#wow didnt even notice the time lmao)

[an-theduckin]

Wait shit people might actually care about me

[alyimoss]

he would do this as in it fits his character, but he wouldnt do it in canon bc he literally would not get a chance to as xtale and the skelebros becoming his kids was basically an accident (or, rather, it was planned i think but the timing of when it happened wasnt?? and it caused some things like him being unable to see that frisk had given muffet a family and him just straight up forgetting to give monsters a history) BUT he would definitely monitor what is watched in his house to compensate.

hes shown in canon to have visions of his desired future that he uses to make decisions in the present that will lead him to it (biggest example i can think of is him ordering cross to get frisk down from a tree with his magic and then immediately stopping him from doing so as he saw that frisk getting down safely would somehow compromise that future. and then he immediately goes to blame it all on cross lmao father of the year) so i think part of the decision making process is. that. like yeah he wants to keep media like this out of the brothers reach for easier manipulation, but also if the visions tell him them seeing this movie is going to butterfly effect into the future he strives towards?? fuck it.

that being said cross definitely watches that movie at some point and does not get the point.

its suggested by killer as part of a movie night (he chooses all the disney princess movies. kind of as a joke. horror and dust dont care enough abt movie choice bc theyre gonna sleep thru that shit anyway and cross doesnt wanna be the one with a dissenting opinion so he doesnt say anything) and as hes watching he just keeps asking questions like "why are they painting the mother as a villain? shes being a good mother. this is what good parents do. rapunzel should feel lucky to have such a good mother" and the others are like "ohhh they done boinked you up at the boy factory.... your dad fucked you right up at the son factory huh."

xgaster the kind of dad to make sure the tangled movie doesn’t exist in his universe just in case his kids see it and realize something might be up with his choice in parenting style

[kimmkitsuragi]

wow cant even play bg3 tonight bc my laptop decided to pass away due to adobe illustrator at 11pm. press f

[sunbedo]

!!!!!! BIG DUAL DESTINIES AA5 SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!!! SCROLL QUICKLY TO AVOID SPOILING YOURSELF IF NEEDED!!!!!!!!

UGHHGGGGGGHHH im watching someone play through the cosmic turnabout and like. during the first investigation they make a point to be like 'wooowww detective fulbright is being super cooporative its weirdddd like hes almost a different person. lmao.' and im SO MAD. its such a good setup for him being replaced but then theyre like. 'noooo hes been dead for like ten years or somwthign woahhhh what!!!!!!!!' LIKE. CHOOSING SHOCK VALUE OVER GOOD WRITING. If we've just been talking to the phantom the whole time what the fuck was that bit with the shoes during the monsterous turnabout???????? its either like. a. the phantom was worried about playing fulbright's character. like. for whom????? none of us knew what he was really like??? and it couldve easily gone unnoticed??????? or b. they really just fucking didnt notice. terrifying international superspy murderer. okay

"its to make sure that we know that this is definitely someone else!!" okay? edgeworth shows up and is like we found bobby fulbright in an abandoned warehouse or some shit and all dna and everything matches. woah that guy on the stand is definitely not detective fulbright. "its to show just how horrifying the phantom really is!!" okay???? so maybe they found him like tortured and ab/used and shit. and then its still really horrifying because we actually!!! know!!!!!!!!! fulbright!!!!!!!!!!! and how goofy and kind he is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow this guy is a really actively serious threat and a fucked up evil person. and now the player wants them dead for hurting this golden retriever of a man so badly. "but isnt it so fucked up that this great and super kind guy you've been talking to this entire game is actually dead??!?!?" yeah sure but once again we. dont. know. the real goddamn fulbright!!!!!!!! we dont know what he was actually like and the phantom couldve been portraying him completely differently!!!! sure a few lines of dialog tell us hes a good man. but other than that all we have to go off of is the phantom's act!!! people dont think about it that deeply and take the phantom's portrayal at face value but like?????? come on dude

and if you still want that sweet angst over him being dead, what if when they find him hes almost dead. like the phantom meant to actually kill him (because of how horrible they are!!!! its the same effect!!!!!!!) and it adds a new layer of tension during the trial after that because hes on death's door! is he gonna pull through??? will the phantom win in the sick twisted way of taking yet another life, but this time it's worse because we ACTUALLY. KNEW. HIM. and how good of a person he is??????? and its way more angst in the way of characters cause like Simon has someone actually close to him to potentially mourn! again! because of the phantom!

and if you still want the betrayal factor, i got that too! maybe the real fulbright was being threatened into being an informant for the phantom!!! or was even accidentally giving away information somehow, which still gives him consequences for the 'betrayal' while also being a 'fulbright being stupid' moment at the same time. just this time it's a whole lot worse because it put actual lives at stake and Clay got killed. boom! angst!!

[thatdeadaquarius]

HELLO IT IS I AGAIN (Razor's mom /real)

So you know those imposters aus where characters chase the reader for being an 'impersonator'?

What if... It's a continuation from my ask (where we meet Razor first before everyone), and Razor is just confused at the patrolling knights near Wolvendom constantly asking him if he have saw 'the impostor'

Tbh he just shakes his head. Who tf is the impostor????? Wtf is an impostor???????

Many question marks later..

He had encountered an epiphany (not really it's just the Springvale ppl talking about someone copying the creator's looks).

The 'Impostor' they have been searching is you.

But you're not an impostor! Razor knows it! Andrius knows it! And with how the nature and the monster responded to you, Teyvat knows it too!

So like the good son he is, he sheltered you even more severely.

Ur not allowed to go out of his sights at this point (he'll still take you to places with many lampgrasses if you still wanna make a crown w it)

And my imagination ends there, do you think there's something else he'd do?

Ty for answering my last request btw, ur the best and I hope you get your favorite characters w one 10 pull and your desired artifacts w the best stats <3

Much love and sweets

-Razor's mom

RAZOR'S MOM!! HELLO aw im so glad u liked it :)

Srry about the late reply! 💜💜💜

Ok, so I think this is a good time to point to my shiny

Writing Requests/About Me Post I have pinned on my 👉 blog!!👈💅 taaa daaaa :) i did it guys here ya go

Yall have been GREAT so far abt keeping the requests chill and fun, and i dont have that many "Donts" that arent obvious (homophobia, transphobia, ableism,etc)

♡

Dont worry Razor Mom, i just wanted to use this as a way to talk about this!! /nm /gen

♡

About Imposter AU, there are plenty of other blogs/posts that write for that or posts under SAGAU tag! :)

I said wayyy earlier on in some of my first asks, but basically I really want to lighten up the Genshin SAGAU / Isekai tag and branch out from all these darker Imposter AUs :)

And also add more world-building posts or AUs <3

(language brainrot for example)!!

◇

TL;DR: I am not accepting hunting down/yandere/cult au/imposter au Genshin Sagau, only a funny or chill version of it.

Please check my writing rules post :)

Example: u look like Creator, but everybody's like, "oh lucky them wow rlly blessed, have a free drink, etc.

OR omfg where r they?? They descended to Teyvat oh fuck we lost our god-"

♡

Heres the Razor post !!!

If u wanna check it out :]

Cracks knuckles, Saddle up Baby, bc its time for my version of the Imposter AU 🤭😋😈

(and sorry for answering super late/possible scare Razor mom anon!! :'/ )

♡

So it begins rlly small right?

