#though that would just be most gifsets

[mgu-h]

so frustrated 😍

[titsthedamnseason]

eras tour lookbook: my favorites edition

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Ava Gardner (The Killers, The Barefoot Contessa)— She's so goddamn hot. Her and Frank Sinatra could've sandwiched me and I would've thanked them for the privilege

Anna May Wong (The Thief of Bagdad, Shanghai Express)—Wong was the first Chinese American movie star, arguably the first Asian woman to make it big in American films. Though the racism of the time often forced her into stereotypical roles, awarded Asian leading roles to white actors in yellowface, and prohibited on-screen romance between actors of different races, she delivered powerful and memorable performances. When Hollywood bigotry got to be too much, she made movies in Europe. Wong was intellectually curious, a fashion icon, and a strong advocate for authentic Asian representation in cinema. And, notably for the purposes of this tournament, absolutely gorgeous.

This is round 5 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Ava Gardner:

Ava Gardner is one of my favorite actresses of all time. Although a lot of her roles in movies are about her being beautiful and nothing else, there are some films where her acting truly shines.

Gifset: https://www.tumblr.com/pelopides/721438308726603776/ava-gardner-as-pandora-reynolds-pandora-and-the

Gifset 2: https://www.tumblr.com/portraitoflestatonfire/731899355804598272/if-the-loustat-reunion-doesnt-look-like-this-then

HER FACE. LOOK AT IT. Also was a life long supporter of civil rights and a member of the NAACP, had lots of fun love affairs with other stars, bullfighters, married several times but was also happy in between to just have lovers and was unapologetically herself.

I literally gasp every time I see her.

Between 1942 and 1964, Ava Gardner was credited in no less 50 films, and is still considered by some to be the most beautiful actresses that ever graced the silver screen. Despite life-long insecurities regarding her talent as an actress, she weathered public scandal, industry hostility, and outright condemnation by the Catholic Church with fearless grace. She would later in life talk candidly about the reality and pain of living through two (studio approved!!) abortions during her short marriage to Frank Sinatra, and while the two of them could not make their relationship work, they remained in each other’s lives for nearly 30 years. She would forever describe herself as a small-town girl who just got lucky, but always felt like a beautiful outsider.

Really genuinely one of the most beautiful human beings I have ever seen. An autodidact. Had amazing chemistry with Gregory Peck to the point where I do think about watching On The Beach again sometimes because they're so good together even though that movie did destroy me. Was a great femme fatale in many movies.

Anna May Wong propaganda:

"She so so gorgeous!! Due to Hollywood racism she was pretty limited in the roles she got to play but even despite that she’s so captivating and deserves to be known as a leading lady in her own right!! When she’s on screen in Shanghai Express I can’t look away, which is saying something because Marlene Dietrich is also in that film."

"SHE IS ON THE BACK OF QUARTERS also she was very smart and able to speak multiple languages and is a fashion icon on top of the acting/singing"

"Paved the way for Asian American actresses AND TOTAL HOTTIE!!! She broke boundaries and made it her mission to smash stereotypes of Asian women in western film (at the time, they were either protrayed them as delicate and demure or scheming and evil). In 1951, she made history with her television show The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first-ever U.S. television show starring an Asian-American series lead (paraphrased from Wikipedia). Also, never married and rumor has it that she had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. We love a Controversial Queen!"

"She's got that Silent Era smoulder™ that I think transcends the very stereotypical roles in which she was typically cast. Also looks very hot smouldering opposite Marlene Dietrich in "Shanghai Express"; there's kiss energy there."

"Hot as hell and chronically overlooked in her time, she's truly phenomenal and absolutely stunning"

"A story of stardom unavoidably marred by Hollywood racism; Wong's early-career hype was significantly derailed by the higher-up's reluctance to have an Asian lead, and things only got worse when the Hayes code came down and she suddenly *couldn't* be shown kissing a white man--even if that white man was in yellowface. After being shoved into the Dragon Lady role one too many times, she took her career to other continents for many years. Still, she came back to America eventually, being more selective in her roles, speaking out against Asian stereotypes, and in the midst of all of this finding the time to be awarded both the title of "World's Best Dressed Woman" by Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York and an honorary doctorate by Peking University."

"Incredible beauty, incredible actress, incredible story."

"-flapper fashion ICON. look up her fits please <3 -rumors of lesbianism due to her Close Friendships with marlene dietrich & cecil cunningham, among others -leveraged her star power to criticize the racist depictions of Chinese and Asian characters in Hollywood, as well as raise money and popular support for China & Chinese refugees in the 1930s and 40s. -face card REFUSED to decline"

[arciam]

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (17/∞)

[Blink-and-you'll-miss-it.]

So, "fun" story: When I first watched Arcane, while I had already seen approximately 10.000 gifsets of JayVik's final 5 minutes crossing my dash, I knew hardly anything else about them, or how they would get to that point.

...So imagine my surprise when I witnessed Jayce just straight-up murdering the guy that I knew he would end up gazing at like this:

(Though, as I imagine, it was probably not that much less of a shock to people watching the show as it came out.)

In hindsight, of course I understand that it's very much by design that the viewer is kept in the dark about Jayce's motivations until the last possible moment (whether or not I agree with this decision and what it meant for the characters is another topic entirely... as in, you will never convince me that Jayce, if not for plot-imposed secrecy, wouldn't have tried to explain things to Viktor and would instead really just go "so anyway, I started blasting").

I assume we're supposed to think, at that point, that Jayce is either possessed by some force like the Arcane, went fully insane, or is indeed just out for Viktor's blood for some reason.

Which is why, upon second viewing, I found it even more incredible how Fortiche rrreally squeezed the absolute most out of the facial animations and, in fact, gave us a myriad of microexpressions which are supposed to still show us Jayce's true feelings once you know what you're looking for.

He may be looking at Viktor like a rabid raccoon most of the time, but then there's also:

The first time he hears (his) Viktor's voice again.

This part of his "split face" right before he shoots Viktor.

The dead last frame of this shot after shooting him.

Not to mention this sequence of faces as he stumbles out. just kill me it would hurt less

It's obvious enough once you know, yet subtle enough to remain obscured if you don't.

Also, another thing I want to draw attention to is how Jayce's "madness" stops the moment the deed is done (and only returns when Viktor does) - he is already fully lucid by the time he helps Caitlyn and Vi escape from the commune.

Which to me, looking back, indicates one thing specifically:

Jayce's mind freaking out on him to the brink of collapse until this moment wasn't just madness, or PTSD, or the touch of the Arcane.

He was waging outright war against himself to the point of dissociating to be able to do what he did to Viktor.

(Again - was it necessary for him to do it? I don't think the show really took the time to show us why it would be... but that wasn't the topic of this post.)

