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zhoufeis · 4 years

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Yay! The newbie (me) has finished 10 korean dramas

....... and here are my ratings.

Let’s rate from worst to best:

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10) Romance is a Bonus Book. Rating: 2,1 / 5 stars - skip it.

- I kept seeing this show on my dash and since my first kdrama watch was W Two Worlds with the wonderful Lee Jong-suk, I decided to give it a chance.

- But hell, no one warned me how bad it actually is. I’m not talking about the acting (the cast is actually quite solid), but I’m referring to... the plot (or lack thereof), the love story (let’s rather call it one-sided obsession) and the wasted potential. Let’s start with the set-up. A company producing books, a single mother who needs a job, her childhood best friend who works for the company. Yeah, it’s not precisely complex or inventive, but it’s something to work with. Create nice dynamics at the working place, have some yearning between the two leads, give them heartwarming moments and a confession of how they’ve always been in love with each other. There’s just one problem: she really never, ever had any romantic feelings for her childhood best friend. She keeps calling him a brother and insists on him being her closest friend (which seems a stretch since she lied to him for a year about her separation from her husband and kept sort of creeping up into his house to eat and shower there without letting him know). Anyway, I could oversee this (even though I hate the trope of childhood best friends becoming lovers in adult life just because one is a man and the other a woman) if AT LEAST we actually get to see her falling for him slowly within the show. But we just.... don’t. He confesses his love to her - as she is actually starting to see someone else, and let me tell you, she actually seemed to be into the second lead -, then promises her not to push his feelings onto her... but that’s exactly what he does (I guess I don’t need to mention I ended up not being his biggest fan), and she ends up falling for him for unknown reasons. Eh. Okay. I started rooting for the second leads halfway into the show. Hae-rin & Eun-ho as well as Seo-joo & Dan-i appeared to me as the much more shippable pairings. I might have actually cried for Hae-rin & Eun-ho at some point of the show, but well... Moving on to... everything else. I enjoyed some scenes in the company, but not enough that I could tell you any right now because there wasn’t anything very memorable. The show basically thrives in some random scenes usually involving one of the two leads rather than in scenes with the two of them. That random author’s suicide has stuck with me as well as the letters that song hae-rin has wrote to our male lead over the years. The talk about fears between eun-ho and that author has stuck with me too, but other than that... there’s just nothing really happening. I was patiently waiting for a plot to come but nothing ever came. It just feels like a bunch of really uninteresting subplots put into one show. I don’t wanna judge it too harshly, but one of the other modern day dramas I will discuss further down this list also simply works with a bunch of subplots coming together - and it’s wonderfully executed (it’s ‘Run On’, for those of you who are wondering!)

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: nice friendship between women (dan-i & hae-rin); delivery of lee jong-suk, jeong eu-gene & park gyu-young; one strong scene involving a life lesson every few eps

- Negative: no main plot, dull subplots... nothing happens, very cheesy at some points, the protagonizing couple is quite problematic and unshippable, their chemistry is not strong enough to oversee that; i really don’t know why people like this show.

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9) Radio Romance. Rating: 3,2 / 5 stars - it’s cute.

- Radio Romance is the show on this list that drives me into conflict with myself. Because some things about this show are very strong; others (many) very, very weak. I guess the main problem is that the show’s set-up mostly shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but it deals with some heavy topics that need to be taken seriously. And unlike quality japanese animes or some quality chinese drama that usually achieve to make you realize what can be taken as a joke and what can not, Radio Romance is sort of incapable of keeping that balance. You gotta figure it for yourself.

- While offering a quite enjoyable cast and some quite different personalities within the show, there is no one particularly standing out. As you will see as we go further down on this list, this is not my only Kim So-hyun drama, it was also not my first, and I can promise you that it won’t be my last. I simply adore this actress, she’s enjoyable to watch. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of her, which is why I checked out the show in the first place. Compared to her other characters though, Song Geu-rim is kind and nice and all, but not too memorable. She’s portraying a nice girl next door here with a dream to become a good radio script writer. And if not even her character stands out, as expected, none of the others will either. As for the plot... We don’t really have one, I suppose. If you count the plot making the radio show, I suppose then episode 3 or 4 is the last with actual development. I was hoping for more conflicts and plot twists involving Soo-ho’s backstory - and we got them, but very, very, very late on the show. Basically, getting through the first 7 eps felt very easy to me, due to the change of locations and relationship growth, and getting through the last 3 as well. Although the last was such a cheesy ending, you have no idea. The middle part suffered from a lack of plot and character development as well as it suffered from a focus on the love triangle - which I totally could have lived without. Like, istg, what was the POINT of this love triangle? Soo-ho and Geu-rim had to deal with enough things already, bringing in yet another obstacle through the tercero and putting the focus onto this love triangle was just soooo cliché. And don’t even get me started on how they also went with the problematic love triangle tropes rather than to at least make it somewhat adorable or funny. It was also boring. I kept pausing the episodes there and didn’t keep watching for days. It was only at the end of episode 13 that things finally got interesting again when we finally got to learn more about Soo-ho’s backstory. From then on, I was able to end the show within 2 days. So, no, the backstory was not the thing that drives me into conflict though. What drives me into conflict is how such a quite flat story was able to portray a very good, very realistic case of depression and PTSD. Like wow. This must have been one of the few shows, in which we have a canonically diagnosed character who does not fall into stereotypes and in which his depression isn’t used as a mere plot device to get the ship together and cure him by that. His depression is underlying at all times, sometimes more, sometimes less. He is told to get treatment (”no treatment, no medication.”), he has moments in which his depression mentally and physically restrains him from acting. It’s a very layered, realistic depiction and I adored every single bit of it. Meanwhile, the character isn’t defined by his depression nevertheless - there’s more to Soo-ho then just the depression, and after all, he was an outstanding character (to correct what I said before because I was lying xD). So... for all the lack of plot and development and predictable storytelling, the depiction of depression and the peacefulness of the protagonizing couple save that show.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: unnecessary love triangles with unnecessary clichés; barely any plot; sheer boredom in the middle of the show; takes itself and its tropes way too seriously.

- Positive: complex character who is suffering from depression and PTSD; layered, realistic depiction of depression; adorable couple that transmits peacefulness.

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8) Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung. Rating: 3,5 / 5 stars - nice, but it is no must-watch.

- I feel genuinely bad for putting this right after Radio Romance and Romance is a Bonus Book, because Rookie Historian was, simply put, muuuuuuuuch better. I got invested in the characters and their backstories. The story is quite more complex in retrospect than it seemed at first, but the show’s issue is that this is rather less apparent in more than the first quarter of the show. I really don’t even recall what happened in those first few episodes because it is rather unimportant for the rest of the show, with minor exceptions. The story truly starts picking up around episode 9 and has a strong run until around episode 15. The last quarter of the show then is wayyyyy too fast-moving, too many things happening and we barely spend time on things I then wished to spend more time on. Unfortunately, despite having a good set-up and a quite fine cast, I don’t think I’ll remember anything in particular about this show in a year. It’s a nice watch, even though I sometimes really had to motivate myself to keep watching in the first eps, but it hasn’t lingered in my memory after I finished it.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: rather lots of plot; positive female relationships; feminism; shin se-kyung; leading couple as well as the second leading couple, even though romance is not at the core of the show; nice messages about morality and truth.

- Negative: the first few eps are really.... slow-moving. To the point that I’d recommend putting the first 8 eps into 2-3 eps and giving more space in the end. Especially the last 4 eps of the show are way too fast-moving. Furthermore, there’s some plotholes. My biggest issue though is the glorification of europe's christianity during the 18th and 19th century. I was not expecting that in a korean drama but it seemed utterly wrong in my eyes, specifically because the show used it to promote that chrisitianity promotes equality of all races and genders. Not to be a bitch, but europe’s christian beliefs have never stopped europeans from discriminating women and non-white people, not then and not now.

- My general impression of the show is quite positive, but I’m not sure I’d willingly watch it again since knowing all the plot twists and storylines actually is enough to be watched once with that show. An experience that I haven’t made with the other kdramas that are higher ranked on this list.

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7) A Love So Beautiful. Rating: 3,5 / 5 stars - if you really don’t want to think at all and just watch a light, easy to follow show, that is your pick. However, NOT recommended for first-time kdrama watchers - it gives you a totally wrong impression of what kdramas are actually capable of achieving.

- I’d like to point out that this show has surprised me in a good way - but there’s things that need to be pointed out here, so let me make three paragraphs: the first will talk about my impression of the first 16 eps; the second will talk about the last 8 eps; and the last will talk about how this show was cute, but could have been incredible, but didn’t use its potential correctly.

- Episodes 1-16: Look, the thing about those eps is very easy to point out: it’s not quality and it is never pretending to be (unlike romance is a bonus book, which pretends to be some smart, adult quality show but is just trash). Those eps cannot be taken totally serious. You have to go in there knowing exactly what is awaiting you. I started it because when I saw the trailer, I immediately realized all the tropes that Extraordinary You (higher ranked, you will see later) was making fun of. What you see is exactly what you get: Clichéd characters, clichéd love story, average acting, average directing, simple dialogue, clichéd love triangle, predictable developments - a simple romcom put into a tv show format. It’s cliché over cliché over cliché put into a het high school love story. And you know what? After weeks of studying for and writing my uni exams, it was exactly what I needed. The show is so over the top with its clichés that it’s genuinely funny. The lightheartedness and the non-existing complexity just add to that. Basically, you could argue that it’s all so bad with its clichés, which is why it becomes hilarious. Unlike other kdramas, it has a straightforward plot: a girl is in love with a boy and wants to be with him. It’s as easy as that. The show clearly loves featuring every trope you could associate with het love stories, but honestly, it’s so light and breezy and such a fast watch (due to the fact that each ep is between 20-25 minutes), you will finish those first 16 episodes before you know you even started it (I made it in less than 2 days). I want to repeat here though, it’s not for someone who starts with kdramas and hasn’t watched other kdramas. It cannot be taken seriously - and you only cannot take it seriously when you have seen things like Extraordinary You or W or, I guess, a bunch of high school kdramas. But I’m telling you, this is the only Kdrama on this list that you can watch in the most stressful time of your life and it will make you feel better. It won’t make you cry, it will make you laugh, and the moment it is out of your sight, you will forget about it - at least, that’s the case about the first 16 eps. And then we get to...

- Episodes 17-24: guys, what have I gotten myself into? As these people finished high school and their problems actually also got more adult, I started to grow genuinely attached, specifically to the ship. When she got sick and he didn’t even know although he’s a DOCTOR? When she was sexually harassed and didn’t know how to talk to him about it because their relationship was filled with other problems? When he left for 3 years and later told her that he had hoped she’d follow him because she always has... and then she didn’t? When he said that everyone is under the impression that she is more dependent on him but that he is actually the one who cannot imagine a life without her? IT ALL HURT BADLY. Because 1) so many years passed in such a short amount of time on the show and it felt like someone was ripping my heart out. I got genuinely reminded of that stupid US movie “One Day” - and y’all know how that movie ended. And because 2) there was a very realistic notion in the adult relationship portrayed. Not only did it point out how differently relationships/friendships can develop once you outgrow your teenage years and start navigating your life by yourself, but the problems, the misunderstandings, the different perceptions of time, the different perceptions of how friendships and relationships are developing - I honestly could relate to it a lot, looking at it from a 24yo perspective because it is something I have been experiencing as well since I finished high school. You feel more lonely and tend to perceive some time as passing by quickly, other times, it feels like everything is going so slow. These last 8 eps completely differ from my perception that I had in the first 16 eps of the show, as the tone is much more serious and the things depicted realistic and relatable. I also sobbed a lot. I didn’t sob at all, ever, in the first 16 eps, but the last 8 were me crying a lot and feeling my heart hurt as the years passed by and these two just spent them apart.

- So, what do I criticize about this show? The show’s pacing. I genuinely loved the change of feeling between high school and adult life, between ridiculousness and seriousness, and I know the show wants to celebrate youth at the end of the day. But I honestly believe this show could have worked so much better if u cut the high school episodes down to 8 episodes and rather spend a few more eps exploring their young adult lives. It would have worked so much better because their young adult selves were genuinely relatable, as well as their problems. The growth within the characters, realizing that the way they acted as teenagers were often self-centred or that they didn’t think that much about the consequences or how other people felt was nicely done. The show had potential. The dialogues were bearable, the camera work had hints of something great. In other words, I believe that with more carefulness to directing and dialogue, the show could have genuinely been a quality romance drama. The potential was there, but it wasn’t used the way it should have been. In the last 8 eps, you simply get a whiff on what this show could have actually been. Because the realistic character and relationship writing was right there - and if it had been put together with awesome directing and better pacing, everything could have been incredible.

SUMMARY

Favorite character:

Negative: the show’s pacing; the waste of potential to be an actual quality romance.

Positive: the un-seriousness of the first 16 eps, which were just so clichéd that it all was hilarious, compared to the seriousness of problems and development depicted in the past 8 eps.

