#yikes meta tag

[nyaagolor]

As much as I love AA4, the more I think about it the more I am just immensely bothered by the designs of Troupe Gramarye. Trucy having less melanin than either of her parents is something that’s brought up a lot, and yeah, fair, but what really irks me is that if you line up them up from good to evil (at least in terms of how they’re generally spoken about / viewed in game) it’s just light to dark:

[emmabirb8]

I've been an Invader Zim fan since 2011.

I was 15-16 at that time, and though I did thoroughly enjoy the show, I was not mature enough to really get it. Sure, it was funny, but I didn't pick up on the subtleties and style of humor beyond the surface level. I liked the wackiness and the characters, but I SURELY wasn't at a point of being able to deconstruct themes or analyze character motivations and narratives (like I very much enjoy doing now). I remember discovering an artist on DeviantArt who drew cute ZaGr stuff, so that was the pairing I liked too. I didn't think too deeply about much, and honestly, I don't think the majority of fans (if they were my age or younger, that is) did either. Everything was taken as dumb and silly for the most part, and that IS truthfully a major component of the show itself.

Getting back into Invader Zim within this past year though, I'm looking at it through a WILDLY different lens. I like Invader Zim for what it is and how it's intended to be perceived. I like that the show is meant to be dark, satirical, and tragic at the same time that it's silly, chaotic, and nonsensical. Almost everything that happens onscreen is written in to be funny above all else. (I've mentioned before that I've been watching Jhonen's Twitch streams for a while now, and I have a MUCH better understanding of his sense of humor bc of that. IZ makes way more sense if you can sorta see things from JV's perspective, lol.)

But at the same time, I also like Invader Zim for what it offers in terms of interpretation and what it can imply (intentionally or not). There is genuinely SO MUCH DEPTH to this dorky lil cartoon that a casual viewer wouldn't immediately pick up on. And a lot of that depth, I think, was not woven in purposely. The show itself was never meant to be taken so seriously. Nevertheless, I'm constantly fascinated by what IZ implies about good and evil, the nature of general society, and especially how it goes about demonstrating the devastating effects of social isolation and bullying. Meta for this series is always pretty damn *chef's kiss.* And what's even more interesting is how viewers manipulate canon to expand upon this world and these characters.

Given that I've come to understand Invader Zim better, I've also grown very fond of ZaDr. Now, while I wouldn't want to see this pairing happen in canon material, I love the potential it possesses in transformative contexts.

In reality, I get that these characters were intended to have a deep hatred for one another and a never-ending rivalry for the sake of comedy and not much else. It's an extraterrestrial perpetually throwing hands with a 12 year old because he's incompetent and his plans often fail. And that's funny. That's the point. But beyond that, canonically, these are two characters who are mirrors of each other; they're both treated like garbage by their respective peers, and they both crave acknowledgment, validation, and a sense of purpose. Throughout their story, they find they're only able to obtain these things from each other, so as a consequence of their similar personalities, they become utterly, unhingedly obsessed with each other (to a sometimes unhealthy degree). They are undeniably forever intertwined by design of how the show is set up.

And because of that, shipping of these characters was, frankly, inevitable in fandom spaces. I myself fell victim to their appeal too. (Sorry, Jhonen. 😅)

I'm not gonna go into any discourse surrounding this pairing because there's already PLENTY of that to go around online. Everyone has their own opinion on the subject, and that's fine. I respect that. Point is, even though I understand and appreciate what Zim and Dib are supposed to be in the context of the show, I also enjoy the idea of them as friends and romantic partners outside of and beyond the confines of canon.

And that's something that I think many fans who are biased toward ZaDr would also agree with! Actually, I'd say the majority of people who ship characters in ANY media would concur. We like the idea of seeing how specific relationships could develop over time and/or within different settings and circumstances. It's NOT always about wanting to see a relationship unfold on screen or in fan works strictly adhering to canon. It's about stretching canon, or in some cases, scratching canon entirely however you see fit! Who cares! It's fiction!

For me personally, I enjoy ZaDr because its attributes fall into so many trope categories that I've come to adore over the years (ones that I either wasn't aware of when I was younger, or that I didn't enjoy in the same intensity as I do now). Zim and Dib are, or could be, depending on context:

Codependent toxic soulmates

Human x non-human

Shared history

Classic enemies to lovers (or, as I often prefer it, enemies to friends to lovers)

Bicker couple

Battle couple, when put in the right setting for it

Violence as a love language

Smol and tol

The wild card paired with the rational one, the best part about this being that sometimes the more rational one is Dib, and sometimes it's Zim bc they're both a special flavor of insane

Make each other worse/stupider when together, tho oddly, they also kinda bring out the best in each other too

And, my personal favorites, the potential for hurt/comfort and angst with a happy ending, with the comfort and happiness aspects ultimately coming from each other

I like what these characters could be, to and for each other, apart from their roles in the show.

I would never want to explore a dynamic between Zim and Dib that goes beyond "frenemies" territory in canon (because that doesn't fit what the show is, and I do appreciate the integrity of Jhonen's vision). The subtle foundation for them is there, it's just that it can't really work unless a few key details are changed or manipulated, and, well...

I sure as hell like exploring every bit of that expanded potential in fan works because it's fun to imagine the various directions things could go if they were different!

This isn't me, like... trying to defend my (or anyone else's) enjoyment of this particular ship or trying to convince people to like it. Or the show for that matter! To each their own, truly. And I'm obv aware of the controversy ZaDr often incites and why. Everyone has valid reasons for liking OR not liking it, and I accept differing viewpoints on it. It's a touchy, nuanced subject to be sure. But this isn't about that.

I don't really know what this is, actually, aside from a very long very weird essay, lol. I just wanted to process why and how all of this works for me with my changed perspective from when I was first introduced to Invader Zim in my teens up until now.

