#but the main theme was a teenage love triangle is all

[fogsupwindshieldglass]

The Tortured Poets Department is giving folklore but sexy and mature and also directly autobiographical….

[mustardyellowsunshine]

In today's episode of Shut Up Robin, Nobody Cares:

I finished Maison Ikkoku back in February, and I had a lot of feelings about the series. (It's good, do yourself a favor and go read it if you haven't.) As I read through it, I couldn't shake the thought: this is the caliber of romantic development Rumiko Takahashi can bring to the table?? We could've had this kind of relationship development in InuYasha??? 😭😭

The other thought I couldn't shake: InuYasha fans who still question the sincerity and depth of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome might benefit from reading Maison Ikkoku all the way to the end. They should read the final chapters of Maison Ikkoku, think for awhile about the blatant parallel themes found in InuYasha, and then try reevaluating InuKag's dynamic.

Now, I should clarify: I think the InuYasha series already makes it abundantly self-evident that the Inu/Kag/Kik "triangle" (🙄) is a complex situation that puts InuYasha in an extremely difficult position. (Well, it puts all of them in a difficult position, but you get the idea.) You just have to read the series with your brain on to see that. To review: teenage boy is tricked and terrorized by a demonic murderer; that demon successfully murders the boy's ex while masquerading as him; later his ex is revived from the dead against her will, wanders the earth as a vengeful spirit for awhile (who wouldn't be pissed about being brought back into that bullshit?), and is actively stalked by the demon who already murdered her once; teenage boy is falling in love with someone else when this happens, but he still wants to save his ex from being re-victimized by the demon who already brutally murdered her once. Anyone who sees that situation and describes it with a straight face as "InuYasha needs to make up his mind already" is probably never going to reconsider their assessment of InuYasha's character. They've already formed an opinion in defiance of the evidence. That ship done sailed.

But for some folks, I think experiencing the way Maison Ikkoku explores the same relationship themes—and particularly how it resolves those themes in the final chapters—could help them re-evaluate the emotional nuances in InuKag's relationship, and maybe help to re-contextualize the Inu/Kag/Kik conflict.

The parallels between Godai/Kyoko and InuYasha/Kagome are pretty obvious—Rumiko Takahashi consistently revisits this relationship dynamic in her work (it's present in Mao to a lesser extent). But I think Maison Ikkoku more directly confronts the emotional complexity of that dynamic. You can feel the difference in how RT more directly explores the messiness, complications, and pain of a) grieving a former relationship even while falling in love with someone else, and b) loving someone who is still tangled up in grieving their past. The InuYasha series obviously deals with those themes too, but Maison Ikkoku brings more focus and resolution to its exploration.

This may be for two reasons: 1) Maison Ikkoku had an older audience, as it was published in a seinen magazine geared for adult men between 18 - 40 years old, and 2) the relationship tension between Godai/Kyoko pretty much constitutes the main story of Maison Ikkoku; in InuYasha, the plot (such as it is) revolves around a vengeance quest and the monster of the week, and the relationship tensions between InuKag are second to that. Maybe that's why RT was more willing to get into the weeds with Godai/Kyoko and to more directly resolve the tension.

InuYasha does have some standout chapters where it explicitly deals with the tension of InuKag's situation (e.g., chapter 78, chapter 124, chapter 176, chapter 286, chapter 458, etc.), but there's this distinct hesitance in the narrative to resolve that tension in a substantive way. That's one of my beefs with the InuYasha series: it gives us moments of standout, concrete relationship development which then doesn't impact the future narrative all that much. The same relationship conflicts play out over and over again, well past their narrative expiration dates. See: Miroku flirting with women right in front of Sango after they've acknowledged feelings for each other; also the entire Kaō arc, which just... I do not understand the narrative purpose of that arc when it just exacerbates tensions that already existed and resolves none of them. Anyway. I digress.

You could argue this hesitance to permanently resolve relationship conflict comes from the episodic nature of InuYasha's storytelling. There's some truth to that, but that's not a satisfying explanation for why the main couple's relational status quo remains inert for the latter half of the series. Maison Ikkoku also does this to an extent—the "will they, won't they?" tension is strung along for as long as possible—but in general Maison Ikkoku does a better job of allowing relationship development to actually affect the narrative. Moments of emotional revelation and growth do change the relational status quo between Godai and Kyoko. They don't stay in quite the same relationship limbo that InuYasha and Kagome get stuck in for the latter half of the series. (It probably also helps that Maison Ikkoku is significantly shorter than InuYasha.)

All that to say: I think Godai/Kyoko is actually a useful mirror for examining InuKag, because they share the same themes and relationship dynamics without sharing the same narrative failings.

Okay, so: big time major spoilers ahead for Maison Ikkoku. Stop here if you don't want to see the conclusion of that series.

I want to look at how Maison Ikkoku's conclusion simultaneously revisits and resolves the main conflict between Godai/Kyoko.

Ahhhhhh my feelings!!! Man I love this series.

Okay, let's review the major takeaways from this scene:

• Notice how the tension between Godai and Kyoko—Godai's struggle with insecurity and Kyoko's feelings for her deceased husband—mirrors the tension between InuKag. And notice that the reader is encouraged to sympathize with both Godai and Kyoko. Godai is not "at fault" for struggling with insecurity and feelings of jealousy. That's a natural human feeling to have, especially in a relationship that hasn't been anywhere near secure until very recently. And despite whatever jealousy or inadequacy he may be feeling, Godai tries to see things from Kyoko's perspective. Part of Godai's struggle—the heartache of it—is his understanding that Kyoko is also not at fault. It's not her fault that she married before she ever met Godai, it's not her fault her husband died, and it's not her fault that she's struggling with the grief of that tragedy. She's trying to reorient herself to her new life after loss; she's falling in love with Godai, but she's also scared of betraying her husband's memory. (Let's hold that mirror up to InuYasha now, shall we? SHALL WE?) Moving on from Soichiro emotionally represents to Kyoko a breach of duty to a loved one.

• To reiterate: neither Godai nor Kyoko are "at fault" in this situation. That's precisely why it's a tragedy. They both have to process painful, messy feelings; both their feelings are valid and understandable. (Hold that mirror up to InuKag, girl. HOLD IT UP.)

• Notice how Godai explicitly acknowledges that loving Kyoko means loving the Kyoko who once loved Soichiro. "On the day I met Kyoko, you were already within her. That's the Kyoko I fell in love with." It's impossible to divorce Kyoko from her feelings for her former husband: that part of her life significantly shaped her into who she is. And I just love that Godai is hashing out his feelings at Soichiro's grave: it shows a sort of respect for Soichiro's memory, but more importantly it also shows that Godai knows his negative feelings can't ultimately be "fixed" by Kyoko. If she could fix them, he'd be having this conversation with her. (And by this point in the series they have had this conversation.) But Godai knows he's the only one who can truly work through/resolve his insecurity—especially now, when Kyoko has already assured him that she loves him—and I love how the scene's setting subtly demonstrates that. Soichiro's ghost is haunting Godai's feelings, not Kyoko's, and Godai is trying to work through that with Soichiro himself. There's no love triangle to resolve here: what needs resolving is Godai's own feelings of inadequacy which no amount of assurance from Kyoko can ultimately "fix." This is his ghost to fight. (We get an echo of this kind of inner conflict in chapter 458 of InuYasha: Kagome directly wrestles with the "ghost" of Kikyo and struggles toward some resolution of her own insecurities.... Only for the Kaō arc to come along later and materially damage that resolution and character growth for no clear reason, BUT I DIGRESS.) And this scene shows that Godai wins that fight: he comes to understand that loving Kyoko has to include accepting her past. Kagome reaches a very similar understanding in chapters 175 and 176 of InuYasha.

• To reiterate: Maison Ikkoku's conclusion is not the resolution of a "love triangle." It's the resolution of a series-long conflict, which is completely different. In order for love triangles to work—to actually function as love triangles—two competing love interests have to be viable options. This is quite evidently not the case in Maison Ikkoku: Soichiro is dead at the start of the series. It's literally impossible for Kyoko to choose him in any meaningful way. RT blatantly acknowledges this early in the series when Kyoko's father-in-law tells her she has to live her life. I cannot stress enough how self-consciously the series is not about a love triangle between Godai/Kyoko/Soichiro. (Mitaka is another matter entirely, for a different post.) Rather, the series is about the damaging power of grief in our lives, the rocky and painfully non-linear journey to healing from that grief, and how messy, fraught, and ultimately profoundly beautiful it is to love another person for exactly who they are — past pain/trauma and all. (Please for the love of heaven hold that mirror up to InuKag.)

