#I’m not watching I’m just getting the liveblogging from my friends

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: I Told Sunset About You (ITSAY) Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, in a long post, I work my way through Nadao Bangkok’s cinematic motherlode: ITSAY. Thanks to everyone for your patience with this post: I did major due diligence with it, with the absolutely TREMENDOUS help of @telomeke, @lurkingshan​, @wen-kexing-apologist​, and @bengiyo​ to ensure I had facts and analysis correct. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to these dear friends for holding me down and offering your sharp eyes.]

To dive into a topic as complicated, as beautiful, as reflective, as impactful as a macro-analysis of I Told Sunset About You is to take on...a lot. As I’ve discussed with @lurkingshan, from a filmmaking perspective, as so many of us who have watched ITSAY know -- it occupies the top spot of Thai BLs by way of pure cinematic quality. (If you follow my late-night liveblogs, you’ll know that this was the first show -- not even Bad Buddy did this to me -- where I needed to stop multitasking, to just sit and watch the episodes. No drama has done that for me in the years since I became a multitasking mom.)

As with 2gether and Still 2gether last week, this watch of ITSAY is a definite milestone on the OGMMTVC list, and I really thank @shortpplfedup, @bengiyo, @wen-kexing-apologist, @lurkingshan, @telomeke, and others in advance for what we’ve talked about in direct conversation regarding ITSAY, its many influential tentacles, and the influences that the show itself may have come from.

I’d like to touch upon a couple of frames to structure this piece, but the caveat here is that by no way will I consider myself an ITSAY expert, because there’s a tremendous fandom that knows much more about the Nadao Bangkok studio, about PP Krit and Billkin Putthipong, about the director and screenwriter, Boss Naruebet, and much more. I will have a substantial postscript to capture loose notes and learnings that didn’t make it into the main analysis. 

Inspired in part by direct conversations with @telomeke and @lurkingshan, I’d like to dive into the following: 

1) From a question that @lurkingshan posed to me: what shows from the start of the OGMMTVC watchlist -- and, more broadly, what art out there -- do I think spoke to ITSAY and its development, 2) The important story of Chinese migration to locations like Phuket, Penang (in Malaysia), and other locations on the Malay Peninsula, and how Chinese and Thai-Malay-Chinese-Peranakan cultures flavored ITSAY’s storytelling, 3) A discussion of internal and external homophobia on Teh’s experience, and how his conversation with Hoon encapsulated our understanding of homophobia, filial piety, and socioeconomic pressures in Teh’s particular life, timeline, and culture,

and more, I’m sure. Let’s boogie.

I warned some folks prior to this review that my thoughts on what may have spoken to ITSAY may turn some people off, so I offer this as a flare to y’all in advance. Acknowledging that episodes three and four of ITSAY were as emotional as anything I had ever seen in Asian BLs, Teh was just such a PERFECTLY written character. (The ITSAY supporting documentary episodes state that the show was in part inspired by Billkin’s and PP’s personal lives, and I know there’s fanon that the show was meant to deeply depict their personal stories with each other. I don’t have primary source material to point to regarding this, so I’ll leave it alone, with the understanding that there are interpretations of the show that read between the lines to bring that lens in. I acknowledge the existence of the theories, but will not dive into that here.)

So, in regards to Teh, as I chatted with @lurkingshan as I was watching the series, I just kept thinking to myself... hello, Fuse. 

CHAOS BOYS! (Fire Boys? No, no, chaos boys, ha.) 

This is where I think my analytical read might get a little controversial with folks, because to compare Make It Right to ITSAY -- from a LOOKS perspective, CERTAINLY from a storyline and narrative structure perspective -- no, it’s not there, not by a long shot.

But when I wonder about what ENERGIES and inspirations opened the door for Boss Narubet to WRITE the way that he wrote, and to DIRECT the way that he directed, Teh’s ENTIRE EMOTIONAL PROCESS AND BREAKDOWNS, his back-and-forth, his hesitations -- I saw chaos, and when I think of chaos, I think of Fuse.

I think of Fuse, and how Fuse was held back, particularly in Make It Right 2, regarding Fuse’s CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ASSUMPTION that he couldn’t break up with his girlfriend, all while being in a nascent give-and-take, back-and-forth relationship with Tee. And how that ASSUMPTION held BACK the full expression of commitment, honesty, and trust that Fuse and Tee ended up having at the end of MIR2. Fuse was being rather unsophisticated while he was struggling with this, and he was bringing Tee along, frustratingly, for that ride.  

Something that you said to me also really resonated, @bengiyo, in conversation with @lurkingshan, about comparing TeeFuse and TehOh, in that Fuse and Teh weren’t necessarily SPARKLING or GIFTED presences. As you two both pointed out to me: Teh had to work much, much harder than Oh-aew for the talents that Teh achieved, and somehow, chaotically, he managed to lose his grip on those talents and achievements as he gave up his hard-earned opportunities for the sake of the overall-better-off Oh-aew. MESSY, BRO.

Besides MIR/MIR2, there’s somewhere else where I saw chaos. @bengiyo, you pointed out to me that you felt that you saw more of Thai queer cinema in ITSAY than in BL. I don’t think ITSAY *doesn’t* speak to BL and vice versa (I don’t think there’s anyone who thinks that, considering what Nadao Bangkok achieved with this show), but when I think of chaos -- and of the structures of storytelling that allowed us to get such an in-depth experience of Teh -- I also think of 2019′s Dew the Movie, and to a different extent, the before-its-time show in 2019′s He’s Coming To Me. 

ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM have:

a) multiple chaotic leads (including actual ghosts and dudes who see ghosts),  b) overarching cultural backgrounds rooted in extremely specific Asian cultures and/or practices and/or time periods, and c) interplays of emotional revelations vis à vis those specific cultural backgrounds.

 - Fuse introduced to us, way back in 2016 and 2017, an internal holding back of an emotional engagement with Tee that was rooted in internal homophobia by way of his negotiation with what Fuse’s girlfriend expected of him, and what HE expected of HIMSELF regarding HAVING a girlfriend, while falling in love with a young man. 

- Dew featured two young men in chaos, in 1990s rural Thailand, one of whom (Dew) who had previously lived in a different city where, likely, his sexual orientation would not have been met with such dystopic scrutiny as it did in the movie. The movie made clear that Dew wanted a solid relationship with Phop, but with both Dew’s and Phop’s families and cultural expectations holding them back, they both met untimely and unfortunate ends that hammered, in extremes, the perils, in cinema, of being gay and out in an incredibly restrictive and old-fashioned Asian society.

- HCTM featured a young man (Thun) who could see ghosts, along with the ghost that he ends up falling in love with (Med). The revelation of Thun’s being able to see Med is deeply connected to Thun’s Thai-Chinese Buddhist practices, and how his family has engaged with spirituality over the course of his life. While the structure of the show has often been described as having a happy ending, I argue the opposite -- that the ending is left open-ended, as it so often is in some of P’Aof Noppharnach’s shows, with the assumed understanding on behalf of an Asian audience that Med will one day be reborn and will leave Thun’s side (unless he’s reborn into another person that knows Thun) (hello, Until We Meet Again). 

So what do all of these shows/movies -- ITSAY, Make It Right/MIR2, Dew, and HCTM -- have in common?

ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM have the common background of an old-fashioned culture serving as a MAJOR anchor to their stories. Their stories are leveraged by the micro-level, individual-level interplay between their main characters and old-fashioned worlds, complete with old-fashioned notions, assumptions, and expectations. ITSAY, Dew, and HCTM negotiate boundaries with these cultural guardrails, and we see -- Teh at the end of episode 4, Thun on the rooftop in episode 5, Dew talking to his mother -- what those expectations and boundaries have done internally to our dear young men. 

Make It Right’s Fuse, way back in 2016, internalized this slightly differently, without us seeing as deeply the WORLD in which he grew up. The directors and screenwriters New Siwaj and Cheewin Thanamin gave us a guy in school with a girlfriend. FUSE’S world, that we see, is a school world, so apropos for that time of Thai BLs, complete with very heterosexual expectations for a young man WITH a girlfriend. And Fuse struggles with his push-and-pull throughout the two seasons.

What I love about the OGMMTVC project is that by having watched these projects before ITSAY, I can somewhat predict what the journey of chaos, by way of internal revelation, will be for these characters. 

However.

What ITSAY DESTROYED for me, as compared to these dramas and movies, was the high level of acting that Billkin leveraged to get Teh to the emotional levels that he reached. Teh, episode 4, and Thun, episode 5 = handshakes. 

This is where ITSAY’s structure just brings ITSAY to the top of the cinematic list and runs away from everything else. I posted in my liveblogging that the ending of episode 3 blew me away with a subversion of the four-act structure of screenwriting. @bengiyo corrected me to say that it was, instead, a rare example of Thai BLs achieving a successful five-act structure. 

Just -- fuck. 

You combine this UTTERLY FUCKING BRILLIANT STORYTELLING STRUCTURE, NARRATIVE STRUCTURING PAR FUCKING EXCELLENCE, ALONG WITH BILLKIN’S PORTRAYAL OF TEH IN HEAT AND CHAOS, and I’m eating, fam. Five-star Michelin tasting menu-level. 

But before I start that meal, there’s even more that ITSAY did to really hammer in what I’m referencing by way of the anchors of old-fashioned culture to this story, which, clearly, Boss and Nadao Bangkok value, in the show’s indirect commentary on Chinese culture and migration in Thailand, and what it meant for Teh and Oh-aew to grow up in Phuket and prepare to leave for Bangkok. (If you haven’t watched ITSAY, I highly recommend that you plan on watching the supplementary documentary material, because those docs give a ton of insight into the Thai-Malay-Chinese background of the show. As a SE Asian homey, those revelations gave me the wonderful warm and familiar vibes.)

Dear @telomeke (I don’t know what I’d do without you, friend!) helped me to understand, back in my HCTM days, that I inherently know more about Chinese migration, immigration, and culture into Southeast Asia than I previously gave myself credit for as a part-Malaysian, because many of the migratory patterns and cultural assimilations are similar between Thailand and Malaysia. I appreciated that confirmation, and had my inspector’s hat on during my watch and rewatch of ITSAY. 

I’ve spoken with @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm about the impact of migration and diasporic existence, in that, I think, oftentimes, immigrants to another country often hold a more conservative view of the cultures they bring with them -- in order to hold onto the tenets of those cultures, and to keep those tenets from getting influenced or maybe even watered down by the new environment in which immigrants are living. (My example to Shan and NBW was that I find that South Asian immigrants are often MORE conservative than my relatives in my homelands -- so as to keep a tight grip on assimilation, or, say, moral/ethical weakening by way of Western culture.)

I think the background of Phuket and EVERYTHING it lent to the show...

- Teh’s mom selling Hokkien mee at a stall storefront and the boys eating it in Teh’s old-fashioned house, - The old-fashioned o-aew dessert shop, selling a Hokkien Chinese dessert, which is often preceded by a shot of the “Phuket Old Town” sign, - Teh’s mom’s traditional Chinese-Peranakan outfits, particularly when she’s celebrating Teh and Hoon’s successes, - The tight streets and alleys,

...all of it, visually and culturally, reminded us that the boys live in a world that was DEEPLY INFLUENCED by the way back when. I posit that Teh’s mom is the encapsulation of this kind of old-fashioned culture, from the architectural style of her Hokkien mee stall, to the clothes she wears, to the heavy decorations and rugs and furniture of her old-fashioned house -- to her old-fashioned notions of filial piety that both her sons will be successful and will help to take care of her as she ages. I posit that this old-fashioned mindset also likely led Teh to believe that Teh’s mom would not accept him for liking men, which I will delve into more in a bit.

I mentioned cultural assimilation earlier: I brought up Penang, Malaysia, earlier, because I’ve spent time in Penang -- and Penang was referenced by Boss in the ITSAY documentaries as being similar to Phuket by way of cultural structure. @telomeke educated me on the tin-trade-influenced links from Phuket to the Malaysian towns of Penang and Kuala Lumpur, all towns that experienced heavy immigration from China and feature the strong presence of Chinese-Malay-Peranakan cultures in their social fabrics. The Peranakan population developed when the first Chinese immigrants to these regions began marrying the local ethnic Thai and Malay residents, creating a brand-new culture, complete with unique foods, clothing, architecture, and much more. 

