#but i watched thus show in like 4 days lol. it was SO GOOD

[mejomonster]

I am going to again mention that Hikaru No Go cdrama adaptation Qi Hun is on youtube for free (iqiyi), really really good, and if you ever shipped the two rivals to partners then the cdrama decides well They Do Too and cranks it to Bad Buddy childhood rivals to desperately longing for each other to domestic and professional partners levels. (I'm not kidding, to spoil the ending out of context: they move in together with one bed, play partner go for future career, and end the show together happy). And yes, our ghost friend still absolutely decimated me emotionally. <3 ;-;

Anyway I just. While it's absolutely amazing as a show on simply the merit of quality, pacing, good storyline, solid story it's based on And solid adaptation that kept things true while putting it's own touches? It's also really really heartfelt if you like childhood enemies/friends to partners stories. And it feels as bl as Guardian or Word of Honor did, easily (so clearly shippers helped make the show lol).

Here's where to watch!

[autisticlancemcclain]

my friend @beloveddawn-blog helpfully sent me a list of questions to help me get my creative juices flowing in this massive bout of writing struggles i got going on. ily mwah.

1. Do you prefer in-denial Lance or pining Lance? How about Keith?

basic cop-out answer but it changes from fic to fic. in a more comedic fic, i like to go for lance who is both pining AND in-denial, aka he knows he’s in love and is mad at it, or i like to make keith like so painfully oblivious to lances blatant PLEASE DATE MEs that it’s funny. generally tho i go for gooey whipped mutual pining.

2. Do you prefer Keith to be baffled by Lance's flirting or just baffled Lance is flirting with him?

baffled that lance is flirting with him. the I Do Not Deserve To Be Loved -complex is my favourite complex to give keith bc i have problems and he’s just so easy to blorbo

3. What's your favourite episode and why?

i’m gonna be so real with you voltron was so bad that once i finished s6 at like 15 yrs old i vowed never to watch it again 💀💀 six years later this vow holds true. however i remember liking the first episode, the mermaid episode, the space mall episode, and the episode where keith chases lotor in the black lion and lance is like dude you fucked up. dumbass. but he’s very obviously fond and he’s THERE and they’re gonna fix it together and that is the first time keith realises that lance fully and completely has his back. that is the moment he fell in love to me

4. What's your favourite character beat and why?

i don’t know what a character beat is BUT i am a lance stan as you may have guessed. interestingly, i used to watch voltron with my siblings and as with all character things we did together, we each picked a favourite and then only that one character was allowed to be your favourite. lance was picked before i could pick him but i got keith (and thus have the most merch of him). and honestly….keith is kind of my favourite i never stop thinking about him and also i write in his pov the most (granted, about lance lol).

5. What's your favourite line you've ever written.

oh that’s a hard one! not to toot my own horn or anything but i’ve had some stellar lines, at least i think. i have a lot of lines that are profound or whatever but to this day i’m proudest of the “i’m anaemic” “oh i didn’t know you had an eating disorder” line like i made myself laugh out loud 💀

6. What's your favourite fic you've ever written

eighty percent of my fics are my faves bc i write to indulge myself lol. BUT i’m rly super proud of my look so good longfic, i love the applebees universe, and the beauty and the beast au is dear to me. i’m also obsessed with this fic that only exists in my head bc i have typed nothing yet. it’s a theatre school taming of the shrew au.

7. What is your favourite type of AU? Do you prefer complete AUs (like BatB) or detail AUs (that angsty thing you wrote where Lance leaves after the game show)?

i love modern aus really. i’m a fan of the mundane. as a close second i like redoing movies/songs/books that aren’t usually au’ed. and i like complete aus WAY better, i just have trouble actually completing them 😭😭

[beatingdrumspouringwine]

Lenaia Stuff(?)

Reposting this because I A. realized that the calendar I was using was one that started on a Monday instead of a Sunday, and thus my days were all messed up, and B. removed a link by an individual who is in the circle of sannion.

Hello all! So, Lenaia starts in 4 days (22nd-29th), and I have a few different plans for both myself personally, and for this blog in general!

Starting with the blog:

I'll be offering (free) prayer commissions for the duration of Lenaia! Essentially, if you've found yourself wishing I would write a prayer about your deity, or if you have a specific intention you want a prayer for, or if there's an epithet or a take on an epithet that you wish I would cover, please pop in my asks and give me a request! I'll be covering them for all of Lenaia, with the sole exception of Monday, as I have a major test on that day. TL;DR: if you want me to write prayers, this is the time to ask!

My personal plans are below (they're long and detailed, fair warning):

Another warning, if you're sober or not of legal drinking age, then some of my plans will be inaccessible, and I would recommend using grape juice or clean water (or nonalcoholic wine, if you want) as a replacement. Also, throughout the festival, I'll be doing this challenge put out by @thegodwhocums about a month(?) ago or so? My mental health wasn't up for it when I first saw it, but with an already-planned week of special activities to Dionysos ahead of me, I figure there's no better time to do it!

And if you have any questions, please don't be afraid to ask me - I love sharing information and talking with others like nothing else :)

Pre-Lenaia (21st): Sundays are usually my night for performing my "big religious duties", as in making khernips and consecrating wine. I'll still stick to that, but hold off some things for the rest of the week.

January 22nd: Will have my big test today, so it'll likely be simple, with the Orphic Hymn to Dionysos in the morning (shortened after as the OHD), followed by a frantic plea to Athena for wisdom. After the test, I will go out to eat with friends, and will dedicate my drink to Dionysos by praying and waiting for a period of time before drinking it. In the evening, libation of wine to Athena for gratitude, and simple evening prayers (my brain will be soup by then lol).

January 23rd: OHD for the morning, with a libation of water. In the afternoon, I'll go out with another friend, and do some shopping at a local metaphysical store for certain offerings for Dionysos, specifically raw incense (like frankincense), dried lavender, and barley (historically accurate offering). Will end the night with simple prayers and libations of water, since Wednesdays are busy and early days for me, so I don't have a lot of time to spend in ritual at night.

January 24th: OHD and water in the morning. Since it's the midpoint through the festival, I'll likely have today be my "big feast day". At night, I'll do a full ceremony to Dionysos, giving Him the offerings bought the day before. I'll also take my first drink from the wine I dedicated at the start of the festival. After the ceremony, I'll take a good long bath, accompanied by the wine and a recording of the Bacchae.

January 25th: OHD and water in morning. In the afternoon, I'll take a walk to a local graveyard, less for the "graveyard" aspect and more because it's a beautiful walk, and a beautiful graveyard. I may also go on a small hike. Evening is pouring some more of the wine, and prayers for specific intentions, as up until then, most of my prayers will likely be traditional or general praise.

January 26th: OHD and water in the morning. In the evening, I'll probably have a bit of a more relaxed vibe. Maybe watch a showing of Frogs (Aristophanes coming in clutch with the comedy), will probably do a libation of water with the evening prayers.

January 27th: OHD and water in the morning. In the evening, I'll probably do another round of wine, and do some songs and chanting. I have a few hymns I've written dedicated to singing, I may add in a bold attempt at chanting the OHD in the original ancient Greek.

January 28th: OHD and water in the morning. Since it's Sunday, I'll do my typical consecrations of wine and khernips-making, and will possibly recite the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos.

January 29th: Since it's the final night, this one will likely be a bit special. I'll libate tea or juice in the morning, and say the OHD as well as a few other hymns. In the evening, more singing and chanting, as well as a bit of divination for the coming month.

And with all of that, the 2024 Lenaia will end. Of course, I have a funky schedule with being in college (being drunk in the middle of the week probably doesn't work for most folks, but I have no classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so those are my "weekend days"), so please see this as more of an outline than a mandatory guide :) Happy (early) Lenaia everyone!

[sneezingfetishftw-fics]

Insufferable (2/7)

Chapter 2 is up! The next part was taking a while to write, so please enjoy this quick lil interlude with Velvette (and a bit of plot at the end), I promise we’ll get back to poor sick Vox next chapter lol.