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6) Run On. Rating: 4,2 / 5 stars - recommend

- I’m gonna be honest here and tell you something about me you might have guessed by now: Modern-day shows with no sci-fi nor fantasy elements are not particularly my thing. I usually sort of hate-watch them. Romance is a Bonus Book, A Love So Beautiful and Radio Romance are all of such shows and while I was even capable watching two of them without ending up hating them, they’re far from being my fave. Objectively, they’re okay-ish shows, nothing to be considered quality tv according to my cultural studies though. Subjectively, they just suffer even more from the fact that I’m very keen on being critical of such shows. But what happens when I find a non-fantasy, non-scifi modern-day show that is actually... good? Run On is the answer. Run On has memorable characters, their funny, unique characteristics, and simple conflicts put into nice subplots that often talk real-life problems such as bullying or self-neglegance. At the end of the day, this show is a love poem. It’s a love poem to self-love, self-respect, to friendship, to character growth, to family bonds, to achieving your goals, to making new goals, to kindness, and to life itself. That’s really what it is. You will find yourself in, at least, one of the characters. You will see them struggle, fight, grow, become better, and at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you are capable of living with yourself. I personally got attached to all of the stories and I adored how nothing was ever done over the top. Everything was subtle, multiple subplots working together... to form stories of life. It’s more than just a simple “feelgood” show and less than a devastating tragedy, it truly shows you life and puts it into an aesthetic form, that never neglects its reality. Which leads me to something I should point out here: it’s creatively done. From the fact that Seon-gyeom is waiting for Mi-joo at the end of the track to the drawings of Young-hwa that have Dan-ah in them to Dan-ah realizing that people experience the same things differently due to the fact that experience itself is different to everyone to Mi-joo imagining movie plots with the people she surrounds herself with to Seon-gyeom starting to live with Young-hwa in a small flat rather than to live lonely in a big, fancy hotel room - the things the characters go through in this show are not only talked about, but they’re often expressed through art, in all its forms. And these characters, these dynamics, the art, the conflicts are all subtly but carefully put together into subplots that form the show and very nice messages. The most important take-away I had from this show is that the way we treat us and the people around us is the highest form of art. And the show is a love poem to that.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: the cast (especically the core four), the characters (especially the core four); the wonderful messages about respect, kindness and self-love; the subplots working together, reflecting how life is also not just some simple chronological order of things but rather multiple experiences that we remember and that shape us; life is constant growth.

- Negative: i think the only thing i truly have to criticize is that you never really know what the plot even is. While I do enjoy how the subplots all work together, I would have wished for deeper inspections of some plots. And while it is easy just for some headcanons to come to mind, I still think the show could have incorporated more. Considering the treatment of art forms and how it takes a prominent role within the story (due to Young-hwa and Mi-joo, respectively), I also would have liked to have some cultural nods and references - and interpretations. I think the show used about 85% of its potential - and the potential was great, which is why the rating is still very good.

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5) Bring it on, ghost! Rating: 4,2 / 5 stars - recommend, especially good for people who want to have a focus on romance coupled with a supernatural plot and who want a happy ending

- While the story is pretty easy to follow, often seems to be predictable and familiar, the show still promotes nice messages about forgiveness and regret. The strong side of the show isn’t particularly that though - this show is entirely saved by the two leading actors. Kim So-hyun and Teacyeon portray two incredibly lovable characters you will see yourself drawn to. They furthermore have a chemistry that you just have to love and their bickering is just the best part of all. This is mixed with some tragic moments - in present time as well as in the past - and what you get is a romantic show with a bit of comedy, with a bit of tragedy, but with a very happy ending. If you exchanged the actors with two less skilled actors or two people who simply don’t have a lot of chemistry, this show simply wouldn’t work. Their performances are the shining light of this drama, mixed with some funny side characters that you get to enjoy as well. The reason why it ends up higher on the list than Run On - despite Run On probably having generally the better dialogue writing as well as better camera work and even more beautiful messages - is due to the sole work of the two leads who simply carry this show on their back and the fact that despite having some more or less necessary subplots, there is a main plot here that will take a faster, darker turn in the second half of the show. And I personally just enjoy having a main plot to hold onto as well as I always enjoy a bit of fantasy more than modern day real live shows. On top of that, add some devastating backstory and top-notch character development for Park Bong-pal, and a badass, slightly violent, sassy characterization of Kim Hyun-ji. This show will simply leave you with a huge smile on your face, despite being made for people who enjoy tragedy as well.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: subplots sometimes take the focus, a familiar story, stereotypical portrayal of ghosts (yes, ahre, i said it), no real plot twists (which can be a good thing, too, since the show rather simply unfolds each part of the story over the course of its run)

- Positive: the two leading actors, their incredibly shippable couple, a happy ending. If I was going to recommend a light-hearted, happy kdrama that has some tragic parts but ends happily and isn’t that hard to follow, I’ll recommend you this one.

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4) The Tale of Nok-du. Rating: 4,6 / 5 stars - strongly recommend.

- If you ever are in search for an unproblematic dummy as protagonist, watch this show. He’s a dummy you just have to love. You laugh about him, you laugh with him, you cry for him. He’s a puppy, you cry with him. And the best thing is, this puppy falls in love with a girl who can be quite rude and annoyed, but he always makes her smile and genuinely is attentive to her. The most frustrating thing about both of them is that each of them keeps a secret they cannot tell each other because they refuse to hurt each other - and this almost leads to tragedy. Better even, they’re portrayed by two very skillful actors. You’ll love them in the blink of an eye. And then there’s the cute second lead, portrayed by Kang Tae-oh. Yes, cute. Until he really isn’t. I’ve never seen an actor being able to turn around a character to 180° in no time. Some talent that is. And now let’s just say - the plot is nice. It is not the most complex one, but it is interesting to follow and you are always eager to find out new information to collect and put the pieces together. If you are searching for a show that is simply entertaining and nice to watch and featrures a great cast and nice characters and ranges from comedy to tragedy, this is your pick.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: the narrative change in the middle of the show that shifted the focus away from women to men (even though it made sense within the story, it was still a very sudden and harsh change, especially if you consider that these women were mostly slaughtered to death)

- Positive: CAST (specifically the three mains are just beyond amazing); an innocent, pure, absolutely adorable protagonizing couple that will steal your heart; feminism; male protagonist being a feminist who ends up working with badass women for his entire lifetime; directing; narration practices - this show is the one that draws the line between the ones i discussed above and the really great ones because it is the first on the list to be capable of telling a story by constantly keeping your nerves up while also not overstimulating the viewer with too much information at once. Only the other 3 shows which will follow now were able to do the same - and it’s what makes people watch or quit, and that’s why it’s so important: constant plot development, no unnecessary side plots, and handing your audience enough information to make them keep watching but not enough to guess the entire plot yet. The Tale of Nok-du was able to do exactly that and I honestly enjoyed the ride.

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3) W - Two Worlds. Rating: 4,8 / 5 stars - strongly recommend, must watch.

- I’d like to point out first that my top 3 are interchangeable. I sometimes tend to change my mind which one of the three I adore the most, and W is definitely in those top 3. Firstly, I’d like to let you know that W was my first Kdrama watch. And it blew me away. I was in awe with Lee Jong-suk, with Han Hyo-joo, with the narration of this drama, with the plot, with the direction, with the leading couple, the cast, THE DIALOGUE. Everything about this drama was excellently executed. The slow-moving narration in episode 1, the extra long scene of Chul holding the writer at gunpoint, the writer ‘becoming’ the killer (which he has always been anyway), the philosophy behind it, the creativity. I was blown away by literally everything about this drama and I believe it to be one of the strongest dramas ever made. Furthermore, what I also really adored, is that you don’t need to necessarily be into the couple in order to enjoy this show anyway because the plot takes the spotlight - but since the couple is always involved in the main plot, you get to enjoy plot, dialogue and couple at once. An interesting thing that I want to note here is that a few weeks after finishing the show, I stumbled upon reddits criticizing Lee Tae-hwan for his acting in general. I don’t know if he just perfectly suited the role of Chul’s bodyguard in W, but I highkey enjoyed watching him in this drama.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: I would have adored if Yeon-joo took a more prominent role in the resolution of the story (last 2 episodes) since the ‘hero arc’ went all to Chul there. And another negative aspect is that the show lives from very strong dialogues throughout all episodes, all incredible, all amazing and then - the very last scene. The last words spoken on the show, as a voice-over of Chul and Yeon-joo, are rather dull compared to the rest of the show.

- Positive: narration device, leaving out information to fill us in later and blowing our minds away (PEOPLE, I THOUGHT CHUL DIED), complex main characters, complex plot, no unnecessary subplots, no unnecessary romantic drama, no unnecessary cheesiness, DIALOGUE, direction, the cast in general*.

*I tried Memories of the Alhambra, as I found out that the same people who also made W were in charge of that drama, and I have to admit that I was intensely let down, specifically by the casting. Hyun Bin was alright-ish (not very memorable though), but Park Shin-hye was unbearable for me after episode 3. I stopped watching. If the plot was as interesting as the one of W though, I would have kept watching. But seeing as nothing really happened in those first 3 eps other than the lead killing his old best friend and playing video games that appear to turn into reality, I felt like I was wasting my time.

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2) Extraordinary You. Rating: 5 / 5 stars - strongly recommend for hopeless romantics, people who suffer from second lead syndrome and people who like getting into philosophical debates.

- Extraordinary You was the second kdrama I ever watched. And. And. And. And I almost gave it up after episode one. It seemed somewhat ridiculous to me, way too fast-moving. I would regret my entire life if I had given it up right there and then. Because PEOPLE, IT IS SO GOOD. Not only does it feature a very healthy main couple, it leaves you emotionally devastated because there’s a backstory that you only get to know in the second half of the show but which influences your entire perception of the first half - and jeez, by the time I reached half of the show, I was yelling and screaming and crying my eyes out. You ever want to see a love so deep that it transcends consciousness and universes? A love so deep that time and space become mere nothings? That’s what you get in this show. And one of the best parts is that the ‘’’’’actual’’’’’ lead (in the ancient story within the show, not the story of the show) aka Baek Kyung* does NOT get the girl. But that doesn’t mean you won’t fricking suffer with him. Jeez, I bawled my eyes out for him, too. But Haru/Dan-oh, guys, they’re.... everything. Oh and all of that is nicely mixed up in a strong, complex plot that leaves nothing unexplained. Not everything is explained through words - the show is high on symbolism rather than dialogue - but everything makes sense. And the ending, oh that stupid ending. As beautiful as heartbreaking. Since the plot is put into a philosophical perspective throughout the show, the show also raises questions about existence and being. Yes, I yelled when Heidegger was mentioned. So not only do you get to see a beautiful, heartbreaking love story; adorable, complex characters; time-and-space-transcending friendships, you also get to laugh, cry and think about your own existence and your own place in this world. This show is a delight.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: you will cry and cry and cry and then laugh and then cry and cry and cry. It’s really not fun. Emotionally devastating. No, but for real... I wished we had a more complex depiction of the female characters that aren’t Dan-oh (specifically Ju-da, Sae-mi and Su-hyang), and a bit less focus on the guys therefore (I love them all but I thought the girls could have gotten some screen time of theirs while I would have accepted Jinmichae, Do-hwa and Nam-ju to get a bit less)

- Positive: Honestly? EVerything. Directing, casting, characterization, narration, love story, friendships, everything.

- *Let me say something about Baek Kyung, portrayed by Lee Jae-wook. That character could have simply been an asshole. The set-up was there, the writer of the comic also made him that way. But Lee Jae-wook has portrayed this character with so much depth that it is impossible not to feel bad for him. His entire life stages (hahahaha, I’m so funny) are a tragic mess. The fact that he eventually realizes that who he is and who the writer made him are eventually indeed two different people after all - but that they both share being in love with Eun Dan-oh - is as important as it is devastating. Cause it makes you realize that he can finally move his life more freely with that knowledge - become a better person outside of the stages (only if given the chance by the writer though) - while also never finding a happy ending. Firstly, because happy endings don’t exist in their world anyway because endings - if happy or sad - are always endings to these characters’ existences and because it is glaringly obvious his happy ending would include having Dan-oh by his side also outside of the stages. That is denied to him and will always be denied to him. And as a viewer, you understand that and you want nothing else, but the fact that he doesn’t even appear in the new story, not getting a chance at a new life this time, just adds a tragic notion onto all of this that no one asked for. I’d like to thank Lee Jae-wook here for such an incredible portrayal. I started Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol because of him and, unfortunately, had stop watching after 2 episodes because Go A-ra is simply... a terrible actress. I can’t put it any other way. I’m looking forward to other dramas with him and the rest of the cast though. Extraordinary You definitely had a huge advantage already by having a quite young, but incredibly talented mass of actors and actresses.

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*drumroll*

1) Hotel del Luna. Rating: 5 / 5 stars - strongly recommend, must watch.

- It wasn’t thaaaat surprising to me that I would love this show. It was rather.... obvious that this would happen because a fantasy show set in modern day with the involvement of other time eras and a badass, broken, strong female lead is simply my taste. What I did not expect was this to become my favorite tv show of all time. I don’t even know where to start. I guess Jang Man-wol is a good starting point. Because I live for such characters. Characters like hers are precisely of my taste (I had similar people to her before - Ámbar Smith from Argentina’s Soy Luna or Melody Paz from Argentina’s Casi Ángeles - and also after her - Seo Dan-ah from Korea’s Run On), but Jang Man-wol takes the no.1 spot in all tv characters ever. She’s so layered, so complex, so well-written. She’s not predictable, but she’s also not ever surprising. She comes across as one of the most relatable tv characters you could ever see because she isn’t just one thing. She’s very contrary, she can be soft and loving or harsh and ruthless, sometimes all at the same time. She can be forgiving, she can be arrogant, self-hating, self-loving, lazy, passionate, she is quite literally everything. And while in the show’s set-up she is punished for hundreds of years when other, much more problematic people were allowed to leave this world sooner than her, the narrative wants you to feel sorry for her. You see her flaws, you see she’s anything but perfect but it won’t make you conclude that her punishment was ever deserved. The more you get into this show, the more you will ache. Because you know that there is only one possible ending to the show - for her to finally find peace. And that... that can only be achieved if she finally is allowed to leave this world. And it hurts and pains because, obviously, there is a love story. A love story that goes back to when she was a child 1,300 years ago. A love story that reunites her with the guy who saved her these 1,300 years ago and who now finds her again, someone who makes her care about her life again. As deeper as you go into the show, the more you will cry, the more you will suffer. And you will feel conflicted. You will want her to get her revenge while you will want to protect her. You will want her to finally be able to leave this world, but you won’t want her to leave Chan-sung. You will want her to actually care about her own fate while you will also want her to make the mistakes that worsen everything. It is a beautiful character put into a story that mixes fantasy, comedy, tragedy, soulmates, life, death, revenge, a stunning cinematography and strong dialogues into one. And what you get is the probably best show ever made.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: There is really only one minor thing I’d criticize. While all the chars are rather complex and all subplots and character arcs work within the main plot frame and round up the entire story perfectly, there is one subplot I personally got a bit tired of because it is definitely the most unconnected one to the main plot - this concerns the romance arc of yu-na and hyun-joong. I wasn’t hating it, but I just didn’t need it for this story.

