#how many eclipses will happen in 2022

[roselinbooks]

Clickbait Title Game

Thank you @willtheweaver for the tag!

Rules: Explain the plot/ premise of your WIP/s as if they were a clickbait (or just a regular one if you don’t want to do clickbait) YouTube video

I'm going to do this for both my published books and my WIPs~

Published Books ALiCE: Unluckiest Man Alive Wins Free Trip to Island; You Won't Believe What Happens Next! Like Falling Stars: Frozen 3 (2022) Teaser Trailer Stellar Eclipse: New Evidence in 15 Year Murder/Kidnapping Case has Investigators Dumbfounded

WIPs Shifting Roots: You Won't Believe How Many Cats Live In This Forest!!! WHiTE RABBiT: 10 Signs that Your Childhood Might Have Been The ACTUAL Worst New Constellations: Frozen 4 (2026) Teaser Trailer

Why yes I DID look up actual clickbait articles on my phone while I came up with these, lol. Tagging: @revenantlore @incandescent-creativity @byjillianmaria @theboarsbride @abalonetea @asablehart and of course open to anyone who sees this and wants to do it!

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Jojo Tichakorn: The Warp Effect (2022-23) Edition

My life is so insane right now with the usual adulting responsibilities that afflict me and so many others (AFFLICT, I SAY!) that I've been spending most of the little time I have to write meta focused on the Old GMMTV Challenge -- I'm even neglecting my DARLING Japanese doramas in Minato's Laundromat 2 as I catch up on everything else, gah. (Dangerous Romance and Only Friends on consecutive days. SMDH. GMMTV said, hey beesh, your time belongs to MOI NOW, and I'm all like, HOW DID I LET YOU DO THIS TO ME.)

BUT ALL THAT BEING SAID, fuck, if you wanna make something happen, you make it happen, right? I heard the demands, the slamming of hands-hands-hands on the table from my dear friend @wen-kexing-apologist (HANDS!) to take on The Warp Effect as a means of preparing for the Only Friends onslaught, and to get to know another clutch project by the inimitable Jojo Tichakorn.

The Warp Effect was airing just as I really began to launch myself into watching more GMMTV dramas late last year. At the time of its airing in December 2022, I had literally only watched The Eclipse and A Tale of Thousand Stars like a GMMTV BL dilettante, not knowing 1) anything about 2) anyone and 3) why anyone, from the actors to the filmmakers, would be important to know about for any particular show. If I had picked up on The Warp Effect literally as it was airing, I, as an Asian-American, literally would have been like, THEY'RE MAKING THIS STUFF IN THAILAND, HOW DID ANYONE NOT TELL ME?!?!?!?! And that would have been it.

So, yeah, thank goodness I've watched it *now*, ha, in the midst of the OGMMTVC, where I've gained knowledge not only of the history of GMMTV's BL slate (of which The Warp Effect DOESN'T belong, just to clarify), but of the many significant actors who were in TWE, and also of the history of the GMMTV network airing increasingly progressive content in the first place. While BLs of all kinds, by various filmmakers, have aired on GMMTV since 2016's SOTUS -- as many of us know, Jojo exists outside of the BL bubble, making progressive art that's focused on sex and sexuality, sexual health, and the inclusion of queerness and various sexual expression and identification spectrums in everyday life.

I committed to knowing more about Jojo's oeuvre when Only Friends was first announced, because I'm always of the assumption that 1) artists talk to other artists through their artistic oeuvres, and that 2) artists also talk to their own growing body of art, through new art, progressively over the course of time. I figured that by being as familiar as I could be with as big of a scope as possible of Jojo's body of work, that I could pick up more deeply on where his mind might be going within Only Friends.

So anyway -- that's why I took on The Warp Effect. After watching Gay OK Bangkok -- Jojo's BRILLIANT 2016 collaborative web series with Backaof Noppharnach about male queerness and men's sexual health -- I knew The Warp Effect had to be next on my Jojo list. I also utterly devoured Jojo's 3 Will Be Free for the OGMMTVC, but in The Warp Effect, I wanted to see Jojo's continued conversation about sex, and his openness about sex in his art specifically, as a means of understanding better the framing from which he's coming to Only Friends.

Both P'Aof and Jojo have an utter expertise in teasing out brilliant performances from actors who you wouldn't necessarily think could pull off what these two demand in their work. I think on a regular basis about Tay Tawan's spin as Shin in 3WBF, and I shake my damn head at that performance every time -- how Tay, coming off of the jock role of a lifetime as Pete in Dark Blue Kiss, could play with such aplomb an unassuming gay virgin, out of the closet and inexperienced, who had a STEEL core of survival within him. It was such a great role.

I felt the same about seeing New Thitipoom as Alex in TWE. (And, honestly, I thought it was SUCH a G move for Jojo to continue exploring how to get some GMMTV guys out of their jock reputations by casting New from his own Dark Blue Kiss past, just like Tay. BRILLIANT.)

I LOVED New in this role. He clearly was acting outside of his usual boundaries, and I think he ate this role with eagerness. New as Alex emphasized a major core of The Warp Effect for me -- as opposed to 3 Will Be Free, The Warp Effect was rooted in a particular genre that's not always explored across the GMMTV portfolio: COMEDY.

The Warp Effect was fucking hilarious! New as Alex was out of control so much -- bumbling, mistake-prone, disoriented, but quickly gaining in centered control as he organized himself to begin tackling his way out of the curse that he had been put under.

What I love about what Jojo did with TWE was that with every curve this show took, every direction the story went, he clearly was driving the course of this show with one foot on the gas -- but with razor-sharp steering. A show rooted in comedy and depictions and dialogue about sex could have gone off the rails at so many moments. He began a number of episodes with montages of various intimacies that brought such a sexy and mature vibe to the show, that he rooted himself firmly in the ability to then dialogue about that intimacy with fluency. He knew how to set up conversations about sexual health with not an ounce of teachy condescension. He leveraged comedy when necessary to lighten what could have gotten dragged down by just about anything -- fear, judgement, condemnation. We know from Jojo's past oeuvre (GOKB, 3WBF) that he'd never go there. But that he took SUCH control of a complicated narrative that involved a sizable number of characters -- the fact that he wove commentary about sex and sexual health into that complicated narrative, and did it with sensible comedy and drama, was brilliant.

3WBF didn't talk about sexual health, but Gay OK Bangkok did, in spades, directed towards the Thai queer male community. I predict Only Friends is going to have some amount of commentary about alcohol abuse in queer partying culture vis à vis Ray. Selfishly, as a mom -- something that I will forever take away from The Warp Effect was the focus on women's reproductive health. I haven't seen such a close look -- and an ACCURATE READ -- on women's reproductive health in a show before this one.

So, first of all, I DO hope that it was meant to be indicated that Alex's memory about being an OB-GYN came back because, shit, you don't learn about giving Pap smears in a 30-second montage, HA. But that being said:

Stirrups? Speculums? Questions about looseness and fluids? Vaccines? Fertility? IVF? HORMONES? PREGNANT MOMMY HORMONES???

Damn. I mean. GIMME. I felt seen as a mom. Yet again, this is why I watch shows from Asia, and particularly Thailand by way of this country's openness with sexual honesty in media. How Jojo was able to turn the topic of women's reproductive health into compelling television. Western media would likely pooh-pooh this topic and/or turn it into cringe-worthy comic-ish commentary that would ultimately condescend to a woman's experience. I've been pregnant a few times, and let me tell you -- Jojo got Nim's experience CORRECT. (Except for her drinking what I hoped was a mocktail at the prom wedding. I know there are cultures that allow for minor drinking during pregnancy -- I'd have to find out where Thailand falls on that -- but my own personal experience was that my OB was so strict that I was afraid if she FOUND OUT I had a sip of something. Anyway, red drink in martini glass, let's hope it was Hawaiian Punch or the Thai equivalent.)

And of course, this being Jojo -- how The Warp Effect ALSO treated men's sexual health and queer male sexuality was also amazing, even heart-wrenching. I found myself getting emotional at Army's conversations with Joe about penetration and positioning, due in large part to Joe being so resistant at the start of even exploring these issues within himself. How Alex hilariously intervenes to provide Army the information he needs to come back to Joe to make intimacy better for the both of them -- again, the use of comedy here being so brilliantly leveraged to discuss a topic that could otherwise carry discomfort within it. The writing and filmmaking of Army's overall leading dialogue was incredible.

(ALSO?! FLUKE PUSIT?! MY FIRST TIME WITH FLUKE PUSIT?! Tell me why this dude doesn't have his own show again?! FLUKE AND THOR? THESE DUDES JUST WENT FOR IT! FUCK, MAN, LITERALLY! Holy shit, Fluke and Thor WERE RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING GEMS.)

(Let me also say: I hope Fah comes back to Thai television. She just NAILED her role as Jean, and I'd love to see her act again, and get to know her repertoire better.)

I think what made The Warp Effect so successful was, besides the tight but complicated storyline, is Jojo's TOTAL FEARLESSNESS at tackling topics that he is DEEPLY rooted in, at a very high comfort level. Even in 2016's GOKB, Jojo and P'Aof wrote VERY FRANK dialogue about men's sexual health. (And for good reason, as GOKB shared that in 2016, 25% of Bangkok's queer male population was HIV-positive -- a stunning stat.)

