#the writer of this drama is really into that whole destiny thing because I can name like 4 of her dramas with a similar trope

[dramashii]

Destined. They were each other's first love.

QUEEN OF TEARS (2024)

[moodcrab]

Fixing Delphine

This bitch.

I actually like that they made a character that is on your side but is somewhat unlikable, Delphine is Team Dragonborn, but she's not really one of the good guys. And that's cool, conflict means drama. So what's the problem? Well unfortunately, this drama is surface level and isn't used to drive the story, so It's kind of just annoying.

People oversimplify their hatred of Delphine into "She wants you to kill Paarthurnax," because unlike Delphine, people actually like Paarthurnax. Understandable, but barely scratches the surface. We'll get to The Paarthurnax Dilemma in time, but that quest is a symptom, not the illness itself.

If I could sum up Delphine in a word it would be "inconsistent." For example, she's a fugitive waging a one woman war on the Thalmor from the shadows, who's only survived this long from sheer paranoia - but she also uses her real name and leaves a note in Ustengrav for whoever happens to pick it up with directions and a pass word to her secret hide out.

She needs to go through her super secret contact Farengar to use the Jarl's resources to go into Bleak Falls Barrow, a tutorial level dungeon she can see from her house, and she's impressed that you did it - but she also goes personally to the other side of the country to delve alone into the massive Ustengrav to steal the Horn of Jurgan Windcaller, no issues, just a quick in and out twenty minute adventure.

She takes the fact that you found her Ustengrav note as proof you're the Greybeard's new guy and not some Thalmor plant even though she herself, a non Dragonborn, had also completed Ustengrav and taken the horn proving it's totally possible. She even points this out in her own dialogue then demands we prove who we are, even though that was the whole point of the Ustengrav note. It's also a pretty big assumption that just because I'm the guy the Greybeards call Dragonborn that I can't ALSO be with the Thalmor.

We are left with this awkward sense that the writers are flailing to make us think this woman is competent and objective, without actually having her do anything that clever. Just act like the dumb thing was smart and have her act like a cocky brat if questioned about it.

Inconsistency. It's her thing. Does she hate the Thalmor? That would make sense given what we know about her. But that gets dropped half way through the main story and suddenly she hates The Greybeards, for absolutely no reason at all. She gives a reason, but it's bullshit.

In her own words, "If the greybeards had their way, the dragonborn would sit on a mountain talking to the sky." But that's not true is it. We know The Greybeards, they encouraged us to fulfill our destiny. Even if you say you want to follow their Way of the Voice, they'll be glad to hear it but warn you not to let it get in the way of what needs to be done. Delphine even uses Tiber Septim as an example, which is even stupider because The Greybeards actively encouraged Tiber to conquer Tamriel. Have I read more in game books than the dialogue writers??

But that's not the end of it, when it becomes convenient for the plot this hatred is flipped once again from The Greybeards onto dragons. Not Alduin. All dragons. Despite the fact that, as a Blade, she should know about Nafaalilargus, a dragon ally of the Empire and the Blades for thousands of years, and the Blades don't just indiscriminately kill all dragons no matter the circumstances, and that Tiber Septim himself almost certainly met Paarthurnax at some point, she suddenly seems to be acting like she has a personal grudge against dragons. Which brings us to the Paarthurnax Dilemma...

See here's the thing, you could easily write off the frustration everyone feels towards this quest as Bethesda's crappy design, where there is no conclusion other than to kill Paarthurnax, or else leave an unfinished quest languishing in the menu. Bethesda apparently didn't consider the idea that anybody would actually prefer to turn on the Blades, even though the Blades have become a bit of a running joke among the fans, or that anyone would take umbrage with Delphine giving out orders and ultimatums.

But no, it's so much worse than that. Delphine being a surly unlikable c u n t from the day we met her is one thing, but the fact that she has been wrong about almost everything she's ever said in game, and still having the AUDACITY to treat us like her work bitch and us never, not once, getting the opportunity to put her in her place... That's not poor quest design, that's the game gaslighting us.

Let's do a quick list of every one of Delphine's theories, and how many were actually correct shall we:

You are not the Dragonborn ❌

The Greybeards shouldn't be trusted to identify a Dragonborn ❌

The dragons aren't just coming back, they're coming back to life ✅

The Thalmor have something to do with the dragons returning ❌

Esbern is dead ❌

The Greybeards just want the Dragonborn to sit on a mountain and meditate ❌

The Greybeards wanted Tiber Septim to just sit on a mountain and meditate ❌

Paarthurnax, having lived in exile for thousands of years, deserves corporal punishment ❌

As ACTING Grand Master of the Blades, she gets to boss around the Dragonborn ❌

She deserves a seat at the peace negotiations ❌

And these are just the things that are factually wrong, leaving aside opinions on her morality and shitty attitude. This is the woman the game presents to us as a shrewd strategist.

BUT I CAN FIX HER!

Like I said I like the idea of a character who is on your side but is somewhat unlikable. It actually won't take much to make Delphine endearing to the fans. We have to do a Boromir on her. A Lot of people dislike Boromir throughout the Fellowship of the Ring but weep at his death. We have to tweak three things to have the same thing happen to Delphine:

1. Make her actually competent and useful so that while we don't agree with her we can see why she does the things she does, and desire to keep her around.

2. Have her mistakes called out and have consequences.

3. Have her redeem her mistakes with a badass honourable death.

[charcubed]

I'm curious, what are the main reasons why Dean is your favorite canon bisexual in media? Love your meta and that video btw

Ooooo, anon, thank you for the kind words and for giving me an excuse to talk about my love for bisexual icon Dean Winchester <3

I'm going to be really annoying (sorry) and quote part of my meta first. It summarizes and articulates many of my thoughts on this. And then to further answer your question I'll add a bit under it!

From the very beginning, Dean Winchester has been a character tied to classic elements of American masculinity. He was introduced with a superficial veneer involving those elements, but almost immediately the early episodes provide a look at the complexity of his character underneath it. Over the years, that complexity was further explored, and he came to embody a study in things society would often have us think should be incompatible contrasts: the gruffness and grit of hunting life and its associated masculine iconography, paired with his open and deep emotional care for the world; unabashed love for classic rock, superheroes, and horror movies, as well as unabashed joy connected to TV dramas, chick flicks, and childhood favorites like Scooby-Doo; life on the road with a muscle car, but the desire for a home base with creature comforts he can make his own; motivation to always help people, but the clear longing for balance with personal domesticity and relaxation so he could save not only others but also himself.

As a whole, his character functions as an effective deconstruction of toxic masculinity and stereotypical American heroism. And while much of Dean’s most masculine traits and interests are said to come from his father’s influence, part of his journey is loving those parts of himself on their own merit not because he ever had to but because he wants to. He is not his father, and he redefines those valued parts of his identity so they are his and his alone. He also crucially learns to recognize and joyfully embody that those masculine traits were never all that he had to be, working through and overcoming shame and hesitancy along the way. The result? He’s “good with who he is.”

He and the audience are encouraged to see that there are no rules his identity and interests must subscribe to, on a micro or a macro level. The message is to disregard predetermined destiny or duty. Free will means his life is his to determine, his family can be what he makes of it and how he defines it, and what he needs and wants do not ever have to be mutually exclusive. Dean’s journey is about freedom from outwardly-imposed limitations–whether those limitations come from his father’s example and the God altering his story, or from the pervasive societal ideals and network/executive interference outside of it. Dean can and should contain multitudes, all at once.

In this way, Dean’s story is a powerfully queer narrative that acts as metacommentary. In the fullness of its execution, it is also specifically a deeply bisexual narrative.

The not-so-hidden truth is that Dean is canonically a bisexual man. His story was afforded something that’s rare for most characters and almost nonexistent for queer ones: fifteen years of lengthy, nuanced development.

[...]

Again: Dean’s identity journey is about how he can and does contain the capacity for multitudes, and it’s part of what makes him such a compelling character. He can like “this” and “that.” He can be attracted to women and men. Or, as writer Ben Edlund and director Phil Sgriccia said in a DVD commentary, Dean has “the potential for love in all places.”

I wanted to include the above verbatim because it spells out something specific: Dean's narrative is bisexual in its bones. Supernatural evolved to become a queer text, but the specific ways the show and Dean as a character evolved are very intertwined with and informed by the fact that Dean is a masculine bisexual man. SPN is a story that was not meant to be about being queer, but as it became about freedom through free will, those themes were then leveraged and emphasized in connection to queerness because of Destiel. And by the end, the free will narrative and Dean's journey as a bi man are utterly inseparable, because Dean's fight for true freedom is tied to his love for a man and their untraditional family in a way that higher forces are trying to hinder.

You cannot cut out or edit or remove Dean's bisexuality from the story, or several narratives and plot lines (not just Destiel) would at minimum be misunderstood or at maximum fall apart. And yet, simultaneously? Dean's bisexuality is also far from being the sole important thing about his character because he is written with such nuanced complexities and across so many years of material.

Of course, add onto this the overall unique situation that surrounds Supernatural as a piece of media. People talk at length about how there will never be anything like it again, including me; that's obviously true from multiple different angles and for multiple different reasons, with Destiel being prime amongst them. But a related yet distinctly significant branch of that topic is there will never be another bisexual character who is written and evolves quite like Dean.

Was Dean supposed to be bisexual from the very start, out of the mind of Kripke? Who can know for sure, but probably not. Were certain writers and members of production deliberately putting more queercoding and subtext into Dean's character/story from the very start? Who can know for sure, but potentially yes, and certainly the answer becomes unarguably definitely yes the farther you get into the show. That's part of my love and passion for him too, because all of that is deeply unique and incredibly cool.

