#the quality is soo bad let me edit

[cruyffista]

Paolo Maldini and Demetrio Albertini, 1996

[eevisims]

stonefield manor | cc build. stonefield manor is gorgeus and luxurious mansion featuring a stunning brick exterior, spacious interiors for entertaining and a backyard full of greenery.

i’m back this time with an european/english inspired brick house. my inspo for this house is here. this house is maxis mix, i used both alpha and maxis cc. this is my favorite build out of the few i’ve done this year and i hope you like this build as much as i do

also i’m sorry about the quality of these pics, it’s soo bad and idk why

more information:

ea id: eevisims | download this from my gallery

also the wall sconce is placed on the door in the laundryroom by accident, i’m too lazy to take a new photo but it’s fixed in game

edit: i might edit this lot in the future and remove some cc to make it more gameplay friendly but as of right now i have no plans for that

$648,528

residential

fully furnished & the cc free shell will be on my gallery later

40x30 windenburg

4 bedrooms & 6 bathrooms

office, pool, outside grill area, bonus room (that i left empty), & garage.

packs used: a lot of them. i’m not gonna list them since majority of them aren’t necessary.

for the computer in the office, kitchen AND in the teens room your sim has to sit down first, otherwise it won’t work. otherwise everything is functional and playtested

the upstairs has a weird lighting glitch i tried to fix it but it didn't go away so i hope you dont mind that

i use K-hippies terrains mod and their other replacements too so the grass won’t look as realistic as it does in my game if you don’t own the mod. it's not necessary but highly recommend. you can find it here

i don't recommend using this lot without all the cc plants/trees since i don't know how they are gonna get replaced if u don't have them & they're not that high poly

bb.moveobjects on

cc used:

i didn't want to include the cc in this post since there's so much but click here for the links. there'a lot of cc (total of about 19gb.)

if there’s any missing cc let me know! but everything necessary is listed so it wouldn’t be a big deal if anything is missing. also let me know if any link isn't working properly.

download all the cc & make sure to mark “show custom content” when downloading this in gallery

cc credits to all amazing creators @felixandresims @pierisim @harrie-cc @sundays-sims @pinkbox-anye @sims4luxury @syboubou & many more.

[vivmaek]

ASTROLOGY OBSERVATIONS PART SEVEN (roast edition)

Libra Suns are soo oblivious sometimes. I can never tell if they’re doing it to get something or if they’re actually having a dumb blond moment. 

People with Mars in the 2nd house need to learn how to share. They become territorial over their possessions. As children, they were the types of kids to show off a cool toy and then go, “but you can’t play with this one because it's special.” 

Mars in Pisces are the types to make a passive aggressive comment under their breath, and then when someone calls them out, they go, “I didn’t say anything!” 

When people who have Mercury in the 8th house become obsessed about something, they will never shut up about it. Just when you think you’ve managed to steer conversation into a new direction, they will find a way to bring up whatever topic is plaguing their mind. 

Pluto in Sagittarius generation is so self-righteous. Everyone is overly aggressive with their opinions, everyone thinks they’re right, and everyone is under the impression that we’re going to be these revolutionary radicals who will serve justice to those oppressed when most spend their time on the internet trying to cancel people. Like seriously we get so heated over nothing sometimes. I think that's because this generation really struggles with misdirected passion. I’m excited for these Pluto in Aquarius babies tho 

Aries Moons and their temper tantrums, that's all. 

People who have their Mars in Taurus will destroy things when they get angry, literally like a raging bull. They make a mess and fling things around, like what is that accomplishing?? And then afterwards they clean it up like nothing ever happened. 

The uncomfortable look on a Gemini Moon's face when someone starts to cry, they wanna leave asap and are looking for the nearest exit. 

Leos will cry, scream, and throw a fit over their hair. DO NOT MESS WITH THEIR HAIR. It's the one quality they like about themselves. A bad haircut or color treatment will have them SPIRALING. Like a serious identity crisis. They die inside when someone goes, “It's just hair, it will grow back.” 

Mercury Libras and the lies they spread! They lie about the smallest things and it's usually in an effort to people-please. 

People with their Mars in Sagittarius are psychos when they're mad. They lack the foresight to see how they’re putting themselves and others in danger. I’d say they are the most likely to carry out some form of revenge.

If you’re dealing with someone who has their Venus in the 8th house, make sure to establish some firm boundaries. They will just keep taking if you let them.

Venus 11th housers cause so much drama every time they develop feelings for one of their friends, I never seen this not cause tension within a friend group. 

12th house stelliums and the way they always maintain distance, and everytime you get too close they pull back, actually super frustrating. Also the silent treatments they pull! They’re not even doing it to punish, they're just doing it because they’re uncomfortable, but it still ends up feeling like a punishment for the other person.  

Mercury in Taurus individuals are sometimes too blunt. I honestly really love this quality hehe, but I have to admit they’ve offended me just by pointing out the obvious. 

Aries 11th housers always feel like they’re in competition with their friends. 

Moon Trine Uranus and crying at the most unexpected things. I have this friend that I’ve known since middle school, never saw her cry once. Even when we graduated and said our goodbyes for college, nothing. Then a year later, we were watching the finale for Euphoria together, and this girl started bawling at the end. I was like out of all the things to make you cry this is it?? Haha, I love her. 

The Pluto in Virgo generation hands out criticisms left and right. If my friend's parents had this placement, I always felt like they were judging me. 

Capricorns and their obsession with money, and also how they fail to realize that not everyone else is driven by monetary gains. 

Aquarius’s love to act like their egos aren’t big. The only reason why Leos get checked more on this is because of their bold sense of expression. 

[entitled-fangirl]

Hi! I tried to send this before but I think Tumblr ate it. I was the person who shared the massive anon post about writing advice. I am SOO glad that my advice was able to help you! So…character sheet. As I said before, I don’t do a super in-depth character sheet. I add and/or take away things as needed, but I’m gonna link my basic character sheet here ��> [link]. You can make a copy of it and edit it whichever way you may need. In my opinion, the parts that are really important are personality, goals, and backstory. The character’s want, need, fear, and false belief are what will really drive their character arc and, in turn, the story. Please remember that you don’t have to follow every part of the character sheet. That sheet is only a guide, so if you feel like something doesn’t apply or that something is missing, feel free to leave it blank or add to it.

When it comes to the likability of your antagonist, I think there are a few different approaches you can take to make them likable but not too likable. One would be giving them relatable goals like wanting to protect their family or the greater good, but having them take extreme measures that result in the suffering of others/innocents (ex: Alicent Hightower or Magneto from X-Men). Another would be giving them a unique personality that makes them interesting to read about. An example of this would be The Joker from Batman. We all know he’s batshit crazy and totally irredeemable because of his actions, but a lot of people still love him as an antagonist because of his personality. Equipping your antagonist with some form of charisma, humor, or intelligence can make them very likable and entertaining to read about because they’re more than just the “big bad” of the story. Give them layers, a personality, a backstory, and their own set of goals that may or may not be relatable, but make sure their actions are extreme enough that the readers still view them as antagonists.

As for your main girl, I honestly don’t think you have much to be worried about. Based on the way you write your main girls in your fics, you do a good job of giving them unique attributes that make them interesting even with them being reader-insert characters. With that said, I have a few pieces of basic advice that may help. My first piece of advice is to not feel pressured to stick to stereotypes. Your main girl doesn’t have to be a badass, sword-wielding, love-repulsed woman who hates wearing dresses to be a non-bland main girl. There’s nothing wrong with any of those character qualities, but they can often fall flat or feel bland because a lot of authors make that their main girl's whole character. There are many things that you can give a character to make them more interesting to read about, such as an intriguing backstory, a secret, dynamic relationships with others that showcase different sides of her personality or parts of her past, flaws, interesting attributes (hobbies, skills, habits, quirks, etc.), or giving her things she’s worried about outside of her potential love interest or the antagonist of the story. Remember that in the world of your story, your character existed before they appeared on the first page (unless they’re born on the first page lol) and use that to your advantage. Something that also may help is thinking about characters you like and don’t like from books, TV shows, and movies, and listing out the reasons why you like or don’t like those characters. This can give you ideas of qualities you may want to incorporate or avoid incorporating into your main girl (it can also be helpful with antagonists). I think the character sheet will be able to help you out, though. If you’re still worried about her after you’ve used the character sheet, let me know and I can help.

Now, dialogue is definitely your strong suit. I can tell that through your fics alone. You’re right that the amount of dialogue is something that is dependent on the author’s preference or voice/style. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with having a lot of dialogue because it’s just part of your personal author’s voice. During your first draft, don’t worry about too much dialogue. Just focus on getting your story on the page. During the editing phase after your first draft, you can go back and chip away at the dialogue if you feel it’s too much. (TIP: During the editing phase, instead of deleting good pieces of writing, create a master doc with all of those pieces for later use.) On that note, something else that I recommend is getting a writer buddy or two, if you don’t already have one. It really helps to be able to bounce ideas off someone else who is also a writer. Since you’re a dialogue-heavy writer, it would probably be helpful to have a writer buddy peer read your draft once it’s complete. They can help you discern what should and shouldn’t stay in since it’s sometimes hard for us writers to chip away at our own work.

Another thing I think is important for you to remember is that you don’t need to nail down everything before you start writing your first draft. Your antagonist, main character, and even your plot don’t have to be perfect because they are subject to change as you continue to revise, rework, and rewrite your novel. Some of my first drafts are missing entire characters that I added in later rewrites, entire scenes that I simply did not write (I would literally just put [insert fight scene] and leave it for future me to figure out), and sometimes they would be missing entire plot lines that I added in later drafts. The objective of your first draft is getting the story on paper, and it’s going to be rough, and that’s okay.

I hope I was able to help! If you have any more questions and want to ask me directly, my DMs are always open! I will gladly help. That goes for anyone else too. Hope to hear some updates on the project eventually! ♡

You're literally God's gift to mankind. (I'm mankind)

This is SOOOO helpful!

From the little I've written, I've beat myself up about it not being perfect already and it's like "Drew, holy shit, take like two breaths and keep going"

Just get the story on paper. Got it.

Thank you pookie🥹

[thisisegregiouuuus]

ok i was gonna make a post abt my rh oc kitty but i got distracted like usual so i gotta say 2 THINGS!!!

first of all, im kind of getting back into warrior cats...not rlly the books, but moreso the game clangen which im legit obsessed with, and its kind of similar to how i act w royale high. ill randomly be like 'oh hey i havent been on clangen in a while' so i hop on, get attatched to it for a week or 2 at most, and then wham bam thank you MAM!!! im sick of it and leave

but rn im back on it! and im kiiinnndddd of maaaaybbeeee considering starting a new clan and recording the events and stuff on a new blog/account/idk whatever thingy here on tumblr (for the billionth time... bc u have NOOOOO idea how many times ive started a new clan, been like 'oh yeah, this is the one', documented it for ages, then just gave up on it. i probably have like 10 random google docs floating around that are documenting random stuff in random clans </3) so yeah, idk if its gonna happen, especially bc i kind of need to focus on school rn, so idk. i might leave it to do it on the holidays but who knows if ill still be interested by then....theres always too much things going on around me and in my brain for me to even keep up

and also if anyone was wondering, yes i kind of am into warrior cats, i useed to love it as a kid and i still do. i remember playing the old roblox roleplay game back when it was just like rlly shitty cylinder morphs of cats back in grade 8 but let me tell u....the poor quality just added the more fun and charm to it. not even kidding, i loved it so much. i literally would stay up every single night so late just to rp, that game used to be my life, like i cant put into words how much i loved that game. every night i played the warrior cats rp game, that would be the highlight of my day, or the thing i was most esxcited abt after school was over. but things are different now, dont get me wrong the new and improved version of the game is rlly impressive, but ill always miss the good old days with the bad morphs of the cats </3 they will always hold a dear place in my heart, and same with all the fun and memories i made playing that game

also bc of how often i used to rp i became like a pro, like i was rlly confident and everything came naturally, but now ive left it for too long, i havent roleplayed in what feels like a billion years, and im hella rusty </3 it rlly sucks bc rn id love love looooveeee to get back into roleplaying on roblox. even if it isnt on warrior cats, id be happy, i just miss roleplaying in general

anyway im going soo off course rn. i did read the warriors books as a kid but i didnt rlly read the series in order tbh, like i remember reading into the wild, but thats it. otherwise id only read the special edition books lmao, idk why but i did and i loved them, and even tho i basically didnt follow the chronological story line, i still loved warrior cats sm

anyway that abt does it for the whole warrior cats stuff. idk where its gonna go from here but for now ill just enjoy clangen as is

and now that i said all that i cant be bothered mentioning the second thing lmao. its legit almost 2am im not even kidding, and i have to wake up at like 9am </3

sorry for any spelling mistakes and stuff btw this isnt proof read

[tallstars-rewrite]

About (2.0)

After 3,000 years, we begin. Helloo my name is Yarrow, welcome to my side blog where I talk about my ideas and sometimes art for my personal rewrite of the Warrior Cats super edition “Tallstar’s Revenge”~

Click here for the (now complete!) story here on this blog!! (feel free to send an ask for any tags i may have missed) As well as a link to where it’s posted on Ao3

My Personal blog for warrior cats and other xenofiction posting: Yarrowleef

Search the “my art” tag for all the character art I did over the years (most of it is quite old now)

and now a somewhat lengthy preface:

in 2017 I read Tallstar’s Revenge and was very frustrated by it. So I decided to try out rewriting a warriors book to see if I could make something closer to what I wanted to see. I also did it because I really wanted to finish something, and it seemed like an easy starting point. Then I quickly realized I had no idea how to actually write a story because I usually never get past the “daydreaming and maybe sometimes writing disconnected scenes and concepts” phase, so that was quite a hurdle to overcome.

