#genuinely groundbreaking stuff imo

[6ebe]

the untamed my beloved <3

[shiftylinguini]

Fuck I Can't Write Crisis Pack:

@phoebe-delia asked in response to this fun lil ask game:

Do you have any advice for getting out of a slump/getting writing confidence back? . (for the ask anything) Do you have any advice for getting out of a slump/getting writing confidence back?

Now THIS. This is a good question, and something that is very much on my mind and has been for a while, as I am currently absolutely in the midst of this and trying to army crawl my way out. I don't have any magic bullets (is that the saying? idk) but I have been here before and i do have a small arsenal of tips or methods that I find can help me. 

Here is my Fuck I Can't Write Crisis Pack (In no particular order):

Write anything 

This is hardly groundbreaking advice, and it's also the hardest thing to actually do (imo) so do not beat yourself up if it takes a while to get to this. Basically, write ANYTHING―it can be aimless, it can be pointless, it can be crap (crap is subjective!! don't let the brain gremlins win!!). 

Don't think about posting it, don't worry about anyone else ever reading it, just fling a few words onto a page and feel the rusty faucet turn on, proving to yourself that it still works. 

Try and sus out what it is that's blocking you 

Again this one is hard and annoying but functional. Once you can put your finger on the particular reason you're staring at a flashing black line on a blank page it can help you kick that reason off your lawn and into the bin. 

And then, take it out of the bin and be kind to yourself about whatever that reason is. Maybe you feel shit because you're comparing yourself to others, your last fic felt like a lead balloon, you can't muster enthusiasm for what you once loved doing and fear that it's gone forever, you're projecting in a Tumblr post―whatever it is, it's something all the writers you admire and aspire to be like have felt, and been annoyed with themselves for, and so you can wrap it up in a blanket and put it on a shelf and be kind to it so it, (respectfully) shuts the fuck up. 

(and remember, everyone feels insecure about their stuff. Like literally everyone, at some stage, feels like their stuff is rubbish)

Cheat on your OTP 

Okay this one might not work for everyone, but it really does for me lol. Ruts (not the sexy kind) can often come with not wanting to engage in my usual ships, being annoyed by my lack of ability to fucking write them/anything/all my ideas taste like cardboard/bleh, and stepping out on them and reading something new can snap me out of it. Just, an injection of new ideas or scenarios or words or even just a little reprieve from being fed up with myself, which ideally, is why we're all here anyway. 

(And then I come crawling back, and am welcomed with open arms haha)

In a similar vein:

Engage in media 

This subtitle is genuinely terrible, i am sorry, LMAO, but essentially: find a piece of media that makes you go "oh, helLO sailor", unhinge your jaw like a snake, and consume it whole. 

Let it nourish you, inspire you, excite you, making you feel SOMETHING, and then take that and think "fuck, what if i wrote bleepbloopblarp" and even if you write nary a single word, you've thought about it and that fucking counts. 

It might be an album, a book, a song, a show, gifs of a hot person, the wikipedia summary of a movie, literally anything counts here if it makes you feel a twinge of creativity. 

Ask yourself, what would Astolat do? 

No for real. @candybarrnerd and I genuinely use this haha.  

Worried your idea is stupid? Astolat would say write it. 

Worried it's too weird? Nah, just write it. 

It's dumb and no one will read it? Just write it for you *waggles eyebrows* (and then find out that yeah, nah, someone else will absolutely read this and be real fucking happy about it haha.)

Worried you're a one trick pony and have already written this fic before, like, and not even once before, and also you're projecting again in Tumblr post? WRITE IT AGAIN! As Astolat once said, "it's a fic so nice, I wrote it thrice". 

It's good advice. 

Make a friend or lean hard on the ones you have here

Misery loves company because it knows they'll come out of this together :). I know, I know, that's fucking NAFF, but fandom is all about finding like-minded freaks and blowing up their DMs because you saw a gif and now feel a kind of ways about it. 

And lastly: 

FUCK STATS! 

I mean I love stats (yay validation!), but god can they make you feel like a worthless shit (hey where did my validation go :((( ). It can be really insidious, so piss that right off when it starts to fuck with your confidence or outlook on your own writing.

Hopefully there is something useful here, even if it's just looking at this advice and thinking "no that's shit, it's writing POISON" cos then you can maybe do the version you think is NOT shit, and that might work. 

Good luck, fellow travelers!!

[chamerionwrites]

🧂

The problem with prose in the style of “she breasted boobily down the stairs” is NOT that it is horny (I support horny prose!) nor even that it is offensive and objectifying (slightly spicier take but imho You Are Allowed To Write From The POV Of Wretched Misogynists Sometimes is a logical extension of You Can, Should, and Arguably Must Write Unlikable Characters; obviously it’s worth criticizing when an author shows zero ability and/or desire to write from any POV but that of a wretched misogynist, but as far as general principle goes I’m always going to come down on the side that there’s nothing inherently wrong with writing bad people).

No. The problem with prose in the style of “she breasted boobily down the stairs” is quite simply and straightforwardly that it is BAD WRITING. It tells us nothing about the woman in question, except that she has a nice rack (or at least that the POV character thinks so). It tells us nothing about the POV character, except that he’s a basic bitch who likes tits (groundbreaking stuff for your Very Cishet Male™️ character). It’s not even good at being horny!!!!! Sure, perhaps it could be argued that I, Chamerion, am not the target audience when it comes to the luscious allure of boobs. But imo genuinely good erotic writing should be able to make desire legible to any audience. If you’re describing a hot woman, and doing it well, then a straight woman or a gay man or even somebody who’s ace ought to be able to see the appeal. (If you’re describing a hot man and doing it well, then a straight man or a lesbian or an ace reader should be able to see the appeal!) And if they can’t understand any part of the attraction even intellectually, then you have failed at your single most fundamental writerly job: conveying feelings with words.

