#these are just my interpretations btw. may be wrong to the actual meaning but this is what it means to me

[chiistarri]

you dont understand how much i love heather and lacy and cindy lou who like. conan wants to be heather. olivia wants to be lacy. sabrina want to be cindy. and allll for dif reasons

conan's heather is a girl whos just so nice. so so nice and that makes it worse that he just cant like her. because as much as he would like her, she has the eyes of the one guy he likes. heather is so much better than him in that boy's eyes, and he wants to be like that so bad

olivia's lacy is the girl who has everything olivia wants. she cant help but admire her, yet hate her at the same time. how is it fair that lacy gets everything olivia wants? she's the greatest thing to exist and olivia despises her for it and wants to be who she is so bad

sabrina's cindy is a girl who took sabrina's place. even if sabrina tries to move on her mind will always be stuck on the past, and how easily cindy took the space she'd been forced out of. bc of how much she misses her past, she wants back her place that cindy took so bad

Only if you knew how much I liked you / But I watch your eyes as she / Walks by / What a sight for sore eyes / Brighter than the blue sky / She's got you mesmerized while I die

I'm not even half as pretty

But you like her better / Wish I were Heather

But how could I hate her? She's such an angel / But then again, kinda wish she were dead as she / Walks by

Aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of Hell? / Dear angel Lacy

But it takes over my life, I see you everywhere / The sweetest torture one could bear

I feel your compliments like bullеts on skin / Dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate / Wеll, aren't you the greatest thing to ever exist?

You got the one thing that I want

Try to rationalize, people are people, but / It's like you're made of angel dust

Lacy, oh, Lacy, it's like you're out to get me / You poison every little thing that I do / Lacy, oh, Lacy, I just loathe you lately / And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you / Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you

I saw you laughing in one of his pictures / But you'll be the one with his ring on your finger

Maybe he met you somewhere in the desert / While he was soul-searching, he found someone better / Guess you make him happy like I couldn't do / Cindy Lou Who

Scrolling five years back, I'm obsessed

If you're waking up now in his old bed / At his family's house, know that you're just / Breaking my heart

And I'm gonna puke at the thought of you kissin' / The boy who I love who's now in love with you / Cindy Lou Who

[emmkitt]

stop calling mephone4 a child.

my credentials(/silly): mephone4’s biggest fan + someone who sees mephone as representative of myself. i am also an autistic adult. (relevant)

i went on an autistic tirade rambling about this in a discord server but i wanted to compile my reasoning and stuff here into a tumblr post because this is very important to me.

alright. lets start with the most commonly used argument.

calling mephone a child is ableist.

now i certainly agree that some children CAN act the way mephone does. however, i think it’s harmful when your ONLY argument as to why he is a child is ‘because he cant spell’ or ‘because he creates fantasy worlds in his brain as a means of escapism.’

I think the issue is, we are reducing these very real symptoms of mental disorders to ‘oh he’s just acting childish,’ instead of understanding them for what they are. autism and dyslexia are not cured the second you turn 18. it doesn’t work that way. giving in to the stereotype that only children can act this way… i dunno man. it really rubs me the wrong way.

i think it’d be better to view him as an adult with these symptoms because, well, VERY rarely do we ever get representation of an adult with mental disorders in media. at least not in a way that’s not villainizing them or mocking/infantilizing them. (sidebar, mephone IS NOT THE VILLAIN. he did bad things, yes, and should be held accountable for it, but he is NOT. THE VILLAIN. he is an abuse victim, and his way of acting is actually very good representation of the way abuse victims may go on to mimic actions of their abuser.) cobs (mephone’s abuser btw) LITERALLY infantilizes mephone IN CANON. IN THE SHOW. WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO COBS. WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE COBS.

bro didnt go to school

i didnt know how to title this section. basically, people reducing him to a child because he doesn’t know adult things are MISSING THE POINT.

HE WAS RAISED BY COBS.

do you think cobs had ANY interest in teaching him ANYTHING about the real world? about how to be an adult? about how to ride a bike or pay taxes? NO. dude popped into existence knowing nothing except what Cobs WANTED him to know. he was meant to just work for Cobs and do tasks all the time and that was IT. OF COURSE his knowledge is going to be limited to what Cobs taught him. that DOES NOT make someone a child. GO REWATCH THE SHOWWWW.

suspend your disbelief for once in your life oh my god

i dont understand how people are able to suspend disbelief for LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE in fiction. such as murder/death, supernatural creatures, the universe itself as a whole, etc. but when it comes to age, the real world standards MUST be applied, no exception. Like since Mephone was canonically created 14 years ago in-universe that means he is 14 years old. we are completely ignoring the fact he is a fictional talking sentient phone robot for a minute.

and adding in the ‘he acts like a child’ argument for a second… season 1. what 1 year old do you know that can walk and talk and create an entire game show?? he has practically acted the EXACT SAME WAY his entire existence, therefore that argument falls completely flat.

it would be DIFFERENT if in-universe they had established rules, where this age means this and that age means that, but the ii universe DOES NOT HAVE THAT. meaning people are free to interpret age however they want. it would ALSO be different if mephone was canonically stated to be a child (we’re getting to that) OR portrayed to be childcoded. which…. he isn’t.

okay so by these rules all of the contestants are younger than mephone.

the agreement amongst child mephone believers seems to be ‘creation date = birth date = real age’. so bot is like 3 years old. the unvitationals are like 2. all the contestants are somewhere between like 4-14. but wait- some season 1 contestants ACT older or younger than the others? no. no theyre ALL 13-14 only. no exceptions. every newbie in season 3 is like 4-5. every newbie in season 2 is like 10. makes perfect sense.

do you understand how ridiculous that is. WE CANNOT , i repeat, CANNOT APPLY REAL WORLD STANDARDS TO A FICTIONAL UNIVERSE. oh my god. they are holograms. they are robots. they are in a weird plane floating in the vastness of space that has a picnic table that can generate food, and the ability to revive dead people, and ghosts and talking corn and. and all of THAT is fine. but god forbid someone interpret the talking phone as an adult. I DONT GET IT.

b-b-but cobs called mephone a child…

once again, common arguement. i strike thee down with a ‘MANIPULATION TACTIC.’ i feel like this has been covered enough and better in other mephone rambles so im not gonna get into it.

personal section

this is more of a personal experiences and opinions thing. less based on fact. agree or disagree idc this is just my experience.

once again, like i stated in the beginning, i see myself in mephone. a lot. I am an adult. i have autism. i have the tendency to act ‘childish’ sometimes due to my condition. im bad at being an adult. i struggle with tasks that are probably easy for other adults. i’m not a child. it’s very disheartening- i WANT to be viewed as an independent functioning adult, despite my condition, but when even a FICTIONAL PHONE who acts just like i do gets reduced to ‘child’ because he acts similarly to someone who’s mentally ill and has been abused. it HURTS MAN. he’s just trying his best:[

anyways conclusion

idc. you can headcanon whatever you want cause technically nothing is confirmed, but this is more food for thought for the people immediately jumping on the ‘child mephone’ bandwagon.

unless someone is canonically stated to be a child or is very heavily child coded, i don’t think its wrong for people to interpret them as an adult.

if sometime in the future mephone is canonically confirmed to be a child like. in universe. ill probably be disappointed.

i am a firm believer in age doesnt work the same way in ii as it does in our universe. theyre all fictional creatures. they were not created by conventional means. you dont have to apply our world’s standards to it.

anyways uhh. ramble over lol

[nottoonedin]

An ALNST Theory/Hypothesis/Over-analysis/Interpretation of events

AKA: Me slowly descending into madness over an animated web series-

(Btw this is mostly just for fun, don't take it too seriously lol)

(TW: Death, Blood)

Long post warning:

I assume we've all seen the newest posts that Vivinos has put out on their YT community tab (or wherever you get your ALNST updates), and the one that everyone is obviously talking about is the post titled <CURE>

And.. yeah, of course, just goes to show that Round 6 is just around the corner (I am screaming internally) and the attention is going to be focused on Ivan and Till, and how their story will progress (or end, depending on if someone's gonna die, which seems likely, unfortunately).

