#its so important to watch and understand part 1 to understand the themes of the entire series

[anongalactic]

I feel like there's a lot of fundamental misunderstandings about how hamon and vampires work in jjba, and I think that's so tragic. Hamon has gained the reputation of being just "magic sunlight karate," but it's so much more. Hamon is the energy of life, it's found in the ever rippling motion in everything. It beats in our blood, flows in the waves, shines from the sun, blooms from flowers, the air we breathe. It's intrinsically tied to motion and to life itself. Everyone and everything has hamon, its just that hamon warriors have been trained to harness it.

Jonathan's hamon abilities are so strong from the very beginning because he's so full of love and passion, all for the people and things he cared about so fiercely. What he's channeling isn't the sun, it's life itself. The most painfully symbolic part of hamon as a concept is that it's what ties all living things together. the very nature of human connection is brought from hamon.

Dio failed to ever truly connect with anyone else in life, when he kills someone to drain their blood it is like he's severing that person's love, relationships, their passion for living-- its so much more than just eating a couple prostitutes sometimes. Vampires don't feed on people just because, they drink blood to sustain their hamon. They have to leech the very essence of life, of human love and joy, to keep going because they lacked those things in life. Dio becoming a vampire is just as symbolic as it is literal.

Vampires at their core represent self-sabotaging, bitter, lonely people who refuse to let others in. The only way they can live is by killing others, severing human connection and happiness and love and destroying it with them. They don't get happier themselves, they just destroy.

Vampires are killed by the truth of human connection and passion being blasted straight into their faces. They are born from self-hatred and loneliness, a lust for the peace and happiness that escapes them, a violent urge to destroy what they struggle to obtain. To live is to love, and to be undead is to yearn.

[kaleen-art]

Lupin Movie Marathon Analysis #1

The Mystery of Mamo (Lupin VS. The Clone)

Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo has been a long standing favorite Lupin movie of mine. When I originally watched it, I couldn’t stand it due to its adult content, but since then, I have not only grown to like it, but I think it’s one of my favorite pieces of Lupin media, period. However, it had been a long time since I watched the full movie by myself, so I decided to put on the Blu-ray and watch it again.

Mamo has always been a movie with a lot of complex themes I like to explore, but I noticed something new this time, as well as coming to new conclusions about previous realizations. So join me in my lengthy analysis/report on Mamo, the most insane masterpiece of a film ever made.

At face value Mamo is just a stupid silly Part 2-like romp. Released in 1978, it reflects a trend amongst Lupin media at the time to be closer to the original manga and Masaaki Osumi’s Part 1 work in tone. For this movie, they even got back a significant portion of the early Part 1 staff in order to bring back this grittier, less bubbly Lupin. His characterization here is notably close to the original manga. But where Mamo succeeds (and Part 2 fails, in my opinion) is the fact that there is depth to Lupin’s character. Unlike Part 2 which has very little stakes, we see Lupin pushed to his absolute limit as the film breaks him down as a person. In a way, the movie is a sort of character study on him. But in order to study Lupin as a person, we have to see how the people around him are affected by, and affect him. Primarily, Fujiko Mine.

Fujiko’s characterization in this movie is perfect. This movie captures something I find a majority of Lupin fails to understand. Fujiko is exactly like Lupin. She is just as calculated and manipulative as him, Lupin just has more practical skill in place of where Fujiko utilizes her beauty to get the things she wants. They don’t even listen to their partners in crime (Lupin with Jigen and Goemon, Fujiko with Mamo) as they lust after each other (while secretly planning to deceive them). They are both horrible people, and therefore are made for each other. The movie drives this point home when Lupin even says him and Fujiko are bound together and can’t be separated, to Mamo. But there’s another character Lupin is bound to.

Zenigata, as he usually does, serves as Lupin’s foil. While Mamo is the actual villain of the movie, Zenigata is always there behind Lupin. In a way, he’s kind of a parallel to Fujiko, because he’s the only other one who never leaves Lupin’s side. And as Delaney Jordan denotes in her amazing video essay on Mamo, in Lupin’s subconscious, the only people who appear are Zenigata and Fujiko. They are the only ones who truly stand to challenge him in comparison to his other partners, which is why he subconsciously holds them in such high esteem. To analogize it, Jigen and Goemon are there to catch Lupin when he falls, while Fujiko and Zenigata are the ones who pushed him off.

On the topic of Jigen and Goemon, they are also very important characters to Lupin in this movie, but in a way, they both serve the same plot purpose. They both act as a sort of conscience to Lupin, keeping him in check throughout the movie, and judging his actions. That is up until they leave (which is very unexpected, especially at the time when the movie came out. If you had been watching the weekly Part 2, it was common to hear Jigen and Goemon bitch about Fujiko, but to see them pushed so far to the limit that they abandon Lupin? It was plain unusual to see.) It’s not until they’re both away from Lupin that we get to see the true side of Lupin. One without refrain. And that’s a good thing for him, because that’s the only Lupin that could go against Mamo.

Mamo is a particularly interesting villain because he’s almost like the anti-Lupin. As one of my friends (@curleyclown) described it, Mamo is an unstoppable force to Lupin’s immovable object. While Mamo is constantly growing more and more intelligent and trying to change time itself, Lupin is a stubborn person opposed to change. And that might be Mamo’s most prevalent theme. The main cast’s refusal to change. The characters don’t grow or change as people, they don’t mature, they end the movie the exact same people they were when it started. And though Mamo tried to influence them through his actions, likely knowing Fujiko would pull Lupin, Jigen and Goemon apart, he was unsuccessful because these characters just aren’t capable of growth. Lupin even remarks this himself about Jigen when twice in the movie, once in the beginning and once near the end, he calls Jigen a unchanging classic. Even a line that seems just like a throwaway joke has depth in this film.

Another thing I love is the movie’s emphasis on Lupin’s subconscious. When Mamo enters the mind of Lupin, he’s stunned by Lupin not dreaming, but later on in the film, when Jigen is arguing with Lupin, Lupin says he had his dream stolen from him, and Jigen asks if he's referring to Fujiko. This is genius. The reason Mamo couldn’t see Lupin’s dream was because Mamo had taken it from him. This might be one of my favorite parts in the whole movie.

My favorite part about the theming in the movie though are the biblical parts. Mamo’s claim to be God isn’t just said through dialogue, the movie continually showcases this visually. Behind Mamo in this shot (see first image below paragraph) is Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Man”, which showcases God creating Adam, the first man. Many people have remarked that you can see the silhouette of a brain in the background shapes behind God (see second image below paragraph), and when Mamo reveals his true form at the end of the movie– (see third image below paragraph) Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s brilliant foreshadowing.

Furthermore, Mamo compares him and Fujiko to Adam and Eve many times which, as said in the Streamline dub, makes Lupin the snake.

Overall, The Mystery of Mamo has a really engaging plot with really good character writing and themimg. But it’s not just that I love about Mamo. The art is gorgeous, and in my opinion, is better than Cagliostro. While Cagliostro has smoother animation, Mamo’s limited animation works really well with the manga inspired artstyle, making it more distinctive, and because they saved time and money by using less character animation, they were able to put more into other aspects of the movie. The movie’s camera shots are really well done and always have a really interesting perspective to them. Additionally the meshing-together of live action materials and animation (such as the scene with Fujiko overlaid on top of a ton of breasts) is really unique, especially for its time. My final note is about the scene where Goemon chops Flinch’s head in 3 and the frame literally gets chopped. It is jaw-droppingly awesome and always impresses my friends when I show them the movie.

The music is also really good. It’s nothing too remarkable as a lot of the music is in Part 2, but its placement in the movie is very nice and I especially love some of the timed cues. The music cue in the scene where Lupin clicks on Fujiko’s nipple (that’s a sentence, alright) is hilarious to me. 

Now we get to another really long section. The voice acting. The voice acting in the Japanese version is absolutely fantastic, all the voice actors deliver a really great performance and you can just hear the psychoticness in Yasuo Yamada’s Lupin. Kou Nishimura’s Mamo is very distinctive and very fitting for the character. And of course the rest of the cast, as usual, deliver a great performance. But of course, I can’t mention Mamo and voice acting while not discussing the 4 English dubs.

Toho’s dub’s script is actually quite decent and it’s a competent dub given it was made in 1979 but the voice acting is rough and because it hasn’t been well preserved, the audio quality isn’t great. Overall, it’s a 5/10.

I adore Streamline’s dub. The script is accurate while simultaneously maintaining really good flow. The voice actors are also amazing and I love Bob Bergen’s performance as Lupin, as well as Edie Mirman’s Fujiko. They both have that perfect energy for their characters and I love their performances. Steve Bulen’s Jigen is also great, my friend (@theshmeepking) always describes him as sounding like a “weed dealer”. Ardwight Chamberlain’s Goemon and David Povall’s Zenigata are also fantastic. Overall, my favorite dub of the movie, 9/10. I just wish it maintained Lupin’s line about Fujiko being his dream. 

Manga’s dub is overall forgettable and the script is littered with out of place cursing. It’s an adult movie, sure, but it just feels tonally inappropriate in my opinion. Voice acting is decent, though I find Bill Dufris’s Lupin a little grating. Audio quality is better than Toho but still rough. Overall, I give it a Dyslexic Zenigata/10 (Zenigata actually says he’s dyslexic, I’m not kidding.)

And then we have the ever-popular Geneon dub. I don’t particularly care for the modern Tony Oliver cast, but I will say, their performances in this aren’t bad even if I don’t personally care for the voices. I find Michelle Ruff’s Fujiko a little unfitting for her depiction in Mamo though. My main problem is the script that deviates way too much from the Japanese original and adds in a ton of unfitting jokes. It’s a fine dub if you’re watching the movie as a fun “turn your brain off” romp, but personally, I don’t think it’s a good adaptation of the original Japanese version.

On that note, that’s about all my collected thoughts on The Mystery of Mamo. This is definitely one of my favorite Lupin films, and maybe just films in general. I don’t have much more to say, but overall I give it a solid 9.5/10. I'd like to give a special shoutout to Delaney Jordan, whose video essay on Mamo was a huge inspiration not only for this, but for my passion for Lupin analyses in general. I'd also like to thank @curleyclown and @eva-of-the-sea for reading my WIPs for this essay. And finally, join Cagliostro Central, the Lupin server I co-own. I usually post the WIPs in question there.

I hope you enjoyed reading this ramble-analysis! I’m doing a Lupin movie marathon, so next up is The Castle of Cagliostro! Stay tuned.

[absolutebl]

Okay, FINE, the shows you should watch for BL's QUEER AF roots

You ready to go hunting?

Many of these are difficult to find. Also many of the images of them and their posters have been block/banned by tumblr, so, no screen grabs for you! (Good times.)

I don't necessarily *like* any of these, but if you are queer and in this fandom and need to dialogue around BL's queerness - these are going to provide a foundation for you. They are important for various industry, reputation, directorial, and cultural reasons. As seeds often are.

Trigger warnings throughout.

The true beginnings:

Boys Love, Japan's 2006 movie is a REALLY rough start featuring a journalist + hot model = murder gay, mild necrophilia, cheating, abuse, rape, and suicide for love. Start as you mean to go on, why don't you, Japan? Is it queer... maybe? Is it BL... honey, I am very sorry to inform you, this started BL.

Note: Yoshikazu Kotani is famous in og BL circles since he acted in 3 early BLs, both Boys Loves and then Same Difference. Also he v tall and hawt.

Eternal Summer, Taiwan 2006 - unlike Japan, Taiwan did NOT start how it would, eventually, go on. But what a messy way to start. A high school story of 3 besties in a love triangle, self discovery, and sexual awakening that fucks it all up.

No Regret, Korea 2006, is a very unhinged queer catastrophe piece about a lost gay man who ends up a host and then almost a murderer because of both his job and his identity.

Note: This is the directorial feature film debut of Lee-Song Hee-il Korea's (so far as I know) first openly gay director who specialized (to this day) in queer content.

The Love of Siam, Thailand 2007, this was Thailand's queer awakening, sure they would backpedal for YEARS after, but in 2022 they began to remember what this movie was (and did) and overtly referenced this quiet little masterpiece. This movie is sad but stunning in that way that the best queer works from Thailand can be (like Present Perfect or ITSAY.) It has Thailand's quintessential softness around theme and character, which you'll understand perfectly when highlighted against the backdrop of the early 2000s works from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Thailand will never lose this soft style and it's one of the most attractive qualities of Thai BL: it's never very harsh with us or its characters. This movie very easily COULD have been quite harsh indeed.

I thought long and hard about including Rice Rhapsody AKA Hainan Chicken Rice (Hainan ji fan) on this list and finally decided it doesn't really qualify. Still let me mention Hong Kong's 2005 movie. It is amazing, fascinating, and very rough going for an ostensible comedy. It wasn't the actual beginning because few saw it and Hong Kong never really picked up or ran with BL let alone QL, but it was hella queer. It's also hella homophobic.

Just Friends? (2009 Korea) - this is Korea's first (kinda) upbeat version of a BL featuring already established boyfriends, one of whom is on military leave, trying to decide on coming out, family life, and the future. All of these are themes Korea will pretty much never tackle again, retreating as they would to their bubble. But what a fun little offering this little show was and is to this day. You should watch it.

Like Love 1 AKA I Love You As A Man: Part 1 - China's 2014 offering is actually pretty classic early form live action yaoi with things like whipping boy, a university setting, rich/poor jock/nerd pairing, hard grumpy/sunshine and a very odd title. It's pre-censorship with an HEA, also explicit, yeah China once did that. This is a lot less queer that it is classic BL and classic Chinese romance, neither of which have any kind of connection to reality. But hey, that's what I'm here for. But it's important to note the drifting away from queerness beginning to occur.

Love Sick - Thailand's 2014 "boys in blues shorts" high school set soapy (in all ways) offering is widely considered the true beginning of Thai BL and by default, eventually, BL as we know it today. (As the biggest producer they somewhat dictate taste and trends in the genre.) This is one of those BLs that owes almost nothing to yaoi, although it started a number of tropes that are now endemic to Thai BL. What it is, instead, is a well scripted story of bisexual self-discovery and the inherent chaos of loving someone of the same gender for the first time, all wrapped up in hormones, existing relationships, and communication issues. It is high school queer angst at its messiest. Nothing is going to be easy for these boys because queer isn’t easy but also because life isn’t easy… welcome to adulthood sweethearts. Is is overtly queer? For 2014 Thailand? Sure is.

Love Next Door 2 a movie from 2014 and one of Thailand’s early very high heat pieces, it’s odd, but sexy I guess? Some unexpectedly decent queer rep including femme characters getting screen time + HEAs. (Part one from 2013 has the same high heat content and features the same lead character (and actor) discovering he is gay with the sex worker next door, but isn't as good nor is it relevant to this installment.)

A few other unknowns, for the queer babies

Wait For Me at Udagawachou AKA Udagawachou de Matteteyo - from Japan in 2015, this is a story about two boys in high school one of whom is a repressed outsider and the other who has a terrible secret (body dysmorphia & cross dressing). When the first boy discovers what's up with the second one, his reaction is very much fetishization. "Oh Japan must you?" kinda started for me with this show. But in this case, Japan, weirdly MUST. This is the ONLY show laboring under (and testing) a pointedly straight lens (or is it?) and identity examination (yes but which boys' identity? that's the question) that I've EVER seen even edge into the BL genre. It is crazy queer, even as it mostly focuses on the fetishization of identity from an outsider's perspective. I WISH more people in fandom would watch it so I could at least talk to someone about it.

The Lover (BL Cut) Korea's 2015 series had multiple couples in an apartment complex, one pair of whom is a BL romance between a Korean man and a visiting Japanese tourist (played by a Kpop idol). It's comedic, slapstick sexy only (no kissing), but basically starts up Korea's bubble and use of idols in BL. It's kinda fascinating to watch them dodge around and still represent gayness in what (is sadly destined to become) a very Chinese way, but which Korea in pursuit of Hallyu and market share would morph into the bubble.

Mr. X and I from China in 2015 is a compilation piece and, I think, the first of this kind of multiple narrative shorter grab bags AKA "Sampler Pack BL." Two of the stories are very queerly sad, but the third is CLASSIC BL of the kind that would become China's best (and last) true BL, Addicted.

Sweet Boy, (Thai 2016) Chimon's first gay role and it is quite sad, oddly sexy, and similar to Dew the movie or My Bromance (just so you know what you are in for) but the acting is on point. When Thailand goes dark, this is how they do it, but this is rough going for baby queers because that's the darkness it is exploring. Our old thematic friends: the pain of self discovery and coming out into a homophobic environment and unfriendly reality, and the cost of being the one able (and willing) to stay in the closet.

Method (Korea 2017) this movie is a May/December actor/idol pairing, that should have been everything I wanted in life but is more about the older character cheating on his wife and their weird “artsy” relationship and frankly, I hated it. And I don’t say that lightly. Is it queer? Who tf knows, but is sure has some interesting things to say about the nature of PERFORMATIVE queerness.

Red Balloon is Taiwan's 2017 precursor BL to their biggest and most famous prestige piece Your Name Engraved Herein. If you're making a choice, choose that instead, but this series certainly paved the way for it to come into existence. Both shows tackle the pressures of culture and social structures on self acceptance and identity and the loneliness inevitably caused by conflict between the two.

(As indeed does Life Love On The Line, Present Perfect, Grey Rainbow, Tropical Night, My Sky, and many other queer meets early BL pieces that revolved around coming out and family acceptance.)

China's 3 2017 "they tried to censor the gay... and it went HORRIBLY wrong":

Beloved Enemy,

The Fairy Fox,

Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him.

Honestly these 3 are basically the uncanny valley of BLs.

The Novelist AKA The Pornographer series (2018-2020). Messy psychological machinations, gaslighting, fetishization, sexual corruption, and more good times from "well, what did you expect?" Japan, but also no holds barred queer, just well and truly fucked in the head (and arse) about it.