Having not been to Phuket yet, I believe Boss. As well, I want to note -- very important to me as a part-Malaysian -- that Boss referenced Teh’s nickname as the Malay word for tea. @telomeke​ noted for me this distinction as one that’s notable for how ITSAY differentiates the culture within the show -- again, a culture that’s influenced by Chinese and Malay migratory history -- against the backdrop of Bangkok, where tea is not “teh,” but rather is called “cha,” the Thai word for tea. [The most famous “teh” drink of Malaysia is teh tarik, a sweet, creamy, and strong tea drink that you see everywhere in Malaysia. While o-aew is a distinctly Chinese-style dessert, teh tarik comes from Indian immigrants to Malaysia (and is usually drunk with roti canai, another Indian import to Malaysia)]. 

In other words: we are talking a TREMENDOUS, a TREMENDOUS amount of references to cultural mixing, development, and assimilation here, all INTENTIONALLY placed by Boss Narubet and his screenwriting team -- and all of this serving as a reflection against what Teh and Oh-aew will experience as being “different” in their futures in Bangkok, where this Thai-Chinese-Malay cultural differential will make them different when they get to college. (Not having seen I Promised You The Moon yet, I wonder if IPYTM sets up Teh and Oh-aew as potential country mice, à la Ji Hyun and Joon Pyo in The Eighth Sense.)

One more pertinent note of cultural intermixing by way of the historical Thai-Chinese-Malay linkages. @bengiyo was surprised that I didn’t initially exclaim at the presence of hijab- and songkok-clad Muslim women and men eating at Teh’s mom’s Hokkien mee stall; Teh and Oh-aew’s friend, Phillip, is also shown with his Muslim parents. It’s funny, @bengiyo, as I said to you: because I was watching ITSAY with such a trained eye towards spotting the Thai-Chinese-Malay cultural mixing, seeing Muslims on screen did NOT ring a bell of differentials because -- I expect to see them there, in those kinds of spaces, anyway. (In fact, seeing Muslims on Thai television is rare, which I will get into more in the postscript.)

So we have: MANY CULTURES MIXING OVER MANY GENERATIONS. Migratory patterns intertwining. Indications of physical and emotional movement. And even though, and even DESPITE, these cultures mixing, we ALSO HAVE an OVERARCHING message of old-fashioned customs and ways of living that dominate the lives of the children in the show -- ESPECIALLY Teh. Teh and Oh-aew -- literally, their NAMES reference places ELSEWHERE than Phuket and Thailand. Phuket’s old-fashioned roots. Teh’s mom SELLS a dish that comes from somewhere else (the Hokkien Chinese population mostly hails from Fujian, China, as its origin).  

What happens with migration and immigration? Cultures collide and combine -- social mores and expectations change -- one’s standards of HOW TO LIVE ONE’S LIFE changes. 

Teh and Oh-aew, during the entire series, are facing a moment in time where THEIR lives, THEIR cultures, THEIR micro-interactions WITH THEIR cultures, ARE GOING TO CHANGE, definitively, by way of their burgeoning same-sex relationship. Teh and Oh-aew are already different in Thailand by way of their cultural backgrounds, as I’ve established -- and now, with a potential public revelation of their relationship, will they be even more different. And their families -- especially Teh’s mom, but Oh-aew’s family as well -- are going to collide with the very PRESENT present vis à vis their boys and their love. 

As this happens with migration and immigration, CHANGE WILL HAPPEN vis à vis Teh and Oh-aew’s queer revelations as well. 

Boss focused on the aspects of Phuket that were anchors to the culture that Teh and Oh-aew were raised in -- an immigrant culture, a migrant culture from China, that has had a long hold over many, many towns and societies in Thailand. We didn’t see the modern 7-11s that we know are there in Phuket, serving the tourists of these towns. 

And, just like the physical dystopia of Dew, and even vis à vis the spiritual practices built into He’s Coming To Me, the slice of Old Town Phuket that we SAW as that anchor was a HEAVY PRESENCE in Teh’s life -- it was PERFECTLY matched with the old-fashioned, conservative ANGER and DISAPPOINTMENT that we saw in Teh’s mom in episode 4, when Teh shares that he dropped out of university for Oh-aew. That anchor, to me, was meant to SMASH into, FEED into Teh’s overwhelming emotionality at his queer revelation, and at the revelation that serving his mother via filial piety would be automatically made more difficult, thus maximizing the impact of his internalized homophobia and his fear of recognizing his love and attraction for Oh-aew.

COUPLE THAT with the previous hints -- and then the SMASHING WRECKING BALL -- of the visual depths of Oh-aew’s own realizations earlier in episode 4, his own internally different place, the way he reveals himself to the world vis à vis the fast Instagram post of him wearing the red bra. And how Teh reacts to it. And how it sets off such an unreal chain of emotional unraveling for Teh, the SECOND of that episode, even before he goes to Bangkok to drop out. 

WHOA.

THIS, TO ME WAS FUCKING STUNNING

and very important to me to see as a South/Southeast Asian. WHEW.

And, good lord. How Hoon comes in at the end for Teh. Hoon, the eldest son, the one who has very quietly borne the financial responsibility that his mom, Teh’s mom, too, has placed on Hoon’s shoulders, naturally, through generations of family custom. (Super duper thanks to @lurkingshan for talking me through this in detail with me.)

And Hoon gives his family, his little bro, Teh, comfort. How Hoon says, listen. Mom’s gonna be mad if and when you tell her about Oh-aew and your feelings for me. But guess what? She’s gonna come around. You’re a crybaby, Teh, but I’m here for you.

Hoon knows that Teh’s mom will come around -- because Hoon is also a part of the next generation of change, much like his Thai-Malay-Chinese-Peranakan community before him -- as he brings his Japanese girlfriend home to his mother and brother. (THANK YOU, @wen-kexing-apologist, for pointing this out!)

Teh’s mom, too, will move. She will move from her old-fashioned mindset, to migrate to a new mindset, where she will accept her son. Teh needed to hear that, to know that that movement would be possible.

Just like the movement of the many swirling cultures around Teh and Oh-aew, the hustle of Bangkok before them, nipping at their lives like the ocean to the beach. 

What ITSAY captured for me was a cinematic moment of movement on so many levels. It was a pulsating reflection of change. It was meant and designed to insidiously shock viewers out of complacency. Like a beanstalk climbing from the ground, the movement begot movement to these two young men beginning to address and empty themselves of the homophobia that kept them back, Teh especially. 

GAH, THEIR MOVING PHYSICALITY, IT NEVER STOPPED -- the end of episode 2 on the boat, the end of episode 3 in Teh’s room, GAWD -- Teh’s ABSOLUTE HORMONAL DRUNKENNESS, Oh-aew’s STARE AFTER STARE AFTER STARE, Oh-aew’s SILENT DEVASTATION AT THE END OF EPISODE 3, the way Teh would nod and FLOP his head uncontrollably in desire, the nuzzles, the sniffs, the uncontrolled reaches -- GAH. It gives me the shivers. 

It was a lot.

ITSAY was just -- y’all know it. It was fantastic. While HCTM was before its time, I feel that ITSAY was RIGHT ON TIME. It brought so many elements of this GORGEOUS, HISTORIC, culturally Southeast Asian experience into the intersection of the queer lens, as well as the *migratory* lens of the Southeast Asian region specifically. It showed us, from a micro-perspective, the very tremendous macro-level implications and pressures of filial piety, of internalized homophobia, of the huge socioeconomic expectations that families have on Asian students to succeed in education, and so much more. IT WAS *DEFINITIVELY INTERSECTIONAL*, MORE SO THAN ANY BL BEFORE ITS TIME.

Yet again, for me, just like Bad Buddy, just like Until We Meet Again, I have another show in my arsenal that makes me proud to be an Asian watching these shows -- and in ITSAY, I feel particularly proud that a slice of my own personal culture, as an Malaysian, made it in there, intentionally. I will FOREVER, and ever, be grateful to ITSAY for that.

-------

I’d like to offer this postscript as a means of making some quick points that @telomeke, @bengiyo, @lurkingshan, and @wen-kexing-apologist shared with me as I was writing this review -- and I thank them all deeply for reading drafts of this post before publication. 

1) I was previously unaware of the history and current state of Islamic culture in Thailand until ITSAY and Be My Favorite included women wearing hijabs in their shows. This is an important slice of culture for me to know about, as I’m part-Malaysian, where Islam is the dominant religion. @telomeke shared with me that the majority Muslim population in Thailand is in southern Thailand (although, of course, Muslims live across Thailand), and that there have historically been separatist efforts in those southern provinces that have often led to violence. 

There are many reasons why discrimination of Muslims exist in Thailand, as it does around the world, including references to the separatist efforts in the southern provinces. As well, ethnic Thais can trace their heritage back to various towns and communities within China, thus possibly making northern Thailand, with its proximity to China, potentially more lauded in Thai culture, and contributing even more to a perception that southern Thailand, with its Muslim population, as potentially “less desirable.” (And I want to take a second to note @telomeke​‘s excellent point to me that “Chinese” as a catch-all word is often incomplete, as Han Chinese make up a sizable portion of Thailand’s population, but as we see in ITSAY, the Hokkien Chinese population also flourishes in certain parts of the country, and there are populations of Teochew and Hakka Chinese as well, as there are in Malaysia.)

All of this combined -- the geographic proximities to China, the places where various populations have settled, from the places that various populations of Thais track their heritages, plus global and/or popular misconceptions and stereotypes of “other” communities -- can contribute to discrimination of Muslims in Thailand. Of course, that is not a universal statement, as we do see Muslims beginning to show up in Thai drama art, which is heartening. To me, it strikes me as more realistic for the region to see Muslims on screen, but I don’t know Thailand well enough to say that for sure (that’s my Malaysian-side talking). I really want to thank @telomeke for taking me on SUCH a deep dive with insight into this part of Thai culture that I think is very necessary and fascinating. (Politics in Thailand is quite complicated at the moment, but at this very second, Thailand’s current Parliament speaker, from the Move Forward party, is Thai Muslim, with a Malay Muslim name -- Wan Muhamed Noor Matha. Very cool, but this is going to change soon, as Move Forward will make way for another political party to take control of the government.)

2) If you know me well enough, I cannot leave food well enough alone in our wonderful dramas (exhibit A: Moonlight Chicken and khao man gai, exhibit B: coffee/kopi in The Promise, lol), and I want to make sure that we were all aware back in 2020, and/or make you aware now, that Hokkien mee is a VERY regional dish, with styles unique to each town in which it is famous. @telomeke, I know you feel differently, but Hokkien mee from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia is my.... it’s my heaven, my soul, my heart, HA!

Here’s some linkies to get you educated. And also! Oh-aew prefers his Hokkien mee with rice vermicelli noodles, instead of the usual, thicker egg noodles. You know what I like to do if I see that a stall has the two styles of noodles available: I like to get them mixed together. Hokkien mee, Hokkien prawn mee noodle soup, curry laksa -- I like the best of both worlds of noodles in my bowl. YUM.

Phuket Hokkien mee KL Hokkien mee Penang Hokkien mee (this one is the prawn noodle soup, not the fried noodles -- omfg so good) Singapore Hokkien mee (note the lighter color -- and the m’fing mix of thick and thin noodles, hell yeah!)

(If you made it this far in the ITSAY review, I have an easter egg for you. Guess what the Malay name is for rice vermicelli noodles? Bee hoon or mee hoon. 

Hoon and Teh, two Malay names: thin noodles and tea. What Teh’s mom serves at her stall, and what Teh and Oh-aew represent, symbolically, by names and their noodle preferences, as a pairing. AND! @telomeke​ gave me one more easter egg! Teh O is a popular way to order tea in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s black tea with sugar, no milk. Another pairing reference. ITSAY never stopped with all the layered references!)

[WHEW! What a ride. Thanks to all y’all who held me down during my losing-it liveblogging of ITSAY. More to come when I get to Last Twilight in Phuket and I Promised You The Moon.

Next week, I’ll release my review of YYY into the wild -- listen, honestly. Yes, chaos, confusion, all of it. But I am not writing this show totally off. There was definitely stuff in it to chew on. And: POPPY RATCHAPONG. And Pee Peerawich. The acting was actually stacked on this show. There’s stuff! More soon.

And I also finished Manner of Death, so that review will drop in two weeks. I LOVE MAXTUL. UNABASHEDLY. Yes, I know I’m years late, yes, I know Tul is retired, sobs. Let me live my 2021 dreams! These guys are so good together, and MoD was fuckin’ great.

I have so much good stuff on the way: I’m fully in my ATOTS rewatch, and I’ve added 55:15 Never Too Late, very specifically its BL storyline. I may not give 55:15 a full review because I’ll fast-watch the rest of it, but: Khao, come to me, boo-boo! I have an INSANE August ahead of me as I’ll be moving in a month (GAH), but hopefully this schedule won’t fall back too much.

