#this bitch be making fan edits of the most random characters

[nerdesti]

watching someone watch supernatural for the first time in the year of our lord 2023 is a fascinating thing

[istharoth]

In love with a 2-D Character?! Sinostra Edition!

Blurb: In which you are a character in a popular game the Tokyo debunker boys are coincidentally in love with.

CW: Mentions of Organ Harvesting in Taiga's section.

↪ Taiga Hoshibami:

He doesn't play games. Next.

JKJK he only plays for the gacha aspect and gets annoyed when he doesn't have any more to pull.

Streamer Taiga? In this AU yes. Streamer Taiga who does absolutely insane things + says out of pocket things but doesn't get cancelled because people think that's his humour.

Taiga: "Lmao, last week I harvested organs." His fans: "OMG TAIGA YOU'RE SO FUNNY! WAS IT BLOODY!?" Also Taiga: *wants to explain the full thing but forgets so he just laughs it off*

So he plays the game right, he's bored as hell, he chooses a random character and then he sees you in the prologue.

You're bloodied up for sexy reasons and you're trying to kill him? That's his type, he loves those angry people who try to kill you, maybe you're a bit greedy too?

Geneunely regrets not choosing you in the selection screen but forgets about your existence just as quick, until you re-appear in the fourth chapter.

Pulls on every banner, does not care who the character is, he just wants to test his luck.

Has insane streamer luck, and luck in general. Is the type of streamer who does pulls on his viewer's accounts and to mess with them, he deletes a high-levelled artefact for fun.

His fanbase knows they have to say goodbye to the artefact to get the character lol

He doesn't remember you for the most part, he just knows you're relevant to the lore of the game.

Maybe has one or two merch items his fans gave him but he forgets who you are.

↪ Romeo 'Fico' Scorpius Lucci:

Adds him into the does not play games list.

Judges every character in the selection screen because Rui will not stop yapping about the game he's playing.

But who is he to judge? His last name is literally a play on Gucci.

You're a satisfactory character, in terms of design, so he picks you.

He's the type to have two accounts, has one for you, his side account, and his other account mains the character you torment, that's his main. [In this case Kaito's favourite character]

Doesn't spend money on the game because he thinks it's unnecessary, though he's easily annoyed when he doesn't get a character. Romeo: SIH [Shrivel in Hell] WTF [What the fuck] RIH [Rot in Hell] CHBB [Come home, you Basic Bitch!]

That's what goes down every time he pulls on his accounts. The last one is meant for his main account, he could never call you BB. You're him, he is you.

Romeo will go out of his way to have the clothes you wear custom-made for himself because he likes them so much.

If you mention a brand in-game, be it perfume or makeup, he's going to search for the equivalent of the irl one and get it.

Also isn't much on merch, might have a few of your jewelry statements and clothes but that's about it.

↪ Ritsu Shinjo

Why is everyone in Sinostra in the does not play games category?

But he'll play it because peer pressure always works.

Is the type of player who focuses too much on the story and if laws are mentioned, he's going to write threads on if they're wrong or right.

Might sue the game company if they're wrong. [nah he won't, I'm just exaggerating.] He understands the concept of fictional and real so i doubt.

selects you because you're the most normal based on the character selection screen.

He thinks he isn't big on merch, but no, he's a collector. You know those standees of characters outside events people steal sometimes? Yeah, he's going to get Taiga to steal them, but in a way that makes them unpunishable by law.

Won't go buy a body pillow but a cardboard cutout is a must. If you have a fan club, he's going to rise up the ranks and would likely be in the single digits of the fandom.

He likes them underrated characters frfr.

Prev [Jabberwock] Next [Hotarubi]

[littlemissclandestine]

Why I think Russell Adler is going to make a comeback in COD 2024

WARNING⚠️: Contains spoilers for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Disclaimer: This is all just speculation on my behalf of course. I've just tried piecing stuff together for fun because Russ is one of my fave BO characters even though he's a bitch but i need more Adler content stat. <33

Let's get into it peeps. HEAR ME OUT.

Buckle up. Gonna be one hell of a ride folks 🤪

We'll start off with some random/background info.

Russ was born on February 12th 1937 so that would make him 53/54 in the Gulf War era. This actually isn't that old because if you think about it, Woods was about to turn 51 in 1981 during the Cold War campaign. What's a few more years?

We last saw Adler in action post-campaign in Warzone 1.0 cinematics but we've been kept in the dark about Adler's whereabouts post-1984 (after being brainwashed and killing Stitch LOL).

This meanie in a beanie wasn't forgotten about, oh no. He appears in the new cinematic intros on startup for both MWII (2022) and MWIII (2023). See below:

He was also featured twice in the 20 year anniversary video for Call of Duty whereas COD Ghosts didn't even get an appearance (ouch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL_w5HmxsPI

I personally believe Adler was a great addition to the Black Ops roster and is essentially the new Black Ops 'cover boy' now. Would be such a shame and a missed opportunity not to include a character like him in the upcoming COD. One who is morally grey, does whatever he deems necessary to get the job done - a bit like Cpt. Price in MW. Got the COD fans riled up about him brainwashing and pulling the trigger on Bell too - he's already got the spotlight in both a good and bad way.

Now, let's explore my main reasoning as to why I think Mr Shades 2.0 is most likely coming back in late 2024...

🎖️First up: Gulf War mission list 🔫

Here are some of the campaign missions that will be featured in Black Ops Gulf War. Obviously, this is subject to change, however, going off what we have, look closely...

Credit: @MWIIINTEL on Twitter/X

Safehouse guys...SAFEHOUSE. Takes you right back to Cold War, doesn't it? Ugh the potential.

🕵️ Next up: The campaign for COD 2024 will dive into the CIA's role/the Black Ops timeline 🕘

I took the following snippet from this official article.

From this, we know there will be a huge focus on the CIA and who's a CIA clandestine special officer? Mhm, you guessed it - Russell Adler.

Now, according to the events of BO2, it's evident which characters have the possibility of returning out of our original BO trio - Jason Hudson, Frank Woods and Alex Mason.

💫 Alex is presumed dead after Frank shot him so he's out the picture in '90/91 until 2025 when they canonically meet again.

🪵 Woods would be in his 60s during this time too so I'll let you decide whether that's too old for him to be in GW.

Edit: Woods got SPAS-12'd in the kneecaps on Dec 20th 1989 by Raul Menendez so uh...yeah

🧊 Hudson died on Dec 20th 1989 at the hands of Raul Menendez.

Feel free to check out this website (Call of Duty Wiki) for an outline of the events after CW to remind yourself. Here's a link to the Black Ops timeline from there.

➡️ Gulf War being a direct sequel to Cold War and what that could mean 💉

That brings me onto the rest of the safehouse crew. Since GW is a direct sequel to CW, it would make sense for some characters to carry over if possible:

We, as the player/Bell, get to choose whether Park or Lazar die (or both lovebirds) in 'End of the Line'. It's highly unlikely they'll return unless the devs make one decision canon maybe.

There could be a chance we see Sims again given his bond with Adler (Da Nang etc.), his age (late 40s in GW) and his status (alive).

That leaves the man himself, Russ. Everything from his age to the fact he's CIA and was the deuteragonist in COD 2020's campaign just makes sense for him to have at least a lil cameo or even a larger role, don't you think?

📱Finally: Hints from official posts 🔎

This post from Call of duty's official Instagram account kind of sealed the deal for me.

Oh lookie - they dropped syringe-lover's famous line in a zombies post. Why would COD just drop it so casually like that without a reason and years after CW came out? They could've said absolutely anything else but no, this was purposeful.

And that's all for this episode guys and gals!

Thank you for reading!! 🫂

Do what you will with all this information but I have concluded in my silly little brain that scarface is coming back.

How he's only in one game is beyond me. Won't get a character like him ever again. Seems like a cliché war dude at first glance but dig a little deeper into the details of the CW campaign, peel back the layers and get into his psychology and WOWZERS.

Am I delusional? Most definitely.

But the possibility he might be returning...that little bit of hope is enough for me and i won't shut up about it.

This will age horribly if he isn't in GW. Forgive me for feeding your delusions too in that case. Please?

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them! 😊

------

EDIT: Y'ALL IT'S HAPPENING 😭😭

[houseofzoey]

Overall Thoughts on the House of Night Series

By my standards, this series failed in basically every way possible - except monetary success.

The characters are poorly developed, the majority of them fulfilling shallow archetypes or offensive stereotypes with minimal nuance or meaningful exploration. This is true even of major characters, particularly Damien, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, and even Aphrodite.

Much as Aphrodite is beloved by haters and fans alike for her hardships and ability to actually tell off Zoey on occasion, she's ultimately just the lovable bitch/mean-girl-turned-best-friend trope and sees little thoughtful development. We're told that she changes, such as when she declares that she doesn't want to be like her mother and opts not to mix Xanax and wine - but then she's back to the same "substance abuse for laughs" shtick in the next book. Aphrodite's only actual, consistent change is that she stops hating Zoey and considers her a close friend. But otherwise? She's still a quintessential mean girl. She insults people for how they dress, looks down on the poor, bickers and picks fights with everyone, and - oh yeah - is racist, ableist, and queerphobic. Because it's "funny".

Personally? I think Aphrodite is one of the most despisable characters in the series, specifically because a) she has all the makings of a great character with huge potential for complexity and development, b) we're told she goes through incredible growth and change without really being shown it, and c) she's a raging bigot and that's meant to be funny/charming.

I've talked at length about how Zoey, Kalona, and Neferet are giant disappointments as characters, so I won't harp on that here. The main takeaway is that P.C. Cast doesn't know how to establish interesting, nuanced characters, and she certainly has no idea how to develop the cardboard cutouts she does introduce.

It doesn't help that this series has so many characters. A lot of them introduced once and then promptly forgotten. Remember Hannah Honeyyeager? Red? Montoya? Ant? Enyo? Sappho? Kaci Crump? Yeah, I don't blame you if you can't recall more than one detail about any of these characters - if you can even remember anything about them at all.

I can understand wanting to make the series feel well-populated, seeing as it is set in a school in a major city. But there are ways to do that without it feeling like the author just picks fifteen names out of a hat at the beginning of each book and throws them into the text at random intervals. The end result is that the HoN doesn't feel well-populated; it feels cluttered.

The overabundance of meaningless characters leads to other problems, too. Namely... well, names. One great example of this is Shaunee Cole having a thing for Cole Clifton. That's ridiculous, especially because no one ever comments on it, despite this being the exact sort of oddity that these characters would banter about for at least a page. P.C. Cast just didn’t notice she did that. There's plenty of other examples of identical or extremely similar names throughout the series, such as:

Zoey's brother Kevin and Detective Kevin Marx

Erik and Erin

Neferet the person and Nefertiti the cat

Shaylin and Shaunee

Drew (human) and Drew (fledgling)

Kaci Crump, Cassie Kramme, Casey Young, and Kacie Lockwood (from the Other World spinoff)

Even Damien and Darius are a bit close. The author mixed up their names in narration at one point, and it was never caught during the editing process.

(It's also worth noting that P.C. and Kristin have stated that, if the HoN TV show ever comes to fruition, Shaunee and Erin's names will be changed to Monique and Misty.* Monique is already the name of a Priestess working under Damien at the NYHoN in Loved.)

This is only made more absurd when you remember that every single fledgling and vampyre - all these people who got Marked as teenagers - have complete freedom to change their name to whatever they want. Why are there three fledglings named some variation of Cassie (only Casey is human)? Where are all the kids naming themselves Destiny and Ebony and Serendipity? Why aren't more kids named after their favourite celebrities or characters? You're telling me not a single teenage boy named himself Mike Hawk? Where are the kids who gave themselves four middle names because it sounds fancy, or who made their initials into an acronym?

The number of characters who did something like this is very small: Aphrodite, Jack Twist, James Stark, Venus, and Thor are the only ones I can immediately think of. Frankly, that's absurd.

I know exactly why it's Iike that, though. PC Cast isn't thinking about world-building and internal logic when she names her characters. Instead, she regularly names her characters after real people she knows. Here is a non-exhaustive list of such names:

Shaunee Cole

Erin Bates

Damien Maslin (specifically the last name)

Seoras

Cassie Kramme**

Chera Kimiko

Adam Paluka

Mr. Shaddox

Bryan "Dragon" Lankford

Anastasia Lankford

(On a somewhat related note, both P.C. and Kristin both have multiple self-inserts throughout the original and spinoff series. For P.C., it's Sgiach and Tina. For Kristin, it's Zoey and Kacie. This is mostly harmless - except Tina. Tina is literary brown face, because the white author made her self-insert indigenous, specifically Creek. Otherwise, these self-inserts just end up glorified and coddled.)

This kind of offhandedness and carelessness with world-building plagues the series. It's why historical figures are casually mentioned to be vampyres with no thought to how that would actually impact history. It's why the author says, "yeah, all the best actors and singers are vampyres" but then never considers how different media would look if all the most famous entertainers were nocturnal and allergic to the sun. It's why only a handful of countries have large vampyre populations and many of them (such as Italy and Greece) are known to be incredibly sunny and have long days and long summers, while places like Canada are far less populated despite vampyres being minimally affected by the cold. It's why there's 25 HoNs in the world, seven of which are in the US, while only three are in Asia, one is in Africa, and there are none mentioned in Russia or South America. It's why there's only one HoN in Canada despite it being an enormous country that is difficult to travel because of terrain (mountains, wetlands, tundra), weather, and sheer size.

And the thing is, I can excuse Rule of Cool world-building, or world-building that is shallow/poorly thought out. But the execution and context matter. All throughout the text, there's this very clear vibe that the author thinks she has built this incredibly rich, detailed world that is well-researched and grounded in reality while still being fantastical. In reality, the world-building is about as deep and sturdy as a list of bullet points on a wet napkin: It's not detailed, half of it is unintelligible, and it's gonna fall apart if you put even the slightest pressure on it.

I think a great demonstration of both poorly thought out world-building and poorly developed characters is Nyx. She is a loving goddess who prizes free will and thus operates under the principle of non-interference - but she spent eons gaslighting Kalona and all of vampyre society; regularly pops in to give special powers, helpful hints, or immediate solutions to specific fledglings/vampyres if she likes them enough; openly plays favourites; and gives fledglings extremely cruel, painful, or confusing gifts with no explanation as to why said gifts work the way they do. Why is Stark able to accidentally kill someone because of a metaphor he didn't intend to use? Why do visions cause Aphrodite's eyes to bleed? It's also fundamentally unclear what she wants at numerous points throughout the series.

Much of Neferet's descent into evil and success in committing horrific atrocities comes down to the fact that a) Nyx decided that this was the situation in which she wasn't going to give Zoey or anyone else clear warnings or visions about specifically what Neferet was doing, and b) she refused to rescind any of Neferet's gifts, even when she was using them to hurt people and create undead abominations, and had completely turned her back on Nyx in favour of Darkness.

(This is only compounded by the events of the Other World spinoff, wherein Nyx responds to OG Neferet's crimes by erasing her soul from existence so she can never reincarnate or be resurrected. So, I guess she can interfere where she sees fit? She also reduces Other Neferet and a bunch of her soldiers to children so they can have a second chance [horrifying], and causes a bunch of people to instantly complete the Change - including Other Lynette, who was a human. That seems like a lot of very direct interference.)

I also need to acknowledge how absolutely nonsensical the plot of this series is. Like, even just looking at the (intended) core premise of each book, it's all over the place.

Marked: Zoey is Marked and must learn to navigate her new life as a fledgling, which includes discovering she is the Chosen One and ousting mean girl Aphrodite from her position as glorified Student Council President.

Betrayed: Neferet is acting suspicious, which includes accusing Aphrodite of lying about her visions, and being connected to undead fledglings Zoey has spotted around campus.