Like, Razor does not know the new knight patroling Wolvendom's borders

,, weird but ok, he thinks basically

And then when it was time to visit some domains a little closer to Springvale for grinding

(Or rlly just to get some of their tiny restaurants homemade food yumm)

He notices more Favonius knights lurking around than usual

Or at least widening their patrols

And hes like wtf?

Ur like, huh.

I'll ask Springvale ppl wtf goin on

The locals respond that the search for the Great Creator has begun.

...

...you and Razor: 👁👄👁 w h o m s t ❔️

◇

Upon further questioning

(which was apparantly weird that yall didnt know, but eh, u just used the whole "feral wolf child with feral blacksmith parent living in woods ignorance" excuse)

Admittedly yall, quite literally, live under a rock lmao

They explain theres a whole ass prophecy

Abt how the Great Architect would succumb to a long slumber somewhere else in the vast universe after making the planet.

And when the time is right, they will reconnect to Teyvat, and awaken, and descend in a mortal form

(like the archons)

◇

..but the kicker is nobody knows wtf they look like bc:

1. All that lore is hella crumbly and old, and very hard to translate

2. Mortal forms sometimes look different than god forms, so even if they did know some defining features of the Creator, that wasnt guaranteed to be them...

◇

(i.e. they will have brown eyes, well. Thats a fuckton of ppl with brown eyes innit? 💀)

♤

So thru certain signs, that this mysterious prophecy wooooo

Said would happen, the nations of Teyvat and their many supernatural inhabitants are aware the ultimate god has descended

(The crops flourished? Animals got more wily, many of the sick ppl got better for no reason, the Irminsul started regrowing/filling out its base- like how it looked like a lightning struck tree rn 💀)

So every country are now trying to find them to be the first to welcome them home

Needless to say its lowkey a competition

◇

Meanwhile you and Razor are just:

... (゜▽゜;)

"Haha yeah cool..."

(Andrius already told u what u r to Teyvat and explained to Razor)

Ur both immediately slapping a cloak on u and keeping the hood up all the time

Yall dont wanna be seperated :(

Ur both paranoid for diff reasons,

Razor's just scared his Lupical is going to be taken from him again bc there r better, more refined humans wanting to be ur Lupical ;-;

And ur like-

Omfg that sounds like sm work 💀

While its nice to daydream abt what itd be like to be famous, realistically,

U could not handle that shit.

People crowding you all the time?

U cant just look busted anywhere u go, like a midnight snack run

Ppl would also expect u be,

Responsible??

To act like a competent ruler maybe???

Hell no.

U just wanted to play a pretty gacha game and spoil ur skrunklies

(At least, if they do wanna call u that, they dont make u do anything political 💀 but u doubt it)

◇

Needless to say, Razor is glued to ur side everywhere u go.

A domain a half mile away? Oh he'll come with dw

Ur gonna go stop by that food merchant further up the road for ingredients? Cool he'll sniff the best ones!

Ur going to see Andrius??

Oh he needed to see him too-

😭😭🥺🥺 poor babe

♧

Surprisingly enough,

Or maybe not his house is right tf there

Diluc is the first person to actually recognize you.

Razor had been subtly steering u away from Mondstadt for 3 weeks now, ever since yall talked to the Springvale locals

An u cant say u didnt notice, but u werent rlly stopping him

You wanted to be like Venti, chillin among the ppl regardless of ur powers, not the Raiden Shogun :/

And maybe shock some ppl who dont know ur a god like him too lol

◇

Diluc had been looking around the lesser patroled areas of Mondstadt to search for the Architect

He didn't even need those incompetent knights to tell him their god had finally descended

He already saw the signs long before Mondstadt

Bc youve been in Wolvendom, the area has flourished over time, more fish in the water, more game to hunt and bigger, crows making circles in the sky despite there being no corpse

And one of the closest places to you,

Is the Dawn Winery.

Diluc's security against Venti began to hold up better, the staff didn't have to clean as much things like dirt or weather damage to the manor,

His hawk had never been faster delivering his letters, he almost thought the little guy had been drugged with something

◇

He patroled Stormterror's Lair, and deep in the woods surrounding the manor that the knights hadn't bother to go into

Afterall, he figured you'd never had a mortal form before, so u were unlikely to fend for urself for very long in the woods lol

so he wanted to find u quick (aww softy :')

He even made a trip out to the Thousand Wind Temple and Dragonspine (he did report that one to the knights, he didn't want Amber, Bennett, or Creator-forbid Klee, being the few pyro users to have to explore it)

Finally, after doing the further away locations, siginificant in history and rich with leftover magic

Diluc figured that's where you might land first, so he saved Wolvendom for last

It would at least let him check on that wolf kid and maybe get to talk to him long enough to ask him if he's seen anything unusual.

The lord of Dawn Winery manor heads into the Wolvendom woods, just as sunset colors the trees...

◇

It was a Friday evening, the sun was setting, the weather was pleasant and it was time for all of the Lupical to come together and eat a big feast!! :)

About once a month, Andrius will come out for a few nights and dine with all of yall

Hes an old wolf give him a break, he takes long naps

So u cook lots of Mondstadt favorites to eat on and a few Liyue dishes too

Razor, ur favorite helper, has helped u finish the last dish and is now romping around with the puppies bless <3

U guys have dragged ur coffee table dining table setup out to sit and eat at

Andrius lets out a not too loud, not too quiet howl, and as the wolves, Razor and you lmao join in

Yall dig in, bones flying everywhere, spagetti noodles flingling around, it would put toddlers to shame lol

◇

Diluc hears a howl that is too... big to be a regular wolf.

It filled the air of Wolvendom like no howl before it, as he used the glowing lampgrass to help light the path deeper

He sneaks past a hilichurl camp or two, all fast asleep

He scans the woods, and figures he'll search the woods besides the path after he gets to that old stone carved pit-

Food?

Diluc sniffs the air, and squints deeper into the forest

The black branches shade the way ahead, but just barely... he can see the flicker of orange and blue light?

He summons his claymore, bracing it on his shoulder, and creeps into the treeline to better hide him

◇

You swear to god (dammit swear to.. you??) someone is watching you.

You look around the piles of fluffy doggos, happy and stuffed full they r slowly forming puppy piles

Andrius is finishing his meat platter, also sitting on all four legs on the ground

Razor is splayed on his back beside you, eyes closed, his feet sticking out the other side of the table, u chuckle at him

But not a single Lupical seems to be looking at you.

Gulping down your last few bites, you scan the treeline

U refuse to be that bitch in a horror movie where their gut says smth is off and they brush it off or barely look at their surroundings

Turning around to the treeline behind you, u see something... red fur?

U sit up some more, peering over the bushes at the bottom of the trees

You meet a pair of warm brown eyes, widened like they're just as shocked to see you

As u notice his familiar red high ponytail (but also not?? Its weird going from 2D to 3D and still recognizing bitches)

U peer down at his chest, as he carefully stands out of the foliage-

That familiar star shaped button that u can press for the character menu screen, the same thats on Razor, on Benny, on Fischl, on Lisa-

Hovers over Diluc's chest.

