#it is one of the more interesting scifi eps of the season

[mai-komagata]

more charades meta

i don't think people talk about charades (snw s2e5) being about neurodivergence and masking, and I think that is an interesting angle to think about this episode. I think a lot is made about it being an analogy for culture or race or religion, but I think it fits better as an analogy for neurological difference (and here i mean truly difference without connotation of better or worse). What I see this episode saying is that being vulcan is not just a culture, but it is a different neurology and the culture arose to accommodate different neurological needs. Much like in autism, you react to sensory stimuli differently, you show your emotions differently, you process information differently. Of course there is vulcan culture, but it is a culture that evolved to suit the neurological characteristics of vulcans. they find certain flavors too intense/unpalatable, they tolerate temperature differences (especially heat) more easily, they are more empathetic/emotional thus they see displays of emotional as more uncomfortable/unsettling for social cohesion, and express emotional connections via telepathy. That doesn't mean there isn't individual variation (we get the least cookie cutter vulcan array ever here, from t'pring's mom, t'pring, and her dad, as well as spock), and that people can't be charming or jerks, but that the neurological assumptions are fundamentally different. The thing is, someone with a human neurology can mask and assimilate into vulcan culture. But masking isn't innate. And you don't just "know how to mask" if you have been living in a culture the whole time, because you didn't need to do it if you are neurotypical. I know autistic people that can break down the nuance of a social interaction into a numbered list to explain it to someone (just like an actor can break down an accent they want to affect), while a neurotypical person wouldn't know the first thing about how to express what they do in a social situation -- they just do it. Amanda is the ideal person to teach spock this vs a vulcan because she does this every day. And it is a hard thing for her to do, not because she is a human, but because adapting in this way is draining and painful. There are so many neurodivergent people that live with sensory overload the same way amanda picked up the teapot, without complaint, because yelling in pain from sensory overload was taught to us as rude and punishable. And i love the scenes with Spock and Chapel in this episode (irrespective of the ship) because it shows that "curing" someone's neurology would be undesirable, even if they become more neurotypical to you. They would be a different person. Also that to a certain degree spock is on a spectrum between a human and vulcan neurology. Some things that are vulcan patterns of interaction come naturally to him, but some of his human characteristics he actively has to mask in that society. And same when he is in human society, he affects laughter cues, emotiveness, etc. I do find it interesting with Akiva Goldsman's background (parents being clinical psychologists, him writing A Beautiful mind), this would be a direction he would want to take in looking at characters, and to use storytelling as a way to express their neurology in different ways. I know everyone on tumblr hates this episode, but I do think it is one of the most fascinating ones from a scifi perspective, illustrative of both in universe traits of "what does it mean to be a vulcan", but of real world thought exercises. (also one of the best new aliens in the series, some non-corporeal bureaucratic jerks).

[booasaur]

Any new upcoming series with w/w?

Lol, I had a whole answer typed up and almost completed last night, I could only remember a few upcoming shows but added a bunch of ongoing and recent with descriptions and then the post editor hiccuped and removed most of it so I angrily went to sleep instead.

But maybe that was for the best, because this morning a video of upcoming f/f shows in April came out so now I can add a few more.

There's Dead Ringers, that show with Rachel Weisz playing twin gynecologists and since it's a genderbent adaptation of an existing movie we already know it's gonna be super messy. It would be pretty wild for Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies to not have some wlw and luckily it does, the trailer itself reveals a couple. Tiny Beautiful Things, with Kathryn Hahn and Sarah Pidgeon (Leah in The Wilds) playing her younger self, apparently Kathryn Hahn's character's daughter is queer. Slip is a kinda scifi, where a bored wife cheats on her husband and realizes every time she has sex with someone, she wakes up married to them. The show's about her trying to get back to her original life, and there are a series of different husbands, but also a few wives (also, the first "replacement" husband is played by Boorman's actor from Willow!). There are also the upcoming Thai dramas Be Mine, Reverse 4 You, and 23.5, as previously mentioned.

In terms of returning series coming back, there's the Disney cartoon The Owl House, getting its final ep. Single Drunk Female's second season is returning soon. It has a bi lead, and she did have a female love interest but it was pretty temporary compared to the will they/won't she has with the main character male love interest. Her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, also a very main character, is a lesbian, and she's married but her wife's actress is a regular on another show now so I dunno if she'll be back.

Welcome to Eden, a Spanish thriller about people trapped on an island with a cult, ended the first season on a major cliffhanger so it'll be exciting to see what happens now, though it feels like anyone could die so that's a bit nerve-wracking. It has a lot of different kinds of rep, f/f, m/m, trans, one of the gay guys is deaf too and it's a plot point that his boyfriend won't learn sign even though his friends have.

The Epix series From is a pretty well done horror series about people trapped in a town and who get hunted at night, it's more ominous and suspenseful than outright gory. It actually has three wlw, though one is mostly with one guy, the one who's engaged to a woman outside the town seems to be about to start a romance with another guy, and one is a teen who's crushing on the first woman, feels unrequited. I didn't know about any of them when I started, so they're a bonus, the show itself is rather compelling.

As for current shows, The Power (lol, get it, current) started last night on Prime, it's nice that after the misreading of Class of '07, this new show about girls does immediately have a wlw. Gap's already finished but it made such a splash, if you haven't watched, I'll mention it again. The other Thai drama, Show Me Love, is still airing. Fantasy Island is honestly kind of sweet, it feels like one of those '90s shows, episodic, bright colors and optimism, and great guest stars. One of the two leads, I'd say, or at least the second billed main, is queer.

We got our three firefighter shows, 9-1-1 with a solid (now) established relationship, Fire Country, a lesbian character but not much screentime, and of course Station 19, which is honestly winning me back in a huge way with their current storyline (if they land it).

Cop wlw update (why are there so many of them!): NCIS Hawai'i remains super cute, especially when Lucy is on, looks like Ayanna on Law & Order: Organized Crime got herself a new gf with a super hot voice, The Rookie: Feds still has Niecy Nash playing a super likable and bi lead. I couldn't stand the egregious copaganda in FBI: Most Wanted, and like, imagine how bad it'd have to be, when I can still watch all the rest of these shows, but Sheryll's still there, so. Sin Huellas (No Traces) has already finished but gets another mention for being as funny as it was, with a cute, hot couple at the center. Rabbit Hole's just started, but the initial antagonist/probable grudging ally's an FBI lady who within the first 10 minutes of the first ep dropped that she had a wife. Van der Valk has started its third season and though I'm gonna keep hoping Lucienne's INCREDIBLY hot ex from 2x03 returns, Lucienne, second billed, is plenty hot by herself. Ariana Guerra, who played the novitiate in Helstrom, has joined the second season of CSI: Vegas. Her character's bi and has a main character boyfriend but he seems like he'll most likely end up with a different character.

I'm not really going through these in any particular order, except combining the above two types, but let me just blow through the rest of the ongoing shows: the Canadian family comedy Run the Burbs has been quite sweet in how it's written the teen daughter, How I Met Your Father comes across as an old fashioned sitcom, except one of the characters is a lesbian. It's kind of fun in its familiarity and low stakes. I didn't expect to be as drawn into The Watchful Eye as I did, the trailer felt quite soapy and it was, at times, but all the nannies were great, and I ended up quite liking the f/f side couple. It's amazing what actual personalities can do. :o A Million Little Things is winding down its final season and Grace Park's character is engaged to Cameron Esposito's character so it feels pretty endgame at this point.

