#>> don't take my respect for granted. ( promo )

[abeautifulblog]

thoughts on the Barbie movie

Finally got around to seeing the Barbie movie -- I think some of its messaging could have been clearer, but on the whole it was a lot of fun, and one of the most visually-innovative things I've seen onscreen in ages. So much stuff these days bills itself as "deconstruction," when more often than not it's just a mean-spirited mockery of something the writers don't actually understand. The Barbie movie is deconstruction done right, by people who are deeply in the know about the material (which in this case equals the entire Barbie mythos/ideology), and love it anyway, warts and all. Good deconstruction is both a critique and a love letter.

The theme that the movie understands and communicates most clearly is about the impossible, contradictory directives that are constantly put on women -- "you need to be assertive, but you mustn't be a bitch", etc -- and how unfair it is that half the population isn't given the same respect and the same chance at success. Barbieland flips the script so that the Kens are the empty-headed ornaments while Barbies run the world (which I suspect is what made a lot of men so viscerally uncomfortable with the movie), but that's also eventually recognized to be just as unfair as the Real World where patriarchy reigns.

What's a lot muddier is the messaging around how exactly men participate in the patriarchal oppression of women, and how the patriarchy harms them too. Because patriarchy is a pyramid scheme -- and not all men are on the top of that pyramid, nor can they all be. It convinces men to strive for an unattainable ideal of masculinity (not unlike the unattainable ideal that Barbie represents for femininity, actually!) and then penalizes those who fall short for not being "man enough," and paints it as a personal failing, not one that's baked into the system.

A lot of the gags around Ken Discovers Toxic Masculinity legitimately had me in stitches, because oh my god, too true, but then it didn't really offer any conclusions about it. Granted, this is the Barbie Movie not the Ken Movie, and he already gets more of a character arc than female love interests usually do, so I'm not going to rend my garments all "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MENNNNS??"..... but if you're not going to follow through on toxic masculinity, then maybe better to leave that particular can of worms unopened. There's more than enough for feminism to talk about without it.

Personally, I would have preferred if Ken weren't an antagonist -- if he'd just been the supportive himbo boyfriend who cheerfully follows Barbie on her journey of self-discovery, and backs her every play, and has never had a mean thought in his empty head, which is kind of what the promo materials led me to expect -- but that would have been an entirely different plot. (Possibly one in which Ken encounters the real world and finds that the men there think he should tone down his self-expression (for coming off as too GAY) and be less of a simp for his girlfriend, and he's like, Wow that sounds terrible actually, no thank you!)

In any case, I don't envy the women who are now having uncomfortable conversations with their husbands and boyfriends who got mad about the movie and went on the offensive. Because this is not a movie that softshoes its message to coddle to men's fee-fees -- its male characters are largely mocked and/or marginalized, and I imagine that a lot of men who saw it, and who haven't ever examined their privilege, came out of it feeling personally attacked, and reflexively wanted to attack it in turn and reject everything it's saying.

To which I'm like… y'all need to sit with your feelings for a minute. Remember that one movie taking the piss out of men does not actually make a single dent in the power and privilege that men enjoy in the real world. And then think about the fact that media BY men (which is most of it) routinely treats women the same way -- frivolous and sidelined, ornaments and sex objects. And the fact that we consider that the normal way of things -- that women are expected to watch themselves being portrayed like that and enjoy it.

(A line that I think should have gotten more weight is at the end when Barbie says, "I want to be the one doing the making, not the thing being made," because it's such a clear, straightforward articulation of the subject vs. object distinction.)

Storytelling-wise (to put on my nerd-for-narrative hat), the third act of the movie runs into difficulty with the fact that this is not about human characters, but about anthropomorphized archetypes of femininity and masculinity -- and how do you write a narratively satisfying "ending" for things that don't actually end? And how do you do that within the context of not just a doll world, but the Barbie world, with a gender-unequal status quo that isn't actually going to change either? With the conflicts they set up, I'm not sure there was a wholly satisfactory way to end it.

But anyway, none of that detracted from my enjoyment of the movie -- it's fun, heartfelt, thought-provoking, a continuous source of pleasure and novelty for the eyeballs, and consistently hilarious. Definitely worth the watch.

(And if you want some feminist-themed media that does do a complex exploration of how the patriarchy fucks men over too, even the men who think they're winning at it, I recommend Agent Carter, it is so so good. (The first season, anyway. 😑) There are five notable male characters in it, and the only one having a good time is the one who's declined to buy into society's narrow idea of what constitutes acceptable masculinity.)

