#there have been hints in a few episodes that the relationship between the leads is perhaps meant to be one of teacher and student

[mariocki]

New Scotland Yard: A Case of Prejudice (2.2, LWT, 1972)

"Now, what about this audience - do you know any of them?"

"A lot of them, some of them are friends of mine, they live in the street."

"Black and white or... all black?"

"Both, black and white. That's what this is all about, right?"

"That's what what's all about?"

"This place, this street, this district, this killing."

"Tell me what you mean by that, please."

"This was a community venture; I spent ten years in this district trying to get people together: black and white, together. That's what my play's all about, right? Simple people power. Look, my play says that white power is finished, but there is always a chance that -"

"I don't think we want to go into politics, Mr. Buckingham."

"No, go on, please."

"You don't want to go into it? But that is why Charlie was killed!"

[sillyandquiteawkward]

sillys (not so) lil info dump about how to be a human being. smiles

htbahb is an album from glass animals, of which notably, all the songs align with different people's lives, perspectives, and feelings, also of which are shown on the (various) album covers. so the easiest way to go thru the story is song by song. but i will show you the album art so you can get a gist of things before we go into details.

these are just some of the various album covers for htbahb, theres a bunch of them, but we dont need to see all of them to see the different lives of our characters.

1, Life Itself

this is our main character for life itself. you can call him a bit of a nerd if youd like. apparently his name is chuck rogers. they dont all have names.

hes an inventor, loves ray guns and strange technology, but as noted in his song, feels like he was raised with expectations hell never be able to achieve. his father as a child said he would be a superstar, but nowadays, he cant get a job and he lives with his mom. hes struggling with finding himself and his place in society and hes doing drugs and feeling like hes absolute rock bottom with everyone being against him. he feels alone and attacked and retreats back into his car or grandmothers basement and keeps folding back into himself.

in the music video for life itself, hes only seen in a few scenes, leading the charge against [popular st] with a smoke bomb as [mamas gun] watches knowingly from the sidelines as perhaps the real leader behind the assault. they seems to be accomplices with each other, as they ride in the car together and seem to be specifically looking for [youth].

2. Youth

now the main character for youth is tricky, it seems like we have two characters for youth, the small child, and assumedly, his mother the waitress. i think i like the interpretation that the mother is the main character for this song, and the child represents the album as a whole. alternatively i also like the idea that the child is youth, and his mother represents [premade sandwiches]. but for the most part, they are just both the characters for youth.

youth is a mother talking about her child, and to her child, almost in a detached sort of way as if they arent able to see each other. a mother speaking her hopes and dreams to her child. somehow these two have been separated when the child was young, perhaps through giving up to adoption, or hinted in the music video, abduction. she wishes best for the child, urges them to feel their mother at their side, and notes that theyve got her eyes. she lists off her wishes for them to be happy and have friends, and be silly. this perhaps is for the best, that they can be happy even without her. i particularly like in this song, the wordplay makes it sound like the singer is counting one, two, three, four, five, when they are singing other words like boy, to, free, funny, and fly respectively.

in the music video for youth, the child is seen almost haunting the mother as she works as a waiter, appearing in several locations playing and running around as she remains dutiful to her job. they briefly sit looking at each other in the same hotel room he had been taken to in life itself's music video.

3. Season 2 Episode 3

this is the main character for season 2 ep 3 and i think one of the cool changes between album covers, as we see a fully done up girl all put together with her make up on, and in the other, someone a bit more silly with her makeup removed. this might be the way she sees herself vs how other people see her.

the song is the lament of a boyfriend to his girlfriend, who seems to be glued to the couch, watching shows, getting high, not changing her clothes, and eating day old leftover food and most notably, mayonnaise straight from the jar. at the beginning of the song, the two of them are high together, however he soon sobers and realizes she refuses to get sober along with him. he tries to convince her that their relationship wont work if she keeps being like this and doesnt try, but she wants him back the way he was (high as well) and views him as a nag. she still makes him happy, but sometimes she makes him sad to see how she lives. even after an acceptance from the boyfriend that she wont change and will never be vertical and golden like he wants and that the relationship will never work out, the song ends hinting that hes picked up getting high with her again due to her calling him a killjoy and wearing him down.

in the music video we watch the girl splay out on the sofa, surrounded by her mess watching tv and doing nothing. halfway into the video, we are brought into the game she plays, as she battles [life itself] [cane shuga] and [the other side of paradise], all of which are men who could possibly be the boyfriend figure.

4. Pork Soda

this is our main character for everyones favorite pork soda. hes an older man, who for the most part seems pretty happy. wonder if hes harboring some long lost feelings or something.

the song opens with a street performance unintelligible to a normal listener, its like passing by a conversation, you are only able to hear bits and pieces of the spoken words. once the song starts you hear a story about this guy's girl who used to be fun and adventurous and would take him along with her. in the same breathe hes begging to go back to the days they were happy together. it seems like they fell out of love, or are in a struggling relationship bereft of communication or the passion it once had. shes only happy when theyre having sex together, and just looking at each other causes him heartache. the song talks about pineapples in my head, and being brain dead, as well as other references to diminishing mental facilities, that perhaps in their age, theyd forgotten about each other.

the music video gives us probably the most clear story line, as we see the wife prepare a meal before sending it through a dumbwaiter into the basement for the husband. there he sits alone, watching tv. up above the wife plays with their dog, imagining the dog is the younger version of her husband. all of her time is dedicated to the dog, and all of his time is dedicated to the tv. they have forgotten they love each other and live in the same house, but live in separate worlds. only after the dog destroys his tv and the husband destroys the floor above him and under her feet, do they finally get back together as he catches her as she falls, surprised and exhilarated for the first time in forever. and things seem to be better as they finally occupy the same room together again.

5. Mama's Gun

This is the main character for mamas gun. shes a victim of the perception of her mental illness. i think this is my fav song of the album.

during the song, the woman initially admits that she took her gun and made her husband go to neverland. however she also says she loved him a lot and he was perfect. through bits and pieces of the lyrics you can come to the conclusion that she has some sort of psychosis, or perhaps schizophrenia in particular as she notes many different voices and figures talking to her. the song references dr swango, a doctor who killed his patients, however he insists to her that him and all the other voices in her head are too from neverland, and that she was a murderer just like him. is she really guilty of murder? what really happened? the flute played during various instrumental parts of the song is a sample from the carpenter's mr. guder, a song about a man who does what hes supposed to in society and his job and gets nothing from it. karen carpenter herself was a victim of her own mental illness and they say that theres a specific purpose for the sample chosen. once the lyrics pick back up, the voices again pipe up and tell her she was a murderer, even the voice who had never spoken says so, so he must be telling the truth right? during the final bit of the song, it seems like her husbands voice joins into her collection of voices, as he bears a cheshire smile and asks her to lay with him once again, and that hes waiting for her. in the end, its unclear what happened with her and her husband, as she goes back and forth saying she was violent, she was doing nothing. this song was inspired by a story they heard of a woman going into a drug induced black out for a month and reappearing in another state with no memory, and the lingering fear that shes done something terrible wrong, and never being able to have the closure of knowing what happened.

theres no music video for this song, but we see her appear in life itself. she and [life itself] drive to the hotel where [poplar st] is holding [youth] captive and attempt to break into the room hes in.

6. Cane Shuga

this is our main character for cane shuga. hes exactly how he seems, a rich white guy who is, of course, using that cane shuga all day everyday.

cane shuga presents a dialogue from two parties, two people in a relationship. the singer promises he wont do coke anymore, that he wont be a john doe in the hospital. the chorus however is the high he rides on, where he thinks hes hot shit, hes 007 james bond, hes as powerful as kim jong, with a popped collar as he looks into the glare of the mirror and hypes himself up after using in the bathroom at work. hes untouchable. the second chorus is his partner, giving up on him, their love has burned up, just like his drugs. theres a humorous line of putting their foot down saying ive had quite enough, but corrects themself and sarcastically says or lack there of, that they arent being given anything anymore by him. regardless, their verses and conversation is short. the chorus of his high is the main focus of the song, and repeat over and over as the days continue.

[cane shuga] appears in season 2 ep 3's music video as [season 2 episode 3]'s potential lover. their stories do seem to entangle, they both are drug users dealing with partners who want to stop using. some people say that he is her partner, that he stops using for her, but falls back into the habit. however this doesnt exactly line up with her song, as she doesnt want him to stop. i think its part of that unreliable narrator theme weve seen in previous songs. people have different experiences with each other and get different messages due to the issue of communication. im not exactly on board with these two being together, but i do understand where people are coming from with this take.

7. [Premade Sandwiches]

this is a spoken word interlude, sped up and pitched down. there doesnt seem to be a character paired with this song, and on cd this song is simply a bonus track hidden behind cane shuga. on first listening its very difficult to catch what is being said, but over and over the speaker is talking about standing in line for various things. this song discusses mindless over consumption of drugs, of buzz words, of natural foods for your dog, watches, new clothes made to look old, the junk drawer filled with phones you dont use, with pens that dont work, with random shit you never needed just piling up. people stand in line and they dont even know why.

8. The Other Side Of Paradise

this is our main character for the other side. hes gonna be a basketball player and make it big babyeee.

so its a bit unclear and vague in the lyrics, but it seems our narrator and the basketball player used to be close friends. he even seems to be in love with the basketball player, calling him my love. but the basketball player leaves their home in new orleans to go chase his dreams out west and make it big, leaving our narrator's side. he told the narrator not to worry but after phone calls, it seems like basketball boy got a girlfriend. hes gloating to the narrator, hes got a girlfriend now, hes got a gold camaro, hes made it big, meanwhile our narrator is at the payphone hearing all this and his world turns in slow motion. no longer is the basketball player his baby blue anymore. hes moved on, hell never have another chance to love his friend. hes so angry and hurt, but he balls up his fist almost in a fight or flight reaction, and settles for the ghost of his love. hed always hoped for a paradise where they could be together but it seems like fate had other plans. he laments the basketball player for ditching them, saying here in new orleans people dont leave and ditch their lady (him). he wants to be loved and pampered by him, not her. heres where the vagueness comes back, the narrator seems to be so distraught that he rather kills himself, or finds that his body looks wrong, perhaps that hes not a girl that couldve been loved by the basketball player.

he only ever appears in the music video for season 2 ep 3 as one of the bosses [season 2 episode 3] defeats, claiming ball is life. there is a music video that was recently released for this song, however it does not depict the basketball player.

9. Take a Slice

this is our main character for take a slice, hes a bit of a slut but he makes it work :) the spoken intro to this song is the real recording the band took while talking to a male fortune teller, so the sausage candle is rather real or a lie from the fortune teller.

take a slice regales the story of a young man who finds pleasures in the sultry sexual aspects of life. hes sucking on cigarettes in a way freud would roll in his grave, hes painted his nails dark, has piercings, hes asking for another slice of cherry pie, cherries being a symbol for all things sex and lust. hes smitten with the idea of being a prize to be sought after, and after trying sex work for the first time, realizes this is the job for him. hes going to fuck his way through college, and sleep during class dreaming of you. wink. hes rolling in the dough, hes got a gold car, hes maybe dabbling in drugs too, and hes filthy and he loves it.

10. Poplar St

ms moore is the main character of poplar st, and shes a cougar, and not the good kind.

a young boy lives a typical suburban life. hes got bandaids on his knees and hes climbing trees. but one day, he sees mrs moore and mr keats have sex. immediately this drags him out of his childhood, hes such a man now that he knows what sex is. this is the first step of her grasp around him. as he gets a bit older, his mother calls her prosti-tits and looks down upon her. but the boy looks up to ms moore, despite his mothers words. mrs moore sees his desperation and pulls him into her clutches. theres a very specific voice crack when her teeth sink in deep and the note hes singing falls flat. this bit of pain expressed is highly contrasted with the chorus coming back in, the boy once again considers himself a real man, a true romantic, this is what all men dream of, isnt it? but there are dead flowers in the sand, hinting that these roses arent just romantic. the next bridge plays and interesting word switch up. it starts out with her begging him for more as she sits in her underwear, and then switches to him begging her for more in his underwear. theyve both wasted their days, but when it comes to his youth and her age, the only one wasting their childhood is him. the song concludes with mrs moore calling him up collect (so he has to pay for the phone call, not her) one day and breaking up with him. and then it all gets pulled out from under him and hes just a boy again. this tells the sad tale of how men and boys' sexual assault and grooming often is pushed to the side because they think this is how things are supposed to go, that they are supposed to have sex and to be used and abused from a woman is supposed to be an achievement. but really all it is, is abuse that leaves him feeling terrible.

11. Agnes

this is agnes :) i think it was mentioned at some point that he takes pictures of people when they arent looking, so to me, i like to think hes the one capturing everyone pictured in this album. bear witness to other humans.

the song starts out where the singer is appearing to try and comfort agnes. how did it get this bad, agnes used to just take pills and smoke a little, somethings changed perhaps. the singer notes agnes is just going through the motions every day, numb, and nervous, but hes swelling with emotion all the same. here the singer laments he wants to hold agnes like hes mine. theres a longing sadness in the lyrics. the next verse confirms the worst, while agnes was perhaps a genius when it came to the romantic, he was a deeply depressed and lonely person. he started to rely on the drugs and the alcohol he used to use recreationally, just to live a normal life. and he ultimately commited suicide. the singer wonders where the agnes he used to know went. however the singer reconsiders, and accepts that agnes did his best, life must feel so unbearably long when its soaked in sadness, living a false life filled with depression. so it goes, the singer thinks, but cant help but to feel lost. the only thing he can think of is agnes, perhaps considering all the art agnes made, all the photos he took of other people, perhaps just thinking about his friend in any aspect. grief is funny like that. on the vinyl record, this song's last seconds repeat over and over until you stop the machine from playing, like a lingering memory you cant stop thinking about.

the agnes music video is much different than the others, as it focuses on the singer, dave bayley as he sits in a centrifuge and attempts to sing the song. this causes a very physical reaction and he struggles to even lift his hand, by the end of it hes sweating profusely and unable to catch his breath, but he persists and continues singing. he mentions this was a mere fraction of what someone going through depression could feel like. during the music video as well, he appears to be looking across from a mannequin, perhaps the stand in for himself once hes put himself in agnes' shoes.

thanks for reading if you did i love being insane. all of these are my personal thoughts on the album, and might not exactly match up with your interpretation, but i have tried to keep to what we believe is what glass animals had in mind for the album and these characters.

