#‘I’m going to take this person entirely at face value because no human being has ever been different under the surface’

[yesterdayiwrote]

It always astounds me that there’s people on this website who don’t like reading people psychoanalysing their blorbos…

[lawlightautismtruther]

SUPER LONG LAWLIGHT DYNAMIC ANALYSIS RANT (THIS MOSTLY ONLY APPLIES TO THE ANIME)

It’s really not that serious, but there’s more to my thesis of L being a sub/bottom than just blorbo yaoi fuel. I‘ll call back to my post about L’s true emotional vulnerability that most viewers seem to miss, because on a surface level (especially when coming from the manga and when trusting the words of Obha at face value) you may see L as detached and cold. You’re supposed to think that L is unfeeling at FIRST but post-confinement/pre-yotsuba, the truth starts to seep out. L could have had Light convicted after seeing that no more criminals were dying since locking him up, but he didn’t. Even Aizawa admitted that it was enough evidence. You know it’s real when Aizawa agrees with Matsuda, lmfao.

Anyway, after this point, L and Light actually really start to bond. (I pretty much see lawlight as subtextual canon) L, not really needing to do this because of his access to surveillance, handcuffs himself to Light Yagami. He doesn’t want to be apart from him. I actually find it to be a comedically obvious act of desperation.

My point is, Light is winning the game, and L is letting him do it out of what I believe is love. L has found the one person in his life (besides maybe Naomi) that he really feels any sort of connection to, and therefore he would hate to watch that person die. L is inarguably a vulnerable character imo. If you rewatch the the series, outside of his internal monologues, he’s actually extremely soft-spoken and coy.

“Oh, uh, well it was nice meeting you”

“Light, please make Misa stop talking now.”

You get the point. He’s nervous. He’s super frail and holds himself very compactly, he walks with his eyes on the ground usually. He shakes when Aizawa lays a hand on him. He is terrified of shinigami. I think his coldness is an act to protect himself. I really do, because he knows how much things actually do affect him. In order to continue with cases, he has to pretend like none of it really matters to him. And he almost believes it at this point, too— hence his monster speech.

But then there’s Light Yagami. A worthy individual to truly understand L. He comes along, actually treats L like a human being (be it an act, I believe it still feels good to L, who has been treated like a robot his entire life), of course L is bound to at the very least see him as a friend.

I don’t believe L’s external behavior towards Light is an act. He didn’t have to be kind, he didn’t have to pretend it was a friendship. He had zero professional reason to do so. In fact, it very much made the case a harder one to solve. If we take L’s character at face value, he would have scrapped all of the fluffy shit (like asking Light to go get cake with him, telling Light he was his only friend knowing damn well Light wouldn’t budge regardless, etc.) Adding a friendship into the mix only complicates the process of trying to read Light.

As much as L the detective hates to lose, L the person is desperate. If he really hated to lose, why did he let himself? He’s submitting to Light’s will and THAT is what kills him. On the day he dies, he knows it will happen, but still, he treats Light with kindness. Sure, he asks him if he’s ever told the truth once in his life, but after that, he pretty much gives up prying. That’s it. He’s put his gun down. Since he’s going to die anyway, he might as well just enjoy being around Light. I know for a fact that he is smart enough to have come up with some sort of plan to convict Light post-Higuchi. There’s a book about that. But canonically, he didn’t do it. Notice also how L goes to Watari before he dies for comfort. L is really such a sad character.

The crux of his character is his submissiveness, hence why I’m such a proponent of that ship dynamic. Its not just a wet-dream, it’s something I sensed in their dynamic to begin with. It’s why I became an L simp, not the other way around.

Anyway, the anime is a genius adaptation and expansion on the original story imo. (At least up until L’s death— unfortunately it didn’t do the other Wammy’s boys any justice)

TLDR;

manga L- cold and domineering, hates to lose and mostly loses at first because Light outsmarts him

anime L- the very opposite and I LOVE IT

Look at me putting my 5 on the AP English literature exam to use! Also, I know I’m a huge L fan, but I am a Light kinnie and I love him as a protagonist in every possible anti-hero type way and would love to analyze him so let me know if yall want that.

Okay, class, any questions?

[animezinglife]

Just a little anecdotal thought:

For milder-mannered, suffer-in-silence, or less obviously "passionate" women, the whole “intense feelings” thing can go one way or another--both being extreme.

You might think a guy’s attractive, shut down completely, and avoid him like the plague because it’s too much for you to handle at that point in time (for whatever reason).

You might also find yourself acting completely out of character and realize how difficult it can be to keep that behavioral anomaly reined in.

The first one’s a miserable, self-loathing experience.

The second one’s a massive headache to deal with.

But here’s the thing: both are often indicative of something being extremely intense, which a lot of these women aren’t used to feeling at all or have trained themselves so thoroughly to let their own wants slide that it never actually occurs to them to act.

They also don’t always know how to react and will drive themselves insane either fighting it or fighting everything that feels against what they know as their nature. Neither happens with lukewarm feelings or complete lack of interest.

Speaking as a completely third party objective with no personal interest or experience in the matter, I wouldn’t be so quick to rule Lucien out of Elain’s future.

No, she’s not in love with him at this point in the story—I’m not claiming that. He’s not in love with her, either. He’s taking that step forward to meet her halfway and trying to get to know her. He wants to see if it could work since the universe tied them together anyway.

If they could love each other.

Meanwhile, poor Elain who’s had everything she knows ripped out from under her gets a mating bond slapped onto her the second she emerges from the Cauldron in an entirely new body with entirely new, extreme senses.

The bond is strong. The bond isn't lukewarm at all, and she doesn't know how to handle it. She doesn't want to have this involuntary connection forced on her, especially when it's something potentially so intimate in nature.

She's not ready to confront it, so she avoids it. It's not Lucien personally she has an issue with--while she has been cold towards him, I have no doubt she hasn't enjoyed doing so and that when she's thought about it, she realizes how polite and respectful he's been throughout this jarring realization for them both.

She doesn't know him like we do: doesn't know his past, and doesn't know of his wonderful qualities, about Jesminda, the pain he's endured, and the warmth and kindness he still possesses despite it all.

Remember too the only real examples of mating bonds she has to go off of are Feyre and Rhys. Nesta and Cassian. To some extent (whether they're mates or not), Amren and Varian.

Feyre and Rhys's tension despite having been together for awhile now is always present and always palpable. It's hard not to be hit over the head with something like that as a regular human when a couple's connection is that strong and there's that much going on between them, and Elain--an already intuitive person--now has to be faced with that in all her heightened senses glory? About how public those things automatically are?

Then there's Nesta and Cassian, which she would've observed the rocky, stressful start of versus that development and where they are now. That too would be overwhelming (and likely, to a more reserved female like Elain in such capacities, a little embarrassing).

Top that all off with the man she thought she loved was taken from her by circumstances that weren't her choice and that his rejection of her was brutal. Think about how badly that must have stung and how any sense of security she might have had left was stolen away, too.

Now the universe has decided that she and Lucien of all males are mates.

Lucien, her sister's friend. That alone must imply to her he has some good qualities Feyre values.

Lucien, who her sister spends at least five minutes per internal monologue platonically thirsting over in her commentary.

Lucien, a trained courtier with a mix of elegance and mischief. A mix of refinement and masculine roughness.

Prythian can't seem to go five seconds without commenting on his attractiveness, including the villains.

The first thing he does amidst the chaos and horror is cover her with his jacket to protect her dignity and carry her gently out of the water. Someone who she, despite knowing it's not his fault, will forever to some degree associate with that terrible day (even if he was one of the few who offered her kindness).

He's kept his distance from her per her wishes. When they are around each other, he has always been polite, reserved, cautious, and respectful. He's merely offered his hand and given her every choice in terms of taking it.

Elain is overwhelmed and still healing. It's not in her nature as it was Feyre's or Nesta's to fall into whatever sort of relationship with men or males easily.

The one time she take that leap, she was hurt badly for it by a beta bitch man she thought loved her and whom she'd planned to spend the rest of her life with.

Even if everything else is overwhelming--even if a part of her may want to get to know Lucien at least a little--it wouldn't surprise me at all if she's every bit as afraid of where that might lead if she does end up feeling something beyond the bond for him.

And she very well may sense that as well: that once she takes that step, he's going to be the type she could fall in love with.

He's a chance she's not quite ready to take.

[kaliido-s]

Well, the kaiju ship I ship most is Mothollante, but everyone’s already given their thoughts on that so yeah. Has a lot of the pros of Mothzilla with few of the cons, as well as the wonderful aesthetic of a genetically-engineered abomination and a goddess of nature. There’s also the obligatory puns about flowers and butterflies, and Mothra-based hurt/comfort and fluff which is one of my favorite kaiju fan plots.

Mothzilla’s… alright when handled in a certain way, but it’s a “the ship is fine but why is it everywhere” type of thing. And with the MonsterVerse especially, their relationship is better if it’s platonic. All in all, I don’t really ship it, unless a particular person’s take leans to the “humanity’s sins and nature’s virtues” aspect of both of them.

Gong’s pretty good. Tired old men being tired together.

Rodorah’s pure arson and anarchy and I value it for that, but no way is that dynamic anything approaching healthy. I ship it for the lolz.

I’ve jokingly shipped Legion from Gamera and Destroyah together before. Two big buff arthropod ladies.

Angzilla has the same benefits as Gong, really, but with more Showa craziness. I find Kongzillra to be a funny threesome, esp. because GvK would have been over in ten minutes if Mothra was there to slap some sense into Goji, to calm Kong down, and to alert the humans to Mechagoji/Ghidorah.

