#the benefit of loving every version of your favs

[huskymaine]

Ooh this is good! Pardon my intrusion but I can immediately imagine their conversation in my head

ANBU Kakashi : Maybe I better just surrender to them....

Jounin Kakashi : But you won't, because we still have a job to watch over the future

Kid Kakashi : can we finally manage to beat them?

Hokage Kakashi : Of course we do, in the future we are happy and at peace don't you worry

(the hands below imo symbolized his depression)

今年生贺图

[manikas-whims]

how do you manage LADS as F2P? I'm having a hard time collecting gems 😭 is so difficult compared to games like genshin

Okay so..i know it sounds difficult (IT IS) but it's not impossible.

the grind can be heartbreakingly annoying..i know! Before i used to find grinding in Genshin and HSR difficult but its..so doable and easier compared to Love and Deepspace 😭

Their constant barrage of Banner after Banner is another issue especially when they don't even run for long. FOMO gets to a lot of people who find it hard to spend due to personal reasons, which is just unfair. IMHO, every limited card banner should run for at least 30 Days.

And i think these are issues that should be thrown at the Devs every once in a while. So fill out the survey forms whenever available and list all your grievances to them. LADS isn't exactly F2P friendly.

-> However, with the launch of version 2.0, they're trying new stuff and giving out a bunch of Free 5 star memories as well as materials. So thats..something ig

It's also a fairly new game, one of a kind sorta thing..so i wanna give them the benefit of the doubt. They're still trying to find their way around things and i hope they gradually add better stuff for grinding of materials and gems. (Abyssal Chaos counts as one)

As for playing as F2P, here's how I do it..

If you can spend a little, then i suggest atleast buying the Aurum Pass (i have). It ain't much but it increases stamina cap to 170. And gives 100 gems + 60 stamina daily

only make pulls on a banner when you absolutely want that limited card

save up the red gems & empyrean wishes (blue tickets) for your bias/fav LI & make pulls only for his banners (unless you absolutely want a card of another)

Use your stamina daily. Don't let it stay full. Like expend at least 80 stamina in the morning. Then play again in the evening with a nearly full stamina cap.

Focus on one LI at a time & grind materials for him only. For example, i am a Xavier main so i expend 80 stamina for the yellow/green stellactrums (ascension material | fight Lemonette) and another 60~80 on the EXP bottles (experience material | fight Heartbreaker)

DON'T WASTE MATERIALS ON 3 STAR. You can waste them on 4 star cards but I don't suggest upgrading them more than Level 40 unless absolutely necessary (i.e. you don't have any other card options)

Fight Mr. Beanie once or twice regularly! You also need that gold to upgrade your memories.

And then of course, the achievements, completing a 5 Star memory story, tender moments and secret times also give gems.

Once a week try to grind for Protocores. Even your maxxed out 5 star memories are useless without good protocores. (50 : 100 ratio between crit. rate & crit. damage is ideal) And ofc, upgrade those protocores from time to time.

This all sounds like a lot but takes less than 20 minutes to do daily..And yes, you'll find some full length guides on Reddit & Youtube.

HOPE THIS HELPS YOU ANON ♡

[sebadztian]

Random ask, what do you love about Sebastian and Ciel's dynamic? What made you ship them? What are your fav SebaCiel moments from the series and your fav headcanon for SebaCiel?

I'm so late into sebaciel fandom, just realized that many sebaciel blog are not active anymore. Imagine my surprise when I found your blog and your fics. Thanks for still being here for newbies like me. Now I'm still reading your fic "The Spare" (and it's so good feels like I'm reading canon divergence au novel version, because all of them are in characters) 😄😁🤩

One of my moot, said to me that Sebastian and Ciel's relationship are like father and son. And tell me please ignore sebaciel shipper if I got into the fandom. Now, after I read the manga and watch the anime, I'm confused of those who hate sebaciel shipper and insist that the relationship is just wholesome platonic (including my dear moot)....

Hope you have a wonderful day, @sebadztian ....

Hello! I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to answer your ask!

First of all, welcome to Sebaciel nation!

What I love about Sebaciel dynamic is their power struggle. On one hand, Ciel is the master, but on the other hand, Sebastian is a powerful centuries old demon. Ciel might be the one holding the leash, but at the end of the day, Sebastian is the one who gets to decide how far he could go. He's a very tricky demon who'd try to find loopholes that benefit him or those that allow him to mess with his little lord (like in BoC with the snakes).

But then that changed. Slowly, but surely, he grows to care for Ciel and now he's finding loopholes that would benefit them. He sees himself as Ciel's butler and whatever he does now is for his master's benefits (and his too, of course). However, despite all that, he still continues to challenge Ciel at every turn. It's that complexity of their relationship that makes me ship them. They're constantly trying to out-power the other, but at the end of the day, they're a team.

Another thing that makes me ship them is because they're the only ones who know each other's true self. Ciel knows who, or rather what Sebastian is, and Sebastian knows who Ciel really is. Everyone else saw him either as the weaker, sick little brother to r!Ciel, or they know him as r!Ciel (because he's inpersonating him), but nobody has truly know him as the boy who has grown into his own person. He's not that weak, sickly boy anymore, nor was he the boy that he's trying to impersonate, and Sebastian is the only one who knows him better than anyone.

Headcanons... Funny you ask... I have two kinds of headcanons. If you've read any of my fics, you'd see that my Sebaciels are mostly fluffy & romantic, with some angst here and there, but when it comes to canon, I don't ever see them kissing, let alone saying 'I love you' or anything of that effect. Of course, I'm hoping to see them kiss in the last panel of the manga, but for them to be all lovey dovey? Eh... I don't think they have it in them...

I have some headcanons, but my one consistent headcanon is that they're soulmates and that Sebastian has finally find his match in Ciel. Even from the start, he's acknowledged that.

My favourite Sebaciel moments... BoM might be my favourite arc, but I really love Germany. From how worried Sebastian is about Ciel that he's willing to lower himself and serve Sieglinde, to how devastated he is that Ciel keeps rejecting him, and then he tries to eat Ciel and Ciel chooses him, and how relieved Sebastian looks afterwards, and of course, the part when he admits that he enjoys playing Ciel's butler. And then I love what happens after, ehen they're just hanging out in Ciel's room and teasing each other. This arc is the turning point of their relationship, or at least, these moments are when Sebastian shows us (the readers) that he has changed.

Thank you for your ask!

[maruyaaya]

Hey Imeda! I am Low! I read your Pandalily fic recently and I adored it! I saw that you haven't had this account long and since I can't peruse/stalk your account to satiate my curiosity I've decided to inquire here :) I hope you don't mind.

Do you have any specific Pandora or Lily headcanons you can share? Do you have any WIPs in the works? Do you have any songs you are listening to on repeat right now? What are the top 5 ships that are giving you the most insistent brain rot currently?

And finally, I am done pestering you and I'm wishing you a day full of wonder <3

OMG HI LOW!! yes absolutely i am always happy to talk about pandalily they are my beloveds <3 yeah i set up this acc relatively recently bc i wanted a fresh start for my ao3 and i haven’t really had the chance to do much on it yet (i am unfortunately a full time university student) but i am so happy you sent an ask bc i am always excited to talk to ppl!! feel free to send more asks or even dm me for whatever reason!!

i’m gonna do the pandalily headcanons last bc i have so many of them, but firstly do i have any wips:

oh i ABSOLUTELY have wips. i actually am the worst at starting wips and never finishing them, but as for main ones i’m working on rn, i have a prongsfoot wip that’s currently around 50k words 75% done, a marauders x daisy jones & the six au, a (you have to hear me out on this one okay bc i know nobody ships this but me BUT HEAR ME OUT) friends with benefits sirius x barty fic that’s about half done, and another pandalily fic that is basically just taking shape but i don’t have much to say about it yet (im actually just the worst multishipper ever and i ship my favourite character, sirius, with every single person who dares to so much as breathe in his direction)

songs on repeat

ok so i am totally willing to just link my spotify, in fact: here and i have a pandalily playlist in the works here, but specifically, i’ve had never love an anchor by the crane wives, three by sleeping at last, and funeral by phoebe bridgers on loop over and over as well as the entire daisy jones & the six album.

top 5 ships giving me brainrot

1. PRONGSFOOT!! prongsfoot is forever in my head as one of my fav ships ever

2. pandalily! i absolutely adore their dynamic and the little version of them that i have created in my head

3. rosekiller. i think this is a relatively unpopular opinion but i am so intrigued by their dynamic and i’m currently in the process of drafting a LONG fic about them but i haven’t done much work on it yet

4. dorlene. UGH MY OG ENEMIES TO LOVERS i am forever obsessed with them and i can’t believe i haven’t written them yet