- Positive: This show has everything. I told you above already all the things I like. On top of that, I’d like to add that it has a beautiful found family story arc, promotes wonderful messages, has gotten itself the most excellent leading actress with IU who just beautifully portrays Jang Man-wol in all her depth. The show leaves you with your heart aching while there will be a smile on your face. Emotional devastation is just how this show works.

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- Kdrama I'm currently watching: The Crowned Clown

- Kdramas I plan on watching soon: My Country - The New Age (watched 2 eps so far) | Signal (watched 1 ep so far) | Mr. Queen | Tale of the Nine Tailed | Moon Lovers

- Kdramas I abandoned because I didn’t get into them / disliked them: My First First Love | Goblin | Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol | Memories of the Alhambra

- If you have any suggestions for me based on my likes and dislikes, send them to me. I’m open to everything :)

#w two worlds #w two worlds apart #hotel del luna #extraordinary you #a love so beautiful #radio romance #romance is a bonus book #rookie historian goo hae ryung #the tale of nokdu #bring it on ghost #let's fight ghost #hey ghost let's fight #run on #mischa for ts #kdrama ratings

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nickysescapism · 4 years

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here my thought on Fate real quick:

Things that did not piss me off:

Bloom being extra spicy really mega ultra special² (by now I’m not even surprised anymore)

Silva

the short time we spent with Marco

That one good-looking specialist girl that got killed off pretty quickly (you will be missed)

Terra’s dad

Bloom being the only one with an american accent (because british accents are supperior and also it shows that Bloom does not “fit in”)

Sam aka another white boy (but my feelings towards him were neutral so yeah)

Things that did piss me off:

the blatant whitewashing

unnecessary pop culture references (we get it you watched HP and make IG stories)

pls stop butchering the four houses like that if you can’t get your facts straight

the constant fatphobia

Riven’s obvious biphobia and everyone just accepting it

the 'blond mean girl' trope because what would we do without it

the victim (Dane) falling for the bully (Riven) for no apparent reason

“I hAvE A cOuSin NaMeD FlOrA”

the only black woc being the “mom of the group” because we haven’t seen this stereotype for a hot sec

the boring and repetitive sequences of the specialists training with wooden sticks like children in elementary school

“We DoN’t HaVe WiNgS aNymOrE”

Bloom being super selfish and everyone risking their lives for her constantly because they all love her anyway

the line “you full-creeped on my insta last night and I haven’t told anyone” exists non ironically (Riverdale called they want their awful-cringy-lines back)

"Riv"

fetishizing bi people (because bi’s can only ewist on Netflix if they are doing threesomes because that’s what being bi is all about apparently)

using the word mansplaining in the first episode TWICE in the span of a few minutes and not even using it right

the only healthy relationship (Musa and Sam) is so freaking boring that one had to make up a non existing drama to make it less boring

the unburned slaughtering like 10 specialist who are pros and do this job for years but two first-year fairies were able to get away without a scratch

the non existing friendship between the winx's and therefore it makes no sense that they still keep hanging out with each other

the erasure of our queen tecna!!

all the good specialist were erased too (like Timmy and Brandon)

the outfits making them look like grown ass moms and not like teenagers

the cast looking like they are more likely to be in college than in high school

Beatrix (besides everything she isn’t even a good villain, she is the worst secret “villain” i’ve ever seen like she is like a freaking elefant in mouse town)

and now Alfea basically is Hogwarts 2.0 but a cheaper version of it

changing Musa's powers because we need element powers for some freaking reason and not even doing anything with her powers for like 90% of the show

everything looking so dark and greasy and boring and basically not like Magix or anything magical at all

Stella (she is basically Diaspro but so much worse)

the lowkey abusive relationship between the adoptive parents (mom) and Bloom just to never mention it again

Aisha having no backstory and telling EVERYONE constantly that she swims but we never get scenes of her outside of her "parenting Bloom" sidequests

Terra saying that she misses Stella because she insulted her and was mean to her, because fat girls need this constant body shaming amiright?

they really tried making Stella bullying Terra ✨their thing✨

Aisha struggling with her powers is suddenly not important anymore when it’s inconvenient

the girls hate each other for like 80% of the show and suddenly they have a deep bonding

Musa being useless and stating the obvious and only being there for obvious exposition

"You are sad, aren’t you?"

“Yes, how do you know that? Is it because I’m crying my eyes out right now?”

“No, dummy. I’m a mind fairy. I can feel what you feel.”

the whole changeling plot

erasing the Trix and compromizing them into one character, but then give Beatrix two side kicks so they are basically a group of three again ???

they made it even more straight than the OG

the Sky/Stella/Bloom love triangle because we needed that one

the adults being stupid af

Vanessa apparently almost dying in the fire and having third degree burns but only at places that can be covered by clothes easily (and also they do not look like third dagree burns at all)

Bloom ready to kill her “parents” because they took away her door

“BuTt StUfF” another great literal masterpiece from our all-time favorite Riv

Stella is not only not part of the group for like 75% of the time, the others also don’t like her at all and therefore you don’t care about her problems at all

the teachers being unecessary mean to their students like “oh you just learned to control your powers, well damn you still suck hope you get better soon lol that looks so bad try harder”

Aisha being the only one who has no love interest

^same as Terra who is pining after a dude that doesn’t like her that way

Bloom always playing the victim and always acting like no one suffers as much as she does

using pop music that doesn’t fit the tone of the scene at all (and also ruining one of my fav songs)

Alfea basically turning into every garbage teenage high school Netflix ever had

Everyone acting as if Beatrix is super smart and a good spy even tho she sucks at it without end (why would you try to get as much attention as possible?? and kill your accomplice???)

no other planets but realms and still here everyone knows that California is part of America because americans aren’t full of themselves at all. Just replace California and America with anything else. :)

“You aren’t from Solaria, are you? Where are you from?”

“I’m from California Fer Island.”

“Uh...is that..part of...?”

“America Everix, obviously????”

they tried desperately to be woke by throwing stuff around like “don’t be sexist” and “don’t come at me with this feminist bs” like good job...to the white old dudes who completely missed the entire point of feminism and sexism - performantive feminism if you will - always SAYING the most basic feminist (women can be strong too) stuff but not DOING it

fire is somehow effective against BURNED creatures (e.g. throwing water filled balloons at a mermaids)

all telling and no showing (expositions + no flashbacks = BORING)

Sky being so obessed with Bloom that he doesn’t care that she drugged him at one point

Dane’s character doing a 180 out of nowhere for plot convenience

Stella being a threat to other students but no one seems to care

the good ol’ the bad guys aren’t really bad but in the end turns out they are and the good guys were the good guys all along plot twist that we have seen a million times on netflix alone

Sky not having trust issues after Bloom spiked the water bottle and just accepting that she felt the need to drug him

Sky having daddy issues and that being treated as his main character trait

using phones all the time but when it’s important suddenly no one got a phone with them

beatrix drags a random “bad boy” into her evil plan because that was ever a good thing to do but kills her only partner that already had the trust of FaRa

Sky still persuing Bloom even tho he knows that Stella could blind Bloom because she can’t control her powers and even threatens to do so - again no one saw a problem with that??

Bloom being one of the worst liars out there but Aisha is like “wow, you are a great liar” like no bitch you literally had to help her five seconds ago

Stella blinding her best friend being one of the most underwhelming plots I have ever seen (I mean how can a show fuck it up so bad that a literal girl blinding her best friend doesn’t interest me?)

no one can have an interesting storyline because there is the slight chance that they could outshine the real star (bloom)

^therefore most sideplots are super shallow or just boring

#fate winx saga #can you tell that i didn't like the show?#what can i say no matter how good it is i will never accept the blatant whitewashing and neither should you #if you say that it's a good show if you leave out that it is related to the winx club shut up it's still whitewashing k #anti fate the winx saga

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llilychen · 4 years

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thoughts of chain of iron

my favorite scenes in the book were jordelia’s wedding and the townsend’s party (chapter five and six were so fun to read)

i really liked the beginning the book but i found the middle to be boring, the book picks up speed towards the end.

when i finished chog i hadn’t made up my mind about grace yet but now that i am done with coi i have decided that i don’t care too much about her? i’ve seen people say that they adore her and i don’t understand that sentiment. i could see why people would find her an interesting character though

there were too many descriptions in this book, the weather was mentioned almost every single page and it got old pretty quickly

i feel like nothing happened for the majority of the book? i dont like fight scenes that much but throughout the book there weren’t almost any? i was 400 pages into the book and so far there had only been one very boring fight scene against that demon that was in the factory

why was filomena hyped up so much? i swear cc made such a big deal about filomena and she didn’t even want to reveal her name and i thought she was going to be an important character, but she only was there for like 1.5 scenes and it was so disappointing

alastair was my favorite character in this book, i think that he grew a lot and i loved that he was held accountable for everything he did and i think that is what makes him an enjoyable character (when characters do dumb stuff and don’t face the consequences it is boring)

reading cordelia’s pov was so funny (and frustrating) because it was obvious that james was in love with her and she still made the most far fetched unreasonable excuses to convince herself otherwise

i am really sad that there wasn’t more thomastair in this book and i think it was very noble of alastair to not want thomas to have to choose between his friends and him, i am pretty sure that they will probably be together in by the end of cot unless something horrible happens, which i hope is not the case

i was really disappointing with matthew’s character. that scene in which he showed up to cordelia’s house, spied on alastair and cordelia after their dad died, insulted alastair in front of cordelia, and then just started talking about his own problems rubbed on me the wrong way and i hate how his alcoholism is being handled, but im also glad that he called james out on his bullshit? it obviously wasn’t james’ fault but it was nice to see him stand up for cordelia

i hated the love triangle, when i finished chog i didn’t really care who cordelia ended up with, and now that im done with coi i still don’t care too much about who she ends up with but i think that her ending up with james would make more sense and that is probably what will happen which means that the love triangle was a complete waste of time

i really wish that cordelia and matthew’s relationship had remained completely platonic especially because i don’t think cc has ever put focus on a relationship between a man and a woman that isn’t strictly romantic and it would have been nice to show that men and women can be only friends (and by this i mean that there was never any romantic drama between them, so clary and simon don’t count)

anna and ariadne will probably end up together despite the fact that ariadne deserves so much better than anna

anna’s behavior in this book was immature and it got old pretty quickly, the way ariadne was treated throughout the entirety of their relationship was horrible, and i don’t understand if we were meant to root for them? also the way anna treated ariadne reminded me of some of the things anna said in chog and i just want to say that calling the women you have slept with your conquests and writing their names in a list is gross, and disrespectful towards women. coi made me dislike anna unfortunately

matthew insulting alastair every time cordelia was around got old and rubbed one me the wrong way because matthew is supposedly in love with cordelia and he knows that cordelia adores alastair and the least he could is just shut up?? about alastair?? just for cordelia’s sake

i think effie was the best part of the book

i thought that jesse’s resurrection would be take up more page time because i’m pretty sure that cc hinted that jesse would play a larger role in coi than in chog (and in a way she wasn’t lying)

i think that lucie’s marks will probably be stripped or she will become an iron sister (i don’t see why cc would have included that iron sister comment if it won’t be relevant later)

im really disappointed with lucie and cordelia’s friendship, the barely talked, the had like two scenes together in a 650 page book, they just seem like people who sometimes talk to each other, their friendship is so dry

matthew telling alastair that if he didn’t talk to charles it meant that he was a bad person was manipulative and cruel. alastair, unlike matthew, is trying to become a better person and literally everybody saw it except him. i can’t believe cordelia didn’t say anything to him

the whole misunderstanding thing between james and cordelia is so dumb and i KNOW that it will take like 400/500 pages of cot for them to get together and it will be so annoying

that scene in which james confronted grace was very satisfying

cc needs to quit it with the incest, it’s disgusting and unnecessary, it looks like it will not actually go to that in cot (thank god) and therefore she just put it there because she’s gross

i KNEW jesse would come back to life by the end of the book and im so glad i was right because i am tired necromancy and we don’t have to spend another book talking about it!!

i dont know if this is an unpopular opinion but i hope lucie’s character takes a dark turn? i think she has so much potential and i think that maybe she was starting to become a darker character in coi but i couldn’t really tell because she didn’t have that much page time

i really want more christopher scenes, i know that he’s not exactly a main character but he was barely in the book and that made me sad :/

matthew saying that he would not drink in paris so that cordelia would come with him rubbed on me the wrong way because that’s not how it works, and i hope that cc doesn’t portray alcoholism as something that goes away because you’re in love with someone

i knew jesse and lucie would run away at some point, i just thought that it would be by the end of cot (pretty sure they will be found and then there will be trouble and maybe they’ll escape again or there will be more trouble)

my favorite scene in the entire book was when effie found james tied to the bed and requested a raise

when cordelia comes back there is going to be so much guilt because of lucie being missing and i am not here for it

3/5 stars

#tsc #tlh #coi spoilers #the last hours #the shadowhunter chronicles #chain of iron #coi

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lucy-and-rebecca · 4 years

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As a NaLu shipper I want to take a moment and talk about Lisanna as a character and her relationship with Natsu and Lucy. Why you ask? Because I'm bored.

Oh and this is going to be long, sorry.

I'll start by saying I really like her character. I won't say I love her but she's pretty cool.

I started watching fairy tail with absolutely no expectations whatsoever. When Lisanna was introduced my heart sank. Not because I thought she would actually end up with Natsu but because I there would be an unnecessary love triangle. (I had looked up some spoilers and I knew Lisanna was going to come back.) Everyone did say fairy tail was trash so an unnecessary love triangle, unnecessary drama, two girls fighting over a guy and jealousy were to be expected. When Lisanna came back I waited and waited, dreading something like this would happen sooner or later. So imagine my surprise when nothing happened.

I thought FT would compare Lucy and Lisanna, I thought Lisanna would be quiet, shy, polite, modest basically all the positive sounding adjectives that doesn't apply to Lucy. But she wasn't. She had this tomboyish feeling to her which was awesome. She was never compared to Lucy, neither of them felt jealous or insecure over the other. Lucy was never put in a position where she would have to compeat with another girl and feel insecure about herself. Likewise Lisanna was never made out to be a mean girl to make Lucy appear better.