If you didn't watch or stopped watching Carnival Row because the main m/f relationship seemed so especially trite, you maaaay want to give it another look. I'm not nearly caught up with Bel-Air, but in the first season they wrote Ashley's sexuality really well, especially since she's so young. I'm sure you can't have missed my Perry Mason gifsets by now, but I can only reiterate what a great character Della Street is. One of the kids in Gotham Knights is bi (and her brother is trans!) but I'm not sure it's worth getting invested before cancellation. Unless the CW is only going to keep projects involving the Supernatural trio?

At this point, hoping everyone who's into wlw has at least tried Yellowjackets or is aware enough of it to know they don't want to try it. Las Pelotaris 1926 is a Spanish language historical drama about female athletes playing--well, the sport is basque pelota but if you need a reference point, it's like squash or racquetball. If you haven't yet caught up with RWBY, now would be an okay time. Lastly, I've still never watched any of Riverdale or even Choni clips, but its final season has just started and you know, I gotta respect the longevity of whatever they've been doing with them, however up and down they seem to have been, and perhaps this final season will be an up. From what I've seen on SM, they seem to get endgame soulmatey treatment more than any of the other ships and I can respect that.

Aside from the Thai dramas that might air after April and a few of the other shows that ended their seasons in March (or February in Gap's case), all of these have eps airing this month. After this year of cancellations, I think it's worth enjoying what we can, even as we acknowledge how much lead/main character rep and longevity we're losing. :o

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a halloween party

~ 10pm, sunday, oct 29, 2023

if i listen really closely i can hear the quiet snoozy breathing of the sweet black cat who now lives in my room! oh, now she is purring.

(contains minor mention of the study of death/dead bodies, but also cat pictures, classical music, and minor spoilers for the end of the most recent season of star trek: strange new worlds)

reading more victoria goddard (blackcurrant fool is somehow *even* *more* for medievalist academics, they visit fantasy university and then the main character saves the day through the power of his dissertation research for crying out loud), some assorted libby holds from jenny odell and amitav ghosh, some kj charles inspired by the medieval mlm romance i finished a few weeks ago (which was great but i was so taken with the idea of posting a whole historical assessment that i scared myself out of talking about it, so maybe next time).

but the book that's been the biggest presence in my life lately has been the audio book version of mary roach's stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers, which i picked up because it had a little Moment back when it came out and i remember thinking that an approachable, sympathetic look at this kind of medical history would be fascinating. and it is! it is just as full of interesting information and humorous, humanizing turns of phrase as you'd like! roach doesn't hesitate to ask, like, intense questions of the people she interviews, nor does she ignore or downplay various gruesome topics, but the audiobook narrator has a hint of a southern accent and gets the mix of tones of voice (from ironic to earnest and back) really nicely. and also, sometimes i'm glad i'm listening to it as an audio book so i don't have to consciously continue turning pages, it'll keep playing even if i stop listening or need to disengage, because there's no shortage of actually quite challenging material. not for the faint of heart, but also, i can't regret reading it.

watching the new season of ghosts from the bbc! the second season of ofmd of course, both because it was fun and because i had to out of self-defense; uhhhh what else this month has been so long and also so fast! the musical episode of strange new worlds which was GREAT. how good were some of those songs!! like on their own, i would listen to nyota and christine and la'an's songs-- reminded me of the mix CD a friend made me for a birthday one year that mixed, like, barenaked ladies with some songs from the buffy musical episode. then the finale of this season which (minor spoilers here) i found actually so compelling, like, i've been mildly ehh about a lot of the gorn stuff (not la'an, but the concept of the gorn always feels very old-school scifi and the more serious they try to play it, the worse that effect usually) but then the monster design and movement when they finally appear on screen? excellent.

though to be entirely honest, the thing i've come back to and watched/listened to most consistently has been the new series of dimension 20, burrow's end. i managed to tune in as a campaign was starting, and actually more or less keep up! huge for me. the bear in ep 2 was all-to-close to some of the body horror i'd just been reading about with stiff, so this month has been 'so you'd like to get better about dealing with body horror?' for me in a way. unintentionally. i think i am appreciating this series more than i would have if i hadn't read and enjoyed watership down a few years back, but the added edge of, like, for-real magic from the d&d elements makes it even more fun. i love the new (to me) players, i love seeing the old ones in their new roles, i love that while the conceit seems to be 'humans are like eldritch horrors to woodland creatures' on the surface, there's also clearly something (or things?) else going on.

listening checking in on my spotify daylist lately to see what moods i've been assigned (soul-crushing once, which was wild to see as a genre, but goblincore also so. whatever i guess!) paper writing lockdown included more autoheart, more yws gwynedd, and like a 24-hour lockdown on @lessthansix's 'deferring panic' playlist, from which i share the following track as a thank-you:

playing tuned into dnd as a virtual player tonight so that i could stay home and supervise the NEW BABY aka this little (large) black dumpling of a cat who i cannot quite believe is my very own. playing such classics as 'ribbon on a string' and 'this is a ball that makes food come out when you play with it, ooooooh' and 'i hope my eyes feel normal again after i stop putting my face directly on you so much and i have not somehow developed an allergy to cat dander in the six weeks since we last had a cat come visit'. playing the classic game, 'so you think you can be responsible for another life form! and are you willing to risk an increase in your experience for loss in order to gain an increase in your experience of love?' (also while we're here: why is naming the hardest part of any endeavor. naming wifi networks, naming pokemon, and now this, a real live creature! who i want to treat with love and also humor, while showing wit and personality at the same time. hell.)

making fixed up a sweater my housemate was going to get rid of. i am not, habitually, a fibercrafter (though not for want of opportunity or, even, interest sometimes), but this made me want to find other easy and quick things to do with yarn.

before: big fuck off hole between the cowl and neck line

after: used some yarn of a similar weight /softness that i already had, so it doesn't match but it's not like you see it. hidden little necklace of pearls.

working on writing a paper for my first ever 30-min conference presentation, which is also going to be the first time i submit a paper ahead of time for someone (a professor i do not usually work with, but whose work and career and writing i admire) to read and give real comments on. this is fine. i am simultaneously trying to use this as an opportunity to squish an entire chapter's worth of notes and observations and ideas into a single presentation, and trying to not do that. but i want her take on all of it! i also...do need to write all of it. but getting a chance to slow down and take a bit of extra time with it was also very welcome. gave a guest lecture this week on a subject only vaguely related to my own work, which required a lot of extra reading (not even to know what to say, but just to be confident that i wasn't missing anything massive), and also did organize my department's halloween party, so. it's been a busy last ten days, and i'm excited to wrap some of this up.

bonus: cat pictures! thank you for reading this far, i think we will be going with luna? her grace, lunette st. cat, first marquise of dumplingdom. something.