[thezfc]

"Funny, anon, this describes exactly the way I feel. I came into the fandom via Loki/Thor 1 and had a taste of that feeling once before during SoT. And now the 'goosebumps' are coming back. I respect ZA, but I'm not a fan, still I am starting to feel sorry for her. Her face when they were kissing in the street, the way she hobbled behind him out of Wimbledon in her uncomfy shoes... He is still a heartthrob for me, too, and one of the best actors I know, but I see too much of the glint of ambition in his eyes. He seems to be playing roles throughout his real life because he thinks he will be liked more and be more in control. Richard E. Grant's description of him in his memoir has come to my mind quite often lately."

ZA is just as ambitious as him, which is why I don't feel sorry for her. She had to have known what she was getting into. She's worked in this business since she was a kid and she knows what must be done to promote yourself and your work. Also, let's take a minute to remember the previous pre-arranged pap walks that ZA happily took part in: Ibiza, cafe photos, Paris etc.. She was absolutely delighted in all those photos and always made sure to show off that ring. Same with Wimbledon - she was happy there for most of it, though looked understandably tired at the end. She was not forced to do any of these things - she willingly agreed. Also, who can forget the vogue maternity photo shoot she agreed to do? Very weird thing to do for someone who claimed in all her interviews around that time that she didn't want to talk about her personal life. And apparently that's out the window now too with her recent Entertainment Weekly interview where she talked about Tom, and not for the first time might I add. Trust me - this woman is arguably more thirsty then Tom is.

As for Tom, it feel a bit unfair to say that he is "playing roles throughout his life" because that is something that literally every actor does. The way they act while doing promo for their work is often different than how they are in real life. In other words, they have to be "on" while working. Tom is no different. Acting careers are largely dependent on how the audience sees you and what they think of you, so OF COURSE he's going to want people to "like him." The man is trying to make a living. And I don't blame him for wanting to exercise more control over his life and work. It's completely understandable that he would want to control the narrative while at the same time protecting what little privacy he has. And judging from ZA's actions and words as stated above, she doesn't seem to be on the same page.

.

[aftcrtheend]

𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣. 𝙂𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙖.

An independent canon divergent Georgia Mason, freed from the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant; penned by Buffy. 18+. MINORS AND NON-RP BLOGS DNI.

EST. MARCH 2025.

Can also be found at; @resplendentdare.

Affiliated with; @theonlytwoalive (and all their blogs)

MEMES | OPEN STARTERS | WISHLIST | PROMO

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[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax D Block finals preview

Tetsuya Naito (4-2, 8 points) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (3-3, 6 points) - If Naito wins, he clinches a spot in the quarterfinals. Tana can get to second place with a win, but not without help--he needs Jeff Cobb and Hirooki Goto to win their matches to create a four-way tie that favors him.

If this match goes to a draw, a lot of things could happen. If Jeff Cobb and Zack Sabre Jr. both stay at 8, Naito and Tana would both advance at 9. If Cobb and Sabre get to 10, Naito and Tana would be eliminated at 9. If only one guy gets to 10, Naito and Tana would be deadlocked for second place, and I don't know what they'd do. Or New Japan could go nuts and do nothing but draws at the top of this card, and give us a three- or four-way tie at 9.

This match is on top because Naito and Tana are two of the tippiest toppiest guys in the company. They've had 17 singles matches and the record is split 8-8-1. But the bottom line is that Tanahashi is 46 and winding down, and Naito is maybe just past his peak.

My prediction here is that Cobb and Goto give Tana the help he needs to make this match winner take all, but in the end Naito will prevail. He's still my pick to go all the way and win the G1.

Zack Sabre Jr. (4-2, 8 points) vs. Hirooki Goto (3-3, 6 points) - Sabre can get to 10 points with a win, but that won't do him any good if he finishes in a three-way tie with Cobb and Nato, who both beat him earlier in the tournament. He needs to outscore at least one of those two in order to advance. Goto is still alive, but only if he and Naito win and Cobb loses.

Goto's story in this tournament is a rib injury that's been hampering his performance, and now he's in there with a sadistic submission specialist. I normally wouldn't expect him to last long against Sabre, but in this particular case on the other hand they might give him the upset just to keep him (or Tanahashi) alive. Goto would also make sense as a challenger for Sabre's television title down the line. So I'm picking Goto to win, but I'm not super confident about it.