In all seriousness - rule number one of descriptive writing is that sentences such as, “the puppy was cute,” or “the woman was beautiful,” are all but empty of meaning. And yet descriptions of desire for women are constantly like ooh her skin was soft. Ooh her hair was shiny. Ooh her curves filled out her dress. Ooh her breasts were the perfect size. WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN, YOU MEALY-MOUTHED ASSHOLES. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO TELL ME WHY THIS SENTENCE DESERVES TO TAKE UP SPACE IN YOUR NOVEL. Again, I freely admit that I am not the authority on feeling verklempt about boobs but I do have it on excellent authority that people who DO do not all agree on what “perfect size” means, unless by perfect size you mean “I am imagining that they might fit nicely in my hands,” in which case SAY THAT. Like, even saying that her shirt had one button too many undone - it’s far from an original description of desire, but at least it conveys information (that she got dressed in a hurry? that she’s trying to catch the eye of someone in particular? that she likes to dress a little daringly, and the POV character appreciates daring? we might not even know at first from the context, but it’s a description that at least has us analyzing and asking questions!). It may not be the sharpest and most specific description on the planet but it’s miles ahead of the boob-shaped Rorschach inkblot that is “perfect-sized breasts.”

Anyway. I could go on at length about the kind of writing that I think does convey desire effectively, and maybe I will elaborate later, but this is the heart of my cranky-old-man-on-the-porch rant. I’m not saying we should talk less about the sexism of certain authors. But I do think we should spend MORE time sending them to art jail for the crime of being unutterably formulaic and boring.

[rollercoasterwords]

rae give us your thoughts on taylor swift more specifically her rich white feminist thing she’s got going on and her influence on the current ‘girlboss’ trend and the current perception of women in media today???? asking bc i love reading your opinions on this stuff 💕

it sounds like u have some opinions of ur own lol but sure i can talk abt taylor swift! will be putting it under a cut bc i love my swiftie mutuals tho...swiftie mutuals look away im going to be mean sorry....

i mean yeah overall u kinda summed it up lol. i don't think i'd really care much about taylor swift were it not for the way she's been branded as some sort of groundbreaking feminist and subsequently played into that perception to profit ("the man" makes my eyes roll out of my skull sorry...)

i think my dislike of her was first seeded when "you need to calm down" came out--before then i just hadn't really cared abt taylor swift, knew a few songs but wasn't crazy about them, etc. but then she dropped "you need to calm down" and suddenly she was getting TONS of praise for doing SO much for the queer community and i was like. well first of all the song is bad second of all she's literally comparing her online haters to violent homophobes as though those two things are in any way equal or similar experiences third of all she's getting praised for profiting off positioning herself as a #ally. like this song and music video are not some sort of feminist praxis they are a way to funnel money into her already bulging pockets.

but because literally everyone around me (many swiftie friends) was gushing over how amazing she was for hiring all those dykes + faggots to dance behind her i felt like i was being gaslit + the fact that taylor swift was just happily accepting the money + accolades at the same time made me dislike her

when folklore came out i actually did enjoy the album which was. the first time that's happened for me lol i usually like maybe one or two of her songs and think the rest are mediocre at best but i was like huh maybe she's like changing as an artist and sort of settling into a new groove that's kinda cool. and then i didn't like evermore as much but i was still like okay cool new sound new vibe. and then she dropped midnights and i tried really hard to like it for my swiftie friends but...honestly i was shocked by how bad it was lol. just felt like a new level of low in terms of bad lyrics and the music was incredibly bland and boring to me, nothing new or interesting going on there. and then i felt gaslit again by all the swifties raving abt the lyricism of lines like "draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" like!!! babe that is a tumblr post from 2014...

but aside from finding it genuinely incomprehensible that she gets so much credit for being an amazing writer or lyricist when the bulk of her discography is simply incredibly mediocre or straight-up bad imo (bc honestly that alone wouldn't be enough to make me dislike her; ik these are all subjective measures so even if i find it annoying to hear people rant + rave about music i think is bad it's not gonna make me dislike the artist or the people raving necessarily) what bothers me more and solidifed my dislike of her is the continuation of the way she acted when "you need to calm down" dropped. which is to say, it's infuriating enough that her fandom has sainted her, but what's more infuriating to me is the she seems inclined to play into that sainthood.

she often leans in to portraying herself as either a victim of misogyny or a #girlboss feminist. and like--this isn't to say taylor swift hasn't experienced misogyny, or that she shouldn't talk about those experiences, or that rich white women are exempt from sexism. but her feminist consciousness seems to begin and end with her own personal experiences of sexism, with no effort at a deeper political engagement made. she flies her private jet around and poisons the environment and when people try to call her out for it she sits back and lets her fans accuse anyone that criticizes her of being sexist. in fact, it seems that any criticism of her is met with accusations of sexism, which is an infuriating obfuscation.

at the end of the day, her politics such that i have seen are incredibly liberal and toothless, and her feminism seems largely focused on making herself more money ("the man" being about "getting ahead" faster, the whole thing with that one guy owning her masters centering around a dispute over property + who gets to make money, etc). she is a capitalist first and foremost, and because of that her feminisn kind of sucks, so i hate seeing people treat her as a Feminist Figure. i also think the gaylor thing is sooooo stupid and annoying and reinforces the concept of identity first and foremost as a discrete ontological category rather than something socially constructed + materially rooted. like the idea that taylor has some mystical gay Essence inside her that exists regardless of how straight her music + lifestyle is, the makes her Queer--sorry but give me a fucking break lol. i don't give a shit if she kisses other girls, taylor swift is not a Queer Icon, and i don't understand why people desperately scrabble to find proof that she is when there are already plenty of openly gay pop singers!

in conclusion taylor swift is the epitome of #girlboss liberal feminism to me and her supposedly genius music being aggressively mediocre is just the icing on the cake lol

[gffa]

Hey! Love your blog for the sw content but ngl you have me window shipping dickbabs more and more everyday. I’m not reeeeally a comics person unless it has quality online format but I have been known to enjoy cartoons. Do you have any show recs to get me into the batfam? Sorry if this has already been asked (and answered somewhere else). Thanks again for all your great content! Love your blog!

