#will def watch the first couple eps at least when it comes

[alter-koker]

true detective season 4 trailer was actually pretty intriguing... hope it will be better than the last 2 seasons. plus jodie foster O_O

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

June 2023 Wk 3 

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Step By Step (Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - There sure is a lot of drinking in this show (who am I to talk?). Omg so awkward: The not-break-up not-confession. I have heartburn. Also I could not watch Jeng break down. Just nope. Then time jump? If that was our DOOM episode the timing is off. Or next week is the final? Or we get 3 eps of domestic bliss and sexitimes? I’m confused. 

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - I like how trope-subversive this show is - first soulmates, then love triangle, now the faen fatal. NO SINGING. Oh good. They didn’t! Yay! So yeah I still love it. But I am also still a touch scared of where it might go. This one can’t be trusted. 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 5 of 12 - not a bad ep this week or was I too drunk to register nuance and damage? You decide. Trash watch here.

Luminous Solution (Sat Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - I always have to psyche myself up to watch this show, because I want to fast forward through most of it, but it’s on Gaga so that’s damn near impossible. At least this is the penultimate episode. I think after 3 BLs I can safely say Gun is just not a good actor. Speaking of... crying clothed in the shower? I haven’t seen that trope in years. But I LOVE the high school boys and their story so much. Love Sick level of earnest floppy goodness, I’m such a sucker for this kind of romance. I want them to be in a completely different BL. I’m so conflicted. I NEED this show to end so I can decide how I feel about it.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Love Tractor (Korea Weds iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - So much is happening, evil x-boyfriend shows up. We got flashbacks to coming-out drama + nasty dad (super unusual for a KBL). But baby’s first taste of desire is hilarious. This one is full of lovely contrasts, and contrasting life experiences. It’s all about support and neglect. 

Tokyo in April AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 8 - Very much full of hero worship and giving me My Beautiful Man vibes (only softer and office set). “Dazzling” = always an interesting word when it comes up in JBL subs. It’s clearly a Japanese word/concept like kawaii  that is more complex than the English word being used. Meanwhile, this being Japan we get lots of hints as to separation and dark past events. 

Tie The Knot (prev Under the Same Sky) (Pinoy YouTube) eps 1-2 of 8 - From OXIN Films (Rainbow Prince), based on a true story (?!), Briggs's family runs a bridal business but he has never fallen in love until he meets a groom to be in an arranged marriage. EXACTLY the same premise at Mame’s forthcoming Wedding Planner. There are so many characters and prospective couples (including a v bi girl with a female fuck buddy, not seen that in a BL before) that it is a little hard to keep straight (heh). I’m sure it will shake out. It’s intriguing so far, if a touch silly. I actually like the arranged marriage premise because the two rich kids involved in it are so weirdly kind & platonically sweet to each other, even if they’re both on the same page about it only being for show. 

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 7 & 8 of 12 - Apparently there is very little difference between a cat and a demanding princess of a boyfriend. That clocks. Basically this was the dating times. 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - There is a lot more meat to this silly little BL then I thought there would be given the premise, but it’s Japan so that’s as it should be. But, as it’s Japan there’s also a little too much cringe for me. I do enjoy how generous Japan is with late bloomers and I would def like to host a kimchi party  but otherwise... meh. 

Stupid Genius (Vietnam Fri YouTube) ep 3 of 6 - Bi erasure still alive and well I see. This one remains fine for VBL but no more than that.

It’s airing but ...

House of Stars (Thai Mon iQIYI) 12 eps - I bounced at ep 3. Will binge if told it is worth it at end.

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) 7 eps - It’s mostly in English and set in LA so I’m not bothering but the first one did drop.

Ever After (Pinoy YouTube) - I investigated but as spies reported it's a real mess (not a hot one). Don’t bother. 

About Us but Not About Us (Pinoy Prime?) - from 2022 supposed to be finally getting inter distribution, didn’t show in my territory. A professor grieving the loss of his partner meets an ambitious literature student. I’m not fussed. 

Stay With Me ... NO! 

In case you missed it

What Did You Eat Yesterday movie, BL Express posted a review. I’ve yet to get hold of it but if you enjoy Our Dining Table this is it’s grown up parent series & movie. 

Café in Love - I finally got around to watching this. And frankly it hits all the tropes but is so damn bad. The setting is cute, the central brotherly relationship is sweet, the side cast is v queer (baby gay has all these auntie queens catting about) and some complex bisexual awakenings but… but… everything else is a chemistry void. Some fun language wordplay and exploration of cultural tropes like cheek kissing does not save it from an unnecessary amount of punching  and a but ton of sexual harassment and statutory rape. No thank you. I had to rewatch Destiny Seeker to get over this. 3/10 

I gave up 

Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS and no, I have no idea where to get it, why would I? Apparently it finished. I still can’t find it but it’ll be off this list next week.

Why You (Khmer ????) - Billed as a horror romance, not sure if this is a movie or a series where it aired... nothing except that it exists.

Next Week Looks Like This:

3 BLs are finishing but nothing is starting up. We running lean these days. 

Just started today (Sunday): Dinosaur Love (Thai iQIYI) Trailer 10 eps - from Ultimate Troop about a uni student, Rak, whose partner cheats on him with Rak's best friend. This gives bad boy hazer Dino an opportunity to hit on Rak at last. From The Yearbook people so I shouldn’t watch this as it airs. After Remember Me? I swore never again with them. But there’s so little on right now, I might fall on the pulp sword. 

I’ll include it in next week’s summation. 

I’ll have the July 2023 upcoming for you next week too. 

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love him, Your Honor. (Be My Favorite... HIM, he’s my favorite.) 

I love them, Your Honor. (Luminous Solution) 

Watch a tiny GL ship set sail across the seas of overly optimistic tumblrs... (La Pluie)

MY PRECIOUS! OMG I LOVE HER SO MUCH. (Tie the Knot) 

Incidentally, I would like a future as a dictatorial elder queer running a slightly shady business fleecing the straights via their dumb marriage traditions surrounded by nubile half-naked hotties.

And ya know what? I think this is achievable life goal for me. 

Gotta go, I have a future to plan. 

(Last week.)

[icy-watch]

(I hit the unfollow button when trying to hit Q&A......but I hit follow instantly to fix it, sorry)

Before I leave tomorrow on my vacation I thought I'd request a show/series that is very dear to my heart. Like, if you made me pick between this series and Ninjago I'd mostly likely pick the former.

The series is called Kekkaishi. It's an anime and manga by Yellow Tanabe. The anime ran on Adult Swim between October 2006 to February 2008 and the manga ran from October 2003 to April 2011 with 35 volumes (one more than Attack on Titan btw).

I dunno if you're into anime or manga.....but....it's so forgotten. So not known. It hurts me really. When the anime was airing and the manga was still being made, it was so popular and highly ranked....but now...

I grew up watching Kekkaishi along side other young children shows like Spongebob, Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, etc.

The basic summary boils down to this: Two families that are called Kekkaishi or "Barrier Master" guard a mystical site at night from creatures known as Ayakashi (different than "demons", those are a separate thing). They've done it for 400 years. Oh, and the "mystical site" is the grounds of a middle/high school building. The protagonist is Yoshimori Sumimura and......

Oh ho ho hoho

You think I'm obessed over Lloyd...

You think I go crazy about Geo.....

You think Luz is a sweet bean.....

no....no no no

Sniff wrong in Yoshi's direction and it's

(the sweet grace of the Death Note won't save you from my wrath)

But anyways, the anime was canceled after 52 eps; I don't know why. I wish it wasn't. THERE'S SO MANY ARCS I'D LOVE TO SEE ANiMATED!!!!! The Julia mini arc! The Blank Box arc (my personal fav), the Healing Hidagou + Tokine Imprisoned arcs, and the Final Sealing Arc (would LOVE to Ufotable animate honestly)

You don't have to liveblog it but I'd still love it if you'd watch it. Plus all 34 volumes can be bought on Amazon!

Icy, it seems you and I have a lot of shared interests so I'd thought I'd at least share this one with you. I hate how something I love so fondly is so unknown (it honestly makes me depressed thinking about it)

Here's some pics from the anime and manga!

(don't get me started on Gen or Souji 😭)

There's a chance I might not see your reply before I got on my vacation depending on when you respond/if I decide to check my tumblr before I leave (the location is a campsite with shitty or no wifi)

(You're good. Happens every now and again to everyone)

Oooo, I've kind of heard of Kekkaishi. I had a couple of ex-friends who were reading the manga when it was still coming out. I don't know if they ever watched the anime tho (probably, if it was on Adult Swim).

