#trying for a gifset per episode lets see how that goes

[california-112]

- Uh...bought some nuns up on a retreat, does that help?

- Not unless they were carrying firearms.

Due South Rewatch | S01E00 ‘Pilot’ (1/67)

[theflyindutchwoman]

I have wanted for quite some time to dissect the door imagery that has been present a lot this season in regards to Chenford. And Chenfordsource just inspired me to dig into this with this amazing gifset. As you may know, in literature or cinematography, a door can often be used as an allegory. Mostly to symbolise a new beginning or a barrier to overcome. Now this isn't the first time that a door is used symbolically in Tim and Lucy's relationship : the door-to-door scene in the quarantine house is iconic for a reason. But since their practice kiss, with Tim standing on the other side of Lucy's door, still reeling, it has been an ongoing motif. One that seems to have been used as a metaphor to show the status and progress of their relationship.

In Double Down (5.01), there are two major moments involving a door. The first one happens in the hotel room in Vegas, when Lucy goes to the bathroom and leaves the door ajar, breaking Tim's brain a bit more in the process. And just like she tried to shut that bathroom door, she tries to shut down his attempt to discuss their feelings… Which brings us to the second moment : the one outside her apartment. Where she invites Tim in and where he crosses both a literal and figurative threshold (the difference in the lighting when Lucy opens the door is perfect). It may not be a new beginning per se, but this moment still marks a turning point in their relationship. In Labor Day (5.02), they are right back outside that door, in the hallway, any progress from the previous episode seemingly undone. Interestingly enough, the door to her place stays open the whole time : Lucy is the one trying to open up this time and start the conversation about them but Tim stops her. Note the lingering shot of Tim walking away in the hallway : in terms of allegory, a hallway can be used as a device to show a longer transition to arrive to that new beginning. And this is exactly how it feels here : things are changing but it's going to take some time.

And during this limbo, we encounter two very different doors, that are used to reinforce the theme of Tim as a protector. The first door, in Dye Hard (5.03), resembles more one of a prison, with Lucy being stuck behind it. The same way she is imprisoned metaphorically by Rosalind and the threat she represents. And the same way Tim was the one to free her from that barrel in Day of Death, he's the one who manages to open the door - by sheer force. But they were still separated by the door at first (and Lucy couldn't get away faster if she tried). This is when they are at their lowest point. On the other hand, the second one, in The Collar (5.08), is used as a shield with both of them standing together : Tim gets Lucy to safety behind their shop's door, protecting her against any potential shrapnel. This is also when their relationship is almost back to normal and close to finally move forward.

Now in Take Back (5.09), we go back to the original imagery of the door, with that shot of Lucy standing alone in her apartment, door open. The message couldn't be clearer here : with Chris leaving, it leaves the door wide open for Chenford. And it's also worth noting that the next time we see Tim and Lucy, at the station, she is the one crossing a threshold (Grey's office). New beginnings.

The motif could have stopped there… But it doesn't. In Death Notice (5.12), we see Tim knocking at Lucy's door : this is right before they start discussing the last obstacle they are facing - the chain of command. The second this issue is solved - and they move to the next stage of their relationship (intimacy) - her entrance door is no longer used as a barrier of some sort between them. They either enter together (5.22) or he lets himself in because he has the key (5.14). Not only that, but the imagery of the door is now used in a more traditional setting : to block outsiders from entering or catching intimate moments, as shown in 5.12 (with her bedroom's door, which is also put to good use) and in 5.21 (with the laundry room). And notice how she is no longer asking him if he wants to come in, she simply tells him to lock the door. We've come full circle...

[suckishima]

haikyuu rewatch s01e01

i've been itching to rewatch the series lately and a few years ago i did something similar for miraculous ladybug where i wrote up like a stream of consciousness/commentary post and made a gifset for each episode and i wanna try to do it again for haikyuu?? we'll see if i stay committed or not lol—gifsets per ep probably a lot more likely to continue than commentaries tbh, these things are long and not thought out so,

anyway let's start with episode 1, who wants to take bets on how many times i get teary-eyed?

ughhhhh how did i not know IMMEDIATELY my first time watching what a fucking banger of a show this would be. this opening scene is sooo aah. the voice over with the sounds of the balls and shoes, the actual content of the 'a tall tall wall' monologue, and then the visuals of just hinatas shoes stepping up to the line and then 'it was a view i could never see on my own' and the rest of the teams shoes step in??? FUCK

holyyyyy and bc im obsessed i know who is who based on their shoes in that lineup and after thir 'onigaishimasu' and they run onto the court they all run in at different speeds?? and like tanaka goes quick and kageyama bounces on his toes and tsukki is all like unenthusiastic?? what the fuCK bro

its been literally 40 seconds and im in awe aaah

oh.. oh no it's the intro. i was joking before about getting teary-eyed but uhhh

how long has it been since i watched season 1 omgg 😭😭😭

gOD the opening is so good, not just imagination but the visuals rrr the practicing shots and the animation on all the volleyball looks so great wowow

one of the less talked about of the many crimes of getting movies instead of a 5th season is definitely the loss of another amazing opening and ending

damn did i really never realize that karasuno of the little giant's time didnt JUST go to nationals but theyre playing on center court when hinata catches them on tv? meaning its either the semi finals or finals, damn lol

hmmmm i am already conflicted about whether or not i wanna talk about manga spoilers in these writeups lmao. tumblr blockout spoiler text WHEN

anywayyyy manga readers hinata on his bike watching little giant on tv iykyk (and if you know me lol) right

rrrr the imagery of the crow flying into hinata from the screen with still the sounds of the balls and whistles aaah what a cool way to show inspiriation

huh, the libero is no.2 not no.4 is that manga accurate from just before furudate decided that it was a Thing for karasuno or did the animation not check?

okay i checked and you literally can only see the little giant in the manga and none of the rest of the team so im calling it an oversight on the animation side lol (understandable, tbh when youre just making people up to fill in the shot, you arent thinking about jersey lore)

no one cares but my japanese is surprisingly better than when i first watched (at which time i knew nothing) and i can actually understand a few bits here and there without the subs

reading the occasional katakana in the background is fun too. mmmm i should try looking at og scans of the manga to see how the sound effects are intended to be read, ive heard the way furudate incorporates the characters into the action as the sound itself is really well done

air salonpas!

oooo one of the teams practicing spikes had one guy hit left handed, thats a fun detail!

dude hinatas friends are such homies i swearrrr

'whats our opponent kitagawa daiichi even like' 'idk! but we're gonna win!' lmaooo hinata you coulda done SOME research

ooo the shot of kitagawa walking in and looming above hinata is so well done, they look huuuge. i know factually that kindaichi and kunimi are tall but i tend to forget, kunimi especially, hes got short energy to me 😅

yessss and the shot of kagyama walking by and just like his Aura is enough for hinata to pick up on the king vibes yooo its so goood

kitagawa daiichi banner is just 'victory' lol okay

i could use some of hinatas blind confidence in my life lmao

oh jk its bathroom tummy ache time

man the set up for kageyama as like powerful early on is SO good, weve only seen him twice so far and both times it all above the king cape, which im pretty sure is also supposed to represent how hinata sees him which rrrr what a great way to set up their dynamic knowing everything that's to come. greatest opponent to greatest ally etc etc

also thinking about how this IS basically all hinatas POV (including the quote i just referenced) and what kageyamas POV of hinata is when he looks back on it all 👀

kageyama telling hinata he shouldnt talk big bc he isnt even physically ready (referencing tummy ache), and hinata right off the bat telling kageyama 'the six of us go all the way' and kageyama responds 'i will win every game' oooo yep they both got some things to learn from each otherr

seriously how is hinata like the friendliest person on the planet. his team is SO bad and all he cares about is that he's finally on the court, he's so positive and determined even when they're doing terribly and his friends dont know wtf is going on

🥺🥺🥺 he's so happy seeing his palm all red after spiking the ball successfully the first time waaah

sjkhdk i always laugh at 'well there IS a foxy senpai on the girls team' lmaoo like he could have just ignored that part of the question, and who translated it to 'foxy' anyway lmaoo

koji, soccer friend, coming in for a foot receive! he missed lol but for real hinatas friends are so cool showing up for him like this

i mean, they are also avoiding him when he tries to practice throughout middle school, but they showed up here when it counts

love that you can see the 'mild internal bleeding,' as kuroo would call it, on izumi's arms when he tells hinata that his arms hurt lol

akjhsakjsasj they hype hinatas jumping skills, the music swells, you think hes got it, aaaand then immediately triple blocked and the music cuts back out lmaoo. honestly, love how haikyu always plays with expectations like that

half time serve routines my beloved.... i miss you..

'we keep trying.. because we havent lost yet' <333

but also kunimi, what a mood lmao

the animation on hinatas slide hit after the toss missss aaaah, and kageyamas bangs like whipping in the wind before he reaches as far as he can aah god this whole sequence is so beautiful

kageyama after knowing hinata for roughly 30 minutes: "this guy overwhelms me" skagsajsa

he has every quality to be someone even better but—WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THESE PAST 3 YEARS?? 😭😭😭😭

karasuno senpai in the crowd!! related dumb question time, why isnt tanakas hair blond here? he should be a first year atm, and the beginning of the ep said this match is about 3 years and 3 months after little giants nationals (which is in january, although iirc the month changed sometime around those years so possibly it was in march during his time—hence why call 'spring tournament') but either way if hinata and kageyama are still middle school third years then tanaka should be a first year and thats when his hair was blonde. likely in universe answer i guess is just that this tournament is after the practice match where karasuno loses badly and gets made fun of which makes tanaka respect his senpai more and shave his head lol. which also, if hes here with them at this middle school tournament also makes sense with that so. question answered i guess

'if you want to be the last one standing then become strong' waaah

awwww the first years that he recruited to fill out his team stayed with him to practice with the middle school girls team!! they caught the volleyball bug <3

not me pausing to try and see which one of them is the foxy senpai..

lmaoooo the "old ladies team" that hinata practices with are called the yukigoaka beauties lol nice

yoooo hinatas running toward the gym for the first time and a crow flys away and a feather crossed in front of hinata niiiiice

let me tell you i had relatively low expectations for haikyu my very first time. i just wanted something easy to watch while i ate my lunch during the day, and i thought it would just be a predictable underdog story where hinata gets revenge for middle school. and i wasnt against that, i was relatively entertained this whole episode, then it gets to the end and reveals that kageyama has to be his teammate and i was like OH this is gonna be GOOD good. immediately have me hope and reassurance that the show knew what it was doing and wasnt gonna just be typical cliches etc

fuck i wish i could watch again for the first time

i warned you this would be long lol, honestly these writeups are more for me in the future to like remember my thoughts etc and like i said we'll see if i keep it up lol

[rizahawkais]

Hi Nia! You're gifs are so pretty! Is it possible for you to show how you get your WandaVision gifs too look so clear and hd? And how do you do your colorings too? (specifically the wanda maximoff in episode 3 gifset ITS GORGEOUS) I'm new to giffing and all the tutorials are kind of old. It's okay if you don't want to though! I understand it may be time consuming.

omg no! never feel intimidated to ask!! i don’t mind at all!

so, i’m going to show you how i made and coloured this gif

mostly bc it’s the only gif in that set w text and i’m going to share my text settings too!

tutorial is below :)

WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS ARE BEST?

