#them watching the movies the other one recommends is the closest we can get to them watching an actual thing together (outside of NF)

[thevirgodoll]

Doll Diaries: 10 Ways to Begin Living the Doll Life.

To introduce my brand and my mission, I have created the first guide on how to Live the Doll Life.

This is the first of many posts to build around what a Doll means.

This is a compilation of all of my advice from past posts, my values and things I recommend aspiring to. It's an initiation of some sorts, and will be a sneak peek to what my website and Patreon will entail. This covers who you want to be (your ideal self), who you are right now (your current self), your measure of confidence and value (your worth), and your reality of who you are (your traits and individuality).

Welcome to the Dollhouse!!!

A huge part of what made me choose "Doll" as a brand is the movie, Life Size (2000).

In Life Size, Eve stood up for what was right, was ambitious, and learned how to honor her feelings as a real person. I highly recommend giving it a watch (I haven't seen the second movie, only referencing the first) to really get a feel of the energy I want to cultivate and embody. Now, let's get into it!

1. Embrace everything you already are.

Just because you are in a pursuit of becoming someone new does not mean you have to discard the things that make you who you are. Embracing who you already are and who you were is key to building self confidence. Who you are now is worthy of love and gratitude.

Ask yourself:

What can I forgive myself for?

What are my current strengths and weaknesses?

How can I show myself gratitude today?

2. Love people and speak life into them.

A true Doll does not engage in taking other women down. The biggest issue in today's world is that negativity has become a hot commodity. It is so insidious once it gets started, and it has been normalized to tear other people down in shady, subtle comments. These things bear no fruit. Understand now that talking badly about people and hating them only increases their sun.

What makes the difference between a Doll and another person is that everything she says has a purpose. Before speaking ask yourself:

Is this necessary? Is this true?

What do I gain from saying this?

Would I want to hear this?

These questions will make you distinguish between feelings and facts. You may not even know why you don't like someone at first, but asking yourself critical questions will teach you to see things from a different perspective. Most of the time, this has taught me to keep certain things to myself! If you don't know what you feel yet, the best thing to do is be quiet. It really is true that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. ***There are obviously exceptions to the rule, such as emotional abuse, bullying, etc. Defend yourself. Just don't be the one to be a catalyst to someone's downfall.

3. Be a student of life.

In this Dollhouse, we are eager to learn!!! If you want to lead others, you have to be willing to admit that you can be wrong. Even though Dolls are well adored and well educated, we aren't always right. Well, a lot of the time I am, but that's not the point!

Ask yourself:

What is this trying to teach me? What can I take away from this?

When was the last time I opened my mind to something new?

What could I have done differently? If I am resistant to feedback or change in this present moment, why?

4. Take pride in your appearance.

We aren't perfect...but we might as well be the closest thing to it. Make the decision now that you want to look your best every day. This doesn't mean wearing a full face of makeup 24/7, but this does mean being put together. A Doll should never leave the house without looking presentable, and if this is difficult, it's time for a change! Remember in The Princess Diaries when Mia got a makeover to become a princess? She looked like a completely different person and all it took was a new routine in beauty maintenance.

Obviously, you don't have to go to the extremes like she did. There's nothing wrong with glasses, thick curly hair, or thick eyebrows. It's all about making those things cohesive, which is the point of the makeover. I suggest you go on Pinterest or other platforms to find inspiration for what you want to look like. Create a routine around looking your best for YOU...only you know what flatters you the most.

Ask yourself:

What do I feel when I look in the mirror?

What influences me? What does a Doll look like to me?

What would a physical change do for me right now? And why am I doing it?

5. Have people in your life that align with you.

Friends can inspire us, or derail us. It is extremely hard as you get older to sustain friendships because once you leave grade school, there aren't any commonalities keeping you around people you know. Sometimes, we hang onto people longer than we need to.

A verse from the Bible that I often keep in mind regarding friends is Proverbs 12:26:

The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Ask yourself:

Would I take advice from this person? Why or why not?

What are the pros and cons of having this person around? How do I feel after hanging out with them?

What do they do for me? Is this reciprocal or transactional?

Is this person bringing me closer to or further away from my dreams, goals, and aspirations? Do they value what I value?

During conflict, how has this friend treated me? Do I trust them? Can I go to them when I need them?

As far as relationships, that is different for everyone but the questions are relatively the same. Some people stop their entire journey towards becoming the woman of their dreams because of love. Guard your heart!!!

Ask yourself:

Does this person align with my beliefs and values? Have I vetted them to see what type of person they are?

How does this person take care of themselves spiritually, mentally, and physically?

What is their story? Is this person aware of that story (whether it's with family, exes, friends, etc.)?

What can they offer me that I cannot give to myself?

Why do I want to be with this person?

6. Truly begin to believe you ARE 1 of 1.

Everyone is different, especially you. Your energy is highly sought after, all you have to do is acknowledge that. In order to live this lifestyle, you gotta appreciate differences in people around you so you can avoid guilting yourself into assimilation/conformity.

Individuality is everything... don't trade that for the approval of others. Social media has revealed how much originality women lack... so be a breath of fresh air. Think of this as Miley Stewart becoming her alter ego, Hannah Montana. The best way to see the new you is a alter ego. Celebrities have used alter egos to embody a side of them that is full of tenacity and candor...basically what they wish they could be. Real life examples are: Sasha Fierce (Beyoncé), Roman (Nicki Minaj).

The arc of an alter ego comes full circle. At some point in the Hannah Montana franchise, Miley came to terms that she lacked nothing in being who she really was because the star power was already in her. Therefore, she let her go and embodied those qualities in herself as "Miley". After hard work it will be the same for you, and you will appreciate who you are even more and not have to separate the two.

Ask yourself:

Who am I? What makes me special?

What do I love most about myself?

What is my signature and aesthetic?

What are the qualities of my alter ego/archetype?

7. Be a woman of substance.

It's useless to work towards being an it girl if you have nothing to talk about. So many women have star quality on the outside, but they are surface level and it prevents them from being seen positively and it takes away their chance of being an it girl.

Learn about current events. Learn about past events. Learn about events that are yet to come, and form an opinion.

You have Google at your disposal, so there's really no excuse to be lazy. Find your passion...most people are empty because they don't do anything they love. Be well versed in multiple topics. I know we say beauty and brains, but it really is hard to come by these days. Most people do not read anymore, nor do they take the time out to learn things themselves.

When it comes to school, that counts as substance as well if you're actually taking classes you're getting something out of (which is a whole other post). I would be remiss if I did not mention that education isn't for everyone. But for those of you that are going to college or are in college like me, this is one of the most important stages of your life. You're on the cusp of greatness. Life happens, but no matter what, we gotta get that degree no matter how long it takes.

Ask yourself:

What's going on in the world right now?

When is the last time I read a book or did something educational?

What are my hobbies? What are my habits? How do these things speak to my intelligence and who I am?

What are the things I want out of my education and what are my goals for this upcoming semester?

8. Dedicate time to your healing.

Just because everything looks perfect, doesn’t mean it will always be that way. This journey towards being that girl will not get rid of your need to heal.

Healing is a rugged path that one must travel their entire life...your journey in becoming the person of your dreams never ends. Give yourself grace on things that you didn't know before.

As always, I recommend journaling to understand your thought process. Sometimes, I look back at my entries in my diary and realize that things weren't as bad as they seemed. Sometimes, though, they were...and for my healing process it became crucial to (when I have the capacity) revisit the moments that shaped my perspective.

I know everyone says this, but there no shame in getting help. No amount of Doll Diaries I give you or confidence lessons/advice from others will matter if you are ignoring what fills your heart with dread at night. Like Megan thee Stallion says, bad b*tches have bad days too.

I am in therapy and I take medications for my mental illnesses, and that made all the difference. Tips are in my mental health tag.

I recommend a spiritual routine that works for you. This may include meditating, praying, going to church, taking quiet time...it's all up to you, but it gives me purpose and structure when feeling existential.

Dedicate life to something bigger than yourself. Remain on the path by upkeeping discipline. Outside influences can lead you astray, but you are the difference between stumbling and getting up, and stumbling and remaining flat on your face. This will involve giving up certain things, such as music or shows or even people that push you further away from what you believe in.