• No, you know what? I'm not leaving that at a parenthetical. I'm just gonna say it: exactly as Maison Ikkoku is not about a love triangle, InuYasha isn't either. For the same reasons as stated above, the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is not ultimately a love triangle because Kikyo is dead at the start of the series. And while her spirit is magically revived—in an altered/diminished form—she is still not truly alive. The story conspicuously communicates this: her body is literally created from decomposing bones and cannot sustain itself (she needs to consume souls—other deceased spirits—to remain animated), symbolically suggesting she is of the dead even as she walks among the living. This is a facsimile of life. RT is not subtle about this. Kikyo is a tragic and complex character whose arc can be interpreted in many ways, but I think it's fair to say that the series self-consciously represents her as a past which can't be recovered. The damage has been done. She is dead, time continues to move forward, and there's no reversing that. (That's, again, why it's a tragedy.) Even her resurrected body symbolically represents this reality via death imagery. Ergo, from the very start of the series—just as we see in Maison Ikkoku—Kikyo is not a truly viable option for InuYasha. He can't choose her in any meaningful way. To "choose" her would be to essentially choose death—abandonment of life—just as Kyoko choosing Soichiro would make her "a wife who hadn't died yet." Kikyo represents an irrecoverable past just as Soichiro does. And the main thematic trajectory of each series does not suggest that Kyoko/InuYasha should give up on life by choosing death — it suggests they should choose life. Godai and Kagome conspicuously represent life, the possibility of living into the future. (Kagome is literally from the future, that's how unsubtle RT is about this.)

(A quick aside while we're here: no, Kikyo's not being a viable option does nothing to diminish the sincerity of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome. Kagome is not a "second choice," for the love of God the series blatantly addresses that very thing many, many times—like it's right there y'all—and I have already written a long ass post about why Kagome's insecurity over InuYasha's feelings for her shouldn't be taken as gospel truth.)

So, rather than being an actual love triangle, I think the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is a complicated emotional landscape that explores the same themes Maison Ikkoku does: how grief and trauma affect our lives, how painful and messy it can be to heal from that grief, and that loving someone—choosing to take that mutual risk with them—means trusting that they mean it when they tell/show us they love us, and choosing to trust them more than our own insecurities.

It's just that Maison Ikkoku explores those themes a little better. 😅 Which is why I think it makes a good mirror for re-examining InuKag: all the same themes without all the narrative failings and missed opportunities. ✌🏼

[bunnymajo]

Wing Girls: An early example of an all female transforming hero team

We've all heard the take that in 1992 Sailor Moon is the first anime to focus on an all-female super heroine show akin to "Super Sentei" or "Saint Seiya", aimed at girls, and that is true. But I want to talk about another very early example I've never seen mentioned: The Wing Girls, a plot element that shows up about midway of the 1984 shonen anime "Yume Senshi Wingman"

Yume Senshi Wingman is a show very aimed at teenage boys. It focuses on Hirono Kenta, a huge tokusatsu nerd with his own hero persona, Wingman. He's chosen and gifted with the Dream Note that can make anything he draws in it come true so he can become Wingman for real and defeat and evil organization from taking over his world. Another big point about Wingman is it's focus on love triangles and fanservice, between Kenta's ladylike classmate Miku and the more bold and flirtatious Aoi, who is a resident from the world that the Dream Note came from

The opening visually explains I think what kind of dynamic they were going for here: (also if nothing else, the music in this show is really good)

In episode 33, Airing on November 13, 1984 - Kenta and his classmates are visiting a shoot of a liveaction henshin hero episode. Agents from the evil organization are rumored to be part of the cast and Kenta's not able to focus his attention on it, so the female classmates who know his secret are given their own special forms in case something goes wrong and they need to step in

Enter the Wing Girls, consisting of Aoi, Miku, along with his other classmates Momoko and Kumiko

More of a backup squad to Wingman himself, they're still given similar abilities to instantly change forms with the power of the dream note and enhanced physical abilities for punching and kicking

They make a few other appearances throughout the show but this is their big solo moment. They even get their own theme song on one of the drama CDs, and figure merch in 2009.

I just think they're a neat little part of magical girl history.

Side mg history in case someone brings it up:

The idea of female super-hero magical girls as main characters goes as far back as the early 1970s with "Suki! Suki! Majo-sensei" and "Cutey Honey" and continues to sporadically appear through the decades. But these only focus on one heroine compared to an entire team.

Another early cited example of a mg team is the Studio Pierrot crossover special "Majokko Club Quartet: Alien X from A Zone" a direct-to-video special from 1987 that shows the heroines from Pierrot's line of magical girls: Creamy Mami, Magical Emi, Fairy Persia and Pastel Yumi, team up against alien invaders and parodies sci-fi tokusatsu tropes in the process. While the original TV series are all aimed at children, and the special is still within the realm of SFW, I would argue this OVA is more aimed at adult fans of the series due to its content and release format. So that's why I tend to not think of it on the same level as Sailor Moon.

[veerbles]

thoughts about dream thieves (and some predictions!)

After probably almost a decade of thinking to myself, I’m an adult who’d like to read more and also enjoys YA, I should finally pick up TRC, I finally picked up TRC. I finished Raven Boys and immediately started Dream Thieves, so I didn’t pause to gather my thoughts on the first one, but here I am now. Ready to unleash several K’s of words by using my limited information to analyze characters and make some predictions that may or may not come true.

• I really enjoy the whole magical-realism, bordering-on-alternate-dimensions theme, but I’m SO SORRY Cabeswater gives me the creeps. I can read context clues and infer from the fact that Blue and Gansey both love it that it’s not meant to be sinister? Probably? But like, talking forests and time loops and magical possessions have, in the history of literature, revealed ulterior motives. I’m mostly side-eyeing the way Adam’s sacrifice to Cabeswater immediately derailed his life and mental stability. It might just be an Adam thing. It’s probably an Adam thing. But like, if I were these kids I’d be a biiiit more wary of the scary time-defying magical land I stumbled upon.

• The sudden emphasis on how time is circular kind of came out of nowhere. There was definitely a point made in the first book about how time doesn’t flow the same way inside Cabeswater, but mid-second book the nonlinearity of time was suddenly a huge thing and all the Sargent seers made a point of how every prophecy is something that both happened already and hasn’t happened yet. I’m totally down with some time-fuckery, but I would’ve liked some more build-up. Also, is this meant to play into Blue’s prophecy? Adam’s visions? Gansey’s fate? Glendower’s fate?

• I was preparing myself for a long, drawn-out love triangle B-plot, and I’m glad it didn’t happen. I couldn’t tell if I missed some subtext and Blue’s intense attraction to Adam faded before their fight at his room, or if it was a direct result of it, but I like that their thing (he called her his girlfriend and I was kind of like… is she? Who established that?) was short and not too well-developed. I think it mostly served as a lesson that Blue can influence her fate, but she can’t run from it (“Why couldn’t it be Adam?”). 

• Also, I think the marketing of the first book did it a HUGE disservice. I have nothing against romance as a main plot and maybe I would have enjoyed that as well, but adventure and the found family trope have a much stronger pull. Was really glad the romantic relationships aren’t really the main focus (at least yet?).

• On the same note, these books are so far really good with show not tell. The numerous unspoken hints about the Blue/Gansey attraction did such a good job making me root for them. The slow progression from Gansey caring an inordinate amount about how Blue views him, to Blue dedicating large chunks of her time analyzing him and trying to figure out all of his layers, to Gansey definitely growing aware of his feelings but not doing anything explicit because of Adam… The boat scene with Orla was pure comedy, lmao. Tell me you’re 16/17 years old without telling me you’re 16/17 years old.

• The Blue/Adam “break up” scene was so good because it evoked true emotions in me. I think a reasonable percentage of teenage girls were once The One Girl in a group of guys, and Blue’s feelings of being treated differently because she’s a girl really hit right where it hurt. I think Adam’s inability to understand that she wants to be his friend first and a love interest later was so real. I also do think that this scene brought up multiple points and maybe Blue’s character would have benefitted from addressing each of them separately, even just in her own head. She feels left out because she’s a girl, and she feels he only views her as a Girl and not as a friend; she’s wary of his anger issues and feels she doesn’t know him; she has feelings for Gansey; she has an ominous prophecy hanging over her head. Ultimately, her saying he’s not “the one” is what hurt him most, because she hit him directly in the insecurities, but it wasn’t really the most interesting or impactful point. Who is Blue Sargent and what does she really want in a relationship (or in general?)