.mkv files (the bigger the better BUT i usually think anything above 5 gb is excessive and unnecessary for an episode of television BUT for a movie worth it) itunes downloads (logolesspro on twitter, hd-source on tumblr, live-action-raws on tumblr have some DEPENDING on what you’re looking for) (also, there’s a chance that if you search "show/movie hd download tumblr” you’ll find a tumblr with its itunes download available)

THAT IS IT NO OTHER TYPE OF FILES MAKE YOUR GIFS LOOK GOOD

- my suggestion is always if its new (like just came out the past month) t*rrent it! it’ll be downloaded quickly and .mkv files look the best! BUT if not check the sources above see who has the BIGGEST file if they even have what you’re looking for and then if not then you look to t*rrenting!!

here are the wandavision files i use so you can see!!

SCREENCAPPING

-if you have windows use potplayer! i have a mac so i can’t show you how to use it and it’s not available for me :( HOWEVER back when i had a windows potplayer was the best method in screencapping!!

-I HAVE A MAC! so i use mpv!! (go to mpv.io and follow the directions) BUT DON’T DOWNLOAD THE LATEST ONE (it has a bug that skips frames) try each before the latest one bc from what i heard different ones work differently for everyone!! and i don’t know which one i use (yikes!) THERE ISN’T THAT MANY I PROMISE AND IT’S WORTH IT BC MPV IS THE BEST (i used to use adapter but they didn’t take impressive screencaps in my opinion and it was evident in my gifs you can see it too! )

create a folder for your screencaps! and make sure to rmb the directory order! now we want to create a text file on our built in textedit app on mac! type up all this down below (i like jpg but you can replace jpg w png if you want) AND SAVE THE FILE AS mpv.conf THIS IS IMPORTANT SO DON’T FORGET IT! save it somewhere you’ll find easily and NEVER delete it until you don’t use mpv anymore

just in case you don’t know what to insert after, go to your screencaps folder

now you want to open mpv and go to the corner towards mpv -> preferences and they’ll tell you that there is no .conf file SO GO LOOK FOR THE TEXT FILE WE JUST MADE AND DRAG IT TO THE FOLDER THEY OPENED FOR US AFTER SAYING THERE IS NO .CONF FILE

(i learned all this from @kylos tutorial!! so if any of what i just said about setting up mpv makes NO SENSE to you check out their tutorial at kylos(.)tumblr(.)com/post/178497909311)

now we can screencap!

so let’s find the scene we want RIGHT BEFORE and MAKE SURE SUBTITLES ARE OFF

i pause and then press (option/alt + s) and then SCREENCAPS ARE BEING TAKEN!! and to end the screencaps being taken you once again press (option/alt + s)!!

now we want to delete the excess frames! and put it all into one folder!! DO NOT DELETE FRAMES IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT YOU WANT TO GIF!! WHEN YOU SKIP FRAMES IT WILL BE NOTICEABLE!!

MAKING THE GIF

this method isn’t used that much BUT I LOVE IT so this is how i put my frames in! first i check to see the size of my frames: 1920 x 1080

so i create a NEW file on photoshop with those dimensions w these settings

now i set my tool on photoshop to path selection tool bc if you have it set on smth like move tool or crop tool at the end you might end up moving or cropping frames you don’t want to!

ok so now we select ALL our frames and drag it on top of our new file on photoshop and the MOMENT we see our first frame in photoshop JUST KEEP CLICKING ENTER until all the frames are loaded!!

you can do file -> scripts -> load files into stack but it is WAYYY slower in my opinion!

now i crop out the excess BUT i don’t resize the gif yet! the dimensions wandavision is filmed in is 4:3 so i go to crop and set the settings to this:

MAKE SURE IT’S ON RATIO SO WE’RE PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL SIZE JUST CUTTING OFF THE BLACK EDGES!! We are going from 1920 x 1080 to 1440 x 1080 this is the dimensions after i cropped

WE ARE KEEPING THE QUALITY BY NOT CHANGING THE DIMENSIONS OF ANYTHING INSIDE !!

now we want to go to actions and create an action!! open up actions w one of these two depending on what your dash looks like!!

so we create an action with this button on the bottom of actions and we’re gonna title it making a gif and hit record!!

NOW LET’S GOOOOO!!

1. make sure you have timeline on your dash!

2. create frame animation (if you see create video timeline just click the arrow next to the button to see your other option which is frame animation!!)

3. now let’s meet our best friend!! the little bar in the top right corner that has all the commands for making our gifs and MAKE FRAMES FROM LAYERS

4. WE HAVE TO SHARPEN OUR GIFS NOW BUT TO DO THAT WE NEED TO CONVERT TO A SMART OBJECT SO NOW WE ARE GOING TO CONVERT TO VIDEO TIMELINE there are two ways: the button in the bottom left corner or the button in the top right corner w all the other commands!

5. select -> all layers DON’T MANUALLY SELECT THEM ALL BC THE ACTION WILL ONLY SELECT THAT SAME NUMBER OF FRAMES SO IF THERE ARE MORE FRAMES YOU WON’T GET THEM IN THE SMART OBJECT!!

6. filter -> convert for smart filters

7. NOW WE SHARPEN!! (filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen) i sharpen twice!! first, make sure we are on legacy w more accurate and remove gaussian blue! the first sharpening will be 500% with 0.4 px radius. NOW SHARPEN AGAIN (filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen) also w legacy, more accurate and remove gaussian blur BUT this time 10% with a 10.0 px radius!

8. it’s hd now!! so let’s flatten frames into clips!! go to the top right magic button again!! and you should see a pop up saying layers are being made

9. now we convert back to frame animation w either the bottom left button or our magic top right command center!

10. make frames from layers

11. select all frames w our magic command button

12. set the animation delay to 0.05 THAT IS THE BEST ONE ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS only use 0.06 when the character is moving really fast in the video itself and it makes the gif itself look awkward BUT NEVER GO ABOVE 0.06 it’ll look slow and laggy and we don’t want that and don’t go below 0.05 bc then it’ll be tooo fast and we don’t want that either!

13. now delete the very first frame on the timeline bc it is an oversharpened duplicate of the second frame! end the recording w this button!

this is what your action should look like expanded! if you made mistakes on the way and it shows up you can just click the specific step and press the trash can on the action tab to delete in from the order!!

NOW AFTER LOADING YOUR FRAMES AND CROPPING THE EDGES OF YOUR FRAMES IF YOU NEED TO JUST PLAY THE ACTION AND THEN YOUR GIF WILL BE MADE FOR YOU!!!!

now i delete some unnecessary frames in the beginning and end and this is what my gif looks like (the size was 46 mb and the limit is 10 mb so the dimensions of the gif are 540 x 405 to get it to 5 mb BUT I HAVEN’T CROPPED IT YET SO THIS IS ME CROPPING JUST TO SHOW YOU WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE)

CROPPING THE GIF

in my opinion if you want your gif to look hd you shouldn’t crop before you sharpen!! i believe that if you crop before you sharpen you don’t allow photoshop to sharpen all the pixels whereas if you crop beforehand there is less to work with!!

dimensions is all up to you!! just make sure to go by tumblr rules!! 540 is the max width and if you want to make two gifs per row then my suggested width is 268 and for three gifs per row my suggested is 177 px! Just have the right width and the length can be whatever you want!!

now i’m going to crop my gif to 540 by 590!!

NOW THIS IS WHAT MY GIF LOOKS LIKE!

COLOURING BASICS

let me show you the best adjustment tools in my opinion and a brief explanation for what they do!!

brightness/contrast: pretty simple increase/decrease the brightness/contrast BUT one of my techniques for when i first start colouring a gif is i select all my frames and do nothing to the settings of the adjustment but i set the layer to screen LIKE THIS

curves: ik others use curves to change brightness/contrast w the squiggly thing BUT i like it to set a white point and black point, this is also a technique i use when i first start colouring a gif when screen doesn’t look good for me SO you use white point to select a pixel on the gif to set as the lightest color on the gif (setting the white point) and you use black point to select a pixel on the gif to set as the darkest colour on the gif (setting the black point) usually the white point makes it TOO bright and that’s why we use the black point to counter it and same goes for when i use screen with brightness/contrast, it gets too bright so i use black point to counter it below is the button for white point and the button for black point, respectively they are shaped as color picker tools

vibrance: generally, i never use this except for color p*rn sets but they work really well in making colors seem more strong

hue/saturation: like vibrance, i never use this except for color p*rn sets but this adjustment is to help change the colors or hue of a color for example: turn blue into purple or turn a blue into a little lighter shade of blue

color balance: I ALWAYS USE THIS!! except for in black and white gifs BUT THIS IS MY GO TO AND IF I DON’T USE IT MY GIFS ARE JUST BLAND i feel like color balance is what essentially balances the colors on your gif and adds dimension to it, it makes your gif go from looking way too yellow to a more golden neutral look and it is an essential adjustment in my opinion

channel mixer: i rarely use channel mixer BUT it is so so useful when you are working w a dark scene just play w the settings and all of a sudden all the blue in a dark scene will be a little more yellow and red and your scene will kind of just look brighter and more visible

selective color: THIS IS ALSO AN ESSENTIAL this helps SPECIFIC colors pop you’re working on a scene where there is too much red on someones face you use this tool to remove the magentaness from the yellow section OR when you feel someones face is TOO yellow and needs more blush you add more magenta in the yellow section of selective color

gradiant map: gradiant map is perfect when you’re lazy if you feel like your gif looks more neutral and you want some red in it but you don’t want to mess with any other adjustments just set a red to black gradiant on soft overlay with a very low opacity and BOOM slightly red but not too much red added!

