#(but we still love rush in all his problematic glory!)

[brandonxdylan]

[kihyunswrath]

A masterpost about Wonho leaving and Starship being whiny wankers

It’s been a full day since the news came about Wonho leaving and I finally also decided to write a post of my own. So I came here to bring some logic to this thing because they haven’t cancelled the news yet and it looks like Starship has given up on literally every bit of sense they had. I’m still so fucking pissed off. I’m 10000% ready to fucking fight, as I always am, because I am true to my fucking username.

So away with the crying and missing Wonho, and wailing and lamenting because I think other fans have done their part with that. I’ll focus fully on just listing the things Starship should have automatically realized if they had even ONE fucking sensible person working in there. This will be fucking long but I don’t care, this needs to be said and heard. So tl;dr: Do they have the slightest idea how to run a business? This is most likely the end of Starship, too, so how can they be THAT dumb to not realize they decided to screw themselves over SUCH A SMALL ISSUE? 

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1) First of all, Wonho loved his job. This is not about me being sentimental or pretending I don’t understand how pretentious idols can be about their actual working conditions, this is simply the truth. He loved communicating with fans, he loved improving his body, he loved making songs, he loved performing. No kpop companies are treating their idols perfectly, but Monsta X was in general doing very well. This means he with 99% certainty did not want to make things end like this, he just felt he had no other choice, and was panicking. 

2) Wonho thinking there will be a huge backlash against him because of his problematic past and there actually being a backlash against him are two separate things, and if he himself cannot distinguish this difference because of his anxiety, his company should at least be able to. They are the ones holding the money and the power. It’s not like their careers are not at stake, too. 

3) He was fucking popular. Like he had a LOT of fans, those that were specifically dedicating their money and attention to him, and then those who liked several members at the same time, but he was still among their most favourite. We can pretend all day we love all Monsta X members equally, but looking at it from a purely transactional perspective: there are members who are popular, and then members who are EXTREMELY popular. The more popular members bring more money to the table, and Wonho was clearly a part of that latter group. Him facing not one but two scandals in a very short time period did not change that yet, which can be proved by how much support he and the other members still got in the first days of their comeback. Which brings me to point number four:

4) We do not have evidence these scandals were ever going to affect Monsta X members careers in an indispensable way. We do not know whether Wonho’s reputation would have tarnished the group’s future for good, mainly because WE NEVER GOT TO SEE FOR GOOD. This all happened in one WEEK. What can be said about one week? If one comeback of theirs, after a string of VERY successful albums, singles, concerts and world tours, gets ruined because of this one thing, does it mean Starship should have torn their clothes and started throwing temper tantrums like little babies? After they STILL got a nice amount of money out of this comeback TOO? After not even waiting it out to find out if they could have still received number one positions in the comeback show, for at least one week? 

5) Follow the logic mentioned in point two and even the dumbest person in the universe should realize that Starship will end up losing a LOT of album sales, views and ticket revenue now. There was no way of proving that Wonho would actually damage the group long-term by deciding to stay there, and looking at the amount of support he’s now getting, that’s actually unlikely. BUT by kicking him out? DEFINITE LOSS OF REVENUE. People are all now saying we will continue supporting the other members, but the fact is this: many of us won’t. I probably will not. If this is how Starship decided to deal with things, kicking out a member three DAYS after a relatively harmless scandal, started by an absolute embarrassment of a person, I will not support such a company. Kihyun is my bias and I love him to death, but if he’s accepting how things are being handled in his own company, he’ll have to do without my support. That’s how simple it is. 

6) Monsta X is the moneymaker of Starship. They screwed everything with Boyfriend, they disbanded Sistar, and WSJN and Starship solo artists are all nugus compared to Monsta X. This is not to say they’re not good, but they do not bring even near the same amount of money to the company. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that Starship cannot afford to make dumb mistakes in relation to how they’re handling Monsta X. 

7) As a fan who has followed this industry closely for almost 13 years now, I have seen the rise and death of countless kpop groups. At this point I can say one thing for sure: groups can survive or return back to their old glory even when their members leave, but only on certain conditions. If members 1) leave because they want to change their career, 2) leave because they’re not satisfied with their company or 3) have health conditions that prevent them from continuing, the group might still manage to survive without them. If they are kicked out, there’s a smaller chance for continued success and support, but it might work anyway, if 4) they are kicked out relatively early during their career and 5) if they aren’t popular at all at that point. None of these cases apply to Monsta X’s situation. And if and when Monsta X falls, there is no other groups within Starship that could take their position.

8) Now, we don’t know the truth behind all this. Later on Wonho’s leave might turn out to have other motives we are not aware of yet. But as it is, this juvenile prison thing combined with the debt will be the scandals people will remember until forever. That will affect the reputation of Monsta X, YET that’s not how things needed to go. And why is that? Because those scandals actually caused Wonho to leave, unlike so many of the other things we keep hearing every single day because of twats like Han Seo Hee and other antifan wankers. Idols are under constant attacks, but most of the time these DON’T end their careers. Typically, when it hasn’t been about anyone actually getting hurt (rape, abuse, assault, harassment, murder, etc.) or about anything S. Korea specifically condemns idols for doing (drugs, promiscuous dating/sex life, being piss drunk and causing damage, DUI), people will forget things real quick and move on. There are a lot of scandals I will accidentally find out about years later they actually happened, and the idols in question are thriving. But now? People for certain are going to find out, because the consequence was so dire, and so fucking QUICK. 

