#they needed a new song in wars the MOST imo

[cottoncandyrhythmqueen]

*blows up Wiral with our mind*

Audio:

[taylortruther]

Rae I was just having thoughts about You're Losing Me a while ago, and it really is just such an enigmatic song yk. I can never explain the way it made me feel the first time I heard it.

Just sumn about hearing all those wonderful, romantic, idyllic love songs about Joe for five whole albums and then just. YLM hits you like a truck because till then we still hadn't processed it all. Joe had been painted as this perfect, calm supportive partner who can do no wrong and Taylor is happy and it will always stay that way...and then April 9th happened.

Public perception is a crazy thing, and it's even crazier how nobody even DARED to speak the words that thy could've broken up before they did...but the red flags were there all along. It reminds me of the line in sotb "I don't speak, afraid to jinx it" and now that song is in the denial playlist. Truly everyone was in denial for like a month after the news dropped and we weren't even IN the relationship, I can't imagine how bad it was for Taylor herself.

Someone on Twitter quoted the breakup announcement with "Isn't this the guy she wrote Lover for? Yeah, we're all screwed". Amazing how much her own songs made everyone believe everything was okay till the very last moments.

I think especially what YLM strikes me as is a song centered around not wanting to throw away a "good thing" i.e. the Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?

YLM is so horribly bleak imo, because it's not hopeful AT ALL. The last line is very literally her "making the decision" that unless he chooses her, she's done. And to think this was written in 2021?? Had she already accepted the truth back then? Did the denial stage start even BEFORE that? Was she sitting in the dark room for an year and a half?

The thing that hurts the most about a song like this with all the lyric parallels, is watching something you thought was gonna last forever turn out to be so disapointing in the end. Not WANTING to lose something you've built with so much love, even when you realise that the love has disappeared. The shattering of a mirage. All the We survived the great war imagery on Midnights to My heart won't start anymore for you. Her paralleling her own past songs will always break me. The silence that only comes when two people understand each other to You say 'I don't understand' and I say 'I know you don't'.

Of course the fandom believed at a point that they were endgame, but SO DID SHE. That is what makes the song harder to digest because it really feels like a personal letter to her fans, released ONLY for us months before it was made available to the public. I stand behind the theory that Midnights was the Denial album, and YLM (the bridge between Midnights and TTPD) is her waking up.

i know this isn't the point of your ask, but bear with me! i would argue that many fans realized some songs were describing dark or heavy moments - but, call it parasocial if you like, the fandom just wanted to believe they were working through those issues, not that the relationship was unhealthy or bad. (and no one wants to be labeled as a hater, which, maybe we can work on as a fandom now lol.) for example, i thought hoax and renegade were troubling, the line "your integrity makes me seem small" rubbed many of us the wrong way, we all clocked "maybe it was her"... meanwhile, unfortunately there were lots of theories about how it was "all in her head," which fortunately i think we can all put in perspective now. OK BUT MY POINT IS, it also makes it easy to imagine (as you said), that when you're IN the relationship itself, the good parts might overshadow the bad. you could cling to something that is beyond saving because there's still comfort or hope, and denial is extremely strong. denial can feel like hope tbh.

i think ylm really shows that she was trying so so hard, for so so long, that she was running out of steam in late 2021. and he wasn't make it easier for her, because he wasn't making his needs or true desires clear.

ANYWAY good thoughts, i enjoyed this ask!

[hierarchyproblem]

Big dumb album of the year post, here we fucking go:

Punk

A lot of the punk releases that crossed my radar this year were really hardcore-y hardcore or weak-ass "indie punk" shit, and that doesn't do a lot for me. And like, who cares if Rancid are still making music? Does Tim Armstrong even need any more money at this point?

This year I liked All Together Now from Cop/Out and All Riot from Angry Youth Elite. GEL's Only Constant sadly wasn't a patch on 2021's Violent Closure (though I did get to see them live and they put on a hell of a show), and I look forward to seeing Killing Daisies develop their sound following a pretty strong debut with Break the Silence. The HIRS Collective are at their best at their grindiest IMO, but I still liked lots of We're Still Here. Slutbomb's EP Commodified Identity is exactly what I want punk to sound like, but this year's winner is Dog Park Dissidents with their debut The Pink and Black Album.

I've talked before about my frustration with the state of queer punk at the minute, which largely seems to consist of didactic lyricism, indie-pop influences, and the basics of liberal feminism presented as radical politics. Not so with Dog Park Dissidents: their lyrics are frequently funny and occasionally surprisingly emotive, their political content is incisive, and while we're not talking face-melting blast-beats here, the songs are genuinely entertaining. Half of the songs on this album have more to say than the entire discographies of some punk bands, and are pretty catchy too.

Favourite tracks: Rainbow Drones, Host, Class Struggle

Grindcore

I haven't listened to much new grind this year; I don't know what releases have even happened. There must be some good stuff that passed me by - let me know what I missed!

The Full of Hell collaborations weren't really my thing, but Haggus' EP What's Your Excuse was great as ever. Sometimes trawling bandcamp you can strike gold such as Coming Apart from Tolerances Of The Human Face In Crash Impacts or Human Decay from Rancid Stench. There was only ever gonna be one winner this year, however, and it's Gridlink's Coronet Juniper.

What can I even say about this? Gridlink have done it again. Somehow, even after guitarist Takafumi Matsubara's stroke in 2014, they've managed another album that's almost as perfect as Longhena. Their "technical grindcore" sound is unique and electrifying; Gridlink are untouchable. Nobody sounds like them. I'm blown away.

Favourite tracks: Silk Ash Cascade, Anhalter Bahnhof, Octave Serpent

Black Metal

It's been a fucking good year for black metal.

Between Panopticon's The Rime of Memory, Underdark's Managed Decline, Blackbraid's Blackbraid II, and Trespasser's Αποκάλυψισ, there's been plenty of excellent releases to keep me busy (can you tell I got into this through RABM?). I thought the production felt a little thin on the final Dawn Ray'd album, To Know the Light - the lack of a bassist hurt here, more than on any prior release - but I had the good fortune to be at the album release show, and it was the best gig of my entire fucking life, so this album holds a special place for me. Sad to see these guys go.

Fadheit's EP Afterglow deserves a special shout-out for carrying the torch of Lifelover's brand of depressive black metal, a sound I'll never get enough of. Probably everyone's black metal album of the year is going to be Saturnian Bloodstorm by Lamp of Murmuur, and that's well-deserved. This is possibly the best Lamp release yet, and I'm very into the freezing Immortal-esque guitar tone on this one. I'll be going back to Saturnian Bloodstorm for a long time, but the album I've actually enjoyed the most this year is Immortal themselves, with War Against All.

It's a rare enough thing for a band to keep releasing quality music for thirty years - even Darkthrone have had their misses - but Immortal are still going strong. You could be forgiven for phoning it in at this point, but I don't get that impression: as much as black metal can be "fun," I feel like Demonaz is still having fun, and I had a lot of fun with this album too. If you like black metal, there's plenty to like here.

