#when i was obsessed w this show in my early teens

[forestlion]

DID THEY GET THE FUCKINH ORIGINAL GERMAN VOICE CAST FOR THE NEW RANMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[autisticlancemcclain]

this is me asking you about your popstar lance au ‼️

i love u for asking & marry me also.

SO.

lance has an affinity for music.

partially this is canon. but also jeremy shada is a musician so. i KNOW his voice is good and i KNOW he can play bass and guitar and keyboard too i think. basically he’s his own band.

in my head, dicking around on instruments is just smth he’s always done. one time when he’s like twelve he records a christmas song for his mama and she LOVES it, like she shows all her friends, and lance is teased by his older siblings (mamas favourite lol) but veronica notices that he’s quite quietly….happy is not the right word?? the weight that seems to follow him lifts for a while. so she makes some offhandedly comments that damn, patito, as much as ur a goober ur one of the few people whose voice sounds really good when it’s recorded. just to plant the seed u know.

and since lance is like early teens and the youngest and easily manipulated it WORKS, and lance starts actually hesitantly trying to make and record his own music.

of course he’s too insecure and embarrassed to like TELL anybody. (veronica is not a dumbass and can fully see it happening. she just keeps to herself and resolves to find him and be an anonymous fan and never EVER let him find out) and he’s a tv obsessed nerd so he’s like omg i have to have a secret name??so his dweeb ass chooses JAVELIN 😭😭 cause. yknow.

lance.

anyways.

he writes songs as javelin for YEARS and he gets like bo burnham success he goes viral QUICKLY. and he gets a twitter account to have fun with. BUT…he never posts his face. just his music. (and social media presence lol).

anyways i have more details. but i like to imagine lance is in space and the team gets to talking about like pop culture and music and stuff and pidge mentions an artist that she loves, javelin, and lance is like lol do i have news for you.

some other random details:

- as lance gets older his twitter gets more batshit insane ala jaboukie and he gets banned like four times lol

- he does eventually tell veronica. one day he collects a bunch of her pining gay texts and writes a song and asks her to sing it. bc it’s lesbian as hell. she does and it’s one of his most famous (based off a real song i’m obsessed w)

- while he’s away at space someone literally figures out who he is. they connect his disappearance w the disappearance of lance esposita-mcclain, garrison airforce cadet, and their debunking youtube video gets like MILLIONS of views and half of the viewers agree half don’t. it’s this giant conspiracy. first tweet on javelin’s account (made on the lions as they touch down on earth literally the second his phone connects to data lol) after YEARS of total radio silence is a link to the video and the caption “well damn” lol

[hasaniwalker]

A word about Alice

“Have you seen that evil Alice in Wonderland game at best buy?”

That was how I was introduced to it. A game that would stay with me for years after. I had no idea what the person was talking about at my high school in the A.V. room. I was there frequently, editing my first stop motion film (An adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s the Raven).  They told me she had a knife and there was a thin cat next to her. I was intrigued and the next time I was at best buy I wandered to the Computer Game department and found the box.

That’s when I was introduced to American McGee's Alice.

I feel like I should mention, I was not and still am not really a PC gamer. I do console games mostly and reserve my computer for animation and editing. This game however, I needed to play it.  I was gripped by the image. The stark red background. The haunting stare of the character. the hand on the knife. It was unapologetically dark and I was obsessed. 

I went online wanting to learn more. It was early 2000 and my home internet was still dial up. I still recall going online to the Alice website and finding a countdown page. It was a music box, a child singing in the background, a terribly broken  tune looping as the box threatened to open. It was haunting and perfect.  I’d come home from school and for the short moment while I was the only one there, I’d go to the site and let that strange tune play though the house. At the end of the countdown, the box opened to reveal a decaying baby doll head (All of this is from memory and may be distorted by time. I unfortunately can’t find any images of the countdown page.) It stirred something in me to see that page come to life. It was the early days of internet. The time of MySpace. So the site was crude by today’s standards, but it was the most amazing thing to me at the time.

I’d leave it open on one of the computers while I was in A.V. at school. friends would come and we’d watch Alice move (sitting up from her seat, marveling at her blade, dusting off her dress.)

And of course, take time to show anyone the trailer.

I remember this time of being a teenager entering adulthood, feeling misunderstood, anxious, scared, and losing myself in the music of Garbage, Poe and Crystal Method. Alice fit right in to the aesthetic of everything I saw at the time.  If Wednesday was the goth friend saying and liking macabre things, Alice was the older teen sister angry with the world and ready to scream at it with you. She was grunge, she was dark, she was frightening and wonderful.

I couldn’t afford the game, but I could afford the soundtrack. I ordered it from Amazon. A site that was also in it’s early days at the time. I hadn’t ordered much form the site, but I needed this.

I’ll always remember when the email alert came. My package had been delivered. There was a storm that day. I lived in Phoenix Arizona, and when we have storms it looks like the world is ending. The sky was dark, the thunder was loud. You had to get inside. I came home and went to the mailbox. The CD shape of the package nearly made my heart stop. I knew what it was, but holding it felt like an achievement.  I listened to that music daily.

Now, so you know, I didn’t just admire this game from afar. I did get the game for my birthday one year. I had talked about it so much that it was almost certain my mom would remember. It was the first computer game I owned. I was terrible at using a keyboard for games and couldn’t get through the first few levels without a huge amount of struggle. It was a lot of getting used to and I loved it.  

From the opening cinematic, the menu screen, the sound of the bell when you start the game. It was exactly what I wanted.

At the time I couldn’t think of another game like Alice. It felt tailored made from people with my mindset. A frightful game with a deep story and a character I immediately identified with. At a time where games had very action oriented goals, Alice gave a backstory of an asylum even coming with a patient log for Alice. All of it detailing the terrible fire, her mental state, and the struggle she was going through.

The best part of this was that I wasn’t alone in my admiration for this story. You could walk into Hot Topic and Tower Records and be greeted by large Alice statues modeled from the box art that captured my imagination from the start.

I wanted to see more of this character. I dreamed of seeing a movie someday.

And it almost seemed like I would get my wish.

There was news that a film was being developed of Alice with Wes Craven directing and possibly Natalie Portman or Sarah Michelle Gellar playing Alice. part of me hoped for an animated film with the original voices, but I was still gripped by this news.

At the time, I didn’t consider myself a horror person (feels weird to write that now since I think I’ve always really been one). I didn’t really seek out horror films and avoided gore. But I wanted Alice to by a disturbing and imaginative experience. I wanted to be scared watching this while feeling for the main protagonist and wanting her to reclaim her mind.

In a world where this film went the way I hoped, people would have movie nights today of Midsommar, Pearl and Alice. It would be a film that would take you somewhere you were afraid to go, but couldn’t look away from.

But then...I heard the movie wasn’t happening...and news of Alice stopped.

I never stopped thinking about that macabre girl and her journey through a tattered land of her mind. I listened to the music, revisited the game and also drew her now and then. lines from the game even made it into my typical dialogue (”Promise only what you can deliver” wise words).

I also still dreamed of seeing a film someday and would imagine who would play Alice (for a while I kept seeing Emma Watson as the character, but also still like the idea of an animated Alice.)

Then, one day, watching Attack of the Show on G4. I saw the most unexpected image.

Alice was coming back, and this time she would be on consoles.

The thrill was back, and as soon as a trailer came out, I immediately shared it with everyone.

I was quick to buy the game when it came out, and it was wilder than I could have hoped. A gripping story with tragedy, beautiful animations and moments that sent a chill through me. The kind of chills that made me pause the game and take in what I was seeing. The sight of a monstrous train rampaging through wonderland was a gift. The way Alice’s mind would unravel things was mesmerizing. Seeing life in London through her eyes and getting more of the history of the character (and the twist of the Red Queen’s identity) it was perhaps the only game that really pulled me in fully. I love games like the Arkham series, Bioshock, Horizon, Silent Hill, and so on. Alice to me felt like something more. I wasn’t trying to save a city or save someone, I was playing to help retain someone’s sanity.

The fascination with this character and world was just as alive as when I first saw all of it. I bought the art of book and still go through it and use it as a bit of inspiration if I have a creativity block.

 I carried my love for the character all the way to my work in animation and even built a stop motion puppet while I was working on Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio film. A character who I was so taken by in high school now stood on my desk.

All this is to say that this take on Alice Liddell and her fantasy world has had a great influence on me. I was prepared to continue following this story and I hoped to someday see her find her way to the big screen and have a final story where she would come to peace with what happened to her.

The news that the tale of Alice is not going to continue is devastating. It’s troubling to see so many stories be brought to an abrupt end. for finales to never be given and answers to questions to be lost forever. 

There are a lot of stories that I believe deserve to be told, but we’re constantly given entertainment that’s simple, easily digestible, with nothing to say except to reference nostalgia and trend online. It’s hard to find something that you can connect with. Something that you need a moment to think about after you’ve seen it. Something that gets you emotionally. These things are found mostly in the passion projects of creatives. The projects they pour so much into and want to present to the world.  The projects that are not just made with earnings in mind, but also how you’ll connect to the audience. I think these projects are important. They push us to look further in and to question how we connect and interact with a story.

Too easily these types of ideas are thrown aside now and it’s harder for anyone to finish the tale they wanted to present to the world if it doesn’t fit with what a studio algorithm says. It may be a dark time to be a creative right now, but I’ll remember the stories that I connected with. The ones that hit an emotional part of me and made me stop and think about a new perspective on life, fear, depression, joy and how I connect to these things.

Thank you American Mcgee and the Alice team for taking me and many others through a Wonderland that reached into our very soul. 

