#I think I saw online that not that many people liked this episode because of the main concern that Friede usually saves the day

[fluffs-n-stuffs]

Finally catching up on the Horizons episodes I missed 👍

[satoryuga]

Honestly, it's a fault of mine but I'm very sensitive and I cried a lot over this, even right now. I tried to report that blog days ago, but I was told in the report response it would remain because no violations were found. I sent another report today, but it feels helpless.

I don't understand anything about what's happening.. I was told often here before that I should block people who are rude to me or doing things that make me feel uncomfortable, but I did that so I'm being punished? There are people who go there and say they want me to be harmed, beaten or raped. To have my home address and have other information about myself shared online like it’s nothing... I'm seriously very much afraid, so much so that I can't even go to my home and staying with my parents now. I think the people who can follow this person and send messages of encouragement are also very scary and evil people.

I've always kept quiet and never said rude things to anyone, despite the terrible messages that would come in every day on this website before I closed the message function. I've never been treated like this in any other gif sharing place I go to. Many sisters in my life told me not to interact with English speaking friends because if they find fault with you and make them angry, they'll call you with misogyny like you've never seen before. "You will be attacked for being born a woman who dared to be happy" is what my gif Twitter friend told me.

I would like to keep posting gif here. Because gif here is a very different format from what I was used to, so I could be a little creative. By being here, I learned how to make subtitles in gif that I was able to present the entire scene of beautiful words for this place and my Korean gif sharing community.

There were people who were nice to me, and there were people I was happy when I saw their user ID interaction with my posts. It has an invisible link but I would like to believe that not everyone was waiting secretly for the opportunity to say that they hope for my rape and abuse. Likewise, I would like to believe that there are people who will not be friendly when someone agrees that I should be harmed.

I'd like to come in again for the Donbrothers this time and the time after until the end, but I'd like to say that I don't want to interact with people who say terrible or disgusting things. Don't force myself to endure it. I really don't want to.

Even though I say I want to post again for the next episode, but I'm really so afraid, I might not have the strength to come in. My heart is so broken, all I can feel is betrayal and fear. It hurts so much. I don’t know if I can heal from this, so it’s best for me to remain with my family and stay away for a while so I can breathe again.

Thank you very much for everything up until now. I hope that this translation can be understood. My hands are shaking and I've crying over and over, so I might not have typed well enough for a coherent translation.

[luckthebard]

So this is a very niche rant that is probably only something I've noticed or been annoyed by, but:

The longer Critical Role has gone on and the more changes they've made/content they've created, there's been an increase in weird people who are desperate and determined to prove that changes or content they don't like are "an objective failure" - but often lie or deliberately misunderstand viewership statistics to do so.

There are a few big "facts" I see repeated by people to argue that CR has "gone in the wrong direction" that are just plain wrong, and I think what annoys me most is seeing so many people engage with those "facts" without bothering to double-check them or push back against the certainty with which people state them. An example of one I keep seeing now is "twitch streaming numbers are down" and it's like, yeah, sure, in comparison to when they didn't simultaneously air on YouTube. If you add up the YT and Twitch numbers these days it's about the same as mid-late C2, but people love to act like YT streaming doesn't exist to make a point that "people don't like C3". And I tbh don't care if people like or dislike C3 but why this determination to falsely quantify and validate a personal preference?

The earliest I saw this was an intense agreement on reddit that Exandria Unlimited was a "failure" for CR, "unlike Undeadwood," because viewership numbers were lower. And it was tbh baffling to not see pushback against that narrative, because it's just objectively untrue. Original EXU's VOD streaming numbers are higher than every single episode of Undeadwood, and it premiered literally years later. It also has a lower "drop-off" in viewership (comparison of how many views episode 1 vs the finale has) than Undeadwood, despite frequent claims to the contrary. And don't mistake me here, I really enjoyed Undeadwood, but it actually was a viewership misstep for CR to the degree that they didn't try anything like it again for a while after and significantly changed how they approached marketing and airing miniseries. (A big one being: don't air a long miniseries simultaneously with the main series, it's too much content for most people to invest in during a week.)

(Sidebar, but another great miniseries CR did that didn't get a lot of viewership love is the Elder Scrolls Online trilogy, so I'm going to plug it here. It has some weirdly low viewership numbers on episodes 2 and 3 and I promise you they're both well worth it.)

The other one I keep seeing is "4 Sided Dive has lower numbers than Talks" which is also just not true. Most 4 Sided Dive VODs have nearly twice as many views as Talks VODs (and I'm using the ones that aired directly on the CR channel as a metric here, not the ones re-uploaded from G&S which lost numbers in the change-over). And I'll tbh chalk that up to the fact 4SD airs much less frequently - people are more likely to think it's necessary to watch whereas with Talks if you weren't interested in the guests you might skip a week. I'm not making any claims about the quality of either show, but the use of false viewership statistics to support "one of these sucks" is so rampant and so weird.

All this to say that yesterday I saw a weird viewer-hungry YouTube clickbait video titled "Midst a FAILURE for Critical Role!!" with a truly absurd confidence on what the VOD streaming numbers for the Midst YouTube videos mean for the series mere days after the premier and snapped.

tl;dr, people just make shit up and say whatever on the internet all the time and we hopefully all understand and expect that BUT (and here's the more annoying thing) 9 times out of 10 people just engage with that WITHOUT LOOKING INTO IT THEMSELVES

[deathlygristly]

Saw this linked on my dash: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513638/

Saw this sentence: "Important research on empathy and altruism has demonstrated that enhancing perspective taking, the capacity to see a person’s situation from his or her point of view, coupled with enhanced value being placed on the welfare of those who are unfamiliar can override bias."

And honestly it made me think of some reactions I've seen to the kdrama Queen of Tears.

The premise of the show is that a middle class guy met a chaebol (member of a family that owns a giant corporation) woman without knowing her family owned the company he worked for, and they fell in love. They got married, but it turns out marrying into a chaebol can be awful. Plus they had a miscarriage and afterwards his wife internalized everything and refused to communicate or show any emotion, so he felt extremely alone. When she ordered everything in the nursery to be thrown away without consulting him about it, he moved into the nursery as his separate bedroom.

