#there's also the whole thing with him actually acting in the opera episode. and his improving on the elevator

[pamesjatterson]

my favorite detail in Milo murphys law has gotta be Milo consistently being a theatre kid. this one goes out to "the same way you grease lightning!" and the "who's Alexander Hamilton?" bits

[devilsrecreation]

Since the ep is INSPIRED by POTO, I’mma point out the similarities and differences

Similarities/references to POTO:

-There are obvious parodies of the characters in the book/musical. Neema’s obviously the Phantom, Paka kinda has Christine’s role, Nne and Tano are kinda like Madame Giry, and there’s an herbivore with Carlotta’s role. Maybe a wild ass

-Neema pulls very similar stunts Erik pulls, mainly sabotaging performances. But he also has a secret lair in a water cave that he takes Kiburi’s float and Paka

-The Grasslands has a tradition called the “kupiga mpira”, meaning “masquerade ball” where everyone dresses up in costumes. Neema crashes the party lol

-Like Christine, Paka is a (rookie) performer and has a relationship with the Phantom

-I guess you could say both Erik and Neema had a hard life (granted, Neema’s past wasn’t as bad as Erik’s but still) that somehow affected their reputation

-He put Paka to sleep with a soothing melody (AKA he recreates “Music of the Night”)

-“[Why would anyone want to date a strange individual who’s killed people? That just sounds like a toxic relationship.]”-Neema at one point

-The reptiles like to refer to Neema as an “angel of music”

-Tamka brings up “the point of no return”

-Like Erik, Neema kills someone

-One of the reasons he sabotages a show is that a certain spot isn’t left for him. It’s HIS spot, no one else’s

-Neema and Erik both get exposed

-Both phantoms get affection at the end

-Neema’s point of no return is to either quit this double life thing and go back to being in Kiburi’s float or stick to being a phantom and leave his only family permanently. Although Tamka/Nduli think Neema’s gonna give THEM a choice to either join him or he’ll kill everybody, to which Kiburi shuts it down cuz that makes zero sense

Differences:

-There is no operatic singing in the episode. It has singing (the Grasslands are a musical place) but not actual opera. Also there’s no Raoul nor Persian

-While Erik loves/is obsessed with Christine, Neema is aromantic and has no interest in anyone

-Neema does not wear a mask that covers his face (except during the masquerade scene)

-Like I said before, everything between them is platonic and healthy. Though Neema DOES have a soft spot for her. If anything, they’d be QPP’s

-Erik and Neema haunt their respective places for different reasons. Erik does it cuz of his passion for opera and obsession for Christine. Neema honestly just likes the music. The hero thing just comes with it.

-Two things: it was completely platonic and Neema hummed the song since he’s mute and can’t sing. It’s more of a lullaby than a romantic ballad

-Neema isn’t jealous nor possessive. The most he does when he sees Paka with someone else is make sure they don’t hurt her. He’s more protective if anything

-my guy is not a teacher. He’s never taught anyone anything (except maybe how to stand up for yourself)

-As much as I love the scene, it ain’t happening with Neema and Paka. Way too sexual for them (and the episode fic) 😭

-Unlike Erik he killed someone cuz he was hungry, not to sabotage the show. Though everybody else seems to think differently

-He doesn’t kill anyone cuz of it, although he does cause a monkey to interrupt it by scaring him

-While Erik’s face gets exposed during an opera in front of everyone, Neema’s confronted by Kiburi’s float and basically gets exposed then

-Erik gets a kiss while Neema and Paka share a hug and a head pat :)

-Neema’s ending is veeeeeeery different from Erik’s. Neema doesn’t die like in the book nor does he completely quit being a phantom and not see Paka again. He goes back with his float in the end, but he continues to be a Phantom hero in the Grasslands.

There’s a reason Neema kept up the whole “Phantom” act and it kinda has something to do with his past. Neema was raised by strict, but somewhat supportive parents as a hatchling. He never learned to actually talk but his parents convinced him that being quiet was a good thing. “Silence is golden” they’d always say. “Just do as you’re told and they’ll like you”. It was like that for a while until the day he saved that lizard. Being referred to as a “hero” awakened something in him that day. He likes being some mysterious heroic entity, he likes playing with the Grasslanders and telling them what to do, he likes keeping animals on their toes, he likes the music the Grasslands have.

He likes being his own animal.

He’s been following and obeying his leaders all his life. Don’t get him wrong, he doesn’t necessarily mind it and he loves his friends, but it just feels nice to be someone now that he’s found his passion.

Nne and Tano found out when they got hungry and wanted to try something different rather than a mole rat or trying to eat animals from the Pridelands. They soon found themselves in the Grasslands and just so happened to spot Paka walking around. Just as they cornered her, Neema came out of nowhere, gave Paka a chance to run away, and began to attack the pair…until they recognized him like “Hey wait a minute…we know you! You’re one of the crocodiles in Kiburi’s float! What’re you doing here?”. It took a bit, but the pair finally figured out that Neema was a phantom and decide to join him. They never let anyone know since (until Kiburi basically forced them to tell where Neema was going).

Ever since Paka heard about this supposed phantom saving one of her lizard friends, her sleep schedule has been out of whack (seeing how black-footed cats are nocturnal) and she’s been obsessed with seeing it for herself. It only grew when Neema saved her and she went from wanting to see him to wanting to get to know him. Luckily, Neema took interest in the little feline due to her personality and shared love for music and began watching over her. He’s even led her to his water cave (where he hummed her his lullaby) and their friendship grew from there. She doesn’t really understand him so they communicate by yes or no questions until Kiburi comes along. Same with Nne and Tano.

Unrelated, but I just realized a pattern with my headcanons for Kiburi’s float: I gave them all desires

Kiburi wants to be good enough to make his dad proud like he promised

Tamka wants to be seen as more than just one thing (which is an idiot). He wants to pursue his passion and show he’s capable of doing things

Neema wants to feel like somebody. Like I said, he’s been a follower for way too long and he wants to find himself

Nduli wants everything to stay the same. He’s lost so much due to change and he doesn’t want to lose anything or anybody else, so he clings to his loved ones in hopes they won’t let go

Wakali wants to be taken seriously since her young age and albinism causes other animals to underestimate her

Even Makuu wants to show everyone that he’s changed his ways and wants to leave a legacy. It was the same thing with Pua, although nowadays he just wants to live his best life

Ucheshi got what she wanted in that Udugu episode I have-she got her big brother back :)

[lurkingshan]

10 Things I Love About Khun Chai

I did it, y’all. I watched my first lakorn, and let me tell you, I had a fucking fantastic time doing it. Now that’s not a blanket endorsement of the genre, because I understand Khun Chai aka To Sir, With Love is pretty unique, particularly in that it’s a period queer love story with a happy ending. But as a different kind of Thai drama than any I’d previously seen, it was truly a great watch.

It has some flaws, sure. It’s a soap opera, so melodrama, repetitive story beats, overdramatic acting, and slow pacing are par for the course. If you go in understanding that, you’ll be fine. And the episodes are long af but don’t be shy about increasing the playback speed - I watched a lot of it at 1.5x and it was perfectly smooth. Now that I’ve finished it, I think the time investment was totally worth it (@bengiyo my final rec - worth going back to finish! It worked better for me when I broke it up in chunks of 2-3 episodes at a time).

Without further ado, the top ten reasons I loved it:

1. TIAN MY BELOVED

Look at him. Just look at his beautiful traumatized face!! I hold that it’s impossible to watch this entire show and not come out absolutely loving this man. He is so believably flawed but at his core he is good. He is generous. He is loyal. He is brave. And he looks very good in a three piece suit.

Honestly I could do a whole top ten list just about Tian but let’s move on and give some love to the rest of the show.

2. Did I mention this is a PERIOD ROMANCE??!! Something we get so precious little of in bl. I asked @absolutebl a while back if they knew of any other Thai period bls, and this was the entire list. So good thing it’s excellent!

The show is set in the 1930s and 40s in Japanese-occupied Thailand, and it centers on a powerful Thai-Chinese family (currently leading a cooperative partnership of five families) and the power struggle over who will be the heir (Succession, but make it Asian and queer). The show digs into really interesting family structure, politics, and class struggle stuff.

3. The brotherly bond is unmatched and undefeated. The plot centers on two brothers, Tian and Yang, who love each other so much, like I cannot emphasize enough how willing these brothers are to protect and die for each other. If someone was shooting at them they would both try to dive in front of the bullet. Their bond is so touching and provides an emotional through line when the plot gets wacky.

4. The classic soap opera plots are truly brilliant, all your favorite tropes are here. This show has everything - family secrets, nefarious schemes, murderous maids, mystical poisons, faen fatales, even sex pollen! As I believe @ginnymoonbeam put it at one point - everything is happening so much all the time. It’s truly a delightful romp, especially after the halfway point when the plot machinations really kick into high gear.

5. The queer love story is the main romance and emotional heart of the show. There are actually two romances in this show - each of the brothers gets a love interest. And both of them are lovely. But rather than the typical move where a het drama features a queer side pairing, here the entire story is driven by Tian’s sexual identity, the burden placed on him to keep it a secret, and how increasingly impossible that becomes once he meets Jiu. Over the course of this show, we get to watch Tian fall in love and finally live his truth and see how that changes him. It’s truly beautiful, and the romance between Tian and Jiu is so sweet (and a bit racier than I expected - the show does not shy away from the sexual aspect of this relationship). The romance between Yang and Pin is also very sweet - they are adorable tbh - but entirely secondary.

6. Every frame of this show is absolutely gorgeous. The scenery is lush, the costumes are beautiful, the tailoring is impeccable, the hair and makeup never misses. It’s truly a feast for the eyes.

