#ESPECIALLY THE ONES THAT SEEM LIKE FUCKING SOAP OPERAS LMAO-

[kiddypools-blog11]

I MADE ANDY AND BARNABE FROM HIT GAME ANDY'S APPLE FARM IN ADORABLE GARDEN THEY'RE SUCH A CUTIE PATOOTIE COUPLE FRRRR- but I might delete the game bc it too laggy for me poor phone :(

The pink guy is Andy (THEY HAD NO RED HAIR OR COOL BOY HAIR STYLES ONLY COOL GIRL HAIR STYLES THE HOMOPHOBIA AAAAAA) and the brown guy is Barnabe. TBH, They're such a better couple then Thomas and Kamryn fr. They couldn't even handle their marriage, and over here we have two fucking fictional characters that Thomas MADE and I imagine them moving into a quaint little house together AAAAAA- Also yes, I'm putting them to work for munni munni����🤑🤑🤑. WORK MY SLA- I mean my cuties! 😇😇😇

[youngerfrankenstein]

So. Been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the break. First time watching since I was a teen. Kind of funny that I remember a lot of the broad strokes of the series, my general impressions, and certain episodes (whether because they were especially good or especially terrible) but I forget a lot of the specifics, and shorter arcs, and a few minor characters. But some thoughts while I have been watching (finished season 3):

The show gets off to a pretty rough start. A lot of the acting is pretty wooden, though most of the actors grow into their roles. The writing is pretty spotty and it’s overall just kinda meh to start.

Intro song goes hard. Not gonna lie.

Me watching Angel and Buffy together at 15: “It’s nice I guess, but I don’t really get the tall, dark and broody thing :\”

Me watching them now: “GET AWAY FROM HER! GET A JOB!!!”

No don’t LAMPSHADE IT! You’re making it creepier somehow!!! There’s a really weird feeling of the show wanting to have it both ways with these two. It wants to use them as a metaphor for how kids can get into relationships with older people who will use and abuse them, but also wants them to be tragic lovers who keep getting torn apart but should be together. It wants to have the stalking be both creepy and romantic. Like it’s fine if it’s the “right” guy, which given the show is aimed at teens ehhhhhhhh…

Also lmao. He’s her guardian Angel.

Speaking of Angel, he’s a really good example of a character who is super interesting on PAPER. But the execution is really lacking. Part of this is due to David Boreanaz having the charisma and acting chops of a damp piece of toast.

I had forgotten how much of this show was a soap opera.

Hoo boy has some of this not aged great. Both in terms of social attitudes and general quality. Definitely made in the 90’s. And it’s. So. White. Like to the point they lampshade it in season 3.

THE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY. It’s fantastic. It’s awful. It’s amazing and I love it. It’s so over the top it reminds me of classic Star Trek at times. I could watch it for hours <3

Also the villains are by and large so cartoony you can’t take them seriously. But that’s part of the fun!

I never liked Xander much, though I thought he had his moments. Re-watching with the knowledge he’s basically Whedon’s self-insert is making him a LOT harder to bear.

GOD I wish Giles’ nutter ex showed up more. He’s fucking hilarious, just shows up to cause hilarious problems and antagonize Giles. Had a friend compare him to Q and… it’s not a terrible comparison. Rare case of a super minor character stealing my heart. He should have kept showing up once or twice a season to be a bastard.

I actually love how vampires work in this show. Basically a demon piloting a reanimated corpse with some influence from the person whose corpse it was. Truly and utterly monstrous. Follow a bunch of the rules!!! No reflections, have to be invited in (one of the best rules), burned by holiness and the sun. It’s GOOD.

I think I’d like Drusilla a lot in isolation, but I keep thinking how she’s the first big River Tam character type that Whedon is so fond of. She feels… fetishy at times. It’s distracting.

Honestly the Whedon-isms are occasionally distracting in general.

Jenny deserved better treatment. So did Kendra. I’m not even saying neither of them could die (though… why was Kendra there? She was pretty endearing in her appearances but she didn’t contribute much. Were there plans but her actress was busy or?) but the way they were used felt… off. Especially when it felt like the narrative was punishing Jenny for reasonable behaviour.

In general despite a major theme being female empowerment… the show seems to not like women much at times. (Or non white people… at all.)

Also speaking of themes oh BOY are they not subtle. But in an endearing way. Mostly. High School is, apparently, Hell.

Giles’ BLATANT favouritism towards Buffy is hilarious. In general their relationship is really sweet.

Cordelia should be Queen of the world.

I’m annoyed by to despise most of the romances on this show. This includes every romance arc that includes either Buffy or Xander. Or god forbid both. Which given the soap opera aspect is very unhelpful to enjoying the show. And is going to make looking up fandom stuff unbearable.

I think The Mayor is the first Big Bad I really like. He’s fun, and his actor does a good job of being both likeable and oddly threatening.

His dynamic with Faith is also great! Their relationship is like a dark mirror of the Giles and Buffy one. Brought in by the “father” figure as a tool but it grows into genuine care.

Faith is a really interesting character, even if not always handled the best.

I’m half convinced the main reason people like Spike is just that James Marsters is THAT charismatic.

Overall? Honestly the show is basically Elevated Schlock. There is a lot of awful nonsense, annoying filler and stupid decisions. …But there’s still something very charming about it, still a lot of good. It’s also wild to acknowledge how much of its DNA is in shows from the decades following. Maybe starting to phase out in the last while since prestige television became a thing and schlock was more regulated to reality and cop shows. But it definitely is an important touchstone in television history, even if parts don’t hold up.

[impishsensei]

character info sheet

name: 五条悟 Gojo Satoru.

name meaning: the name satoru derives from the japanese verb "to know" or "understand". the kanji used in satoru's name specifically means "enlightenment" (悟).

alias: the strongest, blindfolded idiot/idiot

ethnicity: Japanese

picture/icon you like best of your character: putting two bc i'm torn :p (putting the rest under the cut bc this is p long)

ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴs ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴛᴏʟᴅ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ : 

he is a huge sone (fan of girl's generation). in general i imagine he's a huge fan of 2nd gen kpop. i can see him being part of the war between snsd and 2ne1 fans... in modern non-sorcery au he probably has an edgy account where he talks endless shit abt p much any release past 2015 (aside from his faves). yes ik this is goofy but just hear me out and see the vision. his bias is yuri c: // just wanna say when i joke abt this it does not reflect how i feel lmao

i'm not sure if it's ever been addressed why satoru doesn't drink ? but regardless of whatever chatgeget said idgaf, i'm taking canon from him and making my own. anyway i say that satoru doesn't drink because it messes with his six eyes too much... tho i do love the idea that he got wasted someday and it was horrendous. idk it just makes sense. he keeps from it as a precaution lmao

greg claims satoru is a natural genius at everything but i reject that because i think it'd be funny if he's a disaster in the kitchen. actually most household type stuff, i think he'd be horrendously bad at it... cooking is the worst tho. do NOT let gojo into the kitchen he will blow that shit tf up.

ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʟɪᴋᴇs ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ғʀᴇᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ :

ik canon says he has no hobbies bc he can do anything but I reject that once more. satoru likes to watch tv... he loves movies, reality tv, and soap operas especially. idk he seems like the kind of guy that looooooves juicy drama

taking the students out into the city, like to eat or sight see or other super fun stuff. satoru doesn't get that much time off, but he likes to use the sundays he does have for this

when he's not doing his work as a sorcerer/teacher or any of the above stuff... he dates around. he's a bit for the streets... nothing ever lasts long, but satoru craves companionship. he usually ends up fucking it up just by being busy, or ghosts because he believes serious romance is just something he can't do

sɪx ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʟɪᴋᴇs / ʟᴏᴠᴇs :

everyone obviously,,, though if i have to narrow it down then megumi, suguru, tsumiki, shoko, ijichi, yaga and all of his other old classmates and students. he deeply treasures these ppl in his life, and he takes being the strongest to heart so much bc it means protecting them and/or fostering their growth

ᴛᴡᴏ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛs :

not noticing something was wrong with suguru sooner

not having more time with everyone before, ya know... :c

ᴛᴡᴏ ᴘʜᴏʙɪᴀs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʜᴀs :

i don't think satoru has like... any legit/proper phobias? i do think he is scared of being hurt deeply tho, like how he felt when suguru defected. he doesn't want to feel that way again so he maintains a bit of distance (or tries to)

staying alone always. he already feels alone but just... lowkey hopes that it won't always be that way (ig he never really realized how much everyone around him loved him ;3;)

tagged by: @wormb0i tagging: @cvrseduser @2xcursekissed @celesticlnstcrs (ik lee already tagged u but for jing maybe?) @jikoku/@fshguro @getsusekaii / @ofstygiaan / @kakovoulos (u don't gotta do all just pick one of ur muses lmao) @jikangairodo @divinezenin @phonokinetix @sheblomd @vulpesse

[nebulous-tundra]

Jumin for the character meme? 👋😮

YES, FINALLY! my man!

favorite thing about them

his struggle with loneliness. Cheritz took a man with wealth beyond our feeble imaginings and gave him a psychosis that made him so fucking relatable. for real though they really hit the nail on the head with him: hyper-focusing on your job, dismissing big familial issues, putting too much emotional weight onto your pet, these are things i think most people can relate to do, and Cheritz tied them together with loneliness, distilled them to their base issues, and fed them to Jumin on a silver spoon. his BEs reflect how horribly his life can spiral if he doesn't properly address(BE3 is actually more of a reflection of MC's character but i digress) the root problem: his inability to make meaningful connections to other, and a dating sim is the perfect setting to explore that! unlike Damien who i was talking about before, Jumin is a perfect example of executing a premise perfectly and to it's logical conclusion

least favorite thing about them

while i do appreciate Jumin's wealth being part of the appeal of his character, his capitalistic sympathies are kindaaaa the elephant in the room for me. why run a charity fundraiser when he already has so much wealth at his disposal- i mean he's donating too but considering the things he's mentioned buying for Elizabeth the Third i feel like he's pretty close to having enough money to end world hunger......well. if i can suspend my disbelief about Saeyoung flying i guess i can also pretend the economics of the MysMe world is fundamentally different i guess lol

favorite line

"You must be blind to not know where my eyes are. You can't even see with your left eye now?