So their relationship is in a really bad place when the show starts, her family treats him horribly, they overwork him, etc. He hates his life and he wants out, and he's trying to figure out if he can get a divorce. But then his wife is diagnosed with brain cancer and he finds out that short of a miracle, she'll die in a few months.

His first reaction to hearing this is to be happy that he'll be free soon. This made a fair few people very upset. Some people dropped the show because of it (which sucks to be them because it's awesome and it's so popular in South Korea that it's getting special episodes after it finishes) and some are doing the anti thing about it and I heard some even ship the female lead with the male character who manipulated her family and took over their company and who threatens and hurts dogs?

Anyway, I'm wondering how much of the whole "anti" mess and weird purity stuff about fiction is an inability to take the perspective of others, even fictional others. Like maybe the people who got so upset aren't able to put themselves in the shoes of someone who's been suffering for years and who finally sees a way out. And yes, of course it's a temporary feeling and he still does love his wife and the show is based on them healing their relationship and coming back together. So yeah, I don't know. Just was struck by the thought that maybe so many opinions on fiction that I find weird online come from people who can't take the perspective of others.

[haikirii]

Paranormal Order Community Survival Guide (and other things you need to know for Saturday)

Ok, let's start. First of all, I've been in the Paranormal Order community since the first live season announcement. I've seen this community change so many times and I think it would be cool to warn a few things for those who are going to see Saturday's episode with the global creators.

Despite the recent problems - which have been translated here - the community is not complicated to deal with, you just need to know where to enter and where to stay to have a good experience. So, here are some tips.

1 - Watch the rpg live with the chat CLOSED.

The Paranormal Order live chat IS NOT the regular stream chat. This is one of the biggest tabletop RPG projects in Brazil and, because of this, it is very difficult to have 100% control of the chat.

Obviously, the moderators already have years of experience to deal with. The chat will be 100% in submode and only the Tuesday chat, which is when the episode replays for those who missed it on Saturday, will be open to everyone.

However, this does not prevent hate comments from happening in the chat, as many do not watch Cellbit regularly and just sub to talk in the chat/watch the episode without ads. It's no joke, the rpg chat is known for being a toxic chat that has made players cry in the middle of the session when it was still online.

2 - If you see any hate, ignore it or make a joke.

It's more of a personal recommendation. Even within the community, the essential thing is to ignore hate that has few likes or things like that so it doesn't spread OR turn into a copypasta.

Generally on Twitter it's easier to ignore, because you can just filter things and rarely does anyone post hate on the tag where we comment the live.

MAYBE hate can happen from outside the community, we have suffered a lot of hate for years because it is a "nerd thing" and/or it is a Cellbit's project, which receives a lot of hate here in Brazil and we suffered from hate for a long time. I don't know if it will happen in this episode since the community is much larger, but it's just a warning that it could happen.

But as the old saying goes in the fandom: talking bad about Order gets likes on Twitter.

3 - Some people who watch Ordem are unhappy.

Nothing really serious, but some people in the community don't like QSMP out of sheer annoyance with the project and are frustrated with Saturday's episode because they expected something from the main story - which they've already been warned won't happen until Enigma of Fear comes out.

Which brings us to the Discord situation that I mentioned at the beginning of the post. Just situating what is happening, ignore these people and support Cellbit, which is doing his best.

Paranormal Order is his life project, we all want to give as much support as possible despite these people who call themselves fans and seem to hate the project.

4 - General dates and stuffs.

It's an independent story from the main story and will be in English, so don't worry about needing to watch past seasons to understand because the basis will be explained in the episode.

The episode will happen live on Saturday, September 23rd at 6pm BRT. I saw some people asking and no, it's not a pre-recorded video being show in live, everything is 100% done on the spot.

If you missed the episode, a rerun will take place on Tuesday at the same time and the vod will be for subs only. However, you can still wait until it comes out Thursday on YouTube for free on the official channel.

On average, typical episodes last 4-5 hours. However, as it is a oneshot, it may last 6 hours but Cellbit always warns you in advance if the episode is too long.

The episodes have breaks for you to go to the bathroom or stretch your legs and for the players to rest a little.

The Order fandom does a LOT of live tweets at the time of the episode, the fun is seeing everyone commenting together so we use a # specific to each campaign. In this campaign, we will use #OPQ and you can also use it to post memes and fanarts.

When the episode starts, you will be notified on the official Twitter. But there are two things: IT'S ALWAYS DELAYED and THERE'S ALWAYS A TIMER. So don't worry about arriving at exactly 6pm BRT, you'll have a little time to prepare until the episode actually starts.

5 - We organize ourselves on Twitter.

The order fandom is very active on Twitter and always does dynamics with all profiles and we upload a sentence on the day of the episode to give hype. Even Wiki and some official Order players participate.

We are still deciding on the phrase we will upload to tts, so if you want to help, just keep an eye on the brazilians in the fandom. However, the pack has already been decided and if you want to participate in the fun. Here's what my profile looks like.

I think this is the basis of what you need to know, maybe I'll reblog adding things later if I remember too much. The Ordem community is not a monster, but I'm giving you these tips so you can live in peace in it.

[jmdbjk]

Episode 2: Adolescence 

Beyond the Star, produced by HYBE Media Studio

They begin by conveying how important concerts are for them. Concerts. Not performances. Concerts.

They thought they “made it” in 2016 when they booked the Olympic Gymnastics Arena for a concert. It was the dream venue for idols at the time and are amazed they are performing there and never imagined they’d have a concert that big.

During the interviews where they are expressing their thoughts about what performing during concerts means to them, we see footage of different concerts illustrating what they are trying to explain. 

Hobi harkens back to their first concert in October 2014 for The Red Bullet tour, at Seoul’s AX Korea with 6,000 in attendance. He says they didn’t care about how many hundreds or thousands were there, they were just so thankful for the fans who came to see them.

Attendance rose at each progressive concert. Their fourth concert in 2015 had 13,500 in attendance at the Seoul Olympic Handball Gymnasium, and their fifth concert in May 2016 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, mentioned at the beginning of this episode, had 25,000 in the audience. They were in awe at how huge it was when they first arrive at that venue, looking out at the empty seats before they began rehearsing.

