#which is always...fun (interesting) to work out wtf is going on in her fucked up little head :'D

[chaoticspacefam]

There’s quite a few points in the Consular story where it’s honestly really hard for me to determine what Aria would do, and sometimes the answer is a WEIRD one. This bit on Taris is one of ‘em.

So, you’re offered a choice between saving this woman, Laria (Light-side) and saving the Jedi holocrons with a bunch of medical data that could save “thousands” of lives - supposedly (Dark-side). I always thought Aria would be the “pick to save the holocrons” gal but strangely enough after agonising on the decision for a few minutes....I ended up concluding she’d save Laria. NOT out of the goodness of her heart though (sorry Laria, I like you pfft🤣) but rather because, well...on one hand, Darth Noctis (her father) would certainly have interest/be invested in getting his hands on those holocrons full of information he might be able to eventually use to his advantage. But on the other...letting the holocrons explode means the Jedi don’t have access to them either. Considering Aria’s whole schtick is “sabotage the Jedi from the inside out so that by the time we hit Tython at the end it’s almost a clean sweep” I feel like objectively it makes sense for her to “choose” Laria over the holocrons in this instance.

It’ll be really interesting from my perspective to see where else in this story she ends up choosing the “Light-sided” dialogue options except in Subterfugeverse canon it will be entirely for fucked up and selfish reasons so, you know, objectively it is NOT a light-side choice at all for that reason. 🤣😛

[madameminor]

WHY I DON'T LIKE TECH x PHEE: An unintentional essay

Alright, yall, I've figured it out on my end. I think. I just need to get some of this out so that I can move past it. I'm not even gonna tag it under tech x phee, cause you know what, I don't want to harsh the mellow over in that space, I'm just voicing what I've discovered.

This is long.

Wanda Sykes: I LOOOOOVE Wanda Sykes, love her - love her so much that I can't see anyone else with her voice. A 60 year old lesbian comedian... and you want to make her a 20 something pirate captain flirting with a male cl- no. No. Capital N. O. Like, I thought she and Rhea Perlman were going to be a fun comedic, older duo playing off of each other. Or that they'd have some sort of sassy relationship. But instead she's a coy, fun adventurer who starts to join in TBB family? Nope. No. Didn't sell it for me. Gimme someone else, might have worked. Try Anika Noni Rose, or if you need that star factor, Halle Barry or Beyonce or, for fucks sake LIZZO (can you imagine her beautiful voice as Phee? OOOO I just shivered. Loved her as the Duchess, but her as Phee! Instantly WAAAAY more excited about that character.) Not Wanda Fucking Sykes (like I said, LOVE her. But no. Choices.)

The Build Up: You guys. We are all literally writers. Where were the beats? Where were the moments? You naturally want there to be a moment the audience goes 'ooooooh yeah ok I see it'. IT HAPPENED WITH HUNTER. The next day I remember quite a few of us going 'OMG YES!!! Yes, totally ship that, saw the chemistry with Phee and Hunter! Into iiiiit.' I resisted that one too, cause of the Wanda Sykes thing, but you know what? IT. WORKED. I went with it cause it worked. Was actually kind of excited. Was looking forward to the fics. Did not happen once with Tech, never saw anyone go 'oh look at that chemistry between pirate and genius'. NOPE BTW SUDDENLY THEY'RE ALL TEASING TECH AND TECH AND PHEE ARE IN A SCENE AND THIS IS ALL ABOUT THESE TWO TAH DAAAAH! No. Nope. Not how it works. Feels like my favorite is getting the shitty end of the romance arc stick. Fuck off, no. We have all written better.

Toxic Matchup: The way Phee (see dude, I almost wrote Wanda. Thats how much I can't not see her in this character) treats Tech. One of my mutuals on here, @shadestepping, put it perfectly - "It’s because instead of understanding who tech is as a person and being respectful of how his mind works, she tries to force him to mask because it’s what she wants/it makes communicating with him easier". The example that keeps popping into my head is when Phee sarcastically says "when two people are talking its called a conversation". My eyebrows shot UP, like, this is one of the FIRST THINGS YOU LEARN about Tech- his face is in his datapad. Treating him like an idiot (which is what it sounds like in Wanda voice) because he is doing what he is always doing is not ok (seriously, WTF, dude?). Another mutual, @dumfanting agreed and shared how that hit them: "As someone whose been forced to mask for her entire life, that is wrong and damaging and perpetuates the idea that we as austitics are only worthy of love if we continue to suppress ourselves." And it really doesn't have to be that way. I can rewrite every scene they are in together, still have her be sassy, have her show interest and respect for who he is, and still move him out of his comfort zone. I will do it, if I need to, just to prove it. If the writers are trying to give her some growth too, cool, then TAKE THE TIME TO DO THAT - instead we only hear how HE's being taken out of his comfort zone. How about HER? You want to be with him? Maybe you have to meet him half way, honey

Ultimately, I could have gotten behind this if it was done another way - but the way they went about it missed so many marks. And for my man, that's unacceptable to me. He deserves the best, not something thrown together.

I have spoken.

(Ok, I think that is out of my system.)

[whitecreekvalley-if]

Care to tell some facts about the ROs?

Fun or serious? I'll do fun little tidbits. Hard hitting angsty facts later, when you least expect it aye 🤌🏼 (this is me trying not to get too angsty at once because that's what I usually doooo)

Mason

On a first name basis both at the clinic in town and the hospital in the city. No self-preservation instincts. Zero. It's actually saved a lot of other people, houses, and animals, so bonus points for that. The nurses still look unamused when he comes through.

Does not trust roosters. Will never get a rooster for the ranch. Won't be caught dead near one of those feathered devils. (He's not afraid of rooster. He's not. Please believe him.)

Has a real hard time saying no to people and it almost got him unintentionally engaged (TWICE) before his friends were like hold up wtf dude. Alcohol might've been involved during one of these moments. Boy gets silly when he's had mezcal.

Alice

Like spice? Not as much as Alice you don't, she could eat a Carolina Reaper and go for another in half a minute. It freaks people out. Don't eat the chili at the potluck if you treasure your insides.

Has the most amazing memory. Forgot what you did on June 18th, 2016? She remembers. Need a reminder what to do five months from now? Personal calendar, let the lady know. It's a curse of you don't want to relive drunken shenanigans.

Total dog person. Sheep are great, but dogs is where it's at. You'll always catch her bringing one or two of her pups to the bar on slow weekdays. She owns many. Like 12 many, and they're all vital for the sheep farm. Absolutely.

Judge

Always, always has to sit with his face towards the exit(s) and back against the wall, otherwise he'll be tense enough to feel like solid rock if touched. He'll deal with not facing a door though. Just prepare for extra grouch.

His nickname used to be Joe. Joe. No one uses it anymore, for their own good. If you really want to burn bridges (or get the coldest glare), start quoting Don't Fuck With Joe by The Blackwater Fever.

Don't go hiking with him, whatever you do. This is a fella who smashes those long distance trails for fun, and has gone out for weeks and even months on end during extended vacations. 100 miles minimum to make the big lug take a relaxed breath.

Sadie

A living, breathing lie detector. She has a deep, intense interest in body language analysis, and listens to tonal changes so hard it looks like she's lost in though. But there's a very, very slim chance for anyone to lie to her and get away with it, which is a freaky skill for a lawyer.

Has never touched an animal bigger than her. Sure she's seen a horse, a cow, a bull, but she'll keep her feet firmly planted on pavement while the animals are out there in the pasture. Equal minding of own businesses.

No one plays poker with Ms. Sadie because they always lose. If the lawyer thing won't work out, she definitely has a future as a card shark, professional players better shake in their boots. Don't watch her shuffle the deck too closely. Or ask why she knows card tricks.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road Review- A Nice Big Plate of WTF?

So… I have… questions? Many of them aren’t even things I can express in words- they’re just helpless looks of confusion happening in my head and a general, non-specific yearning for answers. I’m not saying I disliked The Church on Ruby Road. I’m not saying I liked it, either. I’m saying that it’s so bafflingly other that I’m not 100% sure how to process my feelings about it. Consequently, this is going to be quite a short review. I mean, when Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle blew me away, I knew exactly what it was I was enjoying and why. When The Star Beast disappointed, I knew exactly why it disappointed me (it felt like a first draft). I don’t even know what emotions I experienced while watching The Church on Ruby Road or if those emotions even have names, so it’s kind of difficult to talk about.

Okay, let’s start with something easy. I like Ncuti Gatwa’s take on the Doctor. That’s something I’m certain about. He’s breezy and bright and- occasionally- a tiny bit bitchy. I think he’s going to be an interesting addition to the line-up. Also, I think it’s really cool and progressive that he’s the first Doctor… WITH A MOUSTACHE! So yeah, he’s a perfectly fine actor for the role. I could have done with a slightly stronger, more sure-footed introduction- something like Ecclestone’s “Run!” or David Tenant just straight up grabbing a Sycorax energy-whip by the business end and yanking it away… but I get that he’s meant to be the fun, easy-going Doctor and I accept that his intro has to suit the character, which means a gradual, laid-back sort of interweaving. So yes: nice work on establishing Fifteen, Ruby Road.

But then there’s the goblins in flying wooden boats. Doctor Who had goblins now, and that’s fine… but they’re never really explained. We’re told they can surf the waves of time, but we’re never told where they came from. Are they just on Earth all the time? Have they always been here? Are they from space? Another dimension? We’re just kind of asked to accept them and the fact that they regularly abduct and eat babies (yet this has somehow never come up before). I mean, I’m okay with goblins, but I’m not sure how I feel about inadequately-explained goblins in a sci-fi show. Doctor Who has every right to be extremely silly- it’s practically in the charter- but there’s a razor-thin line between ‘silly’ and ‘stupid’ and I’m not sure which side of the divide big-eyed mischievous goblins in flying boats fall on. Especially when they start singing.

Ah, yes. Maybe I should have led with that. The goblins sing. And I don’t mean unearthly, alien singing of the kind befitting their essentially inhuman nature, nor even the type of shanties that would match their outfits and flying, old-fashioned sailing ship. No, no. They sing a full-on, carefully-orchestrated and choreographed, extremely catchy pop song… about eating babies. It’s fucking mental. I mean, it’s obviously meant to be funny and it made me laugh… but I’m not sure I was laughing at the intended joke or if I was just having a breakdown in response to seeing something so fucking inexplicable. I mean, when the Celestial Toymaker interrupted The Giggle for a musical number, it made sense. The Toymaker was characterised in such a way that murdering people to music perfectly fitted his character- he’s bloody psychotic. But with the goblins it just comes completely out of left-field.

I thought the overarching themes of family being about more than blood and people forming intricate webs of connection that depend more on love than superficial genetic ties were pretty solid and universal. On the other hand, making new companion Ruby Sunday such an enmeshed part of an adopted family meant her personality didn’t get much chance to come through properly, despite her more-than-ample screen-time. She always felt like a part of something larger- particularly with the fairly extravagant and entertaining personalities of her other family members (one in particular).

I think what’s weird about this episode is that it’s meant to be the start of a soft-reboot with the potential to draw in new fans, yet if you’re not familiar with Doctor Who already, it presents a bit of misleading picture of what the show is. It centres mythic and magical creatures over the show’s more standard cosmic and alien fare or scientific-disaster-style stories, while previous events are referenced with little or no context. As a long-time Who fan (who even forced myself to watch the execrable Chibnall/Whitaker episodes necessary for an appreciation of the plot), I understood what was being alluded to and also knew to make allowances for this being a daft, knock-about Christmas episode that won’t be typical of the season to come. But new fans? They’re likely to be completely bloody lost.

All things considered, I quite liked The Church on Ruby Road- it’s a bit of fun and it’s a reasonably good palette cleanser after the heavier themes of the previous two specials. Plus, it’s just nice to see a new Doctor in action and know he’s going to be good in the role. Does it set out to do what it was meant to do, though (i.e. set out the stall for new Whovians and provide a real flavour of the show? Erm. No. And, however enjoyable it might be overall, its more confusing elements do make me worry about showrunner Russel T. Davies’ mental state. At least we only have to wait until spring to find out just how mad he’s gone.