Jeff Cobb (4-2, 8 points) vs. Shane Haste (2-4, 4 points) - If Cobb wins, he clinches first place. He has block match wins over Naito , Sabre, and Tanahashi, so most of the tie scenarios favor him. Even if he loses here, he may still have a good chance of advancing, unless Naito and Sabre both outscore him. Haste is already mathematically eliminated.

I don't have a lot of expectations about this match but both guys have a silly side and it should be interesting to see their respective silly styles interact. I think Cobb will get the victory and win D Block, but I wouldn't put it past Haste to play spoiler.

Alex Coughlin (2-4, 4 points) vs. Toru Yano (2-4, 4 points) - Both guys are out of the running, and just fighting to stay out of last place. It's a shame because Coughlin did a blistering promo before the tournament about how he joined Bullet Club because NJPW took him for granted. Of course, I thought the promo was a mistake, since I kinda expected Coughlin would finish at this level, and burying the promotion only works if you're being pushed as a rebel on a hot streak. If they have Yano beat him with Three Stooges shenanigans, I'll laugh my ass off, but it'll be rough for Coughlin's career, I think. Something tells me they'll realize that and book Coughlin to win.

Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado vs. Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji & BUSHI - Kind of a random trios match that isn't setting anything up or really following up on anything that happened earlier in the tour. Bushi is probably the weak link in this match, so look for him to get beat.

Great-O-Khan & HENARE vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma - It looked like Honma got knocked the fuck out last night, so I hope he's okay. Either way he's probably the loser in this match.

David Finlay & Gabe Kidd & Gedo vs. Shota Umino & Hikuleo & Master Wato - If Gedo is on your team then you're probably going to lose, and I don't expect any different this time.

Mikey Nicholls & Kosei Fujita vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa - I hope they have something else in mind on the rest of this tour for Kiyomiya besides teaming with Oiwa, because if that's all they've got he's just going to lose every tag match.

Eddie Kingston & Yuto Nakashima vs. EVIL & SHO - I'd enjoy seeing Eddie beat the shit out of Evil but with Yuto on his team he's not winning.

[avoteforme]

you're so good at this @jonairadreaming 💋

Phryne's greatest fear is being tied down, trapped by a relationship which won't let her be herself, but also one which can hurt her terribly by virtue of losing that love (whether she realises it or not, Janey being snatched away from her is probably what subconsciously drives Phryne's Love 'em and Leave 'em philosophy. Also, likely the experience of losing friends in the war, though we don't see that onscreen.

:OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i am so interested by this bc i feel like this is so true and all along i was laboring under the idea of dubois being the major factor for the 'love 'em and leave 'em' attitude which always felt lacking- he can be relegated to the minor factor now. janey and her wartime buds as the catalyst for the Ideal Love Lost is so much MORE.

i do like phryne's general attitude towards love- in the tennis episode, she tells her former friend (who was the husband to the murderer) that 'love has made a fool of you'. i think this is v true as love does make you an idiot and phryne hates stupidity. even in the ballroom scene, she disparagingly refers to margaret/henry's beginning as 'one waltz in henry's arms forced all reason from margaret's head'. i think there is also an 1920s upper class upbringing to this bent as well- see the way that she handles herself with compton the cavalier way they go about relations which is different from her other boudoirmen love does not feature but compton saves her life so there is a fellow feeling that they share. iirc i'm reminded of how the upperclass marrieds did not share beds after they Did It- partly bc they could afford to have separate beds unlike the other classes but also generally-speaking that close-knit familial feeling just wasn't there imo and was even something to curl the lip over if one did feel it. phryne is Different in that respect but there is an idea that she understands both classes and that the upperclass bent as regards romantic love (she clearly loves her lil wardlow family she'd die for everyone of them :>) will serve her well in what she wants out of life.

