#space degrassi

[bicraigmanning]

tears are not enough, pt. 1

[vampyre-merrow]

[incorrectpowerrangersquotes]

Astronema: Maybe we'd be a bit more successful if the mistress of diabolical revenge plots stepped up to the plate. Rita: Sorry, I'm retired. Divatox: Mmm, just as well. Your last few schemes weren't very good.

[claresedwards]

"Bye Kc"

I always find it ironic that all the girls that had kissed KC ended up in much better relationships with men that will treat them right and endgame with

[little-chaos-arts]

Was reminded of my Degrassi phase today and had to finally gush about how these two scenes reminded me of one another (technically only the jatp one since Degrassi came first)

I don't have much to say except that I regularly think about this parallel since jatp came out....

I love both their dynamics and both scenes are just so.....Ahhhhh (pun intended)

[kaelthas-dickrider]

Dude why can I not even shop at Walmart at 6am 😭

[maybe-boys-do-love]

SOTUS Review: Engineering the Bridge To BL

I'm not exactly a sucker for teen dramas. Miss me with Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Even less soapy shows like The OC or Dawson's Creek that I checked out because of their critical status in the genre were not shows that I felt compelled to finish after watching a few episodes. However, teen dramas were a rare space in media where queer characters were allowed to exist as secondary or tertiary characters, so in my young gayhood I searched amongst less popular shows for gay storylines like in Canada's Degrassi. I binge-watched Australia's Dance Acadamy until they killed off the gay character and sought out lists about groundbreaking shows from before my time like My So-Called Life.

The latter is not simply exceptional for its gay representation but for aiming higher than its teen soap peers for realist complexity in its characters. Later, shows like Freaks and Geeks and the UK's Skins would take up that torch, then Friday Night Lights, which had the genius to bring in the institution of American football culture in the South of the the US to ground its commentary on American racial and economic politics. Norway's Skam arrived in 2015 using the "Russ Bus" tradition for similar purposes--and used the strength of its writing to depict a globally celebrated queer story the same year as SOTUS. These elevated coming-of-age teen dramas I count among my favorite series ever in any genre.

I bring up all this TV history because I found no review yet that adequately conveys SOTUS's equivalent storytelling goals and prowess, nor do they fully indicate that SOTUS is one of the most compelling BLs to this day. Historically important, they read, but mediocre production values, primarily for straight women and homophobic, with a hazing setting that might be triggering for viewers, all implying its a relic of a less enlightened time in BL history that later shows will improve upon. While I'd recommend reading them to learn more about the history of the series that I'm less interested in covering here, these are not exactly rave reviews. What a surprise to begin the series and witness right out of the gate precision, complexity, and depth to its queer depictions that's equal to any Thai BL that followed in its groundbreaking wake.

The series manages to engineer (wah wah) bridges to blend the naturalistic elements of those other elevated teen drama precedents with the tropes and styles that populated Thai BL novels (like the pink milk from 2Moons2) and will define Thai BL series in the years to come. In Thailand, the series Love Sick came first in its BL focus, but, as lovely as Love Sick is, it sprawls across flatter characters in its focus and fails to celebrate the breadth of queerness in some harmful ways. On the other hand, SOTUS, in pacing, casting, characterization, and theme development, links BL to a plot-driven Western style and decidedly queer perspective. There's a reason it was the show to begin the more intense global interest in BL series.

Below the cut, you'll find my review about the qualities that made SOTUS so outstanding to me.

SOTUS initially struck me with the tightness of its dialogues and cuts, especially compared to many other Thai BLs that I've seen, which have a bawdy theatrical spaciousness in their tempo, more in line with broad comedy or soap opera, telenovela, and Thai lakorn. Not so in SOTUS. It gives time enough for its actors to emote but orients toward storytelling precision. Plot-forward Thai BL comparables I've seen so far might be Not Me or Moonlight Chicken. Unlike those series, SOTUS won't be any cinematography nerd's dream, clearly limited by its budget in this matter, but it works hard to keep the limits of a small budget from distracting. The cheaply licensed scoring music, for example, is surprisingly effective, its repeated pulsing dread adding to the momentum ignited by the SOTUS initiation of the freshman at Thai universities.