I haven't read any manga in a while. I was taking a break from the anime culture for a little while and just haven't gotten back into it. The aforementioned ex-friends were kind of the reason why. I'll probably start again by rereading the first series I ever completed (Chrono Crusade) that 1 or InuYasha. Again.

I'll def keep Kekkaishi in mind. It looks and sounds interesting. I might add the anime to a poll, just to see if anyone else is interested in seeing me liveblog it.

💜💜💜💜

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

i did the whole 'oh i;ll only watch a couple episodes of this sh- oh oops i've seen the whole thing' with we are lady parts series 2 and i wanna give my thoughtssss

will be spoilers below btw

ok so overall i did love it!!!

as i said in my other post, this series was definitely less funny than the first but that made sense since this one felt a lot more serious, and the emotional moments were by far the strongest imo!!!

the music was great OBVIOUSLY! 'villain era' is an instant classic, and i WILL be listening to the whole soundtrack on repeat lol!

i also really adored so many of the character moments in this series! bisma trying to find her identity as a black muslim woman (and the whole 'don't let me be misunderstood' scene made me bawl! genuinely one of the best bits of tv i've seen in ages!), ayesha's struggle with her relationship to the idea of coming out (which i'm SO happy they went the direction they did! it also really did make me cry too lol... also laura was hot as fuck) and saira's whole censorship thing was SO fucking powerful! (the other characters had great moments too btw, but those definitely stood out to me!)

also ALSO i loveddd how so many scenes had this unique surreal feel to them! like we definitely saw this in the first series, but i love how they really played around with it in this one (the whole pausing people thing, saira being physically censored, etc)

also ALSO ALSO loved that we got some more momtaz scenes! it genuinely broke my heart when they decided to ditch her for the contract tbh and i was so SO happy where they went with her arc!

but ok so despite all that, i did have some Problems...

overall the first half of the series was definitely weaker than the latter half, and like i get that a part of that is cos they ofc needed to set up plots for the latter part to make sense, but it also meant that the first few eps kinda dragged a lil :///

connected to this, i really didn't get why the whole 'second wife' bit was there lol other than to create some 'lady parts are millennial and don't understand gen z' but it all just came across kinda cringey to me soz... (also the fanfiction plot could have been interesting but they handled it in a kinda weird way ??? idk lol...)

my biggest complaint, though, was with what they did with amina.

look, i ADORE her as a character and anjana is an absolute QUEEN. buuuuuuut.... they really couldn't have had something more interesting for her character other than a (kinda boring) romantic storyline?! idk... just with everything else happening with the other characters, it was the part that felt least developed imo...

and it's not like i have anything against ahsan and her being together, i really like their chemistry and def rooted for them in the first series, but the whole white guy thing (i cant be bothered to go look up that guy's name lol) & ahsan's jealousy was just a lil tedious to me idk...

even her scenes with noor and her mum, which i did like, just felt kinda disjointed from everything else... i guess they wanted to include it so the series still felt lighthearted with all the slightly more heavy subject matters this series went into, but it just didn't work for me...

and especially with her saying she's in her 'villain era' i was really hoping for some interesting and dynamic moments with her character but we got like... literally nothing that wasn't already in the first series lol??? also, and this is a small complaint, but i feel like her relationship with saira was a large part of the first series and yet we hardly saw them interact in the second series??? (and i'm not even saying this from a shipping context, even though i do like the idea of them being together lol... it was just odd that their dynamic was so important for the first series but completely ignored for the 2nd ??? idk idk)

and like, look, i know that a part of my minuscule disappointment with this series is that the first series had SUCH a big impact on me and so my expectations after literally 3 years of waiting were very high, so there was no way that it would ever be able to live up to all that anyway so ... idk

[airenyah]

Nine people you'd like to get to know better

was tagged by @callipigio and @ranchthoughts <3

3 ships:

no. 1: patpran

you knew this was coming. this has been the brand of my blog for 2.5 years. they are in my profile pic. i'm still stuck on the rooftop. i love them. i want what they have

no.2: destiel

you had to be there

no.3: beadick

at first i was gonna say percabeth but i just HAD to give a shoutout to ben and bea from nothing much to do and lovely little losers. esp since @thecandlewasters currently have a dracula daily style of nmtd rewatch going on for the 10 year anniversary

pls, i adore ben and bea SO MUCH, they have such a fun energy!!!!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺

everyone go watch nmtd, it's such a gem of a show 🥺🥺 (it's shakespeare's much ado about nothing, but make it 2014 teen vloggers. it's SO nostalgic!!!)

First ship:

i don't really remember?? possibly axel and lilo from die knickerbocker-bande. i was def lowkey shipping them in elementary school before i even knew what shipping was

one of the first ships i remember was also channy from sonny with a chance

it was back when i was still watching disney channel in low quality on youtube with episodes split in 3 parts and before i had really slipped into fandom. i remember the promo for that one ep coming out when chad asks sonny out on a (real) date and impatiently waiting for this episode to air and then desperately checking youtube if i could find the episode somewhere kdkdfkfdg

channy had SUCH a fun energy together at least before they started dating and i still have a soft spot for them ngl

Last song:

uh. it was this:

joongdunk era indeed

Currently reading:

i started rereading the lightning thief in italian a while ago and i really need to get back to it rip

Last movie:

give me a couple hours and then it will have been "divorzio all'italiana" which i have to watch as an assignment for my subtitling class

Currently Craving:

hmmm nothing really, tbh. i'm pretty satisfied right now 🤔

tagging:

@newyearknwwme @telomeke @moonkhao @visualtaehyun @dimplesandfierceeyes @solo-silenzio @cornflowershade

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Did you finish the S2 of the Total Drama Reboot (all the eps are out already) ? I did and while the season started strong the ending flopped badly imo.

Incoming spoilers (and long rant) if you haven't watched it yet:

The winner is not it I'm sorry. Wayne is a cool character but he had zero stand outs moments to justify his win. They tried to recreate Owen's win in Island but at least Owen was really strong in some challenges (including destroying the main villain Heather in the final 3 challenge). Wayne literally flopped hard in almost all of the challenges this season and then got hard carried by his best friend's boyfriend in the final 3 for his win. Also I don't understand how he got so many enthusiastic supporters when Raj and Bowie were the only characters he interacted with from that group, especially cause he didn't even need them as Bowie literally did almost all the work for him by himself.

Julia dominated this season but it felt hollow, she quite literally had no opposition left after she got Bowie booted off. Imagine if Heather got booted in the middle point of World Tour and Alejandro just freely dominated his way into a final 3 with the likes of DJ and Cody (which he somehow would've still lost just to have one of the good guys win). That's pretty much how I felt about the final 3 from this season. Mkulia (and their cheating conflict with Bowraj) did carry the first half, so I'm gonna give them that.

Priyaleb literally got turned into a Skave 2.0 with their flip floppity mess drama just without the "Keith" plot point at the end to bomb out their relationship completely. They turned Priya into a Courtney knock-off who's more obsessed with revenge and winning (even tho she already won a season) than her own boyfriend. She even seems to despise Caleb's personality and is only in love with the idea of having a hot boyfriend (just like Courtney seemed in love with the thrill of being with a bad boy than Duncan himself and we know how that relationship ended up). Honestly if they bring up this couple for another season they're def gonna have a huge messy break up, I just don't see them lasting with the way they've been portrayed in these last S2 eps.

Ngl but I actually enjoyed Ripaxel, even tho they were just the gross comedic relief side couple. Surprisingly Ripper treated Axel like a Queen (unlike Caleb who just kept embarrassing his girl over and over on international tv) and Axel stopped abusing him completely after they started dating, so they're unironically one of the healthiest TDI couples so far. And even tho they're the horny couple at least Ripper really does seem to have genuine feelings for her unlike Priya for Caleb.

And I really hated the Hockey Bros flanderization this season. Last season they were dumb himbos but they were still very competent in the team challenges, heck arguably the best overall from their team. But this season they literally got turned into man children who probably wouldn't be able to cross the street without Bowie around to take them by their hands. Which literally didn't make sense at all when this season was supposed to focus more on them than the last one.

They really had Millie go crazy in that one ep and almost kill Damien just to win a challenge, but honestly I kinda dig that. Her team was so boring that they needed at least one (secretly) unhinged member.

Bowie was clearly weaker as a character this season but he still served. Scary Girl was technically in only 2 episodes and you know she still SERVED. I didn't really care about the other characters this season tbf.