[picturejasper20]

Any thoughts on the New Wish finale?

It was.... (sigh) something

There are some things that really nails and funny moments but it feels it should have been something that should have been longer? There are emotional beats that feel like they should have lasted more to have a proper pay off.

For me the biggest issue i have is that Dev and Hazel barely interact in this finale. After their relationship being like the main core of this season and what moved the arcs, we barely get any of that in here.

When i saw the episode title card i thought this episode was going to be about their fight and what has been happening between them, but no, they only get very few interactions in the actual episode.

Another issue i have is that i feel like Dev was made out to be too cruel in a way in this episode? It is fine to turn him into a villain but some of the things he does feel way too extreme for what we have seen of his character so far. He even ends up trapping Peri on a cage for days?? It feels too extreme for someone who just like was throwing tamptrums and wanted to just annoy Hazel and make her miserable some segments ago.

One thing i do like is the scene that Wanda hears Dev complaining about Dale not paying him attention not matter what he does. Wanda explains to Dev about it is dangerous for fairies to not use their magic for too long.

Then Peri telling Dev that he cares about him and Dev breaks down in tears, finally realizing that what he was looking for he could find it in Peri or other people. He throws the key and just goes to another room. He sounds so defeated in tha moment.

I do like the different characters that we saw in the season helping Hazel to take back Fairy World. That was a good use of continuity. The scene Hazel tells to her friends and Anthony about how she has godparents and them being unfaced by it is pretty funny.

Dev and Irep do have some good scenes in the episode. They have a fun dynamic and i wish we could seen more of that in this season. They are a good villain duo.

For me the episode drops the ball in the last minutes... Hazel and Dev have a short conversation, which is cute but feels not enough with what they have been through in the season.

Dev loses Peri and loses his memories about fairies as result.... what does that mean then? He is only going to remember certain things? What about the lesson he got from this episode? Is it going to stay with him. It is underwhelming because it doesn't give us any further hints of what really happened to him.

On last point, i do like the idea of more people knowing about fairies besides Hazel. I think that now that Jasmine, Winn and Anthony know about it, it could lead to some interesting scenarios for the characters.

Outside of that it is a rather underwhelming season 1 finale that leaves things open for second season, ending a somewhat of cliffhanger that left a lot of fans with bad taste in their mouths.

[twig-tea]

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 5 & 6: Kylie Once Again Recontextualizes Everything

Thanks as always to @lurkingshan and @bengiyo for the wrangling and discussion questions!

I already wrote about the relationship between Gyu-Ho and Yeong in this part, so I wanted to focus on something else for book club. And after working on the timeline in the series, I decided to revisit my meta for Part 3 of the novel, in which I wrote about how Kylie recontextualizes everything that came before we knew about her. I’d like to do the same here for the series while reflecting on the differences.  Knowing when his mother died, the T-aras being present through the whole story, and starting the story after Kylie are the three big changes that I think worked really well in this adaptation, and all of these changes mean that the revelation about Kylie in episodes 5-6 hit a little differently than in the book. 

[screenshot from this post by @how-to-be-a-tree]

With the revelation in this part that Yeong went to the military a few months before the T-aras, we now know that Yeong had recently contracted HIV just before the series began.The hints in episode 1 that he was struggling (hadn’t been going to class, doing odd jobs and asking for the extra clothes) make more sense. It also recontextualizes the aggressive kiss in the club where he kissed that stranger so hard he bled. This also means that, unlike in the novel, he meets and befriends Mi Ae after he was already diagnosed, and since he tells Gyu-Ho that he’s the only one Yeong’s ever told, we know he never told Mi Ae either. Watching them hold each other’s hands as they whisper their secrets in the dark takes a new sad tint to it knowing that Yeong could not trust her with his deepest shame.

[screenshot from this post by @maletimbe]

I wonder if part of his strong reaction to her outing him to Jun Ho was because he had been wanting to tell her, and it was painful knowing he could never trust her with that secret. I wonder if that’s why he doesn’t go to the T-aras after his fight with Mi Ae, but goes to Nam Gyu instead, because he wouldn’t be able to explain to the T-aras why he was so hurt, and on some level the T-aras have already rejected that part of him so he can’t trust them with that vulnerability. 

I wonder if sending the T-aras off at Karaoke reminded him of Kylie and is part of what pushed him to break up with Nam Gyu. After his fallout with Mi Ae, when Yeoung is telling Nam Gyu to find someone braver than him, I wonder if he was thinking about Kylie.

When he goes to Nam Gyu’s funeral and asks how he died, I am pretty sure just by the way that scene was performed that he was thinking about Kylie and wondering whether he killed him–and it makes that revelation hit double-hard, that Nam Gyu was killed in a car accident speeding, because it just reinforced his worst fear: he had gotten Nam Gyu killed, just not in the way he thought. [I don’t actually hold Yeong accountable for Nam Gyu’s decision to speed, but I can imagine Yeong took it that way]. 

I wonder if Yeong was attracted to Yeong Su partially because of the way he tries to help his mother, who is an addict–there’s something in the way social stigma against addicts and poz folks is similar (partially because needle sharing is a way to contract HIV), and how acceptance of those states of being can often come together. I wonder if that's why he could take Yeong Su's more heteronormative kdrama lead style romance when it irritated him in Nam Gyu.

In any case, Yeong having HIV through that relationship and hiding it from Yeong Su makes his reading of Yeong Su’s article about the  immorality of being gay hit even harder. I also think about how irregular his schedule was then, and how bad he was at taking his medication regularly and on time. And knowing that there are restrictions to travel and to moving places, I wonder if part of his rage at Yeong Su moving to America was about knowing that even if Yeong Su had asked, he could not have joined him (you can travel to the USA with HIV but it can be difficult to get a green card). Honestly he was probably too hit with the betrayal and callous rejection to do that full calculus in his head in that moment but I wanted an excuse to use this gif because watching Yeoung punch Yeong Su is good for the spirit:

It also recontextualizes the scenes with his mother, and how much she cared about appearances and judgment, and how she contextualized her own disease as a punishment from God, so how could he not do the same about his own? When overdoses on pills, and his mother tells him not to be in a rush to die, I wonder if the hospital successfully did not disclose his HIV status to her during that period.

Seeing the T-aras there and so worried about him must have been healing even if they still don’t know about this major part of him; he knows they love and care for him and want him alive. Yeong not telling the T-aras about his application to the company because he’s afraid of being rejected for his HIV status tells me that he still hasn’t told the T-aras about Kylie through Part 3; I’m not sure he ever will. But there are people in our lives who we love and who love us in return who we keep secrets from; it means there will always be a level of distance, but it does not mean we aren’t important to each other. 

His mother dying at the beginning of Part 3 is a significant detail that we don’t get in the book, and it made me rethink why Parts 1 and 2 did not mention Kylie at all. In the series, we have Yeong writing Part 1 in episodes 1-2, Part 2 in episodes 3-4, and Part 3 in episodes 5-6. We know he wanted his mother to never know about Kylie, and we know that she followed his literary career and kept copies of his work even if she won’t read them. So it makes sense that he could only write about having HIV and incorporating that into his narrative after her death. I also wonder if Yeong being willing to open up to Gyu-Ho about Kylie has to do with his mother’s death: One of his reasons for keeping the secret so carefully is no longer present.

This isn't recontextualized because by the time we see this we know about Kylie, but how much of Yeong's fixation on Gyu-Ho's silent sleeping and needing to check he's still breathing has to do with his fear that Gyu-Ho still hasn't settled into the relationship and is tip-toeing around him, and how much of it has to do with his fear of giving Gyu-Ho HIV and making him ill? They're barely having sex so it's a pretty irrational fear but that's not how fear works. We know he's thinking about Kylie all the time through this section because he asks Gyu-Ho about how he feels abut Yeong being "dirty" more than once.

One last moment of painful reflection: The first two parts of this series had clear relationship pairings and parallels: Mi Ae and Nam Gyu in Part 1, and Yeong Su and Yeong's mother in Part 2. I was thinking about whether Kylie and Gyu-Ho are our pairing in Part 3, and while I don't think we get enough reflection about Kylie to make this case strongly, I'm struck by how Yeong characterizes Kylie as something he is "stuck with forever", and how he is determined to let Gyu-Ho go.

[mccall-muffin]

The Lady and the Major - Part 2/3 // John "Bucky" Egan x OC

Summary: Bucky quickly realizes that Liz is not like any woman he has ever met before. But there is still a war to win, and Bucky has his duties. So, every letter that arrives is a prized possession now.

Warnings: Language, teasing, kissing, sex (not too detailed)

A/N: So, here is part 2 for you. And yes, by now I've seen all the Episodes that are out as of now - so I'm up to date ;)

Here is my Masterlist

Tags: @liebgotts-lovergirl, @softly-writes, @mads-weasley, @brassknucklespeirs, @softguarnere, @shesgonna

As the band transitions smoothly into a slow, captivating melody, the atmosphere of the gala shifts, becoming charged with a different kind of energy. Bucky, seizing the moment, sets aside the formalities with the ease of a man used to taking the lead. He gently takes Liz's champagne flute, placing it on a nearby table with a confident grin. "Care to dance, Lady Cavendish?" he asks, extending his hand, his eyes sparkling with an invitation to step into a moment just for the two of them.

On the dance floor, Bucky guides Liz with a practiced ease, pulling her close enough that their conversation remains private, a bubble amidst the sea of dancing couples. His hands are respectfully placed, yet the occasional, deliberate brush of his fingers along her back suggests a familiarity that goes beyond mere dance partners.

As they move to the rhythm of the music, Bucky can't resist the opportunity to delve deeper into the intriguing paradox that is Liz. "You know, I've been told quite a few tales about the elusive Lady Cavendish," he teases, his voice low and playful. "Word around is that beneath that veneer of the perfect highborn lady lies a spirit too wild to be tamed by society's chains."

Liz, unphased and quick to respond, tilts her head slightly, a challenge in her bright blue eyes. "And just what exactly have you heard, Major Egan?" she inquires, her voice a mix of curiosity and daring. "I'm quite intrigued to know what stories have made their way to your ears."

Their dance becomes a metaphor for their conversation—each step and turn a delicate balance between revealing too much and not enough. Bucky, navigating this dance of words as skillfully as he does the physical one, leans in, his breath a whisper against her ear. "I've heard that you're no stranger to bending the rules, that you find the conventional life of aristocracy stifling. That you've been known to disappear into the night on adventures that would make your family's esteemed guests blush," he whispers, each word carefully chosen to entice and probe.

Liz's reaction is a soft, genuine laugh, a sound that seems to momentarily lighten the weight of her title and societal expectations. "My, my, Major, such scandalous rumors," she retorts, her tone laced with amusement and a hint of defiance. "Let's just say I believe life is too short to be lived within the confines of what others deem acceptable. And perhaps, I do enjoy the thrill of the chase, the excitement of the unknown."

Their eyes lock, and in that moment, a silent understanding passes between them. Here, in the middle of the dance floor, they've managed to peel back another layer of the intrigue that surrounds their budding relationship. Bucky, drawn to the fire he sees burning behind Liz's poised exterior, finds himself more captivated than ever, eager to discover what other secrets lie hidden beneath her aristocratic facade.

As the song comes to an end, they remain momentarily in each other's arms, the last notes fading into the background. This dance, both literal and metaphorical, has drawn them closer, weaving their stories together in a way that neither had anticipated. And as they step back, rejoining the world around them, it's clear that this evening has only served to deepen the intrigue and attraction that pulses between them.

Liz's invitation to step outside carries an undertone of challenge, a silent test of Bucky's willingness to navigate the complexities of her world. He accepts with a nod, the unspoken communication between them sparking with anticipation. However, as they make their way toward the grand doors leading to the estate's gardens, they are intercepted by none other than the Duke and Duchess of Wellington themselves.

With hardly a moment to prepare, Liz leans in, her voice a hurried whisper, instructing Bucky on the proper etiquette for addressing her parents. "Remember, it's 'Your Grace' for both of them," she murmurs, her tone urgent yet composed. Bucky, despite the sudden shift in situation, nods his understanding, a quick study in the art of aristocratic manners.

The Duke, a figure of imposing stature and dignity, eyes Bucky with a mix of curiosity and the guarded warmth of a father protective of his daughter. "And who might this be, Elizabeth?" he inquires, his voice carrying the weight of authority and expectation.

Liz, ever the adept navigator of her family's expectations, steps in smoothly. "Father, Mother, this is Major John Egan of the US Air Force. We met recently at a charity event where Major Egan was sharing some of his experiences from the war. His stories were quite enlightening," she explains, echoing the innocent tale she'd spun for her brother.

The Duchess offers Bucky a polite smile, but it's the Duke's reaction that holds the room in suspense. After a moment's evaluation, his expression softens, a nod of approval directed at Bucky. "A pilot, you say? Well, that's commendable. Our Edward has told us much about the bravery required in such a role," he says, his voice revealing a hint of the pride he holds for his son's achievements.

Bucky, sensing the importance of this moment, responds with the respect and humility befitting the situation. "Your Grace, it's an honor to serve. And it's been a privilege to share some of my experiences with those who understand the sacrifices made in the skies," he replies, his tone sincere.

The Duke nods, seemingly impressed by Bucky's demeanor and the shared bond of aerial combat. "Well, Major Egan, it's a pleasure to have you among us tonight. The bravery of you and your comrades in the Air Force is something we hold in high regard," he states, extending a hand in a gesture of respect and acceptance.

With the formal introductions made and the Duke's approval subtly given, Liz and Bucky are allowed to continue on their way, stepping out into the cool evening air. The brief encounter with her parents was a test, one that Bucky passed with the grace of a man who, despite his unorthodox entry into their world, understands the value of respect and common ground.

As they move away from the light and music spilling out from the mansion, the night around them feels charged with a new energy. Liz's challenge, Bucky's acceptance, and the unexpected approval of her father have all conspired to deepen the connection between them, setting the stage for whatever comes next under the starlit sky.

As they stand together on the balcony, the cool night air mingling with the tension of their conversation, Bucky watches Liz closely.

