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Seonghwa is such a performer it’s crazy. Like all of ateez are but with seonghwa you can tell he is at his truest, rawest self on stage. There’s no persona or mask going on he just showed you another side of his soul.

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Vanitas (of No Carte fame) portrait for @aguacerotropical 🦋

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it's them it's him

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Who wants to join Umemiya's rooftop gardening class? (Chaos included)

Go check the rest of the zine @seishunwbzine

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Happy (belated) 4th anniversary to Link Click! I’m so glad that I get to be in this fandom and share this experience with all of you

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I just watched the Handmaiden and y’all, this movie was crazy. Going in, all I knew was this film is critically acclaimed, contains twists of some sort, came out in 2016, and it’s a korean GL. Looking at the cover of it, I thought this was gonna be a realistic, depressing melodrama where the rich girl was to be engaged to an asshole and her abused handmaiden falls in love with her. But it can’t be cuz they’re both girls and it’ll have a sad or bittersweet ending like majority of kdramas. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS WAS.

Whatever expectations and predictions you have going in is pointless. I first heard about this film when Friendly Rivalry was coming out. And people’s reaction to the bathtub kiss in that show made me think it was the first onscreen korean gl kiss, at least in official aired media. So I went into the Handmaiden fully prepared to not get a kiss. OH WE DID MORE THAN KISSING. I was gagged and I’ve heard there’s been complaints that the sex scenes “pandered to the male gaze”. And I can understand that worry, especially since a man directed the film and it came out in sk. But when I was watching it I wasn’t thinking that. All I thought was “oh my god they let explicit lesbian sex be shown in 2016 korean theaters. Oh my god someone’s ahjumma saw girls 69-ing on cam.”

And like, the whole issue this film portrays is that these girls have been objectified by men and are constant victims to the male gaze and are forced to pander men and their sick fantasies. That’s the main criticism the movie gives so I don’t understand why they would purposely bring that mentality to its sapphic sex scenes where the characters free themselves from those chains. I can see maybe cinematography can imply objectification even if that wasn’t the intent but I didn’t think that watching.

Finally, we see straight sex all the time but whenever queer sex is to be portrayed, everyone has to step on eggshells. Yes, you should respect the community of whose story you’re telling but I also think if you wanna display it in its rawness, go for it. Queer women deserve to have their experiences and lives told without diluting it for anyone. Why is every explicit sapphic moment automatically pandering to men? Why are they not allowed to have scenes like that?

Anyway, those are my overall thoughts on that. The plot twists were great, Sookee and Hideko were so big-brained I stood up and applauded. I’m so glad these two women combined their joint slay and screwed over the disgusting men in their lives. Lesbians getting their happy ending in a movie, not common but it’s always possible.

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Lady Hideko and Sook-hee

Movie poster

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the handmaiden

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"Not to worry, Pomni! I'll certainly hit it THIS time for sure!"

Happy (late) anniversary to this wonderful show lmao I literally stayed up to make sure to post it as soon as possible, y'all have no idea what hell I went through lol

no text ver:

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Another Jax illustration , sorry he's really fun to draw

(it is wallpaper sized)

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Inspired by the iconic wanted poster

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So the recent alnst comic dropped and put the entire fandom on fire. But I do want to talk mischaracterization and how the alnst fandom has an abundance of it. Every fandom has it to various degrees because fans will always reach their own conclusions, how far it is from the creator’s intent differs from person to person. But alnst fans have such strong takes and everyone is so aggressive in being right. Two fans can have greatly different assumptions of a character. A big part of that I believe is because except for comics that give some context, most of its storytelling is done through visuals and songs.

Those are less concrete mediums. The meaning of a simple hand movement or lyric can be taken in differently from person to person. But I’ve always felt that as long as you understand alnst is not a black and white story, that there are no good or evil human characters you should be able to somewhat put pieces together.

I don’t see how some ppl gathered that Mizi is “the true villain” or smth. Her willful ignorance is definitely a coping mechanism and this adds a lot of complexity to her. And lowkey after sitting on it, some fans do reduce Mizi to a single dimension like Till, that boy, and even Sua. She isn’t a “perfect victim” who is innocent and has no flaws bc that eliminates her humanity. Most of the ppl in her life projected that image onto her so she felt compelled to fit into it. She couldn’t stop Till from having a crush on her even though she rejected him and she couldn’t severe the codependent relationship she had with Sua. Plus all this described to us from Mizi’s POV and given Ivan’s entire deal as a character I don’t think we’re supposed to 100% trust what she’s saying about herself.

In regard to Till, I sympathize with him to an extent. I understand you can’t control who you like and it’s hard to move on. Add that on top of this horrible environment where desiring Mizi might’ve been the few things to keep him going. But I need people to really see the truth: his crush on Mizi was fucking shallow.

He didn’t really know her nor try to. Yes he had this unrequited crush but it is not Mizi’s responsibility to make him better about it. I have been in Mizi’s position multiple times. A guy likes you, you express you’re not interested and they insist that they’ll still want you. The whole time they’re not even close to you and you’re like a prize to them. I’ve been in Mizi’s position and it’s fucking uncomfortable.

She also risked her life returning back to save Till in r7 so I don’t think she was plotting his demise on some villain shit. Mizi still saw Till as her friend I doubt she’s faking those emotions.

Finally it is very essential to remember this series is created by two queer korean women living in SK. And if you know anything of the korean male population, it’s not great. I mean men aren’t in general but in sk it’s like….in the 7th circle of hell. So anyone villainizing Mizi please take a minute to really process her character because she’s probably inspired by their personal experiences.

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AND SO IT BEGINS….

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happy pride to them specifically

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white coat club