Lastly, have a list of coping mechanisms that you review in crisis. Often, things get overwhelming and we won’t get the chance to sit down and journal or go read something. With that, it’s helpful to make a list of things that you know will help you cope and survive no matter what (while acknowledging the absence of these means you’re getting bad again.)

Here is a very small portion of my list:

cleaning my space

spending time with my dog

playing video games

writing, drawing, music

Ask yourself:

When's the last time I had a break without feeling guilty or lazy?

What positive practices do I have in place to keep me stable? What negative practices do I have in place that prevent me from being stable?

How am I currently working towards improving my mental state? What do I know about myself mentally and spiritually, and how can I use that to transcend?

9. Learn the art of detachment.

People talk about being unbothered, but I don't think everyone truly understands what that means. In this Dollhouse, unbothered does not mean being nonchalant and void of all emotions. Feelings are natural, and I am not sure where someone mixed that up. What creates "unbothered" energy and "detachment" is by realizing you cannot control everything and that majority of the time, it isn't personal. This is one of the hardest lessons out there.

Ask yourself:

Is this really in my control?

How can I focus on the present moment?

And ultimately, remember you cannot fix or please anyone. Keep your composure even in the face of negativity. Your reactions and perceptions to everything you deal with is the most important thing, and will be the common denominator when it comes down to your experiences. Two books I read that changed my perspective and helped me maintain this lifestyle on this was The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty.

10. Above all, live in YOUR world!!!

Make your world exclusive. Keep certain things for yourself so it retains sacredness. Be your own best friend before anyone else. Learn to embrace your own company. Don't always be accessible. Cultivate richness in your life...be willing to take risks and have a variety of experiences.

The main and most important question to ask yourself is: What does my dream world look like?

This is where the Doll Life comes into play. Barbie was marketed as being an all around sweetheart and "girl boss" with the dream life. Bratz were marketed as having individuality and a dream world experience driven by passion.

Both have core values in making sure young girls dreamed big and remained authentic. Honorable mention: Disney, as they did a great job at emphasizing dreams can come true with Disney princesses.

What I want my version of a Doll Life to be marketed as is a world where we indulge in endless possibilities and be multiple versions of ourselves at once. Where we feel like something wonderful could happen, even in the midst of trials.

We can be gentle, yet demanding. We can be feminine with masculine energy, and vice versa. We don't have to choose between one aesthetic or the other. We don't have to conform to the world, because we are in it and not of it. Dolls are seen as "perfect", and that's just the thing, I don't want my brand to be a cookie cutter definition! That's why I say I am the Doll that no one can play with. To be a Doll means to be uniquely you and standing out amongst the rest. It's a mindset, it's a lifestyle.

Don't box yourself in... remember growing up the dream life of Bratz and Barbie refused to box themselves in and remained true to themselves. Live without limits!!! Dreams really can come true. And this Dollhouse is a safe space to DREAM!!!

Even if you don't believe it now, day by day, if you start dedicating yourself to this and remain congruent with your philosophy, you will be more than you could ever imagine. It took so much time for me to do this, but my life is forever changed. So indulge in your wishes, and create your own "life of luxury" or "dream world". Simply live by YOUR rules, and use mine as a outline to get started. I can't wait to see what all of you come up with. I hope this helps Dolls!!! *gives you the keys to your suite in the dollhouse* Proud of you!!!

xoxo,

thevirgodoll ♡

see also:

confidence tag

other doll diaries

advice

[flaggermuser]

The Crimson Tide

Homelander x Luna (Supe OC)

Prompt: "You're bleeding."/Making tea/coffee for a loved one

1,185 words || Periods, Severe Cramps, Movies, Bonding, Pre-established Frienship ||

This takes place in the year between S2 & 3. Luna is a moon-powered supe whose powers are tied to the lunar cycle. This is a pre-established friendship.

Special thanks to @devilander for being my beta

A New Moon

Luna’s powers are at their weakest.

And it doesn’t help that she’s always on her period at this point in the lunar cycle, and combined with her weakened powers, she’s in the worst pain imaginable. So she lies in bed, unable to do anything other than spend the entire day there. It’s the closest she ever gets to feeling human.

A hot water bottle lies on her abdomen, helping to ease the overwhelming cramps but not by much. It’s challenging for her to move in this situation, and she is considerably more irritable. She lets out a grunt, the pain in her abdomen slowly becoming worse. It’s as if someone is scraping the inside of her womb with a rusted knife, and her inability to heal herself only amplifies the feeling.

She doesn’t have to open her eyes when she hears the familiar footsteps sauntering in her direction. There's been a change in the atmosphere between them. Things have been more cordial on Luna’s part - they weren’t exactly friends but they weren’t exactly hostile either, it was a weird bond.

The bed shifts under his weight, his hands brushing stray strands of hair from her face. It’s a very soft interaction, one prompting her eyes to slowly open and look at him.

“I’m not in the mood for visitors but I get the feeling that if I tell you to go away, you won’t.”

Homelander chuckles, holding the mug of steaming hot tea in his hands, offering it to her. “You’re completely right. Anyway, I read somewhere that ginger tea helps with, well, you know, the crimson tide.”

“The crimson tide?” It takes a few minutes until it finally dawns on her. “Ohh, because I’m moon-powered, the moon controls the tides. Clever, did you come up with that one all by yourself?”

He chuckles, the smug grin she knows all too well spreading across his lips, “I did actually and I’m proud of myself for it.”

She considers something for a moment, wondering if she should ask the next question or if she’d like the answer. “You know that I’m on my period?”

“Yep,” he responds, almost cheerfully. “Could smell you from the hallway.”

She squints at him, “You know that’s incredibly creepy, right?”

He laughs, shaking his head slightly, “I have a sensitive nose, I can’t help what I pick up. Like I can also smell the Luna’s Moonflower Body Lotion and the Moonflower Face Cream with SPF 15 you’re wearing. A little narcissistic to wear something from your cosmetic collection, isn’t it?”

“Fuck you.”

There’s no malice behind it. She’s almost grateful he’s here, it takes her mind off the searing pain in her womb. She tries to sit up, letting out soft noises of discomfort and arranging her pillows to support herself.

“Thank you,” she takes the mug and sips the tea. The warmth blooms in her chest, the taste of ginger luckily offset by honey. As much as she hates ginger, she doesn’t have the heart to tell him.

After all, he’s gone to all this effort to help her.

“I guess you didn’t just come here to bring me tea.”

“No,” he admits, taking off his gloves and placing them on the bedside table. He takes her free hand in his, playing with her fingers. “I’m bored and can only guess that being confined to a bed all day because of that and weak powers means you’re bored too, so I thought you might want some company.”

“As nice as that sounds, I’m not exactly in the mood for sparkling conversation.”

“We don’t have to talk,” he answers. “We could always just watch a movie. I have several recommendations that I think you’d enjoy.”

What he’s suggesting does sound nice. However, the very idea of her getting out of bed and walking into the living room makes her wince. She’s not in the best condition to do anything.

“Only one small issue, I can’t exactly move and I don’t have a TV in here.”

He smirks, the kind he has when he’s up to something. He leaves her bedside for a few minutes, only to return with two Vought lackeys wheeling in a flat-screen TV on a stand. She gives him a knowing look, one he returns with pure smug satisfaction. He’s thought of everything.

“Oh, how convenient,” she says sarcastically. “You just so happened to have that stashed somewhere for this exact scenario.”

Once it’s set up, the lackeys nearly bolt out the door. There’s something sweet about the lengths he’s going to just to spend time with her. She moves over a little and places her mug on the other bedside table, ensuring he has enough room to join her on the bed.

There’s a slightly awkward pause between them that goes on for much longer than it should. She knows he’s probably waiting for her to ask him to sit beside her.

“Take your boots off, I’m not having them dirty my clean sheets.”

He tries to hide his excitement, kicking off his boots and settling beside her, remote control in hand. “Don’t worry, it’s already signed into your Vought account.”

That forces her to raise an eyebrow suspiciously. “Do I want to know how you managed to get my login details?”

“No,” he replies. “The same way I don’t want to know why you’re watching The Deep’s documentary.”

She laughs a little, he’s caught her red-handed. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure why she was watching it. It was The Deep, after all, a disgraced former member of the Seven. His hand slowly slides over hers, their fingers interlocking again.

“So, what do you want to watch? We’ve got the entire Vought+ catalogue at our disposal, I got you upgraded for free after I had a little chat with the right person.”

