#their dynamic actually feels fresh and enjoyable

[epickiya722]

I think about how some people actually hate on Yuji, Nobara and Megumi and get confused because I went into JJK and by episode 3 I adored them.

[burst-of-iridescent]

atla live action thoughts: season one review

first things first: anyone who says the Movie That Does Not Exist is better than the live action is straight-up lying. the shymalan film fails on the criteria of even being a decent movie, let alone an adaptation. the netflix series, for all its problems, is at least an enjoyable watch with great effects, music and (mostly) appropriate casting. there's absolutely nothing to compare here - the netflix version clears easily.

now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's delve into the series, starting with the positives.

the good:

visuals and cinematography. they really did a great job of making it feel like a fantasy universe you wanted to be in & i love how vibrant the saturation and colour grading was. it made the world feel so much more dynamic and alive instead of the same flat, boring dullness that so many movies and shows have these days. sometimes i didn't even mind that i was being fed obvious exposition because at least they were giving me something pretty to look at lmao

effects and action. the bending was surprisingly good for the most part, and they did a good job of making the elements feel unique through the stunt choreography and the actors' movements. i'm immensely thankful they didn't try to skimp on budget by merely cutting away from fight scenes or showing us as little as possible. almost all the action sequences were fast-paced and engaging, and i was never bored watching them

acting. the main four were all great, but gordon cormier and dallas liu have to be the standouts for me. gordon brings such an earnest, innocent sweetness to aang that you can't help but like him, and dallas plays all of zuko's facets perfectly: the angst, the explosive anger, the bratty snark, and especially the deep-rooted pain that characterizes so many of zuko's actions in book 1. the range he has, especially when flashing from younger to older zuko, was insane. special shoutout to maria zhang and sebastian amoruso as suki and jet respectively, because they killed it

music. leaves from the vine instrumental had me tearbending and i love how they kept the iconic avatar theme while making it a little darker for this iteration of the story. in general, the soundtrack felt very true to the animation while still being a fresh spin on it

zuko and iroh's relationship and expanding on zuko's crew. i think the fandom universally agrees that lu ten's funeral and zuko's crew being the 41st division were the best changes in the series, so i'm not going to talk about it further other than to say that these scenes show me what the show can be, and that's why i'm not giving up on it

the bad:

characterization. almost all the main characters are missing the little nuances that made them so great in the original, but the greatest casualty is katara. i hate that they took away so much of her rage, and gave many of her traits and struggles to sokka. i don't think this is a problem solely with the writing though, because certain lines do feel like things animated katara would say, but the directing and line delivery don't have the same punch that made her so fierce in the original. this is an easily fixed issue though, so i hope they take the criticism and let my girl be angry and fuck shit up next season

exposition. this was primarily a problem in depicting aang's personality and the relationship between the gaang, because a) why are you TELLING me that aang is mischievous and fun-loving instead of just showing me and b) the gaang do NOT feel like close friends, mostly because they spend so much time apart in every episode that they have little screentime to actually bond and develop intimacy.

lack of focus on the intricacies of bending. for a show whose tagline is "master your element" the characters spend very little time actually... mastering their element. zuko is never shown to struggle with firebending (which is going to have ramifications when it comes to developing his relationship with azula), and neither aang nor katara ever learn waterbending from a master throughout the the entire show. i'm pretty sure aang never willingly waterbends ONCE in the entire eight episodes, discounting the avatar state and koizilla. bending isn't just cool martial arts, it's closely linked to the philosophies and spirituality of each nation, and i wish that had been explored more.

pacing. they really needed to do a better job of conveying that time passed between episodes because an 8-episode season is just going to FEEL shorter than a 20-episode one. the original animation felt as though they'd truly been on a long journey before arriving at the north, but here it feels like the entire show happened in the span of a fortnight or so because each episode seemed to pick up right after the previous. they needed to have more downtime within episodes instead of just rushing from plot beat to plot beat because it made everything feel a lot more rushed. give the characters and story time to breathe.

final rating: 7/10.

overall, i would describe the live action as a better version of the percy jackson movies - not an accurate or perfect adaptation, but a decent story that's very fun to watch. but what really makes me root for this show to get a season 2 is that it has a lot of potential and more importantly, a lot of heart. it's evident that the people who worked on it do genuinely love and respect the original series, and it shows onscreen.

regardless of anything else, this show created opportunities for so many asian and indigenous actors, writers and creators to tell the kinds of stories and play the kinds of roles they don't usually get, and that's something worth supporting. if they take the criticism from this season and improve, i believe they really do have something special on their hands which - although it might not be the original we all know and love - could still be a story to be proud of.

[slowlydifferentbluebird]

Snsd reaction

To you being there younger boyfriend please

Hi Anon, thank you for your request. I slightly changed the plot, opting for a neutral gender reader, to be more inclusive and enjoyable for everyone. I hope it's not a problem💙 Also, I'm including Sica in the line-up because I felt so lol

SNSD reaction to the reader being a younger partner

Taeyeon

Being the leader and oldest of her group, having a younger sister, being tutor and teacher for a lot of trainee in her agency...having younger people around her was nothing new for Tae. Actually it's something that makes her comfortable, she has that sense of control but without being possessive. Sometimes she needs your help to discover and understand the new trends.

Jessica

When she left the group, she felt like she didn't have nobody to trust anymore...but then you suddendly appeared, overcoming her coldness somehow. You were so fresh in your attitude and behaviour, and maybe even a bit immature, that it was refreshing for Sica having you around. Also, you were still kinda innocent and that was really important for her to give you a chance. She never regretted it.

Sunny

Often you look more like a couple of siblings bickering more than a dating couple. Or better, sometimes you two are so funny together that from outside you two look like a comedy duo. Your chemistry in the jokes and the sense of humor was something that Sunny couldn't find in partner of her same age or older. But now there's no a day where she can go to sleep without having a great laugh.

Tiffany

She's such a soft person, always smiling and kind with everyone...but with you? She reaches a new level: always so delicate and careful, almost being afraid of breaking you. She's calling you "baby" at 100%, because you're indeed her baby and be sure that she would spoil you so much. Also, she kinda fell in love when, despite being younger, you were so much attentive to her needs in her moments of down.

Hyoyeon

This agent of chaos will have fun messing up with you. We know she's the most serious during practice, but she's also a goofball in her daily life, so she will definitely playing with you using her duality. Be ready to be called "dummy" day and night, even if she does that out of love. Also, be sure to have a suitcase always ready, because she's taking you with during her travel to work as dj.

Yuri

Dramas, movies, tv shows... she's always so busy and that really influenced her romantic life. She was successful but lonely...until she met you. Being young you had the perfect mentality to understand her schedules, not making her feel guilty about not interacting too much sometimes. But, oh boy, when she is free, she's spending all her time with you, cuddling her baby that she missed so much.

Sooyoung

Bruh, why is your girlfriend roasting you? Like, there's no need to be that savage😭 But hey, you knew from the beginning what you were getting into. Sometimes she can come out as rude or indelicate, but it's just her way to worry about you. She's honest till to the end, making her look like a firm teacher(the hot one 👀)

Yoona

Now, who's the youngest between you two? Because she's always acting like a child around you💀 Sometimes she can be a tease, some prank always ready for you. You are starting to think you're a babysitter more than her partner, but you know it's just her playful side and that if things get serious, her adult side will come out(and that's kinda scary).

