#real ass plot based on a true story

[tasxcha]

Shut up! No one touch me! Fall Risk movie trailer is officially out! OMFGAAAAAAWD!

I can't even begin to put into words how obsessed I am with this already! Dylan played by Victoria Pedretti is everything! Just these clips have me madly in love and feeling for her! I am unwell!

Oh the fanfiction I am going to write for Dylan!

On the realest note, how incredible is it that Alex Martini has made this film about a true story in her life? I think it's so amazing she is making a film about something not a lot of people even know about multiple sclerosis is rare but incredible life altering and I want to see more films like this. The main characters are all women and the plot is juicy! This film is going to alter my brain chemistry!

[sol-iscus]

❗️Mild arcane spoilers ❗️

Miiight ruffle some feathers.

Not EVEN going to lie, unnecessary ship wars aside, the fan base has developed such a deep love and understanding for these characters (because let’s be honest, there are some pretty intelligent people giving eye opening analyses) that after the finale, it appears that we have a better understanding of them than the actual writers.

We deserved better as the audience after all the hype over the years, all the waiting, even after some episodes got leaked a while ago, most of us remained respectful and waited to see what this season would bring us. The core characters ABSOLUTELY deserved better as well.

It felt as if I was watching all of the characters’ development be erased in real time, or become sidelined and nearly mute after being propped up to appear as if they were going to have a significant arc.

With the amount of episodes we had, it felt like they were trying to cram a bunch of different storylines into one 9 episode season and that left us with annoying plot holes and rushed sequences.

And I’m just gonna say it.

If a certain relationship needed to be sacrificed if it meant that other characters had the proper development they needed and DESERVED, then I would have preferred that much, MUCH more than that undercooked finale.

Don’t. Even. Get me started on that caitvi scene. In the cell? Right after that conversation she had with her sister? Don’t give me that nonsense about how it’s vi reclaiming her power or something. (An actual weird ass statement from Amanda Overton in a Q&A video about how that was Vi reclaiming and working through her trauma in that cell).

No apology? No groveling for forgiveness? That little argument they had lasted like five seconds and didn’t even address the earlier conflict that happened in the show after cait left vi. And before any of you say “cait apologized with her actions”

I don’t care. Two things can be true at once, she can and should have apologized directly as well as displayed that with her actions.

Moving on to Mel??? We did not nearly have enough time to explore her new abilities as a mage, her armor, and her connection to the black rose. As I said, the storylines this season should have been more refined so we could focus on a central group of characters. They did nothing but hint at her armor from the end of season 1 all the way up until now.

Also maybe I’m hallucinating, but did we ever find out what happened to the firelight’s tree?? That’s one of the main reasons Ekko and Heimerdinger went to the lab isn’t it? HELLO?

Next on my list, Jinx. This girl has suffered to no end.

- Lost her whole family except for Vi.

- Almost died once and was brought back to life.

- Tried to end her life several more times

And you slap us all in the face by writing her off?

“Oh but she may not be GONE gone, look at the glitching at the end!"

I. Don’t. Care. It’s the principle.

I’m sick and tired of seeing characters that struggle with mental health and keep having one bad event after another happen to them, never receiving a proper ending. What messages are the writers sending with this? That death is basically the answer because there’s no hope for them? Cool. That was not an honorable act of self sacrifice, that was plain insulting.

Instead, if they still really wanted to have a Jinx redemption arc and a chance to rekindle her relationship with Vi, having her tap into engineering for the betterment of Zaun would have been the better route.

We should have gotten an extra extended episode since this is last season for the Piltover/Zaun region, and for Jinx and Vi's story. I really want to blame Riot for being greedy and possibly becoming too cocky with the popularity of Arcane that they think anything would suffice because It's Arcane.

[1000roughdrafts]

Dean Winchester X Reader Masterlist

Some of my works are 18+, which I'll write as such here, but please heed the warnings on the individual posts as well - All under the cut :)

One Shots xx

Angst

💙 Us - request: Can you do a deanxreader songfic to the song us by Regina spektor

💙Goodbye ~ After Dean takes on the mark, his relationship with Y/N starts to fall through the cracks. She’s had enough of him taking out his stress on her, and after years of silencing her pain, she finally lets him know why  it’s time to say goodbye.

💙How Do I Become Enough ~Reader and Dean right about her doubts, she feels somewhat isolated and annoyed. No cheating, necessarily, but think along the lines of Dolly Parton’s Jolene  

💙Intrusive Thoughts ~Dean was supposed to visit Y/N while she was at work, but when he didn’t show, she got worried. After finally getting ahold of him, she was relieved to know that he was alive. But when another full day passes by without a word, her mind goes into overdrive about what could have happened to him.

💙Voicemails ~ this is a small, angsty thing, and it is 100000% self indulging so please feel free to just ignore it.

💙 Illicit Affairs - Request from anon based on Taylor Swift’s song Illicit Affairs <3

💙  Promise Me This Is Forever -  this is for @allywritesblog and #allyswriting event, and im using the quote "promise me this is forever" :)

Fluff

💙 Phone Calls With Dean ~ just a random thing I wrote for a story that didn’t pan out, no real plot to this.

💙Shooting With Dean ~ Dean takes you out for target practice, but something else is on his mind.

💙Time ~Soulmate AU, Y/N has had the ability to pause and unpause time for likely her whole life, believing she was the only person with such a power. One day, she learns that not only is that not true, but the other person is her soulmate. 

💙 Salted Baseball Bat - Anon Request: "'They said that gluing salt to a baseball bat to fight ghosts was a stupid idea, but who's laughing now?' you say as you whack the ghost again."

💙 Criminal - DeanxReader request from @rileynicole1967 based on the song Criminal by Britney Spears

💙 Cat-astrophe Written for @spnfanficpond​‘s unfic challenge with the prompt “I may have accidentally sort of adopted 5 cats.”fluff, stern!Dean, 

💙  Baby Winchester 2021 - Reader finds out she's pregnant, and tells Dean in a cute, fluffy way.

💙  Just Another Day - Fluffy Dean x female!reader Valentine's Day post

Flangst

💙 We're Gonna Get You Through This - reader is triggered back to a horrible memory and explains to Dean why waiting to have sex is best for her. 

💙Currently untitled ~ Request: could you do a deanxreader fic where she goes out on a date (maybe to a bar) for drinks with a guy and towards the end of the night, the guy (you pick the name) starts being rough with her cause he’s drunk and hurts her, then dean finds out somehow and comes over to kick his ass then admits his feelings for her?

💙 A Boring Holy Cross Tattoo - A Fic inspired by Cards Against Supernatural with the cards “Dean has 99 problems but ____ ain’t one.” and “A boring holy cross tattoo”.

💙 Amnesia - Request from @rileynicole1967​ : Deanxreader one shot or series ;) based off the song “amnesia” by 5 seconds of summer but in the readers pov and at the end he comes back for her and it’s all fluffy and cute.

💙 Half a Man - Follow up to the Amnesia request from @rileynicole1967​ - this one takes place the same night as Amnesia, but in Dean’s perspective and based on the song Half a Man.

18 + / Smut One Shots

💙Downtime ~ 18+, smut; After weeks of hunting the same witch, you and Dean decide to take a weekend break, but you didn’t expect what was in store for that weekend.

💙Punishment ~ 18+, smut; After embarrassing Dean at an important dinner, he punishes you with a cold shower.

💙 Size Matters - 18+ Smut DeanxReader request from anon, where reader has a size kink

💙 Poison  -  DeanxReader request from @kaitlaitlaitl​ based on the song Poison by Alice Cooper

Mini Series xx

💙 Movie Monsters Part One | Part Two ~ You’re teamed up with Dean, a man you’ve always found obnoxious, to find out the path of a new monster. Of course, things don’t always go as planned. (Complete)

💙 Never Have I Ever Part One | Part Two  ~ Part Two is pure smut; College!AU - Dean gets jealous of the attention he thinks you’re receiving from Cas during a small party at your house and doesn’t know what to do with it, so he leaves the room to keep drinking. 

💙 Hope is a Dangerous Thing... Part One | Part Two ~ The renowned author of a best-selling crime novel, Y/N Y/L/N, was thrown into a whole new world after her parents were brutally murdered. Their killer never found, Y/N took things into her own hands, meeting the Winchesters in her journey for justice. Even years later, she struggles to let anyone close in fear they’d leave or worse.