2MUTO is the kaiju ship I like second most, it gets points for being the only canon kaiju couple I can think of outside of the two OG Rodans, and also because I just love the MUTOs in general. Fr though, those two bugs were so sweet together, and I do think they had as much if not more chemistry than the human leads. Anyone who says that Femuto would have committed mate cannibalism on Hokmuto can face my wrath. MUTOs are clearly designed to fight, hunt, and live in pairs (therefore it makes no sense for her to kill and eat him), and it’s entirely possible they’re like crocodilians (i.e. female raises the kids and protects the nest, male brings her and the wittle babies food. Babies stay with the parents for several years until they can live on their own, and may stay within the parents’ territory for several more years. But now I’m going on one of my MUTO ecology headcanon rambles again…)

That’s all I can think of for now, have fun with these and have a nice day!

ooh this is a long one

- I think the funny thing about the hurt/comfort fluff is I only really like it with the Heisei Mothra. For some reason, maybe because she starts out as a larva, she always seemed a bit less like a goddess to me and more like a really caring person just fighting for what they love. While I read other Mothras as more closed off and unsure in social situations because of their attachment to world peace, Heisei Mothra feels more sociable and peppy, and thus capable of committed relationships

- continuing that, Mothzilla I have never really been a fan of, and I think Goji and Mothra being friends is far more interesting. They care so much and mean so much to each other, but it’s because they value their friendship, and neither of them have really had a relationship like that before. They started off as a business relationship and got closer over time, and I think their friendship is very sweet.

- Kongzilla is (usually) very relaxed old man yaoi and I like that a lot

- If you read my other previous ask about Rodorah, you’ll know how I feel about it. Very wacky very goofy very arson.

- Y’know what, I totally think Legion could get it. She’s pulled tons of arthropod ladies before.

- Again, relaxed old man yaoi, I like that a lot. For them it’s way more like, they’ve been friends for so long and have only gotten closer over time, and everyone’s wondering whether they’re official or not, and maybe they won’t say it out loud cause they don’t want the attention, but they are.

- I had a pretty brief Kongzillra phase and that was pretty fun. Mostly used for laughs and silly shipping dynamics where there’s no bad blood. They’re a power throuple.

- The MUTOs are so cute to me, the part where they meet each other in Chinatown, call to each other, nuzzle, and sync up their vocalizations when they kiss lives in my head rent free. It’s too bad Godzilla hates straight romance, because they were a very adorable and committed couple. (I also would be super into any MUTO ecology posts if you’re offering)

(this clip. this clip right here. the sound design, the cuteness, chefs kiss.)

[marukrawler]

The essay about Baron's age that nobody asked for <3

Introduction

Baron’s age has confused viewers for many years, probably ever since New Vestroia aired in 2009. When it comes to the English dub, Baron’s physique and prepubescent voice leave many baffled and scrambling for some kind of in-universe explanation as to why he looks like a young adult but sounds like a preteen. Because of this strange phenomenon, many people speculate that Vestals may develop at a faster rate than humans and being 12 is the Vestal equivalent to being in your late teens.

But what if I told you that the more likely explanation is that the English dub simply made Baron younger than originally intended, and wrote him to be more childish than how he was originally portrayed? I will go into further detail below the reasons why I believe that to be the case.

Age altering in BB.

My claim that Baron’s age has been altered can be supported by the ages given by the official Japanese website for the first season[1].

While the ages haven’t been dramatically changed, it still shows that the English version altered their ages. And considering how the English dub is known for making countless changes in the original script (Baron also had his last name changed from Rich to Leltoy), it stands to reason that Baron’s age was also among one of them.

Physical appearance and voice.

At first glance, Baron is thought to be around 16-18 years old based off his character design alone, and understandably so. Baron is the tallest and most muscular member of the Resistance, and his voice in the Japanese dub is deeper than his English counterpart. If Baron was intentionally being written as more immature and childish because he’s 12 in the English dub, naturally his voice would reflect that.  

Designated driver.

Baron is the only person shown to drive the Resistance base (with the exception of Ace who drove it one time while Baron was absent. Ace' driving skills are alright but there was an instance were he wasn't driving properly lol) If we take Japanese laws into consideration, it would mean that Baron is at least 18 years of age for him to be able to drive[2]. Mira being 16 and driving a motorcycle would also be in accordance with Japanese legislation [2], as well as Fabia being 16 and engaged to be married (the legal age of marriage for girls in Japan used to be 16 before 2022 [3].)

Baron’s plans to move out.

In S2EP28 it’s revealed that Baron intends to move out of his parents’ house. Unfortunately, you’ll get different versions of this storyline depending on which dub you're watching. In the Japanese dub, Baron doesn’t hide from his family members the fact that he’s going to move out soon, and it’s entirely his own decision (not influenced by Ace in the slightest.) His reasons are that his household is too cramped with people but also that he wishes to be independent. According to his father, Baron had announced his plans to move out before his youngest sibling had been born which means that Baron has wanted to move out for quite some time.

Baron: 気持ちはうれしいですけど、シャーマンも進化したことだし、俺も早く一人前になりたいし -> “I appreciate their concern, but you’ve [Shaman] evolved and I want to become an adult as soon as possible.”[4]

Where 一人前 means “full-fledged-person, an adult, etc.”

 

Baron: 俺もそろそろ自立する年頃っすよ! -> “I’m old enough to be independent!”[4]

Where 年頃 means “appropriate age, age of maturity, adulthood, etc.”

If Baron's words are to be taken at face value, he's essentially stating that he's either around or at the age where one is considered an adult in Vestal society. Now, since we have no reason to believe that Vestals have different ages of maturity compared to humans (because it's not stated anywhere in canon) I’ll once again look to Japanese society for when it's common for young adults to move out. There is a 2020 online survey that asked Japanese men and women from the age of 15-59 when they moved out of their parents’ house, and it seems the most popular answer was 18-19 years old [5].

Which again suggests that Baron could, at the very least, be 18 years old.

Change in dialogue between the JPN/ENG dub.

I’ve mentioned before that Baron appears more childish in the English dub compared to the original. While Baron is undoubtedly intended to be comedic relief – especially when it comes to his admiration of the Battle Brawlers – I still believe he acts even sillier in the English dub than warranted, and so I want to compare some scenes to showcase how it affects the overall reading of his character.

Baron is seen as a dependable figure by Shaman in the original dub, whereas the English dub makes it seem as if he needs a caretaker[6]. Baron is shown to have made his own decision regarding moving out where in the English dub, he is heavily influenced by Ace and Percival who tell him to grow up. Baron also seems to have an interest in girls, but that observation can no longer be made in the English dub, as the context has been replaced with a barf joke[7].

Honorifics.

In the Japanese version, Baron refers to the Brawlers as his senpais (seniors) but does not use the same honorific for Mira and Ace. That is because he looks up to the original Battle Brawlers as his heroes since they're the six new Legendary Warriors and prevented the destruction of Vestroia. Regardless of their ages, the Brawlers still outrank Baron in terms of experience because of their past feats. The fact that Baron doesn't address Mira and Ace in a similar manner implies that all three of them are on the same level in terms of their brawling skills. If his usage of that honorific was to reflect the fact that he is the youngest and most inexperienced member of the group (as Baron's English wikia description says,) he would also be calling Mira and Ace his senpais or something similar, but he doesn’t.

These screenshots are from MP100 where an older coworker calls Mob his senpai because Mob has worked at their agency for longer and has more work experience. Similarly, Baron can still be considered older despite seeking guidance from those younger than him. 

Manner of speech.

This senpai-kouhai dynamic is also reflected in Baron’s speech pattern known as “kōhai kuchō” or junior tone. It’s a way of speaking that is casual but still polite enough to use one with one’s senpai. It’s generally discouraged to use in formal settings but has grown popular among young men, especially in sports clubs. This may explain Baron’s physique considering his way of speaking is typically associated with athleticism in real life[8].

Final words.  

Baron Rich is a character whose age has been a mystery to many viewers of the show, prompting the fandom to give their own headcanons for why he looks so much older than his age.

My hypothesis is that because the English dub team saw Baron as the "Battle Brawlers fanboy," his age and dialogue needed to fit that image better. Sadly, they seemed to not have taken into account that Baron is a young adult who had plans to move out later on in the story. This wouldn't be the first time the English dub lacked foresight when it came to their writing decisions — as they also made a blunder when it came to Shiori's death and Shun’s relationship with his grandfather — and it also would not be the last (Plitheon turning against Jesse in S3 only for them to magically became friends again.)

I believe that Baron was intentionally made younger by the English dub, and the plethora of changes to the story between the JPN and ENG dub clearly speaks in favor of this assumption. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!!

Sources

[1] (BB ages) https://web.archive.org/web/20160323210158/http://ani.tv/bakugan/

[2] (Legal ages in Japan) https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/legal-ages-in-japan-33502#toc1

[3] (Legal marrying age in Japan) https://www.moj.go.jp/EN/MINJI/minji07_00218.html

[4] Bakugan New Vestroia episode 28

[5] (2020 Online survey about moving out in Japan) https://lineresearch-platform.blog.jp/archives/36123670.html

[6] Bakugan New Vestroia episode 19

[7] Bakugan New Vestroia episode 12

[8] (Junior tone) https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/2e7i3g/when_is_it_appropriate_to_use_the_%E3%81%A3%E3%81%99_form/

https://cotoacademy.com/how-to-say-use-japanese-slang-wakamonokotoba-%E8%8B%A5%E8%80%85%E8%A8%80%E8%91%89/

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%80%8C%E3%81%A3%E3%81%99%E3%80%8D%E4%BD%93

[lol-jackles]

tumblr.com/lol-jackles/741426596160946176/

this is the post:

incarnateirony.tumblr.com/post/741037569962377216/im-a-complete-outsider-in-whatever-hell-is-going

If you're blocked this is the content:

Anonymous asked: I’m a complete outsider in whatever hell is going on here but I feel like you should let go of this person. Obsessing over them like this can’t be healthy

Goob: As a complete outsider, jump off a cliff. I’ve been getting harassed by her for three solid years, your tactic doesn’t work. This isn’t “obsession”. This is her getting the attention she’s been screaming for for three years while mind-raping me and using pictures of me for her sexual fetishes. Absolutely not. I stop when she dies.