Seohyun

The national maknae being the oldest in a relationship? It was a dream to her. She really likes this dynamic in which she has the opportunity to be seen like an actual adult. It was like you really understood her persona. Despite that she would still your full attention like a real maknae lol. But in general she would be great help in your difficult moments, always supporting you in taking decisions.

~~~

I hope you liked it, Anon. Thank you again for requesting 😄💙

Zazá

[tumelothee]

I HAVE A THEORY...

What if Carmy is the friend who's ass might be dropped??

The Bear loves some foreshadowing and a call back. Episode 1 of season 2, Carmy finds Richie in the basement of The Beef\The Bear (why does a restaurant have a basement???) and Richie looks sad and anxious. He then expresses to Carmen that he's trying to find his purpose and that he's been reading a lot. He then tells Carmen about this book about this group of friends that have all these talents and one of them just watches trains and because that's all that friend does, they decide to drop his ass.

We get to episode 10, and this is the episode where Carmen and Sydney are supposed do the thing, work together, be cohesive, show their talents and be on their way to getting that star, but that's not what happened. Carmen ends up stuck in the fridge and Sydney is left in a bind. And then comes Richie, fresh off his mini redemption high, with a sense of purpose, ready to help Sydney AND DOES.

Sydney and Richie AND EVEN NATALIE, form this great dynamic and work flow at such a pivotal time, showing their talents and doing it without being assholes. 🤭

Richie, while not having any skills, was at the restaurant, everyday, helping and what not. Where was Carmen? Going out with a women he didn't even feel like calling his girlfriend...

Carmen ended up stuck in the fridge because of his own failures because of him not actually being an active partner for Sydney. He, himself realised he was the one that fucked up and nearly skrewed up everything and went into a spiral.

Carmen had the perfect 'receipe' to staring a great restaurant: Partners (Uncle Jimmy and Sydney) who are skilled and that he respects and trusts, employees that are efficient, staff that is reliable and hardworking and yet, he was barely there to acknowledge that and be apart of it.

That story Richie told, was not talking about him, it was talking about Carmen. Carmen might have exceptional skill, but he does not find what he does enjoyable, making him the friend that just watches (or ended up just watching).

The theme of purpose is not yet a closed case on The Bear. Come Season 3, I fear Carmen will struggle with finding who he truly is and how that will effect the people in his life. Hopefully he will let back enjoyment and amusement in his life...

[tech-92]

Tech and his "Extra Curriculars"

(CW: Talks of car crashes, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and hard kink)

When it comes to thinking or talking about Tech in any sexual situation, I feel it's important to understand where we come from here on this blog. A lot of posts on our blog tagged "#tbb tech" have this weird masochistic vibe to them and that's for a reason. Our understanding of Tech comes mostly from our development of a concept we call "Tech Crash". The "Crash" part in Tech Crash is from the 1996 movie Crash staring James Spader where essentially, he gets off on participating in car crashes. Anyways, here's what we have written down about the Tech Crash situation:

I finally figured it out what's going on with Tech. I had been having trouble because I knew that there was something Weird happening with him, I just wasn’t sure what exactly. Now I know. So, like obviously it’s been (practically) established in canon that he’s autistic. I also personally read him as someone who’s ace but still has sex and enjoys it. I think both of those things are intrinsic to his experience of sex. I also think both of those things lend quite well to him being into some strange and unusual fetish. We also happen to know he’s into high speed racing and shit from the show… And its like Crash in which he's like, into car crashes but it’s not exactly that. But I am expanding on that. I think he’s into very high-risk scenarios and extreme masochism.

Part of the Tech autism situation is that, it’s really clear he has a hard time with emotions. Specifically, I think he has a lot of trouble parsing out how he feels about things and what to do about that, how to cope, etc. Which is why he tends to ignore problems (ex: when Echo was gone in season 2). Because even if he can recognize he’s upset about something, he can’t really process it in more detail than that. This causes some issues given that he’s a clone and is regularly forced to experience very very dangerous situations with the very very real threat of death breathing down his neck. That’s emotionally and physically devastating. But those scenarios also have a very dramatic effect on the brain in the sense that pivoting SO DRAMATICALLY so quickly from a mindset of urgent survival, "holy shit i am about to die get it together i have to live i have to live" to the overwhelming and ecstatic relief of actually surviving creates a mental sensation not unlike orgasm. And then, pairing that chemical high with the fresh sensation of pain from the injuries he sustained during the survival period creates a deep association of extreme pain with extreme pleasure, even if it is in a twisted context. As an autistic person with similar alexithymia (emotional blindness) to Tech, I can DEFINITELY see him processing those sensations in a sexual way. His emotions would be way easier to recognize and interact with if they’re associated with the distinctive, familiar emotion of sexual arousal.

Of course, those intense scenarios are a very prominent part of his life, and I think as he gets older there comes a stronger divide between the painful, high-risk scenarios he experiences for work and the painful, high-risk scenarios he puts himself in deliberately for sexual pleasure. But I think a significant reason he chooses to put himself in those situations is that, if he’s regularly experiencing that level of fear, pain, and release voluntarily, it makes it a lot easier to handle those things when he’s forced to experience them outside of his own volition.

I want to be clear that I think his enjoyment of masochism is a very sensory focused thing that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with sub/dom dynamics, in fact I think he is specifically not into that sort of thing. I also think his masochism has nothing to do with underlying self-hatred or any sense of “deserving” it. It is PURELY because he likes the sensation of pain and gets off to it. That’s a big part of what I mean when I say his experience of sex is fundamentally autistic. I also think that in general, he’s just not really that into other people. Like, he is willing to have sex with other people, but mostly just because there’s certain things that he can’t really do to himself, whether due to physical or psychological barriers, or just that the safety risk involved in hurting yourself really bad often necessitates another person’s presence in case he passes out or something. What he considers sex/sexual activity is mostly stuff that is barely, if at all, recognizable as sex in the typical definition. This is why I think his experience of sex is also fundamentally aroace.

To get back to the Crash thing. I do think that broadly he is just simply into the idea of danger to a really strong degree, and that can be sort of anything. But he already knows a lot about and has a lot of experience with vehicles, and I think that pushing their abilities and his skills to the absolute brink is gratifying to him both in an experimental way and in a sexual way. He also has the conceptualization to understand the inherent sexiness of metal, cars, etc. even if he is not sexually attracted to the cars themselves. So yeah, he’s getting into crashes. He’s not into it in the same way they are in Crash, where the end-goal/ULTIMATE release is death; as I said this is all a very primal sensory thing for him and he is not into the idea of near-death so much as he is into the rush of endorphins that he experiences while in those situations. While his thing is very high-risk, he is careful about protecting the most important/vulnerable parts of his body and making sure things are set up in a way such that he can hurt a lot without being in too much actual danger of death/infection. However, I do think that when he was younger he took more risks and did some crazy shit that he should NOT have done but calmed down and became more careful as he got older. He probably has the most elaborate and frightening collection of scars. The Crash thing is also why he handles the fractured femur with such ease.