It's strange, looking back. I didn't get ZaDr years ago. But I do now, and so much of it, at least from my perspective, has to do with taking the crumbs present in canon (that are undeniably there, whether you choose to acknowledge them or not, and whether they're intentional or not) and absolutely running with them to the ends of your own wild imagination.

(ZaDr content is always tagged appropriately on my blog. Pls use tag blocking functions if needed.)

[vole-mon-amour]

You know, I was surprised by the amount of people asking for s4. I understand, it's your favourite show. Mine, too. I'll be devastated if we never see Phil as Jamie again (he's my fav character, can't do anything about it). I'll miss him very very much.

However,

1. I was amazed by the amount of things they got wrong but general audience saying that the finale was perfect and asking for more. We must be watching a very different show.

2. After that AMA with Brendan, I simply don't trust the writers to continue this. In my mind it's a bit of a relief that we're probably not getting more because of the possibility of them ruining it even further.

Sure, one of my fav episodes (Sunflowers, 3x06) was written by Jason S. and Joe Kelly. Brendan was probably involved in some way, but not enough to give him credit for writing and directing it.

International break, 3x10, was written by Jane Becker. There are moments that I dislike, but the entire Uncle day? Roy & Jamie being besties? Roy finding the right words after he sees Jamie giving a nod to Sam that couldn't represent his team? Chef's kiss. I still think the way they handled Roy x Keeley was awful, but still. It was, more or less, a nice episode in my opinion.

Mom city, 3x11, was written by both Jason and Brendan & I absolutely LOVE it for most part (especially if we ignore the entire 'forgive him' thing with Jamie's dad). Jamie-centric episode that I'll always cherish & it's a shame we didn't have more of those. Give Phil all the awards. Love love LOOOVEEE IIITTT. Even better, give Jamie his own spin-off and invite Phil back as Jamie. (But then again, the fear of them bringing James back into Jamie's life and showing it as a good thing... The fear is Real.)

However, how could all Jason, Joe, and Brendan together write and release 3x12 as is is beyond me. How could they give us all those parallels, all that build up, only for it to ruin it in the finale? Jamie and his dad, Beard and Jane, the weird triangle thing that before this was mostly presented as ot3 but suddenly turned in the dumbest possible '2 people are chasing another same one' and Roy & Jamie both being OOC as HELL. Even ot3 aside, what was that bar talk? Jamie would never. Then at Keeley's house and Roy that's 'been working his ass off for the past year' but actually regressed to the point of BEFORE we see him in s1. He was presented as mentally mature in s1. I understand that he's jealous and insecure, but getting back to throwing punches at your best friend trying to convince himself/believing that after one night stand (that was VERY poorly addressed in 3x10 and 3x11 in my opinion) you're getting back together with your ex when she's been turning you down again and again? After that misogynistic comment about "But she's a woman, so you never know." WHO wrote that and why? Who allowed this to appear in the actual episode? And don't give me the "He's only human" treatment, he was always human but he never treated Keeley that shitty. He was better than that from the beginning. Or is it just me who wanted him to be better? Plus, Roy attacking Jamie after KNOWING what Jamie went through and how awful it is for him.

Before TL there was a show that I loved very much, but it disappointed me to the point that I started hating it, dropped it before the last season aired, and blacklisted it everywhere. I won't name it, but the writers were absolutely awful and treated the fans and the main gay ship like clowns. Typical Cis White Guys behavior towards their own characters and writing them as OOC as possible. I was very afraid this might happen to TL but was hoping that it won't. After 3x12? You guys. All my trust into their writing and believing in knowing what they're doing completely disappeared.

I am gutted bc of how much this show means to me and how it helped me through the darkest time in my life, but also... Are we sure we want more? Are we sure we trust them to continue this with these characters? I can kinda imagine the female football team, but to continue with all of our favs?

Mmm, I'm not sure about that, guys. Are you?

[yikes-strikes-again]

highlights from my adventures in Area X, totally blind the whole time until i finished Acceptance. Spoilers for all of it.

me being neurotic about spoilers (this is a common theme)

obsessed with how this is my first instance of theorizing. the last two sentences are eerily accurate and i can't believe i said "alien planet" that's hilarious

this is good analysis too bad i was missing a key piece of information that makes my inadequate conclusion actually make sense

middle of Annihilation, first attempt at analyzing Where lies...this is actually pretty close to what I think about the tower text Now except missing the parts that would have never occurred to me without reading further (that the Crawler is Saul and that Area X is not on earth).

aw this is so cute. They don't even know about the first expedition footage with the sky leviathan POV (i have a pet theory that SR used that clip specifically to brainwash the husband. this is supported by his anecdote of falsely attributing memory to lived experience when its origin was television, as a young child)

i was so right

this is so funny. you are like a little baby

this is still Based

The Antics

this theory is so fucking funny considering how much grace hates lowry

this was like the least brutal of my Control roasts. they ramped up considerably in Acceptance

then i stopped reading the trilogy for eight months and had to start over Authority. but i still thought about it. this is me thinking about it.

This was me like a third of the way into Authority. What the fuck. It's not that creepy when you consider the information dispensed by that point but it's still kind of creepy how accurate my actual predictions were when my ideas were still wrong

then i went to sleep and

so true, me. So righteously true. magic IS real and it's coming to fuck up your town

Future me here: Yea it was a red herring

More Control roasts:

CALL ME IMPORTANT THAT'S MY NAME

Fragment of my "Area X clones are agents of germination" theory. I felt so smart at the end of Authority. So in Control if you will. And then

it was fucking life changing. the homosexuals that they were

first drama in the gc...