7. There are so many good female characters in this show, y’all! Tian and Yang have not one but 4 or 5 different mother figures. They are all flawed, complex, and a little nuts. They get up to so much trouble and drive a lot of the plot with their scheming, hijinks, and prolific wielding of murderous sparkle dust (don’t ask, you have to see it to understand). Pin, Tian’s would be fiancé turned sister-in-law, is a total sweetheart, but she’s also smart and fierce with a steel core and not afraid to tell her man when he’s being stupid. There’s even a lady boss at the head of one of the five families.

8. Relatedly, there is so much complex family drama in this show, and so many interesting dysfunctional parental relationships. @waitmyturtles you will have a field day when you finally get to watch this. Both brothers have fraught relationships with their various parent figures, for very different reasons. The various relationships and resentments that form between the wives and the sons in a polygamous family unit (did I mention that yet? there are three wives in the mix here and the brothers have different biological moms) are absolutely fascinating.

9. The resolution to the succession plot and ultimate defeat of the Big Bad was so satisfying. I won’t get into spoiler territory, but let me just say that the characters went through a lot together and to see the way they ultimately had to come together and let go of their baggage to survive was very cool. It felt earned.

10. IT ENDS WITH A BIG OLD HEAP OF GAY DOMESTIC BLISS!!! I will get into spoiler territory here because you deserve to know that if you put in the time to watch this show you will be rewarded with a very happy couple forming a family unit and living peacefully on their own terms. I was so pleased with this ending, I can’t even tell you. The final scenes made me cry real tears, I was so touched. And they even put a literal rainbow in the sky at the end. A literal rainbow! Come on!

Watch it, friends! It’s worth your time.

[porcupine-girl]

Did you enjoy Yibo's NYE performances?

Sure, we were all psyched for him to perform Observer, but did you like the surprise duet he did earlier in the show?

If so, I am here to tell you about the guy he was singing with - because Yibo loves him, and so should you!

That! Is Da Zhangwei!

He wrote that song! He was one of Yibo's cohosts on Tiantian Xiang Shang (also known by the terrible translation Day Day Up), and you know Yibo's TTXS cohosts were his family. His big brothers. It's how he got his reputation as a ge collector.

This is DZW's other NYE performance, which is a bit more representative of his usual aesthetic:

If you like either of those songs/performances, read on to learn more about why you should definitely be paying attention to this guy.

(Sorry most of these videos don't have English subs. But most are music so at least you can find the lyrics online.)

First off, DZW didn't just write this song and then perform it with Yibo (and give Han-ge a shoutout afterward). He then posted this video, basically shouting "I wrote this song because I miss my TTXS bros!" (The lyric being repeated here is "I will miss you")

I mean, I don't know for a fact that he wrote it about them. But I do know that he literally DID write a song about Yibo once. This is a thing he has done before. It's called Cool Guy:

But the fact that he and Yibo are on each other's lists of favorite people is only the beginning, and definitely not why I became obsessed with him.

Da Zhangwei fun facts:

You'll find him on English-language sites like Spotify and iTunes under his English stage name, Wowkie Da. People also often refer to him as DLS or Da-Laoshi, showing how respected he is in the music industry.

He started a band (花兒樂隊, The Flowers), wrote all the music for said band, and had his first hit, 静止 (Static), in 1999 - when he was 16 years old. Like all his music, it's catchy as fuck. (To go back to Yibo for just a second, I'm guessing they bonded over having to deal with fame from a really young age.)

(Yes, the guy sticking his tongue out at the camera up there is 40 years old.)

Da Zhangwei is actually a stage name, too. His real name is Zhang Wei (so you'll occasionally find him as Wowkie Zhang), but that's such a common name that when he started his career he started going by "Big Zhangwei" - which is hilarious given that he was a scrawny teenager.

He continued to write pretty much all the band's music for the next decade. (Here's a whole concert from probably 2007ish). Then when they broke up in 2009 he started his solo career, also writing all his own music.

静止 was an angsty teenage anthem, but since then his aesthetic, both songwriting-wise and visually, has tended toward upbeat and cute.

I think it's safe to say he's leaned into this even more since going solo. Some of his recent hits: 撒花/Scatter Flowers, 一个Nice, 满怀可爱所向披靡 / Full of Cuteness and Invincible, and 万物盛开法则 / Law of All Things Blooming, from above.

However, don't be fooled! This just means that when he writes something sad, it's absolutely heartbreaking. Examples include 永远唱不完的歌/The Song That Doesn't End (above) and 我的深情就是个笑话/My Affection Is Just A Joke.

In addition to hosting TTXS, he has become a staple on all sorts of variety shows, both for music and comedy.

I found him via Season 3 of Our Song, where some of his accomplishments included creating a mashup of 12 different songs, from traditional Chinese folk music and opera to his own 撒花, and turning "your team will do 3 songs" into an entire 3-act musical (link is to the whole episode, since the 3 songs are alternating with the other team, but the other team is AMAZING with people you should get to know too). ETA I forgot about this compilation I did of clips from some of his Our Song performances!

He got to meet the Rolling Stones earlier this year! There's a translator but he's so excited he keeps breaking in while she's trying to ask his questions. His English is really good (if heavily accented), and he has a tendency to throw it in completely unnecessarily to both his performances and random conversation.

He's been on this show for a few seasons called Who's the Murderer? - basically, the same cast plays out a different murder mystery improv each episode. I haven't watched it yet but I've been meaning to - the latest season is on YT with English subs.

His birthday is the day after mine.

Want to see more? His tag is not very busy, but I try to reblog most things to @da-zhangwei. Feel free to contact me by any standard Tumblr method if you want more links!

Tagging people who said they'd be open to getting pulled into my Cpop fandoms, even though I don't have the edited Our Song episodes yet (consider this a preview): @json-derulo @poetry-protest-pornography @emmajanereading @percy-persephone @nuttysaladtree @thelima-aka-chickwriter @writergamermom @oneringtorulethem @trickybonmot @lovebird17 @erza155hasleftthebuilding

[jarenka]

Opera poser for @dreaminghour (tbh I suck at graphic design so it's more like an illustration)

I was thinking what I should draw for this request and if I need to come up with full new opera plot. No, I already have one! Actually in post-ROTJ au fic there should be (I don't know if I include it in the final version of the fic) an episode featuring one of the Anakin's favourite opera.

It calls "Celia" after the main character, and i thing you will easily recognise which real opera inspired me.

Here is the plot.

Celia is a canteen owner on a planet in the Outer Rim. She has a lover, captain Liim, who was military officer on his own planet before he met Celia and fell in love with her. He left military, moved to Celia's planet a bought a cargo ship to become a regular cargo ship captain on local inter-sector routes so he can see her regularly.

Once captain Liim starts to suspects that Celia is gradually losing interest in him. Celia sings and dances for him to show her affection, but captain Liim is still suspicious and jealous. Meanwhile Celia is introduced by her friends to Jasen Taal, emerging racing star. He is beautiful and charming, he flirts with her and promise to visit her canteen.

Couple of weeks later after winning another race Jasen Taal celebrates his victory in Celia's canteen. Captain Liim should be working, but he doesn't take orders from his clients and refuse to leave planet. He is jealous, he is afraid that Celia would cheat him when he is away. His crew is very unhappy about it, if captain Liim continues to act this way, they won't get their money next month and their regular clients will find another carriers.

Captain Liim visits Celia's canteen in the middle of celebration, he sees Jasen Taal flirting with Celia, and she doesn't stop him. Jasen Taal claims that he is completely mesmerized by Celia, he never saw a woman more charming than her. After the whole bottle of Corellian whiskey, in the end of the evening, captain Liim starts a terrible scandal, accusing Celia of cheating. He calls her slut in front of her employers and late guests. Celia is really mad. She says that captain Liim is a terrible person and she doesn't want to see him. Canteen's security guard kicks him out.

Next couple of weeks captain Liim drinks and tries to meet Celia to beg her for forgiveness. People are gossiping about him. And also he hears gossips that Celia is dating Jasen Taal now. He doesn't want to believe it.

One day captain Liim is able to find Celia in her home alone. Big annual race is coming, all the town is festive, and everyone is sure that Jasen Taal will win this race. Celia is going there too, but captain Liim doesn't know about it yet. He begs her to forgive him, he wants to be with her again. He tries to talk her into marrying him and stay with him on his ship. They will travel together. Celia finds his proposal utterly ridiculous and mocks him. Captain Liim accuses her of cheating again, Celia says that it's not his business. She doesn't want him. Captain Liim begs her to give him another chance. They were lovers for years and he thinks that deep down Celia still loves him. Celia doesn't love him anymore. They start to quarrel, Celia tries to get from her house but captain Liim blocks her way. She says that the race starts soon and she wants to see it.

"You wants to see you new lover!", accuses her captain Liim. She says that it's true, Jasen Taal is her lover now, and captain Liim should leave her alone because she loves another man. When he tries to claim her as his woman, Celia laughs in his face and says that she is her own woman and doesn't belong to any man. She tries to get past captain Liim again, but in his rage he violently pushes her away and trows her on the ground. She hits her head and when captain Liim, horrified by his own violence, reaches her, she is already dead.

So, Anakin watched this opera more then once in his youth, it's one of his favourite, it has really beautiful music and a lot of passion just like he loves. If he ever associated himself with anyone in this opera, it was Jasen Taal, charming racer. Also in Galaxy Opera House he was usually played by the actor who looked a lot like Anakin. He kinda despised captain Liim. When Anakin found out about Clovis, he mentally compared him with captain Liim.

He hasn't seen any operas when he was Vader, but later on Carati, he found a good recording of this opera from one of the local opera houses. At first he was a bit hesitant. The scenery was pretty simplistic, he usually didn't like this kind of staging. But when Celia appeared on a scene with her first aria Anakin was completely mesmerized by her. Actress had a beautiful deep voice and irresistible charm, it was very easy to understand how both captain Liim and Jasen Taal lost their minds over her. Anakin watched this pretty long opera in one sitting, but towards the end he became more and more uncomfortable. And when captain Liim killed Celia, Anakin was like: "Oh shit that's me. I was like that too".