Additionally this part of why TechPhee does not work, at least for me. She could try to figure out how to flirt with him for months and he wouldn’t realize, then she’d finally just ask him out and by the time they hit the bedroom he is like “I need you to hurt me so bad I’m seeing stars in order to get off” and she’d be like "you know what this is not worth it I think we should just be friends". Any apparent mutual interest in each other would just be like, Phee thinking “His eyes are so beautiful I think I want to make love to him” and Tech thinking “she is pretty I wonder if she’d be willing to carve holes into my thighs” or something

[genderless-crimes]

chara bingo!!! tgwdlm alice, hidgens, bill, mcnamara? any or all of these

AAAAAAAA TYSM!!

okey I'm gonna answer all of these but it's gonna be obvious I have a Favorite

Alice Woodward:

GIRL "NOT YOUR SEED" IS STILL PLAYING ON LOOP IN MY HEAD SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT 5 YEARS AGO I CANNOT GET OVER HER

Alice is such a well-written character. Every time she shows up I giggle and kick my feet. The ways that she tries to distance herself from her father are heartbreaking and yet vaguely relatable. And the fact that, despite that, she still loves him, still yearns for that connection despite neither of them having the ability to communicate properly-- UGH IT'S SO GOOD

Also I'm not 100% certain Deb's right for her, just based on Watcher World, but it makes sense why she would be trying so hard to keep the relationship alive (the fact that she's trying to escape her dad yet is falling into the same patterns--) WHICH BRINGS ME TO

Bill Woodward:

AHAHDHAJSHEHAGGSHSHAHSHSHQHSJDHAHAVWB

Call me Bliklotep the way I wanna watch this man. I love him sm I want to send him to the shadow realm to see what he does I want to give him a fresh baked pie I want to stare at him

He so clearly loves Alice and is so utterly devoted to her, to being a good father, to succeeding at one thing in his life, in making one person happy. He sacrifices everything he has for her and it's not enough because you can't just sacrifice for someone all the time and expect things to be okay. He's so dedicated to making her happy that he ignores the things he dislikes or her obvious discomfort/annoyance. He's kind-hearted but also selfish. His best friend is the "rudest" guy in the office bc Bill can't help but see the good in people and work towards the best. THE MAN STAYED SOBER DURING AN APOCALYPSE BC HE THOUGHT THEY'D NEED A DESIGNATED DRIVER

I love Bill Woodward so much and it's unfair the way that he gets glossed over by the fanbase. Look, okay, I'm saying this as a certified Paul Enjoyer: this fanbase does not need more Paul content when Bill is right there not being used to his full potential

Professor Henry Hidgens:

The man the myth the legend himself!!! I love Hidgens, but I don't think I'm as crazy about him as other people in the fanbase. Obviously, he's iconic, and I love the bits of lore we know about him. Man is unhinged, desperately clinging to writing a musical about his ex boyfriends as a way of coping with their tragic deaths, and spends his entire life (when he isn't preparing for the apocalypse) working on it and looking for funding only to immediately snap the moment it actually gets produced bc it doesn't live up to his expectations...

Actually, maybe I am feral about him.

He's a bastard with a tragic backstory but is still a bastard. Love that kooky man

General John Macnamara:

My feels about Macnamara are kinda complicated. I really like his vibe, and every time he shows up I get excited bc he's fucking badass and also a bit deranged but in a cool and based way. On the other hand, military and cop characters always feel a bit ick to me just bc of real life stuff. He's the American of all time, tho, and I love his dynamic with Lex and Hannah. 8/10 wish I could like him more

[ravenkinnie]

i love love love the way you write jinx and the way you talk about her and her relationships!!! not to be annoying bc a lot of ppl in the fandom are like 16/17 but the general interpretation of jinx as little more than a victim of her circumstances and silco’s manipulation who should make up with her sister, be caitvi’s slightly annoying third wheel and ekko’s (or lux? lmao nothing against either ship but yk) quirked up gf is soooo boring (like god forbid a girl contains multitudes and is both a meow meow and an absolute cunt) and your take on her is such a breath of fresh air! not sure if you talked about this in a post already but what are your hopes in general for the new season and ofc for jinx in particular?

❤️❤️❤️ that's my pookie and even tho I'm hoeing across runeterra she will always be the one

no fr fr and listen I do feel like I'm fighting in a kindergarten when I hate because I realise it's cause everyone I'm beefing with is 18 and just likes the same YA archetypes as everyone else at that age but if 10k bitches can post it on ao3 I can hate on it. especially because it erases a supremely well done character that they made out of a lol champion I wouldn't even think twice about when she first released like that's a talent and that's work

and also if people want to complain about female characters in media it feels disingenuous to then remove agency from complicated female characters we do have to make them one dimensional - like one thing you cannot say about jinx is that she's flat - in personality I mean cause well. she is an active dynamic character with insane narrative potential and a lot of layers and being both a victim and a victimiser is an important part of that

my main hopes for season 2 are honestly

*I hope its consistent internally with its own ideology </3 I think s1 at the end starts unraveling a lil because it seems to despair for this both sides ass take but it just wouldn't make any sense with league lore or the show itself. here I mostly fear for ekko gkbknj

*everybody should become a somewhat worse person, like vi provably will because she will become an enforcer, caitlyn seems to also be heading for some corruption arc, obv viktor is there, so I think this will be fulfilled teehee

*I want jinx to have her own arc and I mean an arc where she develops her own goal and motivations outside other characters too and maybe this goal will be to love evil till the day she dies, ill take it!! I just think seeing jinx grow outside that child/flighty troublemaker into a full on villain/terrorist will be fantastic and will also give her actual league lore another layer that hopefullyyyy they can continue to build on (and they will never stop banking on jinx like that's basically leagues mascot)

*mel survives </3 like it would be way too much of a loss of a great character to give her so little storyline of her own, she needs to be in s2

*overall, sorry to be a freak but I'm a tragedy lover and enjoyer and I know they are tied to champion lore somewhat now but I still hope it ends sad or bittersweet for everyone. and when you say tragedy people often think of character death but that's probably the least tragic ending you can give a bitch, the true hollowness in losing everything you once were and could have been is what im talking about!!

*I did say this before but I hope jinx kills imagine dragons in arcane universe. first of all they are touring in israel so they deserve that but also it would be really funny to see them on her list of victims like just whole ass imagine dragons under silco or sth

[markantonys]

Conversation on Twitter on how book Moiraine and Rand's antagonism and distrust despite needing each other is what keeps them from just being Gandalf and Frodo 2.0 and because the show made Moiraine the viewpoint character in s1 they just made Rand and Moiraine's relationship like Gandalf and Frodo's but like... They are antagonistic towards each other in s1. In s2 they argue too. And s3 it very likely could take a nose dive again. I do think the show toned down the antagonism a bit but the main difference is that I think show Rand respects her but I don't think he trusts her

has anyone in the world ever watched wotshow and thought to themselves "wow, moiraine and rand remind me so much of gandalf and frodo"????? in the early episodes of s1 MAYBE (in the exact same way that somebody reading EOTW might think so) but by the end of s2 the whole vibe of the characters & of the dynamic as well as the things moiraine is mentoring rand on and the goals they're trying to accomplish, all of that is so vastly different from gandalf and frodo - in large part BECAUSE they made moiraine a viewpoint character and fleshed her out as more than just the mysterious wizard mentor figure. and even the simple fact of the mentor being a woman (and a gay woman at that) and the mentee being a man is enough of a twist on standard same-gender mentor-mentee fantasy dynamics that you honestly barely even need to change anything else to make it feel fresh (tho ofc the books & show do change plenty of other stuff as well). i've seen a number of show-onlys list "wise wizard mentor being a woman instead of a man" as an initial unique selling point that got them to tune into the show, so clearly they aren't feeling that this mentorship dynamic is trite and tired and same-y.