But the post that really caught my attention.. was this fucking post:

When I first saw it, in my mind I thought ''Haha, how cute and goofy! This is exactly how I saw their dynamic!'' and went on with my day.

But after thinking about it for a while, my brain decided to think up this wonderfully awful thought:

''What if Hyuna (unintentionally) had a hand in what happened to Hyun-woo?''

Now, at first, this sounds fucking crazy. The general consensus (from what I've seen) is that Luka killed Hyun-woo. But I do see some parallels between this post and the incident in Round 5 which might help explain what actually happened, but first:

Why I don't think Luka would have been able to kill Hyun-woo:

Luka is DEFINETELY not known for his muscles or strength, I mean look at him:

He's like a sickly Victorian child, not to mention his asthma, chronic migraines and heart disease. I don't believe Hyun-woo has any health problems (not that I know of anyways), so I feel Luka would have a hard time trying to push Hyun-woo over so he'd fall onto a rock. To put it simply, Hyun-woo could most likely beat Luka in a fight, unless someone interfered in some way...👀

Luka's ''fighting'' tactic:

With the parallels between The Trio doodle and Round 5, I've noticed there's a pattern with how Luka gets rids of his ''opponents'', be it on stage or outside of it (*cough* Hyun-woo *cough cough*).

He initiates the attack, it being mentally or physically depending on his opponent. He's subtle about it however, the only one being aware of his antagonism being the one he's antagonising, preserving his perfect, can-do-no-wrong persona.

2. Obviously, the opponent retaliates. But, of course, Luka expects this, it's what he wants, after all. He knows he'll be seen as the victim by onlookers. How could anyone hurt such a precious, weak, defenseless little guy??🥺🥺He doesn't even bother to fight back at all (may be too weak to).

3. A stronger force, seeing Luka in ''distress'', steps in and takes care of the attacker (the opponent), avenging Luka, who they see as the victim. He isn't the type to do it himself, letting others do his dirty work.

Now, let's apply this to the flashback in the All-In MV..

What may have happened to Hyun-woo:

Luka may have said something to Hyun-woo that deeply distressed/angered him, or perhaps Hyun-woo knew about what Luka did to Hyuna.

2. Angry, Hyun-woo attacks Luka.

(I'd also like to note that in this frame, Luka looks more like he's just had someone pulled off him, rather than he's just attacked and pushed someone over onto a rock.)

3. Hyuna finds Hyun-woo attacking Luka and, naturally seeing Luka as the victim, tries to break them apart (which would have been hard if Hyun-woo was super pissed). There's a struggle, and.. well...

Hyuna accidentally kills Hyun-woo, which doesn't bother Luka. Just means his opponent has been eliminated. As far as he's concerned, Luka wins.

Final Thoughts:

Does this theory leave a lot of questions? 100%. For example, if this theory was true, why would Hyuna be so angry at Luka? Does she later find out about his manipulative nature? How? On the stage perhaps? I find this unlikely, however, since I don't believe Hyuna ever went on stage and escaped beforehand, due to a post Vivinos made a while back:

Can this theory be easily debunked? Oh, ABSOLUTELY (I hope it is debunked in canon, to be honest lol). But it does give ideas for some angsty fanfics, I believe hehehe-

For real though, Alien Stage is all up to interpretation. Some questions may never be answered. It leaves room for different ideas, which is one thing I love about the series. <3

Thank you for reading my batshit little ramble/theory!! Hope ya'll have an awesome day/night!

[lopposting]

During my ventures in LOP I came across something that I thought people might find really interesting!

[btw: I might be completely wrong about all of this]

Earlier last year, the team behind Lies of P were invited as guests on a popular Korean Youtube channel called 중년게이머 김실장 [Roughly, "Middle-aged gamer Kim"?]. Developer Kwon Byung-Soo introduces himself as World and Scenario Lead of Lies of P.

At the Korea Game Awards in 2023 (in which LOP swept 6 awards including GOTY!!), he went on stage to accept the award for "Technical Achievement (World/Scenario)". The caption under him reads Narrative/World Team Lead:

Under the game's official end credits reel, he is credited under Lead World Designer. His name is also the first to appear in the game's introductory cutscene:

So I think that Kwon Byung-Soo may be the actual writer of the story and lore in LOP. I'm sure that Director Choi oversees the project as a whole, and every single team member makes invaluable fundamental contributions to the game collectively (for example, Director Choi pushing for a main character with more feminine appeal); However, I didn't see anyone credited specifically as a "writer" other than Collodi himself (Collodi is also technically the first to be credited, both in-game and in the end credits).

I think it would be really really cool to hear this person talk about the narrative elements of LOP specifically. Hopefully we get to hear more of the writer's individual thoughts on aspects of LOP in the artbook!

[note again: this is just speculation and could be me interpreting things incorrectly. also maybe these terms don't mean what I think they do, as I imagine game narrative and something more linear like a film script is probably different to develop]

[gl1tchr]

loved your riddler rant, you should do more. for the most part i agree but i wanna ramble too and see what you think

my thing with Dano Riddler is that i think it maybe started with selfless genuine intentions, at least as selfless as any riddler character could manage to be. but because he kept digging and digging and uncovering more, without anyone listening to him in the process mind you, that’s when all the already fragile trust for literally anyone shattered completely, and his delusional mind saw everyone as a threat and corrupted. the whole city needed a reboot, a fresh start

and the ones he still saw as innocent he probably just believed in his twisted mind that he would be doing them a favor, risking their death, but death would be a mercy compared to being in this godforsaken city

yes most was selfish revenge, but i still think there’s a small part of him that seriously believed he was doing “good” and was thinking of other kids. we see that written in his journal too, which wasn’t for public it was purely him to himself, so i think that was some genuine intentions there.

also eh…ahh the trauma part a little rocky, like I understand what you mean there’s absolutely guys like that (😪), but this edward’s self loathing comes from a genuine place of trauma and mental illness it’s not just the attention seeking aspect of “oh woe is me i suuuuck boo hoo” it’s actual implied bpd, ocd, intrusive thoughts whatever else.

not at all saying the trauma + mental illness list cancels his self-centeredness or anything out btw, yes he’s still very much selfish and wants attention and it’s especially heightened once the riddler persona comes out to play. it just felt like you were undermining it slightly, when depth+trauma was an explicitly stated focal point of his character (imo if that’s what they were going for, which again it was, the movie itself could’ve done better to show this. cuz yeah oof i understand casual viewers seeing the surface level “oh, he’s just another dumb villain who’s crazy purely for the sake of crazy 😐” but at least Paul Dano made a great comic. anyway slightly different tangent lol)

idk i might be wrong. that’s just my brief, summed up-ish interpretation. again though love and respect your take, would love to hear more.