Status of the listy! Hit me up if you have feedback!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 11) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 13) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 14) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (not a BL or an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 15) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 16) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) 17) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020)  19) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review coming) 20) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review coming) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 22) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (watching) 23) Lovely Writer (2021) 24) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) 25) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 26) Not Me (2021-2022) 27) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 28) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) 29) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 30) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 31) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 32) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 33) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 34) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 35) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 36) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 37) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

[nortism]

doctor who liveblog pt 20

s4 ep3 planet of the ood

- yayay ood episode, my fav aliens

- GET HIS ASS OOD

- the doctor spends so much time fiddling with the tardis and yet he can do nothing to make the journey more comfortable

- i’m obsessed with her coat

- does he just carry a stethoscope around with him?

- omg the poor oods

- lets go ood revolution

- “doctor. donna. friends :)”

- omg the mega ood brain

- the brain ate him

- YOOO THE OOD WAS POISONING HIM

- HOLY FUCK

- HES AN OOD

- well at least they’ll take care of him?

- very ominous from the ood at the end

s4 ep4 the sontaran stratagem

- saw martha in the promo, i hope her and donna are best friends

- AWW SHE GOT ENGAGED TO THE NICE DOCTOR MAN

- aww they’re talking shit together <3

- she’s a doctor!!!

- oh she’s perf to me

- oh no there’s a man in the soup

- why’s the robot sexist?

- aww donna no

- ok i’m also a great big outer space dumbo

- nooo martha

- MARTHA GET AWAY FROM THE SOUP

- he’s such a nerd i love him

- fucking grammar police over here

- “intruder window” made me laugh

- omg they’re cooking a martha in the soup

- oh protective granddad i love him

- NO GRANDDAD

s4 ep5 the poison sky

- yes then donna’s mum

- “that’s my girl!”

- i need them to calm down with the sexism

- omg they nicked the tardis

- nooo ross

- yes then donna noble !!

- ayyy empty child reference

- the marthas are unionising

- yayay ya donna!!!!!!

- bro is fuming about those guns

- oh fuck the kid died

- nooo the tardis is stealing martha

s4 ep6 the doctor’s daughter

- i’m glad we’re getting some answers because the doctor saying he’s a father has been bothering me i won’t lie

- donna and martha my sillies

- ok they did not answer my initial question, this is a new daughter

- also very bizarre to watch when you know that’s his wife irl

- he’s a dilf and a milf?? what can’t he do??

- the one day year old is fucking brutal

- also crazy how she was born with eyeliner on

- yes then dr martha jones!!!

- is she a baby timelord??

- aww a baby timelord

- martha and her hath friend

- ayo she’s got way more rizz than her dad

- NOOOOO NOT THE HATH

- what happened to his other kids???? wait the war stupid question 😭😭

- does that mean he’s had sex?? how do timelords reproduce??

- yoooo the war has been going seven days???

- ooo pretty garden

- OH FUCK JENNY

- can she not regenerate??

- can’t believe the invisible bullet wound killed her

- donna u are not gonna travel with him forever

- DOCTOR JONES

- HOLY FUCK

[highladyluck]

Season 2, Episode 2 Liveblog

Teaser:

Good lord the WLW Agenda on that girl! flawless, no notes

Oh Rand honey, your heart is in the right place but your hands are not

How long, Selene? How long EXACTLY?

Rand is here and he’s having a bad time

Rand made fun of Mat for wanting to pay rent by sleeping with the hot innkeeper, but here he is, doing just that!

Oooooh the Foregate! Oh, this is interesting! Rand the nerd is always researching, and I guess he’s researching madness.

Lmao Verin is such a smartass

Moiraine you are being such a regular ass right now

Eeeeey it’s the fly trap! That’s a neat little book cameo. Oooooh and the dead Fade too.

Oh yeah I was waiting for someone in Cairhein to give Rand shit for looking like an Aiel 😅 gonna give that guy even more PSTD

Ok, looking at this guy’s waffleknit bathrobe… Donal Finn is RIGHT, Mat has been wearing a bathrobe this entire time. I want him out of Liandrin’s weird torture basement and into some fancy duds immediately!!!

I bet this guy reminds Rand of Tam, assuming he knows Tam’s backstory

Wow who vets these employees?

Liandrin like ‘I’ll just pocket this deadly poison don’t mind me”

I am here to watch Nyneave Heal and to make snarky comments about Liandrin and I have paused the episode so I am temporarily out of snarky comments about Liandrin

Oh I like the Accepted sleeves

“Men who can channel are not a disease” You tell her, Nyneave!!!

I don’t think they should let Liandrin teach Accepted either >:( also lol @ thinking you could stop Nyneave from being a Yellow, that ajah has her name all over it

…honestly I’m with Mat, we just saw her palm a poison and Liandrin doesn’t give anything nice to men without an ulterior motive

Ok I laughed at Mat’s choreography

I really hope he’s breaking out and not breaking into A Secret Dagger Chamber or something

Oh Elayne you are about to get a shock

Oh Egwene’s face was PERFECT

“You know, some of the greatest pairings have been between novices in adjacent rooms” Good lord the WLW Agenda on that girl! flawless, no notes

I would also be like ‘yeah yeah’ if a Green told me the Last Battle was coming, tbf. They’re the Apocalypse Prepper Ajah, you gotta take it with a grain of salt.

Love the canon detail of Nyneave never giving Aes Sedai their honorifics

Watch Nyneave discover Mat’s oubliette but he’s already gone 😂 (my guess)

BIG FISH

Oh Verin :D

Uh oh, I remember this part with the Trolloc mask.

Oh Rand honey, your heart is in the right place but your hands are not

Lmao she does not ever stop

This is not femdom!!! Illegal illegal red alert 🚨 🚨 🚨 Robert Jordan is rolling unquietly in his grave 😡 although I guess Selene got what she wanted so maybe it is femdom 🤔

Hah, I was wondering how Elayne got away with fancying up her room.

Liandrin loves someone??? OH SHIT that’s her son.

Awwwwwww we needed Min and Mat bonding and this is giving!!! I love that the show really shows how these people are friends

Mat is sharing his spoon, my heart ♥️

Moiraine like ‘oh god shut up, fine’

I do love the pond story, straight from New Spring :D

I cannot wait for Mat and Min shenanigans!!!

I was not sure about Donal b/c I loved Barney, but he makes his eyes sparkle & the little half-smile is pure Mat, so I’m sold

Ah Mat, you’ll change your tune on knowing the shit headed your way, if only so you can better dodge it

Awwww stabby??? No no stabby!

Lmao Selene he absolutely can hurt you

How long, Selene? How long EXACTLY?

Oh my god Elayne making hooch in her dorm room is the canon I never knew I needed, she absolutely would

Accepted Test! Accepted Test! *bangs on the table in rhythm*

The music in this series is so gooooood

Lan don’t read that, it’ll give you nightmares

Moiraine like ‘I knew you were the one when I could abandon you and you’d survive’ but a) you could not, Lan’s deathwish is So Big and b) I see Moiraine’s mentorship strategy at play here lmao

Moiraine is absolutely trying her best to platonic lifebond break up with Lan

(And ‘we were never equals’ is not a denial)

The battle sequences feel very RJ- chaos, impressions, brief intense focus

I would NOT want to piss off Loial

Also I only JUST realized it was the Seanchan a beat before the damane showed up, b/c I recognized the Samuri-ish armor

They all have baseball bats!!! This is so funny to me, I’m sorry, but then again what is more American and Japanese than baseball bats? (Besides imperialism)

They look so scary!

Oooooh American accent! Not Texas enough but still

Damn Rand, did you intend to take his job? Yeah, ok, I see you did. Damn, that’s cold! On par with book 2 Rand tho

[icebluecyanide]

Alex Rider S03E06 Reaction

Unspoilered episode reactions, warning for book spoilers, you know the drill. Time to kill Mrs Jones!

Liveblog

‘We have both been betrayed too many times’ over an image of John, nice

Don’t just approach the strange man watching you, Jack!!

Why did he tell Jack?? It’s sort of wild that Alex is thinking of killing Mrs Jones as just something he needs to do first, like he can in any way go back to a normal life after. Like, also him thinking he would ‘just’ finish Scorpia, like that’s not an entire criminal organisation that’s been hidden for years. Alex, I love you but perhaps these are not realistic life goals

Omg why would you get the CIA involved

Ahsdlfhs I need Alex to be more isolated, I can’t handle him seeming to be winning this argument with Yassen about contacting Jack when it was objectively a stupid thing to do. ‘She needed to know I was okay’ Alex… you will literally never be able to live a normal life again if you kill Mrs Jones, you showing yourself to Jack will not make this easier in any way

‘We trust each other, you should try it sometime’ Alex you literally just met up with your friend in secret ahsdlfhs

Oh no I think Yassen may know that the story about Mrs Jones isn’t true. ‘Shortly after the operation. Shortly after your father died’ sounds like Yassen knows John didn’t die on the bridge. But also gosh him telling Alex he could be a good killer!! What are Yassen’s motives here?? 

Ayyy first Helen mention, that took a while. Interesting choice to have Yassen be the one to tell Alex, and that he knows about the plane crash

“Because it’s my job. I work for Scorpia. And I’m good at it” 🥺

“You think this is about John. Alex Rider’s father” ahsldhfs why not just call him John Rider lol

YASSEN IS COOKING FOR THEM!!! 🥰 They’re having dinner together omg 

“You can’t kill someone and go home. You can only go forward.” “forward to what?” “To the next target” ooof gosh he’s not wrong tho and Alex is definitely overdue hearing that given his behaviour earlier this ep

“Alex worked it out, because he’s actually quite good at this stuff” yeah I mean that is part of why they blackmailed him to work for the Department, Tom ahsldfhs what sort of burn is this supposed to be lol weren’t you all glad Blunt wasn’t interested in Alex anymore??

“If i were betrayed like that, I would make sure there were consequences, no matter how long it took” lol foreshadowing

Gosh this part about her trying to make him separate from Jack is a lot more complicated in the show than in the book, what with Alex not being as isolated/him not feeling like he’s already decided to be with Scorpia/Scorpia being a lot more brutal to him so far

“He’s confused” I mean he’s also trying to kill Mrs Jones and joined a criminal organisation. So like, they absolutely should be treating him with caution now

Why are they not putting together yet that Alex is going after Mrs Jones tho? In the book Blunt puts extra security on her the moment it becomes clear that Alex may have joined Scorpia because he learned about Albert Bridge, it doesn’t seem such a big leap to assume Alex is out to kill a particular person?

Love how they kept in the Coke trick with the metal detector, always loved that in the book haha

Lmao Alex just putting together the gun on camera

I love how she immediately notices the picture being turned down and knows something is wrong

Alex is so angry!! I’m sad that we don’t get Mrs Jones challenging Alex about his dad being a killer tho

Overall

Very nice. Some really cool scenes this episode, loved how much Yassen and Alex we are getting but oh man I need the Department at least to be rough with Alex when they bring him in after this, I crave Consequences.

Thought/predictions

Some very interesting Yassen and Alex scenes in this episode, and I loooove the fact that they are living in the safe house together for a bit and that Yassen was cooking them dinner, but also it is wild to me how Alex could just walk out. Where is the danger, the consequences of him telling people? Yassen is huffy for one moment and then Alex talks back and they move on like ahsdlfhs I love Yassen being soft for Alex, but he really is being very foolish contacting people he knows like that. Like ‘yeah I’m on a mission of revenge and I’m planning the murder of a government official but after that I plan to come home’ like Alex… 

Those were some really wild reactions to Kyra stealing the equivalent of state secrets lol. Like, those are highly classified files, and frankly the fact that Smithers either didn’t notice it going missing or didn’t care because he likes Kyra makes me think that perhaps the Department is not ISO certified.

Okay so, Julia Rothman wants revenge on Blunt and John (through Alex). The plan was just Blunt until Alex started searching for Scorpia and now Mrs Rothman really wants to watch him die too (which I assume Alex will learn once they tell him about what Scorpia is planning next ep when they bring him in). 

Yassen on the other hand seems to think Alex can be a killer like him and John, and I still can’t tell if he knows that John betrayed Scorpia. Because he is very ‘emotions don’t matter’ so it is possible that yes he felt betrayed but now he put that aside, and he is not about things getting personal and doesn’t question orders, so he might never have even considered that Julia Rothman actually wants Alex dead. Because apparently he’s happy never thinking lol. But that also means that perhaps once he’s forced to choose between Scorpia and Alex later this season, he may need to make an actual choice, and may realise that Julia actually planned to kill Alex from the start. Alternatively, he doesn’t know but also never looked into it. But the way he phrased things when it came to Alex’s mother dying and warned Alex not to make things personal is a bit suspicious. But also that means he’s lying to Alex about his dad??

