#anyway i realize i just wrote the whole episode my bad lol

[connabeth]

that was the best episode by FAR and here’s why:

1. annabeth instinctually knowing he’s alive and refusing to lose her faith in him even when grover didn’t believe so.

2. the hug. the overwhelming relief on her face. his pleasantly surprised reaction. us being able to see everything visually click in grover’s head once he realized what he’s in for. percy teasing her about it when they’re hiding on the highway bc he assumes that’s why she’s being standoffish. grover heaving and rolling his eyes when percy suggests that. i can already envision the MoA parallels in my head of them running to each other.

3. percy and annabeth referring to each other as friends on multiple occasions like FINALLY you’re getting it

4. percy telling annabeth and grover about his revelation that the quest goes deeper than they think and annabeth and grover being light years ahead of him

5. percy’s renewed faith in his father contrasted with annabeth’s dwindling faith in her mother

6. annabeth seeing the fates cut a string and mentally preparing herself to sacrifice herself for her friends and the quest bc she’s so ride or die for them it’s insane even if she’ll deny it and say it’s for the sake of the quest.

7. none of them talking to gods with the deference they’re supposed to. annabeth cooly staring down ares like she couldn’t be blasted to smithereens.

8. annabeth casually mentioning she’s never seen a movie ever to an appalled percy, speaking to how sheltered camp life has been for the last 5 years, making her unaware of general pop culture. percy promising to catch her up on what she’s missing out on. cut to their interrupted botl movie date that’s most definitely not a date. cut to MoA when she mentions roman holiday is her favorite movie bc she watched it a lot with her dad after they somewhat reconciled…also due in part to percy.

9. annabeth getting distracted by the beauty of the machine at the entrance while percy thinks he is actively going to die. her love for design will never not be endearing.

9. percy and annabeth riding down the tunnel of love seeing hephaestus’s story play out and annabeth insisting that sally prepared him the best way she could’ve—with unwavering loyalty to his loved ones, the antithesis to the gods.

10. annabeth being so ready to sacrifice herself for him, especially after probably being ridden with guilt and self-hatred for letting him get the best of her at the gateway arch, and understanding he would never let her do that. his pure faith in her as being the most capable—“You’re better at this than me. You just are.” with the utmost conviction in his voice. both of them tearing up and percy begging her to do what he originally chose her on the quest for. annabeth fighting back every instinct within her that despises standing back and letting someone else take the fall. him turning to her and saying “i need you to promise me something” and her immediately swearing if she’s able to save anyone on this quest, it’ll be his mother, knowing that’s the most important thing to him in all of this. him asking she come back for him and her scoffing “you think you had to ask?” and his sad watery smile back, knowing he didn’t need to….ALSO the ever-iconic “seaweed brain”. PEAK cinema i’m telling you

11. percy trusting annabeth with riptide as his parting gift and thing to give her strength and remember him by. paralleled with how she’ll (hopefully) untie her camp necklace and tie it around his neck before his final fight with ares as a token of good luck and entrusting him with the home she wore around her throat…

12. the well-written conversations with the gods, though unexpected. grover being FAR more clever than he’s given credit for, manipulating ares’s tendency towards anger, bitterness, and pride to get what he wanted out of him. annabeth rejecting hephaestus’s promises of power and glory and the renewal of her mother’s favoritism and pride, something annabeth used to crave with her entire heart. annabeth echoing to hephaestus what she said to percy in the tunnel about him not being like the rest of their godly family and telling the god that she refuses to be like them too. that the way they treat each other and their children isn’t right, the same way percy insisted to her last episode. hephaestus being one of the only gods capable of empathizing with her and telling her “you’re a good kid, annabeth. i’ll put in a good word with your mom for you.” no one speak to me i’m unwell

13. timothy omundson in general…although i keep hearing him as lassie in my head 😭

14. ares negging on them and warning percy his dad’s mind is as fickle as the sea itself and percy won’t be able to hold down his father’s favor and percy responding by threatening the literal god of war in the most percy-like fashion

15. ares didn’t call twitter X. but now we know who’s behind the mentally ill stan wars

things they really didn’t need to change:

1. the one thing i am really miffed about it is them robbing thief annabeth from my cold, dead hands. i wanted to see her raid a store without a second thought and be a little gremlin!!! she has hermes’s influence all over her (thanks luke/being a runaway), let us see it!!!

2. percy and annabeth being slightly awkward at the entrance of the thrill ride of love didn’t carry the same humor as the book scene because they’re such children about it in tlt and annabeth is extremely flustered but we don’t see that here.

3. aphrodite’s scarf. it was a fun detail they could’ve kept. seeing percy making heart eyes would’ve been funny (and maybe a glimpse into future seasons)

4. percy seeing a clip of gabe being gabe and saying “im going to kill him” is merely a NUGGET of the hatred we should be seeing from percy for that man. especially in area’s presence which feeds off of and amplifies everybody’s anger and hatred and bloodlust. there still needs to be more build up to turning gabe to stone at the end of all this

5. percy blacking out from using his powers to get him and annabeth out of the water. while he’s nowhere close to being a master at his craft at this point in the books, and he is known to lose control, even as a more seasoned warrior, i don’t think what he did warranted a blackout. i feel like they’re underselling his innate strength a little bit.

6. overall, although it kind of worked out, there was just a lot of plot deviation from the books—grover not going to waterland, no mechanical spiders, percy and annabeth not jumping out the ride into free fall and being saved by grover wearing maia, although they crash into a billboard etc etc.

[nerdyfan1]

Btw I’ll always argue Pentious is not just a gag character and his arc is probably the best one in season one. In fact not only do I like him more in the actual show then how he is in the pilot but, I think the show makes him in the pilot make more sense.

Idk I noticed some ppl were expecting him to be way more serious. Which doesn’t really fit season 1 at all. Here now we got a more interesting character with a good set up for depth later on along with something that both makes sense with what was established in the pilot (cus yes I actually do think deep down Pentious was always a bit soft and his behavior in the pilot along with towards the beginning before he got used to everyone in the hotel is him reacting to his environment) and fits the general tone. I noticed that a lot of ppl really wanted to seem more depressed or serious while having his softer more goofy side underplayed (or be just be completely dickish which sounds super uninteresting lol) without really trying to understand why he was written this way in the official show to begin with. They clearly wrote him this way to show his progress in the hotel. He doesn’t start sad wet uwu babygirl, go back it’s more of a result of him soften around ppl like Charlie and the rest of the cast. That’s kind of the point. Like idk I wouldn’t have this man be any other way. 💖

Hearing about the interviews and stuff including how they do plan to explore his backstory kind of tells me what I was expecting. Idk we can’t expect all the characters to be dark and serious in the first season we need to have some endearment first. Following this show as episodes reminded me why I usually hate following currently airing stuff cus ppl always assume stuff way too soon. I understand some ppl can have skepticism but, I do think ppl should at least try to trust the writers know what they are doing. The creator been working on this concept for god knows how long.

Besides I’ll always in favorite of a more openly emotionally softer male character in animation that the rest of the cast doesn’t mock specifically for seeming so “sensitive”. Especially in adult animation. I love how the cast realized this is just how Pentious is and don’t mind it. It helps emphasize the arc that Pentious just really needed someone who accepted him for who he was deep down. He able to open up and feel comfortable as himself. Idk I like that it’s a way more interesting direction to take.

Sorry btw for how ranty this is I’m a picky guy and as you can probably tell I’m pretty passionate about this specific character but, also the show as a whole. I try to keep in mind what the actual show is trying to accomplish when it comes to this and it’s so so sooo important to remember what the source material is like. Along with the creator. There are times when the creator insight ends up with a bad end result however I don’t see that here. At least in terms of season 1.

Idk if ppl really get this but, thought I’d throw it out there cus you guys seem to like when I ramble about this man so yeah while trying to figure out my Cherri Bomb theory post out um have unfiltered Pentious thoughts. Cus I never really went into detail why I like him in the actual show anyways. Cus my problems with uwuifed Pentious is more a community thing. Even at that it’s not as bad just sometimes annoying.

Guys I’m a Tobias Wilson fan, trust me I’ve seen far worse fandom butchering of a sad lil guy. Besides Pentious is definitely cute that issue more me being bothered ppl pretend the canon Pentious is exclusively a gag character who is soft and cute. Pentious is probably one of the most misinterpreted character along with Alastor.

[snowangeldotmp3]

dear lucas; from max

hehe i have more letters. anyway, this is from my kas!max wip, and these letters are supposed to be holding back a little bit like max was in the series, as these were supposed to be written around episode 4. this is my first Real time writing for max, so please be kind lol. again like with the dear barb letter (which you can read here) it will be in first person, and will be posted to ao3!

Lucas,

Hey, stalker.

You know what this means if you’re reading this.

I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I just didn’t know how. I’m sorry I kept pulling away.

And before you start, don’t blame yourself. This isn’t your fault, and you couldn’t have stopped this. Vecna is just an asshole, and I was a bad girlfriend. A bad friend, too. Friends don’t lie, or whatever, but I did. I said I was fine and I wasn’t. I’m sorry for being a bad friend.

I heard about the game, by the way. I listened to it on the radio. I can’t believe your Hawkins High’s star player now.

I should’ve been there.

This is about to get really sappy and gross, and if you tell anyone I swear to god I will haunt your ass, Sinclair.

I’m glad I came to Hawkins. Sure, every six months there’s a world ending threat and now one of them is directly attacking me, but, I’m still glad I met you guys. Hawkins was new and scary, not just because of the monsters.

You asked me, about two years ago, in the back of the Palace Arcade, “Do you accept the risk?” Do you remember that? Back then I thought that it was just a story, that you were just really, really into the nerd shit that you and your friends had created and just wanted me to play along. I hadn’t realized it was a serious thing until the junkyard. Until I saw the monsters for real. Then I understood.

I’m glad I accepted the risk. I’m glad I got to meet you and the rest of the Party and become part of your weird little friend group. I don’t regret it. Even if it seems like I should, especially right now, especially with what happened in the summer. But I don’t. I don’t think I would change anything about how we met. I would still accept the risk.

I do want to make him pay, though. The shit head behind all of this. He’s been doing this shit the whole time, the Mind Flayer, the Spider Monster, and now all of this. You have to swear to me, Lucas. You’ll make him pay. You and the Party and Steve, Nancy, and Robin. Shit, El too. She probably already knows that something is up even if she doesn’t have her powers. You all have to make him pay. Not just for me, either. Everybody who’s been affected by this. Will, Nancy’s friend, all of those people last summer, Chrissy, Fred, everyone.

This letter is the hardest one, besides the one I wrote for my mom, and I’m glad you’re all asleep right now so you can’t see me crying like a baby trying to write this. Don’t laugh at me. I’m really gonna miss you guys. Our movie nights, or sneaking into the movie theater and the drive in or walking downtown and just talking or planning our Halloween costumes together. (You have to go as the Green Lantern this year. Especially if I don’t make it out of this. I don’t give a shit what Mike plans.)

I’ll miss you most, Lucas. You are such a good person, you’re so kind. You were there for me and wanted to be there for me when I didn’t want to be around people at all. I know it’s cliché to say, but you’ve got a heart of gold, Lucas. You have never given up on me. And I know that if you’re reading this it means the worst has happened, but I’d like to think you didn’t give up on me then, either. That you were there until my final moments.

You are my guiding light. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you were there for me. I hope whenever you hear Kate Bush, you’ll think of me, Stalker.

From,

Love, your girlfriend,

Mad Max.

[crazykuroneko]

The Newsreader S2 Ep 2 (Spoiler)

Finally, after an underwhelming first episode (it's not bad, but I feel like it's there to set the scene), The Newsreader is back to being insane. I have to say this episode is on par with IWTV Ep 5; the writing is tight and insane af, all of the characters are going for each other's throat, the score the cinematography are top notch muah. Love LOVE a good television.

So, some thoughts under the cut.

Rob/Noelene: it's so interesting to have them as some kind of foil to Helen/Dale. So soft to each other. Noelene's concern on their relationship affects their career because she's an Asian woman and how a relationship becomes a whole family thing is so relatable. Dennis caring for her because the Asian solidarity is cute as well. And Rob is such a softie 🫂

Helen/Dale: I feel for them both. They're the reason why my office doesn't allow their workers to marry each other lol. It's complicated. You kinda see yourself as a team, but your boss don't. And both of them got a point imo. Dale is right with the footage, Helen is right with the gun law. I think if they prepared a good script for her to corner that gun nut, it could have gone awesomely, but alas. That whole newsroom is filled with alphas (except Dale, he's pretending he has an inch of alpha in him). Dale only listens to words about his own career when Gerry speaks is so funny though (I'm so sorry Gerry, but there are only two things inside his head: career and Helen). And how the moment he's assured that he has a good audience instinct he uses it immediately to recover Helen's image? That's cute. That's love. I'm so sorry to doubt you 🥺

Now, these snakes: Geoff, Evelyn, and Charlie. Geoff isn't that snakey without his wife. He is so unprofessional with his program though. Like, he literally uses it to preach? Doesn't he have a boss or something? I know it's an exclusive program, but still. And GOD Evelyn is out there gaslighting Cheryl in real time. I wrote on my note "Hannibal would be so proud of her". She is my Big Bad Guy from S1, actually. And Charlie, he is interesting. He pokes and prods until he finds the real fault on his cup (News at Six). I think he's underestimating Helen at first, and now he's "interested" in her because she doesn't follow his words yet somehow presents a better solution. (Good for Helen for standing her ground!) But he doesn't realize yet Helen/Dale move as one unit though. He's also so controlling. It will be interesting to see if he'll just fire Lindsey in the next episode or take advantage of the dislike the crews have for each other longer.

Anyway, a solid episode throughout. 10/10. I think I need to rewatch it tomorrow.

[waitmyturtles]

Friends. It’s been a HELL of a week, no? For those of us watching BOTH the Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy X ATOTS episodes AND Our Dining Table (AND STEP BY STEP RETURNS NEXT WEEK, FUCK). I mean. I had purposely NOT taken on new shows to hoard my mental health resources to handle Our Skyy 2/BBS/ATOTS, but I give up, I’m just a bowl of cocktails, melted ice cream, and mental tears. 

I held off on watching Our Dining Table, episode 9, until today to recover from episode 2, part 4/4, oh holy Jesus of Our Skyy 2/BBS/ATOTS this week, but I’ve caught up on ODT, so here we go. 