Favourite tracks: No Sun, Return to Cold, Wargod

Ska

Ska is going from strength to strength right now; the past few years have been some of the genre's best in a long long time. This year I was delighted to see Mustard Plug releasing music again with the excellent Where Did All My Friends Go? and I enjoyed a lot of Poindexter's upbeat ska-pop debut album Treats. I scratched my ska-punk itch with Public Serpent's caustic The Bully Puppet and HEY-SMITH's frantic Rest in Punk. Popes of Chillitown's latest Take a Picture has something for everyone, drawing from about a hundred genre influences.

Still, my favourite ska album of this year is Plastic Presidents' debut Good Times Can't Last.

Please, please, do yourself a favour and listen to that opening track. This is one hell of an attention-grabbing debut, without a single skip on the tracklist, covering dancey 2-tone-era ska-punk through to aggressive skacore. If this was the only album they ever released, they'd have earned a spot in my pantheon: I'll be following eagerly to see what they do next.

Favourite tracks: Chains, West Omaha is a Terrible Place and I'm Definitely Afraid to Die, Break Free

Other

This "category" is one hell of a grab bag, but I don't know where else to put Tomb Mold, one of the only death metal bands I unreservedly love. Their most recent release The Enduring Spirit is sure to end up on a lot of album of the year lists.

The Nearly Deads' We Are the Nearly Deads is pretty much what I want rock to be (that is, completely without trace of any fucking metalcore influences!). I have a soft spot for symphonic metal, and Chapter III - Downfall from Ad Infinitum hit that spot this year. Finally, while I preferred Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia, I still like the goth rock thing they've been doing basically ever since then, and Sky Void of Stars is one of their better albums in that vein.

My left-field pick for Album of the Year, however, is Shit Present's What Still Gets Me.

I usually can't stand the kind of thing that's just punk-adjacent enough for the algorithms to insist on trying to force it into my ears. I didn't expect to like this, either - but it's really, really good. Like, I should hate anything you can describe as "emo-pop," but I don't, here. I love it. The songs are so well-crafted, the vocals so perfectly-delivered; there's an energy and emotion to this album that's had me listening to it on repeat since May.

Check it out: it's the best album of 2023.

Favourite tracks: Voice in Your Head, More to Lose, Cram the Page

[ouroboros-hideout]

Project Garmr

This is just a wild list of ideas I had after finishing Phantom Liberty and beeing slightly dissapointed how they treated Kurt Hansen as a character.

- Spoilers ahead -

First of all: I love PL but I think it has its weaknesses. But that's for another post.

I am manly dissapointed, that he was introduced as the main antagonist (Myers is the actual villian if you ask me) but got very little screentime or impact on your choices or story imo. He was there, the quests involving him where epic but in the end he just got low to medium depth lore and an unspectacular death. I could rant about the problems I have with the fight (gameplay was sick but the story was meh) or the not-fight if Alex is taking care of him. But that's for another post aswell.

I just want to write down some ideas and headcanons about how things could have turned out differently, if he didn't die.

- I'll give it to V or Alex, that they're actually able to defeat him

- But he'll survive the attack, badly wounded but alive

- He'll then recover in the hospital, maybe getting new chrome to compensate the injuries

If you leave Hansen alive after the fight, you'll later get informed by Mr. Hands that he was assassinated in the hospital.

But what if that's not true. What if Kurt faked his death and spread this missinformation. By placing a body double at his funeral and asigning Bennett and Jago to give the public some drama to make his disguise waterproof but secretly still pulling the strings in the back.

Why? Because it's an opportunity. An opportunity for revenge. Playing hide and seek spygames against the spies and government, who got him into this situation in the first place.

He failed to kill or capture Myers and that's grinding his gears. The grudge he's holding against her is becoming unberable. After Song and the agents of the FIA screwed him over he's more than done fucking around with the marionetts and wants to start a last attempt to kill the puppet master.

He basically wants Myers head on a silver plate.

- This top secret plan is communicted as 'Project Garmr' within the structures of Barghest and Dogtown

- only Kurts most trusted associates know about his plans and that he is still alive

- the risk of someone spilling the tea in the lower ranks of Barghest are to high

- means he needs to get along without the manpower of his militia. At least in the beginning

- in addition to that he doesn't want that his smuggling business or Dogtown in general gets involved too far

- he worked to hard and is proud of his achivements to throw everything into the trash for his personal revenge

- he reaches out to his contacts all over the world, asking around who'd profit from the death of Mrs. President and shifting powers

- all or most of it undercover, so his disguise stays in tact

- building kind of an army

- the course and outcome of this plan would highly depend on the people or organisations Kurt's siding with

-  because after all he wants Myers dead  and in the best case replace her with someone in his favor

- could mean he's 'accidentally' starting the next war or does it in a more discrete manner

- it would suit his character if he used all his wits, instead of just sending some missels to her face. He would not make this mistake again

If this would evolve into a legit fanfic or what ever there are a lot of possibilities to give the Colonel additional lore and depth. For example:

- Meeting people of his past, friends, lovers or enemies alike

- Showing different sides of him (vulnerability because of a trauma or cyberpsychosis or smth like that)

- more of his top tier interrogation skills

- knife fights! Oh yeah

Yeah that's it. For now. A big 'What If'. Don't know, really like the idea somehow. All of it is a WIP that I came up with in the middle of the night but I would like to make it a little project in some way. Even though Kurt didn't had the impact I'd hoped for in the game, he managed to get into the top 3 of my fav chars within the blink of an eye lol.

Side note: Garmr is a dog/wolf mentioned in norse mythologie (who has a lot in common with Fenrir, who is probably more popular). He's described as a fucking huge, blood-stained dog caught in chains, guarding Hel's gate, the door to the underworld. He is ascociated with the beginning of Ragnarök, the final battle between beasts and gods. Once he breaks free from his chains, he's ultimately responsible for plunging the world into chaos.

Think that's an appropriate name Kurt would choose. He's a mythology nerd lol.

Bark. Bark.

[lvsifer]

For the latest character ask game:

8, 12 (something I don't know yet if there is), 14 and 17 for Mairon/Sauron because I'm a predictable person

1, 5 and 9 for Feanor

3, 21 and 25 for Kylo Ren

Omg mein Feini these are SO much, I am jumping from wall to wall. <3

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I am not a fan when he is written with Melkor as an abusive ship. To each their own, but that is not at all how I see them.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Okay, the only one I might not have told you yet is, that in a real-world AU, he'd be French. Might have been the Lestat influence on me. But. SEE THE VISION. Also, look, to finally settle our horse dicourse: what about him riding on a cool skeleton horse like in that one painting we both reblogged?

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

High femme goth in-universe. Real world AU, I'd put him in a lot of gold and pearls and furs. In-universe getting more and more goth as Necromancer/Sauron. More plain as Annatar (Shadow of Morder my beloved), and Slut (tm) when he is Ar Pharazon's slave.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

I don't think there is one I can think of right now. I am either insanely horny about ships with him or shove them aside in complete disgust. Polarising guy.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

HAHAHAHHAHAHHA. This bastard needs to be smacked against the wall like a mosquito. Love him for his hot unbearable cuntiness and the war crimes, hate him for the same reason. Needs to be pegged.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Had to think on this, but Hozier - Eat Your Young.