“Huh, and what tone did you use for this little chat?”

She’s been around him long enough to know how ‘persuasive’ he can be. He chuckles, obviously pleased with himself and this seemingly selfless act, continuing to flick through the channels rather than answer her question.

“Any preferences? I mean, we have all the Seven movies, including some of my blockbusters.”

She looks at him with a raised eyebrow, “Really? You’re sitting right next to me and I still have to watch you? You are so full of yourself.”

His jaw tightens - it’s clear she’s only teasing, but it’s clear she’s hit a raw nerve. A squeeze of his hand is her apology, making him look down at their entwined fingers. A faint smile appears on his lips, one she’s never seen before. It’s a lot softer, almost as if he’s content.

“Why don’t you pick one of your favourites? Give me a little insight into who Homelander is underneath the suit and matching eagle socks.”

He scoffs, glancing at her. “That’s rich coming from Moon Girl.”

“You know, up until now, I was starting to like you. So you can still get out, even if I can’t make you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he responds with his notoriously smug tone.

[mouldycakes]

Into the blue (2005)

So I was wondering if anyone has written a Mcdanno fanfic using this movie?

Imagine Jared Cole (from Into the Blue, played by the late Paul Walker) visits Danny (Bryce in the movie) and Steve may/may not get a little bit jealous from the way they're constantly on each others' personal space*, or the fact that Danny will jump into the water and swim with him with barely a word of protest**, or that Grace happily jumps into his arms screaming 'Uncle Jared!'. I just think it's be nice if Danny had another friend outside of work you know?

And if it gets Steve to make a move - if they're not in a relationship already - then much better 👀

Politely tagging @trickster-archangel, @teruel-a-witch and @murphyhatesme for the next part because it was during this movie's filming bts that we got the closest to 'Danny in lingerie' there is (to my limited knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong) because of these posts:

Post 1 - Post 2 - Post 3 - I love you guys tags and they inspired this post (LizzyBear I'm going through your fics as we speak! Loving them so much <3 Possessive!Steve is my absolute jam)

It's Scott in a bikini, with Paul holding him and grabbing one of his tits pecs - and bonus pic of Paul showing off his muscles; look at these goofs:

Source: this blog - the pics are originally from JustJared.com but I couldn't find them there.

*These are just 3 scenes, there's a lot more. I forgot to include the one where Jared gets Bryce away from a fight, Bryce tries to argue, immediately gives up and apologizes when he sees Jared angry with him, and they hug. It's cute! Also there were apparently more scenes with Paul and Scott in the water and according to an interview with Jessica Alba, but were cut:

"Scott and Paul rubbed more skin together than you and Paul did. Alba: I'm with you. There was actually this one sequence that got cut from the movie and I hope it makes it to the DVD. It was so homoerotic. Scott and Paul did this swim underwater on top of each other. There was this really pretty music so I had to tease them about that for a while."

**Maybe Jared is the one who makes Danny love water again after Billy? But he kinda tied it to Jared alone, so when he tells Steve that he knows how to swim but just for survival, it's just because he doesn't feel like digging up all of that for someone he just met.

But! If anyone knows a mcdanno fic like this, please let me know!!

To be honest, I don't recommend this movie for anything other than how all over each other Paul and Scott were; the treatment of the women was... 'meh' to put it nicely, very early 2000's, though they do redeem themselves with the damsel in distress saving herself at the end I guess.

You can watch the movie here: https://www.braflix.st/movie/11968

Make sure you have UBlock Origin!! It'll get annoying otherwise.

[gorbalsvampire]

V:tM at the Movies: a film rec list

THE UR–EXAMPLES

The Hunger is about as close to the Platonic ideal of Vampire: the Masquerade as you can get. Nightclubs! Gratuitous Bauhaus! Lesbian kiss! The aesthetic is spot on: it looks and feels like early Vampire art, or rather early Vampire art looks and feels like this film. V:tM may have come out in 1991 but it's rooted firmly in the 1980s and the vampire chic this film defined. The Hunger will dump the vibe of the game right between the eyes and it's as close as I dare come to "must-watch."

V:tM's Gehenna concept is heavily mirrored/inspired by the novel Queen of the Damned, which was filmed around the time Gehenna was actually happening and the line was coming to a close. The Hunger defines where V:tM came from, all Eighties post-punk writhing - this chuggy post-industrial apocalypse-glam perfectly sums up where it's going.

Although they have no real connection to each other besides parallel evolution, Night Teeth absolutely nails the "rival conspiracies" energy of Hunter: the Reckoning and Vampire: the Masquerade, as well as the burnout, the irony, the neon and the party-at-the-end-of-the-world vibe of V5. It is a perfect fifth edition Vampire movie and it must drive Paradox mad that it had nothing to do with them or their IP.

THE META TAKE

Shadow of the Vampire is about a vampire playing a vampire in the first vampire movie ever made. In a weird way I think that's perfect for the sense of the Masquerade, hiding in plain sight, preying on the worst instincts of humanity and encouraging them to let you get away with all the awful things you want to do. In microcosm, it's the perfect analogy for the "vampires secretly run society" vibe.

YOUR FLAVOUR OF BASTARD

Depending on what type of vampire you want to be (and I'm going with V5's categories here), I recommend at least one of the following:

Thinbloods lend themselves well to the What We Do In The Shadows conceit of vampire flatmates (or The Carmilla Movie, I guess, but I haven't seen that one). They're millennial vampires; all the power and resources are concentrated in the hands of previous generations, so they pretty much have to bind together and find something else to enjoy in life, 'cause they're never going to be powerful in the conventional sense. Thinblood games are low power, a bit domestic, and often the closest to "normal life but we happen to be vampires and bigger vampires try to kick our heads in occasionally."

Neonates are your classic Gen X eighties/nineties vampire movie - The Lost Boys. Still weak enough that they're better off standing together, strong enough that they can afford to be a bit cocky around humans. Probably share a sire, mentor, authority figure of some sort and should probably be working on his agenda once they've finished prowling the boardwalks and clubland at night. They're a step further removed from society, but they can pretend to be human for an hour or two if they really try. Also, this is the other one that was in the air and influential when V:tM first came to be - along with The Hunger, I'd recommend it as the closest to a must-watch.

Ancillae (the upper reaches of age and power offered by the V5 corebook) are more your Interview With The Vampire  kind of deal. You've lived a long life, your adventuring days are behind you, and now you're something of a mover and a shaker - you're probably permitted or at least not prevented from siring and you're looking to give someone the choice you never had. Modernity gives you a headache but at least you can work a smartphone four times out of five. Ancillae games are a nice balance between "you're powerful" and "you still have to answer to someone".

If you're extending into Elder territory, settle down with a small glass of something and enjoy one of my favourite films ever, Only Lovers Left Alive. It's a slow story, and not a lot happens, but that's elders for you. They become introverted. They fall into a groove. They keep to each others' company. It's beautiful and haunting until some clueless childe comes along and screws it all up for them and they have to admit what they really are.

Want to figure out the Sabbat? Watch 30 Days of Night and thank me later. The vampires there are getting away with something horrible because they've fallen through the cracks in the world. They act alpha-predator but they still live on the fringe or civilisation, the little savages. (I am told that Near Dark is basically Sabbat: the Movie, but I haven't seen it, so I'm going to have to take that on trust.)

REFLEXIVE ACTION

It would be deeply remiss of me not to talk about Underworld, the film series transparently inspired by V:tM,.to the point where White Wolf as was took the producers of the original to court over it. Underworld reflects V:tM at its most "gamery" – all custom weapons, trenchcoats and corsets, fighting werewolves in the dark, flashing back to the Middle/Dark Ages and preoccupied with impenetrable why-does-this-matter world-building. It sits at the end of that unfortunate tendency toward Desert Eagles, katanas, Dragonsbreath rounds and C4 appearing on every character sheet that found its way into V:tM's DNA from Shadowrun, along with the penchant for double handfuls of d10s and wearing sunglasses indoors. I dislike that sort of game and I'm not mad keen on Underworld either, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this sort of thing is also peak Vampire.

WAIT, THIS ISN'T VAMPIRES!