Also Kyra loves Alex apparently, but I wish we could have got more on her feelings about Alex joining the organisation that murdered her parents. Like, it may even have been Yassen who did it, and now Alex is hanging out with him. Can we please get some moral consequences and angst in here?

I want a hundred more scenes of Alex and Yassen living in the safe house. Did they do dishes together? Did they have separate bedrooms? What’s it like for Alex to spend so much time with the man who killed his uncle? He did actually seem to warm up to Yassen from around that time with the shopping list, but it has to be strange when he’s reminded of Yassen being a killer.

I assume they will send Alex in again like in canon but I really wonder what that conversation will be like, because I always liked how in the books Alex is sort of half resigned to the fact that they are going to ask him, and half knows he wants to do it because he wants to save people & get back at Julia Rothman for the lies and also her trying to kill him.

Questions

Does Yassen know??? I need to know more about his motivations

Is Tom’s brother going to be okay without a good cameraman?

Will Tom move to Malta?

What is Yassen going to do when he sees Alex is caught??

How did the shooting end this time, did Alex just straight up miss or is there still a glass wall?

[emperorkeybou]

HEY THERE THAT GAME I MADE IN 2016 WITH A FRIEND ABOUT ROMANCING GIRLS NAMED AFTER ROMAN EMPERORS AS A GIRL, UNDER FASCISM (huh?), IS OUT

Available here, free forever baby

I’d be very happy if you played it. I’d be even happier if you liveblogged my ear off.

But I would not be happy if you ignored the CONTENT WARNING: fascism, misoginy, homophobia, comphet, murder. "Hey can I have a crumb of happiness" I swear the good endings are good!! (watch out for the bad ones though)

Feels weird to get it out from dev hell but I’m just so happy these kids are available to the whole world now... 6 years of headcanons later

[inkdemonapologist]

what did you think of batdr?

So, grain of salt, at time of writing, I have not played or watched BatDR all the way through; I got it liveblogged to me by a friend (which honestly was an ideal experience) and then watched some cutscenes. INITIAL FEELINGS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

When BatDR’s release date was announced, I told friends that I thought it was going to be a pretty tight balancing act – if BatDR was REALLY GOOD, it could kill the enthusiasm for the fandom; yknow, a lot of times when you get what you actually want out of a story, the fervour fades. If BatDR was REALLY BAD, I could become too embarrassed about this franchise and not enjoy playing in it anymore. It has to be the perfect balance of messy and unresolved, but not TOO sloppy or thoughtless, and unfortunately for my ability to stop thinking about it, I think it kinda nailed it. BatDR has some heartfelt and startlingly compelling ideas that it executes sort of incoherently, which makes it FASCINATING.

The joke I keep making is that it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, it’s a fanfiction. And I don’t mean that as a diss – it has a fanfic off-the-rails willingness to commit to a wild, self-indulgent take and just go with it, and I think that’s great. But it’s also sort of… disconnected from the original BatIM, in a way? It doesn’t follow BatIM’s themes at all when you think about it. Conflicts and questions in the original game (the downfall of the Studio, Who Was The True Creator Of Bendy, etc.) are strangely brushed aside in this game, rather than developed or resolved. 

Which is why you get weird things like, there’s a REAL ACTUAL NEAR-PERFECT TOON BENDY wandering around, but the original BatIM characters (Joey, Henry, Sammy; people you’d expect to have some kind of big feelings about a true toon Bendy) don’t ever get to interact with him because their feelings on toon Bendy aren’t the point here. BatDR explains what the loop in BatIM was, but that’s not something you discover yourself, because the loop is obsolete now – it’s just explained briefly in order to get to the real focus of this game, Joey Drew having a daughter. Even before you get to timeline questions/possible inconsistencies, the game feels less to me like an actual sequel that builds on the previous game, and more like a neat AU with its own headcanons bouncing off of and interpreting the previous game. 

Anyway, some random specific thoughts that come to mind:

They really coulda done something with the family theme if they’d just had Wilson go ahead and say who he was early on. Why did that have to be a surprise? I don’t think saving it really added anything.

Everything about Audrey being Joey’s daughter is AMAZING and I can’t stop thinking about this. Absolutely fascinating development. Have a lot of conflicting feelings on how this was handled but THATS FOR ANOTHER POST; I really do like this, though.

"Something he had always wanted, but could never have: A family." SO JOEY'S LIKE, CANONICALLY GAY IN THE GAMES TOO NOW, RIGHT??? THAT'S PRETTY CLEAR CUT????? LIKE ITS THE MOST OBVIOUS REASON JOEY COULDNT HAVE A FAMILY BEFORE??? HES A GAY SINGLE DAD!!!!

I RLY LIKE THE DESIGNS FOR HENRY AND JOEY. I was surprised to find that the way my brain parsed them was like, they’re the designs for the BatDR AU. Like BatDR is a new fan showing off their designs for their crew, and I’m drawing fanart for their cool AU.

The Ink Demon/ Bendy stuff uh, resolved very strangely. Am very into Bendy and the Ink Demon being the same entity but wish that had been explored a little more!

I actually like Sammy’s cameo(s). I’ve always gotten the feeling that the creators of BatIM were never entirely sure what we all saw in Sammy, so if they didn’t have anything they were particularly hyped to do with him, I think cameos were the right call. The Subject 418 moment is PERFECT. NO NOTES. His 5 seconds before getting shot at the end is like, it’s silly that he died immediately and we all joke about it, but also there’s an element of OH, IM SO GLAD HE GOT TO BE HERE FOR THIS for me, too.

GENT being all OOOOO LOOK AT ALL THEIR SUPER UNETHICAL SCIENCE, LOOK HOW SINISTER THEY ARE is kinda uninteresting to me. Something like, a single audiolog going “huh, that’s weird, when GENT left for their new building, all the ink left, too….” would be way more unsettling than explicit confirmation of GENT taking over and doing lethal human experimentation. And like, idk, I feel one of the things that made BatIM compelling was that it had all these spooky tropes, but motivated by a startlingly mundane desire – people believing in a cartoon so strongly that it accidentally veers into unhinged science and dark occult worship along the way. As soon as they’re just doing normal unethical science with ambiguous motives that seem totally disconnected from the studio, it becomes kinda generic.

Nothing about Wilson is coherent, to the extent that I honestly wonder if the original plan for Wilson was different and he had to be shuffled around for some reason.

What else happened in this game….. Im glad alice got a murder party but I don’t know why she’s here. That One Scene with her and Allison feels very fanservicey but not in a bad way lmao.

Probably other stuff but I think this post is long enough!!

[wingsyliveblogs]

Hello once again, everyone! Thanks for being so patient as I’ve repeatedly failed to pull myself together and return to blogging. But no longer, I say! It’s time for Wingsy Live Blogs to live up to their name and do some liveblogging! 

So, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is I’m still not entirely sure I’m in the right mental state for liveblogging, because I’ve been struggling with motivation in general... more or less for the better part of a year now. But the good news is I’m trying to return to being active regardless, because I’m starting to worry that if I wait for the “right time” to start blogging again I’m never going to get back to it, and I really want to watch more Owl House! I want to see what happens next, and I want to meet all those characters I’m vaguely aware of but haven’t yet encountered in the show itself!

So, the remainder of this post will mostly be dedicated to the observations I had when I rewatched Episode 7 several months ago and never got around to posting, and I’m going to skip most of my observations on episodes 5, 12 and 15 for the time being, with one exception that’s going to get a post of its own, because it’s actually the one thing that caused me to put my liveblog of Episode 16 on hold, so I think it’s pretty important. Following this post and the next, I’ll be picking Episode 16 back up where I left off.

Without further ado, my observations from rewatching Episode 7:

Now that I’ve seen a little bit of these kids’ parents, I’d be willing to bet that the twins picked up this whole "tough love" thing from them - the mother in particular seems very much like the “it’s for your own good” type. That said, I haven’t yet gotten to observe the entire family dynamic, so I can’t be certain at this point.  

Ah, I forgot about this line. Fun!

The most important thing in this scene, though, was obviously the offhanded mention of Azura’s “goth phase"...spur-of-the-moment lie or the actual truth? And more importantly... foreshadowing or innocuous statement..? 

You know, I do wonder if Luz's little doodle implying she wanted to impress Amity that she drew in Amity's private diary that she absolutely would look at later did anything to endear her to Amity, perhaps leading her to trust Luz was being genuine? 

Actually, now that I’m thinking about that, I’m almost surprised it never got brought up afterwards... or maybe that’s why a drawing of Amity’s ended up in the book that she knew she was going to have to return to Luz..? Hmmm...

Assuming Otabin is a Boiling Isles-only literary figure and that Luz had only just learned he existed, it's really cute that she addresses him as "beloved work of children's fiction" based solely on the knowledge that Amity and a few kids she doesn’t know at all are fond of his story.

Even having rewatched, I’m still unsure how Amity figured out what happened to Otabin?? It's not as if he was targeting Luz from the start - he went after Amity first - so did she just notice what was on the book when seeing him grab Luz, and then maybe assumed that Luz did it or recognised that Luz was in a better position to fix it..? 

Considering this line, and then Amity's sad look after Otabin vanishes... I wonder if she’s thinking about someone else she's not still friends with. Probably a stretch, but you never know!

[sparkbugs]

Ep 105 of jrwi liveblog!! My thoughts and reactions under the cut :3

The psa is so real good on you jay

Skip to like 20 mins in cause I forgor to write-

The egg joke was great LMAO. Also BIRD BIRD :D also. They left the tortle to die???? Oopsie I fucking guess??

Underground town :o chip pls just follow bird bird mannnn

I’m still so worried about Early Drey and Finn on the boat oh my goddddddd (THANK GOD THE SHIP IS SAFE WAA)

NEW NPC WIRH ART OHGHDHHS I LOVE HER??? Whomst are you… pink smithy lady… OHGGGGGG TRICELLE ROLFAERA YOU ARE ALSO GORGEOUS

Bird bird my bestie… they better save everyone on this island man like I get it’s their home but they don’t need to be stuck here anymore

HOLYYY SHITTT 7’2… who is this… artists I kiss u /p you’re so fuckin talented and the art you’ve made is so so pretty

IGNEOUS!!! IVE SEEN ART OF THIS BOY OH HES RAINBOW HES SO COOOOL

LMAO GILLION THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU <3

This woman. I want to be her friend.. ZAMIA :D BE MY FRIEND PLS YOURE SO COOL

I love how they’re arguing in front of these people LMAOOO “you lot are crazy, man” yea igneous. They’re a bit insane but it’s ok!!

“We’re the weird kind of pirates that throw our money off the boat and save things” 💀 yea well.

Well they’re gonna go beat up bad pirates that are killing these people and something bars gonna happen cause when does it ever go right!!! Haha. Ha. (Referencing a Spoiler I know that happens but I have no idea When it happens)

Group huddle moment!! Bring all these people on the ship I don’t care :) save them all somehow

Gilly nugget of wisdom. He’s smart I agree with him

There’s a lot :( just. Aaaag

God taking out the corruption on their own is going to be. Terrible.

Yeaaa gillion you. Need to stop dying please <3

GILLION JUST LIKE ME FR brother you cannot save everyone I understand. I get it man but you cannot save everyone you have to look out for yourself

Hallow spell :o time to google what the spell means- aw hell yea protection spot

GOO DRAGON… chip praying? Never thought I’d see the day- oh he. Corrupted nvm

PRETZEL PLUSH ON THE FLOOR OF GRIZZ ROOM - SHE !!!!!! I think so anyway- SHE MOVED

Whomst was taken. They’re gonna get her back

Oh they have a boss that was taken :(

Just noticed puppy behind grizz :o they eepin

Zamia :( SO MANY SAPPHICS IN JRWI I love them all.

“We’re gonna help as best as we can but we also need help getting around here” seems like a reasonable request as they brought Knock back anyways.

Zamia I love you already :( you deserve the world, y’all gonna get out of here don’t worry

RABBIT! RABBIT!!!! And fox… ogghhdjs everyone on this island. They’re my favorites ever.