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

how do you as a bisexual come to terms with the fact that the trans community has literally made homophobia much worse. ppl are proudly being openly homophobic and when you dig deeper it’s actually the “queers” and transgenders who think kids can transition who they have a problem with (not all of course but a good chunk) I believe ppl who wouldn’t otherwise be homophobic are being homophobic bc of the trans community. I use to really struggle w internalized homophobia, and still do, it was only this past year where I came to terms w it and told my sister/close friends. I wish it could be just a normal thing to be gay and you’d be left alone, I believe we were on a trajectory for that. But now things have gotten worse, and thanks to the gender nonsense, openly bigoted ppl (especially religious) are being praised and promoted. All this bc of trans activism. I don’t even care anymore about what they do to themselves, but the damage they’ve done to actual gay ppl is insane and we’re already facing the backlash. I’m not sure if we’ll ever live in a world where being lgb isn’t a big deal.

Honestly? I think the benefit of pushing 40 is that I have a wider lens through which to view activism. And I feel the same way about LGB rights as I do about women’s rights.

Which is to say, every time a big gain is won, there is backlash. There are parts of society that get worse as the culture tries desperately to adjust around the new changes.

Men today are more porn sick and sexually aggressive than 20 years ago. In some ways. People are polling less positively about the LGTBQI+ but how much of that backlash is really directed at the LGB? Are polling groups even bothering to distinguish between LGB and “queer” people?

Let me tell you what life was like as a bisexual teen in 2003. Let’s go back 20 years and I can tell you the world has changed so much for the better. 20 years ago gay rights activists started really making headway towards civil rights guarantees. Suddenly middle Americans had to confront that gay people were among them and not just haunting bars and bathhouses. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such rigid gender norm adherence as I did back then. Men couldn’t wear pastels or purple or pink. Guys got called gay for having a messenger bag. There is an entire episode of “Friends” about it. Sussing out the Gays Among Us became obsessive. Emo culture was a direct response to how frantic straight people were to appear duly heterosexual. TV shows still depicted us as degenerate freaks if they depicted us at all. A few HBO shows that were soft core porn more than anything and Will and Grace was all anybody had. Shows like Xena and Buffy got away with lesbians because men said out loud that hot women kissing was fine. These were the early days of straight men having open lesbian fetishizes. We couldn’t get married. We could get fired for being gay.

For women there was no movement to normalize our natural bodies. I’d spend hours shaving myself smooth. Not wearing makeup was unheard of. Cellulite wasn’t even a word I knew let alone knew was normal. There weren’t a million online resources teaching women that vaginal discharge is normal and I grew up thinking (as did many others) that it was a private shame.

And as far as MeToo stuff? It’s easy to feel defeated in the moment but nobody was using the word ‘consent’ in my day. Men getting women drunk was a joke. Men pushing for sex was a joke. Men calling a woman that had one too many dates or boyfriends a slut was normal. Three of my male friends pinned me down on several occasions and took turns rubbing their dicks on me to completion.

The therapist I told said I “needed to work on my boundaries”. The word rape never even entered my mind. Rape was something a stranger with a knife did. It wasn’t something your best friends did to you and then laughed about. It isn’t something you submitted to because fawn and freeze are real fear responses. No one told me my friend forcing my hand down his pants was abuse because I continued to go over his house, didn’t I? No one told me about red flags or cycles of abuse.

And the older women you told rolled their eyes. What I endured was so mild compared to many other women. Men forcing themselves onto women was just normal.

I can’t tell you what it means to me to see so many young women calling it out. Refusing to stay in a bad situation. Refusing to date entirely sometimes. Women sharing red flags and advice to stay not just safe but thriving.

Don’t get me wrong- the current gender movement is regressive and dangerous. I’m not saying it’ll all work itself out. Activism is constant work but things ARE getting better. They really are, even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. 💜

[auspex]

ranking my current and former special interests

NOTES: this is not a tier list of everything i like. in fact there are several things i spent more time on and liked just as much that aren't on this list, but i can feel when i become Abnormal about something and it becomes a special interests. explanations under the cut

from this i learned i need more special interests that aren't media, but at least my current special interest, WoD, encourages me to be creative... unfortunately i also cannot pick my special interests T_T

in text form:

S: Birds

A: World of Darkness, Mitski

B: A Song of Ice and Fire (book series); Star Wars; Maoism (plaese read explanation lmao); Animal Crossing; Darkest Dungeon; Puella Magi Madoka Magica; Portal

C: Binding of Isaac, Yuri on Ice

F: Homestuck, LoveNikki

S Birds: Pure, wonderful creatures, i want my special interest to revive instead of just loving them. like this was my first special interest i think. i love birds.... ERA: Childhood

A WoD: I know it has many issues but it gains points for A) making me do creative stuff B) bringing me out of a dark place C) gaining me wonderful internet friends and D) being current special interest. ERA: PRESENT (mid-20s)

Mitski: I'm normal about her now, but oh my god. impeccable. no notes really. shout out to mitski for being in top 10 spotify wrapped for me since 2019. and breaching top 5 a majority of those times. ERA: Late Teens, early 20s

B ASOIAF: I'm glad there's at least one meaty book series here. It loses points because of GRRM being Weird and misogynistic often, as well as Bad TV show, and being NEVER FINISHED but. im sorry. its good. ERA: Mid high school

Star Wars: By god i can watch episode iii a billion times and the novelization changed me deeply. obi wan i am still obsessed with you. however. it loses points. due to. Well. you know. Disney... :( ERA: Middle school and early high school

Maoism: OK so. thank u maoism for helping me figure out and articulate my beliefs and giving me a sense of purpose. however. i also joined a political org that turned out to be Terrible due to it. so. it loses points for that. and also while i still largely agree w/the ideology im still refiguring out my politics after that half politicalorg half cult debacle ERA: Early 20s

Animal Crossing: You saved me in high school, thank you ERA: Middle school and all of high school

Darkest Dungeon: I LOVE YOU DARKEST DUNGEONNN but it hasn't sparked any creativity, just consumption, so it is limited in that way. ERA: Mid high school

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Gorgeous show, influenced me to become an anime fan, has its issues though ERA: Early High School

Portal: Excellent game. i was indeed abnormal about it in high school. however i struggle to see where it had positive lasting impact on me, it was just kinda there. but its v good! ERA: Early high school

C Binding of Isaac: Another game that saved my in high school, however it got so many expansions and i dropped it. it loses points cause unlike the other video games in B tier, i dont think ill ever return to it, or in the case of portal, straight up isn't as good. ERA: All of high school

Yuri on Ice: This was a cringe one but it was a very strong interest by god. theres not like, anything super wrong with it, just... yeah. moving on. ERA: A brief period in early college

F Homestuck: Oh god im so sorry. so many problems. both technical and moral. let's move on again: ERA: all of high school, unfortunately

LoveNikki: The only reason why homestuck isn't bottom of the barrel is because LoveNikki caused me to waste so much money (it is a mobile game) when i was depressed. it was a money sink. oh and the way they handle dressing up darker skin tones is racist and there are some racist outfits in it. so it pisses me off. ERA: A year in early college

[thoughtspresso]

Hello, sorry I just need someone to voice my op to since none of my circles read or watch OnK :'(

It's so weird to me how Akane's fans interpret that scene when the girls are filming an MV as Akane only having good intention and care for Kana, 'cuz imo even if there is, what she said was still one of her attemps to get Aqua to stay with her. Look at how things played out to her: her business bf wanted to break up, he even straight up refused sex when she offered, and now she found out that right after that he took Kana on to a proper date, Akane's chances were close to zero. She was grasping at straws when she said that and played it under the guise of being considerate about Kana's safety, just like how she said she's okay with breaking up with him yet cried - showing that she wanted the opposite. Because if she only cared about Kana's safety, then what's with the side comment about how actors have it easier? It's like she was saying "Choose me, I'm the safer choice!". I'm not saying Akane didn't have good intention, but it's more like a two bird one stone typa thing where she wanted Kana to be safe and Aqua to continue with dating her (her own selfish want). It was kinda a dirty move from Akane, consider how she knows very well what happened to Ai and how much that'll affects Aqua. Akane always strike me as a good in nature yet also self-absorbed character: She decided what's best for both Kana and Aqua that also benefits her selfish wants regardless of how the other two would feel (& we all know how miserable both Aqua and Kana was during that ghosting period); She decided what to do to Aqua's father without thinking about how he might feel (again); The signs were as early as the LoveNow arc where she tweeted the apology thinking it was the right solution without consulting with her manager first because she thought she knew what was best for her to do in that situation. Even her acting method also kinda reflect this, where if the character's portrayal clashes between her and the director/scriptwriter, she already has a concrete image of the character from her own interpretation and thus has difficulty compromising and adjusting with the production team.

I might even take a wild guess that she was in love (obsessed) with the idea of saving prince charming rather than Aqua himself because to her, their story literally went/was gonna go like the old classic story of prince charming saving the girl -> the girl learns about the prince's past, decides to help him to repay him saving her -> prince charming defeats the bad guy (his dad in this story) with the girl's help -> happily ever after. Akane being a teen + Aqua saved her + it's her first dating experience caused her to have an idealistic view of dating and probably why she tolerated Aqua dating her despite having his eyes on Kana for he did act like the perfect bf on the surface, and that to her was enough to fulfil her prince charming fantasy. Akane is, actually, not that mature in her relationship with Aqua like how her fan keep praising her for, tbh imo it's more akin to what teens think "being mature" is. I know this is one of the appeal of her ship with Aqua, even though some might deny it. As oppose to Kana who might be a potential obstacle to Aqua's revenge whether good or bad, Akane is narratively there as a bonus reward for Aqua after finishing the main quest of avenging his mom if the ship ever be canon again. Akane and Aqua have unfortunately became perfect self-inserts for those who are into revenge and/or trophy girl fantasy (nothing bad about this itself tho). But perhaps because of looking into those fantasy fulfilment rather than the actual context of the manga/anime, they accuse Kana of not understanding the "real" Aqua (I have alot to say about this, maybe 3 paragraphs at least lol) or how she's useless for not helping him kill a person and ignore the entire other half chunk of the story about showbiz problems, where Kana's own story entangle more.

If you've read this far, thank you so so much.

