#that was easily one of the best 1st eps for me

[bleubrri]

FIRST EP OF FIRE FORCE CHANGED MY FUCKING BRAIN CHEMISTRY HOLY SHIT???

[syllvarin]

Non-traumagenic plurality: How could it be possible?

First off, let's start with what some anti-endo folk mean versus what they don't mean with traumagenic plurality

They mean systems caused by/as a response to trauma and traumatic events, and those who are still affetced by them, aka systems who are disordered, DID/OSDD/UDD.

What they don't mean is systems who have trauma in their origin along with other causes. They do not believe a system can very well be traumagenic but function smoothlessly due to recovering, or have multiple origins.

Note: We are a diagnosed DID system with mixed (trauma/ramcoa/neuro/para) origins. Yes, we know what we are talking about. No, that doesn't mean we can't do mistakes, but we will try our best to be as accurate as possible. We will include scientific articles, DSM-5 DID checklist, and many more in this post.

How can that be possible?

1st: Brains are quite complicated. Research on brain functions is far from being complete, it is a long road that we are still at the very beginning of. We still don't know how brain exactly works let alone how it can form seperate conscious identities and work them together. We do know headmates exist based on brain MRI's ( link here ) That proves us that systems indeed, exist.

2nd point i want to make is that science is not done in a linear fashion. We are studying to be neuroscientists ourselves and the very core of what makes science doable is MONEY. Yes, in this capitalist system even the most seemingly basic research requires funding, money, and a goal that can be monetized to get done. Reseaches on female autonomy, rare disorders and "demonized" disorders such as DID is therefore not often as it is not easily capitalized and funded.

Therefore we do not have enough research to prove or disprove that the only way of becoming a system is through childhood.

And that brings me to my 3rd point, where we will take a look at what DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) says about diagnostic crietria of DID. We will see how it is a dissocative disorder, not a trauma disorder.

Found under dissociative disorders (not trauma disorders!), checklist for DID is as follows:

See how none of those checklist include trauma as checklist? Yes DID is commonly caused by trauma but not always. Yes it commonly is created during childhood but not always. Those arent in diagnostic criteria.

Definitive feature is not trauma, it is distinct personality states or experience of possession.

DID is associated with traumatic events, does not mean it requires it.

DID can manifest at almost any age (DSM-5 is saying that, folks)

What's more is OSDD doesnt even have a definitive checklist like DID. it is found under differential diagnosis, with other disorders. PDID (partial DID where one part is frontstuck a majority of the time) is also up to psychiatrist's evaluation rather than a concrete checklist.

4th point is : What about Structural Dissociaton Theory?

This theory is as it goes: The theory of Structural Dissociation works off of the assumption that everyone is born with different ego states that later merge in life. Those different ego states operate for different actions in life, that later integrate into one person during ages of 4-6. Trauma disrupts that integration and causes ANP (apparently normal parts) and EP (Emotional parts). EP's are stuck in the trauma while ANP's are not.

source: The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization" by Onno van der Hart, Ellert Nijenhuis, and Kathy Steele. 

Yes, theory. Theories are not concrete. They can be disapproved, they can change, they may not fit every experience. Structural dissociation only explains how DID can manifest at childhood, but we already know by now that DID can manifest at almost any age.

So I personally think basing everything on a theory about how DID might've been caused (which doesn't even perfectly explain every possible way) is not as fault-proof as one might think it is.

Point 5: experiences of "multiple identities" exist for so long into history (people who are possessed, talk to themselves, act weird at times, are very different at times, etc), way before any DID/OSDD terms were created. And actually, how can we know how many people in history have had this experience when the very society we are in is very scared of them? It is fair to say only the disruptive cases must've been noticed, and majority of them probably were either deemed as crazy or exorcised as they believed those people were possessed by spirits. Just because your experience does not fit with others and just because science hasnt done anything to back them up, doesn't mean people's lived experiences are false. Why would so many people tell that they are a system when they are not? We are not living in a place where being a system is happy or fun, we are not in a society where its profitable or anything. It literally gives a person zero + points for being plural if they arent. It would be a nonstop roleplay they have to keep up throughout every aspect of their life; and at that point, it must be either impossible or that person is already plural and not roleplaying when no one is looking at them.

Creating headmates is on the same basket. A person with DID can create headmates in blink of an eye (we know from oursleves) sometimes splitting threshold is so low you may split off multiple people at once. You cannot know what is going in a person's mind, and what mechanisms work for creating a headmate. If they claim they did, it is very much no chance they are faking being different people 24/7. It *is* a real chance that they actually did develop a headmate. If you do not believe them; ask them about their experiences. I am %100 positive that if you actually listen to them, you will see those people are only trying to live their life.

Also, if you think healthy systems cannot exist and only way to be a system is through dissociation and dysfunction; then why would DID systems try to heal anyway? Wouldn't that just be sanist and ableist to expect all of them to turn into singlets because healthy multiplicity isnt a thing?But no, it is a thing, and healthy multiplicity and recovery is possible for systems. DID and other disordered forms of plurality do indeed exist, and they are indeed, treatabe in multiple ways according to what a person feels comfortable with. That is also a system's right to heal however they please. They don't owe anyone their right to stay as plural or become a singlet.

6th point I want to make is about: Why do we even care?

If a person says they have multiple people in their head, why do we care and tell them they are faking? They are not claiming to have a diagnosis, even if they did; if their situation is causing a distress to them, then they ARE diagnosable and that therefore is none of our business, again.

Last point I want to make is how endogenic DID is possible. yes, possible. remember how trauma is not in diagnostic criteria and DID can happen at any age? If endogenic plurals can happen, they can also form DID at later in life. They can also become disordered due to an event in their life. They can lose harmony and become so dysfunctional they need professional help. That doesn't mean they are no longer endogenic or some other origin, that simply means their state is different than what it was and they need help.

End of our post. Thank you for reading.

[namtanlovesfilm]

1st quarter of 2024 shows ranked

n° of shows watched from january 1st to march 31st: 13

1. analog squad: 9/10

I deeply regret not watching this one in 2023 when it was released bc it would've been my number one favorite show of that year ;_; it's such an original and touching show with one of my favorite tropes (found family) and some of the best characters I've ever seen. definitely already an all-time favorite and a comfort show for years to come <3

2. cooking crush: 8,5/10

y'all know how much I love offgun, and while this was no not me or theory of love, this show really brought me back to my early days of watching thai dramas and freaking out over any cute interaction on my screen & I love it for that! while this show has a lot of flaws, most of them are easily forgettable when faced with such great characters & one of the cutest relationships ever! I truly thought offgun's chemistry had reached its peak in not me but I was wrong, these two never cease to amaze me they really can play any role to perfection <3

3. ready set love: 8,5/10

this show really surprised with how pretty much flawless its execution is! it's hilarious but also deals with very deep & interesting topics well, and day might be one of my favorite female leads ever! a super solid show that is honestly gonna become a classic for me, I can feel it :)

4. love for love's sake: 8,5/10

this was a super sweet show that's very well done, I was dubitative of the plot at first but it really managed to pull me in & make it worth my while! one of the best kbls out there :)

5. the believers: 8,5/10

this is definitely one of the most innovative thai shows out there, dealing with a topic (religion) that I didn't think anyone would dare touch. the story had me hooked all 9 episodes & the acting performances were amazing, however I have to say this didn't pack as much of a punch as I expected it would. it's a very good show, but it stays a little surface level & doesn't explore its characters enough for me...

6. sing my crush: 7,5/10

this was very much adorable, however two things bothered me: 1) I didn't like the time jump from ep 1 to ep 2, I wish we could've seen the friendship between the characters developed more, and 2) I feel like them not revealing their feelings for each other felt a little forced & random. apart from that it's a very cute show!

7. intern in my heart: 7,5/10

this was a really enjoyable romantic comedy that I had a lot of fun in front of :) is it much more than that? not really. pretty basic but with charismatic performances that carried the show well!

8. perfect propose: 7,5/10

really sweet show that I wish was more developed & gave me more, but a good time nonetheless!

9. sukiyanen kedo do yaro ka: 7/10

this show got me, lost me then got me once again lol. I thought the chemistry for an established relationship was some of the best for a jbl, and the story was simple but endearing. but tbh something was kinda lacking for me, which made this ultimately very forgettable imo.

10. the outing: 7/10

I was SO looking forward to this show without much expectation but it still managed to disappoint me lol. the acting was very solid but there's too many characters that get introduced too late & I failed to really understand what the point or purpose of the show was. it seems to me as if this show took all of the worst points from remember 15 (the sex, the chaos, the betrayals & annoying characters), without the substance that remember 15 actually had. it's not a terrible show, and I was intrigued during it, but tbh it could've been so so much better.

11. love class season 2: 7/10

this had some of the strongest and most interesting ships I've seen in a kbl, however the writing & execution of the show was very frustrating. early on the characters barely get introduced & we struggle to understand how they're all linked together, leading to a lot of confusion on my part. it's sad bc it had a very solid story but bad execution imo :(

12. chaser game w: power harassment: 7/10

this had me very excited but sadly didn't deliver at all for me. the story is kinda all over the place & while the chemistry was really good and it's important to have japanese characters clearly labeled as lesbians, I found the acting kinda over the top as well... but it's a start for gl I guess 🥲

13. sahara sensei to toki-kun: 6/10

this is the kind of show that I managed to watch until the end... for whatever reason. but the age gap icked me out & I found that the main ship didn't have much chemistry. overall this story is very empty & didn't add anything for me, but I really liked the character of toki & would've loved to see him in a better show & ship.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

June 2023 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Step By Step (Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 7 of 10 - I really adore the family/household dynamics in this show. All the relationships between siblings are so well executed. All the tension and sub text and covert glances in the first “modeling” sequence was so good. I really want to watch the BL within this BL. Bruce is THE BEST. Jeng shutting down everyone with a cool few words is genius (especially given the curt sharp flat way he speaks Thai). Why does nobody have parasols or sun hats or sunshades or sunglasses or anything? I’m actually not mad about seeing an attempted reunion with the ex, bc we are getting to see both that (and how) they once were good together, and also the cracks that drove them apart (and will not allow them to ultimately be together a 2nd time around). I do feel sorry for Jeng, he moved too slowly and lost the 1st round. The captions were not good in the trunk seen, but trust me it was totally hilarious. 

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 10 - I finally figured out why I am so tense around this show. In openly taking to task and challenging the soulmates trope, this narrative is telling viewers not to trust it’s core trope - which means we cannot trust the main couple to end happily, nor can we trust those characters who believe most strongly in fated mates (Pat & Mai). This means I, personally, not only can’t rely on an HEA but (as someone who also does not believe in soulmates) I am not entirely sure I even WANT an HEA. This has NEVER happened to me before. It makes me uncomfortable because that’s a core part of my identify with these shows. I mean, good job La Pluie, but also.... huh. Back to this ep: Uh oh. The crush is obvious and the soulmate knows what’s up now. The sex scene twist was v interesting, v gay, and v unusual in a BL. Unfortunately it’s still a BL so the faen fatal just HAD to appear. Will there ever be one out of Thailand where this trope doesn’t show up? Next week is the tried & true uke damsels off into the woods alone. Sigh. 

Our Skyy 2 (Bad Buddy & 1k*) eps 12-16fin - Jimmy, baby, why so hot in an engineering smock? Please have mercy. Aw, Marc is back in yet ANOTHER BL. Definitely the current record holder for most BLs at any one time. (His filming schedule must’ve been insane at the beginning of this year!) PatPran are still great, and their eps this had me hooting with laughter (startling the cat). I forgot how much I enjoyed this show and cast. (Ohm looks great with longer hair, but also he’s lost a lot of weight. I hope he’s OK.) OhmNanon give pitch perfect LTR energy. Throwing EarthMix into the, erm, mix is fun if awkward. NO SINGING. 2 damsels in the forest! Also PatPran = geniuses at mock fighting. So much flirting. It was all quite adorbs. But me-thinks Chief & Tian have been eating moonlight chicken. Full review below. 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 3 of 10? - was enjoying it up until the last bit, why so digusted by smooches? Bad GMMTV no green tea for you. Trash watch here! Rollercoaster about to go DOWWNNNN. 

Luminous Solution (Sat Gaga) ep 3 of 6 - I still only like the high school characters + Dome (WHY so gorgeous?). Is he a magical spirit too? Also, the subs were well off kilter. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 10 fin - God they’re so cute. This show used the manga as a storyboard, so I knew the “crisis of faith over possibility of loss” would happen. Still in live action this felt tonally off. While understandable given Yutaka’s character, and ultimately particularly important for the dad and a relationship with the family, I don’t know we needed it in this BL. The book does have a better ending second scene, but it wouldn’t be possible to do it on screen easily. Ultimately, this show had a simple, touching, quiet end to it. That’s very like the show as a whole. I did love it - it’s been top of my list all along. Full review after the special airs. 

Love Tractor (Korea Weds iQIYI) eps 1-2 of 8 - I LOVE IT SO MUCH. IT IS EVERYTHING. SHUT UP I AM FERRIL FOR THE BEAUTIFUL CITY BOY AND THE YOUNG FARMER. Come on. Korea. SRS? Plus some language play? I just go die now. 

Star Struck (Korea iQIYI & Gaga) ep 7-8 fin - Man this was a difficult show for me. I know we’re supposed to identify with HanJoon but I really felt for YooJae. I’ve been in his position more often than I care to count, and it’s terrible to lose a friend because they caught feelings and you did not. It’s an awful thing to hold a friendship hostage on condition of a romantic relationship. Especially if the other person is not sexually interested in you! All that said, the boyfriend ep was okay. Not sure I believed in this relationship, but it was cute enough. The final ep was (how do I put this?) a loser. We spent a lot of time with terrible home lives and then a semi happy for now final scene? Whatever. Full review below. 