[sunshinepixels]

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE TEEN WOLF MOVIE

bc I hate it more than I've ever hated anything in my life 😭

Allison is back from the dead and somehow stays alive by the end of the movie as if that's not unnatural af !!! Like she's a human? how is that a thing? why did they do this? I love Allison, I really do but her coming back to life and not being laid back to rest by the end of the movie was so psycho and bizarre. Idk why they made that choice but I hated it

Derek apparently had a child 15 years ago and Allison died 15 years ago so somehow he had a child in season 3? When? When would he have time to do that? He was literally with Jennifer that season 🤨 so when did he make this kid who he seemed to have always been in the life of ? the math isn't mathing. ik teen wolf math sometimes doesn't make sense but I excused it bc I like the show but since I hate this fucking movie I will not excuse it. Jeff Davis tell me how the fuck Derek somehow had a kid in season 3!?

Who is the mother of Derek's child? (We all know that Stiles is the other parent) but fr why is she not mentioned at fucking all??? like it felt so unnatural, like they were specifically talking around it or some shit. I swear Eli never even says the word mom once!! how? why do they act like she doesn't exist? at this point I'm gonna assume Derek made this child asexually through budding or some shit cus wtf

IK Dylan O didn't want to be in the movie but they didn't have to do everything in their power to pretend Stiles didn't exist. The only references to him were the Jeep and Lydia's dumb dream. It made it seem like Stiles doesn't keep up with them anymore and that they don't keep up with him, and that's including his fucking dad. It's so unnatural and ew. I'm also very sad that Kira wasn't here but ik why Arden didn't want to do it. Fuck Jeff tbh. Kira was barely mentioned also, I don't think they EVER said anything about her at all. It's giving Jeff is bitter or smth.

This movie dragged so bad, it was boring as shit and I struggled to get to the 2 hour mark. It was actually painful for me to watch . I wanted to skip through every scene basically, trying to get to SOMETHING interesting, but it was rare that anything like that was going on

Some of the style choices were weird. The clothes they had Deaton in weren't right, it didn't feel like something he'd wear at all. Also so weird to see Chris in a turtleneck, idk if he's worn one before but it looked weird. Peter ate though, I have to give them that.

WHY WOULD MASON BE A FUCKING COP? What about him screams cop? 😐 He should be working with Melissa at the hospital or doing LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.

Parrish and Malia 😐 disgusting. He knew her as a teen!!! like hello?? that's weird af! I already hated him and Lydia, bc why is he going after a freshly turned 18 y/o and I was hoping that the writers would know better by now then to do this weird shit but obviously they didn't

What exactly was Harris back for? He barely explained what happened to him or what he knew? It was dumb. If they left him out, I don't think it would've impacted the movie or what we know about Harris at all. Also, I don't remember if they explained but why was he alive anyway?

Abolish Eichen House

Some of the sets were very ugg and didn't feel like teen wolf at all

Peter sniffing the ground like a dog ☠️☠️☠️ SO UGLY 😭 but so hilarious, best scene hands down

Curse count: 9 Shits and 2 Motherfuckers (both from Chris which is funny asf)

The movie was not fun, it didn't have the fun vibes of the original show, all the jokes were meh and didn't live up to the source material.

who tf is Eli's mom 😐 I'm serious

why did former best friends Mason and Liam barely say one word to each other 😐😐😐😐 idc if they had no time, they should've been hugging and crying in the background or some shit

Why did they decide to make Derek burn???? LIKE HUH??? That was sick ! The worse possible death they could've given him! Like that's TRAUMATIC!!! Like were we meant to think this was poetic or smth?? cus I don't. I just think it's sick and weird. Not only that but they made him leave his kid. at this point why'd they even give him a kid just to kill him off. it also kind of felt like they exchanged a dead person for an alive person

the way Liam and Hikari pronounced I love you in Japanese was so bad. im not a language expert but that didn't sound right at all. truly horrendous, get a language coach on set or smth cus that ain't it

them having Allison come back and go back to dating Scott felt very character regressiony for him. like ik he loved allison but so what? you don't need to always end up with your first love. he literally was able to move past her death and get in other relationships. it didn't feel like he was holding a torch for her, it felt like he was able to get past it but now it doesn't. idk it's weird

seeing clips from the tv show made me wanna take the shit off my screen and put on the real show

and lastly this movie didn't need to exist and is not canon in my head

[hollywoodsargeant]

i have finally read chapter 10 (another amazing chapter btw!) and i have some a lot of thoughts about things (sorry if this is really long, i just have a lot of thoughts after the entire break up with both of them)

i still love the fact that the both of them are so, nonchalant i guess?, by the fact that they’ve fucked before when talking to their partners, oscar being my favourite in this (i’ve said this before but he has brushed off logan seeing his dick and him come as ‘a requirement’ and left it at that)

logan breaking up with mia isn’t unexpected tbh, i feel like he would know that he wasn’t exactly a fan of mia making a ‘giant’ deal over the jersey thing (i still don’t understand the deal about that as an aussie) and then bringing up the entire fucking oscar thing and her reaction to it (which i get it, i would be surprised if my boyfriend had sex with his supposed best friend). anyways i’m excited to see what happens next with logan (he gets his first boyfriend perhaps??? maybe he figures out aviation??? let’s see)

oscar also breaking up with ben wasn’t exactly something i was thinking of until i got to the entire talking about sex part, i felt like he was like ‘wtf man though we’re on the same field yet you’ve made out, and now you’re only telling me you had sex with your best friend??’ so i can feel for him and what he was feeling there. also i feel like oscar was going to say something to ben abt the entire logan calling him baby thing, especially when he called oscar baby in front of ben, which imo pushed ben over the edge there (perhaps that’s why ben wasn’t wanting to wait or whatever for the break up and just said it straight up)

i’m interested to see how both oscar and logan will react/what they’ll do about the entire college thing, from previous chapters we already know logan doesn’t want oscar to leave him, but could it end up being the other way? if he goes with aviation and goes out of state and oscar is the one that stays in?

anyways i’ve extended my thoughts a bit too much and def repeated a bunch but i’m just excited for the story and what will happen next, thank you so much for this chapter and great work as always!

THANK YOU!!! <3 and do not apologize for the long message i appreciate it somuch i love hearing your thoughts and responding to them it makes me veryhappy :)

see they are both well. not convinced that it's normal to have sex with your friend, they're aware that their friendship is pretty not-normal even if they are convinced it's just friendship, but they are both very content in the fact that they did that and as with most things - it just fell into place with them. i know i've referenced a timeline in the fic before as if everything they've ever done is stretched out on this massive straight line, and neither of them are all that fazed by any of it, because it's just them. so oscar is pretty much like Yeah. logan seeing me come is a requirement in logan having sex with me. casual as ever. and ben is like ??? babe wtf. not sure if this makes sense i am just spitting here

rest in pieces logan and mia </3 he did seriously think mia was being dramatic about the jersey thing and he always thought that he's just not stupid enough to tell his girlfriend she's being dramatic... i'll be real i don't totally understand the drama in it either and it's something i witnessed firsthand but. i thought it would be fun petty drama for the fic. and i am very excited for what does happen next with logan there's a thing i know i've referenced before in short snippets but either no one saw them or everyone forgot but i stopped directly referencing it on here so if anyone can find that. gold star

(sorry for vagueing)

obv i knew i wanted to break up oscar and ben soon but i wasn't really planning on doing it this chapter until i was like. Oh well i could make logan talk about his breakup and then oscar thinks about his own relationship et cetera. which is then what happened. rest in peace to those three drowned fruit flies when i start talking about bugs that's how you know it's time to pack it up... and rest in peace ben. he kind of exploded a bit. clearly there was a time when he was very casual about it but -- and i'm p sure i had oscar Wonder about this -- in my head ben did assume all the kissing logan stuff was more in the past than it actually was, like a figuring-themselves-out in middle school type thing. so he was cool kinda teasing about it and calling logan cute or whatever but when it became apparent it was something that was happening recently he didn't really like it. cue jealousy

college will be fun! they have to send out their applications soon! i feel like a lot of ch10 involved vague college talk but that is truly the experience of being a junior/senior in high school. it was like all i would talk about with my friends at the end there

sorry this answer is 10 billion years long actually in case you couldn't tell i thoroughly enjoy discussing this fic. my beloved fic <3

[feuqueerfire]

Midnight Motel Live Blogging

GMMTV really crammed some of my most anticipated 2022 shows to run at this time (Never Let Me Go, Midnight Motel, The Warp Effect), as well as My School President which I was keeping my eyes on. Think I’ll have to watch these the week they end or I’ll never catch up.

Playlist

Ep 1: Welcome to the Business (Jan 9 11)

1-1

ooh cool start

okay actually fuck idkkk maybe i’ll start this later? bc i’m in the middle of the Trials of Apollo series and also Never Let Me Go (ep 5 tmrw), which is 2 different stories already. maybe i’ll watch this on Wednesday and finish before next Tuesday so that i’m not weaving this and NLMG and trials of apollo.

aw the fact that Mote’s always out of luck and “missed the admission quota out of a top uni even though he passed the exam” sucks so fucking bad

oh Mond’s the pimp?

oh fuck Mond’s character is so scary D: I know people said so but rip

pls Mote standing and thinking of the shit possibilities of what could happen if he barges into Mond and Jan’s characters’ rooms 

Oh yeah I forgot that Mote and Kat are love interests right

Aw Kat T.T 

Kat’s so fun and funny

Sun’s making Kat pay her debts to him 

oh, interesting in a good way about Kat mentioning working so hard

1-2

oh it’s Kat’s mom’s debt that she’s paying off 

Sun kys

Mote researching the websites where customers and sellers buy-sell sex work and identifying the pain points to make their app is wholesome

pls Kat’s funny with tryna sell her services to Mote (+ his friend) and also they’re cute

pls Doy being like whyyyy tf did you bring this app to my doorstep again after we met the police and mafia last time

the dynamic between Doy and Kat not really believing Mote vs Mote being a sweet talker and knowing how to appeal to people

ooh a design for the app first this is just like my uni class

girl not pay by crypto 

does Sun have photos?!?! 

oh videos?!?!? is Kat and the client aware that these exist?!?!?!?! gross gross gross die die die

1-3

oof Mote and Kat are so cute. him being like “hmph, your pics on the app are catfishing for sure” and then when she elbows him, he exaggeratedly falls back ah >.<

yes Kat, come to Canada and we can kiss

Linguistics: Mote and Kat use gu-meung with each other. I think Kat and Sun also used gu-meung earlier, which surprised me a bit bc I expected Kat to use Khun w Sun or something but ig the rude pronouns make sense also

Kat saying she wouldn’t do this job if she could choose. the way they’ve been talking about sex work and prostitution is interesting in a casual way where’s a job that’s hard work and like Mote, she’s doing it bc of debt and wouldn’t do it otherwise. it’s not glamorized but the existence of it or sex workers aren’t made to be evil even though the situation sucks here

hope that Mote or Doy know what to do if things go wrong whether it be the guys are dicks like when Sun had to step in or if they refuse to give money or something

oh i see we’re getting to see them handle things like the short hair and wig, and now police are coming in. also i’ve just remembered that someone maybe dies

1-4

I don’t quite get the Big Boong thing. I know Mote pretended that Big Boong’s someone else, some big shot to make the police nervous and let it but who? why’d the cops leave?

wtf was that Kat being shot in the head scene? umm I’m hoping it’s just one of Mote’s fears and not something that comes to pass

I hope they all earn the money and pay off their debts ah

Ep 2: The Investor (Jan 12)

Ep 6 came out and I saw one person write that it’s a satisfying ending, so I’m glad

2-1

ooh they’re talking about how it’d be good if they could just legalize sex work but the police are gonna lose so much money from the bribes to leave prostitution alone that they won’t let it be legal