So overall it might still not be the worst season (I mean All Stars and Pahkitew still exist) but season 1 of the Reboot was def superior imo. While I'm not opposed to at least some of this cast coming back in a future season I really hope they create a new cast beforehand if they get the greenlight for new seasons cause they're already exhausting all the plotlines for this one and some of them already started to become flanderized. At the very least they should add new characters and change the location to shake things up if they still want to go ahead with this cast.

So Yes, I did finish Season 2

And much like season 1 I found it mid. I think Season 1 ended stronger, but started pretty weak. While Season 2 was the reverse

I did think it had a promising start, I even liked how Priya and Kaleb were set up for the drama. But after the reveal it kind of... fizzled out. Like they could have milked the drama more and Priya had a right to want revenge but Priya was never such a super angry revenge person before and it felt weird.

They turned Caleb into a complete idiot after they resolved the arc. He was smart, just not game show savvy. That was his thing.

I wouldnt call it anywhere CLOSE to the atrocity that was Skave. But it was a lot less fun. At least Priya calmed down at the end.

But the moment the season went down hill for me was when Damien got eliminated.

I really felt they were setting him up for something good in the character arc department but they didnt. I knew he was doomed the moment he found the immunity idol but it would have been a nice inversion to have HIM use it.

And lets be real, I didnt care about the final 3 at all, I knew Julia wasnt going to win because lets face it she is basically Diet Heather.

They even did something to her hair like Heather.

As for Wayne winning. I didnt care, it was going to be him or Caleb.

Season 2 could have used more Scary Girl. Every scene she was in was gold.

I also appreciated the tasteful cameos of Owen. MacArthur and the Tennis pros.

It wasnt anything awful, but i did find it fizzled out in the later half.

[abucketofweird]

Heartstopper Live Reaction: Ep. 6 Truth/Dare

- When do u graduate??? Damn that must hurt

- Oh shit the girls comments

- Not where’s Waldo as a little activity (isn’t it something else in different places?)

- Ohhhh I love the friendship talks

- ISSACS ARO COLORS SHIRTTTT

- THEY DEF MEANT THAT

- again the couples together then Issac is hard

- I’ve felt that before and it SUCKSSS

- AHHH THE CONFESSION

- I’m glad they had someone who didn’t know until adulthood

- It’s realistic for so many people

- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA

- I’m so glad Imogen is integrated into their group

- Issac just coming in and out of frame with more books is an amazing joke my god

- All the montages are adorable

- REPRESENTATION MAKING NICK COMFORTABLE WITH PDA

- Also all the rainbows lol

- ISSAC BOUGHT LOVELESSS OMFG I CANT

- Also the amount of books is adorable

- That’s like $800 or more in books practically

- Wow that’s a massive party

- Now they are kissing all over lol

- Oh Issac I’m so sorry I feel left out

- It sucks to feel like u don’t have anyone

- Especially since everyone is just kissing all over

- WAS BEN INVITED TF?!??!

- Oh Issac bby

- James saying the crush thing reminds me of the scene where Nick and Charlie first kissed

- Ohhhhh Issac

- I don’t want a romance for him but at least he seems ace

- THE TEAR

- NO HOMOPHOBIA HERE HARRY

- I’m glad Harry is growing

- It’s important for people to be able to grow

- BUT YESS HE HURT U YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY ALLOWED TO NOT FORGIVE HIM

- Tao that crawl was terrifying

- WTF WHO US THAT PERSON

- damn I knew this would be an issue

- His friends sticking up for him is so great

- AWWWWWWWWWWWW

- Not the “I called it”

- NICK IS SO GREAT HES DOING SO GOOD GLAD EVERYONE REACTED WELL

- Interesting that they ran her down the hall when a bathroom was right there

- They must know that alch makes u sick why did they grab the teachers

- OH SHIT I CANT WATCH THIS

- everyone in school will def know sorry Nick

- OMG HE JUST WANTS TO SHARE IT

- Oh the boys def planned to let Nick and Charlie be alone

- YESSSS CONSENT

- I’m so glad they are showing the sex discussions on screen

- CONSENT IS KEY AND THEY ARE SO GREAT FOR SHOWING THISSS

- God Issac is my baby and I love him and want him to be happy

- AHHHH ILY DARCY IS SO GOOD

- oooooohh teachers getting wild

- AGHHHHHHHHH

- everything is so freaking cute

- Charlie is the big spoon confirmed

- THE HEART ON INSTA HOLY SHITTTTT

- I don’t want them to leave their Paris bubble the angst is coming

This episode could also be considered my favorite!!! The Issac content really grew and the little nods towards his aroace identity are ramped up!! The idea that someone can grow up and change but you can still not forgive them for their actions is so important!!! There was so much adorableness in this ep for Charlie and Nick, Tara and Darcy (at the end anyways), and Elle and Tao!!!

100/10

[psychewritesbs]

different anon here but i came across your evil post when i was perusing the tag — i loved seeing your thoughts as someone in the psychology field! i think you only watched the first season (based on the comment of watching 13 eps in 3 days), but if you were to continue watching seasons two and three (and four this summer!) i think you would find that the framing of the catholic church does get a little less "good guys"-y. this is probably in part due to the shift from being a cbs air-on-tv show with season 1, to a paramount+ online streaming show in seasons 2+. it's not a massive difference, to be fair, but they def start discussing some discriminatory aspects of the church, esp in regards to race & a bit in relation to sexuality and views on other religions. there is actually a very interesting plotline in season 3 regarding the catholic church that i would love to see your thoughts on, should you keep watching!

HOLA different anon. THANKS FOR THE ASK!!!! I love nerding out with others about psych. It's my thang.

Ok so, I just finished season 2 and these are my thoughts under el cut'o:

First I want to get this out of the way.

The Leland storyline... you know, where he gets to worm his way into everything that is convenient for the plot? I'm so over him.

I just want to punch him. Mrs. O'Brien and Thomas from Downton Abbey are far better at being cliché villains.

I love cliché machiuvelically tacky evil villains, but I have high standards because of Mexican novelas.

No one can ever trump Soraya Montenegro at being fabulously tacky evil.

Anyways, your comment totally reminded me about how in s1 they address the issue with children in the church and its stance on homophobia. So I love that they continue the theme with the exploration of how the church is racist, and my least favorite--sexist.

I have yet to see beyond the first couple of episodes in season 3, but I can appreciate that the church is framed as not such a good guy after all.

It's just that even if Evil is framing the church in not such a positive light, Evil still frames the Catholic God as "good", and the Catholic Devil as "evil".

At least from what I've seen... perhaps there's more surprises in s3 regarding that idea--the opening has been awfully similar to Westworld's opening since s1 so I get the sense the producers/writers are interested in delivering a similar feast for brainiac types like myself.

Um... ok so... everything comes back to Jujutsu Kaisen 😂.

Feel free to skip this section for more thoughts about the show.

Good vs. Evil

When I said that I preferred morally gray stories, I was specifically thinking about a liveblog post I had written about one of the chapters in the manga Jujutsu Kaisen. I'm not sure if the anon who recommended I watch Evil was thinking along the same lines, or if anon has read my jjk nerderies, but jjk puts a nice twist on the good vs. evil trope that Evil explores.

The mangaka, Gege Akutami, introduced a little symbol that I traced back to William Blake who had taken inspiration from Milton's "Paradise Lost" in his own understanding of the question of good vs. evil.

I haven't looked too deeply into either of their work, so read this with a grain of salt since I also can't confirm the accuracy of what I've read about them online, but I understand they both considered themselves to be Christian men who did not necessarily agree with the traditional interpretation to the problem of good vs. evil.

Regardless of the differences between Christianity and Catholicism, my understanding is that Blake saw "evil" as instinct free from reason, and "good" as reason (instinct may or may not be the right word).

Along the same lines, you have Jung's definition of libido.

Again, it's been years since I've read Jung's collected works, but if I remember correctly, the way Jung spoke of libido was as if it were psychic energy. In other words, unlike Freud, Jung did not necessarily see libido strictly as sexual desire, but rather our aliveness, our will, our desires, our instincts, etc.

Our neuroses, Jung thought, were often the cause of conflicts in the flow of said energy, like say, curbing your desires with reason.

From this perspective "evil" is not necessarily, you know... stereotypical selfish villain who is evil for the sake of evil evil...

... but rather the expression of libido unchecked by reason for self-serving purposes.

This all relates to jjk because jjk explores the idea that the stronger the ego sense of self, the stronger the character, which inevitably means that the character in question is selfish af and has no regard for others.

