#and you can rate based on first watch and/or rewatch

[mlchaelwheeler]

ok wait in lieu of this post, pls rb and in the tags rate each s4 plot (listed below) on a scale from 1-10, 1 being a snooze fest and 10 being cinema

hawkins/creel house plot

russia plot

el/papa/lab/NINA plot

cali crew plot

[minecraftrelatedrandomness]

pirates smp parenting tier list as a tumblr post because i can't be bothered to take and edit screenshots

everything is roleplay, obviously. also, this list counts parental substitutes and adoptive parents.

warning: this post is NOT family-friendly. it covers child maltreatment in canonical contexts. i might also be a bit biased in my judgement due to lived experiences and varying levels of lore knowledge. i may be an archivist but i am not omniscient.

note: ratings could be subjective to change if/when i watch and rewatch more vods

S: Actually Good parents (from what we hear)

jojo's parents: automatic S tier for both being alive and present. mila gets extra points for being a badass totalitarian dictatorship survivor and escapee

A: decent from what we hear

kyle's mother: from what little i possibly remember, she's actually supportive of her son's interests and is concerned for his safety and happiness(?), which is more than i can say about his father

michela's parents: wanted michela to be a teacher at first but eventually sent her off to join aimsey (her friend that she loves dearly) so i at least vaguely trust that they want their kid to be happy

B: probably okay

aimsey's parents: friend with michela's parents and that's about all we know about them

olive's parents: not mentioned much, didn't let olive drink alcohol but that's hardly an issue imho

shelby's parents: based purely off of the little i know of schitt's creek; shelby's counterpart in that series, alexis, has at least well-intentioned parents who become better people over the course of the series (from what i've read?) and may get concerned when their daughter gets up to weird escapades, so i'm gonna assume something similar for shelby's parents?

C: not mentioned, or never knew them

apo currently doesn't have a clear-cut backstory as of time of writing; will get back to this after the backstory drop hopefully

grunt hilda: oli's wife & juniper's mother; i mean, she's at least reasonably educated and probably buff from her fisher's work, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is a good parent

oli's mother: she might be dead. sources are inconsistent

seapeekay's parents: all we know is that he's related to the recruitment officer but we don't know how exactly

cleo, eloise, eret, graecie, martyn, puffy, red, ros, scar, sniff, tubbo, and water's parents: i don't think we know anything about their parents or family in general

C: too dead to judge

oli's father: bruh

sausage's parents: would probably have been S or A tier if they weren't dead, judging by how much saus loves them, but again, don't know enough about them to judge

will's mother: no surprises here

D: not great from what we hear

bek's parents: we don't hear about them enough but if bek was raised as a kite, i am assuming their parents also live on the faction isles but her family's described to be "distant" and if your kid is lonely enough to make friends with some rando's corpse statue instead of going to you for emotional support, you got issues

guqqie's mother: saying it's unladylike to throw up from being seasick? more like it's unladylike to discourage your child, raised as a PIRATE, to go out to sea at all like what the fuck (or maybe i just want to beef with gender roles and guqqie's canonical elitism idk)

kuervo's parents: they could have been A tier (docked points for spoiling the kids) but they literally support a totalitarian regime and i ain't into that

kyle's father: saying your kid's interests are annoying to their face and being a workaholic that barely, if ever, spends time with his family is just a big red flag to me. only reason he's not lower is because i'm east asian and have gifted kid syndrome a la "are you satisfied" by marina and am perhaps a bit biased, so i have my sympathies (but my parents are better than the stereotypical asian parent, i think)

oli von steel: father of juniper; i mean, he clearly loves his son dearly, but i'm a bit concerned because he kind of ended up on the faction isles for anywhere between several months and a couple of years because he was DRUNK DRIVING HIS YACHT??

capitán santana: sausage's uncle and substitute parental figure after his bio parents died. they clearly care about each other, which would normally warrant at least a B tier, if not an A or S. main reason for why he's this low down is because apparently sausage learnt that classism bullshit from him and that's just bad morals to impart onto the younger generation, y'know. sausage has a heart of gold but he's also kind of an asshole, especially for first impressions, so i'm blaming his uncle for being a bad influence.

shep's parents: bro who the fuck abandons their (at most aged 7) child on some random dock "to find work" like at least get someone to take care of the kid while you're away. only reason they're not lower is because i don't know if they were forced to leave their kid behind, because that would at least get them some sympathy points, and i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (i've read a whole novel about orphans and adoption, so i at least vaguely know some potential nuances regarding child abandonment and/or giving up children for adoption.)

E: horrible from what we hear

the denholm parents (acho and scott's parents): they don't even appear in canon but like bro you can't just treat one kid "alright" and the other like shit. if one of your kids doesn't feel at home living with you and literally ran away because they felt like they didn't belong, then you've fucked up as parents. also… even if we're not counting acho, giving your golden child gifted kid syndrome and tremendous pressure to live up to is kinda shit too and makes them D tier at best. the only reason they're not on F is because they haven't shown up on-screen and i have no canonical evidence to show they deserve to get kicked down to F. trust me, i'm waiting on the acho mega episode/movie; one misstep and i'm yeeting them down.

owen's parents: character intro sequence, full stop. homophobic assholes, the lot of them. also i KNOW the arranged marriage thing is just a theory but if that ever turns out to be canon, they're on thin fucking ice at best.

F: may the gods have mercy on your soul, if you even have one (on tv tropes, we call this the moral event horizon)

captain elyas merton (basically shep's adopted parental figure and possibly unofficially for will too): let's see, corporal punishment threat (re: short story #1), yeet the child off the ship for having the gall to *gasp* not obey and try to make friends his own age; raise other child to be royally fucked up as well (re: the murders), what can't a man do? if he doesn't have a VERY GOOD REASON for what he did (i know there are future lore drops and i am waiting on those), or if he's a cultist associate, then he's the one getting yeeted to F

ajax suarez (ivy and iris' father): magi-technological experimentation on YOUR OWN CHILDREN is fucked up to the extreme in itself, as well as aiding and abetting your cult leader daughter for decades, AND the fact that the only thing his daughters could agree on was his terrible parenting. also "a new wife, new children", anyone? the ONLY thing that spares him from F-tier right about now is that he actually felt regret for what he did and, if towards the end of his life and post-mortem, gave our anti-heroes the knowledge and truth about the isles to let them have a fighting chance against iris

no one… at least, not yet. i just don't have the proof to throw anyone down here yet. we sure do have several contenders, tho

gavin renais (will's father): he's on thin ice for being implied to blame his literal kid's existence for his mother dying in childbirth like bro, that's fucked up (YOU knocked her up in the first place, good sir). if he doesn't have any further justifiable excuse (context dependent) + didn't stop his kid from getting kicked off the ship, i'm kicking him down to F tier too and not even cc!will can stop me // update: it appears that cc!will did intend for this guy to go down here. now let's throw rotten tomatoes at our first F-tier parent!!

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd s2e1 rewatch where i pause to jot down my thoughts and other random shit

not quite a reaction post bc i've already watched the whole thing. not quite a liveblog bc it's one post and it's probably gonna take me a full hour to get through a 28 minute episode at the rate of pausing and typing i'll be doing

s2e1, s2e2, s2e3, s2e4, s2e5, s2e6, s2e7, s2e8

anyway, pirate time:

i love how much fun con is having choking on his own blood

dream!stede's extremely teary face right before he takes off running down the beach is doing psychic damage to me

also dream!stede's stupid ridiculous outfit with all the long ribbons and shit...

ed and stede make contact so hard shjfkhsgjkfd the loud OUGH sounds from both of them

also the return of ed's old beard! i didnt expect to see her at all this season, so that was a surprise.

"babe" "love" im tearing out my own hair

stede has yet to learn that ripping ass near your beloved can be a love language

stede is a terrible fucking roommate just deal with wee john's gas in silence like the rest of them. goddamn.

WHO HAS THE OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH TRAMP STAMP. WHO IS THAT.

i like when the background OST is familiar to me lol the little strings when stede starts his letter throwing me back to s1

olu: that–that's the swede the swede: Im the swede roach: he's single ;) me: *pissing my pants with laughter*

also the direct confirmation that the swede literally doesn't have a name. incredible

shjkfhdhfkj the crew encouraging him. stede's "it's okay" and roach "be brave" im CRYINGGGGG

stede doing customer service is something that can be so personal. "reservation?" "eat my fuckin' shit" "right! walk-ins, then" average restaurant experience

the random background guy saying "my favorite hand!" abt getting stabbed in the hand is making me giggle. i love the humor on this show

why does stede have so much shoulder movement going on when he's walking through the bar. whore behavior.