Previous chapter: 1

Next chapters: 3 4 5 6 7

Wavs: 1 3

————————————————

Velvette walked out the door, ready for action. Vox was always going on about how she could stand to learn some more professionalism, this was her chance! As she traversed the hallways, she realized there were a few other bits of bookkeeping to handle. She sent a text out to Val’s main assistant. “Filming for today is cancelled. Val currently unavailable, consider me as your point of contact for today (and probably also tomorrow.)” She pulled up Vox’s notes, grateful the man was so meticulous. Ok, plenty of talking points here, but what were all these markings? Oh. Those were the spots where Vox was planning to use his hypnotic eye, for the facts that were a harder sell (or maybe just straight up lies?) Velvette didn’t exactly have that option, she would have to rely on the skills she learned in social media to help her spin the story.

Velvette walked into the studio and all conversation stopped, everyone’s eyes on her. She reminded herself they weren’t just admiring her outfit. She had a job to do. “Vox is unavailable. I’ll be doing the interview in his place.” Several eyebrow raises, but then a sigh of relief as they realized they wouldn’t have to deal with Vox’s insufferable attitude. “Oh, and you can turn the temperature back to the default. It’s freezing in here!” Another collective sigh of relief. “How’s the equipment, everything working now?” The employee over by the AC nodded. “Good. I suppose you’re not so terrible at your job after all. Oh, and let’s turn the lights back up, it looks a bit gloomy in here.”

Another employee came up to Velvet. “We’re ready for the sound check, Ma’am.”

“Ma’am? I’m not a fossil! Try that again.”

Awkward throat clearing. “We’re ready for the sound check, Miss Velvette.”

Velvette suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. It was a little bit better of a title, she supposed. She sat down at the desk, watching with amusement as the employee lowered the mic. She took a sip from the water bottle at the desk. “Testing, testing, I’m Vox and I’m a stubborn, whiny little bastard who had to be forced to take a fucking break for once!” That’s what she wanted to say, but that wouldn’t exactly be a good way to show she could handle the responsibility. She settled for the more boring standard, and the setup was a breeze.

“I suppose we should start by addressing the elephant in the room,” the interviewer began.

“Yeah, you could stand to lose a few pounds,” Velvette thought, but she held her tongue.

“This interview was supposed to be with Vox, CEO of VoxTech.”

Velvette had thought for a while about how to answer this question. Would his illness come across as weakness, a sign that this was a good time for enemies to attack? Or would a cover-up be even more suspicious? She responded with the answer she’d prepared, with just the right level of adjacency to the truth. “Val is sick. Nothing major, but as someone who cares so much about his business partners, Vox thought it best to take it upon himself to make sure Val is well taken care of. He’ll be working from home the next few days but felt that the interview was best conducted in person, thus he sent me.” The CEO being sick was too much weakness to expose, but without a compelling reason Vox would look inconsiderate for skipping the interview. Taking care of Val had a level of believability and, Velvette was hoping, would humanize Vox a bit and enhance his likability. The interviewer seemed unimpressed. Fine, extra details then. “Vox knows that for such a big product like this there will be many questions. I’m here to handle the initial facts, and then after you’ve had a week to collect your thoughts, Vox will conduct another interview to answer those more in-depth, burning questions. We could, of course, get a different interviewer if you don’t appreciate his methods.” She flashed a toothy grin.

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” the interviewer responded quickly. “I look forward to interviewing Vox next week.” He shuffled his papers awkwardly. “Right, then. Let’s get started.”

The interview itself passed without too much trouble. There were definitely a few moments where she had to pull something out of her arse, but the interviewer seemed to have bought it. Eventually, it was finally over. Ugh, these people were so boring.

When Velvette returned to their residence, the place was eerily quiet. No sound but the constant whirring of Vox’s fans, which could be heard even from the entryway. Velvette popped into the bedroom to see what was up. She found a mostly naked Vox (ew!), asleep and a (thankfully still clothed, also asleep) Val. A second glance at Vox revealed that he seemed to have some kind of screensaver, a little DVD icon bouncing from wall to wall of the screen. Was that normal? She couldn’t remember, she wasn’t exactly in the habit of watching him sleep. Never mind, better to let them both get some rest.

Velvette decided to continue her self-assigned responsibility of Vox’s affairs. She had just claimed the man was working from home, after all. Thankfully, his computer seemed to still be functioning. First step was checking his calendar. There was some big meeting scheduled for tomorrow. She seriously doubted Vox would be healthy enough by then. She did a quick scan of his sent messages to get a feel for the right tone, and then she sent out an update to all the participants. “Meeting rescheduled - it has come to my attention that some of you still aren’t prepared. I’m giving you until next week to figure it out. Don’t disappoint me.”

As she closed the email window and considered her next move, something caught her attention - a folder on the desktop labeled “Fuck Alastor”. Their rivalry wasn’t exactly a secret, but still she wondered just what was in there. She clicked it open and took a look. Inside were millions of photos, all of the same subject: Alastor. Captured by security cameras, perhaps? There’s no way the radio demon would willingly let Vox take so many photos of him. She stopped looking at the photos and went back to looking at the list of files in general. The most recent one was from this morning. And its file size was significantly smaller than the other files. Velvette took a look at the file details. Hidden extension? But it already had an extension - .vxc, for a raw photo from a VoxTech camera (presumably kept in original form for the sharpest image quality?). She unchecked the checkbox to reveal the actual extension: .exe. Oh. Velvette may not know computers as thoroughly as Vox, but she knew enough to know that was a bad sign. She sighed. This might be about to get a whole lot worse.

[piracytheorist]

Ranking SxF season 2 episodes!

So, some time ago I made a ranking of the season 1 episodes of Spy x Family, from my least favourite to my top favourite. I felt inspired a couple days ago and I thought I'd make a similar ranking of the season 2 episodes.

Mentioning again that: This is all my personal judgment heavily based on stuff I liked. You most certainly will disagree with me and that’s fine! Just don’t argue with me because that’s just personal opinions, I’m not trying to change anyone’s minds or prove anything!

And also: I chose to rank each episode by five criteria, the things I love the most about the show: 1) Humor (intentional or not), 2) Character (defining or cool moments and such) 3) Cute 4) Plot (how much development there is and how well the action is delivered) 5) Feels (of any kind).

#12, Least favourite of the season: 29. The Pastry of Knowledge/ The Informant's Great Romance Plan II

Humor: 6/10 Character: 6/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 5/10

I think this is the only episode that got points removed for something I didn't like. I made some very passionate posts about it when it first aired, particularly due to how after watching it I realized I'd been treated very unfairly by some fellow fans, and thus I'm almost incapable of rewatching the first half. Yes this is about Damian bullying Anya, no I won't shut up about it.

Anyway. This is still quite a high ranking (it's higher than the three lowest from my s1 ranking), cause the humor and the cats of the second part were quite entertaining on their own. It got a few points for plot because it introduced the stakes of Anya getting low grades, and also because of the discussion between Franky and Twilight about Garden.

#11: 36. Berlint in Love / Nightfall's Daily Life

Humor: 9/10 Character: 6/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 5/10 Feels: 7/10

A very high humor score because I honestly doubt a single minute passed without me laughing my ass off in this one. It was so ridiculous and they loved making it so. Though having two wholly different parts, they were both fun in how they were around two characters blinded by their affection for Loid to the point they have no idea how hopeless their goals are. I just love how exaggerated it all is.

Some feels points were added for Yor talking about remembering what Loid had told her during the bench scene, and also because we get Loid being a stupid simp for his strong wife.

#10: 31. The Fearsome Luxury Cruise Ship

Humor: 7/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 6/10

Reminder that this is still a high ranking. I'm just being strict in the ratings because the entire season is so good, the bar is really high!

Anyway, though I like this episode, it feels more like a passing point from the previous one to the next, compared to those specific episodes, so that's probably why it's this low. I love how the assassins plot is kicked off and we get to see some action, and character points were added for McMahon's ruthless killing of the stalker assassin.