◇

Diluc is in the bush, observing the human(???) stranger (he really doesnt want to attract the attention of that.. giant spirit wolf thing)

The figure sitting at a ... table?? (He can barely process all these absurdities at once, hes only got so much brain space)

Has sensed his presence, and as he grips his claymore, ready to demand answers,

Razor startles, and jumps up, smelling the pyro user, he summons his weapon-

The figure locks eyes with him, and all he sees is gold.

Diluc drops his claymore.

☆

♡

☆

Have a cliffhanger bc idk 🤷‍♂️ Also srry it wasnt exactly Mondstadt finding u, and it somehow turned into a whole scenario?? Idk man

🤧 welp i hope that was decent Razor mom! Tysm for ur sweet feedback abt our beloved son 🙏💜🐺

Feel free to always talk again, thru comments, asks whatever!! :D

♡

Cheers,

💀♒️

(guys im so stupid i coud've been signing off with this simple emoji combo the whole time,, 😭i didnt actually think abt emojifying my name, just making it look pretty with some of my fav emojis... 😔)

If anyone reads this u should let me know which one is better lol

💀♒️

OR

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

OR like a combo???

♡my beloved♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist

[phagodyke]

actually adding onto this the constant jokes abt how eventually I'm going to "end up trans" (bc most of the ppl in our friend group have transitioned) do rly get under my skin which is the only reason I said smth about it.

in a hilarious turn of events my flatmate didn't even know I use any pronouns....

[werlikestea]

Well i havent posted in a while well, mostly because, i forgor

BUT

wow pretty busy really said fuck you f2p players

I didnt complain untill now so i think i can get a little treat

So ok prepare cause this will be a prob long post or just very well mostly negative about my whole expierence with this game because well I AM PISSED

So I acually first played this game around the time of its release (of couse because of the Leviathan Bath card lmao) but didnt like how the game looked like that much so i quit pretty much as soon as i started

Then my friend got me into it again and well i fell in love with the characters and the plot LITERALLY DONT JUDGE THE BOOK BY ITS COVER

And why am i talking about it well its because it was around the time of christmas gabriel nightmare pass and i was new so i just kinda didnt care about it back then

But now back to the present

so the whole reason im writing this is in the first place is obvs the nightmare pass

Like gabriel one, ppyong one i could live i was like ok it sucks but what can i do i can still get all the 7 kings eventually so thats fine

AND THEN VICTORY LUCIFER NIGHTMARE PASS CAME OUT

AND OMG ok i was like ok im pissed but its probably just the victory cards that will be in the nightmare pass right ?

WELL NO NOW BATH BEEL NOT EVEN A FEW DAYS AFTER LUCIFER'S

both of my favourite characters in a row well how nice

Dont even get me started on how fucked the pricing of it is like i payed for battle passses in games before im not even a total f2p and i was acually considering doing the same here because i mean its a small company and i really like this game so i might as well support it well no. not with this price.

And not only are there no new stories, previous events are payed if u havent read them, oh and if u want to reread them well fuck you too

I honestly havent even read the belphie's event cause i just really dont feel motivated to do it

Maybe its just me but unlocking the character card stories is also a little hard because getting the BEGINNERS candies is just annoying even though it well should be the easiest out of all of them

And the story is what made me get into this game as much as i did

I think it was the first time a game was so perfect for me when it comes to story length, and amount (i tend to get very overwhelmed when theres a lot of content)(I acually quit playing genshin impact after 2 years because there was no skip button)

The 5 chapters, all the events, some of the character's stories i read were all so interesting and fun

and well now we get literally no new content

plus like thats very personal but i would have loved it if this game had some sort of a routine because i feel like everything is such a mess ?

like now we get 3 fucking nigtmare passes in a row, new characters and event are so random and the main story well it left to get milk

also when i say i play this game for the story i really mean it because the battle system is really not my cup of tea overall the game mechanics im just not that big of a fun of that

+just the fact that PB hates that we share content of payed cards with each other but also puts important lore in it just man be fucking for real

I log in everyday just to log in and get my 10 key pull from the pancake shop to feed my gambling addiction and maybe get that mammon or satan attacker cards cause they are the only ones i lack from the ones u can acually get from the standard gacha at the moment

oh and now they erased the free 10 pull from the store huh

well with how little red gems we are getting say goodbye to any gacha in a fucking gacha game

Oh and also i dont know if anyone noticed but now selling S tealeaves gives u 6 pancakes and L tealeaves gives you 9.

3 pancake diffrence. For an S character and L character.

oh and lower grades just dont give you anything really i have like around 14 milion gold and books so yea

and while i wont have that much of a problem cause i already have most cards,most artifact, almost maxxed out bloodshed beelzebub (not his skills)

But now imagine you are a new player trying to get into this game.

And you cant read events unless you pay, u can do the story but i mean u might finish it quickly or it might get hard if u cant get any characters because well doing any gacha at all just got 1000 times harder,you just see another nightmare pass thats just expensive af, oh and a new character comes out and you didnt get lucky with your one ten pull that u managed to get after weeks of working ? well u have to wait 3 months TO MAYBE get it in the standard gacha that well you might do once a week maybe

and so the low maintence game i loved in a span of a few days changed for much much worse

I will probably keep on loging in just to see if maybe anything changes but i dont have my hopes high

ngl with how it looks like rn i doubt even asmodeus for who i was waiting so much for will change my mind about this game

what i need them to do is honestly just bring back the whole previous pancake shop along with this new nightmare one i feel like for me at least selling tealeaves for the normal pancakes and then if i have a lot of it i can changee into nightmare pancakes and then maybe exchange it for some thing would be much cooler and honestly i just want my very easy ten pull back........

for the nightmare passes just make then like i dunno every 3 months even would be better and just make it so that its smth special not neccessary or just make it more affordable for players to acually afford

and i mean what im saying is just random stuff i havent even thought about it that much there might be better ideas for what to do but i honestly wish the best for this game and what is happening right now is just pretty much ruining it for not only me but most players i doubt only f2p, cause even if you pay for a game u need a reason to do it if the game doesnt provide then you might as well go to a diffrent one

Ok i think thats pretty much all there might be more i wanted to say but well i forgor and well im gonna get bubble tea as a treat prob......

[fatallyaddictedtofiction]

So me and @little-doggy-girl-kisser watched I Saw the TV Glow yesterday. After I've had a day to digest it. Wow.

(Edit: this has allusions to my personal mind thoughts so be wary of that i guess???)

Firstly can i obsess over the lighting symbolism, going from largely pink in the first half over to blue in the 2nd, and the use of / lack of sound REALLY effectively drags out scenes to make them either more eery, more empty or scary like ITS A MASTERPIECE

As a young person watching that film, the concept of time slipping away too quickly really resonated, especially because the past few weeks have felt exactly like that (its already scary, this movie made me so scared lmao) and it was so well done, the "I was 19, then I was 20, then I was 21" literally passing by like seconds, and the "there is still time" message really hit hard (i wanted to cry, but i struggle to cry often).

As an autistic trans person, Jeez. Jeez. The whole idea of thinking a show is more real than the life happening around you. Thinking everyone around you knows something is wrong with you. Not feeling comfortable whatsoever in your own skin. God, its so... I dont want to say exposing, but its basically like being seen, or recognised?? I know that I havent even been on this planet for 20 years yet but that movie made me feel seen.