When a director is rooted in that FRANKNESS -- without fear or hesitation, and even pressure from a network or sponsors -- they can really go places by way of making bold content with equilibrium. Many of us have noted that Only Friends is not sponsored -- no Oishii or Lays in sight. That means that Jojo (and his team) are going into OF unfettered. Give me more unfettered content about sex and sexual health. The world needs it, especially if it's centered around a redemption story of such a good order, that it makes every single actor within the show better because of it. The Warp Effect was a joy to watch -- even while it was rooted in fantasy, the truth it shared about intimacy and health are permanent lessons that are always needing to be learned.

--

P.S. Gawin Caskey's theme song was a BOP.

P.P.S. Shirtless, tied-up Joong: YES.

P.P.P.S SILVY! GAH, SILVY! HOW GOOD WAS SHE?!?!?! CAN SHE PLEASE GET SIGNED BY GMMTV?!?!?! OMG. I LOVE HER, YOUR HONOR!

[beautifulsnake2162020]

Just my two cents about the Ned Fulmer situation

By the time you will be reading this some new development may have been made that could possibly change the outcome of what I currently know, but as of September 29, 2022 and the recent things that have been posted on tumblr in general I feel like I want to say a few things (and yes I know I broke my don't go to tumblr rule but learning the news from youtube, a platform notorious for clickbait titles I feel like tumblr was the platform to verify it while there was no mainstream news media outlet covering it).

Some background before you read this: I've been a Try guys fan since their Buzzfeed days and it was actually through Keith, Zach and Becky's eclipse video where they stay overnight in a fan's house that was allegedly haunted, that I discovered Shane and Ryan who I am now following for their Ghost files content as well as their Puppet History show. My bias among the Try guys was Keith because of our interests in musical theater, feeling like the one who has to find things other than our physical appearances to make up for it, and I just vibe with him a lot more (and our favorite color is blue). That's not to say I didn't like the other Try guys I also had moments wherein I vibed with them as well because I didn't like how the fandom's favorite moments was about Keith screaming during without a recipe for his loss. And having said that the member I least vibed with was with Ned, I probably only vibed with him because I've never tried mary jane before in my entire life but I have drank a lot of alcohol before. I also enjoyed it when he was more in actor mode, and was genuinely funny sometimes.

As with many things I consume on youtube, I tend to view youtubers as both performers and people. To messily quote Cristine from Simplynailogical "A balance of being authentic enough to be yourself but not too much because it's also a performance and you need to protect yourself from what you are outside of being a youtuber." Or something along those lines. I'm bringing this up because while I do have a parasocial relationship as a Try guys fan, I tend to not really care what they do outside of those videos because they are people too and they also deserve the privacy to actually live life and deal with issues in private. The only thing I really follow is their main youtube content, while occassionally watching some of YB's videos and those on the Second Try. And because we live in a capitalist system as of the moment, the Try Guys are in the business of producing content.

When I first watched the three recent videos, I'll be honest it wasn't until the most recent one "Try guys try stand up comedy" that I began to feel and notice Ned's absence. Unlike other people who follow them, I only exclusively follow them on Youtube, so when the new intro came without Ned, I thought it's because he was doing a side project or something else since I remember Eugene was absent for a long while before.

So I among many others who follow them was incredibly shocked to learn that a.) Ned cheated on Ariel; b.) He cheated on Ariel with Alex from the Food Babies; and c.) It happened at the start of this month (of September) and the recent videos were highly edited to remove them from it.

Do I feel shocked? Yes. Betrayed? Not as much as others because again I knowingly consume their content knowing that this is only what they've allowed to share about themselves and it's not their entire selves. As an example from the Try guys documentary, and in some of their more personal videos, Zach's persona of being the man child of the group is just that, a persona. His talents really shine when he's behind the camera and his film school education really shows and has brought some of my favorite videos on their channel. But even those are just some slices as to who he is as a person, it's not entirely who he is, and I'm okay with not knowing him in the same level that Maggie and their other friends know him as.

Does this mean I condone what Ned and Alex have done? NO. We don't live in a time of arranged marriages anymore (or at least the vast majority of us, I'm not sure about some parts of the earth) and if you marry for love as you claim to have done so, then there shouldn't be a reason for you to cheat from your spouse. Did the Try guys know before we knew of it and was their actions justified? From the perspective of a business (because again they are a business), yes their actions were justified in first keeping it to themselves to plan how to deal with the issue (including when the issue may come out to the public), do what needs to be done to prepare for what was to come and what their stance is based on their actions. Also you need to remember that Ned being fired from the company must have a grace period of some kind for them to be able to move forward without Ned who was part owner of the company and was essentially Alexandria's boss. No matter how friendly we see them on camera, the main Try guys are the bosses of their staff and there is a power imbalance there that has the potential for abuse, and opens them up for a potential sexual misconduct lawsuit. I don't know the laws in the U.S.A., but from what I have gleaned an employer - employee sexual relationship has so much room for abuse no matter how consensual Ned alleges it to be. This doesn't remove Alex from liability but no matter how you spin it, he is still the one controlling her means of livelihood. And if (BIG EMPHASIS ON IF) it turns out Alex was the one who initiated it, not only did she know that Ned was a very married man but because again since he controls her paycheck, she could abuse that relationship by potentially getting more than her fair share if not through the paycheck then by other benefits that may set a bad precedent for the rest of the staff. If it seems I'm analyzing this from the perspective of a lawyer, well guess what I'm a law student, I'm in training to do this.

Speaking of firing, people have rightly pointed out that the Try Guys have no legal ground to terminate Alex and I'm not sure if they plan on giving her a huge amount of money to leave as a settlement (I dont think their company is big enough to do that but then again I don't know the ins and outs of the company), or if she will be resigning soon because essentially all of the Try Staff we as the audience have seen have unfollowed her and Ned. But if you are going to base on firing her just because of the cheating incident, then that could open the company to a lawsuit for termination for something not work related. If you think this is a bullshit legal provision, then imagine this: Would you want to be fired if you were essentially coerced into doing something wrong but you can't because refusing could lead to dire consequences that are wrong but not illegal such as being assigned to do a job you don't like? This is what we're potentially dealing with here because of the power imbalance that is present.

I want to now tackle the worrying trend that I've observed from tumblr posts and maybe the internet community in general (I can only really speak from what I've seen on tumblr because I'm the most active here). Ariel has already issued a statement that they want to resolve their marital issues in private and we should respect that. As someone else has pointed out, she is still a.) A human being; b.) Uses the internet; and c.) Is one of the victims of this whole scandal. Roast Ned and Alex for what they've done, but don't add salt to a gaping wound by promoting posts from employees from Buzzfeed or ex- Buzzfeed employees who have taken this opportunity to simply smugly say "I knew he was trouble." When they were working with him. It's clear they are just using this scandal to chase clout and I've lost my respect for each one who has taken this opportunity to do so. If you knew he was trouble then why didn't you say anything to Ariel back when they were in Buzzfeed? You know the time before they had children. The most likely answer is that it was none of their business, or they brought it up with HR then nothing must have happened, or they didn't know who Ariel was or didn't take the initiative to go the extra mile to find her and inform her of her spouse being shady (this list is not exclusive). If they want to air their grievances then do it in your private chatrooms. Do it in a place wherein you 100% know Ariel is not going to be on. She's on twitter, she's going to see it, and in all honesty, if any dirt goes out about any one of them, I would support Ariel rubbing salt on their wound but from what I know she's too nice about it (Becky Habersberger will probably do it on her behalf).

As of this writing, there has been an update that the Trypod will be on October 6 addressing what we have learnt in these past 2 days. I'm hoping the best for Keith, Eugene, Zach, and the rest of the Try family. Ned and Alex have broken up so many precious relationships. The silver lining in this to repeat a quote frequently repeated by fellow fans is that the Triceratop has three horns and they are going to be fine. They just need to weather the storm, and I forgot who posted this but I agree with someone saying that these three have all distinct traits that make them stand out as individuals and as a part of a group. No matter what Ariel decides to do moving forward from this to protect their children, she'll have this fan's support.

P.S. If they should hire anyone so that they could have a four person group again, it should be filled in by Kylie Burke. She brings the right amount of being anxious yet eager to try in Ned's last video "Try guys try high diving." I don't vibe well with Kwesi since I sense he has an air of him making fun of the things to try rather than giving it an actual try.

Okay now back to my study hiatus.

[mariacallous]

Italy is, notoriously, not a nation of readers, with Italians spending on average far less time reading books than many other Europeans. Yet, lately, a book has monopolized the nation’s political conversation. The author, Roberto Vannacci, is an army general whose political thoughts lean reactionary, to say the least. In the past year, he has become one of Italy’s most prominent right-wing figures. Indeed, he has come close to eclipsing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in domestic media coverage.