Mote and Kat are cute, aw

oof Mote and Kat are so non-flirtily flirty ma gudness

agh Kat’s mom was dead I thought but nope, she’s just letting her daughter pay back her loans and also coming for more money

oh noooo Kat’s flashback to how her mom disappeared from their home and so the guys who were looking for her came for Kat instead T.T

oh, this was the very first time Kat saw her mom since that incident? 

hmm Sun telling Kat’s mom to never see her again. I’d assume that Sun’s romantically interested in her in any other show but he treats her like crap, so maybe he just doesn’t want them to plan and run away or smth? 

wait Pom from Gifted, what are you doing here heh. Victor’s name is Pat here 

is Pat gonna be the man she kills? 

damn he really put a collar on her oh I hate this bc he seems so earnest and this could’ve been cute if Kat didn’t fucking hate it and Sun didn’t force here T.T 

2-2

damn, not us getting the backstory on why Pat wants to have power during sex because he has no power in his personal life

oh Pat’s a billionaire, possible investor? also, that unicorn ad thing kinda maybe reminds me of whatever investing ad Mote saw in ep 1 that made him make the other app or something

oh yeah, the camera in the room that Sun has so that he can fucking watch Kat and her clients agh but now catching Kat doing work that he hasn’t assigned her

ahhh that camera was hidden by Kat? it’s for blackmailing Pat?

i love the classical music choices and also Mote thinking of possibilities and them actually showing it as if it’s happening, like Kat getting shot in the head

2-3

“I just wanna tell your you’re definitely worth more than you think?” ah so cute

Mote really is just too good with words, Kat’s right that these sorts of people just aren’t trustworthy bc they know the right things to say “How am I going to trust you, you shard-tongued jerk of a CEO?”

oh Tawi/Jay looks really different when talking with Pat’s wife than when he’s tryna get money out of Mote. Are they different people?

who’s the person that Pat’s wife talked about? Is it Mote?

okay the guy who’s terrorizing Mote isn’t actually Tawi

ah this guy is so annoying either Mote gives him money to keep the business a secret and then can’t pay back his debt in time and gets the hotel taken away OR Mote doesn’t give him money and so he tells the police about the illegal prostitution

2-4

Sun is so fucking scary, threatening June with killing her son if she doesn’t tell him what she and Kat are doing aghhh

omg so stressful. on the one hand Sun’s tryna get Doy to get him into the app by pretending he’s a client, Kat’s with Pat who’s waiting for the pitch + she saw Sun in the lobby, and Mote’s fucking phone somehow fell under the bed

ahh cliffhanger ending rip

Ep 3: Ain’t Them Bodies Cents (Jan 12)

anyway, I know Pat dies for sure because someone on a discord sent a screenshot. that’s as expected bc i’ve barely seen him in gifs or anything

3-1

oof Doy fucked up and gave Sun the invitation and whole time Mote’s like yep I trust Doy to take care of it rip

pls the chaos of Doy talking to Sun and Mote presenting to Pat while Doy and Mote are also communicating via bluetooth

pls Mond is so scary as Sun. girl “I’m the owner of their breath” kalsdj okay

Mote is much smarter than Sean is all I can say lmfao he can lie p well, even though Sun has a suspicion that Mote’s lying

3-2

is Pat drunk or what? Why is he all woozy and falling? Did he take his medication too late or something? Did his wife drug his meds because there was a point made about him taking his med case before leaving

lmfao is Mote and Kat’s kiss gonna be interrupted by Pat dying

oh kinda. i thought we’d hear a gun shot sound but what happened? did he fall and hit his head and die since Pat was so off-balance?

so did Pat succeed in giving the money or no

lol the Kat butchering the body scene

3-3

pls the way Doy had to say he’s not sitting in the back w the corpse

is Sun at Kat’s home? oh fuck he’s throwing a fit

wait omg I kinda knew that Sun knew Kat when he was a child bc I’ve seen a caption bout smth like that with a clip of Sun sitting on that bench but I didn’t know she was close friends with him :0 that sucks so bad

ah shit so Sun wasn’t the one who brought her into sex work but someone else did and he was there and he seemed young

oh Sun’s terrible idk how he transformed into this hardened pimp quickly but then he said he’d pay off Kat’s debt if she transfers to his club

3-4

ofc Pat’s car has a GPS oof and ofc Pat’s wife’s cheating on him with Jay but we could guess that from last ep

not Sun waiting in room 211 with his suitcase of weapons 

so Pat did start the transaction of 20 million?

ooh Kat’s tryna get away to diff city but also she stole Pat’s phone. wonder if there’s tracking on that too 

Ep 4: Disappear Body (Jan 13)

4-1

Joy’s tryna get Kat to fess up or something bc of her threatened child, right?

k the current things at play is that Kat wants to access Pat’s crypto and leave for Canada, Joy wants to trick Kat possibly, Sun has come to find Kat and is threatening Mote, Jay is tracking Pat’s car and has been lead to the motel, also the debt collector mans that’s been bothering Mote wants his money as well for protection of Takkrub

oh Jay’s seeing Sun being weird with Mote in the hallway on the CCTV lmfao he can just walk in there all willy nilly. is the room Mote and Sun are in also viewable with cctv

lol I wonder if Jay will view Sun as the thread instead of Mote now and have his suspicion on him as a possible reason for Pat going missing? who knows. also i wanna know if Jay knows that Pat’s dead or not? has he searched the inside of the car? seems like no

4-2

bruv, Mote really got Sun, Jay, and the debt collector guy all in the same room wanting something from him gbye and gl “shit, this is like a fan meeting. Wait no they’re all after me.”

plsss the three of them all being like eyeee should be the one talking to Mote first, yall get out

pls the way Sun smiled and gestured and moved away as soon as the knife appeared

oh Jay killed the debt collector mans lmfao Mote’s gulping and now Jay has a gun

oh debt collected mans was called Big Off

lmfao Mote being like “he’s not my friend” and Jay being like “oh? he didn’t come to save you?”

pls it’s killing me the way Jay has to explain like “this is not an empty thread na krub. If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll kill both of you. Na?”

plssssss the arguments between Sun and Mote are so funny and Jay telling them to shut up each time like now Mote realizing Sun has a camera in Kat’s usual room

wait if the footage is there, why didn’t they show Pat falling and hitting his head agh

oh damn okay so the body wasn’t in the car even though that was the original plan. did Kat do something with it?

4-3

fuckk i’m so mad I had so many thoughts for parts 3 and 4 but it refreshed and all of it got deleted kms

I thought it was fun when in part 4 Mote started acting clever and threatening again after seeming to be bumbling and foolish in the first 3 parts. 

I liked the chips and card game fantasy scene. The crew in MDL seems fairly inexperienced but they’re doing well so far

Ep 5: Blast From The Past (Jan 14)

5-1

Sun how’d you turn out like this agh

byeee they dismembered Big Off

 neo appearance !

Police officer Jay sued an elite man who attacked a bus driver but the elite man got him fired?

sdlkfhj the neolouis sex noises

oof, Kat’s found out that Sun’s getting money from Kat’s mom, which is money that Kat earned from Sun

oh my fucking god, I need to kill Sun. I hope Kat kills Sun

Sun remembering Kat saving him from those guys and so finally kinda snapping out of (sexually, physically) assaulting her

5-2

this young kids Kat and Sun backstory is making me so fucking sad because they used to be friends

noooo the promise :< “when we grow up, we won’t become the kind of adults we hate”

Sun realizing he’s become the kind of adult he hated

pls Doy and texting is just aldskfj as soon as Jay gets the orders to kill/deal with the trio, he texts Mote’s phone (which Jay has currently and also doesn’t it have a password) that he can’t find it (the body) anywhere in the hotel lmfao. prev it was the thing with Sun coming while they were tryna show Pat the pitch

Kat’s a whole lot, she really is confessing? playing with Mote? in that bathroom and kissing him instead of admitting she ran away for a brief period and also stole the phone hoping for the crypto money

I wonder if Mote believes her after seeing her pretend with Pat bc I don’t think I believe her actions in that bathroom

5-3 and 5-4

Sun really tryna just make a deal with everyone huh? giving the bullet to Jay and saying to kill only Mote (also the ice cooler thing Jay’s getting the ice from is freaking me out bc at first I don’t think I registered that they hid him in the ice cooler but now that I know... hm is he in there). Telling Mote that he wants to invest in Takkrub

What did the uncle and aunt wanna tell Mote before Jay came in? Were they the ones who his the body? Like if it isn’t any of the captured trio, Doy was a possibility but then he didn’t show up for like 2 eps in the middle so I started thinking he’s less of a possibility? Or is he more of one because why did he also disappear for a bit? And it could also be uncle and aunt who someone calmly and quietly discovered and hit the body

pls I love the fantasy situations Mote goes through so much, like the convo with dead ghost Pat

naurrr flashing back to young Kat and Sun saying they’d protect each other as adult Kat tells Sun to get out of her life

oh Pat’s in the ice cooler the way they made it seem. so the one that they hit the body in had the :) sticker and then that got carted out and had more ice put in it and put out front and the new ice cooler that’s in the place of the old ice cooler doesn’t have that sticker

So would his uncle and aunt do that? The mover also deleted the CCTV footage, would they be able to do that? Doy was the one who deleted the previous CCTV footage, so would it be him? Why?

also Mote and Sun and stuff getting ice from the cooler while underneath was Pat’s body reminds me of To Sir, With Love where the maids were all having fun collecting that mushroom, whole time there’s Don’s dead body underneath

Ep 6: All Or Nothing (Jan 14)

6-1

So I guess it really was his aunt and uncle who moved the body

they let Sun walk out of the room?

6-2

did Sun take one pill and poison the fish? or what?

or is Sun stealing the meds pill box from Kat?

Sun you backstabbing bitch, him being like “we have our bullets for that” and whole time he doesn’t even have the bullet. he has me on edge fr bc I can’t tell if he’s just double-crossing Mote and Kat or double double-crossing Jay

lol the meds box is filled with stone, flashbacks to Squid Game Ep 6

oh so Sun did give Jay a defect bullet? but Jay told June to bring another gun my dudes

everyone’s got stuff under their sleeve, like Kat with Pat’s phone and Mote with the Takkrub upload of the evidence

also i don’t think their evidence is actually enough for much (like lol they themselves could’ve filled the box with poisoned pills afterwards to frame June) but I’m ignoring that

6-3

I don’t get the [A gift from Big Off] and “say hello to my little friend

oh Jay fr shot the uncle on the shoulder 

bruv, I was thinking of Jay falling off the roof maybe but I didn’t think they’d do it like that lmfao

the villains really do wait to shoot until the uncle’s there or until Sun’s covering Kat huh lmfao

oh Sun is so psychologically fucked. he really is like if I die then Kat dies with me

oh the friendship bracelets were from the promise of not becoming like the adults they hated

okayyy Kat didn’t know that Sun was the same kid as before. At first I thought she did but then it was like hm but yeah she’s asked him “Are you Arthit?”

please Mond’s doing so good as Sun. the way he’s like sorry for breaking my promise and handing back the bracelet and telling her live and be better for him as he lays there dying. It goes with his character arc that he dies here because he’s too irredeemable to continue with the gang or to continue inflicting pain with his pimping but because of his backstory and helping the gang thus far, he’s also not someone who we see as an one-note evil man anymore. too evil to not die but the audience doesn’t wanna see him go down in a horrifying grotesque way either

6-4

plssss Kat using Pat’s corpse for the face ID of his crypto wallet (the reason she came back p much)

girl shut up who is Yudo, we have Tony for Doy. actually Doy can be polyam, I’d like that. or a cheater, I’ll forgive that in preperation for Moonlight Chicken

Very pretty wrapped bow for the ending.

The last ep was good but not great, I don’t think they were super clever with their action or wrap-up, although it was still pretty fun. Also no like great twist in the final ep, which is fine but nothing about the final ep really makes it stand out. 