Esp this bit:

Pull up the ladder when the flood comes Throw enough rope until the legs have swung Seven new ways that you can eat your young Come and get some Skinning the children for a war drum

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Would kill him on sight.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

What the movies have done to him after Force Awakens. The whole redemption bit was just...so bad.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Ohhh, I love how immediate he feels as a character and how unrefined he is. This rawness mixed with his absolutely pathetic desire to be wanted by those who despise him (Hux, or imo Vader of he were still life. Have written fic about this.)

Nothing in particular that I don't like!

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Man it's been a while. I think I first saw fanart of him on my dash shortly after TFA came out and thought "who is this cool brooding goth"? Now I have written so much about him, probably some of the most I have ever written for a character (did not expect that tbh) and have a million head canons for him. He's my horrible son. <3

[jamesunderwater]

2, 8, 17, 21!

02: Lyrics from the most recent song that made you think of a Marauders Era character

Last night I was listening to July by Laur Elle (who is amazing btw and just put out a new album) and the lyrics below made me think of Sirius and the self-loathing of his teen years that he just...completely keeps to himself.

One step forwards, falling backwards I just wanna prove that I'm worth More than what my head tells me that I am I'll try again How do I fake a smile and feel the tension? Wait, I'm moving too fast in the wrong direction I've been running around in the dark with no light But I can't stop staying up looking for signs

08: Lyrics that make you FERAL about your favorite character

Muahaha I get to do another one >:) Okay so technically this is a prongsfoot song (or wolfstar if that's your vibe) but oh my FUCKING god I feel like Sirius Black wrote it and I scream and cry in the car to it and it tears me in two, so, uh, enjoy (giving you both the verses and then the chorus which is essentially the whole song but it's worth it).

[verse 1] Around the sun and around again You seem to look right through me Another year being your best friend Feels like you always knew me And I'm so proud to call you mine Feels like I know you from another life [chorus] [verse 2] Around the clock, we can talk for days 'Bout how we saw it coming Another sign written on my face 'Cause now my blood is pumpin' Can you just hold me for a little while? My skin is crawling, I feel vile [chorus] But what if it doesn't end well Would you still stay? What if I fuck it up like I always do And my shit gets in the way? What if it doesn't end well Would we still be fine? When the world is over and we go under Would you still be mine?

17: Lyrics you think perfectly describe Remus Lupin

Oh, the entire song Half a Man by Dean Lewis, hands fucking down. But here are the beginning lyrics. I mean ugh he literally believes he's half a man; the second line could refer to him telling Tonks things are over with him and Sirius when they're not. The rest needs no explanation imo. I mean, it's just. It's perfect.

I was wrong to say I loved her, I was wrong to think I'm right When I told her it was over, oh my darling I had lied I've been running from my demons, afraid to look behind I've been running from myself, afraid of what I'd find But how am I supposed to love you when I don't love who I am? And how could I give you all of me when I'm only half a man? 'Cause I'm a sinking ship that's burning, so let go of my hand Oh how can I give you all of me when I'm only half a man?

21: Lyrics from a song you think the Marauders Era girlies would perform if they were an all-girl band (+ tell us what their performance would be like)

I fucking love that several people asked about this one. Hot of you all. Okay first of all I need to say imagining Lily Evans as the leader singer of an all-girl band is.......one of the hottest things I've ever thought of, jfc. Okay but um anyway I LOOOOVE this song for Lily, and I think it applies to all the first war Order girlies, who were FUCKING BAD ASSES and probably disappointed people by not being the same old girls they used to be. So please enjoy a snippet of EAT ME by Demi Lovato, feat. Royal & the Serpent.

Is this what you'd all prefer? Would you like me better if I was still her? Did she make your mouths water? Ugh I know the part I've played before I know the shit that I've ignored I know the girl that you adored She's dead, it's time to fucking mourn I can't spoon-feed you anymore I can't spoon-feed you anymore Dinner's served, it's on the floor I can't spoon-feed you anymore You'll have to eat me as I am You'll have to eat me as I am

Lyrics Ask Game: Marauders Edition

[doctormastertardis]

NEW New Who

Ya know, I have been thinking about this since I stopped watching the show religiously when Twelve exited. Jodi's run was unfortunately badly written (at least IMO), and don't get me started on the abomination (at least IMO) that is Dhawan's Master.... I have been a fan since DW was revived by RTD, and had seen most of the Classic Who since New Who started.... but I feel like Jodi's run was this "imploding" badly written TRANSition that was inevitable. I heard it had the lowest viewers rating (I didn't watch Jodie's era when it was on air, because I tried and it bored me-- everything seemed like a derivative of the original New Who reboot, especially Dhawan's Master). BUT maybe it was necessary for the Doctor's story to implode on itself to make way for a CLEAN SLATE FOR NCUTI, considering Moffat wasn't a perfect show runner prior Chibnall's weak performance (which is weird cause I loved Chibnall's one-off episodes during RTD's and Moffat's supervision).... Sure, Moffat put DW on the "mainstream" map with his sparkles and cinematic writing. But ever since RTD left, the show lacked that "homely adventure" vibe it always had in Classic Who, and Moffat helped Doctor Who become a bad telenovela of some sort.

Don't get me wrong, I loved a lot of things about Moffat's era-- The Ponds and River Song were the backbone of that era, not Matt Smith (again IMO). I also adored Capaldi because he quickly became my MOST FAVORITE TOP 1 Doctor of all time. But there was something lacking since RTD. And when Chibnall and Jodi came in, the show lost all its spark and just FLOPPED for me (again IMO, because I have seen most Classic Who and was initially brought into the show during RTD's era, I can make that assessment-- Jodi's companions were not engaging apart from Graham).

But yeah, I definitely think the show needed to "implode"/flop during the "female Doctor transition" with Jodi, in order to make a CLEAN slate for Ncuti. I mean, I really hope THIS IS A NEW ERA reminiscent of both Classic Who and initial New Who, but HAS ITS OWN vibe and "alt" storylines.

I'm not opposed to them harking back to NuHu and Classic Who from time to time, but seeing Ncuti come in with the FRESH NEW ENERGY just screams "NEW NuHu" to me.... And I PRAY THEY KEEP IT THAT WAY. I already am enamored by Ncuti's energy..... Jodi's era is sorta like when Sixth came in-- an inevitable BAD management of the writing team, but in hindsight a NECESSARY transition for the show to revive itself.

BTW

We ARE calling Ncuti Fourteen, right? Because David Tennant will always be "Ten" to me. And the War Doctor and the others are "titled" Doctors to me, not "sequenced" Doctors.

[wildrisen]

ranking every season of pleasant goat and big big wolf

//// SPOILER WARNINGS. ////

S tier: the best of the best. will always go back to watch.

A tier: awesome, will return to watch

B tier: may periodically rewatch

C tier: probably won’t rewatch unless i’m on a XYYYHTL marathon

D tier: not my favorite tbh

note: i’m not including most of the earlier seasons cause i don’t remember enough of them

starting with:

D tier

⭐️ Dear Little Wish (2014) ⭐️

or, the one where the goats have to grant all the wishes from this tree to send this old star back home.

i don’t think i dislike this one at all, but i’ve never gone back to rewatch it since the first time i saw it in 2017 and tbh, i don’t even remember the ending. just not memorable to me.

