#smh i thought they were going to reveal their traumas

[hugheses]

nhl: Candy salad: 4 Nations edition 🍬

#4Nations Face-Off begins in exactly two weeks!

[angelpuns]

CW FOR DISCUSSION OF RELIGON, RELIGOUS THEMES, RELIGOUS TRAUMA, SPECIFICALLY CATHOLICISM.

CW FOR MULTIPLE EYES/MANY EYES

I said I'd work on some villain sketches tonight so I did!!! I'm not totally in love with my Shredder design just yet- mostly just the armor. I can't reveal his actual face jus tyet cause spoilers and all that big teehee

Baron Draxum, however, I put a lot of thought into his design and I actually really like what I've got so far. I decided yes actually I am going to lean into the Catholicism fuckery cause it's my religious trauma and I can get silly if I want to. Anyway his motivations have changed (not really actually)

His main goal is still to get the turtles back ( he created them with research funded by the government - they also fund the church but without proof of his research going places they've decided to no longer fund him)

It's kind of like in FMA:Brotherhood where the state alchemists have annual tests to determine whether or not their research is worth pursuing otherwise they lose their state alchemist title. It's sort of like that. Baron Draxum is a 'Catholic' priest, it's a bit warped due to being in the hidden city, but it's still definitely a Catholic church. He's also a scientist, I think in this warped version specifically they have kind of combined science and religon?

I'm still working on it.

Anyway, Baron Draxum created the turtles because he was experimenting with the mutagen, which he created.

( created from a mystery substance that the sort of underworld creatures - not sure if I wanna call em yokai yet, probably not- that birthed the hidden city creatures/mutated them way way wayyyy far back ?? again, wip onthat front) .

He originally used it to further advance his botanical studies, but then got a little silly an thought ' hmm wonder if this can change animals/humans' and yeah it can, but there's a very specific DNA trait you have to have (wip) or else it will just sort of destroy your system :/ that bit's a wip as well. Lots of this is wip stuff cause I never planned on getting so into this iteration LMAO

ANYWAY- he wasn't too impressed by Splinter because he initially didn't transform, but the turtles showed signs that they had been significantly changed. Splinter managed to escape with the turtles to the surface. He then transformed into a rat :/

Then Splinter fucking goes back to the hidden city o purpose because he knows he can have a social life there smh. Local rat man lonely so he goes back to the place where he got turned into said rat man. He's got his own issues tho-

There's more, but it's too loose to talk about soooo yeah.

I originally was gonna make Draxum a wolf, but HOW COOL WOULD IT BE IF HE WERE A WOLF/GOAT SORT OF CREATURE RIGHT????

TMNT:HME MASTERPOST

[mistydeyes]

Hallooo :DD I wonder if your pairings are still open so could I gracefully have a COD pairing? Ty<33

Pronouns: She / They

Appearance: Medium black hair with dark brown eyes(almost looks like black—) a thin like hourglass body shape. 5'5(HELP...) Mostly wearing turtlenecks, hoodies, n' oversized stuff.

Personality: I am an introvert and sometimes panics when ever I talk to someone I don't know. I keep myself reserved and dislike going out as much. When you get to know me better I lean onto the extroverted side and likes showing you stuff I made. A very moody person at times and my friends, based on what they say, I am a chaotic yet mother like friend. I am very easy to talk to and easygoing, I overthink a lot which usually leads to panic attacks. My friend say I laugh at the wrong time and I am not so proud of that—I am also easily distracted and place my focus on something I like rather than something I dislike. I could be manipulative at times as well as having trust issues because of past trauma :')). I sometimes have a flirting demeanor and tons of playful flirting to my best/friends and sometimes I come off as secretive based on my friends words. I prefer to care for my friends other than myself, once again trauma, and I seem to be a trustworthy friend. I have a goldfish memory which shocks me hoe much I know myself despite forgetting everything from the apat 3 hours. Also I'm very artistic! But I still suck at it smh 😔

Hobbies, Interests, work(?):

Drawing, Listening to music, Singing, and dancing! My interests are probably painting, collecting random stuff I found, playing the piano, and learning new languages! (I wanna be bilingual) I favor dogs a lot and probably adopt every dog i see which is a problem cause I can't handle so much 😭 I am currently studying in psych! Becoming an actual therapist because my friends need help, so do I.

John Price

How you met: Civilian You weren't sure what to tell people when they asked how you and John met. Technically, you didn't meet face to face until about three months after you stayed talking. You were connected through a friend of a friend due to your hobby of painting and him wanting to have a new landscape piece of artwork for his flat.

When you first heard of the request, you thought it would be simple commission. However when you talked to John and he revealed his laundry list of details, you knew this would not be something you could complete overnight. He wanted a specific landscape of a lake with trees and rolling mountains but also asked for details such as a man fishing in a boat and wildlife poking through the trees. If that wasn't bad enough, he also wanted it to be gigantic, a piece that he could display in the main foyer. If he wasn't so kind with your timeline and also the payment wasn't lucrative, you would have referred him to someone else. But unfortunately, you found yourself continuously buying paints and moving furniture around to fit the gigantic canvas in your flat. After exactly three months, you sent John a picture and agreed he would pick it up the following week. The day came and you heard your doorbell ring. You excitedly ran down the stairs to see your client in person. "John, so nice to finally meet you," you greeted as he shook your hand. "Can't thank you enough," he continued with a smile, "it was exactly how I remembered it." "Oh so this wasn't just something you found inspiration for online?" you questioned as you led him to the wrapped and packaged painting. "No, it was actually something I remembered when my Grandad used to take me fishing as a young lad," he said as you helped him to carry the large item to his car. "Well, I was happy to make that a reality for you," you replied and you both shared a tender moment. When you finally managed to get it secure on the bed of a truck, John asked if he could treat you to a meal. Maybe it was because you wanted to learn more about his past, but you readily agreed and the rest is history.

A peek into your relationship: "Y/N, we can't," John said as he tried to lead you away from the window. "But sweetheart, look at their eyes," you pleaded as you leaned down and held a hand to the window. The absolute sweetest English terrier was looking back at you and excitedly wagging his tail. John knew he was doomed as you looked at him and practically pleaded just to stop in the shop. "It's just to say hi," you promised as you entered but that was a complete lie as you fell in love with the excited puppy running around you and almost jumping into your arms. John tried to supply you all the reasons why you couldn't adopt a dog. "You don't time!" "Yes I do, I'm done with uni and plus I specialize in virtual therapy." "What if you forget to feed him?" "John, I have a goldfish memory but I would like to think I would remember to feed a pet that's right in front of me." "It doesn't make for a good guard dog" "Okay fair, but thats why I have you." No matter what he said, you always had an answer. Plus, your fiancé could deny that he loved the small pup as it pawed at his leg. With a sigh, he said you could adopt him and you peppered him with thousands of kisses. While John had to now buy all the amenities for a new pet, it was a noble sacrifice to see you so happy.

[antiadvil]

what's childhood trauma au?

WIPs

So I think I’ve talked about the background of the idea here but not much about what the fic actually is. I’m trying to be mysterious because all I have is an outline and like 400 words and I don’t want to disappoint people by never finishing/publishing it. But I'll talk a bit about the premise and maybe share something from the outline.

the backstory is that my best friend did not remember having any friends growing up until her parents revealed that one of their neighbor kids came over a lot, and her parents found it annoying so they starting telling the other parents that my friend was grounded and couldn't play. Because it was more convenient for them if she was playing quietly alone in her room, I guess. Which, I don’t think I need to say, is incredibly fucked up. After her parents told this story, she remembered some bits and pieces of this, but before her parents brought it up again the entire memory was sort of repressed.

And here is where I’m going to clarify that I’m writing all this with my friend’s full permission bc it sounds kinda fucked up to jump from that to “anyway so now I’m writing a fic about that” 😭 we both have similar attitudes towards most of our trauma which is: humor and fic are really good coping mechanisms actually. So I thought she might enjoy a fic based on this premise (I was already planning to write something incredibly specifically tailored to her tastes for her birthday and it’s hard to get more tailored than this) but because it is a pretty intensive project to just drop on someone I asked if she thought it would be a good idea and she said “yeah you have to write that the author’s note would be so funny.” So here I am though admittedly I think this is too big of a project to actually complete by September and I may need a different idea for this year’s birthday, unless I start posting before I finish which I’m meh on since the outline could still change (but I’ll see how things go once I finish my hospital fic and start focusing more on this).

So, yeah, it’s a fic where Dan and Phil are childhood friends, Dan’s parents drive Phil away, Dan represses the memory, so he doesn’t actually remember Phil as anyone other than that neighbor kid, while Phil remembers being friends and then Dan just suddenly not being there, and Phil assumes it was Dan voluntarily pulling away. The story follows them reuniting in high school.

As you can probably imagine, this wasn’t a one off thing. Dan’s parents just suck. There are a lot of weird fucked up things my parents did to me as a child that I didn’t realize were weird and fucked up until I talked to other people about it. There were many other things I did know were weird and fucked up. Living in that household caused me severe mental health issues, and I still have minor siblings who live with my parents. So, yeah, mainly this fic is about that. I literally made a list of fucked up stories from my childhood and gave them to fictional Dan. Not all of the things that happened in this fic actually happened to me (and a lot of the ones that did are exaggerated in some way) but many did.