They were always so emotional during their ending ments, so thankful for what they were experiencing after knowing how hard they’d worked from debut up until the end of each one of those concerts.

In the early years, the hearts of those young men were bursting with passion and to see so many fans supporting them had to be an overwhelming relief, its no surprise their emotions overflowed.

Though they finally saw their hard work being appreciated, the joy was tempered with having to deal with pushback.

One of the things I noticed that was not mentioned yet in Episode 1 was how much pushback, bullying, negativity and hate they received from their peers and other fans outside their team and company from the very first day.

Working their asses off to fulfill their dreams while being faced with all that makes it even more amazing that they stuck with it. 

It was them against the entire kpop industry. We all know how much BTS is hated by other kpop fandoms. We see it daily on the X timeline. The jealousy is real, it's destructive and it's dangerous.

BTS is untouchable now but in 2013, Jungkook was 15 years old. A CHILD! Jin was 20! BigHit had no money. There was a point after debut when they were asked to move out of the dorm because the company couldn't afford it anymore. Underdogs is an understatement, truly what the hell did they think they were doing up against all these established kpop groups, their fandoms and the big 3 companies?

Now, in Episode 2, we start to hear how the guys handled all this. For some of them, they did not handle it very well. Namjoon talks about his panic attacks and how he avoids the internet and going online during a song/album release. 

In Episode 1 we saw Hobi and Jin so thrilled and excited, anxiously waiting and monitoring online their very first album release at midnight on June 13, 2013 and for Namjoon to tell us now he can’t enjoy the thrill of that is so devastating to me. 

When an artist sends their art out into the world, it is like a living part of themselves, an extension of themselves that they lay bare to the world. The visceral reaction of panic when seeing people hate you for it…and the amount of courage it takes to ignore that and keep going and make more art to release into the world…I challenge anyone to show me they have THAT amount of courage.

And I implore you to understand the depths these guys LOVE their fans ESPECIALLY BEFORE THEY WERE BIG to keep doing it in spite of the hate.

Yoongi was incredibly diplomatic when he says “we had a lot of unreasonable controversies.” I would have said "we had a lot of total fucking bullshit that meant nothing thrown at us by a bunch of stupid butt hurt people." There, I fixed it for you, Yoongi.

They had a ludicrous amount of people gunning for them, hating them for being successful, hating them for being different. Jealousy drives people to do the most hateful things.

Jimin says, “having to deny the bad rumors was always so upsetting.”

Namjoon recieved death threats during the Red Bullet Tour. Early on they were accused of chart manipulation because they sold so many albums. This is the company had no money, there was no money to spend on chart manipulation!

They were accused of plagiarism and brought to court and were exonerated because it wasn't true.

Jimin received death threats at the end of the Wings Tour.

Being the humans that they are, with feelings and emotions, Yoongi says they and the fans were getting desperate and spiteful in the face of all this backlash and hate. 

The fan song “2! 3!” was an anomaly. It is somewhat somber for a song dedicated to fans. Most fan songs are light and cheery. But this song fit the emotions BTS was experiencing and bonded them closer with their fans and was again, another instance of the members being sincere and genuine in their expressions. 

The emotional scenes of BTS standing on stage, Army singing the lyrics back at them, waving their purple plastic bagged Army bombs, has to be one of the best memories for them. A truly bonding moment between artist and fan.

December 2016, Mnet Asian Music Awards, they win Artist of the Year. It is their first major award. Yoongi says “in a movie, the ending credits are supposed to roll at this point.”

They’ve reached the top… as they knew it. End of story... 2016? Nope.

Early the next year while they were on the Wings Tour, they were told they were going to the United States for the Billboard Music Awards. No other Korean act had ever done that before. They had no expectations for that trip. They had no idea what they were supposed to do when they got there.

It’s kinda cute seeing them prepare and wondering what to expect. They are so young and you can tell they are trying to figure out if they’re supposed to try to emulate the image of a western pop star.

When they get out of the van at the red carpet event, they all look around the back of the van to the other side of the street and see the fans screaming at them. They knew who the real fans were and they wondered what everyone else thought: perhaps people were just curious about who they were. 

Namjoon wonders how different it may have been had they, the members, been a little more culturally proficient, meaning at that time, they were inexperienced, naive and ignorant about the impact they were making. It was all a big wonder to them at that point. They were thinking “do they even know who we are?” 

Then they win Billboard’s Social Artist award, not a major award but still, it had been won by Justin Bieber for many years prior and now it was BTS’ opportunity to kick in the door. And they did. With all seven pairs of feet. Western artists began to take note and wanted to collaborate with them. The thorn in the western music industry's side had arrived in the form of this team of 7 and their fans.

Yoongi thought it was a one-off token award, but then they were invited to perform at the AMA’s. They can’t believe they’ve made it that far. 

They are soaring and going places they never imagined they’d go. Everything seemed like a fairytale, the success, the adulation, the global attention…

But it was happening too fast, their young minds, their emotional development and sense of self never had a chance to mature and catch up to their work load and the pressures and expectations their image and success placed on them. They never had a chance to stop and assess themselves personally and consider if this level of fame was something they even wanted.

Literally, they never. stopped. working. When they say "we just kept running forward" that is not a euphemism, it is literal.

As soon as one event, concert, appearance, fan meet, photo shoot, shooting Run BTS, music shows, whatever was over, it was on to the next one...from plane to hotel to venue back to hotel back to plane, to be repeated over and over.

In mid-2017, by the time they talked about resting for a while, it was perilously close to being too late. They still had the rest of the Wings Tour to complete through December. Some of them had already considered quitting. Some did not possess the confidence to endure the burden. Some of them wondered if pausing was the right thing since they were doing so well. 

They were confused by how they could be feeling like this after they’d worked so hard to get to this point.

The title of this episode is "Adolescence" and it pertained not only to the members who were just emerging from it and their careers that had gotten past the starting line and now riding an almost out of control rocket to stardom. It also was a point in time for the company trying to get its feet under it, for its leader Bang PD trying to steer this team, to figure out how to manage this worldwide sensation they'd created.