• I have a hot take, but don’t kill me for this. …Adam gives off real Peter Pettigrew vibes. I’M SO SORRY. I really hope he gets more character development later on, because right now he’s straight on the path to evil villain. Or, okay, maybe he veered off that path after his talk with Persephone and their quest to fix the ley line, but for a minute there I was like… My guy, I get where you’re coming from, but you’re slowly gnawing on the leg that you used to stand on. It’s okay to be mad at the world because you were handed a worse hand of cards, and it’s okay to want to climb your way up to prove your own worth. But a minute ago your whole point was that you HAD worth, and now you’re acting out because you feel worthless? Adam’s getting eaten away by his insecurities and thinking/saying/doing really uncool things to his friends, and it’s just Not It. At this point of time, I personally would not have made him Secret-Keeper of the house I’m hiding in.

• Direct follow up: Honestly? Gansey should punch someone. As a treat. Gansey certainly has flaws, but he’s also certainly the most self-aware of the whole bunch. He is continuously harder on himself than anyone else is hard on him, and trying to make things right, and he’s kind of getting stepped on by his best friends. Adam stole his most prized possession and sneaked away to do exactly what Gansey didn’t want to do on GANSEY’S search quest, and then took the offer of networking but spit it back in Gansey’s face, and admitted he’s going to fight Gansey for Glendower’s favor because he thinks he deserves it more. Ronan ALSO stole his most prized possession after letting Gansey clean up his messes, and didn’t even really apologize? Like, it’s somehow okay because after he stole it he wrecked it and then dreamed it back? Nah dude. It wasn’t okay you took it to begin with! Now, I definitely think it’s not a black-and-white situation; Adam brings up plenty of good points in his arguments, and Ronan, to the best of my recollection, never asked to be cleaned up after. They’re both super traumatized and Gansey chose to stick by their sides through that. But everybody else gets to lash out and make stupid decisions and I, personally, think Richard C. Gansey III should pull a teenage boy move and punch one of his best friends. Which one is up to him. The punch can be metaphorical.

• This book focused mainly on Ronan and Adam’s journeys, and I have to say I loved the night terrors as a symbol of self-loathing. But I remain unsure about Ronan himself. Unlike Adam I don’t think he’s doing villain-y things, but he’s definitely doing very normal teenaged self-destructive things. And that’s fine. It's expected. But it’s also not really productive to self-acceptance? Which he somehow reached at least partially by the end of this book anyway? My point being, Ronan kind of lost it when Gansey was gone and went on a weird dreamer-bender and took all kinds of suspicious drugs and made all kinds of bad decisions, and I expected that to have ramifications. He didn’t really face any of his self-hatred or made efforts to be a better friend. He did kind of face (literally) his grief over his father, which is obviously huge, but I would have liked him to take down some of those walls, be vulnerable, apologize? Face some of his obvious inner homophobia? Anything before that wholesome ending. I guess I just stay hopeful that it’d happen in the next two books.

• On that note, the whole goddamn Lynch family needs therapy. What the fuck. Hated Declan significantly less than the last book, but all three of them should get some professional help for their asses. Their mother is a dream? Ronan’s new friend’s mother is dating his father’s murderer?? Ronan’s dad kicked him out of his home on the heels of his tragic death to teach him some lesson about… dreaming??? So much shit happened in this book. However: loved the idea of Ronan having an actual parent and functioning sibling relationship now. Hopefully, that would do some good for everybody involved.

• Very happy at the subtle queer themes and foreshadowing that led up to Ronan’s very understated sexuality revelation. I could smell it coming from a mile away without it being spelled out for me, which is good: it means it was written into his character really well. I was both thrilled and kind of confused by some of the Adam/Ronan hints in this book, though. Ronan… slept on the floor by Adam’s bed…? ("Surely he would wake up soon and find himself [...] lying on the floor beside Adam’s bed at St. Agnes.") This was literally mentioned in one line and then never again. And he doesn’t spend too much time thinking of Adam, but somehow the epilogue still explicitly states that his secret is Adam and not his sexuality as a whole. I’m rooting for them, but I’ll need more convincing in later books that this apparent crush didn’t spring out of nowhere. 

• On the subject of themes I didn’t see coming, the redemption arc for The Gray Man with the gray morality surprised me. It’s not that I’ve never read or enjoyed books where this subject was explored, I just didn’t expect it to happen in this book series. It seems to me like so far every character we’re supposed to root for is very clearly that, and evil characters give off hints in advance. Gray Man definitely did some dubious things in this book, even if you disregard the killing itself, so I expected his ending to line up with that. I guess it still might? Truthfully I find the subject of responses to trauma and how it affects your moral compass very interesting, and I’m definitely into characters’ redemption arcs, but I just don’t know if romantic entanglement with a known dissociative killer is a smart thing for a mother of a sixteen-year-old. If the Gray Man drove away at the end and started a new, less-violent life, I’d be far less conflicted. But he very clearly stated his attachment to Henrietta, which just… leaves me mostly confused. 

• Speaking of, I love how a major theme of this odd little magical book is how different people handle childhood trauma (Adam, Ronan, Gray Man). No further notes, just love it.

• I also really like that adults are directly involved in this story, instead of being intentionally kept out of the loop like in most YA stories. In the majority of the YA books I’ve read I really felt like 70% of the problems could be solved by a whole ass grown up swooping in instead of letting a bunch of kids handle real life-endangering shit all by themselves. The 300 Fox Way women are certainly a specific breed of adults, but they are adults, and they do intervene when needed and are kept mostly informed. It’s a nice change of pace. 

• Going to quickly mention my only real point of criticism and then move on. The dialogue in this book isn’t very realistic, and the clear preference for dramatic chapter endings is a little excessive. I can forgive the dialogue issue, because it does help create the atmosphere that this isn’t a real place in the real world but a magical and intriguing town in some mystery land, but I don’t know if this is what the author actually intended. In every other way, the kids are all pretty well fleshed-out and realistic depictions of teenagers. But every time they open their mouths I think: this is not how a natural conversation sounds. And the dramatic chapter cliffhangers isn’t terrible, because it does keep my interest, but I think it’s fine to have a few chapters not ending with a dramatic one-liner, lol.

Predictions! 

Gansey is a reincarnation of Glendower’s. This is not a certain one, but if it’s not true I feel like it’s a missed opportunity. Gansey is constantly described as “both very old and very young”. He died, but mysteriously didn’t die. He has this connection to Glendower and for some reason connects his sense of self to him. It would tie in to the theme of nonlinear time. I think it could be a good ending for this journey, a la “the thing you were looking for was in yourself all along”.

Gansey answering with “That’s all there is” will have more meaning later on. It could be that dialogue thing again, but I found it to be a weird response in the context of that scene. Since I am of the firm belief that this is all heading to a Blue/Gansey kiss, Gansey dying and then undying, and Blue somehow walking him back down that corpse road, I feel like that quote could maybe tie in to that future scene.

Is Adam’s vision really “gone”? In the scene where Adam makes peace with his powers and returns to Cabeswater he remembers the vision from the dreaming tree and thinks: "That wasn’t going to happen now. He’d changed his future. He’d chosen a different way." And I simply can't help but think that that's just... too easy. Why mention the vision so many times if it's not going to happen now? On the one hand, it would be far more interesting if it did happen, but it had a whole different connotation to it than Adam can currently imagine (he specifically says Gansey is dying, not dead.) On the other hand, it does seem like that vision fits in the reality where Gansey dies back in the first book on Neeve's pentagon, if Adam hadn't rushed in and made the sacrifice. I just feel like it's going to make a comeback.

Noah should not be a ghost. There was not once a good explanation for why this happened. Because he died on the ley line? Presumably, if the ley line runs through the US, many people die on the ley line. Gansey’s backstory is that he came back to life from those hornet stings because someone else who should not have died has died. But Noah is like. Not exactly dead? I’m assuming this will need to be addressed later on and serve as some sort of plot resolution.

Persephone has a connection to Cabeswater. She essentially told Adam that she was in his place once (“They won’t understand,” Persephone said. “They didn’t when I came back.”). That lady has something weird going on with her and this tell me it will have some sort of connection to Cabeswater. She kind of gives off the vibes of someone who will get forever lost in a magical forest. Also I feel like maybe one of the psychics won’t make it out alive, and I dread it’d be her or Maura.