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/7½/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20

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[lunarriviera]

listen i know the rest of you are going to make far superior gifsets and believe me i will reblog every single one, but i could not wait, so i threw this together bc i had to yell at you about zhang xincheng RIGHT NOW and i needed visual evidence of what i'm on about.

[clutches you by the collar very gently and whispers urgently at you]

you maybe already knew that "zhang xincheng's acting skills" was in the top 10 weibo hot search all day yesterday, but if you didn't i think you can now see why. i left out the more ghastly parts of this scene (as well as all the shots of fu xinbo's superbly horror-stricken face, the face of a man seeing something no one should have to see, the face of man looking directly into a war) bc that's not what's relevant to me here. and lbr any old first-year drama student can have a fake seizure.

instead what i wanted to focus on is some of the most astonishing transparency i've ever witnessed a television actor offering their audience. this is a character dragging himself deliberately into the pit of hell bc he thinks that's what he has to do—to be saved? oh no, not saved. fei du doesn't think he can be saved. he's just trying to pass as a creature that's shaped like, behaves like, something roughly equivalent to a human being. this is part of how fei du has crafted his "painted skin," the one that only lwz ever sees through.

(and whichever screenwriter decided lwz should have to be there for this? should watch fei du put himself through self-torture as a way to visualize figuring it out?—whoever you are, screenwriter, i could cheerfully kiss you. this choice doesn't just compress and expedite narrative but it gives us additional character payout: amazing.)

and yet! not as amazing as that moment when zhang xincheng leans forward and smiles. it's not that fei du sees lwz, not in this reality; if he's smiling at anyone, it might be fei chengyu. but i would also put it to you that at least part of the reason luo wenzhou is so absolutely horrified is that he's afraid of his own complicity in this nightmare. what if his crabby chinese-dad lectures, the belligerent fussing, the constant criticisms, have done a kind of work he never intended? fei du genuinely believes (but thanks to fei chengyu, not lwz) that he's incapable of human emotion and reactions, empathy and connection, and that he has to be punished into some simulacrum of personhood. when he leans forward and smiles like that? "i'm good now, aren't i? look at me trying—i want to be good, like you and tao ran. it will never work. i'm unsalvageable, i'm worthless, i'm wreckage. but i'm trying to be a person, i'm trying to be good like you are—"

from this moment on, lwz has a newly doubled responsibility. it's not just what his shifu had told him (and what luo wenzhou recognized, when a young fei du had first looked at him with "a gaze so clear it had been nearly wild…stifling never-before-uttered cries for help"): namely, that "if someone ever looks at you like that, you…absolutely cannot fail to live up to those expectations." lwz's been carrying that burden already; after all, he's been investigating this case for over seven years. but now, it's also his responsibility to make sure that going forward, starting from today, he doesn't fail to protect fei du from himself (from fei chengyu, really; and the drama does a little sleight-of-hand here, but more on that some other time). he starts by ordering fei du to "come back to the bureau and work overtime with me," his first desperate attempt to stop this, without having to confront fei du (whom he knows would simply shut him out anyway, at this point—put on his glasses and his mask and smile the cold polite little peach-blossom smile, the rehearsed painted skin).

here's the interesting thing, though, and then i swear to god i will shut up and let you go on your way: apparently no one ever told fei du, or he never read about or internalized, despite his brilliance—that you can't teach new behavior through negative stimuli. it's basic operant conditioning; he should have known this. think about it for one second: "don't do that" doesn't tell you what you should do. it teaches an organism to be aversive, but it doesn't give them any positive behavior to fill the void instead. that's why the word "no" means nothing to a well-trained service dog. "no" doesn't give any direction or instruction; it doesn't suggest any outcome. in a very twisted kind of way, this actually proves what fei du loves to deny: that he has raging ptsd. it's just plain self-punishment, not self-correction, and he's deluding himself. absolutely none of what he's doing in the basement would be making him better, EVEN IF he were antisocial.

(the visual metaphor for this is the completely unnecessary scarring he's inflicted on himself through his own badly-administered ECT. it shouldn't leave scars. but he's not trying to do it the right way, or to achieve a result. he's doing it bc he believes he deserves to suffer.)

we all know what it will take to make fei du better, at this point; he's proven his ability to dodge around therapists for years on end. instead it has to be wenzhou's traveling bag full of patience. his persistence, him breaking a lock with the same bit of wire he once used to fish his police ID out of a trashcan (metaphorically). it's water-cooled noodles, and the way he won't let fei du get away with either his grandiosity or his self-loathing. it's lwz's ability to startle him speechless by kissing him on the forehead, his genuine warmth and tenderness and the uncomplicated pleasure of real connection, as well as someone who will thwack him affectionately on the back of his head, whose irreverence will jolt him out of his tragic main character narrative and bring him right back to the here and now.

the fact that steven fucking zhang compresses all of this into like four minutes of red-saturated camera B roll? is just astonishing. he does it with his whole body; he does it with every slow, deliberate, hypnotic, almost serene gesture. in the novel we never see any of this. in the drama, he's made it into a graceful ritual, into kink, into an erotic spiritual practice, with the stringently enforced purity of his self-discipline. it would almost be beautiful, if it weren't a travesty of all these things. and even worse? the ghastly contrast of his self-violence against the fact that he does all of it while somehow also literally being the most beautiful man in the entire world? lwz's gay little brain has to be pinballing around in his skull like an agitated squid, how does he cope with this.

yes i am feral yes i am a rabid slavering moduist no i am not taking ANY questions now or at any other time. neither is luo wenzhou. he's just going to put food in front of fei du, make sure he eats it, give him a bunch of paperwork to sort and a cup of terrible precinct coffee, and later wrap him in a duvet, blowdry his hair, and handcuff him to the bed to sleep. sorry, feishir, your little theatre of cruelty just got shut down. it's time to live—

[chipthekeeper]

On September 21, 2022, one day before my 30th birthday, I took a vacation day. I usually take one on my birthday when it falls during the week, and I would have done so in 2022 as well if not for the fact that something monumental was happening the day before. On September 21, 2022, a Wednesday, I slept in as long as my pent up excitement allowed, got up and made coffee, then went to my living room and settled into my recliner, placed directly in front of my tv as if I could sit in the front row of a movie theater. I cursed under my breath at some noisy people working in the apartment next door and at the light of the morning still sneaking in through the window even though I’d covered it with a blackout curtain. With the conditions as close to perfect as I could get them and my giddy anticipation becoming unbearable, I finally pulled up Disney+ and turned on the first episode of the show that I’d been waiting to see for almost two years.