Lisanna came back, reunited with her siblings, wondered if something could still happen between her and Natsu, realized it wouldn't and she moved on. Just like that. She didn't have a debilitating crush on him. She didn't idolized him, didn't demonized him. She didn't had to think less of him to move on from him. She didn't needed another to tell her she's prettier than Lucy or something along those lines for her to move on. She didn't feel sad, she didn't feel freed. When you want to show a character moving on from someone is not a big deal, this is how you are supposed to do it. Without making any fuss.

I also really like the relationship between Lisanna and Lucy or rather the lack of it. Let me explain. The love rivals either hate each other, become best friends or become best friends despite hating each other at some point. Now neither of these things is bad on its own, it's just overdone to death. Female friendships are complex. Friendships in general are. You aren't going to be bffs with every single girl you know, and that's okay. It's not impossible to become friends with a love rival (and I'm using this term very loosely) but it's also possible to not be friends with them. To not love them or hate them. Don't you have coulleges or Classmates that you talk to every once in a while? Someone you have common friends with that you wouldn't mind lending your notes to? That's the relationship between Lucy and Lisanna.

I know there are people out there who want to see more of Lisanna and her relationship with Natsu or Lucy or both. I get that, the thing is she's just not that important of a character. She does stuff, she fights alongside other fairy tail members, she has her moments but importance wise I don't think she'll even make it into top 20. If she gets more focus on her that would be great but I doubt it. Given the amount of characters fairy tail has you would have to make peace with the fact that some characters are going to have much less focus on them than the others.

Overall I like the utter normalcy of the whole situation. Let me be clear two felame characters having a crash on the same guy and getting jealous and becoming friends afterwards is not unrealistic. It's possible. It's also overdone. Just like that two female characters never getting jealous of each other, never fighting over a guy and never having any animosity between them whatsoever, being friendly towards each other but never becoming bffs is also realistic.

#fairy tail #lisanna strauss #nalu #Lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel

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randomsmilingpotatoes · 3 years

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alright here i am with my love victor opinions no-one asked for

- i was gonna originally do episode by episode commentaries but i'd seen a few spoilers and was scared i'd say something good about a bad character or something so didn't end up doing it asfgcjhvfkhj

- rahim is great but making him a love interest for victor was NOT it. a love triangle was not needed at all and it would've been really nice to have two gay guys be platonic friends with nothing more. also why did victor need a date to the wedding when felix and lake were broken up anyway??

- to extend from that, i don't hate benji as much as i expected to from people's posts and i think it's mostly bc both he and victor are?? flawed people?? who i actually think should end up together but they either need to work on communication OR take a break and work on themselves without bringing in other love interests into the equation

- furthermore, victor obviously wants to be with benji but i think the best thing for him rn would be to be single while he and his family go through the process of his coming out and their acceptance. he doesn't need to handle a relationship rn but he could do with a friend who understands what he's going through, aka rahim

- benji also clearly is too accustomed to being accepted and they touched on that a little especially in that he has white liberal parents but it wasn't talked about enough. they didn't really have him acknowledge the difference himself but also they didn't acknowledge that he has simply been out longer, and that not everyone wants to re-closet themselves. hence why maybe it's not the right time for either of them to date rn

- i found myself relating to a LOT to what victor was going through, not in terms of culture/ethnicity or religion specifically but the dealing with a homophobic mother and a partner who isn't experiencing it the same way, and just with a variety of things he dealt with throughout this season. however, and i found this in the first season, i just don't connect with his acting the way i do with every other character. idk why

- i really wanted felix x pilar to happen in season 1 and even at the start of s2 but after watching this season i wish it didn't honestly. i get why felix can't be with lake rn of course, and i also like that it emphasises how much of a risk she took in the decision she made. however, they reduced pilar's AWESOME character to be literally just a girl with a crush in this season and while there's nothing wrong with that, i found it really disappointing and also kinda doesn't work with the storyline. had felix been with pilar instead what would she have done?? and would she really have been there the way lake was, or at least different to lake? i don't know. i feel like it would have made more sense for felix and lake to break up properly in the finale and for felix x pilar to happen more as a slowburn in season 3. that being said they clearly just put them together to please fans and i'm worried they'll continue doing this

anyway i'm excited for bi lake with andrew's ex (lucy?)!! i wish we had more scenes of them pre-finale but i can't wait for more!!!!!!

- speaking of, i like how they made andrew this season with everything and i'm glad to see him and mia finally together. but i hope he doesn't just become ~the boyfriend~ with no other character to him. i also am so angry at mia's dad for taking that job and feel so bad for mia bc she's been through a LOT this season like damn:/ that being said i feel like everything about mia is what she's dealing with and not so much who she is?? so would be nice to see more of her as herself in season 3

- they don't show victor playing basketball enough. but i REALLY like how they talked about stereotypical 'gay' hobbies and how sports isn't one of them, and sort of touched on what MAKES a gay person, really. i just wish it wasn't "you're the best player on the team, of course they'll accept you" in every show that does this bc like?? why do you have to be the best player on the team to be accepted lmao

- i loved the PFLAG thing and it was great to see ormando being a supportive father!!! so refreshing and great to see and also to contrast the differences in how parents react. it was also great to see simon's dad running it and being super involved long after his son had moved out

- i did hope bram would at least be in the background of the simon scene but i guess we can't have everything

- the mum walking in on victor x benji fucking THE WAY I LITERALLY SCREAMED and then i couldnt even watch the next episode bc i had to go to work LMAO like THE CLIFFHANGER. benji was 100000% in the wrong there, it is NOT homophobic for a parent to be traumatised walking in on their child having sex lol and especially when adrian was home??? it could've been him that walked in sooo

- did my memory fail or was adrian kinda 'feminine' last season ??like he liked frozen and stuff and the grandparents made a comment about it?? what happened to that he literally wasn't anything like that this season it was kinda sad

- also why on earth were victor and benji kissing at work sorry but no matter what sexuality you are and how comfortable you are with PDA that is just?? weird?? like sorry but as a customer i would feel so uncomfortable like am i intruding lmao. a kiss hello and goodbye when you're starting and finishing is fine and cute but in between serving customers and making coffees and shit is so unnecessary lol

- where was victor and felix's friendship this season?? like he stayed in his house after a traumatic life event and they didn't talk about it?? they only talked when they were going through love triangles like thats it??

i saved this as a draft the other day and forgot what else i was gonna add so i'll end here lol!!

#the way no-one is gonna read this but i felt like i couldn't post it in multiple posts lmao #love victor #love victor season 2 #love victor spoilers

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macgyverseries · 3 years

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rebutting and debunking frequently used arguments against macriley

I made this 10-page google doc rant a while ago, but I never ended up posting it. Today, however, I woke up and chose violence. So here it is: my thoughts on frequently used arguments against macriley.

I took some quotes and arguments that people put online (reddit, tumblr..), and I debunked them all :p I feel like I always see the same arguments all the time, and I’m honestly getting a little tired of hearing them. I’m here to settle this once and for all.

and yes, i did manage to cut down the google doc by 3 pages :D (but it's still long af so rip my brain)

1.”Mac and Riley are siblings because Jack is their father”

I can (mostly) get behind the argument that Mac and Riley shouldn’t be in a romantic relationship because of their super strong friendship. Some people really value that sole platonicness, and I get that.

But the argument that I can’t get behind is that: Mac and Riley are siblings because Jack is their father figure”

If you google the definition of “father,” the first result that comes up is: “a man in relation to his children.”

Now, Jack was definitely the father figure to Riley, and I would consider her his child. He raised her. He helped shape her ideals and upbringing.

Mac only met Jack when he left MIT. So it was pretty much after Mac was raised (by Bozer’s parents haha), that Jack really came into his life. Mac already became his own person. (also, I always saw Mac and Jack as more of a bromance)

So because Riley and Mac met Jack at different periods of their lives, and they were raised differently, I wouldn’t say that they were siblings who were raised by the same father.

2. “The show writers left the impression that there was a huge age gap between them”

I understand this a little. I do think Riley was introduced as pretty young and idk naive? Because she was literally in highschool, and then she went to prison, and then she got released into the wild. Personally, when I started watching the show, I googled the whole cast. So I started the show knowing that they were the same age.

And also, the more I got to know Riley, the more that I thought that Riley was more mature and had an old soul herself. I think it was because she was just a dynamic and round character, who is well-developed.

But, I get first impressions. I feel like once you get stuck on an impression, it’s hard to go away from that.

Also, Jack would’ve totally shipped macriley, and you can’t change my mind.

3. "Riley isn't ready for a relationship"

I honestly think that this argument should be more geared towards Mac. He needs to figure himself out and go to therapy ffs. However, this person targeted Riley (the literal queen), so I shall defend her:

I understand wanting Riley to take some time off, and figure herself out before going straight into another relationship with someone. But here’s the thing. Throughout the first few seasons Riley’s character was very well established, and she didn’t have any partners during that time. She has proven that she is a strong, well-rounded, independent woman (with or without a partner). So i think it is valid to say that she isn’t just some girl who only has boy toys. She is much more than that.

My next point is that Riley has made it clear that she wants a lasting relationship with someone who will support her. When talking with Mac in 4.04, we see her express her interest in a stable, healthy relationship. It’s not wrong to go out and look for that potential partner. This applies to everyone (not just fictional characters): It’s going to take a few relationships and self-discovery, to find a good relationship, and people shouldn’t be shamed for searching for that.

Riley has only ever had two major boyfriends that I remember. First was Billy; she took that relationship very seriously. She really did seem happy with him. It was a shame that he cheated on her. Second was Aubrey. She also took that relationship very seriously. She had been living with him for six months (and they even had the cutest date nights!) So I wouldn't say that Riley only has boy toys. She has meaningful relationships.

Lastly, I think this was written when season four started airing, but it’s been over a year (and a pandemic) since Riley has dated. I think enough time has passed.

*4. I had to split this one up because, oh boy, there is a lot to unpack here.

4a. “If that was the direction they’d chosen to take with that relationship from square one… My issue with it is that Mac and Riley were presented to us as friends/ found siblings for three years. There were NO romantic vibes to speak of between them..”

I actually felt the same way about macriley. The thought of them being together in season one, made me want to throw up. I don’t think the writers intended on having macriley, and I was perfectly fine with that.

I know that people look for different things when they ship. Some really like having instant gratification with the spicy, hot, sexy parts of a relationship, like macdesi (which is why I was fine with the idea of shipping macdesi in the past).

I always wanted to see macriley do more: have hot, flirtatious banters/interactions. it can be hard to ship people who seem to be missing that part of the love equation. So i agree. It's definitely strange. And I understand if you genuinely have a hard time seeing the romantic potential of macriley, when the writers have only dragged out and shown us the platonic potential of them.

Also, the reason why it is difficult to see macriley as romantic, was because they ALWAYS PRIORITIZED AND WERE DRIVEN on their friendship. A partner should be friends first, and then makeout buddies second.

But just because people start off as friends, doesn’t mean that they still don’t have that potential to be lovers. Because guess what?! Feelings change. It’s now canon that Riley has feelings for Mac, and Mac always had feelings for Riley (but never acted on it).

I'm sorry, but you like a boomer when you say “bAcK iN mY dAy, tHeY dIdN’t HaVe fEeLiNgS fOr EaCh oThEr.” like okaAAAyyYYyYY????? We are not “back in your day” anymore. We are in the present. We are in today. And today, macriley is real :)

4b. “There’s the incredibly tired trope where long-term coworkers suddenly catch feelings for each other out of nowhere”

Personally, I will never get tired of the friends to lovers trope. I think the fact that Mac and Riley had such a strong friendship and foundation is what makes them perfect. Again, I know that some people just like instant gratification, but I love when a couple can take their time to have depth, emotion, and realness in their relationship.

Obviously I am biased because I have so much love for this trope, it's my favorite trope, but I don't see why you would use the “it’s overused” as reasoning to hate a ship. Just because a trope is used a lot, doesn’t mean it is bad (that’s probably why it is so good lmao). I can understand getting tired of it, and growing a dislike towards a trope. For example, I have grown an extreme dislike towards the love triangle.

A bit of a tangent: But the difference between overusing love triangles and overusing friends to lovers, is that love triangles aren’t just commonly used tropes. They are cliches. They cause unwanted drama and unnecessary hurt to one character. Whereas friends to lovers doesn’t involve as much drama and pain for a character. It is more of just angst between two people. And we know that they will get together eventually with a happy ending. So it was never really problematic.

And even then, the great thing about overusing or utilizing tropes, is that they can act as a guide. It allows the show writers and cast to make it personal, make it their own, adding their own special flair to it

I just don’t see the “this trope is used a lot” as a valid reasoning for disliking a ship .It just seems like this commenter doesn’t like the friends to lovers trope for the sake of not liking it.

I could be very wrong in my assumption of this person’s thoughts on friends to lovers, maybe there is a deeper reasoning as to why they don’t like it, but the tone that i interpreted when i read this section, was that they don’t have a real reason to dislike it, it’s more of just because.

4c.“then there's the fact that Riley had a mostly single Mac in her life for 3-4 years and she never even considered him romantically until he was with someone else”

First: Riley didn’t CHOOSE to fall in love. You may recall that “emotions aren’t a science. You can’t control them.”

Second: Mac was broken up with Desi when she caught feelings for him. Plus, the moment Riley saw that Mac and Desi were getting happy together, she moved out and gave them space. She sacrificed her own feelings for his happiness, despite the fact that her heart was breaking.

4d. “and finally, Mac not only still doesn't seem to even have Riley on his radar in that way but he literally told another woman that he loves her just last week. Neither of them look particularly good here if they get together now.”

I'm assuming that this was written when 4.12 first aired. I'm also assuming that this comment was more directed towards the idea of Mac and Riley getting together immediately at the end of the season, rather than later down the road. I always saw of macriley as more of endgame material. That i would see them get together sometime in the future. So I agree. Macriley getting together during that time period, would be too rushed and unsatisfying.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So those were most of the supposed arguments that I saw for people who were against macriley, but I also wanted to provide some really good examples of people who were very respectable, and actually had valid reasoning for disliking them.