This fic has been a bit of a rickety lifeboat for me over the past 4 years. Sometimes it even became sort of a vent for my lingering high school angst. I began this project at the same time I graduated high school and was about to start college (a bad idea) and I hit several major periods of burn-out. Honestly, I think I was feeling burned out through at least 75-80% of it. But I needed to focus on something for the same reason I needed to drag myself out of bed every morning, even if I usually didn’t really want to. 

Now I think it’s as finished as it’s ever going to be. I’m not going to lie, my confidence in its quality has been. let’s say Shaky At Best. Taking so long means that some parts are already outdated before they’ve even been posted. Also, several bits (including prose and world building) were not even fully edited to completion. There’s at least one or two chapters that are more summary then full writing, but I don’t think it’s bad enough anywhere to be incomprehensible? soo we’re just gonna roll with it.

My mixed feelings about it aside, the only reason I can have those mixed feelings is because I wrote it in the first place, and thus got better (at least a little). I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t, so no matter what I am very glad that I managed to make myself finish it!! And there are at least some parts I still genuinely like. In the end, this was always intended to just be a practice story using someone else's outline, so I am simply going to dump this content on the floor as it is and it is up to you to sift through it. I’m ready to let go of this rickety clumsy life boat, so now I am pushing it out to sea.

In Conclusion: Ultimately, is this story truly an “”improvement”” over canon? Who knows! Seriously, I simply cannot tell. I’ve been staring at it too long. “Improvement” is a very heavy and presumptuous word for someone like me anyway. I slowly chipped away at 200,000 words on my own for 4 years with no beta readers to talk it over with (none of my friends rly know what warrior cats is and I'm too embarrassed to show them, so I'm alone in here with my box of angsty cats). My brain is mush and the lines have blurred together. I have no earthly idea what this is going to look like to fresh eyes. In addition to that, many little things were tweaked just because I felt like it and not necessarily because I thought they were “objectively” better. That being said, some characters have been given completely new traits unrelated to who they were in canon to suit the story I wanted to tell, and how a character is portrayed here does not necessarily reflect my opinion/head-canon of their canon counterpart.  

Although my faith in this rewrites execution is iffy and the creation process was a hot mess, I can certainly say I still put a lot of thought and effort (and sometimes tears) into it, and in the end I hope that will count for something. Thank you for reading!

[newobsessionweekly]

I’ve discoverd you🌿

twinkledblueblog said: Hey! I love your writing could you write one about Aron when they are both in quarantine together? Or one where they are at his première for elite ?

a/n: soo, there it is! Thank you for your patience! I hope you like it. Stay home, stay safe!🌿❤️ Sorry for the eventual grammar errors, i’ll edit it in the morning. word count: 1.203

warnings: none, I guess. Maybe some writing errors.

Arón Piper x reader 🌿

The afternoon found you wrapped in the sheets, still sleepy, with Arón’s head resting on your belly. You woke up around two, after you stayed all night cooking and watching Élite, finishing it in less than four days. Arón suggested to watch together his favourite Tv Show, Breaking Bad, but you tried so hard to concentrate and not to fall asleep.  “Look, that man over there, talking on the phone. He’s a romanian actor and, listen! Hear that? That’s romanian!” Arón is so concentrated and is speaking with so much wonder. He really likes this show.  You yawned and he got up to look at you “This really bores you that much?” “Yes?” your response came.  You’ve been together for almost six months and stayed a few nights over, but that was it, nothing too serious until now. Arón, the curly headed boy with the most beautiful brown eyes you have ever seen, had stolen your heart from the first day you met. It was on the Élite set maybe a year ago, where your brother Omar took to met the cast. The two of you immediately clicked and after only a few months of being best friends, he asked you to be his girlfriend. He’s sweet, caring and everyone knows how much you love him. You like to surprise each other with little things, a small present after a hard day on set or a get away walk talking about everything and nothing at the same time and a dinner in the city to celebrate a successful shooting. Your birthday this year was celebrated on the south of Italy, one of your favourite countries. Sardinia is famous for its incredible beaches, with plenty of options for white powdery sand, bright blue sea, and secluded nooks protected by pine forests. La Pelosa was amazing, away from any curious eye, spending some quality time together, walking hand in hand in the night, kissing in the middle of the street, just enjoying yourselves. A few days ago you managed to came back home in Spain, but you need to stay in quarantine for two weeks. You have been in a safe part of Italy, away from any virus, but for everyone’s safe you are locked down in Arón’s flat.  He paused the TV Show as you walked toward the kitchen and grabbed the Nutella jar and returned to the bedroom. As you are not allowed to leave the house, Omar managed to bring all the shopping to your door and feed the chocolate monster inside you. You climbed into bed with your legs crossed and opened the jar as Arón breathed in the smoke. With only a pair of shorts hanging on his waist, his t-shirt fitting you better, he sit on the balcony frame in front of the bed, smoking. He’s the handsomest man alive. “I’m surprised you don’t have diabetes yet. That jar was full three days ago...” he shaked his head and smilied at you. You filled your mouth with a teaspoon of Nutella before you responded, “That’s because I have a very sour soul and I need this to sweeten it.” “I think the otherwise. You have the sweetest soul and you run out of love too often, because I consume so much of it. And you have to fuel your soul everyday so you can handle me.” he steal your spoon and ate some of your chocolate. You usually would slap his hand, but you let him anyway. You love him too much, but you never said it out loud. “That’s enough chocolate for you, you start being cheesy.” he extinguished the cigarette and accompanied you in bed.  “What do you want to do after the quarantine? After this coronavirus crisis is over?” he caresses your leg then abandoned his hand there as the other one pulled a piece hair behind your ear.  “To get out of here, obviously.” you half-laughed. “Maybe travelling more.” You love travelling, especially travelling with Arón. This is your biggest dream, first to see the beauties that Europe hides, and maybe after that what the whole world hides. Maybe you just need some more time beside Arón, he’s always busy acting, but you have always been supportive. This quarantine is a good thing, he has time to rest and the two of you had the chance to full that void in your relationship left by your solicitant jobs. “And after that?” you stuffed a teaspoon full of Nutella in his mouth after he spoke. “I’ll probably never finish to travel!” you screw on the lid of the jar and put in on the nightstand. “Have you thought about the future?”  “Not really, I was too busy spending the present with you.” your left hand is resting on his lap as the other one came together with his.  “Well, I have.” he took a little break. “I have actually thought about future, our future. You know, maybe now is a good moment, due to this pandemic situation going on, to move together.” he swallowed the lump from his throat. You freezed, “What? You seriously want that?” you didn’t want to made a wrong impresion, you want to move together, but what if it’s too soon? “Yes, definetely.” he shaked his head and smiled. “Because of this quarantine I’ve discovered myself beside you, I’ve discoverd you beside me and I’ve discovered myself because of you. I discovered a form of love I didn’t knew I nedded. And I discoverde that I can love someone in a way so pure and beautiful. You thought me what love is about and I guess it’s one of the reasons I love you.” “What did you just said?” now it’s your turn to swallow that huge lump that stopped you to say anything else.  “I said I love you, stupid!” he laughed. “Well, maybe I’ll think about it and I will accept your proporsal. You know, this quarantine showed me,as well, a part of you that I never thought I would see and I’ve discovered you in a way that I guess not many people knows you. I discovered this man that has everything I seek. You have patience even when I talk too much or I am the most annoying human. You showed me a love that no one would understand, no one but us. Because is our love. Because you thaught me to love and to be loved, that’s why I love you!” He didn’t let you any chance to do anything else. He cupped your cheeks and pressed softely his lips on yours, holding you close. It’s not your first kiss, but it’s the sweetest. It’s one filled with so much love and passion. As you pulled away, he let a big smile clutching his face.  “So, it’s clear that we both love each other. What we should do now?” “Maybe I should call Omar and announce him that if he doesn’t want to live all  by himself, he’ll have to look for a flat mate. And maybe he’ll have to bring me my stuff.” “Maybe that’s a good idea!” that beautiful smile never left his face and he kissed your forehead as you cuddled on his chest. 

[bakusprites]

Do you have any advice on sprite editing? I want to try it but I don’t know how or when to start 😔

oooh, i do have some advice, actually! 

well, first of all - you take your sprites from the danganronpa wiki. the dr1 and dr2 ones are small and bad quality, so when doing a half sprite edit of a dr&dr2 characters use sprites from the ultimate talent development plan instead!

if you want to do a full sprite edit with those characters, you either have to take it from tsumugi’s cosplays of the character (which limites your poses, and the characters have v3 in the eyes and theres white light and blah blah blah) oor you have to scale up the original sprites. both of those include re-drawing the whole sprite, even the things you dont want to change, soo...

actually, speaking of that. second bit of advice!

i personally re-draw the whole sprites. sometimes i could just, let the coloring of the skin stay, because its less work and stuff like that - but coloring the skin yourself is just more fun and it looks better! so, like, if youre for efficiency or dont have much time - you can let parts of the original sprite stay, or if you have time and energy you can redraw it even if you want it to be the same. (also add blush blush is cute)

wow, that whole bit sucked. i cant explain anything for the life of me. sorry ;(

third advice!

go and download some textures. textures help your sprite look more danganronpa-y and pretty and stuff like that. and even tho most danganronpa editors use only one texture for the hair and the clothes, i say that you should download a couple of textures and use them to texture different things! it looks better, creates a bit of variety, yanno....

aaanother one!

when you shade, use a dark color (i usually just go with dark red, pure black or darker version of the color im shading) and then lower its opacity. theres probably a more effective way to do that, but its just what im used to, lol.

ooh, and GRADIENTS!! when i color my sprites, i like doing very subtle gradients. like, on the skin, or on the clothes.... wait lemme show u an example

look at her hair! its darker on the lower part, because theres a subtle gradient yellow-to-kinda orange i guess?? and on the skin!! you can see on her forehead and on the collarbone, its like, darker where the shading is!!! so thats what im talking about. yea. sorry if i made no sense XDD

ALSO DO WRINKLES ON CLOTHES THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! even if u cant draw wrinkles on clothes!!! just do them, you will learn!!!

oh, and you dont need to follow any of these steps!! i bet a lot of people dont do them and theyre finee. its just what i do :p

so yeah thats it i think i guess

[k-hiphop-trash]

Have you heard of the new season of smtm? What's your thoughts?

Quite a long time ago but I will still answer. I’m assuming this was about SMTM9.

It was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.

PRODUCERS: Bring rap Justhis. Nothing more to say. I love his rap and all the songs he featured in are amazing. He also has a good character for this kind of shows and I’m really happy to see that he’s putting out a lotmore content. Zion.T will forever be one of my faves (I mean, I even have a tattoo of one of his albums) andhe is just so delightfully weird, he makes a suuper great team with Giriboy, they are both... peculiar. I liked all the producers and Dynamic Duo & Bewhy’s performance was my favourite, but thos three are my favourite. I mean, there is a reason Giriboyhas been on the winning producer team 3 times.

TEAMS: My favourite so far was Guljeot team, all the final members were awesome, the songs and performances had each their own particular style and they had a great synergy. I do have to make a honorable mention to the “subteam” formed by Chillin Homie, Wonstein and Lil Boi; “Freak” is a masterpiece.

CONTESTANTS: Absolute favourite since season 8 and my candidate for the win, the one and only Mushvenom! What can I say, I think he has such a great character and unique style and I think is awesome that he made it to the finals staying true to himself. Also, “Go” ft. SsamD and The Q had me screaming just from reading the features. Kundi Panda was also one of my favourites for the win. To be honest, I did know about him but wasn’t truly a fan. Let’s just say that has changed, he is just so good at rapping, The Roots is a legendary stage, you can’t change my mind. The acapella part with Justhis is just amazing. Very happy to see Chillin Homie return this season, I just really like him. I’m happy to see he is doing well and taking care of himself, of course I was disappointed when he left Show Me, I’m also not Skyminhyik’s biggest fan, but I’m also glad he is putting his mental health first and that Ravi is helping him through it, specially considering Korea’s taboo in this area. There were a lot other artists I like in this season, Wonstein has a very refreshing vibe, Miranni is very good and I’m glade she made it that far, Munchman has such a great energy and his mic stand moment was memorable, of course Lil Boi did not disappoint, there is a reason he won, and many more.

FEATURES: A.MA.ZING. Nothing else to say. All of them were top quality, even Queen Wasabi, of whom I’m not a fan and don’t really like her style, suited very well the stage. I liked that Justhis was very involved and participated a lot and that the members of his team joked about this a lot. Swings ft. Simon D will forever be remembered, it was just amazing. I’m sure I’m missing soo many more I loved but ...

SONGS: In no particular order, my favourite songs this season: Freak, VVS, The Roots, Bad News Cypher, Tricker, Go, The Beauty of Void and Hero.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I really enjoyed this season. The mood seemed good in generall, the diss battle was fun, not too much hate towards the idol contestants and not too much evil editing. Also, I was sort of worried about how it would go with Swings as a contestant, but he actually made it fun and I’m pretty sure the awkward miments were mostly evil editing. Also, I’m really happy that they didn’t spend as much time as last season with his beef with Cox Billy.

[ramblesanddragons]

Of Monsters and Memories

An idea based on this comic by @artsymeeshee that I just ran with.

It has been years since I’ve written anything. I’m so rusty but I’m trying to get back into it. I have no editor and I am terrible at grammar so please let me know what I missed. I’m writing more fan fiction to get back into figuring out how to write.

EDIT: Now with Ao3 link!

Warnings: Swearing, alcohol, angst. (Also please let me know if I missed one.)