[wackpedion]

atcually im sending more characters i wanna see u talk abt them tell me abt stan or fiddleford or bill for the ask game

OKOK I JUST ANSWERED FOR FIDDLEFORD OKOKOKOKOKOKOK im so excited i love them. okok ok OK OK ok so from this ask game:

STAN

favorite thing about them

How he loves the kids soso much ouhho vh oh o my ghod Not What He Seems tear my heart out rn. like theyre his world its so... ouhgkhjhbjh........ makes me ill. the way he loves his family as a whole is SO important to me like like like like he values his family so much theyre his world the way he spent 30 years getting ford back GOD dont remind me of of the portal incident i cant hhhrrrr

least favorite thing about them

I suppose how stubborn he is with Ford but like, idk i get it man. hes been thro alot and the two are on rocky ground up until the end so ofc hes gonna act like that and hes not gonna be all that emotionally mature about it.

favorite line

goddd he has so many good lines hes so funny. "Soos, would it be wrong to punch a child?"

brOTP

fiddleford mcgucket i need them to be friends u dont understand. i need this so badly

OTP

ermmm No One ? ive seen some stanbill which i find funny but im not all that invested in it

nOTP

pinecest 👍

random headcanon

As kids he and Ford would often do the twin switcharoo as a fun kid prank, they thought it was the funniest coolest thing but they were actually very easy to tell apart past a first glance because they weren't all that good at lying and pretending (yet)

unpopular opinion

ig its only loosely stan related but roadside attraction should NOT have been aa episode with focus on stan WHERE IS FORD. THE EPISODE BEFORE THE BIG ONE THAT KICKS OFF WEIRDMAGEDDON AND THERES NO FORD!?!?!? kmsing kmsing but you already know how ifeel about it i told you all about it I Miss Ford. I miss my wife tails.

song i associate with them

LUSH BY MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE "everything i touch falls apart and i am left with nothingg everything i touch it turns to total garbage and i cant with and i dont know whyyyy!!!!" like like his insecurity about being the total screwup of the family, his many many failed businesses, the fact he broke fords project and also ended up pushing him into the portal, juistghfhbvhjhbb

favorite picture of them

i like him with his sailing outfit esp the the beanie its cute :3 and EEEE THE BROTHERSSSS <333333

BILL

favorite thing about them

whatever the fuck he has going on ford jesus christ what the fuck who let them get away twith this hello. hello. i cant elaborate cuz id just end up talking about billford forever but fjesuffucking christ

least favorite thing about them

Honestly sock opera didn't make much sense, like he wanted to destroy the laptop and journal cuz dipper was getting "too close", but the journal was needed to operate the portal which was what he Needed and Wanted. my best guess as to why he did that is cuz he didn't want them to find and go off the warnings Ford wrote esp in invisible ink but i dunno. perhaps its that the journals (esp journal 3) wrote of a way to destroy him, im guessing, since ford tosses them to dipper in weirdmageddon saying theres a way to destroy bill, but still. odd. Still my favourite episode tho!!!!

favorite line

"Fordsy, nobody else really gets you, do they? Without me, you'll always feel unseen, surrounded by dolts who don't recognize your full potential. You've always felt alone in a crowd, haven't you? Who else will give you this feeling again? Even if you got rid of me, you'd miss me. Admit it, you'd miss me."

"Reality is an illusion the universe is a hologram buy gold BYEEEEE"

"BY THE WAY IM SENDING SOMEONE TO STEAL YOUR EYES. THATS NOT A JOKE. I HAVE A FRIEND WHO WILL STEAL YOUR EYES."

"I have some children I need to TURN INTO CORPSES"

also. just his "Yello!" gag in the dreamscaperers. its so sutpid i love it

honestly UGHH hes so quotable i love like every one of his lines everytime hes on screen its a joy. any episode is a good episode with bill. hes such a good villain

brOTP

None reaally? I guess I would've loved more antics with the henchmaniacs, like that one deleted scene, I found them pretty funny

OTP

BILLFORD DO UE VEN HAVE TO ASK HHHHHGHH

nOTP

None I think, i guess fiddleford and bill but i said that already and tbh im mostly indifferent to it

random headcanon

iii havent fully cvuaght up on all the code and lore cracking of TBOB but from what ive picked up he had to take medicine as a kid which affected his eyesight? so my hc is that he has some lasting damage with his vision from that

unpopular opinion

yes the book of bill gave us bill euclydia dimension lore but no that doesnt ruin his character sure his backstory is sad but like. its not his focal point. it gives him depth and an explanation its GOOD. hes still the villain whos evil because! who does whatever he wants! for fun! a sad backstory and a charming villain whos motivation is Fun can coexist its not the end of the world

also this is directed at like One thing i saw on twt but He Would Fucking Not listen to msi oh my god he canonically hates synthesized music i hate you

song i associate with them

GOD i have a few ermm.... theyre like billford related tho so. hope thats cool. the one ive been obsessed with is New Invention by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME its SO GFUCKING THEM DUDE ITS SO THEM LISTEN TO IT. NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! pls

favorite picture of them

every picture but ig if i had to choose him playing faggot piano for ford is up there

[ceruleanwhore]

I was just listening to the OtGW soundtrack in the car and I realized that there’s stuff in the music that actually backs up my kinda crack theory that the Queen of the Clouds is actually the Beast, or at least is tied to the Beast somehow (if we’re going with the idea that the show is Dante’s Inferno, the Woodsman and Adelaide could represent two of the three beasts from the Dark Wood of Error while the cloud lady could be the third.) First, I just want to take a moment to introduce my theory since I haven’t posted about it before. Basically, a while ago, as I was thinking about the ending of the series and trying to figure out what Greg wished for and how he ended up going from the Queen of the Clouds to being in that daze under the Beast’s control, it occurred to me that maybe they were one and the same. Part of this comes from how information about the Beast is provided to the boys and, by extent, the audience. We start off with generic fear about a nameless, nondescript ‘beast’ but, in “Songs of the Dark Lantern”, we are told for the first time that the Beast tells lies and also that the main thing he does is turn children into trees that he harvests for oil to fuel his lamp. To me, this says that he can’t just sneak up behind a child and turn them into a tree but, rather, that he tells lies because he has to lure them in somehow and trick them into becoming the trees. Also, the Beast is known for his lies and we see the Cloud Queen showing Wirt to Greg and lying to him about how Wirt has already been claimed and is too far gone and there is no way for him to go home with Greg. The other main piece of evidence for my little theory here is what Greg is doing with the Beast at the end, how he’s acting, and what exactly he’s saying. He’s doing stuff like putting a teacup on a rock so the sun sets behind it, because he had been told to catch the sun in a cup, and the Beast praises him for this, using a soft tone of voice like a normal person would use with a child that really isn’t befitting of a ‘beast’ at all. And yet, after being shown to do a task that the Beast asked him to do and praised him for completing, Greg is still saying to Wirt that he “did it,” that he “beat the Beast.” Well, if he was even the tiniest bit grounded in reality, there would be no way in Hell he’d be saying that as he’s been going around serving the Beast himself while his physical condition gets significantly worse and he even starts coughing up leaves. This clearly indicates that Greg is out to lunch, mentally, and I think it strongly supports the idea that Greg does not know at all that it’s the Beast who’s having him do stuff like catch the sun in a cup or that it’s the Beast who’s praising him. What I think it is is that, in his head, this is all stuff he’s running around doing for the Cloud Queen in order to set up for or earn whatever his wish was and she’s the one he sees and hears and thinks he’s talking to. Now, as for how the soundtrack further supports this, I’d like to start with singing in the series. Most characters don’t sing at all and few have their own songs, but something that just became clear to me is that, like what Lin Manuel Miranda did in Hamilton, each character who really does sing their own songs gets their own signature style of music. For example, Jason Funderburker (the frog) gets that kind of bluesy sound like in the opening theme and the song “Over the Garden Wall”  while Greg has that really upbeat kids’ music, like with “Potatoes and Molasses” and “Adelaide Parade.” More importantly, though, the only two characters in the whole thing who ever sing opera are the Beast and the Queen of the Clouds. Other bits include the part where Greg is ‘Greg’ to literally everyone except the Cloud Queen and the Beast, who both call him ‘Gregory.’ Additionally, there’s the scene at the start of the last episode when the Beast is talking to Greg and he says “Anything is possible if you set your mind to it, right?” which sticks out because we’ve never seen Greg say that to the Beast or even just around him, but he did just say it to the Cloud Queen not that long ago. This one’s a bit of a stretch but there’s also how the light reflects in Greg’s eyes both as he enters the dream and when he’s talking to the Queen of the Clouds which reminded me of the “you have beautiful eyes” part of the first episode when those wild, glowing eyes of the corrupted dog reflect in Greg’s own eyes. Moreover, the lyrics of “Everything is Nice and Fine All the Time” and “Forward Oneiroi” have some bits that sound kind of sinister, which doesn’t make sense if the Cloud Kingdom and their queen are actually just good and nice. Specifically, “Everything is Nice and Fine” has a couple mentions of lies, which is something that throughout the series really only comes up in the Unknown when it comes to the Beast or fear of him, and there’s one line that really sticks out to me of “Our songs are filled with love, the sweetest lie/And we can send them down to you with a little shove.” The cherubs in this Cloud Kingdom are literally coming out and saying that love, or maybe just their love, is a lie so their songs, including the one they’re singing about how everything is nice and fine all the time, are “filled with” a lie. Not to mention the line of “Lasso a cloud and make the flowers grow,” which is eerily reminiscent of the task Greg is given later on of “lowering the sun out of the sky and into this china cup” in how it’s such a whimsical yet surreal and impossible action. I’m also just going to put the lyrics to “Forward Oneiroi” here real quick so you can see them:      Forward, cherubs, hear the song      A child's wishes call us on      Descend! Descend!      'Ere he 'scapes, for dreams      Our winged wind hath made      For only beneath the veil of sleep      Can we Oneiroi act on men. The first thing I want to talk about here is the actual Oneiroi. From what I found, Oneiroi were lesser deities of dreams in some forms and areas of Hellenic paganism who were led by Morpheus, who tended to take a human shape in the dreams he visited. If the welcome wagon is all the Oneiroi who are addressed in the Cloud Queen’s song, then that means that she, as their leader, is the Morpheus figure, as in a powerful being who isn’t actually human but takes a human shape in dreams. Also, that second part of “Descend! Descend!/'Ere he 'scapes” sounds genuinely threatening. If the dream is so good and “everything is nice and fine all the time,” why would Greg ‘escape’? And now I’ll  put in the lyrics to Beast’s part of Come Wayward Souls too because I want to compare these two songs:      Come, wayward souls      And wander through the darkness      There is a light for the lost and the meek      Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten      When you submit to the soil of the earth Okay so where I’m going with this is that these songs feel very similar to me, both in tone and musicality as well as lyrical content. If you took “Forward Oneiroi” and swapped out the words “cherubs” and “Oneiroi” for “children” or “souls” and then just put it in a darker sounding minor key, I think it would feel about the same as “Come Wayward Souls” and I definitely could see that song being one of the Beast’s. I would also point out how the lyrics of both the Beast’s songs have this weirdly encouraging, light, hopeful tone, which makes sense given that he waits for kids to get lost and give up and then he comes in and scoops them up. In “Wayward Souls,” he says “There is a light for the lost and the meek/Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten/When you submit to the soil of the earth,” which yes, sounds kinda ominous with the part about submitting to the earth but, really, is putting light and hope out there. It’s saying that, if you just go with him and submit to the earth, there is a light for you, some beacon of hope, and you can forget the sorrow and fear you’re currently feeling. He does the same in “The Jolly Woodsman,” too: “When the fog of life surrounds you/When you think you've lost your way/Come with me and join the forest/Come with me and join the play.” Lastly, I want to compare the kids’ choir part of “Wayward Souls” and “Potatus et Molassus” to “Everything is Nice and Fine.” For reference, the full choir part is “Grow, tiny seed/You are called to the trees/Rise 'til your leaves fill the sky/Until your sighs fill the air in the night/Lift your mighty limbs/And give praise to the fire.” The first thing that sticks out is how much this choir of children who we know to be the souls in the edelwood trees are talking about reaching up to the sky with the branches of their trees, which reminds me of lines like “So hitch a ride into the sky,” “The softest clouds and rainbow skies ain’t gonna lie,” and “Everyone is sittin' pretty on top of the weather,” from “Everything is Nice and Fine.” I thought I’d already said it but I just looked back and apparently I didn’t say that, with the idea that the Cloud Queen is the Beast, there is also the idea that everyone we see in Cloud City is just the not-yet-sacrificed souls of the children in the edelwoods, and stuff like this kinda goes with that. Another thing I noticed that makes sense to me, though idk if it’ll make sense to everyone, is that “Potatoes and Molasses” is to “Potatus et Molassus” as “Everything is Nice and Fine” is to the children’s choir part in the Beast’s song. I would even go so far as to claim that the whole point of the “Potatus et Molassus” reprise is to draw attention to “Everything is Nice and Fine” and then call into question everything from the Cloud City stuff. I say this because, as I said previously, each character who sings their own designated songs has their own designated style and Everything is Nice and Fine is in a similar style to Greg’s own style (it’s a bit different though, so it’s not like they just used Greg’s style because it’s his dream or something) while “Potatus et Molassus” is in the same exact style as the “grow tiny seed” stuff, to the extent that the children’s choir is even used in that song. So, when I look at Greg in episodes 8 and 10, I think that what’s going on is that the Beast doesn’t just come up and talk to you as this ominous, scary shadow guy with antlers and weird eyes but, rather, he can be subtle and manipulative and do shit like get inside of your head and manipulate you. After all, Satan’s a liar and a conjurer too and, with the Inferno view of OtGW, the Beast is Satan. My bet is that, at the start of episode 10, Greg is aware enough to know that he’s no longer in his dream but he sees the Queen of the Clouds rather than the Beast and imagines that she’s there to guide him through whatever tasks he needs to do to get Wirt back and go home or whatever. Once there’s the tree starting to grow around him, I believe that, in his head, he succeeded and then was back home or maybe some other nice, cute, safe space like Cloud City with all the other souls. When he sings “Potatus et Molassus,” in whatever is going on in his head, he’s just having a good time wherever he is, singing “Potatoes and Molasses,” like how he and all those other children heard a lilting soprano instead of an ominous bass when the Beast sings. (Sorry this was so long btw)