"this is for mom!" sorry but i want to know more abt whatever's going on there

also the purple mohawk. dope.

buttons is so distressed LET HIM RETURN TO THE SEA THESE CONDITIONS ARE INHUMANE

"i know the odds of you finding this are slim but so were the odds of us finding each other in the first place" IM RIPPING OFF MY OWN SKIN

also stede's lil sad hopeful smile after throwing the bottle... i care him

i love how they make this wedding fucking suck so we don't feel too bad abt the whole massacre thing. "the natural condition of humanity is base and vile. it is the obligation of people of standing, such as yourselves, to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony" if i was at a wedding and the officiant said that i'd also start killing people probably

yayy murder montage :)

FANG BREAKING THAT GUY'S SPINE OVER HIS KNEE

the whole cake scene is so fucking funny im sorry. i love u jim drawing the line at attacking a shitty wedding. i love u archie who wasn't here for the good old days so you dont really see a problem with how things are. i love u frenchie with ur box in ur brain that u never open again. i love u fang it's gonna get better i swear. i love u frenchie again bc u just took the cake right out of fang's hands while he was fucking sobbing hfjhgkjhdkjkf

I MISS IVAN JUSTICE FOR IVAN. wish they could've said he'd just fucked off somewhere instead of dying but i think that would've raised the question of why hasn't anyone else fucked off since they all seem so miserable

very relieved that stede isn't taking the racist/antisemitic caricature drawings of ed to make like a boyfriend scrapbook like some people were theorizing. would've been overkill if after episode 4 from last season stede still didn't realize that ed hated these sorts of depictions of him.

INTERESTING DETAIL THO the background music in this scene is "a pirate's life" aka the song frenchie sang in the pilot. it's an instrumental version obviously but yeah i recognize that tune

also more cool background ppl with dyed hair man i love this show

zheng yi sao flirting with olu is so good. he deserves it.

how nice of ed to offer his drugs to the crew. sharing is caring.

also it's so funny to me that the thing izzy is tormented by is ed saying "you can't do the job, someone else will" the toe thing's happened three times and apparently that was fine but the thing the show edits together right before izzy breaks down into the most pathetic aheemheem whimpers isn't any of that it's ed threatening to fire him

also they cut ed throwing knives at izzy!! what the hell.

releasing the clip of izzy crying kinda ruined it for me when it came time to watch it in the show bc i watched it several times since it dropped and now seeing it in context i was like "ok i've seen this already fast forward." i mean i didnt fast forward through it but i did kinda zone out bc i've seen this bit already. this post kinda sums up my thoughts on it

"trifling ingrate plan" dshkjfshgdskhfjkhgkjh

"SEMI-CLEAN WATER"

JACKIE CALLING THE SWEDE "BOO CAKES"

"i know that guy we had breakfast together!" "you'll be having a lot of breakfasts-es together" "oh, okay" i fucking love this whole dynamic like i can tell they're writing the swede out of most of the episodes for budget reasons (sorry nat faxon) but by god do they give him such an excellent fucking send-off. can't wait to see him again when he's in his trophy husband number 20 era

roach is upset abt not being able to cook, buttons is tied up so he doesn't go running back to the sea (i assume). stede you are not giving your crew the environment they need to thrive.

olu being an optimist :)

buttons opens his mouth to drink the rain and in the background u can see roach yanking the rope around buttons back fhdjskgfjhgkjfh STEDE YOUR SEA WITCH CANNOT THRIVE IN THESE CONDITIONS

stede tries to make things sound good in his bottle letters to ed but out loud he says his actual insecurities... it's so fucking tasty tho that he thinks ed could be doing better without him and THAT'S why he's been stalling so much. not afraid for his life even a little bit he just assumes he's not wanted. brb i have to cry now

"im sorry if that's a little bit creepy" "you are creepy" in this scene where they're soaked from the rain. ofmd said this prince ricky guys is creepy and wet.

stede's fucking FACE when prince ricky says "you're my hero" his fucking "clearly you dont own an air fryer" face I CANT STAND HIMMMMMM (affectionate)

prince ricky "these rubes" "men of our standing" yeah i cant fucking stand this guy (derogatory) i love how he's barely even in this episode

stede's face when the swede is talking abt how happy he is with jackie... my man believes in love so much im gonna cry

also in what fucking way does the swede owe them a life debt. roach and buttons literally tried to eat him

izzy's "you know me better than anyone knows me and i daresay the same about you" this is literally so false i dont even know where to begin. izzy in e6 being like "if i didnt know any better i'd think maybe ed might possibly maybe be actually enjoying bonnet's company" while ed and stede are giggling and making each other friendship bracelets. this guy doesn't know ed at all.

also i cant get over how izzy wont make eye contact he's like staring blankly into the middle distance delivering these lines so flatly until he goes to say "i have... love for you" and in that moment he looks like he'd rather ed were feeding him more toes.

"im worried about you, we all are" not gonna lie my dude you've had a weird way of showing it thus far. where was all that worry when you told him he was better off dead than wearing a robe and singing songs?? where was that fucking love then?

and NOW izzy wants to talk it through. izzy literally voted to make blackbeard great again and now he wants to give open communication a chance???

lmao there's a limit to how many characters can be in a bulleted list so here's fucking. part two. on the same post:

ed asking everyone if the vibe is poisonous and fang cant stop crying and ed's face is just like "eh good enough" im fdhksgfkjtdkh

anyway ed with a loaded gun under his chin talking to himself is hurting me so fucking much actually. ed my beloved babygirl for whom i would die. this poor traumatized man. yes he is making this workplace toxic as hell but god. GOD. im gonna throw up.

the way ed is so fucking casual about shooting izzy in the leg. just calm and jovial as he promotes frenchie to first mate. stepping over izzy all crumpled on the floor. everything about this is so fucking good. i mean it's horrible for ed and everyone around him but for me watching the show this shit is DELICIOUS. i love when the pirates get violent and unhinged i love when this shit gets fucked up. ed's mental state is so bad right now and it is causing me severe anguish but also it is so tasty. fuck.

anyway frenchie trying to turn down the promotion fhjkghdfjkhf

the cut to the swede performing the husbandly duties is INSANE. COMPLETE TONAL WHIPLASH. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

"fuck those hammies up!" spanish jackie i love you

black pete why are you so fucking loud AND WHY WOULD YOU JIX IT LIKE THAT???

why is prince ricky so small. he's like a full head shorter than stede. also this guy is insufferable i love how stede just fucking abandons him fhjkgdhkdfghkj

"the calf muscle is the most mysterious of alllll the muscles" what the FUCK does that even mean. oh swede i will miss you

NOSE REMOVAL FUCK YES. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

obsessed with the swede playing dumb. the dramatic gasp. "wow, so bad!" fhjsghdkjf

"aint you that soup bitch?" "im the money bitch" i love women.

sfdsjkh spanish jackie being into double-crossing. and slapping the swede's ass on the way out. i love this show

i love how zheng says "this much indigo is worth three times what i paid" while spanish jackie and the husbands are still like, right there. and they just don't hear that bit. incredible.

OUGH the back of jim's weird rope armor looks like a ribcage that's so cool

i love how jim is so fucking bad at telling this story. i love how the monkey's paw comes into it. i love fang asking them to do the voice. i love archie trying to hold back her laughter i love jim and fang giggling together I LOVE THIS SHOW

ed's fucking voice breaking through his whole convo with frenchie. im tearing out my own teeth

HEY DID YOU GUYS KNOW THEY HAVE POST-CREDITS SCENES IN THIS SEASON?????????? WHAT THE HELL

i take back what i said about jim being bad at telling this story their version is so much fucking better. squeaky voice "I pray to you, Dark Lord, to make me real flesh! I want to be real flesh!" IM FUCKING OBSESSED. JIM I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

[rewatching-sam-and-dean]

Ranking 327 Episodes of Supernatural

(And I need your help first!)

Okay, so I'm finally planning to live up to my blog's name by doing a full rewatch of Supernatural (Only 3+ years after the show ended and 1+ years after I made this blog for this purpose 🤦‍♀️ ). Anyway, I’ll be "Rewatching Sam and Dean," in other words. (Sorry 🙄.)

I'm not only gong to rewatch it and comment, but I'm going to try to rate and rank every episode. I'm generally bad at ranking on a large scale, but I want to be able to say with confidence what my top 5, 10, 20, etc. episodes are. Because right now, I can list episodes I love, but I can’t say which one I like best among my favorites. Also, ranking gives me an additional purpose to my rematch.

(I’ll put my particular criteria for ranking under the cut, so there no need to skim through that part if you’re not interested in specifics.)