9) Someone going to a hiatus to solve their private life issues is one thing. Idols canceling or postponing their comeback dates and events because of private life matters is, again, one thing. However, leaving in a matter of days after the scandal started? That’s suspicious, irresponsible, stupid and may make Wonho look much more guilty than he ever was. It may make people think there’s more to this than they know at this point. They may think Starship is partially responsible for hiding things, not checking Wonho’s background or that some of the scandals Wonho is involved in were actually happening while he was in Starship. Because, you know, someone holding a job and having his non-offensive past explored from over a decade ago should be two TOTALLY SEPARATE THINGS. That brings me to point number ten: 

10) Making someone all of a sudden, over all these years, face consequences for things that happened ages ago, with a punishment that is not relevant, fair or just? Yeah that does make people think Starship is unreliable, irresponsible, childish and acting in a rush. It’s not like they didn’t KNOW Wonho had been in juvie. It’s not like they hadn’t already decided to give Wonho another chance. It’s not like Wonho DID anything at this point to show he was no longer earning that trust. Actually, he did not do anything at all. Starship changing their mind about it so quick just revealed how vulnerable, spineless cowards they are and how they don’t want to carry responsibility over any of their actions. Not good for any business, let alone one whose LITERAL JOB is to gain profit from positive publicity and keep a close watch of their reputation. They do not survive without fans. They do not survive without Monsta X. They do not survive if they have THIS presumptuous and careless attitude, thinking they can quickly cover up all their “mistakes” by removing people out of their way.

11) The entire concept of Monsta X is revolving around the solid formation of the group. Every single member has a very steady role within the group, one that is not replaceable. Wonho’s position as the muscular, sexy dancer and soft-voiced vocalist was crucial to the image of Monsta X. People became interested in Monsta X because of their masculine energy, and Wonho was one of the key members in that. He was also very important in terms of how often he catered to the fans’ needs, how often he thanked us and sent messages to us and how frequently he wanted to hang out with us in vlive. He was a steady composer and had a plenty of potential, and all of his songs turned out to be popular. His role as a specifically health, bodybuilding and fitness -oriented idol was widely recognized and celebrated. His character as a cute, aegyo-filled, emotional and extremely kind “fake-maknae” was loved by literally everyone in this fandom. I don’t think I ever knew anyone who didn’t have a specific soft spot for him, even when he wasn’t their bias or even if people mainly followed other groups. Other members in Monsta X have their own, just as solid, roles that are irreplaceable, but it’d be stupid to not acknowledge Wonho has been among the first members people notice when they learn about Monsta X. Without him, it’s almost like not one but two members are missing.

12) There goes Starship’s good reputation among kpop companies when it comes to foreign record label deals as well. Did the company in Japan or the US like what happened? Would they have punished Wonho for this kind of a meaningless bullshit? Do they like the idea that they are now supposed to interact with a company that acts this recklessly, isn’t loyal to their employees and throws their hands in the air as soon as a problem occurs? I bet not. 

13) Why did no one in the company actually sum up together what damage Wonho had allegedly done, like, for real? 1) He made one non-malicious, absent-minded joke half a year ago not a single Monbebe present at that time complained about. This was brought up by a person who intentionally made him look bad. He apologized and people moved on. 2) He has been in a juvenile prison for a small thievery (or something about as stupid as that, according to the information I found about this) over a decade ago, and he most likely did not get a criminal record for this. Starship however, probably did know this when they took him in, so at least back then they thought he’s atoned for his errors and can fucking move on, right? Being in a prison means rehabilitation, especially if you’re there just once as a kid after committing a very minor crime that does not involve hurting people. Bringing this up now is totally irrelevant. 3) Him not paying back to his old friend (3 million won) has absolutely nothing to do with his career. Haven’t people ever been indebted to their friends? Is that a crime worth you ending up kicked out of your company that doesn’t have anything to do with, well, anything? When he accepted that money, he was still a child. For years afterwards, he didn’t have money to pay it back, and he could now handle that issue in privacy, because it’s no one else’s fucking business but theirs. Considering the people who brought this up and their reputation, there’s also a chance this entire thing was somehow fabricated. In conclusion, none of this means anything at all. These are not big enough reasons to make your entire company lose a substantial amount of money, followers and fans, plus a really good performer who had repeatedly proved he had grown up, changed and was capable of taking responsibility of his own life. However, by kicking him out Starship has now reinforced the idea these things were indeed a huge problem, their company can be attacked by these means in the future too, and that their idols’ wellbeing and career paths don’t mean shit to them.

14) All of these scandals, including the very first thing involving that Me Too -movement mistake, COULD HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO FUCKING STRENGTHS. The thing that was in common with all of them three things was that they have happened in the past. Sure, the debt is, I assume, still unpaid, but there’s a small chance Wonho did not remember it anymore, or that there was blackmailing or other kind of shady business going on with that. With clever strategy, Starship could have turned these “scandals” upside down, disclaim them, say they have happened long time ago and do not reflect the company’s current values. They could have accused Han Seo Hee and that another twitter wench of slander and point out to their decreased sales revenue as a proof of damage they caused them. They could have said they are fine with Wonho’s past because they are not merciless bastards but a good, forgiving company that is giving its workers second chances in life. They could have said they SAVED Wonho and his family from a dark path. They could have said they have learned from the Me Too -movement joke and that they are now strongly joining the feminists struggling against rape and sexual harassment. They could have proved they are a good, steady company with good moral values, a backbone and trust toward their employees. All this could have happened with a couple of announcements, a week-long hiatus from the promotions of Follow and a post about how Wonho has paid his debt with a big interest. JUST LIKE MANY OTHER COMPANIES, CELEBRITIES AND OTHER WORKERS HAVE HAD TO DO THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREERS. Not at all hard.

15) Most importantly: DID ANYONE AT ANY POINT, INCLUDING WONHO HIMSELF, CONSIDER HOW THIS MIGHT AFFECT THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE OTHER MEMBERS? Did anyone at any point stop to think that they might not be just fine with this, after fighting to debut together, after they have become such a strong, unified group, after they have seen so much together, when they are now very well aware that this could happen to them at any second, too, considering how these accusations were torn from peoples’ dirty shitty anuses? That they might not accept this, that they might not be able to move on from here, that they might want to resign now too, that they know for sure earlier this year was the peak of their career and nothing they will ever produce without Wonho will receive the same amount of popularity.