P/s: My wild guess no.2, rather than being a damsel in distress (being Kamiki's target) for Aqua to come rescue, Kana already has a close relationship with Kamiki prior to reuniting with the twins (maybe a mentor-student relationship?). I've always find it weird how Aka just glossed over Kana's past, like he's holding back important info regarding her past that he can't show the readers too soon. So that's why I have this guess. This explains why Aka's been keeping her out of the revenge plot for so long + better than Kana just being a damsel in distress + raises the stakes for Kana (will she choses the mentor who helped her through her dark days being abused by her mom or the twins who she can see the light and bright future in?) + makes Kana a key player in the revenge plot.

Hey Anon! I'm happy to talk to you about some OnK Character Analyses anytime. Sorry to have taken so long to respond, I really wanted to sit down with your question. I've been thinking about this a lot. And I'm afraid my response might be even longer than your ask hahaha!

I want to summarize your main points for everybody else, so that we're all on the same page:

Akane was manipulative when she reminded Aqua that Kana was an idol, and pushed him to choosing her.

Akane wants to reverse the damsel-in-distress and Prince Charming trope, and decides on behalf of others.

Akane fans accuse Kana for not knowing the "real" Aqua

(Bonus) There's a possibility that Kana already knew Hikaru Kamiki.

So, my responses:

#1 Was Akane being manipulative in Ch. 76?

Well, yes. And no.

I actually had a short discussion (argument?) with Skania (who I will not tag for the sake of their mental health, but mentioning here to credit them.) about this very topic. (And I want to thank them for their time and also apologize to have annoyed them!) We have really different interpretations and disagree each other on this part.

To get the fast answer out of the way: Yes, I believe Akane was wholly aware of what she was saying.

She already knew from the Tokyo Blade arc how badly Aqua can get triggered on the topic of Ai's death.

Put it this way: imagine being a teenage girl who was depressed or bullied, and the boy who saved your life started dating you but admits that it isn't because he likes you that way. You start offering him sex if that would fulfill his wants in a relationship, but he tells you that your relationship is about to end soon. You find out from another girl that they went on a date--shopping for suitcases and Brazilian barbecue--a kind of date he never did for you. Then when he invited you to go on a trip, most of what he did was walk you around his hometown to look for something else, and then watch this other girl be really cute in a dress he was stunned by.

Akane is allowed to be a teenager who would want to nudge her boyfriend to stay with her and away from his other crush.

Akane fans like to argue that she was being completely selfless, and was just looking out for Kana's safety too.

I really dislike this reading of Akane's character, because it strips her of agency. Of course she has personal goals, wants, and flaws. She's allowed to be a teenage girl who wanted her love to be reciprocated. She's allowed to be a teenage girl who gets a little jealous, and try as she might to be professional and civil because all of these people are her work colleagues too, she still does things that fulfill her goals. She is allowed to be self-interested, and act on opportunities that align with those self interests.

I also think that if Akane's fans want to believe in her intellect and her masterful ability in understanding people's psychology and detective work, then it stands to reason that they should also believe that Akane was deliberately aware of the effect of what she said to Aqua. She doesn't always make 100% correct bets, but it's reasonable to conclude she made this bet hoping that it could get him to stay.

Akane and everyone else is already aware that Kana is actually not a person who needs scolding on the dangers of being under public scrutiny:

Under any normal circumstance, if Akane simply cared for Kana's safety, she would have simply responded to Kana when she was bragging about the date. Like, "hey be careful about dating in public spaces okay? I dont want you getting in trouble." Or, if she would talk to Aqua about it, she might say, "Please remember to book a private room next time you eat in a restaurant."

But no. If Akane would remind them of safety tips of dating as public figures, it would just lead them to the advice to do Home Dates:

And she doesn't want that now, does she?

She didn't say something as straightforward as that, and neither did the author write it in a more neutral tone. It was deliberately written with Akane implying that if he didn't want Kana killed, he should just date a fellow actor. (Preferably one that the public is actually cheering on to be together, because they were already in a Love Team due to the show.)

I just don't like ignoring what the Author and the Illustrator clearly put on the page for me to absorb the way that it was. I think pretending she was being wholly selfless is an insult to the writers.

#2 Is Akane motivated by the want to Save Prince Charming?

This is the "and no" part of my answer.

When I think of Akane, I don't think of an outright evil person who manipulated Aqua into doing things, wanting to be a hero for that reason. And just like how Tokyo Blade serves as a parallel for the show, it in turn informs us that it is an incorrect interpretation of Saya-hime (or Akane) to think that she outright wants the violence herself.

This part I agree with Skania on: Akane's main flaw is her low self-esteem.

Akane doesn't personally believe that she is inherently worth any value, and any value that she holds is attributed to her hard work.

People have taken notice to the fact that, unlike Kana's experience of abuse and abandonment, Akane had a really good support system behind her when her suicide attempt happened during the LoveNow arc. She had a loving mother and a really kind-hearted manager that believed in her. Yet she clung onto the validation from the agency President more. She ascribes her personal value to the approval of other people, especially positive feedback from her superiors in the industry, her theater troupe calling her a genius, her fans applauding her.

And, on the opposite side of the same coin, she has immense Rejection Sensitivity that makes her extremely defensive when she received cyberbullying, leading her to want to make a public apology right away and appease people.

This leads Akane to be an extremely hardworking person, but also seeking validation and direction from other people (like the LoveNow crew), unable to voice out her views unless it is supported by an authority figure (like when she wanted something changed in Tokyo Blade), and also why when meeting her personal hero and idol Arima Kana in person, when Kana lashed out at her, instead of simply thinking, "okay she's a terrible person, I'm done with being her fan forever", she rejected that idea and went on to study Psychology in the hopes of understanding people like Kana.

All of this manifests in her relationship with Aqua being okay with receiving bare minimum from him, not complaining when she realizes he has feelings for someone else, and also doing anything and everything for him, whatever he needs whether he asks for it or not.

I'll go a little further into my interpretation of her (which I know Akane fans might be resistant to or disagree with, but I hope you stick with me here.)

I also think Akane has a co-dependency on Aqua, and herself has Inverted Narcissism, with Covert and Cerebral Subtypes.

I agree! I sound nuts! This interpretation is crazytown.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) has several subtypes, including Inverted Narcissism, which is a subtype where the person craves the co-dependency on another narcissist. They are self-sacrificing to their primary narcissist, feel they are not entitled to anything, but seem emotionally level-headed and highly attuned to the primary narcissist's needs but not much empathy for anybody else.

Because of how little they think of themselves, it gives them a feeling of power and control to be with a person who believes himself to be so special, to have a crucial mission whose victory she can partake in. In a sense, Aqua was someone Akane looked up to so much for having saved her from her suicide attempt, and for turning the public's view of her from negative to overwhelmingly popular.

Akane definitely thought, "I want to be useful to him! I want to make him happy!"

And this man had his own amazing detective mission going on in his mind and trauma to solve. And so Akane thinks, "Let me solve that for you! Let me be useful to you even if it kills me! Use me as you need!"

They say true love is unconditional and self-giving so I will aide my enabler in patricide to prove my worth to him!

According to Professor of Psychology Sam Vaknin, the DSM gives us 9 criteria to diagnose an Inverted Narcissist, and you need to have at least 5 to qualify. Here are some that he mentioned that I think fit Akane:

The inverted narcissist is emotionally stable, but her self-esteem is very low. The inverted narcissist devalues herself as an offering, as a sacrifice to the narcissist in her life. The inverted narcissist is compelled to filter all her narcissistic needs through the primary narcissist in her life. The inverted narcissist feels amplified by the primary narcissist's own accomplishments. The inverted narcissist is pre-occupied with fantasies [...] of an ideal love to be accomplished through the narcissistic partner.

The inverted narcissist feels like she is undeserving and not entitled to anything.

The inverted narcissist is indistinguishably selfless. She is sacrificial. She is anxious in her interpersonal relationships. She avoids assistance of others at all cost. She can only interact with others when she can be seen to be giving, supporting and expending an unusual effort to assist. So she is sacrificial, she sacrifices herself, but ostentatiously, in full view.

The inverted narcissist lacks empathy like a classic narcissist. She is intensely attuned to others needs, but only insofar as it relates to her own need to perform the required self sacrifice. She needs to self sacrifice in order to obtain her narcissistic supply from her primary narcissist. But to do so, she must be attuned to his needs. So this is her restricted use or leverage of empathy.

The inverted narcissist displays extreme shyness, lack of any real relational connections, is publicly self-effacing, is highly moralistic and critical of others, is a perfectionist, engages in lengthy ritualistic behaviors that can never be perfected.

I also mentioned that Akane has Cerebral subtype, in that she believes she has superior intellect, and the Covert subtype, where she seems altruistic and selfless on the outside but internally she is driven by a self-serving need to be useful, to be wanted, because she chases after this external validation to fill in the gaps of her own self-esteem and call to perfectionism.

There is room to argue that Aqua is actually the inverted narcissist and she's codependent on Akane who is the altruistic/communal narcissist subtype. I reviewed it, but it seems she's the codependent one in this scenario.

I think this answer entails that Aqua himself also has NPD, and I think he does have Vulnerable Narcissism with Cerebral subtype. Kana actually picked up on it pretty well:

He does tend to think that he is the sole person who can accomplish this mission of revenge, even though it took him 4 years to crack a passcode and he actually didn't solve anything himself. Like, ever.

He thinks that he has some superior ability to read people and manipulate them (and it's not necessarily true, he just believes so).

And he likes bringing it up out loud a lot, like I used you, or haha she's so easy to manipulate, regardless if he actually did anything.

When Ruby points out he hasn't made any friends, Aqua deflects and becomes defensive.