GIVE AWAY THE PANTS!!! QUEEN YEAHHH MAKE THEM NEW CLOTHES :D give them hope. This is so good I love this sm

Petlen!!! Trinket friend. MAGIC ROCK! Rock. Love rocks… OMG GIVE THEM FOODS FEED THEMSSS

HAJDJDISH switch blade.. AWEJDIS PETLEN :( I love them

ALICE? What how do you say her name. Smithy… “I saw you smithing from across the room” yeah I would’ve said that too tbh

CHIP FINALLY GETS STUDDED LEATHER GIVE HIM BETTER ARMOR HOLY SHIT!!!

This is we’re Knock gets the “yuh” from too-

DOES SHEBSAY ANYHING ELSE LMAOOOO I love her

Uh ohs. Jay. The map!!!! Huh hahdjgdja map??? What. Uh oh. Wuh oh

Corruptionnnb aaaaaa

LMAOOO “you see something bad? You RUN!”

17 ac finally jeez.. yay armor and upgrades

Spider webs… haha this is gonna go terribly

Ohhhh who fucked up- GRYFFON NOOOOOOO

Everything is fine everything is fine everything is fine the scuttling means nothing everything is fine everything is fineeeee

Queeeeeennn aaaaaaaahshsgaia

AAAAA spider that’s not a friend that’s not a friend uh ohssss ahahahaaa VORTEX WARP HELL YEA SMART MOVE- oh the web. RUNNNNNN A FUCK

This is fine :) I wanna be where the people areeeee I wanna seee wanna see em dancing.

Petrol.. patrol. Same thing…. (Also currently making burger while watching so I’m multitasking this is fun)

Gillion. You what. I mean yea but also haha that’s terrifying haha please be careful

Backstreets back ALRIGHT! Haha uh oh “what you don’t see” uh. Hehe there’s a heart or something.

“Like nuts” … Charlie please.

… haha! Uh oh!!!!! Hahahahdjdhgsja

This episode was great I’m so nervous. For what comes next! Hahaha!!!

[whitleyschn33]

RWBY V9E07 Liveblog Thoughts

Hah, actually early for once in my life!

- “May be distressing for some viewers” okaaaaaay, but that’s so incredible vague that it’s kind of useless, RT, at least link to a place to find out what specifically might be triggering or distressing instead of forcing people to seek out what happens in the episode from other sources. (Spoilers: It’s suicidal ideation and off-screen suicide.)

- The bird is cute, but, uh, is it controlling the match?

- As someone that has had to room with multiple people that snore, I commend RWB for not murdering Yang in her sleep. For real though, I do like this quiet moment of Ruby staring at her weapon, it’s nice.

- “I’m late!” ...for a very important date? Shit, though, Jaune’s frantic about this - feels like maybe his confidence he may have built up in the decades may have taken a couple hits yesterday. 

-Oh, arson - and apparently this is a regular occasion. Fire bird?

- ....Did you not notice the paper last night? Jaune’s house has some in it. Also, this score is a bit upbeat for burning a village down.

- Okay, I do kind of like this. Jaune’s somehow settled into basically the role of a huntsman, protecting this village of paper stars from the near certain death they seem to face every day. I like this idea, him taking on the responsibility and clearly treating it with the respect it deserves. The stars remind me of someone/something, but I can’t quite remember what.

- I am a sucker, this is adorable

- “You named them after your teammates?” “No... I named them after everyone.” Okay, but why did you name the blue one Ren? But seriously, not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, names help differentiate and humanize them and can help keep the memories strong, on the other naming them after your friends feels a bit... projectionist? Like, it’s one thing to name the jackalope after your team name, another to give a sentient being the name of one of your best friends.

- Lay off him, Yang - he’s got a job to do, people to protect, and it’s not like you can find something that may not exist. He clearly has been searching when he gets the time, and I suspect that most of it has been under the cover of night when the Paper Pleasers are asleep like the marketplace. 

- The schedule is pretty cute - “watch out for tearable twos” “keep away from Shredder” (please be a TMNT reference), “If you wouldn’t give it to a baby, don’t give it to the Paper Pleasers”, “tea shop fiasco” “Stop the Second Fire”, “sandpaper knife shop”, “STOP. THE. GOOSE.” Seriously, read this thing over if you have the time.

- “Patience pays off” - it does! But what’s the difference between patience that’s self-enforced and patience that’s required?

- “I’m not crazy” Oof... no, you’re not, Jaune. This does seem like he’s been making the best of a bad situation - but if I had to poke holes... what was he doing before he went to the village? He only came after Alyx poisoned him, and he was already much older at that point. Was he still exploring then, or was he just waiting for someone to arrive?

- “We just can’t count on him” - WHAT? BECAUSE HE WANTS YOU TO ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HELPING HIS VILLAGE? I’m sorry, I thought you were huntresses - you know, people dedicated to helping those that can’t help themselves? I know it’s not fighting off man-eating monsters, but these are life-and-death situations Jaune’s listing off (mostly), not just random chores. He’s established himself as a protector of these innocent people that have helped him and so many others, and you’re acting like he’s asking you to be a janitor or something instead of helping to keep this town safe? What exactly did you expect a huntress to do when they aren’t fighting the Grimm if not help keep the villages safe in other ways? Between this and them just running away from the market, I’m just about done with the girls’ attitudes towards actually doing their damn jobs of helping people.

- Ah, so... all self-inflicted harms. I’m... not sure how I feel about this. The Cat marked ascension as being for when the Ever Afterian has ceased performing its role correctly and needed to be retuned, but the stars seem to think its more like “our work is done, it’s time to move on and be reborn” when that doesn’t seem to jive with what the cat says. They’re still performing their roles just fine, even if they’re at the end of their “arc”, so there’s no need for them to change or ascend if they’re still doing their part. It doesn’t feel right with what we’ve been told about ascension up to this point. And then how this connects to Jaune... with what happened to Penny and him naming the stars after his friends, I understand why he’d be so opposed to them trying to ascend and taking it upon himself to keep them safe, but I hate that this episode will, if it continues to go where I think it will, punish him for this idea, call it wrong for him to stand in the way of the stars and self-inflicted death (I’m wondering if that’s where the content warning is coming in). I also hate that it would let RWBY off the hook, that Jaune was “wasting his time” watching after the village and that he should have just left them to their own devices long ago, thank goodness RWBY’s here to slap him out of that and leave them to die, cause that’s what they want! Yeah, no, I don’t really like this at all.

- Wow. Rude. And how did A MAN IN RUSTY ARMOR SNEAK UP ON YOU. 

- Uhhhhhh.... that’s uncomfortable, and I hate that that undermines the idea that he’s grown to care about the stars, that he’s actually just babysitting stupid children from his POV.

- “Because I can actually protect these people!” Good line - Fall of Atlas trauma, Fall of Atlas trauma, Fall of Atlas trauma -

- Who gave the Ever Afterians a bomb, damn - Ah, Neo, thank you and curse you. Thank you for the potential action scene and a threat that (might) need to be dealt with that causes actual death, curse you from halting the character progression.

- That is the most flat line I think I’ve heard from Weiss - Kara, are you okay? - and thank you, Blake, for admitting you all just ran away last time because so many people in the FNDM seem to think that they were just evacuating.

- An alright action scene! I really appreciate that they’re working as a team, that it’s a group fight instead of one on one duels happening next to each other, even if some of the choreography is lacking. Ruby’s visions are also refreshing, seeing her actually suffering from flashbacks and PTSD, and the movements of the Jabberwalker as it morphs and creaks are very well done, very unsettling.

- “They eat and grow” ....Actually yeah, what the hell is up with that? That’s not just glass illusions, that’s creation.

- WOULD YOU LET THE GIRL ACTUALLY HAVE HER TRAUMA ARC INSTEAD OF CUTTING AWAY FROM IT EVERY TIME THE OTHERS MIGHT ACTUALLY NOTICE?

- Yeah, I.... really don’t like the framing of this. At all. Like this was nothing, that those aren’t lives that were still ended, even if you believe they were reborn (even if that’s the most convenient explanation for you -).

- But that scene was refreshing as all hell. See what happens when you let character actually disagree and fight? I want that Ruby telling off B///B gif on my desk stat, btw. I feel like I should probably break down the entire argument, but that would take more time than I have (it’s my birth-weekend, woooo!), so I’ll just say I really enjoyed finally getting past all the bullshit interruptions and letting Ruby actually vent, letting Jaune vent, let the characters actually fight and be truly upset and frustrated in a way that’s not petty. Good job, why couldn’t we have gotten to this sooner?

This is honestly probably the best (or at least most well executed on a structural level) episode of the volume so far. It actually let the characters talk and fight, it used the Ever After set piece to its advantage for once in forwarding character development (which only really the Herbalist has done so far imo, which is a shame), and had a fight scene with an alright song. I’m... really not comfortable at all with how the ascension idea was handled, though, either tonally or in how it affects RWBY’s frustration with actually having to give a damn about living people - no, it’s okay to not want to keep them safe! They want to die anyway, and Jaune’s just sitting around protecting the equivalent of paper puppets instead of actual sentient beings he wants to keep safe, isn’t that insane? Like, way to let them off the hook of actually having to make a hard decisions or do their job in any way. And this hot off the heals of Jaune helping Penny commit assisted suicide? Framing this mass-suicide as something that’s okay because they wanted it and believe that they’ll just be reborn, and Jaune as in the wrong for not wanting them to hurt themselves? It leaves a really bad fucking taste in my mouth. 

[spacemancharisma]

saw x liveblog:

this doesn’t look visually anything like a saw movie

john describing himself as something like a life coach is maybe the funniest thing i’ve ever seen

this ancient freak drawing torture devices in his sketchbook at the park is also 👌👌

I miss adam

part of me thinks they should’ve recast amanda since she’s like 20+ years older than her character now, but I also kind of like that she’s the same even if it doesn’t make sense. she’s also still incredibly hot.

I’m glad we’re back to torturing ppl who actually deserve it this is nice

it’s also nice to see some folks who actually fucking want to live for once

ok but on the subject the time limits are stupid if someone is willing to do whatever insane bullshit

the theater keeps erupting into laughter at these people being stupid and that’s such a vibe

this blonde lady did not come to fucking play. icon lowkey

I’d love to talk to amanda’s dad cause I blame him for like. all of this hfbfng

billy shows up and the theater goes “oooOOOooo” like the laugh track when a guest celebrity shows up on a sitcom

blonde lady is a wretched human being and I’m obsessed with her. I don’t support her wrongs but I do support what a fucking queen she is. do what you need to do to survive baby I love you

ok I’m getting sick of the impossible time limit like. if someone is doing what it takes and they just need like 30 more seconds, I think they should get that- it’s about having the will to live and that should be respected

THAT MASK FUCKS

is this a bad time to say I miss my grandpa

in my fix-it, amanda saves gabriela and they’re in lesbians forever 💖

radiation is fucked up

I’m so glad the other ppl in this theater understand that comedy and horror are fundamentally the same thing

GABI MY BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS WITH A DISORDER

blonde lady I have turned my face away from you I can’t wait to watch you die badly

the assorted reprisals of the theme are awesome

BLONDE LADY YOU WILL DIE BY MY HAND

damn she is still serving cunt tho

ngl the chekovs gun of the one (1) spanish word john knows got me it was really obvious but it kinda fucked anyway

haha wharrgarbl

YESSSSSSS THEY CALL THE MOVIE SAW BECAUSE AFTER YOU SEE IT YOU SAW IT

I love to stim at abject horror lol

YEAH BITE EACH OTHER’S DICKS OFF

EVERYONE SHUT UP THAT CLOSING SHOT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING IVE EVER SEEN THEYRE WALKING INTO THE SUNRISE LIKE A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FAMILY

also my friend pointed out that all the previous movies have ended with a door closing and the series ended with a door opening and that’s actually pretty cool

closing thoughts:

actually an excellent movie! did the series justice, was visually nice if not consistent with the original art, and did an honestly kind of compelling job with its characters. I really enjoyed it! would recommend but only if you’ve watched the rest of the saw movies for context lol

[kujo1597]

I’ve been watching my friend liveblog her rewatch of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (great show) and it looked really fun to do. And she’s also doing this to get into writing SPOP fanfics and as some of you may remember, I have a Jem fanfic called Unbreakable that I really do need to finish. So I figured I would blog my rewatch of Jem. I wanted to watch the show again to get my creative juices flowing and figured why not.

Because I know the show backwards and forwards due to watching it five or six times my posts will probably largely focus on the characters and traits they have that I incorporate into the writing. I’ll talk about Jerrica’s relationship with Rio and why it’s so dysfunctional and concerning.