This is where it gets complicated because... how to say... is it truly evil for Kristen to have killed that serial killer dude when she was doing it to protect herself and her family?

I don't have the answer to it. All I can say is that Kristen had an impulse and acted on it without applying much reason outside of "I am doing it to protect my daughters and I will be careful not to incriminate his wife".

The show, however, explains this away as demonic possession (?) which doesn't sit right with me because it reduces her impulse to something "dark" and "undesirable" that only God (reason) can heal.

But like... reason devoid of instinct is basically artificial intelligence. In the end, you need them both. That is why people like Jung and Blake and even Buddhism advocate for a marriage of opposites, or walking a middle path.

It's really complicated and I feel like I am oversimplifying the whole thing lol. It's like Kant's trolley problem.

Maybe you have some insight about it or some nuance I may be missing that you'd like to share.

Anyways... it is the IRS episode that most felt like what good vs evil is from this Depth Psych perspective. And it kind of sucks because it only got such a brief mention with the Satanist t-shirt guy saying that he likes to do what pleases him as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

So my over-thinking brain can't get over the fact that Evil still frames the "devil" and "evil" as inherently bad. It reduces the concepts to black and white terminology when there is a lot of nuance to be had.

Evil

That out of the way... I was honestly getting bored with s2, ESPECIALLY with Leland, but the way it ended was so powerful. It's like they were saving the best for last.

Between Kristen's emotional confession and how s3 begins, I think I'm going to keep watching, just probably won't be as invested.

By the way, I LOVE Nun Andrea. What a fun and relatable character.

Ok, that's that. Thanks for reaching out! Looking forward to hearing from you again.

[burntjuulpod]

Netflix's Wednesday review with spoilers!!

okay, so I stayed up and watched the Wednesday show when it first premiered at 3 this morning and it is so fucking good!! I needed a quick nap but now I'm back and just wanted to share some thoughts on the show and some things online.

you were NOT queerbaited!! wenclair was a "crack ship" made when the first trailers came out way before any of the WednesGay event and there was nothing queer promised in this show, tho we did get some with side characters and there could be more later on if we get more seasons

I keep seeing people criticizing when Wednesday tells Morticia that she will never fall in love and be a housewife as an ideal the writers are pushing as being a homemaker is something terrible. I have seen so many of these but the whole root of Wednesday's issues with these things is she doesn't want to be seen as weak and most importantly she doesn't want to be like her parents! she said this to hurt her mother and separate herself from her

now on to the actual plot points. while watching I was very upset with the way they were taking the little love triangle they had going on was happening but after the twist it makes sense. Tyler was so insistent because he needed to be closer to her and it makes sense for him to be pushy and more willing to follow all of her crazy theories and help her

on the other hand it also makes sense for Xavier for starters her already knew Wednesday and had initially saved her from his roommate and his crazy ramblings so he already had a proverbial foot in the door even before the monster was discovered. secondly, he hated Tyler and at some points, you could definitely tell that he more so wanted Tyler gone than he wanted to woo Wednesday per say

when we got the tour of the social clicks trailer I was scared for a hot minute with Bianca that Wednesday would try to take her down and I'm glad that wasn't the case. I didn't like Bianca at first but that was the point! and I never really hated her just not thrilled when she showed up in the first couple of eps but as we saw her Character develop by the end I loved her and understood why she did the things that she would do

I loved when enid left and Wednesday had to confront the fact that they were friends and she actually liked her. that was good for Wednesday, unlike when the boys were telling her she was sending mixed signals she wasn't sending shit so she never really had to change with them but with Enid? she wanted to change and fix that relationship

finally, I'll talk about the hug, it was the climatic and dramatic moment of the whole show regarding character relations. enid kissing ajax, boring as hell. Wednesday kissing Tyler boom plot twist and they are done for. the music, enid only asking where Wednesday is, the run, ENID FUCKING PICKED HER UP IN THAT HUG!!!!, the shove off then going back in with a death grip are you kidding me???

with Tyler out of the way, I definitely could see Xavier backing off from Wednesday. Enid and Ajax just started dating for like maybe a month and now they are going home until the next semester we could def come back next season just with her saying it was puppy love and it fizzled out once they went home. boom perfect opening for wenclair especially now with Wednesday being a tad bit more open to investigating with other people. we saw a lot of solo Wednesday investigations using each person for a small part of the puzzle but now trusting at least Eugene and Enid I could see them being a scooby doo type group the next time we see them

[marley-manson]

@charlesemersonwinchesteriii replied to this post:

I never really understood why people kept calling that scene a big hawkbeej moment, so I'm relieved I'm not alone in that haha. Also you make an excellent argument that Hawkeye doesn't actually "get worse" as the show progresses, which I'd never thought about before! I know people talk about his coping mechanisms becoming less effective in later seasons and I always just passively agreed with that cause I'm not super focused on him and also I've never watched any of the episodes in order (woops!) but now you're making me really think about it..... hmmm..... I can totally see this as another instance of fandom seeing a character arc where there isn't actually one, just like with Charles. Just for myself, the only concrete change I could point to noticing is the obvious and intentional "learns to Respect Women" thing. But I don't know if that's just me not being smart enough to see things lol

lol yeah to me it’s like, yep BJ’s def acting like a guy who’s known Hawkeye for a couple weeks and is totally out of his depth, which is fine and understandable but not really shippy to me. But also tbf I’d prefer that even if I was a huge hawkbeej shipper because I’m not much of an ‘instant magical connections and understanding’ person when it comes to romance tropes anyway.

But I mainly c/ped your comment so I could respond at greater length to the rest of it, so! I definitely don’t think you’re missing anything (and ik we’ve talked about it before but yeah I also very much agre with you about Charles).

tbf I think Alan Alda is the one who said that Hawkeye’s coping mechanisms get less effective, but it’s not the first time I’ve disagreed with his takes on the show lol. And I don’t have a fully solidified take on Hawkeye’s “character arc” tbf. But yeah my impression is that it’s not that Hawkeye changes, it’s that the tone of the show changes. Hawkeye does get more dramatic episodes and he does get more sad monologues as the show goes on, but he never stops balancing them out with humour and hope, he had plenty of sad monologues in the early seasons too, and he never falls apart to the extent that he did in Dr Pierce Mr Hyde or The Late Captain Pierce. Some of the later episodes reference the war getting to him and making him act out in petty ways, eg Dear Uncle Abdul, but like, so did Bananas Crackers and Nuts, the 7th episode of the show. Plus arguably his worst experience throughout the show, give or take GFA, was season 1′s Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, with Abyssinia Henry not far behind either.

He’s always been portrayed as someone who feels deeply and is greatly affected by the war and who’s barely coping - the funnier tone of the early seasons made it slightly less obvious, but it’s still pretty apparent. The dramatic tone of the later seasons gives the writers more leeway to show how affected he is, but again like, he’s never worse than he was in some of the earlier eps until the finale. And I tend to think that the prevailing idea that Hawkeye gets steadily worse emotional stability and mental health-wise throughout the show sells the early seasons short. If I mentally sort of compensate for the tone shift in my head, I don’t see Hawkeye changing - I just see the stress being framed with more black humour in the first half of the show and with more earnest drama in the second half.

I mean logically it makes sense that the more time you spend in a war zone the worse you’ll feel lol, and with the tone shift it’s easy to see why it’s such a common take. But yeah, I just don’t see it myself, at least beyond a potentially deliberate sense of exhaustion in season 11 when they knew they were wrapping up.

And actually I also think the respecting women angle is like, not really the case, imo? I think it’s something the writers were sort of trying for so it’s definitely telegraphed as a thing in several episodes, and it’s kind of become common knowledge that Hawkeye gets more respectful towards women so I def don’t think you’re wrong to pick up on it. I just think the writers failed to sell it at all lol. Like he presumably learned a lesson in Inga eg, but it’s forgotten afterwards as the show goes right back to using his now pathetic attempts at womanizing as a source of humour. He’s definitely less crass to Margaret when they become friends but he never completely stops objectifying her. He has a sad monologue about not wanting to date a 20 year old because he’s too jaded in Show Biz, but he turned down even just casual sex with a 20 year old in season 3 because she was too young for him, so that’s not actually a change, as much as the writers tried to make it seem like one.