[nagdabbit]

What season of Dimension 20 should a noob start with I want to understand what the FUCK you're talking about

oooooooo yes, welcome, come on in, were all fucking weird here!

get ready to have Extreme Feelings about one (1) loud, white man

but also, you can kinda start wherever you want? i haven't even watch every single season, anyway. here's the seasons, out of airing order, probably

fantasy high - the original, the og. teens in fantasy high school, having hijinks and saving the world. honestly, if there's like an established place to start, this is it. there's a second season, and a couple of live shows that are so fucking fun. griffin mcelroy's live ep is fucking WILD, i love ficus

pirates of leviathan - fantasy high adjacent, post fh season 2. i didn't actually finish this one. i dont remember why. i dont super have a strong attachment to fh season 2, so the setting for this one just didn't interest me, but it's pirates having hijinks on a floating pirate city

unsleeping city 1 & 2 - urban fantasy weirdness, urban fantasy fun times. the magical world that lives beneath and alongside the new york we all know. like fables, maybe, but more fantasy archetypes than folklore. really fun, really enjoyable, i have no memory of season two but i know i watched it

the seven - another fh spinoff, but a little more tied into the first season. a fantasy party of all the people they spent season one trying to save. it is SO FUCKING FUNNY, and SO FUCKING GAMEPLAY CRUNCHY, and I CRIED SO FUCKING HARD. need some emotional healing? exquisite. i miiiight suggest watching fh first, just to understand who they are, but also you don't *need* to

tiny heist - borrowers and fairies and thug bugs and living toys, trying to run a heist. so goddamn fun. highly, highly recommend. i love a fuckin heist. its the mcelroy family season, so if you like them you can look forward to that. just mcelroy is just. he's fucking batshit.

a crown of candy - game of thrones ass campaign, but the characters and kingdoms are all based on the different food groups. for real and honest, this season didn't hit me and i didn't finish it. but i do enjoy compilations of it on youtube

the ravening war - crown of candy spin off. i also didn't watch this at all, but it has cr's matt mercer as the guest gm, and im sure he's a great guy and all, but i just don't vibe with his dm style. deffo the least amount of levity of all the seasons, i think

mice & murder - a sherlock holmes, agatha christie ass murder mystery where everyone is in the house trying to solve the murder. also everyone is woodland creatures. another highly recommend if you're into murder mysteries like that

escape from the bloodkeep - what if lotr was told from the baddies pov. it's so stupid, so silly, so much fun. highly recommend

shriek week - monsters on their final week of college. despite my love of guest gm, gabe hicks, this season just Did Not Hit Me. not even ify nwadiwe could hold me

misfits and magic - hogwarts ass magic school for little wizards, but without the transphobia and racism. need some kids upsetting an unjust society based on classism? this for you. so, so good! guest gm aabria iyengar, she fucking knocks it out of the park. there's also a christmas episodes and a live show with a different cast

a starstruck odyssey - did you know that brennan lee mulligans mom elaine wrote the comic starstruck? this season is based on the comic and its very fucking fun! scifi shenanigans out the ass

neverafter - horror themed season, about macabre fairytale characters and the enduring nature of stories. it took me a bit to get into this season, but it's so good! you gotta like horror, tho. that's important to remember. it's a dark season

coffin run - draculas followers try to get an injured dracula back to the castle before his enemies catch up. sooooooo so so fucking funny, one of my favorite seasons. guest gm jasmine bhullar kills it. absolutely unfuckinghinged season

a court of fey and flowers - EASILY my favorite, second favorite season. aabria is back, the fey are having a party, someone is trying to do something terrible, they need to navigate jane austen era ass court politics to figure it out. so, so fucking stupid and fun

dungeons & drag queens - i havent finished this season, cuz i got Depressed As Shit earlier this year and just couldn't, but im about to jump back in. honestly, the plot doesn't matter, it's monet x change, alaska thunderfuck, jujubee and bob the drag queen. do you need to know anything else? no, you don't

mentopolis - the current season. a good place to start it you don't want to binge anything, as only one episode is out. it's a noir detective mystery taking place within the brain of a scientist and is already climbing the ranks of my favorite seasons

godspeed, you little nerd. go forth and have fun

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Week – 10/15- 10/21

Hellsing – I didn’t look this up before I started it, so I didn’t realize Hellsing Ultimate was a reboot instead of a sequel, and I kind of wish I just skipped it. It wasn’t bad, really, as I mostly found the characters compelling and the extremely 2000s visuals were pretty nostalgic. It just really wanted to be cool, occasionally lingering too long on a still frame they thought the viewer should find bad-ass or something, and it just really wasn’t very cool at all. They paid more attention to striking edgy poses than to writing a story, and that’s not a winning recipe. 6/10

Pumpkin Scissors – This isn’t really a spooky season anime, but it did have “pumpkin” in its name, and a jack-o-lantern in its logo, so I popped it on. It follows a small military division created by the higher-ups to be a sort of figurehead, mascot group for PR that takes its post-war relief mission more seriously than they intended because the young, idealistic noble girl they put in charge of it has zero chill. Early on, she encounters an enormous man who served in an anti-tank battalion during the war and adds him to her posse, leading to a number of wild situations as they go around the country addressing post-war corruption. I really enjoyed the character work here, as Alice is borderline insufferable in her idealism and righteousness, yet through her interactions with the disillusioned members of her group, especially the quiet, traumatized corporal Orland, she mellows into something more reasonable and practical without ever losing the values that set her apart.

As an aside, it was a little amusing how this show that rather seriously tells a story about rebuilding after war and fighting corruption in the government really wanted viewers to know that the corporal was hung like a beast. I didn’t ask, but good to know. 7/10

Galaxy Express 999 Ep. 82-100 – I’m nearing 1000 completed anime, and I was thinking this should probably be number 999, right? So, I picked this back up after several months away, and it’s like I never left. Tetsuro and Maetel visit a variety of single-climate planet-of-hats and learn some lessons before running back to catch the train. This group of episodes included some really interesting scifi ideas, like a planet that has the effect of causing de-evolution in humans and a planet that forces everyone to get cyborg bodies and uses restaurants to catch people who have not converted. It also included plenty of Leiji Matsumoto moralizing, like the planet full of older parents abandoned by their children leaving to find work, the planet where one brave iconoclast holds out to do work instead of indulging in leisure like everyone else and is ostracized for it, and the planet about how overly involved mothers ruin their sons.