What I saw that day, and for the next nine Wednesday mornings (getting up an hour before my usual 6:30 alarm just to watch because I could NOT wait the whole day), was nothing short of incredible, life-changing Star Wars. What I'd hoped would be at the very least a nice buildup to my favorite movie about the rebellion turned out to be perhaps the most meaningful piece of media I've ever consumed. You don't need me to list all the reasons why. We've talked about it over and over, and many people have said it all so much better than I could ever dream to. The hope this show instills and the representation I felt in watching it can never be properly put into words.

But even more than the experience of watching the show itself over those ten truly incredible weeks, I've come to value all the many, MANY weeks since. Nearly two and a half years. One hundred and twenty-five weeks. Eight hundred and eighty-one days. Some of them went by so slowly and painfully that we started to think we'd never reach this day, but we did. And we did it together. We did it with gifsets and metas, with shitposts and unhinged poll tournaments. We created names and lore and fics where there was never meant to be any. We some people truly lost the plot and created the peedy-verse (and for that I am constantly repenting).

The point is, I am so grateful for the day I finally decided the boredom was too overwhelming, when I started dedicating myself to [Shit]Posting Through It with more organization and passion than any day of actual work in my life. It has been the greatest privilege to have existed here with you all throughout this wait, to have seen this community stick together and thrive in our little corner of the internet. We've gotten through some really tough times together with the help of this show and all of our friends we've made along the way. And now the day has come that we've all been waiting for, and I could not be happier to get to experience it with everyone.

Whatever happens now, we made it! From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for helping spread joy throughout this community every single day we've had to wait.

Now let's have some fun, rebels <3

[gildatheplant]

Santiago and his relationship with Armand

OK so I actually wrote most of this as tags to a post that compared Santiago mocking Louis in the restaurant with Louis mocking Santiago after he set the theatre on fire, but I realized I wanted to expand on the idea.

Basically, I had always interpreted Santiago's hatred of Louis as jealousy over him 'stealing' Armand (both in the book and in the show). An interview with Ben Daniels confirmed that while Santiago was initially written as straight, Ben felt the only way Santiago would so viciously hate Louis was if he was in love with Armand. However, in the same interview he also said that Santiago had been in love with his maker, and his jealousy of Louis and conflict over Armand killing his maker made him want to destroy Louis.

After reading this, I was more than a little confused: if Santiago loved his maker, how could he fall in love with Armand?

Then I saw the gifset and was reminded of this moment-

Louis mocks Santiago about his maker's disdain for him, and how his maker abandoned him shortly after he turned him. Santiago loved his maker, but his maker did not love him back.

Now, we aren't given any timeline of events in terms of when Santiago is made, when he joins the Coven and when Armand kills his maker, but I think it's safe to assume it all happens not long after he was turned. So we have fledgling Santiago, bitterly in love with a maker who disdains him, meeting the beautiful and powerful Armand. Armand welcomes him into the Coven, gives him the opportunity to return to his theatrical career, and kills the maker that wounded Santiago's pride and heart. From that perspective, Armand must have seemed like an avenging angel to Santiago- of course he'd fall in love.

For years, Santiago forges his way up the ranks of the Coven, serving Armand and becoming his right hand man and star of the show. The other vampires of the coven practically throw themselves at him, some of the women literally fighting each other over him...but his heart belongs to Armand.

Then Louis and Claudia come into town, and Armand's attention leaves him for this beautiful man that Santiago can't help feeling attracted to too. And Armand lets this newcomer do pretty much whatever he wants, making the execution of Santiago's maker suddenly seem a lot less fair... yet Armand is still the one responsible for pretty much all the opportunities and good things in Santiago's life, and he's still the one Santiago loves and wants above all others.

Just look at his reaction to seeing Armand's photo in Louis' apartment-

There's no anger there, no hate. He's in love. And he wants Armand back.

Santiago must've been thrilled when Armand seemingly changed his mind about Louis and Claudia and agreed to punish them for their "crimes". I suspect, though this is only hinted at in the show, that after the trial, Armand regrets choosing the coven and allows himself to be overthrown by Santiago (Celeste is overheard by Louis saying that Armand was overthrown and there's no reason to doubt her at this point). Now Santiago has (he thinks) everything he wants: leadership of the coven, his rival dead, and Armand seemingly broken and at his mercy. When we see him watching Armand bow his head to him and slip into his coffin, Santiago stares at him with naked hunger, completely ignoring Celeste hanging off his arm.

He thinks it's only a matter of time before Armand will become his lover once more. Instead, Armand frees Louis and allows him to destroy Santiago's world.

[local-limebug]

everything i know about interview with the vampire (amc), from someone who has not watched interview with the vampire (amc) and has only consumed it via mutuals rb'ing gifsets but plans to watch it soon

this is my pre-gaming for watching this show. dipping a metaphorical toe into the fandom. i haven't read the books either.

there are 3 vampires: lestat, louis, and armand

armand's name may or may not be amadeo?

lestat and louis had a daughter named claudia

claudia was unhinged (which is fair. i would be too if i was stuck at age 15 forever)

claudia had a girlfriend named madeline

claudia and madeline died together (without even having kissed each other. true love? sapphic teenagerism? perhaps both)

claudia's death caused lestat and louis to break up after like a century of dating or something

armand killed claudia?

there was a play involved in claudia's death...? i am incredibly confused about this one

either it was a play or an execution

the love triangle seems convoluted

armand is in love with louis and lestat is also in love with louis and lestat & armand have definitely also fucked each other

louis should just get the hell out of there actually. free my boy louis !!!

the interview is being done by daniel molloy who is bi (?) and definitely into that kinky shit

daniel molloy fucked either louis or armand in his youth (during the 80s maybe?). possibly he fucked both. the human pet of the marriage

daniel's memories got messed with to... forget fucking the vampires? idk. p sure armand did it though

that seems to be the consensus for most things in this show

armand did it.

claudia died? armand did it. daniel's memory got wiped? armand did it. louis stubbed his toe? armand probably did it.

armand needs to be sent to vampire jail this guy's a menace

also lestat had a midlife crisis after louis left him for armand and became a rockstar. i hope they release his songs on spotify as marketing. i wanna hear it

BONUS: lestat's album flops? armand did it.

anyway now daniel is old and interviewing armand and louis in dubai?

armand eats suicidal ppl?

daniel causes armand and louis' marriage to fall through

that's louis' 2nd failed marriage

surprisingly not his fault either time i think

armand turns daniel into a vamp

this is signficiant because armand has never turned anyone into a vamp

armand is going to fuck that old man

that old man has kids apparently

and swore someone out on live tv

BONUS 2: daniel got turned into a vampire? armand did it.

seriously what the hell is armand's problem (said affectionately. i have a feeling he's gonna be my fav when i watch)

does lestat know daniel?

claudia may or may not return from the dead

if she does i'll blame that on armand too

is armand french or not? he lives in dubai. has a french accent (?) but also not.

lestat is french. louis and claudia are american.

surprisingly, the americans are the nicest of the bunch. rare american W

also can lestat fly? did he throw louis from like... a 4 story height? ppl on twitter were mad abt it like last year

are there any other characters in this show except the ones i've named. it's been 2 seasons. 6 characters cannot be all there is.