Dean's bisexuality evolved in a way that (against all odds) actually feels organic, seamless, and like it's simply a part of his character that's been there all along. The effect when you look at Supernatural as a whole body of work is that Dean's always been bi, and his expressions of and acknowledgements of that part of him ebb and flow depending on situation–which is a very relatable notion for many queer people. And as those writing the show became more committed and certain about that piece of who Dean is, so did he, in nuanced and subtle ways skillfully embedded into his story by design. It's bafflingly, impressively cohesive; gives him an incredibly realistic feel; matches his overall character growth; and rings true to his demographic, age, personality, and experiences.

Dean and his story and the situation(s) surrounding both are simply incomparable, and that will be true forever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

...also. Well. I simply love him, y'know? For even more reasons unconnected to this. How can you not, right? :')

Thank you for asking, and thanks for reading this bi Dean manifesto!

Putting my video that you mentioned here for anyone who's not watched it:

My new magnum opus, please stream, etc.

(or watch on Tumblr here)

[astraea802]

Merlin "Rewatch" w/ Mom -- 5x10

("Rewatch" here meaning "Mostly first time watch, but with the knowledge of what happens.)

First of all: WHAT THE HECK WAS UP WITH THAT HORRIFIC FACE DISFIGUREMENT THING AT THE END?? I've never seen ANYONE discuss how messed up that is, and they SHOULD. I know this aired in the same time slot as Doctor Who, but Mom and I were NOT prepared.

Second of all: Uggghhhh

We're coming into the final three episodes.

Mom doesn't want to know what's coming, but knows it won't end well. She suspects Arthur's going to die (but we all know it's the execution that's the real kicker).

I will say, I was surprised Season 5 has actually had a lot of nice moments I never knew. It's a little moodier than I'd like, and Merlin as a character makes me sad, but there's still some nice comedy and character moments. Like Arthur saving that woman from being burned at the stake, that was so good! (Maybe it's easier for me to appreciate certain scenes knowing what's going to happen? I'm not as tense?)

(It also helps I sat out The Disir and The Dark Tower since I was walking the dog. I don't know I could have bore either without spoiling the finale out of pure frustration)

Mom's been just absorbing it all. She's had a lot of questions, like:

Mom: Why did Aithusa join Morgana? Me: We don't know. They never told us. 😒

Mom: (after The Dark Tower) How did Gwen turn evil? Me: Magic. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Mom: Oh, for gods sake! 🤦‍♀️

Mom: When do they find out about that bracelet Morgana gave Gwen to make her love Lancelot? Me: They don't. 😤 Mom: ...Are you kidding??

The deaths have been a little tougher this season, especially Elyan's. She liked the Dolma, but rolled her eyes a bit at Merlin trying to "act like a woman" instead of just getting on with curing Gwen. And she was NOT happy with Uther's ghost (who was??) or Gaius telling on Merlin and endangering Finna.

But god... watching Merlin's struggles, I just keep thinking, what was the point of it all?

There's so much back and forth the whole season, the whole series really, about destiny and duty and following your heart, and I just... what's the moral here? Follow destiny and get screwed? Follow your heart and still get screwed? It's good to know prophecies and Merlin just didn't know how to handle it? It's bad to know prophecies because you cause them to happen? If that was the case, why did Finna die to pass that last prophecy on? Also, you deserve to die, even when you haven't done anything wrong, because a prophecy says you will? You have choice? You never had one? Some will say the point is "the friends we made along the way", or there doesn't need to be a moral, but there's just no consistency, except whatever keeps the drama going.

It doesn't help that, except for the Camlann prophecy, we never actually hear any of the other prophecies everyone talks about. So we never know for sure if the problem was a misinterpretation of the prophecies in terms of what the Golden Age looked like, or if Merlin failed because of his choices, or if he was ALWAYS going to fail no matter what he did, or if he even failed at all! Because the dragon tells him he didn't in the end, but it doesn't make much sense.

Did the writers even know? They have admitted in interviews they were working nonstop on the show for five years, at grueling pace, so I forgive them for being fuzzy, but it seems like the show's moral code and prophecy lore really depended on who was writing the episode that week.

What I've always loved about Harry Potter is that while prophecies exist, the power of choice is emphasized. Prophecies can be, and often are, misinterpreted. Not every prophecy in the Department of Mysteries was ever fulfilled, so destiny is not the be-all end-all. It's made very clear that it's whether you act on prophecies or not that matters. The characters' beliefs and convictions still matter. It's consistent, it's clean, and it leaves the characters' agency.

In Merlin... you can interpret it a million different ways and still be wrong. And maybe part of the issue is that while Harry agrees to be the Chosen One since he already wanted Voldemort dead, Merlin's heart and destiny are so often divided. And that's what makes it so darn frustrating. And why I believe they gave Merlin too much of a burden for one person. No "almost" about it.

(We'll see if I revisit this after the finale)

[animeandfilmotaku]

烏は主を選ばない-[A Raven Does not choose its master]-Intrigue and Insight.

In my normal regular brain, this is honestly my reaction to this series via a meme

But I am a serious film review writer, and I really really need to gush one of the best anime series I have watched in recent years, so shall jump into the world of Yatsugarsu.

I may come late to the court drama genre party, thanks to Apothecary Diaries (薬屋のひとりごと) [FYI I really highly recommend this, if you love strong female characters and intriguing plot twists), so unfortunately I have to wait til February 2025 for Season 2 (I should read the novels too, as I heard it is also good), but it would be another show that I will recommend. As for now, I need to talk about this series 烏は主を選ばない [A Raven Does not choose its master]

So it started simply about Yukiya, a country boy from Taruhi who has unexpectedly cross pass with Prince Wakamiya (the true Kin’u), to be his aide (Though Yukiya has his sassy ways when dealing with his antics). So for the first half of the series- we deal with the 4 consorts vying for Wakamiya’s hand in marriage. I said it was great, it was cool, the intrigue is amazing with every plot twist from each consort having its own affairs and personality-all vying for . Not going to spoil for one of the biggest twists for that arc, but not all that it seems in the courts, that even Yukiya-an observer be like I am too old for this shit with these delulu nobles.

I would say Hamayuu is my favourite among the consorts, because she radiated intelligence and wit that every time I see her, I be like QUEEN, I love you so much 😩

However I wanted to give the shout out to the next part of the series that totally solidify the series for me as a whole, so after the selection process of the consort is officially done (With oh course revelations of our lovely consorts, again no spoilers), trouble seems to brew at the countryside as there are mutated yatsugarasus and killer were-monkeys (These things scared the shit out of me TBH) prowling through the villages, killing the residents- which Yukiya is pulled back to the Prince’s side, to investigate these horrors. I guess that is how Game of Thrones fans feel like with the plot twists they watched, because Raven’s plot twists are muah Chef’s kiss. Like every time I be like ‘This so-so is SUS” and the same time, did not expect the unexpected with the motivations. Like from the intrigue on who shall win Wakamiya’s hand, now it become like there are drugs???? There are evil monkeys???? Gang pacts????? Quoting that Lady Gaga Meme;

You can say it makes you want more of its twists and turns in Yamauchi’s inner worlds.

Not to mention, I love the world-building that it is not jarring at all, but rather it serves you like a 9 course Michelin meal, which its politics, surroundings, mythos and livelihood interweaved so beautifully. I admit I am jealous how it is written, as I cannot even pen these worlds so intriguing and yet so brutal, which could be similar to real life.

As David Lean, one of my heroes said ‘I'm first and foremost interested in the story, the characters.��� and it really shined through the series, with the relationship between Wakamiya and Yukiya, who lived different lives; Wakamiya burdened with the destiny of protecting his fellow crows and Yukiya, a witty kid who learns that the world he lives is not what it seems and yet bonded by loyalty. They propelled the story through their observations and interactions with their allies, enemies or conspirators.

On the side note the endcard after every episode done by Natsuki-sensei (The illustrator for the Yatsugarsu series) which are so gorgeous by itself (I saw an online website where you can buy the postcard set itself, which I am jealous as it is expensive)

I am quite upset how this anime flew by the radar, with the more popular ones, but if you love court intrigue, refreshing world buliding and complex characters, this series is for you,and I hope you enjoy the ride as I was

I am hoping to get my hands to work on the novels by Abe-sensei itself so I can read it by itself, because it is just amazing

[maniacwatchestheworld]

Man... I just LOVE watching the DPxDC community do their thing. I like them and just want to examine you all under a microscope because I find you all so very interesting! It's just absolutely TRAGIC that I have yet to find any storyline or AU that tickles my specific fancy, personally...

I acknowledge that this is purely a me problem and not a community problem 120%! The stuff that I just enjoy about Batman and Danny Phantom are just not things that the community are interested in as a whole and that's perfectly fine! But it does make me feel like a pure outsider when I wish that I could actually more earnestly engage with the community itself from within. Just... Siiiiiigh! And I just have not been able to think up anything to make the two verses blend together in a way that would be personally satisfying to me specifically!

Have some of my personal winging under the cut! No hate. Just explaining my tastes and yearning.

Absolutely no shade! All the more power to you for writing stories with these tropes and features! But I personally am not particularly interested in batfamily drama, and I see the kids in the batfamily as the children that they used to be in many ways. So stories about the batfamily don't interest me a whole lot, and I'm just not invested in shipping them with anyone (I'm also ace, so I really don't get pretty much anything out of batfamily romance) as a whole. What I like about Batman is that his stories are largely mysteries. I like the atmosphere and I absolutely ADORE the rogues! I like seeing the crimes and Batman clashing with his rogues, and most of all I LOVE the heart-wrenching DRAMA between Bruce and Harvey as Bruce DESPERATELY does everything he possibly can to save his best friend, while Harvey slips further and further into a hell that he wishes that he could climb out of but is just unable to alone! Harvey is just my absolute favorite and the sheer tragedy of his character has a tight grip around my heart that will not let go! Meanwhile with Danny Phantom, what I like about it... Well... I just think that Vlad is neat! There is also a certain tragedy to him as well, but he's also just a pathetic loser which is hilarious to me! Like, so often he comes off as so slick and cool and threatening... But also he's a loser and a goober. I also just love seeing how much of a simp Jack is for him. And I just like how redemption is always just barely in sight for Vlad... He just has to honestly reach out and grab it, but he just isn't willing to right now. Also ghost powers are neat and unique and I enjoy the unique possibilities and aesthetics of it. But sadly for me, these just aren't things that the DPxDC community is interested in. And that's perfectly fine, but it does make me yearn. Like there are interesting parallels to explore between Harvey and Vlad for sure! But I have no idea how to explore them in any interesting ways at all! Also I am just the kind of person who very much dislikes stories about destiny and stuff like that. So AUs like the twin demons or Ghost King!Danny just have absolutely no appeal to me. I'm just not interested in the inevitability that a lot of storytellers in this space have that Danny WILL join the batfamily. Also it feels disappointing to me whenever a writer just doesn't give the DC the credit that they deserve. It feels like people just want Danny to be super ultra overpowered, even more so than the super ultra overpowered characters that DC already has without exploring how these different things interact. Feels like people are more interested in erasing DC canon to make way for their Danny Phantom fanon instead of letting both things be true as is the usual DC way. Again, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but it just leaves me wanting. Also I really don't particularly like nor care about Ra's or Talia as far a rogues go, so only seeing them getting included in these things is just disappointing.