Hi! Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad to be helping to at least tempt you into this pit, and I wish I had better recs for you, but I've been turning this over in my head for the last couple of days and keep coming back to that I don't know that I would recommend most of the animated series or movies/TV series for DC. Even the best bets would be: - Young Justice 2010 cartoon, which is overall decent, but DickBabs doesn't happen until like season 3, I think? (And I think Dick dates Kory for awhile before that?) And they're a very minor part of the show, even the Batfam as a whole is only one aspect of the show, it's really a multi-fam kind of series. As long as you know that it will have some major differences in relationship and character dynamics (like Superboy in the show and Kon from the comics share certain aspects, but they are also vastly different and I'm not sure you'd recognize Kon as the same character), it's a fun show to watch overall! - Batman: The Animated Series 1992 + The New Batman Adventures 1997 was absolutely, incredibly groundbreaking at the time it came out, but that means it's 30 years old now and a lot of it is going to be incredibly dated compared to current stuff. I do still love it and the Dick/Babs episodes are TOP NOTCH (so much delicious yearning oh my god) and the flashback to when Dick was a kid are also great, but there's a LOT of basic cartoon action stuff that's not that exciting anymore and it might feel like a long haul. Cautiously recommended if you don't mind viewing it through an old-fashioned lens, don't mind that Dick tends to be more in his "angry teenage years" than his more settled 20s, and you're okay with zipping through any parts that bore you. - The Batman 2004 is another series that's pretty dated, but in a way I find deeply charming, because it really leaned into the gothic aesthetic and wasn't afraid to try some new things with the character designs. I usually suggest skipping forward to season 4 when Dick shows up (and I greatly enjoy his and Babs' dynamic, they're kids at the time, it's not a romance here, but it's not hard to see that one day they could grow up into the characters they'll be in other versions) but the whole show is just a good Batman cartoon! Honorable mentions: - Justice League: The Animated Series 2001 which I don't think Dick or Babs ever appeared in, but is still probably THE best DC animated series. It's not super complex, but what it did, it did very well, and is still pretty influential to this day. - If you don't mind reading an online comic, the Wayne Family Adventures webtoon is a very easy intro point, has very pretty art, and will get you reasonably familiar with the characters! (I sort of liken it to LEGO adaptations, it's meant to be light-hearted and occasionally genuinely touching, it focuses on extremes of the characters and memeable moments, rather than the more sharp-edged comics, but that makes it all the better for an entry point imo.) Beyond that, I can't really think of anything I would necessarily recommend to help get new fans into the Batfam characters (I wouldn't recommend the Harley Quinn show as a starting place for them, nor the Teen Titans cartoon, and I don't really personally care for any of the animated movies personally, other than maybe Super Sons, which was absolutely adorable and a great intro to Jon and Damian), because DC has a really weird track record on adapting them into non-comics mediums and I just enjoy the comics so much more. Though, if others have recs or would offer a rebuttal against some of the suggestions, feel free, because I would love to have easier ways into the comics

[mystic-myrtille]

Watched the movie and honestly it was fine. No groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece. No disasturous dumpster fire. Just an ok movie that felt like a fanfiction from s1

Here's some more thoughts I have. There's no structure it's a little chaotic. Also spoilers (duh)

The stuff I liked:

The music was good

THE ANIMATION IS GORGEOUS. The lighting in every scene is perfect, the city actually feels populated and the colors overall are so much prettier than in the show

I loved the akuma designs

They do a good job of establishing how Marinette, in the beginning, is very anxious, affected by Chloe's bullying and how she doesn't have friends. That works better than what the show tried to establish, about how Marinette had no friends but still being popular for some reason

Alya being a good friend

The way Adrien deals with the loss of his mother and how playing the piano brings him comfort and makes him feel close to her. Imo the show went overboard with how literally everything Adrien does is dictated by his dad and never something he might genuinely enjoy doing. The fact that he had this hobby made him feel like he was more than just a sad boi

Adrien also seems to struggle with not having many friends outside Nino. Works pretty well with the characterization that he's socially awkward after being homeschooled for most of his life

Generally this Adrien has more PV vibes? I‘m digging it ngl

Marinette's dad is the best

Fu's introduction to Marinette sure was something xD

Gabriel was a good villain character. The show version is just some weird ass goof who is a huge ass to his son and everyone, yet the show wants you to feel for him without giving us a reason to care. This version actually has complexity. He’s still an ass, but now the pain over loosing Emilie feels real. You also have him hesitating to use the butterfly but ultimately spiraling completely into an actually threatening villain.

the fight scenes looked great

Marinette is still clumsy and awkward towards Adrien but without being too cringe about it and doing stupid shit. It‘s just heart eyes and day dreams and some stuttering. She‘s still nervous but I never felt like Adrien brought oit her worst side like in the show. She was simply a girl in love. This was wholesome to watch and so much better than... whatever the fuck the show did with the fucking dating trauma to use for """comedy""" bc the show runners have zero respect for her seriously I'll never get over how fucking stupid that was Marinette honey you deserve so much better

I honestly think this is a better version of the square. Still heavily flawed, but their dynamic feels so much more natural. Ladynoir stuff was sweet

The end where Marinette looses the earrings and then saves Chat without the costume was a good scene

Most of their moments were just quiet moments between just the two without any outside forces and characters constantly pushing them together. This bothers me in the show so much and is another major reason I cant get behind the ship, but for the most part the movie has some gentle pushing here and there but no convoluted and stupid cringy plans. In that regard movie love square is superior

Nino had a thing for Alya from the start pretty much, unlike in the show where he was crushing on Mari five minutes before getting with Alya. I like them in both the show and the movie, but the way they got together in the show was a little meh

Nino getting screentime in general

The stuff I don't know how to feel about:

Careless whisper. It was silly goofy but especially the second time when Paris is on fire and we skip to Adrien's room where he sulks... yeah that tome switch really threw me off

Two different voice actors for singing an talking. The difference was very jarring and while good for Bryce, Cristina has the voice of an angel like cmon I need her to do at least a cover from one song

Gabriel's redemption. Ok so I'm a little torn because the way they did it ties in very well with the the "power of love" theme that his love for Adrien makes him realize his mistakes bla bla, but he still terrorized a city and yet faces zero consequences, and Adrien forgives him, which are all thing that really rub me the wrong way. Idk the franchise is so obsessed with painting this man in a sympathetic light and in order for this to feel truly satisfying Gabriel shouldn't have tried to destroy Paris like 5 minutes earlier. I see what they went for and thematically it worked but I just need Gabriel to be put in prison

Speaking of Gabriel, the Adrien Gabe relationship isn't as abusive as in the show. This isn't good or bad, but I still think (very unpopular opinion) the show doesn't handle abuse well at all bc the only point of the abuse is pity points in oder to get the fans to care about the characters. So taking that out of the movie where you have limited time to wrap this whole thing up might've been a smart decision