This is when the amount of Divine Knowledge brought to me by Accemptance started to get to my consciousness. Once i start saying phrases like "the virgin control and the chad ghost bird" and "the Caroline to his GlaDOS" and "everyone is a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone" that's when you know i've lost the thread

more disjointed quotes because i ran out of images:

"the BASED control vs. the CRINGE everyone else is no longer the dynamic because he's not narrating. i feel like i just broke up with him" "so does ghost bird probably"

"The time dilation really came out of left field. Kind of like a "well shit. thats a hell of a mystery no one thought was a mystery and didnt even really need solving. but damn if it didnt just get solved so nice work"" <- me forgetting how hard i tried to solve the mystery of the cellar journals compost

"When they see that reflection of themselves, they despise it, they need to destroy it This series is about environmentalism as much as it could be The need to make Area X an enemy with a pathological desire to destroy says more about the humans than it does Area X. When they see themselves, they hate so much what they see. But I don't think Area X necessarily hates humans at all. Only the biologist/Ghost Bird can even seem to contemplate that. Maybe Whitby could, briefly, in his endless circular ramblings, but that did not quell his fear and hatred for himself" <- rumination on automatic senseless clone violence

at one point i got whiplash from the Grumpy emotion i got from biologist's borderline ecofascism to the Intense Bittersweet of Saul's fatherly attachment to Gloria in light of everything and then the Pain of trying so hard not to laugh at the thought of someone saying "Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, I'm aware this looks strange" in response to being caught washing a mouse

"phone creature even BETTER than mouse washing" I characterized the phone creature as "little Lowry - his son that he doesn't want" because that amuses me forever

i love how i'm like "i could pass on more of lowry, i'm so sick of that guy" and then proceed to write four Thousand words of meta about him. i like the Theory of lowry. he's a horrible broken man who throws drinks at milves

and i love imagining that everyone who comes back from Area X is a clone no matter what not because that makes any sense but because i get to imagine two versions of every character. i'm like "i love the idea of Lowry being a clone all this time and somehow being protected from the fact by a quirk of his creation. And that he's imperfect compared to Original Lowry in odd ways but SR just chalked up his change to the intense trauma of the event, and if it ever seriously occurred to them they decided it didn't really matter. And if he knew. I don't know what he'd do And real Lowry is a megalodon in the ocean terrorizing plankton instead of lower-tier bureaucrats"

another thought: "I still love the thing that stitches across the sky. I think it's an avian cosmic leviathan, as the biologist is an amphibious cosmic leviathan. You could call it a dragon."

i ended up with a pretty secure Grand Unifying Theory that isn't interesting because you probably all have the same one. It's about the process

my final words of wisdom:

that's the books.

[liyazaki]

MOR! My beloved. I can always expect the truth from you. Overall thoughts on Between Us? I know the final ep was not your fave but how about the series? What would you want to keep? What would you want to change?

Eboni, my darling- hoo, boy. you're about to get way more than you bargained for, but I got some Thoughts™️ & some Things™️ to say.

disclaimer: Between Us was a sweet, serviceable, inoffensive show. I mostly enjoyed watching it & I loved being back in the UWMA universe, however tangentially.

speaking to the collective “you” here: if you loved the show from start to finish, I'm sincerely happy for you! if it'll lessen your BU fandom experience to read critiques- which is valid & completely understandable- click away. I swear I'm not trying to rain on your parade (or argue with anyone, which I won't be- period).

also, let's check ourselves: this is a show. it's not that serious- it couldn't be less serious, actually. sometimes I just like to go off the analytical deep end...it's a good time for a nerd like me. this is my house (my blog) & I'm just having fun, throwing digital paint around.

with all that out of the way, let's jump into it.

UWMA set an extremely high narrative standard. we knew from scene one the writers weren't messing around. that opening is burned into my memory forever.

from compelling flashbacks, to multiple couples that had something for everyone, to little plot details weaved in from the beginning that only made sense later- they knew exactly what story they were trying to tell & they told it in a big way. it was tightly constructed, cleanly delivered and hit all the right notes for me personally.

UWMA is a tough act to follow. in the end, it felt like Between Us barely tried. to quote an MDL reviewer (before the finale even aired): in with a bang, out with a whimper.

step one of any good story is solid character development. it's what draws us in, making & keeping us emotionally invested. we have to like these characters- and know enough about them- in order to care. that- and a good, solid plot- is what sustains our attention.

in a pretty atypical way, Between Us had serious emotional fan investment long before it had basically any character development (thanks to BounPrem's chemistry, IMO).

Win and Team had roughly 31 minutes of total screentime in UWMA, but you'd have never known it from the fever-pitch fandom support years before its release. we didn't have much real character knowledge or depth to go off of, but many of us came into this show ravenous for more of their story (raises hand).

the show's over now and, disappointingly, I don't feel like I learned much about either Win or Team that I didn't already know. we did see them struggle- Team with his guilt and insecurities; Win with his vague intimacy aversion and self worth issues.

Team and Win had plenty of things between (heh) the two of them to overcome- so what went wrong?

for me, Between Us suffered from a tragic case of barely-scratching-the-surface character development (there was so much there to play with narratively & yet- sigh), paired with serious flaws in the rising action.

every single story in existence uses rising action. to quote Henry of The Closer Look, a media analyst I like: "rising action is basically narrative tension. it's the way the conflict builds as the story goes along."

when a story utilizes rising action effectively, the audience ends up feeling almost elated by the end. it's almost like we actually went on the same journey as the characters, and we now get to bask alongside them in just how far they've come. we want to see characters we care for improve, persevere. overcome, conquer.

when rising action is handled correctly, the plot progression looks something like this.

via Henry's excellent analysis on why TLOU2 divided its fandom so thoroughly

Between Us had tension, it had conflict- but it looked something like this (I'd add way more hills, personally).

