#this is the kind of thing that appeals to me and like four other ppl on here

[hanasnx]

Can we pretty please hear more about ani being beat up before sex 🙏🙏🙏🙏

MINORS DNI 18+ NOTES: you call me papi indy i’ll do anything you want me to. i love talking about anakin getting beat up before sex— this is all i could think up off the dome, but! ppl should ask me/talk to me about anakin’s deranged impact play kink more often like this. get really violent with it | based on this post and this post | @xstarkillerx WARNINGS: severe impact play (both receiving), and some smutty material, brat!reader mentioned

! ── the thing is, i have no idea how a normal person would react when asked, “hey, i get my rocks off when i’m fought in the right circumstances. help me out?” so we’ll just have to pretend that you, our dear reader, are not normal

! ── you’ve accepted your lover, ANAKIN SKYWALKER, is into some strange things, things you wouldn’t expect he’d get a boner about. one of them being, injury during sparring

he wants to hurt. and he also likes the consensual impact play and risk of hurting each other during sparring. he wouldn’t use the force in any way, solely him and his flesh (his metal arm is not used as an advantage either, not that he’s going easy on you, he’s just not trying to kill you). the rush of seeing you fight against him, even if he may think it’s futile. in turn, he cannot get enough of the adrenaline that he sustains when you land a strike.

being close to you, your back to his chest, and you gain enough room to elbow him in his nose. blood speeds to his cock. snatching a fist full of your hair to draw you back to him like a leash.

when you tire him out, he pins you with his body weight. your wrists in his hands, heaving over you, drooling on you. you wiggle underneath him, try anything to shift things in your favor, and he can’t help but rip your clothes off and have you right now on this mat.

! ── things like slapping him for commenting out-of-pocket-offensive shit unprompted, have given you insight as to how he accepts it. a fire ignites in his eyes. it grows until he cannot tell the difference between anger and lust.

when you act like a brat and need someone like him to put you in your place, it makes it all the more satisfactory when you fight him on it. banging your fists against his chest, and then his lower back when he throws you over his shoulder

when you try to kick him, he catches your ankle, and now you’re balancing on one leg essentially at his mercy. but he would’ve let it land if he felt like it. prove to you the kind of pain he can take, show you how much stronger he is.

! ── once you’ve gotten comfortable with everything (hardened by the war, you’ve learned how to take a punch. your pain tolerance is nothing short of advanced) anakin manages to land a hit onto your cheek, and he sucks on the bruise while he blows your back out

! ── there are times where he’s not in the mood to cause you pain, and so “sparring” becomes a “blocking exercise.” all the moves at his disposal, are dodging/blocking your attacks. of course, it’s impossible to block all of them, you’re a formidable opponent. which means he’s thinking of how he can turn this around in order fuck you on all-fours, while you’re kneeing his gut and flipping him onto the mat

! ── this specific kink of his, is his way of “safely” creating an outlet for that energy that’s generated in places like battle. instead of using that energy to maim and kill mercilessly, he directs it onto an activity thats mutually fun for the both you.

! ── being beaten, but knowing he’s large enough to stop it any time he wants to adds to the appeal.

! ── it becomes yours and his way of blowing off steam. taking out everything on each other. that’s essentially what he wants. whatever is burning up inside, to be unleashed on someone that’ll love you for it.

[torchickentacos]

Hi hmmm i guess my WIP themes rn are mid-life crises. I mean I told you my Norman idea but I'm also working on a moms fic that happens pretty much right after Caroline's divorce and just about Delia helping her through it. Also, early 20s crises AKA Chloe not knowing if she wants to keep doing contests. It's been months since I've updated oops but I think some of it hits a lil close to home rn.

Also, just relationships w/ ppl across distance and time? Idk if that makes sense but my appeal fic has Dawn competing in Hoenn with Kenny, Drew, etc. while Zoey is competing in the master rank in Sinnoh and kinda having a tough time, and just how they miss each other and keep in touch and support each other through it. My OT4 fic spans AG to at least XY, I think Drew will travel with the gang for some of AG before he and May go to Johto, and after that there'll be occasional calls and reunions and time skips and such. Very much a WIP lol. I guess one of my shigesatogou WIPs falls into that category too just bc at that point it's been years since Gary's really talked to Ash so he feels a lil weird about how close he and Goh are.

Whew that got long anyways I hope u enjoyed reading this friend! <3

HIIIIIIIII ANSWERING ASKS NOW I AM SO HAPPY I GOT SOME! I asked for them and then took a quiz and a shower and made dinner and didn't answer them oops. SO.

First off, we love a good midlife crisis. And now I kind of want to make a norman midlifecrisisdivorcecore amv to this song, which I only know isnce I'm the oldest of four. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSdEo0Fel8 And I LOVE seeing the moms content so lmk when that's posted! and YES I can see the chloe thing hitting close to home-idk what your situation is, but in general early twenties is seemingly prime real estate for quarterlife crises. I feel like I have one every other week.

And, putting my usual lighthearted taylor self away for a second here, I think it's really important to write those stories about relationships across time and distance. It's something that I've struggled with a lot personally, and it feels like it never gets easier to keep in touch with people. I love that concept narratively, though, and there's a lot of potential for emotional rollercoasters there. There's potential for so many complicated emotions-one that sticks out to me that I'm writing in my wip is the idea of hearing about how good smeone's been doing without you and wishing that, in some capacity, they could at least pretend to be as broken up about the timing and distance as you are. idk.

Is this the may/drew/ash/gary OT4 because I am IN LOVE with the idea of them! I feel like my answer isn't hella coherent but I am looking forward to everything you've mentioned here- especially the ot4 and moms content!!!!!

[wheatfalls]

@thechosentvseries on Instagram: @jonathanroumieofficial (Jesus) and @georgehxanthis (John) have great chemistry on and off screen.

[blurays]

.

sorry for having the most depressing existential crisis ever by myself but kind of worse than feeling cursed for dying is feeling like ok well illness is not a moral determination on me or else four year olds wouldnt be getting the same thing but that means its just random which means things are just Bad for no reason at all

and like im so Aware of it and it feels like no one else is and it feels like insane like i guess apparently it is considered Wrong to focus on it and i mean its not like i want to sit around being unhappy but i cant understand how it’s not logical to be like just. incredibly sad forever about all this other than the fact that being miserable is not fun but it’s really just. insane to think that idk this sounds fake deep lol but like i read about some university department news and im like not belittling academia blah but its like there are people who dedicate their lives to studying x subject and im supposed to pick something and do that like some career and pretend it matters? when i wont live long enough to idk have the life anyone else does

its not like i know what people should say but im tired of no one knowing what to say im tired of feeling like idk anyone who understands it im tired of struggling to explain that sometimes i just have very strong moments of not giving a shit about twitter drama bc im more focused on Mortality As A Concept or my stomach hurting all the time or my arm rotting so that it scrapes against the joint... im tired of knowing i probably wont ever be as old as my older brother even and then having ppl tell me i need to live in the moment like im not desperately aware lol.  im tired of people not understanding or caring that it comes and goes because sometimes i can repress it but sometimes i cant 

even if i dont die Soon which feels very vague to me like i was supposed to be thrilled at the concept of 3-7 years it’s like. no one is ever going to understand it and it feels like people don’t even care or try.. it just makes them uncomfortably e and they think im making a big deal of it and using it or something.. which like whatever i get its not like i go around comforting everyone especially now and ik im not the center of everyones universe. but its like okay everyone else wants to avoid it but i cant because i cant even read a book watch a tv show whatever without some casual mention of cancer. because its some entertaining side thing in everyones lives but for me im simply focusing on it too much 

like i dont want to be The Sick Girl really especially because to get any sympathy you have to be very happy about it and very constantly talented at something which is hard, when you are in pain all the time and very aware of the death your brain is soon about to cause u at any possible moment,  but i dont know what else to do lol. maybe meds will help but idk :) i want to be optimistic but its like i dont think we can talk therapy our way out of this one !

idk why im writing this lol im just tired of trying im rly at my limit like... hearing “i think you overthought it” yeah well. dying will do that to you

i know describing myself as dying isnt rly making me any more appealing to be friends with but im just sad . cool. its not like i would super want to be friends with someone who was miserable all the fucking time but on the other side its also like wow im having fun feeling so entirely isolated 

i wish i was a different person mostly. maybe if i was more graceful this would be more fun & like sympathy garnering instead of being like very lonely and my bones hurt etc

[pale-silver-comb]

Imagine Parker stumbling over Hardison's fanfiction about them. He started that after he found some conspiracies, headcanons and even RPF about them written by some of their clients, and surprisingly even one or two collaterals (ppl working for the CEOs they took out), so now he's fueling whatever he feels like. Imagine Parker starting to write (maybe even poetry) because "writing is cool, even though I haven't understood the use so far."

Now I am just imagining some bad guy they put away being told to channel their anger into writing for therapy reasons, and that writing turns into some kind of weird revenge fantasy on the team. The thing is, this is at a time when none of them are together, not even Hardison and Parker, and this dude is clearly writing them as some kind of romantic triad??? 

Which, you know, may or may not, lead Hardison down a rabbit hole where he stumbles upon fan-fiction or similar “therapy writing exercises” about them from other criminals or clients. It makes him weirdly happy that people see them like that, even if it is kind of weird. 

Cut to four years later and Hardison may have several aliases he’s carefully cultivated over the years where they are all in a relationship. There’s back story, drama, how they met, how they got together, their daily routine. The works. He justifies it by telling himself it’s not fantasy, just pragmatic. You know, in case they ever have to go into hiding and don’t feel like splitting up. 

Hardison gets such joy out of creating these aliases. It’s almost like his version of The Sims. He loves imagining all these other lives they could have. And yeah, one day Parker is being nosy and stumbles across them. At first Hardison is embarrassed and still tries to play it off as nothing more than back-up plans but it’s no use because it’s painfully obvious some of the aliases would be of absolutely no use if push came to shove and they needed to get out of dodge, like the alias where Eliot is a Professional Cowboy (”what does that even mean, Alec? Does he wear hats and big belt buckles for a living?”). 

Of course, Parker doesn’t make fun. Instead, she begins to add to them and comes up with all sorts of quirky new details, even suggesting some brand new aliases to add to the collection. 

They don’t tell Eliot; Hardison, out of embarrassment, and Parker because she doesn’t actually realise they aren’t telling him. 

Of course, this all comes to a head one night when Parker says she wants to do role play in the bedroom and Hardison is left speechless when Eliot comes into the room, more than a little smug, decked out in full cowboy gear saying, “the lil’ lady told me you got a wild west fantasy?”. And the drawl is so strong and Hardison is going to kill Parker, but not before he swoons just a little at the way Eliot tips his hat at him and winks like a 40s movie star, lets Hardison haul him in by his *cough* massive belt buckle and kiss him senseless. (Parker doesn’t understand the appeal of the cowboy look but she does like the low voice Eliot uses for the character and the way Hardison can’t take his eyes off of him.) 

After that, Hardison is much more willing to share his aliases with Eliot and Parker (even if he does get mocked for some of them- “professional dinosaur wrangler, Hardison, seriously??”). 

[radicalposture]

Hey, so were you diagnosed with autism/adhd as an adult? If you don't mind me asking, was that difficult to achieve? I'm 25, and I've often thought I might have adhd, but I've held off on looking into it because I hear it's extremely difficult and expensive to get it tested and diagnosed as an adult.

yes I only got diagnosed last october, I was 25 then too! it was kind of a weird journey for me, all of my siblings and my dad got diagnosed with autism or adhd one after the other and I was still saying “but I can’t really be autistic/adhd” right up until I actually got diagnosed lol. but since then my whole life suddenly makes sense for the first time and I really think things are gonna be ok! this applies to autism/adhd/other neurodiverse stuff but autism and adhd is what I know, but I hope it applies broadly as well

so unfortunately yes, it can be pretty expensive to get through the whole process. depends on where you live of course, I live in Ireland so even though we do have public healthcare I would probably have been on a waiting list for upwards of two years to see a terrible psychologist who didn’t know anything about adhd/autism so I went to a private psychologist. I already knew her pretty well bc my siblings had been to her and I knew she knew what she was talking about and I felt comfortable with her. seeing her cost me around €900 which is definitely a lot, different psychologists have different rates but the price can go up depending on what tests u get done. the more tests you do the more expensive it will be as a general rule (at the same time I saw a different psychologist who had a lower flat rate so idk what the “rules” are about this tbh) I got a standard assessment as well as autism and adhd tests which is why it was so expensive. it used up pretty much all my savings lmao but after getting a diagnosis I was able to apply for disability allowance (which was a hellish process) and I got rejected and had to appeal the decision but I got it in the end, which is fortunate bc I quit my job lol.

recently I wanted to look into medication so I had to go to a psychiatrist because you can’t get a prescription for stimulant medication from a gp in most countries I think? BUT he’d only see me if I got rediagnosed by his psychologist, so that was another €300 for each of them. I did get prescribed ritalin in the end but I’ll have to get the prescription refilled a few times a year bc it’s a restricted medication, which will mean paying €100 ish for each time I do. fortunately I don’t actually have to pay for the medication itself bc I have a medical card.

so yes, it can be expensive! all told it’s cost me almost €2000 to get it all sorted and will keep costing me maybe €300 a year from now on, so it’s definitely something you have to budget for. especially depending on where you live, I imagine things are v different from country to country. also I’m very fortunate bc I still live with my family so I’m free of some financial pressure and I’d been saving for it for a while but I know how hard it is to countenance paying out that kind of money, and wondering whether it’s worth it.

as to whether it’s difficult to achieve I think you’ve got to break it down because official diagnosis is only part of it. so if you think you do have ADHD I’d look at it from a couple of different angles:

1. self acceptance/understanding is absolutely the most important thing. I know people who’ve never been to a psych who know they’re autistic/adhd and really flourish, I also know people who have official diagnoses but who won’t accept it themselves and reject help/support and they’re making things so hard for themselves. so the most important thing is to educate yourself about what adhd means and, more importantly, what it means for you. everyone’s brain is different and understanding exactly how your brain works and why you think/behave the way you do is the most important thing you can do. there are a lot of resources out there, especially online, - I’ll put a link to a google drive of books and things I have at the bottom - and it can be good to connect with others online as well. having people who Get It and can help you is really paramount, I know often our irl families/friends can sometimes let us down so sometimes the only support you can get is from following ppl on twitter or something. the adhd subreddit is weirdly helpful and supportive, it’s great to be able to throw out a question like “I think like this am I insane y/n” and have other people go “nah ur fine” it’s very validating (also validation/external perspectives is super important for adhd bc we can be extremely bad at self assessment). so yes, the most important thing is firstly to know thyself by 1) educating yourself and 2) listening/connecting with others like u.