Lays down. Like, I don't want to sound like I'm hating on the community. I honestly am not. I'm just bellyaching because I am in this enclosure and am not receiving good enough stimulation in this space. It just feels like... It's a hot day, and I am REALLY craving some ice cream right now! But this ice cream shop only has 4 flavors and I quite dislike them all. I'm not angry at people for liking these 4 flavors. And this place is just SO CLOSE to being something I like! I enjoy the decor, the location is really nice and convenient for me. But alls I can do in just stare in the window and watch everyone else enjoying themselves while I bake in the sun. I admit that this is purely a me problem and not a community problem but it's just a bummer, y'know? Flops.

[tremendouskoalachild]

i lightly edited a transcript for this Leslye interview lol. spoilers to episode 5

So, my first question is kind of off the rails already, because I want to know what they tell you, at Lucasfilm. Because I know the dumbest argument that people have had about the show about Ki-Adi-Mundi and, here's the thing – it was deemed not canon anymore, and I know you also love a non-canon bitch, in Mara Jade. What is the deal with Lucasfilm and the stuff that was canon that is now no longer canon? How do they tell you what you can and cannot do with it?

Well, there's Pablo Hidalgo. So Pablo is always the person that I go to and say, “Hey, I'm thinking about doing this thing. I think it works for these narrative reasons, but you let me know – I know that in Legends it's this, and I know that in Canon it's this, but I'm not totally up to date in terms of how you guys feel about it as a studio. So I don't know what went on with Ki-Adi-Mundi, I heard there was some drama…

It’s the dumbest thing ever. It’s about his birthday.

(laughs) Is it really?

Yeah. But I was like, it's not canon anymore. I looked that up and I it was, like, in a card and all this stuff, but and I was like, listen, I know Leslye is like me and we love non-canon characters.

Yeah, non-canon canon is the best kind of canon. (laughs)

Like half of the characters I love, they're not canon anymore.

They're just- they're gone. They're gone. Jacen and Jaina, they're gone. Mara Jade's gone.

My twins… but speaking of twins. Twins are always a theme in Star Wars, which I do think is very cool that the show is like, yep, it's everywhere. Twins are just in Star Wars. When you guys were orchestrating Mae and Osha in the beginning and trying to navigate exactly how those two characters would function as twins, and also represent the light and the dark as the other twins have done in the past – kind of, Luke and Leia are the exception to the twin rule – but how did you guys navigate how that would all work? Because they're not exactly ‘here's the light and here's the dark’, they both kind of have that gray area.

That's so true. And it's definitely not a new trope to have the bad twin and the good twin, the light twin and the dark twin, and then they switch places and then they switch back… that's a pretty reliable way of telling a thematic story, utilizing twin characters. But I will say, to answer your question, so much of that was Amandla. As a writer, you know why you're doing something thematically, you can definitely justify especially a choice like that one, you can also definitely justify it character-wise, narratively wise, personally feeling bifurcated as a person, as a human, as a woman. You can make all of those choices, but somebody has to actually do it (laughs). And I felt like Amandla, when she understood the breadth of what she would be doing, dug so deep into both of the girls, early on deciding their walks, what their sort of animal familiar might be if they had one, deciding who was born first who was born second. Going into a bunch of really granular things that I was very impressed by, and I don't think the whole theme would work if her performance wasn’t as great as it is.

I love in Destiny where you see their differences the most, because when you see them when they're older they're more comfortable in themselves, and they're like, oh my sister is actually alive, that's crazy! And we don't see the tension that exists when we see them as kids. When you guys were working on making sure that those twins did have that energy so it played in. How did you navigate explaining all this to these young girls, being like, okay, eventually you're going to play these two who one thinks they're dead and it's a whole fight… but we have to understand it here in order for it to work when we see them reunited.

We were so lucky to have Leah and Lauren who are just both so gifted and so natural. And obviously whenever you put a kid actor in Star Wars your heart worries for them (laughs). Even as we were doing the auditions I was like, what am I doing to these young women? But I think that we really lucked out. We really needed them more than they needed the job, I think. Because, like you said, we needed natural, brilliant, talented – now I sound like that Lady Gaga meme – not afraid to reference or not reference, vomit on it put it in a blender. So that was how I directed them, by just quoting that lady Gaga- No. K directed them, Kogonada directed them, and he was so wonderful with guiding their performances.

Because they're young girls, but they're also twins, they already have that natural connection with each other and also friction with each other, and then their personalities are so distinct, because I think that's what happens with sisters as well, twins or not. My closest in age sister and I, just over a year is between us, and we almost felt like twins sometimes, because we always shared a room and all that. So, so much of my personality is in reaction to hers. But it's interesting that you asked about that too, because we decided to cast fraternal twins not just because Leah and Lauren were so great, but I actually auditioned several identical twins. I cut them together when making the decision, and with identical twins it was very difficult to tell them apart, to really track those types of performances that you're talking about, the differentiation between the two of them.

So it was one of those things that I was like, okay, we do have this adult actor playing both roles, but if we don't have this differentiation between the two of them, I'm not sure we're going to understand how important the differences between them are. And that's something an adult actor can do, especially if they're a genius like Amandla (laughs), I think it's harder for child actors, to emulate two separate performances. When they're in the same room with each other, and they already have the experience of being twins and they already have the experience of, most twins in Hollywood, they're playing the same character, they're being switched out. They're used to doing exactly what the other twin did.

So, long-winded answer, but that's really all the stuff that went into it. It was very difficult to navigate and it was really hard and I'm really grateful that I had the actors that did, that I had Kogonada, that I had Jen Bryan. I could talk about it forever. So many acting choices were made, but so many character design choices were made as well to differentiate the girls in in their adulthood, as well.

That was my favorite thing about episode five. When Mae cuts her hair and I'm like, girl, you still got that thing on your forehead! You move your hair and-

They could just move your hair! They could just move and they'd be like, huh. It plays out very interestingly in the next episode. I will say I don't know if it was the greatest idea but she was definitely…

She was thinking, I got this. And I'm like, do you though?

We’ll put it this way, she was thinking emotionally.

She was thinking emotionally, Bazil's like, here I come!

Yeah. Bazil's like, I got it.

I got a lot of tweets from episode five, people were just sending me a bunch of screenshots, and one of them was like, I hope Pip comes back! or something. And I was like, he's there! Bazil picked him up! (laughs)

I was well aware, because I was like, well, my favorite character is dead, which is a Wookiee. And so I was like, I'm going to follow the other furry little thing around.

It's not the last time you see him, though. It's not the last time you see Kelnacca, so.

Good! Because I love a Wookiee, they're my favorite characters in all of Star Wars. And I was like, cool, this one's a Jedi. And then he died.

Off-screen death, the worst kind of death.

The first time I watched that episode, I was like, oh great, Kelnacca is coming back the next episode. Because me and my roommate fully had missed that Kelnacca was dead in the chair (Leslye cackles) and then I was like, oh he is gone. I was like, I missed that he was sitting in the chair.

He's not- He's dead. He's dead. He's dead, baby. He's dead. I was so- well, I won't bore you with that story, but yeah.

You did lead up to episode five which, most shows, you have to give them time to grow, and this one really did grow in a way that, like… I sent you this, but my brother called me on the phone after having a baby to talk to me about Manny Jacinto's arms. (Leslye cackles) He was very team ‘the Master’s going to be Manny Jacinto’.

Yes!

And I was like, I think it's gonna be one of their moms, or it's gonna be this, and then he was like, no, I'm 100% Manny Jacinto. And then, as soon as I saw the arms I was like, damn. My brother was correct.

Baby!

The “reveal” of Manny was interesting. Working on the show there were several writers, cast, crew all like, we've got to preserve the surprise. This is a big reveal here. And I was like, I just feel like as a fan, if you announce that cast - which we did back like two years ago or whatever - if I see Manny Jacinto as third on the call sheet, basically I'm like, secret bad guy! I don't even need to know what the log line to the show is. I'm like, oh, right, the secret bad guy. He'll be secret bad guy, and something else will happen, we'll see how it goes down.

But because the central mystery of the show is much more about Sol and Osha's relationship or Sol's relationship to the twins, the reveal of the Master Mae served, to me, was basically a – I don't want to say a red herring, but essentially it was like the ‘sub-mystery’ I guess. So that you would get in this space as a viewer, specifically a Star Wars fan, and think, oh, they want me to care about this for several more episodes. And it's like, no, we're just going to do it now. So he can murder these people. To me, preserving the surprise was not very important. What was important to me was preserving the character design. That was the thing that I was very concerned about getting out, what Manny looked like once you saw him.