#9: 28. Mission and Family / The Elegant Bondman / Extras

Humor: 6,5/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 9/10 Feels: 7/10

This is the first time I felt the need to use decimals, lol. I just feel that this episode is one of the darkest and most serious of the season, but also... Bondman's part was ridiculous (affectionate) and the omakes were great by themselves, so I felt that a mere six wouldn't do.

I'm honestly entranced by the first part. The plot and exploration of Yuri's and Perkin's characters were near damn perfect, I only wish there was a bit more beyond that episode, haha. I understand the focus needed to be in the Cruise Arc, so I feel a nine will do for this one. The feels were honestly added because I was a bit touched by Perkin's motives, and how those touched Yuri too.

#8: 30. Plan to Cross the Border

Humor: 8/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 7/10

The Shopkeeper's introduction was amazing, albeit terrifying. Olka's was a little more subdued, but it was more touching. I felt both also reflected on something about Yor, so it was overall very satisfying. Due to so many introductions, plot was light (not that I minded), but Anya's scheming put up points in humor and cute. Feels points were added for Olka wanting to escape the crime underworld, and how that affected Yor.

#7: 32. Who Is This Mission For?

Humor: 8/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 8/10

I'd spent the entire week before this episode aired wondering how Yor would manage fighting Barnaby, and even though I should be used to the story's wackiness by now, it still managed to surprise me and make me laugh. Also Loid will never outlive his ridiculous tourist getup. Anya was an adorable little gremlin who couldn't stop having fun, so cute points went up, and Loid managed to spend one (1) episode without going "For the mission!" once, so character and feels points went up as well.

#6: 26. Follow Papa and Mama

Humor: 9/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 8/10

To be honest, I think I'm a bit strict with this one. I don't know how this story manages to make miscommunication so funny for me, but it was legitimately hilarious. The thing is, this was the only episode of the season whose manga chapter I'd already read, long ago too, and maybe my expectations for its adaptation were unrealistically high - probably also due to it being the season premiere and I'd spent ten months without my show, so I'm probably biased. Mind you, I still loved it, but this further cements my will to stay anime only.

Anyway! Character points went a bit down because I didn't feel we saw anything new, but the cute and feels persisted because of Anya's machinations and because of Yor admitting how good she felt with Loid dedicating time for her that day.

#5: 34. The Hand That Connects to the Future

Humor: 8/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 8/10

A lovely, hopeful closure for Olka and the rest, Yor getting the acknowledgement she deserves, a spectacular ending of the assassins fight, high stakes with the bomb threats, and an emotional ending scene with Twilight carrying Anya to bed and then the family getting ready to meet in the resort island. Not much else to be said <3

#4: 35. Enjoy the Resort to the Fullest / Bragging About Vacation

Humor: 9/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 9/10

No, I'm definitely not biased because this episode shows us the first glimpse of Twilight yearning for Yor what are you talking about.

Who am I kidding, I definitely added feels points just for that look he gave her while she watched Anya play with the sheep. The whole episode felt so relaxing and fulfilling after the intense assassins plot, especially the scene of the Forgers having tea upon returning home, that I don't mind that the second part at school feels a little exaggerated. The ending scene with Anya being surrounded by liars though is top notch.

#3: 27. Bond's Strategy to Stay Alive / Damian's Field Research Trip

Humor: 9/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 9/10

Endo used Dog Cuteness! It's super effective!

Yeah, the whole adventure and the way it was presented were appropriately hilarious and we saw some more of the dynamics between Bond and the rest and I really liked that. Plot wasn't heavy but I was all wide eyes at the introduction of a truth serum, and at the second part when Mr. Green talked about people defecting to the West. Feels went up thanks to, among others, Twilight thinking he was helping Bond get his "revenge". Also, though the second part didn't do much for me, it actually felt nice to see Damian laugh innocently like the kid he really is.

#2: 37. Part of the Family

Humor: 8/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 9/10

Despite the mopping wet of a dog we got here, I kinda felt this was less... humorous, or at least not focusing so much on the humor aspect. I felt it was more cute and emotional that Bond was just trying to help left and right but was only misunderstood by Twilight. The action takes the place of a plot here, and I loved it all. Some development too through Twilight realizing he can relax a bit with Bond, even though he's still in denialTM about how much he appreciates his company.

#1: 33. The Symphony Upon the Ship / Sis's Herb Tea

Humor: 8/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 9/10 Feels: 10/10

Yeah OH MY GOD are we surprised. Top tier shit. Excellent balance of pretty much everything in this one. The humor even in the way Yor took out some of the assassins. Her flashbacks with Yuri. The ACTION and the ANIMATION of it all. HER REALIZATION AND DETERMINATION POWERING HER THROUGH. HER LOVE FOR HER FAMILY.

Yeah wow it's really so good any eloquence evades me. Perfect. Mwah. Thank you Endo-sensei.

~

And here is the overall ranking of the episodes, from both seasons, based on the ratings I gave:

1. Operation Strix

    2. Secure A Wife

    33. The Symphony Upon The Ship / Sis's Herb Tea

    24. The Role Of A Mother And Wife / Shopping With Friends

    38. Part Of The Family

    16. Yor's Kitchen / The Informant's Great Romance Plan

    27. Bond's Strategy To Stay Alive / Damian's Field Research Trip

    14. Disarm The Time Bomb

    12. Penguin Park

   11. Stella

   21. Nightfall / First Fit Of Jealousy

   35. Enjoy The Resort To The Fullest / Bragging About Vacation

   15. A New Family Member

   9. Show Off How In Love You Are

   5. Will They Pass Or Fail?

   34. The Hand That Connects To The Future

   3. Prepare For The Interview

   26. Follow Papa And Mama

   32. Who Is This Mission For?

   13. Project Apple

   4. The Prestigious School's Interview

  30. Plan To Cross The Border

   28. Mission And Family / The Elegant Bondman / Extras

   8. The Counter-Secret Police Cover Operation

   6. The Friendship Scheme

   31. The Fearsome Luxury Cruise Ship

   25. First Contact

  23. The Unwavering Path

   18. Uncle The Private Tutor / Daybreak

   6. The Target's Second Son

   36. Berlint In Love / Nightfall's Daily Life

   20. Investigate The General Hospital / Decipher The Perplexing Code

   19. A Revenge Plot Against Desmond / Mama Becomes The Wind

  29. The Pastry Of Knowledge / The Informant's Great Romance Plan Ii

  17. Carry Out The Griffin Plan / Fullmetal Lady / Omelet Rice ♡

  22. The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon

  10. The Great Dodgeball Plan

[welcometololaland]

Sorry not sorry for putting Paul Wesley on your dash, thus reminding you of Stefan Salvatore and his glorious hero hair, endless brooding, and sass. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The writing on Vampire Diaries was… something lol. But when it was good, it was good. Though, like Logan— Stefan deserved better. BUT we don’t talk about it because the show ended 8x15. 🙈

I will, however, always be grateful to TVD for hilarious moments like this that can live on for eternity as reaction gifs. 😂 I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this one lol.

ANSWERING IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS IMMACULATE STEFAN GIF!!!!

applicable in a lot of every day life scenarios and while trying to make sense of the end of veronica mars s 4 in particular 🔪 (sense cannot be made, Rob Thomas was wrong).

Need to do a TVD re watch (until such a time as it ends 😌 also my recent YouTube deep dives have made a Caroline x Stefan fan out of me so...

[womanexile]

Lol - I wonder if this was intentional? For 1989 listening party - 89 guests per location. 5 (LA, NY, TN, RI, London): 89 x 5= 445. [4+4+5=13] youtube.com/watch?v=ozrrUio3AB0

She met Jack late '12 and met Lena (@ Grammys) early '13. Worked with JA in '13. But I guess LD listened to her pre-SN era? AW from Girls produced M3GAN (the one with TS song in trailer). LD has casted some good talents on her projects that have gone on to do well.

Lol- LD post- I can see how her humor would appeal to TS: "Judging by how much she's helped me thus far, Taylor Swift is going to write the song that finally gets me comfortable with death."