💙  i hate u, i love u (1) Slowburn au/Y/N has been in a relationship with Nick for the last 5 years. They’ve had a rough go. There’s been good and bad times, but she finally realizes that the man she thought she loved has been abusing her. Dean offers her a safe haven when she feared she had nothing else. (this may be abandoned, but we will see)

💙Reverse Supernatural  ~ request; “Hi!! I have been tossing an idea around for a bit… What if… Now hear me out… What if the Reader was the experienced hunter and she/he has to save Dean and/or Sam who have never known the supernatural existed…?” (only part one is out right now / ongoing / might also become abandoned)

Series xx

💙Family Secrets ~ 18+ ; Your uncle Bobby, and adoptive father Rufus, had a secret. A secret they never wanted the Winchester’s to find out. They had done a good job of keeping you from crossing their path, but now that they've both passed away there is nothing they can do about the brothers finding out their secret; you. (ongoing BUT I really want to and am seriously considering taking it down to rewrite it - this was the first thing I ever wrote and it's... it shows lol) 2/22/24 A/N: I want to return to this series, but since it was pretty much my first fic ever, I really want to rewrite some of the episodes and make it pace better. I understand that that might not be the best solution, however, so maybe I’ll just add inbetweeners or something. Just know I want to come back to finish it and may change some things along the way 😊

[sharkface]

i dont know anything about red vs blue but i want in on this drama what happened what is restoration

The shortest possible version of this. Which is hard to do because this was a 21 year webseries with an absurd amount of background and moving parts to get into as well as a notoriously complicated story.

Restoration was the final "season" of Red vs Blue that to be frank should not have been able to release considering the company had been in gradual collapse for years prior to its announcement and release and most people had agreed the "true end" to the show happened in 2015 even though seasons would keep releasing until 2024. Restoration is not Terrible but it was clearly rushed and had the bulk of its content cut in order to make it happen at all before the company that was founded on its success finally shut down.

Grimmons is a pairing of two cast members which is so ubiquitously accepted as not just fanon but legitimate canon (agreed upon by the guy who made and acted one half of the pairing), like, not just as in everyone agrees they SHOULD be lovers, but like, they have just been stated to have fucked at least twice in series (one of these times got retconned but that itself is complicated so for our purposes can still be considered canon) and are actively portrayed as like, an old married couple who only isn't actually together based on a mutual respect for the current status quo and a general mutual dislike for Change and Emotional Communication. They are essentially in an unstated relationship in universe but what this translates to in real life is a solid 21 years of gaybait. The baiting had been ramping up in recent seasons (a writer for the show would drop his proposed Confirmation Scene that didn't make it in when the company announced its closure) and the trailer for restoration featured the two of them having a Meaningful Moment completely alone looking at the sunset in the place they met. This was The Moment right. Like the only moment they would ever have to do it, the moment they should do it, even if they did it in a kind of half assed way.

Not only did they not do it even though it seemed like they would (like. It had the exact buildup you'd expect and then it just. aborted) but at the end of the show one of them discharged the other form the army and they are separated forever. End of series. If this made you mad to read imagine how the oldheads felt. We felt bad. LOL.

The chucker v tuckington wars are honestly way easier to explain, Church and Tucker were close in early seasons so they were the popular ship for blue team, not as ubiquitous as grimmons but like, the obvious one, Plot Circumstances made it a lot more difficult to ship them, Church leaves, enter Washington who now has the closest relationship with Tucker on blue team, they have a dynamic that is so easy to ship it mostly manifests in fandom in ways that are boring as fuck (when they're not. Racist and ableist. But don't get me started on that.). Washington and Church don't really like each other which means you can't apply the throuple solution and everyone starts arguing about how like, Church had Tucker's heart first but Washington is better for him or whatever, like, very typical ship war shit. The truth is that all three of these men are terrible people and it doesn't matter who Tucker likes because his taste is dogshit either way. People started joking that whichever guy Tucker ends up having a Meaningful Moment with or about in restoration is the guy who wins the ship war but Tucker does not speak to or about either of them for the whole season. <3

LOVE LOSES. RED VS BLUE OVER

[tobiasdrake]

Man, nothing in Mortal Kombat matches the absurd trajectory Johnny Cage had through the original games. What an absolutely phenomenal character. XD

MK1: Based on Jean-Claude Van Damme and originally intended to be the main character when this game was pitched as a Van Damme vehicle, Johnny Cage was an action movie star with incredible martial arts skills, trained by great masters from around the world. He entered the Mortal Kombat tournament, unaware of its true nature, to prove his skills were real and not the product of stunt work and special effects.

He didn't win the tournament, but he kicked some ass and got a cool story to bring home. He immediately filmed his own version of the events and made Mortal Kombat: The Movie.

MK2: When Cage heard that Sonya was being held captive in Outworld and everyone needed to go fight a new tournament to free her, he dropped everything. Literally. He was in the middle of shooting a film and he just ran off to go on an adventure with his new kung fu besties, leaving the director holding the bag. What a dick.

He had a thrilling adventure and got some ideas for a new screenplay, then came home and filmed Mortal Kombat 2. No idea what became of his previous film, but the experiences left him certain that another one was on the horizon. He had a trilogy to complete now, and he couldn't wait for--

MK3: Johnny Cage died immediately. Didn't even get to participate in the plot. "Extermination squads" got him right at the beginning. However, due to the circumstances of the plot (the villain was merging Earthrealm with Outworld), dead souls couldn't pass on to the afterlife. This gave Cage a chance to possess his own corpse and show up to the party anyway as the 90's equivalent of a DLC character.

After Shao Kahn was defeated, Cage ascended to the afterlife. He was not able to film a movie about this. Yet.

MK4: Once again the equivalent of a DLC character, Cage looked down from heaven and saw everyone having trouble fighting Shinnok. So he asked Raiden to bring him back to life. Raiden was like, "Sure, why not," and poofed him into mortal existence again.

This time he got a No Takebacks clause so he got to be alive again once the dust settled.

Deadly Alliance: While filming his latest movie, Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage, Cage threw a tantrum over the trash writing for his character. Calling the writers hacks for repeatedly killing off and reviving his character, he stormed off the set and ragequit production to go hang out with his kung fu besties.

Raiden told him where to meet and Johnny Cage unnecessarily air-dropped in by parachute just to look cool. There, he and the other heroes learned about the titular Deadly Alliance, and Johnny Cage ran off with them on another proper adventure.

He was promptly killed by the Deadly Alliance.

To be fair, so was everyone else. It was a total party-wipe.

Deception: The Dragon King Onaga raised Johnny Cage with the rest of the heroes as zombie warriors to serve him. Johnny's zombie immediately went to Hollywood and filmed the movie Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance about this experience.

Ultimately, Johnny's zombie was purified by Ermac and he was returned to life yet again.

Armageddon: Then everybody died and the timeline was rebooted.

And that is the complete history of Original Timeline Johnny Cage.

[moononmyfloor]

My Year End C-drama Review (2023)

Last year, I did two Cdrama Wrapped posts for each half of the year. This year, I watched so much stuff right away I got arrogant and was about to do a January-February summary. And then life happened and handed me my entire ass, so here we are right back on the ground zero.

Well, not exactly. I watched lots of dramas I liked this year and would like to give nods to as many as possible, and before I start forgetting details I thought I better go ahead with the entrees that I'm sure of the answers.

My initial Cdrama reviews were inspired by anniedelavoye's this post 2 years ago, I've extrapolated a lot from there but some entrees remain same.

Part 2

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1. First drama I finished in 2023

Hi Venus. Modern workplace romcom isn't my go-to-genre, least of all if the ML is a CEO. If not for the unusual-for-the-genre setup of initial few eps and the strong recommendations of my friends, I might not have pressed play at all. And I'm so glad I did because it turned out to be one of the most refreshing takes of the genre, it was funny, the pacing nor the dialogues were ever draggy, the characters were intelligent and pleasant, and down to earth. It never leaned to the tropes of helpless/badass FL or tsundere/beta ML extremes, there was no dramatic villain arcs, down to the supporting characters everyone were so reasonable and mature and simply had the nicest time ever together. Now I put it like that, it sounds boring but trust me, it wasn't. Do give it a try. Your time won't be wasted.

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2. An actor who took my breath away

Jing Boran as Lan Jue/Peizhi from The League of Nobleman

I mean

Look at him. Instant KO.

I remember watching this scene (and every scene that followed after, especially when he had his hair down) and being in disbelief about how he's real. He's literally glowing out the screen! His performance as a model scholarly minister, the way he conducted his glance, his steps, his speech and temperament were nothing but enchanting and... look, I can write poetry about him for ages lol.

And then I watched every single work I could find of him and ended up even more in love, because his resume was nothing but diverse. A measured scholar, a bubbling-out-of-his-skin social butterfly, a ballerina in a tutu, a man pregnant with the cutest radish monster ever, there's nothing he cannot play. I'm definitely going to check out every single work of him that'll be coming out in the future as well. Even if the plot fails, his character will surely be interesting.