Bang PD had to learn how to deal with his team's enormous success as he watched them begin to burn out. He embraced a philosophy of focusing on the importance for an artist to have autonomy and be happy as a person which was not a thing in the kpop industry at that time. He was worried about their mental well being and their happiness. He suggested a break.

They knew there was an "end" coming eventually. End of contract, military... et al. They pondered the inability to enjoy the fruits of their hard work and that it couldn't "end" with them being unhappy.

We know in 2018 they renegotiated their contracts. 

For a group as close as they were, as committed as they were to their careers and to each other, they had to come together and discuss how they were feeling while being burned out, they had to admit to each other they wanted to quit. We don’t know the nitty-gritty details of how it went down but they worked through it and re-committed to each other and their team.

They didn’t give up and that tells me not a single one of them are quitters.

My own personal thoughts are that they recognized they needed to stop at that specific point in time and regroup. They knew enlistment was coming eventually and the typical life-cycle of a kpop group had been about 7 years when idols aged and younger ones took their place. But they'd reached places in the stratosphere that none other had before. I think they paused, recalibrated and actually let themselves seriously think of a future after enlistment that would allow them to keep up this level of success, to keep pushing boundaries...and therefore they re-evaluated what was in that contract to include things that ensured their well-being so they could grow. That new contract was set to expire this year, well after Jin was supposed to be back from the military and most likely all of them. I am curious to know what that original 2018 contract planning included...

Anyway, I accidentally rambled a lot adding extra context and my own thoughts while watching this episode.

Review of Episode 3 next…

[cupofteainme]

So many weird choises with the social media plot. It didn't work for me for three reasons.

First: It's stupid

The royal court left Simon and Wille completely alone to deal with the media. The court with a massive PR-team relies on the troubled 16-year-old prince to keep his boyfriend's social media behavior in check. Okay. I guess everyone in the court were busy trying to bring some life into Ludvig while Kristina was too sad and no-one thought to give her pills before episode six 🥲 (good thing that hearing how bad parent she is cured her depression)

I read a theory that leaving Wille to handle Simon's social media was intentional on the court's part to drive a wedge between Wille and Simon. It's a good theory if you believe in the evil monarchy (I guess Lisa does). I didn't see any indication about it in the show though. In episode 3 after Simon posts the First of May photo, Farima tells Wilhelm, "Talk to him. Or we will." This makes me think that it was Wilhelm and Simon in the first place who denied the court to have any contact with Simon. That I can believe at some level.

Simon would want his autonomy, but I don't understand his naivety concerning social media, especially since he recently was a victim of a grave online violation and got unwanted attention because of it. I assumed that he was already laying low in regards to social media after the sex video.

Wille was trying to talk to Simon about not posting with sensitivity and he apologises that Simon must do accomodations because of his Crown Prince status. Why didn't Simon listen at all?

Second: It doesn't fit the narrative

I have a hard time understanding why Simon felt so erased after deleting his social media. It was never established in YR universe that social media meant so much to Simon unlike in the case of Felice, for whom it played a big part in season one. She used it to create a version of herself that she felt other people wanted to see. In YR posting on social media has often been about conveying an image: Felice at the stables despite not wanting to ride, August posing at the gym while suffering from eating disorder. It didn't fit the show's use of social media that an authentic person like Simon would feel so sad about deleting his account.

I got the impression that Simon used little social media. It was implied that it was for example his first song that he posted (he got a comment that was surprised he could sing). So social media hadn't been an outlet where he commonly shared his creativity. Simon seemed to be sorry to delete pictures of people he saw all the time anyway, family and close friends. It's not good storytelling that we didn't see any foreshadowing about Simon's feelings towards social media earlier in the show. 

Third: It breaks my heart

The part that actually makes me cry is that it was established in season one that Wille and Simon truly see each other despite their differences. Wille was the first one in Hillerska to treat Simon friendly and be interested in him and it made Simon feel special and seen. In the same way Simon saw Wilhelm as a person first rather than a prince. Isn't that a big part why we fell in love with their love? Isn't Wille the person that makes Simon feel seen and not strangers in his social media? 😭

There where so many things that created or could have created drama between them; the drugs, August, Micke, their different backgrounds, homophobia, classism. I don't think that Simon posting was a needed storyline in the show.

Sorry to be a complete romantic, but the way Simon looks at Wille from season one—I thought he'd happily toss his phone to the lake to finally be with this boy.

[superpowered-dirt]

i never post on here but i have so much in my head about twd: the ones who live i honestly feel like i might explode.

i know all anyone really wants to talk about from episode 2 is That Part of their reunion (which is fair, don't ask me how many times I rewatched it), but now, the part that keeps playing over and over again in my head is this tiny bit:

and i just need to say, danai and andy are so insanely talented bc this clip?? this clip—short as it is, with not a world of dialogue—says SO much about where our two characters are at.

first, rick. i watch this clip and i think holy shit, yeah, that is a broken man. andy does a masterful job at displaying through his eyes and the way he carries himself the extent of the psychological damage and anguish within rick, not to mention the guilt he carries. you can see the gears turning in his head as he reminds himself how he basically gave up on her. how he gave up on himself. how he told himself that he was done, he was never seeing her again, and let himself fold into the CRM. i think it's safe to say he hates himself for his choice to move on. he's utterly crushed by it. like look at him, he can't even meet her eyes!!

and michonne? she sees it. once the euphoria of I Found You has begun to wear off and she lets herself really take him in, she immediately clocks that this is not the same rick that "died" on the bridge. not the rick that led alexandria. not the rick that got them out of terminus. and definitely not the rick that stood up to the saviors. in fact, the last time she saw this version of him, it was right after the first time they ever lost to negan, and that horrifies her, because if that rick is back, then something truly terrible has happened. the look on her face in the clip says a million things, but most loudly, she's wondering, understandably and devastatingly, "my love, what have they done to you?"

the final clue for her that her rick is gone, at least for now, is their next interaction. since forever, both of their instincts anytime they've been told that something bad is coming their way have been to either hoof it for the safety of their family or stand back to back and dispatch the threat. it's the panic in his voice, the sheer desperation as he pleads with her to stand down instead and hide herself after she suggests they go that tells her she has no idea what he's been through or what she's in for now that she's in the shit with him. and even now, if the trailer for E03 has been any indication, she still fails to grasp the danger they're both in. i know what people online have been saying, but she's not being careless, this is michonne we're talking about, she just doesn't understand how careful she really has to be. and then throw jadis and her bitch ass bowl cut into the mix and suddenly a whole new threat looms over alexandria and the commonwealth that ultimately all comes back on rick too? the guilt he now has to face for not only dragging his wife into his mess, but through jadis, also his daughter and all his friends?? and if he finds out now that he has a son too, then there's even more guilt??????

i could go on for hours but i won't. all i'll say is that we're definitely in for such an emotional ride tomorrow. and really there's no one else i trust more than andy and danai to deliver that for us.