[dengswei]

your gifsets are perfect, I'm always in awe of what you can do and you're creativity!!! Could you please explain how you made the broken glass gif with different gif in it on photopea? https://www.tumblr.com/dengswei/754916132337729536/userdramas-creator-bingo-green-asiandramanet?source=share and would it be possible to do something similar with other shapes? Thank you for your lovely creations <33

heyy thanks so much!! and of course! i have to admit the way i do it might be a little bit tedious compared to like everyone else (though i don't know how photoshop users or other photopea users might do it 🤣) okay this is gonna end up being so long because of the way i do it so i'm sorry about that and i hope it makes sense 😭

okay i have to admit i couldn't find the texture i've seen people use for the shattered glass effect so i actually used a photopea default brush from this pack

to download the brush set go to window -> plugins -> brush and then search for wall cracks brush (it's literally the only wall related brush set in photopea so it'll show up the moment you download it)

so for the gif i did above i did my giffing the usual way of creating & colouring for different gifs seperatly and then adding them all to one project (it doesn't have to be 4 gifs i just chose 4 because that's what i wanted to show in this gif)

i've done this twice once for this set and another time for this the blood of youth set and i have to say the most important part of this is keep multiple versions of the brush in the position you want as you can so once you've used it to test it out and you like that version keep it because unless you can manage to position the brush in the exact same place every time you're gonna need to reference those (or even use the magic wand tool for it later) and also you need to keep at least a white on black background version for the outline

in the brush pack the one i used was this one: (3564, crack b 9)

for this part i just say play around with both positioning and sizing of the brush, it automatically opens with the size 3000+ which is fine i think with the tushan jing one (the green gif above) i stuck with that size and just kept clicking around until i got the positioning i wanted (this is another reason why i said what i said in the paragraph above because if the brush size is bigger than 1000 it's doesn't come out in the exact positioning as you expect it too

i decide the positioning of the gifs on the way i like the brick brush looking rather than the other way around, this is the positioning i went with if you're curious & would like to use it if that's easier 🤣

you'll need to keep this as a seperate layer at the top, i had it set to screen and then added a colour fill layer clipped on later so that i had the outline for when i was masking

so to start off i have the base gif which i do nothing to, that stays as it is, with the brush layer above set to screen

next is where you want to position your other gifs it may benefit to figure this out all at first before doing any of the masking so you know which parts you want to erase and which parts you want to keep

so this is what i decided with my positioning looking at where each of the cracks are

now comes the tedious part, in some ways the way i do this is a lot similar to how i do grid but it's not as easy (for grid photopea automatically locks onto the squares making it easier to mask, here you have to do it all manually)

first put a raster mask on all of the other gifs except for the base gif & use the magic wand tool on the brush layer so you get the outline of the brush and you mask that away from your gif (so if you turned off the brush layer it should look a little something like this: (it's not perfect but it won't matter that much because you should have the original turned on at the end anyway) (you don't have to do this step tbh i just did it because i thought it looked better)

so with the brush layer turned on you can use that as a template to which parts of the cracks you want to erase, you can either use the magic wand or the paint brush tool it really depends on how much of a perfectionist you are and whether or not the sharp edges bother you (plus some of the cracks have small openings so it might erase another part you don't want if you use the magic wand tool so it really is another instance of playing around and seeing what you like, and it might also change once you add the other gifs too)

so this is how it looks after i've done that (notice in the middle you can still see the edge of the gif? that won't matter because one of the other 2 gifs i still have yet to mask will cover that) & just repeat the same thing for the other gifs you want to add

this is how my masking folders look if you're curious

& last but not least i added a green colour fill layer clipped to the brush layer and set that to darken to get the green effect (make sure that the brush layer is still set to screen)

& once you've merged all of the gifs together you should get your desired outcome like the gif above (make sure that all the gifs have the same amount of frames too)

when it comes to other shapes i'm sure you can! like i did a tutorial with the grid version here, i guess it'll just be a lot of trial and error & finding a texture or brush with different shapes to try it out with kinda like how i did with both versions of this (i definitely did it a lot better this time around compared to the first version i did of this)

hopefully this wasn't too long or too confusing, if anything is please feel free to ask me again and i'll try and explain it a little better 🤣

[teaandjumpers]

I saw your KCD gifset reposts and 👁️ out of curiosity, would you ever consider doing a Regency/Medievel Obikin AU? If so, would they both be knights, or would one be a royal and the other their knight? Thoughts in general?

I really wish you hadn't asked me that, anon!

- - - -

Obikin Medieval AU

When they had been presented to the lord, each knight kneeling before him, Anakin nervously clutched the hilt of his blade with sweaty palms. 

This was Lord Kenobi, one of the most renowned knights in the kingdom, the man he grew up hearing stories about, the man who, through many great deeds, was granted a title, a castle, and vast, farmable lands.

Anakin had watched the man upon his approach, the lord sitting on his high chair in his great hall, a warm smile on his face as he greeted Anakin and his fellow knights. 

He was every bit as handsome as the tapestries hanging in his liege lord’s halls made him out to be. Broad chested, a thick head of hair, and wide, capable hands that he drew across his mouth as he laughed easily at his companion’s words. 

To his great horror, in his blind admiration of the man from where he knelt, Anakin’s sword slipped from his hands, the metal blade clattering loudly on the stone floor and landing several feet ahead of him. 

He scrambled across the floor to grab his blade, but before he could reclaim it, a pair of legs appeared in his line of sight, and a crisp, lilting voice rang out in the hall. 

“Is this our great, fearless knight?” the voice teased.

Slowly, Anakin lifted his gaze to find his childhood idol regarding him with a small smile. Forgetting his place, forgetting everything around him, Anakin just stared up at the man dumbly. 

The lord’s smile broadened, and he knelt in front of Anakin, picking up his sword and handing it back it to the younger man. 

“Hardly looks old enough to hold a blade,” said Lord Kenobi, his voice still teasing, but only loud enough for Anakin to hear. 

During the feast, Anakin was gifted the seat of honor, sitting beside Lord Kenobi for the duration of the meal. Anakin, too nervous to share stories of his own, listened like a lovelorn pup as Lord Kenobi regaled him with his countless adventures, all of them good deeds. Anakin could picture them all with great clarity, the great knight, bathed in the sun’s glowing light, brandishing his righteous blade as he tore down the king’s many foes. 

He felt flushed all night, and Anakin was certain that his face was red, not from the warmth of the fire that crackled just behind them, but Lord Kenobi, who leaned in close each time he spoke, his sultry voice hypnotic, his breath cooling the slick of sweat coating Anakin’s neck. 