"You know why I turned them all down? All those ass-kissers of earls, viscounts, and so on who threw themselves at me?"

Her confession hangs between them, a raw and honest revelation that strips away the layers of aristocracy and high society, revealing the woman beneath. He's moved by her vulnerability, by the glimpse she's offered into the gilded cage that is her life.

"Why turn them all down, Liz?" Bucky prompts gently, already suspecting the answer but needing to hear it in her own words.

Liz's gaze meets his, steady and resolute. "Because marrying one of them would seal my fate. I'd be trapped in this world, expected to play the perfect wife, the dutiful daughter, forever," she confesses, her voice laced with a mixture of defiance and resignation. "I want more than what's expected of me, more than this life can offer."

Bucky's respect for her deepens in this moment, his initial attraction evolving into something more profound. He sees her not just as a challenge or a conquest but as a fellow soul seeking freedom from the confines of their respective worlds.

"And inviting me here tonight?" Bucky asks, the pieces falling into place. "Was that your way of rebelling against all this?" There's a note of understanding in his voice, a recognition of her courage in the face of stifling expectations.

Liz nods a small but significant gesture. "You're... different, Bucky. You don't belong to this world, and yet, you stood your ground. That confidence, that defiance—I wanted that for myself, even if just for a night," she admits, her eyes not leaving his.

Bucky steps closer, closing the distance between them, moved by her honesty. "Liz, I may not know all the rules of your world, but I do know about feeling trapped," he shares, his voice soft but firm. "If you're looking for a bit of freedom, even for just one night, then I say we take it. No expectations, no strings. Just two people enjoying the moment for what it is."

Liz's response is a smile, one that reaches her eyes and lights up the night. It's a smile of relief, of gratitude, of a burden momentarily lifted. "I'd like that, Bucky. More than you know," she says, her voice barely above a whisper.

As they stand there, two figures against the backdrop of a world that demands so much from them, they find solace in each other's company. For Liz, Bucky represents a breath of fresh air, a chance to experience life unfiltered by the expectations of her status. And for Bucky, Liz is no longer just the enigmatic aristocrat but a woman of depth and courage, fighting for her own identity.

In the moment their lips meet, the world around them—the chatter of the gala, the soft rustle of the night breeze, the distant melodies spilling out from the ballroom—fades into insignificance. Bucky, taken aback by the intensity of the kiss, finds himself caught in the current of Liz's boldness and expertise. Her playful bite, the confident dance of her tongue, signals a depth of experience that both surprises and entices him.

As Liz wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, the connection deepens, their bodies speaking a language of their own making. Bucky's hands, resting initially at her waist, venture slightly lower, his touch light but daring over the fabric of her dress, a silent exploration of the territory between propriety and desire.

When they finally part, the look Liz gives Bucky is one of playful challenge, a silent dare that speaks volumes. Her wink, a spark of mischief and promise, leaves him momentarily stunned, a statue on the balcony as she turns to make her way back inside. Yet, the invitation in her glance, the unspoken command to follow, ignites a fire within him.

Liz's graceful navigation through the gala's attendees, each step a tantalizing lure, leads Bucky on a path he knows is fraught with both risk and exhilaration. As she ascends the staircase, her silhouette a beacon in the sea of guests, Bucky's decision to follow feels not like a choice but a necessity, a call to adventure too compelling to resist.

The journey to her quarters, a silent procession through the dimly lit corridors of Wellington House, is charged with anticipation. Bucky, aware of the boldness of this pursuit, understands the unspoken rules of the game they're playing. This isn't just a physical attraction; it's a mutual rebellion against the confines of their respective worlds, a shared quest for authenticity and freedom.

As he follows, maintaining a discreet distance to avoid drawing attention, Bucky realizes that this night, this moment, could redefine the course of their acquaintance. Liz, with her daring and defiance, has challenged him to step beyond the bounds of his own experience, to engage in a dance as risky as it is irresistible.

The decision to pursue Liz, to accept her silent invitation, marks a turning point. It's a step into the unknown, a gamble on the promise of something profound. In this game of hearts and wills, where every gesture is laden with meaning, Bucky and Liz find themselves on the brink of a discovery that could either shatter the world they know or forge a new path forward, together.

As the door closes behind Bucky, marking their entry into a realm removed from the eyes of the world, the air between him and Liz becomes charged with an undeniable intensity. What unfolds is a dance of two souls, a private exchange of affection and connection that transcends the physical space they occupy.

In the seclusion of Liz's quarters, away from the rigid expectations of their external lives, they find a freedom and a fervor that is as much about rebellion as it is about attraction. The room, with its soft lighting and the distant sound of the gala continuing below, serves as a backdrop to a moment of vulnerability and honesty.

The exchange of kisses and the exploration of touch speaks to a deep-seated desire for authenticity and understanding. It's a conversation without words, a dialogue where every gesture, every breath, carries the weight of unspoken dreams and desires.

As garments become mere whispers on the floor, the world outside, with its rules and roles, fades into insignificance. What matters in this secluded space is the connection that thrives in the absence of pretense, a bond forged not just in the heat of the moment but in the shared recognition of each other's true selves.

The rustling of bedding, the soft sighs, and the gentle caresses are chapters in a story that is theirs alone—a tale of discovery, of the courage to seek out the spaces where they can be unapologetically themselves. In the quiet aftermath, as they lie entwined, the significance of this encounter is palpable. It's a promise of possibility, a testament to the power of finding someone who sees beyond the facade to the person beneath.

This night, in the privacy of Liz's quarters, is a declaration of their mutual defiance against the constraints of their worlds. It's an acknowledgment that, despite the challenges that lie ahead, they have found in each other a rare and precious solace, a sanctuary where they can explore the depths of their connection away from prying eyes.

As dawn threatens to reclaim the night, the reality of their respective lives looms large. Yet, in this moment, they are grounded in the profound realization that what they have discovered in each other is a strength, a partnership that might just have the power to redefine their destinies.

Two weeks have passed since Bucky's return from London to the base, and the changes in him haven't gone unnoticed by those closest to him. Gone is the relentless flirt, replaced by a man who seems preoccupied, his attention drawn inward. Buck Cleven, ever the observant friend, can't help but notice the shift, especially in light of the increasing pile of correspondence that seems to capture Bucky's focus each morning.

This particular morning, Bucky is more animated than usual, a smile playing on his lips as he carefully unfolds a letter. Buck, curious and a bit concerned, nudges him. "Who's got you smiling like that, huh? Someone special?" he teases, trying to catch a glimpse of the sender.

Bucky hesitates, a brief struggle visible in his demeanor before he decides to share the letter with Buck. It reads:

Dear Major Egan,

I hope this letter finds you wallowing in the misery of our separation, desperately missing my company. I regret to inform you that I've taken up with a prince, a real one this time, who showers me with the adoration and luxuries befitting a lady of my stature. So, it seems our little dalliance must come to an end.

Please, don't despair too much. I'm sure you'll find a way to mend your broken heart, perhaps with one of those American heiresses desperate for a title, or maybe with a nice farm girl? Someone who can appreciate your... what was it you do again? Oh, right, flying planes.

Do not fret, dear Major. You will always hold a special place in my heart, somewhere between my love for my horse and my tolerance for my brother's tedious war stories.

With all the affection I can muster (which, as you know, is quite limited),

Liz

P.S. I've included a photograph, as you so tiresomely begged for one. Please try not to wear it out with your ogling. I expect it back in pristine condition, or you shall owe me a new one.

Tucked within the letter is a photograph of Liz. The image captures her essence perfectly—beautiful, aristocratic, and brimming with the sly humor that Bucky has grown so fond of.

Buck, reading over Bucky's shoulder, lets out a laugh. "She's got you on a string, hasn't she?" he chuckles, handing back the letter. "You've got good taste, I'll give you that."

Bucky, looking at the photo once more, can't help but laugh as well. He can almost hear Liz's voice as she penned the letter, her teasing tone, the twinkle in her eye as she crafted each sarcastic remark. It's a comfort, a tangible connection to the woman who's managed to upend his world and settle under his skin.

"She's one of a kind," Bucky admits, a warmth in his voice that speaks volumes. Folding the letter and slipping the photo into his pocket, he feels a renewed sense of determination. Whatever it takes, he knows he has to see her again, to bridge the distance the war has placed between them. Liz might tease, might play her games, but beneath the sarcasm and jests lies a connection neither can deny, a story far from over.

Buck watches Bucky with an incredulous look. "Alright, spill it, Egan. Who's the dame that's got you all twisted up? I never thought I'd see the day when John Egan, the lady-killer, would be mooning over some broad," he teases, the smoke curling up into the air between them.

Bucky, feeling a mix of defensiveness and pride, takes a moment before he responds, choosing his words with care. "Her name's Liz," he starts, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile at the mere mention of her name. "Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, if you want to get all formal about it. Met her in London. She's... different, Buck. Not like anyone I've ever met before."

Buck raises an eyebrow, taking a long drag from his cigarette before flicking the ash off to the side. "Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, huh? Sounds like a real high-class bird. Got you good and proper, didn't she?" he chuckles, the humor not quite masking the genuine curiosity in his tone.

Bucky can't help but laugh, shaking his head. "Yeah, she did. But it's not like that. She's sharp, Buck. Got a wit that could cut glass and a spirit that's just... infectious. And she doesn't give a damn about all that high-society bullshit. She's trapped in it, sure, but she's fighting it every step of the way."

The more Bucky talks about Liz, the more animated he becomes, his usual reserve giving way to a barely contained enthusiasm. It's clear to Buck that this isn't just some fling or a passing fancy. Liz has managed to break through Bucky's well-guarded exterior, touching a part of him that perhaps even he hadn't realized was there.

Buck, sensing the depth of Bucky's feelings, nods slowly, a new respect in his gaze. "Sounds like a real peach, John. A dame like that, yeah, I can see why you'd be hung up on her." He takes another puff of his cigarette, his expression thoughtful. "Just be careful, alright? These broads from the other side of the pond, they play a different game. But if she's got you willing to jump through hoops, she must be something special."

Bucky's response is a simple nod, his mind already drifting back to Liz, to the memories of their time together and the anticipation of what might come next. The conversation shifts as they move on to other topics, but for Bucky, Liz remains a constant presence, her image, her words, a steady pulse beneath the surface of his thoughts.

In the barracks filled with the coarse banter of soldiers, the smoke of cigarettes hanging heavy in the air, Bucky finds himself in a world apart, his heart anchored across the ocean, tethered to the enigmatic Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, who's managed to do the unthinkable—capture the heart of Major John Egan.

As the morning light spills into Liz's room, illuminating the delicate furnishings and the soft, luxurious bedding she's entangled in, her initial irritation at being awakened fades the moment Mrs. Baxter mentions the letter. Liz's eyes, still heavy with sleep, light up with anticipation, a rare show of eagerness that Mrs. Baxter notes with a soft, knowing smile.

"Seems like your American soldier can't quite keep you off his mind, my lady," Mrs. Baxter says, her tone playful yet respectful, as she hands over the letter to Liz.

Grasping the letter, Liz's usual morning grumpiness is replaced by a flutter of excitement. She carefully opens the envelope, her fingers trembling slightly with anticipation. The letter reads:

My Dearest Liz,

Hoping this note finds you shining bright over there. I gotta say, even the best days in Thorpe Abbotts don’t hold a candle to you. Your last letter? A real knockout. It was like a splash of color on a dreary English day, and let me tell you, that’s saying something.

You teasing about ditching this budding thing we got for some high-and-mighty life with the blue bloods almost had me. But behind all that sass, I know there’s a warmth that keeps me going, has me lying awake thinking about you.

That picture you sent is my new prized possession. Seriously, it’s with me everywhere. Every time I look at it, I see that spark in your eyes, that smile of yours, and it hits me hard—how much you’ve come to mean to me.

Even though we’re worlds apart, you’re always on my mind. The thought of seeing you again is the light at the end of this tunnel. I’m holding onto the hope that this mess of a war gives us a break soon, so I can be back by your side, soaking in your glow.

Till then, just know I’m here, waiting and hoping.

Always yours, Bucky

Liz reads the letter, a smile playing on her lips, touched by Bucky's words that manage to be both teasing and heartfelt. The sincerity in his tone, the open declaration of his affection, strikes a chord deep within her, warming her more than the morning sun ever could.

Mrs. Baxter, observing Liz's softened expression, can't help but comment, "Seems like the Major has a way with words, my lady."

Liz, looking up from the letter, meets Mrs. Baxter's gaze, her smile widening. "Indeed, he does, Mrs. Baxter. Indeed, he does," she replies, her mind already racing with thoughts of how to respond, how to match Bucky's blend of humor and sincerity in her next letter.

For a moment, the challenges and restrictions of her world seem distant, as Liz allows herself to be carried away by the promise of what's to come, buoyed by the words of a man who, despite the chaos of war, has become an anchor in her tumultuous life.

What she doesn't know is that soon everything will change.

Next part >>

[lowpolyshadow]

i transcribed the sonadow bumblekast episode so you don't have to

hopefully the formatting isn't really weird lol

Kyle: So this time, for Pride Month, we get to address the hypothetical fandom ship that's probably helped more than a few Sonic fans figure out their sexuality: Sonadow! A lot of straight fans probably had Rouge or Sally be their awakening, so don't throw stones. 

Ian: True, true. 

Kyle: Shadow is not quite in a place where it's easy to imagine him having a healthy romantic relationship. But it is honestly a bit problematic to have one character shift until they're suitable for another, unless it's a mutual situation. How would you execute the character growth for Shadow and Sonic that would most help enable Sonadow? 

Ian: There would have to be an understood vulnerability to Shadow, he would have to open up to a degree that makes him more accessible at a personal level, and it doesn't take much? We've seen hints of it throughout his appearances, it would just need to become established, and that I think is all you really need to build that bridge because Sonic is casual and accepting enough as he is, and he's going to allow Shadow to be who he is which is kind of prickly and standoffish as you would have that occasional moment where Shadow lets his guard down and is more empathetic or emotionally available. But otherwise they would both play it fairly cool and aloof I think (lol). 