V:tM is synonymous with politics and backstabbing, and there isn't in my opinion a vampire movie that really hits that. Thing is, Rein-Hagen also loves Mafia movie and cites them as an influence. Vampires exist as organised criminals, after all, and the concept of omerta is atomic to that of the Masquerade. This is why, to grasp how a Prince or Baron holds court and influences people, you really should just sit down and watch The Godfather. Pretty basic recommendation, granted, but I don't know if anyone else is here for my "Guy Ritchie's V:tM" style of action storytelling...

YOUR OWN PERSONAL JESUS TASTE

What are your top three movies? Why? That'll give you an idea of what you, as Storyteller, are most interested in running. Now grab some friends and ask them the same question. Wherever you find an overlap in your tastes, that's something that's worth focusing on in your actual game. Try to make sure there's a couple of vampire-themed answers in there, but also something else, because "being a vampire" in and of itself doesn't make a story (unless it's a quiet, short one like Only Lovers Left Alive, but that's a one-off, not a chronicle). 

People often expect an RPG to come ready-made and ready-to-go ("We're playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver") and Vampire, at its best, is a bit more bespoke. Asking players about their taste in media is one way to start that tailoring process, making your V:tM something a bit different from everyone else's and getting into that transformative stuff that makes RPGs so gosh-darn amazing.

Mine, discounting the one I've already gushed about up the line, are a nebulous "pick one from Guy Ritchie's early career" and Franklyn. My games run on generally have a couple of seemingly indestructible SPCs nobody likes and a dark secret that can absolutely take them down, someone WILL have an impenetrable regional accent, but there's also a layer of exaggerated Gothickry over everything, neuratypical characters will perceive the world very differently, vengeance and trauma will drive the major players and love may conquer all but you'll have to lose a lot to get there. None of this is essential to V:tM but it's what makes my V:tM different from A. N. Other Storyteller's.

[uchuukaijugundan]

Ghost Sweeper Mikami

GＳ美神　極楽大作戦！！

(Anime + manga)

Action / Comedy by Takashi Shiina

Era: 90s

Rating: B

Plot: In bubble era Japan overdevelopment displaced many ghosts and yokai, leading to the creation of Ghost Sweepers, exorcists who solve the problems caused by them. Reiko Mikami, a redhead in a cocktail dress is the one of the best and charges her clients more than accordingly, helped by his chronically underpaid assistant, high school student Tadao Yokoshima, soon joined by the ghost of Okinu, a teenage girl sacrificed to appease a vulcano 300 years ago who became the guardian of the mountain.

Length: 45 episodes, 398 chapters, 1 movie

Thoughts: Well, here's a show with as amusing cast of secondary characters, like Meiko, one of Mikami's closest friends (or so she believes) who controls 12 shikigami hiding on her shadow, although "controls" might be a bit too generous considering they run rampant the moment she starts crying and is a bit of a crybaby, or Dr. Chaos, an immortal alchemist who was incredibly powerful in the middle ages (as we get to see in the manga), but who has lived so long anything new he learns makes him forget something else, like how did he made Maria, his robot assistant. Turns out forgetting the useful stuff isn't great for his finances, and he lives in constant fear of his landlady. And speaking of finances, there's also some fun world building, like the premise of the show (ghosts and yokai being left homeless due to overdevelopment) and how out of whack the economy is - Mikami can (and will) ask for hundreds of millions for a job, but then we also learn some of the charms and talismans used in these exorcisms cost up to tens of millions as well, and being forced to use more expensive charms eating into her profits is a constant source of amusement particularly when the decision falls on Yokoshima or Okinu. Meanwhile, Yokoshima is still only getting paid 250 yen per hour. He later gets a 5 yen raise, so that's fine.

The main characters work pretty well together, from Mikami's power and intelligence (as well as a everything goes style) allows her to solve any issues easily, Yokoshima's dedication to a job that puts him at constant risk for little pay in name of his pervert behaviour he doesn't seem to get over even when he often gets immediate comeuppance, and Okinu's attempts to get everyone getting along. However, as far as development goes, the anime covers maybe a fifth of the story, missing when they begin in earnest around one third in - uncovering the origin of Reiko's powers, Yokoshima becoming a GS himself (only hinted in the anime by Shoryuki during the training arc) and Okinu becoming the senpai for the friendlier ghosts in the area, later a spiritualist (and other things) herself, and the plot heavy part of the story that begins halfway, and so are some other great additions to the cast of characters - Saijou, Michie Mikami, Ashtaroth, Lucíola, Tanamo and Shiro are obviously all absent. The manga by the end mostly drops the individual cases in favour of typical shounen adventure long arc, but it also feels there was a bit more to the story left to tell anyway, even after almost 400 chapters. The movie is an original story (Mikami is chosen through time to prevent the resurrection of Oda Nobunaga / Nosferatu) and your typical three episode long arc with some improved animation.

All in all, a pretty fun watch from the 90s.

Recommended to: fans of folk tales and ghost stories on the lighter side

Plus:

The timing and expressions kill me

Charming cast of characters

While very episodic in nature, it throws around enough variety to not feel too repetitive...

Minus:

... but it's still pretty episodic.

In the manga as it does longer and more ambitious story arcs, it loses maybe a bit from doing your regular save the world stuff versus the more curious one-off stories.

Due to covering maybe the initial fifth of the manga, character progression isn't all there in the anime. Makes you interested, so, mission accomplished?

[copwef]

My adventure with Rise of the TMNT and it's community.

I remember very clearly where I was when I heard about rottmnt for the first time. I was over at my sister's house for a night. Everyone else was asleep and I was still trying to watch TV. When all of a sudden their was an ad for a new TMNT show.

At the time I was a fan of 2012 TMNT, but as a child I was too dumb to keep up with the show on a regular basis. Plus we still use cable so I had no way to binge all the episodes. To this day I haven't watched all the all the episodes of 2012 TMNT.

However when I got home at like 11:00 PM the next day. I saw the the first episode of Rottmnt was on. I watched it and while it seemed kinda childish and goofy at first, I slowly grew to like the show more and more. I watched every episode at least once and watched the season 2 finale when it came out. This was the first show I kept up with like this.

However, as I said, I was a dumb kid. I was oblivious to many things such as Donnie's autism, Mikey's ADHD, How the show had been cancelled unfairly, and many other messages of the show.

However a couple months ago, I got reminded of the show and searched it up. I watched a lot of old clips on YouTube until I saw that I had missed the rottmnt movie. I had no way to watch it or the show, so I resorted to watching the few reaction videos I could find at the time. Then I watched character analysis and saw how much of the show's messages I missed as a kid.

One night while I looking at a rottmnt comic dub compilation, I saw something that seemed cool. A comic series that showed what the future turtle's did before the events of the movie. I quickly made a Tumblr account and searched up this au.

I quickly discovered the creator of this au was @somerandomdudelmao and the comic series in question was called the cass apocalypse series. If you have somehow not read this series I HIGHLY recommend it. The characters act like they do in the show, the art is fantastic, and I consider it the closest thing there is to as "season 3" of Rottmnt at this time.

This discovery led me into the rottmnt fandom. I discovered many other very talented artists and writers. If I tried to list all of the talented people in this community I would be here literally all day. It inspired me too both write my 3 part own series called "Rottmnt Atoning" and my first attempt at drawing Leo.

So consider this a thank you message to everyone in the rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles community. Thank you for helping me rediscover this show after forgetting about it. I have a couple good ideas for Au's and I will try to post them when I can.

Now if only we could get an official rottmnt season 3.... Actually at this rate the community is so talented that if don't get an official season 3 we could just band together and make it ourselves.