🧵 The Tailor’s Closet (2014) 🧵

or, the one where the goats have to make clothes to send their sentient tool friends back to the tailor’s world.

similar situation to DLW. i’ve never gone back to rewatch this season because of the fact that it’s just not… memorable. all i remember is wolffy getting stuck in the tailor’s world at the end lmao. it reminds me quite a bit of Paddi the Amazing Chef.

i will give it extra points for the theme song, though. 3/4 lyrical music is underrated.

❤️‍🩹 Love You Babe (2014) ❤️‍🩹

or, the one where wolnie gets brainwashed into thinking she’s a goat and is paddi’s mom.

…mkay. this one fully deserves the D tier more than any other (except maybe Adventures in the Primitive World). they literally just recycled PTAC. if cpe wanted a second season of PTAC, they could have just… made a second season of PTAC!!

i literally never finished watching this season because of how much it annoyed me lmfao. so I have no idea what the hell happened to wolnie at the end. this is probably one of only 3 seasons I genuinely dislike.

🪶 Adventures in the Primitive World (2015) 🪶

or, the one where the goats and wolffy are teleported back to the world from the 7th movie.

yanno, i like this premise, but?? the primitive characters are so annoying. forgive me for being a weslie stan lmfao but the primitive chief kept using weslie as this scapegoat and kept gaslighting him and shit.

the 7th movie is also the worst one imo, so it never gave me much to begin with. it makes me think they had the idea for the season before the movie and ended up switching it at the end.

now the theme song for this season is by far my most favorite. a shame that it had to be wasted on such a shitty season ngl.

ultimately, the shitty characters, the poor plot line, and the awkward continuation of a not so nice movie just made this season really lackluster and unexciting for me. this is probably my least favorite of all.

🔫 War of Invention (2017) 🔫

or, the one where they go to some other planet and start… inventing stuff.

maybe this judgement of mine is unfair because i never got past a few episodes in, but i had a good reason to quit it.

the animation style. the. fucking. holy shit. literally i am never watching this season properly just because of that. thank god cpe dropped it because what the fuck man.

C TIER

🚘 Happy Formula (2015) 🚘

or, the one where they all get these vehicles that hatched from eggs.

this season kinda marked the turn of more… themed seasons, i suppose. while a plot here doesn’t really exist, the individual episodes are interesting enough for me to revisit at times. i loved weslie in this season tbh.

(how many times did wolffy get ticketed for speeding???)

🐳 Adventures in the Sea (2017) 🐳

or, the one where the goats and wolffy travel to the ocean for the ocean orb.

the second in the Marching to the New Wonderland series.

see, i originally gave this one a rank B, but that felt a bit generous. some of the episodes are just too redundant and uninteresting. though my favorite part was by far the part where slowy got stuck on wolffy’s submarine because his handprint was needed to stabilize the bomb lol.

the theme song is also a massive bop!! i unironically listen to it all the time. so while this season wasn’t especially interesting, the oceanic theme follows MTTNW perfectly.

👽 The Intriguing Alien Guests (2020) 👽

or, the one where weslie discovers he has a little sister, who is getting hunted down by aliens.

third Mighty Little Defenders season. unusually low ranking for one of the newer seasons. but it’s just… a bit boring. apart from the conclusion of weslie’s family story plus the intro of bingbing, this season didn’t hook me that much.

i think this season was really just an excuse to 1. use up all the old ideas for the earliest seasons they never put into place, and 2. pull the angst card. literally almost every episode just looks like rewritten versions of wolffy trying to catch the goats, except it’s the aliens catching bingbing. and they made us all cry at the end with weslie and his family lol.

overall not the most fun but i appreciate the nod to their beginnings.

B Tier

🍳 Paddi the Amazing Chef (2013) 🍳

or, the one where the goats have to cook for this mouse to send her and her sentient kitchen too friends back to their universe.

this season is a lot more memorable to me for an older season. i like the focus on paddi tbh (he was originally intended to be the main character of the show).

the pink mouse girl got attached to wolffy, which made things awkward lol. i recall an episode about trying to make it snow in june + the ones where they had to enter the mouse’s dreams to find her favorite food.

overall, a playful and fun season with a boppy theme song!

🌦️ Flying Island: The Sky Adventure (2018) 🌦️

or, the one where the goats take their trains, now planes, into the sky.

the third edition of MTTNW <3 originally this was supposed to be space adventures i believe, but i do think the sky fits the series better here, after ocean and earth.

here we see the real beginnings of the more plot-based seasons. my favorite was the balloon island and how wolffy & the goats & the citizens worked to drag the town out of the tornado!!

🏀 Dunk for Victories (2021) 🏀

or, the one where the characters play basketball.

though this one was unexciting to begin with, it grew on me. i learned quite a bit about basketball lmao.

tibbie got some serious character development here. i’m happy that cpe has kept her personality and girliness while also removing her from just being the token female character in the cast.

(also i’m gonna take this opportunity to say. i love Dunk for Future (the movie based on this) so so much <3)

my one gripe is that the… thing about the robots didn’t really get solved?? i know it was mostly answered in the next season but i don’t particularly like it when they just leave us hanging like this ngl. i suppose they made it work though.

🍃 The Season Towns (2023) 🍃

or, the one where the goats and wolffy have to defeat the evil king ruling over this fantasy land.

this is the newest season, the sixth in the MLD series. i binged it and?? it’s quite good! they really set us up to expect a straightforward superhero story, but then at episode 45 onwards, things start to get… very interesting very fast. i knew that xiaomu guy was sus…

also, weslie getting possessed by the evil king?? weslie and wolffy FUSING TOGETHER at the end???? >>>

i didn’t particularly like the… inconsistency with the “defense stones,” but other than that, this wasn’t a bad season. i’ll probably rewatch it later down the line.

A Tier

🚂 Marching to the New Wonderland (2016) 🚂

or, the one where the goats take their trains and deliver a vital seed to the center of a huge tree.

when i had my XYYYHTL reawakening in 2017, this is the first season i watched. this was the last season to use the old art style.

can i just say… the aesthetics and the music here are so good??? i love all of the new characters they introduced!! i wish cpe had used the soundtrack again in later seasons but also i enjoy their habit of using music specific to each season.

would have made this S tier except the plot itself didn’t quite meet the mark. but i really really love this season!!

🔎 The Little Detective (2016) 🔎

or, the one where weslie and wolffy have become detectives.

see the reason i like this season so much is because weslie gets to flex his smarts lol. this was also the first one with the new animation style.

also, the friendship is developing consistently between weslie and wolffy?? like. the two will see each other the forest and just be like “oh hey, what are you up to here” and weslie’s not gonna be scared and wolffy’s not gonna attack. seriously it jarred me a bit at first.

i really want to see a sequel to this. just then spending every episode solving cases, convicting the guilty, proving the innocent. didn’t have a plot quite as well as the S tiers but still so good!!