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So yeah. I actually do not hope Monsta X continues as a six-member group. There won’t be “many, exciting things” waiting for them, like those Starship announcers said. There will be depression, more hardships, flopped comebacks and members separating on their own ways, resigning from Starship. The chances of the fucking company itself collapsing are not nonexistent. 

I fucking do hope Monsta X members will refuse to cooperate with Starship until they can negotiate a new contract for Wonho. But if I’ll see them continue performing as a six-member group with these sad, depressed and angry faces I saw today in the comeback show, that’s the end then, for me, as a Monbebe. 

Fix your shit, Starship, or fuck off forever. That’s the deal. 

[ninasfireescape]

The ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ review no one asked for

I wanted to enjoy it. I really did.

I was one of the people who didn’t dislike The Last Jedi. Sure, I didn’t love it. When I watched it, I thought it was too long and had made certain characters choices I wasn’t too happy with, but overall it was enjoyable and left me feeling satisfied. It was not as good as The Force Awakens however and hearing JJ Abrams was returning, I thought he might be able to restore the final episode to its former glory.

That indeed seemed like the case for the first hour. The gang were back together, it was quick-paced, I had an emotional investment in what was going on (and it seemed like they were taking the Finnrey route I wanted them too). I couldn’t exactly follow every plot specific but does that really matter in Star Wars when it’s so exciting? The bit on Star Killer base was genuinely inspired, I was laughing away at once again what terrible shots the stormtroopers were and at Hux being the spy. Every scene with Lando in was gold.

It was just after they got to the water planet that things started to go wrong. I’m not sure quite what it was exactly that made it so disappointing from this point onwards. Perhaps the gang splitting up or the rather horrifically done Leia death scene. I know they didn’t really have much choice with what footage they had but having watched each member of the original trio died, this death was devoid of emotion and predictable. And she died to make Kylo Ren hesitate for one moment. What a waste!

Then the pointless force ghosts! Seeing Luke was nice but it felt like he was just there to add clunky explanation since the plot made so little sense at this point. And when Han appeared, I actually laughed. It was so inconsistent with the tone of the film and he appeared all while Kylo Ren was standing in the middle of a stormy sea that he could fall into at any moment, right in the most climactic section of the film, just to have a conversation with the son who killed him! It was the most outrageous example of a fan service cameo that just didn’t assimilate with the rest of the film.

I don’t actually have a problem with Rey Palpatine. If anything, I thought it was really cool she was a Palpatine. I really didn’t want her to be a Skywalker because I felt it would be predictable and repetitive. Her being a Palpatine also sends the message to young viewers that blood relations don’t make a family which I think is very important for children to hear. Honestly, the only problem I have with it is that it means some poor lady had sex with Palpatine. I agree that it was a ridiculous retcon of The Last Jedi but then I didn’t like the reveal about her parents in TLJ anyway because of how it was executed. Another thing that bothers me about it is the utter lack of information we get about Villanelle Rey’s mother. Already we don’t know much about her father other than that he’s Palpatine’s son but with her mother, we get nothing. With Rey having wondered about who her parents were for so long, surely it would make sense for her to want to know more about her mother and maybe even take her surname in place of ‘Palpatine’. I also firmly believe Rey’s mother should have been played by Hayley Atwell because she looks so much like Daisy Ridley. And while Jodie Comer is an amazing actress, I think 1. She deserves a bigger role in the Star Wars franchise and 2. Her casting as Rey’s mother exemplifies Hollywood’s fear of casting older actresses as mothers. A twenty six year old as a mother!?

About Zurii, I always appreciate new female characters in Star Wars and I thought she had a great design. However, it is blatantly clear what her purpose in the film was. It was to stop people calling Poe gay, inserting a female character for one scene (she barely spoke in her other scenes so I’m not counting those) with no backstory of her own, just to prove he is attracted to women. Well, first of all, he can be bi, secondly, that’s not going to stop people shipping Finnpoe at all. I didn’t clock until afterwards when I saw people talking about it online, but it was super problematic to make Poe a former drug dealer. Sure, the only Latino character in this trilogy. Also, it in general complicates the little we know about Poe’s backstory so far.

With Rose, all our worst fears were confirmed. She just wasn’t there. She appeared in a couple of scenes and had some lines but you’d think she was no more than another miscellaneous rebel, no more significant a role than Billie Lourd’s character. Did they really give into the white fanboy pressure? How could they erase Rose when she was such a good character? She was tough and fought strongly for her beliefs, but she was also compassionate, sensitive. Now, I never particularly shipped Finn and Rose in TLJ. I thought it seemed a bit of a rushed romance and Finn didn’t seem that invested in the kiss they shared. However, you can’t just pretend they didn’t kiss in the last film. They interacted a few times but there was no sense of any bond between them. Where there relationship stood was unclear. Were they now a couple or had they had an offscreen conversation where they decided they were better off as friends? Who knows?

And now onto the worst part of the film: Kylo Ren and more specifically that kiss. Gross. Okay, to be clear, I wasn’t entirely opposed to a redemption arc for Kylo Ren. Sure, it would be predictable, but it’s not like Kylo Ren’s crimes are any worse than those of Darth Vader and he was still capable of redemption. I liked Kylo Ren as a villain. He perfectly depicted that type of whiny, entitled white man who we see so commonly in real life, but again, he could have achieved some redemption if it were implemented correctly. What we got in the film was not this. He was still committing genocide at the start and carried out one good deed which was saving the woman he had a crush on. For this one good act, he was entirely forgiven and somehow all of the genocide wasn’t his fault. And he got rewarded with the woman! If anything, I’d call that act selfish since he only wanted to save the woman he liked. Adam Driver did the best he could with it but everything about it was awful. And it was out of character for Rey to kiss him and forgive him. She stabbed him little more than half an hour earlier! At the end of the last film, she slammed a door in his face. It makes no sense to me how she could suddenly be so invested in him becoming a better person. There’s also the fact that wasn’t included in the films that Rey and Kylo Ren are related (aunt and nephew to be exact). I wasn’t aware this was Game of Thrones! And according to Wookiepedia, Rey was 18 at the start of the films and is now 20 whereas Kylo Ren is now 30. A ten year age different would be fine if Rey were older but at this point, the age gap is uncomfortable and very borderline.