(Also, I was FINALLY lured into DMBJ fandom thanks to going down his profile as well, and now I'm here to stay🤭)

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3. Most relatable character

Bai Moxi from Gone With the Rain

She was street-smart and sassy, but never foolhardy. She wasn't a damsel nor was overly clever. She had her moments of daydreaming, but she knew what was and wasn't reasonable. She had a high sense of self-worth, she also knew when to make herself scarce. Despite being the most outgoing and energetic personality in the room, she didn't make everything to be about herself. In fact, she couldn't have been happier to be a background supporting character of the story, quietly minding her own business in her corner. In summary, she just felt very real, and exactly like how I love my FLs. Every decision she took felt like what I'd also have done in her situation. (Btw I hope noone messages me about loving Moxi but hating her sister because I don't. I think her character also made a lot of sense based on her circumstances even though she was bit more difficult to love than Moxi.)

Most of all, she was played to a tee by Zhang Nan, the young actress was allowed to shine to her true potential in this role, as she used to be quite stereotyped in either bubbly or petty mean girl roles. The drama horribly fell apart in the latter quarter (I'd like to pretend it all ended before that Great Seperation Scene), but I'm going to remember her charaacter for a long time to come.

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4. Most inspiring character

Li Lianhua from Mysterious Lotus Casebook

The tumblr tag for MLC is already filled with Grade A+ poetry, prose and analysis dedicated to him and I'm not capable of wording it any better than them. All I can say is he really touched a vulnerable corner of my heart, and gave it strength. He's just so very admirable and represents all I ever want to be, and his entire character design and all its metaphors and philosophy especially resonate with me as a Buddhist. Like Cheng Yi said at the end of MLC concert, "At the end of the day, if you have a lotus flower in your heart that you can call your own, that's what matters."

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5. Best Couple of the Year

Lu Zhaoxi and Ye Shilan (Zeng Shunxi and Liang Jie) in Hi Venus, Zhao Jian and Yuan Zhongxin (Zhou Yutong and Zhang Xincheng) in Young Blood 2

Here are two couples who were each others' equal match in every big, small and miscellaneous ways possible. Where their roles in their partnership did not have anything to do with society-determined gender or power dynamics, not about conforming to them nor about beating them. Everything about their relationships simply had to do with what they meant to each other their admiration, respect and love towards the other person, from beginning to end. In Hi Venus, it was never uncomfortable to watch Shilan being Zhaoxi's subordinate, for he always treated her like any good superior should in any healthy professional relationship. In Young Blood 2, Zhongxin would fully trust Zhao Jian with everyone else's and his own life, not because his head was in wishful romantic clouds but because he was 100% confident in her capabilities and would never disrespect her with "girls should be protected, you stay back and let me take the sword for you" nonsense.

I may check out like 50 dramas per year and may never come by such Het pairing dynamics in some years, yknow? I do not hate on any other kind of dynamic (plus I'd have next to nothing to watch in that case lol) but, THIS... this is so rare -for me to not be icked out by not even a single second of a fictional het couple's screentime lol- hence the gushing! (Though I know I'm not doing the greatest job of phrasing what I feel😆).

Following that note, though not a couple, honorable mentions to Chufeng (Bi Wenjun) and Robin (Zhu Zhengting) from Silence of the Monster who took Sui Yi (Sun Yihan) into their home not because they thought it'd be chivalrous to help a girl, but because it's the nice thing to do as a fellow human. For continuing onto integrating her into their world with ease and enthusiasm not because any of them had feelings for her but because they simply found her a good friend to hang out with.

Suffice to say I DIG ANY relationship where gender does not come into play, like, at all (or barely, if you must).

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6. Best harem of the year

Orchid and Lotus harems (from League of Nobleman and Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

(Only sharing the pics of Orchid Harem because it was from the earlier quarter of this year, whereas pics of Lotus Harem will be everywhere in the Cdrama scene for quite a while to come lol)

The support group of devout puppies, zhijis, friends-with-benefits and all sorts of other polycule postions, all centered around one precious babygirl enigma of a man is just my jam, and I love it when it happens because it brings forth the fandom's most unhinged high-art. 😌😌😌

(ALSO ME AND WHO WHEN!😭)

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7. Best ensemble of the year

Young Blood 2, I Am Nobody

For me a perfect ensemble is where the supporting characters are just or almost nearly as engaging and thoroughly written as the main leads, you'd love every second spent on any character just as much as you love that of any other. The ultimate relaxing experience where your brain doesn't have to pick favorites and you don't have to speed watch or fast forward or be antsy about who's going to appear next because you know it's gonna be enjoyable no matter whom.

And this year, it's Young Blood 2- with its Class 7 members who were all so different but all so compelling and equally contributing to the plot, complimented by the Class 8 and the unnervingly captivating villains.

And I Am Nobody- with its extensive spread of young and old heroes/antiheroes alike, all with dramatic backstories and individual charisma that were not second to another.

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8. Favorite posters/promos of the year

Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Young Blood 2, Sunshine By My Side

Really liked what MLC did with positioning the characters on various spots of the titular Lianhua Lou, the wind-sway choices for the wisps of hair and the skirts... idk the exact angles of it all were just right for each character and their vibes and appealed to me a lot.

The blending-into-painting style poster of Young Blood was so pretty too, plus these Suoyi raincoat posters.

The comic strip posters for Sunshine were also super cute, unique and perfect for the drama's themes.

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9. Best opening credit sequence

Love You Seven Times

The drama itself was a hot mess but the opening sequence was entirely worthy of being a parallelish-universe story to Love Between Fairy and Devil without a debate. IF ONLY they put the same effort to the story itself.

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10. Favorite Prop/Set designs

A League of Nobleman- Lan Jue's Tea Pavilion, Mysterious Lotus Casebook- Lotus House

I wish I could install a fixture in my home where me and my imaginary homies can chat over tea while being seductively separated by an active stream of freshwater, while my not so elegant period-style caravan is waiting outside in the yard for more cozily cramped get-together times. 🤧

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11. Favorite lighting/color grading of the year

The Forbidden Flower, My Journey to You

The former, a kaleidoscopic explosion of colors, a celebration of fleeting life, youth, summer and nostalgia. It was a daring drama on so many fronts and nailed each of them as well, and the use of colors represented its bold soul perfectly.

The latter, a marvelous combination of mountains shrouded by mist, dark-toned wood pavilions and fur-lined robes, pale, dusty makeup with rosy lips and plump cheeks; all combined together on screen to bring a palpable ambience of a secluded glamorous hideout in a dystopian world and its ethereal residents. Seriously, how I especially loved to stare at the bride candidates in their white getups, it was like the light bounced off of the fabric to shine on their faces even more, and the skin and hair looked non-oily and baby soft. And it didn't feel over the top but convincing because the camerawork and editing conjured a believable image of an upcountry with dense and dewy forests, waterfalls and rivers, there's no sun, no heat no sweat, only cold air and pregnant humidity. OF COURSE you are going to look like THAT.

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12. A drama that taught me new things

Hi Producer

The infuriating thing about Yu Zheng's show-off genre of costume dramas is that the story may be a hit-or-miss, the "historical facts" provided in them may need to be taken with a grain of salt, but they almost always provide me with great entry points to do my own research 🥲. Most niche facts that take me by surprise and things I'd never have thought to look up on my own are randomly sprinkled all over the place and I run around like a headless chicken trying to collect them all.

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13. Most exhilarating drama/scene

Three-Body

That scene in ep 5. The entire buildup to it and the resolution. The phenomenal acting bringing forth the exact emotion and exact tension required. The moment you start to understand at least a sliver of why exactly all the characters are making this much of a fuss about what's happening to them.

I cannot spoil, not even a bit. You'd have to see for yourself.

I Am Nobody

(lol Three Body and I Am Nobody. I swear that was an unintentional coincidence!)

The great V-match between certain two characters, I can't elaborate. (See the thing about exhilarating scenes is that you have to see it for yourself what's the big deal is about lol.) I really liked how both their biggest vulnerabilities and yearnings were pulled out mercilessly in public, how they both fought themselves through each other before actualizing the philosophy of what it was all about. It was beautiful to watch visually as well.

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14. A drama location I'd love to visit

Yunnan province

I've seen glimpses of the prosperous and both naturally and culturally diverse Yunnan province through Bite of China Documentaries and Dianxi Xiaoge's vlogs, the beautiful bucolic backdrop of Meet Yourself only heightened the wish to experience it all in person.

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15. A drama that was a pleasant surprise

I Am Nobody

Perfect casting job, earnest effort from everyone involved to bring out the 2D to live action in the bestest way possible, it was like a dream come true to see a genre that was previously limited into written media like comics and fanfics (modern cultivation) as a drama even if it meant labelling all the cultivators as aliens lol

It had a lil bit of a flavor of western coming-of-age/"teen gets powers and goes on an adventure in search of their origins" stories, a bit of Japanese anime presenting style and the chaotic-gaggle-of-youth-and-veterans-with-different-extreme-powers genre vibe. And then they incorporated Chinese wuxia philosophy into it and made it their own thing. I hope to see more of this in future, and definitely a season 2!