Chosen: Zoey must heal undead Stevie Rae while also juggling three boyfriends and lying to her friends about all of it.

Untamed: Creepy ravens are all over campus. Aphrodite gets a vision that reveals these are Raven Mockers and Neferet intends to free Kalona from his earthly prison.

Hunted: Kalona and Neferet have brainwashed pretty much everyone at the Tulsa HoN. Zoey and co. need to figure out how to break the spell or get rid of them.

Tempted: After being banished from Tulsa and unable to continue their reign over the HoN, Kalona and Neferet tell the High Council that they are Erebus and Nyx incarnate, and thus Neferet should be the new High Priestess of all vampyres. Zoey goes to the High Council to say they're lying.

Burned: Zoey is shattered in the Otherworld and everyone is trying to save her.

Awakened: Neferet murders Jack so Zoey will stop frolicking on the Isle of Skye and return to Tulsa. Once Zoey returns, Neferet pretends she's a good guy and asks for her forgiveness.

Destined: Zoey's mother had been ritually sacrificed by Neferet to create a living weapon, so Zoey and co. perform a reveal ritual to show how Zoey's mother was murdered.

Hidden: After being shunned by the High Council, Neferet kidnaps Zoey's grandma as vengeance. Neferet is also working a smear campaign against the HoN on local news, which Zoey and co. counteract by doing an interview badmouthing Neferet and announcing an open house on campus.

Revealed: Neferet murders the mayor outside the gates of the HoN, so the school is on lockdown until they can prove that no one living/working there killed him. The Seer Stone is making Zoey increasingly short-tempered and violent.

Redeemed: Neferet takes over a fancy hotel and declares all the hostages her worshippers. Zoey and co. need to figure out how to use Old Magick to stop an immortal without it making Zoey go mad.

Does any of that seem like a logical progression/escalation of events? This isn't even touching on all the random boy drama, abandoned subplots, or nonsensical digressions that only serve to pad the text.

What the author seemingly intended to craft was a Chosen One coming-of-age narrative about a young girl who always felt out of place finding belonging at the HoN while navigating romantic relationships, learning to be a leader, and joining the battle against Darkness.

What we got was a spoiled, selfish brat who complains about every privilege and inconvenience that falls into her lap, who refuses to do anything hard or unpleasant to the point that she repeatedly cheats and leads on her boyfriends, who never takes initiative, and who largely has her problems solved by her subservient friends or a literal goddess.

But it shouldn't be surprising that the plot is all over the place and fails to fulfill the intended themes/messages of the series, because information about P.C. Cast's writing process for the series is also quite inconsistent. Originally, the series was only meant to be a trilogy, but got picked up for more books. However, in a Reddit AMA***, Kristin Cast claims:

We plotted out the story arch, and it naturally ended with twelve books. We also had a per book word count we had to follow, which is why our books aren't as long as other YA novels. However, I don't think anything was rushed. It was all planned from the beginning, and was executed amazingly!

But in several interviews (can only find a couple**** because they were audio/video, not text), P.C. Cast has referenced going rogue - meaning she deviated from the outline. Stark was meant to be Stevie Rae's love interest, Rephaim was supposed to die when Stevie Rae found him, etc. These represent HUGE alterations to the plot, so obviously the whole plot couldn't have been planned from the beginning, nor could everything be executed as intended.

P.C. Cast has also stated that she hates outlining, but Kristin makes her do a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline when they actually co-write. When P.C. writes solo, she knows the beginning, the end, and a bunch of pieces in the middle, and then figures it out from there (which sounds like a plantser style). Given that Kristin wasn't involved in the planning process - she didn't even look at the outlines of the original series because, as an editor, she wanted completely fresh eyes for the text - she couldn't have been the one pushing for a thorough outline of the whole series before P.C. began writing.

And that's not even getting into the fact that P.C. has stated the series was originally planned as a trilogy, which is evident from how the first three books were written. She couldn't have planned a twelve book series because she had no reason to assume she would be able to publish more than three books.

I wish I had a more satisfying conclusion to offer here, but... that's kind of the problem with talking about this series. The problems both span so wide and run so deep that it feels impossible to actually cover everything. I've made tens of thousands of posts - including in-depth analyses of plot, character, world-building, and writing - for every single book in this series, and I still feel like I haven't covered everything.

*Discussed here, around 17:00

**Google searches show this is a real person who attended the same school PC taught at

***Reddit AMA

****PC Cast interview, q&a

[jayz4dayz]

Team RWBY will become the next generation of Maidens

(Disclaimer, none of the edited images above are mine! I just found them on google lol. Also, SPOILERS FOR VOLUME 9!!!)

So this is kind of just a random theory of mine that I’ve been brewing for a while and I’m sure someone has mentioned it before, but I’m simply gonna explain why this would be the logical and plausible ending for the entire show. 

We know the identity of the current three maidens. Cinder Fall is the Fall Maiden, Winter Schnee is the Winter Maiden, Raven Branwen is the Spring Maiden, but we have interestingly never had a confirmation on the identity of the Summer Maiden. Some fans (including myself) speculate one of two things: the Summer Maiden is someone completely random/character we haven’t been introduced to yet, or... Summer Rose is the Summer Maiden. Now if this were the case, then that means Summer Rose isn’t actually dead. 

The very first scene in the final episode of Volume 9, we see a private conversation take place between Summer and Raven about a secret mission Summer embarks on alone. We aren’t sure about the details of the secret mission except for the fact she had lied to her friends and family about it. To me, that sounds an awful lot like she either faked her own death or nobody found a body when she dissapeared and assumed she was dead. I think Mama Rose is still alive somewhere (possibly lurking around in the Ever After which I’ll circle back on)

As for the transference of the Maiden Powers to Team RWBY, I must address the elephant in the room. A few of our beloved side characters must die. 

I’ll start with the obvious. Raven and Yang.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Raven takes a fatal blow in a battle either from Salam’s forces or possibly even a Cinder battle 2.0 or Salem herself. I know damn well the final person in her thoughts would be her daughter. Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong. She knows out of everyone, Yang is the most trust-worthy and deserving of such power. Even Ozpin himself had once told her “Your mother must trust you a great deal” when Raven told Yang about how Ozpin turned her and Qrow into birds. In this case, it will be Raven’s final act of protection for her daughter to assure she’ll have a better chance of survival. Not only this, the transference of powers scene between her and Yang would be the most memorable and meaningful moment between them in the entire series. (And gods, Yang out of all of Team RWBY would make the most sense to become a maiden. Her hair ignites on fire for crying out loud!)

Next we have Winter and Weiss.

This one will be considerably more painful to witness considering how strong their relationship is and everything they’ve been through growing up together. My best guess is Winter will die battling Salem or possibly alongside Weiss in battle against a different antagonist, but I’m confident it will happen the soonest. And I mean like Volume 10 or 11 kind of soon. Winter and Weiss will likely be reunited in Volume 10 and near the end Winter will meet her fate, giving the Maiden Powers to her sister who will benefit the most from them. With Weiss gaining these powers, imagine her dust glyphs on steroids. She’d be a fucking unit against Salem’s forces (as I’m sure Winter would be too.)

Then, Blake and Cinder.

I actually have quite a bit of evidence to back this one up. Cinder really doesn’t have anybody close to her that she would even consider giving up her powers for. She’s a greedy bitch and would probably think nobody would receive her powers if she just didn’t think of anyone when she died, only come to find out the final person to look into her eyes before her final breath is the one to take the powers from her. Ironwood once mentioned that it’s not uncommon for the powers to be transferred to an enemy who the Maiden faced in her final moments. Blake absolutely deserves the right to send Cinder to meet her makers and snatch up her Maiden powers. It would be so satisfying to see Cinder and Blake meet up in the holding space between life and death, but Cinder becomes furious when she realizes Blake will be the one to take HER precious power. It’s the ultimate justice and the best revenge Blake could ever obtain. (Also, Blake would become the first Faunus Maiden that we know of and she'd be such a girlboss for it ;p)

And finally, Summer and Ruby.

In the end, I think it would be a wonderful way to wrap up the entire series by making all of Team RWBY into Maidens and would be the most logical way they could defeat Salem. Of course, this is also assuming they somehow are able to get all of the relics and use that to assist them in defeating Salem once and for all. Also, for shipping purposes, it pretty much sums up the soulmate parallels for the four of them to become maidens. Blake (Fall Maiden) + Yang (Spring Maiden); Weiss (Winter Maiden) + Ruby (Summer Maiden). I think it just fits all of them so well!

As I previously mentioned, Summer being alive and the current Summer Maiden would open the door for Ruby to receive Maiden powers. I’m not entirely sure how it would look and I could theorize for hours to try and explain it, so I’ll keep this short. My current belief is that Summer is in the Ever After which would mean at some point Team RWBY would have to return to deal with Neo’s bullshit and at some point come across Summer. In a heated battle, Summer knows her time to ascend has come. If we take a look at Ruby’s ascension, she technically didn’t even ascend at all. She chose herself which means she didn’t become a new person with no memories of her past or who she is. However, I’m fully confident that Summer will choose to become a different person. She knows she would lose all her memories of her family, her Team, and everything that makes her Summer Rose. This includes her Maiden Powers. It would make the most logical sense that she’d transfer them to her daughter Ruby as her final act of a mother’s love. It would be poetic and the perfect character development for both Summer and Ruby. Plus, imagine how much more powerful Ruby’s silver eyes will become. With Maiden Powers, her petrifying glow from her eyes might be powerful enough to trap anything that’s Grim, including Salem. She wouldn’t be dead, but she’d be imprisoned in stone and petrify for the rest of time.

[Another minor theory in relation to this: Summer is actually dead and passed on her Maiden Powers to Ruby when she was still an infant which means Ruby's powers would be dormant until the time is right]

[unhingedhearties]

I Will Keep Asking This Question Until I Get An Answer

GabbyP, same question:

Why do you have shirtless photos of a man you don't like?

Not going to stop asking until one of you weirdos explains to the rest of us.

Also el-oh-freaking-el at Liz having preferences for men.

Just as an aside, I've been in many fandoms throughout my life, and one of the stupidest, cringiest things is when fans latch onto some random line or background detail and try to make it "a thing". The chocolate bunnies was some quick line, no different than a character saying "I'm going to grab some canned corn at the Mercantile" or "I stopped by the cafe for some biscuits". Fans who do this have nothing and bring nothing of value to the table. Giggling over AI (because even the most basic photo editing or art skills are lost on these people) photos screaming MUH CHOCO BUNNIES :D doesn't make you funny or clever, it shows that you and your little section of fandom are as deep as a puddle.

Or I don't know, maybe fans of the other characters on WCTH can start doing the same thing and start mass Tweeting random nonsense. LMAO SMASH THAT CREAM CORN #Ned&Flo IT'S BISCUIT MONDAY BITCHES #TheCanfields

[hopeymchope]

Final Fantasy VII 8/27/24 Update: FINAL Edition

I haven't updated in a while both because (1) the surgery I had and (2) because I just kinda lost that loving feeling. At a certain point, I was playing this game just to finish it, because I was no longer enjoying the actual GAMEPLAY and was left to use the built-in cheeses of the Switch port to plow through it. And then, over time... I started not being very happy with the storytelling, either.

Yeah. This is a downer of a final entry on this little game log. Sorry.

It's finished now. I beat the game. But as much as I gained love and appreciation for the world and its characters, the gameplay and its core story left me mostly with complaints, and I feel... guilty about that.

I'll start with gameplay:

I've never been a big fan of random battles. I kind of excuse it in old Pokemon games where you can at least see the patches of tall grass on the world, but I much prefer seeing the enemies on the screen and then colliding with them before a turn-based battle starts — like in Earthbound, for example. The PSP remake of the first Lunar did this, too—they made it so you see the enemies visibly and have to come into contact with them before a right breaks out. Even if you can't possibly outrun or avoid them, I like knowing they're coming and expecting that clash. Jump-scaring me randomly with a battle when I don't see it coming and I'm just trying to get some shit done on what looks like a wide-open area? Fuck all that, I say. So I was always going to struggle with the fact that older Final Fantasy games (and MOST older JRPGs, honestly) revel in that stuff.

But another thing I don't like is when an RPG starts to focus too heavily on status conditions that require various items or magics to cure. So you have to constantly stop your turn-based fight to manage conditions or something, and you probably don't have enough items to make a whole party immune, but just one person who gets put Asleep or made Small or turned into a Frog can fuck up your whole fight, so now you gotta spend turns/moves curing them, and while you do that then the other characters try to cure them the bad guys can do it to MORE characters, and OH GOD THIS IS AN ENDLESS CYCLE. So fucking annoying. FF7 adored making most of the climactic boss fights HEAVY on this shit. And I hated that.

Now, the story:

What carried me through everything was that I liked getting to know these characters. Yet even in that regard, by the climax of the game, I was... disappointed? Some plot points are brought up to justify something and then just ignored immediately after, despite the fact that it seems like characters should be RUSHING to take care of those issues. Some characters the team never get any expansion via side quests and thus remain mysterious ciphers. Or maybe I missed some optional side quests that would've told me something, ANYTHING about wtf was going on with them? Or maybe I'll get my questions answered in future remakes/spinoffs? Not that they could've known those were coming when they made FF7 to begin with...

The best thing about the story's last third has got to be the way the crew splits up before the final mission, and we get that excellent scene with Cloud and Tifa on the mountain. It's also one of my biggest gripes. I was both (a) expecting and (b) excited to see every other character's motivations and trips home before they march into a final battle against certain death. But... the game didn't care as much as I did, I guess. So we just get told they went and did those important character-building, emotional scenes off-screen somewhere, and we never learn what they were. Shit. Ok.

This is a deeply beloved game, so nobody wants me to sit here and bitch for ages. That's just a way to earn hatred from EVERYONE ALIVE WHO PLAYED THIS IN THE '90s. And with that in mind, I'm gonna skimp on further details. But my overall feeling at the end was "Hrm. Guess you had to be there." Even so, I'm still glad I took the trip to know these people and get the context on them/their world.

The ending itself was also pretty weird and unsatisfying, imo. But then I promptly watched Advent Children Complete, and I felt much happier for it. So... thumbs up on that.

Sorry for the downer wrap-up to this little series. Sorry to disappoint everyone who wanted to see me love this. But now I'm really, REALLY hopeful that they can take this baseline and really kick things up to another level in the Remake trilogy. And I'm still gonna play Crisis Core, too.

Guess what video game I just started playing for the first time?

Yeah, this is some long-overdue Gamer Homework(TM). Definitely one of those titles that it feels like you have to be familiar with if you're gonna claim you're big into the hobby.

So my Gamer ID Card has been in danger of revocation for many years now. :P

[yoontaethings]

normal kind of love — jjk (1)

pairing: jungkook x reader 

rating: explicit

word count: 2.5k

warnings: a lot of cussing and some teasing if you squint, but other than that none really (the warnings will come next chapter lmao)

you’re one half of hollywood’s on-screen it couple. the greatest chemistry known on-screen with the one and only, jeon jungkook, the bane of your existence.

a/n: this was supposed to be a longer chapter but i decided to split it in half to tease potential readers mwahaha btw this chapter is very very unedited, though i did postpone the upload because i had to remove some parts because i just thought the story didn’t need those bits anymore lol but the rest of this story i haven’t even read through yet, i just wrote and wrote and wrote so please excuse any errors (my tenses might also not be consistent but i’ll edit this soon)

taglist: @min-nicoleee @thisartemisnevermisses @ggukkieland @kokoandkookie @somelazysundays

There was no way.

There was no way in hell they were pairing you up with him. Again.