I don't have much writing done yet (400 words is an overstatement actually) but I do have it fully outlined, here are some fun notes from my outline document (mostly actually funny even though the piece is actually very angsty because out of context none of the angst makes sense/is angsty/i wrote it in a way that sounds funny even though it is not):

phil has a friend group. they will need names.

lots of chances for gay trauma in gym class. as a treat for my hyperfixation brain i’m going to let them take a weightlifting class. phil seems like the kind of student to leave his PE credit for his senior year and need it to graduate

and finally this incredible dialogue exchange in my notes:

phil: so like do you wanna do that again

dan: RIGHT NOW?

phil: no wtf i’m trying to have a conversation about our relationship smh

(The conversation is extremely minimal)

[izloveshorses]

What about your most recent one?

send me a fic and i'll write up a director's cut commentary for it!

No More Pretend:

this one is sort of a combination of a few ideas and concepts that have been sitting in the back of my notes for a while, but i was never sure where i would put them/when i would get to them. so if it reads like three parts, this is why lol. i have been wanting to write the trio Improving and Performing A Con together for a while, and then i wanted to write a classic traveling sequence bed sharing moment, and i wanted anya and dmitry to bond over some shared trauma while having a little slumber party. it came together somewhat nicely, no?

you just know dimya had to pretend to be married at least once during the traveling sequence. it's too delicious and awkward not to think about. even though they're not as malicious against each other as they were at the start of the show by this point they still haven't quite crossed into the 'friends' threshold yet, so i don't think they would be exactly enthusiastic about the idea. and we don't see enough of vlad and dmitry working together to pull a smaller con. i think they would have, like, preexisting characters they play, depending on who they're trying to trick, and sometimes even have costumes and stuff (think dwight and jim playing brothers on the office to make a sale, for lack of a better example). and while anya doesn't like lying, i think she loves acting, pretending, playing a part. so it's delightful when she gets to exist in that sort of gray area.

i read a book recently where one of the main girls had to pretend she was kidnapped over the phone, and was like sobbing and yelling and stuff, but when she hung up she just wiped her tears away like 😌 and i just knew i had to write anya doing something like that at one point. idk about y'all but the bit where she reveals her 'pregnancy' is so funny to me. everyone is so uncomfortable. at this point in their relationship dimya would definitely be particularly squeamish about the thought of anya carrying his baby, but it was so fun to write, and i think dmitry is like really obviously attracted by her ability to act so well (obvious to us, maybe not to anya lol).

the bit where dmitry gives anya her food belongs to a thread that i ended up not pulling, but i think i was trying to think of excuses for them to go take a walk in the middle of the night, and one of those would've been that dmitry actually was hungry so anya was gonna be like smh let's go find an open kitchen or a bakery somewhere 😤 but this was already getting so long. i do like including dmitry feeding her in a lot of my fics, it's just such a simple and quiet way he can take care of her. and i just think she is so so hungry.

this isn't that important, but i really like the line where anya originally thought dmitry messing with his hair was a vanity thing but she's since learned it's actually just a nervous tick, that never gets old to me. she's just... always watching him 👀

the latter half of this fic was a lot more complicated to write. little confrontations and scuffles are always so hard to write with them, since they both know the other can handle themselves, but i think dmitry is protective of his own, and i think anya has mixed feelings about that whole thing. it's basically like... being vulnerable is just really Really hard lol. physical responses to past trauma are so So embarrassing to have. like, logically you know you're safe, whatever, but you feel all hot and sweaty and itchy and breathing is really hard and your hands are shaking and you just know you look like you're about to crack, and it's embarrassing!! so someone witnessing that as it happens is really uncomfortable!!

anya's trauma is a little more difficult to conceal than his, and i think she would be a little embarrassed to be seen as someone who falls apart so easily, so she's assuming he just sees a mess of a person, since he has witnessed a lot of her little panics and meltdowns by this point. and she really cares about his opinion of her for some reason. so of course she gets defensive and of course she misinterprets his protectiveness/attempt to relate as just a clinical obligation and fascination with a 'crazy' girl, and of course he gets defensive right back. but deep down they're both equals™ on every level and there's this deep respect they have for each other above all else. they're just bad at communicating that lol.

and on top of all of this, they have to share a bed, so they're about as uncomfortable as they can get. but this fic ended up being about sitting in the discomfort a little bit, and that discomfort brings out a vulnerability and sign of trust they probably wouldn't have reached without it. they're ironically the most authentic and honest they've been with each other while lying to strangers for food and shelter lol.

and again, trauma is embarrassing. she's already had to be so vulnerable with him, now she has to force him to witness her nightmares firsthand. it's like... when you're anxious, you build up a little thing in your head until it seems impossible to stop thinking of it that way. and this fic ended up being a little bit about consent and autonomy, too, and i think dmitry feels bad anya was put in this situation to begin with, no matter how dire the circumstances are. idk how y'all feel about them having kids, but i liked how they get to discuss the idea this way, apprehensive yet open for debate at the same time. slumber party talk fr <33

dmitry's confession is sort of the big punch of the whole fic. i had that scene written on a scrap document deep in my fic folder, like, years ago, but i never attached it to anything larger until now. i was nervous about posting this fic because while i've hinted at dmitry having some sexual trauma and a history of prostitution, i've never written him explicitly saying All That before. it's definitely a headcanon i will carry with me to my grave tho 😤 he just has so much Self Loathing already, being objectified and seen as someone only good for his body and nothing else had to have affected him. and of course he tries to downplay it, make it sound not so bad or at least not as bad as what anya has been through, but anya thinks it's important that he understands how similar they really are, how they understand each other, how grateful she is that he shared this with her and he trusts her enough.

i didn't want this whole scene to be super sad and heavy, even with the darker topic, so hopefully it's still sweet enough to swallow. we're trying to set them up to be besties by the time they hit paris, after all <3 and what's an izloveshorses bed sharing fic without some platonic snuggling 😤

overall, this one was fun to write. working on something in canonverse between long au chapters always feels like coming home <3

[dribs-and-drabbles]

#BADBUDDYREWATCH

Ep 10

Pran, the most awkward gay to ever be awkward.

Ming, seriously, your face is gonna feel my fists... No 'how are you', 'I'm glad you're safe, son'...no...he's all 'what's Pran doing here?'. smh so hard it's giving me whiplash.

The California shirt!

God this ep...settling us into a false sense of security that Ming might actually turn out to be good and nice and accepting of Pat and Pran...but ha! sike! no!

I mean, it's in the conversation - with how Ming apologises and Pat tells Pran he's never seen his dad act like this - but also the clothes - Pat in red and blue, Ming in red and black, and Pran in red and a black, grey, and white/cream t-shirt. Harmonious colour co-ordination...

Nong Nao!!

I wonder if Pat purposely thought to wear red to meet Pran because he wanted to blend in and not be recognised as from 'enemy territory' 😄

Sneaky fucking Pran. Look at the SMUGNESS on his face.

In hindsight, you can absolutely see that Joke is a) joking (playing along on behalf of Pran) and b) Pran's peer mentor - his buttoned up white shirt indicating he's more of a 'straight-laced' person and suggesting Pran emulates him in his own wardrobe choices.

God Pran is SO HAPPY and it's not because their love for each other is being revealed so loudly but rather it's because he's GIFTING this moment to Pat, allowing Pat the one thing he's wanted all along - for everyone to know he's taken - and that makes Pran SO DAMN HAPPY. And I love that Pat basically asks Pran 'are you sure this is what you want?' and Pran basically answers 'absolutely, do your worst (best)'...and he does.

And again with the product placement - they used in a way that supports the relationship development of Wai and Korn. Who else is doing it like this?!

Honestly, we were ROBBED of both friends groups together. I'm Sad��.

I love Chai 'I think one day things will get better'. The look on his face when Pat told him he and Pran were dating 😄

Like brother, like sister. I love the two scenes we have of Pa and Pat in their dorm on their beds chatting - both ending with one running away towards their crush! The parallels!

Do you think the little look Ink gives Pa at 2:25 in part 2 is her acknowledging that she knows what Pa is up to with trying to figure out if she's being hit on? Also, at 6:31 Ink does the little hair tuck behind her ear with the same tone of voice for "I wonder who that could be" as when she told Pat she knew he was hitting on her in ep 5. SHE KNOWS.

I wonder if this is the first time Pat has gone further into Pran's house than his bedroom...or if they sneak around when Pran's parents aren't there. I mean, he knew which room to go to...and he wasn't that afraid of being caught somewhere he shouldn't have been...

I love the reminiscing at the school, that they're now making happy memories there too. Their reputation isn't as the infamous rivals but as 'faens', Pran gets to sing their song on that stage and hear that Pat ran after him with his guitar, Pat learns that Pran always looked at him...they're rewriting their past for a better future.

Like brother, like sister #2 - Pat 'I'm hot' Jindapat and Pa 'I'm hot' Jindapat.

And then like brother, like sister part 3 - Pat and Pa immediately confessing to their crushes the moment they realise they like them.

But that darkroom scene is so special. And I just love how Ink's sweater was both their colours - Pa's limey green in normal light and then Ink's burnt orange in the red light of the darkroom.

AHHHHHHH the hotpot date!!! (but I have trauma memories from those shirts 😭)

THEY'RE SO HAPPY WHHHHHY DID MING HAVE TO BE THERE?!

*takes a deep breath* okay, time for part 4...

aklgaldjgladkglkjdlfkgjladkg 😭😭😭

How DARE Ming push our darling Pran like that?!!

Fierce eyes Pat is back.

I just adore the shot of Pat walking away from Pran...adore as in it wrenches my heart out of chest, stomps on it, and then hands it back like it's a favour to me.

And I love the symbolism of the spilled bag - the worst that Pran could imagine has happened now, the secret is out, and the world hasn't ended but rather life continues, all he can do is put the food back in the bag, pick it up and walk forwards to the inevitable confrontation with the families. It's so mundane but so heavy - like the bag he carries instead of placing in the shopping trolley.