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16. An old drama I watched in 2023

Shaolin Wendao (2017)

This is one of the best period dramas I have ever seen, but I don't recommend it unless you have a strong tolerance for angst. Like, worse than Royal Nirvana and Heroes (2022) level of angst.

HOWEVER, unlike those two, Shaolin Wendao will leave you feeling rewarded for your suffering. This drama achieved a number of things that very few other have managed to do, especially for a story with such a heavy and dark premise.

The characters remained true to their selves from beginning to the end. They grew up in various ways, at the same time remained consistent. The story made sure to make all the characters aware of their individual faults and address them.

The characters were put through immense wringer but also provided viewer with the resolution they deserved. It was SO exhilarating at times, I cried. It felt like a detox, sometimes.

They prioritized telling a realistic story about the changing nature of humans. The ending was blissful but not in the idolized, wrapped-in-a-bow-tie way one would imagine. They wanted to tell a story about tribulations and letting go, and did exactly that.

It will ignite the pain but will also make sure to thoroughly quench it. So there's that.

Oh and also, respect to all the actors. All those characters were so layered and had some quite difficult scenes. I do not understand how Guo Xiaoting didn't get any good roles matching of her caliber for years after this. She was magnificent.

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More Posts by Me

[the-bloody-sadist]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "the bloody sadist"?

YOU FUCKING BET!!!! I love having the opportunity to list my favorites for anything, though I'm also incredibly picky about fanfics, so I don't actually know (until I start scrolling my bookmarks and listing them) if I'll reach a whole 10 favorites!! But I might! (Note: these are in no particular order)

What I Want From You is Sweet by VampireFaun (Heaven Official's Blessing) [And basically every other work that she's written! But some of my other top favorites of hers are The Thing That Was Not His Highness and Beast With Two Backs]: When I can't get a fanfic out of my head, I usually end up drawing an illustration based on it, if I'm bold enough to risk depicting an author's precious words (rare). This is my MOST re-read fic and I won't ever stop. It doesn't help that VampireFaun/Deer is a WONDERFUL PERSON and I love her personality so much. She's an incredible writer!

Tenfold by dgalerab (Bungou Stray Dogs) : Baby's first fic! This was one of the writings that immediately roped me into the fanfic world. When I first was into it, I was under the impression that everyone just went there to write half-assed explorations of sex between characters, and that wasn't so appealing to me. When I discovered that some people can write entire 25-chapter PLOTS with the level of literacy that matches what I hoped to read??? I was hooked. Obviously you can see in this list that I have strong devotion to a handful of fic writers and my favorites are just the top best fics that I return to of their writing. If I find a great writer, I subscribe to them and go on a rampage of consumption through their list of fics, my fandom or not! Please consider doing the same for those authors that I mention like that!! You'll find so much gold. Everything by dgalerab is good in some way, I have almost all of their fics bookmarked. :') My only complaint about this particular story was that HOLY FUCK THE AUTHOR CUT SO MANY SCENES WAY TOO SHORT LMAO. Please let me have a full comfort scene for more than two paragraphs T_T I worked so hard for it. I cried so much. ANYWAY, STILL A HUGE INSPIRATION FOR WHAT I WENT ON TO WRITE!

What You Have Tamed by Parsnipit (Heaven Official's Blessing)

Love is Hard, Life Sucks by gev_ao3 (Bungou Stray Dogs) : A painful inspection of the nuances of domestic abuse. This one rang true to reality so much that I don't think I can re-read it without having a depressive episode. It's not finished, but it's Fyozai, and you know how I feel about that. Also side-plot SKK! I usually can't stand AUs, but this one fits the situations very well. It's the type of fic that only someone who knows a little too much about how abuse works on a victim can write.

Careful Fear and Dead Devotion by intimatopia (Trigun Stampede) : Yet another fic that I couldn't help but draw for! And intimatopia was kind enough to link it in his fic summary T_T - A super angsty sadomasochistic fic about Vash needing pain and Wolfwood needing to give it. If I don't list any other fics by him on here, it's because I'm such a huge enjoyer of his writing (one of my favorite fic authors), so nearly all of them that don't hit on personal triggers are in my favorites category. He's a master at pinning down the PERFECT depictions of characters that make them feel as canon as possible while also becoming more tangible and real. The ZhongXiao, AyaThoma and Kaeluc fics are incredible. Read them all! However, I will mention that one of his fics that first stuck with me was his Kaeluc AU Northbound & Reaching ! Carys has done a lot of BSD fics too, of which a few stick out to me like They Say You Gotta Fake It and that one Soul Eater AU he did where Dazai was a knife in Chuuya's drawer who gained a body. I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT WENT CUZ I CAN'T FIND IT TO LINK YOU BUT GO LOOK THROUGH ALL HIS FICS FOR IT. IT'S REALLY UNIQUE.

Top 5 works, I guess?? As I mentioned several times while gushing, three of these account for entire lists of the author's works that you should enjoy if we share the same taste! VampireFaun, dgalerab, and intimatopia are my top fic authors, and I've read everything they've posted as long as it didn't contain anything personally triggering - and have learned about new fandoms even! Also, Alaruya didn't make it on this list, but they have a Fyozai fic that really inspired me with its imagery and language. I link it in my Sinner fanfic if you're interested!

I have quite a few other random fics I enjoy, but most were from a Heaven Official's Blessing craze recently and then BSD works that inspired me in some way, but they're not very unique or long, so I felt like this was the best collection to list. Most any fic that explores Dazai struggling with self-harm or neediness or asexuality has my attention. It just has to be written well!

AS FAR AS MY NAME - YOU'RE THE FIRST TO ASK THAT QUESTION! I'm a big fan of...how to explain...slightly dehumanizing titles?? Something that isn't really a name, but a description of me in some way. Something that makes me feel mysterious and yet also gives everyone who reads it an idea of the type of works I'm creating. Of course, my main personality trait is being sadistic, and I love the word sadist, and I love putting THE in front of literally any title because I DON'T KNOW LMAO...I'm THE ONE. That kinda thing. I'M THE GUY!! YEAH I'M THE BLOODY SADIST GUY! THAT ONE! I also love smashing words together, so I was like, I can't just be THE sadist....what else do I like....and that's about it. If I name myself I tend to have trouble ever using anything else in reference to me, so Sadist has stuck from the very beginning. It's going to be very hard to part with that name once I publish a novel and have to use a first and last name...

THANKS FOR THE ASK!! I HOPE YOU ENOY THOSE RECS.

[dual-domination]

RANDOM-ASS ASK, BOSS! How many original characters the fic has, from the ones who already showed up to the ones who are appearing later? What/who they are?

Hello Luci, how did you guys decide it was random-ass ask time about what it seems ‘the fic’?? jsjsjkss  Most of the Original Characters in this fic were thought as ‘characters that actually have a mention in Guardian canon but we know nothing about’, see Lin Jing’s master who sent him to work with ZYL to improve his cultivation. So here’s a list:

Dao’an Shifu: Lin Jing’s and Zhao Yunlan’s master, the Old Monk, human but ancient - Lin Jing is supposed to be the only character who knows the master’s actual age, but this may or may not be true, as him and ZYL being the only canon characters that are Dao’an’s disciples also may or may not be true. Da Qing’s old friend. Plays a major role in the general plot, not a background character, even when he doesn’t have too long ‘screentime’. He and the whole monastery thing in general is a tribute to @sagittariusdarkarrow (I’ll talk more about him in the reply of another ask soon)

Cai Hong: the only monk to actually have a name and a role in the fic, despite the whole arc in the monastery… He’s around LJ’s and ZYL’s age and we can say they were a trio when they were younger (Da Qing was also there, so not actually a trio, I guess). He’s the monastery’s gardener, yet several monks take care of the gardens, Cai Hong has a special relationship with that. His love for plants was the primary bond he formed with ZYL. (Fun fact, all the three characters that have deep love for plants/abilities related to plants and nature in this fic - so this monk, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan - are all tributes to beloved @fixaidea - her plant posts and one of her Guardian arts inspired this part of the story)

Wang-shushu: the food stall uncle. Appears in only one chapter (at least so far). The Longcheng University quartet (Cheng Xinyan, Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan and Lin Jing), have some moments eating dumplings at his stall. Some homemade wine is involved.

Niuniu: Shen Wei’s cat. Although she used to be a canon character (I don’t know if that counts as ‘character’, but that exists in Guardian, so…) I can’t talk too much about her because it’s a lot of spoilers. She’s not brave but will try her best (and scare the hell out of people by accident) if Shen Wei is sad. I love her, I’m going to give Shen Wei this cat in other fics as well. Me and Deputy Chief @tazzy-ace have been dreaming of Shen Wei’s sweet lady for long, we didn’t know she’d become real in our co-written fic <3

Shen Wei's directors and monitors when he studied at Zhejiang University: bastards.