You were confirmed to be cast as the female lead in the movie before any other characters were casted. They should have chosen a different male lead for this romance film. Heck, even Kim Taehyung, a friend of yours, received an offer for the role and you were certain he planned to take it. Unfortunately for you, even if Taehyung wanted the role, he couldn’t accept it because of scheduling conflict with another film he’s already working on.

Jeon Jungkook, an actor you starred alongside in “Dangerous Illusion”, was just confirmed as the male lead of your upcoming movie “Chosen for Pleasure”. The same man who seemed to make it his life goal to ruin you. After Jungkook was confirmed to play the male lead in your upcoming movie, fans on Twitter have been blowing up about it and made you two a trending topic worldwide. Elated fans mentioned you in their tweets expressing how happy they were to see you two again together. You wish you could say you felt the same.

The previous movie you worked on was a thriller/mystery. You played the part of Jungkook's wife in the film. The film was a blockbuster hit, as a result of the well-thought storyline, yet additionally because of its leads. Fans adored the chemistry between you and Jungkook, regardless of not having a lot of romantic scenes in the film. There were a lot of fans who wanted to see you two on-screen once more, this time, in a romance focused film. Looks like their wishes were coming true.

To add insult to injury, your impending film was going to be an adult romance. It required some steamy scenes that normally didn't trouble you because you were a true professional, yet absolutely irritates you now since you need to do them with Jeon Jungkook.

The script reading was to be done today and your eyes opened an hour later than the time you set for your alarm because of the fucking snooze button. Seriously, why were snooze buttons even invented? They just allowed people to sleep through their alarms continuously.

Hand reaching for the phone on your nightstand, you knocked over a booklet that was over it. It was the script you spent hours reading to grab a sense of the character you were going to portray. Obviously, you already knew the basics about the part you were going to play, but knowing the entire story helped in portraying your character.

Your eyes squinted at the bright light of your phone that had the numbers 8:33 glaring at you, unlocking it to see a couple of texts and missed calls from your manager.

‘Are you awake yet?’

‘Please don’t tell me you forgot about the script reading today’

‘Ok I know you’re still asleep but just make sure you get ready on time, being late won’t do you and your image any favors’

‘I’ll pick you up at 9’

You rolled your eyes at his messages. You loved Hoseok and he was the best manager you could have been given from your agency, but he nagged too much. He was also your friend and his endless nags made you want to rip your eyeballs out sometimes because even when you’re supposed to unwind with him, he never forgets to remind you of your job.

‘I’m the fucking lead, Hobi, they’ll wait for me’

You slapped your phone back onto the nightstand and started going about with your morning routine. You didn’t have a lot of time, and even though you knew they would definitely wait for you, you hated being that bitch who made people wait so you took a quick shower and slapped on some sunscreen, powder, and finishing off with your go-to lipstick. You didn’t bother with makeup and dressing up. This was just going to be a script reading and sure, there were going to be photos taken but the thousands of dollars you’ve spent on facials and treatments already made sure your face was at least flawless despite the lack of effort.

Bringing only your phone, wallet and script, you exited your building and as usual, a shiny black van already awaited outside. Hoseok was leaning on it, scrolling through his phone when he sensed your presence and looked up.

“Oh, thank god you’re on time.” He exhaled in relief, pocketing his phone.

“I value sleep but you’re well aware I also value my career.”

Hoseok grinned. “Now there’s the y/n I know.” He then slid the van door open and you entered without another word.

The drive was pretty much uneventful, with you scrolling through your social media, seeing what fans have been tweeting about recently and with Hoseok humming along to the random pop music playing.

You longed for a distraction, something much more interesting than working your thumb throughout the drive because of the chasm that you were about to jump into when you arrived on set. You weren’t stupid enough to forget about the man who got the role of your romantic interest in the film. But you were wise enough to not let it haunt you for the past weeks. Now though, you can’t really avoid it anymore since you were supposed to be seeing him in person again after almost 2 years. You didn’t exactly leave on the best terms with Jungkook but who knows, maybe you’ll be able to act civil around each other.

At least you were sure you were going to act civil around him, already decided on taking the higher path. You’re not so sure about him, but fingers crossed he’ll at least be an adult about the situation and pretend he can stand being in the same room as you.

Soon enough, you were entering the room the script reading was to be held in. Bowing and greeting the actors and staff seated around the table as you passed by to get to the last vacant seat. You caught Jungkook’s eyes following your movements as you sat down. Luckily, he was seated across from you and it was easier to ignore his presence with the staff members greeting and coddling you.

As always, script reading began with actors introducing themselves and the role they’re going to play. As the female lead, you started off.

“Hello everyone. I’m y/n y/l/n and I’m going to take on the role of Yuri.” Hands clapped around you as you sat back down.

“Hello, I’m Jeon Jungkook and I’ll be playing Ryan.”

You didn’t bother clapping unlike the rest and avoided the eyes of the voice’s origin.

The script reading continued without a hitch– for the most part. The other cast members were very friendly, and laughter was exchanged during the read. The same couldn’t be said for you and Jungkook though.

When lines between your characters were exchanged, there was a weird tension in the room. It felt like everyone else were holding their breaths and waiting for either of you two explode and announce that you can’t do this film anymore. As dramatic as that would be, none of that happened. Instead, cheesy romantic lines sounded flat and bored from both you and Jungkook. The director made a tsk-ing sound whenever that happened.

“It’s always been you.” You read. The script said that Yuri and Ryan stared in adoration towards each other before Ryan uttered his next words.

“Marry me?” Jungkook asked.

You nodded your head as a wrap for the script reading. According to the script, there was supposed to be a kissing scene at the end, so you make ridiculous smooching noises. The cast burst into giggles before the director stood from his seat.

“…and that’s a wrap!” He clasped his hands together. “Hopefully when we start shooting things only look up from there.” He flitted his eyes between you and Jungkook.

Honestly, you wish that too but from yours and Jungkook’s history, you don’t really think that’s possible.

You were both professionals though and you’re sure you could at least count on him to make the on-screen romance feel real.

“I’m sorry.” Hoseok said with pity in his eyes.

“Wha- but… why?” You asked, confused with what was happening.

Your part in the new film ‘The Notebook: Remake’ has apparently been withdrawn. As one of the rising stars in Hollywood, this was a really great opportunity for you. It’s one of the most anticipated films and accepting the offer of being the female lead in the movie was a no-brainer. Anyone who refuses that role is just stupid.

But now they were apparently taking it back.

Hoseok sighed. “There were too many scandals surrounding you recently. It doesn’t matter if they’re true or not, but you’ve been seen in hotels that Jeon Jungkook has been in too, and in everyone’s eyes you’re now secretly seeing him.”

“But we’ve never even been seen together in any of those photos. Don’t people know the word fucking coincidence?” Your brows furrowed, fists clenching at your sides. “And what does this have to do with my role in the film?”

“It seems they wanted someone with a ‘cleaner image’ and someone who’ll get the film to be a hit. Apparently, the romance won't be convincing if the female lead is dating someone in real life.”

You stared at Hoseok. He stared back waiting for a lash out, an angry outburst, anything really, but you remained silent, eyes unmoving. Soon enough, the dam doors burst open and the tears suddenly came streaming down your face. Hoseok exhaled and wrapped his arms around you.

“Hobi what did I do so wrong to deserve this?” you sobbed into his chest.

“Shh, it’s not your fault they’re all dumbasses. But you know the industry, y/n. We’ll find better films for you, okay?”

��Why is Jeon Jungkook such a thorn on my side? Why is he always ruining everything for me?”

“We can’t blame him, honey. He’s probably a victim in this too because of those damn rumor outlets.” Hoseok rubbed his hands along your back.

“But I’m getting the short end of the stick! The rumor is probably just feeding his bad boy persona!”

“Life’s unfair, y/n. Surely by now you’re aware of that. Just remember, karma’s going to bite them in the ass someday, okay? For now, do you want to call it a day and go home? I’ll drive you back and I’ll just report to the agency that you’re not feeling well.”

You nod your head, too listless to bother answering with words because there was only one thing on your mind right now.

Fuck Jeon Jungkook and his good looks. He just ruined the best opportunity for you. You were going to get him back for this. Like Hoseok said, karma’s going to bite him in the ass someday. And that karma was going to be you.

You were supposed to be looking forward to filming one of your dream movies with your dream director. But all you felt was dread when you arrived on set. You promised yourself that you’d stay unaffected to Jeon Jungkook, but you couldn’t help the distaste for him to be left on your face while filming.

The scene you were shooting was when your characters first met and the first takes were a total disaster. You and Jungkook barely spared each other a glance, even when your character was supposed to be enticed by him, breaking down Yuri’s cold exterior. A break was called after the 6th take because the director was so frustrated that he looked like he was about to call the casting director and replace his two leads.

You sighed, not knowing what to do with yourself after the announcement of a break. Your feet led you to your dressing room, ready to pass out on the couch but before you could, someone barged in. Your head turned towards the door, expecting it to be your manager or the director or anyone really, just not the person who currently stood at the doorway.

“Can we talk?” Jungkook asked. Your eyes were suddenly drawn to his biceps which bulged from his shirt as he crossed his arms. The damn arms looked delicious. Too bad they belonged to someone you would never ever be attracted to.

“Sure.” You shrugged your shoulders. You were sure he came here to talk to you about filming and how to work out your indifferences and shit like that and honestly, you were so tired of hating him you’re ready to just go along with whatever. Hating someone actually takes a lot of effort, you realize.

Jungkook stepped towards you until he’s close enough that you had to tilt your head upwards to look at his eyes. His eyes locked on yours for a moment before his arms uncrossed and one of his hands landed on the wall behind you. He successfully caged you in with no way out. His lips part and your eyes are drawn to the movement, feeling his exhales on your nose. You swallowed nervously.

Good lord his breath smelled so good.

“Babe, I’m sure you’re just as thrilled as I am to be working with you again as you are with me, but let’s not mess this up okay? Let’s get this over with perfectly and quickly so we don’t have to deal with each other again after. Deal?” His eyebrows raised in question and you nodded dumbly, unable to form a coherent sentence with how close he was to you.

You felt a sudden rush of heat down there and was mentally cursing the man in front of you for how much he was affecting you. He tilted his head to the side and leaned in closer to your face as if he was about to kiss you then he suddenly stopped, his mouth forming a smirk, taunting you.

That smirk was all it took for you to snap back to reality. No, you were not going to let him take the upper hand here. A burst of confidence surged through you as you leaned closer to him too and allowed your lips to brush lightly against his cheek.

“Deal.”

You pulled away, satisfied with how his lips drooped apparently not expecting that. You looked down and there it was, the tenting of his pants that brought a coy smile to your lips. Ha, take that.

You glanced back up at him, your fingers trailing over his thighs. “Aw, didn’t realize you saw me that way Jeon.” You abruptly pulled away and walked out of the room without another word, leaving him hard and defeated.

This is the beginning of his karma, you thought as you grinned to yourself.

[haleigh-sloth]

Why is everyone blaming the editor for the few latest chapters writing? He became horikoshi's editor last year in september and the manga's writing was fine until the nagant fight, everyone shitting on him because he used to be the editor for samurai 8 but the manga got canceld because kishimoto was given too much freedom it's not the editor's fault. I honestly don't understand why everyone hating on him for no reason.

I don't know this editor or anything about him, so I don't feel compelled to defend him. And I don't know anything about Samurai 8 either. So I can't comment there. But trust me he's not getting hate for no reason.

Just because he took over in September doesn't mean that's when he started influencing the writing. I highly doubt Horikoshi did not already have most of the war arc finished up before it was published, especially the Touya reveal chapters.

The quality of the manga really started to decline after the Todoroki chapters and the chapter where the "beginning of the end" started--so Chapter 306. All of that seemed to fit pretty fine, it seemed like something he didn't decide to do last minute. It felt like he had it planned.

And as much of a mess as the Todoroki chapters were--I wouldn't blame it on editing. I blame those on Horikoshi deciding to make Endeavor more redeemable by trying to retcon way too late into the game--and the screwing up of the timeline could have been an honest mistake. I'm thinking it was because he said he's fixing it in the volume release which means he still wants us to go off of the original timeline--Touya dying after Rei was hospitalized. I'm assuming it's the author's exhaustion mixed with trying to fix Endeavor too late. But I digress...

As for this editor's influence:

Have you noticed that the story is putting an unreasonable amount of focus on Hawks and Endeavor? Have you noticed that Hawks and Endeavor are two of the most popular characters in the franchise, and that there's a movie coming out where they are a huge focus of it? And have you noticed that Hawks and Endeavor getting this much focus on the manga is seriously ruining the story quality and the plot progression? But pleasing some readers who--in my opinion--don't care about the story quality but only care about their character getting screen time? (Oh and don't even get me started on that ONE random Shindo chapter because of that character poll.)

It's because they should NOT be getting this much focus. They are not playing the part in the plot they should be playing. Hawks was dead-set onto the path for a heroic death. He kinda still is--but it's now up in the air if Hori will follow through on that. He killed Twice and was shown to be immensely in the wrong for it, but now the story is pretending it never happened. The story is handing EVERYTHING to him--excusing him of things he shouldn't be excused for. And I'm going to boldly GUESS that this is in order to keep readers from getting angry over Hawks's character falling deeper into the cracks--for now. He still may--and he should because this lack of attention paid to what he did is seriously ruining his character for me. And throwing Hawks in to save Lady Nagant after she exploded, it's just pointless screen time for him. His character would be better if he was given substance and shown to react to the world he is in instead of being written to just follow Endeavor unquestionably with no reserve about it and have the story just BACK THAT UP. He deserves better writing and he's not getting it.

Hawks and Endeavor being the focus of the plot has done NOTHING to move the story forward. HOW has it?? Midoriya's quirks could have been discovered with literally any other characters being focused on alongside him. All this going back and forth between Midoriya and them two has literally put the story at a stand-still between the main character moving forward, and the pro-heroes just defeating little side villains in the streets. NOTHING significant has happened or moved anything forward in ten chapters.

I can't honestly say for sure it's fan-influenced. But Hawks and Endeavor are getting their own movie right around the time that this shit in the manga is happening. It just FEELS like advertisement for these two characters. And while Horikoshi has had shitty arcs before (JTA I'm lookin at you) I haven't really seen him straight up ruin his story for the sake of two characters.

Hawks and Endeavor have effectively eaten Shouto's arc for now. We should be seeing Shouto battle is internal struggles about his villain brother. Not Hawks and Endeavor ignore the fact that Endeavor just confessed to the world he beat his wife and children and not mention his son ONCE since the hospital chapters. It doesn't make any sense. The story FEELS like it is literally on hold in order to promote these two characters and that is definitely editor's influence. On top of that--the style that the story is being told in now. All these flashbacks, all these cliff hangers that get really really old after a while---I'm sorry but with the timing of the editor taking over, and the quality of the chapters falling into the toilet I have no choice but to blame the editor. If I blame Horikoshi alone then I'm basically saying I have no faith in the rest of the story and I should just stop reading now. And I don't want to believe that. I don't believe that.

Issues as a writer aside--Horikoshi has been telling a good story and he's been doing what he wants for the most part. Saving his villains, challenging the status quo, calling out real life issues in the story through allegories. He's been doing it, but this ridiculous bullshit that is happening RIGHT NOW I'm going to blame on the editor and hope to GOD that Horikoshi starts doing what he originally wanted to do with his story in the next arc. I think he will. I'm not worried about it, but that doesn't mean I can't bitch about what's going on now, because Hawks and Endeavor are literally RUINING the story for me personally right now and have been for several weeks and I'm betting money it's this editor's decisions.

I'm not saying the story is doomed for having this editor. I'm saying that right now it feels like a bunch of advertisement for these two particular characters to make the audience happy before getting back to what really needs to be written. I have no doubt that it is going to shift back into normalcy where it's focusing on Bakugo, Shouto, Ochaco, and Midoriya working toward their goals of saving their villains. But honestly what is this focus on two of the most annoyingly popular characters doing for the endgame of the story? Nothing.