NOW TO COLOR THE GIF!

today i have decided to start with a brightness layer set on screen

and this is what we got!

now that’s a little to bright and washed out in my opinion SOOOO to counteract it, i’m going to use my black point tool in curves and i’m going to select this point on the gif (it’s better to choose smth in the background and not smth that’s paid attention to such as monica’s hair or either of their eyelashes)

now my gif looks like this! the base color is complete!

now i think i need to balance all this yellow and red! SOOOO WE GONNA USE COLOR BALANCE!!

i think the best way to use color balance is to keep swinging the balancer until you see what you like and then keep going midtones i think i want more red and i don’t want a cyan midtone and then for shadows i think i want more cyan to counter the redness of the gif but highlights i don’t touch that much NOW HERE ARE MY SETTINGS SO YOU CAN SEE

and this is what my gif looks like

now you can stop here if you want but in my opinion i think the gif looks a lil too dead still SO IMMA USE SELECTIVE COLOR

i think there needs to be a lot lot more RED so i amp up the yellow magenta and black in the red! but i also think the yellows need to be LESS RED so i remove magenta from the yellow! and bc there’s some cyan and blue bc of monica and the flowers in the background im going to make the cyans more cyan and the blues a lil more black! i’m going to remove some yellows from the magenta!! and i add more black to the neutrals and black!! i think it’s always important to add more black to neutral and black bc it adds more depth to the gif by not just making it a bunch of bright colors and having dark colors to contrast to!! my settings are below!

and the result!

now let’s see everything together!

and the before and after!

I HOPE MY COLOURING EXPLANATION MADE SENSE!! if not you can always ask me more questions i don’t mind!!

ADDING SUBTITLES

we want to grab the text tool!

make a text box from anywhere in the middle from the left to right edge. this is so we can make sure our text is centered and will be in the same place for when we have sets w more than one gif w text!

type your text out and make sure you highlight the whole text so that all the settings apply to EACH character! you can find the alignments (for center) in the paragraph tab!

now lets right click on the text layer and go to blending options! add stroke and drop shadow!

now drag it to the desired height you would like and make sure to keep it in mind for when you have more than one subtitled gif in a set!

NOW TO MAKE SURE THE TEXT STAYS IN PLACE AND THE BLENDING STAYS YOU HAVE TO CONVERT TO SMART OBJECT!!

if you want to only have the text applied to certain frames instead of all frames, select the frames you don’t want by clicking the first frame in ur don’t want section ON THE TIMELINE and WHILST HOLDING SHIFT click the last frame of ur don’t want section and then toggle the eye switch next to the text layer

now you see the text

now you don’t

tip: use opacity to fade the text in and out!

the text is going to be on all my frames so i don’t need to toggle the eye but i just wanted to show you just in case!!

now here’s my FINAL RESULT

save for web (file -> export -> save for web) 

your gifs have to always be under 10 mb! so, if your WAYYY overboard YOU HAVE TO DELETE FRAMES! or you can divide the gif in two and have two gifs instead of one! however, if you plan on going the deleting frames route MAKE SURE YOU DELETE FROM THE BEGINNING OR END OF YOUR SELECTION i promise you that most of us won’t notice that your characters dialogue is being cut off BUT WE WILL NOTICE IF FRAMES ARE BEING SKIPPED so, don’t delete frames in the middle of ur gif!! idc how little you do it IT WILL RUIN YOUR GIF AND I SAY THIS FROM EXPERIENCE i would delete every fifth frame to cut down my gifs and that may seem like not that big of a deal BUT IT IS my gif looked choppy and poor so it is way better to cut from the end/beginning of the gif

ANOTHER LAST PIECE OF ADVICE in the bottom left of when the save for web menu shows up THERE’S A PREVIEW BUTTON click on it! it’ll show you your gif on your default browser and show you what it’ll look like once uploaded! this is perfect to check the speed of ur gif and the colouring and to notice if there’s a problem with your subtitles or maybe there’s an obvious jump in frames you never noticed before!! i always use preview bc the built-in photoshop viewer of ur gif shows the colors differently and the speed is NEVER ACURRATE!

I USED THESE SAVE SETTINGS!! many say to use selective pattern but i DISAGREE and i think these save settings are the ✨ best ✨

OK NOW THAT IS THE END OF THIS VERY LONG GIF TUTORIAL!! I HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED!! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK I SINCERELY DON’T MIND!! JUST DON’T BE RUDE OR ANYTHING BC PPL HAVE BEEN RECENTLY :(

I WISH YOU ALL THE LUCK AND FUN IN YOUR GIFFING ADVENTURES !!

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 19, part two

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

The Man Comes Around

Over at the Wen Indoctrination Tower, which seems to exist just to torture Lan Wangji with stair climbing, Lan Wangji is climbing the stairs. Too bad his cultivation level is too low to be able to just jump up. At least this time his leg isn't broken.

This is the first vengeful stair-climb in the show, but not the last. (Parallel gifset here).

The Wen guards are stationed all the way at the pinnacle of this tower to guard...what? Why are they not at the bottom of the stairs? What is this location for, actually? This is further up the stairs than the scenes with the indoctrination lectures. Anyway, it's been three months since Wen Chao threw Wei Wuxian into the burial mounds, so naturally these guards are talking about that exact thing as Lan Wangji approaches.

Lan Wangji knocks them all down with a blast from his guqin. Did you know his guqin is named Wangji, by the way? It is. A guy who is that lazy about naming his quqin maybe shouldn't feel so superior to a guy who named his sword "whatever." 

(I'm suddenly remembering a plush lamb I had as a child, whose eyes were orange, that I named "orange eyes.") (I, however, was three. And I had a lot of plush lambs. Little ones. Grown-ups found it hilarious to give them to me.) (Native speakers of English can probably guess what OP's real name is. Hint: it rhymes with Canary.) (Everybody else: there is a kid's rhyming song called Mary Had A Little Lamb. OP's name is Mary.)

Anyhoo, after Lan Wangji is finally finished with his dramatic entrance, Jiang Cheng comes flying in from wherever he's been hovering for the past 20 minutes of stair time. A bunch of Lan sidekicks also flood into the frame from wherever they were hiding during the wide shots of LWJ on the staircase.

In case you hope that CQL Lan Wangji is as much of a top (offscreen) as MZDS Lan Wangji is (on the page), here's a gif for you.

(more after the cut)

He uses the patented Lan string attack to choke this guard.  Lan Wangji doesn't have to hold a guqin string in his hands to choke someone with it. He doesn't even have to tighten it, judging by how absurdly not-tight this string is.

Or maybe this guy is choking on the chin strap of his helmet. This is exactly how OP's son reacts when OP sticks a bike helmet on him. (Note: it's GOOD that they are following choking safety protocols on set. Very good. However, they could have just left the string out and pretended, and it would look better, in this instance)

The Wen guard tells Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng about the whole "thrown into the burial mounds" thing.  Team Let's Find Wei Wuxian is not happy to hear this.

A Vengeful Ghost

Meanwhile, in some Wen office somewhere? Where the hell is this? Yiling, we get an ominous shot of the rooftops where Wei Wuxian is lurking and then we see Wang Lingjiao trying to sleep and having a nightmare.

Wang Lingjiao has gone to sleep with a full face of makeup on instead of washing her face before bed. She has forgotten the important maxim, Go To Sleep Pretty, Wake Up Zitty.

She leaps out of bed to go cling to Wen Chao and freak out about Wei Wuxian's ghost. Wen Chao is trying to read the sports section and has clearly had enough of this crap. This has presumably been going on for a little while now.

Wang Lingjiao is in a new outfit, which is...pajamas? It has the feel of a 1930's French peignoir set, and it's much more softly colored than her usual bright red-purple combo. If this is her pajamas is it weird that her day clothes are a lot more aggressively sexy-looking than her nightgown? A freak in the streets but a lady in the sheets.

Wen Chao rants about the Sunshot Campaign and talks some smack about Wen Qing, and then leaves to go to the bar and watch the game with Wen Zhuliu. After he leaves Wang Lingjiao freaks out for a bit and then looks at the notice he was reading.

The notice basically says that the Sunshot Campaign is kicking their ass. She should be proud for inspiring the name of the campaign with that kite-shooting bullshit she made up at Lotus Pier. Before slaughtering everyone.

No Matter What You Do, I Only Want To Be With You

Back at the Indoctrination Tower, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng are having feelings about Wei Wuxian. Jiang Chang does all the talking but Lan Wangji's thoughts are louder because a sad violin is playing Wangxian while they talk.

Jiang Cheng tells Lan Wangji about their meetup plan and says he thought WWX had dumped him to go find Lan Wangji in Lanling. Lan Wangji telepathically indicates that this didn’t happen. This means two things: 1. Lan Wangji has been hanging out in Lanling, where Jiang Yanli has been hanging out, so maybe they have bonded over the past 3 months and 2. This is the first time Jiang Cheng has talked to Lan Wangji since Wei Wuxian disappeared. 

Much as my fic-loving heart would like to believe these two spent three months on the road together looking for Wei Wuxian, in fact they are both important high-level fighters in an active military campaign, and Lan Wangji was busy taking back the Cloud Recesses while Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were having elective surgery. They probably both were assigned to the "Indoctrination Bureau" mission and this is the first chance they've had to talk about Wei Wuxian.

Is it heartbreaking that, while Wei Wuxian was helplessly getting his ass beat because he'd sacrificed his golden core for Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng believed Wei Wuxian had abandoned him for Lan Wangji? Yes. Yes it is.

For some reason Jiang Cheng is hesitant to believe that Wei Wuxian really was thrown into the Burial Mounds. I mean, I understand not wanting to believe Wei Wuxian is dead, but given that Wen Chao is the dude who oversaw the massacre of all of the people at Lotus Pier, including kids, why would Jiang Cheng think his guards are wrong? Maybe he just feels like Wei Wuxian is invincible, since so far he kinda has been. 

The Sword is Mightier Than Not Having a Sword

While they've been chatting, the Lan disciples have found their swords. One disciple is holding Bichen (LWJ's sword), Sandu (JC's sword), and OP consults wiki Suihua (Jin Zixuan's sword). Another disciple is holding Subian (WWX's sword).  

Jiang Cheng grabs Sandu while the Lan disciples, who apparently know their gongzi’s heart, offer Wei Wuxian's sword to Lan Wangji. 

Lan Wangji takes Subian (Bichen: What am I, chopped watercress?) and immediately tries to draw it. Like you don't do. It's sealed itself, which apparently means that it's upset. It's unclear if it's upset because Wei Wuxian is dead or if it just misses him, however.  

Lan Wangji definitely misses him, and wonders, out loud inside his own head, where Wei Wuxian is. Um, he's in the Burial Mounds, dude, they just told you. Well, I guess he's actually in Yiling proper at this point, haunting Wang Lingjiao as he promised her he would.