Senior year of high school, I selected universities for application based on my fear of hazing. No fraternities near campus for me. The gendered organization and reputation for homophobic cruelty were existential threats to me as a closeted teenager. For many gay men, including myself, frat houses and initiation ceremonies were also sites of homoerotic fantasy. Thus is the duality of gay experience.

The Thai hazing context differs from the US (no gender segregation, for example), but the series mines the same psychological tension between danger and eroticism with its controversial use of the real-life SOTUS hazing induction system--the abbreviation stands for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, and Spirit--to ground its queer romance. The actual implementation of it at Thai universities has more issues than the show depicts and, while the series' hazing is a form of bullying that can trigger some, the mildness of the abuse depicted ought to be stated, especially when compared to American ideas about hazing abuse and queer media's depictions of homophobic violence. SOTUS portrays shouted verbal instructions and physical endurance trials as the means of degradation, with no physical violence and reprimands with consequences when its believed seniors have disrespected their charges or put them at risk.

Rather than a critique of the SOTUS system itself, the system provides the organizational hub for the series' broader societal commentary, and itts treatment elevates the show to the likes of Friday Night Lights or Skam. Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice title was taken from a line in Fanny Bruney's Cecilia about the two faults being both the cause of miseries and the reason for their termination. The series treats the SOTUS system and everything else within in the same manner: with complexity rather than binary keep-it-or-leave-it moralism. The S.O.T.U.S. values parallel the confines of a deeply imperfect society that when seen as strictly authoritarian pass down rules and pain from the elder generation to the the next. However, when viewed and practiced as the series encourages by the end of its story through a more nuanced understanding of the Asian filial philosophies at play, the values of seniority, order, tradition, unity, and spirit also invite compassion and affinity flowing in both directions across the generations.

The slowly emerging slight but significant age-gap romance between righteous freshman Kongpob and head 'hazer' Arthit is the central device for this exploration, but every element and scene, from the side couples to the food orders, develop our sense as viewers of the social order that the show wants to address. And the scenes move like well-lubricated assembly-line machinery toward their final purpose. It's obsession-inducing.

Despite the machinery of SOTUS's pacing, it delicately fashions its character and an environment gently permeated by homophobia and misogyny. Celebratory moments occurred to highlight themes without drawing attention to themselves, heterosexual coupling and marriages, for example, or a classmate coming out. Slurs surfaced casually, too, and old-fashioned masculinities were performed not as major plot points, spectacles of violence, or lessons for characters to immediately learn from, but to illustrate how inherited ignorance and constraints bear down almost invisibly on the characters. No one was demonized or ostracized for their ignorance, not because the writers view their actions positively but because they view their ignorance as a product of systematic failings, failings each generation can and will attempt to improve upon as they inherit the reigns. No one generation will make it all perfectly right. They are only human.

You can feel that humanity in the way the characters are written. All of the characters are distinguishable and interesting. They're written well and performed with heart. We have actual girls just chilling and being friends in a BL series, which was historically novel. Ingenues and horny girls and shy lesbians. The guys are recognizable guys, which is another feature Thai BL does exceptionally well. There are some dorks, some bros. The best friend in the freshman group is shy with strangers but open with his friends and fierce on the basketball court. I've known people like these. They are characters that are broad enough to recognize from a distance (or less screen time) but not simple stereotypes.

Then, on top of this you have the casual trans, gay, and nonbinary inclusion of bit parts and side characters that, to this day, only Thailand is doing in its shows to this extent. Its just impressive to see that their BL industry started off from the get-go at this level. But in SOTUS its not simply casual inclusion, either. These characters, unlike comparable characters in Love Sick, delineate moments of queer kindness that blur the understood hierarchical order of the initiation system and the heteronormative order holding our romantic leads back. In subtle ways they offer queer guidance and a model to Kong on his journey.

Then there's Kongpob and Arthit at the queer center of it all. Ugh! These two characters! These two performances! In Singto's watery sphynx-like eyes, in Krist's clinched jaw, in the electrified space between their bodies that the characters must restrain themselves against crossing, these are the heights of longing the romance genre can reach at its peak. There's an inner pain in these characters. That pain is old-school romance and its old-school queer pain.