Ford had told Stan about some of the dangers they would run into in the arctic. Krakens, selkies, freezing cold. Some sort of thing that was the unholy offspring of nightmares and a squid wasn’t one of those things. The problem was the thing seemed to made out of smoke and they were having the damnest time pinning it down but it had to have some sort of physical form. It sure as hell was holding on to Stan tight enough.

Stan was wrapped around the mast of the boat as the arctic wind howled or maybe it was the creature, he had no idea.

“Hey anytime with that fancy space gun Sixer!”  

“Aiming is proving to be difficult give me a moment!” Ford yelled back.  

Stan did his best to wiggle out of the tentacles that had him but stopped the struggle when he noticed that Ford had all but been swallowed by a plume of smoke. Only his head was visible in the cloud of darkness. Ford’s eyes were tense with pain and tears were streaming down his cheek.  

“Ford, snap out of it. Whatever you see ain’t real!”

Ford had been looking forward to taking notes of the creature made of smoke that floated above the ice. He had never even seen something like this before. It had to be some sort of life form as it weaved around the boat almost playfully. Things had taken a sharp turn for the worst when Stan tried to take a picture of it for the kids. It screeched and started to climb up the side of the boat with long tendrils extending. Stan grimaced and slide on his old pair of brass knuckles.

“Want to bet I can punch smoke?” Stan yelled leaping at it with full force.  

In a flurry of shouts, punches, and missed shots Ford found himself trying to save his knuckleheaded brother who was wrapped around the mast. Aiming was proving to be a problem as the smoke wouldn’t stay together into a shape. It had spread itself thin onto the deck of the boat only forming parts of itself it to tentacles to hold Stan.

Ford could feel panic rising into him. He cursed himself for thinking that it had been playful earlier when it had clearly been looking for the best time to strike. He had let his enthusiasm get to him again and now Stan was in danger again.  

Chastise yourself later Stan needs help! Ford tried to find a target but froze as the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

A dark malevolence engulfed him in a plume of smoke. The chill it brought to Ford’s body made the cold of the arctic seem like a walk in the park. He physically shook himself to clear it away and focused again on his brother but Stan was gone. He was alone in some sort of inky void. He looked around and realized with horror his clothes had changed. He was wearing Stan’s old suit. In his hand’s was the wretched memory gun.  

Seeing it again made Ford’s stomach clinch tight. The urge to drop it to the ground and smash it was strong but he had to...to do something with it. He looked up again to see he was no longer alone in the void, Stan had appeared, on his knees and unconscious. Just like the last time. Tears started to burn at the corners of Ford’s eyes as his arm moved on some sort of autopilot pointing the gun at Stan’s head.

“Please...I can’t...not again...” Ford’s body shook as whispered to the void. His vision blurred with tears as the world started to become dark.

“Hey Poindexter! Did you know the world was flat?”

“What?”

“Yeah, I’m one of those flat earth people.” It was Stan’s voice coming from somewhere. Not the body before Ford kneeling and awaiting its fate at his hands, but outside of the void.

“Stan...the world isn’t flat?”  

I’ve gone mad, Ford thought completely lost.

“Oh yeah it is. I kept meaning to ask when we were going to hit the edge. Also, you know we didn’t go to the moon in ‘69 right?”

“S-Stan we watched it on the damn TV together!” Ford’s voice echoed and for a moment the sounds of the sea seemed to reach his ears.

“I mean yeah we did but it was faked. Although that was a good day, right? Ma let us stay home to watch it. Remember?” Almost at Stan’s beckoning the void changed around him and the image of two small boys watching a small TV formed in front of Ford. It wasn’t as clear as the one of Stan awaiting his doom and it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. It was one of Ford’s favorite memories besides the two of them finding the original Stan of War.

“Yeah I do.” Ford whispered softly. He could now feel ocean spray on his face. The cold in his soul was being melted by the warmth in his chest growing. The creature shrieked and withdrew from around Ford. He was now fully back to the deck of the ship and before him was Stan still tied to the mast by smoky tendrils.

“Oh yeah and uh did you know that the government is putting chemicals in the water to brain wash us? Or that the government is actually a bunch of lizard people actually hold on you might believe that one let’s see...”

“Stan.” Ford wanted to both hug and smack his brother at the same time.

“What? Oh hey welcome back now can you shoot this fuckin’ thing?”

“Gladly.” Ford growled.  

The thing had gathered back into a smoke ball but it seemed to Ford less intimidating now, slightly smaller, weaker. There was no way to really tell where the thing’s body was so Ford just started to fire on the thickest gathering of grey and black he could see. There was going to be a few holes in the deck of the ship but it was worth it to hear the thing let out one last scream before collapsing into a pile of goo. Stan was freed from the mast as the smoky tendrils disintegrated. Ford ran into the hull of the ship and returned with gloves, a scraper and a container.  

Dinner was sandwiches that night as Stan was too tried to cook. He eyed Ford as he ate and let out a heavy sigh as he realized he had only taken a bite of his dinner. Ford’s forehead was knit together like it did when he was thinking too hard.

“Wanna talk about it?” Stan’s voice seemed to shake Ford out of his thoughts.  

“Well we do need to talk if you believe the world is flat. I have failed as a scientist if my own brother believes that.” Ford let out a weak chuckle.

“Nah I’m not the brightest but I’m not that dumb. Look, I was just thinking of the craziest things I could to snap you out of whatever trance that the smoke thing had you under. Nothing pisses you off more than bad science.”

“Stan, I want to apologize. I feel like I wasn’t paying close enough attention and let my curiosity get in the way of your safety. I will aim to do better.”

“Sixer it’s okay you...”

“No, it’s not okay!” Ford cut Stan off. “My mistakes keep getting you hurt.”

“Look I was getting myself hurt plenty before coming out here with you.” Stan had recently gotten a lovely memory of spraining his ankle while running from some dogs when he was about 25 back a couple of weeks ago which could be good proof of that but he knew that wouldn’t exactly make his brother feel better. Ford pushed his plate away and leaned his head into his hands.

“What exactly did that thing do to ya?”  

“My running theory is that whatever it was prays on a victim's memories. Their worst moments causing them to freeze up. I was about to...I was about to erase you again.” The tears were coming back into Ford’s eyes. Stan slid him over a napkin.

“That’s you’re worst moment?”

“O-of course. I’ve faced plenty of horrible things but that was my mistakes coming back to bite me in the ass. I’m fine with that. But when my arrogance and stupidity hurts other people, people I care about...first there was Fidds and then you were the one who could have lost everything for my carelessness and...”

Stan slammed his fist onto the table and that startled Ford enough to break him out of his rant. “I pushed you into that hell portal I...”

“A hell portal I built!” Ford interjected loudly.  

“You were conned. Manipulated. Ford you’re stubborn and yeah maybe a little arrogant but so am I.” Stan got out of his chair and kneeled by his brother.

“If there was an award for who could hold on to guilt the longest, I could probably win the gold medal. So, listen to me here. Please don’t let this mind erasing thing eat you alive. I know I’m the poster child for healthy coping but please don’t be so hard on yourself. I have enough self-loathing for both of us.”

“Stanley.”

“Look being out here with you watching you get all excited and doing nerd stuff has been the happiest I’ve been in years. I don’t need you to be worrying about what might happen so much that you stop enjoying it ‘cus then I’ll stop enjoying it and so what the hell else do we do huh? Soos is in charge of the Shack and I wouldn’t really want to go back. So, what, do we spend our next few years playing bingo in an old folks' home?”

“Hell no.” Ford responded somewhere between a sob and a laugh.

“Right. So, relax. There is no where I’d rather be.” Stan grinned when a small smile placed itself on Ford’s face.

“What are the qualities of a Pines man? Braveness, boldness, curiosity, creativity, stubbornness, and deep self-loathing.” Ford said counting on his fingers.

“Let’s hope Dipper skips out on that one.” Stan got back up and poured himself and Ford a drink of the good stuff they kept for special occasions. He figured dealing with a smoke monster was occasion enough.

Ford looked at the amber liquid and drained it in one gulp. “Stanley has is ever occurred to you that perhaps we could use a little therapy in our lives?”

“No shrink is so understanding that they would believe half the shit that’s happened to us.”  

“Perhaps we should look. Even if we have to go a more supernatural route to get an adequate one I-I think we should.” Ford began to scribble what Stan guessed to be a list of idea candidates. He smiled as he watched the wheels in his brother’s mind whirl.

“Yeah. Sure, I’ll talk to a fairy about my problems.” Stan spent the rest of his night listening to Ford tell him why it was an awful idea to let the Fae know your problems and enjoyed every minute of it.  

[gammija]

The Hollow review/summary/rant/explanation of why i hate the ending I wasn’t sure whether I should post this, but I did enjoy reading others experiences watching this show, so here’s mine under the cut. Edited from a convo with a friend.

(Obviously, spoilers!)

Me: Okay so to properly express my disappointment i gotta take you through the major beats

The show starts with three teens waking up in an almost empty room, finding out they all have amnesia. They quickly solve a puzzle to escape the room, and just as quickly Adam and Mira realize they have superpowers (superstrength/agility and some weird 'speak to animals/know all languages' hybrid, respectively. also she can breathe underwater and swim really fast. its kind of vague)

Kai is already clearly a comic relief, discount Ron (from HP, the movies, no idea about the books) so me and sister correctly predict he'll get jealous of adam and miras relationship (even if there is none), gets pissy and jealous that he has no powers, but then finds out he has powers anyway he does, hes a fire bender. cant say im not bitter about that cause id put my money on invulnerability but eh its alright he has red hair after all hes still fun

Friend: Of course he is

I just feel bad is all aldjs

Me: adam gets a throwaway line of 'maybe were dead' and kai never lets it go

this food might be poisoned but im starving and hey were dead anyway! right, adam

Friend: I love him??

Me: i loved him as soon as he spoke his first dumb words also he puns but basically hes the only interesting char; adam and mira are just cookie cutter 'male lead 1' and 'female lead 1' i mean, he’s cookie cutter ‘jealous 3rd wheel’ but that has more going on than the first two still servicable though

anyway so the jokes are sometimes fun, and superpowers are always my jam. but the REAL reason to keep watching is just, whats going on? ARE they dead? or in some kind of weird gvnmt experiment? some weird magical vampire guide (dont ask) hints they wanted this themselves ooh, intrigue. and the world is very very quirky they start in a gravity falls-y woods and then get teleported to a desert with minotaurs and witches, then get invited for tea by the Grim Reaper and the rest of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse

tbh Grim is the best part of the show but thats neither here nor there

anyway they have a magic map that updates once theyve been somewhere, and it shows them that the hot dry desert and the swampy wood bunker are like right next to each other

so you start thinking, how are they gonna explain that? this is too weird to be handwaved away. theyve gotta be going somewhere

they visit some other exotic locals, like what appears to be the set of Alien (complete with alien) and an abandoned old fair and a floating island with japanese inspired evildoers on it

the weird magic guide keeps showing up and being vague, dropping hints that there are other kids there etc

at some point Mira says "This is no time for games!" Weirdy: "Thats where youd be wrong~" me and sister: Aha! videogame! that connects all the dots, and also makes the tropes clear: small world with all kinds of different areas, quests, fights, superpowers, an updating map, fast travel Adam, a few eps later: guis i think we might be in a videogame me and sister: [high five]

Anyway in the meantime also the second predictable Kai (discount Ron) plot happens: they meet three other kids (boy boy girl) and they act shady but the girl takes an immediate and obvious interest in Kai so obviously theyre gonna manipulate him and have him betray his friends but in the end he'll see through their facade and kick their ass that more or less happens. The other teens also confirm that this is a game, and theyre trying to win. winning is done by bringing the MacGuffin to a tree fights over macguffin ensue situations are dire but our characters persevere

(also Mira kisses Adam and he acts very weird about it, almost as if hes gay and the only reason they didnt make it canon is censors) (no lingering gaze, just him going 'hehe yeah no thanks, its not you, its me', but in a very... he doesnt seem to be saying it with shall we say burning desire in his soul. hes literally just like 'eh youre a good friend.' Cool move, cartoon that made the two main boys have arguments over nothing cause of course the two main guys have constant dick measuring matches)

this all is not the offensive part btw it was all fun and games, its just a flash cartoon i wasnt expecting Shakespeare

anyway so theyre in a videogame, and apparently thats the answer to all the weirdness. A bit of a cop-out, cause thats a very easy answer, but eh, it works. it wasnt immediately obvious.

also something i hadnt mentioned yet: thisd be ideal for making (self-insert) OCs. Unique powers for each person, there are clearly more characters than shown, the world is your playground

and maybe the video game thing could be interesting on its own in the last few eps the game seems to be glitching out a lot they say its breaking apart so they really gotta hurry now maybe they were beta testers for a vr game gone wrong maybe this is part of it but its like a huge experience that you tell all your friends about anyway there are ways it could be cool, could be expanded to a season 2 despite having solved the mystery

but. last episode. our heroes get the MacGuffin, go to a final stage, and fight the Boss Battle (its a dragon). they enter the Castle....