5. normally i’d have jegulus around here i think but currently i’ve been having intensive brainrot about the idea of a dynamic between barty and sirius. i think they’re two characters who are very similar and yet hate each other and i think it’s really interesting to explore a two sides of the same coin dynamic between them and idk i have a lot of thoughts about them i could absolutely rant for a very long time abt the sirius/barty dynamic i have in my head

bonus bc it isn’t a marauders ship but my favourite ship of ALL TIME is soukoku, aka dazai/chuuya from bungou stray dogs. i like them a Normal amount (i’m crazy abt them)

and now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, here are a few of my pandalily headcanons that i can think of off the top of my head

first of all, my fav pandalily song is trouble by halsey. it’s literally them. that’s their dynamic to me

pandora’s much more open about her oddness and want for Blood while lily is more closed off about it. it’s still there—absolutely still there—but pandora kind of awakens it in her and helps her to realize that it’s okay to show that part of her

they met through james and regulus and often go on double dates with them

they absolutely get matching tattoos. probably ethel cain lyrics or something abt the inherent eroticism of cannibalism idk

my favourite headcanon is that pandora and evan are twins and evan tries to get lily the shovel talk when he meets her for the first time, but actually just ends up half in love with her bc he thinks she’s so cool

speaking of, evan and lily joke that they’re going to run away and elope so that evans name could be evan evans and pandora thinks it’s the funniest thing ever

bonus headcanon that evan is the older twin by a few minutes but pandora tells everyone that she is and he doesn’t correct her

they watched bones and all together and every 5 minutes they would whisper “this is so us” to each other

they absolutely LOVE baking together. they do it at least once a week and they make cookies or cupcakes or something and decorate them like pinterest photos and give them to their friends

they have two shared pinterest boards. one is really cutesy baking ideas and cute room decor inspo and the other is full of quotes abt cannibalism and blood and eating each other whole. they treasure both of these boards equally

lily is the biggest taylor swift fan ever and she makes pandora listen to her songs together. pandora moderately enjoys taylor swift, but will listen to her constantly to please lily. lily’s favourite song is this is me trying and pandora likes cowboy like me

they give each other flowers all the time (notably lilies ofc). pandora can’t stand to watch them die and always presses them and keeps them all in a little notebook with the date they got them

they’re obsessed with biting each other. like not even just during sex, they do it all the time. they’ll be watching a movie and pandora will just reach over and bite lily’s shoulder for fun

their favourite show to watch together is hannibal. they’re crazy about it. they rewatch it all the time to an unhealthy extent

they often say really strange declarations of love to each other in front of other people like “i want to eat you down to the bones” or “i want to rip open your skin and crawl inside your kidneys and sleep in there” and everyone around them just laughs nervously and can’t tell if they’re serious or not

i probably rambled much more than i needed to but i am always very excited to talk!!

[edensear]

What I’m about

Helloo my name is Eden. Eden isn’t my real name but my alter ego, the version of me who has it all and is confident as fuck. Eden changes everyday for me now that I’m exploring these new interests… but basically she’s my highest self.

Before we get into what I’ll be posting on here please have an open mind and don’t comment anything negative, just scroll.

Basically on here I will be posting about my spiritual journey, self improvement advice and how I am trying to reach higher levels of consciousness.

My goals:

- Build my trust in manifestation

I learned about manifestation a couple years ago but haven’t built a solid foundation around it. Recently I’ve created this challenge for myself, where I’ve written several things that I don’t really care about that I want to manifest to remove doubt. I will definitely post about my results with this to maybe strengthen your belief as well. I should have manifested all the things on the list by the end of January, and I will have photos for proof that it was entirely manifestation.

Fav manifesting youtubers:

Taylor Tookes

Hyler

- Become a consistent lucid dreamer

I started locking in on this literally last week. Right now I’m doing MILD every night and dream journaling in the morning. I try to do WBTB but I don’t use an alarm so I’m not always successful. I’ve already made a lot of progress, I am remembering more of my dreams and last night I realized for the first time that I was dreaming but wasn’t very conscious about it, so I’m not counting it as a lucid dream unless I’m controlling it.

- Consistent Meditation

So basically I want to meditate daily to enhance my attention skills, lowering my anxiety and also strengthening my intuition. Mediation makes your mind a whole lot easier to control, so if I get the benefits of meditation I will be able to lucid dream easier and astral project, my next goal.

- Astral projection

Once I master lucid dreaming this is my next target. I still need to do more research to see if this really is something I want to do, but out of body experiences seem pretty cool. Is it real? Probably, and even if it’s not I will still have fun lucid dreaming to this concept. So it’s a win win situation. The same thing applies to shifting realities. Some say it’s real, while others say it’s lucid dreaming. It doesn’t matter to me because either way I will experience what I want to experience.

- Self improvement

This is definitely one of the most important things in my life that I’ve been working on for a LONG TIME and it will always be my goal to improve my mentality. I love the wizard liz she is my savior. I will drop some lore and advice on this shit.

Things I might talk about on here:

- Past manifestations and advice

- Subliminals

(I HAVE MY OWN SUBLIMINAL CHANNEL! I won’t expose it yet tho!)

- Interesting dreams i’ve had

- Things related to spirituality and consciousness

- Opinions and advice on detaching from external validation, and anything related to introspection & shadow work

- How subjective life is in general

- Esoteric topics like voluntary hallucinations and tulpas (crazy shit, let’s hope I don’t go schizo talking abt this)

Sooo I might not even post on here this was like last minute desicion.. but yea I was thinking of posting youtube videos of like yap sessions but I don’t want to expose myself too much yk, especially if I start talking about something controversial.

But you guys should definitely follow me if you know who Tiger123 is, I was watching his Yaya video which made me come on tumblr in the first place to like document shit. I might not even commit to this but hopefully I do and I commit to the goals I have for next year aswell.

If you read this far, I love you.

And if no one read this… IDGAF less pressure and more freedom!

Things I wanted to mention but dk where to put:

I want to major in psychology when I get older

My user is edensear bc basically ur just going to hear me out on whatever i have to say

[crabs-but-better]

omgomg tyy isaac ok uh

are you named after anyone?

no my name is a shortened version of my deadname

2. when’s the last time you cried

ok well um on friday we watched les mis in class and i cried from the ending but if we’re talking about like actually crying it’s gotta be at least a solid 5-7 months

3. Any kids?

no never unless i adopt and i would never adopt a baby i’d choose someone older yknow

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

oh every other word that comes out of my mouth is sarcasm that is my main form of communication

5. first thing you notice abt people

their clothes. i can tell a lot about a person by what they choose to wear

6. what color are your eyes?

hazel babey point some sunlight at me and i’ll shine gold like the stars

7. scary movies or happy endings?

um first of all those aren’t mutually exclusive but i would prefer whatever benefits the narrative better

8. special talents?

well i love writing and literary analysis. i also have a very good ear and can replicate a melody near instantly on a piano

9. where were you born?

midwest, usa. rural country baby, gotta love those damn fields (i’m being serious here i find a good field and i wanna cry)

10. hobbies?

obsessing over whatever story i hyperfixate on at the time. also playing piano and writing stories. i love to drive too.

11. any pets?

i have two. one is super annoying tho.

12. what sports do you do?

does customer service count? it should.

13. how tall are you?

5’ 3” but you shall perceive me as 5’ 6” on account of my 3 inch platform boots

14. fav subject in school?

probs math or english depending on which between the two is easier at the time.

15. dream job?

to own my own restaurant. i imagine a little cafe/ diner with community resources and activities to create a community atmosphere. live local bands, weekly homework help, that sort of thing.

tagging (sorry) @howldean @mister-finally-found-himself & open tags :)

15 questions 15 people

answer the questions and tag 15 people! thank u brody @walkingmouth

1. are you named after anyone?

yeah!! first name after a movie star and middle name after my aunt ^^

2. when was the last time you cried?

earlier today i cried a little bit bc my big sister was leaving after visiting us!

3. do you have kids?

not yet but i really want them in teh future!!

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

yes in a jokey way w people im close to haha

5. what is the first thing you notice about people?

hmm idk!! if theyre nice ig lol

6. what color are your eyes?

blue-gray!

7. scary movies or happy endings?

both!!!

8. any special talents?

not really lmao

9. where were you born?

america unfortunately.

10. what are your hobbies?

drawing, writing fanfiction

11. do you have any pets?

2 cats!

12. what sports do you/have you played

none

13. how tall are you?

5'8” i think??.

14. favorite subjects in school?

none i do not like school

15. dream job?

piercer and child therapist. yes both.

tagging: @clandeztine @offtheheezayy @austinwehaveaproblem @mostlytins @daddymikeyway @deesaster @dxzys @h0use-of-w0lves @pagesixlovers @peterpansexual19 @p1ckthep01son @lj-girlie @untitledrockshow @littletroubledgrrrl @teenytinydancer34

[mediocre-writerr]

look what you made me do [quinn fabray]

quinn fabray x fem reader

requested: hi hi! i absolutely adore your writing, you’re seriously one of my favs i was wondering if i could request Quinn Fabray gets into a heated argument with someone for like dissing reader and she begins threatening them, so fem!Reader, picks up Quinn and carries/drags them out of the room before anyone gets hurt. Something like cute and fluffy please.

*not my gif*

Everyone knew not to mess with Quinn Fabray. She will rain Hell on you herself. And you will not feel any type of sympathy or mercy.

Hurt her girlfriend or anyone she loved? Then you’d rather wish you were dead because she won’t give you the benefit of getting it over with. She will slowly rip off the Band-Aid to feel every pore be ripped of your skin.

And that’s exactly where Rachel Berry was, swimming with the sharks.

You know how Rachel is, you all do. But this time your girlfriend was there to witness her dissing you. All because you got the lead in the production of Waitress that you and the rest of the New Direction’s were preparing for.

“Really Mr. Shue?! Y/N’s not as talented as me and her dancing could use a lot of work! I was born for the role, Y/N could play one of the pregnant ladies who dance in the background. This is my show!” Rachel ranted and everyone groaned.

But from right next to you, you could feel Quinn stiffen, “Apologize,” she said in a really calm tone which caused everyone to freeze. That was the scary tone.

“For what? I’m just being honest!” she tried to save herself, but she was honestly digging a bigger hole.

“My girlfriend is perfect for the role! You just don’t want to admit that Y/N beat you by a long shot in the auditions. Her rendition of ‘Requiem’ easily beat your boring, overused, overplayed version of ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’,”the blonde argued as she got up from her seat, getting dangerously close to her face.

“That is not tr-“ Rachel tried to rebuttal, but Quinn cut her off.

“Apologize right now,” she said with gritted teeth.

“No! I’m not gonna apologize for something that should be rightfully mine!” she argued.