Oh nono all of this can be extremely true in tandem with everything I said as well! That's the complex part of mentally ill characters that people love to muddy so badly is the line between the deliberate and the subconscious. Edward is DEEPLY troubled, I would argue the Most out of any Riddler save for maybe one or two other interpretations and he is a victim of the system before anything else, and many of his intentions to him and generally absolutely may have been good ones at the start. But as with any Riddler, he can only be "fixed" [in his eyes] by being validated, being seen. And this is what tells us the things Edward does because he's hurting inside versus the things he does because he actually has some more selfish and ill-intentioned motives. HE'S SO DEEPLY LAYERED AND RICH AND I LOVE HIM JUST AS MUCH AS HIS PREDECESSORS

[speakofthedebbie]

MAY I REQUEST THEE FOR A RADIOAPPLE RANT 🙏🏼

(No pressure just wanted to say hi :D)

oo i have w o r d s to say about this ship (i love the gif so much) (and hihi :DD)

hmm well lets go with reasons people dont like it

"lucifer is married!!"

bestie do the words "when he and mom split" (straight from charlie btw) mean nothing to you?? i mean yeah a "split" between couples doesnt always mean divorce but if youre gonna interpret it as not then its just as fine for me to say it does

2. "they hate each other!!"

whaaat really??? i had no idea. its not like, i dunno, i watched the same fucking show as you did. fanon≠canon yall (also radioapple fics are like. notorious for their slowburn)

3. "i ship him with x!!"

...good for you?? doesnt stop me from having my fun

4. "it just doesnt make sense!!" (not at you @bookworm-fangirl1 x)

yeah crackships do be like that sometimes. dont even get me started on the crossover ones

4. "lucifer likes girls!!"

whats that? it smells like... sniff... oh! ✨bi erasure✨! or ✨pan erasure✨! or ✨omni erasure✨! or ✨any-sexuality-where-you-like-multiple-genders erasure✨! what fun :) /j

5. "alastor is (aro)ace!!"

okay this ones a bit harder to immediately refute as an allo (probably) but i have heard many a testaments from actual aces and i can say with (almost) complete certainty... they dont fucking care lol. asexuality is a spectrum people, by saying this youre implying there is a wrong way to (aro)ace. plus tech the aro part isnt canon, just something amir said (also its almost always the allos getting pissed lol. word of advice: the aces dont need you to police on their behalf)

hmm i think thats it for the most part :D (sorry for the late response puff)

[littledigits]

thoughts on the cut episodes and ppls reactions 'n stuff

Since it was confirmed that a few more episodes of Hilda were written but cut, I do think the reaction of people finding this out is really interesting and not just because its fairly common in the industry and isint a sign of anything bad necessarily. I mean heck, in a weird way being behind the scenes and then seeing how people interpret things, what they take as important, what they think is a thread…all of that is interesting. When your job is basically trying to get people to pick up what you're putting down storywise its kind of a neat topic, because everyone communicates in their own way.

BTW before I keep going this is not a post to say dont crit/vent/complain/whatever about whatever the heck you want in hilda or any media, you do you. I think peoples honest takes are fascinating (said in victoria van gale voice) and even just people speaking their mind shows that they are interested and they care so that matters. Also not one singular post triggered this, its just been on my mind as I surface level read things so no stressies.

When It comes to the cut episodes, I'm seeing some people assume that whatever was cut would have fixed some of the crits they may have had about the season..and who knows, maybe yes? But I'd say ultimately probably not. Not because they dont include things that people want to see, or may have some topics people want expanded on ..but because thats just impossible in the grand scheme of things.

I mean this applies to shows in general, not just hilda. Every person who watches a show has their own idea of what the show represents to them. For some of its more of the surface events or characters where as others connect it with a deeper emotion. A lot of people respond to different tones of the episodes, which there are many. Some people prefer the one off adventures that stand alone as their own stories and others want to see more of a stronger through line. Some may see a new character and expect a new arc and thread, while others wonder why we couldn't've used a previously introduced character. Some may read between the lines more and others may take what is presented as very straight forward and literal …and no one is WRONG, because our big wrinkly brain meats all have their own tastes and ways of imputing information.

Television animation is rife with factors that actually futz with the quality and ability of the team to make a beautiful, amazing product like EVERY DAY. The script process and what goes into production is just one. The team is made up of many creatives all with their own varied experiences and voices just like the audience. In order for people to have their own voices and say, you are going to end up with some things that hit better then others, especially if the team is allowed to grow and experiment and play a little. Hilda has always been a show where we've been able to have a lot of creative say, and i think that sincerity comes through ! but with the sincerity and that humanity, it also means that there are going to be things that arnt going to make sense in the grand scheme of things lol. Even the writers and creators and producers have differing opinions on what to explore and dive into, probably more so then fandoms haha. Having more episodes may scratch some itches but not all, HECK, those episodes being cut could have re-allocated resources to other areas that helped elevate your fav ep of the season ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who knows! Schrodinger's episodes! (also ngl I was having cold sweats over the scope of some of them as cool as they were. The season may have been shorter but it was intense..it takes a long time to do stuff that looks that clean and crisp)

Imperfect art is very human! Do the best you can at the time with the factors you have. I was given so much trust and freedom on my episodes, and I was just happy to do something fun that allowed me and my team to grow and learn. I was fucking STOKED to get a one off story because it was way less pressure for me to take my next step directing cuz just doing the thing is a feat. Any sincerity you feel cant come through if that means we're afraid that we cant make mistakes, or do a story choice ppl wont vibe with. All you can do is do the best you can, see if people are picking up what you're putting down, and grow from it for next time.

Anyway, just a thought ramble. Its not to say do or dont do this or think this way blah blah. I just love that storytelling is messy and complex and everyones gonna take it a lil differently, especially if you have a team where you allow lots of voices to have input. It is all just a big experiment to see if people leave with a particular experience by putting your resources into the things you have that matter, and try you best to distract from burnt edges or patched up holes that happened throughout the process of making the dang thing lol.

[okkottsus]

I usually dont mind ppl having different interpretations of characters and relationships, but this is just an insult to my boy’s character and his connection to nagi.