He also initially thought that he was going to make it big as an actor after the one time he did well as a child, and entreated Gotanda to take him in, but when his PTSD was getting in the way of his acting, he just chalked it up to saying no actually I was never talented in that, because he doesn't want to admit to others that he doesn't have the supernatural inhumane acting skills he thought he did. (Note: He's not comfortable showing those old acting videos to Kana, but is okay with showing it to Akane for this reason.)

He truly believes he's everybody's savior. Unprompted he just thinks he's some main character that caused everybody's suffering. His Behavioral Self-Blame (BSB) about the death of both of his mothers is a manifestation of his wish for control over the situation, which is a known coping mechanism for those with PTSD or Major Depression Disorder (MDD)

Vulnerable NPD subtypes also feel uncomfortable being praised, which is why he reacts that way with Kana.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes also hate being asked to compete, which is why during both LoveNow and Tokyo Blade arcs, he keeps out of the way.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes really really hate rejection, and that's why Aqua says that he can't confront Kana without a Pieyon mask because he's too weak to be shot down by her again.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes are quite anti-social, but again if you confront them about it, they'll just deflect you and say things like they had no intentions to make friends or they're busy observing or something like this.

I mean, look at this dumbass intellectualize having feelings for girls his age like Akane and Kana:

Kana gets it though:

ONLY A NARCISSIST WOULD (half-joke)

This is of course a reminder that people with NPD aren't inherently bad people, they also don't come in one shape or form as there are many subtypes, and they can swing in severity. Most of them are a by-product of either a traumatic childhood or an overly doting one. Akane and Aqua just simply happened to be both of these.

I just came to this interpretation when I kept thinking of why was it that it felt like both Akane and Aqua were using each other. They both felt miserable and yet felt necessary and dependent on each other's emotional comfort. They both lie to each other too. I think a lot of people have picked up on the "feeling" that the two are using, manipulating, abusing each other, there's something dysfunctional about them together, and yet they also genuinely care about each other a lot. And people couldn't pick the right words to describe that. Co-dependents and their primary narcissists can heal together into a healthy relationship, they don't have to stay that way forever. But for the most part, nobody really recognizes that that's what was happening, because the dance they do together looks completely synchronized as a relationship. Who ever says no to a sweet and completely self-giving girlfriend? Who would leave their boyfriend to die alone in a revenge plot?

ONLY A NARCISSIST WOULD (not joking)

#3 Does Kana know the real Aqua:

I think a lot of Akane fans love to cite that Akane knew about the revenge, the trauma, the using, the manipulation etc. She also knows what he's like when he's being silly and playful.

And I don't deny that Aqua and Akane cared for each other.

But I also think that Kana knew Aqua even when he was being unpleasant, making crude jokes about her when they were kids. Kana observes Aqua's acting meticulously and understands the fine details of his style. Kana also has actual conversations with him about his interests too. They read the same books and they jog together, and they're very comfortable arguing with each other about anything.

Most of all, of anybody, only Kana has pointed out that Aqua has chuunibyou/grandiose thinking, narcissistic tendencies, and that Ruby has a co-dependent relationship with him (even when she didn't know about their past as Sarina and Gorou, she just picked it up as the core reason for their clinginess).

#4 [Bonus] Does Kana know Kamiki?

I don't think so.

When Kamiki opened his production company/agency, Kana would have been about 11yo. It was around this time that she had been recording Full Moon and her other songs, and her career had been on a decline. Then her company left her and she started freelancing instead.

Kana's acting style is also diametrically opposed to Kamiki's acting. Which as Akane has pointed out is similar to Ai's acting style. Kana's acting is very emotionally honest and is rooted in her personal understanding of her own emotions, whereas Kamiki and Ai act to deceive others based on the calculated perception they know the audience wants of them. Given this, it's unlikely that Kamiki mentored her in any form.

Lastly, I think Kana would have been the first person to point out that Kamiki looks like Aqua if they knew each other, even if he was acting as the Miki-san persona.

But I did joke before that I think if Kana and Kamiki met each other, they'd just traumabond and be friends until the cops haul Kamiki away. And that'd be the funniest thing ever.

That's it! That was a very long rant. Thanks for the question.

[shadale-s-safe-space]

Ok, gonna be real and say I love Pixie. I wanna know more about them. Backstories, Traits, Headcanons, and maybe I'm a little curious on how she kills her victims before/after a picture? Like, Does she have weapons or is all her methods hand-made?

Okay I'm gonna do a triple kill with this one. Sry couldn't draw a lot, like I legit can't so here's the story or whatnot. Probs gonna draw those in the future... also I fucking suck at writing but whatever >:T.

Starting off with the third question, no, not really, I know nothing about LoL.

CHILDHOOD

Pixie was created as a male in a loving family, he was specially close with his mother, and would spend most of his childhood surrounded and smothered with female attention as he found it hard to fit in with the male crowd.

His mother was capable of finding positivity and light in any situation even when it seemed like there was none, finding beaty behind every corner, shaping Pixie's world view that in every bad, there's something good. She quickly became Pixie's biggest role model.

EARLY TEENS

After the sudden death of both of his parents, Pixie struggled to find his positivity in life again. He would dress in female clothing, just like his mom used to wear so he could feel like their bond never fell apart.

"You'll always be a part of me"

One day, a group of girls approached him. They wanted him to be a part of their group. Being used to female attention, he fit right in. Pixie enjoyed his new friend group, and he started feeling better about his life.

Eventually, Pixie decided to change from he to she. He felt like it was the right thing to do for himself.

------

"Pixie take a picture of us!"

"Um.. okay, gather around"

***

"We look amazing!"

"Pixie, you're so good at this! You should be a photographer"

------

Noticing her hidden talent, they begged her not to waste it and pursue photography. And she did. She took pictures of strangers, her surroundings, and other... but most of all, her friends.

LATE TEENS

Pixie now an art enthusiast obsessed with constantly taking pictures, started annoying her friend group. Following them around, taking pictures of all of their activities but yet not sharing those pictures with others.

"Show me!"

"No, it looks bad, I'm gonna delete it" * "I'm just practicing, that's all, experimenting"

"You should ask us before taking pictures. It's uncomfortable"

"Ye-Yeah.. you're right..."

Pixie felt like her friend group had changed a lot over the years, she felt like she didn't fit in anymore. She didn't quite understand boundaries.. as her art was her everything and felt like her favorite muses... were slowly turning against her, stopping her from picturing perfection.

She still took pictures secretly. And became really good at hiding them,also collected many different cameras over the years. One of her favorites being the instant [Polaroid] and the DSLR.

-------

Of course, nothing can be hidden forever..

"YOU DID IT AGAIN! WE TOLD YOU ALREADY TO STOP!"

"I'm just practicing, that's-"

" I thought you stopped. We trusted you"

"And you still did it behind our backs? This whole time?"

"No, it was just this time"

"Show me the camera"

"No!"

"Give it to me!"

"No!"

------

"We were right! You were taking pics of us this entire time!"

"You don't understand! the beaty I have captured!"

"I can't believe I was friends with a weird creep"

-----

As Pixie's world started to crash and burn, her comfort was destroyed again. She still tried taking pictures of strangers and places, but it didn't feel the same, it wasn't them. They were her favorites, after all.

"What are you do-"

"If you don't want to be my muse, I'll make you my muse"

After failing to convince one of her ex friends to accept her again into the group, Pixie snapped. Killing her ex friend.

She played with her body, posing it differently, decorating it, putting accessories on it. Each picture looked prettier than the last.

"We could've taken these beautiful pictures with you alive, but you refused, look what you made me do... "

She stared at the body for what seemed like an eternity.

"How can you be dead? But still.. so beautiful, it's like you're sleeping peacefully, unbothered by the reality of our world. Type of beauty I never could've captured before..."

-------

*Unfortunately, we couldn't find the killer*

Even when it was obvious that Pixie did it, no one believed it. Someone so cavordly, shy and weak attacking someone and destroying their body to the point of no return seemed so out of character for her.

YOUNG ADULTHOOD

Her first kill being a success, she was hungry for more, why ask someone to pose for you when you can do it yourself. More and more "accidents" occurred. Eventually, Pixie gained an ego out of it. Hearing everyone scared for their life talk about this mysterious killer in the colony, it made her feel special. She started leaving pictures of her previous kills next to the new bodies, leaving messages on the walls and a lot more, playing with everyone's emotions made her feel powerful. Not only would she appear in front of every crime scene, pretending to be a part of the scared and worried crowd. She would also take pictures of the scared crowd all together, secretly leaving those pictures next to the bodies as well, and somehow she still walks freely.

"Nothing will stop me from finding beaty in everyone. Anything can be your weapon, you just have to be creative enough to see it"

-------

Knowing that her patterned kills are going to get her caught someday, she plans on framing someone else for all of her crimes.

EH sorry that's it for now. I legit can't draw anything these days, my dudes I'm struggling. I'm having one more small idea and I'll be gone working on Fate and other big projects that I've started. I realize that I can't balance it all and it's just too much, especially cuz I'm not feeling well and whatnot. My burning willpower is kinda dying out so imma step back for some time...

Also since it's like a new oc, I didn't figure out everything just yet so forgive me for that.

@gollygee-mr-universe yes you may, if you like the character a lot, go play with them haha. As everyone probs knows already. Whatever you guys make with my ocs, whatever you draw and do is acceptable and welcome. I swear I'd enjoy anything. It is in fact for fun.