If you don’t like it, fuck off, I will literally drag this bitch into the dirt after the three years of harassment she’s caused me in real life, online, multiple servers, fandoms and websites. Absolute rotten festering cunt. She was literally goddamn warned to stay off my dick, once every three months, for three fucking years, and she was still riding it and starting shit, so now I’m ending it. And the opinions of motherfucking people who care about me fucking up their fictional angel feed really do not fucking matter. She relies on weak ass opinions like this so she can keep on keeping on with her horse shit, and no, it’s over. You will literally have to ban me from the entire internet to make me stop before she dies or surrenders. It’s that simple. I am DONE.

I need you to comprehend I left this bitch three years ago, after she cheated, malignantly plotted to evict me to replace me with a new bf once she got her first check but let me pay the bills, and has since still absolutely stalked me everywhere anyway, invaded my servers, ripped off my face, my religious practices (badly), has been doing outright goddamn blasphemy, is grooming her friends into fetish roleplays using my fucking face, and she just invested SEVEN. GODDAMN. MONTHS. trying to invade YET ANOTHER FRIEND GROUP OF MINE to cause shit, and she got busted, and now her ass is on fire.

IT’S DONE. WE’RE DONE. THE MERCY IS GONE. SHE LETS US GO OR SHE DIES, IT’S THAT SIMPLE.

She wants me to be a demon, I’ll be a demon. She even signed to me. Moron.

Truly this woman was so obsessed she sat in a goddamn furry porn server for half a year trying to sniff out my friends and investors elsewhere. Like she was literally wailing trying to find the contact for one of my main business investors. To start more shit with, of course. Sis, that man let me do 13 billion dollars in damages to WB by proxy. He doesn’t care about your pissmoaning.

This isn’t “obsession”. This is me being tired of hers, and taking any means necessary to end the harassment I’ve been enduring on every possible front for literal years. Even if it means helping her remove herself from the planet and realizing what a service to humanity that is. I’m fuckin DONE. Like, literally, nothing of value would be lost. It’d actually be a net benefit because she’d stop scamming people with her octopus jibberish, plagiarized lines, and outright blasphemy of the god she claims but refuses to read the doctrine of and teaches contrary to.

She truly feels special cuz she can bullshit up some vague horse shit about someone’s grandma to make them feel better then writes retroactive dreams, like the one that only prophecized to her that she was about to get her cheeks clapped, after she got clapped, but she swears she had a vision dream that morning. ok. the other seven months?

Like the whore is even posing right now writing her fanfiction like it’s proof of something compared to my statistics. Yeah I too can shit out narrative horse shit, Shealyn. That doesn’t make you a mystic. She’s basically charging people for her obsession with me, her roleplay fetish, her schizophrenia and a big fat bucket of blasphemy she’ll rot in the void for. And drag some nice little practicing christians with her.

Am I christian? No. But I respect the texts enough to know what she’s doing is deeply fucking these people up. Like, they’re neither following Hermes nor Yahweh’s doctrine, they’re just following whatever octopus jibberish horse shit she hallucinates. It’s literally a cult. A cult she groomed into humping a copy of my face. Like a psychopath.

And no, that’s not the hyperbolic internet use of cult. It is the literal definition of a cult, wherein no classic doctrine is used, but rather the singular teachings of someone that generally revises other practices, and grooms them out of actually reading anything outside of it and, in this case, into humping pictures of me.

You, too, would be flipping shit if your cheating ex wife was convincing people to basically mindrape you while lying about whatever god or doctrine you follow just to try to copy you. And that’s BEFORE the trying to fuck with every friend group I have and my business. For three. Years. And that says nothing about her refusing to look in the face that she channeled motherfucking anime octopus jibberish trying to copy an inside joke. I use “channel” here loosely, obviously. Truly the most horrific skank I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with. Makes Vinnie and Kelios look like saints. And models. At least they’re under the 300 lb threshold and are open about their delusions being about fictional horse shit. They don’t even CHARGE for us to hear them spread their shit.

Trump deserves life more than this creature. At least I believe he’s genuinely retarded. She only acts this dumb, but it’s a conscious way she makes up for her own insecurities, and it’s by lying her way through to try to look divine. She doesn’t doesn’t care what it does to everyone around her. So yeah. Trump is more human than this creature. And, somehow, in better shape.

So yeah, fuck off. She has till September for part one, until 2027 for part two, until 2033 for part three, and the void beyond that for the rest of her penalties, but for right now, you can sit and spin on part one.

But you know, I think that’s fine by her. She’s too coward to end it herself but already experienced soul death and knows it, hence her refusal to build any actual identity. She’s just a sweaty meatsuit over there now going through the motions, I’m pretty sure she wants the void. Don’t worry bertha, they just have to widen the gate a little bit

well that and he realized you actually do want to die, I think, which is why he specifically opted for the “troll you until you do it yourself” route starting yesterday. Sorry Shea, he refuses to let you warp forcing him to reap you into something you can try to spin as a romantic gesture in hell. Like, he’s pretty sure you’re just waiting to grope him then too. Get away from us, you lying schizo slut.

THE OCTOPUS WAS NEVER FUCKING DIVINE, SHEA. YOU DID NOT CHANNEL THE FUCKING OCTOPESE.

Whoa, Goob is admitting that he will actively assist-suicide his ex-wife her by "helping her remove herself from the planet and realizing what a service to humanity that is." I hope the ex is screenshotting all of this gold.

I'll write a lengthier reaction in the next post to save space. Meanwhile in reference to Goob's Trump mention...

Even Newsweek agreed.

[miatartistry]

For your decision-making purposes!!

Honestly, I adored the fact that Laurence went blind. It added an additional limit to his character, as well as some twisted irony: for someone who places a lot of value on looks/first appearances, how would he have coped with not being able to see reflect on him?

It made me super angry when his blindness was just cured, straight out, even when I was younger and first watching through the series; it didn’t sit right with me. I understand that it’s a universe where magic exists, but magic should also have some limitations, so that would be a neat way to expand upon those limits!! Especially with Zoey, who’s magic is primarily healing-based; you could even go into something deeper, in which Laurence’s sight might be something that he wants but not necessarily needs.

There’s also not a whole lot of canonically disabled characters within the series, anyway, so to have part of the main cast be disabled in any manner would not only be a point for representation, BUT it would also be super fun from a writing and character building standpoint!!

How would his fighting style reflect with his lack of sight? Would he adopt one of Aphmau’s dogs as his own as a seeing eye dog/partner, seeing as his sister took one of her dogs as her own (or heck, maybe Ungrth would stick around more often, “acting as his eyes”)? How would he interact with Garroth, and how would Garroth interact with him, considering his hang ups in the beginning about showing his face? Etc etc

SO SORRY, this got long, I just feel super passionate about this subject specifically lol, and also Laurence; he’s one of my biggest comfort characters. I’m currently writing a blind character of my own, as well, so I’ve got some experience with both it’s challenges portraying it correctly + how it would fit into the narrative :D

Thank you for this amazing response!! I agree that him being blind adds a lot to his character, as someone who takes his own looks very seriously. But that’s not all that it could add. I’m not gonna spoil anything for my rewrite, but I’ll give you a hint: Laurance has a huge affinity for the earth. With this blindness, his senses would be heightened and he would notice just how uncanny this connection of his is (something he even had before this blindness but just wasn’t noticeable). As you said, vision being something he wants but he doesn’t need, just because of this natural connection he has with the Earth. Also, I just think it’d be funny if he could dodge a ditch perfectly but then run into an actual human being right after 💀

More under cut:

I also totally agree about having representation in the main cast. It felt a little weird that his sight was just healed with little to no explanation on how it was done, it almost felt like Jess thought it was an obstacle she wouldn’t be able to write around. Me personally, I’ve never written from a blind persons perspective before, except a little bit from Laurance’s POV in the first chapter of TBATD. It’s a challenge that I really do want to take on though, not only because of the representation (that I hope I can get right, if you have any sources, advice, or experiences you’d want to share let me know!), but also from a character building standpoint:

You brought up how his fighting style would be affected, which I’m thinking about too. Not only would he have to learn how to sense the battlefield, he’d also have to learn new skills and techniques. I’ll do my research and look more into how blind people can fight, but for Laurance I think that’d take a huge toll on his mental health. He has trained basically his entire life, he was the head guard of Meteli. He gets frustrated easily (not only is it just his personality, but his emotions can get sort of out of control because of his Shadow Knight situation), and the beginning of learning how to fight blind would not be easy. Of course he’d have help, presumably from Garroth (more friendship development for those two. They despise each other in my rewrite), but it’d still be super hard and he’d probably be depressed about it.

And more on his his relationship with Garroth, yeah I saw someone post something about Garroth taking off his helm off and for the first time, Laurance just silently feels his face and I think that sort of sealed the deal for me at that point. If you don’t know already, Garroth and Laurance will have a romantic relationship in my rewrite (well, as romantic as rivalry can get), so I can already imagine some really cute scenes for them if Laurance stays blind, as well as some angsty scenes.