Artemus is definitely a Cabeswater creature. I think this was almost explicitly stated? He appeared suddenly and disappeared suddenly? Almost like the surges and outages the ley line causes? Also, I don't remember the specifics from the first book but I think Maura needed Neeve's help to find him because he was in that "place where they can't see", or something like that - presumably Cabeswater. Also, his story does not give human.

[shewolf-sinclair]

making this a full post because i’m realizing not enough people understand this (this was something i commented on another post)

Regarding all the information we have on S2’s lack of romantic interests or themes for wednesday, it’s not to say there will never be any romantic elements especially in later seasons. But a lot of people, jenna included, don’t think it makes sense for Wednesday’s character for that to be a main focus right now. People hated the s1 love triangle, and while I see why (i am not referring to shipping wars) it was at least beneficial to the plot. (I say all of this as a multishipper) Wednesday (character and show) isn’t opposed to romance but it’s just not a priority which makes a lot of sense when you do the character work/study. I think to an extent the writers realize this, and the main reason they added it in the first season was plot development, and trying to cater to a gen Z audience. Such attempts made a lot of people, even those of us who love the show dearly, call many parts of it cringe. Because it was gen z culture but not in a natural way. it was over the top and forced. And I think they’re finding the same issue with how they wrote the romacey stuff. so they’re gonna dial it down. it may be added again later, but if so it’ll be laid back. not the forefront and main focus, and it will occur gradually as to be more realistic and representative of our generation which is what they are trying to achieve. You have to keep in mind that while all ages watch the show, it is YA and initially intended for people in and around highschool age. And I love them for making this decision (I say this as a hardcore shipper)

yes wenclair shippers this includes you too (while i personally dislike wenclair this is not a dig at the ship. but y’all need to realize it is equally unrealistic as any other ship rn)

That being said, while the show is trying to add less romance centered themes and plots, I need y’all to have some media literacy. It’s one thing (and perfectly ok) to headcannon wednesday as aroace for whatever reason you like. but please also understand that doesn’t give you the right to force that interpretation on other people. “but look at wednesday she hates everyone no way she could ever love someone/be in a relationship!” I beg you to look at any other Addams family media ever and learn her character. I made a whole post about it here.

However that post never really went in depth enough. It also didn’t mention the addams family musical (my beloved).

Wednesday has a stone cold demeanor but that is strategic. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings. We even witnessed them in the show several times. She felt anger in episode 1 when her brother was bullied. Disgust with her parents. Fear with Rowan. Intrigue as well. We later see exhibits of excitement with Fester and sadness and loneliness with Enid.

So now that we’ve established she actually feels things lets dig deeper. “She’s disgusted by her parents she hates romance!” wrong! She hates watching her parents suck face. no teenager wants to see their parents do that. its gross. She also has a strained relationship with them which makes it worse. We know she doesn’t like things she can’t understand, and in this iteration she hasn’t really experienced romance or romantic attraction before. So she likely doesn’t fully understand it (yet) and this outwardly rejects it. Which is partly why she is so skeptical when Enid gushes about Ajax. However throughout the season as she experiences similar feelings firsthand in regards to Tyler, she becomes less put off by others expressing affection. Though I do standby the idea she likely despises PDA.

She may not explicitly want it but she is in fact capable.

[youareinlove]

I don’t know if you’ve ever done it, but have you ever wrote one long analysis of cardigan and the whole teenage love triangle?

i have a breakdown of folklore as an album that touches on the teenage love triangle, but i didn't go as in-depth as i would like to and talked more about how the songs related to folklore's overall themes as an album versus individual inspirations. also i think my opinion on some of the inspiration behind it has become more well-rounded so i'll put more of that here

so i think most people know by now that augustine, betty, and james are the main players of the folklore love triangle. cardigan = betty's perspective, betty (song) = james's perspective, and august = augustine's perspective. the most fundamentally important part of understanding the love triangle is that taylor is all three of them.

cardigan so cardigan is the first we hear of the teenage love triangle on folklore, which i think is so interesting because it's not the obvious choice. while betty (song) and august are narrated by teenagers (and you can TELL), cardigan is clearly narrated by an older betty who has done some maturing. the story's told from the perspective of someone who has processed what happened, while the other two (especially august) feel like active processing. cardigan tells the same story that betty (song) does, but in a much more vague way, which confused me initially but now makes sense to me because the song isn't really about the events that happened, betty (song) does that job. cardigan is an intensive look at how those events impacted betty as a person. betty, presumably in her teenage years and during the bulk of her relationship with james, is outlined as someone who doesn't have the ability to validate herself and needs to get that from someone else. we can assume that this is because of 1) daddy issues ("leaving like a father") and 2) the world invalidating her perspective ("when you are young they assume you know nothing"). she gets that validation from james, her boyfriend ("hand under my sweatshirt, baby kiss it better," "and when i felt like i was an old cardigan, under someone's bed / you put me on and said i was your favorite"), but loses it very suddenly when he cheats on her and breaks her heart ("a friend to all, is a friend to none / chase two girls, lose the one"). it's a formative moment for her because the relationship was her lifeline in many ways and not having that hurts her all over again ("you drew scars, around my scars, and now i'm bleeding"). the bridge talks about james rushing to fix things, but also it isn't really about that because it isn't about him. it's about how she had to learn to give herself what she was looking to james for, and she does ("cause i knew everything when i was young"). she honors her own perspective, voice, and agency, and the fact that she was perfectly capable the entire time. the point isn't that he put her on and said she was his favorite, the point is that she doesn't need him to do that anymore but had to learn that the hard way. starting the story with cardigan seems like a questionable decision because of how mature it is, but it also makes sense in a lot of ways because knowing how the events of the story affected betty is pretty crucial to understanding betty (song). also i think there's something to be said about how she chose to begin with the woman's perspective.

august next we get to hear from augustine. augustine is the "other woman" or the one james cheats with, and her sympathetic portrayal is very, very important (more on that later). we get to know that she was really in love with james and didn't feel casual about him at all, but was treated casually because he just didn't like her the way she liked him. the song is very much her processing this and feeling used and discarded, but also kind of dejectedly recognizing that she never had a shot because he was never really hers. august and foolish one really are sisters in that way. also there's like, a heavy implication that james was her first time (iykwim) and that's part of why it hurts so much that it ended the way it did. i think the best part of august is the way that she shows us without directly telling us the differences between how augustine and betty experienced their relationship with james. betty gets closure, augustine doesn't. betty (in cardigan) has verse after verse of different moments with james, because she was with him for years, but augustine talks about the moments during the summer (many of which are from like, the same day) over and over because that's all she had. it's subtle but it's there

betty (song) there is something so very intentional about the guy getting to say his piece last (i have no other elaboration lmfao, just wanted to start off with that). so betty (song) is like, the most clear-cut about What Happened which i believe is because betty and august have to process and think about how it affected their life and their person but james just gets to think about the story because he was the one fucking around and hurting other people. he knows he needs to apologize, and i don't feel the need to elaborate on that apology too much because it's like, in the lyrics lol. but i think betty (song) showcases the closure betty got that augustine didn't. whether or not she took him back is up for debate, and whether or not the apology is good is also up for debate, but at the end of the day neither of those things matter because the point is that it's an open-ended resolution to the story. you get to see how much he cares about betty and how little he cares about augustine (just a summer fling indeed).

the gender of it all it's impossible to ignore gender here because it's SO important to the story, specifically for betty and james. a lot of betty's initial struggle of being invalidated and diminished is because she's a smart teenage girl, and there's nothing society hates more than a young girl with opinions. they're both young teenagers, but the dichotomy of how their youth factors into their story is very intentional. for betty, she's told she "knows nothing" because she is young. her perspective is considered less important, she's made to doubt herself as so many young girls are when it comes to their instincts. even though adult betty is able to recognize that she was right the whole time and "knew everything when i was young," one of the greatest pains of the relationship for her was the way she was forced into that recognition. for james, he gets to say "i'm only seventeen, i don't know anything." he gets to dodge responsibility and make excuses for himself because of his age, and society is like "ok makes sense." his wrong perspective is only propped up and validated, which is a stark contrast to how betty feels. for augustine, as the "other woman," it would be easy for the narrative to encourage the popular and kinda sexist narrative that she got in the way of the relationship and was a homewrecker/evil mistress. but instead, she gets to be a teenage girl who was hurt. the narrative tells you that she's a kid who maybe made a mistake but it doesn't blame her. that's a luxury that's usually only afforded to men (and the luxury james takes advantage of).

real life inspiration i have to keep this part short bc i'm about to hit character limit but there are shades of her relationship with jake in august (having your first time and it feeling special but then being discarded and feeling kinda used) and some of the hurt around it. her relationship with harry (see: 1989 vault) feels like a driving force around the love triangle as well, because it's a very similar story. and i also think that the summer of 2016 with joe is a part of all this. people have said that august feels a lot like if cruel summer went the other way and they're right (again, there's some bits and pieces that are more sex-adjacent but that's another thing). and some of the references to betty's mental health and how james made things feel ok is very her & joe in 2016. it's kind of a lot of different events in her life and i think writing the love triangle helped her unpack how some of them led to each other. also impossible to ignore the similarities between how the world invalidated her for years and how the world invalidates betty

[hackingthemotionsensors]

My Life with the Walter Boys: The Cole Effect

When the trailer and title frame appeared on my suggestion screen I decided to play, mostly out of bored curiosity and definitely more than half expecting it to be a simple teenage drama about a whole school’s worth of boys fighting over a mediocre female character.