[delicatelystrangepolice]

I never thought that Simon's beliefs and Wille’s status were in that much contrast. At the very core of it, they weren’t that different. Both loyal to their families, both caring about people around them, both stubborn to have their positions taken into consideration.  

 I always thought they were a perfect conflict, but also not a forever conflict.

In the bigger picture, I always imagined them to be a perfect match, in fact. Two people coming from different backgrounds, learning different perspectives on life? Simon with his down to earth beliefs and Wille showing him that – um, yes, in fact, a prince can fall in love with you because you are not afraid to speak them?

Maybe I’m too romantic or hold too many socialistic beliefs myself, but I always imagined them this perfect thing to bring real change to the world. If they were in this together and if they both expanded their worldview (which is the point of meeting different people, to learn, to understand that whatever you hold as a belief may not be true to the entire universe)

People like to say that Simon would never be happy in the Royal Family, the way Wille was designed to live his life. I get it. To me personally, living in the public eye seems like a fucking nightmare. But I never saw Simon like someone who wouldn’t change his mind about that. He was young, bold, passionate and ambitious – why exactly having a Crown Prince as his partner would be such a nightmare? Yeah, he would have to compromise and he wouldn’t be able to express himself messily on social media, any way he liked. That’s… not a hill to die on, I don’t think. People have to compromise all the time. We all need to think and be considerate about things we say to people, how we express ourselves – and online space is especially relevant today. I think teenagers today understand that even better than the older generations.

In s3 there was an attempt to show that Simon was very politically opinionated. I think having a partner with a platform (as prestigious as the Crown Prince’s) would only be a better, more influential way to express those opinions in the future. I think that would be the perfect extension of Simon’s journey.

I understand that the creators chose a different route and wanted to show… what exactly? That teenagers are stressed when you put pressure on them? Do you really need 3 years and 18 episodes to say that? I don’t think it’s such a groundbreaking lesson to learn. I also really don’t need a lecture from a white millennial Swede on how institutions bad. I trusted Young Royals to show me a love story and I was very disappointed.

[minamorsart]

What , And how did you start pairing lotura, And Plance .?

Ooooh boy am I excited to answer this!!! This is going to be a long answer, hope you don't mind! Because I have some specific memories about these two ships, particularly lotura, that I would absolutely love to share with you!

Prepare for a long read! Hehe

Starting with lotura, when season 3 came out and Lotor made his debut, of course I was all 👀👀👀 Because that day something awoke in 19 year old me that I didn't realize could ever be awoken lol. And I wish I could remember exactly what my reaction was to his cat-and-mouse chase with Allura in the episode "The Hunted", but at the time I must not have considered the idea of them ever going in the direction of a romance. Looking back now though, how could I have been so blind??! That chase scene is HOT. I mean just look at them!!! Look at Lotor especially woah mama 😳

Season 4 was mediocre to me at the time, I will confess, for a lot of different reasons. But then season 5, man... SEASON 5!!!! I remember it was March 3rd, 2018. I wasn't keeping up with the show anymore, but I just so happened to see an article online that said season 5 had been released the day before on Netflix. I told my sister and we decided, "eh, let's watch at least the first episode."

And we watched the first episode, alright. And then another, and then another and another until we watched all six episodes in one sitting. We were both blown away! Lotor... Allura... together???? 😲

Their adventures, their chemistry, their clear attraction to one another... I was OBSESSED!!! I shipped them hardcore after that. They were and are still my #1 OTP, and it's because of them that I really tried to work hard and improve my art! I wanted to draw them all the time, making mini comics and AUs, and while their tragic ending actually left me in tears and I was upset for a really long time, I can now say that I have been able to heal and move on from it--eh, mostly anyway, haha.

It still hurts, but 5 years later I feel that I've matured and come to a greater understanding and acceptance. I have come to really appreciate how perfect they are for each other, both aesthetically of course (cuz lookit that sexual dimorphism babeyyy) as well as the many, many things they have in common. I have also come to appreciate their flaws, their imperfections, and the mistakes they made regarding each other and their relationship. They may have gotten a sad ending, but they were still truly equals in every way. It's just beautiful, and my love for them now is stronger than ever :')

For Lance and Pidge on the other hand, it's not quite as clear as when I started shipping them! I remember rolling my eyes at Lance and Allura's first meeting, like "okay Lance is one of THESE guys, here we go 🙄"

Other than that I didn't really ship Lance or Pidge with anyone! If I'm recalling correctly, I don't think it wasn't until after season 6 that I started shipping them together. I remember reading metas and analyses of their relationship that people were making in anticipation for season 7's release, and the more I thought about it, the more I started to really like the idea of Lance and Pidge getting together! And there are definitely subtle hints throughout the earlier seasons of Pidge's feelings for Lance, as well as their fun chemistry with one another, like the episode "Space Mall"!

The hints are not so subtle to me now, but back then it wasn't until I watched season 7 that I actually became hopeful that they could be a couple! I especially loved the moments when Pidge indirectly called Lance "cute, in a creepy, hideous sort of way" lol, and when Lance become very protective over Pidge in such a way that I don't think we ever saw him react before! I was honestly taken aback by that moment!