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 6 of 12 - somehow I keep missing this one, I’ll catch it next week. 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - I think the Taiwanese boss is my favorite character. Japan rarely (if ever ) trots out the faen fatal trope. I mean I named it with a Thai word for a reason, it’s not from origin yaoi at all. Yet still there she is. Sigh. This show. 

Stupid Genius (Vietnam Fri YouTube) ep 1 of 6 - RL Studio (Stupid Boys Stupid Love) bringing us yet another high school set VBL. It’s actually not bad. I see a lot of common faces whom I’ve enjoyed in past VBLs. 

It’s Airing But ...

House of Stars (Thai Mon iQIYI) 12 eps - I bounced at ep 3. Will binge if told it is worth it at end.

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) 7 eps - It’s mostly in English and set in LA so I’m not bothering but the first one did drop.

Ever After (Pinoy ????) - I got nothing. 

Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS and no, I have no idea where to get it, why would I? (Say it with me everyone: Oh Japan, must you?*)

Boys Love Omegaverse (Japan ????) - honestly tho? Who tf cares? You’ll still tell me if you find it, because inquiring minds... Irony of this airing at the same time as Takumi-kun. Full circle much, Japan? 

Tin Tem Jai Special (Thai ????) - honestly I checked Gaga & iQiyi in my territory (craptastic hotel) and neither had it listed so I quickly gave up. I mean OF COURSE I WOULD LIKE TO SEE Lee Long Shi in a bathtub, who wouldn’t? But... 

Just because I didn’t watch the special doesn’t mean I can’t gank Lee Long Shi wearing nothing but soap bubbles for you. 

I’m not a monster. 

Ended This Week 

Our Skyy 2 final 4 eps thoughts: This was an interesting combination, and don’t get me wrong I very much enjoyed it, but it felt like the story was carried by PatPran’s characters while the setting and narrative followed an ATOTS arc - ultimately disjointed. OhmNanon are so bold and vibrant they’re too stark a tonal contrast to EarthMix’s more refined and elegant approach, so for me the screen presences and the style of story clashed. It was like a bouquet made up of tulips & roses: they are both flowers and they’re both pretty, but I feel like they actually belong in different vases. Still, enjoyable. And I got a crying kiss. Always makes me happy. Definitely the best of this bunch, and probably the best Our Skyy (and I genuinely loved both the NLMG historical installment and SOTUS.) 8/10 

Star Struck. A friends to lovers story that felt more friends to tolerant yet disinterested partner. It was more about challenges with parents and class strife. I would’ve been disappointed if the show hadn’t come out of nowhere so I had no expectations. But as KBLs go, don’t bother. 6/10 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting:

6/15 Tokyo in April AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Gaga) 8 eps - Based on a yaoi, this is a reunion romance that takes place in an office. Japan does Our Dating Sim? Yes please.

Still Coming - June 2023

6/22 About Us but Not About Us (Pinoy movie from 2022 on Prime) - A professor grieving the loss of his partner meets an ambitious literature student.

6/24 Why You (Khmer BL ????) - Billed as a horror romance, not sure if this is a movie or a series where it will air... nothing except that it exists.

6/24 Tie The Knot AKA Under the Same Sky (Pinoy movie on Prime) Trailer - I guess Prime is coming for our Pinoy BL? From OXIN Films (Rainbow Prince), announced for 2022 based on a true story, Briggs's family runs a bridal business but he has never had a chance to fall in love until he meets Shao, a groom to be.

6/25 Dinosaur Love (Thai iQIYI) Trailer 5 eps - from Ultimate Troop about a uni student, Rak, whose partner cheats on him with Rak's best friend. This gives bad boy hazer Dino an opportunity to hit on Rak at last. From The Yearbook people so I will not watch this as it airs. After Remember Me? Never again with them.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Bruce is so damn fantastic in this show.

Consent comes in all different forms. (both Step by Step) 

Fight fight fight!

Sex sex sex blow job! (both La Pluie) 

Smartest boy in the show. 

Not enough InkPa... never enough. Never never never! 

Love the suit.

All from the Our Skyy 2 BB + ATOTS cross over. 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? IVE’s I Am

[marcishaun]

OC Deep Dive Questionnaire Tag

Thanks for the tag @natolesims! 💗

I chose Deidra, a sim I had created almost 2 years ago. I had created a save just for her, and gave her extended family members. She eventually fell in love with & married a townie, and when the Growing Together ep came out, she became my 1st sim to have an infant. They eventually had 4 kids!

1. What uncommon/common fear do they have?

Being alone. It led to arguments with her sister, Kendra, who felt Deidra rushed into a relationship with Stan because she wanted to get married & have a baby before it was too late.

2. Do they have any pet peeves?

Laziness. Deidra gets frustrated easily, & hates when others don't help.

3. What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom?

Baby toys (their youngest sleeps in their room), perfume & lotions, hair wraps.

4. What do they notice first in a person?

Probably how they react to her. She can be self-conscious, and seems to be on high alert & observes how people perceive her.

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how high is their pain tolerance?

Maybe a 2. It's low. She's never had a major physical injury, and prefers to not deal with any emotional or mental ones.

6. Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure?

Absolutely flight mode. After constantly bickering with her sister, because Kendra didn't accept her now-husband, Deidra stopped speaking to her.

7. Do they come from a big family/are they a family person?

Deidra comes from an average sized family. She has 1 younger sister (Kendra), and 1 younger brother (Shawn), and even has the family oriented trait.

8. What animal represents them best?

Maybe a lioness. Takes care of all of the babies, hunts/cooks, and is the one REALLY in charge.

9. What is a smell that they dislike?

Trash/dirty dish water. It means someone didn't complete their chores.

10. Have they broken any bones?

No.

11. How would a stranger likely describe them?

Quiet, but nice. Seems well organized and put together.

12. Are they a night owl or a morning bird?

Night owl. Her mornings are chaos.

13. What is a flavor they hate and a flavor they love?

Deidra loves vanilla & cinnamon, and just the smell of pickles makes her gag.

14. Do they have any hobbies?

Reading and art/painting/sketching.

15. Boom, surprise birthday party!How do they react to surprises?

Pleasantly surprised, but anxious.

16. Do they like to wear jewelry?

Not really. Maybe for special occasions.

17. Do they have neat or messy handwriting?

Very neat!

18. What are two emotions they feel the most?

The last time I played her, they were Flirty & probably some form of Tense.

19. Do they have a favorite fabric?

Probably cotton. Simple.

20. What kind of accent do they have?

English, United States. Just realized most of my sims don't have regional American accents, and maybe it's because most people tell me that they can't detect a regional accent in me.

Tagging: @changingplumbob @deardiaryts4 @oofiesims

[tea-with-barbatos]

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PLAYING OBEY ME: NIGHTBRINGER FOR FREE! - SECTION 1 - HOW TO GET CARDS!

So, cards... cards are hands down the most essential part of Obey Me. You can't have ANYTHING without cards. Not even a pact with Mammon. But fortunately there's 3 different ways to obtain cards. Some require luck, some require extreme patience. You have plenty of those though... right?

Number 1 - the Gacha Method

The most effective way to acquire new SSR+ cards is by performing 10 pulls at a time. (See the right side of the photo.)

These ensure you will receive at least 1 SSR or above each time. Fortunately, with some grinding these aren't hard to achieve. I'll describe 3 different methods of doing 10x pulls from most efficient to least efficient:

✅ Using the 1 time 10x pull for 150 devil points in event gachas

Every time a new set of event cards is released, there is a limited 1st time 10x pull for a discounted 150 devil points (dp). A new set is released every 2 weeks, so try to save up at least 150dp by the new release if possible. You’ll always receive 1 free pull too!

✅ Using 10 demon vouchers

Demon vouchers (dv) are easily gained by buying the level up congrats sets for 99dp. You’ll need to buy these sets twice to acquire the 10dv needed for a 10x pull. 198dp total. This will save you 72dp per pull. You can also gain dv from events, achievements, login bonuses, and by exchanging 45 raven. Make sure to save dv until you have 10, even if it takes a while.

Congrats sets pop up after levelling up. At first it's every 5 levels, then 3, then every 1. They cost 99 dp to buy and give 5x dv + other goodies. Try to buy them whenever you can afford them. It's ok if you miss out. There will be more.

✅ Using 270 Devilpoints

Really I’d advise saving your dp for the congrats sets, even if you have plenty. It's more cost effective. However, if you truly don't mind spending the extra 70dp, then use them! Especially if you might miss out on a limited time card of your fav(s) if you don't.

❌ Single pulls

For 30dp or 1 dv, you can do 1 pull. This is high risk and low reward. You aren't guaranteed anything but a shot at your dreams. I don't recommend doing this. But if you can't resist temptation then at least Diavolo will find it relatable. You do get a free pull in A, M, and G pools often though.

General gacha advice:

Using the limited event gacha is amazing for potentially getting UR+ cards and is usually your best option. However, you will not be able to get non-event UR cards from these pools. DO use the A box occasionally to get UR cards, otherwise you’ll only have repeat SSRs after a while. (These UR cards also come with outfits.)

Event cards give you bonus points in current events. These are worth getting to help you grind event rewards, including unique URs and SSR memories!

In general pulling for memory cards is not worth the cost. You can get plenty from daily free pulls + playing the events. 80k points for event memory SSRs isn't too difficult with consistent playing. 

Save up your raven from repeat cards to buy dv or outfits for your fav(s).

Number 2 - the Hard Mode Method

The second most effective, and most reliable way, of obtaining new UR+ cards is by playing hard mode.

By reaching S rank in hard mode boss battles or extreme songs, you will unlock the ability to receive UR+ shards. If you collect 80 you can forge a UR+ with 60k Grimm. While this sounds like a LONG grind, and it is, it will be worth it. You can even pick what card(s) to aim for. So go get your fav(s) guaranteed. These cards are as powerful as the gacha ones.

✅ Getting duplicates is useful too in order to raise the level cap and skill tree cap of the UR+ as well. Even just one of these UR+ can boost your power immensely.

Number 3 - The Event Method

Every 2 weeks a new event is released in NB. With it comes a new SSR memory card (80k event points (ep)), UR card (160k ep), and a UR memory card (240k ep). These are the best rewards from the events. Unfortunately, receiving these cards involve a mixture of grinding AND luck. (Example below).

Box events are unpredictable. You might get an event UR in like, 120k ep, but it's unlikely. It might even need 250k ep. Do be careful with them as they involve more gambling.

However, you should at least be able to get the SSR memory if you log in a few times a day to use your AP on the event. Slowly but surely you’ll get there, even without the event card bonuses. You might need to watch a few ads or use some dp though.

Getting the UR card is possible if you get lucky in the event gacha. Even if you only receive the SSR, if you use jokers to raise its skill level you can get even more ep per play. You’ll have to play consistently though, watch some ads and use energy drinks to achieve your goals. It's unlikely you’ll be able to get these URs often if you're free to play. So try to save up your resources for URs of your fav(s).

❌ Event memory URs are impossible to get without paying, so either pay to get them or act like they don't exist.

❌ Ranking for a UR card is difficult without paying too, and it can be precarious. So avoid that unless you're hardcore (and rich).

LINK TO SECTION TWO - DEVIL POINTS

LINK TO MASTERPOST

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Ok.

Question 1 about Enhypen. What are your best performances and what do you think of their music?

Question 2. Do you have a bias?

*

Ask 2:

BPP I'm starved for performance energies like I get from BTS. JK's live show yesterday made the feeling more acute cos all I could think was how much better it would've been with 6 other BTS members. I wonder if you understand my feeling. Are there groups that give you similar performance feeling to BTS?

***

There's no other group like BTS when it comes to performance synergy, energy, and charisma. In my opinion. That's one key ingredient in the secret sauce that sets BTS apart from other groups. They really are the best, and I'm saying this to help calibrate your expectations. But this also doesn't mean all the other groups are shit lol.

If you're looking for a solid dance and performance-driven group, Enhypen is one of the only groups that's worth a look.

I started paying real attention to Enhypen when I heard Pass the Mic and realized they were the first k-pop group to make a song in the Chicago Drill genre. The song itself I'm not a huge fan of (I don't like Ni-ki's rap verses and I think some of the lyrics are a bit cringe), but as far as misses go, this is the only one in their discography. And I still appreciate how drill was incorporated into the song. Also, the choreography is top tier, like every other choreography in their repertoire.

Enhypen is a 7-member group under Be: Lift - HYBE, and it's the first full concept group under HYBE - their concept being a vampire coming of age odyssey. Basically, all the members are vampires and I'm impressed by how consistently this theme is incorporated into their music, styling, lore, MVs, even stage personas without it seeming contrived or cringe.

The members are Jungwon (leader and my bias), Heesung, Sunghoon (bias), Jay (bias), Jake, Sunoo, and Ni-ki (maknae and main dancer). Every member that isn't my bias is my bias wrecker lol.

Honestly, Enhypen should be a lot bigger than they are, because every single one of their performances are, and I'm not saying this lightly, iconic. I'll link a few below and you'll see what I mean. I know the reason they aren't more known is because they don't have a rapline, but the group is beyond talented with a professional figure skater, a dance prodigy, several athletes and one former trainee peer with TXT, all in the group. Their music has roots in rock, hiphop, and EDM but not the 'noise k-pop' type.

Personally, I like their music a lot and feel it's easily some of the best in the entire 4th gen. Because Enhypen is a HYBE group, of course their dance skills, energy and synchronization are best in class. I've seen them in concert once and seen most of their recorded performances (comeback shows, Studio Choom, M studio, etc) and I'd honestly rank them behind only TXT in terms of performance skill and storytelling.