Finn’s voice cut in between the girls, “Rach just apologize. Quinn gets really scary when she’s mad and honestly her face reminds me of when I suggested naming the baby Drizzle,”

“If you don’t apologize in two seconds I swear to God I’m gonna take that participation Regionals trophy we got and shove it right up that stuck up-“ she started to threaten, so you got up from off your seat and ran towards her.

You wrapped your arms around her waist and picked her up, carrying her towards the hallway. She started squirming in your arms which caused you to chuckle, “I’m gonna let her calm down and take a breather,” you called out before you left the room.

After you placed her on the floor you cupped her cheeks. Beginning to rub soothing circles on her jaw line. You could see a yellow tone spraying through her green eyes, something that only happens when she’s really angry. You kissed her forehead as she released a sigh.

“That was very adorable,” you said, bopping her nose which caused her to chuckle.

She shook her head, “I wasn’t trying to be adorable. I was supposed to look angry,”

“Oh you did! Everyone in there was about to shit themselves, but to me it was super cute how protective you got,” she grabbed your hand, playing with your fingers.

“I just don’t want anyone talking bad about you or hurting you,” her voice much softer now and she could barely look you in the eyes.

“I know, but I’m okay baby, I promise. Especially with a cute adorable protective girlfriend like you, I know that no one can hurt me,” you pressed a kiss to her lips and she hummed in contentment.

“Can I still beat her up?” she questioned as the two of you prepared to walk in.

“Maybe later,” you chuckled.

[nextonmy-tbr]

Book Review: Rule of Wolves (Nikolai Duology #2)

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Genre: YA Fantasy 

With Fjerda preparing its best to invade Ravka, the worst enemy resurrected and the Shu queen making conspiracies it is becoming difficult for Ravka to survive every roadblocks put on their way and remain standing as a strong country. But the demon king, the witch general and the heartrender spy won’t let Ravka fall. They will do anything and everything to save their broken nation. Watch them use tricks, thief, spy, magic, monsters and alliances to make this dream possible. Will they succeed? Read the book to find out…

My thoughts:

After a powerful ending to the first book, Leigh Bardugo is back with another epic book to bring conclusion to the Nikolai duology. This book has to be better one as compared to the first. I liked everything in this book, from the cover to the plot, from the start till the end, from the characters till their development. Another thing that I loved the most in this book has to be entry of Six of Crows characters. To me it felt like my fav characters from another universe entering into this one. I had a huge smile on my face the entire time I was reading about them.

Plot:

“Maybe the gift of being human is that we do not give up- even when all hope is lost.”

To be honest after reading the end of the first book, I thought that this book is going to be about Darkling being the major villain of the series again and I really wasn’t keen on that idea. But I was happy to see that this time their focus on Fjerda and nation politics. They way that the plot was built up it made us see that how difficult it was to rule Ravka and make it sustain and survive. For a minute I thought that it is not going to be possible for them to win against Fjerda military, Shu planning and Kerch diplomacy. But then I remembered that this is Nikolai and Zoya, they won’t let this happen. Having Nina influence the thoughts of the Fjerdans right below Jarl Brum’s nose was a nice spice to the story that brought immense satisfaction to me.  

 Characters:

“The world might crumble, but Nikolai Lantsov would be holding up the ceiling with one hand and plucking a speck of dirt from his lapel with the other when it all went to ruin”

Nikolai Lantsov is that fictional character that just increases your expectations from any guy you will ever meet and potentially ruin your life coz of course there isn’t anybody like him. His witty charming self, fills the book with warmth and light and makes us love him even more. His interactions with Kaz were just hilarious (Yes, there is Kaz in this book). With there interactions it is so ironic to notice that how much these two characters are similar and yet complete opposite. What makes Nikolai so adorable is his love and compassion for Zoya, Ravka and his friends and even his enemies. His personality is just a cherry on the cake. We watch him grow a lot in this book.

"I'm the queen. I must do nothing but please myself."

Characters like Zoya makes me love Leigh so much, coz she definitely creates them one of a kind. We see a lot of development from Zoya’s side. She is more patient, compassionate and learning and allowing how to love herself and the others around her. Her pain and struggles are her biggest strength and she finally uses them for her benefit. It was really admirable to see her growth and how she becomes the best version of herself. Her relationships with Nikolai, Genya and Nina were also enchanting.

“I was a soldier before I was a spy, and I am done with lies.”

Nina has shown such a wide and huge growth in her character. Sometimes it feels that the Nina in Six of Crows and Nina in this book are different people. But her pain and her ghost of the past represents that they are the same and how much she has endured. It was actually really nice to see her finally happy after entirely two years. She is one character to be proud of. Her plot brought life to this book.

Other characters that one can enjoy in this book is the Darkling – though I didn’t like it much, he surely brings a sense of threat and chaos in this book. Also, the small parts of the other book characters like Kaz, Jesper, Wylan, Alina and Mal, makes it like a multiverse. Apart from that you will love Hanne and her progress too.

If you love Grishaverse, country politics, magic and monsters, spying, forging alliances, stealing and Nikolai being his best romantic self then you must check this book out.  So, let me know what are your thoughts on this book. You can also recommend some books to read or to write reviews on.

[ohgodmyeyes]

hi! I was curious as to what are both your fav and least fav versions of anakin? (like aotc, rots, old force ghost, clone wars, etc)

This is such an exciting question, but I'll try to be succinct instead of long-winded and boring. (My stories are already there for that.) Here's a quick rundown of a few different Anakins, from my most treasured to the one (and only one) I tend to side-eye: 

ROTJ Anakin / Force Ghost Anakin - I'm grouping these guys together, because I love them all for the same reason, and that reason is that they DID it. ROTJ Anakin is the Anakin who finds himself again; who takes responsibility for his family, and a huge step toward atoning for the things he's done. He spends ROTJ slowly changing; we see it in how he regards the Emperor, and the way he regards Luke. The closest thing he’s ever going to do to getting his wife back, realistically, is saving his son and finally openly defying Palpatine. It doesn’t matter that anyone else knows Vader has been rescued from himself, or that he was really a good man all along. Luke knows, and that’s enough; it’s part of why their relationship is so special to me. Luke is the only living person who says a proper goodbye to Anakin: He knew all along that it was worth it to try to know him. That’s beautiful.

His journey isn't finished at this stage, exactly, but his he's in a better place than he's ever been, and I love him for it. He's hope personified, even for the very worst of us.

As an aside— physicality isn't a barrier to any of this; I love him all busted up and dying, I love him as a fully-healed Sebastian Shaw, and as a pretty, young Hayden Christensen.

Padawan Anakin / AOTC Anakin / Jedi Quest Anakin - In second place is a much younger iteration of him— a sad, lonely kid who's easily excitable, and dangerous, somehow, without being at all frightening. He's a mixed-up kid who's had a less-than-ideal upbringing, bound to an ancient prophecy no one knows enough about. He cries out constantly to be held and loved; he's got his heart in his hand, and he's always ready to give it away to the next person who shows him kindness— or who even just needs him. 

He's still so compassionate and well-intentioned at this point in his life, even when it doesn't benefit him. He can be petty and sensitive, although anyone would be, if they had to bear the kind of weight Anakin carries on his own shoulders at that age. His emotions sometimes run amok, but his heart is still so good... and more importantly than that, he knows it. He still has hope, for himself and for others, despite the overwhelming sense of 'otherness' he tends to feel. That's what sets him apart from Vader for me, even though I think AOTC Ani resembles the ultimate, 'suited' Darth Vader a lot more than the Anakin we meet at the beginning of ROTS. 

Plus— although this is fairly irrelevant— AOTC Anakin happens to be Anakin at peak hotness. No damn wig is going to change that, nor is the sad fact of my own rapidly-advancing age. :) 

Little Kid Anakin / TPM Anakin - The sweet baby version of Anakin comes in next for me. The altruism he struggles to hang onto until he finally falls is front-and-centre at this stage. He's tough by necessity (obviously, he's a fucking slave), but he isn't jaded yet— largely owing to his mother. Even when he loses Qui-Gon and gets to the Temple and struggles to integrate, his heart just stays enormous. God knows what he's already been through, but he never stops trying, and there's nothing fake about his confidence at this stage in his life. I love that; I think we could all stand to be a bit more like nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker.

There's an Anakin & Reader story on ao3 by @itohan called 'Kuebiko', and it's a beautiful depiction of what it might be like to be a caregiver for a very young Anakin. It's headed for some pretty sad places, to be sure, but there's a lot of sweetness and lovely (sometimes chilling) little insights into his character that I don't otherwise get to see very often. Anyone else with a soft spot for child Ani should go and read it.

'Classic' Vader, between the end of ROTS and the end of ANH - This is an enormous chunk of time, but again, I think it's more helpful than not if I just group these iterations of him together, at least for the purpose of compiling this list. It's horrific and tragic and a devastating waste of potential, but Anakin really does spend a huge amount of time mired in a thick, dark cloud of grief and anger. He convinces himself of a lot of stupid shit during this period in his life: 'Anakin is dead, I'm fulfilling my destiny, I can get Padmé back, she'd love all this ORDER I'm bringing, blah blah blah'. Every ounce of his extraordinary control is purely surface-level; he's a raging wildfire inside for a longer period of time than I think nearly anyone else could realistically sustain (as in, Kylo Ren was always going to die at 30, and I'm surprised I didn't, too lol).

He's empowered by his shitstain of a 'Master' to hurt and kill people against everything that once made him who he was, and no one can know he suffers for it (or for the loss of his wife, or the family he wishes he could have raised with her). No one can know anything about him; he's a man playing a part who can't ever take off his costume. Everything hurts him, and the only places he can turn to for comfort are the battlefield, and the inside of his own head. He has profound disabilities of every imaginable nature, and receives no more than the most cursory physical maintenance to remedy them. He escapes into his missions, but every one of those is a slight against his own better nature. His personal pursuits don't benefit him either; for basically twenty years of his life, he's living in an emotional storm— it ebbs and flows, but it never lets up, and his entire existence is set up specifically to reward the most despicable of his behaviour.