Everything you're hiding, your secrets, they're all fine. I'll trust whatever you do and follow you. But please... don't lie to me! At least not you... at least not you...! Don't you feel ashamed to Rika? And to yourself!? When did you start living with so little dignity? Even my friendship... How dare you treat it like this!

You crossed the line, V... You made a mistake if you thought you could fool me. Think about all the years we spent together. You can't even count the numbers? You idiot... Drop the soap opera. Quit with the bullshit that you have cancer.

Damn it! Where do you have to go? Where at this point!?"

this is one of the few times we actually see Jumin call out V and reprimand him, and it is so worth it. Jumin has plenty of good moments but this one definitely takes the cake, especially after all we learn about what V has let transpire in his and Saeran's routes

brOTP

Jumin & Zen, such a fun dynamic, everytime you see them in chat together you know you're in for a treat, even if Zen takes it a little too far sometimes lol.

OTP

i mean.....if i said anything other than Jumin x MC i would expect y'all to shoot me- as is your duty

nOTP

Jumin x Jihyun. purely because i hate V. also Jumin x Jaehee, because i respect her too much to do that to her LMAO

random headcanon

i feel like we already have so much canon from Cheritz that i don't even need to have my own lil headcanons buuuuut i guess that he doesn't really mind how things taste too much, he'll eat anything once(if his dietician says it's alright). despite this he has a p good idea of what he does and doesn't like, even if he strays from it at times

unpopular opinion

is it unpopular to acknowledge that he had romantic feelings for Rika? i can't seem to remember where the fandom was at on that

song i associate with them

okay i actually have quite a few of these, i have a whole playlist from when i was a neet and would do nothing but draw comics about him

Jumin's Theme v.2 - Mystic Messenger OST

<-- this one's obvious but i would be remiss to not include it

Things Remembered - Kakegurui OST

<-- good Jumin work vibes

Meltdown [Jazz Cover] - Baguettes Ensemble

<-- a nice, luxurious cover to listen to whenever i think about the nice, luxurious life Jumin must lead

What You Won't Do for Love - Bobby Caldwell

<-- good husband Jumin vibes

Flame of Despair - Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion OST

<-- good song for illustrating Jumin's emotional turmoil

Deal with the Devil [Piano Cover] - CANACANA

<-- if there was ever a MysMe anime where Jumin x MC was endgame, this would be the op

regret song - Maya Kern

<-- the lyrics aren't wholy compliant to his character, but a good song for thinking about his prior experiences with love

favorite picture of them

again i can't limit myself to one so

this has wonderful angst, have i ever mentioned i love unrequited loves as a trope?

the expression on Jumin here.....fantastic

okay this one might actually be my favorite

thanks for the ask on Jumin! i swear to god i'm gonna have a 3rd Jumin era sometime whenever i get around to playing the Rika DLC and writing out my Jumin meta on his BE2 DLC(which i have played, WOW). he is top tier husbando material

[misterbitches]

hi! this is long as shit i’m sorry. i hope it makes sense. i ahve adhd and like 5 million learning disorders so this is just word vomit cos there’s so many words in my brain. my b.

i’ve had such a tough day so thank you for replying and sharing! @yeedak​ 

i was thinking about what i wrote and i meant to clarify that as well. some cases are fine for both parties and it’s not like you weren’t consenting and it seems like you were happy! same with my friend who was dating a 20 yr old. if they’re happy you know i’ll clown on ‘em but yea. so for anyone that sees these posts your relationship with your partner who is older or whatever. i’m some dumb girl on the internet okay. ill side eye older ppl tho

i think a lot of people feel the same way you do now (me included.) it feels really good at the time but alter we can see the dynamics playing out. i’m 29 now and i think aging is just such a huge process. it’s wild how you at 31 are a totally different person, right?

and the US racism is probably some of the worst ever in its iteration because of slavery which started from europe etc but USA is so fucking unique bc of columbus bringing slaves here and displacing indigenous peoples or hispanola and because america is so influential the way it views race, particularly with black people as objects, has so deeply permeated into the current historical psyche globally. it’s fascinating to track how necessary anti blackness is to the flourishing of america but also the world at this point. also want to point out how fuckign scary sinophobia is here especially for covid. one is a straight historical line (black ppl + the US) and the other had to be manufactured and to continue to exploit the non-white americans and keep antiblackness in tact.i could go on about this all day. the pain of this place is immense.yet as bad as it is here, this is still the only place i truly feel safe as a black person. because of the unique experience we have in america and through the diaspora especially because we are veyr much ocncentrated here. it would be nice to like move to norway and have some alleviation financially or get free healthcare it’s just not feasible if no one looks like me. it’s fucking tough. 

i hope you don’t hate it here though and people treat you with respect. but as you know being a woman and jewish and an immigrant....shit is tough. the USA is a hellhole. :( america is so deeply tainted and desperately bad because it was founded on strife and blood and there’s no way to reverse that and what this country did in turn when it gained enough power and could capitalize off of the colonial forefathers. this is why we hsould all luv revolution!!!

HOWMEVERRRR 

boy oh boy oh BOY OH BOYYYYYYYY. well wlecome to the world of BL lmao especially as an adult with some obviously deep perspective just given your background. it is a fucking mess and it’s a hard mess to like but it pulls you in. i approach it like i do with soap operas since these are essentially telenovelas, you know? just like the drama at a billion. but the tricky part of that is like....what parts of it do we understand for critiquing? because so many of the shows are so bad at being like good pieces of things to look at just production wise and story wise. but i feel like these shows ask us to take them seriously, so why shouldn’t we take the content seriously? and this is being primarily peddled to young girls. 

i bring this up often but i read this thing about yaoi and the interest younger women/girls have in BL and its fascination with pederasty essentially. this component i think is key when we talk about who gets affected by these things the most. society in general is bad 4 girls bla bla we know lmao but in “more sexually conservative” societies it may be harder for these girls to feel safe even expressing normal emotions romantically and sexually and particularly with guys. some people hypothesized, and i think i agree with this hypothesis, that they can live through the casualness of BL. they don’t feel threatened because they can put themselves into the shoes of the other character. oftentimes, the more feminine or the younger. this was in conjunction with the age gap aspect (they say pederasty as well because there’s unethical age gaps that r gross and that is indeed what we would at least call a touch of sexual abuse if people dont feel like calling it an obsession with youth and power and uhhh young ppl and perhaps kids) where maybe girls could see themselves in these situations as the person being saved, loved, taken care of, and sadly also sexually active and penetrated. 

i think that’s just one aspect of it but i do think there’s validity in who gravitates towards it. i cannot imagine seeing this stuff and not getting enough information as a young kid, i sure as fuck know i didn’t!, and seeing these things and you look at it with 0 critique because you’re young and you may have no interest in it or you simply cannot understand what is wrong. no one is teaching you these things and these shows confirm it. and it is wild how intrinsic patriarchy is to BL although in its existence it also can’t be in line with patriarchy given the nature of two [cis] men!

it begs the question about the replacement aspect. is it just so girls can put themselves in these characters shoes? if so then that means we believe that gender is so interchangeable within our relationships and interactions and that doesn’t seem right. there’s more to lgbtq+ than just existing; it’s finding ways to communicate, finding a family, safety, your people, being a free person. there’s a lot to gain and a lot a lot to lose. and a gay man is also not a woman because those are also two distinct experiences.  especially in societies that have a more hidden aspect to sexuality (idk how to word this bc the BL industry would NEVER survive in america but in a way there’s a more “progressive” look at homosexuality but it’s still fucked up because we live in a Society, you know? at the same time look at what we are doing to trans kids. literally waging war so it’s bonkers how we all collectively have some real progress happening but at the same time not at all. the concept of ‘ladyboys’ and the frequency we see trans people in thai shows is wild and something that we absolutely do not see here in the US. still, none of these groups feel safe or are getting better material conditions in either place. we just show the ways we can try and tolerate oppression witout eliminating it imo)

to me it is clear: it’s money. which most things exist to make money so. but also who is the audience for these shows? and they have to market towards them. all that said all hope is not lost there are some decent shows. it’s just like regular media on TV though where it’s so fucking saturated as an industry that it’s literally sifting through garbage. and there are some days when you can handle the trash and others where it really fucking hurts to watch the violence, the rape, the manipulation, the violations, the stupid messaging. i have never seen more people trying to do mental gymnastics and seeing if things were “technically rape” than in teh BL fandom and that is so fucking sad.