[c0rpsedemon]

ok so w the death of g5 i've been having a Lot of thoughts irt how to not fuck up g6 while balancing being for the new generation of kids who haven't been immersed in g4 lore and still being able to rake in those sweet sweet brony $$, as hasbro's inability to decide between the two is one of the main contributors to g5's fuckening. and so here's my outline for my hypothetical mlp g6. honestly this is the abridged version and i might finally cave and make a youtube channel just so i can release a multi hour long video breaking this down in depth.

ok first of all we're getting rid of the recent gens' pony sexual dimorphism . which is stupid . bc they are horses . and will benefit hasbro . bc they can reuse molds . and giving them less catlike and more horselike proportions.

our setting is in equestria in the same time frame as g4 but the version we see isn't actually g4, events similar to g4 are happening but it's like how the comics and the show have diff continuities. the g6 continuity will be borrowing heavily from both. our protagonists live in canterlot, not ponyville, and thus won't be there for a lot of the shit that goes down over there in g4, but it'll still be alluded to when worlds do collide, and unlike the g4 mane 6 who are all late 20s, our g6 leads will be more relatable to kids by being in their earl to mid teens. as for our Main main character. well. she'll be a unicorn (bc that'll sell well to little girls) and for now let's call her sunrise. really her name would be like 'radiant sunrise' or 'sunrise hope' or smthing (see what i did there). now, sunrise is important bc she's the niece of sunset shimmer, a name which has acquired infamy due to her being the most accomplished student princess celestia has ever taken in, even being crowned as an alicorn princess (we'll get to it), until she was last seen having a blowout screaming match w princess celestia during one year's summer sun celebration that no one could make out the contents of, after which she ran off with a few scattered accounts of her performing strange transformation spells throughout equestria in subsequent months and then ultimately disappearing. now, ofc the ponies of equestria are going to view sunset as extremely ungrateful for throwing away what's seen as the ultimate aspiration, and while not being proven to be dangerous, it's only natural to assume they'd view someone w extreme magical strength who was last seen standing in opposition to their almighty god-queen as a threat. so our girl sunrise is a bit socially ostracized as a result. her father isn't in the picture since he discovered a fun little detail abt his wife's family tree only after sunrise was born, and her mother holds so much contempt for the damage sunset's reputation has done to her that she's very emotionally unavailable, so she's basically on her own. that said in the first couple of episodes she miraculously makes a new set of friends.

now, i don't have most of our mane group figured out yet but the rest will all be pulled from earlier gens. toola roola will be there bc mlp is shockingly low on the Artist CharacterTM and as someone who was the Art Kid most of my early life i would've ate that shit up. but more importantly, the first friend sunrise makes is ploomette, a g4 merch-exclusive whose card in the blind bags says she dreams of becoming a princess. now, i don't know where ploomette has been all this time, maybe sunrise was off at boarding school but family finances have brought her back home to public school, maybe ploomette is just new in town, maybe they've had a long history of near-misses, or maybe a million other things have happened. now, ploomette is absolutely obsessed w princesses and everyone and everything they've had contact w, and she makes no exception to this rule for allegedly evil ponies. in fact, she thinks the fact that she now knows a relative of the infamous and mystery-shrouded sunset shimmer is the coolest thing to ever happen to her and they just Have to be the bestest friends and also she has so many questions and also do you happen to have anything she's ever touched or even just sneezed on still lying around. luckily for ploomette sunset's room has remained untouched over the years and so the girls can cautiously open it back up to find out what really happened all those years ago. and as for their other friends, sunrise finally being able to come out of her shell to someone after all these years just naturally attracts other likeminded ponies who don't care abt her family history to be her friends too, and that's how our group is formed (that said i am leaning towards toola roola having been ploomette's friend for a while beforehand but the rest to join their group will be brand new).

now, let's talk abt the mystery elements real quick. children love mysteries. this is a fact. gravity falls is currently having a rennaissance and while it's mainly among now-older fans, i feel like we might get a wave of similar children's programming by companies trying to replicate its success. also, mlp is no stranger to being theorized abt (see: g4) and given the number of young fans desperate to uncover (nonexistent) hidden lore secrets while it was airing its safe to say that we could replicate that but on purpose this time w a new gen.

as for the alicorns, well, hasbro wants to sell alicorn toys and i want to make myself go insane abt the lore implications, so this is a win win. alicorns do not age and are immortal. this is kinda horrifying when you realize the princess of love has a husband who's a mortal unicorn and the princess of friendship's friends are all mortal unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. now, i fully plan on giving the rest of the g4 mane 6 + shining armour their horns/wings to negate this, but shh. anyways, we're changing a few things around and making amore an alicorn (since her not being one and still being a princess made no damn sense) and cadance having been born an alicorn, we're also going to move timelines around so amore's death/the crystal empire's fall came after the nightmare moon shit. anyways, lullabye for a princess has done more to characterize celestia than official media ever has and logical assumptions will naturally have to be made that being an alicorn is a deeply lonely existence, especially when your closest companion went evil, betrayed you and had to be sealed away. which is why celestia takes in promising students who she thinks have the mental fortitude to become an alicorn to try and fill that void. they usually don't display the ability to handle the responsibility or have a million other failings that are too much of a dealbreaker so there's a high turnover rate. she got so, so close with radiant hope, a pony who was so full of goodness and selflessness and clearly qualified to be princess and she could even perfectly envision what she'd actually be crowned princess of and she'd even begun to get her secondary marks*, but then amore died and hope disappeared into the night and celestia was more alone than ever, having lost both the only other of her kind and what she thought was going to be her perfect peer in one fell swoop.

*(when i was a kid i thought the g3 cutie cascade toys w the cutie marks that covered their whole legs were cool as fuck. i think more ponies should have random ass themed markings on other body parts + more variants = more toys sold. thus in this gen after a pony has their cutie mark if they encounter other defining moments which would otherwise earn a cutie mark instead their mark begins to show secondary traits and branch out. in order to be crowned a princess you have to have a certain degree of these secondary traits bc it shows prowess and experience beyond those of your average pony whose cutie mark will never morph)

now, fast forward a few centuries of the most overwhelming isolation celestia has ever known, and to her next most promising pupil, sunset shimmer. she specializes in transformation magic (make note of that) and while she doesn't have secondary marks we live in much more peaceful times now and it can just be blamed on lack of opportunity. and yes, celestia can't think of what sunset would be princess of but she's so promising it'd be a shame if her talent went to waste and surely she'd think of something eventually, and so sunset shimmer is crowned princess and it's so so so wonderful at first. but sunset is a smart pony. and as time goes on she starts to notice the way the world changes while she stays the same. and just as she's celestia's only companion, celestia is her only companion, but it's hard or even impossible for her not to want for more for someone anyone else, and when she asks celestia to teach her how to make more alicorns she refuses and when she asks celestia to do it for her she refuses as well and as sunset realizes that celestia knew this profound isolation would be her fate and condemned her to it anyways, she runs. she's always been good at transformation magic. she doesn't need celestia for this. she'll do it by herself before celestia can find out and stop her. but in all her travels across equestria, never once is she able to make an alicorn, as it is a power held only by the two sisters. we'll come back to her in a min.

back to sunrise, ploomette and co, midway through season 1 they uncover Something sunset shimmer was working on that they can't quite understand, but they know damn well that extra context is needed and celestia can provide it. hijinks surrounding trying to contact princess celestia herself ensue, and the summer sun celebration rolls around and they're all like 'wow it sure sucks we don't have that here anymore and now it's held at diff locations around equestria instead of being in canterlot every year bc of sunset' but don't think much of it. then nightmare moon's endless night comes and they're a bit confused but end up having a lighthearted sleepover episode abt it. then they see what happened in the papers and ploomette nearly has a heart attack finding out THEE princess luna is back, sunrise gets hopeful abt if ppl can forgive THEE princess luna aka nightmare moon then maybe all hope isn't lost, and the group notices a certain name in the paper, a student of princess celestia, just like sunset was, and the perfect person the lend them the information they need to understand their biggest hint irt the mystery of sunset shimmer, a unicorn named twilight sparkle.

so our mcs journey to ponyville and are miraculously able to pique twilight's interest, as a student of celestia it was hard not for her to spend hours upon hours wondering about what she was like and staring wistfully at her portrait. she was so beautiful and so wonderful how could a pony not wonder what happened. so she agrees to look into what she could and keep them posted. and so over the next couple seasons the two groups, ponyville and canterlot, will occasionally reconvene over a trace of sunset or a false flag while it seems increasingly like the number of villains who don't seem to be originally from this world is increasing.

and then she'll be there.

now, going back to what i said abt gravity falls, sunset shimmer is literally stanford pines. kind of. when she realized she couldn't create an alicorn, luck smiled upon her and she found something else. a way to jump between worlds. and so she figured, surely there's a world populated only by those w a lifespan like mine, and she knew she was good enough at transforming to fit in w the dominant species of wherever she went (this is our eqg sneak, any non-pony market hasbro could ever want to break into now just needs a coat of 'sunset turned into this once. and isn't it a cool what-if to think abt if everyone else did too?' paint and you're good to go for a spinoff line or two or twenty).

sunset is panicked to return to her original world, as she wasn't successful in her quest and is terrified of the possibility that what she's looking for doesn't exist and she's cycled through everything that does. attempts to talk to her fail as she immediately returns to dimension hopping, but now the mane 6 know to invite the canterlot group along whenever they have a villain displaced in reality, and they learn that the magic sunset uses to jump worlds got a lil bit damaged w the summer sun celebration debacle which is why randos keep slipping through, but only one is able to properly control jumps between worlds.

eventually, sunset returns After twilight becomes an alicorn, and twilight gets to speak to her. times have changed, there are more alicorns than ever before, and sunset is absolutely right abt the isolation of being an alicorn, which is why twilight needs sunset, just as badly as sunset needs her, and twilight will gladly offer the eternal companionship she needs bc she fell madly in love w her from the sight of her portrait alone. (we live in a post steven universe world lesbians in kid's cartoons are to be expected at this point). and so, sunset is finally convinced to return to equestria, and splits her time between rehabilitating her image, finding out what she's actually the princess of, kicking the asses of enemies she made in other worlds (and occasionally shapeshifting to do so to sell sunset shimmer fashion doll for practicality), getting to know this niece of hers, and being gfs w twilight.