[gnomebud]

eulie can i ask you to pitch trigun to me. i know nothing about it other than 1. blonde guy with cool red jacket. 2. bigolas dickolas? it sounds interesting and i see it everywhere- what do you like about it? is it a movie? tv show? help

[cracks knuckles] hi emma i'm finally done with finals and moving out and am home and ready to answer this. okay so

elevator trigun pitches:

the most pathetic guy you've ever seen goes through the horrors in a big desert. there's big worms and cowboys and cosmic body horror and guns

two insurance agents/reporters are having the weirdest job assignment of their life following around a walking natural disaster

aforementioned insurance agents:

wow! can one man really have allegories for this many people from the bible? you bet!

gay people on a couch

the transmascs stay winning fancam

knives? like, millions? (-- @whale-blanket)

the kindest guy you've ever seen is so determined to be kind even when everyone else wants him not to be

ok. actual reply. blond guy with cool red jacket is vash the stampede, the main character of trigun! he is a very good guy who is committed to pacifism and is constantly going through the horrors because of um. an evil twin brother (it’s complicated). he's joined by two insurance girls who are trying to keep him from doing more damage than he normally accidentally causes (or, in trigun stampede, two reporters) and a totally normal priest with a totally normal cross.

trigun is a manga (also referred to as trigun maximum bc most of the volumes are published under that title) that has been adapted into two anime: the first is the '98 trigun that aired before most of the manga was released and the second is trigun stampede, which is probably largely what you have seen me posting and which had its first season air this year! i mostly really care about trigun stampede and trigun maximum!

bigolas dickolas refers to nicholas d wolfwood who is one of the characters of all time. i'm normal about him. he's a totally normal priest/undertaker with a totally normal cross. he doesn't have secrets at all. don't worry about it. it also refers to twitter user maskofbun's tweet about this is how you lose the time war that managed to skyrocket the novel to best-selling again by sheer virtue of their audience of trigun enjoyers buying it

i got into trigun stampede as it was airing and got to watch new episodes with friends, which was really really fun, and i think it's a great introduction to the whole canon! stampede rearranges a lot of stuff from trigun maximum but does so in a really fun way. it's a little confusing at first but a really fun time! and the music is incredible! i was literally motivated to watch the first ep by the transmascs stay winning fancam -- took one look at that guy and was like i need to know everything about him. vash is possibly the blorbo of all time. once stampede s1 ended i read all of trigun & trigun maximum (trigun overhaul on tumblr is the place to do that if you're interested!) and absolutely fell in love with the whole thing even more. trigun has really interesting stuff about violence, humanity, family, love, what it means to be a monster, etc. that made me love it SO much. and the art is so so so cool! even if fight scenes are kind of incomprehensible. every character in trigun is so interesting and the whole story is so cool and makes me SO sad and contemplative. it's been the only thing in my brain for nearly 6 months. trigun...

in short: watch trigun stampede ! extremely good animation, cool intro to trigun, great music, and there is a guy with millions of knives. it's a space western! it's scifi! it's weird! you get to be endlessly sad about some guys! yay!

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

Buncha takes about Girl in the Fireplace (by someone that doesn't like it)

trying to give it as much grace as possible... there's some stuff to salvage, i think

visuals: again very beautiful episode aesthetically. even the spaceship sections which under rtd sometimes look a bit glip, with the right lighting in this ep, they rlly "pop" colonialism / hegemony: it's really uncomfortable but i don't know enough about reinette to go in depth with it. just gonna highlight the whole "this is the royal court and we're french" which is .... fittingly the point we're most asked to see reinette as a "Strong Female Character (tm)" / Girl Boss ... really sour. The Timeless Child Retroactive Continuity Bonus: the doctor's loneliness is made more poignant by being not "the last of their kind" but "the only one of their kind"

recurrent s2 themes: (this is what i was talking abt in theo ther post...) the clockwork fail because "it has not purpose now" perhaps this could be symbolism for monarchism in general, in face of a new, modern world? monarchies are well-oiled, intricate machines, socially speaking. they have rituals and customs and complex genealogies (hey, stowe armorial... amirite ladies... #crackin'heraldryhumor). but w/ the advancement of the productive forces, they "lost their purpose". the uk continues to have a monarchy to this day, but it is not longer the effective, purposeful machine it was was, rather it is an appendage or a relic of a more advanced system (bourgeois capitalism). one it has to cannibalize in parts to survive. also, the obvious visual of a highly-intricate "machine" that is made up of depreciated tech (clockwork). here's another: i saw an interesting meta that this ep could be read as a mirror of school reunion: in SR we see rose gripping w/ the reality of the doctor eventually outliving her, and here we see via reinette the doctor's pov of having to endure watching all their lovers "witter and die"except romana bc she just dumps him lol

i think this improves a bit on the seeming disjointedness of both eps and how disjointed it feels from the rest of s2.

relatedly, im also headcanon fix-ing it that this whole stint 10 pulls of "finding a mistress" (as it's very pointedly parallel'd in several scenes like him showing up late and "drunk" and rose being casted as the "nagging wife")(oooo resist negativity urges RESIST), is a direct example of him having a classic commitment-phobic panic, following SR.

there's an interesting theme/repeating motif in this ep (And later we see it repeated in moffat's seasons) about dreams and nightmares. (clockwork guys as reintte's+ the doctor as the clockwork's) idk how to tie it together as a Meaning or Theses yet but some interesting implications about it:

- the monsters we see in this ep are framed as nightmares (the doctor looks under the bed of kid!reinette to find the first clockwork robot)... what are nightmares? nightmares aren't real, but they also tell us something real about what we fear when awake. when these stories turn the imaginary into the real, there's a kind of symbolism in that "any fear we have can be faced and defeated" - kind of stealing this from another meta i read lol but: the monsters as fantasy vs grief as a reality, and the metatextual tension of having very real things like unavoidable death in a show with a "dashing, scifi hero that always defeats the scary monsters",,, - there's a negative asshole way to point out how similar reinette's "tragic ending" / arc is to a lot of... other storylines in moffat's who lol but i'm gonna try to spin it in the more positive, curious, "good faith" way: what is moffat trying to explore or say when he has characters always "missing" each other by the whims of time? sometimes by displacement, other time by "missing the timing" / "being too slow"? perhaps it is a call to be more prescient, and these are not just stories about tragedies... but cautionary tales about not taking actions / living life when one's called to live it (see river, amy, reinette, sally's friends,,,).

AND FINALLY, i had to really dig deep, but this is the one that salvages the episode i think, and why i wont *totally* discard it from my mental canon in the future: the traditional, surface interpretation of the ending is that it is "tragic" because ten doesn't go to reinette because she's dying/has died.... and once he has landed there, it is too late. the fireplace was tragically out of synch with his life....

however, let's push that further why doesn't he just go back a lil' earlier? why doesn't eleven just tell amy and rory to write a fake letter and put up a fake tombstone? the answer could be [bc time travel lore reasons!!].,,, BUT there's a potentially interesting and complex alternative reading: ten chose to not see reinette in her sickness. there was nothing impending him from seeing her again once he was back in the tardis. but much like with their companions that they can always locate if they wanted to, the doctor knows there's it's kind of pointless, kind of artificial, kind of cheating to manipulate time to get as much out of a human lifespan as possible. and it is a pointless act, because in the end he'll have to say goodbye anyway. and like he told sarah jane... "he just couldn't come back". so this this a self kindness he gives himself. to let reinette be just a fiery affair with a tragically beautiful woman he had "no control over" and could not comfort in her sickness/withering. perhaps unconsciously, this is a way he finds to not Deal with what the implications of this little "affair" means for his relationship w/ rose, and how he may have to make the same choice again in the future.