🐱 Against the Dark Force (2020) 🐱

or, the one where all except paddi and wolffy get brainwashed and turned into cats.

seriously the catification of these characters was hilarious and wonderful. it’s like taking the lid off the id lol. ngl, guxin lang deserved better, poor guy. the powers that got introduced in this season are wonderful, especially with how wolffy learns to control his lightning.

this season kept me on my feet. i didn’t want to stop binging it at all. it’s action after action, and then of course there’s the angst of weslie almost dying (cpe is surprisingly sadistic, huh…)

paddi’s character development was incredible here. that’s all i’ll really say cause it’s something you really need to see for yourself!!

the main reason why this is not in S tier is because the ending was… a bit weak imo?? it’s the most basic Power of Friendship(TM) ever and i just. it didn’t really land as hard as i think cpe wanted it to, which was unfortunate.

but the theme song is KILLER and i am definitely coming back to watch this one!!

🤖 Ultimate Battle: The Next Generation (2021) 🤖

or, the one where wolffy and weslie get teleported 15 years into the future, where everything has become all about robots.

this is the 4th MLD season. and i have some stuff to say.

first of all, cpe was clearly feeling nostalgic when they made this. the first episode uses music that hasn’t been used since MTTNW. also, making weslie&wolffy jump 15 years into the future? assuming this season was made in 2020, that means it was also 15 years prior than XYYHTL debuted.

second of all, i think i know where the idea of this season came from. wolffy always says he’ll definitely be back. so what if haha omg one day he didn’t? this is played with so many times in the season and it hurts so good :’)

third of all, the episode where it’s weslie’s birthday and he&wolffy get locked inside a freezer. and they’re just laughing about it. and this is the seasonal angst card all over again.

fourth of all, everyone being turned into robots. tibbie being the Impostor in the station. her backstory being revealed and developed. wolffy slowly getting turned. weslie helping them gain sentience. please omfg

and then the plot twist of the professor turning out to be a robot, deploying all the previous MLD villains.

ngl there was a massively misssed opportunity to add something about weslie’s family?? why didn’t they give us something about bingbing growing up without her brother, or smarc/lily grieving their son??? oml. see this is why this isn’t S tier. good but i’m just too salty abt this part lol.

S Tier

⚔️ Mighty Little Defenders (2019) ⚔️

or, the one where the wolves and goats become friends.

of course MLD had to be here. of course. this was the big one, the one that changed everything. see my favorite favorite tripe ever is enemies to best friends and look, weslie and wolffy kinda had a 900k platonic slow burn building up for the past movies and seasons. and it finally cracked here!!

see i also love the development of all the wolves in general. like. wolffy yes, he’s questioning his entire life, does he want friends or belonging?? but ultimately he chose his friends. you can tell when he decides not to question it anymore.

also, the seven evil wolves. it makes a lot of sense. the toxic wolf spirit reminds me a lot of toxic masculinity tbh. they all got pushed to be this certain idealized image of a wolf but this ended up resulting in a lot of unhealed trauma for all of them. and it wasn’t until they unpacked it that they were able to truly be themselves.

i used to find wolffy annoying and quite bothersome but now? he’s starting to rival weslie as my favorite character. i really value the multidimensionality that was built.

i was sort of expecting this season for a while now. in almost all of the past seasons and movies, weslie and wolffy learned to somehow work together and trust each other, and i was like, how does wolffy even have the heart to still eat someone he’s saved the world with, lol. cpe did a wonderful job this season was perfect i love it

⏳ Rescue Across Time (2019) ⏳

or, the one where the characters time travel to same the world.

the final MTTNW season, and my favorite season of the entire show.

1. the continued character development of from MLD. wolffy’s new friendship with the frosts, and how this helps to uncover a new side of him. yet he’s not immune to his old ways, because he almost destroys it at the end by pretty much betraying them.

2. the time travel. i am a sucker for anything time related in shows and movies!! this show was the perfect one to mess with time because of the fact that you have all these teens or adults who watched this as kids and are now grown, so referencing the old movies and seasons is… oh boy. punches you in the gut really.

3. the backstory of wolffy. it’s finally explained and there couldn’t have been a better way to do it. the ANGST oh my god. he’s still struggling to process the trauma he had from losing his dad and also the generational trauma that his dad probably passed onto him. we have weslie trying to process the grief of his parents ditching him for outer space, and slowy working through his unresolved feelings for stacy. like. dang since when did this kids show get so dark?? my god!!

4. the plot twist. classic “villain reveals true identity” trope but it hits especially hard here when you’ve seen the foreshadowing and all the little details. then it finally ties back the ending from MLD. seriously i fucking gasped this was done SO perfectly.

kay. cpe outdid themselves here. the time travel theme was perfect for concluding MTTNW. the grief, the nostalgia, the angst, the sequel to MLD. i’m always coming back to this season ALWAYS. did not expect a kids show to get this amazing but it did and i’m in love.

🐶 The Great Rescue (2022) 🐶

or, the one where the dark force has infected the nearby dog kingdom.

the second season of ADTF, and the 5th MLD season. just like ADTF, this one really kept me on my feet! action after action!! the goats battling their infected selves in the power locks! wolffy slowly getting infected! an explanation for the origin of the dark force at last!

wolnie’s bond with mingri and tibbie was honestly unexpected but i adore it so so much. also, just. wolffy and weslie battling each other at the end and the heart stabbing moment when it looks like wolffy’s died. aaaaJOJSOJS

see now having this season, i understand why they left off ADTF where they did. i wonder if they’re gonna make an ADTF 3…?

—

well that was a long ass post BUT BUT that is it for all the XYYHTL seasons!! i should rank their theme songs next tbh. i think i know which one is my no. 1, maybe my top 5??

wish this fandom were a little more popular in the western world because i LOVE it so so so much 🥹🥹🥹❤️

[onlyjaeyun]

Honestly, I'm not even a damn singer, and if Enhypen was all you wanna feature on our song, my ass would have came up with a verse, like maybe it's just praise kink coming out, but I would want to impress who I'm working with since you think you would want your feature to add something to a song, not just sing over the original song, like this ain't karaoke babes. I feel like the perfect song length is like 3:40, not too short, not too long, but all Hybe is making lately is like 2:20, like I think they are allergic to making long good songs, the longest song on both &Team's album and Enhypen's together is 3:48, and it's not even a real song, it's the prologue Mortal. Like War Cry is even shorter than Sweet Venom, like you don't have time to jam or get into the song, you get the vibe and just boom over, give us longer songs, like it's ridiculous, not every song needs to be short so it's easier to stream. I saw a Sweet Venom line distribution video, and it was probably the worst one I've personally seen for Enhypen; like Sunghoon got like 8 seconds, Jungwon got 10, Jake got 14, Niki got 15, Sunoo got 16, Jay got 18, and Heeseung got 46. Like I get it Heeseung main vocal, but you telling me the others couldn't have each hit one of those swee-hee-hee-t venom-nom-nom. Like War Cry is somehow better distributed with 9 members, despite Fuma getting only 4 seconds, Jo who has the most only got 22. Honestly, it do seem like that, like Enhypen with Bella, TXT with Anitta, and BTS with Sia. I honestly just want one question for Hybe regarding the next comeback, Chamber 5 studio version when, since it was just a cute song, and I think we need it, like Chamber 5 mv and all, I know Sunghoon would probably hate it seeing how he hated when Sunoo picked him to perform it, but that Chamber 5 dance practice with them dressed like fruits lives rent free in my mind, and we need a studio version. Also you listening to 10 Months while writing angst reminds me how I wrote this sad fic while listening to this song called Heartbeat by Carrie Underwood on repeat the whole time. Like the song is all 'I love the way you look in a firefly glow', 'dancing to the rhythm of your heartbeat' meanwhile I'm writing "No matter how long it took, even if he never found his way back to you again, you would never love another, and your heart would always ache for him, the one you believe is genuinely your one true love."