Sir Kenobi always looked larger than life in those wall-to-ceiling tapestries, and even though his height may have been exaggerated ever so slightly, he was still big. Even in his layered, fine clothes, his chest looked wide, sturdy, and on several occasions, Anakin had to wipe his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling.

For a moment, Anakin was grateful that Lord Kenobi was not his lord, as he was certain he would be too enamored by the man’s body, face, voice to be able to recall any notes of import during campaigns.

It was embarrassing. He was the guest of honor, and he had bumbled his way through dinner, taking a bite of bread before the lord had picked up his spoon, spilling wine down his chin, and repeatedly wiping at the sweat that kept gathering at the back of his neck. 

Later, when the drunken men had been dragged off to a corner, and the servants had cleared the long table, Anakin sought out the lord, wanting, needing to make a better impression. 

He found Lord Kenobi in a small drawing room, the man sitting on a tall chair, gazing into a robust fire. 

Anakin had tried to be quiet, wanting to watch the man in secret, but the lord, once a former knight, the most renowned in all the lands, heard his approach.

“You drag your feet, Sir Skywalker,” the man said without turning from his seat.

“Come, come,” he said, standing suddenly and offering his chair to Anakin as he grabbed a stool and perched atop it.  

Somehow, the man managed to look every bit as dignified on the plain wooden seat as he did in his regal chair. 

Anakin sat down tentatively, sitting on the edge of the chair, not entirely comfortable with their positions. This was Sir Kenobi. He should be at this man’s feet offering his fealty, his sword, and a poem if he had the talent to craft one. 

“Couldn’t sleep, young knight?” the man asked, smiling that same knowing smile from earlier.

Though he willed it not to, Anakin felt his member plumping, and he swallowed thickly before responding. “N—no, my Lord,” he stuttered. 

“Perhaps a companion would help?” offered the lord. “You seemed a little distracted during our meal, but you were not short of admirers.”

“Oh?” asked Anakin, his mind sluggish.

The lord hummed. “You had several offers in fact. Unsurprising, of course,” said the man, his eyes raking across Anakin’s frame. 

And that made something within Anakin break. He stood with enough force that his heavy seat wobbled. 

Lord Kenobi blinked at him with surprise. “Sir Skywalker, what—?”

Anakin dropped to his knees and crawled towards the other man. He kept his head bowed as he spoke, his words rushed. “I know you’re not my liege lord, but—”

And Anakin did glance up then, locking eyes with the older man before letting his gaze drift lower, settling on the wide part of the lord’s legs. “I wish to serve you. In whatever way you see fit.”

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

2024 BL Wrap Up

Welcome to my 2024 bl Wrap Up!

A quick look at my stats this year, so that we can get it over with: I watched 60 BLs, most of which are from 2024. 24 of them came from Thailand, 15 from Japan, 14 from South Korea, six from Taiwan and one from China. I created 209 gifsets and had to deal with several heartbreaks.

Somehow 2024 was an intense year for BLs, at least for me. Even though I watched significantly less than in 2023 and skipped many series to save them for later, many of the series I watched touched me, both positively and negatively.

But what did the year actually look like for me? What are my thoughts today, looking back on 2024?

China, Japan and South Korea fought it out to see who could bring the saddest characters to life and write the saddest stories. On the one hand, we have China's re-entry into the BL world with Blue Canvas Of Youthful Days.

A series whose characters have suffered so much, healed together, supported each other, only to end up with a double noble idiocy and and a time skip so they see each other again in the last two minutes of the series and we get a half-hearted happy ending. I would have loved this series much more without this giving up your own happiness in hopes the other one is happy. Just talk to each other and find a solution together. Please.

Secondly, there is Our Youth from Japan.

Both characters suffer at the hands of their parents. One with domestic violence, prejudices and hatred and the other with absent parents, disinterest in his own personality, prejudices and separating parents. In both cases, they are neglected and find the support and trust in each other that they miss in the world. They feel misunderstood and learn about their own desires and needs through their affection for each other. The series is not yet finished, but it is one of the bluest series this year.

But Japan is not entering the race with just one series. Happy To The End is also a contender for a top spot at the Hurt-Mountain.

The story of two maltreated souls who somehow manage to find a little love and trust in a life full of darkness and pain. The series had left me with strong feelings and a dear friend gifted me the Mangas for Christmas. I can't wait to dive into their story again! And don't forget our super-villain of the year! This series had it all!

South Korea entered the race with Let Free The Curse Of Taekwondo.

I don't know who suffered more in the end, us as viewers who watched the suffering of both protagonists without being able to give them a warming hug and to tell them everything is going to be fine or the protagonists themselves and their attempts to hold up their own walls and tear down the other one’s. Those two have come a long way to at least talk to each other again. Such a good storytelling!

Meanwhile, Thailand thought it would be nice to start a little competition to see which of their series could be the fluffiest of them all. ThamePo is not included in this calculation, because I'm too biased when it comes to this series. They could present me green slime dancing in the rain while Po is staring at it lovingly, and I would celebrate it.

At first, I thought Every You, Every Me was going to easily win the race, but suddenly, they bring in death and the series is elevated to a weird, way too complex and under-explained meta-level where actors are trying to end their relationship because reasons?

I would have liked to have seen more of the multiverses in which our soulmates fall in love with each other again and again. The first four episodes were so good and so different than our usual bls. I couldn't stop loving it. But I guess the trophy will go to Your Sky after all in this case.

God, I'm blushing and giggling to myself with every episode. Fah and Rak are just so cute together. The series is pure fluff so far and even though I don't know what to expect from the remaining episodes, I know that the two of them will surely be happy together in the end.

The award for best performance goes by far to War Wanarat from Jack & Joker.

His diversity and ability to immerse himself in the different personas and play them believably was great cinema this year. The series might have some plot-holes or characters who could have had more screen time together, but the series was interesting and Joke was the best!

And while we're on the subject of Jack & Joker and Your Sky, let's move on to the trophy for this year's best kiss. The crown would have gone to Jack & Joker, but then Your Sky came around the corner with this great first kiss and wow. I was in a bit of a quandary until I remembered that this is my recap. So I'll just make two categories.

The best and softest first kiss this year goes to Your Sky.

The best and hungriest first kiss this year goes to Jack & Joker.

Kidnap didn't necessarily have an exciting and well thought-out plot, but Ohm's Puppy Eyes were unbeatable.

And yet ThamePo clearly won the staring contest with only three episode aired. I mean, hello? Who wouldn't fall head over heels in love with one of them when they look at you like that?