Speaking of some of TS's oldest friends. ES met Jamie Foxx in 2010. (Foxx was also on Valentine's Day film, VD soundtrack was released via Big Machine- Amy Winehouse covered "Cupid" & Chris Stapleton co-wrote a song that was covered). Lol- I wonder who Ed contacts 1st? JF or TS share birthday 12/13

More funny ES stories: people.com/music/ed-sheeran-crazy-stories/#:~:text=%22Ed%20Sheeran%20slept%20on%20my,to%20some%20of%20his%20music.

Speak Now tour arm lyric: “If things go right we can frame it and put you on a wall.” – Ed Sheeran, Lego House. Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia on March 10, 2012.

Random thoughts- not related, but reminded me of some lyrics:

The 1

We never painted by the numbers, baby, but we were making it count

Lego House

I'm gonna paint you by numbers and color you in If things go right we can frame it And put you on a wall

And it's so hard to say it but I've been here before Now I'll surrender up my heart and swap it for yours

Signs of the Times

We never learn, we been here before Why are we always stuck and running from The bullets? The bullets

Bad Blood

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes (Hey!) You say sorry just for show (Hey!) You live like that, you live with ghosts (Hey!) Hm, if you love like that blood runs cold

What if I told you none of it was accidental

[talkingbl]

Top 6 Most Anticipated [Confirmed] BLs of 2023 (so far)!

If I can speculate...I'd add something something Semantic Error 2, something something Bump Up Business, but I'm tired of looking stupid. DMD had me placing Bed Friend as a most anticipated BL for damn near two years now and stayed coming up short. This time, I'm sticking to what I know. So, here we are--my top 6 most anticipated BLs of 2023 (thus far)! -

6) HIStory5: Love in the Future | LinusSean & JasonAnson

lbr, this is a 2023 bl trapped in a 2022 bl's body. Either way, I love a good time travel theme (gives fish out of water--my favorite trope!!) and the HIStory series usually gives us a good main couple.

5) Love Upon a Time | NetJames

Either DMD really believes in NetJames or they feel bad for cucking them in favor of ZeeNunew this past year. Either way, I am somewhat seated for this. Wild, I never expected this from NetJames or DMD more generally, but the historical portion of the story is giving everything I've been begging for from Thailand since I started watching BL. While it's not giving MileApo's period piece trailer in terms of care and attention to detail, it seems very interesting to say the least.

4) Bed Friend | NetJames

After 2 years of blue balling viewers, DMD is FINALLY giving the girls Bed Friend. I am so excited to see an office romance with actual tension between the leads and that forbidden love vibe I love so much. The story is so classic and seems entertaining from beginning-to-end. Hopefully the writing is good and the acting takes a step forward from what DMD has given so far. That said, the trailer looks promising, so fingers crossed!

3) The Next Prince (....what? It gave budget....) | ZeeNunew

Listen, I am not a zonzon or bonbon or ztormborn or whatever they call ZeeNunew stans, but I am SEATED for this. In my last list, I included Cutie Pie in my most anticipated list. Unfortunately, it didn't hit like I thought it would. But I'm willing to give them another chance as this trailer is intriguing. They're hitting budget, royalty AU, enemies (??) to lovers, direction, cinematography, etc. with this one. And the fact that the trailer was mostly silent gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, they will take the show-don't-tell subtext-led approach to acting and writing. Just hope it's not wasted on a terrible plot that goes nowhere and grating acting. S/n: Zee doing stuff w/feet again??

2) Cherry Magic (Thailand) (stfu GMMTV antis and jbl elitists, I'm tryna see sth...) | TayNew

She has no trailer and I'm already here for her.

Per MDL -

Adapted from Japan's 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii. Adachi Kiyoshi [Achi in the Thai version] is a regular salaryman who, at the age of 29, was still a virgin. On his 30th birthday, he suddenly finds himself acquiring a new power - the ability to read other people's minds whenever he touches them. Shocked and unnerved by this new ability, he struggles to cope. That is, until one day he accidentally touches the handsome and popular fellow office-worker, Kurosawa Yuichi [Karan in the Thai version], only to find out that [Karan] actually has secret romantic feelings for him. How will [Achi] cope with this new revelation?

Look, I tried the original Cherry Magic and while the concept was appealing, the execution wasn't for me. Ngl chefs, I was bored a bit. But I still love the concept and am interested to see if and how GMMTV and Taynew can handle this. It better give budget at the very least (probably won't lol). Perhaps we'll also see Newwie grow into a more serious BL role. But honestly, even if they turn it into a rom-com, I think this can really work. Either way, they have a lot of eyes on them and a lot of folks predicting their downfall. They must deliver.

1) Only Friends | NeoMark, ForceBook, FirstKhao, ForceNeo, to say the least

Where do I even start with this? Who in the fresh hell could have predicted GMMTV to come through with this? ALL the pairings are intriguing, MANY of the actors can ACT (or at least try to), THE PLOT is something straight out of my romance dreams!!! We love hotties being messy!!!! I am incoherent at this. How did GMMTV manage to outplay the player (ME)?

But to be serious, this is the most interesting BL plot in awhile... And it gets at a real part of the 20/30-something hookup culture that we have (and that people are afraid to show in the context of LGBTQ+ relationships). It's also breaking the mold and allowing actors to explore characters outside of their established ships. It's not adapted from anything (that I know of), which is, like, a first for a GMMTV BL. It includes pairings that are either on the rise (FirstKhao) or that no one could have ever seen coming but somehow feel just right (NeoMark, ForceNeo) (btw, NeoMark are up next in this industry ;)). Plus, it's directed by Jojo Tichakorn who directed and wrote for 3WBF (one of my favorite Thai dramas with a strong BL theme), and has his hands in Never Let Me Go and The Warp Effect (both with strong showings thus far). I trust him but it's gonna really come down to the budget, post-production, and, most importantly, the acting.

Thing is, Neo and First are going to show up and I trust Khao to give a strong effort. Force, I'm not too sure about but the trailer doesn't give me high hopes to be honest. Still, I'm willing to forgive if he can fuck Neo like he means it if the rest of the cast can pull their own weight. And for Mark, I'm willing to bet he'll improve from My School President (which he already is showing promise in). I'm mainly weary because the story looks to be told from Mew's perspective, who is played by Book. IMO Book is not the best....so I'm hoping he shows up. I just need it to really come together and Book holds the key to it in his hands. GMMTV already is a sketchy company for other reasons, don't waste my fucking time with yet another good concept gone by the wayside b/c y'all wanted face over talent.

Also NeoMark please don't be problematic. I want to love Badminton shawty and the best actor at GMMTV not named Gun ATP 😢

[someofusarequeer]

Numbers 1-5!

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the idea strikes?

Definitely a daydreamer, I'd say I spend roughly a few days to a week just thinking and then acting and then outlining a thing in my head and then once I've basically gaslit myself into having a good story plot, I attempt to outline/maybe get a specific scene down if anything is big in my head. And then it usually falls apart lol

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

Sometimes plot lines inspired by other media, shows or books or online prompts and stories etc. And then sometimes I'm watching the show and am like.... I wish this scene would've gone this direction/I wish I could see this trope or scenerio play out, and thus a fic idea is birthed!

3. Do you share your fic ideas, or do you keep them to yourself?

I share most all of my fic ideas with my bf, if I actually get to the point where I write stuff down I'm probably telling him about it. Otherwise, I used to tell my bookish coworker/friend but I don't see her regularly anymore so the topic doesn't come up! I don't share it online at all though.

4. How do you choose which fics to write?

The hyperfix chooses lol

5. How many wips do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

I don't even want to think about it. The oldest is a frostspider ship of Loki/Spiderman and it is my longest fic and I've just stopped in the middle of a chapter and feel so bad but it's so hard to get the rhythm back for it rip. I still want to finish it tho

I have a Teen Wolf fic, it's Sterek and it has a fairly decent outline and a couple chapters. Luckily none posted bc I wanted to finish it all before sharing, and thank goodness bc it's been years

The next is another marvel but a Steve/Tony ship. I started it for a cute lil writing thing for the stony fandom that I don't remember the name for the event. It's 4 of 6 chapters down but I got stuck on the sex scene bc it's my first and I've been scared to touch it again. I actually did write for it some today though!! So that's good.