Vannacci, 55, also happens to be the star candidate of the anti-immigration party the League in the upcoming European Parliament elections. He was picked as a candidate by party leader Matteo Salvini—despite the opposition of some League officials, who viewed the general as inexperienced—in an attempt to regain the visibility that the League has lost since its main ally and rival, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, usurped Salvini’s support base and rose to power.

Only a year ago, Vannacci was completely unknown to the wider public. Throughout the first half of 2024, one could hardly turn on the TV or open a newspaper without bumping into his name. It seems almost as if every week the general is at the epicenter of a new media storm: the most recent one about an interview he did with La Stampa in April, where Vannacci declared that “Italians are white, statistics say so,” and accused gay people of “showing off as exhibitionists.”

As soon as his candidacy was announced in late April, the progressive Democratic Party rushed to issue an (inadvertently counterproductive) statement urging Italians to ignore him.

Born into a military family (both his father and grandfather were professional soldiers), Vannacci served in Italy’s special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s, then led the army’s prestigious Folgore battalion, took part in the nation’s anti-Islamic State task force in 2017 and 2018, and served as a military attaché to the Italian Embassy in Moscow in 2020-2022. Yet fame came, unexpectedly, last August, when Vannacci was holding the not-so-glamourous position of head of the Military Geographic Institute in Florence.

In his free time during his service at the institute, Vannacci had written and self-published a book titled Il mondo al contrario (“The World Upside Down”). “I wrote the book for personal satisfaction. I thought it would be spread among my friends and would sell 300-400 copies,” Vannacci said in a phone conversation with Foreign Policy. But, to its author’s own surprise, the book became a huge success—the fifth-bestselling title in Italy in 2023—making Vannacci a better-selling author than Ken Follett and an instant celebrity. Despite being self-published, The World Upside Down had sold 200,000 copies by early 2024. (Italy’s publishing industry is small. By comparison, Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which was the country’s top seller, sold just over 300,000.)

The views of the book were so extreme that even Italy’s defense minister, Guido Crosetto—who co-founded the Brothers of Italy with Meloni—had to reprimand him: Vannacci was first replaced as head of the Military Geographic Institute and then suspended from the military for 11 months.

Organized into chapters, each dedicated to a specific theme, from environmentalism to multicultural society up to LGBT-related issues and animal rights, the book is a compendium of ultra-conservative personal philosophy, in which Vannacci sees the West threatened by feminism, environmentalism, the LGBT community, and animal rights.

His tirade rests on what he frames as buonsenso (“common sense”), the belief that all these modern ideas are insane, with little need for explanation: “Normality is heterosexuality. If everything seems normal to you, however, it is the fault of the plots of the international gay lobby.” Same-sex marriage or adoption? Come on, it’s just nuts—it’s common sense that a family is husband plus wife. Women want to work outside the house? Nonsense, “even if they work, they don’t feel fulfilled.”

Vannacci presented himself as the voice of the silent majority, which is hostage to some noisy minorities—and he was in some ways proved right. The message resonated with many Italians, who found in his book a manifesto for their own thoughts.

In an interview, Vannacci described himself as a “patriot.” He added that he views his literary endeavor as a defense of “our culture, our traditions, our roots, if only for the respect of our ancestors, our fathers, of our grandparents.”

In his book, the general exalts Italy’s greatest historical figures—going back to Aeneas, Julius Caesar, Dante, Galileo, and Garibaldi—and takes pride in having, supposedly, their glorious ancient blood in his veins, a staple of Italian nationalistic nostalgia.

Political scientist Mattia Diletti, who teaches at Rome’s Sapienza University, notes that his nostalgic discourse echoes Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric.

The success of The World Upside Down lies in the portrayal of a world that, being “upside down,” one must “overthrow this morally, socially, politically corrupt elite. We must return to the ancient values that are within Italian society,” Vannacci writes.

This type of rhetoric resonated with Italian conservative voters, especially since Meloni, the head of a party that has its roots in postfascism, ended up being more moderate than her fanbase expected. For instance, she sided with the United States and European powers in supporting Ukraine, despite pro-Russian and anti-European Union sentiment enjoying some popularity on the right. On LGBT rights and abortion, Meloni’s reactionary rhetoric was never followed by major action: LGBT rights (or the lack of thereof) have remained unchanged since the pre-Meloni era, and the country’s abortion law has remained unchanged.

“Vannacci is a sort of rebellion against the thinking of the current times,” said Francesco Borgonovo, the deputy director of the conservative newspaper La Verità. The cultural battles waged by the suspended general, Borgonovo noted, are precisely the same cultural battles that right-wing parties had waged during the electoral campaigns but then did not deliver after they came to power.

“He puts together ideas in a somewhat bar-room way,” appealing to “right-wing people, who now feel betrayed by the parties that are now governing Italy, which they helped to elect,” Borgonovo said.

Diletti of Sapienza points out that part of Vannacci’s success is precisely that of presenting himself as an outsider who tells things as they are. In a country where the political class is widely discredited, Vannacci succeeds by presenting himself as “the non-politician who speaks the truth to politicians.”

Today, Vannacci is at the epicenter of Italy’s political debate, not only due to his EU candidacy. After his first book’s success, he recently published an autobiography.

Paradoxically, being elected to the European Parliament could dim his star: As an MEP, Vannacci’s image could be downgraded from “firebrand general” to mere “politician,” a term many Italians have come to loathe.

Although Vannacci’s fame might be transitory, his message will likely last: According to Diletti, “He put his name and face on them, but the ideas he expressed are part of Italian society.”

[thatonecontainerwithoutalid]

Thank you The Owl House. Thank you for everything.

I find it strangely fitting that an eclipse is happening on the first year anniversary of the last episode!

I cannot explain how much this series has impacted my life. How it has made me laugh and cry and smile so much. I did join in late on the party - started watching mid April to May of 2022, but even then it still holds a beyond special place in my heart.

The characters feel more real to me than they do in any other media I have consumed - even one with less screen time feel like a person. And that's part of what makes the whole series so lovable, that you can really connect with the characters! The weirdos are a found family I adore because you can so clearly see their progression from outcasted strangers to family. Same with the hexsquad!

The story is so engaging, the way they go about developing the characters and fighting Belos' rule kept me wanting to see what happened next. And after Kings Tide, when they end up in the human realm?? I was losing my shit. I hadn't had a story make me feel like that in a while.

This show revived my utter love of witches and magic; when I was 9, my dream was to be a witch, which was partly fueled by Little Witch Academia. Obviously that career isn't quite accessible to say the least, but it made me so happy designing my witchsona and pretending to cast spells. This show brought back some of that to me, and I can't say I haven't spent a good amount of time doodling glyphs!

When Watching and Dreaming released, I went into it thinking I wouldn't cry much. Not even 2 minutes in, I started sobbing and did not stop crying till 15 minutes AFTER I finished the episode. Many people have criticisms of the final episode, but to me, it is absolutely perfect.

Most of this was just rambles about some main things I love about this show; I could go into much more but I'll end it here. I plan to post some fanart later, but for now, thanks for reading and thank you once again, TOH.

[okiecookie20]

EXO Obsession theory - pt 2

Part 1 | Have a Xiumiñ first❣️

• Let's analyze the EXODEUX Trailer (I'll point out clues and try to decipher them!)

We see the phases of the moon. In some way this represents how half side is bright and the other dark (that could mean that EXO has to endure the fight since both parts are their own):

Crudely we understand that they have to remain in a state of balance to be the legends but RF has somehow disturbed this balance.

The trailer was released on 8 Nov '19. What if X-EXO came alive on the blood moon (total lunar eclipse)? The phenomenon had been observed sometime in Nov 1909, 1928, 2022. A solar eclipse is shown and then we see destruction. I'm confident that EXO regain powers from this as seen in Power, What is Love. And since X-EXO are their halves or smth they get powers too.

Exo Planet #4 - The EℓyXiOn vcr shows us how the exos were being chased by some unknown beings who had the same powers as them. Kai opened the portal doors and rescued them just in time. Now we know these beings were X-EXO.

Okay so first they show us what is the result of X-EXO's actions. We find that from 0:11 some member's dna turns black (at first I thought it faded and crumbled) and then Kāi is shown — it could be a hint that it's him who is corrupted as he also fades.

Then appears THE TREE OF LIFE?!! And a fire which renders it dry 😦(the mv seems to be set on exoplanet). We can see how the eye of the RF coveted the heart of the tree as was prophesied in MAMA intro.

Since we see Chanyeol's power directly harming it, I'm convinced what I discussed about him here might be true... Next we see a sandstorm and then booming thunder (Respective x-exo members shown in reverse order then)

I'm sure u must have noticed all this but from 0:32, something very interesting happens: a red drop is shown to separate from a source of water and it shines as it ascends. Suhø's (abs gjjdjd) shot is briefly interrupted by Baëkhyun - hmm.

Even in the photobooks, they have pics next to each other. This could mean that they're together in on smth. (Notice Suhø's hand on his throat, I'll discuss about this later in this post)

In the EXplOration Dot vcr, we find Baëkhyun looking at a screen. I'm pretty sure he is monitoring the other members. This leads to another theory of a binary between him and Suhø.