"what you're seeing here is an abomination of story structure." hey- Henry said it; not me.

the conflicts went up and down throughout the story. Team internally spirals; Win does something sweet and pulls him out of it. everything seems fine; Win pulls back.

rinse, wash, repeat in an endless cycle, made worse by the fact that they struggled with- and apparently overcame- the same. exact. issues, over and over, the entire time.

conflicts that seemed to be resolved came back exactly as they were, sometimes multiple times in a single episode. by episode 7 or so, it was getting tedious. by the end, I was just bummed.

for me, watching Between Us was going around in circles, hoping we were working towards some actually-important climax that never came. and I wanted to believe we were going somewhere, right up until the bitter beige-on-beige end.

there were no scenes that actually made me hold my breath, ala Bad Buddy’s confession-of-legends on the rooftop. no repeating themes, masterfully culminating in the finale (running up the cape in ITSAY). Between Us left me with an itch for depth and impact that only fan fics can scratch at this point (bless you writers).

yeah, Win and Team ended up together- of course they did. I don't think anyone had any doubts they would eventually. but standing at the finish line, do I care that they ended up together?

I hate to say it, but- not really. they didn't give me enough to make it feel meaningful- like it actually meant something. it just- is. yay? I guess?

this post was brutal enough, but to answer your question about what I'd keep & what I'd change? it's hard to pick when the whole thing just felt like special episodes (filled with lots of cute, sweet moments, to be fair) with an enormous dash of missed opportunity.

all in all, I don't regret watching but it's a universe I'll only be returning to via fan fic fixes- and UWMA, my forever top 3 BL beloved.

[futurefind]

ON: SASUME & IMMORTALITY

//Sasume, more than most, has a very... complicated relationship with her own mortality. Similarly, if given immortality (whether innate or bestowed), that too would incite its own sort of complications wrt how she perceives her life.

But before we can get to the concept of Sasume on im/mortality, we need to go over her thoughts on living. And suffice to say those thoughts are... bleak. She's not fond of herself, least of all living, and she's especially not fond of the idea of living a long life — an extremely abusive childhood and the fallout thereof has left her with a viscous struggle with PTSD, severe depression, and suicidality. However her survivor's guilt and (separated but similar) sense of duty helps keeps her around (although some days are harder than others). "It's rotten work. especially to me especially if it's you. I'll fucking do it but christ alive" is an apt descriptor of her stance about it, really.

And as someone who's lost most everyone in her life, repeatedly, and in her childhood— and before she could develop proper safety/stability on top of that— well. Even living a long, mortal life, aside from sounding simply unpleasant, sounds utterly terrifying to her.

After all, living more means knowing more. Meeting more, loving more. Losing more. When she's already horrifically ill-prepared and triggered by the idea of such things, feeding into her distancing herself from others (which in turn worsens her stability and resources to cope, and thus her isolating, and so on).

And so, the thought of living forever? Well—

...It depends, actually.

If Sasume is a token immortal, uniquely so (or close enough), the functional only one of her kind... she'd hate it. How couldn't she, where even if she wanted to be more open, everyone would crumble to dust in her hands? She'd still keep going, because of course she would, but only because she has no idea how to do anything else.

If Sasume is among one of many, well... she'd still find it terrifying. Perhaps even more so, since such a context turns it into an option. She'd still have a lot to struggle, and grieve, but with support? She could learn, and adjust, much in the same way she could with living a long, mortal life.

And the benefits? They're not ones she'd consider, for a number of reasons, but they exist. There's hope. Namely, with proper support systems and loved ones (ideally long-lived too, but not necessarily)? It'd give her so, so much more time to not just grow past and reconcile with her traumas and grief, but for her life to grow ever larger around it — and even more time to live and laugh and love after doing so.

(Tl;dr: Horrifying as shit in concept, but if she didn't have to do it alone? And had others with her for it? ...It couldn't be too bad.)

[ladykailitha]

Posting Schedule and Story Update

I know, I know I don't have a posting schedule, not really. At least in terms of what gets published when, only the days of the week stuff gets posted.

Well for the next four weeks there will be one:

Never Hold Back Your Step...- Sundays

Well Met By Moonlight- Tuesdays

Icarus- Thursdays

Special- Saturdays*

But I'm also getting worryingly low on my backlog (like I'm about dip into single digit range) and I hate having it that low.

So what I usually do is take a week or so off posting and build it back up. And I would normally take the week of my birthday off (Aug 14) to play catch up, but...

Yeah, I'm planning on posting the final chapter of Well Met By Moonlight (werewolf Steve) on the 13th. One year after it's release and since I'm releasing on that day, it doesn't make sense to only post that day and none of the rest of the week.

Also depending on what I am doing on the 14th (as whether or not my husband works) will decide whether or not I'm doing WIP Wednesday that day because if I'm not really doing anything, than I would prefer hanging out with you guys and writing. But I'll keep you posted the closer that gets.

But if he does have it off, I'll take it off and have two days the next week to make up for it. It would also be that week that I would take off posting and probably the next week as well. It depends on how much I get done.

But here's the exciting part, during this time between now and Aug 18th I will continue to work on the exotic club one and will have a ton of fun chapters to share when I get back from my break.

I will still be doing WIP Wednesdays and posting ideas and meta and headcanons and all that fun stuff. And maybe some fun polls too.

Also it is looking like "Never Hold Back Your Step..." (boy w/a bat) will be only 17 chapters long (maybe only 16 depending on how much of the Mind Flayer fight I put in it). I'm hoping it'll be only 16 really so that it can end the same week as Well Met.