I've read complaints about the physical intimacy in this show that I realize after watching the series are ignoring the characterizations of repression and inexperience that impact every interaction between Art and Kong, even their kisses. They aren't on the het timeline, instead having their first kiss and relationship in college, which is why SOTUS aligns with the teen drama genre so well despite its university setting. The greenness of their physical affection (we see it grow more competent and comfortable as the show progresses), however, belies an emotional chemistry that's intense, erotic, and intimate. Many more explicit BL scenes feel tame compared to Arthit grabbing Kong's shirt in rage or whispering in his ear in front of a waiting taxi.

I'm looking forward to SOTUS S and its Our Skyy episode to see more about KongArt's partnership, because their characters resist the seme/uke categorization of the BL genre they emerge from (which are also basically the stereotypes of top and bottom that gay men placed on themselves lol). Their ages and behaviors are reversed from the expected, first off. Kong, the younger, pursues, making him technically the seme and Arthit the uke, character definitions that also indicate sexual preferences of top and bottom. This wasn't unheard of in BL texts from what I've read, but less typical. Then there's the matter of Arthit being the one who initiates physical affection, partly due to Kong's regard for his challenges with internalized homophobia. Apparently, even the pronouns used between the pair are an intimate negotiation rather than an accepted order, returning us to the more complex ways the S.O.T.U.S. acronym can be enacted.

Plus, Kong's played by Singto with impressive power and confidence that's still soft-spoken, slippery, sibilant. To my trained eyes, its a character with mannerism and speech that are legibly gay. Not so legible that all his peers will notice, but he's clockable for queer eyes and worrisome for those afraid of deviation from the norm. For me, this is Thailand's biggest BL breakthrough (and its persisted down this path*) because, for many in the LGBT+ community, challenges begin well before anything to do with sexual attraction.

Gender deviance is the key issue. I was teased by a classmate at 8, well before I had a sexuality, that when I walk I move my hips like a f*gg*t. Don't worry. He wasn't totally wrong. I have a killer strut and I own it now. His antagonism wasn't about who I liked; it was my swish, my non-masculine behaviors. The hatred of gender deviance (and its misogynistic reasoning) is the underlying bogeyman for much of homophobia. Even plenty of men who are perfectly happy to have sex with men, at least where I live in the US, take issue with effeminacy. (Try finding the most overt lesbians on tv outside of OITNB, too!) That applies to audiovisual media, too. Unless comedic, consumers have tended to be more excited about queerness when the bodies and expressions appear in-line with gender expectations. The power of Thai BL and Singto's performance of Kong is how it opened space in the market and audience's minds to take queer affects seriously in young adult romance.

It's no surprise, then, that Kong forges friendships with the characters who are overtly LGBT during the series. The associations made between Kong and the fullness of the LGBT spectrum provides a more complex context for the show's choice to include him expressing the BL trope of 'only gay for you.' While it's a harmful concept broadly, the show seems to be using it subversively. How much more regressive it would've felt coming from Arthit! With Kong and all of his queer associations, it plays as the words of a gay romantic. With the diversity of coming-outs and identity-naming we now have in BL, Kong's moon-eyed statement made on the night his boyfriend comes out for him holds less of a harmful influence on the whole.

Context is just as important to the oft-critiqued scene where Kong says that he'll make Arthit his wife. Based on what I'd read and how impactful and problematic people felt it was, I thought the statement had been a romantic declaration late in the series. Imagine my surprise when it occurred in the first episode as an attempt by Kong to disrupt the patriarchal power of the seniors. Rather than illustrating the show's belief about gay relationships being the same as straight relationships, the scene points to the patriarchal assumptions the series intends by its end to disrupt. The exchange gets reenacted when the freshman decide to act it out at the faculty beach outing for everyone. The seniors interrupt, and the freshman fear they're about to be punished for disrespecting their elders only to find out they're being invited to finally celebrate their inclusion into the faculty. It's denied fruition as a tool to dis-empower and a true testament of Art and Kong's relationship.

It's at the beach where the freshman are given their gears, one of the many examples of how the series used symbols with significantly more depth than the copy-cats that tried to make bank by using the exact same motifs later. The proceeding BL engineers owe not a debt but an apology to SOTUS. The engineering faculty fit perfectly with the show's questions about systems and how individuals fit into them. We have these gears, which could simply be cogs in a machine that forces you to fit in and lose your humanity, but SOTUS envisions the gear as a heart, something unique, attempting to find its place and fit its grooves within a greater purpose. Its a symbol of authentic belonging.