The acting was great, the script was comprehensible and well-paced, the production is good, featured sex work without villainizing the workers or the work itself. I loved Mote’s little fantasies of possible scenarios or of imagining an interaction in a different way (the card game with June, convo with dead Pat). I’m impressed by the creative team behind it. 

I won’t think about this much after today I don’t think but I liked this little show.

Rating: 6.5/10

Mock Trailer

The actual show ended up being pretty much the same as that mock trailer, guess they’ve had the script done for a while. It was snappy but gave away a lot, so I’m glad I hadn’t watched most of it before watching the show (or if I had, it must’ve been like 10 months ago and I completely forgot it because only the first like 15 seconds seemed familiar and I knew the concept before going in).

Official Trailer

Once again, reveals a lot but is slightly better created than the OG, which is expected.

[kitcat-italica]

My JCS Opinions No One Asked For

At this point in my obsession with this show, I’ve tracked down and watched lots of different versions through various legally dubious means.  Here are my thoughts on the ones I’ve seen so far!  (In a list of each show chronologically because why not)

1973 movie: This one is both great and ehhhh for me.  It’s great because it’s the original.  I love Carl Anderson’s Judas.  Ted Neely’s Gethsemane high note always tingles my spine.  Yvonne Elliman’s Mary Magdalene is just soothing and lovely.  The ensemble’s choreography always makes me chuckle, esp the cartwheeling before Simon’s song.  The setting is fun!  Hippies in the desert = basically what Jesus and Co were in 33AD. 

Its ehhhh points are that it just doesn’t *grip* me?  It doesn’t shake me upside down to make my brain fall out like other versions do.  Besides Gethsemane, Jesus in this version is leaning into the stoic-divine-savior depiction of him?  Which imo is not the point of JCS.  The Pharisees are…making costume choices.  Pilate is lame and forgettable.  Herod is supposed to be a WTF moment in every production, but this version just makes me vaguely uncomfortable and idk why.  And the slow tempo/boring choreography/weirdly-mixed sound during Superstar always puts me to sleep. Bonus points for Carl Anderson's heavenly leather fringe costume tho.

7/10

2000 movie: Here’s where things get interesting.  I briefly posted about my thoughts on this one in particular a while back.  This movie is such a trainwreck and I can’t stop watching it.  I’ll put on clips of it when I’m feeling down and need a laugh.  It’s…something.

The costume choices are just silly.�� The overacting is comical.  The singing is either so weak (Jesus) or so overexaggerated (everyone else).  My throat gets sympathy pains every time Jerome Pradon’s Judas opens his mouth; he’s not a high tenor like the part requires.  But damn if he doesn’t sell the trash-man-surviving-on-Redbull-and-poor-life-choices version of this character in every single voice-cracking wail into the middle distance.  The devastation in his acting kills meeeee.  I also think Renee Castle might be my favorite Mary Magdalene?  I love her voice and her sweetness :) I also like the Pharisees in this!  They’re dressed like dollar store Matrix action figures and it absolutely works.  I also laugh at Simon’s frosted tips every time he’s onscreen.  The guy can sing tho! And it should be noted: between the costuming and the campiness and Judas’s every interaction with Jesus, this is one of the gayest versions out there.  I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not, but I’m grateful for it either way.

Lastly, special mention must go to Leather Daddy Pontius Pilate.  He absolutely fucks.

2/10 for actual quality, 9/10 for rewatch value

2012 Broadway revival: I like this one!  A lot!  It doesn’t *move* me, but it is extremely competent and everyone knows what they’re doing.  Jesus is kinda dull in this, but I’m ok with him not being the main character lol.  Josh Young’s Judas is aalskdjflsjdf yessss.  Belt those notes in your blue flowy robe my dude!!!  And the highlight is definitely the relationship between Jesus, Judas, and Mary.  They are 100% in a polycule and honestly good for them.  This is probably the only version where I will intentionally seek out the song Could We Start Again Please, just to see the three of them sing their verse together while holding hands.  It’s beautiful and deserves all the accolades.

I think the biggest downside for me in this is that since it’s a bootleg recording from faraway I can’t connect with their facial expressions as well as I would actually seeing this live.  That would probably make it one of my absolute favorites.

8/10

2012 UK Arena Tour: Oh, 2012 Arena Tour, my beloved.  I am such trash for you.  When I say that this show needs to latch onto my beating heart and refuse to let go, this is exactly what I’m talking about.  I will watch a clip from this, only to end up watching the entire show again because I cannot put it down.  It’s just.  So.  Good.

Lots of people have done write-ups in much more detail and eloquence about why they love this version, so I will be brief.  The casting in this show is just.  So top-notch.  There is not a weak link among them.  Often there will be parts I’ll skip in a JCS production because this or that character’s portrayal is kinda meh.  BUT NOT THIS VERSION.  I love everyone’s interpretations of their characters.  Jesus.  Judas.  Mary Magdalene.  Simon.  Caiaphas.  Annas.  Pilate.  Herod.  WHY ARE THEY ALL SO GOOD?????

This one also strikes the perfect balance in tone.  The ridiculous campy bits (like Herod’s song, Superstar, etc.) are played up as exactly that, but the serious bits are played deathly serious.  Everyone’s making choices according to their character’s internal logic, and it sucks me right in.  Ugh.  I love it.

Jesus and Judas are, of course, always the highlights.  And Ben Forster and Tim Minchin are just putting their whole hearts into this.  The chemistry?  The belting?  The facial expressions?  Every single choice they’re making, even when they’re not the focus of the scene?  The pained looks?  The eyerolls?  The moments of anguished violence, followed by immediate regret?  Ben’s Gethsemane (and making me care about his character’s emotional journey outside of Gethsemane)???  Tim’s death scene???  Superstar?????

Some people don’t like the modern aesthetic of this one.  Their tastes and mine are very different, because I adore it.  Some people say the autotune in the official recording ruins it for them.  It doesn’t ruin it for me; the vocals are still powerful and shake me to my core.  I can only imagine what it was like to see this live.  Probably the closest thing to a religious experience I will ever have.

10/10.  10/10.

2014 Swedish Arena Tour: Oooooh baby.  What a wild ride this is.  We got metal biker rockstar Messiah in the house!  Complete with leather pants and long flowing wigs :)  I love it.

Peter Johansson’s Judas is def one of my favorites.  He’s such a sarcastic slutty king.  I adore him.  

Speaking of slutty kings, did someone say Ola Salo’s Jesus????  This man is definitely hearing a voice in his head telling him he’s special, and thinking it’s God.  He is 100% down to call himself one part of a Holy Trinity.  His delivery of certain lines just gives me the happy wiggles.  It’s both ethereal, detached, and bitchy all at once.  My favorite is probably The Last Supper, when he’s taunting Judas with the lines “why don’t you go do it?” and “hurry, they are waiting”.  I don’t know how to describe it, but those two lines in particular just get me to my core the way he says them.

Then there’s the famous kiss.  Such a gay moment.  So good.

My complaint about this version is that everything else besides Jesus and Judas is bland at best, deeply uncomfortable at worst.  Yes, I am mostly talking about the Pharisees.  There is a whole other post I could make about how, since this show is based on the Gospels in the New Testament, a case can be made that it rests on a foundation that flirts with anti-Semitism, so it must tread very carefully not to lean into that.  (That also makes me question whether Christianity in itself is inherently anti-Semitic?  Maybe, maybe not, but again, that’s a whole nother conversation.)  And this version of JCS…misses the mark.  Hard.  And it prevents me from watching too much of this show beyond the big Jesus and Judas scenes.

9/10 for Jesus and Judas, 4/10 for everything else.

2018 Live In Concert: This one was a nope for me.  I liked Judas okay in this one, and his glittery, belt-y Superstar is probably one of my favorite versions of the song.  But John Legend was clearly cast as Jesus because he’s a big name music star who wanted that sweet sweet EGOT (and once he won an Emmy for being a producer on this show, he got it).  But he is a baritone trying to sing a tenor part.  I’m fine with him not going for the G5 in Gethsemane, but when he tries to climb up there for the “see how I die” part, *I* started getting lightheaded just watching him.  It’s painful.

Everything else is just boring and forgettable.  Not much else to say about it.

3/10.

Aaaand those are all the versions I’ve seen!  If y’all know of any others, lemme know and I’ll check them out :)

[marinaiguess]

SONIC FRONTIERS TRAILER ANALYSIS + SPOILERS (I mean, what did you expect)

this trailer was all I was hoping for. I had high expectations for the next mainline sonic game and until now, sonic frontiers hasn't disappointed me. so, here's why I'm so hyped

the animations and the graphics look absolutely gorgeous, my boy finally has expressions!! (I know it's cgi but still)

all the different starfall islands + the cyberspace levels look very interesting and fun and beautiful

sage's: "submit" and sonic's: "fuck u bitch, I'm going anyway" yeah I loved that (he actually doesn't say anything but his face says it)

he goes so fast lol, this goes out to the ones who would complain about Sonic's lack of speed in this game

all the new gimmicks look fun, the bouncing off the walls, the new fighting techniques

oh don't get me started on these robots, they are unique and they look pretty challenging so I'm excited about that

the suspense is real, we see a locked up Amy, I wonder how sonic will save her and tails and knuckles (apparently they all lost their memories)

THE GODDAMN VOICE ACTING. honestly, I never found Roger's voice fitting for sonic. I always have respected his work however, don't get me wrong. but the delivery of that single line... PERFECT. I hope it's the same for the rest of the game, I've been dying for some good voice acting/good voice direction and good writing

speaking of good writing, as soon as I learned Ian Flynn is the writer for the frontiers' story, I was relieved and until now his work on the game has been proven to be damn good

idk what sage's powers are (atp I'm just assuming her name is sage) but wtf did she do to sonic, his arm went red and one could say his arm went null space (that red just reminds me of the phantom ruby and infinite's power, okay?)

wait, did his arm glitch? did sage glitch? bcuz I know for a fact that the cyberspace levels have some glitchy effects here and there. (sage is the glitch confirmed and if you know, you know)

oh I can see the pain in Sonic's face! and his anger! he has emotions! (lol)

she summoned a giant anthropomorphic robot vulture, almost 19 times bigger than sonic (maths), that's great :')

also, 60€? it seems fair but I ain't buying it for a little while it seems oops

I wasn't expecting that cover but I'm not complaining, it's pretty cool

the soundtrack? gorgeous. (judging by what we've heard) but it's a sonic game, ofc it will have a banger ost

also, it's a lot different than that Japanese trailer we saw a few days ago (which looked so pretty), I'm just saying

go visit the official website for sonic frontiers, there are some nice screenshots y'all should check out :)

and with that being said, I hope I can get this game sooner or later, I'm so hyped.

[incorrectsnkships]

Armin and Eren’s daughter got the winning combination of Armin’s curiosity and Eren’s stubbornness. Like they can’t take their eyes off her for one second or she’s gonna go climb those big can displays at the grocery store or bring snakes into the house or lick peanut butter off the sidewalk. Just a complete gremlin. Carla says it’s karma for Eren being a little shit growing up.

oh my absolutely. i can picture this so vividly, poor eremin

you've heard of terrible twos? well, other kids experience terrible twos. eremin's kid experiences atrocious, appalling, dreadful, absolutely fucking fearful, terrible twos. seriously, this kid screams bloody murder at anything and everything.

bath time? nah, kid's gonna cling to armin's leg and cry. oh, eren has to leave for work? nope, kid decides that she doesn't want dad to leave, so she screams to try and get him to stay. getting dropped off at nursery? armin has to stay and try and stop her from sounding like she's getting murdered.

a: come on, sweetheart, dad's gotta go-

k: no i want you to stay with me at school

a: i can't-

k: STAY WITH ME-

don't get me wrong, armin is an absolutely amazing dad, he knows his kid and how to handle her. so is eren, he knows how to keep her occupied, how to stimulate her brain and most of her motor skills have come from playing and building things with him.

armin is more of a paternal dad - he's more intimate, takes care of her basic needs, hygiene, is in charge of buying her clothes because god knows eren can't do it himself. he makes her lunch, because if it were down to eren, they'd be having mcdonalds every day.

eren on the other hand, acts like a parent, but also like a friend too - takes her out for ice cream, picks her up from school, puts her in the bath and makes it fun when armin's too tired to. eren likes to build the furniture for their house by himself, likes to do diy, and more often than not, his daughter is always helping him.

but armin is scared. not scared of her growing up, but scared of her getting hurt. eren is constantly reassuring him.

e: hey me and kid are gonna go build that cabinet you bought the other day, it shouldn't take too long

a: w- wait! be careful!

e: hey, it's fine. she's probably only gonna sit and watch and pass me the drill or a screwdriver whenever i need it

a: exactly :( what if something falls on her? y'know - i'll just come with you

but once the tantrum phase is over, a new phase is introduced - hyperactivity.

god help them those poor, poor men.