For the uninitiated, to illustrate the sort of talent I'm talking about, this is Enhypen's debut song:

Given-Taken (produced by Bang PD)

(Did you hear the adlibs? This is still one of my favourite debut songs, only behind Attention by NewJeans. By debut this group was already so polished)

*

Blessed Cursed - the song and choreo is in my top 10 for all of 4th gen

*

The infamous Bite Me performance - with this one alone they made history for not just 4th gen, but arguably for all boy groups.

*

Upper Side Dreamin' - is criminally underrated and I know why but it doesn't make it any less painful.

*

Drunk-Dazed - the entire thing is good but the outro seals the deal.

*

Anons I hope this answers your questions. Enhypen will be coming back on November 17th with Orange Blood - their 5th EP. I'm personally looking very forward to it. The boys are just completing the 1st leg of their FATE world tour (all I've heard are rave reviews) and will immediately shift right into promoting the EP. They are working hard and if you like their work, I'd say this is a group worth supporting.

[xiexiecaptain]

Shadow & Bone rewatch live-commenting that was started on twitter and is being moved/continued here!

This is the post for EP 02: We Are All Someone’s Monster

[Episode 01 post] [Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

((There WILL be spoilers mentioned for the books in the Grishaverse including the Crows duology & King of Scars duology! This is basically from the perspective of watching the show as someone who knows the books well.))

This visual interpretation of the way each of the 1st trilogy books are opened and closed with "the boy and the girl" narration is such a great visual motif

--

I love the bleached white streaky effect on the deck from the burst of light

Listen, I'm a writer more than a visual artist, so when people do great clever/interesting visual ways of communicating or interpreting things I'm so in awe

--

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW COOL KAZ'S WATCH IS??

These are the sort of tiny worldbuilding details that I just want to rub all over my face

--

This is a really interesting adaption change--that Kaz couldn't buy her indenture all at once like in the books. But since it seems like they cut Per Haskell, Kaz doesn't have that money to use for buy her contract and such

The amount of trauma Inej must be dealing with on a regular basis, having to go back there is just unimaginable

Like it's one thing to be kept there by Heleen before Kaz bought her indenture. But to be able to leave and be out working for Kaz, but have to go BACK

Oof Inej is the strongest person in the whole series I s2g

--

Of course you can't fool the Wraith. 

She's got your number, Dirtyhands~

--

you can just IMMEDIATELY see he regrets it 

His first instinct is to always make people feel expendable and keep them at arms length 

["He's not the only irreplaceable member of this crew, Kaz. You need me."

"I need your skills, Inej. That's not the same thing."]

--

Ok the fact that he goes after her-!

I mean, think about how much it means that KAZ BREKKER takes the time/effort and concedes the emotional investment in her to grab his cane and walk after her?!?!

[I'd settle for an apology, she decided. Even if Kaz isn't sorry, he can pretend. He at least owes me his best imitation of a human being.]

Listen I've been Kanej trash for almost 5 solid years now, y'all. The fact that I'm getting new material through this series is feeding me spiritually

--

Kirigan: Closer 

Alina: *teeny tiniest of steps* 

aLINA STARKOV-!

--

Again, I really like the adaption changes they made--this time with the visual/physical externalization of the Grisha testing

In books, because of interiority and description, it works perfectly for it to be described as touching an arm and then that feeling of rushing to meet the touch. But for a visual medium, having to be something more physical and something easier to convey visually was a smart choice.

But also to have the testing be as a response to sudden pain, like triggering a survival instinct, has lots of interesting things to say about the nature of Grisha power

--

Man as much as I despise the Darkling, he's a very compelling and well-done antagonist and character.

Because you disagree with HOW he goes abt it, but you can understand WHY he does it. To me personally, that’s the kind of antagonist I really find fascinating--one you can sympathize with, who genuinely believes they’re making the hard choices to do good things but are misguided, misinformed, accidentally harmful, and causing harm that they justify. (Although there’s a lot to discuss about antagonists like that where then the overall narrative moralizes middle-road non-action in the face of oppression over revolutionary action ie Killmonger, but I digress).

But Ben Barns really kills it as the Darkling. Just pitch perfect, I mean this is 1000% the face of a man who has just found the final tool to start the work he's been planning for centuries.

But I ESPECIALLY love when there are no clear cut black and white, no choices made that are easily entirely definable “right” or wrong” for the antagonist (nor the protagonist for that matter.) Make all the choices grey and make everything have collateral damage  (You can start to see why SoC is my personal favorite in the Grishaverse, huh?)

But the Darkling is a very good antagonist. Doesn’t tick all my personal boxes but he’s very well crafted. (Eerily over-charismatic antagonists are really enthralling to me especially because they mirror real-life “villains” in that many people who are easily charming can also be very manipulative.)

--

THE LOOK ON KAZ'S FACE WHEN PEKKA WALKS IN IM- 

[Kaz heard a roaring in his ears. As always, he experienced a strange kind of doubling when he looked at Rollins...]

--

[The look that passed over the boy's face then had taken Rollins aback. It was hatred--pure, black, long simmering.]

--

I literally hissed out loud when he took Kaz's cane how fucKING DARE YOU

--

Good fucking luck, Rollins. Didn't turn out so well last time Ketterdam tried that

[One glance at Kaz Brekker told him this was a creature who had spent too long in the dark--he'd brought something back with him when he'd crawled into the light.]

--

(( P.S. Yes I have the SoC books with me bc 

1. I'm the biggest nerd on the planet but 

2. It's really amazing to see how well they translated the character dynamics and emotions 

3. The books are some of the most quotable in the universe 

4. I don't own paper copies of the other ones))

--

[Kaz waited for acknowledgement--a smirk, a sneer, some spark of recognition. But Rollins' eyes passed right over him.]

ITS JUST SO GOOD?!?!

I mean we’re seeing the Crows/Ketterdam folks in an entirely new plot, but the book quotes still fit flawlessly because the core of the characters and their dynamics have been translated to this adaption with such care and love for the source material!!!

--

I mean, he's not entirely wrong

[The child he'd been had died. The fever had burned away every gentle thing inside him. Survival wasn't nearly as hard as he'd thought once he left decency behind.]

--

She knows him so fucking well!

["Don't think I haven't noticed the way you go after him, Kaz."

"He's just another boss, one more Barrel thug."

"No, he isn't. When you go after other gangs, it's business. But with Pekka Rollins, it's personal."]

--

It is in this moment I am heavily reminded that you can easily interpret the books as supporting that Jesper has feelings/the hots for Kaz at the beginnings of the books

--

JUST BURY ME IN TINY CULTURAL WORLDBUILDING DETAILS LIKE THIS

--

The Conductor is another addition I freaking adore 

Of course some enterprising individual figured out their own way through the Fold and used it to make money (I mean also helping Grisha flee Ravka, but still, he's charging them so)

--

MY HEART 

I bet they feel like they just got each other back too, after thinking they were gonna be separated by the supply run through the fold 

OH MY BABIES

--

fUCKING HELEEN VANHOUDEN THE EVIL BITCH 

On a weird side note, her voice has the exact same awful sickly sweet drawl as in the audiobooks and its just perfect for the exact type of abusive she is

--

KazBrekker.exe has stopped working 

 (Also me. We live an Inej Ghafa appreciation life here in this household)

--

Look at Inej's face. She thinks Heleen's sending her to a client 

I can't bear this 

She looks like she's trying so so hard to keep herself together

--

The Komedie Brute costume revelers!! 

(at least I'm pretty sure that's what they're supposed to be)

--

JESPER LLEWELLAN FAHEY (scolding, adoring)

--

[He'd heard other members of the gang say she moved like a cat, but he suspected cats would sit attentively at her feet to learn her methods.]

--

“OF COURSE, LOVE” I’M-

He’s so IMMEDIATELY ready to help her with whatever. OF COURSE, he says.

Bury me in their friendship

I also really adore we get to see Inej struggling with not wanting to kill people. Cus in the book only vaguely mentioned about her having cried the night she killed someone for the first time and Kaz overheard her.

--

The unexpected gays have arrived!!

--

The position of Grisha in Ravka is so interesting!

Because a lot of otkazat'sya see them as stuck up, thinking they're better than and getting preferential treatment.

But that’s only because the Darkling made it that way in response to Grisha literally being burned at the stake elsewhere

In the books, so many of the Little Palace Grisha that Alina trains with have the outlook of "well, we have powers, we were scouted to be trained here because we're special, so obviously we're better than otkazat'sya."

But here, I think its important that they show that at least some of the Grisha realize that this tiny bubble of safety (via fear, rather than acceptance) because of the Ravkan government (the Darkling’s work) is the exception. And many of the 2nd Army Grisha aren't from Ravka originally, they fled their homelands for fear of being killed, experimented on, sold into servitude, etc.

And while the Darkling has made it safer for Grisha who are recruited into the 2nd Army, the legacy of the Fold has also increased prejudice against Grisha among otkazat'sya and abroad..

I just really like this scene because of how it highlights the Grisha's very complex position

--

The fact that they developed Fjerdan to the point where they have characters speaking it is just *chef kiss*

(once again, idk how people who watch things without subtitles don't miss 80% of content even when its not literally translating dialogue for you, but that might just be my ADHD ass talking)

--

I’m not even a little bit sorry

--

ok but the horror on Jessie Mei Li's face is absolutely stunning

--

WINKS SO HARD I STRAIN A MUSCLE 

Somewhere on the Geldstraat, Wylan Van Eck is sneezing

--

The little thing of Kaz tensing up when Jesper grabs his coat and then staring at it pointedly

Oh man oh man oh man

--

HHHHHH KAZ’S FACE

 ["Would you? Trust someone with that knowledge, with a secret that could destroy you?" 

Yes, thought Kaz without any hesitation. There's one person I would trust. One person I know would never use my weaknesses against me.]

--

The most realistic of portrayal of horse riding in a fantasy show

--

already lying through his gd teeth 

gIRL DUMP HIM

--

"Oh, so what's the Darkling's, like, story arc?"

--

I MEAN SHE'S NOT WRONG THO?

(A side note, how interesting would it be if Alina actually wasn't the first sun summoner?)

--

Well, well, look who it is: Malyen "Tunnel Vision" Oretsev 

(I’m kidding, I really like show!Mal)

--

WE LEAD A JESPER 👏 FAHEY 👏  APPRECIATION 👏 LIFE 👏

--

So I literally wrote a [post back in the day] about how I thought since queer, trans, and gnc folks have historically been pushed to the margins of society and work/live in poor areas and have a high rate of sex work, you can bet your ass the Barrel has its fair share of trans/gnc residents

And its so cool to see this gestured to with Poppy?? 

I’m also glad they're miffed at Kaz for a financial deal rather than anything gender/sexuality related. Like the writers didn't stereotype Poppy's life

Let's just get more of Poppy tbh? What's their story!?! I wanna see more of them and see them performing on stage and see them do some cool badass stuff???

Just more Poppy in season 2 please? 

We also need more people who call Kaz out on being a little scheming rat tbh

--

I AM SO FUCKING INTERESTED ABOUT THIS?? 

They gave Inej a brother!!! Who was also stolen by slavers!! Which is a fascinating plot twist and I'm very excited to see how it adds to the story!!!

--

I CANT BREATHE HER FACE- 

INEJ-!!!! 

[She had to believe her Saints saw and understood the things she did to survive.]

Amita Suman is the one and only Inej Ghafa and we are so lucky to have herrrr

--

She's absolutely ready to believe he would choose profit over her never having to step foot in the Menagerie again 

It's heartbreaking but also like, yeah, Kaz, you built your reputation specifically so people would believe you capable of anything??

--

The only people we have seen him let stand this close beside him so far in the show are Jesper and Inej and I have a Feelings about it 

He gets in people's faces for intimidation reasons, but the only one he’s gotten this close next to are them????

--

THATS NOT AN ANSWER YOU MANIPULATIVE PIECE OF GARBAGE

--

Change dot org petition to Give Alina Starkov a Fucking Hug

--

🎵Doo-do-do-do-do 🎵 Definitely not about to desert the army to run off after my childhood friend 🎵  doo-do-do

--

I fucking love these three's friendship so much. I’m so glad it had space in the show to get fleshed out and feel more real

--

im fucking scREAMING

[His mind had concocted a hundred schemes to bind her to him, to keep her in this city. But she'd spent enough of her life caged by debts and obligations.]

--

And that’s the end of Ep 02! Hot damn hot damn!

--

Additional thoughts: 

Both visually and character-wise, this show is so gd diverse and it's just a pleasure 

And its diverse because the WORLD is diverse, not just for misguided ~diversity~ reasons

There are so many races and ethnicities, gender expressions, sexualities, body types, classes, dis/abilities on screen for the simple reason that all those people exist in the world, take part in major world events and in the stories of people's lives 

It's a fucking joy.

One of the things that endeared me to the SOC books right away (which I read first) was that in the first chapter where we meet our main characters, we already have two characters of color and a disabled character within this absolutely enthralling scene of the parlay with the Black Tips where those traits are not ignored but nor are they centered unnecessarily. They are integral to the characters and how they operate in the world, but they are never reduced to them. Everyone is complicated and textured and flawed and I just really fucking love Leigh's characters ok?

It's so wonderful we have a mixed-race main character (played by a mixed-race actress) 

 We have four mixed-race characters in the main/supporting cast: Alina, Mal, Jesper, & Zoya (though Jesper & Zoya’s backgrounds aren’t mentioned/explored in season 1)

We have a young man with a physical disability in the main cast who is portrayed to be one of the scariest people in his city 

We have five indisputably queer characters on screen in season 1: Jesper, Ivan, Fyedor, Nadia, Dima

We have heavy folks in main roles--Nina & Arken--portrayed as desirable and ingenious, both hero and turncoat

We have so many POCs it's useless to point them all out individually, which is a gift 

It all just feels like such a gift

-

[Episode 01 post] [Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 3

Apritello, my dear friends, is really all hints, devil in details, little pieces that, in the end, become a huge picture.