Kyle: Yeah, they're together. What of it? So? Big deal. I like it.  There are obviously a lot of different popular ships in Sonic. In order to make one really stand out, you'd probably need to really spark intrigue on it before pushing the two characters together. How would you arrange the first key romantic spark that was intended to drive the fans towards wanting them together? 

Ian: I think it stems more from the characters already having good chemistry. I mean you look at the fandom in general and the fleet of ships that are sailing and all of them are based off of the fact that these characters are fun in their interactions regardless of who we're talking about. So if it were an intention of building something from scratch, for most of the Sonic cast, I think the work's already been done and there's already a great deal of trust and mutual respect between most of the characters. It would just be a matter of realizing that there is more than respect, there's more than kinship, there's a romantic affinity, and for one of those characters to make that realization and start to pursue it in their own particular way.  And then it becomes a question of well, is the object of their affection going to reciprocate? And if they don't, which leads to an interesting story of, now that they are on this path, yeah, they know that this is an option, do they come around to it? Or do they not? Are both characters kind of interested but they don't want to take that first step and so you have that carrot on a stick that is ever so effective for however long you want to run it? 

(laughing) 

Kyle: There's nothing that gets, uh, Sonic's motor running more than being called a faker. Apparently. 

(more laughing) 

Ian: Oh, he'll show you how real he is. 

Kyle: Oh, no! This is a family show, sir!

(even more laughing) 

With that idea fresh in our minds, how would you make it official for the two of them? 

Ian: God, if that ever came to pass. (lol) 

Kyle: I feel like it would have to be kind of like, understated? Like it would just kind of happen? 

Ian: Yeah, I've, they're both so cool and aloof in their own way, I don't see them making any kind of dramatic declaration or ... suddenly turning all mushy and lovey-dovey, it's not who they are. Um ... I, you know, the adventure concludes and they're standing side by side on the hillside looking at the sunset and the wreckage ... and they share, you know, a compliment, and instead of like a fist bump or a "see you next time" and, y'know, one of them runs off ... maybe they throw arms around each other or something and just kind of stand there. Again, they're not gonna be all "mweh mehmehmeh" ... tonsil action, it's, I see them being very chill about it all. 

(lol) 

Kyle: Also, keep in mind everyone, this is all just ... 'fan ideas', this is probably never gonna happen, it's very unlikely, we're just having fun here. 

Ian: It's hypothetical situations that I am approaching as reasonably and as authentically as I can. 

Kyle: Yes, yes, just to keep that in mind, just keeping everybody on the same page here. 

Ian: I am not endorsing, I am not unendorsing, 

I am just answering questions. Everybody simmer. 

Kyle: Let's assume that for whatever reason Shadow decided to seek out advice from the following, and whoever he asked has to answer with an honest attempt at the best advice they could offer. How would Professor Gerald, Dr. Eggman, the Commander, and Black Doom advise him? 

Ian: Gerald would be the most wholesome and effective, I think. I think he understands people better than ... certainly a lot of his family. Uh, and would advise Shadow to look inward to ask himself what he really wants, and to ruminate on that and then act with caution, you know, don't be hasty on this particular thing. Like all great research, it takes time to get the results that, you know, you want, or the results that will come to be - don't take anything as a given, but don't be afraid to pursue the truth, whatever that may be.  Eggman would scoff at the notion and, you know, sarcastically offer to set him up on a date, making it quite clear that it would all be a trap and an ambush and whatever. The Commander ... I don't see as being a very romantic individual, but I think he might be direct about that, right. He would say that his partner was someone he managed to find for himself, but that was largely thanks to her, and her efforts, because he was kind of clueless about this, but Shadow is also kind of in the same boat so you know, maybe ... at least be aware of your surroundings? If someone is prepared to make that gesture, be ... ready to receive it and understand it for what it is. How do you do that? He's not quite sure how he figured it out himself but you know, he's not good at this sort of thing.  And Black Doom would again, scoff. Love is a weakness, it is a distraction at best, a malady at worst, it is ... an affliction of the mind. An illusion created by inferior beings to facilitate necessary natural processes. You do not need love, you do not need anyone, you are my Ultimate Weapon now go get me them Chaos Emeralds. 

Kyle: (laughing) Those damn fourth Chaos Emeralds! They're all fourth!

Ian: (mimicking Black Doom) Honestly, Shadow, what's love got to do, got to do with it. What's love but a second hand emotion. 

Kyle: (laughing) Well, we all know Shadow can't resist a dying wish. Let's say in the aftermath of a terrifying evil scheme, Eggman once more had to team up with the heroes to save the world, but he died in the process, leaving Sage and her brothers in the care of his uncle and uncle-in-law. Assuming that if money were real, GUN would pay the kind of money that would keep a classy act like Rouge on staff so the boys don't need to change their heroics too much, how would they do as parents to Sage, Orbot, Cubot, and after a while if she so chose, potentially Belle? 

(THIS IS METAL ERASURE >:( whatever he doesn't wanna be part of this family anyways)

Ian: I'm a little lost in the wording on who is acting as surrogate parents here.

Kyle: I think it might supposed to be Sonic and Shadow ... but Rouge is also there? I think? 

Ian: Well I mean someone would have to look after the kids because it ain't gonna be them. 

Kyle: (laughing) No, I guess not?!

Ian: I mean, Sonic would Sonic would kind of show up for birthdays and events and to check in but he's ... he's not the stay at home dad. He's not the stay in one place dad, he's the dad who gets his steps in, if you catch my meaning.

Kyle: Okay, no, it was more an example of they’re ... willing to pay Rouge ... so they would be willing to also pay them ... so ... but ... I guess Rouge would not be the caretaker. So ... they would have to be the caretakers ... I don't think it would go well! Luckily, I think they're self-sufficient ... for the most part ... (starting to lose it)

Ian: I mean I can't really see GUN letting them off ... interestingly, to anyone. They would be on facility. But it would be Sonic and Shadow weighing heavily saying they're not captives, they're not tech to be assimilated into the greater GUN network, they are wards of your facility, right? Right? Which again, Sonic would be checking in on occasion to make sure that it's going well. And maybe Shadow would kind of become a satellite agent of GUN, just keep tabs on everything, check in on the others to some degree ... but ... we wouldn't have a case of My Two Dads on this one, they're not the parental types.

Kyle: We probably shouldn't trust GUN with child care. Probably not. Even robot children.

Ian: And ... you don't even need them to be a pair to get the kind of ... bickering parental - conflicting parental guidelines in this scenario. Sonic would be very much, ehhh let them stay up, let him eat ice cream, let them do whatever they want, Shadow's like no, they need discipline, you're going to spoil them.

Kyle: Worst fathers ever.

Ian: Belle I ... I, again, I can't really see as a parental role but I could see her as the put upon babysitter. She tries her best to look after them and keep things under control but ... honestly ... they're Egg tech, they're not going to cooperate all that much.

Kyle: ... Yeah ... yeah I guess ... Belle would have to be the older sister and she'd probably end up being the one who does most of the work. Ugh.

Ian: Someone who tried to stop the caper of stealing the Commander's loafer or something. "I'm gonna get in trouble you guys! Stop!"

Kyle: Alright. Shadow is immortal, he will probably outlive Sonic. Unfortunately, given Sonic's lifestyle, that may not be that hard ... although given Shadow's first adventure, it could go either way. Sonic would probably understand that Shadow copes with things like this better when he has a sense of meaningful purpose to focus on. This seems like the type of thing Shadow would project onto his partner if it came to it, so what would each other ... so what if ... so what would each of their dying wishes to each other be?

Ian: Morbid. 

Kyle: (lol) 

Ian: You're going for the beautiful sadness type of thing I think. Uh, Sonic's would be ... what he wishes for everyone, is to be true to yourself and to live free. Perhaps that be true to yourself ringing a little more resoundly in Shadow's case, you know, don't close yourself off ... again. You know, be free to open up to someone else again down the road, and just be honest with yourself and be free to make that choice. 

Kyle: Open your heart, Shadow, it'll be alright.

(laughing)

Dammit! You would do that. 

Ian: Yeah, I absolutely would. 

(more laughing)

As for Shadow ... he would want Sonic to endure, you know, to just continue to carry on ... to not be defeated by anything. To find a way to escape death and just continue being, because, you know who else can replace him? Nobody. He would want that to endure forever.

Kyle: Yep. Good thing Sonic's got extra lives.

So Sonic and Shadow have gotten engaged, and they're trying to figure out how to approach their family name. Would Sonic take Shadow's last name, or Shadow take Sonic's, each keep their own, or each add the other's with a hyphen? Given Shadow's right to certain other last names, there could be a timeline with a Sonic Robotnik or (losing it) Sonic Doom.

Ian: No, they'd go with their current surnames, and as a sign of solidarity, they would just swap them so it would become Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Kyle: Right, okay, okay ... good, good. Yeah, okay, it'll be fine, as long as Shadow doesn't take Maurice or something we'll be good.

(laughing)

Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehog. No relation.

Ian: We could hyphenate it! Sonic the Hedgehog-Hedgehog! (Shadow voice) Don't make me regret my decisions. 

Kyle: Too late, he already does. He already does.  Sonic has a great found family, and presumably in order to get Shadow to a point where he could date Sonic we'd be dealing with a much more Team Dark take on Shadow, who also has that. How would they both adapt to regularly hanging out with each other's found family? 

Ian: Uhhh ... The Sonic side of things is always very opening and it's ... open and accepting. And that's ... hilarious ... to the Team Dark side of things, because you can take such advantage of that. I think there would be attempts made on Team Sonic's side to incorporate everyone into the big happy family and eventually it would come to the understanding that, you know, there's appreciation ... there's respect, but there also needs to be distance. It's okay that they only get together for like, the holidays, and then they all keep to themselves. Nothing against anybody it's just, you know, oil and water don't necessarily mix all the time. And the time Rouge stole the Christmas presents ... Knuckles’s still a little salty about that one. 

Kyle: Aw. Poor Knuckles.  I play a lot of DnD with my boyfriend, he's big into it and happy to have another person for his DnD groups. Meanwhile I always enjoyed the little bit I got to play, but didn't get the opportunity as much in the past. It is unfortunately, for him, very much a ... forever DM for the group he has assembled. With this new little family we've assembled around the Sonadow pairing, who would be their forever DM? Omega is a war forged Barbarian, right? I mean yes. I mean ... you mean in the game? I mean he could be whatever he wants in the game, but in real life, yes.

Ian: I think you could make a case he's war forged Barbarian in every connotation of the word. 

Kyle: Pretty much! 

Ian: Uh ... I can't remember how we ... because I feel like this ties into just general DnD, we've been asked this before ... I would think Tails would be the DM. 

Kyle: Yeah ... yeah, Tails is the one who has the most, uh ... patience, I think, to really learn stuff. Amy maybe. 

Ian: Maybe ... I mean, he would like to construct the campaigns, he would be the better rules lawyer between the two of them. Um, I think he might be a little more of a stickler than Amy, I think Amy would allow for a little more rule of cool, but I don't think Tails would be obnoxious about it, you know. If you roll a one and things have gone very badly, he'd be trying to help you figure out a way around it. It's like, you know, okay, this is a bad situation! What do you see around you that could stop you from being on fire? Or, Amy! Don't you remember you have this particular Scroll of Healing or whatever? I - I haven't played DnD I don't know.

Kyle: I mean, yeah, that exists, it's fine, you got it. 

Ian: He wouldn't be a "rocks fall, everyone dies" DM, but he would be someone who's like, no, you can't fudge the numbers, you miss. "How do you mean I miss, I'm right in his face!" You rolled a two, what can I tell you! 

Kyle: He might think about "rocks fall, everyone dies" for a second, though, once again fed up - 

Ian Every turn, Omega's like "I KILL EVERYONE IN THE ROOM." Even the party? "YES." No, you can't do that! "IT IS IN CHARACTER." I don't care!!!!

(laughing) 

Kyle: Oh man, yeah, I mean, I don't know how long it would take for him to get fed up with Monty Python references but ... (lol) Probably not very long. Uh, and it turns out Monty Python is an actual python comedian in their world, and ... (losing it again) I'm here for it. That'd be cool. Time for the coveted Digimon question! I don't know who's coveting the Digimon questions, but alright, I guess Twilord is. In Digimon, there's a concept of DNA digivolution, where two digimon can fuse together. Sometimes this phenomenon creates a mental link between the Tamers and lets them glimpse each other's thoughts and feelings. This admittedly varies a bit so you have a lot of creative freedom on your solution. Assume the two of them were closeted for lack of it having come up yet, from those whose Digimon starters you might've ... you might choose to have DNA digivolve with Sonic's or Shadow's partners ... which partners figure it out from the basic mental connection, and of them how would they handle knowing without being told? I'm assuming that ... like, they have not confessed their love for each other but they somehow use this to figure it out.

Ian: And really ... Digimon ... it's not asking about the Digimon themselves, it's acting as Sonic and Shadow are the trainers, right. 

Kyle: Right. 

Ian: Uh ... The hardest question of this is who is more obtuse between the two of them ... 

Kyle: (LMAO) Yes. That's the answer. 

Ian: Shadow ... in general ... might be a little quicker on the draw ... so he would make the realization and that might prompt him to ... open up ... whereas Sonic just already kind of took it as a given, it wasn't really a realization to him, so he didn't really think much of it. 

Kyle: I guess ... Yeah, I guess that kind of fits. I guess that fits. 

Ian: (Shadow voice) Once we were linked, I cam to a realization ... and well, now that I know it's reciprocated, I guess I can say I'm really into you.  (Sonic voice) Oh yeah, I already knew. 

Kyle: (laughing) Yeah, everyone's into me. No, no that's not what I mean - 

Ian: (Shadow voice) It means you don't have a romantic bone in your body. 

Kyle: (LOSING IT me too dude) I think the idea ... apparently .. I'm getting word that the idea behind this question was that they haven't told anyone yet, and their friends find out this way.

Ian: Ohhh, okay. 

Kyle: Okay. Well here's the thing ... Most people in Sonic's world are very accepting and everything, so I don't think it would ... be a big deal? (lol) 

Ian: Yeah, I mean, if anything ... the biggest reaction would come out of Amy. There might be shock she found out ... Well, shocked at first, but if she found out, and they haven't really opened up to each other yet about it, she would go hardcore matchmaker. 