...and the screen zooms out, into a sudden live action stage, where we see the cartoon (literally what you were just watching) on screen. there are 6 chairs, 3 with our heroes, 3 with the other teens, presumably. theres a host and hes dressed exactly like the weird guy (and that was already kind of a clashy outfit in the cartoon). it was all just a game show. but. the worst part is the live action

you. dont. go. from. animated. to. live. action.

other way around? fine, can work. But now? WHY itd still be dumb and dissapointing but if itd been animated too itd at least have been.... nice to look at but the acting.. oh god they didnt even say anything and it was all wrong clearly theyd just picked the first random teens that vaguely looked like the chars and put them in there cause they had no lines so who needs acting?!

the enemy teams girl had, in the cartoon, pink hair. Purple with pink highlights instead of stylizing that into something more realistic or painting the actual hair, they gave some 30-year old woman a wig and called it a day

keep in mind i binged this show in one go

purposely stayed up late to watch the last ep with my sis even tho we shouldve gone to bed and were disobeying our dad cause we Had to Know

and theres more i said they had no lines but i was lying. Kai did have a line. well, his voice actor did they dubbed him also the line was about him having to pee which is already not the most hilarious in animated version but a live action kid whose supposed to be this character you spent 3 hours with but looks nothing like him saying that in a voice that doesnt belong to his throat, as he stands bashfully in front of a live audience, the only words spoken by your main characters in the last moments...

*its actual hell*

oh oh one more thing at the end the six kids stand in a line and kai is next to other girl they glance at each other and as the eyes of this teen and 30 year old in wig cross, her eye glitches for a moment

dun dun duuun

bUT i dont care anymore, The Hollow. You overestimated your own premise. this wont be forgiven. your most interesting part was the mystery, and the answer  to that was "just a normal game show" (which also doesnt make sense on another level smh) soo if you think that im interested in what these two-dimensional (ha) characters will do now about the glitch in the eye of a bitch then i have news for u

i dont

...if they get a second season ill probably check it out though as long as its animated

Friend: Gammi I'm getting the real sinking suspicious feeling that what you saw isn't the real end but bad on purpose because there's more to it

Me: the show didnt seem good enough to be bad on purpose

and yet im still not done, if youll still hear me out

i mean, im an animation fan so ill still watch but if theyd wanted to be bad on purpose they really shouldve done a better job fleshing out the characters thats what people come back for that was a bit of a sidetrack BUT so i said why the live action itself was just terrible in overal quality

but the resolution that 'oh it was all in a game show' doesnt work on multiple levels

first of all, they show a short flashback of "About 5 hours earlier". The kids stand on the stage and are instructed to take their seats in the vr-chairs, and pick their superpower

2 things i dislike about that

1) there goes all the self-insert/oc potential. they werent teens in over their heads, they werent gvnmt experiments, or just some kids who wanted to play a game -they were in it to win it, from the start. thats very specific and not the most appealing to all kinds of characters (goodbye, all the 'im just an average girl whod never step into the spotlight like that' characters).

Also, all the expansion on lore is gone. maybe there were other games simultaneously? eh, maybe, but theyd be all gameshows. Maybe someone ended uo trapped there for way longer? nah its just a gameshow theyre not gonna let anything actually bad happen. Maybe there are other worlds, other areas, other weird creatures? unlikely, they finished the map and familiarity seemed to be a thing for the audience. Now every new idea has to be put not through a 'whats interesting for a player' but a 'whats interesting for a viewer' lens, and whats a selfinsert if not a player in another universe

2) HOW IS THIS A SUCCESSFUL GAME SHOW

who the hell watches a game show for 5 consecutive hours, some of which mustve been just them walking. also, we zoom out of the screen were watching, so implication is that everything up until then has been what the audience has seen. but... we only followed the one team. there were two? why didnt the audience want to see what they were up to? ~reality tv usually thrives on showinf the worst assholes so realistically they wouldve been the focus~

There are also way too many times *both* teams couldve failed, from early on till late in the game. Not a single game i can think of thats played for an audience is set up like that, and especially not a televised one (okay tbf idk if this was televised, i dont remember if i saw cameras, but. it mustve. monetary reasons.)

What r u gonna do if they all 'died' from the monsters in the first ep? Call it a day? boring for the audience. let them restart from scratch? boring for the audience. the existence of an audience messes with everything

AND THEN ANOTHER THING what do you mean, "5 hours ago?" you never get a time stamp to show how long theyve been in there but there are some cuts, when they travel and such. The actual show is a lil over 3 hours runtime. You mean to tell me you sat through 2 hours of the characters just walking?

okay last thing. so. they were clearly second season teasing with the glitching eye thing. i already said this but. theres nowhere to go from here that isnt worse that the first season. your mystery is dead. you clearly know your live action teens cant act so youd have to go back into the game - but why would they do that? how would that be in any way interesting? you explored all there was to explore.

The other, more out there option, is that as you said the 'real world' was a fake-out and theyre still in a game. but. how would- how would you even make that remotely convincing? if youd just left the 'real world' gameshow as animated too this wouldnt have been a problem. but there is absolutely no conceivable reason to justify, in universe, why another meta-level up is 2D animation again unless they were in a game, in a game, in a game. and thats just dumb. yall aint inception

Friend: HONESTLY if they just kept the whole deal animated it'd probably be okay. Not good, but better,

Me: ye me and my sister came to the same conclusion

i couldve lived with that. at least, i couldve just acknowledged the finales existence but chose to ignore it. now however im full phantom planet levels of denial. in fact i dont even know how the show ended anymore, suddenly

Friend: what finale? what show?

Me: also at least now we know why its called The Hollow

it leaves you feeling empty inside

[woodwind-sensei]

2019 Worlds: Ladies’ Singles

There we have it! After two days of intense competition, Alina Zagitova (RUS) has won her first World Title! After a disappointing Worlds debut last year, I’m sure this is a redeeming moment for her, especially after the rocky season she’s had. I’m going to talk about the Top 10 here, as I have some (a lot) of thoughts.

Alina Zagitova (RUS) put up a solid effort to win the gold here. It’s not my favorite program by a long shot, but what matters is that she hit the jumps, which have been a problem for her all year after a growth spurt in the fall. Also, some questionable component marks for Composition and Interpretation of the Music. For me, Carmen should be approached with a little more subtlety. Anyone can play the brazen gypsy woman, but a true interpretation can also bring her more subdued qualities to light. With the frantic pace and somewhat messy music edits and lack of flow between certain points, it’s safe to say that Alina doesn’t really accomplish that.

Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ) made history on multiple fronts today. She became the first senior lady to land a quad jump in competition (the third after Miki Ando (JPN) and Alexandra Trusova (RUS), both juniors at the time of their quads) and is also the first Kazakh woman to win a World medal, and the second Kazakh skater in general, after the late Denis Ten. Did she make history? Yes. Do I agree with the scores? Oh God, no. Again, these component marks are super inflated. Granted, so were everyone’s at this competition, but Elizabet’s boost was the highest (about 7 points higher than her season average of 62.5). She received a components score close to Satoko. SATOKO. Satoko Miyahara is one of the best skaters in the world in terms of the component marks, because she always performs programs that are beautiful and interesting, as well as having the skating skills to back it up. Elizabet is simply not there yet, and I highly disagree with what the judges are giving her. (Check out my Program Components breakdown to see a more in-depth look at how I view PCS marks) Also the GOE for the quad was high for me: that was not a super controlled landing, and the preparation was quite long. According to ISU Communication 2168 (Adjusted GOE Guide), the judges should have given around -3 to -1. 

Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS) had the best comeback of the season after not being in the initial selection for the World team. With a strong win at the Russian Cup Final, she replaced Stanislava Konstantinova as an athlete for Worlds. This was her best performance this year, hands down. She looked like she was ready to fight for every single point. And it worked. She won the bronze medal here. It’s still not my favorite program from her, but with a little more work with David and Tracy should help her find a style that suits her skating well. I’d be interested to see her do a program like “Orange Colored Sky” again. I thought it was a lot of fun and made her seem more like a young ingenue. This heavy stuff doesn’t really lend itself well to her personality.

Rika Kihira (JPN) did her classic free skate comeback, but was not able to land on the podium this time. Even though she finished second in the free skate, her low short program score ultimately enabled other skaters to place above her in the standings. She has such raw potential, much like Mao Asada in her younger years. With such athletic and artistic ability, the right programs and the right mental toughness will get her to where she needs to be next season. She should be proud of this season, as she dominated the season that looked like it was going to be Zagitova’s to win or lose.

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) was a popped triple flip away from a World medal. If that combination were successful, she would have amassed at least 150 points and a spot on the podium. The judges seemed to have backed Kihira all season, giving her higher PCS marks than Kaori during the Grand Prix season and 4CC. But here at Worlds, Kaori definitely received a little bit more help in the PCS. But to me, this is more justified than Tursynbaeva. Out of the 5 components in the free skate, Kaori won skating skills (Zagitova won the other 4). Even watching it on my laptop, I could sense the power and flow of Kaori’s skating in those first few crossovers. I could tell how much of the ice she was able to cover in just a few strokes. It was a breathtaking skate, and she definitely rose to the occasion in her Worlds debut. A top 5 finish is incredible!

Satoko Miyahara (JPN) finished off the podium after a bronze in Milan last year. She was able to overcome a lot of the technical issues like underrotations. An unfortunate error on her last combination caused her to miss out on moving up higher than she did. Satoko is still one of the most beautiful skaters in the world. I think what needs to happen is a readjustment of her jump technique. It’s obvious that she’s been trying to get more height and power in her jumps, which has caused a little dip in her consistency. Maybe she should spend a whole month jumping doubles, but the highest doubles possible, and then rebuild her triples form there. 

Bradie Tennell (USA) had the skate of her life in Saitama. She has some wonderful jumps and definitely has room for artistic improvement. The one issue I have is that she is so tight. You can tell she’s a hard worker and that she has the will power to be a powerful athlete on the ice. But that tension can also translate to stiff knees and some jumping issues, which she had in the short. She went clean in the free skate. Benoit Richaud is a choreographer known for using more angular movements, so it works for Bradie, but I’d be interested to see if she works with someone like Shae-Lynn Bourne, who can give her the freedom to own her power while also providing variety to Bradie’s movements. One of Benoit’s faults is that his programs can sometimes be too one-note.

Sofia Samodurova (RUS) had a serviceable free skate for a Top 10 finish, as I predicted. Burlesque is not the music for a 16 year old (but then again, nothing will ever be as bad as Trusova’s “Big Spender” program). However, she did it with verve and definitely looked like she was having fun on the ice. She could work on transitions (Mishin’s camp tends to be “transitions? Who is she?” anyway), since the arrival of the Tutberidze juniors next year could mean no World Championships for any of the current Russian squad, so working on components could be a key difference for a young skater like Sofia. 

Mariah Bell (USA) had a great competition, making the top 10 in her 3rd appearance at Worlds. She is really lacking a triple-triple. Without it, she’s not going to push past the 7-10 range at Worlds or Olympics. It’s also hard to talk about Mariah or the next skater without mentioning the drama in Saitama (I’m a poet and don’t even know it). I personally believe it was an accident, but we should not let the accusations from KSF and All That Sports go un-investigated. 

Lim Eun-soo (KOR) made some mistakes in the free, moving down from 5th to 10th. There is a lot on her shoulders, as the KSF wanted two spots for next year. She also was injured after Mariah hit her with her skate blade. To be honest, Mariah’s pattern was a little too close to the boards than in the past, but still I believe it was an accident. But all the pressure from KSF and then to deal with all this press bullshit probably led Eun-soo to make some uncharacteristic mistakes in the free. She also has a free skate that is too old for her (Chicago, with choreography from Akiko Suzuki). She’s such a great skater with star potential, so as long as she keeps her nose to the grindstone, she should have some landmark performances down the line. Keep your eye on her, she might be the skater of the future.

The men’s free and free dance are tomorrow. I’m excited to see if Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) can continue their dominant streak. With an unbelievable World Record in the rhythm dance, it’ll be hard for any team to get even close. The ladies’ event was so high octane and was an absolute joy to watch. Figure skating has raised the bar this year, and Im so excited for the Olympic cycle this season has set up. 

[briteboy]

stealing @bratsims format because i need a less ugly way to mass answer your messages which will hopefully motivate me to stay on top of this! at least i can say i tried

so if you sent me an anon message in the past...idk MONTH (i’m bad i know) it might be here. (older ones are near the bottom) if not, check my faq because it’s probably answered there. (and if you’re the person/people who sent the twin flame & 7th house asks, i plan to answer those separately because i have a LOT to say. get ready)

game of thrones, nuclear war, real life santis, lou theories, i’m evil, HERE WE GO!! i literally had to cut it off at the last one because it was just too much for now. i’ll try to answer some more later ok

we’re starting off on a great note

Anonymous said: gaddamn rooney's tiddies lookin' hella ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

STOP!!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S MY CHILD soaidfnjds she’s supposed to have like b/c cups (goals for me tbh, the big boob life is not fun) and sims 4 pregnancies just fuckin make them...NYOOM i’m mad you can’t edit sims’ bodies during pregnancy even with cas.fulleditmode on -___- so i let her live with her giant preggo tiddies for now

Ngl I want a kiss between Santi and Gianni (I'm sorry I'm literally trash)

then i’m here to satisfy your desires: they do kiss periodically because gianni is one of those people who’s like “why shouldn’t you kiss your friends?” free love 4 everyone

IM SCREAING AT UR YOUTUBE CHANNEL OK!!!! I LOVEEE IT, WOW

DON’T IT’S UGLY EXCEPT FOR LIKE TWO VIDEOS

hey this is kinda random but i thought joe seaward from glass animals looked kinda like santi? he has quite a weird face too lmao

oMG i actually love that, i know what you mean. that dude reminds me of a bull terrier lmao i actually saw glass animals like two weeks ago!! i didn’t really get a good look at the drummer but now i wish i did. missed connection

i just finished reading santi's story and ugh it almost had me in tears! beautiful, your story telling skills and editing skills are perfection!

ahhhhsdkgkds thank you so much ;____; that means the world to me <333

Unpopular opinion: im so done with game of thrones tbh. It's not even good anymore :/ I liked the first season but since then i've skipped through episodes because they are just sooo fucking boring and dragged out!

see like the first three seasons were pretty good because they stayed true to the books. (actually that’s a lie, littlefinger’s chaos speech in the s3 finale was real fuckin bad because guess what: it was original material LMAO) the fourth season was where it started to get messy and then the fifth season was a fucking shitshow because they completely IGNORED the fourth book and cherrypicked all the “good” parts out of it (read: the most action-y parts, while ignoring all the most important pieces of character development) and they botched the dorne storyline, oh and who could forget the iconic moment of throwing in a rape (THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN IN THE BOOKS) just for fun :) love it! but anyway if you think the show is boring i probably wouldn’t recommend the books, they’re even slower getting through them lmao. but it’s worth it in my opinion. there’s so much they don’t include in the show and it makes me Angery

Okay, game of thrones fan here, I haven't read the books (yet at least, I bought book 1) but I feel like dany is going to practically turn into her father, this season she is already showing traits like his.......