1. they just don’t like shipping in general

Ships can be annoying af. Seeing people ONLY focus on the ships is sometimes tiring. I, myself, even feel a little guilty making this post, because I need to chill and mind my own business lmaooo. I really should let people do whatever they want to do with their lives, and not get caught up in the ships, but here I am :p

Anyways, I know that there is a lot of unnecessary drama that comes with shipping, and it's tiring to see people constantly go on and on about romance, when there are other perfect things about the show.

2. No matter how hard they try, they just feel it.

This is literally so dumb (and a little hypocritical/self-contradictory), but if you have a gut feeling, and you just can’t get yourself to ship it, I get it. If you truly and genuinely believe that they are best platonic friends, I can't change your opinion. And I have respect for you (if you say it in a kind manner).

Here is a nice example of a person who expressed their opinion in a nice way, with no BS.

So the moral of the story: I can't control your deepest thoughts. I can't control your gut feelings. And that’s okay. But the moment that you start backing up your thoughts and insights with BS reasoning, is the moment that I lose respect for you.

#macriley #macgyver #sorry that was so freaking long

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youre-on-your-ownkid · 3 years

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anyway, other than that

when I was off the grid again (I was sick) and couldn't get out of bed, I watched the remaining seasons of glee (aka the last three) and I have so many thoughts

first, what was the point of that triangle between jake, marley and ryder. who did they think they were fooling it was so obvious

second, mr. schue really said that he won't give up twerking for the sake of unique getting access to the teacher's bathroom like?? also his whole obsession with twerking scarred me anyway. 'rIgHt SiDe Of HiStOrY' WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

third, they really cut the only scene which could possibly give kitty some sort of redemption for the ed thing (she apologizes to marley, explains to her the reason, supports her, found crying or whatever) and then continued to just go with them randomly being okay with her? I love her in the last season but come on

fourth, the season 6 kids own my heart they're all so talented. especially Roderick and Jane and the twins and yeah

fifth, why didn't we get more of the season 6 cast I wanted a season with them

sixth, even though Kurtcedes supremacy (I can't believe they just threw them away), Kurt and Rachel's friendship is so cute

seventh, I don't know, class started, brain no working now

"off the grid (sick)" -nikey, 2022

OMG YAY

I fucking know right.... The season 4-5 kids were just Walmart versions of the ogs and I did not care for them. At all. I literally had to skip through parts including Jake, Marley and Ryder.... Those were so cring ew.

Mr Sh*e can fuck off. I can't even begin to tell you how annoying and problematic that man is.... Like i just despise him so much.... Also unique my baby deserved so much better 😭❤️

Kitty deserved a better redemption than the one she got... Literally the problem with Glee is that when someone does something wrong, you either face the consequences forever (Finn) or your mistakes are just forgotten and ignored (Rachel).... Which is what makes it so inconsistent... I hated Kitty in seasons four and five but she was amazing in the last season.

Omgggg ikrrrr season 6 kids own my heart 💜 literally all of them were so amazing and different!! Like Roderick?? I love him sm?? Jane my babie?? So talented?? The McCarthy twins?? Amazing?? Myron?? Also amazing!

I literally wish season 4-5 batch hadn't existed and we'd gotten more seasons with S6 kids. Also Samchel was so unnecessary? And Sue being the creepy Klaine shipper PLS- that was peak comedy 💀 I said what I said. Also the Brittana wedding!! Also also I loved how good Kurt and Rachel were as the glee club mentors, like I loved how they distributed the solos and overall choice of songs.

OMG ikr :/ I wanted more kurtcedes but anygays, Kurtchel was so cute too

Also im sorry I'm answering this so late, I'm still not over the castings-

#saru answers?#tries to answer-#the short shoe #asks

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filmmakingismylife16 · 4 years

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hey!! thoughts on the cobra kai female characters? sam, tory, aisha, amanda, carmen, you get it lmao

hi thank you so much for sending an ask i love your blog so much!!! ok this is a good one let’s go:

sam- i actually like sam. i think she’s super strong and an important character for young girls to see on screen. however, i do believe that her parents need to stop invalidating her feelings whenever she tells them she feels like something’s her fault because while she’s not entirely the cause, she usually did play a part in whatever bad thing happened. but that’s not to say she was the only one. she didn’t kiss the air. i also do wish she would have told robby about the kiss when he confessed about the metal but i can also forgive her inaction though because she’s supposed to be a 16 year old and 16 year olds make dumb decisions.

tory- ok so i also like tory. i loved how quickly she became friends with aisha in season 2 and how immediately badass she was in her initial fight with miguel at cobra kai. i truly believe that if she had a mentor/adult figure who actually cared about her and her wellbeing that she could go down a better path than the one she’s currently on. i liked seeing her home life and i think it definitely explains all of her actions/behaviour in the show, but i also believe that it doesn’t excuse it. she is also a teenager though and while her violent actions were completely uncalled for, the feelings behind them were so valid. she really just needs someone to show her that violence isn’t always the answer. i do hope we get to see more of her home life in season 4 and i’m interested to see how she changes now that her and robby are the only mains left at kreese’s cobra kai.

aisha- ugh i miss her so much. aisha was literally a queen throughout season 1 and 2. i think she was an incredibly important character so show on screen. i love how she was the first person to take initiative and join johnny’s cobra kai because she wanted a change and god she was so bad ass. i love how much she cares about all her friends, and i so wish she was in season 3, she 100% would have knocked some sense into every single person. i also kind of wish we got to see her reaction to the sam/tory part of the fight as well as the hawk/demetri and miguel/robby parts. fingers are crossed for her return before the end of the show 🤞🏼

amanda- ok what a queen. i loved her since season one, her deadpan delivery is hilarious and she has the best lines. i really love her relationship with daniel and her slapping kreese was one of the most satisfying things i’ve ever witnessed. that being said, i really hope she stops telling sam that nothing is her fault and that she actually listens to how her daughter feels. i’m excited to learn some more about amanda’s backstory in season 4!

carmen- another queen. literally the sweetest woman. i love how much she cares about miguel and johnny and how she always says exactly what he needs to hear. i do wish that she could be developed separate from her romantic storyline with johnny though.

moon- ahhhh i love her. i rewatched season 1 recently and completely forgot she was initially the ditzy stoner (“my mom got me this weed for my birthday”). i really love how she came around at the end of season 1 and apologized to aisha for bullying her. i do find it interesting though how she stayed friends with yasmine into season 3, although she probably believes that yasmine is capable of being nicer and apologizing as well. i also think her breaking up with hawk was her best moment and i literally cheered at screen. her friendship with demetri is one of the most underrated things on the show and i hope we get more of it. i also love her and piper and i think that was so cool to see and i would love for them to bring them back.

yasmine- i hated her in season 1 but in season 3, i do believe she is changing for the better. i mean i always thought that her bitchiness and bullying was a front for some deeper insecurities and it would be nice if she could share some of that/her home life with demetri if the writers do decide to move forward with their relationship. i should say that at the moment i don’t ship them, although i do love the scene where she signs his cast. i also think that regardless of if it’s in a romantic context or not, both yasmine and demetri could be really good for each other. i also don’t think that yasmine can be fully redeemed unless aisha comes back so lets see how they do with that.

rosa (yaya)- adding yaya because she’s iconic and i will never get over her showing up stoned to the all valley in season 1. icon behaviour. i would love some more scenes between her and miguel and her and carmen.

ali- i actually really loved how they brought her back and i think her scenes with johnny were super needed. i am so glad they didn’t have an unnecessary love triangle and that she was the missing piece in getting daniel and johnny on the same page. i also just think her and amanda would be the best duo if she ever came back. im obsessed with all those party scenes between the adults.

kumiko- she is such a sweetheart. they also did a great job bringing her back and i just love how much she helped daniel. i kind of think that what ali was for johnny in this season, kumiko was for daniel. i do think it’s tragic how she’s still in love with daniel because she really just deserves all the happiness. her reading mr. miyagi’s letters was one of the most emotional things in the whole show and i loved every second of it. i really hope they find a way to bring her back.

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tviseverything · 4 years

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So I’m rewatching Glee during this quarantine...

AND THERE HAS BEEN ONE THING IVE ALWAYS HATED ABOUT THIS GODDAMNED SHOW AND IT’S THE LACK OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Let me explain.... the storylines in the show had the potential to set up the character development for each character and they missed it! And the people that had the ABSOLUTE MOST POTENTIAL FOR AWESOME CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WERE QUINN, RACHEL, SANTANA, AND BRITTANY AND HERE’S WHY... Quinn edition because this is way too long for the other characters... I promise i’ll follow this up with the other ones. (BTW, this took me so long to do because life kept getting in the way but I finally finished it! Please give it a read and let me know if you agree or disagree. I am always open to discussion!! And swipe down all the way to be blessed with a couple of Quinn Fabray gifs!!)

Quinn is the first because let’s think about it for a sec. In the beginning of the series, Quinn was that typical queen bee, mean girl type who was on the cheerleading squad and ruthlessly bullied anyone who got in her way including Rachel. But then life throws her a curveball and she ends up getting pregnant.

This storyline set Quinn up to learn some very valuable lessons and some harsh truths. For example, Quinn gets kicked off the cheerleading squad after the news comes out that she’s pregnant and she’s kicked out of her home and disowned.

The first season was doing great handling her character development, for example, in 1x15, when the time came for yearbook pictures, Quinn was desperately trying to get back on the squad for the picture but in the end she thanks Sue for making her realize that she’d rather be part of a team that is proud to have her (Glee Club) instead of a team where she only appears to belong (Cheerios). (let me add that this scene also could have set up a slowburn for Faberry because in that same episode, Rachel was describing how school pictures are everything to her and that if she ever became famous, she would want her face in the year book picture and be prepared. Keep this in mind because later on Quinn blackmails Sue into giving up one of the Cheerio’s six pages and giving it to the Glee club free of charge. Quinn didn’t have to do this. Her entire goal was to get back on the Cheerios and not fight for the glee club photo. In fact, in the episode, she didn’t even want to be in it. So why did she do it? For Rachel, perhaps? any way this is about Quinn not faberry so lets get back to it)

Another example from before is she becomes friends with Mercedes. In episode 1x16, Mercedes is forced to starve herself for the Cheerios and in doing so, her blood pressure dropped which caused her to faint. Quinn recognized what Mercedes was doing and sympathized with her. She then helped Mercedes realize that she doesn’t need to be skinny to be beautiful and she is perfect the way she is and she sings a song about it as well while Quinn stands next to her, furthering her message. This episode created a beautiful friendship between Quinn and Mercedes that in later episodes, Mercedes offers her home to Quinn after connecting with her about being bullied and dealing with it. Let’s also add in the fact that this was before the Lucy Caboosy storyline, which in my opinion ruined her character even more but I’m not gonna get into that until later. In that season, Mercedes and Quinn were set up to be a great duo for season 2 but... Where the hell did all of that go???? Did they just completely forget that Quinn lived with Mercedes for a short while and that they bonded over similar experiences??? What the hell??? I would also like to add onto here that a friendship between Quinn and Kurt was a HUGE miss! They would have been an amazing duo!! Along with Mercedes of course. I will talk about this type of stuff in separate post!

ANOTHER example was when in episode 1x13, the truth about the baby’s father comes out which was Rachel’s fault. After drama ensues, Rachel goes to apologize and readies herself for a punch from Quinn, but in a surprising turn of events...Quinn forgives her. The old Quinn probably would thrown multiple slushies in Rachel’s face, call her names and maybe ruin her life. But this Quinn quickly forgave her and told Rachel that she did something that she wasn’t brave enough to do, tell the truth! She forgave Rachel even though she clearly knew that Rachel only told Finn to break them up so she could have him all to herself. This was a very pivotal moment in the series that would show how Quinn emotionally matured after what happened to her. (this scene also would have set up faberry perfectly as well but oh well)

Anyway, the whole point of this post is about the lack of character development in the series and while everything I just said argues against it...the character development from season one didn’t last very long especially when we start right off the bat in season 2, Quinn rejoins the Cheerios and tries to restore herself to her former glory. I understand why she would want that again but this alone completely destroyed her character development because after learning all the things she had learned while pregnant, she shouldn’t have wanted to go back to that old life again but she did. Add that onto the fact that in order to restore herself to her former glory, she also snitches on Santana about her “summer surgery” Pregnant Quinn wouldn’t have even thought to rat out her own friends but new and improved Quinn did and I HATED IT because of that knowledge. This could have been handled better by probably having Quinn join the cheerios again but have her use her power for good such as, protecting all of glee club from future slushies, made it so the jocks wouldn’t have so much power with bullying, or even set an example for cheerios for how they should act in the school. But instead they pull this shit.

I’m not finished!! Season 2 and beyond was a DISASTER for Quinn. The writers literally erased all of that character development just so they could create more drama. An example of this is the cheating storyline. Quinn had started dating Sam in the beginning of Season 2 and everything is going well for them until *sigh* Finn came along and convinced her to cheat on Sam with him. THIS IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE WORST STORYLINES ON GLEE. Finn knows what it was like to be cheated on (I know he cheated on Quinn in the first episode with Rachel but we’re not talking about that right now) Finn knows the pain of finding out that you’ve been lied to and betrayed so the fact he even had the AUDACITY to lure Quinn into cheating AGAIN infuriates me deep inside. You would think that after what happened when she cheated the first time, she would learn her lesson...BUT SHE DIDN’T. WTF. THIS RUINED HER CHARACTER EVEN MORE!!!!!! PLUS I HATE ALL THE UNNECESSARY DRAMA THAT STORYLINE CREATED, INCLUDING THE FEUD BETWEEN RACHEL AND QUINN.