[windycityazan]

What a way to end a season such a great Star Trek show, Still loved the old ones Star Trek the Nxt Gen, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Enteerprise, still havent seen the Picard one that came out but will eventually get to it, I liked Star Trek Discovery but season 2 of Star Trek Discovery i think flt the best maybe has to do with Anson Mount and Ethan Peck but the arch for the show that season was also interesting. The finale of Star Trek Strange New Worlds which finished on my Bday July 7 felt sentimental and cool to share it with a great scifi show to end the season the way it did also to wait for the second season which hopefully will be sometime in the fall or early next yr. The cast and writers did a bravo stlye job to a show who had only 10 eps which feels kind of like something a netflix show would have but its a big show that takes time to make and edit so its not bad and they do such an amazing job overall. If you seen the finale then you know that Captain Pikes fututre ties to that of Spock fate in a way if Pike chooses a path he risks Spock suffering and that bromance and friendship is ever so growing, when he saw that Spock was injured pretty badly that emotions that Anson showed felt so genuine and the way its captured is speechless he was seeing a friend he didnt want to lose in such a way brought him back to realize he cant change his fate or he will lose ppl close to him instead. Also the end scene his Number 1 gets arrested by his somewat love interest just ugh and that look towards Number 1 as she beams off yikes there gonna be trouble coming. In a way it was shown in the future that he saw that she was arrested but not the how and why of it til the end so he had some idea which was crushing bc he couldnt stop it even if he tried. Cant wait for more adventures to come and to see Captain Kirk again man Paul Wesley did a great job guest staring kind of early surprise they said he would be in season 2 but came early so it was a nice surprise and to see Paul in such a different role and such a iconic role as well. Wonder if Spock and he will be buds too.

[gayspock]

okdok (how my mam spells okie dokie; need to give her credit) some more bsg thoughts

okie btw i never properly said. i DO rlly love the themes of religion in the show. i have seen glimpses (i go through threads, bc im nosy, despite trying not 2 spoil myself) of ppl rlly rejecting it but sorryyyyy its just... yknow like- i loathe how patronising scifi can be of it sometimes, AND how bad fanbases can get. coming off of trek, well, youknow....

also completely . disavowing it .. is always soo silly 2 me bc... like im not religious myself, even, but i always find it one of the most interesting things to explore within fiction ^_^ esp esp with more scifi stuff, like... thats one of the best places to challenge and to play with it. smile. both with its relationdship between science but also how with its relationship between Humanity and how that might differ for different cultues.... and again its so disappointing the way its hanled so much of the time in many works, and by many Scifi enthusiasts. -_- bc its sooo reductive.

anyways i still sometimes feel like theres something missing from the show and i think thats just me im not sure why. like in terms of like... a certain incompleteness thats not JUST them pacing it out, or leaving things up for interpretation... but i cant uqite put my finger on it. its like i feel like maybe its just bc s1 was SO short for what it was and s2 has been very plot heavy. i think the show would have benefitted a bit more from some more establishing "filler" eps in terms of, like, worldbuilding, yknow? again- i really want to see more of the civillian side of things. i hope we get more of that ^_^ its deffo not like THE WORSTTT problem the show oculd have

BC LIKE OTHERWISE im rllyyyy loving the direction they took EVERYTHING in in season 2. omg. they set it all up so well and OUGHGHGHGG. i love how its testing everything theyve built from s1, wrt the command. absolutely crazy moves...

i was absolutely ITCHING for a presence like admiral cain and she delivered. part of me wishes it went a bit longer? just a bit. i dont think it was like... RUSHED... partially bc i do agree her takeover would have just been immediate, like it was, and i dont know what her role really could have been after they called off the assassinations. but idk- i wish we got to see a bit more of her, i guess! maybe even just an ep or so.

nonetheless she was still a really good contrast. her and the pegasus and how its run, versus galactica. and i do think.... i think i tlked before abt how sometimes i was unsatisfied with how, like, bsg kind of handled its own politics sometimes? like- specifically the roslin and zarek. i think thats moreso an issue with the latter, and again how... kind of lacking i find him, for what could be a really good and interesting opportunity to challenge roslin, who does have issues, unchecked, rather than just be kind of a minor antagonist ... & THATS EVEN MOREE the case with his presence back on kobol. like he was literally there just to cause conflict and idk like its FUNCTIONAL but its also like comeee on you can be more interesting with him! come on!

BUT here i do think with both cain and tigh's brief stint in command they did well to rlly explore it a bit more so im forgiving it. its not like that fixes that mess but this stuff was good enough for me to be like 👍uh huh, yaknow? b c it was soo good and argh im- SPEAKING OF, i am glad they did "remember" incidents like the gideon massacre, even after adama came back. again i do wanna see MORE of the civillians- but i think we're going to getthat soon, i hope? i feel it more in the air, with the introduction of that new number 6 and the cylon apologists which im rlly excited for... both bc theyre things i rlly wanted to see more from the show ^_^

anyway i feel like noneof this is that mad i just wanted to ramble in bc i haventttt properly eek and squeak i feel like i acc dont have much to say ^_6 despite rlly enjoying myself and the show LOL

sharon is still my favourite btw teehee smile

[kingjasnah]

hiii isha i hate to admit this but your trek-posting has got me interested so now i have to ask: wheres a good place to start with star trek? Im not necessarily trying to hunt down the original series but i would like to see some scifi scenarios

omg hi!!!!! always down to talk watch order: so i wanted to start from the original series but i had already had a bit of a primer cause my old roommate grew up in a trek house and i watched a ton of deep space nine specifically when we lived 2gether.

to me the next generation OR deep space nine are the best ones to start with. tng is more similar to what tos was, but ds9 is one of the first shows of the 90s that carried season long plots mixed in with the monster of the week model. they have very very different tones so it's like do you want to watch a show that feels like a house with entirely carpeted surfaces (i say this with love) or do you want to watch a show that feels like ur dad's minivan is falling apart on ur way back from the megachurch and also you've just committed a war crime. do you want to watch patrick stewart philosophize at the camera or do you want to watch avery brooks deliver chilling stage monologues and also play baseball.

some note: the first season of both tng and ds9 are rough but tng's is worse. try not to hold it against them. the 90s treks also overlap, so if you start with ds9 you will get a major spoiler for mid season tng. my personal opinion is that this show came out so long ago and so much trek lore exists that you'll want to look up anyway that the spoilers didn't bother me at all. also i do suggest watching an episode or two of tos just to see spock but it's not for everyone and you're not missing a lot of lore that you can't just look up on the wiki or whatever. you should behold spock for at least an ep though.

[mifhortunach]

alright. okay. years ago when my attention span was dogshit i tried to listen to f@tt. and i planned to go from beginning to end. chronological. and i got through maybe an episode and a half. apparently you cant go from beginning to end (chronological) and i'm mad about it but im also forcibly shoving my spite and rage into a dark box. anyway. you're the main source of f@tt on my dash. please recommend me a good order?

The tldr of this is: you should probably start with sangfielle!

It’s the one I’ve been posting about mostly recently, its (relatively) short, its more standalone than most of the others, and if we’re got similar enough interests then the spooky aspects will deffo appeal to you. 

That said, here comes the essay, lol~ 

I am p touched that all the posting has inspired you to go at it again! And I deffo get the frustration with the chronological listening problems, because I’d try the same thing- I think that starting with the wording building stuff of AiH is... difficult, I guess. 

I’m just going to present more options / explain what I’m at better than I did above.

(here)

Autumn in Hieron is probably what you tried to start with before, and like... I loved Hieron so much when I was getting into it, but the audio issues and lack fo familarity can be a but hard to get past. 