And again, their ending was definitely less than satisfactory, particularly Lance's ending (still hate it with a passion), but just like with Lotura's relationship, I have also come to appreciate many things about Plance's relationship today. While Lotor and Allura have so much in common and are able to reach an understanding with each other that they can't with anyone else, it would seem at first that Pidge and Lance are far too different to be compatible. And it is true that they are very different, but for one, that can be a good thing! The foundations of some relationships are built off of their differences. It can make someone more compassionate and more open-minded when they have a willingness to accept and appreciate the differences they have with their partner, and a willingness to take a genuine interest in the things that their partner is passionate about, even if they don't completely understand.

And two, at the same time, Pidge and Lance DO have things in common! They both love their families, both have a stronger connection to Earth compared to the other paladins, and they are able to bond with one another over fun pastimes such as video games! How cute is that??!

And just like with Lotor and Allura, I also love Pidge and Lance for their flaws. It did take me a while to come around to Lance, because while he has his funny moments and one-liners, I also found him very annoying at times lol. But I think the fact that he can be really annoying honestly makes him the most realistic character in Voltron. Not necessarily the most relatable, at least not for me, but definitely the most human! Because there are people in our real lives that we love and cherish deeply, but they absolutely have their moments where you go, "ugh, you're so annoying and it really frustrates me when you act this way" but we still wouldn't trade them for the world 🥰

And just to draw one last comparison between Lotura and Plance, I especially LOVE how incredibly different the two pairings are even from each other! To me, Lotor and Allura are sexy and passionate, while Pidge and Lance are pure and fun! They're all so unique and special in their own ways, and they bring so much to the table, both for their characters and for their relationships.

I can't help but write essays every time I get asks, I'm so sorry lol 😭 There's so much more I could say about these guys, but I think I'd better stop here haha! I had a lot of fun writing about Lotura and Plance, and I hope you had just as much fun reading this! I really love these characters a lot. I'm so incredibly grateful that they exist, even if in the form of fiction, and I'm even MORE grateful that my love for them has continued to grow over the years. Thank you so much for the ask!!!! 💖💜💙💚

Oh and one last thing: we were robbed of a lot of different potential interactions with a lot of different characters, but I have to say it would have been fun to see more of Lotor and Lance interacting with each other! Lance was always acting out due to his jealousy, while Lotor on the other hand mostly just ignored him lol.

[clara-maybe-ontheroad]

Little musings on Gap (Drake), Only Friends ep 1 & 7

It's probably been said by someone already, but I'm appreciating the fact that the superposition between Boston sleeping with Gap in the first episode and Nick jerking off to his phone was such an announcement of what was to come.

-> The voyeurism of Nick going through Boston's phone for his sexual pleasure while (we now know) Boston was being filmed against his consent for Gap's sexual pleasure.

-> The revelation that this isn't just a one off and that Gap actually has a career with filming guys he has sex with and putting it on the Internet as porn.

Which begs the question though : was any of that first interaction between Boston and Gap real ? In episode 1, Gap says he has a boyfriend but that boyfriend lets him play with strangers sometimes. It's entirely possible that it's true, but in episode 7 we also learn that Gap has put so many sex tapes online that he isn't surprised that someone like Mew might recognize him from "his work".

(as an aside, I've talked in previous posts about how much "work" and "services" seem to almost exclusively refer to sex in this show, the trend continues)

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if Gap lied to Boston in that first encounter, because everybody in this show and in real life lies, and also because he probably saw what would make him more exciting to Boston : being taken, unavailable, technically belonging to someone else yet wanting him. We all know that's Boston's type, and maybe Gap could tell. Gap was putting the ground work to see if Boston was daring enough and would make a good subject for his videos.

Edit : turns out I was misremembering and potential threesome guy wasn't Gap, so no lying on Gap's part there. Still though, the rest of the lying stands since Boston didn't know about the camera ; and maybe Gap justifies it to himself thinking that since he has a presence online, if people approach him it's their responsibility to know ? Or not his problem

Does Gap know who is going to put on the Internet and who he's going to keep for himself ? I don't know, but it seems like he didn't actually release the video with Boston, he tried to use the fact that he had it to get more sex out of him.

The show treats it as a bit of a bleep in Mew's revenge scheme, but we do see how many folders Gap has on his computer of sex tapes. A lot.

Btw love how P'Jojo has to insert himself into everything haha, after the Twitter account now the sex tape folder

How many of these people knew they were being filmed ? How many didn't ? How many that didn't had their faces hidden in the shadow ? The example of Boston Vs Mew seems to suggest that when they do know, Gap's partners often prefer to have their face hidden in the shadows, while someone like Boston who is in the dark (ah) about what's happening will show their face on camera unknowingly.

Would that make those videos more valuable to Gap ? Collecting faces of men who didn't consent ?

The show does treat what Gap did as something had, but it's mostly there so Mew can have its revenge moment of threatening to Boston but keeping the moral high ground, showing he's better than everyone.

But the show is telling us everyone's moral standards are in the gutter. No one is truly shocked at Gap's behaviours, and it doesn't seem like there's going to be any consequences to that. It's just going to be a bump on the road, because there are shitty people everywhere like that.

And as said in other posts, the low level to high key shittiness of absolutely everyone in this show is what's making it gold.

(this is not high degree meta so I don't know if it's worthy of the ephemerality squad but I'd love to hear more thoughts on the Gap situation or to be pointed to more posts already written about him so tagging @waitmyturtles @lurkingshan @ranchthoughts @twig-tea @slayerkitty @distant-screaming @neuroticbookworm @chickenstrangers @thatgirl4815 @wen-kexing-apologist )

[reluctantscribe]

“Do you really think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?”

Well, now I feel like a real tumblr ™️ user.

It has been almost nearly ten years that I first started watching, “Doctor Who.” I started watching because of the otherworldly hype surrounding the 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor.” And now, ten years later, in the year 2023– we are nearing the 60th anniversary special. Time. It’s a crazy thing, huh?

And I caught up to the 50th anniversary special pretty quickly actually. And as I caught up though, I noticed something… friends of mine who’d gotten ms into the show, whether they were my friends at school or online friends, were dropping the show. Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor was due to regenerate, and my friends were used to the last two iterations of The Doctor being eccentric, young, hot guys. They weren’t used to The Doctor being an eccentric, bitter old man. And so many of my friends, never gave a Twelve a chance. I dropped the show for reasons out of my control around the same time. Netflix had removed, “Doctor Who,” in the US shortly after Capaldi’s first season came to the platform. I probably saw two episodes of series 8, and I never finished it.