Laurance is an amazing character and I’m happy you’re just as passionate about him as I am. He’s a comfort for me definitely lol, ever since I was kid. For your own character, update me on how it goes!! Thank you again for this response. <3

[sheltershock]

An idea I’ve always enjoyed thinking about is art student Sasha. Yeah, he’s a scientist that works with machines and brains, and knows psychology stuff like brain workings and dream interpretations, which you’d think require some sort of higher education. And I’m not saying he wouldn’t have those kinds of degrees. But I think it’s amusing how often Sasha is talked about being a genius, and his intellectualism and all about his experiments… and then I glance over at the source material and the most evidence we get for education actually implies he was an art student and that’s hilarious to me. 

There’s the title to the track that plays in his level, “A Mind of Bauhaus Principles,” in which the Bauhaus is an art school. There’s the second face of the cube in the level which has like spinning disks on rods and I don’t really know what this part is supposed to represent, but the figments are of like drawings and people at pottery wheels so the best explanation I have is a collection of strange art projects(or since all of the memories in the level are negative, failed/frustrating/difficult art projects). The cube itself is painted in a Bauhaus style. The Psychoportal that Raz “borrows” from Sasha doesn’t have machinery or neural pathways decorated on it but painted rectangles that are more artsy than scientist themed. And when Raz meets Edgar, a literal prisoner of art, and throws Sasha’s Psychoportal to enter his mind, Edgar comments on the door. “Are you working on an abstract piece? …Nice use of color.” (Of course the comment could be about Raz entering the mind, I think the other inmates have comments while entering, but Edgar starts talking before the door even opens. I think both could be valid interpretations.)

But I like the references to Sasha being artsy, it’s a nice touch. Especially since people on the Spectrum often are both intellectually and artistically talented, but often autistic characters are often displayed having one or the other. I think the reasoning for this is because each part is often attributed to different sides of the brain, so having a character both smart and artistic is a strange idea? But actually having a character on the Spectrum have both is a nice touch. It’s also neat because being an artist has little to do with being a Psychonaut, it’s not part of his job. Much like the space/alien interest it’s a nice little detail that being a Psychonaut is not Sasha’s core identity, he has other things going on which is a humanizing detail. 

I personally have the headcanon that initially Sasha went to college for art, but then stopped for some reason(stress, money, mental breakdown, etc.), got scouted by the Psychonauts and then switched gears to a more intellectual based degree like psychology or engineering or something. And ever since joining the Psychonauts, he always had the goal of going back and completing that art degree so he’s been saving a portion of his salary for whenever that happens. Then years after the fact, decided to start on that again and eventually completed it on the side. He’s not ever going to use it, to his knowledge, because he likes his job as a Psychonaut. But it’s the degree he’s the most proud of and exclusively has it hung up in a nice frame in his house. He has his other degrees at work as a symbol that he knows what he’s doing, but he gets the most joy observing the art degree, either from how hard it took to eventually get it with all the stops or just from intrinsic value. 

He’s probably doodling all the time at work in secret. People in meetings are secretly intimidated/impressed about how quickly and dedicated Sasha is at taking notes. But he’s actually just absentmindedly scribbling on the free page he gives himself in the stack of papers he gives himself for actual notes and annotations. It’s an invisible stim that gets you to use your entire hand to do controlled, impulsive movements but in a socially acceptable way. Plus art is therapeutic, so it’ll be a nice way to step away from an infuriating experiment to calm down and approach it later with a more stable mental space. 

I think Milla found out about it because they were sitting together in a meeting and she hadn’t heard anything particularly worth taking a note on yet, but for some reason Sasha’s pen/pencil hasn’t stopped moving. So she looked over his shoulder to see what she was missing in the meeting, and just found artistic renditions of various objects and people in the room plus some random scribbles. She looked away before Sasha could notice her peeking, but he noticed her anyway. They talked about it later, and she thought it was pretty cool. Milla even asked if he could draw her, and he did, though he immediately apologized saying that he was never proficient at female anatomy. She loved the drawing anyway, and she still has it. But she had to give it back and insist that he sign it, because he didn’t initially. It took some convincing, but she did get the sketch signed by the artist, to which Sasha thought she was too giddy over. 

In meetings she occasionally looks over at the sketch page, smiling, almost getting them both in trouble by laughing at a couple. She always insists that he draw her more often, and you can see the improvements between each drawing. Some are in color, some are in black and white, some look more experimental, and some are in mixed medium. Milla saves them all regardless. 

The one drawing that always makes her tear up is one in her old nurse’s outfit. When they moved in together, she couldn’t throw it away because of the memories, both good and bad. Regardless, she wanted to put it on and look at herself in the outfit after all these years and after how much she’d changed. But she ended up being unable to put it on, stashing it in the back of the closet. She was able to play the piano and look after children again, but she couldn’t put the outfit on no matter how badly she wanted to see herself in it. Milla said over dinner how she remembers she looked back then, noting that she wore her hair up in a neat bun rather than down like she usually does. And then later that night, she was handed a piece of thick paper that depicted her wearing the outfit. It was in a pose and with an expression that she never had worn back then, but it was definitely the current Milla Vodello wearing that outfit with the accompanying hairstyle. She ended up bawling when she saw it and had to explain through tears that she was really happy with it and grateful for it.

On nights where neither of them have to stay late working, I like to imagine Milla seated at a piano, playing whatever song comes to her at that moment, and Sasha sitting with a book off to the side, listening to the pleasant melody. When she gets tired of playing she’d get up so they could sit together. And she’d realize at some point between her getting up to play and sitting down together, that without her noticing he’d put his book down and started sketching her without her knowledge. She’d chuckle, since it happens occasionally, and ask why. She’d get some answer about how her form was interesting, or it was her expression, or the shadows…but each drawing just has this pure joy emanating from her from the elegant lines.

[lovehistories]

ep 13&14

a few thoughts about eaw episodes 13&14 bc i’m fresh off of 14!!!!!!

1) i’m aware that i’m prob in the minority over this, but i’m not surprised about or frustrated re: the young woo/junho lack of communication over their breakup (YET, there’s a provision here that the future make up scene between them has to bowl me over emotionally and remind me of why love is the most beautiful theme there is in storytelling etc etc) bc what i  t h i n k  the writer is trying to do is show that this is an entirely different kind of problem that these two are facing, with an entirely different degree of weight. 

we’ve had ppl doubt junho’s feelings before, we’ve had ppl question the validity of their relationship, but we haven’t rly had the very simple and very devastating question between the two of them of: “you make me so happy, but do i make you happy? is your life better with me in it?” as a viewer you’re very much allowed to hate the asking of the question bc you think it’s one of the least interesting parts about young woo and junho’s relationship, 100%!!!! some of you might even be hurt by it, and i understand that too. but i also think that we as viewers are privy to a lot more than the characters of young woo and junho are in show. 

the answer is obvious to us––of course they’re happier together, of course both of their lives have become more beautiful because they met, it’s in junho’s eyes and young woo’s smiles––but this is young woo’s first time being in a serious romantic relationship, so how is?? she supposed to know how to navigate what happiness is between two people and to see all of the wonderful things that she brings to the table when everyone else has only ever told her otherwise??? i think we’re also meant to assume that even if junho almost definitely has had romantic relationships in the past, this is the first time that someone has meant so much to him. and i think that when you’re coming fresh off of heartbreak and confusion, this coming out of nowhere for him (he still doesn’t know that young woo overheard what he and his sister were talking about, which.....i would Not have saved this particular conflict for the last fourth of the show LMAO), junho’s hesitation to speak isn’t all that surprising. we’ve seen this kind of hesitation from him before when young woo confessed repeatedly and he had to gather himself emotionally before he could respond (the stakes are much higher this time too), so i hope!!! this was just the writer closing the loop on that theme one last time. 

logistically, i also think that the writer has dug themselves into a very deep hole and this is what i hope is a calculated risk that could go very well or very badly. by not addressing the escalating conflicts between young woo/junho one by one (i.e. elaborating more on young woo’s response to junho’s initial reaction to them not officially dating in ep 12)......they now have to address them all at once.

2) idk what the game plan was at eaw hq, but it’s so far past too late to humanize minwoo for us now. at this point, and at literally no point, does having sick family members excuse minwoo of a sliver of the garbage that he did for the entire run of the show. seeing him as a “whole person” doesn’t rly serve his character in any meaningful way besides as a set up for suyeon to fall in love with him, which....i’m making a separate post on that LOL. my honest opinion of the sudden minwoo/suyeon love line if we’re meant to take it at face value is that the writer(s) didn’t know what to do with suyeon anymore after she stopped pursuing the idea of being in a relationship with junho......which is a huge shame because her character could have so much more going on with her.

3) what was young woo dad’s response to her question over the phone..........pls tell me we get to hear the other half of that conversation eventually.......... :’’’’’’)

[lfenvs3000f23]

Blog Post 10:

"Describe your personal ethic as you develop as a nature interpreter. What beliefs do you bring? What responsibilities do you have? What approaches are most suitable for you as an individual?"