Some random ghosts and other potential dangerous whatever they are: needed annoyances. But highlight to the xiqigui that was the one who took part in an important scene for relationship development. (This is a qi-eater type of ghost, in case you’re wondering)

Bonus mention to Cheng Xinyan, even though she’s a canon character in the drama, she doesn’t exist in the novel and writing her for a novel-based fic felt very much like writing an OC - I made my efforts to keep her in character because she’s THE character from the drama that I love, but as everyone else, she was shaped by the plot. She’s a major character, things in the plot move because of her, Shen Wei takes decisions because of her. I repeat that I’m obsessed with Novel!Shen Wei + Cheng Xinyan friendship kjskjsjs

If one day I write the requested spin-off with teens Zhao Yunlan, Lin Jing and Cai Hong (+ Fat Cat) in the monastery, more monks will come, but for this fic I don’t think any other will show up.

[nitrateglow]

Halloween 2023 marathon: 12-15

Rope (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

Brandon and Philip do everything together: share aesthetic philosophies, go on road trips, and commit thrill kills in their living room. After strangling a classmate, they hide the body in a chest. They also happen to be throwing a dinner party that night. The thrill of possibly being caught excites Brandon, but Philip is on the verge of a breakdown all night. And when their old prep school headmaster Rupert shows up and starts to notice their combined strange behavior, matters grow potentially deadly.

I watched this one with my grandmother, who had never even heard of it before. She ended up really liking it, which made me happy because I think Rope is Hitchcock's most underrated film. Hitchcock himself dismissed the movie as a failed experiment. The central gimmick is that the film appears to be shot in a single take, lending the story the sense that it's all unfolding in real time. It's not a seamless illusion, but it is effective, so sorry Hitchcock, you're wrong.

Rope is a great companion piece to Dial M for Murder. Both are based on plays and both feature debonair, egomaniacal killers who seem more excited about the plotting of their crimes than any material benefit they could get from them. (Someone please write a crossover where Tony and Brandon compete to commit the best perfect crime ever. Like that is the fanfic content I want!)

Jeopardy (dir. John Sturges, 1953)

Doug and Helen are an ordinary American couple vacationing in Mexico with their young son Bobby. They go to a remote fishing spot to picnic. The pro of this spot is its nostalgic quality for Doug. The con is that its remoteness is inconvenient when you get trapped under heavy ass timber just as the tide's coming in... which happens to Doug. With only four hours to save him from drowning, Helen drives off to find help. Instead she gets kidnapped by Lawson, an escaped criminal who isn't shy about murdering people. He's uninterested in helping Doug, so Helen has to find a way to either escape her captivity or manipulate Lawson into helping her before it's too late.

What an underrated thriller! I mainly watched it for Barbara Stanwyck, but Jeopardy is a great suspense film with a fiendishly simple set-up. It's the perfect example of writing advice I once received about how to deal with writer's block: just keeping making your main character's life worse. Got a husband about to drown? How about being kidnapped by an escaped criminal while you're trying to get help?

It runs at just 69 minutes and not a second of that runtime is dull. I had planned on only watching half of the movie before going to bed because it was very late, but I was so wrapped up in it that I said "Screw it" to getting a good night's sleep.

Stanwyck is of course amazing. Her character Helen is written as a terrified housewife susceptible to "hysteria" (hello casual 1950s sexism), but she's actually pretty crafty. Stanwyck plays her as a fighter and even when her captor gets the upperhand, you can see in her eyes that she's scrambling for the next potential escape plan.

The best scenes are between Helen and Lawson. There's both an antagonism and undeniable sexual tension between them from the start. When she seduces him in a shack, she starts lounging about and puffing at her cigarette like her character Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, which is both funny and awesome. In addition, it's ambiguous how into Lawson Helen exactly is. You could say she seriously considers running away with him once he helps her husband out, but the opposite might be true as well.

In this kind of story, it would be easy to make the husband a wet rag in comparison to the attractive villain, but Doug is super likable, keeping a cheerful face on his increasingly hopeless situation, and his attempts to keep his son calm and optimistic are truly touching. And that just adds to the suspense-- you don't want to see that guy drown, even if Lawson is also charming and charismatic.

And hot. Cannot deny, Ralph Meeker is super hot in this, like holy shit. He's got some definite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire vibes going on.

Also this promotional image of Stanwyck and her two male co-stars cracks me up. It's the polar opposite of the film's actual tone.

The Sealed Room (dir. DW Griffith, 1909)

In an unspecified century in an unspecified country, an unspecified king finds out his mistress is having an affair with the court minstrel. What's worse, they have their trysts in a hidden room the king likes using as his love cave. He decides to brick the two up alive, just as a gotcha.

The Sealed Room is one of my favorite nickelodeon era movies. It's got a great Poe-themed story, enjoyably hammy acting (the king makes so many reaction image worthy faces and poses, I just CAN'T--), and a pretty sophisticated use of composition and space that emphasizes the claustrophobic terror inherent in the premise.

This movie also features a great example of what I often call "silent movie logic." It's those scenes where something happens that would technically make a hell of a lot of noise but other characters don't notice and most of the time, I don't notice unless I think about it too hard. But in this case, it's hard to miss-- the king's servants start bricking up the exit to the hidden room while the mistress and the minstrel are like five feet away. Those servants are either very good at their job or the lovers are too horny to pay attention to anything else.

It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell, 2014)

When high school girl Jay loses her virginity at the end of a date, she expects her life to change. And it does-- but not in the way she expects. Her date tells her he's just passed on a curse to her-- a mysterious figure will follow her around until it gruesomely kills her and the only way to get it off her trail is to transmit the curse to someone else via sex. Terrified and hurt, Jay and her friends try to find a way to stop the monster permanently.

It Follows had so much hype around it back in 2014. It was the horror movie du jour, with everyone praising the hell out of its old-school vibe and intriguing premise.

I'm sad to say I was underwhelmed. The premise IS cool, as well as a fun meta commentary on the traditional sexual politics of the slasher genre, and the lead actress Maika Monroe is very good as the soulful young Jay. I was never really scared though-- and if you're a regular of this blog, then you know it's not because I don't like slow-burn horror. I love it, especially when there's a bare minimum of crappy jump scares. This one just felt meandering, slow for the sake of resembling artsier classics of cinematic horror, and I lost interest halfway through. Even the monster ceased to creep me out by the end.

And that makes me sad, because I loved the score and the atmosphere of the film. There's a weird out of time quality to it-- the score is very 80s synth, characters watch old horror movies on the TV (Jay and her date even go to see Charade at a movie theater), and there isn't much in the way of teens staring at their phones (though one of Jay's friends has a cool clam-shaped e-reader). However, I just could not get into the story. It just lacked that extra something to make me love it. Or maybe I just wasn't in the proper mood.

I don't know. It could very well be a "me" problem.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i'm WAY behind. friday we watched voy's "tattoo," saturday i finally womaned up and agreed to watch ds9's "the visitor" and then we also bravely soldiered on to "hippocratic oath," and last night we did ds9's "indiscretion" and "rejoined."

tattoo (voy):

it's a real shame about (waves vaguely at racefaking "expert" on voy's writing staff) because, due to my own lack of education, i never know which stuff is based in fact and which is just wholesale bullshit. i remember one time i googled something about chakotay's culture because it seemed so obviously fake, and it turned out to be Kind Of True But Not Like That. it sucks because not ONLY was it a huge missed opportunity for Representation And Education (tm) but chakotay is a really interesting guy and i'd like to know more about him and see him get to do more stuff without him getting buried in the like. mysticism and racism of it all. it's no good for him and it's no good to sit through either

bc like. at this episode's core. if you could somehow remove the racist panflute and the whole thing where we portray people from THE SPACE TRAVELING FUTUREEE as primitive savages, you could have had a good story. chakotay struggles with not feeling at home where he lives/in his own culture, goes to space about it, then has an emotional crisis when his dad dies while the two of them are on bad terms. i know that's a good story and i know star trek can make that a good story because do you know who else has that story? SPOCK.