Because he's inspired by this character, Drunken Cat in Come Drink With Me, which I think I said in another interview. And in that movie, you know something’s up with this guy. They're not looking for a master so it's a little bit different, but you know what's going on with this guy. There's another story going on with Golden Swallow and all this other stuff, but when he reveals himself, you're like, that's a different fucking person. His role is not a huge surprise, but… that's a different guy. And I didn't realize that Manny was going to be as groundbreaking to me. I knew he was a great actor, I just didn't realize until I watched him play the character the way he did. And he really built that character from the ground up. It's a very mysterious character on paper, so much of him is a secret, even his name is not Qimir. So it wasn't like Amandla, who had the whole season, had all the scripts to really understand, chart this character arc etc. etc. Manny was sort of dropped into the middle of this story and told, okay, now you have to take over the story, good luck!

It's crazy because I saw so many people, and I was one of them, just yelling Bortles! and everyone was talking about how he went from Jason Mendoza to the hot Star Wars baddie. And I love that we do get to still see him. Because the Master was just like, let me say this thing about the Acolyte on a beach, and then I'm going to be here in the woods. But then we see the human that is that kind of darkness, when he's fixing Osha and healing her when she's laying in the woods. I was like, oh, this is very almost Scorpio-y because he's revenge-driven more than just being like, I'm evil in the darkness. When you were working on – not the killings and not Jecki dying in the worst possible way, or a neck break – was it important for you guys to highlight that he's still a dude, very clearly something happened that turned him into this, and it's not evil for evil’s sake?

Absolutely. He always had to feel like he was operating from – I want to say a human place, although that's a strange word to use in Star Wars, but for the sake of the answer from a human place. Meaning that as a human audience member you would be able to follow and relate with, maybe not the murder, but you could definitely relate with what he's saying, you know? When he says ‘I want freedom’ they're like, well, yeah, how can you not want that? When he says ‘the reason I'm doing this is because you say I can't exist’ it's a very almost countercultural idea. I rewrote that scene so many times. When I finally got ‘you brought her here’ I was like, thank you Jesus!

It's so important what first few lines this person says, so that, exactly what you're saying, you just get locked into his point of view as a character, not a bad guy. And I felt him saying ‘you brought her here’ tells you almost everything that you need to know about the character. Which is like, yes I'm brutal, yes I just did something unforgivable, but you brought her here. You recruit children and you train them and you bring them into situations that they shouldn't be in, and now you're mad at me. Just putting it out there that possibly that could be the case. So he ended up being essentially very anti-establishment, which is obviously what the rebels are and the Resistance is in Star Wars normally. But once I locked into like, oh right, he's the voice of the counterculture of this era… which is why it's so important to go through those first four episodes. Because I think if you don't know what this world of Star Wars, the High Republic, is like, which we haven't seen in live action, you have to understand that the Jedi are not the Jedi that they are in the prequels. They're not the Jedi that they are pre- and post-Battle of Yavin. They're just in a different space, where they're operating with less oversight, and they're also operating with, I think, a little more hubris. Like, of course we're doing the right thing, this is how we've always done it and that's the right thing.

Of course, when we’re seeing them on Brendok and seeing how they negotiate the issue with the witches and how children may be recruited by them… if I can sort of unpack it I'm assuming that the idea was that parents give up their children almost as an act of public service. Like, we have a Force-sensitive child, they would be better with you guys, to train etc. etc. But I think if, like mother Aniseya and like Manny's character, they don't align their beliefs with the Jedi – and I'm assuming that there are some Force-users that don't – would they see children going to the Jedi as a good thing? I don't know. Just, to me, it was important that the audience understood all of that. That there's this whole other way of looking at this world that isn't Qui-Gon getting Anakin out of a horrible situation so that he can become a Jedi, so it's a positive-coded transition, to, well, maybe that was a really positive situation, but perhaps there were other ones that were not. And did the Jedi learn from that and when they did learn from that is that why when Anakin shows up they're like, he's too old to train, we can't, we've learned that this doesn't work. I don't know, those were the things that I was interested in. And killing Carrie-Anne off, so much of that was about, just get ready because the Jedi are going to take some Ls and people are going to die. And especially Jedi who have experienced interactions with Sith on this show are going to die, so. Spoiler alert.

People are dying.

People are dead. (laughs)

For my last question I have to ask because we are now set up with two different pairings off on whatever together.

Oh yeah, we flipped mentors.

Because Mae is with Master Sol and Osha is with Qimir. But also, I probably looked way too into it, but I was like, well, something happened with Sol and Qimir, because he said the line, like, you didn't know? And I'm sure he was talking about when they met before, but I'm thinking it's so much deeper than that. What can you tease of all these pairings and what happens in the future, that's not like ‘here's everything happens the next week’?

Well, what I can say about Manny's character and Osha is that he's looking for an acolyte, a pupil. I think it's pretty clear after this episode that he sees potential in Osha, Osha obviously being Force-sensitive, not having trained but, in the Sith world, is there a difference? We don't know much about their policies on training we know a little bit with Tyrannus and Ventress and stuff, we know a little bit but most of the time those are people that started as Jedi, as Osha did. So the question then becomes, is he going to be able to turn her in some way? So I'll tease that. But I don't even think that's a tease, I think it's something that if you're watching just very clear that's the next step. But what I can tease about it is that I was always really hit by Obi-Wan's line in A New Hope when he says Vader was seduced by the dark side. That made me feel weird, because I was a kid, and I didn't really understand what that word meant, and then later when I did I was like, what's he talking about? So with the way that someone has turned to the dark side or someone joins the Sith to me it's all about seduction, it's all about appealing to the part of that person or the thing that person wants the most. With Anakin it was to save his wife, it was to stop the suffering of the person he loved more than anything in the world more than his own self. That's why it's so tragic. He put her over so much stuff that he couldn't see the forest for the trees. And with Mae it was revenge. Manny was definitely feeding into, well, if you want revenge then come with me and you can do that. So Osha is going to be a different tactic, like, what does Osha want? And what would her present moral code crumble under if she was offered? And I think for Osha it's something more emotional, and I think if you've been watching the show close enough, I think you'll know where that's headed. And I think with Mae and Sol it's just- Well, I'll just put it this way. Sol is a very powerful Jedi. I don't think he's totally in the dark about who's on that ship with him, that’s what I’ll say. (laughs)

She thinks she's pulling a fast one. I was like, I don't think you're pulling a fast one.

Let's see how that works out, let's see how that works out for you, baby.

But again, I think nodding your head to something and saying, yeah this is what's gonna happen, like Manny's reveal, it's not the tease as much as it's the execution. How we're going to do that, not what are we going to do. I feel like in a post-spoilers consumption age it becomes, you know… that's where you get the ‘subverting expectations’ and the ‘don't tell me anything’ and ‘blow my mind’. There's so many things that people have sent me who work on the show, so many fan theories where I'm like, yeah, that's exactly correct. I'm not then going to pivot and be like, no no no that's not what happens! People have guessed stuff that I'm like, yeah if we get a season two that is exactly what happens. Yes, you are correct. But to me, I'm like, that's because I did my job, not because I left the secret out. If you're engaging with the story and you're starting to see where it's going and whether you're excited about that direction or not, that's not my business. (laughs)

Quickly, as you’ve said, because now you've teased me and I want to know more, that Kelnacca is not dead. Or he's dead but I'll see him again.

He’s coming back, yeah.

You have all these characters that, you know, we watched Carrie-Anne die but that was not the last time we saw Carrie-Anne Moss, and they do come back. When you were planning the process of killing these characters off, were the flashbacks always where you're going to see where these Jedi really shined and why they were on this mission and powerful together?

Absolutely. I think that there was a big movie that we thought of a lot with Three Kings that we talked about a lot in the writers’ room in terms of building a similar narrative with those Jedi. When you're in an age of proliferation of that many Jedi, and those Jedi are all over the galaxy doing different types of missions, some exciting some not, the idea that there would be constant oversight of all of those missions seemed unlikely to me. Even with very powerful Force-sensitive people it’s just, when something gets that big, how can you really contain it?

So I think that's why you see what you are going to see, that it was always meant to be a season that was about what has happened between Sol and Osha, and what has happened between the Jedi and this coven that they interacted with. Manny's character is a really fun reveal within the midst of all of that but as we were building the season it felt like the real mystery was, again, we know they did something, she's murdering them. So we already know that, so the question is how, what happened? It's not, oh wow, you didn't see that coming!

But as we're going back to your question about the Twins and the theme of that you're going to see two sides of almost every character. Almost every character has two sides, as we know. That's all what all Star Wars is about. There's light and dark in everybody, and it's all about the balance of that. And in my opinion the High Republic is a world that's out of balance. There's just too many Jedi and they may be balanced individually but their power is not. And so it was always the plan to hold as much detail about what had gone on with these Jedi that Mae is hunting, to hold that off for as long as possible. That was always the plan. And I do think it's kind of fun to have people like yourself be like, they killed Kelnacca? and then be like, baby, we got to. We got to.

[leekimdramas]

Bo Ra! Deborah Review (Spoiler Free)

I still don’t get how the writer both wrote one of the most lovely and interesting couples simultaneously with 3 bad ones...

Bora is a famous dating coach but suddenly her life goes through a whole rollercoaster when she finds out that her boyfriend was cheating.

As she heals, she begins to write a book to also help other people and slowly falls in love with Lee Soo Hyuk.

Controversy in the drama: An inappropriate line about the holocaust, an apology.

From the very start of the drama, I was just having fun. I knew this is going to be a silly rom-com and I was down for it.

You could see the chemistry between both lead actors even before they had their whole situationship and it gave me something to look forward to in the midst of my slump.

One of the problems for me was the pacing of the drama, she cries over the break up probably for 6 episodes or so which is understandable but not that many episodes are left either.

I believe that starting her healing journey sooner would have been better, we also would get more time for the leads to be a really cute couple.

I still feel like drama was fun and I did enjoy watching it but some of the parts really took me out of that experience.

I’m not talking only about the lines they said but rather about other couples. We have three couples, excluding the leads. The married one, the young couple, and workplace romance let’s call them that.