Twa Corbies

The scene shifts to Qinghe, where there are about 12 dead bodies lying around, which in this show means that there are really a few hundred. In fact, per Jiang Yanli's statement "nothing can be seen but corpses covering the plains." The camera can't see most of them, is all.

Wen Xu's head is hanging in the doorway, and the Jins talk about how Nie Mingjue killed him, cutting his head off with just one swing. Is this foreshadowing anything, like perhaps someone else's head being cut off by Baxia in just one swing? Nope, definitely not.

A couple of crows are perched on a body, totally not eating it, but Jin Zixuan gallantly zaps them with a talisman to make them fly away anyway.  It might be noteworthy that nobody used to use talismans but gradually more and more people are using them - particularly people who have spent time with Wei Wuxian.

With mony a lock of his golden hair-o, we’ll theek our nest when it grows bare-o

Asshole cousin Jin Zixun says “scavenger rights,” so Jin Zixuan puts him in charge of collecting all the bodies. 

Since OP just finished watching fur-collar-happy Nirvana in Fire, these crows look to me like they are wearing luxurious fur collars. Where OP lives, crows are not this fancy. 

A Romantic Corpse-Filled Interlude

Disaster het Jin Zixuan goes to help Jiang Yanli get out of the carriage but she rejects his hand just like he rejected hers back in Gusu.

Jiang Yanli is extremely shocked when she sees Wen Xu's severed head, and turns away in horror, preferring to calmly rest her eyes on dozens of crow-pecked corpses.

Jin Zixuan tries to comfort her and she tells him she'll be going now, thanks for the hospitality. He tries to say that he has to personally deliver her to a representative of the patriarchy one of her brothers, but then one of her brothers shows up.

Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng arrive, having presumably flown there from Qishan. They show that they are flying by blowing a fan on the ground and then jumping off of a box, which is better than the effects we were subjected to earlier in the episode.

Jiang Cheng rushes over to have an emotional reunion with Jiang Yanli, while Lan Wangji rushes over to have an emotional reunion with Wen Xu’s severed head. Jin Zixuan kind of spoils it for him by talking about Wei Wuxian's absence while Lan Wangji is trying to have a moment.

The whole time Jin Zixuan is talking to him, Lan Wangji appears to be gazing into the middle distance but in fact he is staring at Wen Xu's severed head. This is the guy who led the burning of Cloud Recesses, killed a bunch of disciples, and personally broke Lan Wangji's leg. Lan Wangji stares at his head for more than a full minute before glancing away.

Jiang Yanli hasn't seen Jiang Cheng since they were in Wen Qing's clinic, and she is happy he's recovered. When she asks about Wei Wuxian he gives her the bad news in the classic Jiang fashion, which is to say nothing, but look stricken until your interlocutor figures out that something is horribly wrong, but not precisely what.

Four Angry Men

Inside the fortress, Nie Mingjue is slapping the table and saying, this bad boy can hold so much resentment and vengeance. They're having a mini war council and we're getting a better sense of Nie Mingjue's anger management problem. Note for those who don't get the gif reference: this is a The Godfather joke, not a sex joke, but it can be both, if you like.

We're also getting a little more info about Baxia, who seems to be eager to go fight even without anyone wielding it. (Her? Him? Them? do swords have gender? I don't know). Well done, person below the camera frame whose job is to rattle Baxia in a menacing manner.

They've got a giant model of the battle targets, which looks like it was carved out of real rock (I mean, as much as any of the rocks on this show look like real rocks) and has its own table and everything, decorated in Nie colors. Where was this before they took Qinghe back? Has Nie Mingjue been traveling with it? 

Anyway, I'm assuming Nie Huaisang made it, because it's pretty nice. Hopefully they will keep it around for tabletop gaming after the war is over.

Jiang Cheng is upset but is using his anger management mantra to help control his temper while Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji talk with Nie Mingjue. 

Lan Wangji talks by leaning forward meaningfully, mostly not by using any words, but he asks for a battle assignment and Jiang Cheng immediately joins in. They both want to go find Wei Wuxian. 

Nie Mingjue says Yiling is too difficult of a target, but Lan Wangji puts on his determined face, which is apparently very persuasive.  

After Team Find Wei Wuxian leaves, Nie Mingjue asks Jin Zixuan to hang back so he can ask him how Meng Yao is doing. This is the first time he finds out that his ex didn't go to Lanling. Jin Zixuan tries to delicately remind him that Dad's got, like, SO many bastard children, they really don't have space for all of them. Nie Mingjue dismisses him immediately and abruptly. 

Nie Mingjue might invite the straights to his party but he isn't interested in actually socializing with them.

Unconditional Soup is Only for A-Xian

Jiang Cheng can't sleep, and takes some time, now, to be sad about Wei Wuxian. Presumably he spent the prior 3 months being mad, not sad, because he really thought he just buggered off without saying anything for all that time. Which is sort of fair, but sort of not. One thing about these two bros is that for as close as they have been and as much as they love each other, their mutual understanding has some big, messy gaps.

Fortunately while he is feeling sad, Jiang Cheng does not try to draw Subian from its sheath, because wouldn't THAT be awkward.

Jiang Yanli can't sleep either, and comes to sit with him. Jiang Cheng feels bad that she's wearing herself out with worry and she says "As your sister, I have nothing to do but to worry about you." Jiang Yanli isn't one to complain but she doesn't like being inactive or helpless. In Lanling she was far from the war, but now that she's in Qinghe she'll make herself useful by tending the wounded, and later she'll help Jiang Cheng shoulder his responsibilities as he takes over the Jiang clan.

At the moment, however, all she can do is fret and make soup. As she gives Jiang Cheng a bowlful she reminds him that he absolutely has to rescue their brother who has, according to his captors, been reduced to bone dust.

With all the impossible shit that Jiang Cheng is expected to achieve - and in many instances, does achieve - he is absolutely the embodiment of the Jiang Clan's motto. Fuck his father for disrespecting him because he hadn't figured out how to do everything by the age of 16.

Definitely Not Chilling in Yiling

Back in Yiling, Wen Chao is hearing the news that the Qishan Indoctrination Bureau has fallen and that he's being called back to Nightless City. Wen Chao says he shouldn't need to go back because his dad has a new right-hand man. That new right-hand man, we will eventually learn, is Meng Yao. Wang Lingjiao, meanwhile, is hiding under the bed covers and deciding it's time to dump Wen Chao.

She locks the door and goes to pull out her jewelry box, which is locked and hidden under the bed. Maybe this is Wen Chao's jewelry box, because she acts kind of squirrely about opening it. Upon opening the jewelry box, she doesn't find jewelry but a pair of bloody fake eyeballs staring at her.  She screams and freaks out and then the wind picks up and we hear the sound of a flute, playing the "I'm here to fuck your shit up" tune that Wei Wuxian likes.

Wang Lingjiao runs to the door and pulls down the protection talisman that's pasted above it, and pastes it directly to her chest instead, which is, we will learn in the next episode, the worst idea she could possibly have at this point.

Then she uses a poking stick to go flip the jewelry box open and finds it's full of ugly-ass jewelry again, plus an improbable number of weird round paper-mache biscuits that have been painted gold. None of this jewelry looks anything like the exquisite accessories people wear in this show, which means this stash was put together by the practical effects department, not by the costume department.

Anyway, Wang Lingjiao apparently thinks she can sell this fakeass stuff for a good price, so more power to her. But then we get a short glimpse of the menacing eyeballs again, this time on the floor, having moved out of the box and brought their little blood pool with them. Screeching ensues.

Next episode: Lady in Red!

Soundtrack: Twa Corbies, by Steeleye Span

[redxblueihateloveyou]

spill the yoi hot takes :o

I’m really flattered with the amount of asks (I hope you won't mind that I combined at least 5, it's just easier this way), interested in my yoi opinions, I wasn’t planning to get into that honestly, until I mentioned it to my friend Alex (I’ve mentioned him here before without a name tho, he’s gay, he’s very into anime, he was also the one behind that 4am text “but how do u think Rin’s teeth feel on Haru’s dick” lol). 

I just didn't want to rewatch it, as I've said before, but something he said got me very intrigued and last week ended up with me staying until 7am for a virtual watch party that got pretty hilarious, but not for the yoi reasons lol.

So just know that to be completely fair we did it and I'm saying everything below with a very fresh impression, which hasn't changed really bc like I'm 25, I was watching it the first time when I was 21, not 14 xD. I think it got worse actually.

Once again, I know that since they’re both gay sports animes comparisons are inevitable, but to me one has nothing to do with the other and no matter the fact that I adore Free! and don’t like YOI, I don’t want to throw words like smth is “superior” out there, bc I don’t want to be like those YOI fans back in the days, who thought that none other gay ships should exist after this (unless they say smth specifically for me to counterattack, then I can say whatever lol).

Like if you love stories like this, it’s okay. Like what you like. But to yell at everybody that they must think that this is how relationships should be and trash every other gay ship in existence, you maybe should not, especially when you don’t really have much to be proud of. Just like kisses don’t make a love story high-quality, full censorship doesn’t take away a good love story.

"Heaven official’s blessing” is also censored, but no matter how much you censor it, their love for each other is seen in their actions so clear, that it is in fact will not take anything away from the power of their feelings and the greatness of their love story if at the end they won’t show them kissing. Just like if I kiss a random stranger on the street, it won’t make us the best couple in the world.

Now I went into watching YOI unbiased the 1st time I watched it (I did watch it after Free, bc it was in “recommended”). I did not expect it to be “like Free”, I just wanted smth that’ll give me the same kind of emotion, investment in the story, ship, etc. It didn’t, so I just moved on.

I didn’t even think deep about why. I thought I just grew out of the “Cinderella” stories a long time ago or as it was here not very gracefully called “how to turn the pig into the prince”.

Like if you want the “she’s all that” but with the boy instead of a girl, you’ll probably enjoy YOI. But once again, love stories I enjoy are the opposite of those. It's really nothing bad, if you enjoy the stuff like “Someday my prince will come” in whatever age tbh, but I since a certain age just wasn’t invested in those anymore and began to obsess with stories like “Anastasia” instead, and I’m talking about love stories with less naivety in between and feelings out of nowhere, but more stuff like “yes, bitch, I find you attractive, true, but whether I fall for you unconditionally or not, only real life situations will tell later on”.

And I don’t mean stuff like going through war together or some epic journey, but grown ups must know those. Those life situations or even tiny things someone do, that make you not only fall for someone, but think “yeah, I can imagine my life with you”.