My personal ethic as a nature interpreter is to be as intersectional, inclusive and accessible as possible, but also realistic. Call me an eco-nihilist if you will, but as a queer, leftist woman who grew up in a religious, right-winged environment- while also facing financial and non-visible disabilities- I feel I have a good understanding of the flaws of today’s society and can look at it through a critical lens. I also am white and have had the ability to attend university, so I must acknowledge that privilege or “invisible assets” as we spoke about in the earlier units. Therefore, I have a responsibility to use my privilege and knowledge for good, through advocating for those who haven’t been as fortunate in the lottery of life, in terms of social/physical privilege. Obviously societal norms, ethics and attitudes are important because they impact the way we as humans, interact with the world and nature around us. I am an existentialist in a philosophical nature, therefore I believe as humans, we create our own meaning and purpose and we have a moral responsibility to use our free will to do good. Or whatever drives us intuitively. I initially got into this field through my love for animals and ultimately wanting to protect those who cannot protect themselves (e.g., the earth and its critters). I’ve since never regretted a day of this decision. I often ponder what it would be like if I had pursued another field like medicine or engineering, but I think environmental science and research would always be in the back of my mind. I feel a very strong pull and calling to nature, and sitting in a cubicle all day 365 days a year sounds torturous. I strongly believe we have a responsibility (or rather, obligation) to protect the world around us as we know it. I actually completely agree with the indigenous values around honouring nature and I think as a society we could benefit largely from incorporating indigenous knowledge and practices. 

Do I have minimal faith in how much longer mankind can continue in the ways we are, and not pay for it? Do I feel personally that the world is screwed? Do I believe that big corporations and industries are completely and entirely at fault for the destruction of the planet? Do I hate that the blame and guilt is placed on the individual for it? The answers to all of those questions would be yes. But not in the way you would think. 

I’ve kind of made peace with my feelings on these things - they used to bother me and make me so upset in my teens. I was actually on a strict vegan diet for 6 years because I felt I had such a personal responsibility to lower my carbon footprint. I ended up becoming pretty weak and anemic by the end of it. I applaud vegans and have so much respect for them; I sometimes contemplate going back to it sometimes, but it’s not realistic to be 100% perfect all the time.  Climate anxiety is a real thing and I’ve made peace with it. Some might call it being complacent or ignorant, but in today’s society sometimes you just need to protect your mental peace and sanity. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is just accept that you can’t change the world all by yourself and that’s okay. I will vote to protect the climate, fight social injustices, drink almond milk, use reusable bags/straws/etc., take public transit, and do anything I physically can for these causes, but I will no longer spend waking hours ruminating on it, and feeling guilty. If I’m dedicating my life to a career meant to help the environment and protecting it for future generations - that’s enough for me. Not to say that we shouldn’t (Or I wouldn’t fight for it), because I would. I just feel that a lot of today’s environmental activism is very performative, has toxic positivity and not realistic a lot of the time (e.g., virtue signalling on instagram). Overall, in a capitalist society, environmentalism is the last priority and it’s extremely hard to have these two things coincide. Not to say that it’s impossible, but there are so many issues at play, a large one being socioeconomic status. It's expensive and not accessible to be "eco-friendly" a lot of the times, and this isn't the consumer's fault! This isn’t an environmental ethics or philosophy course so I won’t delve into it further, but social and environmental justice is very important to me. I just think it’s more of a multi-faceted and extremely complex problem than people think. And this should be widely communicated! I don’t want our youths of today to feel like the burden is on them, because it’s not. 

This is why, going back to what I said at the beginning, an accessible and inclusive approach to nature interpretation is my main goal. Whether its explaining scientific concepts as simply and concisely as possible, incorporating the different learning styles, or using accessible learning for disabilities. Everyone has a right to an equal opportunity to pursue nature and environmental education!! Everyone should feel welcome and like they belong, because they do! The world needs future researchers, consultants, environmental interpreters, engineers, etc.,. I’m not sure if I will pursue nature interpretation as a career, as it isn’t in my current plans at the moment, but this course has definitely shown me its importance in guiding the people of today and also of the future. 

[not-wholly-unheroic]

I liked a lot of the questions so take a good amount!! (Though you don’t gotta answer all of them if you don’t wanna)

Schwartzwald, Skintight, Boastwain’s call, Anatomy class and Infestation!!

Schwartzwald - Do they recall any scary stories from their childhood?

Not sure if this quite counts, but a lot of people thought the house he grew up in was haunted. People who visited would often report seeing strange shadows and floating lights near some of the upstairs windows. He caught a brief glimpse once or twice of said ghostly apparitions as a boy and it nearly scared him half to death. He dove under his bed and didn’t come out from hiding until the next morning after the sun was up. (He learned MUCH later that it was actually Peter and Tink—Peter being the older brother he never met who had mysteriously vanished and was presumed dead.)

Skintight - If they had a YouTube channel or TV show, what would it be about?

Hmm…probably a music channel where he could show off his skills on the harpsichord and piano. He’d play mostly classical music with perhaps the occasional venture into soundtrack themes along with his own original works. He’d refuse to do covers of most modern songs, though, especially on his beloved harpsichord because he feels like it would be disrespectful of the instrument. (He is not a fan of most modern songs and often refers to it as “noise” rather than music.)

Boatswain’s Call - What was their longest journey?

Technically he has gone between entirely different realms just going to and from Neverland. But in terms of more real-world distance…back in his heyday as a pirate, he made journeys between the Caribbean and Britain periodically. Those journeys took about a month each way if they didn’t make any stops at other ports along the way.

Anatomy Class - What were their favorite and least favorite classes in school?

Back in the days when he was in school, the subjects taught were rather limited. (Eton originally taught Latin alone, then later added Greek. Math was only added as a subject in the mid-1800s, and others added on later.) So I’m going to cheat a bit and also include things he studied on his own time like navigation, botany, poetry, music, and astronomy.

Honestly, I think he would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. He enjoys learning and is self-taught in many areas. But I think music might be his favorite subject, followed closely by classic literature and poetry. He finds them both relaxing and deeply moving. As for his least favorite…he finds math extremely useful in terms of navigating and daily life on a ship but terribly dull and a rather cold, lifeless subject. He sees its value but it isn’t a subject he finds especially interesting.

Infestation - What do they think of bugs? Are they squeamish?

Bugs definitely weren’t uncommon aboard a ship in the Age of Sail, particularly those that traveled long distances (weevils in the hardtack) and to tropical regions (mosquitoes), so he isn’t exactly squeamish about them…but he definitely doesn’t have any fondness for them or want them on his person. He picked up malaria once during his days in the Caribbean and barely survived it.

The first time he saw a fairy, he thought it was a giant bug and only realized (to his great shock!) that the creature looked like a tiny human with wings when she flew up in his face after nearly being swatted with a rolled up map. What shocked him even more was when he realized he could actually understand what Tink was saying.

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 115

The Third Man/The Waters of Mars

“The Third Man”

Plot Description: Investigating a case of biblical plagues, Sam and Dean call Castiel for help and learn that God’s weapons have been stolen

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: No. I would not survive having my skin, down to the muscle, peel off and then EXPLODING

And I continue to make the mistake of watching this on my lunch break…luckily I was spared the most gruesome parts by blocking it with my phone

Sam…I’m not saying that you have to be in a relationship to do that, but you can hook up with some one for free, you know. I’m sure there’s someone out there who would…is your personality that dogshit now that you have no soul??

Biblical plagues apparently say ACAB. Which is nice to see

“Were you…racing me?” “No…I was kicking your ass” I’ve missed these sibling moments when the stakes seem low

Um…I know this guy is goin through it but damn. Well, at least we were spared seeing … no we weren’t fucking spared watching locusts digging their way out of this dude’s skull

He gets there when DEAN calls him. Cas’s blatant favoritism and disdain for Sam is amazing. “You like him better or something?” will be so much funnier later

Don’t lie to yourself, Castiel. “You think I came because you called?”

“I think we can rule Moses out as a suspect” I love this show sometimes

“My ‘people skills’ are ‘rusty’” bitch, me too. Cheers. I keep forgetting I have a shirt with that on it that I bought in 2021 for if an occasion that I’d have to be around people would come up outside of work

Cas is that X Files kinda fed I guess. Sam and Dean are trying to play real federal agent and Cas is just asking where this guy has the Staff of Moses

Jesus, Cas. I guess I know this is a HUGE deal but maybe we go about it a little differently? No?

I’m sorry for being SUCH a Cas apologist. I can see that what he’s doing is not great to wrong, but I can see why he’s doing it. He’s not human, he doesn’t have QUITE the attachment to humanity he’ll eventually have

Oooo, I remember Balthazar being fun

Angel fiiiiiiight

You can’t start Who’s On First with Cas…he’s a millennia old baby when it comes to cultural references

Bestieeee, your people skills are not just rusty, they’re rusted, fallen off, and lying on the side of the road

Did we get Balthazar as a Gabriel replacement? “This morning I had a ménage a…what’s French for twelve?”

I’d love to be the kind of person who could hang with Balthazar, but I know I’m more of a sit quietly in a room with Castiel type

Damn, Cas. You are too good at throwing knives…and getting your shit wrecked by your older brothers

You LOT-ED RAPHAEL, Balthazar??

Hmmmm…gonna tuck away the “do you know what a human soul is worth” line for later. There’s some kind of power they hold. So, who’s got Sam’s and why

Sure. You had different hell experiences but…it would still affect you IF YOU HAD A SOUL, SAM

“Been On My Mind…”: does in Dean’s dreams count??? And…I guess there’s confirmation Sam did entirely off screen…

"The Waters of Mars"

Plot Description: In a Mars base the inhabitants are being infected by a mysterious water creature which takes over its victims. The Doctor is thrust into the middle of this catastrophe knowing a larger one is waiting around the corner.

Oh man...I'm trying to not get attached to these characters. I know, like, ONE of them makes it out, but some of them are just....you know?