He doesn't make very many genuine emotional breakthroughs, because he's not allowed— just tricked and lied to and manipulated and taken advantage of, even when he's the one ostensibly in 'control'. His life only starts again when Luke comes into it; again, one more reason their connection is so special to me.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend another Anakin/Reader story by a different author; it's called 'mrfiveohone' by DarthDoritos, and it's on ao3. It's a brilliant exploration of what a strange, budding relationship with a youngish Vader might look like, and just an overall beautiful portrait of escalating intimacy on top of that. Another one I would highly recommend (completion status notwithstanding) is called 'Afterimage', and it is by garnettrees, also on ao3. It's a very dark Vaderdala story that gets right inside Anakin's head in the most wonderful ways. He never stops loving Padmé, and in that, he never truly stops being who he is. 

This is the Vader I (admittedly somewhat dramatically) see the most of myself in. It puts us at-odds sometimes, but my urge to get up underneath that mask and make him feel worthy of his own name is insurmountable. I love him because if I didn't, I'd be in trouble. 

Which brings us to TCW Anakin… who is, perhaps, the only version of Anakin I can honestly say I don't care for. Which is fine, because the show itself really isn't my kind of thing. Suffice to say, that particular depiction of him departs so dramatically from any of the other ones I've known (or listed here) that I just can't get into it, no matter how hard I try. 

I'm going to end this with a shout-out to Lego Anakin! I've never seen a shitty version of Lego Anakin, whether in a cartoon or on my desk at home. :)

Thank you for asking, anon. That was fun to write out!

[mdzs-overthink-athon]

Adaptations - Part 10: Who’s your uncle?

(Masterpost)

This scene appears in:

Mo Dao Zu Shi novel Chapter 7

Mo Dao Zu Shi manhua Chapter 15-16

Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua Episode 2

The Untamed / Chen Qing Ling drama Episode 2

In this scene, Wei Wuxian hears cries for help and sees several people trapped in spirit nets.

A wealthy young man of the Jin sect comes on the scene and acts like a brat, refusing to cut the hapless people down and complaining about them wasting his nets.

Lil’ Apple reveals WWX’s presence, leading to a confrontation.

More under the cut.

The young master insults WWX (assuming he’s MXY) and WWX insults him back, saying some variation of ‘didn’t you have a mother to teach you manners?’ which he later regrets when he finds out the young man’s identity.

This comment leads the young man to draw his sword and they start fighting in earnest.

WWX uses a talisman to force him to the ground, at which point he threatens to call his uncle, then said uncle appears and turns out to be Jiang Cheng, WWX’s estranged stepbrother.

In all versions except CQL, WWX then puts two and two together and realizes that the young man is Jin Ling, his late sister’s son, whom he just insulted in the worst way possible.

So for me, if you can’t tell by the screen grabs already, this scene is all about the facial expressions. There is so much face drama happening here. The two pivotal moments, though, are (1) the moment when Jin Ling loses his shit and (2) the moment Jiang Cheng makes his grand entrance. Leaving all other factors aside for a moment, let’s just compare these.

Jin Ling’s moment of wrath:

From left to right: donghua, drama, manhua (the manhua one is tiny, sorry - click to see more detail - I wanted to catch the progression).

Donghua JL seems more vaguely annoyed than angry. To be fair, I don’t think my screen capper quite got the right moment (the next one after this is a wide shot of him swinging his sword) - but I’m going to go with what we’ve got, and give it a 4/10, plus add a bonus of 1 point for benefit of the doubt since there might be a better expression between screen caps, so 5/10.

Drama JL is just boiling mad, and he is also very clearly a teenage boy (donghua JL seems a bit too pretty and girlish to me and manhua JL looks a bit too mature). That expression is quality furor. I give it 10/10.

Manhua JL has this progression where he first has a stunned, sick look in the top panel, moves to draw his sword, and then dramatically confronts WWX with the darkest of looks. It looks less like the adorable death glare of a teenager and more like the look of a young man who could actually kill. It’s good, but I don’t quite feel like JL is capable of killing intent yet, so I’m knocking off a point and giving it 9/10.

Jiang Cheng’s grand entrance:

Left to right: donghua, drama, manhua (again click for better viewing).

Donghua JC is absolutely stunning here. The evil down-the-nose look floors me every time in animated shows. I just absolutely live for this. The disdain. The hotness. I give him a solid 9/10. 

Drama JC isn’t looking his best here. There was a very cool shot of the sword right before this, and it definitely loses a little something as a still, but even in motion, I don’t feel like he has quite the same dramatic effect in this particular moment as the other versions. He’ll get his chance later, no worries. For now I give him 7/10.

Manhua JC is pure perfection. Look at him stroking his whip. Look at that stride, that flapping robe, that no-nonsense glare. 10/10.

Adding up our totals, we have donghua: 14/20, drama: 17/20, and manhua: 19/20.

My personal fav: the manhua. Obviously based on the metrics mentioned above, I prefer the manhua for its badass portrayals of Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng. There are a couple of other factors at play, too, though. 

First, I really dislike the choice in the donghua to have this scene set at night. I feel like it’s really difficult to tell what’s going on at certain points because it’s so dark. The others don’t have this issue, though I believe the manhua does manage to convey that it’s set at night without it being too dark to see. 

Second, I absolutely love one more of the facial expressions in the manhua. This is Lil’ Apple reacting to the plight of the minor cultivators caught in nets: 

He then goes apeshit and drags WWX out into the open. I do not accept alternate interpretations of this such as “he saw some grass / apple he wanted.” Nope, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

(Source: manhua) (Source: novel translation) (Source: donghua) (Source: drama)

[flydotnet]

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled. I don’t have any request left, so feel free to send in suggestions for this card!).

SPOILERS FOR KAZETSUYO EPISODE 20 FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

I'm not strong. I just do what needs to be done, no matter what.

I thought I was “teehee clever” when choosing to write about a canon example of Working Through the Cold (aka one of my favorite tropes ever), but all I remembered is how powerful and painful (in the best way) the 20th episode of KazeTsuyo was. Holy shit. I hesitated for a long time writing about KazeTsuyo, actually. This show, to me, as such excellent writing I could never match up against it. In the end, the plot bunny wouldn't leave after I went through The Episode:tm: for the 2nd time on my 2021 rewatch of the series, to the point I wrote this before finishing said rewatch (still have Day 2 of Hakone to rewatch - I need to get to it); so I decided "fuck it, I'm writing it", and there were are. I think I at least didn't butcher the series. It may be, huh... wack because I've been on a 2nd person POV with weird dialogue format knack lately, but I hope fellow KazeTsuyo fans who're in search/need for more content are gonna be happy with me barging into this fandom like a torpedo.

Also, man do I love Shindo (please excuse me spelling it that way: if I spell it "Shindou" like the canonical tag does, I'll be mistaken with another character, I'm dumb like that). Imean, I knew the moment I first saw him he'd at least be my favorite design, but then he just hit all my fav character soft spots: hardworking, selfless to a fault, kind, internally struggling... and I guess, yeah, episode 20 was a thing and I'm a freak. I originally planned on writing this to be a softer fic, like y'know, just writing a casual Aotake day with the prompt in mind; but I just had to be a terrible person instead. Sorry Shindo, I swear I love you.

(also, does anyone have a kazetsuyo discord server i could join because i need to scream about this show)

-------

They’re Waiting

Summary: No matter what happens, you will fulfill the promises you've made; even if you break in the process.

Fandom: Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru/Run With the Wind

Wordcount: 2K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo​

AO3 version available here.

---------

The moment you woke up this morning, on the very second a hacking coughing fit erupted from your throat, you knew how difficult today was going to be – but it didn’t make waver in your resolve. If anything, it made you conscious of how far you’d be willing to go despite things getting in your way, as long as you felt a sense of duty towards them.

 No matter what.

 Yuki tries to convince you not to do that. He may have escorted you out of your room when he realized you wouldn’t be walking straight for a little while and brought you to the train station, he’s still scowling at you like you’re a child doing something he shouldn’t (which, truth be told, you are doing right now: usually, you’d be wise enough to know attempting what you’re about to head into would be a terrible idea for a multitude of factors); but you’re firm in your decision and accept a bottle of juice as you end a call with Musa.

 No matter what, you’ll do it.

 Despite how much he doesn’t want you to run, Yuki accompanies you to the Odohara Relay Station. You don’t speak a single word to each other on the ride there, with him crossing his arms and you reading your sister’s excited messages about this year’s family reunion. It’s rare so many people can gather, so they’ve clearly made an effort for you. To watch you run.

Once you’re there, you vaguely hear people around you, hear Yuki argue on the phone about something – you think you can catch it being about Jota and Joji, something about being agitated, something about Hanako – but you’re too tired to catch it. It’ll be a struggle to do this race, so if you can spare yourself the expense of energy you’d need… then you’ve got to, as sad as that is. They’re all counting on you, after all.

 No matter what, you can’t let anyone down now that the big day is here.

 Haiji calls Yuki’s phone, which he then hands down to you. Your conversation is short – he notices how noisy the relay station is (you know people are walking around, discussing what’s, tells you his concern, reminds you that you can drop out if you feel too weak to participate, and lastly, urges you to hydrate well.

When Yuki asks you what he says, you skip over most of it, merely repeating the last part as he looks at you, features twisted in worry, and the feeling in your chest keeps deepening despite it having to compete with whatever you woke up with (a cold, you’d assume, hopefully wishing it’s nothing threatening).

 You can’t find something to reply to your sister telling you to get first place on Section Five.