With the ending they sort of hinted at a sequel

The cut off kiss at the end. They still act like a love square kiss is something sacred that they can‘t just give their fans. Commit to it already

The stuff I didn't like:

The dialogue was… something. Marinette just asking her mom over breakfast how to make her dreams come true. Babe just just woke up, that deep convos are for late nights

Generally the dialogue in both the movie and the show is a little weird

Lika Alya‘s „people try really hard to fail as hard as you“ Marinette spilled some coffee it‘s not that hard

Even though I liked the portrayel of Marinette‘s anxiety, at times the went overboard with it

Going back to the Gabriel redemption, just let Adrien have negative feeling about Gabriel already. The s5 finale have him idolize him and here he just instantly forgives and forget

So the butterfly is a villainous tool by default? They could've fixed their messy lore but noooo

The scene where Marinette gets her miraculous feels rushed.

The way Adrien receives his miraculous. He was chilling in his room and suddenly a black cat shows up. He doesn't even have to proove himself like Mari when she almost got hit by a truck. The moment in the show was already weak but this is just fucking stupid

the first akuma was just some random dude. They should've used someone the main duo has a connection to

Chat being a lil bitch about Ladybug rejecting him. Hated it in the show, hate it here. They could've used the movie to fix Adrien and they didn't. Other than that being a dick move as so many people have explained millions of times now, I find this such a boring source of conflict for the climax of the movie? They worked well before and they both know they care for each other as partners and even if being rejected hurts, Chat acts like LB just threw their friendship away or something with how strongly he reacts to it. In the show it felt blown out of proportion and it does here as well. I think they should've had a different kind of conflict which actively hurt their partnership or Chat stops treating LB unfairly just because to her he‘s not a romantic partner.

The fart jokes. Though tbf this is a kids movie

The way Marinette falls for Adrien was extremely underwhelming. Adrien smiles at her and helps her get up and then just walks out of the library all like „she‘s so weird“. Could‘ve been fixed if he and Mari stayed in the library and had a little conversation

Also Adrien‘s introduction in general? He just chills in the library and… yeah that‘s it. I blame this on the writers of the movie cutting character introductions short because they assume the audience already knows the characters and therefore doesn‘t have to introduce them. I don‘t think that was a good choice

The Adrienette stuff was just a montage. Would've been nice to actually see them connect (though that was probably a time issue)

Also they didn't give any spotlight to Marinette's good qualities like selflessness and intelligence. Would've been nice to see her be more willing to be there for people and help them out with things as a result of her gaining more confidence

Seriously the montage was a big mistake and takes away a lot from what could've made the movie stand out

The reveal felt a lot like Adrien only loving Marinette because she's LB, which was a big reason for me to not ship Adrienette prior to the flip (not that I did after). Something like this would‘ve been believable in a setting where they didn‘t know each other as civilians I guess, but that doesn‘t work for the square. Had they actually shown Adrienette develop outside of a montage this would'be been way more believable and touching.

I think a reverse love square from the beginning would've worked better here, or they should've made the Ladynoir side canon

Adrien tells Marinette about his dead mom. Chat noir tells Ladybug about his dead mom. How does she not make the connection?

The "power of love" theme fell flat with Marinette. she doesn't have her moment of "oh I have to protect the people I love" like Tikki's dialogue suggests. There were multiple people at the theme park she could've spotted being in danger and that should've made her want to save them. Tom being there was literally the perfect set-up. The show does this with Alya being trapped under a car or something and Marinette seeing her

I also think the jump from anxious Mari to brave Mari didn't work. In both the show and the movie it just feels like she just decides to be confident now without really getting there through hard work. The motivation was there in the show (see previous point) but in both instances it just happened too fast. Let Marinette have time to really adjust to her new role

This would've worked if the movie didn't try to keep the show's formula of "villain of the week". Why are we getting a montage about that when there's already a whole ass show with five seasons where we already see that? This montage took up time that could've been used more effectively. The movie should've tried to be more of it's own thing, really shoud've tried to flesh out the characters more in a way the show doesn't. They didn't need LB and CN immediately competent and loved by the public after the theme park fiasco. Just use the run time of the movie to get adjusted to fighting crime on a weekly basis, have them fail to then fix their mistakes and learn from them. Why not do a training montage with the point of becoming better instead of flirting? The movie tries too hard to keep up the show formula and it takes away the quality the story could've had

Also in Marinette's case it felt like the only "power of love" that mattered was her partnership with Chat. Her family and friends weren't completely unimportant but definetely underutilized in that regard. Romantic love is not the only important love you know

Their powers of cataclysm and miraculous ladybug only came in at the very end. The built up could've worked if they spent more time showing how they become good and experienced heroes over time

Generally the climax was underwhelming. Gabriel learns Chat‘s identity and the damage is made undone like 10 seconds later

Adrien being like "yeah I didn't really get close to people after my mom died" what's with the Nino erasure smh

Luka wasn't important

Kagami wasn't even there

I think the end scene hinted at the sentimonster stuff and I wished they would've just not include that

Final thoughts

There are things the movie did better than the show and some things it didn't. They don't waste much time on establishing who the characters are because they expect viewers to already know that from watching the show. But like the show, they fail to use the concepts they've set up in an effective way. The movie not only tries to stay true to the show but is almost dependent on the audience knowing the series.

But yeah, the movie atmosphere was nice. Nothing extraordinary but also not super bad. It had s1 vibes and despite the problems I listed, I had a good time for the most part. Not a must watch but still fine

4/10

[roosterbruiser]

Miles has the best filmography out of everyone of the dagger squad. No doubt about it. Whiplash, Thank You for Your Service, Wardogs, Bleed for This… I could go on, speaks volumes imo.

Glen is more of a feel-good, cute, surface level romcoms kind of guy. Which is fun and has an escapism element but, it isn’t ✨cinema✨, as Martin Scorsese would say.

I haven’t seen Lewis in anything really, doesn’t have main character energy.