I would also like to talk about the Lucy Caboosey storyline because it is a crucial fact to know about Quinn. The Lucy Caboosey storyline was introduced at the WORST POSSIBLE TIME. I am seriously convinced that Ryan Murphy only wrote that in to create “depth” to Quinn’s character. If they were going to do that storyline at all, then they should have introduced it in the first season or should have created a better plot to accomodate to the storyline. This storyline also didn’t add anything to the Prom Queen storyline. I honestly wish that the writer’s have taken Quinn’s character development from season 1 into account because if they had, then I believe that the Lucy Caboosey storyline and the Prom Queen storyline wouldn’t have existed and these storylines only exist as Ryan Murphys attempt to reverse all of the depth that Dianna Agron gave to the character and make her a basic, self-centered blonde cheerleader and when that didn’t work out... the Lucy Caboosey storyline was there to give Quinn “depth”

I would also like to talk Quinn’s obsession with winning Prom Queen and taking Finn to the prom (Finn was an asshat in this episode by the way but let’s not focus on him). I really wished that the writers took Quinn’s character development into account because if they had, then Quinn wouldn’t have been reverted back into the 2 dimensional, blonde, cheerleader character like she was at the beginning of the series and she also wouldn’t have had a storyline involving Lucy Caboosey. Her taking Finn to the prom was a complete bullshit storyline as well because we all know that relationship between Quinn and Finn was only there to drag the love triangle between them and rachel into the next season even though it was very clear that Quinn and Finn weren’t gonna get back together in the first season.

Also at the end of that season, where nationals took place, there was a scene between Quinn and Brittany and Santana where Quinn breaks down, this should have been one of those pivotal character development moments where she makes a realization about herself and tries to live her truth, but no! She cuts her hair and all is well.

Before we move on to season 3, I want to talk about the Celibacy Club and religion in regards to Quinn Fabray. As we all know, Quinn was the captain of the Cheerios and president of the Celibacy Club (even though that didn’t last long...whoops) so the theme of celibacy and religion go hand in hand for Quinn. I would have really like to see a storyline of Quinn losing faith in her religion, whether that may be because God decided to make Quinn pregnant and in result get disowned by her family or (in my perfect world) Quinn starts to realize that she might like girls and because of how her family is, she struggles with it. That would have been an interesting storyline to see and it would have tackled the topic of religion as well! I would have liked to see this as an ongoing theme for Quinn throughout the show but of course Ryan Murphy had to be a shitty writer.

This post became wayyyy to long for my attention span so I am going to break this down into parts. Also I am so sorry that this post is all over the place but I had to write it all down before I lost the train of thought so some explanations might not be as in depth as others and it might not be in order so again I apologize. So I will talk about Quinn in season 3 and the rest of the seasons when she shows up from time to time.

#glee #glee rewatch #faberry #quinn fabray #character development #mercedes jones #Kurt Hummel #rachel

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prettyboylovemail · 4 years

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Thoughts on Gwen from Total Drama? Is she really the worst character ever?

Hi there~ Thanks for asking! :D

I have a lot of thoughts on her, so I hope you don’t mind a long answer, anon ^^;;;

I honestly don’t understand why so many people hate Gwen so much. I really like her a lot. She was always my favorite (along with Noah) ever since I first watched TDI. We have a lot of things in common, so I relate to her a lot. I’m not going to say she’s perfect, but... she really didn’t do anything wrong?? Sure, she made some mistakes, but she’s human. And I don’t think it’s right to demonize her so heavily because of the drama she was involved with.

Season 1 Gwen is the best. She’s sarcastic and witty, but also has a soft side. Her relationship with Trent was my absolute favorite TD OTP. They were so sweet together and it’s a shame that Fresh TV had to ruin them in Season 2 (I’ll get to that in a sec). Gwen came on the show with a gloomy attitude and didn’t intend to make any friends, but watching her bond with Leshawna, Bridgette, Cody (despite him trying to hit on her), Duncan, and later on, Geoff, was all really heartwarming. I especially love her friendships with Leshawna and Geoff. Season 1 Gwen really was Top Tier and I feel like most people in the TD fandom agree.

Then came Season 2 and suddenly everyone started disliking her, both in-universe and also in the fandom. She started off the season really well, dating Trent and doing well in the challenges. But once Trent started getting really obsessive with her (as well as his dumb Number 9 tick, that was AWFUL), he started throwing the challenges for her and letting her team win. Gwen didn’t want him purposefully losing for her and the fact that he was starting to go crazy was really getting to her, as it should have. So she did the responsible thing and broke up with him. Sure, it was sad, because their relationship started off so strong, but what else was she supposed to do? He was the one getting way out of hand, and it’s realistic that she would’ve broken things off with him because of it. She didn’t want for him to be voted off, but when she was cornered by Trent’s team, she felt like she really had no choice but to let them get rid of him. But what really frustrates me is that the team continued to make Gwen feel bad about it and blamed her for Trent throwing the challenges, when it really wasn’t her fault at all! She tried to tell Trent to stop, but he wouldn’t listen to her. The entirety of the Season 2 Gwen drama was Trent’s fault, and his sob story about why Number 9 is his lucky number is NOT enough to make up for everything else. None of that was Gwen’s responsibility. She did what she was supposed to do and everyone hated her for it. Also, Courtney started her “Gwen is trying to steal Duncan from me” vendetta this season for literally no reason and that’s bullshit. Gwen and Duncan really weren’t a thing until Season 3, but the show tried to pretend that Gwen was crushing on him because they were friends and they chatted like three times onscreen.

Now we’re onto Season 3, where everyone despised Gwen because of the love triangle. I should start by saying that the Courtney x Duncan x Gwen fiasco is really poorly written and was completely unnecessary. I hate the way they went about it and if it were up to me, I’d get rid of it entirely. But the reasons why I don’t like it are kinda different from the rest of the fandom’s opinions. I don’t think Duncan should’ve been with either of them. I loved Duncan x Courtney in Season 1 because they had a really good buildup with great chemistry and the two of them worked really well with the “opposites attract” trope. But they were completely ruined in Season 2 when Courtney became super overcontrolling and tried to change Duncan into the boyfriend that she thought was “good enough”, which is already a completely toxic mindset and that put me off of Courtney for the rest of the show. She was already pretty bossy and annoying in Season 1, but I liked her because Duncan helped to balance and mellow her out. But alas, she ruined it and any good chance of a relationship between Duncan and her shattered. Then, Gwen came into the picture and things did not get any better. Instead of just keeping Duncan and Courtney broken up, they pulled the “off and on” bullshit between them, having them break up and then putting them back together again like 3 times. However, when Gwen and Duncan start their relationship in Season 3, Courtney and Duncan were not together. When Duncan returned to the show, Courtney automatically assumed that he’d just take her back and began acting like nothing had ever happened. But Duncan was very clearly not interested in her, and had his sights set on Gwen. While yes, Duncan never explicitly told Courtney off and that he wasn’t going to date her and yes, that is absolutely on him, he didn’t really act like a boyfriend to Courtney at all and went out of his way to avoid her. So when he and Gwen kissed, everyone acted like it was Gwen’s fault and that she’d “stolen” Courtney’s boyfriend, when really, they weren’t dating in the first place (something that Gwen later points out in All Stars).

And then comes Season 5: All Stars. This is not a good season. Everyone’s characters are messed up and the entire narrative is a mess. But, Gwen in this season did everything she could to make up with Courtney. She (rightfully) dumped Duncan and then spent every day trying to do nice things for Courtney in hopes that she’d see how truly sorry she was for hurting her and damaging their friendship (which wasn’t even Gwen’s fault in the first place and she had no reason to apologize, but whatever, go off I guess). But again, it was Courtney who kept refusing to forgive her and kept holding onto her delusional grudges. They did eventually make-up, but even that was short lived as Courtney still planned to get rid of her in secret, so that was essentially useless.

I apologize this got a lot longer than I had expected it to, but I have a LOT of thoughts about this show that I never get to talk about lolol. I really appreciate you asking and thank you to anyone who read through the whole thing XD

Anyways, Stan Gwen Total Drama

#asks #anon #ino rambles #thank you anon for giving me a chance to talk about this #it's been bugging me for years #td gwen #total drama

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nephelite · 4 years

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Improvements for S4

Things that I need for S4 of Station 19:

More friendship scenes: A lot of the friendships were non-existent this season esp Vic and Travis and I’m so upset about that. I want friendships that are not about “friends with benefits”, “friends falling in love” or “friends fighting over the same job”. I feel like once the characters had a love interest, the friendships were forgotten and I hate that. And the friendships need to be balanced. Some gets the fun scenes and others get emotional scenes. I want a mix of both for all friendships.

More cast scenes: One thing I really loved in S1+2 was that they were a family but this season we barely saw them as one. They barely had any scenes with the entire cast together sitting in the beanery talking and eating. I miss those scenes. Bring them back.

Less Grey’s Anatomy: If I wanted to watch Grey’s I’d watch Grey’s but I don’t. I want to see the S19 characters. Some of them already have very little story and I hate to see screentime being given to Grey’s characters that do nothing for the S19 characters. Let S19 stand on its own. Also, if they didn’t have to pay the Grey’s actor all that money they might have more money to do more fire scenes which I was really missing this season.

More fire and less medical: I’m tired that they barely spent time on the job and if they did it was mostly medical stuff. I hate the PRT stuff with Ben because it gives Grey’s characters a way to appear even more esp Jackson who I really don’t like on the show. Also, if Ben can’t be a firefighter on a firefighter show then maybe it’s time to ship him back to Grey’s. He was off doing his own thing this season like Sullivan and I thought that their stories were some of the most boring ones.

Less plot driven and more character driven: I feel like some of the storylines were so contrived and not organic at all. I hate nothing more than when a plot is introduced and it makes zero sense for the character and makes them totally OOC. I hate forced storylines and I feel like the whole Jackson and Vic dating and now the whole Dean suddenly having feelings for Vic out of nowhere to be those kind of storylines. The writers had to kill Vic’s friendship with Travis to make her BFFs with Dean this season so they could do this whole BFF falling in love with his roommate story happen. That’s just bad writing imo.

More balance: I feel like some characters got way more storyline and attention this season with depth and development and others got the bare minimum or none at all. Do better. Stop throwing a million storylines at one character and ignoring others. Give them an even amount. It’s supposed to be an ensemble show so make it one. Instead of having the same 3 characters gets all the scenes.

Funny vs emotional: I get that some actors are better at the funny stuff than others but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be allowed to get the emotional scenes. I’m super annoyed that Vic got almost nothing in the emotional department this season. How they just skipped her entire grieving and summed it up in two little speeches and one little tear and instead made her the funny girl this season without depth or development.

Less romance: I don’t think that everyone has to date or fuck around. There are other stories for the characters. I’d love to see more about Jack and his past and did he ever try to find his siblings? That would be a great story. I know people may not care for it anymore but not letting Vic grieve was a huge mistake and it robbed Barrett of a great emotional story with depth. Let her grieve in S4 and don’t throw her into a new relationship with Dean. Let the story be that Vic suppressed her grief in S3 and it’s all coming out now and she actually works through it (including flashbacks with Ripley since they didn’t mind bringing Pruitt back for a million flashbacks and still plan on doing it next season). Give me more of Dean with his parents and sister and Pru. I want to see more of Travis’ past and how he dealt with Michael and why he doesn’t seem to be able to fall in love anymore.

The Flashbacks: Some I liked and some I didn’t. Some really helped to sell a character and some I was just scratching my head because it didn’t really do anything for the character. The writers need to do better with the flashbacks and make some of them less contrived. And I think it was overkill with the flashbacks this season. They should do less of them next season.

Better storylines: This season consisted of fights, backstabbing, cheating, unnecessary deaths and super predictable storylines. I predicted half the storylines this season and that’s just bad. There are other ways to create drama between a ship than triangles and cheating. There are better ways to let a person grow than death and if you are doing death then let it mean something and don’t do it for just shock value. Don’t let that character just be forgotten by everyone. So tired of writers using the same old stories over and over again.

The season wasn’t bad but it definitely wasn’t my favorite either. I’m mainly a Vic fan so I was super frustrated with her lack of story this season.

I hope Krista and the writers do better next season.

#station 19

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facelessfrey · 4 years

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Roswell New Mexico Season 2, Episode 6

- Okay...so I have now actually watched it...well mostly. There were some parts of my stream where the sound wasn’t synched. Unfortunately not that scene. Haha.

- Let’s start with the positives...

- I actually think that overall it was kind of a fun episode. I liked the Isobel and Kyle stuff and I actually liked the Echo stuff even though I was less than thrilled about Max coming back and the Alex/Maria/Boot guy stuff wasn’t too terrible. And there was some good sibling scenes. So like...not bad.

- I did think the whole beginning with Max and Isobel and Michael was super weird and was over WAAAY too quickly but hey I guess they had to get to a threesome there and so they had to cut corners on something....That said, angry, dark I’ve got death energy to expel Max is really not my favorite Max, so I guess it’s fine it was over quick but still...strange to build that up and then have it be over and done with in the first like three minutes. But okay...moving on.

- The Max/Liz strand of the episode was actually super cute and actually made me ship them again so that was nice. My sound was messed up during the whole milkshake speech so that was sad but it was working again by the morning love confession, so cool. Max’s super stiff leather, looked like it had never been worn, jacket though...not a fan. That was horrible and I was happy every time he took it off.

- The Isobel/Kyle stuff was fun. They do look good with sparkles, I agree. I mean it was pretty random and doesn’t totally make sense but I’m not mad at it. Who knows if it will lead anywhere. I do like the chemistry between Isobel and Kyle though, friend chemistry or otherwise. Kyle has chemistry with everyone though.

- Except maybe Steph who is still so boring to me but...and my stream was off again, was that her on the operating table in that montage at the end?

- The main thing I took from the Alex/Maria story was that it gave us confirmation that Alex does in fact know the full story about Rosa so...uh...thanks for finally putting that in there. Might have been nice to have a clue before that.

- Also...I rolled my eyes sooo hard at the Vampire Diaries joke but also it made me really nostalgic for TVD, because while also trash, it was better trash. Just saying. Also...it would have been a Gilbert ring, Alex and would have prevented him from dying if killed by something supernatural. Get your references right! Haha.

- I do think the whole boot maker lead was super random and didn’t really lead to much and I still think these stories need more urgency and stakes.