If they’re going to make the claim that it wasn’t actually Kylo Ren who was doing the evil deeds but some dark force corrupting him, they should have explained how the mechanism works. At least in the prequels, we got some sense of Anakin slowly being corrupted. To me, it reads like in some horror films when the abusive characters are found to have been possessed by demons or something. It trivializes abuse which is something very real, acting instead as if no abusers can actually be responsible for their actions and it is the cause of some supernatural force instead. I suppose the kiss doesn’t have to mean anything. After all, Leia and Luke kissed in the original trilogy and Finn and Rose kissed and apparently that meant nothing.

I firmly believe the series intended a Finn and Rey romance. Lest we forget The Force Awakens, Finn awkwardly asking Rey if she had a boyfriend. That was clear coding for him having a crush on her. In that film, the two developed such a strong bond, and they have so much more chemistry than Rey and Kylo Ren ever had. All the scenes with Rey and Finn (and Poe) were full of light and emotion. The scene at the end where the three of them hugged was honestly the high point of the film. Now, when I left the cinema, what was plaguing my mind the most was that throughout the film, Finn had a secret he wanted to tell Rey. It was first suggested when they thought they were going to die in the quicksand. “Wait, Rey, I never told you!” It had to be that he loved her. What else could it be? Supposedly, it was that he was force sensitive. I don’t believe that for one second. If he needed to tell her that, why couldn’t Poe be included? And why did he never get the chance to tell her? It was a build-up I got invested in with no payoff. It must have been that he loved her. So, if that was the case, that leaves us with two options. Either there was a Finnrey subplot that got cut but they forgot to cut these scenes out (or simply couldn’t be bothered to), or they thought it would be funny to have the black supposed male lead chasing after the white female lead who didn’t love him back because she was instead in love with the genocidal white villain. I ship Finnrey so much and find the second option so horrific but I wouldn’t put it past the writers. Finn played such a significant role in the first half of the film, as he should since he’s meant to be the male lead in the series, but after that, he was dangerously underutilized. At least the ending where no one ends up with each other is compliant with my headcanon that Rey, Finn and Poe (and I don’t mind Rose being in the mix too) all end up married to each other and adopt a bunch of porgs.

And lastly, the lesbian scene. Pathetic. We don’t know the character names and I can’t even find out who the actresses were that played them. Okay, they kissed which is a pretty big deal (even though kisses apparently mean nothing in Star Wars) and it’s certainly a step forward from the Avengers: Endgame ‘’’’representation’’’’, but it’s still rather useless considering the big deal JJ Abrams made about how there would be representation.

[jojotichakorn]

so guess who watched 2moons2 and loved it despite thinking they would hate it for a very long time ? it’s me babeeey ! 

anyways , i know a good few people feel the same way i did about it , so i wanna make my case about why this version is actually as good as ( better than ? ) the og 2moons . 

before we start with the serious stuff , here’s an actual photo of me watching this series : 

now , ‘tis time - my huge ass review / not really review / thoughts on everything i’ve seen so far :

notes on the overall thoughts about the show and its vibe :

for the first time in forever a bl is actually not trying to stretch out for seasons knowing how unlikely it is for them to get a continuation ( *cough* the og 2moons but also lbc *cough* ) . with 2moons2 , they’re actually putting the whole story all in one , and you know what ? it’s better this way ! we somehow barely lose anything yet everything happens quicker and the pacing feels so much better . plus , it means we’re getting all the couples and all the best moments from the novel and don’t have to worry about anything ;

the overall script is better , which is why this version is better ( at least in that regard ) – i’m sorry , that’s just how it be . instead of simply translating whatever’s happening in the novel to screen – this version actually bends the story in ways that simply fit a show adaptation better . you can see that everyone involved actually gives a shit and that’s a nice change .

notes on the actors and the acting :

the actor who plays phana is actually really good and he manages to make pha an actually likable character, thanks to both the script and the acting itself – he sort of mixes pha’s obliviousness and initial indecisiveness with his general demeanor and makes all of it rather charming ;

the actor who plays yo is doing a good job , especially with the emotional scenes , though i would say to me personally he just doesn’t look “ cutesy “ enough – there was something that always picked bass apart from everyone else in the og show and i just don’t see enough of that here ;

ming still manages to have everything i’ve always loved about him and remains my favorite character even without kimmon’s face , so i suppose that’s both a testament to my being honest in who i like and unaffected by kimmon’s charms and the fact that the actor playing ming is fucking nailing it ;

kit was probably the one I was most nervous about ( and i’d say he’s generally a fan-favorite ) , but he ended up being really great as well . the thing i love the most about what the actor’s doing is probably all the subtle movements and glances he does - kit is a very reserved person , but he feels things deeply at the same time and that’s hard to show on screen , but the actor somehow manages to do it anyway ;

forth suffered the biggest change out of all of them , I think – he feels like way more of a bad boy here . if in the og 2moons we had forth that only looked like a bad boy , but was actually a known softy , here we seem to get a more popular trope of forth having an actual demeanor of a bad boy which has a lil’ heart of gold and a lot of kindness hidden behind . i’m not sure if it was the actor’s choice or if it was a collective decision and I’m not yet sure if I prefer it to the og version , but we’ll see . regardless , generally forth is amazing too ;

can’t say much about the actor who plays beam just yet , because we haven’t seen too much of him , but he’s slowly starting to shine through and we’re actually getting forthbeam this week , so he’s going to show himself in his full glory there - from what i’ve seen of him so far , i’m sure he’s gonna be awesome too .