OH YEAH i definitely feel like they’re moving in that direction in the process of revealing jon as the “true” king of westeros and it’s so bad lmfao. the thing is, like...cersei is already mad king 2.0? why do we need another one?????? the entire point of dany’s arc is that she’s constantly trying to deviate AWAY from the way her father ruled, demonstrated by the fact that she freed the slaves (whereas all the targaryens before were slave owners), the fact that she’s not perpetuating the whole incest thing (LMAO GUESS AGAIN BECAUSE JONERYS HAS TO HAPPEN FOR SOME FCKING REASON), the fact that she has dragons which haven’t existed in how many years...like, if she ever ends up being like her father in the books, it’s NOT gonna fucking happen like this. but i don’t think she will anyway, george rr martin has been pretty clear about her trajectory thus far. anyway this show is so ugly, next question

rooney's eye are so BIG

just like her tiddies lmao i kno sometimes i forget how big they are and then she does one of those silly endearing animations and i’m like o ;-; hello big dumb baby cow eyes

Cows? Are you secretly Matthew Daddario?

WHO i had to google him lmao i was about to say “oh the teen wolf guy” but jk @ myself u idiot it’s shadowhunters damn i literally googled “matthew daddario cows” and

tru

I love how fragile Lou looks like but the truth is that she is strong af and you can't play with her bruh

SHE IS ;-; and that’s a huge theme in her story, i’m excited <3

ima leave ur blog and come bk and spam you so you will finally notice me

im part of this online forum of girls that talks about our period and weather or not one of us might be pregnant and once this girl posted saying that her husband invited his mom without telling her to thier honeymoon and she didnt find out until they arrived at the hotel and she was already there. the most recent part reminded me of it. but long story short, her dad moved all her stuff out of his house and her friend came to pick her up and they got a divorce.

OISOJDFAKNLJSD WHAT!!! i’m guessing you sent this because of that thing i said about the reddit post lmfaooo imagine your mom on your honeymoon. why. that’s soooooooooo good 4 her u know. u don’t need to be married to his mom as well

thanks 4 trusting my love santi. he's beautiful

thank u he thinks ur beautiful too 💘

do you have any tips for runing game in good quality and fast?

euhhhhh the only tips i have for you are to merge your cc, close all other programs while you play your game, maybe invest in a cooling pad uhhhhhh yeah idk any other tips you can probably find on google

You told that thing about unfollowing people and I thought you unfollowed me, but then I checked and you didn't and I'm crying omg

lmao omg ;-; i literally cut my following list in half, it was so chaotic and it was making me anxious. so if ever unfollow any of you please don’t take it personally (i know it’s a stupid thing to say, and it’s a lot easier said than done) it’s just my brain explodes when there’s too much going on at once and some content blends into others, i’m trying to only follow people who i’m genuinely interested in enough to keep up with their posts from now on

I haven't been able to sleep in over 72 hours thanks to the constant fear over the looming world war. I'm fine. Completely fine

Oh shit, have you noticed that the media has been putting out more 'what to do during a nuclear attack' kinda articles? This world is slowly going to shit, for real. I'm not even near any of the danger really, but it still absolutely terrifies me to see all of that bc it could very well go wrong and hit my place as well yknow? I have no idea why i send this to you but you seem chill and calm so thanks for reading my freakout askfjsls

YEP it’s pretty terrifying. but at the same time don’t let fear overwhelm you, fearmongering is an ugly, ugly thing and you don’t want to live your life constantly worrying. so just prepare yourself for what might come, but at the same time, just spend as much time with your loved ones as you can, do all the things you’ve ever wanted to do, and then if it doesn’t turn out as bad as we thought it would, you *tim mcgraw voice* lived like u were dyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyin’

@ Jesus anon: I really don't think it's the right time to complain about "using the lord name in vain" when there are people terrified of leaving their homes bc they are afraid to get killed (aka that poor, poor Jewish anon in charlottesville)

yeah idk like i want to respect everyone but it seemed to be in poor taste to bring that up at a time like that lmao. and also i’ve literally never in my entire life met someone who actually takes “don’t say the lord’s name in vain” seriously. 

I asked about the poses and HOLY CRAP THANK YOU SO MUCH! I finally have good poses to use for story telling. Thank you soo so so so sooooo much!

YAY i’m glad you found some good stuff <3 and honestly just going through lana’s blog you’ll find a ton of good poses, it’s a gold mine

Idk how much tv you watch, but have you've ever come across a tv show that used music from The Sim? Because once in a while I'll hear Sims 3 build/buy music on some random show and I'll get a lil shook because I find it so weird that the generic music they're using comes from a major game title.

OMG LMAO NO what i wish i’d come across that tho. one time i used sims 1 music in a video i made for school and someone recognized it

I love your stories gosh I check your page "it's everyday bro with femmesim flow" Lol sorry for that awkward Jake Paul "poop" ❤️

lmao thank u i had no idea who jake paul was until my friends started talking about him

yo, I also remember once in french class real life santi asked me what videos games I like to play. When I told him the sims, he looked at me for a while and shaked his head. He was like, "why do you want to watch your sims use the toilet?"

WHY DO YOU WANT TO WATCH YOUR SIMS USE THE TOILET SAME that’s all i care about when i play

that rooney face in the 5 facts is so iconic, its my fave picture of her. You should blow it up and frame it

i should tbh. i should print it out and put it in my wallet to show everyone because she is my child

sorry the bother you, merging cc makes your game smoother? can you explain to me please?

boop

hi i love you ♡ pass it on

I LOVE U

Can I say that hearing a MacBooks fans screaming for dear life as they try to cool down when playing the sims has actually started to haunt my nightmares

SAME my macbook is actually doing it right now for no reason. thanks laptop

Maybe Santi should go to therapy to talk out his issues.

maybe he should 🤔  but tbh he’s already talked out everything, there’s nothing really more to talk out. he just has to cope with it. he’s treated lou like his therapist thus far and that’s not okay

i love ur story and omg i totally get where lou is coming from with being tired of being compared to molly by santi, thatd hurt so much esp with how much she cares about him

thank youuu ;-; i’m glad you understand, this was a part i’d wanted to get out for a loooong time now, and i know you guys were always like “um why does she put up with this” lmao. she just loves him, that’s why. but you’re right, it does hurt.

My theory is very similar to the other anons in that Fiona's dad/Lou's ex had a mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, what have you) but he actually did kill himself and that's why she's not completely losing it on Santi because I feel like most people in that situation would have not handled it as well as Lou did

🤔 you’re right about the last part, and there’s a reason she has so much patience, das all i’m sayin

i started your story from the beginning last night and i am in awe. Its amazing. It inspired me to put a little more effort in learning to edit and write. It was like reading screen caps from a movie! I didn't want to stop reading. Anyway thing was a super sappy ask, but i appreciate your stuff. And i'm bad at putting my thoughts into words.

omg ;__________; when people tell me i inspired them it means the most to me, my brain just can’t process it lmao. so thank you so so much ;-; <333 THE MOVIE THING ESPECIALLY GOT ME IN THE HEART because i feel like that’s my aesthetic with most things i create because i’m such a film person lol. don’t worry i love super sappy, and you did a good job of wording everything because it got me right in the feels <33

Okay I've been snickering for about 43 minutes bc SANTI GOT THAT GRU CHINNN

WOT is that i googled it and the only thing that came up was the dad from despicable me lmfaosdkjfs but ok

Please, please do punk edits of your some of your characters! I'd die.

WHAT DOES THIS MEANNN do you mean like. those 2010 tumblr edits of punk disney characters and then the joker from suicide squad looked like one of them. do u want santi to be the joker. because my boyfriend already relates him to suicide squad joker because of his face tatt lmao

You love to make me cry

i do i’m sorry. if it makes you feel any better i love to make myself cry too. but my biceps grow stronger with every tear

I reeeally dont think those chancla comments were offensive??? Why would they be?? I'm hispanic (born and raised in the sunny Dominican Republic, received a fair amount of chancletazos myself) and I laughed out loud when i read them 😂😂

I JUST WANT U TO KNOW I SHOWED @ichosim THIS MESSAGE AND SHE LAUGHED FOR 12 HOURS AT “CHANCLETAZOS”

whATT my little brothers name is santiago n we call him santi for short!! guess it's not rly that uncommon but we live in a small country and he's also 4 so like,, no other santiagos!! idk why im saying this its completely irrelevant just kinda surprised me :'))

OMG wow hell yeah another real life santi...santi acts like a 4 yr old so he might as well be your brother

Just curious.. Do you play sims or just use it for storytelling? Sorry if thats weird haha

well my recent gameplay pics should answer your question lmao. i do like to play but i don’t have enough time to both play and pose scenes so i mostly just pose scenes for now. :[ i am gonna be off work for like two weeks tho so hell yeah gameplay here i come!!

I'm starting a Fiona appreciation movement because she is the real star of santis story RT and i love her and she is way underappreciated and I love her KThxBi

SHE IS THE REAL STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i’ve said this before but santi’s relationship with her is the most important to me, out of every relationship he has in this story. i’m so glad you love her so much, sorry about what’s about to come in the next few scenes tho

Oh my heart, Santi is alive, god exist

I have a pretty hard time understanding Santi's story mostly because I'm not English but I'm sure I'll figure it out:)

ahh oh no D: i’m sorry i wish i spoke every language in the world lmao. if you want, you can message me off anon and i’ll help you understand it!!

Lou is an angel honestly

“there are worse things than seeing an angel before you die”

what tablet do you use? or how do you draw hair? it looks so pretty.

omg haha i don’t have one! i wish i did tho. all of the brushes i got from deviantart, i’m trying to find the specific ones but they’re all elusive wtf. i’ll post them when i find them! for now, here’s a good guide to drawing hair, by airi <3

Nah nah I always knew you'd save him.....eheheeh.....THANK YOU FOR NOT KILLING BABBY SANTEEEEEEEEE DNDDNSKANW YOU WOULD HAVE HAD SO MUCH BLOOD ON UR HANDS AS ALL UR FOLLOWERS COLLECTIVELY DIE FROM A BROKEN HEART BUT DW WE DIDNT BECAUSE UR QN ANGEL....but I toooootally knew you'd save him... /sweats/

I’M GLAD U HAD FAITH <3 i know omfg i would’ve expected a mob at my house if i’d actually killed him. if i ever killed him i would just lay down somewhere and die. that’s it for me

Lou & molly almost always have teeth showing, do you draw them on each pic?x

no, only sometimes i’ve drawn them when i felt like their mouths weren’t matching the expression i wanted. but most of the time it’s just the pose.

is it too late to send 16k dollars to guarantee santi's inclusion in a loving home with loving friends

it is absolutely never too late to send me 16k i promise you that

I just bought school books for $550 who knew studying marine biology could be so fuckING EXPENSIVE

EWW WTF...i’ve been lucky and haven’t had to spend a ton on books in my college career (one time i even went to such lengths that i got access to free trial version of one of my school books in a pdf, screencapped EVERY SINGLE PAGE, which was more than 400 pages, just so i wouldn’t have to spend $70 on it. i love cheating the system)

waIT i never saw ur selfie where is it, must see

u could probably just search “selfie” on my blog and find it, or enjoy the ugly closeup drunk snap i posted last night

Hey guys I'm a happy trans man that has no mental illnesses. I'm fucking pissed about Trump's ban. And to any one that says it's logical FUCK YOU! I'm having flashbacks to don't ask, don't tell because this is the same fucking wacked up logic. I'm so angry, like I'm a human, yes I may require testosterone shots once a month but that's it, I even administer them to myself. I pay for them with my own god damn money so fuck you transphobic bigots who say this law is fair. It's not. WE ARE HUMAN TOO Also same anon that ranted. Sorry about that I'm just really pissed and I love and thank you for sticking up for the community. We love you and I love you. And you're right not all trans people transition. We all do what we want to. Some start on T or E and have the full surgery. Some just have top surgery. Some just do testosterone or estrogen. Some never do anything. We're all still trans and we're all valid.

YES ALL OF THIS, sorry i didn’t answer this when it was all happening. but askdkjfas thank you for this message, I LOVE YOU TOO, SO MUCH <333 and i’m glad you feel comfortable enough to voice this in my inbox. yes every trans person is valid no matter what they decide to do with their bodies <3

One of those old hot topic shirts that said " if Darryl dies we riot " but with santi instead of Darryl.