Back to EXODEUX, exo's powers prove to be very destructive since they've fallen into wrong hands. At 0:56 we see them facing a red celestial ball very much like our sun but creepy. Is this the eye of the RF? Another possibility is that it could be one of the two suns created as shown in Power intro because the legends separated into M & K. Once again we see Suhø and Baëkhyun facing each other:

We get a closer look at their eyes and all seem to have blue eyes:

Hold it! Chën has one blue eye and one dark brown!!! (he has red and white lashes too)

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A post shared by @exo.onearewe

The conclusion I make from these clues is that jongdae has learnt how to regain that balance we talked about. So my earlier assumption as discussed in part i might not be correct and it is Chen who has won the fight. At first Chën looks confident but slowly as the game progresses, it is Chen who becomes more confident - he put his feet on the table.

• Let's analyze the mv now. The first fight shown is of Baek and his evil counterpart in a match of fencing. We see that the audience is dark hooded figures with red eyes:

One thing I noticed is that when Baekhyun is shown alone, there are white lights turned on and the stands for the audience are empty. But when Baëkhyun is alone, the lights are off and some red lights glow overhead (cctv cams?).

Baëkhyun looked like he hurt himself in the fight (some people theorize he wears a face-chain to cover his wound):

I would safely assume that nobody won or lost the match. This is because both are seen facing each other even in the final shot of this set.

• Moving on to Sehun; he tries to aim arrows at his evil double Sehůn. We see how many times he has tried but missed his target. There is a similar blue target behind Sehun too:

In EXODEUX we look closely at the aesthetic of X-EXO's eyes and all of them have dark makeup or scars - all but Sehůn! His eyes are clean and pure from the influence of the RF.

In the teaser poster below, Sehůn (case 94) is the only one on whom the target is not locked!

He is never seen with his double and is trying to fake it and trick the RF!! While the other X-EXO mems look sinister/appear expressive, Sehůn seems unbothered.

He is the only member who has concept pics with a blue background. Furthermore, his nails are almost clean and not like the other X-EXO ppl.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @exo.onearewe

Sehun is also the only Exo member to appear in the EXODEUX Trailer at the end. All of this is too much of a coincidence and I believe he already fought his counterpart, won and has come to save EXO as we see in his mv remake (2014):

• Now let's talk about Suho's scenes. Suho is looking around in an art gallery full of pictures based on water and waves. He is suspended mid-air in the place but a new shot shows it is much more deeper than that both literally and figuratively: he is trapped underwater and his evil counterpart is the one trying to drown him.

Suhø is standing in water with 7 unknown hands reaching out to him - this could be a biblical reference to the seven deadly sins. Since the album was released in 2019, this is a nod to my fav group's 7th anniversary. Come to think of it he has red hair styled as devil's horns (junmyeon looks so perfect oml):

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A post shared by @exo.onearewe

A lot of us noticed that in the beginning, he is shown trying to control the members as if they are puppets (yeah well I've watched this mv in slow-mo many times)

At 1:55 we notice a choking Suhø (junmyeon confirmed this) - the imagery is very creepy. This is because if Suho drowns, his double would choke too.

Sehun shoots arrows at his evil counterpart and gets hurt himself.

The recurrent theme is that whichever side - the good or the evil one tries to harm the other, both suffer the same fate. Why? because they are halves of each other as we discussed in the beginning of this post.

Getting back to the mv, the planets start to align as this happens.

This is just like the narration in MAMA intro: ...The day the grounds beget a singe file before one sky...

The teaser posters have this "Warning" on them:

A messy world order Anomalies due to twisted orbits

Moving on, we find out how the X-EXO are nothing but agents and creation of the RF. Notice how the screen inside Suhø's head is very similar to the ones in and outside Chen's room.

•I'd like to talk about the red glowing marks on some of X-EXO ppl. Only Sehun's and Chanyeol's evil doubles do not glow. This could be another clue that Sehůn is good. The other X-EXO mems are corrupted. Instead Yeøl appears in inverted and oversaturated colors looking demonic.

• Another thing I noticed at around 3:06 of mv Jongdae and Suho sing this for the first time:

"The turned-on exit light" instead of "The turned-off exit light" as in chorus.

The ending shows a burning planet (initially I thought it was Earth but then I noticed it looked a bit different). SM confirmed it is "half of" exo Planet. Additionally it has a deep red glow ofc hinting this is because of the RF. There is still hope for exo to recover and defeat their enemies.

Thanks for reading!🍒 I'll probably make some compilation post for these theories.

[sunskate]

#11-22

Morozov/Chen: Star Wars - kinda glad they went with a more unusual choice. they do that same upside down lift that Zingas/Kolesnik are doing this season - a team at Next Gen are doing it too - idk what it is about the hive mind, but there are about 4 teams doing CPom’s spin position, too. but back to them - yes they’re gelling pretty quickly, but when you’re new the little places you’re not quite used to each other tend to show under pressure, and it felt like that happened in a couple places tonight

Robinson/Portz: Dance Me to the End of Time- they’re good at sustaining a mood and building emotion - some teams project out, they seem like they draw you in - she seems shy or a little guarded, but like being part of a team together still makes the performance personal

Pham/Spiridonov: cello tango (Nicholas Britell and Caitlin Sullivan - Cello Impromptu in f minor, Waltz Tango) another really good vehicle for them. beautiful assisted jumps. this makes me wonder what if he’d gone to IAM with Lorraine

Fournier/Zhu: Rocketman - their skating has progressed, and they’ve gelled further since last we saw them. have to give it to IAM - with as many teams as they have, i’m trying to think of a program that doesn’t look carefully considered and tailored to the team. they look like they love skating this

Dozzi/Papetti: Asaf Avidan - Between These Hands, Reckoning Song. kind of haunting - i felt like there’s a story i wasn’t quite understanding. want to see this again. he has such lovely carriage, and she has a soft quality which i can’t articulate properly but is part of why i like them so much - they do CPom’s spin too.

Hensen/Lickers: Firebird - i can’t tell you how excited i am - this is such an ambitious program. the opening is stunning and then big lift after big lift, ending with her perched on his shoulder as they spin 😮 they were running a little low on energy towards the end tonight, and the twizzles are very late in the program, but omg i can’t wait to watch them grow this - it’s choreographed beautifully to the music, and they picked the best parts

Ichilov/Kravchenko: Zorro - she’s another with a strong ballet/dance background. after Olivia and Adrian’s though, you notice the program isn’t as effective

Ritter/Brykalov: Francis Lai- Mayerling, Nicole Croiselle and Francis Lai - Where Did Our Summers Go. this is beautiful- they have a good connection, and i love how they’ve grown in assurance

Katarina DelCamp-Alalin/Bert Akalin: Dawn of Faith - Eternal Eclipse, Newborn- Elephant Music (OA soundtrack). i’m trying to picture her skating with Ian Somerville, who was her previous partner, when she comes across as a dancer who naturally relates to a partner and Ian really doesn’t

Shilling/Baeten: Celine - It’s All Coming Back to Me - what good timing when Celine’s having a moment- they’ve only been together since 2022, but i would have guessed it’s been longer from the way they fit

Roberts/Alis: CLANN - Her and the Sea, I Monster- Who is She - atmospheric sea shanty - they look like a different team than last season - they can’t have been training in Komoka more than 6 or 7 months, but seems like a good match

Palomeque/White: a new team representing Ecuador - expanding skating to new places is exciting 💕

[random2908]

I seem to have gained a ton of new followers, due to a physics post (!). So I guess I should put together a master-post of all my physics posts and maybe pin it. A couple things are listed in multiple categories. I’m sure I missed some posts, especially in the “physics news” category, but I think I got most of my big explanatory and philosophical posts. [NB: This is not primarily a physics blog, although I’m nearly always happy to talk about physics. This is an everything blog, but I just happen to be a physicist.]

physics news

black hole polarization

LIGO detection of gravitational waves

changing the definition of mass

atom laser announcement and list of related topics (short post)

what is fusion? and the 2022 NIF fusion energy result 

debunking of classical pilot waves

physics explanations

entropy 

entropy followup

entropy the short version

Bose-Einstein condensation

kitchen experiment! Rayleigh scattering to simulate daytime, sunset, and eclipses using milk and flashlights

states of matter

Emmy Noether’s law of symmetry (explanation not by me) 

sources of elements (explanation not by me)

how different types of medical imaging work

quantum mechanics in sci-fi, coherence, and Schrodinger’s cat

atom laser

what is fusion? and the 2022 NIF fusion energy result

double pendulum (comment on another post)

equivalence principle

a darkness flashlight

philosophy of science

second quantization (is light REALLY a particle?)

quantum interpretation as religion

many worlds (flippant)

skepticism

quantum interpretation and superdeterminism

conflicting definitions of “weight”

nothing, my first love

cautionary tale about extraordinary results

Planck constant

luminiferous ether is back on the table!

equivalence principle

blackbody radition and second quantization (silly convo with my brother)

skepticism 2, and string theory

quantum mechanics isn't causal and that's ok

brief musing on energy as topography

compatibility between science and religion

brief discussion of the paradox of verifying precision measurement

the full Planck length rant

if you pick the wrong approach for the type of physics you're asking about, you get the wrong answer to even seemingly dumb-simple questions like "where are you"

social stuff

worst lab safety anecdote

random anecdote of benevolent sexism at work

the social poison of being a physicist

the tolls of getting a PhD

musings on science funding vis-a-vis the military-industrial complex

rant about how science and math ARE part of the liberal arts 

tumblr search for the word “safety officer” on my blog to get mad science stories

overselling your work to get funding

artisanal science

[citadelofswords]

i’ve started my annual relisten of interstitial season one and i feel like i have been neglecting my duties as your dashboard’s resident actual play podcast liker so here. have a recommendation post.