The pink drink, which could've simply served--and has served in other series since--to be a symbol of pink gay girly tastes, is more fully used to emphasize Arthit's stubborn desire for familiarity, his inexperience (in trying other drinks), and a certain childishness in his preference for sweetness, a childishness that humanizes him to his freshman paramor. A trade even occurs with the drink, shifting all these meanings onto Kongpob as he begins to face his own prideful assumptions about his own righteousness.

Beyond all the English teacher symbolism and queer value, though, SOTUS is just the kind of well-told romance that will make you swoon. Despite a low budget and simple plot, its performances, editing, and most of all its script mesmerize. People shouldn't watch it as a history lesson. Its too entertaining to be relegated to that. Labeling it as simply historically important doesn't do it justice.

SOTUS stands tall among teen dramas, a literary work in a genre that doesn't require those heights; SOTUS stands tall among queer media peers, paving new lanes for queer storytelling and performances to walk down; and SOTUS stands tall among its BL peers. Clearly many of the greats in Thai BL, like 1000 Stars, Bad Buddy, and Until We Meet Again, aim to evoke their predecessor, more out of love and awe than an apology (as has been suggested by others). The ways they differ seem to be additions and diversification of queer narratives rather than a critique. SOTUS is simply one of those Great Stories. It inspires binging, revisits, investigations, and, most importantly, the biggest feels. Watch it now if you haven't. Watch it again if you have. Its not a piece of history. Its the kind of story that doesn't get old.

*Thank goodness for LITBC bringing Korea some overtly gay characters. Japan's got a few options--KENJI!--but not enough for my liking yet. I haven't seen enough of the other country's output to make a judgment.

Tagging @dropthedemiurge for being the biggest supporter of my new-found SOTUS obsession and @respectthepetty for the petty watch that got me over my lack of motivation to watch this series! Petty was half-joking but also so right about the kink undertones to this relationship!!!

There are certainly more versed BL history experts so feel free to let me know about any mistakes I made with my history! I'm just a broad and casual tv history and queer fiction and history fan tryna share my new-found BL joy.

[bengiyo]

Hi, i'm a newish bl drama watcher from thailand that just started watching thai bls. i'm a bit ashamed to say that for a long time as a gay man living here i've been avoiding bl shows like the plague cuz of both the fandom reputation and of misconception from my yaoi era which i leave far behind. i'm just want to ask how did you got into watching thai bls and what were you preconception before you got into it.

Welcome to the Tumblr side of BL fandom. I'd actually like to also hear more of your experience with yaoi and BL as a gay person growing up in Thailand if you're willing to share.

For me, I'm a Black American from the Gulf Coast (the South). I grew up in a Catholic city and spent my entire adolescence in the closet. Despite having a sense of who I was as early as 8 years old, I kept most of that to myself. Because I didn't talk about it much with people, I found out most information about queer media and queerness from the internet.

I entered BL via queer cinema. I think the first explicitly gay character that I remember from TV was Marco from Degrassi: The Next Generation. There were probably others, and definitely more subtle expressions, but when I think about the oldest gay character I remember and connect to, it's Marco. I don't like counting things like shipping Shawn and Corey on Boy Meets World or Tai and Matt on Digimon for oldest gay characters. Sailor Moon can't even count because we got a censored version of it in America.

I got access to satellite television away from observing eyes around age 16 and started watching content on Logo back when they aired gay content regularly. I watched basically whatever I could late at night. It's how I saw movies like Get Real (1998), Beautiful Thing (1996), and Bent (1997). It's also how I saw Queer as Folk (2000-2005) Noah's Arc (2005-06).

After hitting adulthood I mostly got lost in video games and standard American TV for a while, but I did basically show up to any Gay Event in TV. I appreciate that Stef and Lena from The Fosters (2013-2018) were some of the only TV lesbians to survive the horror of 2016.

I watched a bunch of movies in this time, many of which appear on the Queer Cinema Syllabus I made for a hypothetical Westerner new to BL and queer cinema, which @wen-kexing-apologist has decided to try to complete.

I got into Thai BL in 2018 accidentally. I started seeing gifsets of Kongpob telling Arthit he'll make him his wife passing around Tumblr and was basically like, "Right, what's all this then?"