Until yesterday. And boy… TWELVE IS AMAZING. CAPALDI IS AMAZING. “Shut up!” I love him. I think he’s fantastic. It was my first time coming back to the show in nine years, and I never once didn’t recognize my friend, “The Doctor.” Series 8 felt like a warm hug after being away for so long. And don’t get me started on Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald because she is SOMETHING ELSE. She’s incredible.

This show is so special to me. This character, these characters, are so dear to me— the TARDIS feels like home, and I feel terrible for being away from it for so long.

If you’re one of those people who dropped the show when Matt Smith left, who didn’t give Capaldi a chance? Please, give him that chance.

[thesirencult]

ICY DIARIES 💎 2 : NEVER JUDGE A BOOK'S ENDING BY ITS FIRST CHAPTER

On this episode of "Icy Diaries" we will explore the dynamic of personal timelines, divine timing and why you shouldn't listen to the "gurus".

Back when I was in highschool I used to share a desk with a girl named Marie. Most people wanted to leave our small hometown and move two hours away, to the big city. Everyone was obsessed with leaving and never coming back until their success could make people jealous on a cliché highschool reunion.

Marie though was different. She decided to stay in our hometown and focus on herself. She was always very overweight and never had a boyfriend. Once we were talking about first kisses and she confessed to me that she had not even held hands with a boy, let alone kissed one.

She also didn't know what career she wanted to follow, even though she was a straight-As student, highly emotionally intelligent and very tech savvy and intelligent.

Marie was a late bloomer.

A few years passed, C*VID hit and I decided to visit my hometown.

I got off the train and I started walking towards my childhood home, thinking of warm cups of cocoa and waffles.

As I turned the corner I saw a long haired brunette in tight gym clothes getting off the passenger side of a Porsche. Her man was holding the door open, waiting for her to get off the car.

Looking my way she smiled and waved. I immediately recognized that warm smile and those caring brown eyes ! It was Marie !!!

Turns out, Marie trusted her path and didn't listen to others around her urging her to go to the big city. She worked part time jobs and started attending an online European university program that she could afford without going into debt. For 4 years she had worked on building lucrative online businesses and had founded several projects along the way, even selling a couple of e-commerce stores and a SaaS web app. She had tried moving to the city and had been accepted to a good school but she didn't want to burden her family. People made fun of her for not leaving the town and said that she was scared to get out of her comfort zone ! Who knew !

One day she decided to hit the gym and she became friends with her mentor (a story for another day) and a guy who went to our middle school but switched to a different highschool. He didn't leave our hometown too. His family owned a business and he decided that he wanted to learn the ins and outs of it to take over at some point. It was a very very lucrative venture. Like in the MILLIONS. I learnt that they were planning on getting married and moving in together in their home.

I would have never imagined these two together, but seeing them now side by side something clicked in me :

It all happens for a reason, at the right time.

The story above, portrays to me the importance of following your heart.

I know that many people tell you to suck it up and go cold. Sometimes we need that. Other times though, we need to trust the journey.

Marie never seemed like the type of person who could build businesses. She kept private. Marie played the game right though.

She didn't go after the BIG city sharks. She opted for her small town boy who kept her satisfied. Because that's what she wanted.

She didn't force it and she made the best she could with the tools she had.

Now she can enjoy her life, just at 25, while other classmates of ours are slaving away in corporate offices to pay off college debt.

That was the right decision for her.

Each one of us is on their personal journey. Your timeline is yours. It's not your mama's, neighbour's or friend's. If you can utilise a cheat code don't make it harder just to feel like a victim.

You won't get a prize for suffering.

After my meeting with Marie I started seeing life differently. I decided that I would never let anyone shame me for my choices. Your inner voice holds the answers, you just need to listen.

I always wanted to follow my passion for astrology and helping people to reach their highest potential. Actually Marie was one of the first people I analysed the chart of. She was super chill and open minded from the start. I'm very happy that she let her light shine to the world, in her own way.

You are a queen and you are always on time 💋

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey do you ever see a journalist approach a story in the most wildly inappropriate way?

This isn't the worst case but it's Not Great: 10:34 in the BBC Global News Podcast, early hours March 6th, 2024. Link contains transcript of full episode, but the summary is this:

Israel is messing about with GPS technology, and it is affecting people in Lebanon. Some Lebanese people's GPS tech is so badly impacted that their phones are placing them in Israel, and so they are being shown Israeli dating profiles on apps like Tinder.

The local journalist being interviewed is very focused on how the GPS on her phone is being impacted, making many features useless, and mentions how a lot of Lebanese people are deleting their apps because they're upset about the apps showing them Israeli people, because the two countries are on the brink of war (and, understandably, the people of Lebanon are incredibly angry about what is happening in Gaza).

The BBC reporter, on the other hand, keeps trying to turn it into something... cutesy?

Unfortunately, they don't have the Lebanese journalist's name written anywhere (and the BBC reporters say her name three different ways, and I've tried like five spellings), and I can't find her online with various search terms, so I'll just be referring to her as LJ here.

LJ: Yeah, exactly. So it has the dating apps, but you can imagine that it's not just the dating apps, it's basically any application that uses the user's location. So for instance, when I was traveling in South Lebanon, the GPS was so bad that it would put me in Beirut, it would put me in the sea, it would put me in Israel. It has a very weird impact for like just Lebanese especially also because for Lebanese it is actually forbidden to have any kind of contacts with Israelis. BBC: Hang on, did you just say that in Lebanon you're not allowed to have contact with Israelis? LJ: Yeah, not even like talk to them. So not swipe on them. So that would be something completely forbidden because, no, Israel and but and Lebanon are on the brink of the war. BBC: But as you say, [LJ], what's absolutely fascinating here is that essentially two countries that are in a, a kind of very fragile tense state with each other. The citizens, if they happen to be using these apps, are getting exposure to the other side. They're seeing the interests, the photos of Israelis, Lebanese, the people that they're not really interested in or not meant to be interested in. LJ, sounding a little irritated: It's extremely, yeah, baffling and and surprising when you, when you find like so many Israeli profiles, it has triggered some theories in Lebanon that there might be moat spies trying to get information. I also saw people being quite angry at it and saying that they're not choosing the apps anymore 'cause there's no use in it. BBC, with a forced cheery 'work with me here' tone: I just wonder whether it does promote a bit of understanding. I mean, across the border you do basically see that the other people are not that different to you. They're just on an app trying to find somebody. LJ, audibly fed up: I think like some people have these very romantic ideas of forbidden love, but overall, I think would be still quite annoyed of, you know, seeing so many profiles that they're deemed as like belonging to the enemy.