notes on the characters and characterization :

there is suddenly a lot of character to phana and you actually start liking the guy , despite some things he does , and I think it’s a very collective effort – starting from the fact that we have an actual actor playing the character now ( instead of a clown ) and ending with how much the script tries to introduce him in a very different way as opposed to the og series ;

speaking of how different they introduce phana - the way they gradually introduced his pov is fucking fantastic . we start with them already dropping hints here and there in the first episode and the farther we go , the more we see of pha’s real self and his true feelings . I feel like that’s a significantly better decision than hiding his true intentions from us for almost the entirety of the show , making us think he’s a complete asshole and then doing a very obvious 180 which just dumps all of phana’s pov on our heads pretty much out of nowhere ;

ming provides most of the comedic elements in the show ( the ones that are actually funny that is ) – his facial expressions whenever anything phayo related happens are worth all the praise and he’s generally exactly the kind of life of the party that he’s supposed to be ;

because of quicker pacing and better writing , beam ends up being a far more fleshed out character from the start and I appreciate it . he’s less phana’s friend and more his own character now and it’s great .

notes on the couples and the romance :

the kisses are good . period . that’s all I have to say . they’re all fucking great . good job y’all , you really went through with that one ;

phayo are no longer boring and dragged out . they’re actually fucking cute and I enjoy their scenes instead of sitting there thinking “ where iss mingkiiit “ ;

as much as it pains me to say it ( and we all know how much I love kimmon and copgi ) but the contrast between mingkit in the new version is more loyal to the novel – ming is a tad bigger and generally more masc than kit and that’s how it was supposed to be .

notes on little details i couldn’t help but notice :

tiny nods to future couples are all over the place from the very beginning , which I appreciate – it’s not that they explicitly state anything , it’s just nice to hear forth briefly asking whether beam is gonna be at the party or to see kit lowkey staring at ming for a bit ;

the first scene with yo and forth is ten times better , in my personal opinion – it feels a tad more realistic and is just short enough to make sense ;

the first scene with kit and yo is a bit better too – there’s just something about them slowly recognizing each other that seems more convincing , like i can actually imagine it happening ;

all the “ omg you got way hotter !! “ moments always bothered me so much because … who fucking talks like that ? in this version , they’ve replaced it with a more tame “ you are so grown up and look so different now “ sort of thing , which is way more believable  ( especially for someone who hadn’t seen their friend for a year and then almost died after seeing him again , because puberty hit him like a fucking train on full speed and he got way different - it happens y’all , saw it with my own two eyes ) ;

they gave forth an actual motorcycle ! and he uses it ! all the time !

pha smiling whenever yo calls for him but changing his expression as soon as he turns around to actually look at him is just one of those super nice touches that shows this version as being more careful and caring with its characters and the plot ;

there’s actual fucking symbolism in this thing ? which is ? wow . the entire dance around the meal mingkit had on their “ date “ after ming won the competition and became the moon was 110% representative of what both of them felt towards each other ( and I mean every little gesture , every word – all of it ) and it’s fucking beautiful ;

small details of the show are mostly good – it doesn’t really matter much , but when you see someone opening their phone and looking through their recent calls , it always takes you out of the show to just see a bunch of generic names listed or – gods forbid – nothing at all . 2moons2 doesn’t have that problem and it’s a nice change .

notes on some not-so-good and not-very-good things ( in my personal opinion , of course ) :

in the best traditions of the og 2moons and the entire bl genre , there is enough problematic moments for us all to collectively sigh and roll our eyes – not necessarily a complaint towards 2moons2 itself , just kinda sad it couldn’t do better already knowing what a lot of people didn’t like ;

 the zoom-ins are a very interesting artistic choice , but as a person who perhaps watched too many soaps in their life , I’m kind of used to it ( besides anything that can remind me of toris is hands down a good thing ) ;

yo talks way too slowly – I understand he’s a super shy character but for fuck’s sake just the pauses between each pair of words he makes take up half the episode and it can get real annoying real fast ;

all product placement aside , the kitkat moments in the og 2moons were always the cutest and ming saying “ i love kitkat “ while eating the chocolate bar and staring at kit was always an iconic moment and one of my personal favorites across all bls so it’s kind of sad to see that entire lil’ quirk to be completely gone from the show and the boys’ dynamic ;

the entire phayo reconciliation scene seems confusing and way too rushed for me - i immediately started filling in the blanks with what i know from the og 2moons and that’s just not something that’s supposed to happen , especially with such a substantial scene ;

way too much of that usual “ lady gang “ we see in so many bls which is a shitty trope , as well as a girl who stalks the gay couple ‘cause she has nothing better to do - we all fucking hate those in the first place , but especially when there’s too much of them . i’d rather see another mingkit scene , thank you very much .

this is long enough already , so i’m gonna go ahead and wrap it up . i was being as honest as i could in all accounts and though there is some things i don’t like about this version too - in general , as well as in comparison to the previous one , i think it wins with very little doubt . and i certainly recommend everyone who was putting it off to watch it , because it’s absolutely worth it . it’s seriously very good , i pinky promise !

[peanutdracolich]

Peanut Dracolich Watches Horror: Poltergeist (1982)

So first things first I have in fact seen this film before. I might have missed the very beginning but I have seen it in pieces and in most of its entirety at least once as a child between the ages of the youngest two in the film. As it did not scare me then, I didn’t expect to be scared now even though it would probably be easier (due to willing buy in with the scary instead of child-like obliviousness).

That said intestinal issues had me pausing the film for about 2 hours during its 2 hour length, and was having some level of distracting physical sensation throughout. As a horror film, like a short story, is made with delicate pacing, and direct single sitting consumption this hurt the film a lot and yet it was still a fun enough movie to be enjoyable, and one that I don’t think hit my horror buttons well so much as fun buttons. It was a film I didn’t mind watching in this state and a functional distraction.