So, you might be asking, "Why do I care about this?"

And if you don’t, that’s cool. But, I’m posting about it here because I’m hoping to get some ideas for things to track as I’m watching the episodes. I don’t want to do too many things because that’s a sure way to get bogged down and make this feel like work, but there are often those little things that I wish I had a quick answer to, and looking for them as I go through each episode should be easier than hopping back and forth to track things down. And I know there are things like Superwiki for that (though they aren’t perfect), but I want to track some things for myself, too

So, these are some things I’m already planning to watch out for:

How John is described/acts, and his relationship with both boys

Sam and Dean's "anger issues"

How/when each brother responds when the other is upset (and how this changes), and which brother shares more

How Bobby treats each brother

How each brother relates to Mary and how she treats them

When each brother prays; who is it to, and what is it about?

Times when Sam and Dean are depicted as classic brothers, vs. blatantly compared to a couple, a parent-child, friends, or are just weird.

So, if you made it this far, could you please give me your suggestions for other things I should keep an eye out for while watching? Or, suggest other things that might be interesting to rate/rank as I go through the show?

Thanks for reading!

How I’ll be Rating the Episodes:

Now, when I rate these episodes, I’ll be determining MY FAVORITE episodes, not what I think are technically THE BEST episodes. For example, "On the Head of a Pin " is a very well executed episode, but I can pretty much guarantee that it wan’t be in my top 25 or anything, because Alistair disgusts me so thoroughly that I can't stand rewatching it.

I’ve created a bit of a rubric for myself to quasi keep myself honest, though there is still a lot of room for subjectiveness in my ranked areas. So far, my criteria is:

1. The Brothers: Are there good or meaningful brother moments? Do we learn anything new about either brother or their relationship? Are they behaving in character?

2. The Monster: Is the monster or antagonist of the episode interesting, frightening, handled in a unique way?

3. Story: Is the narrative strong, impactful to the show as a whole, or entertaining? Is there canon-breaking or retconning that damages the show?

4. Recurring/Side Characters: Are the characters who are sharing the screen with Sam and/or Dean interesting, effective, important, and/or standouts in some other way? Do I care about them?

5. Re-watchability: On Subsequent viewings of the episode, am I still entertained? Do I gain a new perspective or find more to enjoy when I watch it again? Does the episode lose impact, relevance or entertainment value (in a significant way) on repeat viewings?

Anyway, as I said, this is deeply subjective, so maybe no one will be interested in my takes, and that’s fine. But, I will give reasons with canon support, for what I like or don’t like, so my ratings won’t be based on what I head-canon to be true. I’d ideally like to do this on YouTube with edits, but I’m not sure I want to put myself out there to that extent. Either way, I’ll be on here, too. Either I’ll post here, or link my videos (if I ever make them) here.

My Pilot Review

From ages ago …

Also, if anyone is interested, you can find my original attempts at episode reviews HERE. My format for rewatching will likely be a bit more structured now (and not take multiple posts per episode), but here’s how my brain works, if you’re interested.

[arwatchesandreads]

Falling Into Your Smile (你微笑时很美) 

Finally back to writing reviews. I’ve watched many shows since the last time I wrote a review but I was just too lazy to take notes on the episodes and how I felt. I re-watched this show a whole month ago but didn’t get to write the review because I fell into a slump. I’m back though. This show is super popular because it has Xu Kai as the male lead, and honestly, I enjoyed this show a lot the first time I watched it. However, after rewatching the show I can say I still enjoyed the show, yet, I wouldn’t say it was super crazy good like how I felt watching Amidst a Snowstorm of Love and Love Me, Love My Voice, etc. The characters were fun to watch, the plot was all about e-sports (which I actually really enjoyed), but I felt like it was missing something to make the show better. 

My Rating: 7.5/10

Episodes: 31

Country: China

Genre: Romance with E-Sports

Aired: June 23rd, 2021- July 15th, 2021

Cast:

Xu Kai as Lu Si Cheng

Cheng Xiao as Tong Yao

Zhai Xiao Wen as Jiang Yang

Yao Chi as Lu Yue

Rachel Wang as Chen Jin Yang

Zhou Yi Ran as Ai Jia 

Sun Kai as Xiao Peng

Gao Han as Lao K

Xiao Kai Zhong as Lao Mao

Merxat as Yu Ming

Cui Shao Yang as Xiao Rui

Wang Yi Jun as Lee Kun Hyeok 

Synopsis:

All-male ZGDX e-sports team loses a player due to a hand injury. They need to choose a replacement for the team. 

Tong Yao is a popular female gamer who is known for her skill but also recklessness. She got into gaming through her ex-boyfriend who ended up abandoning her for the OPL world. The manager of ZGDX, Xiao Rui, messages Tong Yao an invite into recruiting her for the team. At first she is not welcomed by the team, especially Lu Si Cheng. However, as they continue to interact and live at the base, she forms a closer bond with the team and an even closer bond with Lu Si Cheng, the captain of ZGDX. 

This drama was adapted from the web novel “You’re Beautiful When You Smile” (你微笑时很美) by Qing Mei (青浼). 

Beware of Spoilers Moving Forward!!!!!!!!!

What Episode did the Main Couple Start Dating?

OMg. They literally take a whole third of the show just to establish the fact they are dating. They are officially together in Episode 21.

I don’t mind slow burns, and in this case it was fine because there is a lot of plot in this show in terms of gaming and the e-sports world. There is also just a lot of hesitation between the two, as her ex-boyfriend, Jiang Yang, was also an e-sports professional gamer and they lost contact because of it, and therefore, she originally didn’t want to have a relationship with anyone in the same field. She also hesitates as the fandom is highkey crazy and a lot of people were convinced they were already dating before, and were already shit-talking Tong Yao for “seducing” Si Cheng. 

Si Cheng asks Tong Yao very casually in episode 20 if she wants to try, and she asks “try what?” and he says, me. LOLOLOLOL I almost died here. In episode 21, she thinks he was joking, and was very indecisive on what to do but she almost confessed in a previous episode so I don’t know what she was hesitating for. She then accepts him later in this episode. 

Misunderstandings?

They have a misunderstanding in Episode 17 after Tong Yao gets into a fight at an event with another lady who was in charge of that event. She pushes the lady and that lady makes a whole video accusing Tong Yao of physically hurting her and it goes viral. Tong Yao gets banned for one game. During this time, Si Cheng isn’t talking to her and Tong Yao is butt- hurt about it. He explains later on in Episode 18. 

There’s also another time in Episode 26 where Si Cheng is acting cold and distant with Tong Yao after the harmful package incident with Tong Yao. He ignores her and acts cold with her for days. In Episode 27, Tong Yao asks Si Cheng if they’re breaking up because he’s been cold, however, he consoles her and tells her he’s just angry at himself that he can’t protect her. 

Love Triangles?

LOOOOOOOOOL This show is essentially a harem. Every captain from almost every team loves Tong Yao akjsndkfjsdfs. It was kinda funny. But jokes aside. There really isn’t a love triangle at all. 

Jiang Yang tries to get Tong Yao back, however, she was very set in stone that she wouldn’t take him back. She explains to Jiang Yang that the reason she doesn’t want to get back with him is because he never treated her as someone who could walk alongside him. 

Another funny character who was obsessed with Tong Yao was Kun from FNC, he was soooo funny. I laughed the whole time his character appeared on screen. He just felt like comedic relief tbh. 

Second Leads Romance

OMGGGG. Ai Jia and Jin Yang were so fun to watch honestly. Zhou Yi Ran. my love. My obsession. My fav c-drama actor. Akjsndfkjsnkdfs. Zhou Yi Ran playing Ai Jia was a delight to watch. The first time I watched him was in When I Fly Towards you and his character is so different in Falling Into Your Smile. Their romance was different, but honestly, very true. Jin Yang had no interest in the world of e-sports but she supported Ai Jia throughout it. She ended up buying his team too LOL. and she helped him reconnect with his mom again after she kicked him out for wanting to be a professional e-sports gamer. 

Falling Into Your Smile Ending

Falling Into Your Smile has a happy ending where they win at the finals thanks to Tong Yao. Then, we watch Ai Jia and Jin Yang get married and Tong Yao catches the bouquet. It was a typical sweet ending. 

Falling Into Your Smile Review- A Fun Romance between Gamers

I gave this show a 7.5/10. I enjoyed it thoroughly as it was a fun show to watch with e-sports, friendship, romance, conflicts, etc. If I’m being completely honest the reason why I can’t rate the show any higher is because I just felt the show was mediocre at best. I don’t know how to explain it. I was happy when the main leads got together, and honestly, some of the conflicts were fun to watch and I understood how they dealt with it. However, it was just a fun watch. I can't say that I was obsessed and eager to finish the show. I think the reason I couldn’t enjoy this show to the fullest was because Cheng Xiao’s acting in this show was mediocre at best. She kind of always had a poker face throughout the show aksjbfksds.