The intensity of the scene with Pran and his mum...I can't believe it was one of the first scenes they filmed for the series 🔥

The look in Pat's eyes after Dissaya leaves just about breaks me.

No, wait, it's when Pran hugs Pat on the rooftop with the swell of the music that does it 😭😭😭

I have no words. Just incredible.

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

Fortuna's fanfics Master List

Looks like I unlocked the achievement of needing to have a fanfics master list, so here we go:

🐾 Miraculous Ladybug 🐞

Sacré-Coeur, 19h Jeudis: Established Ladynoir, no identities known. Fear of losing each other. A bit angsty, but also fluffy.

A Miraculous Christmas: Pre-reveal pre-relationship Adrinette Christmas fluff with light tones of angst. Secret Santa gift for my pal from the Gamma Squad :)

Ten Seconds to Midnight: Shadow Moth has won. Minutes before he destroys the world, still unaware of each other's identities, Marinette and Adrien bid farewell to their partner. Super heavy angst.

Dark Mantra: This one is even darker than Ten Seconds to Midnight. Adrien faces his dark thoughts (tw: suicidal thoughts) but it all ends kind of well. Read with caution.

Falling out of love with you: Maribug tries to get over Adrien for the sake of Paris. The one person she finds to help her through this is Chat Noir. Angst but also frustration of seeing the two blorbos help each other get over each other while falling more for each other in the process.

a lifetime of a second: Completing S5E4 Jubilation from Chat Noir's point of view. What happens after he is hit by the Jubilation magic. Ladynoir angst. Season 5 spoilers.

Hanging by a Thread: Marinette's POV of the Marichat events and near akumatisation in S5E9 Elation. Season 5 spoilers.

Mauve, Magenta, and Black: Me imagining what might happen where S5E22 left off. Ladynoir and love square schenanigans.

A Duty to Love: S5E10 Transmission fix-it where Marinette and Adrien think about their superhero partner before giving up on their miraculous and meet for one last time.

Waltzing in Squares: 2022 xmas and new year's fluff fic. Marinette, Adrien, Ladybug, Chat Noir are invited to the Christmas Charity Ball at Le Grand Paris. Identity schenanigans, infinite mutual pining, and lots of waltz ensue. Fairy tale dance tropes with a Miraculous twist. (on hiatus)

Miraculous Fanscripts (ongoing multipart)

This is where I try my hand at writing the full script of some fan-made episodes, set in season 4. It basically focuses on the Ladynoir tension and Marinette's Chat Blanc trauma, while ignoring other plotlines like Felix and Luka knows™️.

Like the real episodes, these can mostly be enjoyed independently, but it would be much more fun if you read them in order.

Dramaturge: a fangirl of the in-universe Ladybug and Chat Noir movie gets fed up with a cliffhanger and gets akumatised. Crack humour and Chat Blanc angst wrapped in one fic.

Skin Crawler: Alya is kidnapped by an akuma and LB and CN must save her asap because, well, as Chat learns, Alya knows LB's real identity. may or may not include a Miraculous renouncement

Hard Broken: Adrien is finally akumatised (they did it, they broke him, or did they?)

Collector 2.0: when Gabriel is akumatised (smh), Ladybug has no choice but to trust the Cat Miraculous to... Adrien Agreste. Oblivious Adrinette lovers, this one's especially for you.

Sound Biter: As Adrien learns that his father is none other than his nemesis, things start to get complicated in the Agreste household. Quality family angst, Adrienette being the best power duo, and Ladrien revelations, all in this episode. Did anyone say identity reveal?

Metamorphosis: FINALLY Ladynoir is back in the game, and they are stronger than ever (right?..). Marinette copes with learning that Chat Noir is Adrien, Adrien finds bliss in being able to be Chatdrien next to his Lady.

✨She-Ra and the Princesses of Power🔮

Yeah ok so, those were the days and I wrote some SPOP stuff. I don't do that anymore and I don't intend to pick it up any time soon. But I still quite like some stuff in there so I'd though I'd add them to the list, given that it is a Master list.

Adrift in Space and Time: Glimbow tensions and shipping after Glimmer's rescue, on the way back to Etheria. Filling the canon with my imagination type of thing.

Shipping the Prisoners: Post-Princess Prom, Glimbow's epic fight to escape the Horde. Scorpia POV. Again, me interpreting the missing scenes in the canon.

A Hand for Peace: Royal Medieval AU Glimbow.

For a Thousand Kisses: Post-war Glimbow discuss their relationship during a sunset beach walk.

[ladyhindsight]

I feel that book stans who say "Jace and Clary were not ACTUALLY related!" miss the point completely.

Let's say I was told that a guy I just met and got a crush on is actually my brother. First of all, my crush would instantly disappear. Second, even when it turns out that he's not actually my brother, my memory of him woul be tainted: on a romantic level I would always associate him with that sense of repulsion and wrongness.

Clary and Jace never feel repulsion. And any thought of wrongness simply vanishes as soon as they discover they're not related.

Are we meant to believe that "deep down, on a biological level, Clary and Jace knew they were not related! they felt they were made for each other, even when the world told them the opposite!" (actual quote from a book stan).

Like, no? Biology is not a super power? Clary's genes aren't telling her "hell no this guy is a complete stranger! word!"

Clare and her stans go on and on about how tormented Clace's love story is, how torn they are between doing what's right and doing what's pleasurable (which, again, 🤮🤮🤮 I could never associate pleasure with someone I suspect might be related to me). But in the books it never feels that way.

There's angst, sure. But they never hesitate to kiss and get all over each other anyway. So the angst is just empty and used to fill page space smh.

And the people around them? Who are supposed to talk some sense into them? And try to separate them? Do absolutely nothing?

I know that Clare grew up an only child, so I can understand having an interest in exploring siblings dynamics.

But there's a big difference between that and an incest fetish, which she definitely has (only book stans could argue otherwise).

Years ago, when TDA was in the works, she mentioned having an autistic step-brother, which I think she acquired in adult age.

1) Thinking about that makes me hate her portrayal of an autistic character even more (Ty not liking to look people in the eye but magically being able to do so with Kit because LoVe; Julian being such a martyr and a saint for taking care of someone affect by the Terrible Disease That Is Autism; Ty being obsessed with Sherlock Holmes (incidentally Cumberbatch's Sherlock - who was heavily coded as autistic - was at the peak of its popularity at the time... what a coincidence) and computers (because an autistic person has to have something going on for them, right? They have to be good with numbers!); Ty being very childish, pranking and laughing at Mark, when every autistic person I know - me included - gets SO uncomfortable anytime someone is made fun of (because that's something that happens to US all the time, and autistic people can have empathy and compassion and sympathy for other people, Cassandra);

2) Not even having a step-sibling made her reconsider her fetish.

And ok, fine, she has a fetish and wants to write about it in her series for teenagers? It's her right. I hate it, but it's her right.

But damn, the way the fandom goes about it does make me worry.

And I don't mean people writing fanfics; again, that's their right (some do it to cope with past trauma, too, so I can't judge).

It's the people writing huge rants about how the concept of "relatives" is a construct, and "all non-human animals have no qualms about it" and "as long as two people are consenting adults there's nothing wrong with it".

These people feel nothing but validation when the only people criticizing incest in Clare's books are the vapid, insufferable villains.

Big time. Clary’s leaps in intuition, knowing Jace was meant for her and being with Sebastian was something inherently wrong, just serve this narrative that it didn’t matter that they believed to be related to each other because deep down they knew.

No. Just no. No one reacts to this situation realistically. Clary shows repulsion once the truth has been revealed to her by Jocelyn, but until then she just pines after Jace like there is no factors present to do exactly the opposite.

It was a tormented love story in a sense that it was very torturous to read. Theirs is not an obstacle people can relate with. Their choice between right and pleasure doesn’t come off as that when the narrative gives them every opportunity to choose the latter.

Clary and Jace are free to drool over each other because the people around them don’t care. They don’t talk about it, they don’t express any feelings about it, nothing. Isabelle is bordering on accepting it, Simon doesn’t care because he can see how much it hurts Jace to love Clary. Alec is barely even present when it comes to this subject. So how exactly is their chances of being together been hindered by this when no one gives two shits about it?

Clare wants to represent autistic people with Ty but at the same time fails to create a character consistent to a disorder he has. It’s also noteworthy that Ty’s character was more so utilized to show how amazing and all-giving Julian is.

Over and over again Clare only exemplifies more how little she understands siblinghood. Jace and Clary are truly the beacon to it all. And yeah, everyone has a right to write what they want, but it’s a bit alarming that the valid criticism people have given to the Clace plot line is dismissed as hate and people just not understanding such complicated love story. And then we have Sebastian and Zara who are the only ones to actually say anything about it, but the way they are written rather implies that readers are supposed to side with Clary and Jace, and that Sebastian and Zara are just big meanies.

People still don’t seem to understand the difference between portraying and fetishizing.

[sohma-stan]

Episode 21 Reaction

There’s so much to talk about this episode!

Yuki’s true feelings are finally revealed!

First, can we just appreciate the bby zodiacs 🥰

Look at poor Kureno lmao

There were also just some really cool and depressing shots of Yuki. They really did a good job making you feel Yuki’s loneliness & isolation.

This scene just hit me a lot harder than the manga in certain ways. Like the harsh interaction between them has always been a memorable moment in the manga to me, but what really stood out here is that Yuki not only felt bad for Kyo, but was probably thinking “oh this kids alone just like me maybe we can be friends and be not alone anymore” 😭😭😭

Just Kyo smiling before things get even worse.