LET ME TELL YOU SHE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE ITS RIDICULOUS.

she wants to do this, wants to do that, wants to know how this works, how that works. she’s just so hyper that she doesn’t know what to do with herself. they always have to tire her out before bed, which is usually eren chasing her around the house while armin does the dishes.

when she finally, finally crashes, it leaves eremin with the rare occasion of having alone time, but they’re just too tired to do anything.

e: ‘so tired

a: yeah

e: yeah. wanna have sex?

a: sure let me just- hang on… okay i’m- eren?

e: *is snoring and asleep*

she’d be in kindergarten or whatever and the teacher would call armin in when he picks her up from school because she started swearing in class. armin was mortified. eren and kid laughed.

and carla- oh, carla is the only one she behaves for. probably because carla has experience from eren.

e: wtf how is it that she only behaves for you

c: eh, i’m used to it from you

also carla would be an amazing grandparent, she’d spoil kid so much and give her whatever she wanted.

kid can’t get enough of the world. lucky she has armin to boost her interests and show her the ways, and eren, who helps her discover easier ways of doing difficult tasks, who teaches her that she can be so many things.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 301: All My Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: We learned that when a bunch of superpowered villains are suddenly set loose with nobody around to stop them, things get fucked pretty quickly. Old Man Samurai and a bunch of other useless people decided to make “I pretend I do not see it” their new mantra, and resigned. Endeavor had a moment of despair on account of being crushed by the guilt of having ruined the lives of himself, his family, and basically everyone else in the entire world. For various reasons the heretical notion of “person who has done bad things feels sorry for doing them” sent fandom spiraling into a meltdown, so that was fun. The chapter ended with the entire Todoroki clan descending upon Enji’s hospital room to have a dramatic chat about Touya and All That General Fuckery.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “here’s the story of how Baby Touya slowly went insane trying to win his father’s love.” It’s a tale full of subverted expectations and heartbreaking inevitability, and also like twenty panels of the cutest fucking kids who ever existed on planet earth, who are so fucking cute that I can’t stop thinking about their cuteness even with all of the horrifying family tragedy unfolding around them. It is absolutely ridiculous how cute they are. Touya is out here pushing his tiny body past its limits because he inherited the same obsession as his dad and neither of them can put it aside even though it’s destroying them, and yet all I can think about is Baby Shouto’s (。･o･｡) face. Anyways what a chapter.

so I have to confess that even though I managed to avoid being caught off-guard by the early leaks, the number of people reblogging my Endeavor posts from earlier this week and using the tag “bnha 301” kind of gave me an inkling that this chapter will include more Tododrama lol. that said, I don’t know anything else about it, so we’re still good spoiler-wise

AHHHHH FLAHSBAKC AHHHH. omg I know I typoed the shit out of that, but I’m just going to leave it lol I think it’s fitting

holy shit holy fuck. so this is Rei and Enji’s first meeting, then??

yepppp, oh shit

so wait, I know this is not even the slightest bit important, but are they meeting at Enji’s home or Rei’s? because I always figured that Enji was the one with the super-Japanese aesthetic, but maybe that was Rei’s side of the family all along

(ETA: from what I found during my very brief google search, omiai meetings are often held at fancy hotels or restaurants, so maybe that’s what this is.)

there’s such a period drama feel to this setting. like it’s so outrageously formal fff how can anyone stand this kind of atmosphere though seriously

OH THANK GOD

I mean they’re still stiff af but at least they’re not rigidly sitting in seiza and staring at each other unblinkingly anymore lol. Enji’s actually got his hands in his pockets now. why is this somehow almost cute

oh damn it’s the flowers

Rei seems so subdued and it’s so hard to get any idea of what she’s actually thinking. I want to see her side of this dammit

but anyway, so at least from Enji’s perspective it seems like even though the marriage was arranged and he picked her because of her quirk, he still loved his wife and wanted to do right by her. the fact that he was watching her and noticed that she liked the flowers, and remembered that detail for all these years -- there’s a reason why Horikoshi’s showing us this. we know what’s going to happen later on; we know how much fear and violence and breaking of trust is coming up ahead, and while it may seem like this scene is serving to soften Enji’s character further -- which to be fair it is -- it also helps drive home the full impact of his abuse. that it’s so terrible not only because of the trauma of the abuse itself, but also because of the way it retroactively destroys all of the good things as well. this could have potentially been such a sweet scene, but it’s inescapably tainted by the knowledge of what’s to come, at least for me. and that’s just brutal

anyways, shit. is the whole chapter going to be like this?? feel free to toss in something I can actually make a joke about sometime, Horikoshi

oop, back to the present

omfg lol

“are you all right” “NO I’M NOT ALL RIGHT WHAT THE FUCK.” “oh, right, because of all the stuff that’s happened with me abusing you and you having a mental breakdown and being hospitalized for ten years and then our son coming back to life and killing thirty people, right, right. I almost forgot.” whoops

omfg you guys I’m loving this new and improved steely-eyed Rei. I’m loving her a lot

and what do you mean “part one” fkjds how long is this going to be. TOO MUCH DRAMA FOR ONE CHAPTER TO HANDLE

oh, hello

yeah I’ll say you did. didn’t seem to bother you much at the time, though

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dabi Is A Noumu intensifies even further. anyways though would you fucking look at this boy lounging on this moth-eaten couch doing his best DRAW ME LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS impression wtf

Dabi what if you actually had killed him??? what would you feel?? satisfaction?? regret?? anything at all?? tell me your secrets goddammit

who are you talking to buddy

Fuyumi-chan, Natsu-kun (is it common for brothers to address each other as -kun?? can’t recall seeing that in many other anime, but hey), and “dot dot dot,,,,,, SHOUTO” lol thank you so much for this bountiful heaping of Tododrama Horikoshi we are blessed

AH, WHAT DID I SAY THE OTHER DAY

ULTIMATE MELODRAMATIC THEATER CHILD. “I’M JUST GOING TO LIE ON THIS COUCH SHIRTLESS AND ALONE AND MAKE SPEECHES TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO AREN’T THERE AND SAY THINGS LIKE ‘WATCH ME IN THE PITS OF HELL’ WITH A STRAIGHT FACE BECAUSE NO ONE’S THERE TO JUDGE ME.” WELL JOKE’S ON YOU MISTER CHATTERBOX BECAUSE I AM IN FACT JUDGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU LOL

(ETA: and on a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that “look at me”/”watch me” theme being used again though, because we see that same sentiment uttered repeatedly by the younger Touya in the flashback. well kid, you definitely got your wish at last. don’t know what else to say.)

OKAY HORIKOSHI HAS DECIDED THAT’S ENOUGH FUN, TIME FOR MORE FLASHBACKS

oh my sweet precious lord

just as cute as we left him. giving us a child this cute when we all know full well what’s going to happen to him is just unspeakably cruel though

HOMG

I’m fucking speechless. you broke me, congratulations. what am I even supposed to do with this

I can’t get over this. moving forward my life will be split into two distinct parts, B.P. (Before the Pout) and A.P. (After the Pout)

and meanwhile there’s ALL THIS BACKGROUND ANGST BUILDING UP, AND I CAN’T EVEN FOCUS ON IT. Touya’s arm and cheek are covered in bandages (I’m guessing this is shortly after that “ouch!” panel we got some chapters back), and Enji is deliberately avoiding training with him because he doesn’t want him to hurt himself further. I can’t fucking get over the irony that all this time everyone thought Touya had died because Enji pushed him too far in his training, and it turns out that it’s the opposite -- the tragedy ultimately happened because he didn’t want to push him. but I’m jumping ahead of myself though I guess

by the way,

remember this?? just wanted to remind you that it exists just in case you forgot

so now someone is talking and basically saying that Touya is the exact opposite of what Enji was hoping for when he decided to start playing with quirk genetics

-- okay hold up

...lol no, never mind. for a second I thought “holy shit he looks kind of familiar WHAT IF IT’S UJIKO OMG” before I remembered that Enji would have recognized him during the hospital capture mission if that was the case. so NEVER MIND, PROCEED

IMAGINE THAT, ENJI DOESN’T QUITE SEEM SATISFIED WITH THIS SUGGESTION OF QUITTING NOW

(ETA: how the fuck did this man go around saving 62 towns in a single day what even is All Might.)

[clicks tongue several times] trouble a’brewin’

MEANWHILE BABY TOUYA HAS UNFORTUNATELY INHERITED HIS DAD’S STUBBORN STREAK

KLDIHWOEIJFL:KSDJ

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god. oh my god. what is this chapter. WHAT IS IT

so now Touya is all “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY MANLY DESIRE TO BURN MYSELF ALIVE” well you got her there champ

THEY’RE TOO CUTE. OH MY GOD. HIS FURIOUS LITTLE TEARS. HER CHUBBY LIL FACE. HIS STUBBY LIL FISTS. SOMEONE HELP ME

also are they just home alone lol or what. “hey Touya, you’re what, like six now?? do us a favor and look after your baby sister for a couple hours for us would you? make sure not to set yourself on fire or anything.” WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!

now it’s nighttime and Enji and Rei are arguing, presumably about his decision not to train Touya anymore

whew. okay. so, a couple of things here

1. first of all I think this conclusively shows that Enji really was trying to do the best he could for Touya. he stopped training him as soon as he realized it was hurting him, but Touya was still determined so he tried to make it work anyway, and even visited doctors to try and figure out if there was anything they could do. then, once they were absolutely sure that it wasn’t going to work, he tried multiple times to explain to Touya why they had to stop. he didn’t just abandon him out of the blue, which is really important to note. “no matter how much I tried telling him...”

so yeah, that debunks another common fandom accusation. so by the time he finally makes this decision, which we all know is going to turn out horribly, it’s basically because he’s already tried everything else he could think of. which, by the way, still doesn’t mean he handled this right. but at the very least he was taking Touya’s feelings into account and he was trying, and he didn’t just abruptly toss his son aside (at least not yet)

2. buuuut, then there’s this panel right below all that

which is the other side of it. if he’d just quit like the doctor person advised him to, that would have been the end of it. Touya would still have been upset, but he would have eventually gotten over it and the family would have moved on and possibly even been happy. but what happens next happens because Enji can’t let go. he still has this maddening urge to surpass All Might, and so he and Rei keep having more children, and then Shouto is born, and Enji finally has a kid he can start projecting all of his hysterical ambitions onto once again, and everything starts spiraling out of control soon after

though p.s. none of that is Shouto’s fault though!! he’s one of the few good things to come out of this whole mess and I’m very happy that he exists. the tragedy is that his dad fucking lost his mind over his quirk and fucked everything up. but that’s on him, not Touya or Shouto

anyways, SLKFJLSHGLKJL

I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS YOU GUYS??? LOOK AT THAT LIL BUTTON OF A NOSE??? I’M LOSING IT HERE???