as for princess celestia? cadence's whole existence as a naturally occurring alicorn has been jarring for her, as was luna's return to sanity. also i kinda sorta plan for the crystal empire thing to play out comics-style but w a more nuanced portrayal of the umbrums so it's not the Intrinsically Evil Race W One Good One and during the shitshow cadence would be attempting to save hope from one of the many, many severe blows she receives in that storyline and inadvertently turn her into an alicorn (or maybe it'd happen to try and incentivize sombra staying good and not self destructing bc he has a much longer lifespan and doesn't want to ever be parted from her? idk) so like. princess celestia gagged hearing twilight explain what happened there. also maybe depending on when this is one of the other members of the mane 6 got turned into an alicorn too. either way, celestia's mind is clearer than ever, and she's been reconsidering a few things, specifically a few things sunset had grievance with. or more specifically, she's high off the rush of companionship and has loosened the rules surrounding alicorns Significantly.

for the rest of the series, the gang has the various loose ends of sunset's time travel to tie up + whatever other plots get added in, and ofc, a large portion of the cast striving to be the best that they can be so that they can maybe possibly become alicorns too.

overall, the message it'd give kids would probably be the value of reaching out to others, the importance of taking time to understand others' perspectives, a feeling of being seen for all the rlly lonely kids out there, and a reassurance that you are not alone and there's someone, plenty of people, actually, there for you out there who you just haven't had the chance to meet yet

and the message it'd give bronies is sunset shimmer isn't going to fuck you she BELONGS with twilight sparkle

[destinyc1020]

Do you find the Austin Butler voice jokes played out? I was checking twitter tonight for GG updates and I would see a few tweets still dissing Austin over his voice (in reference to Margot still dressing like Barbie (I don't see an issue) or Paul's voice). Is the joke not old yet?

Giiiirrrlll...I've BEEN saying this on my blog for over a year now lol 😂

YES, the Austin/Elvis/Voice jokes are tired and played out. 😩 Idk why people are still so obsessed w/his voice?

Not to mention, I could see if his voice were going in and out or something in interviews or various different events, but his voice has literally stayed the same. I'm sure he still had more of an "Elvis twang" when he first stopped filming.....It's probably hard to shake that once you've been doing it long enough. But after over 3.5 years since he filmed "Elvis", the "twang" has gone away, and I highly doubt he's purposely faking a voice all this time. 🙄

I think the thing that makes me roll my eyes the most is that people keep comparing his voice now to when he was like in his teens or early 20s. But yet, if you compare his current voice to when he was like 25, 26, and older...you'll see that his voice really hasn't changed much at all. 🤷🏾‍♀️

RE: Margot... Anyone who has an issue with her "still dressing like Barbie" for an awards show in which her film "Barbie" in which she plays the LEAD and she's nominated for, needs to go outside and touch some grass, cuz it is NOT that serious. 🙄 Let her wear whatever she wants to wear. If she wanted to dress like Barbie for the rest of her career, that's her choice and fine by me for all I care lol. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I will never understand why people have an issue with things that aren't even harming other people...like, seriously? It's not that serious. 😒

[lemon-box]

My ideal scooby doo gang dynamic and their respective guiding personality traits:

Fred: AUTISTIC HIMBO WITH PARENTAL ISSUES & A SPECIAL INTEREST IN TRAPS! Pretty obvious, I basically think the mystery inc version of Fred is the most perfect one, minus the obsessive behavior he had towards Daphne in early season 2… I don’t think enough people talk about that side of MI Fred? It was honestly pretty uncomfortable, I think we could write it differently while still keeping the “I have abandonment/attachment issues w my girlfriend and it’s impacting us both” message. Either way, Fred is the himbo leader who owns the mystery machine, loves his friends, is reliable, and serves as comedic relief as well. He’s interested in mysteries because they’re the best way to make use of his traps & test out new ones.

Daphne: Daphne needs to be the one with social skills. That’s the one thing she has that the others don’t: she can network, has connections, and can use her parents’ infinite pool of money to just make any accommodations happen? Despite that she’s still very sweet, considerate, and one of the main 3 clue finders (them being Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby). I don’t really mind her being in love with Fred or Velma (sorry Shaphne shippers), but I don’t think love interests should be necessary for any of the characters. In one of Daphne’s character profiles released in 1999, it stated that her life ambition is to become a mystery novel author. AND I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THAT I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! That is such an easy yet clever way to not only give her more depth as a character but curiosity & motivation for these dangerous situations as well, I think it’s such a shame that no scooby doo media that I’ve seen has utilized that for her :(. Daphne is a people person, is resourceful, athletic, and the resident fashion expert. She’s interested in mysteries because they help & inspire her with her writing.

Velma: Velma is the dork nerd with a tumblr blog on mysteries/unsolved cases and is an absolute academic weapon. You KNOW she took AP chemistry in freshman year and got at least a 4 on the exam. She’s super smart, confident, her only hobbies are studying and solving mysteries, and I think she has the least social skills out of everyone which makes it a really fun dynamic with Daphne! She’s very observant, serious, and despite how hard it is for her to show affection, she really loves her friends, they’re her found family after all. I don’t really like iterations of Velma where she thinks everyone around her is an idiot and it feels like she actually hates the gang. If we can portray her as a teen with trouble showing affection instead of a teen who actually doesn’t feel it, I think the anger issues she had in MI could work really well. Velma is a nerd with sass, biggest believer in ghosts/monsters, walking encyclopedia, and dependent on her friends to get through when she can’t find a solution. She’s interested in mysteries because she is a naturally curious person who’s hungry for knowledge and for a chance to study the supernatural.

Shaggy (and scooby): Shaggy is the anxiety ridden, emotion driven anchor of the group. Yet despite his overwhelming feelings he’s the one who keeps everyone grounded. Everyone else gets so carried away with investigations, clues, and their ambition that they forget where the line is sometimes. But Shaggy is unaffected by that, at the end of the day he seeks security and safety, and he can remind everyone to stop and consider new perspectives. That makes him great at finding clues, him and scooby are always looking where the others aren’t, especially using scoob’s sense of smell and shaggy’s sense of taste. In the 2020 scoob movie they described them as the heart of the group, and in one scene daphne said “with shaggy and scooby gone there was no one to remind us to eat lunch…” AND THAT’S EXACTLY IT. THEY’RE COMEDIC RELIEF, THEY BRING EVERYONE TOGETHER, AND THEYRE GOOD AT FINDING CLUES. I also love iterations of Shaggy where he’s a chef. It’s not his lifelong passion, but he loves food so he loves making it, both for himself and everyone else. He believes food tastes better when shared with others. Shaggy is interested in mysteries because despite the dangerous situations, he feels emotionally safe around his friends, and he also likes traveling if it means he gets to add more food profiles to his palette! Solving mysteries allows him to grow not only as a person, but grow out of his very sheltered life which left him rather naive about the world, but he doesn’t know that yet :) thats where the character development comes in.

Short Scooby part: Along with Shaggy Scooby is a big part of the heart. He’s basically everyone’s emotional support dog, especially shaggy’s, and as a dog he can’t help but go where his weird nose takes him. He brings everyone together, is loyal to his empathy, and he’s interested in mysteries because he’s just happy to be around his friends. I think MI gave him a much bigger and more important role than scooby has ever had before, and frankly I think that’s an excellent use of his character, he makes for a great plot device, I need writers to utilize that.

[nicegaai]

having beautiful visions of a story idea ive had for years but from a different characters perspective (moloss!a), making it feel shiny new and worth obsessing over again

what if molossias perpetual anger and facade of a personality was because of a gigantic inferiority complex (and struggling to understand his place in the world etc etc) and then he was forced to interact with actual nations physically his own age but in like , a subserviant role, like alfreds mostly forgotten errand boy -- and they are friendly but completely out of touch with what it means to be a micronation / theyve forgot what the early stages of nationhood are like after hundreds to thousands of years and they are like omggg dont worry youll keep growing :) youll live a long life :) and he is like haha. yeah maybe. and in the end a small group of them become friendLY or at least familiar but theres a fundamental disconnect and the real nations dont have much to gain from knowing him , its very much like a class difference that molossia has very little chance of overcoming. he will never be their equal and he has a slim chance of surviving longer than a humans lifespan or two. but what matters is there was some understanding there. some connection.

i want to write the molossia POV fic so bad but i need to do some research first because i have a very specific setting where this takes place. um

this is just my 2015core hype house AU again

and i need to binge a few episodes of whatever the paul brothers were up to , i think there was a tv show ... i need to watch it for research. becuase i think it would be insane if a bunch of teen nations were like. we're going to make a House of Nation Influencers. for social media purposes. alfred can we borrow your socal beach house pwease. .. .. and hes like holy shit thats the coolest thing ive ever heard please take my keys. im too busy to live there but let me cameo and plug my socials and u can do whatever u want.

and molossia and maybe slowjamastan are alfreds little , localish ambassadors. theyre like. 11 and 15. yes it would make more sense w like a california oc but

i like the micronatio s better than statetalia i have strong opinions on statetalia. the first opinion being i dont think there is One Guy Per State nor do i ever like Well There Could Be Two Guys In A State. i think there's regionals and tribes, and statetalias will die off in regional mergers when the spirit isnt strong or specific enough. and etc. theres a lore system in my head thats pretty poorly thought thru but i get worked up about anyway

in any case the micronations are super localized super specific phenomenons and i love them. they have a atrokg sense of identity for no real reason and they become distinct ppl way quicker than naturally forming identities.... and i think alfred kind of hates them for existing (extreme jealousy over his territory) but he tries not to be a total deadbeat dad and gives them a little attention when he remembers to.... i think the drama potential is juicy. america doesnt want to be cruel to molossia but he wishes he was never born. his little bastard son

i love hetalia molossia its an insane thing wrong w my brain. im such a micronation freak i adore them

oh right also the influencer wannabe house is flcused on the Teen Nation Friend Group kind of chrs ... hong kong iceland liechten seychelles ......... and others like singapore phillipines ... "teenager" is a pretty broad category in aphws but my vision is it began as a friend group doing a bit thing and then got out of hand with way too many ppl joining. it also falls apart. Badly.

and i always thought the scale of trying to turn Hypehousetalia into a fanfic would be too convoluted. like it would just be my 6 hr vid essay on the rise and fall of something that didnt happen. but if it was a framing device and background setting for molossias teen angst instead of the story itself that would be hilarious ............