I had watched a few Thai gay films, mostly notably Love of Siam (2007), Bangkok Love Story (2007), How to Win at Checkers Every Time (2015), and The Blue Hour (2015), but this was the first time I was seeing a long series made available so easily from any Asian country.

From there I got into Make It Right (2016-17) and Love Sick the series (2014). Once I realized that yaoi had moved beyond manga and a few anime adaptations, I went looking for a lot more. I basically haven't left since I started in about 2016 with SOTUS.

There's my basic entry into the genre. I don't think I was as worried about fandom and worries at the time because so much of being a fan of queer cinema was a mostly-private experience for me for so long. I didn't realize that BL fans active in the space would predominantly be women or queers figuring themselves out. It took a while to adjust to that, and also to adjust my expectations of the kinds of queer stories BL distributors were willing to fund.

That being said, I tend to agree with @absolutebl that BL has a useful role in normalization for non-queer audiences who encounter it. I like cheering BL when it does things I think work really well, and also deriding it when I think it does things that are offensive to help nudge the genre and offer my perspective as a gay man.

I like the place we're at right now where there's way too much to watch for any person with other hobbies and responsibilities because it means that people can pick and choose what's to their tastes.

More often than not, I'm probably most-invested in something airing from Japan because of my melancholy nature, but there's so much variety these days that it's okay if you don't like everything. I certainly don't!

I'm glad you joined us on Tumblr and look forward to your thoughts!

[supportingjatpcast]

Where to find the JATP Cast as of December 12, 2024

happy four years to this account! you know the drill. let's get silly with it and check up on where everyone is nowadays:

Madison Reyes- Julie Molina (@themadisonreyes on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

The Bad Seed Returns

All Kinds of Love (available on all music streaming platforms)

Allie Mitchell Must Win (in preproduction)

Charlie Gillespie- Luke Patterson (@charles_gillespie on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

The Class

Love You Anyway

Chevel Shepard: Good Boy (music video)

The Rest of Us

Madison Park: better w/o you (music video)

Conséquences (six episodes)

I Am the Night (pilot episode)

Speed Kills

Charmed 2018 (Pilot and Episode 2)

Naomi Sequeira: Pastries (music video)

2nd Generation (episodes 1-6)

The Next Step (season 5, episode 17)

Degrassi: Next Class (season 4, episodes 8 and 10)

The Outlaw League

Totally Killer

The Get Back Girl (postproduction)

Suze

Deltopia

Debbie Gibson: Love Don't Care (music video)

Shattered Ice (postproduction)

Soul's Road

Splitsville

Owen Patrick Joyner- Alex Mercer (@owenjoyner on Instagram and Twitter)

Julie and the Phantoms

Acapulco (season 2, episode 3)

Knight Squad

Henry Danger (season 5, episode 9)

Slime Cup (season 3, episodes 1-6)

The Thundermans (season 4, episode 15)

The Veil

It’s On

100 Things to Do Before High School

Nickelodeon’s Ho Ho Holiday Special

Something Here (postproduction)

Final Destination: Bloodlines (postproduction)

Jeremy Shada- Reggie Peters (@jeremyshada on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

Interrupting Chicken (season 1, episode 3)

Dragons: The Nine Realms

Multiversus

Adventure Time: Distant Lands

Cookie Run Kingdom (English version)

Scars

Denton’s Death Date

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Adventure Time

Mr. Student Body President

Spiderman 2018 (season 2, episode 1)

Cheerleader Nightmare

Blooms Adventure Time TD

When Jeff Tried to Save the World

DreamWorks Voltron VR Chronicles

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

Gloria Talks Funny

Cartoon Network Live

Surfs Up 2: WaveMania

Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations

Lego Dimensions

Badly Drawn Animals

Adventure Time: All’s Well That Rats Swell

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M

Adventure Time: Game Wizard

Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom

Adventure Time: Card Wars

Aliens in the House

Adventure Time: Ski Safari

Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don’t Know!

See Dad Run (season 2, episode 8)

Incredible Crew (season 1, episodes 1-18)

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!!

Paranorman

Adventure Time: The Wand

F.3.A.R.