The married couple falls into the category “marriage is a jail for men” and goes with so many jokes about it. 

I’m happy that the wife speaks up about how she feels miserable about it but the husband goes: “Ugh... women” and never does anything to make it seem like he really likes her.

Spoilers about the couple: Their ending also seemed rushed, and the writer acted like it was just a lack of communication. We saw very well how the husband can communicate but just chooses to lie... With the excuse: “Because you always nag at me”. I HATE IT HERE.

The young couple gives hope to the stalkerish guys about how if you want a girl to go and annoy the fuck out of her till she says yes. I never found them cute and I always wanted to skip the scenes... 

The guy gives me the biggest ick and I hate how they let the girl just go along with it. Destiny or not they should have never been together.

The workplace romance was also a bit icky. Everyone talks about power dynamics, and age differences which I agree with all and it does not look like a good match.

I also just never saw them as a couple... Mentor with a student? Sure. Couple? Nope, just a wrong idea. Especially when she’s shown so naive all the time.

Overall, this drama did give me a goofy little rom-com in some of the parts but there are also so many things that I wanted to skip.

It’s mostly because of pacing, some things happened too slowly, and later on everything seemed rushed and all over the place.

6/10

[juniperhillpatient]

The Earth King Re-Watch

This was a fun episode. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it. Seeing Aang & Appa finally reunited is pretty heartwarming. I was a little annoyed & confused by Sokka's random new "positive attitude" even though he had some really endearing moments in this episode. I just don't get it. Yeah, Appa is back but you just discovered an underground creepy brainwashing cult & your old frienemy was killed? You have no reason to believe you're any closer to convincing King Kuei to hear you out? I can see the whole "brand new positive attitude" thing happening once the other good news hits later, but right at the start? It just felt jarring & weird.

Katara saying she wants to leave this horrible place....I will take my "Jet's death mattered" crumbs where I can get them. I think Katara & Toph's idea to leave makes a lot of sense, but so does Sokka & Aang's desire to force Kui to hear them out...I mean, they are trying to plan this attack on the eclipse...So, that was a well-set-up conflict, because both sides make sense. I also absolutely loved the fight scene with the Gaang breaking into the palace! Everything about it was iconic. It was neat to see Aang use earth-bending in a fight against earth-benders too because he usually relies heavily on air-bending. I loved Katara & Sokka apologizing lmao - & Toph saying Kue's distrust after they broke in made sense.

Kue is a bit pathetic & easily pushed around so I'm not a huge fan of him. Bumi has a chaotic morality & he's not always the most LIKABLE person but at least he's fun so I always enjoy him. Kue is just pathetic, & not even in the hot way lol

Possibly the best part of the episode was Katara telling Sokka that he gets to see their dad & Sokka bouncing around in excitement & hugging her & kissing her while she's just like "yeah yeah, I know, I'm great."

[ID: Sokka saying "Nicest....sister...ever!" to Katara while Aang & Toph watch.]

Also, the Gaang talking about how they will miss each other while they're split up was really cute. I loved the group hug & Sokka like "alright alright, we love each other" trying to end the hug was such a mood - me when friends or family try to get all touchy-feely lol! Sokka gets 10 iconic behavior points for interrupting Aang before he could confess his crush on Katara. I wish I was giving out jerk points so I could give them to Aang for the line "yeah, girls are waiting for us." Ugh, pushing the Katara/Aang agenda before Jet's body is even cold? The writers deserve jerk points for that tbh! Not even Aang really, 'cause he's just a kid with a crush, but I'm still allowed to be annoyed.

Anyway. Zuko gets 500 iconic behavior points for doing one nice thing in his entire life & immediately collapsing like a Victorian maiden. Zuko you drama queen, ily. However, while I've said this re-watch has made me appreciate Zukaang I MEANT the romantic ship Zuko & Aang NOT this monstrosity that lives in my nightmares.

[id: a horrifying image of Zuko & Aang's faces combined.]

What the fuck lmao

As for the rest of Zuko's dreams.....Very interesting lines from Azula & a very interesting performance from our lord & savior Grey Delisle. I will say nothing more about that :)

[id: Dennis from It's Always Sunny saying "because of the implication..."]

Anyway *ahem* right, I think Zuko clearly sees his father & sister as sort of devils & Iroh as an angel on his shoulder. This is what the writers were going for, & an unpopular opinion maybe but I think it works to an extent. The biggest issue here is that Zuko continues until the end of the series to treat Iroh like a messiah of good & he never learns to view Azula with any more nuance despite evidence that Iroh is not perfect & Azula is not irredeemable. Another issue I take is that while I love Azula as the embodiment of the Fire Nation & that darker path here, especially right before Crossroads of Destiny, & I actually find the shifting of the blame about Ursa's disappearance & by extension Zuko's bad childhood from Ozai to Azula super interesting - it's again, just something that's never addressed as wrong by the narrative & therefore becomes frustrating.

[id: Azula as a blue dragon next to a scarless Zuko]

I would have liked to see Zuko's black & white way of thinking about his uncle & sister (which is just really obvious here with the angel & devil motifs) addressed by the narrative. However, I don't think the whole "two sides arguing for different paths through dream visions" in itself is bad. It's certainly fun to watch & makes for a nice visualization of Zuko's internal struggle. Oh, Zuko & Azula get +500 iconic behavior points for foreshadowing the Crossroads of Destiny betrayal. I know it's just a fever dream version of Azula, but she still gets the points.

Oh, & Azula, Mai & Ty Lee get 1000 points each for their Kyoshi Warrior surprise reveal at the end. I love them so fucking much.

Anyway, that's all I have for this episode! Tune in next time for more rambling thoughts on the kid's cartoon!

[draco-renn]

Now that I'm all set up...

Hello! My name is Ren, but I'm also cool with Draco (H*rry P*tter fans do not FUCKING interact) as a nickname if we're close! My pronouns are xi/xing, he/him, it/its, and ro/rose; my prounouny will show you how to use them!

If my description seems familiar, it's because I moved accounts from pinkrosesandblackthorns, a url I'd had for... I don't even remember how long, but after I had sort of left Tumblr and then came back, I'd found my old blog aesthetic and tagging system was super out of date, so I went scorched earth!

I'll be putting all my interests here, which include a whole host of different musicians/bands/groups, Transformers (mainly TFP, TFA, G1, and MTMTE/LL), Vocaloid, The Magnus Archives, Welcome To Night Vale, video games (mostly Genshin, Hollow Knight, Destiny, and The Legend Of Zelda), Homestuck, and any anime/movies/shows that happen to catch my eye at the moment! All of those said interests will be tagged accordingly.

I am an autistic achillean Chinese-Canadian trans man, and I don't talk about it much but I'm also a dragonkin! The first four aspects of my identity tend to show through in most of the things that I create when I have time in between school and work.

Speaking of things I create, I'm also a fic writer! I fully acknowledge that my fics are fully in RPF territory and how bad of a reputation RPF writers tend to have, however I don't ship the people I write about as people, I ship their personas they've created onstage and on camera. To paraphrase one of my favourite tweets about RPF, "if the people I stan are making burner accounts to read explicit fic about themselves and their members, that's on them". While all my completed stuff goes on @complete-in-ix, I'll post my WIPs here under "seedlings"!

I also reblog posts about current events since that's one of the few things that I can do about them in my current situation. Those will be tagged "news tag" along with the appropriate tws. If I miss any tws, please please please let me know!

I'm not really one for big extensive DNIs since I'm not about to go around vetting the descriptions of every blog that interacts with me, but I will say this: Queer is queer, including anyone who uses "outdated" or "contradicting" labels, neopronouns, and people who don't want to use specific labels. We already face enough oppression from cishets, arguing over something as inconsequential as labels or who is "allowed" to consume/create what will get us nowhere. Even detransitioners or people who have explored their identity and still stuck with cis or straight who are allies are welcome here. My blog is not a safe space for bigotry or petty fandom/shipping drama, so any asks or submissions of that nature will be deleted and blocked. However, if I ever accidentally reblog from a TERF or racist or freak of any other nature, please let me know! I mainly use Tumblr on my phone, so anything that might be caught by shinigami eyes is likely to fly under my radar! I also do not consent to my of my works of any kind to be saved for AI training purposes, AI/crypto bros will be blocked on sight.

[spongebobafettywap]

I wish this xmen era was more crack than whatever we got because at least it would have been funny. might be a me problem but all those rewritings were completely unnecessary and hurt so many characters, good guys and villains alike. I don't recognize sinister or apocalypse anymore and I don't know what the fuck they pulled with destiny but I was indifferent to her before and now I don't wanna read anymore about her because it's so static and boring yet it gets shoved into any and everything that's related or not to her so you can't even avoid it

On a side note, there's something I've noticed to the added backstory they gave to apocalypse and I can't unsee it.

So he was apparently the ruler of an ancient mutant civilization located on an island in the middle of the ocean until he went to war with powerful magic users, a war which ended with his kingdom being sealed away in a hell like dimension, leaving his people to constantly fight for their lives there while he looked for a solution against those beings as well as a way to bring his kingdom back to earth.

... Isn't that azazel's backstory? Like beat for beat? They just gave apocalypse a wife but like this chunk of lore, she came out of nowhere. Am I hallucinating because if not I'm legit speechless

Yeah thats why I stopped buying the comics back in 2015 it just felt like there was a lot of character assasination done for the Maximoffs it was for the sake of the crappy MCU movies but the other X-men character also just suffered due to a bunch of rewrites and forced drama. Honestly Marvel as a whole has a real problem with writers who just have contempt for their audience and love to troll them that kinda spiteful relationship between the creators and fans is so toxic and there's only a few creators there that do not participate in this behaviour at Marvel.

We have talked on my blog before how this weird Destiny fanclub has somehow come about in recent years with her rabid fans accusing fans of all kinds of things if they don't like her. Its very weird, in the majority of the decade I was a fan of X-men I had barely heard anyone talk about her at all because in all honesty she was never a major character she was just a supporting character for Mystique. For all the hate Azazel gets from these types he had at least been talked about by fans and haters alike and had a memorable role in the films.