Phryne's greatest fear is being tied down, trapped by a relationship which won't let her be herself, but also one which can hurt her terribly by virtue of losing that love

i think it was mentioned in the promo stuff for the mfmm movie (urgh that movie we just do not like it >:|) that this was actually jack's fear- that phryne would lose herself if they became involved i mean this fucken man is soooooooooo [clenches fist] [breathes] jack knows that phryne wants what's hot/new/fresh and being married in some sense means eventually things get taken for granted not that jack ever would be like that but human nature is what it is and phryne is so good at divining and detecting and solving crimes of the human nature kind and i think marriage in her opinion would be committing a crime against her self. buuuuuuuuuut i always want jack and phryne to get married [ducks tomatoes from the mfmm fandom] and in an evolving/maturing relationship i want them to have kids [what's worse than tomatoes? molotov cocktails?] which takes me to your next point-

Kintsugi dynamic my beloved, but not exactly kintsugi because while they weren't broken or missing bits of themselves before they met each other, Jack and Phryne are certainly rendered more whole for having known (and loved) the other.

i love that you say that they are not broken (i hate the idea of this they never act like they are broken why make out that they are rrrrrrr) and yes it is the kintsugi idea in the sense that they have life experience that informs who they are in the present. this is also why it has to be that they are both in the same age range- am firmly in the phryne is in her 40s camp booyeah

@jonairadreaming your 2020s prose in 1840s poetry :>

[huntershowl-moving]

I AM THE DRIVER – I AM THE SHADOW – AND I AM THE HEARSE.

𝚊𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢𝚋𝚛𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚗    |    𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠𝚕

[drunkkenobi]

i loveeee yt analytics and i find your spread-sheets/watcher such a fascinating place to do it so forgive me for the word vomit:

mf so far has surpassed my expectations of how it was going to do- i was anticipating something like a few weeks/ amonth or so to get to a million because that's what the best performing puppet history episodes usually took to get there. do you have any opinions as to why these enter the algorithm better? maybe just because true crime/spooky stuff is more of an automatic click for the brain instead of historical events or they're still more well-known for that due to bfu?

my guess is that the difference in shane vs. ryan hosted eps. will be based purely on the subject matter but i do also wonder if casual viewers are more used to ryan presenting/shane commenting and more likely to watch a video with that format! time will tell! the feedback on both presentation styles seems to be largely positive, there doesn't seem to be a huge preference for one of the boys to take over so far.

it is so interesting to me how different yt is now than from when bfu was in it's heyday. nowadays episodes on these sorts of topics do 500k in a day, 800k in a weekend, 1mil in under a week - and that's considered great and trending on the yt algorithm! back in 2017, 2-3 mil was considered a reasonable marker for a bfu ep. in a week as i recall. it's also fascinating to me how yt videos "move" so to speak - some accumulate quickly and others doesn't, seemingly at random.

steven & ricky & food videos! i've noticed a jump on steven & ricky's worth a shot eps. too, which bodes well. i know you have said before that ryan & shane's stuff tends to have better opening weekends much like bfu, while steven & worth it would often enter the yt algorithm and soar the next week. curious as to whether you think that a steven show will be coming next and how you anticipate it doing.

love your work but am too shy to come off anon! hopefully this message wasn't annoying!!!

Anon do not apologize you are not annoying, it brings me such joy to talk about these things.

-i think because people see thumbnails of Ryan & Shane plus a spooky thing and they click. PH doesn't advertise either guy in the thumbnail or description so it makes sense that casual folks don't realize it's a Ryan and Shane show. I also have to assume that the weeks of promo MF got (and months for GF) contribute to their strong openings.

-i think YouTube is just not as popular in general as it was in like 2014 or so, the peak of buzzfeed days, but I'm not the best person to speak to that as I never paid attention to youtubers until these goofs in 2018.

-food shows have SUCH a different algorithm! I wonder if it's because people are more casual viewers or if they click based on topics versus personalities. I'd love hard data on this.

As for a Steven show, I'm not sure! It'll be after Ghost Files if we get one this year at all. there are 8 weeks between MF ending and GF starting so I assume Puppet History and some one-offs slide in there. But after GF I have no idea what the rest of Watcher's year will be. I'd love to see Dish Granted ofc, but Steven's said it takes up too much of his time to do a full season again. Eat Like Me has potential if they tweak the format a bit (in my humble opinion) but I'm not sure if it'll come back either. I do miss Steven on-screen terribly, TMS isn't enough! But I also respect him being the business boy.

[adracat]

G-Witch Episode 13 - Second Cour Start

It's been awhile! I'm positively jittery to break down this episode. Let's start with that banger OP change shall we?

I love the imagery in this shot in particular. It's interesting that we see Suletta start in shadow, slowly moving to the light throughout. The symbolism is obviously framing Miorine as the light she seeks (edeleth flashbacks anyone?) Oh and the boys have a brief cameo. Yeesh Guel looks like a defeated wreck. 5lan has weird prominence so I wonder if he'll be something after all. Maybe a heel turn? Antagonist at least judging from the glimpse of Pharact. Shaddiq certainly will be.