Reo may have developed an interest in nagi bc of his talent (and i find the notion of him doing the same thing he hated his family for at the start very interesting btw), but since then he obviously has developed an emotional attachment, and to him, it has to be nagi. he’s met people with even more skill than him in blk but he still hasnt spared them a 1/100 of the attention he gives to his best friend.

ofc i think it was important for them to improve on their own and maybe it was premature of him to go back to devoting himself to nagi so quickly, but i truly believe its bc he understood nagi’s perspective since he “abandoned him” and his true intentions.

the difference in their perspectives is very clear even before they enter blue lock:

at that point winning the world cup was just reo’s dream but even then, to reo, the most important thing was for them to be together until the end (nagi was the one who made him promise that would be the case too !!) , while nagi was content with just going along with him bc he started caring abt him as a person

until they lost to isagi’s team. from that moment, he decided (and was right imo) that they need to do whatever they can, even if they have to take separate paths for some time, to get stronger.

and nagi didnt “lose sight of their og goal” what are they talking about?? nagi literally mentions/thinks about their dream to be the best together every chance he gets?? he even got mad at reo cause he thought his friend was the one who forgot about their dream. he thought he was taking the vital steps to make it a reality and was frustrated reo couldnt see that:

reo felt betrayed because he cared about nagi himself as much as he cared about their dream and thought that nagi used him as a stepping stone to move forward alone, when actually it would be more accurate to say that nagi views everyone except for reo as a stepping stone. (i dont blame reo for this, since even tho nagi tried to communicate that hes doing it for them, he did a terrible job of it).

but during their latest talk reo had already worked on himself and had acknowledged the fact that he was in the wrong for assuming that them being together no matter the cost was the right thing

so when nagi approached him and explained himself a little better this time (boy was shocked when he realised how reo took their separation and put in a little bit more effort lol)

reo finally understood how their desires intertwine now. how can people claim that reo sees nagi as a tool when its more of the other way around; meaning reo sees himself as a tool for making nagi the best striker in the world and he already declared that to Ego before:

and again now:

plus saying that he and nagi arent friends and they are just using each other is so out of touch with everything we’ve seen so far. reo’s devotion to nagi aside, nagi too cares for reo a lot outside of soccer. even after he left reo, he still got excited to see him and talk to him despite everything; to him it was obvious they would continue to interact no matter which team each of them was on:

and he also felt bad for hurting him and expressed the hope that he would forgive him

the only thing that i wish would happen now is for nagi to apologise to reo face to face instead of only doing it in his own thoughts, and for reo to also talk about why he was hurt. but i feel like they understood each other either way without many words, because in the end, their bond is just that strong.

they now both want to succeed more than they ever have before and have stopped being their complacent selves we met during the first selection. they are both thinking far into the future and not just within blue lock, so whether they keep moving forward together or separated from now on, it will be knowing they are working towards their shared dream.

[randombrambles]

Okay...going to wade into the Sabezra discussion. May the flying spaghetti monster in sky have mercy on my soul...

I guess you could call me a "causal viewer" because, despite being a life long Star Wars fan, I'd never watched an episode of Rebels before watching Ahsoka. I just never got around to it and I've only watched a handful of eps of The Clone Wars too. But anyway once I started Ahsoka I was like "this show will clearly make more sense if I watch Rebels" so I started. I'm almost done season 3 of Rebels as of writing this post. And really loving Rebels btw. Part of me of like "why didn't I watch this earlier?" but on the other hand I don't have to wait for the next episode and I know the major spoilers already so I'm not going to get the rug yanked out from under me.

So back to Ahsoka and Sabezra...the big questions. Did I see the romance "coding" (not sure I agree "coding" is the right word but whatever, that's semantics) in Ahsoka? Yes. Sabine's actions definitely come across as her being in love with Ezra to me. That said I can also see the platonic angle, especially after having watched some of Rebels, so I'm not going to tell anyone they are wrong for viewing Sabine and Ezra's relationship as platonic. These things are subjective and open to interpretation until anything definitively romantic or definitively not romantic happens on screen. And at this point nothing definitive has happened either way on screen. Nobody has been proven right and nobody has been proven wrong yet. Sabezra is basically schrodinger's cat right now.

Next how did I interpret the "like a sister" line in Ezra's holo. Um...full disclosure the first time I viewed that scene I didn't even register that he'd said she was "like a sister" to him. I'd never even seen Rebels at that point so I didn't know Ezra yet. So as a causal viewer my take away from that scene was Ezra meant a lot to Sabine and Sabine meant a lot to Ezra. And I'd be wiling to bet that that was the takeaway for most causal viewers.

So on rewatch do I think the "like a sister" line means that Ezra truly sees Sabine as a sister? No. On rewatch, paying close attention to the body language, and after having watched some Rebels, I think Ezra is both struggling to find the words to tell Sabine how important she is to him and telling her what he thinks she needs to hear in that moment. The problem is that in English we don't have a word to describe someone isn't technically family but who isn't a lover either but who's also way more than "just" a friend. Sister is the best word Ezra can come up with in that moment but you can tell from his awkward body language and his literal scoff as soon as he says it that its not the right word. And yeah I think Ezra thinks that Sabine sees him as a brother so he tells her what he thinks she wants to hear right before he heads of on what very well could have been a suicide mission.

Do I think Sabezra is going to be made canon on Tuesday's final episode of Ahsoka (of season 1 at least). No, but hold on nobody panic!!! I also don't think that means Sabezra is dead in the water either. And frankly I'm kind of mystified as to why Sabezra shippers seem to think that the next episode is make or break for Sabezra when its clearly not? If there isn't a love declaration or a kiss or both (which is what I'm assuming people would interpret can them being made canon) its not like either Sabine or Ezra are going to marry someone else on Tuesday either. And since much of Ahsoka has been set up, meaning not much is actually going to get resolved in the next ep (Thrawn hasn't even left Perida[?] yet! I fear we are ending on a cliff hanger), we'll be seeing Sabine and Ezra again. There's no rush for them to get together romantically (and I know that's hard to hear for people who've been shipping for years but its true).

And further to the "there's no rush" point I actually have to say I that I think its WAY too soon for anything definitively romantic to happen between Ezra and Sabine yet (and again I get how hard that is for those who've been shipping them for a long time). And I say that as both a "casual viewer" and someone who's also watched a good chunk of Rebels now. For the causal viewer who hasn't watched Rebels, which is probably a big chunk of the audience for Ahsoka, they barely know Sabine, have just met Ezra and have only seen them interacting for ONE episode and don't know any of their history. A kiss or a love declaration would seem out of the blue at this point I think. And as someone who's getting into Rebels I still think its too soon. While I agree that Sabine is very likely in love with Ezra I don't think she's admitted to herself yet (that's why Baylan used the word family when he was getting her to hand over the map thingy imho) no way is she ready to tell HIM. And as for Ezra...dude is clueless that Sabine might might have non platonic feelings for him so no way is he going to risk ruining their friendship by blurting out that he's in love with her. And not only that they've been separated for 10 YEARS ffs. They need to get to know each other again before anything romantic can happen, again imho. I want Sabezra to become canon but I want it done WELL. Sabezra is a friends to lovers ship, they are still firmly in the friends stage right now, it needs to be a sloooooow burn.

And finally do I think Sabezra will become canon? Honestly...I don't know. I'd like it to, it would be really nice to have a non problematic ship, especially after the sequel trilogy robbed us of FinnRey and tried to force freaking r*ylo. But I think Filoni and the other powers that be over at DLF (he is NOT the sole person calling the shots here, keep that in mind everyone) are probably testing the waters right now and waiting to see what the audience reactions are like before they make any decisions. I'd be wiling to bet that by the end of Tuesday's episode the door will be left wide open for pretty much anything to happening shipping wise. So we'll just have to wait and see. Time will tell, it always does.