i came into these shows at 28 with almost 0 clue of what as media BL was like esp as media that countries can use as soft power with the revenue. but i realize like...i’m 29 now and so many people don’t have a sizeable, though not huge, amount of life experience. and i wonder for people on the internet who are usually searching for something if they spend so much time on it like what a 15 year old girl thinks. what a 20 year old girl thinks. 

it is incredibly problematic and so awful but there’s also some rewards. if you haven’t i would definitely watch i told sunsset about you which i don’t think i’m going to finish and i doubt i’ll watch the second installment (watch this be a lie) but when i say some fucking impeccable storytelling and art? phew. now that is a fucking piece of media that works. it takes from moonlight heavily and you can see like...the artistic dedication is there and the story makes its world and sets up its stakes extremely well. 

i think because this is marketed towards much younger people too they know they dont have to try as hard. but they SHOULD because then you can have a fucking masterpiece like that. i think even this prolific gay thai filmmaker (who is like solidly against the government) who is so respected (and who i like a lot! if u wanna know i can tell u lmao but the films are very uhhhhhhhh “artsy”) would like i told sunset about you. i wish more people had budget like that and also just cared about the stories. it’s the fucking magic of art to figure out what you can do but there is very little incentive honestly. idk i am very pessimistic. there are days when it’s really a great pick me up and distraction but it is never a place i would love for to feel seen or heard but i’m more of the mind of i never trust the mainstream until they prove me wrong ;) 

or i never trust the mainstream and i still buy into it anyway and then cry when i don’t like what i see adn i yell “BOO GET OFF THE STAGE!” when an old man won’t leave a teenager alone

[autoplaysdigimon]

These are the videos you could win if you entered that contest. (Don’t forget to have your entries in before December 31st 2001!) Those episode synopses are worth a read. They all seem to give Demidevimon a lot more credit for what happened.

It’s also not consistent as to name highlighting - just look at the entry for Sora’s Crest of Love, for example. Also in the previous one, Metal GREYMON.

The phrasing of the introductory paragraph here - talking about episodes you “may have missed” and advertising the novel concept of being able to watch your favourite episode “[sic] againand again”! - really shows how revolutionary it is nowadays to be able to watch whatever you want on-demand, either online or on DVDs. Owning actual videos of things was such a revolutionary thing to have, back in the day! I went through a phase of recording Pokemon episodes from the TV, for example. Weird.

I think we had Volume 1? I vaguely remember having the Biyomon episode too, but not the other two there. Maybe I’m thinking of that previous comic.

...several of those names are wrong.

Again, worth a read, if only for the sneaking suspicion that the people (person, let’s be real) writing this didn’t pay attention to what was actually revealed in each episode. But!

Gennai’s homeland???? His enemies??????

Did... did I not pay attention?

HAHAHA WELP.

And hey, let’s flick over to that Simpsons thing there! I especially like this:

Which was suppised to be a satirical thing to show that Krusty had endorsed so many dumb products tht he just recorded a low-effort stock footage thing to be shown on everything that his team wanted to mass produce.

Irony!

Anyway, the page of that Simpsons ad has since come out of the staple, but it’s the center page so it’s okay. What’s on the other side?

WHO THE FUCK IS THESE. WE’RE ON FILE ISLAND STILL.

Oh my god, read all of these. This page, these character descriptions, are what made me realise as a kid how little personality the Digimon themselves had. For example:

STRONG SENSE OF DUTY W H O M S T

Fun loving is such a useless descriptor. I love fun. Who doesn’t? My idea of fun is playing games and writing uselessly pedantic blog posts. My mum is fun loving too, only she likes English soap operas and hates fantasy. My grandma loves fun too, only her idea of fun is crosswords and crafting.

It appears more than once. Note that this exact description could also apply to Veemon, if you replaced the names.

“Armdillomon”, also known as “Dillomon” on that same page.

“A little snobbish” is the only one so far to actually only fit that particular Digimon, but it’s another use of “making sure his partner doesn’t get into trouble/nothing happens to them”, like Veemon up above.

Patamon also works hard to impress everyone, AGAIN just like Veemon up above! Come on, guys, I know you must have been paid about $1.50 to write these, but at least try.

It gets better over the page:

Oh hey, the Simpsons are back. (And how funny is it that this particular version of Ken is used? That’s hilarious.)

Literally the most descriptive of all of these, and yet still somehow underwhelming.

But the best one by far is:

Count the things that are wrong here! My favourite is Flamedragon.

(lmao it even acknowledges that this description is similar to Patamon’s!)

[macklives]

i dont technically hardcore ship kids buuuut i will say “fuck thats hecking cute” to any and all pairings and join in on the fun wholesome content. for example, if you give me fanart, give me fics, give me headcanons, then im already sold on how adorable that specific pairing will be bc theres now some quality content to explore. as long as its not toxic, disgusting or impractical.

god okay, get motherfucking ready guys.

now, i may rant a bit on the matter to further explain my point of view on shipping in this comic and how i will go around it lol. sorry for the long note. there’s a tldr at the end.

honestly, idc who gets together, bc i just want the kids to be happy and if the pairing is happy together, thats all that matters to me. i just dont like taking shipping to the extreme, yknow. (which means having nsfw stuff for kids and flipping out if one ship is canon when another really should be. similar to many other fandoms who have those problems and i just.. dont get why?) anyways, thats not to say i will freak out if a cute pairing of mine becomes canon and especially if the rep is nice. and honestly? ill probably freak out for any canon ship as long as its healthy and theyre both happy - as ive mentioned. keep in mind im still a fan lmao, i will prob participate in the recurring ship talk and discourse bc ugh it can be so fucking cute.

anyways, regarding what we have now, i honestly like all pairings atm (obviously between the kids only and not some cursed ones ive heard about which i refuse to get into). all their interactions are so unique and cute and quite adorable. davejade is wholesome. johnrose is valid. i also like jaderose, daverose and johndave. which technically is almost every possible pairing lmfao. sometimes my opinion can vary, sometimes things could happen to make my view on that specific pairing to change. and sometimes new people come into the picture which allows me to explore more potential candidates that i think would be better for that characters rather than just having a ship to progress the plot further. if that makes sense. it always depends, doesnt it? (so keep in mind you can ask me if i ever have changed my opinion on a specific ship, character, ect in the future)

and of course, there’s a big difference between who i think are going to get together and who i wouldnt mind getting together despite canonical evidence that it wont happen. which i wont get into unless yall want me to talk about in depth who likes who and how it will probably impact the relationships of the characters vs how it should be.. well, not “fixed”, but what could be another alternative if a specific relationship seems to have its downfalls. 

however, i doubt there’s going to be any “endgame” ships bc homestuck is more prone to story telling than romance. it’s a webcomic for plot and probable character growth rather than making people’s ships come true. meaning shipping is a concept that andrew will give you, and he will give you all types of interaction so you’re free to ship what you want. however, he’ll leave it open without giving us an ultimate pairing. which is where i think this comic will go. i may be wrong. but it seems the most likely situation.

so shipping is all fun and games but things happen, not everything becomes canon and even if i have theories on future relationships, i will only analyze what we were given and not necessarily based on non-canonical evidence. so as much as i like crackships (and boy do i have fun in crackships, lets be real), because this is a liveblog, i wont be able to get into depth with false claims on a ship if there’s literally nothing to go on. however, pls expect joke ships to happen. if i say cake #42 wants to be with john’s fake arms, so be it. that was a fun time on the discord, man. i love joking around but then again, they are just jokes. im not actually shipping them. its similar to how i view dave and AT. they got married duh. yet thats a joke. something i will bring up again, but that never means im serious about it. (besides imp soap opera. thats becoming massively real now, isnt it. a liveblog inside joke that got way out of hand and is now canon.)

anyways, romance is a nice bonus treat for everyone as they read a webcomic which is not centered around it. and of course ill analyse the possibilities of what we could get and how characters will go through it based on their personalities and past experiences, but i dont think itll become a main part of homestuck as of now. perhaps something.. could happen in the future? and ill keep my hopes of some pairings getting together. but, overall, i will be happy with whatever we get and i refuse to bitch about how some ship is better than the other and be mad at homestuck in its entirety. because andy here is not trying to portray a romcom, he’s making an actual story.

wow, i kind of went off a little on what you were trying to ask in the first place, but i feel this was a nice place to get that out there and explain how ill perceive shipping in homestuck. all so i wont have to explain this for the future when characters potentially start getting together. which is to say, ill enjoy shipping characters on my hs experience, hell, ill even participate in it, but they are 13 and i have my limits.

cool. i feel like i just wrote a philosophy book.

tldr; shipping is a nice gateway in a fandom, i like pretty much anything as long as its not toxic and theyre happy together. expect character/relationship analyses in the future. 