2. is it important to have an “official” diagnosis? no and yes. obviously you don’t need a diagnosis from a doctor to know what you are, and 70% of the things needed to help you flourish are going to come from your own research and the support systems you make. and if you cant afford or access a psychologist or psychiatrist it doesn’t make it any less real or bar you from educating yourself/accessing resources etc. HOWEVER. if you can get a good diagnosis then I really would go for it, bc: 1) it opens a LOT of doors to official resources, whether that’s access to welfare, supports and accommodations at school or college, medication, etc etc. a lot of the time the supports we need are behind this diagnostic paywall, which sucks but it is what it is :/ so that’s one consideration. 2) it can be really validating and help set your mind at ease about whether you “really” have adhd or if you’re “faking”. like I said I didn’t believe that I was “allowed” to be autistic before I got diagnosed. I also didn’t consider that I might have adhd, I went in thinking I’d just get the autism diagnosis so it wasn’t something I would have found out on my own probably. so it can be good to get an outside opinion, especially as, like I said, we can be really bad at self assessment. 3) it feels good to know you have a piece of paper to throw at rude family members/teachers/doctors who don’t believe it’s real 4) if you can find a good psychiatrist/psychologist it can be such a good thing to have that support and to get genuinely good advice from a professional you trust. doesn’t always happen but if u can find one it’s a godsend

wow this got long. to summarise, if you think you have adhd or anything else I would

research and educate yourself. for adhd probably the best thing to do is read driven to distraction and delivered from distraction, written by two psychiatrists who are adhd themselves. they’re both in this google drive along with loads of other resources I’ve collected, there’s also books about autism as well. as a disclaimer not everything/everyone here has my 100% endorsement some of it is there for academic/historical interest or only parts are helpful but by and large it’s useful. also watch this video and feel Seen

look for a good psychologist/psychiatrist if you’re going for a diagnosis. see if there’s an adhd organisation in your country/area and if they can recommend anyone. a lot of the time you’re better going to a child/educational psychologist who’ll see adult clients as they tend to Get It more. do look for someone who is clear about having experience in adult adhd bc unfortunately even qualified psychologists get a LOT wrong so make sure you get someone who knows what they’re doing before you give them your money

yes it can be really expensive. but if you’re needing to access things like medication or welfare I think it’s well worth the trouble and the money. my sister got diagnosed in her second year of college and was able to save her degree bc of extensions on projects and things like that (I didn’t get diagnosed until after college and spent four years torturing myself I WISH I had known) and it can be something that’s better done sooner rather than later. So if it’s something you can do without putting yourself in financial danger I think it’s good to bite the bullet and go for it. like I used up basically all my savings BUT I now can access disability payments and medication so it was worth it for me. it’ll be different for everyone so use your judgement obviously

anyway hope this helped! let me know if you need anything else! and good luck on your journey

[bionicdragonguardian1]

Ranma 2/4

Part  Two: Chapter 13 - 25

Unless someone comes up with a better name I’m sticking with this one

HOW tf is the principal crazier than before?!

Yup, spreading out the Kuno-Principal thing

Is Sasuke seriously an anime-only?!?

Like I said Ryoga needs to chill a little first

Main reason I don’t like Ukyo That scene where she blatantly states she’s fine with turning Ranma into something he’s not rather than helping him

(Ignoring the near constant amount of undermining his abilities)

“I’m gonna cheer him up” as she holds a sword! Why?!

 Ranma you dummy, hug Akane!

I hate this demon/ghost cat

Shampoo, you manipulative bitch

Akane learns to swim like a normal person

The lifeguard in me can’t do it

 The principal is background shenanigans

Totally forgot about the kid who wants to play video games and is “weak” bc of it

Definitely need to find a different reason tho

 Lazy little shits are a pain

Also his mom is crap

 Akane… why you be dumb?

 Weird Happosai is Santa plot…

What is with the Excalibur meets lucky 1000 meets fairy godmother?

Good news is, with what I’ve done to Kuno’s understanding of Ranma’s curse Ranma knows Kuno wouldn’t give him that wish and calls it quits sooner

Someone just needs to explain Ranma’s really confusing sense of morality to me

 Cuz it’s either on 110% or it’s nonexistent, now normally nonexistent is for Kuno but still

 Look Ranma’s got ego problems but he ain’t stupid

No betting the Tendo Dojo at five!

 On what planet is that a legal document?!?

Some1 tell me why Shampoo using Ranma as a stop ramp bugs me so bad

That mo when you can’t remember if the Hot Spring Challenge is when Ukyo met Shampoo in the anime…

I don’t think so…

Akane you made me need to google a word

That like never happens Ranma you idiot

So close but so far

So much more logic, thanks

I mean more insanity, but it explains why Ranma swapped clothes

Finally! Ranma apologizes

Jesus Christ someone would think I won the goddamn lotto with how loud I cheered when this happened

600% approve of this over what happened in the anime

Oof poor Ranma

Hahahaha in your face Shampoo, but I also think I know why Ranma chose it

Poor Ryoga

I KNEW this guy was coming I still hate it

YEET you can’t PAY ME to  do this arc

Look, is it the fact that I had etiquette and dance classes as a child and everyone assumed this is what it was like? Probably.

It wasn’t so I won’t.

Any1 else notice how Nabiki is one of the few ppl that uses she/her when Ranma is in his cursed form no matter what?

Why does this bug me?

Akane, stop beating Ranma up, honestly

This is closer to abuse rather than teasing

*sighs*

 Gotta work that out of the narrative, intentional or not

Every1 sayin she’s violent isn’t helping

Like I said really fucking morally GREY Nabiki

How grey can you go before you get black? 

 Let’s find out together

Can everyone PLEASE stop treating Ranma like an object?!

 I literally can’t tell if Nabiki is fucking Aro or not…

STRESS

Why is this so hard?!

I hate seeing Akane cry

I know she’s playing Ranma like a kazoo, but the point still stands

WHY ARE YOU TWO SO DUMB?!

Nope, nevermind it’s just Ranma that’s a fuckin idiot I blame Genma

No, I’m not kidding

*sighs* I don’t condone Nabiki doing this in any way just for the record THAT’S not an apology Ranma!

This mess is totally your fault Nabiki

STRESS

am I intentionally pointing out where this work of fiction is stressing me out since I’m now online schooling and suffering for it? Yes, fuck off.

 Actually, don’t.

But Fuck Covid19

Aww his hat’s back!

Why do I love his hat so much?

No, seriously Akane’s so cute!

Oooww tree

y’know the sec she realized what Ranma was doing Nabiki should’ve TOLD him!

Congrats Ranma ya got the wrong sis- I mean the right- but wrong- dammit y’know what I mean

Some1 give me a logical explanation for why Ranma goes on a date with a panda doodle, PLEASE

I do appreciate the epic battle background fight for the anime

Further proof that Happosai sucks

Manga name’s somehow less believable I think it’s the use of “snowman” rather than “yeti”

Did Soun just find out that Pchan is Ryoga, and say nothing?

Ooo, Imma commit arson

Remember when I said obey Physics and Medical, I meant it

Arson is wrong and I know this but “transgender bitch” crosses the line

I will do it

Shampoo is a fucking yandere psycho

Just sayin “we’ll see who can get him first” 

honestly, any other group and I’d be annoyed, but these four can’t work together for shit I

’m still pissed at Taro, but he can kill Happosai, please

I can’t tell if Shampoo, Mousse and Ryoga are being purposefully obtuse or not

I just reread their names I know the answer to at least two of them

Idk how I feel about Kuno-amnesia we’ll see

yep, Kuno gives me the creeps w or w/out his memories

kinda wish this was anime

jesus christ, poor Ranma

press f to pay respects for Ranma’s stomach

InstaRegret

 Also Ukyo’s assumption that some1 can make Ranma doing anythin he doesn’t want to is crap

Like HELLO! Wake up moron!

Nabiki, I mean this in the nicest way possible, shut the fuck up

You’re making it worse

Also TALK to each other you ding dongs!

OH RIGHT! I almost forgot about the biggest fucking insult that Ukyo said of her own freewill!

It also proves that she doesn’t know Ranma as a person AT ALL!

It’s not a pick one or the other kind of thing

The fact that she thinks Ranma would accept that is insulting

The fact that she thinks that is insulting and makes me hate the patriarchy

Again, treating him like a prize than a person

*tries not scream, sighs*

Nabiki, you’re the cause of at least 30% of the stress I get from this

You having feelings ain’t the fucking problem here Ukyo, you not acknowledging Ranma’s is

 I hate fake criers, anyone who does this I hate you

Always let others in on your plans, kids

When’s every1 gonna realize Ranma’s “wishy-washy” cuz no one’s ever committed to HIM before?

This episode confused me, I’m prepared to be MORE confused

Less confused, I’m surprised

 Gonsunkugi, you creep

There is SO much wrong with this

*shudders*

WHAT?!

Y’know I didn’t think Gosunkugi could surprise me, I was wrong

Happosai still sucks unfortunately for all of us he’s now weird on top of it

I love how much Ranma needs to be kicked in the teeth to get any character development out of him

Ryoga is my #1 choice for it, always

Ranma… why are you like this?

Genma, emotional range of a goddamn wall

I am jealous of Ranma’s brain

I could be SO mean with the Shishihokodan

Also, are they implying that Ryoga has depression?

Gimme Ranma’s brain

I won’t ask for his confidence cuz that’s impossible but I want his brain

In Akane’s defense, given what she knows she couldn’t’ve known how badly that would affect Ryoga

 I ain’t gonna say “leave Shampoo” cuz that’s cruel

I like the “turn into a Cat” rather than the “Can’t Cross” & the use of New Year’s rather than random but this still brings around the fact that she doesn’t LISTEN to him

Mousse you’re NOT helping in fact you’re actively making it worse did you miss when he said blatantly “I don’t wanna”

oh, sure, NOW you’re ok with it

ugh Mousse, you have a brain, I’ve SEEN you use it. Do so now.

This entire episode weirded me out

IDK if it’s the age-dff or the fact that he was makin it up and somehow everyone thought this was okay … 

I won’t YEET it but MASSIVELY change

heheheh

Light bulb

NOPE I’m keeping this surprise to myself

it was a rather sweet end tho

Oh, this episode is a mess and a half, honestly

Also Nabiki, congrats you’ve literally enabled a stalker S

o many laws are broken here

okay, so Kodachi not being in on Ranma’s secret after so long makes sense purely because she doesn’t go to their school

however, with what i’ve done to make Kuno marginally less dumb it makes a little bit less sense…

I literally hate Kuno with what I’ve done to his logic of Ranma’s transformation, but that’s the point Kodachi… how do I handle you… oh, duh!

Ok, so Kodachi is now also terrible

 I’m trying to figure out where this is in the plot since there is ZERO

Ok, there’s a LINE, Nabiki

This one would be touching, if it didn’t end the way it does

TALK gentlemen! 

It won’t kill you

Fuck a parent that says they’re not your parent for no reason, EVER

I am going to make this hurt

 Also gonna take out Genma’s fail at stealth

 Remember I said Akane’s going to learn to cook

heheheh

sorry, I just love this idea

Oh this is SO against the rules it’s not even funny

 tiny adjustment so they actually have quasi-competent referees

Crazy wants crazy?I won’t stop ‘em

I reiterate: CHEATING!

I am aware that the “ending” apparently sets them back to the start in terms of their relationship but I swear to God if they pretend shit like this didn’t happen I will scream

 Someone ships something other than Akane x Ranma PLEASE explain why/how

don’t ship bash but I would insight when you explain 

STICK TO CANON

please trust me, I’m a multi/poly/crack shipper

(for frame of reference to a bnha I ship DabiHawks)

I understand the appeal of Fanon

however, I would like to stick to Canon here

so no Fanon

Canon Only

Fully love that high kick

Genma shows Ranma’s secret here, but they already know… so… I shall find out

Ooo, you’re not getting out of this Ranma

Do you know how tempting it is for Akane to at least tell Ranma she’s a girl- oh wait gendered sports… right…

Ranma… 

if you didn’t realize it was Akane when she hit you for calling her klutzy I can’t help you

I want to commit arson at some of the comments…

but can confirm that these are HS boys

 Doesn’t mean I gotta like it

I was wondering how long I was going to have to wait before tearing into Nodoka

FINALLY

Took me WAY too long to remember that Nodoka calling Ranko tomboyish is due to how he speaks in Japanese

I’ll need to figure that out since… English

Can I explode on Genma’s choice to take Ranma at TWO?!

Can I further explode on both of them for making a TWO YEAR OLD “sign” a Seppuku Pledge?!

I hate both of them, honest

ALSO communication! 

Genma! Just fucking TELL HIM!

Making her transphobic is SO tempting

I don’t mean in a “i hate you” way I mean in a “I sheltered my whole life” way

 It’s still bad, and painful, but she can easily learn from that

Or be worse, this could go 2 ways

I feel so bad for Akane for this entire conversation

Also poor Ranma like ouch… 

 Awkward

I’m going to make this hurt something fierce

Slight change since I’m hoping Ranma isn’t as “peak fight or flight” by this point

Genma don’t be an asshole for FIVE MINUTES

Please, that’s all I want

If she doesn’t learn the truth before the end I will make a bad decision

Really, I will

Don’t kill Genma, you can’t

 Akane, don’t say like you wouldn’t… honestly

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, honestly, just look the other way Ranma

*sigh* 

Ranma…

See, this kind of crap here is why I really don’t like Cologne

any other day Akane’d be right

oof, that means he self aware that girls flock to him

I’m quite frustrated by that if I’m honest

Ranma is clueless about all the wrong things

I love him but God I wanna punch him sometimes

Why is there a swing from the ceiling?!

I had a jolt from the way they set that panel up, thanks

Are you trying to kill me?!