Aerial Rebuild my beloved. I love her so much and she looks so stylish in action. But woof, I feel bad for Earth House. They're deeply affected by the terrorist attack, and cringe at the violence involved with duels. Great detail!

Meanwhile, Suletta's persistent cheeriness is a stark contrast. They're puzzled she can remain so blithe about it. Shame they don't know our poor little tomato head has been brainwashed by mother dearest. More on that later.

Miorine on the other hand is going through the wringer. We only see her briefly but it says so much about her mindset. She's dressed in a black business suit, as if already mourning her father and preparing to take his place at Benerit. It's not surprising she's neglecting herself while she watches her father, but you hate to see it.

Prospera: You did the right thing brutally liquidizing that guy, Suletta. Very smart. Another way? Don't be silly. Murder is always ethical.

Lol. Lmao. Ugly crying. You're going to need so much therapy.

I saw this in the promos but it's still crazy they just stroll into the episode like this. This episode humanizes them, which is nice. You glean nuggets of character from Sophie especially. She's an endearing terrorist if nothing else. The detail of naming her stuffed animals her family, the sister moniker for Suletta-- it paints a lonely portrait of a girl desperate for familial connection.

Norea is interesting too, stoic but blatantly disdainful of the luxuries Spacians take for granted. Clean air/water, plentiful vegetation, and even general happiness. All things Earthians lack.

And here comes the Benerit brigade to make their lives worse. I sense super fun times ahead ;-; I do wonder what the endgame for Dawn of Fold is though. They must know attacking Delling would result in violent retaliation. Hm, something to think about.

Good for Nika standing up for herself and Earth House! Sophie and Norea's simple school life might be over soon as it began. Rather audacious they thought murdering a girl on campus wouldn't be noticed lol. Suletta was so dashing protecting her friend 🥺 She may be highly impressionable but she's a good egg. Next episode, it'll be a duel for Nika's life! I can't wait~

And omg Miorine figured it out. This makes the quick fic I wrote canon compliant! Very pleased we solved that misunderstanding quickly.

This is worrisome though. What really is Quiet Zero and why is Delling convinced it'll bring peace? And what will come of Prospera using Mio to further it? Nothing good, I wager.

But enough of all that dire stuff. Let's discuss the phenomenal ED

The first thing that came to mind when seeing this is Utena. What we see here is Suletta and Aerial serving as the Duelist and Witch respectively. It's incredibly smart to have Aerial in the role of unwilling servant/collaborator both for Utena parallels but also for The Tempest. She can't break free from her servitude, trapped as Arial is as a servant of Prospero and Anthy to Akio. Utena/Suletta is the one who struggles against delusion and misguided beliefs. GOD IT'S SO GOOD Y'ALL

The ED is so romantic too, I'm going to faint. They way they look at each other, even Mio who visibly seems uncertain. And the way their joined hands tremble in the last shot? You can feel Suletta's desperation. That collection of Suletta's is so ominous and witchy too. Reminds me of PMMM. (Also confirms Eri clones in Aerial?? Maybe) This season is off to a rocking start <3

[rosesfox]

Honestly I usually try to give SJM the benefit of the doubt with the no news in that first of all she doesn’t use socials much anyway and she gets bullied online all the time so I get why she stays off and just wants to write her silly little books, and second that logistically her maternity leave and having other things she needs to work on before acotar 5 just means announcing anything acotar is premature. However seeing Stephanie Garber promote ouabh3 ever since a few weeks after tbona does make me feel some type of way about SJM. Obviously book 3 is coming out in 9 months whereas it’ll be like 12 now for cc3, so there’s a time difference, plus Stephanie is still in the YA-standard for big YA authors in terms of promo (isn’t as big as Sarah and isn’t adult so has a smaller readership to talk to and has to do marketing as well as her publisher), so I get they’re not the same situation. But Stephanie was posting quotes and teasers before she even had a book 3 draft. I still don’t believe she’s finished draft 1? Granted the book will be half the size of any SJM book. But the whole “I haven’t written it yet!” from Sarah doesn’t fly when you have authors who release titles and snippets before it’s fully written. Especially if you’re going to keep saying you haven’t written it yet for two years+, it’s not like it’s a few months. Just a rant. I appreciate how Stephanie teased her readers. I feel sad SJM doesn’t want to put that effort in to her readers.