Miles feels like more of a “serious” actor, Glen seems like he’s there for the fun of it all. Not a bad thing, but nothing groundbreaking or all that rememberable either🤷🏻‍♀️

I think Miles Teller def had more of a break through than anyone else. he started pretty early on and has been in more big movies than anyone else for sure--I think because of the sheer amount of things he's been in, he's def more susceptible to having the best filmography. I mean, Nicole Kidman literally hand-picked him for Rabbit Hole so how could he not be famous after that?? he's def been in some doozies, but literally everyone has!!

agree that Glen Powell is in some feel-good cutesy stuff, but I think he's definitely been in some really good things too. and he has Hit Man coming out which is genuinely supposed to be his breakthrough--Richard Linklater has said some really incredible things about Glen. and Glen got to be apart of this movie from the very beginning, so a lot of it is supposed to be his input. I also totally adore Everybody Wants Some!! and like it better than anything Miles Teller has been in, but that is totally subjective!!

disagree about Lewis, but totally respect your opinion!! I think even in the bad stuff I've seen him in (The Strangers: Prey At Night, Press Play, SOMETIMES Outer Range) he's the best part.

I think Glen is pretty memorable :-) but again--it's all subjective and I respect your opinion!!

[dukeofdelirium]

Let’s talk about something more positive: what are your top 10 gay ships?

Oh god idk if I have 10 but let’s see!

1) lawlight. 1000000000% LAWLIGHT lmao! I’m obsessed. OBSESSED with them. I’ve been obsessed with this ship for over 14 years. They make me actually rabid and crazy like nothing else. Everything about this ship and their dynamic drives me nutty. They are the only real “enemies to lovers” ship I’ve ever gaf about or probably ever will. There’s something sooooo Shakespearean tragedy coded about this pairing and they are genuinely so fun to analyze to me. I’ll never get bored of them!

2) byler! Definitely byler!!! I love this ship so much. Best friends to lovers is always gonna be my favorite overall trope (despite the lawlight obsession) because I just think it’s gahhhh so sweet!! Mike and Will being together will be the perfect conclusion to stranger things imo and I’m so excited for the final season!!

3) korrasami! I remember when they went canon. I was so shocked I didn’t even believe we actually WON with a gay ship. This pairing was groundbreaking for cartoons and is the reason we have gay rep in kids shows now too

4) zukaang! I am a multi shipper so I ship Aang with Katara and Zuko too. I love Zuko and Aang’s dynamic and I think there is a ton of canonical support for this ship, too. I guess they’re technically an “enemies to lovers” but I don’t rlly think of them that way. Anyway, I think they’re cute!

credit to Noquelle for the fanart!

5) patrochilles, obviously there’s the Iliad but there’s also a novel called The Song of Achilles which I highly recommend if you’ve never read it and want gay rep. It’s a beautifully written novel that is about Achilles and Patroclus and makes an argument for the interpretation of them being lovers (which was common in ancient times)

credit to awanqi on Twitter for the fanart

6) frowise??? Samfro???? Sam and Frodo from The Lord of the Rings! I’ve always loved these two. And if you think the films are gay, the books are gayer. They cuddle, hold hands, kiss and tell each other they love each other in the novels. They are precious and I love them soooo much

7) this one’s gonna sound silly but me and my friends ship quimbry (Quil and Embry) from Twilight lmao. We wanted gay rep and then it just kind of snowballed. I have like 7 fanfics on my ao3 written for them …. 😂😂😂 idgaf that they’re fanon either cuz they’re real to me and I’m obsessed with them. My ao3 is the same as my tumblr btw if you wanted to read my fics! it’s dukeofdelirium

8) (edit I can’t believe I forgot them!) WILMON from Young Royals! Such a sweet pairing and I was so obsessed with them when I watched this show. Such a good show too. Highly recommend and the actors had amazing chemistry

9) REDDIE? I remember this one breaking my heart a bit. I’m not a hugely active shipper of it but it’s cute and really sad

10) Jack and Ennis from Brokeback Mountain:(((( this movie really and truly ruined my life and did something to me when I watched it as a 10 yr old. Somethin about growing up in the south as a closeted gay boy…. Heath and Jake were insane in this film their chemistry was nuts

Hmmm I can’t think of anything else at the moment! I’m very particular about the stuff I ship, it rlly has to scratch a niche itch in my brain for me to be really and truly obsessed with it.

Thanks for bringing something positive to the ask box! :) what are your favorite gay ships, anon?

[aster-pkmn-irl-real]

📢naranja-uva acadamy

yoo. i think that like. ok so like i really really love naruva. its amazing. i hate seein some of the hate it gets its genuinely not fair imo. like i get it. i know its expensive. i know its a private school i know what the issues are but its not fuckin fair to be like the whole school sucks because of it. a regular public school will also have problems, frankly, probably a lot more than nar-uva does. also just generally, like. ive had friends from unova and stuff ask why i went there instead of bb because its closer to home. NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT THE STEM PROGRAM IS FUCKING TOP NOTCH. GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH IS CONDUCTED HERE. WE HAVE THE CRATER AND SHIT I CAME FOR THE CRATER BRO!!!

[lostcryptids]

so glad to know someone else thinks in the mouth of madness is john carpenters best movie. i won’t say it’s like groundbreaking changed my life etc but like i was genuinely rlly surpised by how cool it was when i watched it. i made my friends watch it with zero context as to what was going on which imo is the best way to get someone to watch it. like i restrained myself from explaining anything cause i didn’t want to spoil it which i NEVER even try to do unless i think a movie is RLLY GOOD. sorry to ramble i just rlly like this movie

YEAH!! i'm glad some other people love it too because I had never really heard it discussed that much. I think it has so much good stuff going for it...like it's both a really good tribute to the stories it's inspired by and its own thing. Some really good effects and body horror and i just love the concept so much. ugh i want everyone on earth to watch this movie it's such a gem

[gg-selvish]

i saw your post and i realized that i definitely haven't left enough comments on your ao3 works for how much i enjoy them, so here. i wanted to let you know that you are one of my favorite, if not my all-time favorite, dream team writer. i love to read your nsfw works because they're hot and sexy, yes, but also? you have one of the best characterizations of the guys that i've seen, ESPECIALLY in nsfw works. i have had to almost immediately click off of so many fics because they just don't get the characters and their dynamics right imo, but your fics? i read them over and over. every single time i get an email that you've updated or posted a piece, i genuinely get so excited when i see that it's you.

your karl/george series is something that i will love forever and ever. i'm ace and i adore the way you portrayed karl and his sexuality in every one. it's so refreshing to find a good nsfw work that has a well written asexual character!!! i may not like knf as a ship very much, but i love them the way you write them so much.

there's so much i'm probably forgetting to say right now, but just know that i thoroughly love everything i've read from you. your works are amazing with and without the nsfw parts. please know that there are people out there (me) reading your fics for more than the smut. you deserve to know that.