Thank you Cologne, now fuck off

Oh thank God, at least he learned

This is nonanime stuff so I have no clue what’s happening but anything to make Happosai miserable

I’m enjoying this immensely

 ugh, “think of it as a compliment” ghost

Eat me

 okay, yeah, as much as I want him dead, that’s worse

I’m glad he’s not a one-and-done character

I will forever ONLY call him Taro when it is NonDialogue

Wait Saffron as in big-bad Saffron?

I literally only know pieces of the end so I’m just pulling from what I know

Lol, wait… was that soldier Anime only too?

I almost liked you there for a sec Taro

Now I’m pissed again

bravo

Oh, YIKES

… if Ranma falls into the Spring of Drowned Twins would he split?

 I’m not going to DO IT, obviously!

I’m just curious okay… 

that answers that… and kills anyone other than Ranma’s plan to turn back to normal I hope everyone is aware of that

oof

Since when is there a castle on an island in Japan

tis just a scratch, I’ll admit that was funny

Ranma… your stomach gets you in so many problems

ok, that was wholesome

I approve

Okay, so my understanding is that Mrs. Tendo got sick, so I can understand the reactions to Kasumi

BUT I still find it odd because… well… anyone in my house gets sick and you mostly can’t even tell I mean, minus a worse attitude and a mask, other than that though, nope we keep ‘er movin’

 I’m moving this section sooner EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!

I like her mom’s cookbook tho

I could make a Ranma x Ryoga joke here, but I won’t

I also won’t make a Ranma x Ryoga joke chapter cuz I’m nice like that

Actually I might have no choice

I’m FINE just dying

 Help

my multishipper heart is dying here

 I love this

InstaRegret for THREE people

If nothing else, I’m impressed

(well three once Ranma’s back to normal)

I need help

Fangirling/Fanboying/Fanpeopling is dangerous folks, remember that

Poor Ryoga

Though I too feel that right now like where do I look because everything coming in at mach 6

I’m changing that one scene tho cuz I can’t justify the aftermath without it

This… is… weird to say the least

I feel like I should just expect anything with Gosunkugi remotely involved to be weird at this point

okay, not as weird as I expected

glad it was short tho

I think I am officially out of anime terf

YAY, new content!

This is why I ask about any ship that isn’t Ranma x Akane

Also, names?

That- that- that can’t... 

I DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW THAT!

EWWW

gross

WHY?!?!!

also, biology, that’s not how that works!!

You two ARE idiots

Ryoga you die I’ll kill you

Well… that hurt to see so quick…

Ranma, get up!

I officially hate this Herb guy

ok, so if you put HOT water in the ladle do you stay that way forever?

Alright! Way to go Ryoga!

I need to stop shipping Rivals it’s bad for my health

fucking eat it you dick!

 Poor Akane

nevermind, Ranma you idiot

awwwww

ok, so that whole no more Anime-content… I was wrong, and I admit that, but still

I’m just thinking of my bff when they realize she’s an adult cuz, yeah, she’s like that too

 except like physically an adult unlike tiny-Hinako

 oh MY GOD Ukyo you’re driving me up the goddamn wall I swear!

THANK YOU AKANE!

 “You’re all Ranma’s fiancées” when only one of them actually is 

GIANT SIGH OF ANNOYANCE

Ranma, learn to communicate, PLEASE!

Okay… so is this where they figured it out or are some ppl still in the dark?

TIMELINE!!

Honestly, mood Ranma, mood

This entire plot line confuses me if I’m being totally honest

I mean I live for the Akane focus, but there are so many better ways to do this

[dent-de-leon]

I’ve seen you blogging a lot of Dragon Age (and a lot of other ppl I follow too, honestly) and I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about it. It seems pretty cool!

oh ya sure!! oh boy this is gonna be a lot lmao,, but,, Dragon Age is an RPG by Bioware–they also made Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, in case you’ve heard of those–and the DA series are easily some of my favorite video games. They go super in depth with lots of lore and there’s tons of world building,, I’m embarrassed by the number of fantasy Elvin words I know and I can tell you way too much about the history of fake countries cause that’s where I’m at lmao,, 

To try and summarize: the first game is called Dragon Age: Origins, and the focus is very much on fleshing out and playing through a backstory that you handcraft for your PC. You can be everything from an elf trying to reclaim their lost history, to a privileged human of the ruling nobility, a sheltered mage that’s locked away from the rest of the world for “their own good,” a dwarf just trying to survive whose always been a fighter at heart–skilled enough to champion a tournament, and so on. I played the City Elf origin and it just about killed me. 

The appeal here is you can start with various different branching paths and backstories, all of which culminate in your character becoming a Grey Warden. Essentially, DA has these monstrous sort of demonic creatures called darkspawn and usually they’re very disorganized and attack at random. But sometimes there’s a more powerful demon that can connect to them and control them as a kind of hive mind; they become a more organized army force, and spread a “Blight” and its taint wherever they go–it causes sickness and a long suffering death, makes the land completely uninhabitable, lots of bad shit. There’s only been four Blights before Origins, so they’re pretty rare, usually centuries apart. 

In the event of a Blight, the only thing that can stop the lead demon and its army is a Grey Warden. They’re a,, supposedly “neutral” party in political affairs; they’re meant to be an outside force from other armies and they aren’t divided by nations or anything, if you’re a Warden, you’re a Warden everywhere. So they’re also kinda above the law. Wardens can requisition land and resources, forcibly recruit condemned criminals and high ranking nobles alike–“anything to stop the Blight.” They’re elite warriors, and the only ones who can actually sense the darkspawn. That’s because they’re already tainted by them. You drink some darkspawn blood,, probably you die, but maybe you don’t,, and if you survive,, congrats!! You’re in the Wardens. Forever. You can run, but they’ll probably find you. There’s really no running from the fact that the taint will get you eventually in a few decades though. In Origins you end up being one of the only two surviving Wardens left to defend the country of Ferelden during the Fifth Blight–you have to travel the country, gather allies, try to prove you’re not a war criminal, save the whole world, and don’t forget to pet your dog :’) 

Dragon Age 2 is a lot simpler to talk about with all that context out of the way–you’re Hawke, a Ferelden refugee fleeing from the Fifth Blight. The Warden saves the world and everyone throws a big party just as you’re getting settled in your new city. Kirkwall is…a lot,, real creepy place. Maybe it’s that it used to be the center of the Imperium’s slave trade and is still called “The City of Chains.” Maybe it’s all the centuries of blood magic and death that’s seeped into the walls. Maybe it’s those architecture plans you find for the city that point out it’s been built in the shape of one big magical glyph. But there’s something weird there and the whole place is incredibly unsettling. Way more demons crammed into one city than most of the country combined, templars ready to turn on every mage in sight, there’s a lot happening in that one little place. 

I always say that other Dragon Age games are more about the player, but DA2 is really about your party members. It’s your companions’ stories–Hawke is sort of this unsuspecting bystander that just gets dragged under by all the city’s malevolent machinations. And ultimately–accidentally, so very unfortunately–they wind up at the very epicenter of it all. Maybe it’s about Hawke, a snide, sarcastic refugee just trying to provide for their family and take care of their friends. But it’s probably more so the story of a quintessential Byronic antihero tortured by his past and sparking a war for mage freedom, or a charming pirate captain in search of her mysterious lost treasure and who knows more about the city’s supposed “invaders” than she lets on. Or the silver-tongue dwarf with a love of telling stories, and a penchant for extravagant lies–the narrator of it all, and entirely unreliable. 

At its core, DA2 is about mages and templars. The mages typically being locked away in towers known as Circles because they’re seen as “too powerful, a danger to themselves and others,” etc. They’re guarded by knights that work for the dominant religious order known as Templars. Only the Templars frequently harass and systematically abuse the mages in their charge instead of “protecting” them. Ultimately, it’s also about betrayal and redemption, how far someone can go before they’re beyond redemption, etc. 

DA2 always hits this very melancholic note that neither of the other games quite reach. I think it’s because Origins and Inquisition are very grandiose in scope and scale,, you’re a chosen hero,, you’re saving the world,, the player is incredibly empowered. But in DA2, it really does feel like you have no power. Like you’re just trying to scrape by and look out for the people you care about. Like everything keeps going wrong no matter how hard you try to help, like you’re a failure to your family and somehow lost your friends. DA2 is confined to a single city and so much smaller in scope and scale, but the little glimpses of intimacy that you do get from that unique experience really hits you in the end.

Lastly, there’s Inquisition. You can choose your player’s race like in Origins, but you don’t really get to play out your backstory or anything, you’re just kinda thrown right into it. Inquisition is very go big, so everything is big–lots of exploration, lots of questing, LOTS OF DRAGONS,, THIS GAME IS IMPORTANT SOLELY FOR THE 13.5 DRAGONS YOU GET AS OPPOSED TO THE 1-2 IN EVERY OTHER DRAGON AGE GAME,, SERIOUSLY LACKING ON THE DRAGON PART THERE HONESTLY IT’S KINDA FALSE ADVERTISING,, but yeah I’d say DAI is the most like an open world sort of deal,, very classic high fantasy like Origins (though not so brutal or grisly like Origins), very You are the Chosen Savior stuff,, big departure from Hawke running round the sewers 

DAI builds directly off the previous games and decisions players made in them, but it’s also actually very easy to jump right into with no info on prior games. I’d say it’s also the most user friendly, and it’s probably better for new players to start with it to see how they like the world. Combat and mechanics in Origins can be very tedious, and parts of it just haven’t aged well. DA2 is easier mechanically, but much more punishing and harsh with its consequences. DAI is very forgiving by comparison, and you won’t accidentally get party members killed for the calls you make. And while DAI is very lore heavy, I think it’s the perfect place for newcomers to kind of run around and try to explore the living breathing world crafted from that world. 

The essential plot is that you’re following on the heels of the Mage Templar War, and rogue members from the Chantry (church basically) are looking to upstart the Inquisition again, a huge military organization that waged holy wars back in the day. You end up accidentally being in charge of everything because, and I quote, “You killed everyone who was in charge.” Oh yeah, there’s also demons tearing open rifts from their world into yours and you’ve been blessed/cursed with a magic mark on your hand that makes you the Only One who can close those rifts and save the world. Build your army, get drunk with your friends after slaying dragons, dance with your partner after usurping the empress at her own ball, try not to get torn to pieces by the magic in your own hand, get good at reading tarot cards, and maybe don’t romance the Elven God of Trickery on your first (heartbreaking) play through,, 

Lastly, there’s actually a fair amount of queer characters in DA, which is pretty cool. And a lot of them are romanceable partners for your character, so you can definitely play a queer PC. So,, off the top of my head–Bi characters (and romance options): Leliana and Zevran [Origins], Fenris, Anders, Isabella, Merrill [DA2], and Josephine [Inquisition]. There’s also Iron Bull, and he’s a pan character who’s romanceable in Inqusition. Dorian is gay and romanceable, and Sera is a romanceable lesbian, both also from Inquisition. Krem is a trans man and Maevaris is a trans woman, the former is a side character (and best friend of Iron Bull) in Inquisition, while the latter only appears in supplementary sources like comics, but she does get mentioned from time to time in Inquisition as Dorian’s close friend. Oh! Also--Solas and Josephine’s routes in Inquisition don’t culminate in a sex scene, so lots of people headcanon them as asexual. And you can also swing Dorian’s romance so it doesn’t have a sex scene if you wanna romance him but kinda play an ace Inquisitor, which is cool! Sorry for the long rant lmao but uhhh, I hope this helps?? :’)

[yeetdam]

“soft bias” tag

@kimseunghoney & @byounggonsgf tagged me to do the most adorable tag ever (thank u christina and zeen you guys are angels ♡)

disclaimer: don't expect something as sweet and as adorable as their answers (THEIR ANSWERS ARE SO CUTE THOSE ANSWERS ARE LITERALLY TRIGGER MATERIAL TO START SOFT HOURS ISTG-) honestly i am a mess and most very likely in denial abt my feelings so here we go uwu

who is your bias: look THIS is where the first issue starts. believe it or not my bias is mashiho 💓 however, since i interpret some of the following questions in a romantic-ish kinda sense i'm gonna go with yedam (no he's not my bias and i refuse to slap the bias wrecker title on him bc it feels wRoNG — let's go with crush ok he's my crush and that sounds nice 😎💞) 

what made you notice him: i usually pick my bias by their stage presence and how much they garner my attention; personality comes second. while i did notice yedam since episode one (how do you NOT notice him tho considering the screen time he got jsjd), I just found other trainees a tad more appealing to my liking. it wasn't until the sudden wave of his songs that surfaced on soundcloud and youtube after the announcement of his debut that made me notice notice him. when I heard purple rain I was sold (despite the overuse of autotune) and suddenly I only heard his three songs on repeat and had his perf with keita on loop and watched his bonus vids like his what's in my bag video AGAIN and bOOM HE HAD ME WRAPPED AROUND HIS FINGER

in other words; i started to become the yedam love bot i am once the show was over

what is your favorite thing about him: his smile. his personality. his voice. the way he cares deeply about others. his perseverance. his kindness. his strength. his humbleness (or whatever the right noun for humble is). his hair. not when his hair when it looks like a mushroom though. even his height. he's one out of four that i wouldn't fight in treasure 13. his dedication. HIS EXISTENCE IN GENERAL.

who would initiate skinship more: OKOKOKOK so yedam does this thing where he practically pounces on you and hugs you very tightly or randomly grabs your hands — my personal fav is yet to come: he doesn't really pull someone into a hug by the shoulders or similar but he places his hands on the ba c k of yo ur neck or hides his face in the crook of your neck bUT ALSO just cups your face and uGH I WANT THIS TOO 🤧❤️💓❣️💓💞✨wait what was the question again- oh right, based on these things i am very sure he'd initiate skinship more ✨ i also tend to initiate lots of skinship but he'd do it more than me :')

who would hog the blankets more: me because i am very sensitive to cold temperatures and even use winter blankets in summer so uh-

who would be more clingy: i am the clingiest binch you'll find in this century i am so needy for physical affection in any shape or form so i am glad and happy and very accepting with yedam initiating skinship every single time 💫💗💌❣️

who would say i love you first: as much as i like to preach about how i would enter a black hole if yedam told me to do so or take a one way trip to Pluto under his request, i wouldn't be the one to say those three words first. as much as I like to exaggerate and also mean it (most likely), i just feel like there's something really raw and pure and real behind ily?? while i do think that yedam will take his time saying it too, he'd be the first to say it out loud ♡

who would be more easily flustered: oh god i think we both might share the title KAJDJKSKSK yedam gets reduced to MUSH when receiving compliments or surprises (refer to the back hug situation with junkyu) while i don't know how to react to positive things aimed at me and just??? smile awkwardly and??? wanna become one with the wall??? this is a whole mess istg

what cuddling position would you to have: the most generic position but hey it's cute! Me with my head laying on his chest, his arms wrapped around me and playing with my fingers 💛 wAIT OR he's lying on me and holds me tightly by the waist while I'm out there playing with his hair KSJDJSJSJSJ dara.exe stopped working

what color reminds you of them: red. RED. RED! red is his color — all of his iconic looks are in red 💓

which season would you like to spend with them: why limit yourself to seasons when there are 365 days to spend with him? in winter he could teach me how to iceskate bc i can't do that and back in january, my friends legit taught me how to at least not fall on my ass kdksk ooh and i'm a sucker for romantic clichés so in spring we could do a rendition of hsm 3 and dance in the rain AHHAHAHA in summer we could go sightseeing and try out different food and try to track down the best ice cream parlor in town 💛 and for autumn... we could... uh... just stay at home and cuddle uwu

who would bake the cookies and who would steal the batter: i have the tendency to stress bake so may I say my cookies are delicious 😋 yedam would steal the batter to garner my attention or tease me kskdjj

sorry if this was so long I tried to keep it short but honestly I love reading and doing these kinds of tags so here we go with my tags (obviously I'm not forcing you to) i hope i got ppl who didnt get tagged yet kldsj @mashilove @seunghunies @doyeongs @yoonbins @junkyeu @junkyukims

[snowpatrolfanclubbrazil]

Before Snow Patrol vanished, they were ubiquitous.