Kyle: Oh, no! (laughing) 

Ian: Like, if they both feel that way, and they aren't being honest with their affections, ohhhh no no no, she will not let that stand. Nope. She will move heaven and earth to see love realized. 

Kyle: (laughing) Even if it's not Sonic loving her, I guess, huh? (more laughing)

Ian: Disappointed, sure ... but, y'know, fine. What she wants is for him to be open and true with himself, and true with others. Love is a powerful force in the universe, and she will see its will done. 

Kyle: Yeah (lol), she is a true ally, yes. 

Ian: A real intense ally. 

Kyle: (laughing) Kind of frightening. 

Ian: Again, put down the torches and pitchforks, this is a hypothetical, this is for funsies. Let it be. 

Kyle: Yes, let's have some fun. 

Ian: Moving on, he's got a question for you, Kyle. 

Kyle: Alright. 

Ian: So in terms of romantic progression for fictional characters, you would say that after the romcom where the parents get home together in the sitcom where they all have to live their lives together ... can you please pitch me three episode ideas for the up and never coming sitcom, The Hedge Hogs, for me to rate?

Kyle: Oh, no. Uh, I didn't read this before we started! Uh ... hm ... come up with these on the fly ... um ... I'm like, not great at that. Let me think here ... Let me think here …

Ian: Let me help you out. 

Kyle: Okay, hit me. 

Ian: Fast and the Furious ... they both run out to get takeout quickly and they deal with incorrect orders. 

Kyle: Okay - 

Ian: Becomes a conflict of their personalities where Sonic's like hey, I'll take the pickles off! And Shadow's like he said no pickles. 

Kyle: Okay .. ! (laughing) Yeah, that's good. That's good. Um ... Hm ... hmm ... God, I really am bad at this (lol). I feel like there has to be one where they're trying to drive somewhere and they can't decide ... they'd like get lost, and then one of them is like, you don't need directions - it'd probably be Sonic, Sonic would be driving and he refuses to ask for directions, and Shadow's like trying to get him to pull over and ask for it. 

Ian: (Shadow voice) Please, pull over. 

Kyle: (laughing) Yeah, yeah ... I mean, that's another trope of sitcoms. (lol) 

Ian: Here's one for you ... Surprise Control - Sonic and Shadow are each trying to prepare a birthday surprise party for the other, not realizing that, son of a gun, they share the same birthday! No, they've never actually discussed this or put it together. Hijinx ensue. 

Kyle: (laughing) Do they, actually? - No, nono, Sonic Adventure 2's like a few days before ... but, you know, it's funnier if they do. 

Ian: Rouge is the first one to figure it out and she runs interference to make sure nobody clears it up for them. 

Kyle: (laughing) Yeah, yeah, I like that one ... Alright, let's see - 

Ian: Turns into a big blow up where they're both angry that neither of them knew what each other's actual birthday was, and then the tension is broken when Omega pops out of the cake like Marilyn Monroe. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWO OF YOU. 

Kyle: (laughing) And then ... he sets off the fireworks. Which are actually just …

Ian: Omega, not inside the HOUSE- !!!! 

Kyle: (LAUGHING) Which are actually just more DAKKA.

Ian: Has to be inside an apartment complex so Eggman can pull a Newman(?). "Hello, Sonic." 

Kyle: (losing it) Ohhh, nooo ... 

Ian: "I hear you've got the prime time cable package. Mind if I come in to play games on it?" ... Yeah, sure I guess, it's fine - "COME ON KIDS, HE SAID IT'S FINE!" 

Kyle: (still laughing) Oh, no .... 

Ian: Orbot ... Cubot ... Tribot ... a few Egg pawns ... 

Kyle: (laughing) Uh, who's the Kramer in this situation? (laughing) Knuckles?

Ian: Big the Cat. 

Kyle: Okay. 

Ian: Exact same mannerisms. 

Kyle: OKAY. (laughs) Yeah, okay. 

Ian: You know, mid conversation busts down the door, (Big voice) Froggy? Froggy, where are you? 

Kyle: (truly shitting it now) Oh, no ... Oh, no ... Oh nohoho ... The episode where Shadow's parents all come over for the holidays ... All four of them ... 

Ian: (cackles) (Shadow voice) Why do I have so many parents ... 

(laughing) 

(Black Doom voice) Now, we shall air our grievances on this festivus ... Shadow, finish the bowl. 

Kyle: (losing his mind) 

Ian: (Black Doom voice) Festivus ... is for the rest of us ... 

Kyle: Oh, boy. Oh boy. Terrible. I love it. I love it ... Alright, I think that's enough.

Ian: It certainly is. Happy pride month to all of you celebrating. Be good to yourselves, be good to each other, and we will see you next time.

[acciotherapists]

Have a writing request-Watching episode 2 of season 2 opening scene (with Loki using his magic on someone) gave me an idea of an ask. Loki gets to know and care for a mortal girl but said mortal is going through a bad relationship (mean/horrible boyfriend) but the reader pushes it off all the time but it gets way worse and Loki finds out and gets very protective and uses his magic on the soon to be ex- boyfriend of the mortal (like ep 2 scene)

Sure thing! I hope you enjoy!

Loki x f!reader

Warnings: Abusive relationship dynamics, reader's boyfriend is toxic, abuse is implied, Loki being an adorable bean

“Everything alright?” Loki asked as my phone buzzed for the 10th time that night.

I nodded, swiping away the angry message. Where are you? Get home now!

Sam and I had been dating for nearly a year and he’d been slowly getting angrier and more out of control. The final straw was last night when he’d come home drunk and said some vile things. I’d left that night and asked Tony if I could stay at the tower for a few nights. He’d agreed without any questions and Loki seemed happy when I’d entered the library to read. We'd been friends for a few years, careful not to cross the boundary into anything more, though the flirtation was always there... at least until I met Sam. Since then things had been different between us. He was still my closest friend but I had to put distance there, afraid of angering Sam.

“You know I don’t believe you, right?” Loki replied, placing his book on the table and moving to sit next to me. “What’s going on?”

I stood, ignoring the pang in my chest at his proximity. “Nothing, Loki.” I grabbed my phone and book, leaving the library without another word.

****

I could hear the team laughing in the kitchen and I entered the room to find Wanda making a breadstick dance on the table as music blasted from the speakers. I leaned against the doorframe, watching as the breadstick moved to the beat of the music. Laughter escaped my lips and Loki turned to face me.

“Is she making a breadstick dance?” I laughed as he nodded.

He shrugged. “We were bored. Made for good entertainment while I waited for you to join us.”

“You were waiting for me?”

There was a hint of red in his cheeks but he simply shrugged, placing a hand on my back and leading me into the room. My phone buzzed and I swiped away the message without reading it. It was Sam again. I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on the group’s conversation but my phone kept buzzing. I looked down at the latest message. When I find you, Y/n, you’ll regret it.

“What the hell, Y/n?” Loki asked and I turned, realizing he was looking at my phone. He’d read the message.

“What is it?” Tony asked as the team turned to us.

“Y/n’s boyfriend is threa-.”

I placed a hand over his mouth. “Loki,” I hissed in warning as Tony watched us, waiting for an answer. 

“My boyfriend is just messing around.”

Loki moved his head, freeing himself from my hold. “That’s not ‘just messing around,’ Y/n. He’s threatening you!”

“Dammit, Loki! Just leave it alone!” I shouted, standing up from the table and making my way to the guest room, locking the door behind me. It wasn’t long before I heard a knock on my door.

“It’s Loki… please let me in, little mortal.”

I rolled my eyes, opening the door for him. “What?” I hissed.

“I’m sorry, darling… I realize that wasn’t the best way to handle that but when I saw what he said to you…” His eyes flashed dangerously before he took a breath, calming himself. “Is he always like this?”

I shrugged. “We just had a fight. I figured I’d let him cool off for a bit.”

He scoffed. “You’re not going back there.” He brushed a thumb over my cheek, wiping away a stray tear I didn’t realize had fallen. My phone buzzed again and I looked down at the screen. Baby, please. Just come home. I’m sorry about our fight. I can make it up to you.

“See, he’s already starting to cool off.”

“Darling… that’s not healthy.”

“Just let it go, Loki,” I sighed, preparing to send a message but he grabbed my phone. “What the hell, Loki!” I reached for the phone but he made it disappear, grabbing my hands gently.

“I promise I’m doing this for you… it’s for your own good.” He placed a kiss on my forehead and disappeared from sight.

“Dammit, Loki!” I shouted but it was no use. He was gone.

****

Loki typed a quick message to Sam from Y/n’s phone, asking him to meet at a coffee shop not far from their home. The bastard responded instantly and Loki prepared to leave the tower, hoping Y/n would forgive him someday.

****

Loki scoffed as he saw Sam holding flowers, staring down at his phone, before searching for Y/n again. He seemed confused as Loki approached. 

“Laufeyson? What are you doing here? Where’s Y/n?”

Loki chuckled, crossing his arms. “She won’t be coming.”

“What the hell did you do to her?”

“What did I do to her?” Loki growled. “What did you do to her?”

“You know how Y/n can be sometimes. She probably over exaggerated our fight.”

“She didn’t say anything about it. What I’m referring to are the messages you keep sending her.”

Sam scoffed and Loki approached, towering over him. “You dare threaten her?” Loki growled, his voice low and dangerous. Sam backed away, his eyes wide with fear before beginning to run.

Loki chuckled, walking in the direction Sam had run. “I don’t mind a game of cat and mouse.”

It wasn’t long before Loki cornered Sam in an alley, surrounded by several duplicates.

“What the hell, man!” Sam shouted. “Quit with the magic and fight fair!”

Loki chuckled. “It’s not a fair fight… you saw to that the moment you threatened her.” Suddenly two shadows of Loki appeared behind Sam and grabbed his arms, restraining him to the wall.

“What do you want?!” Sam shouted.

“I want you to leave her alone. When she inevitably realizes you are no good for her… you are to leave her alone. Do not threaten her. Do not contact her. Ever. If I find you so much as within ten feet of her I will do so much worse than kill you,” Loki said with a threatening smile.

“And until then?”

Loki scoffed. “I’m sure it won’t be long.”

“She’ll take me back. She always does.”

The shadows pulled Sam’s arms tighter as Loki spoke. “If she chooses to give scum a second chance then so be it. I will respect her decision. But if you hurt her… or threaten her again I will find you. Understood?”

Sam nodded and the shadows released him. He collapsed to the ground, holding his arms which had been stretched too far.

“Get out of my sight,” Loki hissed and Sam scurried away.

****

I was pacing the room as Loki entered and handed me my phone.

“What the hell, Loki? Where have you been?”

“I had to take care of something,” he replied, grabbing a cup of coffee before turning to face me. “What do you see in him?”

“What?”

He took a sip before placing the cup back on the counter. “In Sam… what do you see in him?”

I shrugged. “He was a good guy when we met… he made me feel safe.”

“Do you love him?”

I sighed. “Why does it matter, Loki?”

“Because the possibility of you loving him is the only reason he’s still alive.”

“Loki… what did you do?”

“Just answer the question, Y/n,” he ordered, though his voice was soft as he approached me, placing a hand on my cheek. 

“No.” My breath hitched as he wiped away a stray tear I didn’t realize had fallen. “No… I don’t love him.”

“Then why stay? Why put up with that? You deserve so much better than him.”

“Like I said… he made me feel safe.”

“My little mortal… Please tell me you aren’t going back to him.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go, Loki. I can’t live here for the rest of my life.”

“Why not?”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “Tony’s an old friend… and he puts up with a lot but I can’t ask him to let me live here.”

“Stay with me.”

I swallowed thickly as he moved closer, his lips hovering over mine. “Leave him… I can’t lose you and I’m afraid, darling… I’m afraid of how bad this could get.”

My heart was racing as his lips brushed against mine. So close… yet so far.

“Stay with me, little mortal.”

My eyes locked with his as I nodded and he sealed our promise. 

[thegreymoon]

Lighter and Princess

I know FOR SURE that some violence takes place here because our ML ended up in prison for years and years but WHERE? WHERE IS IT???

This drama is really doing its damned best to make sitting at a computer day and night and coding look exciting (it's failing, but it's trying at least) and I find the entire concept so hilarious.

The ML is supposed to be this rebel, but is in fact a nerd who literally does nothing but sit at his computer all day long, is a star student, first-ranked in his province, conventionally attractive and wildly popular among his peers in spite of having the social skills of a particularly inept cactus. REBEL, HOW?? WHEN DO WE GET TO THE MURDER??

And don't even get me started on the girl, she's just beyond dull, but I've heard through the grapevine that she will single-mindedly fight for the ML down the line, so I am reserving judgment until I have a few more (??) episodes under my belt. But my question again is, WHEN? WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN??

It's episode 8 and still no murder. Not even a hint of the relationship between the leads! Come on, drama, I am begging here 😭😭

If I pause this and go watch Fangs of Fortune before some hook comes along, I'm afraid I may never pick it up again.

***

LMAO, it's like a hamster baring its teeth.

***

Yes, please, let's get to that part.

***

Bitch, these are students, not your free labour pool.

***

This campus is really nice 💚

***

Oh, go fuck yourself.

***

Yes, please do 😭😭

All of you are so good and wholesome and well-adjusted. Which is excellent for real life, but very boring for a drama. Go!! Stab her tyres! Key her car! Wear a mask so that you don't get caught on camera! Be a delinquent! I was promised rebels here and I got nothing but well-behaved, top honour students 😭😭

***

Murder her.

We are long overdue for a nice murder here. You are all geniuses, I am sure you can find a way to do it and not get caught.

***

Shoes on the bed 🤢

I would maul someone, for real.

***

The current plot is her getting drunk and hungover.

We have been dealing with that for ten minutes now.

I don't even know what I'm hoping for from this drama anymore.

***

At least she took off her shoes before getting in his bed.

***

I am so done with this whole boring episode.

[heyclickadee]

So, I’ve been trying to square the idea that The Bad Batch is from Omega’s perspective with the fact that there are a lot of things we, the audience, see happening, but are never addressed, because they’re things with which Omega never interacts. And of course it’s not literally from Omega’s perspective. There are sequences and two entire episodes she isn’t there there to see. Something that could be interesting, though, is if this show is from Omega’s perspective in the sense that things can happen without Omega, but they’re never pulled together or unpacked until it’s time for her to do so.