[rosypenguins]

Hi!!

I watched TMF 2 days ago because of edits I saw (and gacha phase didn't really left me after 5 years). Then I watched it again yesterday just for Drew & Jake interactions, wanted to see their rights and wrongs

I'm mostly on Drew's side even if he was the bully one, I mean it's understable that Jake wanted to be in the club and was afraid that he will lose his friends (and maybe get bullied by them) that he knew for 3 years. BUT I'm honestly mad at Jake that he didn't tell his best friend that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He also ignored the messages Drew was sending or even their group chat. If it comes to Drew: he didn't want to loose Jake and even if his actions weren't perfect (maybe toxic some ppl would say), he had good intetions. At least for Jake because he really thought they are using him (I kinda think Drew could have been in situation like this)

While watching their final fight, I felt like watching break up: Drew's broken voice especially on "freak" part, dull eyes, I mean everyone even disappeared after like it was only their moment. Drew lost the person he didn't want to loose, and he obv had a crush on him too. And then Jake after losing his friends, he is just thinking about club like the other ones were nothing. I know Jake misses them, even on stage he thought he saw these three. But why does he gave up on them so easily - I kinda understand him sometimes but I also don't

I saw your headcanon post and Drew begin biromantic is just perfect and I love it cause it fits him perfectly and also me too and it just made me love him even more and I totally agree and it is canon end of discussion

I kinda agree about Jake begin straight but he could also have been bi (that also has no idea about most of the orientations anyway) and not knowing this because he only accepts his girl crushes (boys are only "I was just embrassed" or "everyone like complements alr" I won't forget this mini small blush when Henry wanted to watch anime with you)

Even if their fight was messed up it wasn't that bad yet. I mean: Jake was in worse terms with the club after the audio because of what he said. But they made up and were even closer later. Some scenes *cough* break up *cough* made me ship Jake and Drew and even if Jake was kinda toxic, he didn't mean it and I really want him to try better and fight for their friendship

I love juffering and druffering but I also really hope that it won't separate these two permanently (Drew deserves better but I know Jake can be better, he just need to work on this)

*thinking if I forgot anything* Sorry it's a little long btw! I wanted to put my thoughts about these two so much

First: Yes, I loved the Drakeup but I can definetly agree that Jake seemed to move on too quickly. And I think it’s implied he’s trying to mask, but honestly I think this is just a flaw in the overall story-writing. As much as I love TMF, it definitely leans more towards telling than showing, and this problem is especially apparent with Jake. We’re told Jake cares about the Jomies, but we never see it. What we see is Jake running off to the Music Club, ghosting his friends, lying to them, and hiding the fact his best-friend’s girlfriend is cheating on him. So that’s probably why it felt so quick. And I wish we had more scenes of Jake with the Jomies, showing that he actually does care about them. I wish we had at least one other moment of him feeling upset about losing his friends. Hopefully this’ll be explored more in S2, and I’m praying we get more showing and less telling in the future.😭

Second, YESSS I’M SO GLAD U AGREE WITH MY DREW HEADCANON HIS BIROMANTIC VIBES ARE CRAZYYYY but also I totally understand what you mean about Jake. To be honest, I’ve seen so many different interpretations of Jake regarding both his sexuality and gender, and honestly all of it makes a lot of sense. That’s something I love about Jake’s character from a writing standpoint: there’s just so much room for interpretation. I may see him as a clueless straight guy, but I’ve seen people headcanon him as bi, transmasc or genderfluid. We’re all just having fun coming up with our own little ideas for him and personally I think that’s beautiful.

And finally, OMG IF ROSY LEAVES DREW AND JAKE SEPERATED I WILL RIOT. But thankfully, I highly doubt this’ll happen. With how much Rosy’s been hyping up Drew’s character, there is no way their fight won’t at least be acknowledged. And as much as I’m hoping for Drew redemption, I also wouldn’t mind if we got a Drew villain arc either. Either way I’m super hyped!

And I also feel like Drew’s characters been way too built up to just mot be explored. Like they don’t even need to make up. I just want them to acknowledge what happened and their friendship. If they were just done the rest of the series that’d be such a sour note to end on. I’m so fucking excited for season 2 I’m praying for Drew redemption but if Drew decides to have a villian arc I’m certainly not gonna complain. I’m just overall hyped lmao.

Never apologize for a long ask, I had such a fun time reading through! Thank you so much for sharing with me.

[mermaidlighthouse]

Since I’m apparently making this a fuckin series of posts…I’m gonna look at another Izzy moment/scene from the perspective that while a separate character with other functions and characterizations, Izzy narratively is a personification of Blackbeard and therefore an extension of Ed…this time we’re gonna look at the “you know me better than anyone has ever known me and I dare say the same is true for me about you” and recontextualize it around that premise…

Two things before we begin - First, this is going to be highly critical of Izzy if that’s not for you then skip it, however, this is critical of Izzy from the perspective of someone who does enjoy his character both as a separate entity and in this framework. Second, this interpretation is predicated on the idea that Izzy is both a personification of Blackbeard and that the persona of Blackbeard functions narratively as a physical manifestation of Ed’s poor self-worth and darkest thoughts about himself.

To get to the meat of the scene I think it needs to be said first, that Izzy is canonically and categorically WRONG in his assertion. He doesn’t know Ed all that well at all frankly and it’s apparent from the very first interactions between them. So, let's go through some of those:

The scenes in the Captain’s cabin on the QAR: Izzy didn’t know that Ed was so fucking bored that the idea of something…really anything…out of the ordinary would interest him. We know that Izzy has no qualms with straight-up lying to Ed. “I explicitly told him Blackbeard desired his company.” Even if you take the stance that there should be no way Stede wouldn’t know canonically famous for being Blackbeard’s First Mate Izzy Hands (which I have said before) that means that Izzy assumes he’s just that famous that he should be a known entity but, that still isn’t explicitly saying Blackbeard. With that in mind, why didn’t he just lie to Ed about losing Hornberry? He could have very easily lied about not having been “bested at swordplay”. That’s just another interesting thing about Stede…Izzy ends up being the person who ultimately keeps making Stede seem like the MOST interesting person. The fact that he couldn’t recognize that Ed would not only find Stede initially interesting but would find him even more interesting because he told Blackbeard to “go suck eggs in hell” after they’ve already been following him around is a huge indication that he doesn’t understand Ed at all, let alone better than anyone else.

The first day on The Revenge: so Izzy NEVER realizes that Ed already has a plan to get away from the Spanish. I’m not litigating whether Ed’s actions are manipulative (which I do think there’s a sound reading there btw) I’m simply saying that Izzy was unable to read Ed’s actions or nonactions to recognize he was being played with. I’m also not litigating whether the plan was sound because again my whole point is that Izzy never realized Ed had a plan from the moment Izzy found him on deck. This one may be up for personal interpretation but, if you know a person better than anyone else, it seems like you should have some sort of inkling that they are messing around with you. 