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru (Japan 2020) - Drama llama queers so queer and so dramatic it's like Japan is trying to PROVE something: obsession, cheating, break-up, reunion, then break up again, all of it explicit. This show is just SO JAPANESE. I can't even, but you should watch it and you'll know exactly what I mean. Something like My Personal Weatherman owes it's lineage to this kind of BL. If you like Japan naked, boney, emo, and smoking (hot & ciggy) you will love this, and should watch it. It's objectively amazing, I can't stand it, but I NEED people to talk about it more.

More Queer Stuff about BL from moi

BL Linguistics & Queer Identity - I Am Gay versus I Like Men 

Will BL Get More Honestly Queer? 

Actually gay, not BL gay - the idea of “by queers, for queers, about queers,” the BL bubble, sanitized gay, and a queer lens

Queer lens (from the director) and chemistry (from the actors) in BL (A Tale of Thousand Stars)

Touch & Daisy in Secret Crush On You - Queer Coded Language and 3rd Gender Identity

BL in Taiwan & Gay Marriage

Debating Queerbaiting in BL ( + Devil Judge… is it queerbaiting?) 

BL Actors and the Assumption of Queerness - outing actors, coming out, being out, more:  Is that BL actor actually queer?

So is it really fetishization? straight women loving bl 

Some BL fans are sasaengs, and it’s a problem in this fandom 

BLs That Highlight How Society Treats Queers

10 BLs That Are Honest to a Queer Experience 

If you like these kinds of shows try the "Moody Arthouse Smackdoodle" section of this post too.

Happy watching!

(source)

[yahoodarling]

Ayato/Thoma x SelfAware Gn Reader part 1 6.5k words

General warnings (not all themes are present in this post): yandere themes, mentions of suicide(in theory and enacted) and major spoilers for Inazumas quest line including character stories. 

Author note here: I understand the narrative style of this fic is going to be a little bit different than usual. This fic highlights a lot of internal thoughts and justifications so the description of things isn't as ‘fluid’ as normal. I hope you enjoy it anyway.  I want to post this as a ‘teaser’ of sorts but mainly to see how it gets received. The next update would be the completed fic. I see it potentially reaching 17/20k words but if people don't like the style then i'll just have to see. 

It's disgusting. It is discomfort incarnate to have such foresight into the fate of the world and yet be bound to its own laws of destiny, especially when what you were sure was to take place is altered. You no longer have any ground of understanding except the uncanny feeling that things are not as they should be, to be so similar and yet be so changed. You knew things will end up alright, as long as you do not interfere then Inazumas political warfare will reach a peaceful end and it did. You watched, noted those ‘special’ to the world, those who have a story, a life, a reason and you took the responsibility of not getting involved and it worked. You became an npc, avoided any confrontation with those deemed ‘special’, avoided any influence in the ‘plot’, watched as a hero came, a nation saved and a people newly united. It worked. Your foresight was correct yet… things changed. With no base to rely on, how were you to know what the ‘future’ must be, how were you to know what to avoid, who to avoid and what minor choice may change a future?

The hero has left, gone to Sumeru you guess, no, you know, you know the hero leaves for a new nation but so has your foresight and with that comes the change.

The one day gathering supplies, one day speaking to a fellow npc to fill some sort of social need, one day being in the ‘dark’ and you've caused a spark.

“Oh Aoi, good morning to you!”

He didn't speak to you, it was directed to the npc shopkeep you were chatting with and yet it grabbed your attention. Thoma is ‘special’, Thoma is relevant and so he must be avoided and you failed. 

Thoma spoke of how lovely the nights have been, of the soft whistles of sea, even to npcs Thoma was a gentleman starting conversation. He then noted how ‘unique’ your eyes are, a depth to them hes never seen before. That comment frightened you, made you rush to leave, to stop the change. Quickly you felt a hand on your shoulder,

“Please excuse my rudeness but how about we have a stroll? I know its unfair of me to ask a stranger such a thing but… you remind me of a home away from home, if you would grant me such a pleasure that is.” he ended with a chuckle.

You have been so realistic up to this point, so good at avoiding ‘change’ but you have a heart and knew all too well that whatever feeling Thoma is experiencing is something important to him. You have a heart and so you accept.

A single light hearted stroll became a weekly meet at the shop front, ‘coincidentally’, which became a personal relationship which became a friend. It's alright though, Thomas is a social guy, he's close with many npcs who never impacted the ‘plot’, you can be one such npc, that's fine. Change is fine. 

It's not fine. Meeting with Thoma you eventually met with other ‘special’ individuals you knew by name before they even knew of your existence. It's a weird feeling to know a person before getting to meet them, all the private details, their worries, their joys and yet to remain oblivious.

“A formal greeting from the Kamisato Clan, I am glad to see Thoma has a new friend. Do treat him well, sadly I must make short of this meet.” and the man who is most likely the most influential to whatever ‘plot’ is to come of Inazuma greeted. Kamisato Ayato was amongst your top ‘DO NOT ENGAGE’ list other than the archon herself and yet somehow naive bliss and a VERY convincing plea(almost suspiciously good) from Thoma to have lunch by the beaches near the residence of the Kamisato Clan lead you right into his ‘life’.

You have no ‘life’, you are meant to have no ‘life’, no value or effect and yet by each interaction with those deemed ‘special’ by the world your plans crumble.

Ayato then promptly bowed and walked out the residents gate, a body guard joining him as he started his track along the path you had just taken towards the city.

“ah right, he has that meeting. A pity, if his schedule was more open id have asked for him to join us.” Thoma turned to you with a quick hesitant smile, “he's really not as imposing as you may think he is. ah well… maybe he still is but just in a different way then what the people expect. If you'd like, maybe I could let you know when my lord and I are doing something casual, if you would be comfortable with that of course.  I forget just how intimidating the idea of being casual with a clan lord can be to someone who doesn't know him as well as I do.”

“Thank you for the offer Thoma but i'd like it if we just kept it the two of us. You are right, the idea is a little frightening right now.” 

You knew what Thoma meant by all that, he means that Ayato is a genuine person underneath his political mask. Ayato is a brother, a friend and a man caring for those deemed under his protection and to those lucky enough to see under his mask they may be met with the unlucky fate of becoming a target to his mischievous nature. 

Still, the idea of getting involved with someone so influential is nauseating even if just for something ‘casual' as Thoma has in mind. In truth you shouldn't even be here, here near the Kamisato Clan, here near someone like Thoma, here in Teyvat in the first place. You shouldn't be here. 

“I see, that's expected haha.” Thoma smiled at you wildly, reaffirmed at the idea of something going on in his mind (if only knowing what said idea was was as easy as opening a character profile and reading a line directly out of his thoughts) “Well we are still here for a good time. Let me get that blanket and pillows for the beach quickly. You are going to love it!” Thoma quickly skipped into the yard of the clans walls while you waited outside and watched as the npcs you recognized pattered around the area. 

That one person at the commission board, you had forgotten his name by now after fulfilling Inazumas reputation months ago. There was the old lady sweeping in the yard, what did she comment on again? … … it never came to you, it was all forgetful anyway. 

A sudden feeling of envy hit you. They were forgetful, oh how lovely that would be to ease your nerves. To know that each day the sun rises you can follow your coded script without fear of altering the fate of the very universe by the time the sun goes down. Wow, you've messed up haha. 

Thoma returned quickly as promised, a blanket and two pillows clutched under one arm as a basket was held in another but probably most heavy of all was the giant smile on his face, wrinkling his cheeks with a sense of genuine happiness. No wonder you messed up, it would be impossible to say no to him. It's all his fault and yet you felt you could never put the blame on him. 

“Well, sorry to have starved you of your lunch for so long, we are nearly there and I can't wait to see your reaction.” Thoma then lead you through a short path of the surrounding forest and down towards the beach. 

Perhaps your recollection of the game isn't accurate, you could have sworn a group of enemies should be nearby the beach here but all along the coast line was just gentle laps of the waves apon white sand. Thoma layed out the blanket with little worries evident on his face, he placed both pillows down then removed his shoes, each unclad foot stepping on the blanket to avoid spreading sand all over it, you promptly did the same, sitting down and placing the basket you had down next to his. 

“This place is lovely at any time of the day but especially during sunset, I would have asked for you to join then but I feared it would make things inconvenient for you but still, spending the afternoon here is just lovely nonetheless.” he criss crossed his legs and then beamed at you.

“Come on then, don't keep me waiting, i'm dying to try out one of your baked goods.”

Right. One of the first things you did when you realized you were now living in the game was (panic, cry, internally scream in confusion as to how this has happened and if your world will keep on going and you aren't in it) actually to set up an identity for yourself. Running around and claiming to have come from another world and how you somehow know very personal details of select people and the future fate of the nation would lead to either your banishment or a future altered and possibly worse where peace was not founded, the resistance killed off and the entire plot of the ‘game’ thrown off. Not a good idea. Instead you tried to incorporate yourself into the ‘npc lifestyle’ as quickly as possible. You came up with a backstory that befit this world, you are a failed Sumeru scholar who has come to Inazuma to lead a new simple life outside of your failures. (In truth you stole inspiration for the backstory from some npc you think was on Sangonomiya Island.) It makes sense, people you tell won't  ask you more about your past details in fear of being insensitive and Sumeru scholars are sometimes brought to Inazuma. You explained your (fake) predicament to a shop vendor who referenced you to the local baker who took you on. Now you bake goods behind the walls, don't face any customers and have a very npc-like backstory and job. You set yourself up well which was helped by all the knowledge you have of this world. Too bad you messed up all that work and are sat in front of someone ‘special’. Maybe you can salvage the situation, maybe it's not as bad as you think it is, you only have ‘maybes’ which isn't helpful since you had a ‘definitely’ to rely on before Inazumas ‘quest’ was finished by the hero. 

You just smile at Thoma and reach your basket. “I made some simple bread rolls and brought some butter and jam but I also made some black sesame biscuits before leaving work. Thanks again for convincing my boss to let me off early today, things get busy there.”

“Not a problem, I don't often take days off either but I think I just needed a break today and imagined it would be a nice chance to get to know you more. How about you pass me one of your rolls in exchange for a serving of okonomiyaki? Sorry it's probably cold by now but should still be good.” He reached into his basket taking out some wooden containers as well as some cloths, likely for cleaning any spillages, and handed you one with you exchanging and giving him a roll and butter from your pack. 

You both nibbled at each other's creations, the bread rolls were still slightly warm on the inside since you had baked them before leaving, which Thoma commented on how lovely it is with the butter. The okonomiyaki you took pieces out of was cold but packed with various spices and toppings which really highlighted Thomas skills. 

“I just love that we can do this!” Thoma announced after his last bite. “I love getting to make and share things with friends, it's touching the combined effort put into it as well as the delicious outcome we get to enjoy. Haha, my lord and I do a similar thing but its outcome is not as enjoyable as warmed bread and butter, if anything it's concerning haha. Remember how earlier I said how he can be a little intimidating, our little cook outs are one such example. I really have to steel myself for those.” he chuckled and then leaned down on his elbows.

Once again, what he's trying to explain is something you already know of but need to act oblivious to. You have to convince yourself to be unaware and yet need to be aware enough to avoid ‘changing’ anything, this task has grown rather wearing but is essential to keep up your act. 

“Oh? How could cooking together turn out so threatening? You two are close though.”

He laughed

“It's because we are close that he feels he can torment me with his cooking. I swear, i'm surprised i haven't kneeled over and died yet. Worst part is he knows its tomenting, it's the best part to him! Agh- i've had so many of my own treats i've made be ruined by whatever his plan is. Haha, its amusing to look back on but just so daunting in the moment. When I said we could do something ‘casual’ with him I do not mean having one of these cook outs haha, I could never subject you to that.” 

The nature of the conversation stayed light hearted, you both exchanging from your baskets while sharing stories or light hearted moments, you had altered your side of things a little, you spoke truth of personal events but under the filter to fit with your backstory, that way lies couldn't catch up with you or forgetting lots of little made up details. The outing was rather pressuring in concept, so much could go wrong since you are involved, but in reality it was very nice. You had kept yourself back a lot when it comes to building relationships with the people around you in fear of your influence potentially changing something important but you are still human and still have social needs but even people like your boss, coworkers and the shop vendors you chat with in passing never fit what it meant to have a friend, to have someone to sit next to and simply have a good time with. 

Maybe you've been in this world for too long, you fear you may slip into making a ‘normal’ life here now that you've had a taste of what it means to ‘live’.

The sun started moving, waves became more rash upon the shore and the signs of the afternoon turning to evening became evident. You started packing up your basket and containers, lightly chatting on with Thoma about the seaside. To the side you heard footsteps and Thoma sat himself up straight to look at the oncomer. 

“Oh! Done with the meeting my lord?”

Your hand slipped in fright, the container lid clattering as you tried to put it with its matching box. Shit, why is he here? Shouldn't Ayato be too busy? Isn't that one of his whole character points? Not once was ‘strolls on the beach’ mentioned in any of his character lines. You looked up and smiled at him in greeting, your face tugged up tensely and trying very hard to look at ease. You decided it would be easier to let Thoma handle him and just got back to packing your things away. 

“Good evening to you too,” he chuckled softly and shifted his gloves, “the meet is done without any problems. When I got back home I wondered if you were still out here, seems I was right. I can now also fix a prominent mistake of mine.”

Even though you tried your hardest to avoid eye contact and look busy it's not like you had mountains to put away, you were left empty handed with a pair of well polished shoes in front of you, their sheen contrasted with the speaks of sand now defiling them. You took a breath in and looked up properly to meet his gaze. 

“I do apologize for being so rash earlier, I would have liked a proper introduction. As you can surmise i am Ayato, Thoma has mentioned of you before and I am glad to have the honor of meeting you in person.” he smiled in greeting, no doubt he would have offered a hand or a bow if you both were at the same height but for now a smile would do. 

“Right, it is truly an honour Lord Ayato. Thank you for extending your welcome to me.” you bowed slightly.

He laughed slightly, deeply amused. 

“Do just call me Ayato in private like this and last I recall, yes my property is in the area but that doesn't warrant me the entire beach side. In truth I have not welcomed you at all.” 

Thoma sighed slightly, “My lord please don't tease them so readily, I would like to eventually re invite them here but I can't do that if you've scared them away.”

“Of course, maybe then I can truly offer my welcome and they may join us to tea in the confines of the clan.”

Thoma sighed again at the slight continuation of Ayato's mischief. You took the opportunity of their exchange as an opening and stood up.

“Thank you for the food today Thoma and for bringing me to such a lovely place. I'll get going before it gets too late.”

“Oh, let me walk you back then.”

You shook your head in defiance, “No need, I know the way and it doesn't make sense for you to walk all the way just to have to return. Bringing me here was amazing in itself.”

You turned to Ayato and bowed again, less in respect and more so to keep away from eye contact. 

“Thank you again Lord Ayato. Stay well.” and quickly you make your way off the sands of the beach and towards the trek back home into the outer city. 

Thoma and Ayato stayed still, simply watching you go in silence until you were out of eyesight. It was Ayato that broke the silence.

“You are sure they do not carry any ill intent?” he said monotonously, still looking at the spot you disappeared to.

“I am sure. They are a decent person and I double checked, they don't have a past linked to any organization. Sure they are rather anxious, I see it often, a little skittish at times and slightly paranoid but it's not at the prospect of the clan. Haha, if you've taught me anything it's to be aware of people's intentions, if anything they are trying to run away rather than to get close. I can assure you, they don't have an agenda against the clan.”

Ayato breathed out, then turned himself to properly look at Thoma, his face relieved. “If that's your judgment it must be true then.”

…

An odd moment of silence spread between the two of them on the beach, both looking out as the sky took on warmer hues of yellow and orange clashing with its deeper blues. 

“You've been coming here a lot more recently and to have invited a friend here as well, has your mind been on your homeland?”

Thoma chuckled and leaned back out on the blanket, now dusted with sand and corners crinkled after the day's events, “I have. Thinking about the mountains of Mondstadt and all the memories just out there across the ocean. It's not in a sad sense, not at all, it's just that recently-,” he paused, looking away from the ocean and down to his lap, slightly gnawing on his lip in thought, “recently i've felt more… connected with myself. It's a nice feeling if not slightly concerning. I feel i'm getting to know myself better but it also just clearly shows how much i have yet to discover.” He sighed, closed his eyes and fully laid down on his back. 

Ayato looked down on his friend, doing as he does best and figuring out just what was going on in his mind, his feelings, the reasons for such feelings and the potential catalysts that brought them about. He kneeled down onto the blanket beside his friend, form straight from a lifetime of practice. 

“Does your new friend have anything to do with it?” he asks only to be met with silence, Ayato doesn't need an answer, he already knows it's true but just why that is so is still unknown.

“It isn't that you have fallen for them have you? I didn't think of you as one for love to occur after a reasonably short time.”

Thoma opened his eyes languidly and responded this time.

“I don't think it is love. Not yet but… i'd say i've definitely fallen for them haha, in whatever way that is i'm not sure but it feels… unbridled in nature.” he closed his eyes once more and shook his head at his own emotions. He tugged on a smile and relieved himself of his weighing thoughts, “So i'd appreciate it if you don't chase them away okay? I look forward to figuring out what's going on with both myself and with them.”

Ayato nodded wordlessly, not needing to disturb the quiet with a response.

…

“Ayato, did you notice the look in their eyes? It truly just- it just instantly made me feel like i was reliving my home town but also… not. It was familiar but also so foreign.”

“I hadn't gotten a good look at them in truth. They seemed rather determined in keeping their eyesight on anything but me.”

Thoma nodded in acknowledgement, “Makes sense. I do hope they warm up to the idea of the three of us doing something together eventually. Haha, once they've settled their nerves they are very comforting to talk with, I think you'd like them.”

Comfortable silence stretched along the two, the shades of yellow and orange in the sky deepening to reds and purples. 

In time Ayato stood up, no doubt with the intent of work to finish. He turned to leave before side glancing at Thoma. 

“The nobushi that often occupy these beaches, you've disposed of them correct?”

“Did it just this morning to make sure the beach was safe for today as well as to clear out the threat they bring.”

Ayato sighed in annoyance. 

“I still can't understand how those ruffians believe they outwit us, thinking being close to the clan means they may spot our vulnerabilities.” he shook his head slightly, like the ‘danger’ the oathless samurai possessed was nothing but a pesky fly. 