Why You Should Listen To Interstitial: A Crossover Driven Actual Play Podcast

first of all: what am i talking about? well, interstitial is a tabletop game written by riley hopkins inspired by kingdom hearts. in riley’s own words, it is “a tabletop RPG about our connections with other people, the power we draw from those connections, and traveling to different worlds.” it’s a powered by the apocalypse game so if you’re familiar with dungeon world, monster of the week, or masks, you’ll pick it up pretty quickly. (you can get it on riley’s website or on itch.io!)

but this post is not about the game. this is about interstitial the crossover driven actual play podcast, which began as a patreon reward for the got it memorized? kingdom hearts recap podcast.

interstitial has three seasons and several bonus arcs to its name. you don’t need to listen to all the seasons in order for the others to make sense, but i still recommend you do. here is what the seasons are like:

season one, the original patreon reward season, is directly inspired by and linked to kingdom hearts, featuring keyblades, nobodies, and the funniest version of organization xiii you’ve ever heard. i will not spoil you for the characters or worlds visited in this season; i will simply tell you to listen to the first ten minutes of character creation and say that that just about sets the standard for the rest of the show. (all properties contained in this season are specifically disney owned which, as we know, is a very VERY wide umbrella.) by the way i listened to season one the first time while knowing nothing about kingdom hearts and i still understood most of it so don’t worry about that.

the door to darkness specials are one-shot specials released between seasons one and two. here are some things that happen in them: shego from kim possible norts archie andrews (touch of evil), riley fails so many rolls that tony hawk fades from existence completely (reality and other falsehoods), wheels plays bright eyes from the total eclipse of the heart music video (lonely souls), and in the 2 fast 2 furious special the party has to prevent matt hardy and problem sleuth from being norted.

season two, subtitled authority, breaks away from the disney property mantle. the protagonists are rescued fragments of destroyed worlds who are being shuffled from world to world while their worlds are being rebuilt. well, that’s the original conceit, anyway. i want you to also listen to this season’s character creation episode, if nothing else, because it is the PERFECT example of how to do character introductions through a framing device. also, there is a cyborg version of john cena being chased down by his version of vince mcmahon who has transcended this mortal coil and is now a gas cloud.

season three, subtitled proximity, was a surprise release at the beginning of 2022. it’s the heist season; the characters are part of a crew set up to just rob some motherfuckers blind. that’s an oversimplification. i cannot stress enough that season three is perfect in every fucking way. if you thought pidge voltron should have been canonically nonbinary, if you like john wick, if you like having two characters both named miles in the same room, if you like the abba song “the winner takes it all” you will love this season. it is only BARELY edged out by season one in my personal rankings because season one is my comfort show but who knows. i might revisit my rankings on my next relisten.

if you think the things i vaguely alluded to were buckwild, all i can say is, you’ve got a big storm coming.

each season is about sixteen episodes a piece, and each episode is about an hour long, so it’s very easily digestible. the episodes are absolutely hilarious and poignant in turn, everyone is a joy to listen to both in and out of character, and you can tell they’re all just having an absolute blast.

you can find interstitial on your podcast app of choice: spotify, apple podcasts, etcetera. please listen to it. and maybe if you like it post about it a little bit!

(please note this post is not sponsored by or endorsed by interstitial or riley themself i just love this show and want to share it with people so here i am)

[khaopybara]

hi!! what are your wishes for gmmtv part 2??? :)

hi anon! funny you ask this bc i started filling my bingo card as soon as i saw the news that part two will (possibly) happen two tuesdays from now. this got too long, so i put it under read more.

for starters, of course, firstkhaotung's new series. this is what i'm looking forward the most since they fooled us during part 1. i really need to see them getting on that stage to announce a series instead of school rangers. mafia or romcom or mafia romcom, i don't care. i know they can pull it off whatever they give them (though i hope they finally graduate, or at least don't make them high schoolers again. i'm sorry, i'm not on the the eclipse s2 bandwagon).

still in the fk area, i'm hoping they'll get solo acting projects, too. give them all the acting gigs. make first tay tawan's brother, let khaotung act with his beloved p'gun!

i'm hoping for more gls, foolishly. i saw on twitter, i think, that chaoplanoy (who wrote gap) rted the date that part 2 will happen soon and apparently gmm has the rights of one of her novels (us) since 2022? so maybe that's finally coming.

i really just wanna see more gmm girls getting the spotlight bc i don't think we appreciate them enough, but they are like good good! so fingers crossed that maybe, at least two more gls will come out this year (bc i'm gready).

also, i'm now a devote of the words of viewjune. their chemistry is amazing and their acting is also so good (i talked before about how view has blown me away with aylin), so genuinely, i hope we get another show with them as protagonists.

i really need force to portray a character like akk from enchante again, so maybe another forcebook romcom (i think they excel in that genre, it fits both force and book so well).

i'm hoping for another earthmix series, too, since mix is finishing school soon, but who knows really.

now, this isn't exactly a wish, but apparently mark finished filming the mock trailer of the series he's going to be the protagonist of, and many people think that's the beginning of the markohm era (?) so i hope that's true and he's not just teasing us. mark surprised me a lot in last twilight (the one person i didn't get angry at in that show), so i'll take everything they give us with him.

so long story short, anon (sorry about that), fk's series + solo acting projects for them both, more gls, forcebook romcom, more gls, viewjune mains in a series, more gls, earthmix, more gls.

thank you for asking, btw. it's the first time anyone has asked me anything of the sorts (you can see i got a little excited hence the length of this answer), so i was glad externalizing my wishes.

[themagikmirror]

🩵🧿🌕 ECLIPSE EVENTS . . .

My throat chakra singing bowl broke today! 🥹 Literally RIP! You can see me using it in videos Ive created over the past 4/5 months. It’s bittersweet b/c although this happened, it’s simultaneously a sign that Ive completed work I needed to do here. This piece was expensive & tuned to 432 Hz! I loved working w it b/c it literally checked your communication & headspace in general so quickly. When i used it I noticed immediate changes! I am grateful for my personal growth & this signal given to me during Eclipse time. Especially with the Eclipse being in Sidereal Virgo, a sign ruled by Mercury - A planet operating heavily in the realm of the Throat Chakra (communication). Working on my throat chakra extensively happened 2022-2024. Ive shared that process and journey publicly as much as I could to inspire others to do the same as it was a part of a spiritual agenda God revealed would elevate our lives. This bowl was helpful, but here’s the gag : most of the healing I did on my throat chakra came from standing & speaking up for myself. Saying no. Asking for help and stop being afraid to say my truth, even if someone doesnt want to hear it. It wasnt an herb, a sound bowl, spell…

I use as many tools as I can, but as a spirit worker it’s my job to tell you guys the truth : the work you have to do cant be avoided through magical tools & aids. It can be assisted & elevated, but you still must make the changes necessary to evolve and heal. Contrary to what it may seem like online, Im very cautious when it comes to what I speak on & how I speak. S/o to my Libra Moon & Virgo Mars. Although this is such a gift, when I must speak on harsh realities and pain.. sometimes I cannot find the words. In times of stress, grief, anxiety and darkness I often lose my voice. This is a response to the childhood trauma of being silenced. As an adult Ive learned my voice is critical to my health & wellness as well as in breaking negative cycles & juju around me. On my most recent video I introduced the Third Eye chakra as the focus of 2024’s healing work. This here is just further confirmation that it's time to move on!

[hils79]

2023 Dramas Watched

I watched a lot of dramas last year, but not as many as I did in 2022. It was mostly a good bunch, which is generally why my to watch list is mostly things people have recommended to me (or I've seen gifs on Tumblr that look revlevant to my interests.

I'll put the list under a cut. It's mostly for my reference anyway

1. Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama - My housemate wanted to watch this because Michael Sheen is in it. I don't even have that excuse, although it's always nice to see him in things. IDK I wasn't obsessively following the court case when it happened, but my boss kept giving us updates because she found it highly entertaining. I think it was just something silly to focus on to distract us all from the shit that's going on in the world. Anyway, the cast were great and it was highly entertaining. I don't think we were supposed to laugh as much as we did but it was kind of ridiculous.

2. Ghost Doctor - This is one I've been group watching with friends over the past few months. It was a lot of fun. A rather silly concept (brilliant surgeon is in a coma after an accident and haunts the hospital where his body is) with a surprising amount of heart to it. I enjoyed it.