- Also weird that the Cam story was once again on the back burner not that I don’t sort of get it because they have too much going on.

- AND I was sad that Rosa was not in this episode. I want to see her exploding lightbulbs as she has feelings.

- Oh and baby Max at the end...ummm...okay? I guess I want to know more about that. Mostly, I want to understand the all white fashion trend.

- Now...getting into the ranting part...

- I do have to say that it is important to actually watch stuff because how things are said matters. Because I read some of the dialogue earlier and I was like “What?!?!?!” and then it wasn’t that at all. So that made it all slightly better. Mostly the conversation Maria and Alex had in the car.

- The threesome thing was still SUPER weird and really unnecessary?!?!? I just don’t really get the point of it. I guess the narrative purpose was to push Alex toward Forrest and cement Michael and Maria but like...was that needed? No. I’m pretty sure Alex could have actually left when they kissed and it would have served exactly the same purpose. And would have been way less horrific.

- I mean, this is the kind of thing I can usually just roll my eyes at and move on if I’m less invested. And I’m not as invested as I have been in other things so like...I’m fine. And trust me, I’ve been there before, so I get it for people who feel devastated and done with everything. I really do.

- But I am invested enough that I’m just kind of baffled that this was a choice that the show/Carina made. Because it really does just undermine all three characters. And to be honest, this whole love triangle had been undermining all three characters from the start. So I guess it’s par for the course but this just made it worse. I agree with Evil Twin Jon Gilbert that “I hate love triangles” but especially this one.

- I mean, Maria has been a weird spare part on this show from the start. It’s always been a problem. In relation to the original show character, they gave her friendship with Liz to Kyle/Rosa. They gave her alien mystery solving side to Kyle. And they largely gave her romance with Michael to Alex. And you could say she has a story of her own with her mother, but that’s really kind of Mimi’s story. Maria is just sort of facilitating it. It just feels very unfortunate because OG Maria was great. And this Maria could have been great too but they just took so much away from her. And so much of what she does get happens off screen. And so they tried to give some of it back. They stuck her in this dumb love triangle, which up until now has always just seemed like a roadblock for Malex and probably still is although it’s more complicated now I guess. And if she’s just a roadblock for Malex then that’s just shitty for her character and she should have something that’s hers and not just ultimately be in the way of another ship. And also every turn of it just kind of makes her look selfish and terrible. I mean, I don’t understand her motivations for the threesome at all. Other than that I’ve heard that it was some kind of weird manipulation of the situation to force Michael to choose which is...gross. She just doesn’t come out of it well and that’s sad.

- And for Michael, it’s absolutely perpetuating bad bisexual stereotypes. As frustrating as the love triangle was, he was technically always broken up with Alex and for valid emotional reasons. So as annoying as it was and as lazy as it was, it was fine. But this is literally like “Okay here’s both of them at the same time cause you can’t choose”. It just doesn’t look good. Especially if it was supposed to be some kind of test.

- And for Alex...to have him say earlier that being with a woman was him trying to disappear and then have him take part in this is just bizarre. I mean yes, they also had him say that kissing Maria was the first time he enjoyed touching someone which...um...okay...weird. Also feels like they shoved that in just to facilitate this later which is also kind of gross. It’s also just weird to have a very vocally self proclaimed gay man, sleep with a woman for whatever reason. Like...why?

- And why do Malex need to break up in every episode? Everyone gets it. Couldn’t they at some point just be like “wow we really need to take some time apart and see other people and experience other relationships and work on just getting to know each other as friends and if we end up together then it was meant to be” and then they just go date Maria and Forrest and those can be legit relationships and then they can come back together later after suitable build up.

- Of course that’s fine for Forrest because he’s a random side character but then it feels insulting to Maria because it’s clear she’s just an obstacle, which is why I hate that she’s a part of this dumb love triangle in the first place.

- I also just hate the love triangle period with Malex because it just wasn’t needed. There’s so much potential there and so many layers of angst without adding in a main character as a third party. They could still both date other people and come back together without dragging Maria into it all. I feel like Carina just wanted to do this new thing with Malex because she didn’t want her Michael and Maria to have to compete with the OG M&M and then was like “oh no wait I can still do it but in this different super awesome way because epic love triangles are awesome and on all my favorite teen shows of the past” Except that this isn’t a teen show and that should be part of the point.

- I just don’t get any of it and think it was mostly a bad idea. Well, the threesome definitely was.

- I mean...it’s not enough to make me stop watching the show but I definitely am further disconnecting with that set of characters until they sort this nonsense out and decide where they’re going with it because right now they’re just making me not care because it doesn’t feel like they care about their own characters.

#roswell new mexico #roswell reviews #roswell nm #rnm #this is long

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battlestar-royco · 5 years

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let’s talk about tropes

here’s a little (little?!) post on tropes, as promised!

some tropes i hate and why i hate them

love triangles: this one’s pretty simple and obvious. love triangles are unrealistic and toxic. they romanticize emotional cheating, and they cause nasty ship wars in fandoms, especially when two of the points in the triangle are women. often, the “losing” point of the triangle is a one-dimensional throwaway character who either gets killed off or accepts their fate and steps back for the “winner” to take over. this dynamic can get especially problematic when the “loser” is a woc and the “winner” is white, when the “loser” is an lgbtq+ character, and/or when the “loser” has no purpose other than to create drama for two other fleshed out characters. the character often ends up being hated for bad writing and “getting in the way” of the endgame ship. yikes. the only valid resolution to love triangles, imo, is a polyamorous relationship!!!

girl hate: it’s rare to see nice friendships and romances between women, and often this trope is used to drive an unnecessary wedge between two female characters who would have otherwise been great friends. i don’t mind when two women/girls are in conflict with one another for an interesting reason, but i absolutely hate when the conflict is based on something stereotypical and boring. the “girl hate” conflict is always based on something misogynistic, unrealistic, and/or stupid--like a man, looks, sexual practices, or a contrived competition. this is especially gross when the men in the story act as the voices of reason in the conflict, patronizing the women and teaching them how to be nice and use logic.

“strong female characters”: many writers mistake “strong” characters for characters who employ violence, sassiness, and masculine attributes to get what they want. I’m so over it. all I want is nuanced representation of women that doesn’t reduce them to a love interest or a sex object who looks down on other women. strength comes in many forms, and everyone defines it and identifies with it differently.

miscommunication: this has to be one of the laziest forms of prolonging drama, when two characters are fighting because of something that could easily be solved if they were locked in a room together for five minutes.

incest/incest-adjacent romances: this should go without saying, but we’re for some god-awful reason going through a period where incestuous relationships/fake-outs (ie, you’re in love with him? too bad he’s your brother. oh wait, it’s revealed that he’s not!/you two are blood related but you either never met or you went through a period of separation, so that means you can fall in love) are heavily romanticized or used to create extra drama, and it’s just unnecessary and not cute. i think authors use this to add some sort of edge or uniqueness to their writing, but it’s just so toxic and a complete turn-off for me.

aesthetic oppression: (term inspired by and similar to “aesthetic conflict,” thanks kat) when an author throws in some sort of oppression that is experienced by people in real life, but they either don’t address the oppression thoroughly or they only use it to add some sort of edge to their story and further a character’s romance, death, redemption arc, etc. for example, the homophobia in GOT season 6, which reduced loras to a walking stereotype of a gay man before he was subjugated by the church sept and blown up, and the patriarchy in ACOTAR that only exists to show how feminist rhysand is.

boys/men fighting, having tantrums, or expressing themselves through violence: it’s fine for male characters to fight every once in a while, but i just hate that this seems to be exclusively employed with male characters and it is used as a solution or reaction to problems when realistically, men are much more nuanced. men cry. they might be alone or in front of others. they might cry into their pillow or on a friend’s shoulder. fictional men add violence and anger to their sadness because the authors don’t want to emasculate them, but that’s a stupid goal and crying doesn’t affect someone’s gender. smashing your belongings when you are upset is unhealthy and potentially dangerous, and so is physically fighting others over trivial or patriarchal issues (ie a woman) when conversation could be/is probably much more compelling and effective. it’s important to show men that anger isn’t always the first emotion to feel under duress and that they don’t have to express their feelings by punching walls or throwing their belongings across the room. (also?! practically? YOU’RE RUINING YOUR OWN FUCKING STUFF AND/OR YOUR ROOMMATE/FRIEND/PARTNER’S STUFF, YOU ASSHOLE.)

sexy immortals: immortality can be used in clever and entertaining ways, but i feel like a lot of the immortals i’ve been seeing lately run in the same vein as the twilight vampires, which is to say: unearthly beautiful (aka conventionally attractive), overly sexy (aka stalking a love interest for the sake of “attraction”), apparently 16-25 years old (aka accessible to grown women who read/write ya).

uninvolved parents or non-existent guardian figures: sometimes young characters don’t have parents and that’s fine; some of my favorite books are about characters with one parent or no parents. but i still feel like we’re coming out of a period where it was very popular to kill off the parents (especially moms) at the beginning or before the story starts. i really want to see more exploration of characters with parents, or at least see the characters without parents make significant relationships with adults or react appropriately to the loss of their parents.

one-off character deaths: when a character enters one chapter or episode of a book/show just to immediately die for cheap emotional manipulation. this character is also sooooo often a marginalized person, and it’s super predictable and tired. try harder, author/screenwriter!

some tropes i love and why i love them

special snowflake/chosen one: I can’t explain it. I know it’s so cliche and one of the most hated ones out there, but I love when this trope is done right. I’m not a big fan of the chosen ones who have a special destiny, especially if the mc is a white boy, because that’s been done a million times before. but I’m a sucker for that one character who comes upon an unexpected special ability/object/creature or connection to a force of good/evil/nature and has to contend with that. They’ve been Chosen and they’re completely unprepared, and it’s gonna change their life trajectory and relationships and maybe even political climate.

woobies!!!: I feel like this trope is so underrated and it’s one of my favorites of all time. I absolutely love rooting for that one character who’s too good for any of the shit they’ve been through and Deserves Better^TM, but they manage to survive and grow against all odds.

found family: i love that authors are expanding the concept of family and unconventional narratives about love. the found family trope is so charming and relatable to many readers, and it’s great to see seemingly contrary characters come together to find a loving home together that isn’t necessarily romantic.

soft characters: it’s rare (though increasingly less rare, fortunately) to find soft boys, aka male characters who are compassionate, funny, kind, pensive, and/or quiet instead of brash, loud, violent, and angry. i know so many boys and men who fall all along the spectrum of masculinity, and it would be great to see more characters who represent that, especially because male characters are typically forced to express their masculinity in one way. i also absolutely love seeing women being equally as soft and kind--with the exception of ASOIAF!sansa, i feel like this kind of character has been cast aside for the sassy, rebellious, empowered^TM female character who isn’t like other girls and wields a bunch of weapons. i’d really like to see more female characters whose strengths come from empathy, intelligence, and emotion.

unique relationships within a friend group/ensemble: this one is marginally related to my love of found families. not only do i really like tight, strong friend groups, but i also like when each of the friends within that group has a different and compelling dynamic (hostile, romantic, friendly, tragic, whatever may have you) that can carry a scene or an arc. unique relationships between all the characters in an ensemble adds so much dimensionality to a story.

complex guardian figures: this mostly applies to ya, but i think it can also be said for many adult books and tv shows. adult characters often get flattened or sidelined for romance or action plots when in reality almost everyone has parent/guardian relationships, and these relationships are the source of so much complexity. that complexity may mean love, found family, anger, patronization, manipulation, and more, and all these things will be expressed differently based on the characters in question. for example, look at the difference between eleven and hopper from stranger things and harry and dumbledore from harry potter. hopper and dumbledore are so different and each of them carry darkness and baggage that comes out on the kids for better and worse. bonus points if the guardian is a woman, because these types of relationships between girls and women are relatively rare to the ones between boys and men.

anti-heroes/anti-villains: i think this is another one that goes without explaining. we’re all the hero of our own story, after all. if an author can successfully convince me to root for a character who i know is wrong but believes they’re in the right, or for a character who does the wrong things for the right reasons, there’s a good chance that i think very highly of that author.

stoic, bitter, angry characters: if there’s one character in the ensemble who has any of these traits, there’s a good chance they’ll be my favorite, especially if that character is a woman. usually this character’s journey is about what makes them vulnerable and how they become close with the most unlikely companions or form a special relationship with a foil character. it makes the audience feel like we’re being let in on a secret, specifically about that character.

and that’s about it! my inbox is always open to talk more in depth about any of these and more, so let me know. thanks so much for 700, you all are great :D

#maxine talks tropes

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atlas-of-a-human-soul · 5 years

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Blurred lines, pt.2

Summary: When you’re friends with someone for a long time, sometimes the lines between friendship and romance start to blur.

Warnings: angst, fluff, swearing, alcohol

Word count: 3.4k

Part one

Routine. It's supposed to be a pattern of actions you repeat and the people you deal with daily. That's what I used to consider my relationship with Ethan, but it was never the truth. If anything, what we had was a turmoil of epic proportions, a storm after a storm, another tornado after the last one almost desolated us.

I assumed we'd slide back into that routine of ours, keep on pretending we weren't at a loss on what to do when one of us is concerned. He'd keep on joking around about my music taste and I'd call him out on his horrible fashion sense. It was our thing. Constant banter, cuddling...oh, and sleeping together whenever we encounter the slightest bump in the road.

But I couldn't go back to that. My insides would twist and turn with the sight of him and his unbothered smile, my heart hating him for it. Every cell inside my body hated him for being so nonchalant when I was continuously breaking.

Perhaps that's our routine. Or it's my routine.

So, I drifted away. I monopolized every moment of the day to be spent away from Ethan, either with Chris who I could barely look in the eye knowing I desire another man who didn't want my love in such a manor, or I'd study like crazy

. I began losing sleep, because sleep meant my subconscious giving Ethan life even when I'm not awake. My own mind turned on me, allowing him to haunt me, awake or not.

„Ethan Grant Dolan, are you trying to flirt with me?!“ I joke, getting my head off his lap to sit properly and face him. That way I could look into his hazel eyes and know if he's lying to me or not. I could read him easily.