(Also brief side-note as an aroace person, Owen saying "I like... Tv shows?" is so real for that i agree)

The being scared is so real. Even when you have people around you supporting you and loving you, in my experience it can be scary. What if you wake up one day and that's not who you are? What if you thought for so long this was the real you and when you finally accept it you realise it isnt?? SORRY GETTING OFF TOPIC.

The movie perfectly encapsulates that fear of change, and the consequences due to that change, or lack of.

I think one of the important messages is that even though theyd been buried and were dying and suffocating and they werent themselves, their hearts were still beating. Their hearts were still beating even if they didnt know they were dying. Their hearts were still beating because there is still time. And thats such an important message because there is still time.

There were moments where i was genuinely watching the screen scared, for example Mr Melancholy's speech really creeped my out. I wish i could have a more thorough analysis of this but all i remember is thinking "i will have nightmares about this" and i think thats almost the point?? It could be trying to say that this experience can be so scary and horrifying it bleeds into everything, even things as big as the moon.

The moment where Owen saw inside his own chest felt like it was such a huge moment of "that is who I am. That is who I could be" and it was heartbreaking to see it just disappear and see him apologising for something that might not have been real, at least something no one noticed because he is so "if you cant think about it they cant get you / it isnt real" and because he doesn't let himself think about who he really could be, is he even real?

To be honest i really dont know if i "Got It" or not but thats mainly what I took from it i think

Idk man i love this movie and i want to cry too 🤷‍♀️

[superemeralds]

Who is your oldest (like longest had) OC? When did you come up with them, or tell us what the inspiration was!

my oldest oldest OC is Diana, she's a sailor moon self-insert who's the princess of the entire galaxy (as opposed to usagi's pathetic reign over juuust the solar system lmao) and she was sailor star. To be fair thgouh, I did make her before i saw season 5 and that season ruined my entire lore and I kind of dropped sailor moon for a while after that akjfhkajsf but when i was 9 or 10 i started making this sailor moon season 6 comic where my oc was the main character obviously but i was also obsessed w like 5 other certoons and anime so it just all meshed together. also all the other characters wouldnt stop commenting on my character being sooo tomboyish and how she was seen as one of the boys and one conflict was her not wanting to be girly when she transforms... I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANT FOR ME.........🏳️‍⚧️

my oldest OC that i actually have like. well recorded inspo and history of (drew him lots, still use him sometimes) is saph.

he was my sonic self insert at first. in the very beginning he was sonic's long lost sister ♥ back then he used to work for eggman. also i only knew about sonic from sonic x and only the first 2 seasons existed in germany at the time i watched it, so i thought 1) shadow is one of eggmans minions 2) shadow is an ugly jerk and i hated him lol.

(the rest is under cut bc this came out suuuper long)

same story as last oc. at first trying hard to be girly, (also holy shit i found the poerfect img for this)

but that's uncomfortable so i'm making the oc edgy. (notice the "MALE NOSE!!!!") at this point the backstory was that he's a "clone" of sonic shadow and silver.

no wait even better. run around naked like the boy characters.

everyone always confusing the giiirl for a boooy and i genuinely got some hate for my character design bc i shipped him w shadow and wow u cant have a homo OCxCanon ship ewww lmao but oh well.

someone once dared me to do a genderbend and then i just changed the color from white to black and they were angry i didnt do a proper genderbend. while the anti version of the character was a proper girly girl with pink and sparkles and smiles and rainbows and skirts and frilly tops and stupid hairstyle. and ppl complained the anti looked more like a genderbend. (below is the "anti". i can't find the genderbend anymore)

for me it just was my first crack in the egg bc hey. i don't want to be preppy, i want to be emo. but im not allowed bc girls are not meant to be edgy. and im notally not projecting on the boy version of this character more than the girl one. nope.

with every year i reduced the hair pieces at the front lmao but ya after my egg cracked i focused more on making him cool andkeeping him gender neutral. Then i used him to prcess a lot of my ongoing hardships in life. the redesign also being bc of a big shift (well. yeah me transitioning socially lmao)

he's unfortunately associated a lot w that painful time so i don't use him a lot anymore

he came a long way though im proud of him. here's one of the most recent drawings together with his brother (also has lots of lore on how he happened but im not feeling like it rn to go on that tangent)

[mcybree]

Disclaimer that this is just my personal experience on my side of things

As someone who got into the fandom right before dl, i also saw a significant amount of unhealthy fh content when ranchers became a thing. Part of it was just ship fighting but considering this fandom tends to not have “ship wars” (ugh hate that term) I think there’s more to it. The impression I got was that because part of the ranchers lore was “wow someone is finally being nice to Jimmy”, that implied that Scott wasn’t and so the perception of his actions in 3l went from silly teasing to serious. In fact, because of my personal avoidance of ship fighting, my involvement with the abusive fh interpretation was a very slow burn, even after I watched Scott’s 3l and came to a lot of the same conclusions as you. Seeing ur blog was the tipping point for me because it stopped feeling like ranchers angst fuel and became interesting analysis on it’s own.

Yeah yeah what you described here is generally what I noticed too… I remember a couple of very angry posts at the time about toxic fh interpretations when it popped up again in limited life LMAO, as it was never detached from ranchers so people assumed that it was purely an unsubstantiated shipping thing… Which was honestly a fair assumption, considering scott was often made a purely evil entity in those fics and unnecessarily cruel to the point of mischaracterization, which is directly opposed to the most widespread interpretations of his character (“he is the most loyal and reasonable person there he’s so nice” type takes), so explaining toxic fh away as people either baselessly inventing it just to make Ranchers look better or it being a result of homophobia was probably just what made sense at the time.

I was already a toxic fh truther when all this was happening, but I personally stayed quiet because a.) I didnt have a spine back then and b.) neither side was appealing to me. I can assume there were other people who held similar opinions on it, but fh was still fairly popular (gestures to the entire wcsmp tag pre-Milo reveal LMAO) so making posts about it in That Economy felt like a bad idea. Making my fh posts has so far felt like tossing seeds on the ground and luring everyone out of the bushes.

[chaotomatic]

Spoilers for the Dragon tears quest line for TOTK!!

Ever since i finished this quest, the whole way i felt playing the game changed drastically

And im sure anybody reading who’s played the game can relate, everything can feel so much more depressing or empty, even when youre having fun. You forget for awhile, but then you look up at the sky and catch the light dragon in the corner of your eye. And youre like. Wow. Shes really gone, isnt she?

But i dont think anything could prepare me for just how sad this game can make me feel in the small moments.