I can't say that there are a lot of episodes with April and Donnie spending quality time together, no. But all episodes are important to understand how their relationship are involving, growing. If you have sharp eyes and think about all of this even a little bit, you will be surprised how gracefully their relationship changes and grows, how characters evolve.

Dear passengers, we're about to start. Mind the gap!

Episodes “The Gumbus” and “Mrs. Cuddles”. 

I think it would be appropriate to analyze these episodes in bunch, because they have common situations of spooky supernatural stuff and reactions of characters to this.

When you watch these two eps in raw, it's easy to see how alike are reactions of Donnie and April in some scary, really odd situations. 

Adrenaline ‘n’ reclessness

April is really into all spooky things in “The Gumbus”, she's not afraid of some creepy stuff and she's really brave girl who easily copes with stressful and life-threatening situations.

Donnie is incredibly calm and collected when alive doll talked to him.

But still, April was frightened about plush rabbit because it was really unexpected for girl, she wasn’t ready to realize that plush doll that she’d worked with is alive fear-eating monster who will hurt and intimidate to get their precious screams. But point remains: Donnie and April share crazy fearlessness, which turns into an adrenaline addiction.

And here I am, a science guy, who tell you: adrenaline is a big deal for our body. This hormone can even provoke an onset of romantic feelings. Chemistry and anatomy come to fill the gaps: when a person is afraid, their pulse quickens, a cocktail of hormones is releasing into the blood, which sharpen the senses and reflexes. It will create a strong emotional bound, that's important for maintaining romantic kind of feelings. The more impressions there are (even negative ones), the higher the chance that person will remember his|her partner, and want to see them again – the body gets hooked on adrenaline, like a drug.

That’s why D&A have so strong, unshakeable boundaries. They are so alike: their attitude to scary things, the way Donnie and April cope with them, the adrenaline addiction their share. They even express feelings the same way.

And one tiny detail: April and Donnie start the teasing Raph for his fear of mrs. Cuddles. So they become the first victims of plushie.

Friendly reminder: they were the 1st victims, and what’s happened with them we don’t know, because it wasn’t shown due to not ruin the atmosphere of suspense.

But we have a beautiful quote of mrs. Cuddles and this precious shot which explain everything

Raph: Where’s Donnie?

Cuddles: In a happy place where he’ll scream and I can grow forever and now you’re gonna join him!

In a happy place, huh? Tied up with April in Splinter’s bedroom, a really happy place. Hold a sec, are they -

And after that Donnie’s responding is killing me.

Donnie:[OS] I'm afraid of togetherness.

Yep. All normal here. We should continue.

"Operation Normal" even though doesn't show a lot of interactions between April and Donnie, however continues the general outline highlighting the topics that were mentioned earlier in the show.

Firstly, April's relationship with her classmates. We're able to see how poor her scholar life is in "Hypno Part Deux" and "The Purple Jacket". She has no "normal", human friends except some strange remora guy, more like acquaintance than friend, though. But still, having "be normal" kick she's fine with Donnie's weirdness ( Mikey is always beyond all normal comprehension, Raph goes weird while he's alone, without brothers, and his fear of miss Cuddles is no big deal to fam, Leo didn't show any weird stuff during the series, like, reeeeal weird, m'kay?).

Conversation between April and Donnie at pizza spot

Really interesting and smooth scene. We’ve got Donatello who stares at April while he’s waiting his favourite pizza, no big deal.

And his legs.

If a person is interested in you, during a conversation, they will put their right foot forward (a left-handed person is more likely to put their left foot forward) in order to close the distance between you. - Check.

being in company, peson will point the sock at the most pleasant interlocutor for them. - check.

April’s legs are ponted at Donnie. Checkmate.

Yeah, April is hanging out with Donatello and Leonardo, but the main focus of hers is on Donnie. 

All these scene makes me think that Donnie, knowing about how badly sometimes April  wants to be normal, is up to help her overcome this. Fight fire with fire:  fill up her life with all of this weird, mystic stuff so it will be normal with time. Regular people go to pizza spot to spend some quality time together, so we have pizza restaraunt here, in Hidden City. Make all odd normal, and problem will solved.

Donnie really tries his best, look at his face. Dee’s fine with all this bizzare things what happens to April, he’s fine with her. But still he fails, because April’s concept of normalcy differs drom Donnie’s.

And again, for Donnie it’s not a problem at all. He’s always was at the opposite side of normalcy and it doesn’t matter for him if April is in the same boat with him. Cause, as I said, Don’s fine with that.

Second, how much Donnie knows about April.

- Scoff! Are you really still on this whole "I want things to be normal" kick?

- Yes, what big city girl doesn't have a kayak and has hazmat suit?

Interesting detail here: this line launches Donnie’s flashback (because the first scene is from “Purple Jacket”, it’s Dee’s episode, obviously). And Don, as far as I can tell, has in his flashback moments with April when she did something reaaally impressive. His face is way more louder than any words.

- Short answer: no. Long answer: nnooooooooo.

- Oh, no! You know how April freaks out around the cosplay wizards!

These tiny lines are containing a lot of background, stories, intimate conversations that April and Donnie share. This show always does the same trick: we never see a direct action, we are only able to see a result or statement of the result. But series do a great work telling us with such small and imperceptible gestures that their bonding at this point is mutual. Not only D tells April about his inventions, family and fam's issues he has and even his falls, mistakes and failures. April does the same thing, sharing with Donatello one of the most important things to her. Problem that really bothers her.

C'mon, he'd even memorized Sunita's name, though April messed up with this situation a bit. It seems Donnie memorizes facts about April - he remembered the wi-fi password from old April's work as we can see in "The Longest fight" (he could hack it easily, he's a genius, why he's been keeping in mind some piece information that useless for a year? It doesn't make any sense)

Oh, and that. Just a coincidence, I guess?

Just alike suits, no big deal. Plus, the whole family has it (and something tells me that guys have suits at the behest of Don, so probably April does). But Donnie and April has a lot in common like emotional expressions, reaction about some kind situations, fight style and even tastes in fashion.

Also, it seems like Donnie's been watching April for sometimes.

While Leo was hiding in trash can, to not catch anyone's eye rather than April. He definitely couldn't know who was passing by, but there was Donnie to observe from above. That's why he was hanging down the stairs when Leo spoke to April.

It’s not the first time Donnie dress up as old lady to monitor April’s day.

Leo: Why do you always make us dress up as old ladies? Donnie: №1: confort, №2: to blend in as we monitor April’s day for max normalcy.

 3. Even when D took away this cosplay wizard, he's still keeping eye on her.

Oh no, you don’t. Grandmas here!

Donatello changes his foe to save April exactly. He fought all evening with Brutus, but when April slightly gets in danger, Donnie just attacked anyone who has intention to hurt her and ruin her evening.

Is that a flying turtle in an old purple dress?

April, who all evening was trying to look “normal”, hiding her real friends because they are mutant turtles and pretending that nothing unusual happens here, finally gives up when Sunita mentioned Donnie. Even though new April’s friend has asked her before about Leo.

His eyes. 

Donnie is really impressed but what he saw, and the reason - April O'Neil.

The episode "Warren & Hypno, sitting in a Tree" is another incredible piece of whole picture.

Turtle tank is decorated for April birthday in purplish scheme, definetely Donatello's work.

Dee's nonverbal speech.

• He seems more interested and softer than usual looking at April. It's easy to say comparing him with brothers. Mikey is in anticipation of fun mode, Leo relaxed and show his "whatever it will be fun" attitude, Raph is listening carefully, but still, Donnie could just turn his head in April's vouce direction, not a whole body.

• Warren felt Don's gaze while talked with April, so worm made the remark. Pay attention to the construction of the frame of neighboring scenes. The second frame is April's perspective. And Don is looking namely at her.

Indignation. Disappointment. Spark, storm, madness (i love this russian meme, sorry not sorry)

• Donnie seems sincerely sorry for this situation with April's b-day. And again, this soft gaze and "Raph, shut the shell up, your nonsense is upsetting her"-eyes.

• Donatello is kind of person, who’s avoiding a proper confrontation, so he rarely stands up for someone.  He were remaining silent, when Raphael tried to cheer April in the most radiculous way, but when Hypno tried to play with April’s feelings, Donnie blew it. 

He’s obviously in wrath as D emote that expressively. Yeah, he had much on his plate at April’s birthday, but it’s her b-day on the line, not his pride.

Warren used April, playing with her fan feelings. Her idol betrayed her, she was locked up in a cage, and now we have Hypno who wants to use her again by pitting and pushing for her compassion, because, it’s obvious - boys would do everything she said. 

And Donnie tries to keep Hypno away from her, protect her feelings from another betrayal. 

As he’s already stated - “For you, anything”.

The show always tells us: if you wanna trigger Don, bring April in. 

Hypno tried to turn this thing around, Leo did the same in “Al be back”. 

If Hypno-tamus did that accidentally as he found out that April O’ Neil is a birthday girl, so her wishes that day were laws, Leo did it on purpuse.

Leo is good at manupulating and pulling some strings, plus he knows his twin as back of his hand. That’s why Leo mentioned April in the end as she was always the most powerful argument, the reason and motive for Donnie. At second he’s even panicked, but remained calm. He almost blew up his coolheaded image because of one certain girl in yellow.

• Donnie is really happy to present Warren's arm to April. He even holds it like a rare, priceless treasure. D is really proud of himself right now: he saved the day, after all. The emotional reaction of hers is exactly what Donnie wants to get. And then, his final pose, while April is on 9th cloud from happiness - that's really territorial gesture, D claims his supremacy and confidence, telling "See? That's my happy birthday girl".

Leapfrog with a composition

Donnie and April are more and more eager to be together in the frame. Composition’s boners, m’kay.

Special ride for April

Yeah, Donnie used to offer his battleshell to give April a special ride. It even has  a seat and handlebars for her comfort. She can control the flight as well as Donatello, they are like co-pilots. But he never carried her on his back before.

Usually, April is carried by Raphael, on his neck/shoulder, and she’s fine with it. Raph is strong enough to carry her without any difficulties or slowing down.

It’s not Donnie’s weak to carry her - no, he strong enough to carry his battleshell with a lot stuff in it everyday, Don can carry Splints on his shoulder without any apparent difficulty. He strong enough to hold the weight of his battleshell+April. Oh, c’mon, D assembled the Turtle tank only by himself and this for sure requires a lot of physical strength in order to engage in auto mechanics. Try lifting the wheel with tyre, and you'll see what I mean. Of course, there is a jack, but it will not solve all the problems. Don could use hydraulics and Archimedes ' laws, but I'm sure he did most of it with his own hands. Lifting and carrying, all by himself.

Not the strengh what’s matter but another point.

The sequence where Donnie carries April on his back doesn’t last long, it’s pretty easy to miss, while Raph openly do that with April on him. 

Plus April’s gaze: she’s staring right at us with her “ninja-eyes” as if they were caught in the middle of something. The duration and length of the sequence, the way it is made all of this arouse certain thoughts. 

It’s like nobody should see this. Too personal. To be more specific - too close and intimate? 

Donnie stated a few times that he’s not into togetherness, tactile interaction and phisical side of contacts. Although he's fine with his brothers, don't forget that April is a girl. Even if she feels like part of family, she’s not his relative. She’s not his sister. 

Some people tend to avoid physical contact with the objects of their interest. And this behaviour fits in Don’s character. He’s anxious type with a lot of psychological and emotional issues. Yeah, he tries to cover it up, built a shell to protect himself, behave as confident extravert but he’s nothing like that. Sometimes D tends to distance himself from his family, to hide in his shell, and we've seen that throughout the show. 

Don hangs by his phone quite often, he addicted to this as his comfort zone, his peaceful cave, where everything is much easier,

Don pretends he’s so busy with his science stuff to ward off his brothers (ep. Mind Meld), 

Don went to the lab to work on his projects, while he could hang out with April and the brothers (ep. Mrs. Cuddles). And he left for what? To work on self-cleaning tooth pick, or the titan bust of himself? It’s seems like lame excuse to be alone. He’s definetely an intovert, who sometimes needs some space and time with himself. 

All his cocky behaviour is showing off to hide insecure, diffident and vulnerable creature, softshell purple turtle. Yeah, Donnie has confidence in what he’s great in: tech, science stuff, where he’s only one is capable of. But if someone steps on his domain or doubts his authority, his true colours exposed.

And, once again, “Mind meld” is a great evidence of that. Would callous, unsumpathetic guy without heart have a wall with pictures of his fellows? I’m afraid not. Donnie has a soft, caring heart.

There’s an alley of his the dearest moments, because photos - are always memory, precious moments we want to keep. 

1 - from “Minotaur Maze”. Don loves good pizza, loves his brothers, and they have a little adventure together. Yeah, this photo isn’t on champ wall, but still.

2 - from “Mascot melee”. Important day for bros as they show themselves to people at daylight to rescue Raph and their operation to buy a new robe for his father. It’s their joint brothers dance, and D is loving to dance, remember? Definetely special occasion.

3 - from “Mascot melee”. Splints was really glad to receive a gift from boys. And Donatello, as we know, is always eager to achive for pop’s approval. This for sure must be in his precious moments collection.

5, 7 - from “Donnie’s gifts”. He even keeps a dorky photo, which Raph uses as profile pic at Donnie’s number.

8, 9 - “Down with the sickness”. It was funny to survive all the 7 stages to achive what boys wanted. They failed, but still.