OMG LMAOOOOO NOW THAT’S A CONCEPT who’s making these i want one

your use of references and reaction pics and gifs fucken KILLS ME

Crystal anon here. I googled around my area to find there are none of those y'know, crystal, candle, incense, magic type shops. I have panic attacks when I go outside and I wanted to look into alternative stuff since I'm on meds and w/e. I wanted to know if you or friends had any experience or recommendations for buying crystals online like on etsy or amazon. How can you tell if they're real?x

ooooh ok. usually there are shops like those in cities or even in towns with like kitschy little promenades with independent shops. (i know there’s one around the town over from mine, which is so random lmao) i do have friends that have crystals but i think they mostly just collect them for the ~good vibez~ and don’t really look too far into the healing aspects of them. i would say first go with the one that coincides with your birth because those are the ones that are like specifically catered to you and strengthen your being. as for buying online, hmmmmm i mean i don’t really know any specific trustworthy sellers because i don’t have much experience with this, but definitely read the reviews! those will help you a lot <3

Hello could you please tell us how you edited the pic of rooney in that one post that the anon asked for the unedited version?

i honestly didn’t do much of anything that differs from my usual editing process! i made her eyes a bit bigger by using the clone tool, cloning the top of her eye and applying it a little bit farther up...if that makes sense. it’s hard to explain how to use that tool lmao. and i think i used the liquify tool to bring part of her eyebrow down to look more worried.

there's still a part of me that says she ain't dead and molly is just in a coma lmao end mE

OMFLDKGKJS yeah she’s not dead surprise. i WILL say there is still flashback stuff that will be revealed. well not “revealed” like molly’s death was revealed, like i just still have to showcase some things that happened afterward. because it doesn’t just end with molly’s death, there’s stuff after that as well :~}

I'm Mexican, have lived around Mexicans, have been to Mexico multiple times growing up, just came back from a family trip at practically the border between Mexico and Guatemala and never in my life have I ever heard the word "joder" i had to look it up xD (not hating or anything I just thought I'd mention it cuz I found it funny...lol) k bye...

OK NOT SURE IF the ppl you’ve been around just don’t curse or whatever but...joder is DEFINITELY something i’ve heard mexican people say before lmao

Okay so this is random, but i was telling my sister the name of one your characters in ur story (santi) and she kinda just starts singing his name, and she said "santi high, santi low, santi go." And im just sitting there, like woah.

LMFAO WHATKNJDSKJGD “woah” same

u gonna incorporate fis hat into a really like emotional sad thing in her story huh

oMG i wasn’t planning on it but hmm 🤔

Why no el chingo? NO ME GUSTA (I'm joking btw ily)

LMFAOOOO because i didn’t wanna have to defile my son by downloading the penis mod RIP

let santi grow out dem eyebrows 2kforever

omg he does let them grow out except for the little line he shaved in when he was 14 that never grew back RIP

in ur bio it says "kt" and i know why,, it means killing them as in killing off ur characters slowly i see u gurl

i bet this story was just an excuse for you to see the world burn. well done.

OMG i mean, that was definitely one of the side effects of it all. but really it was just that i NEEDED to get this story out after it had lived in my brain for so long.

ur dead 2 me

I... just.... can't... too much pain Y U DO DIS 2 UZ?!?!!!

[overthinkingkdrama]

Double Feature Movie Review: Systemic Corruption Edition

Usually I do these Double Feature Reviews around a particular actor I happen to be stalking at the moment. And I’m sure I’ll be back to doing that again soon. But at the moment I’ve got a gaping hole in my heart where Secret Forest used to be, and I’m looking for something with cinema quality production values, taut plotting and acting chops. I need something to console me while I wait for my next exquisite Bae Doo Na role or my next Prosecutor Hwang. Short of buying all the alcohol and embarking on a desperate Signal rewatch, the only thing I could think to do was flee into the often inhospitable arms of Korean film until I’m so tired of jaded lawyers, dirty cops, and corrupt politicians not even handsome oppas can entice me anymore. I was looking for a uniting theme for this review, and I landed on one of corruption.

With that in mind, let’s get this somewhat depressing party started!

New Trial

Alright, you caught me. I added this movie to my watch list because I saw that Kang Ha Neul was involved. Sue me. When I heard that he dropped out of Bad Guys 2 and they hired Ji Soo instead, and immediately took that show off the docket. I’m not the girl who usually goes in for “touching human dramas” but Kang Ha Neul could get me to watch just about anything. And boy, am I grateful that he was in this one to entice me to watch it, because I absolutely recommend this film.

New Trial is the story of Hyun Woo (Kang Ha Neul), a teenager who winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time and is coerced into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit. Even after serving10 years in jail for the crime, he and his mother are still suffering the consequences. Meanwhile, the jaded Lee Joon Young (Jung Woo) is a ambulance chaser with a troubled family life, looking for one big score to secure his job and his reputation. He thinks Hyun Woo’s situation might be just what the doctor ordered, but as he gets to know the young man he develops real empathy for him and desire to help, even as those in power start closing ranks to try and stop him.

I never watched Reply 1994, so apart from his cameo at the end of Reply 1988 which left nearly no impression on me, I’d never seen Jung Woo in anything. I think that might be a boon in this case. Because I went into this with zero expectations for his character. For as much as Kang Ha Neul gives a phenomenal performance, Jung Woo and his character arc is really what carries the film.

In some ways, this movie isn’t what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a courtroom drama, and it’s really not that. It’s more like the build up to a courtroom drama. The case that this movie was inspired by was actually still ongoing when the movie was made, so in some ways I suppose that makes sense. New Trial is really about is the formation of a bond of trust between the two leads, and a poignant painting of the no-win situation that disaffected members of society can find themselves in when they are pitted against the powerful in a court of law. With a couple surprise action scenes thrown in to keep the energy and suspense high. There’s also some really gorgeous lighting and cinematography here. Never anything too flashy, but enough to set the mood and really showcase the acting talent. 

New Trial is heartbreaking, frustrating and uplifting by turns. And if it sounds like your thing I think it’s well worth your time. 9/10

The King

I hate to unfairly pigeon hole a movie as “the Korean” this or that. Because it’s sounds so shitty and reductive, but The King really has this undeniable Wolf of Wall Street vibe from beginning to end that's hard to ignore. We have the smug narration from Jo In Sung, the rampant hedonism and the gleeful scum of the earth characters. It’s a feel good about feeling bad kind of movie. It’s a just wait for the other shoe drop kind of movie. It’s a fun watch right until the moment it isn’t. It makes you sick to your stomach, but it’s also a seductive power fantasy.

The King is the story of Park Tae Soo (Jo In Sung). A high school hooligan and the son of a small town crook, who fantasizes about having the power and prestige of the high profile prosecutors he watches on TV. It’s the story of his slide into corruption and debauchery and how people don’t realize what really has value in life until they’ve thrown it all away for a piece of the action. But more than any kind of plot, this movie is about the glam and glitter and intangible allure of unbridled greed, up until the moment it all comes crashing down around your ears. I’ll tell your right now this movie isn’t for everyone.

I’m not sure what it is about Jo In Sung that makes him suit these kinds of roles so well. I can take him or leave him in most things. I think he’s an excellent actor for the most part, but there’s always something that doesn’t quite jive for me. Something artificial. But put him in the role of a con man or a crook and suddenly I can buy him 100%. This is one of those roles.

I fell in love with Ryu Jun Yeol all over again in this film. He plays Tae Soo’s hometown friend and connection into the world of organized crime, Choi Du Il. He’s pure electricity every time he’s on screen. His posture, his presence, his satoori. He’s just dripping charisma from every pore. It’s incredible. If you’re a RJY fan then you should watch this movie only for him, and you won’t be disappointed.

With all of it’s quirky editing and cheeky musical selections, it would be easy to write this off as a purely style over substance affair. There is more to it than that, if not very much more. While it’s hard not to be sucked in by the larger than life cast and the sheer bombast of the thing, there is an unpleasant sense that perhaps the film makers are a little too in love with the amorality and decadence of their setting. Though The King is by no means a worse shot or worse acted film, I would definitely say watch New Trial if you want to feel good about yourself afterward. There’s no touching human drama here. But if you found yourself oddly attracted to Seo Dong Jae in Secret Forest, and if you’re in the mood to watch a movie about bad guys sticking it to worse guys, then give The King a chance. I can guarantee that you will be, at the very least, entertained. 8.5/10

Jona

[chogiwritings-blog]

Exo’s reaction to catching you watching Fan edits of them

Request: 💖💖💖I love your blog soo much! I'd like to request a reaction for them finding you watching famcam as/edits? Don't be afraid to make it a little 😏! Thank you!!!!!! 💖💖💖💖

Admin C- Probably suggestive so heads up

Minseok/Xiumin

After you told him you’d be working on your thesis for University Minseok left you alone in your bedroom. After coming back from CBX dance practise he smiled to himself, hearing your frustrated sighs from your room. Making you some coffee he was confident he could convince you to break for a while and opened your door, being met with the sight of you leaning forward on your desk gazing at his smirk as he grinded against a cane, breathing hard. Smirking hard as he walked up behind you, hands on your shoulders, leaning down to whisper low in your ear “I think you’ve worked hard enough, As a reward you’ll be feeling more than that cane tonight~” while he spun you to face him, your face flushed as his hands dipped lower. 

Junmyeon/Suho

Junmyeon would be visiting briefly to drop off a slice of cake he saw in a bakery and just had to buy you. Your sweet tooth was one of your qualities he loved about you, and he’d be smiling softly to himself when he used his key to open your apartment. Hearing your surprised squeak he looked up grinning, only to feel his face go red as he saw the image of him pulling up his shirt melding into his playboy body roll before you could slam the laptop down. Holding his cheeks softly before you both burst into laughter he handed you your cake, watching your eyes go soft at the gift and hugging him. Getting bolder he lowered his voice and breathed “If you like my body so much why don’t you lick some of that icing off me” feeling smug as you blushed hard and hide your face.

Yixing/Lay

Sighing hard as he walked into your room Yixing would be thinking of taking you out on a lovely date. He knew you’d been working hard this month and wanted to have an evening to yourselves. He began, “Baobei, I wondered if-” looking up slowly to your desk when he heard a low bass line and a suspiciously quiet keyboard. He would freeze mid sentence when he sees himself blindfolded and ripping his shirt open as you bit your lip after hearing his voice. Biting his own full bottom lip he would take off his tie and knot it over your eyes, lifting you onto his waist while he breathed against your lips, “Well it seems like we’ll definitely be having an evening to ourselves. You don’t need fancams when I’m here.”. You’d cling to his shoulders and internally thank who ever made those edits. 

Baekhyun

Baekhyun would be home early from tour and be excited to surprise you. He’d planned out an entire day for just you and him to explore various arcades and cafes, having a day to do all the date nights he’d miss being on tour. Opening the door to hear the Minho’s Body and seeing the large TV filled with his more spectacular thrusts while he pushed his hair back he met your horrified eyes with a playful smirk. “I didn’t know you missed me quite that much Jagiya~” he chuckled as you spluttered out an excuse before throwing yourself into the sofa face down. Laughing harder as he sat down beside you, lifting your face and pushing your hair away he continued “Now go get dressed for our date, even if you have to wait I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ending more when we’re home~”

Chanyeol

Your friend had dared you to watch fancams and not react while he was in the same room as you. You’d have some experience in the realm of fan edits but what you hadn’t counted on was getting too into the videos, making soft sounds which caught Chanyeol’s attention. Leaning over you from behind the kitchen stool he smirked, slightly flattered as you clicked on yet another, silently praising the skill of the editing before slowly spinning the stool to face him watching with glee as your mouth dropped embarrassed . He chuckled out “You know Jagi, if you wanted to watch me dance you could have just asked” causing you to retort “I was uh...appreciating the editing...” making him smile wider at your obvious lie. You’d be cursing your friend for weeks when he kept teasing you about how “hot you found him”.

Jongdae/Chen

Jongdae, like Chanyeol, would be delighted at the new material of teasing you when he caught you watching him. Coming back to the dorms, after his fan meet, where you had slept over the night before he ’d make his way to his room. Opening the door slowly to sneak up on you and surprise you with a hug he saw you lying on his bed with your laptop open on Youtube, watching a clip of his “Top Ten Sexiest Moments”. Bursting out into laughter he’d clutch his stomach as you immediately tried to delete the tab, he’d tackle you on the bed and laugh out “So you think I’m the sexiest man ever y/n, you know I/m never letting this go~” as you covered your face, whining like him. For weeks he’d bring this up in front of members as revenge for all the pranks you played on him.

Kyungsoo 

Lounging on the bed after a delicious home cooked dinner by Kyungsoo, you’d be texting your best friend as you watched a film together. Your friend was sending you edits of your usually modest boyfriend that you were watching on silent. These edits highlighted his dark serious eyes that left shivers down your body and you jokingly texted back *Kyungsoo is definitively too soft for edits like that f/n :3 *. Unbeknownst to you he had glanced at your phone and seen your exchange, a challenge he would gladly accept. Taking the phone out of your hands, straddling your hips as his other large hand held your wrists above your head he looked down at you hard, “I’m certain you won’t be saying I’m soft after tonight.” as you watched him put your phone away, excitedly awaiting this sudden change. 

Jongin/Kai

Jongin would be spending his free Sunday morning cuddled up with you on the sofa watching The Walking Dead before he realised he left his phone in your room. Too cosy to move he asked for your phone so he could text Sehun which you passed as you focused on the episode. Opening the phone to your last youtube video he saw himself doing very bad things to a Weeknd song he recognised. Smirking hard as he shut the phone off, He would slide you lower so he was hovering above you, his hand making its way teasingly down your body as he questioned “Now why would my Babygirl be looking at those videos of me when all you need to do is ask.” You’d immediately remember but be silent under those heated eyes, knowing this Sunday was about to be a lot less lazy.