I think a lot of people are hoping for their favorite parts of season 3, but this story was never meant to re-write canon. It was just meant to look into the idea that Eddie picked Steve up as a lost sheepie between season 2 and 3. Something that at the time there wasn't a lot of.

We'll see.

But expect to see me start posting again on Sept 1st for sure or on Aug 25th, if I have a really good week. And I'll be kicking it off the exotic dancer one, which I'm really excited for.

*Sir Steve, Knight Protectorate will be finished this Saturday. Leaving the Caged Bird Still Sings (sugar baby!Steve/sugar daddy!Eddie) to take its posting slot on Saturdays.

Tagging my permanent list to make sure everyone who needs to see this can.

1-@mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @cryptid-system

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

[jesncin]

just binged all your maws meta and WOW i’m vindicated. never liked the show but especially for all the reasons you said, and it’s especially nice to know im not “siding with dudebros” for disliking it.

also extremely crazy that we had the same idea for lois almost?? in my head if dc would hire me i would write her as chinoy with special attention to how american occupation ties into her history… (personally my mom always wanted to be a journalist but felt it was safer to do something else…), reading your chindo lois is like WOW. YOU READ MY MIND.

one last question: i know it’s a bit passé now thanks to #him, but my mom and i watched lois & clark together and i think the show (at least, s1-2 really) still holds up well despite being from the 90s. have you ever seen it? silly fact: when my mom first watched it in the philippines, she legit thought clark could be filipino in that show 😭

omg I love how the jesncin-talks-maws tag is becoming a safe space for Based MAWS dislikers :'D Because it's rough out here! It's really unfair how online spaces in particular have created a black and white culture war over My Adventures with Superman so that no nuanced criticism can come out of it. It just rewards corporations for doing less than the bare minimum and validates them into producing more mediocre stuff. They don't need our protection!! And wow thank you for reading all that!

AAAAH A CHINOY LOIS WOULD BE AMAZING! I love how her history with American occupation could put a much needed critical look into "Truth Justice and the American Way". Man, I'd love for an Asian Lois that could help people like your mom feel seen like that :') I can only hope Chindo Lois comes close to doing something similar. Also special fact, Lois Liando's chindo dad (Yunus Liando) is loosely inspired off of Junus Nur Arif, a chindo journalist.

Oh I'm definitely aware of The Recent Things Wasian Superman Said (yikes) but I'm unfortunately really behind on my classic Superman-adapted media watch! I'm in a Young Justice watch right now but I'd love to check out older Superman shows. I totally see it though!! The wasian features are strong in this man.

[moonlayl]

via @ryder616​​

It hurts so bad to see everyone talk so badly about inhuman/alien things while not knowing Daisy is one AND while knowing she is one😭😭

[canonizzyhours]

I wrote this long meta post this morning when I was supposed to be working in response to someone saying that they relate to Izzy because he's an outsider, but I deleted it because I realized that I don't care about Izzy, and there's no point in arguing with someone who will be like well that's just your opinion man. Out of all the crew, I care about Izzy the least. I missed Buttons more than I'll miss Izzy in S3. So I'm going to stop reading Izzy posts.

(Although I still maintain that if you see Izzy as the outsider character in Season One you're missing the whole point of his character in that season. Being disliked by your peers is not the same thing as being an outsider!)

But I have one final vent: I'm completely baffled by the canyon. Completely. After I finished the first season, my friend warned me that there were people in fandom who LOVED Izzy, and I was like lol wut. And even after reading all the canyon's meta and all their frankly unhinged tweets, I still don't get it.

Jar Izzy? Okay, I totally get that. Everyone loves a bad boy with issues. I'd be shocked if he didn't have some fans.

But canyon Izzy isn't even Izzy. I've seen them say over and over that Izzy is mentally ill, which is never presented in canon (yet they ignore Ed's very textual breakdown??? why don't they relate to Ed's mental illness???). They say he protects and cares about the crew - citation, please. Show me the scene where he protected anyone. They say that he was completely motivated by the thought that Stede and/or Ed was going to get them killed - aside from Izzy freaking out over the Spanish in 1x04, there's no evidence of that, either. Every character trait they like about canyon Izzy (secretly soft inside, a genius, a natural leader, creative, funny, really really ridiculously good looking, probably nice to kids) literally belongs to the character of Ed!

Then I see posts saying that they relate to Izzy because they're mean and no one likes them... yikes. Or I see them say that they relate to Izzy because they've loved someone who hasn't loved them back, but then why do they vilify the character their fave loves? They've been queer baited because Steddyhands was totally written into canon. Izzy was the only real disabled character. Izzy was the only real gay character. Izzy was the only one with a queer storyline - I guess Stede's entire storyline in Season One never happened?

And you know what, I could probably ignore all that. I could stop checking Tumblr. Hell, some of the Ed takes annoy me because they go too far in the opposite direction and call Izzy an evil mastermind; there are a lot of annoying posts on this site. But it bleeds into my first love: Modern AU Fanfic. Any time I click on a fic that pairs Izzy with anyone else it's more likely than not to portray Ed as violently insane or emotionally manipulative. It bums me out because I'm going to have to start filtering out more and more fic, and I'm going to miss out on some real gems just because it's also tagged Izzy Hands. But I don't know how much longer I can read fics where it turns out that Ed beats and tortures Izzy and only Izzy because they have a special connection, and Izzy gets with Lucius or Frenchie and Ed can't handle it because he can't deal with Izzy loving anyone but him, and Ed picks at Izzy and says terrible underhanded things about him, and everyone is secretly on Izzy's side. WHY ARE THERE EVEN SIDES???

Anyway, I blame Sherlock and discord.

#198.

[celestial-sapphicss]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme! (created by @fiercynn)

tagged by beloveds @nobodynobodyno & @cornflowershade & @solana-ceae thank you for tagging me this was so much fun! 🌹💖

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

im vi! i'm queer, 23, born & living in India, but brought up in south-east asia!