10 - from “Al be back”. Who knows that Splints is so good at singing?

4, 6 - from “The Fast and the Furriest”. Strange choice, cuz, you know, photos ten seconds before his collision with April bat?

And yeah, he HAS April’s photo here. And at this pic it’s April, and April alone,without his brothers. 

Don’s a real softie, see?

And avoiding physical contact is a way to protect Donnie’s already shattered self-esteem. To not cause any doubts in front of girl which he’s interested in. That’s possible reason why we did not receive any heartwarming hugs in “The Purple Jacket”.

But Donnie carries April, because it’s her birthday. On the one hand, the girl claims that  her b-day is cursed, and Donnie could, by any chance, do something nice for her, and on the other hand - any request of the bithday girl - is the law, as we could see earlier.

Gift for birthday girl

There is no Donnie in the scene after Draxum throw off Warren's arm. While Raph comfort April about her birthday, Donnie was looking for it to present it to April.

He knows the best what is the most precious gift for her. Warren Stone, her idol, goat of making news; she have been in Stoneheads fanclub for 9 years. Also, it seems that Donnie is the one of turtles, who collected info about this worm.

Also, he stopped immediately when April stepped between them and show no disappointing (remind you about Donnie's sadistic science guy nature). The reason is April.

And another cute detail: their glasses are the same form.

Another episode "Mystic library" has slightly touched D&A interaction. But were talking about Apritello, it's all hints but quality.

When Mayham trapped in the mirror and Raph, Leo and Mikey obviously are not coping, April decides to call Donnie to clear situation up.

Donnie, mister "I ruin everything", she's going to call for help. I repeat this. April calls for help Mr. Science to solve mystic problems with her pet. MYSTIC PET.

 And he AGREES.

Turtles dissuade their friend from calling Donatello but after a while, April returns with Donnie, and sees the bathroom in ruins.

I'm gonna clear this moment.

1. April haven’t called Donnie.

2. Some time later she returns with Dee.

3. Our girl is pretty shocked to see her bathroom in ruins, argo she didn't see/hear Raph chose to solve problem with smashing.

It must mean only ine thing: April went for Donnie by herself. We don't know where was he, we don't know what the reason April brought Donnie with her by herself, 'cause we know that if she call Dee, he will definitely get to her immediately.

Something is definetely off.

By the way, April changed Don’s profile pic.Yeah, the first one is very informative since Donnie is a turtle and he’s purple and he has bandana. Seems like April have done it by herself, editing the photo of real turtle. She didn't put a lot of effort into this, this image doesn't show her real attitude towards Don. But second is more personality-tinged. Sleeping Donatello in all his gear - this detail can tell us about only one thing - he was photographed when he fell asleep after his sleepless night(s) working hard at something - is something she can catch or receive by boys (namely speaking, it’s Leo, according to Ben Schwartz stated in an interview, that if Leo had an Instagram account, that 60 to 70% of his photos would be his brothers caught sleeping or slipping on things). And still. April has a dorky and little embarrassing pic of Donatello and this is... Interesting and cute?

This profile pic remind me about ROTTMNT: Sound off! (2nd issue)

The next station is “The Purple Game”.

Another episode in which the interaction of the characters is small in timing, but great in content.

And once again: they have a lot in common. I’d never tired of repeating this thing ‘cause the series do the same trick, showing one thing from different points of view. April and April shares the same taste in games, the same attitude, the same mojo. 

But the most important thing here is how D&A interacrions are shown in this episode. Unlike other episodes, the interaction here is indirect, is provided by gaming.

Their customized avatars reflects their personality. I mean, the colour schemes (though Donatello has never shown any interest in yellow, he used it for customization of his persona), the way their avatars looking. Game even refering to Sherlock_Corn as “she”, albeit it’s impossible to refer to her avatar in female pronoun. Because, you know, design and nickname?

And the in-game interaction of the avatars resembles D&A irl relationships. Bootyyyshaker 9000 don’t like togetherness, he’s looking like Donnie’s expectation of himself (cool and tough guy, as D sees himself in his own dreams)

Their dialogue

Actually. Actually, Donnie and April are not able to hear each other as game has no voice chat, but their lines make an perfect dialogue nevertheless.

April:Bootyshaker9000? Donnie? 

Donnie:April? You’re the last person I need to destroy to achive rank №1!

April:Ditto!

Both:There can only be one!

Donnie said the cheat combination, so April would know for sure what he is supposed to do, but she has no idea.

So, once again: their sync is incredible.

And can we talk about that?

April’s attack

As it seems, attacks may be customized by players. Bootyyshaker has attack that refers at Donatello main feature - superior intellect.

And this attack isn’t effective, because REAL April O’Neil has a resist towards it. She has known D for years, she knows what he’s capable of, she’s aware of his nerd side. April’s immune to it, so Sherlock_Corn is.

 Sherlock_corn has a default attack - kernel cannon. It’s nod to her nickname: kernel, corn, the same book. But her second atteck is something reflecting her personalitiy. Plus, April is aware of Donnie’s “fear” of togetherness. All’s fair in love and war, right?

April took a lot of BS9000 hp by her “friendly hugs”. And, by the way, his sweet reaction for hugs.

So:

The selection of the final opponent. It might be literally anyone, but we wouldn’t be able to see Dee’s obsession in that case. Yeah, he’s already had a  demon possesion ™, but it was too easy to him to win. No challenge. No “kill or be killed”, “It’s me or you” mojo.  He needed some tough gamer for challenging, to develop his character, push him too far. And  April, actually, is an excellent choice to reveal the character of certain purple turtle.To expose his true colours. And April do a great job: they know each other, so battle will be spicy, they are both compepitors, they are so alike, so it would be intersting to watch Donatello vs April. And it will, ‘cause In-game April and In-game Don is somewhat different than them usual.

April is Don’s slayer for sure. She’s good at gaming, her last attack was almost fatal for him. So he had to to cheated on her. 

Captain Cuddlecakes. Yes, she know about his afraid of togetherness. And there’s lovey-dovey attack animation with this cuddling and Donatello’s persona behaves like him. And it was SPECIAL RUN, so... I haven’t the foggiest why. Cute detail, I mean.

Just look at it.  Isn’t it cute?(at least we got their hugs somewhere... kinda. kinda.)

“Snow Day“, albeit  being family episode, shows a lot about D&A relationship through “family war”.

First of all, the same taste in films.   

Donnie’s already shown the same attitude to fashion, scary things as Cap O'Neil, April shares the same gamer’s mojo as Donatello, but now? We have Donnie and April that are loving the same movie.

For love of purple supernovas, of all the Jupiter Jim’s movies (and there are more than 60 of them), that's a convinient coincidence, they like the same movie.

It stated in series several times that Dee is fond of Atomic Lass. He had crush on her when he was child, he admires her by all his heart, so it will make sense if films with this character he would be his favourite. It’s logical, isn’t it?

Atomic Lass, even if she is part of JJ-universe, however, isn't in every movie. Leo described "JJ: Pluto vacation IV" and there is no sights of Atomic Lass. Like, at all. 

Nevertheless, April’s claimed that “PV-4” is the best movie of the time, and Don agrees. 

April:What the whaaaat? Hold up, Skip. “Jupiter Jim Pluto Vacation 4″ is the best JJ movie  of all time.

Donnie:Ranked, by us, just now. So it’s basically official, no arguing.

And they do this thing again. Reflecting each other. Facial expressions, intonations, poses and etc. Haven’t I mentiones that? Mirroring is natural way to build communication. People, who communicate enthusiastically, who have sympathy to each other, feelings of certain nature, unconsciously copy each other's poses.

Direct reflection and close contact have a strong effect. This is used between lovers, people with close relationships or interested in each other.

And you can see that during not only episode, but through the whole series. 

Poses, gestures, facial expressions they share constantly. Even if they are apart, they are mirroring each other, showing their bound. Because Apritello is not always about sitting close, holding hands and blushing. Apritello is about staying together even if they are not.  It’s about solid foundation, about synergy, about chemistry Donnie and April share. And all of these are not always so obvious and clear, evident. But so realistic nevertheless.

And that’s why they splitted off the fam - they are too close and alike. 

I stated it before but DonniexApril team is way more effective than Donniexbrothers team. Donatello and April are equal, worth each other. They are comfortable with each other, their teamwork is amazing. 

They are always near, close to each other for the entire episode. Stand up for each other, side by side. They have no need to do team-building, because their sincronization is incredible. April works well together with Donnie, their skills compliment each other. 

I love that April in a first place look at Donnie to check is everything alright.

And a cherry on top?

This inviting gesture. Donnie just watched all along how his brothers and April try to throw some cold water on this situation (khem, it slipped). But when April call him with this inviting gesture, he’d like to help. 

In other words, he was waitng when April requests for his help.    

Composition’s boners

Sometimes it happens during the show, but this episode beat hte score at this point. I say only one word: physics. Or, more precisely, the force of attraction. Or, maybe Mayham.

... Anyway.

Fitting in the type

April can play not so nice against her enemies, she got steady hand and meanness, merciless and reclessness. She’s passionate and kinda badass, sassy - in a positive way, she’s baddest girl who can kick your butt if you mess with her, and she really good at this. 

She has a fire, and Donnie likes that. Dee never stated that directly but miss O’Neil impressed him so many times and in different way so it’s kinda pretty obvious. 

Just look how Donatello reacted the way April took Raph down a peg. Her actions are elegant, relaxed but really sly. She almost dare Raph to put his flag on top only to bring him down to Earth in really painful way. She destroyed Bros’ team so easily just by waiting a bit and by calling Mayham. 

She’s definetely got some pepper.

Pretty cute but baddest, don’t you think?

And Donnie was impressed for sure, he admitted it - “That is fun for me”. He don’t even stand a chance, c’mon: she’s smarass and elegant, she can be mean and cute at the same time. 

Even though that’s it for season 1 analysis (the last series is more appropriate  to review as part of 2nd season, plus it was a reaally big post, I need some time)

You can refresh this whole situation in the car 1 and the car 2 or follow the hashtag #apritello express as you please. It’s a pleasure of mine, keep in touch :)

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, Se3, ep11 (part 1)

Breaking toxic bonds & accepting healthy ones isn’t a miracle. A bond that started with love could end up chained & toxic, another that started wrong could’ve become the joy of a life time. You can do it. Break the cycle of abuse & stand up for yourself, it is easy yet so difficult, you aren’t alone, tho, loved ones stand nearby cheering. Be kind on yourself, otherwise you’ll throw your life away. Life isn’t just happiness & joy, it’s also sadness & loneliness. Break free from the shackles that held you down. Embrace life & Live.

-Tohru’s “ I’m okay” mask is finally shattered! (the Importance of kyo’s rejection for her development):

This is the last part of tohru’s character development! The last few eps were abt her role in Akito’s redemption & their similarities. she staood up for herself & choose a path away from her mom while keeping her mom’s memory in a healthy manner. No more planning my life according to mom’s wishes, no more talking to mom ‘s picture 24/7. Now, I’ll plan my life & move forward even if it is with the guy mom said she cant forgive. even If it is without him, I’ll move forward. I love him so much, yet I won’t force our bond & let go. So easy yet so difficult!. tohru doesnt know anything abt kyo after her fall. All she remembers is his heart-broken face as he wept beside her. Those tears on his face, she caused them. He cried cuz it is too painful to see her hurt. She was a burden to him! tohru restored to her old coping mechanism of pretending “ i’m Okay” & smiling. She did so numerous times before. Always worked. No one noticed. Except him. Se02, ep7. he urged her to show her true fears. Now, she’s faced with a pain so big she can’t pretend no more. the pain of loosing him. She cried in front of yuki! The smile & chatting abt chores couldn’t conceal the running tears! Yuki’s first time seeing her like that. Se01, ep14, yuki wondered how could tohru smile after her mom’s death. She can’t pretend no more! She’ll have to wear her feelings on her sleeve! cuz it IS ok to do so! She tells kyo to give her a moment to compose herself. She couldn’t lie & pretend like she did with yuki. Here she either run away or just try to compose myself! I LOVE THAT! This way, whenever kyo/tohru fight or have any misunderstanding in the future as a couple, you’ll know tohru won’t just bear it & pretend, “ i;m okay” No! she’ll talk to kyo & express herself! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! It gives her so much strength as a human & I’m happy all the obstacles & set backs in kyo/tohru’s romantic journey has led them to be better ppl little by little to build healthier & more realistic love! 

-The mechanics of writing a compelling slow-burn romance:

1. Igniting the romantic feelings slowly: Slow burns don’t work with love at 1st sight. It must first sparkle naturally, slowly & subtly. Both kyo & tohru repeatedly stated they don’t know exactly when they first fell in love. The author’s decision to create an environment where the two live together is a genius way to start & nurture their romance quietly & subtly. Kyo was tricked to stay in shigure’s house while tohru had to stay cuz she had no home, Natural reasons that force the two to spend days together & get to know each other gradually.

2. Dynamics of their personalities: For slow burns to work, the two characters need to be similar yet opposites! Kyo & tohru are both kind, endearing, innocent, good at chores, independent & hardworking. They both have history with their mothers that is filled with love yet traumas. However, tohru is calm yet prefer maneuvering around subjects, can’t stand up for herself, reads ppl easily, tends to trust ppl easily & disregard herself. Kyo is fierce, strong, tends to distrust ppl, despite ppl loving his spontaneous character, he has hard time figuring out if they’re mocking him or teasing him, very straightforward with his words & actions. The similarities helps them understand each other, however, the differences creates chances to clash & come even closer thro various situation. Ex, se01, ep2, kyo apologizing for hitting her head with the table which created the situation where she needed to confess she always loved the cat zodiac! It is HER gush of emotions that struck kyo. ppl really want my friendship? the cat is loved? Thro those difference they learned to better themselves so they won’t hurt the other, kyo toning down his anger for her, tohru desiring to know him even more as he becomes even more awkward.