This series has devastated me in my hormonal state.  I ended up watching the whole series.  I see it as a tragedy.  A tragedy in Alex’ unrequited love for Jackie; in the impossibility of Jackie and Cole ending up together without consequences, in Alex’ best friend who is so in love with him that she can’t tell anyone; in the loss of the family home; in Erin’s insecurity; in Cole’s attitude towards life and ultimately the deepest betrayal of what he promised he would never do.  This is what the country music genre is about, wasted youth, escaping the town, cowboy boots and drinking.  Little attention is paid to these themes otherwise, and they are painted over with cute and playful moments throughout which is I think partly why I’m so unbalanced.

Despite having the set up to do so (Jackie is thrust into a houseful of “raging hormones”), I am grateful that I was not watching a painful romantic drama (I cannot take the love triangle in Twilight seriously).  The intricate relationships between all the family members were interesting and complex and I was able to relate to the teenage frustrations I saw in all of them. 

To me, Jackie was not the main character, Cole was.  To begin with is painted as the villain.  He is the only boy who doesn’t welcome Jackie to the home, he is the most sought-after boy in school (“the Cole effect”), he uses his popularity and charm to treat girls as disposable, including his not-girlfriend Erin, but it’s casual so it’s fine...  He is cocky, selfish and seems to enjoy evoking anguish in his siblings and school friends.  In the first few episodes every conversation he had with Jackie I was internally screaming for her to just tell him to f*** off.

But then you learn about the future he had stolen from him after a leg injury.  Suddenly there’s nothing for him.  His family can’t afford college, so without that football scholarship he’s not going.   He doesn’t see anything good in the future, or himself becoming anything more than what he already is; a bitter man stuck in a small town with no skills, no reason to be loved, all the attention on his younger brothers achieving their dreams and fledging the nest.  And it’s so tragic.

This is the first time I understood the small American town narrative.   In the UK we have small rural villages, but you are never so far from a town or city or a train station to take you to a musical, if you wanted to do that.  The boys listen wide-eyed at the table as Jackie says that if they went to New York, they could see a ballet.  I feel that rural is too urban a word to describe where the Walters live.  And Cole really highlights this trapped concept.

Cole lets his grades sink and his relationships disintegrate, because he has no desires anymore.  I infer that he sleeps around to stay relevant, or as an avoidance mechanism, or both.  His friend takes his place on the football team. The only thing that he can cling onto from his life before the injury is the female validation.  This is my hot take, Cole is not a demon for messing girls around.  It is an unhealthy coping mechanism that unfortunately affects other people, and he is too damaged to see that.

I’m glad we learn more about Erin too.  Her insecurity about Cole’s intentions towards her makes her mean to Jackie.  She’s not a mean person.  Insecurity makes people act uncharacteristically, trying to take control of a part of the situation, which is the other girl.  The classic situationship is displayed, she knows she is worth more than a man who can’t commit to her, who doesn’t call her back and who then acts like everything is fine.  But she has feelings for him.  It’s not that easy.

And Cole does care about his family.  When he’s called out on his behaviour by Will, a light changes in his eyes.  He is confused and regretful.  He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but he has been intentionally doing it for weeks.  He didn’t realise though, because he’s not important enough for anyone to be hurt by him?  Does that make sense? Will tells him of course he has choices over his life, and that his behaviour is a choice.  Everything you do is a choice.  This is the only thing that seems to get through to Cole.

A scene I wanted to highlight was the fight between Will and Hayley.  It’s such a perfect example of communication.  Hayley handles this fight incredibly well.  Despite both being angry and upset, with strong feelings involved, she stays calm.  She makes her points despite attempts to be derailed with accusations of character.  This scene should become a teaching material, I am that serious about it.

Another scene I love is the school fight.  I don’t think it’s cliché that the Walter boys had a reputation in a school, a hot target for gossip.  Families with two siblings were talked about as dynasties in my school, and this family has six siblings in the same school.  Within a few hours a rumour spins out of control and in the confusion and heat of embarrassment and anger Alex believes Cole is responsible.  Alex has lost out to his cooler older brother his whole life.  The interaction between a victimised Alex and an exhausted Cole in the auditorium escalates and turns physical.  Isaac, Lee and Nate in the cafeteria see the livestream of the scene, glace at each other and then sprint to the auditorium.  It is strangely heartwarming to see the innate pack-bond that the boys have for each other.

Finally, I wanted to talk about Jackie and Alex’ relationship.  Alex is head over heels with Jackie.  The intensity of a high school crush, who you already think is perfect, but you managed to date them!  Jackie thinks he’s cute, but it’s obvious she was never actually into him.  I can’t think of one thing she does for him.   I think their relationship is the biggest tragedy and I dislike Jackie for never being honest with herself about it.  Ashby Gentry (Alex) plays the perfect naïve and doting good boy-next-door character.  Alex waits up for her when she’s late, she punishes him for a miscommunication, he apologises with an amazing date, she doesn’t tell him about talking to Cole, he sacrifices time with his friends to meet her when she flakes.  Not a 50/50 relationship.

I saw a take that the writing attempts to assassinate his character to appear overbearing, in order to redeem Cole. I agree with this @skam-in-every-language.  Although whilst wathing, every romantic gesture just exaggerated the imbalance in feelings between them, and I wanted to rip my heart out on his behalf.

I guess for Jackie, Alex was the easy option.  The one without risk, with reliable feelings.   And I reason that Jackie does not need to be disappointed by someone she loves and is looking for safety.  However, the consequences of her tragic situation are never really shown in her writing, so it’s hard to understand.  It’s only the first two episodes where you believe she is vulnerable.   I am a strong believer that it is unfair to let someone love you more than you love them- but there is no correct answer to relationships, a piece for another time.

So, this 10-part series is only two boys fighting over a girl, not 9.  I can’t decide if Jackie is a mediocre character or not.  She is not a mediocre person, an athlete, an academic, petite, pretty, and upper east side “exotic.”  But to me I watched the show to understand the family dynamics and the small-town frustrations, not because I felt invested in Jackie’s storyline.  I think more could have been done with her.  Maybe this was intentional and she was created to mediate the story of the other boys.  Or maybe I am cynical because of the way she took Alex for granted. 

[hallowgracie]

The Masquerade of Mirrors and the Duality of Girlhood: Inspirations for Starlight Princess Chiara (pt 2)

(Part 1)

Another major inspiration for the protagonist of my magical girl novel, The Liberation of an Ex-Magical Girl, is the themes of masks, duality, and identity inherent to the genre.

In magical girl stories, magical transformations are pretty much a part of the genre. The main character can transform into an idealized version of herself, the ultimate wish fulfillment of the audience of young girls and women alike. Pretty and strong, she has superpowers, she might be a princess, she might even be an older version of herself who fits into the ideals of feminine beauty.

In my research into the genre, I think it's interesting how the magical girl identity is considered often the "true version" of who the protagonist is, moreso than who she is without the magic. And yet, the character doesn't look like them. She looks like, as previously stated, a feminine ideal.

There's an interesting contradiction there, and it's one I intend to explore with my protagonist, Starlight Princess Chiara/Elisa. As the leader of the Starlight Princess Protectors, Chiara is ambitious, driven, level-headed and a mature leader amongst her sisters. Between her and Lucia, the team healer and emotional heart, they keep everyone in line and from devolving into in-fighting and bickering.

At school as well, Elisa puts up a front of a mature, academically driven girl who is wise beyond her years. She's the type of teenager an adult would say is "mature for her age."