The dearest wonderfriend @lurkingshan wrote a fabulous piece about the family dynamics at hand in the meeting between Yutaka and his adoptive family. Everyone knows now that that wasn’t in the manga, and I want to take a few guesses as to why it was included in the screenplay. 

I haven’t plunged into the tags as much as Shan, but it seems like some folks may think that Yutaka misjudged his adoptive family as he grew up. I’m more interested in the why of that, and Shan certainly touches upon it as an effect of Yutaka losing his parents so young. We know Yutaka has a fear of abandonment. It’s how it gets expressed that’s affecting his whole life -- including, in the words of @wen-kexing-apologist, the LONG FUCKING PREGNANT PAUSES (lol).

Yutaka was so shattered by the initial behavior of his adoptive brother when he was first taken in -- after his parents died -- that he utterly retreated into himself, and COULD NOT SEE the subtle changes of Yuki Oniisan over the course of the rest of their childhoods, as Yuki tried to reach out. Yuki ended up thinking that that was the way Yutaka just was, when in fact, this was Yutaka’s protective shield.... a sheild that ended up being mostly who Yutaka ended up being as an adult anyway.

I absolutely LOVED seeing this motif being played out in a non-canon scene, LOVED IT. I LOVED how that scene was set up, with almost HOSPITAL-LIKE lighting, SURGICAL lighting, COLD and white (yuuki means snow, funnily enough EDITING TO CORRECT, thank you to @sliceduplife for correcting me because I was only hearing “yuuki” by sound, and the kanji of his name actually means courage + tree, so please ignore the snow comparison to the lighting!) -- while the flashback to Minoru and Tane was full of warm, yellow, sun-like light. 

This was an EXAMINATION of Yutaka’s mind and heart. After talking with his adoptive family, Yutaka realized his perspective and perception was off. He’s missing subtle details about his interactions with people. His shield is SO strong that he missed fully embodying HIS OWN FEELINGS FOR MINORU -- even though, as he says to Minoru in the playground, that he KNEW what those feelings were. He just didn’t know how to act on them.

And we’re going to see, in the final episode, another instance of this, another experience of a feeling that Yutaka hasn’t had before, but one that he KNOWS HE NEEDS TO FEAR, because he lost his parents. Now that he has something GOOD -- he knows there’s a chance he’ll LOSE IT. And as friends like @respectthepetty and @troubled-mind have noted, the last episode will feature Dad Ueda-san in a turn that will not disappoint regarding this. 

But now, this fear of LOSS. Y’all and me -- we all know people, and/or we are these people, that always have something on our minds that we’re anxious about. I’m that kind of person -- I don’t feel normal if I’m not stressed about something. I just bet that this is Yutaka’s defense mechanism against any more pain, and what we’re witnessing is the embodiment of it. 

Y’all know this by now since I’m late in writing this, but next week’s episode is gonna be emotionally EVERYTHING, so get your tissues ready. I, for one, am definitely not ready, and he has a lot to do with this, so yes, I DO blame Aof Noppharnach for cliffhangers AGAIN airing his damn Our Skyy shows while the best BL airing right now is ending. COME AWN, AOF! 

[feuqueerfire]

Utsukushii Kare (S1, S2, Movie) Live Blogging

I can't believe I'm finally, finally, finally getting around to watching Season 2 and the movie (+ rewatching season 1).

I knew I liked this show well enough and the characters have stayed with me since watching it in 2022 but I didn't realize that Utsukushii Kare is pretty special because it's actually the very first live blogging post I did on this blog. It was February 2022 and now it's 2+ years later March 2024. Before then, I'd maybe tweet a thread of me watching but the tweets would be sparse because I didn't wanna spam people. I think I got the idea because I was writing so many Bad Buddy thoughts (also in Jan-Feb 2022) on my show tracking spreadsheet and that wasn't sustainable lol

Anyway, looking at these is making me remember that I'd been looking forward to season 2 from when I finished watching (from my live blogging ending thoughts) and had anticipated the release of it for months and months. Even more ridiculously, in my show tracking spreadsheet, the only thing I wrote for this show was a link to my live blogging and "If there was a sequel, I'd watch" bruh that's all I had to say and yet I'm finally watching the sequel 2 years later (while the sequel has been out for a year).

Anyway, enough chatter, I think I'm just delaying watching this show because I like season 1 and the characters so much and I'm just... nervous about my expectations.

Utsukushii Kare: Season 1

Probably won't be writing much because I already did the whole live blogging for this.

Also, it's weird that I haven't rewatched this? Why do I remember it so vividly if I haven't rewatched? I occasionally watch a bunch of tiktoks for the show and sometimes people mention it in podcasts, so maybe that's why? I was thinking maybe I'd watched reaction videos but nah, apparently I'd only watched that for 1 account back in April 2022. Once again, I continue to ramble instead of pressing play

Ep 1 (Mar 23)

Watched like 12 minutes before falling asleep

Ah, the fondness is coming back

Ep 2 (Mar 23)

Oh, the group going to Hira's house and the bike riding scene is here? in my head it was later

And the bike riding continues to be an incredible scene

Ep 3 (Apr 17)

Uhhh, I'm back after almost a month lol I think I wanted something much easier without complex dynamics at the time, so I'd watched Destiny Seeker instead

Oh, I'd forgotten about this tense scene after the contest

ahh the masturbation thing lolol

It bothers me that Kiyoi was nice again to those bully boys like why make good with them again? And when you're graduating no less?

that sudden kiss + pushing him hard enough that he falls to the ground + saying "see you again" before leaving really is just terrible and confusing lol

Ah, Hira really was always putting himself down and putting Kiyoi in a pedastal in these episodes + I remembered when somebody pointed out that in Hira's POV, there are many shots where Kiyoi is on elevated ground or taller/higher than Hira, so I noticed a lot of that in this ep

Ep 4 (Apr 17)

ack, the immediate 'stalker' to someone who ppl think is his fan is so T.T

"I want to kneel down at your feet right now" kills me every time

Koyoi's inability to communicate and Hira's idealized view of him are both so just . insane

ahh Kiyoi's POV from next ep

the episode starting with Hira saying "For several insipid years, all I did was grow up." while Kiyoi ends the episode with the same sentence

Ep 5 (Apr 17)

seeing Kiyoi lose his mind over Hira is so cathartic

ough, i forgot this hug that Kiyoi sees

I disliked the other guy more when I first watched it than I do now

Ep 6 (Apr 18)

Oops, went almost the whole day without watching anything

finger sucking scene

Ouch

the conversation at the school is just so good man, like ouch but hopeful

hehe cute biking

Overall:

Ahh, idek why I wasn't Gripped by this rewatch, like I like the characters and dynamics but it wasn't keeping my attention as much, maybe because it's a rewatch? Maybe my original rating of 6.5 was correct and I shouldn't have bumped it up to 7 but who knows, maybe I'll be reintroduced to the brainworms after watching Season 2 because I found ep 6 really engaging and was into it and S2 + movie will have new, unfamiliar stories for me.

Season 2

Ep 1 (Apr 18)

How soon after S1 is this season starting?

akkkk "Are you angry?" "Why?" "Last night I was too persistent" alkdjfasd;lkf

It's weird to realize that like... I'm older than them. I was several years older than them when they were in high school and now I'm probably 1-2 years older than them because Hira said graduation is approaching but it's weird still idk

not Mr. Suspicious lmfaoo

Hira kneeling and crawling around really is just a lot

it's so funny how Hira trembles in Kiyoi's presence because he's apparently standing too close, meanwhile we know for a fact that they canonically fuck

Hira's persistent fear that Kiyoi might die ?!

they're both so constipated in different ways, I'm dying like Hira's extreme lack of confidence about his looks and sense of self vs Kiyoi obviously being in love with him and wanting to reassure him but also not being able to compliment him truthfully and sincerely

Kiyoi's every sentence is a trap lmfao

omg I was so distracted by her, she's gorgeous and I love the outfit and jewelry

Kiyoi seething with jealousy ahh

lolol "today we're gonna do it"

oh my goddd what a good episode, I was giggling and dying and so engaged, I'm glad I love it so far because I was kinda nervous after not being as enamoured by S1

Ep 2 (Apr 19)

ah, i'm clutching my heart, flashback to the scene of when Hira taught Kiyoi about the tea olives or whatever and Kiyoi just desperately wanted Hira to say he likes him

return of Suspicious-kun plss

Is the other guy who's there for Anna gonna be significant? Either as an Anna s/o as well or as a Kiyoi hater maybe?

does Kiyoi want their love life to be more exciting?

aksldfj why are each of them so annoying like Koyoma's being like yeah Hira doesn't shut the fuck up about you and your drama at school while Kiyoi's like "Is Koyoma saying he sees a side of Hira I don't see? Is he trying to assert dominance?" like girl both hira and him are just dumbasses god bless

Koyoma on Kiyoi's ass for freeloading off of Hira and letting Hira do all the housework while he just pursues his acting or whatever ohh

pls Hira treating this shitty food as if it's from Olympus

Ah, Hira joining the photography competition at Kiyoi's encouragement (though the pressure would make me buckle)

Ep 3 (Apr 19)

Hira not making it to the next round of the competition but Kiyoi still being supportive, I needed to see this rn tbh

oh my god this is so sad man, they're literally always just on different lines of thinking because Kiyoi wants to be treated as an equal in the relationship while Hira thinks it would be an insult to think of himself as ever reaching Kiyoi's status

but it's so sad the way Kiyoi wants to obviously be known as Hira's bf (even though they can't) and the way he's hurting knowing that Hira wants Kiyoi and his parents to be completely separate owwww

omg? Hira saying I don't want to understand you? fucked up fr

Their relationship is often somewhat tragic because of their dynamic and how they see themselves and the fact that what they want from the relationship is different but this ep is so sad man

Ep 4 (Apr 19)

ah, good thing Kiyoi came back because they only have 1 episode of 23 mins left and i don't want the ending to be rushed lol

sorry accidentally got the ick when Kiyoi came and ordered Hira to get ginger ale in front of everybody even though ik it's like Dynamics but still why in front of dumbass bullies smhh

Hira not liking Kiyoi saying it's fine if he doesn't get a job after uni bc he can take care of them makes sense but then smiling happily when Kiyoi says "fine, then work like a workhorse and if you mess anything up for me I'll throw you away" is sooooo

huh? Why Hira didn't submit anything?

oh it's a different thing that Hira didn't submit for? Because he did indeed submit for the contest

woah, gasped at the fact that Hira is kneeling but at eye-level/slight higher than Kiyoi instead of lowering himself as much as possible

Hira being fed chocolate by Kiyoi, ah

great, delightful

Overall:

This season is about Hira and Kiyoi's relationship. They didn't become boring after getting together, they didn't magically end up being a perfect happy well-adjusted couple after getting together, nor were there random issues thrown just because; the struggles and hurdles are true to their characters and dynamics.

I was a bit afraid that I'd be meh about it because I was like fine but not Hooked on the S1 rewatch but the S2 was great, for real. I liked the themes and dynamics it explored and their character + relationship development and progression. I also smiled a lot and lost my mind a little at certain moments.

Strong writing, strong characters, strong acting, what a relief.

Rating: 7/10

Movie: Eternal

No clue what the movie is about actually, though there are a few gifsets/moments that I've seen that didn't appear in the series, so much be from here. + I saw one comment saying that Anna and Noguchi are supposed to be there more in the movie. oh also actually?? a kidnapping plot?? i heard it mentioned in a podcast i think

omg they're each recounting how they met the other to their own mentors

not the shrine ?!?! omg

I really don't know how to feel about Anna's fan like do we need to kill him or what?

what does Hira mean by him and Kiyoi drifting apart?

hah the divorce thing is here, I loved the gifset when I saw it and have had it in my likes for Months, gonna finally be able to reblog it

i think i saw a gifset or clip in this bathtub scene and I'm a great enjoyer of people discussing their desire for dubcon/cnc roleplay

Idk if I hate that I keep skipping all their makeouts/allusion to sex scenes like aghhh

I've also seen this part about hira apologizing for not having same free time as Kiyoi and Kiyoi grabbing his face in his hand to say stop apologizing, you've tried your best. i like it a lot

wait are Anna and Noguchi dating? I wanna know who the person Anna was talking about who has her heart but they can rarely meet because they're in the same industry. and it'd have the parallel of Hira wanting to photograph Kiyoi while Noguchi gets to photograph Anna

Noguchi used to be a scenario photographer?

ah, Hira didn't show up to the shoot with Noguchi and Kiyoi

pls why are they both obsessed with this award, he doesn't even have regular professional photography experience c'mon girls

oh, Anna's bf is some random actor from another company.

her fan is being... fine for now.

Aw, Anna

dang, they're bringing Anna to live with Hira's cousin

So does the aunt know that Hira and Kiyoi are like a thing or does she still think their fan/friend lol

Hira saying only Kiyoi is allowed to call him creepy and such because he's special + Kiyoi being like "he's creepy right?" Anna: "yeah" Kiyoi: Hey!

Ouch, yeah Hira saying he doesn't know what to shoot is crazy

Oof, Hira and Anna dating scandal

It must be so funny if you're watching this without knowing about EA celebrity dating culture (though even in SK, actors can date) and being like ? why is this a scandal ?

but i'm unexpectedly getting a celebrity-centric BL without seeking it out, which is great, esp bc when I seek it out I don't tend to find too many which actually give me what I want

random het sob story in the middle of my Utsukushii Kare but I like Anna so I'll allow it for like... 2 minutes

Ah, the kidnapping lol

oh it really is the Anna fan fuckhead aghhh how terrible, he's been off since the start

pls saviour Hira

Hira gets to photograph Kiyoi professionally yay

deciding to have one subject as your photo subject is crazy if you wanna be a professional but alright I'll buy into it

ah, conversation about beauty and age

gorgeous ending

Overall:

Great, fun, though not as emotionally invested as Season 2 because they're in a better place in their relationship in this movie (even if it's not necessarily Perfect). It was interesting to have new people in their lives like Anna and Noguchi and how their stories influenced them. I'm happy with where we're leaving off the characters after ~6h of show/movie.

Rating: 6.5/10

[void-inked-pen]

Sainon strikes again!!