The Scottish/Irish band's song "Chasing Cars" went supernova when it was prominently featured in the 2006 season finale of Grey's Anatomy. According to PPL, a UK-based music licensing company, "Chasing Cars" was the most played song on UK radio during the first decade of the millennium. Between them, the Snow Patrol albums Final Straw, Eyes Open, A Hundred Million Suns, and the compilation Up to Now yielded "everyone can hum them" hits such as "Run," "You're All I Have," "Take Back the City," and "Just Say Yes."

The title of the band's sixth record Fallen Empires (2011) turned out to be prophetic. Though it entered the Billboard charts at number five, the album and its singles didn't make as big a splash as earlier successes. Snow Patrol disappeared like a trail of boot prints in a blizzard.

Six years later, the band has returned with a new record, Wildness. Snow Patrol has just begun an epic, three-month tour of the U.S. So, what accounts for Snow Patrol's protracted absence? Singer and principal songwriter Gary Lightbody offers a candid explanation: writer's block. It stemmed from deeper problems in his life, mainly alcoholism. It's been over two years since his last drink.

"There's a lot of reasons I'm sober and a lot of people have got me there and kept me there and I couldn't have done it without [them]," Lightbody says in a phone interview. "The culture that has helped sustain it is kind of an Eastern one. I meditate. I do Qigong. Those practices appeal to me and that lifestyle appeals to me."

In facing up to his addiction, Lightbody was able to begin writing again. Wildness is Snow Patrol's first album in six years. Gone are the romance and breakup songs that the band once specialized in. Lightbody looks outward at the state of the world as well as inward at the state of his life.

Yet Wildness isn't a downer. "Empress" could soundtrack a confetti parade. On the anthemic "Wild Horses," a cantering acoustic verse becomes a galloping electro-groove chorus. Lightbody's lilting voice buoys the somber piano ballad "What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?" Snow Patrol's longtime producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee (R.E.M., U2, Silversun Pickups) stripped back the layers of electric guitars from previous albums in favor of more elemental, acoustic-based instrumentation. That approach is particularly effective on epic album opener "Life on Earth." Its six-string chimes are as hushed as a nursery lullaby until startling drum fire introduces a punchy chorus in which Lightbody laments, "It shouldn't need to be so fucking hard/This is life on Earth."

The band-which is rounded out by Nathan Connolly (guitars), Jonny Quinn (drums), Paul "Pablo" Wilson (bass), and Johnny McDaid (guitar, keyboards)-is now on tour in the U.S. with a mix of headlining shows and stadium dates supporting Ed Sheeran. Afterward, Snow Patrol will cross the Atlantic to tour Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and Europe through February. (See U.S. tour dates at the end of the article and visit www.snowpatrol.com for the European itinerary.)

Under the Radar chatted with Lightbody from his home in Los Angeles.

Stephen Humphries (Under the Radar): There's a teaser video for the album of you sitting on a raft in the ocean. There's a piano on the raft. I saw that image and it got me thinking of your song "Lifeboat"! Which song is the video for and can you tell me about filming that?

Gary Lightbody: We shot a video on the Irish Sea for a song called "What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?" It was shot on a raft, with me playing piano. It was January. The shoot was postponed four times because of the weather. We get a phenomenon in Ireland, sideways rain, a combination of rain and wind that hits you in your face in a way that makes it impossible to do anything outside. We had four days of that. On the day that we filmed it wasn't wet, but it was freezing cold. It was really fun, actually.

Floating on the ocean, what's the metaphor?

It connects with the song, particularly that song, because of the isolation. That's what the album's about as well, that sort of isolation we all feel and I have certainly felt in recent times. With "What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?" it's a song about feeling completely isolated and yet all we need to do is reach out to someone. All we need to do is pick up the phone, go around and see a friend. You know what I mean? It's me telling myself, it's me telling my friends, it's me telling everybody, "I've been in this place, too. I know what it's like. I know how it feels. I can share this with you. We can feel in this together."

What did writer's block feel like?

The last album was plagued by writer's block. This one was, too. I've spent my musical life writing about love, or the lack of love, or the warmth of love or the disintegration of love. I haven't been in a relationship since the last album. It's not something I could have drawn from on this record, so I had to think what else do I want to write about. Because I can't just drag up old love from the past that I've already written about. It just doesn't feel right. So I have to think about all the things that were in my life that I've never really addressed. My father's dementia, which I write about in the song "Soon." The world in general, the way the world has been, the way it was. I think this album looks inward further and looks outward further. I tried to address a lot of things I haven't spoken about.

I read an interview with the BBC in which you said you wrote pages of notebooks of lyrics.

Yes, I hope I don't die before I burn them all. There's a lot of gibberish in there. There's a lot of stuff that makes no sense at all. But every album has, the way I write it, you write a bunch of stuff that doesn't make the album.

So what was the breakthrough moment for you in the end?

The breakthrough on this record came with a song "A Youth Written in Fire," which is about my youth, obviously, was spent drinking and even my not-so-youth was spent drinking into my late 30s. I guess it's a song about realizing that you're not a young man anymore, or realizing that you don't recover as quickly as you used to and maybe this is not the path for you.

That song was written after listening to Nick Cave's "Jesus Alone" about eight times in a row. I hadn't heard the new Nick Cave album yet—it's the first track on the album and Garret put it on in the studio as he is wont to do. We listen to a wide range of records and Garret has an extraordinary music collection. I was trying to write and not getting anywhere and took a break. He put that song on and it was myself and Nathan and Garret in the studio at the time and we all kind of went into a trance. I said, "Put it on again," and I picked up my pile of paper and I said, "Put it on again," "Put it on again," "Put it on again." It was on vinyl, so he had to physically put it on again. I started to feel something happening. It was like something was about to happen. I said, "I think I've got something." Garret said, "Okay, me and Nathan will just head down to get some lunch and bring you back some lunch." He left me there a half hour and when he came back, the song was finished. From lyric one to the end was written. It felt like the way I used to write, which was always like that. I mean, I edited a bit, but I never really had to worry too much about words failing me.

In the past, many Snow Patrol songs are about love relationships. This time out, this album seems to be more about you facing yourself.

I think that was part of the problem. Not going deeper as well. It caused its own problem because you think, "Oh that's done," because you don't think about it because it came so easily. On this record, everything was eked out. It just kept coming in drips. And therefore you pore over every word, you pore over every sentence, you don't let anything be nonessential. In my eyes, anyway.

That was the first song that came out like that. But there were also all these pages before it. It was 20-30 pages of writing before it. It wasn't like, "I wrote that in 30 minutes." I wrote that in three months. I just started and finished it in 30 minutes. So it's a strange thing to happen. But it took a long time to write it in an instant. And then other things started to happen. Other songs started to come into view. I finished "Life on Earth." I finished "Heal Me." I finished "Empress." Things started to fall into place.

I don't have album credits in front of me. Did you write all the songs or were there any co-writes?

The lyrics are all mine but musically we all share a credit for the music. Myself and Garret spent a lot of time together writing initially. We'll get together initially. I'll bring in my ideas, melodies, verses, choruses and he's extraordinarily good at song arrangements, song developments, making it make sense. I can bring in a bunch of stuff and everything's in the wrong order, upside down, left where right should be and right where left should be, and he'll put it in the right place.

Sometimes I'll bring in a song and it'll be almost finished in terms of his initial stages and then he will grow the song. He's the best song developer that I've ever heard about. He's not just a producer. He's a co-writer and he's a musician. He can play everything. Initially, Garret and I will get together and we'll put a rough demo together. We'll work into the song so that, to the casual listener it may sound like we've got something close to done. And then everyone else will come in and add their bits. Everybody in the band played out of their skins on this record. I mean, the drums! Johnny Quinn's drums are nothing like he's ever done before. It's extraordinary. The drums are a big feature on this record. I'm not sure they'd been quite as primarily featured on any Snow Patrol record before.

Take me into how you changed-up the sound of this record.

That's Garret's purview, really. He had a vision for the sound of the record. I knew that I wanted to play the acoustic guitar rather than play the electric. I guess it's a holdover from having done the Tired Pony record. I did a solo tour of my own around America just playing acoustically. I just felt very comfortable with an acoustic. I didn't ever really feel like picking up an electric guitar at any point on the record. It just didn't feel right. There's an inherent space and percussiveness in an acoustic that is missing on an electric because you're feeding the sound into the system rather than the whole machine being the sound. Which is what happens on an acoustic guitar. You hear the plectrum on the strings, you know. It gives it many different textures and virtues. It's something we haven't explored in Snow Patrol that widely.

Listeners will hear that right away on songs like "Don't Give In" and "Dark Switch," acoustic-based but widescreen and big four-on-the floor kick drum sounds.

It really did give us a good start to maintain that space. On previous albums, where one guitar might have done, we put 10 on it to create a wall of sound. But it also tends to fill every space when you approach it like that and there's nothing left to the imagination.

Songs like "What If This Is The All The Love You Ever Get" and "Don't Give In" are very exposed, naked vocals. The vocal on "Don't Give In" almost doesn't sound like you.

I had a cold that day in the studio. My voice was sounding like it was wrecked. But I recorded it like a guide. When I went to sing it properly, Garret's daughter—who is my goddaughter, both his daughters are my goddaughters—she came in when I was re-recording the vocals, you'd better not re-record that. So give her credit for keeping that on the record. I really love it now.

During Snow Patrol's hiatus, your bandmate, Johnny McDaid, co-wrote hit songs for Ed Sheeran and P!nk. Did all the various side projects help the band members bring something back to Snow Patrol?

Everybody went off and did their own thing. Seven years, we weren't being dormant. We weren't in mothballs on other stuff. Johnny Quinn runs a publishing company, called Polar, which Nathan, Johnny, and myself own, but he runs it day to day. He was always really good at that. Of anyone in the band, he was the guy that rather incongruously for a musician, knew about logistics about keeping a proper job as well. Johnny McDaid has written and produced a lot of amazing records and worked with a lot of incredible artists. Nathan started his own band, Metal Matador. He's from a heavy rock background, so he got to more than scratch that itch being the frontman of that band and working that rock muscle a little harder than he does with us. Pablo, same as Johnny McDaid, has worked with a lot of great pop and dance artists, producing, and writing. Paul is also in Nate Mendel from Foo Fighters' side project, Lieutenant. Myself, you know, I was with Tired Pony and I wrote with Ed [Sheeran] and Taylor [Swift] and One Direction and got that perspective. I'm perhaps lumping it in with pop music but I think that he does something that has become pop music because it's popular, but I don't think that's his background. Getting the perspective of what it takes to make those records was really interesting to me. I don't know that it informed too much of what we did on this record, but it was interesting time in my life to work with all those people who are so driven, so interesting, so exciting to work with.

You co-wrote some songs during Snow Patrol's hiatus. What's the story behind the collaboration with Taylor Swift on "The Last Time Come About"?

She was making her Red album. Her and Ed were recording the song they did on the record together in Santa Monica, about two blocks away from where I am standing right now. Ed invited me, with Taylor's permission, to come into the studio and say, "Hi." I'd never met Taylor. She said she was a fan. Apparently, the night before, she and Ed had been playing and singing "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" together. It was lovely to hear that she knew our music, you know. I can't remember if I was bold enough to ask if she wanted to work with me. But it might well have been me. Or if it was her who said, "Do you want to write a song together?" I can't remember. We wrote "The Last Time" together and that was great. The three of us collaborated on it really well. I got to go on tour with her for a gig and we did a few TV shows together. She's lovely.

So, you're no longer adrift, safely back on shore?

I hope it's easier next time. But I'm also not sure it should be easier. It is the reason why it feels so good to me. I'm so proud of it because I put so much work into it. I put so much effort into it. It broke me over and over again and now, when we're in rehearsals as we are, when we're playing those songs, it feels like they mend me. They put me back together. So yeah it's worth it in those moments, when you realize what you've done is what you're proud of. It's something that can sustain you. But going through the actual process is probably always meant to be hard.

Finally, can you offer any recommendations of what to see and do in your native Ireland?