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

i saw the show as it aired but i joined the fandom (and tumblr) around ep3!

favorite ship(s)

PatPran (duh!), but also InkPa because they're such a good pair like how Pa is a badass but around Ink she just melts and gigges (both the jundapat siblings are the same skskks)

favorite character(s)

Pran. he is me, i am him. he is a feral, musky scented hoe and i love him.

favorite episode(s)

episode 4! first we got ink and pa projecting her crush pn pat! then we saw pran AND A LOT OF PINING AND JEALOUSY. my boy had gotten his hopes up and then absolutely shattered. we got "only i can have these super cute dimples" & "if you were ink, would you like me?" and that absolutely heartbreaking last scene <3

favorite scene(s) 

i mean there's the obvious ep5 4/4 fight followed by the best kiss in cinematic history. but also pat in the music shop discovering that he likes pran. and pat shouting his love to pran in the architecture faculty. and pat and pran's scene in the corridor with the guitar. and inkpa hotpot date and the photography room scene. the entire episode 8 & 11 (im cheating ik). i will keep on listing all the scenes if i don't stop.

one thing you would change about the show if you could

i wish there was just one discussion about wai being a dick to pran in ep8/9. like i wouldn't change what happened but like after all the dust had settled and all the friends were ok with patpran, i hope there was a discussion or even a mention of that wai apologised to pran somewhere behind the scenes and pran mentioned this to pat. (and i'm not sure if os2 counts but i would most def change ep3 of the crossover where they are just getting lost and screaming each others' names again and again sksksks)

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people

this is very unfair ok i love them all but here are a few

i'll just link all the fics here & the post i made about it some time back! (special mention to a soft boy in soft sweaters by @dimplesandfierceeyes)

the entire @badbuddyingifs blog

fanarts by @hereforlou (x) & @architectxengineer (x)

bad buddy costume colour theories by @dribs-and-drabbles

InkPa edits:

this edit by @pranink

this one by @akingyouniverse

episode 7 by @mantrisanu

developer stopper fixer by @oswlld

darkroom confessions by @forcebook

just the way you are by @snimeat

another darkroom edit by @chinzillas

FMVs

iris fmv by @prantically

enchanted fmv by @thranduel

patpran x zara zara fanvid by @prany

Quotes & Stuff

this cursed (affectionate set) by @guntapon

this quote that makes me cry everytime by @machikeita

yet another one of my fav quotes by @nanons

when we were younger by @alexshenry

you'll never be friends by @taeminie

myth by @tipsyjaehyun

love story by @fourthnattawat

another one by @freensrcha

v. imp kissing patpran set by @patspran

already home by @sunsetandthemoon

pran's life anthem by @morkofday

Character & Dynamics

pat-ink edit by @pranpats

pat saying ma ni by @casualavocados

best boy pat edit by @louwilliam

feral musky scented hoe pran by @seanwhites

best siblings by @ardentlytess

ink by @angelbesideme

Misc

page to screen series by @actually-yikes

inspired movie posters by @nanonkorapat

bad buddy rewatch series by @baifengxis

bbs2 by @dimpledpran

concept sets by @i-got-the-feels

episode 7 edit by @ayan-sukkhapisit

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

i did make some edits but my favourite one is the PatPran x Bollywood edit!

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

well obviously same page? by tilly birds. but also way too many taylor swift songs (seven, labrynth, gold rush, our song, the 1, betty, i think he knows, daylight, the great war, mine, enchanted), sleepwalker by julie byrne is so pran coded, home by reese lansangan, straberries & ciggarettes by troye sivan, i'm yours by alessia cara, doors by ben&ben etc. etc.

idk anything else you want us to know?

cursing your feed with this

tagging everyone i tagged above! (if you want) <3

[lurkingteapot]

Last Twilight ภาพนายไม่เคยลืม Ep 1

I watched this last night and was pleasantly surprised! I trust P'Aof with narratives of queerness and with social critique, but disability to this extent is a new topic for him and his team to tackle as far as I can tell, and it's very very easy to catch me on the wrong foot with that even without going to the extent of, say, Fighting Mr Second. Yes, I know Moonlight Chicken treated Heart really well. still. WORRIED.

I mentioned that the final trailer reminded me a little of French comedy-drama Intouchables (2011), especially the interview scenes. I got those same vibes while watching the actual scenes from the show, rather than the trailer, but in a good way -- and already, this is clearly its own thing.

oh I like the blur on the advisory message

urgh what's with this flashiness, that's not great, this ep needs a seizure risk warning (flashing black/white lights right after the adivsory message ends until about 00:00:33)

this seems like a horror film

Film!!

I bet P'Aof quizzed Mark extensively for this

ffs Day, call a break

the tone of this is so different from what I expected and I think I like it

oh wait I know her face

Phawjai, huh?

sisters named Rung just do not have a good track record in these shows

he's "ba~"-ing that dude, WHAT. that does not sound like a strategy that's likely to lead to success with your probation officer, just saying

he's literally out on probation, huh, they REALLY leaned into that with the ankle bracelet and everything.

timeskip?

oh c'mon clearly-not-professor-Pichai

he's going to just fix the chair, isn't he

CALLED IT

man this show does already not pull its punches

I like that they at least tried with the five o clock shadow on Jimmy. He still looks like a model, but they clearly TRIED.

love to see Mawk among all the social worker types

wait wait wait I know glasses, why do I know glasses

they're ALL TALKING LIKE HE'S NOT HERE what the FUCK

adsfasdfasdfasdfasdfadsfasdfasdfasdfsd wow the SHADE I love it

asdfsaf RIGHT BACK AT HIM I love this

Oh god Day is an ASSHOLE and I love it

Night hates himmm and I get it

does Day not even realise he's there on that lift?!

wow lady that's unprofessional

holy shit I get that, on a meta level, this is for the exposition, but exposing someone's medical history like that?! YIKES.

oof

loaded sibling relationship there

wow he's an ASSHOLE

Annnd Night's an ass right back but uh. I kinda get it.

oooh he's in visible distance

I guess Mawk is just used to dealng with assholes, huh

oh my GOD I love this le petit prince quoting bit??? did not expect that!