AND TOUYA JUST SEEMS DEVASTATED OMG

because children aren’t stupid, after all. he understands that his dad is still looking to surpass All Might. and so he feels like a failure, and feels like his dad is trying to replace him because he wasn’t good enough. and even now, isn’t that what the adult Touya is trying to prove?? that he was good enough after all?? “I’ll show you what happens when you give up on me, dad”?? “I’ll show you what I can do”?? fuck my life fuck everything

AND YOU CAN SEE THE TOLL THAT IT’S ALL TAKING ON REI GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AS WELL OH GOD

really nice touch here with the panel outlines becoming all shimmery from the heat of Endeavor’s flames (and/or becoming more unstable as the family gets closer and closer to their breaking point). but man, Horikoshi I can’t handle this, please show us more cute kids or something I can’t

GKELKWFJLDKSHFLKL

WITTLE BABE. BEEB. BUBS. SMOL. lkj; oh ouch a piece of my heart just detached and latched onto him huh look at that

TODOROKI “I’M SO SMALL AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON AND I DIDN’T ASK TO BE HERE” SHOUTO AHHHHH

crazy how they all just seem to know right off the bat lol. kid doesn’t even have object permanence yet, let alone a quirk. but do they care?? IT’S THE HAIR, RIGHT. WE’RE ALL THINKING IT, I’M JUST GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT. they knew the minute they looked at him lol

AND MEANWHILE TOUYA IS OFF HAVING UNSUPERVISED TRAINING/CRYING SESSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OR WHATEVER, AND, UH OH

are those blue flames yet?? they seem pretty close

(ETA: this is one of the few cases where the manga being in black and white is infuriating lol.)

OH MY GOD AND STILL

so it’s not like he was so disinterested that he didn’t notice what was happening, and he was still trying to stop it and get through to him. trying to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world and there were other things he could do with his life, but this one particular thing just wasn’t going to happen

fucking hell. it’s agonizing seeing how close they actually were to fixing it. if he’d only said the right words, or if he’d realized at this point how destructive his obsession could be to his kids, and backed off from putting that same pressure on Shouto. we came so close to possibly having a happy ending

AND ALSO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING BUT PLEASE LOOK AT HOW TOUYA IS LIKE THREE AND A HALF FEET TALL AND HIS DAD IS LIKE NINE AND A HALF FEET. Touya barely comes past his knees flkjlkg. the Todoroki household must have been so filled with like plastic stepstools to reach the bathroom sink and all the little baby toothbrushes, and baby gates to keep the kiddos out of the important grown-up rooms and stuff. and also days-old half-empty cups of water and stale crackers and hot wheels and my little ponies strewn everywhere

“BUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL SAYS THEY’RE GONNA BE HEROES” a wild Deku parallel appears?? how bout that

I know this is like a pivotal moment in the Todo Tragedy and all, but fucking look at this lil dumpling

“sup bro, it’s me, the manifestation of your fears of inadequacy and lack of fatherly affections. a GAAA. ba-baAA-baa [gurgling baby sounds]”

OHHHHH IT’S THE SOUND OF MY HEART BREAKING OH NO

HE WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU ENJI. good lord somebody please just get this family some therapy

“DAD YOU IGNITED IT IN ME” flkjslkj nope, nope. not ready for this pain here

baby Shouto, would you like to weigh in on this affair? “DA!! ba-ga-daaa, [pacifier chewing noises]” oh my, you don’t say. so insightful for one so young

OH MY GODDDDDD

IT’S SO DRAMATIC BUT ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT ARE THE SHOUNEN WOOSH LINES SURROUNDING FOUR-MONTH-OLD SHOUTO LOL HE WAS LIKE THIS FROM BIRTH OH MY GOD I AM DYING HELP

SHOUTO YOU’RE RUINING THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER!?!?!

“yo, the fuck kind of family was I fucking born into” oh, son. if you only knew. IF YOU ONLY KNEW!!

(ETA: lmao I got so distracted by the ridiculous cuteness that I glossed over the fact that Baby Touya seems to possibly be aiming at him?? it’s hard to tell because he’s also super out of it from heatstroke and may just be losing control in his attempt to show off his upgrade.)

ANYWAY THAT’S THE END EXCEPT WHAT’S THIS LAST LINE OMG

ffffff. and we’re in for ANOTHER chapter of this next week?? MORE drama?? MORE BABIES?? MORE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TOUYA’S SLOW DESCENT INTO MADNESS. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT, BUT ALSO YES PLEASE SIGN ME UP

[bakugosbratx]

How about this: bakugou and s/o have this teasing friendship dynamic where they compete to outwit eachother. They go out to hang. When bakugou slams s/o into the wall in a fit of lust/annoyance reader is just like ‘um what’s happening wait what’ cuz reader honestly doesn’t think that it’s possible for bakugou to have feelings for her. So reader is super sub. Bakugou teases her the entire time. “Not so tough now huh?”

NSFW 18+ Come Over- Dom! Bakugo x Sub! Reader

WARNING: 18+ Consentual Characters, size kink, daddy kink, breeding kink, swearing, harsh language, etc.

Check out my other works here

A/N: Sorry it took me awhile to get to your request, but I hope it meets some of your standards. I had fun writing it. Send me in your request y’all. My inbox is open 💥

Words: 1,841

You and Bakugo have always had an interesting friendship. You were introduced to the Bakusquad by Mina Ashido. You two met at the record store since you used to work there and bonded instantly. So, Mina wanted you to meet her other friends. Everyone loved you right away except for the ashy blonde. You were at each other's throats the second you met each other.

"Hey, dumbass." Bakugo greeted, not removing the scowl from his face. You were not one to deal with other's bullshit so you refused to let Katsuki talk to you any sorts of way.

"Hello to you too, dipshit."

"Oi! What did you call me? I'll kick your ass!" Bakugo exclaimed.

"Probably can't hear me because of all of your yelling." You shrugged.

"I think we should go-" Mina sighed as she grabbed your arm but you shrugged her off.

"Nah! I want to meet all of your lovely friends. Not just the stupid one." You smiled innocently.

"You're going to regret those words, loser!" Bakugo growled as Kirishima held him back using his hardening quirk.

As stated before, everyone loved you. Except for Bakugo, but overtime, you both learned to tolerate each other. It was never spoken, but a friendship developed overtime between you and the short tempered boy. You always pushed each other's buttons and knew how to make each other go off. It was now a common amusement amongst the others.

You were out shopping with Sero, Kirishima, and Mina when you received a text. You opened it to see that Bakugo messaged you.

Boomer 💥:

Want to hangout?

You:

I'm currently at the mall

Boomer 💥:

Then leave.

You:

Wtf I'm not leaving for you.

Boomer 💥:

Oi! Just come over at some point today shitty woman.

You:

Okay dickhead.

"What are you so smiley about?" Mina teased. You didn't even realize a smile was plastered on your face.

"Probably texting Bakugo." Sero teased.

"Oh fuck off!" You exclaimed as your face heated up.

The group teased you and Bakugo all the time. They claimed you two secretly love each other and you two just didn't know it. You have came to terms that you thought Bakugo was cute in his own special way, but you were not convinced that the feelings were reciprocated. Katsuki was never good at showing his emotions except when he is angry or annoyed which is his attitude 98% of the time.

You didn't tell your friends that you and Bakugo text more than they think. Not consistently since Bakugo is not much of a conversationalist over text, but he will send you random messages when he's annoyed or if something reminds him of you. You tried to hide the stupid grin you get when his name appeared on your phone, but your friends caught on overtime. You seemed to get teased the most about it. At least, that's how it felt.

You kept your word and strolled over to Bakugo's house after the mall. You were not sure what he wanted or why, but you did not question it either. The most he is going to do is piss you off and you storm home in a fit of rage. So, you were a little hesitant on knocking on his door.

You knocked on the door with three hard knocks. Bakugo opened the door moments later. Same scowl on his face as usual.

"Hey dumbass."

You invite yourself in, not saying anything. You were surprised on how well kept his house was considering Katsuki is quick to blow up everything.

"Wow! Your place looks great!" You complement.

"You've never seen nice things before, idiot?"

You shoot a glare at him.

"Why can't you just accept the compliment, dipshit?" You sigh. "Why did you even invite me over here?"

"Because I wanted to."

"That's not a good enough answer, stupid."

"Well it's going to be! And watch your mouth, dumbass."

You get up in Bakugo's face. Your eyes meeting his crimson red ones staring down into you.

"And what if I don't?" You stated firmly.

Without a word, Bakugo pushes you against the nearest wall. He pins your wrist above your head with one of his strong hands while keeping a hard, lustful gaze on you. You tremble so slightly under his firm grip.

"What the fuck, Katsuki? Let me go!" You demanded to no avail. Bakugo just smirked.

"Not so tough are you now, huh? Look at you, so helpless." Katsuki teased.

You tried to squirm, but this only amused Katsuki. It was obvious he was not going to let you go.

"Katsuki, let me go-" You were interrupted by Bakugo's lips smacking into yours. His kisses are aggressive, but you did not expect any less from the short-tempered man.

Bakugo slowly pulls away, looking at your lips then back to your eyes. You can feel his hot breath tickling your plump lips.

"You're much cuter when you're quiet." Katsuki stated softly.

You feel your stomach doing fumbles. You can't believe Bakugo actually kissed you. Even worse, pinning you against the wall. This is not what you have expected to happen. Especially since Bakugo seems to not want to be around people often. You have a huge crush on him and you're hoping that this is him showing you the feeling is mutual.

"And you're much cuter when you let go of me." You scoffed.

"Nah. I don't think I will. Besides," Bakugo's fingers dip into your pants and feel the wet panties, "I would say you're enjoying this."

Your cheeks turn bright pink and you swallowed the imaginary lump in your throat. You did not want Bakugo to know how much he turns you on. Especially since you're in this position. You know he will not let you live this down and he will use your weakness for him as an advantage.

Bakugo's fingers played with your clit through the wet fabric. He enjoyed watching you squirm as he kept you in place. He began sucking on your neck to leave a nice hickey for everyone to see. You knew better than to try to tell him to stop. Bakugo has made it more than perfectly clear he does not give a single damn about your pleas as he gently nibbles on your tender flesh.

"Katsuki." You moan as his fingers speed up inside you.

Bakugo stops to meet your eyes.

"The name is Daddy. Got that, little girl?" Bakugo growls in your ear, sending shivers down your spine.

You nod.

"Say it." Bakugo demands.

"Yes, daddy."

Bakugo smirks.

"Such a good little slut. I know you have been wanting my cock for a long time and I thought I'd be nice enough to invite you over to feed your hunger."

"T-That's not true!" You argued.

"Really? You think I haven't noticed how turned on you get when we argue? You think I haven't noticed you staring at my dick when we all hangout? Lastly," Bakugo rubs your clit roughly to edge you some, "you're about to be fucking soaked again."

"Mm daddy!" You moan, wanting to cum some more.

"Aw, does my precious little girl want to cum? You want daddy to let you release onto his fingers?" Katsuki coo's condescending.

"Yes daddy! Please!" You beg.

"Your wish is my command, princess."

Bakugo rubs you a little more to get you stimulated and you release. He feels the wetness through your panties and he smirks.

"Damn, you came a lot for me. Such a cock hungry slut you are. Don't worry, daddy is going to fuck your precious little cunt so good." Bakugo chuckles before lifting you up and putting you over his shoulder. He carries you to his bedroom and lays you on your back on his California King Bed. He begins taking off your clothes and kissing - along with a few nibbles - on your exposed skin. He throws your bra to the floor and starts to suck on your tender nipples. Moans of pleasure escape your parted lips.

Bakugo gets to your panties and start to take them off. The cold air hitting your wet core made you shiver a bit. Plus, you were a bit nervous and embarrassed. Your vulnerable naked body is on full display for Bakugo's lustful eyes and you could not help but feel insecure. Bakugo noticed how tense your body became and he gave you a reassuring look.

“If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to.”

“I want to. I’m just nervous.”

“Don’t worry. I will not hurt you too bad.” Bakugo teased.

You softly smile and relaxed. He opened your legs so your soaked pussy was ready for him to enter. Bakugo began getting undressed and your eyes widen at his hard dick. Of course, this doesn’t go unnoticed by Bakugo and he smirks as he strokes his huge member.

“Like what you see?”

“T-That’s going in me?” You exclaimed.