[fanfic-inator795]

I've talked a lot on here about my favorite characters, but what about some of my LEAST favorite characters?

Honestly, I don't have too many characters that I just hate with a burning passion or anything like that... but there are def characters that truly get under my skin. So let's have some fun and rant for a bit, shall we? Starting with least hated to most:

Sadie Miller (Steven Universe): Gonna be honest, a big reason why I dislike this character is because of her voice. No disrespect to Kate Micucci, but MAN her voice is just so grating to me personally (tbf, I feel the same way about Greg Cipes). As for the character herself, she's just incredibly whiny and annoying imo. I couldn't really relate to her frustrations with her mother, and that whole mess with her and Lars was just... yeah. Still can't really overlook the whole Stranded Island incident. Say what you will about how terrible Lars can be, but at least Lars can be funny and interesting sometimes. I just don't care for Sadie at all.

Mo Morrison (Lightyear): Laying out my biases here, I really don't like Lightyear in general, it's a very frustrating and agitating film to me personally, I could honestly rant about that movie for hours. But beyond the story/plot issues, Mo is just a very annoying character to me. They try SO hard to push him to be the comedy relief, and it just does not work. Then, when they try to push him as the team screw-up, they push too hard and just make him frustrating to watch since he literally can't do anything right and doesn't get a win until the payoff with the stupid spacesuit pen. Literally every scene with him just ends up making me go "goddamn it, Mo, why are you even here??"

Mr. Herriman (Foster's Home): As a kid who was a big fan of Frankie growing up, it shouldn't be surprising just how much I hate this rabbit. I think what really gets me is how callous and unfair he can be, with stuff like "Imposters Home for uh Make-em-up Pals", "Crime After Crime" and "Setting a President" showing him at his absolute worst. An all-around VERY frustrating and unsympathetic character to me, worse so than Bloo or any of the show's actual villains. Honestly, it makes me sad that we don't get to see more of his softer side - i.e. the life-long friendship he has with Madame Foster/the stuff that makes Madame Foster love him - as that easily could have saved his character. But for the most part, he just comes off as a huge jerk.

Stickler (The Cuphead Show): Similarly to Herriman, I think I just get incredibly annoyed with characters who put rules and procedure above everything else. What makes Stickler worse though is the voice they gave him, as while it's kinda funny in his first couple appearances, by season 3 I'm cringing just as much as Devil does whenever he pops up. They also amp up his jerkiness and pushiness in the later episodes - and while I get WHY they need to, given how distracted Devil gets, it's still a tad annoying imo.

Dr. Owen Hunt (Grey's Anatomy): Literally my least favorite character EVER. This guy... he really is just the WORST. And yes, I know there are in-universe reasons for how he acts, but when he continues being a shitty person to his wives and others, I stop caring about those reasons. He's a huge hypocrite on most things, has a 'my way is always right'/'My way or the highway' mentality, and he's just such a baby whenever he doesn't get his way or when he has to face consequences. YES, I KNOW, on Grey's pretty much everyone is a shitty person in some way because it's a dramatic medical soap opera and they need drama, but Owen really does just get under my skin the most with how stubborn and 'holier than thou' he acts a lot of the time.

...That being said, if any of my followers actually like these characters, no disrespect to you. In fact, I'd love to know WHY you like these characters, as perhaps I can get a new perspective on them.

[teecupangel]

What if Bill sold Desmond's soul to a demon in exchange for making Desmond a better assassin when he was still a kid but he didn't clarify that Desmond would still stay with him so the demon took Desmond and just acts like he's his son or grandson and absolutely spoils Desmond and even makes him go to school to have a normal childhood (this is an AC x Welcome to demon school! Iruma-kun au)

I’m gonna be honest with you, nonny, I haven’t caught up with Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun. I stopped watching it after Billy Kametz died (˃̣̣̥﹏˂̣̣̥). I know Stephen Fu would make a good Azz but, yeah, still haven’t gotten back to it so, for this ask, I will focus on the first few episodes of the anime but we’ll add a bit of AC spin to it.

So, we’ll set this up at the same age Iruma was when his soul was sold off and that means Desmond would be 14 years old, around the age when he had begun to not believe in the whole Templar thing. Bill probably assumed that the demon was going by the more commonly believed ‘rule’ where the soul written in a contract made with the devil will only be taken after death (ex: Faustus). Unfortunately for him, Sullivan used that loophole to take Desmond to the underworld as soon as Bill signs the contract.

Sullivan doesn’t tell this to Desmond though, nope. He didn’t necessarily lie. He just didn’t tell Desmond what Bill’s actual wish was. As far as Desmond knew, Bill sold his soul to a demon for an unknown wish and he actually believes that Bill thinks that he’s a lost cause and wished for a better soldier… a child that wouldn’t disappoint him.

Sullivan is, of course, kind and a bit embarrassing grandfatherly and Desmond doesn’t necessarily trust him but he knows he has no other choice but to be his grandson. He does warm up him (and Opera) soon enough because they’ve been kind to him and he doesn’t have to do any training at all.

In this idea, Sullivan and Opera gave him a few days to get his bearing first, especially since he was in a bit of a maudlin mood. Desmond does get used to his life as a member of Sullivan’s household and the strange food they serve. It helps that Desmond wasn’t a picky eater and, really, he was getting bored with having nothing to do.