ostensibly, an argument like this is concerned about show-onlys; readers already know what rand & moiraine's dynamic is like, so if a reader is arguing that the show made it too similar to gandalf & frodo, that means their concern, ostensibly, is that someone who does NOT already know anything about the dynamic wouldn't find it engaging. of course, this subset of readers doesn't actually give a shit about show-onlys' opinions or about the show catering to them and being accessible and enjoyable to them, but ostensibly, this take is worried about the dynamic being able to engage viewers who don't have any book context or knowledge and know only what the show has shown them.

in which case, i'm gonna need readers to actually bother talking to show-onlys and finding out what they think about stuff before making arguments like this, because i highly doubt any show-only is out there thinking that moiraine & rand's dynamic is boring because it's too similar to gandalf & frodo. genuinely, so many bad reader show-takes would be solved if they actually engaged with show-onlys (and show-onlys of a broader spectrum than just "wlw twitter who would jump in a lake if moiraine told them to") and took their input as indicative of how the show is doing at portraying xyz, because so many of the things they complain about the show not conveying properly are things that do, in fact, come across perfectly well to show-onlys. but this take feels less like "i'm genuinely concerned that the moiraine-rand dynamic in the show is not engaging to those who have no prior knowledge of what their dynamic is like" and more like "i've been mad about moiraine being bumped up to primary character level for 3 years and am making up new reasons to explain why it's bad because everybody else has stopped listening to me shouting about the original reasons"

[many-gay-magpies]

Hi it's Quill! ❤️ You said you love to talk about writing, I'd love to hear some of it, so here it is: can you please answer 13, 14, 27, 63 and 64? AND as a bonus (if you want), answer the question you really wanted someone to ask you when you saw the list 😜

hi hi @shadowquill17, thank you sm for asking!! I am glad you would love to hear because I have written. A Lot. thank you for giving me license to yap lmao

13. what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

more and more lately, I've been following the advice of "write the scenes in the order you want to write them, you can connect the dots later"- it just makes for such an easy flow as opposed to trying to write everything in perfect chronological order to get to the scenes you really want to write, because often by the time you GET to those scenes you're worn out by trudging through the writing in-between, or the words have fled from your brain. and oftentimes I end up majorly rewriting those scenes I wrote early on to make them fit with the stuff I wrote after, but like, it's such a relief to just. get the words on the page (or screen, technically). and now im realising that this tip may not exactly be COMMON but it's one I follow a lot kshdfkhsdfkh

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I mean, I don't know that the writing of emotional scenes is something I really consciously think about? like. any scene that has characters in it is going to have emotions in it. because I am writing people, and people are feeling emotions. pretty much all the time. but I get that this question more means, like, big breakdowns or emotional climaxes or cathartic moments, so- I don't know? I don't know that I feel what the characters feel (although sometimes yeah probably); it's more that I just imagine how THEY would feel and act in the situation, based on how they've acted in the canon material and whatnot. for some things I have drawn on personal experience, like the description of Edwin's touch starvation in to a grave dug for fear is VERY drawn from my own physical feelings in similar situations, especially the "grip around his heart like a scream about to burst" description of the hug at the end. but mostly yeah I just, like, envision the scene in my head as if I was watching it as a scene on TV and then write it. writing emotion and emotional scenes is very well-practiced/comes very naturally to me, so it's not really something I think about anymore skhdfkshdfkh

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

ooooh lemme think. I think most favorite: right when you have a fresh new idea and you're just on a ROLL writing it, everything's coming out so smooth and perfect and you feel so INSPIRED and so happy with how good it is/is gonna be. that's my favorite and then my LEAST favorite is that stage of editing where you've been looking at a piece so long that you start to hate it, and now phrasings and bits of dialogue you started out loving look weird and clunky, and oh lord why has no one ever told you you use this many semicolons??? that's too many semicolons. cool it with the semicolons. and the em dashes as well. coming back with an edit because I remembered another least favorite part (which really pertains more to the ABSENCE of writing): that specific mood where you have an idea that you know would be really really cool to write, you have the plot and character dynamics and arc and everything perfectly envisioned and you know it would be SO SO GOOD... but the actual spark of motivation that makes you want to write the thing just is not there. it's always like UGHHHHH IM SO SORRY I CANT DO YOU JUSTICE, YOU WOULD BE SO GOOD IF I ACTUALLY WANTED TO WRITE YOU TT. but instead it sits there and rots. I despise this

63. Something you hate to see in smut.

I don't know if it's an outright HATE, and I can push through it sometimes if the rest of the smut is more or less enjoyable, but like. I strongly dislike when there is not clear, explicit, enthusiastic consent established throughout the scene- like, if a character just DOES SOMETHING without asking first, or just saying like "can I try something?", and waiting to get their partner's agreement before proceeding. oftentimes I see this happen in fics with a dom/sub dynamic where the just-going-for-it-without-asking is written into the general commanding-ness of the dominant person in the relationship, which is just. eugh, no thanks. I think DBDA fic in particular has diminished my tolerance for lack of explicit verbal consent because so many DBDA smut fics have SUCH prominent and fantastic consent established. also when characters in a d/s dynamic are made to do or say things that are just completely out of character (imo) in the name of pushing that dynamic further

64. Something you love to see in smut.

Conversely, of course, I love seeing explicit and enthusiastic consent in smut, ESPECIALLY when someone asking "can I try something" "can I touch you" "is this okay" "do you want to stop" etc etc is answered with "anything" "do NOT stop" or just straight-up begging. like. such a lovely lovely way of confirming consent while maintaining the mood >> (although consent doesn't BREAK the mood anyway). or like, when a character does something on accident, the other character reacts with a gasp or a loud noise or whatever, and the first character is like "oh no did I hurt you??" and the second character (who was really into it) is like "FUCK NO DO THAT AGAIN" In the interest of giving a different answer tho, some other stuff I love in smut is dynamics where a character that hasn't gotten to let go or be vulnerable in this way really ever is given the space to do that, and even ENCOURAGED to... where someone who thinks they aren't good enough or don't deserve this gets assured irrevocably that they ARE and they DO through sex... cough cough sub Charles fics cough cough-- yeah generally just. some good home-grown life-affirming smut. thumbs up emoji also desperation/lack of composure/greed/intense unrestrained desire/want bordering on hunger is hot. especially characters that have been composed/trying to hold back before just fucking losing it. but I think that's kinda the name of the game with a lot of smut

hope you enjoyed this essay lmao

[the-bloody-sadist]

Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Ooooooooo I LOVE YOU FOR ASKING ME THIS QUESTION!! THAT'S SO FASCINATING! THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ME! If my friends know anything about me it's that I LOVE to psychoanalyze, so let's see what I can do here *cracks every knuckle*---

I'll preface by saying I have NOT read any het romance in the MANGA world at least--or otherwise japanese/chinese/korean sources--but did grow up only reading/watching/writing that and thinking I hated romance in general because it was so fucking boring LMAO. If I can compare any het media to non-American BL media, I would have to say anime is my only reference!