He then made his way back to the clan home leaving Thoma to steep in his own thoughts. 

It was after this interaction that you decided to cut things down. At first you imagined Thoma to be the safest ‘special’ person to come across, given how social he is and loved by many you could become a face in the crowd while also tending to your social needs and appeasing Thoma who, and you still wonder why, wanted to get closer to you. Following the path you've taken recently, of course you were wrong, infact Thoma should have been on that list of ‘DO NOT ENGAGE’ for the very reason you thought it was safe to, he's social. Very quickly you had realized in your time meeting with him that he would smile and wave to many walking by, one such instance was panic inducing when you noticed Yoimiya come over to greet him. Before she had fully skipped up to the both of you you had promptly dismissed yourself and ran back to the confines of your walls to avoid meeting someone so ‘special’. 

This was Thomas' problem, he is the network that is connected to so many ‘characters’ that by staying by his side means undoubtedly meeting with the others. Today's incident was clearly that, you met Ayato, you were right there at the clan bordering the line of stepping into the grounds of one of the most impactful places of Inazuma and it was Thoma that had convinced you to do so. You had been too lenient on your rules recently, too selfish. You don't follow these rules you've written up for yourself because you want to but because you know it's for the better of the future and altering such a future because you can't stay inline is selfish to every being in Teyvat that could possibly be influenced by your choices. 

To live means to influence your environment, to live means to leave an impression that proves your existence. You wish for nothing right now other than to ‘die’, be void of life and find comfort in that, to finally release the stress of what it means to have all this information of the world and not belong in it but you are still human, you have needs to fulfill and ‘dying’ is not one of them. 

It was time to cut Thoma off, it hurt because you knew it would hurt him but it would be better this way. That night you closed your eyes to rest, determined on your new path but gut wrenching in a myriad of emotions, fear, pressure, uncertainty, sadness. You haven't slept well ever since coming to this world and that night was no different. You fell asleep cursing the ground you walk on, cursing the details that swamped your mind, cursing your very existence and the trouble it causes to both this world and yourself. 

Seperating yourself from Thoma was simple, firstly you changed your shopping time, no longer ‘coincidentally’ meeting with him like you had these last few weeks. Secondly, you asked your boss for more work, that way you have an excuse. You aren't a ‘bad guy’ for just leaving Thoma, no its because work has been busy and you just don't have the time. This system worked, you hadn't stumbled on him while in the city and the few times he did come to your workplace you simply told him that you were busy and needed to get back to work. This system went on for weeks and was perfect for devoiding your existence of ‘live’, which yes was depressive, you could feel yourself go mad at the amount of work you put on yourself and lack of outlet, but it worked. The extra work did help with the issue of mora as well (the value of mora being confusing ingame where how a single egg was 400 mora and yet 1 mora is represented as a single coin but you realized quickly it was just the ingame market system) which lightened the financial strain a little. You worked from early mornings to late nights, arms dead by the end of the day. In truth you know it isn't a healthy cycle, often coming home and skipping meals just to bathe and sleep, but it was necessary. 

Inazumas rains soaked the land, luckily no thunder was present but the trek from the city to nearby village was still made difficult in the wet weather. Your eyes focusing and unfocusing, legs on autodrive walking you towards a particular customer of your workplace who the boss is very fond of. The old lady you were delivering to had been coming to the bakery for years but in her age can no longer make the walk to the city. Your boss found it mandatory to provide for such a loyal customer and so your weekly walk to deliver her breads was on the way. 

In the rain was silence, just the sound of your wet shoes on the mud and the rhythmic clank of the wooden box you carried and its latch. The world began to blur, shapes and colours combining as the rain obscure your vision and the melody of your steps, the rain's patter and the wooden latch soothed your mind. Peaceful, a sleepwalk yet not unconscious. 

Peace is never retained. 

“Look, a stray lamb. Ha! The rain brings fortune indeed.” a swallowed out voice but a few steps away from you got you out of your daze. A wandering samurai, perhaps 3 all together, walked from the side of the path towards you from the river. If this had been ingame the confrontation would be nothing more but an annoyance, 4 ‘characters’ to choose from to easily snuff them out or the option to just run away until they gave up chase. In reality this confrontation means little less than a deathly denouement. Heavily armed, well trained men with seemingly no morals and a thirst for sick entertainment against a human bering no vision, a basket of bread and a fatigued body leaves little wonder as to how this will end. Panic arose at the realization, the very human phenomenon of ‘fight or flight’ kicking in, and as a baby bird strives to the air you push off your feet, adrenaline quickly awakening your senses and urged your body to a change of direction and just as a fledgling's first flight you fall. Hard. Your mind may have awoken but your body had not caught the message, instead you lay your head in the dirt, all motive diminished, just your sad existence lay bare for a bunch of hostile mobs, stupid coding of copy paste enemies, to take your life. In all honesty this is perfect, you wish to retain as accurate to an npc life as possible? What better way than to die a meaningless death. That brought enough comfort to you to allow yourself to close your eyes (disregarding the other factors such as shock, exhaustion and most likely a concussion from the fall)

Perhaps a few of your questions will be answered now, if you die here will you reawaken into your own world? Will the months of lifetime in this fictitious game be nothing but a dream or will you truly die and merely sink into the mud as nothing more than a mistake upon this world? Neither as it seems the feeling of the rain pelting on your body ended, the sounds of swords being drawn and clashing washed away and your head, though still paining, layed on something far more welcoming than wet earth. 

“Are you regaining consciousness then?” you feel hands lean your body up, a hand moving you face side to side prompting your eyes to open. They are met with the analytically eyes of Ayato still looking over your features for whatever wear and tear you may have gathered. 

“To have fallen so gracefully in such a life threatening moment, truly your abilities are unmatched to any I have seen before. I am surprised you garner such mud and bruising, I had expected you to be dressed in only the most comfortable of clothing by the way you so effortlessly went to rest.” Oh for fucks sake-

You properly awaken, now relying on your own balance to stay sitting upright and Ayato moving his hands away only to have his eyes peering closer to you. You swipe at your face, lumps of mud clinging to your hand in turn. You heave a sigh just to gather yourself for a moment before speaking. 

“What happened? Why would you be here if it means I'm not dead? Ah- sorry,” you jumped into accusations before even giving thanks, not suspicious in the slightest, “my head is still sore. Sorry, I must thank you for rescuing me, I would be dead if not for you.” 

Ayato hummed and nodded his head. “To answer your question, I was on my way to the city before the rain started, not wanting to get wet I waited here under this shelter until I saw you stumble right into that group of noboshira and now we are sat here. As for your apology, it's accepted, you are welcome.” 

Why was he acting like this? Mischievous sure but with a slight hint of pride or cockiness in vulgar terms. Sure he's a noble but usually he adores the ‘polite lord’ act rather than ‘cocky aristocrat’. His attitude reminded you of how he interacts with those he deems ‘close’ rather than a stranger he's met only once. Yes you are close with Thoma which may influence how he sees you but surely not to the extent of you two being ‘close’ in turn. 

And still you must play the fool, be gracious and oblivious like you could never tell between his mask and his true face. 

“Thank you so much Lord Ayato, truly you've saved my life.” 

You stand to bow, to leave but he holds your wrist at the movement.

“Do not move so hastily now, the rain is still ongoing and I would not like to see a recurrence of you laying in the mud, no matter how amusing the first time may have been. Do sit back down.”

No denying that, no matter how much you wanted to make distance between the two of you, trying to run away would only cause more problems. You sit back down on the bench, a rickety structure just outside the village with hardly enough space for two. 

You look to the ground at your feet, watching as rain drops just a few inches away. Ayato sighs, made clear you have no intent of starting a conversation. Perhaps his political side kicks back in, going blunt and straight to the point. 

“You have been avoiding Thoma these last weeks, he's become distressed at the idea he's done something wrong.” you do not reply. 

“Is it because of my involvement? I understand you may be pressured by our difference in class but both Thoma and I have made it clear that should not be a problem when in private so why is it you fear me? I have seen those intimidated by my title but your anxiety runs deeper than that. I personally don't care as much but if it distracts your relation with Thoma then I suggest it should be dealt with.”

This questioning is unnerving, it is tearing right to the point where the only truth is to reveal the true origin of your situation. That cannot happen so you reply with what you usually do, not exactly a lie but a truth wrapped along with missing context. 

You fake a sigh, “My Lord I am… I am an introverted person by nature. When Thoma approached me I- I accepted his conversations not to be rude and i do genuinely enjoy being with him but i- he's a social person, I knew he was and it was uncomfortable for me to get involved but I tried it's just the moment I met with someone such as yourself, someone so… powerful I realized just how large his social circle is. I can't keep it up, being with him means being with others and I cant handle that.” it was the truth, yes you played it up a bit but hopefully it's an explanation Ayato would accept. 

“So you do not consider your friendship special enough to warrant such efforts?” 

“No!” you lift your head to him, for once properly looking at him, “It is, he is special, he is special beyond your understanding it's just that… I don't fit in, I don't belong by his side and meeting you and others just proves that.”

Ayato looked at you for a moment, seemingly lost in your words, perhaps not understanding the phrasing you used but he quickly morphed back into his usual laid back but self assured look.

“Was that your decision to make?” He let out a soft huff of air and looked forward to the oncoming rain. Why did he wish to avoid the rain? Given his character trailer where he casually accepts it, his skills being water based and summoning quite literal rain not to mention the casual manner his attacks have him kneeling right into it, how could he act so off put by walking along when the storm was hardly harsh, a summer spray in truth, you wouldn't have accepted going on this delivery if the weather was any worse.

“It's comforting. Something I can appreciate both from a distance and up close. Water has a tendency of being both stubborn and flexible, it moves as it wishes and chips away at that it deems in its way. When in motion it is hard to stop, when stagnate it proves hard to move.” 

Ayato turned back to you, eyes alight with something more than just his blue hues, they appeared with a sheen, not from the gloss of tears but of something you couldn't exactly tell what it embodied. Without a character profile to read it actually is very hard to tell what goes on in his mind. 

“Such waters remind me of you. So stubborn in some label you've put yourself under and yet so quick to wash away when it is threatened. You call such a label as being ‘introverted’ but I imagine it's something more isn't it? Perhaps it is insensitive of me to get into, from Thoma I hear you've had an unfortunate past in your time as a scholar and the depths of your reason may lay there but if you truly wish to integrate into a life in Inazuma then avoiding the people you come across, myself and especially Thoma, all under the pretext of being ‘introverted’, then you will find your burdens much heavier.”

In a very storylike fashion the rains seemed to ease, droplets turning to drizzle. Ayato stood up and readjusted his coat cuffs, “At the very least explain to Thoma your reasons, I did not exaggerate when I said he has become distraught.” 

You stood in turn, head buzzing but no longer in the previous pain. You nodded to Ayato, your anxieties haven't shown any actual proof and yet you hurt someone who has shown nothing but kindness and acceptance to you, it is wrong. 

“I will, you are right.”

Ayato offered his hand to you for a hand shake, both as an untold promise to explain yourself to Thoma and as a simple goodbye gesture, you shook it with a strong resolve. 

“I look forward to hearing more about you in the future. Do keep yourself well and avoid potential naps in the mud, it's not the most comfortable of places.” he smiled at you with a cheeky glint of amusement before turning his back and walking to the direction of the city. 

You sat back down on the bench, intent on waiting out the remaining drizzle, and leaned against its wooden pillars. It's all so conflicting, when you try to do right for this world you hurt and confuse those around you, if you try to appease the people around you you risk threatening their future. You bare a cursed mind of information, a cursed existence upon this plane, it isn't right to affect others by the curse you bare but it also isn't right to devoid someone so giving as Thoma.  You sit and contemplate until the drizzle gives way, your carry box placed by your feet filled with breads untouched by dirt and still awaiting their destination. 

Ayato strolls along the path to the city, it is not his usual reasoning for taking the trip but still a reason worth doing so. Along his path all threats had been eliminated, you should arrive just fine but it wasn't that which plagued his mind, rather it was a soft sense of amusement, a sense of glee that left him softly chuckling to himself. He adjusted the cuffs of his gloves, a sign to his Shuumatsuban in hiding that they are to leave him for a moment, once the soft shuffling of unseen ninja pass he turns is view to your direction, the distance hindering the sight, he needed a moment to himself, to gather all possible elements at play to give reason to his unspoken questions. 

“As expected, Thoma was right, they do hold some degree of depth.”.

[tinyapplejuice]

PLEASE DO MORE LARRY HEADCANONS I BEG U PLEASSEEE

Hey there!!! I don’t really have any Larry x reader headcanons but since I love them so much, I literally created just regular Larry and Lawrie headcanons for you! Enjoy!!

•Larry and Lawrie are not afraid of anything. No clowns, no spiders, no snakes, not even death itself. Well they are both afraid of one thing… Larry’s only greatest fear is losing Starr Park, that’s basically his only purpose and if he lose it, it feels like everything is lost even his own life. So eventually his little optimistic charm will die down and may or may not die with it. Lawrie’s greatest fear is losing his brother, he’s basically the only person that understands and tolerates him, losing Larry will mean losing the only thing he cares about.

•Larry’s mood can fully switch like in a snap. For one moment he’s happy then the next moment he’s angry, it’s honestly impressive on how fast it can change. Sometime it even scares people because they always saw him as this harmless, good cop.

•I like to think Larry is super confident and competitive. I could never see him as a shy and humble guy UNLESS in certain situations where he gets super flustered or the humbling part when he needs to be. He’s always flashy with a huge grin on his face and he’s never afraid to say things out loud. He’s quite bold even!

•If he was shy, he would have been acting like such a cheeky geek with a little awkward smile on his face and a nervous demeanor.

•Lawrie’s the “shyer” one or simply the introverted one. He’s not someone who truly cares about making relationships especially with humans. He finds them rather stupid and let me tell you he may or may not have a dislike towards them. I mean he already has Larry and R-T, what else does he need? He’s also very inhospitable and very awkward, making many people usually steer away from him.

•It will be super silly and interesting if their personalities developed by whatever job they were tasked with like for example Larry must have a friendly face in front of the customer as he is a ticket holder or giver or whatever. But at the same he also has this stern cop persona for the crime bringers. While Lawrie who was dealt with enforcing the law and facing crime bringers had developed this mean and stern persona. If only it was like that but I’m pretty sure they were coded like that way before they even had a chance what personality they were like because for me Larry name sounds a lot more nicer than Lawrie and plus the fact that there’s law in his name makes it feel like they were prepared for creating them or something.

•Larry loves to do all the boring work even if it’s long, long, LONG pages of paperwork as long as it’s for Starr Park. He would just say along these lines,“It’s for the greater good!” Or, “It’s super important and Starr Park needs this!” Lawrie however doesn’t, he’s the one that prefers actions, fighting, all the cool stuff!

•I feel like Larry’s the type of guy to easily make friends if it weren’t for the fact 1. If he wasn’t so obsessed with the theme park and its rules 2. If he just leaves Lawrie since basically Lawrie is so intimidating and unsociable 3. IF HE WASN’T SHOVING THE RULES UP TO EVERYONE’S FACE AND BEING A PARTY POOPER!!!

•Lawrie has barely or no chance of making new friends. He is just that bad.

•They will unironically spoil things to people like if you were planning to surprise someone, they would just bluntly say it in front of the person acting like it wasn’t supposed to be a secret. And then they genuinely wonder why you’re mad. Sillies.

•Larry is a curious robot, I like to think since he works on giving tickets to customers and maintaining order in the park. He has seen how humans interact and how their fleshy body have this complex emotions that are full of different and unique feelings that he, himself as a robot, doesn’t normally have. So he would often watch humans and see how they interact. He think’s it’s widely amusing and interesting.

•He definitely treats the rule book as a baby, always tucks it in under the blankets, gives it a little smooch every night, and gingerly cares for it. Lawrie probably complained that he could have married it.

•Larry’s the type of guy to have expressive body language and has a billion pose and facial expressions while Lawrie only has two poses and a face.

•Lawrie barely smiles, he always frown. It’s funny but at the same time, so sad??? The only exception is with his brother Larry or something exciting happens. He also has very default poses like imagine, hehehe.

•No matter how hard you try, Larry will NEVER EVER break the rules. Even if it’s for his safety, he will not budge. If you did make him, he would have been so angry with you and he would have been so disappointed and upset at himself. Probably wouldn’t even talk you for days because of it. He takes it very seriously. Lawrie however would do it but only if it’s mandatory and for his safety.

•If Larry has the chance, he would talk A LOT. I could see him saying so many things to Lawrie when they have some sort of break (if they’re allowed to) or if they have some sort of free time.

•Larry and Lawrie are complex machines but that’s all who they really are. They’re nothing but just robots for the law. It’s funny if they get introduced to something that’s normalized by humans but for them, it isn’t. So like imagine them having no values and just being brutally murdering a guy, it will be super sick and interesting. But I do think they have restrictions if they’re in public daylight.

•Larry loves his brother, they’re basically best friends but they will fight like cave men. Always physical, barely or never words. Usually Larry starts with the first punch and Lawrie hits back harder.

•IF PEOPLE SAY LARRY IS WEAK I WILL CRY!!! He is not weak, he is a robot, a cop, does that not ring any bells to you??!!! HE WILL NOT BE DEFENSELESS!!! I could only imagine him calling Lawrie only for backup whenever he’s in serious trouble but other than that, this dude is practically fine on his own.

•Whenever Larry and Lawrie fight, Lawrie would not apologize first. I’m sorry I had to say it. He only does it if it’s like truly his fault and if it’s no one “he can blame on.” I don’t know, I like to think it never comes to Lawrie but he does feel guilty during moments where he and Larry isolate from each other and cool down. He’s the older brother and it feels like he has some sort of responsibility with Larry and he felt like he failed that.

•They will be both boring robots to hang around, do not lie to me. They will barely have any interests. Larry will possibly talk about rules, Starr Park, and Lawrie while Lawrie would probably just stare. The things he likes are just action and Larry. And they will have so many miscommunication because they suck at socializing this in turn makes them way closer and way more bonded.

•If something they enjoyed beforehand goes against the law of a sudden, they will stop. They ARE THE LITERAL FUN POLICE!!! RAHHHHH!!