Dublin is a great city to have a lot of fun in. Great bars, great nightlife, great restaurants. A lot of fantastic history and great museums, too. But you'll want to see Ireland outside of Dublin. I'm from Belfast. Go to Belfast. Go to Northern Ireland. Go to the West of Ireland. Galway is a beautiful place. The Southwest of Ireland and Kerry is stunning. That's where we wrote the album "Eyes Open." We wrote the album "Hundred Million Suns" in Galway. Cork is beautiful. Kinsale is a beautiful place near Cork. Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford that's the greenest part of Ireland and Ireland is famous for being green—obviously it's the Emerald Isle—but those three counties are the most spectacularly green place outside of New Zealand. I would suggest that even though Dublin is a great place—it's really fun, it's very cosmopolitan and a very modern city—I would suggest spending a little time there and spending more time traveling around Ireland because you're going to meet some really interesting people. It's famous for its hospitality. You can literally rock up in the middle of nowhere to a street in Ireland and probably get an offer of someone cooking you a homemade dinner.

[nenesleepyhead]

Original/blank post here

answers to

⚰️ horror movie ask game 🔪

a nightmare on elm street: top 5 fav songs rn?

Stabbing in the dark, thanks god it’s Friday, IT is the end, animals (these four by Ice Nine Kills) and the last one the Ukrainian Eurovision 2021’s entry Shum by Go_A

hellraiser: do u have any tattoos/piercings? do u want any?

Double no on that, I like them on others but simply I can’t envision myself with them

the texas chainsaw massacre: what’s ur favorite food?

Fruits and anything with mushrooms or sweets :3

my bloody valentine: are u in a relationship/do u have a crush?

Nope and nope, I’m single and happy right now

scream: what’s ur favorite movie?

A tie between Freddy vs Jason, Halloween (1978) and Wrong Turn 4

carrie: if u could have any superpower, what would u pick?

Regenerative/healing powers for sure, especially since I bump often on forniture and it’s very useful in general ✨

the shining: do u prefer warm weather or cold weather?

Cold weather, I can always put other clothes on to feel warmer but I can’t skin myself if it’s too hot

us: if u could change one thing about urself, what would it be?

My body build I’ll say the height it’s alright but I’m always struggling trying to loose some weight uff 🤔

jaws: what’s something u wish u were good at?

I really don’t know what to write, maybe being good at NOT procrastinating 🤔

hereditary: do u drink, smoke, or do drugs?

Absolutely not, for smoke and alcohol I don’t even like the smell so I never wanted to try them, and if in some food there’s alcohol I spit it out since I can’t stand the taste, (when people gift my family with chocolate I always double check if there’s alcohol in them) and drugs never seen the appeal or such so never tried them either but that’s me what other people do it’s up to them u.u

nosferatu: do u have a lot of friends?

Just a few but they are all great friends and that’s what matters u.u

friday the 13th: do u believe in astrology?

On some degree yes

child’s play: have u ever committed a crime? what was it? *adjusts wire* if not, would u ever commit a crime?

Nah and I don’t plan on committing any

frankenstein: what’s ur favorite website?

A tie between Tumblr and Instagram but just because are the one I use the most

suspiria: what’s ur favorite book?

Sabriel, the first of a trilogy and its as good as unknown

re-animator: are u neat or messy?

Neat and messy, neat with works relate things but my bedroom desk is a mess, all the rest of my things are super neat and my computer it’s full of folders just to be able to easily found anything

the ring: if u could visit/live anywhere in the world, where would u?

I would keep living here in Switzerland but I want visit Scotland, Ireland and Japan :3 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇯🇵

midsommar: show ur lock screen + home screen!

I draw myself my Lock Screen and my Home Screen it’s a fan art I found years ago of one of my all time favourite manga character, Nakano Makoto from Kyou kare ore wa!! (Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the artist nor I could find it but if you know who made it let me know so I can credit them properly :3)

halloween: what’s ur favorite holiday?

I’ll say Hollywood even tho here we don’t celebrate it, I just love the vibes and the various decorations

silence of the lambs: what’s something ur looking forward to?

I’m always looking forward to go out and eat sushi with my friend or just have a movie night with them at my place :3

the exorcist: are u religious?

Nope I’m an atheist even tho my mum is a Christian (even tho she don’t practice it) but yeah I mean religion it’s not a big deal in my family my father just don’t care. Plus from my mum family we probably would have been called witches since it’s a common thing for the women of the family to “have the gift”, being good with tarot cards, having premonitory dreams and so on u.u (aka I’m proud to have inherited those ability)

paranormal activity: do u believe in ghosts/demons/aliens/magic/anything paranormal?

Sure I live with a couple of ghosts and like written above it’s quite a normal thing in my family (from my mum’s part)

saw: give a controversial opinion >:3

Eh not really my thing plus I don’t know what to say .-.

alice, sweet alice: what would u describe ur style as?

Dark-ish but I wear mostly large and comfy t-shirts with things i like on them (music bands, characters, games, or so) with skinny black jeans, but depending on the mood of the day I can be more punk-ish or more goth-ish

the fly: what is ur biggest fear?

Height u.u it’s the only fear I got

the evil dead: do u have any weird/obscure interests?

Research demonology and those kind of things

the vvitch: what’s ur favorite historical time period? (without the old-timey bigotry)

Victorian u.u love the dresses and the art style and just the vibe of it but especially the clothes 👀✨💙

psycho: do u collect anything, or want to? if so, what?

Action figures and stones as onix, ruby, and so on

night of the living dead: what’s ur fav hobby?

Writing, reading, drawing and sewing

the blair witch project: what’s ur biggest pet peeve?

Bad table manners for sure it’s just a thing I can’t stand

alien: what character do u relate to a lot?

I’ll say Jason, I love to live near the nature and being left alone to relax and chill and I don’t talk so much. And I’m very shy with new people irl

invasion of the bodysnatchers: how do u think ppl see u? how do u see urself?

Others probably see me as a shy short weird woman. I see myself as a chill person who enjoy the company of her friends

house: do u have any pets? do u want any?

Yup a cat who I love my old boy Kira 💙

the thing: what’s ur job? (or dream job if u don’t work?)

A freelance Illustrator but right now it’s so difficult for me to find work offers here in Switzerland .-.

final destination: what’s something everyone else hates, but u love?

In my family/friend group: things horror’s related

rosemary’s baby: what’s something everyone else loves, but u hate?

In my family (my sisters and mother, not really my father) romance movie, I can’t stand those movies (if the love story it’s just marginal it’s okay but if it’s what the plot is all about I just can’t, I would die of boredom)

[primrose-path-of-dalliance]

Lotor?

ngl, i squealed when i saw this. i get to talk about My Boy!!!

thank you for the ask

(send me characters and i’ll give thoughts on them!)

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life

sorry, anti-lotor half of the vld fandom, but i love this guy to pieces and nothing y’all say can change that because 1. y’all’s attempts at critically saying he’s Bad are poorly done imo lmao, 2. i’m not so preoccupied with morality and purity culture that i stick my thumbs in my ears and try to shove plugs into other ppl’s ears, and 3. opinions are subjective.

like personally, i love complex characters set up as parallels and foils to major protagonists that are inherently anti-imperialist, archaeologists, and conservationists; are representative of a not-so-palatable reality of abuse survivorship; have issues of trauma, paranoia, and interpersonal defeatism; and are clearly being set up for a future arc that will be closely intertwined with said major protagonists—as well as driven by a deep, internal conviction and strength that has persisted against absolutely ridiculous odds—

but idk. your loss, i guess.

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang

aesthetically: gorgeous. but i am very ace.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

don’t harangue me for not calling lotor a slytherin in case you support that side lol, but i read a really good meta on this a while ago that i agreed with here.

(gonna put the rest of this under a readmore since this gets to be A Lot.)

essentially, one of lotor’s core traits is the search for knowledge and scientific advancement for its own sake. there’s no way he doesn’t love learning—he spent centuries studying a culture that was extinct, a culture that by any imperialistic measures was worthless and weak because it opposed the empire and it was destroyed. one could hardly believe he began searching for the last remnants of altea for power or ambition. he studied them because he wanted to, for the sake of it, to connect to something that’s part of him.

in a lot of ways, he does exemplify slytherin traits—he can be exceptionally ruthless when he believes he or things/people he cares about are threatened, he is unusually preoccupied with a need for power and control, and his goals could be considered lofty and ambitious. however, much of these traits and desires can easily be linked to his trauma. one might make an argument that he’s still similar enough to honerva to qualify as a slytherin, but personally i think the story sets him up as opposing haggar without hypocrisy in too many ways to be persuaded.

(honerva wanted to continue her research despite the risks, endangering an entire planet and potentially the universe, because she saw the research as empowering. she saw her research—her own ambitions—as more important than anything else, and abandoned ethics like some burdensome shackle. but lotor is seen multiple times as unwilling to endanger people and planets for his goals without either being reasonably assured of their survival (such as voltron) or their consent. he despises cruelty and the taking away of others’ agency.)

in an ideal world, i think lotor would be an obvious ravenclaw. but his trauma has encouraged him to act like a slytherin.

best quality:

superficially: HIS NERDINESS. as soon as lotor started talking about ancient ruins, learning other cultures’ customs, and rattled off an entire poem he memorized off some old-ass cave wall he probably saw like 3 centuries before, i was absolutely done for. i had been trying to maintain my skepticism of him for skepticism’s sake, but god. you can’t just throw a goddamn archaeologist in my face and expect me to not fall deeply in love.

more seriously: i love lotor’s conviction. lotor has a strong sense of self, morality, and personal drive, especially for someone with his experiences.

he accepts and embraces both sides of his heritage as defining parts of who he is. in an empire that despises altean blood, he wields an altean broadsword, spends centuries studying what’s left of the culture, and openly admires the peace, people, and traditions of altea past. and in a castle of paladins and alteans, he demands to be judged “by [his] actions, rather than [the] preconceptions of [his] race,” knowing full well that team voltron perceives him as galra, and failing to inform them of his altean blood despite the clear benefits that would’ve come from doing so.

he has a code of conduct that’s repeatedly shown in sharp contrast to the ideals of the empire—even from his very introduction, when he stands in front of an entire arena of galran soldiers and refuses to compromise his own morals for a more rhetorically effective argument. lotor’s small, four-person team of generals (compared to the typical galran fleet) seizes an entire planet while killing no one and causing virtually no destruction.

he is also incredibly self-motivated. lotor has lived for centuries relying almost completely on himself, and he will ruthlessly protect himself and his own.

his inner strength is ridiculously admirable, and i love his self-assurance.

worst quality:

idk? usually ppl say flaws or some such here, but the problem is that flaws are more complicated than just “they do dumb things because of this adjective.”

also i love flaws. they’re born of the essence that makes a character who they are. hating their flaws is ridiculous.

with that said……..

fucking hate lotor’s hair. seriously, wtf? he can tuck all of it into his helmet and have it all fall back out nice and neatly. HOW. it’s the biggest lie of the entire show alongside allura’s bun. it’s just not possible and i hate that lotor defying reality just to look beautiful is Canon.

his butt cape. like akjhdkhgkghjgk,,, a genuine BUTT CAPE. for what purpose?? preference??? drama???????? i’ve seen comparisons to honerva’s own butt cape back when she was a normal empress-consort scientist on daibazaal, which makes sense since lotor loves making Fashion Statements, but god. a butt cape.

what on god’s heavenly green earth is up with his swordsmanship? the acrobatics and the flourishing are positively ridiculous. who the fuck actually tries killing a powerful emperor and their abuser by smashing them from above with a purple final fantasy sword like they’re the hammer and zarkon is a nail. lotor is unrealistic.

ship them with:

:)

recovery and happiness.

brotp them with:

his generals. DUH. it’s clear that they’ve had a strong history together, and it’s impossible to have their relationship end here without any sort of resolution or confrontation about narti’s death. let them reunite under conciliatory terms. let them be friends again. (and let sincline return.)

allura for sure!!! their relationship development has been beautiful so far and i want to see that continue.

coran. they’re both Nerds. plus, one of them got to experience a full and long life on altea. let them talk.

the paladins in general. it might be difficult, slow-going, and hesitant/full of suspicion on both sides, but god—just imagine if they were friendly. (plus it would do worlds of good for lotor. he’s a lonely man, and it would even more clearly distance him from comparisons to zarkon.)

the blade of marmora (and keith). the show has said nothing so far, but i refuse to believe that in the past centuries, lotor and the blade have never interacted or crossed paths before. i can imagine why they would’ve been uninterested in alliance with each other, but i can also imagine what would make each appeal greatly to the other. let them interact. (as for keith, he and lotor have a lot of similarities. it’s real funny how similar allura, keith, and lotor all are to each other, really. hm.)

needs to stay away from:

haggar. she’s fake as hell and evil to boot. some ppl think that she’s reawakened some kind of dormant love in her for lotor after regaining more memories in s5, but that’s far from the case. someone who’s become and lived as she has for 10,000 years doesn’t suddenly care well about someone she’s abused horribly because she realizes she gave birth to them, and doesn’t suddenly become sympathetic in the good way because she’s “motherly” now. (not if the writing’s supposed to be decent, anyway.) she realizes lotor’s about to die and does absolutely nothing else except turn on the magic shiro television in her lab. she only finds out after the black bayard exchange has already happened, and she’s haggar. if she really wanted to stop what was happening, she could’ve done a lot more than just watch through shiro’s eyes. she’s a horrible person, folks, and lotor would do best to never see her again. (unfortunately, it’s much more likely that she will fuck his shit up some more next season. rip.)

zarkon. hopefully he actually stays dead this time, but i’ve seen some good points on how sketchy his ability to stay dead is. nevertheless, all memory of him deserves to be banished to the nether realms. lotor should never have to deal with that asshole’s legacy again.

misc. thoughts:

anyone who talks about lotor getting/not getting/deserving/not deserving a redemption arc makes me lose my shit because he hasn’t even done anything to warrant a redemption arc in the first place like tbfh. evil deeds whomst?? trying to kill voltron when?? where are these receipts of malice??? he’s never done an evil damn thing but y’all humoring the concept anyway. smh.

anyway, lotor needs a therapist, healing, and some good fucking friends. @dreamworks give lotor a recovery arc 2k18.

[dangoghz]

legitimate advice for new phandom blogs

hey !! so i know sometimes posts like ‘RULES FOR THE PHANDOM XD’ are made and they’re all like “numba one. dan is a squishy bean respect this uwu” but this isn’t gonna be like that lol. im just going to list a few actual things that might help people new to the phandom learn about and become integrated into the community! of course these aren’t ‘rules’ and u dont have to listen to any of it ofc,,, im not here to control ur blog, just here to say what people normally do. feel free to rb whether u are a new blog or not, ill appreciate it either way!