I just thought this sequence was beautiful and tragic. Just everything I wanted from this. Kyo obviously has his own trauma, but the fact that Kyo has some of these things Yuki desperately wants just slapped me in the face all over again.

This scene caused me to be the angriest with Akito I think I’ve ever been. The way he’s just casually (or maliciously tbh) talking about death and suicide while juggling hackysacks I cannot.

The way the anime showed him running and stopping and waiting for her to follow and then his bby rat tears UGHH MY HEART 😭😭😭

“oh wait maybe we shouldn’t scold and abuse this kid rn seems like he could be dying” smh

CAN THEY JUST BE FRIENDS???? HE JUST WANTED TO BE FRIENDS 😭😭😭

One of my issues with this episode is that it kind of sucks to break up the flow of this whole thing between Yuki and Kakeru. I feel like moments between them aren’t going to hit as hard because their interactions around the confession are broken up into 3 different episodes, but I mean what can you do 🤷🏼‍♀️ I also think something about the “like a mother” line didn’t hit quite hard enough for me. To me it just sounded like Tohru’s character is motherly rather than the big reveal that Yuki really sees her as having filled that void in his life of needing a parent’s love. I think it might have been better to skip the internal dialogue and just have the line be “She accepted me time and time again just like a real mother”. But of course that’s just me!

And if we weren’t already excited for next week (one of my top 3 favorite Yuki lines is coming!!) the VA delivery of next’s week’s episode title has me extra hyped haha

[spnwatch]

Season 2: The Rankings

Whew. Oh boy.

They were still puttering about in season 1 to an extent. But now? Now they’ve really hit their stride. This season was a veritable chocolate box of delights and I ate my way through it. The overall myth arc was kind of nonsensical, but that emotional throughline? Christ. Spn buries SO MUCH emotional complexity into its leads, and they cashed in every cent in that two part finale. It packs one hell of a punch. And yeah, okay, I knew the broad strokes, the twists and turns. It’s hard not to be spoilered for a season of tv that aired over a decade ago. But reader! It mattered not!! I. Still. Wept. That’s when you know it’s the good kush.  1.) 2x12: NIGHTSHIFTER. This one just snagged the top spot by merit of its sheer ambition. Supernatural often feels like a very empty universe to me, just two guys and one car drifting from place to place. Which is fine, it makes for compelling TV, but they totally flipped the script here and this episode really dazzles precisely because of that contrast. It’s a huge, cinematic episode, a metropolitan setting full of uncontrollable elements, and it’s great to see Sam and Dean so profoundly vulnerable. The outside world is pressing up against the windows. They have sniper dots trained on them! They are, literally and figuratively, out of their depth! We’re not in Kansas any more, baby. God, I haven’t even mentioned the supporting characters. The entire mandroid rant deserves an Emmy. Victor Henrickson’s entrance! Heist movie antics! Agh!  10/10  

2.) 2x07: THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Again this episode was a cut above precisely because it showed us what the brothers look like from the outside: sketchy as all hell. It’s so good when reality ensures, because it’s great to be reminded they lead objectively insane lives! Through Linda Blair’s eyes we get to see just how unknowable, feral and amoral they appear to the eyes of polite society. Put under a microscope like this, they’re scary guys! They’re just not socialised like normal people. They don’t really care about being arrested, or about the felonies. Getting arrested is an irritant above everything else. They’re still working the case from the inside. They’re professionals; excellent liars, and totally in sync with each other. The handwritten notes they pass, like delinquent school kids! A delight! The thrill lies in watching Blair slowly unwrap their strange logic, and unravel the mystery of both the brothers and the ghost. Ugh, what a great perspective shift. I’m 100% here for it. 10/10 

 3.) 2x09: CROATOAN. Ugh, this setting. Small Town Gothic, complete with eerie mist, hostile locals and creepy Stepford vibes. Sam really shone in this episode. He’s so soothing and giant, and it made his suffering at the end all the more devastaing. The real reason this episode ranks so highly is their conversation in the surgery. It just killed me. Dean’s sheer, bone-deep exhaustion, his admission that he’s tired of the life. Sam’s despair, because he knows Dean won’t leave. The performances were so steller. I can’t even really think too deeply about it because it makes me too crazy. 10/10  

 4.) 2x21: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE: PART ONE. I loved this finale so much more than the finale in Season 1, LOL. It might just be because I’m more invested now, who knows. The opening of this episode is a piece of art: Boston playing on the car stereo, the rain, the small cafe, the lighting. Gorgeous. I love when they have to interact with ordinary people! It adds so much: texture, humour, personality! It draws things out of Sam and Dean that we just don’t see when they have each other to bounce off of. It was so good to see Ava and Andy again. “I just woke up in freakin’ Frontierland!” The gang’s all here, folks! This episode would rank higher, but recieves minus points for the long boring speech the demon gives Sam, and killing off the first gay in the show 0.2 seconds after her introduction. Anyway. The ending of course unzipped me; Dean cradling Sam’s dead body, muttering “It’s okay, it’s not even that bad.” The elation of their reunion, so devastaingly cut short! Sam, twenty two years old, bleeding out in the mud. The sheer, hopelessness of it all. The horror. My notes for the end of the episode simply read: “Dean oh Christ. Oh my God. Oh no.” It’s just one of those scenes that stay with you long after the credits start rolling. 9/10   

5.) 2x20: WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE. I never thought I could be so profoundly upset by watching a man happily mowing a lawn. Dean’s trauma over the loss of his mother has undercut the whole show up until this point, and here it bursts to the fore. What really got me was the simplicity of it all. Just a sit-down dinner, an engagement. A beer on the porch. Fuck, he deserves it. He deserves everything. All the performances were great, they really served to show there’s a whole life in these AU characters. The fact it wasn’t all perfect was bizarrely more devastating. AU Sam’s weird straight hair and dorky jacket sealed the deal for me, as did his baffled terror in the warehouse. But even here, with no training and no idea what’s happening, he gets into the Impala! Because that’s his brother! Because I’m a huge baby I had to remove points because of how upsetting I found Sam’s quiet hostility towards Dean, HA. But that’s really just a testament to how well-realised their dynamic has become by the second season. 9/10  

 6.) 2x15: TALL TALES. Every single thing Sam does in any of Dean’s memories. Also alien slowdance set to “Lady in Red.” Also Bobby breaking them up like they’re petulant children. Gold, all of it gold. 9/10 

 7.)  2x11: PLAYTHINGS. So I’m a slut for a cool setting, obviously. Turns out, Supernatural did The Haunting of Bly Manor fifteen years ago. The swimming pool! The attic! Creepy dolls! The weird little playground! This episode has it all! I loved the saga between the ghost sister and the old lady, which would honestly make a killer movie in its own right. But I’m digressing. The main star of this episode was, of course, Dean’s profound and escalating sexual insecurities. “Well, you are kinda butch. People probably think you’re overcompensating.” FATALITY. I would’ve placed this one higher but the weird incestuous undertones kinda squicked me out... however, I did think we were meant to be creeped out by it, which is more than I can say for some other uh. Instances. It was, after all, beautifully paralelled at the end with the two sisters reuniting in death. “I can’t leave here, and you can’t leave me.” SHUDDER. Also, honestly, can Sam have one (1) breakdown on his own without Dean’s own emotional baggage taking over? Older siblings, smh. 9/10

8.) 2x22: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE: PART TWO. This one ranks lower than part one purely because I thought the yellow-eyed demon’s overall plot was kinda nonsensical, and I cared not for John’s weird deux ex machina moment. Like do you expect me to feel sorry for that bitch? I don’t! Anyway, that being said, let’s move on to Dean’s eyes in the junkyard when Bobby asks him, “do you have that low an opinion of yourself?” They’re so flat. So dead, like a shark’s. He doesn’t need to say anything back, because it’s all over his face. That non-expression says it all. This is the culmination of the emotional arc that began with his savage beatdown of the Impala in episode 2x02. To call it survivor’s guilt wouldn’t even begin to cover what Dean goes through this episode. It’s all in Ackles’ performance; in the the way he yells, “What am I supposed to do now, Sammy?” The complete claustrophobia of it all. There’s nothing for it but to make the deal. Dean’s been moving inexorably towards this moment for the entire season. 9/10   

 9.) 2x13: HOUSES OF THE HOLY. What a kooky little episode! Magic fingers! Sam’s costcutter seance purchases! The scooby-doo placemat he uses as a makeshift altar! I love him, your honour. Obviously this episode has a lot of *~dramatic irony~* in it because of the later seasons, but it stands alone as a total banger. I was so gutted for Sam when the "angel” was revealed. So many good little Sam moments to be found in this episode. His soft, quiet little revelation that he prays every day. His awkward, earnest explanation to the horrified priest! Dean gets some great moments chasing down the would-be rapist down those dark, snow-covered streets. His speech to Sam where he explains his lack of belief is brief, but it’s a total gut punch. Rounding it off with Knockin on Heaven’s Door was just the cherry on top. 9/10 

 10.) 2x14: BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN. Ahaha I love the way Dean acts whenever Sam’s psychic powers come up. He treats him like a rebellious teen, it’s so funny. “What’s going on with you, Sam? Smokin’, drinkin’?” As if Sam’s behaviour was a) at all under his control or b) anything Dean wouldn’t HIMSELF do. Dean’s just like, this isn’t how I raised you! Truly hysterical. The whole sequence between Meg!Sam and Jo was fantastic and horrible. Sam’s huge physique is never threatening, but it really was in that moment. The interplay between them was totally spine-tingling. Meg’s impression Sam slowly crumbling away over the course of the episode was so compelling and I’m sure it will be a really fun rewatch now I know the *twist*. 9/10  