And Who Knew (nonsensically) recontextualizes his womanizing as a fear of committment and emotional vulnerability (in the satirical seasons it was a distraction from the war) and suggests Hawkeye getting over that, but Who Knew is ooc, and again he goes right back to pathetic womanizing in other season 11 episodes, like Blood and Guts. He even hits on an orderly in the psych hospital in GFA lol, and the Hawk/Margaret kiss is a (frankly cute imo) throwback to early sexual harassment-y episodes like There’s Nothing Like a Nurse where he kissed her goodbye, or Abyssinia Henry where he told Henry to kiss her goodbye lol. So like, if the writers were aiming to show Hawkeye changing his attitude towards women, I don’t think they did a very good job, basically.

But yk I do think it’s fair to take the later seasons in the probable spirit intended and view Hawkeye getting less misogynist as an arc. I just don’t personally. But also I don’t think Hawkeye was ever misogynist in the way Inga implied, and I think the later show often misrepresented the womanizing a little to condemn it (eg Show Biz and Who Knew again) so yk. I just prefer a happy medium there lol

[matan4il]

Different anon but wanted to add on the other anons thoughts about is Buddie obvious or not.

My thing is like if it was just one incident you can explain it away. Like the Santas Elf scene for a start. If there was only that little nod I would just be like kind of explainable because maybe Buck was being polite. I can't say I wouldn't have actually acted the same in that moment. No one wants to come off like eww homophobic you know?

But the problem is there is all the small nods, to many to count honesty that leave hints. Even back when Lena bailed Eddie out of jail and Eddie made a point to distinguish Buck from the 118. Then there are the huge hints. Hello Christopher's gaurdian ext.

And I would like to think 911 is one of the few shows that wouldn't bait that way or continue to do so after realizing what was happening. Especially now that we even have quite a few mainstream news articles about it.

Hi Nonnie! Thank you for replying to this post.

And yes, I agree, there's def an effect we can't ignore when it comes to how many Buddie hints and subtextually significant moments we get. Look at this compilation alone, never mind all of the accumulated meta I have been writing for Buddie for literal years now! (which yes, also included a reference to how Eddie singles out Buck when Lena bails him out of jail)

There's just no way for most viewers to turn a blind eye to all this, not even casual ones. The amount of anecdotes I've heard about casual viewers mistakenly thinking Buddie are a canon couple, or hearing how many non-fandom viewers (including straight men) also want them to get together says so much IMO!

And I agree with you, I'd also like to think that about 911, and tend to feel like it wouldn't be that kind of a show. Shows that in the past seemed to me to clearly and intentionally be delving into queerbaiting have always been show that were either based in a het canon that can't be changed, so a queer ship can only be added in in subtext (such as the BBC's Merlin) or shows that are so enamored with certain ideas about masculinity (or seem to think their viewers are) that they will happily indulge in subtext, because that brings some fans to the table, but they won't actually follow through on it (and Supernatural fell into this category for me. Yes, it did portray homosexual individuals positively, but it's own hyper-masculine lead, Dean? He could never be allowed to be canonically gay or bi. There could be hints, but they always had to be hints, jokes or what other characters fell for Dean, not something he would ever be allowed to explicitly express).

In this context, I wanna mention The Blacklist again, because its ultimate reveal, presented at the end of s8, while not being in the context of a queer ship, well... it is one that undermines the notion of the hyper-masculine lead. And I have to admit, it's why when I contemplated this possible solution to the show's main mystery, somewhere mid s7, I also dismissed it. I thought the show would never go there 'coz TBL too seemed pretty in love with that notion. So imagine me watching the first 5 or 10 minutes of ep 821 and realizing that yes, they ARE going there. I guess my surprise over the show's bravery was actually bigger than my surprise at the solution! Well, I was still half right, because while the solution was pretty clearly hinted in the most obvious ways possible at the end of eps 821 and 822 (down to the musical choices the show made), TBL didn't explicitly state it. Still, the hints were so thick, I believe most viewers got it, and even the ones who reject the real solution had to at least entertain it. And that gives me a lot of hope, especially since TBL is a show that started airing back in 2013. It's a sign that even shows that seem to be in love with the whole heteronormative hyper-masculine thing are capable of doing better.

Also! I forgot to mention this before, but TBL is actually more relevant to Buddie than I first realized! Kriesten Reidel, 911′s executive producer recently promoted to co-showrunner along with Tim, worked as a producer on TBL for a while, even writing a few eps, which means she must have known what the solution was and was down with it. And she has also included in her eps key moments for the very slow burn love story of Ressler and Liz, making everything I wrote about them in my previous TBL ask even more relevant to Buddie. And yes, she also wrote some awesome Buddie moments, like in 301 (Eddie has a key to Buck’s apartment, Eddie worrying about Buck’s wellbeing and choosing to help him by bringing Chris over, etc) and 503 (Eddie informing Buck he’s promptly taking Buck’s advice and breaking up with Ana before Eddie even does it).

So if that’s what TBL can do and 911 ISN'T ones of those shows that seem preoccupied with maintaining that hyper-masculine notion alive (we see it not just with the queer rep in both OG and LS, we also see it in the way that so many of the straight male characters are the opposite of the typical toxic masculine character, which stands out even more precisely because first responders are working in a field that's considered pretty hyper-masculine), just imagine what 911 is capable of! So yes, Nonnie. I'm with you, I have a lot of hope that 911 will treat Buddie and us right!

Sorry for the length, thank you for the ask and please have a look at my ask tag if you're looking for another ask reply. xoxox

[shinjaeha]

itsay ep 4 (thoughts + spoilers)

idk even know how to even start this bc i feel like i’m just a big ball of emotions, and this ep was wild. so much happened. last ep was so wonderful and almost languid with how everything played out (esp since it focussed much more specifically on the shift in teh/oh-aew’s relationship). this ep had a bit more of everything, not just the two of them in their bubble anymore. societal forces at play, and hence much more angst. again, this isn’t a  proper analysis, it’s just me ranting and raving as usual as i semi-rewatch this again. this is very long, and there are a lot more things i want to think about in more detail at some point bc i’m mostly just skating over a lot of what happened but i gotta get these thoughts in my head out of me somehow. and i’m not sure if what i’m typing will even make sense bc i MYSELF can barely make sense of what i’m feeling but here i go anyway.

so we start off with the both of them kind of awkward after the night before which is fair enough considering what happened. actually when oh-aew’s habit started playing up again, i thought teh wasn’t going to scratch his back bc he was trying not to ~go there again after the night before, but he did and i was pleasantly surprised like oh...maybe things aren’t that bad?? (YET). also, i can imagine that it would have been reassuring for oh-aew too. like things have changed, but it’s not like teh has completely abandoned him. the touch itself is comforting, like when they were kids.

teh’s mum talking about how she wants both of her sons to bring their girlfriends around (and hounding him about bringing tarn around again) is giving me war flashbacks to my own asian relatives and i can feel the way that must crawl under his skin. I HATE when family members do that (and they always do). but for teh it must be esp hard bc he’s already constantly feeling like he’s vying for his mum’s attention over his brother, and now hoon’s bought back a girlfriend so it’s yet ANOTHER thing he feels like he has to compete with his brother over. in the back of his mind, he knows that he can’t give his mum what she wants if he’s with oh-aew (he can’t ‘win’ over hoon bc heteronormativity). teh is def prone to jealousy fairly easily, but i always feel like his emotions on that base level are also very easy to understand. i’ve been in positions like that before where i’ve felt like i’ve constantly been compared to someone else, and it makes you feel like shit. but also oh-aew having to sit through teh’s mum telling him to let her know if teh and tarn are dating?? ouch.

cue teh trying to avoid what’s going on with them and oh-aew being sad :((( they’re both in so much pain and i feel it and thank god i am no longer a teenager that’s all i can say about this.

the guitar in skyline instrumental is just...making me feel some kind of way. they have so many versions of this song and they always use the right version at the right time how is that.