Mark looks his actual age as night, love that for him

for a second there I forgot that not all doors lock automatically like the hotel doors of all those "apartments" or "dorms" we see and was like, wait, he can just walk back in? just like that?

OH

and that's the foundation: Mawk trusts Day to do things for himself

this mum does NOT look old enough to have kids Sea and Mark's age, what's her secret

I really enjoyed that! strong first episode, already not pulling any punches on the social commentary. I really enjoyed everyone's acting here-- Jimmy especially seems to have improved a lot, I look forward to seeing where this goes.

Now! to unblock the tag and see what everyone else is saying :D

[baronessblixen]

I don't know WHAT happened to my new meta post's format, whoooooops. Yikes. (Oh, well.) Reformatted it to be shorter if you prefer; but that's one more thing to look out for in future. :////////

Apropos of nothing whatsoever, do you have a favorite old saying you hold close to your chest? ;)))))

Maybe the read more didn't take? That happens sometimes. I personally don't mind, but I know some people don't like long(er) posts, so I tagged it 😁

A real saying? Or a quote? I don't think I hold any saying close to my chest 🤔 at least I can't think of one.

[mahuhumaling]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme!

made by the one and only deepa. thank you for tagging me! i'm not really sure how the format of this tag game works haha but i'll do my best. ):) @fiercynn

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

heyo! i'm atria (pronounced ey-tri-ya), 21, and a college senior struggling studying creative writing in the philippines. i use she/her pronouns and i'm very much sapphic thank you.

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

december 14, 2021, when i decided to binge what my twitter mutuals have been hyping about on my tl for weeks.

i had been on a hiatus prior to that, having just been suffering from julie and the phantoms brainrot, that it surprised me that my old fandom mutuals were moving on collectively to another show. so many tweets analyzing and raving about the show caught my attention because i'm all about those, those are my cup of tea, especially the night of episode 5 airing. i watched a clip of the rooftop scene and i wanted to know why they were crying and why one of them walked away, so i had it on my watchlist. i was still busy with schoolwork though so i didn't get to actually start watching until two weeks later, four days after episode 7 aired (hence 12/14/21) at 10 PM with my sheets pulled up. it was me and my phone against the world.

yes i made it worse because that week was my finals—but to my defense, to my defense, i had already finished half of it and was close in finishing the other half of my exams.

joined the fandom like not even an hour later after i binged 1-7 because i came on twitter and was met with a warm welcome.

favorite ship(s)

patpran and inkpa. i have my fair share of liking rare pairs (clary and izzy from shadowhunters tv, riley and farkle from girl meets world, quinn and rachel from glee) but for shows like these, nah. haha the main pairs really do it for me.

favorite character(s)

pat - mans was so relatable. sexually fluid, thought he had a crush on his different-gendered friend but turned out to be in love with someone who is of the same gender who was right in front of him the whole time. became closer to different-gendered friend after confessing to them i'm totally not projecting haha what do you man

ink - ah, ink nolastname my beloved. introduced as a red herring but ended up having her own sapphic love story?? no other girl in a bl could ever.

junior - i thought he'd just be a one-episode side character but him serving the story in multiple ways got to me. he felt like patpran's child which is so cute, but also a representation of the freedom patpran's own kid selves could have had.

favorite episode(s)

3 - falls under the romcom formula of pat just following pran around like a dumb oblivious puppy and while we the audience are attuned to pran's perspective, once you rewatch episode 3, you realize how much pat has not been lying about how he feels for both pran and ink and that his behavior says it all.

5 - do you even need to ask. i'm pat-biased so him speedrunning his sexuality was so funny and so devastating at the same time.

10 - some people have said that i'm a masochist for this one. but in all seriousness when i first watched it (which was via iWant and not YouTube, so i had no interruptions of 4 parts and got to watch all four parts immediately and earlier than everyone else because if you didn't know back when it was airing, the premiering of the parts would have an interval of around 5-15 minutes each) it felt so long and advanced the plot the most. it had all: inkpa getting together, patpran being adorable annoying bfs, and learning about their generational trauma. yikes! i loved the angst of it all.

favorite scene(s)

*cracks knuckles* oh boy, do i have a series of textposts for you. i made commentary post thingies for them detailing the reason why! it was so fun to do.

designing bus stop 2.0

fight in the dorm's ground floor

pran singing the unfinished version of "our song"

inkpa in the darkroom

ming putting the letters in the siridechawat mailbox

one thing you would change about the show if you could

just one??? i mean haha sure...

the whole plot of wai getting mad at pran and how they resolved it. like come on man, the best friend hates when one lies to the other trope is so lame and overused. it's not just pat getting shot, it was the whole thing of the archi gang being unfairly mad without bothering to learn about why he lied. if they didn't feel like side characters then who are just there to put external conflict and less like actual friends who got hurt from the secret, they certainly acted most like it in episode 9.