Like in my humble opinion, you can’t fall in love with someone bc of the way they swim or skate, for example. What ppl call “love at first sight” is in fact “attraction at first sight”. So yes, we do joke about Rin falling in love at first sight, bc he did in fact walked into the hall, saw Haru and was like “dat bitch is so fine”, even tho he was just standing there, but once again, he was just attracted to him. What happens after this is you can go on a whole beautiful journey with tiny Rin putting together the prettiest puzzle of why he falls for Nanase Haruka. In such little things like when Haru slowed down when he saw Nagisa feeling bad during running and Rin was like “omg you’re so uwu”, how he mentions that he always helps ppl, but never asks for help himself, he slowly gradually paints a picture of what kind of person Haru is, same goes for Haru about Rin. And then you have a whole story of them falling for each other all over again when they’re already adults, and you again watch it through their eyes, and once again I’m not in fact talking about some grand gestures like 1x12, I’m talking about stuff like them focusing on Haru’s eyes shaking, when he saw that Rin secretly helps Rei to learn how to swim. It’s the little things, that you watch and you get why they feel what they feel for each other. And that also makes you fall in love more with their characters by seeing how the other sees them.

YOI doesn’t have those moments. Not only they weren’t in any situations that would make them know each other for who they really are, they hardly even know the basic info about one another. Hell, the viewer doesn’t know anything about them. And this is why to me it goes into the category of those typical romcoms I can’t get invested in.

So I don’t think these two can be compared. And while some yell “bc you’re not canon, but yoi is canon”, I think they can’t be compared for another reason. Bc some ppl are trying to prove to me that a 27 years old man fell head over heels in love with someone overnight during a drunk banquet, then watched a vid of him skating and flew to another country and hey “if you win a gold medal, lets get married”. This is not the kind of relationship progression I’m looking for like at all. Between that time he started training him and their “censored kiss” there was nothing and I mean nothing that’d made me go “yeah, I see why he loves him”.

But anyways, lets live piecefully really, you can like one, you can like both, it’s all okay.

Like I know many have ptsd and it’s true that back when YOI was popular, most of their fans for real did annoy to death almost everyone, bc they yelled that No.6 is trash, when someone said “but you’re not the only one gay story that’s not based on sex”. They yelled that Free! has no right to exist bc its queerbating (LOL). By that time, I’m not gonna lie I was ready to poke my eyes out each time I saw smth YOI related, bc it was like: you make a multigay shipping vid -  “how dare u not include YOI”, you make a gifset - “you forgot YOI” like I HAD TO like it just bc it’s gay. There is no such rule to me. Just like I don’t care for some hetero romances, I don’t care for some gay romances. Simple is that. Once again gay has nothing to do with the relationships dynamic and the story.

Yeah, comments about fanservice. Like why should I watch Victor’s naked ass for several minutes every episode, but don’t get to see Haru or Rin’s at least once? So salty rn.

Free is more fanservice-y.. well, it’s hella fanservicy, yes, but like we can’t swim in shirts, you can tho not show naked ass in each episode, I thought you were skating. 

See, it’s all debatable.

But I do wish ppl stop putting yoi relationships on a piedestal, their relationship are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far from being inspirational for many and not even close to the what love is in my opinion. If you seek smth of a very high standart of gay love, choose MDZS for example, idk. But don’t throw YOI at ppls faces as a “this is how should be”. Not everyone wants that.

I don’t need a half-assed engagement and esp the censored kiss (like either do it or don’t do it at all honestly). Also stuff like this should carry weight. I don’t want things for the sake of things.

Like to me Rin’s “the only thing that hasn’t changed in my life is how I feel about you” speech, considering the fact that he felt like that throughout all those years, means hella more, than this. 

I think 1stly, it’s because of the “it’s like it was a destiny xD” factor and 2ndly, bc at least this scene gives a little more sense to the fact that he flew to another country to train him. Now it’s if “I fell MADLY in love in one drunk night and was pining my whole life after that and that vid was a sign for me to go see you again” makes any sense to you. At least that’s how some fans read it.

Once again it might be a good thing for a passable one-time romantic comedy. But plots and pairings like this is what made me turn to anime in the first place, so.. sorry lol.

All this mega tragic posts of “Victor was soooo in love for such long time, it’s so sad” made me laugh so hard. Like he feel in love so hard during a one drunk banquet with a guy who was so drunk he didn’t remember anything he did? WHY? HOW? what could he possibly do to make him fall that hard, no one knows. Like to me the only reason u can fall for someone in one night is if you saw him risking his life saving a kitten or a puppy from a car or smth.

I’m just not the kind of person who thinks you can fall for someone for no reasons. Again, you can find someone attractive and go from there, but there must be things along the way that will make me believe in the progression of it. It can of course all come in the future, but the story was what the story was. Whatever you are trying to add to it is already a fanfiction.

YOI is not boring per se, bc everything goes way too fast and sometimes with no reasoning, so I was more surprised that “this was it?” lmao. But their relationships are dull, yes. Bc there is nothing to even discuss really, you can only assume things, bc the whole thing didn’t give u much, esp in the characters department. It’s just really funny to me that someone would write a whole post of “I love this character bc I presume he’s like that”, usually it’s “I love this character bc facts, facts, facts”.

______

Now back to the beginning of my post and to the funny story that happened. We were randomly discussing shit, when I mentioned about possibly rewatching YOI, bc I didn’t want to start talking about smth in case I forgot some stuff (I didn’t btw lol) and turned out that he freaking disliked it a lot. I never even asked, for some reason, and we’ve been yelling about Free! and other stuff for ages and like his boyfriend is in love with Sousuke and they both adore rinharu to death.

And he has lots of gay friends who love Free (this made me happy the most, btw during our YOI chat I asked and it was 4:1 harurin:rinharu haha I win) and some ships from Haikyuu too, but turns out that literally none of them were into YOI. And the funniest thing he said was “bc it felt more heterosexual than some heterosexual stories I’ve watched”. Now I don’t know if it would make sense to anyone else out there, but I kinda did get what he meant.

I asked if it was bc of the “fairytale setting” and the fact that no one cared that they’re gay (bc “in front of the stadium?!” was the reaction, when I told them “there was a cencored kiss here” (btw not everyone got it lolz) and then “did they just write the story with a girl, but then changed it by the end?”), but they said “no, just the overall feeling”.

And like everyone knows that YOI targeted audience is hetero girls. It wasn’t made for the sake of the LGBT community and none of the homophobic ppl will watch it either, no matter what some think. So for whom they did it the way they did it is very questionable tbh. They say it’s the LGBT representation in anime, and yes, good, great, always happy about, but isn’t it kinda funny that some of LGBT representatives don’t even feel like it apparently.

Now I’m just saying some, I’ve asked him to ask around out of curiousity, and it was only 11 gay guys in total, who watched it, including our company and his bf who was forced into it haha, but 11 is quite a lot, considering the fact that not even 1 liked it. But then somehow stuff like MDZS and even uncanonical mikayuu was highly appreciated and loved, bc it accidentally made a dent in some extra conservative parents and dull ppl.

It’s just much more interesting to hear what guys who are actually dating guys think about all those kind of animes and ships, than some girls here who yell at me stuff like “why are you supporting queerbating”. Btw I asked Alex if he’s offended by that, he said “no, but we for real think they’re doing it” lmao.

It is supposed to be funny. You didn’t get it wrong. But if you saw many ppl would aggressively disagree with you. I just thought that “analysis” was an “interpretive process that draws conclusions from a set of facts”, not “writing a fanfiction based on assumptions”, but then again to each their own. 

The problem is that I don’t even get what’s cute about it, it’s just absurd to me. Like it’s pulled out of an ass, for real. They’re not in the stage of a relationships, when I would find such thing romantic. And all the agressive denying of the fact that it was indeed wedding rings made this scene cringy, too. The whole thing is cringy to me idk. The “win the gold, only then we’ll get married”.... It all gave me a weird feeling. The opposite of “touching”.

So in conclusion, when you skip most of the important parts of the love story and jump into stuff just for the sake of it, then also make fun of it, it leaves a hella weird impression and aparently not just to me.

And once again trying to market some primitive story as an epic love story, just bc it’s gay is extremely weird to me. If you make 50 shades of grey gay, it’s not gonna suddenly become a pulitzer prize winning kind of book, it’ll stay the same dumb af story with dumb af characters, but gay.

So being happy about some representation (and btw they still managed to add stuff like “its not gay if you exchange rings with your hommies” here and there and make it “hahahaha joking”), I get it, but to say that this what all the gay ships should aim for, pls stop. We really don’t wanna. Sincerelly. 

We here stick to a motto “I can picture the kiss of the characters whose story is so amazing, that the kiss is the only thing missing, but if I basically have just a picture of two guys kissing, I won’t write a whole story myself.”

P.S. I will forever laugh now tho at the fact that calling your bf a “pig” and being an arogant asshole without any canonically established reasonings is a great relationships, but Adam with his past gets what he gets now for the “dog” comments even tho his bf enjoys it lmao like I did not remember this bits in YOI. I honestly thought it was like completely “unproblematic” one, but it’s like hilariously not. So what ppl are trying to even put out their as a “pinnacle of the lgbt representation” as you say, like there are for real older yaois that are much better than this.

[prixmiumcontent]

Some Housekeeping!

So I made this blog pretty much exactly a year ago. And I used it for a week, and then I basically stopped. Looking at the posts that exist, it was probably because I hadn’t decided what gifset I wanted to make for my meta post about The Unquiet Dead (Doctor Who S01E03) when the announcement of the big tumblr policy change came down.

Honestly, the policy change made basically no difference in how I had used tumblr 99% of the time. However, I didn’t like the spirit behind it. I fully expected it to bring tumblr crashing down in a couple of months. But here we are, a year later, and people still use it.

In December of last year, I backed up my personal blog, made a new Dreamwidth, and planned to sit in a rocking chair on my old-fandom-lady porch and chew while the storm came. And yet we see that this didn’t happen. I have pretty thoroughly detoxed from being a regular tumblr user, and you can see that over on my new personal blog which is currently @indulgentcrowley and may soon be at @thelastbadwolf depending on my whims. I have been using Dreamwidth, and I just got a Pillowfort account. My Big SocMed account of use has been my twitter account, but that is mostly interaction with certain individuals, and I have found it pretty useless as a fandom space to meet anyone new who likes me.

And yet here I am again. I plan to start doing this again, maybe. I had been thinking about doing meta posts and a rewatch over on Dreamwidth and/or Pillowfort, but I was thinking I would have to start all over. But then I tapped on one of those annoying tumblr app notifications that keeps begging me to become addicted to this website again and found the most lovely little reblog comment on my last meta post.