•If they did have some sort of humor, it would be old outdated humor. Hehe.

•Larry’s laugh would honestly be mischievous and would go “Nyehehehe” while Lawrie’s would be personally for me” Har, har, har” and it would be this deep and kinda sarcastic sounding.

•So my sister said a headcanon that was GENIUS and it has been rotting in my brain for weeks. This is basically what she said word for word, ”Do you think Larry and lawrie have a mechanic where they can end themselves, like, people in the war would do it so they won’t give out information.“ AND I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH LIKE WOWZA??!!

•They will honestly be the best and worst babysitters. The best because the parents like them since they keep the children orderly while the worst because they stop doing anything fun for the children and they hate them for it. Well it depends who it all comes from! Also it’s theoretical because they will not babysit children.

•Larry and Lawrie will not go outside of the park, sure Larry may once on a while be curious but they do somewhat know it’s their responsibility to not leave so they are kinda content with it.

•Larry and Lawrie do not sleep. Personally I don’t see them. If they were, I would just imagine them being in these pods where they charge themselves more than anything but truly I feel like they would have been awake 24/7 and work both day and night shifts to patrol the park for anything suspicious or dangerous.

•You know how there’s these mascots for dealing with drugs and smoking that warn kids not to do them, I could just imagine Larry and Lawrie being one for Starr Park and once in a while Larry would warn kids. Do you think that they will like personally hunt down anyone who smokes at the park??

•Larry and Lawrie would not swear, Lawrie may seem like the type of person but it’s not good for the image of the park if the cops just start to swear out of no where even if it’s private, they would have this code to not do it.

Anyways umm I’m doing requests guys!! I promise!!! I’m just so lazy and I litteraly have a huge brain fart hahaha!

[highfantasy-soul]

Ok, here's my breakdown of Jessie Gender's video on NATLA. I decided not to post this as a comment on the video because I just don't feel like it would be productive, but I needed to refute the points she was making as she's a quite respected (at least, I really respect her opinions on things) video essayist and I felt like this video was...wild.

So, I guess it's best to just watch along with her video and read my commentary side-by-side because I don't give much context for my points, this is just a stream-of-consciousness style response.

To be perfectly clear - this is not intended to be a 'hate post' about her, this is just me feeling very strongly that the interpretations of things she had in her video needed to be talked about and another perspective given.

I shift from saying 'you' to 'Jessie' like halfway through (when I decided not to post this as a comment) but I don't feel like going through and changing all those, so yeah, just ignore it.

1) you insulted a martial arts kata as 'a mildly choreographed dance' - it shows a complete lack of understanding of other cultures and a desire to take a quick dig at something you didn't like in a way that insults a cultural practice. I really didn't expect to hear that sort of comment from you so it was pretty jarring when you said it. Ironically, you say that Sokka was wrong to assume the Kyoshi warrior's kata was a 'dance' because that's 'a girl's place' when...you literally made the same insult with not a hint of recognition just a few minutes earlier about a movie you didn't like…

2) I felt that the live-action really deepened a lot of the themes from the OG - take Iroh's storyline for example, fleshing out Suki's character so she's...you know, her own character and not just there to teach Sokka a lesson, and delving into how hard of decisions you have to make during a century long war. Idk, I'm just really curious as to how you felt quite literally the polar opposite of me

3) Sokka's sexism: the animated show handled it one way, but Sokka's treating women as 'less than' wasn't a core part of his character - in all honesty, it doesn't actually make any sense as he was raised by Hakoda (who we never see being sexist), Gran Gran (who left the NWT due to its sexism), and was surrounded mostly by older women. The sexism storyline in the cartoon was to teach a very blatant lesson to kids "don't be sexist, boys!" while the live-action made Sokka's struggles much more realistic and in line with the world building: he struggled with non-traditional masculinity and if he was 'allowed' to be that way while they were at war. For me, it's a much more important message for young men today than the very dated 'women can fight, too!' message that was needed in the early 2000s. It's very odd to me how you claim that Sokka always taking charge isn't ever challenged when...in literally the scene you're showing when you say that, Katara challenges him.

4) I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly see how Suki is her own person more in the animated version than in the live-action. She was literally created solely to teach Sokka a lesson and have no character traits other than 'I'm a strong woman warrior' where 'woman' means 'I like romance' rather than...I'm a whole person with my own wants and desires and fears that have nothing to do with a love interest as is shown in the live-action. You keep comparing the animated and live action as though they were trying to tell the same story about Sokka's journey with his role in the world, but they weren't. Of course Suki's attitude toward him is going to be different, of course he's not going to need to tell her 'you're right, I'm a dumb, terrible man, pretty please could you teach me', because it's a different dynamic they're going for in the live-action.

5) When Sokka pinned her in their lesson in the live-action idk how you got that she was 'demuring herself' to Sokka? Just as in the cartoon, he managed to get the upper hand - which she promptly took back, teaching a lesson along the way. She didn't make herself less so Sokka could feel secure in his masculinity - it's a bit odd you feel that showing respect to someone and helping them learn is 'demuring yourself'. I much prefer them respecting each other than the animated version of them seeing each other as less than and then...her giving him a kiss to prove 'see, I'm a romance-loving girl, too'.

5) To me, Suki beating Sokka in the live-action when the first sparred wasn't her being mean, it was her not understanding how much less experience Sokka had fighting - she genuinely thought he would be able to hold his own against her because he had told her he was the best warrior in his tribe. Her face clearly shows 'I have no idea what I did wrong - I thought that type of sparring is what everyone did for fun, why was he uncomfortable with it?' Not really sure why you made the connection that us seeing Sokka's abs was meant to indicate that his insecurities are unfounded when...literally the whole season shows us that Sokka's struggles aren't "end goal = big strong warrior" but rather "you don't have to be a big strong warrior to help, you are allowed to delve into other aspects of who you are and those are just as important". Just because he has muscles, also doesn't mean he's a competent fighter - those two things aren't the same.

6) It feels like you took certain scenes and made wildly left-field interpretations of them and then claimed that that's what the show was intending you to take from it. It's like saying that the scene that cuts from Sokka saying he bets Momo tastes like chicken and cutting to the scene that shows people cooking meat actually means the showrunners are saying Sokka is going to cook and eat Momo this season and that will then give him the powers of the Avatar. It's very clearly not what the showrunners were saying, but if you interpret it in the least forgiving way and then make a wild leap off that, then yeah, you might get upset with that made-up interpretation. Same with the reasons they didn't put Sokka in the Kyoshi outfit - there is 0 evidence of them nixing that part due to transphobia. I didn't see it as any malicious intent, just a streamline of the plot so Sokka doesn't have to go change before running away on Appa.

7) I feel that the live-action DOES challenge the Fire Bender's colonialist rhetoric in the Kyoshi Island episode, but the animated...doesn't? At all? It's solely about girl power - and as we see with Azula and all the women fire nation soldiers, the fire nation doesn't seem too caught up in sexism. You know what they are caught up in? Which you mention? Bender supremacy. And that's what the live-action directly addresses with Sokka being so surprised that Suki is able to hold her own so well even though she isn't a bender. He's seen just how powerful benders are (they destroyed his home, killed his mom, and beat his ass last episode) and it's in line with the worldbuilding that he feels like he's already several steps behind in being a good enough warrior because he doesn't have bending (a storyline that isn't brought up until an episode in season 3 of the animated show). To me, the live-action Kyoshi storyline refutes the Fire Nation's imperialistic themes much better than the animated show does.

8) The live-action's lesson wasn't that might makes right - Suki never did any strength training exercises with Sokka, she taught him how to control his body and use his opponent's strength against them. Fight smarter, not harder. Know what you're fighting for, not just that you want to fight. Even if you don't have the resources of your opponent, it doesn't mean you're doomed from the start. That last one is particularly poignant when we look at how much stronger the Fire Nation is than the other nations they're subjugating: it's the classic 'oppressed rising up against their oppressors and not winning because they just punched harder, but because they used what they had to fight for a righteous cause and didn't just give up because the other side was more powerful'. That's quite directly what the live-action was saying - the exact lesson you thought it should be saying. You have to do some serious extrapolating from the animated episode to get to those themes while the live-action drew that concept up to the forefront immediately.

9) Aang's journey to accept his Avatar responsibility and the previous Avatar's enforcing this is directly from the animated series. Like, directly. It's not the live-action show saying 'colonialism good'. Showing the Avatar power wasn't the showrunners saying 'see, this OP is good and cool', it was to show the magnitude of it - something the animated show does too. The live-action does talk about how terrifying and damaging that power is - literally the previous episode has Aang almost toss Katara and Sokka off the mountain and they mention it. Just earlier in that episode, Sokka talks about Aang almost killing them and Aangs major hang up about embracing it is that he might hurt someone. Kyoshi argues that not learning to control it will hurt more people and - y'all, individuals are allowed to have their own views of the power that everyone doesn't have to agree with. What happened to 'make strong characters with flaws in their world view?' did you all of a sudden decide that's NOT actually good writing? So having the Avatar who used her powers liberally, and as the video states, used them maybe too much, telling Aang that he needs to use his own powers a lot is…consistent characterization? Which is then challenged by Roku later as he tells Aang that all the Avatars are different and have different views on the power of the Avatar. Why is Kyoshi's opinions suddenly taken as wholly accurate in representing what the show overall is trying to say? She's giving her opinion to Aang - an opinion that has some truth to it, but also some flaws that Aang will need to navigate on his own journey. Kyoshi and Roku's stories are not compressed all into Kyoshi - only the aspect of Roku taking control of Aang and using his body to fuck shit up in the Avatar state is compressed - not the ideological aspects of it

10) Sokka supporting Katara's fight against Pakku is a culmination of his arc to let go of obsessively protecting her and actually letting her decide her course of action herself - because his arc was different in the show than in the animated series. Trying to say that the reason he told her to kick Pakku's ass didn't fit because he was never sexist wasn't the reason - it WAS a culmination of his arc, you just refused to see it by clinging to the old one.

11) The whole argument as to 'why show genocide' I already made a post about, but to condemn the depiction based on the way you interpret the showrunner's quote is disingenuous. Again, it's taking something and making up a narrative around it so you can feel justified in hating it. It's important to show a culture before they are killed because they deserve to be seen as people, not just martyrs. They had lives. They lived and were happy and had a rich culture. They were not just 'fated to die and be told of in history books'. Genocide is disgusting and hard to watch - it's calculated and brutal. Showing that drives home just how awful the actions of the fire nation are in practice rather than just theory. Yes, the airbenders fighting was 'cool' to see - in the way that all action is 'cool' to see. But no, the genocide wasn't played as 'look at neat fighting!' in the live-action. It was shown as brutal and terrible, horrifying and surprising, and the airbenders didn't deserve what happened to them. It also gives you a direct view of what the fire nation is capable of when they come to the south pole and the northern water tribe: you've SEEN the devastation first hand and you DON'T want to see it again. The threat isn't theoretical, it's very real.

11.5) To take a CHILD'S quote about the sequence being 'so cool' is absolutely WILD to me. GORDON IS A CHILD! No, he's not going to have the most sophisticated and politically nuanced sound bite to say about the action sequence in an interview. HE'S A CHILD! Holy mother of god. To use that to bolster your point that 'that's the way it was intended to be viewed and how everyone is going to view it!' is just…..holy shit. You're taking media interpretation from A CHILD??????? Do you think, if we interviewed a child about the OG show, they'd talk about the fucking colonialism??? How Azula was abused too and didn't deserve her fate?? Or do you think they'd say "The fight between the Fire Lord and Aang at the end was so cool!" Honestly thought Jessie Gender wouldn't try to bolster her interpretation with a quote from A CHILD, but I guess here we are…

12) It's wild that she makes the point that conservatives are incapable of reading deeper than just the surface-level visuals of a story while…she's doing literally the same thing just in the opposite way. The live-action depicted the genocide, therefore they MUST just want to 'cool' visual of firebenders fighting airbenders! There can't be any other things at play here! No story being told whatsoever because all it is is spectacle! That's all I see! Ironically, she's falling into the same trap of not looking deeper at why one might depict the horrors of genocide and the battle against people with no army.

13) Aang actually treats the genocide as more immediate in the live-action than he does the animated show. Most animated episodes, you can forget that it even happened, while in the animated show, it pops up a lot in some unexpected ways like when he's uncomfortable waterbending because Gyatzo had always been his teacher, when he yells at Bumi for making light of the genocide, his desire to get to the north to keep it from happening again, when Zhao proclaims that he can wipe out an entire race of benders and Aang says he knows exactly what that's like, when he constantly stays to help people because 'I couldn’t help my own people, but I can help them'.  Not only through Aang, but also through every child in the series - like with the animated show, the live-action shows how kids are shaped by the generational trauma of the war plus the immediate effects of it: Teo ready to fight, Jet making compromises to fight back, Sokka shouldering too much responsibility so young, Katara's trauma around her mother's death and her waterbending, Bumi losing his faith, Zuko and Azula being shaped by their father to be the perfect weapons to continue the war.

14) Interpreting Zuko's comment of 'sometimes the weak can become strong' right after his father mutilated him for showing compassion is not meant to be taken as a thesis that 'Zuko just needs to get better at fighting, this is what the story is saying, I am very smart'. It's showing HIS CURRENT view of the world - the idea that his father has taught him that he needs to be strong and Zuko has bought that and wants desperately to earn his father's love. Zuko's story through the series is showing that 'strength' isn't what his father defines it as (or what Jessie defines it as in her video) but rather it's strength of character - compassion is not weakness, it's strength, and no, that doesn't mean if you have compassion you punch harder.

15) The live-action show makes the Fire Nation MUCH more nuanced than the animated show - we see how Ozai and Azula aren't just maniacal villains, but we see the pain and torment their upbringings deal out to them, and in turn, deal to others. It shows the cycle much more clearly and showing fire nation citizens who disagree fleshes out the culture even more.

16) Jet was much more nuanced in the live-action as he's RIGHT about the mechanist being a spy and the king being lax in his duties. He's created a community of people to try to heal from the harm the fire nation has caused them and he gives actual good advice to Katara, helping her emotionally heal and remember the good aspects of her mother.

17) The argument that 'the live action is trying to ignore the past' is a massively simplified narrative. The live-action is showing Aang stuck in the past, unable to take large steps into the future. Pain, trauma and loss can anchor us in the past - it's HEALTHY to keep moving forward rather than only thinking about the pain in the past (ie Jet's advice to Katara). Aang was continually trying to avoid the genocide happening again while simultaneously trying to get past Avatars to do the big hard work for him. His lesson is not to 'forget the past just live in the now' but rather, don't let fear of what has happened in the past stop you from making a difference in the future. Yes, war is loss and suffering, but if you get paralyzed by not being able to prevent that, the fire nation will just keep marching across the world. It's about not letting the past immobilize you to the point where you stop fighting back against oppression - or getting together with a community to help you fight for fear they'll die just like those in the past did.

17.5) Letting go of the past is a buddhist philosophy that is a lot more complicated than Jessie is making it out to be here. Just as in the animated series, characters can come to realizations about lessons they need to learn while still taking seasons to fully learn the lesson - just because Aang said he's ready to let go of the past doesn't mean he's now ignoring it and all will be smooth sailing. It means he's ready to start taking steps to do that and approach life in a healthier way. It's wild that Jessie took the direct quote "I need to let go of the past to focus on my future" and then states that the show is saying "the character's aren't seeing future possibilities and hope, they're focused on the now" when, quite literally, the quote she just referenced….is talking about building a better future.

18) Then, she references later seasons (Aang in the fire nation school) a lot to indicate that the live-action is ignoring those concepts from the OG when….we're talking about season 1 here - not season 3. Why is the world not allowed to organically grow? Why would you make the argument that 'season 1 didn’t explicitly deal with these concepts that aren't brought up until season 3, so therefore they are ignoring them'?

19) Jessie uses a lot of clips from a Daily Wire (conservative talkshow) guy as if that has anything at all to do with the live-action ATLA. She's trying to draw a line between that ideology and the ideology of the show and I feel like she had to bastardize the NATLA show in order to do that so horribly, her interpretation of the story and themes is completely unrecognizable to what is actually shown on screen.

I usually agree with her takes on media, but this video was not it. Every interpretation she had, I interpreted the scenes/lessons in the exact opposite way and, I believe, I interpreted it closer to what the showrunners intended.

Oh no, i just had a thought: this is The Last Jedi all over again! I saw so many negative interpretations of that movie that I just sat and scratched my head over like "How in the WORLD did you get to that conclusion??" when I thought my own interpretation was just...the obvious way to view the movie. I had no idea my views on it would be so controversial. Here we are again. Time is a flat circle. Life is a meaningless cycle of disappointment and confusion, neverending.

[dramadramallama]

Love Supremacy - brain rot part 1

So I have a problem. I enjoyed the first half of Love for Love's Sake without knowing I would get absolutely bowled over by the second half. I have so much to say holy fuck, I'm all over the place.

Unfortunately for everyone, my brain has been love supremacied, and I'm unable to move on. The show has a high rewatch value. It’s full of details; big, important ones, and small, insignificant ones, but they all add a lot of weight to the story. I need to exorcise my thoughts for my own sake. I guess if I have to intellectualize it somewhat, I really liked the show cause it’s perfectly balanced in terms of structure, and its themes. Judging from the amount of notes I have made on this show on my second watch, it’s safe to say it’s got some substance. It cleverly uses a mise en abyme, “a story within a story (within a story)” to really stack all those layers, and answer an age-old, quite difficult question: “what’s crucial to a happy life?” Dialogues, scenes, characters, and motifs all echo, mirror, and circle back to one another, giving the story enough dimension to avoid banalities.

Simply put, the thesis of the show is surprisingly philosophical, with universal themes. It posits that life is neither fate nor chance, and the answers are in mundane details of life. "Happiness is hidden somewhere in each of our days."

It’s obviously about love; a double love story even. Myung-ha learns to love someone else, and himself too. It's about life, and it's about death, new beginnings, and everything in between. The show made me feel like this, and like this, and like this, and...