[jonathanarcher]

So. You want to watch Enterprise but you've heard it's largely terrible. Here's some good news: I actually really like Enterprise and I have strong opinions on the episodes and I'm giving them to you for free

Green- generally considered to be good

Orange- I personally like it but it's not stellar/I think it's underrated

Red- It's terrible but it makes me laugh

Season 1

(edit) Broken Bow- 1x01: Its the pilot you should probably watch it. Does a very good job establishing the characters and the general (horny) vibe

Strange New World- 1x03: the first of many "uh oh something is making a member/members of the crew act oddly" but I really like this for the first half of the episode because it's something so unique to Enterprise and you can really feel the enthusiasm for exploring this place where humans haven't gone before and you can see how things are different because there isn't things like a fully reliable transporter yet

The Andorian Incident- 1x06: trip and archer visit a Vulcan monastery and hijinks ensues but more importantly it's the first appearance of Shran!!! Famously brought the Andorians back into star trek and it also shows the Vulcans for the shady bitches they can sometimes (usually) be

Breaking the Ice- 1x07: the gang finds a big ole comet. this isn't a great episode but there are a lot of cute little character moments I really love including Travis and Malcolm making a snow Vulcan

Shadows of P'Jem- 1x14: Archer and T'Pol get kidnapped and proceed to refuse to have any romantic chemistry whatsoever. But who cares because it's a Shran episode!!

Shuttlepod One- 1x15: Trip and Malcolm get stranded in shuttlepod One with slowly dwindling resources. Not beloved by critics but the fans sure go wild.

Rogue Planet- 1x17: Archer romances a shapeshifting space slug

Acquisition- 1x18: this is just a fun episode. basically the Ferengi take over the enterprise and it's up to Trip to save the day in his underwear. A lot of people rag on it for causing continuity errors to which i say fuck you man star trek is full of continuity errors and this one isn't that bad.

Detained- 1x20: Archer and Travis get held in a detention center with several Suliban and the gang learns that racism is bad. Also, a quantum leap reunion

Vox Sola- 1x21: space jizz teaches trip and a random crewmen the highs and lows of water polo. Also, an underrated T'poshi episode

Two Days and Two Nights- Enterprise's first and only Risa episode and my god is it horny. Hoshi gets laid though good for her

Season 2

Carbon Creek- 2x02: T'Pol tells a story about her grandmother living on earth in the 1940s and Jolene Blalock gets to wear some real fucking clothes. Good fun, solid emotional beats, and the chronologically first Vulcan and human romance.

Minefield- 2x03: the ship goes into an alien minefield. Not the most creative name but a very tense episode AND the first real appearance of the Romulans

Deadstop- 2x04: an unofficial part two to minefield where a heavily damaged Enterprise comes across a high tech station that will repair it for a relatively low price... or is it? A delightful little romp and if you're into trip/malcolm this ones for you

A Night in Sickbay- 2x05: Archer is a fucking asshole in this episode but also his entire dream sequence and the end scene kills me dead

Marauders- 2x06: it's a magnificent seven reference in space with some great outfits. It's not life changing but it's harmless fun.

Dawn- 2x13: It's like Darmok but if Picard and that alien dude started beating the absolute shit out of each other and Picard was steadily stripping throughout the episode and I love it

Cease Fire- 2x15: Shran is back and bluer than ever baby! Another good look at the Vulcan/Andorian conflict and Jeffrey Combs gives it his all

Horizon- 2x20: the only episode of Enterprise to be Travis Mayweather centric and it's not mind blowingly good but we have to support our boy

Regeneration- 2x23: Enterprise's Borg episode that ties up a couple of plot holes from First Contact and has a fantastic score by Brian Tyler. Largely considered to have made the Borg scary again

First Flight- 2x24: Tells the story of the first flight of the warp two engine and the origin story of archer and trips friendship. Good old wholesome fun

Season 3

Impulse- 3x05: Enterprise does its own take on a zombie movie but with Vulcans. Need I say more.

Twilight- 3x08: Archer gets a space disease that makes it so he's incapable of making new memories and results in 50 first dates in hell. Gives a look at what will happen if the Enterprise fails to stop the Xindi weapon and T'Pol gets to wear the uniform

North Star- 3x09: Cowboy episode! Cowboy episode! Cowboy episode!

Similitude- 3x10: Trip gets severely injured and Phlox and Archer decide to grow a rapidly aging clone to save his life. This is a heavy one folks but I think the casting for the various young Trips is a particular stand out.

Carpenter Street- 3x11: Archer and T'Pol have time travel shenanigans including stealing a car and robbing an ATM. Lots of horror movie references for some reason.

Proving Ground- 3x13: Shran shows up out of nowhere in the expanse but does he have ulterior motives??? Yes. It's a Shran episode those are always good

Stratagem- 3x14: Archer, like many captains before him, finally gets his theater kid episode where he gets the act his little heart out in a stupid elaborate plan to trick Degra into telling him where the Xindi are building the weapon

Damage- 3x19: the ship is stranded without a warp drive and the only way to acquire one is to rob another ship. Holy shit does this episode get dark but I does present a good moral dilemma

E^2- 3x21: the Enterprise comes across an Enterprise that was sent into the past and that is staffed entirely by their decedents. It's a bit of filler episode but generally beloved by fans

The Council/Countdown/Zero Hour- 2x22-2x24: a pretty kick ass three part season finale that does uphold the Star Trek idea of trying to solve problems through diplomacy with some pretty good space fights. Very suspenseful and these were the episodes that made me understand why people thought Enterprise could actually be good

Season 4

(edit) Home- 4x03: the episode where everyone looks at the last year and realized that they might be traumatized. A good and necessary cool down ep after the xindi arc and sets the show up to be a bit more hopeful, a lot of good moments between characters

Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments- 4x04-4x06: Brent Spiner is back baby and they are going to milk him for all he's worth. I don't personally think these episodes are great but they're action packed and adds a ton to the lore

The Forge/Awakening/Kir'Shara- 4x07-4x09: this post is entirely my opinions so I'm going to say this is the best of all of the trilogies and probably the best Enterprise ever got. This trilogy has everything: shran, surak, t'pau, a shit ton of lore that explains how enterprise vulcans become tos/tng vulcans.

Observer Effect- 4x11: Hoshi and Trip are infected by a mysterious virus while non corporeal aliens posses various members of the crew to watch them. Great Hoshi moments in this one and a great tie in to the original series. My personal favorite episode

Babel One/United/The Aenar- 4x12-4x14: I don't want to spoil anything because there are a couple of great twists in this but it's another Shran episode baby!! It does lead to the first big step to the founding of the federation.

Affliction/Divergence- 4x15-4x16: Phlox gets kidnapped by Klingons and the gang goes on a man hunt to find him. Finally fleshed out Reeds backstory in an interesting way. Divergence has the best action scene in all of Enterprise with the crossing the tether scene imo. Continues the tradition of tying up loose ends from tos that no one really needed an answer to but it does it in a really interesting way.

In a Mirror, Darkly part 1 and 2- 4x18-4x19: season four is the season where they were desperately trying to tie into other, better star treks and it works for them. These are currently the only episodes to take place entirely in the mirror universe with mirror universe characters and if you hate faith of the heart than I have some good news for you. You can tell all the actors are having a great time chewing the scenery and it's some good old fashioned fun

Demons/Terra Prime- 4x20-4x21: nothing but respect for MY Enterprise series finale. In all seriousness this actually does a pretty good job of rapping up the show and giving every character a moment to shine. Fantastic performance by everyone but especially Jolene Blalock and Connor Trinneer.

[littlemessyjessi]

How They’d Be As Mukbangers:  Harry Potter Characters

How They'd Be As YouTube Mukbangers

James: Every video has a theme.   Like, I'm not even playing.   Holidays?  All kinda of holiday themed food.  Quidditch World Cup coming up?   Things inspired by the country of his favorite team.   Just a random day?  Everything is blue.   He's that type of way.

Sirius:  If a mukbanger was a thirst trap.  I could easily see him really getting into.  Dark background, black gloves, aesthetic as fuck and like, he doesn't even talk.  He just sits there, looks hot and somehow makes eating looking incredibly sexy.  And he fucking knows it.   Bitch also one hundred percent rolls his eyes back when it hits his taste buds.  Licks his lips and his fingers.  Takes way too big of bites.   Most people would say it's cringy how sexual his videos are...but everyone is secret subscribed anyway.  With notifications on.

Remus:  This goes one of two ways.  If he's in a good mood and things are chill, he'll find a recipe, make it to the mother fucking 't' and then have a little mukbang slash review on said recipe.  Nice lil chat.  Sweet tol bean.   Precious. If it's near the full moon there ain't none of that.  Ya boy, brings in his monstrous plate of food, sits it down and just tears into like a fucking beast, no talking.  Just nom nom nom.  Unintentionally thirst traps and people opening talk about when Remus goes beast mode.  

Peter:  Candy and sweets channel! Small mukbangs with reviews from different candies from Honeydukes!

Lily:  Lol, Lilypad.  She ain't playing around.  Her videos are planned out, edited and just generally finessed to perfection.  Even had music added to it with tiny vlog segments as it's set up.  It's a little pretentious but she does have a good following.

Marlene:   This bitch.  Fucking competitive eating queen.  Tiny ass lil ho can eat you under the table, bro.   Think RainaIsCrazy on YouTube.  She can fucking smash.  Usually does eating challenges from different resteraunts and competitions.  Often, challenges Remus on his wild days.   He's a beast but she still wipes the floor with him.  

Dorcas:  The collab.  Dorcas always has good food and good company.  She's all about sharing a meal with someone and talking about random things.

Alice and Frank:  The couple channel.  It's generally filled with so much fucking cute and the food is always tasty.  It's sickening they feed each other but you also can't help but awww.

Molly Prewett/Weasley:   Family recipes.   Molly's channel are tried and true recipes from the Prewett family.  Cook with me and tons of kitchen life hacks.  Also, that woman can turn a ham sandwhich into a full course meal. Bet.   Always taste tested by Daddy Weasley.  Yes, I said Daddy Weasley.  

Lucius Malfoy:  The most pretentious fucking channel to ever exist.  It's a whole fucking production that admittedly he does put a lot of work into.   Somewhat thirst trappy like Sirius' but instead of just having a plain black background he goes out of his way to shove as much of his manor into.   Only eats the most expensive food fucking on the planet and of course, it's prepared by House elves cause he's a twit.  (Yes, I know this is Thranduil but honestly wouldn’t put it past Lucius to be this fucking pretentious.) 

Severus Snape:  Actually pretty solid content.  His exquisite skills in potions actually made him a rather good chef.   Tasteful shots, edited well with music over everything and subtitles.   Simply audio for the eat portion at the end.  Nothing too fancy for the background.  Often just a very clean kitchen. Solid content though.

The Black Sisters: Mass chaos.  Part vlog, part drama channel, half the time the food never even gets finished because of fights.  

Bill Weasley:  The Traveler.   A lot of egyptian food.  Some made by hand.  Some vlogs from street food while he's out just generally doing his job.   Short videos but solid.  He's hot and he picks good food.  It works for him.

Charlie Weasley:  This extra ass bitch.  He's the bitch that does all that outdoor cooking.  You know what I mean.   Shots in the woods, roaring fire.  Lit by a precious dragon child no doubt.  Dragons lounging in the background like those bitches who always have their dogs there.  Yes, I'm jealous.  Close up shots of him cutting things on a custom wood cutting board. Everything he makes causes your mouth to water.  God damn, scarred, freckle faced bastard just gobbles it up and ends every fucking video with a wink.   Charlie Weasley is the ultimate thirst trap and he fucking knows it.

Percy:  Percy's channel could be epic but instead is boring as fuck.  Why?  Because he insist on having the most snooze worthy meals that are 'sensible' and THEN he proceeds to talk about politics.   He actually had a pretty decent following of other like minded individuals but my god- politics and porridge, Percy?  Really?

However, once he chills the fuck out, leaves the ministry to do something else - it’s a game changer.  Brings the family on for mukbangs.  Does videos with mummy weasley.  Percy grows his hair out and Bill teases him for being a copy cat.  Much better.  Still talks politics but it’s fucking hiliarous and now the food is poppin. 

Fred and George:  Alright, this shit right here.   Every fucking bit of it is a self promo for the shop.  Meals inspired by and that would go well paired with 'this product'.  Like, that's the whole thing.  And then they run an add for their shop at the end featuring the product.  It works for them because they're smart, they're hot and they're also wildly entertaining with their constantly sibling squabbling. But yeah.  Big promo for the shop.

Ron Weasley: Honestly, out of everyone.   Ron probably has the most followers and it's because he doesn't say shit while he's eating. He sits down with a massive fucking turkey.  Nods at the camera and just tears it up.   It's literally so satisfying.  All the food is prepared by his mother.  So it's obviously fantastic. ( I just had to use this gif.) 

Ginny:   Gin's channel is usually team building videos with the Harpies.  'Cheat Day: Vlog and Mukbang w/the Harpies' type of vibes.  It's cool though and since it's a famous quidditch team the fans enjoy the behind the scenes action and actually drop all kinds of recipes for them to try in the future.

Hermione:  Hermione could easily veer off into Percy's channel of misery when she gets started on her rants but mostly they're really chill videos.  Mukbang and Book Review type of vibe.  Or sometimes even the playing of an audio book while she does her thing.  All in all, wholesome.

Harry:  Lol, I swear.  Fucking awkward bean.   Harry's videos are literally of him making the simplest of things and being so fucking awkward. "Er, well, hi guys.  So I'm about to head out for work.  Running a bit late.  But we're having a bit of toast and jam."  Like it's literally just little videos of him eating whatever throughout the day.  But of course, since he's Harry Fucking Potter- his follower count is astronomical.  

Neville:  Now, this boy.  This boy is a goblincore gobbo's wet dream.  Gardening videos with homegrown veg.  Recipes from Grandmother.   Have a nice Veggie Pot Pie with Professor Longbottom in the Hogwarts Greenhouse.  There is a fanbase and it is huge.  

Luna: Honestly, the weirdest fucking channel in the world.  Like she finds the weirdest things to eat and goes from there.  But Luna is bae so it's cool.  Also, a thousand percent does Smoke Sesh + Mukbang videos.  You know it's true.

Dean and Seamus:  Literally, eating in the most crowded pubs as they visit football games around the country.  Seamus will definitely pull the Irish card from time to time to have a drinking competition.  He wins everytime.  He may be a little dude but shit- homie can hold his own.

Cedric:  Honestly, it's so fucking pure.   Straight up did videos during his time at Hogwarts in the Hogwarts kitchen.  Such kind little conversations with the house elves.  "Hey, guys.  Thanks for coming back to another video.  Today we're making some really tasty biscuits.  Whispy, one of the talented bakers here in the kitchens, is here to help us today so please say hello to her in the comments."  He'll also always make extra and leave them in the Hufflepuff common room for everyone to enjoy.  Like, it's honestly so pure and he's such a soft boi and oh my fucking geeeeeeerrrrrrdddd!!!!!

Draco: Actually takes it really seriously and put a lot of hard work into it.   Nothing like his father's ego-tistical recipes.   Surprisingly, every. single. recipe. is a muggle recipe.  How would he know?  Because he cross referenced with Granger of course.  Cooks it himself.   No magic.  Lots of random talks.  Just like a monologue of things and it gets kinda deep sometimes.   Like, it's the channel to go to when you need advice that you didn't even know that you needed.   Still eats incredibly proper.   It's that pureblood raising of his.  Old habits die hard.