So when Sullivan tells him that he got Desmond enrolled in a great demon school, Desmond just agreed to it because… well… he has nothing else to do anyway.

And… maybe, just maybe… he was interested in experiencing something that he had only heard about. ‘School’.

Unorganized Notes

Desmond’s first day in school pretty much happened the way it did for Iruma. Sullivan still makes him take over Azz in the introductory speech for first years and Desmond trusts Sullivan enough to recite the ‘no tripping’ spell. Once he knows what it does, Desmond actually recites it each day because it’s a useful spell and, as long as Desmond doesn’t mess up the pronunciation, he won’t die, right?

Desmond also dodges all of Azz’s fireball when Azz duels him and his inhuman dodging capabilities are because of his training as well as his latent Eagle Senses helping him ‘predict’ his opponents’ next moves which he only chalks up to gut feeling because he doesn’t know about Eagle Vision/Senses which has been heighten because this is what Bill had sold Desmond's soul for afterall. He does defeat Azz and earn Azz’s loyalty, much to his confusion.

Desmond knows how to say no and, really, he doesn’t mind saying no to requests but he still agrees to play with Clara because… well… he doesn’t remember when he last played games with someone. He knew he played with the other kids before back on the Farm but it had been so long ago, his memories had been covered by the neverending training he and the other kids were subjected to.

He knows that he’d die if anyone learns he was human and he had no qualms about lying to everyone. Honestly, he’d been trained to lie since he was a child and it was hard for him to blatantly lie but he was okay with being vague or saying misleading things instead so… he’d probably be okay.

Becoming part of the misfit class is still Sullivan’s idea and it’s more of “I think you’d be more relaxed in that class since they’ll take the spotlight from you” and Desmond agrees to it because… well, he sees no reason to disagree with Sullivan’s idea and, also, he was raised to be obedient to his superiors.

He still gets a lot of spotlight from the school newspaper though but Desmond just ignored that. 'As long as he doesn’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist' is his current motto with his growing popularity in school.

Back in the human world, Bill is trying to find a way to get Desmond back and he believes the POEs left behind those who came before us hold the key to bringing Desmond back.

Familiar and Ring:

So I’m putting the familiar and the ring in a different set of notes because we can go for the og route of Desmond unintentionally making Naberius his familiar and have him have the ring of gluttony BUT how about…

So there’s this setup in Familiar of Zero fanfics where Louise summons a different fictional character instead of Saito so we can use that setup during Desmond’s familiar summoning. Sure, he used Naberius’ summoning paper but he needed to summon his familiar using his blood.

Normally, human blood would simply heal demons but Desmond’s blood is different. He has higher than normal Isu genes in his blood.

Also, maybe Desmond doesn’t remember if there was a specific symbol he should have drawn in the parchment so he just went with the Assassin insignia (out of habit or maybe he’s actually getting homesicked?). Either way, the summoning goes awry.

Now, we can go for our ancestor of choice (or really, any AC character you want) for this one, someone that is wholly strange to everyone because only high-ranking demons know that humans exist. And Desmond’s familiar isn’t human, not really. No. According to the records, he had summoned a ghost of some kind.

Or an alternate idea: instead of choosing an ancestor, Desmond could summon a being shrouded in light that slipped into his shadows. Whenever he’s in danger or, really, whenever they feel like it, ghostly apparitions of three men would come to his aid or just talk to him. They don’t say what they are but they do name themselves as Altaïr, Ezio, and Ratonhnhaké:ton. And they act less like familiars and more like Desmond’s guardians and friends. (Also, they have a soft spot for Azz and Clara). His familiar is classified as ‘UNKNOWN’ and no matter what happens, the being shrouded in light never makes an appearance again.

Now, the ring. The ring is meant to be able to store energy that can make it possible for even a human to cast spells and, yeah, sure, we can keep that setup. But instead of a ring of Gluttony… it’s the prototype of the Ring of Eden.

Now, a normal Ring of Eden could only be used as some kind of shield but the prototype had multiple functions, including the absorption of energy that can later be used by the user. Desmond doesn’t know it but the reason why the mass-produced Rings of Eden do not have this function is because the prototype ring couldn’t absorb enough energy to be useable on the long run…

In the non-demon world.

No one knows where the Ring of Eden (known as the Ring of Gluttony) came from BUT it’s rumored first appearance is in the hand of King Solomon, the human who managed to form contracts with multiple demons (a legend).

In the demon world, with Sullivan’s energy as its main power source, the Ring of Eden can be used by Desmond to do magic but it was an automatic shield that activates every time Desmond is in danger or needs to be protected. The demons think it’s cool unknown magic.

The fact that Sullivan can ‘seal’ the Ring of Gluttony makes the three apparitions be wary of him since that ring is not of demon origin but Desmond doesn’t really share their concern since Sullivan seems to be looking out for him anyway.

[ziasann]

Seven Fun Facts with Crimen Passionis

1. The title Crimen Passionis meant “a crime of passion” in Latin.

I originally thought of this title for a Cyno/Tighnari fic last year where it also dealt the same theme of Cyno as an unjust General Mahamatra of Sumeru because of Tighnari.

Unfortunately for my Sumeru fics, I found better fitting titles so I kept that one in my treasure trove and I did not expect to use it with NeuviFuri. I did not even expect to ship NeuviFuri this BAD but here we all are.

2. The songs inspiring the fic are actually from Vocaloid’s Evillous Chronicles series.

“Cappricio Farce” and “Judgment of Corruption” are the songs I have repeatedly blasted to as I wrote the story. The lyrics from Cappricio Farce are very much in line with the overall theme of the fic.

Corrupt!Judge Neuvillette is just very hot too 😘

3. Had a lot of help around actually!

I struggled with the writing process, but my writer friends helped around. Daisy (ao3: wisforia) told me to lean on the concept of “love corrupts” with Neuvillette. Meanwhile Rika (ao3: pinkweirdsunsets) pointed out how my story is the entire opposite of the Archon Quest.

me: how to write a character going insane?

sunshine & vira: what was the reason of her madness?

me: guilt because she fell in love instead of focusing on the prophecy

My long term writer friends and beta readers Sunshine (ao3: 20fifthbaam) and Vira (ao3: Viralaine) suggested I use “distraction” to portray such guilt. The whole Fountain of Lucine scene and the narration from then on was driven from that. The date at the Opera, her platter of sweets, Neuvillette vacating the premises, all of them: a distraction.

Also fun beta reader comments!

4. Furina lessened her use of cosmetics after the merge with Focalors because her now godly constitution makes her skin and looks better!

Her palate for sweets had not lessened, but her usage of cosmetics did. — Canto IV, Acedia

5. The 23 stabs to Focalors (and 24 women Furina killed) was a reference from Julius Caesar who was betrayed and stabbed 23 times.

Here is my full response:

At this point, I think that Furina was experiencing bouts of hallucination and insanity, she even forgot she killed 24 women until Neuvillette pointed it out. Was Furina stabbing Focalors in her dreams actually Furina killing the 24 women in reality? Or was it a different illusion altogether? We can never know. Only Neuvillette might know the real answer, or Furina herself whose state of mind was not very reliable at this time. Hence the tag, "Unreliable Narrator." But while writing I had a thought too that perhaps when Furina killed Focalors in her dreams/hallucination, her body was enacting the stabs to the 24 victims of Vacher. Perhaps, she was also thinking of another thing during those episodes.

6. Writer Annotations at the Original Doc:

7. Neuvillette’s final judgment and Furina’s final performance.

While writing the scene before the insurrection, I realized that Furina was acting. She was manipulating Neuvillette to tip his judgment in favor of her. Because she promised before in Canto III that she would never cry anymore after handing out half of the Hydro Gnosis.

In the last few scenes, Furina cried before Neuvillette so that Neuvillette would indict: “The People of Fontaine made you cry, they made you lower yourself like this…Their sins will never be forgiven.”

Focalors did tell Furina:

“He promised you the world, the rain, that he would do everything for you! Once you utter the sentence, once you realize you will do everything for him too…”

Furina uttered her cries, so Neuvillette did everything for her.

[absolutebl]

Oh! My Sunshine Night

Binge watch.

Okay so I am hopped up on cold meds and jet lagged and I decided to try to watch this soapy mess because why tf not?

Ep 1

Oh no, it’s good. Like: this is a good opening. And I do love OhmFluke, but you know who I really love? Noh (orig. Nitiman). Gah.

For the first time in a long while two boys in a BL make for actually believable brothers. Whacha know?

Fluke’s hair is AWFUL.

And suddenly the whole thing goes v odd. I’m not sure if that’s the captions, or if the show itself is trying to be existential. What an odd meet cute and what strange dialogue.

I’m so confused.

It’s like it’s trying to be both BL and transcendental poetry.

I like spunky Fluke tho.

Linguistic corner: these two are using chan/nai for I/you - v formal.

Poor Noh, they always make him play sports when it’s clear he just... doesn’t.

How much do I love the whipping boy side couple?

SO MUCH!!!!

Ep 2

Is the thing with the apples just to make Fluke cry?

I like the conflicted poor little rich kids family dynamic.

But there’s a lot of establishing scenes, it’s moving pretty slowly.

Sorry this one isn’t whipping me into a verbal frenzy. I’d drink, but not on top of cold meds. You know those warnings on med labels? They’re for me. I’m the one that shouldn’t operate machinery, not even a computer.

Wait. What? Why didn’t we get to SEE this bit?

Ep 3

So this is about classical music and no one is actually playing and no one is singing, so I’m absolutely fine with it.

The fencers with the unrequited crushes are boring to me. But there is a kind of Midsummer Night’s Dream aspect to these relationship dynamics.

GAH! The apple collecting thing was so cute and so romantic.

Not a lot of BL tropes so far in this show, but I like it’s brand of sappy.

I love how utterly incapable of flirting Kim is.

The opening the car door thing did, in fact, make me hoot with laughter.

Fluke’s pretty darn good at being a bossy bitch and Ohm does exasperation well. Honestly, I’m liking this show a lot more than I thought I would.