I grew up with tmnt 2003 so I’m biased too but I did like 2012 when it came out, but I didn’t follow it as much as I did 03

I completely agree with you on Donnie and Mikey’s characterization! I really loathed what they did to Donnie with the whole love triangle thing they wanted to do. I absolutely loved Donnie in 03 but 12 Donnie omfg. I blame a lot of my dislikes of the show on the writing itself bc I don’t think they wrote April very well either it’s odd idk.

I thought Donnie’s crush on April was cute, silly, and funny at first but they kept beating the dead horse with this and then Casey showed up, added to it, and I wanted to scream.

They ALL deserved better but how the writers treated mikey and his canonical adhd was TRASH.

This is just me very personally as well but when I was just a wee child I empathized with 03 raph a lot bc, even tho I never acted on it, I was just constantly filled with rage that’s a lie I swung a computer at my bully’s face when I’d finally had enough. I didn’t like how they treated Raph’s anger in 2012 especially during the episode where they specifically addressed it. Splinter basically just said “bottle it” and like kind of belittled him for letting things get to him. When they were insulting him for the sake for the exercise I think I realized that 12 raph has trouble seeing when people are being serious with their insults (like me lol). Those were his brothers, contextually he should’ve known they didn’t actually mean any of those things but that’s not how he takes it. And if slash SPIKE is anything to go by he actually thinks his brothers think a lot of bad things about him. He doesn’t open up to his brothers because he does not trust them with his emotions that he himself has trouble dealing with/interpreting

On a more positive note: I do love Raph and Mona’s relationship ship, it’s absolutely fantastic

12 Raph likes a woman that can kick his ass and I have to respect that

Writing characters with anger is a difficult slope and is often written badly. As someone who has anger issues but learned how to deal with them over time, when I see a character like 2012 raph, who has trouble handling and understanding his emotions, it both points out the issues and also makes it hard for me as someone who deals with the same thing, relate because it’s often demonized.

Literally half the stuff they wrote in 2012 acted like they wanted to talk about heavy issues but it was written in a way that was almost mocking and demonizing with most of not all the characters. Literally it brought out the worse in everyone of these characters and it drives me nuts

April is the “strong girl who don’t need no man/turtle” but written insufferably, Donnie is the swooning brother who basically is an incel but also a genius who seriously deserves recognition for all he’s done (rest PLS), raph and his anger issues and lack of understanding his own emotions and the perpetuated “I’m tough, don’t feel emotion” manly bullshit, the terrible depiction of Mikey and his ADHD, and I’m not sure they did a very good job or not on PTSD with Leo and his whole focus on being the leader isnt… that great from what I know. And Casey… idk tbh??? He also had some “let me fight for the girl” dumb dumb stuff so he was meh. The love triangle with him and Donnie and April was also dumb because if those three just stopped that shenanigans, can you imagine how great they’d be as a dynamic???

Anyway, ye. There is definitely a lot they could have done better with all of them but I know that is more of a time thing~

Thanks for coming back Sai-Non!!

-pen

[survivor-marieta-islands]

Episode 12: "might get idoled out for fun tonight"—Amy

Raffy

So an hour before tribal, Colin and I discovered that Hairie had an idol. So we managed to pull in Zo and Amy to try to send Hairie home with an idol in his pocket. We didn’t wanna tell Jinx because Trinica had told me that Jinx was the one who gave coins to Hairie. And we get that Jinx was too close to Hairie and would rat out the plan. The problem is that Hairie was asked a question about his idol, revealed it, and promised to play it. Also Adeline self-voted which means we never had a chance to vote any other way. Perfect storm of bad things happening. I still voted for Hairie when I really should’ve just voted for Adeline. And now I’m in hot water with Jinx because I think they figured that the old schoolers left them out. And I’m in hot water with Hairie. So now I’m working overtime to fix things. Idk if I can repair my relationship with Jinx because Zo or Colin could easily rat out that it was my plan (which is a half truth since it was Colin’s too). And I gotta re establish a relationship with Hairie. And I upset Trinica a little for not telling them. A whole mess. So now my plan is to just cry my eyes out and vote out Arvin as an easy vote so I can skate by another round. Here’s hoping things go well lol. Trinica, Colin, and I re established our connection and allegedly want to get to F6 with our most loyal allies (Brandi, Zo, and Amy respectively). I don’t know how much I trust that to happen but I do know I need to hide behind Trinica for the time being.

Arvin

I like this immunity challenge since it's so chill, we don't have to do stuff, we just need to answer questions. I didn't win immunity and I know that my name would be written again. I could be voted out tonight but I'm gonna give them a fight.

Trinica

Jay won't give us real touchy subjects so I'm doing my own to channel my rage at being left out of the vote. 😤

Biggest Snake: Raffy/Colin

Biggest Move: Hairie announcing and playing his idol even though he didn't need to.

Biggest Blindside: all the people on Old School claiming they want to work with me then lying about the vote

Biggest Flop: Adeline's self-vote; Colin wasting their extra vote

Most Vengeful: Trinica

Amy

It's the way Brandi told me earlier that hairie bought all that 🤣 whoopsies I forgot. Doomed plan from the start. I wish I had thrown a vote on trinica like I KNEW hairie wasn't going anywhere so it wouldn't work then Adeline really said lmao what if I self voted 🤣 and Colin wasted the extra vote SILLY GOOFY ROUND INDEED

Anyway had I just said "what if no" to the plan i would have been sitting pretty in this game but here we are ahahahahahaha I hope that was entertaining

Also I feel like the ppl I voted with think I wrote the question directly to hairie but it was Brandi but when I was immediately like I bet it was Brandi! I simply forget I think Brandi might actually tell me stuff she doesn't tell other ppl? Idk 🤣 silly silly little me. Anyway gonna sit back and hope the next round is trinica hairie or Arvin 🤠 and not me

Brandi

The way I accidentally forced an idol play I think??????? Holy crap- my mind

Amy

Tbh if trinica doesn't win this whole thing I'll be shocked. Idk how there could be numbers to get them out and everyone reports to them lol. If the season title isn't changed to "trinica said" then it's not a true representation of the season lol

Brandi

I’m feeling panicky realizing like.. we are mid game

Amy

The reason I love text chats is I can just scroll to know trinica either lied Saturday or is lying now lol

Anyway I'm going to stir stuff up bc I'm bored and I want a hairie trinica fight lol also idk when this game ends but I'm traveling to Europe next week?

Turns out what if we just vote everyone out? Maybe then I will know peace 🤣

Brandi

Hairie to Amy: I only asked you and Brandi for coins because I wanted to see if you could be trusted. I already had the coins I needed. I only asked you two!

The 4 individuals he asked for coins, also affectionately known as Hairie's Coin Purse: 👁👄👁

Amy

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Y'all are entertaining me that's for sure thank YOU

Brandi is so FUNNY 🤣 Me: Wait so he didn't just ask us for coins like he was still telling me this morning lol tbh I'm tired of the lies about the coins this is silly no wonder he wants to leave it in the past

Brandi: omg did another person come forward and say he was asking for coins? Me: I mean- Yeah lol jinx said they talked about it w you? Lol Brandi: Trinica talked about it with me! Me: Jinx said you directly asked them about the coins lol

silence 🤣 Like jinx literally had just told me Brandi had asked them directly 🤣 I know I'm so out of the loop in this game that it's FUNNY the game of telephone. Also lol I told Trinica "not another"trinica said" 🤣🤣🤣" and they were like lol I did say that and they confirmed they all knew about the coins collectively so confirmed raffy's plan really was so silly 🤣 but!!! If I can continue to be absolutely clueless I can maybe survive a few rounds because trust me I am 🤡🤡🤡🤣🤣🤣 but we're having FUN and I'm entertained 🤣

Trinica

GODDDDD YOU'RE ALL ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!

The only people not annoying me rn are Jinx and Brandi and Arvin. And Arvin isn't annoying me only because he literally never talks.

Also for all of you reading this later, saying Arvin is my "little pet" is so dehumanizing and rude and icky!!! Don't talk about my sweet prince who never talks to me that way!!!!

Anyway uhhh okay context: Amy is being newly messy, Hairie is always messy (king), and idk who to trust. At this point I would happily vote out Raffy (but can't bc he's immune), Amy, or Colin because all of them lied to me last round and are generally sneaky and messy.

Also, can I just say....everyone keeps throwing "well you lied about the AJ vote" in my face like Y'ALL!!!! Were you openly working with AJ?? NO!! It's not like I targeted someone's known ally the way they targeted Hairie! It's not on the same level at all! ALSO THAT WAS RIGHT AFTER MERGE HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO I COULD TRUST WITH INFO!?!?!? Like you wanted me to successfully idol someone out by telling half the tribe what I was about to do? GOD FORBID A NONBINARY WOMAN HAS ONE (1) SECRET!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a different situation than lying to someone you've been working with for several rounds!!

Anyway I'm in my unhinged era

Amy

Me: what if we voted hairie? All: I've only heard Arvin Me: same but 👀 what if 🤠 All: let me know if you hear a second name

💃🏻 Slay

Trinica

I thought I would wake up in a better mood but NOPE!! Still rotten!!!

Today my annoyance is that Amy and Raffy are like "waaah last round you agreed to vote out Arvin next!" I'm sorry, why am I being held to an agreement I made before y'all literally blindsided me last round?? Did I agree to vote out Arvin next? Sure. IF Y'ALL VOTED ADELINE. Did you vote Adeline? NOPE. So in my opinion, the terms of the agreement are null and void. And my lawyer WILL be hearing about this!!!

Brandi

my confessions are usually 1 sentence but it is 9:20 am on the day of tribal and my head is SPINNING.

amy: is playing two sides of the fence and pitting hairie and I against each other... which she doesn't need to do because we are both weary of each other lmao

hairie: sent me 1 million messages while i was sleeping

arvin: haven't heard from him in days

raffy: i feel like he is lying to us and draggin us along. he has not publicly voted with host pet alliance since the beginning

colin: a sweetie but is saying arvin's name is the only one out there?

jinx: feels like they are being bossed around in the game and aren't in control of their own destiny

zo: hasn't talked to me in days and I know they are ride or die for hairie

trinica: idk perf ily also kinda paranoid rn

BRANDI: I AM LOST IN THE HAZE, CONFUSED, and trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Jinx

we plan, G-d (old schoolers being quirky goofy for no reason) laughs

Amy

Hairie I've always wanted to be a part of a fight in the tribe chat you really know how to make a woman feel special 🥹

Hairie

Why is round after round I get some attention that I don't even want, need or be a part of? #obsession

Amy appreciation post:

1. She has a cool job. 2. I've never played with someone that has her communication style. Very interesting. 3. She's my number 1 fan. 4. She loves coins :)

Amy all that silly goofy callouts and arguments are for fun. Hope you don't get offended (one can hope).

Brandi, I lied for you and the fact that you're going to vote for me. Hmm kinda upsetting. I'm done lying for people. This was the second time.

Tonight the votes are all public with my cursed idol so enjoy everyone.

Raffy

I woke up today wanting to target Arvin. Trinica told me that we shouldn't and instead target Hairie because Hairie is sus as hell. I agree cause Hairie is sus as hell. Hairie drops Amy's and Colin's name immediately. I tell Colin immediately. Hairie fights Amy in the tribe chat. I tell my Golden Gworls alliance (me, Colin, Amy, Zo) to target Hairie cause he's coming for the old schoolers. They agree. I talk to Trinica. She has Brandi. Also confirmed with Jinx to vote for Arvin to split the vote. Working on getting Zo to split the vote on to Arvin. Let's hope this goes well. I don't want Hairie to use an idol.

Hairie

The idol would benefit only if the move is to idol out Amy.

So the vote breakdown should be 6 for Hairie, 2 for Amy and 1 for Arvin.

Amy

might get idoled out for fun tonight

[shkspr]

hi. on your post where you may or may not have ended on 'moffat is either your angel or your devil' did you have maybe an elaboration on that somewhere that i could possibly hear about. i'm very much a capaldi era stan and i've never tried to defend the matt smith era even though it had delightful moments sometimes so i wonder where that puts me. i'd love to hear your perspective on moffat as a person with your political perspective. -nicole

hi ok sorry i took so long to respond to this but i dont think you know how LOADED this question is for me but i am so happy to elaborate on that for you. first a few grains of salt to flavor your understanding of the whole situation: a. im unfairly biased against moffat bc im a davies stan and a tennant stan; b. i still very much enjoy and appreciate moffat era who for many reasons; and c. i hate moffat on a personal level far more than i could ever hate his work.

the thing is that its all always gonna be a bit mixed up bc i have to say a bunch of seemingly contradictory things in a row. for instance, a few moffat episodes are some of my absolute favorites of the rtd era, AND the show went way downhill when moffat took over, AND the really good episodes he wrote during the rtd era contained the seeds of his destruction.

like i made that post about the empty child/the doctor dances and it holds true for blink and thats about it bc the girl in the fireplace and silence in the library/forest of the dead are good but not nearly on the same level, and despite the fact that i like them at least nominally, they are also great examples of everything i hate about moffat and how he approached dw as a whole.

basically. doctor who is about people. there are many things about moffats tenure as showrunner that i think are a step up from rtd era who! actual gay people, for one! but i think that can likely be attributed mostly to an evolving Society as opposed to something inherent to him and his work, seeing as rtd is literally gay, and the existence of queer characters in moffats work doesnt mean the existence of good queer characters (ill give him bill but thats it!)

i have a few Primary Grievances with moffat and how he ran dw. all of them are things that got better with capaldi, but didnt go away. they are as follows:

moffat projects his own god complex onto the doctor

rtd era who had a doctor with a god complex. you cant ever be the doctor and not have a god complex. the problem with moffats era specifically is that the god complex was constant and unrepentant and was seen as a fundamental personality trait of the doctor rather than a demon he has to fight. he has the Momence where you feel bad for him, the Momence where he shows his humility or whatever and youre reminded that he doesnt want to be the lonely god, but those are just. moments. in a story where the doctor thinks hes the main character. rtd era doctor was aware that he wasnt the main character. he had to be an authority sometimes and he had to be the loner and he had to be sad about it, but he ultimately understood that he was expendable in a narrative sense.

this is how you get lines like “were the thin fat gay married anglican marines, why would we need names as well?” from the same show that gave you the gut punch moment at the end of midnight when they realize that nobody asked the hostess for her name. and on the one hand, thats a small sticking point, but on the other hand, its just one small example of the simple disregard that moffat has for humanity.