▶️1. Mirrors/Symmetry

2. Fate, Free Will, and Happiness

3. Game/Reality

The story structure is very symmetrical. Circular almost. I LOVE IT, I EAT IT UP LIKE A HUNGRY, GRUBBY GOBLIN. Things begin where they end, elements keep repeating themselves like a series of mirrors.

By going through the game, Myung-ha finds himself on the other side of the mirror: he is supposed to find his own happiness, and will to live.

Yeo-woon is introduced to the audience as a sad side character in someone else’s story, victim of his “fate.” He almost perfectly mirrors Myung-ha: his background is eerily similar to his. He was raised by his (recently deceased) grandma, with an absent mother and a dead-beat dad. He’s lonely, unhappy.

When Myung-ha first meets him, Yeo-woon is resolutely standing on top of a building, about to fall or jump, which directly parallels Myung-ha's own suicide. In this new iteration of life, in this “game,” he saves Yeo-woon from hurting himself, which is the start of his own salvation. Saving Yeo-woon, the poor guy who didn’t get his happy ending, is saving himself. Yeo-woon is like a version of him right before he lost control of his life, after his grandma died, and he felt abandoned by all. It’s the core of the game, and the core of the drama, but Myung-ha (and we, the audience) can’t understand it right away.

Several details, in retrospect, show that he is the driving force behind this "game", and that it’s, by lack of a better term, both a test (as in, an exercise, a learning mechanism) and a Test (as in, an exam you don't wanna fail.) Myung-ha’s main, most important mission is to “make Yeo-woon happy.” Which he happily and enthusiastically tackles. He does what we all do: he takes a liking to the character most relatable to him. Time and time again, the way he reacts when presented with someone who struggles the same way he did is very telling.

He provides comfort. The comfort he lacked in his own life. (distant sounds of my heart shattering.)

But Yeo-woon isn’t the only one mirroring elements of Myung-ha’s life. Sang-won is a careless, tough-looking student, who seems slightly directionless. He picks fights easily and has a reputation at school for being “crazy.” He also smokes and rides a motorcycle (both illegal lol). His mom having abandoned Myung-ha, it’s also relevant to note Sang-won doesn’t seem to have a very good relationship with his own mother, and craves her attention. Although, he is your typical badboy, he is overall nice, sensitive, and has good intentions.

Myung-ha himelf appears to have been quite the turbulent student, with his own “mad dog” nickname. He, just like Sang-won, knows a thing or two about school fights, also drives a bike (lmao 100% sure he didn’t wait to have a license to drive though). Although he berates Sang-won for his rebellious side, with the patronizing tone of someone who’s done it all before, he shows genuine care.

Finally, Kyung-hoon. To me, he’s like another facet of Myung-ha’s personality. An absolute sweetheart, without friends, but always ready to help, and open to be befriended. While Myung-ha seems nonchalant about speaking badly of himself, he cannot stand it from others. He makes him his friend on the spot.

Once again, he provides like-minded friends the safe space he probably would have liked as a troubled, most certainly depressed teenager. Of course, it turns out Yeo-woon hates himself the most too (and by extension, dislikes everyone else.) It's the first clue for Myung-ha to realize some self-love might be the answer.

As it will become increasingly clear, Myung-ha has no issues protecting, providing for, and loving others, but fails to realize he should do the same for himself to achieve balance, and maybe, a little bit of happiness. The journey to get there makes him care for someone else the way he should care for himself, love someone else, like he should love himself. 

The last episode does a wonderful job of confirming what seemed to be threaded through the whole show, and explaining very clearly, in no uncertain terms, what it was all about.

However, the interesting aspect of this “mirror world," is that all of them, and Yeo-woon in particular, flip the script, in more ways than one. They all are a reflection of Myung-ha's life, but transcend their condition of “fictional character.” They’re not virtual. Yeo-woon is not made of something unreal, and he’s not a messed up copy of someone else. He has his own needs, desires, and quirks.

I don't think I can name them all here, but one of my favorite circular storytelling moment happens when Yeo-woon parallels Myung-ha by running to "find his fave." That moment in ep 8 counterbalances the one in ep 1.

Nothing is written in stone, and both of them set off to build their own happiness, against fate.

[shankss-magnificent-ass]

The Proposal part 2

The Ring

Warnings:

Shanks x GNreader

Word count:

Chapter 1

You and Benn waited eagerly as the Red Force pulled into port, taking in the rainforests crowding over the town that was huddled up against the steep mountains. You never get over the beauty of this island despite how many times you’ve visited it, with its lush flora that practically overflowed into the bay. 

Benn grumbled, “this is taking too long,” as he gnawed on the end of his cigarette. His aggravation showed in his expression and body language. He had his arms crossed and his feet and legs fidgeted as he glared at the crew members around him. 

You smirked at him, he was acting like he was the one getting a ring. It was nice to know he is so supportive of your relationship. When he heard you softly chuckle he whipped his head in your direction and gave you the stinkiest stink eye you’ve ever seen. You couldn’t help but laugh at him, “you’re cute,” and patted him on the back, which only made him gnaw harder.

Once you set foot on dry land, Benn grabbed your hand and led you toward the shopping district. But it seems that Shanks has other ideas because he wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pulled you into his side, and said, "Where do you think you’re going? You promised me a date.”

You looked up at Shanks’s handsome smile, the soft look in his eyes made your knees weak, but you could see the look of growing irritation on Benn’s face. Which Shanks, thankfully, seemed to be oblivious to. You looked at Benn and mumbled, “I did indeed promise you a date.”

Benn scoffed, “but, we were gonna~”

Shanks grumbled, “Can’t it wait?”

“Can’t your date? This is really important.” Benn retorted, gently tugging on your hand.

You put your hands up, effectively drawing their attention to you, “Why don’t you use this as an opportunity to scope out shops and see which ones will be worth our time?” You suggested.

“But!” 

“Seems like they’ve made up their mind, sorry buddy.” Shanks chuckled, polishing his nails on his shirt.”

Before Benn could yell at him, you pointed at a bench and ordered Shanks to go sit down, so you could talk to Benn in semi-private. Once gone, you turned to Benn, placed a hand on his shoulder, and sighed, “Look I understand you wanna go get the ring, but we need to be flexible in our planning if we don’t want to get caught. It’s better if I keep an eye on him because he will follow us if I don’t go out on a date with him. Scope out the jewelry stores, I trust your taste, and if you still have time, go get that camera you wanted.”

Benn huffed but ultimately agreed to go ahead, while you kept Shanks busy.

As you watched him leave, you felt Shanks’s eyes probing your figure for clues. You turned to find him cocking his head at you as he lounged on the bench. 

“What are you two up to?” He asked, “Benn seemed agitated.”

You chuckle and patted his arm, “don’t worry about it, where are we going again?”

An ominous smile spread across his face as he leered down at you, he chuckled, “remember you promised we could go to the theme park, and you’d ride their biggest coaster with me.” 

You felt a wave of cold dread wash over you as you whined, “When did I agree to do that? We’ll be waiting in line all day!”

Shanks laughed, “It’ll be well worth the wait, and you agreed to do it two weeks ago in return for me covering your morning watch when you wanted to sleep in.”

“I wanted to sleep in because someone kept me up all night!” you yelled, pulling him closer by the scruff of his shirt. The redhead sang, “a promise is a promise and you, my love, promised to go on the big roller coaster with me.” He pressed his hands against your cheeks and pull you into a kiss. Shanks flooded your senses, his palms were rough and warm, and the pleasant musk that filled your nose made your head spin. Shanks always made your chest flutter and your knees weak. You allowed yourself to hang limply from his hands, and you sighed, “Very well, I’ll go on the roller coaster with you, but go easy on me.

About three hours later, while you and Shanks were waiting for some food at the park an attendant approached you and informed you that there were two men waiting for you at the entrance. Shanks pouted before he smiled at you and said, “wait right here for our orders, I’ll be right back.” Soon as Shanks was out of sight, Benn drops out of a nearby tree and grunted, “Let's go.”

You cocked your head and explained you were waiting for shanks, but Benn waved his hand and said, “I paid Hongou, and Lime juice to distract him for the rest of the afternoon. So let's go before he catches on.” his other hand latching on to your wrist, just as the employee at the food stall announced your order was ready.  You dug your heels in and demanded, “I want my food, I’m hungry.”

“But you ate four hours ago, and we need to hurry the shops will be closing soon.” Benn shot back, tugging your wrist gently.

“I ended up riding the behemoth with Shanks and I threw up an hour ago, so I need to eat and drink. Shanks already ordered food, and it’s ready, so we just need to go get it.” You exclaimed, showing him the receipt with the number.

Benn read the receipt and grumbled, “I’m eating Shanks’s food since he made me wait.”

Once the two of you were done Benn practically carried you to the shopping district. All the while excitedly chattering about how he visited every jewelry store in town in the short time you were separated. Most of the jewelers were selling low-quality or outright fake jewelry at high-end prices. But Benn had narrowed it down to two shops, The Star and Philip’s. He was very vocal about his dislike of the Star’s ‘pitiful’ selection but was adamant about letting you make your own conclusions. While he wouldn’t vocalize it, he would definitely judge you if you chose anything from there. When you got to the Star you had to agree, while their ring selection was interesting it was all stuff Shanks would not wear. 

While you and Benn headed to the next store, Hongou and Lime Juice were having a hard time keeping Shanks occupied. 

“No, I swear I heard the dripping over here boss!” Hongou babbled, intimidated by how his annoyed captain was glaring at him.

“Dude, I really need to get back, I was in the middle of a date back there.” Shanks grumbled, “There’s no dripping, so there’s no leak.”

Lime Juice took a step forward when Shanks moved to leave, and said, “But boss~” only to be cut off by an intimidating wave of Conqueror’s haki.

“Something is up with you two, spill,” Shanks growled. 

Hongou and Lime Juice made eye contact, panicking because they had genuinely made him angry. All it took was for Shanks to crack his shoulders like he was preparing for a fight for the two men to crack, “Benn paid us to distract you, so he could steal Fox out from under you for the rest of the evening.” Both men confessed and held up the money Benn bribed them with. The redhead squinted at them and asked, “did he say where he’s taking them” as he pocketed half of their money.

Hongou shook his head, and mumbled, “we’re sorry.”

“Keep the rest of the night clear, in case I need help looking for them,” Shanks called over his shoulder as he left. His mind was too preoccupied with wondering what Benn was up to, to really care that they accepted a bribe.

Coming Soon

[sharksandjays]

nobody understands how much lloyd's theme means to me. Yes im a HUGE music lover and i have come to analyze the hell out of it for you guys.

I implore you to listen to this. Specifically at 1:46

Personally, the choice of instruments intruiges me. To me, this sounds like training. The little flute? To me that is little Lloyd. The brass? The ninja. It represents how Lloyd is just learning to use his power. How the ninja are helping him hone it. It shows how young lloyd is, and how most of his strength comes from the older people behind him. The echo just REALLY speaks to him "mimicking" them to learn.

And this just makes me so emotional.

Because think about how his theme evolves?

The best example would be in Sons of Garmadon. Go to 1:41

This makes me want to cry.

No more echoing. Its just his theme in a strong, brass key. He's grown up. He can fight now. He's harnessed his power. He isn't a child anymore.

This is why i LOVE lightmotiefs. Seeing the theme change with the character is always something I look for when I watch a show. And its something i certainly did not expect with this show, a kids show. But they did it, and they did it well. The fact that (to me at least) I can see Lloyd's development as an unsure kid who just learned about his powers to the now legendary Green Ninja who is confident in his abilites and prowess.

And Lloyd is not the only one. If you pay attention, Zane's "Built to Protect" theme changes to a slower, minor key whenever he is in the Never-Realm. Cole's/Lily's "Master of the Mountain" theme changes from piano to orchestra depending on if Cole is remembering his mother or realizing his own strength. It's such an important part of characterization in a show and im SO glad Jay Vincent and Michael Kramer made sure to do that with Ninjago!!!

[khruschevshoe]

The Absolute Brilliance of the Arc of Season 3 of Doctor Who

There is really something to be said about the fact that nearly every single episode in Season 3 of Doctor Who feeds directly into the finale while never once feeling like a tacked-on addition to the episode itself as future arcs like the whole "Cybermen Afterlife" in Season 8 did. Like, Bad Wolf might seem more obvious (and yes, Season 1 has my second favorite season-arc of nuwho), but I honestly think this is the best, most organic arc build-up of any season of NuWho. Like, for example:

Smith And Jones: sets up Martha and Doctor's dynamic, first mention of Saxon

Shakespeare Code: weakest connection, but still an example of themes of charismatic speakers/power of words that Saxon will use later on

Gridlock: evolves the Doctor & Martha dynamic, reintroduces Face of Boe, Face of Boe's "You are not alone explanation," explains importance of Gallifrey/the Doctor being the last of his kind

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks: not so much here, but it does mention the fact that the Doctor is the last of his kind, the only Time Lord survivor of the Time War, and emphasizes the lengths he is willing to go in order to help the Daleks evolve/guilt he feels over the Time War and being the last of his kind

Lazarus Experiment: shows why Francine Jones wouldn't trust the Doctor/how she falls under Saxon's sway to try and protect Martha, introduces deaging/aging technology

42: Martha's conversations with her mother are organically part of the plot because she thinks she's doing to die and it's revealed that Francine Jones is officially reporting to Saxon

Human Nature/Family of Blood: introduces chameleon arch/fob watch which is very, very important to the finale

Blink: as a companion-light episode, not so much foreshadowing here, but mentions Harold Saxon again

By the time you get to Utopia, you don't need any of the main mechanics of how the chameleon arch explained to you AND you have the Face of Boe's "you are not alone" warning to explain Professor "Yana" and dread can build without exposition. When you get to Sound of Drums, Harold Saxon and his connection to Francine Jones/threat he poses has been well-established and you have Dr. Lazarus' technology established to explain how the Master ages the Doctor. And in Last of the Time Lords, you have the Doctor's guilt over the Time War/his grief over his people well-established so you understand why he would beg the Master to stay alive even after everything the Master does + the Face of Boe/Jack Harkness reveal gets its amazing payoff.

TLDR; The subtle/organic storytelling in this season is absolutely brilliant. Maybe the best, most well-integrated set-up, build-up, and payoff of any season of NuWho.

[plump-lips-imagine]

Ayeee I just found this blog and I just watched the movie a second time (For English cast and toootally not mainly Jack black Bowser) and it was AWESOME qwq

Can I have either a fic or hcs of a female reader just as obsessed with Bowser as he is with Peach and reader is here to change his mind, maybe even going as far to bring (and by bring I meant steal) the guy back to reader's castle/palace to show him the collection of him and his kingdom in reader's bedroom, look! reader even have a big statues of him in the private music/dance room where reader dream of dance to his music as he plays, or maybe even dance with him

My collection so far, I especially like to tell everyone I met about the story of how I got my Bowser and Junior plushie, I'ma share if interested

YOOOOO, Cool Drip! I Love the collection you have. It makes me lowkey jealous lol. I hope you Like what I made! I try to only make head cannons but it turned into this lol.

Marry Me, My Darling Bowser! (1/2)

You stand at the throne of the Bowser himself, with a confident and determined smile across. Bowser looks at you with a genuine look of disgust and annoyance, but that doesn't stop you from getting on one knee and holding out your hand.

"Bowser, My Dragon King! Will you Marry Me?"

He growls as he tries to hold back the fire that was rising in his chest.

"For the last time Pipsqueak, NO!"

You weren't dejected, not even in the slightest, as you stood back up and patted your dress down. You then let out a loud laughter that made His Majesty's eyes glow red.

"AHAHAH! Always a jokester. Is this any way to treat your future wife?"

"I mean it!!" "Aw, Come on. Don't be shy! I even proposed myself, so you didn't feel like you had to. We were just meant to be!"

Bowser claws at his throne as a bottle of rage was about to erupt inside of him. His minions look at him nervously, backing away ever so slightly.

"Are you dense?! I hate you! I don't harbor anything for you! I Only love Peach. Why can't you just leave me alone!?!"

Everything was coming out of one ear as you slyly grin at him.

"Playing hard to get, huh? I like that in a man." A vein pops on Bowser's head. "Oh please, my darling. Let me make me happy. I'll be the best wife you'll ever have!!......Well,only wife you'll have too!"

Bowser's Flame comes in your direction, The flame barely missing a part of your dress that was scorched when you dodged it.

"........Alright, I understand. You're a little stressed and the proposal was lacking. Don't worry! I'll come back with a better one next week. Get some rest, My love!" As you exit, the Koopa guards quickly closed the door in order to subside the King's anger. With a heavy groan, Bowser turns to Kamek, who jolts in surprise.

"If that Girl so much as steps into this Kingdom, I want her thrown out immediately. Got it!"

"Y-Yes Sire!!"

***

Aw Man!! I really thought I had him with that one!!" You pouted as you stomped around the room in a huff.

"Your Highness, please come down." Your attendant calmly says, watching your miniature tantrum.

Oh Yeah. I forgot to mention an important detail.

You are Princess (Y/N), Ruler of the Poison Shroom Kingdom. Your Kingdom was Known for its vicious wildlife of piranha, the poisonous ecosystem of purple ooze, and not to mention the not-so-soft toads that were under your rule as they were taller stronger, and more intimidating than that of the Mushroom Kingdom, with darker tones to match. Safe to say, you don't get many visitors around here.

But it's not so bad wants you get used to it. It was home to you. The purple theme of the castle was beautiful to those who took the time to see it. It was also home to many rare herbs and medicine for those needing cures for ailments of any kind, with you being an expert on the topic yourself.

This is one of the reasons why the Toads also like you as their ruler. You were very kind to them and actually cared about them, no matter how dangerous a job was. They are extremely loyal to you to a fault. They respect every decision you make. Well, almost.

"Honestly, Princess. I don't see what you see in such a brute anyway. He's such a monster. I don't see how you love such a dangerous creature in the first place."

You let out a dramatic gasp, looking back at your royal attendant who just rolled their eyes at who.

"Toadye!! That is no Monster! That is my Future Dragon King!! He just has a hard time saying his true feelings about me is all! We're soulmates, I just know it!"