I’m not actually going to go through every interaction between them but I think these showcase that from the start of the show Izzy doesn’t understand Ed, he doesn’t know Ed. Izzy is not telling the truth, he’s lying.

Back to the original premise then

looking at this line from the perspective that Izzy functions as an extension of Blackbeard. So, a lot of the dialogue between Ed and Izzy throughout the show can be read as showcasing when you have self-loathing, the voices in your head will lie to you because you can’t see a way around them. That you can and will lie to yourself when you hate yourself because it’s easier at that point to perpetuate the lies because they’ve been what you’ve told yourself for a very long time. That you may have a skewed perspective especially about yourself. Essentially, I’m saying that Izzy functions as a way to show the audience how Ed talks to himself in his darkest moments, Blackbeard’s voice (in the same way ghost!Nigel functioned for Stede). 

Izzy telling Ed that he knows him best and vice versa is the voice in Ed’s head, Blackbeard, saying “we are the same. I’m the only one who understands you and no one else will see you better than me. I know all your darkest moments which means I know the REAL you. The version of you that I desire is the REAL you. I’m here to protect you from the darkness within and from outside because I’m your only point of contact in the world.” It’s a personification of how low self-esteem or self-worth preys on and isolates you by creating a false dichotomy where no one else will ever identify with you. Or that anyone who thinks you can grow beyond what your low self-worth dictates is “the right way to be” is wrong because they don’t know you, not really. 

It’s the ultimate mindfuck because it’s the voice in your head manipulating you from the inside, it can be very difficult to argue against your own thoughts. We see this in the scene as well, Ed never actually contradicts Izzy even though we already know there are several ways in which Izzy doesn’t know Ed.

This scene shows how Ed can easily feel as though there will be nothing but this, this constant boredom, this constant pain in trying to conform to the darkest thoughts in his head, Blackbeard.

This same logic can be applied to the "This is Blackbeard. Not some namby-pamby pining for his boyfriend" line. Izzy is voicing the idea that the persona of Blackbeard isn't supposed to have emotional entanglements. He's implying that Blackbeard doesn't want or need to be loved, Blackbeard only needs prestige and power. The desire to be loved is all Edward and Edward is nothing without Blackbeard. That Stede is an impediment to who Ed REALLY is. It's mirrored in Izzy telling Stede "I know you think you understand him." It's how your self-loathing can and will attempt to push people away. And Izzy falters when Stede proves that he actually does know Ed, he's fully aware of who Ed is as a person in his entirety and Stede is the person who is going to accept ALL of Ed's iterations. All of these lines from Izzy are lies and manipulation disguised as self-preservation.

The voice of Blackbeard is literally just how Izzy speaks to Ed…and in this way Izzy is the rotten leg that needs to come off................

This is no way justifies or allows Izzy to get off the hook for being manipulative and being an outside person who does all this shit...I'm just looking at how the show allows you to understand Ed better by giving an outside voice to the things Ed is struggling with internally. It can be both.

[elisedonut]

thinking about that royalty Flintley au

Where Marcus is like a troll prince and kidnaps Percy because he just sees him and is smitten

ive thought about this on and off for like a year but here are some random thoughts

I think the first time Marcus sees him he is no where near where he's supposed to be like their marching for battle or something and get turned around or something like that and just coming to a river and there he is the most beautiful man he's ever seen (his second in command thinks he's insane btw). On their way back he intentionally finds the stream again and follows it until he sees Percy again.

And once he makes it home immediately talks to his parents about beginning the courting processes

in my head its a similar thing of mistaken courting like a shell for a mate but this time it's Marcus misunderstanding things and thinking hes doing such a good job courting this pretty common boy who may or may not be an elf(it switches back and forth between being a legit elf and just compared to one in my head)

Marcus is leaving him gifts for months before attempting to take him away which in this case is custom in his kingdom

leaving enough food for his family every week or so for months and leaving pretty but practical things where Percy can find them (weapons clothes stuff of that nature) To show that he can provide for him but staying hidden because part of it is showing your a good enough warrior not to get caught. Getting caught leaving gifts means your not good enough.

And Percy keeps accepting these things or at least seeming too from Marcus' perspective because obviously if you can't find the owner of something in the woods well that means it's yours now right?

The first time Marcus leaves food for him though it fails big time though because he starts with already prepared things that make the Weasleys skeptical about it for obvious reasons(of the is that even safe to eat kind of variety) which Marcus then interprets as Percy taking offense to the notion that he cant like hunt for himself and such and so leads to Marcus instead leaving like living animals instead like a full fish net still set up in the water right where Percy typically fishes

anyway

so then after a few months of this Marcus actually nabs him and is a little pissed that his family didn't put up much of a fight because they should have known this was about to happen and just letting Percy go off on his own still is pretty disrespectful to him in his opinion because from Marcus' pov that comes across like they don't care who he marries and like yeah he's the Prince but in theory they don't know that

but they don't know that but they also don't realize that all the weird luck happening recently had been a courting ritual (or maybe they do but guessed wrong on the person being courted??)

So yeah Percy is pissed at being kidnapped but cant just leave because the King and Queen would rather him be dead then let him from there perspective back out of their marriage so he's kinda stuck

and that's all i got

it works out in the end because they just like get to know one another and stuff idk but its a fun concept imo!

[cocamalfeta]

I was already on my way out of Taekook fandom but

having recently uncovered by chance @esthariv’s posts and theories, I find myself coming back to all this again. And writing about this is better than just scrolling so here I come (again).

I was thinking it would be helpful (for me) to discern the supposedly “romantic or even sexual nature” of some of the older Jikook clips I stumbled upon when I first entered this ship fandom. Btw I blame Jungkook’s Weverse lives from last year for landing into Jikook. Total promotion effort, in hindsight, yes?  

Anyway, after watching the actual context of  several Jikook’s scenes, especially those deemed as “romantic” and “steamy”, I generally found those scenes are more like Jungkook teasing Jimin in a friendly way, but not romantic. However –I won’t lie--, doubts remained on other situations . Here's one instance of a highly suspicious scene -- Jimin sneakily caressing Jungkook’s crotch in this interview by Liam MacEwan from early June, 2017.

While doing some research, I found that before the interview took place, there was a rather typical jealousy scene involving Taehyung -–even if this scene lasted about a few secs. you can see how Jungkook’s smile slowly faded way. At 1;26 Tae touched Liam’s hair and complimented him, several times – and as fans know Jungkook used to get jealous at the drop of a hat.  

But to be perfectly honest, in the proper Liam McEwan interview, the Jikook scene was a bit harder to judge, in relation to the previous hair moment. Besides, the interview is edited, full of cuts and change of shots, and the camera zooms in and out several times.

The Jimin “steamy” part begins at 3:50. He folds his arms at his back and you see the change in his expression – it becomes I don’t know how to put this, super serious, like frozen.  Here at 4,01 Jk’s tongue thing (which as we know it’s a hint of being stressed or anxious).  

I’d say that Jimin did what he did on the spur of the moment, because it dawned on him, that he could do this without getting noticed. He only had to lower his hands a bit more –and just look at their expressions, full of tension. Jungkook face became smug.  