incidentally, this is a huge part of why sherlock sucked so bad: moffats main characters are special bc theyre so much bigger and better than all the normal people, and thats his downfall as a showrunner. he thinks that his audience wants fucking sheldon cooper when what they want is people.

like, ok. think of how many fantastic rtd era eps are based in the scenario “what if the doctor wasnt there? what if he was just out of commission for a bit?” and how those eps are the heart of the show!! bc theyre about people being people!! the thing is that all of the rtd era companions would have died for the doctor but he understood and the story understood that it wasnt about him.

this is like. nine sending rose home to save her life and sacrifice his own vs clara literally metaphysically entwining her existence w the doctor. ten also sending rose with her family to save her life vs river being raised from infancy to be obsessed w the doctor and then falling in love w him. martha leaving bc she values herself enough to make that decision vs amy being treated like a piece of meat.

and this is simultaneously a great callback to when i said that moffats episodes during the rtd era sometimes had the same problems as his show running (bc girl in the fireplace reeks of this), and a great segue into the next grievance.

moffat hates women

he hates women so fucking much. g-d, does steven moffat ever hate women. holy shit, he hates women. especially normal human women who prioritize their normal human lives on an equal or higher level than the doctor. moffat hated rose bc she wasnt special by his standards. the empty child/the doctor dances is the nicest he ever treated her, and she really didnt do much in those eps beyond a fuck ton of flirting.

girl in the fireplace is another shining example of this. youve got rose (who once again has another man to keep her busy, bc moffat doesnt think shes good enough for the doctor) sidelined for no reason only to be saved by the doctor at the last second or whatever. and then youve got reinette, who is pretty and powerful and special!

its just. moffat thinks that the doctor is as shallow and selfish as he is. thats why he thinks the doctor would stay in one place with reinette and not with rose. bc moffat is shallow and sees himself in the doctor and doesnt think he should have to settle for someone boring and normal.

not to mention rose met the doctor as an adult and chose to stay with him whereas reinette is. hm. introduced to the doctor as a child and grows up obsessed with him.

does that sound familiar? it should! bc it is also true of amy and river. and all of them are treated as viable romantic pairings. bc the only women who deserve the doctor are the ones whose entire existence revolves around him. which includes clara as well.

genuinely i think that at least on some level, not even necessarily consciously, that bill was a lesbian in part bc capaldi was too old to appeal to mainstream shippers. like twelve/clara is still a thing but not as universally appealing as eleven/clara but i am just spitballing. but i think they weighed the pros and cons of appealing to the woke crowd over the het shippers and found that gay companion was more profitable. anyway the point is to segue into the next point, which is that moffat hates permanent consequences.

moffat hates permanent consequences

steven moffat does not know how to kill a character. honestly it feels like hes doing it on purpose after a certain point, like he knows he has this habit and hes trying to riff on it to meme his own shit, but it doesnt work. it isnt funny and it isnt harmless, its bad writing.

the end of the doctor dances is so poignant and so meaningful and so fucking good bc its just this once! everybody lives, just this once! and then he does p much the same thing in forest of the dead - this one i could forgive, bc i do think that preserving those peoples consciousnesses did something for the doctor as a character, it wasnt completely meaningless. but everything after that kinda was.

rory died so many times its like. get a hobby lol. amy died at least once iirc but it was all a dream or something. clara died and was erased from the doctors memory. river was in prison and also died. bill? died. all of them sugarcoated or undone or ignored by the narrative to the point of having effectively no impact on the story. the point of a major character death is that its supposed to have a point. and you could argue that a piece of art could be making a point with a pointless death, ie. to put perspective on it and remind you that bad shit just happens, but with moffat the underlying message is always “i can do whatever i want, nothing is permanent or has lasting impact ever.”

basically, with moffat, tragedy exists to be undone. and this was a really brilliant, really wonderful thing in the doctor dances specifically bc it was the doctor clearly having seen his fair share of tragedy that couldnt be helped, now looking on his One Win with pride and delight bc he doesnt get wins like this! and then moffat proceeded to give him the same win over and over and over and over. nobody is ever dead. nobody is ever unable to be saved. and if they are, really truly dead and/or gone, then thats okay bc moffat has decided that [insert mitigating factor here]*

*the mitigating factor is usually some sort of computerized database of souls.

i can hear the moffat stans falling over themselves to remind me that amy and rory definitely died, and they did - after a long and happy life together, they died of old age. i dont consider that a character death any more than any other character choosing to permanently leave the tardis.

and its not just character deaths either, its like, everything. the destruction of gallifrey? never mind lol! character development? scrapped! the same episode four times? lets give it a fifth try and hope nobody notices. bc he doesnt know how to not make the doctor either an omnipotent savior or a self-pitying failure.

it is in nature of doctor who, i believe, for the doctor to win most of the time. like, it wouldnt be a very good show if he didnt win most of the time. but it also wouldnt be a very good show if he won all of the time. my point is that moffats doctor wins too often, and when he doesnt win, it feels empty and hollow rather than genuinely humbling, and you know hes not gonna grow from it pretty much at all.

so like. again, i like all of doctor who i enjoy all of it very much. i just think that steven moffat is a bad show runner and a decent writer at times. and it is frustrating. and im not here to convince or convert anyone im just living my truth. thank you for listening.

[woniepop]

I-Land Scenes Making You Cry

Request: Hello!!!! ICan I request and OT7 reaction while Y/N and their s/o are was watching I-LAND and then they start crying when something comes up? (ex. like that time when K saved Jungwon but Taki got eliminated I cried so hard cuz first THE YANG JUNGWON was getting eliminated but then I cried more when K was crying)

Pairings: Enhypen x Gender Neutral!Reader

Genre: fluff

warnings: cursing

Word count: 0.6k

a/n: sorry this took so long, anon! i had to actually finish i-land first LOL anyway, not saying i cried while writing this,, but rewatching Heesung’s part made me cry so much,, it just hits so close to home methinks I had to add some of my top tier comedy to distract from the fact that I’m *hypothetically* in literal tears

༑ ࿐ྂ。lee heeseung

- You guys were on the couch rewatching i-land cause you forced him to

- And the part came up where he dropped from 2nd to 4th place and he cried because he messed up and felt like he put on a bad performance

- You sit there gaping at the tv and suddenly tears start falling down your face out of nowhere

- Heesung definitely panicked

- Frantically looks around for tissues

- “But you already know who debuts”

- Still holds you in his arms tho

- “BUT YOU WORKED SO HARD”

- Gets literally so kiddush when he realizes you're crying because you love him

- Giggles until you ask him what he's laughing at

༑ ࿐ྂ。jay park

- “why are you rewatching i-land”

- “Turn that off this is the third time”

- “Why are you still crying”

- You cry everytime it comes to the part where jay thought he’d be eliminated and wrote letters for all the members

- “You’re just so nice to everyone”

- LITERALLY DROPPED TO THE FLOOR SOBBING

- “GET UP, I DEBUTED”

༑ ࿐ྂ。jake sim

- Lol maybe im kinda dumb but i forgot if jake ever cried in iland

- So let's just say like you’re watching the first episode together and you’re seeing it for the first time 

- And they gave the last spot in i-land away to taki

- You literally pause that shit so fast

- Like at record breaking speeds 

- And you jump into Jake’s arms and cry

- “Babe, I literally debuted. What are you sad about”

- “Oh yeah huh”

- Still hugs you to death

- Coos at you until you calm down

༑ ࿐ྂ。park sunghoon

- When sunghoon cried at the dining table because he missed his mom

- You were like “woah… now i miss my mom”

- Looks at you with the weirdest face

- “What the hell did you just say”

- You start crying

- “It must've been so hard to be away from your mom, and you trained for two years, and you didn't know if you were going to debut-”

- Literally rambling the whole time

- pulls you into his lap and pets your head

- intertwines your fingers and rubs your back until you calm down

༑ ࿐ྂ。kim sunoo

- You also are watching it for the first time

- You were so proud of his first stage

- And then when he got dropped to the ground you were so mad

- Angry enough you cried

- “HOW DARE YOU HE WAS LITERALLY AMAZING”

- You start punching the air sobbing

- And he's literally laughing at you

- But eventually he stops laughing and he decides to give you a forehead kiss and reassures you that, yes, he did actually debut

༑ ࿐ྂ。yang jungwon

- When jungwon ranked 9th and was the last survivor to advance to the final part

- And he cried cause he worked really good to get a high score and he didn’t

- Being so young, and so close to him you understand how hard he works everyday

- Especially being the leader

- You already knew he was going to debut but you felt so emotional

- So you facetime him crying 

- Saying like “i'm so proud of you for working so hard and taking care of everyone”

- He’s so worried about you and he rushes over to where you are at to cuddle you

- Brings snacks and hand feeds them to you

- Laughs a little telling you that he works so hard because he has you by his side

༑ ࿐ྂ。nishimura riki

- It’s literally so clear mnet edited the show to try and make niki look really bad

- And you’ve never finished i-land because you couldn’t bear to see niki in that kind of light

- But niki one day asks if you can watch it with him

- You refuse at first but you eventually agree, but niki has to watch it with you

- When niki got back into i-land from working so hard in the ground you started crying

- Like they really edited it to make him look like a brat

- He felt butterflies methinks

- His whole face flushed but he wraps his arms around you and leans his head on yours

- Tells you he loves you 1000 times

- Lots of forehead kisses

- Plays with your fingers to calm you down while you cry

[chainofclovers]

Grace and Frankie 7x1 - 7x4 thoughts

Meh? Like...I love them so much, but...meh?

(I did enjoy this line about brunch.)

I really loved season 6 of Grace and Frankie. I thought it was well-paced, largely very well-acted, generally well-written, and it culminated in a massive moment of character development for the title characters, who, having spent years growing closer and being there for each other when others could not or would not be, finally articulate to each other that they are the primary person in each other’s lives. Platonic gal pal soulmate BFF emotional support witches 4 lyfe!

I know progress isn’t always linear, and in fact is very rarely linear, but after a moment that significant, you’d think the writers on this show would maybe come up with some more interesting things for these characters to do than spin in circles?

@bristler and I watched on Friday night, and just this morning over breakfast had a good conversation about the first four episodes of the new season now that they have settled in our brains a bit. We concluded that the writing (often noticeably clunky, like the dialogue is responsible for more narration than usual) and the tone (aggressively wacky) feel really off, especially compared to the prior season. I think we diagnosed the big issue, which is that Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are by far the most talented actors on this show (if you disagree, fight me in the parking lot) and it feels surprisingly unfortunate that their characters have, to this point in the new season, pretty much figured out their perspectives on each other. No matter how people feel about Grace and Frankie’s sexualities, the whole show has been about them finding each other and getting in deeper and deeper, and it’s less interesting to watch other characters have realizations about that than it is to watch Grace and Frankie having realizations about themselves. If the title characters are now limited to reacting to other people’s actions, and the title characters are played by the best actors on the show, the whole show’s gonna suffer. And is suffering, very much so, at least for these first four episodes. I’m definitely still excited for the final twelve in 2022 (twelve! I cannot believe this season will have sixteen eps!), but I’m pretty disappointed so far.

Stuff I Loved:

The family brunch. These families have been entwined for so long, and the backstory for this particular brunch was so fun (even though I didn’t care for the effects they did to depict Grace and Robert 25 years ago; there was no need for a visual flashback in the scene). I love that Grace hit Frankie with a wiffle ball bat. I love that the two couples realized some of the emotional reasons behind their decisions to lie to each other about Bud’s Bunny and about M’Challah. I love the way Jane Fonda sounds uttering the phrase “Bud’s Bunny” with little to no irony. I love that Grace is able to recognize and articulate just how deep and miserable her anger issues were, albeit with the continued help of her omnipresent martini, and that Frankie told her she’d now make up a holiday in order to spend more time with Grace. I really, really hope Frankie does exactly this at some point in the remaining episodes of the season. I love that Grace is generally a pretty good person now, with aspirations of being a delightful person. I love that she and Frankie don’t have it in them to stay angry with each other, and I love all the evidence that they really, really talk to each other about everything now.

Frankie talking to the man at the office (I don’t remember who he was supposed to be? A toilet manufacturer? I didn’t mention this before, but I actually got pretty high while watching?!? Believe it or not, this was the first time I smoked pot and watched Grace and Frankie at the same time despite having enjoyed both activities on their own for quite some time. I would recommend the combo! And I think I still pretty much got what was happening) about paying for the toilet parts with candy. This whole subplot with the money laundering was absurd and not that interesting, but I loved this particular scene because it was finally evidence of some really thoughtful writing. The concepts aren’t enough! You have to write them into good dialogue! And the whole cash/candy thing was a moment of dialogue that only someone as hilarious as Lily Tomlin could pull off. Which she did, IMO.

In a show about super messy people, Coyote has stayed sober this entire time. He is sober, employed, in love, and preparing to buy a full-sized house with his partner. He hasn’t murdered anyone in his family. Hasn’t even attempted murder once.

In 2017 or whatever, Grace Hanson would have been furious about Frankie using obscure Beatles references like a treasure map when hiding the cash. But here in 2021, she cooperates and even gets in on the fun. The writing is very unsubtle this season, but that did feel like a reasonably subtle moment that shows how good of a partner she is for Frankie. (Platonic, of course! So platonic. Female friendship, amirite?)

Stuff I Did NOT Love and Felt Incredibly Negative About:

Brianna. I can only conclude that June Diane Raphael has decided she’s happy with playing a character whose primary role in life is to be hot and mean. She succeeds at being hot and mean, but I have reached my limit with this character. I realize we’re only a quarter of the way into the season, but I don’t think I can take another arc about her learning to compromise only to reveal to Barry that she never intended to compromise at all. At this point, it’s both abusive and boring. How?! The Grace/Brianna parallels aren’t interesting anymore, because one character has grown and the other is stagnant. I get that Brianna was raised in an emotionally stilted environment by two unhealthy people. But I think it would be very cool if she could learn something from her mother at this point. Grace has put a ton of effort into dealing with her “rabbit-killing, mad-at-the-world anger.” She’s put a ton of effort into figuring out what makes her happy, what she wants her life to look like. She’s even started accepting her age and abilities without shame. And that growth is believable; Grace is still short-tempered and she still slugs back way too many martinis and she struggles to articulate certain things, but she’s grown into a truly lovely human. And while, as a daughter with a mother, I can absolutely attest to the fact that it can be difficult and uncomfortable to learn lessons from one’s mother, Brianna really, really should. Grace spent decades letting anger and shame trap her in a small, miserable life. Brianna—and even Mallory, who just seems like a vapid idiot this season—are traveling that same path, but there’s someone right there who could really help, maybe even more than Frankie helped when the Hanson girls were first growing up.