<3

okay wow um this is a lot in a very good way but i'm definitely overwhelmed? normally when i get nice stuff like this i just say thank you but i've been in a chatty mood today so i'm going to turn this into A Thing if u dont mind... i really, really appreciate this. i've had a strange experience in this fandom where the whole time i've been here i've had a pretty even split of 'you're a delusional freak and i hope you die' and 'you're my favourite author please never stop posting' and my brain doesn't really know what to do about the black and white of it so normally i just move on and block it out but that's lead to me being incredibly insecure about myself and my work so i'm going to try really hard to process this and internalize it lol

so again, thank you so much for saying this to me. it really means a lot to me to hear that people like my fic because it takes up so much space in my brain and sometimes i get worried i'm only still getting any positive acknowledgement out of obligation and less so because what i'm doing is actually worth a compliment. i've felt really bad about my writing for a while now and it's nice to hear from someone who isn't my established friend that it's worth reading. and enjoyed too! wow thats crazy to me genuinely. i really do think im shit most days. especially my works of the last stretch.

regarding you (& only you) this is a lot easier for me to hear. i love that series so much and it makes my heart happy to know other ace people appreciate it and view it as positive representation because i'm asexual and always worry it reads as just porn. this comes into play with the comments thing again... me putting a lot of personal experience and deep thought into dynamics with no pay off. obviously i'm not saying every fic in that series is groundbreaking or even worth reading, but idk they each have a piece of importance to them. at least to me. i was just saying the other day that in my lapses of writers block i get anxious about the last thing i've posted being not my best work. in this current hiatus i'm in i'm actually quite content with EASE being the latest work in my recents. sure rules is unfinished but i kind of hate that fic so whatever. EASE is good. i love how that turned out and i'm proud of it and comfortable with that being the first thing people see on my profile

all insecurity and internal pressure aside i love writing for this fandom and hope i can do it for at least a little longer. i'm immeasurably grateful that people are willing to still read what i create, it makes creating it a little easier. i sound like a broken record but really thank you for this. it means more to me than you could know.

[sheryl-lee]

i dont wanna join the discussion too late but i read all that eddie stuff and literally im so relieved other ppl feel this way and i have so much to say abt it. so many things sucked this season anyway akshdkjsd but i will NEVER understand the fandom. they have so many incredible characters to pick from. eleven played by the incredible millie bobbie brown, lucas who has one of the most compelling personalities when others dont have a personality at all and max who has so many interesting dynamics with everyone including him, will who was unfortunately reduced to being a sad gay boy but is STILL such a good character, ROBIN who is probably neurodivergent and canonically a lesbian. also about max - she's a morally gray character which is never seen. she didnt save billy because he didnt deserve to be, and there are characters that are just so lame and plain and "the good guys" like h*rry p*tter saving draco in that one fire scene. max isnt just a bland hero, which is even groundbreaking for a character. but nope. they go with steve and eddie the white guys and ship them and uggggh. someone said people would ship jonathan and argyle if they were considered more attractive and ITS TRUE. people will ship anything. they used to ship billy and steve but not these guys? its weird. man, even murray is a more interesting character. going back to the max thing, you have peter parker, another white guy, and ppl freaking out over how he wanted to kill that guy in nwh. im telling you, its groundbreaking, but they'll ignore interesting stuff in characters who arent cute white boys 🙄🙄

don't worry about it! and OOF EXACTLY thank you for the hp comp like that's exactly what i h8 abt people's obsession with these bland yt men. i swear fandoms have not progressed in some regards like so many of them are stuck in the 90s/2000s but instead of that decade's yt man we have this decade's yt man. nothing else has changed. women and poc are still discarded and minimized and villified regardless of their role in a story; the actors playing them are STILL sent d*ath threats for... doing their job? existing? and it's so tiring and sickening honestly. lucas and max and el and robin and even will are wonderful characters who are genuinely engaging to watch; at a surface level there are already so many fascinating things to analyze about them and all of them are played by capable actors. i truly am sad that people don't give them the credit they deserve. and the same goes for so many other fandoms with those same issues.

i'm generally not a fan of shipping and i'm not as into it the way a lot of people are. like i have my few romantic pairings that i like and that's about it, i'm not that intense about it. but that's me! i know everyone else has their preferences and they're absolutely free to like what they like, but it's a problem when people start gatekeeping and almost force others to like the ships they like, especially when those ships are typically comprised of canonically cishet white men. it takes the fun out of shipping and the joy out of watching a show or film. it takes the conversation and filters out what should be engaging and distills it to something so lacking of substance. the st problem just speaks to that larger issue imo, and it's very concerning to me that in 2022 fandoms still haven't moved beyond it - if anything, it's gotten worse.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

"Yeah, but what about the rash?" "That's something called erythema toxicum. Okay, now, it's very, very common. It can look a little bit alarming, but it is very common in babies. And though we don't know what caused it - it could be that, you know, the way that you wrapped her in the blanket, which probably elevated her temperature anyway. You know, it could be an allergic reaction to the washing powder... we don't know." "I could have made her really ill. What kind of mother does that make me?" "A very tired one, but a very normal one." (s36e30 'I Will Trust in You')

[loki-zen]

Hot Take:

1. post-canon Homestuck is quite good actually,

2. certainly better than the bad/off the rails latter parts of canon Homestuck,

3. and, actually, on several craft-of-writing levels it’s better than canon Homestuck full stop; AH has grown as a writer and an artist in the intervening years and as such the day-to-day panels of HS^2 look better, its story is better paced, jumping between story threads is done more artfully, the cast is pared down to a more manageable size, and there are several characters that it always felt like he didn’t really know what he was doing with them who have been figured out and used to far greater effect, as well as popular original Homestuck characters whose arcs are meaningfully improved by the continuation.

Spoilers under cut (mild I guess)

The character stuff really benefits from the greater freedom post-canon provides in terms of narrative role.