Favourite lines this season: 

The way Sam says “black cat’s bone” in 2x08

“You’re not gonna go kill somebody because a ghost told you to, are you insane?!” - Dean, 2x13

“Dean, this is a very serious investigation, we don’t have time for your blah blah blah blah.” - Sam (according to Dean), 2x15

“I’m fine, except for every single thing that’s happening.” - Ava, 2x21 

[heathneycanon]

okay, having almost finished roti i can say i was definitely too harsh on it when i watched it the first time. i was mad they replaced the old cast, and plus, i hadn’t experienced the atrocity that was all stars yet, so i didn’t know true pain. i’d rank it a solid third out of all the seasons, behind world tour and island. more thoughts under the cut.

two characters who i didn’t love the first time around, but was absolutely rooting for this time were dakota and lightning. they deserved better!! i wish dakota at least, i don’t know, sued chris or something. and lightning deserved to win!! in my mind, his ending is canon. cameron absolutely floated, and maybe it’s just that i find him kinda uninteresting and annoying, but i wish he hadn’t made it to the finale. i would’ve much preferred jo vs lightning or something.

also, watching lightning’s ending after watching cam’s is really sad? like, the only person who was rooting for him to win, really, was jo, and that was because she expected a cut of his money lmao. everyone was so excited for cameron, but where was that energy for lightning?? like the dude wasn’t even bad!! he had a thing against cameron because he won a challenge by latching onto lightning, which lightning felt was a win that he deserved. and he didn’t like brick because jo lead him to believe that he was going to work against them. he was a little rude to sam, but not in like, a malicious way? other people like scott were far worse to him. and he didn’t like jo, but he had real reasons for that. he wasn’t a mean guy, he just really wanted to win!! and that’s not even getting into the parental pressure we see in the last episode. the roti characters are just way too judgy smh.

beyond that, i feel pretty bad for scott, too. when he was in the trauma chair and seriously injured and chris said “but who cares? it’s scott!” and literally everyone laughed? fucked up man. like yea, the dude was a dick, but seriously? he should sue chris too.

also lmao i used to really like dawn, but i’m realizing i liked her for all the wrong reasons. like yea, she’s got a cool design and she’s based off of luna lovegood who i love, but she was also pretty smart, and pretty petty. she figured scott out, and she waited until after she was eliminated to reveal that?? and she literally monologued long enough that chris dragged her off before she could reveal it like girl that is so unnecessarily dramatic lmfao. she could’ve been such a good character if they’d brought her back in another season and given her a chance to actually strategize.

zoey and mike... sigh. i really, really want to like them. zoey especially. i love her concept, and i love some of the ideas they ended up using, but as a whole? nope. they frame her as this nice, sweet girl, and yet she’s super super judgemental?? i really wish they’d let her realize that maybe, a part of the reason it’s hard for her to make friends is because she’s shutting out a lot of people she could potentially get along with because they’re “weird”, which is something she says she likes! like if they’d let her realize that, that would’ve been a much better storyline for her than what they ended up with!! also she would’ve had positive interactions with characters other than mike and cameron and brick lmaoo. honestly, i’d be here for more zoey and brick friendship, too.

and MIKE. again, i wish he was written better! i especially wish his DID was written better, but we all know that respectful portrayal of mental illness is not fresh’s strong suit. i also really wish mike had had a little more depth. i like the dude, but he’s prettyy bland, alters aside.

don’t really have much else to say about the rest of the characters. i like jo, brick, anne maria, and sam a lot. i hope brick goes to fashion school, he deserves it. staci is super annoying, but that’s not news. b is the most “meh” character to me. all in all, this season was super fun to watch, but i would also like to see courtney become a lawyer and help the contestants sue the pants off of chris. total drama season 7: chris gets taken to court. coming 2022.

[bookish-black-girl]

Hmm so Legendborn? Let’s review:

Y’all, I haven’t had a 5 star review since January??? I think?? It’s been so. Long. I’m so, so, so happy I was picked for the Hear Our Voices Book Tour because I want to scream to the rooftops about. This. Book. AHHHHHHHHH! 

I was a straight UP goober and didn’t take notes while reading, didn’t use my book stickers, and didn't do a liveblog soooo this is all going to be from the top of my head (plus furiously flipping through pages to jog my memory.)

Disclaimer #1 I received a finished copy of the book and it in no way impacted my thoughts or opinions

Disclaimer #2 I had no prior knowledge/interest in Arthurian lore but Tracy Deonn writes in such a way that it's still easy to understand the setting and the world at large.  "Now, on with the review!"

Briana "Bree" Matthews is a Black girl from the south still reeling from her mother's death and we enter her story as she attends the Early College program at UNC with her childhood best friend. Within the first seven-ish chapters we're ushered into this world of magic and demons and Bree's quest to disprove that her mother's car accident wasn't really an "accident". 

Grief, Trauma, and (Black) Mental Health

I read the Author's Note before diving into this read, and Deonn writes about losing her own mother and how that grief and trauma manifested itself in her life. This book is just as much a labor of love as it is one of healing, and I feel like Bree's character and her hardships carry that essence. I love that therapy is normalized and I love that it's Bree's dad, a Black man, who supports her and pushes for Bree to get help (even if she accepts at first for ulterior motives.)

I'm a BIG advocate for Black folks getting counseling as it's something that really saved me in college, and I hope it's more accessible for everyone sooner rather than later.

Grief isn't a one size fits all type deal, and there were many things brought to my attention as I read. I'd love to see more books that delve into this subject matter in fiction, especially so we can continue to destigmatize it. Bree is angry, but that anger doesn't just materialized from thin air, and I'd argue that everything she feels as she grows and heals and moves forward in this story is valid.

Love in Different Forms

romantic 

Oooh chile, I loooove me a good romance, but I wasn't expecting to get one given the premise of this book. (I also didn't read the blurb and went in completely blind. So.)

Guys, I think Nick Davis has earned a place on my "bookish boyfriends" list and lemme tell you why. Yes he's got the heroic, dashing, hulking, and make-everyone-swoon thing happening, but there's this one part I'd like to draw everyone's attention to on page 214:

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or maybe 16 year-old-me is still camping out in my heart and being reminded of why I devour romance novels like I do, especially when the protagonist looks like me. It's reaffirming to see Black girls loved, sought after, cherished and adored for being nothing but themselves. Even before this point, Nick makes his affection and attraction clear, and it only deepens as the story progresses and the going gets hella tough. SURE Bree is later revealed to be King Arthur's descendant and Nick Sir Lancelot, but I'd like to believe that the connection shared is much more than a king-knight relationship, smh, let me have this ish, okay??

There were some doubts creeping in that this series might involve a love triangle complex and after reviewing all the facts: 

Bree finds Sel, the Kingsmage, attractive, 

Sel comments on Bree's looks in a positive, attraction-adjacent way once they're on better terms

Sel does still care for--love-- Nick romantically even if it's unrequited, 

There's a hinted connection/bond between Sel and Bree that (I think) is to be explored in future books 

on top of the fact that their mothers were dear friends...

I've determined endgame has gotta be Bree-Nick and I won't be led to believe otherwise.

familial (and friendly)

Between Bree and her mother, her parents, Bree and her father, Bree and her grandmother, Bree and Alice, Nick and his mother, Sel and his mother...the love their is heartwarming as it is heartbreaking. Nick, Brie, and Sel all had their mother's taken from them in different but no less painful ways. I honestly didn't think about it until I sat down to write this review, and it's hitting me like a ton of bricks.

Racial Micro and Macroagressions, and Gaslighting

Oof...I read this book in three days, and it left me exhilarated but raw. In infiltrating the Order in her quest for answers about her mom, Bree had to navigate a very white space as a Black woman and it's hard not to recall my own dealings with racism in all it's ugly forms and not be angry for and with Bree. White people who will smile in your face and be nice and later turn around and show their true colors. White woman who are so against misogyny and so for equal treatment but are gate keepers towards any woman who isn't cis or white. White men in positions of power who don't hold back their prejudice or deeply rooted, backwards thinking and see a troublemaker, someone unfit, someone worthless just because of their skin color. White men who don't think Back woman are capable and smart and can hold their own.

All those times in my life where I've brushed off experiences and tried to minimize the hurt or confusion when I was justified to feel outrage and disgust and anger.

The police officer who gives Bree and her friend Alice a ride after getting busted for trespassing

the dean who underestimates and demeans Bree's intelligence

the other pages, squires, and scions who only see Bree as Black and deem her lesser than in their speech, their behavior towards her, etc etc

the friggin parents (Karens) who literally attempt physically harm Bree when she accepts Nick's Squire offer and accuse her of "stealing" the opportunity among other much more insulting words

Lord Davis aka Nick's dad who outright spells out that Bree isn’t fit to be Squire and threatens her just because she's Black and female

and these are just the events that came to mind. 

Reparations Denied and the Strength of Black Women

It's exhausting being a Black woman, and if you add the history of trauma and rape and abuse and other atrocities committed against Black woman (something Deonn confronts head-on in Legendborn) it's no wonder why the Strong Black Woman stereotype came to be. We didn't ask for this, we're just trying to survive and use the tools passed on from our ancestors.