3. Creating natural, realistic  & convincing obstacles that prevents them from being together:  This is the most important part! Slow-burn is two characters in love & cant be together despite everyone wanting them to be! if the reason that stops them from uniting is trivial, stupid, one-sided, can easily be solved, then the slow-burn would be a fillery & no one would cheer for it! Takaya-san is a genius!

Kyo can’t be with tohru cuz he thinks (a) he killed her mom! we saw thr flashback, he could’ve saved her & couldn’t save her. It was a split of a second difference & he hates himsef for NOT trying! that split of a second also prevented from thinking of better ways to save her than holding her! it happened to fast, he couldn't think of a better alternative cuz this was his 2nd time loosing someone (b) his mom’s sucide being pinned as his fault created this immense guilt & defeated feeling that “ no matter what, I just cause death & misery! There’s (c) too!, he knew tohru! thinks she deserves the world & cuz he didnt save her mom, he watched tohru talk to a freaking picture for two years! heck! he is the only one who can see thro tohru’s “ i;m okay” mask, so in se01, ep 14 in the grave yard! kyo wasnt the only one who is sad! tohru was too! & kyo could tell! (d) her mom’s death is the reason tohru is accepting shigure’s offer to stay with them rent-free in exchange of doing housework! (e)? he saw her confess crying her heart out abt missing her mom so much that she imitated her dad! so tragicly sad! (f) he saw her die in his nightmare!! how can he accept her love,now? Perfectly orchestrated obstacles! 

Tohru, unfortunately, in the anime it wasn't that clear due to shortening her backstories & trauma in se03, ep6. But she too couldn’t see herself confessing love to kyo. Tohru is has low self-esteem, always thinks she’s a burden to others, an orphan who just wants her mom, so scared, lonely & sad! we the audience believed the mask! we saw her work her motherly charm yuki, isusuz, kisa & believe her issues are not that deep.  tohru wont cry for herself but shed rivers for others! grief is so ugly it broke her! I cant let go of mom, must keep her always in my heart, such a hard emotions to write & I believe 100% the director couldn’t understand her grief & decided to split ep6 between her, kyo, isuzu & shigure. But Tohru struggling to confess to kyo is no laughing matter. ppl who are grieving find it the hardest to live after the loved ones die. they wont mostly commit suicide, they are alive, but they arent living. they just go thro the motions & live for the sake of those around them but not themselves. Tohru deciding to confess to kyo is her deciding to live for herself.

4. Writing a perfect psychologically & emotionally packed climax: I dont need to explain how perfect kyo’s rejection of tohru in se03 ep9 was. How much we felt for him yet were mad at him. He we were “ ugh! kyo no!!!! I mean I get why you do that , but you idiot no! come back! poor kyo! He was just so sad & broken! OMG he’ll kill himself after finding tohru’s injured body!! he totally would! his nightmare came true! But Tohru reached him! she wanted him to be okay! he wont kill himself but still feels hella guilty! but so utterly in love with her that his instinct upon seeing her come to life after near death is kiss her! Perfect display of psychology & emotions! filled with right, wrong, sad, happy, guilty, innocent! basically so human~ As the audience you MUST have this mixture of feelings of wanting to hug him so bad cuz this boy has been killing himself for years now yet want him to stop & just see that he was a good boy afterall. Tohru is THE best girl & if the audience are cheering for kyo to be with her, kyo really deserves her! The only problem is for kyo to see that now.

5. The Perfect wrap up of all romance: If you make your audience suffer the slow-burn this long, you gotta reward them good! & Takaya-san delivered! Just like how the entire romantic story is realistic, the reunion must be as realistic too! Tohru is hurt by kyo;s words. Facts remain his words were hurtful to her. I love that was addressed! tohru gets to tell her side, too! If you love someone, you are bound to be hurt by them as much as be happy with them. Simply cuz they matter so much to you! you arent one person, but two ppl coming together. Kyo must work hard for this confession. Must run & chase her. Must earn her proper! He gets on his knees, I cant express how important that is! he is way taller than her, Imagine apologizing while she looks way up & he looks down? He gets on his knees & apologize like a man, for every mistake, all while not loathing himself. He aint going back to that deep abyss again. He did wrong by her & he is owning up to his mistakes. Give me one chance. I’m not gonna force you with persistence or guilt you into taking me. Give me ONE chance cuz i deserve it & no more. The choice is yours. She asks to confirm, he shows her, they kiss, they hug, they are rewarded with a blessing from the heavens! One of the most simple yet emotionally fulfilling confessions in anime!

- Hugs over kisses: (And her kiss hugs her & the curse was lifted):

Prince charming kisses the princess & she wakes up~ they live ever after~ except furuba is all abt “ eternal ever after is not true, real life is where the real love is”

Kyo kissed tohru once, she didnt wake up, she didnt even think he loved her back. didnt even remember the kiss.

Kyo hugged tohru once. se01, e024, He initiated it, tohru was all in tears, surprised, happy & so utterly in love. he called her name for the first time ever, for a brief moment, they both connected, they both comforted each other. The rain stopped, he became a man not a monster, she got him back. She got her kyo that she fought for with none other than kyo himself.

kyo hugged her again, se03, ep6. They both initiated it. He made the first move, pulling her just a little closer, she made the second move & hugged him hard, he transformed, it was a moment were they both connected, both so sad & broken, both feeling needy for the other, both desperate for the other, both just living the moment. the result is them coming closer, her wanting him more, him realizing her love, there is no escape. Admit it. she loves you. You can tell.

Kyo hugs her again today. He asks permission. No spur of the moment feeling. But a long lasting permission to be together. To hug. He wants to hear her acceptance of his cursed body. “ is ok to hug you? this body will cause you pain as it wont be able to fulfill your wishes of constant hugs & intimacy”. She responds, permission granted, for love, for hugs, for a life long acceptance of you as a whole. weakness & strength, sadness & happiness. I accept you all in better & worse! we’re invincible. Why? cuz we understand love isnt magic. It is a path for us to walk together~~~ reward curse break!

Every time kyoru are closer it is a hug. The one thing the zodiacs cant do. A hug. They can kiss. But cant hug. comes this Zodiac Ruler girl so lonely, away from ppl, so sad, meets a cat boy who comes to the house she’s living in, a house away from ppl, the boy is drawn to the girl, However, when the boy needed to leave, the girl was able to let go despite loving him, the boy comes again, this time wanting to stay, the girl accepts the boy. They both accept the realistic reality of life. Embrace the obstacles & the achievements, celebrates the weakness above the strength. Both so imperfect. Both so endearingly dumb! that’s why the girl’s hug broke the boy’s curse. The girl’s acceptance of the cat broke all curses.

Side Note:

Kyo’s confession is so kyo! so straightforward, so direct, & so physical. He’s on his knees, holding her hands, looking at her eyes. “ i want to be WITH you. If I’m gona live, I want to to do it with you & no one else! cuz I love you” that’s it. That’s all.  So sincere & so romantic!

it is crazy how different tohru & kyo are now after the confession! she stood confidently & happily & said “dont you know, I love you!” all while teasing him, her giggle is so girlish & cute! my girl is a happy woman in love! long buried the angelic mother image of se02! YES! also, kyo’s happy face is love! Dude! when was the last time he smiled so freely? Did he ever do that? He smiled in se01, ep4 with kazmua, but not like this! T_T. my son is healing~

Kyo’s “ i wont ever feel afraid if you’re with me” is a huge growth from his “ I want to protect her” mindset. Now he realizes it is two-sided mutual desire. She gives him strength as much as he does! <3

I dont like open eye while kissing, but here it is so perfect for tohru in this moment! cuz she spent days thinking kyo rejected her & even ran away as soon as she saw him, now he’s not only confessing, apologizing, admitting she is his life, but also kissing her signaling they’re romantic couple. kissing on lips is so personal, what more evidence she needs? still, her thoughts? “ it’s like a dream?” aww~~~ tohru~~~ my precious girl! she just cant believe all her suffering is over, now? She was just practicing “ i’m okay” smile & now she’s an official girlfriend to the man of her dreams? He just bent da kneeee~ go for it queen!

yuki’s face when tohru cried is exactly what I meant of “ allowing yuki to have strong facial expressions”! XD these types of faces humanize yuki so much into the teenage boy he is! Unfortunately the anime team only sees him as the pretty prince in most times. That’s why fave yuki is when he’s with kakeru. He becomes so un-princly as he should be.

Speaking of yuki, I see you anime team~ postponing his moment into next ep so him & machi wont be overshadowed by the long awaited kyoru!! While this defies the perfection of all cursed zodiacs breaking on the same ep making akito’s breakdown less perfect & poetic, I take it as the anime team admitting they underdeveloped yuchi & decided let’s give them more screen time & not putting them in close distance from any couple. A week later ep is enough with lots of time. I dont mind at all, I’m just saying more time after/while confession is not what i was hoping for~~ sigh~ At least I hope yuki would say sth along the lines” all this time I was looking at you, i realized i love you” to imply he was thinking of her as a lover not his kindness for someone he helped. I just dont want their love to be sudden simply cuz yuki needs happy ending. oh well~ I’m sure whatever it will be, the anime will give it utmost attention.

That sad moment when kagura wasnt allowed a moving image. lol. girl was given a still image that didnt even move with the breeze! T_T

Not gonna lie... the scene with kazuma & kyo was underwhelming. Why the wide shot? I mean you dont need budget for that. Just give me a closeup from the waist up with kyo head buried in kazuma’s chest. Dont need to waste budget on kazuma’s face, either.... do the old trick of hair covering eyes & show me glittery tears~  why the awkward shot of kazma towering in his own house! how tall is this man & why cant he he fix his roof?...lol

Also, shigure, you got scars man... who can hurt shigure? akito? gotta be her. I dont think hatori scratches...lol.. Aya? nah~ too busy with Mine! yup, akito... another steamy night? could be, she’s changed as he wish now. But scratching a face is weird while..um..kissing? a quarrel? but why? I bet she wants him now & we know he wants her....

More on part 2! especially abt the curse’s lore~

[theravennest]

Let’s Talk: The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion

I finished all 40 eps about two weeks ago, actually. I enjoyed it for the most part, the 1st half especially, but there were several things near the end that took me out. 

But first some of the good bits...

The cast chemistry was immaculate. Our four main lead actors were a lot of fun together. Not just Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi, but also Wang You Shuo and Xu Jiaqi (Loved them!). The four of them have such obvious ease with each other after their previous work together in Legend of Yun Xi and it made scenes with any combination of the main four really pop. 

I was especially drawn to the sisters’ relationship and the Prince-Vassal bond going on between Prince Su and Little Marquis. (Y’all know I’m a sucker for both sibling stories and stories about fictional royals and their loyal vassals.)

Most of the ancillary characters were interesting, actually. As y’all know from my last post about this one, I was crack shipping like crazy all the side characters. 😂 This cast made it easy for me.

Except for Prince An. (Sorry to hit the bad so early.) Good god, I hated that man. His character was poorly drawn in pretty much every way, which is unfortunate cuz he’s the main antagonist. Any story with a main antagonist that just doesn’t work is always gonna be weaker.

Also, no offense to people who like that actor but he was the only cast member who did absolutely nothing for me in terms of performance. So much of the story was focused on his weaksauce motivation and dry acting like, my god, put me out of my misery I do not care.

Anyway, the set design and costuming was top notch and I even enjoyed the broader story ideas the show was trying to put forth. The sitcom vibe of the first 20 eps or so was SOOO good. Our four mains’ comedic timings were pitch perfect. 

Unfortunately, the writing took a sharp nosedive in the back 3rd or so and it had a rough ending. (The lightning strike on the tower scene, the fight in the underground temple, the return of Prince An’s mom...all of that was trash. let’s be real.)

I mostly blame this on three things: the missteps with the Prince An character, the lack of development of Rong’s prophetic dreams even though that was the main premise of the show, and the jump-the-shark moment that was the wedding night and its subsequently underwritten fallout. 

Now to clarify, I don’t mean to say the wedding night event shouldn’t have happened at all but rather the execution of it within the story was poor and it negatively impacted 90% of the other character motivations/progressions and the overall pacing. 

You know, it felt like that thing you do as a writer where you wake up and have a specific scene in your mind. It’s evocative, impactful, fun, or otherwise intense. But you just have that scene and it’s something that would have to happen in the middle of your story. So you work your way backwards to try to get to that scene and you do your best to get the characters to make decisions to get there but when you sit down to write nothing works out. It’s clunky or OOC for the scene to still happen so you end up having to either scrap the evocative scene or keep the clunky lead up and hope no one notices. That’s what that wedding scene and everything that happened after felt like. They wrote themselves into a corner and just struggled to recover until the bitter end. 

The main pairing suffered the most because of the poor writing choices. No matter how much chemistry ZZH and JJY have together, even they could not completely salvage Rong’s yo-yoing behavior with Prince Su. They started off so wholesome and then dove into such toxicity and miscommunication for no reason. 

Don’t get me wrong. I can very easily enjoy angst. But Fu Rong consistently broke this man down. After ep 25-26, it stopped being good angst and became so awful to watch all the emotional manipulation and turmoil. There’s something broken in the writing if 9 out of 10 times Prince Su cried or fell into depression it was because of something Rong did or said to him after jumping to a conclusion with only part of the puzzle pieces gathered. 

I could forgive some stuff because Prince An was manipulating things but some stuff was just all Rong not giving Prince Su the benefit of the doubt or plain old not doing her due diligence in investigating. She is supposed to have inherited the most prolific and successful spy organization in the show and she still got 90% of her conclusions wrong. It was like she was determined to always think the worst of Prince Su no matter what despite how often he went above and beyond to help her. Despite the fact that he literally had a reputation as a general for being a harsh taskmaster but fair and just. 