The e-sports plot was fun to watch and I did really enjoy that part of the show as this was my first time seeing a plot like this. The fandom being crazy for the guys were super real, the chronic injuries that professional e-sports gamers face was shown, the stigma of being a professional gamer was also explored. I really appreciated and enjoyed these arcs in the story. 

Falling Into Your Smile is a fun watch where you see pro-gamers explore the world of romance, team bonding, dealing with societal stigmas on gaming, etc. I did enjoy the show and it was a cute, fun watch and I didn’t regret the time I took to watch it. 

[asleepinawell]

i'm in some sort of Mood about finishing the kh series (for a given value of finished) since I've been playing it since kh1 on ps2 a million years ago but instead of dealing with that i'm going to write my mini retrospective of the titles based on my replay

rest below the line

kh1

story - 7/10. it wasn't the most interesting but it was the first and laid the groundwork for the series. maleficent had a lot of screentime which is always a big plus. love her evil ass. it's also the start of the 'kairi never gets to do anything ever and gets kidnapped every time she tries' persisting problem in the whole series

gameplay - 6/10. feels a bit clunky now in comparison to some of the newer ones. it was harder than some later ones, but mostly because of wonky control issues and not great boss fights. but it's very playable and fun still. mushrooms do a little dance and shake their butt at you. i will never not feel nostalgic about traverse town music. THANK GOD YOU CAN SKIP THE PRE FIGHT CUTSCENES ON RETRIES NOW OH MY GOD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE ONE BEFORE THE DARK RIKU FIGHT WAS LIKE TEN MINUTES AND BACK IN THE DAY YOU HAD TO REWATCH IT EVERY TIME AAHHHHJHHH *i am tranquilized and removed from the room*

re: chain of memories

story - 8/10. i love the focus on the organization 13 internal drama. bitches are running around bad mouthing and killing each other. larxene is a constant joy. marluxia is pretty and goes swish swish and makes flowers. axel was an instant fave. zexion is a shitty twink and i do so love shitty twinks. there was some disney stuff too i guess

gameplay - 2/10. the first time i played it my brother was crashing at my apartment and watching me play and got very into making cool deck combos. so i had him do that for me and i did the combat and the fun sibling shenanigans got me through it. this time i quit after thirty minutes and watched the cutscenes on youtube. it's just so repetitive and meh

358/2 days

story - 7/10. that's too many soras! put some back! story was a bit slow at times but i did enjoy seeing the daily life of the organization and axel/saïx handling their divorce so so well. needed more demyx

gameplay - it's packaged as a movie now so i did not replay the game and can't fairly rate it. i remember it being not the best combat but not terrible for a ds game

kh2

story - 8/10. it would get higher but the fact the beginning is incomprehensible if you haven't played com and 358 loses it some points....i had not played com when i got kh2 and boy howdy. it made more sense on the replay of course and yeah it's a good story. obsessed with how maleficent remains one of the main recurring characters in this series and just Does Shit from time to time because why not. god forbid women do anything etc. also the gay divorce continues to go terribly. saïx is handling this so well i say as he goes into berserk mode again. needed more riku screentime tho

gameplay - 9/10. huge upgrade from previous titles. it was very fun and fluid. the form shifts were a great addition. there were a lot of options but it didn't feel overwhelming or like it disrupted combat. my only real complaint was it felt a bit too on rails at some parts... like cutscene, battle, walk three steps repeat. oh and i hated the gummi missions but i am a gummi hater in general. oh also antiform was amazing. sora can turn into a feral creature... as a treat

birth by sleep

story - 10/10. fuck i love birth by sleep. aqua my beloved daughter who is the most terrifying keyblade master ever. terra my troubled son who got fucked over by shitty adults on an hourly basis. ven the thousand year old little kid who has never caught a break once. also hey it's xehanort and he also has ex husband drama. only note is that aqua should get to say fuck

gameplay - 10/10. the command deck was right up my alley and command forms were the best form gameplay they've done. i loved how all three kids had a unique style and abilities. i loved melding cards and gems to make new cards. i enjoyed playing monopoly. i thought it was the best game in the series when i first played it and that remains true

re:coded

story - 6/10. it was okay? it was largely a rehash but did add a few things. my friend and i kept saying welcome back alvis whenever data riku used a computer so that was fun

gameplay - this was also presented as a movie in the bundle so i won't score it. i don't even remember how it was from way back when i played it

dream drop distance

story- 9/10. the games that switch between multiple perspectives seem to be my favorites and i think it's partly that it makes the story more interesting. the time traveling norts were a bit wtf but that's just an inescapable part of the series. inspired me to get twewy which i will be playing next. MEOW WOW!!!!!

gameplay - 9/10. flowmotion was really neat and fit the style well. i loved the pokemon aspect so much you have no idea. i was a little sad you couldn't meld command cards but it would have been Too Much with all the other stuff going on. a few fights near the end had some really dumb mechanics (the type where when you look up a guide it just says good luck) but there were also some excellent ones. i do think it lost a little something in the port because the stylus on 3ds was important. however there is nothing is quite as satisfying as seeing meow wow hit xehanort with giant bouncy orbs so I'm willing to forgive it a lot

union x/back cover/dark road

story - 9/10. i was shocked how much i enjoyed the story of these. i got very invested and i was only watching the cutscenes, not playing. really interesting world building and the master of masters was an instant fave. one of the only kh titles that passes (barely) the bechdel somehow. also could be retitled as kh: dead kids, because boy did a lot of kids die! extra points for maleficent managing to set major events in motion twice and being very eh whatever about it. love her for that. and the backstory of the xehanort/eraqus divorce, of course. i love a good divorce

gameplay - didn't play this one, just watched ELEVEN HOURS of cutscenes. no longer available which is hilarious considering how much important lore is in it that is referenced in kh3. hopefully they make it into a single player offline game someday with better gameplay

fragmentary passage

story - 8/10. very short but filled in some gaps. i love aqua so i was predisposed to love this one

gameplay - 8/10. it felt like a rough draft for kh3 and that meant it didn't have all the annoying extra crap kh3 added in and played pretty smoothly. i liked the little puzzles. it was a unique game and i enjoyed it more than i expected

kh3

story - 6/10. the fact i had to sit through entire disney movies worth of cutscenes brings the score way down. we did not need to see 3 musical numbers in frozen. if i wanted that I'd watch the movie. i just wanted to play the damn game. the majority of the game is sora got benched and has to get his groove back which was very disappointing for the climatic finale to the series. once i got into the end game though it was much better (i would rate the later game stuff way above a 6 which just makes my frustration with earlier stuff worse). re:mind added in the bits i felt were missing and i came away satisfied overall with the wrap up. axel/saïx had divorce arc three and then got back together finally 🏳️‍🌈���🎉. xehanort/eraqus also got back together as they fucked off to be gay in the afterlife. finally we are free of the norts (OR ARE WE???) and the master and the foretellers are slated to come back next from the looks of things. maleficent continues to hang out in the wings waiting for opportunities to #girlboss and I'm excited too see what cataclysmic events she sets off next

so that's it. i did watch the brief melody of a memory scenes but there wasn't too much new there. i may watch the cs from the missing link beta at some point. otherwise it's back to my life long journey of waiting for the next title to drop

gameplay - 5/10. ugh. i bought the game when it came out but between the full length disney movies and the over saturated gameplay gimmicks i didn't get far. this time i powered through and by the end i was enjoying it for the most part because I'd figured out what things to ignore and how to avoid them. attractions were the worst addition to gameplay ever. everything was too flashy. way too many instances of being locked in a "cool" transition animation instead of actually doing combat which broke up the flow of things. i missed the command deck and how much it let you customize your play style. i didn't like the keys being locked to command forms as much as the bbs forms since it meant if you had a keyblade with better stats but hated the special on it you were kinda fucked. this became less of a problem as the game went but was still annoying. overall felt like a step back from the others. they tried to do too much. oh also why were there ten thousand instances of having to learn new controls for some new mini game in every area??? just let me hit things i am begging you. it really felt like they went for cool spectacles over satisfying gameplay

general notes on all of them: i enjoyed the story much more this time due to being able to play them in order. the fact they all released on different platforms originally made the complicated story even more confusing since i couldn't afford to buy a new system every time a new one came out. i really hope they veer away from that practice in the future but i kinda doubt it especially since they've got another mobile game lined up already. while the disney stories were fun early on it felt like the story outgrew them (except for the characters who were in the main story as well like mickey and maleficent) and they were kinda a drag by 3. i doubt they can move away from those since they're the whole gimmick of the series but it would be better imo. deeply worried they'll start bringing in newer disney acquisitions.

one of my biggest complaints about the series has always been how few female characters there are and how little many of them are used. it got slightly better later in the series but overall was still not great, especially for kairi. i kept wondering if they added stuff for her in re:mind due to complaints about this.... the dlc felt like an apology for several things tbh. aqua was great but she shouldn't be the only one and even she got upstaged in kh3 when she's supposed to be the third most powerful keyblade master. weirdly enough maleficent was probably the best written female character. really wild how much she wove into the plot and affected events so much without even trying to (especially in union x). she should fire pete though (i think she should hire demyx)

I'd like to see them let you play as characters other than sora more often since that was always really neat (he's had a billion games to himself now). I'd love a kairi and aqua game but i can imagine square and disney both clutching their pearls over female protagonists

something i noticed was that playing them when i was older i liked sora much better. when i started the series as a teenager i found him annoying. as an adult i have more sympathy and tolerance for teenaged boys who are Going Through It. growth or something

[ryuichirou]

What are your tastes in media? (Music/TV/Film/Books)

Sorry for the late reply!