It's very weird because as much as DC does stupid things I never get the impression that the creators there just love to annoy their audience. I get more of the impression that the changes they make is an attempt to appeal to more people which I can at least respect in some regard.

Hmmm I recall Apocalypse's old backstory had him as an Egyptian Ruler but nothing about a war with magic users and then being sealed away just that he was put to sleep in a Escophagus. This new one does seem to rip off a lot of Azazel's backstory so thats really weird.

[daniels-rwby-blog]

IT'S BEE O CLOCK BABY

Still a good intro, Bit of back story, some falling nice.

That clock is important

Ruby's moody and Jaune the voice of reason

Jaune is my reaction to meta cat

cat your annoying weiss and me

ascension is death called it,

AND THE TWIST BOIS

so lewis died

weiss is now the best character don't at me.

holy crap this is the metaverse, like it's a writer's out for the whole show.

okay so we have the bees together working out the little ship issue we have going on (man i hope monty had a list of canon ships) and the backstory, really a tale from remnant about the ever after, as i thought the twist is that morals are totally wack, i love the tape FX btw. and yeah the herbalist seems more important or at least a pawn of the cat, which seems to be jaunes point, the cat rules this world, its the cat's playground and alex bought it, alex dealt with the cat and escaped.

also those mirrors and summer and weiss seeing atlas, thats gonna need a breakdown.

Jaune still isn't saying the full story tho, he's holding something back.

and now thee bee elephant:

so this is about as blunt a way to do the bee's as i could think of, the compliments bridge yangs movments are perfrect here, emotion is so well carried and her spilling out about blake is adorable

THE BLUSHING THE FLAG THE COLOR NOOOOOOOOO ITS TOO CUTE its the GARDEN FROM THE SONG

HOW DID HE KNOWWWWWW

This is one of the best scene’s i've seen from rwby, not just cause it’s my ship but because it feels like the show as come, at least half circle upon itself, while it left the realm of cutiepie highschool drama years ago, the core of it, of 4 friends, it's never left. And now it's back, although friends isn't the right word.

and thus the S.S bee wins over. in not the best way or the way i wanted

But yeah i like how nonchalant it is The bees are free and the show is essentially now part over, 2 of the title characters are completed in "friendship" BY is indeed bi. All that's left is ruby; the story of motherhood and doing the right thing even when the odds are against you, and Weiss who's learnt her lesson so many times over it's hard to count. But we're done now, the bees have kissed the ship is a relationship and the GF jokes can start, its phase 2 of the SS bumblebee and I really hope it gets mentioned in the show (the ex-ship name). Kinda wonder if Monty had planned this (seems like he did not gonna lie) but there was time for black sun to have it, but ultimately CRWBY kicked in their teeth. Here's my message to Blacksun or anyone who’s not happy about BB. This is RWBY, a show that while at its core is a fight anime about 4 girls, in a wacky world of monsters and God’s, finding themselves and their friends in the midst of it all, it always had a second message… Be yourself. Wiess tries to become her own person rather than the rich heiress. Ruby tries to be a huntress and later a leader and later still whatever this is. Blake and faunus are an analog for minorities and fitting in. Yang is the “just being physically strong doesn't mean you're good mentally”. This show is about change, finding your place and I don't think that having a Gay ship means any less. In fact it seems fitting. And regardless of all the other gay media you may point to and tell me that RWBY shouldn't have to conform to it, i'd like to point out this show is a decade old (ish)! This ship was there from day 1, and now it's over, its cannon and that's it.

For my fellow Bee’s, it's done, we can have our few weeks (heck the whole rest of the volume) but we have won. The signs were always there, it is now our job to become the defenders, we must gather our memes, our evidence, our mighty clips; and we must, it is our destiny to use them to back up CRWBY, to defend, not our opinions in hate filled fury, but the Show we love with dignity and respect, we need to tone it down once our victory lap is done and keep a level head as we show the world all the hints and love filled moments that led up to, what i hope is one of many Bee Kisses.

Also all the fan art OMG its so cuuuuuteeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks, y'all for reading, and sticking with this show to see out the bees, I'll have a breakdown of Ruby's mental fuzz at CR and what that means coming up. Make sure to read my other theories and DFTBA!

[benjimatorarts]

Finally made it to Sons Of Garmadon! While rewatching the series I do have some random notes that I took during the viewings. And don't take any of these serious because they're just random rambles and my own bias opinions that I thought I can share with the rest of the class. Notes on the seasons:

Posseccession:

I don’t have a lot of things to say about this season. It was interesting and makes sense that the ninjas wouldn’t be his first students. Morro is fun as an “edgy bad boy and also a salty ass bitch because he wasn’t the chosen one but let’s be honest Morro, you don't want to be the green ninja” and with his character design makes him pretty popular in the fandom despite being in one season and that one episode in Hands of Time.

Despite Morro being a pretty major part in Wu’s past and regrets he has made as a teacher, Wu wasn’t really in this season as much as he should be.

I didn’t really care about the subplot of the team struggling to find a “new leader” after Lloyd was possessed by Morro when they were fine when Cole was their leader before Lloyd was ever the green ninja. I give a lot of credit to Cole for always setting up and being the rock for the team, even if it cost him to be a ghost.

Spellbound: 

…. Oh god this season...

I did not like how they treated Nya and Jay in this season.

I’m glad the show addressed the issue of Nya being forced to be the water ninja, being the “girl” of the team with its own issues, and destiny issues that I actually felt for her. It makes it even more sad that she can’t be samurai X anymore, something she made for herself. 

This season felt like a really bad fanfiction and the Jaya fans deserve better than this. Especially after they broke the two up in Rebooted with a pointless love triangle that resulted in Cole and Nya getting together because a match making machine justified her in cheating on Jay. AND THEN AFTER ALL THAT DRAMA THE TWO BROKE UP OFF SCREEN. Makes you think what was the point of that love triangle plot if only to add more drama to fill up the episode. (looking at wu/garmadon/misako love triangle).

It’s also funny how this season tries to make you root for Jay and Nya to get back together while Jay and Cole have much more chemistry than Jay and Nya do. 

I can go on and on about this season but all that happens in this season doesn’t matter because it did and didn’t happen.

Definitely my least favorite season and I’m glad the show pretends the season never existed.

Hands of Time: 

MORE SECRETS WU IS KEEPING FROM THE NINJAS

I wish there was an arc for Wu to learn that while he is their master, he is their team member and he doesn’t have to keep these issues to himself. But maybe there is an arc and I haven’t caught up just yet. At least he has Misako as an emotional support pal and yes I said pal (I know at this point they do have feelings for each other but not really together together and I’m going to ignore that whole *gestures Wu and Misako* deal…

I will say I like the villains in this season better than the last season that never happened.

Skylar is in such a mood. Noodles are great comfort food.

(I only just started Sons of Garmadon at the time of typing this.)

While I’m kinda sad Nya isn’t Samurai X anymore, I am glad someone is taking the mantle and I’m hoping it’s Pixel! 

Also I kinda ship Ronan and Dareth??

Sons of Garmadon: 

Currently on the second episode. 

Not to disrespect the writers from the last couple of seasons, but from the start I can tell the writing is so much better and I can’t wait to watch the rest.

Also I like that it’s canon that Lloyd’s voice before SOG is just him not finishing puberty yet. While I miss the old voice actor, I do like the new one.

Thats my rant for the day. Back to Sons of Garmadon!

I just rewatched “Corridor of Elders” still hurts.

Also… all the BS around the fucking “letter” is still as frustrating as I remember.

This was the last episode of the series I watched before I stopped keeping up with the series. Not that I didn’t want to, I was really excited for haunted. But I think it was because they killed off my favorite character and the weird implications between Wu and Misako are just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But I’m honestly going to give the rest of the series a second chance!

And will be making more Ninjago content!

[mishasminions]

Here’s why the Supernatural Series Finale Sucked

(AND IT REALLY ISN’T JUST BECAUSE CAS/MISHA WASN’T IN IT)

First of all, I’d like to state, that this perspective is coming from someone who has watched, invested in, and dissected this show for 15 years. I’ve tried to rationalize and justify every single decision each of the main characters made throughout the years, and I’ve always tried to make sense of each of their story arcs from a “bigger picture” standpoint as each season progressed.

Anyway, before I can properly explain why the finale sucked, let me quickly take you through 15 seasons by segregating them into 3 eras, because you can’t really comprehend what Supernatural is about and what it’s become without going through how it tried to expand its universe.

SEASONS 1-5: THE KRIPKE ERA

Now, we all know that Kripke was always set in wrapping up Sam and Dean’s story in 5 seasons, and he did just that.

So, in this era, Supernatural is about two brothers who set out on a journey to fulfill “the family business”. They hunt mythical monsters that terrorize the world, while battling the monsters within themselves. Their ultimate “big bad” is an apocalypse.

Towards the end of this era, we find out that Sam and Dean are actually a parallel to Biblical characters who are brothers turned rivals. And that Sam and Dean’s destiny is to go up against each other.

However, as a dynamic, they have always been about making their own choices, choosing free will, and having a brotherly bond that can power through against any obstacle at any given day.

So, this era is neatly wrapped up with its finale. The characters grow, and get justified endings.

Dean, a man who thinks of himself as two things: 1. Sam’s older brother and protector; and 2. Daddy’s blunt little instrument.

He’s spent his whole life believing that that was his only purpose, and he knew that the only ending he’ll get would either be a bloody death fulfilling his duty to the family business; or laying his life on the line to save his brother.

Dean gets the ending he thought was never possible for him, something he thought he could never deserve. After years of living and dying for his family, he gets a shot at having an apple pie life--to settle down with a nice girl, raise a kid in a house with a white picket fence. With Sam gone, Dean’s responsibility now is to himself.