Karin waiting for zelda outside her house, asking link where she’s been breaks my heart, as im sure everybody’s does, thats to be expected

But today i was exploring in between Akala and Eldin, and spotted some bokoblins to murder with backpacks of fire fruit

When the carnage was over, a tree had been knocked down and half the grass was scorched black

But just as i was about to leave, i spotted something i hadn’t noticed before

A single silent princess sat just outside where the flames had scorched the grass

I think i stood and stared at it for a solid minute after wards

I don’t know what it was, but i think that singular flower in the middle of nowhere made me sadder than most of the scripted moments in the game

I have a little recording of my playthrough of a 30 second clip of me running around rhe flower, bewildered it didnt get burnt, lmao

Small edit: it was actually in an area below Zoras domain. I was playing for a long time yesterday and got somethings mixed up haha 😅

[bonesandthebees]

Spruce not reading honey and tangerines made me remember i got like halfway through before losing all my ao3 tabs and never finishing it 😭 i’ll have to go back and find where i was soon

Also one of my only thoughts after burning gold was literally just “wow tallulah covering her eyes for moat of the fic? She really is just like her father”

Also also WF WF WF MY BELOVED clinic and stars will always have a special place in my heart but sbi’s fight after wilbur said he knew why tommy left at the syndicate meeting will always have a special place in my heart, i re-read it sometimes just for fun

Every once in a while i’ll also remember i was here when the last few chapters of clinic weren’t out yet and then i’ll feel old

I vividly remember checking if clinic had updated, it had, and it was the chapter where puffy came and visited tommy and brought him cinnamon rolls and revealed she was a former-hero

And then i remember being here for all of wf, and reading stars when it only had one chapter and then forgetting about it until it was finished 😭

I can picture so clearly in my head checking wf one day at dinner, i had only read the first chapter a while back and hadn’t kept up, there was now five chapters and i was so excited. I was eating tacos. I kept up with wf updates after that

Sorry for the ramble, everyone’s recent asks have reminded me of a lot of things lmao, still debating if i should re-read stars and i’m so very close to giving in

- 🪐

NOOOO I ACCIDENTALLY INCLUDED THE COVERING EYES BIT AGAIN THIS TIME WITH TALLULAH I DIDNT EVEN REALIZE why do I keep doing this

the fact that you reread that painful fight in wf for fun certainly says something /j (it was such a fun scene to write I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much)

damn you've been around for that long?? you're really an og saturn anon. I remember when I wrote that clinic chapter with puffy and tommy talking after he'd been kidnapped and that conversation ended up being so much longer than I meant it to be. I was so frustrated bc it meant I had to put off the crimeboys reconciliation convo by another chapter and I wanted to write that one so bad, but the puffy tommy convo was so good and flowed so well so I couldn't be too upset

looking back on when wf was updating feels a bit like a fever dream for me bc 1) I wrote most of it during the winter quarter of my senior year of college. we'd gone back to in person for fall quarter after a full year of online bc covid, but then winter had a surge of covid cases again so almost all my classes went BACK online but I had one optional in person class once a week. so I had a lot of free time to write and would spend entire days in a campus coffee shop writing wf 2) sirentwt happened while I was writing wf. that was certainly a Time

anyway i love that you remember you were eating tacos when you noticed wf had 5 chapters up now. I remember I kept trying new drinks at the coffee shop every day when I went there to write but none of it was very good but it was a student run place that had really nice vibes so I became a regular anyway

[lumen-tellus]

thinking about those old longfics that i rambled about in the tags that ive dropped but still really, really want to write.......................... yknow, i honest to god dont know when ill ever actually write them so maybe i Should just drop some notes on what was supposed to happen in them lmao lmao

(and it will help if i do end up coming back to them to fully write out some day. lol. maybe. probably. i hope loooool)

a room by the ocean

-> endgoal is for Yumeno and Ouma to say "sayonara biches!!" to the town they're staying in currently and move to some other place. a titular room by the ocean.

how do we get there tho? god i wish i knew man beats me

-> also along the way, Friendship(TM) happens!!!!!!!!

-> and some backstory stuff; how both of their "past selves" aka pre-show attitudes and circumstances still linger and affect them:

Yumeno coping with her history as being the child of two former show participants, essentially repeating history with herself and both sympathizing and rejecting her mother.

Ouma having to deal with the semi-clashing personality he has now and deciding who exactly he wants to be, and by extension, what he wants his life to be now in light of everything past and present.

-> ofc some conflict in the form of asshole reporters and fans finding out and following after them like creeps + both yumeno and ouma were still fans of the show once upon a time even if they both really detest it now, so trying to deal with that in perhaps each other is going to be a whole rip fiasco in some sense (also theyre like, living reminders of the show just by being next to each other so lmao for them).

-> i WILL get my saiouma happening here too. also just in general friendshippy with the trio will happen somewhere!!!!!!

genometrics

-> oh yeah i also had a platonic shirogane-ouma spaceship au fic that i forgot about too. whoops

-> i have even less of an idea how i was supposed to make them friends but that was the endgoal of the fic lmaooooo

-> fic would be loosely structured like its source inspiration - a genometrics/cosmosphere dive, except without the whack brain surrealism lol. it's real life, and each chapter would "progress" their friendship much like progressing a level.

-> probably another place where i would slip in worldbuilding for the au lmao lmao

home, riding home

-> i said time travel mystery fic ft. zhongli and tartaglia but its not time travel and tartie isnt childe either

-> anyway im just going to drop the reveal lmao: the tartie is tonitoni

wow gasp shock woooooowww who couldve eveeeeeer guessed that The tonitoni writer is actually writing the suspiciously teenaged girl tartaglia to actually be tonitoni!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /sarcasm

-> also zhongli didnt time travel, he timelined traveled - he wakes up in a timeline/alternate history teyvat thats lagging behind just a bit temporally, where the tartie is tonitoni and where the rite of descension has yet to take place.

to specific, he wakes up in the body of his other self there

he doesnt realise this bc well it's his exact same body + he mistakes the potent geo energies within him - which is actually the soul of his other self, forced into slumber bc of the timeline jumping antics - for his gnosis

-> the other funny mystery beat i was going for - tonitoni has the gnosis. she just grabbed it right out of her zhongli in a petulant, violently arguing fit by accident and the sheer, sudden force of taking it from him rendered him briefly unconscious.

she panicked tho and thought she killed him tho lmao rip tonitoni is such a funny little silly meowmeow <3

anyway bc of this, she basically yelled at the leylines to grab his soul before it disappears into the ether - and bc she wasnt thinking straight, she didnt notice that he isnt really dead and his soul hasnt moved on from the material plane

the leylines also meanly did not correct her on this, mostly bc thats not really their job, and simply dutifully complied with her garbled command to go grab a zhongli from the leylines. hey, conveniently, theres a zhongli in a domain close to the leylines in another timeline, that should do!

so yeah this technically means she also knows zhongli is rex lapis and not just a regular consultant at this point, which goes halfway unnoticed bc half the time theyre in public anyway so she cant actually go around addressing him as an archon lol

-> besides all this plot, there was gonna be a fair bit of chara rumination!!

it would heavily feature zhongli debating his future post-archonhood, what he wants to do in life and what he wants from life both. primarily the grappling of moving on from centuries of duty to a more self-centered, human existence.

on tonitoni's side, it would be the exploration of a friendly, almost mentor-like, almost parental relationship between her and zhongli.

-> childe will show up eventually and oh boy hes going to look at tonitoni and it will immediately become a disaster im tellinggggg you

also there will be chili endgame. there will be. that is the point of retirement u old noodle!!!!!!!!!!