When it comes to TV/Film/Books (…any storytelling type of media in general) I really like a combination of horror/thriller and comedy. Especially dry humor, but not necessarily. I love a lot of raunchy and stupid stuff too. My favourite shows are probably South Park (rewatched this one 1000 times) and Parks and Rec (we don’t watch a lot of live-action (???) series though, and it’s been a while since we watched this one). Of course, these two aren’t really horrors/thrillers lol, but a good example of a thriller show that I love would be Hannibal. This one we also rewatched 100000 times, it’s honestly perfect: the story, the aesthetics, the gore, and of course of course the relationship between Hannibal and Will.

I wanted to say that I don’t really love stories that focus on romance, but then again, one of my favourite movies is Heathers, so I guess based on this + my love for Hannibal one might say that I do love romance, but a very specific type of it lol

In general, I tend to especially enjoy the ones that have a strong visual style and aesthetic, like The Shining, Parasite, Midsommar, Suspiria and stuff. But I don’t only watch horrors; Katsu (who is also a person that introduced me to horror in the first place) recommends me a lot of very good films.

I don’t read books very often (oof), but out of everything I’ve read over the past couple of years, the things that I liked the most were “Misery” (by King) and Lord of the Flies.

When it comes to music, I guess I don’t even listen to it very often either. I love soundtracks, I love anime music and vocaloid music (mostly old tracks that I’ve been listening to for years), sometimes I listen to stuff from musicals. One of my favourite bands, Sound Horizon, pretty much tells stories with their music, and I really love them for both this and their sound in general. Well, and of course things that Katsu and my friends send to me.

Hmm… I guess I love strong female vocals. I still love Evanescence very much + love Ado’s songs a lot.

I won’t talk much about my favourite anime and manga (I actually have written posts about it before; they are a bit old though), but I’ll say that a lot of things that we love is either seinen or some kind of BL-ish comedy lol

To help myself with this reply, I opened both MAL (for anime and manga, duh) and Letterboxd accounts, although my ratings there are a little bit over the place, so I couldn’t trust them...

There are moments when we watch or read something that is super out of our comport zone, and it’s usually a pretty interesting and refreshing experience, so even though all of my answers were pretty much “YES DARK STUFF TEEHEEHEE”, I’m not opposed to other stuff. I guess the most ultimate important thing that could make me love any type of media (as long as I have time to dive into it) would be the unapologetic self-indulgence that the author has for their work. Somehow it’s very easy to sense when you watch or read something. I really love experiencing media and just know that the author is having fun. I love passion projects where you can clearly see it is one for the author.

But this sounds a bit cheesy, I know lol

[friendlyfatbee]

6th Hottest Ghosts: DJ Phantasmagloria and Serpci

Serpci is a one trick pony and DJ Phantasmagloria can kick your butt, I will explain why in the following essay- /hj

Serpci:

Looks: I tried to judge her specifically for beauty standards during the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, at least thats what her attire suggests. Serpci scores perfectly in this catagory with her body type, hairstyle, longer dress, pectoral (type of necklace here, including the usage of gold and faience, which is a common blue-green material), and her makeup. (Source: Fashion and Beauty in Ancient Egypt by The Not So Innocents Abroad, warning: discussion of female anatomy and nude Egyptian statues.) Serpci also furfilled a lot of catagories in regards to wealthy women during this time period, such as fitted lightweight linen or bead dresses (Source: Ancient Egyptian Clothes by Archeology Now, warning: Nudity in Egyptian art used.) Long story short, this woman is rich and attractive.

Personality: Serpci has a pretty good personality! She exudes power and grace with her movements and body language, a witty leader, and even accepts her defeat with dignity (when she is vacuumed up by Luigi and she lays herself to rest.) A detail I’ve noticed is when Luigi manages to survive all her attacks (giant sand head, small sand vipers that shoot projectiles) she’ll… scream in anger. She isn’t infinitely patient, and tbh I understand completely losing it if your almost flawless attack managed to fail. This girl likes to toy with Luigi, ex. Doing a bunch of showy movements and distracting Luigi before sealing him to the bottom of her pyramid, and choosing to give him chills instead of straight up capturing or killing him when she sneaks up on him. While I wish there was more of some sort of character dynamic like having more apparent flaws, perhaps being furious and immature when things don’t go her way? Because most of the time on screen she does things successfully except for defeating Luigi when he does escape the pyramid. I recommend rewatching her fight and seeing her animation for when Luigi dodges her sand serpents that shoot projectiles! Otherwise she doesn’t exhibit toxic traits and seems interesting enough, but thats about it.

Survival Rate: Surprisingly a medium score. So here’s the think about the whole ‘one trick pony’ thing: she can only control sand. All her strong attacks are sand related, but once that’s taken away from her with a vacuum she is vulnerable and lacks any form of threat. Her floor is full of sand, hence she’s super powerful there (unless, like established, it is taken away like vacuuming.) Throw her into another environment, and she’s a fish out of water.

Niceness Rate: Kind of lower, since she seems to enjoy teasing Luigi and then sending him to his demise.

DJ Phantasmagloria:

Looks: Her beauty standards were based within the 1970s (time of both disco and the origin term of Deejay.) She holds up with a wonderful score, such out having a warm bronze appearance, youthful look, thin eyebrows, cranberry lip stick, and of course the iconic Afro which became incredibly popular in black communities. (Source: Beauty Standards Throughout the Decades: The 1970s by Simone Sydel) (If you want to see more evidence of the Afro being popularized along with confident black women, take a look at the article Rare Photos of ‘70s Black Beauty Pageants Celebrate Women Defying Beauty Standards by Kristina Rodulfo. Warning, photos of women in bikinis.) However a point was deducted for the outfit itself just… not really being interesting? Its almost depressing in appearance compared to what outfits were present during the 1970s (ex. Tie-dye, maxi dresses, wide lapel blazer, and more.)

Personality: Fun fact, I ended up having to rewatch her fight because the first time I was too entranced with watching her and enjoying her that I completely forgot to write notes. She’s just there to have a good time! She’s having the time of her unlife!- she doesn’t even tease Luigi that much an enjoy it, she’s just in a good mood. She’s grooving, and she only looks a bit irritated and distressed once Luigi starts vacuuming one of the dancer goobs. She loses her patience however once Luigi messes up the entire dance routine (I enjoy the touch of the record stop sound effect) and immediately gets on the dance floor, acting like everything’s still good only to give Luigi a threatening look. She still has her spirits up throughout the fight, dancing all the while Luigi is dodging her attacks. She even dances in her defeat animation while Luigi vacuums her up, safe to say at this point she heavily values music and performances. Though, like Serpci there is a lack of flaws (though it can be argued that maybe Gloria tries to minimize problems and make them seem not serious for the sake of keeping the atmosphere lighthearted.)

Survival Rate: Somewhat low because her vinyls are on fire, she can summon these vinyls anytime, and uh… getting sliced/lit on fire at the same time does not sound pleasant.

Niceness Rate: Middle of the road, its hard to tell because of no negative or positive actions toward other goobs or toward Luigi.

Overall, I love these two and have no major complaints! And now I shall rewatch DJ Phantasmagloria’s boss fight because I love her. And again. And again and again and again—

[tokkiheart]

The Beauty Inside (2015) Review & General Thoughts

That’s right, I’m reviewing a K-Movie and not a K-Drama.