One thing that exhausts me about modern SocMed as opposed to the LJ-era of fandom is how short little responses have given way entirely to like buttons. Meta posts in particular so rarely get reblogged unless it is some kind of hot-button, pithy thing, and this just made me so happy.

My life has changed a bit since last November. I have been in Japan (with a six week vacation back home) since May, and I am going home in two weeks. I have been teaching EFL, so I have technically been employed, but I am going home to no particular job prospect. I am seeing what I can do, but in the meantime I have really just been trying to find a way to enjoy being with my own thoughts about anything but work.

Also, I noted that I got an ask from an anonymous person who said something about noticing that my username here is a pun! Yes, it is. Thank you for noticing. I am desperately trying to get people to notice that “Prix” has a silent X in any way that I can. I’m sorry I didn’t answer this ask, but I don’t know how to use tumblr mobile and accidentally deleted it.

Going forward, I plan to continue my posts about Doctor Who and, if it goes well, I may branch into other fandoms of mine!

However, I do expect that perhaps I won’t push myself to make a gifset per episode, particularly upon writing the post. I’m not saying I won’t make gifsets or graphics at all anymore, but I guess I just kind of feel that it is a big time investment but not really as much of a soul-investment as the text posts are. And yet the gifsets have hundreds of notes while my text-posts have under 20 when that is the point of this blog. So I guess we’ll see about my mood and momentum? And I’ll let you know if and where I start cross-posting.

If you want to see me on dreamwidth, where I have been most active lately, I’m at https://prixmium.dreamwidth.org!

[themagiciansreccenter]

The Great Blank Spot: @hoteldestiel

So much goes into creating fanfiction even before the first words hit the paper. And in-depth spotlight on our writers and the process behind their work.

Tell us about your current project.

Peaches and Plums is my take at a canon-divergent run through of the second half of Season 3 as well as an exploration of all the pieces of the mosaic timeline we didn't get to see. Really, it's my super self-indulgent excuse to dive deep into Eliot's insecurities and darknesses and how they align with/interact with Quentin's. And write these two falling deeply, madly in love with each other as they deserve.

The fics are finally posted from The Trials. Did you participate?

I didn't! I wasn't in deep enough with this fandom until after that challenge was over but I would love to participate in the future!

What is your current word count?

With the draft of Chapter 5 I need edited before I post, I'm at 15,389

Do you try to write daily? Do you have a word count or other goals you try to hit for each writing session?

I do! Not always on this project, I've got a lot of things rolling, but I have been very serious this year about making writing fiction a daily habit for me. Right now my word count goal is 750 words for my 39 Graves timeline and then whatever else I feel like rocking on top of that. Lately I've been averaging around 2k per day.

What was the inspiration for this fic?

A Life in the Day is basically a fanfic writer's dream, really, with all the blank spots waiting to be filled. One of the first things that pulled me into this show was Quentin and Eliot's relationship, and getting to see that in such a powerful way in 3x05 inspired the heck out of me. I also just really wanted a chance to dive into Eliot's head more. I love that chaotic good trauma baby ok??

How do you stay motivated between chapters/stories?

I read (novels, other fanfic, you name it), I work on other projects, I consume other art (music, tv, movies, gifsets lbr those are ART) and I bounce ideas off of people in the fandom, geek out on headcanons, rewatch episodes and meta the heck out of whatever comes my way. Having the daily writing habit helps a lot, it's hard to lose all motivation when you know you have a standing date with your keyboard.

Did this fic require any research? How much research do you typically do for your fics?

So far my only research has been referring back to the second half of season 3 and consulting the Magicians Wiki when I get stuck. If a fic requires me to do some googling (like this idea I have brewing in the back of my mind probably will) I will gladly google whatever I need to to make sure it's right. Usually, though, I don't research until I run up against the thing that needs clarification. If I get too in my head about the details, the prose doesn't come as easily.

Do you typically write ahead or post as you go?

I post as I go! Write a chapter, get it edited/betaed, and out into the ether it goes! I usually sit with it for a couple of days after it's drafted and edited before I publish it, but that's about as close to writing ahead as I get.

How much planning and outlining did you do before you started putting words on paper?

For Peaches and Plums, almost none. I had the idea, and I was driving home from work when the first sentence of it came into my head clear as day. I repeated it to myself the rest of the drive home so I wouldn't lose it by the time I got there, walked through the door and immediately sat down to start writing. I jot down notes for future chapters as they come to me but it's been pretty go-with-the-flow so far.

Has it been pretty smooth sailing or rough waters? When things get rocky, how do you handle needing to rewrite sections or scrap scenes entirely?

It was smooth sailing (punt intended, thanks Muntjac) until Chapter 5. The plot had a pretty clear direction and I knew where I wanted it to go, but Chapter 5 is an all-mosaic chapter and I struggled with that. It stalled me out for a couple of weeks, and the first version of that chapter straight up doesn't exist anymore. I've been writing for a long time so I'm less precious with my writing, I'll cut huge chunks out if I feel they don't really serve the story, and I'm totally okay with rewriting. The biggest thing I try to keep in mind when I'm rewriting is that it can't happen in a vacuum. When I'm done with the rewrite, I make sure to read the whole chapter/piece over again because sometimes it gets messy and confusing, or repetitive without trying. Rocky, for me, is running out of plot steam or being unsure of where to go next, but I think I've got a pretty clear direction of the next few chapters so I'm excited to have some momentum again!

Teaser

“That’s bullshit!” Q said, stepping closer again, reaching Eliot’s side before he had time to do anything drastic.

“You’re right,” Not-Eliot growled. “You can end this, don’t let him talk you out of it.”

“No, Q. It’s not bullshit. It’s smart. The rest of you can figure this out without me,” Eliot said, his foot still perched on the rung.

“Not like you were really much help anyway,” Not-Eliot added, “Quentin didn’t even figure out the mosaic until after you died.”

Eliot shook his head. God, he hadn’t thought of it like that. It made sense. He gripped the rung tighter, willing himself to shift his weight upward.

“No!” Quentin shouted, placing his hand over one of Eliot’s. Eliot stopped.

“Why not, huh? Can you give me one good, legitimate reason? Not some shitty reason about how the quest needs me or how I’m some great magician if I can just stick it out until we get magic back, or how Fillory needs me. That’s all so fucking flimsy, and we both know it. Give me a real reason, Q.”

Quentin was quiet. Eliot took it as an answer. He brought his other foot to the rung, hoisting himself up once more.

“I already lost you once, El, don’t make me lose you again.”

The Great Blank Spot is an in-depth spotlight focusing on the writing process and previewing in-progress fics for our fandom. It is meant to be an organic, ever-evolving feature. Previously interviewed fic writers can reach out to us here, to have a specific work featured. If you’d like to have a work featured but haven’t done the author spotlight, reach out to us to get started. If you have suggestions for questions you’d like to see answered, shoot us an ask!

[mars-the-red]

The Time Tunnel | one gifset per episode | 1x12 “The Death Trap”

Doug and Tony become accidentally embroiled in a plot to kill President Lincoln.

This episode has Tony fall in with two brothers, Jeremiah and Matthew (but mostly Jeremiah), who are staunch abolitionists. They want results now and they don’t believe Lincoln’s administration is going about it fast enough, or effectively enough, so they want to burn the system down and bring about a glorious revolution. 

The burn-y bros have a younger brother, David, who is under the age of accountability and totally oblivious to his older brothers’ schemes. Tony plays on this to try to talk Matthew out of following Jeremiah into his murder plot.

Matthew is played by Tom Skerritt, who’s always a presence. He’s great in everything.

Unlike dumber episodes, the core of the script is solidly character-driven. Specifically Matthew’s struggle between his older brother’s fervor and his younger brother’s innocence. Tony fits in well, stirring things up and bringing these tensions into the open.

Readmore to hide the rambling.

Doug gets captured in the first five minutes of the episode, and sits around. He gets to talk to Abraham Lincoln, but there’s only so much you can do with Lincoln as a character. The actor plays him with humanity, but Historical Figure Lincoln is imbued with such weight and gravitas that their conversations are like... an educational track playing at a wax museum. Some “Star Spangled Banner” type music even kicks in at one point.

Here’s something though:

[The Death Trap] is also the episode that gave birth to Irwin Allen’s much-quoted remark about The Time Tunnel being “a running and jumping show.” Initially, there had been much more of a poignant discourse with Lincoln about the future, which both [Leonard] Stadd and director William Hale had wanted left in. Some of this remains, and is good stuff, but without seeing the original script it’s difficult to know who was right when Allen said to move on with the action.

Abbott, Jon. Irwin Allen Television Productions, 1964–1970: A Critical History of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants (p. 235)

Ah... missed opportunity.

And I am joshing a bit, being so dismissive of Jeremiah’s position. Lincoln’s explanation for slavery - that he’s against it, but feels it will reach its end naturally, organically, as if reason and justice are inevitable - you can see, perhaps, Jeremiah’s commitment to action.

And more things to enjoy:

Doug and Tony are very protective of children. Doug in a more direct, caring way, Tony in a more “why don’t you do the right thing for this child you’re responsible for” kind of way. I think it reflects on their very different upbringings.

“You quittin’ me, Matt?” asks Jeremiah at one point. Obvious joke goes here.

This week in technobabble: 

General Kirk does NOT want Doug placed in a different time zone than Tony. Time zones are actual zones... of time. No firm information about how fine-grained these zones are. Hours, days, years?

Ann has some trouble getting the coordinates to lock - as she’s had before - and Ray says “Let me try” and elbows her out of the way, as if it’s a matter of physical strength.

The Tunnel shows them D&T, then jumps forward four years to Lincoln’s actual assassination, and Kirk and Ray debate why the Tunnel has tuned in on these two separate moments in time. Ray says “It’s almost like the Tunnel is making its own projection, independent of the probe on Doug and Tony.” So the Tunnel is the Mirror of Galadriel sometimes.

[colethewolf]

Ah, I see Jeff Davis hasn’t changed one bit over the years. Are you curious to see his true colors? If you haven’t already gotten a glimpse...

Now, I’ve spoken a lot about my feelings towards Jeff Davis & the way he has treated his cast members, the fans, and especially the Sterek fandom. This video interview from San Diego Comic Con, where he calls out a Geekiary writer, simply because they don’t sing his praise, but rather, point out Jeff’s continuous queerbaiting attempts & mistreatment of fandom, is another glimpse into the kind of person Jeff Davis is.