That's not who she is at home, when no one is around. Elisa has her moments of regression, where she likes childish things, where she can be irresponsible with house chores and hides in her room, reading fantasy books, watching cartoons, playing with toys.

Her sisters and parents technically have seen her as she is at home--but that's not who they see. They ignore and pretend that the Elisa at home is not a part of her full character, instead focusing on Chiara and School-Elisa as her only personas.

Elisa is masking in more ways than one, and as a result has an inherent dissatisfaction with herself, a refusal to accept all of herself, as she truly is. When she gives up on being Chiara after the death of the Usurper Queen, she has to confront herself as she is and come to love and understand it. A challenge for everyone, I think.

This is where the Swan Lake motifs come in. Elisa is trying to reconcile her White Swan and Black Swan, her Odile and her Odette. She has to love both in order to be a more actualized person.

And one of the ways she comes to do this is with her love triangle between Prince Cygnus, the son of the Usurper Queen, and Prince Altalune, her Tuxedo Mask/Chat Noir figure. Who in their own ways, reflect the Swan Lake motif. . . . but that's a different post.

Ultimately, while Chiara reflects a part of Elisa that is just as valid as the Elisa at home and Elisa at school, she is a mask, and the mistake of everyone around Elisa is to believe that Chiara is the only, true version of Elisa.

If viewed that way, all Chiara ever will be is a mask.

I think all women experience girlhood through the duality of masks, the ideal feminine that everyone wants to see, and who we truly are. Sometimes there's alignment between both, and sometimes there's none, and most are somewhere in-between. In a truly feminist society, this duality would not persist and there would be no need for this mask.

This is perhaps another reason Elisa starts to reject Chiara: she doesn't want to wear the mask of ideal femininity anymore and instead takes the courageous action to step forward and embrace her full, dualistic self.

[mirambles]

Welcome to SamdalRi - Disappointing is a mild word!

Let me say it up front - I adore Ji Chang Wook. He is so handsome, so gorgeous and an extremely talented actor. He is good at everything - action, comedy and emotions but no one serves angst like he does! I end up watching all his dramas and sadly have liked none since Suspicious Partner. That is my all time favourite - that was also Peak JCW - chemistry and acting everything!

Needless to say despite me not liking the FL of SamdalRi much , I was looking forward to this drama and quite enjoyed the beach town , light hearted feel of the trailer. The first 4 episodes were decent and even if the drama was tropey and predictable I would have enjoyed watching it if the execution was right. But the drama went downhill sooner than I expected.

The show starts with FL being wrongly accused and prosecution by media & public alike without any proof of the accusation. On spot reflection of Korean public towards celebs. I expected this plot to play out and FL to fight hard to prove her accuser wrong, but that plot had no consistency and emerged in the series on and off.

People will hate me for saying this, but all that SamDalRi became was a poor copy of Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Reply 1988.

Reply 1988: Families as neighbours/best friends. Gang of 5 friends 4 guys and girl - love triangle.

Hometown Cha Cha Cha:

1. Career oriented FL comes back to her small town after this setback

2. Genius ML opts to stay in small town sacrificing big town opportunities (Are plaid shirts a thing for small town men in Korea?)

3. Halmeoni gang of villages

4. Trauma for ML (death of loved one)

5. Apply ointment on wound of ML scene

6. Drunk sleepover

7. Beach town setting

8. Mid-late 30year olds behaving like teenagers after confessing their love

Now many will say these are common tropes in Kdrama land, but given that HomeTown Cha Cha is recent - the comparisons are most likely.

The lazy writing in SamDalRi made me appreciate HomeCha even more, especially the female characters in that show - small or big were exceptionally written. I couldn’t even empathise or feel for the FL of SamDalRi, forget the sisters or the mom. You take an actress like Kim Mi Kyung and give her a role where she is only staring at everyone barring one breakdown scene.

And what’s with all the adults hitting each other all the time, yelling at each other and the sisters being constantly drunk!

The Haenyeo gang was the most irritating in this show. My biggest gripe though was the age group of the leads and their friends! Who behaves in such a childish manner at 38 , which man is hanging onto his childhood crush till 38 despite knowing his best friend and her are dating or doesn’t express his feelings when those two split up and take his chance, then wants to express his feelings when the couple is back together! I have no idea if the writer understands the sensitivity around these things.

What’s the Korean drama obsession with showing 38 year old couple who has dated before behaving like they are in their 20s or teens when they get back together again! FFS there was a scene where the dad finds them sleeping in her bed and is mad at them and they are behaving like they got caught for first time!

SamDalRi tried to do everything - friends to lovers to exes to lovers, love triangle, childhood friendships, friends more than family, small town found families, giving up on dreams, scandal, capitalism, life of haenyeos, grief after loss of loved one, a healing drama. It failed at everything, because it couldn’t focus and decide what was the main theme and the sub-plots.

The writing was lazy, there was no character progression or growth, and the audience couldn’t connect to any characters. The acting was quite average barring JCW who excelled in every scene. I know SHS fans liked her performance, but she didn’t move me or make me want to watch more of her dramas (this is the 3rd drama of hers I have watched and the only one I didn’t drop cause of JCW).

I wanted to tweet first, but I started to type and realised it would be too long a thread and so a post was better to rant about this show! I ended up skipping most of the scenes post E8 and only ended up watching scenes that featured JCW, even though he excelled and looked great - this was another ordeal of a drama to finish!

Come on JCW choose better scripts. Do justice to that awesome potential and come back in a mature, slow burn romance with Nam Ji Hyun, because no one else has 🔥 chemistry with you like she does and no one else matches you in all aspects like she does!

[willel]

Since I've been getting a few asks about it btw, I wanted to make my position clear. I don't discuss relationships in the show a lot and you probably only see me speak negatively about some aspects so some clarification might help.

I'm not against the general idea of romance in shows.

When done right, I think a romantic subplot in a show or movie or game can be really good. It can tie together all the themes while not distracting from the main plot. Sometimes even when it's distracting from the main plot, it makes sense and is worthwhile and adds to the main plot.

If you've known my blog for a long time, you'll know I'm not exactly an avid tv show watcher. I still want to provide an example of what I mean though so I'll reference one of the manga I've been reading since I was a teenager.

It's called Skip Beat! I honestly don't know if it's considered popular or niche but I'll give you a general synopsis. The main character, Kyouko Mogami was a girl from the countryside who was basically a glorified maid for her childhood friend, Sho Fuwa. Due to her harsh family circumstances, she grew up in Sho's home and from what we know about their lives, she was being trained (groomed???) to be his future wife. She was fine with it because she loved him.

But Sho wanted to be a star, so against his parents wishes, he took Kyouko with him to the big city to make it big. Which he did and it gave him a bigger head than he already had. He tossed her aside in favor of his new life in a pretty cruel way.

Kyouko vowed vengeance upon him. She would become an even bigger star than him and run him out of town. She vowed to never fall in love again and closed herself off. I know I'm writing this as if it's a sob story, but when I say it's a vengeance plot I mean that literally.

From there, the plot revolves around how far she'll go just for her vengeance. But, as the plot moves along, you can start to see how her icy heart is melting for someone else and how much anguish that brings her. The main plot is about her becoming a star, but the part where she learns to love again (someone else mind you) is a crucial part in all that.

I would suggest you read it butttttt it's the slowest burn in the history of all histories so you might suffer just as much as I have.

I really appreciate how this story might have a big romantic sub plot but it ties in nicely with her goals of self improvement and wanting to be a star, moving on from all her pain and being happy.

When it comes to Stranger Things...... I just do NOT feel that way at all.

Skip Beat! has a love triangle. Honestly at this point, it's more like an octagon and yet it doesn't bother me. There is a lot of "Will they won't they" but it still doesn't bother me.

It may be that Skip Beat! just has a more interesting subplot so the little baby half baked romantic drama in Stranger Things is just boring for me?

Maybe it's that I feel like the romantic drama and tension in Skip Beat! is actually leading somewhere and leads to character development while the romantic drama in Stranger Things feels played up for audience reaction and fandom discourse?

Like sure, Skip Beat! has some fandom discourse but everyone is pretty much on the same page or can, for the most part, respectfully discuss their preferences. With Stranger Things, if you so much as comment on a ship in the wrong way you'll have a gaggle of people harassing you over fictional characters.

To summarize,

I think romantic stuff in tv shows and movies and all that can be really fun, interesting, heartbreaking, all the entertaining things one could want.