LIKE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY. WHAT WERE YOU DOING!

anyway, chakotay naked. i know he was naked for the wrong reasons but that man had his whole ass out. bold moves heretofore only taken by sir patrick stewart himself. GOOD FOR HIM!

oh yeah the b plot of this episode sucked. we have to give the doctor a cold because of his lack of compassion? since When has he ever complained about sick or whiny people? been gruff with them, sure, tough-love kind of guy definitely, but no one would program a doctor who hated serving patients?? i did like that kes gave him an extra hour to be evil though. i love her so much

the visitor (ds9):

i don't want to talk about it.

or, no, i actually already talked about it, and i don't have anything to add, except that 1. christopher nolan can still suck it 2. every episode of ds9's 4th season so far has made me feel like i need to give it a "must see" on the spreadsheet. i almost can't believe i'm watching star trek. i have to start grading the damn things on a curve

hippocratic oath:

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN. stuck with the jem'hadar and julian is like "i can fix them" and o'brien is like "i have been racist my whole life and i'm not about to stop now and also you cannot fix them so i am going to condemn them to a horrible death in order to save your life" because he did at the beginning of the episode say out loud with his mouth that he wished his wife was more like julian bashir and then promptly refused to examine that thought even a little bit

like this had EVERYTHING. gay people. ethical dilemmas. twink with a spine of steel. worf forgetting he's no longer in tng. my best friend odo disguising as an inanimate object. and i'm supposed to just give it a WATCH?

like, i was right there with julian. fix them fix them fix them it's so easy they CAN be weaned off of it this could change everything i was so livid with o'brien for condemning those guys to a painful and undignified ending and for repeatedly ruining julian's attempts to help with all his attempts to escape and then he was like. yeah. i did all that to save YOUR LIFE because i saw that YOU were in danger.

and it obviously doesn't excuse anything and you get the feeling julian COULD have helped them with enough time and the right tools and and and...but he didn't have all that, and obrien KNEW he didn't have all that, and he wasn't willing to risk his friend's life on a gamble when it came to helping enemy soldiers

like, it's his fucking cardassian ptsd. note how he didn't speak when they were captured but bashir did because the gun was on his friend. note how he had to explain why the commander couldn't escape with them. IT MKAES SO MUCH SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. who hasn't done horrible things for the people they love? if his wife doesn't get back soon he's going to be asking for julian's hand in marriage by season 5

indiscretion (ds9):

KIRA PULLING THE THORN OUT OF DUKAT'S ASS. sorry i'm good i'm normal

something about dukat...at first he was very boring and flat, and then he was funny but still pretty 2-dimensional, and then he was funny AND gay with sisko but still 2-dimensional, and now he's got all kinds of depth. i completely wrote him off as generic cardassian villain at first but i am genuinely thrilled to see him every time he shows up

like, the bajoran lover and the daughter is such an amazing plot twist, but also, sorry to say this, he and kira have q and picard energy. as in, q wants picard to fuck him so so so bad, and picard has zero interest in doing this, and somehow that interest gets even lower the more q wants it, and the lower his interest gets, the more rabid q is for him, and it's probably the only thing i really enjoyed about either character, a few of sir patrick stewart's better speeches aside. dukat is exactly like that with kira. he is GAGGING for her strap and she finds him vile and rephrensible and the closest they got to fucking was when she pulled the spine out of his ass cheek and laughed at him and he probably is going to put that in the spank bank for the rest of his life. and she will still never fuck him

really fun when she told him to shut up and he shut up <3

i just love episodes that deal with the fallout of the war...it's always such incredible character work. i was worried that with the dominion threat these kinds of episodes would go away and i'm glad that's not the case

also, hi, sisko fumbling things with his gf for the b-plot. dax and julian giving him romantic advice and then mocking him when he leaves. jake being the only one who can talk sense into him. incredible. 10/10

ALSO, not only did capt yates make him work at that apology she did NOT kiss his ass goodbye. and he deserved it.

even quark was funny in this episode, despite the misogyny. he was nice to jake in "the visitor" so i think i've forgiven him because i've made at least two quodo jokes since then. my first love will always be kiraodo (kodo?) though

rejoined (ds9):

LESBIANS IN STAR TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as previously stated about 600 times on this blog i DID NOT KNOW there would be a gay kiss happening. i thought btvs held the honors for the first gay kiss and that this was going to be like an allegory or a metaphor like in tng. and i did like the tng ep for what it was! but holy shit this blows that out of the water.

i think it's so important that this would have been absolutely NO different whatsoever if either half of the couple had been a man. for the time period especially it's very much like. Queers Are Just Like Us which i think is an important step 1 to reel in potential bigots who are still on the fence. i cannot believe my mother is going to watch this episode someday

also, hi, the allies in this episode...? julian sitting through that WHOLE dinner without the first word of complaint. sisko telling dax it's a bad idea but he'll back her tf up. kira bewildered that any of it is any problem at all. sisko's moment was especially nice bc at first you think he's being a dick which is out of character for him and then you realize 1. he's scared for her 2. he loves her 3. he would probably fight the homophobic (recursionphobic...?) trills with his bare hands if he had a good excuse

it's also nice that zero people in this episode were weird about the idea of two women together. it was SO NORMAL. god i can't believe andor let those two women touch hands for a single shot and called it progressive between that and spn my standards are through the FLOOR!!

TONIGHT: ds9's "starship down" and "little green men," and then we're finally back to voyager.

[beasts-of-jadewood]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG Is The Best Video Game I've Played Since Minecraft

Now that I've finally regained my ability to make publicly visible posts, I'd like to take a moment to gush about the critically acclaimed indie game classic Super Lesbian Animal RPG by @ponett and associates.

Holy shit. Holy shit? This game is so fucking good you guys. Are you kidding me? I know the title sounds like a stupid joke and there is actually a lot of humor in this game but you know what? This is a video game that's worth taking seriously. I've never given a shit about romance as a genre before getting into @slarpg because all the romance stories I've seen as a kid are either dragged-out "Will They, Won't They?" types, painful divorce stories, or fucking Romeo and Juliet. There seems to be this overwhelming belief in the genre that the greatest obstacle faced by a truly happy couple that's meant for each other is the process of getting together, and once they've gotten together the story can end. Of course, anyone who's ever had parents knows that shit isn't true, which is why I'm so fucking happy that SLARPG is a romance story about a couple that's already together and it showcases how they can have disagreements and awkward moments but still overcome them and keep going. I love that shit.

In my opinion, the most important thing a turn-based RPG developer needs to do is make sure the plot of their game is solid. With a more action-oriented game like the Souls series or Armored Core, the story doesn't fucking matter and nobody cares about it. People are in it for the exciting, challenging gameplay. If you show them a crisp parry animation that feels better than sex when you time it perfectly or a sick-ass command grab from a boss or whatever, then they're already sold without even knowing who any of the characters are. But you can't have those things with a turn-based RPG so the story is the most important part, and holy shit did SLARPG have the story nailed down on a cross and ready for worship.

See, I've spent my entire life searching for more stories that are relatable to people who live in the real world but at the same time provide a better alternative to the bleak reality we all know and don't love. SLARPG is one of those stories. Melody and Allison will talk about shit like housing being too expensive and Claire will mention how she doesn't talk to her transphobic parents anymore but they're also able to find happiness and stability with the power of love. It gives the game a sort of hopeful undertone that it's meant to represent the real world if people had the courage to do something about all the awful shit we have. Basically, SLARPG shows that misery exists in its world without normalizing it. Every drop of tear shed by Melody is treated with the immense gravity it deserves. At no point did the game say "This suffering you feel is just what happens in the world, better get used to it kid." but it also simultaneously shows how it's possible to move forwards from that sadness one step at a time. I fucking love that shit.

Read more for spoilers.

Now, getting into spoiler territory. I really like how this game also managed to marry its personal, emotional conflict with its greater, physical conflict. At no point in the game are you made to feel like the action-packed excitement of "Fight enemies, save the world." is interrupted so the characters can work through their private emotional insecurities. No, the characters' emotional insecurities and the world-ending threat they face feed into each other and feel as though they're one in the same. Even the main villain was revealed to be someone suffering from similar insecurities in the end and it's the protagonists' ability to make a positive example of themselves that played a key role in defeating her.

Speaking of the villain, she actually made me briefly consider not liking this game since she initially said that she wanted to destroy all the world's evil and recreate the world in a better state, only for the heroes to immediately try and stop her. I had a huge issue with this plot development at first because I hate it when people who wish to change the world for the better are portrayed as the bad guys for some reason. That is, until SLARPG revealed that its main villain was just making up an excuse and simply wanted personal revenge for the perceived murder of her wife that didn't even actually happen, while the heroes wanted to stop her because they were understandably ignorant and afraid of what the fuck her plan actually meant and how many casualties it might cause. In other words, the villain never actually intended to make the world a better place and was thus not portrayed as a bad person for doing so. She wasn't portrayed as a bad person at all, in fact. Rather, she's more depicted as someone blinded by her own rage and victimized by enabling trolls who wanted to start shit for fun, which made her far more relatable and interesting in my opinion.

All in all, I think SLARPG was great. It's a thematically consistent and tonally hopeful story with a good message and relatable characters. The game itself also left quite a few unaddressed antagonists like the evil crypto-mining corporation that keeps the reanimated corpses of former employees as slaves, or the mysterious being from the astral plane that possessed the protagonist and was never truly defeated. These things make me hopeful that we'll get a sequel or DLC or something one day, and I'll be there to support this series every step of the way. Bobby, if you're reading this, thank you so much. I haven't seriously enjoyed a contemporary work of fiction for years now but this game reminded me of how it feels to actually love a video game for once instead of playing through it out of spite like I did with the Souls series. Keep up the good work, for real.