Tonks:  Pure chaos.  "Hey, today we're having Mum's homemade lasagna and I'm also getting a new tattoo.  Might dye my hair.  Don't really need to since I can do this  but whatever. So yeah, there's that.  Like it's just all over the place and you'd think it would take but the chaos is too good not to watch.  Literally gives herself beaks and snouts while she eats.  It's iconic.

Dumbledore: Mother fucker just sits at his desk, stares straight into the camera and eats a lemon drop.  Like a weirdo.  The video usually no more than a minute and each video is just some variation of that.  Meme lord.

Hagrid:  Tea With Hagrid.  Also, so the recipes suck, they too, but Hagrid is a peach and it's relaxing to see his gentle half giant there in his hut, pumpkin patch out the window and Fang laying by the fire.  It's a mood and he's just like the comforting Dad figure. 

McGonagall:  Honestly the best one in the entire world.  She makes a full course traditional Scottish breakfast... and then transforms into her animagus the cat...and promptly knocks it off the table.   A fucking legend.

------------------------------

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Love, Kenny

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Love, Kenny

[writing-frenzy]

I Wouldn’t Risk It (SVSSS Fic)

Summery: In which one annoyed Shang Huan does not know why he puts up with a certain Demonic Cultivator- “I owe you.” ah, that’s right.

Warning: some Violence and blood, and cursing. All good things to be found in svsss canon~

(In which @hamelin-born is a terrible, wonderful enabler, thus this is how it came about.)

EDIT: Part of Wager verse, first Part HERE

----

“Welcome to- oh wait it’s you.” Shang Huan started to greet some incoming customers, only to give the pair that came in a flat look instead.

“Greetings Uncle Shang!” Cao Mei, an actually adorable raven haired girl, her purple eyes so dark one could almost think they were black if it weren’t for certain lighting here and there. Puberty was obviously treating her well, seeing she must have been 19 at least, was developing some curves, her baby fat also finally melted off. But despite this, Shang Huan was unmoved, as for one, he wasn’t a fucking pedo, and two, he could easily see that same matching intelligence and calculation she inherited from her grandfather’s own dark purple eyes.

As expected of Wife #45; not only a knock out beauty in the making, but even had more IQ points then most, along with a more developed character and backstory then a lot of his later wife plots.

Though, he could admit he was taken off guard with her story then most; the cause of that being one certain person-

“I see the place hasn’t burnt down yet; congratulations for that.” was huffed by said anomaly, making Shang Huan focus his deadpan face on the other.

“Thanks, my kitchen staff is always trying though.” and no sooner were the words spoken, then what sounded like multiple firecrackers going off in said kitchen... He could even swear he saw what looked like a blue firework of a bird fly out from there, before one of his handy golems ate it as it passed...

Closing his eyes, Shang Huan counted to three, before opening them once more; he would never be able to count as high as he really wanted, but time was rarely on his side, so three it was. Hazel eyes once more opening, Shang Huan was able to look at a source of many headaches, one Dark Poison Sect Leader, Cao Xiaowen, a true doting grandfather who still looked like he was only in his late 20s, his blood red hair peppered with black from all the resentful energy surrounding him, and greys from stress of life actually catching up with him.

And a character that was never in Proud Immortal Demon Way, but yet again from one of his other stories; a Demonic Sect Leader that had just been a random background character, just to flesh out that world a bit more. He had only named because while he could get away without naming the Sect the guy made, it wouldn’t make sense to have Cao Xiaowen be nameless, seeing as he had bullshited a whole bunch of techniques this infamous and well known demonic cultivator was supposed to have made...

Making a face at that smiling face before him, Shang Huan felt some regrets; just some more to add to his pile stashed in his closet and under his floorboards, but what can one do? Especially with a story that seems to make sure he can never forget any of them, always seeming to push willing to push cheery, willful mistakes into his face.

i.e. the Demonic Sect Leader before him.

But then again, to see these two characters, Cao Xiaowen and Cao Mei connect here, in this living world of PIDW and other mash ups, was honestly rather amazing, just with Demonic Cultivation and the same last names... It was as fascinating as it was paranoia inducing. Cao Mei had been just another revenge wife plot, the young woman wanting vengeance against her Mother for killing her loved family members along with trying to kill her... as well as to save her young baby brother, who their Mother was trying to mold into her perfect image of Sect Leader. The girl had only been able to survive for as long as she did because one of her dying relatives had sacrificed themselves, turning themselves into her Spirit Familiar and protecting her...

.... And as for Cao Xiaowen, when he had mentioned how he went down in his end in his own story verse, Airplane had only said that it was due to betrayal and sacrifice, that being the only ending he gave the character...

(How many other fucking throwaway lines does he have to worry about ohmygodwhyisthishislife-)  

“...So, why do you choose now to darken my doorway?” Shang Huan asked, the unspoken ‘I-know-you-hate-this-place-much-less-willing-to-bring-your-beloved-granddaughter-with-you.’ not said, but easily heard.

“... You would be glad to know, but I must now introduce you to Sect Leader of the Dark Poison Sect, Cao Meihui.” Cao Xiaowen introduced as he motioned to the young girl. Shang Huan stared for but a moment before closing his eyes once more, even as whispers broke out all around them in his place, from the gambling tables to even the bar and restaurant.

This time he allowed himself to count to 10, as a treat.

“Follow me this way, Elder Cao, Sect Leader Cao.” and with a simple hand motion, a few of his workers already getting things done, the Ruby Room already to entertain his ‘guests’. It didn’t take to long after all, with his standards and staff precision, but he needed to make sure there was nothing to spy on in this conversation.

Because oh, does he have a lot to say right now.

Once the door was closed and all the silences spells and talismans in place, Shang Huan rounded on the now sitting pair, letting his hands slam on the service table before him.

“Can you not?!” Shang Huan seethed, even as Cao Xiaowen grinned, his heir now leader beside him shifting ever so slightly beside him, smartly making some space between them.

“Why, Shang Huan, what ever do you mean?”

“You politic in my place again and I will make sure to show the world just how much I can beat you into the ground.” was practically growled, Cao Xiaowen smartly raising his hands in surrender as he did. “Why the hell did you even need to do that, didn’t you already get the stalker bitch killed and dispersed last year? I distinctly remember being there for the mad ramblings.” 

-Urgh- he never wanted that much TMI into someone’s deluded sexual fantasies, especially rounding around this who-me? Demonic Cultivator! Body stealing and marrying the guy’s son just to get a possible chance at him, and then killing him and half his family when she still couldn’t get what she wanted to spite him?

Shang Huan doesn’t move, but that still doesn’t mean he’s not fighting a shiver of repulsion at the thought. Seeing the way Cao Xiaowen grimaced at the reminder, Shang Huan was actually starting to feel in a better mood. 

“While she and most of her supporters are now gone, traces of those who still hold sympathies for her and her ideals still remain.” the man scowled, even as he took out a small sachet, handing the small plain back over as he did.

Hmmm, spicy roasted melon seeds; say what you will about the man, he did know his bribes at least.

“They’re also trying to push my little didi to be the next Sect Leader, even though he never wanted it in the first place!” Cao Meihui scowled in turn, taking out a beautiful, yet still deadly battle fan to fan herself. “Really, he has suffered enough under that woman’s ‘care’, he should be able to choose however he wishes to live in life!”

Shang Huan doesn’t even wince at those words, even as he thinks on the poor fate of canon fodder Cao Yun, a young boy desperate to leave his harsh home circumstances, even joining a certain Righteous Sect set to be doomed and destroyed, loosing his home once again and setting him in turn on a doomed quest to stop Luo Binghe...

Well, considering the boy had left home at 15, and had only just turned that this year, maybe that path could be prevented; there were still plenty of other Sects still up and running when his protagonist came into power, maybe he could join one of those?

Still though, maybe he should give the kid a transportation talisman for his birthday; you can never have too many of those after all.

“That still does not explain why you had to announce Young Mei right in front of my store.”

“Please, it’s the perfect place too; not many completely neutral places around anymore, what with Hua Hua Palace trying to police everyone and dragging the other Righteous Sects into it... Speaking of which, they haven’t bothered you after last time, have they?” Cao Xiaowen asks, with what looks like could be actual concern in his eyes.... Ha-

“I’m pretty sure they won’t forget my warding anytime soon; not to mention the rest of the towns folk’s farewells.” Shang Huan replies dryly, remembering just how all those golden pricks were beautifully thrown from his store, some of his staff even joining in on the beatdown the protection brought forth. If he remembers right, it soon became a whole town wide event to run them all out. 

And when you have a whole town seemingly a melting pot filled with Spiritual beings, humans, and demons, they definitely are going to have their wounds to lick.

“But again, my place is, as you said Neutral; so why are you bringing in politics here? Announcements of a new Sect Leader should be only at official events or places that one is already allied with after all.” The Owner of the Gilded Plane asks lightly, those hazel eyes taking on a deadly touch, like molten liquid gold is taking over bronze, a sunset of colors being the last of the sky you will ever see, easily to see it all reflected in the blade at his side.

(Ah, how terrifying, seeing the threat of Fortune’s Favored all out to bare, Dujin Xue at his side, the spirit weapon willing and bloodthirsty to take out any threat to its master.)

For a moment, all is silent, before finally, the red haired cultivator takes from his sleeves, a few boxes simple in their decorations and yet obviously of the finest Jade.

“I almost forgot; I have with me some of the finest of Blight and Poison Talismans with me, not to mention my newest creations; a Pipa made with Blood Drain White Wood and using heart strings of an abyssal creature, painted with curse residue.” Cao Xiaowen motions to an opened box with said black and purple instrument with white accents, truly a work of art and power, even unbound as it is, no master to really work those deadly strings just yet.

Another box is soon opened as well, revealing a twin pair of daggers, their blades white with a beautiful red handle for a hilt. “Not to mention these Ancient Necromancer’s Bone Daggers, recently uncovered in an old tomb, plenty of resentful energy and dark desires just waiting to be unveiled in any upcoming battle, madness in but a cut to be delivered...” the former Sect Leader says, a bit of sweat coming from his brow, those dark eyes uneasy even as he hides behind his bluster and charm. His granddaughter, Cao Meihui watches intently, her own dark eyes worried even as she is awed by her beloved grandfather’s work, and the man who can make him so nervous. 

The one Fortune’s Favored watches and listens, and waits, even as he is showcased all the wares most people would die to get their hands on, each item worth more then most lives to some.

“... I will give you a warning and you will be Marked for it; there will be no next time if you try and pull this stunt again, you hear me Xiaowen?” Shang Huan allows, eyes turning back into that warm and soft hazel, even as he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he does. Well, at least he now has more good things in store for his gambling patrons, who will no doubt go crazy for these goods.

(Never noticing how the familial pair relax, a breath of relief taken for their own that this gambit actually worked, even if they are now Marked by all the staff.

Best behavior is a must for now at least.) 

-----+----- 

~15 Years ago~

Cao Xiaowen, once just regular Cao Xiao, was a man most would never dare cross; as a Demonic Cultivator, you wouldn’t even be able to escape through death. He had cultivated carefully along his chosen path, having no talent for what was Righteous roads, so turned down to darker paths and alleys to get what he wanted. He had been smart about it, and equally talented for Demonic Cultivation, becoming a Bounty Hunter to be able to hide just what practices he used.

Not only did it get him much needed gold, but the resentful energy and blood of the wicked were quiet useful on his path. Unlike other Demonic Cultivators that sought to take in the energies as fast as possible to form their Obsidian Cores, killing innocents, and eventually needing Cauldrons in the end to balance themselves and to go farther in their Cultivation, Cao Xiaowen went for a more steadfast pace.

He first started with crafting items of Resentful energy, talismans and amulets to get a better feel for the delicacies of the energy he chose to work with. With time and effort, along with plenty of meditation and blood on his hands, he found a cultivation path that suited him rather well, untraditional as it was for the usual brutal force most Demonic Cultivators usually went. His path was like a slow acting poison, letting the wicked energies ever so carefully, ever so gently gather into his meridians, building up a steady foundation before he ever focused on building his Core.

And the results for it were astounding; when compared to traditional Demonic Cultivators, not only could Cao Xiaowen hold his own with those stages above his own, he could beat even those whose Cultivation that was said to be an entire level above him. Not to mention just how devastating his spells and attacks were against those of the Righteous Sects.

It was no surprise that when he founded his own Sect, he had plenty of disciples to chose and pick from...But he wasn’t stupid.

He knew he had plenty of enemies all around him, some just jealous of his power, others hateful of just how he got it, being a Demonic Cultivator was a sin for some even if he only went after criminals. That he was a rather attractive even as his red hair was peppered black and grey, and even a few tigers acting like pigs to be fatten all came for him in the end. He knows people were waiting in the shadows, eager to take him down and steal everything he worked for, salivating over his abilities and life work...

Though despite it all, he never expected the betrayal to come so close to home.

“P-papa.” was stuttered out by his honestly rather adorable Granddaughter, the young four year old sobbing as she reached for him; his daughter in law smiling all the while even as she held one of his crafted knives to the little girl’s throat. He had to give it to her, not many women could still look so devastatingly beautiful, covered as they were in their husband’s blood. He never expected the raven haired woman to be so ruthless, honestly sure the woman loved his son.

Looks like he still has errors in his judgement, even at his age; taken off guard on what he though would be a simple material gathering mission, only to be crippled and threatened by a woman he thought he could trust even as she slit his beloved child’s throat before his eyes.

“You really shouldn’t have refused me all those years ago; this all could have been avoided if you had just agreed to be mine... oh well, too late for regrets.” The woman mourns softly, making Cao Xiaowen feel his brow crinkle, dark eyes confused.

But trying to parse the words of the mad woman was not something he had time for, seeing as his lovely little granddaughter was suddenly in his arms, the both of them finding themselves being pushed off a cliff, and into the Broken Jaw Ravine.

Using what remained of his spiritual energy in his blighted Obsidian Core, Cao Xiaowen was fully prepared to become his dear granddaughter’s Familiar Spirit to protect her...

When in the end, it turned out unnecessary; they ended up landing in a Spirit Capture Net. And judging by the pure color and Qi he could feel running through it, a high quality one at that. Feeling how it blocked him from using any of his spiritual energy and Qi, he looked to his darling dear grandchild, the (forcibly) retired Sect Leader couldn’t help but feel so relieved to see her shaken, but well at least in body.

And then he heard the cursing.

“What in the fuck you soggy old vulture of a corpse! Curses on your fucking clothing to never be nice and pristine, to always stub your toe on the corner, to be miserable even when you have your favorite food! Do you know how long it took to make that net?! Could you have fallen somewhere else? No, of course the skies would decide to shit on me with some young man in my beautifully crafted net! Probably jumped off for the heck of it knowing how fucking dumb most Demonic Cultivators are! ARRRHGGGG YOU DAMN WALNUT!” was practically ranted below them, a young brunet man yelling up at him, who couldn’t be more then in his 20′s. (Though rather impressively at the Peak of Core Formation from what he could sense.)

As it was, two pairs of dark eyes could only give the ranting rouge a wide eyed stare, even when, in the end, the young man let them down, hazel eyes narrowed in on them. He raised one brow at his child that was with him, but easily narrowed them back onto Cao Xiaowen’s own.

Ah, he could probably sense his power (use his weakness).

“So, this is how it is going to go down. I’ll help heal you and your kid, won’t even leave her in debt... tho your ass is mine; I say jump, you better do it and ask if this is high enough. You will owe me till the end of your day and then some, and in return I will benevolently help you out. You agree or should I leave you and the kid here for any unpleasant fates?” was the rather grumpy, if smartly given offer, Cao Xiaowen finding he can’t help but respect it, even as crudely as it was put. Looking down to his innocent little Cao Mei, the grandfather could only nod at the offer, no other recourse that could ensure his little gem a better chance at life.