Sehun

Smug. You only one word to describe Sehun’s expression when he found you watching his more risque fancams. You’d be waiting at home for him to visit and passed the time just browsing tumblr, finding a link to a new fancam of Thunder on Youtube. One hour later and you’d be on an edit of all of his most fluid body rolls, replaying one particularly hot one and that would be the precise moment he walked in. Watching his body move in slow motion while you froze in surprise was the most embarrassing moment to this day. You’d watch his lips curve up in a knowing smirk, walking closer and pulling you onto his lap as he drawled out “Have I been neglecting you or are you just that attracted to me~”. You’d try to stubbornly push him away but would soon give in when he pressed his lips to your neck, rolling against you just like those edits. 

Admin C- WELL! My first more....suggestive request, since I wanted to keep this fairly short I didn’t really go into it but feel free to request more suggestive reactions or fluffy or angsty! I hope this was okay! 

*MinaYixing edits for Yixing are the bomb, heads up Xingmi* 

[redorblue]

Books 27-29/2017 - The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan

If you have any kind of positive feelings for this book - stay away. I mean it. This was possibly - probably - the worst read of my life. The only reason I made it through all three of them was that I wanted to make an educated complaint and pick up everything I could of what is wrong with these books. And believe me, it’s a lot: not just quality-wise, it has a whole lot of other issues like misogyny, racism and internalized homophobia. I just finished the last part, and normally I let a book settle for a few days before I write about it, but I’m so mad about this, and I have been since I was a few chapters into the first part, that I can’t put this off.

I’m gonna put this under a cut because I don’t wanna spread my hate for this book farther than necessary where possibly underaged fans could see it, and because it’s gonna be looong. I have a lot to say.

First, let’s start with why it is simply not a good book. I have to add, I read a German translation that I picked up from the flea market (thank God I didn’t spend more money on this. I get why someone wanted to get rid of them now). I’m not used to reading in German, and there are bad translations, but there are also very good translations, and normally I get used to German a few chapters in. I guess in the end it happened here, too, so although the translator may be to blame, I really don’t believe so, because even if she screwed it up, there’s so many other things screaming that Trudi Canavan is a bad writer that I strongly tend to blame the author. Again, I may be wrong, and she may have improved, considering that this is her first published work - however that happened - and after all style is subjective and all that, but I really didn’t like the way this book was written. I don’t mean to be arrogant and play the high-and-mighty literary critic here, there’s lots of books that aren’t considered literature which I love, and many of those are YA books with some fantasy elements. So these books could have appealed to me. But apart from all the things that alternately made me mad, annoyed, and second-hand embarassed, the way this series is written just didn’t do anything for me. Not even the gay romance, which is normally a pretty sure-fire way to get me interested. Everything about these characters, their interactions and the story in general just felt so way beyond belief, so implausible, that it didn’t make me feel anything at all at best, and cringing away at worst. And to me, that’s just bad writing.

Let me elaborate on why I found so many things so implausible. First, the romances. The books cover around 2,5 years I think, which means that there would have been time to develop them properly, but most of them just went from either hating the other person or not knowing them at all, to all-out love in two or three weeks. And while that may happen in real life, you have to lay the groundwork for that in a book, drop some hints, have some reflections, show the audience where this is going, instead of just dropping it into their laps. It wasn’t a surprise who fell for whom because it’s all very predictable and cliché, but still, you can’t just do that and expect your readers to accept it and get emotionally invested (only it seems like you can?? Because there’s people who like this book and give it good reviews?? Dear God how...). Like, it was soo obvious that the main protagonist (Sonea) was going to pick the tall-dark-handsome mystery guy in the end, and that at first she was going to have a thing for this shiny Nice Guy^TM who was the first to ever pay her any attention, all while her childhood friend was pining away for her which of course she never noticed evva. This childhood friend thing I was still ready to overlook because it happened early when I was still optimistic that these books would get better, and because they at least had a relationship at some point - even though they hadn’t seen each other for years and he fell for her in about an hour. Sorry, but love on first sight is really not a thing for me. But yeah, okay. With the second guy, the Nice one, I was starting to get really impatient, because they had two short scenes together in which they barely talked, and all of a sudden they were kissing and talking about the future and she was thinking about waiting for him for four more years while he disappeared into his backwater village... I’m sorry girl, but didn’t you have a life, and dreams, and plans for the future?? Like those you talked about for the last book and a half so that even the dumbest reader would get sick of it? But hey, who needs a personality, or (female) agency, especially in your protagonist, when you can have so much love with this really dreamy guy? Not the author, I guess.

And then, there’s boyfriend No. 3, the one who makes it all the way into her heart in the end, but then he dies and she loses all her will to live. After hating him for two years, falling for him for three days and being with him for two weeks. Yeah, sounds romantic, and it gets even better when you consider the fact that she’s half is age. If you thought the first two guys were stereotypes, this is the one to rule them all. He has it all - tall, dark, mysterious, handsome, powerful, and I guess the author wanted him to have a soft and loving heart under his unapproachable shell, but she waaayyy overdid it. He’s not just gruff, he’s downright cruel, he’s a narcissist who believes he’s the only one who can be trusted with anything, he’s dismissive and arrogant and indifferent even toward those he calls his friends (until they die, but then it’s a bit late for that buddy) and just overall an awful person. Which really doesn’t make me inclined to care for his oh so terrible backstory. Yes it’s sad that you were a slave for a few years, kept for the magical energy your master could harvest from you, I get that, but it doesn’t give you the right to behave like an asshole and manipulate and emotionally abuse everyone around you. The author has him sacrifice himself in the end, which comes straight outta nowhere character-wise, so he ends up a glorified martyr and war hero with no one ever challenging him in any way, making him face up to his mistakes and the consequences they had for everyone’s lives. I’m sorry, but this is bad writing, this makes it look like he was right to treat everyone like shit. And, even worse, this is the guy who gets the girl and is presented like this oh so desirable man that he really is not. This isn’t supposed to sound sexist from my side, it’s just the way this relationship is presented. At some point the protagonist even says it exactly that way, when Nice Guy and Asshole have a fit of jealousy because of course she’s something to possess and have a pissing contest over. God I hate him, this whole relationship is so cringy, and I don’t even wanna get into the misogyny yet because it is not an isolated incident and I’m not done with him yet.

So he fails as a person, and also as a boyfriend, but even the one thing that he could do well because of all his power and forbidden knowledge - he fucks it up. The third book ends with an invasion of the magician guild’s city by some Bad Guys, and yes, he fights them then, but he knew that they were a danger for the last ten years or so, and he never told anybody although people were dying because of it, because of course he knows best and doesn’t need anybody to help him. So when the bad guys finally arrive the city is woefully unprepared because he told them all of two weeks ago, as part of his defense while he is being accused of practising black magic and having killed people - so the whole thing doesn’t look at all like an excuse, oh no, not coming from him who lied to them for like ten years. Don’t get me wrong, this guild is terrible and annoyingly obstinate in its own way, but I don’t blame them for not entirely believing him when he tells them after such a long time, as part of an excuse for committing pretty much the worst crime they can think of, and without offering any easily verifiable evidence. Good plan, yeah. You just managed to severely weaken the one force that has at least a tiny chance of fighting off the bad guys by dividing them and being too secretive to give them any proof, instead of having spent the last years preparing them for a war that you knew very well was at least a possibility. Amazing job.

So yeah, that’s the guy young girls reading these books are supposed to pine for. Great message. By comparison the two other romances in the books are better than this, but it hurts my fingers to write that because one is laden with orientalism and fetishization, and the other, while trying really hard to be progressive, falls into so many silently homophobic pitfalls, it’s pathetic. In both cases I’m pretty sure it’s not intentional, but when you’re a writer creating a whole new world and you want to include diverse ethnicities and sexual orientations - which in and of itself is laudable - you have to be careful how you write your LGBT+ and your characters of colour. There’s many harmful tropes out there, and I certainly don’t expect a book to avoid every single one out there, or claim to notice every problematic thing, but in this book it’s not an isolated incident, it’s simple ignorance and lazyness to do a bit of research about the harmful stereotypes you have inadvertently absorbed your whole life so as not to repeat them.

This kind of reflection clearly didn’t happen neither during the writing process nor during editing, so what we get is a mess. What we get is one relationship where the woman is described as looking like someone of Central Asian descent, with all the stereotypes commonly to be found in an Oriental tale written by a Western person. This woman never gets a backstory, she just kinda appears on the scene and the reader never really knows what she wants, only that she’s there to help out her white, male love interest in his time of need, before maliciously abusing his trust and disappearing into the woods again. We’re told that she’s good at fighting, but we never see her really doing it - the only one she ever really shares screentime with is her love interest with whom she has a whole lot of sex. Really, every scene either ends with them having sex, or her talking dirty to him, which makes it appear as if all that’s on her mind is sex! And ain’t that stereotypical of the mysterious, Oriental seductress who spends all of her time either spinning intrigues or plotting how to get the next innocent white boy into her clutches. So, overall, absolutely terrible romance, and I’m gonna come back to this because like sexism, this orientalism/racism is not an isolated incident either.

The other relationship lacking reflection that we get is the one between this gay magician from the very conservative country where the main story is set, and this also gay scholar from a slightly less conservative, but all the more patronizing culture. The book at least questions the first country’s stance on the issue, although it only does so through its gay characters, which severely restricts the validity of the point considering that none of the straight characters ever even thinks to reflect if this stance on homosexuality might be wrong. What I can’t forgive is that the narrative never once questions the stance of the slightly less conservative country, which treats its gays (only men, mind you, there’s never once mention of a gay woman) as lewd weirdos and outcasts and calls them “boys”. This is so bad. It’s one thing to present a culture that views gay men as not-quite-men - we all know it happens often enough - but if you write such a culture and you don’t want this to be the point you’re making, you have to criticize and contradict such a view through your narrative. Have them talk about it, have them think about it, I don’t care, just make it explicit that it’s wrong. And don’t be lazy and hide behind this excuse that the readers will get it through plot alone - you have to write it down somewhere so that casual readers won’t miss it. Otherwise you end up with something like this where this culture you wanted to present as so progressive and kind of a save haven ends up patronizing and emasculating your gay male characters, and this doesn’t subvert neither harmful tropes nor real-life views. Just like the fact that your gay characters hide their relationship until after the end of the books, and find nothing wrong with it because it’s just the culture they’re living in. This is a latent confirmation that it’s right that gay couples have to hide their relationship and don’t confront others with their being different, and again, if this is not what you wanted as a writer, make it explicit. And for God’s sake, include more than one kiss in three whole books between your gay couple, when the straight ones kiss all the time and even get explicit scenes. Because otherwise your oh-so-progressive gay couple is just two really close male friends who happened to kiss once. Better write a great platonic relationship then and leave the gay stuff to the people who actually know how to handle it and won’t turn it around on itself.

So, I think I’ve established that in my opinion, the romantic relationships are absolute rubbish. I would like to say that the platonic ones fare better, but honestly, they just don’t get enough screentime for me to say. It’s quite astonishing - in a book series with 1840 pages (in my paperback edition) there doesn’t seem to be any space for friendships or family bonds. We’re told that they exist, mind you, but I personally didn’t really understand why those two people are friends, what makes their friendship special, what characterizes it. Not even what characterizes the characters, for that matter, because even the way the main characters are fleshed out feels a bit half-assed, and don’t even get me started on the secondary characters. And with a bit of good will, I could ignore that fact if the plot was really great, but it’s not either, so I honestly don’t get what the author did with all that space. I can summarize what happens in each book with one sentence: The first is about Sonea hiding from the mages because they’re bad, then being scared of them because they’re bad, and then suddenly joining them because plot. In the second book, she’s bullied by her classmates, but doesn’t do anything about it on her own because oh no, she could hurt them, and doesn’t tell anyone who could do something about it either because plot. The third is about the great conspiracy with the war and all that and fares a bit better action-wise, but it’s still mainly Sonea following this guy of hers along because apparently he needs her, and I guess he does, but he still treats her like shit right until they have sex. So yeah, plenty of space for character development, but for some reason it just doesn’t happen.

To be fair, I guess Sonea developed a bit, considering that she’s not as scared of pretty much everything as she was in the beginning - although the number of times that “her blood froze in her veins” really made me dislike that phrase. Her childhood friend developed a bit in that he gained a higher position in the city’s underworld. And Mr. Tall-Dark-Mysterious (TDM, for future reference) opened up a bit about his oh-so-tragic past. But is that really character development? I guess if you squinted you could count it as that if these were some unimportant secondary characters, but these are the main protagonists and POVs! In almost 2000 pages there should be a bit more than that! And if that’s what the main characters get... There was this one character that I kinda liked, another POV but a secondary one, who was Sonea’s first mentor in the guild and some kind of father figure for her. That was the one relationship where I saw a bit of potential - until the second half of the second book, when TDM takes Sonea hostage (romantic, I know) and forbids her to ever speak to her former mentor again, which effectively ends their relationship for good. So no development there, either.

But for a character to develop, and especially for a relationship between two characters two develop, you first need exactly that: characters. And this book doesn’t have any. There’s very few things I could tell you about the POVs’ personality traits, and it’s mostly just stereotypes - Sonea’s a classic Mary Sue, TDM is... well, TDM, the mentor is fatherly and benevolent, the childhood friend is adventurous, and the gay magician represses his feelings for his friends. I’m not kidding, that’s basically it. The same goes for backstory - none of them seems to have parents, siblings or other relatives, except for Sonea who has an aunt and an uncle that she’s apparently close to, but who briefly show up on screen around three times and get mentioned three more. Everyone’s fathers just kinda disappeared into the void, and the mothers are all dead to make it a bit more tragic - another tired trope that is a bit beyond belief because how on earth did all those mothers get dead, and why doesn’t even one father seem to care for his offspring? There’s one exception, the mentor guy about whom we’re told that he cares for his son, but again, it’s just that - we’re told he does, because otherwise, from their interactions, we wouldn’t get it. And that doesn’t count. The same goes for all other aspects of backstory, which is typically limited to a handful of sentences except for when we’re supposed to care for TDM - he actually gets a handful of paragraphs. So generous. I normally prefer character-driven stories over plot-driven stories, so I don’t mind that much when there’s not an awful lot of plot if (!!!) the characters are well done and engaging. But they’re not, they’re basically walking paper stands, and that I can’t forgive.