 You know your turn is coming, so you rise to your feet, to take off the coat on your shoulders and the scarf tied around your neck, handing them off to Yuki. The last thing you take off is your mask, before you’re assaulted with a wave of dizziness and almost collapse back to the ground. Luckily, Yuki is here to catch you back before that can happen, a grunt escaping his lips as he grabs you by the arm; all that, once again, happens in a tense silence.

Saikyo, Tokyo Sport – they’re starting to call people whose ranks are around Joji’s. You’re up soon.

 “I’d better go,” you struggle to tell him as calls are made around the both of you.

“But it’s Section 5,” Yuki tries to argue. “Actually, no matter what section—”

Kansei, Kikui! Get ready! They’re coming at the same time!

“It’s okay,” you reply back, putting on your best smile. “I’ll promise I’ll make it there.”

 Yuki doesn’t walk to the line with you, staying behind after giving up on keeping you out of the run. He himself knows you can’t drop out now – if you do, you’re forcing the entire team to forfeit. You’d be making everyone’s efforts to get to this point null, including your own, and that’s something you can’t let happen.

Even if you can barely keep your balance and inhaling the cold, dry air of early January is making your airways burn, you’re going to run Section Five and keep your promise to Yuki, to your family, to everyone around you.

 No matter what.

 -------------------

 You got the sash from a very shocked-looking Joji, but ignored much of what you thought about it so you could put it on and go on with your section. The cold winds have the benefit of being soothing against your fevered skin, bringing a welcome sense of relief, as little as it is compared to everything else you’re already fighting against.

The dizziness messing with your balance, the coughing fits seizing your chest and throat, the lethargy in your limbs, the haze in your vision – they’re not leaving anytime soon. You need all of these to run properly, but none of them will cooperate, so you’ll need to force them to. It’s tiring, it’s painful, but it’s what needs to be done.

 You watch everyone around you run past you, effortlessly dodging if they were behind you, as people cheer on and people in cars say things over the speakers attached to them. You can barely make sense of the cacophony rattling through your aching head, of everyone around, and it’s putting one more weight on your shoulders: you don’t even get to profit from the landscapes or people’s encouragements, stuck in a bubble which muffles every sound as if you were drowning.

In a sense, you have such a difficult time breathing in and out that you may as well be underwater. That’d explain the struggle of your limbs against an air resistance that just doesn’t exist.

 Before you is an insurmountable mountain that keeps getting higher and higher – Hakone’s mountains are the steepest in the world suddenly takes on a different meaning – and you wish once more you weren’t plagued by sickness. You’d have a lot of fun running up it, showing everyone back home how living in the valley made you fit for the legendary Section Five; but instead, you’re struggling to even alternate between left foot and right foot, as if walking had become a chore.

Oh, that’s right, no matter how isolating or soundproof the bubble is, everyone’s watching you, be it from the sides of the Hakone Ekiden or from back home – don’t forget about them. They’re all counting on you. No matter what, you can’t let them down, can’t let them see the team fail to see the sun rise again on their journey.

 Someone’s close enough for you to understand what they’re saying without having to focus on it – they’re giving you a drink. Haiji told you to hydrate, especially since there’s a powerful fever sticking to your skin and poisoning your nerves, so you accept it in an attempt to quench the undefeatable thirst of illness.

You burst the bubble for a minute to get that bottle of water and take a couple precious sips – a drop of relief in your sea of anguish.

 Breathing in and out requires more and more effort with each passing step, but the strength of your promise is what keeps you going. The mere idea of obligating everyone out of the run they’ve all worked so much for – not to mention Haiji, who literally made himself sick over it and painstakingly collected dorm members for four years just for this very moment – disgusts you to the point it pushes your legs forward despite the pain and the cough you have to repress more and more, with less and less effectiveness every time you do.

And that’s when the coach starts speaking to you from the car that’s been tailing you for a while (at least, that’s what you assume; truth be told, all you’re going off of is the constant sound of a motor and wheels).

 Shindo, go is a challenging game. The stronger you are, the more you value the way you lose. How you recognize your loss and resign is key. No one blames the challenger for resigning or mocks him for running away. If anything, they praise him for securing an escape route. It’s because everyone knows that man was fighting to win until the very end.  

You know why he’s saying that. He wants to soften the blow of what it’d mean if you gave up here and there, throwing the race away to preserve yourself from getting worse and worse by the minute, by reminding you not being there running against yourself would be the wisest option. Of course, you’re aware of how reckless you’re acting, but you’re putting your team’s honour and reason to be here before your wellbeing – you know that. You’re assuming that choice.

 Shindo, raise your hand if you can’t keep going. I’ll stop you immediately.

You continue running.

 The coach eventually leaves the car and starts running beside you, which makes you almost realize how slow you are if he can keep up with you with seemingly no difficulty. It’s a little hard to say considering you can barely hear anything and you’re too focused on not collapsing to actually pay attention to anything that isn’t the road in front of you, as blurry as it tends to get.

A coughing fit you’ve been keeping in for what feels like hours prevents you from breathing in, forcing you to stop and cough it all out until you’ve caught your breath. Your legs are trembling and you’re folded in half, sweat falling to the ground.

 “That’s enough,” Coach Tazaki tells you in a paternal tone you’ve never heard him speak in before. “You did well.”

In the corner of your eyes, you can see his hand get closer and closer to your back, fingers ready to tear away your number sign – but you find the strength to get back up, shaky breathing in tow, before he can do so, clutching Kansei’s sash with hands like claws.

Waiting… They’re all waiting for me…

 And, on that, you resume running, resume fighting against yourself by taking the hard way out.

 It’s painful, even more so than earlier, and everything that was sore is now almost unbearably so – yet you keep marching on, keep struggling against illness and heights alike, consciousness slowly starting to fade out. You’re running as if you were in a dream, almost, the landscape around you turning into white, unable to keep a straight line as you almost forget why you were here to begin with, why you’ve been pushing against the world for who knows how long.

It’s the end, you feel it, since the bubble doesn’t prevent you from fully hearing cheers getting louder and louder, so you continue pushing no matter how terrible you’re feeling, no matter how little you can feel aside from your body’s screams for you to stop what you’re doing and putting it through so much misery.

 They’re waiting. They’re waiting for you.

 You see the finish line from far away, but never up close.

 --------------

 When you wake up, all of your teammates present in the room (Haiji, Kakeru, Joji, Yuki – the coach is here too) try to jump to your side, before the coach orders them to leave you some breathing space. One of your first reflexes is to try and grab a mask, which someone gives you (looking up a little, you realize it’s Yuki). They all look relieved, yet a little antsy, and you’re not sure of what to tell them after sleeping for what must have been hours, considering the lights are on – as far as you remember, it was broad daylight when you went to sleep.

Still, seeing them around you reminds you how why you went to such great lengths despite everything – they’re thankful, yet worried, but most of all, you’re all still running.

[bluekaddis]

You almost mentioned Cullen as the best written character, but tbh he is written quite bad, his abuse and hate is never confronted in Inquisition and he is made victim by narrative, while he was the very problem why Chantry sucks. Even his fans admit that. He is mostly liked because of romance.

Ugh.

I was waiting for that moment when admitting I like Cullen’s character and story arc will bite me in the ass.

TL; DR (for those who don’t want to get through my long rant) 

Let everyone enjoy any characters/romances/game choices they want. I have my reasons for having Cullen as a fav DA character and liking his story arc and I don’t think there are more problems with writing of his character than the majority of other companions in DA games. 

Full answer below

First of all – I don’t want to argue that everyone should like or dislike the same elements of fiction as I do – it would be stupid. We all have different tastes, like different character archetypes and have varying opinions on what makes a good story. I’m trying to keep my blog character positive and unless someone asks me directly to share my opinion on a certain character or plot element I prefer keeping my critique to myself. I also don’t feel entitled to confront fans who, in their own posts, state they find Cullen boring, unredeemable or overrated, even if I personally disagree with all these statements. 

If your ask, anon, stated the words “i think” or “in my opinion” I wouldn’t probably bother with such a lengthy answer, HOWEVER, you write your personal opinion like it was an objective statement, like you were in position to tell me how I should view the certain character. What did you expect, that I would suddenly realize “oh crap, NOW I see that a character and plot I had liked for my 200 hours of gameplay is actually bad, I was just too stupid to notice it!”.

Haha, no.

So, let’s go through your comment.

“tbh he is written quite bad”

In. Your. Opinion. There are people who don’t like Cullen’s character development. Some like the general idea but would make some changes if they could. Others (like me) don’t have problem with his story arc and just like to add some headcanons to fill the gaps.

It is understandable that when years pass between games, fans have time to develop their opinions and wishes of what they’d like to see. And because none of them actually writes the story it is very easy to feel disappointed and say “well, I would do it better (= my way)”. But the truth is - your way is not necessary a better way. It may be the case that “your version” would be even more hated by the fandom. Some opinions are just more popular than others and therefore may seem like they are objective but it’s an illusion. A well designed pool, with large sample size and good statistics may be objective. Opinions, on the other hand, are like farts – you always think yours are less stinky than the others’ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I digress.

Yes, I think Cullen is a well written character and yes, I like his story arc. Cullen’s redemption works for me because I see it not as much about atonement for his actions as for his lack of action.

Let me explain.

Anti-Cullen fans tend to assume that he personally did a lot of atrocities, but when you look not at fandom assumptions but at his actual actions we see in games or WoT, you can see that he caused most evil by not doing shit.

He should have protected the mages.

He didn’t.

He should have questioned Meredith’s actions.

He didn’t.

He should have noticed she’s going mad.

He didn’t .

He should have stopped her before she evoked the Rite.

He didn’t.

He was very passive and basically let either Meredith or Hawke make all the choices for him. If he let Meredith decide – people died. If he listened to Hawke (based on player’s choices) he voted for whatever Hawke had proposed.