And thus marked the first meeting between the terrible and powerful Dark Poison Sect Leader Cao Xiaowen, and the Rogue Cultivator Shang Huan, who would one day have a title even greater then his own.

Amazing really, how some things start (and others end).

-----

:D Here we are, another story from this verse; it was really fun! (even if I actually had to create a damn timeline to make sure everything was straight TTxTT)

Anyways, here is an ally of Airplane! Their relationship can be described as.

Shang Huan: Why do I put up with you again?

Cao Xiaowen: Because I have the best gifts bitch. *Inwardly sweaty*

But Also-

Cao Xiaowen: So... Demonic Cultivating involves a lot of... Dual Cultivating huh... And are those innocents being brutally murdered over there?

Rando: Yeah, ain’t it great? :D

Cao Xiaowen: ... *proceeds to make a cultivation path that involves as little Dual Cultivation as needed while also being one of the nicest ironically* Ah, that is better, better get more wicked blood~

These two were really fun to write together, and with PIDW, I can make as many ocs as I want~ So much to do, so much to play with~

Oh yeah, Shang Hua’s blade, Dujin Xue means Gilded Blood :3

Cao I picked for being a common last name, while Xiaowen means red skies. Mei means red gem, but for Meihui I liked the meaning of monstrous/demonic beauty~ As you can see, I had fun~ 

[kuronekonerochan]

The laziest compilation of thoughts about the mess that was Alice (spoilers)

I finish a lot of shitty dramas. Like a lot. I could review them, but I won’t bc there’s too many and I’m too lazy (when you ff some dramas from 45min to 5 per episode it doesn’t really count as watching too many dramas bc it’s really a commercial break, lol). Some I watch for the so bad it’s good content, or love hate watching or just to have something to watch while I eat, even if they’re boring af. It’s also a tiny bit of ocd bc I need to see how they end (even the ones I drop I check out the finale). I only drop the ones that as Marie Kondo says *Do Not Spark Joy, more specifically...annoy me and make me cranky.

I sometimes bitch about it on DMs with ranty spoilers without structure and that reference other unrelated dramas or shows, because ADHD and my mind refuses to stay on topic, which would make it probably unintelligible except if you are in the niche who happens to have watched the other unrelated dramas, so it’s probably useless as a review.

That said, here are some random disconnected thoughts about Alice.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS BEWARE

(this is like partly copypaste of DM rants bc I am that lazy biatch. Also, fair warning I will seem super harsh or this drama because that’s the thing about a bitching dm versus a proper review... I am not bringing up all the points and talking about the good and what I liked as well as the bad, it’s just the bad...and although the drama is imo a mess, it does have some good in it. So if it were a review I’d always argue pros and cons...ranty thoughs who cares about pros? boring..I will not be bothered with devil’s advocate).

This was fascinating to watch, interesting but not good... but like a trainwreck.

I continued watching this mess despite the headache inducing convoluted plot (I watched a lot of timetravel stuff and I love it...encompassing all the theories about it, from butterfly effect, to effectively changing the future (with characters forgetting it or keeping it in memory because “eye of the storm” theory, the “efforts are futile and you can try to change it but the future is set in stone”, to “small changes can be made but big events are fixed points in time”, to “every change creates a new time line” and multiverse, etc... and trust me, all of them can be done well when well written or turn out a confusing illogical mess and that has nothing to do with the theory chosen, but with presenting how time travel works for that story and what the basic rules are and sticking to them...or when something happens that contradicts them, come up with an explanation as to why that happens.

 I don’t mean the drama should be an exposition borefest with too much pseudosciency jargon...but this drama gives you too little in the way of rules and the viewers sort of figure out how timetravel works (which is not bad per se, huge fan of show don’t tell...but there’s a limit to how much they cannot tell or the characters chose not to ask just for the sake of plot and not without any logic to it). Anyways, the little “rules” that we gather along the way...the writing doesn’t stick to them and keeps contradicting itself without addressing or explaining it and hoping we’re so confused we don’t notice. Some dramas you just say “eh, forget it, it doesn’t make sense, let’s turn off our brains and enjoy it”, but here if I wanted to try and follow what was going on at all it required “brain on” mode for their convoluted plot twists...which also made me aware of so may plotholes the time road should have looked like Swiss Cheese. I could go into them...but I cannot be bothered and the list would be extensive and still incomplete, so I will just put 3 here bc I can’t help it:

 1) Hot Daddy with emotional turmoil the entire drama of “Oh no, I abandoned her in 92 and regretted it, it happened 1 year ago for me, and now I find out she died in 2010. How was she, did she suffer? What did she know? Oh god, if only I were a time traveler eventually going rogue who could show up and talk to her any time in the timeline between 92 and 2010...Alas, I have to live in misery with the consequences of my actions...there is just ABSOLUTELY no way of solving this. I guess I’ll just keep making unauthorized time travel journeys from 2050′s time agency back to the year of 2020 and only 2020 to constantly be blindsided by murder attempts on everyone everywhere without having a clue to what’s going on when I could simply go back to before 2010 and talk to the one person who is proven to know what is going on.” Here is where there could be a bullshit reason as to why he could go only go to 2020 and not before, but the drama didn’t even bother.

 2) They say Tae Yi’s mom was originally a time traveler who settled with her physicist dad in the past, eventually making way for her to discover time travel herself. The mom is missing and this is never addressed again. 

3) The book...who wrote it? Because I have guesses but they never outright answer it... and if the biatch author knew that stuff why the alice in wonderland stupid analogies?

 Coward, or petty, or both.... or maybe just a chaos gremlin godlike entity who wanted to watch them all squirm, like the author from Extraordinary You...and that I could get behind, but sadly they don’t go that metaphysical/theological with the plot...which is honestly the main problem with this drama. It seems ambitious in concept but it’s never explored decently in any way, not in the pseudoscience, not in the philosophical sense of the meaning of time/space/existence, not even in its relationships, with the constant back and forth and weirdness of it.

Besides the timetravel migraine, we had the weirdest directing, that made the relationship between the leads feel a bit too incesty...which was the main reason I kept watching this drama...morbid curiosity of how they wrapped up this mess of a plot AND especially the relationship payoff...would it keep being weird with trope romance drama scenes like the female lead and second female lead facing off and being jealous, or that weird hair washing that felt more sensual than maternal? I knew it wouldn’t happen but my inner chaos gremlin wanted kdramaland to grow some balls and go full “predestination: oedipus edition” with this mess. Alas they sort of did, mostly didn’t. Even that angle was a whole inconsistent mess: there were times where it felt too romantic, then for a short minute I misguidedly shipped the journalist friend, then it seemed the dude was ace, then they calmed their tits with the whole weird romantic vibes and it got platonic cute, then with the memory merge thing finally motherly vibes, then I shipped the journalist again for 1 sec only...and then the ending:

Alice ended with the lead solving every problem by shooting himself (technically) in the head...and that's the second meta perfectly fitting ending for a drama with a good cast and terrible writing that drove itself into a corner this year, after the sleepless princess ended with the leads jumping off a cliff. I don't think it's a self aware choice of the writers, or an admission that they themselves know it was bad, but the irony is delicious.

Spoiler for the ending: he undoes timey wimey stuff from when his mom first got killed in high school and closed the time travel door. So he became an architect and new Tae Yi just woke up in her bed remembering everything, but in reality she had just come back from a conference abroad and had never met him. So mom TaeYi didn't die then, but never got back on screen after the time undo so who the f knows what happened to her. 

Also, if new Tae Yi remembers, does that mean hot daddy from the future does as well, but he is just stuck in the future without a time door to ever see them again? The drama doesn’t care answering that and forgets his character is even a thing...I will miss you, my fave who looked emotionally and literally constipated 24/7 (it doesn’t care answering much at all tbf... a little known fact about the time travel paradoxes according to the physics of this world is that besides doppelganger chickenpox it induces severe lazy writing).

Anyways new Tae Yi went looking for architect (? okay...I guess) ML after she woke up, at first he didn't remember her, but it ends with him meeting her, apparently remembering her and they stare at each other... you know, like any bad traditional romantic kdrama finale....so there is still THAT vibe. 

Honestly, the usual romantic ballad score for scenes between the leads WAS NOT the most intelligent choice for this drama in specific but boy did they stick with it (not to mention the ending song... that goes, in english “we be like Bonnie and Clyde we ride or die...which...k, sure)...so technically the ending was exactly the cliche post amnesia running back to each other and staring for the final scene while romantic music blasts trope. Take it as you will.

[sternbilder]

that holst post from earlier awakened the slumbering basic orchestra bitch in me and now i’m wild about classical music again all of a sudden for one (1) night only, i’m going through my old classical playlist and here are some unsolicited opinions?? recommendations?? top 10 piece rankings?? from yours truly, most of which i have played personally

10. rossini, barber of seville overture - SPEAKING OF BASIC let’s get this one out of the way, literally everyone in the universe knows this piece but it’s just so goddamn catchy and also fun to play?? sometimes it just gets stuck in my head at random times for no reason but i do not care it is welcome to live rent-free in my brain always

9. bizet, intermission from l’arlesienne suite no. 2 - ok this one is a slower piece and i never see anyone talk about it ever but imo?? highly underrated with a gorgeous, well-developed melody from beginning to end not to mention an INCREDIBLY satisfying build-up & payoff and ok maybe the ending is a little dragged out but that climax makes me cry real human tears pls give it a chance?? it kind of reminds me of a soliloquy in a musical where the main character like. breaks down and spills their entire heart out at the audience and it’s so dramatique™ and good

8. von suppé, poet and peasant overture - the violin part in this is SUPER fun but that’s not important compared to the fact that that cello solo is the reason i lowkey have a crush on every single cellist tbh,

7. dvořák, largo from the new world symphony - this is probably the most Basic Opinion on this list but idc i love this melody to death, even all the dumb corny choir boy editions of it, a+, top 10 songs to die to if i’m gonna b real

6. bruch, finale from violin concerto no. 1 - i just ADORE how the violin solo in this piece manages to balance being playful and light with being colorful and interesting, it def makes me wish i was good enough to be a soloist LMAO?? also this lush middle section (which kind of reminds me of the tchaik romeo & juliet a little bit??) makes me want to die, it’s so beautiful

5. dvořák AGAIN, slavonic dances op. 46 - everybody loves the brahms hungarian dances yes but my favorite “collection of folksy fun orchestra tunes” is DEFINITELY the slavonic dances, really all of them but ESPECIALLY no. 7 bc it starts off sounding like it should be accompanied with an animated montage of a dopey little cartoon knight or something plodding along, fantasia style, but then it swells into this GORGEOUS sweeping middle section for just a few bars then back to cute cartoon nonsense for the rest of the piece?? i don’t think i actually ever played no. 7 myself now that i think about it but i love it anyway. also no. 8 bc i love how FUCKING dramatic it is

4. rimsky-korsakov, capriccio espagnol - i got to play this for a summer camp once and again recently with my company orchestra, it’s so fun?? it’s so light and festive with great solos and great melodies and with all its short sections it’s both SO listenable but also v cohesive, i’m a huge fan

3. márquez, danzón no 2 - i think this is a pretty modern piece actually but i’ve also played this multiple times at this point and love it a lot, it has a lot of really great solo bits (like this sexy little trumpet solo) and it just makes me want to dance, i love watching dudamel conduct this bc he looks exactly the way i feel the entire time

2. shostakovich, allegro non troppo from symphony no. 5 - listen i know for sure this has some deep symbolic or ironic political meaning about something something living under an oppressive, propaganda-and-censorship-controlled state or whatever but it just. fucking rules. my favorite part is that eerie little part with the high violins near the middle which i’m SURE i fucked up when i played it back when i was a wee high schooler just kiddding it’s actually this OTHER part with the soaring violins but anyway. my favorite performance is the bernstein one bc it’s the only one i can find that’s as fast or aggressive as i remember it being

1. beethoven, egmont overture - i’ve always thought that if you threw a slow punchy drum loop over the beginning of this you’d get some epic trailer bgm tbh?? idk maybe a controversial opinion but this is my favorite beethoven symphonic work bc the entire piece is a BANGER that’s not only fun as hell but also incredibly listenable all the way through, and also the ending fucking slaps!! anyway not to be lowkey sacrilegious but here’s a space jam remix of the ending part which i love but my fellow orchestra members did not appreciate so now i am sharing it all with you all instead,

honorable mentions:

holst, jupiter from the planets - this honestly deserves to be on the list, i just didn’t want to talk about it AGAIN bc i already started ranting in the tags a little bit but really this is self-explanatory, the i vow to thee section is one of the most beautiful pieces of music i’ve ever had the pleasure of playing or listening to and that’s THAT 

saint-saëns, bacchanale from samson and delilah - danse macabre is also fun and carnival of the animals is ok but bacchanale is the saint-saëns piece that makes me go absolutely feral. it may be a go-to “we need something to spice up this concert program to make it not sound just Totally old and bland and white” but man. what an absolute party of a piece to play

mussorgsky, the great gate of kiev from pictures at an exhibition - i really love grandiose, epic pieces like this but this one in particular holds a special place in my heart bc (i think) this was the finale for my last high school orchestra concert which, while not the most rigorous group, was definitely the one with the fondest memories for me 😭i’m not gonna link it but i found a youtube clip of that performance and man. i miss.....this part through the end brings goosebumps to my skin and a tear to my eye aaaAAAA IT’S SO GOOD

[badatusernames]

CHOJI, SHIKAMARU, LEE, GAARA & HINATA!! ITS A LOT IM SORRY

THANK U FOR THIS...admittedly some answers may be a lil short just so i can like. Get to them all.

EDIT: IDK WHY IT LOOKS LIKE THIS. IM SO TIRED. IM SORRY ITS JUST A LONGASS NARUTO POST ON YOUR DASH I TRIED MY FUCKIN BEST YALL

SEND ME A CHARACTER AND I’LL DO THIS;

Chouji (man i’ve seen it spelled both ways and i’m just used to typing Chouji at this point sorry)

Sexuality Headcanon: Pansexual!!  Gender Headcanon: Cis male A ship I have with said character: SHIKAMARU. SHIKAMARU. SHIKAMARU. SHIKAMARUUUU, my god...just, everything about their dynamic makes my heart melt, the way they’re both people who are easily dismissed by others and how they have such UNFALTERING FAITH in each other. chouji knows how much of a genius shikamaru is, knows very well the fact that despite his laziness, once he commits to something he’s in it for the LONG HAUL, the way shikamaru just believes so steadfastly in chouji, considering him stronger than NEJI FOR FUCKS SAKE...they like. get one another, the kind of relationship where you can be yakking away one minute and then just sitting in contented silence the next. they can just laze around. maybe play video games and snack. and sometimes...kiss. and it’s so chill even with that latent tenderness their later relationship develops and they both just feel so safe and KNOWN and familiar like. love your best friend. anyway everyone slept on shikacho and y’all should be ashamed the naruto fandom is enormous and finding pretty much ANY content for it is almost impossible aside from the small (if lovely and amazing) tag and i’m pretty hyperfixated on it if you couldn’t tell holy SHIT.  A BROTP I have with said character: i’m really not a fan of ino taking potshots at him for his weight and outright shaming him, but once she grows out of that i absolutely love their friendship. listen, you know that post thats like--hold on

thats just them, thanks. A NOTP I have with said character: i have nothing against karui but canon is fucking dead to me and my opinions on p much all the “endgame” ships range from utterly neutral to absolute loathing. their relationship is on neither end of the spectrum, but. eh. definitely not into it. A random headcanon: he keeps nursing injured animals back to health because he’s just that fucking sweet and bringing them back to his house to keep them warm and safe while they recover and his team knows vaguely about this and ino and shikamaru like to poke fun at him for it but since they don’t tend to encounter said animals, it’s not really a huge deal.

of course they stop by his house one day bc he hadn’t shown up for training which is annoying and frankly a little concerning and finding the house mostly empty ino just bursts on into chouji’s room only to immediately have the opossum he’s been caring for latch its little paws on her face and cling.

it’s a bad morning. General Opinion over said character: literally one of my absolute favorites of all time and it really breaks my heart how overlooked he is in the fandom (seriously y’all...). i think kishimoto is kind of a stupid hack and the Fat Jokes are really grating and it sucks to see that so intrinsically tied to his character (like. just let him be fat. jesus christ) but his kindness and overall relaxed, loyal and lovable nature has me just melting. i adore him. 