With that said, I came through the same arc you did. I tried het romance my whole life, suddenly fell upon BL, said WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS AND WHY IS IT SO GOOD COMPARED TO THE SHIT I'VE BEEN READING, never went back to het romance, and now do BL in all shapes and forms full-time.

What seems to be the big factor in BL/yaoi being so much more enjoyable is that there's an inherent difference in the dynamic of male/male vs. male/female--as portrayed by media, at least. And there's just something about that dynamic that makes it more gripping. It's easier to feel that line of tension between the characters, not to mention the fact that most male/male couples' conflict is far more relatable than the ones I see in female/male. In het media, I tend to see incredibly petty choices of conflict, whereas a LOT of BL chooses trauma, mental illness, and sometimes the acceptance of being gay as the reasons the couples struggle.

I identify far more with those issues than I do with the more stupid conflicts I see in het media like "HE'S WITH ANOTHER GIRL WHATEVER SHALL I DO!" (and it's just his sister) or "HOW DO I KNOW IF I ACTUALLY LIKE HIM? MAYBE I DON'T! LET ME THROW HIM FOR LOOPS AND GO BACK AND FORTH!" and other common, annoying tropes. Especially the jealousy and love triangles. BL does some love triangles, but it's just less...petty? There are usually more founded issues for the conflict that comes from those situations.

I say this with hesitation, but I also feel that BL/yaoi tends to have more creative and unseen concepts than het media. Actually--erase that hesitation. I believe that wholeheartedly. They tend to choose traumatic situations more often than het media--and this is the important part--THEY PORTRAY THEM IN A MORE REALISTIC MANNER.

This doesn't go for all BL because of course it doesn't. An entire genre of different writers--many good and many bad--can never have a singular good trait shared between all of them. But the majority of BL that I've read that include scenes of rape, child abuse, or sex trafficking keeps some sense of terror and gravity to the situation. That's something I tend to see less of in het media. Instead, things often feel more exploitative or voyeuristic. Suffering as a spectacle, as they say. However, it may just have something to do with the female gender being the victim, which we've all seen countless times in all shapes and forms. It feels fresh and new to see a male character going through those issues, instead.

On that topic, I would add that the main audience for romance as a whole has always been dominated by women, so women are more likely to be the consumers of both het and queer romance. When it comes to yaoi, the automatic power balance of male/female is gone, leaving only male/male and opening the option for different ways to imbalance that power--automatically feeling more creative and new than the age old female-victim-male-aggressor-but-he's-kinda-hot trope. In addition to this, so many het romances have unapologetic portrayals of romanticized abuse (The Notebook, 50 Shades of Grey, Blade Runner [speaking to the romance PLOT, sorry, more obscure], the After series, The Kissing Booth, and so on) that never get brought up, never seem to affect the female lead negatively, and always get the couple together in the end. This is endlessly infuriating to me and I've never enjoyed the popular het romances for this reason. It feels like gaslighting--gaslighting of the audience--to see harsh moments of outright abuse and then see the female lead react as if it's sexy, and to feel nothing but gut-freezing disgust as a viewer. It's even more painful when the audience around you also reacts in that way because they're so used to seeing it in your everyday het romance.

Contrasting this with yaoi/BL media--this issue is completely flipped. Countless stories show abuse, address the abuse, portray the male lead suffering from the effects of that abuse, and proceed with a motivation to fix, endure, or to run away from that abuse. To claim that yaoi/BL has less romanticization of said abuse is not wholly true, but the problem for me has always been that het romance PRETENDED THE ABUSE DID NOT EXIST AND/OR IS SEXY AND NORMAL. Whereas yaoi seemed more self-aware that they were writing abuse, and--if they chose to romanticize it--more often did so because the abuse was being experienced through the eyes of the victim. This is important because victims of abuse in reality DO this to cope and survive, so the romanticization is a direct result of a trauma response, and it's made far more clear in yaoi that this is the case.

This is why the kidnapping, Stockholm syndrome romances (Killing Stalking at the top), and toxic relationship themes in BL are far more attractive and validating to read.

Say, for instance, the romances that include themes of kidnapping, sexual assault, and captivity in het media. What have we got for that that's good and actually explores the nature of abuse? What I tend to see that meets that criteria (possibly) isn't really included in the romance category at all--it's either listed as horror or it's a lightened romcom version of that event (kidnapping, specifically)--unless you think of the more popular ones like 365 Days where it's supposed to be sexy and everyone has no brain. I might be flimsy on my point here, since this is the first time I've tried to pick apart this subject, so I apologize. But in addition to these het romances with the themes that I'd like to see not really existing in a way that's been done WELL--I also personally can't watch a woman getting hurt the way I can watch a man getting hurt.

We've seen enough women suffering onscreen, and most of the times the way it gets filmed ends up feeling sexualized in some way--especially if it's a horror movie or a thriller romance. I personally don't enjoy the lack of emotional depth in these types--and clearly they're most often written to be sexy or shock horror more than serious. Trauma doesn't feel real in these stories, so it's intensely triggering to watch it happen onscreen without a resolution to that trauma.

Going back to yaoi/BL, their romances include and very often feature abusive relationships or straight-up hostage romances. But the way they're handled is the big difference. Even though some treat the abuse like sexy porn scenes and I find myself dropping them for the same triggers that set me off in het media, this is much less of a problem, and you can get your thrills without the invalidation of watching trauma happen without being treated like trauma. There's often an arc of learning for the abuser, the relationship healing/improving (and I don't care that it's not morally correct or realistic for this to happen because it's fiction and we all need our coping mechanisms for reality), and a satisfying end where both the characters learn how to love each other. In their own way.

This makes the trauma feel raw and the healing feel rewarding, which is what I come to see. It feels like more BL writers get this and have actually been through some shit.

Lastly, it's not weird that you feel this way, and I'm worried that the discourse on social media about people who exclusively enjoy yaoi/BL has influenced that belief in a lot of people. It shouldn't be that way, and I hope people come around to the actual logic instead of copy-pasting what everyone else says to fit in!

IN ANY CASE, I HAVE RAMBLED FAR TOO LONG ON PRETTY MUCH THE SAME POINT, BUT I HOPE THIS HELPED!! That's the main difference that I'm drawn to yaoi for and I hope it might have helped you see why you are, too!!

Much love to you, and again, thank you SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME THIS QUESTION!! I loved getting to answer that.

[emilybrontesghost]

So not that anybody cares lol, but yesterday I watched Red, White and Royal Blue because it just came out and that’s just what you do, right? I will say in advance I haven’t read the book so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the film, only what I thought of it. I also will say that I’ve been watching Heartstopper for the first time this past week too, so that story is still very fresh in my mind and was while I was watching RWRB. I think it’s a fair comparison too because there ARE surface similarities at least: (l.e. one of the MCs is bisexual, they have to keep their relationship a secret, etc.) I have to say, though parts of the movie were enjoyable/cute, it was overall disappointing for me. I expected a lot more and it didn’t really deliver. Despite the film being about two adult men I feel the depth and maturity of the relationship between the teen MCs of Heartstopper was far better. I felt like this movie focused quite a bit on the physical side of things more between Alex and Henry and less on the emotional side. We got a handful of scenes where they were being emotionally open, (like the museum scene for instance where they dance) but I feel like we just don’t see enough of them going from frenemies to lovers. It feels like it all happens too fast so when Alex tells Henry he’s in love with him and Henry gets scared, it lessens the impact. I realize as a two hour movie that they were under time constraints and that Heartstopper benefits from being a tv show in that way with multiple episodes, but I still feel like the film should have used the time it did have better. The other thing I think Heartstopper does better is that it’s not afraid or embarrassed to focus wholeheartedly on the romance between Nick, Charlie, and the other characters. It’s very character driven rather than plot driven in that way, and it works because it makes the characters feel like real people. RWRB though, despite being billed as a romcom, didn’t focus enough I feel like on the love story, and this was mainly due to the scattered focus of the narrative.