Toadye, your most loyal attendant. She is also what you consider to be your best (only) friend as she has been with you for the longest time. She was a tall toad, her mushroom heads a dark violet with black spots at the center, and dark black hair to compliment her look.

"Princess, as your servant and as your friend. He has too many red flags."

"He just a little misunderstood. I swear that I have the charm to break his walls."

Toadye gives you a look.

"Right, you mean that time you 'invited' him to our Kingdom he oh so loved visiting."

Right. So, you maaaaay have 'technically' kidnapped him that one time to get home to your Kingdom. But it was for a good reason!!!

"That was a misunderstanding! I was going to just patch him up after he got hurt by his many battles. He was unconscious so I was sure he didn't mind if I brought him home to heal him."

"Ma'am, he literally tried to burn your face off and destroyed half the village."

"Well....Water under the bridge. :)"

Toadye slaps her face in exhaustion. Man, were you as stubborn as a mule."

"Toadye, I swear. He isn't as bad as he seems to be." You walk over to your bed, picking up a large homemade Bowser Plushie, and hugging it to your body.

"I see something in those large ruby eyes. I just want him to give me a chance. It'll happen soon, I just know it.

Toadye looks at you hugging and swooning for the Plush in your hands and sighs. She doesn't get it, but she'll stand by you in your pursuit.

***

"MY DARLING~!"

Bowser flinches at the familiar voice and groans. Peach looks at him confused in the cage she is being held prisoner in. Mario was the only one that could make his face scrunch up in displeasure like that, but she didn't recognize the voice that entered out of nowhere.

Several noises of struggles could be heard in the distance as the castle violently shook a bit, a red koopa came it sliding on the back of his shell, knocked out and dizzy which made Peach flinch at the chaos that was happening.

She was surprised to see a woman come from the throne room entrance. And a royal too! She's kinda like her.

"Bowser! My Beloved, Please Marry Me! I'd fight a thousand koopas for you!" You say with a love-struck gaze in your eyes that made Peach give you a look. By the chaos that was happening behind you, she could tell you weren't lying.

Well, more or less like her.

Bowser glares down at you. Fighting the urge to throw you out.

"You got a lot of nerve coming back here."

"A wife never leaves her husband alone too long." :)

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Why must you push away your soon-to-be wife like so" You put on your best crocodile tears to tease him a bit.

"Grrrr." a low grumble can be heard from his chest.

He rubbed his face, letting out a puff of smoke. He then glances back at Peach for a quick second and gives a smirk back at you.

"As you can see, I am far too busy making arrangements for the actual love of my life. If you can excuse us, I'm busy with my conversation with Peach." The sneered in his condescending tone made it clear that he was dropping huge hints at you.

however, you only look at the cage that he was presenting to you with a blank stare. Peach felt herself shrink at your gaze. If you love Bowser this much, she didn't know what to do if you saw her as a potential threat. It's bad enough that she has to deal with Bowser.

"Peach..." You mumbled softly. As you took a step forward towards her cage, causing her to take a slight step back in the limited space.

But She wasn't ready for the full sprint that you took towards her, jumping into the bars of her cage, griping tight as you cause the cage to jerk in place. Peach jumps back at your sudden movements as she feels her heart in her mouth from your sudden closeness. She almost lost one of her lives there.

"You're Peach! I've finally got to meet you in Person! My Fiancé has talked about you a lot! You rule the Mushroom Kingdom I Believe. You are so much prettier than he ever described you to be! We should hang out! Have you ever seen the Poison Mushroom Kingdom! I could be your tour guide! I'm Princess (Y/N) btw." You rambled to Peach, not taking a second to breathe.

"Uh,....huh....ummm?" Peach could only look at you flabbergasted at the energy that you have leaped at her with. Your forwardness and surprising friendliness made her forget the predicament that she was in. "Hi?"

"Hey! Leave the Princess alone, Pipsqueak!!" Bowser stomped his way towards you, causing Peach to jump again, being reminded of his presence here.

"Relax, My love. I was just making a friend. Sitting in this cage must be so tiring for a Princess like her.' You turn to look back at her. " Hey, wanna get out of this cage and hang? I got some great places to recommend. Do you like Pizza-"

Bowser could be heard behind you. He quickly grabs you in his claws and gives you a slight squeeze to make you stop your rambles. He brings you close to his face, and you see his eyes glow red in anger. "Listen, Brat. I'm tired of your games and your stubborn delusions getting in the way of my happiness. Get out of here before I am forced to burn you to a crisp!!

You noticed the flames that can be heard in his throat and frowned at him with a disappointed look on your face, "So mean.... This isn't how you're supposed to treat your spouse." You whispered but you quickly bring a smile to your face. ".... Alright fine. I'll go." You jump out the bars of the cage and run back to the entrance.

"I'll just wait until the red guy saves you again. I saw him not too long ago. It shouldn't be long. I'll make sure to visit you once you're back home. Bye, Peach!" You run out before Bowser can yell out at you for the backhand insult that you gave him.

Peach found herself slowly waving goodbye out you even though you were already gone.

She wouldn't mind if she saw you again.

Bowser Huffs at you then turns back to Peach, trying to fix face with his 'charming' smile.

"Now. Where were we~?"

Peach Rolls her eyes. Oh brother.

***

It's been about a week after the faithful encounter with Princess Toadstool herself, but you promised to visit her as soon as possible when she got saved.

You stood at the entrance of Prach's Castle. Two of her toads stood up right at the entrance with shields, guarding the door. The toads that decided to accompany you stared at them with an 'unimpressed ' look written on their face, including a dangerous aura that surrounded your toad guards. Toadye was right beside you, making sure nothing funny was happening.

The toads that were guarding the door already looked petrified.

"What...What business do you have here?" The toad on the asked, standing his ground.

You walked up to them calmly, with a big smile on your face.

"Good afternoon, Citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. My name is (y/n). I have come from the Kingdom of the Poison Mushrooms, and I am the princess of that Kingdom. My business today is to speak with the Princess of this castle. She was rescued not too long ago, and I felt a princess on- on-one would be a nice way for her to relax after the stressful situation."

You greeted as gracefully as you could with your gloved hands held tight to each other in anticipation. the looks on the guards' faces didn't ease up the anxiety that swell inside your chest. They seemed even more on edge hearing your Kingdom's name.

one clears his throat and straightens up. "I'm sorry that you have come this far, your majesty. But our Princess is very busy at the moment. I'm afraid she is not taking any visitors as of now"

Your smile falls a little at this news. Surely she could have enough time to at least speak with you. It has been a while and the path to becoming best friends is to keep in touch with one another.

"A-Are you sure? I don't mind waiting a little bit, but I would be happy to speak with her for just a few minutes. Just to let her know that I'm here?"

"We highly suggest that you come at another time. The p-princess has enough on her plate as it is." The other guard speaks up.

"Are you suggesting that your princess can't handle a few minutes to speak to a guest that has so graciously come all this way to check on her wellbeing?" Toadye buts in, crossing their arms together and glaring at the guards.

the guards' eyes widened in astonishment at her blunt words that they could barely register what she said."

"W-What are you implying?"

"I'm just curious as to why Princess Peach has two of her door guards tell us that she couldn't possibly come to the door for royal company. Are 2 minutes of her time that valuable that she can't tell us herself that she cannot have guests or.....Are you perhaps lying through your teeth?" She says without batting an eye at the two, making the toads hold their breaths.

You step in.

"HEeheh,ummmm, what my advisor is trying to say is that...We just want to see if the Princess is okay. I consider her to be someone I find a connection with, and I just want to bring relief to her Princess life. Someone who understands. But if she is too busy, I guess we'll leave."

the solemn look on your face hits the guards with hard guilt to their chest. they didn't think you would be this ad about it. before they could say anything else, the castle doors begin to open. Everyone steps back and it reveals Princess Peach herself with an elderly toad next to her.

She looks surprised to see your standing there with your own guard and advisor. "Princess (Y/N)?"

"Peach!!" You run up to her and gave her a big hug, but then quickly let go to hold onto her hands, with a huge smile on your face.

The guards, your guards, the elderly toad, and Toadye look with shock at your forward approach to Peach. It was so casual that it seemed like a capital offense.

Peach flinched at the sudden display of affection, but she soon calmed down and actually began to smile as well. She held your hands in hers too. It was actually nice to see you visit.

"Princess (Y/N), I was beginning to worry that you wouldn't show up today. I was starting to think something bad had happened."

"Pfft what no! I'm alright. I heard from your guards that you were too busy today. I was about to leave."

"Really. Is that so?" Peach gave the guards a look that made them look the other way. "No matter. I want to get to know you. I have tea and cake waiting inside the castle. Oh! -"

The princess looks back at the elderly toad by her side. 'Princess (Y/n), this is Toadswroth, he is my royal advisor and has taken care of me ever since I was a baby."

You step back and bow politely, albeit a little clumsily though.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Toadsworth. You look go for your age. You must be a hard-working toad!" He only chuckles and bows back.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, princess."

You stand back up and gesture to Toadye. "Thsi is my loyal advisor Toadye. We are like two peas in a pod and she's been protecting me since I was young. she may be a bit mean, but she's really a sweetheart! Right,Toadye?

She stares at them for a second and gives a nod in acknowledgment. "A pleasure." As aloof as ever.

Princess Peach breaks the awkward silence with a cough. "Now then, let's have tea shall we?" She gestures inside as you go inside the castle.

You're very first Tea party!

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: The Bad Buddy Rewatch Edition, Part 1 -- Where BBS Came From, What It References, and More

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I kick off the first of four (or more, whoa!) posts on Bad Buddy. I'll look today at Thai BLs that preceded Bad Buddy that BBS spoke to, the tropes and themes that BBS reshapes and adds to the genre's existence, and I'll also take a look at singular commonalities among Aof Noppharnach's shows.]

Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4

Since April of this year, I have been watching drama after drama, BL after BL, to get myself familiar enough with the Thai BL genre in order to understand... at least, much more about Bad Buddy than I previously understood when I first watched BBS in January. Today, I'm going to test my mettle, my newfound exposures to the genre, in taking a look at what made BBS so special by way of what came before it.

(Let me quickly note that in no way, shape, or form do I consider myself an expert in the Thai BL genre. That honor is for the people who've been through the trenches for years, people like my dear friends @bengiyo, @so-much-yet-to-learn, and more.)

As usual with my OGMMTVC analyses, here's a little outline for the lovers:

1 ) Some quick additional thoughts on how BBS reshapes Thai BL tropes, building off of meta from the time of BBS's original airing,

2) How I think earlier shows spoke to BBS by way of influence, as well as shared writing and/or directing teams in some instances, and

3) Similarities in the emotional structures of some of the most important protagonists of major GMMTV BLs, including Third, Sarawat, Phupha, and Pran.

Just as a quick reminder from my preamble post a couple of days ago, one of the inspirations for my creating the Old GMMTV Challenge was from a discussion I had with @miscellar regarding the Thai BL tropes that Bad Buddy referenced and reshaped. This post is what I have permanently linked as a means of partly explaining the context of why I created the OGMMTVC, but I also want to direct your attention to this other post by @miscellar regarding from whence BL tropes often stem from -- namely, conventions of reference from the het romance genre.

I want to posit two points to get this started. I think that, fundamentally, the general fandom loves what BBS did by way of both including and reshaping Thai BL tropes. Tropes do indeed give structure to many Thai BLs very often, as @miscellar notes in their second linked post. Even director Aof Noppharnach and the cast of Bad Buddy note this point as a central structural foundation to their show.

I would also posit that us as a fandom (or, at least, just speaking for myself)... happen to love many (but not all) of the tropes themselves, or at least to some extent, particularly by way of nostalgic reference. When I was really getting underway with the OGMMTVC watchlist earlier this spring, I could see in watching, say, Love Sick or SOTUS, the birth of the tropes. Phun and Noh hosing each other down, Kongpob and Arthit not only being engineers in SOTUS, but seeking out careers in the field in SOTUS S. The hubby/wifey language, the strong seme/uke energy in Make It Right, in Together With Me, and so on.

I felt that the Thai BL trope framework, in the course of my watchlist progress, first truly coalesced as a means of a coded and referential artistic infrastructure in Love By Chance. Love By Chance, based on a novel by MAME and written and directed by the longtime BL creator, New Siwaj, had it all. Engineering students in a university setting, rich boy/poor boy, seme/uke/top/bottom dynamics, queer revelations, beach trips, the guitars and the singing, all of it. Back in June, I called LBC the first derivative structured BL -- clearly a BL that came from those that preceded it.

To @miscellar's points in their second linked post: LBC also had, I feel, quite a lot of problematic elements. Before I watched TharnType, I was already calling out a discomfort I felt about homophobia within MAME's material in LBC. I also noted very strong macro cishet romance elements in the way Ae approached his engagements with Pete, romantic and intimate.

We know now that Bad Buddy just grabbed these tropes, and even some of these problematic elements, like the demand for a clearly binary seme/uke dynamic -- and turned them on their heads. Pat and Pran were equals and partners, full-stop. No seme/uke, no top/bottom, no gay for you, no wifey this and hubby that. Bad Buddy took SOTUS and LBC by their shoulders and said -- not today, not on my watch (and BBS AND A Tale of Thousand Stars did it AGAIN in Our Skyy 2!). Especially in closing out Bad Buddy through Our Skyy 2, I love how very specific Pat and Pran were about their verse relationship, with both guys, throughout the series and in OS2, asking each other for each other's ratings of their nightly performances. Yes, it was hilarious and cute and flirty, but those conversations were also very pointed -- and they very much harkened way, way back to themes that Aof and his colleague, Jojo Tichakorn, had explored as screenwriter and director of Gay OK Bangkok (here and here), and in Jojo's The Warp Effect, all of these shows preceding their work in BLs.

I think the turning-on-the-heads of these tropes, within an otherwise classic Thai BL, created an utterly unique fabric by which a new kind of nostalgia for the particular show that is Bad Buddy could be created -- something that almost cannot be RECREATED by the way of the construction of the universe of equality, love, mutual respect, and miraculous communication that Pat and Pran had established between each other. The equitable dynamic in Bad Buddy between Pat and Pran, of the honesty and incredibly open empathic communication that these two had between each other, seems to me to be truly unique -- ESPECIALLY in the face of the massively biased and dysfunctional communicative styles of their parents.

Moreover, now that I'm at this point of the OGMMTVC list -- AND including what I know about his shows post-Bad Buddy, in Moonlight Chicken, Our Skyy 2, and Last Twilight, which is airing now -- we now know that Aof has created HIS OWN SET OF TROPES THROUGH HIS SHOWS. He is the queer filmmaker in Thai BLs par excellence to create a conversation among his shows, and shows made by his colleagues, that speak to each other by way of symbolism, and, I believe, a harkening back both to previous expectations of older queer media AND to older Asian media, particularly by way of either open-ended and/or melancholic endings, as well as general explorations of melancholy and bittersweetness in his shows on behalf of queer characters.

(Before I give some specific examples of Aof's own trope structures by way of inspiration and influence, I do want to note that the aforementioned New Siwaj does this, too, particularly by way of his making references to The Love of Siam in his shows. Love of Siam is known for having a relatively tragic ending between two young queer men. The movie itself is shown and referenced in New's Absolute Zero and My Only 12% -- and the actors who play Tong's parents, who interfere in Tong's relationship with Mew, are reunited as parents in New's Until We Meet Again, where they support Dean's relationship with Pharm. However, I tend to focus on Aof in admiration as his art is generally more consistently excellent.)

So! What are the new tropes that Aof references in his shows -- the new trope frameworks that he's created for himself, to reflect his own interpretation of the Thai BL genre? We have upside-down smiley faces in Bad Buddy -- but we saw them first in Still 2gether! We have picture boards all over the place in Aof's cinematic universes -- in ATOTS, in BBS (TWICE!) (in two different apartments!), in Moonlight Chicken between Alan and Wen. We have scenes of temples, of culturally-rooted spirituality, from He's Coming To Me, to Moonlight Chicken, and now in Last Twilight. From Phupha's internalized homophobia in A Tale of Thousand Stars, to Jim's internalized homophobia in Moonlight Chicken, Aof doesn't shy away from examining the impacts of the pasts of traditional childhoods in rural settings. Call me a cheesy mom, but I happen to love Aof's tendency to punctuate light moments with cute sound effects.

But beyond tropes and trope frameworks, I think the ways in which Bad Buddy speaks to prior shows -- and vice versa, the way that prior shows ended up contributing to Bad Buddy -- were far more impactful by way of larger, macro-level themes.

While we see on BBS the impact of shows like SOTUS (in SO MANY PLACES in BBS besides Pa's gay-for-you reference and the husband/wife reference, including here and here), I Told Sunset About You, and I Promised You The Moon (I'll have more on IPYTM in a post next week about pain, trust, and separation), we also see what themes the future Bad Buddy team was trying out in their own previous shows. Besides Aof's Still 2gether and A Tale of Thousand Stars, the writing team of Au Kornprom, Bee Pongsate, and Pratchaya Thavornthummarut worked on Theory of Love together. Besides becoming a HUGE fave of mine through the OGMMTVC project, I think Theory of Love held possibly some of the most important proto-BBS themes that I saw along the cinematic way to get to Bad Buddy.

Theory of Love, generally speaking, is about how one person can try to change for another person -- and how that other person, and/or the world, accepts that change.

To fast-forward to the end of BBS: we know that the boys take inspiration from Uncle Tong that they will not let the world of their own intergenerational traumas from their families keep them from loving each other, and being in a devoted relationship with each other. Their empathy for their parents dictates that they'll spare their families the pain of being open about their relationship, and they'll keep the somewhat transparent secret that they're together from being discussed in the open.

Pat and Pran negotiate the impacts of how their relationship may change the people around them -- and they make an empathic decision to spare the families the pain of the upfront realization of that truth. Remember what they say in episode 12:

While Bad Buddy focuses on how the team of Pran and Pat negotiate how their relationship will change others -- I see in Theory of Love the testing of this theme within the potential romantic relationship of Khai and Third. I see Au, Bee, and Pratchaya playing with an idea of change and saying, hey, this is how it can work, and this is how it may not work, realistically. I think Khai and Third end up being a successful couple because -- unlike Pran and Pat -- they don't have to negotiate a generational divide to allow change to infiltrate their lives. (In fact, Third's own process of change, and his acceptance of Khai's change, reflects Pran's journey to welcome Pat into his heart, and Wai's journey to accept Pat's and Pran's relationship.) I love how we see this getting played with, literally by the Bad Buddy squad themselves, in Theory of Love.