(NOTE: PLS TELL ME IF ANY OF THE LINKS DONT WORK AND ILL FIX THEM PERIODICALLY!)

italicized text is defined in the glossary at the bottom!

1. be interactive! 

here, unique to our corner of timmy darn communism, we have a lot of like virtual traditions that everyone knows. these help you to make friends and also grow ur blog with some new mutuals. here are some examples.

networks: networks, or nets, are a sort of selective gc, usually with a theme or concept that it’s based around, in which all who wish to be part of fill out an application form that determines whether they get in. this is kinda the one with the most work, as u also have to make a group blog and info post, but it’s definitely worth it. i have made my closest friends in nets (such as @phleurnet which i birthed), and a lot of people on here would say the same. if you want to know more or apply, my friend diana runs an update blog @phandomnets! (examples, these are all open btw: x x x)

meetups: meetups are not in real life, don’t worry. a meetup is when someone organizes a specific time at which we all post thing around a certain theme! for instance, on halloween on tuesday, my friend milo hosted a halloween meetup. usually people post selfies but if u are uncomfortable with that, u can post art, music, or anything else related to the theme. a blog called @phandommeetupwatch keeps track of these! (examples, all happening soon/just happened: x x x)

follow forevers: a follow forever is a big celebration post when u reach a follower count milestone, no matter 50 or 5k. u tag all of the blogs you love, and they reblog it to appreciate u! it’s really positive and shows people how their work has paid off. usually people are tagged in alphabetical order, and sometimes people bold their favorites but the stylization is up to u. (recent examples: x x x)

milestone activities: sometimes people do things for their followers when they reach a follower count that involves their followers requesting something! there are many many forms of this type of thing. a common one is blog rates, in which there is a set template and the blogger rates each blog that sends in an ask using the template (info post ex: x; rate ex: x). there are also url edits (x), name/url moodboards (x), and more. u can certainly come up w an idea of ur own, being creative is great!

talk to people: that’s right dude!!! ye!!! u can message a blog u think is cool, or send an ask if u think something they made or are talking about is interesting, or add something sweet in the tags (more on etiquette later) when u rb their post. additionally, sometimes people stir up discourse, and u should participate in it if u want (past discourse examples: x x). u can also send asks when people reblog ask games, which are a list of questions with a theme (new one of mine ex: x). 

2. play around with your blog!

customizing your blog can start giving you what we call a branding, making you distinguished from other bloggers. this can include everything from as simple as using an icon to coding your own about page. 

themes: a blog can be way more appealing if it is aesthetically pleasing. admittedly, i often follow people just because of the smoothness of their mobile theme. a mobile theme is rather easy to construct as u can do it on ur own with a phone. it is how ur blog looks on a phone. although u don’t have to do this, i recommend sticking to two to four colors on ur theme and avoiding stuffing it with a lot of bright things because it can distract from content. additionally, bloggers often make their descriptions short and succinct. (my fav mobiles: x x x.) on a pc, your blog theme can be customized completely on html, meaning there is a lot of freedom. u don’t have to learn to code for this, bc u can find free themes anywhere, just search ‘free tumblr themes’ on google. once again, be creative, but u shouldn’t overload. (my fav pcs: x x x.)

about pages: in order to avoid chunky descriptions but still let people know the key deets about themselves, bloggers create about pages. sometimes these bout pages are uncoded but u can also use html code if u want to. some common things in an about page are interests, maybe personality types/horoscopes/hogwarts houses, original content, and links to other social media. (examples: x x x)

urls: urls are a key part of your blog’s brand. ‘rebranding’ is what people say if they change their url! if u are tired or bored with your url, changing it is an opportunity to change your theme and other parts of ur blog as well. (url change ex: x). 

saved urls: saved urls are basically when bloggers hoard sideblogs in order to reserve the urls used for them. if you ever encounter a blank blog that has ‘saved’ as its title, that’s probably it. sometimes people like to give away their urls, either as a constant thing (ex: x) or by doing a url giveaway (x). either way, it’s a good opportunity to change it up!

tags: in order to keep their blog cleancut and organized, a lot of bloggers have special tags for certain people, certain topics, and/or certain types of media. many people in the phandom particularly have tags for dan and phil that match (strawberries and cream, lune and sole, etc). if they have many of these tags, there can be a page for their tags on their blog. this page can be coded with special html or just a regular tumblr page, it doesn’t really matter. but it’s very useful for those who visit your blog, and makes it easy for u to navigate older posts as well! (examples: x x x)

3. learn to make og content!

producing original content helps you establish what your strengths are and why people should follow you. it also allows u to contribute to the fanbase, and gives u a chance of being noticed by dnp! and the validation is lovely. there are many options if u want to make something. 

gifs: gifs are an ART here in the phandom, and its mechanisms still perplex me to this day bc ive never tried it. u probably already know what a gif is, but if not, its essentially a short animation made in photoshop that repeats. gifmakers are often distinguished by a unique coloring (example gifmakers: x x x), such as my friend emily’s smooth dark blue tint (x). it can be a long process to learn how to gif but it is very rewarding in the end, from what i’ve heard. (tutorials: x x)

art: there is a very wide range of phanartists, all with such talents, either digital or traditional, that you can draw inspirations from for your own work. you can make cartoons, comics, realism, abstract, nsfw even, or any mix (or none) of the former. artists on tumblr definitely deserve more attention than they get here on tumblr, so be sure to show appreciation towards them! (my fav artists: x x x)

edits: edits are the Graphic Designs of our community and are usually very aesthetically pleasing. they can be centered around a certain event, like a video or something dnp made, or just for fun. the more practice you get making them, the more dexterous u’ll become. they can be a great tool if u like the design aspect of art but don’t want to actually draw. (edit makers: x x)

icons: icons are just the little profile picture that u can insert for ur blog. it’s really easy and fun to make them, kind of like a lazy version of edits. you can make them using photoshop or an app like picsart or medibang, and it doesn’t take a lot of time. more on how to use icons in section 4. (examples: x x x) (my lil tutorial: x)

moodboards: moodboards are nine pictures arranged 3 by 3 that have a certain color scheme. it’s kind of like a collage except the photo feature here separates the pictures for u. there are a lot of innovative moodboard makers that stun me w how pretty it looks or how they arrange the pics. moodboards are also an easy and fun option! (moodboard tags: x x x)

textposts: this is by far the easiest and more common form of content u will find. it’s just writing about dnp in a textpost! if a textpost isn’t very serious, people also call it a meme or shitpost. shitposting is defs on the rise here so its a good business to get into. it’s also a great outlet for ur emotions or personal connections to what dnp do! (example talk tags: x x x)

fics: by far the most famous media to come out of here, phanfiction is a popular form of phan indulgence. u have probably heard of the most scarring ones (list: x), but there is actually a really vast range of it, not just creepy smut! some other genres are fluff, angst, and slow burns. u will discover that, despite the sterotype, not all fanfiction is bad. you can find lovely fics on @phanfictioncatalogue by genre, au, or topic. and, if u need help writing something, many writers would love to help. (a few well-known fics: x x x x x)

4. tumblr etiquette!

i know tumblr might seem like a simple social media (or perhaps not after u’ve read all the above?) but there’s a lot of things that u just....u just don’t do. it’s sort of like virtual manners, and if u don’t follow them, then it’s unlikely that people will like ur blog. once again, this is by no means me forcing u to run ur blog a certain way. it just happens that the types of ppl who break these rules are who we mock in gcs :////////. so yea, here’s some advice.

credits: if u decide to use someone’s art, edit, gif, or icon on the theme of ur blog, check what they require of u before u use it. most content creators strongly ask for credit in the description of ur blog, either by link or like ‘icon/header/art by ____’. it is just a common courtesy to the person who spent time on that, and if u think credit will ruin the aesthetic of ur blog, a) u probably don’t have an aesthetic in the first place and b) learn to appreciate art, binch. 

anonymity: anon asks can be very powerful either negatively or positively depending on how u yield them, so make sure that u are careful with what u send. compliments are always welcome and criticism as well, but blatant rudeness or hate will do nothing. u will only make someone feel bad about themselves and it will not accomplish anything. also, u face the threat of all their friends turning u into a meme. 

sensitivity: a lot of people here are way too easily offended by harmless jokes, a common example in the phandom being when we insult dnp affectionately and people take it way too much to heart. please don’t start drama over something w no real meaning. however, there are times when it is indeed necessary. if u want to criticise a blogger, be respectful of them simultaneously. by all means, if u spot someone being racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, or the like, feel free to call them out on it. but beforehand, make sure that u have done ur research and are educated on the topic, or u could turn out to be blatantly wrong. 

adding to posts: everyone makes this mistake when they start out here and that’s totally okay, but adding to every post u reblog is incredibly bothersome. a rule of thumb would be don’t add anything unless what u say will actually improve the post significantly. if ur additions are along the lines of ‘LOL’ or ‘i relate!!!!’ or ‘philly is a smol bean XD’, learn to use the tags for heaven’s sake. they’re there for not only organization but also for commenting. some exceptions, though, would be if u are mentioned in the post or the op is your close friend. 

respecting privacy: this should already be obvious to u, but respect dan and phil’s boundaries. do not tag them or their main tags (#daniel howell, #danisnotonfire, #amazingphil), in any phanfics, phanart (like specifically with them as a romantic ship), or phan edits. do not talk to their family members, expose their personal info like address or phone number, and do consider that they are real people just like u. we may make things based around phan, but it is kept in a community for us and not for dan and phil’s eyes. this is very important.

5. have fun!

sorry if this is all overwhelming, but i tried to make it as simplified as possible. and also sorry for the sass, i’m kinda tired of all the ding dongs on here and want to prevent further ding dongs from being created. thanks so much for readin and be sure to send me an ask anytime if u have questions! welcome to hell!

glossary

timmy darn communism: me being my usual weird self and replacing ‘tumblr dot com’ with random words that start with the same letters

mutuals: someone who you follow and who follows you; usually who u interact with most

rb: shortening for ‘reblog’

discourse: when theres is intense discussion of a certain topic, sometimes phan-related sometimes not, sometimes serious and sometimes silly

branding: the word ‘branding’ kinda started as a joke, but it’s generally what we use to call what someone’s blog reminds them of, whether it be a certain color or a discussion topic; my branding, if u asked a mutual, would probably be impressionism, tea, and baguettes (dont ask ab that one)

html: a simple type of coding used for designing websites! u can learn basic html here or here, it’s way easier and funner than it looks

dnp: dan and phil; we also say ‘deppy’, ‘dip and pip’, ‘the boys’, ‘the rats’, and more

coloring: basically the stylization of a gif, shown through filters, textures, contrast, brightness, etc. 

talk tag: a tag in which all of the textposts that a person makes are sorted into

phanfiction terms

smut: porn fic :/ 

fluff: just what it sounds like, a type of fic that usually has a lot of soft stuff like cuddling, flirting, and looooove

angst: a fic with a lot of drama, usually sad or very emotional

slow burn: a fic where a pairing, in this case phan, slowly falls in love

au: stands for ‘alternate universe’, a fic in which dan and phil are written not as youtubers but in a completely different scenario (ie. bad boy and new guy in high school, university students, space exhibition, anything u can dream up really)

anon: short for ‘anonymous’

op: short for ‘original poster’, aka who made the post

[dustfaerie]

i dare u to answer all the romantic asks

hi babe

i feel like i skim read this ask meme and just went ‘ooh pretty words/unusual asks!!’ and completely missed the point of it being romantic SO time for the aro to do the romantic ask meme lmfao

angel: what makes you feel loved?usually people including me in things/telling me they thought about me at some point/ making an observation of something i do or how i am that tells me they’re paying attention and actually care.... also explicit verbal confirmation bc otherwise,,, Doubt

bewitched: what do you think about when you first saw your crush?i have,,, no idea what this question means

charming: what song comes to mind when you think of me?in a week - hozier

dear: if you could choose anything in the world what would it be?what does this MEAN

enchanting: when was the first time you fell in love?i mean romantically never, platonically or whatever uhhhhhhhh roughly a year ago

fantasy: what is your ideal date?i guess a bookshop date??? or just aesthetic places in general, as long as they’re casual and not fancy bc if they’re fancy i will die instantly. OH or exploring somewhere abandoned that would be so fucking coolheavenly: name your three memories that you cherish the most.i tend to have a policy of Not Looking Back so i’ve never rlly thought about this... i guess i would say the first night i stayed up late talking with one of my best friends, all the times i’ve met up with another best friend, and this one rlly nice phone call i had with my bf. actually i’m gonna cheat and do four - also the day i spent at disneyland with another best friend.intoxicating: what clothing do you find the most appealing?on other ppl or for myself?? for myself i guess anything that looks vaguely witchy, but i like some stuff that’s fashionable rn too. idk i never know how to describe clothes. on other ppl i don’t rlly care

joy: who makes you the most happy?my boyfriend and my other best friends. also florence welch, i’d die for her

kiss: when was your first kiss?17 days from now

love: what gestures do you find truly romantic?like for me personally? tbh i’m Not A Fan of traditional romance so anything with that kind of intent that’s more personal, or that isn’t intended to be a gesture. like if someone just said/did something nice bc they cared rather than ~to be romantic~ u know what i mean? like surprises and public displays are,,,, a terrifying concept.

heart: if you’re sad or upset how would you like someone take care of you?if i want to talk about it let me talk and don’t judge me, be sympathetic and just be nice to me in general. also i like hugs, and i like being held if i’m comfy with u doing that. maybe offer to do sth low-energy and nice w/ me to take my mind off it?? or give me chocolate. just don’t expect me to do/say much.

passion: what is the best true love story you have heard?i’m gonna take ‘true’ to mean ‘it happened’ rather than ‘true love’.... not really a specific story but two of my friends are the most in love couple in the world probably?? they got married earlier this year, they’re so gay i love themradiant: do you believe in soulmates?ye. not just romantic tho - i believe there are platonic soulmates. and it doesn’t just have to be one person either - i’ve definitely found two. c:

sensual: when was the first time you had a crush on someone?counting platonic crushes???? abt 3 years ago now

treasure: has anyone ever made you feel really special?my boyfriend, my best friends, and my favourite teacher from high school

warm: do you believe in love at first sight?no lmao

[groundramon]

Homph I finished tri and I wrote down my thoughts as I was watching because I had too many funny shitposts and nobody to share them with bc charlie hasn’t watched tri yet

PS i wont be reblogging tri spoilers (besides MINOR stuff like, digivolutions of already confirmed digivolution lines or non-spoilery shitposts, but I’ll try to tag shitposts as #tri spoilers anyways [digivolutions specific to tri ill tag as well but not ones that were already basically confirmed]) for a while so ur safe here!  I’m just gonna like everything/most things because then I can rb em to hisyaryumon lmao (also u should check out hisyaryumon....its me n charlie’s digimon blog)

EP 1:

- ok. alright. ok. good. they’re dealing with kari’s emotions now instead of just. nothing.  ok. alright. cool.  Still dont like how obscure/”artsy” they’re being with it, this is digimon not kagerou project, but ok.