-> fic ending is that tonitoni uses her free tree privileges to send zhongli and childe back after all the mysteries are sorted out (and just in time for the rite and the farce of a plan to proceed) ft. some emotional moments bc tonitoni is going to be super intensely staring at her brother in the head the whole time otherwise lol

sun in retrograde

-> aka noah "celestia" ebalon gets a field trip in retrospection at how much his childhood sucked ASS!!!!!! ft. worldbuilding

celestia gets to happily hate on his shitty parents, encourage his younger self to be more confident, and feel both appreciative and sad with more mature nuance over his brother

he will also ruminate a fair bit on how the past is like and what it will become from here on, knowing what he does from the future and the secret things going on (like the machinations of the cult of henir and such)

the worldbuilding will focus on magic systems, family dynamics, and elrianode nobility and customs

-> as for the actual plot-to-plot beats: good question!!!!!!!!!

well i know he'll stick around in the manor as a supposed expert magic tutor for harque, probably - celestia thinks this is both incredibly funny and also kinda whack honest to god

harque is also probs just going to wave him off like "i can tell you're not that interested like sure i'll take some tips but please do as you like ^^"

which celestia btw happily accepts so he can research how to go back to his own time and also maybe not worry too much about fucking up the timelines with his own meddling. epitome of "whatever happens will happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in his head as he psyches himself through his research

he takes breaks in between of course though, accompanying harque or his younger self - who he definitely imparts more actual magical teaching to - and bonding with them, while internally musing about the outsider pov of seeing his own childhood self and brother with fresh eyes.

clamor btw is going to take one look at younger noah and be like "i understand so much about why you were like That now. also im going to squish his cheeks even more"

also at some point younger noah falls sick and misty shows up to care for him and celestia is simultaneously "idc my revenge plot was a whole life/timeline ago" and "you canNot be standing in front of me and pretend that you dont know whats up heLLO?!?!?!?!?!??" inside his head, which is otherwise politely smiling at her.

also "misty is an ebalon cousin" hc in full force here; shes from a branch family of the ebalons, i swear if the game canon itself doesnt prove me right i KNOW im right anyway SOMEWHERE

the final plot-plot beat is that harque figures out what celestia's magic research is really about (time travel) and while he doesnt press for anything from him (probably), he does comment about how such magic might help him actually win the nominations for moon master - this gets celestia thinking about the pendant trinket, and how he doesnt know where harque actually got the thing nor figured out how to supposedly use its magic anyway.

which leads to celestia being the one to craft the pendant and hand it over to harque, along with potentially cryptic words hinting at the future to come. maybe idk itd funny tho. (it'd also be funny if harque lowkey figures out who celestia actually is after this but lmao dont look at me)

ofc the ending has celestia eventually use his reversed time travel spell to go back to his own time, where hes like "well that sure was something!" sits there for a while just staring at the ceiling, then is like "hey, clamor, do you want to investigate henir's order? im suddenly realising that theres some loose ends i never figured out" and heading to elrianode for their delayed meetup with the ESP in the demon world lol maybeeee

[ashen--dreams]

do you have mentall illness? if so can you name them please? 🩷

YOU BET I DO BABY. sure ill lay all of my personal bullshit out on the table idc i love oversharing /lh /nm

prof dx'd depression, gad, and technically bipolar 2, but i call bs on bipolar. i match essentially none of the symptoms save for being on the lower less manic spectrum (wow who wouldve thought). im pretty sure my doctor slapped it on my resume cause they were lazy and my mother has biolar 2.

i believe i have bpd instead. so unprof dx'd bpd, possibly cptsd (?? i believe i have some form of ptsd, but i admittedly havent looked too hard into it), adhd, and probably autism.

im also dyslexic! not "dx'd" either but that doesnt rly get a dx its just something noticed in children but for some reason me mixing up words and the occasional letter and sometimes writing letters backwards and taking longer to learn how to write my name and never learning my times tables or extremely basic division didnt mean enough idk lmao

ive been meaning to get on an adhd/autism dx but it takes soooo long to even get an appt so ive been putting it off ajbdjd and i believe i need a referral and all that jazz so its just a headache. yadda yadda the time passes anyways or whatever

[sleepymarmot]

Phantom Thread (2017)

[Finally forcing myself to post the reviews of films I watched earlier this year. Saw this one on January 29th — almost exactly seven months ago! As usual, I also post the notes I took while watching, so scroll down a bit if you only want the review.]

Liveblog

The dress is pretty but it doesn’t sit well on her at all.

Damn that was quite a rude way to hit on a perfect stranger

Girl has no sense of self-preservation! What do you mean you get into the car of a customer you talked to for two minutes, after dark?!

Wow he put his fingers in the sauce, is that normal for rich British men or is that another creepy flirting method? That’s unhygienic, please use your own food for innuendo

Oh my god Cyril is immediately acting creepy also

“My job to give you some. (beat) If I choose to.” Dude lmao…

“You have the ideal shape. He likes a little belly.” Ok first of all, insane thing to say once again. Secondly, w h e r e

I like this dress even less. Weird skirt, looks uncomfortable.

Why did he bring his sister to their date

“How early?” “I’ll wake you.” …

The fabric conversation… Is this negging again or is he for real

I really thought Cyril would say “Maybe you’re being too fussy.” I guess Alma has not yet leveled up enough to get quoted verbatim

“But, please, don’t let her sit around waiting for you.” Ha, now Cyril is repeating Alma’s words without even knowing Does Cyril not drink from the kettle? That was kind of risky…

The wedding dress is ugly Oh, he said it himself, okay

Damn, all of these women have to work overtime because of this couple’s power plays

He went from “I want a divorce” to “We’re doing food poisoning based BDSM” awfully quickly

Wait where’s that text post about being poisoned by your wife... Was it inspired by this movie lol

Ok so we all agree Reynolds is autistic, with his routines and picky eating and misophonia

---

Review

How come Tumblr has never mentioned this one to me? Feels silly to say “where have you all been hiding this” about a Best Picture nominee from five years ago, but still. This is literally a romance between “ok first of all i didnt "miss" the red flags i looked them and thought yeah thats sexy” and “love my terrible wife […] when we eat dinner ill smile and say “poison again ?” and she will shrug mischievously but we both know it is very much poison”!

General notes

Set design, cinematography and lighting were beautiful. In our age of murky shots, it’s remarkable to see a film that’s never underlit — sometimes even the opposite. Wasn’t a fan of the grain, though; the flickering is hard on the eyes, and in the copy I watched it looked like a low quality rip instead of a warm nostalgic analogue look that I assume was intended. The sound side was as good as the visuals: this might be the first time I actually noticed the sound design, and the score was nothing less than what I expected of Jonny Greenwood.

I have mixed feelings about the costuming. Some of the dresses are beautiful… but the two most important ones, the very first dress we see and the very first dress made for Alma, didn’t fit the wearers’ silhouettes, and looked stiff and uncomfortable.

Some of the dialogue, mostly at the beginning, felt unnatural; not sure if that’s just me not being a native speaker, since nobody else had the same complaint.

I didn’t get “never cursed”. Was that a statement Reynolds secretly made about himself, or a lucky charm referring to the princess’ marriage? Why did Alma rip the label out? Why did she join the seamstresses in the first place — did she feel guilty that they got caught in the crossfire and had to work overtime because of her, or did she just want to inspect the dress? I also don’t understand why people seem to adore the New Year’s Eve scene.

Do you think Alma told the doctor the whole story, or just talked about their relationship but left out the poisonings? I think it would be unwise to tell that to anyone lest they call the police…

In the sections below, I am going to talk negatively about Reynolds a lot. So I want to clarify first: I do sympathize with Reynolds in many ways; I wouldn’t want a new person to get in the way of my habits, and I would be unhappy with the surprise dinner too. And that’s also exactly why I don’t invite strangers to live with me and interrupt my routines then get mad at them for that, you know…

Filing this one as “Movies I wouldn’t want to watch or discuss with my mother even though there’s zero sex and nudity on screen”. I don’t know which part would be more awkward, the Freudian subtext or everything else…

The omelette

I’ve recently acquired a bad habit of reading too much about movies before watching. In this case it was probably a good thing, though: without the spoilers, I doubt I would have seen this any time soon, or managed to sit through the first hour. Luckily, I didn’t know the key element of the omelette scene, and still managed to have a proper first time viewing experience as it slowly dawned on me that Reynolds was aware of everything and the poisoning was going to be consensual this time.