i wholeheartedly agree with the first part! i feel like ever since not only enha's but also new jeans' debut they've been making their new groups' songs shorter and shorter but i just dont get why? there was still so much potential in sweet venom as well as bite me so why not add another verse and make the song just thirty seconds longer??? i honestly dislike this wave of short songs like let me have at least 3 minutes to enjoy ???? i cant even get into the groove bc by the time i do it's already finished?💀 but yeah, genuinely wishing for their future tt's to bw a tad bit lobger to make the line distribution a little fairer 💔 i love love love jungwon's and hoonie's voices and would have loved to hear them more but we got them in still monster so i'm super happy (plus jay got to shine a lot this time and it makes me so 🥺 bc his voice is kind of my fave? but yeah)

also personally i just know those features are nothing but a way to promote bc she wasnt bad or anything but she also didnt add anything to the song imo 😭 i liked their harmony but that's it? she didnt even get a verse (which makes sense as the so g is so short already) but looking at proper collabs from their seniors like bts x nicki minaj it's just kinda disappointing but expected atp

and omg i love listening to happy songs when i write angst bc it kinda makes me write it even sadder than it is LMAO

[katierosefun]

fic writer interview

thanks for the tag, @gosiksmallspace!

name/nicknames: caroline, although some people call me katie or cron in certain fandom or friend circles :’)

fandoms: primarily beyond evil these days, although star wars, star trek, and the boys have been rotating around in my head too.

two shots?: i’m pretty sure i must have more than one, although the first one that comes off the top of my head is read all the books beside your bed, but then again, some people might just say that’s a two-chapter story instead of . . . a two-shot? (some people might say that’s just a two-chapter story, while others might say that’s a two-shot . . . some people might argue that a two-shot are two separately posted stories but just have other parts to them, idk! but i do know i have a second part planned for but you could make me a drink (or a latte), so maybe that’ll count as a two-shot!)

most popular multi-chapter fic: uh, kudos and subscriptions wise, probably to these memories, although about love (and what’s after that) feels more popular these days purely because a) it’s been posted more recently, and b) the sheer amount of interaction i’ve had with that fic makes me :’))

actual worst part of writing: for me, it’s probably just. the sheer amount of self-criticism i have to deal with when writing. i can’t express the number of times that i’ve scrapped whole wips or decided to rewrite whole endings and chapters purely because i didn’t think it was perfect enough, or all the times that i’ve just given up writing a story because i felt that i would never be able to do it justice or that i just suddenly get intimidated and think, well, now everyone’s going to be let down by my inability to write a satisfying ending and so on and so forth . . . i’m trying to be a little kinder to myself these days, but i definitely. struggle a lot with thinking, this isn’t good enough and god, i’m a fluke and etc etc. but you know! we try our best, as we always do. we carry on!

how you choose your titles: usually lyrics from the song that i’ve been listening to/was inspired by when writing! although sometimes i’ll go back and change it if i realize that some other title is more appropriate.

do you outline?: for most one shots that are less than 20k words, i usually just freestyle. but for longform stories, i definitely outline!

ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?: i like to think that i’ll always get around to my ideas, so instead i’ll just say that it might be a while before i get around to them . . . but i would really love to write a longform mckirk story one day, although i have no idea what that might look like! i would also like to write a period/historical jwds au one day, which like. i am doing right now, but i keep running into “god, this isn’t historically accurate” or “:/// no, i don’t like this plot anymore” or “is there enough tension here. is there enough chemistry. do these two just sound like they’re snarking at each other the whole time instead of actually doing anything”.

callouts @ me: you don’t need to write something just because you feel like you haven’t posted anything in a while. your writing will get better when you’re writing because you want to, not because you feel like you have to.

best writing traits: i like to think i’m good with dialogue!

spicy tangential opinion: hm, not sure how spicy this is, because i think most commenters are actually incredibly pleasant and kind and encouraging, but i think. i think something i get annoyed at for both myself + for other writer friends, it’s. uh. hm. when you are commenting on someone’s work, please do not use that space as another way to ask “by the way, when you are you updating [x]?” or “so is [x] just abandoned now” or “how come you’re not updating [x]”. it’s lovely to see people care about your stories, but there are proper times and places ask those questions. asking them in the comment box of a new/different story is. is not the way to go, imo.

no pressure tags: @kckenobi @b1uetrees @tiffanylamps

[paunchsalazar]

For the movie ask game, 1, 4 and 12 (since you mentioned sound design and though not all sound design is soundtrack the soundtrack is part of it...)?

1. What is your current favorite film?

hmm as far as recent theater experiences… I don’t know about favorite but maybe the one I was taking the most notes and admired the most was Tár? The cinematography + editing felt really smooth and motivated to me, so many great shots + sequences, I really liked how they used space.

I don’t mean to say she is a good person (far from it) but I found her to be a compelling character and the performance and direction were playing at each other’s level. Actually considered this for the next question but I don’t think I’d change the ending! I think she reaps what she sows and the joke is on her. I thought the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was sooooo cute!!

All time… my letterboxd top 4 is Only Yesterday, Yi Yi, The Sound of Music, and Good Morning and nothing has pushed to me to change it in a while… so maybe those..

4. Is there a film that you love except for the ending? What would you change about the ending?

I’m trying to think… I feel like for most movies if everything is right but the ending then… maybe the middle is actually not where it needs to be. Trying to recall movies where I was like “why did you do that…” but it mostly applies to tv shows… but then I think judging on different criteria

12. Which movie has your favorite soundtrack?

As far as needle drops go, unironically The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Bend it Like Beckham! The Nancy Drew movie also has so many great songs. In terms of theatrical scores… I have to say that the John Williams scores in Star Wars and Harry Potter are still really effective!! and I don’t mind how loaded they are, I think it fits the genre. Also The Incredibles and Ratatouille scores, Giacchino knocked it out of the park both times imo. I liked Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s Ex Machina score as well! This is not a succinct answer lol…

[incalculablepower]

2022 Wrapped

ty for the tags @hinnyfied and @ashesandhackles

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular)

eticabtf - despite sort of regretting the long-ass title at this point i really like this one. it was the toughest thing i worked on, since i had a deadline and a prompt and a word count minimum to hit it came with a lot of (IMO good and healthy) stress at a time when i needed a project like that! it was kind of ambitious and weird and i'm still just so glad it landed.