“Yep. All of it.”

You were about to close your legs, but Katsuki put his hands on your knees and keep them open. You feel the tip at your entrance and it already felt he was in deeper than he was. You did not even get much time to process as Bakugo kept making his way deeper into you.

“Damn, you are so fucking tight, babe. You can hardly handle all of my huge cock.”

“Daddy, please!” You whine and moan, wanting more of his member in you, though, you don’t think you can handle much more. You were not a virgin, by any means, but you haven’t had sex with a man as big as Bakugo. With each thrust, its pleasurable and a little painful. He isn’t gentle nor is he small in width. He’s not only big in length, he has a nice girth to his dick as well.

“Quit your whining. You’re going to take all of my cock wether you like it or not, slut.”

Katsuki continues thrusting in you, grumbling slurs under his breath as your folds hug his cock. You could feel another orgasm coming as his balls slapped against you. All of his length was in you, hitting all the right spots and then some. You were gripping the satin bed sheets and moaning loud enough to where Japan could hear you.

“Daddy, I am about to cum.” You moan.

“Damn, on your third orgasm. Better beg for it.”

“Please daddy! Please let me cum! Please!” You begged as tears brimmed your eyes.

“Cum on my cock.”

You did as your told and released on Bakugo’s hard dick. This didn’t stop him from going, through. He was still going to meet his high weather you liked it or not. He is close to cumming and he starts to speed up.

“Oh God.” You gasp as he releases himself into you. He makes sure every drop is in your body before pulling out. He gives you soft kisses on the lips and pulls away to meet your gaze.

“Aren’t you glad you came over?”

©bakugosbratx

All Rights Reserved

[brightbeautifulthings]

Bunny by Mona Awad

"'Whenever I read one of Victoria’s vignettes, I always feel so dumb because I can hardly understand them at all. And then I blame myself. I think, Kira, this must be just too brilliant for you to grasp. Surely you must have missed something. Even though there’s always been this small voice inside of me that says, Um, what the fuck is this, please? This makes no sense. This is coy and this is willfully obscure and no one but Victoria will ever get this. I would in fact need to live inside Victoria’s spoiled, fragmented, lazy, pretentious little mind to get it. And who apart from us, apart from me, is going to be willing to do that? To work all night with a Victoria Decoder? Who would even care to? And then I feel like screaming JUST SAY IT. TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK THIS MEANS AND WHAT YOU DID WITH HIM EXACTLY.'"

Year Read: 2022

Rating: 3/5

About: Did you guys ever read Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block? You know that part where Witch Baby goes to find her mother, Vixanne, and finds a cult of lanka witches who eat candy all day and are obsessed with Jayne Mansfield? And My Secret Agent Lover Man's real name turned out to be Max? This is basically the bloodier, grown-up version of that story.

Samantha Mackey is an outsider at her elite MFA program. An edgy scholarship student, she hates the rest of her writing cohort, a group of beautiful rich girls who share a personality and call each other "Bunny." Instead, Samantha spends most of her time with her best friend, Ava, another rebellious outsider with an attitude she wishes she had. But when Samantha gets an invite to one of the Bunnies’ exclusive get-togethers, she ditches Ava and falls further into their world. It's sugar on the outside and violent creation on the inside, and the more time she spends with them, the less sure she is of what's real. Spoilers are under the cut. Trigger warnings: character death, animal death, violence, blood/gore, abduction, drug use, gaslighting, bullying, manipulation.

Thoughts: This is one of the trippiest books I've read in a while, and I feel like that alone is enough to recommend it for people who like that sort of thing. If you enjoy spending most of a novel going 'wtf is happening?' and still not being totally sure by the end, Bunny is probably worth a read for you. It's weird af and delights in its own weirdness, kind of like that edgy girl with the strange fashion choices from your MFA program-- ha, see what I did there? It's also good for fans of the dark academia subgenre, since it pulls no punches on satirizing elite graduate school creative writing programs. It's funny and occasionally spot-on. I'm less sure how it's going to work for the straightforward horror lovers or... anyone else, to be honest. It's a bit too weird for the mainstream and not nearly scary enough for the horror people, especially at the end.

This review is going to be all over the place because the book is a little all over the place, and it's hard to pin down any one thing that worked for me throughout the book. I like Awad's writing style, sort of poetic and cutting and funny and smart all at once. There's a lot of meta commentary in there about writing and the Work and graduate schools in general that's fun. I like the way the plot just sort of spikes into absurdity out of nowhere and heads start exploding. (You can decide for yourself whether or not that's a metaphor.) Pacing-wise, it's strange though. I was very interested in the set-up, but it lost me somewhere in the middle, and while the ending is a lot of fun, with at least one twist I didn't see coming, it's also a bit of a letdown--and the longer I thought about it, the more let down I was. More on that after the spoilers.

I'm honestly not sure which characters we're supposed to like. I think it's Samantha, as the main character (y'know, speaking of the edgy MFA girl), but I found it difficult to sympathize with her constant pity party and the way she deliberately isolates herself. It's clear early on that she doesn't hate the Bunnies so much as she’s wildly jealous of them, and to be honest, I found them a lot more interesting than Samantha. Yeah, they're also caricatures of Ivy League privilege, and I don't think we're supposed to like them, but as characters I found them really entertaining. (I'm also basically Creepy Doll--the one who looks too sweet and presents too feminine to love the effed up horror shit that I love--so make of that what you will). They cross a lot of lines with Samantha, but I never got the impression that her friendship with Ava was much healthier. Mixed feelings all around, but mixed feelings are some of the best to write about. It's the kind of book that keeps me thinking, and one I suspect I'll get something new out of each time I read, and I always appreciate that.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

I can't decide whether I want more explanation on the magic-stuff in this book or not. On the one hand, I think it works because it's vague, and there's nothing wrong with leaving magic systems open-ended when the magic isn't the point. On the other hand, I like answers, and I was hoping for a bit more. Initially, I thought the Bunnies were into some sort of occult ritual, but if Samantha could manifest all along, that pretty much knocks the wind out of that theory. Also, is the group-mind a real thing or a drug-induced hallucination?

I'm also not sure how I feel about the role Max plays in the story, and I liked it more when the cast was all female. I dislike that it's a man who turns the Bunnies on each other (so banal, Bunny) and does everything Samantha wants to do, including taking them down. In another iteration, I think we'd call this Big Dick Energy, but in this case, it feels like a cop-out to any real character development for Samantha and a setback on giving female characters agency. It doesn't make or break the book for me, but it left my feelings more lukewarm about the ending.

[pencilscratchins]

back to bother u again but!! could u tell us more about azula and the gf u made up for her? the gears in my mind are clicking and im tempted to write about them 👁

i will literally talk about them until you guys dont want to hear it and then, probably long after (also im sorry bc i think this is longer than the first one SKSK)

- so when sokka notices that azula is flustered by nasim, he immediately makes them go over and talk to her, and he spends the whole time talking about how “into lettuce” azula is.

- - nasim thinks she’s really gorgeous, obviously, and as soon as she opens her mouth and is a disaster-- nasim realizes she’s adorable and starts to flirt.

- - - azula basically shuts down like “fairest advisory, i hath never before tasted lettuce but i am well verse in tea pairings for--” sokkas like “why are you talking like an old timey pauper,”

- they get back to the house and sokka tells zuko about it and zuko immediately is like “well i have to meet the woman who has converted my sister into a human being,” 

- he goes with them the next day and abandons his fiancé as soon as they get there to have azula bring him to nasim.

- they find her and nasim is just like fuckin HUH

- - because from nasim’s perspective; the cute awkward girl who tried to talk to you panics when you flirt back and drags her nice, obviously bi sort of familiar looking friend away. aw bummer she left, but whatever that was fun. next day, shes back and this time; she’s with the leader of a fucking soverign country but he introduced himself as “lee” and he’s just as awkward as she is and my god, there’s two of them.

- - - zukos like awkwardly trynna find out if she likes girls while also trying not to lose his mind at azula breaking down. and nasims just like “how DO i respond to this.”

- while the gaangs out and about that night, azula runs into nasim and nasim asks her out to get tea because azula mentioned knowing about it and nasim’s never really gotten into it.

- - azula accepts because she loves knowing about things, and they really get along; like azulas telling stories about iroh being tea obsessed and making jokes and nasims like… actually laughing which has never happened with no threat of violence?? 

- - - and nasim is really enjoying herself because azula’s really funny and actually listens to her talk about the boring shit nasim’s into like the environment and agriculture and seems like genuinely interested (azula never really got to learn about that stuff since ozai always made her focus on military history)

- they part ways and azula finds her brother whos like where’d you run off to? 

- - when she tells them, sokkas like “thats was a date” and zukos like “lmao no that’s was not a date, you and i did that all the time when you were an ambassador!” and sokkas like “... yeah those were dates,”

- anyway, the rest of the gaang finds them and is like “what are you talking about” so zuko spills the beans which is when they all decide to get involved because azula’s like never dated.

- enter: mischief 

- after a week of them being there and seeing each other a lot between random happenstance and the gaang’s interference, nasim invites them all to go on a tour of her family farm (“however, under no circumstance is the avatar is allowed to come” aangs like “understandable and justified! have fun!”)

- - they go and single-minded azula gets really into the farm work which sends nasim’s heart a flutter because hot girl moving hay, helps cow give birth, error error. 

- - - they meet her family too, who mentions they’ve never seen nasim so excited about someone which the gaang is like “hell yeah you go azula” but then azula is like “oh FUCK”

- because of course, azula thinks that nasim if likes her, that means she doesn’t realize who azula is and as soon as she finds out, she will not be interested so she starts to self sabotage bc like that’s her nature.

- after being ghosted for a while, nasim is like “wtf i thought we had something going” and after azula’s talk with katara, she admits her identity and nasim is like “... and?”

- -  she’s like “i knew who you were since the second time we met.” “how?” “... well, you were with the fire lord, who you look exactly like and your name is azula. hop skip and a jump….”

- they start dating and do long distance for a little bit when their vacation ends and azula heads back to the palace, but azula surprisingly, keeps wanting to go back.

- - she has her own hang ups about abandoning zuko and leaving her old life behind, but eventually iroh helps her get through it (i imagine theyve repaired their relationship at this point and iroh’s apologized) so she decides she’s gonna stay until sokka and zuko’s wedding then she’s moving back to nasim’s town and really gonna give being a person a shot.

- (also, i think katara and aang bring nasim to the wedding as a sweet gift and its then azula realizes “oh fuck we really are friends”

IM SORRY ITS NOT MORE DETAILED im not the best writer, but i would love to see what other ideas anyone would have if you’d ever want to write about it 👉👈

[deepdonutkid]

Can I ask for multiple character break downs?👀

Well if I can, then would you please do one for Ada and one for Tommy and one for John

But if only one has to be done, then you can choose any one of these.

Thanks! <3

Thanks for the ask! 💞

Ada Thorne nee Shelby

How I feel about this character

Just love for her! She is adorable, strong, fierce, absolutely amazing! Ada and Polly are the best developed female character on the show. Mainly, because Tommy can’t fuck them, so they can’t be reduced to his love interest, which is such a good thing, because I love strong women. Makes me weak in my knees.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Freddie Thorne, Ben Younger, Jessie Eden, because Ada is bi, she just gives off that vibe, u know.

Somehow I prefer to read stuff with a female reader for her, more than a male reader for her. Because it’s either Freddie x Ada for me or Ada x female reader.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Lizzie, Polly, Ada and Linda are an amazing combination! She and Tommy have an interesting dynamic as well! I would have loved to see more John and Ada interactions, because they have not such a big age gap inbetween, so I think they are close. Especially after Ada got her child and John got married with Esme. Oh, Ada and Esme would have sooo much fun together. Esme would be like the sister Ada never had.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I think her character changed a lot between season 1 and 2, because of Freddie’s death and also after she joined the business again. Sometimes when I make memes or the alignment charts, I have two icons for her, one from first season and one from third season, because I think she is one of the characters who changed the most through the series. First season Ada would do a lot of things different and more naive than third season Ada. Mainly, because she still believed in communism in season 1 and she somehow lost her faith after losing Freddie. Which is super understandable tho.