[qipsir]

Petty frustrations over someone who watched Project MC^2 as a t(w)een and again as a 20+ yr old author

First up is the characters. Everyone is VERY much written as a futuristic tech-obsessed teen who would probably be an accurate depiction of what people think gen alpha is going to be like. There's a point in one of the early episodes where one of the kids is bewildered by the concept of a pencil. Their setting isn't even high tech, but I digress.

And yes I know this is a disney-style kids show but given that they have so much exposition and monologing about what they're doing with sciency stuff, could they please get it right.

I bingewatched this the other day, other week, I don't know things are wonky but the thing that caught my attention was the line "When I spill cornstarch and liquid glue from my lab kit, things get a little slippery."

No.

No they don't, actually. And we know that because of slime.

I specifically got notified of the endothermic properties because of a Slimecicle clip on my clock app FYP where he was talking about Generation Loss. Specifically what it was like wearing the Goo Goobie suit. He would stick to everything and ended up shivering because slime is endothermic.

Specifically Bryden and McKeyla are the two that get on my nerves. Bryden, being the epitome of social media influencer ego, and McKeyla, well, as someone who had to learn psychology just to navigate day to day life with comparatively lower stakes, gurl what is with your socialization skills? You'd be far more likely to watch your tongue and think about what you're saying than stammering and tripping over painful obvious awkwardness.

Second, they are never quiet. "How did they hear us?" Because you're using your outside voice and the person is literally two feet away from you.

Anyway, lets get on with it

Flour and cinnamon for fingerprints, I mean yeah a tiny bit overkill but one of the main characters is a chemist so I see why they went that route. Cinnamon is likely too rough of a texture to work for fingerprints but the flour is probably fine.

"Yes ma'am, I mean no ma'am. Somehow these girls followed me home and jumped through the window and-" Literally how did you not notice. I'm willing to let this and the camera pen slide for plot reasons and because cameras are getting advanced enough that we are regularly in situations where we have to scan a room with some lens or something to make sure there aren't hidden cameras, but it is what it is. I'll leave it at I expected the daughter of the head(?) of NOV-Eight to do better on reflex

Cam, you know you're bad at naming things. "I call it, Cam's [description of thing that was just said]". Plus, you're secret agents. Maybe announcing your name with your gadgets when you're outside the lab isn't the best idea.

For a little while before my burnout got too bad, I was taking classes to be a pentester or red-teamer. Hacking with next to none if not no prior information is a lot of trial and error. We see in a later episode that she has programs for speedrunning number combinations, so it isn't outside the realm of possibility that she's developed some sort of app that can automatically run things to find IP addresses and networks in the area based on her phone's reception, there was a scene at the start of the first episode where she wrote a report on the scottish play on her phone in about 5 seconds. Implying that she types impossibly fast. No amount of keyboard shortcuts, autofill, or stenographer keyboards can make her type *that* fast while walking sideways on the pavement outside school.

I do have my qualms with Xander but he actually does have character development so we're good for now.

"I dedicate my life to studying [lists things that are mostly words that end in -ology]." I had an entire rant here but that's just nitpicking. All I'll say is forensics. Forensics is the term you're looking for, McKeyla. If you want a list, Forensics, espionage, and psychology. Also why is microbiology there. J- were they just trying to make you sound smart you never use the microbiology knowledge and the closest the plot goes to microbiology is things that Ember does and talks about. Which McKeyla seems to know minimal about.

Overall they just handle the whole looking-after-the-prince thing awfully. McKeyla specifically. She knows better

I got distracted writing this

The only other thing I'll point out for now is that Adrienne REGULARLY mixes baking soda and vinegar for her chemistry things. An anti-itch spray was lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda. None of which are a numbing agent, you've essentially made fizzy lemon water, and just because vinegar and baking soda is the popular science experiment bubbly thing doesn't mean that's the base of chemistry. At this point i'm on the verge of rewriting this to be more accurate and writing down all of the chemistry moments and all the things they were supposed to do and just fixing that.

[lottiecrabie]

Let's discuss families 🙏🏻

On Matty's side, his parents would love girlie cus she's really nice, my girl is educated, obvs has good grades in school and most important brings the best of his emo teen and she loves him. I'd like to think that Matty has a decent to good relationship with his parents, I feel like he'd ask for advice if he feels like something it's not going well in his relationship with girlie

On girlie's side, that household feels like living hell, no wonder why girlie has mommy issues😭 I feel like she's close to his father, maybe she has enough trust to talk to her dad about certain things, like relationships at her age and she has a little interest outside of church an blabla, maybe it's a secret between both. I feel like he's more chill than his wife. On the other side, her mom freaks out easily and has zero chill, she'd be like 'i just want the best to my girl, that's why I'm very strict w/her's but this restrictions only work to turn your kid into 'the black sheep' of the family. She'd have a heart attack if my girl is dating someone outside of church (Matty) and would take her to the confessionary every week😭

This little rant was linger than I expected 😫

i think matty has a decent relationship with his family that is a bit more strained rn as he’s deep in his teen angst. it’s pretty normal for teenagers to distance themselves from their family and go through the whole no one understands me😫😫 phase and, on top of that, i think he’d resent being moved to the us, meaning he’s not on the best terms with them at the very moment. although, there is genuine love between them and he knows they’re there for him if he needs it.

i don’t think he would talk to them much about his personal life. when reader and him officially start dating, she would make sure to present herself officially to his parents (and not just be the girl that’s sneaking out of his room in the early morning😭) and that’s the only reason they know he’s seeing someone. they would 100% love her bc she’s, as you said, sort of this ‘perfect’ good girl they Never expected matty to go for, but also because she mellows out his most intense personality traits, mainly his ‘fuck everyone nothing matters’ teen angst. and she genuinely seems to make him happy. his parents would Love telling all sorts of embarrassing stories about him to her.

on her side, it’s obviously completely different. i’ve made it pretty clear that she has mommy issues as her mother is a very domineering, controlling woman. she’s a nagger who’s obsessed with apparences and constantly nitpicks at reader’s every doing. i think her dad is just as strict but in much more quiet, sober way. he’s very much an enabler. i tried to mimic the stereotypical family dynamics were the dad is barely involved and only comes in to have the last word, generally agreeing with whatever the wife said. ofc, it’s hard to show family dynamics when most of the fic is straight porn so i’m very aware it doesn’t much show! the one moment i managed to sneak in is when the mother says she doesn’t where reader’s dirtiness came from and he basically just answers ‘not me!’ (it’s interesting to me to learn how you see her father bc while writing pfms3 i was like…. damn did i make him too nice.. i really didn’t want to blame all the family issues on her mother)

anyway they would obviously pop a blood vessel and faint when they find out she’s dating matty. like he’s Everything they’re against and don’t want for her. it would create many many fights inside the house (obviously always keeping this smiling, mindlessly happy front outside). just screaming at her to break up, that he’s no good, that they’re Not allowing her to date, that she’s grounded, that they’re immensely disappointed in her, that it’s not the little girl they raised, etc etc. they would rly try to break them up and get even More appalled when, bc of their even stricter rules, reader starts sneaking around and doing more forbidden things (ie. drinking, smoking, partying, etc.) i see reader as absolutely Not backing down, even going as far as refusing to go to church if they don’t stop threatening her. it’s an extremely messy, imploding family affair. you know the whoooole town is whispering about it behind their back

i think the conflict would get resolved by her straight up just moving out for college. they can’t control her from a distance and the longer matty sticks around, the more they’re forced to accept he will just Be There and he’s a permanent fixture. they slowly chill even though they Never fully warm up to him and always have some clear disdain, no matter how long they’ve been together or how successful he is. they know how to hold a grudge!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I like going back to old pages on comedy message boards, as part of my general obsession with the idea that everything is better and makes more sense if understood in its full context. Also, I find it a combination of interesting, enlightening, and straight-up funny to read early reactions to comedy things that we’d now think of as classics. Look at something that now is a cool vintage thing where knowing about it means you understand this influential piece of comedy history, and see that when it first came out, it was dismissed as newfangled nonsense that doesn’t have any of the heart or talent behind earlier stuff and comedy isn’t what it used to be.

It's not just comedy, this applies to everything. The Beatles were dismissed by many Serious Music Critics, in their day, as shallow teen heartthrob pop music (as opposed to what they were, which were perpetrators and enablers of domestic violence). Bob Dylan was famously dismissed as a sellout in 1965 by some Mancunians who, when I listen to the kind of shit that’s come from a revolution that began by plugging in guitars, I sometimes think may have had a point. I am now just barely old enough to hear some music getting called cool “classic”, when I can remember that music being new and considered shitty pop music that will never be as good as classic rock.

I think I like those in particular for all the above reasons, but also because there is something comforting in seeing someone say something that made total sense given the information they had at the time, and turn out to be wildly wrong. Makes me think about all the things that seem obvious and definitely correct to me now, given all the information I have, and maybe someday, it’ll turn out to all be wrong. Most of the things I think are true now are pretty depressing, so it’s nice to think maybe no one’s ever really right about everything.

There are a lot of comments along these lines in old comedy forum archives, but my favourite by far of all the lines to have not aged well is the person who said in June 2005 that: “Comedians often seem to be of the ‘world owes me a living’ type - no matter how many times they fail, they'll never jack it in and work in an office. Yes, I’m looking at you, John Oliver.” Honestly, doesn’t that give you hope for the future? If you ever feel like you’re so bad at something there’s no point in carrying on and you should give it all up, remember that person who said that in June 2005. If you just keep working at it for another year or so, you too could have Ricky Gervais mention your name to Jon Stewart one time and get to leave everyone who didn’t like you behind.