I also have a decent outline for another Stony fic that's like an AU/based off of the movie Decoy Bride!

And then I also have a Vampire Diaries fic that's got a pretty chunky outline from when I started my VD binge, it's for Damon/Elena.

I *think* that's all of them.

[23meteorstreet]

1 to 5 :)

1. how did you get into the show?

i heard about it back in like 2013 bc a yt channel I liked made references to it all the time but initially i was kinda scared to watch it bc I heard there was some offensive stuff and wasn't sure if that was my thing. then a few years later i was on a spring break trip w/ my high school and some ppl started talking about mac and dennis: manhunters for some reason?? and that made me so curious about it that I started pirating it a few days later lol

that being said... i didn't actually get into the show at that point. I got to about the first ep of season 2 and then just stopped bc even tho it was super funny I couldn't really connect with the characters and some of the satire felt a little too accurate to me. but from 2017 to like... may-ish of last year I watched a few eps here and there and made it to the beginning of season 3.

in october I was going thu a bit of an existential crisis (im mostly good now) and was looking for something funny to watch that hopefully wouldn’t suck up too much of my time (LMAOOO) and found it in my continue watching section on hulu and thought “this’ll be perfect bc i’ll probably just watch a season or so and then turn it off again”. yeah, that didn’t happen. (of course it probably helped that i’d watched i want you back earlier that year and realized i had a massive crush on charlie lol)

2. who’s your favorite character and why? (has your fav changed since you started watching the show?)

like i said in the last question it took me a while to pick a favorite but i literally caught one glimpse of charlie day’s freckles in i want you back and became obsessed with him & every character he’s ever played forever. aside from being super fucking adorable tho i genuinely think he’s the funniest character in the show. he has sooo many iconic moments and i love that he’s silly but also very capable like in charlie work :) also i really enjoy that he’s generally the “nice” one but he can also be very evil & feral at times. basically i like how complex he is lol. i just wanna wrap him in a blanket and feed him some spaghetti <3

3. what are your top 3 favorite episodes?

this is so fucking hard but here’s 3 off the top of my head:

the aluminum monster vs. fatty magoo : this is the one that made me finally get into the show! i loved that the characters were terrible to the point of absurdity. dennis putting on the dress was such an unforgettable moment & i feel like this ep is when they really found him as a character. charlie’s plot in this is also great, i love how he’ll end up in the most bizarre situation and just adapt to it (and the part where he's fantasizing about the drawing was... interesting to say the least lol). also any episode written by glenn & charlie is fucking iconic

the gang goes on family fight: this is just such a comfort ep tbh. family feud is always fun/funny and i love when the gang actually gets along. dennis’s freakout at the end was also super funny & relatable

the gang goes to hell part 2: after getting to know the characters for so many seasons, watching them almost die was strangely cathartic lol. it just felt like a love letter to the gang’s friendship, & it makes me think about how i’m so attached to these terrible fictional people. i could probably write a whole essay on this ep tbh. also the imaginary dinner scene is so funny to me, i love how much they get into it. 

also an honorable mention to charlie rules the world: charlie looks hot af in this episode (obviously) plus i love video game related eps in any show lol. It’s a fun ep to try to analyze charlie as a character, and i love that dennis just goes completely off the rails. 

4. name a song that reminds you of your favorite character

this is so hard bc all the songs on my sunny playlist are for ships/the whole gang… gonna go with leave me alone - fidlar bc of that one fancam plus i was listening to them earlier lol (ps. if anyone has any good charlie songs pls send them to me!!)

5. do you ship anything?

in no particular order: macdennis, charden, charmac, charmacden, deetress, chartemis, artemis/waitress (pretty sure i made this one up lol), charlie/scientist… i think that’s it? my fave are probably charmac, macdennis, charmacden, and deetress tho

[feuqueerfire]

The Eclipse Ep 6 Live Blogging

I have class from 10:10-11 while this show goes on from 9:40-10:40 so... is it better to just watch it all at 11 or start at 9:40, watch part 1 and maybe 2, then watch other parts at 11? Agh, why couldn’t this show be at 9 or my class at 11 T.T I need this show in my brain as soon as it releases

Sep 15 

Okay, I didn’t start watching it as it premiered, so am now watching the whole thing after my class ended (which ended 10 minutes later than scheduled </3). thankfully I’ve avoided spoilers so far hoho (except someone saying “wow they really turned the prefects club into a cult” so... that’s giving me some thoughts and someone else saying they were shaking while watching pt 4 lol)

6-1

bro absolutely incredible way of weaving in Akk’s initiation with the fire and his smile vs the fire and his expression now

oh wait is she not supposed to monitoring the school? Chadok seems surprised to see her at the office. Is she also investigating on her own?

No fucking way D: I really was hoping Akk hadn’t done the car to neutral thing because that really could hurt someone but he had ahh. Someone on MDL brought it up last week that in that scene 1) Akk was the first one to shout to move, how did he know when he’d just come onto the scene? 2) Maybe Akk chased Ayan because he thought Ayan knew. I’ll keep this in mind when I decide to rewatch the episodes ig

Anyway, also very interesting that Ayan knew the whole time that Akk did that... will keep that fact in mind too when I rewatch

6-2

I do love it when they show the fact that Akk’s doing what he’s doing not just because he loves the school but because of self-serving reasons as well, whether it be that he wants the college scholarship like he admitted in ep 5 or that he doesn’t want Suppalo’s reputation to be ruined while he’s the head of the prefects.  + the “You maintain peace and goodness by doing all those shitty things, Akk?”  

He says he doesn’t wanna hurt anybody, that’s why I was so hoping that he didn’t do the flower pot + car stints because those can certainly hurt someone

the direction of the conversation is slightly confusing to me like it’s adjacent to what needs to be said but now exactly? or maybe it is... the way to get through to Akk doing bad things selfishly is to reassure him that he doesn’t need to do all that instead of just saying why the fuck are you doing all that dumbass? Also, I guess Ayan already knew Akk was doing bad shit and liked him still, so he cares more about Akk than his deeds and wants to show that.

Ayan’s hand on Akk’s nape. Hah. okay. well. 

Okay, this conversation about Chadok and Ayan questioning him is what I thought would happen before the reassurance and caring stuff but I guess it was like “Ayan questioning him” -> “Ayan reassuring him just to show that he cares and also to let Akk know he can talk to him” -> “Ayan questioning him again”

I’m fine with teacher/student romances when I’m watching a show with like no damn morality but this one where we’re very concerned with people in power and how they use it, I hope they don’t go there and if they do, I wonder how they’d handle it. Although... I wonder if she isn’t just using Wat at this point to just more info on his group/Akk and perhaps Chadok in a roundabout way.

uhh was Not expecting Kan’s “Cause you’re always with Aye. I’m jealous.” goddamn how will you wiggle out of that one my guy. Ah yes, this is like the 50th BL that has used the worried/jealous sounding similar in Thai excuse lol also Thua’s smile ahhhhh

bruv this part took me forever to watch. This is what happens when I’m not watching during premier I guess

6-3

no way not the “are you guys just a ship or real?” i thought i would’ve avoided this shit in this show at least. I guess it’s fun to see Ayan enjoying and milking it though lol Ayan’s laugh is sooo cute here

Ayan called The World Remembers trio “the 3 Jums” what does that mean?

Thua has some meddling ass friends lmfao first Ayan telling his mom that Thua keeps things to himself + Kan’s audacity right here saying “If he does anything, tell me and I’ll deal with him” right in front of Thua’s stepdad like won’t that just make it worse for Thua? 

I’m so confused by this stepdad “if he’s your faen, admit it. we’re in a new age now. how’s school?” seems like something caring people would say but I guess it’s a way to make Thua lower his guards OR that he’s an alright dude most of the time but gets really angry really quickly and that’s when he’s abusive

KanThua “legendary boyfriends” so funny

a flashback to Kan and Thua before their falling out? Hal said that in the special ep, they said the two used to be friends before before Kan started avoiding Thua and has only just started getting close to him again

lol Akk’s walking into school after dark privileges (we’re gonna ignore how they both got in and left before in part 1 I guess)

6-4

in the thumbnail, Ayan has his hand around Akk’s head too while in bed, so that’s good because the teaser from last week was like “ooh Akk’s going in for the kiss while Ayan’s asleep”

Ayan’s so funny, just getting into bed with Akk with a smile. this whole bed sharing scene is sooo bl, so cute. 