The movie seems to be trying to be a romcom but the other storylines that aren’t Alex and Henry’s relationship are frankly, imho, boring. None of the other supporting characters are fleshed out enough for me to care about them so they feel a bit like props in every scene they’re in. Henry’s sister for instance gets very little screen time though she’s supposed to be arguably the most accepting and understanding person in Henry’s life. We also don’t see enough of the parental dynamics with either character. I’ve heard the book characters are more fleshed out but it seems they cut quite a bit of that. And I realize this is personal preference because I understand the storyline about his mom’s campaign IS in the book, but the whole political aspect of the story really was just uninteresting to me and also pretty unrealistic imho. I know some people had complaints that the book in their opinion wasn’t political ENOUGH, but as far as the movie goes I just wanted to watch a romance so the other stuff I tuned out tbh. I was looking for light entertainment and seeing Rachel Maddow on the news clips and the Texas victory rather than contributing to the realism of the story honestly just took me out of it and made it seem made-up because I couldn’t imagine that happening. The overall feel of the movie also felt like they were kinda not very generous with the budget with this film. There were a lot of shots that showed they weren’t really able to show a lot of exterior views like when it came to the palace for instance where Henry lives. We finally see a bit more of the inside of what I think is supposed to be Buckingham Palace near the end of the movie, but when they are supposed to step out onto the balcony we don’t actually see any people below, even though there is supposed to be a crowd, because they cut away. It just felt like they were trying to take shortcuts that were cheaper with filming wherever they could. I also have to say I felt like the chemistry between the two leads was a bit shaky, especially in the beginning. They seemed to become more comfortable as it went on but the beginning of the movie did kinda feel like two straight dudes pretending to be gay/bi for the film. I looked into the actors and couldn’t find anything conclusive but that was the impression I as a queer women felt while watching. It just didn’t feel super authentic. I do think Henry’s character seemed more believable to me and I think that’s in part because I think the dude who plays him is a better actor. I never really could warm to Alex personally all that much. As happy as I was to see Alex and Henry get together in the film, it’s no comparison to how I felt watching the buildup of Heartstopper’s romance. It was MUCH more satisfying to see Charlie and Nick grow from friends to lovers imho. All in all, the movie was kinda a let down for me. I prob won’t rewatch it and ultimately it was just not a film I was that invested in. 🤷‍♀️

[chippdhearts]

hello again! can you imagine if they gave us the female friendships we deserved 😭 like sofia/sara/catherine would have ruled 😭 instead we got that awkward sofia/sara rivalry over grissom (which was also quickly shoved aside and forgotten forever??) what were the writers even thinking

anyway, my favourite characters are grissom (I see so much of myself in grissom - both good and bad traits) and sara (she's so sweet amd smart) but I like everyone, really.

I'm doing something really unhinged - which is I jumped to immortality (which i felt was kinda weird for a series finale, but i digressk) and then started Vegas s1 (although I must admit, I'm not really liking - i hope it gets more interesting). perhaps after I'm done with this, I'll go back to s9 or just jump to s11 like you suggested - maybe a fresh cast is what I need. although I don't want to lose willows too :/

I would have just about killed for a girls gone wild (oh yeah you'll have to watch season 14 and 15 just for these two episodes. All three of the girls go on a girls weekend, x2, and things happen) style episode with the three of them. Literally would have given anything for them to hang out together, they are my girlsssss.

Okay this is interesting! I always think I hate grissom when I haven't watched the show for a while but really I just hate GSR, I don't think it feels like a natural dynamic at all but that's a whole other can of worms. So we get Sara back (season 10 properly iirc) but we don't really see grissom again until imm. But I maintain that we got better content of the girls in the later seasons because it wasn't the 00s anymore and female rivalry was SLOWLY going out of trend.

Immortality was 100000% built for the GSR shippers (aka NOT me) but I was glad to see heather and cat back of course. Vegas is... not the best. I have only watched it once through, and I only admittedly started it when season 2 was airing because I saw they were bringing cat and lindsay back and the concept intrigued me, but they fucked it up big time imo. But also I'm like... just really gay for catherine so it was nice to get to just see her again 😂 regardless of things I did or did not like about various other plot lines.

Cat's leaving arc is SAD but also is probably my favourite character exit. I feel like they gave her the respect she deserved after spending so long on the show. There are many other unrelated to the plot reasons that I really really like that season and it will always be special to me personally. But I do also think that Russell and Finn both get really epic character intros.

Season 10 has, arguably my least fave character (apart from hodges) from the whole series so it's probably the one I have watched the least out of all the seasons. But I think 9-11 are worth watching at least once. Actually this rewatch I found some episodes in season 11 that I liked quite a lot as stand alones. But the overall arc of those seasons are not super enjoyable for me personally.

[billpottsismygf]

So, I've just watched The Talons of Weng Chiang and I am somewhat surprised and conflicted because, in many ways, I absolutely loved it. All I knew of it previously is that it's infamous for being the most racist Doctor Who story of all time, so it would be nice and simple if I could just write it off as a terrible story, but I can't.

Addressing the good first, it's a very well told story with a lot of atmosphere and a great sense of location in Victorian London. The script is tight and witty and delightful, with so many bits of dialogue that made me laugh out loud. It's also particularly well-paced for a six-parter. I never once felt like it was dragging! It also has brilliant characters. Jago and Litefoot are delightful, as is Casey, and it's even got an adorable giant sewer rat! Even Chang is surprisingly sympathetic and I was quite saddened by his end.

It's funny that the origin of Jago & Litefoot as a Big Finish duo is about the only other thing I knew about this story, and they don't meet at all for the first 4 and a half episodes. When they do meet, though, their dynamic is extremely enjoyable so maybe I ought to listen to some of their audios. I also went down a rabbit hole because I was sure I recognised Christopher Benjamin (who plays Jago) and boy do I! Turns out that he has had two other roles in Doctor Who (Sir Keith in Inferno and the Colonel in The Unicorn and the Wasp), as well as being Sir Lucas in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice (the superior one imo) and was in three episodes of The Avengers (one I don't really remember, one I remember a bit, and one which is one of my favourite episodes of the whole show). No wonder he seemed familiar!

I love the Fourth Doctor's humour and charisma as always, and it's particularly enjoyable seeing him get to be a Sherlock Holmes insert here, and I also love how much action Leela gets to do. I actually think Leela is becoming one of my favourite companions in the whole show. She's not experienced in time travel or things that might be regarded as civilised (eg. cutlery), but she's quick on the uptake and principled and always ready for a fight. I love her getting to physically fight people, sharpen knives, practice swinging cricket bats, come up with tactical moves etc., all in Victorian garb. She straight up kills a dude this serial! She's such a fresh take on the companion, one which could have been done badly (sexy savage) but is actually extremely charming.