so the tarn scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first thought: holy shit she looks so cute i love her crop top where did she get it i want one. second thought: but why did they make her wear a dark bra under such a light top?? i love that i was thinking this and then it all unravelled in front of me and like...the brilliance. the contrast between the scene in ep 2 (i think?) where teh accidentally peeks at her bra through the buttons of her shirt and gets noticeably flustered, and then this one where she literally wears the same bra under a light shirt ON PURPOSE to get his attention, but he doesn’t even notice?? the way she expects him to colour the hibiscus purple, but he colours it red for oh-aew instead?? it’s so incredibly telling of where his heart is at, and how his feelings have changed. anyway, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s just not all there with her anymore, and tarn isn’t stupid...she’s been picking up on the signals since the beginning (why was he so weirdly obsessed with beating oh-aew at the start? why was he willing to wake up at 4am for oh-aew but not for her? willing to tutor the rest of his friends but not spend time with her?). the way she sees him colouring the hibiscus red and it’s her wake up call, like wtf am i DOING bc of this guy????? i love how she acknowledges that her feelings for teh have made it so she’s solely focussed on him and that she hates the things it makes her do (like wearing the bra to gain his attention). ngl i was slightly worried with how they were going to use her character during these later eps with teh being so conflicted (since girlfriends in BLs are usually handled pretty poorly), but i appreciate that she’s still as fleshed out and full of feeling as she ever was. she’s so sweet, and i just wish she had better than this, but i’m glad she called teh out on it. i know he’s confused af rn, and tbh i don’t think he’s handled this as badly (atm at least) as i thought it could have gone, but at the same time, if he doesn’t decide and set his heart on what he really wants, he’s just going to end up hurting them all. LOVE that she basically tells him to get his shit together first before coming back to her. i like her so much. and that scene of teh just walking around and around at the back feeling conflicted while she drew? really reminds me of the squiggly line timeline(?) of how ep 4 was going to go that nadao released before this ep went live. also cmbyn vibes were real in that one.

the devastation in oh-aew’s voice when he asks teh to at least reply his messages ;;; it’s like teh wants to go back to just being friends and oh-aew has kind of accepted that at this point, but at the same time, teh’s not backing that up. he says he wants to be friends, but he doesn’t know how to act ‘normal’ about it anymore, so he pushes oh-aew away instead. good on oh-aew for not taking that shit and standing up for himself too. i absolutely cannot stand seeing oh-aew sad bc pp’s sad face/voice is so good it actually pains me.

notice how teh ALWAYS uses studies/tutoring as an excuse to get closer to oh-aew again...hmmm...does oh-aew see it for what that is now too? that “you’ve never understood me” hit me like a fucking train. to think that they were so attuned to one another last ep, but now teh’s too caught up in he’s own world to realise just how much he’s hurting oh-aew. thanks, i hate it.

i know that he’s needs to figure himself out more and i absolutely stand by the fact that he needs to do that without messing around with either oh-aew or tarn (and also that he’s using studies again to get into oh-aew’s good books instead of talking through feelings and all that), but the chinese idiom book that he made for oh-aew was actually SO CUTE and romantic. all this stuff he does for oh-aew to show that he clearly cares so much, yet he can never accept it enough to get the words out...

I SWEAR THEY PLAY THE INSTRUMENTAL SKYLINE JUST TO CHOKE ME UP. the darting around each other after the neck kiss COUPLED with the skyline instrumental?? it’s like a sad beach scene 2.0. teh making the first (intimate) move this time. every time he’s trying so hard to convince himself he’s not in love with this boy, and every time he keeps coming back. i always feel such a weird mix of happy and sad when i see them together bc i love them but i know teh in particular, is just not ready yet. like the hug scene made my heart leap, BUT they did it in hiding (under the staircase). all their big intimate scenes are in hiding and that just :(((

teh saying that he loves the seawater on his back bc it holds him up, and oh-aew saying but you have to hold your breath in that posture and it gets uncomfortable so he likes letting it go and just sinking sometimes instead (obv paraphrasing but you get the drift)?? THE WRITING IN THIS. it says so much without telling the audience directly...so poetic. everything about this show is so poetic. the way they sink into the ocean and into that space of oh-aew’s where you can just let yourself go without holding back, and then and only THEN does teh finally kiss oh-aew. and it’s beautiful, after holding back for so long, but it’s also painful bc he’s let go but only within this tiny pocket of space and time. in hiding again. that bird’s eye view shot where you can’t see them at all sealed it for me. like you want to be happy, but you can’t really bc you know that they’ve still got so much more to go...like when teh’s hand grazes oh-aew’s chest and you see oh-aew realise again...like that’s partly what stopped teh the first time in ep 3. when his hands stopped at oh-aew’s chest like it hit in for him that he was a boy. anyway, love that they gave us a skam kiss but i’m also very sad. on another note, how the hell did they hold their breath for that long?????

love that they gave us a further 2 more seconds of teh/oh-aew being cute (CONSTANTLY thinking about teh’s fingers dancing across oh-aew’s face and smushing his face in his hands...oh-aew holding the back of teh’s head...just a brief moment of carefreeness) before they went for the jugular. watching teh fight against himself in this way is what hurts. oh-aew begging him to just let go and accept what they are (the way he keeps going “what did i do wrong?? you feel it too!!”) but he’s so tortured he can’t do it. it’s downright fucking heartbreaking. the “one day i’ll stop feeling this way”...could have just stabbed oh-aew and it would have hurt less. all i know is i’m hurting for the both of them. the repression is real, and it just sucks. this whole thing fucking sucks for both of them (and tarn and bas too at that). idk it just gets me that oh-aew is coming out of this having been rejected once again bc teh isn’t ready yet. and i know this but it doesn’t make me any less upset. not at any of them bc it’s hard i know it’s hard...just at the situation. sometimes it feels like teh’s taking a step forward but then he takes two more back instead. the look on teh’s face when oh-aew was like let’s stop being friends...total devastation. i’m done. don’t want to think about it anymore.

i’m glad that oh-aew’s parents are so supportive of him though. i wasn’t sure how close they were based on their previous interaction but they really love him and i’m glad he has that stability to help him through this.

THE SCENE WITH OH-AEW AND THE BRA FUCKING BLEW ME AWAY. this show is always keeping me guessing, and again yet another thing that i wasn’t expecting but it was so visceral. the red of the bra in comparison to tarn’s bra with the purple hibiscus flowers on it...everything connects. oh-aew looking into the mirror with that bra on and thinking about how things would have been different if only :((( and then his breakdown when he realises that it’s not and that’s the reality of the situation. the feeling that gave me sits so deep within my chest i can’t even begin to carve it out.

teh masturbating when he sees that picture of oh-aew and to that picture of yongjian on his wall (idk why it only now just occurred to me that yongjian is always in red too)?? the self-hatred in this scene. the internalised homophobia. my heart feels so heavy.

he KEEPS reaching and it’s going nowhere bc it won’t ever be enough, and that’s not fair on himself and it’s not fair on tarn. like i understand what he’s going through, and i get that he’s extremely confused and needs the clarification, but when he asks tarn to tell her she loves him and he can’t do the same back for her...i just feel so, so, so fucking bad for tarn.

oh-aew hoping that the worksheets left for him were from teh (which would be very on brand of him), but then seeing bas :( maybe in another world, in another life (like teh and tarn)...but he’s such a sweetheart. bas, best boy ;;;

legit as soon as the gang came to see teh off to bangkok and talk to him about how oh-aew was doing terribly (and wasn’t planning on going to the admission exams) i knew where this was going to go. there’s been so much foreshadowing leading up to this, and this was also one of (if not my main theory) with how things were going to eventually play out. but tbh for some reason i thought it was going to play out later in ep 5...but like damn. damn. the way i understand but at the same time i kept going OH TEH :( throughout this. the utter STRESS this bit put me through. THE MISCOMMUNICATION.

anyway, teh’s love language is clearly acts of service. but it can really be to his detriment when he does things impulsively (albeit with care and good intentions), but he doesn’t use his words so things get lost in translation. sometimes actions just aren’t enough and you really do need words to communicate.

the confirmation scene was so tense...even now i’m just sitting here thinking about it and there’s a hole in my stomach at the thought of what teh must be going through and what he ends up doing. like when that last person on the list shows up and you KNOW it’s going to happen but at the same time it’s like a punch to the chest bc there’s just no doubt that teh’s going to turn it down for oh-aew...OF COURSE he would. oh-aew’s split moment of happiness before realising what teh’s done...the absolute dread i still have in me at the realisation of this.

the tension really kept increasing from here on in...teh coming home and his mum just being so fucking proud of him and telling everyone in the restaurant about how happy she is for him (all while teh is absolutely depleted), then tarn coming in and everything bubbling over when she realises what teh’s done too. realises that teh’s in love with oh-aew (smile is so great in this btw like WOW). the “you hurt me and i’m alright with that, teh, but right now you’re hurting yourself” broke my heart. absolutely love tarn as a character and only ever want the best for her.

when he tells his mum :((((((((((( and his mum just goes on about how hard he’s worked and how much he’s already sacrificed only for him to throw that away. he wanted her to be proud of him SO BAD, wanted to not be compared to his brother for once, only for him to give away his place bc he loves oh-aew more than he wants his mother’s praise. more than he wants to compete and ‘win’ against his brother. when she points to hoon and goes “why can’t you be more like him?” and he just loses it. like rubbing salt in the wound. i’m so glad hoon finally hugged him the way i’ve been wanting to this whole time. the banner congratulating him that teh’s mum made with all his materials from before :((( hoon giving him money for uni :((( you ever watch some things and feel like you’ll never be happy again...

okay the way that everything spiralled during the ig story fight?????? what gets me is that teh sacrificed his place thinking that oh-aew wasn’t going to sit the exam at all (he could have just talked to him and convinced him instead but ughhh i understand i get it). oh-aew thinks he did it bc teh didn’t believe he could get in himself (which of course then spurs him to give it up so he can get in through the exam instead). and when teh sees that, it’s like a smack in the face, like he went through all that only for oh-aew to reject it (him). it’s just layers upon layers of miscommunication and the anxiety of it all absolutely guts me. and then the anger mixing into devastation when he opens his book and sees how it’s all cut up. the remnants a reminder of everything he’s done for oh-aew. this boy that he adores but can’t accept he has feelings for. it’s just this mix of anger and sorrow and what have i fucking done?????? and how could he????? the cast were all fantastic but billkin really had to go above and beyond in this one and i could absolutely feel his pain throughout this.