in virtute et tutela - someone commented that it made them cry which is like, the best comment i've ever received. it came to me very easily but there was still an odd challenge where i had to come up with the rules of what an inner monologue of a half-cat/half-kneazle would sound like. my crookshanks doesn't understand spoken language but he's very intuitive and this is how he communicates with those patient and understanding enough (first other animals, then an animagus, and finally humans). i'm also really happy with how the title fits the story, it's a reference to a plea from a cat named virtute, the weakerthans song from the POV of a cat pleading to its depressed person. the reasons - i JUST realized this is my second fic with a weakerthans title. HBP is one of my favourite books AND adaptations because i love the goofy teen comedy vibes and i really like playing it up with this fic. i recently reread the first chapter i have uploaded with some distance and i think it's really really funny! this drabble from a TTB challenge this spring - this event really helped me work some writing muscles thanks to the prompts and the instant feedback. this is the origin of the photo of the original order of the phoenix and i like how much little details I packed into it, especially alice as a photographer, someone who immortalizes memories.

i also really like this one - i think it's the most poetic of my drabbles from that challenge and it really communicates how i feel about a post-war ron's life. and i love the jenny holzer truism i used for the title.

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year

I would like to treat my WIPs as actual works in progress vs things i started writing and kinda gave up on 1. i would like to continue with more chapters of the reasons! i have a lot of outlines and a good idea for where i want it to go. i'm also not stressing too much since each chapter will really serve as a loosely connected one-shot. 2. i have a romione shell cottage fic i've been picking at for MONTHS! i really like the idea i have for it but it's been a bit of a slog, i would love to get it done! 3. a couple days ago i had a new year's eve fic idea and got about 500 words in before things got busy. i really wanted to have it done FOR nye, but life's been busy. i am going to try to get it out before i finish my vacation and not stress about it being "late" for the holiday. 4. i also started a TTB yule bash fic for teddy's first weasley sweater, another idea i really really like but i got sick when i was writing it and didn't want to worry about the deadline. i might pick at it from time to time for next christmas.

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year

1. the fact that i do it... at all? i joined @thethreebroomsticksficfest discord server because i was getting back into reading fic and just wanted to chat about it, but then noticed most members also wrote fic and the discussion around it made it feel very accessible and supportive. 2. i've learned or relearned a lot about punctuation and grammar, which helps my fic AND a lot of other areas of my life. writing cover letters for my job search this year was the least stressful it's ever been. 3. i know this is about my writing specifically but i swear it's all connected - i've gained a greater appreciation and understanding of storytelling through reading fic, commenting on it and trying to write it. i think my overall media analysis is smarter than it was this time last year and i have a better vision of what i want to achieve when i write something. your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year 1. i would like to write some longer one-shots, in the 5k-10k range. 2. i would like to write some shippier stuff that isn't just pining and sexual tension lol and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year

i really like this one from my crookshanks fic They spent each night at the foot of her bed, two rounded pastilles curled up on top of the quilt. 

let's just call it the "kneazle" i know many people have been tagged in this already so i'm cheaping out and tagging everyone who wants to do this.

[zengroove]

In Music, like any Art, there's many different approaches. Advantages and disadvantages to any choice u make. Digital makes it easy for others to steal ya Music. Altering a Time stamp often to make it appear dey wrote it 😆 in fact a murder was solved by a guy filming his self fishing, then he altered the Time stamp n those with knowledge revealed it. Is no difficult to see. Old school has disadvantage of not Sounding as good on Digital stuff. Digital advantage of being relatively cheap, and also makes it easy to pose, or cheat by pretending to play sumpin you're not which is perfect for some. Old school has advantage to OWN the room and drown all ya cell phones right out and also doesn't require internet connection. Digital u memorize a part, get it perfect in 100 or so takes. Is fine for some. Old school play live memorize SETLIST, or Songs u gonna perform live at next gig and u get 1 take every night. When creating Art whichever way makes u more comfortable go with it while considering where u gonna play most and how u want to experience your own Sound. Once u feel 800 Watts go thru ya bones everyday then 15 Watts will no longer feel the same. Nothing like turning on a full stacc and shredding. Is therapy for me Soul u understand? Live performance will teach u a valuable lesson, u gonna miss notes, in reality nobody's perfect, every Musician has missed a note at some point the lesson is... IT'S OK U JUST KEEP GOING AND U WILL IMPROVE NO GIVE UP! Winning is merely REFUSING TO LOSE! Losing and failure is when u surrender and give up or quit. I'm comfortable with the Old School and the New School. They're not at War in me style. Digital records to media like Tumblr better, Sound good. Old School Sounds better Live imo both have their place and uses. I been to gigs the Venue gear was horrible u can bring a laptop but u running thru Venue gear sounding worse cause of it when if u had own good Amplification u can Sound much better in many Venues. As for price, over the years u can make connections. Many will work with u if u try. AMS and Sweetwater offer excellent deals and have many options allowing u to pay in a way that fits ya budget. There's really no reason not to attempt to improve ya Sound. Best way to do that of course is practice, practice and more practice and sweat and grinding. No gear will ever make u Sound better than just playing the instrument more will, that said, correct gear for your own style, adjusted as needed to ya personal parameters will make u Sound better. The Sound is ya Guide. Does it Sound good to u cause u gonna be the one using it. If I gotta play a Million Notes, I wanna play them on Brooklyn. She's comfortable and Sounds amazing. I call this Ampeg SoFi like Chargers Stadium. If I don't need her 800 Watts of shred everything on Earth I simply turn her volume down. Rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. When u find ya favorite axe, or paintbrush or canvas, or laptop, or woman 😜 u know.

[mswyrr]

To the reddit folks who think this isn't in keeping with GRRM:

"They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know. Then they get a taste of battle. For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they've been gutted by an axe. They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that's still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water. If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they're fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it's just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don't know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they're fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world . . . And the man breaks. He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them . . . but he should pity them as well."

--George RR Martin, "A Feast for Crows"

The division of how characters are responding fits with his overall writing pov on what war does to people. What it is.

"House of the Dragon" is an antiwar narrative imo.

i was moved by criston's speech about war. i'd never been moved by the guy until now. i've felt for aegon, feckless and selfish and untested, suddenly paying in full a price for a throne he didn't even want or comprehend. i've felt for poor jace, pulled in so many directions and trying so hard but it's all impossible. i was moved by aemond too - who started out someone who would have never touched his sister or mother without gentleness, becoming violent with them. burning a whole city of people to feel big and in control again. their ugliness and ruin makes me care. especially since that same desperate fear and yawning need for control and power is inside rhaenyra and aemond both and it is motivating similar policies--burning civilian centers. i felt for poor gwayne, realizing there is nothing he can say to the sheer despair criston just spoke. because there is truth in it he cannot deny. so he just sits down beside this low born man as an equal, two people marching to their annihilation.

so the idea that the male characters aren't getting anything to do - are they? or is it things reddit doesn't want to see men feel and experience? because it doesn't feel cool and badass? because it speaks forms of helplessness and destruction that they don't want to relate to in a character?