Why was he behaving like that? Probably because he had lost faith in his own judgment so he put all the responsibility on authority figures (Templar Order and Chantry teachings). Cullen’s core motivation throughout all games was to protect people and it never changes. What changes is his belief of what methods are moral or necessary to achieve that goal and whether he, as an individual, should be in a position to decide it.

In Inquisition Cullen does the opposite. He is a workaholic. He makes his own decisions (leaves Kirkwall, stops taking lyrium) and takes full responsibility for them. He doesn’t follow his leader blindly but openly states his own opinions and advice (whether they are correct or wrong is another topic). He gets really furious when someone in position of power lie to or sacrifice people under their command (like in case of Samson or Rainier). Finally, he dedicates his life, health, skills, basically everything, for a cause - to stop the war that can be blamed mostly on his former organisation, without complaint or asking for forgiveness.

And I love that aspect of his character.

In Inquisition Cullen is still a work in progress. He tries his best but his templar past comes back sometimes - and it’s good. If he was completely free of his biases, it would be damn unnatural. 

I would never say that Cullen is a flawless ray of sunshine. He can be stubborn, biased, narrow-minded, hypocritical, bitter, aggressive and vengeful. But guess what – so can all the other characters. That’s why they are interesting.

“his abuse and hate is never confronted in Inquisition”

It is, at least for the standards of this particular game. DA:I doesn’t have full developed friendship-rivalry mechanics like DA:2 and you can’t even get approval points from advisors. The Inquisitor basically has far less options to condemn the Inner Circle’s actions or change their worldviews than Hawke (you don’t really argue with Dorian about slavery or with Iron Bull about Saarebas or Reeducators either).

But even if the Inquisitor has limited dialogue options to confront Cullen’s actions directly, Cullen himself brings the topic to the player. Cullen’s dialogue and actions in DA:I show that

he is ashamed of the person he became after Uldred’s uprising    

he knows he needs to atone for his actions and he wants to work for it

but doesn’t really believe he can fully atone for what he did

supports the reform of the Chantry, Templar Order and Circles rather than agreeing to their traditional methods

That man already hates himself, give him some rest.

And if you still think he needs an extra punishment for his crimes - Cullen is actually one of only 3 companions/advisors in DA:I whose life you can literally ruin through your choices (the other two being Blackwall and Iron Bull). If your Inky thinks that Cullen’s actions are unredeemable and he deserves nothing better than to forever be chained to the templar life he has chosen as a kid - they can order him to take lyrium again. For me it’s a heartless and morally wrong choice, but anyone can play their game however they want.

„he is made victim by narrative”

Ok, that part really bothers me. Are you saying that it is a bad thing that a narrative treats a person who has been physically, mentally and sexually abused for weeks as a victim of that abuse? Or encourages empathy towards a character fed drugs, manipulation and propaganda? Acknowledging Cullen’s PTSD doesn’t automatically result in ignoring or diminishing traumas and abuse that happened to Anders, Carl or any other character. Empathy doesn’t have to be reserved to people you personally agree with, just saying.

„he was the very problem why Chantry sucks.”

I’d say he was an example showing why Chantry sucks. A symptome, not a cause. Chantry benefits only high ranking members of that intitution + some nobles and rich dudes. Mages are abused and denied most of the rights because of the Chantry. Templars are drugged and brainwashed because of the Chantry. Common folk can’t freely benefit from things like healing magic because of the Chantry. Non-humans are treated like heretics and barbarians - because of the Chantry. The Chantry, as we see at the beginning of DA:I is a corrupt, powerful institution that has forsaken almost all ideals it had been built upon and desperately needs a reform. Everyone can see that. I have NEVER met any fan who said „yeah, Circles, Templar Order, the Chantry – they were perfectly alright, no need to change lol”. Same goes to characters labelled by fandom as pro-Chantry (like Cassandra, Cullen or Vivienne). They all see that major changes must be done, they just believe the reformation is better than abolition.

„Even his fans admit that.”

Some, yes. Others don’t have a problem with his arc. Personally I don’t think there are many Cullen fans that would agree with every single point you made.

„He is mostly liked because of romance.”

Um, no. The reason why the game developers even bothered with making Cullen a romance option in DA:I is that he was already quite liked and popular among fans, despite being just a secondary character. I’d agree that the romance plot made Cullen even more popular, especially among players who didn’t play previous games, but it is wrong to assume that the only reason people enjoy his character is because he’s a pretty boy. I played the games in order and Cullen was one of my fav characters in DA2 - I just like paragon anti-villains with redemption potential. Fight me. 

To conclude this overly long rant - I’m generally under impression that some DA fans tend to point certain aspects of Cullen’s character and story as “stupid excuses made by Bioware and fans to redeem a son of the bitch” and then use almost exactly the same arguments to defend their own favs. It’s the topic for maybe another discussion, but I think it’s a good thing to confront your own biases sometimes.

P.S. I also recommend watching this video about writing redemption arcs. Just for fun.

I rest my case. 

(thanks, Ania, for the high quality picture to sum up my feelings)

[myupostsheadcanons]

Books “Read” in 2019

I am going to rank these by how much i enjoyed them vs. any actual literary quality. often well written books aren’t always the most entertaining books.

Note: i listen to many of these books at work, which is why i am able to go through so many of them in a year.

List from 2017 List from 2018

------- My Favs of the Year ----

Novels from The First Law:

Best Served Cold (#1), The Heroes(#3), Red Country(#4), Sharp Ends(#5).

A Little Hatred (#2) (Age of Madness, sequel to The First Law)

I read “The First Law Trilogy” about a year or two ago and finally got around to reading the rest of the books, just in time for a new series taking place in the same world to start up (Age of Madness) and now i am waiting like everybody else for the next two books to come out in 2020 and 2021. A Little Hatred shouldn’t be read as a stand alone, a lot of what goes on is dependent mainly on knowledge from the first trilogy and in The Heroes, then bits and pieces from Best Served Cold and Red Country. So much of your enjoyment of each book is based on what you’ve learned in other ones (character development or seemingly useless information being not so useless later).

Age of Legend (Book 4,  Legend of the First Empire)

This is more-or-less an “aftermath” book where the main characters are still reeling about what happened in the previous book and are trying to make plans for what they are going to do next. I still like the characters and the world/setting it takes place in.

House of Assassins (Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, Book 2)

I’ve been waiting for the next book in this series to come out the second i finished the first book in the series. It is one of those Science fiction in the disguise of Fantasy settings and I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see how that plot/revelation comes out (I am certain that the location the story takes place is Earth, more specifically around Asia/India, but in a post-invasion apocalypse setting where nobody remembers anything prior to the invasion). I also really like how much of a badass Ashok is... i have a thing for emotionally stunted badass characters, especially when their flaws are held up to a mirror and have real consequences.

R. R. Haywood’s Worldship Humility & Extinct (Extracted, Book 3)

I love the way Haywood writes characters and dialog. I was at-first iffy about WSH, but was won over after i warmed up to the new characters.

Shades of Magic Trilogy (A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, A Conjuring of Shadows)

Solid multi-verse and magic system world. Well-written characters, some minor nitpicks on plot points, but can be easily ignored. LGBTQ rep, the gays don’t stay buried.

“Don’t you have enough [knives]?” “You can never have too many.” [me, every time: LOL]

One of the few times when a character deserves a redemption arc, doesn’t really get one, dies, and i am perfectly fine with it because it is done well.

Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool, Book 3)

I read this one in book-book form, but i already knew most of the emotionally painful parts of the book by spoiling it to myself when it first came out a couple years ago. The main appeal is the inner monologues of the two main characters, even if like 50% of this trilogy is basically spending weeks/months trying to go from Point A to Point B, when many other books would have glossed over the details of travel.. but you can really feel the stress as they dwell in their thoughts and struggles.

Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles & Circe

Re-Imagining of the Iliad and The Odyssey. Focusing not on the characters of Achilles or Odysseus, but on Petroclus (Achilles’ lover) and Circe the sea nymph witch that Odysseus had an affair and child with.

The Spear of the Stars (Cycle of Galand, Book 5)

Still love Dante and Bleys... This is where they really get into the meat of world building and solving the mysteries of the Arawn Cycle (the book/bible) and peel back the layers of their reality.

Dust (Silo Book 3)

A great ending to a good series, it answers whether or not humanity can or has survived what had caused them to be locked away in the silos.

Blackthorn and Grim (Dreamer’s Pool, Tower of Thorns, Den of Wolves)

I like the premise of the books, the two main characters first seeking out revenge, but end up wanting to become better people due to magic shenanigans.... One part Fantasy, One Part Mystery, One Part Lovestory.

The Dispatcher (Audible Free Book) 

I want a whole series based off this novella. It is John Scalzi so he can write a good story. I had previously read Android’s Dream by him, which it didn’t make it into my top-10 that year, but was still decent, even if the subject matter was a bit gross... The Dispatcher world is a Sci-Fi Noir, not quite Cyberpunk, where people don’t die by anything other than natural causes. The Dispatcher’s job is to kill people before something goes does wrong and the person “resets” to when they where safe and sound.

---- this is the “Above Average” Zone ----

All the Pretty Horses & Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

The master of bleak and depressing fiction. if regular Dark Fiction isn’t enough for you.... there is Cormac McCarthy books. Get use to the “purple prose” that fills up pages with no dialog.

The Golem and the Jinni

Supernatural world of the far past dealing with Edwardian New York and Immigration. It not only is a “fish out of water” story of the two main characters trying to fit in with society but they are among communities that are also new to America and trying to find their own place in the world. There are love subplots but most of those kind of fizzle out.

The Axe and the Throne: Bounds of Redemption Vol. 1.

“Discount First Law” book... it is lacking the dark humor that made TFL series far more entertaining.  This was also the book that was prefaced by warning people about how grim and dark the setting was... Hahahaha. I still found it entertaining none the less, and hope the rest would show up on audible soon.