That’s What I Am

Batman: The Brave and the Bold (season 1, episode 18; season 2, episodes 6, 18, 19; season 3 episodes 1, 3)

Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey

Parenthood (season 1, episodes 4-5)

Healing Hands

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Chowder (season 2, episode 24)

FusionFall

Cold Case (season 5, episode 1)

The Loop (season 2, episode 4)

Lost (season 2, episode 12; season 3, episode 21)

Ghost Whisperer (season 2, episodes 21-22)

Shark (season 1, episode 16)

Southern Comfort

Nip/Tuck (season 4, episode 13)

Bambi 2: The Great Prince of the Forest

No Rules

ER (season 11, episode 6)

The Incredibles: When Danger Calls

Team America: World Police

Miracle Run

Good Girls Don’t… (season 1, episode 4)

My Neighbors the Yamadas

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (season 1 episodes 2,3,5,7,10)

Battle For A Free Video Game (Season 1, episode 6)

Cookie Run: Witch's Castle

Vintage (available on all music streaming platforms)

Ballerina (available on all music streaming platforms)

Mad Love (available on all music streaming platforms)

Midnight Promises (available on all music streaming platforms)

Jadah Marie- Flynn Taylor (@thejadahmarie on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

Family Reunion (season 4, episodes 4-5)

Home Invasion (season 1, episodes 1-6)

Sarah Jeffery and Jadah Marie: Audrey’s Christmas Rewind

Descendants 3

Descendants 3: Good to Be Bad (music video)

Ready Player One

Mann and Wife

Blue Bloods (season 7, episode 8)

9-1-1 (season 7, episode 2)

Sacha Carlson- Nick (@sacha_carlson on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

9-1-1 l: Lone Star (season 3, episode 14)

American Housewife (season 3, episodes 6-7)

A Christmas Story Live!

Everything I Ever Wanted

Sacha Carlson & The Light (check out his band!)

Savannah Lee May- Carrie Wilson (@savannahleemay on Instagram)

Julie and the Phantoms

A Cowgirl’s Song

The Secret Lives of Cheerleaders

Knight Squad

Cousins for Life (season 1, episode 12)

Bizaardvark (season 2, episode 20)

School of Rock (season 3, episode 6)

Dance Rivals

Booboo Stewart- Willie (@booboostewart.art on Instagram)

(look, i adore booboo. i do. but this man has 114 acting credits on IMDB, and there is no way that i am typing all of them out and including exactly what episodes of shows he’s in. and that's not even mentioning things where he is credited as a stunt performer or listed on a soundtrack. love you all, but i do actually have a life outside of stanning the jatp cast, so im just linking his imdb page here. happy searching babes!)

Carlos Ponce- Ray Molina (@poncecarlos1 on Instagram)

(Carlos has 54 acting credits, and many are in Spanish, a language that i do not speak. check out his IMDb page here.)

Sonny Bustamante- Carlos Molina

Julie and the Phantoms

7th & Union

Law & Order True Crime (season 1, episodes 3-5)

New Shoes

Heaven’s Flume

That Girl Lay Lay (season 1, episode 1)

Cheyenne Jackson- Caleb Covington (@MrCheyenneJackson on Instagram)

(Cheyenne has 71 acting credits. I'm not typing all that out, because I doubt that you want to read all of that and also I have a full time job that isn't JATP related. Check him out here!)

[vampyre-merrow]

[bicraigmanning]

those degrassi kids in the later seasons were really hooking up in the boiler room and i’m like… that’s a sacred space. that’s not what it’s for! that’s where you have manic episodes and write songs for kevin smith movies. show some respect.

[tolbachik]

tagged you @orbees!! thank you!

Last song I listened to: Bitter Honey (Demo) - The Holy Mackerel, but since I started writing this, Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand - The Who

Last book I read: my friend’s first draft for their webcomic :)

Last film I watched: Royal Space Force/Wings of Honneamise

Last tv series I watched: Degrassi: Next Generation

Last thing I googled: “wuthering heiggts”

Last thing I ate: cinnamon danish

Sweet, spicy, or savory?: SAVORY OR RIOT

Amount of sleep: dear god i wish i knew.

Currently reading: my one manuscript, currently tearing it apart with fresh eyes and planning on how to rewrite it 🫡

I tag: @gr1zzbear, @galestork, @bjekkergauken, @foxbap, @toriel-2, @itisiives, @moxyinverse, @junecast-moonfast (so sorry for forgetting to do yours 😭 i can’t find it in my notifs anymore </3), @hellagator, @whirligig-girl, @frottinq, @vvyrmwood, @bisexualspongebob, @malachte, aaaand i will stop there

thanks again for tagging me!!!