Unfortunately, the portrayal of the Chinese characters is... yeah, not great. There is a precedent in Classic Who of white actors playing people of colour and it's interesting that this story gets more heat for it than, say, Marco Polo or The Aztecs. It's obviously not okay in any of them, but I think there are a few reasons that this is the one that gets called out the most. One is simply that the 60s episodes are probably seen by fewer people nowadays, especially the missing ones like Marco Polo. Another is a suspicion I have that the nature of the 60s episodes being in black and white distances us from it, both in it being less visible and seeming like longer ago (eg. the slightly darker skin tone they give Patrick Troughton in The Enemy of the World as Salamander isn't as noticeable as it would have been in colour). Relatedly, perhaps we're a little more forgiving of the 60s for this, when by the late 70s we feel it should have stopped. Finally, though, it may just be because the way they go about it in The Talons of Weng Chiang is one of the more uncomfortable examples.

Specifically, the thing that makes it worse than other examples in Doctor Who is the fact that they use prosthetics to try and make this obviously white man look Chinese. The way his eyes and forehead bulge out so they could create epicanthic folds is positively grotesque. His performance, while relatively restrained when compared to other offensive Chinese caricatures, also includes a Chinese accent, which absolutely does not help. Additionally, although there are at least Asian actors playing the less central Chinese characters, the two masked characters who are not technically meant to be actual Chinese humans but are still part of the whole Orientalist thing going on (Mr Sin and Weng Chiang), are also played by non-Chinese actors.

Even if all the Chinese characters had been cast appropriately, there is still an issue with the sterotyped, exoticised and demonised portrayal of Chinese culture. I'm not qualified to dive into the intricacies of that, but when your villains for a story are Chinese and you have them portrayed mainly as exotic and scheming, and also have the white Victorian characters saying racist things about them unchallenged, it's not a great look. As I said above, at least Chang ends up as a pretty sympathetic character and, despite everything, I found myself somewhat moved by John Bennett's performance near the end, but it counts for very little when it's done through this pantomime mask of yellowface.

I don't know. It's very hard to have a definitive opinion on this one because it's for the most part a very good Doctor Who story, but that in no way excuses its racism. I think it's one of those your-mileage-may-vary situations with how much you can mentally separate yourself from the latter to enjoy the former. I totally understand why someone might decide that this one is irredeemable, but I am also very used at this point to watching and enjoying Problematic Media - including many old movies and tv shows - while simultaneously criticising its problems. Ultimately, my opinion matters not at all in terms of whether it is Morally Acceptable to enjoy this story, so I can only really decide for myself how comfortable I feel about it. Anyway, I can't recommend this one without a hundred caveats, but overall I had a far better time with it than I was expecting.

Misc small things There was a mention of time agents, which is fascinating. I know I haven't seen a chunk of the Third Doctor, but to my knowledge and memory this is the first mention of a time agency. I had no idea that was a thing before 2005! Positive mentions of my hometown, hell yeah!

[not-poignant]

Re: your - totally valid! - feelings on writing more Augus & Gwyn as MCs. Do you find still writing the Nascent Diplomat emotionally taxing bc of that? Like, I adore that story and would love to read more ofc, but if it doesn't bring you any joy that would dampen my own enjoyment too. Personally, I'd much rather you put TND on pause and maybe pick it up again in a few years, but just write the stories you are excited about for now! Idk, just, pls write what makes you happy, Pia💗

Hi anon!

Let's talk about this in more detail and hopefully you'll understand better at the end of it. :)

I can still write The Nascent Diplomat partly because it's not a conventional romance story (Gwyn is developing relationships not just with Augus, but also with Kimerrin and Temsen), partly because I started it before I burnt out on Gwyn/Augus as a couple, and partly because the feel of the story is so different to general stories where Gwyn and Augus are present.

Augus' sadism has been muzzled by Gwyn's traumatic past, and putting Gwyn with the vench means he can't use his stoicism and his stubbornness in the same way anymore without literally disabling himself and suffering, so they've both had to become as much different people as they could possibly be within the scope of who they are.

I've found a lot of the time, the things most folks want from Augus and Gwyn is - understandably - when they are most 'themselves' in new stories. So Augus as a sadist, potentially taking Gwyn (or another character) down or taming him or being an incredible dominant. Or Gwyn being stoic and repressed and having a traumatic family background and needing to be hurt until he has no choice but to accept comfort and being a submissive in denial that he's a submissive. And I've now written versions of that narrative about 6 or 7 times. Gwyn being with Temsen would be a similar enough dynamic to classic Augus/Gwyn, that while it's fun to think about, I just can't write that same journey again with either of those characters any time soon?

And The Nascent Diplomat isn't that journey either, it's one of the reasons I do enjoy writing it still (though I don't think I could write more than one chapter a month, which is why I...only release one chapter a month, so I stay fresh with it and can stay present with the characters).

And one of the comments tND gets most as an AU, is that it's incredible how different this version of Augus and Gwyn are, compared to all the other versions, because of circumstance/s.

But any time a new AU idea or something similar comes up, what folks want most - say even with Gwyn/Temsen - is very classic Augus/Gwyn dynamics, and I'm just... not writing those with Augus/Gwyn because I've done it 6~ times now across over a million words, and I no longer feel fresh with it, with those characters specifically, as a concept. And I feel like if I kept forcing myself to write the dynamic people ask for the most from them, or expect from them, that's when I would really truly burn out. And tbh anon, I did just...stop writing them in that dynamic actually years ago. Even the epilogue that Augus/Gwyn are in, within Fae Tales, is very different from COFT and GT content. I had 'Gwyn is too traumatised for sex' to fall back on, but I deliberately could not write something similar to what they used to be. In some ways that was a win (we got to see a different kind of love between them, and a different way of coming together for them), but... *thinks* it's been years since I've written 'classic' Gwyn and Augus and my burnout hasn't gotten any better. To me, The Nascent Diplomat isn't very classic Gwyn and Augus at all. And it makes me happy to know that Augus will likely never be able to be truly sadistic to that version of Gwyn, because it means I can't be sort of...driven back into that version of that story for those two.

So while I appreciate your concern, anon, I wouldn't write a story I didn't want to write or didn't know how to write. I'm not that sacrificial and I care about my mental health too much to do it, which is why I constantly say I won't be (or will not likely to be) doing it anymore in new stories, lmao. Even if that risks the displeasure or dislike of other people.

The Nascent Diplomat gets to sit in its own window. It helps a lot that it only demands 12 chapters a year from me, so it never really trips off that burnout in the same way. I'm sure if I had to write more of it more often, I may have put it on hiatus, but I don't need to because I found the sweet spot for it.

[fujoreads]

Umineko: Episode 2 // Review & Thoughts

Heey it's Episode 2! I've just finished Episode 4, so I might as well catch up on these.

VNDB | Steam

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

CW: Murder (duh); non-explicit nudity; child abuse

P.S.: There are broken youtube previews due to my blog's theme, so they won't look as good, but I refuse not to show them.

If Episode 1 was crazy enough, this episode just gets crazier—and so on. I don't remember much of the details from this, but I do remember it focusing more on Shannon and Rosa this time.