She acutally becomes wiser with age... unlike her brothers, who just do the same shit over and over again.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wished Ben hadn’t died, because they kill her lovers even fast than Tommys. WTF, right?

On the other hand I wished Ada talked some sense into Jessie, to NOT SLEEP WITH TOMMY THE WHORE SHELBY! Because Ada knows her brother very well and I think she genuinely liked Jessie, or she liked her enough to save her from the pain of being Tommy’s toy or pleasure doll.

And I’m still bitter about the way they killed of Freddie... but more about that later...

Tommy Shelby

How I feel about this character

Relationship status: It’s complicated!

Yes, well, I ramble about Tommy’s shit a lot. I know! He is still an intersting character and it’s so tempting to think about his actions in certain situations, but if I would meet him as a person- I would hate him from the bottom of my heart! <3

He is such an asshole all the time and when I first watched the show, I forgave him a lot he did to his siblings, because I was caught up with his good looks and the presentation of him being the good guy who does bad things to survive. But I spend some time to think about his actions and I noticed, he is an awful human being... to Polly, to his siblings, to his lover and actually to everyone. He might think he does all those mean things to archive a bigger goal, but he is just a gambling addict who can’t stop taking risks he isn’t even prepared for.

Shitty things Tommy has done over time:

Forcing his brother to marry somebody, John didn’t even know at that time, to end a feud, Tommy had started himself and only when it was in his favour to end it, he used John as pawn, so he could archive his plan. HOW FUCKED UP WAS THAT? Nobody seems to talk about this. It was fucking awful! And the way he did it was horrible to! Tommy said nothing to John until the very last moment, when they were already surrounded by enemies, so John couldn’t said no. It also shows, that Tommy thinks he is above his siblings. Tommy thought John wasn’t capable of chosing a wife for himself, so Tommy did that for him too. Even when John didn’t ask for this at all!

Destroying Ada’s relationship with Freddie and chasing his best friend out of town, just because... TOMMY WAS AGAINGST HIS SISTER HAVING A RELATIONSHIP. and yet he proclaimes to listen to woman and to give them a fair change. Maybe just not for our dear Ada!

Destroying Arthur’s marriage, because he kept dragging Arthur into shit, he wasn’t mentally stable enough for. Putting thoughts of rejecting Linda into Arthur’s head, by talking bad about Linda and making jokes about her any given time.

Sleeping with Lizzie over and over again, even when he knew she loved him and when she tried to get over him by dating someone new, he made the order to burn down the pub of Angel, humilated his family, and have him killed later.

Sleeping with Jessie, so he could use her

Humiliate Polly, when she was at her lowest, after Rueben had left her

Drag Michael into the illegal business after Polly begged him not to

Dragging Finn into all this shit after John died, because John wasn’t avaiable anymore

Calling Grace a whore, when they first met

Paying Lizzie in his head, even after she stopped being a sex worker

Helping a fascist

I could go on for a while, but you see my point here!

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Nobody! I want to see him miserable and alone! Honestly I’m never going to read all these soft!Tommy fics or whatever, because they really don’t interest me. I don’t want to see him happy.

But go have fun people and write and read whatever you want!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Tommy and Lizzie, because they have a sexual relationship, which is not based on romance and I love this sad and depressing dynamic between them. It’s so interesting to write and read about.

Tommy and Ada are great in the show. I love their talks and Ada actually points out when Tommy is acting like a douche again.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I have a lot... where should I start?

I get so annoyed, when I see Tommy shown as a twink, because the actor is just 1,70m... which is not small to me. I know a lot of men around that height and I think they are average and not small. Also a lot of men feel bad for not being tall enough, because everywhere in our society it’s normal to have a tall man and a small woman. And the way tall man or small man are sexualized in this alpha/omega thing or in a top/bottom dynamic is so... meh. It’s really uncomfortable to see how people try to push the patriarchal man-woman dynamic into same-sex relationships.

Tommy is a class traitor and a horrible husband.

Man, I could rant for hours, but I stop right here. Just remember, please don’t feel attacked, I don’t mean to attack you. Even if you write or draw... whatever with Tommy, I would never say something bad about this. Enjoy creating Tommy content, I will love to ignore it!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I was so disappointed when they killed Freddie, because those two could have had an interesting and compelling relationship. Freddie could have been a great frenemie. I put this here and on on Ada, because their marriage wouldn’t changed the plot as much as Freddies and Tommys friendship. Tommy would have been a way better person, if Freddie was around.

John Shelby

How I feel about this character

MY HUSBAND! I love him and he has never done anything wrong in his life.

Nah, John has many faults, but I still adore him as a character, because his faults are actually making the plot more interesting. I also read, that he and Tommy fight a lot, because John is more moral and has way more integrity than his older brother. It was just hinted in the show, but I love this side fact and I will base my whole characterisation this.

I love to write, draw and read stuff with him. He is my favorite character from Peaky blinders and my love will never die, even though he did.

Funny tho, when I first watched PB, I adored Tommy and was annoyed by John, but as I rewatched it I changed my mind about those two.

He had so much potential and I would spend all my money, which is not much, but the devotions counts, to see a spin-off with just John and his army of children.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Esme, because they are sooo cute together!

My OFC, because I love writing them.

Any reader, because I’m a sucker for John.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

All kinds of interactions with other characters and John are great! My favorite is John and Ada to be honest. But here are other dynamics I adore as well:

John & Polly, (she would help him a lot with the kids)

John & Arthur (they come to the garrison to drink and play cards, they talk a lot about their problems, deep bond here)

John & Tommy (in my head they are always fighting)

John & Lizzie, because they have a great friendship, and they helped each other a lot. She spend time with the kids and he gave her financial support, so she would quit her job, which she didn’t do, because she feared being all alone again, and she has trust issues) (I’m actually writing a fic about these two)

John & his kids (I’m soft for dad!John)

John & Michael (especially in season three, because John seems to be jealous of Michael)

My unpopular opinion about this character

John is not completely stupid. Well, he is certainly not smart, but he works in the betting shop, and Arthur does not, or not really, because Arthur is bad at math... John at least knows his numbers. And also Tommy chose him to be the legal bookie over the others, so John must do a good job there. He just never got a degree or something similar like Michael. Which is also a reason, why John seems to be bitter about Michael joining the business. Michael was put in a higher position than he did.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

This one is obvious... John should have survived.

[risingphoenix761]

Phoenix and the Kubrick-a-thon

Back in....February? March? Let's go with March. Anyway, back in March, I decided I needed to stop watching The Shining so goddamn much and instead try to branch out and expand my movie watching horizons. And instead of tackling the list of horror flicks I'd been putting together since August that's m i l e s long, I figured it wasn't too much of a leap to work my way through the rest of Stanley Kubrick's filmography. I mean, I'd only been watching The Shining relentlessly since September, right? And since I'm now halfway there (cue Bon Jovi), now seems like as good a time as any to ramble about it. No analysis, just opinions under a cut because this is going to take awhile. And because I like to torture myself, I'm going to try to pick my top moments.

The Shining

This stupid movie has infected my brain. Nowhere NEARLY as badly as the conspiracy theorists, but still. If we're close enough that I feel comfortable rambling at you, you've heard me mention this movie at least five times over the last eight months. I honestly can't remember my first opinion of it, but safe to say that it has CHANGED. Holy SHIT. This is a long ass movie that I feel absolutely none of the run time because there is always something going on. The camera work, the art direction, the music, the performances, all of it. I didn't find it all that scary or even creepy the first couple times I watched it, and now it gets to me more and more the more I come back to it. A full-on ramble could take up its own post, tbh. The geeking out and the occasional existential crisis and the rampant enthusiasm are too much to cram into one paragraph. The long and short of it is, it's pretty safe to say this is one of my favorite movies.

Top moments: 95% of the movie if we're serious but Danny riding the big wheel, Jack walking to the Gold Room, the Bat Scene™, "Here's Johnny" (ofc)

A Clockwork Orange

Funny story, I ended up watching this for the first time after a friend of mine told me something I wrote reminded her of this movie. If you've seen it, you can imagine the WTF running through my head afterwards. And somehow, it's even more fucked up on a revisit. It's interesting to note this is Kubrick's low budget movie, because it seems to be one of the first that comes up when talking about his body of work. IDK, that's just amusing to me. Visually, it's a trip. Thematically, it's a doozy. Which is worse, a violent individual committing all sorts of atrocities for fun, or state sanctioned violence that strips an individual of their free will? The cinematography and design are, again, distinctive, but what sticks out the most to me is Malcolm MacDowell's performance. He's despicable but charismatic and I want to look away but I just. Can't. Do. It. I loathe Alex and his crimes are horrifying, but I don't enjoy watching him get his comeuppance, and yet the way it's portrayed is all horribly mesmerizing/surreal/cartoonish. A tough watch, but a brilliant film.

Top moments: Alex and his droogs' first meeting with the drunk, Alex's second meeting with the writer

Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

I'm a big fan of irony, so I dug this movie. I also don't think I've watched anything that made me facepalm more. It's just so ABSURD. And by highlighting the absurdity, it makes it easier to laugh at what is truly a horrifying concept. In summary, one nut job decides to launch a nuke and jump start nuclear war because he has a weird conspiracy theory, and the most powerful figures on the world stage are utterly incompetent to stop it. It's frustrating as hell, and fucking hilarious, and that ending is just the icing on the cake. As far as comedies go, this one is DARK.

Top moments: "You can't fight in here! This is the war room!" and any time Peter Sellars is on screen.

Full Metal Jacket

*sigh* Y'know, if you've seen one war movie, you've pretty much seen them all. That said, it does feel like two different movies, though it still didn't do much for me. At this point in my watch-a-thon, though, I'd picked up enough of Kubrick's style to read it, in terms of what the camera is doing and how character arcs progress, which was pretty cool. However, I reeeeaaaally don't understand why I've only heard this movie mentioned as being an uber-macho, by-dudes-for-dudes flick about guys being dudes, because....that is NOT the reading I got. If it's not Sgt. Hartman during basic training, then it's the door gunner shooting down random civilians or the Marines being interviewed that seem to hammer in the idea that war breaks down your humanity and leaves you a mindless killing machine. It's easy to see Hartman as the antagonist of the first half, and very hard to sympathize with the soldiers in the second, and unless I'm missing something in my reading, that's how it's supposed to be. Which gives the ending more of an impact, if you ask me, when one last killing is, given the situation, the most humane action that could be taken. Not a bad movie, but not my cup of tea.

Top moments: Private Pyle's...er...DOR, and Joker's response to the sniper reveal

The Killing

Back to our good friend Irony. This is one of Kubrick's earlier movies, and it shows quite a bit in the mechanics of the film. The story itself, on the other hand... I don't really have too much to say about this one. It's a straightforward heist movie with some fun moments and some aspects that just don't work very well. I was occasionally entertained, and occasionally bored. I'll give points for the ending, though, as I couldn't stop laughing until the credits were over. Again, the IRONY.

Top moments: the final scene

Lolita

Watching this was easily one of the ickiest viewing experiences I've had so far, full stop. Made even worse by the fact that this is a good movie. Which makes it really. Frigging. Hard. To talk about. You probably know at least the general premise of one of thee Problematic™ novels some people love to wring their hands over, and in case you don't: a middle aged man becomes obsessed with his landlady's young daughter, and it gets gross fast. Apparently there was all kinds of trouble adapting it in a way that appeased the censors, and gee whiz, I wonder why. It's also one of those cases when working backward from a twist actually works. The cast is excellent, and while I'd never heard of Peter Sellars before starting this watch project, I might have to look up more of his work, because dude can steal a scene. All in all, a beautifully made and perfectly nauseating flick. I mean, damn.

Top moments: the opening scene, Charlotte finding Humbert's diary

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that'll wrap it up for now. Only six more to go!