TO PIGGY BACK ON THIS, like i said before, teh has always used studying/tutoring as a tool to get closer to oh-aew, but seeing that book with all the words gone was in part also him realising he doesn’t have that anymore. he can’t use that tool to get close to oh-aew anymore. the only way forward would be to actually get close to oh-aew without the pretences. and the saddest part of this all is that oh-aew doesn’t even NEED all of that (the tutoring, the book of idioms, the relinquishing of his uni spot)...the only thing he wants is for teh to ADMIT his feelings out loud. to admit that he feels the same way about oh-aew that oh-aew feels about him.

it’s funny bc in the last ep, the conversation that had me feeling the most nervous was when they’re talking at the cape, and oh-aew’s telling teh that he’s a rival and inspiration to him. i always KNEW this was going to come back to haunt them. like a constant circle. friends to rivals to friends to more than friends(?) to rivals. it’s a fine line. narratively, it always had to happen, and now they’re back to competing against one another yet again, and it’s going to be so tough bc they’ll have so much more competition on top of that as well.

next ep is going to be very, very hard on teh, but somehow after this ep, i just feel a lot more hopeful about it? i’m pretty convinced at this point that it won’t end in tragedy (which was the thing that i wanted least of all). of course i want both teh and oh-aew to end up together, but i can understand if they don’t. if this ends with them rekindling their friendship again, that’ll be enough for me. their relationship has been so turbulent and passionate that it needs some stability, and hopefully when teh’s in a better state of mind, when he’s at a place when he’s finally accepted all parts of himself, they’ll get there. so if that means it ends on them running to the cape together (even if they’re not technically together) fulfilling their promise to one another in the sunset, then that’s fine with me. i don’t mind an open ending if it makes sense in the context of the story, and i think something like that would. it’s like after such an angsty episode, you need a slight reprieve from it. i have no doubt in my mind that ep 5 will contain darkness, but i do think that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. so for once i feel truly hopeful about it.

i can’t believe we only have one more ep left to go...

[konaizumi]

Gen Y Ep 10 thoughts/reaction

- I was excited for them to finally do it but kit falling asleep was pretty adorable, plus I always love to see a pouty mark (plus I’m glad their first time wasn’t when kit was drunk)

-  kit waking up, seeing mark’s clothes, realizing the situation, and immediately grabbing mark’s engineering shirt to cover himself up is just *chef’s kiss*

- petition for kit to wear mark’s engineering shirt at least once an episode

- mark: I want to give you my most important thing

  me: gear gear gear gear

  mark: grabs the gear

  me: *squeals*

- but seriously I loved that whole sequence it was so sweet

- markkit is def in my top 5 bl couples

- I am very glad phai is addressing the fact that some of those visions did not imply a happily ever after

- after watching this ep I am now pretty confident that it’s thanuwayu and phaisandee endgame

- I need them to stop introducing new characters i cant keep up (even if they are very cute)

- mark being ready to move in together and open a bank account together, I love the domesticity

- “should we go to his room...or the government savings bank” wayu I would die for you

- also markkit please keep it up with the matching couple outfits

- i fucking love the HS babies, they’re so cute like little ducklings

- kit hiding the second toothbrush and sandee pretending not to see mark’s laundry

- just move in with him already kit

- pls pls pls more interactions between the babies and markkitwayu

- how come when bls try to make a het couple as a serious sideplot it’s really bad but when the het couple is super minor it’s actually very cute? anyways yuki deserves someone who will love her like jiw

- can koh and jack pls just admit their feelings for each other and date and be cute already (glad to see them gracefully moving on from wayu tho)

- koh and jack need an our skyy ep, I just want 40 min of them being dumbasses in love

- I forgot jack and thanu used to be in the same friend group and i want to see more of them being friends

- im glad phai is being cautious about the whole soulmates things and isnt just trying to jump straight in

- kit watching mark dance the hippo song

- pls just stop hurting my baby he’s been through enough

- shout out to mark for being the bestest friend and calling out thanu

- though i do understand where thanu is coming from, he has feelings for wayu but also maybe for phai and he doesn’t think it’s right for him to be with wayu if he also has feelings for someone else (thus the whole “im not good enough for him”)

- jack and koh already act like a married couple and i love them

- boy do i not like the weird twist the poktong story has taken and i was already only lukewarm on it in the first place, but since this is kinda long already i’ll make a separate post about it

- all the schemes to keep wayu and thanu apart are cute but also sad

- damn this situation sucks bc there’s really no way to resolve it without wayu getting hurt in some way

- anyway, other than the poktong thing, my only complaint about the ep is not enough markkit but there’s never enough, other than that i’m just invested in seeing where this story goes, i’m also pretty hopeful that we’ll avoid the ep 11 breakup seeing how good and healthy markkit’s relationship is, so fingers crossed

[tiffgeorgina]

do you have any favourites parts of season 2? (I agree that the plot has been.... Thin? Non-existent?) But what are the things about this season that you've enjoyed?

hello anon! a few things i’ve enjoyed are:

-the new guest stars. watkins, hill, and raphael are knocking it out of the park. we waited longer than i wanted to to see june and dulé but hey, at least they’re here now! im already kinda attached to their characters and im pretty sure all of them are gonna get fucked over so im scared fjgkjhfdg

-just seeing all these mf characters again. ive missed them so much kjhgkdfjh i could watch them watch paint dry and i’d be okay with that bc i just MISSED THEM

-CONNIE. RESURGENCE. OMFG. i saw xosha roquemore (the actress who plays her) credited for 2x05 a couple weeks back and i FREAKED. OUT. god why do i love this narc. acab except for connie because i like her and she’s pretty (seeing her in full color and 80s style was a REVELATION)

-mo coming back ugh i missed him at the jammer group. seeing him complacent and beaten down HURT. im ready to see him fuck blair up i love blair but he’s walking away in handcuffs this season if mo has anything to say about it

-blair/harris. ok they’re cute i said it (plus they’re easily getting the most screentime out of all the couples this season which is nice bc their relationship is so much less established than the others)

-mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks!!! i knew we would be seeing their backstory but i didn’t expect it to be the first thing we saw all season!!! i love mo/dawn and i love getting backstory since i was waiting to know more about their past for so long and!! it’s here!! now we know everybody at the jammer group used to work for leighman and that’s why they hate them and we know mo and dawn go back a decade and!! it’s just so satisfying to KNOW i love to see it

-the entirety of Fore! (2x04) yassir. fucking. killed. that. shit. he was the sole writing credit for that episode, and when i saw that on the imdb page i simply knew it would be god tier. and it was! admittedly a little plotless, but that’s par for the course this season, plus it was early enough in the season to get away with it i think. the twist at the end. corky’s entrance. blair/harris. blair being an idiot. blair being a high idiot. yassir x being the king of feminism. yassir lester writing andrew’s emmy reel like that. we haven’t seen season 2B yet but 2A peaked with fore!. period. try to disagree with me. you can’t.

-ofc the 80s aesthetic that we all know and love. i saw somebody describe black monday as a period piece once and it seemed kind of ill-fitting bc it’s not set in victorian era england but yk what? it’s totally fitting. this is a period piece. the 80s slap.