Hieron (the collected seasons), is wicked long - but its like a combined high & low fantasy kind of setting. The first season is a little, ‘murder hobos are trapped in a corrupted/dying fantasy world’, but as it goes on it becomes broader in scope, and in intent I guess. If you wanted to get into that, the thing to do would probably be to go back and start with autumn. I believe you can probably start with Winter in Hieron?? But I don’t recall 100% how well that explains the previous season. 

The one that they generally recommend starting with is Marielda though! It’s a prequel-ish to all of the Hieron seasons. It’s only 12 eps, they were far enough into making the show that it’s very smooth and really romps along. And its got maybe the best music that any ttrpg has ever had. 

It’s a lot of magic, and gods and weird bureaucracy in unexpected places iirc. Its great fun :D

OR!!

there’s COUNTERweight, Twilight Mirage & all the other scifi seasons! If you’re more interested in robots and anime than in fantasy trappings.C/w is like,, Big Cyberpunk Noir things. In certain ways it sets up the stage for the later space seasons, but with these you generally don’t have to listen to the seasons in any particular order.

C/w is only the second season, so it kinda has some hold over issues of AiH- mostly meaning that at times it can be a little slow and clunky, and there’s some audio issues. Imo, the world building and character stuff MORE than makes up for all of though though. (C/w is; a ragtag bunch of low-level criminals for hire (ex-royal, ex-popstar, secret hacker clone & a robot) accidentally take on the massive robot-god embodiment of capitalism ig?? it’s a little hard to explain, fhdbcjcnc).

Both Twilight Mirage & Partizan are both scifi/big robot seasons & set in the same universe as C/w, but later in time yk? I’m going to clarify what I’m saying about them with the fact that I’ve not listened to either of these seasons in their entirety as of yet.

Twilight Mirage has the background premise of ‘what would a utopia that’s coming to its end look like’. Its... messy, its really long and sprawling, and has some of their strongest character work and world building. I think that to get into it you really need to be on the right wavelength ? But others could tell you better.

I haven’t listened to all of partizan either? Though I am right now, and the next season being set up set directly after, iirc. Partizan is very much a war story, you want to be, paying attention while you're listening, haha. 

That said! I think its super engaging immediately, and the characters are great fun. When it was just coming out it was pushed as a good jumping on point for new listeners, so that might be something to consider.

BUT SANGFIELLE, my beloved! If you’ve been into the fatt posting of the last while, its probably been about sangfielle. Right now that’s their most ‘standalone’ season, they set up a whole new world for it, and its a little different structurally than some of the other seasons. (Who’s in each party changes session to session, so you get a lot of different dynamics, compared with other seasons, and this means you can jump around a little more, in the first couple of seshes, imo).

It’s horror! Less in a particular nasty way, more in a ‘there’s horror themes in previous seasons and we’re playing with those interests of ours more here’. It’s horror about identity, bureaucracy, dehumanisation, being changed by obsession, haunted spaces, and also people getting turned into trains! And SO many bugs.

In a comparative sense, I’m pretty sure it’s also one of their shorter seasons, haha. I think its also very well produced; the music is excellent, and everything flows together really well. It’s very clean, in that sense. 

Its should also be said that ALL of these seasons are consistently both wicked funny, and kinda heart-wrenching at times; it IS critical world building, smart characterisation and fun interactions between good friends <3 ~ 

I think its best to check out whatever sounds sounds most interesting to you, and if you think it’s too slow just skip some of the world-building up the start of whatever season. That said, I’d deffo recommend sangfielle most of all, its very good!!

Important additional note, it’s good to go in knowing that regardless of season, you’ll probs have to commit to episodes that average around 2hours long, ahahaha 

- ty again for asking me !!! <3 hope u can get into the show this time round

[booasaur]

Does Killjoys significantly change in the middle? I’ve tried to start it twice and have never made it past the pilot but the (gay) gifs I see are so cool and interesting!

Hmmmm, it really depends on what it is you didn't like about the pilot. The show was always a comedic scifi about Dutch and the Jaqobis brothers at its heart.

But, while it initially starts off more episodic and dropping little tidbits about the bigger story, slowly that reverses and eventually each ep is one bit in the larger mythology. It also starts to become more serious, or well, the jokes are still there, just less shallow? That's what probably makes the gifs seem to hit harder, everything matters more. It does take a while for that to happen, and then there is indeed a soft reboot at the start of season 3 where it's the same characters but the plot it's been building up to zooms out and now it's on a grander scale, affecting more people in a bigger way.

If you're like me and like a more earnest show, it's definitely in there, it just takes a bit of time getting used to.

[jenniferstolzer]

Babylon 5 Rewatch ep 2.20 The Long, Twilight Struggle

Sheridan and Delenn receive an invitation to Epsilon III where Draal pledges the Great Machine to the campaign against the Shadows. Meanwhile Londo commits his Shadow allies to one more attack against the Narn, allowing the Centauri to commit war crimes and end the Narn conflict.

Things I like about The Long Twilight Struggle

1, An energy fluctuation happens on the planet and Corwin turns to his coworkers like “There’s something happening. Contact Commander Ivanova” then the camera drifts to a private quarters. A shower is running. We see the steam as we coast slowly toward the bathroom for a tasteful near nude shot of Claudia Chris—NOPE Bruce Boxleitner. I CACKLED.

2, Draal is great and I love him. It worked out that Sheridan is new here to get a refresher on who Draal is and what’s going on with the Great Machine. Also the Great Machine making him younger is a good way to explain why he’s Herman Munster now. I’m guessing he’ll stay young and vibrant until he disintegrates like the last guy.

3, I appreciate seeing Londo’s true colors in his conversation with Refa. He’s tired, both from the trip to Centauri Prime and of all the war and darkness he’s involved himself in. He’s also still mourning Ursa Jaddo from Knives which was a nice callback considering he had a significant moment of doubt and regret in that episode, and it’s good to be reminded that he’s not totally sold on what’s going on right now. It’s also nice that he’s against the mass drivers at the outset but is convinced to go with Refa’s plan because he considers the glorification of his people more important than himself or anything else. He talks himself into doing something truly horrendous, but it’s wrong and his face knows its wrong. And then Refa makes him watch, when he fully intended to hide from what he’s done. Gguhh the pain is wonderful.

4, Watching this in a rewatch hurts so bad. Like Franklin gives G’Kar a warning about the Centauri’s interest in homeworld. There’s the possibility he can stop it.

5, Delenn and Sheridan go down to Epsilon III she is acting super cocky and in control because she wants to impress her crush, even using clever colorful English phrases. Everyone remembers Abasfrigginlutely Damnit. Oh Delenn….

6, Sheridan looks at the inside of the Great Machine and is like  “Lord, I may not go home” and I laughed b/c it looks like Tron in there.

7. The jump-kicking Centauri.

8, The mass drivers really are the most disgusting move. To devastate a civilian population from space is the ultimate ranged weapon. What could they possibly do? Watching Londo watch it happen is peak drama because as disgusted as he is watching, you know he’s as disgusted with himself in facilitating it. The drama is there but also horror on a level few shows can communicate, that of self-horror. The moment earlier where it was established and Londo still had a concept of right and wrong even as he was dealing with the Shadows is pulling full weight here. At the beginning of this season he was a buffoon struggling to stay afloat, in the middle of the season he finds the power and respect he wanted but loses the trust and friendship of the station in the process, and here at the culmination of his choices he sees what he was really willing to sell his soul for. He could have remained powerless and kept his sense of self, but instead he chose advancement and learned to hate what he’s become. It’s just staggering.