Sam, on the other hand, never wanted any part of it, because he wasn’t groomed the way Dean was, and because thanks to Dean, Sam wasn’t traumatized or forced into growing up too quickly the way Dean was.

So Sam aspires for a normal life, and works the cases with Dean so he can maybe get some semblance of it, when everything they set out to kill are laid to rest.

Ultimately, Sam performs a selfless act for his brother, who has given up everything for him, and for their cause--to save the world.

The journey is this: Dean sacrifices everything to save Sam, and Sam sacrifices himself so Dean could live.

Apart from being Dean’s “savior” and guardian angel, Castiel’s role in this era is to serve as a mirror to Dean’s journey. Castiel goes from being heaven’s foot soldier, following “God’s orders”; to an angel who learns to choose and feel for the first time in his existence.

After they realize that they’re both daddy’s blunt instruments, Dean starts choosing his own path for himself, and convinces Castiel to join him. Castiel stops following heaven, and starts following Dean.

In the end, with his newfound understanding of the world thanks to Dean, Castiel goes back to heaven to reform it.

We’ve resolved the biblical arc, and the character journeys.

SEASONS 6-10: THE SPIN-OFF ERA

So this is where the show realizes how vast its universe can be, so it tries to expand it by tapping into uncharted lands and experimenting with it.

They take on heaven, reform hell, explore purgatory, have the angels fall, turn Dean into a demon, and kill Death.

Dean and Sam recognize their codependency, and try to rise above it.

They go back and forth between which brother will risk it all for the greater good every other season.

Dean and Cas strengthen their relationship by recognizing the impact they have on each other’s lives.

Cas structures his life and decisions around Dean (Seasons 6-7), and Dean learns to trust and fight for Cas (Seasons 8-9).

Sam and Cas bond (mostly over Dean) because of their shared rationales in decision-making.

Dean, Sam, and even Cas also forge relationships with the people they work with. The concept of “found family” is introduced here.

This era was heavy on the plot while establishing, reinforcing, and solidifying relationships and dynamics.

At this point, it wasn’t just about the brothers anymore.

If Supernatural had ended in Season 10, the logical finale would’ve been Team Free Will, along with the family that they’ve found, going up against the latest big bad (Death or whoever). Maybe they lose them along the way, maybe they all make it out alive, or maybe they go down swinging, but at least the show recognizes and supports the message they keep saying, “Family don’t end with blood”

SEASONS 11-15: THE REWRITE ERA

This is where the show runs out of ideas and decides to invalidate the seasons that came before it.

From bringing Mary back (basically rendering their whole journey pointless because they’ve literally started hunting because of her death), to changing the stipulations in being Michael and Lucifer’s vessels (another character struggle rendered useless), to God himself breaking the fourth wall by saying that the Winchesters get away with everything because “they’re the main characters in his story and everything they’ve been through was just part of a badly written narrative”.

But what we’re getting from this era is that Sam and Dean, along with Cas (who has also deviated from the story) ARE trying to escape a badly written narrative.

That’s the “big bad” in this era. The writer.

At this point, the characters have picked up so many strays (including those from alternate universes), and have settled into their roles in their “found family”. Dean, Sam, and Cas all become surrogate dads and uncles.

They’ve also graduated from the whole “we’re on different sides” and “going behind each other’s backs” drama. And they just want the whole family together.

They’ve all resigned themselves to the cause, but they’re also tired. Dean allows himself to contemplate about wanting more out of life or at least getting a vacation. Sam, on the other hand, realizes his capabilities as an effective leader. Castiel learns to love another being that isn’t Dean (spoiler: it’s Jack).

However, they also realize that they’ve just been puppets on a string all this time.

So what they want now, is to write their own story, and make their own choices knowing that God/the writer isn’t the one fueling their narrative.

So here’s why the finale sucks:

Andrew Dabb, the current showrunner, said that there would be two finales.

15x19 - The finale to wrap up Season 15, and 15x20 - The finale to wrap up the series by “resolving the characters’ journey”

In 15x19 the boys find a way to de-power God/the writer. For the first time in their whole lives, they are free from the story. Their lives are completely theirs now. They can make their own decisions. There are no more “big bads” to fight

And here’s what happens in 15x20:

Immediately after being freed from their story arc, Dean and Sam go back to hunting the monster of the week.

Dean eats pie, gets nailed (literally), makes a 10-minute speech to Sam because he knows he’s dying, then he goes to heaven.

Dean is greeted by Bobby, his surrogate Dad who he hasn’t seen (fully alive) since Season 7. Bobby’s expository dialogue comprises of him explaining that he got out of heaven’s jail, that John and Mary are next door, and that Jack and Cas fixed the dynamics of heaven off-screen.

The first thing Dean decides to do is go for a long drive in his Impala (as if he hasn’t done enough of that already).

Meanwhile, Sam decides to stop hunting after Dean dies, he gets the apple pie life he hadn’t wanted since Season 8 (while Dean was in Purgatory), and names his kid “Dean” for effect. He grows old and dies.

Dean drove around in heaven for so long that Sam catches up to him.

They hug. The end.

Great, right?

After 15 years of struggling to battle their own respective destinies, going up against big bads and even bigger bads, then finally being able to take charge of their own stories, Dean and Sam regress to hunting the monster of the week, and get killed off by a nail and old age. Okay.

Sam gets to retire and have a family, sure, but they still focus on him and the kid he named after his dead brother. Still just “Sam and Dean” through and through. Nothing to do with found family. Just lineage. Just blood. And it ends there.

See, the problem here is that this ending would’ve been passable in The Kripke Era. But we’re 10 years down the road since, and while Sam and Dean are the original main characters, the show isn’t just about them and their codependent relationship anymore.

So you see, even if you take out the whole “Castiel deserves to be in the finale because he’s also a main character with an unfinished story arc” argument, the finale still does no justice to the series it tried to “wrap up”.

But anyway, now I’ll make the case for the problem with Castiel not being in the finale:

In 15x18, we get a 5-minute rushed confession from Castiel to Dean. The context of which are as follows:

1. Earlier in the episode, Dean had wounded Death with her scythe. We later find out that this wound is fatal.

2. Their friends start to “blip out” in a Thanos-like snap, and Dean thinks that Death is causing it, so Dean seeks her out, and Cas goes with him.

3. Dean and Cas anger Death, apparently for no reason because she didn’t even do the thing they thought she did. She chases them to try to kill them

4. Dean and Cas lock themselves in a room. Dean starts a pity party.

5. As Dean goes through hating himself out loud, Cas decides to inform Dean of the deal he made with The Empty. He then proceeds to explain the stipulation of the deal (that he would get taken once he experiences a moment of true happiness), then discusses his newfound happiness philosophy. Dean is getting whiplash.

6. Cas goes on to imply that the one thing that he wanted that he knew he couldn’t have is Dean Winchester reciprocating his romantic feelings for him. (Don’t even try to fight me on this because Cas already has Dean’s platonic love, and he knows that Dean thinks of him as a brother, so if he really meant this in a “familial” way, then why would he think that he couldn’t have the thing that would make him happy?) So Cas’ realization is that telling Dean about his feelings is enough to make him happy.

7. Cas tells Dean all the reasons why he loves him (thereby combating Dean’s self-deprecation tirade), and all the reasons why he’s worthy of his love. Meanwhile, Dean is still winded from the fact that Cas is about to sacrifice himself for him again.

8. Dean never gets to process anything, because Cas is shoving him out of the way, as he and Death (who busts through the door) get taken by The Empty.

After this episode, Dean never speaks of it. Misha Collins supposes that Dean doesn’t reciprocate. Jensen Ackles says that Dean didn’t really get to process it because it was too much, too fast, and that Dean, still dense as ever, thinks that Cas, a celestial being, doesn’t interpret human feelings the same way.

So what was the point of this confession?

Politics and sensitivities of a 2005 network television aside, what does this do for the story?

Cas proclaims his romantic feelings to Dean, but Dean never acknowledges it, doesn’t even give it a passing thought afterwards. So Cas’ big declaration goes unheard.

Cas cashes in on his Empty deal to kill Death (who was dying anyway), in order to save Dean who dies two episodes after.

Dean makes no effort to save Cas (despite being really broken up about his previous deaths, or even spending a whole year in Purgatory looking for him), even after they’ve beaten God, not even asking Jack (who has all the power in the universe) to bring him back (when Jack has already done it before, with less mojo).

Dean moves on to fight the monster of the week. Somewhere off-screen, Jack rescues Cas from The Empty, but Cas uncharacteristically doesn’t even bother to go to Dean? (Every single time he comes back, Dean’s always the first person he goes to)

And Cas, who apparently helped craft and reform the new heaven, isn’t the one who welcomes Dean and explains the new dynamics of it?

Sure, Jan.

Supernatural, you’ve created a finale that only your casual viewers and people who dipped out after Season 5 can appreciate.

Just goes to show how much you actually valued the people who actually invested in your story and characters, and consistently helped keep your show on the air.

[RT this on Twitter]

[sineala]

Apparently there's a Iron Man/Cap team up miniseries coming out on Nov 24th and I am so excited. Quote from the writer:

“The natural instinct for a writer would be to immediately put them at loggerheads. Nothing generates drama better than tension, after all,” Landy said. “But Tony just wants to protect people, and Steve is one of the kindest characters in comics, so I pretty much embraced the opportunity to step away from the tension and explore that friendship."

There is, and I am so excited! I already subscribed to it.

It sounds like the writer really likes Steve & Tony's friendship so I am very hopeful that we will get some nice canon out of it, and even I don't end up liking the writing it will be an entire miniseries where Steve and Tony appear on the page together. (The bar, it is set so low. And yet.)