The arraignment. The scene might’ve been salvageable if it was filmed from Grace’s perspective, and filmed to reflect how surreal and improbable it all was. But speaking of non-linear progress, this scene erased everything Nick Skolka has done to put himself in my good graces (LOL) over the past couple seasons. I mean, I tried, man. I even wrote fic about Nick, Grace, and Frankie making a genuine effort at polyamory. But the arraignment is so emotionally manipulative, such a slap in the face of everything Grace has worked for, and while we’re certainly “supposed” to feel the weight of the moment, I mean, it’s not like we’re supposed to be like, “Oh, cool, we’re in a rom com now! This is adorable!” it still felt bad and unearned and slapdash.

And I want Frankie to process these things with her! Frankie seems so happy to have all this information about Grace and how Grace feels, but I want to see scenes in which we can gain an understanding of how Frankie actually feels. Hearing Frankie talk to other people about how Grace feels is interesting, but it’s like there’s no room in these episodes for us to learn anything new about Frankie herself.

Grace’s transitional wig. Is so. Bad. It is. Such a. Bad wig. Oof. I mean, I like what they’re doing with Grace’s hair from a plot perspective, although (see one bullet up) I would really like to get more of an understanding of what’s happening in Grace’s head, not just on top of her head. And gosh, Frankie would be a really good person to talk to about this in a conversation that lasts longer than 30 seconds. But the wig! She’s in a wig in all four episodes, of course, since Jane Fonda went grey and cut her hair short before they started filming this season. The wig for episodes 1 and 2 is fine; it’s a good approximation of Grace’s typical hair, and of course we know that canonically Grace’s hair isn’t 100% her own hair anyway. But the wig with grey roots looks so weird. The part that’s growing out doesn’t look the same as the hair on the wig from 1 and 2. And the grey roots look like a yarmulke. I cannot wait to get to the point in the season when Grace goes all the way grey.

(One more thing about the hair. I can’t let it go. I paused the show while we were watching to rant, but I’m not done.) I had the great privilege of seeing Jane Fonda in person at a protest in 2019. She is an insanely beautiful human. She was growing her hair out and it was partially dyed blonde and partially grey. It looked really cool. I am not ashamed to say I spent that day learning many things about the climate crisis and about Jane Fonda’s hair. Having seen her in real life with her real hair looking that fucking great, I just have a an extra-large grudge against everyone involved in that horrible wig. The wig is necessary, but it didn’t have to be this bad.

What Do I Care About Now?

I am pretty intrigued by the way Grace threw out her real age in a conversation with Nick and Elena. She has nothing to fear anymore! She’s so chill about aging! What could go wrong? I assume that Nick and Elena maneuvering for Nick to be on house arrest in Grace's house specifically has to do with the fact that Grace is 82. She’s gonna find out that Nick is allowed to be with her because she’s ancient and helpless and the court took pity. Or something like that. She’s going to feel betrayed on top of feeling stifled and overwhelmed by Nick’s presence. I want to see where this goes for sure.

Other than that, and other than the fact that I really do continue to believe this show is moving in a direction in which Grace and Frankie will choose each other, I feel very whatever about this whole thing. I love this show and I will always appreciate this show for giving me some incredible characters to spend years of my life writing about, and for bringing me some pretty amazing friendships. Speaking of those friendships, yesterday @ellydash and @telanu and I were talking about some of the incredible TV we’ve watched recently, like Ted Lasso and Hacks and Fleabag and Killing Eve, and how great it feels to watch beautifully written TV crafted by writers who are profoundly—organically yet intentionally—attuned to even the most minor character’s rhythm. The disappointment of these first few episodes of the new G&F season feels like a mild disappointment rather than a sharp heartbreak, and that has a lot to do with being deeply invested in other shows that could also go in all kinds of different directions but with writing I fundamentally trust.

Also Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are my forever faves and my appreciation for their performances and general awesomeness onscreen and in life is undiminished. So that’s pretty cool.

[damerondala]

🍒 I loved what you wrote for my Boba request, so good and so on point 😘👌🏻 How are you liking the season so far? I have…mixed feelings lol. I’m trying to save my judgement until the end of the series though, there’s still so much more they can do with it.

Anyway…I have a uh Thot 🙃 Totally unrelated to Boba. There’s this gif of Jesse and Kix talking during the Bad Batch arc in S7 (i wish i knew how to add images in here!) But every time i see it, i’m just drawn to how thicc Jesse’s thighs look and 🥵 i just can’t handle it. So i’ve come to see if my very best friend here can help a poor girl out with her Jesse Thigh Attraction. Pretty pleaseee? 😇🍒

oh honey you don't even have to pretty please this request bc i know EXACTLY the scene you are talking about. when he and kix are making fun of the batch right?? oh my god this actually made my day - hell probably my whole week! (i am also so sorry for taking so long, this semester is proving itself to be a lot but i’m also really excited for it:) hope you understand <3)

i also have mixed feelings about bobf so far. i don’t wanna sound like one of those fanboys and bitch about it but the third episode just really didn’t do it for me, i'm frankly kind of pissed how they just threw the storyline about the tuskens out the window. it was so interesting to see boba connecting with them and really humanizing them and then bleh they just killed them off and gave us space power rangers which i thought was bullshit. AND i love din but what the hell? this is supposed to be a love letter to boba fucking fett??

ANYWAYS enough of my babbling, i really hope the show picks up from here on out! 

good ol arc trooper jesse content under the cut. 18+

okay we're gonna do this in a bulleted list bc i feel like i can capture everything better that way so without further adooooo...

i feel like jesse lowkey doesn't even really think twice about his thighs

like he always thought that most people liked troopers arms because they were nice and muscular, like that’s the socially acceptable thing to like right?

wrong, jesse. so fucking wrong.

you notice how big his legs look the first time you meet him. the dirty, white plastid wrapping so perfectly around his absolute fuckin ham hocks, the long treks across countless planets doing wonders for the muscles there 

but the first time you really realized how strong his legs were was when you first slept together, the way his thighs felt so solid while smacking against the back of your own, driving home into your slick with loud, unashamed grunts 

one time while y'all are fooling around, you grab onto his thighs while he's pressed up against you, massaging them a little more than necessary tbh

and that's when it clicks in his cute noggin 

he kind of falters for a quick second upon realizing you really like his thighs, probably even more than he likes yours

but jesse is so smug (god i love him) and so of course he uses this opportunity to tease you about it

he gets harder each time you whimper at his teasing, "you got a dirty little secret, baby?"

when you gasp out a “yes” at that tone of his voice you both are so eager to get busy but he drags it out because of course he does even though he’s already leaking while imagining you humping his thick thighs 

jesse gets up from where he was slotted in between your legs and replaces his body with just one of his thighs, his knee pushing down into the soft bedding at the bottom of your ass 

he takes this opportunity to look down and admire your flustered state, your clothes rumpled, a tit peeking out of the collar of your low cut shirt

jesse has a wide hand clasped around one of your legs, bringing your core closer to his thigh and tsks when you try to grind against it. tightening his grip on your thigh and bringing his other hand down to your heat

“hang on, baby. lemme get you started.” 

he starts using his middle finger to prod at your engorged clit through your panties, deliberately swirling once you let out a nice, long sigh

he groans when he feels the wet fabric of your panties rub against his bare thigh, the erection in his underwear now painfully obvious against your bent leg that he has pulled flush to himself

you whimper for him, “i-jesse... oh wanna come.” 

he huffs out a breath of air, trying to concentrate on bringing you to your high but ultimately decides that this is as best time as ever to try out what you have been dreaming about

he stops and pulls away, hooking his hands around you waist to bring you up, “and i wanna see what it is that has you so fucking wet.” 

jesse gives a quick smack to your ass as he swaps your spot for his, although he elects to sit up against the headboard, guiding your hips to straddle his bent leg

you fully sit on his thigh and he, again, groans at the contact. you’re aching and waste no time in moving your hips back and forth, riding jesse’s thigh with fluid thrusts 

your mouth immediately hangs open at the feeling of your panties helping the friction on your clit, and it’s safe to say that jesse loves the view

the sight of him leaning back, his cock tenting his briefs and his arms gripping your hips urges you to speed up, unbothered with how the bed creaks with each roll of your body, your moans traveling through the room with no couth 

jesse knows you like it when he lets his mouth run on and on during sex, and he begins babbling nonsense when your knee begins to nudge his full balls, the feeling making him begin to sweat

“take it, cyar’ika.” a moan cuts him off, “you like fucking my thighs? yeah? so fucking dirty. you’re my dirty girl.” 

you’re moving so quickly your upper body begins to bounce on top of him, your moans becoming impossibly louder and more frequent 

your eyes squeeze shut when you feel the pool of heat in your stomach feel it’s about to overflow, nearly screaming jesse’s name as you grip his shoulders and come in your panties

jesse groans along with you, moving to sweet talk you as you begin to calm down, “oooh look at that. my pretty little thing.” 

Jesse is definitely a talker but i think he also really likes physical touch so when you’re calming down he likes to run the back of his hand against your cheeks, whispering about how pretty you are and how he loves taking care of you, giving you kisses wherever he can reach 

from then on, whenever you two are going to have a quickie, or just want to have some fun foreplay, your thighs are wrapped around one of jesse’s incredibly beefy thighs. bound to make your neighbors complain about the noise. 

~ 

taglist! please fill out this form to be added ((and let me know if you do not want to further be tagged for my writing - no hard feelings!))

@djarrex @pastelpanda19 @milfplo-koon @sageislostinspring @shiny-mando @tacticalsparkles @meabravo @masterjedilenaaa @808tsuika @anthrogothic @deeplyjohnnydepp @clonecyare 

[ramonahblog]

CBS Ghosts Review Ramble

Season One, Episode Seventeen: Attic Girl

Spoilers below the cut. 

Starting off in 1987. What year did Arrow-Guy die? Before or after or the same? 

Also stereotypical creepy setting despite it being the Woodstone Mansion.

Huh, I know there are a lot of myths/legends which are essentially “if you do anything more than lightly kiss as a teenager, you die,” but there is one specific one I’m thinking of. Where the guy gets out of the car while the chick is like “no” and she hears trees scraping the roof and she eventually gets out and the “Tree” scraping the roof was her murdered boyfriend’s feet all this time. Or she tries to get out only for her dead body to fall down from the roof. Cause that latter one makes so much sense. 

I know it said chainsaw killer but that’s what I thought of. Also damn, the casting credits really spoiled that, huh? 

Hetty hoping to possess someone again. 

“You actually booked a guest?!” Hetty giving off a surprise pikachu face here. I don’t even like Pokemon, I just like that meme. 

“You get to use that like two more times,” - Sam. Sorry, Sam. But when you ask your spouse to literally commit corpserobbing, that spouse gets to use that an infinite amount of times. Especially if they did it. 

Also I love how all the other ghosts are like “fair” when Jay responds as to why he gets the nicer chore. 

Here’s Stephanie. I can’t remember if I posted on tumblr or just said it in discord but I did say that if the show went with the expected ghost for Stephanie to have a crush on (Trevor), I would laugh. So *laughing*. 

Sam is like “WHY YOU NEVER TELL ME THERE WAS A GHOST IN AN ATTIC?!” but trying to be polite. This is twice now that the main ghosts haven’t told Sam about the other ghosts. I don’t want to make that two-nickel meme but just know that’s what I’m picturing. Feel free to make the meme yourself. 

Trevor’s face when Hetty goes “and Trevor has a crush on her” 

Okay so I’m assuming the Sam-Stephanie conflict comes from Stephanie’s  - omg I want to shorten her name so badly - crush on Trevor. And also, just letting you know I wrote Sam-Steph before realizing I had no idea if Stephanie was right (listen I was not kidding when I said I was awful with names) and that was not a good combo. 

 “I AM A GOD” - Alberta. Also love the fact that it is Alberta who is heard. Also does this still count as a new power? I feel like it doesn’t count as a new power because Alberta’s power has always been related to her voice. I don’t think it counts as a new power. It’s too similar.  

“Yes, I went down a rabbithole,” - Jay. Mood. Rabbitholes are sneaky. 

“Oh, a ghost Prom cause that doesn’t sound like the title to a horror movie,” - Jay. He’s killing (pffft accident, I swear) it this episode. Damn it google docs, I DON’T NEED THE FUCKING IN. Maybe I should just risk tumblr and its poor saves again. 

Lol Isaac getting Alberta to ask how Hamilton died. Apparently multiple times. 

Hetty is 100% down to be Isaac’s wingEwardian. I hope she actually is Edwardian and I did not fuck that up.WingVictorian just sounds weird. 

Ooof. No. 

I like how the other ghosts were drawing a hard line at no mean pranks (too bad they had no context so it comes across cruel anyway). Also love the fact that Pete (hey I got it!) is nowhere to be seen. 

And he is so confused. Also love how the other ghosts are immediately wtf? And are like “Stephanie no” once they have the context and immediately go to Sam to apologize. 

Lol at Trevor admitting he hadn’t gotten it. 

“Trying to defend you Sam, not making it easy,” - Pete. 

OMG, omg. I just realized Sam’s reaction to Trevor’s dating profile in Jay’s Sister is a lot better (worse?) with this context.  

Good try, ghosts. Kinda making it sound like you planned the whole thing out here. All you did was call Stephanie on her bluff about the “no one allowed at prom” thing. 

Alberta lol. 

“How are we even related?” - Hetty. :D

“Sucked off at prom? I suppose anything’s possible,” - Hetty. I’m laughing. My humour died at twelve and is now a ghost. I’m laughing. 

AWW JAY WENT AND FOUND A CORSAGE AND DRESSED UP TO SURPRISE SAM!