„N-no.“ He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, a cagey smile coating his lips as he averted his gaze to his lap.

„That sounded awful lot like flirting to me.“ I push, leaning in and down to fall in his line of sight. My smile wasn't fading as our eyes met, neither did the nervous one he portrayed.

„If you think I was flirting, I was probably just being friendly. If you thought I was awkward and made you feel uncomfortable, then I was flirting.“ Ethan exclaims and I burst into giggles, collapsing back in his lap as my knees tuck closer to my chest.

„You said I looked pretty and then compared me to an ice cream cone. Yes, you made me uncomfortable and yes, you were flirting!“ I accuse, still wiping away tears of pure laughter and happiness.

Ethan rolls his eyes, clicking his tongue and looks down. He runs his fingers through my hair and a serious expression takes over his face. He inches closer and closer and I dare not breathe. I'm frozen in my spot, awaiting for his move.

His breath fans my face, the chocolate on his breath still present and overpowering, just as his new perfume – or cologne as he preferred to call it, even though he has only three strands of hair on his chin.

„I dare you to move.“ I whisper, inviting him to do it. I want him to close the distance. I want him to kiss me.

And he does.

I snap my eyes open, feeling a tingling sensation on my lips. My fingertips trail the sensitive skin, my eyes closing as a pained sigh bubbles inside my throat.

That was the first time he had kissed me. We were barely sixteen at the time, but it was also when my desire for him was conceived. It never faded after that.

I look at my watch, seeing it's already six in the afternoon, exactly an hour after Ethan's wrestling match began. I felt an odd ache inside my heart with the knowledge, one I have to ignore.

In all our years of friendship, I have missed only one of his matches and he made me promise that would never happen again. He was adamant about it, almost frantic when he appeared on my doorstep that night.

„Why weren't you there? Y/N, why?“ He's in his sweats, hear disheveled and face red from the cold. His eyes bore into mine and his hands grab onto my shoulders, waiting for a good excuse on my behalf.

„I'm sick, E.“ I reply sadly, biting into my lower lip as my chin quivers and his eyes soften instantaneously. His hands pass my shoulders and his arms slide over as he pulls me into a tight hug. Face pressed against his chest, I sigh into his hoodie and wrap my arms around his waist. He sways me lightly, burying his face in my neck as one of his hands hide in my hair.

„I'm so sorry I came in like that. I was just mad you weren't there and I got no warning.“ He apologizes, words slow and mumbled, but I could understand. I'd understand his grunts, let alone his mumbles.

„Why so mad?“ I string a few words together, barely a sentence. He pulls away, the warmth his body gave me despite him being freezing cold from the weather outside still felt hard to leave. I wanted to fold in his arms and let my head rest on his chest and just let the world fade away. I wanted it to be just us.

„I'm sure Kayla was there.“ I add, pressing my lips together as he chuckles.

„She was. One problem with that, tho'.“ He pauses, glancing at his shoes before he trains his eyes on me.

„She's not you. She's not my lucky charm.“ Ethan states and my eyes widen, shock registering in every cell my body consists of.

„Your what?“ My voice goes higher inadvertently and a small smile breaks on his face as he runs a hand through his hair. He gnaws on the inside of his bottom lip, pursing his lips while his eyes wander around the room before they dare to fall on me.

„Lucky charm. I always win when you're there and the one time you weren't, I completely bombed. You're my lucky charm, Y/N. Always were. In every sport. In life.“

„E.” I start, but he interjects.

„Promise me that won’t happen again. Promise you’ll always be there.” He demanded, eyes not moving from my face and his hands holding onto me like I’m the very breath he needs.

„I...I promise.”

And I didn't show up tonight.

This was the second time that happened in my entire existence and I couldn't shake the guilt that washed over me for doing so. It's not his fault he can't love me back romantically. It's mine, yet I make him suffer for it.

After all, what can he do? Break my heart? You can't break a broken heart. There's no more damage left to do now. I'm immune to that pain now.

I should have been there.

But I wasn't.

One thing that's clear about me is that I don't deal well with Ethan related sorrows and I always act out. Tonight, alcohol would be my vice.

Getting ready, I go to the nearest frat party on campus and drink my pain away, hoping I can drown my demons and let myself think as a rational human being again.

„You're nursing an empty bottle there.“ A familiar voice comes through and I turn to see my boyfriend sitting beside me. I avert my gaze immediately, unable to look him in the eye.

I never cheated on Chris, not even with Ethan. But I wanted to and that's just as bad. I love someone else and that's even worse. It's unfair and completely wretched of me to do. I hoped he'd help me forget, to move on and be happy as Ethan seemed to be. But it didn't work.

I still loved my best friend and Chris got caught in a love triangle he was never aware of. He's one of those good guys – handsome, smart and a killer sense of humor. I do love him for he did take my mind off Ethan most days, but this pain dosage was too big for him to cover. I do love him. I'm just not in love with him.

„I understand.“ Chris speaks softly, pain laced in his scruffy voice as I frown.

„What?“ I question and he raises an eyebrow.

„You just told me you love Ethan and although you love me, you're not in love with me. You're breaking up with me from what I gathered.“ Chris replies and I gasp, dropping the empty beer bottle from my hand. I didn't even realize I spoke what was on my mind and now I was breaking his heart.

„I never deserved him.” I’m not sure if I’m thinking or speaking anymore, but his answer says it all.

„Yes, you did. But we accept the love we think we deserve, so you never gave me a chance. Y/N, you're an amazing woman, one that truly made me think soulmates could be real. I just wish you'd see that same thing in yourself one day. You deserve a soulmate love where a guy would go to the moon and back for you. If Ethan is that guy, I'm happy for you. If not, don't dwell on him anymore. It will save you a lot of pain as well as the guy who takes my place.“ Chris leans in, pressing his lips against my forehead gingerly, his hand at the back of my head. He remains there, lingering as his stubble breezes across my skin.

Once he lets go, he stands, leaving me alone on the couch.

The music is loud, as if my own mind screaming isn't enough. Shaking my head, I put it between my hands and lean forward, resting it on my knees as I press my palms into my sides with more intensity to make the noise stop.

Losing it, I jump up, almost knocking over a freshman in the process. I run outside, tears streaming down my face freely as I stumble toward an old oak tree.

But it's not just any tree.

„This will be our tree. Just like we had Oaky in New Jersey.“ Ethan claims, running his hand along the lower branch. He smiles widely, like a child that found a shiny new toy.

„And what would we do under this tree?“ I wink suggestively, leaning against the tree and coyly smiling at him. Ethan's cheeks are bright pink, his lips twitching with an inkling of mischief in his eyes. He walks closer, setting his arms at either side of my body as if to cage me. He didn't know it was completely unnecessary. You don't have to cage what wants to remain close to you.

His face inches closer to me and I suck in a deep breath, afraid any movement would make him step away and end this feeling of flying on cloud nine only he evoked inside.

„Whatever.“ He kissed my right cheek.

„We.“ He kissed my left cheek.

„Want.“ He brushed his nose against mine and I start to feel faint, the lack of oxygen getting to me.

„Breathe, Y/N.“ He licks his lips, as cocky as ever. I can't believe he grew up to be so vain and confident, because the Ethan I knew would run when girls asked him on dates. I never let him live that down.

„Shut up.“ I roll my eyes as the pent up air slowly makes its way out my lungs and fresh one takes its place.

„Someone's sassy today.“ Ethan's husky voice makes my skin crawl, in the way I wanted him to run his hands over every inch and leave his mark for everyone to see.

„Shh...If you keep talking, we'll fight and I'm imposing a no fighting rule around our tree.“ I poke his chest with my right index finger before pressing my palm against his pecks and push him away.

„I accept the rule. No fighting under our tree.“ Ethan agreed, chuckling at my poor attempt to push him away, but he allows me to do so nonetheless. He pulls out a small, portable knife and I raise a brow before I realize it's the knife Grayson got him when they went camping. Before I know it, Ethan had carved our initials into the tree, leaving it as a permanent reminded it belonged to us.

Our tree. Our spot.

I run my fingers along the initials, sighing heavily as the alcohol sways my mind into sitting. I put my head between my legs, grasping my hair at the root.

„You weren't there.“ A voice startles me. A voice I know better than the beat of my own heart.

„I kept looking for you, but you weren't there.“ The betrayal in his voice is evident even to a fool, let alone a person who knows him as intimately as I do.

„I couldn't. I can't.“ I try to find the right words, failing miserably.

„What was that between you and Chris?“ Ethan sits beside me, his forearm brushing my right arm.

„We, uh, broke up. How'd you know that?“ I wipe away the tears with the back of my hand, glancing at Ethan who had his gaze trained on me intently. He refused to look anywhere else, so I had to.

„I saw you drinking and thought I'd look after you from a distance. Just in case, ya know? But then he came and...well, I followed you out here.“ Ethan explains, voice heavy with emotions I could no longer decipher as my own have been overwhelming.

„You didn't come to me.“ I state, almost accusing him as if it were a crime he committed. I have no right to do so, especially when we're not together and I missed his match.

He had every right to be angry with me.

„Noticed you needed some space. I guess I did too.“ His heavy sigh invites me to look at him again. His head is leaned against the tree and his eyes closed, angled so his sharp jaw is displayed in all its glory. His legs are pulled to his chest, his elbows resting on his knees. The moonlight shines a sliver of his brown hair and I find myself admiring him again. I can never get over how beautiful this man is.

„Did you...“ I trail off, seeing the tiniest smile spread on his face.

„Win?“ He finishes, taking a quick peak at me with his left eye only.

„Nah. You knew that already. Didn't have my lucky charm there.“ Ethan doesn't sound angry though. He sounds...slightly disappointed, but his words are almost longing.

A pause follows, one filled with silence both on the outside as it is on the inside of my mind. Finally, my mind is calm and it's unfair how that seems to be the case only when Ethan is near me.

„I broke up with Lulu.“ Ethan breaks the silence and my head snaps back to him, almost injuring my neck in the process.

„Why?“ I croak, starting to get angry with his calm expression and closed eyes. It's as if none of this touches him in the slightest bit. It's like he's the happiest man on Earth.

„Decided to stop lying to her, to the world. Mostly to myself.“ Ethan answers, but it only baffles me.

„I, uh. I love someone else. Someone I've always loved, but was terrified to admit to it. To her.“ His words break off mid sentence, the only indicator he is in fact, nervous.

I find myself wishing he'd just admit it, say the words and look me in the eye. I just want to finally hear him tell me all this pain was worth something.

„Ethan.“ I say his name, watching his eyes flutter open.

„It's you. I know you know that.“ He pushes himself up to stand and I quickly follow his lead.

„So why wait so long? Huh? Why did you keep breaking my heart if you loved me all along?“ I push, now bitter of this long wait he'd made me suffer through. It wasn't fair to me.

„Two reasons. One, Grayson and I made a dealt neither of us gets you. We both had a thing for you back then and I couldn't do it to him. Two, I was scared I'd lose you. I was terrified we'd break up and you'd leave. This way...we had each other in every way, but we always stayed together in the end.“ Ethan's ridiculous explanations make me fume.

„You didn't stay away, tho’. Does Grayson know that?“ I point out and he sighs, nodding.

„Yeah. I didn't know he knew, but he did. Apparently he's been okay with it for a while and I only found out today when I called him to ask for permission to break the bro code officially.“ Ethan takes a step closer and I narrow my eyes.

„You know I'd never leave. Even if we broke up. I'd stay. I made you a promise to stay – the darkest thought you ever had, the worst thing you've ever done, I’ll stand by you through anything. That was my promise, Ethan. I just didn't know the worst thing you'll ever do would be to me.“ I hear my voice break, but I feel it too. I feel my vocal cords strain and crack in my throat and Ethan's face falls with the sound like a switch finally went off in his head.

„I'm an ass. I don't deserve you, I know that. But if you let me, I'd like to treasure you and your love for the rest of my life. Y/N, I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend.“ Ethan states, dropping on one knee as my heart stops.

„I'm asking you to be my wife.“ He looks up expectantly, awaiting any kind of a response. I'm frozen solid in my spot.

Is this how he felt when I told him I love him on prom?

Because I get it now.

„I love you.“ He adds for good measure, his now brown eyes filled with tears and glistening in the moonlight.

„You want me....to be your wife...to marry me?“ I take pauses for deep breaths, my lungs almost collapsing with the shock he sprung on me.

„Forever and always. I've known you my whole life and I love every damn part of you. Even the things that annoy me, I love. There isn't anything you can say or do to lessen my love for you and it took me way too long to embrace the love I feel for you, because I always thought you deserved better than me. But we're made for one another. I know you feel it too. I don’t let people in, but I let you in and you’ve always been in my heart.“ He remains on his knee, but I see him waver.

„Stand up.“ I order him and he drops his gaze to the ground, but does as I asked him to.

Cupping his face, I force him to look into my eyes and I search the soul of a man behind those brown hues. I loved his eyes and their magical ability to change from hazel to brown depending on weather, time of day or emotion. I loved him with my whole being.

„Promise me you'll never break my heart again. This whole epic kind of love is better in print than in real life. I can't handle these broken hearts and ruined lives, the invisible bloodshed. I need you to promise not to run, no matter what happens. That you'll love me, even when you hate me.“ My tone is demanding, but my touch upon his cheeks is as gentle as a lover's touch. It's a touch of someone who loves and wants to be loved so desperately after waiting for so long.

„Every time I hurt you, I hurt myself. I felt the same pain and I'll never put us through that. I'll do anything to make you happy, I promise. At the cost of my soul.“ He adds the last bit and I roll my eyes at his flare for dramatic statements.

„In that case, given you ask again when I’m sober.“ I bite my lower lip, wetting it.

„I'll marry you.“ Ethan doesn't waste time in connecting his lips with mine, pressing me tightly to his body as if he's never been touched. I can hardly breathe with his hands roaming my body and his lips devouring mine, but I'd never complain. Not when my heart is whole for the first time in a long time.

I finally have him.

All of him.

Tags: @xalayx @accalialionheart @fallinginlove-16 @heyits-claire @daddygraysonsbitch @graydolan12

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