I think that we've actually gotten a lot of fairly nice Steve and/or Tony recently in canon, albeit not in the ordinary places you might look, so if you only follow Avengers, Cap, and Iron Man ongoings, you might have missed the following excellent things that have happened/are still happening:

Infinite Destinies: This is a series of eight linked annuals that came out earlier this year; the main stories in each annual can be enjoyed standalone, and three of them are Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers. The Cap annual is by Gerry Duggan and is decently fun, IMO; Iron Man and Avengers are by Jed MacKay and are superb. The Iron Man one is one of the best Iron Man solo books I've read in a long time -- honestly, the characterization is great -- and the Avengers one is a must-read if you like Steve & Tony because it is pretty much them hanging out and being friends and fighting the villain together.

Dark Ages: This is an out-of-continuity miniseries event thing by Tom Taylor (of Superior Iron Man fame) where electricity no longer works, and while it doesn't focus exclusively on Steve and Tony we do see them and they seem to have an intriguing dynamic and some cool character design. Steve's rocking a Post-Apocalyptic Beard.

Darkhold: This is a horror miniseries whose most recent issue is about Iron Man and is also by Ryan North, who I think wrote Tony very well in Squirrel Girl. I absolutely love how he writes Tony here but it is very, very body horror and, alas, I had to stop reading it because it was too much for me. But the characterization was great and it was a lovely take on early-canon Tony.

Captain America Infinity Comic: I know I've talked about this multiple times before, but if you like Captain America you need to find and read Jay Edidin's Cap comic here without delay. It is the best Cap comic I have read in years, and Jay just 100% nails Steve, as far as I am concerned. It's so good. It's so so good.

Death of Doctor Strange: If you don't read Strange comics, you probably didn't pick this series up. But it's by Jed MacKay who gave us the excellent Avengers annual and the most recent issue this week (#2) is fun and has a nice cameo by the Avengers, including Steve and Tony, and I liked it a whole lot. The way he writes the Avengers is basically how I would like the Avengers to currently feel. The next issue in the series is an Avengers tie-in (Death of Doctor Strange: Avengers) and it's by someone else, I think, but the preview just came out and all of the preview is Quality Tony Stark Content. (There are a few pages of him talking with Strange in a flashback about his hatred of magic, and then a page of very very angsty Tony angst.)

So, yeah, I am excited for the team-up miniseries but also I think there's been and hopefully will continue to be some very nice Steve and Tony content even other than that.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

March 2021 Part 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. 

This is a LONG ONE, it’s been A WEEK everyone. 

Ongoing Series - Thai

Lovely Writer Ep 5 - a little slow this week, but at least Gene finally flirted back, and very cute flirting it was, too. Also we got Aey’s motivation, background, and love interest. Thank goodness for that. 

Brothers Ep 8 - still pants, what can I say? Clearly I am a BL masochist. Very embarrassing for everyone concerned. 

1000 Stars Ep 9 - the conflict over Tian’s father was REALLY well done. The plot of this drama is excellent, the leads are great together, and yes I totally cried. What, you didn’t? 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Word of Honor (China) Ep 16-18 - big battle fighty fighty stabby stabby. Ep 17 switches to “this drama isn’t big enough for two chaotic-neutral godlings!” So what do they do? Drink together and bicker... A LOT. Then in Ep 18 we all get the dubious joy of really freaky puppets. (I HATE puppets.) Also how is China letting this be so SO VERY VERY GAY?  Also, I wanna walk through the forest wearing a smanshy purple robe and waving a big fuck-off white fan around simply because I’m a pretentious fuss monger. And frankly, I feel like this is an achievable life goal for me. 

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 4 - not gonna lie, this is looking to be one of my top 3 BLs of 2021. It’s SO GOOD. Big bonus to this ep for treating stalker behavior like the mental illness it is and not as some dumb representation of enduring love. 

The Most Peaceful Place is My Place (Vietnam) Ep 1 - finally dropped (find it under NƠI BÌNH YÊN NHẤT LÀ VỀ BÊN EM on O2′s channel). It’s got actors already comfortable with BL and looks pretty good so far. An angry tsundere uke reunited with his ex, a stoic chef, giving us lots of snap, crackle, and pop out the gate. 

Dear Uranus (Taiwan GL) Ep 2 - I want to love it, but it is just moving too fast. There’s not enough character dev and then they’re throwing flashbacks in? It feels like a treatment rather than a show, and a rushed treatment at that. Bummer. 

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 2 (AKA Ep 3-4) - let the cheesy popcorn continue! Idiot remains an idiot; ingenue remains an ice queen; nice gay guy remains nice and gay; obsessive stalker brother is getting ever more whackadoddle. Of course these last two have the best chemistry. (It’s caregiver codependency and the salvation trope. We got us a Leo/Fiat situation going on.​) Plus lots of classic BL tropes because OF COURSE there are lots of tropes. 

Occasionally, I am tempted to argue that shows like H4 or Cherry Magic or Ossan’s Love aren’t technically BL because of the office setting and age of the protags - but then they all behave like high school students anyway, so *shrug* 

Stand Alones

Cute little Taiwanese micro BL Friend or Lover dropped, about bisexual realization within a friendship group. Normally these are too short for me, but this one did pretty good with its 15 minutes of charm, plus it’s abad boy + shy softy pairing. 

Breaking News - Thai BL

Fish Upon the Sky released its actual trailer. The upside-down kiss is gone, which makes everyone sad, and it seems far less rivals to lovers than the first iteration, which makes ME sad. But it still looks good and a more classic BL than GMMTV has given us in a while. New trailer focused more on the makeover trope and they’ve upped Mix’s role (the object of everyone’s affection) now that he’s proved himself. (Or they are using him more to carry the trailer since he has a fan base form 1k*). Starts April 9 on GMMTV in 1K*’s time slot, probably with a 10 ep run. 

2gether the movie is apparently coming April 22 to Thai theaters. F4 Thailand must be having issues or GMMTV just wants to milk the BrightWin cash cow. It’s rumored to be a combination of 2gehter + Still 2gether with some extra scenes and ending. Also, one assumes a lot will be cut out, if it’s movie length.

Call It What You Want released its updated trailer. If anything, it looks more scary than before. What are we in for? April 9th. 

Nitiman got a release date, May 7 on One31. 

I Told Sunset About You 2 got an updated release date of May 27 on LineTV. 

Second Chance the series is coming to LineTV on March 29. I don’t know much about this one. Tons of familiar faces (mostly TharnType side dishes) and some nice looking new talent but a dearth of eng subs. I think it may take on Brothers’ time slot. Line did eng subs for Brothers so maybe they will do 2nd Chance too? 

Close Friend the series is coming April 22. This is a combination of 6 couples with 6 story arcs as music videos (maybe)? It’s an epic fan service with familiar faces like OhmFluke (UWMA), MaxNat (LBC also in Y-Destiny), YoonLay (YYY also in Y-Destiny), KimCop (GenY), and JaFirst (TT2).

Y-Destiny starts March 30, and has starting dropping couple’s trailers. I’m still suspicious given the director but it seems like there is plot (or plots) and a theme. Looks to be a series of 7 single ep vignettes (amended, see comments, might be 2 eps each for 14 eps total), different couple each time, some with supernatural elements, all with decent chemistry and acting chops. 

Sun MaxNat’s tutor/student arc

Mon jaded rich kid meets poor innocent  

Tues sports romance enemies to lovers 

Weds the messy realistic actual dating one 

Thurs hot ghost boyfriend (sad) 

Fri YoonLayPerth coping with loss and finding new love (sad). This one will all rest on Lay's acting so we know it’s in safe hands. Our boy is going to KILL it. 

Sat time-slip memory loss reunion romance 

I’m thinking we can’t expect any of these to end happy or be classic BL. They’re gonna be more slice of life-ish. 

Gossip - BL Outside of Thailand 

Scholar Ryu’s Wedding Ceremony AKA Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korean historical BL) got a legit teaser (eng sub here). @curriculumvtae​ reports that it’s releasing April 15th on WeTV (Philippines & Thailand) and Idol Romance (South Korea), while Will of Thai Bl says it’ll be on Viki too. It’s a short run of 8 ep built on a fake relationship trope (arranged marriage variant):

Ryu Ho Seon’s (Kang In Soo from You Wish) arranged marriage turns out to be with his expected bride’s brother, Choi Ki Wan (Lee Se Jin from Mr Heart). Ryu tries to undo the marriage, but his ill mother opposes this saying the scandal would be too much. Meanwhile, Kim Tae Hyeong (Jang Eui Soo from Where Your Eyes Linger), a senior at Ryu’s school, comes to congratulate him and falls in love with Choi. Then one day, the original bride disappears.

Okay it seems a bit twisty turny for ONLY 8 EPS, but oh my goodness how excited are we? Our first intentional historical BL out of Korea!

We already knew Hong Kong was doing a remake of Japan’s Ossan’s Love under the same name (not my favorite Japanese BL but so very popular) but it’s now reported to be coming to Viu in June. Who knows how the CFA will take it. Depends on whether Hong Kong bows before the NO GAY KISSES regs or if they are going to use this as a political nose thumb... things could get cray with this puppy (the original has several kisses and s shower scene). Are we back in Addicted territory only with added comedy and civil unrest?

Speaking of Japan, Absolute BL (AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko) dropped sooner than anyone thought, March 27. But being Japanese who knows how/when/if we get subs. Protag finds himself trapped in a world of BL, but being straight he fights against any hot guy that draws near, but the whole world (literally) is conspiring against him. It’s a parody adapted from a yoai.

What with Absolute BL from Japan plus Lovely Writer and Call it What You Want from Thailand, is 2021 the year of BL being ultra self referential? Sure feels like it.

In Case You Missed It

Faded a gay micro film from Taiwan from 2017 deals with parental acceptance and serves up a ton of BL tropes (piggyback, forehead kiss, etc). I’m pretty sure this was a propaganda piece for legalization of gay marriage, and it’s an interesting nugget of BL history as a result. Yes, it ends happy. It’s cute. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed a day later than actual air date for accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

Man there’s a lot going on right now! Spring has sprung... I suppose. 

P.S. I cannot believe I missed Absolute BL as a blog name. Numbnuts = me.