In canon, there was basically only one role any of the human or humanlike characters could have - Hero of [Blah], player of the Game, aspiring saviour of the universe. Boring. Especially in the Alpha kids, it fell flat in everyone but Roxy.

Jane and Dirk are infinitely more interesting as sometimes-at-least-somewhat-sympathetic antagonists. Jake English is infinitely more tolerable when his role is not ‘Hero of Hope’ but ‘that shallow somewhat irritating guy you knew as a kid who is now a shallow somewhat irritating celebrity.’ Roxy’s quantum transness is Extremely Relatable and I think pretty damn well-written in the end (I’m thinking of eg the conversation Candy Roxy (she/her) has with John about the situation in ^2).

Speaking of which, the timeline shit is better utilised here and easier to understand. And the way fourth-wall breaking, format screw shenanigans interfaces with the plot is a lot more well done (or at least more well thought out? More coherent.), and imo genuinely sinister and chilling at times.

All that said, it does lack some Inestimable Something that prevents me from claiming that it’s outright better. Maybe it’s just that by definition it can’t be groundbreaking the way the original was. And it’s far from perfect - Meat is much longer than it needs to be in classic AH style while Candy is very half-assedly (un)finished, and ^2 itself will probably never get finished, or at least I’m not getting my hopes up.

But it’s got its charms, for sure, and might’ve been unfairly skipped out on by people who were put off by how the original went off the rails. It’s definitely a valiant attempt to get back on some rails.

YMMV if your favourite troll isn’t in it, of course. (Off the top of my head, Eridan, Nepeta, Equius and both Piexes do not reappear at all; Sollux is barely in it, Aradia has a somewhat minor role, and Tavros… well that one’s kind of interesting, but the character we know does not reappear.)

[SPOILER re the above: a character with the same speech/typing quirk, approximate narrative positioning and first name does appear, but he is a human who is related in no way to the Tavros we remember.]

(also I think Jade fans could reasonably say she is done dirty by post-canon to the point that they may well prefer her arc untainted by knowledge of her post-canon self. Depends what side of her you’re into. Same goes for Jade and Dirk fans who prefer to think of them as heroic characters I guess?)

(Additionally, in ‘things I just think are neat’, there is an Egbert/Strilonde baby in the mix, and we discover that the synthesis of Egbert nerdery, Strider extroverted-insecurity and Lalonde virtuosic dramaticness is, naturally, a Theatre Kid.)

[ashleyetc]

watched spiderman no way home. review below, tldr: if you enjoy spiderman stuff you will almost certainly love it, and it left me bizarrely looking forward to the chance of further tom holland spidey stuff.

okay so if youve seen the trailers, you know like, 80% of what to expect. its multiverse crossover bullshit in the name of fanservice bullshit, and that is all its trying to be through most of the runtime (which is a touch long but it didnt drag at all for me so). we get a lot of fun cute references, some meta ones (macguire calling garfield 'amazing' repeatedly), a lot of what you expect. the daredevil cameo was actually fun and cute and made me laugh out loud, which was a promising start given how soon it is into the movie.

i was genuinely surprised by how good two particular aspects of it were, the ending which i will get to in a bit, and the performances. everyone gave a solid performance. i expected this from molina and dafoe, but frankly i have never previously thought macguire or garfield were particularly good actors. everyone brought their a game in a way that frankly doesnt happen in the mcu. there are better written mcu flicks but there are not better performed ones.

spoilers from here on if you care about that kinda thing. a big part of why i ended up liking this movie so much was that it ended up fixing tom holland spiderman. holland spidey has never to my recollection mentioned an uncle ben, although we simply never got his origin story (wise move given the glut of spidey origins tbh). he never had that defining moment that frankly, he needed. he was portrayed well but it at times felt unearned, he was missing a key ingredient. he also had something that a spiderman should never have which was wealth. spidey is a poor kid from queens. he is a working class hero. he is friendly and neighborhood. he should not have tony stark bankrolling him, outfitting him with high tech armor, giving him defacto WMDs for the hell of it at 16. ive always liked holland as spiderman but his spiderman is fundamentally disconnected from the platonic ideal of a peter parker, until this movie. the shadow of rjd has loomed large over him and im delighted that that has been put to bed.

i honestly didnt expect the movie to kill aunt may. i thought theyd pull that punch, but im glad they didnt, it worked incredibly well. i think giving holland spidey that moment of trying to kill osborn in revenge only to be stopped my macguire, effectively an older version of himself, was good. i have enjoyed mcu spidey despite myself but this did feel like the first time he has actually grown as a character.

the ending, where peter is explicitly isolated, alone, has next to nothing, not even a high school diploma, and starts from zero doing his thing, sewing a costume himself, hit me hard. its rare for superheroes to actually be self sacrificing, certainly not in this way. sure theres plenty of deaths, but those are a mere hindrance to a comic book character. this uprooted his entire life in a way that he cant just get back, and it put him right where a peter parker belongs in the first place- broke, struggling, and doing his thing regardless.

only thing in the movie that annoyed me was no proper nod to spiderverse. unless you count electro telling garfield spidey 'i thought you would be black.' some people will be bothered by some plot holes and a lot of 'well its magic so' but that doesnt really bug me since like. none of it is dumber or less contrived than 'radioactive spider bite gives you powers' like if it works in the service of a good story and imo it does why care.

9/10, not a groundbreaking movie but one of the more worthwhile mcu efforts. even if you hate mcu spiderman, if you like the character in general, i would strongly recommend.