Anyway, I came across something today that I’d not seen before, which is an article in The Daily Telegraph from August 2005. This is different from other stuff because it’s not just comments from random people in a place where anyone can post, it’s an actual publication. A shit publication, but still, people get paid to write for it. And in 2005, they wrote an article called “Politics kills off comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe”.

The judges have been lamenting the "soul-destroying" lack of humour at this year's award, the comic centrepiece of the Edinburgh Festival which, over its 25-year history, has previously uncovered talent such as Hugh Laurie, Eddie Izzard, Steve Coogan, Jimmy Carr, Frank Skinner, The League of Gentleman and Graham Norton.

When judges meet for the first time today to draw up a long-list for the £7,500 prize, they are expected to be "hard pressed" to find acts to fill all 30 spaces.

Yesterday, they described this year's shows as "silly", "flat" and "of the level of fifth-form humour", and complained that they concentrated too much on politics, particularly on Tony Blair, George W Bush and weapons of mass destruction.

John Pidgeon, the head of entertainment at BBC Radio and chairman of the judges, lamented the "remarkable overuse of the 'C' word".

In 2005, comedy had gotten too political, too sweary, had run out of steam, would never again be great like it was when it was bringing in giants of hard-hitting, seriously talented stand-up like Graham Norton; epitomes of comedy with a real heart and soul like Jimmy Carr; and noted guy who married a teenage student at the place where he was teaching, Frank Skinner. That list of white men is the greatest comedy ever got, and now all this new stuff is just kids trying to be cool with their c-words and their political material but it will never measure up.

I really enjoy this bit from later in the article:

The judges were at a loss to explain why 2005 was so short on talent. Graham Smith, Channel Five's commissioning editor for comedy, last judged the competition in 2003. "You could say there was a surfeit of rich comedy that year. The winner was Daniel Kitson and - just to illustrate how strong it was - Jimmy Carr came second. Any other year the runners-up would have been winners."

I like that paragraph because:

1) Apparently the decline of comedy took exactly two years; it was at the top of its game back in the glory days of 2003, and was dead by 2005.

2) Apparently the likes of Jimmy Carr only coming second is a sign of the incredibly deep talent pool in a comedy competition, that’s how strong the field was back then!

3) They’re talking about the Perrier Award, which Daniel Kitson won in 2002, over fellow nominee Jimmy Carr. In 2003, Demitri Martin won it. I should know, there’s a video on YouTube from 2003 of Adam Hills yelling about Demitri Martin beating him for the Perrier Award while they destroy a cow. Get your facts straight, people.

That aside, I was amazingly not at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, so I guess I can’t really say whether it was any good. I’ve seen/heard a number of shows that were done there (Tim Minchin’s Darkside, bits of the Zaltzman and Oliver Show, two Daniel Kitson shows, I’ve seen some of what Flight of the Conchords did there that year, Phil Nichol’s Nearly Gay, I’ve seen Dara O’Briain’s 2006 DVD and I’m pretty sure that’s mainly taken from his 2005 Edinburgh show, I've seen shows by Demitri Martin and Flight of the Conchords that would have also been taken from 2005, 2005 had a Mark Watson 24-hour show), and have enjoyed all of them. But also, the ones I’ve seen/heard are the ones that were good enough for someone to still have heard about and bothered to seek out in 2022/2023, I’m sure there was a lot of shit going on in that year too.

So if anyone ever tries to tell you that comedy, or for that matter anything else, had “classic” years and they just don’t make the great stuff the way they used to anymore, remember that people were already complaining about comedy “getting too political these days” by 2005. I’m continually amazed by how often you can go back years, and find the complaints about “look at the problem with [anything] these days, it’s not great the way it used to be” stays exactly the same.

[hetakiba]

Tagged by @marley--manson THANKS

8 tv shows for your followers to get to know you better! I'm gonna go in chronological order from my youth to present day

1. Psych! One of the first shows I remember watching, watched it live from before I could remember til it finaled. Super funny, definitely influenced my sense of humor for sure, still holds up! I remember being excited to watch it every week and sitting w my family to watch it

2. Adventure time: my preteen show, still pretty legit. Made me a lot of friends, and bonded with my brother over it too :') Just good fun! I used to draw screenshots of episodes obsessively, still have a big folder full of it

3. Spongebob squarepants: my favorite actual kids show from my childhood, kinda a prerequisite for growing up in the 90s-00s in America. Very quotable

4. Supernatural: another of my earliest remembered shows, used to scare me 😭 but another I watched from my young young days. Doesn't all hold up of course but still an iconic part of my youth! Remember watching it on summer vacation and having to hide my eyes 🥺

5. Wolf's rain: my first anime! Obsessed with it in my early teens, really bonded me and my close friend group at the time. Partially influenced my url lol

6. Violet evergarden: legitimately such a beautiful show, visually, emotionally, musically! Every episode of this show made me cry when I first watched it, some of them are a huge comfort to me still :')

7. Hannibal: kinda love at first sight, heard about it a lot, finally decided to try it and I mean, perfect storm. I love blood, I love heavy sybolism, parallels, callbacks, I loved the characters, I loved the style, the weird murders. Really clicked!

8. Beyond evil: one of the first tv shows I watched to get back into live action tv. Very enrapturing! Every episode left me thinking and wondering 🤔 and excited for the next. Great characters, beautifully shot, good man.

[ohmybitna]

↳ 8 Shows To Get To Know Me

i was tagged by @sorrowfulliming and @heesulovebot thank you both so much, I had a lot of fun doing this list! ❤️ I tried to choose some shows that have had kind of played a significant role in my life in one way or another, maybe you'll learn a bit more about me through this idk

one tree hill (2003 - 2012) i feel like this one is the most important show if you want to know me. It's half of my personality. I grew up with this show and all of these characters mean the absolute world to me, I relate to them on a deep level and I've rewatched all 9 seasons of this so many times that if you tell me a quote from the show I can tell you who said it and in what context and season (maybe even episode) it was said. It's probably the best teen drama ever made and except for lack of representation (which i can excuse to some extent because it started airing in the early 00s) this is really something everyone can and should watch. Nothing beats the friendships in this show. I'm still searching for the brooke & haley to my peyton tbh

the vampire diaries (2009 - 2017) this show is very special to me because I started learning english more intensely and on my own outside of school because I couldn't wait until they were showing the eps with german dub half a year after they originally aired. I had to wait 4 years until the show made stefan & caroline a couple and no other ship has ever come close to how I felt (and still feel) about them. best friends to lovers will always get me and they did it so well. we do not talk about anything after 7x05, the show ended there for me tyvm. they were by far the best part of the show for me since I dislike a lot of the decisions the show made a lot of the time. but they were the reason I created a tumblr account back in 2015 that I've since forgot the name and password for 😂 it was an account dedicated to making icons for tvd. ugh i miss shows with multiple seasons and 24 eps for each season

blueming (2021) this bl drama is always gonna be important to me since it made me decide to choose film as the thing I want to major in. I got really into independent movies after watching blueming because the cinematography of it astounded me and I wanted to learn more about it and how to create beautiful shots like those in the drama myself. I also rewatch it frequently. siwon is very dear to me.

taxi driver (2021 - 2023) i debated if i should put this or the devil judge/flower of evil/happiness here because i love them all dearly and they're all tied for my fav kdramas of all time but this one was the first kdrama i watched weekly as it aired and I was so obsessed with it and its cases and characters. i love darker themes and case-by-case dramas, it's my favorite genre when it comes to korean shows. kim doki is such a dear character to me and i love the way jehoon plays him. words can't describe how happy i am that it's back on my screen and just as good as it always was. (plus pyo yejin is one of my biggest celebrity crushes i love her sm)

the haunting of hill house (2018) one of the greatest shows ever made and imo the best of its genre. ep 6 of this show especially impressed me so much because it just consists of multiple one-shots. i love mike flanagan, he's my favorite director and if you're into psychological horror i more than recommend watching this and midnight mass because they're both masterpieces. mike has this way of connecting horror and sadness and he does it so so well. I could write essays about his filmmaking and he's my biggest inspiration when it comes to film.

my engineer (2020) this was the first bl I was really invested in, I even bought tickets to the online fanmeeting which i usually never do for anything. these characters and actors really helped me get through the lockdowns in 2020. one of the few bls where they managed to give everyone their fair screen time and made everyone's story enjoyable to watch. also very important part of why i loved watching it was the lack of fanservice they made the actors do and that we got them all in one room reacting to every episode together. it was the best and i wish more shows would do it.

light on me (2021) oh what a show. even though I don't like the ending and I think the last episode had some continuity issues and felt like a second thought in some ways I thorougly enjoyed the ride this drama took me on. the runtime allowed for the show to explore its characters well and made us able to connect with them. i miss that for newer shows a lot. shin daon is and probably will always be my favorite k-bl character, he felt so real and I could see an old version of myself in him. he deserved a lot better and I hope he's off to college living his best life, he deserves it.

one day at a time (2017 - 2020) let me just say that I am NOT a sitcom enjoyer. shows that are targeted to make me laugh usually don't and I get bored early on because I don't get the appeal. nothing against these shows, they just don't speak to me. HOWEVER odaat is a huge exception because I was hooked to the well-balanced use of humor and deep conversations and topics portrayed in this show. plus it also made me laugh!! and sometimes also cry both in the span of 5 minutes. these characters have a special place in my heart. elena halped me a lot in my journey of self-discovery and I loved the way the show portrayed her journey.

bonus: (i know this technically makes it 9 but i didn't know where to put it)

wish you (2021) I'm adding this as well but extra since I only ever watch the movie version of it. it's imo the only kbl that works as a movie. even though not a lot of people love this, it is my most rewatched k-bl (and I think bl in general). I adore Sang Yi, he's a lot like me and watching him be an awkward mess in front of his crush and idol is very cute to watch. the OST for this show is also so good i listen to it all of the time.

i will tag @ghostvalleymasters i hope you haven't done this yet :)