[serenagaywaterford]

was I the only one who thought tuello was going to mention the 2x10 rape and not the nick thing when he arrested serena??? like, obviously I understand the thing with nick was rape regardless, but she did ask them both and june would've ended up in the colonies had she not gotten pregnant while the 2x10 rape doesn't really have any sustainable justification behind it. I don't see "I was in a mood and wanted the baby to come faster" working in court (1/2)

and I guess you can argue there's no way to prove that that rape happened, but serena got arrested before any paternal test was done so it seems as if fred's word is enough?? I guess they can get the test done later and confirm it, but I don't know, I feel like there's a way out of this for serena whilst I don't think there would've been a way out if they had proof of what happened in 2x10. I just find this flimsy. (2/2)

---

No, you weren’t! I honestly... I thought it was going to be about her actual war crimes, like her blatant terrorism against the US, conspiracy to blow up state capitols, and overthrowing a democratic government via war. But hey, that’s too easy lol. Like, why on earth Fred wouldn’t turn her in for THAT, which are HUGE crimes that the ICC/Americans/etc would actually be interested in is beyond me. Oh wait, no it’s not, cos this is The Handmaid’s Tale and they don’t know shit about law or politics, or at this point common fucking sense. It’s a soap opera now.

I’m just so irritated by that whole “Let’s arrest Serena for rape!” concept because it’s entirely based on a) an individual and singular crime against a single person on foreign (sovereign) soil; not a war crime (so why the ICC would have ANYTHING to do with it is beyond me) and b) FRED WATERFORD’S WORD. Because suddenly they believe everything an admitted war criminal is saying against the woman who literally turned him in???? No, nothing suspect about that at all.

(The American government may have an interest because they do get involved in individual crimes against Americans on foreign soil. But then it gets into whether June is still an American, legally. And whether Serena is. Which is super confusing and murky. I’d say June is, and Serena likely isn’t since she probably renounced her US citizenship, but I’m also not a legal scholar or lawyer. And whether the international community even considers Gilead its own country, or just some type of military occupation on American soil. SO COMPLICATED. This is why the show should have just stayed away from all of this trash.)

I mean, we know Fred’s not lying about what happened to June then but the fact Tuello & Co. just take his word at face value with NO corroboration is absolutely fucking mental. 

Not to mention, how the FUCK does Fred even know about that? All he knows is that June got pregnant with Nick’s baby. Was he secretly listening the entire time to everything Serena has said? Cos, let’s take a step back for a second and think rationally about how the hell Fred would have access to that information lol. Serena, from what we saw, was incredibly discreet about setting it up. Was Fred actually lurking in her bushes when she talked to June about it? Was he around when Serena supposedly spoke to Nick about it? (We don’t know where that was but probably either in Nick’s apartment or in the car.) So, does Fred actually have the whole house bugged? LOLOLOLOL. Even if he saw Serena bringing June out to Nick’s apartment, he has no idea what anybody’s thoughts or feelings were about that. Serena and June could have easily been in on it together, and there was no rape involved at all! He doesn’t know that. Did he sneak up to Nick’s second floor window and watch how fucking WEIRD that whole thing was? LMAO.

To me, the fact Fred knows all that is a fucking big plot hole. He didn’t before. But suddenly he knows Serena set up Offred’s rape by Nick? Did she tell him that? Cos that would be insane of Serena to do and completely OOC. All Serena’s said is that “HA HA! The baby isn’t yours, you manky chode!”

Anyway...

To be frank, I have a post--quite a long one--sitting in my drafts about how incredibly asinine and unrealistic that charge against Serena is as a “war crime”, not to mention how weak it is just from a legal standpoint, even if we would take it as a regular rape charge. (She would literally never be found guilty, lbr. There is no solid legal basis for it (there is a flimsy one) and when you consider her defense--which is way more solid than the charge--the chances of anybody ever prosecuting her for that, let alone convicting her, are so incredibly thin, even if it was just as a regular rape crime, not a war crime.) She’d be more likely charged with something like sex trafficking or procuring (prostitution) or coercion or accessory to rape and/or conspiracy to rape. (And she’s clearly guilty of those things). Not the rape itself. It’s so! fucking! stupid! Sex trafficking would be SO much more solid of a charge cos essentially that is what she did...

She didn’t rape June in that instance much more than she murdered those kids Fred shot in the woods. She’s a shitty fucking person for putting that idea in his head, and basically saying, “Go do this for me, you pathetic little man” but she didn’t actually say the words, nor did she commit the actual crime herself. (Heyyyyaaa Lady Macbeth!) Both Fred and Nick were acting of their own free will. 

(Honestly, I will go on forever about how Nick is NOT some innocent, helpless creature. He’s a MAN (aka automatic superiority over any woman), and an EYE (AN EYE, YOU GUYS!!!! The most elite of the Gilead intelligence forces!!!), and to refuse Serena’s request would be EXPLICITLY FOLLOWING THE LAWS OF GILEAD and there is NO WAY he would ever, ever be punished by Gilead for that lmao--for following the law. If he reported Serena to Fred or even Pryce, Serena would be fucking punished--probably with death or Colonies (which is just prolonged death). And he’d have June’s supporting testimony too! What part of this misogynistic fascist state are you people missing? A lowly woman trying to make a man break the law and defile another man’s property?! HAHAHAHA. As if they’d take Serena’s side. Nick is a fucking Eye. There are instances where they do take a woman’s side, like with Janine’s random accusation--but significantly: Warren was BREAKING the law, not upholding it as Nick refusing to rape Offred and turning Serena in would have been following the law. To me, it never ever made sense that the men would just turn on their own like that over a literally mentally-ill Handmaid’s suicidal admission. I think, when it comes down to it, Naomi’s contribution made it “two witnesses” to the crime. Like, if you look at most religious texts or cult texts, they generally require more than just the victim. Some require at least 2, some 3 individuals. So for Gilead to require nothing but victim outcry is bonkers and not consistent with the type of society they claim they’ve built in the series. BUT ANYWAY, that’s a big digression...

Like miss me with that complete utter rape-apologist bullshit. He literally took advantage of the situation to put his dick inside a woman who did not essentially consent to it in that particular situation. Or, if you’re going to argue she did cos she wuvs Nick and wanted to anyway, then your case against Serena falls apart too.)

The only thing I don’t see as being up for debate is that June was raped. That’s it. That is clear and certain. It’s fact. June was raped in that apartment. (She’s raped a lot, obviously, but this was also rape. Nothing else.)

And the creepy part is by doing that she actually did save June’s life. Which is all shades of massively fucked up, and probably not her intention, but here we are. And it seems to be a big part of why June went along with the plan. If Serena hadn’t set up a rapey fuck session for Nick (which he LITERALLY COULD HAVE SAID NO TO AT ANY TIME WITH ZERO CONSEQUENCES and they could have fucked completely consentually another time), June never would have started sleeping with Nick (they had almost 2 years and never made a move on each other lbr), never would have become pregnant, and in a few months would have been sent off to the Colonies to rot. Serena is just going around saving June’s life and not even trying to lmao. Stupid gross idiot. Yes, June agreed under threat of death otherwise. So, that is NOT consent in any universe. If you must do it for survival, it’s rape. If you’re gonna die or agree to sex, that’s rape. Would she have agreed to get raped by Nick if the threat of the Colonies was not hanging over her head? No. Probably not. And Serena used that for her own ends. There is no way Serena is not a shitty criminal person for what she set up. But it’s also not a fucking crime against humanity, by definition.

So, anyway, without going into all the complexities and bullshit about Nick’s role any further, Serena’s role, etc in all this, it’s just absolutely motherfucking insane that any international law enforcement agency would charge Serena with THAT based on the word of a scorned husband who is also a massive rapist, liar, abuser, and war criminal himself. Like, give me a fucking break already.

And... I’m not gonna lie... if this was even remotely based on history/reality, they would turn a blind eye to anything Serena has done, especially if it was on such a small scale as one instance of sex trafficking. Sounds terrible to put it that way, but that is how these things roll. She’s a small little fish, comparatively. In the grand scheme of things, she’s FAR more valuable as a witness/asset against the Big Fish (Fred) and as a tool for their anti-Gileadean use. Unless they had significant evidence about ALL her crimes. She’s so much more useful as someone who has direct experience and witness to the entire rise of Gilead, including all the massive fucking terrorist crimes against an entire government and mass murders, that Fred et al. committed. To go after Serena so soon is just kneecapping their own damn case against Fred/Gilead lmao.

[This is where the rumours about Rita come in, but here’s the thing, Serena was already granted immunity for what she did under the guise of being a “Wife”. And seriously, what does Rita really know anyway? Serena’s smacked some people around. She’s locked June in her room. She makes June cry and drink gross smoothies. She helps with the Ceremony. She--with the entire system--forced surrogacy and basically kidnapped a baby. Those things, from what I can tell, are perfectly legal in Gilead for a Wife to do, just like it’s perfectly legal for Fred to whip the shit out of Serena--and Serena has been granted immunity for that shit (which is sorta funny in a way cos she basically used the Nuremberg defense, but it’s layered because she was actually a victim of Gilead too. Tricky shit). 