[missbrunettebarbie]

Midnights - a review 3 months later and my tracklist

I've made a post about the album back when it came out, but I do think TS' songs in general are growers, not faders or instant hits, so here are my thoughts after having some time with it. Tbh, what really annoys me about Taylor's albums is usually the tracklist, which makes no sense, so I remade ir, using 16 out of the 20 songs (we don't count Hits Different bc I haven't listened to it). I am gonna talk about the 4 songs I left out at the end. My order is something like: from nightmares to sweet dreams, with track 5 being the darkest before dawn. So, in order:

1. Anti-Hero - 10/10. Perfect album opener, sets the tone for the rest of the songs AND establishes Taylor both as a person you want to root for and an unreliable narrator.

2. Maroon - 5/10 Still not a fan of this song, but it's a good second track and it fits the 'thing that keeps you up in the middle of the night' very well.

3. Midnight rain - 6/10 Pretty much the same as Maroon (yes, the voice distortion still grants on me).

4. Question....? -8/10 This is such a grower. I love how much more assertive and quite bitchy the narrator is here compared to the previous two. Like, all these 3 songs talk about past loves, but this narrator is less introspective and more like 'we were a meteor strike, babe!'.

5. Would've, should've, could've - 10/10 I mean, come on, this is the true track 5 of the album. Everything about it screams heartbreak and vulnerability.

6. Bigger than the whole sky -6/10 The saga of grief continues. And this song makes so much more sense next to WCS. They just fit, both musically and lyrically. Look how the new placement improved its rating, from 1 to 6!

7. Labyrinth - 8/10 When you hit rock bottom, the only place to go is up! Spmetimes against your will. And this is the perfect song to describe this.

8. Glitch - 7/10 We are almost out of the nightmare realm, and into the sweet dreams world. This topic and its narrator are much more uplifting, but there is still a sense of....haunting here.

9. Bejeweled - 10/10. I feel like the sweet dreams section needs to start strong and what better way than with Bejeweled? This is the narrator who went out tonight to make her dreams come true xDD

10. Mastermind - 9/10 Perfect transition from Bejeweled. Again, a very confident narrator who took matters into her own hands, and refused to believe in pesky little things like fate. This is also the first long song where we get to see a bit of the other partner's point of view as well.

11. Sweet Nothing -6/10. After 2 "I am that bitch" songs, I feel like Sweet Nothing is an welcome change of pace. It calms you down and shows you the other side of love.

12. Lavender Haze - 9/10. It's a bop, but it also is a very....limited point of view, of someone who refuses to let the relationship follow its natural course, because the narrator wants to be stuck in the pavender haze forever. I feel like this, alongside the next 2 songs, make their own story arc.

13. Paris - 8/10. Another romantic bop about how great it is to be in love.

14. The Great War - 10/10. But all lovers fight, and this song shows that the important part is 'surviving the great war'.

15. Karma - 8/10. This is such a positive song, that it needs to be towards the end of the album.

16. You're on your own, kid -10/10. This is A Journey. Most people say it feels like Taylor giving us a hug, so IMO, this is the best way to close the album. It is vulnerable, yes, but it's very uplifting and is a perfect closer to the Midnights chapter.

Overall score: 8.125/10. Pretty good!

Songs that didn't make it on My Midnights playlist won't get a score, but here are my thoughts on them:

Snow on the beach - Not only doesn't it add anything to the album, but it doesn't even fit the midnights theme in any way shape or form!

Vigilante shit - It's ok, but very manufactured! And we have Bejeweled and Mastermind to give us the same vibe, but better, so it adds nothing.

Dear Reader - I mean, it could add somthing, but I feel like it doesn't fit the theme at all.

High Infidelity - Eh. It's ok, but again, I feel like it adds nothing.

[polandspringz]

If anyone cares about my Anime Awards votes here’s the messiest description of what I voted for so far (did not vote for film and eng VA yet; need to watch deer king this weekend + need to listen to the voice acting performances). And this was just copy pasted from a notepad so excuse the mess again:

aoty- spy x family; brought more ppl into anime + prompted most discussion

original- lycoris; out of the choices this is like, the only one deserving

charater design- ranking of kings; i try to avoid adaptions bc the character designs are just being translated BUT this is kind of a mp100 situation with how they adapted the character designs from the original art + the unique storybook style for the coloring of the characters

animation- ranking of kings; Not only did it have great action animation, they animated the sign language AND it was done by animators who WERE hard of hearing/deaf.

new series- Ya Boy Kongming!; This show was incredible, I'm so sorry but it was.

continuing- One Piece; The animation quality for the recent arc has been spectacular and so it has IMPROVED especially in the episode 1015 from this year.

opening- ranking of kings opening 2; JUST WATCH THE OPENING AND YOU UNDERSTAND. They got that 18 year old Vercreek on that shit I still can't believe they can do that level of animation at that age JESUS.

ending- Kaguya-sama; Listen I hated Kaguya sama and refused to watch it and then this ending happened and I was so hyperfixated on it that I binged the entire series and the emotions shown in the ending + the symbolism/them combining the myth of princess kaguya with a star wars esque fight was so cool

best score- Ya Boy Kongming; This is hard because it's like score so... instrumental? But Kongming was like a music anime with vocals and the rap battle fight was so good but also it had a lot of original songs.

Song- new genesis; Listen, Ado hit those notes

director- Spy x Family; BECAUSE THIS MAN SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVING CLOVERWORKS AFTER THE WONDER EGG DISASTER AND ALSO AT WIT NAVIGATING THEIR OWN CRUMBLING FINANCIAL SITUATION!!! Plus they did deviate from the manga at times and go above and beyond (see the castle episode)

Main chara- Bojji; You have a child prince who is deaf and everyone thinks they can talk shit about him in FRONT of him because they think he doesn't know what theyre saying but he CAN read lips and he defies death + saves his entire kingdom despite his lack of physical strength and learns to overcome many things and isn't "fixed" ever need I say more

Supporting- Kage from Ranking of Kings; ties into the above

Must protect- Kotaro; Anya can handle HERSELF. Kotaro literally was neglected and ate LEAVES he was starving so badly and has been forced to learn how to be independent despite being liek SIX YEARS OLD ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

action- Spy x Family; I didn't give them the animation vote so they're getting this since they excelled in action animation.

Comedy- Ya Boy Kongming; This is the only isekai that matters you've got a chinese war tactician reincarnated into present day and he just becomes a rising singer's manager and he does a fucking rap battle need I say more.

Drama- dance dance danseur; SO TORN because the ending of eighty six was so good for the episodes that DID come out in 2022 but its more Historic Drama? Fantasy Drama? Idk its a fictional war but Dance Dance Danseur deserves recognition too and Jumpei's journey and the conflict between him and the other two protags is staged like a ballet's story etc. etc.

Fantasy- ranking of kings; see everything ive already said

romance- call of the night; This series takes a really unique look on romance by basically having someone who is aromantic trying to fall in love with an asexual, romance repulsed vampire because to become a vampire you need to fall in love with one. And it explores the feelings (although it never outright uses the terms) of being ace well imo.

japanese va- Yor