The video starts with each of the interviewers at the roundtable introducing which website or blog they come from. When an interviewer from Geekiary states when they’re from, Jeff immediately jumps into some poorly rehearsed, overacted, and dramatic (much like Teen Wolf’s acting) response, where he ponders for a moment, & then calls out one of the writers at Geekiary (Farid).

Now, if you don’t already know. Farid writes for Geekiary & doesn’t hold back when it comes down to calling out Teen Wolf for the large and insulting missteps that the show takes, as well as he speaks out against mistreatment of fans & the huge queerbaiting issue within the show. And because Jeff Davis has never been one to stomach hearing the uncensored, non-sugar coated truth about his failure as a showrunner, his failure as a writer, and his failure with Teen Wolf, you can bet that Jeff Davis took this SDCC interview to rear his bitterly lopsided & vindictive head.

In the video, he completely blindsides the available Geekiary interviewer by questioning her about Farid & asks (starts at 0:15) : “why does he still write about the show? Like, what show is he watching?”. And while the interviewer is clearly & audibly uncomfortable with Jeff unprofessionally questioning her about the articles of somebody else, he continues on with the interviews.

It’s probably important to tell you guys that Teen Wolf has actually had a large history of complaining about negative reviews, about negative reception from fans, and about the embarrassing loss of viewers per episode from season to season. I honestly don’t even know how many times they’ve come out to say that fans just aren’t giving the show a chance & that they’re not watching the show correctly & that they should stop watching if they don’t like something in the show & that the show is actually getting over 8 million views per episode....okay.

So, the interview goes on. Yet towards the end, Jeff clearly isn’t done. Before he gets up from his chair to leave the table, he turns to the Geekiary interviewer and says (around the 6:20 mark) : “Tell Farid hello from me personally. It’s because he’s a Sterek fan, right? I hope all this Sterek dreams come true.”

I mean, this attitude & the clear, noticeable, radiating bitterness & vindictive nature of Jeff Davis isn’t new to me. I experienced it first hand, alongside the rest of the Sterek fandom four years ago during season 3B. Of course, I’m not personally surprised, but I feel it’s important to keep reminding you of the kind of person that Jeff Davis actually is. His hatred towards Sterek & Sterek fans continues. He hasn’t changed.

Jeff Davis is cowardice personified. He specifically took the moment to call out Farid, negative responses towards his show, and Sterek (yet again) because Farid wasn’t sitting in front of him. Plus, he knew that he could blindside that poor interviewer by targeting her. But we know he’s a coward. We know he runs & hides away from where fans get direct access to tell him how we actually feel. 

For example, Jeff Davis isn’t on Twitter anymore. He hasn’t been for years. Although, he used to have a twitter. He used to talk to fans. He used to bait Sterek all the time via his twitter. But he deleted it after fans called him out for racism. Mainly regarding his decision to cast a black woman in the role of Kali, when Kali was originally supposed to be of Indian decent. Of course, it’s wrong to have somebody play a character of a race that they are not. But Jeff Davis didn’t like hearing it. 

Additionally, he was promptly called out for the fact that both Isaac & Erica received minor backstories during their season. With Isaac coming from an abusive household & Erica suffering from her epilepsy/ transforming into somebody that gets noticed. Yet, Boyd received little to no backstory whatsoever. Jeff was called out for it on Twitter, but couldn’t deal with that either.

Jeff also used to do Q&A’s on Tumblr, but stopped doing them once he realized that people wanted to question him about ridiculous writing, about baiting, about Sterek, and about other things that he couldn’t bear to be questioned about. So he left Tumblr & actually had one of the TWPR people take the blame for certain Jeff-related issues.

As I said, cowardice runs deep within this man. And of course, his bitterness & hatred towards Sterek & Sterek fans remains prominent, as detailed with this interview. Especially the last part, where he equates Farid’s necessary & enlightening critiques to being nothing more about Sterek-- demeaning them & essentially chalking them up to bitter rants from a shipper. When in actuality, Jeff’s queerbaiting, his abusive treatment of Sterek fans, and his no-homo’d treatment of Sterek within the show is something incredibly important to critique. 

Especially when it’s 2017.

Now, I’ve made countless posts before about Jeff Davis’ feelings towards Sterek. It’s simple. He hates it. He hates the fact that he couldn’t get away with destroying it in his show after baiting it & using it for views. He hates that he wasn’t the one to come up with the idea. He hates that his show got cancelled & ultimately failed, whilst Sterek continues to thrive within a community & fandom that doesn’t give two shits about Jeff Davis & his canon disaster. 

There are some newer Sterek fans that didn’t live through the horrendous Anti-Sterek era during season 3B, and there are some fans that still hang onto the hope that Jeff Davis will reward us with Sterek becoming endgame in this final season. If anything, THIS new interview with Jeff & his incredibly embarrassing performance as a Teen Wolf-style villain towards Stereks should tell you everything that you need to know. 

Jeff Davis does NOT care about Sterek. He doesn’t care about the fans. He decided to use Sterek one last time to promo the final season & he plans to use it even more to get ratings for his last season as incentive for whatever podcast mess he wants to do after the show ends. But other than that, he will disappoint you. Jeff is going to do everything in his power to destroy Sterek & make you feel like shit. Don’t give him what he wants. Don’t buy into his transparent trickery. Don’t think he cares about fans.

This is what Jeff Davis does.

Instead, continue to thrive within the Sterek fandom. As fans, we’ve created this home for Sterek fans to enjoy. Look at all of the wonderful material that we create. The fanfiction, the fanart, the manips, the gifsets, the ideas, the grand total of fanwork that has literally made Sterek one of the most popular & beloved ships of this time. We don’t need Jeff. 

Let Jeff continue to hate the ship. You know that he’s seething inside regarding the fate of this show, meanwhile, Stereks continue to make Sterek fanwork & everybody else is looking at Jeff Davis & his show w/ genuine laughter on their faces. 

I mean, seriously. Jeff Davis did everything he could to destroy Sterek within the show. He no-homo’d both Stiles & Derek (at the same time, might I say). He kept those characters apart. He didn’t let Dylan & Hoechlin work together. He refused to do any of the scenes that Dylan & Hoechlin proposed to Jeff. And look at where Jeff ended up....his show failed, Dylan & Hoechlin left, nobody is watching, and he has had to resort to using Sterek for views. 

Just like Criminal Minds, just like his Let the Right One In, & just like Teen Wolf. Jeff Davis has gotten himself fucked over. So much that his only path for a career is to hope for a TW podcast series....plus....his hopes that MTV will do a TW reboot in the coming years & give Jeff Davis the opportunity to be the showrunner....it’s not happening. 

In closing, 

Don’t allow yourself to get fooled for even a second to convince yourself that Jeff Davis is a good person. He’s not. He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about fans. And he especially doesn’t care about Sterek. He cares about money, ratings, & getting his revenge on all the people that get to laugh at his failure. That’s why he targeted that Geekiary interviewer. 

He knew that if Farid had been the one sitting there, he wouldn’t have opened his mouth. It’s just like how he doesn’t have a Twitter or Tumblr anymore, because he knows he couldn’t handle getting directly bombarded with critiques from displeased fans. And also, he knows deep down inside that he fucked himself over by fucking Stereks over...which of course, leaves him the only option to pretend as if he’s perfectly fine.   

So play it safe, Stereks. Don’t fall for nonsense. Don’t fall into whatever tricks Jeff will try to play in 6B. Remember that all of the Sterek you saw in the trailer was icing. It was purposely put there to entice you into watching, so you’d end up falling into the lower levels of whatever rotten, shitty mess Jeff is trying to cover up. Because you know he’s going to probably bait Sterek in the beginning of 6B, only to disappoint in the finale...

And remember, don’t let yourself get bullied by anybody for being a Sterek shipper. We’re strong. This fandom has gone through a lot of shit, but we’ve managed to create something so beautiful for ourselves. We’ve won & Jeff Davis will watch from his sinking show. He’ll be vindictive & bitter for the rest of his days, because he knows that fucking over Stereks was the absolute WORST decision that he made with his show. 

Stay strong. Stay safe. Keep shipping. Sterek is Eternal.

-Cole

[jonahbex]

Get to Know the Friendom Tag

(first off can i just say it’s adorable that we’re calling ourselves the friendom, i love it sm)