I’d guess at it being worse than The Omen, at least as a horror movie; it’s just not scary, but ghosts are a hard sell for me (not because they’re unbelievable, but because as a kid I fervently believed in them and that they were highly likely to be good). Still the use of music struck me as worse than The Omen, the lighting was, well it used the bright and cheering lighting for a purpose, the cast was worse. Where The Omen was solidly B all around (with grah protagonist being a C-), Poltergeist was C+. I’ve not watched enough Horror movies while paying full attention to form a top 100 (I mean I haven’t counted, I might have watched 100 but ordering them wouldn’t be my cup of tea) but I’d not guess at Poltergeist coming in above 60. Still it is a fun film, and the reason it sank into the American subconscious is evident; in fact as it plays on the horror laying beneath the skin of the idealized America of the time (which we’re more jaded about now) it was probably a better film then.

Play by play and a shrunken Good/Bad/Ugly below the cut.

The Good:

The Special Effects: While rudimentary by today’s standards they’re good enough for the purposes of weaving the spell (just require a little imagination on the viewer’s part) and have some nice ones.

The Bad:

Putting the children back in that bedroom: I don’t care if it was only for 1 hour, I don’t care if it was only for 1 minute. I don’t care if the psychic lady said the house is cleansed. You do not put your children back in that room. You do not let them in that room. It was stupid and sort of feels out of character and forced.

The Ugly:

The Tree: While the special effects are basically good throughout the film, this scene looked goofy.

The Play by Play:

Poltergeist (1982)

 So I started this earlier but comp crashed losing my writing, had to update. Things went poorly. Let's give this a take 2. Since I'll be giving the basic intro of what I know when I write an overview tomorrow or whenever I do it, I'm not going to here, I'm going to go straight into the film.

 The start with the American Anthem is neat in that it's that all-American sound that really sets it at home in the American suburb. It is not a story of horror on merely the personal level, but of the rot in the American people. It also starts with blurry images in a TV screen, including the flag raising at Iwo Jima which from there gives way to static.

 Quiet start with a dog seeing if it can wake people up or not by stealing the food they're sleeping on. Disgusting people by the way. Dog likes potato chips, not that I can completely blame him. Husband does not like embracing his wife, having chosen to sleep in the chair watching TV instead. I mean the little girl is being drawn to the flashing TV, and talking to the static fairies that live within, but really of the four bothersome things this is the most normal. Small children talk to the static fairies, the ones in my TV as a child told me to play video games, and this girl seems to have trouble hearing them. Play video games. The fairies love Mario. Still this is normal. The TV flickering and flashing that brightly is not, you might want to have that checked on. But the big problems are: You're using potato chips as a pillow, and dude you prefer the cold embrace of a chair to your wife. One of you might need some help with eating habits and the parents might just need marital counseling.

 We get to see the suburbs, and the little shits of kids who live there. They send RC cars out to crash the bike of a guy carrying a load of six packs. They're little shits, and no one reprimands them. The guy is in too much of a rush and just carries spraying beer cans into the house for fear of missing one extra moment of fools' ball.

 A bird has died in one of the children's Star Wars themed rooms and the mom wishes it'd have waited till a school day and flushes it hoping the daughter won't see. I'm going to say the bird died from negligence.

 We also get more 'people are obsessed with TV' and a show that these people have much better TV remotes, through 2 walls, and 10+ ft while not directly pointed at the set. This is a much better remote than I ever had.

 They bury the bird instead of flushing it since the little girl caught her. More important than the TV but less funny. The girl gets over the bird quickly and wants a gold fish. There's also a creepy tree. I do not remember the creepy tree, but conservation of detail promises me it is an important thing so I am noting it.

 And we see that the young boy and young girl share a room and the Star Wars themed part is the boys and he reads Captain America comics. He's an all American boy and excepting his creepy clown doll has good taste; Star Wars is awesome, and classic Cap (before Marvel decided to play around with the idiot ball) is awesome. Boy also has an Alien poster. This implies he has seen Alien.

 We see the parents have a TV in the bedroom. WHY WAS THE DAD SLEEPING IN A CHAIR WATCHING IT INSTEAD OF WITH HIS WIFE? I'm not sure what they're watching, it could be a war movie, or it could be Twilight Zone. I feel I might be missing something by missing the reference; I'm thinking I've seen it and as I don't watch war movies, but have marathoned the Twilight Zone I'm guessing it's an episode of Twilight Zone. Apparently the daughter sleep walks, which is not what we saw, and the mom did as a kid, which makes getting a diving board problematic. Bits of middle aged man yearning for the glories of youth, and kids' room. And actually I think it's a war movie; I don't know why it's familiar.

 The boy is scared of flashes of thunder outside, and his clown doll. This is weird. Kid's clown doll is implied to have been there, and same with the tree, yeah stormy night makes it worse, but the kid has a night light. This bothered me as a kid. He seems mostly bothered by the thunder, but that's after he covers the clown. I found the clown logically bothersome as a child and remembered bother is bothering me now. The tree bothers me less. It's a new house, maybe it's the first thunderstorm, and the boy thinks the tree wants to kill him. Trees have faces sometimes. Trees watch you. Old trees grow wicked and cruel. They can hate you. Most trees are friendly spirits. They are normally protective and kind. Loving and caring things. This is an evil looking tree. The little kids end up in their parents' bed; the tree is conspiring against their marriage.

 We get a non-blurry version of what the dad was watching last time, images of the Lincoln Memorial, the Iwo Jima flag raising pose (really a statue). AMERICA (Fuck yeah), and then the TV becomes much brighter as it begins to flicker with static, drawing the girl in. She has become its creature. The TV controls her. There are actual static fairies, flickering lights which reach out for her as a skeletal and spectral hand, and then move as cartoonish ghost spirits over the bed, before causing the room to bounce and leap. "They're here." It's a happy, cheerful, little line. The presentation sells it, and the movie goes from vaguely toxic suburb to something is wrong.