I think what broke me was when she did the bare minimum investigation into her own father’s death and just fully blamed Prince Su without confronting him honestly or even considering his personality or their relationship up until that point. She really believed a single street seller’s entire testimony over the man she lived with and supposedly loved for months. Girl...

And this is after she’d previously mistakenly accused him of killing her mentor with very few facts to the point where she stabbed him on their wedding night.

There came a point where I actually wanted Prince Su to finally, truly divorce Rong and settle down with someone who could love him right. Maybe give him time to heal from the repeated heartbreaks, betrayals, and the literal stab wound in his chest but he was so fucking in love with Rong, he just couldn’t escape.

(If there were behind the scenes production reasons for the clunky-ness of the back half, I would not be surprised at all but ultimately they don’t matter cuz the story we got was the story we got.)

Imagine if we had gotten a Rong who used her prophetic dreams to navigate the cut throat world of royal politics. Or imagine if we’d gotten Rong as a true apprentice to Ruyi who learned both metalsmithing and spycraft in the first half and took over the pavilion as a competent leader in the second half. As it stands, it just felt like wasted potential.

I’m glad they had the modern day special AU eps tho cuz those were great. Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi had the opportunity to really showcase their incredible chemistry but in a modern setting and with better writing than the back 3rd of BRYP.

Now let’s talk Zhang Zhehan since he was the reason I started this in the first place. I loved him in this. I truly did. He was stern and serious but also playful and sweet. He was romantic but awkward, badass but vulnerable. He really delivered a nuanced and charming performance. I loved every second.

I think my favorite moment wasn’t some badass fight or even a super romantic moment. No, it was when he got drunk and started crying like a little baby cuz Rong was constantly doubting him no matter what he did. It was simultaneously sad and hilarious. Like gut busting funny. Y’all can watch it here:

I laughed so fucking hard at this. Oh my god, guys! This shit was too much.

Random Thoughts:

The romance between the 2nd leads was A+. Truly an adorable affair. Though I think they should’ve gotten together officially earlier around ep 25 or so and we should’ve seen the rest with them as a couple.

The costuming was so good y’all. For all the main four characters but I was especially drawn to Prince Su’s outfits.

The ghostly pale look with the bright red lips and eyeshadow makeup for Rong did not bother me at all. I actually liked it for her though I think it would’ve worked better if she’d had more explicit prophetic abilities.

I could’ve used more actual war scenes with Prince Su and Little Marquis.

The OST for the show SLAPPED!

That one kid spy in Ruyi Pavilion was voiced by the same actor as Chengling from WOH and I have never double-taked harder. lmao

Even though there were things I didn’t like in this show, I appreciated how gay I could make it in my last post. Truly it was a bisexual’s dream aesthetically.

[nct-jihee]

Jihee (NCT) Profile: Jihee Facts and Ideal Type

Name: Jihee (지희)

Birth Name: Um Jihee (엄지희)

Position: Main Dancer, Main Vocalist

Birthday: May 28, 1997

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Incheon, South Korea

Height: 165 cm (5’4″)

Weight: 45 kg (99 lbs)

Blood Type: O

MBTI Type: ENFP

Jihee Facts:

—She was born in Incheon, South Korea.

—Education: Hanlim Multi Art School.

—Jihee has an older brother.

—Her nicknames are: JiJi (by the fandom) and her members call her different things.

—Jihee lived in Manchester, England for about 3 years (from when she was 4 till 7 years old).

—Fluent in English.

—Her father gave her "June" as her English name because her teachers and some friends couldn't pronounce "Jihee".

—Currently she has three tattoos.

—She loves sports: football soccer, swimming, volleyball, and archery.

—Jihee has a little nephew and she claims to be the best aunt.

—Jihee admits that she didn't like school at all, but is good at Chemistry and Maths.

—Since she was young she was a bit hyperactive and was easily distracted. She is still like that sometimes, but in a lesser amount.

—She plays guitar and bass.

—Can be really sensitive.

—When Jihee is stressed, she cries.

—She's really messy.

—Jihee doesn't like sasaengs and antis — absolutely hates them.

—Loves to use sarcasm but please never use it on her.

—Wanted to study Criminology.

—She was scouted by JYP Entertainment and Cube Entertainment.

—Jihee has been learning Japanese for years now because she wants to talk with Yuta all the time (Weekly Idol Ep. 347).

—Jihee ranked 12th in the "Top 100 Beautiful Faces Of 2018"

—Jihee ranked 4th in the "Top 100 Beautiful Faces Of 2019"

—She's been in love with singing and acting since she was young.

—Jihee participated in musicals a lot when she was in school.

—She's a good liar and always wins mafia game.

—Her sleeping habit: hugging a pillow.

—Lives in the 5th floor and her roommate is Taeyong.

—She didn't lived with her members at the beginning, she shared apartment with one of her managers: Yeonsoo unnie.

—Jihee loves all her members equally, but there's something about Taeil, Taeyong and Yuta that makes her heart feel warm.

—Her favorite animals are dogs and butterflies.

—Her role model is her mother.

—She's not sure what her hobbies are, she likes a lot of things: writing poetry, reading books, painting, swimming, etc.

—Likes cooking but won't like it if the guys force her to cook.

—Enjoys spicy food.

—Hates seafood.

—Favorite food: Meat and Pasta.

—Favorite fruit: Watermelon.

—Favorite season is Winter.

—Favorite color: Yellow and Blue.

—Favorite artist: Alicia Keys and Adele.

—She auditioned with the song: "Talking To The Moon" by Bruno Mars.

—She wasn't a good dancer when she first joined SM, but with effort and dedication she became one of the best dancers in the entertainment and industry.

—On December 9, 2013 she was revealed as a member of SMRookies.

—The same day, SM released a video of Jihee showing her dancing skills with "Upgrade U" by Beyoncé and Jay Z.

—Jihee appeared in Red Velvet’s MV Happiness (2014) at the very beginning.

—She debuted with NCT U first in 2016 and debuted again with NCT 127 in 2017.

—Although Jihee was loved as a member of SMRookies, when she debuted with NCT U she got a lot of hate.

—She says: "I think that helped me, somehow. Cause that made me work harder and, well, here I am." (Vlive, 2019).

—After her debut with NCT U in 2016, for the rest of that year she prepared for her acting debut.

—According to Red Velvet's Wendy: Jihee was the best actress among all the trainees and teachers would always complimented her.

—In 2017 she made her debut as an actress in the drama While You Were Sleeping.

—It was a small rol, but she was well received.

—Red Velvet members said that they all thought that Jihee was going to debut with them, so when they found out that she was actually going to debut in a coed group they were really sad.

—Oldest members of SMRookies, and future members of NCT, were aware of their concept: a coed group. So they knew that a girl would join them, they just didn't know who.

—Jihee likes rapping and she's quite good, so in 2019 SM Entertainment decided to make her a sub rapper.

—Taeyong says she's a totally different person when she is on-stage.

—Haechan genuinely thinks she's the mom of the group, even if she hates to be called that.

—Jihee takes care of the younger members, but it's clear who her favorite is: Renjun.

—Since her debut she has only dyed her hair four times: blonde, pink, red and blue.

—Her natural hair color is dark brown.

—She tries to not have skinship with her members in front of cameras because she wants to avoid any kind of bad comments, although they sometimes hug her or give her kisses on the cheek.

—However, with her best friends and coworkers (cast mates) she doesn't care and hugs them all the time because fans can't and don't have to say anything about it.

—She doesn't like drinking.

—Johnny thinks Jihee is the definition of Social Butterfly.

—Jihee wrote and participated in Hotel del Luna OST - Can You See My Heart.

—She did a duet with SHINee's Key for his album FACE with the song 'Forever Yours'

—Jihee was also featured in EXO-SC '1 Billion Views'

—On November 1st, 2019, SM gave her permission to create her instagram account because she was starting to get recognized as an actress from the drama Extraordinary You, however at that time she was only posting things related to the drama.

—She's really close with TWICE's Sana and Red Velvet's Joy.

—She's in a group chat with female idols from 97 line.

—F(x)'s Krystal, SNSD's Jessica and Tifanny, and Super Junior's Henry used to take care of her when she was a trainee.

—Like Haechan, she is good at Variety Shows.

—Jihee was an MC for Inkigayo with SEVENTEEN's Mingyu.

—In 2019, she was in Law Of The Jungle Ep. 368–372 with Red Velvet's Yeri and iKON's B. I.

—NCT U Line-ups she was apart of: The 7th Sense, Timeless, Boss, Coming Home, and Make a Wish.

—Sub-Unit: NCT U, NCT 127

—Jihee's Ideal Type: Someone who can communicate well with her. Someone kind, funny, and respectful. A family guy. A few years older than her, she wouldn't date someone younger. Jihee wants to be friends first.

[literaryslave]

many words about the falcon captain america and the winter soldier because i have no friends.

before i start, i would give the show 4/5 or 8/10

this show was my everything.

it was better than i expected and worse at the same time. since i didn't know the amount of episodes, i kinda was hoping to have ~5 episodes like the 1st one: life after endgame, how they both coping and their routines. and then the main plot and fighting, but yeah we were robbed and have only 6 episodes as a whole.

+ the show did great job and gave us so many beautiful and powerful scenes. i will always be grateful for the way they portrayed bucky, sam and sharon, and omg we are all in love with joaquin torres and zemo now, i support it.

i appreciate how serious and deep this show was but at the same time light-hearted and funny. some things made me cry my eyes out, sometimes i found myself speechless and some moments educated me.

the friendship shown is so pure and beautiful, i can't believe we really got this amazing slowly growing relationships. seb and anthony have such strong chemistry, i absolutely adore them.

- now some things i wish we had and i didn't like very much:

i wish we could have more time to explore bucky's mental health and past, i feel like it wasn't taken seriously and easily brushed off. for me, it seemed he was treated as a guilty person and he himself doesn't understand he is actually a victim. i wish we had much better therapy sessions and proper not rushed healing process.

i would like to see more sam's family life and working/missions. i wish we were given more moments with joaquin torres and i am not going to say how sad i am we weren't given a new falcon ! but i would like to see more sam before all the shield etc situation.

yeah, well i hate continuation of endgame narrative but it's just me, i hate endgame, sorry. i hate what they did to steve and their relationship, i hate how they treat him and i can cry for hours but there is no use, so next

i wish we could have more sharon, i love her, she is my queen. i swear we were robbed when they decided to avoid deepening into power broker stuff. give us season 2 full of badass sharon carter moments being a villain / boss she is.

i feel like the series was a little rushed (which is obvious, no really just 6 episodes!) and the final episode could have been more powerful but nothing can top ep 1 and 5 for me. i think since they were trying to fit so much in so little time, they left holes and some moments seem bland? time to time i felt like bucky was there just for convenience, all the speeches about him finding himself? but he didn't. and i know this story should be focused on sam and his storyline is actually written perfectly, i love my man, the best of the best. but bucky, idk, i need to rewatch but as stan, i am not super pleased.

there are much more than i can express with words and i won't be able to formulate how i appreciate and love this show, no matter how many "negative sides" i can find. i will rewatch it and definitely hoping for season 2. i lived from friday to friday for 6 weeks and now need to find new reason to survive a week.

thank you everyone involved and of course our best cast. and thank you, the fandom, for bringing me peace and joy every week 💌

[redxblueihateloveyou]

now we know your opinions abt victuri, but what about the other pairing, otayuri?

their sequence was very cute, not gonna lie and you know I am indeed a huge fan of “I’m so good at approaching a cat” ships, but this was like ep 10 out of 12. 

like once again I can see good potential in some couples and get why ppl think they can be good together, but I can’t get mega invested in a couple bc of  a couple scenes, especially when I don’t know anything about one of the characters. just like as I see potential in some ships, but can easily drop if they don’t have any development at all.

it just always amazes me, I don’t know how some do it and what is the reasoning for this, but I’ve seen it a lot in many popular fandoms like bnha, haikyuu and free! too, when some pick some character that appeared like two times during the whole story or did basically nothing, but there are ppl who are like “fuuuuck he’s my absolute fave in bnha” and I’m like sitting there like “ah, and the pivotal point in this was the shot of his right pinky in ep 17 and his background shot in chapter 251 of the manga?”. lol well, I’m exagerating here, but you know what I mean.

like how I saw a comment under the new free! trailer that was “you have no idea how happy I am about the fact that I’d get to see kisumi again”..  like I like kisumi, but he’s not even a full on character there tbh, he’s mostly a comedic relief. but you see, as they say “there are a great many opinions in this world... (the end of this tho “and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble” lmao). like some are gonna watch the last chapter of free! for kisumi, to each their own.

like I’ve seen ppl making amvs about nash from knb and a chocolate commercial and I’m like “I wish I could get inspiration that easy”, bc I’m sitting here like with a giant list of things I want in a ship and characters that’d make me open sony vegas lol

some think the best ship is a ship you have almost no canonical material about. and yes, I know the song “in canon they have never met, but I don’t care, I ship it”, and I've seen ships whose some scenes I find cute and think “yeah, it could’ve been great if it was explored”, but I’ll just watch it and move on, that’s all. I do not get how you can get SOOOOOO invested into smth that doesn’t really exist with the characters who weren’t even explored. 

so with characters like otabek like from these 10 minutes he was in the anime and the tiny “madness” comic, you can only go so far in predicting what kind of person he is. so where ppl get this asdfghjhgfds this suddenly got me inspired to write a 100K fic about them, it’s truly fascinating to me. I just don’t think really it counts as a fic about THEM per se, it’s much closer to the yuri/original character. all that they gave you is a guy who wanted to be friends with yuri supposedly for the fact that he’s purposeful and inspiring which is great and amazing start for a good ship, totally get him, but then I don’t know him.

like once again in fanfiction you can do technically whatever you want, but it’s just funny to me like when ppl are writing fics about some characters who they don’t know nothing about, I’m like.. why not just write an original book and sell it instead, I mean, bc it’s basically your character already, for real. just change the name and make some money instead lolz. like some fanfiction is more of a just fiction really, bc there are some fics, you can really just change names and you won’t even get who it was supposed to be.