Now, that 2x10 rape is pretty fucking awful (and likely NOT Gilead-legal) and I’m almost certain Rita would have known about that in some way--but she also wasn’t a direct witness. But maybe she doesn’t? It would be fucking stupid of the Waterfords to be like, “Hurr durr let’s illegally pregnancy rape the Handmaid with a Martha an/or Guardian around even tho it comes with a punishment of DEATH!” But I suppose they are not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed either... 

Maybe she knows about the Rapey Sex Date Serena set up for Nick, maybe not, also not a witness to it. We can make assumptions about what Rita knows and doesn’t know, but also... like, none of that matters? (Yet.) Those are just regular fucking crimes on foreign soil and the American and Canadian governments have no jurisdiction to prosecuting them. War crimes require different criteria and Serena smacking Rita in the face isn’t a war crime. It’s shitty assault, but not something any international body would EVER go after.]

Anyway, the show is stupid af for suggesting they’d go after Serena for that singular instance of rape as a war crime. Crimes against humanity--of which YES sexual slavery (sex trafficking in this way) is--require widespread and/or systematic implementation. Serena was NOT going around making all Guardians rape Handmaids for her to get a baby. (Gilead however, and FRED WATERFORD specifically, were directly responsible for the SYSTEM of massive sexual slavery that they created AND maintained. Serena didn’t even come up with the Handmaid idea--THAT WAS THE MEN IN THAT DAMN CAR (Hi Nick, you were there too!).) 

Like... ugh. Stick with what you know, THT. Cos clearly it isn’t anything remotely in the legal realm.

But hey, they had to make up some way to either put Serena on trial for an entire season (YAWNNNNN), or send her back to Gilead. If it’s for the latter reason, and it means we’ll revisit the June/Serena dynamic as the core component of the show, then I’ll let it slide but if it’s to set up the Miller Wet Dream Trial Season and keep Fred/Serena forced together, then I’m livid.

Not that I should care at all considering how many times I’ve said I’m not even watching it anymore, heh.

[eldritchsurveys]

649.

What was the last TV show you watched? >> Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Do you like Family Guy? >> Nope.

Have you ever been in the hospital for more than a week? >> Yeah, in the psychiatric ward.

What is your favorite thing from McDonalds? >> I usually order a McDouble, sometimes with a small fry.

Spell your first name backwards. >> Derdrom. I’ve done this on enough surveys that now I don’t even have to think about it, it’s just embedded in my brain like any other word.

Do you have any pets? >> We have a cat.

Have you ever seen a therapist? >> Yes. Have I ever seen a useful one? No.

What is your favorite classic movie? >> I’m fond of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Is that considered a classic? It’s certainly old enough.

Are you a fan of summer or winter more? >> Summer.

Are you good at ice skating? >> I have never even worn an ice skate.

As a child, what did you want to be growing up? >> Oh, a variety of things, I’m sure.

Are you good at spelling? >> Yes.

Do you have any children of your own yet? >> No. LMAO “yet”. Please.

What is your favorite commercial on TV right now? >> ---

How bored are you right now? >> I’m not bored exactly, I’m annoyed and restless because I want to play ESO but the updating is taking ages. (It’s been almost an hour and barely a dent has been made.) Just let me play my game already.

Does your phone hold a charge for a long time? >> Eh, long enough, I guess.

Do you believe in ghosts? >> I’m always open to that interpretation of an event.

Have you found your soul mate yet? >> ---

Tell me a random fact about yourself. >> I was born with twelve fingers.

What is your dream car? >> Bold of you to assume I dream about having a car.

Do you have to sleep with blankets on at night? >> I prefer the sensation of sleeping under my weighted blankets, but usually the reality is simply that I overheat too easily.

When's the last time you went swimming? >> ---

Have you been to the beach yet this summer? >> ---

Do you use Facebook chat? >> Occasionally.

Do you think you would make a good model? >> No.

Are you a good singer? >> I sing well enough for my purposes.

Can you play any instruments? >> No.

Do the Emergency Alert System noises on TV freak you out? >> I haven’t heard those in many years, but from what I remember, they are mostly just obnoxious.

Do you live close to a nuclear power plant? >> No.

What is your favorite flower? >> Sunflower.

Have you ever called the cops on someone? >> No, nor would I be inclined to (unless it was the most dire of circumstances, I guess). I’d have to have faith in the system to do that.

What time do you usually stay up to? >> Anywhere between 10p and 1a.

Have you ever been at a summer camp as a child? >> Yeah.

Are you a fan of opera music? >> Not particularly, but it can be interesting.

Who do you think the prettiest celebrity is? >> ---

Do you judge people by their skin color? >> Not unless they’re so orange that I can’t help but be repulsed by their compulsive tanning obsession.

Is your bed comfortable? >> Yes, and I love it. I wish it were a little bigger, certainly, but I can’t help the size of my room.

Have you ever made a survey on here? >> No.

How many text messages do you think you send a day? >> Usually zero.

Do you consider yourself popular? >> No.

Do you have more friends than you do enemies? >> ---

Describe your perfect date. >> ---

Have you ever lost money by gambling? >> Nope.

Do you know how to ride a horse? >> Nope.

What is the closest yellow item to you? >> A mug. It’s white on the outside but yellow on the inside.

When's the last time you've been to the mall? >> Oof. December? Yeah, because that’s when I bought Sparrow’s Christmas present.

Are you a good liar? >> I’m sure I can be.

Do your parents trust you? >> ---

What's the last thing you've bought for someone else? >> I assume that was the aforementioned Christmas present.

Are you hiding a deep dark secret from the world? >> No.

Have you ever dropped your cell phone in water? >> Yeah. I remember when the Razr just came out and everyone was hype about having a phone you could fit in your back pocket. So of course I put mine in my back pocket and of course I ended up forgetting it was there and it fell into the toilet when I dropped trou. (After years of having phones in my back pocket, I now remember to take it out before using the loo, lmao. But it was still new back then!)

Are you a fan of reality TV? >> Not really.

Do you think you look older or younger than you are? >> I don’t have an opinion.

Does your family have a lot of money? >> ---

What job do you want to have in the next five years? >> ---

Are you planning on going to college? >> No.

Do you have a good sense of humor? >> I think it works for me.

What time is it where you are right now? >> 11.57a EST.

Do you have a short attention span? >> I wouldn’t say that, but I can be really mentally restless at times.

If you got a new pet today, what would you name it? >> ---

What is your favorite dessert? >> I don’t have one.

Do you like white chocolate or dark chocolate better? >> I hate white chocolate. Dark chocolate is good.

Do you like pot roast? >> No.

Are you a good cook? >> I can cook, but I wouldn’t say I have any great skill in it.

What are you afraid of most? >> ---

Do you like bright or dull colors? >> It depends.

Where do most of your clothes come from? >> Most of my clothes came from a variety of different places, so there’s no, like, trend.

Do you still live with your parents? >> No.

Are you comfortable with your weight right now? >> Not going there.

How often do you exercise? >> I don’t make a habit of it.

Have you ever been in a car accident? >> No.

Are you a forgetful person? >> No.

What age do you want to get married at? >> I was married at 32.

What is your favorite fruit? >> ---

Do you drink energy drinks? >> No.

Do you listen to rap music? >> Sure.

Do you believe in God? >> God doesn’t seem to factor very heavily into my narrative. Sometimes I try to fit him in there, just to see, but he always ends up sliding back out.

Have you ever thought about being a stripper? >> Yeah, I’ve thought about it. For the money, you see. Luckily I did not actually try to be a stripper. It would not have suited me in the least.

What was your favorite show as a child? >> ---

Have you ever used Photoshop? >> Yeah, I used to use it a lot back in the day.

When's the last time you've had a headache? >> I don’t remember.

Are you tired right now? >> Not especially. Finally.

Do you cry easily? >> No.

Have you ever watched Pokemon? >> They used to play it on the television every afternoon in the psych ward I stayed in as a teenager. So I watched it then, because what the fuck else was there to do for entertainment in a place like that.

Have you ever been spied on? >> Not to my knowledge.

Do you hate a lot of people? >> No.

Are you easy to get along with? >> I don’t know. I guess it depends on what kind of person the other party is.

Can you speak Spanish or French? >> No. I have a passing understanding of Spanish, though.

How big is your room? >> Not very.

Are you afraid of spiders? >> Nope.

Do you like strawberries? >> I do.

When's the last time you've been outside? >> It’s been a few days.

Do you curse a lot? >> Eh, not as much as I could, I guess.

Do you pay attention to grammar when typing? >> I pay attention to whether what I’m saying makes communicable sense.

Do you watch soap operas? >> No. Unless you count Grey’s Anatomy. (I kind of do, ngl.)

Do you think aliens exist? >> I think it’s possible and I don’t see why I should think otherwise.

Who are you close with the most in your family? >> ---

Do you like morning talk shows? >> No.

Do you go to the gym regularly. >> I never go to the gym. That there is what I call a hostile environment. lmao

[mermaidsirennikita]

the tudors, twq, twp, tsp and reign rank them from best to worst and explain why

Best: Reign.  