I’m also going to be a fucking weirdo and keep track of the crying because a character trait of Kimber’s I find really interesting is how private she is with her tears compared to the others. But this will be kept in a folder of its own and I won’t dwell on it.

I won't be putting all of these into the fandom tag because I worry that I'll be deemed "too active" by Tumblr and my posts will stop showing up in the tag. So I guess if you're interested in keeping up with these keep track of the "Kujo Watches Jem" tag.

Man I love this show’s first intro song and the animation. It’s largely rotoscoped and looks really nice.

The show starts off with a look at Jem and The Holograms at a premiere and it’s a cool way of introducing the characters. They make it very clear who’s who.

Aja

Shana

I love how they just fukkin’ throw Kimber out of the car. This is a good time to mention that the animation in the first five episodes is pretty janky. They’re stitched together seven minutes shorts that were part of the Super Sunday block on whichever channel this aired on. So we’re kind of watching a proof of concept right now.

And of course they show Jem as this cool and mysterious woman as she shrugs off her sheer veil in front of a cheering crowd. Reporters ask Jem a bunch of questions.

Then we hear our protagonist, Jerrica, start narrating.

She tells us that her story begins after her father's unexpected death. And they establish later in the show that this funeral is on or around Jerrica's birthday. Which is really awful. I feel bad for her.

I remember Eric being kind of creepy at the funeral but always forget just how creepy he is. Especially because I’m fairly confident that at this point in production Jerrica is meant to be an older teen. Like, 17 or 18. I don’t blame Rio for dragging her off.

But oh man, let’s just add this to the “Jerrica apologizes for Rio count.” It’s a recurring thing.

Now we cut to a shot of Starlight House and the characters working to fix it up. This also has cool details like a design table, Shana is into fashion design as we’ll learn later.

Uh, I need to point out this bird cage. You’ll see why later. But I need to point it out.

I wonder how long Ashley’s been living here for. Because she comments on the house being a dump as if she’s just moved in. Also she broke that chair. She tried to flop onto it but it broke.

Now we meet Mrs. Bailey who helps take care of the kids. Nice lady. She informs Jerrica that her dad, Emmett, would get money to fund the Starlight House’s upkeep from his music company. So Jerrica goes over to the office. She sees a new receptionist, walks past her and enters her dad's old office.

Eric continues to call Jerrica “darling” and talks about how he’s hired a new band called The Misfits. And they ride in on these extremely toyetic motorcycles. I don’t think they ever did get released though. But man, this screams “toy commercial show.” Jem is way more than just that though.

We get the first song of the series and it’s great. Fun imagery. And it’s funny seeing them play their instruments because Stormer is playing this weird boomerang guitar. I seriously do wonder when they finalized what instruments the characters play. Aja was messing around with drumsticks earlier in the episode and spoiler alert, she’s not a drummer, like, at all.

Jerrica calls The Misfits trash and insults Pizzazz. Then they talk about Eric holding a rigged battle of the bands competition. Which obviously Jerrica doesn’t approve of.

We then cut to Jerrica in her bedroom on a stormy night. Jerrica’s mad about Eric ruining the good image of her dad’s company. Then Kimber points out the jewellery box addressed to Jerrica. It contains earrings, very familiar earrings. Everybody wonders who they came from. Aja figures it was Rio.

Then thunder and lighting, and a mysterious woman who looks like she walked out of an exercise tape addresses Jerrica in a slightly ghostly voice.

And then Jerrica very rudely puts her hands in this woman’s belly. Jerrica! Personal space!

Understandably the mysterious woman leaves. In a flash of light.

Everybody follows the directions left in the earring box and meet up with the woman in Starlight Drive-In. She walks through a wall and they follow her in their van, the Starlight Express.

A quick aside, I was talking to my friend who’s only seen two or three episodes of Jem because of me kind of going, “Well, these episodes are very silly. I think it’d be fun to watch them with you.” Anyway, I was talking about the show and because of the fact that everything has the word Starlight in the name he asked if Starlight was Jerrica’s last name. And yeah, I get why he would think that.

Anyway, the woman introduces herself as Synergy and explains that she’s a highly advanced entertainment system made by Emmett Benton. We get shots where the characters split off and look at their interests, Shana at clothes, Kimber at the musical instruments, and Aja at the car, the Rockin' Roadster.

Seeing Synergy’s ability to make realistic holograms along with all the instruments gave Jerrica an idea.

Oh neat, we’re seeing a performance by a band that sounds… not great. I guess the rigging is going well.

And then we hear some more music, this time a song building up.

And that song the first one performed by Jem in the series. It’s a very solid one! A good note to start the band on.

Obviously everybody loved this band, they sound great! Eric gets all worked up and demands to know what they’re doing here because the contest is invite only. Jem points to Jerrica and announces that she was sent there by Jerrica.

And then Jem totally inconspicuously runs off of the stage and behind a tree. Then turns into Jerrica. She meets up with Eric on the stage and they’re caught arguing on the mics. I actually forgot that Eric was the one who put control of Starlight Music up as a stake in a new competition. One just between The Misfits and Jem and The Holograms.

A film producer named Howard Sands happened to be in the crowd and he promises a movie, and a mansion to the winner of the new battle of the bands competition. Six months from now.

Jerrica accepts the challenge having full confidence in herself and her sisters.

The Misfits are rowdy trouble makers so they steal Jem’s equipment and drives off with it in their van. The rival band gives chase because that’s their stuff and they need it. Musical equipment is not cheap. We get this thrilling chase where Roxy and Stormer throws things at the car Aja’s driving to try to get them to crash I guess. And uh

That’s a cliff. They’re heading right off a cliff. And Aja hit the gas judging by the sound effect.

Good work.

You can kind of tell this was the end of the short, especially when they come back from commercial and replay the chase scene.

Jerrica’s not dumb. She sends a hologram of Jem out to get help. The hologram meets up with Rio and tells him where the car is. Rio saves them.

The paper reports on this and gives Jem and The Holograms a bunch of publicity.

The Misfits don’t see much of a problem with this because they can still win the competition and of course

winning is everything.

I just, look at this GIF.

Okay I needed you to see that. The music video is a wonderful flavour of silly.

Now back to Starlight House. We see the girls putting money into the Honor Jar. It's a communal fund that the girls contribute to in order to afford things for Starlight House. They’re trying to buy a new fridge. Before adding the funds to the jar they have to announce how they made the money.

Ashley questions the jar which really adds to the feeling that she’s new here.

Also, it’s weird hearing Deirdre being voiced by Samantha Newark. She’s voiced by Patricia Alice Albrecht in her later appearances. The same VA as Pizzazz, Samantha Newark is Jerrica’s by the way.

Meanwhile Eric phones a thug and tells him to make Jerrica uncomfortable.

I need to know where this place is located. It’s in the middle of a forest or something. And I swear that’s a river behind it. Is that safe when you have twelve kids? The youngest is eight so maybe we don't have too much to worry about.

Anyway, Ashley steals money from the Honor Jar and Jerrica catches her. And then says something that never sat super right with me.

“There’s no room in Starlight House for girls who steal and lie.”

Like, hm, I dunno, I can’t articulate exactly why it bothers me. I feel like it would kind of breed dishonesty. Like how controlling parents often end up with kids who are really good at sneaking around them.

But Jerrica is a teen herself and taking care of twelve kids so I can’t be too hard on her. Especially because her dad did recently die so there is going to be some adjusting to the new role as foster mother.

Jerrica tells Ashley that the other girls are going to decide on her punishment because they’re the ones running the Honor Jar. The punishment is to raise $30 which is ten times the amount Ba Nee raised by the way.

I get a kick out of Samantha Newark trying to sound like a tough girl, possibly from Jersey. What do I know? I’m Canadian. Now I’m kind of wishing they kept her as Deirdre’s voice actor. We do get more "tough girl Newark" later in the series though. In an excellent episode.

Later on during the night Rio’s explaining that the power’s still out and offers to stay over. But Jerrica turns him down. They lean in for a kiss.

And hear a bunch of giggling which is cute.

Jerrica turns to them and says, “Jealous?” before kissing Rio.

I like this dynamic between Jerrica and her girls.

Later that night the thug Eric talked to, Zipper, awkwardly breaks into the house. It takes him a couple tries to break the window. Still better than what I could do.

One of the Starlight Girls, Marianne, never named in the show, alerts Jerrica to there being a noise coming from downstairs. So Jerrica takes her sisters with her to check out the noise while the kids stay upstairs and safe.

Because there’s no power and it’s the middle of the night Kimber’s holding a lantern with the biggest damn flame I have ever seen.

Zipper having been caught pushes past Kimber and knocks the lantern out of her hands. And sets the house on fire.

Like, crazily on fire.

And this is where the episode ends.

I would love to do more but this took even longer than I expected and I haven’t been getting enough sleep so I’m quite tired and dizzy. So bedtime for me. I’ll pick this up later, possibly tomorrow.

[waitmyturtles]

Be My Favorite: I’m All Caught Up!

So two nights ago, I kind of lost it, HAPPILY, in a binge of Be My Favorite -- I’m here to report that I’m all caught up, I’m VERY SEATED for the ongoing episodes, and hopefully I can get it together to do episodic meta from here on out. 

First off, I’d like to say, publicly, that I had written multiple times in previous posts that I would NOT be watching BMF after having watched SOTUS, SOTUS S, and Our Skyy x SOTUS for my Old GMMTV Challenge. I thought Krist Perawat’s acting in SOTUS, etc., was awful, especially compared to what Singto Prachaya was delivering. While Our Skyy x SOTUS was markedly better than the two full series, Krist wiping his mouth after the airport kiss still gave cringe, and I was like, peace out, cub scout, hope you never do another BL again.

I RECANT. Clearly, much has improved by way of Krist’s acting skill -- and, likely, by way of how GMMTV workshops their actors and scripts before filming a BL. (And I REALLY want to thank @rocketturtle4​ here for going very hard in the paint for Arthit and tagging me in your post, because your SOTUS meta absolutely had me thinking about Krist’s acting again. That piece was part of the inspiration and urge that led me to pick up BMF. Thank you! Good things happen when you clown, friend!)

(As well, I want to note that while Krist’s reputation regarding homophobia has not, by way of general public judgment, been fully redeemed, that I think recent discourse surrounding the early days of the pressures of shipper culture and how his comments were received is very interesting to peruse -- especially for me, as I develop a MUCH sharper eye towards the toxic, negative impacts of shipper culture. This amazing dialogue between @absolutebl​ and @thelblproject​ has been EXTREMELY helpful to me in setting that history and context for me.)

So, with all that said:

Be My Favorite is a FABULOUS SHOW. The writing is SHARP, the acting is GREAT, and the chemistry between Krist and Gawin Caskey is SUPERB. 

Catching up to episode 7, I want to review what I’m seeing as the major themes of the series, ones that I’m seriously enjoying:

1) As I noted in my Monday night liveblogs, this show is structured in part around the inspiration of a few old yt dudes philosophers and physicists regarding time, space, truth, and relative existence. We gots Nietzsche, Einstein, Orwell, and -- gah, the Thai writer of the book that Max was reading early in the series about Thai social hierarchy, and I cannot find the post that explains that book (if someone has the link for that post, please send, and I’ll edit it in here). (EDITED TO ADD: thank you to @grapejuicegay​ for sending me the link! The book Max was reading was The Face of Thai Feudalism, and here’s a wiki link for the book). Otherwise, receipts!

Just to recap what I wrote in underslept franticness on Monday night: the first of the old dudes to enter the ring of this series is Einstein, regarding time travel. I mentioned that I am a huge fan of Jack Finney’s Time and Again -- I loved that book in high school. It’s a fantasy about how the American government uses Einstein’s work on weight and light to understand the dimensional aspects of time, the present, the past, and the future, and how multiple existences may be present -- if you can create a pathway into them. 

I don’t know at all if BMF is talking to Time and Again, per se, but it IS talking to Einstein and relativity, along with Nietzsche and what’s referenced in the slide above -- Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (and, yooo: here’s the text! Read it! Everyone: READ MORE NIETZSCHE! Let’s meditate on power together when we have the time, eeee!)

I really want someone with a Ph.D to not allow me to say this, but let me offer a blasé summary of the text to say: what’s essentially being said in the dialogue between Einstein and Nietzsche is that truth is relative to the moment in time in which truth is being sought, and to the individual to whom the truth may have meaning. Truth is relative to the beholder of that person that is seeking truth. 

In other words: what, exactly, is the truth that Kawi is seeking? 