So, for example: We get a scene in “Faster” between Millegi and Cid in which Millegi calls Cid on her old habits of throwing people under the bus (“Hustlers like us never change.”) Cid is actually offended by this and replies with, “I might surprise you.”

There are two important things about this moment. One, we’re given a little bit of insight into Cid and the fact that she seems to want to have changed—she doesn’t want to be the person who stabs people in the back. Two, this moment is here entirely for the benefit of the audience. None of our main characters are here to witness this, so it’s not something that leads them to accept the idea that she’s changed only to be shocked when she betrays them later on. The thing they hear from Millegi is, “Watch your backs.” None of them was ever given a reason to doubt that—not even Omega, who seems to like Cid well enough and will go to bat for her, but still knows she’s not that trustworthy.

But we, the audience, are given a reason to doubt that Cid will betray them. A small reason, in that scene between her and Millegi, but a reason still. What plays out, however, is what everyone expected; Cid betrays the batch at the worst possible moment, surprising absolutely no one. Millegi’s, “Watch your backs,” plays, even though it’s not something we needed to hint that Cid would sell them out; Cid’s, “I might surprise you,” the hint that’s there just for the audience, never comes full circle.

Except…it’s not just empty, either. We do get a few hints that Cid doesn’t really want to betray the batch, that she may have been trying to get them to stay away, and several fairly big indications that she hates herself for what she’s done while the betrayal is playing out. (She looks less than proud, let’s say, when she takes the money from Hemlock, and blurting out a half-confession, half-justification to Wrecker in the first place.) So it is actually consistent in that, as suggested in her scene with Millegi, she’s unhappy being the person who stabs people in the back; but because we follow up on the other foreshadowing, and because Omega doesn’t see Cid again by the end of the non-epilogue portion of the show (she could have seen Cid in the gap; anything could happen in the gap), we never get a moment where Cid surprises us by explicitly showing that she’s changed. It’s not something that gets dropped or changed as much as it’s something that stays consistent, but doesn’t come full circle.

And there’s a lot in The Bad Batch that’s like this. We do, for example, see moments showing that Hunter, despite being a good man trying his best, is flawed and practically kneecaps himself with indecision and crippling self-doubt. Because of what Omega’s relationship with Hunter is, however, we never quite get around to unpacking that. She sees Hunter the way a lot of younger kids see their parents, so his flaws remain present rather than explored. that and instead unpack his relationship with her. Crosshair, despite his incredible redemption arc, ends the series with a lingering sense of guilt and a feeling that he deserves to die; but because of how Omega sees Crosshair—as someone who has made mistakes but who is, at the end of the day, her beloved little brother—we never quite unpack the source of his guilt or his turn from being implicitly to explicitly suicidal. We see clues and signs that Tech might have survived the fall—including one metatextually from Omega herself—but because all these clues are directed at the audience and go unseen by most of the cast, especially Omega (who doesn’t know she’s in a story where literary devices exist), we don’t ever deal with them. We see the build up with Rex, the senate, and something that looks like it’s leading to a clone rebellion, but we only really deal with the implications in moments that directly impact Omega’s story, like Echo leaving. And so on and so on—we could pick this apart for ages.

Whether or not this is a criticism, though, depends entirely on the framework. For example: If The Bad Batch as is really is the whole story and there’s nothing else, and never was anything else, then, yeah, it’s a disaster. It’s not just tripping on the finish line, it’s losing the race because you kept turning down dead end streets and having to climb over buildings to get back on the racetrack.

If, however, there does end up being more and we’re really at the end of part one of however many parts there are, what we’re looking at was never thought of as an ending, and what we’re getting is going to come with a bit of a POV shift away from Omega (not that she won’t appear at all, but that she won’t be the POV character), then it could all end up being a phenomenal piece of storytelling in the long run. I mean—I’m actually annoyed at how well it could work if they actually pulled something like that off. There’s still criticism to be had, but my criticism would be more focused on terrible audience management driven by an obsession with spoilers, the social media/marketing around the show being what it was, and a failure to really nail the transition with an episode that really seems to have been written more as a season finale (we didn’t get a long finale, I’m convinced we just got episodes 15 and 16 smushed together, and “The Cavalry Has Arrived” was just the title of the episode 16 that got applied to both), but had to also function as a series finale without being allowed to resolve anything but the Hunter-Omega arc. Basically, fumbling the transition between chapters somewhat rather than fumbling everything.

And the second one is what I lean towards, partly because it is weirdly consistent, and partly because despite the many (many) characters, plots, and subplots being left unresolved, none of it really has the hallmarks of something that ran out of either time or budget (at least, I don’t think so, now that I’ve been unable to stop thinking about it for two months). Things that run out of time usually cram all the resolution that they can into as little time as possible, and there were ways to resolve everything in the “terrible but at least still resolved” fashion by adding a couple of lines or even a voice over from Omega in the silent parts of the epilogue (cheapest, fastest solution and it could have done late, after everything else was locked down, any time before the episode was uploaded). Things that run out of budget usually cut anything that’s expensive—like, for example, a ten minute multi-character fight scene with particle effects that doesn’t have a plot reason to even be there unless we’re not actually done with the CX plot yet. Or rain. Or an outdoor set that only appears in one episode for three minutes.

TL; DR: I actually think there’s something interesting going on with the storytelling here if we’re not actually done with the story yet, but also it would be really nice to know for sure if there’s anything more coming because it’s either amazing or terrible and there’s nothing in between.

[wowifinallywatched]

Wow I finally watched Monsters at Work (S2)

**Minor Spoilers**

This show is Joy. This show is happiness.

This show is pure enjoyment, forget-about-the-world-around-you fun and indulging in a world full of adventures, Jokes and references to an original movie we hold dear to our hearts, While paving the way for a beautiful new story about a dynamic duo changing the colour of their world and the human world one child at a time.

I think there was a lot of risk, As with any sequel / spin off, of repetitiveness and overall the continuation of the story just not doing well.

But Monsters at Work was perfect.

(In my eyes - You do not have to agree with me, I just want to show my appreciation and love for this show and Story)

This show provided more of the future we've all been so curious about since the end of Monsters Inc (We all knew things worked out with Laugh Power - But did it really?) (Yes, Yes it did.) and the changes it made to the city and their communities as a whole - The politics, The power company's rivalry's, How people feel about laugh power, All of our favourite characters, All of our most disliked characters and so so much more.

They balanced giving a nod to the past, Making references to those original movies between og characters as if they're inside jokes (Which I guess, they are), Seeing characters we love and adore, Seeing scenery that is comforting and familiar, Even items (BOO'S DRAWING ON SULLEY'S DESK - I'M NOT OKAY-) without it being in your face and making it the whole show. Mike and Sulley being a part of the future of this company and caring for their little misfits, without overbearing and letting these new characters shine and share their own stories - It was perfectly balanced.

I love what this show represented as well - Different cultures and races in the human world and monster world, Different couples / sexualities without making it a big fuss (They're just in a happy relationship - That's what matters!), Healthy relationships and really great traits like embracing who you are, Always stand up for what you believe in, Never hesitate to show your Love for the things and people you care about and so much more!

Something I also loved is the representation of the real and healthy relationship between Val and Tylor - And the fact this didn't turn into a romantic relationship.

The first season was about building the foundations of their friendship and really getting to know each other - The second season really tested their friendship and saw to how they would get through these rocky times together.

While there were some moments of heartbreak, sadness and even anger - With communication, Responsibility and ackowledging what they had done, They got through it and came out the other side of it with their bond even stronger than ever! Which I think is something super healthy and important to represent.

And while I see there are a few hints here and there that could definitely lead to a Third season, Which halfway through episode 10 I literally said I would sell my soul for a third season, Once I had finished that final episode, My mind had changed.

The ending of Season 2 was perfect.

It was happy. It was fulfilling. And while I'd be one of the first to hop on Disney plus if a Third season did come out - I feel like they could stop the show here if they wanted to.

I could watch this show forever and ever and ever if I could, But we've all seen what happens when a show continues simply for profit etc. and it loses what that original story is about.

But on the other hand, they have a whole world of Monsters stories and cities to explore that we've only scratched the surface of.

And you never know what might be coming in the future.

All in all, I absolutely adored this show with all my heart and soul and I will forever talk about how perfect (in my personal opinion) it is.

Also there will forever be some references that will never get old.

Example A: Mike getting covered by logo / barcode etc

Example B: Roz (Period. She has so many good ones)

Example C: Boo. (Anything really, I just love their relationship)

100000000000000000000000000000000000000 x infinity / 10

I love you Monsters Inc world. Thank you for making me feel protected and Loved, Even if I couldn't be apart of your world.

And don't forget, This show wasn't made just for kids.

Oh no.

It was made for those Monsters Inc kids, now all grown up.

(And for everyone and anyone!)

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

August has mainly been consumed by moving country, moving job, and moving house so I've not really had any free time to do anything or have any thoughts other than panicked screaming.

That being said, there were plenty of dramas I was looking forward to due to air in August and, luckily for me, most of them did not disappoint! So without further ado, let's take a look at which dramas got me through the mountains of paperwork and stress (and which didn't).

The Trainee 🇹🇭 👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👨(👩‍❤️‍👩) [10/12]

I'm going to be so sad when this show ends.

It has met and matched all my expectations so far and in terms of its narrative arcs it's absolutely fantastic (as are the characters and their relationships).

This is a show that does have romance in it but which isn't about romance, choosing to focus instead on character development both within and outside of the characters' various relationships. It's done a great job of showcasing the complex period of transition between young adulthood and working adulthood and while I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, it's definitely mine. Slow-burn, character centred, slice-of-life.... Perfection 😘👌

I started watching these next few dramas after I started moving and so really don't have any other capacity for thoughts other than "like" and "don't like". There's not going to be much commentary, just vibes.

Love Next Door 🇰🇷👩‍❤️‍👨 [5/16]

I was looking forward to this one and it's making me very happy so far. I love the bickering, I like the hints at deeper relationship issues and I'm just plain looking forward to whenever a new episode airs.

I'd say the only thing that's giving me pause so far is the second couple, especially Mo-Eun because wtf do you mean "the 5 year old child I just met is actually my new friend"? I don't care that she meant it innocently, that's still a damn weird thing to say.

Romance in the House 🇰🇷👩‍❤️‍👨 [5/12]

Korea has been really knocking it out of the house with mother daughter dramas recently, I want to know what lit the spark now.

Again, I'm enjoying each episode as it comes and I'm looking forward to each new episode so it's a yes from me so far. It's definitely giving me Not Others vibes but given I really like that drama, that's not a criticism.

(Also the award for most complicated family tree goes to Romance in the House but it also manages to make it work?)

Cinderella at 2AM 🇰🇷👩‍❤️‍👨 [2/10]

I saw someone say that a drama where the leads are already together at the start of the drama is lazy but I'm inclined to disagree.

Pretty much every romance has the leads fall in love and get together as the show progresses, there's a tried and tested route map for that (heck there's loads of route maps for that). On the other hand, I can't think of many that start with the couple 2 years into the relationship and, as such, there's probably a lot more work involved in working out how to successfully pull the romance off.

So far I have no complaints and I'm intrigued about where it's actually going to go. It's not particularly deep but it is cute and Shin Hyun Bean is who I'm here for anyway.

My Sweet Mobster 🇰🇷👩‍❤️‍👨

This was a very cute, very funny watch that still somehow managed to tackle a serious topic with as much care as it could. Could it have delved even further into the topic of restorative criminal justice and rehabilitation? Yes, but not without completely changing the mood. Could it have subverted the "knew each other from childhood" trope and done something new? Yes, but this show wasn't going for reinventing the wheel, it was going for doing the wheel well.

The characters were very likeable, the relationships between them were beautifully written and it was a nice easy watch that I'll probably pick up again some time in the future if I need something fun.

⭐ rating: 8/10

Concrete Utopia 🇰🇷📽️

I watched this with family friends after they very kindly let me stay with them for a week and wanted to watch something with me they thought I'd enjoy. I had never heard of the film before so had no expectations whatsoever but it was a surprisingly deep and timely watch.

It spends a lot of time examining the effects of "othering" as well as asking how much people are willing to excuse, ignore or even participate in in the name of self preservation and there were definitely some scenes that felt barely exaggerated given what's been on the news in recent months.

I wouldn't call it an enjoyable watch (because the consequences of post-apocalyptic dystopias are hardly enjoyable) but it was an interesting one and I'd probably recommend it to a friend looking for a film to watch.

⭐ rating: 7.5

Knock Knock Boys! 🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨

I was late picking up Knock Knock Boys! but, once I did, I binged it without any regrets. This was another show that was just cute and fun and very, very good at handling the topics it chose to tackle.

Latte is a new favourite character and Almond, Thanwa, Peak and all the rest all have a little space in my heart now (Jane especially). If anyone wants a comedy/slice of life BL to watch then I'd definitely point them in this dramas direction and them watch them watch it 😋

(also I don't know how but I somehow managed to miss the infamous poo scene everyone was talking about... Which is probably just as well because I don't deal well with scatological humour).

⭐ rating: 7.5/10

Century of Love 🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨 [Dropped]

I'm sad about this one because I was looking forward to catching up with it after I got distracted by Knock Knock Boys but now I'm very grateful for being made to stray. This show had such a promising start but, judging by everything I saw in passing, it dropped the ball hard in the second half.

Given everything else going on right now and the fact that my drama quota is pretty much full up right now, I'm not really interested in investing time in a show that doesn't meet its own potential.

Monster Next Door 🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨 [Dropped]

This had the weirdest pacing of a first episode I've seen in a while and it really threw me off. I just couldn't connect with anything or anyone after the multiple false starts and I wasn't curious to keep trying.

(Also the tortoise tank made me wince every time it was on screen)

(Also yes I know I said I was hyped for this one but I think the idea appealed far more than the reality of it).

Battle of the Writers 🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨 [Dropped]

Just a no from me to be honest. I don't think it checked any of the boxes of things I usually enjoy and that's okay.

4Minutes 🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨 [On Hold] [4/8]

Don't get me wrong!!! I have loved everything I've seen so far of this drama (I'm up to episode 4). The only reason 4Minutes is here instead of in the "Currently Watching" section is because I wasn't able to keep up with it while I was travelling and I want to give it the right amount of time and attention when I catch up with it.