Oh yay! We  get to see Rain sleeping in his boys room. Lovely. I do enjoy whipping boy trope, v kinky.

*sits back and smiles in dominant smug*

I ALSO love the little brat in-crush with Rugby Rain. It’s all very delish.

It’s thanksgiving all over again, I’m all about the side dishes.

Okay, the end of this episode was so confusing. Are they play acting a couple break up for the girl? Are they actually arguing? What are they arguing about? Were they dating? What happened? What’d I miss? Why the dramatic soap opera music? Why the overacting?

What is going on?

Ep 4

Oh I forgot about the fencers.

And finally a BL trope, crash into me. (At least it wasn’t a pratfall kiss.)

Oh I do like a gay fencer sword pun.

Very nice. 

Also, a shower scene already? Are these two the PokeTongue’s of this show?

Who let Star Hunter in the house?

Rain + Sun and the insults was great. Very funny. These two are kinda of alike, actually. Fun fun. I like these characters.

Bounce bounce.

Why didn’t anyone tell me this was such a goofy show?

I’m getting a tiny bleed of Japanese slapstick absurdist leaking in and I’m not mad about it. The weird apples and arbitrary mood swings should have tipped me off.

This show has almost a panto play going on.

Rain IDing his brother’s bf and being like, welcome to the fam, I leave him in you care was such a Dom move.

Oh, baby is a floppy drunk! Finally some BL tropes are dropping. And another crash into me. And a wet towel sponge bath. Tropes coming thick & fast now (speaking of thick & fast.... wait, no, bad cold meds, don’t go there)...

Okay, we are back in familiar territory. I thought this one was going to be original. Silly me! This is BL!

Not sure if I am disappointed or not.

Ep 5

Bathroom drama.

Fencing sword boys drama. Why so mean? Honestly, if I were Kim I’d be out too.

Ooo Rain with the consent, even if it’s just a hook up. Also... boys. Bunk beds? Everyone is gonna know. Like EVERYONE.

This show is going places I really did not expect.

Oh! It was all a fake out. *pout*

Okay baby boy, you get down with those fantasies. I’m with you. He hot.

What’s with Sun and the magical Ikea box?

Also, they’ve know each other since childhood trope? Really?

*whines” I don’t want to add another one to that trope list.

Ep 6

I like the plot of butler dad kinda finding out his son is involved with the heir. Good dramatic twisting. Also, evil homophobic jerk nozzle, turns out.

I remain engaged.

Did the stretching part make me grin?

Yes t did. Boys rolling around on mats together never fails to please.

There are a lot of faen fatals and fatales. Like this show is lousy with them. I see why everyone called it a soap opera.

I am so happy that there is no singing I don’t even mind that no one can play an instrument in that whole band (orchestra).

Honestly, the band leader (conductor) looks like First’s (of JaFirst) older brother. It’s wigging me out. 

Ep 7

Look, I admit, I am not even half way through and I am flagging a bit. This is a long arse show.

Speaking of arses...

Another shower scene?

(Anyone else notice that it’s always the same shower? No? Just me. Can’t be helped. Unforgotten Night has made me overly concerned with Thai pluming in BL ... not a euphemism.) 

Boy this series has a supper voyeuristic lens. Not that I’m complaining, never that.

(Bops over to see if the director is gay.... MDL = no info on subject. Well, okay then.)

Returns to shower scene, arses, pluming, and supposition.

Oh! Wound tending!

Ooo, rejected fencing cutie makes move on Sun! Kim is not pleased. you snooze you loose, big boy.

Coils within coils, this is such a soap. I love it. Did I mention I was raised on bread, water & East Enders?

Okay maybe not raised.

Definitely watched too much of it tho.

Oooo, that was a very Light On Me moment.

PAUSE TO REFUEL

Okay I have consumed Korean soft tofu stew and more loopy-making cold meds, and will work on a pomegranate while I continue to watch.

Ep 8

Mostly worked on the pomegranate.

Meds took effect.

Stuff happened int he show but I forgot to make notes. Pomegranate distraction.

Oddly, I’m missing the swordsmen.

Ep 9

Oh, hair drying. Cute. I kinda have come around to this trope over the years I’ve had it shoved in my face... erm... flopped on my head.

MORE SHOWER

Oh! My Showering Night more like it.

I declare this BL official winner of this trope. 

Meanwhile beach frolic. AND a woods frolic.

Ep 10

Finally I’m half way through!

Oooo we have a magic heart rebooting BOOP! to go with the magic apples.

Oooo more shower scene, this time with added bonus sexitimes. Also neck kisses! My favorite.

I’m sorry but I just keep imagining what if we had gotten to this level with Nitman?

Oh, what could have been.

Nice kisses! But also no sex on the beach boys, no one enjoys that.

Meanwhile, the fencers can’t figure their shit out, because they keep fighting with the wrong swords.

And our main couple is being quite tame with a shoulder lean, side hug, water watching triple trope strike on the beach.

Okay weird dream helicopter thing.

Look, Mean Rich Paw, I’d kick him out of the house for wearing that outfit alone.

No other reasons needed.

Disown the fucker.

Band shirt/vest/thingy, no inheritance for you!

Man the fashion this year in BL has been brutal.

Ep 11

I don’t know If I can finish this tonight.

Invited up to the Sun’s room is he? (occasional flashes of DeanPharm).

Okay, wait, the premise of Sun’s illness is SO STRANGE. He has to eat apples and stay away from his parents to save his heart?

What the hell is going on?

The whipping boy always has to run, identity separation is part of the trope. Because his identity is too tied to the spoiled prince, he has to try to make it on his own to realize he can’t.

I like the twist of butler dad encouraging him to leave, tho. (Usually whipping boy is abandoned or an orphan.)

Ep 12

OMG who eats shrimp when they are allergic to shellfish? for fuck’s sake.

Another white towel sponge bath? I take back what I said about lack of tropes.

I do love the tug and cuddle my human bolster pillow. It’s very sleepy entitled.

I am v bored by the parents buying the estate plot-line. I can’t decide if doctor lady is running a con or father and son are running a reverse con on her?

OOOO DRAMA!!!

The parents have died! Rain is missing! The doctor lady is indeed evil! Ohm has to act!

Oh fuck me not the amnesia trope.

I HATE THAT TROPE.

Okay, I gotta go to bed. I really tried. Had this been a normal length Thai BL I would have made it. But the rise of the amnesia trope did me in.

Tomorrow~

Ep 13 

I am glad Dad Butler is evil enough to recognize Dr. lady is also Evil. And we have a textbook soap opera definition hostile takeover. The evils go up against each other. 

We are in true Heirs level soap opera territory now. 

Someone is definitely going to be kidnapped soon. 

Ep 14 

This is my surprised face, the man allergic to shellfish, who still eats shrimp, goes wandering off into the forest with no survival skills when he has a brain injury. 

Fantastic. 

A time-lapse 3 months. 

Finally, the attack of the amnesia trope! 

I am so unhappy about this.

Ep 15 

We are moving into Bold & Beautiful level soap. 

The guys in the woods are still looking for Rain, still wearing exactly the same clothes that they’ve been wearing for 3 months. 

Apple boy, still eating apples and still talking to completely whacked out mother. I hate her. While Kim turns into a forgetful depressed rich recluse in the mountains. Now I understand why people got frustrated with this show. 

I feel like I read this as a really bad 70s romance novel, or maybe it’s meant to be like a Jane Eyre remake? 

Anyway, finally, our boys are reunited, but of course, amnesia trope. We hates it precious. All the friends have arrived. Or to be more precise all the incestuous faen fatals have arrived. 

Ep 16

After 3 months, one would have hoped the fencing boys had figured out their shit. I guess not. More evil fashion. 

I just can’t even. At least they took it off him fast. Wish it had gotten ripped in the process. 

Fencing boys now figuring everything out in the best way possible. 

This show keep surprising me with how high heat it is. 

Ep 17 

Magical, candy-colored comets. I just can’t with this show. Also… new crumbs. 

The refractory period on these rebound couples is as fast as the show is slow. Some weird monogamy mathematical principle must be in play. 

And it’s finally revealed that they are childhood sweethearts. 

OhmFluke do give good kiss. Fluke dose submission v well. 

In fact * waves hands airily about* good kisses all around. Well done cast! 

Also, and I am only admitting this to you people, but I totally have a fetish for CMNM and we NEVER get to see it, so thank you for this one, OMSN. 

Ep 18 

Good sex, bad plot. 

That’s my ultimate review of this show. (Which makes this kinda a runner up to KP to be honest) 

Look, I get that BL has rules that must be obeyed: 

boys must damsel off into the woods alone. 

boys must talk to their not-quite boyfriend while said bf is asleep, but he is never actually asleep. 

not one drop of rain is ever allowed to touch your boyfriend’s head because DOOM AWAITS 

Clear? OK. No I don’t understand why these rules exist either. I don’t make them, the BL gods do. 

Anyway OMSN is all over rule #1. 

Anyway, back to this damn show. Attempted kidnapping, and Kim has to save his boyfriend with a bow & arrow plus some arbitrary somersaulting in, what is this now? The Hunger Games BL? 

*ooo, wait a moment - KOREA make that happen! - where was i?* 

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? 

THIS SHOW IS TOTALLY ON CRACK IN A WAY THAT, FRANKLY, EVEN YYY COULDN’T EMULATE. 

Look, my dumb new dictation software made that into all caps and I’m leaving it because it’s entirely appropriate.

Meanwhile, you can not do a close-up of a gun if it doesn’t have a trigger. I understand there are weird regulations in place but just do a further away shot OK? 

Oh look, it’s ABL’s Angels. 

Want to start a detective agency, pretty boys? I’ll be your voice in the box. You can have all the shower scenes you want. We could invite MaxTul? I’m sure they’d be game. (Frankly Manner of Death had a more cohesive plot than this.) 