Easily.  I know, it’s a teen soap opera and it’s dumb as hell with all these random fashion house 21st century clothes and magic and THE DARKNESS and Bash out in the woods.... killing people....   And it did have one unforgivable storyline that almost ruined the show for me.  But Reign knew what it was.  It never tried to sell its story as the truth.  It actually had fairly complex female characters in Mary, Catherine, and to an extent towards the end even Elizabeth.  I appreciate that the show went there with them doing shitty things...  But you could tell that the writers loved them and didn’t want to “punish” them, as the PG adaptations always do.  There was a real love behind Reign, lol, and I also think that the fantastic chemistry between Mary and Catherine, as well as Mary and Francis and Catherine and Francis, kept the show so memorable.

2. The Tudors.  

Mainly for the actresses?  Mainly for the actresses.  I will always love Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn and Maria Doyle Kennedy’s Catherine of Aragon.  Despite the inaccuracies of the show, those two got the spirit of the women really well imo, especially in season 2.  Maria’s Catherine had that dignity and self-righteous belief, to the point that she played the game she wanted vs. perhaps the the game that would have given her the best results.  It’s that self-belief that can only be found in a true religious zealot who has a hell of a lot of belief in her own (corrupt) family.  And while Anne Boleyn was a bit of a cipher vamp in the first season...  Ugh, her arc is so good in the second season.  Her highs, her lows, her desperation--it all played so true without making her this overly perfect heroine.  I also really liked Tamzin Merchant’s Katherine Howard (oh poor baby) and the other wives were well-played too, even if I didn’t love the writing.  Can’t forget Sarah Bolger’s Mary either!  So good.  

So like...  This show was always fucking inconsistent, sometimes borderline insensitive, but like.  The musical cues were great.  I did love that shot of Henry eating a swan in an episode with a swan motif that represented his intense evil and the fact that he could only get a new mate by killing the old one.  I do like that this show really did make me feel like Henry was an EVIL MOTHERFUCKER after a certain point.  Like.  Yes.  There would still be moments of “lmao Henry” or even “Henry is kinda awesome riiiight” (no).  But the end of season 2 played him up to be so VILE (I remember watching the scene of him acting disgusted by his miscarried fetal child with Anne, like it was some dead bird, with my parents back in the day, and they both were like okay fuck this dude forever he’s a monster).  I appreciate that.  I do think The Tudors was far less sympathetic to its protagonist than, say, The Borgias was with Rodrigo, and I prefer that kind of take.  I also love Cromwell.  I don’t think JRM was particularly well-cast, but he had some funny moments and he tried his best with old Henry.... it wasn’t right for him and his acting choices are always kinda bizarre to me, but they worked better here than they do on most other things I see with him?  It’s a mixed bag, but there are really brilliant moment.

3. The White Queen

Not a good show.  Not good.  But!  There were good performances.  Rebecca Ferguson was good, Amanda Hale brought that fanatical aspect of Maggie B. out while also being kinda hilarious, James Frain (who was also a standout on The Tudors) is always a good medieval villain, and I really really do like Aneurin’s Richard III, even though his edit was confusing.

Also, out of all of the PG adaptations I think that this one at least sorta did the most with the witchcraft shit without just being like “THE CURSE!!!!11″.  Like.  If you’re going to lean into witchcraft, just do it.  And I know this is controversial--I do not think Elizabeth of York had an affair with her uncle.  But I also don’t really care if a show as dumb as the PG series goes for that aspect if it’s well done.  It’s not well done here.  BUT IT IS FUCKING HILARIOUS.  Let us remember that I once had a url referencing Richard’s creepy uncle status on this fucking show.

“ELIZABETH... you’ve changed”.  You saw her like a month ago bro.

“If I bed my niece--IF I MAKE THEM THINK I’M BEDDING MY NIECE” a line on this show.

And I will always fondly remember the outrage when people were like “he’s not really doing it Anne Neville and Richard for life” (never mind that Anne Neville is basically a blank page historically, and was used on this show as a flat character everyone could project everything onto, with a flat romance to boot) but then the Starz edit came out months later and it turned out THEY FUCKED IN A TENT.  Oh how smug I was.  Fond memories.

4. The White Princess.

Pros: Elizabeth of York and Henry VII are so well played!!!  Jasper Tudor swanning about always reliable with the LADIESSSS, Michelle did her best with Maggie B. God bless her.

But this was also where they began the trend of the heroines of previous series being evil in the new series.  And the illogical turn of acting like Elizabeth of York was wrong to take her brother out when he was literally threatening the lives of her husband and her sons.  The Perkin Warbeck thing was Bad.  The rape was Bad and basically has to be ignored in order for you to enjoy the series at all.

5 (the worst) The Spanish Princess.

So.  The previous shows could always, even when the shit hit the fan, rely on Performance.  Adelaide, Toby, and Michelle in Reign; Natalie and Maria on The Tudors, then later Sarah and Tamzin et al.; Rebecca and Amanda, etc in TWQ; Jodie and Michelle, etc in TWP.  Now.  There are good actors in the Spanish Princess.  I do like older Henry and Lizzie.

But Charlotte just cannot fucking do this shit.  The chick who plays Juana cannot do this shit.  The streeeeetches made to make Catherine of Aragon seem like she has it coming later?  The fucking REEEEACHES re: Henry VIII in every sense?  No thanks.  And it isn’t even hot, because Henry looks young EVEN THO HE’S WAY OLDER THAN HE WOULD BE IRL GROSS GROSS GROSS.

A mess.

[whenuwishuponanerd]

GOT Series Finale thoughts & musings SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

I don’t think any of us expected the writing to be good, so let’s get that out of the way since it hasn’t been good for a generous two seasons, an honest three, and a arguable four. 

The biggest flaw imo has been how rushed everything is, and you really felt it in this episode, which is ironic because it was very slow and choppy. The pacing this episode was atrocious imo. 

Now onto thoughts I had while watching this episode: 

-Why was Arya there are the beginning? They showed her leaving last episode, now she’s stuck around, but isn’t going to even try to kill Dany, what’s the point? And then she does leave, but we don’t see it? Very odd decision. 

-Minor but when did Dany have time to get that outfit? I appears to be like the next day at latest wth lmao

-I don’t understand the writing for Tyrion at all. Why would be confront her so publicly, why even vocalize how you feel towards it? That’s already been made plenty clear...My only thought is that he was so despondent that he was wrong and had killed Varys believing in Dany that he just figured it was time for him to die, but all in all that’s very odd. And why not just kill him there tbh? She did that with Varys. Seems like plot armour, I’m afraid. 

-”the war is over now” WHY IS JON SO STUPID? Jon has always been a bit dim like Ned but holy fuck they wrote him so trash this season, especially this episode. 

-I marked and wrote “32 minutes in and it’s moving very slowly” sure there’s cool shots of tyrant Dany giving epic speeches but c’mon 

-Dany-Jon kiss and kill scene feels very soap opera omg

-wrote: “THANK FUCK SHE’S DEAD”

-THOUGH, it seemed way to easy. With how suspicious she and Greyworm have been over Jon and his ilk, very odd that it was that simple all in all. 

-Honestly, I didn’t expect Drogon to outlive his mama, Thought they’d have to kill him to get to her

-uhhhh where is he taking her LOL 

-Jon shoulda just cleaned that shit up and been like Drogon took her for a ride dunno what happened yo

-Honestly, the pacing and transitions this episode are godawful, perhaps the worst they’ve ever been 

-I hate this trash council scene. The Edmure stuff is painful. Why bring him back like this? I mean they didn’t even bother acknowledging him and this is them bringing him back wtf Awkward and not funny the whole scene is odd, except for Sam, Tyrion and Sansa’s parts

-Oh hello Robyn Arynn of the Teat

-I mean, I don’t get the people thinking either Dany or Jon was gonna take the throne so....

-Ok, Bran is king but it’s kinda lame how they’ve written him since he’s basically a personality-less bag of trash these days

-Oh and his story isn’t the most interesting Tyrion, even your’s is more interesting, don’t lie, Imp

-So is Bran a villain or nah? I mean he knew all this was gonna go down and didn’t care to try and change any of it? Or what? I’m suspicious of this broken bitch

-57 endings commence!

-This whole bitch one long epilogue that doesn’t tell us shit LOL

Ok things I did like, to one degree or another: 

-TYRION AND SANSA SURVIVED THANK YOU BABY JESUS

-Sansa talking bout how Bran’s dick is also broke not just his legs okay good

-Sansa standing up for the North and becoming an independent queen

-Tyrion back at the council, and the council in general, very good 

-Jon finally reuniting with Ghost (thought he would) and being married to Torumd his pretty cool. Always liked him with Wilding redheads over dragon bitches anyway. 

-Sansa’s coronation outfit stole this whole bitch show, ya’ll better bow down, Littlefinger wanking off in hell over this and you know it

-Davos finally getting some respect, he deserves more and ya’ll know it 

-Arya becoming Christopher Colombus and going off to colonize Americos for the North, niiiiiiiice 

IN CONCLUSION

this is all I can think of right now. 