That scene, and the follow-up interactions between Alma and Reynolds in the cottage (excluding the daydreaming flash-forwards, which I have mixed feelings about), were, unsurprisingly, my favorite part of the film. Many reviews quote Alma’s monologue (which, as I realize now, I might have originally encountered in a joke screenshot with zero context) or the line Reynolds says in response, so I’ll highlight some other things. The contrast between how simple and ordinary their actions are on the surface (cooking, serving food, eating, talking at the table) and how wild the meaning of these actions is; the mix between a duel, a dance and a negotiation that mostly consists of extremely mundane movements. The intense eye contact, the “I know that you know that I know”. How Alma put too much butter in his food and poured water too loudly for too long, and he accepted it without complaint but with the same calm and clarity as the poison. How they look genuinely happy, in love, and on the same page for the first time in the entire film. How easily he says “I love you”.

The omelette discourse

…And now that I’ve documented my immediate positive emotional response, it’s time for some overthinking and complaining. Perhaps everything I say below can be dismissed by saying “they’re both awful and deserve each other, that’s the point haha”, but that’s not a mode my brain can stay in for long. So please bear with me, or just skip this section.

Because no matter how exciting and cathartic that ending is, I can’t help but ask: what next? Is this experience going to let Reynolds finally grow out of his cycle of childlike helplessness and patriarchal despotism, instead of solidifying it? What are we supposed to infer — that the poisonings are going to be a regular occurrence from now on, or that they will become unneeded as Reynolds gradually mellows out? (The former would, realistically, have diminishing returns and practical complications like “people are going to start asking questions”, and the latter kind of goes against the celebratory kink-positive tone of the film’s grand finale.) Are we to believe that Alma’s poison is an antidote to Reynolds’s toxic masculinity, and that the more he submits to Alma the more he can tolerate her when things go back to normal, until the two of them grow to exist harmoniously?

I guess there is some evidence of that process already beginning. When Reynolds bounces back after the first poisoning, he’s slightly less mean to Alma than before the marriage. Alma’s poisoning is also less destructive the second time: consent, no collateral damage, not on the eve of an important deadline, she agrees to call the doctor.

I think the film wants the viewer to think that by the end, Reynolds and Alma’s mutual toxicity cancels itself out, and they manage to reach a harmonious equilibrium. That might be true of the first poisoning, where Alma retaliates against Reynolds’s abuse with some of her own. At the mid-point of the film, their vileness is pretty evenly matched. After that first poisoning, there’s a brief honeymoon period. Then Reynolds goes back to berating Alma, disregarding her feelings, and being dissatisfied with her presence in his life… And in response to Reynolds making her feel unloved, Alma does something that makes Reynolds feel loved. In the end, the score is still in Reynolds’s favor instead of being even. Even in Alma’s daydreams of their happily ever after, the closing monologue of the film, there is no mention of Reynolds changing to accommodate her, only of Alma changing to accommodate him: “I am older and I see things differently, and I finally understand you.”

Perhaps here the story structure and the balance of power between the characters are in conflict; it makes sense to end the film on the strong scene that changes the relationship in a major way — but that means the viewer doesn’t get to know if that change leads to improvement. We never learn if Reynolds eventually becomes a better partner; we only know that Alma is committed to him either way.

No matter how satisfying the couple’s new arrangement is to watch, I don’t see how it would help with the actual problems in their relationship. They are at different stages of life, and that exacerbates the natural differences between their temperaments. Reynolds doesn’t respect Alma as an equal; he insults her and allows others to insult her to his face. He has immense power and privilege over her socially and materially. He has a career that he loves and a devoted sister, but she has no life outside of him — no friends, family, interests, hobbies, income, etc. — and it’s hard to tell if it’s sexist writing, intended characterization, or both.

How is any of that going to be helped by them growing closer emotionally? You two found a love language you have in common and unlocked a new level of intimacy and mutual understanding, congratulations! Is it going to broaden Alma’s horizons and opportunities? Is it going to give Reynolds more progressive views and social awareness, enough to at least defend the honor of his lower class wife? Is he going to stop being emotionally abusive because he is emotionally fulfilled?

This would imply that Reynolds behaves the way he does simply because he is too high-strung and he just needs to take a chill pill. That the problems in their relationship can be reduced to him being a control freak, and once he gets accustomed to giving up control and learns to enjoy it, and then he’ll be a good partner. Sorry, but it’s hard for me to believe that one can tame, let alone fix someone by domming them.

The film seems to attempt a subversion of the patriarchal, hierarchical “artist/muse” “upper class/working class” “man/woman” power dynamics. But the characters do not dismantle that existing power imbalance: instead, they build something new and mutually satisfying on top of it. The film intentionally avoids the feminist wish fulfillment route: Alma doesn’t liberate herself, and she doesn’t even want to. It’s a fairy tale where the Beast doesn’t really become a better person, so the Beauty becomes a worse one to “match” him… but she’s still locked inside his castle. Alma doesn’t abandon the role of a muse, only adds another traditionally feminine role to it: mother. As Feminist Frequency’s review puts it, “Traditional, restrictive gender roles are not escaped; one set is just briefly swapped out for another.” Related: it might be just a consequence of Reynolds’s chosen trade, but the people Alma walks over in her bids for his attention are always women (Barbara Rose, the seamstresses).

Speaking of motherhood… What happens when the woman who likes to treat her husband like a baby gets a real baby? How does she split her time between them? Does she end up neglecting one of them, does that make Reynolds jealous or more abusive? Or will he by that time have gone through enough personal growth to be actually fit for fatherhood? An interview with an expert on Alma’s specific brand of abuse asks an even more worrying question: “I also wondered about the baby at the end, because those who engage in the behavior are likely to do it [again] when similar situations arise. So as the baby gains skills of emancipation, would Alma be equally threatened by that? I saw the baby and thought: Oh no, it may be at risk.”

Perhaps I am being overly cynical and uncharitable here because of who made the film. When an artist with a history of being cruel to his girlfriend writes a story about an artist being cruel to his girlfriend, and makes the fictional girlfriend abusive too, how can I not question it? This film was already very awkward to approach and enjoy as a fan of Fiona Apple, even regardless of its content.

The relationship development

Another thing that didn’t work very well for me in the final sequence is something that also applies to the other parts of the film: the internal logic of the couple’s relationship development. Reynolds goes from “This was a mistake, I can’t live like this, I want a divorce” to “Intoxicate me now 😏 With your lovin’ now 😍 I think I’m ready now 😳” in the space of one cut. These scenes are directly adjacent with no development between them. It makes sense from Alma’s perspective (“what an asshole he’s being, he needs to be poisoned ASAP”), but not from Reynolds’s.