I, personally, feel none of that when romantic stuff is happening in Stranger Things. Maybe in the first and second season but beyond that...? For example, while I wouldn't exactly call myself a shipper, I am and was rooting for Jopper from the getgo. (I say that because I think a shipper would be much more invested in the pair. Like fanart, fanfiction, following dedicated blogs etc. I don't really do that)

If the show writers decided to reintroduce Lonnie into the plot and then acted like he had a legitimate chance to get back with Joyce because she starts wavering between Hopper and Lonnie.... do you really expect me to freakin' care? Am I really supposed to care about this love triangle introduced? You actually expect me to get invested in such lazy writing? I just cannot.

My interest in Jopper would probably be eradicated to be honest because they just wasted time with a love triangle instead of developing them as a couple. All that wasted time could've been spent developing the main plot which in turn would've given them more opportunities to write them a s couple working together, protecting each other, etc. You know, substance.

See what I mean? I just... cannot care about Stranger Things ships. It's great if you can though, there are so many reasons to watch a show. Maybe for you, love triangles are the bees knees and the best thing since sliced bread so you'd be eating up another triangle like nobody's business. But that's not me.

I would much rather they focus moving the plot forward, which would naturally create moments between the characters we all care about.

Fandom behavior factors into a bit of this as well of course. Kinda hard to care about or get invested in a relationship if all you see all day is people arguing about canon (which at the end of the day doesn't matter) while also doxxing and harassing each other. Not to mention taking the worst possible interpretation of characters possible just because you think they're in the way of your ship. Dunno how anyone can care about or enjoy a shipping fandom like that.

SO yeah. That's it. Romance is stuff is fine and all, but I just don't jive with how Stranger Things rolled out it's romance stuff so I prefer to think about other things.

[viscountessevie]

Roommates [ARC Review]

Release Date: 20th September 2023  Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Spicy Level: 🌶️ My Review:

Roommates by Ola Tundan follows Ariella Mason and Caleb Black who go from being coworkers at their company, Ivory Bow to being roommates after Ariella leaves her seemingly perfect life. Ariella has followed the model minority’s life checklist: perfect job, house and soon to be spouse, Jasper. Until one day, she decides to leave it all behind. She turns up at Caleb’s apartment desperate for a place to crash and hide out from the aftermath. Caleb, an arrogant and notorious player has to make a choice of giving up his bachelor pad in exchange for an offer he can’t quite refuse from Ariella. 

I’ll be honest, I tried really hard to like this book because I was so excited to support a writer of colour writing a Black lead and who I thought would be an Indian hero. A note to the publisher and cover artist: The man on the cover is tan enough and has the signature 'Indian fuckboy' beard to be mistaken as a South Asian man.

I did also push myself to finish this book out of respect for the author and to give a thorough review. I will get to what could have been improved on and what didn’t quite connect with me later on. However, I want to focus on the positives first. 

I would like to commend Ola on writing her first full length novel! Not everyone can do that so that itself is a great feat. I think the writing was easy to read so readers can breeze through this book especially if they enjoy the themes, characters and tropes. I will always appreciate a writer of colour writing diverse characters and providing much needed representation in the modern romance genre. I also loved how she flipped the stereotypes of Black and white families! Ola showcased a loving, close knit and healthy Black family with Ariella’s while Caleb grew up in poverty and a broken home. It was a clever move that was also grounded in reality. 

As for why this book just did not hit for me: I had just finished rereading my favourite books with the roommate trope with a Black women as the lead and Indian hero (it took me nearly half the book to realise Caleb was not in fact an Indian man). I wanted to read something similar and thought this would be a comfort like the other two. However, I was faced with my two personal book icks: slow burns and love triangles. So unfortunately, this book had the odds stacked against it for me liking it. I will fully admit that my expectations for the book and the personal preferences of faster-paced books with the sole focus on the main romance tainted my reading experience. 

As for what could be improved upon: While I understand that Aari and Caleb are meant to be flawed characters, I didn’t find them likeable at all and couldn’t find it in myself to root for them. There seemed to be a disconnect between how they were described in the summary compared to their character introductions. Aari was far from perfect and Caleb felt like a teenage boy cosplaying as a womaniser. I think Ola could have spent time building up their positive traits and connect them to their ‘character templates’ before revealing them to be messy, real people. At times they also came across as whitewashed. [Though now I do know Caleb was always meant to be a white man] Ariella was very explicitly written to be a Black woman but her narrative voice came across as odd. As did her dialogue with her mother. Sometimes I had to reread their scenes together because it seemed like she was talking to a friend or sister. 

Plot wise even though it was a slow burn, the writing could have been tighter. Virtually nothing of consequence happens in the first half of the book and everything seemed to happen in the second half. The cliffhanger at the end didn’t quite feel like a cliffhanger to me. I think the structure of the novel could have been reworked to add another chapter or two to wrap up the book instead of a second full novel. It felt like a typical Act 3 climax that needed a longer ending. 

Lastly, I understand the statement Ola was trying to make with subverting the trope and giving us a few female perpetrators. That being said, it wasn’t executed well and fell flat for me. While women like them exist, it just felt like women were being unnecessarily villianised - especially since Ariella did not come across as likeable to me. 

All that said and done, I do think Ola has a lot of potential and can only go but up from here. I am really rooting for her and hope these comments aren’t taken too much to heart but help to build a better novel in the future. Despite my own hang ups on this book, I would still recommend this to those who enjoy a slow burn roommates book with deeply flawed characters, love triangles, close familial relationships and turning stereotypes on their head. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

[redlerred7]

Something you find appealling in an unconventional or atypical way?

I'm not abreast of all the different ways one may find appeal in a thing. It's very hard for me to gauge whether or not the way I like or enjoy something is conventional or typical.

Anyway, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai is probably my favorite anime. The characters are entertaining, the romance is cute, and it has a pretty poignant message about normative behaviors, the joys and follies of youth, and people's relationship with their hobbies, interests, and escapism in general.

But for the purposes of this ask, that's not the important part. No, the important part is that I consider the significantly less popular second season to be better than both season 1 and the sequel movie.

Let me explain:

Season 1 had the task of introducing characters, setting up the plot, and making you care that these characters actually go through all of said plot. To that end, I think season 1 did an good job of hitting all the story beats in moments where it resonated.

Unfortunately, I am a weirdo and the story beat that is considered by most people to be one of the most impactful parts of the story instead completely failed to resonate with me at all. Intellectually, I understand what makes it so powerful to others, but being unable to feel it myself made half of the whole point of season 1 fall a little flat for me.

Season 2 goes in a different direction, one where I can actually relate to the plot being depicted, on top of doubling down on the parts of season 1 I already liked.

That is to say, majority of the season is the characters acting like dumbass cringy teenagers who are part of a LARP group. AND there isn't some air of normative moral judgment over the fact that they're LARPing. They're allowed to actually enjoy themselves.

And as we find out as the seasons goes, the main cast's LARP group isn't the only group of weirdos in the school they go to.

Their school isn't even the only one! At some point they encounter a rival club that's tangentially related to their own that has their own unique brand of weirdness.

Normality is an illusion. Everyone is at least a little bit weird. I think this season communicates that theme much better than season 1 did.

Any issues that arise regarding their fun is a wholly internal problem within the characters themselves rather than a product of their environment.

Also I liked the love-triangle, though it's not really a love-triangle in the way most people think of them. It still has the jealousy, possessiveness, and two characters in love with the same person, but it was refreshing how blatant season 2 was about the fact that the other character has no chance.

Often I see shows try to at least be a little coy about it. They'd be like "sure, they do not and will not have a chance, but we're gonna try and make you believe that they do anyway."

None of that. Just a good, straight forward story about a new character who's about to have her heart broken.

And then learn how to move forward from that.

That last thing I mentioned is probably the best part of the love triangle subplot, to be honest. Possibly even the best part of the season if I'm being particularly generous to it.

To be clear, I like traditional love-triangles too—I like love-triangles in general. It just so happens that this particular love-triangle hits my buttons in such a specific way that I can't help but love it.

As for the sequel movie...

The reason I think season 2 is better than the movie is because the movie performs a little bit of character development backsliding (similar to how the K-on Movie reset the characters' relationships from the end of K-on Season 2 back to what they were like at the beginning of K-on Season 2). And after that backsliding, the main leads end up having same character development they had in season 2, except in a shorter amount of time and in a manner less open to interpretation.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a good movie. I loved that the movie is about the cast having a wild road trip all across Japan. The art and animation was amazing, too. But the things I loved the most about the series—the characters' adventures in LARP and how it affects their daily lives—just isn't as present. That automatically puts it at the bottom of my tierlist of animated Chu2 works.