 As a note I'm pretty sure my make believe of static fairies as a child was me mocking this movie having seen most of it. Oh and a glass spontaneously drops its bottom, that's a bad sign, a fork and spoon are twisted that weren't moments earlier... and the girl is watching the static.

 The elder daughter is hit on by the pool digging construction crew, who also do thigs like taste the cooking beans(?) and put the spoon back into the beans, and steal the mom's coffee through the window. Chairs move themselves, and dog sees people where there are none. The chairs have stacked themselves. There's a ghost, and the mom believes something is up.

 We get a scene of the father trying to sell a house that is either the house earlier or more likely an identical house. And it's Phase 4, where the family is in the first Phase 1 house. There's a comment about how all the houses are the same, and the dad tries to sell their customizability. He arrives home to an excited wife, who wants to show him how the magic chairs work. She's not cooked any dinner because she's been playing with them all day (understandable, but the little girl complains). We get to see the magic chairs moving on their own.

 The dad and the mom go to the neighbors and... are awkward. As they stand outside getting bit by mosquitoes, they eventually ask if they've had anything of that sort. Neighbors think they're crazy; a good use of showing through implication as opposed to directly doing...

 How the hell did I forget the scene with the tree reaching through the window and abducting the boy. I might have missed it. Some bad 80s effect show up. Oh and before I forget we got some of the dad thinking about the safety of his family first in saying everyone should stay out of the kitchen, and the mom just being excited. Still there's a tree eating a child and it's exciting. Though the parents are there to save him... unlike the daughter who is getting sucked into the bright light in the closet. The father saves the son, as the tree is pulled into Arthurian times by the Necronomicon, and they realize no one is watching their baby girl and... she's missing. Adult fear is real, and having seen the film before I know the film would do something to a small child.

 They look for the girl, and there's just a gnawing knot of worry in my stomach... though that might be my intestines being a pain as a stomach bug and too much wheat has left me with some intestinal rebellion. Still they start to look everywhere, and the boy, covered in ketchup and mustard (I think it's supposed to be blood and mud from the tree attack but it looks like someone just squirted ketchup and mustard on him), finds her in the tv behind the static.

 And the knot was intestinal. So while things are paused let's look at the tree scene in more detail, since the purity of pacing is wrecked anyway, and my lack of memory of it is bothering me. It's not scary enough for me to believe I blocked it out. I was never one to be scared of trees as a child, though the cartoon scenes like this were creepier and scarier. Maybe it's just the lack of fear made it not stick. It's supposed to be scary, though, but... maybe it just failed that hard. Maybe there's the instinctive trust that the parents would get him safe at work. I mean right now being distracted with my stomach going angry at me definitely didn't help, the boy's counting build up to it was theoretically good. Hands reaching in and grabbing him, but looking a little phony. I don't know. Maybe it's just that the creepy whispering of something trying to lure the little girl is more terrifying, and the look of everything being pulled it. It is definitely overshadowed by the creepier but less immediately dangerous events, and its special effects are just not all that. Maybe, though, I just deeply trusted most trees as a child. I can't say. Whatever it is I wasn't scared as a child and I'm not scared now... though again part of that might be that stomach gives a more immediate and dominant visceral reaction.

 Either way back to continuing. The girl is now in the TV and the mother reaches for it to try and push into the Darkside, and pull her daughter from the Mirror Universe. Yes I know this came before Prince of Darkness. Still they go get parapsychologists to investigate what's going on. They're talking about how much paranormal energy is involved in moving a matchbox car 7 ft in 7 hours, and the dad is just giving them a look of 'yeah that's impressive hurry up' and opens the children's room to them and despite bad special effects you get a fun scene where things are flying about and the parapsychologist lady's just shocked.

 Still they start talking about the difference in a haunting and a poltergeist. Hauntings are about places, poltergeists are about people. Hauntings last years, poltergeists are short term. Given the film's name...

 We get a good scene of the mom talking to the missing little girl, and the parapsychologists watching. Good reactions, good creep with the girl's voice, stuff to make us feel for the family. It's a good scene, a good combination of pathos and creep, and the parapsychologist's warning to stay away from the light helps sell the lady as a character. The relief of the mom as 'smelling' her daughter after she 'moves through her soul' is... well the acting isn't good enough to really get past the cheese and it comes off a little melodramatic but is touching with a mother's desperation sense, and adult fear. And then something dark drives her off... and something bit a dude.

 Dad wants them all out before night, he doesn't trust the house (reasonable), mom doesn't want to leave it as long as her daughter is stuck in it (also reasonable). The older daughter wants out (Also reasonable). And we cut to the night with them all still in the house, and the parapsychologists having a little freak out in private (also reasonable). It's reasonable in they're trying not to freak out the family, and she actually does confide in the mom that she doesn't perfectly understand and is scared, that she's out of her depth. It's an example of hiding thing because on the same side that makes sense; after watching Saw yesterday and Adam this is nice to see.

 The boy child (Robby) makes things creepy, though, by being morbid. 1) He thinks his little sister is dead and a ghost (reasonable). 2) He thinks that if he died he would have the same thing happen (he's a small child this is reasonable). 3) He thinks they could tie a rope around him to pull him and Carol Anne out (sort of odd; like if I wasn't writing it I'd not question it, but weird thought for a small child). 4) The dad gets an idea lightbulb from this (and remembering they do that in the end, sort of odd).

 Parapsych lady tells how ghosts happen and it's mostly a good, sort of chilling scene, except that the 'they stay around to watch TV' line is a little too... I get it the film is about TVs. Still it's a nice scene.

 So I've mentioned being in the midst of some stomach issues. I am eating because by Hades I need to eat. Watching the meat begin to rupture from within, the chicken leg drop from his mouth crawling with maggots, and then the parapsych aide guy dig his own face apart was not what I needed with food in my mouth. Good job movie. Good job. Nah the scene was legit good, creepy, and gross, but wasn't what I need with my stomach at the moment.