[isabelleadjani]

hi hiiiiii 💗 1, 2, 9, 16, 19, 31, 38, 39, and 42! 🫶🏼

omg hiiiiiiiiiii thank you for so many questionssss 🤭💖 i already answered 1 but the rest are coming riiiight now

what movie do you wish you could unwatch? honestly i wanna say nymphomaniac. there are a lot of films i dislike or even hate and deeply wish to never have to watch again but i think nymphomaniac stands out as the one that if i could only choose a singular film to erase from my memory it would be that one. like it's just so deeply fucking stupid and disgusting on many levels but more than that. it's so unbearably long that it's just an INSANE amount of time wasted on one film (well, one film in two parts or whatever). i neeeeeeeed to fist fight lars von trier so bad.

guilty pleasure movie? i don't believe in guilty pleasures as a concept really but i think maybe the closest i get is reservoir dogs. because i have such a deep disdain for tarantino as a person and as a filmmaker but i just can't ever shake the comfort movie-relationship i have with that film. tim roth as freddy newendyke made me who i am it just is what it is.

favorite book to film adaptation? i'm tempted to say both farewell my concubine and the handmaiden which are both adaptations of novels but since i have yet to read either of those books (they ARE on my tbr 😭) i'm going to say park chan wook's thirst! which is a loose adaptation of émile zola's thérèse raquin... it might be debatable whether it really counts as an adaptation but it counts TO ME.

name a movie so bad it’s good i don't think i'm really the kind of person who has this feeling about films often, mostly i sometimes think that movies can be fun to watch with other people if you can like comment and make jokes while you watch. like recently i watched deVour with jensen ackles and shannyn sossamon with my bestie and that was so fucking messy and horrible but i would still recommend it for a group watch because we had so much fun watching it as a social activity. do you remember the first movie you saw in theaters? well honestly idk if it was actually the first one i saw, but the first film i do remember seeing in the cinema was stuart little 2 jfgbdskjgb which i went to see with my mom and my sisters literally the day after my grandma died when i was 5, which was an unfortunate coincidence but we already had the tickets and my mom didn't wanna waste the money.

in your opinion what is the most overrated movie? oh MANY such cases.... let's go with uhhhhhh. call me by your name because i have to hear about that film SO fucking often and i am TIRED OF ITTTTTTTTT. god i hate that piece of shit film.

in your opinion what is the most underrated movie? once again there are so many one could pick here but i would like to highlight lady vengeance actually. because like, i'm a huge fan of most of park chan wook's work and it's not that i think that people don't appreciate lady vengeance. that's be a bit silly because pcw is such a popular and celebrated filmmaker on the whole. it's just that it does NOT get the attention it deserves within pcw's oeuvre and is always overshadowed by oldboy when people talk about the vengeance trilogy, when in fact it is easily the superior film in that trilogy, and in my opinion in the absolute top tier of his films to date.

show me a pic of your favorite movie poster alright in the interest of talking about a movie i haven't already gone on about in this post, i am going to pick the poster for in the mood for love! i have a lot of posters that i am a bit obsessed with and could choose from, but i definitely don't have one single fave. this is, however, one of them. so butch/femme realness tbh.

movie asks 🎥

[scarabjewels]

HELTER SKELTER

The movie that epitomizes "women can be shit too, when given the chance"

I was watching so much of Final Girl Studios fil essays that I decided to watch a film recommendation from one of her videos.

To make it exciting, I watched it with my closest friends, blind to its content.

And by God, it was an EXPERIENCE.

First off, someone please put a warning on this film for the amount of sex scenes it was gonna have. Luckily, one of my friends were very open minded wuth these kinds of scenes, which is why we remained close friends. The rest were VISIBLY SHOCKED, WITH ME. I was flustered how pornesque the scenes went. As a result, we skipped a good amount of scenes.

Second, this is a great girl's night movie, where you can talk over it. The scenes are visually stimulating, and also pretty long with not much going on. The themes of "beauty is pain" too, is a great conversation starter.

Third, the fall of the main character and that NO ONE rooted for her was something I wanted depicted in media. I am all for feminism but I truly wanted misandry and misogyny gone from the direction of the picture and rather ingrained into a character, to create complexity and agency for them. I want equality in all depictions, including how anyone, regardless gender and their past, can be shitty and complicated. This was just the breath of fresh air. It was not this woman character OBVIOUSLY exploited for her sadness and insanity, it was about a person obessessed with her image and exploits herself, then goes insane when she is replaced.

The actual review now

Characters:

The main character, Lilico, is truly a very shitty complicated person, and so are the other characters in the story. The characters feel real, even when so many of the visuals are so campy. The character that I was disappointed with a lot because I thought she would break free from Lilico's grasp was her manager/assistant , Hada. She was manipulated by Lilico so much, r*ped by Lilico, and verbally and emotionally and PHYSICALLY abused by her . She was the one to leak the information about her plastic surgery and yet..the ending is that Hada wanted Lilico to need her. It is so fucked up.

I guess my favorite scene was when Hada was tasked by Lilico to cut Kozue's face, the younger natural beauty who replaced Lilico. Like Lilico, she was very much aware that her beauty is market value, the difference is that Kozue is unbothered by her own beauty and incredibly apathetic. Kozue gets confronted by Hada, as Hada shakes in nervousness, Kozue remains calm and apathetically tells Hada to get it over it, that she knows that she is replaceable.

She did not care about her so-called assets and is visibly bored with the world.

My opinions:

Lilico had misogynistic and misandrist views, she knew about her "market value": her superficial beauty that people obsess over. She is easily triggered by other women's fame and beauty, believing they are out to eliminate her. She throws fits of anger and treats everyone as helpers, subject to that abuse is Hada. She hated men and women, and only thought about herself. Extremely narcissistic and prone to severe bipolar tendencies, e.g super angry to super depressed.

I will say, that if Lilico was a male model, it would play out just as it was with Lilico's story. Again, keep in mind, if LILICO was a male model. Lilico is untalented and looked like a weird doll, and believed her time as that young sexy doll would not last long, therefore continously does reckless things to satisfy her unrational needs and wants. I would argue that in the same setting, such as the place and the society of Japan and their glamorized views of youth, a male model is no exception to that kind of explotation. An example is Björn Andresen, the model that set the standard of the beautiful blonde boy image we see in Japanese media. His looks were exploited to the degree of which he can barely recover.

Exploitation centring young beautiful people delves into the obsession of youth, many of which percieves as the highest form of prime in terms of age, especially women. Youth is perceived as beauty. Interestingly, when I read the manga of Helter Skelter, Asada, the detective investigating the deaths of young women's visceral suicides and their connection to a plastic surgery clinic, quotes this: " Youth is beautiful, but youth is not beauty. Beauty is more all-encomposing."

Overall, Helter Skelter provides a social commentary on the sewed in superficial views society has on beauty and youth, particularly on women. Themes of obessesion, self awareness, and apathetical acceptance are present. Depictions of narcissism as well as sexual assault are layed down clearly, all the while shows some complexity on behavior.

Campy and disturbing, GALORE.

[tinylongwing]

I hope it's okay to ask Lord Huron questions on this blog.

Is Buck the narrator for all three most recent "lore albums" or something? I don't know how Lonesome Dreams fits into the storyline, but I might be wrong, and I'm pretty sure the movie soundtrack doesn't. I'm pretty sure he's the narrator for at least Vide Noir, but I'm not sure how he fits in with Long Lost.

If Buck is Strange Trails' narrator, he's not the only one, because Hurricane is from Johnnie's, and The World Ender is from Cobb Avery's. The Yawning Grave seems to be told by some malevolent, omniscient, ancient entity I don't really have a name for, but seems an awful lot like whatever Ender was summoned in Secrets of Life. It's almost like a camera pan effect with the transition to Frozen Pines, almost as if the focus is being shifted to a different character. I'm not entirely sure who that character is, and I'm not all up to date on the lore yet.

There's such a heavy focus on darkness being bad in Strange Trails, and then as far as I know, Vide Noir(the album) is about a guy, Buck Vernon, abusing a substance literally named Black Void, and trying to find his fiancee. Frozen Pines feels like Buck coming back to himself after taking Vide Noir, it basically references the Emerald Star without actually referencing it. It's like Buck talking to Lee; he'll be waiting for her, he's gonna look for her everywhere, etc.

Relistening to Strange Trails specifically looking for Vide Noir references, after Meet Me in the Woods there is SUCH a tone shift, and it starts referencing how he can't go back from the darkness, or how everything she touches turns to back.

This whole exposition has morphed into me actually asking if Vide Noir and Strange Trails are the same story from different perspectives or in different settings. Apologies for the rambling.

It is very okay! It is more than okay, it's great and I would answer Lord Huron questions every day all day if more people did this. ;)

I'm impressed with how much of this you've worked through pretty damn close to accurately without having checked the wiki or watched the movie, haha. I definitely recommend doing both as most of your questions here, the ones we have answers to anyway, will get answered.

But in short, without rewriting the entire wiki for you:

Strange Trails, Vide Noir, and Long Lost are all in the same universe with shared characters that weave in and out of those albums and there are many narrators among them. Buck Vernon is probably the closest thing to a main protagonist since his narration features heavily in Strange Trails and Vide Noir, but he's absent from Long Lost (well, as far as anyone can tell anyway).