I'm a little sad I can't join in with the theories but I'm really looking forward to getting back to it when I'm ready!

(Also I finally own a TV after 10 years of not having one and I'm mentally preparing myself for watching it on a big screen, something the first 3 episodes have indicated is a high risk manoeuvre that may involve drawn curtains and a finger on the volume button to avoid questions from my neighbours).

Midnight Romance in Hagwon 🇰🇷👩‍❤️‍👨 [On Hold] [4/16]

Like 4Minutes, this isn't a matter of not enjoying it, this is a matter of time and focus. I couldn't watch it while I was traveling and now I am way too stressed, and thus easily distracted, to give this show the thought and attention it deserves.

It has been a fantastic watch so far though, and the level of detail in each scene was so ridiculously impressive to the point where I was frequently going back to check I hadn't missed any of the nuance 👌

I barely know what's up now, let alone next so I can't really do this section. That being said, I know I'm hyped for Love In the Big City (🇰🇷👨‍❤️‍👨) and that's airing in October so that's all the really matters at the moment. If anything else comes up that I want to watch, that's a nice little bonus.

(There are other dramas I'm looking forward to - like Kidnap (🇹🇭👨‍❤️‍👨) - but I have no clue when they're airing and I don't have the brain power to check and make a calendar so I'm just going to be pleasantly surprised when they start rather than actively anticipating their release).

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Any thoughts about Juri×Shiori or Nanami×Anthy (from Revolutionary Girl Utena)?

I can't believe I don't have anything on the first yet, something must have gotten lost in my inbox because I swear I've been asked that before.

Well.

Here we go.

Juri/Shiori

I have nothing to say that the show hasn't said for me. This is perhaps the second major relationship explored within the show, the primary focus of Juri's character development, and rivaled only by the focus on relationships such as Nanami and her brother, Miki and his sister, and Anthy and Akio.

We have several episodes dedicated to at first introducing the pair and their relationship to each other (along with a few misconceptions both had regarding each other), the turning on its head as we learned that oh no what Juri thought was going on was completely wrong, and the turning on its head in the finale as Juri has her last duel.

It's a well explored, provoking, and fascinating relationship to watch where the pair of characters both truly like, admire, and perhaps even love one another but Shiori is too insecure and terrified to ever accept that as a truth/something she will willingly make herself vulnerable fore and Juri in turn is too proud and noble to ever show enough chinks in her army (for all they do exist) for Shiori to ever truly accept her or her feelings.

It's a beautiful failed relationship that on the surface had little reason to fail and yet it had to fail because both characters were in the exact position where they could never make it work with one another.

One of them had to bend and neither could.

(Or at least, not until the end with the badminton moment with Utena, Juri, and Miki in which there's a silent acknowledgement that, you know, perhaps Juri and Miki should step away from their truly fucked up relationships with Shiori and Kozue respectively.

You know.

Maybe that would make things a little less weird around here.)

Basically, like pretty much everything in Utena, I love how it was portrayed but as the characters are, without serious growth (and perhaps that mysterious thing known as becoming an adult), I don't think it will ever work out between them.

Which is kind of the point the show was making.

Nanami/Anthy

I have the feeling you're asking me this because fandom must like it, since there was no real hint of it in the show. Good for fandom.

Personally, I don't see it.

Nanami ends her arc disgusted by Anthy and Akio, especially Anthy who enables Akio's every terrible action. Part of this is Nanami coming to recognize how she did quite similar things for her own brother, and where the road of incest leads, but point being she's one of the few characters who ends the series going "lol, these people are garbage, and you, Utena, like the taste of garbage"

Before that point, Nanami's world was confined to her brother the prince--and weird bullshit like laying an egg for no explained reason.

Anthy's interactions with Nanami are consistently fucking with her and playing along with her schemes to hurt and humiliate her as a part of her learned helplessness and eternal punishment.

It's very clear in the show that Nanami's not even close to what Anthy's looking for or what Anthy needs for that matter. (Utena is far closer in both respects, in that at first Anthy is looking for a prince archetype which Utena fills, almost, and then Utena becomes someone truly inspired to save her despite the pain to herself. Where Nanami--Nanami out, yo.)

And post series end, well, Anthy I imagine is looking for Utena and even if things go very sour there... that's the price of leaving Ohtori and one I think Anthy is ready to face up to.

Nanami's just not on the radar.

[ginnymoonbeam]

Ginny's weekly watches rundown

I won't make any promise of doing this on a schedule, but from time to time I want to run down everything I'm currently watching, in rough order of how invested I am.

Current Favorites

Cherry Magic (Thai) Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Although I Love You and You) Cooking Crush

Bundling these three together because I'm loving a lot of the same things: grownups! Direct communication! Being nice to the person you like and showing that you care about them! Cherry Magic delivered the most romantic sequence in the world to me this week with Karan observing and quietly meeting a bunch of Achi's trivial daily needs, and then Achi realizing this and immediately rushing to undo the hurt he'd carelessly caused. Cooking Crush is also doing a wonderful job of queuing up a bunch of potential problems and then having the lovers resolve them with honesty rather than letting them escalate. And SukiDoya looks to be setting up a beautiful slow burn between two men who have drastically different communication styles, but are drawn together and appreciate each other.

Dead Friend Forever

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the slasher drama with a bunch of students trapped in the woods watching their pasts catch up with them. So far this is delivering exactly what it promised: a solidly-executed suspense thriller with a hefty dose of gay drama. I'm enjoying it immensely.

I Love You, But...

The Sign

Look. It's a mess. As soon as I saw the second trailer and realized we were doing big mythology as well as crime drama I knew this show was biting off more than it could chew, and I knew I'd be seated for the duration. Billy and Babe are doing a fantastic job anchoring this wild hodgepodge of a drama, and I'm having a great time with it.

Last Twilight

This one was in the top bracket for me up until last week. As I've said before, my feelings about it are really going to hinge on how they move forward from the big episode-11 fight and breakup. We shall see.

Intern in my Heart

Not a BL, but with what looks to be a developing BL side plot. I'm enjoying this one, but three episodes in I'm not deeply invested enough to put it into the top bracket. Favorites are the female lead, played by Cris who I loved in Mama Gogo, and the gay bestie, played by Toptap. Hi Toptap! Missed you!

Doing Just Enough

First let me say that I will cheerfully drop shows that I'm really not feeling, so even this bottom bracket is all shows that I like. I just don't look forward to them in the same way I do the above shows, and they might be a few wrong moves away from getting dropped.

7 Days Before Valentine

Episode 9 was my favorite one since the beginning... I liked getting more hints of Q's backstory, and I thought the final rooftop scene was a good culmination of what the show's been building toward. It's been draggy at times, but I am interested to see where we'll go from here.

Playboyy

I'm a sexuality educator and sex nerd, so a show like this is going to have my eyes no matter how messy and chaotic it gets. I've been watching it mostly with that lens: none of the stories or characters are particularly compelling to me, but I'm enjoying seeing what it wants to say about sex each week.

Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun (Mr Sahara & Toki-kun)

I'm kinda sticking this one out for morbid curiosity, and because Toki is perfect and deserves the best. Sahara is a character I could really love in a different drama, but the romance here isn't working for me. I'm not even opposed to a (fictional!) teacher-student romance, and if this show was setting up their relationship as problematic but compelling I might be here for it. Instead it seems to be stalwartly ignoring that there might be anything weird or inappropriate, and it's both jarring and dull.

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Utsukushii Kare S2E4: “face me straight on”

Thanks to @linnie-la91 for this screenshot. This line, along with the one following it, ended up being a pretty good summary for this whole danged season: “But he's a weirdo. We always fight.” Thankfully, the season ended with Kiyoi and his weirdo getting along better.

At long last, here are my thoughts on the big moments in season 2 episode 4 of Utsukushii Kare. There were a lot of them! I’m going to touch on some of the psychology threads I’ve been examining throughout this season but I’ll save my really in-depth analysis of those for another post on the season as a whole. 

Every episode of this season has been packed with character development and things that both clarify and chart changes in the relationship between the leads. It’s not surprising that in the final episode this ramped up even more. Overall, in terms of the dynamics I’ve been writing about, Hira and Kiyoi are finding a more balanced way of relating to each other. Emphasis on *more* balanced, since it’s definitely not there yet, and they might not want it to be entirely balanced anyway. It’s a much-needed and significant improvement. Instead of Kiyoi completely on his own pursuing Hira and getting nothing but fake-pursuit role-playing in return, we saw Hira taking risks and showing awareness of Kiyoi’s actual mental state (instead of the thoughts he wants to ascribe to him for fantasy reasons). 

So, first, the “I'm not going to kiss you…until you finally decide to take me seriously” scene. This move might strike some people as manipulative on Kiyoi’s part. Withholding affection, contact, or physical intimacy definitely can be manipulative. But I actually think it’s a very reasonable boundary to set under these circumstances. Kissing, and whatever might come after it, is one of the few types of pursuit (maybe the only one?) that when Kiyoi engages in it, Hira reliably reciprocates. But physical intimacy often works differently from other types. It’s not unusual at all for someone who distances in other ways to be the pursuer or be much more receptive to being pursued when it comes to sex. In Kiyoi’s case, there are a couple of reasons why this kiss moratorium makes sense. One of the main recommendations for repairing a polarized pursuer-distancer situation is for the pursuer to stop or reduce pursuing (in a calm, mature way, not engaging in reactive distance). Usually this leads (eventually) to the distancer having to try doing some pursuing in order to get their needs met. This is the area of their relationship in which Hira is most likely to really feel the absence of Kiyoi pursuing him. It’s a good start to trying to reverse those roles. 

Also, if I were in Kiyoi’s shoes, as much as I might really want the comfort and reassurance of some physical intimacy after all of the hurt I experienced, I would be very wary of getting into something that would likely feel very bittersweet at best under the circumstances. Being physically intimate with someone who has hurt you deeply when that hurt is not resolved can be painful and destructive. It’s not unreasonable to want to avoid that. Acting like he was going to kiss Hira and then announcing the moratorium in that way was a little mean. But I can see why Kiyoi felt like turning the tables on Hira a bit. 

The talk in the park/on the shrine steps was a huge deal and moved the needle in a few different areas. First, Kiyoi accepted that hints and implications wouldn’t work with Hira and voiced his thoughts and feelings directly. This meant putting himself in a more vulnerable position, which isn’t easy for him. It showed real growth. Hira responded in kind, which represented even more growth for him given how much he’s been living in his own head throughout season 2 (well, arguably, his entire life). Even though his thinking about being “unworthy” of Kiyoi wasn’t hugely different, the fact that he was speaking about it openly and listening to what Kiyoi had to say in response was a big change. 

I loved the direct yet gentle way Kiyoi said, “I don’t care if you’re a pebble or not.” This was immediately followed by Kiyoi doing the same movement/pose he did when asking Hira if he would keep his dance lessons a secret in season 1, looking Hira in the eye from close up and slightly below him. There was a strong contrast here given how much closer they’d become and how much kinder Kiyoi was being, but at the same time, there was also a parallel in that Kiyoi was challenging Hira by saying, “I won't let you have a one-sided love again.” 

Speaking of parallels, I find it really interesting that Hira brings up what Kiyoi said the night they got together, but I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. Rather abruptly, he looks at Kiyoi and says, “‘If it’s the same as until now, then no.’ When you said that, it made me happy.” I don’t blame Kiyoi for thinking Hira might be making fun of him, because he does his sort of sneaky smile here, just like when he’s teasing Kiyoi about being cute. But I think he seems sincere. This is also the first time either of them really talks about that night (despite parallels galore and clearly intentional references to it in the show). I think it’s promising that Hira is actually acknowledging it after seeming, pretty much this entire time, as if he’d forgotten all about it. But I’m not sure how to interpret that weird smile! And I’m not super clear on the comment about it making him happy. Is there a part of him that was already more willing to change, more interested in finally meeting Kiyoi as equals, than most of his actions in season 1 would suggest? 

Then there’s the exchange about jobs and supporting themselves, which I actually think is one of the most significant moments in the episode. Hira has been talking himself down in part because he’s convinced he won’t be able to find a job after graduation, so Kiyoi brings up the fact that he could actually afford to support both of them. Hira makes a really obvious sour face in response to this and turns away. Kiyoi’s voiceover says, “There it is. Lord Hira gets stubborn about the weirdest things.” (It’s worth noting that this wording sounds a lot like Koyama’s description of Hira in season 1 when he badmouths him in front of Kiyoi as a sort of test–but that’s just in English, I don’t know about the original dialogue.) Kiyoi says, “You don’t like that?” and Hira nods decisively. “Then I was lying. I want you to be like a workhorse. I'll throw you away if you cause me any trouble.” Of course, Hira grins at this. When Kiyoi says, “So creepy,” I don’t know if I’ve ever agreed more with him applying that label to Hira. 

But for all the weirdness of this exchange, it’s a lot healthier than the way they’ve been communicating, and if Hira is paying attention to this and doesn’t get selective amnesia again, it could point the way toward progress. The blatant way Kiyoi says, “then I was lying” makes it particularly clear he’s just saying what Hira wants him to say, just playing along. If Hira needs for Kiyoi to be this cold, imperious, princely figure, he’ll play along sometimes, but he’ll make it pretty obvious that it’s just a game. If Hira can be content with this and not, as I said, conveniently forget about it being more like role-playing than reality, this could really be a way for them to compromise. Kiyoi just wants to know that at the end of the day Hira knows he’s an actual human being who really loves him and that he’ll drop the servant act long enough to meet Kiyoi’s need for a real partner. Hira has been expecting reality to conform to his fantasy and when it doesn’t, he’s just given up on perceiving reality accurately and let his fantasies seep into real life. If he can handle getting his needs met through this playful version of the fantasy and still remember that it’s not a fully accurate reflection of their relationship, they could really get somewhere.