And contrary to all assumptions, neither Kidnap nor ThamePo has the biggest baby girl of the year! No, this is what Taiwan brought to the screen with The On1y One and let's not kid ourselves, Tian loved making everything possible for his Wang and taking care of him.

And who would have thought that the most romantic scene of the year came just close before the year ends? ThamePo! What have you done you beautiful, beautiful series! And how could the remembering of a phone number be the most romantic shit of the year? And yet here I am loving everything about this scene and the series. Oh the wait was so worth it!

While in most cases it was clear that the couples would get together at the end of the series and our little BL bubble would remain intact, Japan made it a little harder for us to predict a happy ending. 25 Ji, Akasaka de probably thought it was funny to play with our emotions like that. My Strawberry Film was probably lying in the corner, laughing at the fact that we believed its misdirections about being a bl. And in Hidamari ga Kikoeru, they remembered at the end that it is a bl and that the audience has been waiting for a long time to see the protagonists together in a scene again and conjured up an unspectacular happy ending with one of the most uncomfortable looking hugs in bl history.

Taiwan, on the other hand, didn't care whether their series had a happy ending or not and simply cut one of the best series of the year with strong acting and a great story in the middle without knowing whether there would be a second season.

And so The On1y One hangs somewhere in cliffhanger limbo and we viewers are desperate enough to search the internet for bad English translations of the story to at least find a little bit of closure. It's worth reading the bad translation though.

And while the world around me was already falling apart, Taiwan and South Korea were fighting over who could tear my heart into smaller pieces by the end of the series. While I was obsessed with Unknown and even bought the final episodes as early excess,

Love For Love's Sake managed to crush my heart into the finest powder. Never before have I been so heartbroken as after this series. I didn't know what to do with myself and my emotions for days. It was terrifying and yet so beautiful. One of the strongest heartbreaks I've ever felt. Clearly the best series this year for me.

Quietly and secretly, Thailand then surprised us with a pretty good adaptation of the much-loved Japanese classic Cherry Magic. And Tay and New surprised me with the fact that they can actually kiss each other without looking like they're in pain. The chemistry was on point and their love scene at the end... wow!

I also discovered a new format for myself in 2024. While I've always stayed away from watching shows on my phone because it's just too small, I came across Match Play on social media and just knew I had to watch it.

And that's how I slipped into the universe of vertical mini-series. My ADHD brain is happy about the short, entertaining nature of the episodes. And yet I was so hooked by the series that it's now my most rewatched show. And that's despite the fact that I don't really like doing that, i.e. repeating series. But I can watch it whenever, whereever.

I was able to watch with my best friend how two people fell in love with each other and are still together and happy.

The Boyfriend was an experience that I would never want to miss, not only do my friend and I now regularly watch shows together, but the show briefly gave me back my faith in love, not for me, but in general.

I finally found another show this year where I really liked OffGun.

The Trainee was a great show with good humor, great characters, honest problems, and an Off that I actually liked in his role. I don't often get that with him.

I had to learn once again that South Korea is not yet ready to introduce a queer couple in one of their big productions. The hints were there and so was the chemistry!

But unfortunately there was no happy ending for my poor heart and Sergeant Kim in Sweet Home 3. But he did make it onto my phone as a wallpaper. That's something too, isn't it?

But South Korea also surprised and sent a terrific adaptation of the novel Love In The Big City to the screen with a cast to be proud of and a story that was worthy of being filmed so well. The biggest plot twist for me came when it was revealed that No YeongSu was a toxic and utterly homophobic asshole. God, I loved the two of them together and would have loved to see No YeongSu come to terms with his own sexuality, but the show has just been too realistic for that. But their scenes together? Chef's kiss! The best lift of the year!

But not everything that tried to shine this year was gold.

On the dark side, Japan and Thailand both tried to piss me off this year by letting series that started so well and would have definitely been my favorites, had they kept it up, hit the wall in the middle or near the end. Seriously Thailand, what was that about Last Twilight? And Japan, I hear the sunspot was so good until you decided to put in a character that was so unlikable that many of us just got angry and until you decided that our protagonists just couldn't have any positive character development and just stopped communicating with each other. And that had been their strength all along!

Wandee Goodday wanted to be this cool show, with sex positivity and sex buddies, but quickly became a romantic sludge that was as predictable as every other GmmTV story. I'm not saying that's always a bad thing, just a little unnecessarily schmaltzy and sweet at times.

South Korea gave us a brief scare once when it thought it wanted to produce a series together with Thailand. I don't know, but I just can't take Mew seriously since then. Love Is Like A Cat was bad. The acting was really bad, the plot didn't know what it was supposed to do on set any more and it simply left midway through the series, never to be seen again.

Unfortunately, this didn't improve the acting and so it was more a case of just not giving up. Sometimes I also wonder what's wrong with me that I keep watching those series and why I'm doing this to myself (yes, I'm looking at you Dinosaur Love).

What 2024 really had a few of, however, were stories with a very unique plot. There's Love For Love's Sake, where someone gets a second chance through a computer game. Or Century Of Love, in which a centenarian in a young body waits for the love of his life and is surprised when they are reborn as a man.

Or Caged Again. I'll wait until I can binge it myself, but the story of a penguin and a panther who fall in love as humans sounds great! Or 4 Minutes, in which time was so confusing that I lost track at one point. Or who could forget our first Omegaverse series Pit Babe?

Which was somehow a little lacking in Omegas and made people questioning everything after finding out that Pavel wouldn’t be on top. Or Playboyy, a series that I think is underrated and which style is so artistically pleasing. Yes, the story was messy af, but the manner in which this series was shot and filmed was exquisite. And Love In The Big City and The Nipple Talk, two very good, very adult series that I wish could get more attention.

All in all, 2024 was a great year with interesting stories and fascinating characters that I will certainly be returning to from time to time.

And with you, my dear friends and followers, creators and viewers. Your presence in 2024 has sweetened my year and made my feed happy! Thank you to all of you out there!

May 2025 treat you well and delight us all with great new stories!

[mellxncollie]

Temporary pause from working on a Charles' cricket bat gifset to talk about this shot:

It's such a well composed shot! It's the most badass cricket bat moment and this is like the anime-styled, matrix-level, critical hit, crescendo moment for Charles after all of his anger in episodes 3-5, and now he's redirecting it in a way that is no longer terrifying to his friends but supportive (though i would argue most of his anger in eps 3-5 was still very justified).

The negative space here is just *chefs kiss* and gives space for Charles to be focused on. It's simple and uncomplicated, making it easy for us to digest just how badass Charles is.

But like, look at it overlaid with some common composition 'rules'

Rule of Thirds

We've got him fairly well-aligned with the rule of thirds, his body and arm mostly along the lines with the cricket bat ending around that intersection

Then, similar to the rule of thirds, it fits even better with the Golden Ratio

This gets more along his center of gravity, and all that empty space on the sides just makes him even more important in the frame

These two rules, and the next one, are what makes it feel kind of "matrix"-like to me.