There are a couple mysteries in this book, many are related, but aside from the truth of Bree's mom's death, the other big mystery is what exactly is Bree. Her late mother practices rootcraft, which differs from the bloodcraft in that one borrows magic and the other takes (...colonization anyone?? anyone??) and yet she possesses both on TOP of being a descendant of King Arthur and being Called (awakened) by the end of the book. The answer? Simple but no less devastating. Bree is the byproduct of what a lot of Black Americans are, the babies of Black women raped by White slave owners. Bree's descendant, Vera, in a desperate attempt to save her unborn child makes a promise bound in blood that's past down to each daughter but comes with a high price. It's this love and desperation that is woven into Bree's history, her present, and echoes the reality of real life America.

Recommendations to read next

I usually don’t offer book recs unprompted, but I think fans of Legendborn would enjoy the Nightmare Verse series by L.L McKinney (YA) and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (NA).

[joneswuzhere]

in anticipation of episode 4.14, i watched ‘how to get away with murder’ s1

here’s my thoughts on how rd might be playing out an homage to the show, and on what these parallels might suggest to expect from the whole ‘jughead dies’ plot

below are complete spoilers for ‘how to get away with murder’ s1, a few spoilers for s2 and s3. and also. spoilers for donna tartt’s ‘the secret history.’ cool ok here we go

- first. we’re abbreviating the title to htg

- second. htg’s plot is pretty convoluted and out-of-order, so it’s hard to mention one thing without having to explain four other things. riverdale’s format is so chill in comparison. i apologize for repetition and confusing timeline discussion

- also, maybe u watched this show! or maybe u want to. or maybe ur impatient and just here for riverdale lol. i’m not going to make u scroll through a whole plot summary of htg’s first season. BUT i did write one up here if that’s something u want to read. it will probably make the following easier to understand, but i’ll do my best to make it accessible without that

- third. like i said, my goal here is finding potential parallels and, based on that, speculating on what rd is doing with this plot. i have no conclusions but i do have some thoughts and maybe you do too

- ok the basics of htg:

- this show is the visual inspiration for rd’s flash forward hook, as well as for the murder cover up in the woods.

- the show structure is: a main timeline, intercut occasionally with flash forwards to a murder that happens at the midseason point. similar to rd

- a difference: in rd, the flashes jump to different points over a period of days - burning their clothes, the search party, body identification, then the arrests, the line up, and then back to the ‘death’ scene. in htg, all the flashes jump to different points during one particular night, and only deal with the groups effort to dispose of the body and evidence.

- where was i. oh, but there’s 2 murders in htg. murder #1 happened before the series start point. in the main timeline, the investigation into murder #1 builds up to the midseason climax that results in murder #2 (the one the group is covering up).

- after the timeline has caught up to the midseason murder, then the flash forwards are replaced with flash backs that begin to reveal past details about murder #1.

- so right away, what stands out to me is the possibility that, once the main timeline catches up to whatever happens to jughead in the woods, rd will continue to follow this format. but what would rd flash back to? hang on,

- the genre here is inverted detective story, where instead of finding out someone was killed and following along to find out who did it,, you learn right away who’s doing the murdering and how. the mystery lies in whether they’ll get away with it and/or what led up to that point.

- in htg, murder #1 is a regular mystery, and murder #2 is inverted. in rd, jughead’s death is an inverted mystery, and there’s several other regular mysteries/deaths: chipping’s suspicious suicide, the old generation of the quill & skull society, + the missing kids that jughead and betty are investigating

- so it may transpire that we see flashbacks to those missing students, like moose or the stonewall 5. or maybe context on why chipping jumped, what dupont said to him. or a glimpse into fpj1′s time at stonewall. i’m spitballing

- hm a note on genre here: maybe there’s a conversation to be had about inverted murder mysteries and perfect murders (recall, the theme dupont assigned for the class). like, crime fiction specifically told through the perspective of getting away with it. (a perfect murder is specifically a murder that resists all explanation. no suspects, no evidence)

- ok. the first half of htg s1 is the lead up to the night of murder #2. the second half of the season focuses on how participating in and covering up a murder is affecting the people involved. grief, guilt, anxiety, nightmares. strain and changes in their relationships with each other, friends, and family. again, perhaps we’ll see rd focus on this in a similar way.

- hey btw, does that sound a little familiar to u? it might if you read the secret history. we already know this book is one of the influences behind rd’s s4 plot, but i was surprised at how much overlap is apparent between htg’s plot and the book plot. i made a chart about it lmao. more on that later

- what else fits into a parallel between rd and htg?

- some similarities between characters. htg has a group of law students from privileged backgrounds who are super competitive with each other, similar to the stonewall kids. and there’s the one outsider student who gets into the class last minute, is far less privileged, and who has a tragic past and a head for snooping and investigation.

- there’s a student/teacher affair that gets violent. it goes down pretty much the opposite of in rd; the girl gets pregnant, is totally in love, suggests the affair should be revealed to the teacher’s wife, and then she goes missing and turns up dead (murder #1)

- also, unlike rd where we have only donna’s word, in htg the affair is confirmed, and revealed through a bunch of evidence - dick pics on phones and postmortem pregnancy results, etc

- some other minor details from the show that the rd writers may have reflected upon:

- a window jumper suicide. circumstances very not the same tho

- a blink-and-miss-it scene with a dog named mr. chips, which is the nickname of the film character who rd’s mr. chipping is probably named after (goodbye mr. chips)

- also, ok. the 2 murders story is the show’s long A plot, but each episode also has a short B plot in the form of court cases that annalise and her group of student/interns work on. (btw lead character annalise is a criminal defense lawyer & law professor). details worth mentioning from some of these subplots:

- there’s a case involving cult brainwashing. a former devotee is charged with something terroristic with a bomb she did years ago, idk. annalise has her visit her old cult leader in prison to ask him to help her by testifying that he forced her to participate. this backfires - she falls back under his sway, he escapes custody during the trial, and they run away together, abandoning the family she made after leaving the cult

- in this ep the patty hearst trial is mentioned - the difficulty of trying to legally prove someone acted under duress, or prove they were brainwashed. and how trying to claim both at the same time is a terrible legal defense

- in another case, a woman is charged with murdering her housemaid while sleepwalking. she resists help from annalise bc she feels so guilty. the woman says ‘can u imagine waking up to realize that you killed somebody you loved? that’s what i did.’ except she didn’t; they figure out she was being framed by the real killer, her husband, who was jealous bc he thought he was the only one sleeping with the maid but he found out his teen son was too. yikes

- there is so much cheating in this show smh. anyway,

- these subplots are interesting to compare to rd, but sort of trivial in terms of htg’s overall plot. so what happens in the A plot after murder #2?

- a catch-up if u skipped the plot summary: annalise keating, lawyer, professor, is the central character. she’s direct, takes no shit, and puts up an emotionally impervious wall that keeps almost everyone out. but it’s also apparent from ep1 that she’s really suffering - her marriage is falling apart, she’s cheating and finds out her husband, sam, is too. they agree to repair things and sam seems to be making a big effort, but she keeps catching him in lies that point toward murder #1.

- in the latter half of the season, while she’s helping make sure the kids get away with murder #2 (they accidentally kill sam while pursuing him as the murder suspect), annalise’s grieving process is a focus. there’s an emphasis on her appearance as her armor, guarding her complicated grief over the trauma of her loss and the destruction of her trust. her cold exterior is both a protection and, at the same time, a point of suspicion for police, lawyers, and public who wonder how she can be so unaffected. meanwhile, in private, she has a total breakdown.

- this builds from a parallel that’s played with throughout the season - annalise’s control of her image vs hiding or confronting the truth. like, at one point, it’s evening, she wipes off all her makeup and pulls off her wig, then turns barefaced to her husband and asks him bluntly for the truth, why she caught him in a huge lie. and the flip side, later walking around with her whole look in place, as if nothing is wrong, is part of her effort to cover up the murder.

- i bring this up bc it reminds me of something that (the brilliant, the illuminating) @bettycooperoutfitwatch​ talked about in her 4.05 post, regarding That Sweater.

- in this post, at the flash forward arrest scene, she points out ‘it’s betty cooper in disguise as betty cooper.’ which, like. i’m floored by this observation

- the persona betty originally created to conform to her parents’ unattainable expectations of perfection and normality, now (not for the first time) dialed up and re-purposed to try to disperse suspicion???? love this

- annalise and betty are very Not alike as characters. but it seems that betty, like annalise, will be involved in the murder of her loved one. i’m interested to see if rd will follow htg’s emphasis on emotional turmoil and pretense in the aftermath of trying to get away with something horrible

- oh but that reminds me, i promised a chart

- i haven’t read the secret history and i have no desire to, but i foraged enough details to be able to point out some bare bones similarities going on here. it’s important to include this bc, at the moment, it complicates any attempt to figure out which, if either, inverted murder plot rd might be paralleling at any time.

- in other words, all my speculations here about htg parallels might be worthless bc i might be looking at the wrong text. it’s cool, i think that makes it more fun

- book spoilers in here. sorry it’s small, u can try to zoom in here

- please feel free to jump in with corrections or more details if you’ve read the book

- [update as of 2/25: i’m reading the fuckin book after all, so i may make another post with an updated chart at some point. maybe]

- last thing. in htg, the inverted mystery (whether or not the kids get away with it) is resolved by annalise planting evidence that frames someone else (whom she chooses bc she’s confident she can get him safely out of the charges). the bottom line there is: someone innocent is framed for murder #2.

- and then a new development - one kid involved in murder #2 freaks out and may decide to turn the others in - leads to a 3rd death. hm (post s4 update: that’s jonathan i guess)

- actually no, the real last thing. wikipedia says there’s a subplot in htg s2 that involves blackmailing annalise and others with uhhhh creepy surveillance videos of them, some that incriminate them in murder #2.