Then Jimin swallows, and the camera shows the rest of members, and lingers a moment on Taehyung.  

 I think Taes watching them here, but impossible to know for sure.  

But --but I’m sure he’s been checking on them for the whole interview. Here comes the difficult thing. I re-watched the previous minutes; it seems to me Tae tried visual contact, but Jungkook ignored him several times.  

-At 1,20 Tae seems thoughtful, maybe feeling regrets. Jungkook is meanwhile, hovering behind Jimin, not touching 

-- At 2.02 Tae is looking at Jungkook, very intently, Jungkook makes a blocking gesture with his hand over his face, averts eyes. I think Tae understand this rejection as he pressed his lips, disappointed. They made visual contact at 2,15 (Namjoon is addressing Jungkook) and again Jungkook avert his eyes. At 2,20 Jungkook looks at Tae again, as the interviewer addresses Tae. Then Jungkook makes an interesting gesture and twists his mouth while nodding. Tae smiles --whatever

--After more cuts, at 3 min Taekook look serious again, Jungkook is tight-lipped and Tae is shown with his arms crossed and he sighs –he tries to protect himself, clearly not happy, they don’t look at each other and you can sense Jungkook’s tension. I think Tae being the only one clapping at sth  hints at him being a bit anxious too and not really knowing what to do and then he lowers his eyes –another sign that he feels like he’s being scolded or having guilty feelings.  

-- Then after this there came the steamy scene, Jungkook’s expression turning super smug, and he even looked at the camera as it challenging it.  

The above description was a bit rushed and may serve more as to convey a general feeling on the scene. It could be wrong etc.

Now, for interpretations.

You could say this means Jikook have something more going on, or it’s just a random thing, totally inconsequential action which Jimin just did because maybe he wanted excitement --it was an exciting thing to do in front of cameras. As for Taekook supporters, they shouldn’t just turn a blind eye on things like this. There should be ever an open option to discuss things like this.

A good starting point would be to consider it in a broader context. This American interview happened around the same time as Festa 2017 (I don't know now which was filmed first), where, at the very least, Jimin was fully aware of what was happening between the Taekook, as he even tried to make Tae stop the flirting.  

The Festa party with Taekook was a huge thing for me personally, and an eye opening for many other non-shippers, non-believers too. You can watch an expert of body language (non-BTS fan) analysing it in full detail with very good English subtitles here. Or you can check an analysis by a fan with deep knowledge on body language and even a fan reaction to this fan analysis. I suggest looking at the comment section too --highly entertaining!

So this tells me --what is this thing telling me? That Taekook bond was way stronger and something that was beyond Jimin's reach. It was and It's, still something very powerful.

Whatever happened at the Liam McEwan interview Jimin likely did something similar to what he tried to do in the Festa thing, likely he was trying to soothe things down with Jungkook or just providing him with some inmediate or temporary distraction or some added attention as Jungkook was feeling restless. Maybe. Something along these lines.

What Taekookers feel about this scene? I know you don't want to talk but you should.

[tavina-writes]

i find it extremely funny that we (mxtx fandoms in general but mdzs especially) will get into huge shouting matches about timelines and research and accuracy and meanwhile she was like "the death of the nie bros' dad, an event extremely important to explaining the buildup to the war that affected literally every single member of the cast, could have happened anywhere in these five whole-ass years" and "yeah they totally had potatoes don't worry about it lol". truly airplane was an autobiographical character.

You know nonny, I DO find this intensely funny at times. My uh, main source of "shaking my head at this" happens when inevitably, meta goes around and we rush back and forth going "X WAS A GOOD PERSON" and "X WAS EVIL! EVIL!" etc, which happens every now and again and always makes me a bit like "ah, yes, it's difficult to convey nuance and also differing points of view that may in whole or in part also be legitimate and valuable to discuss on a place like tumblr/the internet in general because it is difficult to grapple with uncertainties and we often want to nail things down one way or another so we can figure out if we're right or not" <- but this often comes out as me writing a joke post. Or a saltier post than I intended. Sometimes because I'm tired and sometimes because I just happen to be a salty individual on main.

And I do think fandom is a place where like, multiple interpretations of an event or a statement or a character's "morality" and themes and choices are often equally valid. And fandom should be a place for that, that's what makes fandom fun. If there was a One True Interpretation of the text there'd be no need for interpreting text at all, and that's distinctly sad for me. That's no fun. Anyone who tries to use their knowledge to cudgel people into the One True Interpretation is wrong, btw.

Though I think, and here's where I feel that research and accuracy is a nuanced thing and should actually be of consideration for meta/fic/engaging with fandom in general, and why perhaps people strive for it -- the "lol, potatoes" and "poetry from whatever era I want" is fun! MXTX, however, is still writing about a fantasy version of her own culture, which offers along with it a foundational basis of knowledge that makes this...easier? And again, here's where the part of me that does enjoy these anachronisms and inaccuracies (because they're fun and since we have flying swords why not potatoes) wars with the part of me that's also like, "okay but there is a difference between 'not knowing enough to be respectful of the background surrounding the characters and why that might inform their actions' and 'I've decided that peppers, which did not exist in Eurasia prior to the Columbian Exchange are a big thing here now.'" The difference is respect. Different members of fandom will draw this line in different places and it hits different on different days.

And this is one of the struggles of engaging with foreign language media a lot of the time - we try to strike a balance between engaging with it based on our own experiences and backgrounds and not accidentally saying anything offensive or strange or 'that would totally never happen' or 'he would not fucking talk like that' and I've found, with my time in this fandom, most people who are concerned with accuracy and research are largely trying to be respectful and avoid such gaffes.

Over the two or so years I've been here, I've also reacted to people who've insisted their interpretation is the correct one when it was definitely a case of 'the version Chinese culture that I'm familiar with 200% does not work like that', and saltily wandered off to vent about how 'this is inaccurate and also rude' or try to explain why it wouldn't happen like that. Maybe this comes off as preachy at times, or overly concerned with "accuracy," but that is typically where that sort of reaction comes from for me. I expect this is probably true for other people as well!

And by no means like, do we only engage in fandom because we want to be educated or educate others, and by no means is that an obligation of any fic writer or meta writer or casual fandom goer. We engage with media because it engages us, and we engage with fandom because we love community, and sometimes its no more complex than that.

I enjoy research and art history so that's typically why this appears in my fic, and I started out on doing it to better connect with my own heritage, which I've found more important to me as I've gotten older, so that's where it comes from for me.

Apologies nonny, this was probably not the answer you were looking for and I do commiserate, I'm just chronically unable to be funny on main. 😔

TLDR: there's always nuance in everything unfortunately. Even if this is the no nuance webbed site.

[poggersbathwater]

ALBUM REVIEW: CHROMAKOPIA

(I'm in no way a professional music critic btw- I'm just doing this for fun and a lot of these are my opinions)

Chromakopia is Tyler, the Creator's 8th Album, and to put it simply, it's pretty good. Like, that's the simplest answer I can give- it's pretty solid. I'm gonna actually go into more detail now though LMAO.

Things I liked about the album (this goes over things also not related to the music):

The marketing(?) was pretty good. It was straightforward, he wasn't doing any mysterious teasers or making the wait really long to build up hype and I think more artists should take from that.