(mandatory train update for evelyn: holland spiderman fights doctor strange in the fractal dimension thing on top of a moving train)

[vyvesvi]

updated top albums list + recommended tracks from each bc im bored lol

*tentatively* in order

unnatural - wjsn | recommended songs: all of them (especially unnatural, supermoon, and yalla) except for rewind | skips: just rewind bc ballad /// im not sure what style to call this album but they really made such a smash, its crazy that it came out so early in the year and no gg is touching it (album wise). literally the only complaints i have are the obligatory ballad (that they always do bc they can all sing lmfao), the album cover/title (dont love the cover design and i dont love when the album name is the tt name, except in certain circumstances (a full album (especially where the title isnt necessarily from the title track) like montero) or when it's a single album (the inverse of this being rsq's prequel which couldve just been called colorfull since that was the only damn song 😐)). i also was disappointed with the outfits for last dance but that's peripheral.

timeabout, - yukika | recommended songs: insomnia & secret | skips: none /// okay to keep it very real im genuinely scared that she'll never surpass soul lady. i love, and i mean LOVE timeabout, but soul lady was on another plane of existence. like she could've held that album a little bit

the other side of the moon - gwsn | recommended songs: like it hot, starry night, i cant breathe | skips: i sing, depending on my mood /// i dont have much commentary tbh,this is just a very solid mini idk. id like to see a fusion of i cant breathe/tweaks/after the bloom/burn, maybe on their next mini. i love their brighter stuff but maybe a darker concept next (halloween cb pls pls pls)

montero - lil nas x | lowkey too soon for me to pick recommended songs but i'll say montero, scoop, lost in the citadel, sun goes down, and am i dreaming for now. will update! | skips: none /// i cant say that this is this year's sawayama bc sawayama was kinda more like a collection of really strong singles? whereas i feel like these songs shine as an album. i dont even know what to say except that im soooo surprised and impressed because i didnt know that this is the type of music he made???? like he raps but theres a lot of singing? not like belting but definitely not rapping. its kinda...alt ish? in some places? if i had to use ine genre to describe the whole album id probably say alt pop? idk but whatever it is it's definitely working

hide & seek - purple kiss | recommended songs: zombie & so why (tbh all of them) | 2am and zzzz depend on my mood but theyre def not full skips /// no bad song on the album this is crazy....i might rerank since i just listened to it for the first time but as of now idk, its good im just super impressed. ponzona wasnt for me but this cb theyre really doing all the things, lovr tht for them

produced by: [myself] - onlyoneof | recommended songs: coy & night flight | question mark depends on my mood /// im still mad at them (read: 8d) sooooo...idk. i can’t really listen to their music rn. but this mini is still good

play game: holiday - weeekly | recommended songs: check it out, weekend, holiday party | i like memories of summer rain and la luna but it depends on my mood /// very cohesive mini, def their best overall imo! not much to say, but i hope jiyoon gets well soon TTTT

enchant - orbit | recommended songs: gokurakuchouka & never gonna get away but also all of them except flor lunar | skips: flor lunar is nice but boring /// i need kpoppies to get into it im tired of being here alone cmon y’all

set - woodz | recommended songs: feel like | skips: none /// i prefer his bright tracks but this mini was solid as usual. where is the full album tho seungyoun hmmm????

guess who - itzy | recommended songs: sorry not sorry, tennis (0:0), kidding me | skips: in the morning, occasionally wild wild west /// i remember being very surprised that i liked this album, especially given that i dont like mitm. not anything groundbreaking but still solid. i think the naming of tennis (0:0) was really clever

intersection: trace - bae173 | recommended songs: green light, loved you | skips: none (sometimes the intro tho) /// honestly their music is really good??? mbk just hasn’t promoted them well, i feel like they make it a little hard to stan...i really appreciate that they’re not doing the stereotypical hard bg concept thing

lilac - iu | recommended songs: coin, flu, ah puh, troll | skips: honestly id have to relisten, some of the songs a lil boring but idr them at the moment

hello future - nct dream | recommended songs: hello future, life is still going on | skips: idr tbh, probably hot sauce though //// was very surprised that i liked this album, but the outro of hello future really got me after a few listens so i had to check it out. very decent!

killa - mirae | recommended songs: killa, sweet dreams, 1 thing | skips: none really but all of the bsides are a little mid tbh /// i will be 1000% honest in saying that the three reasons this allbum made this list are 1.) killa (the tt), 2.) none of the songs are bad, 3.) lien’s vocals. something about lien....he really just sells whatever song he’s on. his belting >>>>>>>>>>>. he makes their music very enjoyable to listen to, next in that department would be junhyuk. based on their most recent cb, siyoung and khael also contribute a lot as well. shame that the rest of the cb album kinda does nothing for me idk. random but i would really like a gg to cover higher and/or killa

& - loona | recommended songs: ur, ptt | skips: a different night, dance on my own /// these r my girls but this is not their best. ur is wonderful though, and ptt is addicting somehow. wow and be honest are fine but really not their best. i like wow’s choreo tho! 

albums im excited to listen to (no particular order):

last year was weird volume 3, tkay maidza (i’ve already listened to a bunch of it but i need to sit and just listen to the whole thing)

troubled paradise, slayyter (same as above, but i didn’t even realize it came out this year, i thought it was old for some reason lol)

jo1, challenger (every song of theirs i hear i like pretty much so i need to take an organized look at them lmfao)

jo1, stranger (same as above)

only lovers left, woodz (duhhh its woodz. not out yet but im excited! i do prefer his brighter concepts and this def isn’t that. he says its not gonna be like what he’s done before but the title and concept photo that’s out rn is giving lift up)

the book of us: negentropy - chaos swallowed up in love, day6 (the title kinda bored me but we’ll see. also sungjin’s gone so.....................we’ll see.)

ancient dreams in a modern land, marina (i barely got past venus fly trap because its soooooo good. i’ve listened to a little after that but the songs i heard didn’t really compare. i have to give it a shot tho)

the chaos chapter: fight or escape, txt (i liked the blue hour mini so i need to give them a chance i suppose)

333, tinashe (i just feel like i should idk)

honorable mentions (no particular order):

blue hour, txt - discovered this year, came out last year. retroactively makes the 2020 albums list bc whew the market research that went into that thing paid off

hula hoop/ starseed ~kakusei~, loona (why tf does the album not have a name) - duhhh loona + synths = a smash. in fact like i said when it dropped i dont even wanna call them loona anymore. this is kongetsu no shoujo!!! this isn’t on my top albums list because im counting as two songs and my limit is 3. i might add it anyways lmfao. we’ll see

ugly beauty, jolin tsai - discovered this year, came out in 2018. i just really like jolin tsai idk. i had only heard that album w play and i’m not yours, both are iconic but the production quality sounds...low? like its older but ik they’re not *that* old. either way, ugly beauty does everything i wanted it to - dramatic, vocals, rapping, boa vibes...jolin tsai is a queen what can i say

also, there are of course a ton of singles that i love as well, this is albums only though lmfao. i have no idea if i could even attempt to organize the singles lol