[teresa-moyocoyotzin]

QOTS 5.09 “I Love You” Scenes Meta

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 5.09 OF QUEEN OF THE SOUTH ABOUND

Okay this is basically just me trying to place James and Teresa’s ILY scenes within the larger context of their relationship and other kisses, and analyzing their respective reactions!

(Also just a disclaimer that obviously this is just one fan’s interpretation, there’s no right or wrong here! This is just how I see it and hopefully it’ll connect w some of y’alls insight too!)

Oh boy okay so I’m just gonna do this in the style of my old Bolivia visions meta b/c I think the best in bullet point form, so we’re just gonna go thru the scenes like super in depth, w/ way more detail than necessary. Think of it as a close reading, but instead of a piece of writing, it’s a tv show, and it has no sources except My Opinions lol

I’m still planning to actually write out my reactions to the whole episode when I re-watch it, but I can’t stop picking apart the I Love You scenes b/c honestly there’s so much going on there! Come on y’all this has been building since the second episode of this show there’s a lot to unpack here. I’m mostly focusing on how these kisses are vastly different from any of their other kisses IMO and how that affects the love confessions!

THIS IS GONNA BE UNNECESSARILY LONG AND NOT VERY ORGANIZED, BE WARNED

Let’s start when James says “You wouldn’t let me do it, so why should I let you?” shall we? B/c THIS MOMENT

SO as others have pointed out, this line really feels like a love confession in and of itself, and I’m sure if they hadn’t confessed their feelings in the same scene we would all be obsessing about it. I low-key am anyways..

Sure they’ve acknowledged that they do things to protect each other etc. etc. but this is really James making sure that she knows that he knows that SHE knows that they both feel the same way, and he’s not dancing around it anymore, not when she’s throwing herself into danger yet again. Teresa doesn’t have an answer, but it does make something click in her brain. No matter what moral code she’s following these days, if James was walking into a death trap like that she wouldn’t want him to go and would try to stop him. And right now, he’s feeling the same thing for her, he knows that she cares as much about him as he cares about her and that it’s a LOT, and he’s telling it straight to her face.

When she kisses him, I think it’s an acknowledgment of that, as well as her sort of trying to return the sentiment. And also, she doesn’t have a good answer to his question and wants to kiss him so she does!! James is clearly surprised by the kiss, as evident by his posture and slowly relaxing into the kiss. But THEN

After James’ brain catches up, he kisses her again, and even tho it’s short it looks to me like a pretty powerful, strong kiss!!?? (hard to tell b/c as usual…. they filmed it in a black hole..) and to me, it reads like he really let all his true feelings come through in that kiss POSSIBLY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

Now, lemme explain. Their first kiss in 3.05 was undeniably full of feelings and emotions, and I’m sure that night was super passionate and full of love! However, knowing what we know now about how everything plays out, I don’t think they were really at the point of saying ILY yet. Even if they did both love each other then, and I think they did, they had a lot of trust issues and abandonment issues to work through first. And as we all know, after that night everything goes to shit and they go about 12 steps backwards. My main point here is that I think both James and Teresa are still feeling generally unsure about each other’s feelings during their first kiss. This is also true for.. literally all of their kisses? Until now. Because in 3.09, they’re just super horny from taking over Phoenix but Teresa is just barely getting over Guero’s death in that episode.. I think that kiss was more about them feeling like the King and Queen of phoenix and less about their Actual Feelings (just imo obviously). And then they kiss after Teresa gets back form Bolivia but Teresa is suspecting him then and he’s certainly feeling her hesitation so no big feelings in that kiss either. Then of course there’s the goodbye kiss at the end of s3, and yes in that one I do think they were both letting their true feelings show in their kiss but they were both misinterpreting the other’s feelings and both were in a way lying to the other in that scene. James about his reason for leaving, and Teresa about her true reasons for wanting him to stay. And THEN, the kiss at the beginning of s5 is very much a “I’m happy you’re back, I want to be with you, but we can’t” kind of kiss, and again, there were feelings there but they were both still holding something back, and still not on the same page about what they wanted and were working towards. But in this kiss, they are on the same page , working toward the same thing, which is to get themselves OUT, together. Ever since they made that decision, there is an implicit agreement between them that they’re getting out together, and I think they both know that they want to be together if they make it out. And they both are desperate to have the other know their feelings before any potential deaths. However, they don’t really KNOW that they’re on the same page until that KISS.

SO ALL THIS TO SAY that in my eyes, the main reason Teresa’s so shocked is that this is the first time that James didn’t hold ANY of his love for her back when he kissed her, and she FELT IT babeyy. Teresa initiates this kiss to show him her true feelings, which takes him bit by surprise, but then he returns the feelings Full Force which takes Teresa totally by surprise.

I mean just look at her face after they part, before he says ILY. She looks shocked and confused, almost a little angry? I don’t think it’s really anger though, so much as it is being taken aback by the emotions that James is laying all out on the table for her to clearly see. Her face here is actually what drove me to write this meta, because at first I was so confused as to why she looked so shook up after the first kiss, cuz like girl U INITIATED IT?? I think part of it is that Teresa was a bit taken aback by the strength of her own feelings in that moments and the urge to kiss him despite them not being out of the business yet. She’s realized that if she’s gonna die tomorrow, she wants to kiss James first, and she wants that like, really bad. And also she loves him and was overcome w the urge to show him. But mainly, I really don’t think she expected to be met w/ such strong love from James’ kiss, because all the other times, he had been holding back his feelings.

James’ face after the kiss totally plays into this theory for me - he looks like he just got CAUGHT. She’s looking at him like what the Fuck was that!!! And he’s like oh SHit now I just gotta say it. The way he looks at her and shakes his head a little like, wow I’m really about to say it. I think it’s been on the tip of his tongue all episode, but he realized he just totally showed his hand with that kiss and there’s no going back now.

But omg you guys his face when he says it just SENDS ME TO THE FLOOR his little smile???? Like he’s thinking “how did we end up here? am I really about to tell Teresa I love her? YEP”

I don’t think she had any intention of telling him her feelings so outright yet, to me it totally makes sense that he tells her first. At the beginning of the season, Teresa made it clear that she does want to be with James, but she felt restricted by their life. So, James has spent the past season coming to terms with a) that Teresa still wants to be with him if they can get out of the business, b) that she’s changed a lot and no longer follows her old moral code, and c) that he still loves her even if she’s not entirely the same person he fell in love with originally.

Meanwhile Teresa came to terms w/ the fact that she wanted to be w/ him early in the season but pushed that Right down after indulging in 1 kiss (which I think was also meant to be a reassurance that she did want to be with him) but spent the rest of the season trying to grow her business, which in her mind would forever keep her from being able to be with James. So even if she acknowledged her feelings, she was not letting herself dwell on them. James, however… oh boy has he been dwelling. Especially since Dumas so kindly pointed his feelings out to him lol. So I think Teresa’s strong feelings for James have been building under the surface but she wasn’t allowing herself to acknowledge them at all, and therefore I think she kind of surprised herself a bit by kissing him, was then even more surprised by how strongly her feelings were showing, and then James hits her with a Big Feelings kiss and then an I Love You??? Oh boy

Taking this into account it totally makes sense that she looks super shocked after James tells her, even if they both have ~known~ for a long time. Y’know?

Okay so then there’s the sex scene which I LOVED omg, like absolutely zero complaints, super hot, exactly what they and we deserved. I’m not gonna get into it b/c I think it speaks for itself, but like, would happily read a meta about it if someone wrote it 👀

Anyways I think the morning after, when Teresa is laying in bed admiring James, is when Teresa is really digesting all of these feelings and the fact of them being out in the open, and she’s deciding that she needs to tell James she loves him, like ASAP. She is also at the same time having to accept that she’s going on a super dangerous mission today that she night not come back from, and if she does come back from it, they’re gonna have to still find a way Out. All in all, safe to say she’s got a lot going on in her mind, but it’s clear by her gazing at him that James is a big factor in all of it.

I love the next scene so much omg

They’ve gotten ready for the day and James is once again pulling tricks out of his bag to ensure her safety, and she’s just.. staring at him. My personal headcanon here is that Teresa’s intuition was telling her that a) the phonegun was gonna be irrelevant, and b) that she had about 30 seconds before her phone rang and she had to leave for potential death. Therefore it just blocked out literally everything but James and needing to tell him that she loved him. The moment I love the most is actually when James says “Here, try it” and he steps closer and she sort of jolts like they’re physically connected. The first time I saw the scene I literally gasped from that one step he takes because they just had this electric pull between them that was so obvious that I literally felt it. The chemistry!!!!

She’s just so focused on him in that moment and that whole scene, and the way she whispers “I love you” likes she just HAS to say it, she has to make sure he KNOWS she loves him before she runs off to risk her life. And the fact that it happens while James is actively trying to set her up for protection??? POETIC CINEMA I tell you. Kudos to Alice for that because apparently it was her idea and it’s my FAVE

Another thing that I really don’t know how to interpret but I find interesting from a cinematic point of view: James and Teresa are literally left in the dark during James’ love confession. It’s at night, and there is NO DAMN LIGHT AT ALL ON THEIR FACES (I bet the gif makers really appreciated that one huh…) so we can’t even see their reactions very well. Meanwhile, when Teresa confesses her feelings, it’s super brightly lit, in a white room, she’s wearing white, we can see all of the emotions on their faces. IDK what this is meant to symbolize exactly, so if anyone has thoughts PLEASE share them.

James seems a little in shock after, I think he really didn’t expect her to say it, even if he assumed she felt the same. And I think he was okay w/ that and had accepted it, knowing it would be really hard for her to say. After all, once she acknowledges it, it’s that much more painful if they have to say goodbye…

I think the way she says it perfectly captures how hard it is for her to get the words out, even if she feels an overwhelming urge to say them and make sure he knows. She seems very sure of her feelings, and I don’t think she hesitated to tell him at all, but it’s still a big step, and presumably the last person she said ILY to, in this context, was Guero. And his death destroyed her, so ofc she’s be scared to admit that she’s in love and put herself at the risk of losing it again. God Alice did such a good job w/ that line it really gets me every time. So sure, and soft, but with no room for doubt. Like she knows he doesn’t expect her to say it, but she can’t bear to let him think she doesn’t love him back. And it’s so simple too, like she’s saying “of COURSE I love you, how could you think I don’t?” AHHHH

And just the way she stares at him the whole time like she’s just waiting for him to stop talking so she can say it, and while she waits she’s perfectly happy to ignore the situation at hand and think about how she loves him and he loves her and also probably how good he FUCKS cuz like……………y’all saw his hand goin’ down there after he flips her over right 👀 okay ANYWAYS

So she finally tells him!!!!!! That she loves him!!! And kisses him!! Just to really drive the point home. And because, again, I think something was telling Teresa to kiss her man and tell him she loves him because she was about to get a call from Kostya’s men any second.

I really think James’ sort of blank look after she tells him is just him being in shock that she actually said it. I would have loved to know what he would have said after that, but alas.

That final shot before the phone rings though ❤️ their foreheads together, her hand on his heart and his hand on her hand, also the way that visually her arm (clothed in white) is across his body (clothed in black/gray) and vice versa w/ his arm is across her body, sort of continuing the sort of yin-yang theme they have going this season, I just think is a cool touch on the behalf of whoever choreographed/directed the scene.

I also interpret it as a very grounding moment for both of them, rooted in physical touch but not sexual in any way, just comforting. They finally can completely take comfort in each other because their feelings are out in the open and they’re completely connected. AGH they really have me in a chokehold lol

Anyways this is so fucking long and rambly, I don’t know if it makes sense but I did my best to proofread, I’m so sorry but thank you for reading if you’ve made it all the way here, or like even if you made it thru 1/16 of it lol I APPRECIATE YOU

I’m not sure what the main point is here, but anyways I think the actors, writers, directors, etc. did an amazing job w/ their I Love You scenes and I’m personally feeling v satisfied w/ it!

[icecreamkink]

watched all of the untamed / cql in two weeks after my friend 1 told me abt mdzs a hundred years ago and my friends 2 and 3 tried to get me into cql for like two whole years and there are.

feelings.

very first scene is a very dramatic death in the middle of nightmare battle on sith planet land . i will forget abt it in the next tenish episodes and then will be very surprised when it becomes Extremely Painful

anyway magic flying gays and possession and human sacrifice! we are off to a great start

in retrospect, chaos goblin wei wuxian must have had a blast pretending to be so cRaZy and be as disruptive as he could as mo xuanyu lbr

listen. why is fire always evil coded. cant a magic clan wear red, black and orange and have flame motif while being wholesome?

For Legal Reasons These Are Not Zombies

i wish the politics of the sect were a bit clearer, especially at the beggining when the wen clan had sm power, was wen ruohan the chief cultivator? is that why they were so slow in responding to the attacks? im v confused by the pre yiling patriarch politics

fighting in the roof by the moonlight as way of flirtiiiiiiing. as i understand this is a wuxia/xianxia trope and honestly...... thank u for ur service

slight bullying and being a nuisance in general, as a way of flirting we love to see it

wwx: if i drink on the rooftop, thats not inside the cloud recesses! hmmm check and mate :D lwj: i will fuck u up so help me god   wwx: :0

i lov them

through hell or high water (quite literally) wei wuxian rem ains a trashfire gremlin till the end and i love him with my whole heart

in the pt subs wei wuxian calls jiang cheng a stubborn duck and i dearly wish that had come back

my opinions on almost every character goes from love to hate u - Hmm Me Like U - BABY. ILY. and i am Very Pleased w that. its been a while since i loved such a complete cast so much i think

no really. i WONT go into a detailed rant abt what i love about each of these characters and each of their relationships to each other. but i COULD. 

some lan disciples in the loudest whisper ever: YEAH THATS THE JIN BASTARD MENG YAO HEARD THE GOT SUPER HUMILIATED BY HIS DAD LOL SURE HOPE HE DOESNT TAKE SLIGHTS TO HIS CHARACTER TO HEART

lan xichen, immediately: i must Love him 

being into problematic ppl is in the Lan genetics, we come to realize

wen qing deserves so many awards for so many things but not snapping and just stabbing wen chao is at the top 

that scene at lan qirens class where wwx talks about using resentful energy to fight a violent spirit. exquisite.