9, G’Kar is also pulling full weight in this episode. He’s prepared to go back to Narn, be with his family, and die among his people but he is the only member of the Kha’Ri not on homeworld and being so, he is an in credibly valuable asset for the race now that surrender is unavoidable. The tears in his eyes when asking for sanctuary are soul crushing, and the horror and shame he’s feeling is an inversion of Londo’s… powerlessness and being suppressed despite knowing he could do more verses being powerful and regretting it.

10, The Centauri terms of surrender are so cruel. It’s the turn of a knife that’s already been plunged to the hilt and Sheridan coming in to yank the dagger back an inch like a badass is extremely galvanizing and give Delenn grounds to commit the Rangers to him later in the episode. Also something I want to note about this scene that I think is even more important than Sheridan being a hero, it’s G’Kar sitting in his normal spot in complete despair, enduring Londo’s terms. Londo is dressed in every decoration and medal he’s ever owned, screaming at the top of his lungs like being the loudest makes him the rightest, yet G’Kar is silent. Londo demands G’Kar be removed from the council chambers like an invader. Sheridan replies by recounting the request for sanctuary, resulting on the two fighting over G’Kar’s head, but no one calls the bailiff to come get him. No one except Londo tells him he needs to go. They give G’Kar the chance to move. Even Kosh waits to see what he’s going to do. Will he attack? Will he scream and cry? No. He stands and with every ounce of self control he contains, delivers one of the greatest axefalls in television history.

“No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once, we will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.”

11, AND THATS NOT EVEN THE END OF THE EPISODE! I can’t believe this wasn’t a two-parter with everything that’s happened in this one half an hour of screentime. Sheridan essentially tells G’Kar he’s on his side in this war. He offers G’Kar his hand as an ally, and G’Kar considers it saying; “The last time I offered someone my hand, we were at war 24 hrs later” He pauses to make you wonder if he’s lost the ability to trust, then shakes with Sheridan and the look on his face tells something completely different. He still believes he’ll be at war very shortly, but he’s hoping for it. He’s counting on it.

12, Finally we get the introduction of the Rangers and the only thing that can kind of fit on my “Liked less” list. I like this just fine, but there’s something about Delenn who is in charge of a secret sect of warrior monks pledged to side with the Vorlons against the Shadows, turning the control of those monks over to Sheridan without fully introducing him to their existence. To be fair, she gives him partial control and doesn’t hand it over to him, removing herself from the field and I know having watched the rest of the show that she still is the sole figure in charge of the Rangers and is more accurately pledging herself and those in her service to Sheridan’s cause… but the way they read in this episode it looks like she’s giving Sheridan the reins. The next episode is KIND OF dealing with this with the inquisitor, but in general I think we could have avoided a lot of nonsense if she just phrased her pledge more accurately.

13, And this leads me to a theory… that Babylon5 was labeled their best hope for piece, but really it was built specifically as a neutral ground for the staging of the Shadow war. It really is Babylon 5, as in a replacement for Babylon 4 which was used as a warbase. This is why the Minbari co-founded the station, this is why it ends in fire at the end of everything. It’s existence is specifically tied to the the return of the shadows and the drama and diplomacy of the Narns, Centauri, Telepaths, Earthdome, etc etc are events of the universe that happen to occur there. Wihtout the Shadow War, there’d be no Babylon 5, and without Babylon 5 the universe would not continue.

14.

Finally.

The ARMY OF LIGHT

I got teary-eyed

Things I liked Less about The Long Twilight Struggle

The Delenn thing. But we’ll get back to that next episode. And that’s it.

This episode is truly one of the greatest and most emotionally wrenching pieces of television ever created. It’s a silly scifi show with rubber masks that dares to delve deeper beneath the skin than anything else I’ve seen. We see the horror and depravity of war, but we also see the people turned inside out by it and what colors they are within. Ten out of ten. Thanks for breaking my heart. This is why I had to take pause on my rewatch to prepare.

oh by the way @gin-007 and I are resuming our rewatch from 2019.

and I’m putting all these eps up on @b5picanep as well if you want to go back to see previous episodes. 

[silentastronauut]

Thoughts on Love Death and Robots vol 2:

Automated customer service: Absolutely amazing. Fun concept, fun animation. I love a badass old lady sticking it to capitalism/technology. And the dog doesnt die. A+

ICE: Incredible visuals, but other than that it didnt really capture my attention

Pop squad: Gave me altered carbon vibes and im not mad about it, but it was a bit predictable

Snow in the desert: eh. Felt like a filler ep tbh and i dont enjoy the more lifelike/realistic animation as much as the others

The tall grass: LOVED the animation, ok story. Solid 8/10

All through the house: Perfect combination of cute setup and then getting hit with just wtf dude?

Life hutch: im contradicting what i just said about enjoying styilized visuals more but holy shit this was amazing. Scifi horror and a machine stalking you around based on movement? I have had that nightmare and i mean in the best way possible

The drowned giant: Another kinda meh episode for me. It definetely has some interesting message but idk a whole episode of voiceover and walking back and forth just doesnt do it for me

This whole season felt kinda weak tbh. I want a whole show of basically every episode from the first season (sonnie's edge im especially looking at you) but this one? Not so much.

[murfeelee]

End of Year Collage - Best of 2020

Rules: Find your fave pics of your story or your blog in general and post them up in a collage! :D it can be 1 picture or 100 whatever you want. But just reflect on your fave moments in your story or on your blog. It can be cute moments or pictures you’re just really proud of.

I did this last year and decided to make one for 2020, to celebrate simming, the one source of joy I got out of this crapfest of a year.

I used the TumblrTop10 generator for my top CC uploads, which naturally get more traffic than my gameplay pics & photosets.

But I like giving a top 10 for my gameplay pics too, looking back at all my fave fandoms I incorporated into The Sims 3 throughout the year.

MY THOUGHTS (for each month) under the cut:

January: Skryim Werewolves

AAAAWWWOOOO~!

February: Voodoo & Necromancy

My theme for February was Voodoo and Necromancy. The irony doesn’t escape me that I had my best creative boost (focused on morbid/macabre themes), right before the pandemic hit.

March-April: Roaring 3020s Gameplay!

These 2 months were all about my futuristic-Asian-scifi-artdeco/nouveau save in Oasis Landing, where I give the backstory of how Sakura and Ryuu first met. I always describe Sakura as a faery from the future, and this is what I mean by that; she’s a jet-setting time-traveler. Y’all seemed to really like my posts of Sakura this month, particularly her arrival in Oasis Landing in March, and her One Four All challenge in April. But by far the post that got the most attention were my WIPs of Hotel Luck at the end of April, the headquarters of Ryuu’s best friend Lucky’s club.

May: Green Isle, and Malec’s Wedding!