[woven-birds]

(last updated december 2024)

ೃ ⁀➷

hello! <3

this is my main tumblr, it doesn’t really have a theme i just post whatever i like and what speaks to me. i have a few side blogs that are a bit more uniform that i’ve linked below if you’d like to check them out. :) 18 + only please! posts are mostly from my queue (i’m far too lazy to tag them as such haha). also please always feel free to ask or tell me anything. <3

i’m kristen. i am an avid daydreamer. a vegetarian. mom to two boys. bookworm. neurodivergent (AuDHD). 29. infp. half native american (mohawk tribe) & irish.

🌜🌞 taurus sun, gemini moon, libra rising 🌞🌛

i live in upstate new york. i read too many books and drink copious amounts of tea & coffee. i’m obsessed with anything antique or from a bygone era. my hair is always messy no matter how hard i try to make it look decent. i am comprised of dresses, flowers, & dreams. i’m forever sleepy. i still love playing on playgrounds. i often feel homesick for places that i’ve never been. my head is always in the clouds; i’m perpetually daydreaming. i feel most at peace in nature. i am a true crime/horror junkie. a self proclaimed weirdo. a proud member of the silly goose club. if i’m not reading, writing, doing a puzzle, playing a video game, or baking, you can probably find me listening to music, overthinking, or being anxious. sometimes if you’re lucky it’s all three. i’d rather be thrifting or looking at the stars.

my favorite sounds: trains in the distance (it’s an incredibly lonely sound but it’s strangly comforting to me in a way), birds singing, rain hitting the window, the keys of a typewriter, book pages turning, cats purring, clocks ticking, the sound of leaves crunching when you step on them in autumn, the crackling sound a record makes when the needle first touches it.

these are a few of my favorite things: flower crowns, old hollywood, gardens, fairies, teacups & teapots, fairy tales, bunnies, squishmallows, sharks, outer-space, macarons, graveyards, dresses, handwritten letters, studio ghibli, pressing flowers between the pages of my favorite books, strawberries, the smell of books, flowering tea, wes anderson films, bookstores & libraries, cuddling, butterflies, floral print, cozy sweaters, candles, when smells act as time machines, penny presses, everything about autumn, holding hands, rainy dreary days.

music: fleetwood mac, turnover, nirvana, the front bottoms, andrew mcmahon, chappell roan, bon iver, sonic youth, phoebe bridgers, david bowie, death cab for cutie, yeah yeah yeahs, mitski, ghost, the smiths, ethel cain, type o negative, pixies, the cure, faye webster, spiritbox, lana del rey, coheed and cambria, alexandra savior, fiona apple, sleep token, deftones, billie eilish, the story so far, taylor swift, eliott smith, bright eyes, florence + the machine, blink-182, & more.

tv: buffy, gossip girl, bridgerton, supernatural, doctor who, grey’s anatomy, the x files, the vampire diaries, yellow jackets, peaky blinders, last of us, outlander, new girl, it’s always sunny in philadelphia, walking dead, parks & rec, charmed, twin peaks, friends, what we do in the shadows, schitt’s creek, degrassi, community, pretty little liars, etc.

films: i love horror movies. i am also obsessed with studio ghibli, wes anderson, & audrey hepburn films. <3

books: my all time favorite books are jane eyre & pride and prejudice. i am also a fan of thrillers, poetry, fantasy, and a sucker for a cheesy romance book (sue me). always open for book recommendations if you’d like to send me one! (:

my side blogs: @teacuploveletter // @fairieslivehere // @shesdaydreamingagain // @arainyautumnnight // @porcelainmoons // @grungyfairy // @snowandtinsel // @dreaminginnostalgia

other places you can find me:

instagram // kristenisdaydreaming

pinterest // magicwildflowers

twitter // rainygirl53

snapchat // rainygirl53

discord // kristenisdaydreaming

spotify

sometimes i ramble about things/write poetry

tags: music // films // television // art // quotes // food // books // fashion // nature // flowers // tea // coffee // animals // doctor who // supernatural // pokémon // bridgerton // buffy // autumn // space // moon // sky // makeup // landscapes // interiors // studio ghibli // disney // animal crossing // fairies // important reminders // sanrio // sailor moon // vinyl //

(some graphics featured in this post are by @saradika-graphics others are ones i’ve found or made myself using canva.)