Strange Trails is sort of like a loose connection of stories that establish a lot of the strange things and the characters in that universe and start us off learning about Buck and Lee and their relationship, but we also get a lot from Frankie Lou, the World Enders, and a handful of others. Some of the songs narrated by one character about their life in-universe tell stories that are shared in common with other characters (and the music video for The Night We Met in particular shows us this well - that song is by Frankie Lou and appears to be describing her doomed relationship with Z'Oiseau, but the video primarily focuses on Buck on his drive west toward California to find Lee).

Vide Noir is slightly more linear and slightly more focused on Buck specifically, except for where it's nonlinear and also has a whole bunch of World Enders/Phantom Riders narration which probably is doing the dual purpose thing again, describing what they're up to while also "coincidentally" helping describe Buck's confusion, anger, and anguish as he searches for Lee, gets black-brained and survives, and finds Lee only to learn that yes she did mean to leave him and she doesn't love him.

But you're absolutely right to dive back in to Strange Trails and look for references to vide noir because they're everywhere - Meet Me in the Woods is a great example of this, though it's primarily describing Frankie's experience with the drug in that case.

The Strange Trails album liner notes were very specific about which songs were performed by which characters and who the narration is supposed to be, so I recommend checking that out in the wiki as a starting point. Vide Noir didn't give us that so it has mostly been a matter of interpretation (though it's easy-ish to sort out which are performed by the Buck Vernon Band and which are performed by the Phantom Riders - but if there are other narrators in there it's still not totally clear and Moonbeam is sort of an odd track out in particular).

Long Lost mostly has told us which characters performed which songs again, which is nice and helpful! And the music/lyric videos have been a big help yet again, as has Alive from Whispering Pines, which obviously also deserves a watch if you haven't seen that series yet.

Anyway, hope this helps - I know some of it boils down to "time to read the wiki" but it just saves me from having to re-type the wiki, haha.

[feild-null]

A Few Thoughts on Adaptation

Adaptation is a very tricky art to get right. Most of the time adaptations seem to be worse than the original works, and why is that?

Take for example if I wrote a small passage such as this

“Out in the fields I sat watching the sun dip below the horizon. For a moment each piece of dust in the air and bead of water on the ground lit up in a bright flash. The light hitting everything just right to make that moment one to remember. Now the sun dips even lower leaving the area desolate and dark, but soon the stars will come out and bring the night abuzz again. Another day will pass leaving a moment just as beautiful, maybe even more beautiful, but not for me. My moment has passed, someone else gets to have that dusk to themselves now.”

Well written, and let’s say enough people like it enough for it to get a release as not just the text but with an image this time around. Herein lies the issue. The moment you imagined in your head will most likely look better than what I could draw. So if I added this;

It’s most likely disappointing in comparison to the text on its own. Even if effort was put into changing the media it didn’t have the same magic energy as the original, which could be preferred, but to fans of the original it would be dissatisfying.

Now there are good adaptations, so what is the trick? From my observations there are two main ways to make a good adaptation;

1. Re-contextualize the story

2. Make an adaptation from a work that didn’t work as well to begin with

On the first note, re-contextualizing the story helps to make the adaptations stand out from one another making the two works seem separate enough that fans of the original can appreciate a new direction and it is actually new. For a good example of this take the “The Blob” movies. There are two versions of the movie. There’s the ‘58 and ‘88 versions; the first version is a movie that is inventive but struggles from its technical limitations from the early days of filmmaking, whereas the ‘88 takes full advantage of new filmmaking techniques and technologies. This by itself is good, but the stories are changed, where the original had the title monster come from outer space mirroring the fear of foreign invaders in the Cold War, the remake had the government be responsible for the monster in random with rising anti-government sentiments from Vietnam. If you’re looking for more information on this here’s the video I learned that from

Another good example is how the Scott pilgrim franchise handles adaptation. The original comic, movie, and tv show are all very different and for different purposes. The comic is more about the relationship and dynamics of characters, where the Edgar Wright movie was more interested in being a fun watch that mostly focused on one arc for Scott. The show. I’m not gonna pretend I liked that show (Scott pilgrim takes off), but it did do well (in the first three episodes) setting up the characterization of the other characters in the series. All have their own fan bases and are all going for different experiences. For a bad example we have our good friend the Disney corporation! The new Disney remakes have been railed on to death so I won’t spend too long on them, but suffice to say, they aren’t different enough from the original to warrant existing or cool enough to rekindle the magic of the original animation. They don’t change with the times, the closest we got was the little mermaid remake’s version of “Part of your World” having a different ending note (which personally I liked), which isn’t a good way to make remakes.

Now what about works that didn’t function very well to begin with? The best examples I can think of are The Thing and Spider-Man. The original Thing movie was titled “The Thing from Outer Space”, which was a longer and less catchy title to begin with, and while being a good watch ultimately wasn’t too remarkable. I’d still recommend watching it, however, that doesn’t compare to “The Thing”. That movie is a modern masterpiece of writing, failing at its release, but being remembered for its amazing portrayal of the story. (If you can’t tell, 90% of this is just recommending movies and tv shows that I liked). What about spider man? Well, while Peter Parker has stayed consistently good, Miles Morales wasn’t always. Miles’s comics personally weren’t very gripping or very good to read, mostly just a filler for the time, but the Spider-verse movies? NOW THAT, THAT IS CINEMA. Those movies made what was an interesting but underwhelming character into one of the most compelling movie protagonists I’ve seen from Sony in a while. Not to mention the “Across the SpiderVerse” movie had a twenty minute opener that was a movie within itself about Spider Gwen.

Now all this is to say adaptations are very interesting to look at. It’s important to remember to judge works of media on their own because a lot of adaptations are going for a different crowd, but also knowing the past of it is important to make progress. Suffice to say it’s complicated and understanding and enjoying media is hard. We want things to be good, but even bad adaptations can teach us things. Netflix’s “Avatar the last Airbender”, Disney’s remakes, and a whole suite of live action remakes show the value of the medium of animation and what happens when you take it out of a story. The remakes of beloved stories that butcher the characters and teach us why Hollywood sucks forget why the story is good show us that you need strong direction for good end products. (Hollywood isn’t actually bad, it’s just an easy punching bag to point at and say that it’s the real problem when the creative bankruptcy and executive pressures are a result of dying markets and competition) Now if you notice I didn’t name a specific franchise for that last example, that’s because that franchise caused me to write this in the first place. And it’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”. And that movie caused this rabbit hole to explain why it’s bad and the worst part is it could’ve been a masterpiece. THATS RIGHT, THIS WHOLE RANT IS ACTUALLY ABOUT TRANSFOMERS!

I could write a whole other dissertation about that movie and why it fails to be a good adaptation of “Beast Wars” and “Transformers” as a whole, but I won’t. This post is already looking way too long but I will say the show “Beast Wars” is one of the best transformers shows I’ve seen, heck even one of the best shows I’ve seen, though that could be due to the fact I saw it as a young kid, but I did rewatch it and it lived up.

No matter, enjoy media, and remember to stay excited for new things, media hasn’t become bad, we simply have to keep up and find the good parts. Goodbye tumblr citizens.

[howsitduud]

Asteroid City & Gender Queer: A Memoir Reviews

Hi there, hello.

So I want to get into the habit of using this blog to write about new pieces of media I experienced recently. So, I'm going to write about them as I watch them and give a little review. This is the closest thing I'll get to screaming my thoughts into the void.

Asteroid City (2023): Directed by Wes Anderson

This is probably the most Wes Anderson Wes Anderson movie I've ever seen, and that's mostly a good thing. I'm not the biggest fan of his movies, but all the ones I have seen have been really good, so I went into this movie with high expectations and I got a really fun movie with some really deep parts to it. I'm not gonna go into spoilers, but the main chunk of the movie in Asteroid City is really funny and has some pretty out there scenes, you'll know them when you see them. But surprisingly, I like the bits onstage more. In case you don't know (this isn't a spoiler it's revealed 2 minutes in), this movie is about a play within a play being written and performed by the actors in the play. I found the onstage parts to be really interesting and I kinda want to see it again just so I can appreciate those parts more. There's plenty of stupid and boring bits to the movie and it takes a while to get going, but once it does, it's a ride. 7.5/10

Genderqueer: A Memoir (2019): Written by Maia Kobabe

Oh wow, it's the most banned school book in the entire country, for no other reason than the fact that it's about a trans person discovering e's trans. I don't need to tell you that this is stupid, and thank god other people agree. I kinda want to say to read this book solely because of that, but luckily, I can recommend it because it's a great book. Maia's art style is really nice, reminding me of some webcomics I've seen on here and on Deviantart (fitting given eir history with the website), and the bits about eir specific gender identity and how much it's changed over the years really made me feel seen. There's so many lines and dialogue interactions that were very relatable to me, like describing how getting misgendered feels but not being able to correct them because it feels rude. This book gave me vibes to Persepolis, in a way, not just because of the art style. Overall, I really liked this book, and I would love to read more of Maia's works someday. 9/10

[curestardust]

Do you know of any other cute shoujo ai like sakura trick?