Golden Triangles

So maybe this doesn't look like it matches, and you'd be right. It doesn't match the lines of the composition exactly, but the golden triangles shows us that the shot is angled to somewhat align with this composition. Charles is parallel to those shorter lines, and the whole shot guides our eye along that long, downwards line.

If it was angled a little more or less dramatically, then it might not have had as much of an effect. This specific angle makes it feel so dynamic.

You can even use the Diagonal Composition that photoshop has (basically 2 square crosses that align with the 4 corners--with a smaller aspect ratio they'd overlap more)

Here the thing to note is the cricket bat's edge fitting almost too perfectly with that one line.

Golden Spiral (the one where i'm definitely stretching it a bit but whatever)

So this doesn't work as much in the full frame aspect ratio (2.2:1) but if we cut out the negative space, Charles fits along the larger part of the swooping arc. Not as much of a thing to focus on at the center of the spiral, but if we flip the spiral:

The cricket bat is in that spot. I know this is a bit of a stretch of the golden spiral, but all this to say, it's still really fucking cool.

All of these 'rules' aligning like this make it such a satisfying scene to watch. For me, when he catches that cricket bat it's like when a difficult math equation comes out to a whole number, or when a poem finds the perfect rhyme for the very last line, or when you're at the end of a whodunit and the detective lays out how the crime was committed. It's the best conclusion for an already amazing moment, everything falling perfectly into place.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Ava Gardner (The Killers, The Barefoot Contessa)— She's so goddamn hot. Her and Frank Sinatra could've sandwiched me and I would've thanked them for the privilege

Jean Seberg (Breathless, Saint Joan)— Some of us watched À bout de souffle as a lil French undergrad and had the trajectory of our lives changed by Jean Seberg. She IS French new wave!! She is the moment!! She sadly had to work with a lot of shitty directors in her career but even so, she has this magnetic energy whenever she’s on screen. In her personal life, she was also very supportive of civil rights causes, and was even targeted/harassed by the FBI for financially supporting the Black Panther Party.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Ava Gardner:

Ava Gardner is one of my favorite actresses of all time. Although a lot of her roles in movies are about her being beautiful and nothing else, there are some films where her acting truly shines.

Gifset: https://www.tumblr.com/pelopides/721438308726603776/ava-gardner-as-pandora-reynolds-pandora-and-the

Gifset 2: https://www.tumblr.com/portraitoflestatonfire/731899355804598272/if-the-loustat-reunion-doesnt-look-like-this-then

HER FACE. LOOK AT IT. Also was a life long supporter of civil rights and a member of the NAACP, had lots of fun love affairs with other stars, bullfighters, married several times but was also happy in between to just have lovers and was unapologetically herself.

I literally gasp every time I see her.

Between 1942 and 1964, Ava Gardner was credited in no less 50 films, and is still considered by some to be the most beautiful actresses that ever graced the silver screen. Despite life-long insecurities regarding her talent as an actress, she weathered public scandal, industry hostility, and outright condemnation by the Catholic Church with fearless grace. She would later in life talk candidly about the reality and pain of living through two (studio approved!!) abortions during her short marriage to Frank Sinatra, and while the two of them could not make their relationship work, they remained in each other’s lives for nearly 30 years. She would forever describe herself as a small-town girl who just got lucky, but always felt like a beautiful outsider.

Really genuinely one of the most beautiful human beings I have ever seen. An autodidact. Had amazing chemistry with Gregory Peck to the point where I do think about watching On The Beach again sometimes because they're so good together even though that movie did destroy me. Was a great femme fatale in many movies.

Jean Seberg:

anyone who plays Joan of Arc is kind of hot by default tbh

she's gorgeous, she's cool, she has the original blond pixie cut

She donated a lot of her money to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the black panther party as well as Native American school groups, as a result of this the fbi ran a smear campaign against her and a surveillance campaign which is thought to have led to her suicide tragically.

idk if this is propaganda but the COINTELPRO and the FBI are widely blamed for her death. If the FBI was after her for supporting the Black Panther Party you know she was good

[galedekarios]

#this took so much work#but i really wanted to make this#sorry it got so long

Personally I thank you for your hard work and that gif set is just as long as it needs to be. I for one can't recall hearing the dialogue in the second gif before so I'm glad to see it now.

thank you so much, i really do appreciate the support and kind words a lot! 🖤

the line is from early access! i touched on it in this post.

if you want to see and listen to it, tim's performance of it, i included a short clip from early access:

the quote itself is from gale's early access romance scene in act i after the tiefling party. that scene was cut and most of it is completely gone. some lines were re-used in the full release version of the game: in act 1, for the reveal scene where gale lets the protag into his mind, and others for the beginning of the act 2 romance scene/last night alive scene.

the conversation started like this:

Gale: I know we have to get moving again soon, but before we part, I’d like to tell you something. I’d like to tell you a story. It is a story full of answers long overdue. It is a story of a man who fell in love with a goddess. Player - Option 2: It’s clear as day you are talking about yourself, you know. Gale: I know, but a bit of narrative distance will make it all so much easier in the telling. Indulge me.

if you then chose to indulge gale, letting him tell the story with "a bit of narrative distance" to make it "easier in the telling" for him, this was the story he would tell the player in early access:

Gale: Once upon a time, not quite that long ago, there lived a wizard in a tower. The wizard was what one might call a prodigy, who from an early age could not only control the Weave, but compose it, like a musician or a poet. Such was his skill that it earned him the attention of the mother of magic herself. The Lady Of Mysteries, Mystra.

from there, the conversation branched again:

Player - Option 1: What did Mystra’s attention feel like? Gale: Love.  Player - Option 2: He sounds like a very talented individual Gale: He was. Even though it was in Mystra’s affections that his true power lay. Player - Option 3: Teacher’s pet, was he? Gale: He fancied himself much more than that. He fancied himself favoured above all others. Perhaps it was not quite love, but you see, the wizard was but a very young man. It was most certainly love to him.

leading to the quote that i used for my gifset, highlighting gale's lines about the life of a chosen:

Gale: Mystra showed him the secrets behind the veils. The gossamer veils first, draped across the Weave. The delicate veils next, draped across her body. ‘Chosen One’ she whispered, as she slipped them off completely.

i'm thinking about dedicating a full post to the original ea romance scene in act 1 when i find the time to do so because it's an interesting scene.

anyhow, i hope that was helpful! 🖤

[pamrak]

hello! hope youre having a great day! ive been following you since clexa days and i wanted to start watching gl tdramas because of the gifsets youve been making/reblogging recently but i have NO idea where to start, do you have any recs on what to start with? Thank you!

hiiiiii nonny! thank you, today's truly been a lovely day, can't complain. hope yours is going well too! and oh gosh, clexa days, that's so long ago 🥰

soooo i would definitely recommend starting with something that's finished so you're not going through the same torment the rest of us are, which is waiting a week between each episode 😂

However, if that doesn't bother you then my number 1 recommendation is to start with Us, which has become my favorite and most beloved Thai GL series.