Sir, literally what made you think that was a good idea?

[ven-of-the-valley]

I left a comment on the video, but I really wanted to make an infodump post about it to because I’m a spooky little autistic. The newest Ghost Files episode reminded me of one of my favorite spooky history facts that I wanted to share:

CW: Dead people in photos (nothing graphic, very peaceful, but content warning all the same)

So the photo of Joyce and Tim in the archive room, they say one of them is dead and they don’t know which, but in a lot of these “post mortem” photos, if you look closely, there’s an interesting way to tell who’s dead and who’s alive.

“In the 1800s, taking a photo of a dead body wasn’t creepy—it was comforting. In an era when photos were expensive and many people didn’t have any pictures of themselves when they were alive, post-mortem photography was a way for families to remember their deceased loved ones. This was especially true for children, whose mortality rate was much higher than it is now” (Little).

Now, back in good ol’ 1867, there was a little more to taking a photo than a button on an iPhone 13, and it could often a couple of seconds for the photo to actually be taken, in which time people would naturally sway and twitch slightly, which is why people and faces are often blurry in these old photos. It’s like when it’s dark and your phone can’t focus, and it makes you hold your phone still while it takes the shot, but no matter how hard you try, it always comes out fuzzy.

Now, I don’t know if you know this, people 9 times out of 10, dead people don’t move. So when taking these photos, they remain still for the duration of the photo process. I tried to pick some pictures that would really demonstrate this, but it’s super chilling to see just how clear dead people are in these old photos, especially when put against living counterparts.

The one above is one of the clearest examples of this I could find online, but if you’re ever in the Winchester Mystery House, they have some super cool pictures hanging up that demonstrate this concept.

So Shane, Ryan, if you ever see this—well first of all I think I’d probably scream because my favorite creators saw my post—know that you can tell more than which looks “dead inside” because, hey, don’t we all?

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Kinou Nani tabeta. aka My Heart is Full aka I suck at titles

Let me just say before anything else. This is not a recap or a review. This is me feeling the need to write down my feelings because they are pouring out of me. This is more a personal note than anything else so skip it if that's not your thing.

I always watch this show on saturday mornings, with my coffee and breakfast, because it gives me a boost for the weekend. And I wanted to postpone the final episode as much as possible but I just couldn't. I gave in.

Second FYI. This will probably be incoherent and a mess because that's how I feel. Also, this fucking menopause (surgical, don't give me too many extra years) is really making a mess of my emotional state this week, so I'm all over the place. Also I might've had some wine. Also this may be a bit long. I think that's it.

How I got here

So, I've loved cinema since I was like 7. (yeah I'm going really back in time) Because my mom like films, she dragged to the cinema even when I was way too young for whatever was on. [ Fun Side note- The first film that I saw in the cinema was Bram Stoker's Dracula, when I was like 6, and my mum got into an argument with the cinema employee because" I am her mother, and I'll decide what she can or can't watch"and so I did watch it.]

So I always loved watching films, talking about them and eventually went to uni to learn how to make them. During that time, I went through a phase (which happened to a couple other people in my school) where I kinda got emotionally detached from the stories. I could only see the camera angles, the lighting, the editing, etc.

When I was done with uni, and had decided that editing was my favourite thing I started doing a bit of work in editing, mostly online stuff and a couple of ads in London, and 3 years later I was done. Obviously there were life factors and health factors that contributed to this, but still I left it all behind.

Then, I quickly went back to being able to watch stories with all the emotions.

Let's skip forward to present day.

Kinou Nani Tabeta? feel in my lap by way of my very first BL. Seven Days. I watched those films and went through all the emotions and needed more. More of that serotonin please.

So I got in research mode and that's when I found this wonderful world of BL and eventually this show.

Now, a little bit more about me, just in case you aren't sick of me talking about myself. I'm not a jolly person. If you asked anyone that knows me irl, they would describe me as someone who always thinks the sky is falling. However, I also love a lot of things deeply, and when it comes to things that I can't find a word big enough for it I call it magic. So I'll use it here.

Kinou Nani Tabeta? is magic.

If this show was a meal then the absolutely right ingredients were found, they were put in the hands of the best cooks and everything was prepared with love and care. This show that I love, was put together by people who love it, and couldn't not make it. This is what I believe. It's my kind of faith.

I've seen so many shows, I've loved so many of them, a lot of them touched me deeply. But only a few touched me this way.

When there is love in something, real care and empathy in the making of something, you can feel it, I believe. And I feel it so much watching this show. I get emotional just writing this.

I wish I could thank every single person that made this show possible. And we could argue all day about the quality of a show, its actors, writers or directors. I could argue why my favourite show is better than your favourite show, and why your show is more important than my show, and why that show failed and another succeeded. I will not argue about the importance of this show and my faith is unshakable.

Maybe because I love food so much and in my life my love filled moments were always around food, I connected at first with Kenji, because his reactions to food resemble mine. But this season Shiro stole my heart and soul. His quiet but profound way of loving Kenji made cry more than any sad scene ever could. And onions and chicken thighs will forever have deeper meaning in my kitchen. These two characters are so well written and so well acted, the words are so layered and so meaningful, that it's a miracle to me that it exists and that I got to watch it.

I'm sure other people will write much better posts about this show, and will probably be better (at a hell of a lot more on point) at writing about all the amazing things that this show has done. But I'm an emotional wreck and I could only write from a personal place today.

I'll be rewatching this show in it's entirety soon, because the evolution of these characters, Shiro specially, was such a joy to witness.

If you read this far, thank you. 💜