It was @lurkingshan who first noted the similarities between Third and Pran for me, and I want to expand on that conversation for a moment to talk about another importance fencepost in Aof's thematic universes -- what our dear friend @bengiyo calls The Knowing of queer male characters in BL dramas.

Third is not Aof's character -- Third belongs to X Nuttapong as the director of Theory of Love -- but Pran, Sarawat from 2gether/Still 2gether, and Phupha of A Tale of Thousand Stars all belong to Aof, and Third was written by Aof's usual squad of writer homies. Third, Sarawat, Phupha, and Pran are all characters written with The Knowing of their being queer in their bones and existences, dealing with a certain amount of suffering and realistic realizations related directly to that Knowing -- in large part, carrying with them painful assumptions of unrequited love, and/or the inability to live openly in love with those that they pine for, until a happy or somewhat-happy ending meets them at the end of their dramatic journeys.

I've unwound quite a bit in my past writing (namely regarding The Love of Siam and the endings of Gay OK Bangkok) of how it moves me incredibly deeply that Aof doesn't shy away from pain, reflections of pain, and either painful and/or open-ended endings in his works. With Third, Sarawat, Phupha, and Pran, us viewers were treated to detailed and empathic journeys of realization and change as these characters negotiated their own paths to intimate honesty with their eventual partners. But those paths were DAMN hard. Many of us still can't shake Pran walking away in crushed tears at the end of episode 5. I'm forever moved by Sarawat's meditation to Earn about the meaning of his relationship and of his love for Tine in Still 2gether as he and Tine are temporarily separated before their school competition.

As an out, queer man, Aof treats his Knowing characters with the greatest empathy. Not all of them, interestingly, are great communicators. In my humble opinion, Third treads chump territory many times throughout Theory of Love. Phupha's, like, one of the worst communicators ever, and this was absolutely solidified until the very end of Our Skyy 2 x ATOTS. We had to have Pran compete with Pat throughout all of episode 6 of Bad Buddy for them to finally confirm their relationship as boyfriends -- and a huge part of that was about Pat revealing to Pran that Pat's competitions with Pran are really more about getting closer and more intimate. The incredible @telomeke (via their side blog, @telomeke-bbs) has written about Pran's outside façade vs. his inner sanctuary, and how so very often in his external life, Pran feels compelled to be visually far more organized than he feels internally. The stress and pressure of that will naturally cause some amount of dissociation, emotional confusion, and distance of the kind we saw at the end of episode 5.

I'm going to unwind more about this in an upcoming Big Meta on pain, trust, and separation in many of Aof's shows, but I want to highlight these melancholic themes and infrastructures here now, because I really think they lend emotional depth and connections to shows either led by Aof and/or his close colleagues. These are tough themes to think about. The endings can absolutely be interpreted as happy endings in most cases -- even though an Asian viewer like myself, very much raised on Asian content, can read between the lines of these endings to understand their melancholic underpinnings.

Bad Buddy is perhaps the most popular of Aof's dramas, I'd posit, because while the ending of the series is a little sad to contemplate -- it ends, as it began, with utter equality between Pat and Pran as protagonists who deeply care about each other, to the point of establishing what I might term as a radical re-envisioning of the broken and traumatic paradigm that their parents forced upon each of them as children. By engaging, essentially, in radical empathy to each other, they triumphed over the global framework of what was set before them by their own private familial society.

I think this emphasizes the tremendous largesse of the personal changes that Aof's characters undergo in their emotional processes -- whether these characters are Knowing characters, or if, like Pat, they've experienced queer revelations within their shows. To hand to these characters these TREMENDOUS emotional journeys, and to situate these journeys in shows that treat these characters with the utmost respect, lends to Aof's shows -- especially Bad Buddy -- a safety net for us as viewers to trust fully in the journeys we're watching.

Aof takes tropes and problematic themes and reorganizes them, like a Rubix cube. He takes themes that Asians and queer family know of far too well, like intergenerational trauma or social outcasting, and shows how his characters can still find happiness, while realistically keeping these traumas within a character's horizon. And, he's created his own trustworthy frameworks of art that we can depend on as fans. I love and appreciate the patterns in this, and I continue to remain in awe at the power that Bad Buddy had in encapsulating so much of what was percolating in Aof's mind and fingertips as he constructed this show with the influence of others -- making this show a truly legendary one.

(Tagging @dribs-and-drabbles and @solitaryandwandering by request! If you'd like to be tagged, please let me know!)

[First BBS OGMMTVC meta down, and more to come! Stay tuned next week for a Big Meta on Pain, Trust, and Separation in Some Asian Dramas. The piece will hew close to Bad Buddy, but I've got some other GMMTV and non-GMMTV dramas (and even a Japanese dorama BL) in there to analyze as well.

Here's the complete OGMMTVC watchlist as it stands today. Tumblr's web editor is utterly jacking with this list; for a more accurate look at what I've watched, please mosey over to this link!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (The BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series is ongoing: preamble here, more reviews to come) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] (watching) 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch For the Sake of Re-Analyzing an Politics-Focused Show After Not Me 39) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 40) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 41) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 42) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults) 43) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 44) Wedding Plan (2023) 45) Only Friends (2023) (tag here)]

[casualsavant]

20 Questions More

This is a deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks to @TetsujinOtaku88 for the tag. I'm doing this #Supercorp style.

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship / fandom?

I think the Supercorp Fandom is pretty self-perpetuating because the canon needs to be fixed and there's lots of AUs to put them in. Plus there are so many talented people whose art, video edits, and fanfic fuel each other.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

Following the answer above I think the beauty of Supercorp is that it attracts really talented creators. I love reading @searidings, @jazzfordshire's fix-its and canon-adjacent stuff, @lgbtimelords, @coffeeshib, @mycatismyeditor, and @snowydragonscave just to name a few. They have such a deftness of language and an understanding of the characters that it's hard to stop reading!

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

I really love Sam Arias, Jess, and Alex. I wish I could get a better handle on Kelly because DANSEN forever. I also have a soft spot for Eliza and a deliciously evil liking for Lillian.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

Karamel, Lames, Top Lena, Bottom Kara. To each their own. It's just not my thing.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

Carry around a little notebook to scribble ideas, lines, sometimes whole scenes. Figure out a rough outline / structure / plot. Do unnecessary amounts of research. Open doc file. Plunge into dismay and self-doubt. Watch the show. Get frustrated. Open the doc file. Be filled with despair and self-loathing. Get a blast of inspiration and productivity. Cycle through mental instability, writer's block, and actual writing. Get dragged by Kara and Lena to unanticipated places that derails what I intended to do. Sighing and doing what the muses want. The elation of completion. Struggling with summaries and tags. Posting. Crippling anxiety and running away from AO3. Lather, rinse, repeat.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

The elation of completion. The unnecessary research is fun too.

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

Cherry tree mutations and the structure of yakuza organizations in modern Japan.

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

Different tenses in the same document. Also it's and its.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Describing Kara's post-PZ night terrors and Lena’s fever dreams in Deliverance. Also the action sequence at the end of that story was so difficult.

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

ALL THE TIME.

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Both of them. After I come to my senses and out of a dead faint because I was meeting them at all. And then I would die of sapphication.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Oh my usual tags are: light angst, tooth-rotting fluff, friends-to-lovers, Lena needs a hug, Kara gets a hug.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Talking with other writers!

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

I usually give it some time before I edit so I can have relatively fresh eyes. Spell checking, punctuation, and grammar suggestions help you catch things but NOTHING beats reading it over yourself.

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

Definitely the anxiety!!!

16) How do you define sucess for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I think it's good to track kudos and I love getting comments. But ultimately I wrote for my enjoyment or for my peace of mind because the idea would not let me go.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character / ship?

Nope but that's not a bad idea. 🤔

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Wow I'd be thrilled if any of them got art. I am partial to the way @rustingcat draws Sakura blossoms though so maybe Cat for No Wrong Seasons.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

8 total. Finishing "the Arcana", "The Sound of Veracity" (Part 2), Prequel and Smutilogue of "Always With Me, Always With You", Supercorptober 2023 "Art" prompt, SG Mayhem fic, the Telepathy/Empathy fic, the Body Swap fic.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

I posted my first Supercorp story in March 2023 feeling it would be completely lost in this large fandom and having no hope for it. I felt that I was too late. That everything had been done (and done better). I did find readers who liked and some who really loved my work. But mostly I learned to write for myself, which has truly been a gift. Write for yourself. Write what you'd want to see. You'll get better at it over time.

Tagging but no pressure: @fyonahmacnally @nottawriter @chaotic-super @luthordamnvers @fazedlight

[maybe-boys-do-love]

The Trainee, episode 4:

1. The genres of it all!!! So fun, not only because they’re so fun and cheesy with the over-the-top romance and spy and body-swap, but because they were used for the purpose of deepening characters! Like, of course Pie lives inside of a narrative that involves super high stakes and strategizing with little trust in others. Ba-Mhee’s was obvious, but I’ll get back to it in a moment. And Pah’s body-swap is simply hilarious but it also shows how a) he connects so easily with others and b) these interns really are super fresh faces in this office that the employees don’t necessarily have strong relationships with yet, which gives us the question of whether that means these interns are going to be treated as dispensable or with respect and potential even though people don’t fully know who they are yet or what they’re capable of.

2. The production on this episode was incredible!!! Watch how many cuts, pans, and zooms happen as Ba-Mhee races to seduce Jane! It was all so clean and paced so well for the comedic beats. Also the color coordination during the split-screens in the calls was gorgeous (the colors in general on this show are so vivid, giving a comedic feel without ever feeling campy, which I find impressive)

3. And then the music!!! There’s a reason they cue us in to the idea of listening to multiple parts through the headphones and split screens! (You even get a moment of audio feedback when Tae talks while riding the motorbike, to remind you how important sound and sound quality is! It’s also the reason Ba-Mhee realizes he’s not wearing a helmet) They set up the genre’s so obviously, but the scoring that they use for them is what carries it through the rest of the episode. First, they bring the scoring of those genre scenes back-up as comedic sound cues when Pah insults them later. Then, the drums and upright bass followed by the strings and electric guitar from the spy theme start scoring immediately as the plan gets underway, letting us know how, despite being dismissed, Pie’s planning and genre are still a part of this team effort. Then vocals strike up when Ba-Mhee needs to play her role with Jane. Vocals were only a part of the music from her romance scene. But I lost it when instead of bringing in a sitar like the music she imagined, they throw in a kazoo as she’s forced to go down the slide to make it in time, altering her genre from straight romance into romantic comedy at best 🤣

4. I also just wanna give some kudos to Ba-Mhee and Piploy for finally getting to start to blossom in this episode. I was cackling so hard at her facial expressions.

And her timing was so spot on for the comedy. Excited to see her character get to develop, and I think that’s the point that we’re supposed to see in her romantic fantasy—how helpless she sees herself as, when in actuality she’s the active one always trying to help her man. It will be interesting to see how she gets to grow and recognize her strengths and put them into her career world. Already we saw her actually do a job because there were emergencies that she felt responsible for and Tae wasn’t in the editing room for her to fawn over instead! Also just excited for her to get to do more comedic stuff like this that’s less about her being clingy lol

5. And that feminist empowerment brings us to the sexual harassment stuff, which was cool to see the show attempting to discuss its occurrence in the industry even if I’m not sure that I feel it was a totally successful way to depict it in terms of the show maybe replicating some of that sexual harassment with the visuals. However, I think they probably showed something more close to reality than an ideal situation. It was stark but meaningful. It also gives room for them to develop this issue further in the series towards something more positive and gives room for the Pie and Ba-Mhee to develop in how they understand and deal with the problem itself and the feelings that living in a world saturated by misogyny in media, workplaces, and everyday life have harbored in them. The fact that these two were the ones whose fantasies we got to see into is especially meaningful with this in mind.

6. It must’ve been nice for Gun to have time off lololol. But actually, loving this as a workplace comedy first and foremost and a QL second, just because they’re doing the first part soooo well. But bring on the workplace romances, and I can’t wait for the episode when we get to see how HR at a production company works because everyone has to disclose their new relationships so HR has to reassign chains of command 🤣🤣🤣

[kindestegg]

Analyzing all the differences in the storyboards posted by Yasmin Khudari and the final product! - Part 2: Collector Edition!

And so here we are! If you haven't seen part 1, I urge you to do so, as we looked into some pretty interesting and lore rich boards that were cut or done differently compared to their final episodes!

This post will cover all the boards for For the Future, and as always I'll try to be mindful with how many pictures I add for the image limit!

While chronologically the sequence with King and Collector playing pretend comes first, that one gives us a LOT more ground to cover, so I'll start with the Bedtime Story sequence, which is frankly easier to get through!

First of all: minor change, Collector used to get big sparkly eyes when asking King to read them a story!

And there also used to be dialogue by Collector after he drops the huge book down, stating that this book usually takes 300 years to get through, but assuring King they usually fall asleep midway. I think this is kind of a funny line and it would make sense with the way King responds "easy..." afterwards, which did make it in the final cut. Of course we still get that impression without this dialogue, but it was kind of funny. The book also appears to have paper pages here, rather than stone slabs.

Minor visual thing that I think is very cute: the scribbles over the "bad" part Collector did used to have little angry faces! I'm so sad they didn't make it in! Look at them! One is sticking its tongue out!

Small but super interesting dialogue change also: King used to read aloud the part Collector scratched out anyway, and go "yikes" as a response to it (fun! and accessible for viewers who may not be able to read it when it comes up for some reason!) and as a result, Collector doesn't say "don't read the NEXT part, skip to where I fixed it", but rather just "don't read the BAD part", confirming he does view it as bad. He also would say "right..." when finishing reading! I like how talkative he used to be here... sad it got lost.

Minor thing! King also used to tilt his head when telling Collector he only lets one other person hold François. This little movement is absent from the final cut!

There's also a dialogue change with Collector, he doesn't refer to Luz as "that human", but rather by name, going "your old best friend, Luz". I wonder if this was changed because the crew thought Collector might not want to admit this about Luz, or if maybe it felt inaccurate since Luz is more specifically King's sister figure.

And finally... oh these boards have gone viral baby. Excited to talk about them!

Instead of saying "I don't like being alone" after asking King at least leave François to watch over them, Collector says they promise not to touch it which... oh myyyyy God, this is so cute.

But I am conflicted about it! I think the inclusion of the line about loneliness makes a lot of thematic sense considering how this is brought up again by King to Eda and Lilith, as a reminder of the pivotal part of Collector's trauma dealing with his imprisonment, but on the other hand! This original line would have driven home the point of how good Collector is trying to be for King, specially with the divergence that comes next.

This! This feels so important! This is a call back to the moment where King tells Collector they can trust him (and this is present in both the roughs and cleans AND the final episode!) and make a pinky promise! This right here is a direct parallel that has King decide that if he tells Collector they can trust him, he should trust them too! This is decisive in portraying them as two kids who are trying to see each other as equals and just have immensely unhelpful circumstances all around them!

I can understand why it was reworked though, again, I feel like they might not want to let the audience forget about The Collector's loneliness because it is such a pivotal part of their arc and it constitutes the very important theming of how wrongful imprisoning someone is, and how punishing children through methods that border on or are straight up torture do nothing to help them grow. If this wasn't brought up again at least once, I can see the crew feeling this section of his character was neglected, and he was made into just a playmate for King to hang out with that'll inevitably turn good by the end.

I just... wish I could have them both, lol but well, other fans also had some pretty big losses in other storyboard changes, so I guess I'll settle for what we have now! I did speculate the theming of trust and telling the truth and striving to see each other as equals will come back next special, so here's hoping this won't be dropped completely!

Anyway, now for the big event! The roughs AND cleans for the playing pretend sequence! For this one, since there are sometimes differences happening between each of the board sets AND the final episode, I'll be adding those simultaneously as things happen.

First of all! Immediate punch to the gut: In the roughs, Willow used to run at her dad and get close to him and try to talk to him, not just wait until the puppets started running and screaming! I can only imagine they took this out because this would just be really sad?? But this show also revels in sadness and they do want to make us feel for Willow so I do not get it... maybe time save? Either way. I cry.

Oh yeah also! As you can see here! The puppets used to, for the most part, have stars for eyes instead of just stylized eyes? It's more subtle in the clean version but their eyes still turn into stars when they're "activated". I'm not sure why this was changed other than to maybe make it easier to animate.

Willow seems to have no dialogue when running after her dad both in the roughs and cleans, though in the cleans she does only run after him when he starts running and screaming, just like the final episode.

Also! There is a small scene not present in the final episode but both in the roughs and cleans: When Terra is running around as the owl beast, there is a close up of her obscured face with mouth open looking like a big monster mouth. I can see that they probably cut this due to it probably being weird to get such a close up without giving away it's not Eda, or maybe it was just for some extra time.

Another minor change, when she sees her dad getting attacked, in the roughs, Willow doesn't bring out her staff, instead just covering her mouth. In the cleans, she does the final episode motion normally. I think they may have changed this to reflect her personality better: we do know Willow is the type to want to jump into action to protect those she cares for.

Also minor detail: after Collector says "stop right there, beast" there used to be no frame showing Willow being surprised by this and hesitating, cutting directly to Collector's star descending with him and King on it.

Minor dialogue difference as well! Both in cleans and roughs, Collector did not address the "citizens of Bonesborough", but rather declares "I'm here to stop your mad rampage!" at the beast! I feel like it may have been changed to better reflect his view of playing the hero of the story here, instead of just playing the role of hunting the beast as he may have done before.

However the identification of his role as Luz came in the form of something else, as King used to have added dialogue in both the roughs and cleans, going "Use the spell I helped you find, Collector!" This is very cute, and I kind of wish they kept it in, it solidifies that King is playing along as an important part in the story, just like the actual episode they are referencing! I wonder if it was cut for time or if it was redundant or something...