I’m too nervous to continue watching ahh like 5 mins left

Aw, Ayan’s nightmare again :( Also the first time we saw it, we didn’t know much about the necklace but now we know for sure that it’s like current day Ayan with his necklace have a nightmare that he was there with Dika but couldn’t stop him

I heard a kiss sound but also could see Ayan’s uncovered lips, so cheek kiss?

okayy several kisses and cuddling afterwards. I liked the silence no bg-music kiss (tho ngl the heavy breathing after the kiss threw me off cuz I was like um??? but it was just Ayan getting a hold of himself I think). I also like that it’s a soft, comforting kiss; their chemistry and dynamic means that you kind of expect like an explosive kiss and I really hope we do get one later but their first ones being kinda unsure before going in again and being comforting is so good

I guess I won’t watch the preview but I suspect I’ll be spoiled about it anyway. 

Overall Episode Thoughts:

short episodes but we get to see everything: curse stuff, akk and ayan romantic and platonic progressions, akk character development, wat and teacher sani, kan and thua. even got glimpses of The World Remembers kids (and glad to know they’re liked and having fun outside of school), no prefect trio scenes but got Wat talking about them + kan and wat convo, got a glimpse of Chadok, no progress on the uncle but we saw him in the nightmare again, also spent time searching for the notebook even if we didn’t find it. 

Really enjoyed it, the show keeps getting better and better. I love how much things have started making sense retroactively now that we know that Akk is the curse and Ayan knew it too. This makes me hopeful that they’ll continue have a comprehensible and fun plot and reveals, as well as land the ending hopefully

Fave Scene:

The first and last scenes I think. I thought the production of the show thus far has been alright but not impressive but I loved how the first scene and the last scene were shot and edited a lot. 

The way the present and past scenes were weaved together was so good, connected by the fire but Akk’s expression as he’s initiated surrounded by people, including ones he adores vs his expression as he is about to set fire to the effigy really impacted me right at the start of the episode. 

For the last scene, I was surprised by this show which is obsessed with dramatic background music chose for it be silent. I think it was a very good choice, made me anticipate the characters’ reactions more and also portrayed the “they’re the only ones here” vibe well.

 + Khao’s laughter in that beachside food scene when the servers asked if they’re a ship or real 

Curse Culprit Suspects (Or the Notebook Thief): 

Well, seems like Akk is the only Curse Culprit. 

I actually don’t know how the Notebook Thief is other than people saying they didn’t see Kan or Thua in the scene. 

Also, I wonder when Namo’s gonna make an impact. Is he scheming something or is he just a red herring and he’s gonna be helpful in the end somehow? Or maybe turn against the students in the end but isn’t against them right now. 

Most viewers that I saw per part during the premiere

6-1: 10k

6-2: 7.4k

6-3: 9.9k (this one started quite a few minutes after 6-2, so people could catch up)

6-4: 15k (damn, so did they fr kiss here instead of a sleeping peck. there was a tweet from gmmtv of khaofirst saying the ending of this episode will be flaming hot so 🤔)

lol me not watching the show, just seeing the numbers on the gmmtv website like wow i wish that was me. People watching in theatre with the cast even smh

omg went on discord for 1 sec and it popped up someone saying “I’m acc shaking rn” so alskdjak i had to leave discord immediately in case i get actually spoiled but i’m sooo curious oof it’s :41, 20 more minutes until i can start watching it D:

12 hours later

6-1: 440k

6-4: 450k (bc of the kiss lol)

Avg: 405k (bc parts 2 and 3 are closer to 350k)

Views Tracking (just because I’m curious):

Gonna get rid of the part 4 tracking and just do part 1 + average

5 Weeks Later

Ep 1 - 1: 1.55M (+130k)

Avg Ep 1: 1M (+40k)

4 Weeks Later

Ep 2 - 1: 1M (+70k) 

Avg Ep 2: 810k (+60k)

3 Weeks Later

Ep 3 - 1: 980 (+90k)

Avg Ep 3: 785k (+75k)

2 Weeks Later

Ep 4 - 1: 1.05M (+85k)

Avg Ep 4: 815k (+95)

1 Week Later

Ep 5 - 1: 850k

Avg Ep 5: 710k

[merrysithmas]

@obiwanobi hi!! I saw your tags and wanted to type you out a response! It was gonna be short LOL.

So - why I dislike the Mandalorian culture (and thus shows and arcs focusing on them/Mando characters). I dislike them for the exact reasons you've pointed out in your tags!

Note: this isn't hate! i'm really happy people like what they like and I think it's awesome! Mandalorians just are not my personal favs.

1) I find all of their endless wars and fighting and little bad-blood clan fights very boring and borish. I don't like any media that has that as the backbone - it's dull and unfulfilling to me. Game of Thrones, Viking shows, Medieval shit... no. It's the competitiveness that I find very distasteful and dull. Vying for territory and honor stuff? Puts me to sleep. I think find the characters to be like... simple and unlikeable. It's why I greatly prefer stories about the Jedi, the monks like Chirrut, characters like Kanan, or conflicted characters like Anakin who struggle to do good but have a heavy conscience (despite evil deeds). When Vader does smth bad you know Anakin is inside paying for it - that's part of why it's so gleeful to watch him do bad stuff. He never really gets away with it. The Mandalorians on the other hand glorify violence and death and I think it's ugly and frankly I hate watching it. Not my cup of tea.

2) I find weapons repulsive and agree with Obi-wan "how uncivilized". The Jedi saber & how long it takes to properly master is much more my area. Or say, Han who uses a blaster as a failsafe. The Mandos: A culture that glamorizes, or worse, diefies weapons ("Weapons are my religion") I truly find disgusting. It reminds me very much of modern-day conservative USA and I am not at all surprised the show is...very popular for this reason. Again? Not my cup of tea.

3) I LOVE SATINE KRYZE! I think she was the only decent Mandalorian, a true hero, one of the coolest & bravest characters in Star Wars, and the perfect never-would-have-worked-between-us for Obi-wan! Can you see Obi-wan, man of righteous morals and service living alongside warsome Mandalorians, even if he abandoned his life's calling for Satine? HELL no. He loved Satine because she had a voice and literally unheard of bravery in the face of her culture's toxic traits. Obi-wan would've keeled over from boredom and his eyes would've rolled so far back in his head he would've lost them every time Whoever The Fuck from Clan Scalpthem threw another brick through their window or challenged someone to the zillionth duel that week (can't he just read a chapter in his book???) He and Satine were FAR TOO alike and made a great We Respect Each Other Too Much To Do This dynamic while staying true to themselves so hard they had to genuinely walk away & and prioritize themselves. Damn. That's cool.

4) I feel the IRL obsession/phenomenon with the Mandalorian comes down to two things imo - ppl who like Baby Yoda/Dad Mando (valid), and otherwise its fans who are weapons-obsessed toxic dudebros who stomp and cry about everything else and then piss themselves with joy whenever ppl are getting mindlessly gutted on screen. It's why I feel Mando is so popular and other media such as TBOBF (he's a good man, sworn off senseless violence), OWK (introspective show based on emotional and psychological connection btw Obi and Ani), TLJ & Rey in general (a woman with feelings & power) gets shit on by dudebro Star Wars fans and they salivate over Mando.

Don't get me wrong! I think Din is a good character! I like watching him & the show! I find his religious arc that competes with something he discovers is just as important to him (Grogu) very compelling and sweet honestly! I enjoy his timidness and chivalry compared to the other Mandos who are not at all as noble as he is. I enjoy the tragedy of obviously him eventually dying for Grogu/Grogu outliving him by hundreds of years - it's great! But Mandalorians in general? No.