 It establishes Good Student lan wangji, wei wuxian as curious and questioning and not afraid of taboo,  lwj sees that wwx is not, in fact, a dumb ass hes just a Dumbass,  shows us the audience (esp. a western audience) how shocking the idea of disrupting the dead/dying and controlling resentful energy actually is,  the theoretical foreshadow arguing, everyone else like ‘shUT UP’,  “and how could you ensure that the resentful energy would obey you and not hurt other?” “well i havent thought that far” and of course, lan qiren just straight up lobbing a hard object at wwx head,. chefs kiss

fellas is it gay to bother the hot rule obessessed nerd from ur school and make drawings of him with flowers in his hair and then hide gay porn in his book to antagonize him and ask him to hold ur hand and be ur friend and talk to him all the time and get him drunk and give him bunnies bc you know he likes them and give him a lantern and always want his attention and dedicate yourself to getting him to smile-

and after all of that wwx rly said oh i Admire him, aksd like yeah we all were there in high school buddy

i have Learned. caves = gay.

 accidental marriage +beint physically tied together with the sacred married ribbon+ gay panic+foreshadowing+bunnies! in the cave (1)

the story abt lan yi and baoshan sanren tho. i would like to see it

early days wen bros pull my heart strings like a guqin 

EVERYTHING about the lantern scene; disaster hets jiang yanli and jin zixuan; how wwx made lwj a bunny lantern. how soft and touched lwj was. wwx gleefully pointing out he was smiling and lwj IMMEDIATELY PULLING HIW SWORD ON HIM LMAO. tragically foreshadowy promises to do right by pepople, living without regrets. lwjs 'oh no do i love him??' face. just. all of it. 

i have it on good acc that in the novel lwj is explicitly Repressed Gay Panicked Big Horny which is delightful and rly Adds to the performance

 baby lwj is really just conceal dont feel dont let them know u have EMOTIONS (derogatory)

jiang cheng rly went "why dont.u go play with HIM if u like him so much"

jc and wwx have big BIG annoying sibling energy dont think too hard abt it or youll cry

lotus pier is soo pretty :((((((((((((((((

up until episode 13 you could think this could be a magical ancient chinese gays pride n prejudice w swords and shenanigans ................youre just not prepared for the game of thrones of it all

seriously ha ha ha i cried so much w this show my eyes genuinely swelled up . like. physically. fun timez fun timez

that being said, its hilarious that wen xu goes to cloud recesses like 'come out or ill kill all these hostages' and then DOESNT WAIT FOR AN ASWER AND KILLS THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY. do u know how blackmail works sir

 would like to make it recorded that from day one i was like 'CALL A GODDAMN CULTIVATION G20 THIS ASSHOLE SECT IS LITERALLY MASSACRING YALL!!' and it took them like 3 or 4 massacres to do anything and they STILL sent their heirs into their territory  LIKE

when wwx cites the gusu lan rules to wen chao tho. that rebel/attention whore/cutie pie 'look lan zhan i DID memorize the rules after all' ‘also a big fuck you to the wen sect :D :D’ sweet spot that scene achieves . delicious

all the cultivator young masters being petty af even though they are practically prisoners at the cave is hilarious and i love them

hurt and comfort + gay mistunderstandings + watsonian gay declaration music + accidental evil acquisition! at the cave (2)

its like where do i start? the fact theyre both trapped and kind of heavily injured inside an isolated cave with a murder turtle? wwx gay panicking lwj into coughing up bad blood? lwj being jealous as wwx babbles abt mianmian? telling him he shouldnt play with people and wwx saying he never played him? wwx going Oh. I See what is happening. YOU like mianmian, and lwj absolute done face ??? (iconic) wwx touching the sacred married ribbon Again? the telepathic communication? the sword? WEI WUXIAN ASKING LAN WANGJI TO SING TO HIM AS HE IS PASSING OUT AND LWJ SINGING HIM. THE SONG. HE WROTE. FOR WWX. AND THAT HE CALLED. THEIR SHIP NAME????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

they are SO insufferable pleeeeease

in the words of my friend 1 : “CQL is so gay we were all amazed how it got past the censors Ofc unfortunately it can't be novel level gay But they did their best And we love them for it”

in the theme of songs THIS OST. WUJI HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY MIND RENT FREE SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT the whole ost is so so sO beautiful.

 the costuming in this is also soooo exquisite. the embroidery? the fabrics? the details? how every sect and clan has a distinct style and architecture? (also ik they based each off of dif periods in chinese history which is REALLY fucking cool) just chefs kiss

the direction too!. i enjoy the unusual camera movements and i think they give it that Vibe, also their composition is PARTICULARLY good when it comes to telling the subtext through position of camera/position of character (like nhs off to the side in scenes he at first glance doesnt need to be/ how lwj is often centered when hes Jealous Yearning at wwx being affectionate w other ppl, wwx return from burial mounds etc)

ik madam yu is like Badass Milf Check and shes not getting any mom of the year awards but im delighted at how messy she is. IMAGINE that woman on tiktok

you better have enjoyed gay cave (2) bc its Just Pain from here on out! 

jiang fengmian and madame yu win the Most Dramatic Way to show they do care about each other, actually ..... ever :)

i thought jiang yanli jiang cheng and wei wuxian forcing themselves to escape yunmeng barely holding on after their parents are killed was going to be the height of pain in this show. ha. 

the family dynamics in general on this showwwww, both blood/ adopted/ found families, brotherly bonds and lifelong friendships just. rly. truly. fucked me up. theyre all so important and complicated and well rounded and beautiful and tragic

and beyond being a Win For the Gays im so glad the relationships w wwx and jiang yanli/ wen qing were NOT changed from platonic bc they are so much better like that imo. like maybe if we didnt Live In A Society it wouldnt be so, but the fact wwx and others can love and value them so much and theres nothing romantic or sexual abt it is like. so refreshing. especially @ jyl, with the way he and jc are overprotective of her and shes such a nurturing/care taker figure for them, it would just not vibe as well if they made it romantic

i love that this is a story abt Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch aka Actual Satan/Boogey Man/Village With/Public Enemy Number One , my dude is literally a necromancer who only dresses in black and has evil smokey black tendrils wafting out of him, but the really edgy one is still jiang cheng, pastel purple fashion icon

and speaking of best/worst siblings wei wuxian and jiang cheng *immediately starts crying* 

The Golden Core Transfer i just. no thots only tears 

wen qing and wen ning putting themselves in so much danger just.... to help them. wn saving jc from wen chao. wq finding a way to get wwx to transfer his core. like thinking about the monumental work these two did to help wwx and jyl and jc... jyl trying so fucking hard to be strong and keep on moving and giver her little brothers comfort after losing everything... jiang cheng. losing his parents and his home and his ability to do anything abt it and his complete desperation and lack of self worth and turning on them with agression  when he didnt realize all that they did for him ... hhhhhhhhhhhhh

me, pointing at the whole cast “i just LOVE them mom!!!”

its sad tho, that BARELY ANY of the women have like.... actual important conversations let alone relationships with each other at all in the story. and like wq and jyl have stayed at the same place for extended periods of time, where wq actively took care of her TWICE,  and still! not one measly convo, nothing! ................ .𝓌ₕᵧ

everyone in this show need a good sip of Self Worth and Stop Sacrificing Yourself juice 

ngl the sword flying looks very dumb 

“a-cheng, please bring a-xian back.” “i will, i promise.” ;-;

the whole calling each other by the More Intimate Version of the name, first as teasing and later as true intimacy. mmmhmmm yes

untamed where everythings the same but wwx evil flute song is eoeo

related that scene when wwx comes back from the burial mounds for the first time w demonic cultivation and he acts all formal and calls lwj hanguang-jun and keeps being evasive and distant and mean and soooooo................. facetious 

and how hes kind of desperately trying to keep intense lwj at bay (A FIRST) and avoiding actually talking to either of them and its all tension ughhh and then he MOCKS his and lwjs relationship, he jokes w him in this like... mean echo of their usual ~banter~ oof 

 and like!!! uncertain but so relieved jc who just HUGS him w no reservations for once and its not like he isnt just as worried as lwj abt wwx and what hes doing, but he chooses in that moment to enjoy getting him back first and mmhmMMMmMm yes (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show? MAYBE SO. ) 

highkey hurt me but also. i might be into mean wwx. i will take no criticism.

lan zhans sad eyes tho :((((((((( 

on one hand i wish we could have seen what happened at the burial mounds but on the other the timeskip adds so much flair to his return so im hnnn

also i love that hes been missing for 3 months reappears kinda melancholic and bloodthirsty and knowing malign tricks and jc is like 'so. are u sad bc of lan wangji'

when ur bae survived the war but he thinks ur evil/ might be evil so you cant kiss :///

hmmm talking at the rooftop under the moonlight not mentioning everything that stands between usssss

they are the two jades of lan and we’ll be the two heroes of yunmeng is the type of line u dont even need to know whats gonna happen to know thats gonna be sad

when they fight wen ruoshan at the nightless city i thought that was the battle we see at the first ep and its not and its so easy and theyre all like ‘yayy we won go wwx!’ i was just. SCREAMS WHAT is gonna HAPPEN

so like. post burial mounds/sunshot campaign pre yiling patriarch wwx is like. ultra arrogant, ultra mocking, peak lil shit and it gave me e v e r y t h i n g i wanted

even tho having the wen prisoners at the targets at phoenix mountain and still having wwx and jzx shooting the arrows was???? so.... tone deaf 

wwx: fucking w demonic energy   jyl: he has never done anything wrong in his life, ever <3 <3 (mood)

the parallels between meng yao/wei wuxian (and even xue yang a bit?) are Seen and they are Valid

wwx post burial mounds: can yall SHUT UP abt the goddamn sword (suibian left the chat)

LIKE truly, we talk abt the angst and yearning with wangxian. but what abt wwx and suibian. xianbian / xianqing angst and comfort 100k

take a shot everytime someone coughs up blood

zidian is simply the coolest spiritual weapon rip to suibian and chenqing and bichen and sendou and baixa........ but tis the truth 

cons: everyones families died in a nightmare war! everyones homes burned to the ground! everyone is traumatized! pros: everyone gets cooler clothes and weapons!!

wen ning and a-yuan and yanli bestest babes squad dont touch me rn

everyone: brooding and fighting        ��                                                       wq and jyl: why dont you try some acupunture/drinking some soup and calm down huh? how abt that bitch?? 

showing the battle/massacre at the nightless city first was genius actually bc then everytime we have a cute scene w yunmeng bros and theyre like 'we'll be together forever! uwu' youre like oh. oh no. oh no no no. 

justice vs lawfulness vs means and ends 👁

jc: stay in the right path and practice the art of the sword                        wx: yeah thats not gonna happen chief

my reaction to wwx renouncing to the sect politics to help the wens was just that elmo burning gif in succession

the dramatic rain. wen qing desperately calling out to wen ning. the ghosts/puppets killing the guards. how terrifying wn actually was while wwx was controlling him :( lwj goeing after him to try and stop him and then he just; he Sees him and understands him even if he cant actually do anything about it other than let them go. 

“there must be somewhere in this earth we can go to :(((((((((”

"IF I HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, I'D RATHER IT BE YOU. DYING BY YOUR HANDS WOULD AT LEAST BE WORTH IT." oh my god oh my god oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddd

also lwjs umbrella is white w black smoke.. .  . nice

yiling patriarch / demonic farming burial mounds settlement is like one of my favorite concepts. they an "EVIL" FARMING COMMUNITY LED BY THE VILLAGE WITCH COME ON

they planted TURNIPS and LOTUS FLOWERS and ONE (1) baby and made lanterns and a common hall :(((((((

wen qing and wei wuxian, baddest bitches and genius science best friends i absolutely LOVED to see it. they rly went ‘is anyone gonna sibling/project partner that’ and didnt wait for an answer

both wwx and jyl getting lotus ponds at the burial mounds and in lanling bc they miss lotus pier ;;;;;;;w

;;;;; wish jyl had actually gone into the burial mounds. we were robbed of jyl and wq meeting again and jyl meeting a-yuan and seeing the settlement and the homes and all ;w; at least jc did go, stab wounds and broken arms and all

wwx like... having thrown his whole life away to help the wens (yeah the sect leaders and jin guangshan in particular wanting his stygian tiger amulet was an Element but still) and not.... necessarily regretting it, but grappling with all of the consequences of it... becoming moody and drepressed at times, missing his family and lotus pier and his friends and probably simply missing being around people and causing trouble, extrovert that he is, lashing out at the wens and at a-yuan, just in general the whole messiness of that experience

the way the resentful energy does affect his temperament is rly nice bc its not too in your face,(i mean outside of the Shaky Hands of Rage) but like he clearly has a much lesser control on his anger and impulsivity (tall order) than both before bm and after hes ressurected

on that note A-YUAN BABIEST BABY BOY BEST BOY

lan zhan being like oh hey there wei ying fancy meeting u and our son here. just passing by u know how it is hmmmmMm and then PLOT TWIST having defied orders to go see him and being punished for it. oof;;

 they habent seen each other in like? a year? and now theyre tgt 10 seconds and are already parenting a child together

also lwj rly kneels down in the snow way too much to be healthy

wwx: calm down guyssss i wont lose control of demonic cultivation omgggg  .   spoiler alert: he loses control of demonic cultivation

did u enjoy cute children? good bc now the Real Pain Begins

jiang yanli and jin zixuan rly out there APROPRIATING both disaster gays AND bury ur gays huh ;w;

i KNEW jin lings birthday was gonna fuck something up but the GASP that left my body when wwx lost control of wn and killed jin zixuan .. . . 

im sorry and thank you aaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAA 

when wen ning and wen qing were telling wwx their plan i was saying NO NO NO NO NO NO out loud in despair 

also can we talk abt how wq is definetely talking about only the both of them surrending themselves but then? everyone else just surrenders w them? IT MAKES NO SENSE LIKE WHY WOULD THEY what would be the Point

 sometimes there are some pretty gaping jumps in logic and continuity that are just like                     ?          ?

wwx: oh so when you try to murder me its justified but when i survive through dark magic and murder all of you its a "war crime"

unsurprisingly, his most feral, most spiraling moment talking to the sect leaders on the roof and attacking them and even fighting lan zhan is among my favorite scenes... its like, so painful to watch but also   so       thrilling   (and maybe my wen bbs dying arose some resentful energy in me what can i say) 

and its JUST, all they ever wanted was to do good but then... war. and trauma. and hubris. 

jiang cheng on the ground clearly thorn between what to do and feel is a Mood, lets just say

i was already crying when jyl showed up, but if i wasnt-

 i suffered SO MUCH through this series trying to figure out WHY jc would kill wwx. and when i understood. its somehow not as bad as i thought and also MUCH MUCH WORSE

a look into my group chat during the last flashback episodes:

SO ANYWAY. after the BLOOD BATH and RIPPING YOUR HEART OUT and FEEDING IT TO YOU  the untamed goes ‘ayy back to the present!! tu du dud ud du’ 

literally it ends a quarter into an episode and then KEEPS GOING i had to pause and stare blankly at the ceiling for an hour

babie cultivators and detective soulmates . i do need some cute after All of That 

(not that the pain is over LOL)

lwj is significantly less emotionally repressed in the present and its delightful. hes just ALL IN with wwx. and not just in the ‘i would and have killed various men and risked my reputation for you’ but also ‘ur tired here have a drink i brought it up cause i know u like it and it want you to be happy, always’

“when everyone praised me and wanted my power, you were the only one that challenged me. now that everyone hates me and wants me dead, youre the only one that stands by my side.” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 

and just filling in the blanks how lan zhan searched for him. for all of those 16 years he searched for him and was punished for it and raised a-yuan, the only survivor of the burial mounds settlement, as his own in gusu......

and jiang cheng.  being the tough love uncle . having raised the yunmeng jiang clan from the rubble all alone, his whole family dead, some of it on the blame of his own brother, his siblings, his closest friends gone.......and only jin ling there needing his guidance. 