[f0point5]

y/n’s best friend’s reactions and the messages from Lando are the perfect dichotomy of how I would be tempted to talk to her….. two v different tactics of calling homegirl out on being so .. idk the best way to phrase it.. pre-defensive??? The triple message to Lando at the end of their convo really said more about how she feels about max than anything else she’s said about him in the last like five chapters. When she lied about why she was “only going” on this date he breezed past the comment to ask for fucking chorizo I KNOW she was FUMING!!!!!! Like I could feel it in my bones that she wanted him to do or say something. Now though I’m worried that something inside her kinda snapped and she’s either gonna keep seeing metaphor and pushing the envelope until she gets a reaction from max OR she’s gonna go out of her way to pretend extra hard (harder than she usually does) that she doesn’t give a shit what max thinks of her and her love life. I have a lot of faith in you and where you’ll eventually take this plot I’m just gonna go ahead and beg you in advance that if there ends up being some kind of major miscommunication in the plot it has to be realistic !! Nothing grinds my gears worse than adults ruining their entire lives because of a miscommunication that even a 12 year old could solve on their own. Like I understand miscommunication tropes but sometimes they go so far that they defy very basic logic and I can’t watch y/n and max turn into complete idiots.. sorry that was definitely a personal preference rant - do what u gotta do it’s your story Lmao I’ve just been burned one too many times by fics that claim they’re about whole ass adults then have them act like 6 year olds for the sake of a plot point and I can’t see max doing that. I can kiiiiinda see y/n doing that but not unconsciously. She’d know what she was doing for sure.

No I 100000% get you. Nothing drives me crazier than people making whole life decisions based on the outcome of a conversation they never even had. Like, Y/N decides Max is in love with GP and takes a job in NYC and leaves without telling Max who then decides that the last 6 years meant nothing to her for no reason and they don’t talk until Lando locks them in a disused shopping container. Like, you two have shared everything for all these years be serious you’re not throwing that away over not even talking. I definitely see Max and Y/N being people that even if they’re dancing around the real conversation that they need to have, they’ll always be communicating with each other. I think that’s so much more true to the relationship they have and the people they are than freaking out and not talking to each other.

I think the thing with what Lando and her other friend were saying was their needling was fair but also to her it felt a little bit like a taunt. Because she has everyone in her life acting like she’s doing something a bit sideways by dating someone other than Max, acting like she owes him sensitivity around the issue, kind of hyping her up that there’s a big “caution” label on this situation and then she goes out of her way to be cautious and it turns out it wasn’t needed. I think it made her feel a bit stupid, almost like they’d hyped her that her love life was SO important to Max and it just wasn’t. So she’s like, please stop making me feel like this is a thing because it’s clearly not. And then similarly with Max, she was a bit like, I went out of my way to diminish this date/situation for your comfort, and it turns out you never cared in the first place. I think the whole thing just stung her ego a bit.

[tootern2345]

Watched me the 2009 indie stop motion black comedy film. Mary and Max and…. I fucking love it! It’s a work of art. The story is pretty amazing and has a lot of humorous and tear jerking moments. Some of the humorous moments I laughed at. 8 year old Australian girl, Mary Dinkle, is an outcast. Her parents are mainly neglectful and she finds comfort in food and cartoons. While 44 year old New York man, Max Horowitz, is an obese outcast who too, finds comfort in food and cartoons. Mary gets curious at a post office one day and writes him a letter and after staring in the window for 18 hours, Max writes back. After that, a whole lot happens. Including an adult Mary pissing Max off after she thinks that autism (referred to as Asperger’s here) can be “cured”. It takes Max, in a pure heat of the moment of blind, unadulterated rage against a homeless man unintentionally setting off max’s biggest pet peeve (littered cigarette butts) to realize that mary and humans ourselves, are imperfect. Mary finally gets to see max in the end but max has passed away peacefully, never forgetting the memories along the way as Mary cries tears of joy, with her infant son as well cause yeah.

I love the animation and the amount of detail it went into it. Stop motion is a highly underrated but purely amazing way of animating and animation as a whole. Especially the Typewriter used!

Also, as an autistic myself, I can relate to max and his personal struggles. This movie shows the more unfortunate parts of being autistic and especially being an autistic adult, and remember, the film does take place mainly during the 70’s and 80’s back when autistics could be easily rid of, shipped off to the ward in which they could be experimented on a lot (that’s what max went through once). And I too, got pissed alongside max when Mary showed him the book about “curing” autism. and the film does show that while us autistics may struggle to express emotions on the outside, we are showing a lot of emotion on the inside. Another thing I relate to, sadly, is not being able to cry a lot. There have been times a plenty in which I wanted to cry but just couldn’t get myself to do it. And it is sad that max got ridiculed for being Jewish. Antisemitism sucks ass, alongside ableism as well. Although, I do feel bad for Mary as well, her father works long hours at a tea factory and focuses more on taxidermy than his family and her mother is a drunken thief. Both of them end up dying a year within each other and seeing Mary’s ex husband, Damon, leaving her was pretty sad as well.

The film also shows that the school system doesn’t care about anyone that’s dealing with issues regarding emotion and bullying. Especially during the 70’s and 80’s. I loved it when Mary stood up against her bully. And I also loved it when Len, the agoraphobic, WWII veteran amputee neighbor, ended up saving the day right before Mary succeeded in her own death in her own darkest hour.

The voices and music are great as well and the vocal direction I also admire! Vocal direction/line delivery can make or break voices and in this case, it really makes the film tbh.

Overall, I rate this film a 10/10. I have nothing bad or flaws to say about it/with it. It’s amazing and I personally recommend ya’ll go watch it (although, the film is definitely NOT for kids)

Oh, a note, the film was partially based off a true story. The key plot of the film (Australian kid and Autistic American adult write letters to each other) was real. The other parts were luckily for show.

Que Sera, Sera to all. And to all, a good night!

[morastfrck]

Hi thx again for that art. Honestly i wanted to share with my True Hero headcanons (I prefer more responsible Delsin, rather than psychopath) - More Responsibility: Will protect every conduit, teach and guide them to control their powers. He became friend of many conduits and thanks to his ideals, he will find many conduits with same mindset (justice and equality for both Humans and Conduits). And thus creating sort of like Justice League to protect the entire world. - From now on, he is public face: whenever he goes, expect lots of cameras and journalists. While he loved this at first, it became annoying as fuck and decided just to go away from them as fast as possible. However his actions, will give people hope and inspire everyone in the entire world. - He will mete with Zeke, who will tell Delsin everything about Cole. And while feeling inspired, he would also struggle more about continuing ideals of Cole and carrying on his legacy. Questioning himself, is he really worthy? - Akomish will became his place of protection and warm. Betty will always make lots of cakes and his favourite dishes, to make him feel better. - No matter his struggling, Delsin will always try to do his best no matter what. From saving cats from trees, to prevent another war crimes to happen or cartels to hurt innocent. He maybe struggles, but he will not let his struggle, to fail so many innocent people. - Delsin once a month will always visit Reggie's grave to talk about anything. Trying to hold himself not to cry. - He will have more powers, but not asking for more and being responsible with this. (If a conduit says no, Delsin will not take it) - He may be a hero, he is still no saint. If there is a conduit or a criminal mastermind who cannot change and still a threat to innocent, he will put him down for good. - Delsin one day will face conduits of nightmares and will face his biggest fear: REggie. However he understands it's not real and overcomes it. - Delsin will become everyone's big bro and a mentor sort of like Charles Xavier. Thanks to Eugene's genius they would profit and have lots of money to start investing on good stuff and make a big base for conduits to live and train. - Delsin will have no free time (unfortunately) - he will always check the monitors for any crimes, and while he has his friends, he still would feel lots of pressure on his shoulders. - Delsin one day will face a conduit who was used and brainwashed by her own father, who wanted to use her for himself. Once Delsin hears this story, he will be mad and kill that person in blind rage. - Eugene's new invention allowed to train in virtual reality, to have faster and better access to new powers. Fetch will be sort of like flash thanks to her light speed abilities. While Delsin will always be everywhere at the same time to protect everyone. And also here is mine headcanon quote for Delsin hero. "The world is not a great place. It's fulled of bad and sick people. And yet here i am, doing my best no matter what. And while i'm still breathing the ideals of justice and hope, I will never die. I will struggle, but never give up the fight. And i will not stop my fight, until the world would turn into a better place than it ever was. Never." What do you think?

woah hell that is a big ass concept you have here, you should totally write a post canon story with it or something (bc fr its really put together, even with further future concepts and everything)

honestly? this does seem like a plausible option for that kind of delsin. I mean, society would have to face some major changes after augustine’s fall, both in terms of conduit relating laws and people’s mindsets, and having someone as known as delsin take everything in his own hands would def help. So imo the plot idea is pretty solid.