 Other parapsych aide is slacking and listening to rock music (drawing the stairway to heaven with a girl's head at the bottom), and ignoring that the machines are saying 'shit's about to go down'. Good going watch dude. Good job. And yes this time it is sarcastic.

 Movie is sparing with the music but it begins to rise to emotional effect as a ghost arrives. Now in Saw I complained about laugh track of horror, and to an extent that is common to horror movies. Sound is an extremely important part of horror movies. Music can make things many times creepier. This film has been doing not the best on music, band that makes it more obvious that this is 'be creeped now music' but it's effective, it's not a sudden jarring sound, but a building one that builds with the scene. It is not an auditory jump scare, it is not a laugh track of horror, but your standard horror music. It works, even if I do find that The Omen and anything John Carpenter made has better music.

 The kids are shipped off. Aide #1 has fled. Aide #2 is staying. Parapsych lady is taking the tapes, leaving, and will be coming back with help. Get the feeling that she cares about the family. And the dad's boss arrives to see why the dad hasn't shown up for work; the excuse is the flu but... well they try and rush him from the house. The boss drags him away to show him something, and we learn Carol Anne was born in that house. We also learn that the house was built on a relocated cemetery.

 Music tells me to be scared. Not the most effective. I'm going to say that is largely because the purity of effect of the film has been shattered by stomach and pausing. More than any genre I find horror suffers when you break it up (this is movies, and short stories, and others intended to be taken in with a single sitting; novels and series are traditionally exempt). So it does hurt my enjoyment of the film, that said despite feeling much worse than yesterday (but not the day before where I didn't watch anything) I am enjoying the film. I am not scared by the film, but the fact that I wasn't scared by the film as a child (I believed in ghosts as a child, but held no fear of them) sort of sabotaged it anyway.

 The vaguely creepy (she scared me as a child), Southern old psychic lady has arrived. The father doesn't believe in her, the mother does. The father has not generally been the disbeliever, but he has been cautious. Still she earns some points by... hearing him whisper? I'll accept that it's supposed to be quieter in comparison to the rest than it seems, everything is vaguely whisper in this film. The psychic lady (I have not caught her name if it's been said) begins to explain what's happening, the daughter is a light that the ghosts want, and distracts them from the other light. There is an evil presence, the beast, that is perceived as a child by Carol Anne and is keeping her, using her to keep the others from moving on. Still Lady Van Helsing gives the call to arms and preparations begin.

 The father has to threaten the daughter into coming, using her fear of discipline (he threatens a spanking after making it clear he has never spanked her in her life), and she begins to pull from the beast and... Lady van Helsing makes the mom tell the girl to run towards the light (the true afterlife instead of limbo) and lie about being in the light waiting for her. It's a painful scene to watch (in a good way). The mother pained to do it, but doing it trusting that it is for her daughter's own good.

 They establish that the closet it linked to the living room ceiling, a wormhole that passes through the limbo realm. The mother then tells the small girl not to go into the light, making it almost certainly confusing to the small child who they keep telling 'avoid the light' 'go into the light' 'avoid the light'.

 One of them will have to be tied to the rope and go into the Limbo Realm. The mom, the dad, and Lady Van Helsing fight over who gets to go, but the mom wins because she's the best choice. I want to say you know that the mom will be alright, that she'll get the child, but ... I want to say I was certain as a child, and my foreknowledge makes it hard. Still the psychic lady starts to try and encourage the souls to pass over and the father pulls them back early, drawing the Beast to attack... Still when he drops the rope, the mom and daughter fall out. Despite lacking real worry it's a good scene.

 The psychic lady declares the house clean, and we see the family beginning to move. A conversation with the elder daughter highlights that the mom's hair has gone gray in places and that the daughter is family with the motel they're going to because... she's gone there for sex. I didn't catch that as a child.

 Husband is quitting his job, they're moving, and they're going to sleep in a motel tonight, but... the children's bed time is before he gets home, they go to bed in the house. In that room. Sleep on a sofa. This is just... Worrisome. And the mom knows it and... Gah.

 And there's the scene of the creepy clown trying to kill the boy! I've been waiting. I remembered that one. It's an effective use of a... well there's build up and it's not 'remove a sheet from something HORROR MUSIC' to generate horror, it builds and grasps. A ghost attacks the mom, the closet turns evil, and the bedroom door locks itself. Fungus grows from one door, a strange four legged ghost-skeleton with weirdly long front legs appears in front of the other. It looks sort of cool.

 We learn they didn't relocate the graveyard. Skeletons are floating up out of the pool, coffins rising from the ground. This movie is not going to have skeletons kill the mom or do anything that bad to her. It's child friendly horror, but for a moment you almost feel it might, and the scene works regardless. The neighbors arrive and save the mom (who had been calling for their help), but are freaked out by the strange sounds and lights.

 We get a lot of nice effects in this part. Some nice momma bear too. She manages to pull them free as the husband arrives home... with the boss? And the graveyard erupts preventing him from getting in two help. The mom and children are calling for the dad. He ends up screaming at the boss about 'you left the bodies behind and only faked moving them' and the family escapes the house. They get in the car and the older daughter arrives, but won't get into the car (she's having a freak out)... Her extended freak out there is a bit... Get in the car already. The house implodes into the portal and the boss doesn't seem to have gotten any comeuppance which disappoints me. I mean he's breaking down and crying, but 'lost his best employee' doesn't sting enough.

 They arrive at the holiday inn, battered, bruised, scared, but whole and a family. The father immediately pushes the TV out, they have escaped its curse. I for some reason thought there was an ending of it trying to call the young daughter out again. I guess not, childhood memories playing with me. I wash the credits just in case of course. After all if it's a poltergeist it's tied to a person not a place, but there's nothing.