- and then, in s3, drawn out over another series of flash forwards, there’s a character death reveal... of the guy who’s most in parallel to jughead.... lmao. and speak nothing of s6. so like, there’s definitely potential for more or continuing parallels here

- i kind of hope not though, bc i don’t have it in me to watch more of this show. it’s Very high strung, i can’t deal with it (post s4 update: no i never watched any more of this show but yes, that was all definitely used by rd)

- bonus: wait do u want some of my opinions on the actual show?? favorite characters: annalise, bonnie, and oliver. i liked the fast pace but the constant tension stressed me out. also, not enough lesbians; i kept expecting bonnie and annalise to kiss. the guy who plays wes.... not a very good actor, is he? viola davis though: amazing. that’s all. watch if u like stress. sorry i spoiled everything

[quarterette]

Utawarerumono: The False Faces ep 13-25 Liveblog

Gonna just straight up do individual episode comments, since the second half is gonna be denser in content. As with the first half, this is a rewatch and will have spoilers for the games.

Opening Comments: Man there’s not much movement in the animation but its beautiful all the same.

Ep 13:

- *spit take* why are they sending Rulu? IDK if it was because the directors weren’t informed about the whole “baby of the family” detail because I can’t imagine Shis letting this happen

- Interesting how instead being of a secret force that Oshtoru sent, Haku and gang are now the accompanying force to Rulu and Atuy.

- I’ll be pleasantly surprised if Entua makes more sense in the anime than in the games

- oh wow Dekopompo is even worse in the anime, straight-up running off on his own.

Ep 14:

- I like how instead of Atuy catching the arrow the twins have a force field. Granted, it make Atuy even more of a non-entity

- the extreme long shots of the CGI soldiers are really nice. I don’t feel like we see the loss of formations as they come into contact with each other often in war anime

- why are the twins running like that - imo that way too much movement for dainty girls (maybe I’ve watched too much anime)

- wow they totally recontextualized retrieving Shinonon and cut down a lot of potential runtime.

- did they seriously remove Atuy’s bloodlust

- you know open-eyed Ougi is growing on me, him and Nosuri have such lovely eye color

- poor Maroro

Ep 15:

- I’m relieved that the adaptation art makes Raiko look less like Lelouch. Always seemed like lazy design to me, him and Mikazuchi look nothing alike.

- did they introduce the telepaths in MoD? I can’t remember.

- that triple-take of Zeguni dying was just silly. If it were one slice x3 it would have been fine but this... Oshtoru be flexing with that mountain.

- I never really felt calling Witsu an Eva was quite right but with the Akuruturuka.... yeah I see it.

- truly we are in the war arc proper now.

- Heh wouldn’t it have been interesting to have the proxies’ subservience kick in instead of having the twins shield Haku. Oh well missed opportunities. IMO it would have worked well with the accelerated timeline the anime needed to achieve.

- what is with the triple takes this episode

- ah haku wasn’t even able to save them gg

- post episode revisiting the VN comments:

they hint at the telepaths, and as I thought the Vurai razing the city wasn’t in the VN. It was a good showpiece and works with Vurai’s characterization, but messes with Haku’s as a cost - the VN suggests that Haku inherently can be ruthless (he suggests scapegoating Moznu for Anju’s kidnapping, which the anime totally skips over), while it looks like the anime is gonna use this mass destruction as the reason for steeling his heart. I can’t say I hate that the writers chose to have the main characters in the fray, but it definitely requires more suspension of disbelief that everyone got out okay compared to the VN.

- Interestingly we don’t see Oshtoru’s mech form at all. I do like the increased bro scenes between Mikazuchi and Oshtoru

Ep 16:

- Yeah we immediately feel the ripples of that last episode changing Haku’s trajectory... its a logical trajectory but... ugh. I’m not sure how I feel about such a contrary Haku. It wasn’t really a thing in the VN? So frustrating augh. Utawarerumono was never a story big on moralizing about war... and the anime writers aren’t doing a great job adding it in.

- I’m 99% sure they pulled some of Ukon’s lines for comforting Haku here from a conversation they had in the VN waaaayyy back around the gigiri fight, making the scene all the more frustrating. The concepts of powerlessness and loss of life is something that Haku had been introduced to the moment he woke up and had already been working on dealing with. I can’t say its an invalid take that he’d be shook over mass destruction (I mean, most people would) but it’s a sharp deviation from the VN.

- Oh wow they’re totally gonna retool the banquet to deal with haku’s trauma instead of him dealing with his memories of being the LAST OF HIS KIND aren’t they.

- yeah they did

- oh god don’t say the word seduce haku, rulu’s gonna die from blood loss

- lol i don’t remember the twins being tied up

- rulu is dead

- and now haku is dead too. I think only Ougi and Yakutowaruto escaped unscathed.

- this did give me the bro bonding that I had been missing in the show thus far. Not enough drinking scenes! like literally the VN is literally just baths and booze between the action lol

Ep 17:

- ah finally the flashback episode. lol all the crunchyroll comments are like “watch the first season”.

- haku calling his new buddies family... oof mito’s knowing gaze makes it all the much sadder

- Haku:”did you need to go that far” Mito: “lemme do it again with Tuskuru”

- hah “reposition your camera” nice, easy way to not show his face

- heh stares at your sister-in-law’s butt, that’s actually a pretty subtle hint without adapting any of the monologue from the VN that he kinda had feelings for her

- damn this is probably the most complete vision of the future we get in any medium

- hey to be fair the ameterasu blast was mutsumi and not exactly a product of mankind fighting each other - but it does go to show just how little Mito knew about what was actually going down

- to continue with my frustration, we see that haku is called out by his bro that he has a habit of “conceal don’t feel” so it makes his emo bit last episode even more jarring - though in hindsight I guess his depression comes less out of the blue for his friends now - its just that the reason is misattributed

- oof “make up for lost time”

- ooh I like the final scene with Woshis as the delegate to Tuskuru. The VN did fine without it but man what a cliffie for those watching the first time.

Ep 18:

- oof we’re not going to have any shinonon/kiwru antics are we

- man I can’t wait to see Benawi - he was my favorite chara in Uta1 after Touka

- wow they really did just ignore the fact that Kiwru is the prince of Ennakamuy and cut him out of the party

- dugh never mind I don’t like ougi’s open eyes here

- speaking of ougi they totally glossed over his role as reconnaissance

- and have they even mentioned that nosuri is trying to retake their clan’s name?

- cocopo still best bird

Ep 19:

- of course you’ll be sweaty haku, boro boro only wears that brown undershirt in tuskur smh

- i love how all of the dads we see dote on their daughters so much

- of course only now do they mention the fact that atuy and haku are drinking buddies and we just have to take it at face value

- actually seeing those sailor uniforms in action make atuy’s regret that much funnier, the stills don’t quite do it justice (though really, it’s the sound effects carrying the team)

- lol the background soyankekur antics are great

- cocopooooo noooo damn this romance with mukkur is great

Ep 20:

- huhu woshis was allowed down to the underground garden huh

- benawiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

- dang they didn’t use the hot air balloon ;-; so disappointing like if they do it this way they won’t even get to retake the supplies ;-;

- i guess its a good way to hint at kuon’s identity

- something is wrong with kurou’s face

- also where the fuck is nosuri - i know kiwru is a lost cause for this show but nosuri too? they really are trying to wipe out the tactics seen in the VN

- i do think the line about kurou’s line to kuon about “ripping the country in half” is nice - can’t remember if it was in the VN but at this point most of the good lines seem to be coming out of the VN

- ugh the twins are such a cop out, still think they should have went with the hot air balloon strategy

- we hardly knew ye mito

Ep 21:

- dang I’m pleasantly surprised by these CG soldiers

- bye bye munechika, still salty you can’t turn into a mech

- oof “I’m sure my mom was someone like you” this show lives and breathes on dramatic irony

- bye bye anju, what was the point of actually having oshtoru there when the tea was delivered? makes him seem more incompetent than he is, though entua was nowhere to be seen - imo for the best

- oshtoru, an honorable man through and through, giving up your mask, lowkey too honorable for your own good

- okay one of my favorite things is how regularly dekopompo is ignored during the generals’ council meetings; overlapping voices isn’t really a thing in the VNs due to its nature as a written medium first and foremost

- oh interesting Oshtoru’s men are coming to defend him that’s new

- oh no torture time ;-;

- post episode VN notes: ugh they also dropped the Woshis power grab of locking Dekopompo and Raiko outside of the gates

Ep 22:

- Yes go be a dad Yakuto and stop Nekone from doing stupid shit please oh please oh please

- Man they are seriously retooling oshtoru’s downfall aren’t they - wish it didn’t come off so crudely planned. Like, y’all know Oshtoru is loved by the people, did the generals not think some sort of rioting would happen if you let that info go public? Granted the original plot of having Entua sneak the info out is pretty contrived... but at least it better preserves the perceived competency of the generals by forcing a smaller timeframe in which everything goes down.

- man people watching this will be so confused next season when they realize Kiwru is a prince

- wut Kuon you should know you probably won’t be able to get info to the princesses once y’all leave. Good that Shinonon is going on ahead to Ennakamuy though.

- eh are they’re gonna try leaving by sea this time? even though Ennakamuy is in the mountains?

- secret tunnel ~ ♫

- aw no Evenkuruga reveal for Nosuri and Ougi. Though, I guess the anime never established that their base was in the Hakuorokaku basement...