There's even some cool foreshadowing I understand now after finishing Episode 4! I will only reference it in my EP4 review, though.

By the way, unlike EP1, I won't go into as much detail since we're all aware of who the characters are.

Let us begin!

PLOT

Different deaths, different order, different victims!

We get to know more about Shannon and her inner desires for a successful romantic relationship with George. They are very cute together, though I found the whole aquarium date a bit slow.

THEY SAID THE THING!!!

Hahaha, it's fun to see how this sentence can apply to so many different situations, meaning different things.

CHARACTERS

Ushiromiya Battler

This might be the most emotionally brutal episode to him. Well, to an extent they all are, but the way Beatrice made him submit so hard is something else.

This was a fantastic episode for femdom enjoyers such as myself kekw

Ushiromiya Eva

Eva plays a huge role in Shannon's view of herself (and her role in George's life) as an obstacle.

I don't have much to add—she'll have her time next episode.

Ushiromiya Jessica

I almost forgot this was the episode we discover Jessica has a crush on Kanon. I'm not going to lie, I hate this ship. Well, hate is a strong word, but I don't really feel any chemistry and it feels forced, so it's kinda funny how Kanon keeps rejecting her.

Ushiromiya Rosa

Her relationship with Maria is a continuous focus over the entire arc, but this episode focused a lot on how her relationship with her family shaped her into this well-meaning but abusive parent.

This dynamic will be better developed in Episode 4, but I really enjoyed these scenes, even if they hurt a lot to read through.

Rosa is the leader this time. It's fun how our reaction towards her with a gun is completely different from EP1, when Natsuhi was the surviving parent.

It's the eyes, I tell you. They have malice in them o_o"

Though I'll admit, the last scene with her and Maria was hella badass, and it was nice to see her trying to save her at all costs, even if she was a bit greedy as well.

Her Tea Party torture scene was... man, that was tough to read.

Shannon

Shannon had huge character development throughout this entire episode and I loved it. But to be completely honest, I can't remember a lot except for Rosa's paranoia.

The Stakes

Ooooh man, I wasn't expecting to see actual demons. I don't know why I wouldn't expect it, but I just didn't. I liked Asmodeus, she seems fun!

Atmosphere & Soundtrack

My favorite banger for the episode! It's such a great ending scene aaaa

Mechanics & Gameplay

We get introduced to the red truths. I finally understand the memes!!

I love how Ryukishi is always introducing new concepts even within the game. It keeps things fresh, especially considering how long this game is.

Final Thoughts

Well, this was it for me! I think the next episodes might be more detailed, I just forgot a lot about this episode. Of the Question Arc, this may be the least memorable, unfortunately.

It was still a great episode, and I finished wanting more! I'll give this a 7.5/10, aka 4 stars!

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊��.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

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[captainsspnanon]

C3E49 reaction

A very VERY enjoyable episode.  It’s been a while since we’ve had one where there’s so much conversation and RP and it’s a breath of fresh air.

I’m a bit disappointed in Matt for not having the leylines as a projection in the background.  I would have LOVED seeing that get slowly stronger each long rest - or even just only being able to see it once it was ‘full’.   But speaking of leylines, props to Matt for acknowledging the fact that Chetney HAS seen this, two or three times.  I know he didn’t plan for it, his descriptions were very much the ‘this is the most magical thing you will ever see in your life’, but he kept true to the fact that Chet is old as balls.

Good choices all around for the Sendings.  Big fan of Ira being brought back into play, because I feel like he’s definitely going to fuck shit up for the party in one way or another.  He’s powerful, but he’s very much on his own side and I like the dynamic that’s bringing in.

Honestly I am LOVING the dynamic that Laura is playing here with Imogen and her mother.  Imogen knows realistically that her mother is on the wrong side, but there is the emotional desperation to have Mother Know Best and Be Loving and Be Right, so Imogen rationalizes based off of her emotions and craving for connection.  Consistently she has described her mother as needing help the past few episodes, where to the audience it seemed pretty clear that Lilianna was where she wanted to be.  I wouldn’t mind seeing Imogen turn during the battle, not the Dark Imogen like I keep seeing around, but just a daughter desperately wanting to believe in her mother.

I suppose I really should finish EXU Kymal - was this stuff with Opal foreshadowed in it?  I only saw the first half of the first episode and then never got around to actually finishing it.  EXU was not particularly to my tastes (much like how I struggle with some of the one-shots, it was just so CHAOTIC that I couldn’t.  Orym held the only braincell.)

Sam’s faced when FCG flipped the coin for the Changebringer’s alignment!  Laughed so hard I cried and had to go back to actually see the expressions.

I don’t know what I took away from the Ashton and Laudna conversation, except that I’m glad they had it, and I hope they have more.  I don’t think it changed the way I viewed either character, but it has the opening to.

Fearne & Orym!!!!!  Look, I don’t care how small the moments are.  Liam and Ashley have been my desperately wanting scenes of them together, whether Caleb and Yasha, Vax and Pike, or now C3.  I EAT ALL THESE CRUMBS.  BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Yeah, we all knew D was Devexian XD

Also a fan of the mini shopping session we got.  I enjoy the shopping sessions as long as they don’t take a whole episode, and they definitely got some good loot.  A 19 con necklace??  DAMN good.  Hope the gold gets shuffled ‘round in the party though.   It’s hard for me to compare how dnd-poor they are compared to the Mighty Nein.  I’m sure critrolestats has the actual gold amount.  I just feel like the Nein was more poor, accurate or not XD

As much as a short combat would have been fun, I’m actually quite pleased that we just got a few storms and a very short encounter ending with a goldfish.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Matt’s random encounter chart was kinder than usual, more designed for poor rolls to delay rather than destroy.

I’m....not a fan of the message bloom.  I actually went and rewatched the moment where Orym got the seed, and it was this quiet serious moment and he was told “you are an Ashari, are you not?  Make it grow.”  and then it’s just a longer one way one time sending?  Pretty big of a let down, tbh.  (though I, much like Orym/Liam, completely forgot about it.)

Keyleth coming in.  How do I feel about this.....  it’s really hard to say!  I think I’m more okay with it because they didn’t ask her for it.  They gave her a status update, but also very easily accepted when she said she was busy - and I don’t see the party changing their minds and trying to push harder, in or out of character.  Keyleth coming to join was very much a Matt decision here, which is why even though I’m a bit iffy about it, I’m more willing to accept.  I’m HOPING that it’s more that she’s fighting Just Off Stage Left the entire time, dealing with The Army That The Bells Hells Would Have Snuck Around Anyway, or something like that.  Have a show of power, have it work for the story, but not actually have it change how the narrative would have gone, if that makes sense.

EDIT: how could i have forgotten to mention the Imogen/Laudna scene???  Shockingly, I’m still not shipping it?  Even with the declarations of I love you, it still feels non-romantic to me.  I’ve seen people say ‘who says I love you to friends?’  um, me.  I have told friends that I am not interested in romantically in the slightest that I love them, and they have said it back to me.  ‘who cuddles with their friends?’ early 20s? me again.  also, fearne and orym cuddle every night.  BUT, I will say that if we get more conversations like this, I can see myself getting more comfortable with the ship.

Very happy that the solstice is going to be likely the next episode (maaaybe one or two more if we have heavy combat/sneaking/etc), because I am so ready for what Matt has in store.   ....though if they do stop it, that’s going to be a hell of a lack of payoff.  I have a strong suspicion (as I think basically everyone watching does) that the Keys are going to work no matter what the Hells do.  On to episode 50!!  (omg are we like halfway through the campaign?  it still feels like it might be a shorter one to me, I can see it only lasting 100 episodes)