RIP GOT 

[psi-psina]

sorry girls

I can’t stop thinking about Dany and how this ending may reflect her ending in the books and what might happen to get her to that point. :/

I think it’s not just possible but honestly even very likely that Dany will, at the very least, bring down The Red Keep completely and posssiiblllyyyy raze King’s Landing in one of the two following books but I have a VERY hard time thinking that that will be the final denoument of her entire character arc in the books, like I genuinely can’t see it happening like that. Even in the show where they did  (purposefully? idk if they even deserve that much credit) give her these more entitled/egomaniacal traits whenever she had to be commanding/regal, it still doesn’t makes sense even in the show, but that is primarily because they failed to give her even a slightly believable motive for doing such a thing after she had already conquered the city? They can claim she is “mad” and try to equate her actions with Cersei’s all they want but before that moment she has never shown a hint of having such ~madness~ in her lmfao. It’s ridiculous. Not to mention because her distrust of the people around her is literally completely justified because they all turn on her the second they smell an alternative to the foreign dragon lady. Like, Jon betrays her then Varys betrays her then Tyrion betrays her. One two three. I do find that interesting because I think this could also possibly be a thing they’ve mangled from the books...Quaithe warns Dany repeatedly of the three betrayals she will endure and Dany assumes she has already experienced two of them (Jorah and...whom?) but this could point to it being otherwise, which would be totally in line with how Martin treats prophecies in the narrative. It seems very likely the prophecised betrayals will be commited by far more significant characters at far more crucial junctures.

I’m certain she will lose one of her dragon’s to Victarion/the dragonbinder and since Victarion is basically already in Slaver’s Bay in the book’s, I would expect that to happen in TWOW if it’s gonna happen (which it has to...chekov’s gun and all), and I think that loss could definitely be a huge hinge for her character and prompt a much darker turn. We know she will be back with the Dothraki for a while and almost certainly will burn all the Khal’s in Vaes Dothrak and probably be named the stallion that mounts the world or some such by the Dosh Khaleen (would be poetic + epic), and she also has two other priests coming for her to name her Azor Ahai reborn...but aside from that I have very little idea as to where she will end up in the next book. I have a feeling she will at least end up in Volantis, but possibly even back in Pentos? Idk. Unless she gets news of Aegon and literally drops everything and legs it back to Westeros because him lol, who knows.

Like I feel almost certain that Dany will die in the end in the books, but I ALSO was certain that JON would die too, especially because he is literally a fire-wight now bc he’s already fucking dead? Like? He’s gonna be brought back for a reason and nothing in the fucking world will convince me that that reason is to kill Dany until I am forced to read it with my own eyes. (Obviously I expect that in the books Jon’s character arc will like somehow meaningfully tie in with the fight/defeat of The Others as well lmao)

Also like, I just need a moment to get off my chest how shitty and awful I think Sansa’s scripting is, like it’s even worse than last season and like with all the characters, I absolutely hate that this is what they turned her in to. It’s fucking stupid to start with, the Starks and the north want independance  from the Throne, yes, but also specifically (in the show) from Cersei with whom they have a rather large grudge. So in waltzes Dany who has a giant army and presents a whole host of possibilities for the north as a powerful ally/alternative and is also acting AGAINST her own interests in order to like, save them all from the ice zombies and Sansa is too stupid and small-minded to even show basic courtesy, but actually cannot WAIT to tell Dany what an inconvenience she is? Bitch what is WRONG with you, as if Lady Sansa would ever behave in such a rude, dumbass way in a fraught political situation, let alone one in which they NEED THE HELP ON OFFER which she and Arya openly acknowledge kajsndf lmfao I can’t its too stupid. It’s the dumbest soap opera bullshit. Like sorry! Ya’ll going on about Sansa pouring dumb bitch juice in everyone elses cup is ridiculous, she shows no more political savvy than Jon does, overseeing the running of a castle day to day doesn’t make you some political genius, she’s literally just a fucking asshole now and I can’t stand her. Like some of the shit she wanted to do last season was beyond stupid. But like obviously I also know she is only written this way in order to ~seed~ the sudden emergence of Dany’s maddness lmfao they could give less of a fuck about Sansa as a character than like....actually IS there a character they give a single toss about? Bronn and Euron, we know they love Bronn and Euron and care about them, huh. And Tyrion I suppose. A pity they couldn’t bring themselves to feel the same way about like, Jon or Dany or Bran.

 It’s not like Dany’s scripting is any better when it comes to their interaction’s though, every single one of them made me want to scream lmao I hate it so much.

I already RAGED about Arya’s scripting last season, like that season was the final death knell for her character and this season it’s Dany and Sansa’s turn but ho boy no one in this entire show got done dirtier than Dany. Not Stannis or Dorne or Meereen or Catelyn or Oberyn or Barristan, none. Because in comparison to Dany these characters and settings simply aren’t at the heart of the story like Dany and Jon are lmfao.

[kavernathy]

my ex-coworker's now-ex wife decided he and i were having an affair because i called him "dude"

story time

i work at a non-profit and in late summer of '21 we hired this guy to run one of our programs. he was pretty good at it. when he first started, he was really excited at the prospect of being able to serve his community and apply his skills to the job. we were thrilled to have him, as the program he ran was pretty intense and the rest of us didn't have the bandwidth to handle it on top of our own workloads.

one day he brings his wife in to show her the office and meet all of us. we'll call her jenny. both this coworker and jenny are in their 50's, i am in my 30's. jenny seemed really nice, and wanted to volunteer for our organization. like any non-profit that relies on volunteer support, we happily trained her and put her out in the field. by all accounts she did a great job and the clients appreciated her service.

my coworker, we'll call her elaine, mentioned to me that jenny kept trying to friend her on her socials. not totally out of bounds, but a bit strange. then my office manager, who i'll refer to as sophie, told me that jenny kept inviting her out for a drink but would either cancel at the last minute or ghost her. huh.

in october, i get married to my husband, who i am madly in love with and have been with for 9 years.

the new year rolls around and my coworker starts working from home. i'm told this is because jenny is a nurse and he's at high risk of getting covid-19, didn't want to bring it to the office. this made sense at the time, ofc.

finally in late january of '22, i get a friend request on one of my socials from jenny. i message her and let her know that i keep my work life and my personal life separate, and i don't friend people from work. that is a very strict boundary of mine that i drew because my past experiences have informed me that it's just a simpler way to live.

now i know one can't really parse tone out in text messages, especially if you don't really know the other person, but she sent a creepy ass response that was like, "oh tee-hee silly, i don't actually work with you!"

i responded that this was a boundary of mine and i politely asked her to respect it.

her reply to that was something to the effect of, "haha ok [my coworker] and i don't really make work friends either, and remember, no nicknames!" the fuck? i thought. nicknames? i realized she meant when i call him "bud" or "dude". then it hit me - this absolute dork thinks i am having an affair with her husband and she is trying to spy on me to catch me. lmao. ohhhh nooo.

i am insulted for several reasons. one, i deeply love my husband and we are monogamous. two, i have... higher standards than that. three, bitch are you serious? because i called him "bud" and "dude"? i tried to play it cool. i told her i didn't know what she was talking about, that this seemed to be something between her and her husband, and i didn't want to be anywhere near it. i blocked her. fuck all that.

thing is, my coworker and i occasionally share projects and our office is not set up for us to efficiently do our work remotely. and shortly after jenny being weird at me over socials i realized that my coworker was working from home as a performative act to reassure jenny that he wasn't having an affair with me, and it was my boss's idea.

this is a stupid move for a couple reasons. probably most obvious is that it makes getting work done difficult. but really, what looks guiltier than completely upending your work life to accommodate your spouse's wild notions? it's practically a signed confession, the way i see it.

i called my boss and my boss's boss and demanded that they do better than this. that this was fucking absurd. we don't live in a soap opera, y'all. i assure you, i am a deliriously happy newlywed and devoted to my husband. the most i do in my free time is eat cheesy popcorn and play video games. my coworker was back in the office the following week.

however, his mental health was clearly suffering. he lost a ton of weight and was ghostly pale. he was like that for months.

in the end, he divorced her. i heard through the grapevine that jenny had totally lost it. turns out she hid a significant mental illness from my coworker and decided to stop taking her meds after she """""found out about the affair"""""". when they got divorced, jenny took my coworker's dogs in the settlement.

he later quit, bought a van, a plot of land in hawaii, and fled mainland usa just to get away from her.

i had to delete my linkedin profile and lock all the rest of my socials up tight, as there was evidence of her watching me. she still could be, for all i know.

all because i called her husband "dude".

[monolid-monologues]

this dream about you ruined my morning. LOL. (& how do you retell a dream? especially an embarrassing one?)

when: last night slash this morning. [that’s today, Thursday June 27th]

 it was one of those *you wake up and know you left an intense dream* *go back to sleep because this fucker of a dream needs an ending* 

i could almost call it a nightmare,  if based purely on the harrowing and very real physical toll it had on my body when i really got up from it. 

I re-woke to my second and Emergency alarm (that’s the “get the fuck up now bitch go straight to work do not pass go do not pick up an eyeshadow brush do not eat breakfast get your headass into the car and maybe you won't be viciously tardy”) and my ANKLES WERE LITERALLY SORE?? my head pounding something Awful. And like my chest. Felt such a bitch. Stiff, contracted, and dry. 

you ever been like HUNGOVER from a dream????

* * *

i don't want to call it a nightmare, though,  because it was about you.

And you were/are not a nightmare. lol.  You just...happened. and it passed.