I have always tried to find any cute yuri anime, but all I ever find is the like.. clearly 10000% made for men ecchi or just straight up hentai, I really just want fluffy cgdct type stuff

I kind of gave up looking a long time ago but sakura trick gave me hope there might be something else, and I trust your taste 🤭

ohohoho that is a very high praise thank you~!

unfortunately i have also suffered my way through many-a horrid yuri experiences and the conclusion i've ultimately come to is that CGDCT anime with heavy yuri *subtext* is the closest you can get to sakura trick. yeah it's not exactly what i - or we- would want exactly but i kind of write it off as them being "baby lesbians" who just haven't exactly figured out what's going on (copium? maybe so)

anyway i do have one anime, an hour long movie, that fits exactly what you are asking for: Asagao to Kase-san. two high school girls in their first relationship and exploring all that comes with it. it's very cute~

one more i'd 10000% recommend is Konohana Kitan. while the worldbuilding is more in the forefront here and the 2 mains mostly just have heavy hint hint nudge nudge moments, 2 secondary chars (pictured in gif) are very much together. anyway i LOVEEE this anime so i just had to plug it here.

honorable mentiones that ARE shoujo ai but not CGCDT but more SoL with romantic drama: Bloom into You, Aoi Hana, Strawberry Panic

if the CGCDT part is more important, here's some stuff with pretty heavy shoujo ai subtext, just don't expect them to approach that part seriously

Hanayamata - i absolutely adore this anime~

Anima Yell - insane levels of cute

Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san - girlie has a vampire fetish (we all been there). a testiment to how far something can be yuri without being yuri (somehow???)

(Bonus) I wanted to mention Endro here. it's not a shoujo ai anime but it has an adoooorable artstyle and besides a very few sussy fanservice moments, it's a nice fantasy CGCDT watch. also this moment lives rent free in my head

SOOOO i know this list is (unfortunately) very short but i only wanted to recommend stuff I've actually seen and enjoyed personally. there's a lot of stuff out there that's either mid or just outright gross that gets recommended by almost everyone (cough Citrus cough). but i also do have a huge backlog, so i'm sure there's more decent shoujo ai anime out there that i just haven't gotten to!

[wanderinstar]

Hello, again!

Yes is a band that I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far, and have gotten to know superficially.  They’re among a bunch of bands that I know one day, I’m really going to love, but I just haven’t fully gotten there yet.  Bread, I haven’t really listened to yet, but I have heard of.  They are one I probably should get to know, since I’ve seen them under recommendations on music listening apps whenever I listen to Dan Fogelberg, my beloved.  I’ve never heard of Rare Bird, though, so now I’m curious to learn a bit about them!

As for my favorites, I grew up from very early childhood on The Beatles, Steely Dan, and The Moody Blues, and they’re sort of comfort bands/artists I can always go back to. I also listened to Elvis Costello and Squeeze a lot as a kid, on the more new-wave and pop side of things, and they’re always such a joy to listen to.  Bands I got into later, I went through massive hypes with.  Boston, Cheap Trick, Heart, Styx, and Foreigner are what I call the “big five” of bands I first really researched back in my pre-teen years.  They started the process of discovering all my favorites, so even though not all of them are my top favorites now, they remain special.  Supertramp, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, and The Who, I got to know better later on, and have also become bands I love with all my heart.  Pink Floyd technically is in there, too, although they occasionally turn me off with their drama.  And there’s more bands in that same list with Yes, waiting for when I’m ready to do a deep dive with them.  I’d say Chicago, The Cars, Dire Straits, and The Police are up near the top and closest to becoming fully loved.  More recently, the new-wave style bands have really had most of my attention, and Crowded House graduated from that list and are now a major favorite.  So, it’s really an ongoing thing, and the bands sort of tell me when I’m ready for them -usually when I’m casually listening, something just hits differently than it has before, and I just know.  To list all my favorites at the different stages would probably be a laundry list of over 20, or maybe over 30 bands by now!  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love the baking around the holidays, too!  Mostly for the family time.  I’m really hoping this year, baking gets to be a family event like it usually is.  Last year, both my parents got Covid right before I had final exams at graduate school.  So once just enough days had passed for it to be safe enough for me to come home, I did all our baking for the upcoming family events by myself, as the only person who hadn’t been sick. It just wasn’t the same, being alone and masked up in the kitchen, instead of us all in it together, watching movies while we work.  I’ve not heard of farofa, but it does look tasty!  Is it savory, aside from the raisins?  I have had panettone, though -it’s especially a favorite on my mom’s side of the family, which is Italian.  I was born in the United States, so I’m American, but my mom was born in Italy, and I had the experience of Italian grandparents growing up.  It sure shaped a lot of how we celebrated Christmas on that side of the family.  But I also really love going over and celebrating with my dad’s side of the family on Christmas Eve.  My aunt usually hosts, and she’s just been a wonderful person to look up to all my life.  And she and my uncle go out like no other with the decorations and festivities.  Even on years when it’s not been the greatest holiday season, walking into their house on Christmas Eve, everything is always happy for a few hours no matter what.

✈️

Oh, I don't think I've ever listened to Dan Fogelberg, do you have a favorite album of his you can recommend me?

Rare Bird really isn't much well-known, which, in my opinion, is unfair. They only have five albums, my favorite being Somebody's Watching, the one that introduced me to their music. As for Bread, some people don't like them much because they have many, idk, mellow, romantic songs? But I think they are amazing. I think it's possible you've already heard Baby I'm-a Want You, Make It With You, or maybe Guitar Man, and they're all great examples of the sound I'm talking about. But they have some great more rockier songs as well, like Tecolote, for example. Yes, on the other hand, is highly celebrated and it's no wonder! They introduced me to Prog and showed me a song can be really long and not boring at all haha! But I 100% understand what you said about a band telling you when you're ready for them, it's the same for me as well.

Oh, I love many of the bands you mentioned! I think I would put The Moody Blues, Supertramp and Blue Öyster Cult among my top favorites as well. And Crowded House too! One of their songs is really big here (Don't Dream It's Over), from there I discovered more of their music and they're really good :)

I'm sorry to hear about how things went this time of the year last year, cooking alone really doesn't have the same magic as with the people we love. I hope this year you get to have this experience with your family. As for the farofa, it is savory, that's why some people hate the addition of raisins haha! And panettone is huge here in Brazil in the holiday season, I particularly like it with chocolate chips rather than candied fruit, but I don't know if it's something people do outside of here.

Christmas decoration for sure is a plus, isn't it? It gets me in a better mood too ♡ I'm curious to know a bit more about how the Italian side of your family shaped how you celebrate Christmas, is it ok for you to share?

[sillypenguinwitch]

to clarify (and some more thoughts): I'm not saying there's no good wlw media, I know it's out there (albeit few and far between), but there's seldom a lot of hype around it, and that generally means that no strong fandom with fan content (edits, gifs, fanfiction, fanart, discussions, etc.) develops. And to a certain extend I think that has to do with how consumers (aka potential fans) respond to wlw media (that's a whole seperate topic in itself tbh), but it also - to a much greater extend imo - has to do with the specific stories that are being told, how they're being told and the context in which the thing exists, e.g. the marketing, cast, (not being cancelled after one season!), etc.