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people?

i made a fanfic recommendation thread and i have a couple of bbs edits saved in all of tiktok, instagram, and twitter, but if i had to really narrow it down, that'd be tough. hmm.

gif - i search @pranpats' pat breaking silently post every few months to make myself cry whenever i need a good one. my baby boy my baby boy i love him so much. i tuck him in bed and give him nong nao. btw the sharpening of this gif made pat's tears so much clearer and i want to hurl myself off of a balcony thanks.

fic - from the tide by fruti2flutie is a popular fanfic but it deserves the hype. i was blown away by its character dynamics and style of writing that i wrote an original story inspired from its worldbuilding/power system for my fiction workshop class. the river can't go back by unsungyellowraincoat is poetic heaven.

art - last one to propose loses by cubedmango + rooftop wedding by @thatgothsamurai = my our skyy actually.

animatic - Ur SOUL Ur BodY by RENii•EXE has so many shots that made me question my entire existence, namely pran pressing pat's hand into the bedsheets (0:41). it's so good. 10/10.

animation - I am not your ocean anymore by @architectxengineer is incredible. watching this broke my heart in the best possible way. the visual of how pran and pat stumble into their room in episode 11 is such a cute scene to fill the gap of.

edit - mae's safety net is a personal favorite because it was first uploaded on my birthday, i could never get tired of it as i kept watching it for months on end, and then there was that time it was archived on mae's instagram but she was kind enough to unarchive it for me (alongside her other incredible bbs edits!) huhu ily. and then another objectively well-made one is 7 things by mic that is deservedly popular on twitter, not to mention the very intentional use of colors from all of pran's markers/color pencils! HOW. COOL. IS. THAT.

text - In Fair Verona by @shortpplfedup is an analysis/commentary scenepost series that i fell in love with and tuned into as the episodes aired. it details the main romeo and juliet allegory as well as points out its differences. it's so so pretty and insightful and a delight to read. read all of it, guys. please.

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

visual edit - among all my photo edits, my untranslatable words one almost made it here but i gotta hand it to my bad idea storyboard. if i could only draw, i would have animated the shit out of this tbh.

video edit - all the stars kind of flopped in reception which was a bummer considering no one knows i spent an embarrassingly long time working on it (...9 hours) but now you do haha.

fanfic - the rest are drabbles anyway so i don't even think this can count as a favorite if it's only one lmao but it's my Teen Wolf AU anamnesis (28k, 4 chapters, fin). really enjoyed the season 6 binge for educational purposes :DD and writing pranink, pranpa, patink, and the jindapat siblings was one of the best parts. my true ot4.

other - i wrote something about patpran that was not prose. it's post velum (which is latin for behind the curtain, the name of the novel) and it's poetry about each episode of bad buddy + our skyy. oh and my patpran as percabeth series that i mostly only did for like,, two people.

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

a taylor swift song feels like cheating because every ship can be associated to a taylor swift song but still. daylight is perfect. i once believed love would be burning red? pre-relationship patpran. the rivalry is so fiery that they thought they wouldn't have the space to be soft. but it's golden. established relationship patpran. they are the healthiest teenaged boyfriends ever. their relationship endures for years and glows.

watch this edit, see what i mean.

idk anything else you want us to know?

i don't really agree with thinking bad buddy is the perfect show and that it had the perfect ending. i still understand the direction and the decision to go with those and other more questionable choices, but i like recognizing the show's flaws. tons and tons of it. from the technicalities of production to the actual writing. especially knowing the show's behind the scenes and what happened from the mock trailer's official announcement and the gp's initial (horrible) reception, to this show finally airing and its first four episodes being in the trenches when it comes to ratings (haha the bbs nugu era), to the ending of episode 5 breaking the internet to the point of being recognized in the following gmmtv 2022 presscon, then to the steep rise to the peak.

...especially knowing those made me love the show more inside out. tldr; i'm a "bad buddy is a very flawed show and i love it" type of person.

tagging bbs tumblr mutuals who might be interested in playing but no pressure though! @dravbn @lurkingteapot @seoperior @pransobrave @rhvmaresh @patpranism @zetteceniza

[matan4il]

hi Alice! how are you? I hope you’re okay… i’ve been trying to get a hold of you lately regarding a tag in your latest meta. i hope i wasn’t insistent or anything and that it’s not personal 👉🏻👈🏻

i know you’re busy and all.

i can wait for the season finale and to read your meta 💟.

xoxo

Hi sweetheart! OMG, no! It's def not you or anything you did, I'm just horrible stressed rn with rl. I am constantly apologizing to everyone for how long it takes me to reply to, well, everything. I just freaking HATE that it takes me so long to get anything done (because I'm juggling so many balls in the air... I just realized I fucked up and forgot about some blood tests I need to do, and I'm going to see the doc I need them for this Friday. Yikes!) that people think I'm ignoring them. @loveyourownsmiilee and @itemreceived also thought the same, and I just hate that I feel like I'm letting you all down. :( I'm so sorry, I don't mean to, I'm just stressed to the max... I can only hope rl will get better soon and then I can do better, too. *HUGS*

But regarding the tags, I'm also doing my best there! If you're not sure if you missed one of my weekly meta posts, you can always find them here, including my 617 meta. I hope this helps? Love you loads and I also can't wait to get to share my thoughts on 618 and hear yours, too. :D (as always, my ask tag) xoxox

[quillusquillus]

I got an e-mail from Sketchfab recently that informed me they were adding a #NoAI tag system for their content (I wasn’t even aware scrapers could grab 3D content, yikes) and I saw a couple of other places have now added NoAI taggable content since dA p much invented the tag back in November 2022. I have no idea if AI image scrapers are actually respecting it currently, but dA seemed to think it could also be added as a meta tag soo if you make your own web content here it is I guess:

  <meta name="robots" content="noimageai"> or   <meta name="robots" content="noai">

I added it to my neocities pages personally. I still have no idea how effective it is but since editing the meta stuff on my pages has to be done by hand and is a pain in the ass I figured might as well get it done before I make more pages lol