Like these two in the garden...oop, one's already getting infected. GREAAAAAAT

As the Doctor remembers the crew members and their Great Value Wikipedia pages pop up...Adelaide was born in 1999. The deputy was born in 2008. HE'S FIFTEEN RIGHT NOW. THE TECHNICIAN WAS A COVID BABY

Ah, shit, EVERYONE DIES??

Yeah, I guess that makes sense that they'd link the Doctor's arrival to what's going on

I forgot how horrifying their faces get after they get infected. Ring Corrupted Bilbo Baggins lookin...giving Vincent D'Onofrio in Men In Black but worse and wetter...

I know any acting job's an acting job but the guy who controls the robot is just...he got the short end of the stick when it came to roles

"Water is patient, Adelaide. Water just waits[...]Water always wins." What a terrifying thing to hear

BUT. WHY. DOCTOR. WHY DO YOU GET TO CHOOSE WHAT MOMENTS ARE FIXED POINTS.

Captain, you WHAT.

GOD...imagine being told that the human race WILL travel to the furthest reaches of the universe, and it's because YOU inspired your granddaughter to continue your legacy, but it does mean you and everyone here with you HAS. TO. DIE.

Oh. She...she doesn't think that...she thinks they escape. I mean, of course she does. Doctor...

Stop...maybe stop going to fixed points in time. (I know you're not completely in charge of where the TARDIS takes you, but goddamn)

Imagine loving humanity so much but having to stand there and listen to them die on Mars, nothing you do can save them. Everything you do just causes it to happen anyway

The pressure equivalent of your bathroom shower hitting someone has never been so tragic

God...I forgot that he goes back and goes apeshit. "The laws of time are mine, and THEY WILL OBEY ME" gworl.

OK but how did that NOT kill everyone and destroy the TARDIS??

I hate the way she has to do it, but...he needed to be knocked down that peg. You'd think that he'd learn a thing or two after all the time he traveled with Donna, especially. She was asserting herself having an equally important say in what they were doing, how the people they were meeting would address her... You really would think that he wouldn't see his beliefs as absolute.

[badedramay]

There’s an entire thread on a fb group I’m in that’s hating on Yunhi. Don’t get me wrong—the drama has its fair share of problems.

However, what surprises me is how the people in this fb group don’t even consider that character development could be a thing? Like for example, dada’s misogynistic af advice to Daood about marriage is terrible, but Daood clearly seemed uncomfortable with it. Yet a good portion of that thread is talking about how backwards Dada is (which I agree with) but how the drama is backwards for showing Daood agreeing to treat his wife like that. Are we watching the same show? Does nobody think that Daood will take his grandfather’s words and finally refuse to do something he’s been told to do? Same with Kim — do people really think she’ll stay exactly the same character she was in episode 1? She’s already changing.

It is a *flawed* drama but I feel like the qaum doesn’t know the concept of character development exists unless it’s a toxically alpha male falling for a woman and acting 0.6% less alpha.

I was actually very against Maya when she said that people need to watch the entire drama before casting judgment but now I think she’s right. We have leads who are developing but it’s like no one sees that—just takes everything at face value.

I feel like..90% of the people who get on the internet to discuss PakDramas don't actually know how to really discuss them. This is just me speaking from my experience but I have seen that only a handful of people first accept the drama for what it IS before commenting on it. This is the first step of having any objective opinion on a drama. But many MANY people completely disregard the first step and jump on the next which warrants the response of, "are we even watching the same show?"

Because clearly we aren't. Yunhi is flawed, I get it. The writing in the initial episodes demanded quite a lot of suspension of disbelief. However, it has settled down now. 10 episodes is a good enough point for a drama to fully establish its mood, style, and characters. It took me taking a break from the drama, getting back to it with full intention of not letting my own notions overshadow what the drama is trying to say to fully get into the drama. But for a good chunk of the internet audience they haven't been able to let go of their initial notions.

On twt an America based "reviewer" simply cannot get over Kim's characterization. She's too busy being personally offended at someone like Kim representing American born Pakistanis that she cannot see her character beyond that. I guess that's the same for the people who are hating on Dada for being a misogynist. They simply cannot see beyond their own need to have characters that can be neatly packaged into "black" and "white" to realize that people Dada's age and belonging to the social class he does and enjoying the position of the patriarch in the family and ESPECIALLY having benefited from generational misogyny WILL most certainly act the way he does. Does that make him a villain or a bad person? NO! of course not. being misogynist is a flaw and of course in an ideal world we'd want characters to be fully rid of this flaw but misogyny is also the most prevalent truth of our society. there are countless people we know irl that are misogynist but we won't call them villains cuz apart from this one flaw, they are alright human beings.

Another thing, and Maya was completely right in pointing that out, is that no one allows a drama to play out. A weekly drama with avg 25 episodes will not reveal ALL its cards in the first episode. It won't introduce a conflict and resolve it in the same episode. yes, what it can do is that it'll give a hit about the path the drama intends to take when the conflict is introduced. which is what Yunhi DID in the episode. the major takeaway from the episode was: Dawood being advised by both his Dada and his friends to be the typical "man"; to exert his "supremacy" and show "raub" to Kim right from the beginning. We see Dawood not fully comfortable with the idea BUT giving it a try anyway. Why? cuz Dawood is already feeling out of depth with this sudden decision thrust upon him. He's feeling helpless. for him to take his Dada's advice was him trying to gain some semblance of control back.

look at the terrace scene. look at Dawood's body language. he comes there and stands with his arms behind his back in a "dominant" pose. he rattles off his usual "you so badtameez, you so arrogant" rant. Kim is completely disinterested in all that; it's nothing she hasn't heard before. she coolly dismisses him. Dawood tries to take the control back. NOW THAT BIT. Dawood reaching out to hold her hand.

"Itni asaani se yahan se jaane nahin dunga."

That's what he says but look at how he cannot see her in the eyes when saying that. that was him showing his discomfort as he tried to exert his dominance. and people think THIS Dawood will take his Dada's advice to heart and will start being all "mard" with Kim?? Kim is shocked at his action and she's angry. still, she holds her ground. she reminds him that she'll do whatever she pleases.

"Aur khabardar mujhe meri ijazat ke bagair kabhi haath lagaya."

This is where she really gets angry. Just listen to how she spits out those words, just look at the way she's glaring at him. She's mad at being treated like this, she's offended at being thought of as someone who'll be okay with this kind of manhandling. Right as she says it, Dawood lets go of her hand. Because in Kim's glare Dawood is reminded of this very simple fact that what matters in a relationship is not the dominance of a man, but the consent of the partner. It's not an ideal Dawood will be TAUGHT by Kim - it's an ideal that he already HAS. but in the kind of partriarchal household Dawood lives in, he hasn't seen these ideals as examples around him. so he had a momentary lapse in judgement because of his need to gain control back.

One doesn't need a phd in neuroscience to understand this. all they need is a mere acceptance of characters as they ARE instead of how you'd WISH them to be. Yunhi is still one of the better examples of dramas where at least the characters backgrounds are so clear that their actions can be justified. there's not clashing contrast of how a character behaves vs what their background is. Dada is a patriarch so he'll preach about the misogyny that has benefited him all his life. Naveed, despite spending half his life in America, is still a man who never forgot his roots and is aware of how the ideals of his homeland will not change so it's better to let them be instead of trying to change them. Kim being a product of a liberal country who has seen examples of people cutting off their entire families when their ideals don't match will of course question the way of life that's in Dawood's house. For her, cutting ties and moving away is a very real possibility. For Dawood, it isn't. it's something they'll have to learn and accept about each other AS THE STORY PROGRESSES.

Kim hasn't changed; initially she was just baffled after coming in an environment that was nothing like she has ever witnessed. She brought her own prejudices to the table and was judging the family based on THAT instead of what they were (guess who else does it?) but she kept an open mind. just look at how she reacts whenever Dawood patiently tries to explain his side of the situation to her. she never dismisses him outright. she listens to what he has to say and then either accepts it, questions it until she gets a satisfactory answer, or lets the matter drop entirely because it's not worth her energy to argue with a wall. but she LISTENS. she's open to understanding this family and all she expects them is to understand her in return. that's it. that's the whole show.

ironically our audience doesn't realize that. they don't see this as a drama of two worlds colliding. heck, they don't see it as a DRAMA which has to spread out its story and reveal it in chunks of 36 minutes over the course of 25ish weeks. because Yunhi HAS a story. it has rich characters with layers to explore in them. and all of that will happen in due time.

Maya has talked about Yunhi being a story of how a husband supports his wife. and Dawood has every indication of being that kind of husband. Kim and Dawood, despite their rocky start, have a established relationship where they TALK and LISTEN to each other. i am most positively looking forward to that playing out. but where oh WHERE is the requirement that for this story to work out the characters have to be flawless?????????????????? they can't be all 10 across the board. not just in this drama but literally in every story ever. no one is saying Yunhi is the bestest writtten most perfect drama to ever exist but good lord, this drama is still farrrrrr better than the current on-air lot which are basically a confused mishmash with no coherent style or direction and most definitely lacking in that importance BALANCE which make any drama entertaining.

[lovecolibri]

Things that did NOT Spark Joy-4x10

Well. Here we are again, folks! If you want to read about me singing Kyle’s much deserved praises, that post is here, otherwise, lets dive into the retconning, confusing, jam-packed and yet still somehow boring AF mire of this episode.

Starting off strong with Liz dropping the line about the sinkhole being a “one way door” when they found her passed out immediately after finding the sinkhole and as far as we know NO ONE but especially not her, have run tests to know what’s going on with the sinkhole. PLUS, they pulled m*ria out so why are we being told (but never, not ONCE, shown) that things can’t come back out?