Black Snow, White Crow (Audible Free Book) 

Another one of those short stories that should have a larger saga to its name. Fantasy Industrial Punk. It has the whole equality role reversal thing going on, it isn’t done quite as well as Left Hand of Darkness (but that book leaned onto the boring side of things).

Stephen King’s IT, Pet Semetary, and Carrie

It’s Stephen King. Classic King. Not much else to say.

Watership Down

Depressing Rabbit Book. Though I did like all the stories and mythology the rabbits had.

Bloody Acquisitions (Fred the Vampire Accountant, Book 3)

A series that is always fun to listen to. I wish the audio books were cheaper because they are rather short.

Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, Book 4)

shuddup, i don’t care if it is Rowling... i have a low-key crush on Cormoran.... he just hits that big-burly tragic-backstory man-shaped soft-spot of mine. These stories are also her “for adults” writings so...  expect more racism and garbage values.

The Eye of the World (Book 1, Wheel of Time)

Classic set up to a long running series, though i am reluctant to go further as the middling books in this series are said to drag out the story too much.... It’s not as self-centered as Wizard’s First Rule and the characters are more relatable and stick to their fantasy tropes. This is the “mold” that other modern fantasy try to subvert by going “darker and edgier.”

The Exorcist

If you like the movie, read the book. There is a lot of back story that the movie wasn’t able to adapt.

---- This is the “AVERAGE, but Still Good”  Zone ---

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Classics. I am still on the hunt for an unabridged version of Jason and the Argonauts story. I also have Virgil’s Aeneid in my wishlist to get too soon.

Phillipa Gregory’s Plantagonate Novels (The Lady of the Rivers, The Red Queen, White Queen, The Kingmaker’s Daughter)

Sometimes it is like reading the same book 5x in a row. other times you end up not liking the previous protagonist in a book you just finished reading because of how the current protagonist sees them from their POV.

Return of the King (Lord of the Rings, Book 3)

Read the other books last year and didn’t get around to this one for a few months.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Fuck... I’m a janitor... why can’t i afford a house?   If you liked Stephen King’s “IT” go back and read this book.

Alien Franchise Dramatizations: Alien: Sea of Sorrows, Alien: The Cold Forge (Audible Free Book) Alien III (Audible Free Book)

I don’t mind that they all are done with a full cast. Though often I end up wanting to find the actual book and listen to them with just one narrator and descriptions.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Narnia, Book 1)

I would like to get the rest of the books in this series, but for books that are only 5-7 hours long they want 20$ a book for them. It needs to go into an omnibus.

Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets (Audible Free Book)

It’s Stephen Fry... he’s funny and a good narrator.

Wizard’s First Rule (Book 1, Sword of Truth)

I don’t like Richard. He started off alright, but even before he got tortured 2/3rds into the book, i was starting to dislike his personality.  Other than that, the side characters and world are solid, but it was like taking an R-rated movie and cutting it down for TV. There is somethings that are vaguely described when i am use to harder fiction like ASoIaF, The First Law, Dresden, and McCarthy books actually describing those things.

Halloween (2018, movie novel)

Like I said when i first read the book, it would’ve benefited by a second re-write before being published. But, i like the movie and so I liked the book.

Don Quixote

Another classic read. I did find it hilarious that the Author spent a good chunk of the second book complaining about Fanfiction of his own book... in the 1600′s.

The Princess Diarist

I listened this book instead of going to see TROS. worth it.

Smoke Gets in Your eyes: And other Lessons from the Crematorium

Non-Fiction, If you want to know the ins and outs of the funeral business and get told in an informative yet non-clinical way with lots of tidbits and history facts tossed in as well as a semi-autobiographical account of the Author’s life.

--- These Books are “Alright” ---

Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz books

I ligit got into an argument with a 70yo man in a comic book shop about how Canon the other Oz books were post Baum’s death. He was looking for Oz comic books and I brought up reading the first 14 books, and he’s like “There’s over 100 of them” and i was all “but all those are written by somebody else.” and he got all “they are still canon...” 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

If you want to know about the In//cel ideology in a classic literary form, this fits the bill. So much man pain.

A Christmas Carol (Tim Curry) (Audible Free Book)

Tim Curry, guys.....

The Poetic Edda (Norse God Mythology)

I listened this book twice. I bought two Edda books thinking I’d get some extra content, but no... same book just different production teams and readers. Returned the one with the worst translation.

Treasure Island (Audible Free Book, dramatization)

I need to read the actual book sometime, but i did like the cast and thought they did a good job.

Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic (Audible Free Book)

A YA coming of age story about diversity and acceptance... with wacky science fiction. 

Carmilla (Audible Free Book, dramatization)

The vampire before Dracula. Victorian Lesbian love story.

Even Tree Nymphs get the Blues (Audible Free Book)

A novella from one of those “love on the Bayou” romance series with supernatural creatures. Could practically take place in the same world of either True Blood, Dresden, or Fred the Vampire Accountant.

Mystwick School of Musicraft (Audible Free Book)

Harry Potter lite. For 10yo girls.

A Grown-up’s Guide to Dinosaurs (Audible Free Book)

I like dinosaurs.

Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

Interesting way on telling us about the Fossil Wars and Puma vs. Adidas.

True-Crime from Audible: Body of Proof (Audible Free Book),   Midnight Son (Audible Free Book), The Demon Next Door (Audible Free Book), Killer By Nature (Audible Free Book)

Why is True-Crime or YA fiction the only halfway-decent things Audible is giving us? But yeah, these are basically the type of reporting that the two journalists from Halloween were trying to do. Where they go around and gather up information about semi-famous cases and present it in a Podcast-like format.

---- Meh... ---

Camp Red Moon (Audible Free Book)

Would’ve been better if they were actually written by R. L. Stein.

More Bedtime Stories for Cynics (Audible Free Book)

No... half of these aren’t written very well.

The Darkwater Bride (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

The setting is nice, but it is far too .... Soap Opera Dramatic.

Junk (Audible Free Book)

A cross between Alien Invasion and Zombie outbreak, read by John Waters and written as if it was a bad version of a Philip K. Dick Novel.

Rip Off!! (Audible Free Book)

Most of them are duds and boring. I don’t even remember half of them without having to look them up. The two that stood out the most for me where the “Other Darren/Bewitched” and the “Dark and Stormy Night” stories, the rest were rather garbled.

--- Garbage... ---

Dodge and Twist (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

No, you are not being edgy or kool.

Unread:

Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Book 4)

Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, Book 3)

Earthsea (Tehanu and Tales from Earthsea, i am going to re-listen to the first three before i get to these)

Into the Wilds (Warriors, Book 1)

Pout Neuf (Audible Free Book)

House of Teeth (Audible Free Book)

Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (Audible Free Book)

The Other Boleyn Girl (Phillipa Gregory)

[juunshua]

I think people underestimate how many idols pass their auditions despite being basically tone-deaf. I think a lot of the early vocal-training just focuses on being on tune except for the main singers. Some people in svts vocal-team obviously aren't pros when it comes to technique. That doesn't mean that they're not great people with lot of potential, or that people aren't allowed to love their voice as it is, so I hope people don't take offense to this. Because technique ≠ objective beauty!!

while i would hesitate to call them ‘tone-deaf,’ i do agree that when auditioning for a company, perhaps if they claimed their forte was ‘dancing’ or ‘rapping’ instead of ‘singing,’ there may have been idols who have struggled with that aspect, the same as when idols who didn’t know much about dancing just clapped their hands to the beat and were often accepted. but companies know this. its their responsibility to ‘groom’ these trainees they accept to become idols and that often entails things like dance practice and vocal lessons. what you’re saying about ‘early vocal-training’ and how it focuses on being on tune, it just confuses me that if a company has a trained professional certified vocal trainer work for them, why such a person would only focus on being on tune because singing is far more complex than just that. learning how to breathe properly is literally the first step of singing, and the way that most idols sing these days, its as if they’ve never even received this simple lesson. and along with that, voice classification is also an important first step for singing so vocalists know and are aware of the limitations of their voice, but why does it seem like so many baritones out there don’t seem to know that they are baritones? and blame themselves for the inability to hit high notes with the same ease as tenors? when its not their fault at all. ive helped one of my old orchestra teachers for many summers teach children how to play string instruments and the first thing we teach them is not how to put fingers down on the violin and play notes, but instead how to hold their instrument properly, how to hold their bow properly, how to sit properly etcetc and we do a lot of exercises with that in mind. im no music major and i have not a degree in teaching music but i know as a violinist what things will benefit my students if they adopt these good habits now rather than trying to fix them later. it should be the same for vocal teachers too i dont think i would understand the reason why actual educated vocal instructors would try to teach their students how to sing without teaching them a lot of important basics. singing in tune is important yes, singing on the beat is also important yes, but along with those first steps in music should also be a basic understanding of the instrument youre working with and how to best take care of it so you dont injure it or yourself, which is something i feel many idols don’t have.i honestly believe that everyone has the potential to be a decent vocalist if they have the proper mentorship and work ethic so yes i agree, even if svts vocal unit, or svt in general, are struggling in the technique department, it doesnt mean that they cant adopt it and learn from it and improve…but thats also partially why its so frustrating ahaha they can improve but they dont and just stick to their confines of societal expectations of a good singer which is one that is again: loud, high and “stable.” the room for improvement with that mentality i think is a bit limited honestly for me, its always the vocalists who have shown that they know what vocal technique is, that i am always the most excited for improvement because i know that they know how to improve. also i agree that you’re allowed to love whatever voice color you want even if theyre not the best vocalist. in terms of color, i really love yooa’s voice from oh my girl even if she doesnt really know how to support ahah her voice in ‘cupid’ was the whole reason i biased her tbqh, and even though kyuhyun is redeemed as a fantastic vocalist, his vibrato bothers me quite a bit and i much prefer ryeowooks vocal color and voice in general over his. same with exo i prefer baekhyun/kyungsoo over chen even though chen is the more technically advanced. enjoying someones voice as it is is fine, everyone has different preferences when it comes to the type of voice they want to hear and thats all fair and good.however, yes while “technique ≠ objective beauty,” as beauty truly isnt ever going to be objective as it is dependent on personal preferences as well as societal expectations, i think a reverse/modified version of that statement should be considered as well: “subjective beauty ≠ technique.” ive seen in many fandoms, carats included, where someone tries to ‘justify’ the reason they like someone’s voice as being because they have ‘great technique’ when thats just…not the case at all. its okay if you like ur favs voice and they don’t have great technique, just try not to attribute something to someone that isnt there and please recognize someones hard work and skill when it is there. in the end my whole stance on vocal technique is that it should be something that more idols should try to adopt because its only better for the health of their vocal cords. many idols want longevity, esp those who focus on singing, it would be a shame if they were to seriously injure their voice especially since its the one instrument that you really cant exactly buy a new one of if it ‘breaks.’ singing with technique in mind also opens up a lot of other doors, such as versatility, dynamics, overall control of your voice, etc. like it just increases the musicality of every vocal performance imo. for instance boo here goes from soft and gentle sounding to more gritty and loud and often goes back and forth between the two sounds and all the intermediates. the changes are very gradual and minute but there if you listen for it and hes able to do this because he knows what he has to do to manipulate his voice to execute the musical interpretation of the song that he chose to sing because he knows what technique is. but it’s not to say that people who sing out there who arent trying to employ technique are invalid as singers and that their voices are not ones that people can enjoy. tl;dr yes enjoy voices and their vocal colors and listen to the voices that make you feel happy and that you like but the importance of vocal technique should not and must not be dismissed.