- Also. I stand by tk and kari being one of the few good straight ships in digimon.  just saying.

- kari: this is my fault... me: god damn it shut up you little brat also me: god relatable ALSO me: ill take whatever display of emotions i can get

- I love how nobody believes tai is dead like.  They’re upset and worried but they’re also like “nah. he cant be. that fucking asshole just left us in our time of need” (actually only matt is the last one)

- Gabumon i would die for you also im crying and I think that’s the first time tri managed to make me fucking CRY

EP 2:

- I had thoughts but then the 02 kids happened and I entered another plane of reality.  I don’t feel real right now

- the only one I can remember is evil!gennai being a dumbass and being like “SUFFER AND SQUIRM YOU PATHETIC HUMANS AS YOU FIGHT OVER THE LAST SEAT” 1. humans are KNOWN for their ability to care for others you dumb obvious fuck and 2. is. is the entire tube going? because that tube can fit too people if they squish.  This isn’t a joke I’m serious it can.

- oh yeah also when i saw whomstever the fuck his name is (adult guy who i love but fuck names) and he was all bloodied i was like “its a cold day in hell when i see blood in digimon” (I think there was blood in an earlier ep but shh idc)

EP 3:

- didn’t nishijima start off as a fucking life coach to these kids.  What the fuck he was supposed to help them find a career not emotionally scar them by bloodily dying in front of one of them

- im realizing that the reason hackmon was always in his cloak, in the shadows, standing still is that they cannot animate him in any normal position for the life of him.  I drew him with better anatomy when i was 14 and didn’t have a tablet.  No seriously, look:

I didn’t say it wasn’t bad, you guys are just underestimating how bad the anatomy on this poor creature is.  Why cant ppl draw dracomon or hackmon correctly imma cry

- ordinemon has the best reaction faces

the best part about these two screenshots is that they literally cut one to the other, first the first one to the second one and then it cuts back to the first one.  They were really proud of these stupid ass expressions.

- I started overcoming my dissociation shock from the second episode and my hypercritical mind was analyzing the shit out of everything that happened (it is Not happy) but then evil!gennai called kari and evil goddess and idk if he’s exaggerating to make her feel bad or if she’s literally a fucking god of chaos and destruction and either way im like

she did kinda like.  Watch wizardmon die, watch tai die, watch gatomon get absorbed.  The dark ocean is just a metaphor for depression and honestly if 02 wasn’t all over the fucking place I think Kari would’ve had some pretty decent development in it.  Actually you know what, I’m using that as an angle to approach Tri at now, wish me luck bc i might actually give it more leeway now

EP 4:

- I’m not dissociating but I forgot to say anything again and I already forgot what happened

- Cant believe mei is fucking dead

EP 5:

- I like to imagine that Tai got there like a few minutes ago, but he was like “well damn guess yall figured it out without me.  alright ill just. see if I need to do anything” and then meicoomon was Still Bad so he waited for when she struck just to make the most badass entrance possible.  Fucking extra ass bitch

- I forgot to write anything again but uhhh I wasn’t satisfied so anyways lets just get into the Juicy Details

Originally I was actually planning to be kinder to Tri than I expected.  Was very invested during it.  ‘Round the end of the last ep I realized hmmm no this isn’t working out.  Where are the 02 kids.  You should’ve brought them in to save the day.  That would’ve been SO cool and SO fun.  Fucking cowards.

god I’m kinda tired so I’m going to address a couple things I still had problems with, note that this isn’t everything it’s just everything I felt comfortable yelling about without rewatching past eps.  Like I forgot nishijima was all bloodied and presumably died in the last part until they brought it up and I was like “????” ALSO DID THE LADY WHO WAS HIS PARTNER OR W/E KILL HERSELF WITH THE GUN SHE FOUND, I JUST REALIZED LITERALLY AS I WAS TYPING THIS THAT SHE FOUND A GUN AND THEN I THINK IT CUT TO BLACK AND I’M

DID SHE FUCKING KILL HERSELF WHAT THE FUCK

anyways my problems:

1. They did joe. really dirty.  I’ll write a more proper rant on this sometime later (mostly bc charlie is MUCH better at talking about joe than I am) but basically I can tell you that his character development in the movies squandered his OG character development.  He’s basically an entirely different person.  Like Tri joe isn’t bad, besides being largely neglected (yes he has a whole half a movie to himself, no that doesn’t make up for it all), its just...not OG joe.  He’s a fine character just not the same character, and its NOT fine when you put the two together.

2. THEY DID THE 02 KIDS EVEN DIRTIER IM SO BITTER sorry you nostalgia-blind, money-hungry fucks at bandai, but the 02 cast is PART OF THE ADVENTURES UNIVERSE.  The only people who hate 02 are ones who like the characters but hate the mess of the storyline at the end, or are completely irrational and elitist about their love of the digimon series and would greatly re-evaluate their opinions if they watched the original series and 02 back to back.  They couldn’t even show them in some kind of group montage at the end??? Standing in the background when they call Mei???  Why couldn’t they call mei from a home phone also, but that’s a less important problem idc that much.  It was a cute scene besides the lack of 02 characters.  Whatever.  AND THE PROBLEM IS LIKE kari and tk?  This entire time???  Were like “oh they disappeared. oops” instead of being frantically searching for their lost friends???  Like i get tk and kari probably have fucking ptsd and can’t express any emotions because they watched important people die in front of their eyes at an incredibly young age but also 1. they didn’t address the ramifications of ptsd, so fuck that theory/excuse and 2. THAT??? WOULD ONLY MAKE THEM LOOK HARDER??? and put on a brave face as they look, but inside they’re so scared and so worried.  Not just “oh sweet, they were found/saved, theyre in the hospital but that’s fine” like WHAT theyre fucking assholes if that’s what they’d canonically do lmao.  God I am SO bitter over the ENTIRE thing with the 02 kids, it would’ve been BETTER if they were deleted from the fucking canon entirely.  Would I have still been bitter?  Yes.  But at least I wouldn’t be madder at TK and Kari too.

3. I stand 100% by the notion that Digimon is not and will never be cut out to be an adults’ franchise.  It wasn’t designed for adults, and it can’t be skewered towards adults.  These particular characters were designed for kids to relate to and find entertaining.  They do not work when placed into an adult setting.  Like, can you imagine a character like Ed from FMA going to the Digimon world?  I guess in a way that’s just Marcus but like.  Just imagine the FMA cast in Digimon Adventure.  It doesn’t work.  Digimon Tri is basically that except real.  Also Data Squad was darker than Adventure so my joke doesn’t even work.

I guess my primary point is that Tri isn’t mature enough of a setup for an adult audience.  It puts a focus on being “complex” and “philosophical” instead of working within Digimon’s constraints and making something good and adult out of that.  Like!  Digimon is a fucking TOY COMMERCIAL.  Don’t give me messages about the futility of human life.  I want bad puns and emotional characters.  That’s what Digimon has ALWAYS been, and ideally always will be.  Tri could’ve made itself more mature by dealing with the ramifications of the Digital World’s events, how it affected the kids psychologically and dealing with healing old scars.  It would’ve been a more mature take on a story we loved and would use things we loved about the story already - the fact that it took so much time exploring characters’ emotions and was surprisingly mature for the time - to make itself better.  You need to take the aspects that drew adults to the show and amplify them, not just slap on a complex story and unfunny dialogue and be like “oh this is fine, right?”

It’s not that Digimon can’t exist as an adult property, its just that if it repeats what Tri did, it’s got no merit and in my eyes the franchise is dead.  If it survives I guess I’ll be happy that people can still enjoy it but I find it unsustainable and unsatisfying to fans of the older series.  Tri is just a fuckfest of highly specific nostalgia that tries too hard to appeal to old fans without capturing what made the original series so magical, and in part thats because the original series WASN’T FOR ADULTS.  I don’t know about the Digimon Story games, bc they’re T-rated so perhaps they’re a better take on an adult Digimon story than Tri?  But you either need to make your own characters and lore specifically for an adult-oriented Digimon season, or perish.  Also, please make it a series and not a group of movies.  Getting four eps every 6-9 months was hell.

I stand by saying Appmon is a more faithful Digimon season than Tri to Digimon’s original spirit.  I believe it holds more potential for success than Tri and better embodies the spirit of the older Digimon seasons.  It’s dumb, its corny, it has horrible puns, but I LOVE it because it also has a deep dark story and emotional moments.  If you dislike Tri and you agree with things I said that make it unlikeable, I highly recommend giving Appmon a chance - if you watch a few episodes and think “oh yeah, I guess this is decent” you’re going to like it.  It’s everything Digimon has always been and hopefully always will be, just with a different concept.  And hopefully the end of the series doesn’t leave a sour taste in my mouth and I have to redact this statement haha since I’m not done with it yet, but I’ve heard good things about it so I’m hoping not so.

Overall, if you watch Tri, don’t get your hopes up.  It resolves everything okay-ish but it’s a pretty forgettable anime on its own and simply doesn’t work as part of the Digimon franchise.

I am, however, pretty interested in what evil!gennai said at the end about Diaboromon and Daemon.  It raises interesting questions about the timeline too.  We know Daemon is in the dark ocean, so perhaps that’s a hint at a future project?  (They did confirm a future project btw, in conjunction with tri being over)  But what about Diaboromon?  I dont believe that Our War Game (I think thats what its called?) took place after Tri, based on the outfits and ages and stuff, but I also don’t remember the movies that well.  Could Diaboromon still be out there too?  It’s interesting.

However, because of the lackluster performance of Tri, I don’t have my hopes up and I really hope that this “next project” goes in a different direction.  Although I guess if they include the 02 kids, I’ll be somewhat less salty...

Side note, did they ever explain why the gennais went evil?  Like ?  That’s a pretty important thing.  The gennais helped SAVE the human world in 02.  And I get that apparently Tri is ignoring 02′s ending but still.  It’s shitty, because Gennai was still a good guy in the original too (and also they cant just keep is younger look and act like 02 never happened)  MAYBE its something I missed but I dont think so.  God there’s just.  So much wrong with Tri.  I’m very displeased and very bitter and I wanna get back to Appmon asap.

It’s got good moments, its got bad moments, I dont know, I don’t care.  There’s nothing wrong with you if you like it, there’s nothing wrong with you if you don’t, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you flip flop and are split like me.  I just wish Tri fulfilled its potential instead of becoming a boring mess.

[popliar]

K-Con Australia, 20170922-23

The first Australian K-Con was held over the last two nights in Sydney, and @proteinscollide​ and I were there. I'm very behind on everything else as a result! I need to watch Knowing Bros! ANYWAY, short version: IT WAS SUPER FUN. Lots of rambling under the cut as usual.

22 September: SF9, Pentagon, Victon, Girl's Day, Exo

23 September: SF9 (again!), Up10tion, Cosmic Girls/WJSN, Wanna One, Monsta X

Overall this was an extremely well produced show and a really fun show - I had such a good time! Okay, the "convention" part not so much (I'll talk about this a bit at the end of the post) but at both evening shows, the concert ran like a slick machine, stage following stage with no pause, good sound and no technical hitches. Visually the show looked great, with massive screens giving good views of every performer as well as fantastically atmospheric backdrops.

It didn't sell out on either night, and again I'll talk about possible reasons for that more later, but as a vehicle for hallyu and for promoting Korean culture this is potentially such a powerful instrument. One of the most striking K-Con images for me is the footage of K-Con Paris from 2016 - the pan from the section of the crowd for the French dignitaries and delegates, all politely seated and clapping, to the massive auditorium of French youth going absolutely wild for these pop groups from the other side of the world. This show didn't have that element of official endorsement, it was much more a straight-up pop show, but hey you never know, that might come…

Soft power has its limits, for sure, but within those boundaries Korea is working so very hard at being the very best it can be. I admire the gumption, and more importantly to Korea I am happily consuming the product! Give me more product! I'm here for this!

As far as line-up goes, this K-Con wasn't the best. Exo are absolute stars of course and there were other notable groups like Monsta X and Girl's Day; on balance however this was a really rookie-heavy sausage-fest. The prevalence of rookies is probably partly bad timing - the show coincided with the DMC Music Festival (which was eventually cancelled anyway due to labour disputes, argh, we could've had it all!).

But the boy-heavy line-up? Frustrating. Apparently WJSN and Girl's Day are the first girl groups to perform here since 4 Minute some three-four years ago. WHY? Perhaps there's a perception that since Western fans are mostly girls then they'll only turn out for boybands - I know in Korea the audience for girlgroups is skewed towards boys. However, here in the West, pop as a whole is coded so heavily female that I'm sure wouldn't be a problem. I've been to many Western female pop star concerts and trust me, the girls SHOWED UP. Hell, at this very same arena, Little Mix are performing later this year. Besides, this argument falls flat if you look at other K-Con line-ups which, although boy-heavy, still manage more than a measly 2 girl groups. Gosh I'd have been so happy with the addition of any ONE of Red Velvet, Mamamoo, Blackpink, Pristin, Gfriend, Twice, etc…

...that was a long intro. Let's talk the show.

Chanyeol (EXO)

Night 1

The first night of K-Con began with a pre-show of kpop dance cover groups (they were all good but some were REALLY GOOD) and Kevin from U-KISS as MC (did u know he looks like Lee Pace around the eyes?), doing his cheesy best to hype up the crowd and also promote the con's primary sponsor.