As a disclaimer, I haven’t seen the original American web-series from 2012 nor the K-Drama that resulted from this movie, so I’m reviewing this movie as it’s own entity and not on how good of a remake/adaptation it is.

As always, this is going to be spoiler free!

Genre(s)

Romance • Fantasy • Melodrama • Drama

Ratings

Rated PG on Viki, rated as 13+ on MDL, rated PG-14 on tubi and YouTube

Where To Watch/How To Watch

Viki • iQIYI • Prime Video • tubi • YouTube • Kocowa+ • Prime Video • Freevee • Rent for $3.99 or Buy for $6.99 on Apple TV • Pluto TV

(You can watch it FOR FREE on Tubi, Youtube, Freevee and Pluto TV with ads, as well as, of course, your favorite illegal streaming site of choice)

Note: I live in the United States, so the only platforms that I have access to and know for sure currently have this movie available in the region are the ones listed, but it’s possible other regions have apps that have this.

Synopsis

This movie is about Woo Jin, a man who designs furniture for a living. An unusual man, Woo Jin wakes up every morning with a new body, which can be any age, gender, race or nationality.

Accustomed to his supernatural “illness,” he lives a relatively solitary existence aside from his childhood best friend who he works with and occasionally visiting his mother.

When he meets Yi Soo one day at a furniture store, he instantly falls in love with her. After visiting her as different people for several days, he eventually musters up the courage to ask her out. Staying up for three days in a row in order to stay in the same body, he dates her and she ends up falling in love with him.

Review

This movie is really good! If you’ve been sitting on this movie wondering if you should watch it, I’m going to have to tell you that it’s very much worth watching (and doing so again and again!)

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, so much so that I wound up rewatching it immediately after finishing the first watch of it!

All of the actors who played Kim Woo Jin did a truly great job of creating a consistent character for him, which really must have been challenging considering all the actors who play him only do so for such an incredibly brief window of time. The only one who lasts more than a day is Park Seo Joon.

Han Hyo Joo was AMAZING, she absolutely nailed her role and it’s so easy to see why Woo Jin fell in love with her character. I feel like this movie really allowed her to show off her various talents as an actor because she had great chemistry with each of the different Woo Jin, she spoke in three different languages (Korean, Japanese, and English) that she is proficient in, and did a fantastic job of making her character come to life and be someone the audience can sympathize with and fall in love with too.

The OST is really good (in my opinion) and nothing really felt too out of place or anything.

I love the message(s) of this movie, which boil down to “love is love” and loving someone for who they are on the inside and not based on their outward appearances. It’s nothing particularly novel, but it was certainly tackled in novel way!

General Thoughts

This movie went to theaters in my country on my birthday eight years ago and I really wish I had been into K-Dramas and stuff back then because I soo would have watched this and would have thoroughly enjoyed it. It might even have been one of those things that made me realize that I’m bi lol

Anyway, this movie had a lot of cute, sweet moments and I always love a couple who bond over a shared love of something (furniture, in this case). There were so many scenes that made my bi heart flutter!

For being technically a heterosexual movie, this is incredibly bisexual/pansexual and I’m quite sure it was fully intentional to be LGBTQIA+ because the font coloring for the movie is rainbow:

Which, I loved by the way. Love a good rainbow gradient colored font. But also they didn’t at all shy away from having some GL scenes in there! Han Hyo Joo really had such amazing chemistry with all of the actors in the role of Woo Jin, which helped make it that much more believable that they were all the same character.

As for the OST, I definitely came away from this movie wanting to hear “True Romance” by Citizens! over and over again:

Advice(?)

Definitely make sure to grab some tissues, there’s some scenes in this movie that will definitely make you cry!

Additionally, once the credits roll, don’t go away! This movie actually has a mid-credits scene, no spoilers, but it’s a nice little wrap up and worth sitting through the credits a little longer for!

[roseposts-stuff]

once i rated doctor who series 11 episodes and said what i thought and i said i might do that with other series as well and as im currently on series 4 on my rewatch, i think it's time for series 1 ranking. btw im a very positive person and im NOT a storyteller (tho i want to be) and my rating is like 90% based on Vibes and all this leads to me going 'I LOVE THIS!!' like 98% of the time lol jajfjk

but! lets begin my ranking of series 1 👍

1. the empty child/the doctor dances (1x9-10): im sure everyone knows why this is my favourite story. i LOVE it, we get jack harkness, we get doctor who horror, it's such a good story and im sure we all know that so i won't elaborate further

2. dalek (1x6) this episode is so good, i LOVE the scene with 9 and the dalek y'all know what i'm talking about, christopher eccleston slayed i love that scene so much, i adore rose too, this episode has some of my favourite rose moments, the way she was so kind and compassionate in the best way, i LOVED it, could talk so long about how great rose was in this does someone want to talk about that?? anyway my introduction to daleks and it works very well

3. the end of the world (1x2) i really like this story too, i love jabe and i was so sad when she died :( and cassandra is iconic ofc, i liked how rose talked with the plumber, i really like that moment guys. i loved the atmosphere and everything, just a really good episode imo

4. bad wolf/the parting of the ways (1x12-13) this is such a good finale, i loved nine's regeneration scene so much it's perfect, i like that we visit the same place we did in 1x7, and the side characters are good, the plot is good, what more can you ask for, really? i loved the scene on earth with rose and mickey and jackie when rose tries to explain why travelling with the doctor is so great, i loved billie piper's acting in that scene

5. boom town (1x11) i LOVED the scene with nine and margaret the slitheen dining, and i'm so happy mickey finally told rose that how she's treating him is unfair bcs it totally was!! i really like mickey and the way rose treated him made me so angry, like girl break up with him if you don't like him?? so yeah, im glad mickey got to say what he has to say. also the scene where jack, nine, rose and mickey are having chips is short but great and i'd 100% watch 45 minutes of them just having chips and talking i loved the domesticity so much

6. rose (1x1) i like the introduction to rose, the opening montage is great imo, i like the set design too, it feels very real, idk a really good way to introduce us to both rose and the doctor

7. the long game (1x7) i liked the side characters in this (except adam, he was annoying and also stupid af like girl no?? are you actually so stupid??) anyway, i liked the story and the characters except for adam 👍

8. aliens of london/world war three (1x4-5) i like this story, but it's not the best you know. i love harriet jones she's great and i enjoyed having mickey and jackie there and tbh on my first watch this is what got me going like "i think i'm gonna like this", not sure why, but i do like the plot. it definitely had some great moments and i like this story!!

9. father's day (1x8) ahhh i'm not the biggest fan of this episode tbh, i definitely liked it more on a rewatch but i'm still not the biggest fan. it's good, don't get me wrong, i enjoyed rose and her dad and it was a beautiful episode, but something didn't click idk. i think it might just be that i didn't like how rose saved her dad, i understand her, i would do the same, but somehow it still annoyed me a bit?

10. the unquiet dead (1x3) im not a fan of this episode personally. idk it had some fun moments but i'm just not a fan, sorry unquiet dead fans. to me personally it's just a bit boring and i didn't really get into the story, not even sure why. maybe it's the fact that i haven't read any dickens and having him there just doesn't work for me because of that? i dont know

yeah, there we are! idk if you want to, feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree :D

[onceuponastorybrookhq]

CONGRATULATIONS, Mochi! You have been accepted into the group as Jefferson Hatter / Mad Hatter. Please make sure to follow our checklist, and let us know if you have any questions!

OOC Information

Your Name/Alias: Mochi

Your Age: 35+

Timezone: PST

Rate Your Activity: 6 (have 2 jobs but flexible)

RPing experience: 10+ on Tumblr, 7+ for OUAT muses

  IC Information

Desired Character: Jefferson Hatter

Second Character: tbd

  Writing Sample: 

  How did you get your magical hat? (headcanon based)

My great-grandfather used to be an honored Royal Hatter in Wonderland after saving the Queen’s life and obtained the magical hat portal as a reward. Unfortunately, he was caught misusing it. Typical Hatters, am I right? Anyway, his title was stripped and was banished to the Enchanted Forest. He was never allowed back to Wonderland. He passed down the hat to my grandfather, then to my father, and then of course, to me. We were a family of, let’s just say… traders. I learned everything I knew from my father. Now if only I can find it and get it to work again, that would be great.

  How did you know things started to change in Storybrooke? (headcanon based)

For one thing, I was able to get out of this house. I was never able to get past the damned driveway for twenty-eight years.

  Who are the most important people in your life?

Grace is the only important person in my life. She’s my life. I don’t care what happens to me as long as she’s safe and happy but I would do anything to see her again and can’t wait for this curse to break. I wouldn’t know what I would say to her if she remembers me again. Of course, I’m not counting on this curse to break soon. The so-called Savior doesn’t even realize what this place is. I need to find my hat again or get a new one to work somehow. I have to get it to work!