[multifairyus]

Genuine question about the Legendborn series do you know how many books are set to be in the series ? Or is that it just those two that have come out ? Also if someone wanted to get into the series how would you persuade them to read it?

The Appeal of the Legendborn Cycle Series

According to Deon’s website, it was planned as a trilogy…the wording makes me hold out hope for more books, especially since it was announced in February that we’re getting a TV series

Onto how I’d persuade them to read it: whew boy do I have THOUGHTS

Tl; dr:

1. Magic system is enhanced by being grounded in reality; the book itself stays grounded by being easy to read while maintaining mystique and intrigue

2. Complex character interactions that arise naturally from strong characterizations and a dynamic plot allow for compelling love interests/a believable love triangle.

3. Themes of grief, identity, heritage, and agency are elevated by the unique perspective of a teenage black girl in the American south.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

• It’s a YA book, young adult. IDK how old you are or the people you wanna persuade. Most people stop reading before finishing high school and aren’t likely to pick up books that a) require a lot of background/genre knowledge to understand b) dense syntax and complicated plots. The Legendborn Cycle (TLC) being YA counters both of these issues. It’s audiobook is an excellent way to consume it, since ~500 pages is a big ask for people who aren’t readers all. Emotive with distinctive character voices.

• TLC subverts and/or reimagines major writing tropes in a way that is satisfying and compelling, not just as a “gotcha” to shock the audience. Getting into HOW exactly is major spoiler territory, but in general you could mention secret magical societies, lines of succession, love triangles, magic systems…you can’t build a story without tropes, but using them in interesting ways is how you circumvent it being cookie cutter.

• Very solid worldbuilding. It’s Urban Fantasy without forgetting the “Urban” part. While the plot doesn’t focus much on Onceborns, the fact that TLC touches on how a magical institution would last for centuries as a secret keeps things grounded without getting bogged down with worldbuilding details that don’t come into play later. Getting into Bloodmarked is spoiler territory…but you could mention how TLC has draws analogies between the consolidation, conservation, and enforcement of power within the Legendborn world and within real life society. That’s the focus in the first book. The second book sets up main characters to have even more dynamic character arcs as their worldview expands alongside the reader.

• Thus far, nothing feels like fluff or filler. All the worldbuilding, character dynamics/interactions, and plot threads are followed through, or set up for something later on. Callbacks and echos galore. Lots of rereading value.

• Bree, Nick, and Sel’s relationships are interesting BECAUSE of the plot, not the other way around. Their feelings for each other are informed by revelations in what they do *outside* of pining for each other. The “insta first love golden retriever” Nick and “secretly dedicated argumentative black cat” Sel have more depth than those tropes would imply. The same traits that manifest as romance to Bree, but look different to side characters—and especially to each other—while still being consistent overall. The fact that the two HAVE so much history with each other is entirely because of plot reasons, which means it will always carry weight in how they interact with each other and with Bree. You can argue that one romance is more compelling than the other (I am an unabashed Brelwyn/BreeSel endgame shipper) but you can’t argue that there is an actual dilemma for the main character, Bree—which is all that matters for a compelling love story, triangular or otherwise. AND it doesn’t subsume the whole plot—it’s adventure first and a romance second with plenty of room to fill in details yourself.

Okay I think that’s a good enough answer to your question without straight up ranting about how much I love this damn book series lol. Hope that was helpful!

[its-chelisey-stuff]

I like this drama a lot but...

WTF??? wHAT?? WHAAAAT? He has a girlfriend already?? B-but.... BUT!!! NOPE!!! HOW? WHEN?? WHY??

I thought he used to be in love with the noona he is always writing to, the one that got him into the cheering squad, but it’s obvious he is beginning to like FL. What is this?? I’m all in for the “she fell first, but he fell harder” trope, but I wasn’t ready for the angsty “she fell first, he likes her buuuut he has a girfriend” trope. 

This drama was crazy bananas last week with all the curses, and the prophecies and the murder mysteries, and this week is completely a “teenage drama with love triangles and romances” kind of theme. This is still NOT a bad drama, not really. The writing is weird in its tone (and deciding which genre it’s gonna be for each ep) but it’s actually good when it comes to characters and dialogues. And I already love our main girl Do HaeYi to bits, but seriously, what is this drama gonna hit me with next?

Plus, the “gilrfriend” was totally making out earlier in the ep with another dude and she didn’t seem eager to keep it a secret so what kind of arrangement do they have? An open relationship? Wasn’t expecting that in this drama, but it seems pausible now. I mean, tbh everything seem possible in this show.

Next week is gonna be fantasy or something like that lol

HE LIKES HER!! I KNOW IT! It better be some sick joke or an open relationship lmao

[ladditt]

some people might disagree with me on this but i really hope the xc1 love triangle gets the same treatment as the xc2 love triangle by the time the xc3 story dlc comes out

nia was in a way better place physiologically at the end of xc2 she’s come to terms with her place in the world and her relationships with the people around her, and you can see that. after you finish newgame+ you  can get a couple of extra title screen animations where she confidently joins the main trio standing on that hill looking out at the world tree, looking out to the future.

melia never gets that. she has a shit childhood and a shit time as a teenager. she spends the entire game following the orders of other people, suffering, and never acting on her own desires. she gets treated like an outcast and a freak by her people, treated like a pawn by her father, she’s tossed aside by shulk as soon as he realises the girl he likes better is still alive (sorry shulk, i get you were oblivious to how she felt about you but you still lead her on a lil. sharla gets... less of a free pass) and she never gets any resolution to this. the high entia die off before she ever earns there respect, her father’s dying wish is just him placing more unreasonable expectations on the shoulders of a kid he never showed affection to directly and the way she solves her affections for shulk is... deciding to suffer in silence because she loves him and fiora too much to risk jeopardizing the relationship they already have.

and like, 30 years later in xc3 that’s still the point she’s at! nia has a home and a family and genuinely seems content in her life. her quest is about how badly she wants to return home and reconnect with her daughter.

melia’s quest is about how she is a revered, respected ruler. but she’s lonely. she’s lonely and even after all this time she still believes that she has to suffer in silence to be worthy of that respect. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that nia spends the game sleeping, but melia is trapped.

her own worth is something that she only EVENTUALLY learns at the very end of the postgame of the second game she appears in. and by god i hope she brings that lesson that she’s allowed to be selfish back to her own world. and considering the theme of the inevitability of the passage of time, i hope she acts on that selfishness before she loses the chance.

[mochisquish]

what are your ideas and hopes for season 6 of CK? i honestly think it’ll bite, but we shall see…

I tempered expectations with S5, and because of that, I enjoyed it for what it was. I'm hoping S6 will be entertaining, even if it's not what I want. Here are my realistic and low-bar dreams for S6:

I'd like to see Johnny and Daniel have a true heart to heart about the abuse they endured from their senseis, and their tumultuous relationship as teenagers. Bury the hatchet once and for all. Understand each other on a deeper level. I'm afraid Daniel trying to explain Terry to Johnny at the bar in S5 is all we're ever going to get. This is a major loose end for me, and the show would always feel kind of sad if they never address…you know…the main themes.

Would love a better handling of Johnny and Robby's relationship. Would love for Johnny to wake up and focus on Robby and make him feel just as important as the new baby. Put forth real effort instead of having everything handed to him. S5 tried to convince us everything was good now between them, so I doubt they'll revisit this to the extent I want.

Bring in Julie. She's the only major character missing at this point, and it would feel empty to end the series without at least a cameo. Ultimate dream would be Daniel recruiting her to help with the world tournament, along with Chozen and Mike Barnes.

I'd like to see an actual progression of Sam and Tory, and Robby and Miguel's relationships. Talk out their issues, find common ground, kick ass together. As an old person, it's hard to get too invested in the teen storylines because I know life doesn't end at 17. They'll be in college soon and will forget all about the karate war and love triangles.

Kreese and Terry reconcile. I want the ultimate big bad combo of Kreese's cunning combined with Terry's ruthlessness and money. Give us a true threat. Mirror the protagonists like they're supposed to. I hate everything the show did to their present day relationship and it would take a lot to get me to forgive it. It would at least hurt less if they ended as friends. Having Kreese and Terry, and Johnny and Daniel face off at the world tournament would be a good callback to when Terry originally wanted to enter the tournament when they were younger and Kreese said no. They can finally do it together.

I know there's nothing thrilling or original here, but if that's what we're after we gotta look to fanfiction lol