So far I mainly talked about what makes this trilogy lazy writing. Now I’m gonna talk about what makes it not only bad, but really problematic. I already touched on homophobia, but due to the lack of real gay representation there’s not much more I can add to that, so I’ll focus on misogyny/sexism and on racism/orientalism. I’m not sure how established the latter concept is outside my academic circle, so here’s a good summary of what it means. Basically, orientalism refers to a binary worldview that presents the West as progressive, dynamic, and inherently superior to a backward, barbaric and static East that therefore has to be rescued and remodeled by the West. Of course there are other issues like racism and imperialism tied into it that also refer to other non-Western cultures and ethnicities, but orientalism transports a specific set of stereotypes about people and cultures from the Middle East and North Africa, typically Muslims. It’s hateful, it’s patronizing, it harms people, and it’s all to be found in these books. 

There’s two main examples of this. This fantasy world that the author describes includes two countries inhabited by people of colour: Lonmar, where the people are described as dark-skinned, and Sachaka, where they look like someone of Central Asian descent. First of all, there aren’t many characters from these countries that even get a bit of individuality - they’re mainly just there for background noise and never step outside the crowd (a stereotype that is also to be found in orientalism, specifically in the “Arab Street”). For Lonmar, there’s one named, recurring character who isn’t entirely to be trusted, but overall a decent guy - because, and here’s the problem, he has been socialized in white Kyralia (another thing typical of orientalism - the distinction between the “good”, Westernized muslims, and the “bad” oriental ones, easily distinguishable by dress and socialization). All the other (few) characters from Lonmar are not characters but crowds with not a single speck of individuality and one feature that unites them all: they’re all members of this really strict, intolerant religion specific to Lonmar that is so obviously modeled after - you guessed it - Islam. Or rather the monolithic, prejudiced version of Islam an uninformed Westerner might think of if they only consumed what was given to them by mainstream media and never talked to a Muslim person in their entire life. This religion locks up its female adherents, it punishes homosexuality with public execution, it talks a lot about the unbelievers and is generally intolerant, it doesn’t give a f* about individual wishes and desires, and - maybe worst of all - it’s canonically all based on a lie. On the imaginary ramblings of a madman who for some reason was able to trick people into believing in him and making him a prophet. I can’t begin to express how awful this is. With the homophobia I don’t believe it was intentional - but this is. This has to be. And I’m so, so mad at this woman for mocking the beliefs, the worldview and the very lives of 1,6 billion people on earth in such a an offhanded, cruel way.

And that’s not even the only example, oh no. There’s also Sachaka. Sachaka, happens to be the homecountry of the murderous lunatics who terrorize the city in the first two books and assault it in the third, and who all happen to be brown-skinned. There are a few more characters from this country who had the honour to receive a name, but the way they’re described is in no way less problematic than the Lonmars. The only character who’s not openly evil, is the deceitful nymphomaniac who serves as a love interest to the white childhood friend. I already mentioned how unbearably sexualized she is, which is terrible in and of its own, but takes on a whole other dimension in combination with her race. It’s another feature of orientalism to either present oriental women as sheepish victims of oppression waiting to be rescued, or as eroticized/fetishized succubus-like beings, beautiful and alluring and generally a (white) man’s slavering fantasy. And not only is the only woman and morally okay character from Sachaka presented in such a way, she also - surprisingly- doesn’t get not a single line of backstory. We don’t know what she does back home, who she is, why the hell she ended up in this white-hot mess of a story, what she wants... Nothing. She’s literally just there to seduce the white guy, help him get over the protagonist, and save his ass once before she betrays him and disappears again. A ripped-out page out of a playboy edition could fulfil every single purpose she has in the story, even the saving part. There, white guy gets attacked by one of the evil magicians, and she mainly buys him time to get away, although we’re told (ha!) that she’s a good fighter. Put the playboy page in evil guy’s face, wait until his sex-crazed oriental mind gets distracted, run away, problem solved.

Because of course he’s sex-crazed, he’s oriental, what did you expect? They’re all that way, men and women, sexual predators all over the board. In addition to being cruel, sadistic, conniving, good at killing but bad at healing and collaborating, power-hungry, scheming... And did I mention that they keep their slaves like cattle? Yeah, no idea what that reminds me of. Plus, as cunning as they are presented, they’re also really stupid. Before the invasion, the bad guys have been sending slaves to the magicians’ city for years to spy on them and find out whether they know how to use black magic or not (they don’t, except for TDM which is why he’s the only one who can kill them and has to go on this lonesome quest alone, isolated from everyone he ever cared about... You get the idea). This is so stupid. They do it for years, they send slave after slave with no result at all, when at the same time it’s a well-established fact that when magicians communicate with each other mentally, anyone can listen in! You can’t tell me that in all this time, no one ever mentioned black magic being forbidden! Because it’s not a secret anyone except for TDM even knows is necessary to keep, so no one knows that they can’t talk about it. This is another instance of the plot being unnecessary complicated and like a desperate attempt to create some artificial conflict that could have been solved within five minutes... But I’m digressing.

And it’s not only the evil mages who are presented in such a bad light; the few lines we get about the country (it’s a desert, by the way, just like Lonmar. Surprise) suggest that the rest is pretty much the same. Not as mad maybe, but just as power-hungry and conniving as the bad guys, and certainly not as civilized as the white countries around it. So it’s no surprise when the protagonist, no less, starts thinking about some White Man’s Burden kind of shit. The backstory is this: Some 500 years ago there was a war between Sachaka (bad) and Kyralia (good). Kyralia won and, when drawing back, operated on a scorched earth-policy, leaving behind a wasteland and turning their backs, for which the people from Sachaka still want revenge (500! years! later!) because that’s what orientals do when their honour is scratched. The protagonist reflects on that story and then honestly starts thinking about how Kyralia should have stayed in Sachaka, basically occupying it, in order to try and teach the backward Sachakans how to be civilized. This... is some seriously fucked-up shit. My dear author, not only is every single one of your big bad guys a person of colour, and not only is the description of their cultures and their characterization creaking under the weight of all your prejudice, but now you have your protagonist want to civilize them? Who are you, George Bush? Or some 19th-century missionary despairing under the terrible weight of his burden to make the barbaric indigenous half-apes wear silk hats? Whoever your soul was in the last go-round, let me tell you, you’re not making a point for the almighty Western civilization if you write crap like this.

Okay deep breaths. Last issue, sexism and misogyny. I feel like the author wanted these books to make a point about female agency and Strong Female Characters^TM, but as with gay representation she entirely missed the mark and instead wrote something that’s more detrimental to positive female representation than anything. I already mentioned in the relationship part how her boyfriend treat the protagonist as a possession to fight over and how she has apparently internalized and endorsed that view, and in the character part how the mothers were all killed off before the story even started in order to add some trauma to the characters’ backstories. This is lazy, it’s misogynistic in that it robs these women of everything that makes them human (mostly they’re not even named) for the sake of shock value, and then the narrative doesn’t even use what it bought so dearly and minimizes the effect the deaths of the mothers have on the characters, and thereby a mother’s contribution to her child’s development. It makes the mothers mere means to an end, and it doesn’t do the same to the fathers, which makes it deeply misogynist.

This misogyny is glaringly obvious in the off-stage deaths of two women: the mentor guy’s wife, and TDM’s first love. About the mentor guy’s wife, we know barely more than that she was the mentor guy’s wife, and that her name was Yilara. Mentor guy loved her, and had a son with her, and then she died of... something. Doesn’t matter what it was, really, because her only purpose in the story was to give mentor guy a sad past. And it can’t have been that sad, because he mentions her like twice, and their son doesn’t mention her at all. I don’t know how old he was when she died (see what I mean), so he might not remember, but considering that mentor guy claims he still loves her, he could think about her a bit more often and remember a bit more about her than her lying in her bed, softly smiling, like a saintly martyr. This is already bad, but the other case is infinitely worse. Naturally, it involves TDM. He got to know his first love while he was a slave in Sachaka as she belonged to the same evil guy he did. She was evil guy’s sex slave (this author has no imagination), and when evil guy found out she and TDM loved each other, he raped her to death. Poor her, you might think, what a terrible end to a terrible life. Well, that’s not what our dear protagonist thought. What she thought was, poor TDM, this is so sad for him, he had to suffer through so much. Him, him him, him. I don’t even want to call the slave girl (no name)’s death shock value or manpain any more, because this is on a totally different level. There’s this girl, probably a woman of colour, against whom a horrific, sexualized and clearly gendered form of violence was used repeatedly, and in the end to kill her no less, and all our also female protagonist can think of is how much her boyfriend must have suffered. She doesn’t spend a single thought on the girl. Not one. And neither does the narrative itself, this is all we ever hear about her. TDM had the hots for her, she was brutally murdered, he got sad, the end. It’s astonishing how often the sheer wrongness of these books leaves me speechless.

And there’s more. I’ve read a few times that this book has some Strong Female Characters^TM and generally does well on female representation. Well, no. I recently came across this amazing article about this particular brand of Strong Female Characters that comes to the conclusion that lots of allegedly strong women in media, typically tomboy-like women with “male” interests and skills and no meaningful relationships with other women, are nothing but empty tropes whose only function is to prop up the male protagonist who saves the day. This is exactly what happens here, with the male skill being magic/fighting. Not only is there an astonishing lack of female characters featuring exactly no diversity at all (except for the nymphomaniac of course), but they also don’t interact. There’s a few snippets of conversation here and there, but those are all influenced by social hierarchy and consist of barely more than small talk, and none of the women except Sonea get any depth at all. They get names and functions, if they’re lucky, but that’s it. And even Sonea, whose head we spend more time in than anyone else’s, is so consumed by his wishes every time a man comes along and expresses the slightest interest in her that it’s hard to spot a personality underneath. Like honestly, she looses the will to live, along with all of her plans and other relationships, because the guy she was in a relationship with for all of 2-3 weeks died. That’s so over the top, and so frustrating... I mean I get it, you loved him, love can be quick I guess, but that quick?? I get that you can’t turn to your girl-friends or your mother for support because oopsie daisy you don’t have any of those, but there’s some men who care about you, and not even in a sexual way, so come on.

And then there’s the ending. Oh how I love the ending. I mentioned that TDM dies in the end - the first good decision the author made, although I can’t shake the feeling that the protagonist’s role in the end is mainly to augment the impact his sacrifice has. Not only is he presented as a martyr and the ultimate hero of the story who gave all of his life energy to save the city from evil, conveniently never having to face up to all the wrong he’s done and the impact it had on the lives of those around him. His death also practically ends life for the protagonist with his death being her last POV scene. I guess some may find that romantic, but it seems as though her voice just disappears after he’s dead, never to be heard of again, and that robs her of all agency of personality. It’s as if she only has those things with him, while through his backstory we know that he had them without her. And I can’t shake the feeling that that’s because he’s male, and oh so dreamy. But that’s not the last we hear of him, oh no. Because after the last chapter, there’s an epilogue where we learn (from another person’s POV) that he left something of his behind. Namely his sperm, inside the protagonist, who’s pregnant with his child now. She mentions at some point that it’s too early for her to have a child, but now it happened, and we have no idea how she feels about that because this huge turning point in her life still isn’t told from her point of view to drive the point home that TDM’s death really meant the end of her. Again the narrative puts him over her although she’s the supposed protagonist of the story, which fits neatly into the Strong Female Character concept I mentioned earlier.

And it’s not only that, the story of how she got pregnant in the first place is incredibly sexist, too. Apparently there’s a way for both male and female magicians to avoid pregnancy. But the males are only taught how to do it per personal request because obviously it’s not a man’s responsibility whether he puts children in the world or not. The women get taught a bit more regularly, someone takes them aside to teach them when they begin to show interest in boys and the danger arises, but no one ever did that for Sonea because as far as the teachers knew, no one wanted to sleep with her. First of all, this is stupid because what if the teachers don’t notice in time or the sex just happens without a lot of courting before the actual act? And second of all... The message is basically that if no one likes you while you’re in school, or probably if you’re ugly, you are never going to have sex anyway, so you don’t need to be told how to avoid unwanted consequences. If you’re a woman, that is, for the men it’s different. This is so incredibly sexist. And in Sonea’s case this kind of thinking had the worst possible consequences: he thought she’d take care of it, and she thought he would, so now there’s a baby, and not even a father to match (bad as he would have been) and that is that. I’m yet undecided as to whether this sexist arrangement is just another carelessness from the side of the author, or a way to get the author what she wanted plot-wise because an ending to a romance novel needs to have a baby, no matter if it makes sense together with the rest of the story or not.

I could elaborate further on pretty much any point I made here, but I think I got the gist across, so fear not, I’m gonna stop (if anyone even made it to this point which I doubt). Writing up all of this made me so mad that I’m actually considering writing to the author to let her know what I think of this trilogy of hers. A bit more politely than this (maybe), but I feel like this is so problematic that I can’t just let it stand there without objecting to its messages in any way I can. After being done with this I have no doubt whatsoever that this was the most awful book I’ve ever read, and I dearly hope that it will keep this position for the rest of my life.