We basically end on a pastiche of troops that the show didn’t manage to hit earlier: boys on bridges, a forehead kiss, back hugs, put a robe on him, and... 

How do I sum this up? 

I am left with mostly a profound feeling of confusion. Where did Dad Butler go? And yet I am also curiously satisfied. I mean, all the sex scenes were good. I don’t know how to rate this. Less annoying than LITA, not as boring as it could’ve been? Except that I was really quick on the fast forward button and skipped a ton of establishing shots. This was probably agony to get through if you watched it week-by-week, but it’s OK as a high-speed binge. 

What the hell?

7/10

Quick Pitch: 

Kim, a tsundere musician meets Sun, a sunshine transfer student with a weak heart. Also there’s a hot older brother + their household servant, and a couple of fencers for good measure. Initially this pretends to be a normal university BL, then it slips on wet tiles and falls right on trough multiple shower scenes into ludicrous soap opera territory leaving one with a sensation rather like trying to hold onto soap in a communal shower. Ultimately, everyone seems pretty happy they bent over, but no one actually got clean. 

Or should I say soap dishes? 

(source)

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

Alright Gravity Falls fandom, we need to talk.

MASSIVE tw for (not always particularly kind) fictional depictions of mental illness, psychosis and hallucinations. General unreality tw, also tw for heavy/realistic gore. This post goes into possible GF crossover/meta content within a fairly graphic live-action tv show.

I’m sure everyone has seen Jason Ritter’s recent monthlong, Book Of Bill -fueled twt roleplay stint where he acted, loudly, as though he was possessed by Bill Cipher.

One problem: I already knew it was Jason Ritter that was possessed, NOT Alex Hirsch… since last fall. And I think y’all need to know why, because… well, you’ll see.

(Disclaimer: I have not seen 99.9% of Gravity Falls, and have never been in the fandom. I have only watched/read the necessary material to make this post.)

The relevant episode here is “Sock Opera”. First of all, this episode establishes that may have been another viable vessel for Bill left behind after the series finale, albeit a charred and torn one.

Puppet Dipper.

Why the fuck does this matter? Well, last fall (premiering on the night of the Harvest Moon no less), edgy meme fodder superhero show The Boys released a spinoff, Gen V, focusing on superheroes in college. One character, named Sam Riordan (don’t get me started on the Riordan thing. His brother’s name was Luke), suffers from vivid hallucinations, and that’s where things get really strange.

Final tw for live-action depiction of psychosis/hallucinations

So… yeah. Jason Ritter, on The Boys*, playing HIMSELF, playing a deranged puppet show host who appears in a boy’s mind to convince him to go on murder sprees.

*the puppets and larger in-universe puppet tv show associated with Jason Ritter’s character have since appeared in the mainstream The Boys universe, so it can be concluded that Jason Ritter exists there as well.

Oh, and when Sam does give into Jason Ritter’s influence (wtf am I even writing rn) this happens:

Realistic gore warning, especially at the end of the clip. Seriously.

THATS. CONCERNING

Making all this even weirder, this entire show predates the Book Of Bill’s announcement by two whole months, and Jason Ritter’s recent Hot Triangle Summer by almost nine months.

It also predates Matpat’s ICONIC penultimate theory video by seven months. In that video, Matpat (jokingly, mostly) lays out a “final theory” that Bill

1) Survived (confirmed by Book of Bill)

2) is looking for a way into “our” dimension (also confirmed)

3) has found a new human puppet in…. Alex Hirsch. Now, that’s where I don’t agree. Due to the above clips, I always assumed that if Bill was hiding among the GF crew, it was in Jason’s head.

Also in this video, Matpat attempts to explain the Bill Cipher Zodiac thing (??? as I said I don’t actually watch this show)

…this thing. Matpat attempted to explain That Thing by linking each symbol to a project Alex has since worked on, saying that together, these easter eggs would spell out “the way to defeat Bill for good”. However, there is one symbol that Matpat couldn’t figure out.

The “llama”. Except it’s not a llama. It’s an alpaca.

A seemingly (ie, hopefully) sentient alpaca named Sloane, who just happens to be one of the most baffling, non-sequitor gags in Gen V.

So, this is as bizarre as it gets, right? All this goes down, Book of Bill comes out, Jason has his Bill roleplay month and we’re all done, can shut the proverbial and literal book on this specific vein of Cipher shenanigans. …Right?

fUCK NO ITS NOT OVER.

On June 4th, 2024, Gen V’s official twt and insta pages announced their newest character, Cipher, with the show’s second season being confirmed for 2025 in a post dated July 26th.

That’s all the updates on this situation for now. A quick reality check to finish up: Obviously Bill Cipher isn’t real and these writers, actors etc aren’t actually possessed. However, I would take Matpat’s own thoughts one: Alex Hirsch absolutely being the type of person to build this bonkers metanarrative, and add that this is far from the only absolute gut punch of a late-2000s-fandom-specific easter egg to be found in Gen V. Other examples include the characters of Luke Riordan, Annabeth (yes seriously), and ofc the tragic/antihero psychic girl with mind control abilities whose eyes turn red with blood when she overuses her powers, and who loses her hand in a climactic season-ending battle…. If You Know, You Know. TLDR someone in Gen V’s writers’ room is both young enough, savvy enough and unhinged(complimentary) enough to 10000% do this on purpose.

Anyway yeah. Just coming over from The Boys fandom to let yall know that Bill has already made the jump to 3d, via puppets of all things. Hope this was helpful or just vaguely ominous.

[mikuni14]

Laws of Attraction Ep 5

I had a short city break (I ate a lot of yummy food and saw 3 cats, one was very talkative, so of course it was great). That's why after returning I had to catch up quickly and watch LoA, the BMF final ep and the first ep of Only Friends right away.

LoA did not disappoint again and provided the best entertainment. I liked everything:

how we get glimpses of Charn as Tinn's future boyfriend, the way he's sulky and whiny, high maintenance, unpredictable (the bed scene when Charn, after weeks of heavy flirting and openly proposing sex, when it might finally happen, he just falls asleep lol)

again, the show takes all the possible corny themes and tropes of romance/soap opera/action series and makes great use of them in a way that I always like and doesn't give a second hand embarassment, BECAUSE:

unforced, truly romantic scenes that brings blushes and pure joy

cheap special effects 👌, exaggerated action scenes and fighting scenes 👌, Charn schemining against Vit and then the sequence of events when we see him doing it 👌, the death of the villain crushed by the bookshelf 👌👌 - WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE HERE

"you can do anything to me", a sentence that always works for me because it's both hot and a lovely proof of trust, obviously appears in this excellent series, it's surprisingly said by Tinn, which is actually great

in general, Tinn accepting everything that happens between him and Charn, accepting Charn and his flirting, just taking it in without hesitation, without hiding from Charn and his own needs, him being so confident and flirting back, being so wonderfully open to Charn - I just can't, both of them are awesome 🤩

I love how the drama intertwines serious scenes and conversations with complete fuckery 😄 We have Tinn and Charn having one of their famous arguments about morality, justice, existence in society, or Charn in one of his crazy tirades about power and money being called out by Rose, there are touching scenes of Tinn and Grandma remembering Tonkhao... and then there are scenes of Tinn and Charn just being themselves and ridiculous and the most fake fire ever. This series is gold

talking about Tonkhao, I really like that the series constantly reminds us of her and that she is treated with respect as a victim. Very often the victim in crime dramas is just "a tool" for the plot, is treated instrumentally, not like a once-living person, which never fails to annoy me. Fortunately, Tonkhao is still remembered in LoA, and the scene with Tinn remembering her and guarding her memory was very touching

I really like Charn's relationship with Rose, they act like real siblings, with all the silly and petty fights, but Rose also has no problem reprimanding Charn, popping his little bubbles of self-satisfaction and also worrying about him, especially in the scenes where Charn is triggered by his traumatic memories

I know Charn is a dick, but as someone who is interested in politics, I have to say that he's sort of right about not wanting to bring the senator to justice. I mean, how many politicians do you know who actually went to jail for the criminal things they did?

Tanthai must be going crazy in his head and his heart. Until now he was an abused kid who relieved his traumas by drinking, partying and being an annoying brat, now he is starting to be dragged down by a string of innocent people being killed and it's sort of about him and it's obvious how badly it affects him. Thee, who is desperately trying to make everything as it was before, must finally gets his shit together, because Tanthai simply won't last long like this

I'm offended because there seems to be a lot of stuff going on off-screen, like an almost-kiss in Tinn's room and a whole-ass date! I want to see it! The public has a right to know! 😤

LoA is so good. And am I seeing right 👀?Is the next episode a traditional "going to the beach/tree planting" episode? Woohoo! 🥳

[the-ace-with-spades]

I've had mixed feelings about this season of 9-1-1...

Some of the issues about this season are, I'm pretty sure, caused by how short it is and the pacing being messed up for a lot of plotlines there.

The first two episodes felt overstretched to me, like the whole cruise bit could have been fit in two episodes instead of three - the third cruise ep was better but that's because it was oversaturated with characters and side plots and you couldn't compress that much of it. The first two just felt very slow and had put a lot of boring exposure on Lola and Norman that didn't really parallel the struggles Athena and Bobby had that well in my mind. 9-1-1 was always really heavy on narrative parallels in episodes (rescued people's dilemmas paralleled the crew's personal problems and guided them to have a look inwards into their own lives - it's quite common in procedural dramas and serves well if done with heart) but this time it feels very disconnected and mismatched.

Buck's arc was mostly good, very in character and paced in a way that didn't feel very rushed - stuff happened fast but it still felt realistic and natural. I do think it could've been done more in depth and show Buck's thought process more in some occasions but it wasn't bad.