Then the show got started with a VCR, featuring Monsta X's Minhyuk in a sort of spaceship-themed narrative? I don't know what I saw but apparently K-Con's first Oceanic showing needed heroes or defenders or something, i.e. kpop groups? Whatever cool. I do know it involved Minhyuk looking at a picture of a kangaroo so we're all good.

Also apparently Sydney is the city of "arts and culture" and also "romance"? I'm flattered on behalf of my home, and I can assure you we have plenty of all three, but really?? Those are not, like, the first words I associate with Sydney. But ok, you do you K-Con!

Exo's Suho and Sehun then came on as the night's special MCs to deliver a brief introduction and be cute together and make the crowd scream. Naturally, there were Exo jerseys and banners and lightsticks all over the place; earlier in the day I got handed a cute banner to celebrate Chen's birthday, which I then promptly used to test proteinscollide's knowledge of Exo band names. (She improved greatly through the evening!)

First group up were rookie boyband SF9 - I've enjoyed their songs and MVs without knowing much about them. This rapidfire 3 song performance made me more of a fan! They just hit all their beats really well, both in terms of performance and in their brief introduction ment, advantaged by one member who was a fluent English speaker. Their line distribution is kind of weird - there's maybe three members who dominate the vocals and the dancing, especially Taeyang who I kept thinking of as "that one guy who looks like Shinee's Jonghyun" - but not enough to detract overall. I have no favourite but maybe my favourite is the rapper with currently red hair who reminds me of SVT Jeonghan and Pentagon's E'Dawn.

Something like K-Con is the perfect platform for a rookie group to get this kind of exposure. My own first exposure to kpop (aka the reason for my eternal downfall) was winning free tickets to a Boyfriend & JJCC show - I knew nothing about them, knew next to nothing about kpop, and JJCC were a hot mess sorry - but seeing the groups in person and live was enough to make me want to know so much more. I feel like this SF9 set functioned in much the same way. It was SO much more impactful than just an MV or a youtube clip or a gifset. This is how fans are made! (That said… I'll get to it, but SF9 got two bites at the cherry. Why?)

Next up were Pentagon and their brief set was great. Their songs are such bangers - I SAID BANGERS, DON'T AT ME - and they were really polished and powerful. Kino's opening dance solo was super charismatic, and E'Dawn (aka the only one I can consistently recognise) was working that jawline of his so well, lol. He does the bad boy thing very well! I admire it! For their ment, they played the "Pinata" game as seen at other K-Cons this year, i.e. a random game was selected. (Would the game be 'Propose'? It was not propose, but one member did get down on one knee to E'Dawn anyway, good job good fanservice.) In this case it was a random dance play, and it was very amusing and silly.

Probably my favourite thing about Pengaton is how far and fast proteinscollide has fallen for them. Can you believe at this time last year she didn't even know all the MX member names? Now the student has exceeded the master! Post your Pentagon post bro!

Sehun and Suho came back to introduce a special stage: Exo's Chanyeol in duet with WJSN's Seola, for his OST track Stay with Me. This was a nice, pretty interlude and a bit of a breather after the fast pacing of the first two sets.

Seola (WJSN)

Third rookie group Victon bopped cutely to a very Australian-themed video backdrop and they were very entertaining, without necessarily making me want to seek them out further. I think that's more to do with their concept being more cute than Pentagon and SF9's, so less appealing to me on those grounds. But they have their charms and most importantly one had a mullet! I'm HERE for the mullets, don't even think I'm joking.

Next up were Girl's Day. They're down to 4 members now but their experience and their casual confidence made them so enjoyable to watch. They played their hits including Something, Expectation and Ring My Bell with such a sense of fun and sexiness, dominating the stage and playing to the crowd with the relaxed ease of vets who have nothing to prove. There was a hunger to the rookies that gave them more edge but sometimes you just wanna watch really talented ppl relaxedly doing their very talented thing.

With everyone acutely aware there was only one act left to take the stage, a couple of SF9s came out to MC a special stage. They did the usual "how are you guys enjoying the show" and "we love Australia" and all that jazz, and then made the fatal mistake of asking an open-ended question:

SF9 MCs: so who is Australia's favourite boy group? Crowd: BTS!!! MCs: Yes, Exo!!! #awkward

I lol'd! I am sorry! Bless you Exo but c'mon!

This was followed by a brief VCR of Australian fans naming their favourite boybands, and then a really fun special stage of boyband covers:  Pentagon covered GOT7's Hard Carry;  SF9 covered Exo's Monster; and Victon did BTS's Fire.

At last it was time for EXO - MUCH CHEERING FROM CROWD!  Exo-Ls were out in force. There were also tons of lightsticks in the crowd and everyone was hyyyyped.

Now some context for my reaction: I can name all the Exo's and I like some of their songs, but I don't quite click with their aesthetic/dynamic in the way that I do with BTS, etc. They were also at something of a disadvantage, with D.O absent from the line-up (I had to count them twice to make sure sob) and Lay MIA from this entire comeback (though I guess that's no longer surprising).

So let that be the background for me saying that I was totally entertained and impressed by their set. Starting with Power and ending with Ko Ko Bop, they came out and gave a great show. They are after all professionally charming and who was I to resist?

For me again it's that idea of a live show being so much more powerful than a video, even for something as preplanned and artificially constructed as pop. A concert is such a powerful reminder that it's more than the performer, and it's more than the audience too - it's about the relationship between the two, that alchemy of atmosphere and act that you only get in that specific environment.

Yes, Kai was deadly with his fucking winks and seductive looks (how dare you sir), but the way the audience reacted to his performance is what made the show go off. Xiumin aka Cat Pirate was also a scene stealer for me, and it was very darling when Chanyeol threw confetti at his head at the end awwww.

(I just wish, like, SM were less SM-y. I got a message from proteinscollide after the show - "Girl walking thru car park: shout out to SM who never give reasons for why members aren't there and if they're ok". Um, yep. I had to check on twitter to find out that D.O was off filming a movie.)

Ending stage was as usual with everyone coming out as tons of confetti rained down. I think a SF9 hugged a Victon? AWWW FRIENDS. A good night.

Night 2

We started again with dance cover groups - colour me EXTREMELY impressed by IME Dance Studio - and Kevin from U-KISS giving away a prize to whoever in the crowd did their best impression of their favourite thing to do in a hotel room. This led to a really hilarious scenario as the cameras zoomed in on 2 girls "dancing" together. "Yes, they're dancing!" Kevin said, "of course they're dancing!" Everyone just cracked the fuck up, Kevin included. They got the prize, bless them, which was - ofc - a free hotel stay!

The show started with the same VCR as the day before and then I was EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED by Monsta X's Jooheon and Shownu taking the stage together to drop an absolutely fire performance. Jooheon's duality is amazing - cuddly scaredy-cat off stage, fucking monster on stage - he was SO GOOD. Shownu's dance break was great as expected and I cried tears in my heart bc I love them.

SF9 returned for the second evening - again, they were slick and impressive, and they namedropped kangaroos and meat pies in their intro ment, good work on ticking off those keywords lol. But I really don't know why they got sets on both days? Did FNC decide they really wanted to build that fanbase and made the necessary commercial arrangement with the promotors? Like I said, stages like this can be real turning points in making a fan. So that's fascinating. If anyone knows, lemme know?

Daehwi (Wanna One)

Three Wanna Ones then took the stage to briefly MC. It was definitely Kang Daniel and uh, two other Wanna Ones! *hastily googles* It was Daehwi, who was the most fluent in English and was super cute & cheesy, and Minhyun, who was also cute but I don't remember much? Sorry team. The only Broduce bro I can 100% identify is Daniel, and sometimes Jaewhan. But! I think I'll remember Daehwi from now on - he was pretty memorable and did the most heavy lifting in the ments. Anyway they delivered some potted intros and then on to the next one.

WJSN then performed a special stage, covering two Kylie Minogue songs as two subunits - Locomotion (which I note came out in 1988, older than every single K-Con performer except for Sojin of Girl's Day) and I Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2001 - there are rookies debuting born in 2001! And younger! God i'm so old). Firstly much love for preparing a special stage with local appeal that didn't feel pandering and really spoke to the long history of amazing women in pop, and secondly THEY WERE SO GOOD. Fun, bright, poppy - I love them.

They were followed by Up10tion who did a high energy set and I remember why I liked them! They're good! I don't quite click with all their songs, especially their more recent ones which I feel are a bit hit and miss, but just like every other group in this K-Con they delivered their set with professionalism and skill and charm.

There was then a brief interlude with MX's Kihyun and I.M, MY TWO LOVES, MCing an audience dance game. We got to see Kihyun doing the Twice TT dance and my world was made. Gosh I love them.

WJSN

WJSN then came back for their set and I just really like them so much. They have that sleekness that I've come to associate with Starship because of them and MX, with both groups always having good choreo and catchy hooks. I like their concept a lot too - they're cute sassy cheerleaders, yes, but I also feel like there's this very cool edge to them, they could easily cut you! I love that! As they acknowledged in their ment, 2 members couldn't make it due to filming schedules (I think it was Cheng Xiao, the dancey/gymnastic one? And Mei Qi, possibly? I'm sorry, I don't remember) but they were still very good and I enjoyed their set a lot. And their main rapper - god, I'm sorry, I don't know if it was Bona or another member - she was SO GOOD? She had so much stage presence. Gosh. I need to find out her name.

Next up were Wanna One. Now, ofc, Produce 101 never officially aired in Australia. We had to watch it on the internet like a bunch of animals. And yet out of all the groups on both days, their fans were definitely the most intense and the most scream-y - yes, more intense than the Exo-Ls and the Monbebes!

I only ever saw snippets of P101 and as I said I can only ID Daniel with certainty, but I was, hmm, not surprised I guess that they turned out to be endearing? CAN U IMAGINE, a group of young men voted for according to their charms turns out to be extremely charming?! The shock!  (From a purely commercial standpoint, what a brilliant exercise this has turned out to be. I think the limited timeframe for Wanna One to make bank lends an edge of urgency to their fandom and means their machine is also geared to maximum efficiency. Make! Bank! Now!) And because they're young and new, there was a certain edge of rawness and spontaneity to them which is naturally part of their appeal too. I still don't quite know what I feel about Kang Daniel - like I know he's very fond of cats and therefore a good person, and he has this easy, cocky stage charisma which makes his appeal seem very straightforward. But I think I found him most endearing when he missed a step at the end of his dance solo and there was just the cutest expression on his face, like "my bad."

For their Pinata game, they did photo time with hyung line posing "cutely" and maknae line posing "sexily" followed by some kind of free for all - A HOT MESS, lol.

Daehwi also went off script - or at least, he said he went off script, but can you ever really know? We need to go deeper! - and wished happy birthday to Kuanlin, getting the whole audience to sing along too, awww. As I said: what a group of charming young men; the self-awareness that they were constructed to charm ultimately means nothing.

FINALLY MONSTA X. They're, like, my second favourite group after BTS so I think I would've been just fine if they'd shown up and waved at us and sang like a song or two. But they didn't! They were really, really good. As headliners they had a signficant chunk of time and I think I was smiling from start to end, non stop.

They've turned into such good performers - with something similar to that same easy confidence that Girl's Day and Exo had - and I felt like they really did the most, on the second night, with connecting to the audience. Their performances were all on point, and everyone of them looked and sounded great but Jooheon especially killed me with swag and Wonho's collar & cleavage can fuck right off, ISTG. It just made me so happy to see them doing these songs and choreo I love so much - Shine Forever and Beautiful and Fighter - and they ended with Hero, my very first MX song, which was amazing. (I am a little sad they skipped All In but ok I can live with it.)

For their ment, they played the proposal game, with three members doing their very best fanservice lol. A very happy woman in the standing area got to be audience surrogate as I.M laid on cheesy lines (something about angels and heaven, IDK, why is he like this and why do I love him so much), Kihyun sang a ballad to her (next to me proteinscollide died a death), and Wonho came down to the barrier to to give her a heart, selfie & cheek kiss. It was so! Cheesy! And Wonderful! #the selfawareness does nothing

Everyone then came out for the goodbye, though MX were the only ones who felt relaxed enough it seems to actually get silly with the confetti and do some more spontaneous bows & waves to the crowd. By comparison to every other group on the 2nd night, they must be the old hands at K-Con by now - they've done SO many. Gosh I hope they come back to Australia for a full show. I love them so much.

Fuck, I'm now at 3300 words so let's wrap this up quick:

Unlike other K-Cons which seem to have a proper programming and convention stream, the "convention" part of this was really a disappointment. Minimal programming, minimal stalls (less than 10 vendors), all in one room. It was free entry which is fine I guess except that people were queuing up forever to get inside due to the limited capacity and it was H O T (over 30 C each day) out there. In the end I queued for an hour, and spent about 15 minutes inside. It was really not worth it. Luckily proteinscollide & I had options and just went away for a few hours to pass the time before the show, but I imagine there were a lot of kids left hanging around Olympic Park all day with nothing to do.

The shows didn't sell out. What does this mean? Possible thoughts:

-It was really expensive and the audience skews young. Like, the premium tickets were REALLY REALLY expensive and good tix were expensive. I could afford decent tix, but if I were in my teens? No way. I'd have had to ask my parents for it.

-Sydney has had a run of shows including an Australian-exclusive BTS show. If you're interstate and you already spent $$$ going to BTS, or for that matter $$$ to go G-Dragon in your own state, how much money do you have left over for concerts in this year? There is a limited capacity for this audience to keep spending. Promoters should be careful not to spread us too thin. Put more shows on in Melbourne! (Though I don't know - are there more Koreans and east Asians in Sydney? I suspect there are. The audience, again, skews heavily to those of us who are Asian-Australian.)

-Exo, MX, and Wanna One are very popular but don't have the same mainstream reach in Australia as BTS. BTS also had the advantage again of being earlier in the year, only the 2nd major kpop tour in the year I believe. Since then there's been other kpop and khip-hop shows for people to spend their money on. I really thought Exo would give BTS a run tho, given how well their latest album performed on Australian iTunes charts.

...that was not a quick wrap-up.

TO CONCLUDE: I HAD A GOOD TIME, THANK U FOR READING.