A big thank you to @the-suitelife-of-disneychannel for tagging me! 😄

Favorite Andi Mack character:
 Buffy for sure. I love her bc she’s so fearless and confident, and that’s an important role model for young women of color to have. Back when I was Disney Channel’s target demographic age (I’m 18 now), Raven from That’s So Raven had a huge impact on me and made me want to be myself, so I’m glad there’s a character like Buffy on Disney Channel right now teaching young girls that it’s okay to love themselves and own it even when they’re only 13 years old. Is that your all-time favorite? If not, then list that here:
 My all time favorite character is Riley Matthews from Girl Meets World. I see so much of myself in her, from the way she stands up for her beliefs and does what is right, to the way she tends to be naive and trusting, seeing the good in people. One of my favorite things about her is that she is shown multiple times trying to make people into what she expects them to be, and I can relate bc I have the same problem. I love that she’s wonderful and strong but also realistically flawed. Favorite Andi Mack cast member?
 Idk much about the cast; I don’t follow them on any social media except Josh here on tumblr. So I guess I pick Josh, he seems pretty cool 😊 All-time favorite cast member? If not list them: 
 I know this is getting repetitive, BUT I LOVE ROWAN BLANCHARD. She’s so woke and amazing at such a young age. She’s an activist and an intersectional feminist, she stands up for marginalized groups and goes after what she wants. I truly love her so much and look up to her even though she is younger than me. I hope to someday raise a daughter just like Rowan Blanchard. Original reaction to the show:
 I originally watched the show bc I saw a gifset on tumblr, then read an article and thought it was so cool that Disney Channel was going to address teen pregnancy. So I knew the plot twist before I watched the first episode. Tbh I was super unimpressed with the show at first, like after reading about it I was really disappointed watching the first episode, bc to me the acting felt so stale and badly paced. BUT I decided to give it another try bc I really wanted to support the show bc of how important it could be to Disney Channel, and after watching the second episode, I concluded that the acting and pacing would get better as the season went on, and then after watching the third episode I was hooked. Current reaction to the show: I’m just a little bit addicted. I keep wanting to binge watch the whole season but it’s not out yet, and tbh I’ve looked through those free TV websites for leaked episodes but there are none. The “next time on Andi Mack” thing is really effective bc there’s a bombshell dropped every episode and the preview makes you want to keep going.
 Favorite Andi Mack Plot Line: BEX AND BOWIE!!! Their scene together in episode 8 was my favorite, like Bowie is so sweet and he wants to be back in her life and help raise Andi, but Bex is obviously trying to avoid talking about it (the pizza trick again), and I n e e d to see how this ends. And I also kind of want to know where it started. I just want more Bowex overall.
 Least Favorite Andi Mack character: Idk if I have one? Like I kind of like most of the characters equally. And it feels like the only real choice here is Amber, but her character really bugs me bc of how she is written. So far (up to episode 8), she is a one-dimensional character. The writers only ever show her as a bad person who does horrible things to Andi and insults people and fucks with a middle school boy’s emotions, but they never show any of the reasons behind her actions. She was created as the stereotypical, pretty, “cool” mean girl who is only around to serve as a foil to the awkward, kind, unconfident main character; Disney Channel does this all the time and I’m kind of sick of it. Amber needs depth. We need to know why she’s clinging to Jonah (despite CHEATING on him), abusing him, threatening people, and just overall antagonizing others. The closest thing we got to depth with her was the one time Jonah mentioned to Andi that Amber is insecure, but that’s not good enough. I need a plotline around Amber’s insecurity. I need the writers to show that people act a certain way because of their personal issues or circumstances, not because they are inherently evil. Maybe she has home problems and that’s why she goes after Andi so hard about her family??? Maybe her father has been absent most of her life too? I need some character development with Amber. I’m not satisfied blindly hating her.
 All-time least favorite character? If not list them here: I can’t think of any characters I hate right now.
 Upcoming Andi Mack episodes I’m worried about: I’m sure this is on everybody’s mind, but how are they going to show Cyrus questioning his sexuality? It’s Disney Channel, so I really don’t want to get my hopes up, but I really hope it doesn’t turn out like Beauty and the Beast with that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gay rep with Le Fou. Like, if I were a heterosexual and not specifically looking for signs that Le Fou was gay, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all. I’m worried that the same thing will happen to Cyrus, where since we’re all looking for him to be gay, we’ll jump for joy when they start dropping subtle clues, when in reality, the plotline does nothing to teach kids about LGBTQ people bc it goes right over their heads. Like I can’t see Disney Channel airing an episode where Cyrus explicitly says that he’s attracted to boys, let alone uses the word “gay,” but that’s exactly what young questioning kids need to hear: truth and validation. In addition, I’m worried that even if it explicitly comes out that Cyrus has a crush on Jonah, there will not be a happy ending for him. Andi is the main character, and as per Disney Channel rules, the main girl always ends up with the guy she likes. So even though Cyrus likes Jonah, he’ll never get to be with him, and he’ll just be another add-on to the list of queer characters who suffer from unrequited love, whose queerness is only used as a plot point to show struggling. No matter what, I feel like the Cyrus sexuality plotline will not play out well, either from being too subtle or from being unnecessarily sad. Sorry, I kind of ranted on those last two! Anyway, I’m tagging: @tritagonist @margotandthemoon @youtuber-positivity @moonshapedwaffles @zayadorah @andi-shack @unidentifiedgayobject @universe-melody


[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hi! I really like your blog. Your analysis posts about ships or other things are really interesting and your gifsets are super cute! I have just finished reading your two anime recommendation posts and I was wondering if you plan to write a third one about the remaining animes you like? I would LOVE to read it.

Hi:) Thank you so much! Haha these were more like “bromance anime recommendations” lists. I’m glad you liked them romances. Here’s part 1 and part 2 :)

14. Hakkenden Touhou Hakken Ibun.

The relationship of the couple in this anime are one of the best on so many levels. They’re one of those “even the darkest part of me can’t hurt you” superior ships. They’re two of the main characters, 2 out 8 of the reincarnated warriors (who are all handsome af haha) that are meant to.. you know… save the world.

They’re both on the verge of death at the beginning and one (Shino) in order to survive agrees to live with a demonic sword inside of him which prevents him from growing old and growing per se (which is really sad for many reasons plus you’ll see him once in his 18-year old body and he’s so gorgeous), the other (Sousuke) takes half of a life from a dog, so he can tranform into it whenever he wants.

The problem is that during all of that Sousuke has split and lost his shadow aka the dark part of himself. His shadow works for the dark side, but all he really wants is Shino. The most amazing thing is that Sousuke loves Shino so much, that even his dark part would never ever hurt him. Like his shadow does some pretty terrible stuff to others like once he has made a deal with a girl so she would gave him her eyes just because Shino has said that they’re pretty lmao (I’m sory but its kinda funny), but he gets so pissed when Shino is hurt. So it’s the same as Akashi & Kuroko and Gauche & Lag: even for the darkest part of him the other one is his weakness. 

Also this is one of the animes where LITERALLY the power of gay love saves the world by the end. (p.s. sorry, Genpachi, I love you the most and I know you like Shino too, but your flirting can’t beat such deep feelings lol).

15. Assassination Classroom.

Not gonna spoil anything about plot, so I’ll say it’s about “problematic” kids trying to kill their teacher who has superpowers and that’s it. This anime is full of controversial stuff, like I really questioned things and what’s right or wrong, but one thing for sure is that no matter of what you think about the situation, you will 100% cry at the end. I personally think it’s a kinda happy ending considering all the stuff, but opinions are very different when it comes to this anime.

Now for the ship. Let’s just start with the fact that both Karma and Nagisa have ehhhh… psychological problems haha (but who doesn’t in this anime? lol). So Karma is a sadist (like for real, he likes to get creative with torturing) and I think he’s also a yandere when it comes to Nagisa. He threatens to kill those who even talk bad about Nagisa and once has almost beaten to death those who bullied him (which I didn’t mind tbh lmao). He never does anything if others ask, but when/if Nagisa says “please”, he immediately says yes (which is also funny). 

They both are in awe with each other and think the other one is absolutely incredible so it’s like a two-sided fan club. Karma is really scary, but when it comes to Nagisa he can be fluffy af. He also doesn’t care about people much, but Nagisa is his everything. Like the “I give up” moment will melt your heart, that was so cute. 

So this is one of those “you’re the only exception” ships. Bc Karma is a person who will enjoy skinning ppl alive, but when he’s with Nagisa he likes to hug, pick him up and coo about Nagisa’s height, play tag, discuss his fav movies and tickle fight. I’m like… I’m just… this is great.

16. Bungou Stray Dogs.

This one is about a detective agency where everyone has superpowers who are “enemies” with the mafia group where everyone has superpowers, but actually they’re all friends and half of the detective agency date the mafia xD (I’m sorry, but it’s the truth). Like I still don’t get why they won’t just make one organization, this is getting ridiculous.

I’m not a huge fan of the anime per se tbh, because like it has way too many characters who I can’t even feel for cause supposedly they’ve had a dramatic past, but what past nobody tells, so I like can’t empathize to someone who’s an asshole without knowing why he is that way. Plus there’re many characters in animes who have had a horrible childhood/past but are incredible people (hello to Todoroki and Levi). And some characters there for some reason are degrading instead of progressing which is the worst for me. But it’s pretty entertaining to watch if you won’t think much about stuff, powers are cool and it’s drawn beautifully (but there is one scene that was repeated 28 times 28 TIMES!, we’ve counted just for laughs, guess which xD, that’s like.. they could’ve made time for a whole new episode instead of this)

There’s one character whose progression is so incredible though that I’m happy to watch just for him. It’s Akutagawa. He’s like grown so much and I love everything about him, how he went from trying to kill Atsushi to risking his life for him and letting him use rashomon, how he’s homey with his sister and how he’s so good with feeling his powers, how Kyouka tried to kill him and he was like “I’m so glad you’re happy now”. Bitch, like that’s the character progression I’m asking for! Man, he’s just… he’s my favorite, I love seeing many sides of him. He made me so happy in s3 when I was ready to turn it off lmao

So there are two main ships in this anime. Dazai and Chuuya. They are one of those perfect combinations. But not in a usual way you think.. like characteristically. Chuuya’s full power is uncontrollable and the only one who can stop him is Dazai, cause his ability is to nullify other’s abilities, so he’s the only one who can stop Chuuya and also save him from being destroyed by his own power. So basically Chuuya trusts Dazai with his own life when they work together (which is.. I’d be scared if I was in Chuuya’s place lmao). It’s not like I’m scared that Dazai’s gonna let him die or anything, but stuff like “let’s watch a bit longer how Chuuya is going nuts cause it’s funny” doesn’t seem funny to me.

Let’s just say, I do ship them, I think they’d be perfect together if Dazai was like a fanfiction Dazai, you know. But the truth here is firstly their relationships progression is zero to none, like yeah, it’s fun to watch them bicker, but it like won’t give you any deep feelings. Plus Dazai was the most humane and emotional when he was with Oda (which I really don’t get, Oda was a dumbass tbh, like who makes a children shelter while working in MAFIA???! ofc they were fucking killed). Like Oda’s so special for him but then he treats Chuuya and Akutagawa like shit. And he had more feelings for Oda’s matchbox than for Chuuya in the last season. So my heart just won’t lie there fully, you know. Because there are no moments there that indicate like he’s the one for him.

Now to Akutagawa and Atsushi. This is a classic enemies to lovers stuff. Like they go from trying to kill each other to risking their lives for each other. They warm my heart on so many levels. So they’re both struggling to get over of their past and can’t. But then by the end they help each other to let go of their demons, they give each other what others couldn’t. Like I still can’t believe Atsushi came in like a wrecking ball and said the words Akutagawa wanted to hear for ages (his face, his face lol he was like “w-w-what?”). Atsushi himself admitted that Akutagawa is his cure in the last season. 

These two are like also hilarious bc they both think that they’re trash so their arguments are like “you’re the best”, “no, you’re the best”. Like Atsushi literally goes “Akutagawa is so strong and amazing, but he still thinks he’s weak” what a bae xD and Akutagawa thinks that he’s nowhere as good as Atsushi so it’s really funny. The relationships progression is like insane. They went from beating each other into a blood puddles to covering each other from bullets and being like “honey, don’t you dare die, I was going to kill you myself” lol

I still can’t believe Akautagawa gave Atsushi rashomon… he was wearing rashomon. I mean his ability, which is a part of him was okay with Atsushi using her. I mean.. maaaaaan fanfiction does come true! And they’re like the representation of yin and yang characteristically and even appereance-wise and I think it’s super cool. Plus the “lawnmower” is the cutest pet name I’ve ever heard lol

Anywho, this anime has like 20 bromances, so pick whichever you like.

Damn, that got long and I’ve only mentioned 3 haha, sorry. That way it’s gonna be like 50 parts xD