I do kinda have different type of ships: those I find cute, but sometimes tend to even forget about them after watching smth (so basically whatever, but I enjoyed it while watching tho), then ships I liked enough that they made me want to vid them; then if I want to do a manip vid about a ship, I like them a lot; if I vid them more than once, I’m probably in love with them xD And if it’s stuff like my harurin playlist that contains 15 vids and wangxian 13, that’s probably means I’m obsessed lmao. that’s all. 

so otayuri goes to the 1st category to me, I guess, I enjoyed their couple interactions, yes, it’s a good start for ship, yes, do they have enough stuff to make me care a lot? unfortunatly, no. they did for sure make this episode pleasant to watch tho for me, not gonna lie xD for a moment I was like “yeah, yeah, okay continue pls”, but then I was like “ah, I forgot, that its not about it and it’s like second to the last episode” lmao

[devintrinidad]

Lol, I don’t blame you. Lately I’ve also been pretty fond of Dendretic. He’s a interesting cell and great character. I’ve always liked him but I think he’s become more of a favorite of mine too.

This was a cute/funny ep. I like how we saw more of NK’s soft side and that she’s not just a buff warrior with a vicious streak. I thought it was funny her ego took a hit when some low status virus was getting to be too much for her. Then she revealed she was upset when 1146 got upset at her when all she was doing was trying to stand up to him when Normal Cell was lashing out at him. She’s so flustered over how mentally weak she is (not like she’s alone. The majority of the immune system shares that trait). I already liked NK but for some reason this made me like her even more. 

2048’s extra scene of him freaking out over being a chubby crybaby (he was so cute too) is even more funny if you read the latest posts on the CAW Discord in the White thread. Some more panels were revealed in celebration of the 1st volume coming out on the 6th. One of them was a profile/relationship chart of the Main 4 WBCs. A fan’s Japanese friends were able to translate some of it (most of it got blurred). 4989: most easygoing and youngest. 1146: oldest and passionate. 2626: goes his own pace and temperamental. 2048: good at everything and tries to be cool. Lol basically 2048 needs to be cool or I guess it’s the end of the world for him. XD 

(We non Japanese speakers are getting closer to reading White I know it!). 

Yeah from the preview next episode will start 3803’s anime original storyline that will happen at the same time elsewhere from 1146’s canon Cancer storyline. Seems like she’s in charge of the platelets while she takes them to the intestinal aquarium (poor kids, I can’t imagine she’ll be a great tour guide if that’s what she is). Then of course that somehow leads to chaos since we’ve seen her carrying platelets around while all this smoke is everywhere. I’ll be curious what biological reason for this is. 

Also is it just me or is S2 making 1146 a bigger dork then he was in the manga? He’s getting all these extra scenes of being more flustered or funny scenes being at his expense. Normal cell just ran off in the middle of 1146’s ‘I had fun’ talk. Poorly guy. It really is canon he gets ignored or overlooked in social situations (3803 waving to 5100 instead of him. The platelet running past his open arms to a Macrophage. Normal cell ignoring him. Rejection. Lol). 

Maybe 1146 still felt bad about hurting NK’s feeling so he brought the tea for her. Tea is his rock. 

~~~

Yeah, that scene in the manga had me feeling things, but that scene in the episode... the animators have way too much power over us. XD

And I love NK’s characterization as well. It’s nice to know that she’s arguably one of the strongest characters in the series, she also has a sweet and soft side as well. I guess that’s a reoccurring theme with the immune system. Even though they can be very competent and scary when doing their jobs, they’re all dorks that need love. ALL OF THEM. 

Hehehe, and it looks like the fandom’s interpretations of the squad are basically canon now. 2018 me would be so pleasantly surprised and happy. (Still... I have to wonder what they have to say about 2001...)

Ooohhhh, and it looks like the best girl is finally getting the recognition that she deserves. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next episode. Hopefully the mangaka had some control over this episode considering they were a medical expert/knowledgable about the body because I’m also not too sure about the smoke and everything. 

Yyyyyyyeeeeeesssss.... that scene where Normal Cell abandoned 1146 reminded me of 4201 abandoned 3803 as well. Those two get rejected so easily at times, hahah. Seriously, though, if the anime is trying to make him out to be a bigger dork than before, then I’m all for it. If that means getting more dorky WBC squad content then heck yes! I would love to see more of their shenanigans. 

Hehehe, tea. 

[gizkasparadise]

cdrama rec/review: le coup de foudre

KDRAMA AND CDRAMA MASTER LIST OF REVIEWS

Series: le coup de foudre / love at first sight / i don’t like this world, i only like you Episodes: 35 w/ a special Genres: then & now, slice of life, high school to adult life, romance, reunion/getting back together, working with the ex Spoilers in the Rec: for set-up/light ones for character backgrounds If You Like, You’ll Like: the reply series, sad-looking dogs that are loved very much, because this is my first life (VERY similar male lead), sibling love, my sunshine but if people were nicer and had significantly better hair, multiple couples that are all a lot of fun

Rank: 10/10

PREMISE

flashback to 6-8 years ago (because the OP here can’t remember lol): it’s desk selection day in qiao yi’s classroom! a very dramatic moment for all high schoolers, qia yi has to select who she sits next to. because she’s at the bottom of the class ranking, she gets last pick, which essentially narrows down her choices to that creepy kid who writes love poetry to every female student in the class and yan mo, the scary genius student who has placed 1st in their class since...forever.

taking a gamble, qiao yi goes with yan mo. yan mo eventually agrees to tutoring qiao yi outside of class and they become friends. then...friends? if you know what i mean. it’s very sweet and cute. only problem is that yan mo is both a genius and from a Family of Means, and so is already planning on attending cambridge (yeah, fucking cambridge) after graduation. not wanting to separate, yan mo asks qiao yi to come with him and she agrees to study hard so she can get accepted to a university in the UK, too.

but then, well, bad shit happened. 

qiao yi ended up staying in their home town, yan mo left for cambridge, and we got two v heartbroken teenagers on our hands.

4 years later, yan mo returns after studying in the uk, and by chance they end up bumping into each other. angry because qiao yi hurt him, yan mo puts up an ALOOF AND COLD AND I DONT CARE AT ALL front that she sadly buys. but after he leaves for the big city to pursue a business opportunity, qiao yi harnesses some amazing big dick energy to go after him, in a sort of inverse DONT LET HER GET ON THAT PLANE! move. very abba. 

the plot bounces between their (and their friends’) high school years, their lives as reunited adults, and their future lives as married folks. i love it very, very much.

MAIN CHARACTERS

zhao qiao yi

as a high schooler, qiao yi was a quiet girl with low self-esteem, who consistently ranked at the bottom of her class and was always attempting to retreat into her school tracksuit like a turtle. despite this, qiao yi has some solid friends and is always kind if somewhat shy or uncomfortable in certain situations. as a adult, qiao yi works as a television producer and is clearly more confident. 

she buys truly awful graphic t-shirts as thank you gifts that one feels obligated to wear. falls for scams easily. will help you fold 1000 paper stars for your boyfriend even if she hates your boyfriend because she’s ride or die like that. look at how cute she is no one is allowed to be mean to someone as cute as this.

yan mo / “frank”

if you liked se hee in because this is my first life, you’re in luck because here is a 10% angrier version. at first, yan mo seems cold, aloof, snobbish, pretentious, arrogant...

okay, but he’s ALSO got a lot of feelings and will help people out. well, at the start of the show, he’ll help two people out. but that expands to like 10. so, progress! in high school, he falls for qiao yi in the typical Cannot Spit It Out fashion, buying her sentimental cans of coke, PUTTING IN ONE EARBUD SO SHE CAN LISTEN TO THE BEATLES WITH HIM, feeling Weird about her tying his tie, and single-handedly ruining a for-profit afterschool tutoring business in about 30 seconds, because they weren’t teaching qiao yi anything, and he knew he could do it better. tbh he completely fucking destroys a lot of things and people in under a minute. #ruthless

he’s very protective of qiao yi and rather than explain it, here is a clip from the special episode where yan mo confronts another student who left a love confession meant for qiao yi in his desk by mistake (subtitles have to be selected under settings, but it’s subbed in english):

zhao guan chao

zhao qiao yi’s twin brother, who has always placed 2nd in their classes after yan mo. despite his high grades, he comes off as a laidback teen heartthrob and has a reputation for being a flake and a playboy. BUT he’s legit a chill dude and clearly popular for a reason--he gets along with (almost) everyone. he loves his sister and is extremely protective of her, especially since she’s so shy and has low self-esteem for Reasons That Will Be Explained in the Tragic Backstory. he’s such a good brother. the best brother. also looks out for qiao yi’s best friend, wu yi. understands the value of shoes.

hao wu yi

qiao yi’s best friend, and another classmate of The Crew. i say this with so, so much love, but she’s got a lot of chaotic dumbass energy. struggling along the bottom ranks with qiao yi during high school. she has the worst taste in men as a teenager, falling for the guy who literally bullied her in like. ep 2. thankfully she’s got qiao yi and guanchao.

the trio are close, and that doesn’t change as they grow up. wu yi ends up becoming a novelist who writes pop and steamy romance novels and has a significant teenage girl fanbase. it’s amazing. 

fei da chuan

my boy. another classmate, he, qiao yi, and wu yi make up the official Dumbass Trio of their high school class and have adorable adventures + solidarity in it. he’s also yan mo’s uncle. somehow. because rich people families are wild. while he’s got a place to live, he more often than not crashes at yan mo’s, who Does Not Like It. but da chuan does not notice or care. 

abrasive but 100% sincere about everything and toward everyone. people will think he’s an asshole or a gangster but then he’s secretly feeding abandoned kittens in the corner or something. as an adult, has the best business casual outfits. serves as a big brother figure to a lot of people, but qiao yi in particular. cannot, cannot fucking do math.

SUPPORTING

“alicia” / cheng youmei. an old family friend of yan mo’s who is very posh and rich and dignified. studied abroad with him at cambridge, and is cold toward qiao yi after arriving back in china. cosplays B)

teacher gao. everyone’s high school teacher who later owns a bar that seems to be there only for dispensing advice. seriously. there is no way this bar is economically sound as the only customers you ever see are gao’s students coming in one at a time for Wisdom and you never see them pay for anything. also the bar has no fucking roof and is directly above traintracks. i have hang-ups about this bar

lin shu. yan mo’s mother. very sweet and pretty and a ballernia turned program director. is almost never home but clearly loves her son. du chaun’s sister. somehow.

zhao suyin. qiao yi and guan chao’s mother. one of her kinks is roleplaying condor heroes characters? okay okay okay

tian weimin. qiao yi and guan chao’s stepfather who works as police officer. best dad award. he’s so sweet and corny and peak dad humor. he loves them kids & they love him back

grandpa. yan mo’s dog in high school. a very old basset hound with sad eyes:

dollar or d. i cant tell you anything about him, other than he used to be a stray and yan mo says he’s ugly, which, rude.

DRAWBACKS

plot...hm. there’s SOME plot, but this is about characters + romance + friendship + family. if you’re looking for scheming mothers-in-law or tragic car accidents or secret destinies this isn’t the one for you. similar in vibe to Reply 1988 (they even watch the show in the show :’D / make references to it)

OKAY SO every plot summary i’ve seen says that yan mo is in a relationship with someone else when he gets back to china. no he is not. i say this because it was a huge turn off for me/initially put me off watching the series. he is definitely a one-and-only type. there’s no cheating in this show. lmao, hell, neither of the mains are even interested in anyone else but each other

i liked du chuan and his love interest a lot, but they definitely didn’t get as much screen time as the others

while it’s clear qiao yi + yan mo are the mains, another couple gets a lot of screen time as well. this might be a skip if you don’t like multiple couples/secondary relationships in a show

i surprisingly enjoyed the high school storyline a lot more than the adult one? which is super weird for me, but idk i was sad when it was over because it was so cute.

some...weird technical decisions. every once in a while, the camera will have like a nostalgia filter and then it disappears and then the edges get a bit blurry and idk it feels very film school 101 to show that what’s on screen is a ~memory. the soundtrack/music is sometimes also too loud--to the point where it can drown out the actors (particularly janice wu in the high school arc, since qiao yi is soft-spoken)

REASONS TO WATCH

the lead actors (janice wu + zhang yujian) are legit two of my favorites and they have great/easy chemistry. all the actors are amazing. everyone’s loveable

SIBLING GOALS the zhao twins are amazing and they’re both each other’s biggest fans. gaunchao had some really heartwarming brother moments

i love love lmao. this spoke to a lot of my favorite dynamics: exes reunited/having to work together, childhood sweethearts reuniting as adults, “gangster” and princess, childhood friends turned lovers, bickering couples, cold man who actually has a lot of feelings, lots of people being overprotective, idk. everything was just great. 0 complaints on any of the ships.

i genuinely liked every character other than that one piece of shit poppa zhao. even alicia, who’s put into the stereotypical rich bitch role, was actually really fun and subverted a lot of expectations for this trope

it’s just. real cute y’all. probably my favorite cdrama and definitely in my top 10 (maybe 5?) dramas overall.

FINAL THOUGHTS

i love them ;;