2) @respectthepetty​ (here) and @lurkingshan​ (here) are writing excellent meta on the dislikability of Kawi, and how this search for his “truth” is fucking him the hell up. First: I TOTALLY AGREE. This dude wants to spin that damn ball to find out if his life gets “better.”

And what we’re seeing is that he’s slowly relaxing the parameters of what “better” means. What “better” HAD meant to him, early on, was that he’d be in love with Pear, and that his dad would be alive. In episode 7′s rock star world, we see neither of those things happening; in fact, in none of his presumed worlds do we see that happening. 

Besides Kawi’s dislikability, which I’ll get back to in a second, I just want to say:

Him jumping to world after world is SO important to this story, and I really like that this series isn’t trying to hone in on ONE world being THE RIGHT WORLD, because -- Nietzsche, Einstein, and Orwell aren’t necessarily the guys you want on the bench arguing in favor of a ONE RIGHT WORLD perspective. They’re the dudes who are like -- bend some light here (Einstein), throw in a linguistical concept there (Nietzsche), and add some questionable politics and power control issues (Orwell), and, well, you got some messy worlds there, my friends.

In other worlds: this show is set, per episode, in the world in which Kawi is existing at that moment. It has relativity to his other worlds -- because he’s an anchor in all these worlds -- but not one specific present moment is his absolute truth. YOW.

3) Sooooo, where does that get us? It gets us to episode 7, an episode that really moved us...“forward” (??) (ha) in this series. In that, Kawi changed enough in his initial state at the start of the series to create a new future for himself that was vastly different than the ones in which Pisaeng was going to marry Pear.

What I am loving about this series is that by being anchored by the influence of the philosophers, in part, that we get to see a lot more light into Kawi and Pisaeng. Pisaeng, as we now know, was pressured by his mother to stay in the closet at a young age (cc @brazilian-whalien52 and @respectthepetty on the linked post!). 

What is your truth if you’re in the closet for so long?

In episode 7, Pisaeng has disappeared from the lives of his friends and Kawi for months. We don’t exactly know why at this point. But we get a hint at the very end of the episode -- that he is ultimately spending his time, possibly in multiple worlds, being patient for Kawi to come around to Pisaeng’s love. 

Early in the series, as well, Kawi notes to Pisaeng that Pisaeng wasn’t being honest to Pear about not having feelings for Pear. I think this extrapolation has already happened in previous posts, but I’m not finding them at the moment, so let me give flowers to everyone who has said: that Pisaeng’s internal reality is also a world, a present, that Kawi doesn’t necessarily share by way of absolute reality -- in that, what Kawi demands of Pisaeng early on is relative revelation for the sake of the people around him. And how will Pisaeng’s truth affect others? How will it affect Kawi, how will it affect his mom? How does it affect Pear?

All of that is relative truth that each individual, involved in these circles, must translate AND accept and digest in their own individual, micro-level perceptions. Pisaeng’s own truth BECOMES a kind of truth that is slightly different for each person that’s receiving it. 

4) And the same for Kawi. Except, we’re seeing it develop differently for Kawi. I think we have known, up until the end of episode 7, what “better” meant for Kawi, as I wrote previously -- Pear, his dad’s health, etc.

But I think we’re going to see a change in Kawi now (hopefully). We’re seeing that Pisaeng keeps returning to Kawi, in almost all the worlds, as Kawi improves himself and checks himself against his “present.” Surely, what we want to see in a BL is Kawi warming up to Pisaeng’s affections. The fact that time travel is the modality by which Kawi will experience that change -- vis à vis some VERY fascinating perspectives on what “truth” really means -- is FABULOUS.

It’s unique, because -- I think -- in the story of Pisaeng, do we see a macro commentary on the reality of being queer in majority cishet societies that may view queerness as dangerous or something to be kept secret, as Pisaeng’s mom indicates. 

To keep one’s queerness in the closet -- FOR THE SAKE OF SOMEONE ELSE, damn it -- isn’t that a violation of one’s own truth? And one’s own reality?

5) And, final point (for now) (ha) is: a theme that’s been running through my head on this series is how both Kawi and Pisaeng CHALLENGE EACH OTHER TO CHANGE themselves. Maybe even... for “the better.”

Previously to all of this time travel stuff -- neither of them experienced external pressure to change their worldviews. Pisaeng was going to marry Pear as a closeted queer individual. Kawi was going to live out his life friendless and companion-less.

Instead, THROUGH the time travel, and through their growth in all of these different worlds -- BOTH of them have been forced to change.

I really like this lesson. One can become complacent. As Theory of Love so deftly demonstrated: behavioral change is really hard. But it might be a little less hard if you have a companion, a friend, maybe even a lover, going through similar changes as well.

Kawi is still dislikable, I think, because he’s not aware of either HOW or WHY he’s changing. But he’s changing, alright. He doesn’t have the context, yet, as to why this might be good for him.

Maybe the crystal ball will tell him that?

OR, MAYBE: he’ll come to realize that contentment in the present is ultimately what will give him the most happiness. As Pear said to Kawi during her wedding in episode 7:

“But as we grew older, lived our lives, and continued to make mistakes, we’d have to accept that this was the farthest that we could achieve.”

What Pear is saying here is: you can stop striving sometimes, Kawi. If you can just -- BE -- and accept that life is not PERFECT -- then your future WILL just BE the result of THAT work THAT YOU DO NOW, THAT WILL CONTAIN MISTAKES.

What I hope to see in the future episodes of this series is Kawi recognizing that that work is what will be his revelation, and his ultimate truth for himself -- the truth that makes him the most happy and fulfilled.

We’ll see. I haven’t even gotten into all the subtle references to Krist’s past that this script holds, but @lurkingshan​​ is holding that down in her meta (yay, Shan!).

I am in LOVE with this show, and am SUPER EXCITED to join y’all in watching it! I am VERY IMPRESSED with GMMTV taking another chance on Krist in a BL, and Gawin was a perfect choice as an onscreen partner.

(CCing a few friends who were holding me down during my Monday liveblog, here ya go, some meta for ya -- THANKS FOR YOUR PREVIOUS FEEDBACK, FRIENDS! @dribs-and-drabbles​​, @grapejuicegay​​, @rocketturtle4​​, @chickenstrangers​​, @lurkingshan​​) 

P.S. I FORGOT TO ADD:

GAWIN. CASKEY. DAMN. CAN THE HOMEY ACT, OR CAN HE ACT? He is SO GOOD IN THIS, MY GAWD! Their CHEMISTRY! MEEP!

[taylorkellyreporting]

i hope no one minds if i liveblog this bitch: ncis: hawai’i s2 from ncis 19x21

since the first ep back is a crossover with ncis i just decided to watch those eps first. if this is their way of getting more ppl to watch the og…it’s working lmao

— ncis 19x21 + ncis hawaii 2x01

roman’s hilarious

“salted or unsalted?” “i…did not taste them” lmao

i don’t like this deputy director at all

parker’s ex wife is definitely lying and probably setting him up

“if i’m the sucker, consider me licked” 😭

*pretends to be shocked*

lmaooo they got the commander good in that diner

at least parker is suspicious

WHAT???

hm. i wonder if the commander is the raven

damn this storyline is insane

jane and nick would be such a hot couple why lie

oh wow it’s the prisoner

kate and lucy are so cute

“don’t worry, you’re gonna get to know the inmates, believe me” pls

oh they got played

bombside manner 😭😭

i love bam-bam she’s hilarious

“screw you, torres!” “you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” skjfhghcjjs

IT WAS A SETUP

i’ll never get tired of ocean shots

this crossover was SO MUCH better than the first one omg

— ncis: hawai’i 2x02

kate wants to tell her boss about lucy so she can meet her team 🥹

he was shot in the face?? how horrific

ernie gossiping 😭

“first off, it’s a movie about family” dkfjgjfjdn

mai tai o’clock 😭😭

that’s a lot of blood

i love that kate’s venting to jesse

NOT THE CROWBAR

that chase was cool as hell

“i don’t have friends, i got ohana” lmaoo i love them

“it’s like a trilogy, right?” lmfaooo

“i’ll be right here, with ya” aww

“welcome to the fbi family” 🫶🏻🥹

THEY’RE SO CUTE

— 2x03

why is this woman so nervous…

oh shit they cut her brakes

“i’m like half your size!” 😭😭

oop not lucy coming at her with her full government name

“well now you’re just trying to turn me on 😏” LUCY CLAPPING TO GET HER TO FOCUS PLS 😭

SHE FULL ON BODY SLAMMED HER ICB

wait, what??

this audrey looks like she’s wearing a really bad wig

bam-bam doesn’t remember jesse lmao

“but mostly, we spoke the language of love” 😭

“ohhhh i see it now!” hours later lmao

oh redhead looked like she saw a ghost when she saw kate for the first time

“open yourself up to more mopping” plsss

oh shit this is intense

“my love” 🥹

“being with you has changed everything” i love them y’all i really do

— 2x04

a backup shoe 😭

hell no i would never think to cook in someone’s house when i’ve never even met them before

i do not like cassandra at all

they were all scared to death…what a terrible way to die

“their fear is his high” how evil

no fucking way it’s the ranger who was helping them earlier

PIKE??????

THAT WAS INSANE

jane lying and saying she likes cassandra pls

besides the season premiere, this was my favorite episode of the season so far

— 2x05

oh my God

lmao that kacy scene was so awkward

i can’t wait to find out who this aj person is

all of these construction men are hot…assholes but. hot.

kate really put her foot in her mouth with that financially responsible comment

not him blaming ben + the team for what’s happening as if he didn’t get into bed with them in the first place

this ep was frustrating but really good

i don’t trust aj at all. he’s probably the one who had the brothers attacked.

that was such a beautiful ending

— 2x06

i’m on daniel’s side with this one sorry

God this is making me never want to leave my house again…fentanyl scattered all over the beach are you fr

“if the devil got into the drug business, fentanyl would be his product of choice” so true

“it’s not every day i get to spend time with my little buddy” the smile on kai’s face when he thought ernie was talking about him is making me lose it

i’d like to thank the writers for gracing us with shirtless kai scenes

bam-bam and ernie beefing is hilarious

oh my God i really thought jesse was gone

kai really threw down that bag so he could hug jesse jdjgjvjdhsvc

alex getting a job at kai’s dads restaurant oh wow 😭

“your dad doesn’t know what he missed out on” i love their friendship so so much

stella knows there’s something wrong

well that was unexpected

i want more annoyed kate

jesse’s insane

lucy “my love” tara and kate “my sweet” whistler you are so adorable

the tear ☹️

i get the writers needed an excuse for yasmine being gone but lucy deciding to spend four months on a boat in the middle of the ocean is so out of character

— 2x08

kai is such a SWEETHEART

not jesse being a theater kid omg?

“the pirate queen” “no, just stop. you’re embarrassing yourself” the way kai just nods 😭

mcu mention oh this is hell

alan’s an idiot

ernie 😭😭😭

okay a movie shoot was not expected

lucy needs to come home NOW

“walk away” he is very much not going to do that

not at all important to the plot but charlie’s neck is so freaking thick lmfao

cassandra needs to pack her shit and go already

jane is such a badass i don’t care if what she did was a stupid move

they did alan so foul

oh shit kai’s dad took money from those men???

CHARLEMAGNE 😭😭

oh jane’s gonna kill alex

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 18/07

I'm really enjoying Hivebent! It almost feels like a detour into a different story, like the Intermission - although the difference, of course, is that we know this one is plot-relevant. 

The tone is quite different too. Things are kind of ominous - and not just because we know the troll session(s) are doomed. We’re slowly zooming into the culture of a pretty terrible world, and I’m sure there’s a lot more to see.  

I've thought about this, but there are two main issues here:

I like to refer back to previous posts a lot when I’m liveblogging, both for further analysis and to illustrate points. Audio or video reactions are sort of hard to reference - I could do a transcript, but I don’t think it’d be very useful, because

I’m just not very good live, lmao. I’m a lot more comfortable in text, where I can format and edit posts to properly illustrate what I’m trying to say. Live, I tend to ramble - even my text posts have to be cut down a little from my initial reactions. You’re really not missing much; trust me on this.

If the flashes ever get really long - like, if we do a larger one of these, which I’m assuming is a walkaround - I’ll reconsider. I doubt it, though, I’d probably be more likely to split it into multiple posts. I’ll keep it under consideration, though!

Karkat and his friends and everyone they would ever meet thereafter would experience great misfortune on account of the curse unwittingly implemented through Sollux's esoteric MOBIUS DOUBLE REACHAROUND VIRUS.