The cinematography was fucking AMAZING?? HELLO?? The cinematography of ST. CHROMA was definitely interesting in terms of what it could mean. Some people think that the men marching in a line into the shipment box was meant to represent conformity and I think that's a really fascinating idea. My personal interpretation was that it represented the men before him following tradition and Tyler blowing the box up represented breaking tradition, and this kinda comes from the line in ST. CHROMA that says "Give a fuck about traditions, stop impressing the dead". NOID also really had some interesting cinematography- I think Ayo Edibri did a great job at representing the unhinged fan (Ayo Edibri ily), and I'm also starting to really love the trend of celebrities calling out the parasocial relationships that fans have with them and how terrified it makes them to really go out. I think he represented those fears really well with the cinematography.

I loved the contrast in between each song. How the album went from slow songs with big use of harmonies and synths and singing (very similar to his later albums) to rapping with a faster, more upbeat sound that reminds me of his earlier albums. It swapped between those sounds with every song which made the album fun to listen to. I also like how, despite the contrast in between songs, Tyler's sound was consistent. Tyler tends to have a consistent sound throughout his music, which is something I've noticed. Usually consistency in music tends to be an artist's biggest weakness, especially for mainstream pop music, but with him, it's one of his strengths because of his ability to make each song still sound unique but keep a similar sound.

I thought that the lines from Tyler's mom were interesting and funny (the "always wear a condom" one made me chuckle a bit), the lines draw you in and make you want to keep listening. Each line also gives away the theme of the song, so you get the gist of what's going on pretty early. The monologue in "Like him" kinda got me emotional, not gonna lie.

I LOVED THE FEATURES SO MUCH! I was pleasantly surprised with Sticky and the GloRilla, Lil Wayne, and Sexyy Red features. I went into it thinking "Oh, this may not be a strong song" given the reputation Sexyy Red has of "not being talented" (personally I think she's very over-hated), but I went out of it loving it, actually- Sticky is one of my favorities. She did really good on this feature, and so did Glo and Wayne. Also CHILDISH GAMBINO??? Yippee!! I figured a feature was in order, since he played with Tyler during Coachella. Also Doechii (I think that's how you spell it?) Had a feature and I really enjoyed it as well, Balloon was a good song and some of the lines were pretty funny, especially if you took them out of context (the queef one 💀)

Yeah the music in general was really good- you really can't go wrong with Tyler, the Creator to be honest. Even his worst albums have like, one or two solid bangers, so you can't really go wrong with it. The music was really good and pretty standard for a Tyler album. A few of my favorites were Like Him, Sticky, ST. CHROMA, and Thought I was Dead, and honorable mentions include Rah Tah Tah, Tomorrow, Darling, I (this one was actually my boyfriend's favorite), and Balloon.

Things I didn't like about the album:

The lack of Frank Ocea- okay but for real, I'm actually not upset about Frank Ocean not being featured. Frank lost a family member and I'd actually rather him not make music and instead take his time to come back, if he chooses to at all. Sorry, had to start off with a bit of a joke. if I'm gonna be honest, there wasn't anything I distinctly disliked about the album. All of it was really solid and standard. I came into it, not having any big expectation because I try not to like, hold artists to a standard when it comes to their art. Art doesn't need to have an underlying meaning. Sometimes it can be fun, it can be satirical, it doesn't need to have a story. I didn't come into Chromakopia having an expectation, therefore I think I enjoyed it a lot more than I would've if I expected it to be the next Igor or CMIYGL (though I'd argue now that it very much IS that).

SONG RANKING:

I can't ACTUALLY rank the songs ngl. I enjoyed every single song, there wasn't one I could particularly place at the bottom or the top- in fact, a lot of songs TIED in my head for how much I liked them. Each song had a different meaning, a different concept. Chromakopia is kinda like an experimental album and I have a tough time putting together a whole list. I thought about it for the whole four days, deciding what songs would go where, and I didn't get past number 5. Maybe that makes me a bad reviewer, I dunno.

OVERALL, I did enjoy Chromakopia a lot. I loved how contrasting each track was, all the emotions you could feel from it. It was energetic, it was emotional, it was freaky, and it was thought-provoking. I will be stuck on this album for the next 3 weeks.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi there! I hope you're having a nice day.

Little bit of a rant and a bid for advice, if you or your readers have any. I hope that's alright.

I'm currently writing a fic or maybe multiple fics (plot bunnies be running rampant in me brains) about a rarepair of two guys. I'm a bi woman and have basically zero social skills, so in order to properly understand other people's body language, I like to look up guides or articles about body language between two people, although I know those things are full of bullshit and don't mean anything, and it's hard to find articles for example about whether another woman's body language indicates interest in you if you're a woman yourself, but eh, they're still better than my brain which is usually like "eh, could mean this or that or this or that or this or that or- basically could be anything, I wouldn't know that lol, now I'm tired and will shut off, bye" aka useless as well.

The results I've found have been absolutely useless. I like writing characters in a slightly plausible-sounding way, so I like incorporating body language as in acting choices or subconscious body language (or whatever a proper term might be) in my writing to make it sound more in-character. So for stuff like this, I usually just think "ok what is that person's expression and if I do it, what would that indicate me to be feeling currently", and I don't know if other people do that or if that's just me being bad with social stuff and intuition about it again, and if I should really try to get re-evaluated for autism which I have been advised to think about doing multiple times in multiple direct and indirect implicative ways such as people being like "hey btw are you autistic? no? you sure?" or "I know you got a negative diagnosis as a kid, but maybe that was wrong and you might wanna do it again because of all your social struggles and sensory stuff etc.", heh. (Have been diagnosed with ADHD though, so that might also just be it.)

Sorry for the rambling. English isn't my first language, so if anything sounds strange, that's to blame.

My question or rather bid for advice is: I am wondering if you or your readers might have any advice on where to find resources for reading body language and romantic or sexual implications in body language between two parties, in this case between two guys.

(Hopefully this is not too nonsensical or insensitive or something like that because that's not my intention. I just really don't know how to human or if there actually is some difference on how different people of different genders flirt consciously or subconsciously or if that's some weird unnoticed transphobic bio-essentialism shit that I hadn't yet noticed and sorted out of my head because I don't want to be transphobic since that sucks.)

--

Weeell...

If people have links to guides, that's great, but I do think that in the context of fanfic, people often write flirting that they find sexy or they write whatever the canon style of interaction is and recontextualize it as how these particular guys flirt.

They're not usually thinking "What does flirting look like in general?" and then having the characters behave in a new way.

A lot of our interpretation of body language in written fiction has to do with information we get from the POV character about how they're feeling internally. For the non-POV character, we may have the POV character's thoughts on what the body language means, but we're generally interpreting it based on media cliches and based on knowing this is a ship fic.

So the other dude acts like he doesn't like our POV dude and the POV dude is like "Alas, my pining is unrequited!" and the audience goes "Ooooh, it's one of those fics!"

If the goal is writing certain types of fic, you may not need a guide to How People Really Act as much as one to How Fans Interpret Such and Such a Behavior from Canon as Subtext.