Do I think the show is the best written or filmed? No. I don't like Mandalore or their culture. I find them extremely unlikeable, and I don't like the really transparent worship of the show by the cismen gatekeeping fans whose senselessly and grossly loudly complain about literally everything else for NO reason.

Like sure - you don't have to like stuff! But stop screaming over everyone else, and stop ruining things for others.

I see sooo many SW articles about non-Mando shows like "this show is pointless" "this arc is pointless" "exploring this period is pointless" "why can't this be more like the Mandalorian" "this isn't good" like..... ok.... TO YOU?? but there are a TON of other people who are actual FANS of Star Wars and want to see their favs from the movies do ANYTHING.

That IS the point of the other shows.

So yeah, lol, my mix of reasons for finding Mandalorians and their culture extremely annoying. Legit though: No hate if you like them! It's all cool. Everyone likes diff stuff for diff reasons and I completely respect that.

[trackernivrig]

A work (in any medium) that has extra meaning to you because of when or where you experienced it?

Took me way too long to respond to this sorry.

This is an amazing question, and there's a TON of shows that I can think of that are special because of when I watched them. Here's a list of a few.

Bleach. This was my first anime, and I watched it with both my father and my brother every day, staying up way past my bedtime watching it. The end of the Soul Society arc was amazing, and it was somewhere within the bount arc that both my father and brother grew bored of the series, and I continued on my own. This portion is still special to me though, because I remember watching a bunch of it on VLC until the subtitles were corrupted. This prompted me to look on youtube, and I found a few of those ancient part 1/3 with part 2 missing Spanish sub videos that had the English subs overlayed on the Spanish subs. It was horrible but I look back on it fondly. Eventually I found Crunchyroll, and watched on that until the end of the Aizen arc and started FMA:B instead.

Your Name. I remember that one of my friends that wasn't huge into anime recommended this to me, and I really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about anime piracy sites, and only watched on Crunchyroll, and at the time Your Name wasn't on Crunchyroll. So I did a ton of googling and eventually found this really sketchy pirate site that hosted it. It had constant ads that would pop up new windows that I had to close (this was also before I had UBlock Origin), and the video would buffer every 3 or 4 minutes for at least a minute each time. Again, horrible to experience in the moment, but this had a pretty funny effect. Because I had to spend SO MUCH more time to actually watch it, I felt like every scene was like triple the amount of time that it actually took up, making me grow way more attached to the characters that I would be otherwise. I didn't even realize that this was due to the video buffering so much until years later when I was showing it to another friend and felt like it was going at a breakneck pace lol.

Fallen Skies. I don't remember anything about this show, but this was another one of the shows I used to watch with my dad and brother every night. This one we watched for longer though so even though I don't remember the show itself, I have fond memories of the time we spent watching it. This was also before my parents got divorced and we were forced to move, so it reminds me of what our old basement used to look like.

Re:Zero. This was another one of the anime I watched early into my "career" watching anime. I had been watching a lot of FMAB at the time, and still didn't really know much about anime (so I didn't even know what isekai was). I watched it by myself and I couldn't really place how I felt about it for a while. It seemed really good, but I didn't know anybody that had seen it (as opposed to everyone that I knew saying that stuff like FMAB and AoT and everything was the best of anime). I ended up rewatching it at least 4 or 5 times thinking it was good, but unsure if it was just me or not. Eventually Season 2 came out and I rewatched it with a friend and they finally made me feel like I wasn't crazy and said it was amazing lol. It wasn't until about halfway through the second season that I realized the first season was highly acclaimed. Season 2 also reminds me of when I would watch the show weekly with a ton of friends. We'd all get in a discord call and watch it together on Watch2Gether. It was a fun time, and while we still occasionally do it, we don't do it nearly on the scale we used to. Hunter x Hunter, No Game No Life, Made in Abyss, and Mob Psycho 100 are all other shows that I watched in this era and thus have fond memories of.

Steins;Gate. I distinctly remember watching the entirety of S;G (not 0, that was more drawn out). I had watched HalcyonMusic's "100 anime songs in 30 minutes" piano medley a TON of times, trying my best to follow along myself (largely unsuccessfully), and I wanted to watch some of the shows from it (video link: https://youtu.be/JPZ-QyVBOf8?si=cLMYPoJyUK05UT_v&t=1067). I had added anything that sounded good to my to watch list, and one of the songs I really liked was Gate of Steiner. It sat on my watch list for ages until eventually I decided to watch it. I read the description on whatever pirate site I was going to use to watch it, and saw that it was about some organization and a mad scientist. This led me to believe that Okabe's insane ramblings were actually all real for half of the first episode lol. I know a lot of people say that S;G has a slow start, but I was IMMEDIATELY invested, and ended up watching half the entire show until around 3AM. I had online morning classes (was in high school during COVID), so I went to bed right as one of the saddest parts had occurred. This led to me stewing in the depression in my bed for a while and I ended up crying to it. This was the first show I had cried to in probably over 5 years, and I don't think anything has made me cry since. After waking up I did my online class and the proceeded to finish the entire series, meaning I finished the entirety of Steins;Gate within 24 hours. After this I spammed my friends on discord and about a week later started watching it with one of them. After watching with him, I watched it with another friend. Then another. Then another. This happened so many times that in the end I think I had watched the show with 5 or 6 different people, and had seen the show 10-11 times (due to rewatches). It is still my all time favorite show, despite how much I love Fate.

Fate. I had to put this on there. It's my favorite overall series (while S;G is my favorite individual show). I had heard somebody in an ani-piano discord community I was in talk about it, and it seemed interesting so I asked what it was about. This led to me getting the whole "well the community is very divided on where to start" talk, which ironically made me even more interested. I started making my own list of the watch order and how everything worked together in order to figure out what everything was. The thing was, I did this pretty much by myself, so I got A TON of misinformation that I have no idea how I got. Apparently Grand Order was the 1st Holy Grail War, Apocrypha was the 3rd, and a ton of other super weird things. Eventually I watched UBW, enjoyed it, and watched Zero and REALLY enjoyed it. There were only 2 HF movies at the time so I didn't watch that until the third came out. I'm now really into Type Moon as a whole and intend to play through a bunch of their VNs. I just haven't had the time yet.

Switching gears a bit, I'm going to go into books for a second. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. My mom actually recommended I read this book, and I read it on her old Kindle. This was the only thing I had ever really read on a kindle, until recently when I bought my own and have started re-reading some of my old favorite series. I also look fondly on it because it was my mom's suggestion.

Talking about how my mom suggested the previous one, she also had me watch Game of Thrones with her. I feel bad because I am a very quiet watcher of things, so I showed pretty much no reaction to a lot of the really good twists despite them really surprising me. Even so, I enjoyed my time watching it with her. I also watched The Tudors with her and while I didn't enjoy it as much as GoT it was also really good.

There's probably TONS more that I could put if I were to think of it, but these are the first that came to mind. A vast majority of the reason I enjoy watching shows is due to being able to watch them with others, or the circumstances that led me to watch them. I could put shows like Code Geass down, for a very memorable argument following the final episode of R1, or the fact I knew about the series from Madder Sky, or that I watched a "meme' that literally had the entirety of the Zero Requiem before watching it only to completely forget what happens (ok that's a good one I should have put it down). Or I could put down something like Star Wars, which I have enjoyed with my brother since I was a kid. Another great contender is Erased, which was the first anime I got my sister to watch, and was the thing that finally allowed me to show here how good anime can be, and why I enjoy it so much. Doctor Who I have watched with my family quite a bit, restarted every time we finally wanted to try getting into the Capaldi era before inevitably giving up (insert Sisyphus meme here). Pretty much every show I watch has some sort of significance to it because I watch shows as a social experience. I pretty much only have 4 hobbies and that's TV, Video Games, Books, and Music. Because of that, the only way I really bond with people is getting them to watch, read, or play something with me. I'm hoping eventually my friend that is learning guitar gets to the point we can play stuff together to add music to that list of things to do with friends lol.

Thanks a lot for the question. Sorry again about how long it took me to respond to it. I have been super busy and I had way too much stuff to say to respond on mobile lol. I hope the fact that I ranted so long makes up for it.