And then King goes "I believe in you!" with your usual "Thanks, best friend" reply from Collector.

We also have this short little cut moment where you can see them looking at each other happily and there's a weird divergence between the roughs and cleans here. See, they're nearly identical, but in the roughs, King appears to be blushing for some reason?

Granted, we have seen characters blush in non-romantic settings before, even cut blushes in storyboards such as Luz blushing when being happy about Philip being impressed by her (I still feel so bad for her!) ...but it is at least notable here because a lot of people debate whether King actually enjoyed Collector's company and would like to be friends in the future or not, but I feel like moments like these in the storyboards (the bit about trusting each other from earlier on comes to mind) help solidify that they were always meant to befriend each other, King isn't just a miserable participant with no agency whatsoever! His little blush could indicate he feels happy by now to play with them! And there are further boards I will show that further prove this!

In the final cut, this bit is of course, absent, instead just cutting to Luz's eyes widening. This also leads to a funny little divergence in the roughs and cleans, where what I think happened here is that the reaction Luz used to have at Terra coming out of the Owl Beast costume was instead at first going to be her reaction to King and Collector playing together and seemingly enjoying each other's company... which is very funny to me. I think they may have changed this because it may have seemed a little too mean spirited to have Luz react so badly at King being happy around Collector.

Look... I made a GIF to show how they're one to one the same frame... This literally is just funny to me.

Another small cut moment, there used to be an overview shot of the puppets cheering for Collector! This one is very cute. Look at them with their little hands on their hips!!

And because Luz's reaction to Collector and King being besties got switched around, this caused another set of fun divergences in the roughs, cleans, and final storyboards.

In the roughs, Luz has a moment where she looks attentively at the Owl Beast costume as the camera holds on it, likely doing a kind of suspense zoom and then bait and switch. In the cleans, the zoom doesn't happen. However in both the roughs and cleans, there is a close up of Luz reacting with a weirded out face at the same time as Terra says "back to normal" offscreen.

I imagine what happened here is that these expressions from the boards were then re-tooled to be the close up shot we see of Luz reacting to King and Collector, her eyes just widening as she stares in shock.

Further on, Terra also has some cut dialogue and actions, which are the same in both the roughs and cleans:

While kicking off a bit of the costume, she then throws her "hair" back and goes "Bad girls and so on". This is a funny little bit that I can only think was maybe but for time!

And then! We actually have a case of added content! In the roughs and cleans, Collector didn't give Terra any descriptions about Eda being "like a cool aunt" who "actually cares a lot". I do think it was clever to include this, it helps show a little better that Collector actually respects and likes Eda despite how things are at the moment.

After that, both in the cleans and roughs, Terra's dialogue changes a little bit, instead of calling King a "stupid little" dog, she calls him a "little freak" dog, which does sound like a kind of harsher insult.

Another minor change that is barely noticeable, the roughs and cleans call for Terra clearing her throat before going "Ooh, I like musicians", and you can see a BIT of this motion in the final cut, but she doesn't actually do it, just sort of inhales.

Similarly, there's another cut bit in both the roughs and cleans where Terra would cough and gag right after this line, indicating she would maybe be disgusted by Eda and Raine's relationship. I think this could've been a funny bit but I understand if it was cut for time or maybe the VA couldn't cough at that moment due to complications for any reason.

This next scene is also slightly different! And contains also small differences between both the roughs and cleans! Collector, instead of saying, "You're not being very nice right now", goes "I never pinky swore to THAT."

In the roughs, he assumes more of a frowny expression, just looking kinda angry at Terra like in the final cut, but in the cleans, he gives this sinister ass smile that I love love love! Oh, my little son named warcrimes who commits atrocities and I adore it.

Minor change: Terra used to plead "no no no no" before getting turned into a puppet in both the roughs and cleans, but this is absent in the final cut.

Alright, this next part gets REAL complicated with the divergences not just towards the final cut, but with both versions - rough and clean - between each other. There's a ton of dialogue changing and even action/expression changing, and I'm very excited to talk about it.

First, in both the roughs and cleans, after going "Collector, buddy, you gotta stop doing that." King doesn't plead "Think about what you're doing to these people", but instead says "You're running out of people to play with." I imagine they may have changed this to make King seem more sympathetic to the plight of the people getting turned into puppets, whereas the first one showed more of his practical side knowing just what to say to Collector to get them to question things, as Collector would probably respond better to being reminded this is less people to play with. Another reason why this may have been cut is because one could argue Collector can still play with the puppets, just that they won't be sentient.

Here is where we run into our first divergence: present only in the cleans, King also adds "plus, you could've really hurt someone!" I imagine this bit was added in the cleans to make up for that need of showing King's compassion, but I think the reason this was also changed is that it doesn't make sense? We know the puppets aren't getting hurt, sure it's terrifying to lose control of your own body and be forced to be a doll and sleep within that wooden carcass, but they're not at risking of being actively hurt and can be easily fixed if anything happens. This is of course still bad, but the threat of physical harm doesn't make sense in this case particularly.

Because of this divergence, here's where the roughs, cleans, and final cut split into three different versions:

In the roughs, Collector responds by continuing to seem sad and going "But we'll NEVER be able to play Owl House right without an Owl Lady." He then pleads: "Maybe if you let me talk to Eda myself-" which... certainly seems a lot different than the chipper "maybe if I ask her real nice, I won't have to turn her into a puppet" from the final cut. This reads even more like Collector wants to connect to Eda and talk to her, but is being actively kept from it by King. I can see why maybe this was cut as it would make King look a little bad for barring Collector so much from seeing Eda if he is so well meaning, whereas the final version actually seems more threatening and like King has a reason to not want them interacting yet.

In the cleans, however, because King added that comment about maybe hurting people, Collector responds in a really interesting way: "You said this game was pretend, why do I gotta worry about stuff like that?" Both the roughs and cleans as you've probably already picked up lack that malicious "you're so boring" jab at King, but this one is definitely the one with the most striking contrast, as this one directly implies Collector WOULD worry about hurting people, and is just confused as to how this could happen in their game.

This makes King go into his little speech about playing pretend having consequences, but this one is also slightly altered: Instead of saying "playing pretend", King says "living in a fantasy has consequences, too. Real ones". And ohhh! I would like to bite my fucking arm off at this!! Do you see this shit! Not only is this perfect fodder for the theory Collector is trying to shut himself away from the grief he feels over the titans and refusing to confront his past trauma and generally repressing his emotions, but! It is even more of a DIRECTLY DRAWN parallel to King, by HIMSELF, at King's season 1 self and his backstory of having once believed he was the King of Demons.

But of course, I can see reasons why this may have been changed. Namely, "living in a fantasy" may have confused audiences while "playing pretend" is more of a direct description of what is happening. Also "real ones" may have just been cut for extra seconds. Lord knows they need those.

After King says that, Collector launches into his usual excited talk of Eda, though he doesn't say "no substitutes allowed". However, just like in the roughs, how he refers to talking to Eda here is pretty different. Here, he says "Maybe if you'd let me talk to her, she'd wanna play-"

Again, no mention of turning her into a puppet. Hmmm.

So, I have some theories. First is pretty straight-forward, they added the threat of her maybe getting turned into a puppet to keep the stakes high and give a reason for King to really object Collector talking to her. The second one... well, it involves a lot about Collector's arc in this episode and how it may have changed over time, but I want to talk more about it once we finish looking at all the boards for differences, and believe me, we aren't done yet.

After this, the roughs and cleans meet again, and both of them feature King going "n-no", but unlike the final cut, his dialogue is slightly different here again: he doesn't say "Her curse is still in effect." He says "She's still... not feeling well... y'know. The curse and all that." It's a subtle difference, and it does use more words and pauses, so I think they may have just changed this for time.

The roughs and cleans and final all diverge again here: In the roughs, King reassures Collector by saying "I'll talk to her about joining the game, don't you worry." In the cleans, it switches to "D-don't worry! I'll talk to her for you". In the finals, we have the known "But I can check if she's feeling better." Here we have a progression that I think shows us the difference between King promising Collector something we really aren't going to see- which is Eda joining the game, to say he'll talk to her for him which is similar but vaguer, and then, just saying he'll check on her. I feel this change may have occurred so his promise is mostly kept here.

Slight divergence: Collector goes "you promise?" as a response in all versions, but only in the cleans and final version does he do that little lean while smiling. In the roughs, he used to remain kind of sad looking. I wonder if initially they were going for Collector initially doubting King, but discarded that in favor of his more confident behavior.

And hoo boy, this next divergence is another that makes me kind of insane. You see, while King says the same thing in all three versions, "You can trust me, Collector" and offers a pinky promise, his expressions and motions! They are so different in storyboards!

In the final version, you'll recall King has his gaze averted while offering the pinky and looks kinda sad while doing it. In both the roughs and cleans though...

Look at how happy he seems doing it! He looks at Collector the whole time, only looking away at their pinkies for a second, then they have a moment where they just look at each other happily!

So this is that further implication I was talking about, that King and Collector, at least in some iteration of the story, were written to actively be friends, and not just have a one-sided thing.

Again, I have a few theories about why this was changed. Another straightforward one is just that they wanted to show King was still worried about things and not just nonchalant about the misery around him. Another possible, less straightforward one is that they really wanted to keep the thing about King actually caring about the Collector and not wanting to hurt him a surprise. In a way, that makes sense, younger people may fall for this, hell, I've seen at least one or two people online confess they really thought King wanted to kill Collector with that line from him. So to show them being so indisputably intimate would kind of spoil that.

That being said though... I have another theory, the very same that connects as to why other things have been changed, but again, it's kind of big so I wanna talk about it after we're done.

Only in the roughs now, there's a small bit where we see Camila scoot over to Luz's side to ask "Is that the little guy you've been telling me about?" (Notice in the final cut she also says little King, not just little guy. I feel like this was done to avoid confusion on who she referred to.) In the cleans, it just cuts instead of showing her getting there.

There's also a big divergence in the roughs, cleans, and final result here. First of all, in the roughs and cleans, there's no zoom in on Camila's face.

Then, in the roughs, after Camila comments "ay, que lindo", Luz gives out a giggle and goes "Verdad?" which means "True", like she was saying "true, right", like!! It's like ikr for spanish basically. However, she looks sad right after, and so does Camila upon realizing Luz still feels bad. I think they probably cut this for time, really, as well as maybe they thought Luz wouldn't be in the mood to laugh at her mom reacting the same way she did when she first met King.

In the cleans, however, this scene is way more depressing. Camila still gushes over King like normal, but here, Luz's reaction is just sighing and giving an eerily blank looking dejected expression. My god girl. You are not doing well. And of course, Camila does get sad seeing her this way.

Minor change, Collector used to not say Archive House, just the Archives!

Another minor but fun change: Amity used to reply to Camila's question about the eyeballs being normal but not Collector, by going "Yeah, that's basically it."

Some pretty heartbreaking cut dialogue here as well, in both the roughs and cleans, after Hunter says they should follow Collector and King as Belos is probably trying to get back to the Collector, Willow points out they're flying too fast.

The roughs and cleans diverge here a bit, but Hunter's reaction is more or less similar.

In the roughs, Hunter goes "Flap would be able to-" before cutting himself off and storming off.

But in the cleans, this is made further more upsetting, as he says "Flap could-" then pauses for a moment, entirely silent, realizing what he just said. Then he announces "It's fine." and walks off, stating that "there's more than one way to find him."

I! Really mourn these losses! These are such neat little moments that solidify Hunter's grieving and I wish we could've kept them! I can only think they may have been cut for time, the crew felt they didn't need to add more, or they didn't want to rub it in.

Minor dialogue changes ahead, Gus doesn't say "it looked like they were playing a game", but specifically focuses on The Collector, saying it looked like (they) were playing pretend (hmmm, possible Gus role with the Collector foreshadow?) Similarly, Luz doesn't described it as a "messed up version" of her life, only HER life. Gus also doesn't refer to them as puppets in roughs and cleans, but rather as toys.

Before climbing up the debri to look at the Archives, Luz would say "The Archives..." dramatically, in both the roughs and cleans. Also, may just be the nature of the roughs being roughs, but in the rough storyboards the Archives look way more like a bunch of floating debri strung together rather than a full on circular castle.

And... that's it basically! Whew! That was... quite a lot as you can tell, just these two scenes had so much material they practically overshadow the sheer amount of content the first part of this little analysis project had.

Okay, so. Again, as the guy who usually goes cuckoo crazy theorizing on every little thing related to the Collector, this was a feast for me, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very intrigued by how much Collector's characterization -specially in relation to King- changed from the storyboards to the final product.

One thing you may have already clocked just from this is that The Collector and King used to seem much more like close friends, as well as there was less of an emphasis on Collector's loneliness and implied trauma rather than on the issue of trust between King and Collector- can they really call each other best friends if they don't take the steps to trust each other and be honest with each other?

Hell, there's even ANOTHER modified detail from the storyboards where King used to SMILE while beaming up with Collector after meeting Odalia.

So... what happened? Why did they change this? I've given you my reasons before but have been teasing one big theory all along, so I will say it now: I think they were pretty confident up to a certain point in diving into the themes of friendship and trust and telling the truth with Collector and King that I've already kinda identified as remaining in this episode, but that got kinda built up for the next episode, but then they realized "oh shit, we are barely touching on Collector's own trauma from being put in hardcore solitary for hundreds of years and having his psyche shattered into pieces from that we should probably. Focus on that huh."

And so was born a revised version of the episode that focused on King feeling a lot more general pity and sadness for the Collector, and the Collector in turn also being allowed to show more sadness that wasn't just related to not getting why his games are going wrong or why King won't let him talk to Eda. One where a more young and/or impressionable audience may be excused to think King didn't like Collector that much, but the twist is that he does, in fact he feels bad for them and relates to them.

Put simply, these earlier versions were nice, but they lacked the drive back to focus on the metanarrative Collector brings to the table of how terrible it is to punish a kid- or anyone- with extended solitary imprisonment, even if they did do bad things or are still doing them. And honestly, I'm still conflicted! I still like both of these a lot, I really think I would have enjoyed this earlier version with them being clearly besties maybe even more, but I also can't say I wouldn't have been frustrated if they never brought up Collector's trauma and issues ever again, specially after setting that up through Season 2B.

But well... I still will hold these storyboards near and dear to my heart, and I hope this post will reach many more people and spread the good word of the King and Collector endgame besties agenda being real!

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 02/05/2024

The Great Weed

Season 1 No Album Release (Read More)

Ripped by toonlink

Chat, I'll be real - It's been a long day for me today. Lots of shit just didn't want to work. I had a bigger post planned, but it'll have to wait for tomorrow. Sometimes, you just gotta return to the simple stuff. That simple stuff is what Season 1 of SiIvaGunner is filled with - but if there's anyone who could make the simplest of concepts work, it was toonlink. Dr. Soulja, by the very same ripper, still stands as one of the most effective rips on the entire channel, but for my money...The Great Weed is where it's at. Delightfully simple, yet never fails to put a smile on my face.

As I've clarified with many of Season 1's rips in particular, its important to remember that these videos were uploaded before SiIvaGunner as a concept was really known at all to the wider internet. Wheras today we see a lot of rips made far more to impress with their quality rather than to solely catch viewers off-guard, a la Sweatpants Select and Luna, mi Amor - in 2016, the novelty of the surprise was CORE to the rip-making process. Gags like Live and Ooooooooooooooh worked so well specifically because of how innocuous they appeared - the video looks like any other YouTube upload of Live and Learn would, and the featured joke only kicks in deep enough into the rip to where the average listener will have tabbed over to another window. But what makes rips like The Great Weed work so well, part of Toonlink's pioneering magic in a way, is how the joke only served to enhance the listening experience in a way that's still incredibly funny.

Much like the aforementioned Live and Learn, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's The Great Sea theme is one that surely sits as a nostalgic core memory to many - the music to exploring the vast seas of a flooded Hyrule dominates much of Wind Waker's playtime. It has such a majestic opening, such a way of putting you at ease right away...and then, right as you're lulled to tranquility, you notice the additional backing instruments, you notice them increasing in volume - and before its had time to sink in that something's wrong, the video changes to the coolest fucking thing you've ever seen. It's of a bunch of people sandboarding (that is, snowboarding in the sand!!), taken directly from the video "Dank ass sandboarding son". The reason for said video reference is of course the song used, I Smoke Weed by Chrome, being featured therein - but the way its used in The Great Weed gives the song and attached video an entirely different vibe.

Because like, as I said, it's that atmosphere and vibe attached to and created by The Great Sea that's made it such an enduring tune, and it somehow manages to work that magic in here as well. That sort of "relaxed majesty" to the theme takes a video and song that, otherwise feel almost like they're trying a bit *too* hard to be cool, and effortlessly turns it into something so joyous, fun in the most playful way possible. The mashed-up-with song's declarations of smoking weed go from sounding almost boastful, to sounding playfully self-congratulatory - does that make sense to anyone else? There's just such whimsy and fun to The Great Sea as a theme, paired with the video depicting an equally great sea of sand and the people who explore it for fun, it transforms the vibe of the entire video into something you just can't help but smile watching.

It's the kind of rip I've sent to countless friends in my time, the kind of joke everyone can understand. Without having ever heard I Smoke Weed, you've likely heard The Great Sea theme in a YouTube video here or there at one point - and you understand just how funny the mix of majestic sailing music paired with DANK SANDBOARDING is - althewhile admiring just how dank that sandboarding do be. Its hardly the most meaningful rip visuals out there, nowhere near something like i love(d) you - but god it makes the bit land so much harder. Those visuals were an amazing way to introduce the joke to unsuspecting viewers 8 years ago, and even in today's SiIvaGunner-aware landscape, it helps in keeping The Great Weed as a super entertaining experience. And whenever I DO manage to catch people off-guard with the rip, using it to introduce the channel to new friends, it brings just as big a smile to face as it brings to theirs.

Oh, by the way: shoutouts to the Raft Ride rip lmao for unintentionally referencing this rip seven years after the fact. Seeing that during the Raftmageddon may honestly have been the main factor for me deciding to cover this rip LOL.