What this is, Is: i had this dream about you, and i fucking hated it LOL

IT’S A FIRST. AND I NEED TO PROCESS IT . BECAUSE i dont get it. i don’t get why i had it. i am so caught off guard by it. i am scared of it. i am scared i even had A dream of you.

and i refuse to let it just bury inside me. i’m going to claw this thing out and take a good mfkin look at it.

OKAY. now that that’s established...

(ugh.... it feels like i’m about to embark into some bitter medicine.)

* * *

we ran into each other...in an apartment?

I was in the living room with my “friends” in the dream A.K.A obscure, obscure acquaintances whose faces i cannot place or recall. 

and like any good dream, out of the god damn blue, comes trawling through a pack of Your friends. or family. or both. and your own face hazily blurring by in the mix. headed thru the nearest hallway, towards one of the bedrooms.

I catch your brother's face (i never even met your brother before lmfao) most crystalline clear among them. and he is the one who stops to meet me as the rest shuffle away.

I immediately recognized him (from pictures. i'd seen pictures IRL), we strike introductions, and conversation. i remember saying "you're his brother!" and other incredibly facile but in that moment in that dream very genuine sentiments. but still we can cringe at how unrealistic and un-grounded in reality they were. things like " i always knew i'd like you" (what the fuck, right) and "wow why does it feel we’ve already met (what the fuck. LOL.) and if we CAN ignore the DELIRIOUSNESS of my REM concoction here, i'd like you to accept with suspension of belief that me and this stranger, me and your brother, did become - in this dream moment - effortlessly chummy. We became instinctively on each other's sides (it still sounds delirious. damn it.  Don't share your dreams willy-nilly, folks, it is not smart to expose your fucking dumbly vivid irrationales lol).

We were getting on like old fuckin friends, what the fuck can i say. It's the fictional truth. 

Then our convo gets to the Grit. The punch in the gut. he tells me you're here. in this apartment. of course i could’ve put that together but the confirmation is CONFIRMING. Palpable - the settling in of the fact that you and i were..both..here.

A many-voltage shock. and i only snap out of it, and the frozen moment only melts back to action when i feel you feel that same shock. And right away, i "hear"...or was it "see"?....your presence / energy dash out of the bedroom in which you and your group were in. And you lock yourself into the bathroom.

A collective "what the hell" is shared between me and my new-but-old dreamworld friend. your brother. We step past the bathroom you are now occupying. We enter the bedroom. I see the rest of your peoples.  Once again, Faceless peoples. i don't know that any of these were REAL peoples, any of your actual peoples in real life. Dreams! what're you gonna do? 

Me vs. your peoples, though. It starts as awkward. Your brother tries to smooth things.

I remember warmth starting to emerge. I'm sure I wanted warmth, and since it was my dream, probably i manipulated events to make it so. I am keeping that in mind about this dream from start to finish, by the way.  My brain manufactured all of this. Why? Fuck Me if i want to know. honestly.

But without knowing why, i still saw the What. (& this whole entire What gave me a serious kink in my neck this morning, like i never even know what a kink was until i got up and groaned.)

The What, at this point, after me and this room begin to warm up to each other: I mean, its only appropriate in such a dream that we land on the next Gut punch. The next revelation. (the brain sure knows who to TELL A STORY. DAMN.)

They tell me that..... FUCK, pause. Pause. PAUSE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ABOUT TO SAY THIS. WRITE THIS. ADMIT TO THIS. 

ugh how else can i say this without causing every internal organ in my body to cringe in unison and threaten whole bodily shutdown for the entirety of the time it takes for my parts to Un-Cringe themselves. i could die. 

i wish to die.

i won't die. let me continue. *deep breathe*

They tell me that you want me back. 

Oh my god i want to laugh and cry and barf at the same time - me in real life, me now - not me in the dream. Well maybe me in the dream. But speaking from the conscious VERY-NOT-ASLEEP P.O.V of my self at present, it really hurts to say that because...i dreamed that. I can't believe i dreamed a dream in which you say "you want me back".

I cringe because you, and me, might think oh, that's what she secretly wants.

No. It. Is. Not.  And i know this, but you can't, unless i tell you outright like this "I DON'T". and even then, because of this dream, i may be relinquishing my right to protest that contention. "Well clearly your deep inner psyche is saying different blah blah wah wah" says the PSEUDO-SCIENTIST IN US ALL. Whatever, that was exhausting, lol, i said what i said and i dreamed what i dreamed.

If you *are* *asking* *me*, i will tell you with incredibly clear eyes: no, i didn't dream you saying that because it was what i wanted. i don't know why i dreamed that, but how about i get to the end now, before we jump to more conclusions:

i hear that, and - what magically appears? A piece of paper, with old feelings written..no, scrawled.. all over it. There's blank space near the end.

There's a collective agreement that you are not coming out of the bathroom anytime soon. Is it a red flag to Dream Me that you are HIDING IN THE FKN BATHROOM? LOL NO. 

in fact i think Dream Me thought it was cute. "aw he's shy" rather than "what the fucking coward". 

Oooo. Was that harsh. and i oop--

I begin to write my "current" (quotes to remind you this IS THE RE-TELLING OF A DREAM, A NON-REALITY!!!) feelings. surprisingly, they were a smidgen closer to my actual feelings today, but still, it was a dream, and my REM brain is setting me up for some happy ending i think. So what do i write? I write something along the lines of "i don't want to be together but i did miss you and i do want to kiss you".

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool throw tomatoes at me NOW.

MOVING ON: I remember the room is now crackling with hope, and optimism,  and your peoples are cooing "how cute" (which is hilarious in hindsight because this is not cute at all, it is very very weird)

and then the vibes get *~*~dramatic~*~ for a pinch: a confession from your brother: -this part i'm dead ass even as ludicrous and irrelevant as it seems-

he says to me: “i know he said i'm his brother, but i'm not. Actually, he's the brother. *points to a faceless figure* and i'm the good friend.” and it was like one of those soap opera revelation moments.  I don’t know why.

Why does this detail...?? matter??? appear??  Well let me add that, it was like...so familiar. this "uncovering" of a lie. REAL QUICK I'm not saying the man in question is a liar. that’s NOT it at all. I suspect the familiarity lied in my past experiences of feeling "not let in" or "held at a distance”. & I was doing my own damn lying, to myself. I was doing my own emotionally irresponsible business. /ending that there.

Point is, the "confession" was unnerving and it was almost like an omen. Like WHY Would you lie about something like that??? I couldn’t understand it!

But did i still want to leave this note?

And i, in the dream, did. still want to. So I give up the note to your peoples with intentions of it reaching you.

But of course, before i can leave, You come pummeling in.

I guess you were done with your really long shit or you were tired of hiding.

But the way you came in, i remember this motion picture vividly: you don’t greet me, you make a beeline straight past me, you insulate yourself behind your peoples, and your energy feels incredibly apprehensive. like you’re on Defense. Like someone’s come to attack you. Like what? And i’m so confused and so uneasy that i can’t wait to leave, without even wanting a word from you. This, the same person who wants me back they say? This, the same person who I called on for “a kiss” (UGHAHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMAO!)

Your brother-turned-friend hands you the note. 

I see that you got it.

I see you paw it, and start to look at it.

I feel an edge of regret but i let it be. what i wrote reflected how i felt, i affirm with myself.

and i leave

but while walking out, i’m already reconsidering: "okay it reflected how i felt, before i personally contacted THAT energy, his energy, his avoidance, his marked apprehensiveness"

and i storm back 

when you were just about to dig into it

and i snatch it from your hands

but you held on and

in my determined snatching, i rip back the bottom half as you stare at me and shred the rest of it yourself. shred the half that remained in your hands into tiny ugly pieces.

like shrapnel, and it flutters around you, and your stare is intense, and intact, and i wonder if this was satisfying to you.

i burst out of that room, so angry, so fucking disturbed that you could've read something nice but i didn't want you to read something nice.

No, i was so dissatisfied by the non-greeting, the haphazard waltzing and pacing in the room for the brief moments we shared space,

i was vengeful

i tore the "something nice" before you could receive it.

And then I was horrified by the way you let the rest of it rip up in your hands and disappear like the rest of it (the part i'd taken back).

* * *

I got jumped by my own dream. HOW DID IT -- I--

I mean. What a load of Holy Hell.

And i still, resist, calling it a nightmare, because,

that's not accurate to how i actually remember you.

I remember you fondly.

and the most stressful part of when i look back at our time together

wasn't even you. 

i always, even at the low points, felt a really deep joy from being around you.

The most stressful part when i look back was who I was then.

From where i stand now, i look back and shake my head the most ferociously at who i was, how i was, and what i was missing. what i needed. what i wasn't making sure to get.

have i forgiven Myself? 

maybe that's why This Dream.

//////

AN AFTER THOUGHT: perhaps what is truly horrifying about this dream is 1) how childish it was. 2) why the fuck did i have a dream about you like @brain that was so uncalled for bruh 

////

Edit: An afterthought 24 hours later= My impulse was to recount this dream in detail. I belabored this account, everything i could possibly remember about it, in addition to belaboring that though this DOES seem significant, it DOES NOT mean i still have the same feelings for this mf. 

Now i am able to revisit it, in all its cringe detail glory. I have a lot more perspective on why this dream, and what it might mean to me. WOW the power of writing.