- you know, since they just generalized the jamming barrier it’s kinda nice to see that the gang had to sneak in the hard way. IMO that’s one of the “game design justifies the plot” moments - the VN tries to keep everyone together so you can have all your unit options when fighting, but let’s be honest smaller strike teams work at times.

- oh hi Honoka, you’re not arrested here? guess not.

- oh god have they been translating Atuy’s “onii-san”s as “mister” this whole time? I can’t say that “love” was a better translation but that’s just tragic

- I wish we got more hints that haku actually has been doing some training (aka the SRPG parts of the game) rather than these random moments of competency and knocking out the guards.

- good god oshtoru your honorableness is gonna be the death of you. how can you trust Vurai. Seriously idk how it’s gonna turn out here, but Vurai literally wants to see Anju dead in the VN.

- ok i lie splitting the party was a terrible idea. they are taking way too long to convince oshtoru to take a stand. these men are way too stubborn. jk its fine

- whelp there goes the boat

- aw yeh Yakutowaruto lets go

Ep 23:

- Yakutowaruto continues to be a badass

- ugh and of course Oshtoru gets hurt, and he’s not gonna tell anyone

- ok I’m enjoying how acrobatic these twins are

- the plot change ripples continue to be seen; there’s no distractions at the gates since dekopompo is inside the gates. Raiko’s strategy stuff does make for good tension tho.

- ugh the fact that Soyankekuru is in the capital is gonna complicate things. The moment Atuy is seen to defect he’s screwed. That’s gonna change the timeframe of things second half.

- lol Kuon god powers time, hope there weren’t too many casualties. Poor Nosuri now has two sacks of people to deal with...

- ok I feel like I’m seeing more poor art quality this episode

- wow it seems that everyone’s on board for some arson today

- bruh don’t take him through the sewers Oshtoru’s wound’s gonna get infected

- oh god who thought it was a good idea to give Rulu a blade.

- Cocopo best bird. Period. MVP.

- Soyankekuru, what a guy.

Ep 24:

- ooh mech fight in the city? oh nvm its just a sword fight. a sword fight between two beasts. thank god vurai ain’t that dumb

- wait they said there was a barrier in the palace, but i don’t think there was a barrier for the outer walls? why the frick didn’t the twins just teleport out for the last bit? they were pretty close to the gates... unless they needed the gates open anyways?

- vurai? not dumb? scratch that, good god do y’all not care about the safety of the people? guess not cuz it’s MECH FIGHT TIME (ok, if we’re honest oshtoru’s the one who initiated so yes he’s equally dumb)

- water vs fire, groudon vs kyogre, this is what animation is all about YASSS

- the twins’ shield is too OP

- haku please stop indulging Nekone

- will the twins actually be able to seal Vurai? they were kind of trash at doing their job in the VN (though they did have the good excuse of being exhausted for this particular instance)

- ok that nekone running sequence is jank

- damn haku blocked that punch? oh no he’s on fire

- looking like nekone’s “it was my fault” is gonna be part of a cascade of setbacks rather than the final blow. I’m kinda glad - the VN’s take was probably the most exasperating part of the whole story - gutwrenching but also made me want to punch her. I’m up for arguing whether or not taking that away was a good thing

- oh no the salt. no. how could you put it at the post-credits scene.

- vurai’s confirmed dead? that could be a problem next season.

Ep 25:

- dang what an opener giving us no info just kuon looking sad. we had emo haku now get ready for emo kuon i guess

- nuedori is probably my favorite song after kimi ga tame, such a good song to overlay the time skip over

- man anime viewers must be so confused. like they saw Haku and Oshtoru get out of town but only Oshtoru show up. man this is so effed up.

- no not the fan noooo augh  brokoro in the kokoro

- sad nekone really sells it doesn’t it

- dang I knew Ennakamuy was surrounded by mountains but I guess the anime went and interpreted that as a CRATER

- at least kuon didn’t leave until later in the night?

-i know the twins did a spell in the VN as well but seeing the visual change between haku and oshtoru is a bit silly

- what’s with the flower field that’s so cheesy

- i can see why someone said laughed rather than cried during this particular use of kimi ga tame - the alternating shots to his saltification is just silly, there’s so many prettier shots for showing people dissolving - like the VN gave you a very serviceable “standing on a cliff as the sun rises and you fade into dust” why didn’t you take it

- side note in the VN i was imagining it something like this scene from CCS but different lighting (sorry I could only find the english dub on short notice, timestamp at 1:13:24):

- also how could you get everyone off model during such an important part

- you know what I’m just gonna pretend that there was some really bad production crunch so they had to do a rush job smh

- i do like this orchestration tho

- oh god the cheese never ends, now it’s raining

- that said it’s not terrible, but definitely missing something compared to the VN

- haha with some of your decisions next season you might just end up in Denebokshir Haku. jk we all know how it ends

- boro boro ;-; yes go hug your kid she needs all the comfort she can get

[thatyanderecritic]

Eye Candy

Title: Eye Candy

Media: TV Show, produced by MTV

Yandere(s): Jake

Yandere Scale: 0/5

Criticism written by: Julie and Kai

The Review:

Hey everyone! We recently got an anonymous ask about this TV show. We decided to watch the show together and have one of us do the review but…The TV show was...really bad. Kai and I actually had a fight/debate on who has to write the review. Neither of us want to suffer, so we decided to write it together. With that being said, let’s just get this over with.

When Julie and I first started the show, we didn’t really have high expectations. It was an MTV show after all. Seeing how this channel produced “bangers” such as the Jersey Shore and Teen Moms, we really didn’t expect anything good. And oh boy, we thought our expectations couldn’t be any lower but this TV show somehow manage to do the impossible and go above and beyond our expectations. According to the anon, they mentioned that this show was loosely based on a book. We couldn’t imagine how bad the book was if the show was like this… but we never expected that the plot was different too. 

For the TV show, Lindy (the MC) 21, was a #MasterHacker and was searching for her missing sister. Being a workaholic, her friend suggested for her try online dating. Taking her suggestion, Lindy did just that and got matched with two dudes. But uh oh! One of the dudes is actually a well known serial killer and stalker. Now it’s up to Lindy to save the day! 

The book was wildly different. Lindy was just some attractive tall blonde haired girl who wants to date but guys are too intimidated by how hot she was. Anywho, seeing how down Lindy was about being unable to date guys, Lindy’s friend suggested her to try online dating. The idea was a big success and Lindy ended up dating four guys at the same time. Lindy was having the time of her life before mysteriously getting a note warning Lindy that, if she doesn’t choose him, he will kill her. Knowing that one of the guys she’s dating is a killer, it’s up to Lindy to save herself. 

So now that you guys know the full picture, Kai and I want to continue with the review for the show. Seeing how the show and the book are two different media and the anon asked about the show, we’ll just be talking about that. Don’t ask us about the book. 

I’ll be frank, the “Yandere” scenes were wack. There was one scene where the “yandere” gives Lindy a gift, a chance for her to get over her sister trauma by saving her friend, and he yells “Go on! Go on!” like an absolute clown. It might be acting, but this scene was a straight up comedy. 

There were a bunch of these sort of scenes where they tried to show the guy as #Crazy but it was just so… out of place and hilarious. But enough roasting him, let’s talk about why he isn’t a yandere.

In the show, they explain that the reason why he went out of his way to kill a bunch of girls was because he was trying to find “the one”. Each girl he pursued (before the MC) didn’t fit his idea of “perfect” and he ended up killing them after. Why he just didn’t break up with them, we don’t know. Dumb “yandere” logic at it’s peak, I guess. But anyways, he eventually met the MC and fell in love with her since he considered her as the “perfect woman” but the one thing that kept her from being flawless was her trauma from being unable to save her abducted sister. So, Jake decided to take matters in his own hands and “fix” Lindy of her scars. So in order to “fix” Lindy,  Jake told her he had a lead on what happened to her sister. They go to a secluded creepy island where Lindy conveniently figures out that Jake was the killer this entire time, smh. He makes her dig up a wooden coffin revealing a tablet with information on Lindy’s sister. That’s not all though. Jake abducts Lindy’s friend to be exactly like the time when her sister got abducted inorder to cure Lindy of her trauma...hence the part of the clip you guys saw before with really bad acting. 

While Kai and I do appreciate the sentiment, there was just too many psychopathic actions that cancelled out Jake from being a Yandere. For example, why did he have to kill the girls he deemed “unfixable”? Did he just assume he could just cure a person’s emotional trauma? Bruh. I’m pretty sure the problems that all those other girls had are much easier to fix than whatever the MC had going on. What's more, it was rather out of character for Jake to suddenly like Lindy when all his previous girls were most likely in the same boat as her; if not in a better position since they don’t have emotional trauma. It was pretty hypocritical really but I suppose we wouldn’t have a show if characters were thinking logically. That being said, if Jake stuck to his MO, he most likely would have killed Lindy. That being said, Jake is another case of a character liking the “idea” of the MC but not the MC herself. We actually have a post that talk more in depth about this concept where you can read here. It might be endearing that Jake is doing all this for Lindy but it’s important to remember the context of why he’s doing this. Jake wants to fix Lindy for his own selfish desires. He’s not doing it because he wants to genuinely help Lindy or wants what’s good for her but to create his ideal woman. 

I’m sure some people might still consider him a yandere if he likes the idea of the MC. But here, we don’t consider him a yandere since he doesn’t truly love the MC. This would usually be the part where we say, “watch the show and come to your own conclusion” but...This show is pretty bad, so Kai and I don’t recommend you do that. Really, any show with Victoria Justice as the lead actress is going to be pretty bad. We can’t even suggest reading the book since they’re two different stories and the book doesn’t have stellar reviews either. Just… stay away.