unfortunately this made me create a bad image of her. i've been following a few book releases with authors like holly black, kerri maniscalco, jennifer l. armentrout and stephanie herself, and they all put some effort into promoting their work. stephanie gave us quotes, spent a week playing a game with us to release the title, gave us the title and the release date! she also thanked us several times and said how important it was to her, and that ends up bringing the audience closer to her and to what she proposes with her work.

if there's one thing i learned in college, it's this: no matter how famous you are, promoting your works never hurts. you can see big brands out there that are huge and continue to invest and their campaigns and that's respectable.

i understand that the environment for sarah is not always pleasant, but it never is for people who work with the public. see all the backlash jennifer received after releasing twotq, and she continued to use her facebook group as usual. it happens to everyone and it's usually not a reason to completely stop promoting something that makes you a profit.

i personally don't think sarah is distant for any personal reason, but rather because she takes her fans' passion for granted. i'm not kidding when i say that her whole attitude (and the unsustainable situation of this fandom, formed by herself) made me distant and made me lose a big part of my interest in some couples and their books.

[phoebehalliwell]

Genuine question: what is it that you don't like about the official covers of the novels? Personally I really like how they look. The style reminds me of the official DVD covers, which I think is neat that they resemble each other.

i mean obviously different strokes for different folks i’m not a big fan of the dvd covers either but that’s because i’m not a big fan of the promotional shoots for the seasons. like,, i feel like the photoshoots for the season should tie into / embody the energy of the show. like the promotional shoots for the first season of riverdale were at night in front of their diner with the neon multicolored lighting letting you know a) that this is the grittier edition b) they’re still trying to pay homage to the source material with a vintage-y feel and c) it’s still gonna be very generic and trendy in a bit of a try-hard way (yes i’m saying photoshoots with neon lighting is  generic and trendy in a bit of a try-hard way but that doesn’t mean we should stop it’s still cute tho). that whole photoshoot was like “here is the show : )”. the charmed photoshoots were always just,, so generic. like here are three beautiful actresses looking pretty in front of drop backgrounds. and then on the dvds, photoshopped new abstractish backgrounds that were always very hit or miss for me. like,, none of it screamed witches to me and that’s what i really wanted from that. like u can tell the charmed reboot is doing their promo pics with that aesthetic in mind there’s always some glowy light and/or fog all that like i respect the effort. i want more witchy aesthetic

but in regards to the covers themselves: they feel so lazy. for starters, their taking randoms photos of each of the girls and comping them together, not even bothering to make them look like they’re from the same shoot. sometime the lighting doesn’t match, sometimes it’s the saturation or color balances, it bugs be. and then they get like a generic background pic and just slap it on there. they’re not even like aesthetic pics! like as puck would have it is set at a carnival fair circus and it’s just a photo of some yellow and red tents behind them. and then the girls are slapped on there and it definitely feels like they’re clashing with the background and since it’s set in s6 they’re using the s6 promo shoots but that feels like it doesn’t match the vibes of the story at all but like that’s their only option. i also hate the font but like i’m picky about fonts so i could let it slide but then they also added the white glow underneath it to make it more legible but it doesn’t blend well with anything you already have going on, and then red glow coming from the bottom i just ??? i do not like it. especially because they are novels and i feel like i have a very different standard/expectation for them. bc like as previously mentioned not a fan of the dvd covers but i can deal bc they’re dvd covers and that’s sort of what i expect. but these,,,,,,,, idk i was definitely a book kid growing up and i have my opinions on book covers. i personally really don’t like it when they have actual people on them, i’m a big fan of the more minimalist, subtle ones with a focus on the title itself

like this was one of my favorite book series growing up and is definitely sorta what my brain goes to when i’m thinking book cover, but don’t want to put it too much effort. big ol title. one relevant visual cue below it. pastel background. a lot of the charmed covers to me feel too cluttered.

but like. even if you really really wanna have the actual cast on your book covers bc that’s The Point. i feel like there are better options than just laying promotional pictures on the top layer. like i’ve seen wattpad covers that look better than what the novels did. and granted yeah i guess you’ve got to take in the era but honestly it doesn’t make the covers feel less disjointed. you can tell it’s all a bunch of separate, unrelated items thrown together to represent one unified whole, and i don’t vibe