[bcdaily]

Bee, hope the summer Street food ended up not treating you too badly. Are you still keeping up with CR? If so, which campaign are you currently watching? Would love to hear your opinion on both C1 and C3 in any case. Take care!!

I ended up being very strong and NOT buying the fried oreos...but that's likely because I'd already caved on a pina colada juice and my stomach was already like "gurl" so it was really my only course of action. XD

Keeping up slowly! I'm actually literally as I type watching episode 30 of C3, so I'm a few weeks behind, but catching up. I'm kinda half-half on C3 so far, which is probably WHY I'm not instantly caught up yet. I generally like all the characters, but I think their interplay together is still developing, so they're a little less compelling as a group yet. And the story itself seems a bit slow thus far? I don't remember how long it took for me to get into C2 fully, but I feel like it was quicker than this. I'm still enjoying it and want to see where it goes, but am less eager than I was with C2.

Lol, I still have not finished C1. I got through 3/4 of it, they beat the conclave and are now off to hell, and I'm just like.......that doesn't seem good. And you're all alive right now. And I'm pretty sure you all don't stay alive. Maybe I'm just going to pretend this is where it ends. Idk. I have very little interest in finishing right now, but maybe I will one day. [But I did watch the animated show finally, and really enjoyed it!]

[pappydaddy]

@ the Nancy anon

Nancy is a cheater lol, you people just overlook it because she finally got together with Jonathan which was the relationship most people were rooting for. When they talked to Murray Nancy referred to Steve as her boyfriend, thus the whole "We like Steve but we don't love him" speech comes from. If they were broken up she would have said so to Jonathan who also acknowledged Steve as her boyfriend at that time. Plus you could argue she emotionally cheated on Steve for a year because Nancy confessed to Jonathan she waited for him to make a move and then had the audacity to be mad when Jonathan brought up she had a bf and he was busy with Will.

That's what the other anon was talking albout, the show never addresses her mistakes. Steve still believes he was at fault for the breakup while she was out there cheating. I'm not saying he was perfect but he put in the work. He left his friends and tried to be a good person. Like they were together for a year obviously he had changed while being in the relationship. He was supportive by going to Barb's parents with her, he tried to protect Nancy by telling her to drop the investigation. She didn't understand it or rather felt misunderstood by him but he had good intentions. It's simply miscommunication there and maybe if they would have talked it out who knows but it didn't change the fact that Nancy was always into Jonathan. I mean after the party the next day Steve referred to Jonathan as Nancy's second boyfriend, so even he was aware of the tension. In my opinion they didn't break up after the argument bc Steve went to her house to talk and to apologize while she was already in bed with Jonathan. I get it it's ambiguous but if you watch closely and I have rewatched s2 more than 5 times because it's my comfort season you can tell she was a cheater. Like if the roles were reversed everyone would say oh Steve's so horrible for it how could he they never clearly broke up Nancy deserved better. For real everyone would always bring it up especially after revived Stancy content in s4. Everyone would be yelling at Nancy to not go back to him because of how he treated her in s2, again if the roles were reversed.

sidenote before i start the reply: i love all the interaction i've been getting and i also love how you guys are not attacking each other but discussing and debating in a respectful way by bringing up valid points. however, if any ask pops up being rude to other anons/posters, i will not be posting the message. i just want to make that clear before that situation arises.

i, personally, am leaning towards nancy cheating (just like i lean toward ross cheating) within the cheating or not argument just because the lines of the relationships were blurry. she also did emotionally cheat within the steve relationship. they were keeping a dead relationship alive by the time the bathroom fight happened in season 2. let's be honest, their relationship was set up to be a temporary thing anyway. steve and nancy were never meant to last past season 1, then they weren't meant to last past the bathroom fight.

i know i have said this a lot, but the dislike towards nancy is from the writers not having her grow or recognize her bad behaviours/actions. steve recognizes his and changes them in season 1 and 2, but in season 4 he doesn't seem to in favour for stancy content which is ooc. this gives us a hint that steve and nancy dating again will reverse steve's character development which will hinder any chance we get at any character development in nancy.

in favour of nancy's character, if they would stop having her torn emotionally between jonathan and steve, maybe then she'll actually have character development. i am personally in favour of her realizing she liked robin and having her character development occur from her romantic feelings for robin.

i do definitely think that the opinions of tik tok and others would change if the roles would be reversed. but, on the flip side of that, i do think there would still be a lot of fans ignoring what steve did no matter what because there will always be fans who ignore all the bad aspects of a character because they are cute, or because of their sex/gender identity, or because of any other reason.

we must remember that stancy was originally just something that stood in the way of jonathan and nancy getting together. the relationship was always supposed to be one-sided because nancy always had a thing for jonathan (which is why i assume the writers had her overlook the photos).

[saezurufeels]

Chapter 47

It's always only a matter of time until I break while waiting for a translation, so I figured a summary is good enough to base my interpretations on 🤡

Anyways, my reaction's under the cut

So in 4 years Sugimoto went from looking kinda dusty, to possessing the jawline of a Greek God. ok

I'm falling at the perfect, upside-down triangular constellation of his freckles 🥰 🔭

University educated and street smart. Lay me to rest

And on top of that he has a good intuition and teases Nanahara with such precision. Truly the son of Yashiro.

The gossip and speculation about Doumeki's alleged woman and dating situation has me cackling. In the next chapter they're gonna start discussing his favourite sex position over some cakes

Mentally inserting myself into that blunt rotation

But, if there's anything I've learned reading Saezuru, it's that you shouldn't trust the tales and gossip in town

The timeskip has not been forthcoming about Doumeki's motives. We're seeing contradicting scenes and behaviours from him

It's clear he is after Yashiro, but he may be dealing with different matters concerning the group, or his lady friend

I mean, when has this manga ever neglected its context?

On to Yashiro

I feel like I don't have much to say. I'm just absorbing and waiting for what's next

The biggest takeaway for me is that unsurprisingly Yashiro doesn't have a defence mechanism to shield him from his own self-perception, which is manifesting itself in severe self-loathing

It's out. It can't be undone. I think it's important to talk about how and why this should have been prevented. But that's a topic for another day

That aside, let's look to the future

The point that Yashiro is at right now: 1) he is reflecting on his life with dread and disdain, and 2) he realized that the people who have done him harm are wrong for what they did

So, at least we have number 2. The tricky part is obviously building up a sense of self-worth

I think that it's absolutely possible to hold both beliefs at the same time. You can hate yourself and blame yourself, and still recognize that someone has harmed you. Our minds are sporadic like that

It's interesting to see that Yashiro no longer connects rape with a hot fantasy, but rather, with real, devastating consequences. But again, this realization isn't a victory for him, as it stands right now. I feel like he needs to be on suicide watch

Yashiro thinking about Doumeki while he's having sex with Inami is a strategy he's always used to distract himself from the pain. When he's hit in bed, he thinks about the last person that was nice to him. He even used to think about Misumi.

His fantasies of Doumeki are cute, but it's also up to Doumeki's next move to see how things unfold

Thus, I'm not really a believer that Yashiro needs to make the next move. Y's "next move" was having sex with Inami. Clearly, not what Doumeki had in mind lol. It's up to Doumeki to let Yashiro trust him not vice versa

Also, I'm not sure if I got this right, but Inami was ok with just exchanging information with Yashiro? Like, sex was not on the table until Yashiro substituted giving out info with sex? If yes, that's telling

You know what's underrated? Doumeki showing up at Yashiro's apartment the next day 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

I mean, Yashiro didn't even have to lift a finger and this grown, self-assured, attractive, and admired man, is rushing to his feet

The sexual and romantic tension between them when they're face to face beside Inami's car....you could cut it with a knife. It's my new favourite panel

I honestly can't even describe how much this whole scene pleases me. If I'm ever gonna use the term alpha male non-sarcastically, it's when I talk about Doumeki in this scene

Doumeki's confidence in this chapter has me quivering, honestly

Judging from Yashiro's facial expression at the end, I wouldn't be surprised if he got goosebumps from D's self-assured attitude