I wish I could like Bonnie but after so much focus on her I’m just so very tired. But also. why do they want us to sympathize so hard with a character who helped steal powers so a dictator take over and kill swaths of people to harvest those flowers and prolong his own life, and whatever TF else he was trying to do that involved murdering a lot of people? Why give us that backstory and focus instead of focusing on the MAIN CHARACTERS? And it’s so confusing what the aliens are supposed to know of earth because Bonnie knows the concept of a turducken and what a haiku is, but no idea what Morse Code is, and it feels like every thing the dark triad knows or doesn’t know is based entirely off of plot convince, and how much they want them to have snarky one-liners. She seems pretty confident that she’s not a danger to humans but how would she know unless she had been going around kissing them? They don’t have powers to mitigate, but could she be passing along her alien flu/cold mixture? Which no human would have immunity to? We didn’t need ANY of that storyline since it was just about taking away their powers and honestly they could have mixed that in with Tezca stealing people’s faces or just injected Michael with something like the alien flowers. We didn’t even need him being “sick” because nothing really came out of that either since it wasn’t used to have Alex taking care of him, or him fighting through being ill to go after Alex!

Honestly, it makes no sense to trust Bonnie-she could be playing all of them with her doe-eyed innocent act! She took away Michael’s powers without consent and now wants to stay with Michael in another dimension she claims she doesn’t know anything about? She’s constantly been feeding them tidbits of information about the mission of the dark triad but every time they need more information she doesn’t seem to have any idea what’s going on. Season 1 pod squad (and present day Alex at least though Kyle should know better too) would never have put any kind of trust in someone like that, and would have at least discussed that she was trying to lead them into a trap or knows more than she’s telling.

On that note, Tezca having “amnesia” about everything is mighty convenient and season 1 pod squad wouldn’t just be taking this at face value either. And Michael asking vague questions instead of specifically asking why she won’t tell them about what she knows about Alex and the quicksand/sinkhole thing? What was that about?! Whyyyy are the writers allergic to letting Michael go all out and demand answers about Alex?! And supposedly Tezca was the “go-between” for Nora, Louise, and Theo but that whole relationship with Jones and how they were working for him but not really is already so convoluted that throwing another person into their triad mix just makes it all make even less sense. And why do we have time for her sob story about all the people she killed working for the dictator (who could control her but apparently couldn’t just...control Nora, Louise, and Theo to get what he wanted? Okay.), but don’t have time to focus on our main characters and their journeys or them working together? This Tezca plot would have fit better last season, but also the shape-shifting which was the only cool thing has been entirely dropped, and was never really used THAT well and didn’t take over any of the mains to gain “secret” info. so again, what was even the point?! The only thing they really did was get a body from Deep Sky and then destroy it, which since they can memory-wipe people, didn’t need Eduardo’s face to accomplish in the first place!

Tezca says she would have done Ophiuchus's will and that Clyde is a true believer, but she was following Jones and his plan soooo, what IS Ophiuchus?! Jones and his plan? A religion/god/fate? A cult? They keep dropping the name but every time has such weird and different contexts it’s impossible to pinpoint what it even is.

The Jones wig is sooooo bad!! I was so excited about maybe getting Jones back but every bit they have used him this season has been awful, confusing, or both.

The idea that there is just a WHOLE ASS OTHER DEMINSION that ANYONE COULD FALL INTO, and a giant metallic structure, just...sitting out in the open that were NOT found by the regular military OR any of the Caulfield/Project Shepherd/alien research offshoots, OR Deep Sky, OR any of the alien-obsessed people like the Green twins (remember when “lots of twins in Roswell” was a teased plotline?) and turned into a tourist trap or an urban legend, OR by Michael who has spent his whole life looking for stuff like this is beyond ridiculous. Especially given that characters are now just constantly having loud, public discussions of alien stuff. Remember when they were worried about getting caught and experimented on? I miss that energy.

Did Kyle and Eduardo even find Allie?! That was the whole point of them staying in Mexico for the past 3 episodes and we just don’t see or talk about any of that? Where did they find that box, and since it was SO important why didn't we see it?! Besides the ridiculousness of separating the alien pieces and putting some of them in another demission, some in a hideout in Mexico that seems like maybe didn’t exist until after the OG triad were taken, and just...leaving the rest of the pieces in the ground to be scavenged by literally anyone, HOW did Kyle get that sealed box full of alien stuff on a plane and through customs? Or did he make a 25 hour drive instead and hope he didn’t trigger any sensors at the border? Also, as I talked about here, there are some weird discrepancies not just about the console and Michael and Alex’s necklaces being made from pieces of it, but also backstories for the Valenti family and how this new “secret alien stash in Mexico” plotline doesn’t really fit with anything. Nothing that happened there couldn’t have just happened in Roswell. Hell, they could have found that stuff hiding in the Valenti cabin or in a secret lock-box Jim left for Kyle! So much of that storyline was wasted time and set up to get items that they easily could have found quicker, easier, and with less set up in town, leaving time to SHOW us the more important stuff.

Speaking of showing us important stuff, we should have seen Michael and Kyle trying lots of different things, putting stuff in the hole and trying to pull it back, and Michael getting more and more frustrated and despondent as things didn’t work! Seeing Michael being frustrated, out of ideas, and ready to give up, feels like it comes out of nowhere because we haven’t even seen him try a single thing to get to Alex yet! We could have spent less time on Tezca, Bonnie and Dallas, and soooo much less time on m*ria and used that time to see Kyle and Michael working on research, and trying to get to Alex.

WHY IS EVERYONE REFERRING TO ALEX AS “MANES” AND HOW DO WE MAKE IT FUCKING STOP!

No Heath this episode helping Michael and Kyle, so did he not stick around to look for his lost lover buddie Dallas? Just to help Liz and then fuck off forever? So what was the point of bringing him back if he’s not even going to be allowed to help find his life-long friend?! Instead we could have had Kyle having to walk Isobel through what to do over the phone, which easily could have been done without Trevino present, would have tied in to their working together on medical stuff and her being his extra set of hands, and would have again given focus to our mains instead of side characters, and would have given Isobel something to do during the episode instead of sit around 90% of the time.

I just cannot be bothered to go over all the Liz stuff at this point but I will say that Evil!Liz would have been fun way earlier in the season, and would have been more interesting if it was something more than just Liz doing exactly what she has been doing this whole time, but with the added layer of being cruel to her sister. It’s just so sloppy and I have ALWAYS liked Liz as a character but this season has been rough trying to be a fan of Liz, or Max, or Echo because the writing...doesn’t seem to particularly like Liz, or Echo, and refuses to lean into the things people liked about Max at the beginning-namely him being soft and heart-eyes over Liz and wanting to support her, but they also make it hard for him to do that when they also insist on her doing unethical shit all the time or expressly doing things the pod squad have asked her not to, or helping herself to their pod goo like it belongs to her or is hers to share with whoever she wants. Do the writers even know or care how unlikable they are making both their leads out to be? Don’t answer that. We been knew.

Speaking of Liz, I was interested in season 1 when she was worried she was losing her mind and that she knew mental illness ran in the family and that’s what was triggering the substance abuse in her mom and Rosa, but they always undercut that with having Liz smoking with m*ria, and always having a drink in her hand, and then when Rosa came back with NO ONE taking her mental health seriously or discussing how it was the driving force behind her addiction. But the way they are handling it with Liz now just feels so sloppy and disingenuous. She doesn’t need an addiction to be the driving force behind her “bad deeds” because Evil!Liz was the one that “won” in the mindscape and she was fully dedicated to focusing on her research AND we’ve been told this whole time that, unlike Shivani who is just a tech investor, Liz is brilliant and can constantly pull off feats of scientific invention on her own. We don’t need this subplot, this late in the game, for additional “drama”, when we would be getting the same story without it! Also, why does huffing it now not kick her into the mindscape again? Uuuuugh, it’s just so, so sloppy and confusing, and involves a lot of wasted time, especially since we went through all this just to have her make one attempt and then immediately just give up and move on from Shivani. She should have done that like, 7 episodes ago.

m*ria is as fucking useless as always and Rosa deserves so much better than to be sidelined into being m*ria’s spirit guide/mentor whatever. The fact that they even put it into the text that m*ria’s power is basically just Rosa’s and that didn’t stop them from wedging m*ria in there makes me want to scream. GOD FORBID she miss three episodes and they stop ruining other people’s stories just to try and invent things for her to do. GOD FORBID they just let Rosa do what she trained to do last season instead of wasting precious screentime walking m*ria through how to do literally the same thing. Also, what was the fucking point of wasting all that time at the start of the season with m*ria bitching about losing something that was literally killing her and has never once actually been useful to anyone, only to just...pretend it never happened and she’s not only fine, she has SUPER new powers now! 🙄🙄🙄🙄 give me a fucking break.

Link to previous episode posts: 4x01, 4x02, 4x03, 4x04, 4x05, 4x06, 4x07, 4x08, 4x09 

[astralbooks]

Any Other Name - Alex Nonymous

Read: 2/12/2022 - 3/12/2022

Rating: 5/5

Rep: agender main character (uses he/she/they in the text, author has confirmed uses any pronouns), Black sapphic love interest, nb/f relationship

CW: suicide (in backstory, described in detail), death of a parent (in backstory and on page), misgendering (both unknowing & deliberate), abuse & child abuse, fantasy violence, on-page death, loss of autonomy

Review:

This book is a loose Rumplestiltskin retelling and it’s spectacular. We follow our protagonist, a faery whose human father has used their name to control them into being his personal assassin for their entire life. Through this their father has established himself as King, and he’s now sent her to kidnap the princess of their neighbouring country in order to destabilise relations between that neighbouring country and a third. Of course, our protagonist isn’t happy about any of this, and when they find himself falling for the girl she’s supposed to be delivering to his father it becomes a whole lot more urgent that they find a way to break free.