[polarmoon]

5, 10, 34 & 38 please !

5. what colour are the walls of your room?

white </3 i live in a rental house </3

i will say tho me and my bf use the garage as our living space away from family and it has a really pretty exposed brick wall, if that counts lmao

10. what’s your favourite piece of clothing you own?

a fuzzy olive green teddy jacket! so cozy

34. what’s your book/movie/tv guilty pleasure?

topical since rn i'm rewatching my ultimate comfort series which is degrassi! all the way back to the seasons from the 80s lmao

38. what’s the name of your first pet/what would you name your first pet if you had one?

i think we had a fish named bubbles when i was a kid? but my first pet that i was an Active participant in raising was a cat named leia :))

[bigassbowlingballhead]

for the TV show asks....Degrassi lol

SCREAM. man, I haven't thought about degrassi in a while

My rating (1-10): (i forgot to rate i got busy talking about the women) 6/10 it is still made for children and it showsh jkdfhkj

My favourite character: Fiona Coyne, Jane Vaughn, Bianca DeSousa, Manny Santos, Holly J Sinclair, Alex Nunez, Ellie Nash PAIGE MICHALCHUK. Bad bitches ONLY

My least favourite character: This is a safe space to say Emma Nelson. She's so high and mighty about everything. girl sit down you got gonorrhea of the throat you have no space to judge manny santos.

The character I think I'd be friends with: Fiona <3

The character I think I won't hit off with: See above, Emma.

My favourite episode/scene: also on the topic of Emma, you gave me a social disease reigns as an all time TV moment.

Whose clothing style I like best: Early and late spinner, before the bad swoopy hair (you know the one) and then when he got hot.

Times I watched it (and if I would again): it's a sick show for me. I turn it on when i'm sick in bed and doze in and out so i think i've only seen it alllllll the way through once because my god there's so many fucking episodes. but certain seasons, like 2-6 i've seen so many times.

send me a tv show

[maya-matlin]

I promise this is the only ask I'll bug you with---for at least another day or so ;) You know how much I adore character analysis in general and yours in particular, so I'm challenging you to name what you consider the three most salient strengths and consistent character flaws of these Degrassi-ians :) 1. Maya 2. Zig 3. Jenna 4. Clare 5. Emma 6. Sean 7. Liberty I actually have a tough time analyzing Maya, which is weird considering how much I love her and how much space she takes up in my weird little brain :) We know she has a ton of beautiful strengths, but what are her flaws?! Don't get me wrong - I know she's imperfect and makes a series of mistakes, but it's hard for me to identify the consistent character flaws behind them. Maybe that she can be too impulsive and that she sometimes values peace and harmony to the point where she suppresses her negative emotions until they come out in less-than-ideal ways?! Or maybe I'm totally off base as per usual? I hope you're having a great weekend, my friend!

No, please LOL. Send as many asks as you want. I can't promise I'll always do the best job answering, particularly if I don't have the firmest grasp on the character or couple, but I'll try!

Maya:

Strengths: Compassion, ambition, creativity

Flaws: Forgiving too easily, occasionally displaying a lack of sensitivity, sometimes thinking she knows best even as the people in her life beg her to back off

Zig:

Strengths: Loyalty, (overall) willingness to admit wrongdoing, protective

Flaws: Insecure, anger, careless with words

Jenna:

Strengths: Nonjudgmental (post-character development), hardworking, selflessnes

Flaws: Needing validation from guys, pettiness, sometimes compromises too much to keep the peace

Clare:

Strengths: Intelligence, strong sense of justice, very goal oriented

Flaws: Pride, being judgmental, stubbornness

Emma:

Strengths: Strong sense of justice, bravery, willingness to try new things

Flaws: Often cares more about causes than people, judgmental, holds herself to unrealistic standards

Sean:

Strengths: Protective, always holds himself accountable, constantly aims to better himself

Flaws: Anger, self critical, has a tendency to run when things aren't going his way and/or he can't deal

Liberty:

Strengths: Self sufficient, ambition, love

Flaws: Struggles to accept help from others, doesn't give herself grace, can be matter of fact when the situation calls for compassion