[jongdaekink]

Kpop Tag 💕

5 favorite groups

1. Exo

2.Suju

3.Shinee

4.SNSD

5.B1A4

Those are the ones i love a lot for a long time now, but I also super love RelVelvet since their debut(like i don’t miss one, I’m always there waiting for their new songs) and lately nct hit me hard with bbs and yestoday but they are like a hit or miss with the songs for me.

Top 5 on your bias list

Well well well, my only bias is Jongdae and the rest idk what jajaja

1.Jongdae

2.Jung joon young(he ins’t in kpop but idc jajaja)

3.Suho

4.Minho

5.Taeyong

Ult bias group and why you like them

EXOoooooooo of course, I have a friggin blog here, so is obvious jajajaja

First of all, I love the music, you can listen Exo all day, with different moods, in different states of life. They have a song for every occation. I luuuuv all the albums. 2: their voices, what can i say is Jongdae there jajaja, but all sing so good, the vocal line doesn’t have match. And of course, they are friggin funny and cute, and hot, and each one shines brighter every day. 💘💘💘💘💘💘

Favorite kpop meme

But i have so many, this one is just a classic 🤣

Favorite picture of your ult?

 I love a lot of Jongdae’s photos but I love more the ones of him being himself, and not looking like a idol.

5 Favorite Kpop Music Videos

1.Exo: Call me Baby(but i like all the Exo vids xd)

2.SNSD: I got a Boy (but all night, dancing queen, lion heart)

3.CBX: The One

4.All the versions of Taemin MOVE(but Shinee...Shinee doesn’t have a bad video, i like all too)

5.I need to add BigBang: Bae bae because I reallylove the vid, and is probably my fav song of them.

10 Favorite Kpop Songs

This is imposible jajajaja I need to add all the Exo songs here. I need a separate list for them. I also said a couple with the vids jeje.

But well, this is what i can think rn, atm favs and ones that i listen always:

Exo- transformer

Exo-Touch it

Taemin-Move

Suju-Scene Stealer

Suju-Shirt

Nct-Yestoday

Exo-Universe

Exo-Fall/lights out

CBX-Thursday

CBX-Playdate

Favorite Kpop Crack Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwyY-PwNzCs&t=4s

All the exo on crack real vids.

Favorite Content Creators in the Fandom?

eeehhhh ohhhhhh i don’t know, any crack post, memes, quotes jeje

What Fandoms would you say you’re active part of?

Only exo.

Take your top 3 biases -fmk

omg

Marry of course my lovely Chenchen

can i throw a coin with the rest??? jajaja

But atm fuck suho and kill joon young, but i don’t want to kill him 😝😝😝

If you could be best friends with any idol who would it be?

Can i be friend with benefits with chenchen? jajajaja

What’s one kpop album you think everyone should listen to?

This is so difficult, but if you're looking for variety in a album go for xoxo, if you have something with more power go for The war, and if you like ballads you NEED Universe. If you want some hot shit go for exact. I can belive i didn't say exodus ㅠ.ㅠ

Are you a soft or hard stan?

Hard af

An idol that makes you go into soft mode?

Jongdae, only Jongdae, he is the one. I'm hard af, but he is just a ball of fluffiness sometimes

An idol that makes you to smash the Empire State Building with one single punch?

JD :P

Favorite vocalist?

ehhh Jongdae jajajaja

Favorite Rapper?

sorry chanyeol and sehun but i need to go with Taeyong now, i really really like his deep deep voice.

Favorite Dancer

Another difficul question, my heart say Lay, but then I think in Taemin, and Kai of course. So yep, those 3.

Things you have in common with your ult

Loud, with a lot of energy maybe 💃

I also complaing a lot

The most beautiful trait any idol can have?

To be humble <3

Songs that always make you jam along?

There are many, but srsly, lately I dance all day with playdate 🤣

Your worst wrecker?

...sU...h0...maybe, I’m not saying it, the people say it.

Any kpop concerts you been to?

One, i went to see Suju wuuuuuu best thing ever.

Favorite Choero?

Exo-Transformer(idk if it’s my fav but i piss myself everytime i watch it)

If we are talking out of Exo, the kings of choreos are shinee and everybody is a 💎

Favorite Live Performance?

Exo- El dorado omg that is magical. One another lvl of perfection 👐🏻 I see the gates of heaven with this one.

Favorite Debut MV?

CARELESS CARELESS SHOOT ANONYMOUS ANONYMOUS

Recommend Rookie Group?

I’m too old now for rookies jajaja, but i liked momoland boom boom a looooooot

super funny and catchy, and jooe is friggin hilarious👌🏻

A Kpop song you could listen to everyday for the rest of your life?

is this some kind of torture? I can’t, leave me alone.

I tag @sasshunontheloose @msnanawritesfanfics @kai-tastarophic @dragonkick @im-creepin-in-your-heart-babe 

[harrietvane]

thatgothamguy replied to your post: sandovers replied to your photoset: There was a...

This get me wondering, Sus, what’s you favorite Thre Musketeers material? Wording it oddly, sorry, as there are sveral movies and…well, I think there is only one TV Show but I’m not sure. Any who, out of the various movies and TV show, which is your fav version of The Three Musketeer?

In all honesty if I had to keep just one that gladdens my heart the most? This 1993 Young Guns version. I mean it’s astoundingly cheesy and Disney-fied but like I’ll skip right over that low bar and go right to admiring everyone’s amazing mullet hairdos. And anyway, it’s not like Monsieur Dumas was unfamiliar with a basic rollicking tale of adventure suitable for all ages.The genuine downside is having to watch Sheen. But also there’s the benefit of TIM CURRY RICHELIEU just giving it the full Curry treatment (THAT CAN BE!! ARRANGED!!!) Idk how much of my devotion to it is based on having seen it as a tiny baby with zero discernment, but like it’s Mine Now and that’s the way it is. Michel Wincott as the Man From Meung to which all others should aspire. Rebecca de Mornay’s amazing 1990s fringe/bangs. Julie Delpy just adorably arch and way to much for tiny O’Donnell to handle. Paul McGann?? in TWO roles? Both of which were speaking parts, but unrelated?? WHY NOT. That Michael Kamen score. The Bryan Adams/Rod Stewart/Sting mega-hit cheeseball tie-in pop song. Every scene is just one long excuse for someone to be sassy and sarcastic, like I’m talking fanfic levels of sarcasm in everyday speech. Good hats, I mean proper big Franz Hals style hats. It’s just got an overall joyful tone. It’s the reason POTC 1 worked, they just did this movie tonally, but on the ocean with magic.

Runner up being The BBC Baroque Boyband - 3 perfect seasons and so much amazing leather. Unbeatable trio dynamic. Long-term developed Athos/Milady angst. PORTHOS MY LOVE. Anne and Constance. Neo-baroque costume with juuuust enough weirdness. I cannot BELIEVE you SLEPT with THE QUEEN!!!! Honestly it’s a joy from start to finish. It’s not what I’d call ‘accurate’, but then again Book!d’Atagnan is kind of a dick so I don’t really care about accurate. It’s a crime adventure show set in Baroque France - CSI: 1630. They’re good lads and I love them.

Other versions I have enjoyed: 

The musketeers (but not necessarily movie as a whole) of the DiCaprio 1998 Man in the Iron Mask, bc i do enjoy seeing the older msuketeers, and that cast was pretty impressive as a visual, even if they didn’t all give the impression they knew what they were there for. Byrne and Irons are always good value.

Look. Here’s the thing. I own a copy of the 2001 Paul WS Anderson The Musketeers and I have watched it. More than once. What can I tell you. I’m sorry. I know it’s bad. But it’s Macfadyen as Athos!! He does sad so well! It has zeppelins?? Orlando Bloom allowed to be silly for once in his whole career. Anne and Louis are actually pretty adorable. RAY STEVENSON PORTHOS. It is genuinely so, so dumb. I kind of love it.

The 1994 La fille de d'Artagnan (aka english title ‘Revenge of the Musketeer’) was always a fun time, even if it was more French and less Disney than baby teen me was used to. It has Sophie Marceau fighting with sword. I mean, need I say more?