I want to just briefly touch on Kiyoi’s conversation with Anna here. I found it really sweet. He shows a side of himself with her that he hasn’t anywhere else on the show. He’s partly being deferential out of politeness, but he also seems sincerely in awe of her and genuinely shy. At the same time, he’s remarkably unguarded and sincere whenever they talk. I love his expression and his manner when he comes out to her. It’s so direct in such a cute way. Her excitement about his relationship is also really endearing. Like other folks, I can see that events seem to be pointing toward her being in danger in the movie and I’m also worried for her, because she’s such a likable character. Her mention of “trusting [her]self” and “being true to [her]self” is interesting but I’m not sure if it’s pointing toward something to come in the movie or meant to apply to this episode.

Next up: Hira’s rather bizarre job interview with Noguchi Hiromi. This whole thing was pretty fascinating. I loved Noguchi’s outspokenness. He really went after Hira with no holds barred and yet he did it in a remarkably nonjudgemental way. I found it very significant that even though Noguchi is very critical both of Hira’s personality and his photography and even though at a certain point Hira’s aware that Noguchi is offering him a job, with all of the job interview associations that brings up, he never stutters when he’s talking with him. Well, I take that back. He does stutter very briefly when they first start talking, and then when he starts to excuse himself after Noguchi says his assistant quit so he’s super busy. But those are very low-stakes moments, moments when they’re just starting to interact or he thinks they’re about to stop. When Noguchi really starts giving it to him with both barrels, he’s fine. He even speaks to him in a rather challenging way when he asks, “What part of that makes you want me to be your assistant?” Despite his thought that “he and I don’t match,” it seems they’re actually really well suited to each other. 

The other really notable thing is, of course, Noguchi’s take on Hira as seen through his work, coupled with Hira’s confirmation that “it's like he sees right through me.” Noguchi sees things in Hira that the viewer hasn’t really had a chance to observe. I’ve read a little bit of the first novel and some of this comes through more there, but there are only the slightest hints of it in the show. Here’s what Noguchi says (per the Viki subtitles, flaws and all): 

It was such a childish photo. You should've just chosen an empty place rather than erasing people. Going out of your way to erasing [sic] people made it very clear that you hate this world…What I felt from your photo was tremendous selfishness and disgust. You haven't succeeded at all, but you think you're amazing. But instead of showing it outright, you make a shell by belittling yourself. You look down on this world with youth, stupidity, and ambiguity.

I wrote previously about how in some ways Hira seems like a depressive personality but in others like a self-defeating one, and how the biggest difference between the two is that the self-defeating person typically feels aggrieved or resentful. We haven’t seen that aggrieved side come out overtly in Hira in the show much at all, but Noguchi sees it, and Hira confirms it. This is actually pretty consistent with other aspects of his character as well, but I’m going to save my full discussion of that for my post about the season as a whole. 

And now, for that job announcement/gift/kiss scene. Whew, it’s a lot. Hira tells Kiyoi about the job with Noguchi, then tells him, “there’s a photo I want to take.” Basically, he wants to take at least one photo of Kiyoi as a professional and have it published somewhere with his name attached.  Kiyoi understands what this means and is really moved. It’s symbolic of something a lot bigger than just taking a photo. Hira’s talking about meeting Kiyoi on something resembling his own level. This is a great example of what Kiyoi was looking for when he asked Hira to “face [him] straight on.” 

Next, Kiyoi gives Hira a gift for Valentine’s Day, a little box of chocolates and a rubber duck. The duck thing has particular significance given the short thing that the show released on social media a little while ago, in which Kiyoi and Koyama are talking about Hira and they both talk about Hira’s relationship with “Captain Duck” in a pretty disparaging way. Giving Hira a duck is a way of showing acceptance of his eccentricities and meeting him where he is. And Hira’s excitement bears this out–he’s ecstatic. 

And then we have the part of the scene where Kiyoi holds out a piece of chocolate to Hira, ends up feeding it to him, and then one thing leads to another and they’re kissing and collapsing to the floor. I’ve already analyzed this to death so I’ll just summarize here. It’s not 100% clear whether Kiyoi’s moratorium on kissing just applied to him making the first move. It would make sense if it did, since the whole point was for Hira to come to him instead of him always having to do all the pursuing. But either way, it seems like he was ready to lift it, because Hira really had made quite a bit of progress by that point. Or, well, he at least was clearly heading in the right direction. His thing about photographing Kiyoi professionally seemed to clinch it in Kiyoi’s eyes. 

With that kiss, the show also suddenly acknowledged a dynamic that apparently is very overt in the novel because it’s more explicit about their sexual relationship. I gather it should also be pretty obvious, from the use of certain words and other cues, to folks who are familiar with certain tropes that often show up not only in BL and yaoi manga but also other genres. This set of tropes was also mentioned in the first episode of season 1, when Hira apologized for being “too persistent” and said he couldn’t help it because Kiyoi was “cute.” Basically, between these references, the actors’ performances in the kissing scene, and the distinct way of talking that Hagiwara Riku adopts when Hira tells Kiyoi, “I can't wait any longer tonight,” it’s heavily implied that there’s a kind of role reversal that happens when Hira and Kiyoi are physically intimate where Hira is very authoritative while Kiyoi is more reactive, even shy. Of course, there’s always something to be said for a climactic kiss as you’re nearing the end of any sort of romance-dominated story. But it’s also a bit of a wild choice to throw this very different way they relate to one another at the audience so close to the end of the season. 

Which brings us to the end of season 2. I’m grateful that the most pressing issues between Hira and Kiyoi were left resolved, but there are still tons of loose ends and things that were just getting started when the season ended, which makes sense as they were leading toward the movie. That works great for the audience in Japan, who just have a little over a month to wait until Eternal comes out in theaters. But there’s no telling when it’ll be available to those of us in the U.S., and folks are saying that similar things have taken between six months and a year to make it over here. Well, here’s hoping they at least make an announcement before too long so we’ll have an idea of what to expect...and preferably that they announce it won’t be an entire year.

[deadendtracks]

response to this post by @divinekangaroo, continuing the conversation.

These moments I really appreciate your concise, coherent meta posts!

sorry just had to point out that this made me laugh because i do not consider my meta to be remotely concise and usually wish I could write short snappy meta posts without having to keep the entirety of the show in my mind. i'm often thinking things through as i write too! thanks for calling it coherent though, I appreciate it :)

I'd asked what you made of the fact that Tommy is the only family member who uses his body like this re: the discussion of the 'subaltern' and Tommy's ethnicity and its impact on his sexuality.

And I definitely should have been more clear that I meant the only one of his male family members, because I think you were talking about the way the perceptions of the 'exotic' or 'subaltern' impact the view of a minority ethnicity's maleness/male sexuality, I think? But forgive me for not going back and finding that passage again!

You're right that Polly especially uses her body this way, with Campbell in s2. I don't remember an example of Ada doing it, and I'm not sure what you mean regarding Arthur with Linda. I don't see a similarity between Arthur/Linda and Tommy's use of his body/sex in the way we've been discussing. But maybe I'm missing something!

But, I also feel there’s a deliberate presentation of Tommy’s consideration of his ethnicity as different to how most of his family consider it (long different conversation), because of the alignment to his mother that none of the rest of the family have (another long different conversation).  This assumes a reading of his mother as far more closely associated with his (rather silent/compressed) relationship with his ethnicity, too. Polly and Uncle Charlie's comments reinforce this reading in a few points. So this different relationship he has with his ethnicity also leads into a different intersection of that with his sexual activities.

Yeah, definitely. I think this is supported in the show, even to the point where I believe he's the only one of his direct family to speak Romani (or what passes for Romani when they were ignorantly using Romanian instead early on, I think??) on screen. Johnny Dogs and Esme both do, but as far as I recall only Arthur and Polly are shown understanding it but not speaking it (which doesn't mean they can't, it just stands out that Tommy's the only one shown to speak).

When Tommy does use his body, I think it’s repeating behaviours he’s seen and understood as an available way for those with no power and limited influence to exert more influence, and those behaviours were drawn from watching the behaviours of primarily women of his family. And will mostly talk about Polly because that's what we do see on screen, extrapolating there was more of this sort of exchange going on around Tommy in his youth, too.

That's definitely a possibility. The Lees call his mother a whore in that s1 episode where he's trying to provoke them into a fight, which may or may not have basis in reality.

I think the show also includes significant hints of the Othering/exoticism associated with Tommy’s (and Polly’s) ethnicity in a way that shows it is connected to sexual behaviours/body trading – May talks about everyone laughing about when he’ll steal the silver, which is a Romani stereotype more than working class or racketeer; I think you mentioned once Tatiana does it too with the allusion to Tommy squatting in his own house.

I won't quote everything you wrote but yeah!

I think where I wasn't sure I could follow your initial thesis was that you'd been talking about the subaltern re: specifically the impact on men and none of the men in Tommy's family/circle behave this way, especially his brothers. But yes, absolutely Polly does, and there's that slur towards his mother, etc.

And for Tommy: Campbell, Hughes and Mosley’s sexually charged ethnic slurs (or ethnically charged sexual attacks?) towards Tommy are a whole essay on their own.

Oh definitely. And Tommy is often pre-emptively and defensively brings up these bigoted stereotypes (towards the auctioneer when he buys Grace's Secret, for example, to the Russians and Hughes when he talks about his father, etc.).

but because Tommy’s a man, there’s always that sort of mental hiccup first?

Yep!

 BUT, his partners (and sexual aggressors) actually do acknowledge his ethnicity if with varying directness, and using uncomfortable stereotypes/terms. Tommy either forcefully silences his ethnicity in their encounters, or, he acknowledges his ethnicity but it’s in difficult and uncomfortable ways.

At this point I'm just highlighting bits I think were put really well!

It all feels like a wound he can't touch, ethnicity / mother. (He also never engages with Alfie on this line, despite multiple times Alfie opens that door.) And so the deliberateness of his omission conversely makes his ethnicity feel quite dominant in his sense of self and identity for me, in the way this series frequently uses silences and omissions to show the shape of something there.

Yeah!

The Romani layer is silenced in so much fandom discussion -- as if the masculine v feminine becomes the sole question rather than as well as, why does a Romani man in particular in that position maybe think to behave that way/why did they choose to portray a Romani man in particular behaving that way. Like, could any of his thinking to behave that way (or, could the expectations and approaches of his sexual partners/aggressors) have anything to do with the rather abundant late 1800s/early 1900s literary and pseudoethnographic texts which exotify and hypersexualise his ethnicity? (watch out for that gypsy man stealing women, the tinker sleeping with your wife while you're at work, etc etc; then he looks at someone like May, and maybe Arthur and John only see a hunger for working class cock, but Tommy is maybe consciously just a little bit leaning into that exotic stereotype as well, horses and goldfish etc, because it might gain him advantage?)

Yeah. Again idk how a Romani person would see this discussion (and the show's handling of it all) so I hesitate to really draw any strong conclusions either way, but I do think this is intentional in the writing of his character and in the performance, for sure. And this may also be why fandom doesn't tend to talk about this aspect much: not wanting to get it horrifically wrong in ways that would hurt a real person. Probably we do though, out of ignorance.

#the show did go there though; the gutpunch of shit getting real I felt in the S5 scene when Mosley refers to the 'wog language'#tommy's absolute stillness and silence in response; even words even those words which were always just him and his family stripped from him

Yeaaaah absolutely. And while it's definitely not the same as the social position of a Romani person in Europe (or even a Traveller in Ireland, which the Shelbys are also hinted to have relations to re: speaking Shelta), I do think Cillian Murphy's performance reveals a potential familiarity with being on the receiving end of bigotry, and how a character it's aimed at might react. If not from direct personal experience, certainly from family/national history of being colonized.

Sorry I don't have a lot to add here, I was just interested in hearing more of your thoughts on the topic and not sure if I understood where you were coming from re: Tommy's place as the only male family member who does these things. Thanks for taking the time to eloquently expand on your ideas!

[tyrannuspitch]

been thinking about the dearth of actual movie adaptations of norse myth, which is of course partly down to the fact that what we have is fragmentary and episodic and not movie-shaped at all.

so um. here are a few preliminary thoughts on how you might be able to make it work.

focus on ragnarok, since that's where we have the most continuous/connected material, and make it a tragedy, because that's the whole point.

focus on the relationship between loki and odin, since they're going to be leading the armies at ragnarok.

make them both tragic, complex, morally grey figures, and draw out their similarities. either could be the protagonist, but let's say odin for now.

invent a little bit of backstory for how and why loki and odin became blood brothers - a connection, and either genuine personal loyalty or common cause. give us something to root for, even if it's small, and then spend the rest of the film slowly destroying it.

open by telling the audience exactly what's going to happen at ragnarok, so it can hang over the whole of the film.

take your time introducing the characters to the prophecy - maybe we start with hints or fragments, and we try not to believe them, so when odin gets the full thing it's a major plot point. and yet the distrust and decay has already set in; it's already inevitable.

finding a plot point to take us from the lead-up to ragnarok, to ragnarok itself, is going to be difficult - but maybe we don't actually need to.

the baldr's death/failed rescue/snake torture sequence could work as a climax. once everything is in place, we could end on "waiting for ragnarok" and leave it hanging.

some other thoughts:

odin sacrificing his eye and loki getting his lips sewn shut could be parallel steps towards ragnarok - odin is growing paranoid and obsessively seeks knowledge, while loki is growing bitter and vengeful.

odin imprisons loki's children (fenrir/hel/jormungandr); loki kills odin's son baldr and keeps him trapped in hel; the aesir kill loki's sons vali and narfi and imprison loki using their entrails. this could be a cycle of vengeance!

loki and odin don't actually directly kill one another at ragnarok. maybe you'd want to change this, or maybe there could be a kind of tragic disappointment in it, a sense of loss...? i burnt down the world to kill you and i didn't even get to do it myself!

(<- although i'm not sure how being blood brothers plays into that. are blood brothers allowed to kill one another? oaths in myth tend to be binding, so if that is part of it, it's possible they literally can't.)

odin built the world, and loki burnt it down. odin is a king/chief of the gods and loki, his blood brother, is an outsider and scapegoat among them. at least from loki's perspective, power and injustice will probably be central to their conflict.

odin is endlessly preparing for crisis, while loki is reckless and impulsive. but they're both willing to kill and let countless people die for them. from odin's perspective, their conflict is probably still essentially about personal survival and personal (or familial) grudges - i don't think myth!odin would necessarily see a need to justify it via a greater good, although he would probably deflect as much of the blame as possibly onto loki.

this is a fun thought experiment. i might come back to it later.