I didn't like the wedding episodes as much as I thought I would (Jennifer and Kenneth were brilliant acting wise tho). I have a big problem with how Maddie's relationship with her and Buck's parents is treated in the show (mostly I don't think 'the united front' was really there as much as the writers tried to push but that's a typical depiction of 'parents are always going to be your parents no matter how shitty and deserve countless second chances' that you see in media and never like) but the idea of a huge wedding for Maddie and Chim seemed so out of character for them and the hospital wedding was also less private and romantic than what I'd imagine for them. I didn't like the bachelor party bit, it seemed very pointless to me and took some time from Chim's story that could give it a better pacing. Not to mention the depiction of encephalitis was very jarring as someone who actually had treated patients with encephalitis...

Eddie's arcs are... well, a bit ridiculous this season. Marisol has zero depth from the beginning, adding that whole almost a nun background didn't make it better. It might be just me, but in the scenes where Eddie is alone (not with another main cast member) he almost seems to be lacking personality?? Like his behaviour feels like a plot device more than something that matches what we could see of him beforehand?? The Catholic guilt took the worst turn possible with the whole nun bit, there's so many ways you could show Catholic guilt without making it about something as shallow and impersonal as having sex with an ex almost nun. It's literally not related that much to what Eddie's Catholic guilt (that is implied to have existed for years in him) would relate.

Kim is a whole other thing. Not an affair but still feels like an affair. The most unrealistic, farfetched way to deal with guilt and resentment for your dead wife ever. People don't just meet doppelgangers of their dead wife and decide to use them to deal with their issues and said doppelgangers don't just agree to it and find it normal. It's just some messed up way to push Eddie into that direction faster but it's just taking away the complexity of Eddie's feelings about Shannon and pushing it into a couple of short scenes that seem like they were taken out of a bad soap opera.

Mara's story line is...ugh. Look, foster kids in TV are my pet peeve. Especially troubled foster kids and the way people treat them and how people treating them is portrayed. Karen wanting her rehomed the minute she showed troubled behavior took away a lot from her for me, even if she retracted later, this just shouldn't be the first instinct of a foster parent and should not show. The way how they portrayed the whole investigation of Mara's past also pissed me off - this is not how it'd look in real life, so many of the foster parents just don't know what happened to the kid and have to work on figuring it out with the kid, on earning their trust by putting actual work into the relationship than just playing a detective and finding out how they got 'messed up'. Denny is literally having the most empathy out of all of them and that's just so bad. The way Mara magically opened up in such short notice and seems to be now an angelic child that trusts Hen and Karen completely is also something so jarring.

Involving a councilwoman into it all felt like such an overinflated way to stir trouble again. The realistic problems foster parents and adoption parents face are much more mundane than a whole ass politician suddenly deciding to run a vendetta on Hen. Hen and Karen are lesbians and black, Hen works a demanding job with long hours. CPS could get fussy about such a small thing as a teacher that is not the most tolerant reporting them for late pickups or forgotten lunches or even someone from social services Mara isn't making enough progress fast enough. The adoption judge themselves could be biased towards them and make the process difficult. There's so many ways it could have been done without involving the councilwoman and the incidents Hen's been either cleared off charges or acted with the protocol. That is, in my opinion, a cheap way to make it a conflict that is relying, emotionally, on hating the villain only (the councilwoman) and not showcasing the real struggles Karen and Hen could actually have, which would take time to expose in plot.

I did like Bobby's episode(s). A lot. Amir, as a character, is well rounded as well, it's just that any time other characters interact with him, they just seem to be acting so illogical and out of character - this is mostly about Maddie and Athena, I can understand why Bobby would act the way he does. I think Bobby is by far one of the best explored characters in the show and they didn't mess it up this season like they've done with the rest - the rest feels actually a bit two dimensional almost.

On another note, this season feels like a drama rather than procedural drama. I barely remember any rescues and emergencies and the ones that happened were really short and uncomplicated and brought almost nothing into the episodes.

[picnokinesis]

Taka!! Hello!! I saw you have watched Wolf and I’m curious about your thoughts on it ?! I loved it so much tbh, cause I started watching it for Sacha but I ended up finding the plot and the rest of the characters rly compelling too :D

SKSKSK harsh cut to footage of me specifically reblogging wolf posts from your blog to coax you into my askbox as an internet version of Molina's homemade deer trap -

BUT YES HELLO oh my days it was so much fun, right? I also definitely started watching it for sacha, and - okay well, let's put all the spoilers under the cut

SKSKS so. Came for Sacha. Stayed for Sacha.......and then watched the last 30 minutes because I wanted to know the answers (SKSK BUT ALSO his...CORPSE was on the floor in all the important scenes so y'know! He was still there in spirit)

But MAN wow did sacha and iwan steal the show, right?? They were absolutely AMAZING! Absolutely killing it, made me crack up multiple times they were just...literally the best duo. And man the twist at the end of episode five just GRABBED ME because wow, I really should have seen it coming and it was the best kind of twist where it suddenly made everything Molina had been doing make sense. And like - man, I'm just in awe of Sacha's acting, yknow? The guy acted his SOCKS off in this, like right from the first episode, you know that scene where they reveal that he is. not in fact a police officer SKKSKS but it's like the spyfall reveal, right? the mask drop. only, unlike in spyfall, this isn't sudden - it's a slow ramp-up of something being very wrong with this guy, gradually becoming more and more unhinged, and Sacha just NAILED it. Absolutely phenomenal. And then the way they just added so much DEPTH to his character augh, I wanted him to get out of the whole thing SO BAD even though I knew it was super unlikely. But augh by episode 5 he was SO nervous and paranoid, and then he just spent the first half of episode 6 just.....so palpably terrified?? Augh. Love him. So sad he got stabbed in the neck rip but he made up for it by having the most incredible dialogue with molina for five episodes straight skskks (i'm still losing it over 'you're not going to shower?? ....you handled intenstines today' SKSKSKSK like. ok real talk when I first saw the trailer for wolf I immediately came up with au6, yet another campervan au, which I will probably do not much with but SKSKKS the vibes were there in the series and it was a DELIGHT)

With regards to the rest of the story, it was super interesting, right? I feel like you possibly enjoyed it slightly more than I did (I was like. semi-frequently getting extremely annoyed at the random sexual content that seemed wildly tonally dissonant 80% of the time - I was SO SALTY that Sacha's opera lipsynch of our dreams with a SWORD was intercut with. that. and then also Jack's tendency to just like. physically assault people as a method of questioning like BOY that is. that is a CRIME sir. I know you're desperate for justice but do not boyo. But that's kind of a recurring pet peeve I have with crime shows as a rule sksksk). That said though - I did REALLY love Jack, and guh the stuff with his neighbour was SO creepy (LIKE THOSE WEREN'T NIGHTMARES??? HELLO???????) and maaaaaaaaan the stuff with the donkey pitch was so messed up and creepy. It was really good though. I did feel a bit like...'eh' on the end reveal about who the Donkey Pitch murderers were - that was probably in part because Honey had just died RIP but also hmmm idk, like obviously Molina was one of them, but I feel like I kinda wanted more on who Molina actually WAS, other than just some person Lucia knew from when she was in psychiatric care? Like my running theory the whole time had been that he was actually Theo, Hugo's older brother, simply because he looked a heck of a lot like Hugo skksks and it had just been an interesting throw-away line from Hugo's dad that didn't really go anywhere. I think also the twist with Lucia rang a bit hollow to me simply because the twist with Molina had been SO satisfying because it made all these little weird things make sense and I felt like I SHOULD have known (especially after honey and matilda's scene where they talk about letting people think they're more stupid than they are), but with Lucia (at least, for me personally) it felt a bit more out of the blue. But it was good, don't get me wrong - the stuff with her, hugo and sophie made a lot of sense and maaaaaaaaan that was so dark. And then I REALLY loved the ending for Jack, like the decision to not reveal what actually happened at the donkey pitch, and him finding out that stuff about his brother and then burning the treehouse and FINALLY getting some control back over the whole thing.........BUT THEN INTERCUT WITH THE REVEAL THAT HIS BROTHER HAD BEEN ALIVE?????? LIKE????????? AHHH??? That was SO well done.

Anyway. Show good. I enjoyed. There was actually a lot of things narratively and thematically that I particularly enjoyed - like even though the two storylines felt quite disparate at times, there were so many things connecting them or echoing between them! Off the top of my head, it's things like the idea of people being in your house and doing stuff when you're asleep - like with Penderecki but also how Molina and Lucia did that too with Sophie and Hugo. And then how like, Matilda tries to break that bathroom mirror to escape, and then Jack and Lincoln are escaping in a, uh. Different way and they DO break a bathroom mirror. Stuff like that. There were definitely more than that but I can't remember them right now, but it was like....idk the way that they echoed between each other gave it an internal resonance which made it very satisfying to watch (and is actually the same technique I've tried to use in campervan part 6, which is possibly why it appealed to me so much!). I also really liked the repeated use of mirrors and mirror shots - I feel like that was trying to say something too but I haven't quite untangled it yet. But yeah! Fun times.

[abstract-personnel]

okay shut up I am gonna actually talk about my theory for disappearing act.

I think that nureyev IS the one stealing it. he's in the cover art and everything so I think we're AT LEAST gonna have to learn SOMETHING about him in this. (although he could also just be there because juno is supremely gay and has been reading him into EVERYTHING)

I DON'T think he knew about the shooting though. I think he's working with someone on the inside (billie or clautilda? maybe carrie but I don't think so. maybe maybe jane but probably not... he DID say he hates the show but I think, like billie said, this is gonna look bad for him if it all falls apart) who got nervous about the added security and decided to make sure juno wasn't a problem without even telling nureyev.

I think nureyev is gonna successfully steal the chimes, and I think he'll take it on stage (phantom of the opera-core catwalk sneaking??) during the show without being noticed. I think juno'll catch sight of him and or do the "his cologne......." thing right before he gets away. realistically there's no way we get peter back That quick into the season. there's gonna have to be a bit of cat-and-mouse (but hopefully not the whole season. if they only get to talk to each other in like, the last episode or two, I will die)