I personally would focus more on delsin’s personal growth. Storywise he is already powerful enough that he was able to take down augustine - which is hella impressive, she had been practicing concrete for 7 years. So i dont really see any point in focusing on him expanding his powers but rather deciding how to use them. You called bad karma a psychopath, but i feel like they are far more similar to each other, Its not like they are two different characters. the only thing separating hero from infamous is like this one metaphorical wrong choice.

If he makes this bad decision, he is basically forced to make more - he killed one guy, so what difference would it make if he killed a few more, and so on. He would also probably be way more focused on revenge - for himself on society (that was rejecting him throughout his life, for graffity and similar stuff) and failed him again after he turned out to be a conduit, for reggie, for akomish (and later even revenge on akomish for also rejecting him). Its like a vicious circle of him being rejected, getting his revenge for it, and getting rejected furthermore.

For the hero on the other hand, i see him as more of a trapped in the expectations type of character. He saved a few people, and now they point their phone cameras at him and scream his name, and he just cant let them down. At first it really busts his ego - he literally talked about becoming a hero before, so makes sense that he is flattered. But the thing is, on the inside he is still the same person who could have gone the infamous path. After all, bad karma points are only given for executing an enemy, not just for them dying. I believe that shows the difference really well, as its not about murder, its about cruelty.

Delsin doesnt have the truly neutral choice, bc he will either be percieved as a villain or a hero by the crowd, so naturally their perception will always be exaggerated. They either see him as a psychopath or a saint, no inbetween.

But in reality, he is still a sly fucker who draws mocking graffitis on the walls and flirts with his enemies, no matter what choice he made.

(tho i do feel like reggie’s death could make big difference for his alignment. either sending him down the revange path or making delsin want to not let his brother down and going all hero)

so basically, i feel like really becoming a hero, and not just a rebel with good reputation would be pretty challenging for him. It would be interesting to see the way he would struggle to actually make rational and good choices at times, or how he would tackle the problems actual heroes face (or like those “who should i save” dillemas from superhero comics)

also this is why i prefer the og delsin, as i see him as the one who stays more loyal to his original ideology, and while accepting his feelings he doesn’t go too far with revenge stuff or attempts to become the hero everyone needs. He is the “its not possible to please everyone” and he is fine that way

But generally i think you have a really cool concept here. It works great, tho we def dont see some things the same way lmao

and good luck in turning it into somethin more? (bc i really hope you do its worth it!!!!)

oh but also think about mentor delsin in his late thirties-fourties😩😏

[renmorris]

so many plot threads in the watcher just get dropped or fade away. like an early one is the dad becoming increasingly inappropriate with his teenage daughter, with this idea that he’s emulating the gross possessive obsession that lead a previous home owner into annihilating his family.

this is a weird plot point for a few reasons

the killer (who erased all pictures of himself) really stresses the local church he used to go to with his family, clearly setting up a scene for dad to investigate to prove this guy exists by going to that church and he never does

this is based on a true story, they bought the rights to this story from the actual family. you cannot go and attach an incestous obsession to a real ass person. you’d be fucking crazy to think you’d get away with that

and I think in editing they really did realize that they can’t do that so it just vanishes.

[psychewritesbs]

Chapter 244: Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 16--Miwa's sword vs Higuruma's sword

😮‍💨 phew. What a week to be a jjk fan.

I've been on jjk defense mode for days 😂 quite the exercise in futility truly joke's on me lmao

So this week I am going on a tangent about Miwa because I would have liked to see more from her AND I think Gege was using Miwa to tell a story that did not align with those expectations.

So... at the expense of ghost writing for Gege...

... I am going on a tangent about the symbolism in this chapter surrounding Miwa's character and what that says for her and why I find it relatable af, not necessarily as a woman, but as a human.

You have been warned...

Your death would be meaningless

So we start the chapter with the main complaint against jjk this last week: its character deaths are meaningless, purely for shock value, and don't contribute anything to the overall themes, other characters, and plot.

So I love Kusakabe here saying "your death would be meaningless if you joined this battle, if you don't want to die then you don't want to die and that's a'ok kthanksbye" because this speaks to having a reasonable mindset and a strong sense of self needed to make a choice like Nori did.

One thing to consider is that jjk is a battle between instinct free from reason (Sukuna and other sorcerers like him) and reason (whom Angel and characters like her represent).

Which brings us to Miwa who has not explicitly shared any reasoning regarding running away. In fact, she's still very much part of the gang even if she can't swing her sword anymore--that kind of says something about her instinctual self.

That is not to mention that, Miwa is an ant in a battle of dancing elephants, and Kokichi wanted to protect and see her flourish.

So Miwa joining this battle directly would truly be a meaningless death.

And yet, I wanted her to do something unexpected.

I wanted her to do something kick ass because plot twist, I was hoping that every time she called herself useless she was just being self-depreciating and that she could actually make something, anything happen.

And that's when I realized that Miwa is past "me".

So there goes all objectivity about jjk out the window. Here comes the ghostwriting.

Miwa has bought into an identity about herself that keeps her limited in what she can do and accomplish--this is one of the most basic themes at the core of jjk.

People who THINK they are the strongest and how that idea of themselves limits how they perceive and relate to others.

People who THINK the best they can do is throw away their life and how that idea of themselves makes them downplay their abilities.

Or people who THINK they are useless and how they fumble their future because of the one time they decided to believe in themselves... well, we all know how that went.

What I love about this is that it's anticlimactic af given how easily Kenny breaks Miwa's sword.

And I love it precisely because it's real. Like... after seeing herself as useless for so long instead of focusing on developing her sense of self, never being able to swing the katana is the result of how Miwa overestimated herself because of her naivety.

Our actions have consequences, and jjk does not shy away from that truth and never has. Look at Megumi right now.

I also loved that there's a character with a sword so powerful, it can kill it's opponent with a single swing.

And that got me thinking about the symbolic significance of the sword in relation to Miwa and Higuruma because it almost feels like Gege might just be intentional about juxtaposing these two characters in terms of their sense of self.

The sword as symbol of the mind

This is true especially when you look at Miwa's clueless reactions to all of the talk about law, which is a logic-based endeavor, and you compare that to Higuruma's effortless handling of the discussion.

The thing is that the sword is a masculine/yang symbol that can represent authority, power, and dominance, and more importantly, the penetrative and discriminative abilities of the intellect.

Think of it this way, like the mind, a sword can metaphorically cut through darkness to create clarity and understanding, just as much as it can penetrate through surfaces in search for depth and meaning.

We all have this ability, but in this chapter Miwa is shown to struggle to keep up with the conversation compared to everyone else.

What we saw in this chapter is a clueless 16 year old girl actually idk how old Miwa is but that's besides the point who made a really bad decision because she's young af and lacks the ability to reason the way a grown up would and who has to pay the consequences of her blunder.

Compared to Higuruma's powerful sword, Miwa's sword breaking is symbolic of her will and her own sense of self. Miwa is "weak" because of how she sees herself.

I can see why people would find that annoying, but I kind of personally see it as very empowering because it now means Miwa has to find a way to be useful without her sword. But that's just me. That's kind of how I see the world.

Now, will we get to see said character development? mmm probably not? She is side character af.

Is there an imbalance of "powerful" male characters compared to "powerful" female characters (that tend to all follow a Warrior/Amazon Queen archetype or rely on masculine definitions of strength)?

I'm going to dodge that question by redirecting your attention to the latest hc I was sold because I can't do anything about the question: Higuruma and Mei Mei were a thing.

#Self-righteous lawyer and self-serving hottie have a fling 😮‍💨 this is what shadow dynamics are made of.

That said, would I have preferred that Higuruma was in Miwa's place and that Miwa was the one with the sword powerful enough to bring truth and clarity?

As this chapter showed, I'm not sure Miwa has ever demonstrated that she could be that person at this exact moment in time. And I personally like to think that given time and her own spinoff series "useless Miwa learns she's not useless", she would develop her sense of self further. But more importantly, as I feel about the other characters, I ope that she would learn to love herself as she is.

How's that for ghostwriting?

Anyways... guys... I need to stop getting involved in futile arguments lmao. I know I'm not convincing anyone of anything and I'm not trying to because I respect people don't like what I like. All I can do is share my perspective of things.

Actually. Why did I write all of this? idk. I wanted to share that I like the idea that Miwa has to learn from her mistake and the possibility of where her character goes from there, whether we see it or not. It's all written between the lines as per usual because I have to agree that Gege only has so many panels and a big cast of characters who may or may not be what he wants to focus on.

Which is something that happens with a lot of manga.

Have a happy jjk-break week. Here's to hoping we survive it.