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN JIN LING BEING A LIFELINE FOR JIANG CHENG AND A-YUAN FOR LAN WANGJI AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE NIGHTLESS CITY  

great now i made myself sad

and like . the fact! that lwj and jc dislike each other!!. jc projects blame onto him for wwx both “leaving” him and indirectly causing their families deaths and when hes so consumed by it he makes wwx an enemy, lwj is there now? trying to protect him?? and lwj, who can never understand the pain that wwx , indirectly or not put jc through, but who was right there when jc tried to kill him and will never allow him to hurt wwx again. and how they like. in a way project blame of their tragedies onto each other while dealing with some type of survivor guilt and in their own way still loving wwx through it all???  amd in way its kind of fundamentally selfish but also tragically understandable? and like when u put it against the fact that after he disappears during the sunshot campaign they were looking for him together and fought together??

JUST. THE CHARACTERS. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS. MAN. UGH. GOD. 

and like i think thats what makes it so good? its such a sad and painful and violent story, edgy even, but its compelling bc at the center of it there are all of these relationships and different types of love and hope and. :( i love it

enough crying lets talk abt wwx sleeping at the jingshi with lwj and wearing his under garment for a minute 🙏

 jin ling just has that Was Raised by JC energy tho lmao i love him

babie cultivator squad is the perfect ammount of cute and comedic relief while still bearing the weight? of the narrative in a way, both from sizhui and jin lings existences, and also. like. how do i put this. they feel hopeful? they were born after a war, they came of age at a time of relative peace, they dont hold on so closely to the resentments of their parents/father figures, they are specifically shown as more accepting and open minded. and its like.... Hope for the future  

one of the ?? things  i love the most is the fact that the main cast are often in situations where theyre hunted/running but they like. never wear disguises... just going around in their gorgeous expensive clan clothes and hair ornaments and distinctive spiritual weapons.... maybe w a straw hat on, just for kicks

wwx teacher 🥺🥺🥺

so this is why its called Yi City Misery huh

a-qing is such. an icon. im so sad. my girl even knew to leave xys dumb self rotting by the road but no one listens to her thats why theyre all dead or sad 

her and xue yang measuring each other up was so entertaining lmao

 its the funniest thing when hes like. HERES MY SAD STORY. FOR WHY IM A SADISTIC MURDERER. I BROKE MY HAND ONCE. 

like ok someone broke his hand in a horrible way, and like Poverty, i get it but also like.......... that lost the brunt of a proper sob story like, 50 sadistic murders ago bby

and i love that xingchen does not entertain that for a second hes like ‘not ?????? good enough???’ and the best thing is he wasnt even like 'u hadto be the bigger person' or sth but ' well then break that dudes hand back, rip his arm off for i care, what do the rest of us have to do w anything???” 

anjo sensato :(

xue yang is like..... the sexy sadistic evil version of a himbo..... a meanbo...

the fucked upness of xy’s feelings for xxc/ xxc and sl feelings for each other... like my dude literally gave his bf HIS EYES. and xy getting so attached to xxc .... the fucked up fake domesticity.... having him hurt sl..... then desperately trying to bring him back ...................... oof

song lan........... literally had his eyes AND tongue removed, his bfs eyes put in place, was almost killed, turned into a puppet by his bf unknowingly, manipulated by xy, sees his bf killing himself in despair.... and STILL finds the strenght to get up from there, and keep on traveling and helping people and attempting to fix xxcs soul.......... like, my man. damn. 

wangxian looking at songxiao and seeing an Actually more painful parallel for themselves. ft. that Color Coding. 

THE A-YUAN/SIZHUI REVEAL PUNCHED ME IN THE HEART but in a good way for a change

should have know that he would be the Best Boy the cute one w all the braincells

the butterfly AND the bunny lantern. i see how it is

u know is very convenient that no one can see the stark black veins on wen nings neck, ever 

BAT WEN NING 

wns face when lwj comes into wwx room like ‘:0 omg did u two finally get your shit together? good for you master wei good for u’ 

(they didnt) (yet)

DISASTER DRUNK LWJ. JUST. THRUST SOME CHICKENS TO SHOW UR RESSURECTED BAE THAT U LOVE THEM.

i have absolutely no idea WHY they gave lwj the same punishment for fighting his own sect/allies to protect the burial mounds as when they got drunk on cloud recess class days.... like? its such a ... emotional continuity error again

also is lwj gonna get an actual friend besides wwx , ever

mianmian marrying and having a family and a cute life after saying FUCK U AND UR SYSTEM TOO in a much less unhinged and dramatic way than wwx......... fills me w joy

also lol the idea that like. her husband not knowing that shes friends w satan/the boogey man/the village witch is hilarious

i love nie mingjue bc hes the resident Though Guy but also the most dramatic bitch in this show and thats Saying Something

jin ling cant have one uneventful relative can he

the fact that everyone present already knew “mo xuanyu” was wwx at the stairs is so funny, their faces are like ‘oh............ wow. that. sure is a development. shock” 

in the tradition of extremely loud whispers wwx tells lwj with twelve guards standing like one meter away from them: HEY PSH LAN ZHAN PRETEND IM FORCING YOU TO STAY W ME DO IT

oh my god oh my god

the absolute Yearning on his face when he leaves wwx and a-yuan at the burial mounds and refuses to stay for dinner was already Enough but the fact?? they brought it back?? to this declaration of love?? their expressions??????? strike me dead right now just go ahead

lFor Legal Reasons We Cant Kiss but we will have a very sappy declaration of love and trust and look at each other in way that is the actualization of 💞💘💗💖💓💘💞💗💖💘💗💖💕💞

also icb all the sect leaders and guards are standing there watching them say they like like each other with a dozen swords pointing at their neck

i enjoyed the depiction of the fickle public perception and how easily it can be used to scapegoat people. when the sect leaders turn on jgy and wwx knows thats its more for convenience than anything else...

poor lxc is literally like 'oh so when YOUR problematic boyfriend gets called evil its a misunderstanding but when its MY problematic bf-'

ok like i cant get over nmj let jgy play a song that messed with his temperament at all, like maN u KNEW he might be shady wth

wwx: “hey dont say anything bad abt lan zhan hes not an arrogant dick, thats just his face. 

ME ON THE OTHER HAND"

the cultivators as wwx is poking holes in their narrative is literally *nazaré meme*

"wei wuxian-!" "what did i break your leg, too?" not to be problematic but i laughed so hard

not as hard as "you dont have the rank to talk to me " tho

i Enjoy that, over the course of story, wwx sees that... theres nothing truly to Do, but move on. he saw how his arrogance and his mistakes hurt others, and hes trying to fix what he can, but he already did die for his mistakes and there are things he cant fix and that's. just how it is. even towards jgy, the narrative doesn't go gleefully and completely with "lets make THEM pay bc theyre the big bad" bc its not that simple, and it wouldn't lead anywhere but more pain...

re him and jiang cheng and the wens and kinda. isnt that what nhs did? scheming to displace jgy out of revenge more than any justice and doing so in the most painful way?

idk if that actually makes sense im truly just babbling

i thought the scene at the lotus pond would be CUTE but the context was PAIN again

jiang cheng finding out about his golden core and his conflict with wwx at the guanyin temple .... destroyed me but in a nice way kinda.... same way it destroys him look at his face oh god

and. the fact??? he sacrificed himself for wwx?? first?? and he'll probably never tell anyone much less wwx???? keeps me up at night

i havent decided if the neckbreak transition between jgy does sth super Evil or does he he does OR Does He yes he does O R does heeeee is sth i dislike or not

jin guangyao and wei wuxians most interesting parallel is that... theyve both seen 'hmm hey this system is fucked up' and wwx went 'so fuck it all i will renounce it and challenge it' and jgy went 'so fuck it i will use all of it to my advantage and manipulate it to my goals and whims'

the fact jgys mom was actually great and he loved her and his whole issue w it was more than simply being ashamed of being a bastard kinda got me ngl

never trust a dude with a fan.

nhs and jgy: the first rule to a convoluted and decades spanning violent revenge plot is to have fun and be yourself! 

when a-yuan finally FINALLY remembers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; wen ning has someone in his family back and a-yuan has someone to talk abt his wen family and wwx has him back bc he survived and lwj raised him anD HES THEIR SON. THEYRE MARRIED AND HAVE A SON. UGH.

and theyre allowed to heal. everyone is allowed to try and recover and be happy

netflix put all of the 3 endings on top of each other and it looks kinda weird actually BUT I DONT EVEN MIND :’’’’’’’’’)

the gasp that left me when lwj says ‘wei ying’ and wwx turns.........

there was also a screen with ‘thank you mxtx for creating these characters, we hope their wishes come true’ and i might. have cried then too. maybe. 

that was . a ride. as is proven by this behemot of a ramble clearly i just really needed and Outlet. i am currently trying to convince dumb monkey brain to not consume the other medias of mdzs immediately bc i REALLY need to like. live. a life. and take care of real responsibilities.  *longest oh boi ever*

[angrypedestrian]

THE TIME IDIOTS EPISODE 704 TITLED “Cirque du Stupid” MY THOUGHTS:

Not gonna lie I originally wrote that out as episode 503, just to show you where my brain is at currently

Anyways rip isn’t here jax isn’t here stein isn’t here snart isn’t here what’s the GODDAMN point

welcome back to dc’s legends of tomorrow during the last episode these bullet blondes were having an orgy

obvs the tarazis take turns with a strict schedule and sensory deprivation technology

KILL THE RACIST MAN ZARI

KILL HIM WITH YOUR WIND POWERS LIKE ZARI 1.0 DID BY TAKING THE AIR OUT OF THEIR LUNGS

an aside, behrad looking great in that hat

i realize i have not given out a Neal McDonough Memorial Can Get It Award yet this season!! A grave error and travesty on my part

Yeah it just goes to Shayan

also, these wigs? for legends standards? not as bad as they normally are!

well done costume department

these idiots are truly the dumbest people alive

speaking of idiots, the astra/spooner/gideon triangle rises again!!

i’m pretty sure this lady on the train is adam’s girlfriend? if i’m right, good for him!! she seems great and he seems like a very supportive partner and their dog is real cute

lol where is nic bishop did he get another job and can’t play every guest character this season?

i do not like this credit sequence any better than the last two year’s, it’s just a different kind of bad

the gang makes bath tub gin and kills all of Chicago

is jared padalecki singlehandedly funding walker? that can be the only way it has gotten a second season

gideon i love you

gideon learning that her knowledge just makes her come across as gay

which....yep all tracks

aw i’m glad behrad gets to have a good time jamming

zari i know you are grieving, but please fuck this man, i think everyone would be into it

once again, why does olivia need to do an american accent. there is literally no reason

haHA PHIL SPECTOR IS ROTTING IN HELL AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT

this money cgi....peak of technology....effervescent

actually i take it back, the Memorial Award goes to Shayan’s hair

...and also eddie and zari’s sexual chemistry

eddie no!!!!!

one of you blonde ladies be fucking useful!!!

ONE OF YOU BLONDE LADIES BE FUCKING USEFUL

what do you mean BUT HOW sara FIGURE IT OUT YOU FUCKED IT UP

KILL THEM ZARI

mushroom john from the afterlife being like do NOT fuck this man IN MY HOUSE

zari: i do what i want you’re dead mushroom man and we were never exclusive

john: yeah fair...can i watch

zari:...maybe

we’re putting on a show everyone!!!! everyone loves a show!!!

yeah that’s right ladies zari is going to make you be USEFUL

this man’s underbite is how you know he is a Bad Man

KILL HIM ASTRA

EVERYONE KILL THE MEN

astra take that jaunty beret and shove it down that man’s throat

zari does not need your affirmation gary

i am uncomfortable with nate and gary openly discussing being bottoms like this

this time i mean it i am fucking suing for emotional damages

warner brothers rearming those snipers as we speak

but also drag his ass gary

adam’s girlfriend already quarantined and is living in Vancouver bring her on the ship and make her a regular! the more the merrier!!

GALS and PALS

what’s better than this just gals being pals

hell yeah get every penny’s worth of the million dollars you’re paying amy an episode

you are paying her a million dollars an episode right?

RIGHT????

yeah of course she knows the fucking words spooner she knows everything she’s a fucking AI supercomputer from the FUTURE

she knows the whole timeline!!!!! that was like....a whole thing very recently for you all

zari you look great girl!! eddie doesn’t care!! he still wants to bang you!!

i do like that they’re really making jes and caity earn their salaries this year lol

where’s p!nk i know y’all could’ve gotten her if you tried

KILL HIM GIDEON

question did this man already have this stupid haircut or did phil make him get it. they seem equally likely

gar bear being here to talk means he is also a willing hole, and that’s beautiful

MY GIRL

It’s zari!!!!!!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYY

Next week: ZARI FUCKING TOMAZ also yay we finally get to see matt again!