On Alma’s side, though, there’s also a bit of weirdness: Alma to Reynolds: Don’t worry babe you’re not gonna die, I’ll take care of you <3 Alma to the doctor: If he died that’d be fine by me, we’d just meet in the afterlife ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I really can’t tell how I am supposed to take this, and which of the men she was lying to!

But let’s go back to the beginning of the film. Throughout the initial phase of the relationship, I was sure that Reynolds chose playful bullying as his flirting tactic consciously, but later in the film he showed so little self-awareness that I started to suspect he thought that was a normal way to show interest in a girl you just met. Either way, I was surprised that the way he condescended to her changed considerably when the seduction was over, though in retrospect it makes sense. On Alma’s side, there was a similar shift: she was far more welcoming of his insulting methods of flirting than I would expect from a self-respecting adult with a strong personality, and started rebelling when they settled into domesticity. Perhaps the domineering attitude of a handsome stranger showering her with attention was exciting at first, but when their relationship became routine, she quickly grew sick of being treated like a second class citizen in what has become her own home. (I wasn’t joking with the quote at the top of the review: it was my genuine and immediate impression that Alma goes along with the 342561 red flags exhibited during the very first day not because she’s a doormat but because she’s a freak.)

The love at first sight didn’t work for me, as well as the couple’s determination to stay together despite their incompatibility. I’m just not convinced that they actually love each other as entire human beings. They do love certain sides of each other. Reynolds loves the muse with the perfect measurements; the assistant totally devoted to him; the new woman (future) finally displacing his older sister (present) and mother (past) while, unlike them, also being his sexual partner. Alma loves the genius who makes her feel beautiful and important. They both love the persona the other assumes in a caretaking scenario. But is there a deeper connection? Do they actually love each other unconditionally, not just the aspects of each other that fulfill their needs? I’ve seen quotes in confirmation of that from PTA and Vicky Krieps — but the text itself provides no satisfactory evidence of that.

Obligatory comparisons with other films

I like to chain movies together because of themes or character dynamics they share. A couple of reviews for Crimes of the Future mentioned this film, and I decided to watch it next assuming that the similarities start and end with the relationship between an aging artist and a strong-willed younger woman. Turns out, these two films also make an interesting double feature because in some ways they’re an inverse of each other. Crimes of the Future and its main couple wear abnormality on their sleeve, but the central relationship is healthy and stable; Phantom Tread appears classy and family-friendly, hiding the more shocking aspects of the relationship beneath the luxurious surface. Both films are very sensual without the conventional sex scenes, but the approach is diametrically opposite: Crimes of the Future circumvents the content rating system, managing to put explicit scenes on screen just because they don’t contain specific banned body parts; Phantom Thread purposefully and conspicuously avoids showing any sex or nudity to preserve the aesthetic and make other scenes feel more charged. The protagonist’s old age is important in both: for Saul, it’s deteriorating health and conservatism towards newer ideologies and ways of interacting with and modifying one’s body; for Reynolds, it is the decades of habit and privilege making him internalize the belief that his own authority, taste, routines are something absolute and unquestionable.

A bigger surprise was the two films also shared the theme of food and eating. Crimes of the Future: eating as a fundamental bodily function, food as means of sustenance, and the politics of food; Phantom Thread: eating as pleasure, food as means of human connection, and the power dynamics of feeding and being fed. Both films go deeper than the surface: food is not just something that is served and tasted, but chewed, swallowed, and digested, which is not necessarily a smooth and uncomplicated process. Phantom Thread’s exploration of the food theme is probably the best one I’ve seen so far not just in film but in any media, and the only one I can think of where “food as love and sex” made sense for me.

Choosing The Favourite as the next film to watch after this one was a good choice too: they also had some things in common. There’s a young woman winning an older and more powerful person’s affection by taking care of them while they’re sick, there are toxic relationship, there’s even literal poison... The older parties are similarly spoiled and eccentric but very different in certain important ways, and the protagonists are even more alike.

People have mentioned this film’s similarities to Rebecca, which I haven’t read or watched; my own first thought was about Misery, which I also haven’t read or watched. Out of the films I’ve seen before, there’s Crimson Peak — someone made an entire Venn diagram for their similarities. I’ve also seen comparisons with a number of other films, mostly ones I haven’t seen. Is Phantom Thread more intertextual than the usual or is that just me?

[the-silent-hashira]

SPIDER WEB, for the ask game?

SPIDER WEB - How intertwined would you say you and your partners lives are?

that depends! i know some of them are far more attached than others.

Cross? Cross could go weeks without talking to me and then send me a 10 page letter about everything hes been doing and seeing, maybe a few little pictures here and there. he probably wouldnt talk about me much, and i dont care about what he does out there because i know that he loves me. we do work for the same organization, but our relationship isnt something many know about.

Clef probably could go a few days, he would talk about me occasionally but if you pointed out how much he did it he would make an effort to not talk about me as much. he likes being private, unless hes actually with me. again, work together, but some people very much notice his attachment to me.

GHB... he talks about me a lot, he likes getting my advice on things, and often will make the excuse of 'lemme ask my matesprit- he says no.' without messaging me at all. he values my opinions and wants me involved in the things hes doing. cant really go without working for the Highblood when youre a purple, and he is obvious, so everyone knows. (i like fucking with people though by making it a jumpscare)

Lucifer couldn't go a few hours without feeling sad that im not there. he will probably skip or cut meetings short if he misses me too much, he'll ask me for advice on many things and will often beg me to join him for things. if you didnt know i was married to him, you are either under a rock, new here, or just an idiot.

I feel like nobody would know Ozma even has a partner, full separation from his public life and i respect that as long as he still cares about me.

Bob is like Lucifer, hes a lost puppy and since i share him with my girlfriend if one of us wasnt around he could deal, but he starts getting sad after a while. plus, without me hes basically stuck in the house or he might genuinely get arrested and/or kill someone and get caught. nobody would really know about us and Bob, but thats because we do that on purpose. he is a wanted murderer after all.

Wally would love to involve me in anything, but i honestly like it when he pays more attention to my girlfriend since we share him too. everyone knows, its very clear.

Ozzie and Fizz are up. my. ass. if they get the chance it is puppy dog eyes. please pay me attentions. would talk about me if given the chance and will sometimes make situations where they can. kinda funny that most of my Hazbin/Helluva f/os are just straight up dependent on me most of the time lmao.

recently started shipping with Valentino, who would probably never involve me with work but likes being seen with me. its good for publicity, and he kinda values my opinions because i dont take his shit and can throw back just as much as he gives me. could be mistaken for coworkers or just fwb.

Diavolo and Satan... Diavolo would talk about me pretty frequently im sure, he gets excited when people ask him about any relationships he might have, and likes asking me what i think and being seen with me.

Satan and i like doing things together, and admittedly i really like doing silly things like going to plays and pretending to be in a mystery novel sometimes.

with Diavolo they would probably know because he would just say 'did you know my girlfriend, Uriel, says-' and Satan doesnt really talk about me but thats because he wants me to himself(and begrudgingly shares with Diavolo)

and recently i decided id say something about it, but i also ship with Eda, Lilith, and Belos/Philip from The Owl House. of which im not sure yet, but i know that none of them would necessarily talk about me much since my s/i with them is a fucking recluse that also hates being talked about in general so thats more a boundary on my side. my Belos/Philip is also way different from canon so 😅

wow this became long but this question interested me and i hadnt really thought about my impact on some of their lives honestly.