A big fandom is much less likely to develop around one single film or one book even, no matter how well-written, than a show with multiple seasons or a book + series/movie adaptation or series of movies. There needs to be time for the thing to spread and people to recommend it to each other (while there's still new episodes/chapters/seasons/etc coming out) and overall there needs to be enough of the thing to go off of: to get to know the characters, to inspire discussion and to inspire the kind of content that keeps a fandom going! I also think for something to focus on the main couple and romance in the way the mlm examples mentioned in my original post do, it has to be somewhat clear early on that they're going to get together and neither of them is going to die - this is not something that can be guaranteed for a lot of fictional wlw couples.

Which brings me to my next point: shows with sapphic main characters or shows that are known for their wlw couples often have supernatural or otherwise mysterious elements, which takes screen time away from romance and character development to deal with monsters or murderers or worldbuilding - almost as if studios don't think just their romance alone is interesting enough - and drastically ups the possibility of someone dying. And don't get me wrong, I loove those types of shows! Every show with wlw couples, from Buffy to Pretty Little Liars to Sense8 to Killing Eve to Yellowjackets to First Kill - give it to me! This is not about putting down those shows!! First Kill is probably closest to the teen drama wlw-couple-focused type show I'm thinking of, but even that has that supernatural element. Again, I love the show, this is no shade *at all* and I'm not trying to take anything away from any of these shows I just think it's really noticable how there are hardly any shows that are just... regular wlw teens. I think we deserve it all: fluffy romance with maybe a bit of drama and angst but grounded somewhat in the real world *and* scifi/fantasy/supernatural/mystery plots with wlw love *and* everything in between! In fact, like half of those shows got cancelled way too early, so even the shows I'm saying "this is the only type that we get" we don't even really get. Ugh.

I actually think statistically the number of wlw and mlm couples or characters on tv is somewhat similar (I feel like I read that somewhere?) but that doesn't tell us anything about the type and quality of the representation or the amount of screentime. Heartstopper has sapphic characters (more than mlm characters even?) but Nick and Charlie are the main couple. Love Victor later had sapphic characters, but the main relationships are Victor's. The focus is always clear. Studios had no issue shelling out for 3 seasons of an mlm spin off (Love Victor) of an mlm thing (Love Simon), but couldn't adapt the existing wlw spin off book (Leah on the Offbeat) into one spin off movie? Yeah... although even then it would've been contingent on the mlm thing.

I've seen people mention that the other versions and seasons of Skam have wlw couples! I buried this in the tags of my original post but I know: I've watched the sapphic seasons of Skam España and Druck (Skam Germany) and loved them, they're *exactly* the kind of thing I'm talking about - but let's not act like they would've even been made without OG Evak. And there's no shame in using the popularity of an mlm thing as a jumping off point but it's always this conditional thing, it's always contingent on something else, always a second thought...

idk, call me greedy and bitter and nitpicky, I don't care - I think I (we!) have a right to be pissed off about this. And I know these types of things hinge on so many little conditions, there are so many potential reason something doesn't get made, it's not always purely that they don't think wlw romance is interesting, etc. etc., but don't tell me there isn't a pattern. And these are only a few examples, there are so many more! And if you're now thinking: "she's asking for too much" keep in mind that people have mentioned dozens of wlw things in these tags and replies, and none of them have fit these criteria, but I can *easily* name basically a never-ending list of mlm things that do.

Again, I'm not trying to be divisive, all of the things mentioned are great, please don't be upset at me for mentioning them in this way! My issue isn't with the things that do exist, my issue is with the things that don't: the seasons or existing shows that aren't getting made because something got cancelled prematurely, the pitches that aren't being greenlit because studios don't want to give their money to wlw stories, etc. I'm not angry at the mlm things, I'm angry that there aren't also similar wlw things (with the budget and fandom to match).

And maybe I shouldn't compare mlm and wlw media so directly and just accept that there's a different style to them, idk maybe that's what it is, but should we really have to accept that the fluffy, unapologetic, teen (or early 20s) main character romances are only for (mostly) white, (mostly) skinny, (mostly) ablebodied, (mostly) cis boys? Personally, I don't think so.

Sorry this turned into more of a rant than I intended for it to be.

okay so i'm not trying to make this a ~thing~ or a hot take or whatever, but can we talk about how all the hyped up queer shows still predominantly feature mlm couples? i'm not saying there aren't wlw shows/movies or the mlm-focused shows don't also feature wlw characters/couples, just... they either get nowhere near the same amount of hype, have some other main plot, end with at least one of them dying or experiencing something traumatic, get cancelled after one season in the middle of their arc, or they're not the main couple. And that's not to discount the representation you can get from secondary characters of course but just... ugh I want a heartstopper or rwrb or young royals or skam or love, simon or i don't even know... with girls. And I know I'm not the first person to bring this up and I know it's not that simple, but seeing all the hype for heartstopper and rwrb this week makes my heart ache a little bit so i needed to say this somewhere.

[lisa-dunbar]

Legally Blonde is one of the best movies out there

We live our lives in such a way that it is frequently nearly necessary to disconnect for a while and connect to something imaginary. It is one of the most crucial things we can do to maintain our sanity. We have you covered if you need to temporarily escape your harsh reality and enter the closest made-up place.

Below are some of our favorite movies to watch when you feel like escaping reality. Do give them a try, and tell us what you think!

It's undeniable that the times we live in make it harder and harder for us to live up to expectations. Reality may occasionally be too much to handle, whether it's striving to make enough money to cover our (exponentially rising) living expenditures or being inundated with awful news from across the globe all the time.

What better way to get away from everything than to watch one of our favorite movies, which can provide us solace even in the worst of situations? In actuality, as we saw during the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, the majority of us looked to art for solace, humor, and escape. We've put up a list of movies that, from emotional rom-coms to fantastical fantasy, are renowned to offer solace when it's required. Here are 12 movies that can help you find the solace you need.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is, without a doubt, one of the best fictional worlds the global cinematic universe has ever seen so far. It is based on a magical world created by J. K. Rowling.

When it comes to escaping reality, there is no better way than to lose yourself in the adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they fight off dark forces to save the world.

Eat, Pray, Love

If you dig the 'feel good' vibes in books and movies, Eat, Pray, Love is the perfect movie for you. This movie contains the perfect dose of spirituality and some important life lessons that will help you tremendously.

Moreover, Julia Roberts is just the cherry on top which you need in this movie to grace your screens. You can watch this movie on Hulu in UK and other countries.

The Lion King

Who hasn't watched The Lion King as they grew up? It is one of the classic movies that is suitable for children and adults alike.

While it may contain some depressing moments (hint: Simba witnessing his father’s death), it also makes up for it through some downright delightful (and wholesome) moments of Simba growing up, making loyal friends, and finding love in Nala.

We cannot recommend this movie enough, as it brings back all our childhood nostalgia. If you have never watched it, this is your cue to stream it on your screens now!

Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973)

Among many delightful remakes of the classic fairytale story Cinderella, this one is perfect for you to stream when you wish to pause on your boring or harsh real life and seek joy in this fictional world.

The plot revolves around Cinderella, a young orphan with her evil stepmother and step-sisters. As they travel through a forest, they cross paths with a handsome young prince who wishes to find a bride for himself.

The story has a unique twist but follows the basic plotline of our favorite childhood story and makes up for a great time of escaping reality.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

When 15-year-old Charlie goes through the painful trauma of his best friend committing suicide, he finds it difficult to cope with his life and live like a normal teenager. Things change when he befriends a couple of seniors in his high school who help him cope with his trauma and brings him out of his shell.

This is one of the most uplifting movies out there, which will help you escape reality and give you the much-needed motivation to deal with life in a much better and healthier way.

Up

When Carl, a widower who has lived his life in full swing, realizes that he has one unfulfilled goal, he makes all the necessary planning to go on an adventure in his flying house to find Paradise Falls.

His purpose for this journey is to be at his late wife's dream destination and to honor her one last time before he dies. This is one of the most wholesome movies, which will leave you in tears at certain moments but also help you value life to its fullest.

Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde is one of the best movies out there, which will help you escape reality and experience a joyful time. The plot of this movie revolves around Elle, who experiences a breakup simply because her boyfriend wants to be a politician, so he replaces her with a girl who has 'smart' in a conventional manner.

As a result, she secured a place at Harvard Law School and proved her ex wrong by being one of the smartest and most talented lawyers in their batch.

Final Thoughts

To sum it up, we are more than looking forward to helping you escape reality through the list of films that we have shared with you, watch more amazing movies on Disney Plus. Feel free to skim through them and watch the one you like the best. Have a great time streaming your favorite content this weekend!