  Do you believe in true love?

I do but not in the way everyone thinks. True love comes in many forms. I consider Grace a true love of mine. I highly doubt the true love that exists in the typical romantic sense works for everyone. It’s just not for me.

  Additional Information

  What drew you to this group? What makes you want to join an ask based RPG?:

I used to be in a few OUAT Ask RPGs a few years ago but sadly they all deactivated. I was writing a fic back then and life happened so I put it off but I went back to watching the series and got inspired to start roleplaying again especially for my Hatter and Alice in Wonderland OCs that I RP once in a while on Twitter. I like Tumblr and the Ask RPs much better as I’m rewatching the series so I thought it would be fun to get back into it. 

  Anything else?: 

  I was the one that asked about introducing OCs to the RP but I’ll get a feel for my canon characters first before I run them by you! Thank you for putting this together! If I get accepted I look forward to writing and interacting with other writers again!

[declanowo]

31 Days of Horror - Day 10 - Slenderman

10/10/23

Day 10 - Slenderman

When I was a child, I was obsessed with creepy pastas. I would sit and watch YouTube videos on them all the time, alongside reading them in my spare time. A weekly ritual for me became sitting and reading a creepypasta on the chairs they have at supermarkets while my parents paid for the shopping. 

Of all the creepypastas I read as a child, I don’t recall ever reading the base story for Slenderman. More so, that has developed more recently, but, Slenderman does still have a large place in my heart. I remember my friends telling me about him at school, sitting terrified for the rest of the day after looking at a few pictures and assuming I would see him on my short walk home. Several nightmares followed, until a love for the character eventually blossomed. Many things influenced me, but two of my biggest memories were playing the game on my Xbox 360 late at night, and watching Marble Hornets, which is maybe one of my favourite series ever. Marble Hornets also has my favourite depiction of the character, there he is referred to as The Operator. I also find all of the information surrounding the creation of Slenderman, and the way the story developed to be deeply interesting, and would recommend anyone who has any interest looking into it. 

Today’s film is the first rewatch of the list, and one of very few. It is also the first day I am watching two films, the second one was spun on the wheel, but when I had the opportunity to watch Slenderman again while at my friends house, I couldn’t push it away. 

Being the second lowest rated horror movie on letterboxd, I was super excited to see this one again - I think I must have watched it when it first came out on dvd, although weirdly I remember it being earlier than that! I sat down and saw it with my brother the first time he was allowed to look after me alone, and I thought it sucked so much, especially after the love I already had for the character. Although, I definitely enjoyed the experience of watching the film, which was also true for this rewatch - it’s a fun film to watch with friends and laugh at.

I have three main problems with this film, although there are plenty more to pick out! Starting with how dreadful this is lighted. Honestly, I think that might be the biggest problem I have with it! I hate horror films that are so dark you can’t actually see what is happening, that isn’t scary, in fact, I find it has the opposite effect! I can’t feel any tension in a scene where I can’t see what anyone is doing - chase sequences and sporadic moments of violence, such as when Hallie is attacked by Katie’s dad have no weight to them, because I can’t see what the characters are doing. One of my favourite shows, Hannibal, has a similar issue, yet there I can at least excuse it, because when I finally can see what I’m meant to be looking at, I am happy - the sets are gorgeous and the kills are even better - yet here even when I can see, there is nothing exciting happening. The film’s interesting visuals are really lacking, sure there are a few noteworthy scenes I’ll discuss later, but ultimately I find the sets to be bland, the world doesn’t feel lived in! I will compare this to The Ring and Ringu again later, but I was thinking here about how much I loved the sets when I watched it, that world felt so real to me, and the characters were improved because of it. Here I felt offered nothing of value when I could see, and it makes our villain a whole lot less scarier when he appears to us as nothing more than a floating head in a pool of darkness. 

That feeds into my next problem! Slenderman himself. The movie kind of just assumes you know who and what Slenderman is, the first scene where he is mentioned shows us some backstory, and mythology towards the character, but not only is none of it interesting, it also feels like it doesn’t matter. But back to the character himself. Slenderman is somehow entirely uninteresting here, we spend the whole film waiting for him to appear, and yet most of these appearances are lacklustre without any real horror to them. Take the first time we see him in person, where Katie stops while walking on the school trip to look across at him. Despite the cliche stormy effects warping the cinematography and sound, all we see is him appear, then both of them disappear. I’m not afraid of him, because his presence doesn’t signify anything - all he does is stand amongst the trees, and by now I have seen the creature so much online, that just showing me his face isn’t scary or unsettling. In order to make the character mean something, he has to act in a scary way, which we never really get throughout the film. In fact, I would argue that Slanderman is one of the least interesting characters of the whole film, I don’t fear him, nor do I enjoy him in the way I do so many other horror villains. He exists within the film, but any suspense is lost by how little he truly does. In fact, it isn’t until the third act that we see any of Slenderman’s effects - before this we see one friend isolate herself and begin acting strangely, and another disappears, but otherwise, Slenderman is just a looming presence. We only see his powers shine through during the final confrontation, by which point I couldn’t be reeled back into liking the depiction of the character no matter what. 

Undoubtedly, the film's biggest influence is The Ring. I don’t think this is an awful thing, in fact, I probably enjoyed the Sadako style video we see that helps summon the titular creature. It is stylistically interesting, and I found the sound design here to be fun too! The bell especially is a lovely detail, it sticks with you throughout, and its chime is one of the best horror moments in the film I would argue. Although I am not entirely opposed to the concept of Slenderman being involved in internet dealings, a cursed video feels almost apt for the era of the internet he was born into. Making Slenderman a creature born from chainmail could be fun, yet the film never does anything interesting with that idea, instead, it is just a simple way to introduce the character and some creepy imagery through the video itself. It copies elements of the ring, without understanding what made that film so special and so scary. And sure, I don’t think everything should be explained to death, but the lack of direction in the lore makes the film feel like it has no idea what it is doing - the corners of the film have no love sewn into them, it feels like it was made solely for the name and money. 

Yet, I had a pretty fun time watching this film! I didn’t like the film itself, but also, I didn’t hate it! It’s dumb and lacks much personality, style or love, but it is just dumb enough to be a fun watch in a group! I also think some things are pretty good in this film! For one, the acting was much much better than I was expecting, and I did enjoy Joey King’s character Wren! Sure, she wasn’t perfect, things like the sacrifice is interesting, but goes nowhere, but I was having a much better time when she took over the mantle for a while, having one of the more interesting sequences in a library, which was the only time I was excited about a set in the film, even if it felt weirdly academic of a library for the vibe I got off this town. As mentioned before, the video was enjoyable if not a bit out of place in the scheme of the movie, and finally I found the credits to be delightful!

Overall, this is nowhere near my favourite depiction of Slenderman, it’s likely at the bottom. But there is some stuff here I felt had some potential, and a few times I actually had fun too :) 

While watching the film, I found my mind drifting to what I would do if given the chance to make my own Slenderman film. I have a few things I dream of one day writing, the top being a Scooby-Doo movie or show, but another goal is a creepypasta! That felt pointless to mention, but oh well! Anyway, my thoughts on how I would have written this film; I was stumped, I felt like maybe there was no way to make a good film out of Slenderman. Marble Hornets worked so well because of how long it was and the short bursts at which it was uploaded! The games work well because of the atmosphere they build, and slowly feeding you information on the character of Slenderman! So, what would a good Slenderman movie do? I feel like something similar, build a good atmosphere, maybe a teen setting would have worked better if they focused on the whole obsession aspect of the characters. 

Regardless, I think the existence of this film is pretty fun, and would definitely watch any other creepypasta movie that could ever get released! 

At the end of the day, this shitty movie has provided two really fun times for me, so how bad can it really be if it provides a few hours of laughter and fond memories when I think of it. When picturing this movie, I imagine the fun times I had watching it, and how stupid the ending is where Slenderman video calls someone. 

3/10

[a300lbman]

Six Decibels of Separation: The Big Lebowski Soundtrack

I can toe-tally understand the cult mentality of The Big Lebowski, a movie that can be both adored and completely overlooked by so many people. “You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me. There are ways, dude. You don’t want to know about it.  Believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon.... with nail polish.”

Forget about the fucking toe. This movie is one of my favorites and I am slowly realizing that I have probably already written a fanboy piece about this movie. This is probably due to the fact that I drink when I watch this movie and I write when I drink. This is like a G-rated Burroughs scenario and I am down for a time. 