Not gonna wax poetically about it (again) 'cause I actually did that in a different ask just yesterday (even though I totally could 😅), but in short - it's gorgeous, it's so well written, it has beautiful and complex characters, the love story is as intimate, domestic and wonderful as you can possibly imagine, the main pairing have the most amazing chemistry and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

It's currently airing and new episodes come out on saturdays, and you can find it on Youtube (and kisskh), and here's the trailer for it.

My highest recommendations for Thai GLs that are finished would probably be Pluto and The Secret of Us, and I suggest starting with either of the two.

Pluto is truly a drama in the full sense, with all the twists and turns and everything that comes with a drama series, the main pairing are played by Namtan Tipnaree and Film Rachanun, who have amazing chemistry and played their parts wonderfully.

The rest of the cast really works great alongside them and the story is about Ai-oon, the "disappointing" twin sister of Ob-oo, who ends up taking her sister's place (and her gf😅). Don't wanna spoil too much so i'm being really vague here, but expect to laugh, and possibly cry, a lot.

You can find Pluto 100% free here on youtube as well as here on kisskh.

The Secret of Us is a gorgeous drama that follows the love story of Dr. Fahlada and the ex that broke her heart, Earn. We see them reconnect and reignite an old flame that never really went out and the drama is full of silly, loveable, funny, sometimes heavy moments that are beautifully portrayed, and played by one of the industry's most popular and most successful gl pairing, Ling Ling Kwong and Orm Kornnaphat (they're also known as lingorm).

The first 3 episodes are on youtube, however you can find the complete series up on kisskh (free).

There's (can't believe I'm about to say this, what a glorious time to be alive) a bunch more finished Thai GL series that you can jump right into as well, here's a lil list for you (trailers and links included) mostly off the top of my head:

GAP trailer - office romance between the CEO and an employee (youtube ep1 'cause they have playlists for each ep 😩, kisskh) - the first gl i ever watched, the queen GL 😅- currently the most viewed gl series on youtube

Affair trailer - the title kinda says it 😂 but it's actually childhood friends to lovers with a lot of bumps along the way (youtube, kisskh)

Blank trailer - the love story of two women who have a sixteen year age gap between them that i actually really love a whole bunch (kisskh; not sharing the youtube link 'cause we're boycotting 9star studio)

Petrichor trailer - mystery/thriller/romance drama following the love story of office Tul and forensic doctor Cherran and it's awesome (kisskh)

Reverse 4 You - time manipulation powers meet lesbians! (it's awesome, i LOVE it) (youtube, kisskh) - trailer - there's also a currently airing GL that's set in the same universe, also with time manipulation powers, called Reverse With Me - trailer (kisskh)

23.5 trailer - highschool romance/secret admirer (youtube, kisskh)

The Loyal Pin trailer - a period drama following the love story of princess Anilaphat and Lady Pin (youtube, kisskh)

Apple my Love trailer - office romance/secret admirer (youtube, kisskh)

Mate trailer - childhood friends reunited and turned lovers (youtube, kisskh)

Love Senior trailer - college love story (with a lot of ups and downs) (youtube, kisskh)

Not a Thai drama but definitely a must-mention is a Taiwanese drama, Fragrance of the First Flower, which I've been going absolutely crazy over and highly recommend it as well! It's gorgeous, it's complex and nuanced, and currently has an amazing 2nd season airing. Trailer for S1 is here, S2 here, and you can watch it here.

Another must-mention is Friendly Rivalry, a korean GL drama (if i see another person say it's queer baiting i will go on a lil' murder spree 🔪) which I totally went insane over and will be a little feral about, for another couple of months at least. Trailer's here, and you can watch it here.

I'm missing a couple GLs here, I'd have to check my list of favorites, but I also suggest checking @girlsloveupdates pinned post for an extensive and great list of GL Series and all relevant updates.

This got extra long and I'm a little sorry about that (but not terribly so), hope it'll be helpful c: if you wanna come ask about anything or just shout your thoughts/impressions at me, I'd love that! Thank you for your ask and hope you have a wonderful time watching!

me, gently cradling every new gl series enjoyer:

[julesnichols]

hiii again!! so building up on your tags about mark and helly's first time, i think the scene is even more tender and loving bc as you said about him having "the illusion of control", him leading a little is entirely directed towards causing her pleasure. i think him already knowing her body from the ortbo is something he channels towards showing her what her body can do for her, and the eye contact also shows that he's always looking for her reaction and responding to that the most. so it's also like him leading her through what he already knows about her, like she's getting to know herself through his memory of her if that makes sense?

I'm so sorry this took me forever to get to 😅 for context, this was about my tags on this post

And yes!!! It does make sense.

Helly starts the whole thing off by telling Mark that she hates that Helena stole that moment from them, and that Helena controls her down to the way she dresses. And then when Mark offers to tell her what happened, Helly stops him and says she wants her own memory, not Helena's. The biggest reason Helly has sex with Mark at that moment (though obviously, I think she probably wanted to before, but I just mean as the immediate catalyst) is her wanting to reclaim her first time with Mark for herself. They can't ever go back and make it Mark's first time again, but it's still Helly's and Mark wants to make it good for her.

So that's where what you're saying comes in, I think. He's gentle and reassuring when she's nervous and he only undresses as much as she does, following her lead on that. He has experience that she doesn't because of Helena, but presumably since Helena and Helly share the same body what Helly likes would at the least be similar to what Helena likes.

I think that Helly creating a tent of their own is also interesting in the context of wanting her own memory and not Helena's. I would imagine that she wouldn't want a 1:1 recreation but in her own body (and it's not). So I wonder if Mark would also try to be different with her as well. He's definitely got more control in the scene with Helly, even though it's an illusion in the sense that everything is for her benefit more than for his own. At the least, if it's solely based on what he did with Helena, it's still different both in the obvious ways such as the location but also in how gentle and slow the scene in 2.06 is (which is really interesting framing imo because undoubtedly Helena and Mark had more time at the ORTBO than Mark and Helly did in that empty room, yet the latter scene feels slower, even though I'm sure it was not).

So yeah idk exactly what this rambling is. But it's interesting what you're saying and also the way the ORTBO scene clearly influences when Mark sleeps with Helly when it's her first time and not his (and not his with her body, most importantly).

Also, there definitely are parallels so what you're saying is 100% supported (just see the gifset I made of how Mark cradles both their heads when he has sex with them).