I really loved the protagonist! He’s magically compelled to follow their father’s instructions, no matter how much she might not want to, but throughout the whole book they always exert as much of her own free will as they possibly can by doing Exactly what he’s been told and no more. When Commanded to kill someone, she can’t spare them, but she can make it as quick and painless as possible, and she can pass on their last words, and she can make sure their loved ones are safe. When Commanded to kidnap a princess and bring her home on a journey that should take no more than a month, he can’t let that princess go free, but he can make sure to use every single second of that allowed month to give the princess as much time as possible to figure out a way to escape. The protagonist considers herself to be a monster, and has resigned himself to this, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The kidnapped princess, Chryssa, was also excellent. As the sole child of her country’s monarch, it’s expected that she’ll marry for the sake of a political alliance and that she’ll be Queen one day. She’s not exactly overjoyed about either of these prospects, but she’s determined to make the best of it, and during the first half of the book she shows herself to be a caring and friendly person who I’m not surprised the protagonist fell for. She’s also great during the second half. She isn’t easy to kidnap, she doesn’t go quietly, and she doesn’t simply just take it at face value that the protagonist isn’t doing this of his own free will. The protagonist is just as much a victim in this situation as Chryssa is, but they have to earn back Chryssa’s trust regardless, which just makes things even better once he has earned that trust but there’s still nothing either of them can do about the doom they’re hurtling towards.

The worldbuilding is loose and not very detailed. The main focus of this book is Chryssa, the protagonist, and the relationship between the two of them. We learn a good amount about the history between humans and fae, but ultimately this is a character focused novel and that doesn’t require a huge amount of lore to achieve. This may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I prioritise characters over worldbuilding so it was a non-issue for me. 

The narrative style of the book was unusual! The entire book consists of the protagonist recounting everything that happened, addressing Chryssa the whole time. Due to this he refers to themself as ‘I’ and he refers to Chryssa as ‘you’. I’ve only ever read one other book like this, coincidentally I read it immediately before reading this one, and if these two books are anything to go by then I need more books written like this immediately because I thought it was so cool and it worked so well. And the final line of the book was really strong. I don’t remember the final line of many books, but I’m sure I’m going to remember the final line of this one for a long time.

A huge part of this book is the power that names can have and I’m honestly obsessed. The protagonist’s name is a major plot point, hence why I’m not directly saying it in this review. His father uses the name she was given by their mother when they were born in order to control him, and she’s been forbidden from giving that name to anybody else. In my opinion, it’s not a difficult name for the reader to guess, but that doesn’t matter. Chryssa has less information than the reader has, and she needs to be able to call them something, so she comes up with a new name to address him with.

Here’s the part I’m obsessed with, and this paragraph may be mildly spoilery but this plot point is so important to me that I’d be doing it a disservice if I didn’t talk about it. Plenty of real people, especially trans people, change their name at some point in their lives. Their old names, their ‘deadnames’, aren’t who they are and aren’t reflective of them. In this book the metaphor is made literal. The protagonist’s name is used to control him, and as long as that’s her name they’ll never be free to live his own life as they want to. This follows through to its natural conclusion, and if I could print this book onto my soul, I would. I’m not kidding.

It’s right there in the dedication! The book is dedicated to anyone who’s ever felt trapped by a name. Through this plot element, I’m sure this book will resonate with many.

I would recommend this to people who like fairytale retellings, character driven stories, and those who want to read something that truly encapsulates the importance of our names being our own, rather than simply an indicator or extension of our parents’ control over us.

Thank you to Alex and NetGalley for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[lobotoboy]

Why I Love Movies

So, as I’m sure you can gather, I despise current movies. I think we can all admit to ourselves that even if you like a few movies that have come out recently, the vast majority are uninspired, remakes, or sequels that aren’t needed. The only movie that came out recently that I can remember liking, is Spiderman: No Way Home, and that is because I love all the old Spiderman trilogies, and Spiderman in general is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time(I’m going as Spiderman for Halloween, or at least that’s the plan). I can still name multiple things I dislike about the movie as well.  I had to face this question after being forced to watch Lightyear with my family. While they loved the movie, I despised it despite loving Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story in general.  As someone who wants to make and act in movies, TV shows, YouTube series, etc., I began to wonder why I even want to do anything entertainment at all. Hollywood is a prejudiced, uninspired place, and it should be something I steer clear of.  So, I looked into why I love movies. I watched a variety of movies from my childhood, from all the major companies such as Warner Bros, Disney, Universal, Lions Gate, Blue Sky, Dreamworks, and more. I watched a variety of genres, including horror because my mom loves horror movies and plays them all the time.  So now, I know why I love movies, and why I hate current movies.  There are themes in previous movies that I love, that still resonate with me today. I am mortified about a lot of things, one of them is the future. Toy Story 3 faces this theme head-on, showing Andy grow up and get ready to go to college. I myself will go to college soon, so this made me ugly cry. I cry during Up, but really only the first 5 minutes and the credits. Coco resonates with me because I’m a Mexican(although I could make a whole post about everything wrong with Coco), and while it has its flaws, its stayed with me because I had lost my grandmother around the time the movie came out, so I was in my feels from minute one.  I don’t get scared with horror movies, but some of my absolute favorites are Us, Scream, Trick r Treat, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, etc. They either are campy, good fun, creative anthology movies with interconnecting plots which I LOVE, or carry super strong themes that I can analyze the shit out of.  I can’t get into all the movies I watched for this, but I took away one thing.  I love movies, because when done well, they can speak to your personal feelings and emotions. You’ll cry in movies that you can personally relate to, either with your own fears, or your own life experiences and values. If you worry about leaving your childhood behind, Toy Story 3 is a great send off and will hit you right in the heart. If you’re in the mood to be scared, tune into a schlocky horror movie. Laugh? A comedy movie written by those who are funny. The human emotional spectrum is a filmmaker’s best tool. If you can make your audience feel something, then its considered a good movie. The audience has to look at themselves on screen, and it’s refreshing to have the things on your mind be seen.  Movies nowadays suck, for some unknown reason. They are all somehow failing to get to your heart and brain, and instead serve as something you turn on to give your brain a rest. Movies with potential to be good, like Encanto for example, either miss the mark in the end, are formulaic, or ruined entirely by its fanbase. Movies now pander to certain aspects of society Disney’s claims of LGBTQ representation or more POC storylines, or don’t take any chances at all for fear of alienating a single person. Sometimes you’re not depicted in movies, and you have to live with that.  Story is wasted in favor of nostalgia. In Spiderman No Way Home, it targets your love of all the previous incarnations of Spiderman and his villains, as well as your nostalgia of the MCU as a whole. That’ why Star Wars won’t die, or Jurassic Park won’t die. They’re nostalgic IPs, that, if laid to rest, won’t make money anymore.  Movies now pretend to be woke. The most egregious example is everything Disney does. They draw attention to even the smallest crumb of gay rep, just to make headlines, draw attention to racial changes in movies to make headlines, all while being racist, homophobic, and transphobic behind the scenes.  Movies are also being pumped out poorly because of the demand that is streaming services. Everyday, our attention spans shrink due to apps like TikTok. We need to be constantly consuming new media, or else our boredom will know no end. So quantity over quality is the new norm.  Entitled movie makers who made a name for themselves with one good movie, such as Taika Waititi are also a huge issue. Look me in the eyes and tell me with a straight face, that you liked Thor: Love and Thunder. You can’t.  Reusing the same actors over and over again takes you out of a movie as well. Just yesterday night, I was watching Umma(which is a good movie about abuse and motherhood) and during the trailers, we had two instances of actors appearing in movie trailers back to back, those actors being Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland. They’re good actors, but eventually, that immersion is broken if you just saw them in a different movie. My parents brought this example up as well. They call the new DC movie Black Adam, the ‘’Rock Movie”. I saw a Super Pets poster that had Dwayne Johnson’s name larger than the title. I know big names are selling points, but by that point, you’re selling the movie based on who’s in it, rather than the merit of the movie itself.  Movies will only get better, once the consumers learn to step back, and judge a movie not on who made it, or what series its attached too, but based on its quality. Don’t watch a movie just because its Disney, watch it because it actually looks interesting. You wouldn’t read a book if it didn’t sound interesting to you, why are movies any different? YouTube series have something for everyone, whether you like the Markiplier Cinematic Universe, the comedic horror stylings of the Hatchetfield series, or the comedic stylings of the new Shipwrecked show Headless. Even for the really niche fans, you have things like Escape The Night, a murder mystery reality show full of recognizable youtubers. Regular people like you and I, coming up with ideas that are interesting, is happening everywhere. DHMIS is another good example.  Treat movies like you treat any other form of media. Judge it on its own, not on who made it.  So, the reason I love movies, is because when they’re done right, they can be something that speaks to the very soul of the viewer.  Will I stop pursuing movie making? No, I want to be part of the solution to the problem, so these stinkers of the last few years just motivate me more.  Go support actual good works of fiction(LIKE HEADLESS FROM SHIPWRECKED), and rewatch some of your favorite, older movies. 

The next rants I’ll make, will most likely be about my fears, or why I don’t really like Coco. Maybe I’ll talk about something Halloween. 

Have a good October my friends.