Shikamaru

Sexuality Headcanon: He’s gay, scoob. (I could also talk a lot about how his earlier misogyny is both a product of being a whiny tween and also some internalized frustration of like WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT GIRLS. UGH. I DONT. STOP TELLING ME IM GONNA FALL IN LOVE WITH ONE ONE DAY DAD JESUS. and let’s be real, thats frustrating, even if it aint an excuse)  Gender Headcanon: he uses he/him pronouns because it’s just what he’s used to and comfortable with but man gender is such a drag... A ship I have with said character: SEE ABOVE SHIKACHO RANT A BROTP I have with said character: naruto! he and naruto have a really adorable friendship and i love love LOVE that he and chouji were shown to be kind and accepting of him even when most people were shunning him. also he’s so fucking dumb i love seeing shikamaru meticulously plan out something only to have naruto shriek into battle and ruin all of it. love those guys. stupid bros.  A NOTP I have with said character: ok. im sorry i just. loathe sh*katema i really do. i haaaate the way kishimoto writes this whole “ew a GIRL” “ew a MAN” vibe with the like OOOH BUT THEYRE GONNA LIKE EACH OTHER vibe like. 

don’t get me wrong i adore them as friends, i think they’re fantastic scathing and witty pals who bitch about anything and everything including each other

but they’re also both gay and kishimoto can suck my nuts byeeee A random headcanon: sometimes pakkun just fucking Shows up and chills with him. shikamaru wants absolutely no part of this but is way too lazy to like. do anything about it so it’s just this guy and a dog sitting in a field chillin and occasionally him piping up like ‘hey kid. remember when i bit your hand? yeah? haha, man time sure does fly.” while shikamaru is just. go aWAY.   General Opinion over said character: if you told 9 year old me watching naruto for the first time my favs were gonna be a three way tie of lee, shikamaru and chouji i never would have fucking believed you but here we are. i love him. i absolutely love him. he’s such a whiny bastard and a really good depiction of burnout genius who doesnt want to do ANYTHING, but his intellect is an absolute DELIGHT to watch. i love him very much. 

Lee

Sexuality Headcanon: he’s pan!! this is a boy that crushes easily and crushes hard on just about anyone!!!! Gender Headcanon: cis male A ship I have with said character: ok i ship him a lot with neji actually? what with how neji grows during the course of the series to regard lee with the respect he deserves is really sweet and there’s just something so infinitely adorable about him going around being the hammiest, most ridiculously earnest, kind and enthusiastic person and neji, now that he isn’t constantly bitter and angry at the world can finally really see that? lee is always happily dropkicking his way into his life, like he wouldn’t have it any other way, and i think that’s just...so sweet A BROTP I have with said character: SAKURAAAAA. oh my GOD do i adore their relationship. ever since lee saved her and basically just gave her a glimpse of his...lee-ness, the fact her negative opinion of him IMMEDIATELY flipped and gave her such a strong admiration and fondness for him kills me DEAD. she always treats him with so much respect and the fact she’s quick to rag on anyone making fun of him melts my HEART!! and on lee’s side, his little crush on her is adorable of course, but the sheer strength of the friendship that comes from it is more than infatuation could ever offer him. i want them to hang out together and talk about their troubles...i want them to make each other laugh and be so very kind to each other...i want sakura to storm over and throw him over her shoulder to TAKE A BREAK ALREADY when he’s been training too hard for too long. god. A NOTP I have with said character: honestly i’m pretty happy with a lot of lee ships! the only ones i view with obvious disdain are the ones with creepy age gaps honestly. A random headcanon: out of everyone in the leaf genin, he’s probably the closest anyone’s ever come to someone who EVERYONE is at least distantly friendly towards. like god have you SEEN how warm and inviting and concerned he is the SECOND he sees that naruto is feeling down? i get the sense he’s immediately inclined to provide that kind of support to any of his comrades, even the ones that Resist it.

you think sasuke is the most popular among the leaf genin? puh-LEASE. everyone looks on rock lee with at least a LITTLE bit of warmth. thats just fact. General Opinion over said character: since my first viewing of naruto he has been my Absolute fav, and while chouji and shikamaru are veeery close to stealing that spot, one look at him and i feel he’s gonna be on top forever. probably the best written character kishimoto’s ever produced that’s remained in  the main cast (tho i dont speak for shipudden onwards who fucking knows, but the truth of it is is i adore rock lee)

Gaara

Sexuality Headcanon: Panromantic Asexual Gender Headcanon: kind of like shikamaru, i feel like he uses he/him pronouns but also doesn’t particularly....Care? A ship I have with said character: ok so it wasnt until my naruto rewatch that i really started falling into this but i think him and naruto are super cute? while i loathe kishimoto for ruining so much abt this show he really is good at creating good foils to naruto, and gaara is no exception--and the way naruto changes his life by just kicking his ass (and proving he’s not just a Simp or smth) and then just, extending genuine empathy and a REAL sense of truly relating to where he’s coming from re:his upbringing? the EFFECT it has on him, bro!!!! my god!!! i feel like they’re that opposites attract ship that don’t clash constantly but instead fall into this adorable synergy and understanding? and i think thats so sweet A BROTP I have with said character: ...is it cheating to just put temari and kankuro here? bc they are literally his siblings but my GOD do i love their relationship. there’s something so deeply sad about their initial situation??? like having siblings that either are deeply fucking afraid of you or clearly don’t care for your well being whatsoever, it’s such a tragic scenario, and the times where they really do show legitimate care for gaara just breaks my heart...but the GROWTH. THE DEVELOPMENT. THE HEALING. i love the sand siblings so much, i am a STRONG advocate of seeing the development from estranged family to loving, occasionally bickering siblings who absolutely Love Each Other A NOTP I have with said character: uhhhh same with lee in that i don’t really mind most of the ships i’ve seen him in? while i don’t particularly ship gaalee i think its also Very Cute, and really it all just seems pretty valid as long as people aren’t being creepy? A random headcanon: i’ve been wracking my brain for one for a good 20 minutes and i just don’t have one he’s such a mystery to me/????? i love him but he is an enigma?? General Opinion over said character: oh my god he’s such an edgelord in the beginning. i’ve been doing a lot of this naruto rewatch with my friend @drashseed (a simply phenomenal fella 10/10 follow him) and every single time he talked the only valid response just became “ok gaara”

but his backstory? utterly HEARTWRENCHING. and his growth is just. absolutely divine, i adore him. thank you mister sandman for doing so much for us all.

Hinata

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual Gender Headcanon: cis woman A ship I have with said character: listen. i think kibahina is........Really Really cute. he cares about her so MUCH??? and there’s a certain tenderness to his interactions with her that’s just really evident whenever you see em together? i really love that you get the sense hinata is COMFORTABLE around him!!! like! i feel like hinata really deserves to have a partner who sees her when she ISN’T blushing and stammering? when she’s like? legitimately comfortable and being HERSELF? (dgmw the blushing is adorable i fucking love her but its one of the gripes i have with naruhina that so much of it is just naruto being oblivious and her having a small panic attack) the comfort she and kiba have make for a chill, adorable relationship i just cry over constantly A BROTP I have with said character: so i was GONNA put naruto here, but technically i already put him there for shikamaru’s so i’m gonna say neji!!! uhhh OBVIOUSLY they got off to a. very rough start but the way their dynamic changed (or perhaps in a way reverted back to the times they interacted before neji’s father died and temporarily killed his Human Decency) into this respect and fondness that’s just...such a delight to watch? i’m a SUCKER for slow and mutual reconciliation and there are just so many sweet moments between them. they are FAMILY, BRO!!! THEY CARE FOR EACH OTHER, BRO!!!!!!!!!! A NOTP I have with said character: ...at the risk of sounding like a broken record, i think a lot of hinata ships are quite cute? i guess i’m gonna have to say sasuke. because like.

has. he ever even looked at her. please. jesus christ. she deserves so much better. A random headcanon: she is a LOT physically stronger than she looks!! a lot of her combat techniques rely on taijustu after all so it’d make sense that she puts a lot of effort into physical training alongside chakra control.

i’m trying to say she’s strong. not as strong as sakura but. she can lift her bf up over her head (he’s dying hes dying he’s dYING he lOVES HER SO MUCH). it’s pretty fuckign badass

General Opinion over said character: i LOVE her??? honest to god i really really do--honestly while i dislike the direction they went in canon with her, i really loved seeing her be motivated to grow and change the parts of herself she hated to become a stronger person.

that and she’s so fucking cute and sweet and i just??????? bless her honestly.

[amphtaminedreams]

A/W 2020 Fashion Month: Before Vogue Went Blank

Hi to anyone reading,

I’m sorry this post is so late! I really have no excuse apart from all my mental energy being taken up by shooting and editing my Euphoria lookbook up until now and me being too much of a lazy, nap-loving twat to face the mammoth task of a fashion month review; honestly, by the time it’s done, it’s like a dissertation-level amount of characters, so let’s say the final push to get this out is in sympathy with all my 3rd year friends I started uni with finishing their ACTUAL dissertations.

Things have got scary since I originally started saving the photos for this post, and the world has been turned upside down. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen since the Spanish Flu, Italian Vogue’s April cover was blank. As I’m writing this, 26,000+ people have died of coronavirus in Italy, the worst affected country behind the U.S in terms of sheer numbers ( though quick update: as I post this, I’m pretty sure our incompetent prick of a PM has made sure we’re up there too). Proportionally, the actual death rate is even higher, along with a handful of other European countries. There have been some complaints made about the cover and it’s supposed “lack of imagination”; all I know is that in a country whose death toll accounts for 10% of worldwide coronavirus deaths, something of a visual silence feels appropriate. 

That being said, for me, writing is one of the only things giving me a sense of purpose right now. Yeah, surprise surprise, working in a grocery store isn’t all that fulfilling. Who would’ve thought it? So what better time to reflect on a time when all the rich people of the world were going about their lives as usual and sitting front row at fashion week rather than crying on Instagram live to their millions of followers about how trapped they feel in their 10 bedroom mansions.

I’ve got to say, this year’s A/W offerings were a lot better than I expected, mostly due to the fact that I’m not generally a big fan of winter fashion; it’s hard to be disappointed given my preconceptions! There’s only so many knits and coats and jeans you can see before it begins to get a bit tiring, and I expected that to be reflected in the presentations. Fortunately, even the brands which are known for their bohemian, Coachella-esque collections generally managed to translate that into something recognisable and consistent on the runway whilst actually being weather appropriate. Of course, there were a few disappointments-I’m sure if I say one of them begins with D, you can guess which brand I’m talking about-but that was more than made up for by the standouts. Gucci in particular was my 2013 Tumblr wet dream and the Moschino show was what I can only describe as a live continuation of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, though I’ll stop with my praise there and wait til I get to actually reviewing before I go overboard with kissing Alessandro Michele’s ass. And on that note, in chronological order, I’ll get one with the reviews! First up, Acne:

Continuing on a winning streak when it comes to catering to my personal preferences (if someone tries to tell me designers don’t care about my personal preferences I’m going to whack out that “just found out the world doesn’t revolve around me, shocked and upset” Marina Diamandis tweet), Acne once again channels futuristic hippy commune living in a dystopian wasteland. I know, those are very specific personal preferences

I love the shredded hems and the burnt velvet, the rawness of it all, and the baroque/your-nan’s-wallpaper patterns are actually a surprisingly nice touch. I imagine if Giselle from Enchanted had to make her dresses out of a thrifty goth’s curtains rather than an upper-middle-class New Yorker’s, they’d look something like this collection. You’ve even got the odd bit of classic fresh Scandi tailoring in there with the oversized coats and blazers which holds it back from being a bit TOO flea market. Plus, the renaissance painting detailing on the black leather-look coat is a stunning detail as well; I’m so glad it seems this trend is here to stay, why wouldn’t I want random nude bodies all over my clothes? 

As for the styling, I can’t get enough of the tousled hair. As an eternally tired person who can't be arsed to pick up a brush most of the time, I feel represented. Along with the outfits, it says “I’m an art student/transient painter in the 70s living in a city loft who smokes a lot of weed and does acid on the regular” and that is a life worth manifesting.

Alberta Ferretti was dreamy, and a perfect example of how to translate the bohemian aesthetic of their S/S show to A/W. Somehow despite the furs, ruffles (pussy-bows under tailored jackets and knits/generally heavier pieces always looks really chic imo), tulle, metallic tapestry style prints and chunky jewellery, it all still looks very effortless, like a natural continuation of what we saw last summer; the typically masculine structure of the oversized suits with the ornate patterns and the accessories lends to the careful navigation along the line where maximalism and minimalism meet, the looks as practical as they are decorative. Picture it: you work some high-flying, powerful job in the city, commute on a motor cycle and roll up in one of these suit sets. This collection is for the edgy businesswoman who is completely comfortable telling all the twattish males she works with where to stick it and I want to be her. 

The evening gowns are, of course, stunning too. In this analogy where I am a powerful businesswoman and not a pushover who works at a grocery store right now and only beefs with rude customers, I would be wearing one of them to the boujie work Christmas party. The ruffled dresses remind me of something Valentino would put out with the colour palette and the ruffles, and whilst we’re on the topic of colour palettes, this one is beautiful. The lilac and hot pink is SO right.

Though predictable, Alessandra Rich is just as much of a treat as usual, the first brand you’d go to if you were styling a throwback it-girl, Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens if it took place 30 years earlier. Reminiscent of an amalgamation of vintage Chanel and Versace, there are so many cute details I love here, from the white tights with the black heels and the double breasted blazers to the gold chainlink belts and the pearls. The tartan suits with the shoulder padding are very Heathers, the prints the best of your mum’s 80s wardrobe, and nobody else out there is doing bows as well as this; these are the outfits that prissy bitch wears in the cartoons of my childhood that turn out to actually be quite good fashion inspo 15 years later, Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents I’m looking at you. 

This girl was the blueprint. 

I think someone like Lilly Collins or Daphne Groeneveld would be an ideal fit for any of these looks, or Lana Del Rey if she wanted to stop serving us middle-aged suburban soccer mom and took us back to those H&M ad campaign days. Lana stans please don’t come for me for saying that, I am one of you; I say this because I love her. It’s all altruistic. 

Whilst I admittedly didn’t love it as much as last summer’s, I really enjoyed the Alexander McQueen collection too, plus I had a better idea of what to expect this time round; no, we’re not gonna get a repeat of the Plato’s Atlantis show but we do always get some beautiful pieces. Again, like with Alberta Ferretti, this seems like a natural continuation of what we saw in the summer, just with adjustments made for the colder, darker, and altogether moodier months. A/W being the gothier older sister of S/S, it seems right that a lot of the looks turn their back on the ethereal, almost fairy-like feel of what we saw before and embrace the vampier side, reds and blacks (the ultimate Bratz Rock Angels colour combination), plenty of dramatic structures and formidable suit sets. It’s punk but it’s classy, and even with the lighter pieces, we’ve got the grunge inspired harnesses on top to contrast with the elegance and effectively, toughen the whole look up, something Gucci does well too. 

