his eyes and his face gets serious and downcast, and it blows me away every time. he's done it in every single drama i've seen him in, and it's always a bit different on the context, but it always fits his characters perfectly...he conveys so much with so little.

i feel like this could be a much more sultry drama (if that's the right word), it has the potential for a more steamy, risque element, but i think it is very constrained by the time period and their respective characters. i think that was a deliberate choice on the writer's part, and i respect it. janghyun says a lot of lines that would have other women hook line and sinker, but has gilchae bristling instead, puffing up against him. his talk about 'mulling' is romantic, sure, seductive, even, but gilchae doesn't respond to that in kind; she puts her walls up, because she doesn't want to be trapped by him. she feels out the waters, doesn't quite dip her toes in. perhaps in another drama they would be lovers, with more longing, but here it is more reserved, which makes the moments they share all the more potent.

wish i could get the janghyun backstory already! and his story with ryangeum, because 'i just need ryangeum' is a common theme; although gujam is the one that travels with him, it seems ryangeum is the one he relies on in his time of need, to always be at his side (see ryangeum killing the generals/leaders of the manchus/jurchens both times, their upcoming infiltration, 'you're a lark that only comes once every 10k years'). sadly, i think that has a different meaning for ryangeum.

[howmanyepsofmlseason6areleft]

Reminder that S5E16 Protection airs tonight on Gloob (+drive link update)

I have a LOT of work to do today, but before I force myself to get off tumblr for the day, I wanted to remind everyone that Gloob will be premiering Protection tonight at 7:00 pm Brasilia Standard Time. 

Of course, this is (again :/) VERY, VERY OUT OF ORDER, so make sure to TAG YOUR SPOILERS! And do not only use “ml spoilers” to do so either! Personally, I suggest using the following tags, but feel free to comment other tags you will be using/blocking so people know what to watch out for:

#ml spoilers, #ml protection spoilers, #ml protection, #miraculous ladybug spoilers, #mlb spoilers

(tags with the episode name are the MOST IMPORTANT next to ml spoilers, please use them!)

Also, friendly reminder since I didn’t reblog it yesterday that the google drive link is now updated with the english dub for reunion! And yes, I have seen all the asks about wanting another drive folder with the french dub + english subs, and i’m working on it! 

And that’s all! I’ve queued up the countdown post for tonight, sorry if i’m a bit MIA today bc again, a lot of work, and see y’all later! Stay spoiler free folks :)

[lakemichigans]

thank god i don't have to rant about this season by myself anymore