3. Dragon Age: Absolution - I loved this! I don't know how well this would stand up if you haven't played the games. It's mostly a stand alone story with a few nods to previous canon. I, however, have played the games and they are pretty much my favourite game franchsise. So, yep, this was great. Very much in the vein of the games. Everyone is gay and it's delightful.

4. The Eclipse - This was okay. It was in a similar vein as Not Me in terms of being a BL drama about social justice, but it lacked the maturity and tight storyline that Not Me had. The two main leads were both excellent it just lost its way a bit towards the end. Still very enjoyable.

5. Welcome to Chippendales - Honestly this show wasn't even on my radar until Jacqui was looking for something to watch and saw it on Disney+. She told me she'd watched a documentary about the founder of Chippendales a while back and gave me a brief synopsis. It was such a wild story that I had to watch this. It was really good! The cast did a phenomenal job

6. About Youth - I'd had this recced to me a while back so when my Saturday group watch gang suggested we watch it I was all in. It was great! Incredibly sweet, occasionally heartbreaking. We all really enjoyed it.

7. Hotel del Luna - I enjoyed this a lot even though I cried WAY more than I was expecting to. I thought it was going to be a wacky comedy about ghosts, and there are lots of funny bits, but there's also a lot about death, grief and making peace with your life. I think I cried at least once in just about every episode. Do rec though. It was good.

8. Roommates of Poongduck 304 - This is one I started group watching before Christmas with some friends and never got around to finishing. It was cute. Nothing amazing, and not one I'd particularly want to watch again but it was fine.

9. Choco Milk Shake - I did enjoy this. It was very cute and funny in places. It was also WAY sadder than I was expecting and I ended up crying a lot. I wish they'd spent a little more time explaining the mechanics of everything (basic premise is a guy's childhood dog and cat come back in human form because he's lonely) and the ending was a little bittersweet. But overall I think I did enjoy it.

10. The Blood of Youth - I absolutely loved this! It had a lot of of the classic wuxia tropes in it, but an interesting enough story that I was hooked. The cast were great, the characters all had fantastic chemistry. I definitely want to check out some of the other dramas the lead has done because he was great.

11. Until We Meet Again - This has been on my to watch list more or less since I started watching East Asian dramas back in 2020. I've been avoiding it because it deals with some quite heavy topics (the premise is two male lovers in the 80s take their own lives because their fathers disapprove of their relationship and in present day they meet again having been reincarnated into two students at the same college) but I'm glad I bit the bullet and finally watched it. It was very sweet, and was all about healing and forgiveness. I liked it a lot. I think Not Me still holds the top spot for my favourite Thai drama but this is a close second

12. The Guest - I really wasn't sure about this one when I watch the first episode. I don't mind TV horror generally but the first episode was a lot and I had to mute it a couple of times because it was freaking me out. Luckily they toned it down a fair amount after that and the rest of it was fantastic! Really enjoyed it. Definitely one of the better dramas that I've watched this year so far. If you're looking for a k-drama that's in the same vein as The Exorcist/The Omen/Supernatural then you'll like this one.

13. Overworking Man - This was a genuinely pleasant surprise. I watched it because the lead is one of my tomb show actors and I had pretty low expectations. I was expecting some sort of cringe sitcom in the same vein as The Office. What I got was a bonkers little web drama full of queer subtext where there's actual character development and life lessons. I really enjoyed it!

14. Midnight Museum - This was a very odd little drama. It was made by GMM who makes a lot of my favourite BL dramas. This one is not a BL, but it uses all of the BL tropes. The two male leads keep talking about how they want to be together forever and they keep risking their lives to save each other. I guess as bros? It starts off as a horror drama (premise is a barista ends up getting a job at a museum that houses cursed objects, which then get stolen, and they have to recover them all) but then halfway through it turns into this weird religious cult thing where they examine the nature of free will vs God's plan. I think I enjoyed it? But it was definitely a bit weird.

15. Cupid's Last Wish - I've been group watching this with some friends over the past couple of months. I enjoyed both leads in A Tale of 1000 Stars which I watched last year. They were good in this too but the story didn't hit quite as hard. It was fine but the ending felt rushed and anticlimactic

16. Sell Your Haunted House - This was really fun. It reminded me a bit of Buffy just in terms of general vibes and ass-kicking female lead. There were some genuinely surprising plot twists and I had a blast watching it

17. Ghost Host, Ghost House - This had a nice twist to it that I didn't figure out until I was partway through. It was cute and interesting.

18. Stupid Boys, Stupid Love - This was cute. I haven't watched much Vietnamese TV and this was very diverse even for a BL drama. There were gay boys, gay girls, height differences (the tall biker girl and her small nerd boyfriend were my favourites), butch women, femme women, bisexuals. The characters were young and, as the title suggests, pretty stupid. But overall it was cute and fun and it was only an hour long in total

19. A League of Nobleman - This was fun. It was quite silly, buckets of queer subtext and some political intrigue thrown in for good measure. It wasn't particularly deep or heavy going but I enjoyed it a lot.

20. Between Us - This is a spinoff/sequel to Until We Meet again. It was very sweet, and I enjoyed my favourite character from UWMA being the main role in this. Didn't quite have the same emotional impact as UWMA but I very much enjoyed it

21. Reset - Finished this while I was at the treehouse last month. It was one we had been group watching and it was nice to get to finish it in person. It was an interesting drama. A lot of unexpected twists which I liked, and a timeloop story is always fun

22. Our Dining Table - Absolutely one of my favourite things that I have watched this year. It was so sweet and soft. Usually I'm not a fan of kidfic but this was really lovely and the kid in question was adorable

23. Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 - I was a bit dubious when I heard they were doing a sequel to Tale of the Nine-Tailed but it was perfect. Time travel shenanigans, an awesome woman with a huge sword, brotherly bonding, an OT3 polycule. I had a great time.

24. The Eighth Sense - I liked parts of it. The main couple were cute, the two best friends were awesome. I did not care for the unnecessarily bitchy ex-girlfriend and her best friend who was equally awful. It went a little two hard on the 'everyone must have a happy ending' idea so a bunch of characters ended up getting apologised to who really didn't deserve it

25. Popular Indie Creator Nekoyashiki is Making His Yearning for Approval Worse - This was kind of weird, but also really fun. Everyone was so extra and dramatic but that just tied into the comic themes. I actually really enjoyed it.

26. The King's Avatar - This one got recommended to me literally years ago. Right back when I first started watching Chinese dramas and asked for recs. I definitely should have watched it sooner I absolutely adored it. Like I want to write fic levels of adored it. It had such a good group of characters, found family feels all over the place and was just generally soft and lovely.

27. My School President - A very sweet high school BL drama. I wasn't massively emotionally invtested in it but I enjoyed it

28. Love Tractor - Absolutely adorable! It's just very soft and I enjoyed this so much I watched it a second time so I could show it to one of my friends

29. The Director Who Buys Me Dinner - Got to love a drama where the premise is 'if we don't date you will die'. It was funny, but also kind of heavy with one of the protagonists being immortal and the the other being a reincarnation of his dead lover.

30. Oh No! Here Comes Trouble - I don't watch a lot of Taiwanese dramas but this was fantastic! Really funny, also really tragic, and full of really interesting folklore. I loved it!

31. Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Hands down one of my favourite dramas of this year. I keep toying with wanting to write fic for it but I haven't quite got there yet. I loved the cast, I loved the story. I was wonderful.

32. Moonlight Chicken - I really enjoyed that this was a BL drama about actual adults instead of the usual ones about high school or college students. I'd seen the two leads in a couple of other dramas and I really enjoyed them in this too

33. Goblin - This is one of those dramas that gets recommended to me all the time so I finally sat down and watched it. I enjoyed it, but probably not my favourite. I think the whole 'immortal being falls in love with high school student' would have resonated with me more in my Buffy fandom days.

34. Cross Fire - Apparently this year is the year I watch all the esports dramas. This was nothing at all like what I expected. It had loads of twists that I didn't see coming and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

35. Our Flag Means Death S2 - Loved it. Just what I wanted from a second series. No notes.

36. Good Omens S2 - It was fine. I enjoyed it. It's not one of those dramas that I go feral for but the two leads are fun and it had some nice surprises.

37. He's Coming to Me - A very sweet BL that doesn't entirely resolve the fact that one of the protagonists is dead but it's left with an openly hopeful ending.

38. Stay By My Side - Another sweet ghost related story but both protagonists are alive in this one. One of them can hear ghosts, and the voices only go away if he touches his roommate. Feelings happen. It's adorable.

39. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon - I think I expected to enjoy this more than I did, but I think my disatisfaction comes from me wanting the drama to be resolved with an OT3. Instead there was just a lot of queer baiting where the two men almost kissed but they were drunk so no homo.

40. Fairyland Lovers - I was way more invested in the side couple than I was in the main storyline. The main couple really didn't interest me at all even though one of them was Bai Yu.

[flootweed]

Top 10 BL Shows of 2022

I posted a lil mini review of all of the 2022 BLs I watched this year but I wanted to infodump about my favorites more. I'm counting shows that started airing in 2021 but ended airing in 2022 as 2022 shows (sorry I need to talk about Not Me & Bad Buddy).