-blair being the villain that we know he is. i wish they would quit stalling on this because it’s making all the characters seem monotonous and non-distinct, but i like those moments where blair snaps (“WE ARE DOING THIS” and “i am the only family you need now. just me”) andrew’s such an excellent actor and it’s fun to see this side of his range since he’s usually played really nice and wholesome (or at least not downright villainous) characters. he’s sending chills down my spine with some of the shit he’s doing and saying this season. andrew. emmy. nomination. now. GIVE IT TO ME NOW.

-momentary mo&blair resurgence (even if it’s fake). i miss mo&blair as father-son so fucking much anon you don’t even know. finding out that they were the ones clicking their heels in 2x06? i could’ve CRIED

-being right. ok this has a bit of lore but i have been STALKING the imdb page for black monday for MONTHS. bc they’ll add episode titles, or screencaps, or cast members all the time without telling anybody, and everything’s been accurate so far (so it’s not some troll lying on imdb we know that lol). specifically, in 2x09, there’s a character credited as dr. gabe egon. the tl already had suspicions that he had smth to do with conversion therapy bc there’s this one picture that sho released where you can see all this shit mo’s written on this board, and it DEFINITELY SAID CONVERSION THERAPY. and this episode comes around and roger is walking out this door that says “dr. gabe egon ~ therapy for the religiously erect” or whatever and i was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then roger blurts out that it’s literally CT and i !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this shit is in different areas for better or for worse and even if im confused and bored at the same time being pulled along for the ride is fun as hell

-the naming scheme for the episodes. i literally had no idea what they would do for the episode titles this season since there’s no countdown to black monday, but i like how it’s shit that the characters say/write. bc then a character says the episode name and you’re like !!!!!!!!!!! jfhgdfjk. plus it kinda tells you what’s going on--i knew 2x06 would be about a ponzi scheme before blair even proposed the idea in 2x05 bc the ep is titled Arthur Ponzarelli. and i knew fore! would be the episode where blair and the harrises are golfing and blair gets hit by a golf cart since “fore” is a golf term. and i know that 2x07, “who are you supposed to be?” is the weird halloween party ep where everybody looks ridiculous and ppl are def gonna be getting into it. 2x10 is titled “i don’t like mondays” and idk what that means but i bet mo says that line in the show. and 2x09 is titled “at that time” and im so scared bc that episode has a blair flashback and WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEANNNN

-more women and more women being relevant to the plot. good. it was getting a little obnoxiously man-influenced here. cmon the majority of the cast AND the majority of the directors AND the majority of the producers AND a majority of the writers AND both the creators can’t ALL be men. like pick a struggle.

whew that list was longer than i expected it to be! thanks for the ask anon! what are y’all’s favorite parts so far?

[floralege]

rules: pick  five  shows,  then  answer  the  following  questions.  don’t cheat.  tag  some  people. tagged by: the legend @orumad tagging: @sinsoakedsaints , @viceprone , @slwdancing , @mythvlogie , @gcldensnflwr , @sapphicfm , @argcntis , @armsdealing , @adrnitis , @castelloe and literally whoever else wants to !

killing  eve

mad  men

gossip  girl

breaking  bad

the  x  files

who is your favorite character in 2?  ohhhhh  miss  megan  calvet,  duh  !  but  you  know  what  ?  joan,  peggy  (  sometimes  ),  dawn,  and  ken  brought  it,  too.  the  ladies  served,  the  men  were  trash.

who is your least favorite character in 1?  oh  absolutely  niko.  ‘  wah,  wah  your  assassin  gf  is  ruining  our  marriage,  eve  ’  like  get  over  it,  sir

what is your favorite episode of 4?  no  episode  of  anything  ever  will  have  me  as  stressed  as  ozymandias,  check  that.

what is your favorite season of 5?   it’s  been  so  long  since  i’ve  properly  watched  it  chronologically  bc  these  days  i  just  pick  favorite  eps  and  chill,  buuuuut  i’m  p  sure  it’s season  3  for  me

who is your favorite couple in 3?  despite  ed  w*stwick  being  a  shitbag  and  retrospective  watches  reminding  you  how  awful  they  actually  were,  we  all  know  EARLY  chuck  and  blair  (  the  first  four  seasons  )  were  solid.  but  everyone  in  that  show  is  awful,  so  who  cares.  also  serena  and  nate  still  hurt  so  good.

who is your favorite couple in 2?   aesthetically,  don  and  megan  were  hot,  i  hate  any  don  ship.  uhhh,  probs  peggy  and  stan  ?  like  sorry,  enemies  (  ish  )  to  best  friends  to  lovers  is  always  gonna  get  me  !

what is your favorite episode of 1? omg  . . . losing  my  mind  UM  truly  the  back  half  of  s2  when  we  got  nonstop  villaneve  content  is  truly  chef’s  kiss  but  the  implications  of  sorry  baby . . .  WHEW  !

what is your favorite episode of 5?  p  sure  arcadia  still  fucks  me  up  a  bit.

what is your favorite season of 2?   season  four  !  close   tie  w  season  five,  but  season  four  wins  because  of  the  suitcase  aka  the  best  episode  of  anything  ever.

how long have you watched 1?   since  it  aired.

how did you become interested in 3?   i  was  thirteen  /  fourteen  when  it  aired  so  it  was  coming  right  @  me.  

who is your favorite actor in 4?   aaron  paul,  hands  down.  it’s  a  bummer  he’s  not  gotten  to  do  anything  as  good  since  and  instead  just  annoys  me  on  instagram.

which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?   oooooooh  my  god.  okay.  UH.  purely  based  on  the  feral  reaction  it  gets  from  me,  killing  eve.  but  they’re  all  top  notch.  

which show have you seen more episodes of - 1 or 3?   gossip  girl.

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?   skyler  white  so  i  could’ve  merked  walt’s  bitch  ass  sooner.

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?   spotted:  serena  van  der  woodsen  sneaking  off  into  a  laundry  mat  with  gus  fring.  will  s  ever  learn  ?  (  big  no,  lol.  )

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? i  mean,  the  show  is  literally  about  an  unlikely  but  strangely  powerful  couple  and  i’ll  be  honest,  i  watch  the  show  solely  for  villaneve  and  carolyn’s  asides.

overall, which show has a better storyline, 3 or 5?   love  gg,  but  def  x  files.  you  can’t  compare.

which has better theme music, 2 or 4?   while  the  breaking  bad  twang  gets  me  hyped,  the  mad  men  theme  is  so  DRAMATIC  i  love  it.

[roarsaidthedinosaur]

Tagged by: @jennamacaroni Rules: pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions, don’t cheat. tag 10 people

1. futurama 2. halt and catch fire 3. dead like me 4. xena: warrior princess 5. fresh meat

who is your favourite character in 2?  all of them i love them sm but if i had to pick a number one i would say donna. she’s like 90% of the reason i stayed in engineering tbh i owe kerry bishe my life

who is your least favourite character in 1?  zapp brannigan

what is your favourite episode of 4? oh HECK um. ides of march for serious ones. the xena scrolls for the humorous/uber ones

what is your favourite season of 5? probably 3, i love my stupid dorks trying to do their best

who is your favourite couple in 3?  when i first watched as a teenager i would have said george/mason. but rewatching as an adult, i really love daisy & mason’s dynamic tbh

who is your favourite couple in 2? donna/cam. even if they weren’t explicitly a couple they cared about each other so much

what is your favourite episode of 1? this is such a rude question bc i have so many. probably the finale

what is your favourite episode of 5?  s3 finale. vod loves oregon & she p much publicly declared it in the debate i’m overwhelmed just thinking abt it

what is your favourite season of 2?  it just kept getting better and better. s4

how long have you watched 1? since high school. i’ve seen it 4 times through and i’ve been wanting to rewatch it again but it’s not on the netflix anymore

how did you become interested in 3? my brother recommended it to me by saying “watch this, the main character is you”

who is your favourite actor in 4?  lucy flawless

which do you prefer 1, 2 or 5?  futurama is my number one show, but hacf is such a close second that it’s basically a tie. futurama has had a special place in my heart for longer tho so it gets dibs on the number one spot

which show have you seen more episodes of 1 or 3?  futurama has so many eps so def that one

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? lmao if it’s who i WANT to be at first i thought gabrielle bc i want a tall beautiful woman to hold me BUT then i remembered janice covington and it’s def her. basically indiana jones. but who i would actually be, probably joxer tbh

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? if xena came back as an ancient greek grim reaper, hell yes it could

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely ok couple? i mean kif and amy are already canon

overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? they’re so different but both are coming of age stories in a way. i think dead like me had so many little things that made it stick with you tho

i tag whoever didn’t do it the first time this made the rounds talk to me abt your favorite shows please!!