For the sake of argument, I would like to focus on the music in the movie. It is in this comfy space that I think we might all find some common ground. 

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Lets start out with some Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lookin Out My Back Door, a classic song, but if you only have a minute and you want something to laugh at, the video above will check those boxes. 

Being a huge fan of Santana, I always enjoy the musical backdrop to the punch line of an amazing joke in the movie. If you haven’t seen it, the smashed out windshield and Jeff Bridges visual frustration aren’t nearly as comical, but this loop of the guys riding to Oye Como Va cracks me up every time!

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Nobody fucks with tha jesus. You know this or you don’t, but if you’ve seen The Big Lebowski, you know that given his pedo backstory, tha jesus might not be someone you want to fuck with. In either case, I’d like the share an anecdote from my youth. To properly date myself, I had asked a friend to burn a CD for me and I asked that he put Hotel California on there for me. I ended up getting the cut by the Gypsy Kings and while I might have been pissed at first, I have come to love this version more than any other... 

https://youtu.be/61NJnUL7Fcs

Arguably the intro song would have been the poetic beginning, or even end, to this foray into Musical Lebowskianism, but do you see what happens? Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass? The Man in Me is not an appropriate answer to this question, but it does make sweet ear candy for the lazy malaise of the film. Bob Dylan was a chameleon and this song is but one example.  

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It is important to respect the classics. While I won’t pretend to have known the song made famous by the Sons of the Pioneers, Tumbling Tumbleweeds has a soothing nature about it and I’m here for it. Add to it Sam Elliot’s baritone twang and you’ve got the setup for an epic movie indeed.  

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Impossible it would be to talk about classics and not mention Requiem in D Minor, a song you’ve heard a thousand times and might not know the name. After you rewatch this movie, or based on this musical journey decide to watch for the first time, do yourself a favor and grab a book off the shelf, loop this song and shock yourself at how much better you read with this music in the background. Say what you want, but you’ll feel like a genius. For those looking only for a tune and a laugh, click to watch the scene below and enjoy The Dude’s ability to say ‘fuck it’ better than anyone (sorry I can’t post the video directly, evidently you can only post five video’s per post... probably should have learned that by now). 

The Big Lebowski (clip 10) "What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?"

Well I hope you enjoyed your journey through the musical folly and forte of the soundtrack to the cult classic Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski. I would highly recommend it, whether it stands the test of time or not, but at the very least I hope you come to appreciate the soundtrack.

“Look, I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin Eagles, Man.” 

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Do you think the show will be renewed for S3? What about that SOC spin off? And they have to bring Ben back no? First, it’s canon. Second, the numbers says it all: he is their biggest pull.

I honestly don't know, I am really hoping so. It is still in the top ten in my country though it has dropped down to number 5 the last time I looked, after some new shows were released. It also debuted at number 1 which I don't believe season 1 did I think its debut landed it at number 2 but when it came out. There also does seem to be quite a bit of buzz around the show and a spin off on twitter. I have seen some negative tweets from I think they are tv critics, saying that they don't think the show will be renewed based on the number of hours viewed on netflix. But I don't know where they got this info from and they did admit that the website might not be accurate so.

The things going for it are that it is still in the top ten in its third week, if it can cling to being in that top ten past its fourth week that's even better. Basically the longer it stays in the top 10 the better. It also has good critic and audience ratings on websites like rotten tomato and IMDB etc. People are also talking about it alot on twitter and making it clear they want to see more.

The negative is these hours viewed numbers which apparently aren't as good as they could be. I really don't know much about these hours watched or how important they are, supposedly in week one it was 50.4m hours, then week two was 55m before it dropped to 27m in week 3, its this drop that seems to be concerning people. But to be honest, and like I said not an expert or anything, but I would have thought that drop normal for week 3, I mean by this point I would think most people have already watched the show and these views may be rewatches/ the stragglers. But then as I said we don't even know how accurate these numbers are. I have heard that Netflix takes completion rates heavily into consideration when deciding to renew the show, so make sure you watch all the way to the end and then repeat lol.

I really do think its a 50/50 chance, if you do want a renewal then I'll say make sure you keep streaming it and make sure you watch the whole season for those completion rates, also be loud on twitter as that seems to be what Netflix cares about.

As for Ben coming back I do think it would be foolish of them not to bring him back as he is very popular and according to some surveys the most popular reason why people watch the show.

[danielfuckingricciardo]

Can’t sleep and I don’t have the facilities with me to write properly so here’s a bunch of F1 headcanons/scenarios based on my own niche interests for your enjoyment!

Daniel

- Daniel loves movies. I mean he fucking loves movies.

- Whenever he isn’t away for a race weekend, the two of you always have a movie night on a Friday.

- You usually start by ordering takeout, usually going between a bunch of local restaurants on a rotating basis unless you both particularly desire a certain cuisine.

- While eating, you’ll watch movie one. Usually something chill that you’ve seen before, specifically one of your favourite movies; something you can pretty much quote from memory so you don’t miss anything while distracted by food.

- After dinner, you’ll have dessert. Something like ice cream or cookies or brownies. Anything decadent and delicious.

- Once dessert has been consumed, you watch a second movie together. Something you’ve never seen before, maybe a new release or something that’s been on your ‘to watch’ list for a while.

- After watching, you both review the film on Letterboxd and compare ratings, having a good discussion about it before you retire to bed. Daniel tends to review films in a more comedic, goofy style unless it’s something that really resonates with him. In which case, he’ll write a whole rambling essay with lots of block capitals and general yelling about how good the movie was.

Max

- It’s no secret that you and Max love quizzes. The abundance of general knowledge between the two of you makes you an unbeatable team in any quiz you may take part in.

- You both enjoy trying to catch one another out with increasingly difficult and niche questions throughout the day, either face to face when you wake up in the morning together, or via text when Max is away and you can’t be there with him.

- With you both being extremely competitive, you often have challenges between the two of you to learn something new, usually focusing on geography or science based categories to see who can learn something the fastest.

- When trying to remember the names of all 50 US states and capitals, Max had become incredibly frustrated at not being able to list all the states while you had done so with ease. You teased him all evening, knowing you had the answer written in your notebook while he stewed for hours, determined to complete the challenge without giving in. Eventually, he yielded, and much to his shame, realised he had missed Texas. You never let him forget it, and it pisses him off endlessly when you tease him about it.

Seb

- You and Seb both love music. You’ll listen to anything if the vibes are good, and are always open to different genres and styles.

- Since your very first meeting, you have both introduced one another to so many niche and interesting artists the other had never even heard of before.

- When you both moved in together, one of the first things you purchased was a multi-room sound system so you could listen to music wherever you went in the house.

- You also have a vast collection of physical music, stored in a room big enough to be confused with a Music Store. There you keep all your vinyls, cassette tapes and CDs neatly shelved in alphabetical order. It is your pride and joy, and you both take great pride in your collection.

- Whenever you find something new to listen to, you always make sure to wait to do it together. You like to curl up on the sofa together and listen to the whole album from start to finish as Seb gently strokes your hair. Afterwards, you can talk for hours about the tracks, which ones you liked, which ones you didn’t and so on.

Mick

- After being friends with Mick for a while, he finally revealed to you his biggest secret; he is a massive Doctor Who fan. Upon this revelation, you too revealed your obsession with the show.

- From discovering your shared interest, the two of you began the intensive ritual of rewatching every single episode in order, starting from 2005 to the present day, followed by any particular classic episodes you enjoyed, and finishing with a marathon of the many spin offs.

- You were able to talk endlessly about the show, ranking your favourite episodes and series, characters and species. As well as arguing about who the best Doctor was, of course, which is a source of contention between the two of you.

- When one of you is feeling down, you know exactly how to cheer the other up; by playing their comfort episode and providing many snacks. You both know the episodes pretty much off-by-heart and so mostly spend the time together talking about the episode and what your favourite parts are. By the end, you feel so much better, but even so, you can’t help but keep watching until you accidentally finish a series once again.

Charles

- Loves books. But like you is more of a book collector than a book reader.

- His ‘to read’ list continues to get longer, but due to his busy schedule, his ‘read’ list does not expand half as quickly. You also have the same problem, as you struggle to find the time to fully enjoy a book.

- Whenever the two of you are free to spend time together, you like to get away somewhere, with no pressure or input from others, and just sink into your books.

- The quiet company of one another as you both read, cuddled up together on a sofa or a sun lounger, is the most peaceful feeling. If you could, you’d spend eternity this way.

- You have what you like to call your own little book club, where you’ll take turns reading each other a chapter of a book and then discuss it together at the end. You love being able to just listen to his voice, and he is just as absorbed in your every word.

[tvzoonix]

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