First, though, I wanted to highlight some (dis)honorable mentions, aka shows that are objectively mediocre but I love anyway. Love Mechanics has a wild soap opera plot, but YinWar really make you feel for their characters with their incredible acting and chemistry. Also, I'm in love with War sorry he's just too beautiful. Coffee Melody was watched by 7 people and those that did watch it tend to call it boring. I had no idea this show existed until my recent obsession with the actor Benz led me to watching every show he has starred in (speaking of which... Call It What You Want 😨). The main leads had zero sexual chemistry but the romantic chemistry was SO GOOD. Some of the best flirting I've seen in a BL. The side couple was also amazing. The script was great at one moment and mindboggling at another; I actually skipped most of the C plot stuff about the music company. It's not high art but it's cute and sometimes that is enough. Secret Crush On You was a mess but it was my mess okay. Cringe culture is dead and this show is fucking fun. The mere existence of Daisy as a character puts this show leagues ahead of many others in terms of queer rep. More femme queers in BL please !! The writing is... not the best but BillySeng did the best they could with what they were given. I'm glad they have been getting more work.

10: The Eclipse

I am very picky with shows set in high school but this is a high school set BL that acts as an allegory for political protest in Thailand as a whole. Obviously I fucking loved it. I'm honestly surprised its not higher on my list but I felt myself losing interest towards the end of the show. It just didn't stick with me like I thought it would. I still appreciate it what it had to say as a social commentary, though. It was interesting how it showed the different ways in which people cope with their marginalization. First and Kaotung did great in their roles I love them (though I feel bad because I will always prefer First as Yok).

9: My Only 12%

I have always loved Cooheart but Santa really impressed me in this show. The story itself was a bit slow but SantaEarth kept it from being boring because they really sold the relationship with their chemistry. Looking back on the show though it doesn't really feel like a romance but more of Eiw's coming of age story. The ending also had some issues; they decided to turn the show into an anti-smoking psa at the end so thats fun. Some story threads were dropped and some were completely unnecessary (the siblings). Overall, still very good though.

8: Ghost Host Ghost House

This show was tragic and heartwarming. Such a charming story about grief and love and the effect we have on one another. Seenam and her story fucking broke me. Like I was in pieces, tears and snot running down my face. On a lighter note, congrats to Pluem and Kawin for winning the award for best intimate scene of the year (yes better than cutie pie and lita and kp). They had absolutely fantastic chemistry. Also I wasn't mad at the time skip at the end, you could tell how much they had matured in their time apart.

This show was delightful and I loved it but it is lower on the list because there were so many filming issues. Also I got very annoyed with the script sometimes because very important scenes would happen off screen and the we would just be told about it. Most of the problems I had with it were probably due to budget issues which is really unfortunate.

7: To My Star 2

This. Show. I actually wasn't a super big fan of To My Star. I liked it but I wasn't obsessed with it like some people. It was just lacking a little something. And apparently the thing it was lacking was angst because I absolutely loved the second season. The emotions, the drama, the intimacy, the longing. UGH so good. The loneliness was so visceral I cried twice. Everything about it was just so well done and I felt like I finally understand these characters.

6: Bad Buddy

From here on every show is a 10/10.

The love story of the ages. There's really not much more I can say that basically sums it up. Ohm and Nanon are absolute legends. Also, I will always love this show for giving us milklove. This show occupied my every waking moment while it was airing, like it was an issue. I love how we can already see new shows taking influence from Bad Buddy, its what she deserves.

5: Blueming

Oh Blueming. Oh this darling show. Its so pretty and so painful. The mom scene makes me cry every time, it just hits too close to home. Siwon my darling child. Daun was at risk of being a manic pixie dream boy but the ending came in clutch and showed he actually had flaws and complex feelings we love that. The show itself had the same vibes of the queer indie films I would watch as a baby gay back in the day. The back-lit love scene was just gorgeous the way they just flowed back and forth from one another. Such a beautiful physicality.

4: 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us

This is not a romance. Yet it has some of the best romantic and sexual chemistry of the year. Between two people who never even allowed themselves to touch each other. LIKE WHAT !!!??!!! This show is a literal masterpiece. The way it is written and shot is breathtaking; it feels like more of a stage play than a tv show. I just had a constant stream of tears for the entirety of the last episode. I still get so mad when people misinterpret this show or get mad that they don't kiss or it doesn't have a "happy" ending. Wang's actor was absolutely phenomenal I can't wait to see what he does in the future. This could honestly be even higher on my list but its not a romance so I don't really classify it as a BL.

3: Semantic Error

Sometimes you watch an autistic person and a person with adhd fall in love and it is one of the best things you've ever seen.

This is the definition of a well crafted show. I noticed this especially on my second watch; the script is just so tight. Well written, well shot, well acted. It was such a moment, like it literally singlehandedly saved the music career of Jaechan and his bandmates. I prefer my shows with a bit more grit, which is why it doesn't get the top slot but it is just so well done that it just had to be in the top 3.

2: Not Me

In contrast, this show is not perfect but has the grit I love. You could tell there were story threads that were dropped in the middle of the show and narrative threads that weren't followed through with. Yet this show is still god tier. I'm sorry but a show about a gang of gay anti-capitalists deserves all of my praise, even if the script is shaky at times.

Yok is my one true love, the light of my life, my favorite character of all time. First was so good as this character but Gun was definitely the standout actor in this series. Gun is an absolute powerhouse and he really showed his chops in Not Me.

I doubt this is the first time gay marriage is brought up in a BL but I feel like Not Me is really a turning point in allowing BL to be more explicitly political and queer. This show literally changed the game.

1: Triage !!!

Its a medical drama, its a time travel sci-fi, its an (almost) tragic romance. What more could you want. I try not to expect much from BLs with high concepts like this but damn this show blew me away. It takes a lot for me to have a strong emotional reaction to a show and yet I violently sobbed at least three separate times while watching this. Never has a show destroyed me so much emotionally. And it pains me every day that more people have not seen this show, though its understandable bc its so hard to watch for international fans (god bless dramacool). I highly HIGHLY recommend everyone try to get their hands on this show.

[snarkywrites]

Horoscopes for the week of November 6th through November 12th, 2022

Sunday Horoscopes for the week of November 6th through November 12th, 2022. Check your rising, sun, and moon signs.

Aries: The week kicks off with the Moon in your sign for a few days. You feel energized to get back and work on something you might have put off. Your passions are rekindled, so pursue what brings you happiness. Stay focused, dream big, and stay patient.

Taurus: You are prepared to see how this upcoming Full Moon in your sign will impact you. Cycles are closing up as you reflect on your successes this week. It is a time to take things easier and rekindle what your body and mind need. Go slow if necessary.

Gemini: With the eclipse season in full effect, this week is all about recharging and looking ahead. The Moon will be in your sign later this week, giving you the momentum you desire to take action and initiate new plans.

Cancer: You could feel enthusiastic this week to reconnect with friends and family. You are all about succeeding and letting others know how good you are at what you do. During this period, you could be determined to set new objectives or reflect on your achievements.

Leo: With the Moon in fiery Aries earlier this week, you feel the energy bring you some much-needed momentum. You will feel more connected to your goals as the week progresses while the Full Moon has you focus on career goals.

Virgo: You may feel motivated towards the beginning of the week as we all experience the Full Moon energy. With Jupiter aspecting your sign, you could connect to a passion or start on a new project.

Libra:  There is a lot of evolving and transformation happening for you beginning this week as the Full Moon activates your power. It is a period to believe and fight for what you want.

Scorpio: There are many planets in your sign this week as they will be further activated by this Full Moon. You are in the zone, reflecting, planning, and feeling more in your element. Use this week to bring healing energy to past and present relationships.

Sagittarius: It is a time of mental stimulation and hope. Look into something you’ve wanted to complete regarding a project and begin planning. The inspiration is there, but you might lack structure.

Capricorn: This week will bring about exciting creative energy. You are ready to focus and get things done. There could be periods of reflection as you could use your own experiences to pen your new project, especially if you've lacked a creative push.

Aquarius: There is a need to relax and stay close to home during this week’s transit. The Moon enters Aries earlier in the week, making you more comfortable with self-expression. The Full Moon in Taurus will help bring grounding and confidence into you later this week.

Pisces: There is a focus on you with this week’s transits and on how comfortable you feel with your self-expression. You could be motivated to learn something new, reflect or set some creative goals that will push you ahead.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Scorpio Cross-Quarter Day

(Or, what happens when the only thing Ms M has ingested in the past couple of days, is “maximum strength severe cold” medicine.)

First, the definition: the “Scorpio cross-quarter day” happens when the transiting Sun reaches 15° Scorpio - which it did today, November 7, 2022, at 10:46 UT. From the purely astrological standpoint, today is the first day of Samhain (up here) or Beltane (down there).

I can’t speak for Southern Hemisphere folks, when the furthest south I’ve ever been is San Diego - 🤣🤣 - but, up here, all of a sudden autumn isn’t so fun any more. The beautiful fall foliage has faded, Halloween is past and gone, we don’t have a whole lot of daylight to work with (and that amount shrinks every day) - and perhaps worst of all, the enforced capitalist consumer gaiety of The Holidays is fast approaching. Ugh.

(Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony, end of the last movement - per the composer, it is hitting you over the head with “your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.”)

Facing up to so many unpleasant realities, Scorpio says, “Yeah, baby, bring it on.” This year it’s particularly fraught because the C-Q day just happens to fall on the eve of a ridiculously powerful Full Moon lunar eclipse. There is overwhelming fixed energy right now. Including my usual Lady Asteroids we have:

Cardinal: Pallas Athene/Cancer, Chiron Rx/Aries, Pluto/Capricorn, Eris/Aries

Fixed: Sun/Scorpio, Moon/Taurus, Mercury/Scorpio, Venus/Scorpio, Vesta/Aquarius, Saturn/Aquarius, Uranus/Taurus

Mutable: Mars Rx/Gemini, Ceres/Virgo, Juno/Pisces, Jupiter Rx/Pisces, Neptune Rx/Pisces

Not much fire either, is there. If you’re feeling stuck and hopeless, well, there’s why!

Lunar eclipses, we are told, tend to “take things away” in order to make room for what the New Moon solar eclipse wants to happen. (I know what I want to happen, anyway.) Heaven knows some of us need a little push to get rid of the stuff we don’t need any more, or even to make room for something new. We may not enjoy this push, but here it is - deal with it. Might take some time for the dust to settle, too - like, the rest of the calendar year.

Based only on what the transiting planets are up to, we have about nine days left to endure this fixed doom and gloom. Venus enters Sagittarius on November 16, with Mercury following about 26 hours later. That alone will be a tremendous relief! Vesta enters Pisces on November 20, and the Sun enters Sagittarius on November 22 - and then there’s a whopping Sagittarius New Moon on the 23rd, happening five whole minutes before Jupiter stations direct. Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes! All of a sudden the emphasis switches to mutable signs. Whatever rubble we have to contend with, we suddenly get some great new ideas about how to (1) cope or (2) get rid of it altogether.

I doubt we’ll actually get going on anything before the Capricorn Solstice - we need that Cardinal energy to get us off to the best start.

There’s this fairly notorious quote by Mick Jagger, uttered after an ill-advised foray into acting - approximately, it goes: “Well, that was a load of shit. And all you can do afterwards is promise yourself never to do it again!”

So whatever load of shit you’ve found yourself in - it’s only shit; this too shall pass!!! Ground and center, breathe, and reach out for the changes on the horizon.

[elminx]

Energy Update: February 2023

February is a "9" universal month [2 (February) + 7 (2023) = 9] in a "7" universal year. The number 9 represents transitions and endings - it encapsulates the idea that "what comes around, goes around": as we finish something, we prepare ourselves to start something new. Nine is a reminder that we need to let go of what no longer serves us to make room for the new. This numerological energy is somewhat out of alignment with the astrological energy of February which is all about (finally) accessing forward progress as we have no planets in retrograde motion for the next three months. This is an indication that for many of us, the work to release the past isn't quite done yet.

The Set Up

We begin the month with our Sun and Saturn in Aquarius, Mercury playing catch-up in Capricorn along with Pluto, Venus and Neptune in Pisces, Mars playing catch-up in Gemini, Jupiter in Aries, and Uranus in Taurus. By the end of the month, the Sun will have moved into Pisces, Mercury into Aquarius, and Venus into Aries. All planets will be in direct motion all month long.

The Nitty Gritty February is going to start out with a bang that may or may not seem fun to you depending on what is going on in your life and how you process conflict. The full moon in Leo will reach its peak on Sunday 2/5 so it may feel a bit like the week of 1/30-2/5 just keeps building and building. There's sure to be a lot of tension in the air. All of the four days prior have intense pricky aspects in play that will all weave together to be brought to a head by egotistical Leo. I say this with all of the fondness in the world (I am a cat lover after all). But anybody who has even met a Leo should know that the Leo full moon of the year is the mooniest of all the moons, or, at least, that's what they would like you to believe. This is the kind of moon that might make you want to throw a party but, to be sure, it's also the kind that will make you want to cry if you want to. Though the Sun sextiles Chiron exactly on 2/1, the Wounded Healer will be very much in play all week long which means that all of our long-standing wounds will be lying close to the surface. Additionally, people aren't going to be getting along - Venus in Pisces will be square to Mars in Gemini whose still caught in his own post-retrograde shadow.

Somebody's not telling the truth.

That part is probably okay; Venus in Pisces lives for the lies and Mars in Gemini wants to see how much he can get away with. Despite the square, these two signs are not that dissimilar from one another. The conflict is a ruse but it's unlikely that anybody will realize that they are fighting about nothing.

Additionally, the Sun and Moon will make a t-square to Uranus who is sitting in the middle of Taurus. This is a week to fuck around and find out - Venus is also sextile to our North Node and the north node plus lunar energy will reactivate our eclipse energy. When we experienced our last set of eclipses, the Sun and Moon were in aspect with Uranus just like the Sun and Moon will be square to Uranus now. Things are going to be volatile.

All bets are off. Some people's lives will be changed. If you don't want that to be you, lay low during the first week of February leading into this upcoming full moon. But if you are ready to go: Go. Just remember to duck and watch your back, Uranus in Taurus is a natural disaster waiting to happen. This Sun-Moon-Uranus t-square is going to activate that Saturn-Uranus square energy that we experienced four times in 2021 and 2022. There's still a lot of energy pent up from the vice that Saturn square Uranus had our world in. Now, finally, it can move forward. Saturn is now far away from Uranus (almost out of Aquarius altogether, that'll happen in March) and we have three months ahead of us with every planet in our solar system in forward motion.

The time is now. (it always is but it really really is, I promise) If the first week of February was about the full moon and our out-of-season eclipse energy, the second week is all about Mercury who is lagging far behind the Sun and Venus as it finishes off its post-retrograde shadow in Capricorn. On Monday 2/6, Mercury will sextile Neptune in Pisces for the third and final time before exiting its shadow on 2/7 and finally meeting up in conjunction with Pluto on Friday 2/10. This is a reunion of old friends- 2022 began with both Mercury and Venus retrograde in a butterfly pattern around Pluto in Capricorn. Whatever has happened since that first Mercury retrograde of 2022, its cycle completes now. Mercury enters Aquarius on Saturday, 2/11. Planetary ingresses always tend to shift energy but this change will likely be even more palpable than normal. Expect people to get chattier for a week as both the Sun and Mercury share the same sign but the sun moves on into Pisces on Saturday 1/18. The third week of February looks to be a bit challenging as the Sun meets up with Saturn in late Aquarius, Venus meets up with Neptune in Pisces, and Mercury activates the lunar nodes. There's a reconning to be had here, but Venus in Pisces has a delicate temperament and may not want to look at the truth. Beware of putting your head in the sand to avoid seeing the truth. Mercury is playing well in sextile to Jupiter so things could work out for you, but you will need to go in with eyes wide open.

This is a week when you may need to pay the piper, whatever that means for you. The new moon on Monday 2/20 shows that the waters of Pisces are going to rise fast. There's pain in the air (Mercury sextile Chiron) but Venus is blazing on ahead into Aries and still not looking. This moon is going to be moody AF. Bring some tissues or maybe a mop. Everybody's gonna get wet. Tuesday 2/21 is a good day for pathworking or trying to beat the odds as Mercury in Aquarius squares off against Uranus in Taurus. Well, a good day if you like a game of chance, anyway. Good luck is not guaranteed. Sometimes that's the point. The rest of the week is soft and squishy as it always is when only the moon makes aspects with the personal planets. Don't expect to get a lot done this week, or perhaps, not a lot done easily. The Sun will make a sextile to the North node on Saturday 2/25, it could be a hint of what's to come if you are open to that sort of possibility. The end of February just fades away like a dream that you can't quite remember.

The Details

2/1 - Sun in Aquarius sextile Chiron in Aries 2/2 - Venus in Pisces sextile North Node in Taurus 2/3 - Sun in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus 2/4 - Venus in Pisces square Mars in Gemini 2/5 - Full moon 16° Leo 2/6 - Mercury in Capricorn sextile Neptune in Pisces 2/7 - Mercury exits its post-retrograde shadow at 24° Capricorn 2/8 - Venus in Pisces sextile Uranus in Taurus 2/10 - Mercury conjunct Pluto 28° Capricorn 2/11 - Mercury enters Aquarius, Mars in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries 2/15 - Venus conjunct Neptune 24° Pisces 2/16 - Sun conjunct Saturn 27° Aquarius, Mercury in Aquarius square North Node in Taurus 2/17 - Mercury in Aquarius sextile Jupiter in Aries 2/18 - Sun enters Pisces 2/19 - Venus in Pisces sextile Pluto in Capricorn 2/20 - New moon 01 °Pisces, Venus enters Aries, Mercury in Aquarius sextile Chiron in Aries 2/21 - Mercury in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus 2/22 - Mercury in Aquarius trine Mars in Gemini 2/25 - Sun in Pisces sextile North Node in Taurus

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