May was totally dominated by my run-through of @crowkeeperthesimmer ‘s Green Isle (Beta) world. But the most emotionally driven gameplay pics I posted this month were actually from my Shadowhunters saves, where I finally got around to recreating Malec’s wedding, which I posted on their 1st year anniversary. ^_^ *blasts Ruelle*

June: Rainbows! 🌈

I started the month still gushing about how pretty Green Isle is, which was great, cuz it was Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈 Because the events of Summer 2020 were downright disgusting, I had Bartros & Nagron, and Gwynburn & Malec do community work in honor of LGBT+ and Black Lives Matter solidarity.

July: Bleach Gameplay starts!

I have been dying to start sharing my Bleach inspired gameplay for months. Bleach is one of my Top 5 fave anime, quite possibly even Top 3 (it’s tied with Attack on Titan). So I tried my best to do the anime justice in TS3, giving me recreation of Episode 1, when Ichigo Kurosaki becomes a shinigami. I plan on doing A LOT more; it’s just gonna take awhile.  

August: Sakura & Ryuu in What? Magazine

Technically, my Sim Bin Collage Pt2 got the most notes this month, but that’s not really gameplay. Even though I posted a bunch of Dragon Age gameplay, people were far more interested in Sakura’s post, particularly my fake What Magazine post, where I trolled y’all with a tabloid spread of Sakura and Ryuu caught by the paps getting frisky in the park.

September: Dragon Retexture WIPs Pt2

According to the Chinese, 2020 is the Year of the Rat, but I was all the way in the Year of the Dragon, baby! #SquadGoals #BoyBandRealness (And I was back in Green Isle AGAIN, lol!)

October: Dragon Master

I love Simblreen, and the Halloween season; it always puts me in a creative mood. But the best inspiration I got this year was after my anime marathon binge of the Bleach spinoff, Burn the Witch, which gave me the idea to make dragons as functional magic broomsticks. I had the occult household from my Deathless gameplay test out all the CC I made for Simblreen. Everyone seemed to really like that, and I was so happy!

November: Shinto Shrine vs DA:I - Tevinter

Another classic example of the photosets I did the bare minimum on that get like twice the amount of notes as posts I’m insanely proud of. XD

I try to upload CC at least once a month, but I’ve had such low motivation this year that come November I was scrambling trying to think of something to make. Then TS4′s Snowy Escape EP came out and I was like BINGO. So I did all of that in a few days, really quickly, and cracked open my Moon Medicine save to test the CC & take pics. No big.

But I’ve been working hard on my Dragon Age INSP gameplay & pics for well over a YEAR, and I had been so excited to start posting my Tevinter gameplay with Dorian Pavus. That Blood Magic post got far less traction, but that’s like the best photoset I think I made all year. Crazy how Tumblr works. :\

December: A Bunch of Stuff Happened, Holy Cow!

First there was the Pinterest Challenge, which y’all really seemed to like. Then I did another installment of BrennaIvy’s Modern Male Project (which got the most notes for December). Then I did Magnus Bane’s birthday post for the Shadowhunters fandom, which is usually one of my more popular posts. But then I posted my WIPs of my Maximalism set, and y’all really REALLY liked that one, so basically I was so so happy this December! :D

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Thank you everybody, followers, mutuals, lurkers, and all simmers who continue to support me and The Sims 3, and like my content!

Happy Simming, and Happy New Year!

[dramatastuff]

tommysittichok ขอบคุณนิตยสาร mangu มากๆครับ 谢谢曼谷杂志和中国粉丝！我爱你们！

Q1: Please introduce WHYRU the series and your roles in it. Tommy: I play Zon who likes scifi and is rich of imagination. He doesn’t think much when doing things which is different me. Jimmy: I play Saifah. He is good at playing guitar and very popular among girls. He considers himself as the greatest musician in the uni. He feels good about himself which is quite annoying lol.

Q2: How was the atmosphere on the set? Who is the most active one? T: The atmosphere was very joyful. If you ask the most active one, it would definitely be me lol! To be honest, many people are active. For example p’poppy, he was very interesting and active. He made jokes with almost every crew member. He was the source of fun for the crew. J: I think P’Tonnam was active too. He was fun in the series and also in life. He loves watching relaxing and funny stuff, so he is also interesting.

Q3: What the most impressive scene in WHYRU for you? T: I love last ep most. I had kissing scene with Jimmy which was also highly expected by fans. Actually I don’t have much experience of dating/being in a relationship, so I didn’t imagine much about that scene when shooting. But when we started filming, Jimmy and I were in our roles. The outcomes were pretty good so I like it very much. J: I love that scene too. Like P’Tommy has said, at first we didn’t anticipate how the scene would be like. We were thinking it was the last scene therefore we had to be in our best condition. We took car from Bangkok to Hua Hin to shoot that scene. The end product was pretty good. We are happy that fans were satisfied.

Q4: WHYRU is popular in both Thai ad China. People love it. How do you feel like this? T: Honestly speaking, we were already happy about that WHYRU was recognized and loved by Thai fans when it was released. When we knew it was also a hit in China we were really excited. I truly appreciate Chinese fans’ follow and support. J: I didn’t expect it would be favored by so many fans. I sometimes felt tired during filming but with everyone’s support it definitely makes me happy. Thank you.

Q5: Who likes teasing e/o more? T: If it’s not filming, we both like teasing e/o lol. When we were on set, Jimmy always teased me. He would come and tease/joke with me when I was focused on reading script. J: I didn’t?! I teased you when I saw you being nervous in order to help you relax. When I feel p’tommy is nervous or under pressure, I don’t want to let him face all of it alone because the pressure will be higher when you deal with it by yourself. But if it’s other things I will tease him haha.

Q6: What’s the most attractive thing about e/o? What do you like about e/o most (appearance)? J: p’tommy is considerate and caring. When friends need help, he is always the first one to help. The personality of him being willing to help people is what I like most and also one of the most attractive things about him. I like p’tommy’s eyebrows because they’re cool and handsome. T: Jimmy’s attractiveness? I think everything about him is great. Jimmy is charmingly naughty, but in fact he is very independent. I like his eyes. I love his small eyes haha.

Q7: If you two travel together where would you want to go? J: I like climbing mountains, If I could go climbing with p’tommy, we could go camping, sing, play guitar. It would be of great fun. T: We would definitely go to the mountains haha. We both like mountains, like the cool temperature and fresh air.

Q8: What do you like to eat most? Could you recommend a Thai dish for Chinese fans? J: I like Ramen and curry. I extremely love curry I love every food with curry. I want to recommend yellow curry which is a special cuisine in southern Thai. It’s really delicious. Hope Mii2 fans can come and taste it. T: wow I can name numerous if it’s about food but I love salmon most. As for Thai dishes, I love stir-fried Malindjo leaves with egg (Bai Lieng Pad Kai, I googled this not sure if it’s right lol). I would recommend Nam leap for Mii2 fans.

Q9: Last question, what do you want to say to fans? T: I am working on my single. I’ve finished recording and am now filming MV. Hope I can present it to you this year. Besides, please follow DoMunDi Tv season 4. There will be new contents about me and Jimmy. At last, thank you for your support. We will bring more surprises for you. J: Filming MV? I’m also in p’tommy’s mv lol. Here I want to share a most important thing— saifahzon’s story hasn’t ended! P’tommy and I will bring another story which is under preparation so we cannot reveal too much hahaha! Please keep following us. We will work harder with your love and support!

[Translation by @nice2mii2u on Instagram]