I think either interpretation makes sense - this sentence is kind of ambiguous, now that I’m looking at it again. Although, if Sollux did know what the virus would do, why would he send it to his friend? 

He knows Karkat is an amateur programmer, which is the worst kind of person to send this too. Karkat can compile and run this code, but he can’t understand it. What the hell, Captor?

I absolutely hate to admit this, but I watched Morbius with my friend a couple of weeks ago. The experience was indescribable, and it’s stuck in my mind ever since.

But my favorite moment will be when John looks directly out of the panel, meeting my eye, and speaks thusly:

I'm wearing ‘cliffnotes-esque’ as a badge of honor from now on. I kind of want to make it my blog header.

Yeah, I try to attach any relevant context to the points I make, just to help me tie things together. As a bonus, it hopefully helps readers out, too!

Oh my god, does this mean Sburb is on a grub? Are all the actual troll computers just... full of insects?  

Was Karkat, like, really confused by the non-biological tape storage in the Veil, or was his Veil just wall-to-wall grubs?

That’s too funny. It’s second only to Kingdom Hearts in weird stream-crossing moments in video games. I’ve never actually played a dating game before, but I gotta give this one a go - I actually think I’ve seen that JaidenAnimations dating game video before, I’ve seen a lot of her stuff. 

It may not be true canon, but maybe this is the legendary semi-canon that I keep hearing about...

Oh I love Undertale - Deltarune too. There is just so much going on in those games, on every level. 

Toby, not to rush you, but you have no idea the things I’d do for Chapter 3 to drop today. 

I actually didn’t catch this! Not that I’ve studied any classics, or anything.

I guess my pronunciation isn’t quite right. I guess it’d be something like ‘saul-ucks cap-ter’?

So he is. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that mental health services on Alternia are somewhat lacking, even more so than on Earth. Do you think trolls even know what therapy is? 

Aw, the poor monsters. 

Shit, I hadn’t thought of this yet - what lusus will my trollsona have? I’m thinking of some sort of insect, but leave it with me. 

[https://4-panel-life.tumblr.com/post/63400990221/before-i-knew-what-homestuck-was-i-was-really this I think 😂 - Cat ] 

Love it. I’d honestly have probably spent the rest of my life confusing the two, if I hadn’t started this blog. As I said, I have no earthy clue what Homestar Runner is about, only that it was a beacon of internet culture in the era before I came online.

I don’t doubt that puns were in play when Hussie was initially naming these Aspects - and those puns may well tie into their symbolism. It’s a pretty good way to get some inspiration when you’re naming things.

But I’m sure there’s more too it - simply because people love these Titles. The system is presumably pretty deep, and the pun is but a single faucet of each Title.

Thank you! Hilariously, it’s actually hotter at home than it was abroad. 

Is anyone else dealing with the heatwave, right now? Holy shit, you guys, even normal summers make me drowsy. This one is something else. 

Always up for some Sylladex analysis. 

We’ve considered this interpretation before. It makes a lot of sense - and it gels with what we already know about Sburb - but I’m still on the fence about it, mostly because it raises the same question that the rest of Sburb’s predestination system does - namely, how it would account for alternate timelines. 

There are ways to handle it - like, maybe each iteration of each person gets their own, personal index - and I do think we’re on the right track with predestination, but I still don’t think we have the whole picture here. 

Everything, Everywhere was a lot of fun - and all the AU and alt-self stuff was very Homestuck. 

Does anyone else wish we'd seen more of the other timelines, though? I know the movie was intentionally centered on one specific iteration of the family, but I'd love to have seen more of what went down in, for example, the Prime Timeline.

Dis* is me when I try to use regexes.

I'm on the for you page? I've fucking made it. Catch me monetizing the shit out of this blog now.

thewertsearch, brought to you by Namco™ High!

[ omg. um.... here it is... humanimals.... drawn by Hussie, I believe a few years before HS...

https://mrcheeze.github.io/andrewhussie/comic.html?comic=humanimals

content warning for... I guess body horror, and weird... human animal people, I don’t even know what description I could give but it’s nightmare fuel xD

it’s not directly plot relevant to HS the way SBAHJ is, I leave it up to your judgement lol - C ]

........

I honestly don’t think I can post these on the blog. Why does the the fact that they’re office clerks make it worse, somehow? The juxtaposition of the casual mood with what we’re seeing is generating a feeling that’s adjacent to, but somehow more harrowing than, the uncanny valley. 

Incredible. I feel like my life has been enriched in a way I can neither understand nor describe.  

Oh right, yeah, the ‘secrets’ in the playable panels! Yeah, I’d actually forgotten about these, thanks for the reminder.

It's been a while since a playable flash, so I need to remember to find the key combination for each of them. if I miss one, remind me!

[iguessitsjustme]

Be My Favorite - Episode 5 Thoughts

Looks like I’m doing this again. I have the time, energy, and inclination to watch and liveblog my thoughts tonight and I’ve been told Pisaeng has a wonderful arc this episode so I might actually be a little excited for this. Never thought I’d say that about a Jittirain show. 

-I still love this opening. Wait I remember watching the MV for this. I didn’t care for the MV but I like the song itself. It’s so very Thai BL. 

-I am also laughing that Not slept alone. He deserves no one and nothing. 

-Oh Pisaeng. I remember that feeling. Not being sure what you’re afraid of but still being afraid. 

-I don’t think Kawi likes Pear actually. Cause if he liked Pear, his crush would have fizzled out after 12 years. I think he likes the idolized version he has of Pear in his own head. 

-You know what Kawi, I haven’t written in a long time too and I want to get back to it. I might just find my journal after watching it. 

-Can someone tell me what those books are because those covers are GORGEOUS. Now I also want to read. I’ve read 6 books in the last two weeks. Granted they were all easy reads but still. These books are beautiful. 

-Are they even talking? I thought they were literally just friends. 

-I love Max. Kawi does not deserve a friend like him. Max deserves better. 

-I want to squish Max’s cheeks. No particular reason why. I just love him a lot which means cheek squishing. 

-I need Kawi to stop hanging out with these assholes. Like I get they’re kind of the perfect friend group for Kawi but since he’s the main character, whenever he hangs out with them that means I need to see them and I’m with Pisaeng here. They suck. 

-Did Pisaeng just stare longingly at a gay bar? That was such a good moment. 

-Not and Pear’s friend better not end up together. Not better not (lol) get a redemption. 

-Hey, um Not, fuck you: 

-Pear should have said “if you wrote it, I’m sure it won’t be that difficult” and annihilated him on the spot. But she’s too nice for that unfortunately. 

-Not gonna lie, I just skipped the scene of Kawi attempting magic. It’s boring. Also Kawi is so judgemental. 

-Max said “you’re the problem” to Kawi and he is correct. 

-YES PISAENG YES. GO TO THE GAY CLUB. 

-Noooo Pisaeng don’t run away from Max! Max is good! Max is kind! Max isn’t judgemental!

-So Kawi let one asshole remark from Not influence his perception of literally all of the kind people around him and then befriended the asshole who made him feel so small. Okay okay I got it. Kawi is an idiot. 

-Max is the best. What a good person. More Max. Less Not. Why am I forced to see so much Not when Max is right there. 

-MAX. I love him. I adore him.

-If Kawi is about to sing, I’m gonna cry

-*tears*

-The fast forward button is my friend. 

-I can see the messaging the show is going for with Kawi’s character in learning that the world isn’t such a nasty place and you shouldn’t judge it as such but I think they’re executing it poorly. I don’t know how exactly it’s not working for me but I think it’s the immaturity. I honestly think this message would work better had it been Kawi getting shown his future so he works to fix the present instead of Kawi living 12 additional years and travels back in time because he never grew up and is just now learning these things.

-Look and precious baby Pisaeng. So afraid and so brave despite it. 

-I am so incredibly proud of Pisaeng. This was probably the hardest thing he has ever done. It would have been much easier for him to repress and run away and never think of it again. But he didn’t. He faced it despite his fear. And not just fear or rejection but the fear of what it would mean for him to acknowledge this truth. He’s searching for his answers and I am so so proud of him for finding the courage to admit his feelings for Kawi out loud. 

-This feels a lot like a straight friend rejecting his gay friend. 

-PISAENG AT THE GAY BAR. PISAENG AT THE GAY BAR. I love this so much. 

-Why did Pear sniff kiss him? When did that happen? This really feels like a het show with Pisaeng being the interesting side character on a journey of self discovery. And I love Pear so I wouldn’t mind that. Kawi could be better though. 

-I actually think Krist has a good voice. I thought it in the MV and I think it whenever I hear him sing. But it isn’t “be constantly singing in this show” good but I am biased as I want minimal singing in all shows always. 

-That preview scares me

[zeebreezin]

Introduction —

Hi hi hello, I’m Astra (He/They) and welcome to my Fallen London Sideblog! I’m very new to the game, having picked up FL maybe a month ago as of posting, and not playing very frequently until recently, though I have played a good bit of Sunless Seas. My lore knowledge is pretty bad, I won’t lie, but I am 100% here to learn.

This blog is largely going to be about my OCs, as well as probably a bit of liveblogging about my personal playthrough of FL - the character I’m currently running as a PC is on the Nemesis! Ambition so I’ll probably have some thoughts about that once I’m a bit further along. I’m always open to talk about OCs and for interactions so just let me know!!

As a note, I’m way more comfortable painting backgrounds and stylized figures than I am drawing character portraits! Portraiture is a very new venture for me!

Currently, all of my FL characters reside in the same apartment, spitting the rent - with Shaw & B living there full time, and Verily largely using the space as a place to crash on land. The two main NPCs, Acumen and Beverley, exist throughout the world! I’m also developing Shaw’s Ex as another PC.

Characters (WIP!):

The Marked Examinant, August Shaw.

He/They, Somewhere in his Early 40s

An investigator by trade, Shaw is a prickly character who has a mildly extreme obsession with the various languages of the Neath, a fascination that’s gotten them into a good deal of trouble… and left them with a few strange quirks. Unscrupulous at the best of times, he is damn good at his job, when he’s not chasing a bit of escapism by any means necessary. While they’re seemingly a complete hardass, Shaw does have a soft side for a few things: Namely, his assistant, and the urchins of the city.

Watchful / Shadowy-Dangerous, Subtle / Ruthless / Hedonistic, Ambition: Nemesis!

My current PC!

The Reckless Playwright / ???, B.

Any/All, Early 20s (?)

B is an aspiring playwright and actor with their head in the non-existent clouds and a spring in their step. She always seems to be getting into a little bit of trouble, before charming his way out of it with a smile and a wide eyed look. Everything about their past is a bit of a mystery, though it can’t be denied that they have a good heart While searching for cheap lodgings in London, B ended up with the (mis)fortune of becoming Shaw’s housemate and eventual investigative assistant. The two have a strange friendship, but one that’s changed them both for the better.

B is absolutely, definitely not wanted by the Royal Navy.

Persuasive / Shadowy, Magnanimous / Daring / Subtle

If I play B as a PC, their Ambition would be Heart’s Desire.

The Everdrowned Oblation, Cpt. Verily

She/It, Mid 30s (Maybe?)

Once, a nameless captain offered up her body to her starving crew - her poor planning and lack of discipline leading them all to the brink of oblivion. After a prayer to the gods of the Zee, they took her up on her offer. However, that Captain didn’t quite die. She rose again, and again, and again. Each time with a different past, with different friends in port, with a different story that wasn’t quite her own. A dozen or more ships have taken her down, and each time, she’s risen anew. It knew that it was some boon from the gods - or perhaps, a curse. Either way, the zee will not let Captain Verily go, even after she’s been stripped of everything. One night after a long, long day upon uncertain land, Verily approached the office of a known investigator, a madness in her eyes. It only had one request for August Shaw - “Tell me who I am.”

Dangerous / Watchful, Daring / Steadfast / Forceful

Verily is my PC in Sunless Seas. All of them. Every time it dies, she comes back as the next. I am very bad at Sunless Seas. Verily Drowned Captains Counter: 16

Other Tags (WIP)

#low level liveblog is where I talk about stuff in game as it comes up for me, I’m still very early in (Pre-POSI).

While I probably won’t be posting or reblogging much outright NSFW, stuff leaning in that direction/kink implications will be tagged as #suggestive

The two major story antagonists for these three, The Ravenous Acumen and The Phosphorescent Engineer are tagged as #the ravenous acumen and #officer beverley respectively! One day I’ll sit down and update things I promise

Character relationships are tagged as follows:

#detective duo for Shaw & B

#best and brightest for B & Officer Beverley

#worst laid plans for Shaw & Acumen