The patterned suits with the clunky boots in particular are very cool and I need a gun metal grey heart detailing harness, but undoubtedly the MOMENT of this collection is Adut Akech in what appears to be a silver chainmail dress. She looks like an Amazonian goddess, and whilst I could never dream of pulling something like that off myself, I could happily admire her in it for hours.

There wasn’t much to get excited about at Altuzarra. The collection was very elegant for sure and the feathered belts are cute but it was all quite pedestrian and nothing new-the only detail I really like is the cut out on the second dress from the left, 3rd row down.

As for Anna Sui:

I’m not altogether sure why I wanted to review it. A lot of the outfits as a whole are a bit messy, and not in that avant-garde, expensive-looking Margiela kind of way, just in a “how many fabrics can we possibly get on this model” kind of way. Plus, the styling seems weirdly outdated-a lot of the jewellery looks like the kind of thing you’d see if you searched “gothic choker” on Ebay and ordered the results from low to high, and the makeup and hair in particular is very 2012 Tumblr fashion blogger. Backcombed hair and red lipstick? We’ve got a Zoella thumbnail on our hands.

When the collection did go down the bohemian route though (and when that route wasn’t a failed attempt at what Etro does a lot better), there were a few nice pieces and prints. I mean you really can’t go wrong with a teal fur trimmed coat.

Ashish, on the other hand, took their aesthetic from a similar era and did it a lot more creatively and kookily; this collection looks a lot more deserving of being on a runway. The prints are so loud and costume-y that at times the garments risk looking like something you’d wear at a decades themed dress up party, but they’re saved by understated and much more commercial silhouettes, plus some gorgeous hair and make up. On the whole, very groovy, unintentional disco queen, despite the few risks that didn’t quite pay off.

Next is a brand I always look forward to. In the words of Myrtle Snow:

BALENCIAGA!

Seriously though, if any brand knows how to blend costume and high fashion, it’s them. They take over-the-top, almost absurd silhouettes and turn them into theatre. This year we’re taking it in the direction of Phantom of the Opera, I guess? Dracula? The Woman in Black? An off-broadway production of Harry Potter where Snape is the protagonist? Whatever the direction of the collection is, I live for the dramatics of it all. Demna Gvasalia got these models walkin’ down the runway like they’re members of the Volutri, which is a reference you should all understand given the renaissance Twilight is having online atm.

Straight off the bat, I adore the staging, and all the models are exquisite-the theme of the show was climate change, and I always love when there’s a story behind the presentation of the clothes. I can’t imagine how amazing this must have been to witness in person, though I’m guessing equal parts mystical and intimidating. There are so many things I love here: billowing coats, cinched in waists, the pattens that are sprinkled sparingly in amongst the black, and the bloody shoulder pads that almost run PARALLEL to the model’s necks. This is really a collection that Myrtle Snow would be proud of and brb whilst I get rid of my padlock necklaces in favour of putting whatever meagre amount I can get for them on Depop towards a Balenciaga padlock belt (as if, lol, I don’t even think selling my soul would cover it).

And then there’s Balmain, which isn’t always the fashion critic’s favourite, but which I do tend to like. 

I mean there are some really good takeaways here-though the 80s inspired suit, as wearable as they are, can get a little repetitive, they are staples which here seem to pave the way for Olivier Rousteing to try something new for the brand. The moulded breast plates (reminiscent of the Tom Ford one Zendaya wore though I’m not sure which came first!), for example, along with the Matador-style capes and the flowing silk dresses are the most glamorous incarnation of Lara Croft one can possibly imagine, probably just as equally suited for a Roman goddess as they are for an Assassins Creed style action heroine. And yes, I am aware of the fact that Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed are two separate games, okay!  I just don’t know enough about the visuals of either to firmly plant this collection in the camp of either one, so I’m going down the crossover route with it!

Not to say there weren’t any bad choices-I omitted a good portion of the looks that were shown; there were definitely pieces that I found to be a little tacky, particularly a recurring chain print which has got to be one of my least favourite patterns out there. Overall, though, it’s gonna be the richly coloured art-deco prints, the wet-look boots and the gem-encrusted scorpion brooch which stick with me, so I’ll let it slide. 

Bottega Veneta was very meh; even of the looks I picked out, there are a lot I’m now looking back at and wishing I hadn’t included. Some of the men’s pieces are nice, sure, and I feel like one of those vaguely sick, victorian ghost looking male celebrities everyone obsesses over (Timothée Chalamet and Dane DeHaan I’m looking at you) would make those suits on the second row look fine af, but it’s mostly the womenswear that I’m here for and on this occasion it wasn’t great. A couple of the coats are nice and that’s about it. Like I really had to act as if the tassels weren’t there on a lot of the clothes and go from there because I really don’t like them in this context and if I was to veto looks purely on one of the garments having tassels, there’d be nothing to show or reference when giving my opinion on the show. They were EVERYWHERE. In a summer collection, done right, they can be a nice detail but here they just feel unnecessary and if I’m being honest, are quite ugly. 

Thank god for Brock taking the sour Bottega Veneta tassel taste out of my mouth. Never a let down. Literally, everything they put out sends me into a daze of imagining I’m in some romantic drama wearing one of the pieces, in a man’s idea of “no makeup”, running round in a field looking forlorn and windswept because my ghostly lover has-

Okay, you get the picture. I’ve never read Wuthering Heights, but it goes something like that, right? If not, lets just say envisioning myself in any of these catapults me straight into some period drama where I’m born into wealth and sit by my mansion window looking sad all the time and writing poetry and lusting over some stuffy upper-class man I can’t have and who is probably played by Colin Firth because I’m pretty sure that’s what happens in most of them (about to enrage my future English lit undergraduate sister with that line).

Nobody does modest, muted sexy to such a masterful degree. I mean, when Maison Marigela did face veils I was just mildly afraid, but here they’re subtle enough that they’re quite beautiful and almost other-worldly, acting as some kind of boundary between this world and the past that Brock aims to recapture through its designs-the red lip popping out from underneath is a perfect touch too. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but I would say that’s solely on the basis of the more autumn/winter appropriate colour scheme and the heavier fits, which is just a personal preference. I mean, I’m usually not a fan of empire waistlines at all and Brock even manages to make that work.

Burberry this season was a real mixed bag, mostly due to the styling. There are some really gorgeous, London back alley vintage shop looking pieces, especially the 70s style coats, reminiscent of outerwear a slimy record exec would've worn back in the day repurposed by someone like Alexa Chung or Zoe Kravitz or whichever effortlessly cool woman it is we all want to be-also the private boy’s school rugby gear looking shit is classic Burberry and I’m a fan of that, even though it’s not the most inventive or exciting. I just don’t get why there had to be SO much ill-fitting plaid over ill-fitting plaid. Again, like with Bottega Veneta, I thought the menswear was a lot stronger; whilst I wasn’t really wowed by anything, it seemed a lot less forced, whereas a few of the womenswear looks gave me the vibe of a design team desperately grasping onto some ill-conceived ideas of street style and relevancy. 

The design team at Carolina Herrera for example, know their niche. They never try to be something they’re not, always sublimely preppy and pretty and predictable-when it comes to target market, the bag is reliably secured. Laid- back princess dresses never get old for those constantly “summering” in one expensive coastal town or another, for the rich American moms attending charity galas and the Spencer Hastings and Blair Waldorfs of the world; women with glossy hair and fresh faces who act as if they woke up looking like that polished but are actually anal as hell and take 2 hours to get ready and would NEVER, I repeat NEVER, shit in a public toilet. 

Yes, I managed to worm toilet habits into a review of a Carolina Herrera collection. I’m sorry. Enough with the pearl clutching. 

Next is Celine:

I mean, when there are THIS many looks, it’s hard not to find something you like, and though VERY predictable and verging on lazy when you’re putting out the same shit every collection, Celine’s aesthetic is so similar to my own ideal style, it’s hard to be mad at it. That being said, a lot of the pieces, as per usual, came across as cheap YSL knock offs; the overall outfits are cute, but the more you look at the details-it particularly pained me to include a metal bow belt and an ill-fitting velvet skater skirt but I liked the rest of the outfits-the worse it gets. Please, PLEASE someone drive it home to Hedi Slimane, I’m begging you: QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. I get what he’s going for, 70s hipster Jane Birkin is a vision I can very much get behind, but not when it seems to be so rushed.

With the men’s looks, you can get away with it a lot more; when so much of menswear is so plain and unchanging, the slightest hint of Mick Jagger is enough to make a outfit edgy. But even then, I still feel like we’re seeing a load of variations of the same outfit. There are always some pieces that catch my eye, this time round the capes and the velvet blazers, and I would wear most of these things, sure, however I don’t think the combinations SHOULD necessarily look like something I’d personally put together; a runway collection is supposed to be aspirational and cutting edge, not pedestrian (entirely intentional self-drag, lol). Also, side note, the lack of diversity really bothered me. 111 looks and not one of these models has a body type that is naturally achievable for most people. It’s 2020 for fuck’s sake. I’m tired.

SO, let’s liven things up a bit with the Central Saint Martins collection, a breath of fresh air in terms of diversity (though a few more plus-size models would be nice):

As a former University of London student, I hate to heap praise upon them. If you’ve studied in London as well, you’ll know CSM students are ANNOYING. I mean, I’m sure they’re lovely as individuals but you can’t fully understand the meaning of the word pretentious until you’ve seen a group of them at a Uniqlo Tate Late. That being said, they are very good at what they do and I’m so glad that Vogue Runway includes them; this is what Off-White thinks it is, and really it makes sense that a bunch of current fashion students are able to come together to present one of the most experimental and forward-thinking shows of this season. 

And let’s talk about the RANGE. From catsuits worthy of comic book heroes to  dresses Twiggy would’ve worn in a 1960s editorial, every subgenre of fashion has been fully delved into here. Whilst we’ve got the adrogyny of the suits and suspenders combo and kitschy gender-bending co-ords David Bowie would be proud of, at the other end of the scale we’ve also got models walking down the runway dressed like wood nymphs or some other kind of siren-like creatures. There’s looks that wouldn’t be out of place in a Gucci or Come Des Garcons collection but at that same time would be equally at home in a Berlin techno club. 

Honestly, credit where credit’s due-it was a really interesting show and I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Chanel was quite literally the polar opposite of the CSM show. 

Very blah. 

It’s crazy because before you properly get INTO fashion, Chanel is like the epitome of style. And then you do, and you see the runway shows get lazier and lazier (with some exceptions) every year, and you realise that same prestige that had you aware of Chanel at the age of 7 or 8 is literally all that’s keeping the brand going at this point. I’m not saying the collection is flat out ugly, a lot of it’s cute, but you’re CHANEL for fuck’s sake. Yeah, I like the crucifixes but SCALLOPED HEMS!? No. I do NOT recall travelling back in time to witness Primark’s Spring 2013 collection on the runway and I am NOT having it.

It’s not at all surprising that a lot of the time newer brands Charlotte Knowles (above) tend to be more interesting than those more established-and yes that was a Chanel indirect if the transition wasn’t obvious.

With no room to rest on laurels or reputation, everything has to be bolder and smarter and more distinctive and most importantly, has to appeal to its target market with the fervour of an L.A sign spinner. I only found out about Charlotte Knowles because of a Vogue article citing her as Bella Hadid’s new favourite brand to wear, and once I saw the collection, it was clear why; daringly modern, slick, and edgy is both her street style (say what you want about her as a model but her outfit game is unbeaten) and Knowles’ USP to a T. If Dion Lee, Off-White, GCDS and Acne had an orgy, this would be the result, and that is a GOOD compliment.

Next, Chloe:

Not a huge amount to say, to be honest. Low-key, wearable, and cute. Like Emma Roberts’ Nancy Drew if she did an autumn exchange program at the Sorbonne and studied art history, libraries and coffee shops on the weekdays and galleries and protests at the weekend. On reflection, that definitely makes this collection sound more exciting than it is but there are some effortlessly beautiful pieces here. The 4th row in particular is full of stand outs-the vest with the watercolour faces on with the shirt underneath is perfection, and the burgundy suit with the saffron ruffled collar peeking out from underneath is adorable and not at all reminiscent of the Ronald McDonald inspired nightmare that any combination of red and yellow tones should theoretically be.

As for Christian Siriano, I see why people hate it, I really do. I understand that it seems kinda unfair to have it show the same week as Brock and Rodarte and Oscar de La Renta. We’re talking 2 very different kinds of quality here. BUT, at pure face value, his clothes are FUN, plus Coco Rocha will always have a special place in my heart as someone who lived on The Face and America’s Next Top Model and every show that could possibly give me an unhealthy body image ever.

Like are you telling me you wouldn’t wear these dresses to a party!? Live a little. They just need tailoring...which ideally would be done BEFORE the model’s walking down the runway in it but...you know...can’t have it all.

Christopher Kane is a show I always look forward to.

I would say his designs are the only thing that make geometry look fun but I’m going to expose myself and admit that would be a lie because I actually found geometry really fun. Trigonometry was my shit, lol.

He is a designer who perfectly demonstrates that juggling interseasonal consistency and taking risks can be done. There’s always something DIFFERENT about his collections, fresh and subtly experimental. There are occasionally a few misses, sure, but I’d rather that than for a brand to keep playing safe, plus he never goes too far in the opposite direction either; no going weird for the sake of weird. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but it’s mostly because of the more muted, autumn/winter appropriate colour palette.

Comme Des Garçons? Too weird?

Never.

Honestly when it comes to a CDG collection, I have to really shift my perspective to appreciate it. I’m not looking at fashion presentation, I’m looking at a moving piece of experimental art. I know, it’s a stretch. But you know you’ll never be bored by one of their shows. Not gonna lie, this specific collection crossed the line into plain ugly a couple of times for me. We had padding so extravagant it looked like several models were walking round with Ikea pillows stuck to their chest and headdresses reminiscent of the kids’ game Headbandz. In amongst that though, we did get some gorgeous veils like the ones seen above and the shoes and socks combo is actually quite wearable.

I’d say Dilara Findikoglu is the cut-off point after which things get a little too avant-garde for my personal taste, and it hovers over that cut-off point flawlessly; despite the other-worldly elements of her collections, they remain somewhat grounded by nods towards conventional fashion that allow the beauty, be it inner or outer, of the wearer to shine through. Comme Des Garcons garments undeniably have character but they tend to swallow up any trace of the individual underneath, whereas the character of Dilara Findikoglu garments seamlessly merges with the wearer and in turn elevates both to something transcendent and ethereal. If the Pussycat Dolls got transported into a rugged, post-apocalyptic future, they’d scrape together these outfits to perform in, I know it; the energy of the collection, with the body jewellery and the frayed cut outs and the chalk white faces, is very warrior princess, just as raw and intimidating as it is hot as fuck, and I want that energy in my life. Along with a Dilara belt, of course. I would wear her name like a badge of honour anytime she wants. Dilara, pls pls let me be part of your tribe. PLEASE.

Anyway, this is where I thought I’d cut things off, so as to end on a positive note. You know what that means: Dior is coming up. I feel bad knowing my first post was defending Maria Grazia and yet here I am now, looking at the bar down on the floor, but I mean, you never know; maybe girl is doing this on purpose and one day she’s gonna come out with a Gucci level quality show like a phoenix from the ashes.

If you got this far, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING even if you’re just here for the pics. Part 2 will be covering some of my most anticipated shows from Elie Saab, Fendi and Etro to Gucci and Moschino, Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs, and everything in between. Yes, the shitty ones too.

I’m plowing through all the material as quick as I can so I hope to get the next post up really soon, and yes-you can count on the overwhelming sense of needing to be productive pushing me into fulfilling that statement. 

Thanks again and I hope you’re well!

Lauren x